[0:00] of Luke tonight. I want to have you in Luke chapter 9. And as you read through your Bible, you read through these Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. They're just chocked full of so many different little incidents, little people, individuals, or groups, or places that Christ did things he did, works, miracles. They're just loaded with all these different things.
[0:25] And tonight we're just going to take a glimpse at just one of them, just one occurrence in the ministry of Jesus Christ, some interaction that he had with a couple guys. And it's really, I think, what we draw out of this tonight is just so simple in its truths and just some things that need to be kind of just put out there again to remind you about. And thank God for the simple little things in the Christian life. The deep things, they're great and they're fun, but if you can't get the deep things, I'd be much happier if you could get the little things. And that's what you need. You need those little things. You need those, the milk, and to be able to take that and apply it and know it and use it. And so tonight let's be in Mark chapter 9. Find your way toward the end of this long chapter. Sorry, Luke chapter 9. Forgive me. I reserve the right to say things wrong a lot.
[1:24] Luke chapter 9. That's what I want from the beginning. And notice, we'll just start in verse number 56, where the Bible says, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And the last five, no, six words, it says, and they went to another village. So Jesus Christ and his disciples are moving on. They went to another village. They're moving from one location to another. As a matter of fact, we won't really look at this much, but earlier, verse 53 says, they did not receive him. And so they weren't interested in Jesus Christ in one of these towns of the Samaritans. And so, so you know what he did? They went to another village. And off he went. He moved on. And so along the way, what we're going to read now to the end of the chapter, the last six verses, Luke records three separate interactions with three different individuals along the way. Matthew, in his gospel, he writes, he mentions this, and he mentions two of them, and he gives a few details that Luke doesn't give, but typically Luke's a little more wordy. And Luke adds more than Matthew does. And so this is the better place, if there was a better place, to draw from tonight, because we'll get all three of them. And so let's read together Luke 9, 57 to the end, where the Bible says, it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man came unto him, 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 to lay his head. And he said unto another, follow me.
[3:11] 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.
[3:39] Now this, I know how this sounds in our culture and in our mindset to just, he's kind of rough. I mean, that seems pretty fair to go bury your father and to go say farewell and see you later.
[3:51] I'm going to follow Jesus, but he doesn't give them. And I think there's good reason for this. We'll try to describe that to you, but I'm not going to get caught up in the, in the, the parts that don't really resonate with us real well. We're not going to worry about that so much. I think there's some stuff we can pull out of here that'll help us. And before we do that, let's pray together.
[4:11] Father, and then we'll get into this text. Father, please take this next half hour, take this time and use it. And, uh, Lord, so much has passed since we've been together on Sunday. So many things have happened. So many words have come from our mouths. So many images we've seen and things we've heard and thought on. And, and God may now just please wipe that away and allow us to focus solely on your word and the truth in this book and what you would have for us in here tonight. I pray that your spirit could do a work in our hearts. And I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. So in verse 57, we began with this phrase, it says, and it came to pass that as they went in the way, as they went in the way. And now these, these three individuals that we're going to look at tonight, these three different interactions Christ has, I want you to notice that it was as they went in the way. And what I mean by that is that this is the right place for these three to be.
[5:08] It's absolutely the best place for them to be. That's it's the way that Jesus Christ is heading. It's not back there in the town that rejected him, but no, as he's going to the next place, these guys are there with him. I don't know if they're following along the way or if they're catching up to him, what the case is, but that's at the right place to be where Jesus Christ is on the way that he's heading. That's where they are. That's great. Not only are they in the right place, they've got the right company. They're with the Lord Jesus Christ speaking one-on-one with the Lord Jesus Christ, their God, their creator. Maybe they don't even fully well know this, the son of God, the eternal God, Jehovah in the flesh. They're in the right place with the right company with Jesus and his other disciples as they're moving from one location to another. And they all three call him Lord. They all three say that in verse 57, 59, 61. All three of these individuals refer to Jesus Christ as Lord. They have the right estimation of Jesus Christ, that he is divine, that he is the Christ.
