“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Luke 14:15-33, International
Children’s Bible
15 One of the men sitting at the table with Jesus heard
these things. The man said to Jesus, “The people who will eat a meal in God’s
kingdom are blessed.” 16 Jesus said to him, “A man
gave a big banquet and invited many people. 17 When
it was time to eat, the man sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come.
Everything is ready.’ 18 “But all the guests said they
could not come. Each man made an excuse. The first one said, ‘I have just
bought a field, and I must go look at it. Please excuse me.’ 19 Another
man said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen; I must go and try them.
Please excuse me.’ 20 A third man said, ‘I just got
married; I can’t come.’ 21 So the servant returned.
He told his master what had happened. Then the master became angry and said,
‘Go at once into the streets and alleys of the town. Bring in the poor, the
crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
22 Later the servant said to him, ‘Master, I did what you
told me to do, but we still have places for more people.’ 23 The
master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes. Tell the
people there to come. I want my house to be full. 24 None
of those men that I invited first will ever eat with me.’” 25 Large
crowds were traveling with Jesus. He turned and said to them, 26 “If
anyone comes to me but loves his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or
sisters more than he loves me, then he cannot be my follower. A person must
love me more than he loves himself. 27 If anyone is
not willing to die on a cross when he follows me, then he cannot be my
follower. 28 If you wanted to build a tower, you
would first sit down and decide how much it would cost. You must see if you
have enough money to finish the job.
29 If you don’t do that, you might begin the work, but you
would not be able to finish. And if you could not finish it, then all who would
see it would laugh at you. 30 They would say, ‘This
man began to build but was not able to finish.’ 31 “If a
king is going to fight against another king, first he will sit down and plan.
If the king has only 10,000 men, he will plan to see if he is able to defeat
the other king who has 20,000 men. 32 If he cannot
defeat the other king, then he will send some men to speak to the other king
and ask for peace. 33 In the same way, you must
give up everything you have to follow me. If you don’t, you cannot be my
follower.
Are you ready (and willing) to take your
relationship with following Jesus to a deeper, stronger, and fully-devoted
status? Consider the…
1. Blessings: (See Luke 14:15 above)
·
The peace of
forgiveness (emotionally)
·
The hope of
Heaven (in the afterlife)
·
The fullest life
possible (in everything you do)
·
A new identity
as God’s child
·
A greater
purpose (in life)
·
An adventurous
life (with Jesus to trust)
·
The gift of the
Holy Spirit (to convict you of sin)
·
Freedom from the
slavery (of sin)
·
A much better
(and improved) you (attitude-wise)
·
Changed
relationships (with the people you encounter in your life)
2. Cost: (See Luke 14:28-30 above)
·
You must love
Jesus far above all else. (See Luke 14:26 above) Your love for
Jesus must be so close that it makes your other relationships appear like hate
for them.
·
You must
surrender to Jesus control of your life. (See Luke 14:31-33 above)
Who do you want to be in control of every part of your life: you or Jesus?
·
Not many people
will accept Jesus’ invitation to join Him in His work (without giving in to
their excuses). Will you be among the passionate few that will embrace the
life-long mission of Christ? Though the choice is yours, where are you
spiritually right now?.
Today’s churches are much like the frog that
was eventually boiled to its death. (The frog gets used to the gradual heat.)
If you place a frog in boiling water they will jump out immediately. Many
churches have been in a place of dangerous complacency, but COVID-19 has turned
up the heat and exposed their shallowness (in focusing on the correctness of
the church programs instead of discipleship).
The church needs a fresh expression of Jesus
grace in it to bring it to a place of relevance. Discipleship needs to be
maximized in our houses of worship while everything else is minimized. All
Christians need to be followers of Jesus (and not fans).[i]
[i] Inspired by the sermon
“The Decision to Follow Jesus: Back to Basics” (installment one) Sunday
January 31 2021, Pastor Dave Jansen (CPG). In-person services begin today
Sunday, February 7, 2021 for Gahanna and Lewis Center CenterPoint campuses. CenterPoint
also has an online Sunday morning service that can be viewed at
facebook.com/centerpointchurches or centerpointchurches.com/.
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