The Bible has a lot to say about the church, the lost, and the poor. However, these truths can often be ignored in light of the calls of the world. In this message on Luke 14:33, David Platt challenges us by asking the all-important question of whether or not we believe in God’s Word. He speaks of three main messages of the Bible that we need to believe in about the church.
- Will we choose comfort or a cross?
- Will we choose maintenance or mission?
- Will we choose indecisive minds or undivided hearts?
Well, if you have a Bible, and I hope you do, let me invite you to open with me to Luke 14. Open with me to Luke 14.
Weâre going to do something a little different today. Every once in a while we kind of come aside from our normal, our regular intensive study in one particular passage of Scripture just for some family time, for us as a faith family, and thatâs what I want us to do today. And I want to share some things with you, as your pastor, that have been going on in my relationship with Christ. So let me pray, start us that way.
Father, I thank you for the privilege of leading this faith family. At the same time, I shudder at the thought of leading this faith family because I am so inadequate for the task. Iâm not even adequate to lead my own family, much less this family of believers, and so God, from the very beginning, I express before them the depth of my need for Christ. I can do nothing without Christ; I am nothing without Christ. I pray that you would give me grace to communicate what Christ has been teaching me. I pray that I would speak nothing but truth from Christ. I pray for grace to communicate in a way that honors you and I pray for grace for this body of believers to hear in a way that honors you. Give us grace, we pray today, to hear your Word and grace to obey your Word. In Jesusâ name we pray. Amen.
The All-Important Question Within Luke 14: 33âŠ
I want to share with you some areas of disobedience that have been evident in my relationship with Christ. They are areas that I have confessed to my wife and my family, and need to confess to you. There are truths in Scripture that I have been avoiding and disobeying for the past months. I would probably even say past years, but more intentional disobedience over past months. And I want to be honest with you, Iâm at a point that I would probably call it a crisis of faith, a crisis of belief point in my spiritual journey right now, and if I had to summarize what that looked like, it really revolves around one main question, and the question is, do I believe this Book? I mean, really.
I preach this Book. I love preaching this Book. I teach this Book, I study this Book, I try to hide this Word in my heart, but do I believe it, do I really believe it, because if I believe it, if this Book is true, then that has radical implications for my life. And itâs really the question I want to put before you, then as a result. An all-important question, do we believe this Book? When this Book says some of the things it does, do we really believe it? And Luke 14 gives us a picture, I think if we believe this Book then it has radical implications for our lives and radical implications for this church. Kind of a summary verse thatâs going to drive much of the next eight weeks that we have together in the Word.
Luke 14:33, this is Jesus speaking. I want you to listen to what He says. You might underline it. âIn the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.â Thatâs radical, everything. Unless, lest we think that that just means stuff. Go back up to Verse 26. Jesus says there, âIf anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sistersâyes, even his own lifeâ he cannot be my disciple.â Thatâs everything. And He says, you canât call yourself a follower of mine if you donât give up all these things. Thatâs radical.
This is a picture of demands of the gospel: give up everything youâve got if you even want to consider being my disciple. Thatâs what this whole passage is about, which weâll see next week. And so this question, do I really believe this Book has really kind of come in three main areas, and I want to put them before you, and I want to ask you the questions that God has been asking me and convicting me about.
Do we believe what this Book says about the church?
First question, do we believe what this Book says about the church? Do we really believe what this Book says about the church? And I want you to turn back just a few chapters to the left, Luke 9. I want to show you this. This is an amazing passage of Scripture, and weâre just going to hit on it real quickly, but do we believe what this Book says about what it means to follow Christ? Listen to this, there are large crowds at this point that are following Jesus and this is what happens. Luke 9:57, listen to what it says. âAs they were walking along the road, a man said to him,â Him being Jesus, man said to Jesus, ââI will follow you wherever you go.â Jesus replied, âFoxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his headââ (Luke 9:57â58). Thatâs kind of an interesting response.
âHe said to another man, âFollow me.â But the man replied, âLord, first let me go and bury my father.â Jesus said to him, âLet the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.â Still another said, âI will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.â Jesus replied, âNo one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of Godââ (Luke 9:59â62).
