Value and Cost

<p>One basic premise with three parables:</p><p>The Cost of being a disciple: forsake all, pick up a cross and follow Jesus</p><ol><li>Why?  Are we not supposed to honor Father and Mother?</li><li>Jesus knows the priority: if we want to be able to love others, or even ourselves, we have to first love God</li><li>In loving God above all else, we do not fall into the temptation of making idols out of others</li><li>See ancestor worship, </li><li>Kings and rulers as gods</li><li>For fathers whose legends are greater than they were</li></ol><p>The value of the Kingdom of God must be weighed to the cost:</p><ol><li>Eternal life</li><li>Eternal virtues</li><li>Eternal relationships beyond what we know here</li></ol><p>Jesus tells three parables about the value of the Kingdom, and what we get in exchange for paying the “cost”</p><ol><li>The parable of the tower: count the cost first</li><li>Relate relativizing relationships and possessions from banquet </li><li>Vs 26 with verse 20 and 33 with verses 18-19</li><li>The parable of the warriors: who are you fighting against?</li><li>Willingness to bear ones own cross – or be defeated</li><li>The parable of the salt:  who are we?</li><li>You cannot mix the contents of discipleship, that is possessions and the call of Jesus on your life</li></ol><p>Conclusion</p><p>Both the parable of the banquet and these parables show us the demands of discipleship. The entanglement with persons and things can in effect be a refusal of the invitation.</p><p>We are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  It only comes with a commitment to Jesus to love him first and above all, whatever the cost in this life.  It will be worth it!</p>