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[0:00] Today we're back in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 9, beginning today in verse 51.! But before I get there, before I get to that, let me put this away. I want to tell you about Mars 1. Anybody ever heard of Mars 1?

[0:20] It wasn't that long ago, 2011. Mars 1 was a mission that was put together actually over in Europe to start with. Their whole goal was to provide missions to Mars.

[0:37] We've heard a lot about that recently with Elon Musk and his desire to go to Mars. Well, this group was first with the idea that we're going to provide all the resources and funding and all of this effort to send people to Mars to establish a base there, to build up a community on Mars. That was the goal.

[1:01] And in 2011, they started promoting it, and it wasn't long before there were 200,000 applicants, people who were saying, I want to go.

[1:14] I don't know if that would have been you, if you would have been excited to go to Mars and have that as part of your life's story.

[1:24] But these 200,000 people were like, yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me. I want to be included in that. And then they went through a rigorous application process where the numbers kept getting whittled down and whittled down and whittled down until they finally got to 100 people that were willing to say, I want to go to Mars.

[1:47] And so this was some of the imagery that was taken. They had their own logo. They had their own drawings of what this living space might look like to begin with.

[1:58] They were going to, this is from a CNN coverage of the story, they were going to have, produce a reality show about people living on Mars.

[2:11] And that was one of their ways to fund the whole process. They were going to film and produce and put out all of this information about these astronauts who were going to be training, going into training, and then eventually they'd get to the point where they would send them off to Mars and then set up the bases.

[2:30] They would send up preliminary rockets to go and land base structures and all the things that they would need when the astronauts finally arrived, all the things that they would need to get everything set up and going.

[2:48] And the interesting thing about this particular, this process was, and this might be fascinating, I don't know if you would have been fans of this, if you would have watched that show.

[3:03] But the people who were signing up as applicants to go on this mission to Mars were signing up for a one-way ticket because there were no return flights.

[3:16] You were basically signing up to go live on Mars and live out your days there and die there on Mars. That's what you were signing up for.

[3:28] And people were flocking signing up for doing that. Now, I don't know what you would think about those particular applicants if you would have thought, well, you know, brave heroes, I admire them.

[3:39] Or if you would have thought, yeah, I'll sign on the dotted line. I would sign up to go to Mars to do this. Well, the effort failed for any number of reasons.

[3:53] Lack of funding was part of their problem. They had other issues in terms of the technology that they would use to get there. They weren't using any of their own technology.

[4:05] They were reliant on other private enterprises to get to Mars and all of that kind of stuff. And so it turned out that a lot of their fundraising was just kind of a fundraising scheme.

[4:20] And were they really ever going to do this? And it ended up shutting down a few years later after they had raised so much money and gone so far but never got to Mars.

[4:36] Now, there's a difference. You have this on your notes. And this is going somewhere, by the way. I'm not just telling you a story about people going to Mars.

[4:49] There's a difference, a big difference, between admiring something and believing in it, following it.

[5:03] For our purposes today, there's a difference between admiring a group of astronauts who would go into space and signing up for, I'll do that myself.

[5:15] When it comes to our relationship with Christ, there's a big difference between admiring Christ, admiring the gospel, admiring the truth, and actually following the truth.

[5:36] I would say that in our world today, there's lots of admirers, people who would say nice things about Jesus. But are they willing to follow?

[5:50] I might ask you that question. Do you admire Jesus? Why are you in church today? Maybe because it is a level of admiration.

[6:02] But are you really willing to follow? Jesus never asked for admirers. That's one thing when you read the gospels, you don't see. He doesn't ask for people to admire him.

[6:13] He asks for people to follow. That's what he's looking for. It's what we're looking at in today's story at the end of chapter 9 of Luke.

[6:25] But it's true today as well. He doesn't need us. Doesn't even want us to be admirers. He wants us to be followers.

[6:37] And we're going to see the difference in that today. Now, before we dive into this, I think, a very unique story, we have to cover something that we touched on two weeks ago, which is Luke 9.51.

[6:52] And use that as a passage to help us understand much of what's going to be happening in the next number of chapters in the gospel of Luke.

[7:03] And it helps us to understand the gospels at large in general. Jesus, you may know this, Jesus makes quite a few outlandish statements.

[7:17] Right? He's done that. We're going to see some of them today. And when we look at those statements and pull them out of context, it makes it very difficult for us to understand what in the world is Jesus getting at.

[7:35] But when we remember them in the context of what's happening big picture, it helps us to put them in their proper place and understand what Jesus was looking for, what he was expecting of us.

[7:51] And so we start with verse 51, which looks like kind of a simple verse. There's not much here. When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, as in his ministry on earth would be finished and he would be taken up back into heaven.