Is that not amazing? Jesus seems to be talking these three guys out of following Him.
Iâve got to tell you this, just a side note. I remember when I first moved down to New Orleans, I went down there to study under a particular professor who became a mentor for me, Jim Shaddix, and Dr. Shaddix invited me, soon after I had gotten down there, to go to an event where he was preaching, it was a youth event. And he got there and he was preaching on this text, and he started the sermon. Iâll never forget, I was sitting there; he started the sermon and he said, âMy goal tonight is to talk you out of following Jesus.â
And so then he preached the text and then at the end he gave an invitation for people to respond to Jesus and all these students came down to the front responding. And I was like âWow, thatâs pretty cool.â Like, so I was preaching at a youth event the next week and I thought, âIâm going to try it,â you know. So the next weekend, I get up and it was like word for word, my goal tonight is to talk you out of following Jesus. And then I preached the text and I got to the end and apparently I was more successful than Dr. Shaddix because there were birds chirping in that room. Nobody was moving. I remember sitting there afterward like what happened, I thought.
Anyway, this is the picture. It seems like Jesus is trying to talk these guys out of following Him. I mean this goes against our thinking. We think our whole picture today in the Church is to do whatever it takes to get them in, whatever it takes, get them in. Jesus is saying let the dead bury their own dead, donât even go back and say goodbye to your family. These are the kind of things I wonder, when the disciples heard, if their jaws were just on the ground. Whenever the crowds would get big Heâd say things like âeat my fleshâ and âdrink my blood,â and all of a sudden the crowds would leave and the disciples are like, âWhat are you doing? Like, Jesus, weâre never going to get on the list of fastest growing movements if you donât stop telling the crowds to eat you, this doesnât work.â
But this is what He would do. What is He doing? Jesus is telling us what it means to follow Him. I want to put three questions in front of you, again, just real quickly, that I think we need to think about when it comes to being a follower of Christ. If you call yourself a follower of Christ, this is whatâs involved. Question number one, will we choose comfort or a cross? Comfort or a cross? First guy, âIâll follow you wherever you go.â Heâs eager. Jesus says, âFoxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his headâ (Luke 9:58).
And we find out in Matthew 8, this is a religious teacher, religious leader. We find Jesus warning, Mark 12:38â40, Jesus warns about guys like these. Because what they would do is, the pattern was, you would attach yourself to a religious teacher in order to promote or enhance your position and your status and your career. And so youâd follow another teacher to help promote you to the next level, to climb the ladder so to speak. And so here youâve got a guy who wants to follow Jesus as a means to an end. And this is a different picture, weâre not Jewish culture trying to attach ourselves to Jesus to become greater teachers or climb the ladder, but how often weâve talked about this. This is the gospel weâre selling today. Jesus as a means to an end, âCome to Jesus so you can get forgiveness, and come to Jesus so you can get your best life, and come to Jesus so you can get heaven.â And none of those things are true. You come to Jesus to get God. You donât come to Jesus to get stuff.
Weâve taken steps deeper. We come to Jesus so we can get a comfortable place to worship, and we come to Jesus so we can get activities for our kids to do, and we come to Jesus so we can get a good life in Birmingham, Alabama. No, you come to Jesus and you get Him, Heâs the end. Itâs not a means to anywhere. He is everything. We donât want comfortable places to worship, we donât want activities for kids, we donât want to promote ourselves, we want Christ. And this guy…Hereâs Jesus to say, âI donât have a roof over my head, you come to me, Iâm all youâve got.â Do we want that kind of Jesus? Do we want comfort or do we want a cross, thatâs where Jesus is going, Luke 9:51 tells us.
Second question, will we choose maintenance or mission? Maintenance or mission? Second guy, Jesus initiates the conversation with, ââFollow me.â But the man replied, âLord, first let me go and bury my father.â Jesus said to him, âLet the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of Godââ (Luke 9:59â60). Now, there are scholars who debate this whole deal. Some people believe that his dad was about to die and he just wanted to go back, spend those last couple of days with his dad and then give his father a proper burial. Which is obviously something he would want to do, but even deeper than that was one of the highest of religious obligations, that a son honor his father. I mean you…This is just a no-brainer, a son does this for his dad. Others believe his dad had just died. All he wanted to do was go back and bury his father then heâd come.
