Counting the Cost: Forsaking All to Follow Christ

Jesus says, you have got to be willing to give up everything to follow me. And yet I've been on the road for twenty something years, and I I'm amazed at how many people they sit back and they hear the gospel message and there's they wanna have this incognito Christianity. Save me the speech, man, about, oh, well, you know, this is between me and God. Friend, you don't see anybody in the New Testament like that. Oh, well, I don't wanna take a public stand for Christ. I don't want people to know what's between me and God because but what's between me and God is between me and God. You don't see that in the New Testament. [00:49:57] (41 seconds)  #NoIncognitoFaith

And according to what I read to you, they're in the process of building it and they run out of money. And by Jesus' own statement, people begin to mock this person and make fun of him. He started something that he could not and would not finish. I I don't have to explain to you of how many Christians have started that are no longer around. Jerry and I were talking about this just a while ago. Jerry and I have been in ministry long enough to see a lot of people come and go for a lot of different reasons. And Jesus said they become a mockery. People begin hey. Listen. Let me say something to you. Don't decide to follow Christ if you're gonna bail out. [00:44:36] (51 seconds)  #FinishYourFaith

Jesus says to this crowd of people, not only is there gonna be this cost of relationships, not only do I have to be a bigger priority than anybody or anything, but there's gonna be a sacrifice involved. Can I ask you a question this morning? What has following Jesus Christ cost you? What does following Christ cost you? My grandfather used to tell me in in a business sense when I was a young man, he would say, Jay, that would that which cost you nothing means nothing. It's easy to sing praises to the Lord and be excited about Jesus when everything's going your way. Hey, what price have you paid to follow the son of the living God? What sacrifice have you made in order to be a person of the kingdom? [00:36:23] (59 seconds)  #CountTheCost

And I am so sorry. Went over and I hugged her. And I said, what made you willing? I mean, there are other people in the crowd today, and they wouldn't stand for Christ for any reason in this world. And here, you know that you might get a beating when you get home, and you got out of your seat, and you came forward and gave your life to Christ. And this is what she said. You know, when I watched Jesus take that beating on stage, that that that actor betrayal, I figured this. If he could take a beating for me, the least I could do is to be willing to take a beating for him. I'll never forget it. [00:26:30] (42 seconds)  #CourageousFaith

Again, you would think that Jesus is gonna make it easy. You would think that Jesus is gonna turn to this crowd of people and and just welcome anybody from just any old way. Just sign on the dotted line and we're good to go. But that's not what he does. Jesus doesn't just ignore barriers, Jesus highlights them. Jesus lays out that if you're going to follow me it's going to be extremely difficult. Jesus in essence lays out of how extreme it's going to be to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. [00:27:23] (38 seconds)  #JesusSetsTheBar

And yet some of us are hesitant to do what I'm gonna ask many of you to do in just in a few minutes and make a public stand for Christ. Because we're a whole lot more concerned with other people think than we are with what God thinks. No. Jesus is weeding out the pretenders. Jesus is weeding out the fakes and phonies and the pseudos and the wannabes and saying, this is what it's gonna be like if you really wanna follow me. This is what's gonna be involved in it. This ain't no part time gig, man. This is your whole life. [00:53:00] (47 seconds)  #NoPartTimeFaith

On all throughout scripture, it makes it clear that if we truly follow Christ, if we get serious about following him, that not only is there going to be a price tag involved in that, but it's not meant to be easy. It's going to be difficult. There are some of you that are watching by TV, some of you in this very room, and you go through the motions, and the truth of it is you're a pretender, and you've never really sold out to Christ. and and this is Jesus' way. You see, Jesus doesn't want the posers. He doesn't want the fakes. Jesus is trying to weed those people out by saying, look what it's going to cost you. [00:39:36] (47 seconds)  #AuthenticFaithOnly