[8:09] When the days drew near for that to happen, he set his face. He set his face to go to Jerusalem. This is now fully two years into his ministry.

[8:23] And Jesus is done kind of setting the table. And now he is in the north in Galilee. Jerusalem is in the south. And he set his face.

[8:36] He is on his way to what he intended, what he set out to do in the beginning, which was to go to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.

[8:47] So he knows where he's going. He knows what he's doing when he gets there. And now the time has come for him to go. Now, understanding this in context makes us go back.

[9:02] Actually, before we do that, a couple of other translations. The setting his face. It's like setting his face like a flint, like a stone.

[9:14] It's set firmly in place. He's not looking one way or the other. He is set for Jerusalem. The New American Standard translates that he was determined to go to Jerusalem.

[9:28] Or the NIV, he resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Those are correct ways to understand what it means.

[9:40] But literally, he set his face. That's what the Greek says. He set his face toward Jerusalem. Now, in order to understand what's happening here, we have to go back to the beginning of the Gospels.

[9:52] And here I've chosen Mark 1, verses 14 and 15. And to show you what it was that Jesus was doing from the beginning of his ministry.

[10:05] So after John was arrested, So John's ministry is basically done when Jesus' ministry begins. After he was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God.

[10:21] All right? We're good Christian people, right? We know what the Gospel is. And I would say, Do we? Do we really know what that is?

[10:32] Because he was preaching a message that I'm not sure that we preach today. Let's take a look. Saying, The time is fulfilled.

[10:44] What time? They had been looking for the Messiah in particular. And Jesus is saying, That time of looking for the Messiah has now been fulfilled.

[10:55] The Messiah has arrived. And he's making his entrance to the beginning of his earthly ministry. And he goes on. The time is fulfilled. And the kingdom of God is at hand.

[11:09] And as you read through the Gospels, this is what you see that Jesus was preaching over and over again. Kingdom of God is at hand. That's what he was preaching.

[11:22] That's the message of the Gospel. Repent and believe the Gospel. What was the Gospel? What was the good news? Right? We know the word Gospel means good news.

[11:33] What was the Gospel that Jesus was proclaiming during his earthly ministry? The Gospel that he was preaching was this. This was the news. The kingdom of God is at hand.

[11:45] Or the kingdom of God is near. And literally, you could have interpreted that as saying, The kingdom of God is standing.

[11:56] If Jesus is the one that's proclaiming it, The kingdom of God is standing right in front of you. That's how near it was. The kingdom of God is at hand.

[12:11] And so beginning in Mark chapter 1, And some people have talked about this being like a drum beat. So some of you are wondering, Why are these out? Nobody played them during the music.

[12:25] But what we see happening at the beginning of the Gospels, What Mark talks about here in Mark chapter 1, Is this drum beat that starts off faintly at the beginning of his ministry.

[12:38] The kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand. And it starts out more like a whisper.

[12:51] The kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand. And then, by the time you get to Luke chapter 9, Where we're at today, It's steady.

[13:02] Because now, The preliminary part of his ministry is over, And he has set his face toward Jerusalem. So the drum beat is just getting louder.

[13:21] This looks fun, doesn't it? I'm lousy at this. My rhythm is terrible. I need someone else to come up here and do this. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[13:32] Anyway, the kingdom. And then, by the time you get to the end of the Gospels, Just before Jesus is crucified, The drum beat is at its loudest. So, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[13:45] I mean, that's what's happening. So we're going to leave these congas up here. The whole next part of this section of the Gospel of Luke, To remind us, Hey guys, remember, The kingdom of God is at hand.

[14:01] The kingdom of God is at hand. It's at hand. And if the kingdom of God is at hand, If the Messiah is standing in your midst, And is about to set up his kingdom, How ought that information then inform How we make everyday decisions.

[14:31] Because if you're standing right in front of the Messiah, Who's on his way to Jerusalem, And he's going to set up his kingdom, That means that a whole lot of my agenda And my priorities are going to take a back seat To what's happening right now.

[14:50] See if that doesn't have an impact on how we view Even just these next few verses At the end of chapter 9, And as we make our way forward Into the next few chapters In the Gospel of Luke.

[15:08] And some of these instructions that Jesus gives That are like, Whoa, hate my mother and father? What does that mean? Or, ah, let me get into the text here.

[15:22] Let's start with this. Oh, actually, before we go on, You might ask, well, Rich, If we're not preaching the same gospel That Jesus was preaching, Remember, his gospel is The kingdom of God is at hand.

[15:38] What is it that we're preaching today? The gospel message that we're preaching today here Is identified in Acts chapter 20. This is Paul speaking, Talking to the leaders of the church at Ephesus On his way back to Jerusalem.

