How To Hate Your Parents

Overview

Almost everybody says Jesus Christ was a great teacher, but when you actually begin studying Jesus’ teaching, he has a lot of sayings we can call “hard sayings.” They’re hard partly because they’re difficult to understand, but just as much, and maybe even more so, they’re hard because they’re tough to swallow, they’re hard to accept.

The hard sayings of Jesus are things that on the surface look pretty difficult and maybe even look absurd, but as you reflect upon them, you’ll find that you actually never get to the bottom. Our text today is not really about fathers and mothers, although it would appear to be so on the surface, but it’s about discipleship. It’s about what it means to exclusively follow Jesus and be his disciple. We’re going to look at these five aspects of Jesus’ discipleship: it’s not optional; it’s unpredictable; it’s deeply emotional; it’s completely positional; and it’s unconditional.