Introduction:
I. The Story of Cassie Bernall
A. Cassie was a 17 year old with long blond hair, hair she wanted to cut off and have made into wigs for cancer patients.
1. She was active in her youth group and was known for carrying a Bible to school.
2. Cassie was in the school library reading her Bible when the two young killers burst in.
a. According to witnesses, one of the killers pointed his gun at Cassie and asked, do you believe in God?
b. Cassie paused and then answered, “Yes, I believe in God.”
c. Why? The gunman asked. Cassie did not have a chance to respond; the gunman had already shot her dead.
B. Cassie’s martyrdom was even more remarkable when you consider that just a few years ago she had dabbled in the occult, including witchcraft.
1. She had embraced the same darkness and nihilism that drove her killers to such despicable acts.
2. But two years ago, Cassie dedicated her life to Christ, and turned her life around.
3. Her friend, Craig Moon, called her a “light for Christ.”
C. According to the Boston Globe, on the night of her death, Cassie’s brother Chris found a poem she had written just two days prior to her death.
1. It read:
Now I have given up on everything else
I have found it to be the only way
To really know Christ and to experience
The mighty power that brought
Him back to life again, and to find
Out what it means to suffer and to
Die with him. So, whatever it takes
I will be one who lives in the fresh
Newness of life of those who are
Alive from the dead
2. She lost her life and gained the world. Those who took her life wanted the world and lost their souls.
II. Have we counted the cost?
A. We often forget about the path we are walking down when we decide to follow Jesus
B. But what exactly have we really forgotten
1. We know, understand and believe that by following Jesus, we are going to heaven
2. But my question is heaven the only place we are going?
3. The obvious answer is no (read Luke 9:57)
4. There are many other stops along the way.
C. Did this man count the cost of being Jesus’ disciple?
1. This is what I want us to decide today.
2. What is the price of following Jesus?
Body:
I. I will follow you anywhere (Luke 9:57-58)
A. So does this man really know what he is proposing
1. I have a good idea of what he thinks he is proposing
2. This man has seen the great things that Jesus has done
a. Jesus just fed five thousand people with a few fish and a few loaves of bread
b. Jesus had just cast out a demon
c. Jesus had healed the sick
d. This man knew Jesus would bless his life
e. This man was asking for the positive things
3. But what this man doesn’t know is what is coming in the near future of Jesus
a. Jesus is about to be betrayed
b. Jesus is about to be beaten
c. Jesus is about to be hung on a cross
d. Would this man have had any part of that?
B. We all know people like this, and maybe sometimes we are all like this in some shape or form
1. Maybe we are just like a group of blind men and women (Read The Blind Men and the Elephant by John Godfrey Sax)
2. Often when we make decisions, like following Jesus we talk about what we think it is like.
3. Instead we need to have the whole picture of Christianity
a. It is true we are going to heaven if we are Christians
b. It is true we are going to suffer for being Christians
c. It is true that we will have to give up a whole lot more than someone who is not a Christian, but in the end who has given up the more.
II. Follow Me (Luke 9:59-60)
A. This passage can be one of the hardest to fully grasp the concepts but it can be done
1. At first we had a man who was willing to give it all, but didn’t count the cost completely (re-read vs. 58)
2. Now we have a man who has counted the cost, but is not willing to leave at that instant
B. Jesus is almost at this point painfully blunt
1. How can someone ask you or I to leave our dead and follow him, now?
a. Why does Jesus make this point of following him this instant?
b. The obvious answer is as follows
1.) First of all this is Jesus, the son of God
2.) Second, what will be the next reason we give him for not following
3.) Third, sometimes you have to choose the better of two good things
2. Jesus is making the cost of discipleship plain
a. Luke is writing this down to make a point
b. As Christians who are responsible for spreading the gospel we need to understand some things
1.) When we teach the gospel to people who have not heard
2.) We need to teach about Jesus Christ dying and raising from the dead
3.) We need to teach about baptism, repentance, confession
4.) We have got to teach about counting the cost. living a daily life for Jesus
c. Without the latter, we will have willing followers dropping out like flies at the sign of trouble
1.) Why?
2.) Because we have promised them a rosy life of greatness, but instead they had a moment of bad times.
3. We have got to learn to count the cost of following Jesus
C. Problems are problems right
1. Nothing good has ever came from a problem
2. It is not always easy to go through problems or tough situations, but by going through those we can be sure we are growing
III. I will follow if… (Luke 9:61-62)
A. Here we have a gentlemen that likes to give demands
1. Jesus, here is how it is going to be.
a. If you will just wait a day or two, I will return
b. Before I can follow you, I have got to say good-bye to everyone
c. I am sure you understand how that is
2. I will follow if…
a. This man must have been standing close as Jesus told another to follow him
b. He overheard the conversation, and with the lack of a response from the other offered his services.
c. But not without a catch.
B. How many times when it comes time for us to serve and follow do we say I will if…
1. Sometimes we have got to choose between two good things
a. The hard choices are not between bad and good choices
b. They are deciding between two good things
2. We will often be faced with a choice just like this
a. Do I come and help with VBS? Or do I go on vacation that week?
b. Do I prepare communion this next month? Or do I just get to church on time?
c. Do I teach Bible Class? Or do I just come to Bible Class?
d. Do I talk about Jesus to this non-Christian? Or do I just be a good example?
3. Our lives are filled with hard decisions
4. Who will you choose?
Conclusion:
I. In America we like convenience, comedian Yakov Smirnoff talked about when he first got to the United States
A. He wasn’t prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores.
B. He says, “On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk – you just add water and you get milk.
C. Then I saw powdered orange juice – you just add water, and you get orange juice
D. And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, what a country
E. We as American’s want discipleship to be convenient.
II. But what is the price of following Jesus?
A. The three men that were talked about before is not what Jesus wants (10:1)
B. The price of following Jesus is our very own life.
III. It is not as bad as it sounds
A. When we choose to follow Jesus and approach his center it will be easy to overlook certain problems
B. Take for example a Merry-go-round
1. If you are sitting on the outside
2. If you are sitting in the middle
C. In life it is quite simple
1. Everyone will have problems throughout their life, but only Christians have the peacefulness of being in the middle of the merry-go-round
2. Where are you?
3. Are you hanging on tight? As the world seems to be spinning out of control?
4. Maybe it is time you move to the center and let Jesus have control.