[15:54] He says, If only I may finish my course In the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus. So Paul is talking about this calling, This ministry that God has given him.

[16:05] And he says, My ministry that God has given me Is to testify to the gospel The grace of God. So what we're proclaiming today Is the message of God's grace.

[16:23] Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. That by grace we are saved, Not of works, Lest anyone should boast. That's what we are proclaiming today.

[16:33] We are not proclaiming The kingdom of God is at hand Because the kingdom of God is not At hand In our age. Ah, But you say, Is there coming a time Where we will preach The kingdom of God is at hand?

[16:51] Yes. Actually, Probably you and I won't be. If we're believers, We'll be gone. Praise the Lord for this. But during the tribulation, Matthew chapter 24, Verse 14, Which Jesus is Vividly describing To his disciples, Asking, What would it be like When you do come To set up your kingdom?

[17:16] And he said, In those days, And he's talking about The days of the tribulation, As you read through it, You'll see that That's what he's talking about. And he said, This gospel of the kingdom Will be proclaimed Throughout the whole world As a testimony To all nations.

[17:31] And then the end will come. The end being his coming, His second coming. It will come. But yes, During the tribulation, That will absolutely Be the message Of the gospel During the tribulation.

[17:47] Because, Just as in During the gospel days, The kingdom of God Was literally Right at hand. And then during The tribulation, They'll actually Be able to look At calendars And say, Ooh, We got seven years.

[18:02] Daniel told us that, Right? We got seven years. We can kind of Map it out And get pretty close How long it's going to be Before he's coming again. And we must endure. And we must keep Our eyes to the clouds.

[18:15] And we must be ready. Because the kingdom Of God Is at hand. That will be The message That we will proclaim.

[18:25] Now, Earlier in chapter 9, During the mount Of transfiguration, Jesus Is Transfigured And is displayed In all of his glory.

[18:39] Moses and Elijah Are there In glory. And they had A conversation. What did they talk about? They spoke about His departure. Which he was about To bring to fulfillment In Jerusalem.

[18:57] So when it says That he set his face To go to Jerusalem, It's all Part of the plan. From the beginning Of the foundation Of the world. And it's coming Into fruition Now.

[19:12] So all of this Then brings us To Chapter 9 Verse 57 And what are These three men With their Three excuses For not following Jesus.

[19:27] Now when you read Their comments, When you read Their conversation, You're going to say, Well, wait a minute. It sounds an awful lot To me like They wanted to Follow Jesus And Jesus was like Really just Raising the bar So high.

[19:41] What's going on here? Well, really What it is Is they're just Revealing what Are three very Common Even current Day Excuses For people Not to follow Jesus.

[19:55] So a subtitle Here for this Section is Willing to Admire Jesus But not to be All in. So they think Jesus is pretty Cool.

[20:08] They like him. But they're not Willing Really Yet To follow Him. So now let's Let's finally Take a look At this And actually First 2 Corinthians 4.4 Their excuses Are excuses That we hear Today And here's why We hear these Excuses The God of this Age has blinded The mind of Unbelievers So that they Cannot see the Light of the Gospel that Displays the Glory of Christ Who is the Image of God Unless the Lord opens Our eyes Unless the Lord opens The eyes Of those Who are Against the Gospel Against Christianity It doesn't Matter what Words we Use or how Kind we may Be The Lord Must open Their eyes To see The truth Of the Gospel And so These excuses

[21:08] Are just An evidence Of what We see Here So verse 57 Finally Of Luke Chapter 9 As they Were going Along the Road Someone Said to Jesus I will Follow you Wherever You Go I will Follow you Wherever You go Now Admittedly This sounds Really good Right Because the Context of This What he's Saying here Is You know Wherever Whatever Time of Day Whatever Country You go I'm I'm With You I will Go With You Wherever You Go Sounds Good Sign Him Up Let's Make Him A Deacon I Mean This This Is Like You know Top A1 Level Level Of I'm In It Sounds That Way I Will Follow You Wherever You Go Really Is That Really What He's Willing To

[22:09] Do Now Here's What's Interesting There's Only One Corresponding Passage To This And In The Other Gospels It's Found In Matthew Chapter 8 And What We Find Out About This Particularly This First Man This First Person Is That He's A Scribe Or Another Way Of Saying That He's A Teacher Of The Law And He Addresses Jesus By Saying Teacher Notice He's Not Saying Lord He's Saying Teacher He Himself Is A Teacher He's Saying Fellow Teacher I'll Go With You Wherever You Want Me To Go I'll Go There And Then Jesus Because He Knows Our Hearts He Knows What's Going On This Man Is After Something More Than Just A Blind Submission And

[23:09] And That's What It Kind Of Sounds Like Initially! He's Just Willing To Say Lord Wherever You Go But He Wants Something From This He Wants Something Out Of This He's Not Recognizing Jesus As Lord But It's As If He's Saying Okay You're The Messiah People Are Saying That You're The Messiah And If You Are Then I Want In On That And You've Got An Interesting Group Of People Here That Are With You That Are Following!

