← ArchiveSunday, September 1, 2013DateSeptember 1, 2013Speaker—TextLuke 14Passages in this sermonLuke 141:44Luke 14:25–351:50Isaiah 647:122 Corinthians 547:131 Peter 147:17TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00All right, thank you, Rick Choir. That's also an awesome job. Chris is on vacation, him and Gail both, and I just want to keep praying for them that they come back well-rested and that they have a really good time. And Chris always comes to me, and sometimes I think he kind of has an interesting way of training me up,0:26and I think sometimes he does things on purpose, and he didn't let me know until really early this time. And so he's kind of like, get your bullet out. You need to have it ready anyway. And so anyway, I love my pastor, and I do appreciate him and the way he watches me. And I heard it said not too long ago that a pastor will oftentimes show you where the ditches are at0:55and try to keep you out of the ditches. And oftentimes that's kind of how I feel because I have a tendency to kind of wander off, and he kind of reels me back in and says, no, Brad, you really don't need to do that. He said it's a great idea, but it might cause too many issues. And so anyway, my belief is that we need to reach people,1:22and sometimes my tactics are not always conventional in reaching people. So I'm glad that my pastor does have that wisdom, and he kind of brings me back into reality sometimes. Those that work close to me in youth ministry know exactly what I'm talking about. So anyway, Luke chapter 14 is where we're going to be at this morning. Luke chapter 14, verses 25 through 35,1:50some very difficult passage to kind of work through. And I've been kind of really thinking about this a lot. We're about to start our Disciple U classes back up next week. And so this is about discipleship. And so I really want to kind of hit on that and touch on that. And the reason why discipleship is so important, the reason why do we do discipleship, and I just want to say this, discipleship is not a class. It's not a program.2:19It is something that we need to be doing on a regular basis, and that is live a life of a disciple. And so salvation costs you nothing, but discipleship will cost you everything. Salvation occurs in a moment. Discipleship takes a lifetime. Salvation is something that God does for you. Discipleship is something you do with God. Sadly, many only preach a life of decision, not a life of discipleship.2:48The result is that people hit hard times, life doesn't seem to be working, and they become disillusioned with Jesus rather than devoted to Jesus. And so we raise up a generation of consumers, of consumers, basically Christian consumers that consume and want to be fed instead of digging in and feeding themselves. And so discipleship is something that takes place in the life of a believer because the believer wants to grow.3:16And so we need to be very careful because Jesus is not a salesman. Okay? Jesus is not a salesman. He's not trying to market anyone. He's not trying to sell anyone, con anyone in any way. In Luke chapter 14, 25 to 35, he's going to talk about the cost of discipleship with some of the strongest language that you can read in Scripture. And so we're going to read this passage,3:45and I really want you to keep an open mind and open heart about what Jesus is saying because some of the things that he says is very, I'm just going to use the word negative. And some people will say, well, Jesus is not negative, is he? He's not that harsh, is he? And so we're going to read those words. So Jesus is going to ask whether or not you truly want to live a life of a disciple. And he's going to essentially say that there's four different things4:12that are going on here, and he's going to continue to pound on the same nail over and over again. And that is do not quit. Do not quit. And so let's read this passage, and we'll see where he's going here. It says, verse 25, Now great crowds accompanied 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, even his own life,4:41he cannot be my what? Disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and can count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29. Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who sees it began to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.5:10Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? You guys will get that later. So, therefore, any one of you who does not renounce5:38all that he has cannot be my disciple. 34. Salt is good, but if salt has not lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35. It is of no use either for the soul to for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He has ears. Let him hear. And so, Jesus uses these really, really harsh words. No one teaches about love as much as Jesus does. No one.6:07No one. No one teaches about love as much as Jesus does. And here, Jesus used the word hate. He used the word hate. And he tells us that to be devoted to him means that we are to hate our mother, our father, our brother, our sister, and our own children and our own life. And we ask the question, what in the world is Jesus talking about? What does he mean by hate? One commentary says it this way. The call to hate simply means to love less. The image is strong,6:38but it is not a call to be insensitive or to leave a feeling behind. Following Jesus is to be the disciples' first love. This pursuit is to have priority over family members and one's own