Counting The Cost of Discipleship // Andy Madison

Devotional

Day 1: Pineapples and Surrendered Soil

Otto stood in his ravaged garden, watching tribesmen steal unripe fruit. His hands shook with anger until he spoke three freeing words: “It’s God’s garden.” The theft continued, but Otto’s heart changed. He stopped fighting for control, trusting God to steward what was always His. Peace grew where anxiety once ruled—not because circumstances improved, but because Otto surrendered ownership. [04:19]

Jesus asks us to release what we cling to most tightly. Just as Otto’s pineapples became a test of trust, our possessions, relationships, and plans reveal who we truly worship. Surrender isn’t passive resignation—it’s active obedience to the One who owns all things.

What “garden” have you been guarding fiercely? Where do you sense God asking you to loosen your grip?

“Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”
(Luke 14:33, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one specific area you’ve struggled to surrender, asking God to help you release it fully.
Challenge: Write “God’s garden” on a sticky note and place it on an item (phone, wallet, calendar) you need to entrust to Him today.

Day 2: When Love Looks Like Hate

Crowds pressed close, eager for miracles and meals. Jesus turned and said the unthinkable: “Hate your family.” Mothers gasped. Sons stiffened. Yet this wasn’t a call to bitterness, but a radical reordering. Jesus demanded first place—not as a tyrant, but as the Bridegroom who sacrificed everything for His bride. [08:58]

God designed family to reflect His love, yet even good gifts become idols when they eclipse the Giver. Christ’s jarring language shocks us into examining our priorities. Loyalty to Him transforms how we love others—freely, not desperately.

Is there a relationship or responsibility you’ve placed above obedience to Christ?

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children… they cannot be my disciple.”
(Luke 14:26, NIV)

Prayer: Ask Jesus to reveal any relationship you love more than Him, and for grace to reorder it.
Challenge: Text or call a family member today, affirming your love while explaining Christ’s priority in your life.

Day 3: Carrying Uncomfortable Crosses

Roman crosses dotted Jerusalem’s roads—grotesque reminders of rebellion’s cost. When Jesus said “carry your cross,” disciples winced. This meant public shame, total surrender, a one-way journey. Yet the Teacher who demanded death also promised resurrection: “Lose your life to find it.” [12:43]

Our crosses aren’t decorative jewelry but daily deaths—to pride, comfort, and self-rule. Like Otto swallowing tranquilizers until he surrendered his garden, we exhaust ourselves fighting until we yield to Christ’s yoke.

What part of your “self” still demands control instead of crucifixion?

“Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
(Luke 14:27, NIV)

Prayer: Thank Jesus for His cross, then ask Him to show you one attitude to “crucify” this week.
Challenge: Write “I surrender ______” on a paper cross. Keep it in your pocket, praying over it hourly.

Day 4: Towers and Unfinished Foundations

A half-built tower mocks the builder’s pride. Jesus warns: count the cost before laying bricks. Discipleship isn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision but a lifelong demolition of old foundations. Otto learned this through stolen pineapples and sleepless nights—each trial exposing his need for God’s blueprint. [14:46]

Christ wants no half-hearted followers. He strips away flimsy motivations (comfort, tradition, people-pleasing) to establish enduring faith. The cost seems high until we see the reward: intimacy with the Architect of eternity.

What unfinished “tower” in your life needs Christ’s rebuilding?

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost?”
(Luke 14:28, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God to audit your spiritual “budget”—what resources need redirecting to His kingdom?
Challenge: Review your calendar. Cancel one non-essential activity to create space for prayer.

Day 5: Salt Without Compromise

First-century salt preserved fish and flavored stews. But impure salt lost its bite, becoming worthless. Jesus warned disciples: don’t blend in. Otto’s tribe noticed when his anger turned to peace—a salty contrast to their strife. His surrendered garden became a sermon more potent than scolding. [22:33]

We’re called to preserve goodness and amplify Christ’s flavor in a bland world. Compromise dilutes our witness; costly obedience makes others thirsty for the Living Water.

Where have you been “tasting” too much like the world?

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness… It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile.”
(Luke 14:34-35, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one area where you’ve compromised, asking God to restore your “saltiness.”
Challenge: Share a story of God’s faithfulness with someone outside the church today.

