December 28

Transcription

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Well, good morning, those who have not been raptured away. It is always one of those Sundays you never know. Sometimes it's full, sometimes it's empty, and then the weather doesn't play, and then all kinds of things happen.

But it is wonderful to be with you again this morning and to share the Word of the Lord with you. I never look at my phone on a Sunday morning. It's just one of those things I don't do.

But strangely enough, this morning as I sat down behind my desk just to run through the sermon cookies, I kind of looked at the phone and I thought, I wonder if there's something on there that I just need to check. And lo and behold, there's a message from my brother David across the street. Are you guys having church this morning? Because there's a parking ban on the streets as of 7 a.m. I did not know that.

So I called Lynn and I said, Lynn, did you know about the parking ban? David asked if we're having church. And we said, we're having church. And they're having church.

And maybe next year we'll put us all together on this Sunday. That might be the way. So there you go.

We'll be fine. You get a ticket, we'll go and we'll tell them this is not the way it works. Thank you for the gift of your Word, Lord.

Thank you for what it does in our lives as we can just sit and allow this wonderful, wonderful Word to touch our hearts, our lives. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We can stop with you for a moment this morning as you challenge us again and remind us of what it means to walk with you, to belong to you, to sit at your feet and learn from you.

May we see you, Jesus. And I will meet you. Amen.

So a well-known passage that I'm going to speak on this morning with you from Luke 14. But before we go there, let me give you a little background of where this comes from. So Luke has the story that kind of tells how Jesus moves slowly but surely on his way to get to Jerusalem.

It's kind of a travel plan. And as he moves on, he doesn't go back. So we'll find him on his way to Jerusalem, kind of close to that moment when, of course, all the things will happen around him.

And on his way, he's teaching all the while teaching people. So he ends up on the Sabbath in the house of this Pharisee. And, of course, there's this banquet and everyone runs for the front seats.

They want the front seats. And, of course, he tells them the story that, you know, like, no, no, no, maybe you should run for the front seats because they might be reserved for someone else. And if the guy comes up and says, sorry, you can't sit here.

It's for someone else. You're going to feel a little foolish. Be gracious.

At this banquet at the end, one of the Pharisees pipes up and he says, oh, you know, we had this banquet. Oh, is it going to be wonderful to sit in the banquet of the kingdom of heaven one day, implying we Pharisees, we Jewish guys, we're going to just walk right in and we're going to sit there and we're going to be in the kingdom because of who we are. And Jesus says, well, might not be as simple as that.

Let me tell you a little story. He says, this man prepared this beautiful banquet. When the banquet was ready, he sent out the invitation to the folks who were invited before.

And he said, come on in. The banquet is ready. Come, come eat.

The one sends a message back and he says, oh, I just bought a field. Sorry, I have to work the field. I can't be there.

The other one said, oh, I just bought some oxen and I have to train these oxen. I can't be there. The other one said, I just got married.

Sorry, there are better things to do. I can't be there. So the man who made the banquet, prepared the banquet, sent out these servants and he said, go into the streets and go get them.

All the poor and the lame and the sick and the struggling and the hurting, just bring them in. And they brought them in and there was room for more. Sent them out again and they went and they got even more of these who were struggling and hurting and filled the banquet.

This is how the kingdom of heaven will look like, he says. It's not just those who think they're going to walk in, but those who accept that invitation. And this is where our story comes in.

So now he walks and a lot of people are following him, wanting to learn from him, wanting to be his disciples. And that's where we pick up the story. Boy, is it fun.

Luke chapter 14, verse 25. Large crowds were travelling with Jesus. Turning to them, Jesus said, if anyone comes to me, does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple.

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me, cannot be my disciple. Let's stop there for a second. So he's been talking about this, going to heaven, how you get there, accepting the invitation.

And these people are following. We want to be disciples. We're going to follow you.

And Jesus stops. He says, okay, so let's call an election. Here's my election moment.

So put up the banner. I want Jesus to be the king of my life. Jesus says, so here's the thing.