life, which means that other concerns are to take second place to follow Jesus. Practically, what this means is that you will face relational pressures as a believer in Jesus Christ to quit. To quit.7:09To quit. to give up. To quit being a fully devoted follower of that whom you love. That's Jesus. This could be your parents telling you, you don't need to go to church, and a lot of times I deal with this all the time with teenagers. And it sickens me. It makes me want to go to mom and dad and slap them. but I would get fired. And using church7:37to ground your kids, that's another sermon for me. That happens a lot, believe it or not. They use church. Now you can't, you can't go to Wednesday night because we know you really like that. And I'm like, we're teaching on obedience. Mom, we want to try to help your teenager grow up in obedience to Jesus. And so what we have oftentimes is even parents8:06will subdued children to subdue kids and say, no, you really don't need to go to church. Or oftentimes dad will be that person that will kind of go, no, I just really don't want to go today. And so mom is kind of left going, having to make a decision to go. And so we oftentimes see this kind of pressure and this negativity that comes from our own parents. The same can come from siblings, family members, the way of, they have a way of making you feel guilty. Like you've betrayed the family,8:36the family, you've turned their back on you. They snub you, the holidays are awkward, that turkey doesn't taste the same because now you're a believer, you're a Jesus freak. That often happens. In certain cultures, this is actually a death sentence in certain cultures. If you decide to be a disciple of Jesus, you're committing social suicide. In hardcore Muslim countries, as well as certain other countries, as soon as someone becomes a believer, they have a funeral.9:06They have a funeral for that person and they say, this person is actually dead. We no longer know them, they're cast out or they kill them, it's called honor killings. And by the way, it happens here in the states too, in certain areas of the states of north, particularly Michigan, where there's a large amount of Muslim areas. Kids go to youth group, they get converted, they disappear right under our noses.9:34And he says that this can include your own children who want you to bless their sin, pay for their folly, endorse their behavior, and you cannot because you love them. So even your own children can play that game to where, hey, you know, I want to do this and then you end up kind of breaking a little bit and kind of sliding a little bit and you let them go to that party because you don't want to be the Jesus freak parent that's so strict10:03on them. This can even include your spouse. Some of you married non-Christians. You married non-believers. One of you, either both of you, maybe both of you were not believers and then all of a sudden one got saved. And now you're the believer in this relationship and the unbeliever says things like, you don't have to10:33go to church. Why do you have to read your Bible all the time? Why do you share Jesus with our children? If you continue, I will divorce you. And the answer must be, I don't want to divorce. I do love you. But if I have to make a choice between my relationship with you and Jesus, I will choose Jesus. I will choose Jesus and I will love you through that marriage. Who or what have you put before Jesus? Who or what11:03have you put over Jesus? Some of us have this idea that if I follow Jesus, I will follow Jesus unless I get treated like Him. And once I get treated like Him, that's uncomfortable. I'm going to, then we find ourselves bending. And we find ourselves kind of going down this path where we don't raise our children like we're supposed to raise our children. We don't treat our spouses like the way we're supposed to treat our spouses. And then we end up in church and we start doing11:33churchy things that are not biblical because we've kind of gone down this path because we've kind of conformed to society. To be a disciple is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. And this includes all the way to your own death. All the way to your own death to completion. Carrying a cross was a literally dead man walking. So when the word12:03says to carry your cross, it means that you're a dead man walking. You would carry your cross through town to be humiliated and shamed and you would carry it to the place of your crucifixion. They would hang you up. Everyone would make make fun of you, spit at you, whip you until you died. And so this is a picture of discipleship. This is a picture of our Christian life. This is a picture of our walk with Jesus. It's not always going to be easy. I think a lot of times12:34what we're seeing in the church today is you're starting to see this recall. People don't want to hear the truth. They want their ears tickled. They want to feel good and then they avoid passages like this because this hurts. This is not comfortable. It's like, wow, Jesus is really serious about this. And so so many give up so little for one that gave so much.13:04We live in a day of easy believism. If you want to go to heaven, raise your hand for Jesus. Do whatever you want and he'll say, well done at the end. Between your conversion and your resurrection is your discipleship. Between your confession of Jesus and your death is your life, your discipleship. And the question is not today, is what are you doing13:33with