Counting the Cost of Loving God and Neighbor 

In this sermon, Reagan delves into Luke chapter 10, starting at verse 25, to discuss the essential commandments of loving God and loving your neighbor. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the true cost of this love, which extends beyond mere words to actionable faith. Using various scriptural references, Reagan outlines that loving God means prioritizing Him above all else, including possessions, relationships, and even oneself. The message challenges listeners to evaluate their lives and ensure they are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to truly follow Jesus. Reagan also touches upon how this profound love will ultimately enhance one’s appreciation and love for others and oneself.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Prayer
00:48 The Greatest Commandments: Love God and Neighbor
02:28 Counting the Cost of Loving God
02:48 Counting the Cost of Loving Neighbor
03:40 The Sacrifices of Discipleship
08:10 Loving God More Than Anything Else
16:17 Loving God More Than Others
20:16 Loving God More Than Yourself
26:57 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Good morning. If you'll take out your Bible, please turn with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10 of verse 25. If you'd like to mark your spot there. We will be using that as the jumping off point for our lesson, both this morning and this evening. Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 25. As has already been said, thank you for being here.

There are a number of things we could do and say to welcome you and things along those lines, but may the words of Jesus be things that motivates you to be who you have been called to be. And may his sacrifice be something that motivates you to do just that. Jesus's words. In Luke chapter 10 in verse 25, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him saying, teacher.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? We talked about this before with our reading of scripture last week, but what's the response? So he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

He said to them, you have answered rightly. Do this and you will live. Do this, love God and love your neighbor, and you will live. Now, there's more to the story and we'll talk about that more this evening, but let's start there. These are the two things that we must do to inherit eternal life. And that seems simple, doesn't it?

You, you agree with me? That sounds pretty simple. It's not a hard decision. I just have to love God, love my neighbor, and I get eternal life in return. That is frankly a pretty good deal. Do you want an eternal life? All you have to do is love God, love God who loves you more than you even know how to love yourself and love your neighbor as yourself.

Do those two things. And you'll inherit eternal life. Jesus says, you have answered rightly. Do this and you will live not just in this life, but you will live eternally. But do I know what doing those two things really looks like? Do I know what is really required, what it costs me? Because make no mistake, it costs me something, and that's the idea I want to explore today.

Counting the cost. Of loving God and loving neighbor, counting the cost. And this morning we're gonna talk about counting the cost of loving God. What does it cost me? And am I willing to pay what it takes to love God? As Jesus talks about here, and this evening, we'll talk about counting the cost of loving neighbor, and we'll get into the further illustration that Jesus uses here in Luke chapter 10 to talk about am I willing to pay the cost to love my neighbor as God calls me to?

But this morning, I have to love God. And that does sound so easy until I realize that to do that, like it or not, I'm gonna have to hate some things in comparison. If I'm gonna love God, there has to be things in my life that I don't love that in comparison to my love for him, it is as if I hate those things and it might not be the things you're thinking about that I have to hate sin.

Sure. That I have to hate unrighteousness. Sure. That I have to hate unjust, of course. But there are some things that I love in this life. That I have to love God so much more it as if I hate those things. I want you to turn just a few chapters over in the Gospel of Luke to Luke chapter 14, and this idea of counting the cost is explored throughout this chapter.

The idea that we have to take the lower place if we want to be right with God. This great parable of the supper that this one throws and that there are all these excuses as to why they can't come. But in verse 25, Jesus speaks, I think, a little more clearly than what he has done up to this point. In Luke chapter 14, beginning in verse 25, read with me now.

Great multitudes went with him and he turned to them and said I don't know if you've ever had the experience of standing before. A huge group of people, and they are just hanging on every word that you say. Maybe you say Reagan. I don't know if you've had that experience either, but Jesus did and great multitudes followed him.

And if he wanted to keep those multitudes, he could have, but he was not gonna keep all of them by saying this. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes. And his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he is laid the foundation and is not able to finish all those who see it begin to mock him saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Growing up there was this huge house on the way to Lubbock that, then apparently they had started and they had run out of funds. We all called it the Alamo because it wasn't even dried in. It was just this huge shell of this two story house. And you know what everybody did? They, they mocked it. They called it the Alamo for Pete's sake because someone began to build and they were unable to finish.

