<p>Are we willing to give what it takes?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Restoration International

Parenting ~ Heart to Heart

Alane Waters

Tom Waters

Parenting with a Purpose

God’s Word the Parent’s Guide

Reaching the Heart

ABC’s

Developing Independence

Counting the Cost

This morning as we close these meetings we want to talk about counting the cost.

What do you think of when you hear the term counting the cost?

You know, I was thinking about Jesus just as we were kneeling there praying.

Jesus counted the cost when he was there in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating as it were great drops of blood.

The devil was harassing his mind, trying to convince him, if you do this, you are going to so separate yourself from your Heavenly Father, there will be no hope for you.

Not to the degree that Jesus our Savior met it because he did it for the whole human race.

You just feel like, you know, it's too hard.

Jesus counted the cost for us there in the garden that night.

He decided that whatever the cost was to himself, he would go through with drinking the cup.

That's how Jesus counted the cost for us.

Now he's asking us, Are we willing to count the cost?

Because when we leave here today, is the battle over?

And the question is, are we willing to count the cost and do what God is asking us to do.

He may be asking all of us a similar thing.

1 of the similar things is He is asking all of us to give Him an unreserved surrender of ourselves as part of exchanging our filthy rags for His righteousness.

But we're going to have individual things that God is calling us to count the cost.

Are we going to be willing when we leave this place to really count the cost and go forward with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know it says there in Luke the 14th chapter, the 28th verse, For which of you, Intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it.

Who's going to start out building a house without first deciding if they're willing to go through with what it's going to cost.

If they have sufficient to take us through.

This is part of counting the cost, brothers and sisters.

It's realizing that we do not have it in ourselves to get to the finish line.

When we start counting the cost, we'll figure that out, that we need Christ.

1 of the problems that I have found, and that I think many of you face, is that when you look at what is ahead of you, it seems sometimes overwhelming, right?

Because when you look at what the Lord has laid before us, the burdens he's put on our hearts, and for each of us it may be a little different.

We all have the same need, and that is to be fully surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But our surrender may involve different aspects that become very individualized for a person or for a family.

But when we look at that, sometimes we can be overwhelmed with that and think, do I really want to make that choice?

Do I really want to make that investment?

I was thinking of the illustration of if you had a dollar bill and you could go to an investor and he says, for every dollar bill you give me, I'll give you a million dollar bills back.

You know, knowing that they were really genuine articles and not a counterfeit, obviously.

For every, every day we give Jesus, When you look at it from this perspective, every 1 day I'm willing to give my life fully to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has promised that he'll give more than a million in return, right?

So when we consider counting the cost, we have to be willing to look at it for the eternal results and not for what it looks like temporally.

Then it makes us desire to invest this day with God, to invest giving Him my heart in that investment, counting the cost to surrender my heart to Him so that I know He will, His promise to give great in return.

We all wanna build a strong relationship with God, don't we?

That's why we made the effort to come here.

And it's not just for you all, That's our desire too.

And when you leave here and you face your trials we leave here and we face our trials We're not any different than you are But we all have the same need and we all have the same Savior and we're here because we want to build that strong relationship with God in our own life.

We want that relationship to be built with God in our marriage and we want that relationship to be built with God in our families and with our children.

David says in Psalm 127 verse 1, except who?

The Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

And we've all tried to build without the Lord.

So we're trying to get the boards measured and we cut the wrong size or either too short or too long We can't get the angles right the nails bend I'm just looking at some of the basic things when you consider building something or building a home Because we're laboring in vain.

We are not working with the power of the master carpenter to build that home, that spiritual home in our hearts and that spiritual home in our families.

So this week we've talked about many things that involve our personal relationship with God.

We've talked about parenting with a purpose in our families.

We've talked about God's Word being our only sure guide, right?

Whether we're parents or not, God's word is the only thing that we can trust in.

We've talked about ways that we can reach into the heart of our families, reach into the heart of our children.

We've talked about the ABCs in parenting, but we need to talk about counting the cost.

Are we willing to count the cost and take the little that we have, that's our will, and give it to God and make that investment for eternity.

See what it comes down to for all of us is whether when we leave here, we're willing to allow God to begin to work in us in the areas He's called us to.

Every 1 of us is going to make choices when we leave here.

Christian or non-Christian, we're going to make choices when we leave here.

Are we going to choose, regardless of how it feels, regardless of how tired we are, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of the distractions, are we going to choose to do what God is asking us to do?

It's a thrill to our hearts when, first of all, we do it.

Secondly, it's a thrill when we hear the testimonies of the people that we've met over the years that are doing it and see the transformations in families.

The question is, will we decide, yes, I'm going to do it no matter the cost.

There's No 1 else that can decide that for us.

We have to decide if we're going to do it.

And we want to talk about a few of those ways that we believe we have to count the cost.

It may sound a bit repetitious to you, but for me it is not.

1 of the hardest areas that I find is counting the cost to take time for God in his word every day.

I mean doesn't that just come natural for me?

It comes natural in my heart to want to take time in God's Word.

But do you think that I ever have to struggle with taking time in God's Word?

Yes, I have the same struggle that you have.

And I believe in God's word with all of my heart, and I have found the practical answers in God's word to things that I didn't know it was possible to, and yet I still struggle to make the decision, Because sometimes I am so dead tired that I don't feel like it.

You think the devil likes to spend time in God's Word?

You know I have 1 of those little PDA things.

Bit of my old day timer that I used to use.

You know what it says on my PDA in big, bold letters?

Back to Menu

Series

Parenting ~ Heart to Heart

Counting the Cost

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

ECYC 2012: Plenary Sessions

The Almost Christian

54m

Jesus on Prophecy

01 Prophecy Unfolds Today

48m

Forgiven not Forgotten

58m

Broken but Loved

1h

The Godhead- Part 3

1h

Israel and the Judges

33m

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

6. Cutting Timothy

55m

Our Message Has a Name

44m

IMPACT Scandinavia 2012: Plenary Sessions

Immune to the Gospel

1h 10m

Hands-Free Operation

56m

Evening Plenary

02 The Power of One

1h 7m

Did You Know God Misses You?

41m

Sound Doctrine