’99 Toyota Camry – loaded with leather, all power and much more.  Only 23K and one owner.  Asking $150.

             If you were looking for a car and ran across that ad, if you are like me you would not give it a second thought because we all know that a car fitting that description would cost multiplied thousands of dollars.  When you look at Christianity, however, many approach it in the same way.  That is, they will tell you that all you have to do to be saved is to accept the Lord as your personal Savior.  I have sadly been to many funerals where the deceased had no resemblance to being like Jesus and yet, because he had stated at one time in his life that he believed in Christ, the doors to heaven were supposedly open. 

             We must be aware of the fact that there is nothing cheap about Christianity.  When you read the Scriptures you see over and over again that nothing short of total commitment to the Lord will produce salvation.  Now listen very carefully; I am not saying that if you work hard enough you can EARN salvation.  Salvation is a free gift from God but that gift comes with conditions, namely that I must live a faithful life.

             We read in Luke 14:25-35 that there is a very high cost attached to ones salvation.  Listen to the words of Jesus in verse 26; “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sister-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple.”  Jesus says that I must ‘hate’ those who are the closest to me.  Does He actually mean ‘hate’ in the common way that we use the word?  The answer is no because we read in Ephesians 6:2 that we are to honor our father and mother.  Even from the cross we see the love of Jesus for His own mother as He directed the apostle John to take care of her.  The concept of ‘hate’ as Jesus uses the word is that we must place everyone and everything below our love for Him.  You and I need to examine our lives and ask ourselves the following question: do I truly love Jesus supremely?  If the answer is yes, then I am on the road to faithful living but if the answer is no, I am not a disciple of His.

             Now examine verse 27; “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disicple.”    I want us to examine the idea of ‘carrying a cross’.  The cross is a symbol of death and the teaching is very simple: we must place our will under the will of the Lord.  All of us have desires but if we hope to live with the Lord throughout eternity, we must live a life in which we are attempting to please Him rather than ourselves.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:10 that we are to ‘find out what pleases the Lord’.  We live in a society in which we are geared to self-gratification.  Pay close attention to the commercials you see on TV and this truth will become clear.  Paul would say in Galatians 2:20 that “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me.”  Paul is simply stating that he has placed his will under that of the Lord’s.

             Jesus will sum the entire matter up in the following way in verse 33; “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”  If you go back and examine verses 28-32 you will understand the context of this verse.  Jesus had given two examples of how we count the cost before we enter an endeavor.  1^st,  he speaks of a man who determines to build a house.  The man in the illustration does not ‘count the cost’ and lays the foundation but then his money is gone.  Jesus points out that people walk by and laugh because of his blunder.  2nd, He uses the example of a general who has 10,000 soldiers with an enemy of 20,000.  Jesus points out that the general ‘counts the cost’ regarding the ability of his 10,000 to defeat the 20,000.   It is then that He says, “IN THE SAME WAY.