Count The Cost

We're going to be in Luke 14. If you guys want to turn to Luke 14, Luke 14. And I'll be starting in verse 25.

Everything has a cost. There's a cost for anything. If you want to purchase a car, you're going to calculate the cost and you're going to say, "Do I have enough?" And you're going to purchase it. If you wanted to buy a house, you got to look and say, "Okay, can I afford this? I got to get a loan or whatever." If you want to go to college, you got to count the cost. If you want to go on a vacation, you got to count the cost to do that.

A couple years ago, my wife and my two wonderful children, and we went on a vacation down to Hilton Head. We went also with some close friends of ours. If you've ever been down there, one thing that is special about that place is the dolphins. Like they, I think they have something with the dolphins there, like a deal with them to where they just come into the bay and everybody likes to just marvel at the dolphins. Uh, so we get down there, we we see dolphin signs everywhere. There's billboards. They're like they're programming our kids to see these dolphins. Like they're just subliminally saying like you're going to pay to take your kids to see these dolphins. And so, um, vacation's pretty expensive already. Uh, to see the dolphins is pretty expensive. We walk by an information booth to get some more information about it and some guy says, "You want to see the dolphins?" We're like, "Yeah, we want to see the dolphins." He goes, "How would you like to see those dolphins for free?" I'm like, "Huh, that sounds pretty good. I'd love to see those dolphins for free." I'm like, "What's, what's the catch?" He goes, "There's no catch." He goes, "Just, just got to sit for one hour and a little presentation." Sit in a presentation. Yeah. You know what happened if you've sat one of those presentations. It wasn't an hour. It was like four hours later. So, we took one for the team. Our friends took the kids and my wife and I, we sat in there hours later, like sweating like I was sweating like one break. I'm not going to break. I, well, I, I'll, we're going in here. Let's not break. And I even shared the gospel with this guy and that he could care less. Um, I'm like, man, I'm just here for the dolphins. That's all I want. I just want the dolphins. And so, it's very deceitful. Um, and just so you guys know, my friend at the first one that was on this trip, she's like, "You should have just told them that you broke and you ended up, you didn't make it through strong." We ended up, it cost us a lot to go see those dolphins. Time share. Don't do it in Hilton Head. Just enjoy it. Go see if you can see them from the shore.

Jesus, when he asked people to follow him, there was no smoke and mirrors. He was right up front with what he expected for those of them for those that said they wanted to follow him. So in Luke 25 we see, "Now large crowds were going along with him." You got to think Jesus is very, very popular. I mean, he's started his ministry. He's on the scene. He's conducting miracles. He's showing that he has authority over, uh, the elements. He's healing people. Uh, later on, he heals, raises people from the dead. There's calming storms. He's got a crowd from everywhere that is following. He's got a mass of people all around looking to see Jesus. We see today there is a mass amount of people, it seems, that are wanting to come and see Jesus and see what he has for them. They want what he has. And that's what happens over here with this. But Jesus is going to turn to them. He's going to turn to the crowds, all these people, and there will be no smoking mirrors. He's going to lay out just black and white. You want to follow me? You want what I got? It's going to cost you. This is what it's going to cost you.

And so he turned to them and he said, then verse 26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple." This is kind of takes your breath away when you hear it. Like, you want me to follow you and now you're saying that I need to hate my mother, my father, my brother, my sister, my wife. I need to hate myself. I need to pick up my cross daily and I need to follow you. That, that's the cost that you're asking me.

A couple weeks ago, I was in the car and we were listening to this audio and we're on the way home from youth and my son is in the back seat. He doesn't usually ever comment on these things, but this comes through the speakers and he says, "What did he just say?" What? What was that, Dad? What? I don't understand what he's asking there. He's asking me to hate you. It's important to understand that's not what he's saying here because that would contradict Jesus' teaching. He says to love everyone as you would yourself. So that would contradict his teachings. What Jesus is saying here is he's saying the cost to follow me is your love for me should look like hate with every other relationship that you have here. What I'm saying is that you want to follow me, then I should be the highest place in your heart. I should be the most important thing to you more than anybody that you know in your life. You would put me first before anything. You would deny yourself. You would hate your sin. You would pick up your cross daily and you would follow after me. That is what he's asking.

