The Detachment of Discipleship - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, September 15th. Today we wrap up the first week of the series on discipleship with a reminder that every call to God is also a call away from lesser things. Take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

But what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels. Now, verse 57. And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said to him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he said to another, Follow me. And he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Discipleship is not a matter of choice.

It is mandatory. Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you disciples. And when you and I think in terms of discipleship, it is clear as you look at the scriptures that Jesus distinguished salvation from discipleship. That he invited all men to be saved.

He commanded all men to be disciples. That salvation is the door into discipleship. That God's goal for every believer is discipleship. His goal is not salvation, but to be conformed to his likeness as a disciple of his. It is interesting when he dealt with the rich young ruler and the young man came to him and said, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And he talked about keeping the law and so forth. And then Jesus said to him, As if to carry him beyond salvation to discipleship, he said to him, Sell what you have, give to the poor, die to yourself and come follow me. And I believe what he said to that rich young ruler is what he is saying to every believer.

That salvation is the beginning. But God's goal for the believer is discipleship. Now, we said discipleship means a person who is a disciple is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as his savior, yielded to Jesus Christ as his Lord and one who has made himself available for Jesus to reproduce his life through us into the life of someone else.

And as he is reproducing his life in the life of someone else, the one whom God has used is working in the life of that other person, building him up, strengthening him, pointing him to the word, praying with him, showing him how to find the will of God and the purpose of God for his life. Now, when you examine the scriptures, it is interesting to notice that every single passage on discipleship, with no exception, demands the disciples detachment from something. Now, by detachment, I simply mean what the dictionary means by detachment.

That is a severing of a relationship, a parting, a disentanglement with something, the separation of something, disengaging yourself from something or someone. Detachment is found in every single passage where discipleship is mentioned. We noticed in this very chapter here, in the 23rd and 24th verse, he speaks of denying oneself. In the 14th chapter, as we discussed, the dedication that is demanded for a disciple, he again says, Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple, and also must forsake all, lest he cannot be my disciple. Every single passage on discipleship, there is the idea of detachment, that is, in order to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, I must sever myself from something. I must disentangle my life with something.

Now, that something is what I want us to talk about this morning. And it's interesting also to notice that each time Jesus began to talk about detachment in discipleship, that his casualty list just skyrocketed, because when you begin to talk about detachment, that means the severing of old ties, the severing of relationships, the disentanglement of our lives with those things which often we cherish and desire and have intense desire for, when you start speaking of disentangling yourself with that, something happens deep in the heart, because there is suddenly a tremendous dropout among God's people. Many who are believers who say, Yes, I received Christ as my Savior. Yes, I want to be a disciple. Oh, yes, I'm willing to suffer for Jesus. Yes, I'm willing to follow him. I'm willing for him to conform me to his likeness.

But me disentangle myself, detach myself, sever my relationship, apart from this or that, no, wait a minute, that's something entirely different. But there is no such thing as discipleship without a decision concerning detachment. Now, let's look at these three men who came to Jesus. The first one, the fellow came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Can't you see him walking up and saying, Lord, here I am.

I knew you were looking for disciples, and I am reporting for duty. This man came to him, and here's the reason he came. He believed him to be the Christ.

He believed him to be the Messiah, and so began to calculate. He said, Well, if he's the Messiah, the Messiah is going to bring in a kingdom, and that kingdom is going to be absolutely fantastic. It is going to be a kingdom where he rules the world. Rome will be put out of the picture. The people of God will rule the world, and therefore there'll be lots of security. And after all, anybody who's got any sense at all wants to join that kind of band.

I'm reporting for duty. But what he did not realize was that though God would bring in his kingdom, he would not bring it in by gold and silver and affluence and acceptability to a Roman world. He would bring it in by pain and suffering and shame and death. And Jesus said to him, If you're going to follow me, I just want to warn you. Listen, if you are attached to the comforts of your life, you better get ready to give them up, because if you follow me, you may not even have a decent place to lay your head. I wonder how many people this morning have already begun to think about this matter of what discipleship means, and you've looked around, and if you were honest today, you'd have to say, Preacher, I'll tell you, if the Lord asks me to give up this, this, this, and this, I just have to be number one dropout, because I can't do it. You know why you can't do it?

