So we're there in 2 Samuel 24, and of course, this is a very famous story about how God was,
as it says there, moved with anger and actually moved David against Israel. And he goes out,
he numbers them, which is something he was commanded not to do. And of course, David
is given an option to choose how God's wrath is going to play out. And eventually he goes
and is at the threshing floor here. And I don't want to get too much into the story,
I'm just trying to get us to verse 18, really, where he goes and in order to stay this plague,
he goes and rears up this altar, as it says in verse 18, in the threshing floor of Arunah the
Jebusite. This is something that God commands Gad the seer to go tell David to do. And David
follows through on this, and I really just want to point out some of the dialogue that takes place
here between David and Arunah and some of the things that are said here. And I think it's a
great example of the fact that if we're going to serve in ministry, if we're going to serve God,
it's going to come at a price. That there's going to be a price to pay, there's going to be a
cost to service, that sacrifice, or excuse me, that service, rather, comes with sacrifice.
The sacrifice of service is the title of the sermon tonight. And if you look at verse 18,
again, we'll pick it up there in Second Samuel 24, it says,
And Gad came to David and said unto him, Go up, rear, and altar unto the Lord in the
threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. And David, according to the saying of Gad,
went up as the Lord commanded. And Arunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward
him. And Arunah went out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.
And Arunah said, Wherefore is the Lord the king come to his servant? And David said,
To buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague may be
stayed of the people. And Arunah said unto David, Let my Lord the king take and offer
up that seemeth good unto him. Behold here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, threshing instruments,
and other imminence for the oxen, for the wood. All these things did Arunah as a king
give unto the king. And Arunah said unto the king, The Lord thy God accept thee.
So David comes to him and says, I'm here to rear up this altar. And Arunah basically was
saying, Well, I give it to you. And if you notice there, David leads by saying,
he's saying, I'm coming to buy the threshing floor of me. He's saying, I'm coming to make
a purchase. This is his intent. When he got there, David went to this threshing floor with
the full intent that, yes, he's going to set up an altar. Yes, that he was going to make
the sacrifice as he was instructed to do. But he understood on the way there that this wasn't,
he wasn't expecting this to just be given to him. This is something that he was willing
to pay a price for in order to follow through and to spare the children of Israel
from suffering anymore under God's wrath. He's basically interceding on their behalf.
He's going in there to stay the plague. And as he's going to build this altar again,
he's thinking to himself, I'm going to make this purchase, right? He's leading and saying,
you know, I'm going to, I'm here to buy this of you, right? I'm here to give you a fair price,
give you what's, you know, what's, you know, the fair market price or the going rate of
your threshing floor or whatever that is, right? And, and he's not just expecting this
to just be laid at his feet. Although that is what Aruna wants to do. And of course,
it's a very gracious thing that Aruna did. And he's looking to just be a blessing unto God.
He understands the situation that they're in. He understands that this is the King, you know,
he himself wants to make a sacrifice, but David is the one that's been called to service. David
is the one that has been commanded of God to go and do this particular task. And therefore,
he is fully prepared to pay the price in order to follow through on that which has
been commanded him. Now, if you want to go or rather keep something there, but we'll look at
a parallel passage and get a little bit more of this dialogue in first Corinthians, excuse me,
first Chronicles 21, first Chronicles chapter number 21.
So again, David is told, go build this altar, right? You need to go and make a sacrifice.
You know, you want to stay the plague. He's interceding. He's saying, you know,
what have these sheep done? All these people are dying and he wants to, you know,
intervene. And God says, that's great, but you need to go do this at this place.
And David is just understands that this is coming at a price. You know, God isn't necessarily
trying to prepare him that there's going to be this price. He's just telling him, go up,
rear up an altar unto the Lord. It's just assumed that if David is going to follow through
and rearing up this altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite,
that it's going to come at a price, right? It's just understood. It's just inherent,
right? That in order to serve God on the behalf of other people,
he has to make a sacrifice. So hopefully you're already seeing the parallels today with our own
Christian lives. If we want to be of use for God, if we want to offer up our bodies,
as the Bible says, as a living sacrifice unto God, holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable
service, that it's going to come at a price. Now, we're not going to go rear up a literal
altar. You know, we're not going to go to some section of Tucson and try to buy some
guy's house and take over and build an altar and have an animal sacrifice. Of course not. But
you know, the sacrifice that we have today is the sacrifice of service, right?
David, the sacrifice he's making is serving God, right? This is a part of the service of God
back then to rear up these altars, to have, and this would eventually become the place
of the temple. So this is all kind of a picture of the New Testament Christian,
and us serving God today through, you know, reaching lost souls, for serving the local
church. These things come at a price. Now obviously there's not necessarily, although
there might be instances where money is part of that, we understand that, but more readily,
you know, what the real sacrifice that we have to make today is the sacrifice of our time,
the sacrifice of our efforts. You know, there's things that we might have to give up
ourselves personally in order to serve God as we ought to do, okay? And I'm just pointing out here
that David understood this, that there's a price to pay, there is a sacrifice when it comes to
service. If you look there in 1 Chronicles 21, verse 23, where Arunah is called Ornan,
it said, And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which
is good in his eyes. Lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing
instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering, I give it all. He's saying,
you know what, just take everything and do what you got to do. You're the king. God sent you
here. Who am I? And he's giving, as it says there, as a king would give unto a king,
right? He's being very gracious here. But again, notice, it tells us again what
David said to him. It's a little bit differently here. And David, King David, said to Ornan,
Nay, but I will verily buy it for the full price. Right? He doesn't even want a discount.
