Count the Cost

Text: Luke 14:25-35

Link: Count the Cost
(Note that there is about a 3 minute delay before the recording plays, so skip ahead to about 2:55)

Link to song that is referenced in beginning: Jesus is Better by Aaron Ivey (Austin Stone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTewCIvR7Og

Opening Question: Do we resonate with that song?  Do we truly believe that Jesus is better than anything?

Most Christians would answer "Yes" or "Yes, we have tasted and seen that He is better than anything."  And yet we find a tension and struggle do we not?

Main Point:  If we are going to see lives transformed for the glory of God (FBC's mission statement), than we must count the cost and be willing to give up everything for Jesus.

Most of us at FBC would say: "I have already counted the cost...I have decided to follow Jesus there is no going back and recounting the cost for me."  Which made me wonder do we have our presentation of the gospel correct.  If your presentation starts out with "Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life...a plan to prosper you...why would you not want to follow Jesus? Just turn your life over to Him and you will receive new life and all will go well with you."  Is that the gospel that you responded to?  What do you do when in the midst of living life everything goes south...things get bad...are you not tempted to say "Jesus isn't prospering me, why should I keep following Him?" or "God isn't taking care of me...I've prayed and He isn't taking care of me"  Are you not tempted to stumble and fall away?

Maybe our presentation of the gospel should start out with "Count the cost...yes, Jesus loves you...yes, He wants you to prosper, but that prospering may not happen on this side of eternity...what if your prospering doesn't happen until you stand face to face with Jesus in eternity?  Are you still willing to slug it out here?  Most of us would say still say "Yes", but what do you do when you come up against texts like today's that say things like "hate your parents..."  Some of us have no problem "hating" our parents, b/c we grew up in homes that were not exactly great...but at the end of the day I do not believe that kind of hate is what Jesus is talking about. Or "hate your spouse." Or "hate your children."  Again, we have to be careful we rightly understand what it looks like to "hate."  Or what about "hate your life." Is Jesus talking about self loathing?  I do not think so.

The hate that Jesus is talking about is positional...you cannot raise something above Jesus if you want to be His disciple...it does not mean the kind of hate...angst...seeing red...loathing, but rather Jesus is better than anything. (Note: Christian and Disciple are interchangeable...there is no "I am a Christian, but not a disciple" in Scripture...you are either a Christian Disciple a.k.a. follower of Jesus or you are not)...And if you are going to follow Him than you must love Him more than anything.

I will confess for me I love my wife dearly and at times it is hard to place Him above my wife and I have to catch myself and say "No, I will not go there...He has blessed me with a great wife, but I will not worship her..."  It is the same with my children....We must count the cost of this before we follow Jesus.  He must be of greater worth to us than everything.  He deserves my allegiance.

Have you ever asked yourself: "What does it cost me to follow Jesus?"

At this point I used an illustration from Greg Sidders book: The Invitation, p. 53-54

Between April 1967 and March 1973, he pledged allegiance to the United States flag hundreds of times.  So did Mike Christian.  The difference was, Greg did it in a class room, while Mike did it as a POW in a Vietnamese prison cell....

Think of the difference in the cost...the level of commitment and cost is radically different...

Sidders concludes this illustration saying: "Pledging allegiance is one thing, but proving it is another.  That's true of allegiance to a country, and it is also true of allegiance to Christ."  

Have you pledged allegiance to Jesus?  What is it costing you?

Maybe you say "I am bearing my cross...I am suffering for Jesus."  The problem is to many of us are suffering, b/c of bad choices we have made and yet claim we are suffering for Jesus...really?  Why do we make those wrong choices?  B/c we are not willing to pay the price of dying to ourselves...laying down our lives, and living with our eyes focused on Him...clinging to Him...saying "I will follow Him no matter what...I will obey His teachings...I will run the race to completion...I will love my neighbor as myself...I will love God with my whole heart, mind and strength...everything"  Are you willing to lay your life down and give up everything for Jesus...Are you willing and ready to overcome your fears knowing that He is with you and will never leave you or forsake you?  Are you willing to stop and take an inventory of your life/heart and say "there are things here that I do not like and I need to get rid of them with the help of the Holy Spirit and God's grace."  So many of us willingly stay in our hurts, habits and hang-ups b/c we are not ready or willing to pay the price of letting it go...Are you ready to let control go?  That is what it will cost you to follow Jesus.  I struggle with that...when do I get frustrated and angry?  When I feel like I am not in control. That doesn't mean I am out of control of my feelings...rather it means I do not feel like I have my hands around this situation and I can control it...are you willing to let control go and let Jesus?

