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[0:00] Before we get started with the sermon, I want to just make two quick side notes.

[0:17] First I want to say I miss you and thank you. Wendy and I were traveling this, we got in this week and we were from Southern Idaho visiting her family and her 98 year old grandmother and we had opportunity to talk about you, the church, and how we missed you and how grateful we are.

[0:40] Second is the word thank you. This last year we made budget in terms of generous giving and I don't have opportunity often enough and I don't take the opportunity just to say thank you for placing our treasures and giving faithfully unto the Lord and sacrificially and I recognize that and I want to say thank you.

[1:08] The second thing I want to communicate is a word of gratitude to Steve and Josh. Thank you for leading worship last week and preaching God's word and if you didn't have a chance to hear the message last week, Josh did a phenomenal job and kicked off our year in a wonderful way and I encourage us to, as I did, look back and listen to that message.

[1:32] We do begin a new sermon series today and I'm grateful and it's a journey to the cross is going to be the sermon series. It's going to have three parts to it.

[1:43] We're going to look at Jesus' last journey, Jesus' last week, and then Jesus' last hour culminating in Easter. Easter lands on April 9th this year and in the weeks preceding that, that's his last hour on Good Friday and then we will celebrate his resurrection on Easter.

[2:04] Backing up, we're going to look at the week of what's often called the Passion Week. What happened on the Sunday before the triumphal entry when Jesus enters Jerusalem on that last week?

[2:17] What happens on Monday? What happens on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? Each one of those days will be a week culminating. Why did they want to kill him?

[2:28] Why did Jesus die? We will look at that. That's will be his last week and then preceding that beginning today will be his last journey because something interesting happens in the Gospel of Luke.

[2:41] We're going to look at it in a moment. But Luke 9, if you want to be there with us, Luke chapter 9, verse 51, we start something interesting that Luke does.

[2:55] It begins in this verse. I'm just going to read the first verse to illustrate it and then we'll all explain. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

[3:08] What Luke does, beginning in this verse, he says, and Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. Luke will take the next 10 chapters to take Jesus's last journey from Galilee down to Jerusalem.

[3:24] It's going to take Luke 10 chapters to make one last journey. Put it another way. Luke spins 41% of all of the writings of the Gospel of Luke, 41% is dedicated to the last journey.

[3:40] It starts Luke 9, 51, and it concludes in Luke 19, verse 27.

[3:52] And so in fact, next to my verse in Luke 9, 51, I write, slash Luke 19, verse 27. And then that is what Luke does.

[4:04] So we're going to have this journey to the cross is going to have three parts. We're going to look at the next 10 chapters of the Gospel of Luke, walking with Jesus as he goes from Galilee down to Jerusalem, 10 chapters.

[4:20] That's his last journey. And then we'll look at his last week, and then we'll look at his last hour. And that should set us up for the most wonderful Easter to understand all that Jesus has done, his set his face to Jerusalem.

[4:37] I'm going to the cross to make payment for sin. And we should worship and celebrate the resurrection on Easter.

[4:49] So with that, what brings us to our text today, Luke 9, 51, and we're going to conclude today in verse 62.

[4:59] And we will see two things primarily in this section, a broad brush stroke. Number one, a rejection of God's messengers is ultimately a rejection of Jesus.

[5:11] We will see this. And then secondly, we will see different aspects of why discipleship and being a follower of Jesus is so costly.

[5:21] But let's look first at the first section of our text today, Luke 9, 51 through 56.

[5:34] We read this. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.

[5:47] But the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

[6:02] But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village. It says, Luke begins when the days drew near for him to be taken up.

[6:17] And the days drew near to be taken up. Isn't it interesting that it doesn't say the days drew near for him to go to the cross? It doesn't say the days drew near for him to be raised from the grave.

[6:29] It says the days drew near for him to be taken up, which is his ascension, not his death, not his resurrection, but his ascension, where he, after his resurrection, came and visited with people and then he was taken up in the clouds.

[6:45] And before he was taken up, he said these words, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and all the earth.

[6:58] And so why is it that Luke talks about his ascension? It is the culminating event. It is the culminating event of Jesus' work.

[7:10] Jesus' work begins with his miraculous conception, his virgin birth, his earthly ministry, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and then finally to culminate it, he was taken up, his ascension.

[7:24] And so it says, Luke says, hey, the days drew near and Jesus knew it for his ascension. And so as a result, he set his face to Jerusalem, knowing his hour, if you will, had come.