[23:41] You You've Got Some Fishermen Right You've Got A Guy Who's A Former Tax Collector Interesting Probably Good With Numbers You Got A Guy Who's A Zealot Which You Know We're Not Sure How I Feel About That But Jesus Tell Me Where's Your Theologians You Haven't Gotten One Of Those On Your Team Yet How About Me I Mean!

[24:11] Fellow Teacher And I'm Good I Got The Old Testament Right I'm Good With That I Got It All Figured Out I'm Good With You And If You're The One I Know That You're Going To Set Up Your Kingdom And If You're Going To Set Up Your Kingdom Then I Want To Be A Part Of That I Want To Be In On That I Want The Benefits From That So Jesus Today Is Your Lucky Day You Got Me You Got Me Verse 58 Jesus Basically It's Interesting He He Doesn't Tell Him No He Leaves It Open Ended He Just Gives Them Some More Information He Says Foxes Have Holes Birds Of The Air Have Nests But The Son Of Man Has Nowhere To Lay His Head I Have No Home I

[25:12] Have And Particularly As I'm On My Way To Jerusalem I'm Not Going To Be Having Any Of The Comforts Of Home I'm Not Going To Have A Place To Lay My Head Even We Just Saw The Previous Verses He Was Going Into A City Of Samaria!

[25:31] Said No We Two T's They Have A But But Not For Nothing I'm Going To Follow You But I'm Expecting Something In Return Jesus I'm Not To I'm Not Yet Willing To Recognize You As My Lord As My Master As The Messiah And If I Do Take This Step With You There Better Be A Pay Off There

[26:31] Better Be Something That Comes Along With This There's A Sense Where This Man Is Kind Of An Early Proponent Of The Prosperity Gospel Message The Kind Of Idea That God Always Pays Off In This Life That There's Going To Be Something In It For Me That's What I'm Looking For And What's Interesting Is We're Going To See This With All Three We're Not Told The Response Get To See That Here Why Why Is That Is It Possible That It's Open Ended Because Maybe The Same Question Is Being Asked Of Us What Is Your Response To This Another Way Of Saying This Put Another Way Is I Will Follow The Lord If He Gives Me

[27:31] What I Want In Return If I'm Blessed Financially If I Get Good Health If I You Know Beat This Disease If I You Know If Everything Turns Out Well With My Kids And If Everything Goes My Way Then I'm In That's It Unfortunately What You See In A Lot Of The Prosperity Gospel Mentality Are People Who Are Like All In As As Life Is Going Well But As Soon As Life Turns South Soon As Life Gets Hard Soon As The Bad News Arrives That Doesn't Fit Into My Equation Here So I'm Out So The Question For Each Of Us I Think That We Each Have To Ask Of Ourselves Is Will You Turn Back When Things Start To Not Go Your Way And I

[28:36] Think That's The Question That This Man Who Comes Up And Volunteers And Says I'm In I'm In I'm In I'll Go Wherever You Want To Go But Understand The Lord Has No Place To Lay His Head In Other Words The Lord Has No Home And We Struggle With That Here's Guy Number Two To Another Jesus Said Follow Me Again He's Not Looking For Admirers He's Looking For Follow But He Said Lord First Let Me First Go And Bury My Father Okay I gotta I gotta Bury My Dad Right That That Sounds Reasonable At Least To Our Ears Right It Sounds I gotta Go Do This And Jesus Said To Him Leave The Dead To Bury Their Own Dead And First Response Might Be What Really Jesus But

[29:37] As For You Go And Proclaim What Kingdom Kingdom Of God It's At Hand It's Standing Right In Front Of You That's What You Need To Go And Proclaim Don't Worry About The Dead The Dead Will Bury Their Own You Go And Proclaim The Kingdom Of God That's That's The Job No Time And And It Sounds Like Jesus Is Saying Skip Out On Your Dad's Funeral And Come With Me Right Does That Kind Of Sound Like What What's Going On Here But What's Interesting Is And You Tell Me If This Is True Is The Dad Dead Yet Does The Text Say That Dad Is Dead Yet It Doesn't Dad's Not Dead Yet Because If Dad Had Been Dead Remember In Their World And Their Customs And Their Way Of Doing Things Their Operating

