Count the Cost, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14 verses 25 to the end of the chapter. I can't think of a more fitting passage of scripture to prepare us for communion than this one. And as I was preparing for this week and realizing the significance of this passage of scripture, I was reminded of the doctor in Kansas City some five years ago who decided he wanted to make a huge profit. And so what he began to do was dilute some of the medications he was giving to his patients, some of upwards of 99%.

And he made all kinds of money while his patients suffered the effects of a medication that had little or no effect on their physical condition, many of whom were dependent upon their prescriptions for cancer treatment. We know now that at least one of those patients died. We cry, and so rightly we did, that this was a betrayal. It was greed. It was deception. It was tragic, and rightly so. It was all that and a lot more. A man in the field of medicine committed to helping people get better by providing for them prescriptions that would enable them to live possibly even longer.

Instead, he diluted that medication and caused them to suffer a greatness and a great illness even further than what they expected. Instead of helping people, he ended up hurting them simply because he decided not to give them the full dose or the true dose of the medication that they so desperately needed. I think about that, and while that's a tragedy in the medical field, there's a greater tragedy in the evangelical field, a much greater tragedy, simply because there are scores of people all around the world, such as yourselves, who go to church every Sunday looking to hear a prescription that will help their spiritual condition, looking for someone to give them the spiritual medicine that will take care of their soul's condition.

And instead of receiving 100% pure truth, they receive a diluted gospel, and therefore, they end up not having the proper prescription for their soul's condition. They don't come and hear the words like submission, surrender, sacrifice, forsaking. They don't hear those kinds of words. They hear words like believe in Jesus and everything will be okay. Give your life to Jesus and you'll get a better job, your marriage will be better, your relationships will be better, everything will be better. Give your life to Jesus.

He might even make you richer than you've ever been before. And so we go to church and we hear a man-centered gospel instead of a God-centered gospel. We hear messages that are feeling-oriented, so somehow we will feel good once we leave instead of messages that are factually presented that we might know the truth of the gospel. People come thinking and believing they are receiving the proper prescription for their soul's condition only to find out that it only leaves them terminally ill. That is a problem.

That is a great tragedy. And it happens in scores of churches all around the globe. And it was Jeffrey Wilson who said these words, today's Christianity is in a state of disarray and decay and the condition is deteriorating year by year. The truth of God's word has been watered down and compromised to reach a common denominator that will appeal to and accommodate the largest number of participants. The result is a hybrid Christianity which is essentially man-centered, materialistic, and worldly and shamefully dishonoring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This shameful degeneracy is due in large part to the erroneous gospel that is presented by many today around the world. An erroneous gospel that doesn't deal with the essential elements of saving faith, calling people to come to grips with the reality of their spiritual condition that they might give their lives wholeheartedly to the king and his kingdom. We should know that this was how it was going to take place for Paul would tell us in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse number 1, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

That is today. That's exactly what has taken place today. And ironically it was the same way it was in the days of Jesus. For there were leaders who decided not to preach the truth of the gospel. That's why when Jesus came he would say words like you have heard that it was said by the ancients of old. But I say to you, this is the way you were raised. This is what you've been taught. This is what you went to synagogue to hear. But you heard the wrong thing. It's not the truth. This is the truth. And so when he began to preach to them the truth of the gospel, that's when their ears perked up and realized that what this man is saying is completely contrary to what their leaders had taught them.

And that's why Jesus in Luke 13 said, oh I wanted to gather you together but you would not come. You didn't respond to the message. I gave it to you. I gave you a hundred percent proof that it would come to you this way and you rejected it. Therefore your house has left you desolate. I've abandoned you. You're on your own. And there will be one day you'll come to me and say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. But until that time your house has been abandoned by me. And then we come to Luke chapter 14 and we understand a little bit about the religious elite and how they taught the people of Israel.

