The Cost of Discipleship | Frank Brancato

We just have a wonderful crowd here this morning and we are so

very thankful that all of you are here with us today.

We have quite a few visitors that are in our audience and we

want to say that you are our honored guest and we welcome you

back every time we have an opportunity to assemble.

Welcome everyone. It is my privilege and my honor

to speak concerning the Word of God, and especially to speak

words that the Master taught so long ago, and that's Jesus

Christ, the greatest preacher of the world ever knew.

We're continuing our series in Matthew chapter 8, and now we

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

come down to verses 18 through 22 where Jesus is going to teach

a very, very valuable lesson about the cost of discipleship.

I appreciate it so very much, Wade's comments and the song we

just sung. Because being a Christian and

following Jesus is the greatest decision you will ever make.

There are no greater blessings in the world than being in

Christ and having Jesus in your life.

He's the answer to everything. If you're having problems in

your life and you're having hard times in your life, the answer

is Jesus. But Jesus is going to teach us

there is a cost. I think there's a lot of people

today in our society, really in the world, that would follow

Jesus only if they can do it on their own terms and they can do

it on their own way. Let's talk about what Jesus said

so long ago. Let's hear the words of Jesus.

He begins in verse #18 when Jesus saw great multitudes about

him, He commanded to depart to the other side.

If you back up by way of context in verses 16 and 17, Jesus just

healed many. And if you look at all the

gospel narratives, for example, if you look in Mark's gospel and

Mark's account of the very same things here, we find that there

are some things that happened after verse 17 and before verse

18, before these multitudes gathered around Jesus.

So really, scholars say that probably several days had

transpired before verse 17 in Matthew and verse 18 in Matthew

of chapter 8, because Mark says that he went out and he traveled

and he preached to a number of surrounding towns before this

happened. They were on the western shore

of the Sea of Galilee, and the crowd was massive.

Jesus knew that and he gave the order to depart to the other

side where the crowd was not so massive.

It was really a less populated area.

And I think there's three reasons for that.

Number one, and the obvious reason, Jesus had just been

performing miracles. Jesus had just fed them.

He just had healed them. So number one, I think the human

side of Jesus, and please get that.

We're going to talk about the humanity of Jesus in just a

moment. And I am so thankful for the

humanity part of our Messiah. We're going to talk about why

that's important in just a minute.

But from the humanity standpoint, Jesus was tired.

He needed respite. I think that's the first reason

that he said let's depart to the other side.

Let's get in a boat and go to the eastern side of the shore of

Galilee, of the Sea of Galilee. Number two, reason I think Jesus

wanted to separate himself from all the people that were only

interested in the physical benefits of following Jesus.

For example, like I just said, he just fed them and he just

performed miracles and he healed them.

But following Jesus is more than that reason #3 that I think he

decided to go to the other side. I think it was an opportunity

for Jesus to spend some private time with the closest people

that he had in his life and that were his followers, his

disciples. He decides to get in a boat and

go to the other side. Now, Mark's account says this,

Mark's account says that other little boats followed.

And I think that's a mouthful because really, when you talk

about following Jesus, everybody has a choice to make.

And so did they on that day when Jesus told his disciples, we're

going to the other side, everybody that was there had to

make a choice, had to make a decision.

Am I going to get in my boat and follow Jesus, or am I going to

stay on the shore and let all things be as they've always been

and do nothing? Everybody has to make that

choice. Am I going to follow Jesus or am

I going to stay in the current condition in my life that I am?

Jesus is going to encounter three men.

All three men expressed an interest in following him.

Matthew only mentions 2 and Luke mentions 1/3.

Let's notice the first one, Matthew chapter 8, verse 19.

Matthew 8:19

The Bible says there was a scribe.

You know, I preached a sermon 7 years ago right here.

