In this sermon entitled "The Demands of Discipleship," the preacher challenges the crowd following Jesus to examine their commitment to being true disciples. He urges individuals to step out of the crowd and make a personal decision to follow Jesus, regardless of the cost. The preacher emphasizes the need for surrendering one's life completely to Jesus and leaving behind any rival or refusal to obey Him. He uses the analogy of a grain of wheat that must die in order to produce new life, highlighting the importance of dying to self and allowing God to shape one's future.

God has laid upon me very forcibly a message which I must bring to you this morning entitled The Demand of Discipleship. And I want to remind you that when our Lord Jesus spoke these words, a great multitude was moving with him down the street of Jerusalem. But I want to in my Savior's name to turn to the crowd, the crowd that are surging along with Jesus because it's the popular thing to do, it's the Sunday morning thing to do. I want to stop here this morning and challenge you as an individual within the crowd and ask you whether you've got the courage this morning and ask you whether you've got, listen, the deep insight of the Holy Ghost this morning to step out of line with the surging crowd of people, to step out of line and stand with him and say, Lord Jesus, ask from this morning, ask what it will. I'm a disciple for thee. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the first demand of discipleship. Listen to it carefully. Jesus says, No rival, no rival in your life for me, no rival in your life to Jesus Christ. For God has declared and decreed that he shall have preeminence in all things. God has exalted him about every name that is named, beyond dominion, beyond powers, beyond principalities. He has put him at the highest place in the universe. And God says, I'll give my son no lesser place than the throne of many women's lives in an unrivaled place. I'm asking you, is that where Jesus Christ is in your life today? Never mind whether you've made a decision for Christ at any other time. Never mind if you call yourself a Christian. I want to go radically, fundamentally to the very base of Christian experience today and ask you, is Jesus Christ unrivaled in your life? No rival in the life for Jesus Christ. Jesus says in the second place that the demand of discipleship means, listen carefully, no refusal in the life for Jesus Christ. No refusal in the life for Jesus Christ. Listen to the words. It comes from the Savior's lips, whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. This is the cross in your life, and the cross sells an eternal yes to all the will of God. The cross means for you and me this morning, listen carefully, no refusal, no refusal to recognize that you have died, that you have died to the principle of the old life. Up until now your life has been, listen carefully, not Christ but I, not Christ but I, not Christ but I. But this morning as you're going through with him, you're going to sing as you leave this place, not I but Christ, not I but Christ, Christ all in all, in everything in your life. Is your life no refusal to the life of Jesus Christ? For you see my friends, the Christian life is an eternal no to Stephen Olsen and an eternal yes to Jesus Christ. Yes to the will of God. Listen, no rival in the life for Jesus Christ, no refusal in the life for Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ said demands of discipleship, he said no refusal, no rival, but something more than that, no retreat, no retreat, no retreat. If you're prepared for no rival and no refusal, I demand also no retreat. For following the Lord Jesus Christ means, listen carefully, no going back, no going back. It means forsaking all to go with him. It means burning the bridges behind you. It means never looking back again. It means going on and on and on, not for a day, not for a week, not for a month, not for a year, but forever. And I'm putting it to you this morning my friends, are you prepared for those demands? My dear friend here, listen to me very carefully. The demands of discipleship, the demands of discipleship, they're addressed to the individual in the crowd. You're sitting here on this great Sunday morning in a great multitude. Jesus steps into the crowd and he hits the individual and he says, if any man, are you prepared to stand out today? Are you prepared to stand out today and say, cost what those demands will, no rival, no refusal, no retreat, cost what it will, I'm ready Lord. May I remind you that Jesus hung there at Calvary's cost and went all the way for you. He held back nothing. Will you look up into his face and say these words this morning? Will you make them your prayer? Listen, listen. Dear Lord, in full surrender at thy feet, I make my consecration vow complete. My life I yield to thee. Henceforward there shall be no rival, no refusal, no retreat. Unless you're prepared to let go of what you are, you will never become what God intended you to be. I want to ask you this very simple question. The moment a grain of wheat has gone to the ground and has admitted its need of dying, how much control does it have over the future? How far can a grain of wheat that goes into the ground and die shape its future end? From the moment that it is prepared to die, it has absolutely no say at any time about it. And I want you to know this, so long as you intend to plan your own program, insist on your own blueprint, shape your own end, you'll never know spontaneous life of Jesus Christ, quickening resurrection impact on the world around you. But you'll never reproduce life. Only God restores life. If only you'll be prepared through death to allow his life to be released, in reckless abandon, become expendable, in complete unquestioning availability to Jesus Christ. I cannot promise you what it will involve for you because I do not know. I know that he knows. I wouldn't invite one man, woman, boy. ...quality of Christianity. This is normal Christianity. This isn't fanaticism. My invitation to you tonight is to die. The latent Lordship of his hidden life. Always remember this, Jesus Christ is enough. It is not Christ plus somebody else, Christ and somebody else. Jesus Christ is all in all.