Let's get into the Word. Our main portion of scripture today is actually Luke 14, 25 through 33, but I think I'm going to start back at the 23rd verse, if you don't mind. English standard translation, English standard version. Luke 14, 23 through 33. Amen. You guys have your Bibles? Amen. Your phones and whatever you need. Amen. All right. And the Word of God reads, and the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited originally shall taste my banquet. Verse 25, main text. 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, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate, I mean, deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000. And if not while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. Verse 33, so therefore, anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple. I want to speak to you today from the title, Being a Credible Witness. Being a Credible Witness. I'm going to use some scriptures to kind of go into this text, to support this text, to kind of give a deeper meaning. So just bear with me today. Amen? All right. Let's just say, imagine that you work in corporate America, and you hear about a position, and you apply for that position, and you get the great news that that position is now yours. Amen. You've worked hard for it. The company recognizes your efforts and they're saying, hey, we're going to give this position to you. And in fact, because you're so good at what you've been doing, we're pretty much going to guarantee that there's going to be some promotions that come in the very near future. Like in two months, you will be promoted. Amen. So you get all excited. and you go up to the head office, you walk in the door, get ready to sign the papers and make it official, and Jesus himself walks in to the office, looks you dead in the eye, and says, follow me. Or imagine that you are an athlete. And you have trained all your life. You play basketball or whatever sport it is that you play. And you have been training all your life. And you finally get through all the high school sports and all the college sports. And you end up in a situation where someone's offering you a multimillion dollar contract and a Nike tennis shoe deal. So you've got the contract. You've got the Nike tennis shoe deal. You like that, Bart, huh, Ms. Fashion? OK. Amen? And you're getting ready to make it official. You walk into the head office. You get ready to pick up your pen. Jesus walks through the door and looks you right in the eye and says, follow me. Or ladies, you got your dress on. This is your big day. getting ready to walk down the aisle, all your bridesmaids have already walked ahead of you. Everybody's lined up. Your groomsman is looking all nice, and he's got his six-pack and his muscles, and he's got a bank account that's going to support all that. And he looks at you and he goes, oh, come on down the aisle, baby. And you get ready to walk down the aisle, and you get to about the third row, and Jesus jumps out of the middle of the church aisle, looks you right in the eye, and says, follow me. You and Jesus walk to your home where you have all your stuff. You get your toothbrush. You get two outfits. You stuff it in a backpack. You step out your home. You lock the door. You take the key. You throw it in the bushes and you never come back. You put your hands in Jesus' hand. and you decide that wherever he is going, which you don't know where it is, you're going with him. Now, immediately in 2024, we would say, now pastor, that's a little bit extreme. Right? But it's not so. The truth is there were 12 disciples. And I said 12 for a reason. There were 12 disciples, but not only them, there were millions after them who had such an encounter with the gospel of Jesus Christ that when they heard the truth about what Jesus had done, they got up from wherever they were, left this world, and followed Jesus. The question is, are we like them? Do we even know? Before we go into our main text in Luke 14, I want to set this up with Acts 1, the book of Acts, the first chapter. And I was reading through my Bible this week and I was attempting to go through all of Acts, just kind of just get a good lay of the land of that book. And I stumbled upon Acts 1.22 and I got stuck and I couldn't even read the first chapter. Because something poked out to me that I'd read before, but it never really hit me the same way. For whatever reason, the Holy Spirit was like, stop there and look at that. Talking to me, not you. Okay. I couldn't get past that verse. It just jumped out. Now here's the context of what's happening. Judas has betrayed Jesus. Jesus gets tried and convicted. of a crime that he is completely and totally innocent of. He goes to the cross. Hello? He goes to the cross. He dies on that cross. He rises again on the third day, right? And here we are, he's talking to his disciples. He gets in a cloud, steps on the cloud, amazingly so, and goes back to heaven. right in front of their face. And Peter and them are sitting there looking at each other like, what do we do next? And it dawns on Peter, wait a minute, I know the word of God. We need to not only continue this mission, but we need to replace Judas. Because he knows his Bible. Amen? He knows his Old Testament. Amen? But here's the thing. When Jesus was alive, Jesus, after he had risen from the dead, he didn't go directly to heaven. He spent many days hanging around, right? You read that? What was he doing? Essentially, he was proving to the people, I'm alive. I'm not dead. I'm going to