The Road Less Traveled

I'm starting a series today called The Road to Resurrection.

The Road to Resurrection.

And I'm excited about this because what I'd like to do,

and what I feel it led to do for the next few weeks,

is share with you different points of interest

in Jesus' road to His resurrection.

And I'm going to invite you today to join me in Luke chapter 9 in verse 51.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

This is where we're going to begin the Road to Resurrection.

Now, as it's already coming up, you can get it in your Bible as well.

But I want you to prepare your hearts, amen, this month for resurrection.

I want you to prepare yourself spiritually, mentally, any way that you can

for what God is going to do these next few weeks

in preparation for Resurrection Sunday.

And I believe that on that Sunday, we're going to have a true revival,

true resurrection of power and glory.

And we're going to be praying for people.

We're going to be inviting them to be with us on that day.

And I believe that we can see this place filled, amen.

Not just with the saints, but with our friends, our family members, and souls.

How many believe that we can fill this place up on Resurrection Sunday?

Amen? Can I hear amen? Amen out there.

All right.

Luke chapter 9 and verse 51.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

The Bible reads this way,

God came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up,

that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem

and sent messengers before his face.

And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him.

But they did not receive him.

Because his face was set for the journey.

It was set for the journey to Jerusalem.

With God's help, I'm going to speak today on the thought,

the road less traveled.

The road less traveled.

I'm going to invite you if you can.

I know we've been, we've been praising, we've been worshiping, we've been praying,

but we're going to pray just one more time.

Amen for the preaching of the word.

Let us pray.

Father, I thank you for your presence that we feel so powerfully here today.

We know that our gathering has not been in vain.

We know that you were waiting for us, God, in this place.

And God, as we enter into your word today,

I ask that you would speak to us a transformative word, God.

Prepare us, Lord, to experience your resurrection power in ways that we have never in our lives, God.

I pray that you anoint the understanding of the hearing of every person today

under the sound of my voice, God.

And that you would anoint my lips to deliver this message with the power and the clarity that it was given to me.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

Everyone say amen.

Amen.

You may be seated in God's presence.

I recently came across Robert Frost's famous poem,

The Road Not Taken.

I don't know if you have ever read it or heard of it,

but the last stanza was notable to me.

It states two roads diverged in a wood.

And I, I took the one less traveled by.

And that has made all the difference.

The person in this poem stands at a crossroad.

Does he take the path that most people have already walked or the one that few have walked?

It's a question that we all have to answer at some point in our lives.

Should we follow the road?

Everyone else is walking.

Or do we follow the road less traveled the way that God calls us to walk?

This is an important question that today I want to fix in your mind as we consider the text before us and the passages that we're going to explore together in the Word.

Because our text today reveals which road Jesus took.

Which road he chose.

It was a milestone in his earthly ministry and began a journey to the cross.

We understand that Jesus was here on earth for roughly 33 and a half years,

but he began his public ministry at the age of 30.

And for those three and a half years was given to public service and ministry where he taught, performed miracles,

and came to bring the kingdom of God, to preach the kingdom.

And so throughout those three years many things took place,

but it was at the very end of his earthly ministry is what we're looking at in this series.

I want us to focus on some key moments in the end of his ministry that led ultimately to the cross and to his resurrection.

The hour had come, the time to complete his mission had finally arrived.

And that is why as we read in the text he set his face to Jerusalem.

Now I like that terminology, he set his face.

What he's saying is that he put his eyes, he fixated himself on Jerusalem.

And as you read the text over and over it makes emphasis on how his face, the face of Christ was fixed or set on Jerusalem.

Because the time had come, the hour had come in his life and ministry, everything had boiled down to this moment.

He had all come for this moment because Jesus did not come to earth simply to perform miracles, to teach us, and to point the way.

He came ultimately to be our sacrifice, to be the lamb that would take away the sins of the world.

And so it was at this moment where he set his face to Jerusalem.

And from this point on there was a resurrection or Calvary time clock that had started from this point on where he sets his face.

His focus is sharpened, he cannot be distracted anymore by other things.

He is now determined, he's got a mindset of finishing what he came to do.

He's got a mindset of accomplishing his set purpose.

And this was more than just the road less traveled to be accurate.