[30:37] Procedure The Day A Person Dies Is The Day That Person Gets Buried There's No Waiting Several Days Before You That Make Everybody That You Are Talking To And Coming Into Contact With Unclean As Well They Wouldn't Do That So The Issue Here Is Dad Is Not Dead Yet What We Come To Understand Is This Phrase Let Me Go And Bury

[31:37] My Father Was Kind Of A Way Of Saying I Can't Right Now Because I've Got Family Business To Take Care Of That Won't Be It Won't Be Resolved It Won't Be Taken Care Of Until The Person Who's In Charge Of The Family Business Is Dead And Buried I'll Take Care Of All Of That And Then I'll Be Free To Do Whatever It Dead And Buried And No No That's That's Really It's Kind Of Like When We Say It's Raining Cats And Dogs It's Really Not Right We're Just Meaning It's Raining A Lot We Don't Really Mean It That Way We Do It With With The Way That We Talk About The Dead So

[32:38] And So Passed Away Is A Common Way Of Saying That Someone Died I Don't Know If That Sounds Easier On The Ears For Us But That's Kind Of How We Say It But Passed Away Doesn't Mean Necessarily Died But That's Kind Of How We Understand What That Phrase Means!

[32:57] And In Their Culture They Would Have Understood This Idea That Let Me Go Bury My Dad First Let Me Bury My Father First Let Me Take Care Of Family! Affairs And It Just Provides An Easy Excuse For Them To Say I'm Not Right Now Now It's Interesting That That Jesus Uses This This Phrase Let The Dead Bury The Dead I Don't Know Of Any Dead People Who Are Participating In Funerals Or Take Care Of Other Dead People But Some People Have Talked About How What Jesus Is Talking About Here Is The First Category Of Dead!

[33:34] Let The Spiritually Dead Take Care Of The Dead What What Doesn't Matter What Is The Temporal The Things Of This Earth Whereas The Spiritually Alive People Can Participate In Things That Are Eternal Things That Are Alive So This Second Excuse If You Will Let The Dead Bury Their Own Dead I Will Follow The Lord But Just Not Right Now Again Just A Common Excuse That You Hear From People When They're Invited To Place Their Trust In Christ And To Respond To The Gospel Is Well Not Right Now I Got Other Stuff Going On And Maybe When That Other Stuff Is Done Then Maybe Then I I'll Do That Put Another Way Is I've Got A lot Going On Or

[34:36] I Want To Experience You Hear Some Of This In Reference To The Rapture The Rapture Of The Church The End Of The Church Age Right What We're Waiting For The Next Event On The Prophetic Calendar As It Were The Rapture The Coming Of Jesus For His Bride The Church And And I Remember As A Young Man Perhaps Lord Not Quite Yet I've Got Some Other Things That I'd Like Getting Ready To Graduate College Right I Wanted To Get Married I Was Like I Would Pray As If This Made Me More Spiritual I Was Young I Was Naive I Was Right But I Was Saving Myself For Marriage Right So I Want To Get Married Maybe After The Honeymoon Would Be Okay But That's You That's Kind Of Where My Head Was That's You

[35:37] Might Be Thinking The Same Thing Well You Know I Want To Have Children And So Like When The Baby's On The Way Like Oh Good Good So Lord Please I Want To I Want To Be A Mom I Want To Be A Dad Right And You Thinking Okay So Not Not Not Quite Yet Let Me Let Me It Can Get Tough Right Kenneth Clark Who Was The Guy Who Put Out A Television Series Called Civilization Traveled The World And In One Place Had What He Referred To As A Religious Experience He Went To A Church I Think It Was In Germany Think Of

[36:37] The Mannings Right Now It Was In Germany Went To A Church There And Had A Religious Taken Aback By It But He Wrote In His Autobiography About That Religious Experience I Was Too Deeply Embedded In The World To Change Course Wow Too Deeply Embedded In The World To Change Course How Many People Could That Phrase Be Kind Of Where They're At Is Is That Where Maybe You Are At So The Question Is There Something In The Way Of

[37:38] You Walking With The Lord Today Today Today What Is In The Way Of You Saying Yes To Jesus You Got Too Much Life In Front Of You Ask Me Again Later There May There May Not Come Another Later You're You're Being Confronted With The Message Of The Gospel Today That Jesus Wants To Save You Jesus Wants To Be Your Lord For You To Repent Of Your Sin To Trust Him As Lord And Savior But Not Today I've Got Too Much On My Plate Too Much I Want To Do The Third Guy Yet

[38:40] Another Said I Will Follow You Jesus Lord And He Even Uses The Word Lord So Did The Second Guy So The First Guy Is Just Calling him Teacher But The Next Two Are Saying Lord We Don't Know What He Means If He's Just Referring To Him As An Earthly Lord Or If He Means Eternal!

