Consider The Cost

• by: Chris Mayfield 04/17/08

Have you ever wanted to build something from scratch, but stopped after
drawing out the building plans? Ever say, “I am going to work out every single
day this year,” and shot out like a cannon for the first week only to go down
like a house of cards? Oh and how about this one, “We are going to be out of
debt by the end of the year!” Didn’t work out so well did it? Have you ever
stopped and pointed the blame at yourself? Let me be clear, I know sometimes
the circumstances are out of your hands, but most of the time I would say it is
us and our lack of considering the cost to make that goal or build that project.
Our intentions are great, but our motivation and inspiration are off kilter.
Consider the Cost.

Look at it from the point of view of a Christ follower. With great intentions
and words we say things like, “God I want to know you in every way,” “I want
to grow in my knowledge of the Bible,” “I want the world I live in to know
Jesus Christ.” These are great wants and our intention to know God the way
they knew God in the Bible is an attainable goal. But what about your
motivation and inspiration? Is your motivation to know God so that you can
overcome all that stands in your life that you want to conquer, or is your
motivation to know God at all costs period? So that when obstacles (God
opportunities) do come you can reflect Jesus? And what is your inspiration?
The glory or the suffering? Because the great ones (and regular ones too) in
the Bible were inspired by enduring and enjoying the life God had given them
instead of trying to change it.
Consider the Cost.

There is a great passage in the Bible where Jesus has many following him,
which by our standards we would say is awesome because of large numbers,
but Jesus knows their hearts (motivation and inspiration). Listen to Jesus speak
to his followers, “Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and
said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and
mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own
life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come
after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower,
does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete
it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:25-33
Consider the Cost.

Jesus knew that most were following Him for what He could do for them, not what they could do for Him. Jesus, motivated by glorifying His Father and inspired by His father’s love for Him, knew that if they were to be followers of Him, then they too would have to have that same motivation and inspiration because the long hard road ahead was paved with sacrifice and suffering. For these followers to be able to stick it out to the end they would have to build great endurance and enjoyment in the midst of this discipleship. So He stops and says, “sit down and count the cost.” He wanted quality not quantity. When it came to salvation He wanted the house to be full, but when it came to discipleship He wants those willing to pay the price, and that price is surrender, sacrifice, and suffering. One commentary puts it this way, “Salvation means coming to the cross and trusting Jesus Christ, while discipleship means carrying the cross and following Jesus Christ.” There are two parables in this passage and Jesus is telling us something with each. We must love Jesus more than our own flesh and blood. The word hate here means ”love less.” Everything in your life you must love less than Jesus: your schedule; spouse; kids; jobs; girl/boyfriend; everything. Even our own lives so much so that we pick up our cross and follow Him. Most look at the two parables and say that the builder of the tower and the king going to war is us, but that is incorrect. They are both Jesus because He is the one who is “considering the cost” on whether we are the kind of material He can use
to build his church and fight the enemy. He cannot get the job done with half-hearted followers.
Consider the Cost.

We must learn to endure and enjoy. So how do you normally build endurance? Training: breaking something down in order to build it back the correct way so it can withstand any testing. Yep, you guessed it—surrender, sacrifice, and suffering. In our everyday lives, not just Sundays, but every day.
Okay, how in the world can you enjoy that kind of endurance? I think our brother Paul says it best in Philippians 3:12-21 “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to
what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Paul is saying all of this while he is locked up in prison (He wrote the book of Philippians in jail)! So just like Paul, when things come in our lives let’s not look at them as negative but as training opportunities to build endurance and joy. God, right now, is choosing to give us opportunity
after opportunity to build his church, fight the good fight, and daily live in the joy of His victory.
Consider the Cost.