This was the road never traveled because nobody in the history of mankind had ever attempted what Jesus was about to do in this moment,

which was to lay down his life for the sins of the world.

Amen. And how many of you are glad he did just that?

Amen somebody? Can you say amen today?

But even as time was winding down and Jesus set his face, he was still openly recruiting and inviting whosoever will to join the kingdom,

to join his movement.

Up until the final hours of his time here on earth, he was still calling those who would be called.

He was still allowing those to join and to receive what he had.

And that brings us to a pivotal point in the narrative of today's scripture.

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus encountered or he met a group of people all with spiritual potential,

all with the capability or with the God given potential to do something great,

or at least be a part of what Jesus came to do.

But for one reason or another, they missed their opportunity or they underestimated the cost of discipleship.

And what we find in their interactions are some familiar roadblocks.

And what I'm going to do today is show you various roadblocks that can stop people from following Christ on the road less traveled.

The same road that will lead us to knowing Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.

This was the apex of the Apostle Paul's goal in life.

He said that I may know Him. How many of you want to know Him today?

He said that I may know Him not just in some cosmic, fluffy spiritual way,

but that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection.

There is a knowing of God.

I want to tap into someone's faith today, help you to understand that there are levels in God.

How many of you know this should be true?

There are levels in God.

And even the Apostle Paul, being an Apostle, said, I'm still trying to know Him in another way, in a new way.

And this realm of resurrection, this realm of power and fellowship with God that each of us are called to today,

let us address the first initial roadblock.

There are four in total in these winding moments in Jesus' earthly ministry.

And the first is found in the Samaritan's attitude, which I read in our opening text.

And I want to call this the Purpose Roadblock.

Everyone say Purpose.

The Purpose Roadblock.

As Jesus said His face to Jerusalem to finish the business, His business on earth,

He sent some messengers ahead of Him.

He said, I want you to go to the town of, or the region of Samaria,

and I want you to arrange a pit stop for me.

These were like His staffers.

These were His helpers who would go and kind of set things up for Him so that when He would arrive,

the place would be ready.

They're ready to receive Him, ready to welcome Him and show Him hospitality.

So He did that.

And these staffers went ahead of Him into the region of Samaria.

And when they got there, they started doing that, but the locals there in Samaria were not too thrilled about Jesus coming.

In fact, they were a bit salty about the way Jesus was running His whole business operations, His whole ministry operations, I should say.

The Samaritans were a group of people who were, they were a mixed race.

They were half Gentile and half Jew.

So they had a little bit of everything going on in their life, in their culture, and even in their religious system.

They had set up this alternate worship site in their region to accommodate a mixture of Jewish and other pagan rituals

so that everyone can kind of come together and worship.

And this site was very central to their faith.

It was holy in their estimation.

It was a site of great value.

They were, they were passionate about their form of worship.

They were passionate about their form of religion, the Samaritans.

So much so, you might recall in John chapter 4 where Jesus encounters the woman at the well.

John 4 · chapter mention

How many of you remember that story?

And He enters into this dialogue with the Samaritan woman and all of a sudden they go from, you know, talking about a life and other things to talking about worship.

And she says that our fathers worship at this mountain.

Remember she says that?

And Jesus said, well, the day is coming where it's not going to matter what mountain you worship at, right?

You just worship Him in spirit and truth.

But I reference that so you'll see that the Samaritans were very proud of their form of worship.

In fact, they thought this was the right way to do it.

Amen.

This was the way to go.

Their way was the right way.

They were very proud of their form of worship, their traditions, their history was all of value to Him.

It was central to their life.

And so when Jesus came through Samaria and word began to spread that Jesus is coming through and that He set His face on Jerusalem, not Samaria.

Well, that kind of rubbed people the wrong way.

They're like, well, what's wrong with our form of worship?

The sentiment of the Samaritans was that Jesus is coming through, but He's kind of treating us like we're sort of just a layover on a trip to a final destination.

He's treating us like a pit stop here.

What's up with that?

Are we not good enough?

Is our form of worship not that good?

And so they felt a little snubbed.

You know, they got a little offended because it represented a rejection of their form of religion.

And as a result, they said, you know what?

Let Him go ahead and come, but we're going to give them the good old fashioned cold shoulder treatment.

