Luke 14:28–33

Luke 14:28-33 

English Standard Version 

  A response to Christ can often be an emotional moment, but to sustain over a life, it needs more than just emotion.  It needs to be a whole life commitment, one where you consider everything -- the cost of making Christ the central part of life, as well as everything that must be given up.  This is not a small decision -- it sets a course for eternity.  Jesus says that we should be prepared to renounce everything, but the interesting piece is that nothing we renounce has eternal value -- what we receive is of infinitely more value and will endure forever.  

  Jesus wants honest commitment.  He wants to ensure that when we make heartfelt commitments, we mean them, and that we're prepared to let God lead us for our entire lives.  This is a prayer every day -- to ask the Holy Spirit to lead us, to renew our hearts each morning.  God's mercies are new every day, and it takes the leadership of God to follow God like this every day, to train our hearts to love God more than anything else, to notice when other loves are competing for our hearts and distracting us away from God.

Luke 14:25–27

Luke 14:25-27 

English Standard Version 

  When Jesus speaks of hating father and mother, the word he uses is a word of comparison -- he's not telling us to literally hate, but rather that our love for God needs to be degrees of magnitude greater than our love for anyone else.  That is what discipleship looks like.  How do we love like that? 

  Such love is even willing to embrace shame.  The cross was a matter of public shame and suffering.  To embrace this means that one is so completely surrendered to God that even shame does not discourage them from a life of discipleship. 

  This is a hard teaching -- there's no getting around this.  It's Jesus being clear that to follow Christ means faith needs to be our first and highest priority.  Jesus is not one more thing in a life like this -- it's the central thing around which everything turns.  

  I think a life like this follows inspiration by the Holy Spirit.  Can we pray for God to move like this, in our own life and in our community?  

Luke 14:15–24

Luke 14:15-24 

English Standard Version 

  The Kingdom will be full.  God wants to have a full house.  Do you want to be included?

  Jesus tells this story about a man who gave a banquet and invited many people, but they all came up with other things to do.  Seems like they have valid excuses -- there isn't judgment given on the excuses given.  The reality is that life is busy... but will we prioritize faith?  Will we put Christ first?  God wants you to come in to the Kingdom, but the host is not forcing those initially invited into the banquet.  Their excuses are honored.  

  So how can you prioritize the Kingdom of God today?

Luke 14:12–14

Luke 14:12-14 

English Standard Version 

  Jesus is trying to teach us about transactional love.  We make lots of transactions in life, and the problem is when we wander into transactional relationships.  We look to people and think about what we can get out of them.  

  So Jesus wants us to be intentional about spending time with people who can't do anything for us, to learn to love people for the sake of people, to find joy in them as fellow people made in the image of God, the way God loves us -- not because God needs something from us, but because God is love and treasures us.