That means this is my last chance to open up the word of God for you and I'm hard to believe this week's over and I've enjoyed my time here, certainly enjoyed preaching to you and thank you for just listening and responding to what the Lord would speak to you about. I want to thank you Pastor Wissam and others here at Cleveland Baptist Church, Pastor Brown, and for inviting me to come, and it certainly is an honor and a privilege to preach here in Heritage Christian, is it Christian School? Yeah, HCS, that's right. Again, H. C, S, again. Anyways, all right. How could I forget that it's school, not academy? Anyways, but it has been a blessing. It has been a blessing to be here at Heritage Christian School. And that was not to make fun of the cheerleaders. It was just slightly to jab them a little bit. All right, anyways. I tried, I was cheering, I gave it my all. They said, get out of your seat, and I got up, and I was the only one that got up. So, anyways. Alright, let's take our Bibles. Let's go to the Gospel of Luke today. The Gospel of Luke, if we could. Luke, chapter number 9. Guys, good job on the win yesterday. Although, they kind of doubled their average points against you, I heard. I don't know if that was that impressive. No, I'm just kidding. It was a great game. Thank you guys for dominating and not losing, because that's always awkward the next day when you're like, oh, dude, way to give it your all, guys. Sorry you lost. Yeah, so thank you for winning that way we just avoid those awkward conversations. Luke chapter 9, we're going to pick up the story in verse 57, we'll read down to the end of the chapter. Luke chapter 9 verse 57 down to verse number 62. where the Bible says, And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nest, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Let's pray. Lord we thank you again just for this week. I thank you for the opportunity that I've had to open up your word and Lord preach your word. And so Lord I pray that again as we come to this last service of the spiritual emphasis week that Lord it would truly just be the beginning of a revival amongst the school and in the hearts of these students. And Lord I pray that you'd help me again Just Lord help me to connect your word to them and Lord I pray that your truth would be presented in a way that would be Lord applicable and practical today and we'll thank you for it and I'll praise you for it in Jesus name. Amen. In the 1970s, the Philadelphia Eagles were awful. In fact, they had gone ten seasons without a winning record. They had failed to win three games for the past four seasons. And fans in Philadelphia had had enough. Fans in Philadelphia are quite passionate about their football team. to say the least, and they had enough of losing. They wanted people to be fired. They wanted the team to be kind of completely gutted. They wanted a complete overhaul, and the owner kind of agreed. He hired a new general manager, and they kind of fired their head coach, and thus began the search for the next head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Well, as you can imagine, as it is today, I mean, well, as you guys know, anytime Cleveland fires their coach, you know, there's always these rumors, right, about who's the next coach gonna be, right? And there's kind of all these speculations. There were the speculations of who they were going to pick. And while a bunch of names were going around, everybody kind of seemed to want the same guy, right? The same type of guy. They wanted a proven winner, someone who had been there and done it before, someone who had gotten that Lombardi trophy, who had a winning formula and could come in, kind of put that into Philadelphia so that they could get their first Lombardi trophy. Well, with that, the Philadelphia Eagles hired a college coach by the name of Dick Vermell. He was coming up to the pros for the very first time. And Coach Vermell, needless to say, was not a popular choice, okay? This is not the guy they wanted. This is not the man with the proven record. And so, well, the city of Philadelphia revolted. They turned over cars in the Philadelphia Eagles' parking lot. They found out where Coach Vermeul moved in and they threw bricks through his window with death threats attached to them. This was not good. This is the same fan base that threw snowballs at Santa Claus though, so what can you expect? So Coach Vermeul goes into his office and he's got this death threat in his hand and he goes to the owner and the GM and he says, hey guys, what's going on here? Welcome to Philadelphia, coach. Welcome to the city of brotherly love. And they said, look, if you want to win this fan base over, you're going to have to do something to win them over. You're going to have to do something to get them on your side. And so with that, Coach Rommel decided to do something that had never before been done in the National Football League and will probably never be done again in the National Football League. He hosted an open tryout. And he billed it as an opportunity for anyone to attend to see if they had what it took to not just be a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, but to see if they could be a player on the team. Well, as you can imagine, thousands upon thousands of people lined up outside of the stadium that