do several things that people who are living do just to make sure you understand and get it through your head that I am sure enough alive. He goes through proving that he's alive. Amen. Now, in this verse, what we see here, Acts 1 and 22, it says, from beginning from the baptism of John until the same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained, or one must be ordained to be a witness. Everybody say witness. Witness. With us of his resurrection, or as some translations say in King James, a witness to the resurrection. Amen. And I looked at this verse and it jumped out at me. I said to myself, what does it mean to be a witness to the resurrection? Now remember, hang with me, Judas is gone, he's died. We have to replace Judas because it says here in Psalm 109.8, let his years be few, talking about Judas, let someone else take his position or his office. Amen? So that's a prophetic psalm written before Judas even betrayed Jesus because God wasn't even surprised about the fact that there was going to be a betrayal, he used Judas. So don't get freaked out about what's happening. Sometimes God is just using things and he's in total control of everything that's happening. Don't lose your grip on reality. God is still on the throne, but he will use certain situations, amen, to bring about a greater good. So he knows all about it. It was written about in the Psalms before Judas did it. And now Peter goes, wait a minute, we've got to replace Judas with Matthias. So, Matthias is voted in, amen? And what we see here is what we have here is after they have chosen the disciple, he says, now, what we must do is we must all be witnesses of what? The resurrection. Go back to 122 of Acts. We must be ordained, one must be ordained with us to be a witness of his resurrection, of Christ being alive. What does it mean to be a disciple? We all know that. We've talked about it over and over again. It means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Well, what were the disciples doing? The disciples, if you really think about it in context, were going around telling everybody, guess what? Jesus is the Messiah and he's alive. They were going around proving the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were busy being witnesses to the resurrection. Well, what does that mean? When you think of the word witness, you think of, you know, the word proof or evidence may come up, right? You prove or testify by what you've seen that some event or something has occurred. Amen? Something has taken place. Amen? A credible witness, however, is a witness who comes across as competent and worthy of belief. Their testimony is assumed to be more than likely true. due to their experience, knowledge, training, or sense of honesty. In other words, you get on the stand and you testify, and you need to look like you really know what you're talking about. We need to believe that what you're saying is really true. And how do we know? We're looking at you, right? This guy doesn't seem like he's telling the truth, or this lady seems like she's telling the truth. You have to be a credible witness. Are you hearing me? So, got a little definition here. Hang with me. Being a witness is, it is to get up every day as Christians, looking for an opportunity to prove to the world that Jesus is alive by my choices and how I live. Did you catch that? Holy Spirit, get that to me. Being a credible witness or a witness, a real disciple, a witness for Jesus Christ, huh, to the resurrection, what are we doing? We are getting up every day looking for an opportunity to prove to this world that Jesus is alive by the choices I make and the way I live. Amen? I'm glad you agree with that. Good. It's gonna get rough. Because there's something a little bit more when you look under this word witness, and I'm going to tie it to this other passage in Luke 14. Hang with me. All right, Luke 14, 23 through 33. Hopefully it won't be too long this morning. Help me, Holy Spirit. I need your help, Lord. I need your help. This is a difficult, difficult passage. All right. Here's the backdrop. Jesus sends out the disciples and tells them to, you know, this parable, go out to the highways and hedges and tell all the people to come. The Jews are too busy doing all kinds of things. They're getting married and paying for their taxes and running business, whatever it is, okay? They're too busy and they refuse the king's invitation to come to the banquet. Okay, and so then Jesus said, all right, then fine. Verse 23, the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. Don't go to the elite people, go to the roughnecks. and the prostitutes, and the drug dealers, and all the rest of them. Since the churchy folks won't come and they're too busy at the conference, then maybe what we need to do is invite the folks that don't go to church and don't know, you know, anything about T.D. Jakes, and the Winans, and the Hawkins, and whatever they caught up in. Go get them, and June June them. and tell them that they need to come to the banquet. Amen. David is about to crack it up. All right. So he says, for I tell you, none of those who were invited, verse 24, originally, shall taste my banquet. Amen. So Jesus instructs his disciples to go out to the highways and the hedges and compel men to come, that they would be in the kingdom of God, basically. All right? Now, verse 25 is interesting because he's using that story. And then Luke picks up verse 25 and says, now at this time, Great crowds accompanying him, okay? So Jesus is popular, he's