[7:40] Had now come. The time is near for him to go to the cross. And so he sets his face. And this word sets his face as this firm resolve, often stated to accomplish a task.

[7:55] So Jesus had this firm resolve to go to Jerusalem, to go to the cross, to fulfill his earthly ministry, to make payment for sin, to fulfill the divine plan of God.

[8:08] Now in order to get to Jerusalem, he goes through Samaria. He sent messengers, we're told in 52, ahead of him, to go into the village of the Samaritans.

[8:20] And at that point, the modern reader may not hear it or see it, but in the first century, if you were to say, and they went into the village of the Samaritans, you would say, why?

[8:35] Why go there? Because there's another route to Jerusalem. You could go inland through the mountainous region to the Samaritans, which the Jews, a good Jew just doesn't do.

[8:47] They're the Samaritans. You would go along the Jordan River, where you have fresh water, abundant fresh water, you have water for your journey, and then you hit a right at Jericho and you go up to the Jerusalem.

[9:00] That's what you do. Why are we going to Samaria? And why are we going this way?

[9:12] And the point Jesus is communicating is that the message of Jesus Christ and his ministry goes to all peoples, all nations, including the Samaritans.

[9:30] But his messengers were not readily welcomed. It says in the bottom in verse 53, it says, the people did not receive him. This village that they went to go make preparations for, they did not receive him.

[9:47] And it's clear that there's a question of what is the preparations that they're supposed to make? And to the bottom of verse 52, what's the nature of the preparations? Is it that the messengers of Jesus were sent into this village to make lodging preparations and food preparations like, hey, townspeople, we have a teacher, a rabbi coming into town Jesus, and he's going to Jerusalem, and could you provide food and lodging?

[10:11] Is that simply what it is? Or theologians differ? Is this a rejection of the message of Jesus as Messiah? He's going to Jerusalem. So he sends these messengers into the town.

[10:24] Are they saying he is on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, to reveal he is and be accepted as the Messiah? The prophets of old have told of him.

[10:36] He's the man. Is it simply that they are rejecting, finding lodging and food for him, or is it that they're rejecting who he is and his ministry?

[10:50] This message that also accompanied them. I believe it is the latter. It's a rejection that townspeople did not want to hear about him being the Messiah because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

[11:05] Why is it going there? Certainly the townspeople would say this. Also the Samaritans differed than the Jews in a couple of points. They worship on Mount Gerazim.

[11:17] The Jews worship on Mount Zion, which is in Jerusalem. So why do we want to hear from a guy who doesn't even worship where we worship? We read Samaritans, we read the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.

[11:31] We don't consider all of the Old Testament scripture. So we have some differences. So you can keep your guy, your teacher, your Messiah. We don't even appreciate all of what the old prophets have said.

[11:45] We don't embrace that. You can keep walking. They rejected the messengers and the message that accompanied them.

[11:57] Now James and John, and we're told why in verse 53, and don't miss the why, that the people did not receive him, that is Jesus, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

[12:08] There it is again. We repeat that phrase. His face is set toward Jerusalem. They reject him because of who he is, where he is worshiping, and that message of who he is.

[12:22] Now James and John's response to this is quite drastic. Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

[12:34] Fire from heaven, perhaps James and John are hearkening back their memory of Elijah in 2 Kings chapter one. We see Elijah had the same thing. He had a message for the king, and the king sent back a captain and 50 guards with him.

[12:51] And Elijah said, if I'm a prophet of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you, and it did. And so perhaps James and John are saying, hey, listen, they didn't accept the message of who you are just as Elijah did.

[13:04] Let's call down fire from heaven and consume them. We have biblical precedence for this.

[13:15] And I want us to consider, and you think that's pretty drastic, James and John, but I want us to consider in the same chapter what James and John got to be a part of.

[13:28] Read with me starting in verse 28. And about eight days after chapter nine, verse eight, 28, these things, he took him with him, Peter, James and John, and went up to a high mountain to pray.

[13:41] And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered. This is Jesus, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

[14:03] Eli, James and John, along with Peter, were at the mount of transfiguration, where Jesus revealed who he was. His face changed.

[14:13] His garments were dazzling white. Moses and Elijah showed up in glory, and they had a conversation. And the conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah was this.

[14:25] They spoke of his departure, verse 31, and that which he was going to accomplish at Jerusalem. So here's Peter, James and John. They saw this.