Now watch this. An attachment, an attachment is anything or any person that has a grip on your life to the point that it is hindering your whole-hearted devotion and walk with God. Anything, anybody, and one of those things are the comforts of life. You see, there are lots of people today who would follow Jesus if, if he could guarantee them this and guarantee them that and guarantee them the other. Now I'm going to say this again, because this needs to grit and grind and irritate and probe a little bit.

You cannot be obedient to God, impossible to be obedient to God, if the limitation of your life is that you are willing to obey until it becomes uncomfortable. You say, what do you mean by that? I mean simply this, that you cannot say, Lord, I'm willing for you to have all of my life acceptance, but these comforts of life, and here's what we do, we say, well, after all, I've worked hard. I've been working a long time. I've worked for these things all of my life. That's the problem.

I've worked for these things all of my life. You mean to tell me that I've got to give this up? My friend, I do not mean that in order to be a disciple, you must go home and empty your house of all the easy chairs.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this, that at any single point in your spiritual walk, that comfort, whether it may be the comfort of your bank account, of the security you have, whatever comfort you enjoy, hold on to that keeps you from obeying God, you need to detach yourself from it. Is there something in your life that you've got your grip on this morning and God says to be a disciple, open that hand? You said, Lord, he says, open that hand.

That's as far as you'll go. He says, I want all of your life. This man's desire for the comforts of life will not allow him to be a disciple. Secondly, he said, that is, Jesus said to a man, follow me. But he said, now, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury the dead and then I will come follow you.

Now, let's get the picture of what's happening here. In those days, the eldest son had the responsibility of taking care of the family. And because he did, he did have the responsibility of burying his father when his father died. But his father wasn't dead.

That was not the problem. But here's how he was thinking. He said, well, now, I'm willing to follow Jesus, but, and probably having heard what just went before, no place to lay his head. Well, if when my father dies, being the eldest son, I will reap the richest reward and I'll be pretty well off. Therefore, I will go back to my father, stay in his household until he dies.

When he dies and the will is settled, then I'll have my inheritance. Then after I get my inheritance, I'll have some security. After I have my security, I'll be willing to follow Jesus anywhere he wants me to go because when his supply runs out, I'll have mine.

Now, my friend, that's exactly what people are saying today. They are so attached to their security. Listen, did you know one of the greatest things that could happen to this country is for God to wipe all the security of all men out. Then in desperation, you'd see the saints of God grow up like giants before God.

We have to depend upon him. And listen, man, because of his misinterpretation and because he has embezzled God. Now listen, an embezzler takes that which has been entrusted to him and uses it on himself.

And you see, an embezzler is a believer who has taken God's gifts and goodness and love and mercy and blessings and instead of investing into the kingdom of God, he's invested in himself and uses it for himself. So that a second thing we notice is this. And that is not only do men drop out of discipleship because they are unwilling to be detached from the comforts of life. Secondly, they're unwilling to be detached from the cares of life.

And those cares could be many things. And I want to ask you this morning, what is it in your life materially that you would not want to give up today to be obedient to God? Now, I'm not talking about your money. I don't want your money.

But what I do want is this. I want you to examine your heart to see if in living reality you are willing for God to detach you from that what you have placed your security in. He says the man who is unwilling to detach himself from the material things of life in order to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is not worthy to be a disciple. Now, that detachment may include many things. It may not be just money. But it may be an idea that you're holding to. It may be jealousy in your heart towards someone else. It may be pride.

Why? If I just gave over everything to the Lord and I began to serve him, what would so and so think? It doesn't make any difference what but one person thinks and that's God. You see, detachment means I am willing for God to pull that out of my life by the roots whatever it costs. Discipleship means that I must be totally and wholly and completely his.

