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In your Bibles this morning,
Luke chapter 9, the last few verses of this long chapter,
we're in verse number 57, and we've been preaching for a long
time in Luke chapter 9, and what wonderful text. You begin here
in verse 57 with me, and I'll give you a little hint as I begin
to read what's going on here. You're going to watch Jesus have
an encounter with three different people. Three different people
with good intentions, three different people who actually admit that
they want to follow Jesus. Three different people who ultimately,
because they're distracted by the things of the world, distracted
by the flesh, distracted by personal ambition, we're going to watch
three people who have a desire to serve the Lord and follow
Jesus. We're going to see them kind of fall off the pages of
Scripture and miss out on the great blessing it is to be a
true follower of Jesus Christ, a faithful servant of the Lord. I want you to follow along as
we read this together. Beginning in verse number 57,
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, and birds of the air have nests, 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. I remember many, many
years ago as a young person reading this passage of scripture, I
remember thinking, what does it kind of mean what Jesus had
to say? I'm going to give you a little
note. If you read the words of Jesus and you think that's kind
of mean, you're wrong. It's not mean at all. And if
you think it's kind of mean, then you've got to back up and
think, I might be looking at this the wrong way. Now, this
is an interesting passage of scripture, and it's not the easiest
one to interpret and understand, but it's very, very powerful
for all of us to get it and get it very well. I think you'll
see it as we look at the text together this morning. The first
person that we meet, we meet a certain man in verse number
57. And it's interesting because this man says to the Lord, Jesus,
he says, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. I think that's wonderful.
And certainly his motive is great. is God in the flesh, and so Jesus
knows the thoughts and intents of that man's heart. And so Jesus,
when he says, I'll follow you whithersoever thou goest, Jesus
has this wonderful God ability to kind of put his finger right
on the nerve the thing that was keeping this man from actually
following the Lord the way that he ought to. And so Jesus says
something that is kind of interesting. He says this man, he says, foxes
have holes. Where do foxes live? Holes. According
to the Word of God, foxes live in holes. He says foxes have
holes. Birds have nests. But the Son of Man hath not where
to lay his head." You know what Jesus identified? He identified
that this man was wanting to follow Jesus because he thought
there was probably a good opportunity to kind of have a comfortable
position with the Lord and be one of his followers and one
of the chiefs perhaps in his armies that were to come if there
were such a thing. And Jesus said, I want you to
know something. You should follow me, but don't follow me because
you think it's going to be a life of ease and comfort. And the
Bible just moves on. That man, as far as we know,
he never followed, never served the Lord. He was distracted and
his opportunity passed. He wanted to serve the Lord,
but he was distracted and his opportunity passed. The next
person that Jesus encounters, we see in verse 59, he said unto
another, follow me. And the guy says, okay, I'm willing
to follow you, but, verse 59 you see it, but he said, Lord,
suffer me first to go and bury my father. Now I remember reading
this and I thought, my, did Jesus not want him to go to his own
dad's funeral? Now what you've got to understand is to bury
his father, what that meant was he wanted to, his dad hadn't
died yet, his opportunity hadn't come yet, his inheritance hadn't
come to pass, he was wanting Jesus to kind of let him get
through a life period. He's like, you know, Dad's not
dead yet. I've not inherited the farm. I've not inherited
the estate. I'm not in charge yet. But when
I get in charge and when I get on top of things and when Dad
is gone and I'm the man, then when that happens, I'll follow
you. But Jesus says in verse 60, Let
the dead bury the dead. What's that mean? He said, look,
if you want to live for the things of the world, you want to live
for things that don't last forever, let the dead bury the dead and
follow me. He says that's not the right
answer. To put off serving the Lord is
to not serve the Lord. He says, let the dead bury the
dead, and Jesus moves on into our knowledge. Person number
two never really follows the Lord. He never really becomes
a follower of Christ and experiences the riches and blessing of having
a heart that's dedicated to serving Jesus. Then we meet the third
person, who the Bible says about the third person. Verse 61, and
another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but. Have you ever told the Lord,
I'll follow you, but? Not the right way to go about
this, just so you know. The preacher's getting ready
to preach on that. He said, Lord, I will follow
thee, but. Let me first go bid them farewell,
which are at home, at my house." Now, look, if you're a missionary
going to a foreign field, God's not telling you that, okay, go
to the foreign field, but don't go to the house and tell mom
and dad about it. You're going to be in big trouble with the preacher
if you don't do that. But the emphasis and the point
here is not a single instance, not a moment, not kiss the family
goodbye and go serve the Lord. The emphasis here is he has a
home, he has a house, he has a life. He says, when I've had
a chance to live life, after that, Lord, I'll be glad to serve
you. In every instance, in all three
instances, we see people who have a motive and a desire. It's