[14:35] Perhaps they heard this. Yes, the next verse says they were in a deep sleep, but perhaps they heard this. They definitely saw this. And so you come down the mountain, and the very same chapter that Luke includes, and I looked at how many days passed by, only in verse 27, it says on the next day, and then as the days drew near.

[14:53] So we don't know. Maybe we're days, maybe we're weeks, maybe we're months away from the mount of transfiguration. We don't know. But it's fresh on the memory, and Luke wants to have in our mind the proximity to seeing what will happen, who Jesus is and all of his glory, and the discussion of what will happen to Jesus when he gets to Jerusalem.

[15:14] And so if a people in Samaria reject it, and if you're Peter, James and John, James and John in particular, of course, call down fire.

[15:26] It is so obvious to them who he is. But they reject it, and this is not a time of judgment.

[15:38] This is a time Jesus will return one day and judge those who reject. But this is not that season. And Jesus is communicating to James and John. This is not that season.

[15:50] One of the things I appreciate about James and John is I appreciate their zeal for Jesus' honor. Don't you love that? They have a zeal for Jesus' honor.

[16:00] Their zeal may have been misguided, but they have zeal. And I would rather work with someone who has misguided zeal than try to jumpstart apathy.

[16:14] And so yes, maybe their zeal needs to be redirected. I would rather redirect someone who is eager to share the gospel, but perhaps does it in a bombastic manner.

[16:25] I can shepherd that, but try to goad someone who is immovable in their apathy for the things of God that's harder. I would rather redirect someone in their zeal for God in his word and not in coming to wrong conclusions as how to interpret God's word and what it means.

[16:43] I would rather work with that person and redirect that zeal for God in his word than redirect someone who needs a defibrillator to their apathy.

[16:59] That would be far harder. That would be far harder. So I want us to be a church of great zeal for Jesus' honor. If we need to redirect it, we can redirect it.

[17:10] But let us have a zeal for Jesus' name. We are not told. Jesus rebukes them.

[17:22] He quells this desire to bring down fire. We're not told exactly what he said to them, but he does rebuk them and that puts an end to it. And they simply just go to another village.

[17:37] And so here's my point, though. A rejection of a messenger of God is ultimately a rejection of Jesus.

[17:48] The messenger, if a person rejects a messenger of Jesus, it is ultimately the rejection of Jesus himself. So we can be eager to share our faith.

[18:00] We can be eager to communicate the gospel. And if someone rejects that, they're ultimately rejecting the Lord himself because the gospel has the power of God, is the power of God unto salvation.

[18:13] If they reject that, they reject the Lord. But let us have zeal. In verse 57 through 62, then, if you will, we come alongside of three people as they're traveling from leaving that rejected village to another village.

[18:39] There are people along the way who approach Jesus and they have some questions for him or they have a declaration for him. And so we're going to now encounter three different individuals who have either a claim or Jesus commands them in a certain way.

[18:54] Let's look at this in verse 57 through 62. And in here, we're going to see that the costly discipleship. Discipleship is very costly.

[19:05] In verse 57 through 62, we read this. And as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

[19:23] And to another, he said, follow me. And he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And he said, him, believe the dead to bury their own dead, but ask for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

[19:38] And then lastly, and yet another said, I will follow you, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. And Jesus said to him, no one who has put his hand to the plow looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

[19:54] So there's some responses to these would be followers that Jesus has. And we're going to take them one at a time. The first one is that following Jesus will require a life of risk and rejection.

[20:11] Look with me to the first one, he says, I follow you to the second one. Jesus commands him, follow me to the third one. He says, I will follow you.

[20:22] So we're going to look at in all of these three cases before we look at the first one. I'm sorry. We're going to look at what is the essence of discipleship here at fourth.

[20:32] We want to make disciples, but what is at the essence of discipleships? I would say it this way. It is simply following Jesus. So what is the essence? It's following Jesus.

[20:50] I want to also communicate that what following Jesus to Jerusalem, keep in mind the context as he has set his face to Jerusalem, following Jesus to Jerusalem means certain things of what he will do.

[21:07] So when these individuals come up to him and say, I will follow you, I will follow you, they have to understand what Jesus will later say in his gospel and Luke 18. You don't have to turn there, but I'm going to read verse 31.

[21:18] Luke 18, 31 through 30 or three reads this. See, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of man by the prophets will be accomplished there for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles.

