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One of the great lessons of life is Learning what it means to commit to something it is wise for one to know what you are committing to Before you're get you give yourself fully to something or someone.
I Was at a friend's house recently and he told me the story of neighbors across the street
That bought land in order to build But they underestimated how big the job was
They started building their home only to find out they didn't have enough money to complete the project
Once they realized this they put their land and unfinished home on the market
They made a commitment. They were not prepared to make When I think about commitment
I often think about my high school cross -country coach He was a coach that took his program very
Seriously, he wanted those who made a commitment to the team not to be half committed, but fully on board
Now cross -country was in the fall, but at the end of the school year in the spring.
He would have a preseason meeting For those interested in joining at the preseason meeting.
He had a sign -up sheet for those interested When they signed the sheet in the spring what he told everyone was you're not signing your life away by putting your name
On this piece of paper, but once you commit in the fall he expected their full devotion to the team
There were some who joined in the fall who flamed out because They could not meet the level of commitment that he was asking of them and This often happened because they didn't know what they were getting themselves into now
These commitments that I mentioned building a home or joining an athletic team
They're very small in significance Compared to what we're going to talk about today in this place and that is becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ When one commits to being his
Disciple you are committing to being all in for him
And we must know what this means. It's often not understood. What does it mean?
To become a Christian is it just putting the cherry on the top of your life, or is it everything in our text this morning?
Jesus is going to tell us what this means He's going to tell us about counting the costs of following him
Something we must all take very seriously At this time
I encourage you to turn in the Bible with me to Matthew chapter 8 We'll be looking at verses 14 through 22
If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page pages 966 and 967
The sermon is titled count the cost and here's what here's what the sermons calling us to do
Understand what it means to be a follower of Christ We must understand what it means to be a follower of Christ and we're gonna see two
Conditions how But before we jump into our text, let me give you a little recap of where we were one
Sunday ago We looked at the story where the centurion showed a tremendous faith in Jesus what we saw was amazing an ordinary human
Incredibly brought joy to God's heart And we saw two reasons why?
First he trusted in the highest authority to do what no one else can
Secondly, he knew the secret of having a true relationship with God Jesus held this man who was in charge of 100
Roman soldiers as an example of how one has a relationship with God He compared this man's faith to the lack of faith of God's own people the people of Israel most of Israel Rejected God because of their lack of faithfulness
They were faith less completely most of the population
Rejected that Jesus was the Messiah even though the Old Testament Predicted that he was going to come and it described in specific detail who he was and what he was going to do
However, this Roman centurion had true faith in Christ This relationship did not come through birthright like so many
Jews thought but rather through faith and Anyone in the world can enter the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ Now this leads us to our text this morning.
I want to begin by reading verses 14 through 17 And then we will look at this whole text
Verses 14 through 17 and when Jesus entered Peter's house He saw his mother -in -law lying sick with a fever
He touched her hand and the fever left her And she rose and began to serve him that evening
They brought to him many who were oppressed by demons and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the Prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases
One thing that is interesting about Jesus ministry is that he spoke he spent most of his time out in the sticks
It'd be like him living here and not ministering in Minneapolis, but living but ministering out in st.
Croix Falls That's what it was. That's what his where his time was spent which tells you the importance of rural ministry
Jesus chose to spend most of his time among ordinary folks out in the country
And he spent his time in northern Israel in the region known as Galilee This was and still is a beautiful region
Located around a big lake known as the Sea of Galilee If you want a comparison to something somewhat close to us, this is like Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota a big lake in some places you can't see across it
Even though Galilee was called a sea. It was really like a big lake and it still is to this day.
Just look It's just a big lake with towns surrounding it This was the home of Jesus and all of his disciples they were
Galileans Jesus went to Jerusalem the big city
Every every so often not very often, but he went there for the Jewish Festivals just like all the other
Jews did but he spent most of his time in Galilee And what we read in verse 14 is that Peter's home was there and his mother -in -law
Lived with him. So we learned that Peter is a married man What the second half of verse 14 tells us is that she was lying down with a severe fever
We know it's severe because if it were a minor fever, she wouldn't need to be healed from it.
