· The value and pride of relationships family or friends
· Your most intimate connections cannot have more value than your call to follow Christ.
o
Vs 27
· The value of social status, you must bear your own public shame and humility and your disconnected from those whom you value the most to truly be Christ’s Disciple.
· Your family may not follow to the commitment level God is calling you
· Your community may not follow to the commitment level that God is calling you
o
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o The Nouns of Life (People, Places, and Things)
o Emotional and Psychological Shame of the Cross as an event in your life
· Fallen condition issues faced by the Church
o Identity and group formation
§ People groups, race, religion, family origin, etc.
§ Church specific
· Church size, denominational pride
· Pastoral/Ministerial attachment
o Differentiation of Self (Concept from Murray Bowen
§ The ability to identify with a group while understanding that you are not the group and the group is not you. Emotionally you can differentiate between true group success and failures vs individual success and failures, without either one dominating your sense of self identity.
· Vs 28-33
· Consider the Cost
· Consider the loss (The King of Kings) No room for half steppers, you in or you out
Vs 34-35
· The disciples power is in the obedience to the teacher, just as salt power is in its preserving and taste and is worthless without those properties, so the disciple is worthless without the life of sacrifice to his master.
· Consider the price (ROI)
o Negative
o Positive
Coming to faith is Christ we should consider the sacrificial cost it will have on our lives, the consequences for not following and the positive return on investment for living the sacrificial life of obedient discipleship to Jesus Christ.
