Zone of Freedom Luke 14:25-33
Delivered to Smith Chapel UMC, Sunday, September 5, 2010
Cost--I tend to be rather frugal...sometimes (I admit) downright cheap. I think I'm getting better in my old age, but I guess that would be for someone else to decide.
I DO know that when I'm considering a big ticket item, it takes me a long time to decide to pull the trigger. Once I decide, however, I usually go all out...sometimes beyond my means.
The biggest ticket item of all is discipleship. It costs a lot to be a disciple of Christ. It costs us our lives. We don't always physically die for Jesus, but we should always live for Jesus. If we're living for Him, it (in that sense) costs us our lives. We suddenly have someone else in charge. Someone else is making the decisions (namely, Jesus). Someone else is calling the shots (namely, the Lord).
Once I made the decision for Jesus, I was all in. Unfortunately, I tend to be cheap with Him as well. I sometimes try to get by with the least I can. That doesn't make sense when you think about it. Why hold back on the only one who can help? Why hold out on the only source of true riches? It makes no sense. That's probably why I'm often a poor man...not poor in the economic sense, but poor in the spiritual sense.
I should be a rich person, but I often feel like a pauper...and it's my own fault.
