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Well, um, I just got back this week from uh a kind of last-minute trip to France. I had a pretty cool opportunity to go to this really small town in the French Alps called Chimoni, I believe that's how the French say it. Uh, and I got to be a part of this amazing event. It's this tiny town of 8,000 people. It's the biggest ultra marathon in the entire world. Uh, there's eight different races for seven days in a row. It's called UTMB. And in this tiny town, there was a hundred thousand people who came and stayed in this town of 8,000 people. And every single day, like the streets were so crowded, it was crazy, it was chaotic. Like, you literally can't walk anywhere, and people are running everywhere. Like, this is crazy. Um, I got to do some work with Nike and be a part of the social media content team and was helping run some of their social media for the event. Super fun thing. But being in that crowd, it was like, especially at the finish line. The finish line's right in the heart of the city. There's this big, beautiful like chapel and church behind it, which is dead. It's just like a tourist attraction. I was low-key, like, should I plant the church here too, God? That'd be kind of cool. But uh just being at the finish line there, where people like literally the final race, it's a hundred-mile race with 33,000 feet of elevation gain. That's more than a Mount Everest. The guy who won that race did it in just under uh 18 hours, which is absolutely insane. It's like, how is that humanly possible? I still think he was like low-key a cyborg or something. But just being in a crowd like that, we're legit, like all the streets are crowded, the runners come through. It's the coolest thing in the world to be in an environment like that. Now, I understood why hundreds of thousands of people went there because you're watching all the most elite athletes in the world running through the mountains, and it's absolutely crazy. And that's one way to gather a crowd is just see all the best athletes in the world. Well, in our story today, there's another crowd, and they're they're coming together for a different reason, and that is Jesus' ministry is growing and exploding. And Jesus himself, who was not an ultramarathon runner, as far as I know, uh, was able to bring the crowds together. But Jesus, here in our passage today, this morning, is gonna share with us, which I want to share with you, what I believe to be one of the most controversial statements that he ever made, one of the most controversial teachings that Jesus ever gave, and it has to do with discipleship. And so I want to share it with you this morning. If you want to look down at Luke chapter 14, starting in verse 25, here's what it says it says, 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. So notice again at the beginning here, uh, the the author Luke here points out that great crowds were around. And if you're trying to gain a large following and keep that large following, personally, this probably is not the statement that I would have led with. Hey, if you don't hate your mom and hate your dad and hate your spouse and hate your kids, you can't follow me. Like just me, I'm like, whoa, like, brother, that's gonna scare some of the crowds off. Like, that's that that's pretty harsh here. But what I love about Jesus is that when the crowd was there, Jesus was far less concerned with the quantity of people in the crowd, and he was far more concerned with the quality of their faith. Jesus was not content to live in the shadow of success. Well, look how many people want to follow me. Look how many people are here to follow me. Jesus longed for the substance of sanctification to be formed deep in the heart of those who were his true disciples. And so, what I love about Jesus is that even when there was a large crowd, Jesus wasn't afraid to say what needed to be said. Jesus was willing to share the hard truths about the cost of discipleship. And today, sadly, in our culture, this is a very scarce thing. There are many churches today in our culture and even church growth experts who are trying to find ways to reach the largest crowds. How do we get the most people into the room? How do we get the most people to come to our church? And oftentimes, this comes with the cost. And oftentimes what those churches do to get the large crowds is that they compromise many of the core teachings of Jesus. This is what we call in our culture today the seeker-sensitive church movement. It's how do we make people as comfortable as possible? How do we make people as happy as possible? And the problem with the seeker-sensitive church isn't so much what they do say, it's what they don't say. Because it's easy to gather a crowd and it's easy to get people to come and follow you when you just affirm everything that they believe. It's easy to get up and just say, hey, we're all good and we're all on the same page and you're all good, and you don't need to change, and we're all good, and we're per Like that's easy to gather a crowd. But the goal of church and the goal of ministry, and specifically, even here at the story, I want you to know on the front end our goal as a church is not to