morning to see if they had what it took to be a Philadelphia Eagle. And as you can probably guess, after a few drills, thousands upon thousands of people went home crying when they realized they didn't have what it took to be a Philadelphia Eagle. However, there was one guy by the name of Vince Papelli that got invited back for a second tryout. Now, Vince Papelli was not an athlete by any stretch of the means. In fact, he had never picked up a football professionally or high school or college. elementary, didn't play peewee football, didn't do anything like that. He played high school track. That was the only thing he had ever done sports-wise. And by the world's standards, Vince Papelle was a little bit of a loser. He had lost his job. He had come home one night to his girlfriend who had left a note behind saying, you'll never accomplish anything in life. And she had left with their newborn child and all of their stuff. And he began waiting tables at his brother-in-law's restaurant, and it was there that some of the friends that he had met kind of egged him on to try out with them that day. Nobody, including Vince himself, thought he'd be invited back for a second tryout, but he was. Now, of course, Disney's made a movie about this. It's based on the book that Vince wrote called Invincible. Now, the book's better than the movie. Disney exaggerates things like only Disney can do. But in the book, Vince talks about lying awake every night in those college dormitories where all the NFL hopefuls would stay. And he says, each night I lied awake waiting for the feet to stop at my door. That was a phrase the players would use that when the feet stopped at your door, it meant they were slipping your release papers under the door. Like, hey, thanks for trying out. We really appreciate it, but you just don't quite have what it takes. to make the team. And so he said, man, every night I lied awake with my bags packed waiting for those feet to stop at my door. And he said, every night they stopped just short of my door or they kept walking down the hallway. And he said, the feet never stopped at my door. I mean, think about that, week after week, practice after practice, hard work after hard work, and eventually Vince Papelli made the 53-man roster of the Philadelphia Eagles, proving he had what it took not just to be a fan of the team, but to be an actual player on the team. I come this morning with an apology, because I believe we as a church and leaders have let you down. We've steered you the wrong way. I believe we've become very successful at creating fans of Christianity. But I'm sorry to tell you that's not what Jesus was ever interested in. Jesus was never interested in the size of the crowd. He was only interested in the level of commitment from the individual. He wasn't looking for fans. No, quite honestly, he was looking for followers. In Matthew 4, in verse number 19, he says to the sons of Zebedee, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. Matthew 9, in verse number 9, he sees a man named Matthew and says, come, arise and follow me. And he came, arose, and followed him. The next day, he goeth forth and findeth a man named Philip, and saith unto him, come and follow me. And he came and followed him. He told the rich young ruler to go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and come and follow. In Luke 9, in verse 23, he says to us all, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. He says, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. He says, if any man serve me, let him follow me. If any man keep my commandments, let him follow me. I think we get the point. Jesus was interested in followers. So he was not interested in those wearing the Christian jersey. No, he was interested in those carrying the cross of Jesus. He was not interested in the spectators in the stands. He was interested in the soldiers on the front lines. He was not interested in people cheering on his cause. No, he wanted people who were committed to fulfilling his cause. And sadly, we've taught you how to put the face paint on, we've taught you what jersey to wear, we've taught you how to wave the sign at church and carry the right Bible, but we have not taught you to be a follower of Christ. And that's gotta change. It's gotta change. And here in Luke chapter number nine, Jesus is on his way from one place to another. Wow. As like many other times in scripture, he's moving from one location to another. Now Jesus has just preached a sermon, he's just performed a miracle, he's just taught a parable, he's just changed lives, and now he's moving to a new city where he will yet preach another sermon and do another miracle and tell another parable and ultimately be rejected by the multitude. But on this instance in scripture, we get a glimpse on what it was like to journey with Jesus. What it was like to travel with the Lord. Now I like road trips, and so this kind of like is right up my alley. And on this road trip, three men engage Jesus in conversation. And it's through the conversations that they have with Jesus that we realize they don't have what it cuts. I mean, they don't have what it takes. Like the feet stop at the door in this chapter for these three men. They simply don't have what it takes to follow Jesus. But I wanna look at their conversations and I wanna look at these men because I believe by the grace of God, you and I can follow Jesus. I believe we can have what it takes. And so I wanna look at what Jesus was looking for in these men. What would it have taken these men to be a follower of Christ. Simply put, would you look at three marks of a committed follower of Christ. Three characteristics of a committed follower of Christ. Three marks of someone who has what it takes to be a follower of the Lord. First of all, if you're going to follow Jesus, you've got to be willing to follow him wherever he sends. Look at how Jesus responds to the Lord. I'll follow you, brethren. It's so heavenly, fabulous. Look what he says in verse 58. