Live with Lon - Counting the Cost

Well, hello everybody.

Welcome to Live with Lon. We're so glad that you're with us today and we have a very challenging passage of Scripture today for all of our lives. But I hope you're doing well and let's pray before we dig into the Word of God.

Here we go. Let's bow our heads. Lord Jesus, we ask you to calm our hearts from all of the vicissitudes and frenetic activity of our world. And Lord, forgive our sins and connect us vitally in our hearts with the Holy Spirit so that he can shed his illumination on our hearts so that we can understand and we can grasp the importance and the meaning of the Word of God for our lives. Lord, we commit our time in the Scripture to you right now. Speak to our hearts and our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, Amen.

All right. Well, remember that we're studying the Gospels and right now we're in Luke's Gospel picking up some passages that Matthew and Mark's Gospel do not have. Meanwhile, the whole context is Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to the cross and the resurrection. Remember, the cross purchased our salvation and the resurrection proved it. Two Ps.

Purchased, proved. The cross, the resurrection. Got it? Okay. Now, today we're going to pick up in Luke, Chapter 14. And I want you to remember that I'm using the New King James Version of the Bible. And we're going to pick up. Let's do it together in verse 25.

Now, remember the context. Jesus has been, verse one of this chapter, with a very prominent rabbi at a large dinner where a lot of scribes and Pharisees and religious leaders had been invited. And he just last week warned them that they were not going to eat in the banquet in the kingdom of God and in heaven unless they came the way that the Lord Jesus Christ was offering them.

And that is by trust in him. So having finished that, Jesus leaves this banquet, goes back out into the street. And as we pick up in verse 25, let's do that. Look, and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple and whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. I believe that the Lord Jesus, when he walked out of that dinner, had in his mind this whole idea of people trying to connect themselves to him and to heaven and to the great banquet in heaven, like those rabbis and Pharisees in the banquet had tried to do without being properly prepared.

I think this is on his mind. And this whole idea of the cost to become a follower of his, which these rabbis had not been willing to pay. Remember, if you confessed Christ, we know this from John Chapter nine in the time that Jesus was here on earth. John Chapter nine tells us you were thrown out of your synagogue and Jewish people's whole community was their synagogue and the friends and the relationships they had there.

So you were essentially excommunicated, blackballed, de-fellowshipped, if you will, disfellowshipped from everybody in the community that you lived in. So there was a price to pay for believing in Jesus. And Jesus, in talking about that, now talks to people out in the street about the price they're going to have to pay.

Notice this, look very clearly. He said, verse 26, that person without paying this price, look, he cannot be my disciple. And verse 27, cannot be my disciple. Now, it's my understanding here that Jesus is making a distinction between being a follower of his and being a disciple of his.

And why do I say that? Well, because the price that he's talking to us about here, you don't have to pay that price in order to trust what Christ did for you on the cross and be granted eternal life. The Bible is very clear about that. The Philippian jailer, Acts Chapter 16, says to Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved? The answer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You shall be saved.

You and your whole household, if they believe. So we're not talking salvation here, in my understanding. We are talking discipleship. There is a difference between a follower of Jesus and a disciple of Jesus. A disciple of Jesus is a deeper commitment.

It's a deeper connection and walk with the Lord. It's just like, hey, you don't have to be a Marine to be an American citizen. The Marines are the few, the proud, the Marines.

That television, that commercial is running on television again. I love it. The few, the proud, the Marines. Not every American citizen is a Marine. A Marine takes an extra level of commitment, an extra level of dedication to be a Marine or to be probably in any other part of the armed services.

But I love the Marines for that saying, the few, the proud, the Marines. Well, a disciple is the few, the proud. A disciple of Christ is a deeper walk, a deeper level. And Jesus said to be at that level, there's a cost that you have to pay. OK, you trusted what Jesus said on the cross.

Great. To be a disciple, there's an additional cost. And if you want to be a follower and you don't want to pay that cost, you don't have to. You'll still go to heaven if you trusted what Jesus did for you on the cross. But the extra special rewards and honor that goes to being a disciple will not be yours. So I hope you want to be a disciple.