that? Are you in God's word? Are you raising your kids according to this word? Are you living according to this word? And I just want to say, man, I'm not there. Ask my wife. I'm not there. Had a horrible day yesterday. I was in a bad mood. Don't know why. Had to repent. Ask her to forgive me. He's like, what is up with the weekends?14:02I'm like, tired. There's no excuse to act like a buffoon. But sometimes we do. This week's been hard. It's been a difficult week. It's been very busy. So a disciple's life is a life of repentance, a life of forgiveness on a regular basis. We all have sin. We need to deal with it and work that out and realize and realize, hey, I'm prone14:33I'm prone to sin. But quick, quick to learn and repent from that. That way you don't go back down that path. Jesus isn't like a salesman who gets you to commit to all the benefits and conveniently overlooks the fine detail. If you want to follow me, people are going to hate you and you might die. That's the cost15:02of discipleship. That's the cost of following Jesus. In our society, we just don't see that. We just don't get it. I think that other countries, other places where there's a lot of oppression, where there's a lot of things going on, they get it. They see it. And when you go on a mission trip, you kind of understand. You come back with a better understanding and you really feel ashamed. Those of you that have been on mission trips overseas, you get it. You understand. You come back and you go, man, what are we doing?15:32And sometimes you want to go back and kind of like, hey, you know, it was hard. But man, I got so much out of it. I enjoyed being around people that don't complain. And it's not, that just don't get it. There's one mission organization. You can look them up. They're called SVM, Student Volunteer Movement. They still send out missionaries.16:02missionaries. And they have an interesting way of sending missionaries out. When you would ship missionaries out around the world, they would pack all their belongings in a coffin. And it was a very clear way of saying, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to go talk about Jesus until I die. That might be a short while, that might be a long while, but it would, but it will happen. And they would write16:33their final farewell letter and leave it to someone they loved, leave it in a, in a particular area, that way that person can find it. And upon their death, which 80% of them would not return because they would go to radical Muslim countries, it will be delivered to that person to read. You're going to die. I'm going to die. I don't know when. I don't want to die soon. I want to live my life. But we're all going to die. It's inevitable.17:03It's inevitable. It's going to happen. And the question is, what are you doing now? What are you doing with your life? What are you doing that's going to matter? Don't waste your life. Make your death count. Don't quit on Jesus. Don't quit on your spouse. Don't quit on your kids. Don't quit on your church. Don't quit on the opportunity that God has set before us to make a difference in our world and in our society. Don't quit. We have too many people,17:33Christians, that are quitting for whatever reason because it's too hard. Went to a anniversary party yesterday. I do believe Jessica and I were the youngest that was there. Jack and Sandy Banks. Are y'all here? They're not. They're still celebrating. I just want to do something.18:03How many of, how many families, how many couples you've been married for 50 years? Y'all stand up. You've been married for 50, come on, stand up. You've been married for 50 years. Stand up.18:2960? She had to throw that in there. Too many people, listen to me, too many people are quitting. It's almost like they like the marriage. They like the wedding day. They like the gown. They like the cake, but they don't like the marriage. And too many people are quitting on marriage. Believers of Jesus Christ18:59quitting on marriage. It is an institution that God ordained and is being abused in our churches and in our communities and in our society. And it's got to stop. People want the wedding cake, but they don't want the marriage because the marriage is hard. The marriage is hard. That's the hard part.19:3350 years. 50 years. 50 years.19:4050 years. That's hard. Luke 14, 28-30. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Jesus says, before you commit to do something, do your homework20:09and make a plan. Before you commit to do something, do your homework and make a plan. Some of you have committed to far too much and I'm not talking about marriage. I'm moving off of that on to ministry, on to work, on to your commitments and this includes me. I have learned the past five years of full-time ministry that I have to say no sometimes. I had to say no this past week. Had an opportunity to go preach to another church20:39this next Sunday. Had to say no. We got four students I'm baptizing next Sunday. That's the commitment that I made. Had to say no to the other one. I love to preach. It's a hard decision to make. As a matter of fact, this person kept contacting me. Jessica, you're going to have to tell them something. Those of you that know me, I'm not very good at communication as far as text messaging and returning phone calls sometimes. And I sinned again. There you go. And so, finally got back in touch with them and said, look, I can't. I can't do it. And so,21:09And so, sometimes we have to look and