He's like, I'll tell you what, I'll meet you halfway. I appreciate the deal you're trying to
give me. How about if I just give you half? Right? Now, that would have been a cost. Right?
I mean, here you have a guy, Arunah, Ornan, who's just willing to just give it to him
freely. Right? It would have cost David nothing. Right? And David could have even said, well,
let me give you half of what it's worth, or two-thirds of what it's worth, or one-quarter
of what it's worth, whatever. He could have named his price and appeared gracious himself.
Right? But notice again that David says, he said, I will verily buy it for the full price.
He's saying, I'm not going to skimp out. I'm not just going to give you a little measly tip
here. I want to pay what it costs in order to serve God. He said, I will pay it for the
full price, for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor the burnt offering
without cost. Right? He's not trying to ride on somebody else's coattails. And I should have
had you keep something in 2 Samuel. I apologize. Verse chapter 24 if you want to go back there.
But he says, you know, I'm not going to take this. I'm not going to cut myself a deal.
I'm not going to go halfway. He says, I'm going to pay the full price. And this is the
mentality that we have to have when it comes to serving God. When it comes to the Christian life
and serving God, you have to be all in. You can't be halfway. Because, you know,
there's going to come times when it's discouraging. There's going to come times
when we want to quit. If you've never been there, hang in there. It's coming. Okay?
There's going to be a day when you just feel like throwing in the towel,
where you just want to quit, where you don't see the point in going on. But, you know,
that's part of the price that we pay in order to serve God. And look, if we just determine
now that we're going to pay the full price and not just go halfway with God or a quarter of the
way, if we determine ahead of time that we're going to pay the full price, you know, when
we start to feel like we want to quit or whatever or throw in the towel, we won't.
Because that's, you know, we'll understand that's just not an option.
If we determine in our minds that serving God and living the Christian life is something we're
never going to quit at, you know, then we'll be prepared to pay the price that it costs
to make the sacrifice in order to serve God. Hopefully that makes sense.
Look at 2 Samuel 24 verse 24. It says,
And the king said unto Arunah, Nay, but I will surely bide of thee at a price.
And we saw there in 2 Chronicles, that price was the full price. Okay? Not a half price,
not halfway. He wanted to give everything that it was worth, everything that he had.
Nevertheless, excuse me, neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that
which doth cost me nothing. He said, I will not take of thine, back in 1 Chronicles,
he said, I will not offer burnt offerings without cost. And specifically he's saying here,
he's not going to offer things that don't cost him anything. Sometimes, you know, it's
like the government. They're really good at spending other people's money. They're so
generous and so liberal with their money because it's not theirs. They just take it.
Well, David here, he's not, this isn't the kind of government that we're talking about. He's
saying this is going to cost me something. Right? And that's the attitude we want to have when it
comes to serving God. It ought to cost us something. It ought to, we ought to have,
you know, blood, sweat, and tears poured into the work that we're doing for God. Okay?
We don't want to live a Christian life that doesn't cost us anything. Right? And this is
a way a lot of people live their Christian lives. They want a nice, easy, no-cost Christianity
where they can just kind of coast through life and never be asked to do anything
above measure. Right? They'll just do the bare minimum to just kind of squeak by.
And, you know, that's not the attitude that we need to have in the Christian life. We
should be willing to lay it all on the altar and to give God everything. There's no limit
to what God could ask of us. And it ought to be something that costs us something. Right?
And so he said, David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.
So if you ever wondered what a threshing floor was going back, going for it back in Jerusalem
in those days, it was 50 shekels of silver. You got your market price. And David built
there an altar under the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the
Lord is entreated for the land and the plague was stayed from Israel. Now, a lot
of people when they hear preaching like this, they say, well, I don't know that I like
the sound of that. I don't know I like the sound of the fact that, you know,
living the Christian life or serving God is actually going to cost me something.
And then I need to be willing to pay whatever the cost is. And what we have to understand is
the, you know, the why behind it. Why is it that we should be willing to pay that price
to do what it takes? Because the plague was stayed from Israel. Because when David went
to the threshing for knowing and prepared and understanding while he's even on his way,
that this is going to cost him, that he's willing to pay the price that's needed,
that he's not just going to go look for a freebie or a handout, that he's actually willing to go
there and, yes, make an altar and serve God and let it cost him something. He went there
knowing that it was for the reason of staying the plague. Okay? That's the why behind what we
do. Why is it that the Christian life should cost you something? Why is it worth it to pay it?
