A modern day Rip Van Winkle fell asleep and woke up in the year 2076. Immediately, he rushed to a phone booth to call his brokerage firm. They found his portfolio and reported, “Your Walmart stock is worth $50 million. Your AT&T stock is worth $62 million. And your Microsoft stock is worth $120 million.” The man was hysterical. “I’m rich! I’m rich! About that time the operator interrupted him and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but your three minutes are up. Please deposit $1 million for the next three minutes.”
Most people today are interested in the cost of living. People want to know how they can get the most for their money.
They have limited resources, unlimited desires, and they want to know what the risk is versus the anticipated return. In finance the idea of risk versus return is called risk analysis. While risk analysis is a contemporary term, it is not a new concept. In Jesus day, people were asking the same questions people are asking today.
What does it cost? Is it worth it?
Jesus met a young man one day who wanted to know the cost of eternal life. Look with me at the gospel of Luke 18:18-30.
This young man was, in all probability, the epitome of what a young Jewish man was supposed to be.He was the guy that you hope your daughter brings home. He was young and wealthy. It was considered a sign of God’s good favor to be a man of wealth. He was also diligent in his pursuits. When Jesus asked him concerning the law he replied that he had been faithful in every aspect of the law since his childhood. We don’t know why the young man pursued Jesus, but we get some idea of his earnestness from Mark’s account. Mark says that as Jesus was setting out on a journey this young man ran after, came and knelt at Jesus feet.
He must have believed that the answer to what he sought was available from Jesus, so he asked “What shall I do to inherit eternal life.?”
Today he would have asked, “What will it cost me to follow You?” Jesus’ answer demolished this young man. He replied, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me.”
Now that ought to raise a serious dilemma in your mind. Was Jesus saying that to follow Him we must give away all of our possessions? Must we dispossess ourselves of everything we have worked for in order to follow Christ? I don’t believe that this is what He was saying. But, I do believe that Jesus saying, “Following Me will cost the dearest thing you possess” (v. 23).
When I was in my early thirties, I was involved in a Bible study and discipleship program using material that was produced by the Navigators. If you were in the service, you may have encountered something like that. In this program we were required to read our Bibles every day and underline or highlight the verses that seemed particularly significant. When we concluded our daily Bible reading we would select one or two verses that seemed most significant and we recorded our thoughts concerning what this verse seemed to be saying to us. I still use this process today. It is astounding when you read God’s Word and look for those verses that God seems to direct your way, how often a pattern develops and you can understand God’s will. Too many people today disregard God’s Word and therefore they are not in tune with God’s will.
By consistently recording verses that seemed to apply to me life, I became convinced that God was speaking to my life through His Word. It was an incredible revelation to me that God would stoop ... would condescend ... to speak so personally and so consistently and so profoundly to me. For the first time in my life, I was having an intimate relationship with God. It was an absolutely amazing discovery that God had something to say to me.
During this time, I seemed to be continually recording verses about witnessing, being a minister, a priest, preaching the gospel.
This caused me to be concerned that I might be manipulating what I was recording. Eventually, became convinced that God was calling me to a vocational ministry. Imagine my concern. Here I was, some thirty-three years old, with a career, a family, a home, and all the things associated with early middle age.
Yet, God seemed to be leading me to take a drastic turn in my life. I sought counsel from pastors and other ministers to try to determine if what was happening was valid. They encouraged me to continue with reading and recording God’s Word to me. One day the information flow came to a screeching halt. As I was reading, I came to a verse that stopped me dead in my tracks and I literally felt as if someone had slammed a door on me.
We had always tried to contribute to the church and at times had even given a tithe. But at the present time, we were not tithing.
Now before you get nervous, or start believing that I am going back on my word that last Sunday was my annual stewardship sermon and here I am talking about tithing ... let me assure you this is not about tithing. Tithing is just the vehicle God used to get my attention.
At any rate, we had developed a plan of systematic giving that including reaching a tithe, and beyond, over a period of years.
The problem arose when reading the book of Matthew. Matthew 6:24 stopped me as if I were “Wile E. Coyote” and I was following fast on the heels of the “Roadrunner” and hit the wall after he made it through. Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to one and despise the other.” But the last line of that verse is the one that body slammed me to the wall, “You cannot serve God and money.”
I felt as if a door had been slammed shut and locked ... as if my oxygen had been shut off ... as if I had been walking a jungle trail and came upon a hungry lion. One of us would not survive.
