Consider the Cost
Deeper Still • Sermon • Submitted
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Prayer
Cost of Discipleship
In his book, Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, Peter Scazzero talks about discipleship using imagery of stone masonry versus cladding
He has a son-in-law who’s a stone mason, has come under apprenticeship to be a master mason. Requires years of working with hand cut stone in order to build a wall or structure or home that will stand the test of time.
Cladding is a construction technique that looks like real stone, but in reality it’s just a veneer, using stones cut down to 1 to 5 inches and attached to a wall. Sometimes, it’s not even real stone - concrete or some other material painted to look like stone and then attached to wall.
His point is to give an illustration that demonstrates difference between discipleship that is more like cladding - it’s just a veneer, attached to surface versus discipleship that is handcrafted stone through and through. Type of discipleship that will withstand the test of time because it’s made to last, it will stand up to storms of life.
Same basic idea in Jesus’ teachings on the sermon on the mount when he compared the wise man who built his house on rock versus the foolish man who built his on the sand. Look the same, but underneath, foundationally - very different
Over the next nine weeks, we want to take a look at our discipleship - both individually and collectively, as a church. We want to consider whether our discipleship is more like cladding, that thin veneer of discipleship, or if it’s true solid stone. That’s our focus on this sermon series what we’re calling, Deeper Still. We don’t want a shallow discipleship church culture, want one that goes deep.
in the passage we’re going to look at this morning, Luke 14, Jesus talks about salt that has lost its saltiness. That such salt is good for nothing. If you had table salt that had no salty flavor to it, it wouldn’t matter how much of it you dumped on your food, it would make no difference, no flavoring. Like Jesus says, that’s salt that you would simply toss.
Jesus says that because to be his disciple is to be different. Distinctly different. To bring flavor of God to the world. That’s why he tells us, you are the salt of the earth. You are to be distinctly different.
But if our discipleship is just a veneer, if it only looks different on the outside, and we’re not fundamentally different on the inside, if we’re not like Jesus in our hearts - then we are essentially salt that has lost its saltiness. No flavor.
Shallow discipleship revealed in our lives
high profile pastors caught in sexual misconduct
How judgmental, how critical, how angry we can be as followers of Jesus
I think for many of us there’s a fear - of spiritual exposure, fear of that veneer being ripped off - people would see our hearts as they really are (example of serving in youth ministry in Houston - I’m a fraud)
Scazzero says that this is the fundamental question: What are the beneath-the-surface failures that undermine deep discipleship and keep people from becoming spiritually mature?
Because the concern is not just that our discipleship may be shallow - but why is it shallow? What’s going on beneath the surface of our lives that’s keeping us from stonemason-solid discipleship? And what do we need, therefore, to go deeper still?
Peter Scazzero - four failures of the church that has led to shallow discipleship in our day and age. I’m not going to go into great detail with these today because that’ll come out as we make our way through the series, but I do think it’s helpful to know them, because my guess is that they aren’t what you might guess that they are:
We tolerate emotional immaturity - this one may be the most surprising, but Scazzero says this is key - that you will only mature spiritually as much as you mature emotionally. Reason is actually very simple- discipleship has everything to do with love - learning to love God above all and loving others.
Emotionally immature people are self-focused. They don’t act out of love, they act of fear or anger or self-protection.
We emphasize doing for God over being with God - key to becoming like Christ is being with him, abiding in him. Heart Transformation is that inside out change. Our busyness, our unwillingness to stop enough to be present to Jesus all-too-often keeps that from happening.
We ignore the treasures of church history - we tend to think that way we’ve learned about God, our traditions are way its supposed to be - the only way it’s supposed to be, but there’s a whole rich history of the Christian church throughout the world and throughout the generations - and learning from other traditions can help us see our own blind spots. Every Christian tradition has its strengths AND weaknesses.
Finally, We define success wrongly. Here’s where we’ve let the culture influence us, why we stay shallow - our definition of success tends to be defined a lot more by Americanism than by Jesus. We view success in life more as getting a good education, a job that pays well, owning a home - rather than by becoming more and more like Jesus.