First week I ever preached that part of the text, focusing on it, was the week that two days later my own dad passed away. And I remember thinking on what I had just preached on. I cannot imagine hearing the words from Jesus, âLet somebody else bury your dad, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.â That just seems cold, doesnât it? Does that seem, I mean, letâs be honest; thatâs harsh. This is the Jesus weâre worshipping and He would say that. What is He saying, what is He doing here? Heâs saying that there is a responsibility and there is an obligation that supersedes every other responsibility and every other obligation in this world, even the thing you would most want to do or most need to do, you go and proclaim the kingdom of God, itâs far more important. Try telling Jesus that Heâs too focused on mission.
âJesus donât you care about us? Talking about mission all the time.â People say, âTalk about mission all the time, what about us?â Jesus says donât even bury your dad, go to mission. And the church will alwaysâchurch as a whole, individuals and familiesâwe will always face these two options, maintenance or mission, business as usual, status quo, or radical abandonment to proclaiming the kingdom of God. Will we choose maintenance or mission?
Third, will we choose indecisive minds or undivided hearts, indecisive minds or undivided hearts? Lord, let me just go back and say goodbye to my family, and He says no one who puts his hand to the plow looks back, you canât even look back. Donât even go say goodbye to mom. You see the indecision here. Itâs the indecision that has; itâs the sinful indecision that has gripped me for these past months. Because when Jesus tells us to obey, at least in my own personal experience I find myself asking questions, âWell is it safe? Well, is it wise? Really? Is it the time? What will this person think or that person think? How will this look?â The reality is if Jesus has said it, then a follower of Christ does it, period.
Iâm not saying we donât want to be wise, but wisdom is found in obedience to Jesus not in the world. And indecision hampers us, hampers me, from radical obedience to Christ as opposed to an undivided heart. And what scares me is the implication of Luke 9:57â62 is that these guys donât follow Jesus. He succeeds in turning them away. What scares me is the thought of what I would do if I was one of those three guys, because I look at what we have done with what it means to follow Christ today, and I wonder if Jesus would move on and weâd still be standing there and this haunts me.
What does it mean to be a follower of this Jesus? I mean really, what does it mean to be a Christian? What does Jesus expect of us, empower us to do? What is expected of a Christian in Birmingham? Not a lot really, not a lot. That barâs pretty low. Whatâs expected of a follower of Christ in Luke 9? Everything. Luke 14, everything. There is an urgency here. Why? It leads to the second question, do we really want to know what it means, do we believe what this Book says about what it means to follow Christ?
Do we believe what this Book says about the lost?
Second, do we believe what this Book says about the lost, what this Book says about the lost? Now, what weâre going to do in the days ahead is weâre going to lookâthis whole seriesâweâre going to look at the Gospels, words from Jesus, but I want to take us outside the Gospels for just a minute on this one. People who do not know Jesus, people who do not trust in Jesus for salvation, do we believe what this Book says about them?
Do we believe 2 Thessalonians 1:7? Follow along:
This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
Everlasting destruction.
Revelation 20:15, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Earlier, same chapter talks about how the smoke of their torment rises up forever and ever and ever. It begs the question do we believe that? Do we believe that there is coming a day when those who do not trust in Jesus will be punished with everlasting, i.e. unending, destruction; door closed from the majesty of God forever? Instead, a lake of fire where the smoke of their torment burns forever and ever and ever without end. Do we believe that?
Because if we believe that then that has radical implications for the way we live our lives and the way a church operates. And weâve talked about thisâ6.7 billion people in the world today, the most liberal estimates would say about a third of those are Christian. And thatâs people who claim to be Christian, socio-politically, socially, politically, this whole picture, not necessarily all true followers of Christ. But letâs just assume for a second even if all one third of the people in the world today who claim to be Christian, letâs assume all of them are actually followers of Christ, have actually walked down this road and said, yes, Iâll abandon everything in Luke 9 and Luke 14.
