Count the Cost: The Hard Call of Discipleship

Luke chapter 14 tonight, we're going hard to believe, right?

Luke 14 · chapter mention

And last week we left off with counting the cost. And we're in Luke 14.

We're going to be looking at verses 28 through 30, those few verses in Luke 14.

Jesus asked for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost,

whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and

is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying,

this man began to build and was not able to finish.

Let me ask y'all quickly, have y'all ever noticed a house or a building that

was started that never was finished?

We had one down our road for a long time. I mean, a long time.

It's still there. It finally, I think was finished. We're one of them, but my goodness.

Yeah. Count the cost. If you're going to come to Christ, in other words,

you're going to have to count the cost.

Have you counted the cost?

Do you even understand there's a price to pay?

We know what the price is because, as we've already seen, the Bible tells us

clearly, unequivocally, and repeatedly,

the price is a willingness to, in Jesus' own words, hate your father and mother,

if necessary, hate your own life, carry your cross, and come after Jesus.

Nothing in the world must we hold so dear that we will forfeit Christ for it, in other words.

Let me say that again. Nothing in the world must we hold so dear that we will forfeit Christ for it.

Now, again, how many times do you hear that type of call in an invitation to come to Christ?

So continuing in verse 31 and 32, listen to what he says.

Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first

and consider whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000,

or else.

While the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.

You either make peace with the enemy if you can't conquer him,

or you make sure you got the troops that you need to win the battle, right?

In other words, Jesus was saying, don't come to me unless you've counted the cost.

And the price is self-denial, self-crucifixion, and self-submission.

Does anybody remember in Greek there that deny yourself? Do you remember what deny means?

You used to. Refuse to associate with. Okay.

You deny yourself. You refuse to associate with any longer that old person you were, right?

That old man, so to speak, that old flesh, right?

And you deny yourself and you take up your cross, you follow him.

And it's really, and we mentioned this last week and the week before,

it's a call to die in a sense.

A call to die is complete surrender. You don't hear that a lot about a call to Christ.

A lot of times what we hear, you know, just come down this aisle,

bow your head, say this prayer, you know, repeat after me and things in your

life are going to be better. Just give your heart to Jesus.

And people can't count the cost if they don't know the cost,

if we don't share the cost.

You think about this even in a business perspective. What would happen if you

had this giant project that you were doing and you didn't count the cost?

What would likely happen to you and your business?

Go under. Sometimes it's catastrophic. Sometimes it's just damaging in a certain area.

But my goodness, if you don't count the cost, you're going to implode.

Same thing in your finances personally, right?

If you don't count the cost, it ain't going to go well with you.

In fact, a lot of times, y'all, we see people, not all the time in this situation,

but many times, who just don't count the cost. They don't prepare.

They don't budget, so to speak. They don't do these things.

And it's like they wonder why that everything always falls apart and we don't

have any money. There's too much month at the end of the money, for example, right?

It's not counting the cost. And here in salvation, Jesus is telling us,

you know, count the cost.

Don't just willy-nilly come into this.

Yes, it's a great salvation. Jesus has paid the price for our sin on the cross,

but we are challenged by Jesus himself to count the cost to follow him.

If you've noticed, these words are the words of Jesus, not Judd Harbison.

In fact, in Luke 14, verse 33, Luke 14, 33, he delivered the point.

Luke 14:33

Listen, he says, so likewise, whoever of you...

Does not forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple. That's Jesus talking, y'all.

Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple.

Boy, you think Jesus would have been a popular evangelistic speaker?

Probably not in a lot of churches' eyes, but he told the truth. He called it out.

He told so people could count the cost of following him.

Forsaken all. It always reminds me of a song. I think of the Stephen Curtis

Chapman years ago. We will abandon it all for the sake of the call, right?

For the sake of the call. We're not going to get saved by dumping all our earthly

goods. Don't misread this. I don't think you do, but that's not how you get saved.

But we have to be willing to do so. He says, whoever of you does not forsake

all that he has cannot be my disciple.