If you want to be my disciple, and I like the way that he does it in the negative, you can't be my disciple. And then he says three things. He says, so if you want to follow me, become part of who I am, live like me, walk into the kingdom, make me the king of your life, three things.

I want to be number one. You're going to have to carry your cross, and you're going to have to follow me, walk in my footsteps. Let's break them down one by one, and then think about that for a moment.

So remember, he's saying, you want me to be the king of your life. That's why you follow me. Okay.

So this is what you're going to have to do. Number one, you cannot be my disciple unless you hate your father, your mother, your wife, and your children, your brother, and your sister. Yes, even your own life.

That sounds really scary because that word hate is a really big, difficult word, isn't it? The Greek word is meseo. It's a bit of an emotional word, which actually says to place something in front of something else. You cannot be my disciple when you decide to place your father, mother, brother, sister, children, wife, yourself in front of you.

You want to be my disciple? I have to be number one in your life. Remember what I said where he started. These Pharisees think we're going straight to heaven because we're Pharisees.

No, buddy. That's not how easy it is. You don't say you're my disciple.

You live you're my disciple. You live in such a way that in everything I am seen as the number one in your life. Let's just think about that for a second.

Easy to say, not so easy to do. Let me give you an example. It would mean that if I go home this afternoon and I sit next to my blondie, and I hold her, and I look in her eyes, and I say, Blondie, I love you.

That's my name for Elsie. It's not a derogatory name. That's just my special name for her.

But Blondie, I love you with all of my heart. There's no one in my life that I love more than you. I give her a weak kiss, and then I look at her again, and I say, but I have a confession to make.

There is actually someone in my life that I love more than you, and that is Jesus. I cannot place anyone in front of him. If I want to be his disciple, he has to be number one in my life.

Where's that young woman that's sitting next to Debbie? You go home this afternoon, you look in the mirror, and you say, man, I really love you. You're so cool. You're the most amazing person.

I would get up in the middle of the night and go make you a hot chocolate if you feel like that. I'll take the last cookie in the cookie jar, even if I know mom's going to be kicked off, because that's how much I love her. But then I look back in that mirror, and I say to that same face, but I have to confess to someone that I love even more than you.

And that's Jesus. If you want to be my disciple, here's the first thing. I have to be number one in your life.

There's nothing, there's no one, not my work, not my money, not my stuff, not my anything can be more important than Jesus. And now it just gets a little more difficult as he goes on with number two and number three, because he says, here's the thing. When you follow me, it's not this, okay, so now Jesus is number one, and I can't enjoy life, and life is not great, and I'm so sad because following Jesus is the sad thing.

I have to go lock myself up in some cloister somewhere in a room, and that's all I do. No. We'll see that a little bit at the end of the story again.

That's not what it means to follow Jesus. To follow Jesus means I get this life in all of its abundance, filled with joy, and laughter, and his presence, and his love, and his care. It's an amazing life that he gives, not a life in a little box where I don't touch, where I don't say, no, because when he's number one, I need to show that and meet that.

But in that invitation to that five-star life comes the second call. You want me to be king of your life? You will also have to carry your cross. And that's not as we always think, oh, we'll have these burdens, and we're going to carry these burdens on our back.

No. When he speaks about carrying the cross, he's talking about something completely different, which they would have understood. In those days, you saw someone carrying a cross.

He was only going one way. He was going to a hill. They're going to nail him to that thing, and he's going to die.

So when Jesus says, you want to be my disciple, you're going to have to carry your cross, it means you're going to have to die for yourself, for this world, for the things of the world, so that I can come alive in your life. That's what carrying a cross means. Not, oh, I have these burdens, and poor me.

It's this, I have this amazing life, and I have died for all of these things, and for me to live is Christ, said Paul. It's to live that life in Jesus Christ, but to take this old knees and get it out, it's putting this life under new management. Not mine, but you.

Not my world, this world. These are not easy things. These are not easy things.

We could say, but we know these things. We do. But do we live them? Because we know them so well.

