TEXT: Luke 14:27-33 – And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 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? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

I picked these verses of Scripture today as my text because there are growing forces of evil out there that tells you that when you receive Jesus everything will be fine. It will be a life of ease. You now have freedom in whatever and however you live your life. Nothing is farther from the truth.

Receiving Jesus for salvation without repentance is not salvation. It is fake! It is not Bible! Repentance is turning away from your old life of sin of which you have asked forgiveness for. If you believe you are a Christian today and still loving your old life, you have not really repented and you are still the same old lost person. Christianity is following Jesus.

SALVATION IS FREE! JESUS ALREADY PAID FOR IT, BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE, TO FOLLOW CHRIST IS VERY COSTLY, according to the standard of the Bible. There are . .

….enemies to be overcome,

….battles to be fought,

….sacrifices to be made,

….enjoyable past life in sin to be forsaken,

….a wilderness to be passed through,

….a cross to be carried,

….a race to be run.

Christianity is not putting a man in a huge comfortable bed, and taking him pleasantly to Heaven. It is the beginning of a massive battle, and it will cost much of your time, of your faithfulness and dedication to win the victory. The push of what Jesus said in our text is the importance of “counting the cost.”

How many of you remember the twelve spies in the Book of Numbers? I’d like to begin this message from here. They were sent by Moses to spy out and to have a glimpse of the land promised of them by God. They all came back sound and well but only two had an encouraging report. Ten of the twelve spies showed little faith as they saw the doom and gloom of having to face giants in the land. They said “we were like grasshoppers to them.”

They insulted God’s promises that it was theirs and that He will see them through. Although they brought back with them large clusters of grapes, only two of the twelve brought back a good report of the land. As a result, the entire nation was made to wander in the desert for 40 years, until almost the entire generation of men had died.

Only Joshua and Calebbrought back a good report and believed that God would help them succeed. And so, they were the only men from their generation that saw victory in Promised Land. Because many of them failed to remember that they had just been rescued out of 400 years of slavery. They had walked through the Red Sea and had watched the Egyptian army drown.

They had been miraculously guided through the wilderness, and been promised a land flowing milk and honey. Miracle after miracles, blessings after blessings happened after that, which is enough to assure them that whatever giants there are- they may have to face as they march to the Promised Land, God would secure them victory.

Ten of the twelve spies believed that the promise wasn’t worth the fight. But Caleb and Joshua believed that with God on their side they would defeat those giants. Folks, there are giants to be fought to achieve victory. Through the leadership of Joshua and Caleb, Israel has defeated every giant there was to claim the Promised Land as their own, except one.

We read in Deut. 3:11 these words: For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. There were 36 tribes of giants recorded in the Bible. And Og was the remaining remnant of those giants. OG, the ruler of Bashan, is one of the Amorite kings during the time of Moses. And they had to march and conquer Og to victory.

On the other side of Jordan, Og had everything that God had promised them. Og was the very hindrance to the plan, the blessing, the honey, the milk, the bread that God willed of and desired for them. In other words, they were one giant away from victory. They were one giant away from stability and prosperity. They were one giant away from fully enjoying what God had promised them.

Not only does the Bible remember Og as belonging to the tribe of giants, in the verse we just read there is special attention paid to the description of his huge iron bed. I am going to talk about this because I found out that this was his downfall. He was a relaxed giant. He was very complacent. He believed too much in himself. He was living in ease. He was at ease. He knew the danger surrounding him. He knew the danger of being overtaken. But he had a big bed instead to his legacy, with all his concubines perhaps, & with all his fun.

Let us examine this morning what we can learn from the life of this giant who was living a life of ease. His life represents ease. Folks, there is a place of permanency, a place of consistency, a place of blessing and victory that God promised for us but there is one giant in our lives we need to kill. Yes, the Israelites have been delivered from bondage of Egypt but they have to march their freedom to the Promise Land and it was far from a life of ease.

The Christian life is not an at ease life. It is a life of battle. And I am not saying that because it is a life of battle there are no blessings. Every supply we need we get from God. While in the fight, every protection, every victory is a blessing from God. We sing the song, Encamped along the hills of light, ye Christians soldiers rise; and press the battle ere the night, shall veil the glowing skies. We are soldiers of the cross. We’re marching to Zion.

Apostle Paul said to young Timothy: Fight the good fight of faith! In 2 Timothy 2:3-4 – Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

The life of giant king Og represents a life of ease. His legacy and the description given to him in the Bible was a king-sized bed of iron. There was no description of his armour. No description of his sword, no description of his vigour like what we read in Goliath, described in 1Sam 17:4-7. His was his bed.

That bed represents slumber, taking it easy, I don’t care if I’m late attitude, relax, laid back easy attitude. No urgency. And our adversary is saying, you don’t have to be so intense. Just relax! You don’t have to be early in church, you have all the excuses, anyway. You don’t have to be so stirred up. Relax! Lay down!

