There Is A Cost To Discipleship Beloved Despite Popular Television Speakers Slant On Prosperity
Jason Bryant
There has always been a cost for the seeker, follower, and disciple of Christ. To begin with, the faith that justified Abraham, cost him leaving his hometown, his family, his property, his prestige, and many heartaches in the journey of faith in which he sought a city whose Maker is Yahweh. It cost Abraham and his male servants, nephew, and male family, even Ishmael some physical pain as they would be circumcised as adult men, and adolescent males including Ishmael. This faith in being disciple of God in the school of faith would even cost the anguish, yet obedience when it came to sacrifice the child of promise, Isaac.
In the days of Noah, it would cost Noah 120 years of ridicule preaching a Gospel of salvation in a type of Christ as he built the ark. No conversions preaching to those who ridiculed him as he built a gigantic boat for a flood, on a land that had yet to see a drop of rain. Moving down it would cost Moses his happy life in Midian as a shepherd, to a point of leading a group of people that whined and complained forty years and murmured and opposed him the entire time. Joshua, oh Joshua, a man betrayed by his own brothers, sold into slavery, imprisoned for avoiding ALL APPEARANCES of evil, and fleeing from sin! It cost. Jeremiah the "Weeping Prophet" preached exactly what God said, and was cast into a well for speaking Truth. Jeremiah preach to a godless nation that refused and ignored the message, and he penned Lamentations as Hebrews were carried into captivity, and he left to see the smoldering heap of Jerusalem. Look beloved, look at Hosea, his faithfulness to follow God brought humiliation as he bought back an adulterous wife, and was a father to children not of his seed. Isaiah faithful in preaching to Israel, yet saw the fall of the Northern Kingdom. "But that is Old Testament!" "We are NOT under Old Testament doctrines...we are above them." Both statements perpetrated mass media, books, study guides, and poor old ladies bombarded on television with "Sow a seed into our ministry, we'll even take your credit card number." Woe on those who defraud the Saint, for the Lord is the avenger of such! (1st Thessalonians) For those who have tore the Old testament from the Word of God, here is some Word from Jesus:
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." (John 15:14:21 KJV)
Here in John, notice the costs:
1.) A COMMAND to do what Christ has said, from Mt. Olives, Sermon on the Mount, the parables. Being a true servant WILL COST YOU the world's popularity. (Jesus)
Another Jesus teaching on the cost of discipleship:
2.) WARNING "2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." (John 16:2-3 KJV)3.) EXPLICIT WARNIGN TO COUNTING THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP:
"26 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.
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." (Luke 14:26-33 KJV)
Clearly we see Christ warned of the cost. In Acts of the Apostles, the epistles, and the history of the Saints throughout history from the days of Nero, to the blood shed in the reformation for owing a Bible, the price is paid. Saeed Abidini is setting in Iran's most horrendous prison sharing the Gospel like Paul, whom we know paid the price. Beloved being a disciple has its cost. Costs being martyred, costs imprisoned, even the costs of continuing in the word, and putting off self, plans, money, homes, careers, prestige, and comfort to name a few. What cost am I paying? What costs are you paying? Share with the Saints! Love in Christ, Jason. Happy Thanksgiving from America my Christian friends around the world.
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