And we learned about the the lesson in sympathy that Christ had for a man with dropsy. How they had placed him in front of him and he healed him. Which led us to a lesson in hypocrisy because the whole religious system of Israel was was wrapped in hypocrisy. Because they had all kinds of rules and regulations that they thought would gain them entry into heaven. He would move from there to tell them a parable, two parables, that would explain to them the truth about humility because they were so arrogant and so filled with pride.

And he said listen unless you humble yourselves you'll never be a part of the kingdom of God. He gave them a lesson in generosity and then he gave them a lesson about eternity and missed opportunity because they believed they were a part of the resurrection of the righteous. But they weren't. They were so convinced that they were going to heaven because of the religious system that he had to confront them with the truth because he told them you will not see that great banquet. You will not be a part of the resurrection of the righteous because everything you do is for yourself.

Everything you do is about you. It's not about me and therefore you have a false system. And this is where the people of Israel were because that's where their leaders led them. And so you come to Luke chapter 14 verse number 25 and you have all these people following Jesus. Thousands of them still following Christ. And this is what he says. Now great multitudes were going along with him and he turned and said to them if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes and even his own life he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you when he wants to build the tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it.

Otherwise when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish all who observe it begin to ridicule him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king when he sets out to meet another king in battle will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000.

Or else while the other is still far away he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore salt is good but if even salt has become tasteless with what will it be seasoned it is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown out he who has ears to hear let him hear. Luke inserts this story here because it helps us understand who will be a part of the great feast of God. We talked about that last week.

Or the great resurrection of the righteous. Christ has already told the religious elite they're not going to be there. Your house has been left to you desolate. You're not going to enter into the great banquet house of God. So who is going to enter that banquet house? Who is going to be a part of the resurrection of the righteous? Luke gives us a story. It's a story that's evangelistic in nature. We know that because the text tells us so. There's a whole bunch of people following him. This is an address to his 12 apostles.

It is an address to the 70 of disciples that went out and preached the gospel. This is addressed to a multitude of people not just a few short groups of people. And so because the context tells us he addresses a multitude and three times he says my disciple, my disciple, my disciple. And that's simply a word which means learner. And we have seen throughout the ministry of Jesus that in that category of disciples who followed him there were the casual followers, the curious disciples, there were the counterfeit disciples, and there were the committed disciples.

But most of them were among the curious and the casual. Some of them were counterfeits like Judas was and a few of them were committed. But this isn't just about the disciples. This is addressed to a multitude of people because he wants them to understand who it is that can be a part of the resurrection of the righteous, who truly will be a follower of Christ. This is about my disciple, my learner, those who are committed to following me. And remember that to be a disciple is to be a Christian. There are some people who have erroneously stated that this is a sermon about a deeper walk with Jesus because discipleship is something you do after you get saved, that somehow you decide to really commit your life to Jesus and get serious about following Christ.

That's hogwash. That's nowhere in scripture. Being a disciple of Jesus is being a believer in him. Listen, the disciples weren't even called Christians until Antioch in Acts 11. What were they called? Disciples. Everybody who was a Christian was called a disciple of Jesus, a learner, a follower of Jesus. In fact, the word disciple in the book of Acts is a synonym for Christian all throughout that book. What Jesus is saying is this is what it means to be a true follower of me. This is what it means to be a part of the resurrection of the righteous.

This is true Christianity at the heart, at the heart of the gospel. You need to understand this. And so when we come to this passage of scripture, we begin to realize that Jesus speaks with extreme language, almost harsh language. Have you ever noticed that in the ministry of Jesus, he erected barriers and didn't tear down barriers for people to get to him? Did you ever notice that in today's gospel?

We got to tear down all the barriers, make it simple for people to believe and come to Jesus and to accept him as your Savior. Jesus didn't do that. He erected barriers. He made it very hard for people to get saved. But we, on the other hand, look to make it as easy as possible. Something's wrong with the gospel we preach and the gospel that Jesus preached. He erected so many barriers because he didn't want anybody to be confused as to the reality of their eternal destiny. He wasn't going to confuse people about the gospel.