And the Bible says in Amos 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. Zion is the Hebrew name for the Temple Mount in Jerusalem but our Zion right now is our church. Zion refers to the Lord’s people who are of one heart and one mind, dwelling together in righteousness. And God says, woe to them that are at ease. By why would God say that? It is because that’s opposite to what Satan wants. Satan wants you relaxed in the pleasure of this world. He doesn’t want you to be doing anything for God. And that life of ease is one giant we need to conquer in our lives.

Satan knows he is already defeated. He might as well wreck your life. If he can prevent you from getting saved, he will do that. But to those who are already saved, he’s quite ok if you come to church. But just come. Don’t serve. Don’t be active. He would tell you, don’t worry about sin. God has already forgiven you. In fact, He loves you. And you’re so at ease in your so-called Christian life, but it’s eating your victory away. No matter how you may think you’re okay, how can you sleep living in sin?

Folks, Jesus is coming soon. We are so close to the finishing line. And the Bible says it’s perilous time. We need to be on fire! We need to work double time. We need to be doubly faithful. It is because it is when you’re closes to the finish line; it is when your closes to the goal; it is when you’re closes to winning that the enemy maximizes his efforts against you winning.  Be it in a football, tract and field, etc. Isn’t it?

This is not the time to lose your passion for the Lord. Don’t get infected with an at ease disease. A member of the Australian elite forces during one of our briefings at Packap… Army Camp, when asked how they can control their fears during exchange of fire in war, he said, “you’re not human if you have no fear, but after a while no matter how much struggle you have to face- it becomes fun. The adrenalin takes over. But never ever fall into ease even for a moment. ”

This is what an “at-ease disease” looks like: You work for your money, use it for yourself. Relax! Enjoy! God can take care of Himself! You don’t have to pray. My goodness, God already knows before you can even say a word. Your presence in church is enough. Who cares if you’re late? It’s not work or school that you have to be on time. Witnessing! My goodness, you don’t even have enough time for yourself. Why bother? There are other important things in life. The church won’t feed you if you lose your job! Just loosen up. God owns this world. He won’t go broke if you won’t give.

And do you think those whispers would be coming from God? You better be sure because my God in the Bible needs you and me to be on fire for Him. He wants me to take up my cross daily and be walking in obedience, if you want to see victory of stability and consistency in your walk with Him.

Folks, the greatest threat any Christian have is to spiritually lie down and just get at ease. It is referred in the Bible as lukewarmness. I think of Gods’ warning in Revelation 3:15-16 – I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

I took so much time studying verse 15 because I must admit, I didn’t really get what Jesus is trying to say here. Why did He say, I would thou wert cold or hot. Meaning, Jesus would rather see you cold or hot. Already this is a bit confusing, especially when you have listened to other preachers that do not explain this part. Yes, it is understandable when hear them say that “hot,” are those who are “on fire” for the Lord.

But who are the “cold” people? I think He’s referring to the atheists and sinners who reject Jesus! And surely, He doesn’t consider the ones on fire for Him and stone-cold against Him to be the same. But why would then Jesus say, “I wish you were cold or hot” as if both are equally good? No! but at least there is no camouflage. And by the way, He is still extending His arms of grace to those who are cold and rejecting to come to Him. At least, at the judgment, they won’t have any excuse.

Cold is directly opposite to hot. While the word “lukewarm” is mixture of hot and cold, I believe it’s good to investigate who the lukewarms are. The answers to somewhat unclear things in the Bible, is found in its context. Lukewarm to me is like room temperature! I’d like my coffee either very hot or iced cold. That’s understandable. And that bit we know. No one would like to drink lukewarm beverages. You’d likely spew it out of your mouth.

Verse 17 specifically gives us the answer who the “lukewarms” are. It even starts with the word “Because” so we won’t miss that it is connected. He gives this metaphor in v17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

And here’s why Jesus pukes with “lukewarm” believers. The “lukewarm” people that Jesus criticises think they have it all together, but they don’t. They think they know the Bible but they don’t. They think they are rich when they are actually poor. They think they can see when they are really actually blind. They think they need nothing when their actual condition is a pauper.

They have the worst of both worlds—all the self-assuredness of wealth and all the neediness of poverty. They need help, but they think they’re well off. And they are those who would just let God’s truth pass from one ear to another, feeling no conviction.

They think they are living in ease when their whole predicament is in deep trouble. This makes the rest of Jesus’ metaphor perfectly clear. The Laodicean church combined feelings of passion for the Lord (hot) with their real condition of being apart from the Lord (cold). These are people in spiritual need who can’t really recognize it because they think they’re doing great for God. The result is horrible. “Lukewarm” means “self-righteous.”