[6:18] He is Lord. And so they're in the right place with the right people and they're making the right profession. But it's apparent by the responses that he gives to each one that there's something wrong or something lacking, something missing that needs to be addressed in these individuals and maybe in their understanding of what it is to follow Jesus Christ. Now, all those things are good. And you know what?
[6:46] You're in the right place and you're with the right people and you make the right profession. And you could even hold up this King James Bible and say, I believe it from cover to cover. And that's a, you're in a very small minority in the world today. And you, all of those things could be going for you, but let's look tonight at what Jesus Christ says to these men about this life that they're claiming to want of following him. We're going, I'm going to follow you. That's, that's what we're talking about here tonight. I picked a few songs along those lines just to get your mind that way, if possible.
[7:20] Now there's a common theme in all three of these interactions. And it's that, that word there, follow in verse 57, I will follow thee in verse 59, follow me in verse 61. I will follow the, all three of them have the theme of following Jesus Christ. There are already others that are following the Lord Jesus Christ. These aren't the first three to come to him. There's already men that he's picked and called and they're following him. As a matter of fact, look at the next chapter. Verse one says, after these things, the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them two by two before his face. So there's no shortage of disciples following Jesus Christ in this moment.
[8:01] Now don't get mistaken about the 12, that the 12 have their own place and they're, they're called apostles. But for now there's a, there's a load of disciples, some men and women that are following Jesus Christ, believing him to be the Messiah of Israel. And so they left all and followed him.
[8:20] There's many that forsook things to follow Jesus Christ. And, and even in this passage, he's still calling men to follow him. And that hasn't changed today. That hasn't changed. Thank God that hasn't changed with you. He's still calling you to be a follower of him. And so let's just take what we're reading here and just put it right into this church tonight, to this company, and see if we can't get something from it about the life that we're called to. Some of the people that follow Christ are new faces.
[8:49] Sometimes he tells somebody to follow him. I want to show you a verse here. I'll look at, look, flip over to John 21, all the way to the end of John. Sometimes it's old faces that he has to tell them to follow him. It's not all just brand new people that are lost and on their way to hell that he's seeking to save that he tells this to. But no, sometimes he has to rebuke and has to refresh a call to someone who's been around a long time. Example right here, John 21 and the apostle Peter. Notice in verse 19, I'm just going to kind of, after he makes Peter describe three times that he loves him. In verse 19, this spake, he signifying by with death, he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, and there it is, follow me. That's not the first time Christ told Peter to follow him, is it?
[9:43] About three and a half years ago, they had the same conversation. In verse 20, then Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following. Oh, that's nice. John's following, just doesn't take much for John to get up and follow Christ, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, who is it? Betrayeth thee. Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
[10:05] Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Three words, follow thou me. Peter. This guy needed it twice. Got distracted quickly. Now, come back to Luke. Just want you to see that it's not just new faces that he's calling with this call to follow, but sometimes it's old faces. Sometimes it's the old crowd that's been around a long time, needs to have their mind renewed back to what you're supposed to be doing. These simple things we're going to study tonight in following Jesus Christ. And the first thing I want you to say, or want you to know about this passage, this life that Christ is informing these men of is it is a life of following. It's a life of following. You saw the theme. I'm making the point clear. The nature of being a disciple is shutting your mouth and listening. It's opening your heart and your ears and paying attention and learning and absorbing and changing the way you think to match the way the teacher, the rabbi, the
[11:16] Christ thinks. It's conforming your ways to your masters. The very nature of being a disciple is seeking to know more and seeking to be a pleasure and to do what the teacher tells you to do, to be what Jesus wants you to be in this case. And Christians today, you know it as well as I do, and maybe you're even in here. You struggle with this mentality of being a disciple, of shutting up and listening, of conforming, of just laying, of humbling yourself so that you can just absorb and learn and change. Because your ways aren't good enough. They need to be conformed to that of the masters. He wants to teach you some things. Christians today have this, they're, it's so hard to submit.
[12:10] It's so hard to put yourself down. Why most churches are pumping you up so high? Why it just, just feels so good and gets so good? And it's just such a blessing that you even showed up.