make a plan. In other words, I would rather do something really well than have a bunch of things going on and do it all mediocre. And I think that's what we have today in our society, especially the church. Some of you need to say no. It's okay. Some of you are doing a lot of stuff. The old adage,21:39I think it's what, 80% of the church does nothing while the other percent does everything else. The other percent, I hate to say this, but it's wore out. And I have a hard time, and you can ask Sherry and Rick and the rest of us, sometimes I have a hard time going to some of you guys that I know that are truly committed. And I'm like, man, we got this ministry, we're trying to get this going. So what I try to do is I try to go to other people and say, man, you know what? Here's an opportunity to give more people an opportunity to get more people involved. And so sometimes22:12we get overwhelmed, and the word says here that we need to count the cost. We need to count the cost. We're talking about seeing through to completion everything you volunteer for. Seeing through to completion everything you volunteer for. That means once you commit, don't quit. Some of you have not learned to say no. Some of you are still kind of working on it. I'm one of those that's still working on that sometimes. I have to let my wife know she's really good at saying no for me.22:41You can't do that, Brad. You've got five things going on that day. You just can't do that. So I've learned not to commit unless you're ready to see it through to the end. Otherwise, back to the wedding, you're like the woman who's all about the wedding, but not about the marriage. Not about the marriage. She likes the cake. She enjoys the wedding day. Then,23:12Then, years later, she's tired of the marriage. We see this metaphor in the Bible continually is we are the bride. We are like the bride and Jesus is like the groom and some of us just want to have a wedding but not want to have the marriage even with Jesus. In our conversion, we liked that day. That was an awesome day. October 24th, 1995, 8.36 in the afternoon. That was my conversion.23:42But now is the marriage. It's working things out. It's not always easy. Sometimes it's very difficult. Christianity is not easy. If anybody tells you that Christianity is easy, they've lied to you. I'm sorry, but they have. They've lied to you. It's a blessing. It's an awesome thing because of the blood of Jesus24:11because one day we're going to be with Him. But we've got work to do now and that work is not easy because we live in a dying world and we're supposed to be salt in that world. Luke 14, 31 to 33. Or what king is going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000. And if not, while the other is yet24:40a great far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Jesus uses another analogy there. It's a king who gets mad at another king and another nation and declares war. We see it all the time. We see it today. And he says, that's it. We're going to war. He brings all his generals together and he says, okay, what's the battle plan? And the general comes back and says, we got to surrender.25:10Before we ever start, we need to surrender. And the king's like, why? Because we have 10,000, they have 20. It doesn't make any sense. And it will be an embarrassment if we go. We'll be ashamed. We'll be humiliated. And some of you have raised your hand and you've made a commitment to Jesus and or I'm going to lead that ministry. I'm going to do this particular ministry and you don't see it25:38through to completion. You don't do your homework and you get bogged down and then you quit. We see this all the time. There is a shortage of pastors. There's four or five churches just in our county that are looking for pastors. And there's a shortage of young pastors that are raising up that want to go.26:08And a lot of times, I mean, the seminary that I come from, I'm just going to be really frank with you. The seminary that I come from, Luther Archie University, very conservative, biblical-based, small university. I was told the other day that they have blacklisted churches. I was really shocked. I've never heard of that. They blacklisted churches. And here's why. They won't send a graduate if they know that church is a hateful church to that church. They won't send it.26:39So you've got to ask what happens to that church. It dies. It dies. Most graduates that are graduating from seminary nowadays would rather go start a church than get into a mess. And that's a sad commentary of our society. Because this is what it's saying. I would rather start afresh than try to fix what is broken. And try to fix things that need27:08to be revitalized. And so you have people that are just quitting. There's less people going to seminary now than ever before. Because it's too hard. It's too hard. A disciple is disciplined. Getting married is easy. Staying married is hard. Getting saved is easy. Being sanctified is hard. Having kids for some is easy.27:39Raising them is work. It's hard. Two years old. Hard. That's just the way it is. And Jesus isn't going to lie to any of us and say come to me because it'll be easy. They just don't say it. He says you can find rest. You can find rest at different times in your Christian walk. But guess what? You're going to always find it hard. You're going to have seasons28:11where you're going to be on the mountaintop. Then there's times to go in the valley. It's a lot like a battle. Jesus says we have