I think the reason that Jesus gives us that one of the examples is that he knows how much possessions have our heart. I'm first in line. Possessions have our heart and he knows that about us and our loved ones have our hearts and he knows that about us too. What he's doing is he's giving us these two things to say do you see what I mean there may come a time when you do have to walk away from everything you have when you stand up to your unethical boss and lose your job and you have to sell your house and move into an apartment it happens in this world and there are other places in the world where christians do lose their lives for being christian or all their possessions so he's clearly kind of wanting to shake us and get us to pay attention to what he's saying to us right?
[00:02:23]
If we want to be generous towards God and be less tight -fisted with our possessions, why is our generosity? levels lower. But we'll leave that for a sermon a few weeks from now, when we get to the stewardship season.
[00:03:39]
He gives two non -literal examples. One is somebody who hasn't counted the cost quite of building a tower, and starts to build the tower, but didn't realize how expensive it was going to be, how hard it was going to be, and they've laid the foundation, but now they don't have enough for the rest of it, and so they have to leave it. They quit. They say, I can't do it. They probably lose all the money they put into it. And another example is a general who thinks with his 10 ,000 soldiers, he can win that battle until he gets to the battlefield and he sees 20 ,000. And he says, oh, that's not going to go well. So I quit.
[00:03:59]
What Jesus is talking about is the cost of discipleship and that there ought to be a point in our following Jesus in which we come up against something where we say, no, that's too hard and I want to quit. If we haven't ever reached that point in our walk with Jesus, we're probably not following him. It is part of following him that we are inconvenienced, that we experience pain and loss as a result, as a direct consequence of following him, not just in the normal course of life where people have misfortune, but as a direct consequence of following him.
[00:04:40]
If we haven't ever reached that point in our walk with Jesus, we're probably not following him. It is part of following him that we are inconvenienced, that we experience pain and loss as a result, as a direct consequence of following him, not just in the normal course of life where people have misfortune, but as a direct consequence of following him.
[00:04:55]
You're not invited to the Friday poker game, because they don't want the churchy guy, right? Nobody wants...play with you at school because you go to church on Sundays or your parents say I'm sorry you can't play in the soccer team because all the matches are on Sundays and we're gonna go to church there ought to be some cost in even an hour easy lives to following Jesus.
[00:05:20]
There ought to be some cost in even an hour easy lives to following Jesus what he's saying is you have to pick up your cross and follow me so there's going to be pain and loss and of course there's going to be resurrection eternal life and joy along the way he doesn't assume that we're always going to be suffering.
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What he's saying is you have to pick up your cross and follow me so there's going to be pain and loss and of course there's going to be resurrection eternal life and joy along the way he doesn't assume that we're always going to be suffering.
[00:05:46]
To me, one of the weaknesses of certainly the churches I've belonged to is its inability or unwillingness to follow one of the other commands Jesus frequently gives us, which is to bear witness to him, to be a witness to me, to testify to me, to go forth and tell people.
[00:06:01]
To me, one of the weaknesses of certainly the churches I've belonged to is its inability or unwillingness to follow one of the other commands Jesus frequently gives us, which is to bear witness to him, to be a witness to me, to testify to me, to go forth and tell people.
[00:06:01]
When people say i i don't want to tell people i'm a christian because of what they think about christians out there well that's the problem if the supposedly better kind of christians which which is what's going on in our heads right if the better kind of christians or the right kind of christians are sitting and being very subtle and saying i'm not going to talk to anybody about being a christian well then the other ones have all the airwaves.
[00:06:45]
People are afraid in that other church I said ah we're forging ahead with evangelism so we created t -shirts that says God cares so do we goodsamchurch .org and I made a bunch of church gave them out to people and they would only wear them at like where we were doing stuff with among ourselves you know a little picnic at the church it said no go out there and wear them at your picnics you know in your neighborhoods and then we created thought you know those foam signs that have little metal things you can put them in lawns or like political signs same big green god cares so do we goodsamchurch .org and i said everybody put them in your yards you would not imagine the amount of resistance i got.
[00:07:12]
And this one surprised me we had several retired naval officers in our congregation in san diego one of them was a heroic captain in vietnam war and he went on to be a leader in other industries a well -known person had won medals for bravery. And I said, hey, can I get you to take a sign home and put it in your lawn? He goes, absolutely not. And I said, well, why is that? He said, I'm afraid it will offend people or that it will get people upset. And I think, you mean like what, they're gonna throw eggs at your house or something? Or like, what are you worried about? And he said, just don't wanna ruffle the feathers. And I thought, a war hero doesn't wanna ruffle the feathers. Fear. He was afraid of being seen as a Christian.
[00:07:58]
So here's the thing. I think we have to stop cringing about evangelism. Yes? Is my sermon up already? We have to stop being afraid of it. We have to live out loud as Christians. Be out loud Christians.
[00:08:48]
We have to stop being afraid of it. We have to live out loud as Christians. Be out loud Christians.
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Now, how might you do that? Well, we could get God cares, so do we. St. John's Boco, right? We could do that. We could put signs in our yards. You could actually tell somebody you're a Christian, you know, somebody who doesn't know that about you. You could wear a cross to work. When you go out with your friends, you could pray for them when somebody tells you about something going on in their lives. You could say, oh, and you know they're an atheist or whatever, and you say, I'm really sorry. I'll pray for you. That's what you could do. You could go to a protest with a Christian -themed T -shirt on.
[00:09:10]
So many ways to live out loud as a christian maybe it is giving up a lot of what you own saying you know what i'm giving up many of my possessions because i'm following jesus and he says to do this okay go for it if you are called to do that but unless we are living out loud as a christian how can we possibly be said to be following jesus are we it's kind of like secretly saying well i do secretly treasure jesus more than money i'm just not going to show that in any way do you see how that doesn't quite work we have to show that we're following him.
[00:09:56]
Unless we are living out loud as a christian how can we possibly be said to be following jesus are we it's kind of like secretly saying well i do secretly treasure jesus more than money i'm just not going to show that in any way do you see how that doesn't quite work we have to show that we're following him.
[00:10:12]
So let's be out loud, Christians. Amen.
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