What Will It Cost You?
Scripture: Luke 14:27, 28, 33; Romans 6:1-11
Introduction
The title of my message this morning is “What Will It Cost You?” This Thursday, should we live to see it, will begin a new year and 2008 will close. We witnessed things in 2008 that we did not see in previous years and may not see in future years. Every New Year brings with it the hope of promise, the expectation of something great happening and the awareness that things will happen that we will be totally unprepared for. Although we hope for change, wish for the better and believe that mistakes made the previous year would not be repeated, we still recognize that we will carry forward from one year to the next the same habits, tendencies, hurts and pains that we had in the current year. Some of these things we carry forward are harmful to us while other things benefit us. This morning I want us to consider those things that are harmful to us; those things that we hold on to so tightly because we cannot imagine ourselves living without them or being different from whom we are today. There are people in extremely bad relationships because they cannot see their life without that person in it. This morning, I want you to imagine what could be and then ask yourself “What Will It Cost You?” to make what could be a reality.
With every major step that we take in our life, it costs something. In order to learn to walk, you must fall down repeatedly. The cost of learning to walk is the pain of falling down, yet when you do learn to walk it takes you places you could never have gone before. When you learn to ride a bicycle, it costs you something. To learn to ride you must do what? You must again learn to fall down. Falling down is the cost of learning to ride a bicycle, yet when you do learn, you can get to all those wonderful places that walking could take you faster. Falling in love costs you something. The cost of falling in love is the hurt and pain associated with all relationship especially when they do not work out. But, when the relationship lasts, you can spend years in a wonderful, fulfilling relationship (complete with new hurts and pains) that you read about in books. Buying a house costs you something. The cost of buying a house is that you’ll be slave to the lender (according to Proverbs 22:7) until your house is paid off. But there are benefits associated with owning a house. You are out of the elements on a very cold night and it can be one of your most valuable investments. It costs something to have friends. The cost of having friend is that one day they will hurt you, yet through the hurt you still have someone who will stand with you during tough times.
Everything that we do has a cost and although sometimes the cost may pain us, there can also be benefits to the things that we do. I want us to consider this morning what the cost is of changing ourselves so that we do not take into 2009 those same things that held us captive in 2008. What will it cost us to make the change that we have been dreading doing? As you consider the cost of making a change, also consider the benefits. You see, there is a cost/benefit ratio that plays into a lot of our decisions. If the cost outweighs the benefit, then often we will not make the purchase. However, if the benefit we receive far outweighs the cost, then you can bet the purchase will be made.
I. Changing Directions
Jesus said “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it….So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” (Luke 14:27, 28, 33)
Jesus said that it costs something to be His disciple. The cost is the total surrender of us to Him. In the Scripture above, Jesus used an example to make this point. He said that if a person was to build a tower, before they got started, they would sit down and calculate the cost. After the cost was known, then the person would decide if they should move forward with their plans. If you read further, He said that the person who does not take this approach, would start building and would find themselves without enough money to finish the job and thus be ridiculed by those around him. Jesus then said that to be His disciples we must give up all of our possessions. So let me give you something to think about.
Whenever we read about giving up everything to Jesus, we often think about finances because that is what we hear about often. But this also includes a lot of other things. Let me give you a short list of things we possess that we should give up to Jesus: self-righteousness; hatred; jealousy; hurt feelings; bitterness; arrogance; lust; pride; gluttony; lying, etc, etc, etc. You see, some of the things we hold so dear are those things that define who we are but at the same time are things we should let go of so that we can becomes who we should be. I do not stand before you as a perfect specimen of a man, actually far from it. But what I have come to realize is that the more flaws I find within myself; the more qualities I discover that are unlike Christ; and the more dirt, trash and stink that I uncover that has been buried within me for many years that I actually turn over to Christ, my life gets better. Yes, it costs me something every time that I make a positive change in my life, even when I am kicking and screaming about making the change, but the benefits have always outweighed the costs in every situation. We have a decision to make. We can enter into 2009 with all of the “stuff” we brought into and pickup during 2008 or we can remove the bad and take the good into 2009. The choice is ours and we have so little time in which to make the decision. Turn with me to Romans the sixth chapter as I want to show you something about the new life that exists within you. Many people talk about being religious or believing in God but not the way “we” do. I am not preaching religion, I am preaching about relationship – God wants a relationship with you through His Son.