What about this or what King going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10,000. To meet him who comes against him with 20,000 or else while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Are you sure you want to be the disciple of Jesus? Count the costs. I've never built a tower. I've never even built a house. I've never been a king going to war. But we understand what Jesus is saying here, don't we? Are we willing to pay what it costs? Only start something if you're willing to finish it.

Now, maybe I've told this to you before, I'm not sure, but there was a, a classmate of mine, actually, he was the grade behind me when I was a senior. He was a junior. And this guy's name was Mason Pearson, and Mason was about 6 4, 2 30, something like that. He was an Allstate running back, but also on the basketball team.

He was on the four by 400 team that went to state and he ended up playing tight end at TCU. Well, anyway Mason was this giant guy, but he was a friend of mine. He was, he was a good guy. But I, I don't remember exactly what it was even, but we were in practice, basketball practice one day, and I was in line in front of Mason in this drill, and he smarted off to me and I turned around and I got right up in his face and he took a step back and I took a step back and we both kinda laughed about it because I was mad in that moment, but I turned around and saw him and suddenly I wasn't as mad as what I had been.

Right. I counted the cost and I realized that I was not willing to pay. I was not willing to finish what I was about to start. But imagine for a moment that Mason or somebody like him was coming after my family and I was on the only one standing between him and them. I would be willing to pay whatever it cost.

I'd be willing to get beat up if that was the price that I had to pay. So we all count the cost on all sorts of things. Are you willing to pay? What is required? Are you willing to finish what you're starting? If you say, I want to follow Jesus, that means that you're gonna have to love God more. You're gonna have to love God more than the three things that we see in these verses that we read.

We're gonna have to love God more, love Jesus more than things. We're gonna have to love Jesus more than others. And we're gonna have to love Jesus more than we love ourself. So much so that it is as if you hate these three things in comparison to your love for Jesus. Now that word hate invokes all sorts of strong emotions, and it's supposed to, that's why Jesus used it.

He's trying to communicate to us in the most extreme way possible what our attitude toward God toward Him, toward the Holy Spirit is supposed to be. It is in terms of comparison, not between love and greater love. Now, that's the actual reality. But Jesus is using this hyperbole, this illustration to say it needs to be between hate and love, not love and greater love between hate and love.

This is how much you have to love me. Think of it this way. I love pizza. I've said that before. It's my favorite food. I love pizza. I love most kinds of pizza. I love simple Simon's Pizza. And we are really blessed to have to say, to be in small towns like Huntington and Central and Hudson and have pizza as good as simple Simon's Pizza.

But Brent Bonnell, maybe he's back there in the back. He always teases me because I talk about Brooklyn Bridge Pizza, that the best pizza in the world is under the Brooklyn Bridge. Listen, I love simple Simon's Pizza, but compared to Brooklyn Bridge Pizza, I, I love simple Simon's, but I love Brooklyn Bridge Pizza a lot more now.

Now that's love and loving more, right? Anybody in here ever had food poisoning? Food poisoning? I was talking with Ty. We were comparing notes. I got food poisoning coming back from Spain one time. I'm not sure exactly what gave me food poisoning. Coming back from Spain. I was 19 years old, found a bench in the back of the plane where nobody was sitting right by the bathroom.

You can fill in the details yourself, but I'm not sure what got gave me that food poisoning, but it might've been this nasty pizza that we had just before we left. I hate food poisoning, don't you? What Jesus is saying is, your love for me can't be the comparison between, you know, simple Simons and Brooklyn Bridge.

It has to be food poisoning Pizza and Brooklyn Bridge Pizza. Does that make sense? This is the comparison that he makes to emphasize to us how much more we have to love him. Now, I love God maybe even more than anything, but do I love him this much more? Than anything else. That is the cost that is required for eternal life.

Now, obviously, we don't literally hate any one father, mother, or brothers or sisters or all those sorts of things, but such is our love for God. It is as if we hate all others in comparison for our love for him. That's the gap. This is the most extreme comparison Jesus could make to tell us to love him more.

And I like this quote from James Edwards, coming to Jesus means. Acknowledging Jesus as the preeminent relationship in one's life, whose costly mission determines the way of one's life, and whose presence takes precedent over all other things in life. And so we have to love Jesus, love God more than we love things.

