Pentecost 13 Sermon: Counting the Cost

Preached on Luke 14:15–25
13th Sunday After Pentecost — Proper 18C
8 September AD 2019

Title: Click to hear the MP3 of Counting the Cost.

Summary: Of what value is faith in Christ? The world assigns no particular worth to redemption through Him while He tells us that life in Him is the only thing that matters. We take up our crosses to follow Him because He took up His cross and carried our sins to die with Him on Golgotha.

So while the cross of our discipleship has weight, it’s no burden because He bore the burden for us. Therefore, when we count the cost of following Jesus, we don’t think like the world, which asks, “What will this cost me?” Instead, we think like His beloved Church, which instead asks, “How much did this cost Him?”

Text: Now great crowds accompanied [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Luke 14:15-25

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Counting the Cost.

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 1; Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Philemon 1-21

Pentecost 6 Sermon: Dead Set

Preached on Luke 9:51-62
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost — Proper 8C
26 June AD 2016

Title: Dead Set (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Plowing, driving, even walking — in each of these endeavors, we find ourselves going quickly off-track if we don’t remain focused on where we’re going. When Jesus spoke to those who would be His disciples, He demanded that they drop all they had, ignore temptations to look away, and follow Him wherever He led.

Yet not one of His followers remained completely faithful. None of the Twelve remained with Him when he was captured in the garden. Similarly, we may gasp the plow handles of discipleship but we find it impossible to stay the course.

Yet we fear not because we know that Jesus remained on-task and on-target. Because He was dead set upon reaching Jerusalem in order to suffer and die for all mankind, He earned forgiveness for all whose faith wavers or whose walk wanders away. He was fixed on the Holy City because He was fixed on us. He never lost sight of those sinners He’d come to save.

Now, through Word and Sacrament, the Holy Spirit continually works to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus (see Hebrews 12:2) in order that we might remain with the Savior who remains with us. He keeps us focuses on Christ that we might always receive forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Jesus never looked back or turned away. He plowed straight toward His death that we might follow Him to life everlasting.

Text: When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

To another he said, “Follow me.”

But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:51-62

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Dead Set.

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 16; 1 Kings 19:9b-21; Galatians 5:1, 13-25