The Cost
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27
There was a time when all you heard were messages about how rich God wants us to be. I am not against wealth, believe me I would never turn down a good million or two. But we hear so few messages about the cost.
Today, many believers want to live their ungodly lives and tell us they have Jesus. They want to keep their sins and keep Jesus too. Well, there is a cost. And that cost is separation from the world, so that we might serve Him in righteousness and truth.
Today, it’s all about what we believe. If we believe something to be true, then it is true. If we believe we can continue in sin and the Lord will bless, then it must be true.
Well, Jesus said count the cost. Count the cost. There is a cost to being His. There is a cost to having His mercy and grace give the righteous cover we need to sustain our lives and to keep us moving in the right direction, even though we don’t deserve any of this.
And now, with this world moving rapidly toward its end, and becomes more wicked and less tolerant toward people of faith, we must be ready to count the cost even more. For there will come a time when we must chose, this world or Christ and in doing so, it will cost us.
It’s easy to believe in Jesus when all is going well. When you have the freedom to believe and it does not cost us to do so. But what happens when it costs to believe? Will we remain faithful? Will we stand firm, even if it costs us all we have?
Then there are these words from our Lord: “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” ( Luke 14:33).
Let’s imagine you are the rich, young ruler and Jesus asks you to go and sell everything you have and follow Him, what would you do? Would you say “Yes!” Would you say, “I’ll think about it.” Would you say, “I need to pray.” Would you tell Him, it’s your right to be wealthy, because you are a child of the King. Or would you just do it and know He will take care of you, in the midst of it all.
I don’t have an answer for you. What would I do? What would you do? We’re not programmed to think this way, but we better be, because God will at some point extract the cost from us. He will require us to make a choice and it won’t be easy.
Think about this for a moment, what would your answer be if God told you to sell all and follow Him. Well the truth is, He already has. You cannot be His disciple unless you do. Does this mean He wants all of us to live in the street and beg for money? No, I don’t believe that. What I do believe is this, everything we have is His. Everything we are is His. Every decision we make, every move we take, must be with Him in mind. We must be totally sold out to Him.
And if we are, He willl one day call on us.
God Bless
Other Resouces:
- Quote from Jim Elliot, missionary who gave his life in service of his Lord: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”~Jim Elliot
- The Cost of being a Disciple of Christ
Christians, have you ever thought about what it actually cost to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Are you just a casual Christian, rolling through trying to accomplish your own goals? - doing your own thing? - living your life the way you see fit? Read this verse from chapter 14 of Luke: Click Here
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