Why is it worth your time, your energy, your effort going the extra mile? Why is that
something we should be doing? Because we want to stay the spiritual plague today, right? There's
a spiritual plague today sweeping our land. It's called sin. And a lot of people are,
you know, they're already dead in trespasses and sins, right? David's trying to save off
a literal physical plague and people are dying literal deaths. You know, we're surrounded by
people and we were once one of them that were infected with this deadly plague called sin.
And, you know, there was somebody else that made a sacrifice that paid the, you know,
the cost, you know, no matter what it was. His name was Jesus. You know, he was the one that
paid the sacrifice for us. And we today should be willing to pay the cost in order to,
you know, impart that gift unto other people, right? To stay that physical plague,
or that spiritual plague from others. You know, the plague was stayed from Israel as a result
of the fact that David was willing to let it cost him something. So that's the question,
you know, what is the limit that we're willing to put on our service? At what point do we say,
well, I'll pay this much, but not this much. I'll go a quarter of the way,
half the way, two-thirds of the way. I'll pay 85 per, you know, what is the limit?
Is there one? You know, we have to have the mentality when we go into ministry and we go
into the idea of serving God that we're willing to pay whatever it takes, whatever the cost.
And look, the greater work we want to do, the higher cost it's going to come at.
You know, something I often think about is something that I've heard is that
getting the message of God out to the masses comes at a price.
And if we think about even some of the people that we know, churches, pastors, who have
literally had sermons go around the world and been listened to and heard by millions and
millions of people, messages that have reached people, you know, in all kinds of places around
the world. We also have to consider the fact that those same people, you know, ended up paying
a price. There was persecution that came along with that, right? Now, obviously, in comparison,
that persecution, you know, is nothing compared to the suffering of Christ. It's nothing
compared to what other Christians have suffered and will suffer, but it is a price
nonetheless. And it's a price that some people don't want to pay. You know, there's
a lot of people today, they censor the word of God. They don't want certain things to get
out there because they don't want to pay the price for preaching it,
because they know it'll come at a cost, right? But the more influence and the more
impact we want to have with our message, the more people we want to reach with the
gospel, the higher the price you have to pay. If we want to see more lives changed,
you know, we have to be willing to invest of ourselves in that effort.
And, you know, I'm not preaching this as, you know, I'm not trying to crack the whip or anything
like that, okay? You know, we have a church here where there are people that are doing that.
I believe that, that are going out there and, you know, and taking of their time, their
energy, their efforts, and trying to get the gospel out there and praise God for that.
But, you know, that again is the price that we pay. If we want to do more, well, we got to pay more.
If you would, go over to Galatians chapter number six, Galatians chapter number six. We'll spend
the rest of the time in the New Testament tonight, and I don't have a particularly long
message, just a few passages to turn to and look at, but I just want to talk about this idea that,
you know, serving God comes at a cost. And this is something that we see David kind of
picturing here, you know, exemplifying. Obviously, it's very literal for him and what he was doing,
but also it's something that is reiterated in the New Testament. You know, we're reminded
that, you know, the Christian life, there's a price to pay. We are to sit down and count
the cost before we begin to build. So, you know, as we, you know, we as a church, as we begin
to plan and to think and to work to grow this church and to see lives changed and to see more
souls saved and see people baptized, that's, we have to understand, and I think we all get it,
that that does not come easy, that that's something that's going to require consistent
effort on our parts. It's going to come at a sacrifice. If you want to get people saved,
you have to be willing to sacrifice your time to go preach the gospel.
You know, if you want to reach more people, you have to be willing to,
you know, get the message out there. Now look there at Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1.
It says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such
a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one
another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, right? So there are times that we have
to bear one another's burdens to help a brother up, to lift up our brethren, to help them to
carry on and to give them what they need, right? He goes on and says in verse 3,
if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
And look at verse 4, and this is something, this is a verse that I've thought about often,
especially over the last couple of years, in relation to, you know, our church and the work
that, you know, me and my wife are doing here, you know, alongside, laboring alongside the people
in this church. The Bible says, but let every man prove his own work and then shall he have
rejoicing in himself alone and not in another, okay? And, you know, the context in which I
thought about this is that, and I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, I'm glad that
we're part of the faithful word Baptist Church, believe me, I'm grateful for the faithful word
Baptist Church. I love the fact that it says faithful and Baptist Church on that door out
there, okay? And if it said that on that door for the rest of the time we minister here,
if that's what the Lord deems, so be it, you know, I'm fine with that, you know? I'm not
saying we're going to take their name, okay? We're not going to pull that, all right? Some
people suggest, well, why don't we just keep the name and go independently? No, all right?
