We have seen the Lord stir up our fellowship over the past several months in regards to the great commission that has been placed before the church. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Mat 28: 18-20) Lately, I have been thinking on the life of John the Baptist. One of the things that capture my attention is what had come out of the mouth of our Lord concerning this man. Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” This intrigues me, that there has been none spiritually greater than this man on earth. As I respond to the desire that the Lord has placed in our hearts to do things well for His names sake, I’ve discovered eight things gleaned from the life from john the Baptist that can encourage us in effective outreach. The first aspect of his life was that he had counted the costs. Through the years, I’ve seen a handful of buildings that were designed to be big and bold, but the contractor never effectively counted the costs involved in the project. You seen the evidence of a potentially great work that started but due to the lack of planning and evaluating the costs, the project never finished. As John the Baptist counted the costs that were involved in serving our Lord, he realized that he had to sacrifice comfort. The Lord may not have called us to live in a dry and rugged place, wear leather and camels hair, eat a staple of locust and wild honey, but I do believe that one of the first benchmarks of effective outreach will be a sacrifice of comfort. We will be challenged beyond our comfort zones. I find that the Lord often just wants me to surrender my time. Surrender my ‘me’ time. Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. (Rom 12:1) To count the costs, willing to sacrifice a little time and a little comfort, is simply our reasonable service to the one who laid down His entire life our sake.