Untitled Sermon (2)

What it Cost Christ

Tonight we are going to do a blind auction.

This is for real ok.

You can offer me whatever you want.

People have the opportunity to counter if you’d like.

You also have the opportunity to outbid anyone as long as you actually have something to bid with.

I can freely accept or reject your offer anytime I want.

Everyone can ask questions about what’s in the bag and I will decide if I want to answer the question or not.

You can ask yes/no questions.

I may say “yes, no, or I’m not going to answer that question”.

Make sense?

This is a real auction.

GO.

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Transition:

Now the actual value of what was in that bag was about $12.

What was the contents of this bag worth to you?

Well, it was worth whatever you were willing to give up for it, right?

We complain cause the clothes we like are now more expensive than they were last year, but we still buy it.

We complain about gas prices, yet none of us are willing to buy a horse and get rid of our cars lol.

We complain about groceries, yet we still put more stock in buying the food off a shelf rather than grow it or raise it ourselves.

Why?

Because we count the cost.

We consider what it would cost to do these things, or not do these things and decide to go with the option that we think is best.

A lot of times, to be honest, this comes from the idea of comfort.

What does it cost to make me most comfortable.

And we decide to do that…

Now, that idea in and of itself is pretty neutral.

Meaning, it’s not bad or good per se to live and choose things off what is comfortable.

HOWEVER, the pursuit of comfort can be very bad and very dangerous.

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts Dad Tired this week and there was an episode with a guy named John Mark Comer.

Comer wrote the book that we discussed on our men’s retreat this year “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.”

His book is about counting the cost of what a hurried life is doing to most of us.

He gives many practical words of wisdom to consider the counting the cost of this hurried life most of us are living.

In the podcast, both Jerrad Lopes and Comer are from the west coast and they both talked about the difficulty of being a Christian there, but at the same time how wonderful it is to live there.

They talk about how when you live in a place that’s not easy to be a Christian, the Christians you do know develop a deep comrade

SO here’s a thought I have, the less comfortable we are, the more likely we are to hold tight to Jesus.

Now let’s talk about the beginning of Jesus’ life.

1. Read Micah 5:2 “2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.””

- The NIV version says “The least among the rulers of Judah”.

- In the town that is least in all of the kingdom of Judah, Jesus would be born there.

Humbling beginnings.

God could be born in the grandest palace.

He’s born in the lowest of towns.

2. Read Matthew 2:3-4, 13-16.

Jesus comes into the world and immediately there is a cost to him being alive.

Herod wants to kill all baby boys 2 years old and younger.

This is so dangerous, that Mary and Joseph and Jesus have to flee the country until Herod died.

I don’t know how many years that was, but it could have been 5-10 years.

Wow.

Then we get to Luke 4.

3. Luke 4:28-30.

Jesus’ home town.

Nazareth. The place he returned too after that time of exile in Egypt.

They should have loved Jesus most.

But when Jesus reveals He is God they try to kill him.

Friends, Here’s a simple truth tonight.

Following Jesus isn’t a call into the comfortable life.

It’s a call to a life clinging on to Jesus with everything we’ve got.

It’s a call to hold fast.

It’s a call to know we are in a storm and we are on a boat that feels dangerous, but we have an anchor that will sustain us all the way through.

Sometimes it’s a call to live in a dangerous place so we understand and have an appreciation for what it actually means to follow Jesus, that it costs us something .

I love fantasy stories.

Lately, I’ve been reading Narnia to my boys.

We’ve read the magicians Nephew in the past, we just finished the Lion the Witch, and the wardrobe

Now we are cruising through the Horse and his Boy, which is by far my least favorite CS Lewis book.

But they are loving it.

They are so captivated by these stories.

I look forward to the day that we read Lord of the Rings together.

In Lord of the Rings, there’s a great scene and dialogue in the second movie that captures this idea of Cost very well.

Sam and Frodo feel like they are about to die.

Most everyone has been separated that was helping them destroy the one ring of power.

Evil feels like its winning.

But they still have a chance to continue to destroy the ring.

To do what they set out to do.

In life or death, they need to destroy this great evil.

And so Sam and Frodo have this conversation.

To quote one of my favorite movie moments from Lord of the Rings:

SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?

But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

The Things that cost us something, they are worth fighting for.

Jesus is worth it.

As we reflect on what it cost Him to even come to earth, maybe we should wisely consider that it’s ok if it costs us too.

He is worth it.

Maybe we should even lean in to that and look for ways for our faith to cost us a little bit so we see the value of following Christ.

Either way this Christmas, don’t forget that it cost Jesus everything to come as a baby to earth.

That above all else is worth fighting for.

That above all else is worth living for.