I hope that's in your heart. You're not content just to trust Christ and go to heaven and not go the further distance to being a Marine spiritually for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you don't want to be a Marine for the Lord Jesus Christ, my suggestion is you turn the message off right now and go do something else. Because I'm going to talk now to those people who want to be a spiritual Marine. OK, now, what did Jesus say here?

He said to be a spiritual Marine, to be a disciple. Number one, we have to hate our father, our mother, our wife, our children, our brothers, our sisters and even our own life. Now, does he mean he really wants me to hate my father or hate my brother?

No, of course not. He wants you to love and honor your parents and your brother. But he's saying in contrast to the love you have for me, the love you have for all these other people, including your own life, has to look like hate.

You understand? Your love for me has got to be superlative and superseding any kind of other love that you have. If you want to be a disciple, I must have your complete loyalty and love. And then number two, if you want to be a spiritual Marine and a disciple, you've got to pick up your cross and bear it.

That's what he says. And come after Jesus. Now, what does that mean? Well, the cross was suffering. The cross was pain. The cross was a burden that the Lord Jesus took on himself for us.

And this is what he says. Now, your cross and my cross may be very different. Everybody's cross is not the same. But what Jesus is saying is, when I ask you for that level of commitment that you've got to step up and carry extra weight for me, you've got to accept pain and suffering on my behalf, on the behalf of Christ, then a disciple does that. OK, so this is what it costs to be a disciple.

And we'll come back and talk about that in a minute. We're talking about an absolute and utter commitment to Jesus Christ, where he is above everything and anything else, including our own life. Now, Jesus goes on to say, however, before you say that, before you tell me and that you want to be a disciple, I just want to remind you of one thing.

Here's what he says. Look, verse 28. For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and hear those three words, count the cost, whether he has enough money to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build but was not able to finish? Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10,000 soldiers to meet him who comes against him with 20,000?

Or else, while the other king is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So, likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. Now, Jesus is saying you need to count the cost, my friend. Before you say you want to be my disciple and you want to be a Marine for Jesus, you better count the cost. It means, what did Jesus say? You have to forsake all that you have, and Jesus has to become your highest priority and your highest love and your highest loyalty.

And you better count the cost as to whether or not you and I are willing to do that, lest we start and can't finish. You know, I used to always tell my boys it has nothing, it's not how you start the race that counts, it's how you finish. Everybody looks good at the start of a race in the Olympics. They're all there and they're all in the starting blocks.

They all look great. It's not how they, that's why they don't hand out the medals at the start of the race. Doesn't matter how you look at the start, it matters how you finish.

That's where the medals are handed out. And the same thing is true in our lives as followers of Christ. In general, it matters how we finish our Christian life. But more specifically, you want to be a disciple? You better make sure that you understand what you're saying and the commitment you're making so that you can finish what you start. Now, that's the end of our passage.

And that's a great warning from the Lord Jesus to count the cost. But we want to ask our most important question now. So are you ready? All right. Come on now. Nice and loud. Come on.

One, two, three. So what? Yes, yes, yes. And I just had a lady call me on the phone a few minutes ago and we were talking about something and she said, I listen every week to Live with Lon. And she said, I just want to say how sweet it is.

I said, yes, ma'am. How sweet it is to be able to share the word of God with you like this. So when it comes to counting the cost, I wrote down some things this week that are part of the cost of being a disciple, not a follower of Jesus.

OK, but a disciple. And I have eight of them. You say, oh, my gosh, how long is this going to be? I'm going to do it real quick.

I just want to make sure that you and I think through the cost. OK. All right. Number one, if we're going to be a disciple, it means, number one, that we're going to have to go public for Jesus, that we can't be a CIA Christian. We have to go public for Jesus if we're going to be a disciple. And this is what baptism is all about. It's our public profession that we believe in Jesus and we are connected to him. This is why every believer is told to be baptized and to go public for the Lord. I knew when I got baptized as a Jewish person, there was no turning back after that.