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath no place to lay his head. That's a picture. They're on this road. This guy stands up, Lord, I'll follow you whithersoever thou goest. Jesus says, the fox is that wolf's. Worthy are heaviness. The Son of Man hath no place to lay his head. I'll follow you. Thanks for the poetry. What does that mean? Is this like, is that Shakespeare? I mean, what's going on here? What are you talking about? Well, if you want to take Jesus literally, and I try to make practice of taking Jesus literally, you know what he's saying? He's saying, I'm homeless. The fox has a hole, the bird has a nest, the Son of Man, I live in Jesus Christ, I have no place to lay my head, I'm homeless. And what he was saying is, you say you're willing to follow me anywhere. Are you willing to follow me here? Are you willing to follow me down the not-so-uncomfortable path? You want to follow me outside of your comfort zone? Are you willing to follow me down the narrow road? Down the road less traveled? Are you willing to follow me to the cross? After all, that's where this ends, right? Jesus died on a cross for the sins of mankind. And Jesus was saying, look, I need followers who are going to be there. I need someone to look to as I walk that cross and tell them to take care of my mother. I need someone to be there as they take my body and throw me in the tomb and see me resurrect three days later. I need someone to be there in the upper room praying for the power of God as I present my resurrected body before them. And I need someone to be there in Judea as I ascend into heaven and say, hey, I need you to be my witness to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world. I need someone to be there at Pentecost next to Peter. And I need someone to be there to watch the church of God and use my church to explode. I need someone to be there. Are you going to be here? Or are you going to quit when the going gets tough? Are you going to quit at the first sign of discomfort? Are you going to quit when things aren't always easy? Can I just say this? Saying yes to following Jesus means saying no to your comfort every single time. You cannot carry a cross comfortably. It doesn't work. There's no easy way to be a follower of Christ. Sadly, this man that has all the right words to say, has no action to back him. At least we don't hear another word in scripture. I kind of just get the idea that he walks away. Yeah, I think you understand this as a teenager. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. My pastor, growing up, used to say, your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. Nice thing. But really, I learned that's just a complicated way of saying your actions speak louder than your words. Your actions speak louder than your words. You may not make any notes, but all the big-name people in your Bible, all the people in Christianity, Matthew, Mark, Luke, James, Peter, Paul. Did you know they all died a martyr's death? They all died for a reason. Peter, crucified upside down. James, beheaded. Mark, dragged through the streets of Alexandria, then beheaded and stoned. Well, they really took care of that. Every big name person in the Bible, dead. 10 of the 11 disciples, killed. The one that lived, John. He was boiled alive and then exiled for the rest of his life, alone on an island. Do you realize that all of these men were willing to put down their comfort for a greater cause? They all saw the cause of Jesus Christ as something worth living for, as something worth dying for. As John Huss said, when I preach with my lips, I now seal with my life as he was being burned at the stake for what he believed. My friends, if you're going to follow Jesus, you've got to understand something. There's going to be some discomfort. There's going to be some challenging times up ahead. And a true follower of Christ will say, you know what, Lord? Sit here. I'll follow you wherever, and I mean it. I'm learning following Christ is not something you say with your mouth. It's not something you, it's not somewhere you go with your feet. It's not even something you do with your hands. Following Christ is something you live with your heart. A true follower of Christ will be willing to follow him wherever he sins. But then notice secondly, a true follower of Christ will be willing to follow him whenever he suffers. Whenever he suffers. Look at the next step. Verse 59, he said unto another, this is Jesus speaking, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first, or you won't bury my body. Jesus said, never let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Okay, so. Jesus