a real enemy and there's a real war. There's a real conflict. There's real casualties and there are real quitters. Don't quit. Don't be one of them. Don't quit. The Israelites, particularly in the Galatian area, when they would go to battle, they would bring their wives. I read about this today. I thought this was just fascinating.28:40They'd bring their wives, their children, to the battle line. And in the area of Galatia, if you look at the area, it's very flat and it's very hard to defend. Very difficult. Almost impossible. But for years, they never lost a battle. And people couldn't figure out why. As a matter of fact, they gained land. They would take land from people because they fought so fiercely. Bloody battles. So what they would do is they would take their kids, their wives,29:10their wives, and before they'd go in the battle, they would have their whole family on the battle line. They would bow down to their son and say, son, if I don't come back, someone's going to take you and change your name. Daughter, if I don't come back, you're going to have to marry someone's son. And wife, if I don't come back, there's no telling what they're going to do to you. And so then they'd go off to battle. And they would fight ferociously. They'd come back,29:40take their family home, and they'd do it over again. When you fight for someone that you love and a king that you hold dear, you will fight ferociously. And you won't quit until it's completed, until it's done. Question for those of us here in this room is, who are you fighting for? Who are you fighting for?30:10If it's yourself, then you're going to lose. Guess what? If it's this church, you're going to lose. If it's a program, you're going to lose. If it's Jesus, and you love him dearly, you're going to see it to completion. You're going to see it to completion. Because he died. He died.30:39He died. For you.30:49And in our crazy replacement for the battle, our crazy replacement for winning, for making ourselves feel like we're men, we have video games and sports.31:16And I was just thinking about this the other day. If you really think about it, when you sit down, and those of you that, there's men in here that probably are closet video game players. We know who you are. It is a complete waste of time. And I was into that thing. I still have an Xbox 360 downstairs. You can ask my wife. It has dust on it. And it's not because I don't want to. It's because I can't, because I don't have time to, because I have a two-year-old. And so31:47And so our replacement of discipleship, of fighting for Jesus sometimes is a video game or sports. You say, well, Brad, you're stepping on toes when you say sports. Most of us were watching the games yesterday. And no one is going to be liberated as long as we're32:15consumed with those things such as video games and sports. No one's going to be liberated. No battles are going to be won. So what happens is we get consumed by material. We get consumed by things. We get consumed by, it's not just video games and sports. It's all kind of things that we get consumed by. It grabs our attention. Because as men, as men, we want to win32:45the battle and save the princess. That's what this book's all about. That's what discipleship is all about. It's about winning a war. The war has already been won. We just have to go to battle. So guess what? Men, women, get off the couch, turn the electronics off and go to battle. Save your marriage. Raise your kids in a godly way.33:20Leave a legacy that's worth fighting for. You fight differently when you fight for the ones you love. A kingdom and a king. You just fight differently. That has to be the attitude that we have because the default mode for the human heart is selfishness and laziness. That's just our default mode. That's just kind of what we lean toward. And if we're not motivated by Jesus, if we're not33:50motivated by the cross, then we'll be motivated by things that are easy. And we'll quit. We'll quit. Luke 14, 34-35. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall this saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soul or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Their salt in that particular day was different. They would get it from the Dead Sea, and so it had to be mixed34:19with a particular compound for it to be salty. And so if it would be stored for a length of time, it would lose its saltiness. It would be like sand. And so what would happen is the salt was loose, salty, and they would throw it on the manure pile because guess what? It would create some kind of fertilizer for the manure pile. So what this is basically saying is those of us that are believers in Jesus Christ, we are loved by Jesus.34:49by Jesus. We are adored by Jesus. Jesus wants us to succeed as believers in Jesus Christ, but some of us are worthless. Some of us are worthless. And you may say, well, Jesus loves me. Yeah, he does. but you're worthless. You say, well, that's not true. I mean, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, which makes it even worse that you're35:18that you're worthless. He wants us to fight. He wants us to claw for our families with everything that we have. And the reason why I'm picking on families and marriages is because all through our community, what we've been hearing in the office, what we've been hearing in counseling areas and our counseling ministry is one after another. Marriages just being picked off. And it ticks me off because Satan's,35:47because