Sermon Summary

Otto’s pineapple garden sets the tone as a living parable of surrender, patience, and trust. The garden’s thefts expose how the heart clutches control, until the garden is “given to God,” and rest returns because God stewards better than anxious self-rule. That story frames what Luke 14 insists upon when Jesus turns to the crowds: love for him must be so weighty that all other loves look light by comparison. Jesus is not teaching hate. He is ordering loves. “God first, everything else comes second,” even when family, reputation, and personal plans protest.

Jesus then brings the cross to center. The cross, to that audience, means shame and death, not jewelry. So the call is plain: die to pride, comfort, control, and sinful desire. Discipleship begins where self is dethroned and Christ takes his rightful place as Lord, Physician, and Counselor.

The illustrations press the issue of intent and endurance. The builder sits down first and counts. The king considers his strength before marching. Verse 33 states the lesson without varnish: those who do not give up everything cannot be his disciples. Jesus is not after impulsive fans. He is after committed followers who place all they are and have under his authority.

A claw hammer pictures how grace works. God pulls nails that do not belong, like idols, warped priorities, and harmful bonds, and then drives new timber into place with prayer, Scripture, service, generosity, rest, real community, and obedience. A graduation cap marks costly “yes” over easy “no,” the kind of reordering that touches time, money, and marriage. Then Jesus puts his own credentials on the table. He did not wear a cap. He wore a crown of thorns. His once-for-all sacrifice purchases daily surrender.

Salt finishes the warning. If salt loses its bite, it is tossed. So a disciple who blends back into the world loses witness. Faithfulness is not a one-time aisle moment. It is an every ten second decision to choose Jesus again. Strikingly, Luke 15 opens with tax collectors and sinners drawing near after hearing the hardest call, because they recognize he is worth it. That is the test: love Jesus above every relationship, count the cost, surrender everything, and persevere, because in losing lesser things a disciple gains Christ himself.

Key Takeaways

1. Love for Jesus reorders loves [08:58] Loving Christ first does not shrink love for family; it purifies and rightly places it. When the first love is God, every other love is protected from being a rival and becomes a trust to be stewarded. Ordered affection frees a disciple to say yes to God even when someone else says no. That clarity often guards relationships from becoming idols that cannot bear the weight placed on them. [08:58]
2. The cross ends self-rule [12:43] The cross is not a metaphor for mild inconvenience but a call to die to self as policy. When self is dethroned, pride loses its leverage, comfort stops dictating terms, and obedience gets simple, even when it is not easy. A crucified life does not chase suffering, but it refuses to trade faithfulness for ease. That is where real freedom, not autonomy, is found. [12:43]
3. Count the cost before building [14:22] Desire without endurance leaves half-built towers and embarrassed hearts. Jesus invites sober arithmetic so that zeal grows roots and does not wither under heat. Counting the cost is not cynicism; it is covenant realism that prepares a disciple to finish. What is placed on the altar at the start is less likely to be snatched back midway. [14:22]
4. Discipleship removes and replaces [16:52] Grace is not only subtractive, it is constructive. God pulls out what rots the structure, then fills the void with habits and relationships that hold weight. This is why surrender must be paired with Scripture, prayer, service, and rest, so the empty places do not become a vacancy sign for old sins. Holy patterns keep holy affections warm. [16:52]
5. Distinct holiness preserves witness [22:33] Salt that tastes like dust cannot preserve anything. When a disciple’s life becomes indistinguishable from the surrounding world, the gospel’s sharp edge is dulled in that life. Distinctness is not oddness; it is recognizable loyalty to Jesus in choices, speech, and loves. That faithful difference gives the world something true to taste. [22:33]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:22] - Missionary Otto Koning introduced
[02:52] - Pineapple patience and surrender
[03:47] - Giving the garden to God
[04:46] - Discipleship above all else
[06:47] - Opening Luke 14:25-15:1
[08:58] - What Jesus means by “hate”
[11:57] - Carrying the cross today
[13:21] - Counting the cost: builder and king
[16:16] - Discipleship as hammer work
[17:38] - Graduation cap and costly call
[21:06] - Christ’s crown and model sacrifice
[22:00] - Salt that lost its saltiness
[25:19] - Sinners draw near, not away
[26:49] - What Jesus offers is better
[28:03] - Closing prayer of surrender

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Luke 14:25-35 (ESV)
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “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. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 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? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Luke 15:1 (ESV)
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.

