Salvation is Free Ephesians 2:8 - For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift
Discipleship is Not - It is Costly
Unrequited love = Means unreturned love
1 John 4:19-21 - We love because He first loved us.20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.
The Question is .... Do we love God in return?
Costs of Discipleship
Cost of Change - expectation of change
II Corinthians 5:4 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
Ezekiel 36:26 - I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh
Cost of Good Relationship with God
1. Time - Give God time
Psalm 46:10 - Be still and know I am God
2. Communication - Luke 5:16 - Jesus - Yet He often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.
3. Attention - In a relationship you talk to them, make them feel important, You are my priority.
4. Sacrifice (compromise) John 3:16 - For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
5. Self-Denial - Luke 9:23 - Then He said to them all, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me
6. Material - Matthew 6:21 - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Cost of Broken Relationships (when you turn to Christ)
1. Suffering - John 16:33 - In the world you will have tribulation.
2. Rejection - World hates those who follow Christ
3. Ridicule - made fun of
With God
1. Suffering - He promises a paradise
2. Rejection - He gives acceptance - we are adopted by God
3. Ridicule - We receive God's Love
