Inland Empire: Riverside
The Cost of Following Jesus - Audio
Good morning. It's good to be here. Now Mike and Libya are in the Middle East doing the Lord's work there and I get to fill in today which is really nice. That song is really awesome. Isn't it? Got almighty rains. How many of you know where that came from? Very few. It's actually a real reminder. It was a musical written about the life of David called Slingshot by Steve Johnson and Sherwin McIntosh back in the '80s and that was the story of David. It was pretty, pretty awesome. You ever get to know somebody that's old that has a copy of that? It'd be great. Great to be there. Hey, what do you think? You're thinking where'd that come from? Well, you can say thank you to me actually. I moved out to the desert finally. This past Thursday, everything's done. Unlike the use of the word in the Bible, I've actually found that the desert can be a good thing. That's good. But anyway, they have a lot of retirement homes and stuff like that out there and they sell crafts. We're walking around and stuff. We went to this craft sale of this one retirement center and this wasn't selling. I felt kind of bad because when I learned that the guy that made it there was supposed to make a bracelet, but his eyesight was so bad he had to make it big. It's really a joke. I didn't really say that. It really didn't happen there. So anyway, move along. Is that what we're saying? Okay. But it is great. It's great to be here. My wife and I and some great dear friends of ours from the Lighthouse region. I'm feeling Robin Wazworth are coming to spend some time with us too. We're really glad to have them here as well to meet you and see you. But I want to talk, I think a lot about life. I think about our life. I think about what God has done. I want to talk today, the title of this lesson is the cost of following Jesus. Honestly, I think a lot about religion. I grew up religious. I think a lot about what people do out of habit, out of duty, out of just whatever reasons they have to go to church like I did actually growing up without really understanding what this is really all about. Because I think there's changes that we constantly have to be reminded of. I appreciate Rocky's word suffered today. I mean, it was encouraging to see what God is. There needs to be a great celebration of what God has in store for us, but we got to want that. And just for those brothers, if he ever asks you to go and spend the day with them, it's going to get bloody. Just be prepared for that one. But what God has in mind is oftentimes very different than what we perceive in our own minds. And that's what I want to talk about. I think we've got to always be reminded. Peter says that. It's good for me to remind you, he says, of these things, even though you've heard them before. But we've got to get ourselves to a place that we constantly are in awe of the God that we serve and understanding what it is he's looking for us to do. As I said, I grew up in a religious home, actually faithfully devoted to their faith. I mean, they didn't live a double life one way on weekends, one very, very consistent with it. We went to services. We lived. I never doubted the Bible was from God, although we never read it at home, but the teaching was there. And it had really instilled a lot in my heart. I grew up in a generation where I was taught, you know, we feel we have a responsibility, according to our country. It was interesting. I mean, good or bad, but there was a responsibility to give back. I was taught very much that my freedom and my ability to live here came at a very high price to a lot of people. And we can't take those things for granted. And my generation felt a responsibility there. Many of us went into the service. I enlisted in the Navy. Many went to the Peace Corps. Other things that they would serve because it was something that young people do as they're growing up to give back something. I was 14 years old when President John F. Kennedy made his inaugural speech in which he said, as you know, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country." And that with my teaching resonated strongly with me. Too much in a generation we live in right now, it's what are you going to do for me? What's the country going to do for me now? I'm in this situation. What are you going to do for me? But it was very different in those days. And the pricey things, wars, all these things will change generations. They will change how we think and how we feel about it. And everyone I asked Nancy to marry me. I had just enlisted in the Navy. I hadn't left her boot camp yet. Took her downtown Chicago to the Buckingham Fountain if anybody knows where that said. And asked her to marry me. Now, Nancy was in college and she was planning to be a nutritionist or teacher, you know, going to school for that. My going into the Navy would change a lot of things. I was going to be leaving. I certainly wanted her with me. Without reservation she changed her life plans. She didn't finish a four-year degree at that time. Went instead to a business college to be trained as an executive secretary because that was a profession that she could find work in various places. And she was very, very good at it. We lived in Boston for a period of time. And she was the secretary to the president of an insurance company there. She's very gifted and very talented. But it always amazed me at how quickly all that could change because there's a price that goes with something that's important to me. A responsibility that we have to one another. I'm just a little aside. I remember my dad teaching me and it's funny the older you get the more you appreciate, you know, all the things you learned, you took for granted, or you didn't catch. One of the things my dad taught me that has been a lesson that has stayed with me for my life. He said whenever you borrow something, son, return it in as good or better condition than when you got it. And people will never have problems loaning you something. I