It Will Cost You Everything!

The Cost

John Calvin once said, “I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ.”

Henry Drummond said, “The entrance fee into the kingdom of heaven is nothing: the annual subscription is everything.”

Tell the story about the cost (when you were 16).

Tell the story about the man that lost everything for the anointing.

What it Takes to Follow Jesus

Luke 14:25–33 ESV

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 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.

Coming to Christ demands the highest priority over every aspect of your life. It necessitates the submission of your will to His lordship.

Discipleship requires your sacrifice and willingness to suffer for Him.

Jesus will not follow you––you are called to follow Him.

Following Christ will cost you your old way of life and forfeiting your past sins.

It will cost you a life of ease and living for this world...

It will cost you old habits and old associations. It will cost you following your own agenda for your life. It will cost you time and treasure. It will cost you suffering for being identified with Him.

It will cost you opposition and persecution from the world.

It may even cost you your life.

Hate?

Luke 14:25–26 ESV

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 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.

What Does This Mean?

What did Jesus mean by these seemingly harsh words? Does this not contradict so much else of what He taught? Does not the fifth commandment say that we are to honor our father and mother (Exod. 20:11)?

Yes, the Law teaches this. Did not Moses write that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Lev. 19:18)? Certainly, he did.

Did not Jesus command us to love our enemies (Matt. 22:39-40)? Yes, He did.

Did not Jesus Himself care for His own mother as He hung upon the cross (John 19:27)? Of course He did.

Did not Paul issue the imperative that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25)? Absolutely.

Does not the Bible maintain that if a man does not provide for the members of his own household, he is worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8)?

The Price is the Cross!

Luke 14:27 ESV

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Cross-bearing discipleship is counting the cost first.

Talk about what it means to be a cross bearer.

The Apostle Paul summed it up perfectly.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Taste of Salt

Luke 14:34 ESV

34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

Salt is good because it preserves meat from spoiling.

Salt flavors bland food.

Salt cleanses what is unclean.

Salt even possesses medical properties that heal an open wound.

A disciple is like salt.

Jesus said this to his disciples earlier in the Sermon on the Mount when He said ‘You are the salt of the earth’ (Matt. 5:13).

All followers of Christ are the salt of the earth.

By their presence in society, they are to bring a moral influence upon the world.

They are to hinder the sinful corruption of the world.

The penetrating impact of their personal holiness is to be a preventative force in their surroundings.

Disciples are not to be the sugar of the earth, but salt.

They are to sting the raw wounds of the world’s immorality.

They are to produce a cleansing effect upon those around them.

The Counterfeit Disciple

Jesus was indicating that not all salt is genuine. Some salt initially appears to be real, but in reality, is not.

He was contrasting a true disciple and a false one.

A phony follower has an outward façade of being a genuine disciple, but in reality, he is not.

Tasteless salt, Jesus said, had no use. Neither did uncommitted disciples.

Those in the crowd with a divided heart are compared to fake salt.

They are not committed to Christ, and that’s why they possessed no moral influence upon the world.

They are worthless to hold back the corrupting influences of evil.

Savourless salt becomes an object of contempt and judgment.

Can You Hear Him?

Luke 14:35 ESV

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 Lord Jesus closed the message on discipleship with the words “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Not everyone will have the willingness to listen to the terms of discipleship.

Because it was cost you everything!

Look at the Price They Paid!

The woman at the well

The woman with only 2 mites

The Alabaster Box

It’s Time For You to Carry Your Cross

Luke 23:26 ESV

26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

You have to carry it behind Him

Conclude by telling the congregation your story about carrying the cross.