In fact, if you've heard the podcast, you've probably heard

the sermon. I've preached it throughout the

country. But it's in Luke's account of

these passages. And really, when you look at

Luke's account in these passages, it appears that Jesus

went across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and then met

three men. And I used to preach it that

way. But in studying Matthew's

account, it appears that at least this guy and perhaps all

three, he met before he ever left.

And that makes a lot more sense by way of context.

In other words, he's about to get on a boat.

He's about to go to the other side.

And before he does, before he can even get on the boat, here

comes the scribe. And the scribe's going to say,

wait a minute, I'm going to follow you anywhere you go.

Who was the scribe? Who were they?

Historically? They were the authorities of

Jewish law. They had their roots in the

Jewish priesthood, and by the 1st century, they had become an

honored class of professional lawyers.

They were the ones, by the way, that fiercely defended the old

Law of Moses. Big stuff.

Also, we find these were the guys that usually oppose Jesus.

Now I'm going to tell you, I don't know.

I don't know what it's like to have the mind of Christ in the

regards that he actually had it specifically.

I know that we have to put that mind in US and follow what the

Word says and all of that. We can apply that kind of aspect

of the mind of Christ. That's true.

But Jesus is deity and Jesus could do what I can't do.

If I was there that day and I was one of the inner circle of

Jesus, I might say, man, we got a good one.

We got somebody that was in opposition to Jesus, somebody

that Jesus described in Matthew chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

You know what he calls them? He calls them hypocrites.

He calls them pretenders, He calls them fakes, He calls them

egoists. But you know, there's something

different about this guy. All those things that Jesus

described in Matthew 23 don't seem to fit this man.

This man seems to be different. And maybe if I'm in the inner

circle with Jesus, I'm thinking Jesus got a good one.

We got one from the other side, the other team, and that's a

good thing. But Jesus knew so much more.

He makes a bold assertion. He said, teacher, I will follow

you wherever you go. First of all, let's talk about

the word teacher. The word teacher comes from a

word in its origins called de de scalos, and D descalos is a word

that is translated in three different English words.

You may have heard me say this before.

It's translated as teacher, it's translated as master, and it's

translated as Lord. In the new King James, This

passage is translated teacher in the old King James, it's

translated Master and in the old in the new King James, In Luke's

account, he calls him Lord. What's he saying?

He wasn't necessarily calling him Lord and Savior.

He was calling him D Descalos, teacher, master, Lord, a term of

respect. OK, he offers him a term of

respect. That's who he says teacher.

But the implications of this statement are huge because when

you say you're going to follow Jesus, you are saying I'm going

to submit to your authority. I'm going to submit to your

direction and I'm going to honor everything about you, and I'm

going to honor what your will is.

I'm going to say this by the way.

She's going to throw it out. When you pray to God and you

pray if it be God's will, are you really meaning if it is your

will, or are you really trying to get God to do what you want

Him to do? Because submitting to Jesus and

submitting to God is submitting to their will.

That's not my will. That's not a matter of bending

my will. That's not a matter of bending

God's will toward me. That's a matter of me bending my

will toward God. That means this.

If I pray to God and he says no, I need to accept that.

If I really mean if it is your will.

So if you pray with the provision, if it be your will

and you don't get it, understand whatever God's will was is

exactly what happened. And sometimes the answer is no.

And that's God's will. This man says, I will follow you

wherever you go. The implications are huge.

You're saying I will follow you, meaning I will submit to your

authority, your direction, your will.

That's what it means. And you know what this man

didn't understand that. He didn't understand the rigors

by the way of daily sacrifice. He didn't understand either that

the message or the path that Jesus was on was going to end up

at the cross. And yet he says, I'll follow you

anywhere you go. He just didn't understand.

Amazing how Jesus responds. He warns this disciple, this

potential disciple, the true discipleship requires sacrifice

and that's why he says this. 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. What an amazing response to a

guy that says I'll follow you anywhere you go.

Now many people do this. Many people interpret this

passage to mean this, that Jesus Christ was homeless.