[39:07] Half A Day You Go On Ahead Jesus I'll Catch Up With You Later I Mean That Could Catch Up With Him On The Same Day Even I Just Gotta Go To My House And Say Goodbye Right I Just Nope Not Going To Get To Do That Jesus Said To Him No One Who Puts His Hand To The Plow And Looks Back Fit For The Kingdom Of God Now One Of The Things You Have To Understand About The Tense Of The Verb Looks Back Is That It's An Active Participle It Means That It's Constantly Looking Back Any Farmers Got Any Farmers In Okay Any Hobby Farmers

[40:07] Or Even A Garden Nobody Knows Anything About Plowing Or Even Even Just Cutting Hay Right I've I've Cut A Few Rows Of Hay In My Time And When I Say Few I Mean Literally I Can Count On One Hand The Times I've Cut Hay Okay But Even I Would Know That As You're Driving The Tractor If You're Cutting Hay Or Raking Hay Or Bailing It You Can't Look Back And Drive Right Now Back In The Day They Had Like A Stick Plow That Was Strapped Up To A Couple Of Oxen And And They're Digging It You Can't Look Back Because Next Thing You Know The Oxen Are Off And Or The Tractor Is Off And Going Into Right Am I As A Farmer Am I You Know Like Crazy For Saying This Guys Okay You

[41:08] Can't You Can't Look Back And That's What Jesus Is Talking About To Be Fit For The Kingdom Of God Means I'm Moving Forward I'm Not Looking! Back Famous Character In History For 200 The Person Who Looked Back And Turned Into A Pillar Of Salt I Think I Heard Someone Say Job's Wife It Was Lots Yet Job Might Have Wanted His Wife To Turn To A Pillar Salt It Was Lot It Was Lot This Idea Of Looking Back I Will I Will Follow The Lord But Not Fully Not Entirely Not All In I Still Got This

[42:08] Stuff Going On From My Old Way Of Life I Want To Hang On To That's That's What's Going On Here And Put Another Way My Heart Doesn't Want To Leave Behind My World My Past My Old Way Of Life I Just I Don't Know If I'm Ready To Give That Up Yet And Again So The Question For Us Is Do You Find Yourself Thinking I'd Like One Of Those One Way Tickets To Heaven Yes Please Sign Me Up But Earth Is Where I'd Rather Be If You Find Yourself Thinking Well Heaven Is A Good Option But I Like Earth I Like Everything That I Got Going On

[43:08] On Earth Now Missing People That's That's Part People Are Also! Right? So People Are Good Winning People To Christ That's Good You're Going To Be Sharing Eternity With Them Everyone In One Way Or Another Is Eternal In That Eternal Life Or Eternal Death But The Rest Of It's Going Away Right?

[43:30] We Know That We Have You Know 80 100 Years If We're Doing Really Well We're Over 100 And That's It We Know It's Coming To An Cling To The Things Of This World Is This Is This The Place I Would Rather Be So That Brings Us To This Uncomfortable Conclusion Here Is There Anything Wrong With Having A Commitment To Your Family Let's Kind Of Settle Some Of This Stuff That People Kind Of Go Off On A Tangent Saying Well Jesus Said Some Really Weird Stuff This Is Not What He's Saying It's Perfectly Fine You Ought To Be It's Actually Biblical First Timothy Five Eight It Says But If Anyone Does Not

[44:30] Provide For His Relatives And Especially For Members Of His Own Household He Is Denied The Faith And Is Worse Than An Unbeliever So We're Commanded To Be Committed To Our Families To Love Our Families To Provide For Our Families To Protect Our Families That's A Part Of The Responsibility God Given Responsibility That All Of Us Have Jesus Is Not Contradicting This When He Tells Us When He Tells Them This These Things So There's Nothing Wrong With Having A Home I Hope You Have One It's Nice That You Have One Of Those Right Even If You're Renting You Have A Home Over You Have A Roof Over Your Head And Food On The Table That's It's Kind Of Nice And It's A Good Thing The Bible Talks About Us Laying Aside For The Future And Being Prep For The Things That Are Happening In This World Having A Home Is A Good Thing There's Nothing Wrong With

[45:30] Having Obligations At That Home Or To Your Family Absolutely Fine It's Wonderful Biblical It's Not What Jesus Is Saying You Shouldn't Have Any Obligations At Home There's Nothing Wrong With Saying Goodbye To Your Loved Ones You Know Like If You're Like Well I'm Never Gonna I Can't Ever Say Goodbye To My Family Again Because Jesus No That's Not What Jesus Is Saying You Absolutely Can Say Goodbye To Your Family When You're Leaving Now Here's The But If Those Commitments Are What Keep You From Wholeheartedly!

