Luke 14:25-35 - Jesus: The True Disciple

Today’s Scripture is found in Luke 14:25–35.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the movie Toy Story 2, but there’s a scene where Mr. Potato Head rescues a group of little alien toys from certain destruction. Afterward, they follow him everywhere, repeating something like, “You have saved our lives. We are eternally grateful.”

Now, that may seem like a light illustration for such a serious topic, but it actually gets at something very real about discipleship. When we stop and ask why we do what we do, we often discover that our hearts are a mixture of motives—gratitude mixed with fear, love mixed with self-preservation. We don’t always know why we follow, or even what we’re really following for. And that’s important, because in our passage today, Jesus clarifies what true discipleship actually is.

Now, let’s slow down and situate ourselves in the story. Luke continues to trace Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem—a journey that is explicitly a journey toward the cross. Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus spoke of His coming “Exodus,” where He must suffer and die in Jerusalem to save His people from their sins.

As he journeys, opposition to Him is increasing. In fact, the Pharisees even warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill Him. And yet Jesus does not turn back. He resolutely continues on His way.

Over the past several passages, Jesus has been teaching about the kingdom of God as a great banquet. God is inviting people to His table—but only those who are known by God, who come through the narrow door, who come humbly and repentantly. Jesus has already made clear that belonging to God’s kingdom does not come through proximity to Him, religious knowledge, or social standing. It comes through Him knowing where you are from.

Now, as Jesus walks toward Jerusalem, great crowds are traveling with Him. And this is the moment—humanly speaking—a leader would likely capitalize on His popularity. They would energize the crowd to keep the momentum going.

Instead, Jesus turns around. He doesn’t hype the crowd. He doesn’t soften the message. He tells them the cost of following Him.

We aren’t told how the crowd responded, but we can safely assume many walk away. And if we’re honest, we’re not very different from them. We want a low cost and high reward discipleships. We want blessing without loss.

But there is an opportunity before us today…to give our whole lives to Jesus because of the cost He has already paid for us to be with Him in His kingdom forever. With this in mind, let’s read Luke 14:25-35.

Luke 14:25–35 ESV

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, and even his own life, he cannot be my 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 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.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way 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. “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The first thing I want us to see is that…

True Discipleship Requires Deliberate Cross-Bearing

Look at verse 26 with me. What we see here is that a true disciple loves Jesus—or we could say, loves God—above all.

In verse 26, Jesus says that if anyone comes to Him and does not hate his family, and even his own life, he cannot be His disciple. Here, Jesus is using hyperbole and a Semitic understanding of loving something more and loving something else less. Jesus is not commanding us to hate. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, He tells us that if anyone hates his brother, he will be guilty before God of judgment. Paul the Apostle and the scriptures also tell us that if we don't take care of our family, we are worse than a non-believer.

So what is He saying? He is saying that a true disciple loves God so much that their self-sacrificing love toward others—even their family—when compared to our love for God, looks like hate in comparison. Bottom line: we are to love God above all others. This is the greatest commandment, isn't it? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself. If you don't love God above all else, above all relationships, then you can't be His disciple.

Second, we see in verses 27 and 33 that a true disciple dies to self and renounces all. In verse 27, He essentially says, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." At that time in history, everyone knew about crucifixion. A person sentenced for sedition or great crimes against the state would be beaten and flogged. They would then carry the crossbeam down out of Jerusalem to another place where they would be nailed to the cross and die. When Jesus brings this imagery to these people, it would have been overwhelming. He is saying that bearing your cross—marching toward your own death—is what is required to be His disciple.

Then, in verse 33, He says that if you are not willing to renounce all, you cannot be Jesus' disciple. This is the idea of getting rid of everything in this world and having God as the highest treasure. It is like the parable Jesus told of the pearl of great price: a man found a pearl of the greatest possible value, so he sold everything he had to buy it. He is saying that all the world is nothing to us when we look to God.

Third, a true disciple is deliberate. We see this in verses 28 to 32. Think of a mortgage: if we are going to get a mortgage for a house, we really need to know how much it will cost monthly and whether we can actually afford it. You aren't going to build a building without making sure you can finish it. You aren't going to begin a kitchen remodel—tearing out your kitchen—unless you have the money to put it back in; otherwise, you won't have a place to cook. You won't go out to war if you think you're going to lose.

