Building and Battling
Luke 14:27-33 KJV And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. [28] For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? [29] Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, [30] Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. [31] Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? [32] Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. [33] So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
I. INTRODUCTION -- HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
-Every man who gives a whim about his financial responsibilities will always be concerned about the cost. Any man who is intent on making any kind of purchase will be concerned about the price tags to greatness.
• Spirituality demands consecration.
• Character demands principles founded by the Word of God.
• Revival demands consecration.
• Righteousness demands focus.
One of the past gold medalists on the U.S. Swim Team gave this account as to the cost of the medal that he had won. He had swam a total of 45,000 miles in the last four years. From now until the 2000 Olympics, he will have swam an equivalent of two times across the Pacific Ocean.
-All of that is for a corruptible crown. If such is the case, how much more should the Church be willing to expend it’s energies, it’s prayers, it’s finances, it’s talents toward an incorruptible crown?
-One of the greatest distractions that the devil will attempt to place on the church in this hour is weariness, discouragement, and distraction. If these three areas can break in on this fellowship of believers, the quest for revival is always hindered?
-Not only will the quest for revival be hindered but the cost, the price tag, is obscured!!! There are conditional and unconditional promises of God.
• The unconditional promises are those that God is bound to fulfill despite the attitudes and actions of men (such as end-time revival).
• The conditional promises of God (such as personal revival and personal growth) come to rest only on those who are willing to give, to pay, to reach, to strive, and to alter everything about their spiritual life as they reach for God.
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
-If you will. . . God Will!!!!
-How much will it cost for God to begin building in your life? That is answered in the Word of God.
A. Growing Up and Paying the Price
When I was growing up, I began to have a desire to wear the “right” clothes and the “right” shoes. The “right” clothes were Levi’s jeans and Izod or Fox shirts. The “right” shoes were Nike’s Leather Cortez. But I just didn’t have the “right” parents. So I was informed that should I began to wear such items that I would have to pay for them with my own money. I was in the eighth grade and through a man who used to go to church in Dothan, I found my way quite humbly to a tomato field just east of town. It was there that I was paid 0 .75 cents for each five gallon bucket of tomatoes that I picked. It took twenty buckets to get $15.00. So I labored picking tomatoes until I graduated up to working at the Little Farmer’s Market which was a produce/grocery/gas station on Fortner Street. It was there that I would start at 6:30 A.M. and work until 5:30 P.M. each day, Monday through Saturday for $15.00 a day. I carried shingles for a couple of roofers for several days (which almost killed me!!!). Paying the price!!!
Having saved my money, my parents took me to Wilson’s Men Shop which at the time had the cheapest prices on Levi’s in Dothan. I remember quite well being able to make my purchases their. From that time on, I pretty much bought all of my school clothes. It was in those days that I understood that anything worth having is going to require some effort. There was heat to endure, there were times that I knew that others were out having a great time, there times that I wanted to sleep in, but there was also a determination in knowing that a price must be paid.
-That same philosophy has carried over into my life in everything that I do. If it is on the job, in the classroom, or in the spiritual avenues of the soul, there must be a willingness to give myself out for a cause.
-Now the quests of life reach far beyond a pair of jeans or a pair of shoes. Now the quests of life involve things like:
• Developing a prayer life.
• Having a mastery of the Word of God.
• Impacting lives for the cause of the Kingdom.
• Striving for sterling character.
• Reaching for revival.
• Having a hunger for the holiness of God.
II. LUKE 14
-Luke 14 begins with a healing and ends with a warning. It is in this chapter that one of the miracles that Jesus became known for was performed. But in the process of the miracle, there arose a conflict with the Pharisees.
-The conflict arose because Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. According to their interpretations of the Law, this was a direct violation. In the quest for understanding, Jesus began to use a series of parables that began in the house of the Pharisees and then would continue outside of the home and to the multitudes.
A. The First Two Parables
-The two parables that were given provide great insight into the matters of the Kingdom of God:
• The Man at the Wedding Feast
• The Invitation to the Great Supper
-The emphasis of these parables both show men who are out of place. The first parable deals with a man who is interested in promoting himself. This man is the one who is always concerned about what involvement that he will have and what the involvement will benefit him. The second dealt with those who refused to answer to the invitations of the master.
-The man sat in the wrong room. The invited guests remained where they were and did not come in.
-Success with God is always determined by the presence in the proper place (just ask Jacob, Joseph, or even Jehu). Pride and neglect will always cause men to miss out on the important positions of the Kingdom of God.
-Humility is necessary to elevate men into the proper channels of ministry (not just a pulpit ministry). Spiritual intensity must replace spiritual neglect. This also brings to light the importance of spiritual disciplines (involving prayer, study of the Word, fasting, witnessing, etc.).
