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"Which of you, intending to build a tower, does
not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it . . ."
Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost
which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those
three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He
experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary— the central
point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the
cost. In the final analysis, people are not going to laugh at Him and say, “This
man began to build and was not able to finish” ( Luke 14:30 ).
The conditions of discipleship given to us by our Lord in verses 26, 27, and 33
mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building
enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “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 ” (Luke 14:26 ). This verse
teaches us that the only men and women our Lord will use in His building
enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately, and with great
devotion— those who have a love for Him that goes far beyond any of the closest
relationships on earth. The conditions are strict, but they are glorious.
All that we build is going to be inspected by God. When God inspects us with His
searching and refining fire, will He detect that we have built enterprises of
our own on the foundation of Jesus? (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 ). We are living
in a time of tremendous enterprises, a time when we are trying to work for God,
and that is where the trap is. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God.
Jesus, as the Master Builder, takes us over so that He may direct and control us
completely for His enterprises and His building plans; and no one has any right
to demand where he will be put to work.
—Luke 14:28
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