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Is it worth it? (Luke 14:26-30) December 3, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Acts 21-22

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 14:26-30
Jesus: If any of you come to Me without hating your own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and yes, even your own life, you can’t be My disciple. If you don’t carry your own cross as if to your own execution as you follow Me, you can’t be part of My movement. Just imagine that you want to build a tower. Wouldn’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to be sure you have enough to finish what you start? If you lay the foundation but then can’t afford to finish the tower, everyone will mock you: “Look at that guy who started something that he couldn’t finish!”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Sometimes we Christians give non-believers the wrong impression about the Christian life. We kind of let people think the Christian life is easy. Just let Jesus be Lord of your life and everything will be great from there on out. You’ll always have plenty of money. Friends will pour in from every direction. Jobs will fall into your lap. God will do incredible things for you all the time. You will always have a smile on your face because God is a God of love and He will make things perfect for you, right?

Well, that’s not the Christian life that I’ve experienced and if you ask most Christians, they will tell you that their walk has not been a bed of roses. The Christian life is not an easy one. Jesus hinted at the difficulties we would face as He talked to those who followed Him. He continually talked about suffering, taking up our cross, being despised by the world. He didn’t say much about easing through the world with lots of comfort. He talks about the rewards at the end, but until then, He indicates life can get pretty hard since the world doesn’t understand us and because of that failure to understand us and believe in Him, they will hate us intensely.

Jesus laid out the costs of following Him throughout His ministry. He scoffed at the wealthy because they put their faith in the wrong things. He told the rich they already had all that would come to them if they didn’t let go of their golden god and embrace the One, True, Living God. Then He said count those costs and see if you want to pay them before you sign up. I don’t think He wanted anyone to be disillusioned about want it means to be a Christian. He didn’t want anyone to think everything would turn out just the way you want when you decide to give your life to Him. Because it won’t.

We don’t know what just right means because we’ve lived in a tainted world that tells us our whole life what right means but the world is wrong. So what we think is right is probably not what God thinks is right. So expect to be disappointed sometimes. Expect to be angry at what God allows to happen every once in a while. Expect to scratch your head and wonder why things progress the way they do because they just won’t make any sense to you. But remember God is God and we are not. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what is best for us and His world. He knows how to make His plans work through our lives. And He will when we let Him.

When you count those costs, though, you’ll also find that the costs are well worth the price. The price is everything. It is all you have, all your material goods, all your dreams and aspirations, all your relationships, all of you. The cost of following Jesus is a commitment of everything you can think of and everything you can’t think of now but will pop up in the future. It’s all or none with Him. That is a pricey commitment. There is nothing else that will cost you so much. Nothing demands so much of you as following Jesus.

But in the end, when time finally comes to a close and the last tick of the clock has sounded, you will discover the cost has been infinitesimally small compared to the reward you receive. Despite the sorrow you might experience here, there will also be indescribable joy. An inner peace that can only be explained by the presence of God Himself living inside you. You will find that God really does meet your needs. Not your wants, but your needs. We often get our wants and our needs confused in our materialistic world, but God never does. He knows what you need and provides it at just the right time when we stay in the center of His will.

God also gives you opportunities to serve others as you serve Him. He puts you in places and situations at just the right time to share what He is doing in your life so that you can introduce Him to others in a way that allows His spirit to stir their hearts and so allow them to come to know His saving grace as you do.

Are the costs worth the prize at the end? Absolutely. But don’t be surprised by the cost of being a Christian. It will never be an easy life. God never told anyone who stayed in His will that He would make life easy for them. But He always promised it would be worth it. And it is. Trust Him. He never breaks His promises.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Sacrifices aren’t free (1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1), May 13, 2015

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Today’s Podcast


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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1
Set – 1 Chronicles 21; 1 Thessalonians 2
Go! – 2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21; Psalms 30; 1 Thessalonians 2

1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1
Messenger (commanding Gad): 18 Tell David to build an altar to the Eternal on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 David obeyed the instruction of the divine messenger.

20 When Ornan saw the messenger, his four sons who were with him hid among the wheat. But Ornan continued threshing. 21 As David approached, Ornan glimpsed the king, left his chores, and prostrated himself before David.

David: 22 Sell me this threshing floor so I may build on it an altar to the Eternal. I will pay you the full price so the plague against the people may end.

Ornan: 23 Take it; it’s yours to do with as you please. I will donate the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing tools for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you, my king.

David: 24 No, I must buy it for the full price. I will not give your possessions to the Eternal as if they were my own, nor will I give a burnt offering which costs me nothing. I must sacrifice something for this offering.

25 So David paid Ornan 15 pounds of gold by weight for the property. 26 There David built an altar to the Eternal, sacrificed burnt offerings, and gave peace offerings. David requested His presence, and He accepted the altar and sacrifices by sending fire from heaven onto the altar of burnt offering. 27 Then the Eternal commanded the divine messenger to sheath his sword. 28 When David saw how the Eternal had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite by coming to the altar as fire and by stopping the plagues and the destruction of Jerusalem, David offered a sacrifice there instead of at Gibeon. 29 (The congregation tent of the Eternal, which Moses had built in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were in the high place at Gibeon at that time.) 30 But David could not go to Gibeon to commune with God because he still feared that the Eternal’s messenger would slay him.

22 David: Now this is the house of the Eternal God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel. We will no longer need to travel to Gibeon to sacrifice to God.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

David did a foolish thing requesting a census of the fighting strength of Israel. He had Me on his side and that was enough. Joan tried to tell him not to take the census. His other advisors tried to tell him his action was foolish, but he didn’t listen. He wanted to count his men. The price was a plague that swept across the country and killed thousands. David finally prayed to Me to stop the plague when he say My slayer at Ornan’s threshing floor.

When David understood his foolishness, repented, and prayed, I heard his cry and stopped My messenger from continuing his path of death. My messenger instructed Ornan to tell David to raise and altar to Me on the site. David went to Ornan to purchase the site. Ornan offered it free, but David insisted on paying full price for the land and the materials he would use for the altar and the sacrifice.

Several lessons come from the story that are relevant to you today as you think about your service to and worship of Me. First, repentance is the first step in My hearing you. You and I operate on different plains. I created you above all other creatures, but I am still God. When you disobey My commands, repentance is the right attitude to take in approaching Me.

David didn’t listen to My commands when counted the number of fighting men in his kingdom. All of his advisors tried to stop him. I put into the heart of every one of his advisors the foolishness of his actions and they did everything they could to dissuade David, but he wouldn’t listen. His foolish actions caused the lives of thousands.

Second, worship and offerings to Me must cost you something. David recognized that when he refused Ornan’s offer to give him the threshing floor and all the material to build the altar for My worship. David refused and payed the full price plus for the property. David used his personal wealth, not the kingdom’s coffers to pay for the altar. The land, the altar, the offering needed to come from him, not something given to him. An offering that doesn’t cost you anything isn’t an offering.

Think of it this way, I sacrifice Myself for you. If you are going to honor Me with your offerings, can you do less than sacrifice something in worship to Me? An offering that costs you nothing is no sacrifice. An offering that costs you something touches you. It reminds you that you made the sacrifice in the same way I sacrificed Myself for you. It comes from the heart.

Ornan was ready to sacrifice all of the material to Me and David refused because he knew Ornan would receive the blessing he needed. David needed to make that same sacrifice and purchased the land and materials from Ornan. Not to supersede Ornan’s offering, Ornan still received his blessings from Me for his part in stopping My messenger, but to make the offering his own.

I am a God of love and blessings, but I am also a God of wrath when evil comes near Me. As a holy God, I cannot be in the presence of evil. Only through My perfect sacrifice on the cross, My Son, all man yet all God, can I cover the sins of people who accept that sacrifice. But even then, there is a cost. You must give Me yourself. You must give Me your obedience. You Must die to self and live for Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.