No Turning Back - The Cost Must Be Counted (Jan 30) Robbie Symons

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The spirit of the Great Commandment.

We're in the seventh week in our series, No Turning Back.

Ten Essential Life Lessons from Jesus for the last days.

The question we are both asking and answering during the series is this What kind of person will not turn back?

Who is the person who perseveres as the cost intensifies?

I mean, that's such an important question.

Who is the person that's going to persevere as the cost intensifies?

That's a massive question.

That's a major item of like, I want to know the answer to that.

And that's what we are answering from Jesus by his word.

Who's the person that's fit for the kingdom of God?

Who's the person that's going to fail or falter as opposed to who's the person that's going to persevere and make it?

Those are getting massive questions.

And we should be sitting up a little straighter because we want to know the answer.

Who is the person fit for the kingdom of God?

Let me just recap where we've been again in the last several weeks.

These are such important lessons.

We are wise to try to remember.

It's neat having you there.

That's awesome.

Someone's sitting in the front row.

Yay! That's awesome.

Anyways, lesson number one: it is Christ-like character that will be truly blessed.

That was week number one.

Character counts massively, again, always and especially now.

Lesson number two: if you don't feed on God's word, you're starving.

You're done.

It's over.

You must be sustained.

Man doesn't live by bread alone by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Lesson number three: true biblical greatness.

God opposes the proud.

He gives grace to the humble.

It's the path of the servant or the slave that will experience true greatness in Christ.

What a massive lesson for our day.

Lesson number four, I must be ready for his return.

Still, still love that theme and that message.

We gotta be living in light of the return of Christ can happen at any moment because it can.

God help us be ready.

Lesson number five, if we're going to make it in the end, we must love our enemies because enemy love is gonna be necessary more and more as time goes on.

We have to be prepared in the powerful sense of loving those who persecute us again in the days ahead.

Lesson number six, we are dead without prayer.

I mean, it's just as simple as that.

If we fail to pray, we're just we're gonna fail.

We have to pray and be people and a church and a house of prayer.

Without prayer, no chance.

Lesson number seven, that's today.

The cost must be counted.

This is so key as we're gonna see today, because those who failed to count the cost, they're just gonna, their expectations are gonna be misaligned, they're not gonna make it, being disappointed.

If you don't count the cost, if you don't know what you're signing up for again, you will not make it in the last days.

And that's where we are today.

The costs must be counted.

Luke 14, take a look at verse 25.

And just before we read that, I say I want to encourage you, um, take these lessons, write them down.

Like find a way to not move on from them.

They are not to be, oh, that's nice.

And then what's next?

These are the lessons the Lord Jesus Christ blesses again, now as much as ever.

Luke 14, verse 25.

Luke 14:25

Says this now great crowds accompanied Jesus him, and he Jesus turned and said to them, stop right there for a second.

Notice first that great crowds accompanied Jesus.

Now, for any Bible teacher, this would be a great sign, wouldn't it?

Big following, lots of momentum, great opportunity, right?

Well, in the case of Jesus, sort of.

There was opportunity for sure, but not the one we might expect.

I just want you to see what Jesus does as the crowds close in.

The text says in verse 25, he turned and he said to them, look at verse 26.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life.

This is the first of three times he will say this in our brief passage.

He cannot be my disciple.

Wow.

So live in the text here, okay?

Live in the text.

You're one of the twelve disciples.

You see the crowds.

It's exciting.

There's like massive momentum.

There's a buzz.

People are talking.

Imagine the commotion.

You're kind of turning and saying to yourselves, man, this is amazing.

Look, we're on the inside, and look at all the things that are happening and all the excitement, and again, all the buzz surrounding Jesus.

The crowds are forming, they're all eager.

And then Jesus then says this first line.

Whoever does not hate everyone, basically, all those dear to him or her, and even his own life cannot be my disciples.

Now, when you're one of the twelve, what are you thinking when Jesus says, verse 26?

What kind of face are you making?

Like, kind of looking around and just saying, like, is this really happening?

It's interesting to me that often, often, when the crowds got their biggest, Jesus brought his hardest.

Now, let's be clear.

This little sermon here by Jesus would not grow the church, so to speak.

And neither will this message here today.

Let's also be clear though, his message would strengthen the church greatly.

And so will this message today.

Jesus now turns and said to the great crowds following, accompanying him, and he brings a message of cost.