And and this is the whole point. Now, Paul says in Romans 116, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. He tells Timothy in Second Timothy, chapter one, verse eight. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. And first, Peter, chapter three, Peter says, be always ready to give an account for the hope that is in you and tell people about Christ. This is part of being a disciple. We go public.

There's no hiding it or keeping it a secret. No matter what the price is, we go public for Jesus. That's the first thing to being a disciple. Number two, the cost of being a disciple is often our closest friends, our girlfriend, our boyfriend, because they don't want to live the lifestyle that a disciple of Jesus lives. And very often those relationships have to be broken so that they don't drag us back into a life of sinful behavior that a disciple wants to escape and live godly in Christ Jesus. OK. First Corinthians, chapter 15. Paul says, verse 33, he says, Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Evil company corrupts good habits.

And it does. This is why Bob Eckhart told me that I had to get out of Chapel Hill when I first came to Christ, because all my old friends were going to corrupt my attempts to try to live for Christ. And and this is why in Second Corinthians, the apostle Paul says, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness and what communion has light with darkness. This is often used about who you marry.

And that certainly qualifies. But it's more than that. It's about our closest friendships and our closest human contacts that if a person doesn't know the Lord and doesn't want to live for the Lord, they're not going to you're not going to pull them up. They're going to pull you down. So don't be yoked with them. The picture here is two animals pulling on a yoke, pulling a plow. Two mules work fine. Two horses work fine. Two oxen work fine.

But you put a mule and an ox on the same yoke and you is not going to work fine. So he's trying to tell us, you know, you're a spiritual being now. Don't be on the same yoke with someone who is not a spiritual being.

And they think you're crazy about, you know, your friends. OK, so it's going to the cost could often be your girlfriend and cost me my girlfriend when I came to Christ. And your closest friends cost me all my friends when I came to Christ.

OK, number three. The cost of being a disciple is going to radically affect what you allow to come out of your mouth. I love Colossians chapter four, verse six.

Let me read that to you. Colossians chapter four, verse six. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.

What does that mean? Well, so what does salt do? Salt kills the germs and the rottenness and the decay in meat and other things. And when you say that your speech should be seasoned with salt, Paul is telling us that stuff that is rotten and putrid and decaying has no business coming out of our mouth. Now, you say, well, I don't cuss.

Well, that's good. You shouldn't as a disciple. But being a disciple means we have to watch everything else that comes out of our mouth. That's rotten, gossip, slander, judgment of other people harshly, just unkind words of every kind, lewd comments, sexual comments, dirty jokes. All of that stuff has to be ended. And look at Ephesians chapter four, which says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.

Only that which is good for edification. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by that stuff coming out of your mouth. Verse 30, verse 31. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking be put away from you and be kind to one another, tender hearted towards one another. All that evil speaking, all that stuff. Hey, a disciple. That's part of the cost of being a disciple.

We have to agree to change what comes out of our mouth and to discipline it so it doesn't. Number four, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus, then let's talk about your sexual behavior and mine. First Corinthians chapter six talks to us about this, and it says, flee sexual immorality. Every sin a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

You were bought with a price, therefore glorified God in your body as well as in your spirit, which are God's. Hey, when we come to Christ, our sexual mores have to change radically, dramatically. Not just whether we have sexual relations before we're married. That's part of it. But the way we look at other people, Paul, I mean, the Lord Jesus said, if you look on a woman or a man lustfully, you've already committed adultery in your heart with them.

So we have to deal with that. And as we said earlier, sexual things that come out of your mouth, like dirty jokes and inappropriate comments about people, sexual comment, all that stuff's got to get cleaned up if you want to be a disciple of Christ. Disciples of Christ seek to be holy in the way they look at members of the other sex.

We don't always get it right, but this is what we aspire to and not to look at them and deal with them in a way that is rotten and degenerate and immoral. OK, number five, forgiving other people who've hurt you. You say, oh, brother, you now you're going from preaching the meddling.

