Committed to Christ or the Cares of this World — Luke 14

0:00 I think to myself, and I often think this, I guess, the older I get, and it's happening, the older I get. Praise the Lord. It's happening. And if you're alive, you're still you're still moving through. Next thing you know, you're old.

0:18 And at the end of our life, what is it what is it... Not just in terms of salvation, but how we have used our life. How we have used our life. What... How how have we used our life?

0:39 That that's a big question. You know, was looking at that we... And I gave it the breaking of bread that one song, you know, that we're frail. We're we're very frail. We're very weak.

0:50 And and I I look at that and I say to myself, that's really getting to be true. I used to be able to two hand reverse slam the basketball. I used to be able to do that. I try to do that. Now I'm in the chiropractor's office every day for, if not orthopedic.

1:11 So, I mean, it's it's... You're just getting old. And it's the law of entropy, and you're wearing down. And the question that we have to ask ourselves is, what's what's our life like? What is our life like?

1:32 Do we want to do we want to stand before god and we will, do we want to stand before god and say, I was really selfish in doing my own thing. I'm a Christian. Thank you lord for saving my soul. Thank you lord for making me whole but is my life reflecting the devotion that he, his life reflected towards me. Okay, let's look at the passage of scripture.

2:41 It's called discipleship. The way we want to learn. That's this discipline that discipleship, this kind of thing. I want to I want to know this and I want to grow this in in terms of my own life. He is no fool.

3:00 You're not a fool to pursue to pursue what god would have you to pursue. And that is his will and you say, well, what's his will? Well, we got it right in his, we got it right here, Old New Testament tells us what his will is. But when we say to god, you know, thank you for saving my soul. Praise god for that, right?

3:24 I'm saved and I'm born again. I'm going to heaven, right? Hallelujah. You know, let's get a little Pentecostal on action going, right? Praise god, you know, and you're looking at a former Pentecostal guy and I've done some really weird stuff in that in that vein but I also think to myself, how in the world am I going to let my life count?

4:24 Take it out. Look, let's look at it. You know, and this is this is really really an a great passage. I mean, so, in Luke chapter 14 verses 25 through 35, the lord Jesus gives three aspects, three aspects. The way of looking at discipleship that we need to incorporate into our lives.

4:54 We need to have them in our own lives. This discipleship stuff. Okay? So when we look at this, you know, we ask ourselves the question, what are these aspects? We're gonna go through this as we progress through the passage.

5:11 As we progress through the passage, we'll go through it because in verses 25 through 27, the lord Jesus gives us the principle of discipleship. What is it? And then in verses 28 through 35 A, the first half of the verse of 35, that's why we say A because there's a B coming. He gives us the price of discipleship. The price of discipleship and then he gives us in verses 35 B and 35 C and I put it that way to break it up.

5:51 So, he gives us the prompting to discipleship. The prompting to discipleship. Well, let's look at the principle of it. The the principle of discipleship. Now, I I'm in, yeah, I can't say I'm an athlete.

6:21 Jerry Kramer played for the world champion Green Bay Packers. And he was a guard, and he was... And he wrote a book. I forget the name of the book, actually, but I read it voraciously because he talked about giving yourself to the game. And that wasn't...

6:42 For me, it was basketball for... You know, he's writing to guys who are going for football. But Jerry Kramer, a hall of famer, all that kind of stuff, he's... You can Google him, find out about how great he was and all that kind of stuff. And so you, you know, you look at that, and I I remember reading that, and he talked about giving everything you've got to your training, to your to your craft if if you please.

7:12 Hey, you know, the... They they... The Green Bay Packers, everybody knew what they were going to run. They just executed perfectly. They executed perfectly, and they they were just amazing, an amazing team.

7:28 And Jerry Kramer was a part of that team, hall of fame guard. And you look at that and you say to yourself, wow, that is really something to inspire. Another thing I had on my wallet when I was a kid, and I wasn't even saved. I got saved at 18. But I had on my wall a...

7:48 I taped it. It was by Bill Russell. Oh, man. I thought to myself, this is... If this...

7:57 Thirteen years in the NBA, 11 world championships, I want to be like Bill Russell. That guy, you know, eat your heart eight straight eight straight with the Boston Celtics, then they went then they went a year off, and then they went, like, four more straight. They were unbelievable. They were a juggernaut. And Bill Russell talked about how how to be that way.

