Amen you're there in Luke 14 and we're right there at the end of Luke and we'll focus there on
verse 26 but the title of the sermon this morning is constantly counting the cost constantly counting
The purpose of this is I'm only gonna preach it once so if we ever do it we need a review again
We could just come back to this, but we don't obviously we're not a business
But there are principles in business that we can apply to the way we run church, right?
And really I mean even the principles in business are learned from where from the Bible itself and as I was coming to the end of
As we're coming to the end of the first quarter. It's a very common practice in business to just do a quarterly review
And one of the things that also is very important is that we constantly be reviewing
like where we're at as a church and what are the things that we need to either improve on
or remove or add or anything like that. And we're there in verse 26 and what really
inspired us as you read in Luke 20 and Luke 14 and verse 26 it says,
If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother
And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple for which of you intending to build a tower
Sit it's not down and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it
Let's happily after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all that behold it begin
Behold it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish
Or what king going to make war against another king sit it's not down first and consult it whether he be
Whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand or else while the other is yet a great way
Off he sendeth an ambassador and desires conditions of peace
So likewise whoever he be of you that forsake is not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple
Salt is good, but if the salt have lost to savor whether Rachel where with shall it be seasoned
It is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dung hill
But man cast it out he that hath years to hear let him hear and I like the way that is this this section starts because
Before he asked the question here of like who's counting the cost
He says if any man come to me and hate not
his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brother, and sisters.
But then, you know, sometimes we hear people preach like about this verse,
and then they forget that last part. It says, and his own life.
He cannot be my disciple. And of course, this is a very extreme view of serving Christ
But literally isn't that what we should be?
Pushing towards or wanting to attain is the most extreme way to serve the our Lord Jesus Christ and
I mean obviously everybody's in a different walking life, but when we're counting the cost, you know
He goes into it is
God saying hey or Jesus here saying hey have you looked at what it's gonna cost you?
to follow me. A lot of people say they want to follow me but in order to follow me says if any
man come to me and then he goes and he hate not his father and mother and wife and what it was
what was leading up to that the two examples right of people that hey there's a great supper
Right. Oh, I can't I can't make it because I married or I can't make it because I have a piece of land
It isn't that what it what we do sometimes in our Christian walk, and I'm not even talking about just church attendance
I'm just talking about serving the Lord Jesus Christ, right? You wake up in the morning
The first thing we should be thinking about is who our Lord Jesus Christ
In the middle of the day, we should be thinking about our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the end of the day, we should be thinking about our Lord Jesus Christ, but you know what we do?
We get distracted by the things of life.
You know, because I'm married, and so I have to tend to my wife, and I have kids, and I have to tend to my kids,
and I run a business, and I have to tend to my business,
but the Lord's saying, hey, if you follow me, you have to count the cost.
Like, what is it that you're willing to give up?
to follow me. But you're honestly, we're not giving up anything because if we
actually follow Christ the way He's instructed us in the Bible, we're gaining
everything. The challenge is that the flesh gets in the way and we don't do
that. So, you know, whenever we're going through this introspection or this
examination of our life, of our church, of our ministry, we should be like,
what are we willing to count and what are what is it going to cost us?
Everything has a price in life. Nothing is free except for salvation.
And even salvation wasn't free. It's free to us, but it wasn't free to Christ.
The Bible says that Christ laid it all. I mean, He paid it with the blood on the cross, right?
God sent His Son to die for us. So every, technically, in a way, I guess everything does have a price, right?
God sent His Son, He counted the cost, and the cost was sacrificing His own Son on the cross
to the, I guess, to the realization that, hey, we need a Savior, all we need to do is believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, right? So, it's a real quick way of introduction.
If you don't run a business, you don't have a job,
don't worry about it, but it's not gonna hurt you
to learn a couple of things.
I'm gonna go through this as quickly as possible.
But one of the things that we commonly do,
and this is something that me and my business partner
do on a regular basis, when you're reviewing stuff,
you want to, and I'm giving you,
this is a worldly perspective,
and we're gonna tie it to obviously a Christian perspective,
but I'm gonna remove the worldly aspect of it.
But there are some good applications here, right?
Whenever you're getting ready to do a review of your business,
especially a quarterly review, you know, you want to define clear objectives.
And for us as Christians, we have to have clear objectives, right?
A couple of years ago, I preached a closed sermon about, you know,
the goals of the church and they were pretty clear and specific.
And I keep that sermon printed out and I keep those notes for review
because we want to have specific goals.
for what we're trying to accomplish.
By the way, if you want that, just let me know
and I can get that to you.
And you want to prepare data now.
We don't want to be so exaggerated.
We're not running a business.
But it is nice to know how many people show up
on a regular basis.
We do need to keep track of what tithes are coming in
so we can pay bills and stuff like that.
But at the same time, we're not running a business.
We're not exaggerating it.
I'm not running Facebook ads or Google ads to church.
Although I will say,
that we should be in the business of marketing the church and I'm talking about the most
basic form, which is if anybody knows anything about marketing, the most basic definition
of marketing is awareness.
I'm not talking about any of these fancy things where people come in and fill out forms and
and you know, fill out surveys.
I'm just saying people should know who we are and people should know where we are because
And I'm not just talking about myself you guys know the gospel if somebody came up to you
You'd be able to defend yourselves and you'd be able to clear up all the misconceptions that are out there
Right if we go and I know this is true because I knock the doors in these neighborhoods and people either go to Saint
Geronimo or a Saint Jerome whatever it's called
I guess I insulted them
It's I think it's Saint Jerome and then they go to like clay Baptist and I think it's no longer a Baptist Church
What was that one church right there pastors?