But what I'm saying by that is that, you know, if I just remain a deacon, we never go
independent, I'm never, you know, get the title of pastor, so be it, right? So I'm saying that
to kind of clarify what I'm about to say next is that, you know, if we want to go independent,
if we want to be our own church, you know, we can't just rely on other men and other part
of this movement necessarily to build this church, okay? You know, the age of the viral
YouTube sensation is over for us, okay? I believe that, right? Our videos are not going to get
millions of views, at least that I don't see it happening, right? They're just like,
shut those guys up. Just turn them off, don't broadcast them, don't give them platform,
right? They've learned their lesson, I guess, that there is no such thing as bad press,
right? What I'm getting at is that if, you know, we've basically gleaned everything we're
going to get out of the new IFB here in Tucson. That's what I believe. We've kind of,
you know, we've had people come and go, we've kind of run through the people that are familiar
with Faithful Word and this movement, and I feel like we've kind of sifted through,
and now we're kind of left with, and I don't want to necessarily say these people are terrors,
okay? I get that people, you know, they move for different reasons. I'm not saying
anybody that's left this church is a bad person, okay? But I'm just saying, you know,
I'm using that illustration that it's been almost six years, right? Man, it feels a lot longer,
right? And we've kind of, but we've kind of settled in, right? We've got our core,
okay? And I think it's time, you know, that we as the people that remain here in this church
understand that if it's time for us to continue, not that we haven't been doing it,
again, to continue to make the sacrifices and maybe, you know, take it to the next level,
to prove our own work, to stand on our own two feet and not try to rely so much on, you know,
or think in our minds that, you know, people are just gonna just float through the door,
right? That all of a sudden people are just, you know, we're not Calvinists, okay? And
believe me, and I know we talked about it at lunch, and believe me, I know there's a lot that
I need to continue to do and other areas I need to improve and work on in order to get
that message out there and we're working on that. We're making headway.
But I love this verse, you know. This isn't a downward verse. He says,
let every man prove his own work. Why? Then he shall have rejoicing in himself alone.
He shall have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. You know, if we labor alongside
with God and one another, if we do the work, if we make the sacrifices that are necessary for
service, you know, we'll be able to rejoice over our own labors. We'll be able to say,
we're responsible for what has happened here. We're the ones. I mean, imagine you going out
there and getting someone saved, getting them in church and getting them back. I mean,
that would be, you could pat yourself on the back. That'd be a very, you know,
I don't want to say, I don't know, proud moment, I guess, if you can use that word.
You would be satisfied. You would say, hey, man, I did something, right? We accomplished something.
But again, he says, let every man prove his own work, right? It's work, it's labor,
it's sacrifice. This is what we have to understand about the ministry. This is what
we have to understand about the work that we have to do here. It's not going to come easy.
If you would go over to 2 Thessalonians chapter number three, 2 Thessalonians chapter number
three. So obviously David, when he's going to the threshing floor, understands that I'm going to pay
something. And when it's even offered to him, well here, you can just have it. Says, no,
I want to pay the full price. I'm not going to serve God of that which costs me nothing.
He wanted it to cost him something. You know, there's nothing wrong with serving God,
costing us something. Because here's the thing, we'll never be able to pay God back.
I mean, how can you pay God back for what he did for us? How are we going to, you know,
requite God for the precious blood of Christ? It's priceless. You can't put a price on it.
You know, obviously we serve out of, hopefully out of a heart of gratitude and
out of an understanding that's what we're commanded to do, yes.
But we have to understand again that, you know, we need to prove our own work, right? We need to
do this work and we need to make sure that we understand it's going to come at a price.
If you look there in 2 Thessalonians chapter number three, what was I beginning to say? Yes,
this is something that David understood, right? That it comes at a price. This is something
that Paul understood. I mean, if there's ever a guy that had an excuse to throw in the towel
in the ministry, it's Paul. I mean, we all know the story of Paul and the things he's gone
through. And sometimes, you know, when we're feeling sorry for ourselves or we want to quit
or not do it anymore, you know, and we start to think about the reasons why, and then we
think about saying those reasons out loud, maybe to a guy like Paul, it kind of puts it in
perspective. I mean, imagine if we quit. Imagine if we threw in the towel and said, you know,
what's the point? Why should we bother going on? And then get to heaven and explain that
to a guy like Paul. Well, you know, Paul, I was just out there in that air-conditioned van,
you know, I sat down my Gatorade and I just said, it's not worth it. It'd be silly. It's
laughable, right? When you would look at a guy like Paul who was literally stoned to death,
who was beaten multiple times, who suffered shipwreck, who was famished, who went without
food, who went without proper clothing, I mean, all the things he went through. The guy literally
floated in the ocean. He spent a day and a night in the deep. Right about now, that sounds okay.
I don't even know if I, you know, living in the desert right now, I wouldn't even track that
up as suffering. I could use a dip, right? But imagine going to a guy like Paul and he said,
well, what was the problem? I mean, what was so hard? Why didn't you finish the course?
Like I said, why didn't you look unto Jesus and run the race that was set before you,
as I wrote in Hebrews? What caused you to just bow out?
You know, I don't want to even speculate why people would quit.
But I mean, any excuse we could come up with is just lame. It's weak.
And it shouldn't shock us when we, and Paul would say, well,
did you think it wasn't going to come at a price? Did you think it was just going to come easy?