8:21 And then and then you had along with that, I had Vince Lombardi. This Vince Lombardi, a little same type of thing by Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest coaches. In fact, that's the Super Bowl thing is the Lombardi trophy, you know, for the Super Bowl. I mean, this guy was legendary, and he talked about giving everything that you had to the craft of football, and both Russell, to basketball. Everything you had.

8:51 You know, and I thought to myself, I did that. I bought the... I drank the Kool Aid. I bought the line. I did that.

8:59 Nobody worked out harder than me. I didn't... I would thought there's some kid somewhere that is trying to work out and that that impetus, that knowing that, I thought that kid is not going to beat me because I was lazy. That's what I thought. I mean, I'm telling you honestly what I thought.

9:20 I wrote down every day on a piece of paper. I read Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. And I wrote down every day, I will be the greatest basketball player that ever lived and I will be all Ohio. I will be all Greater Cleveland Conference. So, my Willoughby South was in the Greater Cleveland Conference at the time.

9:43 I will be the greatest etcetera and I wrote that out for like eighteen, nineteen months every day. And then after practice, we'd have we'd have grueling practices at South High School, Willoughby South High School and then I would I would run two miles and then I would dribble between two telephone poles just to after after practice. You need to check up for the neck up. I slept. This is weird.

10:15 This is weird. I slept with my basketball. I did. I would do... Every day, I would go between the legs.

10:26 Every every morning between the legs and then boom. My parents must have... Because we're in a, like, a Victorian home, and all of sudden, boom. Boom. Boom.

10:36 Boom. Boom. Boom. And I would do all this stuff, and I would go... I do all this kind of crazy stuff every day because I felt that I wanted to be the best.

10:54 When I trusted Christ at the age of 18, I played I played at Lakeland Community College, and that's where I got. I didn't get saved at Lakeland. I got saved that year. I played for Don Delaney, who later became the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. And he taught me everything I knew about basketball.

11:13 I loved it. I just loved it, and I played for him. But I had a crisis in that year because my parents had moved to Los Angeles, and I was all alone. All alone. And I came to the...

11:47 I felt... I mean, really, I didn't feel any of that stuff. And then playing high school or playing high school basketball and then playing college, different game. Different game. I got four molars loosed.

11:59 Boom. Totally... I had to bite them back in. I got hit in the head, hit right here with some guy's forehead during a drill in basketball at Lakeland Community College. And, man, my...

12:11 I saw stars, and I had to bite the molars back in. And I'm thinking, this is not that fun. This is not that fun, and this is not that... And I'm finding out that this taskmaster of being a a great basketball player is a lot to give. When I receive Christ as my personal savior, I thought to myself, I can't live for him.

12:41 I'm going to live for me. The one who died on the cross and rose again from the dead for me. I'm going to I'm going to live for myself after trusting Christ as my savior. You need a checkup from the neck up. You you know, something's wrong here.

13:01 There's a strong disconnect in the sense of I want to give my whole life to basketball and I can't give my whole life to Christ? The one that makes the biggest difference for the longest duration? Are you serious? I can't do this. Jesus has something to say about stuff like this and notice what he does say because he gives us the principle of discipleship.

14:10 He's talking about you serving him. That's what he is talking about. You cannot be my disciple. Okay. So, then he's going to he's going to now give give us a a look see in this.

14:27 Look at this because are the cares of this world, the cares of this world, eating up. In fact, that's the title. Is it committed to Christ or the cares of this world? Do we really care about our jobs more than we do Jesus? Do we care more about our families?

14:53 And I'm not nothing wrong with caring for our family. More than the father. Do we care? What do we care for? You know, I was laying in bed with my little son.

15:04 He's no longer little. He's gonna be 35. And I remember when he was about four or five. I'm laying in bed with him and, you know, wait till you be a father. You go you go crazy.

15:18 You go crazy. You go... And I was getting goofy. You know? I really...

15:24 It's just really goofy, man. I'm telling you now, oh, JC, I love you. I really love you. I think the world of you. It's just really sickening and sappy.

15:36 But that... When you have a... When you become a father, you get goofy. You know? You just go goofy.

15:42 And I was goofy that night, and I I never forget this. And I'm laying there and I go, I love you. I'd... This is so pathetic. I'd die for you.

15:53 I would too, but I'd die for you. And he leaned over in bed and he goes, daddy, I I love Jesus more than I love you. That that is a absolute killer. But I accepted that rebuke because that should be true for every one of us. That should be true with every one of us for all of for all of our loved ones and everything.