Some people say, well this passage means that Jesus Christ

had nowhere to go. That's not what this means at

all. Jesus was not homeless.

He lived in Capernaum. In fact, if you look at Mark

Mark 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 and verse one, it indicates he had a regular place

to go. He was not homeless and he did

have places to go. You know where else he could go.

How about dear friends? How about Mary, Martha and

Lazarus, dear friends? There were times when he went

and stayed with them. There were times when he stayed

with Peter. There were times when he stayed

other places. But there's more about the

aspect of not having anywhere to lay his head and what that

actually means. It didn't mean he had nowhere to

go because I'm going to tell you, you remember, we studied

this in the past, that Oriental culture of the time demanded

that if somebody was passing through town, even a stranger,

and they had nowhere to go because by the way, they didn't

have Motel 6 where they keep the light on for you.

They didn't have that back then. What they had is they had

people. They had God's people.

And at the time it was Jewish people.

They were God's people. And you know what, you know what

the plan was? The culture was this of the day

when you traveled through town, somebody took you in.

Hospitality was huge. Maybe we can learn a little bit

about hospitality from some of these ancient cultures.

Sometimes we don't want to be bothered.

I'm just saying we in general, sometimes we don't want to go

out of our way and be bothered, but we can learn a little bit

about some ancient cultures. Historically, in fact, the

culture was this. You bring somebody in, even if

it was a stranger, and you feed him, you clothe him if need be,

you give him respite, let him clean up.

Oh, Jesus had a place to go. What Jesus was saying by these

words, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head after he

said foxes have holds and birds of the air has have nests.

He was exaggerating his case in order to impress upon them,

impressed upon the scribe the spiritual nature of the Kingdom

and the spiritual nature of his ministry.

Why would he do that? You know what the scribes were

all about? I think we could all relate to

this. The scribes were all about

lifestyle. They were all about security.

Now I get the fact that we need to be good stewards of what we

have. I get it.

I get when the Lord has blessed us with.

And by the way, when you have something and you have money, I

don't know how much money you have and I really don't care.

Whatever you got, good for you. If you got a lot, great.

You know why God's blessed you. That's the point.

The point I'm getting at is this.

When you put too much stock in lifestyle and no stock in

service to God, be very careful that your priorities are not

backwards. Be very, very careful.

This was a man that was all about lifestyle.

He was about security, and he was all about a permanence on

the earth. Please get that.

He was about a permanence on the earth.

In other words, Jesus is saying to a man that was all about

permanence on the earth and security and lifestyle that even

the animals, what they have, the basic comforts of animals, I

don't have. In other words, I don't even

have a place of permanence on the earth.

More on that in just a moment. Let's talk about this phrase,

Son of man. Now you've heard me say this

before, the difference between son of man and son of God, but I

want to add something to it. That's why I'm talking about it

now. The phrase Son of man is found

more than 80 times in the Gospels.

We know that. We've talked about that every

time it's used. It's talking about the humanity.

And I said I was getting back to humanity, the humanity aspect of

our Messiah. When the Bible talks about Jesus

being the Son of God, it talks about the deity or divine part

of the Messiah. Our Messiah was both fully human

Son of man, and he was both also fully divine Son of God.

What Jesus is saying here is he's talking about this aspect

of being fully human. Sometimes though, those terms

are used interchangeably, and sometimes they're used

interchangeably in the same passages.

Notice Luke 2269 and 70. Hereafter the Son of man will

sit on the right hand of the power of God.

Then they all said, Are you the Son of God?

So we said to them, You are rightly say that I am.

In other words, Jesus says the Son of Man referring to himself,

the Messiah, the human part. They said, are you the Son of

God, the Messiah, the divine part.

And he says, you rightly said that that is so.

It's both. What he's saying is this.

When Jesus said the Son of Man, he's saying that even the

Messiah is not removed from the physical discomforts of life.