remember this story, this as I was putting this together this morning, this came to my mind that I remember one time our fertilizer spreader for the yard had just rusted out, you know, and he asked me to go to the neighbors and ask me to borrow there. So I did and we went over and used it. And I remembered what, you know, he told me that. After we were done and it was pretty grimy when I got it. And I washed that thing off. I took car wax and I polished it. I oiled it was squeaking and squealing and all that stuff. And I remember returning it to him. And I looked brand new. And I rolled it down, you know, his side walked up to his door and knocked on the door. And he said, and I said, I'm just, thanks, thanks for bringing it. And he just looked. He looked at me. And he looked at that. And I said, thank you very much. And I started to walk off. And then he said, any time you want to use it, let me know. That was what I was waiting for. I left, I mean, when my back was, I'm walking away and he said that I said, yes, because that's what my dad said. If you take care of things, if you're responsible, if you give back. And there are wonderful lessons that we, you know, that we learn when I am willing, when I don't feel entitled, when I feel grateful for what's been offered to me. In time, as we were married, as many of you know, I mean, as high school sweethearts even knew each other for most of our lives. But our marriage suffered as we were religious, very religious, went through the motions as we can so easily do of even having daily prayers, but not connecting at all and understanding and moving away from what God has really put together for us. And things just began to fall apart in our marriage. And we were headed towards one of the statistics of a failed marriage. But that's when we really began to seek God and earnest. And oftentimes it takes that sadly for us to reach a point in time when we think, we don't know what else to do. And God said, I've been here the whole time. You didn't even have to get to where you are. But we did. And we began to seek God in earnest. And what I, you know, what I wanted so much to get our marriage fixed as Nancy did. But what we learned changed our lives dramatically, more dramatically than anything we'd ever gone. We could both quote John 3 16. God so loved the world that he gave his one only son. We could do that. We could go through those motions. But then we read other things. I want you to turn to Acts chapter 2. We began to read and study in the Bible some pretty significant things that God had to say to us. And on the day of Pentecost after Jesus' death and his resurrection, as the apostles began to preach and teach about the glory that really was finally upon us. In verse 22, Peter's addressing the crowd and he says, fellow Israelites, listen to this, Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him. As you yourselves know, this man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. And you met with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep a hold on him. And then in verse 36, therefore let all Israel be assured of this, God made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you, for your children, for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call." When we realized, when we started studying the Bible, we realized the issue wasn't our marriage, although it certainly had its problems. The issue was our salvation. And it wouldn't want to begin to sink into us that this scripture wasn't just talking to those guys that happened to put the nails in the cross and those guys that brought Jesus there and lied about him, that God loved me enough, that it was my sins that he had to die for, just as much as it was theirs. And I was just as guilty of the death of Jesus. It was funny, after going to church all my life, that revelation was huge to me. I was felt nice and to do, boy, those were bad people back then, thank you, that it worked for me. But I never felt a personal responsibility that had I not sinned. I could say before God that I'm not guilty. He had to live a sinless life so he could take somebody else's sins on the cross in his death. That was for you and for me and for your children and for all who are far off, it's for all of us. And he calls to all of us, and the question is, what are we going to do? Are we going to listen? And see, when there was a price, it became more now what my dad had tried to instill to me that your freedom today, my freedom, talking to me, your freedom came at a high price in this country. And you need to be grateful and you need to respect. But the freedom that God's talking about is much more significant. And the reality was I could acknowledge it, but I didn't respect it. I could be grateful in a sense that I felt some entitlement, but not the fact that he really did it because I sinned. And it changed my perspective on everything. That understanding went deep. Look over in Luke chapter 14. We'll start reading in 25, and this is an interesting one, too. I mean, going through these scriptures, and as I go back to my own conversion, to my own level of understanding, and it grows all the time, it's supposed to, a deeper understanding and appreciation and gratitude of where it is, and what we're supposed to do. And we've got to always measure ourselves, not with somebody else, but with what God is calling us to do and what God's calling us to be. This says, "Large crowds were traveling with Jesus," in verse 25, "and turning to them he said, 'If anyone comes to me does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, even his own life, such a person cannot be my disciple. Whoever doesn't carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." We ever read some scriptures that aren't good news. I mean, they don't sound that way, do they? The way the God tells me to love everybody, now he's telling me to hate somebody? You know, again, you read the Bible, you get these answers. All of that's a real, that's, you look at any