16:37 Notice what he said, if you don't love me, oh, this is amazing. Come on to me. And you and hate not if you come to me and you don't hate your father and you don't hate your mom. You don't hate your wife, your kids, your brethren, your sisters, and you don't hate your own life. You cannot be my disciples.

17:05 What is he talking about? Don't go up and and say to your, you know, your parents if they're still alive, don't don't come up. I just want to let you know, mom, dad, I hate you. I'm a good Christian. I hate your guts.

17:19 And have a blessed day. You know, know, that... You gotta... You... You're...

17:26 I mean, that's kinda crazy. That is... That's absolutely insane. That's... But so that he's not meaning that.

17:34 Well, he's not meaning I hate your guts. I hate you. It's your comparison, your love for Jesus is so much the more that when you compare it to your love for your family, and I do love my family, it burns hotter, more intense than ever before. And it is as if I hated my mother, my father, my children, my my son, my grandchildren. That's the comparison he's making.

18:16 Loving him is supreme. Is the supreme. And he said, you can't, you can't be my disciple because if if you don't love that, you can't be my disciple. In other words, it's it's tough to really serve two masters, isn't it? Matthew six, you can't serve god and money.

18:38 You can't serve, you're going to love, you're going to love one or hate the other. One of the two. You can't do it and for us, we need as Christians to make this decision to do the right thing and not just the right thing in terms of doing an action. Not just to doing an action but it's our heart's affection. Where is our heart's affection?

19:06 And that is the most, that's, that is absolutely key for us. Where is our heart's affection? Do we love him more than anything else? And as JC said to me, daddy, I I love Jesus more than I love you. Now, I understand that a four year old, five year old is not going to have the depth looked up love in the Greek.

19:38 He he would now. But I mean, he's... At that time, but he's just he's just giving his sentiment. Well, listen. You don't need to know the Greek nor the Hebrew to know that you love something.

19:53 You don't need that. If Jesus has saved your life and I hope he has, then you owe him everything. And it's a love relationship. It's not a legalistic type of a situation in which I, oh, I gotta do this. I gotta love.

20:11 I hate that when somebody comes up to me. I just want to let you know, Chris, I hate your guts but I love you in the lord. Come on. Cut me a big, fat, honking break. Do I love him or I don't?

20:51 Bearing the cross is not limping. I've got a bum leg. That's not bearing your cross. And bearing your cross is not having some irritant dog in your life, you know, you know, something that irritates you. I have the cross I got a bear.

21:07 No way. No way. That's not it at all. This is where I am identifying myself with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Did you know Romans chapter six says that we have died with Christ?

21:23 And that we are... We've been raised with Christ and now we're to walk in newness of life. That's bearing the cross. That is knowing that I've died with Christ. And I've been raised with Christ.

21:39 I no longer, it is no longer I but Christ that liveth in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of god who love me and gave himself for me. So, it's no longer I. When I receive Christ as my savior, I died and then I was raised again from the dead. This is a and and now I'm to walk in newness of life. It's a whole different orientation.

22:12 It's not it's not legalism, you know. I don't join a church or espouse a philosophy. I received Christ. He changes people. He changes your life.

22:25 Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things become new. I'm brand new. I'm brand new and sometimes I don't, me personally, I don't see it in my life.

22:41 Sometimes, I don't see it. That's okay. You don't have to. It still happened. I think I've shared this with you.

22:49 I had a, sorry, Barb, but I had a a former girlfriend, and I really thought I loved her and all this kind of stuff, and I received Christ as my savior. My friend Dave Weibel told me things are gonna change. I'm going, really? I had no idea what he was talking about. I mean, had hair then and I didn't...

23:09 I had zits. And I was 18 and I thought, things are going to change. Oh, okay. Alright. You know?

23:20 Wow. That's great. What are you talking about? You know? But I found out what he was talking about.

23:27 Because a month after I trusted Christ as my savior, now it's around 04/22/1971, and I'm taking her home. And she said to me, she said, you know something, Chris? I said, what's that? She goes, you're different. That's a tape rewinding.

23:47 And, Chris, things are gonna be different. That's old stuff. And now it's all digital. So, you know, things are gonna be... You're gonna be different.

23:57 Things are... You're going to change. Right back to the present at that time and I said, yeah. I've changed. He goes, yeah and I don't like it.

24:11 Well, I was still happy. I was still happy about that. It was a it was a tough go. She asked me and I never I never would have met pretty Barb. Never woulda had fifty years plus of marriage.