The idea is simply this: entering into this relationship where it costs you everything—your relationships, your own life, and all that you have—is not something you should enter without weighing the costs.

The problem is that we want to be Jesus' disciple to get His benefits—the benefits of living eternally and feasting in the kingdom of God—yet…

We seek discipleship without the costly cross

When we look at verse 26 and think about our relationships, in all honesty, we love others and ourselves above God. A non-disciple cares more about relationships and their own desires than God. We look at the benefits of eternal life, but we really just want everything to go well with us. We don't want the pain of following Jesus or having to give an account to those who don't think what Jesus says is good or true.

We care more about our relationships, and we care more about our own lives than being a disciple. If following Jesus costs us our pleasures, an easy life, care, and comfort, then we usually don't want anything to do with it. We refuse to bear the costly cross. Verse 27 says whoever does not bear his own cross cannot be His disciple. When faced with denying self—whether that ultimately costs your actual life, as it does for believers in countries like Iran, North Korea, or China, or simply renouncing all we have (verse 33)—our problem is that we choose self and possessions over God.

We often act like animals, thinking all there is is food and drink. At work, when asked if we are Christians, we might hesitate, afraid it might cost us a promotion. At school, if people find out we are Christians, they might make fun of us. Or we really want to go on that vacation, and giving our finances, time, talents, and treasures to God might cost us that pleasure.

Another thing we often do is fail to count the cost. Many non-disciples make a quick decision to follow Jesus based on the potential advantages rather than on undivided devotion. We see a "get out of eternal judgment free" card and pursue that without thinking about the requirement of absolute, costly devotion. Consequently, we get into a battle with ourselves and the flesh, and we walk away from Jesus, proving we are not His disciples. As we've seen in the parables, He will say, "I don't know where you're from," and the result is outer darkness.

When we think about what is required—costly devotion, loving God above all, renouncing all, dying to self, and being deliberate—if we are honest, even if we want this, we fail to do it. That is terrible news since Jesus says we cannot be His disciples. But there is good news…

Jesus Christ bore His cross, and in union with Him, we are made His disciples

First, look at the life of our Lord. Jesus lived His life completely from His sonship. Jesus Himself was the true disciple. He loved the Father with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength. When the crowd told Him His mother and brothers were looking for Him, Jesus asked, "Who are my mother and brothers and my sisters?" He answered: those who are part of God's family. Jesus loved God and God's family above even earthly relationships. He willingly obeyed the Father, going into the Garden of Gethsemane about to die, saying, "Not my will, but Your will be done." Jesus Christ shows the nature of a true disciple as He willingly and always did His Father's will at all costs—even the cost of His own life.

Second, Jesus bore His own cross to Golgotha. Verse 27 says, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Jesus shows Himself to be the perfect disciple as He bore His own cross—which was really ours. He paid for our crimes and our rebellion for not loving God. He did that so that by receiving Him, we might be united to Him in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection.

Third, Jesus counted the cost. Though He was God, He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant even to the point of death on a cross. He willingly left heaven, knowing He would become poor so that we might become rich. He took on flesh and bore our sin so that we might be made into His image.

Fourth, in verse 33, we see that Jesus renounced all for us. He left glory to enter into a true life of discipleship for our sake. We often look at this passage and try as hard as we can, but we aren't single-heartedly devoted. We aren't willing to bear the shame. In that culture, everything was bound up in honor and shame. To honor your family was your honor; to give them up for God would be seen as shame. Jesus is saying, "Enter into the shame of the world so that you can enter into My honor."

The problem is that we can't do that. But look at this: Jesus did it. Jesus is the disciple who loved God above all earthly ties. Jesus is the disciple who took up His cross (which was ours) so that we could be disciples. Jesus is the one who counted the cost and bore it. Jesus renounced everything so that we could be His disciples. Jesus fulfilled all of this for us and for our sake. He bore His cross so that in union with Him, we are made disciples.

