And he said to all, if anyone would come after
me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me. For whoever would save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for my sake will save it. For what does it profit
a man if he gains the whole world and loses or
forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me
and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be
ashamed. When he comes in his glory and the glory
of the father and of the holy angels. But I tell
you truly, there are some standing here who will
not taste death until they see the kingdom of
God. Let's pray. Father God, I thank you for
today. I thank you for the salvation that we
have in Christ. I thank you for how good you
have been to us, how good you are. I thank you
for the way that you work in and through our
lives. But God, I also, I want to say sorry for
the ways that I have lived in this life, knowing
how good you are, knowing how much you've done,
knowing how much you desire to be with me. And
yet there are days where I don't think about
the life that I'm supposed to live because of
you. And so, God, I pray that this morning we
would examine ourselves, that we would find ourselves
where we are, what we've done, what we haven't
done, what we've neglected to say, where we've
neglected to go, who we've neglected to be. God,
I pray that we would see that there is a higher
calling for all of us and that there is something
more that we're supposed to be doing and saying
and being. God, help us to see that this morning.
Help us to see it and then to make the appropriate
changes. We love you. We praise you. And it's
in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Whenever I'm interested
in buying something, the first thing I look at,
hopefully you do the same thing, is the cost.
I look to see how much it costs. If I want to
buy a new vehicle, if I want to buy a... a new
toy or a new phone, a new gadget, whatever it
is, I look at the cost. I look at how much that's
going to cost, and I'll ask myself some questions.
You know, if it's too high, I immediately leave
it because, well, there are some prices that
you see on the price tag, and you just say, yeah,
that's out of my tax bracket, right? If it's
reasonable, and by reasonable I mean, you know,
I probably could pay for it. Maybe not the wisest
thing, but, you know, I may consider it. I'll
weigh if I think it's worth it. But then there
are some things that they don't they don't leave
you a choice that you don't really get to decide
if you're going to pay for it or not. You know,
you ever have a hole in your roof and there's
water coming through and you don't you don't
get to decide if you're going to fix that. Right.
You just have to fix it. They see goes out in
the middle of the summer. It's 90 degrees outside.
You don't have a choice. You just got to fix
it. There are some things that don't leave you
a choice, or at least they shouldn't. Back in
2021, I went to the dentist for just a routine
cleaning. I hadn't been to the dentist in a while
at that point, so they do all the exams and everything
and the x -rays and blah, blah. The dentist comes
back in and says, Mr. Rillian, you need a filling.
You know, whatever. So he he goes through the
potential harm of not getting this cavity filled.
And and he tells me the cost. He tells me what
it would look like if I didn't get a field and
all this stuff. And he lets me decide. Horrible
decision by the dentist, because I thought I'm
going to save some money. I'm going to save some
money because, quite frankly, we were broke at
the time. This is like fresh married Donovan
and Eliza. We've got a kid on the way and we
don't have. The money to just be throwing it
away on things like fillings, you know, like
I said, throwing it away. And so I was like,
no, I think I'm going to wait. I'm not going
to do that. So we're going to fast forward four
years. It's February of 2025. And I am chewing
on some food. And I realize it kind of hurts
to chew on the right side of my mouth. And then
it progresses to where drinking hurts. And then
it progresses to where I could just be sitting
there and my tooth would start hurting. So I
go back to the dentist. Somewhere in May, I think,
was when I went to the dentist. And not only
do I need a filling now, I need a root canal.
And something nobody ever told me is that insurance,
no matter how good it is, does not cover much
for a root canal. And then it doesn't cover much
for the crown. So I'm sitting there and I'm like,
OK, well, what's that going to cost? I'm not
going to tell you the exact number. Let's just
say it was at least four times what it would
have cost me to just get the filling four years
ago. I waited way too long. And I didn't do what
I needed to when I was supposed to. And it ended
up costing me thousands of dollars more than
it would have if I had just listened when I should
have. And the truth is, some things in life give
you time to decide until they don't. You can
choose today not to do the thing that you feel
called to. But one day that's going to catch
up to you. We saw that with Jonah. It didn't
take very long for Jonah before his neglecting
the calling caught up to him. And the thing we're
going to talk about today that we can't wait
on is discipleship. Being a disciple of Christ,
being a follower, being a student, being a disciple
of Christ does not wait. It cannot wait. It can't
take a backseat. You can't say, well, I don't
really want to do that today. I may wait until
next year. I'm going to wait until I'm older.