[12:22] And Christ, he wants more than just showing up. He wants you to follow. He wants to change you up here and in here. And you're going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and it's a life of following.
[12:35] Christians permit so much stuff in their lives. They decide when they'll follow. They'll decide when they have a reason not to follow. And they, they call the shots. They pull the strings, just like some in this passage that's, that's deciding. You see the one in verse, um, in verse 59 that said, Lord, suffer me first to go. The one in verse 61 said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go. Let me do something else first. And that's, that's plenty in the Christian circle today. A life of following is not a life of coming and going. And you may esteem these situations reasonable. You may esteem them to a reasonable excuse to go, to be excused from following Christ, but Christ knows something that they probably don't know. And he's hard on him, we think, but maybe he's not so hard on him. Maybe he knows something they're not even considering.
[13:37] I'll just give you an example. This is just a thought that the one that says, uh, my father passed away. Let me go bury my father. Oh, sure. You better go to his funeral, right? No. What if he goes back home and finds out his mother says, Hey, he's gone. You know what your job is now is to stay.
[13:57] This is your land. Now it's your inheritance. It's time for you to work it. You need to take care of me. That's what the Bible says. That guy leaves. He's not coming back, but he thinks he is, but maybe Jesus Christ knows something that man doesn't know. The other one says, I want to go back and bid him farewell. Farewell? Like fare ye well, like peace and prosperity to the people that aren't going to follow Jesus Christ. You're going to go wish him well. I don't know if Christ, I don't know if that's what he's thinking there. You have no business going and bidding them farewell. Follow me is what he calls for. And he says, let me go to them which are at my house. Well, if it's your house, that's your family there. And maybe you never would make it back. And maybe none of that's true.
[14:50] Maybe they would try to get back, but who's to say that Jesus Christ is going to be where they left him. And so he knows what he's doing when he tells him, follow me and doesn't give him these lame excuses. And I say that loosely, but he doesn't give him excuses to leave because the Christian life isn't a I'll come and get what I want when I want it and then leave and then come back when it's convenient for me. It's a life of following. It's a disciple. It's submission. It's obedience. It's learning.
[15:18] It's obeying, putting down your will and picking up his. And so it's a life of following. Secondly, I want to say it's a life of faith. It's a life of faith. Look what the first man says in verse 57 at the end of the verse, or I'll start at the beginning of verse 57. 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.
[15:46] Now he's called a certain man. If you cross-reference this with Matthew's gospel, Matthew 8, 19, you'll see that Matthew says that he's a scribe, that this man is a scribe. And Christ replies the same way. Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Now maybe this scribe insists on following Jesus Christ with good motives. Maybe he thinks I'm going to document everything he says and everything he does because that's what I do. I'm a scribe and I'm going to use it for him and I'm going to follow him. Maybe he's pure in his motives. Maybe he does mean that he'll follow him whithersoever thou goest. That implies he's going to leave everything.
[16:32] He's going to forsake all like many others already had. He must believe that Jesus is the Christ. He must believe it. And this is a very rare situation to have a scribe coming to Jesus Christ saying, I will follow thee. That's very rare. Consider this. Typically the scribes are unified with the Pharisees and with the chief priests all through this time in the gospels. It's the scribes that were the keepers of the law or the teachers and preservers of the scriptures. They were the ones that accused Jesus Christ of blasphemy when he told a man that his sins were forgiven him.
[17:13] The scribes were the one that came to him and said, we would see a sign of thee. And he said, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. The scribes are the one that Jesus Christ said, the son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. Seven times in Matthew 23, Christ said, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees. It's not at all the person you'd expect to desire to follow Christ and call him Lord. And so it's a very rare situation. Now, as a scribe, he's an educated man. He's an extremely educated man in the scriptures for sure. He's very familiar with the scripture. He grew up with the scripture, having the word of God, knowing the word of God. Sound familiar to anybody in here?
[18:04] As the scribe, he knew, he believed, and been taught things about the Messiah. And I reckon that he identified Jesus Christ as the Messiah. I suppose he saw what he saw and heard what he heard and said, he is the Christ. I've been reading and studying about this figure for years of my life, and this is him. No question. And so he decides that he's going to follow him. And in his head, he knows it's the right thing to do because he knows what the scripture says. If that's him, then what are my choices? Reject him? Fight against him? I should follow him. That's exactly what I should do.
