Counting the Cost

Scripture

Luke 14:28–30 KJV 1900

28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

Luke 14:25–33 KJV 1900

25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

To Build a Tower

Planning

In order to build a building of any kind, there must be a plan.

There must be a vision shared by everyone involved in the project.

If everybody is constructing their portion of the project just they way they want it, nothing is going to fit together.

Nothing is going to match.

Someone has to have sufficient knowledge and understanding to design the building.

They have to understand the building materials, their capabilities, and know how to use them in unison to complete the project.

To have the skill to successfully plan to build a tower, it takes study and dedication to learn and develop those skills.

Whether from arrogance, ignorance, or choice if we fail to learn the skills necessary to build the tower; we are doomed to failure.

In arrogance we might say, “Oh, I went to a seminar last year” or, “I’ve got me degree in engineering, so I’ve got it covered.”

In ignorance we may have gotten ourselves in way over our heads and then compounded the problem by refusing to acknowledge it or we may be just too blind to see it.

By choice we can refuse to listen to people of demonstrated skill and experience, who know how to do what we’re trying to do.

Labor

A construction project is labor intensive.

We live in a fast food society.

We live in a society where we get instant reward for work that we didn’t do.

When we go out to eat, we get a meal within minutes made just the way we want it; and we didn’t have to do the work of cooking it.

We pop a tv dinner in the microwave, wait 4 minutes, and we’ve got a whole meal cooked that’s ready to eat.

The problem with restaurant or microwave food, though, is that it never tastes as good as if the ingredients were fresh and time has been spent to prepare the meal; and it’s usually not nearly as nutritious.

We live in a world that has learned to leverage money and technology to reduce our work load.

We buy things pre-made, where as the older generations built even the tools needed to do the work.

We don’t have better food because we don’t want to do the work to plant and tend a garden or feed and water the chickens.

Time

One of the key ingredients for any successful project is time.

We want our churches to grow, and we want people

You can’t decide to build a tower one day, and go completely build it the next.

Did you know that the chicken that you buy in a grocery store lived its entire life in about 7 weeks?

I’ve heard many people from the older generations talk about how the chicken that they buy in the grocery store just doesn’t taste like the chicken that their mother used to cook.

If they were raised on a farm, the difference is time.

Chickens on the farm would be 6 months or older before they started butchering them for food.

If you ever have a farm raised chicken done the old way, fast food chicken will never taste right again to you either.

Everybody is busy now.

Have you noticed that, in spite of all of our time saving technology and money to buy things, nobody has any time anymore?

Cost

It’s impossible to build a tower without the investment of time, labor, resources, and money.

If you want a tower, it costs you.

You must make an investment in the project, and be committed to seeing it completed.

If you don’t have the necessary funding or if you are unwilling to spend the amount of money, time, and labor it takes to complete the project, you have wasted everything you have put into the project.

The Modern Church

Planning

One of the things that hinders many churches from growing is that they’ve grown so complacent by the status quo, they plan to do anything different from what they’ve been doing.

This is just the way things are now.

Whether from arrogance, ignorance, or choice if we fail to learn the skills necessary to build the tower; we are doomed to failure.

Another thing that hinders growth in the church is a lack of skill among the leadership.

In arrogance we might say, “Oh, I went to a seminar last year” or, “I’ve got me degree in engineering, so I’ve got it covered.”

In ignorance we may have gotten ourselves in way over our heads and then compounded the problem by refusing to acknowledge that we’re in over our head or we may be jsut too blind to see it.

They don’t know what it takes to help the church grow, and they just flounder from one idea to the next without much success.

Rather than acknowledge that there are gaps in their understanding, they stubbornly refuse to ask for help from people who have been successful.

By choice we can refuse to listen to people of demonstrated skill and experience, who know how to do what we’re trying to do.

Labor

Making disciples is hard work.

We buy things pre-made, where as the older generations built even the tools needed to do the work.

One of the reasons that the modern church talks so much about decisions and baptsisms is because it takes much more time, effort, and a lot more resources to make a disciple.

It takes far more skill and ability in one’s own personal walk with God to make a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don’t have better food because we don’t want to do the work to plant and tend a garden or feed and water the chickens.

Disciples grow the church, whereas with decisions odds are about 4:1 that you’ve made a long term member.

Time

The state of Biblical understanding in the modern church is disgraceful.

Have you noticed that, in spite of all of our time saving technology and money to buy things, nobody has any time anymore?

Only about 25% of people read their Bible more than twice per week.

We’re not even doing the bare minimum to have a healthy walk with God in our own life.

How in the world do we expect to make disciples under such conditions?

Cost

We have entire generations missing from the church.

We have thought it was somebody else’s job to educate the children.

We think that when we reach a certain age that we’ve done our part and now someone else needs to step up and do the work.

We don’t want to put forth the effort to invite people to church.

We don’t want to have to do all the work to study to lead a Bible study or teach a Sunday School class.

We don’t make time for God in our personal lives, so we certainly don’t have time to work at the church.

In short, for much of the church world, we’ve counted the cost to make disciples and to grow the church and we’ve decided that advancing the kingdom of God is just too expensive.