watches the first guy walk away. And he turns to another guy and says these words, follow me. Now one thing you have to understand, that when Jesus said follow me, this was a big deal. I know we in the church say that we need to follow Christ all the time. And when we say it, we make our church think we need to be in all this stuff. And it's great. But when Jesus said those words, follow me, we have to understand that Jesus, yes, he was Savior, but Jesus was also a rabbi. And so when a rabbi said the words, follow me, he was saying, I want you to come and be my apprentice. I want you to learn under me. I want you to be one of my disciples. A disciple just simply means an imitator, right? Or a follower, right? So he said, I want you to imitate me. I want you to follow my ways. I want you to learn how I walk. I want you to learn under my teaching. So he is asking him to come be an apprentice of Christ. This was a huge deal. In fact, this meant to leave your father in the boat and go follow Jesus. This meant to leave your profession behind and come learn under Him, to take up a higher calling, to lay down what you wanted to do and follow after Him. So this is a big deal, right? So if you're here to say, I want you to follow me, and this guy says, um, that's not really a good time. He's not saying no, he's just saying not right now. Now I know at first glance you might think, well I mean come on, he had a pretty good excuse. I have to say this is actually a very poor excuse because no excuse is a good excuse when it comes to disciplining. And if you really want to get into the details, it's really a terrible excuse. The words go and bury here that he uses when he says, Lord, set for me first to go and bury my father. Those words go and bury simply have the idea of a prepare to bury. I must need to go make ready the burial process. It's likely that this man's dad was real old or perhaps had a long time disease, something in which he could die at any moment. Here's a question for you. If he was really concerned about his dad's death, why was he out following Jesus in the first place? Shouldn't he have been back home? I mean, it's not like they had cell phones back in those days where they could call them as soon as something intimate happened. No, I mean, the truth is, if they wanted to get to him, they didn't even train in kitchens yet. They would have to have gone and told him. And here he is out following Jesus on the middle, on the middle of a road trip out of the city. He was fine following Jesus until the Lord asked him to commit. And the minute the Lord asked for a commitment, he began to search his Bible in the streets. God, Lord, I would love to do that. That sounds real good. You know, I should probably be getting home and checking on the data. By the way, if you just want to know what his heart is, just look at his words again. He says, Lord suffer me first, if you don't bear in my thought. You will never be a follower of Christ if you have to be first. That's not real deep, I understand that. But you will never be a follower if you have to be first. As long as you have a knee-first attitude, He will never do anything for Christ. You can't follow Christ that way. You can't follow Christ that way. On the invitation that Jesus offers every single one of you to follow Him, there is an R-S-V-P date, and it raised today. Today. My wife is from Oregon. And so we were getting married. We got married in Oregon. That's how you do it, I guess, based on conditions. And so it's a 14-hour drive from my house in Lancaster to her house in Oregon. And you take one highway the whole time. It's the I-5. You say, why didn't you just fly? Well, I was broke. I was a broke houseman. I had just graduated. I had spent all my money on a honeymoon and an engagement ring. I was broke as can be. So I was going to drive, because I wanted to have a car up there that I could drive up to Seattle to then take our honeymoon out on a cruise to Alaska. So yeah, so I had to drive. And so I convinced some cruise men to fly into Lansing, to Los Angeles, so that they could drive with me. And I'm a great friend. And so rather than flying to Oregon, that would have been real easy. But I said, hey, what would be a road trip? So they flew into LA. I picked them up. And then they spent the night at my house. And then the next morning, we got up at like 4 AM. And we were going to make this road trip up to Oregon. Now, it's a horrible drive. I mean, the I-5 is like the most horrendous drive ever. It's desert the entire way. And even if this is California, it's beautiful. Obviously, it's not good. I mean, outside of like three cities, California stinks, I'll just be honest with you. I mean, I've been in those things too, but hey, it's okay. You don't have to lie to me. So California stinks, so I'm driving and I'm getting tired. I'm getting bored. There's nothing to look at. I'm doing one of these as I drive. I'm trying to stay awake. that night, and I'm stabbing myself in the leg. I'm doing all the tricks you guys are doing the same way right now. And I'm doing the rumble tricks, you know, the rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Oregon is just full of trees. That's it. It's all Oregon has that California doesn't. It's trees. Well, about that time, we had passed a sign for