build a larger crowd. Our goal as a church is to make disciples. Our goal as a church is not to make people feel good about themselves. Our goal as a church is to teach the whole counsel of God so that people might be conformed into the image of Christ. And so, to make disciples, you have to be willing to face the hard teachings of Jesus head on. And if you are a disciple of Jesus, you have to wrestle with the teachings that Jesus himself gave head on as well. And so I want to start by just acknowledging how radically wild this statement is. Like I let's just read it again in 20, verse 26. Jesus says, if anyone comes to me and doesn't hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even in his own life, he cannot be my disciple. That's pretty crazy, right? Like, and to say that in a large crowd of people is like, whoa, this is radical. Think about if any other person in any other context of life ever said this to you. Like, imagine this morning if I got up here and I was like, you guys, if you don't hate your spouse and your parents as your kids in comparison to how much you love me, your pastor, you can't be my disciple. I hope if I said that, that y'all all would leave the church, by the way. Like if you ever go to a church and your pastor says that, be like, I'm out, bro. Like, imagine if your boss said that to you. Like, he's like, hey, come into my office, we need to meet. And he's like, if you don't hate your spouse and your kids and your wife or your husband or your roommate, as much as you love me, you can't work here. You'd be like, okay, then I guess I'll go find another job, bro. Right? Like, even if your spouse said this to you, who's like your closest, that'd be weird. Like if you're married and your spouse is like, if you don't hate the kids and if you don't hate your parents, you're like, what are you talking about? Like this is weird, okay? So to make this statement, here's the reality: you either have to be crazy or you have to be God. That's the reality. To say this, if you don't hate everybody else, you can't follow. You're either crazy or you're God. And Jesus made this statement because Jesus Christ is God. And Jesus is only worthy of our greatest love and affection and devotion. And so he's able to make a statement like this. If anybody ever else made the statement, run from that relationship. But when Jesus says this, he's actually inviting us into a beautiful intimacy that I want to share with you this morning. So the first question we have to ask when we come to a passage like this is what is Jesus actually saying here? Because maybe, maybe you've read this before, maybe it was morning devotions and you got your coffee and it's six in the morning, and you're like, Lord, I just want to hear from you. And you open here and he's like, if you don't hate all these people, you can't follow me. You're like, what do I do with that, right? Like when I don't know about you, but you're like, what does this mean? So at first glance, when a lot of people read this, there's kind of two different responses that come to the surface. The first response that some people have in reading this is that honestly, many people are just confused. Like you read Jesus saying, if you don't hate your spouse and hate your parents and hate your kids, a lot of people are confused because it seems to contradict other parts of scripture, and it seems to contradict even some of the other core teachings of Jesus. For example, uh, you might have read in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 2 and 3, where it says this honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. So the scripture teaches we should honor our father and mother. And here's a question: Did Jesus honor his father and mother? Yeah, he did. Like even as a kid, he honored his father and mother. But the question is, okay, well, now why is why now is he saying that you have to hate them? Like, how can you honor them but also hate them? That seems a little bit weird. Likewise, if you're to ask any person whether they're a follower of Jesus or not, like ask any of your friends who don't go to church, who don't believe in Jesus, and just say, hey, based off of what you know about Jesus, what would you say is kind of the main primary principle that Jesus' teachings were founded upon? And what would most people say? Yeah, love. Like whether you believe Jesus was God or not, like everybody knows Jesus' main teaching was love. For example, in Matthew 5, 43 and 44, Jesus said, You have heard it said, you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Wow. Jesus here is saying, We're to love not only those who love us, but even love and pray for our enemies. That's pretty powerful. In Matthew 22, 39, Jesus said, You should love your neighbor as yourself. The greatest commandment when the Pharisees came and said, What's the greatest commandment of all? And he said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so again, we know this that Jesus' teachings were centered around the principle of love. So the question is, if Jesus' teachings are centrally built around the principle of love, why is he now telling people to hate their family and to hate their own lives and to hate other people? That's