THE GOSPEL, THE COST

By David Pam McQuel

The Cost of Missions
Missions is the advannced stage of evangelism. After the gospel reached Jerusalem, Jesus instructed His disciples to take the gospel to the other cultures to the ends of the earth. However, it has been by no means an easy task. Men have given up a lot to take the gospel to all creation.

The impact of the gospel worldwide has been everincreasing. So has the demands for taking the gospel everywhere. The only thing that has changed significantly is the cowardice and indifference of those who claim to know Christ.

Scripture outlined the price for carrying out this magnificent assignment. In this first part we treat a few and we end it the next blog.

Death
Seeking God means seeking Him with all. The most precious thing to any man is his life. The most influential period of the church are seasons when believers were willing to give God their lives.

Matthew 10:34 'Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to turn

a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
 

36 and a man’s enemies will be
the members of his household.

37 The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 

38 And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. 

39 Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it."

If the Son of God gladly gave His life for us, it was only because loving us mattered that much. We have a choice to love him wholeheartedly or halfheartedly. The most significantly commitment is the total commitment.

Of a truth, we must be willing to give up even our dear lives for God's pleasure.

Death here may mean choosing the Lord over our parents, our in laws, our interest, our friends and our own person pleasure. God is above all.

Our Pride, Career and Other Pursuits
Many are the pursuits of youth. In our fast pace world where every young person wants to excel in one field or the other. Societal and peer pressure tend towards one young person desirin to outdo the other.

It is easy to either ignore the call of God or bring into the ministry the ambition of youth. Strange enough, the word ambition is not in the bible. You can not serve God or work in His mission field with the bile of ambition. The thing that brings you personal pride, prestige or the competitive pursuit of youth must be sacrificed.

Two people in Scriptures tried ambition and it ended disastrous, Absalom and his younger brother Adonijah. Both of them sought to overthrow their father David and become king in his stead.

Absalom died miserably. 2Samuel 18:9 Absalom was riding on his mule when he happened to meet David’s soldiers. When the mule went under the tangled branches of a large oak tree, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so he was suspended in midair. 10 One of the men saw him and informed Joab. He said, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”...14 Joab said, “I’m not going to waste time with you!” He then took three spears in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the oak tree, 15 and 10 young men who were Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him, and killed him."

His brother Adonijah died tragically. 

1King 3:5 Adonijah son of Haggith kept exalting himself, saying, “I will be king!” He prepared chariots, cavalry, and 50 men to run ahead of him. 6 But his father had never once reprimanded him by saying, “Why do you act this way?” In addition, he was quite handsome and was born after Absalom.
1King 2: 25 Then King Solomon gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck down Adonijah, and he died.

Our Comfort
Matthew 8:18 When Jesus saw large crowds around Him, He gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. 

19 A scribe approached Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go!”

20 Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

21 “Lord,” another of His disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.”

22 But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

For this young rich man, he genuinely wanted to follow Christ, however, he needed to be comfortable. His comfort was in the inheritance his father had for him.

He wanted to be comfortable while serving God.

In my 29 years of ministry, I have seen many people who want to be comfortable before serving God. I have listened to many young zealous well-intentioned honest guys erroneously explain how personal comfort is in itself evangelism. 

I don't know where they got that from!

Those guys always run from ministry eventually because they never get the comfort.

Our Strength
Everything that works out best requires giving ones' strength. And whatever is important to a person automatically appeals to the person highest energy.

Matthew 22:34 When the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 

35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test Him: 

36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 

38 This is the greatest and most important command. 

39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 

40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

We cannot be great witnesses for Jesus home and abroad if we are unwilling to give all our strength to it. Someone said seek God the way you seek money.

Seek God with all your strength.