Crossing a river without a bridge: Joshua 3:1-4:24
Salty poop: Luke 14:7-35
Return to us, O God Almighty: Psalm 80:1-19
In the way of righteousness there is life: Proverbs 12:27-28
The teaching from today that most catches my attention is the one in Luke that Jesus ended with, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 14:35). That’s Jesus’ way of saying, “What I just said is really important stuff, you need to pay attention.”
At first it sounds evil. Some of you read verse 26 and thought to yourself, “Cool! I get to hate my brother or my sister!” :) But the word “hate” in these verses comes from the Greek word “miseo”, which has two meanings: 1) to detest, and 2) to love less. So what Jesus is saying is that you can’t be His disciple if you love someone else more than Him. And, by the way, this includes us loving Jesus more then ourselves (verse 26).
The rest of this teaching is quite profound. It’s about sticking to Jesus through the end. Before becoming His disciple you need to make sure you’re prepared to put Him first for the rest of your life. He then used a few analogies of natural life where wise decisions require us being sure we’re ready to take big steps before we actually take them. The bottom line is that if we don’t stay with Jesus the rest of our lives then it was a waste to get started. His last analogy of salt made this clear – salt that’s no longer good for the soil or the manure is thrown out. Jesus doesn’t want disciples that join Him for a while and then later put other things first.
If you’re His disciple for the rest of your life then you’re putting Him up as your master teacher for the rest of your life. Getting to Heaven is not based on if you were baptized as a baby. Getting to Heaven is not based on if you’re on fire for Jesus today. Getting to Heaven is based on believing in Jesus the rest of your life, believing so much that His teachings take root in your life for the rest of your life.
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