In other words, we don't have these little compartments where,

you know, Jesus, it's okay if you do, if you're in control of this part of my

life, but this over here is off limits.

You know, it's like those, you probably heard the illustrations in years past,

like these rooms in a house, right?

It's like you have free reign over all this house, except for this room or that room, right?

But I got this one, God, right?

And y'all, a lot of times that denying ourself as well is to deny our own opinions

about something or deny what we would like to do. And instead, what would we do?

We would submit to God's word, right? We may not feel like it.

There are many times, I don't know about y'all, but I've not felt like doing

what God said in his word.

In fact, I wanted to do just the opposite, or I wanted to handle a situation

just the opposite of the way God said.

But if I'm going to forsake all, deny myself my own desires,

my own opinions, and go to God and submit to him and what he says, then.

Am I going to obey him? Am I going to count the cost or not?

And y'all, I have to say today, I truly believe this, that if we read the Bible

every day and obey what we read, as my brother says, God will never let us down.

In fact, so many trips, I think, to counseling can be avoided just by simply

doing those three things.

Read the word, obey it. God will never let you down, ever.

If we just follow his word. And that's how devoted we have to be to the cause of Christ.

We will deny ourselves, refuse to associate with any longer,

all of our worldly longings.

We will even deny our own right to live and give our lives, if need be, for the cause of Christ.

We will submit to his will, following him wherever he asks.

Whether he says we must lose these things or we can keep them, that's up to him.

Y'all, that's a big call, isn't it? That's a big call.

Jesus told two parables in Matthew 13, beginning with verse 44 of Matthew 13.

He said this, and this will be familiar to you. The kingdom of heaven is like

treasure hidden in a field.

I think of another song, Treasure Island by Stephen Curtis. But anyway,

the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid.

And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

And in the next verse, he told the story of a man who found a pearl of great

price and sold all that he had to buy it.

The complete surrender of all possessions is the essence of salvation.

It is this. Let me wrap it in this.

I give up everything. I deny myself.

I offer my life both in terms of death, if need be, and in terms of obedience in life.

Do you see what Jesus is calling for here?

When Jesus is your master, he's your Lord, it's obedience, it's surrender.

And it's not a burdensome thing. It's a joyous thing as being a bondservant

of Christ, a slave of Christ, to obey, to submit, right?

It's not a burden, but obedience in life.

When God's word tells us something, to surrender, to obey it.

You know, earlier we saw those who insist that, I was telling you about a few

weeks ago, that the pearl of great price in the Christian faith is just genuine

respect and self-esteem, right?

It's nothing of the sort according to Jesus. The pearl of great price,

the treasure that's worth everything you and I possess, is the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

That we are hopelessly undeserving of, but that we can claim as our own by denying

ourselves, picking up our cross daily and following him. That's Jesus' words.

This is the message of the gospel. When you call people to Jesus,

that's what you have to say if you're sharing the biblical gospel.

That's what Jesus said. And like I said, we may not like it.

We may not like the way that it is in fact i think a lot of times i think of that you know jesus said,

those who are ashamed of me and my words,

a lot of people y'all don't mind wearing the jesus t-shirt i mean you know in

fact a friend of mine said you hear somebody say jesus too many times that's

a red flag but anyway because they get you know jesus jesus right but they wear

the shirt they like the name.

They're ashamed of Jesus' words. You remember what I just shared with y'all these past few weeks?

Have you ever thought you had to apologize for God? You thought the message

in his word was too harsh to somebody?

You know, don't ever think you have to apologize for Jesus because I promise

you he's got it all under control.

That's why this whole series is called Hard to Believe. Man,

when you read these words and the calls of the gospel, counting the cost, it's everything.

Nothing's off the table.

That's why Jesus said that it is very difficult. This is Jesus' word, y'all.

It is difficult to go down that narrow road.

Very difficult. Jesus did not say it was easy. He said just the opposite.

And we wonder why so many fall away. You see them at church and they get all

involved and then you never see them again. Amen.

