I've got news for you many professing Christians who go to church every Sunday who give money to their church and probably were raised in a Christian Home unfortunately on Judgment Day are going to sadly find out that they are going to hell and my friend it is very possible that you watching this video right now very well may be in that number now that opening was not meant in any way to spark any sort of fear or shock value in you but the reality is that Jesus said that one day at judgment he's going to
say depart from me I never knew you now that's not the passage of scripture they're going to look at in this particular video but what I believe is happening in our society today is that we are placing such a huge emphasis on just believe believe believe and let me be very very clear believing in Jesus Christ is the only prerequisite for being a Christian the question is what does it actually mean to believe and what does it actually look like to believe and is your belief consistent with your behaviors because James says that if you
have faith without works that is a dead Faith so I believe that there is another passage of scripture that we're going to dig into today in this particular video that if it was explained to more people who say they want to be a disciple who say they want to be a Christian before they actually walk down this road if they were to truly think about it and try to uh understand whether it is they want to take this step I think we'd have a whole lot less false conversions and a whole lot less people who
are deconstructing their faith let's jump in beginning in Luke Chapter 14 verse 25 it says this now great crowds were traveling with him now let's just stop right here we're going to break this passage of scripture down I want you to visualize this for just a moment you may have to close your eyes and I want you to imagine this huge crowd of people who are traveling with Jesus and basically they've heard about what he can do they've heard about him raising the dead and healing the blind and and Healing The Sick and doing all
these different things and and maybe they're following him because they want to see a magic show maybe they're following him because they need something from him they want to be healed they want their their family members to be healed or whatever it is but what Jesus is getting ready to say In this passage he is going to separate the committed from the crowd and I want you to ask yourself while you're going through this passage with me are you just part of the crowd of people that are following Jesus or are you part of the
committed that Jesus is going to explain and describe here now let's keep going now great crowds were traveling with him so he turned and said to them if anyone comes to me now let's just stop right there because what we see here is that whatever Jesus is going to say next he is applying it to anyone and everyone who says they want to be a follower of Jesus a disciple anyone who names the name Christian he says what I'm getting ready to say is what I am requiring of somebody who says they want to be
a disciple because oftentimes we think oh you know what uh I can do this because I'm not a pastor I'm not a minister I'm not a missionary I'm not this I'm not a Ministry oh no no what Jesus is getting ready to say is it whatever it is I'm applying it from the pulpit to the Pew okay let's just see what he says the first quality of a disciple somebody who says they want to be a Christian that they elevate their faith over their family notice it says here if anyone comes to me and does
not hate his own father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters and later on it says he cannot be my disciple so Jesus is basically laying it down here now I want you to understand that the way Jesus is using the word hate here he's not talking about uh uh seeing somebody in a negative like he's basically using hyperbole to set the bar so high that he's basically saying how you see me and everybody else there should be such a huge gap between your faith and every other relationship so much so that in comparison
to me it seems as though you hate these people because you're so prioritizing your relationship with me and so listen you might be in a situation where it's difficult to share your faith with your family or your friends or you might risk embarrassment or shame or whatever and Jesus is saying if you want to be a disciple you have to be willing to elevate your relationship with me with Jesus Christ and that has to take preeminence over every single other relationship the person that you're dating even the person that you're married to every other relationship
quality number two if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple so now he's talking about sacrifice over self-centeredness you see there's this tendency in our lives to want to do what we want to do and to do our will but Jesus is saying I am calling anyone who wants to be a disciple to a life of surrender a life of sacrifice where we constantly put down what we want in exchange for what God wants
but see what we want to do is we want to compartmentalize our lives we have certain things that we say Okay God I'm going to give you control over this oh but not over this right I'll let you control over my money I'll give money to the church oh but I don't want you to control my my sexuality or my dating relationships or my marriage or what you know you may want me to do with my career or my money so so it's like we're we're got one foot in but there's some areas of Our
Lives where we're just not willing to surrender and he says if you want to be a disciple what I'm calling you to is a life of total and complete surrender see this passage it needs to be explained to new Christians so that they know exactly what they are getting themselves into and what they are signing up for from the jump let's keep going quality number three pain over pleasure now notice it says here whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple you see in these days there were a
lot of people who were losing their lives because of their faith and here's the reality Saints Jesus for most of us is not even calling us to a life where we might be in Jeopardy of of losing our lives or being a martyr he is just simply saying you know what in this life there's going to be pain there's going to be difficulty there's going to be humiliation there's going to be shame there's going to be suffering there's going to be all of these there's going to be loss there's going to be Financial struggles there's
going to be marital stress strain and struggles but see the issue for many of us because we're not taught this because we've been fed this cotton candy gospel this watered-down version of The Gospel the secret sensitive type of gospel this gospel from the church and from the pulpit oftentimes where they're afraid to mention sin they're afraid to call out certain things they're afraid to challenge people to go deeper in their faith what happens is when these things come into their lives they're disillusioned and they don't know what to think because they've been fed this lie