[21:32] He will be mocked. He will be shamefully treated. He will be spat upon and after flogging him, they will kill him and on the third day he will rise again.

[21:44] So you say you want to follow me. My face is set to Jerusalem. You are going to this place where this is going to be accomplished that has been said of me of old.

[21:55] Do you know what you're asking? So there are two things that Jesus is communicating to all of these individuals. This is the odd verses 57, 59 and 61.

[22:07] All of three of them communicate, follow me. Two of them, 57, the first and the third gentlemen say declare I will follow you.

[22:18] On the second one, Jesus says to the man, follow me. It's communicating this essence of discipleship is follow ship, following Jesus.

[22:29] And he's communicating two things. There's an emphasis on me and there's an, it can be an emphasis on follow. He is saying follow me and he could be saying follow me.

[22:42] There is me and there is my mission. There is the person and there is the path. There is sweetness and there is suffering. There is Christ and there is the cross.

[22:54] There is Jerusalem and there is Jesus. Follow the mission, me the person. And he's saying you want to be my disciple.

[23:07] You need to both embrace me as a person and the mission that I'm accomplishing and to be about both of those. So forth we can come out and hear these words as disciples and Jesus is beckoning us to say follow me, both the person and my mission.

[23:27] Out of the first one, he says, I've got no place to lay my head. Second one, let the dead bury their own. And the third one, put your hand to the plow, don't look back.

[23:39] Jesus in every one of these is teaching and he is testing. He is teaching that the road to Calvary through Jerusalem will be very hard road. And he is testing them to see if he himself is the greatest treasure of their life.

[23:55] And so in each of these comments that he's going to have to each of these would be followers is both a teaching moment and a testing moment.

[24:07] And so the first one is he's saying it will require a life of risk, a rejection of comfort and a life of rejection.

[24:21] Jesus wants it what's interesting is in the same passage that we look at in the Gospel of Matthew. This man approaches Jesus and he uses the word teacher.

[24:33] He says teacher, I will follow you. But Jesus wants more than just students. He wants people whose lives are reoriented where he is the chief affection of their life.

[24:47] And there is no competitor. And this is the danger of our discipleship hour. I have this anticipation that all of you were here at nine o'clock during our discipleship hour.

[25:04] And thank you, Jay. Jay agrees with me that's highly important to us. And what we're trying to do, but this is the danger of that hour is that we can learn a lot.

[25:16] We can all be students of Jesus. Remember he referred to Jesus as teacher in the Gospel of Matthew. But Jesus wants more than just students.

[25:27] Learning truth of God's word is a part of growing as a disciple of Christ, but it isn't everything. Don't confuse the means with an end.

[25:39] You need certain information to obey. So we learn in our discipleship hour things of the Lord so that we might obey.

[25:50] And so it's very important, 100% participation at the nine o'clock hour. Thank you. So that we would be a people who would obey, know what it is that the Lord is asking us to obey, to how to live.

[26:10] And what it may include, risk, loss of comfort, rejection. So is it wrong to go home? Is it wrong to own a bed and a pillow and a roof?

[26:27] Or Jesus is not saying that being a disciple of Jesus is to take a vow of poverty and be homeless. That's not what he's saying in this first one. He says, foxes have holes.

[26:38] Birds have nest of the air. Birds of the air have nest. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. What is he saying? Being a disciple of mine means living as a stranger in this world.

[26:49] And that decision for Christ is a decision rejected by many in this world. And being a disciple means being rejected. It takes resolve to be a disciple, to handle rejection, and that rejection may result in having no place to lay one's head.

[27:05] And that rejection may have to trust the Lord for one's safety and for one's security. Having no place to lay your head wherever that may be, you would have to trust the Lord for your safety and your security.

[27:21] Jesus is also saying inherent with being a disciple is the potential of risking one's reputation, risking one's financial security, risking one's comfort, risking one's safety, risking one's security.

[27:37] And so he's saying to this man, follow me. You say you want to follow me, but this is what is going to be required of you. A life of potential of risk and rejection.

[27:49] I worked with students, college students for many years, young adults, and I asked them, many of them were unfamiliar with how to share their faith in Christ.

[28:00] And so we would learn how to do that and how to communicate the gospel. But I would often ask them, when was it the last time that you can recall that your parents shared their faith or they were intentional at work or with their family or invited their neighbor into their home to share a meal for the purpose of sharing their faith with that person and proclaiming the gospel with that individual?