He could say, well, remember what it cost me. You're in 2 Thessalonians. This is something
he reminded the Thessalonians more than once in both epistles. He said in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2, you're in 2 Thessalonians 3, but he said in 1 Thessalonians 2,
remember brethren, our labor and travail. You know, travail is not a comfortable thing.
It's not, you know, it's trouble. Remember the work that we did and the trouble we went
through for laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable to any of you.
He's like, we didn't take a wage from the Thessalonians. We labored night and day.
Although they had the power to do so, he said, because we would not be chargeable
unto you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. He said that, you know,
in order to set an example, and we'll see why he did it in 2 Thessalonians 3,
the example he was trying to set specifically, but he said, I was willing to pay the price
to get my message across by laboring night and day. Preaching the gospel, you know, by day and
make it tense by night. I don't know exactly what he did, but the guy was burning the candle
at both ends for the sake of other people. And yet, it's so hard sometimes to just get
even Christians to do the bare minimum, just to show up to church, just to read their Bibles,
to pray, to go soul winning. He said in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 7,
for yourselves know how you ought to follow us. He said, do what we did, for we behaved not
ourselves disorderly among you. And that disorderliness he's talking about is people
not working. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail
night and day. So he reminds them of this again. Night and day that we might not be chargeable
to any of you. Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to
follow us. So they had this problem there, verse 11, we hear that there are some which
walk disorderly among you, working not at all, but are busybodies. That's a problem
that they had in the Thessalonian church. So Paul, rather than just going in there
and ripping face and just, you know, getting people's face or whatever, he said, well,
let's just show them how to do it. Let's just set the example.
I mean, that's labor night and day. That's basically what he did. You know, our work and
our travail, anyone who's tried to work, you know, two shifts know that's not easy.
Anyone who's tried to work, you know, the 80 hour workweek knows that's travail,
right? And who knows exactly what kind of work he might have been involved in is probably
physical labor, you know? But he said we did this in order to be an example. What's he doing?
He's willing to make a sacrifice. You know, I wonder if Paul might have had some other things
that he would have liked to do. I don't think Paul was a guy with a lot of hobbies.
I don't think Paul was a guy who took a lot of vacations. I don't think Paul was a guy with
a lot of leisure time. And look, I'm not saying that we can't have that. That's not what
I'm saying, okay? But what I am saying is that Paul was willing to give up those things
and to be an example for other people. He understood that when it comes to service,
there's a sacrifice that has to be made sometimes. That sometimes you just have to put
in the long days. You have to put in long hours. You have to just do more in order to get
results, right? That's what David understood. Hey, I'm going to go build this altar. I'm
going to go buy this threshing floor. I'm going to pay whatever it costs.
And even when he's offered to it freely and everything he needed to make the sacrifice,
he said, no, it's going to cost me something. Paul understood this.
Look at verse eight. He said, neither did we eat any man's bread for all,
but we wrought with labor night and travail, night and day, that we might not be chargeable
to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to
follow us. For even when they're with you, this we command you that any would not work,
neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly,
working not at all, but our busy bodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort
by the Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.
And then verse 13, he says, but ye brethren be not weary in well-doing, right?
You know, the well-doing sometimes is the thing that's going to cost you something.
That's why it's wearisome, right? Doing right, doing the things that we should,
serving God can be weary. You know, I bet Paul had some weary times in Thessalonia, Thessalonica,
when he was there, you know, trying to set an example, dealing with the situation,
preach the gospel, put food in his own mouth, take care of himself, you know, and, and,
and had the care that came up, you know, of all the churches upon his back. And the guys,
you know, trying to get Christianity off the ground. And would you, we would all agree
that's a great work. Paul's a great Christian. He did a good thing. We're all indebted to Paul,
in a sense. What a great work to have penned so much of the New Testament,
but it was wearisome. There were long nights, long days, there were troubles,
there were travails, there were persecutions. That's what comes with doing well. I mean,
that's why the exhortation is there, to be not weary in well-doing, right?
Because doing the right thing, serving God,
comes at a sacrifice. It's the service, the sacrifice of service.
Go to Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter number 14.
Well, we have to, and this kind of ties in a little bit with what I was saying this morning,
that, you know, God, God knows us. God knows what we're up to. And we should never get
this idea that God doesn't see what we're doing and doesn't see the effort we're putting in.
Maybe God sees the effort we're not putting in. But let's also not, you know, think that our
labor is in vain, right? Let's be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding the work of the
Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, okay? Even sometimes it doesn't feel
like it. You know, when we come back and no one got saved. When we come back and, you know,
no one's showing up to church, or very few people, or that visitor didn't come through, or
it just seems like, you know, it's not going anywhere. You know, don't think that our labor
is in vain. And don't be weary in well-doing. It matters. God sees it.
You know, I thought about the time, you know, I'm just going to read to you from Luke 21,
where Jesus saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury at the temple.
And, you know, they're putting in, you know, large sums, right? And he saw also a certain
poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you,
that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all. For all these out of have of their
abundance cast into the offerings unto the offerings of God. But she of her penury,
meaning her, you know, her poverty, her destitute situation, hath cast in all the living that she had.