Number three. I want to be number one. You're going to have to die for that old self, and then you're going to leave yourself and walk in my footsteps.

Maybe that's even more difficult than the other two, because these footsteps, they walked from a manger to a cross. They walked past many moments that were hard and difficult, but they also walked where others didn't want to go. And that's where He will take you when you follow Him.

He will take you to places where He wants you, not necessarily places where you want to be. And can I use my silly example again? We're in Canada because God said, you got to pack up and go, buddy. That's it.

We're not here because we looked at the political situation. We said, we can't do this. We were fine.

We were doing fine. Life was amazing for us. But God said, I need you to go work in Canada, and this is where I need you to go and work.

And I had to leave my mother and father. I know exactly what that text means, because I'm an only child. I walked out of their lives into this country and left them.

I took their only three grandkids and brought them to this country, because God says, that's where you need to go. You're going to walk my footsteps. I get it.

And I'm not saying, look at me. I'm saying, that's what it means. It's a practical thing.

It's not a head thing. It's a life thing. And it touches them all, because those kids had to say, Dad, we don't want to do this.

But they had no choice. Blondie left her mom. She died six months after we came to Canada.

That's the call of discipleship. It's to put Jesus first and to say, yes. Even when we're in walks sometimes, why would I want to come to snow and ice? It's sitting 26 degrees of sunshine.

Let the Lord know. And then you do that, and then you walk, and then you see what He means. Because 23 years of being in this amazing country, 24, I've been a lot in this one, of being in this amazing country and working in this amazing congregation, I have seen what Christ wants, because we become His hands and His feet and His eyes and His ears and His mouth in this world.

That's what discipleship means. It's not about me. It's about Jesus Christ.

It's about making Him number one and being that which He needs me to be, because how does He touch lives if it's not through us? How does He bring the gospel if it's not through us? How do people see Jesus if they don't see it in our hands and feet and mouths and eyes and ears? That's where they see that. And it's quite the call. That's why after the challenge, He says, before you make your decision, think it through.

Verse 28. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation, you're not able to finish it.

Everyone who sees it will ridicule you and ridicule you, saying, this person began to build and wasn't able to finish. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't the first sit down and consider whether he's able, with 10,000 men, to oppose the one coming against him, 20,000? If he's not able, he'll send a delegation while the other is still a long way off.

He'll ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Third time, cannot be my disciples.

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It's thrown out. Whoever has ears, hear.

Let them hear. Count the cost. Count the cost, says he.

You can't just walk and think that's going to be the only thing you do, just walk and walk and follow. No, no, no, no, no. To be a disciple, count the cost.

What is it going to cost me? And if you're not prepared to do that, stop. Marshall, in his beautiful commentary on Luke, uses kind of hard words. He calls verse 33, he says, it speaks about the uselessness of a half-hearted disciple.

Ouch, I won't use those words. I'm just quoting them for you, but it kind of hits the nail on the head. He does not want half-hearted disciples.

You either give your full heart or you don't. Count the cost before you start building. Otherwise, you will be laughed at.

Otherwise, you will be defeated because you are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, it's with you. Disciples are those who make him number one, who are prepared to take that cross, and he will walk wherever he wants us to walk.

But count the cost. Amen. Take a few moments of quiet, please.

Thank you for sending out the invitation, Lord Jesus. Thank you that we do not have a field to plough, an oxen to work with, or a marriage that's more important than you. Thank you that we may crown you as the king of our lives.

It's not always easy, and oftentimes we fail. But thank you that you also do not give up, that you are always there to pick us up, to walk with us. Thank you that even when we struggle through the dark valleys, we know that you are there.

Thank you that you care. Thank you that you help. Because without your Holy Spirit or Holy Spirit of God, what can we do? Thank you that you are the one who teaches us how to live in this way, to be disciples the way that our Lord Jesus wants.

Thank you for being our advocate, reminding us of who we are. Thank you for being our comforter, helping us when we struggle and fail. Thank you for being the one who lives in us.

Help us to be your salt in your light in this world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.