Unexpected Hate - Luke 14: 25-35

We've been studying the Gospel of Luke and the the main focus

as we've gone chapter by chapter is to look at some of the most

difficult and challenging sayings of Jesus along the way.

And as we are now a few weeks into this, I will say that has

been a task that seems to get harder and harder week by week.

We've often started our studies in this series with a question

to really get our hearts ready for what we're about to be

challenged with. And so let me offer that same

challenging question to you this morning.

And it's going to be almost the exact opposite question, cutting

against the the grain of our culture.

Yesterday you were asked the question, who do you really

love? It was Valentine's Day and if

for those of you who celebrate or have a a significant other to

to show devotion to, I'm sure that you took some time to to

answer that question in a very specific way.

I I love you. You're the object of my

affection. Today I want to ask the opposite

question. I want to ask you today, who in

your life do you really hate? That an interesting that the,

the church is always cutting against the grain.

As I thought back to the way I would answer that question, I, I

think of actually Valentine's Day from my childhood when I was

in 4th grade. I have a memory of, of the

excitement I had for Valentine's Day in my class.

She had to take every person's name from the class and just

give each kid a Valentine. Just keep it all fair.

And then you got Valentine's from everybody else.

And as I went down the list and I just wrote Happy Valentine's

Day from Tucker, I got to one name that just stopped me in my

tracks. Her name was Kathleen.

And I just, I could not say Happy Valentine's Day.

Earlier in the school year, our teacher gave us a voluntary

assignment to submit an essay of what we'd done in the previous

summer. And she would gather all the

ones that she got, and she was going to have the her favorite

essay read in front of the class.

And so I thought about submitting one, but I didn't.

And then she announced the winner.

It was Kathleen. And as the essay began to be

read, I realized that Kathleen actually submitted my essay.

She was describing a vacation that she had just taken to the

Oregon coast with her grandparents.

And line by line, I just thought, that is my essay.

And inside of me, the seed of hate was planted.

I, I watched her receive the praise and accolades that were

due to me and I held on to that until my moment to get back at

her, which turned out to be Valentine's Day.

So when it came to you know her name on the list, I simply

wrote, I hate you. It's my answer.

That's who I that's who I that's who I hated.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't stop there because on the

morning of Valentine's Day, I woke up with a fever and I

couldn't go to school. So I sent my mom on a mission to

go pass out my cards and bring home the candy.

And I got back to school after a couple days and my teacher was

waiting to talk to me. And she said to me, I got your

note. And I said, I don't remember

writing you a Valentine's card. And she pulled out the note that

I had meant for my mom to give to Kathleen.

And instead my mom delivered it to my teacher.

And I could do nothing but cry and weep for mercy before her.

And I sat in detention for a number of recesses now just

realizing I really did hate Kathleen.

There's no question now. This is a woman that I hate.

And as you can see, 30 years later, I'm still thinking about

it. Now, if you're at all familiar

with the teachings of Jesus, if you have heard Christianity one

O 1, you might have guessed that that whole story was shared

because we're about to look at a challenging teaching of Jesus

that requires us to love our enemies.

And if you were like me when when thinking about who I hated

in my heart, you may have thought of someone that had done

you wrong. You may have thought of someone

that at best annoyed you or at worst did something to ruin your

life. And now they have gone from the

category of schoolmate or friend or roommate or family member to

the enemy. And you wouldn't be wrong to to

get your heart ready to receive a sermon to tell you that Jesus

in his way it is, is not going to let you live in that hatred.

He would. He's going to help you remove

bitterness and help you move on with your life by telling you to

forgive that person. There's lots of good sermons for

that. But we're looking at the

forgotten, the hard, the the often neglected teachings of

Jesus. And we look at that story this

morning and I challenge you with people in your mind because

today Jesus is not going to reverse the way that we feel

about people we naturally hate. He's actually going to do the

opposite. He's actually going to give us a

lesson to reverse the feeling about the people we naturally

love. This is radically different than

what you expect from Jesus today.