Let's kinda work backwards a little bit. Go down to verse 33 and read that with me again. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, cannot be. My disciple. Forsake here is pretty close to hate. I mean, we don't forsake things that we love, at least not usually. We don't tend to abandon things that we value and love above all else, but this is the choice before us.

Do we love God more than things? As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter six in verse 24, no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Maybe your translation says money.

The idea is the things of this life. We cannot love those things more than God, and I would suggest we can't even love those things almost as much as God because that's not the way that it works. We have to love God more than the things of this life. Money, pleasure, possessions, power, whatever. If we love anything more than God, we don't really love him, not the way he demands, and yet it's not just okay if I still love some things, but my love for God equips me to love those things more.

It and in the right way. I love God this much more than those things. But may I suggest if I love God, it drags everything in this direction that I'm gonna love the things of this life more and rightly than people who don't have a love for God. Not to the same kind or degree of love, of course, but I'm still gonna love them more.

There's a song that cracks me up, A country song, y'all know I don't listen to much country, but the song goes something like this. You know, money can't buy happiness. But it could buy me a boat. It could buy me a truck to pull it. And could those things add to your happiness? Well, I know the old joke, you know, the two best days of your life is the day you buy the boat and the day you sell the boat.

But we have things in life that do bring us some joy. And do you know who is properly equipped to enjoy life and enjoy those things more than anybody else? Christians. Those who love God because we put those things in their proper place. I enjoy those things, but I'm not stressed out if I don't have them anymore.

And I would give up every single one of them, count them as trash as Paul says to the church in Philippi, for God in my relationship with Christ. I can enjoy as a Christian being in God's creation. I can enjoy a good meal, a good book, a job well done. I can enjoy a round of golf with friends or family, a victory in sports, a fresh cut lawn, not the cutting, but after it's done a vacation.

I can enjoy all of those things with perspective, contentment, and expectation that those things are just a small taste of the greater satisfaction that comes from spiritual things. In and of these in and of themselves, as we have studied, these things are vanity, but with God, they find their proper meaning and they find their fullest fulfillment.

Mark your spot there in Luke chapter 14. Ecclesiastes has been on my mind as we've been studying through these things. Notice if you go there to chapter five, Ecclesiastes chapter five and verse 18. The preacher says this, Ecclesiastes chapter five and verse 18. Here is what I have seen. Verse 18, here's what I have seen.

It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun. All the days of his life, which God gives him for it is His heritage. It's his portion. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and given him power to eat of it, to receive his.

Portion and rejoice in his labor. This is the gift of God for he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart. If we are focused on God as we ought to be, we can enjoy all these other things because we don't focus on them unduly. Enjoy your things.

Hate them in comparison to your love for God. That is the cost of eternal life. Love God more than things and love God more than other people as well. Turn back to Luke chapter 14. Notice there in verse 26. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife, and children, brothers and sisters.

He cannot be my disciple. Now, Matthew makes clear exactly what God is talking about here, what Jesus is talking about here, the parallel text when Jesus is delivering this same message on another occasion, he says, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Again, Jesus is using hyperbole. It's not that we have ill will toward other people. We're supposed to love other people. We'll talk about that tonight. Love your neighbor as yourself, right? But we cannot love them more than God, and we have to love God a lot more than we love them. If you've been around me at all, you know I'm pretty liberal, but I'm always genuine with the phrase, I love you.

I probably say it too much. Stephanie and I have a standing agreement. That she is not required to say it back to me. Every time I say it to her. You know, I know she still loves me, but maybe I say it too much sometimes. I, I love my father. I love my mother. I'm blessed to have a family where I love in that way.

I love, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love my physical sister. I, I love my children. I'd give my life for them. And yes, I love you. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, I, I still love you and love you deeply. I care for your soul. And maybe especially, I wanna show you my love as a reflection of Christ's love, but know going into it, if you're in a relationship with me, I love God much more than I love you.

And maybe that's hard for others to swallow from us. There have been some Christians who have been given that kind of ultimatum from their families. It's me or Jesus, it's me, or this religion stuff that you've gotten into, you must choose. And if you've been through that, I am so sorry because that is an unfair choice.