probably sincere to follow the Lord, to live for Jesus and see
what God has for their lives. But in each instance, there's
an excuse. In each instance, there is a
distraction. In each instance, there's something
that comes before following Jesus. And God's Word tells us that
following Jesus is not something that you do as an addendum, as
an addition to your schedule. The Bible says that following
Jesus is something that you do first. And when you follow Jesus
first, He says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all these things shall be
added unto you. I want to tell you something. It pays to serve the Lord. It's
wonderful serving the Lord. And the lie that the devil sells
and tells us all is that if you serve the Lord, you'll never
be able to enjoy life. That is not true. I'll tell you what happens. If
you decide that you want to live life and lead life and lead God
to a place second, third, fourth or last, You're going to find
out there and then is where you miss out on what God really has
for your life. God wants to be first. You know
why God wants to be first? Because he is a cosmic killjoy
and he wants to ruin your life and you not have any fun. That's
not true. God wants to be first in your
life because as your creator, he knows exactly what you need. And He wants to bless you. He
wants your life to matter for eternity. He wants you to have
peace and joy. He wants you to have what only
He can provide. I want you to read the last verse
with me. It's a long introduction, maybe
a long message, I don't know, we'll see. Verse 62, And Jesus
said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and
looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. What's he say? The last person says, I'll follow
you, but first let me live my life for a time. Let me go back
to the house, to my family. Let me put them first and then
I'll follow you. And Jesus says something that
I think we can see. No man having put his hand to
the plow. And looking back is fit for the
kingdom of God. I want to preach this morning,
probably should title the message, Plow. Keep plowing. Plow. You can understand the
picture here that Jesus says. He says, what I think you should
do An illustration, a visual of what following Jesus looks
like is there's a job to be done, there's work to accomplish, and
you can imagine grabbing hold of a plow being pulled by a horse.
The one I've got in my hands right now is a one-bottom plow
pulled by a really good-looking horse. I'm holding the plow, I've begun
to plow, and the Bible says that when you've begun to plow, you've
begun to do the work of the Lord. You've begun to follow Jesus.
He says, don't look back. Don't look back. Keep plowing. Plow, plow, plow. I'm going to tell you what the
devil wants to tell you. He wants you to get discouraged because
When you started following Jesus, you didn't get everything that
you had on your Jesus Christmas list immediately. And you've
had to deal with some difficult things throughout this. And the
devil wants to tell you, hey, look, this ain't working. Look
back. Let go of the plow. Quit doing
the work of God. But God says, plow, plow, plow. I beg of you, don't quit. Plow. Let's talk about plowing. God's
people need to be plowing. We need to be plowing for the
glory of God. And we need to plow. Serving
the Lord because serving the Lord, number one, is more important
than personal comfort. Following Jesus is more important
than personal comfort. Let's go back to person number
one because they're not going to plow. They're not going to
do the work of the Lord. They're not going to give their lives to serving Jesus.
They're going to kind of just kind of be normal. I want to
serve the Lord, but they're not willing to do what it takes to
serve the Lord by putting Jesus first. The first person, the
reason they're not going to serve Jesus first is because they're
concerned of personal comfort. It's kind of fun because a certain
man comes to Jesus and he says, I'll follow thee with us wherever
thou goest, and Jesus reminds him of something. Foxes have
holes, birds have nests, but I don't have a place to lay my
head. If you're following me because you want personal comfort,
you want personal wealth, you want some personal advantage,
I want you to know something, that is a poor motive to serve
the Lord. How many of you could testify
in your heart that trying to please the Lord with your life
has paid off and it's been good for you. And the room could raise
its hand because doing God's will and doing things God's way,
it really is the right, smart way to do things. It's good. But I'm going to tell you, you
should not determine to follow Jesus because you think following
Jesus is always going to be comfortable because it's not. I'm certain that the times in
my life where my heart is hurt the most have produced the greatest
fruit in my Christian life. I'm thankful for that. I don't
love it when it's happening, but I'm thankful for that. And
following Jesus is not always comfortable, but it's always
right. And this first person, he says, whoa, if I'm not going
to get a house, or a job, or a title, or a position, or some
prestige, or some personal benefit and personal comfort out of this
thing, I don't know if I'm going to follow. He says, I'll follow
you wherever you go. And then you've got to think, I don't
know if I'm going to be able to get what I want out of this. Let me tell
you something, if you're determined to please the Lord with your
life and take what God wants for you to have, you will find
out that what God wants for you is really what you want for you
and God's plan for your life is awesome. sought the Lord for personal
comfort, and when he realized that personal comfort was not
going to come his way, you know what he did? He let go of the
plow. He looked back. There's no doubt
there's a life of regrets. We deal with lots of people.