So, that’s problem. Shallow discipleship. Cladding, veneer discipleship. Jesus is inviting us into deep waters. He wants for us to have a discipleship that is built by a master mason, stone upon stone. But that is a slow, deliberate and difficult process.
Which brings us to our main point this morning: Are we willing to do the hard work to pursue deeper discipleship? Are we, as we’ll see here in just a moment, willingly to consider the cost?
Counting the Cost
There’s a basic truism in project management - that when you’re about to do a project, you’re in the planning stage, considering cost of that project, how long it will take and the quality of outcome, you’re going to pay somewhere. Consider those three elements - because that’s what you’d want in a project: low cost, done quickly and high quality. But you’ll pay somewhere: cheap and quick means low quality, fast and good will be expensive, and cheap and high quality equates to low priority, it will take time).
But here’s the thing: in project discipleship - you need all three. It requires high cost, lots of time, high quality - if you want deep change.
Jesus conveys this basic truth over and over again - we see it in Luke 14:25-35.
Two main points - The first is this: Discipleship, following Jesus, is of the highest priority, it is absolutely the most important thing for us. And second, you must be ready to count the cost - because it will cost you.
First, discipleship is to be our highest priority. Jesus just lays this out.
If you come to me and do not hate your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - you cannot be my disciple.
Now, to be sure, there’s a tradition in Jewish rabbinical teaching of hyperbole - of exaggerating to make a point. And Jesus is exaggerating here. We are not to hate our family members. Don’t hate your mom, your spouse, your kids. Don’t do it.
BUT - don’t miss the point. We are to love them less than Jesus. Our hearts are to belong to him first, above any and all. This is what is required of discipleship. If Jesus is not the most important person in our lives, we can’t be his disciple. We’ve missed it.
Not just our family members, but our very own lives. To know and follow and become like Jesus is worth our very lives.
Let that just sink in for a moment (actually, a lot of moments). We are to take Jesus with utmost seriously. How seriously do you take your job. your family (your kids, grandkids), your success, your personal happiness or security or whatever?
At the ECO National Gathering a young man from Afghanistan spoke about being a Christian there. ECO is aligned with a ministry training program there, SARS, that seeks to train believers in Middle Eastern countries like Afghanistan and Iran.
They didn’t give his full name, before he spoke they asked everyone to put their phones away so that it would not be recorded.
He shared some of his journey about how he and members of his family came to faith, how they have to worship in small groups and in soundproofed rooms so they cannot be heard - showed a picture of one of their gatherings.
It was absolutely humbling - because it pressed that question on all of us there - would we be willing to do that? Do we “hate” our comfort and safety and family members and our own lives enough to be a disciple of Jesus? Is Jesus really our highest priority in life?
Eugene Peterson, The Message, vs. 33 - Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.
Listening to that young man pressed on us the second main point of this passage - Have we considered - and I mean really considered - the cost. Are we willing to pay that price?
Jesus gives two examples - the first is that of a builder who plans to build a tower. If you’re building a tower and you have any sense at all you’ll sit down and figure out how much it’s going to cost to see if you have enough to finish the job.
Otherwise, you’ll be “that guy” - one whose neighbors make fun of him because all he got done was the foundation and now it’s just sitting there because there’s not enough money to finish the job.
Or the example of king going to war against another king - he better figure out if his army is big enough to win the fight.
He better make the honest realization: oh, shoot. I’m going to lose this war. I better negotiate or it’s going to go really badly.
Always costs involved in doing worthwhile projects - you want to be a good parent, it takes time and effort and attention and consistency and lots and lots of patience. You want to learn a new skill, master it - it’s going to take a lot of education and a whole lot of practice and trial and error in order to do that. And following Jesus - being a genuine disciple, not just a thin veneer of one, is no different.
Peter Scazzero quote: Will implementing this be challenging? Absolutely. Will it take a lot of time? Most definitely. Will it be painful? Yes. But be assured of this. The journey with Jesus will be so fruitful that you will never be willing to settle for the thin veneer of cladding discipleship.