He brings a message of suffering.

He brings a message of death to self.

Why?

Because Jesus wasn't into spiritual hype.

He was into spiritual health.

That's such an important phrase.

Let's bring that up again.

I want you to see that.

Because Jesus wasn't into spiritual hype.

Jesus was very much into spiritual health.

Can you take that truth and apply it to your life?

I don't know, in the last week, month, year, let's say.

Can you see how Jesus is more concerned with spiritual health and hype that he might forego the things that we often get excited about because he's more concerned of the heart that follows him with authenticity and purity?

I think this is one of the potential blessings of the past year or so.

At least here in this area of this land, Jesus is purifying his bride to prepare her.

Have you felt that?

I have.

Have you seen that?

I have.

Again, have you felt that?

I have.

And one of the best ways that the bride is prepared is by understanding the cost of following Christ.

We must count the cost to finish well in the last days.

Another way to say this, we must align our expectations with what the Bible actually teaches church.

Listen so carefully.

We must align our expectations with what Jesus actually promises.

Failure to do that, you will be sadly, again, facing expectations that aren't in line, and you'll be greatly disappointed.

So let's begin.

If I'm to finish well in the last days, then from this text in our passage today, which we obviously will go through, number one is this I must understand there will be a cost to self.

If I'm going to finish well, I must understand that Jesus promises there will be a cost to self.

Again, verse 26.

This verse should be underlined, by the way, and other things associated with it.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Wow, it's important here again to understand that when Jesus uses the word hate, this is a Semitic expression that means to love less.

As if Jesus would command us to love our neighbor, honor our father and mother, love our spouses, and even to love our enemies, and then turn around and tell us to hate them in favor of him.

Of course, he would never do that.

Jesus would never contradict his own teaching.

So the point, rather, Jesus is making, and he's doing it with some shock here, is that Jesus demands our highest and greatest love.

What Jesus is saying here in verse 26 is any relationship that we love more than Jesus Christ, based on who Jesus is, what he has done, and the treasure he is to be to us as the very Son of God who died and rose again, defeating death, that we might live forever, any relationship that we love more than Christ does not make sense to the true disciple.

That's what he's saying.

If we are to love any, again, mother, father, brother, sister, friend, whatever it is, if we're to love anyone else more than Jesus Christ and we claim to be disciples of Christ, something is off there.

Jesus is also teaching here that to follow Christ will come at a cost to relationships at times.

Jesus is teaching is many of you have personally experienced.

You have experienced rejection from family members because of your love for Christ.

Some of you right now are opposed by your very spouse because of your love for Jesus Christ.

Some of you have been rejected by friends and coworkers in recent days or years because of your affection and love and commitment to Jesus Christ.

That's also what Jesus is talking about right here.

The call to love Christ more than anyone else, because in the end, only Jesus Christ grants everlasting life.

But that comes at a cost to self, doesn't it?

There's massive gain.

But it does come at a cost.

And this is what Jesus is seeking to teach.

But you see, the more that you can see Jesus Christ as preeminent, the more that you can see Jesus Christ as perfection, the more that you can see Jesus Christ as God Himself and the greatest gift ever, then the more you see He is worth it all.

There's nothing, there's nothing He's not capable of.

His beauty is absolutely astounding, His worth, His worth, you cannot even begin to ultimately calculate.

And the person saved in Jesus Christ understands that what can they honestly compare with the glory and treasure found in Jesus Christ?

See, when this takes root and the gospel begins to be lived in our hearts, for those who see Jesus clearly, they can sing with authenticity.

You can have the world.

Just give me Jesus.

You can have the world, man.

You can have it all.

Because compared to Jesus, I count all things as lost compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, as we sang today as well.

But notice Jesus is so serious about this.

He says in verse 26 at the end, look at he says, Yes, even those who hate his own life.

You must hate your own life or you cannot be my disciple, Jesus says.

Let's be crystal clear here.

The person who is unwilling to love themselves less than Jesus cannot be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Again, crystal clear here.

To truly follow Christ in the last days will come at a cost to self, and in this regard, a cost to the love of self, 100%, no exceptions.

You enter in, you understand, you sign up to follow Christ, and this means death to self and life in Christ.

See, why'd you say that, Robbie?

Well, because it's the rise of the modern self.

It's the rise of the modern self which is currently ruling our society.

As society has continually sought to eliminate the worship of God, we have replaced it emphatically and idolatrously with the worship of self.

