Count the Cost

COUNT THE COST

Mount Hope UMC

Sunday, September 3, 2019

Luke 14:25-33 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Cost of Being a Disciple

²⁵ A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, ²⁶ “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.²⁷ And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? ²⁹ Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. ³⁰ They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’

³¹ “Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? ³² And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. ³³ So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.

           

            These verses follow the parable of the great dinner where the master of the house sent invitations to all his wealthy friends and each sent regrets as to why they couldn’t attend and in anger the master told his slave to go out into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, crippled blind and lame and fill his table.  He ends declaring that none of those invited will taste his dinner.  In other words, the invitation has been extended.  The moral is that the table is open to all who will accept Jesus’s invitation.

            A lot of Jesus’ parables were centered around food.  In Middle Eastern countries, dining is a time of fellowship and social interaction.  Discussions took place around the act of sharing food..  It was, and probably still is, a time when everyone was gathered together at one location and shared stories about what had transpired that day and whatever news or edicts had been signed and put in place that affected their lives. 

            But today Luke’s message is about the cost of discipleship.  If you recall the story of the rich man who wanted to become a disciple and Jesus told him to go sell all his possessions and follow him.  That man could not let go of his possessions in order to follow Jesus.  He counted the cost of what he had lost in dollars and not what he would gain in becoming one with Jesus.

            Whenever we decide to make a purchase, we shop around for the best value, calculating the cost and how much we’re willing to spend.  If we have endless resources, we may not think twice about the cost, so you might shop at high class establishments and buy the most expensive things, but if you’re living on a limited income, like me, you shop more modestly.  I tend to like my trips to the Dollar Store and Goodwill, right Sister Joyce?  Now I used to be a shopaholic.  I shopped on my lunch hour, when I got off work before coming home, and all weekend.  I had 4 American Express cards, a Macy’s card, Mastercards, Visas, Nordstrom, Saks – I had a $10,000 limit at Neiman Marcus at one time.  And you know what?  I didn’t count the cost of having all that debt and I went financially bankrupt.  That was the result of my not counting the cost.

            Jesus now has a large crowd of people following him.  You know how it is with movie stars, rock stars, athletes and famous Preachers….they have their groupies and hangers on that follow them everywhere they go.  Most of them are there because being in the presence of greatness makes others think they are great as well.  Often these folks are boosting the egos of the famous and often the famous need their egos elevated and pumped up to make them feel more important than they are.  I think about the folks who would loose their mind when T.D. Jakes or Joel Olsteen came to town.  Folks acted like they thought the second coming had arrived.  They flocked to see these preachers.  One time I went with friends who invited me to go see Myles Munroe in person.  I had really never heard of Myles Munroe, at the time, but I trusted them because they were devout Christians and they had a personal connection to Dr. Munroe, so I went.  I wasn’t disappointed.  He gave one of the best sermons I have ever heard and it’s one of the only sermons I never took notes at and still remember what it was about.  But I went into the Sanctuary of Jericho Baptist Church when it was located in Northeast DC – before the City of Praise existed – at 7:00 in the evening and I didn’t leave until well after midnight and I had to come back to Waldorf and go to work the next morning.

            But the crowd following Jesus was with him day and night from town to town.  They ate with him and slept with him.  The point of this message is that following anyone involves a cost.  It could cost your job, your family, your home.  Jesus is very specific with the crowd.  He tells them they have to hate everything they’ve come to love in this world and throw it away.  He tells them this because he does not want them to have attachments to anything but him.  He wants the crow and he wants us to have total faith in him.  He wants them and us to become one with him.

