My favorite definition of the cross was given by the daughter of Dr. Joseph Cotton a number of years ago. When walking into the church for the first time, and seeing the cross on the altar, this little girl said, “Daddy, what’s that plus sign doing up there?”

Have you ever thought of it that way? The cross as a plus sign. Keep that image in mind as we move through the sermon this morning.

I am talking about the cross today because I’m talking about the cost of discipleship. The cost of disciple ship is to “get lost!” I’m not using that in the vernacular. The vernacular will get us into trouble. I shared with the Administrative Board recently the story of the fellow who went into a rather run down hotel and said “What does a pig-sty like this cost?” Quick as a flash the man behind the desk said $5 for one pig, and $8 for two.” In the vernacular, we might say “get lost” to a person we’re tired of dealing with. This is not the way I use the term. I’m being scriptural. Jesus said you’ve got to get lost if you’re going to be his disciple. “He who would save his life must lose it.”

So that’s what we’re talking about today, the cost of discipleship and Jesus says that that cost is primarily losing our lives in order that we might find them.

Jesus didn’t want us to miss what he was saying, so he said it in three ways. So, we have three facets of one truth.

1. And the first facet is this: deny self.

I don’t want to get into a discussion about how we have perverted this exhortation of Jesus. Jesus not calling us to self-depreciation, but to self-fulfillment. Jesus knew, as modern psychologists are beginning to learn that life is found only getting outside ourselves.

The best illustration of this I know is marriage. Marriage goes against the dominant movement of modern culture, which is that if you’re going to find happiness, you’ve got to think only of yourself. That’s the advice of culture. We are bombarded by it everyday —if you want to find yourself then think of yourself. “But in marriage we take vows that say nothing about ourselves. The vows of marriage are focused entirely on the other person. There is no contractual clause in the vows. Marriage does not make love and care and fidelity to another person dependent on reciprocation. You vow to give yourself unqualifiedly to another human being. And that’s a scary thing. You are risking your life. The charge to the couple reads like this “If these solemn vows be kept inviolate then God will bless your marriage, grant you fulfillment in it, and establish your home in peace.” What this is saying is that blessings to you are by-products of giving to others.

“Our culture doesn’t support that. It says think of yourself. It says think of yourself. It doesn’t make commitments, especially to other people, especially life long commitments. It says create your own space, and protect it.

“Well, if you’ve got the eyes to see, that prescription for misery. Our problem is not that we don’t think enough of ourselves; our problem is that we can’t get outside ourselves. So what the church says in the marriage ritual is j an application of the gospel. “He who would save his life will lose it. He who lose his life will find it.” (Mark Trotter, Get Lost, March 3, 1985)

The cost of discipleship? — and the first facet of the one truth is this “deny self.”

II. The second facet of this one truth is expressed by Jesus in the fashion “take up your cross.”

Again we can’t plumb all the depths of this powerful and demanding call. Suffice it to sound one great meaning.

It is not Christ’s cross that we are to take up. His suffering, his once and for all death stand alone, is adequate for our salvation, and is unrepeatable. ‘We are to take up our own cross — to deny ourselves as we have already stated — but more, we’re to see our sufferings as a sharing with Christ in his redemptive activity and victory.

I don’t understand this: it a mystery. I don’t understand it, but I’ve experienced it — however faintly — and I’ve seen it shiningly portrayed in others.

On reflection, most of us know the truth of that old poem.

“I walked a mile with pleasure,
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with sorrow,
And we’re a word said she; but, Oh, the things
I learned from her,
When sorrow walked with me!”

“I want to verify this from your own experience. If some recording angel of God were to visit all our homes today, and were to ask us individually to name the experiences which have blessed and taught us most, the influences which have brought the greatest enrichment to our spirits, would it be the happy, care-free hours that the majority of us would mention first? Surely that angel’s book would tell of enrichment brought by God’s great gifts of love, and home, and nature, and the beauty of the world after page there would be to tell how trouble, and difficulty, and bereavement, and bitter disappointment, and hopes frustrated, and dreams that flickered out and died — all the things which hurt and leave a mark. The pages would be filled with stories of suffering that had brought blessing by imparting a new depth, new insight, to the soul” (James S. Stewart, Ibid, p 154).

This is a life-changing discovery — that our pain can be creative, that our suffering can be a part of the salvation process, that we can see our sufferings as a sharing with Christ in his redemptive activity and victory.

In our Because We Care Program, our theme is this: Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice. I’m going to talk specifically about this the word is relevant here. Our cross is not the cross of Jesus. Neither is our cross to be compared to someone else’s cross. It’s our cross — it’s our sacrifice — it’s our willingness to give sacrificially of our material resources until that becomes a spiritual exercise.

And this is the big issue of this Program…that our giving became a spiritual exercise. Are you making it so? Are you making your pledge to Because We Care a matter of prayer?

I wish there was some way to convince you of the blessings that are there, just waiting for you to lay hold of. Many of you are going to miss the meaning of the whole thing because you are not willing to turn your decision-making and you’re actually giving into a spiritual exercise.

A fellow said to me the other day, “Preacher, I’m going to give you $5000 for the building.” I cringed. He had missed the point altogether. He’s not giving me anything! I am not sure he had even thought of that. If he had thought of it, he would not be so casual about it — and I have an idea the amount would be different. There’s no sacrifice in what he was saying or doing – no thought of sacrifice.

We will miss the boat altogether if we don’t turn our decision making and our actual giving into spiritual exercise. In the past few weeks, you’ve heard of a family pledging $100,000 to this program, of dear Dr. Grant pledging $6,000.00, of Horace Branch pledging $3000. Today you heard the witness of Donna Libby. A wide range of amounts but all rooted in the same truth: Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice. What would it mean for you to take up your cross in the Because We Care program?

III. Now the third facet of this great truth Jesus is stating : Follow Me.

This, too, could be an entire sermon. We need to remember a Jesus’ focus here. He’s telling the disciples what kind of Messiah he is, and therefore, what they are to be and do if they are his disciples.

Jesus was drawing in the net, separating the serious followers from the curious tag-along crowd. “The crowd is those who use their needs. The disciples are those he uses for his mission.” (Trotter, the Cost of Discipleship).

Jesus wanted to get his disciples ready to carry on what he had begun when he was no longer with them. And what he had begun was a ministry of renewing the world through love. If we’re to follow him, we’re to follow him in compassionate ministry That ministry may take us into areas of our city where we don’t want to go. It may put us with people with whom we are not comfortable. It may call us to tasks we would not choose ourselves.

A war correspondent paused long enough to watch a nun as she unwrapped a wounded soldier’s leg. Gangrene had set in. The stench from the pus and blood was so repulsive he turned away as he mumbled beneath his breath, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” She glanced up and replied, “Neither would I.”

Because of who she was, she did not have to add - “But I do it for Jesus’ sake - and out of love for him.”

One big truth - The Demand of discipleship: Get Lost.”

Three ways of saying it:

Deny self
Take up your cross
Follow Me