Obedience Is Costly, Part I

Memory verse: Any of you who does not give up everything he has, cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:33)

You cannot know and do God’s will without paying the price of adjustment and obedience. Willingness to pay the price of following His will is one of the major adjustments. At this point “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John6:66). Many churches (and people) will not know and experience the fulfilling of God’s purposes through them because they are not willing to pay the price of obedience.

A personal story from the author… 

While I was pastoring a wonderful church in California, I received a call from a tiny congregation in Saskatoon, Canada, that said they would have to disband their church if I could not come as their pastor. As Marilynn and I prayed, we sensed God was moving our family from our comfortable church setting to an extremely challenging assignment. After driving for several days to move to the new church field, we finally arrived. We had barely eaten lunch when a car pulled up with six men in it. They were from a community 90 miles away. They said they had been pleading with God to send them a pastor who would start a church in their community, and they asked if I would be their pastor too. For the next two years every Sunday I would teach Sunday School and preach at my home church. Then I would drive 90 miles and teach Sunday School and preach at the mission church. Then I would drive 90 miles back and preach at our evening service and then teach adults in discipleship training. Every Tuesday afternoon I would also drive to our mission and lead them in a prayer meeting. There was a cost in accepting God’s invitation, but the times of fellowship with those dear believers and with my Lord as I drove those highways for countless hours were a tremendous reward.

We say Christ is Lord, and He can interrupt our plans anytime He wants. We just don’t expect Him to do it. We assume He will affirm everything we are doing and never ask us to change anything we have planned. If we want God to go down the channels we have already established and protect our personal plans and programming, we are in trouble. When God invites us to join Him, we will have to make major adjustments. Such a response can be costly.

 Read the story of Saul’s conversion and notice the adjustments he made… 

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord…as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting…And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank…So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

Saul (later named Paul) had to make a total about-face in his life direction. He went from persecuting Christians to proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ. God will ask you to follow Him in ways that will require adjustments in your plans and directions. For Paul the adjustment was costly. It even put his life at risk. You will also have to pay a price for following Christ.