Good Morning Beloved,
What a privilege it is to have all of you here today,
thank you for joining us.
Heavenly Father,
We are grateful for the time that we have been blessed with today
for having the honor, the privilege of Your precious Word.
Lord, we pray for those who might be in our midst today
who are unbelieving, who are yet condemned
And Father, we pray that the light of the glorious Word
would reflect through our lives, illuminating the darkness
may it shine unto them, and they would see the truth in Jesus Christ.
Help us to be faithful to go into the world, boldly, courageously
proclaiming the message of the Gospel, especially to those places
that are hardened in our society, that are broken and unbelieving
And may we do so, with the same fearlessness as You did, Lord
that they might come to repentance, and receive the glorious gift of salvation
For You are glorified in both Your judgment as well as in Your salvation
It is Your name we pray
Amen
"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."
Luke 14:27-33
Today's Message: Battling And Building
Every time I hear someone attempting to discredit the Holy Scripture
they try to do so by eliminating the truth, and then they begin to concoct
and manufacture some alternative to the truth, their version of truth, is a lie
Then they attempt to explain away everything written in the Bible;
plotting and scheming, to invalidate it's message, dissecting the Deity of Christ,
the virgin birth, His death and resurrection, and then they stand back and pat themselves on the back and commend their superior intellectualism, as if they have come up with some way of doing so,
which has never been tried before, by some other idiot, before them.
And I must confess, it is unthinkable to me, that they would be able to convince
another human being, one with any level of intelligence, to believe the perverse and ludicrous
claims, simply by denying what is obvious.... The Truth!
The connection therefore, this deviation from truth becomes abundantly crystal clear,
The Sinful nature of a fallen humanity and the Father of Lies, Satan.
I mean if that isn’t obvious, then, nothing is obvious..
So, how much does it cost?
Any man who gives a darn about his financial responsibilities will always be concerned about the cost. Any man who is intent on making any kind of purchase will be concerned about the price.
So beloved, what then, is the price tag to power, and greed, this obsession with wealth,
with "worldly greatness?"
Spirituality demands consecration.
Character demands principles.
Principals founded by the Word of God.
Righteousness demands focus.
A former gold medalists, one on the U.S. Swim Team, gave this account as to the cost of the medal that he had won. He had swam a total of 45,000 miles in a period of four years. From that time until the 2000 Olympics, he had swam the equivalent of two times across the Pacific Ocean.
All of that is, all his effort, dedication and sacrifice, had all been for a corruptible crown. If such is the case, how much more then, should the Church be willing to expend it’s energies, it’s prayers, it’s finances, it’s talents toward an incorruptible crown?
One of the greatest distractions that the devil will attempt to place on the church in this hour is weariness, discouragement, and distraction. If these three areas can break in on this fellowship of believers, the quest for spiritual growth and development is almost always hindered..
If he can keep us fighting among ourselves, he can do his greatest damage to the body.
Not only will the quest for spiritual growth and development hindered but the cost, the price tag, associated with it is obscured!!! There are conditional and unconditional promises of God.
The unconditional promises are those that God is bound to fulfill despite the attitudes and actions of men. While the conditional promises of God, such as personal revival and personal growth, come to rest only on those who are willing to give, to pay, to reach, to strive, and to alter everything about their spiritual life as they reach for God
If only you will, God will!!!!
Our lives should be driven by our desires for the following:
Developing a strong and impactful prayer life.
Having a mastery of the Word of God.
Impacting lives for the cause of Christ and of the Kingdom.
Striving for sterling moral character.
Reaching for personal growth in the knowledge and wisdom of God.
Having an insatiable hunger for the Word of God.
And unquenchable thirst for His holiness.
Luke 14 begins with a healing and ends with a warning. It is in this chapter that one of the miracles that Jesus became known for was performed. But in the process of the miracle, there arose a conflict with the Pharisees.
The conflict arose because Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. According to their interpretations of the Law, this was a direct violation. In the quest for understanding, Jesus began to use a series of parables that began in the house of the Pharisees and then would continue outside of the home and to the multitudes.
