The Cost

The Cost

by David Brenneman 

Hidden fees are certainly a part of the financial wheels in our movement through life.  Some are hidden within other fees very subtly in order to keep them from being seen or acknowledged.  

We have hidden fees on us as human beings.  

Things that we unwittingly surrender because of time and circumstances. 

We surrender to what sounds good rather than what is wise.

We surrender to the "just a little bit" which turns into minutes, hours or days. 

Our time is finite.  It has a set amount per day. What are you doing with yours?

Are you investing or divesting your time?

Was listening to a excerpt from a sermon Dr. Charles Stanley gave.  It too lends to thinking about cost.  

Believing in God isn't enough. That will never cost you.

Believing that Jesus was a good man isn't enough. That will never cost you. 

Calling Him your buddy, the man upstairs, isn't enough. That will never cost you. 

Jesus said not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom of Heaven.  

To call Jesus your Savior and Lord will cost you.  Your life will be lived differently. 

What concerns Him will begin to concern you. What He is like, we strive to become. 

It will cost you. But, my Dear Reader, there are no hidden fees. Jesus says upfront what a life in Christ Jesus will cost. He outlines the benefits.  He covers all the protection clauses.  

Many want to lay claim to Psalm 23. Look at its beginning. "The Lord is my shepherd..." Is He really?  When He speaks are you listening?  When He reveals something to you are you paying attention?  When He is your shepherd that's what you'll do. 

There's a cost that's not hidden. People will not be nice towards you when He truly is your Shepherd. 

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

People will likely be excessively critical of you.  That too is part of the cost. 

Many drift away into the world in order to lower the cost believing that in doing so they can experience less problems. 

What does Jesus say through the writings of Paul to Timothy?

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also. Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3 NASB95. 

There is something that Satan wants hidden from the life of the Believer. 

That hidden cost of a "Well Done" by allowing this or that to consume the limited time we are given on this Earth to live for Jesus Christ. 

What would anyone possibly say to Jesus when the things they did in their lives supposedly for Christ are burned up with nothing to show for it because none of those things were done from a fully devoted life in Christ?  

The world will convince us we have time to live for Jesus, just come on over for a little bit and relax. It'll be fun. It'll be okay. 

There is Ecclesiastes.  There's nothing new under the sun and as well as there's a time for every purpose under Heaven.  

We are in Christ for a purpose if indeed we are saved in Christ Jesus.  Jesus said to be on the alert for we know not when He will return.  To be alert means don't slack off.  It will cost you but He promises it will be worth it.

The world will tell you the cost is too high. 

Those who falsely claim Jesus will someday find out to their horror that they were oh so wrong. 

Last night's post about horrified people at the Final Judgment points to that. 

I can do a lot of things in this world. 

What's important is that I am doing whatever it is that God puts before me to be doing, regardless of the cost. 

If in ministry we should never seek to leave it. If in service, serve with the Lord in mind.  Embracing not the world but the truths of God's word regardless of the cost. 

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." Matthew 16:25 NASB95