Verse 28, he says, "For which of you when he wants to build a tower does not first sit down to calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?" Jesus wants you to calculate the cost. Is he worth it? Is he worth that cost?

Turn with me over to Mark 10. There's a reason the Bible says, "Narrow is the way that leads to everlasting life and wide is the way that leads to destruction." There's a reason it says that because most people, when he turned to them and he said this, most people, they say that cost is way too high. I'm not willing. I like myself more. I like to do the things that I like to do more. I'd rather go my own way than pursue you.

And we see a perfect example of this with this rich young ruler. In the three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see this young man, this guy that has a lot of possessions. He's a man of means, maybe a man of power. Um, he has whatever he wants. And he sees Jesus coming by one day, just like all the crowds are coming by to him. And he runs through the crowd. Maybe you're here right now. Maybe you're listening online and you're one of these people that are intrigued by what Jesus is saying. And you're running. You're running to him. You want to hear what he has to say. He's saying, "I like what you offer. I like that you're offering me eternal life." And this is what he says. "As he ran, he sat setting out on a journey. A man ran up to him and he knelt before him." I'm so close, too. Kneel before him and asked him, "Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? What do I got to do to have this? What do you want? What's it, what, what is it going to take?"

And Jesus, being the master teacher, what he's going to do is he's going to expose the condition of his heart. He's going to show him exactly what the cost is. And the cost for this guy, it's going to be too high. And he says in verse 18, "And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good?' He says, 'No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments.'" And what Jesus is going to do is he's going to repeat the last six of the Ten Commandments, his righteous standard. Can't the commandments that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai all those years earlier. He's going to quote off the last six which have to do with the horizontal, meaning your relationship with other people. Jesus quotes these off. He says, "Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother."

And he said to him, "This is what this is what he says, 'Teacher, I have kept all of these from my youth up. I've kept all of these.'" This man thought that he could earn God's forgiveness by staying in the world and doing what he wanted to do and pursuing God. But what he's missing, he's missing the love side.

And so it says in verse 21, "Looking at him, Jesus looks at this guy. He's on his knees. What do I got to do? I've done all these things." This is what it's going to take. And it says, "Jesus felt a love for him." Look at this. He felt a love for him. You know why he felt love for him? The Bible says that he doesn't wish that anyone would perish but that all would come to repentance. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus wants a relationship with this man. So he feels love for him. We see the compassion and the love that God has for his creation. And he turns and he said, "One thing you lack. This is the thing you lack. Go sell all that you possess and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and you come and follow me." The one thing you lack is the first four command, the first set of commandments is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. He wants our whole heart. He wants us to love him wholeheartedly. And this young man, he had everything he needed. It was too much. This cost was way too high.

At verse 22 he says, "But at these words he was saddened and he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property. Going his way was so much better." This is sad. He loved the world more than he loved the one that gave him life and it was offering him eternal life.

Maybe you can relate to that. Maybe you have so many possessions, so many wealth. There's so many things that you're hanging on to in your life that you're not willing to give up. He's not worth it, is what you're saying. You're afraid to lose your family, your friends, afraid to lay down sin in your life. I wonder what it is.

A few years ago, I had this young man. He came into our house. We had this big wraparound couch in our in our living room. I love the couch because there's always good conversation that has happens on that couch. My wife and I were just talking about it a couple days ago. We should probably maybe get a new couch. Well, there's good memories on this, this couch. We've had, um, lots of people over. We've been able to counsel people and a lot of good things. Um, but then there's also been bad conversations on that couch, too. One night I had a young guy and he's there and we're walking through the gospel. We're talking about it and he just said he couldn't do it. He couldn't hand his life over. He's like, "I, I can't do it. That cost is just way too high." He said, "I don't want to lose my friends. I don't want to, I don't want to lose that. I'm not willing to lose my friends."