[18:47] And in his head, he knows it's the right thing to do. But I wonder, is he doing it in faith? Is he following him from the heart in faith? And I don't mean, is he saved or lost? Is he up here, down here, thing? That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not following Jesus Christ.
[19:04] The Bible says, with the heart, man believeth. And what's interesting is his reply to a man that says, I'll follow thee, whithersoever thou goest. He talks about creatures that God created having a place they can settle into, a constant place to return to, a place of comfort and rest, of stability, and saying, but I don't have that at all. And if you follow me, he seems to be implying you're not going to have that with me. Because I don't even know where I'm going to lay my head tonight.
[19:41] And he's putting something on the scribe, I believe, that he needs to consider. That following Jesus Christ is a life of faith. I think what he's telling the man is, you may understand who I am. You may have declared that it's a right thing to do to follow me anywhere, but will you follow me when you find out that I'm not going to overthrow Rome?
[20:01] Will you follow me when you find out that things aren't going to turn out the way you and all the rest of them are expecting it to turn out? Because just in John chapter 6, he said some hard things, and some of those guys said, well, that's it. We're out of here. And many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Later on, of course, you know how it led up to the crucifixion, where the Bible says they all forsook him and fled. Nobody was expecting the future to hold the things it did. And so this man knows it's right to follow him. He knows in his head he was brought up that way. But was it in his heart to follow him? That's my question. It's a life of faith following Jesus Christ. It's a life to live by faith when you'll be tested to trust God, tested to trust him with your health and with your finances and with supplying your needs and caring for you.
[21:06] It's not about knowing what the Bible says. It's about desiring from the heart to live by every word of God. I'm not sure if this scribe from his heart wanted to follow Jesus Christ. Look back at Matthew chapter 6. You can keep your place in Luke, but come back to Matthew 6. And I want to point out a thing or two that Christ says about this.
[21:35] This life is a life of following, and it's a life of faith. In Matthew chapter 6, notice verse number 8. He's reproving the deeds of these showy hypocrites and how they pray and give and do things to be seen and heard for their much speaking. Verse number 8 says, Be not ye therefore like unto them.
[22:01] And watch this line, For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. That's a blessing right there, if you don't understand that. You better know that even where you sit today, look ahead one year of your life, you don't know if you'll be alive, you don't know what shape you'll be in, you don't know of your health, of your family, you don't know anything about your life one year from now. But your Father, he knows where you'll be, he knows what needs you'll have, he knows all about you, and he knows before ye ask him. Praise the Lord for that little nugget of promise. And now come to Matthew 6 and look a little bit later at verse number 25.
[22:44] And we'll read down to verse 32. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment?
[23:00] Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe ye, you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. And notice it again, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. And so he's telling them to trust him, to stop worrying about everything in your life and trust him. Now you're not going to be able to do that unless you're following. But if you're following Jesus Christ, then there's a life of faith that you can step into and count on, that God's going to provide for you and protect you and take care of you as you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Come back to Luke now, back in Luke chapter 9.
[24:27] Those of little faith worry about the carnal necessities of the day-to-day life. They worry, they fear. But the life of faith trusts the heavenly Father to care and to provide for all these things.
[24:44] Back when we moved to Los Angeles, my son and I, Samuel, we drove out here with another brother and we made the decision that we need to get our vehicle. We had a minivan, a good old Chrysler town and country that wanted to see the highway. And we needed to bring that out here. And then so then Carla and the girls, they flew out a few days later. And so we had a road trip and I decided that we had a dog and we're going to have to transport him in the van too. So Samuel came along. And so he's in the van. His job was to just take care of the dog. That was what he's supposed to do on this trip, about three days of just straight highway. And we drove from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles and did it in three days. And when Samuel, at I guess 16 years old, when he left home early Thursday morning, he wasn't thinking, oh no, my bedroom's back there. Where am I going to sleep tonight?