I am. But you know what? Disciples forgive everyone for everything because that's what the Lord Jesus tells us to do in the Bible. I don't care how bad they've hurt you. We forgive them.

And why? Well, listen, if you would, Ephesians four thirty two and be kind to one another, tender hearted. Now the rest of the verse forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Why do we forgive others? Because Jesus forgave us and he forgave us a lot more than anybody else has ever done to us.

Now, how about Colossians was telling us the very same thing. Colossians chapter three, verse 13, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you.

So you do also. And as Paul says in Romans, chapter 12, verse 18, as much as it lies with you, be at peace with all men and women. Which means we have forgiven them. We have put everything they've done to us under the blood and we leave it under the blood. And we don't resurrect it and deal with it and hold grudges and and say nasty things about people or feel malice towards them. It is ancient history nailed to the cross and we leave it there. This is what a disciple does.

They're at peace with all men, no matter what all men have done with them. And this leads to number six, which is making things right. Not only do we forgive, but if we've offended somebody else, we make that right.

Why? Because Jesus tells us to. Matthew Chapter five.

Look what he says. Therefore, if you're bringing your gift to the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift to God. Friends, listen to me. Disciples don't always get it right, but disciples always make it right. You understand what I'm saying to you?

We don't always get it right, but we always make it right with people. Just the other day, I had somebody call me on the phone and while I was driving about some ridiculous thing was like a sales call. And and I and I was you know, I knew I shouldn't be on the phone. So I just said, no, no, thank you. And please don't call me again. And I hung up.

And then my conscience started bothering me. And I I said, you know, that was wrong. You were rude. And so I called him up and I said, hey, this is Mr. Solomon, the guy you just called. And he the guy on the phone was a little guarded.

And he goes, yeah. I said, look, I just wanted to call and apologize to you. I was rude to you. I didn't mean to be rude.

I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. And and why did I do that?

Because I'm trying to be a disciple of Christ. And I understand that I didn't get it right, but I needed to make it right. And this is hard for us. Forgiveness is hard for us when we've been really hurt and making it right with people that we've done things to hurt them. Sometimes it's really hard for us. But see, a disciple listens to Jesus more than they do their own feelings, their own hesitations, their own humiliation or embarrassment.

It was a little bit humiliating to call that person back. But no, I mean, if I want to be a disciple, it's too bad. Jesus is number one. And what he says in the Bible, finally. Our money is I knew you were going to get to that.

Well, I'm sorry. But a disciple handles his or her money differently than the rest of the world. The rest of the world spends all their money on themselves and the people they love. A disciple gives to the work of God significantly from his or her resources. Jesus said it. You cannot serve God and mammon material things.

One of them has got to be more important to you than the other. And if it's God, then you will use and I will our material things to support the work of God. And you can tell a lot about how much of a disciple someone really is by looking at their bank account and their checkbook and how they give to the work of God. I mean, we can fake it with praise the Lord and then singing my hymns and raising my hand and going.

Thank you, Jesus. Listen, if you want a real barometer of who's a disciple and who isn't. Look at their checkbook and it'll tell you, you know, I'm serious. That's where the rubber really meets the road is how people handle their money. And if their money is not surrendered to the Lord, then I'm telling you, their life is not surrendered fully to the Lord. That's why the woman who came and put two mites. We're going to get to that story in the temple offering.

Jesus said she put in more than everybody else because she gave all she had and everybody else just threw in token amounts from their wealth. And the Bible calls us to this. You know, many of us know by heart Proverbs three, five and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways.

Acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. But we don't go on for another couple of verses till we get to verse nine. We look at this.

Let's put it on the screen. It says honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all of your produce. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. Honor the Lord from your wealth. OK, trusting in the Lord and acknowledging him is important, but so is honoring him with our wealth. A disciple sees all the money he or she has as coming from God.

All of it belonging to God and meant to be used not only to meet our needs. Yes, but also to give generously to support the work of God here on Earth. And a disciple understands that and a disciple does that. OK, let's summarize.

