Thanks to everyone who attended our Thanksgiving Dinner Sunday night!  It was awsome!  And a large special “Thank You” to our volunteers and workers who set it up, cleaned it up and took it down.  Your ministry does not go un-noticed–especially by the Lord.  It was great to have the music and ministry of Myrrh as our program too.   What a great testimony to God’s healing power!  And musically, in addition to powerful instrumental versions of classic hymns, I thought they had some songs that sounded like Celine Dion and  others likeThe Dixie Chicks (Hey, I like the Dixie Chicks, as long as they don’t talk about politics!) If you missed it, you should check them out (Myrrh, that is) when they are performing in the area again. 

And now, the rest of the sermon (with apologies to Paul Harvey).  I grew up hearing the phrase, “count the cost,” and Jesus exhorted His followers to do just that.  Jesus illustrated “counting the cost” in two parables He told in Luke 14:28-32.  We didn’t talk about these on Sunday, but they do have much to say.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whethere he has enough to finish it (vs. 28).  Certainly Jesus does not want us to be “half-finished towers.” Do you know people who ran one lap of the Christian life and then quit? Or maybe they fought one round and quit? Or they played one quarter and they quit?  If you haven’t counted the cost, it’s easy to quit when the price gets too high.