Springwoods Baptist, but it's no longer Springwoods Baptist. They got rid of the Baptist's name
So even the Baptist churches around here just getting rid of the name and when you knock on the door
Some of them don't even know what salvation means
They don't they keep they couldn't give you a clear gospel message if it was staring them right in the face
You know, these are the things that we need to have we need it. We need to have prepared preparation, right?
We need to have a structured plan
We need to invite the right people to do this this type of introspection
And then we just need to go out there and execute right so when you're talking about cost and like I said
We're only gonna focus on a couple but it's good to realize we don't need to be that that insane
But this is what the world does right when they're talking about cost
They they usually measure in business two types of cost
They're measuring the tangible cost and tangible is just a fancy word for things that you can touch
Right if I'm selling you this pen
This is a tangible product because you can touch it.
It's tangible, right?
Whereas an intangible is something
that I'm selling you a concept, you don't really get it.
Like so when you, maybe when you sell,
I used to sell investments to people
and an intangible product is all,
or service is always harder to sell
because people have to wrap their minds around it, right?
So I'm like, hey, if you invest X number of dollars with me,
You could potentially have X number of dollars with me in 10 to 15 years.
It's not guaranteed, but that's the promise or the guarantee or the ability to try to
give you this, right?
And then they're like, well, don't use the word promise and they'll use the word guarantee.
And what's interesting is people will still give you money and they'll still invest in
you, but it's just a much harder sale because it's intangible.
Christianity there's some tangibles that we understand right we can come to the church building
I can see the congregation, but then there are intangibles that we just don't see and that's the cost
We really need to focus on right we need to teach our congregation
We need to teach not only our families and the church members that what we focus on is the
Eternal not the temporal
right? Most people want to focus on what we can see, right? It's always exciting when
we see people at church, right? I get excited when I see more church members show up for
a pre-cheat. But really, that's not where the work is done, and that's not where the
change is made. The change is made when I focus on the people that haven't shown up
to church. The ones that we can't see, because that's an internal weight of glory when we
think about it, right? So, when you think about it, you have tangible costs or, you know,
things. And as a church, we have things like that. We have tangible costs. We have things
that we have to pay for and do and things like that. And then we have intangible.
And that's really where I want to focus on today, right? Like the things that we don't see,
but their cost in our life, that will give us a much greater benefit in the long term, right?
So like I said, I'm not gonna I don't I want it. This is not a business meeting. So I'm not gonna go through it all
I just have my notes here, but
Go over to Ephesians 5 go over to Ephesians 5 really quick
And we're there in Ephesians 5 and the Bible says in verse 11 it says in and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness
That's a cost
But rather approve them
And that's a bigger cost, right? One thing is to separate yourself from the world.
Another thing is to separate yourself and then call it out, right?
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which were done of them in secret,
but all things that are reproved or made manifest by the light
for whatsoever death make manifest is light.
Wherefore, you say, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.
See that you walk circumspectly, not as fulls.
But as wise and I'll end of course, we know the famous verse right redeeming the time because the days are
Evil now some of the younger people won't really get this but the ones that are getting older
I mean technically I guess you know according to like American culture if you're in your 40s
You're basically at the mid stage of your life, right?
You know you're like people have mid-life crisis is and you know, we were driving into church this morning
and I guess just a couple of blocks down
at one of the schools or something,
they're having like this.
You know, they do this all over all over Houston, but these car shows where all the people bring in their nice cars
And as we're driving up, there's all these mint like magenta green cars
and it's like a Porsche and a Ferrari and
You know all all these things right and they're they're excited about that stuff
But with us, you know, you realize that
When when it comes to the cost of life when when you're oh, that's what I was going. Let me just come back
You're talking about those, a lot of those guys would probably be middle-aged and probably
somebody would say, hey, you bought this Ferrari because you're going through a midlife crisis,
right?
You're trying to relive your youth.
How many of you have run into that where somebody all of a sudden, maybe the kids finally go
to college and they're empty nesters and all of a sudden the dad's dressing youthful and
he bought a motorcycle and he bought a boat and he bought a bike and a four-wheeler and
You know what they're doing. They're just trying to make up for that lost time
But with us according to the Bible the way we redeemed the time is what?
we walk circumspectly
we
Separate ourselves. We sanctify ourselves in the cause of Christ
Right when you get older you realize time flies
I'm not even joking when I keep saying I think I've said it now a couple of times from the pulpit this year
I'm still waiting for January 1st. I mean, we're going to April 1st in a couple of days
I don't even know where January went
Like I mean, I'm still like what happened in January and February and March. We're already in the second quarter of the year
I don't even know what happened in the first quarter of the year
All I know is this is it's been like hectic
It's just like one thing after another after another after another another thing that triggered this is you know
Even even as I was getting ready to close out the our first quarter in our business
One of our main employees quit on us suddenly like a week ago
And then it cost me to like now I'm having to regroup everything and do everything it actually has been a blessing
But that's a whole other thing
But the first point I want to focus on today
Let's let's actually get into counting the cost right because I don't want to get sidetracked. I don't want to get on rabbit trails
I've already done a couple of those this morning and let's let's get back on track
The first thing we want to look at is the fixed or unmovable cost that you notice
I added that word unmovable because we're not talking about a business expense. We're talking about
the walk with Christ. Right? And go over to John 10, and there's a couple of things. Now there's
three things that are fixed costs, at least in my life, and the way we run this church.
And I think those are the three things that you could at least for sure make part of your life
as a cost to doing the spiritual business. Remember, even Jesus said, I'm about my father's what?