that everything in their life is going to go well and as a result whenever pain comes whenever it's time for them to carry their own cross they want to shake their angry Fists in the face of God and ultimately leave the church and ultimately leave the faith and Jesus is saying hey look I'm actually calling you to a life that is going to include pain difficulty and hardship number four relationship over religion notice he says here whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me me or another version says follow me cannot be
my disciple now do you see the strong language that Jesus is using here cannot be my disciple so he's inviting us to a to a relationship with him not just religion he says you have to follow me what does that look like that means spending time with him that means praying that means fasting that means trusting that means learning that means obeying that means worshiping all that means putting our our trust in him [Music] see what religion is okay let me go to church let me give some money maybe let me you know uh hang
out with some Christian friends or whatever know that those are all religious activities what Jesus is calling us to is a life of intimate Fellowship with him I'm not the one that writes he says look if you don't come after me and follow me in relationship he says you cannot be my disciple number five commitment over convenience let's see what it says but don't begin I'm reading this from the new living this time until you count the cost I love this he says hey this is what I've been getting to this entire video he says
don't even start down the road of saying you want to be a Christian you want to be a disciple of Christ he says don't begin until you think about it until you consider until you count the cost of what might be required of you as a fully devoted follower of Jesus that's why I said this passage needs to be taught to every single new Believers matter of fact if you have a friend who just got saved within the last year send them this video and make sure they watch this so that they are not disillusioned
about what it means to truly be a Christian let's keep going for who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it he says who does that who starts building an entire building only to realize they don't have enough money to be able to finish it Nobody Does that instead what we do is we look at the bank and we say okay you know in fact we've got banks that approve us for loans to make sure that we don't do this make sure we
have the money we have to count the cost we have to consider it and what Jesus is saying is hey I'm calling you to do the same thing with regards to your relationship with me he says otherwise you might complete only the foundation before running out of money and then everyone would laugh at you they would say there's that person who started that building and couldn't afford to finish it wow isn't that what we see today [Music] so many people starting down the road of building their faith only to leave it harshly built I believe
the word that we call that is deconstruction I believe that we would have less stories of deconstruction today if on the front end of someone's conversion we clearly taught them what it means to be a disciple I'm gonna get in trouble for this I'm gonna go ahead and say it anyway if you're a church leader watching this I want you to ask yourself the question as new people come into your church and they get uh baptized are you explaining to them what it means to be a Christian or are we just simply trying to get
them into a small group or getting to serve a church which is nothing wrong with that but they need to know what is required of them as a Christian before they move on and finally number six usefulness over uselessness notice he says here salt is good for seasoning but if it loses its flavor how do you make it salty again listen salt in those days was used as a flavor enhancement now I'm just gonna be honest with you some of y'all need to use some more salt in your in your food okay amen okay but
we're gonna move off of that okay listen salt changes the flavor salt was also used as a preservative in either case what is he saying salt chain is a change agent when you put salt on stuff stuff starts changing Taste starts changing right and he's saying in the same way that's why he says we are to be sold because we are to be change agents but instead and far too often we are not changing the culture around us instead we are being changed by the culture that is around us and Jesus is saying here if
the salt is not performing in its job of changing the atmosphere and changing the situation he says what good is it how do you make it salty again as a matter of fact there's a secondary use of salt in those days they would throw salt on a pile of manure to keep the weeds from growing up and Jesus is basically saying I can't even use you for that notice it says here he says here flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile it is thrown away he says look not only
can I use you not for to change and and for the seasoning and all that stuff I can't even use it for the most basic thing which is to throw salt on a manure pile and keep the weeds from growing up he says anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand now my friend listen I know at this point in the video you might be scared you might be thinking listen this video was not intended to spark crazy fear in you to make you question your salvation no no but it was intended as a
heart check as a warning and for some of you watching this video it should create some fear because if you've gone most of your life and if you're being honest with yourself just honest you have no relationship with Jesus you may call out to him whenever you need something or you pray whenever something's in trouble but but let's be honest you you don't really read your Bible you don't really pray and you're really not going to church and it hasn't just been that way for a short season this has been a consistent theme of yours
for most of your life this video was intended for you this passage of scripture was intended for you because it's intended for you to take a close look at your life and ask yourself the question am I really a Christian because the answer to that question could determine your entire Eternal destiny and if you want to be a Christian the only prerequisite is that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved but that belief my friend should be a byproduct a natural byproduct of your belief should be followed up with changed
behavior and a desire to be a disciple a fully devoted follower of Christ so I pray that as you take a look at your life you'll use these six principles to guide and assess where you're at on your journey of being a disciple of Jesus and if you're a church leader I pray that you would use this passage as scary as it may be and it might scare some people away but I pray that you use this passage to truly communicate what it means to be a disciple of Christ I'll see you in the next
video bye for now