There's a way, y'all, that Jesus told us it leads, it's broad,

it leads to destruction.

Many go there, but the narrow way, few find it. Jesus himself,

like I said, says it's very difficult.

Does that tell you that becoming a Christian is just saying a prayer?

Repeating these words after me? Not at all. In fact, you won't find the sinner's prayer in the Bible.

It's not there, other than a sinner praying, okay?

And the biggest one I always say that I've seen is just when the guy was beating

his chest, right? And he said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

It's not a prayer. It's not magic words.

It's the posture of your heart before Almighty God saying, I surrender all.

I humbly kneel down before you. I'm unworthy. I am a sinner and I need a savior.

I surrender everything to you.

But now comes the issue and I'm wrapping up tonight.

I told you it wouldn't be too long tonight. forgot through this section,

but the issue that's behind all the,

the, the thrill, the, you know, I don't know, some people could call it the

pop, pop music, the self-congratulation, the fun, so to speak,

a lot of seeker sensitive churches promise.

And again, y'all, if y'all know me really well, you know, I love music.

You know, I love good music.

I love all genres of music and I like to rock. I like to praise the Lord.

I even like a little bit of headbanging now and then, okay?

So I'm not against any of that, but if that's how we sell Jesus,

we're making a mistake because people aren't going to buy Christianity,

you know, if we actually tell the truth, so to speak, if it's that hard as Jesus said it was.

If it doesn't meet their needs, they won't be interested. In other words,

if I don't have my felt needs met, right?

I want to have everything I want

when I want it. It's like that consumer mindset we were talking about.

If they want six fruit flavors and you've only got two, you've lost them.

They need Christianity that tastes great. And if it is less filling in the short

run, well, we'll explain all the hard stuff later, right? We just want to get

them in the door, man, and then we'll let them know all of it.

Is there a problem with that? I think there is. There's a name for that in the

marketing world. Anybody know what it is? Bait and switch.

You advertise, y'all probably seen this before, you advertise a TV or whatever for a rock bottom price.

And, but when the, you go to get it at the store, guess what?

That particular model's unavailable, but there's one more expensive over here. It's a lot like it.

It's not what we promised you. In fact, what we promised never really existed.

The offer was a sham. and so what happens many times if that's our whole focus,

as a seeker sensitive church to our whole goal is to offend no one to to not

share the hard words of christ when he said it was difficult to enter the kingdom

and not tell the whole story to not let people count the cost,

when somebody takes the bait what happens,

well he or she thinks hey this christian thing is not hard at all.

Woo, let's dance, right? Nothing wrong with dancing.

Some of y'all probably saying, Brother Judd, yeah, I may not can dance,

but hallelujah, dance before the Lord.

But it's not hard. Meet nice people, hear an inspiring message and some cool music and get to heaven.

Y'all, like I said, there's nothing wrong with cool music. There's nothing wrong

with any of that and of itself.

But if that's all we're presenting people with and we never present the whole

gospel and the words of Christ that are hard to believe, have we done them a favor?

But at some point, you know what's going to happen? The truth comes out.

The hard words of Jesus come out, like we've been talking about,

and it gets down to this. It's not about you.

It's about me and sacrificing yourself to follow me.

Y'all, isn't there a consumer mentality in the world today, even for churches?

I mean, don't you ever hear the words like, hey, you know, what's in it for me?

What's in it for my family? What can I get out of this?

It's absolutely true that nobody's going to want to be a Christian under those

circumstances. Unless, are you ready?

Unless the Spirit of God is working in his or her heart.

Unless the Spirit of God is doing the work of conviction, is awakening the dead

heart and generating faith, nothing's going to happen.

No matter what you do. Did y'all hear me tonight? It doesn't matter what you

do. Nothing's going to happen.

And then only the true message of Jesus connected with the work of the Holy

Spirit will produce true salvation.

It's not manufactured, and it never will be.

That fountain of grace, y'all, will open and flow to the self-denying sinner.

That's the very essence of grace.

The gospel is not good news if I think me and Jesus got it all worked out.

