An Encouraging Word from New Hope – Midweek Reflections on “Counting the Cost” Sermon by Pastor PJ Stohlmann
Dear Beloved in Christ,
The following between the asterisks will be in every email for newcomers and as a reminder to the importance of reviewing. If you have read it once, you do not need to read it again 😊 you can skip down. But it is the reason that we review through the week and why it is as important to our spiritual health.💞
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Reviewing what we have learned through the week enables us to be active listeners that meditate on God’s Word so that we might be doers of His Word, not just hearers only, deceiving ourselves. James 1:22
There is so much reward in receiving God’s Word with an open heart!
Hebrews 11:6 ESV
[6] And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.6.ESV
The King James version does a better job in my opinion translating the Greek in verse 6…
Hebrews 11:6 KJV
[6] But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
https://bible.com/bible/1/heb.11.6.KJV
So God rewards those who diligently seek Him! There is no millionaire or king that can give rewards that even minutely come close to what God gives!
So as we hear God’s Word each Sunday from the pastor, we should be grateful and excited to receive it and by God’s Spirit, live it! We can be excited each week to see where God will lead us.💞
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Thinking Through the Sermon
This past Sunday, 09.14.25, Pastor PJ taught on “Counting the Cost.”
If you missed the sermon, fell asleep😳😉 or need to review it, you can find it here:
https://youtu.be/7f0-SgZroqE?si=wwvcFckRAEmaxguA
The sermon starts around 22:00 if you wish to skip forward.
Pastor PJ’s sermon topic was chosen before the event and shooting of Charlie Kirk or the Evergreen shooting that has happened this past week. But those events, which he did an excellent job of pulling into the sermon, really make real for us the call of God for each of us to give up our lives and take up our cross and follow Jesus.
We read from Luke 14:25-33 (NIV),
[25] Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:
[26] “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
[27] And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
[28] “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
[29] For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,
[30] saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
[31] “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
[32] If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
[33] In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple.
Pastor PJ did a beautiful job of helping us understand these passages in light of the mercy and Grace and Truth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are certainly called to take up our cross and follow Jesus Christ.
Pastor made an excellent point on how taking up our cross doesn’t mean wearing a cross necklace😯🤔, though certainly we can do that.
But the cross was a symbol of torture and extreme suffering and pain. People in Jesus’ time would see these crosses with people being tortured on the side of the road. It was horrible.
The world without Jesus Christ is suffering greatly and every soul is separated from God by the sinful nature we inherited from Adam’s fall. All without Christ must suffer the just punishment of every sin, condemned to hell, as were we before Christ came and saved us – what a great message of mercy and salvation! Such good news we have and can offer those around us!💞✝️
The world’s suffering is great and it is into that world that God lovingly calls us to follow him, not worshiping our idol of self or Comfort or the things of this world, but coming to Christ and urgently, diligently seeking his direction each day for how we should live our lives.
One beautiful thing about our relationship with a living God is that he works with each individual whom he has created. We each have different abilities and gifts as well as different life experiences that shape how we think.
Humans find it very difficult to change their thinking. If you do not think that is true, “simply” give up Starbucks, coffee or chocolate for the rest of your life and give that money to the poor. Simple. No big deal….😯
But! Our brains and our flesh cling to those things we enjoy and we don’t want to enter into the suffering of not having things that please the flesh. And yes God does desire us to enjoy life as well, but the balance and the times and the seasons are in God’s hand.
And so we should diligently and earnestly seek his face to know: when is the time for me to enjoy and when is the time for me to give up so that others can enjoy? Not even meaning just the things needed like food and water and shelter, but infinitely more important, that others might enjoy the eternally needed relationship with Jesus Christ.
Let us please take time this week and either on the phone electronically or on a piece of paper, this week write down the things that God is leading us to change over time to enter more into picking up our cross and following Jesus Christ. We can keep a diary as we are growing in different areas and continually ask God to help us and guide us in what areas in this moment in time he desires us to grow.
Maybe it’s giving up TV time and spending more time with family. Maybe it’s giving up 50% of our fancy eating out and using the time and energy to care for the poor. Or maybe it’s simply learning to spend time on our own self-care spiritually as well as physically and learning to care for ourselves so we can better care for others.
Maybe it’s something more drastic and we feel God is calling us to Mission work or to Seminary. Write it down. Just write it down and pray that if it is God’s will he will bring it to pass and transition our hearts and Minds more and more each day and day into His will.
Let us look at our lives carefully at how we spend our time and our energy, our living space, our resources and our money. Are we using our lives for Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven, or for the kingdom of the world and of self? Do we seek to please ourselves or the Living God?
The transition and repentance, that changing of our minds and directions to surrender to God takes time and the process continues until we meet him face to face.
So let us pray and ask for his help that we might take up our cross and enter into the suffering of the world around us, being the hands and the feet of Jesus to the poor and the oppressed, to the Pharisee as well as the “sinner.”
Let us be honest with the person in the mirror, agreeing with God that pride and lies are an abomination before God and so pray He help direct our thoughts and steps into His truth and grace.
Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV
[16] There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
[17] (1) haughty eyes, (2) a lying tongue, and (3) hands that shed innocent blood,
[18] (4) a heart that devises wicked plans, (5) feet that make haste to run to evil,
[19] (6) a false witness who breathes out lies, and (7) one who sows discord among brothers.
https://bible.com/bible/59/pro.6.16-19.ESV
As we draw into Christ’s deep love for us, we can admit our own faults and need for space and rest and know that God is the one who brings all things into fruition little by little in his time.
So we do not come into this picking up our cross from a place of anxiety or fear or self striving, but rather from the rest, strength and deep joy that Christ Himself gives us, because He Himself did take the cross for us.
Hebrews 12:2 ESV
[2] …looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.12.2.ESV
And as Pastor PJ so powerfully said, when we like Peter fervently claim, “Yes! Jesus, even if everybody else turns away, I will follow you to the death!” but then like Peter find that we so quickly turn and deny our Lord😪 in our words and actions afterwards, not truly loving Him or our neighbors as ourselves, we come humbly, needy, to the cross and find that He has forgiven us. Where we have failed, he has not. He is faithful. It is finished.
So we come and ask again, “Lord, would you please help me to grow more into maturity that I might look more like you and that I might be your hands and feet to the world around me?”
We walk from a position of rest and peace and Grace knowing that we are truly saved by grace alone not by works so that no one can boast, all the while imitating the disciples before us, who, walking in the fear and comfort of the Lord, (Acts 9:31) endured until the end.
So we count the cost, remembering that He too, counted the cost and totally thought we were worth it….💞💞💞
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Next week, Sept. 21st, we look forward to hearing Pastor Joe Watson preach from Luke 16:1-15 on “The Shrewd Manager.”
When a dishonest manager is caught pilfering his master’s money, he makes some pretty shrewd choices to escape the mess he’s in.
What does he do to earn the Master’s commendation after he’s basically been fired?
And, what does this parable have to do with us?🤔🤔
Come on down Sunday to find out!😊
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Have a blessed rest of your week and we hope to see you on Sunday!
And always remember, you are so treasured and dearly loved.💞✝️🥰
God’s Peace.
Mrs. Christa Mason
for New Hope Lutheran Church, Golden, CO
New Hope Lutheran Church - Golden, CO 