Cost of Discipleship

When you see your life so cheap, you will fear no one, fear nothing and you will go through the fire of hell and step on it and come out victorious. When your life is cheap in the eyes of God, when you give your life for Christ and you say, Lord my life is nothing, I just want you. I'll give up on the most precious thing I have, which is life, just to hold on to the hem of your garment.

Drag me behind you Lord, I'll give up on everything. You see when your life is nothing to you, then Christ becomes everything. But when you say, now I'm talking as a clergyman, as a bishop, when I say as a leader, when I say, oh Lord, you know I love you, but the throne is very precious, I can't let it go.

Lord, I love you, but the glory, people come and bow before me and kiss my hand, I can't lose that. Lord, I love you, but I've got a mansion. Lord, I love you, but I have millions in the bank account.

Lord, I love you, but I'm enjoying this luxurious life. Look at the flock coming, loving me, saying, oh you're wonderful bishop, there is none like you, you're a saint, you're this, we love you, we've been watching you, we've been following you. Oh, how can I give up on all that Lord and follow you? Go where? To the wilderness? To the cave? To the grave? I can't lose all this for you.

You don't know Jesus, you can never know him. In fact, he will not reveal himself to such a leader. He will not, because he said it, my glory I give no one.

Do you think Christ is going to give you his glory to go and sell it out? Wake up, wake up Habibi, not a bully for you. Even if you are the head of the church, not a bully for you. We need, we need to live Christ.

When are we going to do so? If I can't give up on the tiniest of the tiniest things, when am I going to be able to give up on my life for him? If I can't give up on a cigarette for the Lord, if I can't give up on a drink for the Lord, if I can't give up on a friend for the Lord, then when will I give up on my life for the Lord? When? When? When my beloveds, when? We need to start somewhere. And stop saying, I cannot do it. Yes you can, because Jesus is with you, you can.

Fear nothing. Fear nothing. Don't be like that boat that rocks right and left, left and right.

Be firm. Be still. Be strong.

Build yourself on the rock. Let Jesus build you on himself. He is the rock of salvation.

He is the foundation to the church. Let him build you. He put me with a murderer.

Almost it was one o'clock in the morning. But he started crying, he started talking about the Lord. I was almost maybe going to, if he wasn't baptized, I would have baptized him right there and then, with oil, with petrol I mean.

There was no water. He would have been engulfed on fire for the Lord. But you see, when the Lord is with you, no one can be against you.

Jesus Christ is beautiful, I'd speak, in the hardest of the hardest of the hardest times in your life. When he comes at the lowest point in your life, when you've hit rock bottom, when you have been destroyed, smashed, cut to smithereens, you are so deep in sin and filth, you are so lost, you have no idea who you are and what you are anymore. When Jesus comes and restores you, this is the only time you will understand how awesome and beautiful Christ is.

You will never see his beauty in good times. You will only recognize his beauty in the difficult times. When everybody deserted me, but my sweetheart Jesus embraced me, well, now this is what I call love.

And it's all capital letters, L-O-V-E. Now that's Christ. People have no idea when they talk about Jesus, they speak childishly, nonsensically, even Christian leaders, because they haven't lived with him.

They haven't. They just learned to talk about him. They went to uni, somebody taught them, they became like that cockatoo.

You know those birds that just repeat after you? It's exactly like that. The teacher taught, the students spoke what the teacher said. What about you and Jesus? My sweetheart, my sweetheart, my sweetheart, we need to live for the Lord, we need to live for him.

And they did not love their lives to the death. The only time they understood the value of the blood of the lamb, the only time they were able to testify for Christ, is when they looked at their life and they said, it's nothing. We will lay our life beneath your feet, Christ.

That's the only time you're able to testify for him. And crush the accuser under your feet by his blood, by the blood of the lamb. It's when your life is nothing.

I gave up the most precious thing to gain Christ. Jesus will come to his children, the Christians, and he'll say, what are you willing to give up for my sake? Look at me, my child. I gave up everything for your sake.

I looked at my life and I found it to be cheap compared to your one. When I looked at you, I said your life is more precious and expensive than my own one. This is the only reason why I gave up on my life, to give you life, because you are more precious than me, to me.

That's why I gave it up. So look at your Christ. Look what he has given up for you.

What are you willing to give up? I'll accept anything. Let's start for the smallest things. Can I just ask you to give me your heart and don't go out tonight somewhere that upsets your Lord.

Can you do that? Can you? I'll tell you this true story. I'm so sorry for keeping you in the church so long. This is a true story.

This young girl, like many beautiful young girls, she loved the Lord from the heart, but she had one addiction. What was her addiction? At 9 a.m there was a miniseries on TV that she loved watching. 9 p.m, sorry, 9 p.m. That was her addiction.

She would go into her room, pray, read the Holy Bible. Five to nine she is craving for that miniseries. She would give up on her prayers, she would give up on her Bible, and run to the hall and turn the TV on.

She cannot miss this miniseries. She tried everything under the sun, but every time one minute to nine came, she ran out of the room, gave up on everything. She was so sad.

She hated herself for not being so strong for the Lord's sake. One night she took a picture of the Lord Jesus and she glued half of it on the room's door and the other half on the wall. She glued it where you can't peel it off, meaning if she opens the door she will rip that picture in half.

She went and sat in her room on her bed. She started praying, reading the Holy Bible. Ten to nine came, five to nine came, two minutes to nine came, she gets up.

She goes to the door, about to grab the handle and open it. She looks at the picture. She said, I will shred myself to pieces and I will never rip this picture in half.

She went back and sat. The series went one night, two nights, three nights. The habit, the addiction was gone.

Amen. We need to start somewhere.