So, again, we don't have to get this idea that if we're not like Paul, that we're not really
serving God, right? But are we giving what we can, right? And how much are we willing to
really give to the work of God? And I'm not, and here obviously it's talking about money, but
that's not really an issue here. To be honest, the offerings have frankly never been as good as
they are, which is kind of surprising, right? Because the attendance has gone down, but the
offerings have gone up. So whatever you all are doing, keep it up, right?
But, you know, that's not the problem. But, you know, and that's really not the most
important thing. We can have church for free. You know, we can have church in my living room.
And, you know, we're already paying that mortgage. So that's, we're good there,
right? It doesn't cost anything to get up and preach the word of God. Not that it's an issue.
But the point is of this parable is that here you have somebody who's giving of all that they
have. And sometimes I think this is the reason why people don't serve God the way that they
could, because they don't think they have much to offer. They think, oh, yeah, you know,
but I guess I could do more, but I can't do much. Well, how much of what you can do
is all of what you can do. You know, if you're saying, you know, I'll give 30 percent because,
you know, my 100 percent isn't that much. Well, then it shouldn't cost you much,
right? You know what I mean? Like, go ahead and give the 100 percent.
Let's look at another story here, another parable in Luke chapter 14, where we're reminded again
that sacrifice, excuse me, rather service, it comes at a sacrifice. There's a price to pay,
okay? And again, this isn't a problem in our church. We have people serving God,
and we have people at all different stages in their Christian growth, and really this is just
a good reminder for people that if you're going to serve God, if you're going to get serious
about the things of God, you need to consider the fact that it comes at a price.
I don't know if I've ever shared this story. I'm sure that I have, but, you know,
long before I was asked to be deacon, long before I was asked to come down here and
take over, you know, and oversee, rather, this church on a full-time basis, you know,
I was just another church member, and I don't mean just another church member, right? But I
was another church member, just like anybody else, in Faithful Word Baptist Church, and I
would go to the preaching classes. And I remember, and me and others have talked about this,
other men that were there, and are, you know, another man, you know, I believe it was Pastor
Shelley, we both remember this night very distinctly. When Pastor Anderson came in,
and he was going through some things as a result of the ministry,
hard things that affected his family, and he got up in front of all these men, and he said,
some of you will wash out. Some of you that are in this room will never make it.
And he wasn't being mean about it. He's just stating the facts,
because he said, there's some of you in here that are not willing to pay whatever it takes
to preach the gospel, you know, and that was a soul-searching moment. That was something
that, you know, was very sobering. You know, because as we read, you know, if a man thinks
himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. And I'm sure there's plenty
of guys that were in that room and said, oh, not me. But where are they? Did they wash out?
No, they never stepped up. Maybe they took it to heart and thought, well, you know, I'm
probably one of them, and said no. But I remember, and I believe it was Pastor Shelley,
if he listens, I apologize if I'm getting it wrong. You know, it just came to me in the
moment here. But I remember really thinking about that. Like, what would I pay?
What if it did affect my family? What if it did frighten my children to be in the ministry?
What if, you know, there was the potential that my children might be taken away from me
because of people who persecuted our church?
You know, and that's something that was out there. I don't think I'm oversharing there.
That's a price that some people face. I remember going out to Verity Baptist Church,
and whatever, however long ago it was, you know, and I just walked a picket line,
you know, with all the day when the protesters were out there in full force protesting,
you know, Pastor Jimenez's response to the Orlando shooting. And believe me,
the people at Verity, those people that were there, they're the ones that had to deal with
that for months and months. I get that. You know, but I saw firsthand, this is what it costs
to get your message out there. The building could be surrounded by people that would want
to pull you limb from limb. And, you know, I don't even understand and know everything
that he went through and his family went through. I mean, stories have come out over the years
that we just hear them and we forget about them, but we forget that these are things that,
these are prices that people that we know have been willing to pay.
You know, other things that he's had happen, other pastors, you know,
there's a cost to serving God. And look, I'm not saying that we all need,
are going to go through that. I pray that I don't have to experience some of those things,
but you know, that night at that preaching class, you had to walk away and say,
what would I be willing to pay? At what point would I say enough's enough?
You know, and I hope that I would like to think that I would stick with it no matter what,
but you really don't know that about yourself until you're tested. You really don't know.
You can only hope. So that's why we sometimes have to just step back and realize and understand
that there is a price to the ministry. There is a sacrifice when it comes to service,
the sacrifice of service. Look at Luke 14 verse 25, and there went great multitudes with him.
Jesus has gathered a crowd. Everyone loves what Jesus is doing and amen.
He doeth all things well, right? And he turned and said unto them,
and this is a very hard saying, if a man come and any man come to me and hate not his father
and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also,
he cannot be my disciple. I mean, imagine being there and hearing that.
Man, Jesus, we get to go follow Jesus. We're going to go check this out. Jesus is in town.