Immediately, I called my pastor and arranged to meet him for lunch. I told him that I believed God was through talking to me until the question of tithing was settled, once and for all. He agreed that was probably true. I went home feeling as if I had lost my best friend. I felt what the young man in Luke 18 must have felt. But there was a difference. We were not wealthy. There was no way we could afford to tithe and meet our current bills. The problem was that I knew that God was not going to continue to talk to me until I settled the question of tithing.
I knew that God was through communicating with me, showing me His will for my life, until I chose to be obedient to His Word.
I knew that God owned the cattle on a thousand hills. I knew that He didn’t need my money. But it was plain that God wanted me to worship Him more than anything I had acquired. The young man and I shared a common problem. We worshiped our lifestyle more than we worshiped God. God said, “One thing you still lack...” We had both failed to keep the first commandment,
‘You shall have no other gods before Me’”(Exodus 20:3).
You see ... It wasn’t a question of money. Tithing is never a question of money. It was, and always will be a question of obedience. Just for the record, you need to know that we started tithing from that point and have never stopped.
Following Christ May Cost The Dearest Thing You Possess
Following Christ may cost the dearest ... most precious... thing you possess. Examining our ambitions and attitude toward our money and possessions is a highly personal thing. Jesus Christ does not deal with everyone the same way. But He does deal with everyone specifically, at least if you are striving to please Him and be obedient to His Word.
My laying down absolutes won’t help. I can’t tell you how much money or possessions is enough. I can’t say it’s wrong to own nice things. I own... or temporarily and exclusively use ... some nice things. Even if I could somehow give you God’s absolute for your life, I wouldn’t because I refuse to spare you the intrinsic struggle of allowing the Holy Spirit to probe and speak to you personally. But as one who has tried to hear a little of God’s voice and has the bruises to show for it, let me suggest some areas where His voice may be heard.
What do you daydream about? Whatever has truly captured your heart, whatever you truly worship, is the stuff of your daydreams and fantasies. In idle moments, your mind will run to where your treasure is. If you are a Christian, loving the Lord with all your heart and seeking first His kingdom, there will be a God-given vision that will fuel the desire to glorify Him in some way that surfaces in your daydreams. But, if you spend substantial time with your thought life focused on moving up the ladder at work or on various material prizes, you need to pause and consider Jesus’ statement that no one can serve two master, no one can serve both the god of money and the God of heaven.
Following Christ may cost the dearest thing you possess.
The second question that must be answered is: “Is it worth is?”
That is basically what Peter was wanting to know when he said, “‘Behold, we have left our own homes, and followed You.’”
Peter was saying, “We have not only given up the thing most precious to us, we have given up everything, to follow You! Is it worth it?” Jesus answers very plainly, “‘Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life’” (vv. 30-31).
Is Jesus saying what we hear so often on TV today? “If you give $100 now, you will receive $1,000 in return.” How can I put this? No!!!!!
Following Christ Provides Returns That Are Priceless
Jesus is saying, “Following Me provides rewards that are priceless” (vv. 30-31).
What was true in Jesus day still holds true today. Sacrifice happens to be one of man’s noblest impulses. There is no greater measure of what someone truly worships than noting what inspires him to sacrifice. What has following Christ cost us?
What has following Christ cost you?
The Apostle Paul wrote that it had cost him immeasurably. Yet, in looking back, he said, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).
The King James translation uses the word dung in place of rubbish. That’s a strong word to make an important point about sacrifice in our lives. J. I. Packer comments about this idea in his book, Knowing God. “When Paul says he counts the things to he lost “dung,” he means not merely that he does not think of them as having any value, but also that he does not live with them constantly in his mind; what normal personal spends his time nostalgically dreaming of manure?”
We have sacrificed for job, family, house, college education, new cars, new boats, summer vacation, Christmas, VCR’s, microwaves, cell phones, CD players, PC’s, and on and on ad nauseam. These things certainly are not evil in and of themselves. But, where have we sacrificed for the kingdom of God alone without regret or nostalgia? To think we can be followers of Christ and know nothing of this sacrifice is to be the follower of a wimp and a fraud, not of the biblical Jesus.
Sacrifice is often the litmus test of worship. What is the Holy Spirit saying to us here?
Let’s get practical for just a moment. This will only take five prayerful minutes. Sit down with your check book.
Then ask yourself one question. Is God pleased with how you spend your money? If the inclination of your heart is to please God, He can bring a turnaround in a very short period of time.
