Preacher's Block

This preaching tip was shared by Preacher’s Block co-founder, Hunter Bethea. If you’re interested in joining the most focused preachers in the world and getting these tips sent to your inbox every week, sign up here.

In his famous book The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about what it will cost for us to follow Jesus as His disciple. It’s an important and needed message, one that’s echoed in Jesus’s words in Luke 14:28-30. Our sermons should help people count the cost of discipleship.

I get frustrated by sermons that make out following the way of Jesus to be easy, pain-free, or only talk about the cost Jesus paid for our discipleship, not what it will cost us (i.e. everything). It sets our people up for an expectation that following Jesus is an easy, effortless endeavor. When they face “trials of many kinds” (James 1:2), they can be tempted to think that they’re doing something wrong.

Help your people count the cost of discipleship. Tell them what it will cost them (“If you follow Jesus in this way, it may cost you your reputation, your job, or even your future.”) But always, always, always end with a word of hope: “But the cost we pay to follow Jesus will always be worth it!”