Count the cost, this is not a walk in the park.

Have you considered the cost? Have you considered what it means to truly follow Christ? Have you considered what true and total surrender really means? I say to you, today, dear reader; count the cost - consider what you’re getting yourself into. This call is not a walk in the park, and God is in no way looking for partial surrender. He wants all of us - all in and totally surrendered.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26-33).

Here Jesus clearly speaks about the kind of person who can not be His disciple, and He was careful to add that there is more to being His follower than simply accepting an invitation. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple…” What an audacious demand! One that’s definitely offensive to the human heart. Who wants to sign up for such a personal commitment and devotion? If Jesus was not and is not God, such commitment and devotion would be idolatry and probably madness! But Jesus is God and wholehearted devotion is not only what He is after, but what he deserves.

Count the cost. Think about these things. God is calling for us to walk with him totally surrendered, without reservation. The true disciple goes to Jesus without reservation, setting Him first. Every other thing is definitely of lower priority than faithfulness and obedience to Jesus. True surrender calls for us to leave everything we know to become something our minds cannot comprehend. It calls for us to abandon the pleasures of this life to live with eternity in mind. It calls for us to live with radical obedience.

True surrender is very costly. We end up hurting those we love to honor and live for the one we never want to bruise - Jesus. Sometimes we’ll have no money, no job, and no understandable future. You lose but then you gain. You gain the prize - Jesus - your first love, and the only one that truly matters. Luke 9:62 says, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Jesus stressed to this man the commitment necessary to follow Him. One must have a similar determination as a farmer plowing a field, who must do it with all his strength and always looking forward. We are called to abandon all and surrender all. We are called to steadfastly set our faces to go all the way with Jesus. All the way or no way at all… what will it be?

As disciples of Jesus, we must count ourselves as dead; we must go all the way. Being a follower of Jesus is something like bearing a cross, and when we take up that cross, we must know that there is no going back. Going with Jesus is a one way journey, so we must consider what this means.

Dear reader, count the cost. Only cross-bearers can be Jesus’ disciples. I know that sometimes as christians we may understate the demands of Jesus when we present the gospel. We sometimes can give the impression that coming to Jesus is only to believe some facts instead of to yield a life, but it’s so much more than that - Jesus wants it all!

Sit down and see if you can afford to follow Jesus. Sit down and see if you can afford to refuse His demands. The life that Jesus is calling us to is usually more costly than one thinks before beginning. Lay everything out on the table. The truth is, to consider the cost of being a disciple of Jesus means to consider that choosing to reject and resist Him is also very costly. What possible good can come from opposing God? It costs something to be the disciple of Jesus; it costs more to reject Him.

Come one and all, say goodbye to everything you own, entrusting it to Jesus. Trust that while you may lose here you are certainly gaining an eternal reward - Jesus.

God is raising a radical army. Those who are fully surrendered and are burning for Him. There is no turning back for these ones. When you have been exposed to the real thing, there is no turning back. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” That will be the song on their lips when the temptation to look away presents itself. They will live fully surrendered, having counted the cost and realising that Jesus is The Worthy One.