Welcome back to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast answering your very tough theological

and ethical questions from scripture.

While following Christ is costly, and Jesus warns us to count the cost first before we

follow Him, which of course raises the big question, how do we calculate the cost of following

Him?

A listener named Sally asks it like this, hello Pastor John, thank you for the podcast.

This tells us to forsake everything to be his disciple right after saying this, for which

of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he

has enough to finish it.

Last after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin

to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.

That is Luke 14 verses 20-30.

Within the call to be his disciple, how do we discern the cost and count that cost in each

of our individual callings?

Most significantly, how do we count the cost in advance when we do not know what cost will

be exacted from us in the end?

The problem here is that the verses which Sally refers to, Luke 14, 28-30, are sandwiched

between the very verses that answer her question.

So to give Jesus answer, let's back up to verses and go forward three verses, so that's

what I'm going to do.

Now here's, let's just remind ourselves of the situation, Jesus is calling people to

follow Him in discipleship and then He's reminding them that it's like building a tower

...