Some time ago I read about a young couple, Dave and Jan Davies. They were a typical couple.
He ran a store, and they had just built a nice brick home in the suburbs. They attended church. When Dave first heard his pastor’s plea for volunteers to go to Brazil, he thought, “This is stupid. Why don’t we just mail these people some money, build them a church, buy them a piano or something?” But, something urged him onward. And so, without Jan, Dave went to Brazil.
On the plane ride down, he overheard two men talking. One asked if anyone from Dave’s church had come. The other replied that there was one fellow (referring to Dave) but that he couldn’t do anything! Dave was appalled, but that’s just how he felt ...
he’d never taught or even witnessed.
In Brazil, Dave was unprepared for the poverty he saw. He was also unprepared for something else. Entering a small village, he found the people anticipating a great evangelistic meeting. When he asked who was preaching, Dave discovered he was!
For two weeks he preached and witnessed. The man who returned to Kansas wasn’t the same. Just the sight of his new home stunned him compared to the what he had seen in Brazil. Dave promptly told Jan that they would sell it and move into something smaller if they couldn’t find some way to use it for the kingdom of God. Jan remembers being quick to find a way to use it!
Then God began to work on Jan. This missions thing was not just a passing fancy for her husband. During Dave’s second trip overseas, Jan did some soul searching with her Bible. She sat cross-legged on the living room floor and thought of herself as a starving little girl with matted hair and ragged clothes. God said to her, “Jan, this is how you are spiritually. You’re starving.
You’re fat, materially, but you’re starving spiritually.”
God went on to gently show here that she was a spiritual adulteress running after all kinds of “things” instead of Him. Later on she went to Bombay, India, where Christ broke her heart.
How did things change in their lives?
Money that would have bought a satellite dish paid for plane tickets so that others could go overseas. Dave liked late-model high powered cars, but now he drives only second hand cars so that the extra money can go to missions. What was to have been a luxurious family room became a suite where strangers stay for free. Foreign students have used it. The Davies opened it to a Brazilian student Dave met on his visit. She will attended college right there in Topeka. Dave worked long and hard to obtain her visa. Within nine months they housed eleven foster children, abused and neglected, referred from an emergency care program.
One thing I often hear from people who are struggling with being obedient to God’s Word is, “Well, I just couldn’t ask my family to make that kind of sacrifice.” Listen, following Christ will affect your whole family. All who will follow Christ must pay the price of becoming disengaged from their driving ambitions and materialism. Jesus Christ is not an advocate of the American dream.
Actually, He is often the enemy.
But, following Christ provides rewards that are priceless.
In England, many years ago, a man with not much more than a grade school education went to prestigious Cambridge University.
He came with the express purpose of holding evangelistic meetings. Many students came to those meetings with the explicit purpose of ridiculing him, but he soon caught their attention. Many came to know Christ that evening, including seven of the most brilliant, well-known students at the university. These seven, all from wealthy backgrounds, had the potential to excel in any secular profession. But Christ and His kingdom had seized their hearts. They left everything behind that night as they responded to Dwight L. Moody’s invitation.
These men came to be known as the Cambridge Seven. They all went to China where they wrote a great chapter in the history of God’s kingdom. In their day, they were universally hailed as heroes.
Today, I am not sure the church would respond in the same way. When God claims our young people we say we’re glad. But, our conversation afterward says otherwise. “He could have been such a good doctor or businessman.” “She won’t make much money doing that.” Our talk betrays our hearts. If we could interview the Cambridge Seven today, I believe they would universally tell us that following Christ provides rewards that far exceed the value of any sacrifice. I know this to be true in my own life. But not everyone will be able to say that.
A rich young ruler once came to Jesus and went away sorrowing. Those of us who have tasted of His goodness cannot let the same happen to us. We must break free from the bondage of false gods to gain our true freedom by following Christ.
Some of you came here today thinking, “I may not have much, but what I do have is mine.” You will leave here knowing you don’t own your possessions, your possessions own you. If that is your problem, listen to what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 30:19-23: O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, "Be gone!" Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture.
Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unot you” (Matthew 6:33).
Some of you have come here today and you have decided that you want to claim God’s will for your life. Your questions are, “How much will it cost? Is it worth it?” My answer to you is, “Following Christ may cost you the dearest thing you possess, but when you follow Christ, all of those things will become items that you consider vile, if they come between you and God.
Will you make a commitment today? Will you surrender your life, your will, your possessions, your all to the Lord. Do it today, and begin to live, for the first time in your life.
