The Cost of Discipleship

Today’s message is delivered by Pastoral Assistant Steven Gaines, is based on Mark 8:34-38, and is titled “The Cost Of Discipleship.”

In today’s passage, which is familiar to many of us, Jesus is explaining to his disciples, his close disciples and also others with them, what is required for someone to come and follow after him, that is to become his disciple. Sometimes passages like this if you've been around for years or decades in the church, when you've heard a message reached on or a passage preached on many times, it's easy to do one of two things: one thing is to kind of tune out a little bit, you're not really expecting to hear anything new to have your understanding deepened; another possibility as well is to merely think about what is being said, how it's being said, kind of a comparison.

We are called on in this message to try to listen with open ears in a fresh way to consider what God may have to speak to you through this passage today because if you are following Christ today, that doesn't mean that you did a one-time event and now you're on your own but it's a call to continued discipleship, continued sanctification and following him. Consider two points: 1. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? And 2. Why should I be a disciple of Christ?