And that's sad to me because it reminds me of this rich young ruler. A week later, we had him at youth on a Wednesday night. And I'll never forget, had the same conversation with him again. And the next day, that young man went to school, went home from school, pulled out in front of a bus, and dead on impact, like gone. I don't know, maybe the Lord was drawing him to himself. I don't know where that young man is, but I do know what he said to me on my couch and what he said to me the night before. And he said, "The cost was too high to follow him." And that's sad to me because the cost that we count to follow, we think it's high. What about the cost for not following him? What will the cost if we don't follow him and pursue him?

In Revelation 21:6-8, it says, "And then he said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega.'" This is God bringing everything to fruition at the end. He's going to bring an end to all corruption. And he says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But to the cowardly, and the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the immoral persons and the sorcerers and the idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

And maybe that seems extreme to people. I've had people say like, "That's extreme. You're saying he's going to sentence me to hell if I don't love him with all my heart. Is that kind of arrogant for him to ask that?" People ask me that. I have many conversations with people. A lot of people, maybe, maybe you are here and you think that Jesus counted the cost. He counted the cost when he created us. He said we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Fearfully and wonderfully made. He gave mankind a choice. He created us knowing that we were going to rebel. He counted the cost and still created us. We're fearfully and wonderfully made. He stuck us in the garden and he said, "You can either choose me or you can choose yourself and choose the world." Cuz he wants an intimate relationship with his creation. So he gave us a choice and we chose rebellion. We chose to go our own way. And when we chose to go our own way, sin entered the world and it created a separation between us and God. And when sin entered the world, it spread like a virus to every person genetically. Every single person is born with sin. The Bible says that all fall short, all have sinned and fallen short of his glorious standard.

But Jesus, he counted the cost. He had a plan to rescue mankind. Turn with me over to Philippians 2. Probably one of the best passages in the Bible. And I, I say that often because it's all good. But this one here specifically, this shows exactly what Jesus, how he counted the cost and what he was willing to do to rescue us from our rebellion. In Philippians 2, it says, "Have I'm in verse 5, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death."

Think about this for a second. Man screwed up. And if man screwed up, man has to fix it. But the problem with man being able to fix it is no man can fix it. There's not a man that has ever been born that can fix it because it requires somebody that has never sinned. It requires somebody to meet the full requirements of his righteous standard. And nobody has ever done that. So if a man messed up, then a man has to fix it. So what does God do? He's in heaven in his glory. He takes off his crown and he sets it down and he steps outside of time and inside of our time and he puts on human flesh. God became a human being. He was born of a virgin. I mean, sin spread genetically, right? And so being born of a virgin, he stopped the spread of sin. Let that just rest in you for a second. He didn't empty himself of his deity. We're talking about him being fully God and fully human. And he came to do exactly what we couldn't do. He lived a sinless life. And he came as a servant. He came to serve his creation. That's what he did for us.

He counted the cost when he was in the garden. I mean, in the garden, we messed up. Here he is at the garden. The night before he's about to be crucified and he's praying fervently to the Father. He's so stressed out that he's, he's sweating droplets of blood. An actual medical condition that when the surface capillaries in your forehead burst, it mixes with your sweat and you sweat droplets of blood. I doubt anybody in here has ever experienced that kind of stress to where it would cause that medical condition. But Jesus was that stressed because we forget he's also still fully human. He's fully God, fully human. So he, he feels, he experiences, he experienced everything that you guys can experience. And that, why was he stressed? Was he stressed about the physical pain that he was about to endure? Probably. I was probably really stressed about that. He's about to be humiliated. He's about to be tortured. He's about to be nailed to a cross. Yeah, I'm sure that's probably what he's sweating. But he asked the Father, "If it is your will, please let this cup pass for me. If it is your will, let this cup pass for me." The cup that he's talking about is the cup of God's wrath that is about to be poured out upon him. Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross and he took the sin of the world, past, present, and future upon himself. And he took the wrath that you and I deserve. Like, we deserve to be punished for our sin. We deserve God's wrath. God is the perfect judge. He's perfect. And so we think, let's say somebody came into your home and killed one of your family members. Let's say something like that happened. If that person went before a judge, you would expect that person to be held to the highest, the highest level of the law. You expect that judge to sentence that person to the highest penalty possible. If he didn't sentence that person to the highest penalty possible, then he wouldn't be perfect. He wouldn't be a perfect judge. Well, that's what we've done. We have sinned against a holy and righteous God. We've broken his righteous standard. And Jesus is the one that stepped in to pay the price. He took all of our sin upon himself. And he took the full wrath of God upon himself on that cross. He says, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" Because he was separated from God. Jesus counted the cost.