But Jesus is there The right man is
Presence to do what needs to be done the one who has the power to heal
Immediately as we have seen in the previous two passages when Jesus healed someone That person was healed instantly.
It's not like a doctor who gives medication and says two weeks from now. He should be okay
Instantly with a word People are healed by Jesus who has
This power that no one else had This is what verse 15 tells us he touched her hand and the fever left her
Now not everyone who believed in Jesus became a true follower of his so some people believed with quotation marks
When the leper was healed he had faith even though he disobeyed Jesus by telling everyone what
Jesus had done Last week. We also saw the sincere faith of the centurion whose servant was healed and today we once again see sincere faith
We know this because of the end of verse 15 after she was healed she rose and began to serve him
At the beginning of chapter 8 in that sermon what we saw is that people sometimes believe in Jesus for the wrong reasons
Some of them followed him because they were thrill -seekers Jesus is around and Let's just enjoy that this man can do all these supernatural things
Others followed him because they would gain stature in some way because of their association with him
Judas comes to mind Judas once he found out that Jesus was gonna die a brutal death because Jesus was telling his disciples that that's how he was gonna die
Judas plan to betray him He's thinking I'm jumping ship here this man who I thought
I was gonna become famous from is Gonna be scorned by society
So I am going to leave him Showing by the way that he was not truly devoted to him that he was not truly a friend that he was not truly a follower
Others treat Jesus and God like a genie in other words You don't really love him, but but you go to him for your own selfish reasons
It's like going to a sporting event as an athlete and saying Lord Give me the victory and then when it's over not even thanking him
You go to him for what you want This is why
Jesus told the leper not to tell anyone what had happened when Jesus healed him because he knew
Some followed him with an ulterior motive John chapter 2 verses 23 through 25 says this concerning people in the first century many
Believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them
Because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about Man for he himself knew what was in Man Jesus knew
That many would follow him for the wrong reasons and they did
He knows the human heart. He's unimpressed with the sinful human heart What the sinful human heart desires?
These are problems in the first century and there's still problems to this day
Peter's mother -in -law could have been one of those people who was healed by Jesus and professed to follow him without showing true devotion
But as we read she rose and began to serve him
Peter's mother -in -law is a true follower of the Lord Jesus she followed him not for her own personal benefit, but she loved him and She shows her love for him by serving him
This is different from the people in John chapter 2 who believed
But Jesus did not give himself to them They falsely believed
These are people who were not going to serve him no matter what you want to know what your follower of Jesus You're with him.
No matter what? The climate of society is how do we know that we are true followers?
There's a very simple answer to this We love him Truly love him.
And how do we know that we love him? Well, Jesus tells us in John 14 15 He says if you love me, you will keep my commandments at my seminary graduation
I Will never forget What the commencement speaker? Said to us
Usually you go to these graduations and what the commencement speaker says is forgettable You know, they invite someone famous out and you don't really remember what they say
I remember this one because it was very impactful All of us they graduated had a bunch of head knowledge
I don't think people realize how much work it is to get through seminary.
I Don't say this I don't say this to brag but to make a point here a Master of Divinity is 96 credits
It was twice. It was twice as much work as my undergraduate degree You learn two languages
Hebrew which is which is what the Old Testament was written in and Greek which is what the New Testament was written in You probably read about 50 to 60 thousand pages
Most of which I have no idea what I read because it was so much your mind can't contain all of that But the commencement speaker said this he didn't say this
All this knowledge you have is going to make you a better follower of Jesus and a more effective pastor He didn't say that which is true.
You have to have some knowledge, right? You have to be trained But he didn't say that this is what he said.
He asked us this question Do you love Jesus? Do you love him?