It is when we offer nothing in ourselves as worthy of salvation.

Do you get that? Nothing in us is worthy of salvation, but affirm our hatred

of worthless self that God grants us grace to rescue us from sin and hell.

That's the message that Jesus preached.

We can't reinvent the gospel to suit ourselves our own comfort and convenience,

but that's what people are doing today and not just today in centuries past right that's why,

we're doing this study that's why we're talking about this because if you modify

the message to make christian or christianity more attractive,

then what you have is not christianity remember what i said earlier,

God doesn't need you to apologize for him and his call.

The call is the call, and it's to count the calls to forsake everything.

Deny yourself and follow him.

May not be popular. In fact, it's not because few are going to ever do it. Just a few.

And I want y'all to know tonight, I'm not promoting legalism in any form.

Only fidelity to God's word.

Now, I have had times in the past, believe it or not, Sharon,

where people have thought I was a little harsh and hard-nosed on stuff,

but I've mellowed out a little bit, all right?

But, no, seriously speaking, you know, we have to tell the truth, but in love, right?

Tell the truth in love. Be honest with people.

I just feel like so many people have been robbed in our churches from hearing the biblical gospel.

I think well-meaning congregations and pastors alike go to great lengths to

actually steer around the teachings of Jesus that are hard to believe.

They don't do it because they're sinister people necessarily or malicious or

consciously out to deceive anybody. That's not like I don't want to deceive

somebody today, maybe a few, but probably not many.

They do it because good news is fun to deliver, but hard words are not.

Gospel is good news, but the good news only makes sense after you deliver the

hard words like Jesus did.

It's kind of like my brother Ray Comfort says, you know, you can offer a cure,

have somebody come in and say, hey, here's a cure for this awful disease you have.

I don't need a cure. I'm feeling fine. I'm doing great. Why would I need a cure?

Unless you first show them the x-rays and you first convince them that they

have the disease, they will not appreciate a cure until they know they're sick.

And y'all, every person here on this planet is sin sick, and the cure is the gospel.

Hard words are sometimes confusing and embarrassing. It's hard to make eye contact

sometimes when you repeat some of them.

Christians don't know. I believe this, Brother Ronnie, and I know how you feel

but christians don't know how to interpret and share the hard words of jesus so they skip over them,

but i want you on another night delivering half the message is almost worse

than delivering no message at all,

we got a lot of people that are inoculated to the biblical gospel because we've

had a half-hearted half-accurate half-truth message.

They think they've given Jesus a try, and they never have because they've never

surrendered at all. They've never counted the cost.

They might have walked an aisle, said a little prayer, but nothing changed really.

They got really high emotionally, but they never were shown there was a cost

to count, that this was not just a prayer and you walk away.

This was when your heart's broken over your sin, when you shed tears at the

altar because you realize you're such a great sinner in need of a great savior.

That's what I'm talking about.

It's not up to us to pick and choose, is it? All of what Jesus has to say is important.

It's not up to us to decide what we'll pass on and what we'll try to hide.

Like I said, never apologize for God, man. He doesn't need it.

My prayer is that this series, as we go forward in it, and this is the opening

section, will help us all understand that the right invitation to Christianity

is the one that's complete and transparent.

That hiding the truth doesn't help, but in fact, infinitely hurts people.

And that there are ways that you and I can use the full dimension of the gospel

of Jesus Christ as presented in the Bible to proclaim a powerful,

compelling evangelical message that the Lord will bless.

Y'all, it's not about having a hundred thousand come down the aisle at a big crusade.

It's about having those two, three, four people who have a broken heart,

who've counted the cost, and who will deny themselves, surrender their life, and follow Jesus.

That's what it's about. And I know that's hard to believe, but those are the words of Jesus.

Pray. Father God, I thank you so much for your word tonight.

I pray you'd help us this week, God, as we continue to serve you, God.

And I pray that as we walk in your joy and your peace, God, that we will be

faithful witnesses, Lord, that we will tell people truth in love and grace.

We give you all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen.