Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Count the cost of being a follower of Jesus next on Abounding Grace. As churches proliferate and they are increasing all the more, it seems like more and more churches are trying to make it much easier to follow Jesus than it really is. They're watering down the gospel, not mentioning repentance or sin, and just say, "Come on in. Let's just gather a crowd and call it a church." But you see, following Jesus requires you to count a cost. You've got to count the cost, church. It's not as easy as you think it is. You may even be in a position where you go, "It's easy. I've got an easy life." Well, then God's calling you to a deeper level of commitment because there's always a cost with following Christ.

Larry: This is Abounding Grace, where we study through the Bible and learn of God's abounding grace. Today we return to Pastor Ed Taylor's series in Acts called Be the Church. When you came to Christ, were you under the impression it would be easy? It probably didn't take you long to realize it's full of warfare, trials, challenges, and persecution. It requires commitment, and Pastor Ed will seek to drive that home in today's message based in Acts chapter two.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles and open them to the book of Acts. We are in the book of Acts studying through verse by verse, and we're going to finish our series today, this little sub-series in Acts chapter two, verses 40 through 47, that we've entitled "A Church That's W.E.L.L." This will be part four of that series. Remember, we're using the word WELL, W-E-L-L, to help us remember four solid ingredients that help make a church strong, healthy, and vibrant. If you memorize the word WELL, then you will remember them. We're using the word W for worship. A church that's healthy is a worshipping church and an evangelistic church. The L, the first one, is a learning church, and then finally a loving church.

Another way to remember them is just to memorize Acts chapter two, verse 42. As we learn of the early church, it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Even though last time we finished the acronym together, we finished the totality of our studies to cover that word, I really felt like the Lord had more for us. We couldn't leave this section or this topic without this strong encouragement and exhortation surrounding our commitment, your personal commitment to following Christ.

Here in Acts 2:42, this isn't just a representation of how the 3,000, now the church is about 3,120, this isn't a representation like this was the next thing they did, although it was. From the original language from the Greek, the tense of the words here speaks of an ongoing decision all the way through to the end of the book of Acts, all the way through into our lives. This is meant for us. It's not just like they got baptized yesterday and now this is what they did the next day. No, it's what they did the next day, the next day, the next day, all until we come today, and we too are following this commitment to follow.

If you haven't already, we've mentioned before the phrase "continued steadfastly." If you haven't already, circle it, and next to it, you should write the word "habit." This is their spiritual habit. This is what developed in the born-again believer. This is the change that took place in their life. This was added to them. Now their new commitment, they had a brand new, fresh commitment spiritual habit to these four things and more. This is what makes up the new life of the believer. They were all in, you could say. Other words you can write next to it besides spiritual habit, you could also write the word "steadfast."

Of course, that's already built into the English language. Steadfast as they're moving forward. Nothing's holding them back. Now, again, as we're looking at this, I don't want you to misunderstand like the early church was perfect, they never made any mistakes. You know as well as I do when we get to Acts chapter six, in the infancy of the church, they're already arguing. They're already upset with one another. It's not like they're perfect. They're definitely not. But the habit and the manner of their life was sure, steadfast, completely devoted. Completely devoted is another phrase you could use here. This is what they devoted their time to. Or another way you could say they were wholly devoted, the completeness of their life. This is what makes up a believer's life in very simple terms.

Another phrase you can put next to it is "fully committed." I think in the day in which we live, these are attributes that need to be a part of our lives. As churches proliferate and they are increasing all the more, it seems like more and more churches are trying to make it much easier to follow Jesus than it really is. They're watering down the gospel, not mentioning repentance or sin, and just say, "Come on in. Let's just gather a crowd and call it a church." But following Jesus requires you to count a cost. You've got to count the cost, church. It's not as easy as you think it is. You may even be in a position where you go, "It's easy. I've got an easy life." Well, then God's calling you to a deeper level of commitment because there's always a cost with following Christ. It's probably not as easy as you think it is. You can measure it in and out of this little section here.

You can say, "Well, what am I devoted to? What am I committed to? If somebody was examining my life from the outside, what would they conclude as my spiritual habits, if I have spiritual habits at all? What's the manner of my life? What describes me? Who is the priority in my life?" Let me show you what I mean. Would you turn over to Luke's Gospel, chapter 14, with me? Luke chapter 14. It's all fun to memorize a word and we can think of it, "Oh, we're a worshipping church, we're an evangelistic church, we're a learning church, we're a loving church, and yes, that's us and that's what we want." It's fun and it's good, but listen. Listen, there's a cost in following Christ.

