Counting the Cost
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Building - anyone build anything?
I’m going to be open and honest - I can’t build anything
How many get something new, only take 20 minutes, 2 hours later....
This morning we read about counting the cost of being Christ’s disciples...
This passage wasn’t just talking to His disciples in the moment
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:
So, Jesus was not speaking just with His disciples there, He was talking to all who would follow Him…including you and me!
So, what is the cost of following Christ?
Romans Road
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
So, this is the first way of counting the cost....knowing the Gospel!
Secondly,
27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Be willing to die.....
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
To be willing to lay down our lives....
And, more than this, back to Luke 14...
33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
give up everything...
How many of you have been asked “if I am a Christian do I have to give up____?”
Pastor video…give up weed
Basically the answer that he gives is “no, once you follow Jesus, He will reveal things in your life you need to surrender”
It sounds really good on the surface, but according to what we have read today, is he correct?
No, the cost of following Jesus is to give up everything!
To deny ourselves…give up our wants/desires/etc…and to take up our cross, our execution stake…to follow Him
For a long time, I didn’t understand what it meant to follow Christ.....
I approached it like the pastor in this video....just come to Jesus, mostly good, and then He will start plucking out all the bad things in my life...
But, that’s not what the scriptures teach....
They teach...
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Those who have nothing to offer God....
So, I think the more biblical way of looking at it is,
I surrender everything to Him! Everything!
My desires, wants, sin, wife, kids, ministry, job....everything means everything!
And then what happens is God starts giving things back to us
He has called me to be a husband, so He allows me to be married to my wife
kids
job
ministry
So, questions like the ones in the video I referenced, do I have to give up ____ to follow Jesus, the answer is “yes!”
everything means everything!
So, I probably would have asked the boy a different question....
“what are you not willing to give up to follow Jesus?”
If you aren’t willing to give up everything you either
don’t understand the impact of your sin
don’t truly understand the gospel and what Jesus has to offer!
I don’t think the boy was really asking this deep of a question…he was probably really meaning to ask if smoking weed is a sin...
I’m not prepared to answer that question right now....
But, depending on the answer is what whether or not God will hand it back to us...
When God hands us back the things that we have surrendered to Him, He will not hand us our sin back!
Process - some things
Benefits:
salvation
Kingdom of heaven
fruit of the spirit
freedom
I think we as a Church…individuals....Christians...need repentance....
Shared this the other night, it really stood out to me...
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
So, the towns that experienced the work of God, were unrepentant....
Christians - repent
We do altar calls.....the christians should be the first ones to the altar....
We know who Jesus is, yet we don’t always repent...
So, who needs to repent this morning?