[25:44] He wasn't thinking, my mom and my refrigerator and my cupboards of food are all back there. What am I going to eat on this trip? Those things weren't in his mind at all. You know why? Because he had a father who the entire time was thinking ahead of where we're going to stop, of where we're going to eat, where are we going to sleep tonight? And every night of that trip, he had a bed and a pillow to lay on. And everywhere along the way, he had meals to eat and he was well taken care of.
[26:17] And you know why he didn't fear and worry about where am I going to eat? What am I going to do? Because he had a father who cared for all of those things. Not just for himself, but cared for him.
[26:29] And you know what his job was to do? What his father said, just take care of that dog. It's not a big deal. I'll take care of the big things. You take care of that dog. And Christian, you better start to see this. Following Jesus Christ, faith is expected of you.
[26:48] It's expected. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. It's not even possible for you as his child to be a pleasure to him if you won't trust him. It's a life of following him and it's a life of faith. And there's a third thing here. And it's a life, I want to say it's a life of focus.
[27:11] The second man that he talks to in verse 59 and 60, he wants to, wants to take off and wants to go bury his father, handle a family matter. The third guy that he talks to in verse 61 and 2, he wants to take off and he wants to bid farewell back at home. And, and we've already commented on that.
[27:32] But what he says to him in verse 62 is no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. No man. Why is that? Why? Because this life of following Christ and of trusting God, it's a life of keeping that focus right on those things. A man has put his hand to the plow and looks back. Do you think that, that, that furrow that's going to be very straight at all? Especially if you're plowing up against another one. Could you imagine seeing a field? I'm just going to pick on Samuel a little bit tonight. This is my guy here. When he was young, we had a, we had a plot of grass where we lived, probably similar to what is out here. Well, anyway. And so as he got a little bit older, I realized that, you know, it's time to get him doing some outside chores. Time to get him mowing the grass. And he, he never liked doing anything that was like that. If it wasn't playing, he just didn't want to do it. And so it was pulling his teeth, but I had him out there and just as he was really young, I just had him push the mower back and push it back to me and gave him the warning about losing the fingers and the feet and all of those things. And of course, early on, his mom was scared to even watch. Samuel's pushing the mower and she just sees the blood and what's going to happen.
[28:50] But I'm working him into becoming capable of these chores and, you know, the stuff like that. And so as he, as he got a little older, it became his job from time to time that you mow the grass.
[29:02] Go, I want you to mow the grass after school today. That's your job. And so he didn't like doing it. And there's some funny memories we have of him just kind of getting in the zone behind the mower and talking to himself or singing or whatever he's doing. We could hear inside this sound over the mower and look out and he's just in his world, just jaws are flapping.
[29:24] He's back and forth and, and he's done, puts the mower away. And I walk outside and look and I'm like, oh my goodness, there's these four inch strips that are running 10 feet long here, two, two feet long, just all over the yard. It wasn't drastic, but it was definitely there. The, what we call skippers.
[29:42] And he missed, and he was pretty young, but he just, he missed stuff all over. And I know he didn't care because he never went back to look. He never checked his work. He just, you know, done. I'm done. I'm going in.
[29:54] And so I have to make it worse and drag him back outside and get that mower back out and finish the job. And so he'd have to do it and grumble and complain and finish the job. But you know, it didn't take him much at those, at that age and at that stage to, to, to see something while he's mowing and distract him and not really care if he's catching everything. And I can see that being the exact scenario here with a man that, that puts his hand to the plow, begins the plowing, but then starts looking behind him, watching, looking at the great work that he's done behind him or, or looking at something else that has got his attention rather than focusing in front of him. Proverbs chapter four, the Bible says, let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil.
[30:52] Looking back and losing focus, getting your eyes off of where you're going or who you're supposed to be following. You sure can swerve to the side. You sure can miss some stuff. When I was a young man, I tell you from time to time, little bits and pieces here, I was out of fellowship with God and I was running from the Lord and just living like an idiot. And my parents would reach out to me and they would reach out to me and let me know that they wanted me to do right and that they were praying for me.