It's interesting when when Jesus was with Peter after his resurrection The time was short. Jesus was only gonna be with Peter for a short time
He didn't he didn't give him a he didn't give him a quiz saying rattle off all this all these answers Remember what he said to him three times
Do you love me? Because if you love me, you will do what I command
And you'll be a faithful follower of Christ that God can use you in this world You can have a lot of head knowledge and not be a true follower of Jesus this head knowledge can make you think you are a
Christian because you know the Bible and you want to impress people and in this Way a smart
Bible scholar can use Jesus to gain stature But not have no relationship with him
There will be many seminary graduates in hell They know Hebrew and Greek But they didn't love
Jesus to love Jesus is a Mark of a true disciple.
So the question we need to ask ourselves is do we love Jesus? And when
I say do we love Jesus I mean the Jesus of the Bible Not not the Jesus that society makes out that says just love everybody and don't even care about the truth.
That's not Jesus You Jesus taught that you can't disconnect truth and love
To love Jesus is a very simple way of knowing whether we are real
I love what the Apostle Peter wrote in 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. He said though you have not seen him
You love him Though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with joy.
That is inexpressible and filled with glory concerning the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls
Every genuine believer on planet Earth right now has this experience You have not seen him, but you love him
And he is more precious to you than anyone or anything else in the world
True believers treasure Jesus and they show their deep love for him by serving him
Just like Peter's mother -in -law and let me say this here our love for him always falls short, too
Okay, so it's not like our love for him is always going to be perfect But it's there
That's the important thing. It's there and it will show in the way you live So we see that with Peter's mother -in -law.
She serves him after he heals him. She didn't say okay
Well, you healed me and now I'm gonna go on and do my own thing She serves him But Jesus was not done healing only
Peter's mother -in -law. He also heals others Let's read this in verses 16 through 17 again
That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick
Stop right there What we read here is that Jesus not only healed people of physical conditions, but also spiritual
The end of verse 16 tells us that he healed the sick, but that verse also tells us that he cast out many demons a
Few weeks back. I mentioned that in the West in the Western world We have this anti Supernatural bent it is true that we don't see the miracles of the first century very often
There are certain times in history where lots of visible miracles happened and the
Bible often describes those periods For example, we don't see
People being brought back to life after being dead for four days like Lazarus was
I Don't think that's happened. I Don't know. I haven't seen that happen any any time in in the recent past Most of the miracles we see are unseen like conversions
Where the new birth happens with us the Holy Spirit enters a person's life and transforms that person
We see a supernatural work when people grow. That's the work of the Spirit and Answers to prayer when we pray and God answers it that's supernatural.
That's a miracle So in these cases something happened no question about it, but God did it mysteriously
What we must understand is that there is a supernatural Manifestation that we see today and this cannot be denied by anyone
About 25 years ago. My father went to a men's retreat in northern, Minnesota At this retreat something troubling happened that showed everyone there
How real the supernatural realm is? One evening they were having a time of confession and One man was walking up to the front to confess his sins
But as he was walking toward the front he was overtaken by this powerful force
This man was possessed by a demon now my dad my dad is just you know my daddy you some of you know
My daddy comes here once in a while Some of those some people You know, you don't believe a word.
They say, you know, there's looking for attention a Lot of people in the world like that. My dad's not one of them
My dad doesn't even like to talk about this story because it was so alarming and he's he's a very credible eyewitness
What my dad told me is the voice that came out of this man was not human
He told me that for several hours. They prayed over him and eventually the demon left
Now I don't say this to scare you But to show you how real the supernatural realm is
We don't see the supernatural just happening around us very often Like they did like they did in the first century
But demon possession is one that is out there It's going on right now somewhere
During Jesus ministry. He cast out many demons What's important to understand is that a demon cannot possess a
Christian 2nd Corinthians 614 says what fellowship does light have with darkness?