We're not listening to Jesus tell us that we must love the

people we naturally hate. He's going to tell us, and you

got to hold on. Do not tune out after I say

this. He's going to tell us that we

must hate the people we naturally love.

And I want to promise you that if we can hold on and we can and

try to understand Jesus, what are you getting at with this

really hard saying at the end of us, like at the end of this

lesson, like all lessons of Jesus, he is unlocking for us

life and life abundant. This is a forgotten lesson, but

it is a critical lesson to understand how to actually

unlock the abundant life that Jesus is giving you the way

towards. So bear with me as as we go

through this, because we are going to, as we've set out to,

to look at the hard teachings of Jesus, we are going to look at

one of the hardest teachings of Jesus to, to help us understand

how we could take people we naturally love and begin to put

them in their proper place. And he actually uses the word

hatred. By the end of this sermon, we

are actually going to see a vision for all of this where

Jesus is going to give us a beautiful reward and a promise.

And it will happen if you can learn the ways of Jesus to live

how you naturally wouldn't so that you can have the promises

that you naturally wouldn't experience.

But to get there, we have to start with another very

difficult teaching of Jesus, starting in verse 25, Luke

Luke 14:25

chapter 14, verse 25. Now great multitudes went with

him. Remember, we're we're journeying

to Jerusalem with Jesus and the crowds are following him until

ultimately it'll be get so narrow and so difficult and so

challenging and so scary that only Jesus will get there.

But at this point in the story, it says great multitudes are

with him. And as he sees the multitudes,

imagine the scene, he, he's traveling to Jerusalem to get to

the cross and he turns and he says to them, if anyone comes to

me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children,

brothers and sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be my

disciple. And whoever does not bear his

cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

He's not saying this is going to be challenging, but we'll get

you there. He's telling you this is the

moment where some of you are going to be disqualified.

Then he tells a story for which of you intending to build a

tower, does not sit down 1st and count the cost whether he has

enough to finish it, lest he has laid the foundation, is not able

to finish, and all those who see it begin to mock him, saying

this man began to build and was not able to finish.

Or what king going to make war against another king does not

sit down 1st and consider whether he is able with 10,000

to meet with him who comes against him with 20,000 or else

the other, still a great way off, sends a delegation and asks

for the conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever does not

forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

We'll stop there if you can get to where he's taking us.

He actually gives us a great vision by the end, but to get to

the vision, he's getting the call to be so narrow that he is

letting some people know you can't do it.

You, you will not be my disciple.

So before we get to the the challenging saying, talking

about hating the people you love, I want to point out once

again, and this is something that has come out throughout our

series as we walk towards the cross with Jesus once again, the

Gospel of Luke, the writer is telling us that there were great

crowds that preceded the teaching.

This is not a lost detail. This is one of the things that

the the writer is letting us know that he's Jesus is noticing

that then turns into a teaching and wherever he gets the chance,

wherever there's great crowds gathering, he always seems to

bring the hardest teachings. I belabor it throughout our

series because Jesus does not seem impressed with the

multitude. It does not appear as though

what Jesus is really after are are big crowds of people who are

interested in like him and are willing to listen to Him teach.

He is time and time again giving people an opportunity to off

ramp on the road to the cross if they do not actually have what

it takes to follow him. No one will accuse Jesus of

saving the fine print for the end.

He says at the very beginning to follow me is going to cost you.

Consider the cost. And today we look at two costs

that must be paid that if they are not met, if you don't get

this part right, he says you are not part of my discipleship.

And now we come to verse 26 with that in mind as Jesus aims once

again to thin out the crowd. You would be considered a

multitude and yet it doesn't matter unless you get this part

right. Verse 26 and and if anyone comes

to me and does not hate his father and his mother and he

goes into the very he cuts against every close relationship

that you can think of in the family dynamic, brother, sister,

spouse. So what is Jesus doing?

Is he telling us that the simple truth is that you need to start

hating your family members? Of course not.