Lukewarm and self-righteous people do not have any urgency. They take things easy. They think they are in control. Lukewarm Christians are satisfied in themselves. Lukewarm Christians are those who are so sure of heaven they don’t have to do anything to serve God. Lukewarm Christians are those who think things are hanky dory and so they are just at ease. They are not watchful. They are just relaxed. Lukewarm Christians believe that they are living the right way, with all the right values, and all the right methods, and all the right works, except they aren’t.

The fact that lukewarmness or self-righteousness pukes the Lord matches the terrifying words that He said about people who won’t make it into heaven in Matthew 7:22–23: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

These people did great works for the Lord—even miracles—and thought well of themselves, but they missed their need for the Lord Himself. These are people whose words do not really fit with their deeds. These are those who can argue the Bible but are not living in it. And the difference is obedience. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

 If you’re “hot,” then of course, you’re exactly where the Lord wants you to be. Your obedience is your surrender to His will, denying yourself of your fleshly desire to follow Him. You’re HOT when you constantly see your need of Him, in being very dependent on Him, taking up your cross- all the heavy equipment you have to carry as a soldier of God.

In the bible Study the other night we find that God allows problems and troubles to we our eyes on Him. We will begin to see our own insufficiency and helplessness. We are not meant to be hanky dory in this life. Not yet. This is still our journey. Right now we cannot afford to be at ease. There is a close watch. Alert on our dependence on Jesus for His grace, forgiveness, and righteousness!

I believe it is a very fatal to say you believe and trust God and yet you are dependent on our own abilities and our own righteousness. I believe we follow our own abilities and righteousness when God says grow in grace and in the knowledge of God but neglect church Sunday School, bible Studies and other teaching time. We put a blind eye to His command: seek ye first God and His righteousness. We say we seek but do the opposite.

That will make Jesus puke out. That’s lukewarm. The point I am making is, we should not be lazy and at-ease or half-hearted in our commitment to Jesus. Christians who are hot for God demonstrate their trust in Him through obedience. 2 Thess 3:13- Brethren, be not weary in well doing. Galatians 6:9-10 says, And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Let us be awake to the commission given to us. We are to be His ambassadors. We are to be God’s mouthpieces. Jesus said in John 9:4 – I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. We are to be doing the work of an evangelist. 2 Timothy 4:5 says, But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Do you ever realise that you can never relax when you are watchful? Watch thou in all things! Let us be careful we are not infected with at ease disease. Let us not get tired of serving the Lord. I love God warning me through the story of Samson in Judges 16. It tells me that I have to be watchful. Samson had God-given power, that for as long as he was awake and watchful he will never be defeated. Delilah asked the question, “Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth?”

And in the end in v19, he played the fool of being at ease at the hands of his enemies. He was so at ease that he abandoned his alertness by giving out the secret of his strength to Delilah and he slept. And while he slept, then and only then was he captured and his eyes gouged out.

Let us not forget that Satan wants Christians to be asleep and relaxed. Let us not forget the fact that the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. Isaiah 51:9 says, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake…. We Christians are supposed to be the arm of the Lord, the hands of the Lord, the mouth of the Lord, the feet of the Lord as He indwells us with His Holy Spirit to warn people.

Let us be on fire with our prayer life. It must become a must. It must be intense. Let us be on fire in wanting to learn the word of God not only not missing Sunday School but with our personal studies. Aren’t you interested in going forward into God’s destiny for you? The last giant to be conquered for victory is the giant of complacency, the giant of ease and being laid back. Be on fire for the Lord! Being alert needs discipline.

Jesus, after his tiring ministry, would go up to the mountain to pray. He was always alert to what was happening around Him. Apostle Paul disciplined himself to alertness: Like Jesus his master ….

He disciplined his body: “I keep my body under subjection.” (1 Cor. 9:27)

He disciplined himself to loneliness: “All men forsook me.” (2 Tim. 4:16)

He disciplined himself to scorn: “We are fools for Christ’s sake.” (1 Cor. 4:10)

He disciplined himself to poverty: “ We had suffered…and were shamefully entreated.” (1 Thess 2:2)

He disciplined himself to rejection: “We are despised.” (1 Cor. 4:10)

He disciplined himself to denying the lust and the carvings of his flesh: “I die daily.” (1 Cor. 15:31)

He disciplined himself to suffering: “Persecuted, but not forsaken.” (2 Cor 4:9)

He disciplined himself to self-control: “Being reviled, we bless.” (1 Cor 4:12)

He disciplined himself to patience: “Being defamed, we intreat.” (1Cor 4:13)

And yet, what comfort it is to know that Jesus promised He will be there side by side with someone who takes up his cross and would walk with Him.  Let’s pray.(Altar Invitation)