Words of Jesus Podcast - Discipleship Requires Character

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Salvation, certainly discipleship, is a journey. We must repent (make changes) as imperfections are revealed. This is an individual walk, a striving to enter the narrow gate, to make a life of character that is worthy to offer our Savior and King. How can we hear the instructions of the Holy Spirit? Here's the initial steps: 1) Keep the Ten Commandments. 2) Take time every day to hear the voice of God. 3) Never, ever violate your conscience. The Bible is full of conditional promises. ***73 & 74: Jesus Teaches About God’s Love In ParablesLuke 15:1-32The Lost SheepAmong the many people who came to hear and see Jesus were publicans and sinners.  The Pharisees and scribes murmured among themselves, saying:            “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.”            Jesus told a parable, saying:            “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”The Lost Coin Jesus continued saying:            “Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently til she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.’ Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”The Prodigal Son Jesus continued:            “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.’ And he divided unto them his living.And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.”’ And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it;...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello my friend and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. We tried to get started in chapter 73 last time. And this was where Jesus was talking about the cost of discipleship. And I guess I started chasing a rabbit. But the truth is that this is a deeply ingrained problem in the theology of the average Christian, that salvation is free.

And it's just like something, you go downtown, you know, and they're passing out free stuff, and you go get you one. And unfortunately, it doesn't do anything but cause harm in the body of Christ. Look, if you're going to make it, if you're going to get down that narrow path and go through that straight gate, Jesus says you're going to strive to do that. And if you're just coasting and you're just striving and you don't, you know, God's not making any demands on your life, chances are you're not one of his.

And you probably need to look into that i'm sure you do uh because um but i mean there there is a possibility that you're perfect and uh and and well pleasing to god and he has no complaints with your life whatsoever um is that you can i see a show of hands uh he's going to correct those that he loves and so there's going to be certain cost to our discipleship it's not a matter of he doesn't want us to eat strawberry ice cream anymore uh where we can eat chocolate ice cream well i think i can suffer for jesus a little bit and and and not do that no no no these are things that man they pull on our guts they come from inside us it's the it's the horrible and and and mean and nasty mistakes we make with

we you know with our fellow man and and in some cases even sins against god we talked about the difference in people who sin against god and sin against man and how he makes recompense or he makes recompense possible if recompense is possible. But sometimes we commit sins against our fellow man that can never be fixed. They can't be fixed. The Bible says that a man that commits adultery is going to have trouble with the husband of this woman. And, and, and, and the way, uh, Solomon says it is, um, uh, though thou bringest many gifts, uh, you can, you're never going to fix that. You're just never going to fix it. This is why adultery was punishable by death. This is why murder was punishable by death. You can't. You can't bring enough gifts to a family

that you have killed the supplier of that family, the leader of that household. The only source of progeny for that name and for that nation, for that tribe of people. You can't remove a man from life by murder and be able to fix that. So there's certain things that we do that have everlasting consequence till the day we die.

And there's nothing can be done about it. This is why there's such a thing as death penalty. It's why there's such a thing as death penalty. It's why there's such a thing as recompense. And when we get these things mixed up is when we are perverting justice. And it's one of the things that is an irritation to God our Father that we don't do justly, that our judicial system is run by bribes or by politicians or by those kinds of uh you know that kind of mentality no justice is to be justice if you want a country that is uh

that that has that is decent and in order so uh let's get on with our reading. This comes from Luke 14. Jesus is trying to teach his disciples about the cost of discipleship. If any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters wow wow what what in the world is he saying here um well one of our problems is is our our unfamiliarity with king james english for one thing and that is that uh the word hate does not mean, you know, what we involve ourselves in when we really resent someone, or we're trying to get back at them, or we want to seek vengeance against them. That's not hate, that's sin. Hate, I'm talking about in King James vernacular, you've got the word hate when it really, many cases and i would say most cases

it could and should be replaced if not in your scriptures in your mind to it should be replaced by the word reject you know when he says uh you know i'm the lord i accept who i accept and i hate who I hate, or I have loved I have loved Esau have I loved and Jacob I have hated or it's Jacob I've loved and Esau I've hated, sorry. It's not that he hated Esau, it was that he was rejected. You'll find that the word hate many times in the Bible is the word reject.