Even the Messiah, wow, let that soak in like pain, suffering,

heartache, all the trouble we go through in our life, all the

hardships, all the loss. Here was a man that was about

lifestyle. And Jesus says even the Messiah,

you say you want to follow me. Even the Messiah is not exempt

from the physical discomforts in life.

I got him too, he said. In other words, you're not going

to get any comfort following me in that regard.

We talk about our Messiah, Hebrews 415 for we do not have a

high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,

but was at all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let me say this, don't ever think in your life that Jesus

doesn't know. Don't ever think that there's

someone that does not know everything you're going through.

But you know what? My whole life I've heard people

say this. You just can't know.

Nobody knows. I'm telling you, somebody does

and sometimes people know, but the Lord always knows.

Jesus is our high priest. Therefore Jesus is the one that

pleads our case. Jesus is the one fitting to be

that why He can sympathize with our weaknesses, why he was

tempted in all points like as we are.

Here's the difference. He was yet without sin.

Now because of that grace blessing, here comes the

benefit. Love it.

Verse 16. As a result, then let us

therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we might

obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Isn't that great? Go to the throne of God, pray to

God. Our high priest previous verse

is our go between and he pleads our case.

You got somebody on your side. I'm going to tell you what right

now, if you got Jesus on your side, you got everything.

You got everything. And you know what?

If you got Jesus, you got God. If you don't have Jesus, you

can't have God. Jesus said that.

But if you have Jesus, you have everything.

So the point is, the Messiah doesn't even have the basic

comforts that the animals have. He doesn't have a place of

permanence. Now, I like what Fowler said.

Fowler said this before we feel too much pity for Jesus, who had

no comfortable permanent home on earth, we must ask ourselves,

who's really to be pity? Him who knew how to detach

himself from home so as to be free to prepare himself and men

for God's eternity or us who are so attached to the loved and

known to home and family that we cannot respond to Jesus call to

service as we ought. That's powerful.

OK, Jesus knew something because he can read the heart and he

knew when the man said I'll follow.

You know what he knew. He knew this and here comes the

Frankism. I say time to time he knew the

man was really saying this man, I love my life.

I love it just the way it is. I don't want to change really

anything. Here's the Frankie ISM you've

heard me say a million times. I just want to add a little

Jesus to it. Isn't that a lot of people

today? I don't really want to serve God

with everything I got. I love my life.

I just want to conveniently on my terms at a little Jesus.

That's what this man was so long ago.

The scribe perhaps sees the crowd, Maybe he sees the

miracles. He gets caught up and wrapped up

in the excitement. He's totally fascinated.

You know why the foundation of his faith was based upon emotion

and not conviction. Let me just say this if the

basis of your faith. Is founded or the foundation is

emotion, you'll have problems with commitment.

But if the foundation or the basis of your foundation of your

faith is founded upon conviction, you won't have a

problem with commitment. Conviction and commitment go

hand in hand. OK, here's the problem.

When emotion is all that drives us religiously, when that's

removed or the excitement wanes, then all of a sudden, oh, it

kind of goes away, right? But when it's based on

conviction, by the way, we got to have the emotion part.

Don't, don't misunderstand me. God does not want us to be

robotic and just robotically go through with no emotion

whatsoever. That is not what serving God is

all about. He wants everything you got

based on conviction that he wants every aspect of your

emotion and excitement behind it too.

It just can't be the emotion and excitement, the foundation of

your faith. It's got to be more than that.

This man didn't understand the principles of discipleship and

that's this self denial, self sacrifice, and even suffering.

He didn't want to deny himself, He didn't want to sacrifice

himself, and he certainly didn't want to suffer.

He was about comforts. How do we know that this is what

the Lord meant? And how do we know the Lord was

right? Well, first of all, we know the

Lord's right because the Lord's always right.

But the narrative speaks to exactly that.

The Lord knew what he was talking about.

You know what happened to the guy?

Nothing. He's gone.