Even if all one third of them are Christian, that still leaves over 4.5 billion people, over 4.5 billion people including hundreds of thousands in metro Birmingham today on a road that leads to eternal hell; 4.5 billion people who today are standing under the judgment of God and are on a road that leads to an eternal hell. If that is true, if thatâs true, if we believe that then we canât play games in the church, and we canât play games with our lives and our families.
To be honest, we canât even think about what is best for our families because we need to think about whatâs best for the glory of Christ among people who are going to everlasting destruction where the smoke of their torment will burn forever and ever. If thatâs true it radically changes the way we live. If thatâs not true, then we spend our resources on ourselves and we indulge ourselves in stuff around us. If this is true, you canât do that, itâs impossible, not if thatâs true, not if we believe thatâs true and you abandon everything to make the gospel known among the lost. So do we believe, do I believe, what this Book says about the lost?
Do we believe what this Book says about the poor?
And that leads to the third question, do we believe what this Book says about the church, do we believe what this Book says about the lost, and third, this is the question that has probably pierced me in a whole new wayânot probably, most definitely has. Do we believe what this Book says about the poor? And here are the facts. Today, over a billion people live and die in desperate poverty, live on less than a dollar a day. Close to two billion others live on less than $2.00 a day. For over a billion people what it costs you or I to buy French fries, over a billion people do not have for food, water, shelter, clothing and medical care today. The reality is most of our dogs and cats are living on more than $2.00 a day. And close to three billion people donât have that much.
Let me bring it down to just today. 30,000 children today will breathe their last breath due to either starvation or a preventable disease. Just try to put that…I try to thinkâ30,000 Joshuas and Calebs today will not be alive when we go to bed tonight because they had no food, or no medical care for a disease thatâs preventable. 30,000 of them. Bring that into our context, look at it from this perspective. If that were happening here…Itâs almost a little bit appropriateâthis was not the purposeâthat many of our children are not in this worship service.
I want you to imagine with me for a second, if this were happening here that would mean that every single child 18 years old or younger in Shelby County, Alabama, every single child would be dead by a week and a half from now. Theyâd all be gone, all of our kids in a week and a halfâs time, all of them gone. But hereâs the deal, we donât have to think about that. This is not before us.
Weâre not even, letâs be honest, weâre not even inconvenienced by that kind of extreme poverty because those stricken by it are not only poor, they are powerless, theyâre powerless. And we donât have to see them; we donât have to hear from them, we donât have to have anything to do with them. Literally millions of them are quietly dying in relative obscurity and we can comfortably ignore them in our affluence, pretending like they donât even exist. That sounds cold, but it is life here, isnât it? Are we concerned when we drive through this community about not having food or water, shelter? No, weâre going to the store to get our kids, ourselves more stuff. We donât have to think about these, these are not realities that are before us. We can pretend like itâs not even there.
Meanwhile, they do exist. The reality is they do exist and hereâs what frightens me. Iâve been on a journey from cover to cover in Scripture and the reality is, God measures the integrity of our faith, and weâre going to unpack this more, but God measures the integrity of our faith by our concern for the poor. Thatâs all over Scripture, all over the place. God measures the integrity of our faith by our concern for the poor. He says to His people, Isaiah, clear picture, 56â58, and this whole picture of true fasting. God says, âYouâre fasting, youâre doing all your religious exercises, it means nothing if you ignore the poor. Nothing, it doesnât mean anything. You claim to know me, you turn a deaf ear to the poor, you donât know me.â Thatâs what He says to His people all the time. He measures the integrity of our faith by our concern for the poor. No concern for the poor, no integrity of faith. They go together.
Luke 14: 33 Reminds Us that Jesus Calls Us to Help Others
You take it a step deeper, though, and on a most serious note, not more serious note, on the most serious note, I think, that we could see in scripture, Jesus tells those with abundance that if they do not feed the hungry and clothe the naked, they go to hell. Those with abundance, if you do not feed the hungry and clothe the naked you go to hell. This is what Jesus teaches, the Jesus weâre worshipping, He teaches this. And weâre going to dive into these passages in the coming weeks, but let me just give you an overview here.