Rather than loving ourselves less, as Jesus here commands, we have never loved ourselves more as a society.

Everything we're being fed, every sector of society, education, government, and workplace is centered massively and deceivingly on the love of self.

So again, think about this for a second.

This is very, very important in the days that we live.

Rather than our identity being determined by God is being made in his image, Imago Dei, now what we have done, we have rejected God, and now we are self-determining, and the love of self is reigning so emphatically and powerfully.

The love of self now, the love of self has become the process of determining morality, identity, and even the laws of our land.

The love of self is ruling our society.

Surrounding us every day is the overfeeding and the obsession of personal rights, personal entitlement, and a huge worship of self-autonomy, all rooted in self-sinful love.

Andrew T.

Walker, he said this, speaking of the critically acclaimed book by Carl Truman on the rise and triumph of the modern self.

This is wordy.

I want to go through the slow.

I want you to see if you can get this here.

He says this.

He says, Truman explains how modern day formulations of identity, which he calls the self, have yielded a paradigm of personhood that is often weaponized for psychological, sexual, and therapeutic triumph.

Okay, so modern day formulations of identity, which is the love of self, has yielded a paradigm of personhood that has now been weaponized for psychological, sexual, and therapeutic triumph over anything and everyone else.

So any claim then, this is where we live, this is very, very astute.

Any claim then that would threaten one's self-chosen sense of self-conception, let's say, like the Bible and Jesus Christ and objective truth and absolute truth, any claim such as that against self-conception, sexual freedom, and therapeutic needs is not only improper, but now is close to possibly becoming criminal if it isn't already.

Think, pause, look, digest.

Let me give you a second.

Very, very important wisdom of our day, of where we live.

Notice, and it's all rooted obsessively in the love of self.

The love of self so much to the point there is now no more God.

We are now elevated as God, and we decide precisely and exactly who we are, what we think, based on what we feel is best for us out of love for ourselves.

It's such a critical time for the wisdom of God, isn't it?

It's such a critical time to renew our minds in what?

In where true blessing lives.

Where true blessing lives.

See, the last thing Jesus teaches is the rise and love of self.

The last thing Jesus teaches.

In fact, Jesus fundamentally teaches the death of self.

He's completely opposite to everything we just heard that the world is obsessed with.

Why does Jesus do this?

Because Jesus knows when we die to self, we live for Christ.

And when we live for Christ, we live in love and joy and peace and freedom and blessing and true prosperity of joy of the soul.

You must die to live, is the essence of the gospel.

When we live for Christ, it's here that we actually start to live.

The power to overcome our sin, the releasing of joy.

And again, inherent and the essence of the gospel is the crucifixion leads to resurrection.

We must be crucified with Christ.

No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Again, the essence of the gospel is we die to live.

John 12, Jesus says, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone.

If it doesn't die, it remains alone.

But if it dies again, it will bear much fruit.

It must die to live.

And it comes at a cost to self with the promise of incredible joy.

You know, just a few chapters from where we are in Luke 14, Luke 17.

I want to put these on the screen for you here.

Want to see this too.

Luke 17, look at look how similar this is right here.

Look what Jesus says.

Remember Lot's wife.

Isn't that such an interesting three words?

What's up with Lot's wife?

Lot's wife was taken out of Sodom, but Sodom wasn't taken out of Lot's wife.

She turned back and she paid with her life.

She longed and loved the world more than her God.

Jesus says, remember Lot's wife.

How many in the soils that Jesus teaches in, and the different soils, and the weeds come up, and the thorny soil and the persecution or the again the pleasures of the world, they distract, they they they they discourage, they remove people from following Jesus Christ.

They don't make it.

Remember Lot's wife.

Who's that for today?

I mean, isn't and look at look at his lesson from this phrase.

Remember Lot's wife.

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it.

Whoever seeks to love themselves will lose.

Whoever seeks to idolatrously love themselves, they will die.

Whoever seeks to live at all in self-autonomy, you will perish.

But whoever loses his life, whoever dies to self, whoever chooses to count all things as lost, they will keep it, they will say themselves, they will find the love of Jesus Christ.

And you know how many times Jesus teaches this truth because it's such a big deal.

Lot's wife, she longed for the world and she died.

But to lose your life is to find true life.

Loved ones, if we're gonna make it in the last days, it has to come at a cost of self.