[46:14] Following Christ Then Jesus Cannot Be Your Lord When These Guys Are Saying I Remember The First Guy Said Teacher But The Next Two Said Lord So They Were At Least Saying Lord But Jesus Kind Of Exposed Them Do They Really Believe That Do They Really Mean That You Today Might Be Saying Lord Jesus I Trust You But Do You Really Mean!

[46:44] That Because What Jesus Is Asking Of Us What Jesus Demands Of Us Is That We Would Be All In That We Would Wholeheartedly!

[46:58] Commit Our Lives To Him And What He Would Ask Of Us Let Me Show You The Dead Giveaway In Our Passage And I Don Know You May Have Not It But I Am Going!

[47:11] Point It Out Now Verse 59 The Second! Lord Let Me First Go And Bury My Father Was Jesus First Place In His Life You Might Say Well This Is You Know It But It's An Indication Of Where His Heart Was At It's An Indication Of Where His Heart Was At That Jesus Knew About Him Jesus Knew This Man's Heart And Knew That This Man Wasn't All In Wasn't Ready To Commit Was Still Holding On To The Things Of This World The Second Guy But Let Me First Say Farewell To Those At My Home Jesus Was Not In First Place Over

[48:12] All Of His Life And That's What He's Looking For That's What He's Asking Of Us That We Would Make Him Lord Meaning Master Meaning I Submit My Life To Him That's The Expectation That's What He's Looking For So Yes I'm Going To Love My Family Yes I'm Going To Take Care Of My Obligations At Home I'm Going To Bury My Dead People I'm Going To Say Goodbye When It's Time For Me To Travel But First And Remember The Context If The Messiah Was Really At Hand You

[49:14] Know The Next Time That That's Really Something We Can Say Is At The Rapture How Many Of Us At The Rapture Are Going To Be Caught Up And Still Looking Back It's Kind of Like An Oxymoron Right It Doesn't Fit If I'm On My Way Up And I'm Still Looking I Want That If On My Way Up Not Now Where Is Your Heart Today In All Of This I Want To Introduce You To A Fellow William Borden William Borden Was The Heir To The Family The

[50:15] Borden Estate They The Borden Family Made Millions And Millions Of Dollars This Is Back At The Turn Of The Century The Previous Century 1900 They Made Millions Of Dollars The Silver Mines In Colorado Also In Real Estate And He Was The Heir To That All Of That Family Estate All Of That Business All Of It He Was The Heir But When He Was Younger His Mother Became A Christian They Were In Chicago And Started Taking William To Church Nothing Is Ever Said About The Father Whether He Was Saved Or Not My Guess Is He Was Not But The Mother William's Mother Church Took Him Eventually To Moody Memorial Church But This Was After D.L.

[51:08] Moody Was Dead R.A. Torrey Was The Preacher At The Time And He Trusted Christ As His Savior At A Young Age Six Years Old Seven Years Old When He Graduated From High School At 16 Private School His Parents Gave Him A Graduation Gift Of A Chaperoned Trip Around The World And So They Don't Have Travel Quite Like They Did Now Like They Did Back Well Not Back Then The Way That We Do Now So It Took A Long Time For That Trip One Of The Places That He Got To Go Was In Western Northwestern China Among A Muslim Group Of People Living In Northwestern China While He Was There He Surrendered His Life To Serve As A Missionary To The People Of Northwestern China In Particular

[52:09] That Group Of Muslims There In Northwestern China And When He Was There He Had Apparently Taken They Don't Know If This Bible Exists Anymore The Story Has Just Been Passed Down He Took Open His Bible And On The Front Cover Of His Bible He Wrote The Words No Reserves Meaning I'm Not Holding Anything Back All Of My Life I Surrender It To The Lord When The Trip Was Over He Came Back To The United States And Continued His Education At Yale Yale University And While He Was At Yale As A Freshman He Started A Prayer Group And At First Just Started With A Few People And They They Began To Meet In The Morning Before!

[53:08] And Pray Together And Again Just Started With A Few People By The End Of His Freshman Year It Was Basically The Whole Freshman Class That Was Participating In This By By Brilliant Student Had Impact On The Faculty The Whole Thing And And He Had Multiple Offers To Run Companies And And He Is Like No I I'm Committed And Decided He Was Going To Go To Seminary And He Went Off To Seminary At That Point His Father Said You'll Never Be

[54:08] The Heir Of This Company Basically His Father Disowned Him But He Went Off To Princeton Seminary Now Here We Are More Than 100 Years Later And We Think Princeton Seminary What Is That But Back In The Day It Was A Viable God Fearing Place To Go For Training In The Ministry It's Not That Way Anymore But Before He Went To Seminary He Took Out That Same Bible And He Wrote Another Word Basically!