We're going to show Him that we don't really care that He's here.

We're just going to turn the other way.

We're not going to roll out the red carpet for Him.

We're just going to refuse to host Him.

And indeed, that's exactly what they did.

And unfortunately, sadly and tragically, the Samaritans missed their moment of visitation simply because they misunderstood Jesus's primary purpose for being on this earth at all.

They got so stuck here today.

They got so stuck over there, over their disagreement.

They got so stuck in how it made them feel.

They got so stuck in Jesus's method of worship and where He was going versus what they were used to and how it made them feel that they missed their moment with Jesus altogether.

Their emotions blinded them from the bigger picture, which is that Jesus had business to accomplish.

He was not, you know, snubbing at them.

He was not, you know, pointing fingers at them.

He was not treating them less than.

It's that there was a greater purpose that He had to fulfill, which was He had to go to Calvary to die for their sin.

But they didn't see that.

All they saw was that Jesus was not conforming to the way they like to do things.

And such is the case today.

People can miss.

You can miss your moment of divine visitation, your moment of an elevated experience with God,

your moment of going to another level in your walk with God.

If you misunderstand what God is trying to do in your life.

Well, pastor, what do you mean?

I'm talking about when God doesn't do things the way that you want Him to do.

Come on now.

I'm talking, are you going to preach when you hear today?

Hey, come on.

I'm talking about when God doesn't do things according to your ways, according to your methods, according to how you perceive things to be.

God needs you to understand today that there is a much bigger picture of what God is trying to do.

And God is not about, He's not about satisfying all of your wishes and all of your personal desire.

If He doesn't along the way, well praise God.

But God doesn't serve us.

We serve Him.

I wish I had a witness here today.

Come on.

I need your help today.

I said, God doesn't work for us.

We work for Him.

We serve Him.

And the same can happen like it did to the Samaritans to us.

When we think that God's supposed to do things the way we want Him to do it.

And when God doesn't move the way we imagine He would move.

We can make the mistake of the Samaritans who couldn't get past.

They got so up in their emotions and their feelings.

They got so salty and they felt so bad and they got so bitter.

And they missed their moment of divine visitation because God didn't do what they thought God ought to do for them.

Let me tell you something here today.

Don't tell God how to do His job.

Oh, I know.

That's just kind of, I mean, that doesn't sound very fancy.

That's not, maybe that's not something you're going to tweet later on today.

I don't know.

But don't tell God how to do His job.

God doesn't need us telling Him how He ought to move, who He ought to raise up, who He ought to bless.

No, God is the one in charge of the church.

Last time I checked, the church belongs to Jesus Christ and not to us.

And He has a higher purpose.

And there may be times, brothers and sisters, hear me loud and clear.

Where you may not fully understand what God is doing with other people, what God is doing in the church at large,

what God is doing with another family, but there are just going to be moments where you have to trust

God's got a higher purpose, God's got a greater plan.

And as long as I'm doing what God has called me to do, as long as I am hosting His presence,

then I've got to believe that everything is going to be all right.

Somebody give God a hand, praise today.

We've got to see the bigger picture.

The bigger picture.

Someone say, it's not all about me.

Turn to someone say, it's not about you.

It's not about you.

It's about Him.

But unfortunately, the Samaritans got all caught up in there and how they felt that Jesus, you know, He's just overlooking us.

And He's not doing, no, that's not it.

It's that if you would recognize He's on His way to the cross,

and what He does there is far greater than Him paying whatever attention you think you deserve here in this moment.

The second roadblock is what I would just call the path roadblock.

This roadblock surface in verse 57, and it says when we read that as, and as they traveled on the road that someone said to Him,

these are just moments after Jesus passed through, just a short while after Jesus passed through Samaria.

Here comes this fellow here, and it says as they passed through the road that someone said to Him, Lord, I will follow You.

Amen. How many of you think that's great?

I will follow You.

Amen. Like many people say today, I will follow You.

But the issue arises when He adds, wherever you go.

He probably should have just said, I will follow You.

But then He had to add, He must have been feeling Himself that day like wherever you go.

Oh man, that sounds powerful, huh?

And that's when things begin to get complicated.

So Jesus heard the wherever you go part, and He decided to test His willingness on that.

