The Parables of Christ no. 44
Counting
the Cost
Rev. Brian Kocourek
This morning we will take our message from the Parable
of Christ found in the Book of Luke chapter 14, and verse 25-33. This parable
deals with the subject of counting the cost.
LUKE 14:25 ¶ And there went great multitudes with him: and
he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending
to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he
have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest happily, after he hath laid the
foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31 Or what
king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth
an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
my disciple.
I would like to
entitle this parable, “Counting the Cost”, For in this
parable Jesus begins by speaking of family and how we must have the attitude
that Christ the Word must come first even ahead of family. He said, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross,
and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Now, the word he used that
was translated as the word hate is the Greek word Miseo, which is translated
best as the word “detest”. And it means to “dislike intensely”, or to “abhor”.
Now, you might be
asking your self what does that mean? Why would Jesus tell us that we must detest
family, and self? Why would Jesus say unless you are willing to detest family
and self you are not fit to be my disciple? Why? Because
those are the standards that it takes to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
That is the attitude it takes to be the kind of disciple that Jesus is looking
for. You must have the attitude, “whether I live or die, sink or down” this
Word means more to me than everything else.
But today in the
churches we do not find that kind of Christian. The modern day Christian has
become so soft and so wishy washy that they have placed family ahead of God and
His Word. We have programs today that plce the emphasis on focusing on the
family, rather than focusing on God and His word, that it seems that most message churches
preach more today on the family than they preach on Jesus Christ.
Our focus should be on
Christ and His Word, rather than focus on the family. And because of such
influence the family has become neglected concerning spiritual matters. Instead
of placing our focus on Christ the Word, the pulpits have placed the focus on
family, and it has led to the downfal of the church today.
When a young person
goes astray from the Word of God the Churches turn a blind eye, and say nothing
to that person. The parents say nothing to the child trying to keep the family
together, and instead of the family staying together, it drifts apart anyway.
And why is that? Becausae the focus is not on that which is eternal, but on
that which is temporal. What good does
it do to focus on a child that is wayward if your focus is not to bring the
child back under the protection of the Word.
If your focus is to
only keep family together, then your focus should be on Christ the Word, for
the family that prays together, stays together.
I think however, that
it has become very apparent over the years as we have observed so many families
come and go that the main reason for the departure of those families is the
departure of their children from walking in the ways of God. The parents allow
things to take place in the home that are not conducive to the Spirit of the Living
God abiding in that home, and pretty soon the children begin to test the
parents to see how far they can go beyond the limits God has established for
the family and for each individual.
Children like any
mortal being need limits. They need to know what they can and cannot do. They
need those limits enforced, and when those limits are not enforced, they look
for new limits that will be enforced.
That is why we see so
many young people cutting themselves, and mutiliating their flesh and tattooing
themselves, and piercing themselves today. It is because they are looking for
Love, and Love is corrective. It is always corective. But most parents do not
want any conflict and to them conflict management is just turning a blind eye
to what is going on. But the children want that conflict because that conflict
is an assurance to them that they have parents that love them and are concerned
for their safety and well being.
And so in stead of
focusing on the Word of Life, the churches preach “focus on the family”, and that has
created many families where the children’s desires come before the desires of
God. Thus the wishes of the children comes before the
wishes of God. The children come before the Word of Life. If the child does not
wish to attend church, the parent let’s them stay home. And in fact when the
child comes to church and the parent has to literally take charge of that
child’s life, by directing the child to sit up and behave, the child who knows
that the parent does not like confrontation, will act up all the more, knowing
that it will get its own way by doing so.
I have always said
from this pulpit that the trouble with the youth today is not the youth, but the
parents. In fact I have quoted william Branham showing
that it is parent delinquency.rather than children delinquency that is the
problem.
Now, this has not
made me a very popular as a pastor, and in fact some have said that I am not a
very good pastor because I preach it tough and hold the line against such, but
tell me where a true pastor will do any different. God hates compromisers, and
if a man has certain convictions but sacrifices those convictions in favor of
not hurting the feelings of others, then that man is a
hypocrite, and a politician, not a pastor. William Branham taught us that we
must hold to the Truth even if it costs us a congregation. He said, he would
rather preach to the four corners of the church rather than compromise on God’s
Word. And thus would any true spirit filled pastor do the same.
Remember, we are taught by the Apostle Paul that “Jesus learned obedience by the things that he suffered”. And the same Apostle taught us that “every son that Cmeth to God must first be child trained”.
HEBREWS 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us], and we gave
[them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened [us] after their
own pleasure; but he for [our] profit, that [we] might be partakers of his
holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
To discipline you’re
your child you must first be disciplined yourself. And discipline takes work.
It is not easy. A lack of discipline on
the part of the parent results in a lack of discipline on the part of their child.
I remember receiving that advice myself as a young parent. If you tell the
child to do something or not to do something, then you had better be prepared
to get up off your chair when that child disobeys what you have told them. If
you do not then your words will begin to become useless to that child, and the
rules which you have laid down will have very little meaning to that child.
Now, the reason we
child train is to produce in the child some goal or objective that we have set
for that child.
