The Cost Of A Christ-Centered Life

"The Cost of a Christ-Centered Life"

SONG TO INTRODUCE THE MESSAGE - "Yes, Lord, Yes"

Oh, how we MUST say yes!

-Like Isaac’s willingness as he gave his life on the altar...we too must be willing to say YES to what God asks?

Now, I know that most of us have already said yes to the Lord...being that we have received Christ as our Savior...

-But it even goes a step further doesn’t it?

-We need to not only say yes once for salvation...but we must continue to say yes again...and again...and again!!!

*Surrendering every portion of our lives...

*Giving it up on a daily basis...

*And yielding as the Lord requires it of us...

-I just simply know of no other way to live for Christ!

While many of us believe that Serving the Lord and...Being Saved...is a life wonderment...ease...and victory...we know that that is just not so...

Now, don’t misunderstand me...it IS a wonderful thing to serve the Lord...

And it really is the best decision you can EVER make...but also, it is a tough decision too (as we will discover)

-It is a decision that will require something of us...

So say YES!

Like the song says?say yes to His will and to His way, in our lives, and as He asks it of us.

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You know?serving the Lord does comes at a cost?

Now, don?t misunderstand this either?

-We can NEVER earn our buy our salvation?

-We have heard it before, but again, ?we are sinners saved by God?s grace?!

-We had nothing to offer God?because our own righteousness is as filthy rags.

-Therefore, we could do nothing BUT receive Jesus as Savior and Lord

HOWEVER?I do believe that in order for anyone to live a Life Centered on Christ, they WILL have to pay some kind of cost?

-Which isn?t a bad thing, because if something doesn?t cost us anything?there is no appreciation of it anyhow?

-But, those things that do cost us our money, time, and energy?those things we cherish and care for much more?

And fittingly, we must sacrifice things, at times, as we serve the Lord?

à What is comes down to is that?living a CHRIST-CENTERED life does come with a cost?and that cost is not cheap at all, as we will learn what it means, as we talk of the Cost of a Christ-Centered Life!

Stand & Read - 2 Samuel 24:18-25

So Gad came to David that day and said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." [19] And David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. [20] And Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. [21] Then Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be held back from the people." [22] And Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. [23] "Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the Lord your God accept you." [24] However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. [25] And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the Lord was moved by entreaty for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

PRAYER?

INTRODUCTION:

Looking at David?s life here within the setting of this text?we can see that there is a lot going between David & God?

1) David had sinned against God by taking up a Census?counting up the number of Military Aged, Young Men who lived within the land of Israel and Judah.

-David chose to do this, rather than simply trusting in the Lord?he counted heads to consider with his natural mind what may be best? (God had not let them down yet, and they just had a great victory!)

?Silly?, you may say, but turn to 1 Chron. 27:23 and it says there??But David did not count those twenty years of age and under, because the Lord had said He would multiply Israel as the stars of heaven.?

-David had decided to TRUST in the Lord?letting Him fight their battles!