The answer is obvious. It doesn't Christians cannot be possessed by demons unbelievers can these people that Jesus is healing are unbelievers and hopefully they follow the example of Peter's mother -in -law and truly follow him as Jesus is healing everyone from physical and from the spiritual condition of demon possession
What he's doing here is he's fulfilling Old Testament prophecy as Matthew writes in verse 17.
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the Prophet Isaiah He took our illnesses and bore our diseases that comes from Isaiah 53 verse 4 what the prophecy is saying is
Jesus did all these wonderful things for Israel He healed people by curing them
From their illnesses and casting out demons and yet they killed him But God's primary plan
Was to send Jesus not to heal people in the temporary but to heal people eternally
From their greatest disease the disease of sin as we saw at the beginning of chapter 8 when
Jesus healed the leper Peter's mother -in -law understood that he came not only to heal her but also to save her soul and She shows her commitment to Jesus by serving him we are to understand what it means to be a follower of Christ and the first condition how is true followers
Lovingly serve him true followers lovingly serve him The second condition how
We are to understand what it means to be a follower of Christ is that True followers know what they are signing up for they know what they are signing up for We'll see this in verses 18 through 22 in This section
Jesus is going to have two encounters with prospective
Disciples, let's read this. We'll start by looking at verses 18 and 19 Now when
Jesus saw a crowd around him He gave orders to go over to the other side and a scribe and a scribe came up and said to him teacher
I will follow you wherever you go after Jesus Was healing the people from their diseases large crowds were following him in verse 18
He gave orders so that he could escape the crowd and go across the big lake on the other side
Where there were no people we see Jesus humanity here He was tired. All these people are swarming him and he just wants to go to the other side
In one of the other Gospels in Mark chapter 4 verses 35 and 36. We learned that other boats would follow him
But before he crosses two men approach him We just read about the first man.
We just read about the first man We've learned the identity of this man. He is a scribe Now scribes were
Jewish scholars. They were close to the Pharisees These were the people who embraced false teaching
They added their own man -made laws and believed that salvation could be attained Attained through one's good works.
This is the the false teaching of works Righteousness, which the
Bible does not teach Now most of these scribes would have rejected Jesus outright
They would have seen him as a false prophet However, this scribe mentioned in verse 19 is very impressed with Jesus To the point where he tells him teacher.
I will follow you wherever you go Now that's a strong statement
Why would he say such a statement and make such a commitment? To this point you would have heard
Jesus preach and he would have seen all of these miracles that he performed In the
Sermon on the Mount Jesus took aim at people like him
Jewish leaders the very people that Would kill
Jesus in the future Why was he interested in following Jesus? The text does not tell us
But it does indicate by Jesus response as we are about to see that this man had little clue
About the commitment he was making It may have been that he was disgruntled with other scribes and Pharisees and he liked that Jesus took aim at them
It may have been that he was impressed with the authoritative way in which Jesus preached
Remember at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7 verses 28 and 29 It said that he preached as one who had authority and not as the scribes
When Jesus preached it was different than when the scribes taught It carried an authority with it that wasn't there with the scribes
The scribe would have been impressed with Jesus miracles as well his honest assessment
Did not let him deny that Jesus was from God His companions dismissed him outright because they saw him as a threat
Where this man was more honest than the others and said, you know what? I Like what he's teaching and I want to follow him but Jesus knows his heart and He knows that this man is not ready to make the commitment to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ This is what
Jesus says in verse 20 And Jesus said to him foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests
But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head Now that's interesting
Jesus contrasts his life on earth with that of foxes and birds, you know, we see foxes around here all the time we see birds around here all the time and Jesus is comparing his life on earth to foxes and birds
And what he's talking about is their home The home of a fox is a hole and the home of a bird is
A nest and some of you probably have nests at your home, right and you want to get rid of them But that's my point.
Is is that that's their home? Jesus tells the scribe that they have a permanent place to go to sleep at night, but I don't
If he's talking to the scribe the scribe probably lived a comfortable life He wasn't the persecuted of society.