Old Testament, leading up to when Jesus says that, listen to Proverbs 14:31, âThose who oppress the poor insult their maker.â You insult God. Church, people of God, you insult your God if you turn a deaf ear to the poor. Proverbs 21:13, listen to this, âIf a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.â What youâve got in your notes is the way we live, what youâve got in the Bible is the way Godâs designed it.
What He says there, if a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor; he too will cry and not be answered. You shut your ears to the cry of the poorâyou prayâyou got nothing. He doesnât even hear you. You gather together every Sunday, not even heard Proverbs 21 says, if youâre shutting your ears to the cries of the poor, talking to yourselves. These are strong words. Proverbs 28:27, âHe who gives to the poor will lack nothing,â great phrase, â…but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.â Cursed of God. Cursed by God if you close your eyes to the poor.
Luke 6, Jesus says this, Luke 6, these are Jesusâ words, Luke 6:20â25. Itâs the beginning and the end of that passage. Jesus said, âBlessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfiedâ (Luke 6:20â21). âWoe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungryâ (Luke 6:24â25). James 5:1 takes it even deeper than a woe, listen to this, âCome now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.â Can I remind you of something? We are rich, all of us, without exception. Even if youâre a 5-year-old, youâre rich. You have food, you have water, you have clothing, you have shelterâ rich.
So weâre all rich and the Bible says, âCome now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.â Is this stern? Itâs even sterner. Matthew 19:21â23, Jesus answered, âIf you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions,â this is the passage weâre going to study in a couple of weeks, â…and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, âI tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.â Now, did you catch that? Weâre all rich and Jesus says itâs hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Put it together.
Jesus says itâs hard to go to heaven from Birmingham, Alabama. Itâs hard for people here, including myself; itâs hard for us to go to heaven, very, very hard. Itâs hard to get to heaven from Birmingham. Matthew 25:41 is where He says, and this is the passage, âWhatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for meâ (Matt. 25:40). Jesus says to those who do not feed the hungry and clothe the naked, He says these words, âDepart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angelsâ (Matt. 25:41). You donât feed the hungry or clothe the naked, then Jesus says to you, âDepart into eternal fire.â So maybe this is not just about other people who were concerned about fire, maybe thereâs a concern that needs to be had in this room about eternal fire.
I donât believe Iâm overstating this, not based on the words of Jesus. Now, follow me here. Weâre going to dive into this passage, but just suffice to say at this point, this is not a passage that is teaching, is undercutting the rest of Scripture, and saying anything different than that, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, period. We know that from Scripture, no question. But I want you to think back, remember we spent some time in 1 John, looking at the assurance of salvation, the fruit of Christ in our lives, and remember we talked about that? We said if the love of Christ is not in someone then thereâs reason to question whether or not Christ is in someone. If the truth of Christ is not in someone, if theyâre speaking lies about Jesus then thereâs reason to question whether or not Christ is in them.
If someone is walking in disobedient, persistent sin and does not turn from that sin, what we talked about, remember, and I would even say again, if you were here and you were to come to me and you were living in willful disobedient sin against God and you were to say but Iâm a Christian, I would look at you and I would say, based, I believe on the authority of Scripture in 1 John, amongst other places, I would say, âI do not know whether or not you are saved and itâs certainly not my place to determine that. At the same time, I would encourage you to ask very seriously whether or not Christ is really in you, if you are living in deliberate disobedience to Him. If there is deliberate disobedience in your life that is persistent, there is reason to question whether or not Christ is in you.â So bring that into this picture.
The Necessary Conclusion in Luke 14: 33âŠ
If this is what Jesusâ word says and we live with so much stuff, then thereâs reason to question whether or not Jesus is really in us. This is huge. Itâs a blind spot really. As Iâve been thinking and praying Iâve seen that this is a blind spot, and hereâs what I mean by that. You know, 200 years ago there were seeming men of God who were preaching the gospel, and they had slaves. And we sit here like how could you have slaves if youâre preaching this gospel? It makes no sense. It was a needed corrective. You say, of course, they shouldnât have had slaves, not if they believe this gospel, not if they preach it. I wonder if 200 years from now, if Jesus has not come back, if they will look back at us and they will say how could they follow Jesus and have so much stuff. How could they know this gospel and live in such nice houses and drive such nice cars and have such nice clothes and things.
