The Gospel of Inconvenience | Ian Longtin | 07.12.26

Jul 12, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When Life Feels Like an Endless Buffet Line

The modern world overwhelms us with choices—what to consume, where to focus, how to live. Like navigating a warehouse-sized Italian buffet, decision fatigue sets in as options multiply. Jesus remains one choice among many, yet His invitation cuts through the noise: following Him requires positioning ourselves behind Him as learners. Discipleship demands more than sampling spirituality—it means committing to the slow, patient work of becoming like Christ. True apprenticeship to Jesus reshapes every consumer impulse. [29:29]

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’” (Matthew 16:24, ESV)

Reflection: Where does your life feel most like that overwhelming buffet line? What practical step could help you fix your eyes on Jesus instead of endless options?

Day 2: The Uncomfortable “No” That Leads to Life

Self-denial feels countercultural in a world celebrating self-expression. Yet Jesus’ call to “deny yourself” isn’t about punishment—it’s surgery for the soul. Like refusing third helpings at a gluttonous feast, saying no to our natural impulses creates space for Christ’s transformative work. This daily resistance to self-rule isn’t grim duty but liberation from the tyranny of cravings that never satisfy. [50:24]

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1, ESV)

Reflection: What subtle form of self-centeredness most often distracts you from wholehearted discipleship? How might saying “no” to it today create space for Christ’s “yes”?

Day 3: Carrying More Than a Lunchbox to Work

Taking up your cross daily isn’t about martyrdom but embracing purposeful inconvenience. Like choosing a backpack over a briefcase, it’s practical preparation for the rugged path of obedience. The cross represents both Christ’s finished work and our ongoing surrender—not dramatic suffering, but the steady choice to prioritize God’s agenda over comfort. True discipleship happens in Monday’s traffic jams, not just Sunday’s pews. [55:21]

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

Reflection: What ordinary moment today could become your “cross carrying” if approached with Christ-centered intentionality?

Day 4: Chasing Mirages or Walking on Water

The world’s promises glitter like desert mirages—always receding, never satisfying. Consumerism, entertainment, and self-optimization campaigns promise fulfillment but leave us thirsty. Jesus confronts our addiction to empty pursuits with a radical question: What if gaining everything costs your soul? True profit comes not in accumulation but surrender, trading shimmering illusions for living water. [01:12:38]

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:15-16, ESV)

Reflection: What mirage have you been chasing that’s kept you from drinking deeply of Christ’s presence this week?

Day 5: Becoming Apprentices of the Unhurried Way

Discipleship isn’t a weekend workshop but a lifelong apprenticeship. Like mastering a craft under a mentor, following Jesus requires showing up daily to learn His rhythms. The slow acquisition of Christlike habits—prayer, scripture meditation, sacrificial love—forges deeper character than any spiritual quick fix. True transformation happens not in binge sessions but the patient practice of resurrection life. [44:18]

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:7-8, ESV)

Reflection: What one spiritual practice could you commit to daily this month to deepen your apprenticeship to Jesus?

Sermon Summary

Luke 9:23-25 puts the choice of following Jesus right on the table. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me,” and that word “would” gets down into desire, will, want, wish. Jesus is not intimidated by all the options sitting around in the Costco-sized buffet of modern life. Consumer choices, information choices, entertainment choices, life path choices, all of them compete for attention, but Jesus still shines against every one of them.

Jesus’ invitation is not just to choose him for the benefits. The phrase “come after me” means to get in position behind him, to humble the self, and to let Jesus lead and direct the life. Discipleship is not just warming a seat on Sunday or holding a shallow, marginalized Christianity at the edge of life. Discipleship looks more like apprenticeship, attaching the life to Jesus, learning what he knows, learning to do what he does, and ultimately becoming like him.

Jesus then makes the invitation wonderfully inconvenient. “Let him deny himself” means learning to say no to the self, to the flesh, to self-centeredness, and to the sin nature that wants anything but God at the center. Sin is not merely a list of bad behaviors. Sin is a condition inside the human heart that can twist even good things like comfort, pleasure, wealth, and convenience into replacements for God.

Jesus also says to “take up his cross daily.” The cross belongs uniquely to Jesus as the place where he conquers sin, death, and the devil, but the cross also becomes the pattern for discipleship. Jesus is not asking anybody to save the world by dying for sin. Jesus is asking his followers to pick up the hard, self-denying, self-sacrificing thing for God, for the kingdom, and for others, every single day.

Jesus finally turns the whole logic of life upside down. Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake will save it. The self-focused life looks like water in the Salt Flats, but it is only a mirage. The flesh and the world promise satisfaction, but they keep moving farther away. Jesus offers grace, not a religious standard to perform, and his invitation still stands: come back, follow him, and find the life that is actually life.

