Counting the Cost
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:25-35 & Matthew 10:32-39
Luke 14:25-35
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone
comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear
his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a
tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29
lest, after he has laid the 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 to
make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with
ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while
the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So
likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit
for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Matthew 10:32-39
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father
who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My
Father who is in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a
sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of
his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.
And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does
not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it,
and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
Last week we talked about how backward Kingdom thinking is when compared to
the way the world thinks. Today’s topic is going to fit right in with that kind of
thinking. Our scripture begins with a multitude following Yeshua. He had already
healed a multitude of diseases, made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, He’d even
raised the dead by this point; Jairus’ little girl. If it was just about getting large
numbers of people to follow Him, you would definitely say ‘Mission Accomplished’.
So, why would He sabotage Himself with what He does next? Make no mistake, in
the natural, in the eyes of the world, that’s exactly what He does here.
He tells this multitude that if anyone doesn’t hate his mother and father, and He
mentions a bunch of other relatives, that person can’t be His disciple. What? You
have to hate your mother. Did He really say that? The people in the crowd had to
begin to wonder. Then He tells them that they have to pick up a cross to follow
Him. These people knew what a cross was for. That was for the worst of the worst
criminals. Why would He be telling them to get a cross? I thought He was
supposed to just give us stuff like when He fed us with a few fish and loaves of
bread. And just heal the sick and cast out demons and stuff. What’s with all this
cross stuff? And hating my mother and father, what’s with that? Well Jesus begins
to tell them although many of them probably didn’t understand what He was talking
about.
He says that when you build a tower, you sit down to count the cost first, and when
a king goes out to war he considers whether his army can beat the other guys army
first. Now, why do you think, while things were going so well? In fact, why do you
think I’m bothering to preach on this hard topic? Because Jesus knew, and I’m
learning that it’s not important how great the numbers are. What ‘s much more
important is whether those that are with you have taken the time to count the cost
of discipleship. It's worldly thinking that tells you that numbers are what is
important. How many of you have had a time in your life when things were going
great and you had a large number of friends that you believed were true friends?
Then something goes wrong and you look around to realize that the people you
thought to be true blue friends, are gone. Jesus knew that would be the case. He
knew it would be much more valuable to foster a few good disciples than to focus
on thousands of coverts. Did you know that 90% of Christian conversions fall
away, backslide, and go back to their former life. I believe the reason is that they
didn’t count the cost.
John 6:25-27
25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did
You come here?”
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because
you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the
food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man
will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
You see, these people weren’t counting the cost either. They just looked at Jesus
and saw free food. The people who are part of the 90% that fall away probably
came because they thought they could get something from Yeshua, but never
considered that something would be required of them; the cost. Jesus does tell us
to come to Him when we are heavy laden and He will give us rest, but He also tell
us that He has a yoke, which means we’ll need to submit ourselves to His control,
and that He has a burden, which would be that cross that we will each need to bear
(Matthew 11:28-30). He says that the yoke is easy and the burden light, but make
no mistake, there is a cost involved in being a disciple of Christ. I’ll testify that it is
miniscule when compared to the yoke and the burden the world had on me.
Remember, everything is topsy-turvy when you get into the kingdom so it takes
some time to get used to up being down and left being right. That’s where a lot of
people get tripped up, they don’t consider that things are going to be different.
They hear that He will forgive all their sin, forever, so they figure they just take that
free pass and go back to life as usual, but it doesn’t work that way, and Jesus
makes that clear to those who are following Him.
So, why would people in this day and age not be aware of the cost? Unfortunately,
it’s because those who are with all good intentions, leading them to the kingdom,
don’t bother to tell them. They don’t mention that the world will hate them because
they hated Jesus (John 15:8-9). Or that if you love your life you will lose it, so you
must hate your life in this world to gain eternal life (John 12:25). That would be
important to know when making a decision for Christ, wouldn’t it. No one mentions
that you maybe excluded, and reviled, and have your name cast out as evil, for His
sake (Luke 6:22). Friends who used to call you to hang out may not want to be
around you anymore because they say you ‘got religion’. People on tv act as if
Christians are the bad guy all the time because we tell the truth of God’s Word.
Abortion is wrong, adultery is wrong, homosexuality is wrong; so the world thinks
that means we are discriminating.
