Count the Cost

If you were to travel to Indianapolis, IN, hop on I-65 south toward Louisville, then turn off the interstate and travel east toward the Ohio river, you might come across this. This is Marble Hill Nuclear Power plant.

At least, it was supposed to be a nuclear power plant.

In 1977, Public Service Company of Indiana began construction of this plant.

But in 1984, after spending 2.5 BILLION dollars, PSI had to abandon the project due to a number of factors, including lack of public support and the unwillingness of the Indiana state legislature to help fund the project, and low national enthusiasm for the nuclear industry following an accident at a nuclear power plant at Three-Mile Island near Harrisburg, PA.

To this day, the ruins of the plant are still there, being slowly demolished.

PSI did not count the cost of building this plant. and it was a colossal failure

This is the National Monument of Scotland.

If it looks kind of unfinished, that’s because it is unfinished.

In 1816, an idea was put forth in Scotland to erect a monument to soldiers who had died in the Napoleanic wars. And in 1822 the plan was formed to construct a monument that looked like the Parthenon in Greece. The cost would be 42,000 pounds.

The foundation stone was laid that year in 1822. But 16 months later, only 16,000 pounds had been raised with the possibility of another 10,000 pounds from the Scottish Parlament.

They finally began work in 1826. But funding to complete the project never materialized and the work was abandoned shortly thereafter in 1829.

Today this monument has some kind of unflattering nicknames such as "Scotland's Folly", "Edinburgh's Disgrace",[4] "the Pride and Poverty of Scotland" and "Edinburgh's Folly".

The constructors of this national monument didn’t count the cost

You don’t have to look very far to find more examples like this, where work was started but abandoned because people didn’t count the cost.

And there are various reasons for this: Sometimes it’s because of factors that couldn’t be planned for. Disasters or economic downturn.

We don’t intend for things to work out this way, but sometimes they do.

Today is Father’s Day and I want to wish a happy father’s day to all the dad’s out there, including my father-in-law who allowed me to start dating his daughter without having a clue who I was, and eventually marry her.

When I was thinking about Fathers Day, my question is, what is it about a man’s heart that make him who he is?

When I think about my own heart, I think about what kind of things fascinate me or connect with me in a deep way?

I think that men like to have adventure, to conquer things, to be a hero. To face adversity and come out on top!

This past Wednesday evening, if I wasn’t at Bible School, you might have found me in front of the TV watching game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals as the St. Louis Blues took on the Boston Bruins.

Coming into January, the Blues were dead last in the league and their odds of winning the Stanley Cup were about 250-1.

But in December, they had made a move that ultimately assured their success. They called up from their minor leagues, a goal tender named Jordan Binnington. Binnington had played for the Canadian national junior team but as a professional only had moderate success. Basically the Blues just needed a warm body in the net to eak out another mediocre season.

But against all odds, Binnington proved himself to be a star and was like a brick wall in the net.

Behind his goal tending, the Blues started winning games and found themselves in the playoffs. But they didn’t stop winning. And eventually they found themselves in the finals against an experienced and immensely tallented Boston team.

Nobody ever expected the Blues to be in the finals, much less take the Bruins to a game 7 and win the whole thing on the road in Boston. But they did.

I love stories like that. And not just because it’s hockey, one of my favorite sports. IT’s because an underdog came and conquered the giants and rode off with the spoils.

That’s the kind of story that grabs my man’s heart!

But in order to do that, the Blues had to count the cost. They had to endure the grind of a tough season, of overcoming adversity, both mentally and physically.

As men, we like these kind of stories.

But when it comes to what it’s like to walk with Christ, I wonder how many of us have really counted the cost.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because, as I think I’ve said before, when I became a Christian at the age of 9, I don’t remember thinking about it in this way. I don’t remember anybody saying to me, “Are you ready to count the cost? Are you ready to give your entire life away? Are you ready to strike out on an adventure with Christ, not knowing what the outcome will be?”

When the Gospel was presented to me, this passage in wasn’t presented along with it.

In this passage, Jesus is at the home of a ruler of the Pharisees. It is the Sabbath and this ruler had invited Jesus to lunch. And verse 1 says that they were watching him carefully to see what he would do.

And of course, Jesus begins to do things that made them mad, like healing a guy on the sabbath.

And He starts to tell them very pointed stories.

