The document is a sermon about counting the cost of becoming a disciple of Christ. It discusses several Bible passages that emphasize how one must be fully committed to following Christ, even if it means giving up family or possessions. The sermon argues that to be a disciple, one must renounce all that they have, fully love God, and keep His commandments. Several examples are given of how Christ challenges would-be disciples to demonstrate their willingness to make any sacrifice to follow Him.

1. Counting
the Cost
Luke 14:25-33
Maud church of Christ
By Jim Bradshaw
Sunday Morning, Nov. 23, 2014

2. We Learn to Count at an Early
Age
We learn to Understand Budgets

3. Counting the Cost
2Co 8:11-12 ESV So now finish doing it as well,
so that your readiness in desiring it may be
matched by your completing it out of what you
have. (12) For if the readiness is there, it is
acceptable according to what a person has, not
according to what he does not have.

4. Luk 14:25-27 ESV Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned
and said to them, (26) "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. (27) Whoever
does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
1. We must put Christ above our family.
2. We must put Christ above our own life.
3. We must bear our own cross.

5. Mat 8:19-23 ESV And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will
follow you wherever you go." (20) And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have
holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay his head." (21) Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me
first go and bury my father." (22) And Jesus said to him, "Follow me,
and leave the dead to bury their own dead." (23) And when he got into
the boat, his disciples followed him.
Mar 10:28-31 ESV Peter began to say to him, "See, we have left
everything and followed you." (29) Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you,
there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or
father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, (30) who
will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and
sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the
age to come eternal life. (31) But many who are first will be last, and
the last first."

6. Counting the Cost to
Luk 14:28-32 ESV 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?
(29) Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish,
all who see it begin to mock him, (30) saying, 'This man began to build
and was not able to finish.' (31) 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? (32) And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he
sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

7. No One Plans a trip without
having the funds

8. No One Builds a Tower
without Counting the Cost
Luk 14:28-30 ESV 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?
(29) Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish,
all who see it begin to mock him, (30) saying, 'This man began to build
and was not able to finish.'
2Ti 4:6-8 ESV For I am already being poured out as a drink offering,
and the time of my departure has come. (7) I have fought the good
fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (8) Henceforth there
is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but
also to all who have loved his appearing.

9. No One Builds a Tower
without Counting the Cost
Mat 7:24-27 ESV "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and
does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (25)
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on
that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
(26) And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. (27) And the
rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that
house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

10. No One Goes to War without
Counting the Cost
Luk 14:31-32 ESV 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?
(32) And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a
delegation and asks for terms of peace.
Rom 6:3-4 ESV Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (4) We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in
newness of life.

11. Counting the Cost
Means
Luk 14:33 ESV So therefore, any one of you who
does not renounce all that he has cannot be
my disciple.
1. We must leave all behind.
2. We must love God.
3. Only then can we be a Disciple

12. Counting the Cost
Means
Mat 19:20-22 ESV The young man said to him,
"All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" (21)
Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go,
sell what you possess and give to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; and come,
follow me." (22) When the young man heard this
he went away sorrowful, for he had great
possessions.

13. Counting the Cost
Means
Mat 6:24-34 ESV "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate
the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and money. (25) "Therefore I tell you,
do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than
food, and the body more than clothing? (26) Look at the birds of the air:
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (27) And
which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
(28) And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, (29) yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

14. Counting the Cost
Means
Mat 6:24-34 contined (30) But if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not
much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (31) Therefore do not be
anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What
shall we wear?' (32) For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (33) But seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added
to you. (34) "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow
will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

15. Counting the Cost
Means
Mat 22:36-40 ESV "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the
Law?" (37) And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38) This is
the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it: You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. (40) On these two commandments
depend all the Law and the Prophets.“
Joh 14:15 ESV "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.