Now how can a God who tells us in his fifth commandment to honor our parents tell us here to hate them? You might see this as a contradiction, and I'm not one who's going to point at the Bible and tell you there's no contradictions in it. I'm not one who's going to point at the Bible and tell you there's no contradictions in it. I'm not that silly. But this particular scripture is not in controversy with honoring your parents. Honoring your parents has to do to see, is for you to see to their physical needs

and not forget them, forsake in in the last part of parts of their lives um you know i.e uh nursing homes and putting them away or you know essentially not making them welcome in your home um and um the hatred part that j Jesus is saying here is that a man has to he a man who rejects not his father rejects not his mother his sister his wife his brothers his I mean wow what is he saying here well we read before that he said you know suppose suppose ye that I came to bring peace on the earth? I tell you, nay. I didn't come to bring peace on the earth. I came to bring a sword.

And that sword is going to find itself dividing between you and your father, between you and your mother. You cannot have a disciplined relationship with Christ, which is where the word disciple comes from. You cannot be a disciple of Christ and have that kind of discipline in your life if everything that the Lord tells you has to be filtered through your father, your mother,

your sister, your brethren, your denomination, your church through your father, your mother, your sister, your brethren, your denomination, your church, your pastor, your preacher, your elders, whatever you want to filter it through. God is not interested in filtering his word through fallible men. The Bible says that Jesus never sought the approval of men. Why? Because he knew man, and he knew what was in man. Well, I assure you, if Jesus knows this, our Father knows this as well. And when it comes time for us to be the Christians that we're supposed to be, the followers of God, we cannot make our convictions subject to what our father wants and what our mother wants and and that kind of thing this is really telling us that this is an individual walk very same thing i was telling you yesterday this is an individual walk and so a man has to separate himself and and be willing to reject the closest and the most

loved people in his life now you say i that just doesn't sound very peaceful that doesn't sound very humble you know how do you know that that you're right i mean don't you need to listen to your mom and your dad and your wife and these kind of things don't you need to do that well i didn't finish reading the verse those of you that are following along you might have been hollering at the television saying hey you didn't read the rest of the verse but just to put this into perspective so that you'll understand this idea of hating and rejecting he says you're going to have to be willing to reject mom dad brothers your sisters your wife your children your uh i mean everybody in your life and here's here's the here's the stinger when he says

yea and his own life also are you seeing this now you have to be willing to hate yourself you have to be willing to reject even your yourself to be a disciple this comes this comes on the heels of and in the midst of uh jesus constantly saying you have to deny yourself and he's going to say that here he says yea in his own life also he cannot be my disciple um this does not mean that he cannot be saved, you understand. A disciple of Christ and a person who has decided to keep the commandments of God in order to enter into life, like the rich ruler that day, who asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said, keep the commandments. And he says, yeah, but isn't there something lacking? I don't kill my brother, but sometimes I want to. I don't commit, yeah, but isn't there something lacking? I don't kill my brother, but sometimes I want to. I don't commit adultery, but sometimes I want to. And I don't like wanting to. I don't want to want to anymore. Jesus says, well, what you're seeking is called perfection. You want to be complete. Now, if you want to be complete, you need to be my disciple. I can help you there. Nothing has really changed in keeping of the law. God honors people who keep the law.

And he protects people who keep the law. And he loves people who keep the law. According to Jesus, if you'll keep my commandments, then will my Father love you and I will love you. So the universal idea idea the universal application of god loves you is totally without foundation because you know people say that there's no uh conditional promises in the bible well that guy's an idiot whoever said that or he's never read his bible if your preacher said that you need to get another one

um but they're every one of his promises are contingent upon uh certain things being so certain things being just so and that's the way we bring these things to pass well he says he cannot be my disciple if you if you're going to live this if if you are going to honor if you are going to filter my guidance through the people around you and here we are back again at 11 aren't we we're back at that hypocrisy thing if you're going to do that if that's your your intention, you can't be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and what does that mean? Be willing to die for what he believes.