The cost of self, but the gain is Christ.

How massive that is for last days, isn't it?

How massive it is for right now.

I become less, Jesus Christ becomes more.

You know who got this of all people?

Napoleon.

Napoleon understood this.

Let me read you this quote just as we move on to our next point.

Napoleon said this.

He says, I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man.

Between him and every other person in the world, there's no possible term of comparison.

Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires.

But on what did we rest the creations of our genius?

Upon force.

Look what he says here.

Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love.

In this hour, millions of men and women would die for him.

Why?

I mean, he understood this, right?

Because again, when you've been given the greatest treasure in the history of the universe, there's nothing else you need.

And you will die for that in a heartbeat.

You joyfully live at a cost because you've already been given everything.

That's the gospel.

That's what it means to follow Christ.

This is what Jesus is speaking of in verse 26.

Number two is this we must count the cost of suffering.

This is a very powerful lead into this.

Look at verse 27 now.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, notice again, cannot be my disciple.

Notice how clear Jesus is?

I mean, people sometimes suggest he's not.

Look at how clear he is.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Not exactly easy believism here, is it from Jesus?

Not exactly.

The moment the disciples hear the word cross, they think death.

Whoever does not bear his own cross, no, his own cross.

Everyone knew Jesus meant here.

To carry a cross was a one-way journey.

The Roman instrument of horrible death and crucifixion.

A cross was an instrument of humiliation, of torture, of loneliness, and death.

Whoever does not bear his own cross.

You know, Jesus spoke these words 2,000 years ago, and the early church would find out fast what he meant.

Then there's us within our historical Christian society.

We have experienced incredible blessing and peace and freedom in the 150 plus years in the history of our nation.

It's been remarkable, hasn't it?

But we know that's changing.

We also know it's not that way for so many across the world who confess Jesus Christ.

Millions of Christians today live under the threat of death today.

Every single day, Christians are being murdered for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The ministry Open Doors explains that in countries like North Korea, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Eritrea, and Yemen, a dozen Christians die every single day for their love for Christ.

Simply because they love Jesus Christ, they are put to death.

So every day, right now, right now, across this world, like every hour that we're awake this day, Christians and disciples of Jesus Christ will literally be living out Luke 14, verse 27.

Luke 14:27

Literally.

They will be giving their lives out of love for Jesus Christ.

And we know as Christians, even in our society, we know that different forms of suffering are getting closer and closer to home.

We know that the name of Jesus has never been more under attack.

We know that there are agendas all over the place, specifically against Christ, his church, and his word.

We know that subtle persecution is ever increasing and becoming not so subtle in the forms of intolerance, verbal attacks, and legal activities.

We know that entire forms of government are closing in on religious liberty and freedom, specifically again, targeting Christians.

We know the increasing satanic hatred for Christ is becoming more and more obvious.

We know the flavor of the antichrist is growing with each day, and that's what it is.

It is antichrist.

It's not anti-Mohammed or anti-Buddha.

It is anti-Christ.

Well, listen, listen, just as Jesus promised.

Just as Jesus promised.

We're so filled with fear because we're so concerned with self.

And we're so concerned with the self-love of comfort and security.

I know, I feel it too.

And we're so concerned again with our own status and where things are.

But again, listen, listen.

Don't be tempted with fear.

Don't be scared.

Be prepared.

Be prepared.

2 Timothy 1:7.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

This is the calling.

These are the proper expectations.

Jesus has made it so clear.

There has to be a cost in following Christ.

The whole point of our passage is says make sure you count the cost.

Make sure you know what you're signing up for.

Hardship now, heaven to come.

Lose life now, find life forever.

By faith in Jesus Christ.

The cross before me.

The world behind me, the world behind me, the cross before me.

The world behind me.

The cross before me.

Look at verse 28.

For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it.

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.

Amazing here, Jesus is front-loading.

He's like, Count the cost, count the cost.

Why?

Otherwise, you won't make it.

See how clear that is?

He's like, you better be aware again what you're about to do.

Because if you don't count the cost, man, you're going to be greatly disappointed and it's not going to work out great.

You know, a few years ago, Joel Olstein wrote a book, Your Best Life Now.

It was the bestseller, but it was the worst theology.

It was the bestseller.

Feeds into what everyone wants to think and believe.

It's the worst theology.

Your best life now.

Consider even that title.

It is the exact opposite message of Jesus Christ right here in our text.

