The Cost of Devotion (Luke 14) | Pastor Viny Costa

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Good morning.

Good morning, you watching online.

My name is Vinitius, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the word of God with you today.

Today's message is not an easy one.

It's not easy to preach and it's not easy to hear.

We are going to talk about something that is deeply personal, deeply emotional, and for many of us, deeply uncomfortable.

We will be challenged this morning.

So bear with me.

I want to start asking you guys a very simple question.

Very simple question.

How many of you would consider yourself a disciple of Jesus?

Show me your hands.

How many of you can say this morning, I am a disciple of Jesus?

Show me your hands.

Cool.

That's the majority of us.

That's awesome.

So I believe the word we're going to read this morning is for you.

And it is for me.

I would love to invite you to open your Bible in Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

We're going to read two verses.

Luke 14.

Verse 25 and 26.

The Bible says.

Yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple.

If you are taking notes this morning, I titled this message, The Cost of Devotion.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, stay with us.

We are here for you.

Plant in our hearts your eternal seeds.

Challenge us if it's necessary.

Exhort us if it's necessary.

But we're here for you.

We want to walk away from this service this morning completely changed by your word.

So Holy Spirit, be with us.

Challenge us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I'm sure all of us have had difficult conversations before.

Conversations we wish we could avoid.

Conversations we spent hours thinking about before they happened.

How am I going to say this?

How am I going to bring this up?

How will they respond?

Difficult conversations at work, difficult conversations with friends, difficult conversations in marriage, difficult conversations with family.

When you read the four gospels, you discover that Jesus also had difficult conversations.

There were conversations, there were moments when Jesus said things that were not easy to digest.

Things that were not comfortable, things that created tension, things that made people stop and think, wait, did Jesus really just say that?

In John chapter 6, Jesus said something so hard to digest that the disciples asked told it said to each other, This is a hard teaching.

John 6 · chapter mention

Who can accept it?

And the Bible says that from that moment, many of them turned back to Jesus and no longer follow him.

Jesus was not always easy to listen.

He was always good, always kind, always graceful, always telling the truth, but he was not always comfortable.

Jesus tells the truth even when the truth is hard to hear.

And Luke chapter 14 is one of those moments.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

The audience is clear in verse 25.

The Bible says the large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned to them and he spoke.

So Jesus is not speaking only to the 12 disciples, he's not speaking only to the religious people, he's not speaking only to a private group of mature believers.

Jesus is speaking to everyone, to confused people, to people who admired him, to the curious, to the committed, to the religious, to the skeptical.

The words of Jesus in Luke chapter 14 were for that crowd, and I believe they're also for this crowd.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

They were for them, but they are also for us.

So you are not just reading a difficult word, the difficult words of Jesus today, you are the recipient of them.

You are the audience.

If you anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple.

Jesus, Lord, those are hard words.

There's nothing I want more in my life to tell you, hey, I'm gonna be your disciple.

There's nothing I want more in my entire life than tell you, I belong to you, I am your disciple.

But Jesus is saying, if you do not hate father, mother, spouse, children, brother, sister, even your own life, you cannot be my disciple.

It doesn't matter if you attend church for 30 years.

We need to be very clear about what Jesus is saying here.

Jesus is not commending emotional hatred toward our families.

He's not telling us to despise our parents, reject our spouse, or neglect our children.

When Jesus uses the word hate here, he's using a strong expression of comparison.

He's saying that our love for him must be so supreme, so central, so absolute that every other love, even the most sacred loves in our lives, must come second.

Jesus is not asking you to love your family less in a sinful way, he's asking you to love him more in a supreme way.

He's saying, if I am not the first, you cannot be my disciple.

If I am not the first, I will not settle for second.

Let me tell you something, church.

When Jesus is not the first, something else will be.

When Jesus is not sitting on the throne of your heart, another love will try to take his place, and that's what the Bible calls idolatry.

An idol is anything that occupies in our hearts the place that belongs only to God.

An idol is anything so central, so essential essential to our lives that if we lost it, life would no longer feel worth living.

It is anything we trust in, hope in, depend on, or run to in order to receive what only the Lord can truly give us.

An idol is what you run to when you are afraid.

It is what you cling to when you are looking for security.

Hey, we know this, we were created to worship God, but when God is removed from the center, the human heart will always look for a substitute, and every false substitute eventually becomes a tyrant.

At first, it attracts you, then it demands from you.

At first, it gives you comfort, then it controls you.

At first, it feels like a blessing, then it becomes a master.

Now, listen to this.

The dangerous part is that an idol doesn't always look evil.

Many times an idol is a good thing in the wrong place.

It's a great thing, but in a wrong place.

May I ask you to close your eyes for one second, all of us.

Many times an idol is a good thing in a wrong place.

If you measure your worth by your salary, and when you lose your job, you lose your identity, your career may have become your idol.

If your savings account, your investment, and your financial stability are your source of confidence instead of God, money may have become your idol.

If everything in your life is about reward, comfort, escape, and satisfaction, pleasure may have become your idol.

If you are obsessed with results, goals, applause, and recognition, and when you do not perform well, you feel useless, performance may have become your idol.