Satan's, he's almost like he's just going high. Look at this one. Pow, got him. Look at this one. He's picking us off. And if we don't get real, if we don't realize, hey, this sin problem might be my problem, we need help. Marriage is hard. This wasn't supposed to be a sermon on marriage.36:19Discipleship is part of the Christian life. It's mingled in with marriage. So does your life make a difference? Does it count? Who are you serving? What are you giving? Where are you pouring yourself out? What kind of legacy will you live? It really does matter how you live your life. It really does matter how you live your life. It's not just to accept Jesus and go to heaven when you die.36:49you die. It's not just to accept Christ and go to heaven when you die. It's being a disciple along the way. It's really important and so many Christians do so little for the one that gave so much. The truth is you can't make it alone. You can't make it alone. I need my wife because sometimes I can just be stupid. You little ears, sorry. My wife had to remind me this morning that hey it's family worship day.37:19day. So I need her. because there's sometimes she sees things that I don't. I love the show Band of Brothers. Someone was telling me, I think it was Eric was telling me that they were getting out and watching it and it's about war. That's what it's about. It's about a band of brothers that stuck together.37:49stuck together. And the interesting thing about that relationship is they still, even to this day, even though some of them have went on to be with the Lord. Someone asked them, why have you guys stuck together for so long? Even after the war is over with, they kind of come back together and they just have this incredible relationship. And I've always been told by people in the military, once you go through basic training, once you go through battle with someone, there's just this brotherhood that you just38:19just cannot understand. And so, for us as believers in Jesus, we're going to go through battle with each other. And it's going to be ugly. It may be embarrassing sometimes. And that battle is sometimes our own sin. You're going to find out things about people that you wish, man, I really didn't want to know38:49to know that. But if they're dealing with that, man, I'm going to pray for them. I'm going to try to help them out as my brother in Jesus. We have to stop. We have to stop this self-righteous attitude and get our hands dirty. And if you're one of those out there that says, well, I don't have any problems, you're lying.39:15We all have issues. We all have hurts. We all have hang-ups. We need a Savior to fix it. And self-righteousness is not helping. The growth of the body of Christ is hindering it. Because people from the outside are not impressed when they walk through the doors and everybody is just kind of like, everything's okay. Everything's fine.39:45fine. And then they see you go out into the community and act like a fool. They're not impressed. So it really doesn't matter how you live your life. The truth is you're not going to do it alone. You need a band of brothers. That's why I believe Sunday school is so important. That's why I believe small groups are so important. That's why I believe doing life together is so important as a body of believers. Going on mission trips with a group, coming back fired up40:14fired up because you've met some people, other brothers that have struggles just like you do. I'm not in this alone. Jesus never sent his disciples out separately. He always sent them out in twos, three, sometimes four. Why? Because he realized that Satan could pick them off if they're by themselves. There's no such thing as a long-ranger Christian. There's no such thing. A close friend of mine, Scott Dawson, messaged me this week. I actually40:44actually messaged him about an event coming up and so I commented on one of his posts in light of Matt Pitt. You guys probably know about the basement and everything, what's been going on there. Never have been a supporter of that ministry, but I think it's sad. It's very sad. It doesn't help us all. It doesn't help none of us, okay? It just don't. And so I was complimenting Scott on just his article and how eloquently he put things and how he really kind of brought some youth41:14some youth ministries together to help this ministry out called the basement. So you know what this thing it is doing a good thing in the community and the inner city areas. We need to pray for them. We need to pray for them. Then he messaged me, Brad, this is what he said, Brad, remember there are two questions that are five years apart. Two questions that are five years apart. Why did he do that is the first question. Five years later, whatever happened to him? The41:44The most important part is never do anything that has people asking the first question. Why did he do that? And when we've got a band of brothers around us, when we have believers that are supporting us, not throwing us down, not kicking us while we're down, but trying to lift us up when we're down, because we're all sinners in this room, then we'll succeed. His ministry will never be the same. It may not even exist.42:16Your testimony is something that you will take with you. It is the only thing that you'll take with you when you get to heaven. And it needs to be complete. Jesus did not quit. Jesus accepted that his family did not understand him. Jesus accepted the oppression and the criticism. Jesus shed his