The Hidden Cost

Intro

You ever struggle with life? With God? I know I do. And honestly, right now I am. So much that I felt the need to scrap the sermon I wrote for today, and just speak from the heart a little bit. But just in case, I wrote out an outline and put up a couple pictures and scripture to keep me on schedule...I mean football does start today if you didn’t know.The Browns road to the superbowl begins.

But anyway, I do struggle. I fight against what God is telling me. I act as if my life is ending because I am not getting what I want, or somethign in me is changing. But the truth is, church, that I was never meant to just have my way. We aren’t meant to stand still. We are meant to follow Christ, and if we follow, church, things will change. Life will be unpredictable. We will lose control eventually. But in those moments, church, we need to remember that our relationship with God - the potter of our lives - is the only thing that can offer us the comfort and protection we need in this life.

Luke 14:25–33 ESV

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “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. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 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? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 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? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

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Luke

scripture/pray

[denyyourself]

Talk about Frog and Debbie (no names obv)

Have to deny self to do what is right

Perhaps a better illustration of this idea Jesus is trying to get across to us happens in our lives.

Spouses, partners, significant others, kids, students - when we are in a true relationship with them, we meet them where they are. But bigger than that, we change something about ourselves just to be able to be where they are!

Not that we weren’t good enough before! Not that we didn’t already have their love! But a deep desire to love someone, and to know them, leads directly to us changing something about our lives.

It is the hidden cost of love.

[menwatchingfootball]

This afternoon, men - and even women really - maybe I should just say football fans; but this afternoon you will sit and watch the Browns win...or maybe the panthers who knows. But you will sit and watch your team, right?

But hopefully you will talk to your spouse. Hopefully, your relationship has formed enough to know that you can’t just get lost in the game - or in any adult beverages that might accompany said game - and just act like you deserve it!

[NOT LIKE YOU WERE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER]

[YOU HAVE CHANGED BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO KNOW WHOEVER YOU ARE WITH.

[YOU DON’T STAY OUT ALL NIGHT, HANG OUT WITH YOUR OLD COLLEGE BUDDIES LIKE YOU DID BACK THEN, YOU DON’T SPEND ALL THE FAMILY MONEY ON THINGS YOU WANT LIKE YOU WOULD WHEN YOU WERE SINGLE.]

[YOU DON’T ACT LIKE YOU ALWAYS DID NOW THAT YOU HAVE FOUND A RELATIONSHIP WORTH HAVING]

BUT WHAT ABOUT CHRIST? SURELY HE IS WORTH HAVING. BUT WHAT HAVE WE CHANGED ABOUT US ON OUR WAY TO FOLLOW CHRIST?

Luke 14:28 ESV

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?

VERSE 28

VERSE 28

[TALK ABOUT IT]

THERE IS A COST TO ALL THINGS IN LIFE, AND THOUGH GRACE IS A FREE GIFT TO ALL PEOPLE, OUR RESPONSE TO THAT GRACE - AND MORE IMPORTANTLY TO THAT RELATIONSHIP - SHOWS US AND GOD HOW MUCH WE ACTUALLY VALUE THE GIFT OF HIS LOVE AND LIFE.

WHATEVER WE HAVE, WHATEVER WE LOVE, WHATEVER WE ARE - IT MUST ALL BE OFFERED TO HIM IF WE ARE TO BE HIS FOLLOWERS

Luke 14:33 ESV

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

VERSE 33

VERSE 33

CHURCH, THIS TEXT CALLS FOR US TO EXAMINE ALL THAT WE ARE, AND THEN OFFER ALL THAT WE ARE TO THE RELATIONSHIP WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN IN CHRIST.

AFTER ALL, HE IS WORTH IT! THE RELATIONSHIP IS WORTH IT! AND MORE IMPORTANTLY THE RESULT OF THAT OFFER AND DEVOTION CAN ONLY SERVE TO MAKE OUR WORLD BETTER, AND TO MAKE OUR LIVES AND OURSELVES THE VERY THING GOD WANTS IT TO BE

Jeremiah 18:1–6 ESV

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

Close it out.

[invitation—seated]