I'm going to wait until I'm wiser. I'm going
to wait until I have a little bit more money.
I'm going to wait until responsibility actually
means something to me. Discipleship doesn't.
Wait, or at least it shouldn't, because at some
point, every follower of Jesus has to decide.
Will I pay the price to follow Jesus fully or
will I settle for something cheaper? I can remember
when I was nine years old, I'm at camp and I
hear this lesson and I go forward. I want to
be baptized and I study with my youth minister
and we talk about it and we talk about receiving
salvation. One thing, and I love him to death,
and I don't think he meant anything by this.
It just didn't happen. We didn't talk about discipleship.
So I got baptized at nine years old. I didn't
become a disciple of Christ until I was 15. Now,
what happens to me or to you if we give our life
to Christ today and we say, well, I'm going to
wait until I become a disciple. And in the time
that we're waiting, we don't get the chance.
To become the disciple. All we did was get baptized.
And we came out of the water and we just lived
life the same way. Discipleship can't wait. I've
got four points that I want to go through this
morning. And in each of them, I hope that it
challenges us with something. We're going to
look at Luke chapter nine, what we just read
from, but we're also going to look at Luke chapter
14 a little bit. And the first point that I have
for you is the call comes with a cost. The second
point is consider before committing. The third
one is devotion to Christ above all. And the
fourth one is discipleship could cost everything.
Notice I didn't say will cost everything. The
first point, the call comes with a cost. Looking
at Luke chapter 9, verses 23 through 24. If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross daily and follow me. See, Jesus
isn't asking for fans. He's not asking for followers,
at least followers in names only. What he's calling
us to do is to die to ourselves every single
day. When he says you should take up your cross.
What he's saying is, is take up this thing that
is ruthless. Take up this thing that brings pain
and suffering and all it knows is harm. Take
that up. Bear it daily. It's not something that
you get to pick and choose when you're going
to do it. I'm going to be a disciple today, but
tomorrow I'm just going to live my life. It's
not one of those things that you get to just
pick and choose when and how and what you're
going to do with it. It's not something you just
wear around your neck or you paint on your eye
black for the football game. It is a thing that
you take with you every single day. If you are
a disciple of Christ, it is a daily habit. It's
not something that happens at baptism. It's not
just something that you come forward in the emotional
moments after a worship service. It is a daily
surrender. It's not just a change in my name
or my title. It is a change in my lifestyle.
I no longer belong to myself. I belong to Jesus.
And we have to ask ourselves this question. What
does it cost? What does that cost include? Well,
it includes some things that we really value,
right? Like comfort. It requires you. To say,
I'm going to maybe pull out of what I feel safe
in. I'm going to walk away from what is familiar.
I'm going to stop doing the things that I like.
I'm going to stop doing the things that I know
best. You know, I can remember when I was in
high school. Before, like I said, I became a
disciple at 15. So this is sophomore year of
high school. Well, before that, I had a mouth.
That like to say what it like to say. You know
what I mean. And I had some fists that like to
do what fists like to do. And I was somebody
that felt comfortable in what I knew. And what
I knew was say what you want and do what you
want. And so at 15, I start realizing that I've
got to make some changes. And so two of those
things that I was comfortable with. And two of
those things that I knew really well. I had to
let go of. And that wasn't easy. It wasn't easy
when somebody said something to me that I didn't
like for me to not say what I wanted to say back
to them. It wasn't easy for me to not do what
I wanted to do. And even today, if you pull out
in front of me in traffic, I may revert back
to old habits. I don't like that person. And
I try to leave him in the water. But sometimes
the remnants come up with us, right? Because
they're comfortable. But being a disciple, being
someone that says I have murdered my flesh is
someone that says I'm going to let go of what's
comfortable. It also costs you your plans. Being
a disciple may redirect your dreams. It may reshape
your goals. And sometimes it will even make you
take on a new career. It may move you to new
places. It may bring you to new people groups.