We're around lots of folks who have broken hearts. There's tough
seasons in life, are there not? I remember I've never said a
word about this, this is the first time other than this morning,
the early service, but I remember as a kid, it was a season where
things were really, really tough, and God was always really good
to me. It was a season where things were really tough, and
things were really upside down, and life was rough at the moment.
And I remember sitting by myself, I was at school, and I had a
quiet moment there, and I was singing, and I was not having
a pity party at all. As a matter of fact, the Lord
was encouraging me. But I remember sitting by myself,
I thought to myself, I look back over a month and I thought, I
don't remember a day over the course of the last month that
I didn't cry. I thought, huh, it's been a month. I've not had a day in a month
that I didn't have something to cry about. Now I want you
to know, I'm not a crybaby. You cut off my finger, I'm not
going to cry about that. But my heart breaks. We carry burdens
and we're tender-hearted. And I was just thinking about
the last several weeks in our church and our community. And
I thought, wow, I don't know that I remember a day. I normally
do my crying when no one's looking. Occasionally I can't stand it
up here in front of you and melt just a little bit and I try to
suck it up. You know something I learned as a child, as a kid,
those seasons where There seems to be a lot to break your heart,
a lot to cause you pain. Those seasons are the seasons
that God does His greatest work in your heart. Those are the
seasons that God prepares you for the days that are ahead.
Those are the seasons that God strengthens your resolve. Those
are the seasons that you get to see and witness firsthand
the grace and peace Joy that only God can give and bring.
Those are the seasons that you can look back and praise the
Lord for because you know that God during that time prepared
you for the days that are ahead and could use you in other people's
lives. Those are the seasons. And you're
in a season like that today. And I want you to know Because
it's tough. Because it's hard plowing. Because it's hard to hang on.
Because you're tempted to look back. I don't want to challenge
you. Plow! Just keep plowing. Keep serving. Keep trusting.
Look forward. And trust the Lord. Obey Him.
You'll find it's right. We have no evidence that person
one in our story ever followed the Lord. Don't let personal
comfort keep you from plowing for Jesus. Number two, the second
person. He was motivated by personal
ambition. Now look at what the scripture
says in verse 59. He said unto another, follow
me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead
bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
He said, look, don't fall prey to that. Let the dead bury their
dead. And the man, what did he want? He said, let me live this
section, this period of my life until I've inherited what is
mine to inherit. And when dad is dead and gone
and I'm the king on the plantation, let me serve you then. What was he wanting to do? this
person was wanting to do, he had the same idea that lots of
us have had at different stages and phases of our life. Perhaps
you're there now. We have this idea that, well, you know, I'm
a teenager, and I'm going to be a teenager, and while I'm
a teenager, I'm going to live it up, and I'm going to do what
I want to do, and I'm going to sow my wild oats, and I'm going
to be a teenager, and while I'm a teenager, I'm going to be a
teenager. But I'll tell you what, I want to follow Jesus, When
I'm not a teenager anymore, when I go to college, I'm going to
get real serious about serving the Lord. I'm going to get real
serious about doing the right thing. And then the college student
says, hey, look, I'm in college. I'm going to live like a college
student. I'm going to live it up. I'm going to do my thing. And I'm
in college now, so I'm going to be a college student, but
I'm going to tell you something. When I get out of college and I start my
career, I'm going to follow the Lord. You start your career, man, it's
so busy. The only time I have is Sunday
morning. I mean, surely the Lord understands that I don't have
time to go to church. Let me tell you something, as
far as I'm concerned, I don't have time not to go to church
and to be encouraged by God's people and be motivated to do
the right thing. You're in your career and you
say, I'm going to live for Jesus. But the career stage comes and
the career stage goes and you don't have time for God then
either. And while you're in your career stage, you know what?