            He tells his disciples in John 14:20, “On that day you will realize that I am in mu Father, and you are in me, and I am in You”.  Eugene Peterson in The Message Bible says in Ephesians 4:4-6 that “You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.  You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, on God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all.  Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.”  Permeated means totally soaked inside and out, spread throughout, penetrate, impregnate, and in this case, with Jesus.  In order to be permeated with Jesus, we have to be permeated with each other.  We have to be on one accord.  It doesn’t mean we all think alike; it means we all have one purpose and one goal and that we are all working together, in unity, to reach that purpose and goal.  Because we all have different gifts – separate and apart the gifts area useless.  But working together with the different gifts we can effectuate dramatic and lifegiving change.   When we do that, we will be one and one with Jesus.  And we will then see God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

            I’m sure most of you have heard the saying “the blind following the blind.”  Now, I don’t know how this saying came to be, but I actually saw this one day on the streets of Washington, DC.  I was out to lunch and was on 17^th and L Streets and actually saw a blind person leading 3 other blind people teaching them how to maneuver the streets and go down into the Metro to catch a train.  That took trust on the part of the blind who were being trained.  That type of trust is what is the cost of discipleship.  Trusting not knowing what, why, where or how, but knowing who.  Trusting like the song says, “Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand” because I got Jesus and that’s enough!

            This is why we are called peculiar people.  We’re peculiar because we realize and understand that this world is not our home and that we are not grounded and ruled by the world system, but by the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Count your cost, church, in anything you commit to.  Know what you’re getting into.  Read the fine print.  We’re good at making our plans, but God has  plans for us, too, and His word will not return to him void.  We’ve just seen hurricanes, tornadoes and floods take lives, destroy homes and towns.  Nothing in this world is meant to last forever.  It will all rot and what you gonna do?  I was so impressed by the Pastor of the church in South Carolina that was badly damaged by Hurricane Dorian.  He said, God will provide.  He was not concerned.  The community and other denominations had reached out and offered meeting space and other assistance.  He praised God and gave him glory.  In the midst of this trial for his congregation, he was thankful.  He said the church was the people, not the building.  He understood church and discipleship.  He understood the cost.

            I want you to know, if you don’t already that you may journey a while with some folk, but at some point you will go your separate ways.  You have to be determined to follow Jesus if you have to go all by yourself.  See, every road is not for everyone.  And that may mean you have to say goodbye to people you love because Jesus is calling you and not them.  It doesn’t mean Jesus won’t call them at some point.  And you will find that some folk are jealous of your calling; some don’t want to hang out with you because you’ve changed and don’t want to be involved in things that don’t bring you lasting satisfaction anymore.

Have you ever read the poem “Two Roads” by Robert Frost?  Let me share it with you because I think it might help clarify what I’m talking about.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.^[1]

Frost came to a fork in the road.  Maybe it was really a fork in the road of  life.  He saw the path perhaps many of his family and friends had taken.  And perhaps that path had taken them away from what was really important in life.  He saw another path, one that everybody else in his circle had avoided.  One that not many people had walked.  A path where he would not be distracted by life, but would be able to see the beauty of life and be able to be alone with his thoughts and prayers.  A direction that led to solitude and peace.  He took that path and was transformed.  I often read the last stanza of that poem and thought my life was much like that.  I took paths in life that many of my friends and family did not take.  In my case, it led me down many different paths that were difficult and painful, but that path eventually led me to Jesus Christ.

If we look at the lives of the disciples, we see that they all died martyrs.   Can we count the cost of following Jesus because he was crucified on the cross.  Can we crucify the things of this world that hold us in bondage?  Can we let go and let God?  Just count the cost.  Is following Jesus worth what it may cost?  Can we let go of what we hold so dear in order to hold onto the one who is dearest to us?  Can we count the cost of what it would look like if we say goodbye to friends who we no longer have anything in common with?  Can we count the cost of letting some family members go who area constantly draining our spirits with their drama?  Can we count the cost of setting boundaries at our workplaces to demand respect and value for the work we do and our commitment and dedication?  And what about our places of worship?  Can we count the cost of not doing things as they’ve always been done and risk becoming a more spiritually mature congregation where we are truly transforming the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

When we think about Jesus hanging on that cross at Calvary, did he count the cost of what losing his life to save ours was going to do?  When we think about Jesus hanging on that tree, do we count the cost of our salvation?  When we walked down that church aisle to give our lives to Christ, did we count the cost of what giving our life meant?  If you have not thought about counting the cost, church I urge you to consider what you have done, the commitment you have made and I ask you to count the cost.  Then seriously ask yourself if you are willing and able to pay the price.