translation, any scholarly, it's the word is hate. In Matthew 10, 37, it talks the same thing, so it talks about love less. Use a different vernacular term there, but this is the real deal. He said, "Listen, compared to me, unless who are the people that could take your heart from me?" Well, this is. Your love for me has to so far surpass your love for them that it's never going to be a question as to who's first in your life. That was hard for me. That was hard teaching for me. I used to think, okay, well, you know, if, here's where my mind was. If I love more than Nancy, it's really not being fair to Nancy. I mean, literally, this is where I was. But everything kept getting worse in our marriage until finally it was like, okay, God, I put you first. I know it was like, God turned around and says, okay, I'm going to show you how to love Nancy. I said, wait a minute. I thought you want me to love you first. Well, you got that right. Now I'm going to show you how to love your children more than you ever had before. When I get the perspective where it's supposed to be, the rest of it begins to fall in line with a level of understanding. But he said, the problem is that we do this. Listen to this. Love your children. Love your, unless you hate mother, father, say, what, children? I talk to way too many families. And this is very personal to me because, because I've got, I've got family, children and grandchildren. They spend so much time in concerned about the grades that kids get and what school they're going to get into. So much more time with that than they do concerned about their spiritual walk with God and heaven that they're there to get into. They'll make sure they get their homework done, but won't make sure they have quiet times. They will make sure they attend class, but won't make sure they attend services. So this is, this is a hard teaching. Jesus says, listen, unless you're willing to do this, take up my cross, what did Jesus give up for you? Then he says, you cannot be my disciple, but see, we get into this church thing. But I'm there, but I give. And I do that direct deposit. The thing goes, the thing goes by, we don't put stuff in, we're thinking, what do people think and we're not? Actually go, it's already there. It's a weird thing, but it's good. But we have this stuff, we'll go through the motions and we'll show up, but our heart doesn't understand. You know what, the reality, I think of, I heard this illustration long ago, man, if we could, if we could open up that and make a chasm between us and for a brief moment, see the faces of the people in hell, we would have no problem with our priorities. But it becomes less real because we live in such a nice place, this place that was bought at a price. But our concerns become more with how we function in this world, how we live, than how we prepare for an eternity that is more amazing, more incredible than anything we'll ever see or be a part of here. Unless you hate your father, mother, sister, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes, even your own life, what I want to do comes way second to what God wants me to do. Such a person cannot be my disciple. Whoever doesn't care is cross, daily and follow me, cannot be my disciple. Suppose, and he goes on with these great illustrations, suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it. Or if you lay the foundation but are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying this person began to build and wasn't able to finish. Great illustration of a new home building, you know, you go to Lowe's and you buy a bunch of bricks for all the money you have and you start laying them in a circle, you get so high and you run out of money. I mean, some of you have been looking at you and say, didn't you think about this? Did it not occur to you that a roof has to go on this in a second? Is there not? Did you not? I mean, what an absurd picture that is. And yet, Jesus is using that as an example of us saying, yes, Jesus is Lord. He is the God that I serve. He's the one that I lay my life down for. Everything I do revolves around that. Unless, of course, I have other things that are more important to do and then I get those things done and I stop building over here. And then the day comes for me to meet him and I've built other stuff, but I've only built this one to hear and I pretty much stopped because it was comfortable. You know, when I look at the lives, the prophets, what was the cost of following Jesus to the prophets? Often their death, the apostles, martyred, horribly, Jesus? Laying everything aside, I have no place to put my head, the Son of Man. And see, we've got to take this seriously by the sisters because where we're going should be a whole lot better. But we can walk from that. And sadly, sometimes we can walk from it, we don't even know it. I think it was Jacob that was sleeping on something, he said, "Surely, Jesus, surely God was in this place and I didn't know it." You know, you're doing your things, you're doing all that kind of stuff, but all of a sudden, God's not there. So we're to build and we're to continue to build, we're to count the cost. When we say "Jesus the Lord," that's a commitment, that's a vow that we made to God, that He's there forever and ever and ever. And it's what needs to set distinctively true disciples of Jesus separate and apart from all the other people that call themselves that. But until we start expecting one another to live this life and to have our priorities in a way that govern how we make our choices and what we do, how we spend our time, what we see, what we watch, how we spend our money, how we teach our children, and you know that it is our job as parents. Then he goes on and says, "Suppose the king's about to go to war against another king when he first sit down and consider whether he's able with 10,000 to oppose one coming against him with 20,000. If he is not able, he will send the delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple." Another great illustration. You've