In fact, when Christ presented the gospel, he did everything he could to weed out everybody who was shallow and superficial. He said everything he possibly could to make sure that if you were a superficial or shallow follower, you would leave and never walk with him again. That's why in John chapter six, after Christ had talked about eating my flesh and drinking my blood, the disciples, quote, the curious, the casual, and the counterfeit said, this is too hard for us. And they walked with him no more.

And then Christ said to Peter, are you guys going to go away too? And Peter said, where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. You have the words, the life giving words. We're not going anywhere. We're staying with you. But you see, that's what Jesus did. He would weed out the nominal person. He would make sure that people understood the true nature of the gospel so that they would know for certain whether or not they were born again. Now you'll notice this, that in this passage of scripture, there's nothing here common in our gospel presentation.

There's nothing about repentance. There's nothing about faith. There's nothing about belief. There's nothing about, about grace. There's nothing about the identity of Christ. There's nothing about the work of Christ. There's nothing about the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ. There's nothing here about that. And yet this is the gospel as Jesus preached it. Notice this, when you read through the gospels, when Jesus preached the gospel, very rarely did he give the objective facts of the gospel.

Instead, he addressed the subjective attitude behind the heart that receives the gospel. Big difference. What do we do? Well, you're a sinner. You need to give your life to Jesus. This is who Jesus is. This is what Jesus did. This is what Jesus is going to do. Do you believe that? Yeah, I do. Pray this prayer. Now you're saved. Really? Jesus never did that. How come we do that? Jesus never did that. He did it completely different because you can say Jesus was born of a virgin. You can say that Jesus lived a sinful life.

You can say that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You can say that Jesus died, rose again the third day, and is coming back again.

Say a prayer and still not be saved. Isn't that a shock? Sure it is. Just because you believe the objective facts about the gospel and you say a prayer doesn't mean you're saved. Who told you that? You didn't hear that here at Christ Community Church. And Jesus never said that. Why is it we think that we can just lay out all these facts for people and say, okay, now if you believe the facts, now you're saved. If you believe them and you say a prayer, now you're saved. Jesus didn't lay out the objective facts.

Instead what he did was address the subjective attitude of the heart that was the recipient of the facts. Big difference. That's why he uses words like hate your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, even your own life. Take up your cross and follow me. Get rid of all your possessions. That's how Jesus presented the gospel. Let me show you.

Turn to Matthew chapter 10. Just let me give you a spattering of verses that Jesus says in Matthew 10 verse number 34.

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life shall lose it.

And he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it. That is the gospel as Jesus presents it. Look at this over in Mark chapter 10.

Remember the whole scenario about the rich young ruler who came to Christ and wanted to know what it meant to be saved. And Jesus would explain to him what it meant. And it says that this man went away having heard the gospel from Jesus. He went away sorrowful. And it says, and Jesus looking around said to his disciples, how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. See Christ erected barriers to those who thought that they could just come to Jesus by believing a set of facts about the Messiah.

How hard it would be. And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, children, how hard is it to enter the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they were even more astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? Even the disciples wondered, well, if this is the way you're going to present the gospel, who on earth is ever going to be saved? And this is what Jesus said with men.

It is impossible, but not with God for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, behold, we have left everything and followed you. You see Peter understood the gospel. We left everything to follow you. We gave it all up for you. And then he says, Jesus says, surely I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms and along with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last and the last will be first. Even in John's gospel, the 12th chapter, 25th verse, Jesus said this, he who loves his life, loses it. And he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to eternal life. Even that pivotal passage in Luke chapter nine, verse number 23, Christ said, very simply these words, you know, well, we spent many weeks here, Luke nine 23. If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. For what does a man profit if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself for whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him with a son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and of the holy angels. You see, that's how Jesus presented the gospel. The road or the gate is narrow. Few there be that find it. Why? Because once they finally get there, they realize the cost of entry for the cost is everything.