Key Takeaways

1. Jesus asks for real desire [32:37] Jesus’ “if anyone would” does not treat discipleship like a casual add-on. The invitation presses into what a person actually wants, not just what a person claims. A divided heart can admire Jesus while still keeping every other option open, but discipleship begins when desire bows low enough to get behind him. [32:37]
2. Discipleship is more than choosing benefits [42:15] Jesus can be chosen for heaven, forgiveness, and rescue, while his actual lordship remains untouched. That kind of faith can stay shallow because it wants what Jesus gives without being shaped by who Jesus is. The deeper invitation is apprenticeship, where the life becomes steadily trained into his way, not merely comforted by his promises. [42:15]
3. Self-denial names the real battle [50:24] Jesus’ command to deny the self is not vague religious toughness. It is the daily refusal to let the sin nature sit in the driver’s seat, even when its desires look reasonable, harmless, or even beneficial. The heart needs this kind of repentance because self-centeredness can turn good gifts into rival gods. [50:24]
4. The cross becomes the pattern [57:06] Jesus alone carries the cross that saves, but the saved life still receives the cross as a pattern. Daily discipleship means picking up the hard thing that obedience requires, not because suffering is holy by itself, but because love often costs something. The cross exposes the lie that God’s will is proven by convenience. [57:06]
5. Self-focused life is a mirage [01:12:38] The flesh promises happiness if it can just get its way, and the world makes the same offer with better packaging. The problem is not only that those promises are false, but that pursuit itself keeps moving the finish line. Jesus’ paradox is mercy: losing life for his sake is not loss in the end, but the only way to stop chasing emptiness.

## [72:38]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[26:20] - Worship Response and Introduction
[27:17] - The Buffet of Modern Choices
[29:48] - Jesus Remains on the Table
[30:15] - Luke 9 and the Cost of Discipleship
[32:37] - Desire, Will, and Decision
[38:54] - Coming After Jesus Means Following Behind
[41:08] - Discipleship as Apprenticeship
[45:27] - The Inconvenience of Following Jesus
[50:24] - Learning to Say No to Self
[53:01] - Taking Up the Cross Daily
[59:16] - Obedience as Real Following
[65:35] - Losing Life to Save It
[71:10] - The Mirage of Self-Focus
[74:32] - Invitation to Choose Jesus

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Luke 9:23-25 (ESV)
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”

Observation Questions

What three conditions does Jesus give for following Him in Luke 9:23?
How does the sermon describe the difference between "choosing Jesus for benefits" and true discipleship? [42:15]
What analogy does the sermon use to explain the emptiness of a self-focused life? [01:12:38]
What does the phrase “take up his cross daily” mean in practical terms, according to the sermon? [57:06]

Interpretation Questions

Why does Jesus emphasize “daily” when talking about taking up the cross? How does this challenge modern ideas of convenience?
The sermon says sin can twist even good things into “replacements for God.” What examples of this have you seen in your own life or culture? [50:24]
How does the paradox of losing your life to save it (v. 24) expose the lie of self-centeredness?
Why might someone admire Jesus but still keep “every other option open” instead of fully following Him? [32:37]

Application Questions

What is one area of your life where you’ve been saying “yes” to yourself that Jesus might be asking you to deny? How could you start practicing “no” this week?
“Taking up your cross daily” might look like choosing obedience in a specific relationship, habit, or decision. What hard, daily choice is God inviting you to embrace right now?
Where have you noticed yourself chasing “mirages” (comfort, success, approval) that leave you unsatisfied? What practical step could help you refocus on Jesus as the source of life? [01:12:38]
How would your daily routines, conversations, or priorities change if you saw discipleship as an apprenticeship to Jesus rather than a religious checklist?
The sermon warns against “marginalized Christianity.” What does it look like for you to move Jesus from the edges of your life to the center this month?
When has obedience to God felt inconvenient or costly? How did that experience deepen (or challenge) your faith?
What “good thing” in your life (e.g., family, work, hobbies) might be at risk of becoming a rival to God? How can you enjoy it without making it an idol? [50:01]

Sermon Clips

65s

#ConvictionOverComfort

“``It is not a matter of convenience to carve time out of your day to pray. That is not convenient. It's not a matter of convenience to study and understand the word of God. That is not a matter of convenience. It's not convenient to be generous. It's not convenient to serve love serve others. It's not convenient. In fact, this is probably the hardest of all to love people. Right? Have you met people? Right? It's a mess. Not you guys, by the way. You guys are fantastic. You're welcome. Yeah. You guys are doing great. But the everybody else. All those people. Following Jesus is not a matter of convenience or of comfort. Rather, it's a matter of conviction. It's a matter of coming to an understanding of who God is. If God is who he says he is, if Jesus is who he says he is, if God has done what he's actually done, then, yes, this thing is worth our entire lives. But that doesn't mean it's gonna be easy.”