It's the exact opposite message of what Jesus is saying.

Which means that that book title and that teaching is false.

It's false.

It's directly opposing the message of Jesus.

Just consider the effort and passion of Paul and Peter and John and James.

Consider the effort they go to in the New Testament to provide a theology of suffering.

Why?

Because they were discipled by Jesus.

And they were discipled by Jesus to count the cost and live for future glory.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

The surpassing worth of Christ.

I set my mind on things above.

The living hope that is to come again that awaits me.

It is such a game changer to live this way.

See what Jesus is doing here too?

He's like, count the castle.

Why?

Because backsliding hurts the church so much.

People come in, they don't cast the cost, they fade away, they're not real, they're gone.

The greatest prevention of backsliding is to teach people to count the cost of following Christ.

It purifies the church.

Notice that the core of this text really is expectations.

Right?

Expectations.

And the reason many falter is because their expectations are not aligned with truth and reality.

Consider a couple that walk into marriage and their expectations of marriage are ease and no pain, all good all the time, they're gonna get smoked, right?

They're gonna get smoked because that's not reality.

Marriage is hard work, and there's pain, and there's tears, and there's grief, and there's heartache, and there's disappointment.

It's called life.

Having right expectations changes marriage.

Imagine Christians then that walk into discipleship with expectations of ease and painlessness.

If that's their expectation, is they have not been taught the scriptures.

They have been following false teachers who have led them astray, and they will be greatly, greatly shocked.

On this note, G.K.

Chesterton said this on the screen for you.

He said, the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.

It has been found difficult and left untried.

It has not been tried and found wanting.

It has been found difficult and left untried.

That's a good leading to our final point here.

Number three is this This cost will necessitate sacrifice.

God help us.

Verse 31.

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

So this is a very interesting little parable, a second little parable that Jesus gives.

Here's some clarity.

If the first parable from Jesus is sit down and count the cost of following Christ, if the first parable is sit down and count the cost of following Christ, the second little parable is sit down and count the cost of not following Christ.

Say, what do you mean?

Be sure of this.

There's a great cost to following Christ.

Listen carefully.

Everyone listening right now, old young people right now, there's a greater cost to not follow Jesus Christ.

There's a much greater cost in rejecting Jesus Christ.

Again, this fascinating teaching here.

So many have failed to count the cost of rejecting Christ.

They're going out to war to meet, to meet another army.

They simply cannot win.

No one will ever defeat God.

When Jesus Christ returns to judge and he comes again to take those who are his and oppose all those who are not, all those who have rejected him, no one opposing Jesus Christ is going to win.

The cost of not following Jesus Christ is immense.

So many right now in their sin and pride have failed to make peace with God.

Notice that phrase right there.

He sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So many have failed to make peace with God through Jesus Christ, through repentance of sin and belief and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the moment Jesus Christ returns, it'll be too late.

And then any cost of following Christ will seem like nothing.

But now the cost of rejecting Christ is going to be eternally, eternally impactful.

The seriousness of what Jesus teaches us today.

This cost will it will necessitate sacrifice, and from that we see verse 33.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

This is another shocking statement from Jesus.

I'm sure the crowd right now is baffled.

Many are already starting to turn and walk away.

They don't like what they're hearing.

They wanted to sign up for some bread that was given to them miraculously, and here they are hearing this message of death to self and all this hardship and difficulty.

The phrase renounce all that he has carries the idea of saying goodbye to.

Isn't that awesome?

Whoever does not say goodbye to all that he has, just the idea of saying that I don't need it.

I say goodbye to it.

I release my hands of that.

I'm not going to hold on to that.

I'm willing to renounce all that I have.

I say goodbye.

Ultimately, I say goodbye to the house and bye to the car and by to the things I own and by to future hopes and by to vacation and by to the.

Just at the end of the day, I count all things as loss is another way to say it.

I say goodbye to all these things that have no ultimate value.

And I say hello to Jesus Christ.

Notice again, don't miss it.

The third time Jesus says, He who does not do this cannot be my disciple.

Do you notice how passionately Jesus is against half-heartedness?

He's just not into apathy.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Ready?

Because half-heartedness will not survive in the last days.

Because people who live in lukewarm living and half in the world and half over here, whatever, they just won't make it.

They don't have the strength.

Their expectations are not there.

Their faith is not strong enough.

They're ultimately trying to live again for both at the same time.

