Is It Worth It?

Introduction

I wanted to start by telling you guys something about myself. I don’t watch television. I watch a lot of YouTube, but definitely don’t watch television at all. I convince myself at least that at least it’s something educational. I can learn about woodworking, right? I can learn about software development. I can learn about some other hobby that I want to learn about. There are a lot of reviews on YouTube. And the reviews on YouTube have this common phrase in there. That kind of triggered some thoughts.

Here’s some examples of popular YouTube videos. The Burberry trench coat, is it worth it? The Moto G7, is it worth it in 2020? Outdoor wood burner, is it worth it? People are watching these videos, these is it worth it videos and droves. Why why are they watching these videos? Well, because they want value for their dollar. They want to make sure that they’re they’re not buying a piece of junk. If they’ve gone to all this effort to work at this job that maybe they don’t like and maybe, you know, their boss is a pain. They want to don’t want to go and just spend that money on nothing, right? And get no value out of it. So at the end of the day, I feel like we all kind of think like that.

We all want to know, is it worth it? Let’s talk about being a Christian. Is it worth it to be a Christian? If you look at Philippians chapter 3, verses 4 through 11, Paul has some thoughts in the matter.

1. Paul Counted Everything as Loss

Paul says, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss, because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Notice a couple things here. Paul had a lot of cachet in the Jewish community. He had status. Paul was a big deal. When he found out the truth about Jesus, he left it all behind in record time. When he understood how important it was for him to follow Jesus, and that it was worth it. He left all of the cachet, he left all of the all of the prideful things about being of a high status in the Jewish community. He left all that behind. Also, notice in verse 11, Paul says that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Well, what does that mean? There is no amount of cost in Paul’s book that is too much for eternal life. There’s no amount.

2. What Does It Cost to Be a Christian?

Paul went on to his reward in heaven. And Paul talks about going on to his reward as he talks to Timothy as well. So if you ask Paul, Paul says, yes. Yes, it’s clearly worth it. Realistically, if we think about it, what does it cost to be a Christian? Well, there’s time, right? Time’s a big component. You’ve got to prepare. You might have to get your kids ready. You might have to guess at the car. If you live in a colder climate, you might have to start the car early. We don’t have to worry about that here. And that’s why I moved here. Not the only reason why I moved here, quite frankly, but that’s why I’m happy to be here.

Time reading his word, spending time doing his will, right? Thinking about others before yourself. Persecution. Though, for us, if we’re honest with ourselves, persecution, people are probably just making fun of us. That’s probably the most realistic form of persecution that we’ll deal with. We might be viewed as anti-science or non-intellectual, right? Which hurts our pride and what we think about our intelligence. Maybe not the worst thing in the world for us to be humbled from time to time. What about our selfish desires? It costs us those if we truly want to be a Christian. We have so many things that we could just do. Just because we want to be selfish, just because we want something. And we want as many things and as much enjoyment as we can possibly get out of this life.

We’re leaving a lot of that behind to be a Christian. Christ calls us to put away selfishness.

Treat them as you want to be treated. And in a lot of cases, better, serving, right? Christ’s example of washing the feet of the disciples, as you know, Ken alluded to in his lesson before. You think about that famous passage, I don’t know, famous, but I’ve all heard it several times, probably in Luke chapter 24, when we’re called to count the cost, right? You have to kind of do the math in your head, so to speak. If you’re really serious about being a Christian, if you’re really serious about committing your life to Christ, what does it cost? Right? What’s realistically, what is it going to take? Right? And it might, it’s going to take all these things and probably more if you want to serve God in the capacity that he would have you to serve.

3. Just Like Paul Said, It’s Worth It

Ultimately, you know, we realize, just like Paul said, it’s worth it. It’s worth it. Is it worth it, you know, to spend time to take time away from maybe you’d rather be, maybe you love fishing or something like that, and you’re obsessed with fishing, and you might otherwise rather be fishing, right? Is it worth it to go? No, God’s God’s first. God takes priority here, right? God’s the most important in my life. Is it worth it? Yes. It’s worth it. You think about everything that Jesus did for us. You think about the perfect life he lived, the ridicule that he went through, the persecution, the ultimate death on the cross, right? He died as a young man at the age of 33. If we heard about somebody dying at the age of 33, we’re we’d be taken back, right?

We’d be really taken back. Some oh, he was taken too soon, or she was taken too soon. Jesus did all these things for us.

4. A Home in Heaven’s Worth It

And ultimately, no matter what the cost is, a home in heaven’s worth it, right? That’s something that you can take to the bank. A lot of people look at uh religion as an insurance policy. They look at it and say, hey, if you know, I’m just gonna be religious, and if there is a God, then I’ll be saved. But if there’s not a God, at least it’s a little insurance policy. You can take this, this is not an insurance policy. This is way better than an insurance policy. And we need to pay attention to God, and we need to prioritize God because at the end of the day, he’s taking care of us. He tells us not to worry, he tells us he’s going to take care of us during this life, he’s going to give us enough all throughout this life.

Conclusion

And in the end, if we fully commit ourselves and our lives to Christ, we’ll be saved. So are you willing to take on that cost of being a Christian? Are you willing to spend the time that it takes? Are you willing to do the will of the Lord and put yourself second, put yourself in the back seat? These are all things we need to think about. But if you’re ready to take that next step, we’re happy to help you tonight. If you’d like to put on Christ in baptism, we’d love that. Uh we’d really be encouraged by that and would love to see it. If you’d like the prayers of the congregation, we’d also like to be a part of helping you, praying for you, doing whatever we can for you.

Whatever your need might be, let us know as we stand and as we sing.