where a lot of people get hung up and wrestle with this passage. That's one group of people. The other group of people who read this, the second response is for some people, when they read this teaching, they get really excited because you're like, I've always hated my dad, and I've always hated my mom. Like you got you got some trauma from your childhood, and you're like, Yeah, I straight up hate my dad, hate my mom. I guess that means I'm a disciple now. Or maybe you got some growing resentment towards your spouse because they never put the dishes away or they never kind of do their stuff around the house. And you're like, I've got some growing resentment towards my spouse or towards my roommates. And oh wow, if I don't hate them, I can't be a disciple. So this is good news for me. Like I'm a disciple of Christ, and I'm really struggling with hatred towards my kids. They're never cleaning up their toys, there's Legos all over the house, and I'm kind of hating them a little bit. Oh, good. I guess Jesus is affirming me here, and I guess I'm now a disciple. So that's that's kind of how some people read it. And I'm kind of joking about that a little bit, but for some of you, maybe you're legit like that, that's me. And it's like, oh, okay, well, we got to work through that. Okay, so the big question is what does Jesus mean here? The big question is, well, what is what is Jesus actually saying when he says you need to hate father, mother, husband, wife, children, and so on and forth, so forth. Jesus is using a figure of speech here to drive home this point. And the point is this that a true disciple, to be a true disciple, is somebody who puts Jesus first, and every other relationship comes second. That's it. To be a true disciple of Jesus, Jesus is your first love, and every other relationship comes second. Our love for Jesus and our devotion to Jesus and our loyalty to Jesus should be in such great measure that your love for even anything else, even your kids or your spouse or whatever it might be, it pales in comparison to the love that you have for Jesus. And so what Jesus is saying is this is if I'm not your first love, if anything or anyone else is first love, you cannot be my disciple. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6, verse 24. He said, No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. So this is what Jesus is saying here. You can't live for the applause and the approval of your spouse or your kids or your parents or your boss and follow Jesus. At the end of the day, what Jesus says and who Jesus says I am and my love for Jesus, that has preeminence. And so, on a practical level, what this means is if what your family thinks about your relationship with Jesus is more important than what Jesus thinks, you can't be his disciple. If what your spouse thinks about you pursuing a relationship with Jesus is hindering you from actually following Jesus, you can't be his disciple. If what culture thinks and what the crowds think are more important and carry more weight in your heart than what Jesus said and what Jesus thinks, you cannot be his disciple. If even what you think, and you base you base your life off of your own preferences, if what you think and how you feel is more important than what Jesus has revealed, you cannot be his disciple. And maybe for some of you here in this room today, maybe maybe it gets really practical. Maybe you're in a dating relationship right now, maybe you're engaged, maybe you got a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and maybe they are hindering you and keeping you from following Jesus. They don't like the fact that you go to church, they don't like the fact that you pray, they don't like the fact that what Jesus says is ultimate in your life. And if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend and they're hindering you from following Jesus, Jesus says, You got to count the cost. Do you want them in your life or am I first in your life? If you have a husband or wife, if you're married, maybe you were both not believers when you got saved. And maybe you're now a believer and you're following Jesus. And again, if your husband or your wife keeps you from following Jesus, Jesus says, You got to count the cost even on that. You cannot be my disciple. If you have a mother or a father, if you're still living under your parents' roof, and if what they say about you and if what they say and what they allow is hindering you from following Jesus, you got to count the cost. Are you gonna follow Jesus first and foremost? Is he preeminent in your life? Again, if there's anything or anyone that is keeping you from wholehearted devotion to Christ, Jesus says, you cannot be my disciple. So the the question, simply put, is this is there anything or anyone in your life right now that is hindering you from following Jesus? That is pushing you away from following Jesus, that is distracting or deterring you from what is most important, which is your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And then secondly, a way to kind of gauge that is is there anything or anyone I love more than Jesus? And it's hard to know that honestly. It's really hard to know. But but to ask yourself, Lord, right now, God, is