Right, so it's not wrong to look at things from a business perspective because all it
is is you're just looking at a project focused goal, right?
We have a goal in mind and we're going to execute it in a certain way.
In John 10 verse 27 the Bible says my sheep hear my voice
You know these verses right and I know them and they follow me and I give them
Eternal life and they shall never perish
Neither shall any man plug them out of my hand my father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to
Pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one the reason I chose this verse
Specifically is because this verse is not only talking about salvation, but it's talking about eternal security
You can never lose your salvation, right?
And we not only believe in salvation by faith,
we believe in salvation by faith,
once saved, always saved,
you have eternal security in Christ.
You say, Pastor, that's like the most basic thing.
It actually is not,
because there's a lot of people
that'll preach salvation by faith.
You know what they do?
They think that you can lose your salvation
if you do something, mess it up, right?
They think if you don't have a change of heart
and of outward appearance, then you're not saved.
You know, they'll go around telling you that, you know, oh yeah, maybe you were saved, but
you know, the way you're acting now, we don't even know if you're saved.
But with us, like this is a fixed cost in my life.
I will not push back.
I will not give ground on the fact that salvation is by faith alone.
It's eternal.
You can never lose it.
Period.
End of story.
You know people get dementia Alzheimer's all kinds of mental diseases if you're saved you're saved
If you know it doesn't matter I have family members who I know they were saved as children and right now
You know people grow up and they're just not living
Like you know, they're not in church regular or anything. You know what and people come
I don't know if this person is saving. I'm like I have confirmation from this person's mother that they let him to Christ
Bible says all you have to do is believe they're saved
Right to me. That's that's the only thing necessary is for salvation
It's to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to put your trust your faith everything on Jesus Christ. That's it
You don't have to know the Bible. You don't have to have exegesis or fancy theological terms
That's it, but we we cannot move this cup
You know why people are changing the name of their Baptist Church because they they're moving the cost on this
They're willing to maybe take a little bit more money from the work salvation.
They're not willing to kick out a false preacher or call somebody out.
We are saved by faith, one saved, always saved, eternal security, period, end of story.
If you don't know what that means, come see me after the service.
It's actually not that difficult.
I'll explain it to you all day long.
It's my favorite thing to talk about.
The version of the Bible because look for forget that it's called the King James Version the Bible tells us there's one God
That means he only has one voice
In the form of three persons God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit
So if he did that then that means that God I have faith enough to know that he's gonna provide a
Preserved version of his word in every language, but only one time
Why would he contradict himself so in Hebrews it says that Jesus died once
For the sins of the world, but then he would give us multiple versions
Multiple ways to figure this thing out. No, so we're King James only go to Psalm 19
Psalm 19 and I know feels like a very basic sermon, but in this day and age
I think the basics are actually the most important. I
Mean
guys the Republican Party thinks that
Paula white is a pastor as she should be the one leading the charge of the
Spiritual ministry of the nation
Literally Trump put her in charge of like, you know leading the you know
She prays over him and speaks in tongues and all kinds. This is not negotiable. We do not I
Don't know. She's not our spiritual leader. I'll put it to you like that
I know Trump is your president. We know there's nothing we can do about it whether you like them or not
But Paula White is not our pastor. She's not a pastor at all. She's a devil
Who will burn in the deepest, you know, pit of hell
Bible says there in Psalms 19 in verse 7 the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect
Converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure
Making wise the simple the statutes of the Lord are right
Rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure
Enlightening the eyes the fear of the Lord is clean and during forever the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether
More to be desired are they than gold?
Yeah, then much fine gold sweeter also then honey and the honey comb and you know
Maybe what triggered it? I don't know. There's a lot of things that been going on and in just the change in ministry and life
You know, we're all you're always growing
And in the beginning of the year, I said, you know, my currency or the currency that I would love for our church is to be a spiritual currency, right?
Where we're looking for those rewards and recompenses in where? In heaven.
And maybe that's why, you know, we're doing a review for the first quarter. I don't know what it is, but I love that the Bible says here that his word is perfect, it converts the soul, and it's a sure word.
It's not going to change.
Right. We don't need multiple versions that get updated all the time. God's word doesn't change. We don't need to update anything
You know, you look at all the other versions every few years. They have another
Council meeting to update that version. I mean, how many times do you need to review something?
You know at this point, you know, what it is it go over to Psalm 126 you're there in Psalm
And then the third thing that we just don't the fixed cost
We're soul winning church
I didn't say we're a perfect soul winning church, but we're a soul winning church, right?
That, you know, and it costs something to go soul winning.
It really does.
It's hard work.
It takes time out of your busy schedule.
I mean, it just, it requires you to spend time, you know,
just reviewing those verses.
There's things that you could be doing on a Saturday
or a Friday or whatever day you go on the week.
There's always something carnally that you could be doing
that feels like it would be more beneficial
than knocking doors and getting rejected nine times
out of 10.
Cause even though we lead people to Christ,
most people are like, no, no, thank you.
We don't have time.
But the Bible says in Psalm 126, they that sow in tears in verse five shall reap and
joy.
He that goeth forth and weeping, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Now I want to go into heaven with sheaves.
I don't want to go into heaven because I have stock in Tesla, which by the way, if you
have stock in Tesla, you probably need to sell because apparently it's been doing really
bad.
So.
