Luke 14:26-27 (ESV) “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.

Jesus now continues with His teaching to tell us that following him costs everything. Following Jesus must come before family and keeping your own life. Our devotion to serving and loving Jesus must be so much higher than our devotion to our family, it appears to be hate. Jesus of course is exaggerating by using the word hate to make His point. We know from many other Scriptures that we are to love our families. To bear your own cross is to die to yourself and your plans for your life in order to follow Jesus.

Luke 14:28-30 (ESV) 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.’

Jesus gives an example of a person who wanted to build a tower. Before He begins, he needs to make plans and count the cost so that he can complete it. In the same way, those who choose to follow Jesus must count the cost before making the commitment. The cost of following Jesus is 100% commitment for the rest of your life.

Luke 14:31-32 (ESV) 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.

A second example with a king counting the cost of going to battle. If the king doesn’t count the cost, he would experience a tragic loss. Counting the cost enables the king do ask for terms of peace. Each of us is like the king of our own lives before we meet Jesus. Jesus the king of kings is infinitely stronger than anyone of us. So, the only rational decision is to surrender to Jesus under His terms. The alternative is to suffer eternal loss. Jesus concludes in …

Luke 14:33 (ESV) So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

In order to be a disciple of Jesus, one most give up everything he has. When you give up everything, you give it up to Jesus to use however He directs. To hold onto anything for yourself alone is not permitted for a follower of Jesus.

Luke 14:34-35 (ESV) “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.”

In this final example of Jesus, salt represents the follower of Jesus who adds flavoring and preservative to the world around him. In Jesus’ day, salt was taken from the Dead Sea and was a mixture of salt and insoluble minerals. If the salt was washed away, the remaining deposit was useless representing the world. Of no use at all. A follower of Jesus must remain salty, different from the world, in order to influence the world. A disciple must count the cost and give up everything to Jesus.

What is God calling you to give to Him as a disciple of Jesus? Is it a secret sin that no one knows except you, that He is calling you to give up? Or is it something good that keeps you from spending time with Jesus? Or it may be a relationship or habit that is drawing you away from Jesus. Or maybe Jesus is calling you to do something you don’t want to do and you must give up your own feelings and fears to follow Him.

If you’re honest with yourself, I think each one of us could think of something God is calling us to do that we’ve been resisting doing. For some, it might be repenting of your sin and putting your faith in Jesus. For others, you may never have been water baptized since believing. For yet others, you may never have been Spirit baptized and are not seeking it.

Today, God is calling you to give up everything to Jesus. If there are excuses coming into your head right now, those are not from God. Put them out of your mind and tell the Lord that you are giving Him everything this morning. Then get specific with the areas that you haven’t surrendered to Him. Ask for His forgiveness and give Him thanks for being invited to His banquet.

The kingdom banquet that Jesus is inviting us to is worth giving up everything we have in this life, including our very lives. Those who take up their cross and follow Jesus will find true life worth it all. 

Luke 14:16-17 (ESV) But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

The way banquets worked in Jesus day was that the host sent out an invitation to his potential guests. The invitees were then required to either accept or reject the invite, so the host could properly prepare for the banquet. Finally, a messenger would be sent out on the day of the banquet to tell the guests that everything was ready. It would be considered very rude to not attend a banquet that one had accepted the initial invitation to. So, to properly understand this story, we must realize that those to whom the servant went had already accepted the invitation and were expected to attend.

Luke 14:18-20 (ESV) But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

However, surprisingly, everyone the servant went to remind had excuses as to why they could not come to the banquet. All of these excuses were really ridiculous when examined closely. You look at a field before you buy it, not after The same is true of the yoke of oxen. It would be highly unlikely that someone would have gotten married unexpectedly between the time the invitation was accepted and finally announced. These kind of excuses to not go to a free lavish banquet made no sense.

Luke 14:21 (ESV) So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’

Understandably, the master, the host of the banquet became angry at those who had turned down his gracious invitation. As the banquet had been prepared and was ready, he wanted people to be able to enjoy it. So, he directed the servant to go out on the streets of the city and invite the poor, the crippled, bland and lame to come to the banquet.

Luke 14:22-24 (ESV) And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

The banquet was not yet full, so the servant was now sent outside the city. To the highways and hedges where the homeless and the destitute lived. The servant was to compel them to come to the banquet. The Greek word for compel is a very strong word. It means to put pressure on, to force, to urge, to insist. Why? So that the master’s house would be full, the banquet would be complete. None of those who were invited but had excuses would have another chance to eat of the banquet. No excuses to God’s invitation

So, let’s unpack what this parable means for us today. The host of the banquet represents God. The banquet represents the great supper that believers will eat with Jesus in eternity. And we might say that the banquet represents the kingdom of God, which we begin to experience in this life. The first group of people that God invited all said they wanted to come. This would represent people today who want to go to heaven, just about everybody.

