Sermon Notes

Matthew 8:18–22 NIV
¹⁸ When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
²⁰ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
²¹ Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
²² But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 NIV
⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Philippians 3:7–14 NIV
⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

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“In the Gospels the very first step a man must take is an act which radically affects his whole existence.”
— The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Series Resources

Go deeper with additional resources from our teaching team.

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Discussion Igniters

(1)  Read Matthew 8:18–20.
What stands out to you about this interaction between the teacher of the Law and Jesus?
What is Jesus correcting here? 

(2)  Read Matthew 8:21–22.
What is Jesus teaching this disciple about priorities?

(3)  What is the cost of the grace that Jesus offers us?
What was the cost to him?
What does he ask of us?

(4)  Are you ever tempted to cheapen the grace that Jesus offers you? 

(5)  Read Philippians 3:7–14.
What would it be like for you to adopt this mindset for your own life?
Are you willing to?