One of my professors is preaching this upcoming Sunday on
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. His
message is on discipleship, and that often the cost is great, as was the case
with these three men and the fiery furnace.
However, as my professor pointed out, God spared the lives of these
three men in the furnace, and it was the soldiers who bound them whose lives
were consumed by the flames. This led
him to make the following statement: The cost of non-discipleship is even
greater.
We live in a country where all the resources we could ever
want often lay within an arms reach.
Instead of waiting a day for the paper to print out yesterday’s news, we
can receive instant updates via cell phones, tablets, and the scrolling bar at
the bottom of our televisions. Magazines,
internet pop-up ads, and television commercials all glaringly point out the
things we are not doing or do not have..
Sadly, we are easily convinced we are missing out.
So, we fill our homes with more stuff, upgrade our current
luxuries, join more clubs, and fill up our schedules with more activities. Our budget is never too small to add another
car, another outfit to our wardrobe, another form of technology, or another
room to our home. Our day is never too
full to add another game, another event, or another television series to our
schedule.
Cost does not factor into our decision-making, nor does the
amount of time we have in a day. That is,
unless we are talking about discipleship.
Suddenly, we have too much do to spend with our Heavenly
Father, too much to do to spend loving others, and not enough money to give to
those in need. After all, are these
things really worth sacrificing what
we have?
Jesus tells two parables in the last part of Matthew 13 to
address this issue. In each parable
Jesus tell us the Kingdom of Heaven is worth more than everything. It is worth selling all that we have; it is
worth giving up all we do. To make His
point clear, I’ll repeat that again: The Kingdom of Heaven is worth more than
everything. It is worth selling all that
we have; it is worth giving up all we do.
Yes, discipleship comes with a cost. We are forced to lay down our idols, our
preferences, our time, and our comfort.
But we gain so much more.
Jesus is the only
source of life. He is the only source of love. He is the only
source of joy. This means, we CANNOT
find these things outside of Him, regardless of what we might be deceived into
feeling or believing. Consequently, a
pursuit of Christ, and therefore a pursuit of discipleship, is the only way one
might ultimately find life, love, and joy.
Suffering, persecution, hardship, and rejection. These are just some of the costs of a life
pursuit of Jesus. However, the absence
of persevering joy, hope, and sacrificial love are just some the costs of
non-discipleship.
May we be of the former, who willingly sacrifice all that is
asked of us, may we count the costs of
non-discipleship, may we join with Paul in this desire:
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:8-11
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:8-11
In doing so, may we discover the ultimate treasure that is
offered to us: Jesus Christ.