61s

#HumbleAndFollow

“This this word is a positional word. It has to do with the position that you take, and what it literally means is to come but be just behind someone. this means, the implication of this is that we would position ourselves as a follower and as a learner. It means the choice that Jesus is giving us here, the choice that he's inviting us to consider is to humble ourselves. That's a great word. Humble ourselves. I like that word. And let Jesus be the leader and the director of your life. That's good. The choice is discipleship. That's the choice.”

62s

#MoreThanSundayChurch

“You see, Jesus' invitation here, his his invitation to come and follow is more than just some sort of church attendance. It's more than just some sort of nominal, marginalized, shallow Christianity. It's more than just kind of warming a seat every once in a while on a Sunday morning. It's something more significant than that. It requires our whole lives. It requires a greater commitment, a deeper conviction. Some of us choose Jesus, but hear me out. Some of us choose Jesus because we want all of the things that Jesus brings us. We wanna avoid hell. We wanna go to heaven. We wanna have all the promises that God gives us clearly. Who doesn't want that? I want that. So we choose Jesus, but we haven't yet chosen to be a disciple. We haven't yet chosen to actually let Jesus shape our lives in a significant way.”

50s

#MirageOfSelf

“A self focused life is exactly like a mirage. It's exactly like a mirage because it looks like something is there that's not really there. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. The promises that our flesh makes us, the promises that the world makes us are empty promises. Yeah. It says, come. My flesh says, hey. Look. If you just would do everything that I'm telling you to do, my flesh promises me that I'll be happy and satisfied. The world says, come. Indulge in all of these things, and you will be happy and satisfied. But guess what? They are mirages. They are empty promises. You get there, and nothing's there.”

47s

#ChristAloneSaves

“Right? That role is uniquely his. That belong to Christ and Christ alone. Only he could have done that. Only he could do that. Only he did that. So, no, Jesus is not asking you to die for the sins of anybody. He's not even asking you to die. What he is asking us to do is to pick up the hard and difficult thing of discipleship. asking us to pick up the hard, difficult, hear these words, self sacrificing, self denying thing Yeah. For the sake of God, for the sake of the kingdom of God, and for the sake of others. He's asking us to do maybe what we don't wanna do, to do the thing to put aside ourselves to do what God has asked us to do.”

60s

#BeyondShallowFaith

“I wanna just just kinda cap off this point about this idea of the choice of following Jesus by saying, I'm not here to say that this is about salvation. I mean, you might be here and not really living as a disciple and you very well may be saved because God is a God of grace who saves us not because of what we do, but because of what he has done. Paul even expands on this idea that we don't have to do anything to earn and we can't do anything to earn our salvation. He expands on that idea in the book of Romans. So I'm not here saying that you're not going to heaven or that God doesn't love you, but what I am saying is maybe just maybe some sort of shallow, marginalized, one day a week Christianity falls short of the life that God has created you to live. What I am saying is that God may in fact have something more for you that you have not yet experienced or accessed.”

66s

#NarrowAndHard

“I think so often in life, we think that God wants to make our lives easy. I think there's this weird sort of syncretism that takes place. It comes from, like, partly, like, Disney fairy tales that we've watched and just our own predisposition to want comfort. Right? But we think that, like, okay. If I if I come to Christ, I come to God, I do all the right things, I show up to church, God's just sort of gonna iron out all the creases of my life. Everything's just gonna be so simple and smooth. And that actually creates a lot of crisis for of faith for people because then when hard things happen, they're like, woah. Where is God? Well, he was still he's still there. He's he's never left. He's still doing the same thing. It's okay. But what happens is is when we believe that thing, we misunderstand the gospel. We misunderstand the actual invitation that God has given us. Because, actually, Jesus promises us that it will be hard. He actually uses that exact phrasing. He says, the path is narrow and the way is hard. Yeah. He actually says that.”

49s

#GraceInvitesAll

“Here's the grace in all of this. This has been a hard one. Right? I mean, there's a lot of tough truth in this message. I mean, Jesus is coming for us today. But here's the grace. Is this is not some sort of religious standard that I'm asking you to meet? This is an invitation that I'm asking you to consider. Yeah. It's good. It doesn't matter how long you've been living for yourself. If you're here this morning and you have never even made a choice to follow Jesus and you have been giving yourself fully into the indulgence of your own selfishness, pursuing the things of this world, pursuing every little inclination of your own heart, Jesus invites you now in this moment to consider coming to him.”

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The Gospel of Inconvenience | Ian Longtin | 07.12.26

Devotional

Day 1: When Life Feels Like an Endless Buffet Line

Day 2: The Uncomfortable “No” That Leads to Life

Day 3: Carrying More Than a Lunchbox to Work

Day 4: Chasing Mirages or Walking on Water

Day 5: Becoming Apprentices of the Unhurried Way

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

The Gospel of Inconvenience | Ian Longtin | 07.12.26

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