You see, Jesus doesn't want to be added to your present lifestyle. He wants to completely transform everything about your life. That's Christianity. If you don't want to transform life, you won't be saved because Jesus takes over everything. That is so important to understand. That's why when Jesus presented the gospel, he talked about all the tears that are sown among the wheat. And the disciples said, well, do we harvest them or what do we do? Do we rip up the tears? No, Christ, you can't do that because they look so much like the wheat that when you can't do that till the end of the age at the harvest and Jesus will separate the wheat from the tears.

And that's the that's the modern evangelical movement. There are tears in this church and in every church sown among the wheat that look just like the wheat. You can't tell the difference until the end of the age when Jesus will separate them. But that is so powerful. That's why Jesus would address the hard attitude in the gospel about giving your life to him. That's why there will be many people who say, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do many marvelous deeds in your name?

And Jesus will say, I'm sorry, I never knew you. See, that's going to be just a dangerous day for many, many people narrows the gate. Few there be that find it. Luke chapter 13, verse number 24 says of the few that find it, even fewer are going to get in. Why? Because of the cost of following Christ. People will say, well, isn't heaven a free gift? Yes, it is. But it can only be embraced with empty hands. If you come in and hear the gospel, you come home from the grocery store and your hands are filled with with groceries and you can't you can't take nothing else.

And someone says, I got a gift for you. What do you do? Put it there on the table. I'll get to it later. OK. Oh, here, put it here among all these other gifts that I got. Just put it right here underneath my chin and I'll add it to all the other groceries and all the other goodies that I have. Right. In order to embrace the gift, you've got to drop all the goodies and embrace the gift. Unless your hands are empty. That's what Jesus is saying. Luke 14, unless your hands are completely empty of all that the world has, you can't embrace the free gift of eternal life.

You just can't do it because you're too preoccupied with everything else the world has to offer. Remember, remember what Jesus said in Luke 14 in the parable of the excuses? Well, I I just bought some land. I got to go see it. I just bought five boxes. I got to go try them out. I just got married. I can't come. We told you the excuses fall into two categories, possessions and people. Two, two categories that keep people out of the kingdom, what they possess, what they have, what they can get, what they can accumulate in some relationship with somebody else that's hindering them from embracing the invitation.

And Jesus addresses those, those possessions, those people. And yes, even your own person, because unless you hate your own life as well, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. You cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't be a true follower of him. Now, folks, this is absolutely pivotal to understanding your future. This is so crucial. Jesus is ending his ministry. He's got a few months left. He's going to die. He could very easily, you know, just water down the message to get more followers.

So at the end, he looks a lot better than he's going to look with just 500, 620 people when you add them all up. He gets more harsh, more stringent. He erects more barriers because he is not interested in people who are uncommitted. In fact, he chases the uncommitted away because he doesn't want them to be deceived into thinking that they're going to go to heaven because they believed some facts about his identity. This is so dangerous. Do you have to present the facts so people know who Christ is?

Yes, you do. But isn't it interesting that that's not what Jesus did? In fact, the Bible says in John chapter 2 that there were many disciples who wanted, who believed in him, but he was not committed himself to them.

There were many disciples who believed in him, but he wasn't committed himself to them because he knew their hearts. He knew they were superficial and shallow followers, not truly committed to serving him with all of their hearts. So Jesus uses words like, if any man come after me, hate not his father, mother, brother, sister. Doesn't that sound, that just sounds horrible. Why would Jesus say that? Why would Jesus even use the word hate? It would seem that you could say that a little nicer and maybe not be so offensive to people, but Jesus, because he speaks the truth, always chose his words very carefully, very carefully.

The phrase he uses, if any man come after me, hate not his father, mother, brother, sister, wife, yes, even his own life. He cannot be my disciple. There's a Hebraism which speaks specifically to preference. Let me give you a few examples.

Romans 9, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. Does that mean that the Lord God had some kind of loathing for Esau? No, no. It's just simply that Jacob was the preferred one. Jacob was the one who received the inheritance. Jacob was the choice one. He was the preferred one. Matthew 6, 24, no man can serve two masters, either he would love the one and hate the other. You mean actually hate one of your bosses if you serve two of them? No, but when push comes to shove, one boss has the preference and the priority over the other one.