The two parables that were given provide great insight into the matters of the Kingdom of God:
The Man at the Wedding Feast
The Invitation to the Great Supper
The emphasis of these parables both show men who are out of place. The first parable deals with a man who is interested in promoting himself. This man is the one who is always concerned about what involvement that he will have and what the involvement will benefit him. The second dealt with those who refused to answer to the invitations of the master.
The man sat in the wrong room. The invited guests remained where they were and did not come in.
Our success with God is always determined by being in the presence of the Spirit, in the proper place
Pride and neglect will always cause men to miss out on the important positions of the Kingdom of God.
Humility is necessary to elevate men into the proper channels of ministry, and not just a pulpit ministry. Spiritual intensity must replace spiritual neglect. This also brings to light the importance of spiritual disciplines, involving prayer, reading and studying of the Word, fasting, witnessing, etc.
Many men fail in their efforts for God because they are out of place with God. As for being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . . How much does it cost?
Men must reach for God with more than their hands, they must reach for Him with more than their intellect, they must reach for Him and not just in their trouble. A man must reach for God with his heart.
When Jesus walked out of the room that day, the crowd began to follow Him. The great possibility exists that they were looking for a blessing from the Messiah. However, one must understand that as a whole the nation of Israel was rejecting Him.
Because they were rejecting Him, blessings would be postponed. The same pattern holds true today. If you are in the process of rejecting Christ do not look for the blessings to be extended to you.
In two verses, He defined what discipleship was all about.
"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
Luke 14:26-27
Family relationships must yield to love for Him.
A man must hate his own life.
A man must be willing to identify with Jesus Christ even though, He is rejected among men.
The word "hate" may seem like a strong term. In the terms of the Jewish idioms, this word is also used to express the will. In Malachi 1:2-3 and in Romans 9:13, love and hate were used in reference to Jacob and Esau. When God said He loved Jacob, He was not expressing His emotion but rather His will; God meant that He had chosen Jacob. His statement of hatred of Esau was not a manifestation of His emotion but rather of His will. He meant that He has set Esau, the first-born, aside. To love would be chosen or to submit to. To hate is to refuse to submit to authority of another. To be disciples of Jesus Christ, people must reject every other authority and be solely under the authority of Jesus Christ.
With these new utterances from the Lord, we can have detailed understanding of discipleship.
Then He began to illustrate to us what the requirements of discipleship were all about. The Cost must be counted.
Before you began to count the cost of discipleship, have you counted the cost if your soul is lost?
What shall it profit a man? . . . . Think of it in this manner. . . . . What shall it profit a man though he lose the whole world and lose his own soul in the bargain?
You see, no man ever is going to gain the whole world. There will always be someone more powerful, more prestigious, and richer.
Yet on the other hand, no man can serve God without tremendous cost to himself.
So I ask you today to ask yourself these few but very important questions:
Is Jesus Christ per-eminent in my own heart?
And if so, am I so yielded to Him that I am prepared for Him to have His way in my life?
Am I willing to allow my talents to be relegated to the menial servant-hood of the Kingdom of God?
Understand that despite the tremendous work of grace and the unrelenting pursuit of mercy, there are the requirements of discipleship.
"Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe is begin to ridicule him, saying, ' This man began to build and was not able to finish."
Luke 14:29-30
Jesus when opening His mouth and teaching profoundly on every conceivable subject related to life, and death, and time, and eternity, and God and man, heaven and hell, And over and over again in the gospel of John, Jesus says, "My words and My works, My words and My works are sufficient to prove to you who I am."
"But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish the very works that I do testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me."
John 5:36
You have to make the obvious connection between supernatural manifestation and God.
How can you or anyone deny that?
I can assure you of this, peace is not found in the absence of trouble; but it is found in the presence of God. His arms are available to you if you will allow Him love and encourage you through the body called the church, the presence of His Holy Spirit, and through His Word.
So I offer you this food for though:
Every day we remain discouraged is a day that we're not going anywhere for God. So don't let up, don't shut down, don't back up, and don't give up until you're taken up!
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries