What a blessing it is to have all of you here with us this morning...
Praise Almighty God!
How many of you like to a bargain?
I think most of us, like to get something for a good deal...
Am I right?
This morning, we're going to talk about Price vs Cost..
Lord,
We pray that Your Word would saturate our hearts and minds this morning
that we may walk away forever changed, never to be the same!
Amen
"Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:57-62
I think a good many of us are price point shoppers.
We buy something because the price is right.
We buy things cheap, to save money, when in the long run it cost us more than if we would have bought something of quality.
Price vs. Cost:
Price of a pack of cigarettes is around $6 but the cost can be lung cancer.
Price of a can of beer for $4 but the cost could be liver cancer or a car wreck...or worse.
Price might be $100 for an hour of "back street love" but the cost could be death by AIDS.
Price might be $50 for a hit of coke but the cost could be suicide.
"Buy the truth, and do not sell it,
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding."
Proverbs 23:23
Excuses for not following Christ:
We say we will follow but then when Jesus goes someplace uncomfortable, we change our mind.
Isn't that true?
When Jesus asks us to do something we don't feel like doing, or give up something..
how quickly we turn our back to Him..
In the text this we read:
“Follow Me.”
But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:59-60
Was Jesus being insensitive?
Was Jesus Anti-Family?
No! Of course not..
But Jesus wanted a decision from this man.
When Jesus told the man to "Let the dead bury their own dead" He was speaking about the spiritually dead..not physically dead.
"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:13-14
The price of Salvation is bought with our faith in God and our willingness to accept the plans laid out for us in repentance, baptism in Jesus Name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost with tongues as the evidence.
But the cost to make Heaven our home is much greater.
We all have an invitation.. an invitation to the abundant life!
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price."
Isaiah 55:1
How many of us here want to go to heaven?
Sounds good right?
Have no money, it's all good...Come anyway, take what you need, eat what you want...
"Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
Mark 10:21
Rich Young Ruler:
"Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.”
And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel."
2 Samuel 24:21-25
We all want God to accept us as we are, where we are,
We want God to bless our lives, our families
We want Him to give us miracle for the messes we've created by living in our own choices..
BUT
How dare He ask us to change, to give up or sacrifice anything!
After all, He said "no cost", right?
And we're set in our ways,
we have our own ways of doing things...
Yeah, well how has THAT been working for you?
If I were a bettin' man, and I'm not by the way, but I'd have to bet not so well...
Am I right?
Or so many of us wouldn't be looking for Him to "fix" our lives..
But in order to fix our lives, He must also have to fix us!
I mean, that's like having leaky roof, that destroys the drywall, cabinets and floor in our kitchen
so we rip out the whole kitchen, we spend thousands of dollars and replace everything...
But we fail to fix the leak!
What's the point of that!
It won't be long before our kitchen's are back in the same mess, or worse....
Now, we all understand the kitchen is a metaphor, right?
What we're really talking about is our lives...
That in order for God to clean up the messes we've created in our lives,
the relationships, the health issues, the financial ruins
we've created by doing things our own way
He HAS to fix us!
If doing things our way hasn't brought all we desire..
the financial success, the joy in our hearts, the peace of mind and happiness in our homes, in our relationships...
Then what are we doing here?
Doing life our way has failed many of us, not only us, but our families..
We can either continue to do things our way, without sacrifice,or accepting the changes Jesus Christ asks each of us to make in our lives...
Or we can give up our stubbornness, our bullheadedness, finally let go of strong willed ways of doing things, and allow Jesus Christ, to make us a new creation in Him, fix ALL of our brokenness..clean up all of our messes..
And transform our lives!
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."
Matthew 13:44
Hey look, I'm not criticizing anyone here
we've all made mistakes, we've all made some messes ...
So understand I'm not preaching this message to condemn, but to restore
When we're finished here today, you can disregard everything you've heard this morning
but at what cost?
It is my prayer for each of you, that you'll allow Him.. whatever the price!
“May the Lord bless you and keep you;
and may the Lord make His face to shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”
Amen and Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries