Lukewarm No More - Part 19 — George Verwer

Counting the Cost of Discipleship

Starting at verse 25, this is very strong. And there went a great multitude with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, his brethren, and his sisters, yea, his own life, also he cannot be my disciple.

And whosoever did not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Now we can have a whole message on that. We've tried to emphasize that through these two, three days, but we want to move on.

Planning and Preparation for God's Calling

I want to look at verse 28. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? Lest, perhaps, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it, begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassy, and desireth conditions of peace.

So likewise, whosoever he is of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple. We're exhorted in the word of God to count the cost. To count the cost. Caleb and Joshua had been counting the cost.

And I want us to do a little cost counting tonight. As you're considering your goals and your aims, as you're praying and planning, you certainly have a tremendous weekend coming up. With Scott Wesley Brown, with this other dear pastor from that great church up there near that famous university, College Station.

I think I spoke in that church maybe twenty years ago. I don't know him personally, but I've heard about him, and I'm sure you're in for some tremendous challenge this weekend. And I hope you can mobilize other people, maybe in your own church who are on the fence, when it comes to missions, and by your love and by your example and by your grace, help them to get off the fence and into the battle.

Because we want everybody involved. We need everybody. There's not that many, and that can be exciting. We're told in the book of Ephesians also, that Satan is a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour.

Praying Against the Enemies of World Missions

And I want to, in these closing moments, try to just quickly give you some of the Amalekites, some of the enemies we are facing in missions today, so that as you pray, and we're going to end this meeting tonight with just breaking up a little prayer circle for a short time, we can pray specifically in the name of the Lord.

Materialism and the Use of Possessions

One of the great enemies I see today is the enemy of materialism. Materialism. So much money is going into material things that could be used for missions. Again, in my effort to be Grace Awakened, I don't find this easy.

I don't think it's wrong in our society where we're attempting to bloom where we are. We've got to rear children who can't be reared in some kind of poverty mentality. We're trying to win our neighbors to Jesus, to have the basic necessities of life, and a few things that just seem to be so useful in accomplishing what we need to do, especially when you have many families today where the wife and the husband are both working to spend a little extra money, so that the wife's task and the husband's task around the home is a little simpler, whether it's something to wash the dishes or whatever it is, seems to be normal.

Though that kind of thing in many a third world country would be considered an extreme luxury. There's no simple answer. But can't we at least try? Can't we at least try to get a little control on this materialism thing?

I have to just leave that with you, as the Spirit of God speaks. We see in Acts 2 and Acts 4 people actually selling their possessions because they wanted to give to others. Do we take whole chapters out of the Bible and throw them out today because it doesn't fit in with American culture?

Purity, Holiness, and Missionary Readiness

Or do we bite the bullet and say, I will serve God and follow God's word first, and the philosophy of man must go into its right place. This morning we talked about the fiery dart of impurity. I didn't say anything to the men this morning that would be wrong for a woman to listen to.

We know immorality takes two, generally speaking, and you're more than welcome to listen to that tape. But I'm not going to take time to say more, except that I know many young people headed for the mission field get cut down by a fiery dart of immorality.

That's why we never see world missions in a vacuum. We see world missions tied in with marriage, tied in with purity, tied in with holiness and discipline, tied in with church life, tied in with relationships, tied in with communication.

I think, personally, we need to teach our young people more about communication. I mean, if you can get your young people into a course on public speaking or communication, that is going to help them in almost whatever career.

Some of the great problems I've had in my marriage are because of things I didn't understand about communication. Words, semantics, the meaning of words. It's a challenge, and I believe we need to understand how mightily God is using people like Josh McDowell, his book, Why Wait.

There are phenomenal books that we can read or give to our teenagers that will help them understand their sexuality. There are books we can read. As adults, my wife and I are reading a new one right now.

It's given us a number of pointers in our marriage, especially in the sexual area that we didn't even know. We've been ignorant for 35 years. We could have enjoyed things more if we had read this book.

Well, it wasn't published then. You get this idea, you know, those of us who are dedicated Christians, you know, missionary position only, you know, ridiculous. Anyway, I won't get into that tonight. Another fiery dart of Satan to stop the cause of world mission is ignorance.

Ignorance as an Obstacle to World Missions

People are ignorant. They don't know where Turkey is, much less who lives there. They don't understand that mission is not people from America going out to people in the Congo to give them the gospel.

Missions today might be somebody from the Congo going over to the next country, Rwanda, to give them the gospel. Satan loves to use ignorance. People make statements, even on the radio, even outstanding Christian leaders, they make statements that are bizarre.

That's why we need to take some of this material. We need to take books. We need to get out in the action. And I believe that churches like this should have Caleb teams. Caleb teams. Say, what's that?

Caleb Teams and Mobilizing Churches

Caleb teams as the concept of sending a team out from your church to other churches to share about mission. You've probably already done it. We need thousands of those kind of teams on the move. You know the spiritual state of the average church in Texas.

How many of you are real Texans? You're born in Texas. Raise your hand. Praise the Lord. That's more than I thought. Because I know they're coming in. They get across the border without visas and passports.

They're coming in. They're coming in from Mexico as if the whole of Mexico is going to fall into the ground. But I will tell you, a high percentage of the churches in Texas are not into world mission.

And we need to mobilize Caleb for it and to share in a grace-awakening way. It may mean sitting down with a pastor first and saying, look, a little group from our church has just come back from Europe.

We'd like to come and just share what the Lord did on this trip with your congregation. We don't have any ulterior motive. We're not trying to recruit your people to go to our church. We want to just share.

Some doors may be closed. Some may be open. It doesn't hurt to push. It doesn't hurt to push. It doesn't hurt to push.