Observation Questions

What two illustrations does Jesus use in Luke 14:28-32 to emphasize the importance of counting the cost of discipleship?
How does Jesus describe the consequences of salt losing its saltiness in Luke 14:34-35?
What specific groups of people drew near to Jesus after His challenging call to discipleship in Luke 15:1?
In the sermon, what practical example was given to explain how discipleship involves both "removing and replacing" habits or priorities? [16:16]

Interpretation Questions

Why might Jesus use the strong language of "hating" family and one’s own life (Luke 14:26) to describe discipleship? How does this contrast with His broader teachings about loving others?
The cross symbolized shame and death to Jesus’ original audience. What does it mean practically to "carry your cross" in modern daily life? [12:23]
Jesus concludes His teaching with the metaphor of salt. How does a disciple’s "distinctiveness" (e.g., choices, speech, priorities) serve as a witness to others? [22:33]
Why do you think the tax collectors and sinners in Luke 15:1 were drawn to Jesus even after His difficult call to surrender everything?

Application Questions

What is one area of your life (e.g., relationships, career, habits) where you struggle to place Jesus above all else? What step could you take this week to reorder that priority?
The sermon compared discipleship to a claw hammer removing nails and driving new ones. What is one "nail" (e.g., idol, unhealthy habit) God might be asking you to surrender, and what "new timber" (e.g., prayer, service) could replace it? [16:38]
Jesus warns against starting a tower without finishing. Is there a commitment you’ve made to God that feels half-built? How can you intentionally "count the cost" to persevere?
The graduation cap symbolized costly obedience. What has following Jesus cost you recently, and how has it deepened your trust in Him? [17:38]
Salt loses its flavor when diluted. What practical choice could you make this month to live more "distinctly" for Christ in a way others could "taste" His goodness?
The tax collectors and sinners leaned into Jesus’ hard teaching because they believed He was worth it. When have you experienced Jesus as "worth" surrendering something valuable? How does that memory encourage you today?

Sermon Clips

50s

“Jesus does not settle for second place. He calls us to love him above every other relationship, count the cost, and surrender everything, and to remain faithful for the rest of our lives. This is costly, but it's so worth it. Because whenever we surrender, we gain something far, far greater. We gain Christ himself, and there is nothing more valuable in the world than a relationship with him. The world offers temporary pleasure while Jesus offers us eternal life. The world offers a shallow identity, while Jesus offers us real purpose. The world offers uncertainty, while Jesus offers us a sense of peace.”

52s

“Jesus does not ask for us to sacrifice without modeling it himself. He didn't wear a graduation cap cap, but he did wear something else, something much more important. He wore a crown, a crown of thorns, while showing us the most beautiful sacrifice that you or I could ever imagine. He endured rejection. He suffered on the cross. He gave his life. He gave all of himself for our sake that we may have a way to be in right, right relationship with God the father. How can we say no when he asks for our obedience? Jesus' sacrifice happened once, but its purpose and its payment applies every single day.”

48s

“Jesus concludes with this image of salt. Salt was very valuable back then because it meant that you could preserve food and enhance flavor. But if salt lost its effectiveness, it was useless. In the same way, a disciple who stops living distinctively for Jesus loses their witness. They begin to look like the world again instead of looking like Jesus. Following Jesus is not just a one time decision. It's a daily commitment. It may start with praying a prayer, walking an aisle, or a raised hand during an altar call. Those moments are good. Those moments are meaningful, but discipleship is lifelong.”

45s

“Many people are drawn to Jesus when life becomes difficult. They want forgiveness, peace, hope, healing, and Jesus gives all those things out freely. But he also tells us that following him requires total surrender. Verse 33 does not mean every Christian will be asked to sell every possession immediately and live without provision or home. It means everything must be placed under Christ's authority. Nothing is off limits for him because it's all his anyways.”

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