If you're not willing to die for what you believe, and you don't come after me, you can't be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build the tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient enough to finish it? Lest happily, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,

that all that behold it begin mocking him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or, he says, What king, going to make war, cometh against him, or he wants to know whether he be able, with 10,000, to meet his enemy, who comes to him with 20,000.

If that was the case, isn't he going to, while the enemy's a great way off, else, he says, or else, while the other is a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, an emissary, and desireth conditions of peace. We don't want to go to war with you. Well, he knows that it's going to cost him. So likewise, boy huge huge message here so likewise so likewise like you don't really want to do this and not know the cost do you and we all have to answer that question.

I'd really rather not know what it costs. Well, you can't be my disciple. You just can't. You're not going to make it. You're not going to endure to the end. You're not going to be my disciple. Somebody's got to go to hell. And, you know, this isn't for everybody.

It's really not. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he hath, he cannot be my disciple. He says, salt is good. But if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It's neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, but people cast it out.

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. This is not just arbitrarily stuck here. He's saying that, you know, salt to me, I mean, this is not just arbitrarily stuck here. He's saying that, you know, salt, to me, I mean, this is my opinion. You can take it or leave it, but salt is character. It is character. That's what salt is.

It's things that are done with, everything that we offer to the Lord. The Bible says nothing shall be offered to the Lord without salt. Did you know that? Everything shall be seasoned with salt. What does that mean? That means character that is with honesty. Honesty doesn't ignore logic. Honesty doesn't ignore common sense. Honesty doesn't allow you to say one thing one day and one thing another. It doesn't allow you to hold contradicting doctrines in your head. It doesn't allow you to have contradicting convictions, contradicting even preferences in your life. It doesn't allow that. There is a consistency to good character. Salt is good

character. And if an offering is made to the Lord outside of good character, it's worthless. Absolutely worthless. If you are making an offering to the Lord to make him like you, there's no character in that. If you're offering because the preacher said to give, there's no character in that. If what you're doing is done outside of logic, good common sense, and a pure heart and conscience toward God, it has no character.

Therefore, it has no salt. Therefore, it's worthless. If Christians don't have character, if they don't develop character, there's hardly anything they can do for God. And Jesus says, you can't be my disciple. it is character, it's not only the character that you indeed and truly are. It's what people think your character is when they look at you. I just don't think we should care what people think. Well, it's nice of you to say that, but it's true. You do that i knew a kid that had long hair down his back

and he had a ponytail and and you know all through high school you know he just he you know he dressed and looked like a woman and and he he just you know he was just a sissy that liked to stand out in the crowd by his ponytail and uh you know sitting around the campfire with a bunch of guys, you know, somebody makes some comment about a pocket knife and you know how it goes. But he was insisting, this is me, man. This is me, man. This is my identity. And you've heard all this hogwash. That's the way kids, by the way, that's the way kids display their individuality, by everyone looking alike. Nevertheless, he defended his ponytail.

You know, I'm not cutting it off for anybody and everything. Well, lo and behold, he gets out of high school. I guess he goes through college with that thing. I'm not against a ponytail. I've had them myself, all right? I'm just saying that we need to have some consistency in our lives. So this is your character, is it? Yeah.

This is your identification, yeah. yeah well how come it was that when you had a couple of years of college and you went to you know some big shot corporation and they said we want you and we want to pay you this and we want to give you this uh vacation package and this retirement package and all those kind of things and you know it was a darn good job but the ponytails got to go it was gone it was gone well how did that happen i thought it was a conviction i thought it was your character i thought it was your identity you know what it was was? Just didn't outweigh the price tag. That's all. And many times we have things in our life that we'd like and we wouldn't, we don't,

we just don't think it's important to try to please other people. I think we should be individuals or whatever, whatever excuse you come up with. Well, you know what I've noticed is most people's character, most people's scruples, most people's morality, most people's character, it's all for sale. It's all for sale. Well, Jesus is saying,

I'd like to buy that ponytail from you. I'd like to buy your little decoration decoration i'd really you know i would love to offer you something for that and what would that be well number one entrance into my kingdom number two which is man so important i want to say it's more important than the first one but i don't know what good it would do is if we didn't see the kingdom but he's offering something the second one and that is you can enroll in my discipleship program you can be one of my disciples friend that's that's the most wonderful thing in the world but you know what you have to forsake do you know what this free salvation is going to cost you? Everything you have. That's the cost of discipleship, like it or not.

