The Cost of True Discipleship

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Jesus, who exclusively is the way, truth, and life, demands that we are exclusively His disciples at all costs. 

MATTHEW 16:24-26
The Steps of Being Jesus’ Disciple….

1. A Desire to Follow Christ (24)
2. A Disowning of Our Own LIFE. (24 Let him deny himself)

Being a disciple is a surrendering of ourselves to the will and way of God!

Denying yourself is the opposite of independence.

Howard Butt… It is my pride that makes me independent of God. It’s appealing to me to feel that I am the master of my fate, that I run my own life, and call my own shots. But that feeling is fundamental dishonesty. I’m dependent on God for my next breath. So, living independently of God is self-delusion.         When I am conceited, I am lying to myself about what I am. I am pretending to be God and not man. My pride is the idolatrous worship of myself. And that is the national religion of Hell!                                                                              

3. A willingness to follow unto Death (24 take up his cross and follow Me.)
   Matthew 16:21-23.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The cross is laid on every Christian. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

4. A DETERMINATION TO GIVE TO FIND! VV25-26