He didn't weigh the cost. He didn't pay the price.

He just wanted to add a little Jesus.

And now he's gone. Here's the second example.

Here's man #2 Then another disciple said to him, Lord, let

me first go and bury my father. Now Luke's account says it this

way. Luke's account says that Jesus

called the man to follow him. He said, follow me.

And then the man said, Lord, I'll follow you first, but I'll

follow you. But first let me go bury my

father. Now some assume, and probably

rightfully so, that Jesus was actually calling this man to be

part of his inner circle, perhaps part of the 70 that he

was going to send out. Because in Luke's account, it

happened in Luke Chapter 9. In Luke chapter 10, this is what

Luke 9 · chapter mention Luke 10 · chapter mention

happened. Luke 10 and one, after these

things, the Lord appointed 70 also, and he sent them two by

two before His face into every city and place where He himself

was about to go. OK, it's entirely possible that

Jesus was calling this man to be part of that inner circle and to

be part of the 70 he was going to send out ahead of him.

OK, what was the difference? Here's the two men.

The scribe had excitement without caution.

This man had all caution and no excitement.

And they were both equally wrong.

It was both very selfish. They were both equally wrong.

It was an attitude that kept both of them from the Lord.

Notice this phrase here. Let me first go and bury my

father. Now I'm going to tell you, you

can look up commentators and they're going to have all manner

of interpretations as to what this means.

I'm going to tell you there's only one interpretation of this

passage that makes what the Lord has to say in the very next

verse in response not insensitive.

OK, here is interpretation #1 Some commentators say, well,

here was the deal. The man's father had just died.

He had just passed away. And all he was doing is he was

asking, can I just bury my father 1st and then I will

follow you and give him proper respect first.

Can I just do that? OK, well the reason for that is

the Jews held it very sacred to ensure a decent burial for

family members. Going back to Genesis chapter 50

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

and verse 5, my father made me swear saying behold, I am dying

in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.

There you shall bury me. Now.

Therefore, please let me go and bury my father and I will come

back. Because of passages like this,

some commentators interpret this passage.

The man's father had just died and that's all he was asking to

do is to go back and the man was a Jewish man.

I just want to go back and do what Genesis chapter 15, verse 5

Genesis 15:5

outlines. I want to bury my father.

That's all I want to do. Furthermore, a Jewish boy was

required to not only bury his parents and care for his parents

when they were older, but even after they died.

A Jewish family was required to mourn between 7 and 30 days.

In fact, they even brought in professional mourners.

I don't have time to go into it, but remember when Jesus raised

Lazarus from the dead? Do you remember when the word

gets to Jesus? Jesus waits behind Lazarus was

very sick. Lazarus dies and then Jesus

shows up. Do you remember when he gets to

the House of Mary and Martha? The Bible says Mary and Martha

were weeping, and then Jesus said he saw the Jews also

weeping. You know what they were?

They were professional mourners. They actually called in

professional mourners. And what they would do is they

would wail and make loud noises and go through the process.

Why? Because the mission are required

by the way that when a relative died you had to mourn 7 days,

when AI don't know some dignitary or some special guy

died you had to mourn 7 public and 37 private and 30 public

days. So it was part of their culture.

That's why by the way I love this.

I got to slip this in. When Jesus saw the Jews mourning

and the hypocrisy of the going through the motions.

The Bible says he groaned in his spirit and the word groan means

to be filled with indignation. Jesus was disgusted and angry at

their hypocrisy. Why?

Because they were just going through the motions.

So he departs and they go to the grave and he raises Lazarus from

the dead. And it's then when Jesus wept

different word. You know what the word means?

Silent tears. That's the friend we have that

knows our infirmities and knows our weaknesses.

That's Jesus. As opposed to somebody that's

not legit. So here's something else.