It's top of mind because I mean those things are idiots who actually likes those trucks
I know the kids do but my son I think gentry likes it from from my understanding
But those Tesla trucks are just they just look like it looks like they took a remember when we were kids and we would
Take cardboard boxes and make our own cars
That's what it looks like it looks like they grab a five-year-old that said hey
Design a truck for us, and then we'll market it and then that's what it was Tesla, you know the Tesla truck or whatever
but
Go over to Luke nine really quick while well, I'll give you this next point, but
In business right there's unchanging cost that that you can't remove right you have certain things that you have to pay all
The time well when it comes to serving the Lord
We also have those unchanging but the cost you notice I haven't brought up what we pay and rent at the church
Or if we even pay rent or anything like I'm talking about the spiritual cost these three things
Honestly, if you don't even have these three things settled
you probably are susceptible to just being thrown around with every wind of doctrine.
I mean, because people try to convince you that it's better to read the ESV,
even though I study in the King James. Who's ever heard stupid stuff like that?
Oh, you know, when I preach, I preach out of the NASB, but when I do my studying during the week,
I use the King James. But if I want to talk to a group of people that are, you know,
What are you even talking about that doesn't even make any sense?
I mean, I've literally been in churches where the preachers have said stuff like that
Just maybe not verbatim. So don't hold me to that but go to Luke 9 verse 23. The Bible says there
And he said to them
If any will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross
Daily and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it
But whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it
And I think this is a really important reminder.
This is actually, in my opinion, a very important sermon
because we all have things that we think are important, right?
We need to go clock in at a job
or we're building a business
or we set out to do these goals.
Look, when I was Mo's age,
and I'm picking on Mo just because I got to work
with him earlier this week,
but when I remember when I was 23,
you know, my dream
Tray knows me since I was 23.
Our dream was to like be at a skyscraper, right?
Right down over here and have a big,
or maybe I don't know if it was,
I shouldn't speak for it, but for me, my dream,
you know, was to like live the Tesla live
or the Amazon business owner life.
You know, you walk into like a nice corporate building,
you're at the top, C-suite, right?
You have the penthouse suite,
you're driving around in the nice cars,
you're doing all that.
And then, and then I got saved.
And then the Lord changed everything, right?
But you know what?
My carnal doesn't forget that and every once in a while I'm in business and I get caught
up in a project or there's the opportunity to close another sale and it's like, do I
close this sale or do I serve the Lord?
Do I do this or do, and we need to count that cost, right?
I was talking to someone last, yesterday, actually I think I mentioned it several people, but
Right for my business. We'd probably do a lot more, but I'm not gonna ever get Saturdays back because Saturdays are spent
You know reviewing
Servants and going sewing or showing up the church and doing something
But our spiritual currency is way more important than anything we do and I'm giving you my personal example
I'm pretty sure you guys have things that you want to accomplish or do in lives
Or maybe you had dreams that you thought you should accomplish in life
But remember God says hey, you got to take up your cross daily. You got to hate
your brother and your sister and your mom and your dad.
You know what, you even gotta hate yourself.
You know, when you read the Bible more and more,
you're like, man, that sounds kind of harsh,
but really, I do hate myself,
because myself wants still the nice car
and it wants to buy the nice electronics
and it wants to have a big bank account.
But the spiritual self says, you're an idiot,
because when you die, it means nothing.
And this is constant war and I mean, I'm just being really honest with you guys
I don't know how many of you struggle with that stuff, but that's just a struggle of being in the flesh
But you know the only way to suppress that is to take up your cross daily
Because then I don't think about it on a daily basis when you're doing the work of the Lord
you know go over to
Go over to Romans 12. I'll read for you really quick Matthew 10 go over to Romans 12
We're on the same theme. He says he that loveeth father or mother more than me in verse 37 is not worthy of me
And he that loveeth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me
And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me
He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that looth it lose it his life for my sake shall find it
You know Hispanics are you know all about family, I'm pretty sure I think it's a cultural thing across
But some people voice it more his banks are just really loud, right?
Oh, family's the most important.
I mean, my dad, that was the motto growing up.
Family's most important.
You know, I'm your family.
Nobody ever be there like your family.
What about my spiritual family?
And even if my spiritual family were to forsake me, you know who's not going to forsake me?
God.
Right, I mean we need to forsake all for Jesus Christ. We need to take up that cross now
Let me just I got ahead of myself here
But I gave you the three costs that I can't move but if you really want to level up you can add these as your fixed cost
Now I don't think this is something you actually have to work hard to attain to to get to these costs
Right, to forsake all, to be willing to hate anybody.
I mean, I think that I'm capable of that, but, you know, every situation, it's on a
case-by-case basis, because, you know, if you're not in the Word, if the flesh is in
the way, things can happen.
And by the way, I'm not perfect, so I know mistakes happen.
I had to turn over to Romans 12, right?
Romans 12 there in verse 1, the Bible says,
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies
of living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
God's not even asking us like an unreasonable request.
It says, this is within the realm of reason.
Now in 2025, this might not make so much sense because I remember the old guard when I was
a young man saying, son, you need to get some what?
Common sense.
Remember that?
You just had some common sense. You wouldn't do half dump stuff that you do on a daily basis
The thing is now I understand it because now I'm 45 and I'm looking at the youth of America
I'm like man, I wish they had some common sense
Right common sense would be just something reasonable
Right? The ability to be reasonable is that you have common sense, right?
You know, you're not going to stick your tongue in an electrical socket.
I don't know, maybe in today's age.
Remember, I wish I was exaggerating.
Remember a couple of years back when kids were eating,
what is it, detergent pods?
Because it was the, yeah, the tie pods, they were like
ingesting tie pods to be like viral.
That's some common sense right there, right?
You know, why would you eat soap that you're putting in a washing machine like doesn't even make any sense
I didn't even like I didn't even like the taste of soap when I was a kid let alone as an adult
But this is weird, right?