The word Disipline
is defined as: 1. Training expected
to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training
that produces moral or mental improvement. 2. Controlled behavior
resulting from disciplinary training; self-control. 3. a. Control
obtained by enforcing compliance or order. b. A systematic method to
obtain obedience: c. A state of order based on
submission to rules and authority: 4. Punishment intended to
correct or train. 5. A set of rules or methods, in order to regulate
behavior.
So you see, discipline is used to produce in
the child a pre-ordained outcome. And without discipline that child will never come to that
pre-ordained outcome. Proverbs 22:6 tells us Train
up a child in the way it shall go and when it is old it will not depart. Now,
that is a promise. But if you do not do your part as a parent then your child
has no direction in which to go. It say, Train up a child in the way it shall go… And so if you have a way which is a course of life, that you wish
for your child to go, then you must use discpipline to get the child their.
Then if the child does not get their whose fault is
it?
Now, in studying the
parable from Luke 14, we see Jesus begin by speaking of family and how we must
have the attitude that Christ the Word must come first even ahead of
family. That is the way of life, or the
course of life we are to train up our children to. He said, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross,
and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Now, he is telling us that we must have the
attitude that we detest everything outside the Word of God. Then how can people
favor their children over God’s Word? Don’t they know they are not worthy to be
called a disciple of Christ idf they do not place the full pre-eminience in Him
and His word? He said they can not be my disciple, and the word disciple comes
from the root word discpline. A disciple
is one who has been thoroughly trained or disciplined in the ways or the course
of life of the master.
So you see without
discipline you can ont be His disciple. And without dscipline you cannot bring
your children to the place of discipleship in Christ.
He said that to be a disciple you must be willing to bear your own
cross. It is not an easy thing to do, this discipleship training. You must be willing to count the cost.
Now to count the cost means that you way out what it will cost you
verses what the value you receive. Now,
that should be an easy thing to determine. He said if you place anyone or
anything ahead of me, then you are finished. You cannot be His disciple.
Then he gives us two short prables showing men who had to make a choice
concerning the cost. Is the cost too great? He tells us of a man that is
building a house and says, if he does not consider the cost, then he might get
the foundation built but soon will run out of money and will be unable to
finish.
He then tells another short parable about a king going to battle. He
tells us that before the battle even takes place he must count his cost to see
if he has what it takes to finish otherwise the best thingt o do is to mediate
the battle to find some resolve before it is too late.
And I think that we had better do the same concerning the Message of
the Hour. Do we believe that entering into the Shout will bring us into the
Voice and thus into a body change? Or do we just think that the Message is just
going to church. Do we understasnd what it is to apply the Token, or do we
think that just talking about it is enough to create the right atmosphere in
your home.
Brother Branham taught us to talk about it is not enough, he said we
must apply the token.
THE TOKEN 63-1128E 118 Now,
we see that we're living down at the last hours, the believers must accept all
the Word. Notice, it
was not just to get together and talk about it, that all the Jews come together and say,
"Now, I'll tell you what, tell you, fellows. You know, I believe that
Moses is right, because look, we see God identifying Himself with Moses.
Because we see that Pillar of Fire; we know what happened. We know all the
identifications that God's given Moses. It's right. You know, he said we've got
to have the blood on the door. I believe that. But, you know, after all, I
believe I'm just about as good as anybody. I'm really a covenant Jew. I've been
circumcised and I pay my offerings and tithes into the congregation. Why, even
the priest, I eat dinner with him. Well, I'm just as good a
man as the rest of you are." That isn't what happened.
119 We're not to come together to talk about
the Message. We are come together to get in the Message. And the Message is Christ; He is the Word.
That's right. We're to get into It, get beneath It.
Yes, sir. That's what we're supposed to do. He was not responsible for any
persons out from under the blood, not one; no matter who he was, he was not
responsible. All had to take not only himself, but his whole family. They're
only safe when the token was displayed. We cannot feel safe until this Token is
displayed. That's right. You must come under this Token, God's Holy Spirit. And
It displays to you Jesus Christ, because It comes and
lives in you.
THE TOKEN
64-0208 67 We should love one another during this time. The church and
the believers should be unseparable. Believers should separate themselves from
all the things of the world. Everything that's ungodly, the believer should
separate himself from it. Notice. They were not just to come together to
talk about it, and say "We believe it." They were come together to
apply the blood, not come say, "Oh, sure I believe that," walk home.
They had to come and apply the blood, that the Token might be seen. Get beneath
it. That's... Today, we set and hear the
message preached. We read it out of the Bible. We say "Oh, yes, I believe
that." That ain't what God requires. No matter how much you believe it,
you've got to have it. Church, wake up.
THE TOKEN 63-0901M 35-3 Notice, they were not just yet come
together to talk about the message. They come together to apply the blood,
to apply the token. That's what you must do. Pastor Neville, and to this congregation,
trustees, deacons, to you brethren, it's time that we laid aside all the foolishness
of the world, time we laid aside everything else. We've seen enough now, that
we're positive, sure, and the Token must
be applied. Without it, you're going to perish; you must perish. That is
the only thing. Oh, don't come together, say, "I
believe it." Get beneath it. Get
into it. How to do it? By one Spirit we're baptized into the Body of Jesus
Christ. Everybody believe with all your heart. See? He
was not responsible for any out from beneath it.