There’s a spiritual movement in the world now but much of it is lacking any real
truth. I heard it said that Christianity in America is 3000 miles wide and an inch
deep. That means it seems really big but there’s really not much to it. A lot of
people, many who have been sitting in churches for decades, think they know what
being a follower of Christ is all about, but they really don’t know much at all. I heard
Oprah tell a born again Christian woman that Jesus was a man of peace and He
would want people to live a life of peace the way He taught. The world wants to
make Him into a Ghandi or Confusious or someone like that, a man of peace with
lot of good advice for people to live by. But in reality Jesus told His disciples just
the opposite. In the second part of our scripture reading Jesus tell His followers not
to think He came to bring peace to the world, but a sword. That doesn’t sound
much like the man Oprah was describing, does it? Now remember, our battle is no
longer in the natural; the flesh and blood, it’s in the spiritual, against powers and
principalities so don’t think I’m telling you to go get a semi-automatic weapon or
something. The point is that most people have no idea that Jesus said this. Listen
to what He says in:
Luke 12:49-53
49 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a
baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! 51 Do you
suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. 52 For
from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. 53
Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and
daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law.”
I can remember when we were youth directors that we did have a parent that
thought we were brainwashing their children. In reality we are told that we must
renew our minds, so you can see how the world might call that brainwashing. From
the point when that teenager became on fire for the LORD, that house was indeed
divided. When Jesus said that we would have to hate our mother and father, He
wasn’t telling us to toss away the fifth commandment. What He was telling was that
we would have to put Him and the kingdom of heaven first, above all else; even our
mother and father, and spouse, and children and so on. We talked about the
crucial need to put the kingdom first two weeks ago. Am I telling you that we need
to try to scare people out of coming to Christ? Not at all. I heard Ravi Zacharius
tell a story about a young in her late teens or early 20s that was attending a revival
meeting with her sister. Ravi was one of the speakers there and this girl had come
up for the altar call in tears to make her profession of faith. There had obviously
been many people in that church who had been praying for this particular girl, he
could tell by the buzz that was surrounding her afterward. Someone told him that
she had been a point of prayer for quite a while and everyone was happy that she
had finally accepted Christ. So, the next night Ravi saw the girl’s sister but not the
girl and the same happened for the next two nights. The last night Ravi went to the
sister to ask about the girl and the sister broke down and wept. It seems that when
the sister left the church her boyfriend picked her up and the sister began to talk
about how wonderful Jesus is and that she had finally accepted Him. The boyfriend
asked if she had become one of them, referring to Christians. When she said he
began to berate her for her stupidity and eventually gave her an ultimatum; either
the boyfriend or Christ. She did not choose wisely.
That story, which is true according to Ravi, shows me two things. First, it clearly
shows that this young woman did not even consider the cost of discipleship. But
more importantly, I think, it shows that the way the modern church has set up
discipleship is quite a bit backward. It’s setup like the world would set it up, like a
pyramid scheme. All the little guys who don’t know how to convince someone to get
in the program, just tell people it’s a great program and take them to the person
who is good at convincing people to get in. Then once the person gets in, they find
out there’s a lot more to it than they expected. They feel like they got suckered
and the majority walk away. That’s not how it should be with us. Our gatherings
should be a fellowship of believers, where we edify each other, we let our
testimonies build each other up, we discussion scripture so we can become more
comfortable with the Word of God, but it’s been made a place for conversion
seeking. Each of us, as disciples of Christ should be out there living our lives in
such a way that people are asking us what’s different about us, giving us an
opportunity to show the Yeshua…..the real Yeshua, not the one that the world
thinks it knows.
When believers focus on bringing as many unbelievers to church as possible to let
the preacher convert them it does two very negative things. First, it takes the
responsibility of being a disciple off the individual believers. Because of this in
many ways, we’re looking at a one-inch deep church filled with many who call
themselves believers but with very few disciples. The second thing it does is
causes the preacher to preach the same message every week. Repent and be
saved. This causes many of the ‘believers’ who come every week to become bored
with the message and yet never really come to know the ‘real’ Jesus; they never
get discipled and hence comes another generation of one-inch deep believers. It’s
not enough for us to hope people will have a spiritual experience. All spiritual
experiences are not from God. I know when we went to our fist youth event and a
group of youths went forward to ‘rededicate’ their lives to Christ, I was thrilled.
Then at the next event I saw the same group, plus or minus a few here or there, go
up to do it again. By the time six years of youth directing had gone by, I had seen
people go up time and time again but I’d seen very few change their lives. We
have to count the cost ourselves so we’ll be able to help others put the factors
together to count the cost themselves. Let us make it our focus to aspire to be
good disciples so that our lives can be what will lead others to the cross.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: November 12, 2006
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:25-35 & Matthew 10:32-39
Luke 14:25-35
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone
comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear
his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a
tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29
lest, after he has laid the 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 to
make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with
ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while
the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So
likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit
for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Matthew 10:32-39
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father
who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My
Father who is in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a
sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of
his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.