In in a great multitude there were probably some that brought

their family members as an act of love to hear the words of

Jesus. Jesus, same teacher, same Good

Shepherd that said we are to love our enemies as stated

earlier, and he is not contradicting himself and he is

not changing the message. What he is doing is helping

people understand that what they're naturally after is going

to be different than what he calls them to.

And that is why earlier in this very same chapter, I invite you

to read it when we get out later today, Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

This is not the first time that he is going to challenge the way

that you normally live your life in your relationships.

He says in verse 12, and also he said to them, when you give a

dinner, don't ask your friends or your brothers or your

relatives or your neighbors, lest they also invite you and

pay you back. Instead, fight the people who

have nothing and can never return the favor.

Now what Jesus isn't saying is you're not allowed to eat with

your close friends or your family members.

What he is saying is I want you to think about life differently

and I'm going to say something so extreme that you can't miss

the main point. Anybody can love who they like.

I want you to go so far beyond that and love people that I like

the marginalized. And in the same way he's telling

the audience of the family everybody loves their family,

The the love he is calling us to is not going to be tested by

applying it to people that you already love.

Husbands and wives are meant to love one another.

Fathers and sons are meant to love one another.

What Jesus is doing is using such extreme language that he is

elevating the call. He's using the word hate so that

you would understand how extreme the love that you are called to

love him with is. 1 commentator put put it this way, hate is

hyperbolic or it's an exaggerating language meant to

shock the listener into recognizing the absolute

priority of Christ over every competing allegiance in

Matthew's Gospel. He softens it in a way to help

us understand that it It isn't that you are supposed to feel

vile hatred towards people you naturally love, but you are

supposed to see them and realize that that is not the love that

Jesus is calling you to love him with.

In Matthew he says whoever loves his father or mother more than

me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves his son or

daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

So again, the commentator says this.

He's saying that our love for Jesus, our devotion to Jesus,

and our commitment to Christ, our loyalty to Him, is to be of

such forceful, energizing strength that even our best love

for our spouse, our longing for our children, our genuine

interest in our own well-being will actually be seen to look

like a total disregard in comparison to our devotion to

Christ. In other words, you will hate

anything that keeps you from loving the main thing.

Now let's just put pause on this being a sermon based off the

teachings of Jesus. Jesus is telling you something

that is actually just in line with how the world works.

No doubt. Whether or not you've meant to

apply this to your life or not, any of you who have ever devoted

your life to anything have become so interested in that one

thing that you were willing to reject other things.

So I'll go first. Once again, when I was a kid,

you guys are just going down memory lane with me right now.

I, I loved soccer so much. I joined a team and my mom gave

me and my mom signed me up for all the lessons that I could get

and I also had a competing interest.

I also played the piano as a youngster and I also had lessons

for that. And there came a point where my

love for soccer was so great as a little guy that loved to play,

that any time it was time to do the other thing.

What did I tell my mom? Mom, I hate piano.

I don't want to do it anymore. I hate it now.

I actually don't hate piano. I actually did kind of enjoy it

and I kind of liked it, but in comparison to the main thing

that I was after, I had no time for it.

I didn't want anything to do with it.

No doubt any of you who have a skill or a talent, any of you

who have learned an instrument or a language or have done

anything to master something, have actually hated something

else and let hobbies aside. Any of you who are married and

made a commitment to one person actually in this language, we're

unpacking it, but in this language, when you said I love

you, when I look at my wife across the aisle and I said I

love you, I'm going to die with you or for you.

It was like I was saying I in comparison to the love I have

for this one woman. Every other woman in the world

is now in comparison something I hate.

I don't want to look at any other woman like this.

I don't want to feel these feelings for anyone else because

of the great love. And this is Jesus now saying to

really understand the call, you have to do that with Him.

And this is a point where you should pause.

All of you should pause. And I will pause with you to say

the audacity. Consider the audacity of what

Jesus is asking. Consider anyone in your life

coming to you, a friend, a Co worker and trying to do this,

trying to say to you, you know, I know you, you're really good

friends with this person over here.