You cannot serve both God and money.

They will not survive the last days.

Sacrifice will be required, right?

And I love this.

And just maybe to end, I think of the parable of the hidden treasure, one of my all-time favorites.

A man, he goes and he stumbles across a treasure in a field, he sees the treasure, he finds out instantly the worth of the treasure.

He goes then, he sells everything that he has.

He buys the field, he gets the field, he gets the treasure.

Okay?

When he has the treasure, that's all he ever needs.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like that.

Now notice here, the man comes, he sees the treasure.

The treasure is Jesus Christ.

He sees the worth, the infinite worth of the treasure.

If I have the treasure, I have everything I've ever needed.

Notice the treasure leads to joy.

In his joy, the text says, he sells, he renounces everything.

He sells everything in his joy to get the treasure.

Notice the treasure leads to joy.

The joy leads to sacrifice.

But the sacrifice is so wanting.

There's not a grumpiness or a hesitancy.

It's a joyful sacrifice because he's getting the greatest treasure he could ever fathom.

That's the gospel.

That's what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

You can have the world.

Just give me Jesus.

Because if I have Jesus, I got everything I've ever needed.

And therefore, any cost now will be as nothing in the time to come.

God help us.

God help us.

There's a few questions for us to bring at home today.

A few questions, penetrating questions for us to consider.

We'll put this up after the service is done too.

And we've got some good feedback on these things.

This is helpful.

First question is what might hating your own life look like right now?

Remember, loving less.

What does loving less your own life look like right now?

Can you see evidence of sinful self-love in your life?

I mean, that'd be vulnerable to say that today, right, in some measure.

That'd be powerful though, wouldn't it?

Just to expose that.

Secondly, have you counted the cost of follow Christ?

I like this right here.

Do you think you're ready for what's to come?

You ready in in lines with what Jesus is taught today?

Have you really counted the cost of follow Christ?

Thirdly, where can you where can you point a sacrifice in your life for Christ?

You know, like we can give in such a way out of our abundance, the Bible teaches us, or you can give sacrificially where it actually hurts.

You can live in a way that's convenient, it lines up with your schedule for Christ, or you can live in a way that's sacrificial, comes at a cost.

You know, you can figure out ways to serve the Lord in ways that may even look good from the outside, but really, there's not really anything we're giving.

Like, can we point to our lives and can we see that I could do this, but instead I've done this for the Lord Jesus Christ?

Is there sacrifice that's evident in our lives?

Very, very important question to be able to ask and answer.

What do you need to say goodbye to to renounce today?

To follow Jesus.

Some of you, the Holy Spirit, right now, is going to be saying, You know, we've been talking with this Holy Spirit's like, we've been talking with this for a long time.

And today's the day you finally have to say goodbye.

Release your hands, you have to give up, you have to renounce.

You've treasured it too much, it's been too much of an idol.

What do you need to say goodbye to that you are ready to live with passion and joy for the Lord Jesus Christ?

Again, this message today from Jesus wouldn't grow the church, but it would purify it.

And I believe that's exactly why Jesus teaches such things, obviously, for us here and now today.

Because if we're going to make it in the last days, we have to be men and women who are willing to understand the expectations that are before us.

Amen.

Let's uh let's pray together, church.

Um God, we thank you for uh this time in your word, and uh I would pray, God, uh, that we wouldn't leave here uh the same way that we came in, God.

Um so many examples, even just as we go through those questions at the end of uh ways in which we need to surrender more fully to you, um, things that we need to lift up to you with open hands, God.

And uh I pray that we wouldn't let a message like this just wash uh over us and just forget about it by the time Monday rolls around.

But instead, God, would you help us to think deeply about these things, reflect on them, and uh make us more like you and help us to consider the cost day by day of following after uh following after you, God.

We thank you for this time and your word.

You go with us now in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, uh, that is our time together this morning, church.

Again, we're so grateful that you could be here uh this morning.

We look forward to seeing you all again next Sunday.

And hey, let's actually do that, okay?

You know, we have these questions to think about, to reflect on.

I hope that you wrote them down.

You know, let's not forget about that now.

You know, Sunday afternoon, Monday morning, uh your quiet time with the Lord.

You know, God, what are the ways in which I need to surrender more fully to you?

Let's go ahead and identify those things and uh let's continue to grow together as a church, amen.

Amen.

It's been great to have this time with you this morning.

You're loved.