FBCWest 401 | Count the Cost
Recorded On: 06/07/2020
Bulletin
FBCWest
June 7, 2020
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him
must worship Him in Spirit and truth.”
“Because He Lives”
Praise and Worship
SCRIPTURE READING – 1 Chronicles 16:8 - 11
“With Me”
“Your Promises”
“How Can I Keep from Singing?”
“Love Moved First”
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
SPECIAL MUSIC – By Pru Hungate
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Count the Cost”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“My Heart Is Yours”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Benediction “Won’t Stop Now”
Sermon Notes
Luke 14:25 & 26 The value of Jesus verses family
Luke 14:27 Must carry your own cross to be a disciple
Luke 14:28 – 30 Calculating the cost before beginning
What are the costs? Doing what you want instead of what the Lord wants
Being dead to sin
Other costs – What keeps you from following Jesus
Luke 14:31 & 32 What is the cost of the battle?
Luke 14:33 Surrendering all you have for Him
Hard for the rich to do so and we are rich
In our desire to make believers we can mislead people that becoming a Christian costs nothing. Life is abundant, which it is, but there are still trials and tribulations
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
There are sermons that we love to give and we love to hear.
The sermons that we love to give and we love to hear. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you so much that God gave him to us, that we might be saved, that we might be called children of God, that we might have an eternal life.
The sermons we don't like to give and we don't like to hear are things like.
Forgive people even though you don't want to.
Or
how much do you love Jesus? We love to talk about how much Jesus loves us, but the question how much do we love Jesus and Jesus is going to talk about that in this particular passage, as we're going through the earthly life and Ministry of Jesus. So we find ourselves at Luke Chapter 14 starting with verse 25 and 26 says now large crowds were going along with him.
And he turned and said to them.
Now I want to stop there.
Jesus isn't like your typical pastor.
Yes, he is an itinerant rabbi who goes through the villages and towns and cities and countryside, preaching and teaching and healing and doing all those sorts of things. But it seems that as he becomes more popular, he tends to then say things that are very hard and we come up with the hard sayings of Jesus. One of those was when there was this large crowd starting to follow him. He said you cannot be my disciple if you don't eat my flesh.
Entering my blood and everybody. Oh yeah, and they're they're thinking literally and they're going oh that's gross we can't do that and I'll lots of people leave pretty much all everybody but who eventually will be called the Apostles and even ask him don't you want to go? And they answer him.
Where are we to go? Because you have the words of life.
And so this is one of those times where Jesus is going to do one of those hard sayings. Now he's gone and he's on his way to Jerusalem for Passover. That Passover that will take place after the triumphal entry after he teaches in, kicks out the money changers from the temple and does all types of things. He will then become the Passover Lamb, and so he's on his way.
To Jerusalem, and he turns to this crowd. Who's following him? And again, there's a lot of people who like to follow Jesus. Kind of like today, if you will. I bet if if he had a Facebook page.
Everybody would put their thumbs up and do likes and he would be followed by many people. Doesn't necessarily mean followers.
Are disciples.
And so he says, if anyone comes to Maine.
And does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters. And yes, and even his own life. He cannot be my disciple. Now I'm a lawyer. So I just saw an exception.
You still have to love your in laws.
'cause he never once said hate your in laws.
Or maybe he never said hate your in-laws 'cause he didn't have to tell you 'cause he already knows you hate your in Los and so anyway, he's going on and he's gonna. He's saying if you don't hate your family, you cannot be my disciple.
Now here's the problem. Hate is a really strong word in that kind of huh? What is Jesus saying? One of the keys to answering what Jesus is saying is remember to allow scripture the word of God to interpret the word of God.
So if Jesus has taught us that we are as the Old Testament says to love our neighbor as ourselves, and he expanded who our neighbors are.
And he is taught us to love our enemies.
And he will eventually teach as we go on with this study that we are to love one another as he has loved us. Then does he mean in the sense that we're not to love our family, but to love everybody else? No, that's not what he saying. He is not saying hate in the sense of have ill will or contempt for your family. He is using hate in the same capacity as the scripture says.
The God Love Jacob.
But he saw he hated now God didn't hate esau in the sense of the way we think of hate us. I want something bad to happen to him. It was. God bless Jacob. God bless Jacob and his family. He saw he would do some things, but not near the way he would bless Jacob. So would in essence God is saying is not this ill will towards your family, but that one given a choice between Jesus.
And following him and being his disciple, and doing with your family, you are to prefer Jesus.
Now this is kind of a paradox and I'll tell you in a minute why it's a paradox.
So we are told to hate are.
Family members.
We are told in essence, that we are too when it comes to advancing Jesus or the family, you choose Jesus each and every time.
But I can tell you this in the paradox if you follow Jesus the way Jesus wants you to follow him. If you love Jesus the way Jesus loves you.
You will love your father and your mother and your wife and your children with a greater capacity than you are able to on your own.
But the question is, what do you put first place in your life? You put family first or do you put Jesus 1st and Jesus saying you cannot be my disciple? Oh yeah, you can follow. You can like me. You can say all these types of things, but you're not my disciple. If you don't put me first over your family.
And says, and even to hate our own lives. Again, the preferences Jesus over our own lives.
And then he says.
Whoever does not carry his own cross income after main cannot be my disciple.
So first he's saying You have to prefer me over your family and he also says, in essence you need to carry your cross. Now we are some almost 2000 years after Jesus carrying his cross and we've done all kinds of beautiful things with across. We have nice little necklaces that are made out of gold or silver or platinum or some other and then sometimes they have diamonds and whatever. And I'm not saying you shouldn't wear those things that I'm not saying they're beautiful, but the deal is that the cross was a symbol.
Of Shane
the cross was a symbol of death.
And his followers.
We're very much aware of what it meant to carry your cross because the first crucifixion was in Jesus.
Rome perfected crucifixions.
And they crucified many, many people.
And they would do it publicly, so that if you mess with Rome you knew that they had messed with wrong and they came up.
On a tall stick.
So he saying We are to in essence, carry their cross to deny ourselves.
And to follow him an if we're not willing to do that, then we are not willing to be his disciples.
Paul got that very, very well in Galatians Chapter 2.
Turn with verse 20. He says this.
I have been crucified with Christ.
And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in, the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Hala sane.
Not only in my carry my cross, I nail myself to the to it.
And I died, but you notice, I'm still a lot round. I'm around because my life that I'm living is not for me its for him.
Because he loved me.
And the only thing that I can do in return is to live for him.
How'd you wouldn't like this message?
All I have to say is not mine.
But Jesus is words.
And then he asked question.
In verse 28.
For which.
1.
Does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it now. What is it that he's doing?
Whoever does not carry his cross cannot be my disciple, for which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first of all sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it otherwise.
When he is laid the foundation and is not able to finish all who deserve it will begin to ridicule him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.
Now notice Jesus then just talk about a normal building. He talked about a tower, which means that you got a place, an excellent foundation or the tower will fall. It's in critical until you got a place, the money there, but you gotta know how much money it's going to cost to build the foundation. And then you need to know how much it's going to cost to finish it. An if you don't have enough money and she says is saying why you starting.
And in the very same one he gone, you need to count the cost of following Maine.
You count that cost to see if you can complete it.
Now, unfortunately.
We Christians we followers of Jesus. We disciples are so.
Desirous of others becoming Christians, becoming disciples, becoming followers, then we try to kind of.
Minimize the cost.
We talk about how life is wonderful.
And all your problems will be solved.
In reality, becoming a believer oftentimes gives you more problems because.
People don't understand why you're doing that Jesus thing.
We tell people Oh God will solve all their problems and then when life smacks them in the face whether it's with disease or sickness or family problems or financial problems we started to wait a minute maybe this Jesus thing isn't there.
There are those who need to count the cost in time. Sometimes we forget that. So for instance, there certain people of certain phase in this world.
That if they reject their faith.
And come to Jesus.
They will be at minimum rejected by their family or even murdered, because how there then become an infidel?
And each of one of us when we come to Jesus also need to realize the cost as Paul said.
I no longer live for me. I live for him. So now you deny yourself. It cost you what you want to do to do what God wants you to do. And let's face it, we live in a world that we all want to do what we want to do and we want to do it right now.
We all want to be rich and we want it right now.
We all want to have family. We want it right now. We all want to have power. We want it right now. We all want to be purposeful and we want it right now.