But unless you hate your friend, your friend over here, you can't

be my friend. I know that you really like our

Co workers, but unless you hate your Co workers and and love me

so much more than I don't even want to be around you.

Imagine someone coming to you. Imagine if a pastor did this.

You know, I know you got your family.

I'm so glad you're part of the church.

I know you're married, but unless you love this church more

than you love your family, unless you hate them compared to

the way you love me, you can't be a part of it.

Now, as your pastor, I just want to say, if anyone ever did that

to you, run, OK? They're not good people.

And if they did it in the name of religion, they're a cult

leader. They're horrible and we stop

here so that you can make a very important inference of the text

of what Jesus is doing. The only way that Jesus can do

this is if he's God Incarnate. The only way that Jesus could

come to anyone and say if you really want any part of me, I

have to be the object of your worship is if that he is God in

human flesh. And so some of you, this is your

off ramp. If Jesus is a moral teacher, if

Jesus and his teachings is a guide to life, if the Bible is a

nice take it or leave it book, this will not work.

But if Jesus is who he says he is, if the Jesus that is being

presented to you is the Jesus that rose again on the third day

and exists in the heavenly places coming again, then you

would be crazy not to bend the knee.

Consider what he says. Anyone who does not put me at

the object of their worship cannot be my disciple.

Now I want to let that really sink in.

He says cannot. Welcome to the multitude.

You can come to church at any level of devotion.

You can listen to the sermons and YouTube is free.

Great sermons out there. But he says if you want to be a

disciple, if you want the life that ioffer, I must be the

object of your worship. He doesn't say if I'm not, if

you love other people more than me.

Join the junior varsity team and talk to the pastor when you're

ready. He says it will not happen.

So here is the the challenge as it's really supposed to hit you.

Some of you are here, no doubt with a greater love and a

devotion and a reason for being here that is not actually the

worship of Jesus, the living God.

I've just been a pastor long enough to know that some people

come as a act of devotion to someone else.

I've met people over the years who said, you know, I like your

church. I'm really here because I

started dating a girl who comes here, and she told me you

couldn't keep dating unless I started coming.

So yeah, thanks for letting me come here.

It's like, you're welcome to come.

You're not a disciple. You love your girlfriend more

than you love Jesus, which means you're not a disciple.

There are people that I've met over the years who come and

they're like, man, my marriage is on the brink.

My wife told me that the only way I could, we could even give

this another second chance is if I start coming.

So I'm coming to the men's thing tonight because if I don't, I

might lose my wife. It's like, great come and maybe

your wife will thank you. You're not a disciple.

Jesus says unless you love me so much that everything else

becomes a secondary and lesser love to the point that it would

look like hatred. You're just part of the crowd.

And this is where the sermon begins to offer you some signs

of life. Jesus is saying, for any of this

to work, I have to be God. And he is saving you from the

reality that anything you love greater than God will in fact

become your God. He's saving us from this

horrible truth that all too often we have to realize after

we've hit the emptiness of the soul, that if we try to save our

own lives, we'll lose it. If we try to love ourselves

first, we'll end up hating our lives.

If you try to make your marriage the object of your worship and

God is there to come alongside, you will end up hating your

marriage. If you try to make your kids the

object of your primary devotion and everything you are is

obsessed with your children and the love you have for them, your

children will hate you. And it's not.

This is not a lesson you have to wait for a preacher to tell you.

This is just a reality of life, and we have all sorts of ways

that this culture just gives us example after example after

example. You know, one way that you could

see this is anyone who just loves beauty.

You know what happens when someone just like, just what I

just love being beautiful? They're going to hate the way

they look. They're going to just do

everything they can and one surgery after the other and

eventually they're going to look in the mirror and they're going

to see what we all see is just not working.

Anybody who just loves the idea of gaining great wealth and you

love that and that's the life you want to love.

You know what you're going to hate your bank account.