[28:24] When was the last time you can remember? And often, all too often, children from Christian homes could not remember a time when they could remember their parents doing that.

[28:37] And I would ask them, why do you think that is so and why is it that perhaps you may not share your faith and oftentimes rejection is on the top of the list?

[28:51] Why would we not do that? Well, I don't want to be rejected. But think again, remember what this text said earlier that principally when someone rejects the message, it is ultimately a rejection of Jesus.

[29:06] And required incumbent upon being a follower of Jesus is knowing that risk and rejection is inherent in that. And Jesus saying, if you want to follow me, sir, then be prepared for that life.

[29:22] And today, we come to the second gentleman to another. He said, follow me. This is the one he commands to follow him. But he said, Lord, let me first go bury my father.

[29:35] First let me go bury my father. There are only two people. Let me say it this way. It is the expectation of every Jewish person to bury their father and their mother.

[29:46] It is the air they breathed. So much so that there is an explicit instruction to only two people that they cannot do this. One is the high priest.

[29:58] The high priest is not to go to be around a dead body to become ceremonially unclean, to become unclean. He could not do that. And specifically in scripture, his father and mother are named as people.

[30:10] You can't do that. Don't go around the dead body, even of your mom and dad. Especially as someone who took a Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter six, verses six and seven, they could not go to the dead body, even of a sibling and or a parent and a parent.

[30:28] And it was an expression of their dedication to the Lord. Otherwise, they would be ceremonially unclean. So there's only two cases why someone should not go bury their father.

[30:40] So it is totally acceptable. It is the cultural expectation. It is the air you breathed in the first century that you should bury your father and mother. That's your duty.

[30:52] But what is Jesus communicating? Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But ask for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

[31:03] So he is saying, sir, following me supersedes the greatest familial and filial obligations.

[31:14] Your family and your dutiful obligations. Following me eclipses all of that, even the burying of your father.

[31:28] So what is he not communicating? He is not computing communicating. It is never right for anyone, including a missionary to come home for a parent's funeral. He's not communicating that.

[31:40] But the point is this, is that it might be right not to. And the issue is, how does that decision or any decision like this, when you're confronted with a great family or dutiful obligation, it may be right not to do that obligation out of your commitment to the Lord.

[32:06] So I would say it this way. How does it serve that decision, whether to do a family obligation or not to? How does it serve the proclamation of the gospel?

[32:17] Firstly and secondly, what is it about that decision that reveals my treasures that ought to be considered?

[32:29] Those that second question ought to be considered as we make those kinds of decisions. But following Christ may lead to a great family disappointment.

[32:42] As I served previously in a capacity of a missions pastor type person, sometimes family was having the hardest time wrapping their mind around why their son or daughter may go serve for so many years overseas.

[33:03] And family obligations and they were expressing why do this? And the young adult was then having to communicate their desire and their passion for the Lord Jesus and to make his name known among other peoples.

[33:23] And it was hard for both the young adult and for the parents to embrace at this great cost what it was. And they were having to break family expectations.

[33:36] They were going against the grain of family expectations and or duty. And that is what is happening here. This man felt the weight of the responsibility to bury his father and Jesus challenged him on that point.

[33:55] Following Jesus will supersede the greatest familial and filial obligations.

[34:06] But Jesus doesn't tell this man what not to do. Like, let the buried go bury their own dead. Let the spiritually dead bury their own physically dead.

[34:19] He also gave him something to do but go and proclaim the kingdom of God. So I'm calling you to this that I'm going against the grain of your greatest family obligation and duty and I'm going to give you something I want you to be about to do.

[34:38] And so then he says, proclaim the kingdom of God. To proclaim the kingdom of God is a disciples priority.

[34:49] A disciples responsibility. Jesus' uncompromising command is to explain what God is doing. This is what communicating the kingdom is about.

[35:00] Communicating what God is doing. Both what God has done for us on our behalf and what he is doing. And let's be about the business of proclaiming that gospel, that kingdom of God.

[35:12] And that's what he's given this task for the second man to do. Thirdly, we come to the third person. This third person says, I will follow you.

[35:23] We read that in verse 61. He said to another, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. And so we see that the third person, there's a demand of a continual surrender.

[35:42] Because this man wants to follow the Lord. He even said so. I will follow you. But first let me bid farewell to those in my home. Would you just, Jesus, let me say goodbye to my family.