Eugene, Oregon. And more importantly, we had passed a sign for Austin Stadium. Now, if you don't football or college football, you'll know that's where the Oregon Ducks play. Now, I am a huge football fan. Perhaps you can tell by the fact that I used two football illustrations already. And I've got one more to come in the next minute. So I'm a big football guy. I love football. I'm like, hey, let's do the Oregon Ducks Stadium. At that time, it was ranked like the third best stadium in college football. And so we pulled off that exit, pulled into the stadium. And it's the middle of the summer. Absolutely nobody's there. It was the biggest waste of time ever. But Phil Knight, who is the co-founder and former CEO of Nike, went into the University of Oregon. He's an alumnus. And so because of that, he's poured a lot of money into the University of Oregon. Like that's why they wear like 156 different combinations of jerseys that they could wear on any given Saturday to play football. It's unbelievable. They always look real good. They don't always play real good, but they always look real good. And so, you know, it's kind of cool because the entire Austin stadium is like one big Nike. There's a Nike swish on every brick, literally. There's bright neon colors, it's like a Teletubby exploded. There's motivational phrases everywhere, you know, finish the drive. I'm like, yeah, let's finish the drive. You can't do it. You know, I'm motivated, I'm pumped up, right? So like, we're just kind of like, you know, kind of getting our legs, you know, kind of looking around the stadium. No one's there, we're looking at the side of the workout room, everyone's like blown away, you know. And my friend Stuart, one of my friends, Stuart, he says, he finds a door to the practice building. And he says, guys, the door's open. The door's open to the practice building. We worked out, so we're like, hey, let's go. And the door was open. I mean, we had to hop the fence, but that was no big deal. You hop the fence, and you walk through the door, and then there's a tunnel from about here to kind of that back wall there, well, the end into the back wall. And so it's a little tunnel. You walk out, and all of a sudden, they're young. You're all in the practice building. That's the coolest thing. There's footballs lying around. We're throwing them around. We're having a blast. I'm having touchdowns, doing dances. No, we're just having a blast. And after about five or ten minutes or so, I looked over on the wall that's blocking the public's eye from seeing the practice. And I noticed one of those Nike motivational phrases. Now at this time, I had not seen it before. I've seen it several times since. But the phrase simply said this. Yesterday, you said tomorrow. Yesterday, you said tomorrow. And I was like, wow, that's inspirational. And then I saw a camera, and I said, gotta go. And so we ran. We got to the car, and we drove away. We got into the work, and we finished the drive. Yes, we did it. And I was telling my wife about it. I said, yeah, yeah. And we saw this, we saw this price. He did this. He did this. Yesterday, you said tomorrow. She's like, what does that mean? I don't know. And I started thinking about it. And I was like, oh, man. That's good. Because yesterday, I said tomorrow, I was going to start working out again. And yesterday, I said tomorrow, I'm going to start eating healthy. I had a corn dog for lunch, OK? Yesterday, I said, no more soda. I did not make a breakfast, OK? But yesterday, you said tomorrow. And I thought, man, that would be motivational as a football player to come out and see that on the wall and say, you're right. Yesterday, I said tomorrow, I'm not even going to drop a pass. And so man, today, I'm not even going to drop a pass. And yesterday, I said tomorrow, I was going to leave it all on the field. And so man, today, I'm going to leave it all on the field. And yesterday, I said tomorrow, I'm going to beat my fastest time. And so man, today, I'm going to beat my fastest time. Now, why is that motivational? Well, because it's not yesterday anymore. And it certainly ain't tomorrow anymore. No, no, no. It's today. And so what are you going to do today? You know, I meet a lot of Christians that use the excuse of tomorrow with God. So tomorrow I'll start reading my Bible. And tomorrow I'll get serious. Tomorrow I'll forgive that person. Tomorrow I'll make it right with my parents. Tomorrow I'll tell that person about Jesus. Tomorrow I'll do this. Tomorrow I'll do that. And guess what? Tomorrow never comes. And it's correct. It's always a day away. It never comes. And yesterday you said tomorrow. My friend says, you're going to do something for God. Matt said he's not interested in what you planned on doing for him yesterday. Nor does he really care what you intend on doing for him tomorrow. He is only concerned with what you will do for him at the end of the day. He wants you to do something for Him today. And anytime you see in scripture Jesus or the apostles or any of the writers talk about following God, considering you'll never find it in a future tense, it will always be in the present. Because following God is something you do today. One day at a time. The stupidest statement in the Bible from Exodus chapter 3. And you say, wow, that's a bold statement. Well, wait till you