It would include many who have made some commitment to Jesus and consider themselves believers. Yet, when the call comes to actually participate in the banquet, to participate in the kingdom of God, they have excuses. The excuses are not bad things, not what we would consider sins. Yet the excuses show that these people’s values do not put the banquet, the kingdom of God first in this life. They value possessions and relationships above following Jesus and His kingdom.

So, the question we must ask ourselves this morning is are we like those in the first group? Do we have excuses whereby we ignore God’s invitation to seek His kingdom first?

The next group is the poor, crippled, blind and lame. These people do not have much in the way of worldly value. So, they gladly give that up in order to receive the treasures of the kingdom. The final group are those who live along the highways and the hedges. The homeless, those cast out of the city, those who have nothing in this world. They too, are happy to accept the invitation to God’s kingdom banquet.

The story makes clear that everyone in the world is invited to God’s banquet. Those who have the least in this world are always the most receptive to the Gospel. We must be careful to not let the things of this world lead us to make excuses to God’s invitation to us.

Those who accept God’s invitation become His servants. What does the servant do? He invites everyone to God’s kingdom banquet of eternal life. God calls each one of us as followers of Jesus to be His servants and invite everyone. If some are reluctant to accept, we must compel them to come in. We must insist, put pressure on, urge, force everyone to come to the banquet. Why? Because their eternal destiny is at stake. 

Is someone was at the top of a bridge, looking to jump off to their death, how would you respond. You could compel them to change their minds and save their life. May God help us to have no excuses to God’s invitations and to be God’s servants to invite others.

Our message today is entitled “Count the Cost of Following Jesus.” Let’s begin by answering the question, what does it mean to follow Jesus? In Jesus’ day, to follow Jesus was to literally walk with Him down the road. But what does it mean to follow Jesus today, when He is no longer physically with us? To follow Jesus begins by believing in Him.

John 3:16 (ESV) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

To believe in Jesus means much more than believing Jesus is the son of God. To believe in Jesus is to entrust your life to Him, to acknowledge Him as your Lord. To follow Jesus thus means to believe in Him, to obey His commands and to follow His example. Jesus taught His disciples and us that there are three marks or experiences that Jesus commanded those who wanted to follow Him to embrace.

We’ve talked about the first already, which was to believe in Jesus. To believe in Jesus is to trust Jesus to forgive your sins and save you by faith alone. Let’s move on to the next two marks of a follower of Jesus.

Matthew 28:19 (ESV) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

This verse gives us the second mark of a disciple or follower of Jesus. A disciple is to be water baptized after believing. Not only is water baptism commanded by Jesus, He gave us an example by being baptized by John the Baptist. Water baptism for followers of Jesus is not optional, it is commanded by Jesus.

Luke 24:49 (ESV) And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

The promise of the Father is the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which gives the new believer power to follow Jesus. The disciples were commanded, not to go out on their mission in life until they received the necessary power. The first 120 disciples were baptized in the Spirit on the day of Pentecost as they followed Jesus’ instructions to pray for the Holy Spirit. Many others received Spirit baptism as we read through the book of Acts. Again receiving Spirit baptism is following Jesus’ example, as He was Spirit baptized at His water baptism to receive power. This then is the third mark of a follower of Jesus.

These three marks, faith, water baptism and Spirit baptism are God’s initiation of a person being born again and saved. They are God’s way of preparing disciples to carry out His mission in their lives. But there is much more for disciples to learn to obey.

Matthew 28:20 (ESV) teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

A follower of Jesus is someone who obeys Jesus, in these first three marks and all the rest of Jesus’ instructions. So, let’s learn some more about counting the cost of following Jesus.

Luke 14:12 (ESV) He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

Next Jesus turns to the host of the dinner party he had been invited to, a prominent Jewish leader. He told him, when you give a banquet, don’t invite all your friends, relatives and rich neighbors. That was exactly what the Jewish leader had done. The feast was filled with influential people. Why shouldn’t a person invite all these people? Because the motive is to invite people who can benefit yourself, who can repay you, who can invite you to their dinner parties. Rather …

Luke 14:13 (ESV) But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

The poor, crippled, lame and blind are people that are not going to be able to do anything for your fame or fortune or career. When you invite these kind of people, you are doing it not for yourself, not for what you’re going to get out of the dinner. When you invite the poor, you are being generous and thinking about giving, not receiving. In fact, there was one lame person at this dinner party, but not as a guest. The man with dropsy had been invited to seek to trap Jesus, but the trap had failed. What will be the result when you are generous, not seeking a return for yourself?

Luke 14:14 (ESV) and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Jesus tells us that those who are generous are not going to miss out, they will be blessed. They won’t be financially blessed by the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. But the generous will be blessed in this life by God and will be repaid many times over in eternity. You see, being generous is a mark and value of the just or righteous, who will inherit eternal life. Being stingy, only helping those who you think will help you, is a worldly value. Jesus values generosity and so should we.