But the choice is clear. The choice is Jesus. Here's the crazy thing though. If they would embrace our commitment to Jesus, our commitment to Christ. Even those that we love who are against that relationship we have with Jesus, if they could just embrace it, they would see a greater love from us than they have ever seen before.

I should love God first, but because I love God, I am commanded to love others. What is the second commandment? Love your neighbor, and we should have a great capacity to love all people who are our neighbors because God loves all people, including me enough for Jesus to die on a cross. I love those that my loved ones love, don't you?

Have you ever met somebody and they come up to you and they say, Hey, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you make these connections and they love somebody that you love. What are your feelings toward that person immediately? Oh, they must be a good guy. You know, I love this person. They, they love my parents, or they love my friends, or they love my family.

I'm gonna love them too. And if God loves all people, then my number one motivation for loving others is because God loves them. Our love of others is a reflection of his love for others. Now, we're gonna talk about that more tonight and who our neighbor is and all those sorts of things. But we have to love God this much more than our neighbor, than our friend, than our spouse, than our children, than our parents.

This is how much more I love God. That's that's the cost of eternal life, and maybe it's. Playing into the worst kind of tendencies that we have as human beings to put them in this order. This is not the order that Jesus put them in. You can see 26 definitely comes before 33, but maybe the toughest one, if we're on our worst day, is that I have to love God more than myself if anyone comes to me and does not hate all these people and his own life also.

He cannot be my disciple. Cannot be my disciple. What does that look like? Well, my will is subject to his will, period in word in deed, in doctrine, in everything. And maybe that's harder for us to swallow sometimes, but maybe it's easier for other people to swallow if, if they, if they say, coming into the relationship, I love you.

And I say, well, I love you too, but I love God more. Don't take it personally that I love God more than you. I love him more than me too. I love God more than anyone or anything else. And there is a sense in which I should still love myself. What is the second commandment again? Love your neighbor. How As yourself.

Now we can take that too far, obviously. I've joked before some people should really, really know how to love their neighbors. Why? 'cause they really, really love themselves. And while, while that's a joke, it's not really true. Now you laugh. Sure, thanks. I feel like Preston up here, what's going on?

Can I say, and I think we know that someone who has this self-centered, selfish, self-loving love of self, they're not gonna love themselves as purely as a Christian does. Think about those people in your life who are that way, who just love themselves. Oh my goodness. Do you think that person really sees their worth?

You say, yeah, they really do. No. Do you really think they see what their worth is, what it's really tied to? Or do you think they see their worth in being stronger, being smarter and being wealthier? Their worth is tied in these things that don't matter and can be taken away from us. They don't really love themselves the way they ought to.

For us who are Christians. We are in a position to love ourselves as we should. A Christian sees their appreciation of self and self-worth through the eyes of God, that God sees every sparrow that falls. I am of much more value than a sparrow that God sent his son to die on the cross for me because that's how much he loves me, and it is only from that perspective that I can have true love for self as I should.

And yet though I see myself as God sees me with this kind of value, it must be as if I hate myself, such as the gap. Between my love for self and my love for God. That's the cost of eternal life. So I think all of us are somewhere in here. You're, you're here this morning and you, you love God, right? You probably love God more than anything else.

But how do I widen the gap in these three areas? How do I widen the gap of comparison to where I love God more? Well, I tell you, we talked about this from the very beginning. It's not by. It's not by loving these other things and others and self less in one sense. It's by moving everything up the way that we should and, and I think the way we do that is by loving God more.

Loving God more is gonna drag everything else along with it. The more we love God, the more He is the priority in our lives. The more every other love finds, its proper place and purpose. So what are we supposed to do? Well, let's, let's look at that quote again from James Edward. Coming to Jesus means acknowledging Jesus as the preeminent relationship in one's life, whose costly mission determines the way of one's life, and whose presence takes precedent over all other things in life.

If you look at that quote closely, those are the three things that Jesus talked about, right? We love him more than things. We love him more than others. We love him more than ourselves to where God's will becomes our will. Jesus calls us to live our lives by doing two things in the middle of the text of Luke, chapter 14.