It may make you do things and say things that
you didn't want to, that you had never planned
for your life. But because of Christ, it changes
everything about you, including your plans. It
also may just change your relationships. You
may face rejection. There may come points where
because of the lifestyle that you've chosen to
take on, there's a rub and there's a tension
in your friendships. There may come loneliness
because the place that you're in doesn't exactly
fit the lifestyle that you're wanting to lead.
And so your family, they start to walk away and
your friends, they start to walk away. And now
you're trying to figure out who you are and who
you belong to and where you fit in. It may cost
you your reputation. Faithfulness to Christ might
get you labeled in a certain way. It might get
you in a place of being misunderstood. Because
now the world doesn't understand why you live
and why you speak the way you do. Why you make
the choices you do. Why you don't do certain
things with your money because you have other
responsibilities for it. And it may cost you
your habits. See, discipleship calls you to leave
behind sin, to leave behind self -centeredness,
to leave behind laziness. And here is, I think,
the key to all of our struggles in life. Being
a disciple of Christ calls you to leave behind
your pride. Everything that you value about yourself.
Everything that you feel confident in. Everything
you feel good about. About you. About yourself.
About what you do. And about what you say. And
where you go. And what you are. Everything about
that gets left behind. Because your pride is
no longer in you. It's in Christ. You know that
it's not your talent, your ability, your charisma
that gets you far in life. It is Christ. It's
not anything you're capable of or anything that
you are equipped with. It is Christ. Being a
disciple causes you to leave behind your habits.
Sometimes the cost is dramatic. Sometimes it's
really drastic and it's something that when you
do it, everybody notices and you notice this
big, massive shift in your life. But other times
the cost is just daily obedience when nobody
is watching. And here's the truth. I mentioned
the cross necklace earlier. The cross isn't just
a decoration. For so many of us, we put crosses
on our walls in our homes. We get it tattooed
on us. We wear the cross necklace and we use
it as this decoration to say who we belong to.
But really what the cross is, is it's a death
sentence. It is a symbol of what we are and whose
we are. It is a death sentence for the old me
and a reminder of who I am now. And this is why.
I bring up point to consider the cost before
you commit. See, in Luke chapter 14, Jesus brings
up this cost of discipleship topic again. And
in verses 28 through 30, what he says is for
which of you desiring to build a tower does not
first sit down and count the cost. You ever sign
up for something and then after the fact, find
out what your responsibilities are or you sign
up for something and. Then after the fact, you
find out exactly what you signed up for. Any
married people realize, don't raise your hands.
After you got married, who your spouse was and
what you signed up for and how many personalities
you're going to have to put up with in one person.
You didn't really count the cost before you committed.
You didn't really consider everything that what
you committed to entailed. Maybe you signed up
for the PTA and you thought it was just going
to be bringing juice boxes every couple of weeks
to school. But really what it is, is now you've
got to serve at every ball game in the concession
stand. Whatever it is you signed up for without
understanding exactly what it was that you were
getting into. And maybe you got into it and you
realize you're not cut out for this or you realize
it's not as easy as you thought it was going
to be. And being a disciple is what. We have
to consider this morning. Are you prepared for
what you're signing up for? Jesus isn't trying
to push people away when he says this. He's not
trying to scare people off. What he's doing is
he is warning them that they have to be honest
with themselves. You and I have to be honest
with ourselves. Are we ready to say yes to what
Jesus is calling us to do? Because too many people
say yes. They get in the water. They give their
life to Christ. And then when they get into the
weeds of it, they realize I'm not good for this.
I'm not ready for this. Or flat out, I don't
want this. And then they walk away because it's
too hard. Or because it just doesn't really fit
with their idea of what a good life looks like.
What Jesus is saying is don't start something
that you're not willing to finish. Sit down and
weigh it. Is it worth it? Is it true? Is it of
value enough to pay that price? Following Christ
is free. And I want to make sure that that doesn't
get misunderstood in this. This is not about
what you bring to the table. Following Christ
is free, but it will cost you everything. You
can't just follow him halfway. You don't just
carry a cross in your pocket, wear it around
your neck or or hang it up in your house. It
is a total life shift. So you're working with
college students in Montgomery. I had the honor
and the opportunity to work with some really
cool kids. And one of my favorite kids that I
got to know over the last couple of years. He
was a part of our college ministry and he went
to a Christian college, but he came from a Muslim
family. And so we'd study with him and we read
through books and passages of scripture and we'd
pray with him. And this kid, I could tell that
he wanted Christ. And he got to a point where
he would tell us he believed. He believed that
Jesus Christ was the son of God, that he was
the way to salvation, that he was the only way
that we have access to eternal life. He believed
that. And he was ready to give his life to Christ.