After His resurrection, Jesus Christ received the Holy Spirit and gives us the Holy Spirit so that…

The Spirit can enable us to bear our own cross as true disciples

You could sit in a moment like this and feel the weight of what it is to be Jesus' disciple—and it is true. You must love God above all else, bear your own cross, renounce all, and count the cost. But what we can subtly forget is that story from Toy Story 2. The aliens followed Mr. Potato Head because they were eternally grateful.

The reason we are able to love God more than anyone else—so that our intense love for our family looks like hate in comparison—is because of all that Jesus has done and because of the Spirit He gives us in the new birth. The Spirit regenerates us and enables our adoption. We realize we are children of God, adopted into His covenant family. We love Him above all else because He is our Father, and our dearest elder brother, Jesus Christ, gave Himself up for us.

The Spirit forms Christ in us so that we are conformed to Him. We willingly bear our cross not to earn God's favor—thinking God owes us something—but because Christ willingly bore His cross for us. We count the world as nothing so that we might share in Christ's suffering. As Paul says in Philippians 1, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." In Philippians 3, he says he counts everything as rubbish to know Him and the power of His resurrection.

The Holy Spirit also makes us 'salty' (verse 34). Now, Jesus mentions salt being useful even for the 'manure pile.' This sounds strange to us, but the implication is that salt had a preserving or useful effect even in the waste. But Jesus' point is clear: if salt loses its nature, it can’t even do that low-level job. It is thrown away.

The Holy Spirit is making us salty by making Christ our treasure over everything else. We have nothing to offer a decaying world if we lose our distinctiveness—if we are not willing to give up all and see Christ as lovely as He is. The Spirit produces fruit in us so that we live like Jesus, showing the world how beautiful it is to belong to Him.

How does this look in our day-to-day lives?

Perhaps when I'm at a family gathering or with friends and someone mocks me for being a Christian, I don't hide my faith. Instead, I know that God is my Father, Jesus is my brother and friend, and the Spirit is present to comfort me. The Spirit reminds me that Christ is my reward and I am in Him, so I am not alone. I can lose those relationships and still have the greatest of all relationships. I can share my faith because Jesus died to provide refuge for my soul.

Or maybe when I'm facing a diagnosis or ongoing suffering, I don't have to preserve my life at all costs. I remember that Jesus, by the Spirit, is my Good Shepherd who restores my soul and walks with me through the valley of the shadow of death. He reminds me that Christ gave Himself up for me and bore the eternal wrath of God. Because He gave up His life, I don't cling to life or pleasures as ultimate, because to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Or when I'm faced with a large tax bill and tempted to bend the truth to protect myself financially, I realize I don't have to preserve my possessions. God owns everything; He is my provider. I can let things be lost without panic because my life is not held together by what I own. The Spirit reminds me that Christ is the pearl of great price, worth losing everything to know. Jesus became poor so I might be rich as His co-heir. All things here are temporary; my true inheritance is with Him.

I want us to remember today that Jesus Christ Himself bore His cross so that we would be made disciples. He bore our sins so that we might be counted as obedient and faithful.

If you don't know today whether you are truly united to Jesus Christ—if you haven't counted the cost and think it's just a simple thought rather than a union of your soul with God—Jesus calls to you today. He says, "I became the perfect disciple so that you might live and walk in Me, loving Me above all else." If you see your failure to be a disciple who loves Jesus above all, Jesus offers His own perfection to you. He has taken that sin upon Himself and given you His perfect record. He requires you to give yourself wholly to Him, loving Him because He rescued you. Receive Him, believe Him, and follow Him with all your being.

If you are a Christian today, this sermon is not meant to beat you up but to lead you to worship. Look at what Jesus did for our sake so that we might live as those who are eternally grateful. We love Him and obey Him, and in comparison to that love, everything else looks like hate—not as a burden, but as a delight of gratitude.

Brothers and sisters, worship Christ, the ultimate disciple, who became a disciple so you might be made one. Hear His voice, follow after Him, let His righteous life be yours, and live in love for Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, in joy, all for the glory of the Father.