[54:48] Him With And You Will Never Have This No Retreats No Going Back Not Going To Do It He Finished Seminary Again Had All Kinds Of Opportunities Here In The United States But He Was Determined To Go To That People Group In Northwest China And Preach The Gospel To Them But On His Way There He Went To Cairo Egypt First To Learn The Arabic Language The Language Of The Northwest China And It's While He Was In That Language School Staying With A Syrian Family So He Could Continue To Learn The Language That Much Better That That He Contracted Spinal Meningitis And Within A Month He Was Dead Apparently His Mother Found His Bible And

[55:48] He Had Written Another Word In The Cover Of His Bible Said! No Regrets! William Borden Was A Famous Man Back In The Day Newspaper Outlets News Organizations Followed His Life And The Headline Was What A Waste Of A Life This Was This Was Before He Died What A Waste To Throw Your Life Away As A Missionary To That People Group My Question For You For All Of Us Can You Say This No Reserves Not Going To Hold Anything Back No Retreats No Matter How Hard It Gets No

[56:49] Matter If It Goes My Way Or Not No Regrets No Regrets A Life Lived For The Glory Of God Is A Life That Matters A Life That God Takes Even In An Early Age Is A Life That Matters I Think There's A Sense Where We Can Relate To That What What's Happening In Our Country In Our World Right Now But The Question Isn't About Them Or Them Or Other People It's About You And Me It's About You Where Are You At In Your Relationship With God Are You At The Point That's Willing To Say No Reserves No Retreats!

[57:46] No Regrets! I Will Live For You Lord! I Will Follow You! Never Ever Settle For Admiration!

[57:59] He Never Asked For That! He Doesn't Want That! He Wants From You Obedience! He Wants From You For You To Follow Him! And That Starts With A Relationship!

[58:12] Have You Trusted Him As Lord And Savior In Your Life? That's Where It Begins! If You've Not Done That! Then Today Let Today Don't Put It Off!

[58:24] Let Today Be The Day That You Trust Him As Lord And Savior Let's Pray Lord We Thank You For These Three Men Who Came And You Called Or They Volunteered To Follow But Lord You Exposed Them For What Was Really In Their Hearts And Lord Today If Our Heart Could Be Exposed In That Way What Would We Find In Our Own Lives Am I Fully Committed To You I

[59:25] Pray Lord That That's Where My Heart Would Be I Pray Today Lord For People Here Today People Hearing This Message That If They've Never Trusted You As Lord And Savior Maybe They've They've Heard The Message Of The Gospel Before But Have Never Really Responded Maybe Because They've Had An Excuse Lord I Pray That We'd Be Willing To Set Those Aside And That Be We'd Be Willing To Say Yes To You Yes I Will Follow You Yes I Will Trust You As My Lord As My Savior I Recognize My Sin It Is Ever Before

[60:25] Me Lord I Recognize That Jesus Came And Lived A Perfect Life That He Died In My Place And He Rose Again From The Dead And I Believe That Lord But For Many Of Us That Knowledge Is Not What Escapes Us We Might Even Believe That About Jesus The Facts Of His Life And His Death And His Resurrection Might Even Have An Admiration For Him In That Way That Is Not What Necessary That Is Not What He Called Us To Do

[61:26] He Called Us To Faith And Not Just Empty Faith But A Faith That Follows A Faith That Obeys A Faith That Says Yes Lord I Believe You Are The Lord Christ You Are The Messiah You Are The One Promised From Ages Past And You Fulfilled It All And You Died And You Rose Again And You're Coming Again And So Lord I Surrender I Submit My Life To You And I Trust You I Trust You With My Life It's Yours It's Not Mine Any Longer Belongs To You So Whatever That Means Lord I'm Not Worried About Going Back And Taking Care Of Family Business

[62:26] I'm Not Worried About What You're Going To Give Me If I Become A Follower What's In It For Me I'm Not Worried About Saying Goodbye Looking Back To This World As If It's Something That I'm Going To Miss That I Would Hate To Give Up Lord I'm All In My Life Is Yours I Trust You I Trust You With My Life So Again Lord We Thank You For Your Word That Teaches Us And Helps Us To Grow May We Be Committed To Your Word To Prayer To Living A Life Lived Out Going Forward

[63:26]  Looking Ahead Anticipating The Kingdom And We Can't Wait For That Day Lord When We See You Face To Face The Longing Of Our Hearts Fulfilled We Love You We Praise You And We Ask All Of This Today In Jesus Name And All God's People Said Amen All Right