Public Reading: Luke 18:25-35
The Story:
• Hard teaching
o You have to love Jesus more than anything
o More than family, friends and even life itself
• This passage has two audience
o New believers need to know what they are getting into – they need to count the cost
o Current disciples – daily pick up cross and follow Jesus (Lk 9:23)
• Focus today is on the second audience
o It is about control
• Throughout history, humans have always wanted some type of control
o The act of being able to make a decision about your life
o What to eat, drink…how to dress…where to live…
o Wars have been fought over this issue…
o In the USA, we hang so tight to our “rights” that I think the rights take over and start control us…
• Control can be both a good and a bad thing
o After all the Bible clearly teaches that self-control is a good thing – Gal 5, fruits of the Spirit
o Yet control is bad in the sense that it can keep us from following Jesus.
• Jesus said in verse 27, “whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
o Remember at this point the cross was a instrument of death
o It was not something nice to wear around your neck or post on your wall
o Jesus is telling folks that they have to die to follow him
o They must give up everything – give up control of their lives to follow Him
“Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” –Luke 14:33
• Living sacrifices
o Romans 12:1
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
o While we may want to pretty things up a bit, in ancient day’s sacrifices involved the killing of an animal.
o So if we are to be a “living sacrifice”, that means we are to give Jesus everything (our desires, passions, jobs, family, dreams, future, etc.) as if we had died.
• In fact, though we are still physically alive and make look the same, when we do give Jesus everything we do “die” in the sense that the “old us” is gone and we have been made anew through the life giving grace and blood of Jesus
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” -2 Corinthians 5:17
o In doing this, we, as followers of Jesus, take up His mission, passion, dreams, hopes, etc.
o We allow Jesus to take control
• Remember the song Carrie Underwood song, “Jesus, Take the Wheel”
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I’m on
Jesus take the wheel
• Control…
o Yet we are afraid to give the wheel to Jesus
o We are not sure if we can really trust Him…
o What if He tells me to do something I don’t want to do?
o To go somewhere I don’t want to go?
o I want to live MY LIFE!!!
• Yet is it really your life to live?
• CS Lewis once said
“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. . .It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”
• It has been said that the greatest joy in life comes from knowing why you were made and then doing that which you were made for
• Let me tell, each one of you were made to be in relationship with Jesus
o He has THE best plan for your lives
o The best hopes and dreams
o Ephesians 3: 20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
• How do we get there? How do we learn to give up control?
o It is a daily decision
o We have to daily pick up our cross…
• We also learn to give up control of our lives to Jesus through listening to Him by
o Holy Spirit
o Bible
o Church
• Holy Spirit
o Jesus told us in John 14.16-17 that he would send us the Spirit to be our helper
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
* We were not left alone!
o Marked with the Spirit – Ephesians 1:13b-14
When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
• Bible
o Romans 12:2 – “transformed by the renewing of your mind”
* To study, to read the Bible
* To allow the words of the Scriptures to change your behavior
o 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
o Psalm 119:25-40
25 I am laid low in the dust;
preserve my life according to your word.
26 I gave an account of my ways and you answered me;
teach me your decrees.
27 Cause me to understand the way of your precepts,
that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds.
28 My soul is weary with sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word.
29 Keep me from deceitful ways;
be gracious to me and teach me your law.
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I have set my heart on your laws.
31 I hold fast to your statutes, LORD;
do not let me be put to shame.
32 I run in the path of your commands,
for you have broadened my understanding.
ה He
33 Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees,
that I may follow it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law
and obey it with all my heart.
35 Direct me in the path of your commands,
for there I find delight.
36 Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.
37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
preserve my life according to your word.[c]
38 Fulfill your promise to your servant,
so that you may be feared.
39 Take away the disgrace I dread,
for your laws are good.
40 How I long for your precepts!
In your righteousness preserve my life.
• Church
o We are to encourage and strengthen each other
o Hebrews 10:23-25
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
o The testimonies of those who have gone before us
* Hebrews 11 – the “Hall of Faith”
* Cloud of witnesses – Hebrews 12:1-2a
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
• To lay down our lives for Jesus….it is an thrilling adventure as He takes us and uses us for His glory
o We get to partner with the creator of the universe! How cool is that?!
• As Romans 8:15 says (in the Message)
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”