He was the one who had an in he was the light he was He was a somebody he was a scribe
People respected him. He probably had a cushy home and Jesus says birds
Have nests and foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
This is remarkable Think about this the Son of God the second person of the
Trinity left the royalty He enjoyed with his father in heaven to come to earth where he lived a very unglamorous life
He didn't even have a house to live in Philippians 2 7 says that when he came to earth, he took the form of a servant
What we read in verse 20 is that Jesus did not have a home So where did he spend his nights and where was his central place when he wasn't missing ministering to the people?
What Luke 6 12 tells us is that Jesus often spent all night praying to his father
While others were sound asleep in Luke 9 33 we learned that there was a central meeting place that Jesus and his disciples had
It was in Capernaum They stayed there frequently, but this house in Capernaum May have been the closest thing that Jesus had to earthly home
It was a temporary place, but he was so often on the move. He probably spent many of his nights under the stars
He did not have a permanent home like we do that. We enjoy we talk about Thanksgiving.
We have shelter We have a home the Son of Man He did it
He went from place to place and he had nowhere to lay his head as we read in verse 20 in the 90s
One of the biggest Christian musicians was a man by the name of Rich Mullins Mullins died at the age of 41 from an automobile crash in his last album that the album was titled
Ten songs about Jesus in this last album. He had a song titled.
You did not have a home Here are some of the lyrics to that song
Mullins wrote You did not have a home There were places you visited frequently you took off your shoes and scratched your feet because you knew that the whole world belongs to the meek, but you did not have a home and You wrote a donkey's full, but the world won't find what it thinks it wants on the back of a donkey's full
Birds have nests foxes have dens, but the hope of the whole world rests on the shoulders of a homeless man
Isn't that well -written? It's truly remarkable Indeed the hope of the whole world rests on the shoulders of a homeless man that gives me goosebumps
When you think of the elite of society Who's the most influential person in the history of the world?
Jesus Christ he didn't even have a place to live If we think we can make a difference without being powerful, but in the world's eyes look at what
Jesus did this gives us a picture Of what it is like to follow
Jesus in this world If you're after glamour, then don't follow him.
You're looking in the wrong place. You're not gonna get it What Jesus is telling him is that you need to be fully committed to him to be a true disciple
And he Jesus goes after something that shows this man's true heart Jesus told him that he must be willing to give up the comfort of his life to follow him
But this man was not ready to do that It may have been that later on he was ready.
But at this point he wasn't and Jesus tells him that When Jesus called each of his disciples they left their home remember that Early on in his ministry.
He he called him Peter and John and James and the other disciples
He said follow me and I will make you fishers of men and they left whatever they were doing to follow him
Now this does not mean that every Christian is uprooted from the comfort of their home to serve Christ some are but most aren't
We support missionaries who left the comfort of America to go to a foreign land
To serve Jesus and I kind of chuckle as I say that the comfort of America I think going to a foreign land right now would be a lot more comfortable than living here
They might be sending missionaries to here before too long But the point Jesus is making is full commitment to him
Are you willing to do everything that he calls you to do The life of following him is one of full surrender the second man
That Jesus talks to is also a so -called disciple and he has the same problem as the scribe
Let's look at that in verses 21 and 22 another of The disciples said to him that we might put disciples in quotations here
Lord let me first go and bury my father and Jesus said to him follow me and Leave the dead to bury their own dead
When we see the word disciple, we're tempted to think this is that this is a true disciple like like the disciples of Jesus Christ But again, this is in quotations.