doing things and folks are following him around. He's got this great throng or this great crowd of people that are following him around, amen. And Jesus does something that almost seems like it contradicts the very thing that he was just teaching. He says, he turns to them and he says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, oh Lord, and mother, and wife, and children. Oh Lord, not the babies. And brothers and sisters. Yes, even his own life. Hear me, saints. Hear me. He's saying, you cannot be my disciple. And that word cannot, there's a couple of ways we can look at that. We're going to go into that in the end because he reiterates that. But just remember that word. Now, of course, Jesus is not telling us to go out and hate our family members, right? He's not saying, you know, Jesus is like, you know, don't hate your mama and hate your dad. He's not saying that, no. But he's making a statement. He's saying that if your love for me is not higher than your love for your family, Then you, here's that word again, cannot be my disciple. It should never be that your family gets in the way of what I'm telling you to do. They may not understand what I'm requiring of you. They may not understand this level of obedience. Well, honey, it don't take all that. Well, yes, it does because Jesus told me. Mom? All right. Your love for Christ would be so high that if we were to compare the love of your family to the love of Jesus, it would almost seem as if, by comparison, that you hated your family. That's what he's saying. He's like saying, your love got to be way up here. And I know you love your babies, but they're not up here with me. Amen? Not saying to hate them. He's saying, don't let them get in the way. Amen? Because your love for God who gave you all of that in the first place needs to be greater. Amen? Amen. Verse 27, just going to go through this real quick and then we'll make it plain. Verse 27, then he says, whosoever or whoever does not bear my own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So in one sense, Jesus is saying, go out and get the folks. But then he's also saying, when you get here, I want to make sure there ain't no hypocrites. You know, in my banquet, in my kingdom, in my church, I want my bride to be pure. I want her motives to be about me and what I'm doing. Why? Because I'm God and I deserve that glory. I deserve that praise. I deserve that allegiance. Amen? And only God can demand something like that. He has every right to demand that kind of love. So he's saying, here we go again, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Those of us who follow after Christ must understand that we are going to suffer like Christ. Amen? We have crosses that we will bear. We will be under demonic attack. Amen. We will experience demonic oppression. Amen. We will be humiliated, ridiculed, embarrassed, persecuted. Amen. We live in a way that is a direct contradiction. Dimetrically opposed to this world system. Amen. So, one theologian put it this way though. He said, it is still very possible for some Christians to live such a nominal ineffective life where they experience no opposition from the enemy hardly at all. Whoa. My God. We get so settled in our comfort that we don't rub nobody the wrong way. We don't ruffle any feathers. We don't rock any boats. We're just Christians playing it safe. And nobody is going to mess with me because I'm just going to go to church. I'm not going back home. I'm not going to be a representative of my job. When I see something crazy and folks doing something, I'm not going to say nothing. I'm going to tuck my little Christian doggy tail and go back to my cubicle. Right? When I go to the party and I see everybody doing things they should not be doing, I'm just going, you know, pretend like I don't see. Well, you know, praise the Lord. Jesus made wine. Right? He's saying there's a possibility that there are people who are Christians can live such an ineffective life that Satan is like, oh, you know what? There are no threat to me. Jesus is saying the disciples, no, they bear their cross. They get under attack. They bear up under the weight. They have to have endurance because the enemy is like, uh-oh, what they going to say? Right? There are people on both sides of that fence, those who will not say anything or those who will say like, you know what? You ain't going to talk about my God like that. You ain't going to... Excuse me. I'm sorry. That's incorrect. I mean no harm. I love all of y'all. But we're not going to just let that slip. Amen? They go with the crowd. They make the same kind of decisions as unbelievers. Therefore, they suffer no persecution. That's what he's saying. But disciples, that's a different story. They will take some hits. Amen? Verse 28, for which of you desiring to build a tower? Now, he just kind of builds on this and says, you know, there's a way that we need to look about or think about the cost when it comes to being a disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost? Whether he has enough to complete it, verse 29. Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation, he is not able to finish. All who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. What is he saying? He's saying, basically, you started out strong, but then you fizzled out. That's what he's saying. He's not talking about a house, he's talking about a believer. Huh? You know, someone who believes in Jesus Christ, but he's saying a disciple counts the cost. I'm making a distinction between those two words. Amen? A disciple will count the cost. Unbelievers get a kick out of lukewarm, half-hearted Christians. They laugh at them. Half-hearted commitments. They go, oh, there they go. They were so on fire for God, look at them now. They laugh and they mock. You start out living holy, you made a big deal of it, about how God changed you in the beginning, but a few years down the road, you got some stuff, and you got caught in some stuff in the world, and now your witness is looking kind of strange. Amen? You got saved and loved the Lord and promised you were gonna live a life of purity and then you moved your boyfriend in. Look, everybody's like, did it. Been there. Huh? You're playing marriage just like the rest of the world. Unbelievers see that kind of stuff and they laugh. They mock the Christians who do that. They say, well, this person wasn't serious. What happened to the testimony? Hmm? What happened? You didn't count up the cost. You didn't realize that it was going to cost you something. Amen? Because you didn't count the cost, now you're no longer a credible witness. We're looking at you and understanding, going, I don't believe it. I know Jesus. I'm not saying that. You look just like me, and I know I don't know him. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So the world laughs, they mock. Here's the thing, saints. A Christian is a little different than a disciple. I'm making that distinction for a reason. Because we call ourselves Christians. But not everybody that calls themselves a Christian is a real disciple. Jesus owns the deed to your heart. He paid for it with his blood. Are you hearing me? Amen. Jesus owns the deed to our hearts. He purchased our hearts with his blood. He lives in our hearts. Amen. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit is indwelling the believer and he lives in the believer, in the place where you make all of your decisions. That's where the Holy Spirit is really residing. Is He in your pinky? No, He's in your decisions. He's in the heart of where you are, what you do and why you do it. Amen. Your choices. Oh, you hear what I'm saying? Amen. Amen. This is where the Holy Spirit lives. You cannot force the new owner of your heart to just be okay with anything and everything, and call yourself a true disciple. Think about it. If I buy a house, yeah, if I buy a house, and I'm the new owner of that house, and I go in my kitchen, and then six months later, somebody that's living with me decides they're gonna dump poop in the middle of the kitchen room floor. And I am the owner of that house, and you're going to force me to have to move all around. I'm mopping up everything but the poop. I'm sweeping up everything but the poop, cooking all around the poop. It's stinking, it's smelling, and you're expecting me to get comfortable, and there's a pound of poop in the middle of my kitchen. What happened? I purchased this house. I bought this house. This house is mine. I ought to be able to live the way I want to live in this house. The Holy Spirit is living inside of it, and then six months later, we're going to put poop on the floor and tell him to be okay with it just because you got caught up in some sin? Are you hearing what I'm saying? That ain't funny. It's kind of like, ooh. That's what sin does to the person that owns a house. When we decide, no, no, no, you can have the living room, you can have everything else, you can have all the couches, you can be in the backyard, but this little area right here, don't touch it, that's mine. I want that poop sitting right there. And Jesus didn't pay cash, he paid blood. My God. Verse 31, or a king, what king goes out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able to with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000. Verse 32... What is he saying here? He's saying in this second example, Jesus describes a wise king's decision to consider whether or not his 10,000 soldiers could defeat twice that number coming against him. He has to act. But should he fight or ask for peace? to rush in with his soldiers without thinking about the cost. It's very dangerous and it could ruin not only the war, but it could ruin his nation. Are you seeing what I'm saying? It's far better to think through these things beforehand. So those who want to follow Jesus and say they want to be a disciple should carefully consider the cost of what Jesus is asking you to step away from. Are you hearing what he's saying? So he's saying, bring them in. And then he's saying, when they get in, I want y'all to really think about what this is about. It's not just about being a labeled Christian. It's about being a disciple. And being a disciple means you count up the cost. Why? Because I want you to be a credible witness. I want you to be believable. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Verse 33, this is the last verse and we're gonna be done. We'll be done quickly today. I'll praise the Lord. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Come on, Jesus. Are you serious? Does it take all of that? I mean, there's some things I should be able to hold on to. There's some things that I feel ought to be off limits. I got this gray area of Christianity that I think you ought to be cool with. It's not a big deal, Jesus. Jesus is saying, if you don't renounce all that you have, there's that word again, you cannot, he cannot be my disciple. Keep your finger there, and we're gonna pivot back, and we're gonna go to Acts 1 one more time. I want you to see something, and we're gonna go back to that verse again. Acts 1, this time, verse 8. Verse 22 says, we must be a witness of the resurrection. Verse 8 says this, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be my, or be witnesses. There's a word again, right? Unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. This part made me tear up. Studying yesterday and I almost lost it. When we think of the word witness, we think of evidence, proof, being able to actually give testimony to what we've seen. That's not the only meaning of this word. The other meaning of this word witness means martyr. Whoa. So now, let's back up because I've taught this before and I didn't see this. It is not what I said was wrong, it was incomplete. Watch. Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, help me Holy Spirit, and ye shall be my witnesses. You shall be not only the folks that go around telling people about who I am. No, no, no. I am giving you, Jesus is saying things, I'm giving you power to be a witness. What is a witness? A witness is not just an eyewitness, a witness is a martyr. A martyr is a person who voluntarily suffers death. as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce their religion. That's the English definition of it, okay? Jesus is not just saying, I'm giving you power to tell people about salvation here. He's not just telling people, I'm giving you power to go evangelize and tell folks about heaven. He's not just saying, I'm telling you, I'm giving you power so you can get folks, you know, take it out of hell by receiving Jesus. That's not all of what he's saying. He's saying, I am giving you power to die. Whoa, I lift it up. Verse 22 of Acts 122, you know, we need a witness to the resurrection. Verse eight here, power to be a witness in Judea, Samaria, and all the ends of the earth. What is he saying, saints? He's saying, I want you to have the power to die. I'm sending my Holy Spirit to give you the power to die. Woo! Jesus is saying, if we're going to be a witness, a true disciple, we're gonna have to die to some things, saints. No, it's not just here's my track, get saved. No, it's not even here, here, let me go cook you some dinner and give you some evangelism. He's talking about you. Do you realize every last one of the disciples died horrible deaths? Not one of them got saved, toured with Jesus, you know, then got on retirement. It went on vacation. It was like, hey, weren't you with Jesus? Yeah, I sure was. Good to see you. You look like you're doing well now. Yeah, well, Jesus saves. No, no, no, these people died horrible deaths. They were crucified, beaten, stoned. One of them was flayed. You know what that is? That's when they take layers of your skin off over and over and over again until you just die. You shall receive power to die. Wow. Yeah, that's just how you look at it as I was looking yesterday. Die to what? Die to your schedule. Die to your plans and what you thought you was going to do and what you was going to be. Die to your desires. Die to how much money you want. Die to how many plans you've got as far as how you're going to spend that money. Huh? Think about it. Die to the plans for your children, maybe, even. You know, well, Johnny's in Harvard, and Susie's in Yale. Oh, really, they are? That's great. Yes, that's, you know, we're doing very well. He's saying, listen, they're going to need Jesus after they come out of there anyway. And if they don't have Jesus, then they're not good enough. So you can sit there holding your head up like you really accomplished something, but you ain't done nothing unless you teach those children how to die to their will and live for Jesus. Yeah, I knew it. It was going to be like, yeah, praise the Lord. But this is what he's saying. Listen to me, people. Die to what we think this life is really about. That's what he's saying. I'm giving you power to look at this world and this battle that you have in your mind that says, I came here for this. And so you can go, no, it's not even that. I really came here to do what you said, Lord. Die to all that. That's what he's saying. Some preachers need to be very careful because they're teaching self-preservation instead of self-denial. Are you hearing what I'm saying? These people are filling up churches and leading people straight to hell because they are not disciples of Jesus Christ. They're making church members but not... Jesus never called us members. He never called us church attendees. He never even called us Christians. He called us disciples. That's all He's making. Are you hearing what I'm saying? 14, give me 26 again. And I'm almost done. If any man or if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and his wife and his children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life. That's the statement that kind of captures the heart of what's being said here. And then he says, he cannot be my disciple. When you are considering what Jesus is saying here about being a witness to the resurrection, there must be more to our discipleship card than just telling people that Jesus is alive. That's part of it. We do do that. But how we become credible witnesses is when we show that he's alive by living out what Jesus lived out. We live out his mission. We show that Jesus Christ is alive in our life by living out the Christ's mission. And what was Christ's mission? He came here to die. Wake up call, saints. The things that we're complaining about, Jesus may give us those things, but that's not the most important thing to him. The most important thing is that we have power to walk away from this world and to live a life of mission like he did. to be able to say no to this world and to say yes to his desires. That's what it's about. For all of us looking for that one day when we got it made, ooh, now we've arrived. And Jesus is saying, you ain't done nothing if you ain't live for me. He died to all of that. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Okay. Luke 14, 23, last verse and I'm done. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Here's that word, cannot. He's not saying that unless you give up your life, you will not be admitted or thrust into the elite club of disciples. He's not saying that. He's saying that unless you give up your life, you will never be what you profess to be. He's saying you will think you're a disciple and you really aren't. Oh, you will believe that you are really a disciple of Jesus Christ and you're not giving up your life. He's saying, guess what? You're not. He's saying without giving up your life, you can't even be a disciple. I'm nailing this in so you can feel the impact. It's impossible to be a disciple without giving up your life because that's what disciples do. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Everything else that we hold on to can get in the way of us actually becoming a disciple because we're holding on to that stuff and not Jesus. He's not suggesting that you be willing to follow him. He's not suggesting that you be willing to give up your life. He's saying that if you're not presently giving up your life, you're not following me, you're still following yourself. I was sitting in Panera Bread yesterday with tears in my eyes and I said, oh my goodness, you're talking to me. You can't even be a disciple, is what he's saying. It's not about churchy stuff. It's not about attendance. It's not about, you know, I'm on this board or that board. It's not all about church busyness. You know how you can be busy in the church doing this and that. And you feel like now I have done something. If you are not sacrificing your life, if you are not taking those desires and laying them on the cross and lifting that burden. I don't like it, but I'm giving this to you because this is in me and I like this kind of stuff and I want to have this kind of stuff. But Jesus, if that's not your will, then okay, as long as I serve you, as long as I do what you say, as long as I'm really one of your disciples, I'm okay with that because why? You paid the deed for me. You gave your life for me. You own it. That's what he's saying. If you don't renounce all that other stuff, you can't be my disciple. Judas started off well. Did he not? But he didn't count the cost. When it came time, he held on to what he wanted and not Jesus. And he betrayed Jesus. And I would say to you, saints, if you're like me, you're recognizing some of the betrayal in your own life. There's times when I betrayed Him for what I wanted. I didn't want to give up certain things, didn't want to let go of certain things, didn't want to... Got my attention and my mind on all these other things. Jesus co-signed my life, not give up my life. Right? I'll leave you with this. It's a stinging message, but if we're going to be credible witnesses and we're going to be believable, we're going to be people that look like Jesus. When they ask us if we're really a disciple, when they ask us, are we representing Jesus? When they ask us, are we actual credible witnesses to his resurrection where he is actually alive in us, where they see his likeness in us? that we're gonna have to recognize what it really means to be a disciple. What are we willing to give up? J.C. Rouse says this, the man who does well for himself is the man who gives up everything for Christ's sake. He makes the best bargain ever. He carries the cross for a few years in this world. And that return yields him everlasting life. He obtains the best of possessions. He carries the riches with him beyond his grave. He is rich in grace here, and he is rich in glory hereafter. And best of all, what he obtains by faith in Christ, he never loses. And what he does for Christ will never be taken away from him. When you think about it, saints, what do we get in this world that we keep forever? Nothing. So when Jesus walked up to Matthew and said, I know you're making all this money, follow me. Matthew, empowered by the Holy Spirit, had the ability to realize he wasn't leaving anything at all. He really didn't have anything. When Jesus is saying, come follow me, leave the record deal, leave the sports deal, leave the relationship, leave the money, leave the job, leave the promotion. He's really saying, you ain't got nothing anyway. What you holding on to? Nothing. Think about it. Use me as your example. I had several things. I've lost several things. I couldn't even keep my wife here. You get married, you get a job, you get a car, whatever it is you think you gotta have. It doesn't last forever. It doesn't last forever. There's only one thing that lasts forever, and that's your relationship with Jesus Christ. That's all we really have. So when he said, follow me, you're not leaving anything in the first place. You're leaving nothing. You're leaving nothing. If we're going to be credible witnesses, real disciples, People that are believable. People that look like we are representing Jesus Christ. Those who are witnesses of his resurrection. We're going to have to trust him and follow him. And follow him means follow his example. Be empowered to die. I'm done.