-Many men fail in their efforts for God because they are out of place with God. As for being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . . How much does it cost?
Psalms 42:1-2 KJV
Jeremiah 29:11-13 KJV For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. [12] Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. [13] And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
-Men much must reach for God with more than their hands, they must reach for Him with more than their intellect, they must reach for Him not just in their trouble. A man must reach for God with His heart.
III. COUNTING THE COST
A. Discipleship
-When Jesus walked out of the room that day, the crowd began to follow Him. The great possibility exists that they were looking for a blessing from the Messiah. However, one must understand that as a whole the nation of Israel was rejecting Him.
-Because they were rejecting Him, blessings would be postponed. The same pattern holds true today. If you are in the process of rejecting Christ do not look for the blessings to be extended to you.
-In two verses, He defined what discipleship was all about.
Luke 14:26-27 KJV If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. [27] And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
1. The Details of Discipleship:
• Family relationships must yield to love for Him.
• A man must hate his own life.
• A man must be willing to identify with Jesus Christ even though, He is rejected among men.
The word “hate” may seem like a strong term. In the terms of the Jewish idioms, this word is also used to express the will. In Malachi 1:2-3 and in Romans 9:13, love and hate were used in reference to Jacob and Esau. When God said He loved Jacob, He was not expressing His emotion but rather His will; God meant that He had chosen Jacob. His statement of hatred of Esau was not a manifestation of His emotion but rather of His will. He meant that He had set Esau, the first-born, aside. To love would be to choose or to submit to. To hate is to refuse to submit to authority of another. To be disciples of Jesus Christ, people must reject every other authority and be solely under the authority of Jesus Christ. (Pentecost -- The Words and Works of Jesus Christ)
-Thus one understands the details of discipleship with these few utterances from the Lord.
2. The Requirements of Discipleship
-Then He began to illustrate to us what the requirements of discipleship were all about. The Cost must be counted.
-Before you began to count the cost of discipleship, have you counted the cost if your soul is lost?
-What shall it profit a man? . . . . Think of it in this manner. . . . . What shall it profit a man though he lose the whole world and lose his own soul in the bargain?
-You see, no man ever is going to gain the whole world. There will always be someone more powerful, more prestigious, and richer. The fortunes amassed by the Hunts and by the Gettys now appear minuscule in the comparison to what Bill Gates of Microsoft has gained. Yet, in a few years (if the Lord stays the Rapture) another man will do the same to Mr. Gates.
-Yet on the other hand, no man can serve God without tremendous cost to himself. Ask yourself this:
• Is Jesus Christ pre-eminent in my own heart?
• Am I so yielded to Him that I am prepared for Him to have His way in my life?
• Can I allow my talents to be relegated to the menial servant-hood of the Kingdom of God?
• Is my life’s ambitions totally surrendered to the will of God?
-Understand that despite the tremendous work of grace and the unrelenting pursuit of mercy, there are the requirements of discipleship.
-Jesus gave a brief picture of the man who refused to undertake the requirements of discipleship. He gave to us the picture of the man who stretched his liberties to the limits.
Luke 14:29-30 KJV Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, [30] Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
-He came away from the task a ruined man. He became one of those who fills in the category of the failing salt. A weak foundation will ultimately form a weak building.
-Strong faith demands a sure foundation. In building the place there must be the proper elements that Paul made reference to:
1 Corinthians 3:9-15 KJV [9] For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. [10] According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. [11] For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; [13] Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. [14] If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. [15] If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
IV. THE MASTER’S FIGURES OF LIFE
-To this point, the focus of this message has been on my own obligation to God. But the Master used fantastic figures of life. Suppose for a moment that the Builder and the King was none other than Jesus Christ.
-He was the Builder and the Battler.
-Consider His Cost (best described by Scripture):
Isaiah 53:2-11 KJV For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. [3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [4] Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. [8] He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. [9] And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. [10] Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. [11] He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
John 1:9-14 KJV That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. [10] He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. [11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not. [12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: [13] Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
-That is but a small portion of the price that the Builder had the pay. He counted the cost and found it to be a worthy one. He found that one of the most noble causes of creation would be the contents within my soul . . . . . .and within yours.
A. The Status of the Soul
-The building of the soul is:
• Like Architecture and like War.
• Building or Battling.
-Some souls grow naturally on their own with but a slight boost from the hand of God. But these souls are rare. For the most part, great souls are borne either out of buildings or battlings. Effort on effort, failure on failure.
-So many times I have constructed prisons that incarcerated my worship, I have built the gallows that has been ready for the work of the hangman but the mercy of God has shattered it time and again.