got an army of 10,000 feeling pretty good. It's a good number of people. You go marching out one twice the size, better armed, and you realize if I do battle with this one, guess that I'm going to lose. There is no way about it. We're all going to die. So I'm starting to think we better start talking. Let's send a negotiator. Let's send a delegate to see if we can figure out the terms of peace. Now, how would you feel if this army of 10,000 of yours, you're walking up now to one twice the size, better armed, and mean, angry, whatever. They're going to take you down. Would you walk up to him and say, "Okay, I'll tell you. We'll surrender under these conditions." We want all our houses. We want just fly food for it. Would you think of that, or would you drop to your knees and say, "For it your mercy." Whatever you want for us, just let us live. Doesn't that sound more reasonable? You see, that's us and God. We like to go before God. I want to become a Christian. I want my career. I want finances. I want this house. I want this. I want this school for my kids. I want all these things. I want to go to heaven, too. Got it? Or do I fall on my knees before the King of Kings and say, "I'm really nothing here"? If I can just be part of you, there's nothing. Like Paul, I consider everything I have rubbish compared to this. Then right after that, he kind of seals it up with that same. He says, "You who don't give up everything cannot be my disciple." Well, I give up everything. I just want my attitudes because I'm really ticked about a lot of this thing and how I'm being treated here. No, everything. Everything you have. Salt is good, but if it loses saltiness, how can it be made salty again? We can reach a point in time when we become so stale in our walk with God. You know, I love to talk about legacy because it's what we leave after we go. What legacy do you want? Where are you at in your own walk? Do you walk like Jesus walk? You ever wonder? What do we have this? What do we do, this time warp, you know? And we could go back and walk with the disciples that were with Jesus and live their lives for a few days. What would we see? Or what if we turned it around? What if some of them couldn't, could warp on forward? Those that have lost their children to persecution and their families. Hebrews 11, destitute. What if, what if some of them came forward and walked with you for a while? What would they think? You see, there's a cost that I think we can so easily free. I'm guilty here too. That's why the Bible is so critical for us to really read it, to get it. Not to read it because. These understandings change everything. What do you want your legacy to be? Look at Mark chapter 10. Love this story. Sure you've read it in a number of times. 17. Says Jesus started on his way. A man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher he asked what must I do to inherit eternal life. That's a good question. That's a question we should always ask. Why do you call me good? Jesus answered no one is good except God alone. Hey, you know the commandments? He knew where he was. This guy was a good Jewish young man. God had it all down and been going to church all the time. You know, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, shall not give false testimony. Don't defraud on your father. He almost likes like an interruption. You know, teacher he declared all these things. Hey, awesome. I've done all this. I'm good. But he knew where his heart was. He said he looked at him and he loved him. I love that statement. He said there's one thing you lack. And I like that too. That would be better than having I've got a whole scroll here. You know, I can deal with one thing. You know, one thing you lack. Awesome. But God knew exactly what he was talking about here. He said go sell everything you have. Give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. This guy hadn't had some cash. He knew it. He knew his heart was in his money. For us, it may be someplace else, maybe in a job. It may be something else that we don't want to give up that we know is getting in the way of our relationship with God, the relationship with this church. And he's always looking for that one thing in us. Hey, there's something you lack. It's the last time you're at midweek. I only need one week, one day. I mean, I'm in the world every day, but you know what? That one Sunday morning covers me for the week. I'm solid. Not what I look at acts two that said they met every day in the temple courts. Seems that standard was even higher. What we're looking for here. I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, but I mean to make you feel uncomfortable. Okay. Because I think this is the big deal that we're talking about here. This is what makes a difference for our children understanding the priority that God is supposed to sit in our lives. In our own life, and I'm not lifting ourselves up here, you know what? I followed on the footsteps of so many people that taught me in this life and in the scriptures. When our son, Jeff, we lived in central Illinois, there was no teen ministry. There was a small church. He was 16 and he wasn't doing well. We started driving to the Chicago church, which was three hours away, to get him to Friday devotionals. Sometimes we spend the night, sometimes we come back. There are other things to do. Because he needed the fellowship. He needed to see there was something we worked. I was working to get a job and quit. I was a director of Human Resources at a hospital. I was laboring to get a job. I was like, you know, any job I could. I was filling out applications for anything that sounded like I could figure it out, talk my way into it, and maybe learn it. Or at least hang on to it long enough to get a job that I could do. I mean, anything that, it didn't matter. Our careers meant nothing. Because we understood the salvation of our children was at stake. And God blessed it. After about a year of work, kind of like trying to move to the desert. Same