You're never going to look at it and be like I'm here, I've made

it always going to be one more dollar that's just keeping you

from the from the satisfaction of your soul.

Anybody who loves their life to the point of comfort.

Just everything you do is to get the blank space in the calendar

where you can finally get away and have your alone time to just

get some comfort and ease and enjoy the news feed.

You are going to hate your alone time.

It's a bottomless pit of never ending desire to find the thing

can actually absorb your devotion.

So Jesus say if you don't hate those things and love me, you're

going to you're going to hate your life.

Look what John Piper says. The Son of God's glory was made

to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul.

And when it does, all the planets of our life are held in

their proper orbit. God set up creation, and he put

the sun in the middle of our solar system, and the perfectly

aligned planets orbit around it. And Piper says that's like the

glory of God. When it's the center of our

devotion in our soul. Everything else in your life

will orbit perfectly around it. And when you put anything else,

you're going to find yourself living a life that you

eventually hate. So Jesus says you want to be my

disciple, hate everything but me, you, you get that lesson and

you're walking towards how to unlock everything else.

So some of you have made it this far and you're thinking, OK,

what do I do? So Jesus gives you now the

Master Good Shepherd is going to give you your invitation to

follow. If you're tracking with him so

far, He now says in verse 27, this is your call to action.

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

disciple. You want to put me at the center

of your life. Follow me all the way to the

cross. Two things now he said that will

disqualify you. You have any other devotion that

is not Jesus at the center and you're unwilling to actually

deny yourself, exchange your old life for your life in Christ.

That's the cross. And I'll I'll tell you you we've

referenced seemingly every week that we've been in the Gospel of

Luke that we're framing this whole series in the simple title

the journey to the cross because Luke Chapter 9 says we're going

Luke 9 · chapter mention

to Jerusalem, going to the cross and follow me, pick up your

cross and follow me. And every week it seems like

that the path gets more narrow and narrow and narrow until

Jesus will be hanging on the cross on Good Friday.

And if you're like me, I think of that series title and I just

think of just the majesty of Jesus dying on his cross for my

sin. Well, we're now going so far

into the series that we're going to come to the deeper lesson

that if you actually believe that Jesus died on the cross for

your sin, then the journey to the cross is now yours.

He's calling you to be a disciple that comes after him.

You're no longer living your life as though God is some sort

of guide to your life giving you what you want.

You are now rejecting self governance and self-interest and

self-centered living. And you're saying I follow Jesus

to the point of my own sacrifice.

This is why he's about to say you better know the cost because

salvation in Christ is free. But discipleship, where he takes

your life that was going towards a life you're going to hate, and

he pulls it into the new life of Christ, will cost you the rest

of your life. So there's a critical moment

that we will study coming up in the Gospel of Luke that will

become the question, the $1,000,000 question that every

disciple should ask. What does it practically look

like to pick up my cross? How do I do that?

Well, remember Jesus says come after me.

So what we what we have to do to answer that question is see how

Jesus picked up his cross. And I'll tell you this in

accordance to everything we've shared so far, the cross will

always put you in a place that will challenge your natural

instinct, challenge what you would like to do, or challenge

who you already love or challenge who you would invite

to dinner. And if we want to see how Jesus

got to the point of picking up his cross, we have to see how he

overcame his instinct to not. In other words, your cross

moments will not be something you're like, I can't wait for

this, this is amazing. I'm going to wear this as

jewelry and put it on the stage of my church 'cause I just love

every instance that I have to pick up my cross.

It's actually opposite. There's a simple moment where

Jesus is wrestling the cross. Gospel of Luke will tell us in

chapter 22 that on the night he was betrayed, he went to the

Garden of Gethsemane to pray. And what was he praying?

He said, Father, is there any way that the mission of

redemption could be completed without my death on the cross?

Let this cup pass from me. And just to confirm what Jesus

teaches in the way that prayer was answered.

He is the way, the truth and the life.

No one gets to the Father except through the sacrifice of Jesus

to pay the price of sin. The answer was nevertheless not

your will be done, not my will be done, but yours.

That's the beginning of the cross.

The beginning of the cross is to wrestle with the will of God in

your life to the point where you say, nevertheless, I belong to

you. I no longer govern my own life.

Any of you who have been following Jesus in any serious

way have moments where your life was at the crossroads, where you

would have done one thing and the Lord called you to another

and you picked up the cross to obey him and you accepted the

call to be discipled. I remember one of those moments

in my life. In fact, it's worth sharing

because it gives you a little insight into how I got here.

And I start serving at Calvary Chapel Boise and leading this

church. Well, it was, I assure you it

was quite contrary to my own plans for my life.

It was, this is not the result of me having a, you know, a 30

year plan for my life that ended behind this pulpit.

I was actually right before God called me to this place, I was

living in Saint Martin, the Caribbean.

Oh, what a beautiful place. Some of you have been there and

it's just it. It was me trying to save my own

life. I loved it.

It was the climate I wanted, the blue waters.

I was living as a deckhand on a yacht, just simple life.

I was even going to a small little church.

I said, Lord, I am called to be an usher at this church until I

die, which is my dream. And the Lord would not let me

go. And he called me to come back to

Boise to start serving at this church.

And here's how the cross moment hit me as I remember, you know,

in the beautiful palm tree sunset of Saint Martin

Caribbean. I said, but Lord, it's winter

there. It's cold.

I finally escaped and my bones feel good.

It doesn't matter what I want. The cross means you do the will

of God because he is wiser and more loving and more caring for

your life than you are. And any one of you who have

taken the call of Christ seriously had a moment where you

negotiated with the will of God. And the cross meant,

nevertheless, Lord, I'll do it. I trust you that you can take me

places that I don't see. The final destination for the

cross is to say, Nevertheless, Lord, you're the Lord.

I'm not, and I will lay down my life so that you can pick it up

over and over and over again. And I assure you that the cross

is not one distant day 15 years ago where you got saved or

answered a call. Jesus says pick up your cross

daily. There is a cross for you to

bear. The will of God will not come

with sunshine and flowers tomorrow morning.

Whenever you live out the will of God, you are wrestling to the

ground through the power of prayer, your flesh that would do

otherwise. And you say, nevertheless, Lord,

again I pick up my cross. And he says, if you're not

willing to live that kind of life where the cross becomes a

pattern of your life, you can come to church and you're part

of the multitude. You're just not a disciple.

And of course, Jesus is saying all of these things, not so that

no one would follow him, but that people would understand

what they're following him towards.

And this is where we shift from maybe some of you listening to

this and thinking, wow, I guess I'm going to have to exchange

the, you know, the, the, the good life on earth for the

drudgery of the Christian life. And I hope heaven's not boring.

Maybe some of you have denied the call of Christ because you

really do think the exchange is not worth it.

And so we'll end by a very brief but important examination of the

parable that we read. He said which of you, intending

to build a tower, does not sit down 1st and count the cost?

Whether he has enough to finish, lest after he has laid the

foundation is not able to finish.

All who see will mock him. The man began to build but was

not able to finish. Says What is the cost?

What would it take for you to set out and build a tower?

The second parable he says. Or consider a king who's

thinking about war. Both of these parables were

given so that people would consider the cost, but they're

also given so that people would consider the reward.

I'm speaking to those of you who feel a little ho hum about

following Jesus. I guess following Jesus is like,

I guess exchange the good life. I'm here and I'm sitting through

the sermon, but I can't wait to get to the game.

Jesus says that following him is like setting out to build a

tower that might be lost on our modern ears because we live in

Urban Development, so we see high rises everywhere.

But consider what these people must have heard.

Tower. You're going to use my life to

build a tower. I'm going to go out and build

something that's got a foundation and it's got, it's

going to take a whole crew of people and it's going to go up

to the heavens and people will look back and think what a great

feat. It's costly because it's got a

crown. There's nothing you can do in

this life that's worth any of your time.