And not was, he is. I mean, he's so alive, he
wants to accept Christ. But he's weighed the
cost. And he's not sure he can pay it. In fact,
before we moved here, there was a baptism while
we were still in Montgomery. And this young man's
sitting there in the pews watching the baptism.
And he's got kind of teary eyes. He leans over
to one of the other college students sitting
next to him and he says, I want that. I want
to give my life to Christ. But maybe you know
this about people that come from different religious
heritages. There comes a family cost. Because
if he gives his life to Christ, what happens
with his relationship with his Muslim parents
and his aunts and uncles and cousins? What happens
to the community that he was raised in? The kid
lives at home. So is he going to have anywhere
to live if he gives his life to Christ? He doesn't
drive. His parents drive him where he needs to
go. And so if he gives his life to Christ, how's
he going to get to school? He wants so badly
to become a disciple, but he's afraid of what
it costs. And that leads us to our third point.
Devotion to Christ has to come above all else.
Above family. Above friends. Above careers. Above
communities. Above countries. Devotion to Christ
has to be first. In Luke 14, Jesus continues.
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own
father and mother, even his own life, he cannot
be my disciple. I think about my buddy. He loves
his parents. He loves his family and the community
that he knows. But he wants Christ so bad. And
my prayer for him all the time is that he'll
get to the point where he realizes that Christ
is worth it. That Christ is worth the cost. It
doesn't sound easy. It doesn't sound right, but
it's true. And I want to also clear something
out or clear something up. When Jesus says you
have to hate your own father and mother, what
he's not saying is that you actually have to
hate them. He's not promoting hatred. This is
a Jewish idiom of comparison. What Jesus is saying
is your love for me should be so complete, so
exclusive, so. First and foremost in your life.
That every other love you have. Feels like hate.
In comparison. To your devotion. To Christ. Charles
Spurgeon once said. It is only in a comparative
sense. And not literally. He's talking about
that passage. That the term hate. Can possibly
be used. And to make this very clear, Christ
even said that we are to hate our own life. He's
not saying that you just give up on everybody.
He's not saying that you rebuke them and you
walk away. What he's saying is, I need you to
be devoted to me, to value me, to want me more
than anything else, including your own life.
He's asking you to. prioritize him above all
and here's what that means it's not just about
our family but if following christ puts you at
odds with your parents choose christ if your
friends don't quite understand your choices and
it may strain the relationship choose christ
if your job your school your community your country
pushes you to compromise choose If your own desires,
your own dreams, your own goals, they conflict
with his commands, choose Christ. Discipleship
means there is no competition for your and my
loyalty. And hear me say this because it's very
important. Christ is asking for your devotion.
He's asking for your intention. He is not, nor
has he ever asked for your perfection. Because
there will be times where you fail to put him
first. There will be times where you choose your
desires, your goals, your wants, your needs over
him. And he doesn't strike you down because you
failed to choose him first. But he is asking
for your desire to be him above all else. See,
Peter even denied Christ. Three times, actually.
But grace restored Peter. And Jesus still was
able to use him in a very powerful way. Do not
confuse the call to commitment with a call to
flawless performance. Because if you do, you
will find yourself very disappointed every day.
When it comes to paying the cost, living a life
of sacrifice, God is gracious and merciful. But
still, we have to continue with this fact. Discipleship
could cost you everything. It could. Up to your
life. In Acts chapter 7, we see Stephen, a deacon
in the first century church. He's stoned to death.
And Stephen, he preaches the truth. He stands
firm in his faith. And it costs him his life.
What Acts chapter 7 says is, but they cried out
with a loud voice. And stopped their ears and
rushed together at him. Then they cast him out
of the city. And stoned him. Peter preached the
truth. Not Peter. Well Peter did too. But Stephen.