blood and died to accomplish something. His death mattered. Jesus knew the price that he would have to pay, and he counted the cost, and he paid it. He paid it. I want your life to count,42:46and more than anything, these teenagers. I want their lives to count. I want them to leave a legacy. It is often said that they are the future of the church. I believe that they are part of the church today. Today. Because God uses young people to start revivals. He uses young people to start revivals. He uses young married couples to start revivals.43:15And so if we're not investing in them and teaching them and discipling them and making sure that they're getting equipped, then we've lost another generation. People talk about why the church oftentimes stops growing. And there's been, Rick, I don't know, probably millions of dollars wrote on books. I've got a few of them in my office.43:44Breakout church, simple church, how to grow your church in five steps, just all kind of different church growth books. And for the most part, they're program driven. For the most part. How to create a program to grow your church. And I've just kind of put them on the shelf. I've read through them. And I've always looked at them and said, you know, something's missing here. There's something missing in all of these books. And here's the problem. If you have disciples and if you have non-Christians,44:15everything will be fine. If you have true disciples and you have non-Christians, everything will be fine. But what stops church growth is all the Christian consumers. All the people who don't go to Sunday school or vice versa won't come to church. Don't serve. Don't give. They have a preference and an agenda. And they don't become members because the commitment is too high.44:45That is a Christian consumer. And there's a lot of them in the church today. And they're consuming material. They're consuming resources. So when the lost person does come through the aisle, get saved, there's nothing left for them. Because we're constantly, I want to be fed. I want to be fed. I want to be fed. I want to be fed. I want to be fed. And if I'm not getting fed,45:14I go somewhere else to try to get fed. The problem is there's issues with your heart that needs to be fixed. And I'm so concerned about the future of the church. And as a youth pastor, I feel like I have to really work hard to teach truth because they have learned so well how to be Christian consumers. And I pray that they don't grow up45:44and hate Jesus in the church because of the way we conduct ourselves today. And I hope we don't create just another generation of Christian consumers who can sing Christian songs and give Christian answers but don't live Christian lives. In closing, I found a letter written by a missionary that she left her pastor46:12to read. She was one of those that packed her coffin up and left. Dear pastor, you should only be opening this letter in the event of my death. When God calls, there are no regrets. I have tried to share my heart with you as much as possible. My heart for the nations. I wasn't called to a place.46:42I was called to Him. To obey was my objective. To suffer was expected. His glory, my reward. His glory, my reward. The missionary heart cares more than some think is wise. The risk and risk more than some think is safe dreams more than some think is practical. expects more than some think is possible. I was not called to comfort or to success but to obedience. Some of my favorite scriptures47:10are Isaiah 6, 2 Corinthians 5-15-21, 1 Peter 1-3. You can look in my Bible and see where they're marked. Please use only what you want or feel is best. There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving Him. I love you too and my church family in his care. Salem, Karen. There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving Him. I love my church family.47:40That was Karen Watson. She was 38 years old, a missionary to Iraq after her vehicle was ambushed on March 15, 2003. There are still people going out and they're dying for the cause of Christ. and now and now we're at the point we have to make a decision. Producer or consumer? Disciple48:10Disciple or disappointment? Contributor or consumer? Are you in or you're out? and it's not just getting an emotional high. You'll answer this question 60 years from now when we see the fruit of your life. And Jesus says you've got to pick your team. You've got to serve your God. You've got to determine in your life. You've got to select48:41your fate. You've got to pick up your cross and it's all about dying. It's all about dying. One day we're going to die. What will be said about you and your life? Let's pray. Lord Jesus Lord my prayer is that49:06my prayer is Lord that my words were not too eloquent. My prayer is Lord that my words were for the most part not even really heard49:32but only through your grace. My prayer is that they heard you. Your words. Your word. And so Lord my prayer is that you would burden us even me Lord especially me Lord50:02Lord to be a disciple.50:14To be someone Lord that has no regrets. Lord that will not put anyone even my family above you. Even my son above you.50:31Lord you hold everything in balance. And Lord my prayer is that there will be some people here in this audience that has heard your word and that is burdened and that wants to be a disciple.50:53It is in your name we pray. Amen. Would you stand? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.More sermons on Luke →