When I retire, I'm going to get involved in a church somewhere.
I'm going to do something for the glory of God. One, you may not live
to be able to retire. But if you do, I'm going to tell
you something. The devil will give you an excuse then too.
I'm too old. Too old to be effective. You
know, I've not been in church all these years, in people at
the church. You know, them hypocrites at the church are. They'll look
down their self-righteous noses at me. Because I never went to
church when I was a teenager, career person, college student.
Now that I'm retired, I can't go now, it's too late. I'm just
saying all that to let you know that the devil's going to give
you an excuse at every stage and age of your life. When is
the right time to start serving the Lord? Today. Right now. right now. And so the Lord sends
this message. He says, you need to plow. You
need to grab a hold of the plow and don't look back and serve
Jesus and make God a priority and put Him first in your life
and don't be fooled or distracted by personal ambition like man
number two. Person number three. The third person was distracted
by living life. And I want you to know that it's
better to follow Jesus than to live life. Scripture says in
verse number 61, another said, Lord, I will follow thee. But
let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. What does he want to do? Now
look, there's nothing wrong with going home and telling everybody
bye. But that's not what he wanted. He wanted to go home. He wanted
to live life. He wanted to live life and then
add Jesus. As a matter of fact, I think
that we can see really plainly the emphasis. Verse 61, he says,
Lord, I will follow Thee, but let me first. Go bid them farewell." Do you
see the words, me first? Me first. Look at the Bible,
it says in verse 59, but he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and
bury my father. I'm going to tell you something
that the Bible highlights as the problem we have. Me first. Me first. Me first. Me first. Me first. Me first. This is an old stat, but do you
know what the word of the year was in 2013? Selfie. Selfie. Now, I promise, don't
you go anywhere and say that the preacher was preaching against
selfies, because I take them too. I like a selfie every now
and then. I mean, they look good. I'm just kidding. We take selfies as family. Selfie. I'm not saying anything wrong
with a selfie picture, but I will tell you this, there is something
bad wrong with being selfish. And we're so prone to be self-centered. We want our will so much that
we're willing to reject God's will, which is better. And the
end result is we miss out on what God wants for our lives.
You see, following Jesus is so much better than just living
life. You know what God wants us to
do? He says it like this. He says,
having put his hand to the plow. What does God want you to do?
God says, I want you just to grab hold of the plow and serve
me, follow me, work for me. Do what I've called you to do.
Do what I've saved you to do. Put me first. Let self play second
fiddle. Let self be second place. Let self take a back seat to
God's will. Stop excusing poor church attendance. Stop excusing your failure to
have a devotional life with the Lord. Stop allowing life to be
your excuse for not doing what is right. Stop using life as
your excuse to justify your lying and your sinful behavior. Stop
using life and your ambitions and your goals as excuses to
sin. and grab hold of the plow and
plow and trust the Lord and know that God's perfect will for your
life is just that, perfect. You see, we want to do our own
thing, our own way because like these three people we've met
in our text this morning, they had ambitions, they had desires
and they were willing to let those things distract them from
serving Jesus. What does God want us to do?
He wants us to plow. Just grab a hoe, serve the Lord,
do what you know is right, and with God's help, watch what God
can do when you surrender your will and your life to Him. We
have this idea that Doing God's will is some impossible thing
to find and do, but I'm going to tell you, knowing and doing
God's will is so simple. How do I know? How can I, preacher,
how can I be that kind of Christian that is plowing for God and gets
God's best? How can I be that person? I'm
going to tell you. It starts right now. You say, Lord, with
your help today, I'm going to do what right and when I mess
up I'm gonna confess my sin and know that you forgive me and
I'm gonna try again and then tomorrow what do you do tomorrow
Lord the best I know how today I'm gonna live for you and when
I mess up I'm gonna repent and I'm gonna try again and I'm gonna
trust your forgiveness and the next day Lord I'm gonna do my
best do what's right say no to sin say yes to you The next day,
I think you get the picture, right? Finding and doing the
will of God is just simply attempting to obey Him, keeping short accounts
and living for Jesus day by day. You're going to find out when
you follow Jesus, Jesus' way and Jesus' will is best. Don't
be discouraged. Keep plowing. Don't look back. Keep plowing. God has a work
to do in our hearts and lives and we can trust Him with it.
Keep Plowing
Series The Book of Luke
| Sermon ID | 93025152756802 |
| Duration | 27:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Luke 9:57-62 |
| Language | English |
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