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Welcome
If you are a guest here today, we would love to know more about you and pray for you.
You can fill out a visitor card in front of you and place them in the offering plate.
Pastoral prayer
INTRODUCTION
I want to begin this morning reminding us why we are here in this location at this time.
We are NOT here because of the effort that we put into finding a bigger place to worship.
We are NOT here because of our own wisdom, our perseverance, or strategic thinking.
We are NOT even here because it was our plan to come here!
We ARE here this morning because God brought us here.
We are here because God has opened this door for us!
We are here because God has a purpose for this church.
We are here because God has called us to be witnesses to the city of Oak Grove.
we are here because God has a mission and purpose for us to be here.
We are here to make disciples.
BUT we are not alone!
God is with us!
And God is at work within this church and within our individual lives!
And I believe in all of my heart that God is going to use this ministry to reach thousands of lost souls!
And God has called each on of us to be here and to join in on His great work!
What is our mission?
Our mission is to “Lead people from all walks of life into new life with Jesus Christ”.
And if we will make this the center of all we do, God will make this a successful ministry!
~PRAYER OF THANKS TO GOD~
MESSAGE
I want you to think about this today, “The Cost of Discipleship”.
We are in a series about discipleship because a true follower of Jesus is a disciple of Jesus.
And if we really want to know what it looks like to be a disciple, we must learn from Jesus himself.
If we were to ask Matthew (who wrote this gospel) what a true disciple is, I believe he would say someone who was fully committed to Christ at any cost.
And I think if we were to ask Jesus what a true disciple is, He would say someone who was fully committed to him at any cost.
Discipleship is costly.
Discipleship that does not cost is not discipleship at all.
Everyone who follows Jesus will have to give up things in this life for Jesus.
In is inevitable!
Matthew 19:27 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You”
My hope from this message today is that every one us is leaves with an understanding of what it means to follow Christ.
There are two reasons:
1) If we are going to make disciples we must know what they look like!
We must know what the goal is and when someone is truly walking in faith.
2) we must make sure that we are truly committed!
If new are not truly committed to Christ, then how can we lead another into a fully committed life?
Do you ever think about why Jesus did not have a big church?
Has there ever been a better preacher, pastor, or evangelist on the face of the earth?
Here was the Son of God walking around dealing blind men and raising the dead and He had a small group of 12.
We went to Gideon meal last night and sat at a table with a man and his wife who were Gideons.
And they asked where I pastored and I told them I was planting a church in oak Grove.
And then he asked how many you running?
And this was a nice man and nothing at all wrong with asking that but we all want to know how many people are coming and sitting in the seats on Sunday morning.
If we gauged Jesus’ ministry by the amount of people in His circle wed say He was a failure.
I mean if you tell someone you have a church of 12 and one of them is the devil your a failure!
Here is my point: The goal of ministry is not to get as many people as we can into the seats on Sunday morning.
The goal of ministry is to make disciples who are committed enough to follow Jesus at any cost!
Why?
Crowds impress men, not God
Explanation: Notice what Jesus does when He sees the crowds.
He says alright boys, time to go.
Pack up the boat, lets set sail.
He does the exact opposite that we would do today.
I mean we drool today at the thought of 50 or 100 coming to sit in our service because that is how our culture defines success in ministry.
But that is not how Jesus defined success.
Jesus is not interested in fans.
Jesus is not interested in superficial people who make superficial commitments.
And Jesus knew the hearts of the people in the crowd and He knew they were there for all the wrong reasons.
They were the uncommitted.
They had come because of that they had seen, not because of who Jesus was.
They had come because they had heard what jesus could do, but not because they wanted Jesus.
And Jesus is not interested in fans, He is looking for followers.
Bridge: Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun.
That which has been is what will be.”
No matter what period of history we are in, there will always be crowds who come for all the wrong reasons.
There will always be superficial people who want to entertain the idea of coming to Jesus, but are not willing to pay the costs of following Jesus.
Crowds do not impress God, and they should not impress us either.
Application: Do you know what our mission statement is? “Leading people from all walks of life into new life with Jesus Christ”.
Do you know that the name of our church is “New Beginnings Baptist Church.
What we must be about is seeing people receive new life through Jesus Christ.
What we MUST keep in focus is what God has called su to do and not fall into the church culture way of thinking that if we can just get people to come, we have made done something.
Crowds impress men, but they do not impress God.
Our goal here is life change and we know that can only happen by the power of God.
Jesus gives us three case studies:
One candidate who says he will follow but doesn’t consider the high costs.
Another who says He can’t because the price is too high.
And then those who do and show us what it is like.
1) Following Jesus requires a willingness to give up the comforts of this life
Explanation: This man comes out from the crowd and He claims he is ready to follow Christ.
And Jesus clearly sees some shallowness in this man so He tells him, “foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has no-where to lay his head”.
What is Jesus saying?
Is Jesus saying that He is homeless And that to become a disciple he must become homeless?
The kind of ministry Jesus had was a traveling preacher who went from town.
He did not have a house where he called home every night, he did not sleep in the same bed every night, and He did not know where every meal would come from that He ate.
And the point to this man is if he wants to come follow Jesus this is what his life will look like.
He will have to give up his secure home, comfortable bed, and stable way of life if he truly wants to Christ.
In other words, the man says I will follow you anywhere, and Jesus says will you go this far?
Will you go as far as giving up your most basic securities in life such as your home to follow Me?
Bridge: We live in a much different culture than in those days.
If we go anywhere we will most likely stay in a bed.
We will most likely have a food over our head.
But just becuase our culture is different does not mean discipleship is different.
Jesus still requires us to go way outside our comfort zone to follow Him.
Application: How far will you go?
Is there a limit to what you are willing to do for Christ?
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