This is the blind spot that Christ has been opening my eyes and my heart to, and itâs come to this conclusion that I want to put before you in my life and I believe in the life of this church. It is time to get radical. It is time to get radical. You say, âDave, what do you mean by that?â I donât know what all of this means for my life and my family. Weâre on a journey right now where we are beginning to identify some things, some major things that this means. But I donât know what all this looks like in my life and my family, so I certainly wouldnât go as far as to say I know what this looks like in your life or your family, or even what this looks like for us as a faith family.
What I want to do is I want to invite us to go on a journey over the next eight weeks, where we listen to the words from Jesus, the Jesus we claim to follow, but words that we obviously have ignored and I want us to listen to them. And I want us to consider together in our lives and our families what these words look like in action in our lives. I donât think we could even begin to think through what this looks like for us as a faith family, until weâve gone through this picture and where weâre saying, okay, what does it mean to follow this Christ, what does it mean to live radically for the lost, what does it mean to live radically for the poor.
If what this Book says is true…Now, the reality is, some of you, maybe many of you are not excited right now about this journey. We have a crowding issue here and this may solve it. I know that we live in a church culture that, letâs be honest, likes to enjoy our football on Saturdays and get through a nice easy Sunday so we can go on with the rest of our week and this is not tolerable with this Word. Itâs not possible with this Word. God deliver us from artificial battles on Saturday that keep us from facing the real battles on Sunday morning.
And I know that there are probably people who will say, âIâm out. I donât want to go on that kind of journey, I donât have to go on that kind of journey. I can live my Christian life without that kind of journey.â That is an option. I would plead with you; I plead with you not to go there. But some of you may, and I want to be very careful here, because obviously what weâve seen is that Jesus is, at some level, okay with that. And Heâd say these things and the crowds would leave. He was left with 12 people, if that doesnât scare me, the thought of like 12 people here next week. âDo you believe this Book, Dave?â
And I want to be really careful here because the last thing I want to do in saying that some may leave is to sound cold or insensitive, or some people might say unwise. I want to lead this faith family in this way, please hear this, not because I hate this church but because I love this church. And what frightens meâand itâs what Iâve seen, itâs what Iâm repenting of. What frightens me is we donât have to go this route. There are plenty of other routes before us to go; in fact, other routes that I actually believe would make us more successful in the contemporary picture of church that we have created. But in the process of being successful we would waste our lives and waste the church and weâd be successful here and in the world to come for billions and billions of years. Weâd have realized how foolish we were.
And so, I want to invite you to go with me. Itâs not…None of us likes to think about changes in our lives, changes in our families, changes in the church. None of us, including myself. And if we turn a deaf ear to 30,000 kids today who are dying of starvation or preventable disease, then we donât need to make any changes. Thatâs fine, we can do this. But if weâre going to live for the sake of 4.5 billion lost people, including 100,000 in Birmingham and thousands and thousands and thousands of kids who are dying every day because they donât have food on their table, then that means radical change in our lives, in our families and in the church. Again, I donât know what all that looks like.
And so hereâs what I want us to do. I want us to spend some time with the Spirit of God and the Word of God as individuals and families. And I know even doing this, some would say, donât do this on a Sunday morning. People will get up and leave. Well, I know there is a tendency in which many people come here and think that thereâs a show that will happen and once the show is over then weâll leave, and I guess the showâs over at this point. And weâre going to dive into the Word.
And if you have come to encounter God, I want to invite you over the next few moments, what weâre going to do is, there are three different passages of Scripture. And what Iâm going to do is Iâm going to read each passage of Scripture. Iâll read one and then weâre going to have some time to reflect on that passage. And then Iâm going to read another and weâll have time to reflect on it. Weâre going to do that with three different passages. And I want to invite you, these are all passages that weâre going to study in the weeks to come, but I want to invite you to listen to them and to begin to reflect on them and begin to pray through them.
So turn with me to Luke 14, turn with me to Luke 14:25. Iâm going to read this passage and then give you a few moments to spend some time just between you and God. Then let me encourage you just to spend time in praying over that text.
So, Luke 14:25, read along with me, and I want you to picture yourself in the crowds, hearing this take place.