Now, watch this. My friend, as long as anything, anybody has an attachment upon your life, you are not free. Detachment means I am willing for him to pull out of my life by the roots anything and everything that would hinder me from being totally and completely and absolutely yielded to him. Now listen, God is looking for disciples, men and women with the courage, men and women with the courage and the faith to believe that what God says he will do. Now listen, I believe he wants to disciple enough of us that he can trust us to trust him absolutely and completely for all of our security, all of our dependence and that he would destroy any sense of independence from God. Now listen, as long as a man is depending upon this which he has accumulated, that which he has accumulated, what these people think, what those people think, then he's not free. He's not dependent upon God. He is dependent upon something else.

The detachment of discipleship means I am willing to step on an island, get out there with God and say, Lord, sink or swim, here I am. You are my future. You are my security.

You are my life. And without you, there is nothing. You see, you don't mean to tell me you believe that's what he said.

That's exactly what he meant. Listen, we've been colored by the system, saturated by its philosophy. We've been engulfed by the idea of having security. We've been baptized and immersed and beaten down and shattered and shaped and remolded by a system that is so completely antagonistic to what God said, we can't hear the truth for believing a lie. He said no dependence upon the world, total dependence upon him.

Listen, brother, it doesn't get sweet till you get out there where he saws you off and you just drop right into his arms. Nowhere in the world to beat that for security. That's what he's talking about. He says, one man said, nope, drop out number one. I am too attached to the comforts of life. Can't do that. A second fellow says, I am too attached to the cares of life, my security.

Sorry, can't go. The third man. Another said to him, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell with your home at my house. Now, the third man was attached to people, his father, his mother, his sisters, his brothers, his friends, whoever they might be, the attachments of the world.

Listen. Now God has given a mother a wonderful love for her children and a child a wonderful love for his father. But there comes a time when what God demands supersedes all else. And someone said, well, how do you reconcile that with following the chain of command?

I see no problem there. Jesus says, except the men hate his father, mother, wife, children, brother, sisters, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Now we saw, if you'll remember, he did not mean by that animosity, hatred, but that love and loyalty and devotion and obedience for him supersedes obedience to all else. Now God will never call us to disobey, but his call to obedience may seem to loved ones as if we hate them.

That's exactly what he's saying. Discipleship, that means to follow him without reservation, period. That's difficult for us because we live in a world system that has colored us, shaped us, molded us, made us. And friend, what God is looking for is a fellowship of people who are willing to shatter the mold, who are willing to break out and be what God wants them to be, whatever the price may be.

He said, I can't go. There's my father. There's my mother. There are my sisters and brothers and all of my friends.

How can I do that? You see, discipleship means that I am willing to turn my back upon every attachment in my life and walk right off and leave it. Separate myself from it. Disentangle myself from it. Detach myself from it.

Move away from it. And I want to ask you this morning, what is it? Who is it in your life? What is that thing, that desire, that attitude in your life?

Something that has an attachment to you. You just know that it's there. And once you pull away, it is still there. And when you think you've just about gotten away, there it is. You somehow cannot escape the attachments of the world.

Here's the reason. Because you look about you. Now watch this. You look around you and you see what other people are doing. And then you see what God requires of you. And you say, if I do that, what in the world are they going to think? Which says your gaze is in the wrong direction.

As long as you look like that, you're going to have a problem. When you're beginning to be willing to look up, then what you're saying is, God, I'm throwing everything, all of my dependents, all of my security, all of my future on you, praise God. If I sink, I sink.

If I swim, I swim. It'll be your responsibility. You are responsible for the consequences of my obedience. My friend, you'll never be a free man until you're willing to do that. You'll never be free until you tell God, here I am, as obedient as I know how to be, the consequences are totally yours. Only then will you experience discipleship. Thank you for listening to The Detachment of Discipleship. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.