So, we think about why would we love him? We love him because he loved us first. That is why we would love him. Jesus, he counted the cost.

Turn with me back over to Luke 14. So what's the cost? He wants you to love him more than anything and anyone. "If anyone does not come to me," it's verse 26, "and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." It means that you will place him in the highest place of honor in your heart. He is the most important person to you because of what he has done for you.

When we look at the disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, John, these fishermen on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus was walk, Jesus walks by and he says, "Follow me." They dropped everything. They dropped their nets and they followed him. They followed him. I wonder if God is asking you to follow him. I wonder if he is, what he's asking you to sacrifice in your life. He's worth it.

Counting the cost is denying yourself. Verse 27. "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple." Whoever does not carry his own cross. Back in Roman times, the cross, it was an execution device. It was the most brutal way to die. Even Roman citizens themselves, they didn't even sentence a Roman person to die on a cross. Paul, who was technically a Roman citizen, he didn't, was not sentenced to be crucified. He was sentenced to a different death. It was excruciating. It was awful. What they would do was when somebody was convicted of a crime, they would make them carry their own cross to their execution spot. Like they're carrying their own death sentence with them. And so when he tells you, he says, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple." What he's saying is he's asking you to walk through life carrying your death sentence. You putting a death to what you want to do and instead putting him at the highest place in your heart. He's asking you to pick up your cross. It means that when somebody cuts you off on the road, you're not going to engage. You're not going to engage. You're going to deny yourself out of your love for him. It means that when you're living with somebody that you're not married to, out of your love for him, because he says that's wrong, you're not going to do it. You're going to crucify your flesh when you're looking at things that you shouldn't. You guys know what I'm saying when I, when I say that. You'll deny that out of your love for him. When you don't allow yourself to be controlled or be under the influence of the Holy Spirit, you allow other things to control you. Alcohol, drugs, all those things. He's asking you to deny those things because he's worth it. Taking advantage of others for your own gain.

Counting the cost is remembering that you're always supposed to calculate the cost. Verse 28, it says, "For which of you when he wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and he is not able to finish it, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and he was not able to finish it.'" I fear that the church is filled with abandoned towers. And let me clarify what I mean by that. I don't mean that God has abandoned you because he hasn't, if you belong to him. What I'm saying is that we have abandoned the tower that we started to build with him. We accounted the cost at salvation. We said that we would love him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. And so I wonder, are you counting the cost? Have you abandoned the tower that you originally started with? I think about the marriages. How many marriages have failed when you took, you took vows before and you went into a covenant of marriage before men and before God and then as it crumbles, it's just an abandoned tower. You have families that have crumbled. I think about forgiving others. The division that we see in the church because people don't want to look at the gospel, go, I mean, Jesus forgave us of something that we could never for, we could never repay the debt back with. And so we have no right to hold it against other people. We see unbuilt towers all over the place. The world's watching.

Look what it says. It says in verse 29, "Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation is not able to finish it. All who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and he was not able to finish.'" The world's watching. Pastor Todd talked about our testimony last week and how important it is. I mean, we don't have to be completely put together. I mean, but there should be a construction progress that's still in progress. Like, there should be constant construction happening. Somebody that has professed Jesus as Lord, there should be growth in their life. Some grow at different speeds, but there should be a little bit of growth. It should not be an abandoned tower.