There's nothing that you would devote yourself to that has any

reward worth your devotion that doesn't require you to actually

commit to it. And the the the ultimate fork in

the road of your life is, is it better to commit to something

that you can make a great tower for your name on earth, or is it

better to commit to something where you are building on the

foundation of Christ for the glory of God?

That is the fundamental question that's being asked.

If you put him at the center of your life and you devoted to Him

and you wrestled your will to the ground and followed the will

of God, would you be? Would you be getting a good deal

on the exchange? That's what we all secretly

wrestle with. It goes all the way back to the

garden when they wondered, is God really being good by

preventing us from eating from this tree?

Our discipleship has to wrestle to the ground.

The question of is your life better in Christ?

Is your greatness greater in Christ?

And so let me just tell you, we're following Jesus all the

way to the cross actually ends. Following Jesus to the cross

does not end with death. This is why we call Good Friday

good. He paid the price for our sins,

and on the third day he rose again.

Paul says the Philippians have this mind in you that was in

Christ who emptied Himself, coming in the form of a bond

certain, obedient to the point of death, now sitting at the

right hand of God, with the name that every knee will bow and

every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

The cross of Christ brought the glory of Christ, and there is no

greater thing that you can do with your life then to fulfill

the perfect will of God, the good works that He's prepared

beforehand, to fulfill the mission on your life to bring

Him glory. It will be the glory that

outshines everything else, and we will all be tempted by some

way to make our tower on earth. Just think of who in our world

we celebrate as great. And mostly the world celebrates

things that will go by very quickly.

Right now, in just this little season of life, you will be

presented with the Grammys, the Olympics, and the Oscars.

And I assure you, anyone Who Will Win any of those things

counted the cost. They did the hard work and they

accomplished something with their life.

But their accomplishment is a vapor.

It will come and it will go and they will be forgotten.

The the greatest people in the world right now are not

receiving rewards to a round of applause.

The people doing great things with their life right now are

sacrificing their lives so that others can live.

The greatest among us. There are moms who woke up in

the middle of the night last night to care for a child and no

one saw them. There are dads that work lay

down their lives to provide for their kids to disciple them in

Christ and no one thanks them. There are missionaries that we

pray for that are going to spend their whole life reaching a few

souls for the Kingdom and no one's greet him at the airport

with applause and trophies. And yet you should have heard it

in nursery rhymes. One life to live, how quick it

pass. Only what is done for Christ

will last. Count the cost of your devotion.

What are you really after? What are you actually building

with your life? So for two people, we now end

this sermon and we'll, we'll, we'll prepare our hearts for

communion. No doubt we are talking to some

people. The word preached out this

morning is going to some people who can hear this sermon preach

and say I'm probably not a disciple.

And for some of you, I actually applaud you.

For those of you who have considered the cost of calling

yourself a follower of Jesus, and you realize you're going to

have to say no to some things you really like and you're going

to have to use your time and resources and treasures in ways

that you've got other plans for. And you've said, you know, I'm

not ready for that. At least you've counted the

cost. At least you're not part of the

crowd acting like going to church is hopefully going to

turn out good in the end. Jesus said would that you were

hot or cold. At least you're cold.

And then the second crowd, those of us who we have our moments

where we saw a vision of salvation, Jesus on the cross

for our sins, and we said, Lord, I want to follow you.

Is your life orbiting with Jesus at the center?

Have you counted every other devotion, A devotion that would

look like hate compared to the love that you have for Christ?

Have you consider that God's will for your life is going to

do great things for His name and your joy?

Is your devotion something that you can see is turning into good

fruit? Jesus says unless you hate

mother, father, sister, brother, you cannot be my disciple.

What he's really saying is I want you to love me more than

anything else. And the promise of the Good

Shepherd is that he will give you life and life more abundant.

Everything will orbit perfectly around Christ.

Everyone else will be blessed as you put him in the center.

Thanks for joining us today. If you would like to watch the

full service, check out the link in the description.

For next steps and to learn more, visit Calvary Boise com.