1. 1 “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. 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.” Lk 14:26–33 How many of us have ever sat down and done this kind of assessment? Does being a disciple of Jesus really require this kind of commitment? Because if it does, why would anyone want to be a disciple of Jesus? What will it really cost you to be a disciple of Jesus? Does anyone want to venture a guess?

2. 2 All said, we should understand that the enormous cost to becoming a Christian was all absorbed by Jesus and is freely given to us. What are those costs? However, there is also a cost to becoming a disciple of Jesus, (with enormous rewards and benefits to be sure) but the cost of discipleship is born by the disciple, with the help of Jesus once the heart makes the sacrifice. It is really very simple. Everything that is wrong with us we picked up from Adam’s attempt to be independent from God. So what kinds of things are we talking about? What would it take to make God unnecessary?

3. 3 So the costs that we are going to have to give up are the ridiculous illusions of things that we gather in that vain attempt to fill the enormous void we created when we threw God out of our lives. Now can you identify some of them? It would require infinite supplies of power, love, knowledge and wisdom, which is impossible to find outside of God. We are talking about things like: vain confidence in self confidence in what you think you know or can do keeping yourself safe deciding what is best deciding what you want

4. 4 So the costs that we are going to have to give up are the ridiculous illusions of things that we gather in that vain attempt to fill the enormous void we created when we threw God out of our lives. Now can you identify some of them? It would require infinite supplies of power, love, knowledge and wisdom, which is impossible to find outside of God. We are talking about things like: vain confidence in self confidence in what you think you know or can do keeping yourself safe deciding what is best deciding what you want These things seem so natural and normal to us, even to the point of reasonable, that it seems ridiculous to us to even consider not having them in abundance. What are we supposed to be, walking lumps of nothing? How could it be right for us to give up all these things that are so central to the way we think, live and function? It is because each one of these items is a factor in the absurd process of making God unnecessary. That is why we must give them up and why they are part of the cost of becoming a disciple of Jesus.

5. 5 How do Christians make their decisions on whether or not they will become disciples of Jesus? As always, we make our decisions by weighing the costs against the benefits of a choice. We must therefore know the actual costs as well as the actual benefits so that there really is no decision to make over what is obvious. So why do you suppose the number of Christians who are willing to pay the costs of discipleship is so low?

6. 6 How do Christians make their decisions on whether or not they will become disciples of Jesus? As always, we make our decisions by weighing the costs against the benefits of a choice. We must therefore know the actual costs as well as the actual benefits so that there really is no decision to make over what is obvious. So why do you suppose the number of Christians who are willing to pay the costs of discipleship is so low? The only explanation is that they have considered a few of the costs, and have absolutely NO idea concerning the benefit, and have therefore decided against it. Is there really any decision to be made if a billionaire offers to give you a billion dollars for the contents of your wallet? Do you really have to think about it? The benefit to cost ratio is so benefit heavy, there is literally nothing to consider. You pull that wallet out as quickly as you can and make your exchange. So why do we halt so badly when the Lord wants to exchange His immeasurable benefits and blessing, healing and direction, in exchange for the control of our lives? It can only be because we know nothing of the benefits that wait in store for us. All we see is the cost to our flesh (which really needs to die anyway – so there is nothing to lose and everything to gain). Our first step, in the correcting this rampant problem in Christian lives, is to get a better assessment of the actual benefits of being a disciple of Jesus.

7. 7 We should say that there are both internal (personal) and external benefits. That is, these benefits first satisfy the deepest needs of the hearts and make us whole internally or emotionally. Following that initial satisfaction of the internal being, the Lord’s benefits and blessings then begin to overrun our environment in the effort of drawing others to experience God in the same way they see demonstrated in our new lives. “But Laban said to him, ‘If now it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined that the Lord has blessed me on your account.’” Gen 30:27

8. 8 There is one more thing you must understand before we begin our study. You can read thousands of books on marriage, and amass all kinds of intellectual axioms concerning successful marriage, but until you get married and are forced to abandon your own selfishness, all you have are intellectual data with no practical connection or use. I could spend years teaching these benefits intellectually in an attempt to attract you to becoming a disciple of Jesus, but I have learned in recent years that you cannot experience any of these benefits intellectually. We are exposed to them intellectually, but we experience them in daily intercourse with God.