In fact, what Jesus said is very identical to what happens in Genesis chapter 29. Listen to these words in verse number 31, the whole story between Jacob, Rachel and Leah, remember that? Remember he worked seven years to get Rachel, but Laban tricked him and he got Leah instead. So he had to work another seven years to get Rachel. Rachel had to be one incredible babe for him to work 14 years to get, right? She had to be absolutely incredible, okay? He wasn't going to just accept Leah, he had to get Rachel.

So he worked 14 years to get her. Now listen to this, Genesis 29 verse number 31. Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved. Now the translators got it right, okay? Because the Hebrew word means to be hated. Now the Lord saw that Leah was hated. Jacob didn't hate Leah, but she wasn't the preferred one, Rachel was. And he opened her womb and Rachel was barren and Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben. For she said, because the Lord has seen my affliction, surely now my husband will love me.

Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, because the Lord has heard that I am, in the Hebrew hated, in the translation unloved, because that's the correct translation. It's not that Jacob loathed Leah. No, he loved her, but he really, really loved Rachel, because she was the one he wanted. He didn't loathe Leah. She was unloved. She was not as, she was not the priority one. Rachel was the priority. And Jesus is simply saying, look, if any man come after me and have another priority other than me, he can't be my disciple.

He speaks specifically of other people, those closest to you. If you have another priority other than me, if I'm not the preferred one, for example, you're married, you're a believing wife, your husband's an unbeliever. Husband says you cannot go to church anymore. What do you do? Who's the preferred one? Jesus is. So what do you do? You go to church. Why? Because you love him more than you love your husband. Why? Because you're committed to Christ. He's the priority, right? If any man come up to me and hate not his father, mother, brother, sister, he's not worthy of me.

In other words, you have got to show that I am the absolute priority in your life, that there is no one who takes precedence over me, that no matter what they say, you will still do what I say because I have no rivals. If that's not you, you cannot be my disciple. You cannot enter my kingdom. You cannot be a follower of me. I demand everything, every single thing you are. I want all of you. That's why you're to love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, right?

You're to love him with everything that you have. You can't love him with some of what you have. You got to love him with everything. That's the important thing. And that's the whole idea behind the parable of the treasure, the parable of the pearl, that the man would sell everything to obtain the treasure, to obtain the pearl because it was everything to him. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else was a priority except the treasure and the pearl. So crucial to come to grips with that. In fact, a good way to understand this is what we read earlier, Matthew 10, 37, when Christ said, if any man loves father or mother more than me, right?

He's not worthy of me. That's the idea. You can't have another priority other than Jesus. He is everything. And that's why he presents the gospel as he does. You want to be mine? There can't be one person in your life more important than me. If there is, you cannot be my disciple because I demand everything. I want all of your attention. I want all of your affection. I want all of your admiration. I want everything you have. And if you're not willing to do that, you cannot be my disciple. That's why the gate is so narrow.

And that once you find the narrow gate, few there be that actually enter through it because they can't do this, that. They don't want to do that. They just don't want to do it because they don't want to give up their relationships, their possessions, their priorities. They like what they are doing and they don't want to give them up. And Jesus says, in order to be mine, this is what you must do.

You love God so much that everything in your life is subordinate to God. He even says, even your own life, right? Because even in my own life, everything is subordinate to God. Everything follows him. Everything is about him. Folks, this should not be new to us, but if you go to most churches, it's absolutely foreign to them. They don't get it. They don't get it, but it should not be. We're about to partake of the communion table, right? Listen to what Paul said, for the love of Christ controls us, compels us, motivates us, moves us.

Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Paul understood that. He understood that the one who gave his life for him, that he now lives for, his whole life is now God's life. He understood that. So in Romans 12, verse number one, he said, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, having laid out the entire plan of God's mercy and God's comfort and God's care to save people from the sin, he says, now I beg you, you present your body a living sacrifice to God.

You give all that you have to God. That's not talking to believers about being more committed to God. It's about giving everything to him based on his mercy. You just give everything to him. How could you not do that? He says, and the rest of Romans 12, 13, 14, and 15 and following are all about people who give their life to Christ. That's what salvation is. It's about giving your life to Christ. He takes over your life. Everything in your life is subordinate to him and his word. Folks, this is so important.

I don't want to step on anybody's toes, but here it goes. If you have children and they don't come to church with you and hear this message and they go to another church to hear a different message, you're at fault. That's your fault. You're their parent. You stand before God and it's your fault that they are going someplace and hearing another gospel and not hearing the truth of the gospel. Unless you've confronted them and said, this is wrong. It's an error. This is not what Jesus says.

You're going to a church that doesn't adhere to the standards of the gospel. You can't go there. It's wrong. Listen, if your kid had cancer, you would do everything you could to make sure he got the best treatment possible. You'd make sure he saw the best doctors, was at every doctor's appointment to make sure that that cancer would be put in remission and Lord willing be healed. You would do everything you could to do that. Let me tell you something.

The soul of your child is more important than that. And if you're not concerned about their soul that says, you know what? You need to be in a Bible believing church where the word of God is preached and the harshness of the gospel is presented as Jesus presented it. You've done your children the greatest disservice as a parent. You've shown them their soul doesn't matter. You can say whatever you want to say. You have just said, you know what? Your soul doesn't matter to me. Where you go to, just as long as you go to church, just go someplace.

Really? Would you say that they had cancer? Just go to some doctor, go to some dentist, go to, go to some acupuncture dude, whatever you want to do. Just go someplace. No, you wouldn't do that. It's the best doctors, the best hospitals, because your life is at stake. Their eternal destiny is at stake. And how can we as parents sit back and let our children just go to any old church they want to go to without ever saying, you know what? This is wrong. And you need to know the truth because folks, as a parent, that's on you.

It's on you. You're the leader. You know the way. You got to tell them the truth. Now they decide not to follow that truth. That's up to them, but you got to make sure you give them that truth and you explain to them that their soul is your main concern. Folks, that's crucial. This message, this set of verses is absolutely pivotal to understanding what Jesus said about being a follower of Him. Because remember the gospel that Jesus preached was always what? Follow me. Follow me. Follow me. It wasn't say a prayer.

It wasn't walk an aisle. How did Jesus ever get anybody saved without singing 24 verses of Just As I Am? I mean, come on. What music did He use to set the mood for His invitations? Just one more verse. I know there's many out there. I know you want to come. Just one more verse. You come on this verse because there's one more verse. There's one more opportunity. Jesus never said it like we say it today. Shame on us. Shame on us. Not Him because He said it right. He spoke the truth. Would it be that we would follow in the footsteps of the Messiah and say it the way Jesus said it and be as concerned about the souls of people as He was concerned about the souls of people?

That should be our number one concern. And it begins right at home with the condition of the souls of our children, right? And our grandchildren and those closest to us. And they recognizing that Jesus is a priority. You see, I know my time is gone. Sorry. But you know, if your son or daughter is going to a church that doesn't preach the gospel, okay, you have shown a violation of Luke 14. And you haven't confronted them on that and talked to them about it. You have shown that you love son or daughter more than you love Jesus.

That's what you've shown. Because you see, if you want to do what Jesus says, you'll do what He says no matter what the response of your children is going to be, right?

No matter what their response is going to be, because Christ is a priority and everything in your life is subordinate to the authority of God in your life. That's what a saved person does. That's who a saved person is. Jesus is the priority. Jesus is the authority. Jesus rules my life. And that's why we partake of the Lord's table, because He rules our lives. He's in charge. And we have received the forgiveness of sins from the One who shed His blood for us. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You, Lord, for today and the opportunity we have to spend time in Your Word.

Truly, Lord, it is a blessing to understand Your Word. Our prayer is that, Father, we would be devoted to You, followers of You, committed to You, never reneging on our commitment, but always knowing and believing that Jesus Christ is our Lord, our Master, our Savior, our King, that we would follow You with all of our heart. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.