Sermon Tone Analysis

The Cost of Non-discipleship

Communion: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Intro to series (maybe).

Prompt: pray

In economics there is an important term called “opportunity cost.”

Opportunity cost is the idea that once you spend your money on something, you can’t spend it again on something else.

It is an either-or, not both-and.

Usually, when we make decisions those decisions have constraints.

Things like time, resources, and rules.

Illustration: Example: my wife taught me about the triangle of fast, good, and cheap.

Evaluating opportunity cost is considering what you can’t do based on each possible decision.

In this conversation, Jesus turns to the crowd and starts talking to them about following Him.

He lays out the cost of following Him and then challenges anyone who wanted to follow Him to count the cost.

He uses terms that are economic in nature: compute (count) and cost.

He does this to drive home the act of intentionality.

This is not something to be done lightly nor rashly.

We could focus on the cost of following Jesus, but today we are going to focus on the cost of not following Jesus.

Non-Discipleship

Jesus said that if you wanted to be His disciple, you needed to count the cost.

He laid out the terms in this brief message, but what we don’t see here is the cost of not being His disciple.

Have you ever looked at your decision to follow Jesus in those terms?

What it costs a person who chooses to not follow Jesus.

Jesus used a metaphor for the path of discipleship and the path of non-discipleship.

Jesus speaks in terms of life and death.

Narrow and difficult—i.e.

costly—is the way that leads to life (this word is the supernatural, eternal, indestructible zoe life of God).

Not taking that way means things are wide and easy.

Not taking the narrow and difficult way also leads to destruction (the sense here is eternal destruction).

The opportunity cost of going the wide and easy way is life.

To put it another way, the cost of non-discipleship is the supernatural, eternal, indestructible life of God.

If you choose the wide and easy way, you chose to give up the abundant life.

And that is not all that you would lose.

Grace Given in Christ

Following Jesus leads to being enriched in everything by Him.

It means to not come sort in any gift.

It means that He will confirm you blameless.

It means that you have fellowship with Him.

Non-discipleship means that you give up these things, and more:

Can elaborate on these as needed

Eternal life (John 17:3)

Abundant life (John 10:10)

A new life (2 Corinthians 5:17)

No condemnation (Romans 8:1)

Peace with God (Romans 5:1, Colossians 3:15)

Reconciliation with God (Romans 5:10)

The joy of the Lord (Nehemiah 8:10)

Great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4)

In His conversation with the crowds, Jesus made it clear: if you refuse to be His disciple, then you lose your effectiveness and purpose.

What is Your Priority?

When it comes to following Jesus, He tells us to count the opportunity cost.

What you gain or lose is a result of your choices.

Will you respond to the goodness of God and choose to follow Jesus, all the way?

Or, will you instead decide that it is too narrow, constricting, and difficult to follow Him?

As you make choices remember that for every choice you make, your yes to one thing is a no to another.

Conclusion

For sure there is a cost to following Jesus, but I would submit that the cost of not following Jesus is even greater.

“Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil.

In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring.”

— Dallas Willard

But if you choose to follow Him, you will experience all the good things that God has for you in Christ.

Nothing that the world offers is worth what you lose if you do not choose Christ.

Take the time to count the cost of not following Jesus.

I believe that you will find that it is not worth it.