24:27 It'll be fifty one in October. I never woulda had that. Never woulda had, Jason. Thank you. Thank you.

24:32 I'm here all day. So... And... But it is. I mean, it is it is...

24:39 I mean, and it's gone by like that. Right, Barb? Yeah. It's it's like vapor. That's exactly how it is.

24:48 When it's cold. And it's like a vapor and it moves out. When I trusted Christ as my personal savior, I I I I wanted him to have all of me because I, at the age of 18, I knew what was coming down the pike. I was playing basketball. I was playing for this Don Delaney.

25:15 And it just... This world will never give you what Jesus gives you. Never. Never. Never.

25:27 Never. No. No. Uh-uh. I used to be a chair at the University of Louisville.

26:04 For which of you verse 28? Intend to build a tower, sit not not down first, and counts the cost whether he is sufficient to finish it. Lest perhaps he also, he hath laid the foundation and is not yet able to finish it and all that behold it begin to mock him. What an idiot. He started this and look at it.

26:33 Look at it. He just he just, man, the guy should have planned it out and maybe he had blueprints but maybe he shoulda had a budget. You think? Come on. And then so they start mocking him.

26:46 This man began to build and was not able to finish. Barb and I lived in Los Angeles, California for a number of years. And it was really strange because we, you're going to buy a house in Los Angeles? Think again. Postage stamp.

27:05 Postage stamp. You know? It's just so small of a of a yard if yard at all, and the house is so tiny. You know, you gotta have a good reverse pivot. And it's just unbelievable.

27:19 Super small... 1,500,000. Are you kidding me? I told I told some friends who lived in Monrovia, California, which is near Los Angeles, and I said, I showed him a video. When we moved to Michigan, I took a video because I bought the house.

27:37 Barb never saw it. And I I videotaped this thing. It was on videotape, so I was like videotaping this. And I showed it to my friends, Janie Janie and Larry Mellinger. He's a chiropractor.

27:52 And I said, what do you guys think we paid for this? She goes... Janie goes. And she's a wise, very intelligent woman. And she said, $435,000 I go, wow.

28:10 That's pretty cool. I said, it's double lot too, you know. And I said, she goes, how much you pay? I said, $170,000. I mean, oh, man.

28:22 The wax was melting out of the ears. Her voice pitch was so high. It was... She went berserk. $85,000.

28:30 And you go, wow. That is just that is just unbelievable cheapness. We didn't... We couldn't afford in Los Angeles, so we would look for the best deal for apartments. So we looked all over the place, and then they had an apartment war.

28:53 Guys were building apartments and then saying, we'll give you six months free rent on a year lease. Can you imagine that? You might as well just say, give us the six month, but free. Free. Free.

29:06 And then, no. No. No. Nine months on a year lease. Are you serious?

29:10 This is unbelievable. So we drove by. We're always looking for the deal. And so we we were driving by this one place and it... They're building and I said, hey, Barb.

29:20 This is close to the chapel, West Valley Bible Chapel. This is really close. Let's look at that one. Let's say, hey, what do you think about that, Barb? And they were building it.

29:30 Then all of a sudden, we didn't see any workmen or anything. I mean, they had the rough sawed cedar on the side. You know? They had the the underneath, the parking, and then they had the uppers, you know, all this stuff. Right?

29:47 We're going, this is great. This is really cool. But nothing. All of a sudden, we noticed weeds going through the cement. We noticed that there was rough sawed cedar, which is really expensive, pulled off the side.

30:04 We saw windows and casements stolen or broken. And then they had to put a cyclone fence around the whole thing. It was not a I want to live there. It was an eyesore. The people that did that didn't secure enough loan or they...

30:25 Something. But they didn't plan ahead. And so they... Notice what he says. He's...

30:32 That's exactly what he's talking about. Somebody's gonna look at that. You're gonna build a tower. You're not gonna do it methodically. You know, people are gonna mock.

30:40 Okay? Then then he gives the second illustration. He goes to war. It's a two to one ratio. Notice what it says, and the king going out to make war with another king sits not down first and consults whether he is able with 10,000 to meet and that comes against him with 20,000.

31:00 Else, while the other is yet afar off, great way off, he sends an embassy, a person that comes and helps and negotiates, desires, condition, of peace. So, likewise, whosoever is he that of you that forsaketh not all cannot that he hath cannot be my disciple. So, what he's saying is this, he's saying, you're going to go and fight somebody, You're going to go fighting somebody, fight somebody, and they got two guys and you just you? You might want to reconsider. And army's doing this.