hear it. You'll think it's stupid, too. It's in the middle of the 10 plagues of Egypt. The particular plague is the plague of frogs. There's frogs everywhere. Now, frogs are cool, but not when they're, like, everywhere. Like, they're in your pillow. They're, like, in the sea. You're walking down the hall at night, stepping on frogs. Right? So Pharaoh's had enough of the frogs, right? Like, he's had it. I'm not going on, right? He's done. So he calls Moses. He says, Moses, pray to your God that he will get rid of these frogs, right? And Moses is like, sure. When would you like them to be gone? And Pharaoh says, tomorrow. Moses had to have made that decision. Tomorrow. Like, you don't want them gone today? Or like, right now? It's not a good convenience. I can try now. No. Tomorrow's good. What? Like what the psalm says. It says he had a terrible time last night. Can't wait to do it again. He wanted one more night. With frogs. I meet a lot of Christians that want one more night of theirs. There will be one more night of their sin. There will be one more night of their promise. I say there's a danger in that because you're not guaranteed tomorrow. Go stop that stuff tomorrow. I don't know what you're out in the game day 24. What is your life? It's a baby. It appears for a little while and then it vanishes. Today, thou will hear his voice. Pardon not your heart. You know what the writer of Hebrews is saying? He's saying, look, if God's speaking to you, if He's telling you to do something, or give something up, or start something, or continue to do something, man, don't wait until tomorrow. Go hard in your heart. Do it today. Yesterday, you said, tomorrow. True followers of Christ will follow Him wherever He sends. They'll follow Him whenever He summons. Notice, finally, they'll follow Him whatever the sacrifice. Whatever. the sacrifice. Take a look at this last chapter. I feel bad for him. Verse 61, and I mean that in all sincerity. It says that another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go with them for a while. Who should I call now? Okay, so you've got a picture of this, okay? How many of you are visual learners? You're a visual learner? Okay, several of us, thank you. You are my people, okay. So, what do you see on this? It's not that good of a message, but when you read the Bible, You've got to think of it as a story. This is a story. So put yourself, your visual expression, put yourself in the story. Okay, so let's put, if you want us to do that, can we all think like me for a second? I know that's really scary. But let's all just picture ourselves on this road trip of Jesus, all right? So let's jump into the church bus that breaks down every time we get in it. And it seems to run perfectly when no one's in it, but when we're in it, it breaks down instantly. Okay, so we're in the church bus, all right? We're traveling with Jesus. And one guy, and we all kind of know this guy, he's like the hyper-spiritual guy in the youth group. He has all of his future plans planned out for God. And he stands up and he's like, Lord, this is what you do. I'm going to follow you, whether it's whoever that is. And the Lord's like, no, I'm not. I'm all of us. Well, in that case, I'm going to get off the bus now. He gets off. He's like, all right. He was just grown. And then Jesus turns to the person sitting next to you and tells him, hey, follow me. He just got called. He just been chosen, man. He's like, ah, thanks for the offer, but I should probably be checking on Dad. And now he's following home, so he has to step up and he's up against the wall. Well this third guy, who's among us, he's like overcoming emotion. He's just watched what's just taken place, and he's probably thinking like you're maybe thinking like, they're dropping right flies. Like if we keep going up this street, they're gonna be over the left. So he's like, someone needs to tell Jesus how serious this is. And so he just kind of blurts it out. LORNE! I'VE FOLLOWED YOU! Have you ever had a moment like that? Where you say something and you like, instantly regret it? Oh wait, I have another one. It's kind of like when you see the ladies, and you're like 90% sure she's pregnant. And you're like, hey, who's the baby doing? And she's like, what baby? And you're like, I don't know. He says, Lord, I'll follow you. What do I say? What do I say? I can't say my bad guy. He doesn't know where the last guy is. Look what he says. He says, Lord, can I first just go bid them farewell? Put your hand on my hat. Think about what he's asking. He's asking God if he can go say, goodbye. And I love what Jesus says in the last verse. Because I believe what Jesus says paints a picture of exactly where this guy's heart was, and I'm afraid it's exactly where many of our hearts are right now. He says, no man, having put his hands up high, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Now he uses this illustration of a farmer, and that might not apply to many of us today, but it certainly applied back then. And when a farmer was to plow a field, he had to keep his eyes focused ahead. If he were to get distracted about what was going on on the side of him, or what his work looked like behind him, then he would get to the end of his row, and that row would be the Autropian Investor. So when he kept his eyes straight before