September 7 – Sermon
Lord Jesus, please help us to follow You more closely. Please give us strength to resist temptation, even when it’s hard! Please help us to stay strong, even when others might not understand. May we love and serve You with everything we have. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Forms, forms and more forms…there seems to be a form for just about everything we do or are going to have done. Some forms are hard copies, others are electronically generated. Do you read all of them before you sign them?
I know that we are supposed to, but do you? I know that I don’t, which could get me into trouble.
In the Gospel lesson today, Jesus encourages His followers to read all of the paperwork before they sign on the dotted line as His disciples.
But what if you want to be a follower of Jesus, but know that you can’t meet the terms He has laid out? Like the illustration Jesus gives us in the Gospel reading about a person who wanted to build a tower but wasn’t sure if he had the funds to do it.
Luke tells us large crowds were following Jesus. Many of these people were simply curious. Some were probably fair-weather followers—they’d stick around until the thunder clouds started to roll in. Yet there were still a few who sincerely wanted to become Jesus’ disciples—to learn from Him. Jesus’ words caused the entire crowd to pause and consider the cost of their desires and actions.
Jesus first tells those who were gathered around him that they must hate their family. The word for “hate” that Jesus used didn’t have the animosity like our English word has. Jesus meant to “disassociate yourself from your unbelieving family.”
Jesus identified the true cost of discipleship for the early Christians. Their acceptance of Jesus as their Lord and Savior often meant that they had to leave their family because they no longer would worship the pagan idols that their families served. They lost their standing in the community and their identity.
How do we translate that into our lives today? There are husbands and wives struggling to keep their marriages together because they don’t spend enough time nurturing their relationship, being too busy with the other demands of life. Parents struggle to spend time with their children to influence their children’s lives.
Most of us are controlled by our family because we either go to extraordinary ends to please them or to rebel against them. Part of what Jesus is telling us is that we must make decisions based on our faith in Christ. As followers of Jesus Christ, sometimes we need to tell the members of our family that we are going to worship whether they join us or not. There comes a time when we need to tell our loved ones, that Sunday is not just for families, not just a day to get “caught” up, but a day for Jesus.
Even after 2000 years, we still struggle to understand what Jesus meant when he said we had to deny ourselves and take up our cross in order to be His disciple.
That means we are to die to selfishness.
– It means forgiving, instead of harboring a grudge
– It means not going along with cultural “norms” that we know are contrary to God’s word
– It means “putting aside your pride” and witness for Jesus
– It means doing what you know is pleasing to God, instead of what you want to do
Jesus was encouraging His followers to live lives of sacrificial giving. If Jesus endured the cross, then His followers should be able to give their time, talents and treasures willingly and sacrificially.
It’s not easy to bear our cross. I believe it only happens when we rely on the Holy Spirit. There will be those times when comfort, ease, frustration, or fear will cause us to stumble. Yet, according to Jesus’ words if we put down our cross we are not worthy to be His disciples.
We’ve all heard the expression, “You need to get a life!” Jesus would say, “You need to lose your life if you want to find it!”
Think of it as God’s trade-in plan. Do you want to find life, purpose, and personal happiness? Then say, “Lord, here is my life—my plans, my aspirations, my dreams, as well as my weaknesses, shortcomings, and sins. I believe that Your plans for me are better than mine. Your plan has eternal benefits.”
Jesus’ last words may seem harsh. “If you do not renounce all that you have, you cannot be my disciple.” There is not one among us who has given up all we have to follow Jesus.
Jesus speaks these words to challenge His followers to examine, evaluate three areas of our lives: family, life’s purpose, and possessions. How do each of these impact our walk of faith?
Every person must determine if we are willing to pay the price to be a disciple of Jesus. Our faith will falter, and at times we will consider the cost too high. Those are not times for despair, but rather times for confession, repentance and forgiveness. Jesus’ words will always draw us to his cross for his forgiveness and grace.
Being faithful followers of Jesus forces us beyond our comfort zones. The walk of faith is not a walk in the park. The abundant life is not a leisurely life of extravagance. The abundant life involves following the teachings of Jesus and rejecting the pagan culture in which we live.
Here’s how I understand Christian discipleship. We grow in the grace and love of God, little by little, and, as we experience God’s grace and love, we give more and more of ourselves in return.
Yes, Christ demands our total allegiance – to love Him and serve Him above family, friends, property, even life itself. The more we entrust ourselves to Him, the more we experience the fullness of His grace and love for us. Amen