[31:34] And my mom would write me letters, I don't know, every couple of weeks or once a month, I'd get a letter from my mom and it'd be the same thing. She'd just kind of fill me in on what they're doing, what's going on. At that time, they were on deputation, going around the states, heading to Poland, and eventually they left. And it hurt and broke their heart that their son, while God's calling them to leave and go across the ocean to Europe, Eastern Europe, to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to a bunch of lost Catholics, their son was in the far country and there's nothing they could do about it. And it broke their hearts. And my mom and dad, my mom especially, would write me letters and let me know that she's praying for me and that she's praying that the Lord will get a hold of my heart and that I'll tender my heart toward him and stop this life I'm living. But never once did they send me money and never once did they buy me things that enabled my lifestyle.
[32:39] They didn't cut me off. They didn't write me out of their will and they didn't just shun me forever. No, they prayed for me. What they did was turn me over to the Lord. That's all they could do.
[32:53] But the reason they did that was because they were not going to stop following Jesus Christ because their son decided to go away. They determined that he was the most important thing in their world. And I'm thankful. God knows I'm thankful they didn't come chasing after me like that. Or my mom put a fit up on my dad and say, we can't leave. We can't go because Toby, we have to, my boy. None of that. Thank God. Even if it was in her heart, because if that would have happened, I'll guarantee I wouldn't be here tonight. I wouldn't be, wouldn't care because she would have walked away from it for whatever reason, just like some of these guys tried to. I remember that left an impression on me, that devotion to God over their own wayward son. And again, they didn't write me off and burn everything that they've ever seen of me. No, they prayed for me and prayed for me and pled with me to get right. And I'm glad they did it that way. They're a great example of following
[33:59] Jesus Christ, no matter what. You remember last Wednesday night, the apostle Paul and the mess that he got into when he stopped on his calling of to the Gentiles and said, I've got to go to my kinsmen. I've got to get to Jerusalem. You remember the mess he got into? Because he said, Lord, let me suffer me first to go to Jerusalem. And the Lord told him, don't go.
[34:26] In the ministry or even in your personal Christian life, it's so crucial that you keep your focus and your attention and your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing more important than your personal relationship with him. And if you don't have one, you're just playing games.
[34:43] If you don't have one, you're here, but this isn't even really helping you. The life that he's calling you to is a call to follow. It's a life of faith. It's a life of focus.
[34:58] Just one heart's glance to the left, one heart's glance to the right can get you off course. It can get you away for where Jesus Christ is trying to lead you. And there's men in the ministry, ministry and even so much very recently that aren't in the ministry today because of money, because of a woman, because of something bigger, something better. And their heart got torn. They looked back, they looked aside. And when they put their hand to the plow and off course they went.
[35:32] And so I'm just going to finish by testifying here. And I hope I say this in all humility. And I want to say this in the right spirit. God knows my heart. Nothing boastful or should ever come out of this at all. But I want to testify to you individuals of this church that I put my hand to the plow. And I'm not looking back by the grace of God and by the mercy of God as my hand up to him. That's my heart's desire and intent is to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of my days. Is to trust him with everything in my life, with my whole heart. And it's to keep focused on what he has told me plainly to do. That's my true desire here tonight. And I'm very aware of the potential distractions and dangers. And I've seen some other people do it and it just helps me to be more aware. But I want to continue this following and faith and focus that I'm talking about until the day he calls me home. That's my desire as I stand before you. And I hope that's your desire too.
[36:55] I hope that's where you are. I hope you're a disciple. I hope you've realized there's things that need to be changed. I need to be taught of a new way of living my life. I've developed this. My parents instilled this. My culture instilled this. But the Bible says something else. That's where I need to be taught in. And I need to follow that. And then I need to trust God that he'll work it out for my good.
[37:27] And then don't lose your focus on that. Don't lose your focus. So remember, you can be in the right place. You can be among the right people. You can have the right profession of salvation in Jesus Christ.
[37:42] But your hearts need to be tuned in these simple areas in order to be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads in prayer. And we'll be dismissed with this. And before we are, before we go, I hope tonight that as you sit here and ponder the thoughts tonight that at your hand is on the plow.
[38:06] So