It's not just memorizing a word or even hiding a scripture in your heart from time to time. There is a requirement in following Jesus. While the world, the Western church, the American church, you could even use us, we're trying to make it easier. We as human beings just want to make it easier because it can be so challenging to follow Christ in a culture that is antichrist. It's super hard and super challenging. We could look at that and say, "Oh, look what's happened, look what's happened." But the reality is, while the church at large is making it easier to follow Christ, Jesus makes it harder. When you listen to him, it is a radical departure from what we might think it is.

We need to be reminded of this. Before anyone joins the team here on staff, before anyone takes of the tithes and offerings or what we call worship money here when you give, when I give of my tithes and offerings, that is my worship money. I am worshipping God by obediently giving. Whenever anyone takes of the worship money here at church as a salary to provide for the needs of their family, I ask them. I look them in the eye and I say, "Have you counted the cost?" You wonder where does that come from? Right here in Luke 14. Have you counted the cost? So here you are worshipping Jesus, and the question is, have you counted the cost?

We all want to be the church in Acts. If I asked today, "Hey, do you guys want to reach the city?" Yes! "Do you think you're the church in Acts?" Yes! "Do you want to go forward?" Let's just go for it! All of us would say yes. It wouldn't take nothing to raise our hands on any question I would ask along those lines. But here is the substance of that. Notice with me in verse 25 of Luke 14, and just listen to Jesus. It says, "A great multitude went with him, and he turned around and said to them, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.'"

Those are challenging words. They're so challenging that I think we miss the forest for the trees. We'll see that again in our look at Revelation later on in the study, but we lose the substance of what Jesus is saying because then we stop right here and go, "Wait a minute. Hate my mom, hate my dad? How could Jesus ever call me to do that?" We get all stuck on that and we argue about it and we're like, "No, I could never do that. I would never do that." You create something that Jesus isn't asking you to do. The idea of hatred here is not the kind of hatred that stirs up emotion and you just don't like and you don't want anything to do with.

This is an instruction of priority. How do we know that? Because he includes ourselves. Did you see that at the end? You shouldn't be debating about everyone else. You should be really focusing on the only thing you can control and that's you and your own life. The issue isn't how you relate to mom and dad and brother and sister. The real issue is, how do you relate to yourself? Are you willing to die to yourself? Isn't that the biggest problem? The biggest problem is not mom or dad. The biggest problem is me and my selfishness and my self-centeredness. Me facing a challenge and then rearranging and redefining who God is so the challenge isn't there anymore, and I can just sidestep it. Christians are so good at making excuses instead of taking what the Bible says and obeying it.

"Oh, it doesn't really mean that, so let's just skip to the next verse." Well, the next verse isn't much better. It says here that whoever does not bear his cross and come after me, Jesus is like, everyone's saying, "Come be a disciple, be a disciple," and Jesus is going, "Look, if you don't do it right, you can't be my disciple. You can't. You can't do it your way. You can't take Christianity like we've seen today." Maybe the Lord's speaking to someone right now. Like, "I kind of fit Christianity into my life. Like I got my career goal, I got this, I got this, and yeah, maybe I could fit it into my life. I can make it fit. Yeah, I could give. I could definitely give a few dollars here and there of course, I guess I could participate that way. I could tithe, I would never tithe, but I could give a few dollars. And I could give a little bit of my time, because I could fit that in if I rearrange this and rearrange this, maybe I could go to church possibly maybe once a month. I could buy a Christian t-shirt. I mean, it'll be a little embarrassed, but I'll wear it anyway. And I'll buy a cross, I can do that. I'll get a really big Bible. And then, you know, I think I'll fit it in."

Jesus is like, "Look, you're all on the wrong page. Here's where it starts. It doesn't have anything to do with any of that. Here's where it starts. You want to follow Jesus, you need to have him as a priority in your life. He has to be first. So much so that he has to be above you and everyone that you love most." If you have the right priority, listen, you won't mistreat your parents. You won't mistreat your kids. God in human flesh is not asking you to mistreat anyone, hurt anyone, abuse anyone, abandon anyone. That's not what we're saying. We know that because he clarifies later on in verse 33.

He clarifies, he says, "Likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all," that's the phrase, forsake all. You can circle that, go back up and circle the word hate and write arrow next to it. The idea is forsaking for priority. In the world of economics, they have a phrase for that. It's called opportunity cost. What they mean by that is that if you do A, it's going to cost you B. That's the opportunity cost. If you choose A, then it's going to cost you B. You can't do both. There is a cost involved to do the best and to be the best and to work. You're going to pay a price. There is a cost.

And so here is what Jesus says. Notice with me back in Luke 14. He says this after all the crowds are going, "We want to follow you, we want to follow you." You go, "You know what? I don't think you guys understand what it means to follow me." And then he describes it. He says, "For which of you intending to build a tower doesn't sit down first and count the cost?" That's where we get the phrase. You're sitting down, you're building a tower, whether he doesn't sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. Lest after he's laid the foundation, he's not able to finish it. All who see it begin to mock him, saying, "This man began to build and was not able to finish."

He uses a common illustration. We may not be building towers today but build a house. This verse really came alive for the very first time when we started construction on this building because I had driven around and been around here in Aurora long enough that I would drive around and I'd see partially finished churches. There was a partially finished church in town that I would take guests to and I go, "This is why we pray and prepare, because you don't want a church to be half-built and just sit there empty for years. We want to have enough to start and finish." I remember it was just such a big burden that we were like, "Okay, let's do it. We can do it. We can do it even after all the cost overruns and change orders and unbelievable things." You guys in construction, I don't know how you do it. So you get it. So you have it.

Then he gives you another example. He says, "What king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? Or else while the other is still a great way off, he has to send a delegation and ask conditions of peace." Both of these illustrations make perfect sense even if we're not involved in that industry. Like if you're going to build a house, you're going to build it to finish it. That's the whole goal. You're going to start, but you're also going to think with the end in mind. You're going to start and you're going, "No, I'm starting to finish."

Then if you're a king and you want to protect the kingdom and you know somebody's coming to attack you, you're going to think it through and go, "Man, I need to make sure that I've got the right resources going out there so that we don't lose this. We don't have to surrender. We don't have to hurt the people we're supposed to protect." So we're going to sit down and strategize. We're going to look forward. You know, those of you in the military, this is your world. Say, "I'm going to sit down, we're going to do this right. We're not going to put people out in harm's way. What I start, I need to finish."

And so Jesus says, "You guys get it?" They say, "Yes, we get it, Lord." And then he says in verse 33, "So likewise, your walk with the Lord, your relationship with Jesus is like the guy that's building a tower. He's thinking a lot of what it's going to take to finish. Your relationship with Jesus Christ, your discipleship, the word disciple means learner, you choosing to follow Christ, you wanting to obey him, it's like the king that's protecting his kingdom and the precious innocent people in his kingdom. If he's going to go to war, he's not going to do it haphazardly. He's going to think it through, he's going to count the cost, he's going to get all the calculator out and he's going to go, man, we, this is what it takes and this is what we got to do." So he says, just like those guys, if you don't forsake all that you have, you can't be a disciple.

I want you to connect that thought now back to Acts chapter two. It's not as easy as you think. It's filled with warfare and challenges. It's filled with decisions. It's filled with all sorts of things that are sent your way designed to make you want to quit, throw in the towel, compromise, and make Christianity something that it's not. It's interesting, right? Because I'm sure you've talked to them, I've talked to many people as we're sharing and talking about Christianity, the topic comes up, they'll come back with a statement, go, "Well, you know, I've tried Christianity. I've tried it. It didn't work for me." Like, "No, bro, that's not how it works. Like you don't try Christianity. Dying to self, you don't try to do that. You either do or you don't." It's like, "Well, you know, I tried that." No, you might have tried a form of Christianity, you might have tried some religious system, you might have tried some bill of goods that someone told you, but you don't try Christianity. You die to yourself. That's how it works.

It is no longer your will, but it is God's will. It is. The Bible speaks of in these terms. The Bible speaks that Jesus died and bought you with the price of his own blood. That means bought speaks of ownership. He owns you and me. That's born again. It's not, "You know, I raised a hand and I stood up and I prayed the prayer so now I'm..." No, he bought you. Your ownership of your life, your way, your direction ended there, or you can't be a disciple. You can't make Christianity something else than what it is. Christianity is not a religion, Christianity is a person. Surrendered life to Christ. All of it.