As I come to a close, uh, maybe, maybe you're afraid to make that next, take that next step forward. Maybe you're afraid to surrender everything over to him. I mean, the cost is high. He's asking you to love him and he's asking you to deny yourself. I remember, I remember when I was saved 14 years ago. I remember what that was like. I remember the conviction so heavy that I just couldn't take it anymore. I remember being feel, feeling so empty and void in my life. And I remember my sin was so gross to me. And I looked to Jesus as the only one that could rescue me from it. The only one that could bring me back into a right standing relationship with the Father. The only one that could fill that hole, that void that was inside of me was him, Jesus. He rescued me and he asked me, "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to just love me with all your heart. Just, that's the cost that I'm asking you. Just love me. And when I come along and I ask something of you, I ask you to deny something, I ask you to sacrifice something, just love me." You count the cost. The cost is you'll do it because you love me.

When I was asked to become a pastor in a church, that never would have been what I thought God was going to ask me to do to count the cost. I was a business owner before that and I was successful by my own standard. I, I thought I was good. I was decent at it. I did well at it. Um, but he came to me one day and he said, "Michael, I'm calling you away from this and I'm calling you to shepherd. I'm calling you to shepherd my people. That's what I want you to do." And so I stood there and I, I prayed with my wife and I said, "Do we love him? Will we do this?" And the answer is, "Yeah, I love you. I don't know what this all means. I'm very afraid, but I love you and I will count the cost and I will go and I will do it." And I'll tell you what, it has, I'm not going to lie, it's been difficult for me. Like I said, being a business was easy. That was easy for me because I was good at planning things. I was good at selling stuff. I was good at building things. Like all that was, I was operating in my strengths. But when he asked me to come and pastor in a church, he was asking me to operate in every one of my weaknesses. I'm dyslexic. I have, I'm very, I'm bad at reading. I don't speak very well. You may think that I do, but I really don't. I promise. Every time I come up here, it's, it's a thing. But I will do all of it because I love him and he's asked me to do it and I can give him all of the glory. All of it. Because he works through me. And so I wonder, what is he asking you to do? Do you love him? And if you do, what is he asking you to do? What is he asking you to sacrifice right now?

Maybe you're one of these people that are looking at Jesus from afar right now. You're in the crowd. You're following from a distance. Maybe you're distant off. Or maybe you're like this rich young ruler that was very close and you're on your knees and you're like, "Lord, I, I'm ready to go." But what is it going to take? It's going to take for you to love him. It's going to take for you to deny yourself. It's going to take for you to hate your sin and love him with your whole heart. And so that means that if you love him with your whole heart, you will give up whatever for him. And so if you're that close, hand it over. Give it to him. Let him change you into a new creation. Let him make you new and watch what he'll do in your life. It's difficult following him, but you're going to be filled with a peace and a joy that this world can't give you. A deep sense of contentment. You won't get that in the world. You'll try it through pursuit, but you will only get that from what he fills you with.

And so, I'd like for you guys to bow in prayer just for a moment and just, I want you to take a moment to just reflect. What is he asking you to do right now? What is he asking you to lay on the altar? What is he want you to surrender? You know what it is. I don't need to list them all out. You know what the Holy Spirit's convicting you of. You know what you need to surrender out of your love for him. And so I ask you to reflect. What is it that you'll surrender?

Father, we thank you so much for the sacrifice that you made for us, Lord. You that you are not a God that we have to like climb a ladder to reach and grab. You are a God that stepped down the ladder and came down to grab us. And so we look at real love. That is love and that is worth everything to pursue you and follow you. I deny all things to pursue after you. And so Lord, we thank you. I thank you so much for your sacrifice. To thank you for the mercy removing the punishment that we deserve and giving us the free gift of salvation only by faith. No, nothing by works. If you're wrestling somebody down right now and they're that close, Lord, let's teeter them over the edge right now. Is reach out to you in faith and say, "Jesus, I am a sinner. I messed up. My life is a wreck, and I just want you to rescue me." And for those of us that have been walking with you for some time, if we've abandoned our towers, what do we need to surrender, Lord, to, to, to kick that construction project back up? It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.