there anything or anyone I love more than you? Because Jesus will not share the throne of your heart with anything or anyone else. He is a jealous God, and there is a good thing that there is such a thing as godly jealousy. God's jealous for us because we are his, because he purchased us, because he ransomed us. And so he is jealous for our affection, he is jealous for our time, he's jealous for our hearts, and he will not share the throne with anybody else. Now, the the truth is for some of you in the room today, you have experienced the pain and you have experienced the relational loss of a loved one or a family member because of your devotion to Christ. You have lived this reality, and some of you are living in this reality even right now. I know people in this room here today that your spouse left you because you gave your life to Christ and you wanted to build a family that was centered around the finished work of Christ, and they didn't want that, and they left you because of that. And even today you struggle, even today you wrestle, even today you carry the weight of that. Why did they not give their life to Christ as well? Why did they have to end the relationship? There's some of you who are here in this room today, and you've been cut off from a father or mother because the faith tradition that your parents raised you in that they are still practicing, has a different set of standards and a different world of view than the faith that you're practicing now as a follower of Jesus. And when you said, I'm no longer gonna be a part of that church, I'm no longer gonna be a part of that cult, I'm no longer gonna be a part of that worldview, they cut you out of their life. And so there's adult children in the room here today where you have let go of father and mother because of your faith, because you've chosen to place Christ as your first love. And some of you are parents here today, and you have grown adult children, children that maybe you even raised in the faith, children that you helped lay a firm faith foundation, but you have adult children who have grown and moved out, and they will not speak to you because the worldview that they now believe is contradictory to your worldview, and they have cut you out of their life because you will not affirm what they believe. You will not affirm their choices, you will not affirm their lifestyle. You love them and you care for them and you want what's best for them, but your children have cut you out of your life because of your faith in Christ. There has been that separation, and you still love them and you want what's best for them, but your love for Christ is far greater. And people in this room have willingly let spouses leave and let kids leave and let parents leave because of this principle. They said, nothing will get in the way of my relationship with Christ. And if that's you here today, I know it's not easy. If that's you here today, I know you still carry the weight of that. I know you still pray for your ex, you pray for your kids, you pray for your parents, I know you carry that weight every single day, but I want to commend you for counting the cost and for wholeheartedly entrusting yourself under the loving hand of God. This isn't just theology and some theory, this is real life. And some of you have walked through that and are walking through that, and it's not easy, but Christ's grace is sufficient even in the midst of your weakness, and he will continue to shape and conform your heart into the person he's calling you to be as you grieve the loss of those relationships. Now, I also want to share with a different group of people in the room. This is a group of people who have maybe not experienced this, and I want to say this as a warning that if if if this is not true in your life, if Christ is not your supreme love, and every other love and every other relationship pales in comparison to your love for Christ, if this is not true in your life, the danger is this the danger is that one day your father or your mother they will pass away. The statistics show that for 50% of the people who are in this room, guaranteed, one of you is gonna lose your spouse. Either the husband's passing away first or the wife is, one out of two married people in this room, you're gonna lose your spouse. God forbid the day come that you may lose a child. And some of you in this room have done that. And what happens in those moments is if you have not taken the teachings of Jesus seriously, that if you do not hate father, mother, spouse, children in comparison to your love for Christ, here's what happens. In the day when you lose father or mother, in the day when you lose spouse, in the day when you lose your children, if God is not the greatest love in your life, what you thought was a love for God will actually begin to turn into resentment of God. I've been in ministry long enough that I could stand up here for hours and tell you story after story after story of people who thought they loved God and then this happened and they hadn't counted the cost, and God actually wasn't their first love, their father was, God wasn't their first love, their spouse love was, God wasn't their first love, their kids were, and I've seen