This is not a true disciple. This is someone who will follow Jesus around appeared to be a true disciple a
Prospective disciple, but not yet a true disciple He is not ready to follow
Jesus like the scribe He did not understand what it meant to be a true follower of Christ This is so common do people really understand what it means to follow
Jesus as We look at the second man. We may think that Christ's response to him is cruel
But when the man says let me bury my father what he means is When he when he dies
Sometime in the future. He's not saying my dad's gonna die in a week. He's saying Several years from now when my dad dies then
I Will follow you I'll get to it later on when it's more convenient for me
But I have too many other important things going on right now when it comes to Jesus He's always the most important thing
It's urgent. I Remember when I was growing up in my home church, there was a there was an adult helper at one of the children's
Bible schools and He was sharing the gospel with one of the students a young girl with the gold what the girl told him was
Someday, I will believe But not now, but the
Bible tells us that today is the day of salvation Hebrews 3 13 if you wait you might be like Esau Who waited too long and he reached a point where he could no longer repent.
He was too in love with the world That he could not find a place to repent his heart.
His heart was so hard That he couldn't repent and this is why Jesus tells this man follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead
True disciples are willing to count the cost. They are willing to follow the conditions that Jesus lays out one of full
Surrender if you follow him, this is what your life is going to be like We don't make the conditions he does
But this is a good thing Every true disciple knows that even though Jesus is asking for your life.
This is a trade -up It's the only path to true life as Luke 9 24 says whoever loses his life in this world for my sake gains life
It says we'll save it So what are some of the ways that counting the cost may show up in our lives?
This may show up with family or friends and it may show up in dark America The place that we find ourselves living in right now
Are you willing to have tension With your family and friends in order to follow
Jesus It's interesting in this political season
You know Whatever candidate people chose that what people are saying is that homes are being divided right now
Families aren't talking to each other because the political scene is so divided It's this way even more so with Jesus Christ as you follow him and They don't
There will be a divide between you and family members between you and friends
Think about that in Matthew 10 34 Jesus said that he did not come to bring peace, but a sword
It's either you're with him or you're against him What he means is people will divide over him he said it would happen and Some of you are experiencing this right now
You might have family or friends that aren't Christians and and there's this divide
That's there and sometimes the person is open, you know And okay with it and this person is a person that you you may be able to reach for Christ and then others are more are more militant and and that's where It becomes very difficult where there is this divide, you know, there's there's this fracture in your relationship because One party knows that you are fully committed to Christ and there's this there's this difficulty that is present
I've experienced this with this with my family and friends not my immediate family
But but my relatives and and there's some friends that I don't even talk to anymore because of this in the
Gospel of John Jesus told his disciples that the world will hate you
For following me, I Am so fed up with churches that say we need to gain capital with the world
No, we don't we need to follow Jesus and if they are drawn to us through that Well, great
That's that's what we call evangelism. That's what we call being salt and light, but we don't change
Ourselves and change our church to draw people in I mean, I know that's a
By the way, that's that's been going a lot of voices are saying We need to build capital with the world
We you know what we need to do. We need to we need to follow Christ 100 % and then let him take care of it
There are many times in this world When people will despise you for the sole reason that you are a follower of Christ There is a cost to following Jesus as you will not be liked in this world you will not be treasured when you die
They won't mourn Like when one of their own dies as I mentioned as Christians We must understand that this cost is going to be felt in the present darkness of American society
There is a growing tension between secular American society and biblical
Christians I just saw something that The far left is trying to remove accreditation from Christian colleges
You can see you can see the tension Now that is growing Christianity is no longer acceptable in the mainstream
And it gets bigger every year. I Was watching a conservative political commentator a while back
Who is who is discussing the the the militant secular agenda and what he said is that The mainstream this is represented in the highest places of government the mainstream media academia in Hollywood and What we should see clearly is that they are militant
They will ruin your life if they can As time goes on There is a smaller and smaller percentage of people who have any decency left
It used to be that people could disagree in this country Isn't that what freedom of speech is right?
You can you can have a conversation and disagree now. It's well you disagree with me
You're fired You disagree with me. You're not my friend anymore You disagree with me.
I'm gonna make your life miserable. That's what we that's the country we live in though You know what this political commentator said?
he said that this power structure Despises Bible believing
Christians more than any other group in America We're at the top of their list of hatred and they're coming.