The guy I preached about him here at this church two or three years ago. The guy that was living in the cemetery and he was suicidal because that's what the forces of evil do. They try to drive you to kill yourself, and he was cutting himself with stones. You remember when he saw Jesus calm the winds and the waves, and he and he left down from the top of where he was at the cemetery, and he ran down and he had an encounter with Christ? Do you remember what happened after that? He went undercover. He didn't want anybody to know that he'd given his life to Jesus. No, man. According to scripture, he went all over Decapolis telling people about the son of God. I can keep going. You remember the woman at the well? Most of you know that story. [00:51:05] (40 seconds)  #FromBrokenToWitness

A shot testimony, people whispering at her every time she walks through the gates of the city and she had an encounter with Christ. Do you remember what she did? The bible says this woman that had slept with everybody in the city goes back in and starts telling everybody about Christ. You remember Matthew, the other tax collector, the other cheat, the guy that was sitting at the tax collector booth? And one day Jesus walks by and says, so follow me. That was it. There was no sermon. He just said, follow me. Do you remember this? And Matthew closes the doors, walks away from his retirement, walks away from his job, and follows Jesus. And you remember what he did that night? He invited all of his tax collector friends to come meet Christ. [00:52:13] (47 seconds)  #TellEveryoneAboutJesus

Jesus wasn't saying the way the heaven was giving up money. Jesus was zeroing in on the one thing that he wasn't willing to sacrifice in order to know Christ. And the scripture says that he went away sad. The very thing I'm hoping that many of you don't do today when this sermon is over. Five different times in the gospel Jesus tells people to take up their cross. Let me throw a few verses at you just in case to prevent you from getting disillusioned. You see, some people, they they they because of the preaching, not not at this church, but some churches because this watered down preaching, they think that if I follow Jesus, I mean, man, everything's gonna be good and go my way. And then when it doesn't, they get disillusioned. [00:38:12] (52 seconds)  #TakeUpYourCross

So, yes, it gets difficult, but Jesus is he he's talking to this Coachella crowd, and he's saying, you gotta understand what's involved in this. This isn't jump on, jump off. This isn't go to a a meeting Sunday morning once a week. No, man. It's like that Bandito told me, this affects every area of my life. And for many of us, the people that know us best don't even know that we're a believer. Something's wrong with that. Then the last thing we see here, and I highlighted this when I read it. After laying all this out, Jesus gets down to the verse verse 33. Man, this is not popular. This is not popular. Many of us don't wanna hear this. [00:48:21] (59 seconds)  #FaithImpactsEverything

Some of us, you know what? We would give anything this morning just to have peace with God. Just to have peace with God. And this deluded Americanized presentation of the gospel that many of us have decided to follow is not a accurate representation of what Jesus is calling people to. This is reckless all out abandonment. Now listen. I get it. I get it. Some of you right now are in a place where you're saying, Jay, man, I've been thinking about jumping off the ship. Things have been really difficult because I I follow Jesus. I get it. Many of you follow us on social media. You you've you've read the things that I've written when I watch my daughter in Baylor or UT Southwestern screaming in pain hour after hour after hour. You've read what I've said about I've thought about quitting. By the grace of God, I'm still standing. [00:47:07] (70 seconds)  #RadicalFaithRequired

He said, well, I'm not a Christian, but I didn't care. That was fine with me. But he said, it became a problem after that because not only did she get saved, but she won't sleep with me anymore. Ain't that funny? One commitment to Christ that one night and it changed everything. Jesus says, if you're going to follow me, it's gonna cost you relationships. The next thing that he makes clear here is that there's going to be a sacrifice. [00:35:30] (27 seconds)  #FaithCostsRelationships