-There can be at times a depth in serving God and there are other times that a difficulty may arise in serving God. The old song narrates the path of the soul like this: “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. . . . . . .” That is the hint of God building a man of God.
-Patience is required in the building processes of life.
Luke 21:19 KJV In your patience possess ye your souls.
-Don’t rush God toward a quick conclusion. Don’t quit when it is not following through like you expect it to. God has a purpose in all that He does. My life. . . . . Your life is in the hands of God. For men to ever forget that hinders their effectiveness in the Kingdom of God.
-Jesus placed much emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Count how much the final tally is going to be before rushing into some vague service for God. Rash promises or rash vows generally do nothing but spawn guilt and confusion in the lives of men.
-All the while the Master builder is working on your life, sin is demanding, sin is harassing, sin is haranguing, sin is working to destroy any spiritual credibility that you may have. Sin is too subtle to raise such a demand as: Count the Cost.
-Sin is too subtle, too sweet, to masterfully urgent to give a man time for such eternal arithmetic. Satan always demands that you respond now, give in, do it, fail now, give no consideration for the embarrassment, for the shame, for the guilt that will always accompany failure.
-This is not the way of God:
Isaiah 1:18-19 KJV Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. [19] If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
-Half of the battle is won when a man will sit down and count the cost. The man who counts the cost earnestly will show a brilliant callousness to the magnetic pulls of the world.
-As He hung on the Cross, calm calculation was clearly at the hand of the Lord. In all of the highest courage, there is the element of quiet calculation. The truest heroes always count the cost.
-Others before me have had that quiet contemplation:
• Moses -- Forty days alone with God.
• Elijah -- In a lonely mountain wilderness.
• Paul -- Departed into the loneliness of Arabia.
-That is God’s way.
• Moments that you stand alone.
• Alone and isolated from others.
-But in the lonely vigils of a prayer meeting somewhere late at night, the doubt and the confusion starts to clear. The wounds have time to heal. The mind becomes intent and focused. The inner stamina of the soul begans to return and respond to the challenges. All in a manner that shows the character of Christ.
-Strive for it, yield to it, the principles of the Spirit-filled life.
-God builds when men yield:
• Noah -- His Ark was his salvation.
• Abraham -- His altars were his salvation.
• Ruth -- Her lowly gleaning raised her from alien to become one of the commonwealth of Israel.
• Hannah -- Her strong tears birthed a prophet/judge.
• Mephibosheth -- His crippling became his crowning.
-There are some elements that every man needs to have built into his life. He needs:
• Joy but also sorrow.
• Laughter but also tears.
• To be a winner but also to be a loser.
• To be a success but also to be a failure.
• Encouragement but also discouragement.
• Harmony but also strife.
• Victory but also defeat.
-Be careful when God is working on building that we do not move from the anvil too quickly.
-Jesus Christ faced all of the Kingdoms that Satan showed to Him. He counted the cost and took the sweat of Gethsemane and the water and blood of Calvary. I will do the same. . . . No decision, no choices, no alternatives. Reach, strive, give, and let God do the perfect work of grace.
-The building of the soul is imperative. The first building of a tower in Genesis came to naught. The Bible is full of builders who want to eliminate God from their life. Babel of Genesis is traced right through to Babylon of Revelation.
B. The Victory of the Soul
-Yet the struggles of the soul in building do not mark the high points of salvation. Jesus came to build a Kingdom (which is constructive) but He also came to make war (which is destructive).
-Look at the words of the Lord:
Matthew 16:18-19 KJV And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [19] And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
-Because the work of God involves building and battling, God is careful about whom He chooses to accomplish the task.
-The words that came to Jesus from Israel: “Let us crown you that we may overthrow Rome.” His reply: “Away with your crowns, I came to build and to battle.”
-He came to tear down the works of sin, to destroy the works of the flesh, to wreak havoc on the efforts of sin in our lives.
-When God goes to war:
• The sun stands still until victory is won.
• The enemy will drown in the Red Sea.
• The stone always finds its mark in the enemy’s forehead.
• The enemy will flee from their tents.
• The enemy will fall at midnight.
• The small number will prevail.
Exodus 14:14 KJV The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Exodus 23:27 KJV I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
2 Samuel 5:24 KJV And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.
2 Chronicles 20:29 KJV And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel.
2 Chronicles 32:8 KJV With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
Revelation 17:14 KJV These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
Revelation 19:16 KJV And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
V. CONCLUSION -- DON’T QUIT
When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high;
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are;
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit-
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.
-You must remember that you are building and battling!
Philip Harrelson
February 25, 2007
