The Spiritual Booster Shot

by Rev. Stephen Price

The Cost of Being a Christian
Do you remember getting your first credit card? What was it like? Did it feel at first like you were able to get things without having to pay? Were you tempted to buy things you couldn’t really afford and not worry the cost until later. Many of us got ourselves into a little (or a lot) of trouble when we got our first credit card. It was way too easy to reap the benefits of buying things without worrying about the costs.

Well, too many of us try to use Christianity the same way we might have used our first credit card. We want all of the benefits without worrying about the expenses. We come to God expecting to get things, but are we willing to pay?

Do you really want to be a Christian?
That’s right. I really did ask you this question. Let me say it again. Do you really want to be a Christian? I am not asking if you want God to relieve your guilt for the things you’ve done wrong. I am also not asking if you want to go to church every Sunday. What I am asking is, when push comes to shove, are you willing to pay the price of being a Christian. Would you sacrifice anything and everything in your life to preserve your relationship with God?

My hope it that if it possible to talk you out of being a Christian, this message will do so. But if you really do want to be a Christian, then I hope this message will inspire you to go all of the way with it – to pay the full price of submitting your life to God, but also to reap the full benefits that lay in store for the true follower of Jesus Christ.

Jesus asked people the same question
One time when large crowds were following Jesus, he suspected that some of the people, especially Jews, were just following him because of what they expected to get. (The Jews expected Jesus to bring them political victory and times of prosperity). He ended up making some bold statements to give them a clear picture of what it really meant to follow him, especially with his execution getting closer.

In so many words, Jesus was asking them if they really wanted to pay the price of following Him.

JESUS ASKS US TO DIE TO OUR EARTHLY ATTACHMENTS AND DESIRES
In Luke 14:25-27, Jesus makes some controversial statements. He says that to be his disciple we must hate our family members.

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:25-27 NIV).

The first time I read that I nearly dropped my Bible on the floor. I thought either my Bible had a serious misprint or Jesus must have lost his mind. I thought Jesus came to promote love, not hate. Right? Why is he saying that I need to hate my family to follow Him?

Well, in this statement about needing to hate our family members to follow Him, Jesus isn’t really asking us to become mean toward our parents. He is just exaggerating to make a point. Yes, Jesus was exaggerating. He uses the word “hate” as a hyperbole or overstatement to emphasize the point that our love for Jesus must far exceed that for our family. As much as we love our families, our love for Jesus must be so strong that it makes our love for our family seem like hate in comparison.

Jesus doesn’t stop there. In the same statement he says that we must hate our own lives, “carry our crosses,” and follow Him to be His disciple. This means that even our drive for self-preservation must take second priority to following Jesus. The cross was the Roman method of execution. This had literal application for some of Jesus’ immediate disciples, but for us it is a metaphor that we need to put to death our own desires and self-interests for the sake of following Jesus.

Jesus makes a similar statement elsewhere, adding that we must put to death our desires and self-interest on a daily basis to follow Him.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, author of “The Cost of Discipleship” put it this way:

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

So how can we tell if we have put aside our self interest and personal desires enough to be a disciple of Jesus? One way is to listen to our prayers.

If we hear ourselves telling God what we want to have happen in our lives and getting mad at God when God doesn’t bless our plans or do our will, then we are pretty selfish and still have a ways to go in becoming a disciple of Jesus.

If we hear ourselves asking God what He wants in our lives and how we can conform our lives to God’s will, then we are on our way to being a disciple of Jesus.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t ask for things from God. To be a disciple of Jesus, however, the overall tone of our prayers should sound as if we are asking to serve God, rather than asking for God to serve us.

JESUS ASKS US TO MAKE A COST ASSESSMENT
After challenging the people to die to their self-interest to follow him, Jesus goes on to further challenge them to consider the cost of following Him, and whether or not they are willing to pay it to reap the benefits of being His disciple:

“Supposed one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand me to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.” (Luke 14: 28-30)

Jesus likens someone who starts to follow him without considering the cost to a builder who cannot afford to finish a building project or a king who goes to war without checking to see if he has enough men. Both men end up seeming foolish.

In the same way, if we start to follow Jesus and live the Christian life without thinking about what it might cost us, we might end up looking just as foolish.

Think about it, the dumbest, most miserable life possible is lived by the half-way Christian. The half-way Christian knows too much to be able to fully enjoy the world (parties, indulgences like excessive drinking and sex, pursuit of money, other sins), but also misses out on the full satisfaction and meaning that comes from knowing and taking primary pleasure in a relationship with God.

If you are going to be a Christian, it is only worth it if you go all the way, and are willing to sacrifice anything for your relationship with God.

Think about what Christianity might cost you? Pleasure? Money? Relationships? Your Reputation? Time? Effort?

The truth is………

FOLLOWING JESUS WILL COST EVERYTHING WE HAVE
Jesus says we must give up everything we have to be his disciple. God must come before everything.

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33)

To follow Jesus, the first disciples literally had to walk away from everything they had or knew. Elsewhere Jesus says:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a filed. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

The benefit of paying the cost of following Jesus and being his disciple is that we receive grace for our sins. Real grace is no cheap. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in “the Cost of Discipleship” distinguishes between costly and cheap grace:

Cheap grace is:

“the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner”

“the grace we bestow upon ourselves”

“the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance”

“grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ”

Cheap grace will not save us or give us a place with God in eternity.

When we bestow cheap grace upon ourselves, and go on believing that God will just forgive us and give us a place with Him in eternity whether or not we pay the cost of following Jesus, we are like the characters in the movie “K-19, The Widowmaker” who worked on a the nuclear reactor in raincoats.

In case you didn’t see this movie, Harrison Ford and Liam Neesen play roles as commanders of a Russian nuclear submarine around the time of World War II. The movie is based upon a true story.

In this movie, the characters played by Ford and Neesen have a terrible decision to make. The nuclear part of the submarine is slowly leaking radiation and if someone does not fix it, everyone on the submarine will die. However, there are no suits to protect anyone from the radioactivity. To save the lives of everyone on the submarine, someone has to go into the nuclear area and fix the apparatus.

To get some men to agree to working on the nuclear reactor, Ford and Neesen’s characters give men suits that will not really protect them from the radioactivity. In effect, they send men to work on the nuclear activity in raincoats. These men end up dying.

Trying to enter eternity clothed only by cheap grace is like working on a nuclear reactor in a raincoat. Cheap grace will not save you. To be saved and to receive eternal life from God, there is no choice but to pay the full price of following Jesus, which is the price of costly grace.

Bonhoeffer describes costly grace like this:

“Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner, Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His son.”

Do we want to enjoy the benefits of grace without paying the cost of discipleship? Or will we be willing to pay everything we have? If we cannot or will not pay this price (everything we have) it is better to never begin following Jesus.


IF WE DON’T MAKE THE PAYMENT WE ARE USELESS TO GOD

· Being like salt that loses its saltiness

Salt is good but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears let him hear.” (Luke 14:34-35)

Those of us who make a halfway attempt to follow Jesus but aren’t willing to go the whole way are like bad salt. Good salt was used to preserve food and as a fertilizer. However, some salt around the Dead Sea was no good because the evaporation of water had taken the valuable chemical properties out of the salt. It looked like salt, but didn’t work as a preservative or fertilizer. There was no way to restore the useless salt.

Is your life rich with the flavor of God or is it bland? Does your life preserve and fertilize the lives of others? If we want to be like salt to others in the world we have to follow Christ the whole way.


Conclusion:
So, do you really want to be a Christian?

Would you rather pay the cost of our sins or the cost of following Jesus?

Which will it be?

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:24-25)