Counting The Cost

[This has been a busy week for preaching. Thank goodness for the generous gift I recieved from Alma. The John Macarthur Library has already been a very usefull resource to help me prepare for all the preaching. I will preach this sermon at the Sudanese church today.]

Counting the Cost
Luke 14:25-35

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I. You can pay nothing to earn your salvation;
· It is a free gift
4 But God,  who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together  in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in  His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved  through faith, and that not of yourselves;  it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Eph 2:4-9

II. But living for Christ is a still a matter of discipleship. Being a Disciple of Christ means relying on Christ’s power rather than yours and being willing to forsake your way for His.

· Jesus relied on the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14 ff)

· We must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8)

Look what happened after the early church had been empowered by the Holy Spirit: 

42  …[the disciples] continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and
fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon
every soul, and  many wonders and signs were done through the apostles….46
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from
house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the
church daily those who were being saved.

III. Being a Disciple of Christ can mean being rejected, ridiculed, and afflicted. Jesus warned the disciples in John 15:

18  “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
19  If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because
you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you… ‘If they persecuted Me,
they will also persecute you.

· V. 26 Sometimes our own family will reject us


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. Mat 10:34-39

Conclusion:

So why I am I telling you this? Because anything worth building, will come with a price. And the thing you are building as a disciple of Christ is priceless.

Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation when he died on the cross.

….[He] being found in appearance as a man …humbled Himself and  became 
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Phil
2:8)

20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross
[Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross], by him to
reconcile all things unto himself; by him….  21 And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Col 1:20-22; 2:14)

1. With His warning to count the cost of being a disciple, the Jesus also promised that your heart would rejoice

….you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into  joy. 21 A
woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon
as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for
joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you now have
sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no
one will take from you. (Jn 16:20-22)

B. Jesus encouraged his disciples saying, “‘be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’” (16:33). You won’t escape the difficulties of discipleship, but Jesus will enable you to handle them.