time and time again people who have turned and walked away from the faith. My best friend that I grew up with in high school went to Bible college with me. He was the reason I went to Bible college. He wanted to be in ministry. I sat through all the Bible studies with him, I stood next to him and raised my hand, singing the same worship songs as him. I served alongside him in ministry for many years. And the day came where his dad passed away unexpectedly, and he completely walked away from the faith. Hasn't set foot back in the church doors again. It would have looked like God was his first love. He was doing all the right things, all the same things I was doing, going through all the motions, but God was not actually his first love. I had another close friend who was a very gifted worship pastor on staff at a church, leading worship at a large church. But when his wife in her mid-20s got cancer and died unexpectedly, he quit the ministry, he grew bitter towards God, he has a deep resentment, even to this day, and a hatred of God over ten years has gone by, and he wants nothing to do with Christianity, he wants nothing to do with Jesus because at the end of the day, Christ was not his first love. And I could stand here again for hours and tell you story after story after story after people who it looked like, oh, I'm good. I'm singing the songs, I'm in the Bible studies, I'm going to church, I'm doing the things. But the the the the test really comes in that moment, well, well, what if that person is no longer a part of your life? That really is the testing ground, and that really is the proving ground. And so for each one of us, I want to ask you again is there anything or anyone that if they were no longer a part of your life that would compromise your relationship with Jesus? Your relationship with Jesus and your faith in Jesus, it cannot be because of your spouse. It cannot be because of your parents, it cannot be because of your kids or for your kids because we want to raise the next generation better than we had. It has to be, is my relationship with Jesus preeminent? Is my love for him first and foremost? That is the only foundation that will not be shaken. And only time will tell when those moments come in our life. Whether we're building our life on a false love and a false pretense for God, or whether he actually is the greatest love of our life. Someone once said, if your greatest love is anything other than God, you are going from it. But if your first love is God, you are going to it. Isn't that good? Is your first love something that will one day be gone? Or is your first love something that you will only grow in deeper intimacy with for all eternity? As the psalmist said in Psalm 63, verse 3, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. May that be our experience, God, that your love is so much better than life itself, than any relationship, than any of my accomplishments, than anything I have. God, your love is so great, nothing can compare with it, and my lips will praise you. That's my prayer for each one of you in this room today. That God would be your first love and that you would know him as deeply, as intimately as he knows you. Amen. So Jesus says, Hey, if anyone doesn't hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, you can't be my disciple. Is anything stopping and hindering you from coming to Christ is He first and foremost? And then He follows that up with this statement, which by the way, um Noah taught on uh a similar passage two weeks ago. Did an awesome job. If Noah, you're in the crowd, shout out, thank you for that. I wanted to double-click this though, because Jesus says it again here. He says in verse 27, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So the the thing is when we read that, when you read that, if anyone doesn't bear his cross, he can't be my disciple. The reality is this none of us in this room have ever seen anybody do this. You have never seen anybody, I have never seen anybody carry a cross and then be hung on it and crucified. But the reality is this in this context, when Jesus says this to this large crowd, if anyone doesn't bear his cross and come after me, there were people in that crowd who had seen a crucified man. I don't know if you knew this or not, Jesus wasn't the first person that was crucified, Jesus wasn't the only person that was crucified. Thousands of people before and after Jesus were crucified at the hands of the Romans. And so it was very common growing up in this culture where you would have witnessed that as a public humiliation for the thief or for the murderer or whatever. You had seen a man in this culture carrying a cross, you had seen them nail the person to the cross, and you had seen them be brutally crucified. And the only reason a person would carry a cross in that culture was to die on it. Like carrying a cross wasn't the like trend of the Roman crossfit, like how big of a cross can you carry around? That wasn't it. Like carrying a cross, that was death sentence. That's the only reason you're doing that. And so what Jesus is saying is this discipleship is a death sentence. Discipleship is a death sentence. Jesus says, if you don't carry your cross, you can't be my