Today we’re back to our message series Change Your World. In this series, we’re looking at passages throughout the New Testament that give us examples and instruction on how to influence and impact our world. When we look around us, when we read the news or look at various media, the problems of our world and it’s lack of godliness is evident. We all long for a better world. Our temptation as believers is to criticize, grumble and complain about the problems in the world. Is it right for us as believers to complain or worry about the sinfulness of the world? What do you think?
I don’t think it is. God’s Word tells us not to complain or worry about anything. Not only does it not accomplish anything, it turns off the very people that God wants us to reach. Now, this is not to say that we must never point out the sin of the world, but if we do, it always must be in the context of the solution to the problem, which is Jesus. The answer to every problem of our world is Jesus. The answer for the problems of any particular person is in that person becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. So, how do we change our world? By making disciples of Jesus of the people of the world.
Today I want to talk about “The Cost of Following Jesus.” Sometimes believers and churches, so want people to become followers of Jesus that they sugarcoat what it means to become a Christian. Come to Jesus and all your problems will be gone. Not exactly. If you come to Jesus, your problems with sin will diminish, but you’ll have some new problems of persecution. Although we too often make it seem very easy to become a believer, Jesus often talked about the difficulty of being a follower of His.
Luke 6:22 (NIV) Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Still want to be a follower of Jesus?
Luke 9:62 (NIV) Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
You mean I have to leave things behind?
Luke 12:5 (NIV) But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
I have to fear God?
Luke 13:24 (NIV) “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
That doesn’t sound very easy to me.
Today, we’re going to look at another teaching of Jesus in Luke 14, where He instructs us that to be a disciple of Jesus takes everything we have. Jesus is going to challenge each one of us today to give all that we have to Him. He wants people to count the cost of following Him before they start to call Him Lord or themselves Christians. So, we as believers must challenge others to count the cost as well.