If the Father then going back had already died, then the words

that Jesus is about to say are very, very insensitive #1 and #2

it makes it be something that really is unnecessary because

guess what happened when you died back then, When you died

back in those days, because they didn't embalm the body, you were

buried the very same day. So he wouldn't have to wait very

long at all. Can you imagine in Palestine

where it's hot and decomposition?

Remember when four days after Lazarus died and he was buried,

Jesus says, rollback the stone or take away the stone.

And Martha says, oh, but it's been 4 days.

The King James says 4 Behold, he already stinketh.

They buried him the day they died, so there must be a

different explanation. Explanation #2 Some commentators

believe this. The father was not dead yet, but

he was gravely ill, and he was pending death, near death, and

all this man wanted to do is be with his father, which, by the

way, you can't show anybody any more respect than to be by their

bedside when it's time for them to go.

I don't know what it's going to be someday.

I hope it's a long time from now, because I have a lot of

work to do. Not that I don't want to be with

the Lord, but I have a lot of work to do.

I got a lot of work left, but someday, when it comes time for

me to pass away, when it comes time for my life to end, I would

love it if my loved ones were with me.

You can't show anyone any more honor and respect than that.

So commentators, because of that, say that that's all he was

asking. In other words, my father, for

another week or two or month or whatever, is going to die, and I

just want to be with him. And it would seem reasonable, a

reasonable request, would it not?

And while these two scenarios actually are arguable, I do

think there's a better explanation.

And here it comes, Here it comes #1 here we go.

Father didn't die. Wasn't dead #2 The father wasn't

even sick. Stay with me now.

The father wasn't even sick. The phrase I must first bury my

father was a Jewish colloquial phrase that dates all the way

back many years ago, all the way back into the Middle East and by

the way, still continues in contemporary times.

I must first bury my father. What's it mean Phrase means

this. I must first fulfill my

responsibility to my father and the family business until my

father dies, and then I can receive my inheritance.

In other words, the man was saying, I will follow you as

soon as I've secured my financial future.

Give you an example of contemporary times.

If you remember my sermon from 7 years ago when I preached on

Luke's account, I gave this illustration.

If you remember it, then all I can say is it's a great

illustration. Then if you still remember it,

if you don't remember it, it really is a good illustration

because it proves my point. Here we go.

Not long ago there was a missionary that goes out into

the Middle East doing mission work and it comes across the

Young Turk. And he really got to liken this

young man. And he said, you know what you

do? I would love it if you would

travel with me all across Europe.

The Turks said, oh, I would love to, but I first must bury my

father. The missionary said, oh, son, I

am so sorry. I didn't even know your dad

died. I didn't even know your dad was

sick. And the young man said, oh, wait

a minute, my father hasn't died. He's very much alive.

He's not even sick. That is a term that we use

meaning this I must fulfill my responsibility to my father in

my family business until he dies and then I can receive my

inheritance. Oh, see what the Lord knew.

Jesus speaks to a man just like that.

And that's why Jesus responded like this.

Jesus said follow me then he said, and let the dead bury

their own dead. I've had people say this my

whole life. Man, that wasn't that

insensitive. Oh, they missed the point

though, didn't they? OK, we just understood what he

was talking about in the context behind it.

This man had a superficial desire to follow Jesus, but like

the scribe, his interest was rooted in personal gain and

comfort. Jesus said this, Follow me and

let secular matters take care of themselves.

Matthew 6 and 33 and the great Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said, But seek first the Kingdom of God and his

righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

Put the Lord first, follow the Lord 1st and He will take care

of the things that you need. That's what the Lord said so I

wasn't saying neglect your parents one saying don't bury

him. He was simply saying this the

coming and going of people the passing of fortunes from 1:00 to

another is part of get this please a dead system.

So let us that are spiritually, let those that are spiritually

dead worry about the dead system.

In other words, secular matters are for secular people and

secular simply meaning that that of no religious value.

That's what that means. Let the people that are not

proclaiming any religious value deal with the things that have

no religious value. Let that stuff take care of

itself. But you follow me.