II. We Can Make The Change
The basis of the relationship that God wants with us through Christ centers on the price that Jesus paid so that we could be free of a life filled with sin. Jesus has made us free, but we are still holding on to our old selves because we do not understand what has been made available to us and it is often easier to stay with what I know versus becoming something different. The sixth chapter of Romans opens with a question that Paul is asking. He asks should we continue to sin so that we can claim grace. This simple question characterizes the life of a lot of Christians. You see, there are so many of us who do not make the necessary changes that we need to because of grace. “God loves me for who I am and He gives me grace during my failures” is what many Christians confess when they refuse to turn over to Christ those things that they need to get rid of but feels too good to give up. Imagine Christ standing in front of you with His hand out waiting to take from you all those things that you no longer need. The appropriate response would be to just hand them over. But you know what we do? We try to rationalize why we should be able to retain our “slight” imperfections since they make us who we are. I mean, where would I be if I could not tell a good lie to get out of trouble every now and then? Who would I become if I always did what Jesus would do? What would people think of me if I truly began to reach for the sky and maximize my potential as a Christian? I do not know, but it must be better than what we have right now.
In the sixth chapter of the book of Romans Paul states that our old self was crucified with Christ and now we have the opportunity to be new. We no longer have to be slaves to those things that keep holding us down. I do not care if it originated within our family tree or from all of the negative experiences that we have had in this life – we can choose to make a change. We do not have to go into 2009 carrying the same baggage that defined our 2008. We do not have to go into 2009 carrying the same excuses that defined our 2008. We can make a change.
Do you know what it means to die? Everything changes when we die. The body that houses our spirits stops functioning and when that happens our spirits returns to God yet our body cease to exist. Everything that I could do in this body stops when my hearts beats its last beat. I will no longer be able to talk, walk, sing, shout, preach or anything else. When this body dies, the things that I did with this body dies also – it is a package deal. When you read what God inspired Paul to write to the Romans, you find that this same thing happens with our old sinful nature when we accepted Christ. The old nature was supposed to die, to stop existing and yet we continue to resurrect it because we love it so much. This is the one resurrection that most Christians know they have the power to perform – we continually raise our sinful nature from the dead. Romans 6:5-7 says “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
This is what we all need to understand. If we profess that we have been united with Christ, then through that union we have died and was resurrected with Him. That old self, that old “body”, the one that loved to sin; love to do what it wanted to do; love to have its own way died so that sin could no longer rule within it. When our old self died, the sin died with it and when we were resurrected, spiritually we received a new body, one that was actually capable of resisting sin and our old nature. You see, when we accepted Christ, we became part of His death (getting rid of the sin nature) and we became part of His resurrection (having a non-sin nature). If we have been born again with a non-sin nature, then those sins that we commit, we commit by choice and therefore we cannot use grace as a means to continue to sin. Yes grace abounds towards us, but God is looking for us to begin making different choices. When Christ was raised from the dead, death had no more power over Him. When we were raised with Christ, sin had no more power over us. We can walk away from it; walk away from the sin; walk away from our old selves but it will cost us something.
Conclusion
What will it cost you? Some of you are thinking that your lives are pretty good; that you are not out living in the world and doing the things that others are doing. Some of you are thinking that there are some things you need to be rid of but they are small things that are not really hindering you. And then some of you are thinking that you definitely have some things you do not want to take into 2009. Friends, I am in the last group. I have some things I do not want to take into 2009. I do not want to take Sister Louise into 2009. I do not want to take Uncle Bob into 2009. I do not want to take Cousin Jane into 2009. And I definitely do not want to take little Mikey into 2009. It is not only the big stuff that trips us up and pulls us away from God, it is those small things that we justify that separates us. The justified unforgiveness; the justified anger, hurt and bitterness; the justified lies and thefts; the justified cheating; the justified “I have grace so nothing I do is held against me attitude.” These are the things that God sees while we are looking for those “living in the world.”
I made mistakes this year that I do not want to make in 2009. I responded in ways this year that I do not want to take into 2009. I allowed myself to think one way this year and I do not want to take that thinking into 2009. I have allowed myself to be fearful this year and I do not want to take that into 2009. I have lost sleep over some things this year and I do not want to take that into 2009. I have said some things this year that I should not have said and I do not want to take that into 2009. These are just a few example of what I do not want to take into 2009. Your list may be longer or shorter, but you need to think about it. What will it cost you to walk away from things that have held you captive your whole life. What will it cost you to walk away from those attitudes that have been detrimental to you; the fears that have plagued you and the self-doubt that has defined you? Whatever the cost, are you willing to make it so that your future will not be defined by your past? Are you willing to consider the cost/benefit ratio before you decide? I hope so. May God bless and keep you in 2009.
