Are You Aware of the Cost?

Jesus made a pretty hard statement in the book of Matthew 8:22... "Follow Me and let the dead bury their dead".  Do you think Jesus was serious about our commitment to Him?  Sounds to me like Jesus don't play!  So let me ask you this... why do we?

Ask the congregation corporately if they want to follow, learn and receive all Christ has to give and the overwhelming response will be... "Amen", "Yes sir preacher", "You can count on me"!  Can I?  Can Jesus?

When one disciple told Jesus that he would follow Him anywhere and everywhere Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  In other words... this ain't no easy road!  He might have asked the disciple, "Do you know what you're signing up for"? I believe the honest answer to that question, for the better part of the body of Christ, would have to be, "No, I don't have a clue what the demands of discipleship are".

On another occasion a gentleman said that he just wanted to go home and bid farewell to his family before he committed to discipleship and to that Jesus replied... "No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the Kingdom"!

One might read the replies of Christ and consider Him uncompassionate but nothing could be further from the truth.  Jesus knew the heart of each individual.  As a pastor, I can't see the intent of the heart but I've been around the block a couple of times.  When that one told Jesus that he would like to go home and bury his father first, Jesus knew that as he walked off and faded into the distance... that's the last he'd ever see of him.  So often folks use excuses as to why the aren't able to serve and generally they are excuses that one would find hard to argue with.  The bottom line is, there is no valid excuse for not committing 100% to Christ!  If there's one thing I've learned it's this; people WILL do exactly what they WANT to do!  Every hard luck excuse for not enlisting in service for the King is nothing but a cover up for the fact that you don't want to!

Your salvation was bought at the expense of Christ Himself... along with that purchase came the requirement of service.  If you're too busy to serve the Lord you're just too plain busy.