In fact, Luke's account, you know what Jesus says.

And Luke's count Luke adds this. But you come and preach the

Kingdom. You come and preach the Kingdom.

I had a preacher said it to me one time about preaching and

about life and money. And he said, you know what?

And I got to say this. I say this almost embarrassingly

because we are so blessed today and I will honestly say I'm

thankful and I have a comfortable life.

So I can't really relate to what this old preacher said, but he

can relate to it because he lived it.

And he said when I decided to preach I realized I may wear of

a ragged coat. In fact, he said I realized I

may wear many a ragged coat. But then he said this.

But I always knew the inheritance is out of this

world, the retirement is out of this world.

Jesus says follow me and let the other matters take care of

themselves. OK, one more and we're finished.

Matthew omits the third man, but there's another man that comes

to Jesus and Luke records it, who spoke with good intentions.

Luke 9 and 61 and another also said, Lord, I will follow you,

but let me first go bid them farewell who were at my house.

And man, I'm going to tell you, it sounds great.

It sounds reasonable. I'll follow you.

Jesus. I just want to go and say

goodbye. First of all, his family.

It's not talking about his wife and kids.

Jesus would never encourage anyone to depart from their wife

and kids temporarily. I have departed from my wife and

kids to go to the Philippines and preach the gospel for three

weeks. Did it for 15 straight years.

Actually when I had cancer we had to miss a couple.

But 15 times I went OK, but I came home.

Jesus was calling a man for a full time life.

He wasn't saying get away from your wife and kids.

Except the Bible even talks about providing for those that

are your own and those that don't are worse than an infidel.

So we got to provide for our own.

So who's he talking about when he says let me bid them

farewell? Who are at my house?

He's talking about could be parents, could be brothers and

sisters, could be cousins, could be friends that live in my

household. In other words, he says let me

just go and bid them farewell who are at my house.

And on the surface it sounds again reasonable.

What the Lord is going to show though is service to Jesus

requires looking forward and not looking back.

Looking forward and not looking back.

And then Jesus says this. And by the way, this is an

ancient proverb that dates back to 800 BC.

Oh, again, the Lord's brilliant. Here we go.

Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand in the plow and

looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God.

You know what that means? It means this.

You can't plow a straight furrow when your eyes are looking back.

I love that. I'm going to talk about the

Philippines for just a minute. We have some folks from the

Philippines here, friends from the Philippines here.

Then you know what it's like if you leave Manila and you get out

to the provinces, you see that there are farmers and in the

primitive way now they have tractors and stuff like that.

It's a lot of places. But for a long time, especially,

you know, years ago, when I first went to the Philippines,

there was really, it was all primitive out in the in the

provinces. And they would have a plow where

you have one hand here and one hand here, and you would ride

the carabao, which looked like a water Buffalo, and you ride him

into out to the field early in the morning when it was still

dark. And they hook up the Caribou to

a plow. When the Caribou calf was born,

which by the way, was very valuable to a farmer, they would

drill a hole through the nose and run a rope.

And that was the range that steered the Caribou.

They would get on the Caribou, ride it to the field, then

they'd get there, hook it up to the plow, and they would walk

behind the plow in the rice fields and they would plow

furrows. What would happen if you tried

to plow a furrow and you look back like this, You're going to

plow it like this. That's what Jesus was saying.

You can't plow a straight furrow when your eyes are looking back.

You can't focus on Jesus in your life and be the servant you need

to be for the Lord. When your eyes are looking back

from a spiritual perspective, it means this.

Don't look back on your former life with fondness when you

decide to follow Jesus. Listen, the Bible is filled with

examples of it's bad to look back.

I bet Lot's wife would have liked one more day.

Don't look back at your former life.

I'm talking about any life before Jesus, whether it's a,

you know, which is a life of sin, Anything before Jesus is

the life of sin, even if you're a good person, OK, And don't

look back on the former life when you decide mentally I'm

going to follow Jesus today. The problem is when you look

back, it's just a matter of time before you turn back.