Of course, it's going to be painful. Of course, it's going to be challenging. Of course, there's going to be discouragement. Of course, there's going to be failure. Of course, we live in a fallen world. And the reward even for perfection with Jesus, right, the God in human flesh, the reward in his life for living a perfect life of loving, caring, serving was crucifixion. So yeah, it's going to be difficult. Yes, it's going to be challenging. Jesus told us, "You want to follow me? In this world you're going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer because I've overcome the world." There's more to this world than this world. Isn't that great news? There's more to this world than this world. I should set you up for an amen, church. It's true. There's more to this world than this world. And we look to a new heaven and a new earth and to bring as many people with us as possible because we love him, because he first loved us.

Which leads me to Revelation. Would you turn there with me? In Revelation, it's a warning to us as we come to Revelation, again, another book of the Bible or another section of the Bible where you lose the forest for the trees, you know. Revelation, prophecy, yes, let's get into prophecy and let's be people of prophecy and let's just look for the coming of the Lord, prophecy, prophecy. Listen, I love prophecy. The Bible is filled with prophecy. I teach Revelation verse by verse, I teach Daniel verse by verse, I look at the signs of the times, I understand the days in which we live, but there is more to Revelation than prophecy.

Some of you are like, "What?" Yeah, yeah, there's more to Revelation than prophecy. You get so caught up in prophecy that you start living in another world and forget you're living today. You don't count the cost because you have to remember in the beginning of Revelation and its totality, you know what the book of Revelation is? It's a revelation of Jesus Christ. It's all about him. Not getting all the dates right, not looking at this and what about this came... Hey, you know, I've taught Revelation for many years, been teaching prophecy for many years and just saying, hey, man, the Lord's coming back, I believe it. We're living in the last times, I believe it.

And the thing is, is now here we are living in the last days, but what's our response? What's our response now that we see things happening on a global scale? What's our response now when we see one world currency? What's our response when we see it perfectly set up for the Antichrist? You know, many Christians are fighting. "Oh no, no, no, we can't. We've got to get this back. We can't do this." And like, "What are you talking about? You think you can stop the prophetic word of God? This is how it is. We need to be about Father's business, bringing souls into the kingdom. If we're the generation that sees it all come down, then we better be busy about serving Jesus, man, instead of fighting wars with fighting the wrong wars with the wrong weapons, wasting our time."

Larry: Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace. And Ed, today you made it quite clear that the Christian life isn't as easy as some think. It requires commitment. Do you think it's important that we emphasize that as we speak with the lost?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Yeah, Larry, commitment is very, very important and a life following God requires it, you're right. How we emphasize it, so the answer is yes, of course, but how we emphasize it is very important because we're helping someone understand what it is that God has done first, right? So the emphasis of commitment would be God's commitment to us. Sending Jesus to the cross, the blood that's been shed, the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, that God is committed to us and has made every way available, the only way available, Jesus, the way, the truth and the life. No one gets to the Father except through him.

We'll never really appreciate the commitment that we give to God before or until we know his commitment to us. So yes, we emphasize it. And then, of course, as believers, you know, this commitment's real. Like this Jesus is worth it. He is worth it. We love him for all that he's done for us. What can we do but surrender our lives and follow him and enjoy him and obey him? What a joy. Stay strong guys. The Lord is doing a great work in your life and fulfill that commitment by abiding in Christ, drawing on his power, his resources, his joy. The Bible says that if you abide, Jesus said if you abide in him, he will abide in you. If you say that you love him, then you'll keep his commandments. And it's true. The life that we live flows from the very presence of the Holy Spirit. Man, that was a great question. Thanks.

Larry: Thanks again, Pastor Ed. Are you interested in hearing this study again? If so, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or oneplace.com. And another way to listen to Pastor Ed's teachings is through the Calvary Church app. You know, there's a tragic and growing crisis facing the church concerning the ministry of counseling. An increasing number of churches and church leaders are forsaking God's way of counseling and turning to man's ways. How to Counsel God's Way by Bob Hoekstra calls God's people to return to Jesus as our wonderful counselor. Whether you're in a position to give counsel or wanting to receive it, this book can be very helpful and a valuable addition to your library.

When you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of How to Counsel God's Way. Give us a call, 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store. You can also make a donation to the ministry online at aboundinggraceradio.com. And thank you in advance for helping us reach people with the love and truth of Jesus Christ here on the radio and online. Join Pastor Ed each day as we continue to learn how to live by God's abounding grace.