Luke 14:25-35 - Jesus: The True Disciple

Rev. James Pavlic / General Adult

Jesus: The Savior of the World / Discipleship / Luke 14:25–35

Jesus bore his cross and rose again so that, united to him, we are made true disciples.

Today’s Scripture is found in Luke 14:25–35.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the movie Toy Story 2, but there’s a scene where Mr. Potato Head rescues a group of little alien toys from certain destruction. Afterward, they follow him everywhere, repeating something like, “You have saved our lives. We are eternally grateful.”

Now, that may seem like a light illustration for such a serious topic, but it actually gets at something very real about discipleship. When we stop and ask why we do what we do, we often discover that our hearts are a mixture of motives—gratitude mixed with fear, love mixed with self-preservation. We don’t always know why we follow, or even what we’re really following for. And that’s important, because in our passage today, Jesus clarifies what true discipleship actually is.

Now, let’s slow down and situate ourselves in the story. Luke continues to trace Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem—a journey that is explicitly a journey toward the cross. Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus spoke of His coming “Exodus,” where He must suffer and die in Jerusalem to save His people from their sins.

As he journeys, opposition to Him is increasing. In fact, the Pharisees even warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill Him. And yet Jesus does not turn back. He resolutely continues on His way.

Over the past several passages, Jesus has been teaching about the kingdom of God as a great banquet. God is inviting people to His table—but only those who are known by God, who come through the narrow door, who come humbly and repentantly. Jesus has already made clear that belonging to God’s kingdom does not come through proximity to Him, religious knowledge, or social standing. It comes through Him knowing where you are from.

Now, as Jesus walks toward Jerusalem, great crowds are traveling with Him. And this is the moment—humanly speaking—a leader would likely capitalize on His popularity. They would energize the crowd to keep the momentum going.

Instead, Jesus turns around. He doesn’t hype the crowd. He doesn’t soften the message. He tells them the cost of following Him.

We aren’t told how the crowd responded, but we can safely assume many walk away. And if we’re honest, we’re not very different from them. We want a low cost and high reward discipleships. We want blessing without loss.

But there is an opportunity before us today…to give our whole lives to Jesus because of the cost He has already paid for us to be with Him in His kingdom forever. With this in mind, let’s read Luke 14:25-35.

Luke 14:25–35 ESV

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, and even his own life, he cannot be my 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 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.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way 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. “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The first thing I want us to see is that…

True Discipleship Requires Deliberate Cross-Bearing

Look at verse 26 with me. What we see here is that a true disciple loves Jesus—or we could say, loves God—above all.

In verse 26, Jesus says that if anyone comes to Him and does not hate his family, and even his own life, he cannot be His disciple. Here, Jesus is using hyperbole and a Semitic understanding of loving something more and loving something else less. Jesus is not commanding us to hate. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, He tells us that if anyone hates his brother, he will be guilty before God of judgment. Paul the Apostle and the scriptures also tell us that if we don't take care of our family, we are worse than a non-believer.

So what is He saying? He is saying that a true disciple loves God so much that their self-sacrificing love toward others—even their family—when compared to our love for God, looks like hate in comparison. Bottom line: we are to love God above all others. This is the greatest commandment, isn't it? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself. If you don't love God above all else, above all relationships, then you can't be His disciple.

Second, we see in verses 27 and 33 that a true disciple dies to self and renounces all. In verse 27, He essentially says, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." At that time in history, everyone knew about crucifixion. A person sentenced for sedition or great crimes against the state would be beaten and flogged. They would then carry the crossbeam down out of Jerusalem to another place where they would be nailed to the cross and die. When Jesus brings this imagery to these people, it would have been overwhelming. He is saying that bearing your cross—marching toward your own death—is what is required to be His disciple.

Then, in verse 33, He says that if you are not willing to renounce all, you cannot be Jesus' disciple. This is the idea of getting rid of everything in this world and having God as the highest treasure. It is like the parable Jesus told of the pearl of great price: a man found a pearl of the greatest possible value, so he sold everything he had to buy it. He is saying that all the world is nothing to us when we look to God.