As we live and as we get a little older, we start learning that certain things have certain costs. I remember my father trying to teach me because I had found this really neat luxury car that was being sold for a very good price. And I said, man, I ought to own that car. And he says, if I bought that car for you and paid for it and gave it to you,

you couldn't afford to maintain it. Really? What was that? That was a 50-year-old man talking to a 20 year old boy explaining look i've been around the block i know some things and i know you can't even afford to maintain that car the acquisition cost of that car is not the cost of that car it's the maintenance cost that's what's going to get you it's very much like uh you know parents you know walking along with their kids and they look up ahead and they see somebody some little girl or some little boy or a brother and sister sitting there in front of a cardboard box and and you're thinking, uh-oh.

As you get a little closer, you can see the scrawl and pencil on the side of the cardboard that says, free puppies. And you just want to take your kids to the other side of the street. Oh, Mommy, look. Oh, too late. Oh, no.

They're free! But adults see the sign free puppies a little differently than children do and i'm afraid that we see free salvation pretty much like children see the sign that says free puppies you cannot evaluate the cost of owning something by its acquisition cost alone no it doesn't cost you anything to to turn your life around and decide to go god's way no there's no cost involved there's no self-flagellation there's no big donations that you have to make there's no prayers that you have to pray none of that stuff yeah you're right you're right salvation's free but friend the maintenance

cost the cost of discipleship if you think that you are going to skate through life based on a prayer you prayed but you were six years old asking jesus to come into your heart oh man uh i don't know where you've been but you haven't been in here you haven't been reading these red words he makes it very clear this is going to cost you everything you have let's look at chapter 74 before we quit here what man of you having a hundred sheep if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders and and rejoicing when he comes home He calls his friends and his neighbors together and say, rejoice with me,

for I found the sheep that was lost. I say to you, likewise shall be in heaven, joy will be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, moreover than ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. I made reference to this in an earlier show. There are people for whom discipleship will be easier than

others. But we need not envy them or resent them. Just thank God for them. But also thank God for your journey and even though these costs seem high at times and lower for others and they seem to skate by they seem to get through it's it's just a matter of who we are all of our salvation all of all the plans of discipleship all the lessons that are laid out for you that the lord has for you on a daily basis is the reason i tell you to listen to him they're all custom made he knows us in and out there are certain things that some of us don't

have to learn you know some of us have trouble with stealing. Some people have trouble with women. Some people have trouble with spiritualism and they find themselves worshiping other gods and idols and such as that. Friend, don't resent and don't envy and certainly don't condemn another man's servant. There are costs to discipleship, but we don't pay each other's cost. We don't pay another person's cost. We have to go to the Lord for that individual correction and make the changes that are necessary for us. This makes our Christianity custom fit. It's the difference in a coat or a glove that fits or doesn't fit. And we find ourselves excelling in the areas that the preacher says is important. You know, I don't cuss, I don't smoke, I don't chew, I don't go with girls that do.

And there's other things in our life that are just absolutely horrendous and horrible. We're whited sepulchers and men don't understand that inside those sepulchers are dead men's bones, extortion and excess. How are you going to learn that if you don't get the individual training and the individual teaching from your father god so keep his commandments never disobey your conscience and take time every day to hear the voice of god our time is gone send send your questions and your comments to me would you just send me an email don at thinkredinkcom, and I'll be glad to write you back. I appreciate you being a part of the broadcast.

Until we meet here again next time, Think Red Ink, my friend. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you