But it says there your reasonable service go to verse 2 says that be not conformed to this world
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind and you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God
For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think himself more highly than he ought to think
but to think soberly, according to God hath dealt to every man, the measure of faith.
Look, we're in different stages when it comes to this, but the goal is to just get to the reasonable
service. And honestly, you know how you clean up your life? You go first do the work.
You don't clean up your life and then you do the work.
You do the work and by nature of doing the work, you clean up your life.
Look, it's much easier to not think lustful thoughts if I'm out soul winning than if I'm
thinking, oh, I shouldn't think lustful thoughts, right?
I'm sitting by myself at home saying, Lord, don't let me think lustful thoughts.
But then I'm just by myself, Lord, don't let me think.
Then your mind's gonna do what it does, but if I'm out soul winning I don't even have to ask the Lord
I don't even have those thoughts because I just you know, I'm worried about that person across for me
I just want to lead them to Christ all I'm thinking about is how can I give them the gospel to make sure they understand it
So they don't go to hell
Now the second point like I said, these are really I don't know if I said it earlier
But after this is just gonna go fairly quickly, but you know, we have variable
or flexible cost, right?
When it comes to our spiritual walk,
there are costs that we might incur, we might not.
But the ones that I gave you, there is no wiggle room, right?
I mean, I don't care who you are or what you do,
if you come and you can't even meet that three criteria.
And you're trying to convince me to do something else for the church.
There's no wiggle room.
We're King James only, we're Faith alone, and we're soul winning.
And when I talk about that, I'm just saying you support soul winning.
You know, maybe you can't go soul winning, then pray for the soul winning efforts.
I'm not even asking us to be like 100% so we're not just saying, hey, let's be proactive
and supportive of the soul winning efforts.
Now, it would be my dream if all of us, 100% of us went out soul winning on a regular
Basis, but I'm also just a realist. That's not gonna happen. That's just life, right?
We're all human life happens things happen, but don't be so anti like don't be against so winning
Don't try to be a stumbling block for others that are trying to do the work. Just be supportive of the work
Go to Isaiah 25
And the variable cost in the spiritual walk or what the seasons in life
You know when you're reading the book of faith
Some people were spared right the Bible says that these these great
Prophets and patriarchs some of them ended up seeing they were spared of the lion's den
They were pulled out of the fire says but some some were burned and so an asunder and were killed
We don't know
What cost God's gonna ask of us, but we need to be willing to go be far above and beyond
But the only way is we first need to know what our fixed costs are, right?
You're there in Isaiah, but I'll read for you really quick and I in Egliseas we know the verse
But it's worth mentioning it says to everything. There is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven
There's a there's a season for everything and with that season comes
cost, you know, we're going through the we just finished going through the overview of the Bible
Or we're going through an overview of the Bible on Sunday evenings and where we just finished in Genesis
And what was the thing that Joseph had to do? You had to count the cost. God said hey
There's gonna be seven years of feast and you need to gather for seven years because there's seven years of famine
right
In other words, don't put it on a credit card and get trillions and trillions of dollars in debt
Be prepared for the the thin times
And I say 25 verse 1 the Bible says oh Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy name for thou has done
Wonderful things thy counsels of older faithfulness and truth
For thou has made a city and heap a defense city a ruin a palace of strangers to be no city
It shall never be built
Therefore, shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall
fear thee, for thou hast been a strength to the poor.
A strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,
and when the blast of the terrible ones is a storm against the wall,
thou shalt bring down the noise of the strangers, as in, as the heat in dry places,
even the heat with the shadow of a cloud, the branch of the terrible ones,
shall be brought low. And the reason I chose this, because I love this,
because it's what is basically, I mean, in short context, the Lord's never going to forsake you,
even if it costs us something in the short term.
Right. There is a season. Maybe we're not being persecuted now, but we'll be persecuted at some point
Maybe we're not going through any trials now, but you're gonna go through trials
I heard it say by another pastor a long time ago, you know, you're either
Coming into the storm you're either in the storm or you're coming out of a storm and you're just gonna circle through you're either
You're either just coming into it, you're in it, or you're out of it.
This is, you know, the reason I picked Storms is, what is April and May known for in Houston?
It's stormy season, right?
We're about to get flooding and rain down in the valley.
I didn't even, I mean, my parents, I guess, live in a place that doesn't get flooded so
I didn't get the calls.
But where I grew up, there was a ton of flooding, you know, people that I know were posting
pictures of, it's just this, you know, and there's cost associated with that.
But in the spiritual life, the harder we preach, the more rain from the enemy that's going to come, right?
It's going to come in the form of hail and wind and destruction.
You know, I don't want to be like the earthquake that just happened over in Asia, right?
I don't want us to be
Springcrest Baptist Church on top of a building that has a nice pool and then we're just chilling out and the earthquake comes
Did you see those that video and that pool is just like almost it's like tipping the water over who saw that?
Did anybody see that video? It was wild like literally these people are on the the top of a skyscraper
probably 40 50 stories up
And they're, what are they doing?
They're chilling.
And what's interesting, it was a bunch of English-speaking people, Americans, you know,
Europeans, what are they doing?
That's where people go to retire and spend the rest of their life in leisure and apathy
and not caring for the world and God strikes them with an earthquake and they're at the
top of this thing.
Can you imagine being at the top of this thing?
Also, I mean, not little waves.
big waves. The water was so much that the people that were running away because they
thought the building was going to fall. There was a video that captured it. The water hit
and it hit with such force, it wiped out all the people on the street, right? But I don't want
us to be, Spring Crest Bath is chilling out at the top of, you know, when the storm comes,
you know, if the storm comes, I want to be on level ground ready to deal with it.