And God saying, Maybe your purpose is to die yourself and simply follow me.
It may cost you because you had planned to do one thing.
And God wants you to do something else.
Even people of God find those things out, Jonah.
Was given a task to do by God. He didn't like the task so he tried to run away.
As he knew exactly who God is and was.
So when we talk to people, we need to let them know that there is a cost.
The yes we have been saved by Grace through faith, and that is a gift.
That no one can boast. The scriptures say that are.
We are justified by faith and that is a gift of God.
And I have tried to scratch my head to come up with a good analogy.
Of something free and yet horse.
This is an imperfect one, and I understand and so forgive me that it's imperfect.
I've always wanted to own a Ferrari.
Or a Lamborghini?
Or
some others really fast car that's beautiful. Looks like it's it looks like it's going to 100 miles an hour when it sitting still.
And a Ferrari. I don't understand. People get yellow if it's if it's not Ferrari red, you didn't buy a Ferrari, OK?
But if somebody gave me a Ferrari.
I couldn't keep it.
I couldn't afford to pay the insurance. I couldn't afford to not even if I didn't wreck it. Just getting the plugs, chains and and all the service that needs to be done periodically. Even like a Porsche. You see, a Porsche was not built to drive on Southern California freeways.
It's not built for stop and go driving, and as you drive in a Porsche or Ferrari in stop and go, you gotta service atmore is it's built to go fast like on the Autobahn.
So Jesus is saying.
I paid it all.
But it's going to cost you so.
Notice he's going to go on and give another example.
Saying this man has again and then it goes. Or what about the King when he sets out to meet another King in battle will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000 men or else.
While the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asked for terms of peace.
So then none of you can be my disciples.
Who does not?
Give up all of his own possessions.
So Jesus tells us two things we need to count the cost.
And that cost is everything.
Our own possessions.
Now.
Before we all say, Well, Gee, I want to give you 2 words.
Of comfort and encouragement.
The cost.
Is your life.
And doing what you wanna do, the cost is consider yourself dead to sin and alive to him.
But notice the cost.
You give up something that you cannot keep.
No matter how well you treat your body.
No matter how good things you put into it, no matter how many vitamins you take, no matter how safe you are and you live in bubble wrap, so there's nothing might harm you.
No one through in this generation will make it.
We all die. It's 100 percent you cannot keep your life. So what you're doing is you're exchanging that. What you can't keep.
For that which you can't lose.
'cause get life is given to you Eterna Lee through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus in another parable that we've looked at before.
It's this.
Remember the parable of the Pearl of great price that a person stumbles in a field and sees this excellently valued Pearl.
He goes, he sells everything that he has and buys that land so that he might acquire that Pearl. And in essence, when Jesus says that if we are to give up all of our possessions, it is in essence to exchange again, that were the Russ in Moss eat and robbers steal.
For the thing that is eternal.
And so, yes, we should not make faith something simple. 'cause there is a cost.
But it is worth.
The Purchas?
It is worth you giving because being.
In this life with Jesus.
Is far exceeding to being in this life without him.
Weather
Your life is perfect.
Or nothing ever seems to go right.
Because nothing will separate you from the love of Christ.
Not sickness.
Not persecution.
Not even your own self.
And so.
As we take a look and examine ourselves.
Is there something that we put above Jesus?
Is it our family?
Is it our karere?
Is it are acquiring well? Is it acquiring thing?
Is it acquiring outta boys?
Or is it saying?
Whatever you want me to do.
I will do.
And I will give up everything that I have.
And I will, as Paul said.
Consider myself crucified.
That he might live in me and through me.
So again.
Yes, it's very true.
Jesus loves.
This I know.
Not only for the Bible tells me so, but everything that Jesus said everything that Jesus did and his death, burial and resurrection show me how much he loves me.
And although he's asked for Maine.
Is everything?
Which let's face it.
Is not anything.
As he gave me my life, he gave me my breath. He gave me any talents I have. He gave me the pleasantries. He gave me the difficulties he is sovereign.
So in essence.
The cost to me.
Is that which he's already given me?
So he's The One.
Who is a loser in this situation?
'cause all he's asked for me to give is that which I cannot hold onto.
That
Which I cannot lose.
All God's People said.