[35:54] I just want to say farewell. I don't know how long this journey is going to be and so I want to be sure. And all of us would say, that's understandable. But Jesus responds, no one who has set his hand to the plow looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

[36:16] The illustration is this. Typically, you had two hands on a plow and accompanying on one hand you may have had a go to stick to prod the oxen to go and or a whip or something, a tool of encouragement.

[36:32] And so you had these two hands were necessary. And so the illustration is if you look back, you're not going to plow in a straight line and you're going to deviate and you're going to go off course.

[36:43] So that's the illustration that he has. And so he's communicating, anyone who has put his hand to the plow, I will follow you. Looking back is not fit for the kingdom.

[37:01] And this looking back has the hint of the thought of and longing for. So I have, I have been called.

[37:13] I have a new nature. I am want to serve. I want to follow Jesus. But oh, how I long for the things that I have been called out of.

[37:23] Oh, how I have longed for being selfish. I remember those days when I got to do what I wanted to do. Oh, how I longed for having thoughts that were unguarded.

[37:35] Oh, how I long for using my tongue for anything else other than to worship the Lord and to speak truth, proclaim the gospel and to use my tongue to bless others.

[37:45] I want to use my tongue for something else. I remember those days. And oh, I got to use my time for self indulgence.

[37:57] And when I had, I had no regard to how I spent my finances, especially I just, I just want to use my finances for self indulgence.

[38:10] Oh, those were the days. And that's the illustration that Jesus is saying is, listen, you want to follow me?

[38:20] You want to bid your parents goodbye? Farewell, but I'm telling you what the task that you have and who I am is straight ahead. It's ahead of you.

[38:31] I'm not back there. I'm, I saved you from that stuff. So what does it require? It demands a life being a follower of Jesus demands a life of continual surrender, of waking up every morning and saying, Lord, you are my priority.

[38:52] You eclipse all other desires. You supersede all of their passions. I can't but help today follow you.

[39:04] And I surrender those thoughts that I have of the things that you saved me from. They are strangely dim to me any longer.

[39:16] They don't have my attention. So being a disciple demands a continuous surrender to Jesus. What is this all communicating?

[39:29] That Jesus knows our idols. I am quite certain that if I had said, hey, Jesus, I'll follow you, he would have said something a little bit different because he knows my idols. He would have said, oh, Scott, thanks, I've got something for you.

[39:42] And then he would have laid it on me because he knows where my idolatry lies. And he would have given me a challenge that would have sounded much like this, that would have caused me to consider.

[39:59] Thank you, Lord, you're worth serving for. He knows our idols. Second, he knows our attachment to home and comfort. The idols have nests.

[40:11] The foxes have holes. He knows our attachment to family. He knows that. He knows the pole of this world, the things that you were saved from.

[40:27] And he knows the danger of indecisive discipleship. And these are the things he knows. And he is bidding you and me today and says, Scott, follow me.

[40:42] Follow my person, who I am and my mission, what I've asked you to be about. Proclaim the gospel.

[40:52] Live a life pleasing to me. I'm worth it. Jesus is worthy. He's worthy of following even through Jerusalem, even through the cross and to the nations.

[41:10] He's worthy. He loved us. He gave himself for us. He didn't say, follow me to Jerusalem because he needed help with his redeeming work.

[41:25] He had that under control. Scott, because you are with him and you are saved, you are not only saved, you are given a mission and according to verse 60, it is even more precious than burying your father.

[41:43] So let us go in verse 60 and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ. Let's do that as a church. Amen.

[41:53] Let me pray. You know our idols. You know our attachment to comfort. You know the pull of this world.

[42:05] You know the attachment we have to family. You know the frailty of our frame. You made us. Lord, I pray that we would be wholly devoted to you.

[42:18] These are hard things. I pray that you are the very one we are living for, that it would be unquestioned who we live for.

[42:37] Lord forgive us of the time of the dangers of indecisive discipleship of the times where we have looked back. We have found the things that we are saved from, strangely attractive.

[42:52] Forgive us Lord. Reorient our minds and our lives causes to remember the graciousness that you have done for us on our behalf at the cross.

[43:06] You forgave sin. May we quickly remind, be reminded of what you have done and just how worthy you are.

[43:16] We love you Lord. Thank you for a day to look at your word and be encouraged and convicted. Forgive us. We love you.

[43:26] Amen.