You know what? I want to be on Moses side when the sons of Korah go against Moses and the earth
Right, I want to be next as Moses not next to a bunch of idiots. We're being attacked by the devil and
Losing we're gonna get attacked by the devil, but we should lose because we have gotten our side
Go over to 1st Corinthians 2 but in Romans 8 the Bible says for I reckon the sufferings of this present time are
Not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us
It's a good reminder especially when we're going through things, right?
Because we get self-righteous indignation. I'm just gonna be honest with you when that individual quit last Friday, man
I was self-righteous indignant. I
Was like I have every right in my mind to just give him a what-to. I had to call him up and just let him know
What I'm actually thinking
But then you read verses like this and you're like none of this even matters
The Bible says that it's a light affliction
Compared to like and honestly, it's a for it's what people refer to here in America as for its world problems
Right. Nobody's knocking down my door threatening to kill me
No, no, nobody's like, you know, you go to Cuba you go to Venezuela you go to countries like that
People can't even get food. Let alone worry about an employee leaving them
Right? We need to put things in the right perspective. What are the costs? Go to 1st Corinthians 2
But we should constantly be counting the cost. The problem is, you know, it's a great sermon when you hear it
And I'm not talking about my my sermon. I'm talking about the Bible verses. By the way, I'm not patting myself on the back
I think this is a great subject matter because the challenge is we should constantly always be counting the cost
Because in life things are constantly happening
You wake up one morning, and they call you and somebody died you wake up one morning, and I don't know what things happen
I remember a couple years back
We were telling my son because we were you know
We drive through clay and that's the reservoir the addicts reservoir and he's like why is it called that?
I was like well think of it as a big bucket. I said son back in
2017 when Harvey struck that thing was a but like remember that it was filled to the brim
It just came out of nowhere and remember Harvey was supposed to pass by category one hurricane
Nothing was gonna happen. And then it just sat there for a week
It just poured water on the city of Houston, you know, and if you're not ready, you're struggling
You know, I tell my wife always keep water because people freak out in Houston during storms
But go to 1st Corinthians 9 the Bible says but as it is written
I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto him by his spirit,
for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, for what man knoweth
the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God
knoweth no man, but what, the spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world
But the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God
Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches
But, which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, but he that is spiritual
judges all things, yet he himself is judge of no man, for who hath known the mind of
the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.
But the reason I put this in the category of variable is because it fluctuates
We're either in the spirit or we're in the man
We're either in the Holy Spirit or we're in the spirit of man
It's this constant battle, right? And when we're in the spirit of man, it's costing us a lot spiritually
Sometimes we think we're gaining because you know
We're just man. We just sometimes we we lie to ourselves and we're like, oh, yeah
If I just you know, if I just do this long enough, I'll be able to be free to do this other thing
All right, who's ever had that conversation with themselves if I could just stick this out
I'll be free to do this other thing and God's like no it doesn't matter what's going on in your life
You need to make time to do the things of the Lord
You know, you need to read your Bible. You need to be with your family. You need to show up to church
You need to go so when you you need to call out false devils
You need to get into the spiritual battle, but but I'm not ready. We just
Just go and do it anyways
You know in business they call it what paralysis by analysis people over analyze things
And they're constantly clean up their life and they never do anything for the Lord
They're constantly not counting the cost, they're being bean counters.
You know, in business, there's two types of people that look at finance.
The business owner and the bookkeeper or the accountant.
And you know what the business owner, who he hates the most?
It's the bean counter, because the bean counter wants everything to be perfect.
And the business owner is like, nothing's ever gonna be perfect.
And so then he's like, hey, we need to spend this money, why don't we can't spend this
money?
Well, we need to do this.
And it's the same thing in the spiritual walk, but in the spiritual walk, it's always, you
know who the bean counter is?
Those guys that are hyper spiritual, you know, the holier than thou's.
They're like, oh, well, you do this, so that's, I don't know why, you know, you're not gonna
get rewards here because you haven't cleaned this part up.
What party do you want me to clean up?
I'm always cleaning up something.
You know I mean there's constantly challenges in your life. We just need to go out there and do the work go over to Hebrews 10
Go over Hebrews 10, and then I'll give you the last point in Hebrews 10 in verse 32
The Bible says but call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great afflict
Great fight of afflictions now pay attention here because the Bible does make it clear that we should forget the past
But this is an interesting set of verses because this is only talking like you know what we should always remember though
When we the battles that we've overcome so we can learn from them and overcome them better
Usually, when Paul says, hey, don't look at things behind you, it's talking about like
when you're trying to remember the good old days, the days that had nothing to do with
your life.
You know, the high school guy who still wears his Letterman jacket, because he was the captain
of the football team, he's 45, he can barely fit in that thing, but he's like, do you
remember that football game, you know, the one where I threw that touchdown, I was like,
dude, that was 25 years ago, man, like nobody cares.
You don't even look the same.
Wait, but you can remember are the hard battles that were fought so we can fight them better
That's what the saying says but called remembers the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great fight of afflictions
Partly was you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly was he become companions of them that were so used
For yet, compassion of me and my bonds and took joyful the spoilings of your goods knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance.
Cast out a way therefore your confidence
which God, which hath great recompense of reward, for ye have need of patience,
that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise,
for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Not the just, now the just will live by faith, but if any man draw back,
my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition,
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."
You know why we constantly count the cost?
Because we don't want to draw back.
Right?
We don't want to, and notice I haven't mentioned money,
because we're not counting the physical cost.
Because what I'm talking about is the spiritual cost.