And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does
not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it,
and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
Last week we talked about how backward Kingdom thinking is when compared to
the way the world thinks. Today’s topic is going to fit right in with that kind of
thinking. Our scripture begins with a multitude following Yeshua. He had already
healed a multitude of diseases, made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, He’d even
raised the dead by this point; Jairus’ little girl. If it was just about getting large
numbers of people to follow Him, you would definitely say ‘Mission Accomplished’.
So, why would He sabotage Himself with what He does next? Make no mistake, in
the natural, in the eyes of the world, that’s exactly what He does here.
He tells this multitude that if anyone doesn’t hate his mother and father, and He
mentions a bunch of other relatives, that person can’t be His disciple. What? You
have to hate your mother. Did He really say that? The people in the crowd had to
begin to wonder. Then He tells them that they have to pick up a cross to follow
Him. These people knew what a cross was for. That was for the worst of the worst
criminals. Why would He be telling them to get a cross? I thought He was
supposed to just give us stuff like when He fed us with a few fish and loaves of
bread. And just heal the sick and cast out demons and stuff. What’s with all this
cross stuff? And hating my mother and father, what’s with that? Well Jesus begins
to tell them although many of them probably didn’t understand what He was talking
about.
He says that when you build a tower, you sit down to count the cost first, and when
a king goes out to war he considers whether his army can beat the other guys army
first. Now, why do you think, while things were going so well? In fact, why do you
think I’m bothering to preach on this hard topic? Because Jesus knew, and I’m
learning that it’s not important how great the numbers are. What ‘s much more
important is whether those that are with you have taken the time to count the cost
of discipleship. It's worldly thinking that tells you that numbers are what is
important. How many of you have had a time in your life when things were going
great and you had a large number of friends that you believed were true friends?
Then something goes wrong and you look around to realize that the people you
thought to be true blue friends, are gone. Jesus knew that would be the case. He
knew it would be much more valuable to foster a few good disciples than to focus
on thousands of coverts. Did you know that 90% of Christian conversions fall
away, backslide, and go back to their former life. I believe the reason is that they
didn’t count the cost.
John 6:25-27
25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did
You come here?”
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because
you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the
food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man
will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
You see, these people weren’t counting the cost either. They just looked at Jesus
and saw free food. The people who are part of the 90% that fall away probably
came because they thought they could get something from Yeshua, but never
considered that something would be required of them; the cost. Jesus does tell us
to come to Him when we are heavy laden and He will give us rest, but He also tell
us that He has a yoke, which means we’ll need to submit ourselves to His control,
and that He has a burden, which would be that cross that we will each need to bear
(Matthew 11:28-30). He says that the yoke is easy and the burden light, but make
no mistake, there is a cost involved in being a disciple of Christ. I’ll testify that it is
miniscule when compared to the yoke and the burden the world had on me.
Remember, everything is topsy-turvy when you get into the kingdom so it takes
some time to get used to up being down and left being right. That’s where a lot of
people get tripped up, they don’t consider that things are going to be different.
They hear that He will forgive all their sin, forever, so they figure they just take that
free pass and go back to life as usual, but it doesn’t work that way, and Jesus
makes that clear to those who are following Him.
So, why would people in this day and age not be aware of the cost? Unfortunately,
it’s because those who are with all good intentions, leading them to the kingdom,
don’t bother to tell them. They don’t mention that the world will hate them because
they hated Jesus (John 15:8-9). Or that if you love your life you will lose it, so you
must hate your life in this world to gain eternal life (John 12:25). That would be
important to know when making a decision for Christ, wouldn’t it. No one mentions
that you maybe excluded, and reviled, and have your name cast out as evil, for His
sake (Luke 6:22). Friends who used to call you to hang out may not want to be
around you anymore because they say you ‘got religion’. People on tv act as if
Christians are the bad guy all the time because we tell the truth of God’s Word.
Abortion is wrong, adultery is wrong, homosexuality is wrong; so the world thinks
that means we are discriminating.