Generosity can apply to money, possessions and time.Do we hoard these things to ourselves, or do we share what we have with others. Do we only give to someone or something if we think there will be a return in it for us? Or do we give because we value generosity and trust God to meet our needs. A generous person gives tithes and offerings to the church to help the needy in St Louis and around the world. They are not going to be able to repay you, but God will bless you and meet your needs. A generous person gives of their time to serve others in need, both in their church family and in the rest of their life. A generous person gives, not expecting a return from the recipient, but only a blessing from God. God has called us to value generosity and trust Him to be our source.

Our message today was entitled “Do You Have Jesus’ Values”? After studying Jesus’ teaching this morning, we can all agree that we have room to grow in having Jesus’ values. God desires for us to value healing, because Jesus did. To value bringing healing to others more than our worries about what others may think of us.

God desires for us to value humility with our lives. To think of others as more important than ourselves and to serve them. To not seek to elevate ourselves above others, but to be a servant of all.

Finally, God desires for us to value generosity, to make it a priority in our lives. To give to others, even though we know they cannot repay us. Our faith is in God who supplies us with everything we need in life. May each of us say this morning. Yes, I want to make healing, humility and generosity values and priorities in my life. May God help us to grow in becoming more and more like Jesus.

Luke 14:7 (ESV) Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them,

Jesus is still at this diner party where He had just healed a man from a serious disease. Jesus was watching all the dinner guests and saw how they seated themselves. Apparently, they were jockeying for the best seats, those next to the dinner host or Jesus. There seeking to choose the best seats in the house revealed their values.

Luke 14:8-9 (ESV) “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.

Jesus then began to tell them another story, but the story was aimed right at His fellow dinner guests.

He told them not to seek out the places of honor when invited to a dinner. If they did, the host may come and take you to the lowest place and bring someone else into your current higher place. Rather than being honored as you wished, you would then be shamed.

Luke 14:10-11 (ESV) But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Rather, you should sit at the lowest place, the place farthest away from the head table. Rather than exalting yourself, the host may come and have you sit at the head table. The principle is that if you exalt yourself, you will be humbled. And if you humble yourself, you will be exalted. Jesus values humility over pride and so should we.

A proud person values himself above all those around him. Not only does a proud person value himself above others, he seeks to let others know that he is better than everyone else. Pride is a value of the world. Humility is what Jesus valued and so should we. A proud person is very concerned with what other people think of him. The fear of man is rooted in pride.

A humble person is only concerned about what God thinks about him. The fear of God leads to humility A proud person desires to be served by others. A humble person seeks to serve those around themselves. A humble person considers others as more important than himself. A proud person doesn’t want to serve others, whether in their family, at work or in the church. A humble person is always looking for ways to serve, In their family, at work or in the church. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Jesus values humility and so should we.

Luke 14:1-2 (ESV) One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

Jesus loved to eat with different types of people, from the lowliest to the highest. In this incident, he ate at a dinner party after Sabbath worship hosted by a leading Pharisee. The other Jewish leaders at the dinner were carefully watching him. They were not watching him to learn, they were watching to try to trap him and cancel him in the eyes of the people. At the dinner party a man suffering from dropsy, a serious swelling disease often caused by heart or liver problems. Most likely, the Jewish leaders had planted him there to see what Jesus would do.

Luke 14:3-4 (ESV) And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.

Jesus, knowing what was on their minds asked them the question “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” In other words, did the word of God forbid someone to be healed on the Sabbath. You see, the Bible, did say that no work should be done on the Sabbath. The intention of that command was that everyone should have at least one day of rest from their regular work every week in order to worship God. Yet, the Jews had invited all kinds of rules to determine whether something was work or not. As the Jews did not answer Jesus’ question, He laid his hands on the man, who was immediately healed. It says that the man was sent away, implying he was not a dinner guest, but had been planted there to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath.

Luke 14:5-6 (ESV) And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things.

Jesus asks the others at the dinner party a second question. If you have something of value, such as an ox or even a son and they fall into a well on the Sabbath, what will you do? You would certainly rescue either an animal or person from harm on the Sabbath. And they had nothing to say, because that is what they would have done. Jesus’ point was that this man who was ill had great value. So, Jesus healed him to bring him to wholeness. Jesus values healing about man-made rules and regulations.

So, let’s bring this Scripture into our world today. Jesus knew that if He healed the man, He would get in trouble with the Jewish leaders. But He did it anyway. Why? Because He had great value in healing, to show the power of the Kingdom and help people. Jesus valued healing because He valued people who were hurting.

What do we do when we see someone who is sick, disabled or ill? Do we stop whatever we’re doing and pray for them to be healed? Why not? What are the first thoughts that come into your mind when you think about praying for someone? What will they think of me? Maybe they’ll think I’m a religious fanatic. What if I pray for them and nothing happens. It might affect our relationship. 

And we could go on. Who are all those excuses about healing focused on? They’re focused on you and your feelings, not the person suffering and in need of healing. They’re focused on you and not on Jesus’ values. They same situation occurs when we consider whether to witness to someone, to provide spiritual healing. Jesus didn’t care what other people thought about Him and neither should we. Our values should be Jesus’ values and Jesus values healing.