We've already seen other people. They've come for they're coming for us Okay, and I'm not saying this to scare you.
I'm just telling you the truth. Okay, and And Every Christian everyone every
Christian who believes in the Bible will feel this to some level some will feel it more than others
Frankly, I think people in the cities will probably feel it more than people out here, but still we will feel it
You know to some extent and as we look at this, do you still want to be a follower of Christ?
In this fallen world. There's a great cost and In now our faith gets that gets to be tested more than any other time in the history of our country
Are we real? God promises heaven But he also promises hardships while we are here
Acts 14 22 says through many tribulations. We must enter the kingdom of God.
That isn't just for some Christians That's for every Christian And we need to understand that Counting the cost
It also means making sacrifices in your life in order to serve God's kingdom and this shows up in so many ways
It shows up financially. It shows up with how you spend your time The application abounds here of counting the cost and I trust that the
Spirit will show you Where you need to hear this it shows up in doing hard things of Dealing with your sin and growing that's counting the cost.
It's easier to sin than not to sin Turning from sin is counting the cost It shows up in a life of courage where you stand up for what is right no matter the outcome
And this is what we need to see. Yeah, I just say this as a pastor here We need to see this more in the church more and we need to see this in our church
We need to do what we can to hear and in the broader church. We need people to stand up for what is right
I've seen more cowards In 2020 than I've ever seen in my whole life combined and there are some brave souls out there but there's also a lot of a lot of people who do not have a backbone and to be a
Christian means Having a backbone counting the cost means I will die
They might drag me out of here someday and throw me in jail. You know what? That's okay
That's what counting the cost means they may do it to you Okay, you might say
Seth this sounds like This sounds like extreme I'm just telling you
This has happened everywhere in the history of the world for people who are fully committed to Christ and we are not exempt from it
Okay, so that's why I share this with you So when you become a Christian This is what you're signing up for.
You're signing up to be a Navy SEAL Not this is the cherry on top of your beautiful life
And and God blesses us in so many ways right Where we have all these blessings and sometimes we forget that there is a cost to following him, but indeed there is
So we must understand what it means to be a follower of Christ in this text We've seen two conditions how we understand this call from Jesus The first is that true followers lovingly serve him and the second is that true followers know what they are signing up for It's later right out there
And that's the great failure of the last 100 years in American Christianity It the whole thing has not been laid out there and people sign up for something
They don't know what they're getting into and as time goes on they fall away But that needs to change
At this church, I don't ever want to water down what it means to be a Christian. We don't want false conversions
It happens often that people believe in Christ without knowing the commitment that they made and if they had known the full story they would have run
Just like these two men we saw today Before you build you must have enough resources to finish the project and before you join something
You must know what you are committing to But the area where it is most important to count the cost is with God and with his son
Jesus Christ He doesn't just want some of you he wants all of you
This is the commitment you make When you follow him And my prayer is that this church would be full of people who have counted the cost
And are willing to follow Jesus wherever it takes them no matter how hard it may be
No matter what relationships might be fractured because of it We must count the cost and never turn back to the lost life that you left the life that leads to destruction you have
Chosen if you've chosen to fully follow Jesus you have chosen life We must remember that now next
Sunday We will see Jesus and his disciples. They're gonna leave this crowd after he talks to these two men
They're gonna cross this big lake Something horrible is gonna happen in the middle of this lake
But we're gonna see something about Jesus power. Once again, let's bow our heads together and pray father
Counting the cost is something we must all do and It means giving up things that we love it means giving up idols
It means giving up things that are hard to give up But Lord no disciple in the history of the world has ever regretted giving up things in order to follow you they have already experienced the fullness of joy of being in your presence and All of them will say it was worth it and remind us of that right now
Lord it is worth it To count the cost to follow you
To be used by you in this world for your sake for your glory Strengthen us to do that Lord May this church
Be full of people who are sincere who have counted the cost