What's the bottom line here? The bottom line is Romans 12 one, I beseech the brethren by the mercies of God to for that you present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. What is a living sacrifice? Well, it's exactly what Jesus said in Luke, chapter 14. Let's go back to Luke, chapter 14, and let's look at what Jesus said at the very end of the passage we had.

Here it is. Look, verse 33. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has for my sake, he cannot be my disciple.

Being a living sacrifice, Romans 12 one means you lay yourself on the altar, you're not dead, you're still living, but you completely sacrifice everything to the Lord Jesus. He is number one. What he says is number one. Obedience to him is number one. That's our goal in every area of life. And nothing compares to the loyalty that we have for him. That is being a disciple.

And Jesus said, that's what I want you to be. But I want you to make sure you count the cost. The cost may be punishment of some kind that people inflict on you for going public for the Lord. The cost may be your friends, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. The cost may be having to radically change what comes out of your mouth. The cost may be having to radically change your sexual behavior and perhaps having to change some habits that are going on right now, like living with your boyfriend or your girlfriend before marriage or whatever. You understand what I'm saying? Hey, the cost may be that you have to forgive somebody who's really hurt you. Everybody who's ever going to hurt you. The cost may be that you've got to go right, go back and make things right with people you've hurt. And not just now, but for the rest of your life.

That has to be our habit pattern. The cost may be money for us, thousands and thousands of dollars, considering the salaries that are here in Washington, D.C., that should be given by us to the work of God instead of consumed on ourselves. There's a cost to being a disciple and there's more, but these are just the ones I picked out at first. Let me close and say this. Jesus wants you to be his disciple. And I want to be his disciple.

I hope you do. But there is a cost. And Jesus said, just make sure you know what it is and you're prepared to pay it before you come and say, Lord Jesus, I want to be your disciple. I want to walk with you like a spiritual marine.

You can count on me. The few, the proud, the disciples. And, you know, being a disciple is something we aspire to.

It's not something that we reach. And we never we never fail. We never let God down. We never have a bad day as a disciple. No, I'm sorry. We aspire to be a disciple, but sometimes we have a good day.

Yes. And we were happy to come home and present it to the Lord. Sometimes we have a not so good day and we come home and we have to say, Lord Jesus, please forgive me. I didn't do so well today. But, Lord, tomorrow I'm going back out there by the grace of God.

And I'm going to try again with everything I got to be your disciple and to live that way. And in some days, friends, we just have a disaster of a day. I mean, where we're just ashamed of ourselves for something we did or something we said or the way we behaved. I mean, we're just before the Lord. We're just ashamed of ourselves. That happens to all of us.

Terrible day. Well, thank God for first John one nine. We confess our sins.

God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, God. When we are in there beating on our breasts like the tax collector, just we got nothing to say. We're so ashamed. Oh, God, just have mercy on me, please. Lord, please. Just let's just have mercy on me.

We always get it. And disciples have those days sometime, like Peter, when he denied the Lord. They have those days sometimes. Well, that's OK. We get the forgiveness of God and we go back out and we aspire to do better the next day. So just understand, despite the disciples are not people who reach a static level and like the angels, and then they never have a bad day. But having a bad day doesn't mean you stop being a disciple. It just means we try harder the next day with the help of the Holy Spirit.

OK, let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for reminding us that there is a cost to being your disciple. And Lord, I pray that those of us who are followers of Christ would all aspire to be disciples and not be satisfied just to be believers.

And Lord Jesus, then help us be willing to count that cost, pay that price and show up reporting for duty. Standing there at attention, saying, Lord Jesus, I'm here like a spiritual marine. Just Lord Jesus, help me to carry out everything that you've commanded me to do. And I pray this in Jesus name and everybody said a man. OK, brother, what was that? He is preaching. It is. Well, join us next week for the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible. And then we apply it to our life as we continue going on in our study of the gospels. Hey, God bless you. And we'll talk to you soon.