One story that He tells starts in verse 16. The story of a man who prepares a great banquet and He invites His servants to go out and call in those who had been invited.

You would think they would jump at the chance to have a huge meal with a great man. They would be honored. But instead they began to make excuses.

One guy said “I’ve just bought a field and I need to go check it out. Can I opt out of this invitation?”

Another said, “I’ve just bought a new tractor (5 yoke of oxen) and I need to go make sure it’s what I ordered. Some other time, thanks!”

And yet another said, “I’ve just gotten married. I have to be responsible now! I don’t have time to go to a banquet!”

And the master is angry and tells his servants to go out in to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the “undeserving”, the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.

But still there was room and so they called in the people from the highways and the hedges and compelled them to come to the banquet.

And the master said, “None of those who were invited at first will taste of my banquet. In fact, they won’t even get to eat the leftovers.”

This story was told to the Pharisees.

Then Jesus turns to the great crowds which followed him and says this:

(ESV)

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

The point that Jesus was making was that none of the guys in the story that he told wanted to count the cost of being a disciple.

They had all kinds of other distractions that were a higher priority for them

Then he turns to the crowds and tells them exactly what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus

The commitment to discipleship

Jesus says to the crowds standing around, “Look, if you are going to be my disciple, you have to be ALL in, 100%

Jesus says to the crowds standing around, “Look, there is a cost, a GREAT cost to being my disciple”.

In fact, commitment level is so high, that it compares to a hatred for your own family and even for your own life.T

In fact, the cost is so great, and the commitment so high, that it compares to a hatred for your own family and even for your own life.

these are hard words from Jesus!These are words that I don’t know if I’ve grasped. Pretty sure I haven’t grasped them to the full extent that Jesus mean for us to.

These are hard words from Jesus!

But Jesus says, if you are going to be my disciple, you have to be all in. I don’t want a part-time disciple. I don’t want a Sunday disciple. I want an all-in disciple

In order for the St. Louis Blues to win the Stanley Cup, each member of the team had to sell out 100%, not actually knowing if they were going to make their prize.

The Cost of discipleship

These are words that I don’t know if I’ve grasped. Pretty sure I haven’t grasped them to the full extent that Jesus mean for us to.

If you are going to be my disciple, it’s going to cost you something. In fact, it might cost you everything. And you have to be prepare to pay everything.

It’s like a man who wants to build a tower (or a nuclear reactor, or monument)

Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he has enough money

It’s like going out and buying more land, or planning to build a new house. Won’t he make sure that he has enough money first?

It’s like a king or general going out to battle.

Won’t he first sit down and consider whether there is any possiblity of winning this battle with the manpower that he has?

We just passed the anniversary of D-Day. It was a battle that required a staggering amount of planning. Do you think they didn’t ask this question? Sure they did!

They certainly counted the cost.

In the same way, Jesus says, “Don’t embark on the journey of being my disciple if you haven’t first counted the cost.

I think that there are too many of us who were raised in a Christian home and you knew that at some point in your life you were expected to be a good boy and settle down, ask Jesus into your heart, get baptized and go to church.

And that’s just what we’ve done. And to us, that’s discipleship. But we’ve never really counted the cost. We’ve never considered that being Jesus’ disciple just might cost me everything.

The Result of Discipleship (ESV)

Salt Without Taste Is Worthless

34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The result of being Jesus discipleship is that you become salty.

Now sometimes we don’t think that’s a very good term. “He’s a salty old codger”.

But Jesus compares his followers, both here and in to salt of the earth.

It means that His followers are good for something. They are useful. They bring flavor to the world.

Over the years, salt has been a valuable commodity.

in fact, there have been battles fought over salt

salt is has been used for flavoring, for preserving, for purification, for all kinds of things.

Most of us have a salt shaker on the table in case the cook didn’t put enough in the food.

We can’t imagine a world without salt.

But I wonder if many people in the world can imagine a world without Christians, without disciples of Jesus.

I wonder how many people in Hills or in our community have had their lives preserved and flavored by the saltiness of a sold-out disciple of Jesus.

And as painful as this is to wonder, I do have to wonder if people look at our churches and say, “How bland”. I don’t really want any of that.

And maybe the reason is that disciples of Jesus haven’t really counted the cost and haven’t completely left families and homes and lands and picked up his cross and followed Him.

In order to be salty, Jesus requires that we be 100% committed and that we seriously count the cost.