And Jesus said, don't do that. In conclusion this morning, what

have we learned? We learned from these three men.

Jesus taught lessons on counting the cost.

Three things that kept these men from following Jesus here they

were #1 personal comforts #2 financial gain or an inheritance

#3 even family ties. Now I'm going to tell you

something you may not have to. Lose your personal comforts to

follow Jesus. And like I said, I think

everybody here, we, we live pretty comfortably.

So you don't have to. It's not a requirement to lose

your physical or personal comforts to follow Jesus.

You may not have to lose your inheritance.

You may not have to lose financial gain to follow Jesus,

and you may not have to separate family ties.

You just have to be willing to give up anything and everything

if need be to follow Jesus. And that was his point.

I've never had to do any of that.

But I'll tell you this, if it comes to it, I have to be

willing to do it to follow Jesus.

You know, I know an example of a young man who had to turn his

back. We all know him.

He's a preacher now. He obeyed the gospel, became a

child of God, decided he wanted to preach tremendous resistance

from his Father. You know who I'm talking about?

Tremendous resistance. But he chose to follow Jesus

instead. And that's the point.

Nothing can stand in our way to our commitment to Jesus.

And by the way, if it's founded upon conviction, we won't have a

problem with the commitment. Is it worth it?

Is it worth it? Martin Luther said it this way.

A religion that gives nothing, cost nothing, and suffers

nothing is worth nothing. Everything in our life has a

cost, and we don't have a problem with that.

But we want Christianity to be a be free and nothing's required.

Jesus says no, it cost everything.

It cost putting him first and everything else is secondary.

So in closing then, is it worth it?

I'm going to tell you right now it's worth it.

Living the Christian life is the greatest life in the world.

It really is. It's the funnest life in the

world. It's the most fulfilled life in

the world. Sometimes we need to remember we

have to tell people what they get.

When you want to convert somebody to Jesus Christ, you

got to tell them what they get. You get the Lord, you get God

his Father, you get spiritual blessings in Christ, and you get

salvation. You have the Lord by your side

every step of the way, and even in life that we go through in

this life, we may go through hard times.

And Jesus never promised an easy life.

What He promises this. If you faithfully serve me, I'll

give you a better life after this one.

And while you're going through this one, I'm never leaving your

side. Wow, I'm in, Sign me up.

I won't ever bid of that. How about you?

How about you today you have the Lord in your life.

We never close the time that we teach from the word of God

without extending an invitation steps to become a Christian or

simple, you got to hear the word of God.

We've done that today Romans 10/17.

So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

After you hear the word of God, you know what you got?

You got a choice. That's a big word.

We all say it all the time. You got a choice, you got to

believe with all your heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.

Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to

God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those

who diligently seek Him. After you believe, you got

another choice. You got to do something else

too. You got to change, repent of

your sins. Acts 17 and 30.

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands

all men everywhere to repent. All that means is, look, I've

been going in that direction. I'm not going to do that

anymore. I'm going to go in that

direction and follow the Lord. Then you must be willing to say

the greatest thing you will ever say and confess Jesus Christ as

the Son of God. Acts 837 Then Philip said, if

you believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. Greatest thing you will ever

say. But I'm telling you, it's not

the point of salvation. It's required.

You got to do it. But the point of salvation comes

now to be baptized for the remission of your sins.

Mark 1616. He who believes and is baptized

will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Is baptism necessary? The Bible says that it is first

Peter 321. The like figure where to even

baptism does also now save us, not the putting away the filth

of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by

the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If you've never taken those steps of obedience, we would

love to assist you in that today.

We stand ready, willing and able to assist you in that.

Maybe you have. Maybe there's something in your

life that is not what it should be.

Maybe you've drifted away from the Lord.

What a great time to come back. Be one of either class.

Come forward while we stand and while we see.