31:37 If they got a two to one ratio, and they got 20, zero people and you've got 10, you might want to reconsider, send out somebody, make peace with them somehow, you know, do that, do that kind of thing, right? What is he saying? Why does he mention this? And then the last one, salt. Who whoever notice notice what he says about salt.

32:26 Not only with these three but I... We used to clean up behind my dog. We used to have a dog, Georgie. George blazing game terrier Schroeder. That was her her name.

32:38 You know? She was a mutt. And so we, you know, gentrified her. We did some tremendous things for her, you know, like, called her Georgie. You know?

32:49 Chris, did you go pick up after George? I... We got her when I was in second grade. She died when I was about junior in high school. So it was a traumatic thing.

33:02 They took her to California, and then she was there. And, I mean, she was a great dog. But I'd have to go take... I'd have to go pick up the dung off of the grass. It's just really weird.

33:19 And I know when we missed it, because I'd be wrestling with my friends or someone, we would find it. It was it was horrible. I took my mother's soup spoon and a carton jug, and that... She never used that spoon again for soup. Never.

33:41 And just boom. Right in there. I mean, going, oh, this is gross. This... And indeed it is.

33:47 Salt that loses its savory, you can't even put it on a dunghill. It does nothing. Tony Evans one time preaching on this passage talked about all it is good for if it loses its savor in this time and age. It's not ionized or whatever that's called. You just take it and you put it on a path and people walk on it.

34:17 It's like slag rock. I want to ask you a question. Are people walking on your testimony? People who don't allow... So what is he saying?

34:34 What is he saying about this? It is... I I give you the skinny on this. This... I...

34:40 And I'll tell you just a little story regarding this. We had a kid at Grace Bible Chapel in Fullerton, California. He was an Olympic cyclist, that was his goal. And man, he looked like it. He had a really expensive bike.

34:55 We're talking expensive, thousand dollars Olympic cyclist. He would ride from near San Diego to the chapel for just a Wednesday night meeting. He'd ride on his bike. One day he came in and he had a strawberry all the way here, all the way down. Strawberry is that he fell, and he got, you know, he got the scabs all the way up and down.

35:22 Just unbelievable. We go, what happened? He said, I wanna tell you. And he told this to the whole group, college and career. He said, I was battling I was battling with the Lord about my life and what I wanted to do.

35:36 I want to be an Olympic cyclist and all. I want to do all this. And he said, I was riding down this hill. I was going so fast. It was unbelievable.

35:44 And there's no guardrail. And he's riding down this hill, and all of a sudden, he had a vibration, and he wobbled, and he flipped, and landed and was scraping himself. He said, I just missed this rock that was protruding that would have impaled me. I was going right to the edge of the cliff. My bike is mangled.

36:07 I am bleeding, and I'm right to the edge, and these three illustrations came to me. He said, what is Jesus saying with these three illustration? Came to him right there, right on bleeding and the whole thing. I want all of you. It's not ninety nine and forty four one hundreds IV pure.

36:31 I want a 100%. I want all of you. And he said, Lord, you've got me. You've got me. I'll do whatever you want me to do.

36:44 I'll do whatever you want me to do. And that's why these three illustrations. You don't go to war 50% or even 75%. You don't build 60%, 70%, and you don't have... You either have...

36:58 Salt either has its savor or you... It's gone. One or the other and that's what he is telling us. It's 100. It is 100% in terms of my life.

37:11 I want god to have my life total and the question is, and then he says this, he tells us, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear and that he that hath ears to hear, let him hear in the Hebrew and in the Greek, it means when you hear something, it's just not that you have audible... The audible noise going through the auditory canal and into the eardrum and then that kind of stuff. Yeah. That's there. That's part of that.

37:42 You gotta hear it, but it is also meaning that you obey it. That's exactly what that means. In the Greek and in the Hebrew, it means not only to hear but to obey. And that is what he is telling us. I want all of you.

38:03 I died for you. I want all of you. I want to use you. I want your life to be a trophy of my love. I want you to be light and salt in this world.

38:17 I want everything that you have because I have given everything that you have. I've given it to you. Love me. Love me. Father, I just ask you that you would help us to love the lord Jesus.

38:46 Help us to obey your word not out of duty but out of a full, grateful, loving heart. Thank you for the breaking of bread that reminds us of that love that you have given to us every week. Help us to give you all that we are and all that we have to you. In Jesus name, amen.