kind of pattern. I'm in this. I don't know what the deal is, God. But we've moved up there. The kids did, Jeff was, Jeff moved up the beginning of his senior year. I've heard so many people, I can't move my kids. They need to be stable. Listen, my son's an evangelist. He has led four churches, planted two of them. His children. His oldest is baptized in Christ. Their security wasn't in where we lived or how long we lived in a particular place. Their security was in the Lord. After a year and a half, I got a job. It's funny. After it took a while, some things that result, I got a job as a vice president of Human Resources at a hospital teaching hospital in Chicago. Nancy was a pediatric nurse. She had gone back to school. I worked there for 18 months. And we were asked to go in the ministry. It wasn't a raise. I need to tell you that. I can tell you what I mean. The ultimate goal was for me, if the Lord was willing, for me to be raised up to be an elder. When I was asked to quit, that's what God wants me to do. If that makes it clear, I'm there. And so we started, what am I going to get paid? I don't know. I don't know any of this stuff. One of the guys who was in leadership in the Chicago church that time says, "Okay, what if we compare you to teacher salaries? That would be pretty good because you'll do some teaching." I said, whatever, you know, just do it. And he looked at the teacher salaries and he came back and said, "Well, I don't think we'll use that. Actually, they were making more than what they were going to offer me." So we came in less than an entry teacher level salary after being the vice president of Nancy being a nurse. But you know what? I wouldn't change it for anything. We moved around in Chicago. Interestingly, this move that we just made last Thursday is our 27th move since we've been married. They ask the kids where they grew up. They go up. I don't even know. I don't even know. Our legacy. Our son, Jeff, I told you his story. Our son, Kevin, when Jeff planted the church in Madison, Wisconsin, he moved his family up there to be with him, to be on mission planting. When Jeff moved and took the leadership of the St. Louis church, our son, Kevin, his family moved down there with them. I mean, everyone, they're close. They're tight. They love each other. They're on the same page. Our daughter Holly was in the ministry for a number of years in the teen ministry here in L.A. And married a great guy. His chiropractor now, he's in the Kansas City Church. Both of them are working the teen ministry in Kansas City. It's their heart. Their children to go there and hear the devotionals, regular devotionals. It's the legacy that I want. I don't care if they don't get the best education. I care that they go to heaven. I care that they love the church. I care that they understand the price that was paid so that you could make it deserves your loyalty and your daily gratitude. It deserves your sacrifice. It deserves your heart. It deserves your spirit, not your attitudes. It deserves your love for one another that is so noticeable that people all over the place will know that we are his disciples, by our love for one another. So what legacy are you building? How far have you built? How much have you gotten distracted? And this is a plague for all of us. And it's the last time you confess sin to somebody else, as if they're thinking you don't have any, or the person you're talking to doesn't have any. The Bible says confess our sin to one another so that what? We may be healed. There's a healing. It messes with us. We've got to be open about our own struggles. We've all got them. But what is your legacy here? What are you leaving for your kids? What do you want that legacy to be? It's interesting. We will regularly say with confidence when I die I'm going to heaven. We trust God. And we're supposed to be able to say that, right? What I realize sometimes is we trust God in death when that time comes. The problem we have is that we don't trust Him with our life. We don't trust Him today or tomorrow with the decisions that we feel we need to make what our plans are. God says if you don't give up everything you have you can't be my disciple. Let me look one more thing, one more scripture, let's look chapter 9. Read this and we'll be wrapping it up here. Verse 57, 57. As they were walking along the road a man said to him to Jesus, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. He's letting him know right away. I don't have good stuff. I don't have this worldly stuff. I don't have the nice car. I don't have the nice location. I don't have good neighborhood. I don't have a lot of stuff." He said to another man, "Follow me." But he replied, "First let me go back and bury my father." True, he was waiting for him to die first. I love that. And Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another he said, "I will follow you, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plow looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Boy, before I became a Christian, before I began to tithe, I had the money to do things. Maybe if I lower my tithe 10%, I can do things. You see what I'm saying here? My concern isn't for today. My concern is for your eternity. Same thing for mine. I like nice things. But I want God at the very end to say, "You did a good job. Stumbled a couple of times, okay, picked it up, got it right, it's okay. Any kids are doing great. Because I want to see, I don't want any. We pray daily that none of our children miss the grace of God." And it would break my heart. I would labor. But God has been a look at all of us and He's been a look at you. And He's going to say, "How's your walk?" Daily. How's school? How's the job? How's the marriage? How's the household? How's what you do? Where am I in this whole thing? Because there's a cost. He was willing to pay it. We have to be willing to pay it. How's your walk? Amen. [Applause] (Applause) [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sunday lesson by John Mannel.