him, it was only then that he could get a straight Jesus is saying that this guy's put his hands in the cloud, he's put his hands in the right path, his heart's in the right place, but there's something he just can't stop. There's something that just keeps distracting him here in this present world or maybe in his past, but there's something that he can't let go. He said, if you're going to follow me, you've got to settle the chains of your past. You've got to let go of the strongholds of your present, and you've got to completely follow Maybe the agricultural illustration doesn't help, so maybe this one. I got asked to preach a youth rally in Reno, Nevada. I was pumped about it. Drove up there with the college team, and we got up in there, and it was with FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes. There were tons, tons of public school kids there. And the pastor had rented all these inflatable blow-up stuff, these obstacle courses, boxing ring, all this really cool stuff. One of the things he had got was called the bungee run. I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but it's a big blow-up bungee run. I didn't know this. I didn't know it at all. It has a big back wall, and two bungee cords are attached to the back wall. And there's a runway that's divided in two with a waist-high wall. And there's a Velcro on the top of the wall. And you're supposed to get in there with a friend, and you put your harness on, and you grab these bean bags that have Velcro on them as well. And the goal of the game is to run down the runway and put the bean bag as far down on the wall as you can. The goal is to get it farther down than you're at home. Now, here's the test, and it quite literally is a test. You're attached to a bungee cord, right? And so just when you think you've got the momentum, it pulls you back, and it's so frustrating. Well, he had told me when I first got there, he says, now listen, it's kind of tradition at these youth rallies that me and the preacher get in the bungee run at the end and have all the teenagers go around. And we normally go out three or four times and see them. Well, I looked at this guy. He's about four foot nothing. He's bald. He's got a red beard. He looks like a leprechaun. I play basketball. I'm in shape, man. I'm taking a stab, there's no chance he's beating me. So I'm like, oh sure, man, if you want to embarrass yourself, that sounds great. I didn't say it quite like that, but that's what I meant. So he said, you know, it's going to be great. And he says, by the way, I'm on your team. I said, yeah, right, he's on your team. So anyway, so I preached the message. At the end of the day, a bunch of people said it was a great day. And finally, he's like, all right, everybody, punch and run time. Everyone's like, yeah, punch and run. They run over there, they rush in, they're around him. And I get in the Bungie thing. I get my harness on. I've never played this game before. I never even seen this game before. I get my harness on. I look over. He's got his beanbag in his hand. I grab my beanbag. And there's a little teenage girl on the end. And she says, 3, 2, 1, go. Well, I do it. Well, the Bungie Corps kind of pulled me back a little sooner than I was expecting. I didn't even get the beanbag out of my hand. And so I instantly got up and said, well, we're doing this again. Like, we're doing it. But I just wanted to see where he got his. This is the very end of the line. Oh, you're like a professional. God, God, I'm taking notes here. This is like, well, we're doing it again, best out of three. You know when you say best out of three, and you lose the first one. That's when you say best out of three. And so get back in, grab my bean bag, and this time I'm like, I'm going to apply some more effort. And then, so I go, I kind of fill the tension up, kind of was anticipating defensive and again, didn't even get it out of my hand. And again, his was at the very end of the line. I said, how do you do that? He said, I throw it. I said, oh, no. So third time around, I go, I throw. His land on the very end, minus the teenage girl. I said, that didn't work. He said, you actually threw it? I said, yeah. You know, you're not supposed to throw it. I was like, well, you said to throw it, you know. So I'm down 0-3. We're at best out of 9 this time. And I'm going in, and I'm like, I'm struggling. Like, I'm not trying, but like, it's not going very well. I'm getting frustrated and frustrated and frustrated. I'm losing every time, every time his land appeared. I don't think I got one beanbag to land on the wall. We go to dinner that night. I am frustrated. I am so mad. I am upset. Well, he invites me back the next year. He still wants me to come back. That's his sound script. I would love to come back. Really? No. No, really. I would love to come back. All right, come back. And on our conversations, I said, hey, Pastor, are you going to have the bungee run again? He said, well, you know, I thought about it, but I didn't want you to feel embarrassed. And so I said, no, no, no, you get that one. He says, all right, I'll do it. So I began to Google how to be a professional bungee runner. Now, I don't know why my keyboard's up here, but it is. I'm YouTubing videos of successful bungee runs and all these things. I'm watching Perfect Form, you