Because the journey with Jesus is an invitation into the abundant life. It’s absolutely worth it. Why Jesus is unabashed in asking for your absolutely commitment. Think about that for a moment - Jesus never hesitates to tell us it will cost everything. He never tries to minimize it. Because he knows what it will take - and he knows what he has to offer.
Which brings us back to our main point. Are you willing? Are you willing to pay the cost? To do the hard work to pursue deeper discipleship? That master mason quality stone work of a life given over to Jesus.
Here’s the Journey - some of things we’ll be talking about in order to pursue deeper discipleship, to go deeper still (image of iceberg)
Because we’re going to invite you to address areas of emotional immaturity - I gotta be honest, that’s been a very threatening thing to do, one of those assessments I don’t want to take because I’m not sure I want to see results. But more than that, I want to go deeper still with Jesus.
Learn to be with God as much we do for God. Hopefully, this one won’t sound so foreign to you, we’ve been talking about this for a while now!
Along the way, I hope we’ll learn to appreciate treasures that have been acquired throughout the history of the church. We’ll see some of our own blind spots, be willing to try some new spiritual disciplines, learn what other Christian traditions might teach us about following Jesus.
Redefine success (change narrative). That our definition of success will align with God’s definition of success, what he wants to see happen in our lives.
This is going to be challenging and difficult and painful at times and take a lot of time. Because part of the process is Jesus stripping away the veneer, the artificial stuff, in order to go deeper.
This really begins with an intentional act of discipleship - trust that Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves, so it’s better to trust him than it is ourselves. To trust how and when and what it will take to form our hearts so that we might become like him.
It doesn’t take long to go through the Gospels to see that Jesus had a way of exposing motives and revealing hearts. Not to bully or shame or ridicule, but to invite those listening to repent, to change. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Pharisees and the religious leaders did not respond to it well at all. They did not like how Jesus exposed them for their self-importance, how much of their religion was just a show. So they plotted to kill him.
But you see it in the disciples as well - it’s one of the reasons why the Gospels ring true, because the disciples who wrote the Gospels don’t gloss over all their failures and times they just look foolish (Peter’s impulsiveness, their infighting, lack of faith, it’s all there).
The big difference is that the disciples stuck with it. They kept following after Jesus. They paid the cost. They walked away from everything in order to follow him - and no matter how many times they goofed up, they kept right on going. Because they knew who Jesus was and they knew he was absolutely worth paying the cost of following him. I hope we are, too.
Spiritual Disciplines
Return to fundamental question (What are the beneath-the-surface failures that undermine deep discipleship and keep people from becoming spiritually mature?).
From discussion guide, set aside a time of reflection, to prayerfully reflect on any ways you feel stuck or wish things were different - in your life, in a relationship, in your heart. For each struck point, write down a corresponding “I need” statement. For example, I need a breakthrough. I need hope. I need these mountains to move. Be specific, writing down as many statement as come to mind - entrust the list to God in prayer.
Consider the cost, am I willing to pay this cost (take a lot of time, it’s going to be painful, it’s going to be challenging).
My own journey - “good enough”. Keystone moment - prayer to pursue ministry no matter what happens to the church.
That was a freeing moment for me, because I’d been struggling with that for a long time. It was a costly prayer, a dying to self, because part of my identity was wrapped up in the church and how well it’s doing.
So central to being a disciple of Jesus is this idea of denying ourselves, taking up our crosses. Make this a daily prayer, Mark 8:34: Lord Jesus, in order to follow you, I willingly deny myself and take up my cross this day. Or perhaps from Romans 12:1, I offer myself as a living sacrifice to you, holy and pleasing. This is my spiritual act of worship.
There are still copies of Daily prayer from John Eldridge which is filled with language of surrender, willing giving of yourself to Jesus.
Let me finish with this: Inspiration
Story of laying tile in bathroom, how richly rewarding that was for me...
When we as a church took on Camp LivingStone, that amazing sense of accomplishment, especially after the very first one (we did it!)
That’s really idea here - best things really are worthy of giving ourselves over to completely
And Jesus is the best thing we could ever give ourselves over to him.
My hope and prayer is that your heart’s desire is to be master mason when it comes to discipleship, put in time and effort. Because it’s worth the cost.