Even unto death. Stephen is the first recorded
Christian martyr. But in his dying moments. Stephen
looks up and he sees Jesus standing there at
the right hand of God, welcoming him home. And
can you imagine knowing that your life is coming
to an end, knowing that all the memories you've
made, all the people you've loved, all the relationships
and the families and the communities that you've
been a part of, all of those things that you
have just been blessed by in your life, all of
that is coming to an end because you preach the
truth. And instead of being sorrowful in that
moment, you're able to rejoice because you know
that the king of kings, the creator of the universe,
the giver of life is welcoming you home. In spite
of the sorrow that you could feel, all you can
do is rejoice because you know who holds your
life in his hands. I think about my friend. He
wants to give his life to Christ. But he can't
fathom what might happen if he does. That's the
extreme. And the truth is, for most of us, it's
not that bad. So what? You can't do the things.
That the rest of your friends get to do. You
can't go to the parties that they go to. You
can't spend the money on the things that they
do. You can't say the things that they say. You
can't act like they act. Man, how easy we have
it. And how little the price we pay. When Jesus
calls you to give up everything and to follow
him. For most of us, he's not calling us to a
physical death. But even if he is, so be it.
Because we know who welcomes us home in the end.
You see, Stephen's story reminds us that this
isn't a game. This isn't just dress up and come
to church on Sunday morning, sit in a chair and
sing pretty songs. This is not something we get
to pick and choose for. Following Jesus is not
always safe. And what I imagine, you know, the
person who writes the book of Acts or records
these acts of the apostles in the first century
church is Luke, who also recorded the gospel
that we read those two costs of discipleship
passages out of. And I can imagine Luke as he's
recording the book of Acts. He's just remembering
what Jesus said as he's thinking about Stephen.
Being stoned to death as he's thinking about
Paul being arrested and put in chains and chased
out of cities. As he's remembering those moments,
he's remembering exactly the words of Jesus.
The cost. For some, the cost of discipleship
is included being mocked, losing family, losing
freedom, even losing their lives. And the question
we have to ask. Is are we willing to lose those
same things too? Most of us will not be called
to physically die for Jesus. But we are all called
to live for him. And living for him might be
even harder some days than others. And so we
ask the question that we started with. What is
the cost? And is it worth it? Because it will
cost you. But the reward, and we'll talk about
this more next week, because the price is steep.
But I want to leave you with hope this morning
that the promise is far superior. What God has
promised is so much greater than any price we
pay here on this earth. We may be losing a little
here. We may be losing a little now, but we gain
an enormous and infinite lot in eternity. And
to foreshadow next week, I just I want to leave
you with this. Whoever loses his life. Well,
I thought I had it somewhere. Anyways, I'll say
it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will save
it. The life we gain from a life with Christ
is worth it. It is. There's so much that we gain
from just saying, I'm going to die to myself.
I'm going to give up on my wants. I'm going to
give up on my needs, my desires, my choices,
and let Christ do the leading. Hold on to that.
We'll talk about it a little more next week.
But for today, I want to also remind you, you
can't buy salvation. If anybody ever told you
you could pay a physical price for it, they lied
to you. You cannot buy salvation. You can't earn
it. You can't do enough good deeds. You can't
say enough good things. You can't pray enough
prayers to receive salvation. You can't earn
it. It's a free gift that you simply, that I
simply just have to give up myself in order to
receive it. Isn't that something? All I've got
to do is just say I'm going to put Christ first
and then actually live like that. And I receive
salvation. I receive eternal life. And so this
morning, maybe you've been halfway in. Maybe
you've been baptized. Maybe you've received salvation,
but you never became a disciple. You'll notice
I pray a lot. We want to be disciples that make
disciples that make disciples. Well, you can't
make disciples if you yourself are not one. And
so this morning, as we're talking about what
our calling is, and that is to go out and make
disciples, the first thing we have to figure
out is, am I one? And if I am, then I'm paying
the price daily. If you haven't been, today is
the day to commit, to put the down payment on
and start making those daily payments towards.
Following Christ. If you haven't ever. Decided
to accept Christ. It's a good day to do that.
Because you just never know. You never know if
you'll get a chance. To even pay for the root
canal. Go ahead and make the changes necessary
today. If you need to accept Christ and put him
on in baptism, if you need to just have the prayers
of the church so that you can have the strength
and the courage to bear your cross daily, we
offer you an invitation now to come as we stand
and as we sing.