You see all through scripture, and I've referenced several other places other than what we just read where Jesus makes it crystal clear, contrary to what many of us believe, that following Jesus is just coming to church on Sunday or or or walking an aisle or getting christened or getting baptized. No. No. No. No. Jesus was making it clear that following him is a different type of commitment than many of us have ever really committed to. [00:30:25] (30 seconds)  #MoreThanSunday

to me, this is so compelling. This goes against the grain of what most teachers would do. We're about to read where Jesus turns to it's the essence of a modern day Coachella. Multitudes of people are following Christ. And as these people are following Christ, you would expect that Jesus would kinda lay out a plan to make it simple and easy to come join the club. But rather than doing that, Jesus does something that quite frankly many churches in today's society don't do. They don't lay out what it really means to be a follower of Christ. They don't really lay out the price tag that's connected to it. [00:19:27] (47 seconds)  #TruthAboutDiscipleship

And I walked out and I got in my vehicle, and I don't know why it triggered this thought. But I think about all the people I spent my life going around preaching the gospel to, and I truly believe this. Can't prove it. It's just what I believe. I believe that one day there are people that say no to Christ, that say no to the call, that one day will wake up in a lost eternity. They may have been a good Baptist. They may have been baptized or christened, or they may have gave money to the poor. They may have done good things, but they're going to remember that one opportunity they had to say yes to Christ, and they said no. All other memories no longer matter, but that one wasted opportunity to know Jesus Christ. [00:56:34] (70 seconds)  #OneChanceForEternity

This was a weird one. We got a phone call in our office. A lady that's been with me seventeen years said, Jay, there's a guy on the phone and he's super hostile. He is furious and he wants to speak to you. I picked up the phone. I said, hey. This is Jay. What's up? He said, are you the guy this was out of state. Are you the guy that was preaching last week in such and such town? I'm like, yeah. That that that's me. He said, you and I got problems. I said, well, what's going on, man? He said, I've been dating the same woman for about six years. And she came home that night, and she said she went to that meeting, and she gave her life to Christ. I said, well, that's great news. [00:34:51] (40 seconds)  #ConversionChangesEverything

And you could tell looking at these teenagers that didn't kinda fit the normal crowd of what you would expect at the Hot Hearts Conference. And so I said, well, hey. You know, what's the story with you guys? Did did any of you guys go public a while ago and make a decision to receive Christ? And this one girl sitting down, she says, you know, I really wanted to. But there there were several problems with me doing that. Number one, I lied to my parents. I'm like, well, why did you lie to your parents? They they they wouldn't care that you came to a a Christian conference. And she's like, oh, yeah. They would. My dad's an alcoholic, and my dad would never sign off on me coming here. But I lied to him, and I came with my friends. [00:24:08] (49 seconds)  #RiskToFollow

But I lied to him, and I came with my friends. And and I wanted to to to go forward, but you see, my dad beats me. And and and I was thinking, if my dad finds out I'm here and plus they're running cameras and if somebody sees that I went forward and my dad finds out, my dad's gonna beat me. Now, let me be honest with you for a minute. I'm not saying that I know teenagers better than anybody else, but I've spent my life speaking to college students and high school students, and and I feel like I can read people pretty well. And when she's telling this story, my immediate thought, I'm ashamed to admit this is total skepticism. I mean, come on, man. Your dad's gonna beat you for going to a Christian conference. I mean, I've met some bad parents, but I mean, get real. [00:24:53] (47 seconds)  #HiddenPersecution

And I'm always sensitive to rest homes, you know, because I know a lot of those people, nobody cares, and their family doesn't come see them, and that's why they're all sitting looking at the door hoping somebody will care enough to come see them. And I walked down the hallway to the administrator's office and I said, there's a lady in the hallway. Somebody needs to go talk to her. So she gets out of her seat and she walks out and she looks down the hallway and she said, is it the lady in the the green sweater? And I said, yes, ma'am. That's her. And she says, oh, Jay. Everything's fine. I'm like, no. No. Everything is not fine. That lady is devastated. She is broken. She said, yeah, you don't understand. She has Alzheimer's disease. [00:54:44] (42 seconds)  #CareForTheForgotten