{"id":6866,"date":"2022-03-06T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&p=6866"},"modified":"2022-03-12T08:52:18","modified_gmt":"2022-03-12T14:52:18","slug":"courageous","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/sermons\/courageous\/","title":{"rendered":"Courageous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Then he said to the crowd, \u201cIf any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.<\/em>   Luke 9:23-24<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a Christian Isn\u2019t Easy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them,<\/em> <\/em>26 <\/em>\u201cIf you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else\u2014your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters\u2014yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.<\/em> <\/em>27 <\/em>And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. <\/em>28 <\/em>\u201cBut don\u2019t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?<\/em> <\/em>29 <\/em>Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you.<\/em> <\/em>30 <\/em>They would say, \u2018There\u2019s the person who started that building and couldn\u2019t afford to finish it!\u2019 <\/em>31 <\/em>\u201cOr what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him?<\/em> <\/em>32 <\/em>And if he can\u2019t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away.<\/em> <\/em>33 <\/em>So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.<\/em>   Luke 14:25-33<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Count the cost<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Christ doesn\u2019t give up on us<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.<\/em>   1 John 1:8-9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have to Take a Stand<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.<\/em> <\/em>11 Put on all of God\u2019s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.<\/em> <\/em>12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, put on every piece of God\u2019s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.<\/em> <\/em>14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God\u2019s righteousness.<\/em> <\/em>15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.<\/em> <\/em>16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.<\/em> <\/em>17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.   <\/em>Ephesians 6:10-17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Then he said to the crowd, \u201cIf any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.   Luke 9:23-24 Being a Christian Isn\u2019t Easy A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 \u201cIf you want to be my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[],"ctc_sermon_series":[],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[110],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"class_list":["post-6866","ctc_sermon","type-ctc_sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ctc_sermon_speaker-jesse-loew","ctfw-has-image"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/6866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/6866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6867,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/6866\/revisions\/6867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=6866"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=6866"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=6866"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=6866"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=6866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}