At the end of the day when we line up what it costs us to follow Jesus and what we get back is there any comparison?  No, but it sure feels like letting go and letting God is costly...what will it cost you to serve your spouse better.....even if you get nothing in return?  What will it cost you to serve your children? Neighbors?  What will it cost you to do that?  Where is the line in the sand where you say "I will go with you this far Jesus and no further...past this point it is too costly to follow you?"  I can't forgive my neighbor for letting their dog run on my yard...seems trivial doesn't it?  But stop and research/reflect on Matthew West's song "Forgiveness" based on a mother being willing to take the costly step of forgiving the man who killed her daughter in a dui accident b/c she had received grace and forgiveness from Jesus...that had to be one of the toughest/costliest things to do and yet if we are disciples of Jesus that is what Jesus calls us to do...have you counted the cost? Are you willing to go beyond that line in the sand with Jesus?

There are some individuals that want me to preach against a variety of sins and condemn "those" people out there, but my challenge back to them is "What if 'those' people became your neighbor? How would you love them? How would you minister to them? How would you love them more than yourself?" B/c that is what Jesus calls us to do when He says "count the cost."  Are you willing to pay that cost? Or are you going to be like the guy who started building and didn't have a credit card and everyone began to mock him...or will you finish?

When you come up against tough sayings in Scripture what are you tempted to do?  It is easy to say "Jesus didn't really mean that...He didn't really mean that I am to love my neighbor as myself...He wants me to prosper...he wants me to stay in my hurts b/c I am comfortable here...it's too costly to break out of that..."  When you come against tough sayings you have a choice...either dig deeper and seek understanding or ignore it..."  What do you do with passages like today's where it says "Hate your spouse" and other passages that say "Love your spouse"...again with a little digging you will quickly come to understand that there isn't contradiction just a challenge to keep things in their proper place and trust Jesus....He has your best interest in mind...even when it seems like He doesn't...

For many of us when we look at the part about the king that has 10,000 coming against the one with 20,000 we quickly say..."I can take them...with just the right plans/strategy I will conquer"  But we have to step back and ask "What is Jesus asking me to do here?"  Maybe we should ask "Can I with 10,000 come against God and His 20,000...maybe I need to count the cost and accept the peace that He offers through Jesus...and then be willing to be salt and light in this world no matter what"...salt in Jesus day was a preservative (including preserving manure so that it could release it's nutrients at the proper time)...are you willing to be a preservative bringing about the transformation of society no matter the cost? Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone?  Maybe you are an introvert...are you willing to step out and talk to one person? Some might say, "But pastor you just don't understand...they are going to mock me, spit on me...ridicule me."  So what, Jesus said they would do that, but He also promised that He had overcome the world and would go there with you...are you willing to step out with Him? Sure it is going to be costly, but the cost is only for a little while...this world is fleeting...the return on that investment (cost) is eternal...

The challenge for us is what will you change or do differently this week, b/c of what Jesus has done for you?  What will you give up...what cost will you pay b/c Jesus is everything?  Or where is that line in the sand? What will it look like to move and step over that line and go deeper with Jesus?  Why? So that Jesus can touch and transform the world through you. If we are going to be agents of transformation and see lives transformed we have to say that we have counted the cost, we understand that in the end it is not costly at all, we are going to give up everything for you Jesus, so that we can be salt in this world, so that we can be your disciples that love you and obey you.  Take some time this week to wrestle with the tough sayings of Jesus and then say "But they are not tough b/c I have everything in Him and Him alone..."

By His Grace and for His Glory,
Blessings,
PT