“COUNTING THE COST” is an important issue in economics (and business, and athletics, and marriage, and…) … AND IT IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT IN “DISCIPLESHIP”!
In Luke 9:57-62 there were several people who quickly and spontaneously said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go!” Jesus urged them to “Count the cost!” In the same verses, He calls others to follow Him, and they begin to make excuses and procrastinate… “I will Lord, but first let me…”
This morning during “coffee with the Lord” I read Luke 9:23-25… In those verses Jesus clearly spells out the “cost of discipleship”…
“Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
Discipleship requires…
- Self-denial for the sake of the Kingdom of God
- Self-renunciation for the sake of the Kingdom of God
- Self-sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom of God
Gotta tell you, those demands run totally counter to popular, cultural, Christianity! Jesus, however, has not changed or compromised the demands. His challenge to me … His challenge to you … His challenge to all is… Count the cost!
Is there a reward … a payoff for the sacrifice? The answer is Yes! Later in Luke Jesus spoke these words to Peter…
“Peter said to Him, ‘We have left all we had to follow you!’
“’Truly I tell you,’ Jesus said to them, ‘No one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life” (Luke 18.28-30)
Coffee With The Lord 