Look, if we've spent every penny of the church doing the work of the Lord,
then let's just spend it.
Most churches won't even touch their savings because, you know,
for rainy day, God says He's going to provide the former and the latter rain.
Which costs are we counting?
Right
We look at the former days and we're like hey
God got me through this and God got me through that and he showed up when I needed him here
And now that I'm facing this thing
He's gonna come through again
Because you know what happens is human nature whatever we're in a battle
Whenever we're we're in a in a spiritual challenge
We want to you know, falter a little bit
And it's it's when we remember these things and then just go over
go over to Micah, go over to Micah,
I'll read for you these other verses.
And then the last thing, and this is the thing
I want to focus on is, in business,
sometimes people will focus on sunk cost
versus opportunity cost.
And we need to have the same mentality spiritually, right?
You know, a sunk cost is what?
It's like a past expense that cannot be recovered, right?
You invest in an employee, I'll give you that example, right?
They were with you for a long time and then they left.
I can't recover that.
Some equipment that went bad and there was no more warranty on it and it's just or you bought a piece of building in the wrong
Location and then McDonald's opened up right across the street from you and took all your business
It means just the song cuss right that just happens
but
Just as companies move after failed investments, you know Christians must press on
Without longing for what they left behind
Right opportunity costs though refer to what is lost by choosing one option over another. We can't do everything
So as a church, we either build out ministries that have nothing to do with
Leading people to Christ, we can become a contemporary church, you know
We have the the drums and and the cool slight shows and you know
I don't know we can have drones taking pictures of everybody and then doing a really cool live stream or whatever
Or we could just be who we are and
Come up to this old building and know that we're gonna go do the work of the Lord
right
I know most of you don't remember,
but we used to have this old fridge before this one.
This fridge I don't think is even two years old.
And I remember telling Pastor Cophouse, like Pastor,
this fridge is old and you know,
Pastor is an old school mentality,
which you know, I love to carry.
I'm not picking on him.
But he's like, you know, until it goes out,
we're not changing that thing.
And sometimes it'd go out.
And I'm like, we're ready to change that thing.
And then it would just miraculously
cough itself back to life.
Remember that, Pastor?
It was like,
And it cooled down again and then finally one day it just went out mold was growing and I was like that's it
We're getting rid of it, but remember that thing
I mean it just was like it just strong
But we didn't worry about that because we just kept showing up to do the work of the Lord because it doesn't really matter
But most churches will focus on like having the nicest fridge and cappuccino bar and you know, I don't know what else
Look what we have is we have and we can get better great
But we're not gonna worry about that
But what I do want to do is invest in you to be welcome in church so we can go do the work of the Lord
Right. I don't want to just welcome you to church so we can fellowship. Hey, let's go. Let's go get some work done
What do you need? What resources do you need in your region where you live from our church so you can do a better job for the Lord?
I'm being dead serious. If you want to come up to me and say, hey, I need this or I wish we were doing this
Let's do it
That's the cost I want to count, right?
I don't remember where I had to turn, but I'm going to read for you really quick.
In Philippians 3, the Bible says in verse 7 says,
But what things were gained of me, those things, I mean, those I count at loss for Christ.
Yet doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,
Jesus my Lord, whom I have suffered at the loss of all things, and do count them but
That's what it is. Anyways, we're not taking it to the grave
You know
It reminds me of in first Samuel. I'll read for you. I think I had to turn to Micah, but at first Samuel 16 one
You know God has removed his spirit from King Saul right and it says in the Lord said unto Samuel
How long will that mourn for Saul seen I've rejected him from reigning over Israel for thine horn with oil and
Fill thine horn with oil and go and I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided me a king among his sons
You know who does it dwell?
God
You know who's lost who has sunk cost God
for all have sinned.
I mean, that's a loss right there until we get saved, right?
I mean, he doesn't dwell on the fact that,
that, you know, I'm a sinner.
He doesn't dwell on the fact that, you know,
I say I'm gonna commit to doing these things in church
and then I don't do them,
or I'm gonna do this thing for my family and I don't do them.
He doesn't dwell on the fact that you've made promises
to yourself and things that you were gonna accomplish
for the Lord, and then you failed, right?
Cause we've all failed.
He doesn't dwell on that.
He says, how long are you gonna mourn?
Cause I'm not mourning.
Let's go next. I don't have time to think about the things that didn't happen. Let's go make it happen
You're there in Micah in verse 18 the Bible says
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage?
Heritage, he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy.
He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, and
that will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Look, God doesn't even dwell on your sin.
So why do you do it?
Why do other Christians do it?
I don't mind being judged, because the Bible says with what judgment you meet, you'll be
met.
But you have all these high and mighty Christians who do nothing for the Lord, but man, they're quick to call you out
Psalm 103 go to mark 10. That's the last place. I'm gonna have you turn
I'll read for you some 103 and mark 10 is the last place. I'm gonna have you turn the Bible says the Lord is merciful and gracious
slow to anger and plenteous in mercy
He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities,
for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Like as the father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."
I love this phrase. It says,
He remembereth that we are dust look the Lord knows I love the way that that's why the King James is great
Right. He knows our frame. He knows who you are
You don't need to tell the Lord what kind of screw-up you are. He already knows that
He says it isn't say he remembers says he know it's your frame
You're sitting there thinking of maybe maybe you're not but at some point in your life
You probably said in a pulp I mean in a pew and thought oh, I messed this up or I shouldn't do this or whatever God already knows
He knows your frame
Go to mark 10 last place I'll have you turn but what's the purpose of this sermon? Well number one
Well, we want to focus on the things we've accomplished in the first quarter and the things that we're gonna accomplish
Look, we've had 110 souls one of the Lord
We haven't had that in a in several years. Amen
But we can't say, you know, that's that's in the past
We've got to look forward
If we continue on that track, we're on track to four to five hundred souls. That's great
But you know, it'd be better if we had a thousand souls
But you know, I can't do it alone. You can't do it alone. By the way, I'm not I'm saying maybe I'm not so winning
You're so winning but if we so win together, we'll get it, right? Because we'll have
Well, it'll come to me. What's the when you invest, you know, you have oh, we'll have a compound effect, right?