âLarge crowds were traveling with Jesusâ[so youâre in the crowds]âand turning to them he said:â[so turning to you, He says]âIf anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sistersâyes, even his own lifeâhe cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and
estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, âThis fellow began to build and was not able to finish.â Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.â
God, we pray for grace to consider your words honestly, humbly, clearly during these moments. I invite you to reflect and pray. I want to invite you to turn over to Matthew 9. Let this be fuel for your time with the Lord this week. Matthew 9:35, this is another passage that we are going to study during this series. And hereâs what I want you to do as we read these words, I want to invite you to picture Jesusâ demeanorâcountenance. To try to picture what this looked like. These words, let them kind of come alive and see this. Verse 35, picture this, âJesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds,â see his eyes, âhe had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.â And listen to His voice, âThen he said to his disciples, âThe harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.ââ With that picture in your mind, I invite you to reflect and pray through Matthew 9:35â38.
One final passage. Again I know that it was probably too much to encapsulate all those questions. Let me encourage you let this fuel your walk with Christ this week. Luke 18, though, I want you turn there with me. This is a passage weâve already referenced. Weâre going to spend a couple of weeks on in this series. We have talked about how all of us, without exception, are rich and so I want to invite you to put yourself in the shoes of this man, and I want you to, from his perspective, imagine this scene. You go up to Jesus, âA certain ruler asked him,â Verse 18, Luke 18,
ââGood teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?â âWhy do you call me good?â Jesus answered. âNo one is goodâexcept God alone. You know the commandments: âDo not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.â âAll these I have kept since I was a boy,â he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, âYou still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.â When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, âHow hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, 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.â Those who heard this asked, âWho then can be saved?â Jesus replied, âWhat is impossible with men is possible with God.â Peter said to him, âWe have left all we had to follow you!â âI tell you the truth,â Jesus said to them, âno one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal lifeââ (Luke 18:18â30).
Based on that passage I invite you to reflect and pray.
Stand together as a faith family, stand together and a couple of things. One in light of what Iâve shared with you, I want to ask you for your forgiveness for my disobedience in some of these areas of my life, for turning a deaf ear to these truths and the implications thereof. And at that same time I want to ask you for your prayers for me, for my family. Hebrews 13:7 haunts me. âRemember your leaders,â it says, â…consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.â So basically the picture is God sets up leaders in His church to be imitating, to be a demonstration of the Word, and I want to show you what this looks like in action and I donât know all that that looks like, and so I wonât in any way claim to be perfect in that. Thatâs why Iâm asking you to pray for me and for Heather and our family that God would give us great grace to know how to lead in this way, in a way that shows these truths.
And I want you to know that Iâm going to be praying for you, and I want us to be praying for each other. There are no easy answers here. It doesnât say, okay, well, this is how it looks in your budget to care for the poor and this is how it looks in your schedule to care for the lost. I think the whole purpose of this journey and these commands is designed to bring us on our faces before Christ, for Him to show us what that looks like. Because the picture is, and I donât want you to forget this, Heâs the goal. The goal is not even the lost or the poor; the goal is Christ. We want Christ, and He is the center that drives us. And thatâs the whole beauty of this thing because when Heâs the center, then anything that even begins to seem like sacrifice is no longer sacrifice, because the One who died on a cross and rose from the grave and ascended on high and has given eternal life freely to us, Heâs the goal. And so nothing seems like sacrifice in light of Christ. So letâs fix our eyes and hearts on Him in prayer and say, âChrist, I want you to be the center of our lives, the center of our families and the center of this church and I want you to drive us and we want you more than anything else.
So God, we pray that you would make us a people…Take us one step deeper we pray, into a pursuit of Christ. Lord Jesus, you reign supreme, you are worthy of all worship and all praise and all honor and all glory. You are worthy of the worship of all people here, and you are worthy of 30,000 children today who donât have food and you are worthy of the worship of 4.5 billion people who have not trusted in Jesus. And so we pray today, Christ be the center of our lives, be the center of this church, and be the center, in such a way that you take us on a radical journey with you where your glory is known by us and displayed by us in Birmingham and the world.