know, those that are gravity events. to the wall, slam it down. I'm reading, I'm watching, I'm in school. And I come, and I'm like, boom. And there's a bunch of people there, a bunch of new faces, I pray she cares about that, people got safety out, whatever. But she runs out, and I'm like, no! I'm ready! I'm pumped! We did that bungee line thing, I put my harness on, grabbed my bean bag, looked over, and he's got his bean bag. Same teenage girl, she's still got the boots from the year before. And she's there, she says, three, two, one, go! And I have perfect bungee. I'd say it was perfect. It was flawless. It was perfect! And I got mine pretty far down the line. It was at the very end. I only played about four or five, maybe 20 times that day. I lost every time. He took me to the same restaurant. I had to see it. And he's like, you all right, brother? He's a little tough sometimes. He's like, Cassidy, how do you do that? How do I do what? Cassidy, stop pulling on me. How do you do that? How are you so good at that, brother? Uh-oh, you're talking to the punchy guy? Yes, I'm talking about the punchy guy. Tell me how you do that. What's the secret? What's the tip? She said, you really want to know? I said, yes, Pastor. I don't think I can go on. I don't think I'll ever be able to preach again if I don't know this. I'm so depressed, so upset. I said, Pastor, you've got to tell me. It's over. I'll tell you, but you know that if I tell you, you can never play the one you're looking for. I just want to know for my well-being. He's like, all right, I'll stop. It's fine. It's really easy, OK? I figured it had to be something or someone. Yeah. Really. You know what we did? Yeah. And you put on your harness, didn't you? I didn't. Wait, what? Like, the harness with the bungee cord attached. I don't put that on. Yeah, yes, you do. No. No, no. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. No, no I don't. No strings on me. No strings on me. Boo! Oh man, I don't want to do it! Man, the whole time! I'm like running, I'm going to pull back, I'm running, I'm going to pull back, and he's just going to pull back. You know, that game is a lot easier when you're not attached to the bungee cord. And I tell you, the person likes it a lot easier when you're not attached to the thing. Have you ever felt like that? Where you come back from camp, and you are just making some strides. And you are going further to the other side than you've ever gone before. You talk about the deep end, you're there. And then like in a sweeping pull, right back down. You ever been like that? After a vital service, you've made some decisions, you've got some things right, or a youth conference, man, you're making some steps, and a couple weeks late, the world pulls you right back together. And you're making some decisions this week, and you're forgiving some people, and then all of a sudden, you've got to detach yourself from your thinking. You've got to suffer the chains. You've got to stop looking back. You've got to stop holding on to some things. And Jesus' voice is the one thing you hold behind your back and you say, look, if you're going to follow me, you've got to let go. You've got to let go of the chains of your past. You've got to let go of the strongholds of your present to completely follow after me. Whatever you say. And if that means no more music, if that means no more friendship with this person, if that means no more watching this, if that means cancelling this subscription, if that means putting some security on my cell phone, then I don't care what the sacrifice is, I just want Bob. This Sapele was a terrible football player. He had about three catches in his career for like 30-something yards. His big moment was what they made the movie about, he blocked the punt, first arrival New York Giants and returned it for a touchdown. He got hurt in a non-contact drill during practice that would end his career. At the press conference, they asked him, they said, Vincent, do you ever regret trying out that day? Seeing how your career didn't go quite the way it went, like it was supposed to, perhaps. I mean, do you ever wish you would just stay home, save yourself with these injuries, this work, All this work just seems to really have amounted to nothing. Then he says, no, I don't have any. So the truth is, the Philadelphia Eagles could have asked me to do anything. Could have asked me to fill a block, carry pads, clean the locker rooms. The truth is, I just wanted to be part of the team. I just wanted to be a Philadelphia Eagle. Boy, I wish there were some Christian teenagers that would say, you know what? It doesn't matter what God asks of you. It doesn't matter where God tells them to go. It doesn't matter when God tells them to do it or what God tells them to leave behind. I just want to be closer to Jesus. I just want to be a follower of Christ. Ask yourself, do you have good things? Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this week. Lord, I thank you for this message. I thank you for these conversations that are recorded in scripture for us to see. Lord, I pray we learn from it. Lord, I pray that today we would see our unwillingness or our unreadiness to truly be a follower of You. Lord, I pray You can help us surrender to wherever, whenever, whatever. I just want to be a follower.