If you cannot handle criticism, if you always need to be admired, respected, noticed, or seen as successful, your image may have become your idol.

If you're meager of spirituality, only it's only by rituals and rules.

And when you complete the list, you feel righteous, but when you fail, you feel condemned, religion may have become your idol.

If you need control and influence in order to feel safe, and when you are not in control, you panic, power may have become your idol.

If your service for God becomes more important than God Himself, ministry have become your idol in Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Jesus is not simply trying to make a shocking statement, he's exposing the order of our loves.

Who sits on the throne of your heart?

Try to ask yourself this question.

Who sits on the throne of your heart?

Jesus is inviting the crowd to become disciples.

Inviting me and me and you to become disciples.

Look at me for one second.

In the Jewish world, before and during the time of Jesus, becoming a disciple was not casual.

It was demanding.

It was selective, it was a big deal.

A Jewish kid at the age of five, they would start going to school.

They would spend eight years there to learn the Bible.

To read the Bible, to repeat the Bible.

By the age of 13, they would graduate, and at that point, they would have the five first books in the Bible by memory.

At 13, the average students, they would go back home.

They would help the family.

They would engage in a family business.

But the great, the strongest student students, the good ones, they would continue their journey.

And their next steps is keep studying for 13 to 17 years old.

During that time, they would read the Bible.

They would repeat it, debate it.

And when they turn 17, they would graduate, and at that point, they would have the entire Old Testament by memory.

The average student would go back home to help family, to be with family.

But only the top students, only the best of the best, only the Ivy League type of students would try to find a master.

Would try to find a rabbi.

And uh he would tell then, hey, I admire you, I identify with your ideas, you can ask me hard questions, and then the teacher, the master, would ask then hard questions if the master liked the answers.

The master, the rabbi, would invite them to become a disciple.

The Hebrew word talmed.

After memorizing the entire Bible, after trying to find a rabbi that can be your master.

The rabbi needs to send an invitation, and you need to say yes.

That's the process of becoming a disciple here in Jesus' world.

But do you know what's interesting?

Jesus was called a rabbi lots and lots of times in the Bible.

He was called master, he was called teacher.

But Jesus's method of inviting disciples are completely, completely, completely different.

He does not begin with, how much scripture have you memorized?

He does not begin with, how impressive is your theology?

He does not begin with, can you answer all my difficult questions?

He does not begin with, what is your religious resume?

Jesus looks at the crowd and says, You want to be my disciple?

Then I have a question for you.

Where is your love?

Who do you love?

How do you love?

What love is supreme?

What love rules your heart.

Jesus is saying, I am not asking whether you can quote Leviticus.

I'm asking whether you love me above everything and everyone.

Not how many verses you you know by memory, not how many theological questions you can answer, not how religious you look, not how many planning center invitations you have accepted, not how much money have you given to the poor?

Jesus is asking, Do I truly have the throne of your heart?

Can you dethrone every idol?

Not only the obvious ones, not only the sinful ones, but even one, the most subtle and sacred idols of all.

The idol called family.

Can you dethrone dethrone that idol?

The one called family.

And don't get me wrong, God calls us to love our families, to honor our parents, to care for our spouses, to raise our children, and be faithful in our homes.

Actually, Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 8, Paul says, Anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith, and it's worse than an unbeliever.

1 Timothy 5:8

The Bible commands us to honor our father and mother, the Bible commands husbands to love their wives, the Bible commands parents to care for their children, the Bible commands us to love one another.

So, yes, love your family, care for your family, pray for your family, provide for your family, honor your family, serve your family, but don't allow it to become number one in your heart.

The problem is not loving your children, the problem is when your children become the source of identity, security, and purpose.

The problem is not loving your spouse, the problem is when your spouse has to carry the weight of being your savior.

The problem is not honoring your parents, the problem is when their approval becomes more important than obedience to God.

The problem is not the family, the problem is when a gift from God becomes a replacement for God.

The human heart is always looking for a space for a second throne.

We may say there is only one throne in our hearts, but if we are honest, our hearts are constantly trying to build another one.

One for God, one for control, one for God, one for comfort, one for God, one for approval, one for God, one for our dreams, one for God, one for our family.

God does not compete for the thrones of your heart.

He is either Lord or He's not.

Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Come on, read your Bible.

When you check these scriptures, it's it becomes very clear that God wants us to love our families, God wants us to love our jobs, God wants us to love our church, God wants us to love our ministry.

But church, understand this according to the Master Jesus, according to the rabbi Jesus, according to the teacher Jesus, your family is not the most important thing in your life, even if some churches have preached that for years.

Your marriage is not the most important thing, your children is not the most important thing, your ministry is not the most important thing, God is the most important thing, Jesus is the highest love, Jesus is your first devotion, Jesus is the one who belongs on the throne.

In fact, one of the most precious, one of the most important passages of the Bible for a Jew.

If you ask a Jew, what's the most important passage in the Bible, he will tell you Deuteronomy chapter 6, it's known as the Shema prayer.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

Shemai Israel Adonai Elochane Wedonai Ahad.

Hear all Israel, the Lord your God is one.

Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.

The Bible is telling us you can love other things, you can love other people, but there is no competition here.

Jesus should be the first one, God should be the first one.

So dedicate yourself to your