Finding God’s will; The Weigh Station signpost (Decision Time)
Illustration of the trips from Columbia and always concerned about the weigh station. Would I be able to go on or would I pull to the side. The weigh station sign reminds me to “Count the cost”
In Finding and walking in the will of God have you found there is a cost? It may cost you your job, popularity, cause you personal grief. It may mean having to say no to someone that you love, or it may put you under a tremendous emotional strain. It may mean giving up a dream you’ve had a long time. It may mean confrontation when you hate confrontation. It may mean letting go or grabbing on. The bottom line is when God’s will comes into conflict with our will we will find ourselves at the weigh station, counting the cost.
Biblical History: Abraham; not only leave, but go to a land I will show you; put your son on the alter; he dealt with counting a lot of cost in his adventure of faith;
Moses: had to leave a comfort zone of forty years to go back to a place he knew was going to hard; all of the Biblical examples I could give would have had to arrive at a ‘weigh station’ on their journey of faith; Count the cost; It was not easy for them and sometimes walking in the will of God is not easy for us.
Let’s look at one scripture this morning: Luke 14:25-34; the context is about discipleship but the same principle applies, he is asking them to count the cost; by the way this is discipleship 103; they have already been acquainted with 101, and 102 earlier, now there are multitudes that are following Him and He decides it is time to share with them some more things about discipleship. There is a lot of truth here about counting the cost, I want to share three with you this morning; when counting the cost, you and I will arrive at a decision to either Follow Him or forsake Him. It is as simple as that; And we need to take the time to be honest and count the cost of Following Him or Forsaking Him.
1. As Jesus emphasizes here: THE STAKES ARE HIGH; LOOK AT THE VERSES;
a. The cost of our confession of Faith; v25-26; These people were following and in some state had made a confession of Faith in Him; trusting Him, depending on Him not just for salvation but for life; what did he say he came to do? Luke 4:18-21; John 1:4; 9-16; Yes he was and is more than salvation from hell, but they would be saved by His life; He offered them something they had never known before and no generation before them had ever experienced what He came to freely give them; Grace, freedom form the tyranny of the law, a personal relationship with the Father; And when they made a confession of faith in Him they were saying I am trusting you with every aspect of my life; There was a huge cost to that confession for each one of them. It was not something they should or would take lightly, many paid for this confession with their lives and the lives of their children; The stakes are very high when we decide to follow Him, our confession of Faith in Him and not ourselves is a matter that may be costly; it means we trust Him with our lives, our past, present, and future. It is similar to the marriage relationship, we leave and cleave; someone wrote; “ Salvation is a free gift, but confession of our faith in Him, depending on Him will cost us. Sometimes it may cost us our careers, friends, family, perhaps even life itself; Or what we have been holding on to for life; We have Follow Him (do His will) on one side of the scales and everything else on the other; Does He outweigh all of the other things? The stakes are high when you start talking about “life”. Another reason the stakes are high that Jesus brought out is:
b. The cost of the CROSS; v27; He uses metaphors they are completely familiar with; too often they had seen this scene; they were well aware of what was going down when they saw someone carrying a cross; They were going out to die; Would some bail out here? Absolutely, when they hear anything about dying it does not do much for gathering crowds. Here pick up this cross and go out and die. Not very appealing. But for you and I our death has already been arranged and completed; Romans 6; ours is to accept it; I have been: I now can walk in the newness of life; in full relationship with Him; But we all have such an aversion to death it is a very hard truth to embrace; Our flesh has been crucified it no longer has the power to rule over us, but we have to make the choice to let sin reign or life reign; What the cross really does is set us free so we can walk in His will. The flesh profits nothing. It may feel good for a while but in the end waking in the Spirit will be better. For some of us to accept our death, the death to our flesh; death to a dream; to a comfort zone; to a relationship; to unresolved anger; to hurting back; to a mission of trying to fix our families; to control; to going through with a divorce; to going through with a marriage; You see there is a cost to the cross; What will it be? Put all of these things on one side of the scale your self-interest, and Put Christ on the other side and His surrender and interest in you and see which one outweighs the other! And then make your decision; the STAKES ARE HIGH: but also Jesus points out:
2. The question is SERIOUS BECAUSE OF THE OUTCOME; Will you take your confession serious and will you take up your cross, your death? Why is it so serious? Because of the outcome.
a. V28; the cost of the tower; There is a tower to be built, some plan that will be carried out through you; It will take more than you have, you will need Him; you don’t have enough to finish it. You can’t live it; you but you will need resources from Him. I come to him in faith saying I don’t have enough but you do, and I want you to build the tower and finish what you started in me and through me. Jesus came to build a tower, as it was His church, He sat down with the Father to see if they had enough to complete the work. He had enough then and He has enough now. Will you weigh your resources against His? No you don’t have enough to make life work no matter what you circumstance, but He does. The outcome is serious.
b. The cost of the battle; v29-32; the battle is about defeat or victory; you are on the human scale outnumbered but that is not the issue here, it is strength against strength, and I am here to tell you don’t bail out on God’s will because of a lack of strength, He will supply all of your needs; you don’t have to go and compromise with the enemy by not following His will, but trust His strength, his armor. If you count the cost of the battle put Him on one side of the scale and everyone else on the other and see who outweighs the other. The outcome of your counting the cost, weighing it all out will mean the difference between victory and defeat. And some victories you will not appreciate until later.
We are counting the cost, why because the stakes are high, and it is a serious thing to follow the will of God, it will be the difference between finishing and not finishing, defeat and victory; but there is one more reason He wants them to count the cost;
3. SALT IS GOOD; v33-35; That is exactly what He said; put salt in context; arrest corruption, and flavors life; it was necessary in that culture as important as water as far as natural resources go. Isn’t it marvelous how God just makes things naturally to take care of us? He has made us to be salt as His children; you are the salt of the earth that is a truth that should encourage you; when we follow God in His will, we will be out of the saltshaker. Salt was so important to the maintain of life; do you realize how we can be an arrester to decay in a relationship, salt is good, how we can be used to allow God to work through us to manifest His son: Salt is good, death works in us but life in you; Salt is good. We have seen three reasons to weigh the cost, put everything on one side and Jesus on the other and see how the scales tip. The stakes are high, the question is serious, and Salt is good; when you come to decision time to follow or forsake, remember this signpost, run your “truck across the scales”!