There’s a spiritual movement in the world now but much of it is lacking any real
truth. I heard it said that Christianity in America is 3000 miles wide and an inch
deep. That means it seems really big but there’s really not much to it. A lot of
people, many who have been sitting in churches for decades, think they know what
being a follower of Christ is all about, but they really don’t know much at all. I heard
Oprah tell a born again Christian woman that Jesus was a man of peace and He
would want people to live a life of peace the way He taught. The world wants to
make Him into a Ghandi or Confusious or someone like that, a man of peace with
lot of good advice for people to live by. But in reality Jesus told His disciples just
the opposite. In the second part of our scripture reading Jesus tell His followers not
to think He came to bring peace to the world, but a sword. That doesn’t sound
much like the man Oprah was describing, does it? Now remember, our battle is no
longer in the natural; the flesh and blood, it’s in the spiritual, against powers and
principalities so don’t think I’m telling you to go get a semi-automatic weapon or
something. The point is that most people have no idea that Jesus said this. Listen
to what He says in:
Luke 12:49-53
49 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a
baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! 51 Do you
suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. 52 For
from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. 53
Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and
daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law.”
I can remember when we were youth directors that we did have a parent that
thought we were brainwashing their children. In reality we are told that we must
renew our minds, so you can see how the world might call that brainwashing. From
the point when that teenager became on fire for the LORD, that house was indeed
divided. When Jesus said that we would have to hate our mother and father, He
wasn’t telling us to toss away the fifth commandment. What He was telling was that
we would have to put Him and the kingdom of heaven first, above all else; even our
mother and father, and spouse, and children and so on. We talked about the
crucial need to put the kingdom first two weeks ago. Am I telling you that we need
to try to scare people out of coming to Christ? Not at all. I heard Ravi Zacharius
tell a story about a young in her late teens or early 20s that was attending a revival
meeting with her sister. Ravi was one of the speakers there and this girl had come
up for the altar call in tears to make her profession of faith. There had obviously
been many people in that church who had been praying for this particular girl, he
could tell by the buzz that was surrounding her afterward. Someone told him that
she had been a point of prayer for quite a while and everyone was happy that she
had finally accepted Christ. So, the next night Ravi saw the girl’s sister but not the
girl and the same happened for the next two nights. The last night Ravi went to the
sister to ask about the girl and the sister broke down and wept. It seems that when
the sister left the church her boyfriend picked her up and the sister began to talk
about how wonderful Jesus is and that she had finally accepted Him. The boyfriend
asked if she had become one of them, referring to Christians. When she said he
began to berate her for her stupidity and eventually gave her an ultimatum; either
the boyfriend or Christ. She did not choose wisely.
That story, which is true according to Ravi, shows me two things. First, it clearly
shows that this young woman did not even consider the cost of discipleship. But
more importantly, I think, it shows that the way the modern church has set up
discipleship is quite a bit backward. It’s setup like the world would set it up, like a
pyramid scheme. All the little guys who don’t know how to convince someone to get
in the program, just tell people it’s a great program and take them to the person
who is good at convincing people to get in. Then once the person gets in, they find
out there’s a lot more to it than they expected. They feel like they got suckered
and the majority walk away. That’s not how it should be with us. Our gatherings
should be a fellowship of believers, where we edify each other, we let our
testimonies build each other up, we discussion scripture so we can become more
comfortable with the Word of God, but it’s been made a place for conversion
seeking. Each of us, as disciples of Christ should be out there living our lives in
such a way that people are asking us what’s different about us, giving us an
opportunity to show the Yeshua…..the real Yeshua, not the one that the world
thinks it knows.
When believers focus on bringing as many unbelievers to church as possible to let
the preacher convert them it does two very negative things. First, it takes the
responsibility of being a disciple off the individual believers. Because of this in
many ways, we’re looking at a one-inch deep church filled with many who call
themselves believers but with very few disciples. The second thing it does is
causes the preacher to preach the same message every week. Repent and be
saved. This causes many of the ‘believers’ who come every week to become bored
with the message and yet never really come to know the ‘real’ Jesus; they never
get discipled and hence comes another generation of one-inch deep believers. It’s
not enough for us to hope people will have a spiritual experience. All spiritual
experiences are not from God. I know when we went to our fist youth event and a
group of youths went forward to ‘rededicate’ their lives to Christ, I was thrilled.
Then at the next event I saw the same group, plus or minus a few here or there, go
up to do it again. By the time six years of youth directing had gone by, I had seen
people go up time and time again but I’d seen very few change their lives. We
have to count the cost ourselves so we’ll be able to help others put the factors
together to count the cost themselves. Let us make it our focus to aspire to be
good disciples so that our lives can be what will lead others to the cross.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: November 12, 2006