disciple. Which means to be my disciple, there is a cross that you are gonna carry and die on. And notice, he doesn't say you must take up the cross. Notice he must say you must take up a cross. Look at verse 27. He says, Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Why does he say his own cross? The reason he says his own cross is because the reality is this for each and every person, the cross that you must carry, the denial of self and the death to self, which is the path that we all must walk, but it's gonna look different for each person based off of your unique context of life, based off of each person's vices and temptations and relationships and giftings and talents and possessions and wealth. The cross for each person is mandatory, but the way the cross looks is different. So for some of you, the take up your cross, for some of you, bearing the cross is exactly what Jesus just said. It's people in your life who are hindering you from following Jesus, people in your life who you love more than Jesus, and for you, the cross is I need to let those relationships go so that Christ is first in my life. For some of you, it may not be relational, but maybe the way of the cross is financial so that you don't become enslaved to your wealth and possessions. Maybe God's blessed you with wealth and resources, and there's nothing wrong with that. But maybe you feel your heart becoming more attached to the things of the world because of the blessings of God, and the blessings of God have actually turned your heart farther away from God. You're trusting more in your resources and you're trusting in Him. And so maybe the way of the cross is God, I need to give this away. How can I use this not just for myself, but how can I use this for the furtherance of the kingdom? And for some of you, the way of the cross is financial sacrifice. For some of you, the cross that you must carry is mental health struggles, it's sickness and suffering. I know many people in this room who you've carried long-term health issues, you've carried long-term mental health battles. And for you, maybe that is the way of the cross. The way of the cross is, God, I don't like this. And God, I'm gonna continue to pray for healing, and I trust that if that's what you have for my life, you're good, but I trust you even if that doesn't happen. And for some of you, that's the way of the cross. Walking through suffering, walking through emotional trauma, walking through and working through the scars of your past and allowing Jesus to meet you in the midst of that. For some of us, the way of the cross is giving up certain freedoms that may be a stumbling block to other brothers or sisters in Christ. Am I free to do this? Am I free to do this? Yeah, but is that hindering other people from following Jesus? And maybe the way of the cross is I'm giving up this freedom I have in Christ because I don't want another brother or sister in Christ to be stumbled by the liberties that I'm freely exercising. For some of you, the way of the cross may be walking away from comfort or success, and maybe some of you have already done that. Maybe you feel like God called you onto the mission field or called you to ministry, and you gave up a big job opportunity to go and serve the Lord in a certain capacity. I don't know what it is for each of you, but I know this. It's gonna be different for each person, but for each person, there will be a cross to carry. The way of discipleship is always the way of the cross. And Jesus says, if you are not willing to carry your cross, whatever that is, you cannot be my disciple. But what's so amazing about this, and this is really the kicker, is notice what Jesus said at the end of verse 27. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. What's amazing about Jesus saying, hey, there's gonna be a cross for you to carry. There's gonna be some struggles and hardship and some sacrifice you have to make, but he says, Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me. What Jesus is saying is, I'm not asking you to do something that I didn't do first. Coming after a person means they showed the way. Coming after a person means they did it first. And when it comes to carrying our cross, the beautiful thing is we follow a king and we follow a Lord and Savior who himself showed us exactly what that looked like. That Jesus was willing to give up comfort and worldly pleasure and success and relationships at the count of the cross. He was willing to bear his cross, he was willing to go all the way and be crucified to show us what was on the other side of that. And as Noah shared a little bit from two weeks ago, I want to read again Philippians 2, verse 8 through 11. Listen to what Paul the Apostle says here about Christ going first. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So Jesus became obedient to death, even death on the cross. But then Paul says, it is because of that, therefore, that God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. And the reason Paul reminds us of that is because of this. Paul is saying, and Jesus is saying, Yes, the way of the cross is difficult. The path of discipleship and dying to yourself and taking up your cross, it is difficult. It is the most difficult life one can live. And although the cost is great, and although the sacrifice is great, here's the reality: it is the most glorious and rewarding life that you can ever live. Jesus himself said it this way in Matthew 19, 29. He said, And anyone who has left houses and brothers and sisters, father or mother, children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. So he says, the cost is great. You need to count the cost, but don't forget, the reward is greater. Whatever the cost is for you, whatever your cross is, whatever you have to give up to follow Jesus, you are gonna gain so much more. And you might not always see that in this lifetime, but he says that there is a hundredfold reward and eternal life for those who go the way of the cross. And the reason that we know that is true is because we just have to look at the life of Jesus one more time. When Jesus gave of his life on the cross, what was the hundredfold return of that? What is the hundredfold return that Jesus got for laying down his life? And here's what it is it's you and it's me. The sacrifice that Jesus made, the hundredfold of that, is the salvation of mankind. And it's more than a hundredfold, hundreds of millions. Think of the millions of people throughout human history after Jesus went the way of the cross, whose lives have been changed and transformed. And a transformed life is the fruit of Jesus' sacrifice. Think about your life personally. Think about the person you were and where were you and who you were before you found Christ. And now look at your life. Look at the person you are. Look how good God has been to you. Look at the blessings that He's given you. Look at the family and the friends and the community he's brought alongside you. All of that is the result of His obedience in going the way of the cross. So for each person, your cross is different. And every day you have the decision to make. Am I gonna carry the cross or am I just gonna shrug it off and take the easy road? It's easy to not follow Jesus, it's easy to do your own thing, it's easy to trust yourself. The way of the cross is hard, but there is so much fruit and there is so much joy in it. So my question for you this morning is simply this in closing. What is the cross today that Jesus is asking you to carry? What is the cross today that Jesus is asking you to die on? What is the cross today and what is the cost today? What is the sacrifice today that God is calling you to make? Is there anything or anyone that you're holding on to that's hindering you from wholehearted devotion to Jesus? And if there is, Jesus says, You can't be my disciple. If you don't count the cost, and if you don't pick up the cross, you cannot be my disciple. But I love what Jim Elliott said. He said this he is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. You can hold on to those relationships and you can hold on to your possessions and you can hold on to everything you have, and one day you're gonna lose it. It's gonna be gone. But he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. The only thing in this life that will not go from you, the only thing in this life that is guaranteed is your relationship with Christ. So may He continue to be the first love. May He continue to have preeminence over every relationship, over all of our possessions and gifts and talents and everything God has given us. To him be the glory through all the ages. Amen. Amen. Well, Jesus, I just come before you right now. We come before you. Thank you that you didn't only tell us you got to pick up the cross, you got to count the cost, you gotta die to yourself. Thank you that you showed us what that looks like. Thank you that you willingly gave your life, you willingly laid your life down so that we could have eternal life in you. And God, thank you that today we're living in the fruit of your sacrifice. We're living in the hundredfold and the thousandfold and the millionfold return on what you demonstrated on the cross. And God, I pray that that would give us hope. That as we look at our lives and as we count the costs, and as we see what it is in our life that's holding us back or hindering us from following you, as we say, today, God, I'm giving that up. Today I'm laying that down at the foot of the cross. I'm not letting people define me, I'm not letting relationships control me. I'm not letting culture define me. Jesus, I'm gonna look to you and love you and follow you and trust in you. And God, when we live our lives in that reality, abiding in your love, we thank you, God, for the hundredfold return that comes. We thank you for the blessings that we receive, not only in this life, but eternal life in the life to come as well, God. So I pray for each person in this room today that we would look at our life and we'd look at our hearts and we would count the cost. And today, whatever it is, if there's anything hindering us from following you, we'd willingly lay it down just like you did at the foot of the cross. We'd refocus the gaze and the affection of our eyes and of our hearts on you, and that we would walk with you today, God. We would know your love and we would abide in you. And we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.