The compound interest is better than just regular interest
Go to Mark 10 verse 29 the Bible says in Jesus answered and said barely I sin to you
There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sister or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospel sake
But he shall receive a hundredfold now and this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with
persecutions and
In the world to come eternal life
It says hey nobody that left everybody. It's just gonna be you know what the Bible says it says you're not gonna be left empty-handed
For sake all and I'll just replace it with something better
But what I love the way it says it it says with
Persecutions look we're gonna be in this battle. We're gonna I we need to have haughty big
You know goals that are gonna piss some people off
So we can get our brothers and our sisters and our mothers and our land in the world to come
Right, that's what as we close out this first quarter
It was just perfect because tomorrow is the last day of the month and then and then the first of April, right?
But as we close out we need to constantly be counting the cost
It's not count the cost, you know the one thing that's not, you know, obviously we extrapolate for a mid-boy
It says hey when someone's gonna build a castle, you know, don't need to count the cost first
But you know what they're also constantly doing counting the cost
You know in a construction site, you know, I know Jesse you and your brothers, right? You guys have a construction business
you're not just like oh, well the estimate is this and
Where it's gonna cost this much and that's it. What are you constantly doing every time you buy something?
You're like, oh, are we then reason and you're constantly recounting the cost and then oh, oh, no
We we just tore down a wall and I know we told you it was gonna be this much but guess what there's mold
So let's you know, it's gonna cost this much more. It's the same thing in the Christian walk, right?
Every time you say you're gonna do something for the Lord you you tear down that wall and then you're like whoa
I didn't expect all these all these challenges Lord. We're gonna add another another soul-winning time
Less time with family less time with work less less time to close sales or you know clocking at the job over time
But the Lord is our spiritual currency, right?
But the thing we need to remember is the fixed costs are the ones that matter the most
We don't have those we won't even be able to deal with a variable cost
It's the same just like in your life or in your business, right?
If you have a little cushion when emergencies come you're not worried
But if you're living paycheck to paycheck and your car breaks down you're a little stressed
Who's ever been in that situation? I know I have I mean I'm not I'm not immune to the fact that you know
I've made some bad financial decisions in my life
But and I'm not immune to the fact that I've made some bad spiritual decisions in my life
But the thing that we should review is hey if we're gonna review this on a regular basis
What are we gonna review?
Review it for like what is the purpose?
Because we have a spiritual battle and we need to count count the spiritual cost so that we know what what it takes
Right. What are we not unmovable on? What are we flexible on? What are we willing to give? What are we willing to take?
We should obviously give more than we take but but there should be a balance there
And we also got to remember that God doesn't dwell on anything. He's like, hey, we need to move on to the next thing
It always reminds me and I really will close out with this always reminds me when John sends, you know
To verify if Jesus right if if really Jesus is Jesus
He's like, hey, can you go confirm this thing? Where's he doing it from? He's doing it from jail
You notice Jesus doesn't stop and say,
oh, John's in jail.
Let me go visit John in jail.
What does Jesus do?
He didn't forsake John spiritually,
but he forsook him carnally.
He didn't go visit him in jail.
He's like, I'm about my father's business.
Most people look at it as that's cold,
but the reality is he already knew John's fate,
not the fate of being beheaded,
the fact that John's already in heaven with him.
He's the greatest whoever lived nobody's ever there's never been a better person in the entire you know
The person you like the most in this world is not as good as John John the Baptist
Let me just tell you that the Bible is very clear the greatest person ever lived and and he's so great
Jesus didn't even make time to go visit him in jail
But we'll give all kinds of excuses before we go do the work of the Lord
Now, I'm not saying don't be, you know, not compassionate and don't love people.
I'm just saying, when it comes to the balance, make sure you get the important things out
of the way.
And then God does want you to do the other things.
But don't be like, oh, well, Lord, you know, I'm so busy taking care of the church that
I can't go so many.
Or you know, I'm so busy taking care of my family that I can't go three times a week.
Or I'm so busy doing this that I can't get up early to read my Bible.
Or you know, whatever it is, Lord, I'm so busy and I'm so tired at night that I fall asleep
Well, maybe go run and pray or drink some coffee and pray and then stay up all night.
I don't know. Just figure it out. Let's close in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord,
thank you so much for today. Thank you for your blessings, Lord. Thank you for the reminder that
we should constantly be counting the cost. And I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about
the spiritual cost. Lord, remind us that there is a battle
that even though we have victories we also have losses and the only way to get the ultimate victories is to stay the course
I'm talking about the rewards and recompenses of quarter for say we have eternal life. We have heaven
So, Lord, just help us to recalibrate as we round into the month of April, to reexamine
ourselves, to be introspective, and be like, what is it that we need a declutter, we need
a cleanup so that we can do even more work, be more effective, be more fruitful, more
productive for the work of the Lord.
Now, Lord, I ask you also that you would bless the food that we're about to eat in the time
of fellowship.
Thank you for all those here in attendance today, Lord.
And just bless the meal and the time of fellowship in Jesus name we pray. Amen