So we talked about verse 26 and we talked about verse 33 and these three things that are found there. But in between, what do we find? Well, in verses 28 through 32, it's all these illustrations about counting the cost in 28 through 32. Remember the tower, remember the war? All those sorts of things. And so I ask you if you wanna widen the gap, count the cost, look at your life.

How would it be different if you loved God as much so much that it was as if you hated everything else in comparison? Can you imagine what your life would look like if that was the case? I saw a really interesting interview. I probably should have turned it off, but I was so fascinated. I just had to keep watching, had some language and so forth.

It was this woman who is, who is an atheist and is an interview on a train. It's like a whole series where they interview people on these subway trains in New York and they just get their takes on different things. And, and so the interviewer was talking to this lady and, and it's like, what, what do you not buy?

You know, what is it that you don't get that you say, I just don't know about that? She said, she said, it's religion. It's like, okay, well lots of people feel that way. She's like, no, no. This is what I don't get about it. I just don't think there are very many religious people in this world. And he is like, ah, I don't know about that.

You know, there's more religious people than non-religious people. She's like, no, here I am. I don't believe in God. I'm an atheist. If I believed what was on the line was heaven and hell, I'd be going to my friend's house and shaking them awake and saying, you've gotta change your life.

I mean, that hit me pretty hard. How would my life be different if I loved God so much? It was as if everything else. I hate it in comparison. I mean, it would motivate me to live my life a little differently, wouldn't it? And I don't think I would have to break and inner and shake somebody awake. I think they would see, by the way I'm living my life, they would see that guy's committed,

that that guy is all in. So look at your life and count the cost. Christianity ain't no hobby. It's a life. It isn't a part of your life. It is your life. And so we should be constantly con, consistently counting the cost throughout the day. Is this action? Is this decision, is this attitude reflective of a heart that loves Christ more than anything else?

Is my faith, how I define who I am as a Christian, being that I am a Christian above all else, that I'm a Christian son, a Christian father, a Christian employee, a Christian husband. I am a Christian first and foremost. It is the umbrella over everything else in my life. It is the lens through which I see everything else is Christianity and obsession, all consuming.

Now we know that that doesn't work in other areas of life. You know, if I'm consumed with work, I'm a, I'm a workaholic, or if I'm consumed with play, I'm a play aholic, whatever. It's right. If I'm consumed with these other things, we say, well, this life is outta balance. But may I suggest the only way to find true balance is to give it all to God,

because what's on the other end of the scale is eternal life. Count the cost. Is it worth it? For eternal life. Well, to do so to widen this gap, you're gonna have to bear your cross and come after Jesus. Verse 27, read that with me again, and whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Bearing a cross is something unique and specific to Christianity. It doesn't just mean be a good person or be patient in hard times. It means doing what Christ would do. No matter what in every situation, it means crucifying yourself daily. I'm taking up my cross. It means putting to death the old man with his passions and desires to follow Jesus.

His pattern of life, fulfilling my purpose and the plan of God as he did in bearing his cross for his father. And how much easier is it to do that for the one that you love so much? It is as if you hated everything else. I guess, I guess what I want for all of us, what's, what's, what's the takeaway? What's the admonition?

What are you taking, taking away from this? What? What I would love for all of us is to try and make this week a little different. Take up your cross this week. Put Christ first in everything. I try to do that every week, but I'm really gonna try it this week, right? Make that kind of commitment because that is the only way to eternal life.

The cost is maybe greater than you realized, but so too, I would suggest is the benefit. Try loving God more and see if you don't enjoy all of the things that you have more because you love him and because you're putting those things in their proper place. See if you don't love your father and your mother, and your wife and your children, and your brothers and your sisters more and in better ways because you're putting him first, and see if you aren't fulfilled with more self-worth in your life because you have counted the cost, you have put him first and you have a taste of what eternal life will be.

You're here this morning and you're not yet a Christian, you start by putting him first. Right now this morning, count the cost. Are you willing to give all, all Jesus asks us everything and all he gives in return. Well, everything that we can't earn for ourselves. And so if you're willing to crucify the old man of sin to take up your cross, to go down into the watery grave of baptism.

Your sins can be washed away and you can rise to walk in newness of life loving God more, loving God most. And if we can help you with that, even this morning, come together, we stand in while we sing,

there's a line that.