"Thanksgiving Tipping Point"

Whelp, God’s gift to me today was a butt-kicking sermon (check it out - "Thanksgiving Tipping Point" at http://www.greenvillefmc.org). Now, sometimes you hear that sort of stuff and it’s real heavy and just makes you feel crappy, and other times it just blows right past you because you feel like everything and everyone has been hammering at that same sore spot. This was different. In it was almost a confirmation – and even though it was a sort of “hit you over the head moment,” there was some relief there too. Anyways…here’s the deal…

Pastor Doug began with Luke 14:18-33 – the first part of that is the story of the man who planned this great banquet, when he invited people to attend they gave him all these excuses and things they had to do first. He said “come” and they said “I will…but first I have to…” The second part of those verses is where Jesus talks about ‘counting the cost’ – how a builder would not jump into construction without figuring out if he has enough to finish the job…AND if he does start the job without counting the cost…will he quit mid-way thru if he found he was running low on materials? Another part was a king going into battle and whether or not he considers whether he has enough men to defeat the opposing army. Anyways – the theme was counting the cost and all that entails.

The question posed is…is Jesus telling us to count the cost and see if we’re going to make it and if we find that we are lacking too much to quit/not start at all? The answer (according to the sermon) – is no. Jesus is not telling us to ‘play it safe’…he is asking us to consider our resolve, not our resources. Pastor Doug then went on to talk about how we sometimes find ourselves in these situations where we are having to face a cost we never knew would be so much – more than we “intended” to lose. There’s our time of choice. And here’s a good quote – “it’s not until we give beyond our means that we’ll experience the miraculous provision of God.”

Well, there’s a lot there to process (at least in my head there is)…don’t think I really have enough coherent thoughts on it to post anything person…but I’ll get back to it later.

Thoughts?