He's been doing miracles. Maybe we'll get to eat some of those loaves and fishes. Maybe
we'll get to go see him do something or hear some moving sermon. And you're there and it's
exciting. You got a bunch of other people that are excited to hear Jesus. What an amazing moment.
And then he turns around. He's about to speak and everyone's on the edge of their seat.
And this is what he says? Whoa, I wasn't expecting that. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What about the whole blessed are the poor? Can we go back and get that again?
What about the Sermon on the Mount? Just stick with that stuff. That's what we want to hear.
But Jesus is reminding these people, look, if you want to follow me and you want to be
my disciple, you want to serve God, it's going to cost you something. Now, look,
I don't know that it's necessarily going to cost us these things. It could. It's not out
of the realm of possibility. We might have to be called on to do these exact same things.
It was a much more practical thing back then. It made a lot more sense. It's more applicable
when you're talking about the earthly ministry of Christ. He's saying, I'm here for three
years. If you want to come be a part of this, you're going to have to leave family and
friends behind. Leave the business behind. You're going to have to just sacrifice everything
if you want to tag along with me, right? The son of man hath not where to lay his head.
And he's saying, you know, you can't be my disciple if you're not willing to
go through this and pay this price. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come
after me cannot be my disciple. Now, what is the cross? It's the emblem of sacrifice.
I mean, if there's any symbol that we would instantly recognize as a sacrifice, it's the cross.
And he's saying, you know, if we as God's people, as those that would want to follow Jesus,
aren't willing to pick up our own cross and bear it, then we are not fit to serve God.
We're not going to make it. Because that's what service is. It's sacrifice.
And then he says in verse 28, for which of you intending to build a tower
sit if not down first and count the cost, whether you have sufficient to finish it.
He's saying, you're going to go build something, you're going to do a little project management,
I hope. There's going to be somebody there figuring out, well, it takes this much stone and
this much mortar and this much lumber and you got to get the ground level and figure out
everything that goes into building a tower. And we're going to have to pay this guy and
these laborers and sit down there and you're going to get it down to the penny of what it's
going to cost you. And if you get down there and it's all in that bottom line is red,
you're not going to take that job. No one goes into business to lose money.
I think that's not how it works, right? At least not intentionally. And he's saying that,
well, this is a picture of the Christian life. If you're not willing to sit down and actually
think about what the fact that serving God is sacrifice, then you're not fit for service.
It's not going to work.
And the warning is, is that if you don't count, you're going to be mocked. He said less happily
after he laid the foundation, is not able to finish it. All that behold it begin to mock him.
Oh yeah. Remember he's going to say he's going to build that big tower.
All right. Didn't even get the first course laid. Didn't even get the string up.
Didn't even get the foundation poured. What a, what a loser. What an idiot.
This began, began to build and was not able to finish. This guy didn't have what it takes.
You know, that's not what we want to hear. That's not what I want to hear.
I don't want, I'm not out to see a ministry fail.
You know, I want to see it succeed, but what we have to understand is that
take sacrifice, that it's going to cost us something. You know, David had to go and
make literal space for the temple, literal space for that altar. He had to go and find
a space for it. You know, we might have to make some space in our calendar. You know,
we might just have to, however you do it. I don't know. You know, I use a digital calendar.
You might just have to take the cursor and drag it down through those hours and say,
that's time for God. That's time, you know, I go to church. This is the time
that I read my Bible. This is the time that I go soloing. This is the time
that I memorize scripture, whatever it is, you know, and I, and I feel like I say the
same things a lot, but that's the brick and mortar of the Christian life. You know,
that's the foundation upon which, you know, ministries are built. Bible reading, prayer,
communion with God, soul winning, church attendance. I mean, that's,
that's the bread and butter of Christianity of a New Testament church right there in people's
lives that are involved in it. David had to make a literal space. We might have to make
some space for God in our calendar. We might have to, you know, mark off some time,
mark off some hours. Look at verse 31, what king going to make war against another king,
sitteth not down first, consulteth whether he be able to 10,000 to meet him,
that cometh against him or with 20,000. So I get the illustrations that he's using to
illustrate what it's like to be in the ministry. Building and warfare.
You know, as Paul said, we labored night, you know, and you saw our labor and travail.
You saw our work and our trouble, right? And it's kind of the same thing here.
There's the labor. There's the building. There's the, you know, day in and day out,
just putting down another block and putting down some more mortar, making sure everything's level
and square and going up another course and another course and another course and building that
tower, getting the foundation solid, going up and up and up and putting in the sweat and
putting in the sweat and putting in the sweat. The labor of the ministry, the work of the
ministry as it's called. But the other illustration is warfare. You have the labor
and the travail here illustrated. That's another part of the ministry that we have to sit down
and we have to count that cost. And I get it some more than others. You know, the leader
is the one with the biggest target on his back. You know, he's the one that the enemy is going to
go after the most. You know, he's the one in the spotlight. He's the one that's, everyone is going
to associate with what's being said because he's the one that's saying, I get that.
But you know, we're all going to be involved in any kind of a fight that comes our way.
May never come, I don't know. But then again, they might throw a bomb through the window one
day. Who knows? Wouldn't be the first time.