Third, a true disciple is deliberate. We see this in verses 28 to 32. Think of a mortgage: if we are going to get a mortgage for a house, we really need to know how much it will cost monthly and whether we can actually afford it. You aren't going to build a building without making sure you can finish it. You aren't going to begin a kitchen remodel—tearing out your kitchen—unless you have the money to put it back in; otherwise, you won't have a place to cook. You won't go out to war if you think you're going to lose.

The idea is simply this: entering into this relationship where it costs you everything—your relationships, your own life, and all that you have—is not something you should enter without weighing the costs.

The problem is that we want to be Jesus' disciple to get His benefits—the benefits of living eternally and feasting in the kingdom of God—yet…

We seek discipleship without the costly cross

When we look at verse 26 and think about our relationships, in all honesty, we love others and ourselves above God. A non-disciple cares more about relationships and their own desires than God. We look at the benefits of eternal life, but we really just want everything to go well with us. We don't want the pain of following Jesus or having to give an account to those who don't think what Jesus says is good or true.

We care more about our relationships, and we care more about our own lives than being a disciple. If following Jesus costs us our pleasures, an easy life, care, and comfort, then we usually don't want anything to do with it. We refuse to bear the costly cross. Verse 27 says whoever does not bear his own cross cannot be His disciple. When faced with denying self—whether that ultimately costs your actual life, as it does for believers in countries like Iran, North Korea, or China, or simply renouncing all we have (verse 33)—our problem is that we choose self and possessions over God.

We often act like animals, thinking all there is is food and drink. At work, when asked if we are Christians, we might hesitate, afraid it might cost us a promotion. At school, if people find out we are Christians, they might make fun of us. Or we really want to go on that vacation, and giving our finances, time, talents, and treasures to God might cost us that pleasure.

Another thing we often do is fail to count the cost. Many non-disciples make a quick decision to follow Jesus based on the potential advantages rather than on undivided devotion. We see a "get out of eternal judgment free" card and pursue that without thinking about the requirement of absolute, costly devotion. Consequently, we get into a battle with ourselves and the flesh, and we walk away from Jesus, proving we are not His disciples. As we've seen in the parables, He will say, "I don't know where you're from," and the result is outer darkness.

When we think about what is required—costly devotion, loving God above all, renouncing all, dying to self, and being deliberate—if we are honest, even if we want this, we fail to do it. That is terrible news since Jesus says we cannot be His disciples. But there is good news…

Jesus Christ bore His cross, and in union with Him, we are made His disciples

First, look at the life of our Lord. Jesus lived His life completely from His sonship. Jesus Himself was the true disciple. He loved the Father with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength. When the crowd told Him His mother and brothers were looking for Him, Jesus asked, "Who are my mother and brothers and my sisters?" He answered: those who are part of God's family. Jesus loved God and God's family above even earthly relationships. He willingly obeyed the Father, going into the Garden of Gethsemane about to die, saying, "Not my will, but Your will be done." Jesus Christ shows the nature of a true disciple as He willingly and always did His Father's will at all costs—even the cost of His own life.

Second, Jesus bore His own cross to Golgotha. Verse 27 says, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Jesus shows Himself to be the perfect disciple as He bore His own cross—which was really ours. He paid for our crimes and our rebellion for not loving God. He did that so that by receiving Him, we might be united to Him in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection.

Third, Jesus counted the cost. Though He was God, He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant even to the point of death on a cross. He willingly left heaven, knowing He would become poor so that we might become rich. He took on flesh and bore our sin so that we might be made into His image.

Fourth, in verse 33, we see that Jesus renounced all for us. He left glory to enter into a true life of discipleship for our sake. We often look at this passage and try as hard as we can, but we aren't single-heartedly devoted. We aren't willing to bear the shame. In that culture, everything was bound up in honor and shame. To honor your family was your honor; to give them up for God would be seen as shame. Jesus is saying, "Enter into the shame of the world so that you can enter into My honor."

The problem is that we can't do that. But look at this: Jesus did it. Jesus is the disciple who loved God above all earthly ties. Jesus is the disciple who took up His cross (which was ours) so that we could be disciples. Jesus is the one who counted the cost and bore it. Jesus renounced everything so that we could be His disciples. Jesus fulfilled all of this for us and for our sake. He bore His cross so that in union with Him, we are made disciples.

After His resurrection, Jesus Christ received the Holy Spirit and gives us the Holy Spirit so that…

The Spirit can enable us to bear our own cross as true disciples

You could sit in a moment like this and feel the weight of what it is to be Jesus' disciple—and it is true. You must love God above all else, bear your own cross, renounce all, and count the cost. But what we can subtly forget is that story from Toy Story 2. The aliens followed Mr. Potato Head because they were eternally grateful.

The reason we are able to love God more than anyone else—so that our intense love for our family looks like hate in comparison—is because of all that Jesus has done and because of the Spirit He gives us in the new birth. The Spirit regenerates us and enables our adoption. We realize we are children of God, adopted into His covenant family. We love Him above all else because He is our Father, and our dearest elder brother, Jesus Christ, gave Himself up for us.

The Spirit forms Christ in us so that we are conformed to Him. We willingly bear our cross not to earn God's favor—thinking God owes us something—but because Christ willingly bore His cross for us. We count the world as nothing so that we might share in Christ's suffering. As Paul says in Philippians 1, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." In Philippians 3, he says he counts everything as rubbish to know Him and the power of His resurrection.

The Holy Spirit also makes us 'salty' (verse 34). Now, Jesus mentions salt being useful even for the 'manure pile.' This sounds strange to us, but the implication is that salt had a preserving or useful effect even in the waste. But Jesus' point is clear: if salt loses its nature, it can’t even do that low-level job. It is thrown away.

The Holy Spirit is making us salty by making Christ our treasure over everything else. We have nothing to offer a decaying world if we lose our distinctiveness—if we are not willing to give up all and see Christ as lovely as He is. The Spirit produces fruit in us so that we live like Jesus, showing the world how beautiful it is to belong to Him.

How does this look in our day-to-day lives?

Perhaps when I'm at a family gathering or with friends and someone mocks me for being a Christian, I don't hide my faith. Instead, I know that God is my Father, Jesus is my brother and friend, and the Spirit is present to comfort me. The Spirit reminds me that Christ is my reward and I am in Him, so I am not alone. I can lose those relationships and still have the greatest of all relationships. I can share my faith because Jesus died to provide refuge for my soul.

Or maybe when I'm facing a diagnosis or ongoing suffering, I don't have to preserve my life at all costs. I remember that Jesus, by the Spirit, is my Good Shepherd who restores my soul and walks with me through the valley of the shadow of death. He reminds me that Christ gave Himself up for me and bore the eternal wrath of God. Because He gave up His life, I don't cling to life or pleasures as ultimate, because to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Or when I'm faced with a large tax bill and tempted to bend the truth to protect myself financially, I realize I don't have to preserve my possessions. God owns everything; He is my provider. I can let things be lost without panic because my life is not held together by what I own. The Spirit reminds me that Christ is the pearl of great price, worth losing everything to know. Jesus became poor so I might be rich as His co-heir. All things here are temporary; my true inheritance is with Him.

I want us to remember today that Jesus Christ Himself bore His cross so that we would be made disciples. He bore our sins so that we might be counted as obedient and faithful.

If you don't know today whether you are truly united to Jesus Christ—if you haven't counted the cost and think it's just a simple thought rather than a union of your soul with God—Jesus calls to you today. He says, "I became the perfect disciple so that you might live and walk in Me, loving Me above all else." If you see your failure to be a disciple who loves Jesus above all, Jesus offers His own perfection to you. He has taken that sin upon Himself and given you His perfect record. He requires you to give yourself wholly to Him, loving Him because He rescued you. Receive Him, believe Him, and follow Him with all your being.

If you are a Christian today, this sermon is not meant to beat you up but to lead you to worship. Look at what Jesus did for our sake so that we might live as those who are eternally grateful. We love Him and obey Him, and in comparison to that love, everything else looks like hate—not as a burden, but as a delight of gratitude.

Brothers and sisters, worship Christ, the ultimate disciple, who became a disciple so you might be made one. Hear His voice, follow after Him, let His righteous life be yours, and live in love for Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, in joy, all for the glory of the Father.