And he's saying, look, you better count the cost here. You might, you better make sure that
you're willing and able and ready and capable of going to war even. And obviously,
we're not talking about a physical war, taking up physical arms. But you know, our beliefs,
our views are going to come into conflict with this world,
and there's going to be people that oppose it and come against it and try to stop us.
You say, well, it hasn't happened yet. Well, you know, sometimes it comes later,
right? Because that's the illustration here. Verse 32, or else while the other is yet a great
way off, he sent the message. Look, the enemy's out there. There's some kind of persecution
out there on the horizon. He might be a great way off, but does it really matter the proximity
if you're not willing to pay the price if you don't have what it takes to meet that enemy?
If he's going to be here tomorrow or next week or a year from now, what does it matter?
If you don't have the troops, if you don't have the armament, if you don't have the
weaponry, it doesn't matter when he shows up. You're going to get steamrolled, right?
It doesn't matter. And he's saying, look, you need to sit down, count the cost. It costs something.
There's a sacrifice to service. It's building, it's battling, it's warfare.
He says in verse 33, so likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple.
You know, I'm not asking to find out. I don't know that we'll ever be asked to find out.
And I don't think any of us can really know,
you know, what our limit is. Where we'll say, well, I'll pay this much, but not that.
This is where I draw the line. You know, there should be no line with God.
It just shouldn't be there. And I'm not, and again, I'm not saying that a lot of these things
are going to be even asked of us. You know, we're going to be able probably in all likelihood
be able to live very quiet and peaceable lives, you know, in all godliness and honesty,
and be able to just go about our lives and raise our families and preach the gospel.
And yeah, we might have to deal with some sodomites or whatever, some backlash from
whoever, but those people come and go. But, you know, nonetheless, it's not out of the realm of
possibility. My wife and I just, you know, briefly in conversation mentioned this, said,
you know, she thinks it's, you know, the end isn't coming in our lifetime,
but our kids' lifetime. And that might be the case, right? Every generation thinks it's them.
Every generation thinks it's them, I guess. I could see it being in our lifetime.
I could see it popping off like that. I mean, if that bullet had just been a few,
maybe that was the deadly wound. You know, I love talking about the Trump, you know,
it's like, he's the anti-Christ son. He was the deadly wound. She's like, no, no,
I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Right. He might've been the last Trump in another sense.
Too soon? Anyway. I mean, it could be, right? It could be in our last time. It could be in
our lifetime. I mean, everything's in place, really, when you think about it.
You could have a one-world government, a one-world economy. I mean, they've been
working for that for years. I mean, it could all start, the ball could get rolling any minute.
So maybe we would have to, you know, make some more sacrifices than we would anticipate.
But then again, maybe not. Maybe it's going to be another hundred years.
The point is, is that how, you know, there's going to be to some degree or another,
a sacrifice to service. You know, and if wherever you're at right now in your Christian
life, if you want to do better and be better and improve, it's going to come at a cost.
It's going to cost you time. It's going to cost you energy. It's going to cost you
effort. It's going to cost you discipline. It's going to cost you
sitting down and counting the cost and saying, this is what it takes.
And if we're not willing to do that, you know, then don't set out. Don't set out to do it
because you'll fail. And it'll be a disappointment to you and those around you,
right? So hopefully that was encouraging, right? But, you know, it is encouraging,
right? Because of the fact that, you know, if we can, I mean, David stayed the plague.
Paul made the sacrifice. You know, there's, there's, there is a satisfaction that comes from,
you know, having borne up under a burden. You know, so many people today are just listless
and live and are, you know, they would themselves would, would think and feel that
their lives have no meaning. You know, and it's like the, the privilege that we have
as Christians is that our life has meaning. What we do counts.
You know, we have a burden to shoulder and, and God will help us with that burden.
And our labor is not in vain. It matters what we're doing. And, you know, we just need to keep
doing what we're doing, sticking by the stuff and just understand that if,
if we want to get to that next level, it's going to come at a price.
And that's how we got where we are today. And, you know, as Paul said, you know,
let every man bear his own burden. Let every man, you know, let, you know, prove his own work
that he have rejoicing in himself, you know, bearing a burden and doing work. You know,
there's nothing wrong with being busy. There's nothing wrong with being productive. It's not
some, you know, it's not the bane of your existence to, to get something done,
to roll up your sleeves and work and put some, some sweat and tears into, into,
you know, the work for God. It's a privilege. And, you know, there's rejoicing that comes
afterwards. You think Paul's up in heaven going, man, what a waste. No way. Well,
that wasn't worth it. Not a chance. If he had the chance, he'd probably say, I'll,
I'll go back down there and do it all again. Show them all how it's done one more time,
right? Be that example again and again and again and again. That's, you know, that's the
attitude that we got to have. Understand that there is a sacrifice to service. There's a cost
to pay. And if we're willing to pay it, you know, we'll also get what comes with it.
The success, the fruit that's born, you know, the, the tower can be built. The war can be
won. Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.