And He answered and said these words.

He said, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests.

But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

The thing about Jesus is this, that although He did base His ministry out of the town of Capernaum,

that was Jesus' headquarters international.

That's where His ministry was based out of.

He didn't spend all his time there.

In fact, He never got too settled in one location.

Jesus lived with His bags packed.

He lived with His bags packed.

I don't know if you've got any people in here that when they go on vacation,

how many like to unpack, even if it's, let's just say more than three days,

like to unpack and get everything settled in, huh?

Amen.

You know what, when I was, I just came back from vacation, that's a long ago, praise God.

And when I got in there, first thing I wanted to do was unpack everything and pretend like

this is where I live for the next week.

That's the way I get settled in, you know?

But then there are some people out there who don't like to unpack.

Now maybe it's for, you know, sanitary reasons or whatever.

I don't want to put my stuff in there.

Or you just like to keep everything in there.

Okay?

You like to keep all your stuff in your luggage.

You don't like to get unpacked.

Well, if that's you, then in a spiritual sense, you might do well as a follower of Christ.

And the reason is just because to follow him, you can't get to settle in one place or one position.

The problem comes is when Jesus says, it's time to go.

And we're like, huh, I just got settled.

I just unpacked everything.

I just got comfortable.

I got my picture frames around and everything.

And now you're saying it's time to go.

And Jesus, exactly.

Because if you're going to follow in my dust, if you're going to follow after the rabbi, if you're going to follow after the master, if you're going to be one of my disciples, then you have to pack light and be ready to move when I move.

We have to be sensitive to God's voice and be ready and willing to change.

And here's a big word, adjust.

Adjust to his will.

You know, as time goes on, can I be honest with you?

Someone say, go ahead.

As time goes on, it gets harder to do that.

It gets harder as time goes on.

And I'll just be real with you.

The older we get, it gets harder to do that.

We get, you know why?

Because we get comfortable.

We get comfortable in our routines.

We, I know nobody here, but just me, just me.

Nobody here is getting old, just me.

We resist change.

We resist change.

Because change represents discomfort.

It represents me doing something that I'm not used to doing.

I don't know about you, but I get to a place where I like things just how they are.

How many of you are like that?

If somebody moved something in your house, you know, you're calling 911.

Who moved?

Nobody here, nobody here.

Man, you all are so well-behaved in life.

Hallelujah.

We like things to be predictable.

And listen, there is certainly importance to that predictability.

Like if we're going to start on this time, we should start on this time.

If we're going to be here, then we say we're going to be here.

I'm not saying that we throw predictability and commitment and consistency out the window.

That's not what we're talking about here today.

What we're talking about is being so predictable and so set in our ways that if God says,

I need you to do this, I need you to go there, that we question God.

And we miss on what He's wanting to do.

Because we love our comfort more than our calling.

We love our comfort more than our calling.

We love our traditions.

And I love traditions, but sometimes we love some of them too much that we miss on what God's trying to do in our life.

The next thing.

And at the same time, we cannot become too rigid and too stuck in one place in our faith, one place in life that we miss with.

And so what is Jesus telling this fellow who said, I want to follow you wherever you go.

He said, be careful what you ask for.

Because the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

He said, there are moments in my, He's telling them there's going to be time.

You're going to follow me. There are moments where you're not going to have all the answers to your questions.

There's moments where you're not going to know every point on the itinerary of where I'm taking you.

But you know what that's called?

Faith.

We walk by faith and not by sight.

So to follow Christ on the road less traveled, we have to be willing to get beyond us knowing every detail in our path.

And this is what's going to happen.

And thank God, some of you like to plan and you like your routine.

You like to know what's going on and how it's going to work.

But if you're going to follow Jesus, you got to learn how to lean not to your own understanding.

Come on now, somebody.

How to trust in the Lord in all His ways and lean not to your own understanding.

And how to acknowledge Him.

Amen.

And He shall direct.

How many of you want Him to do that?

Amen.

He shall direct your path.

Somebody say amen today.

So hear me today.

If we want to get to a place of resurrection power in our life, a place of seeing the glory of God like never before,

then we have to take this walk of faith and trusting in God's prescribed plan, God's will for our lives.

The third roadblock is the, I would call this the priorities roadblock.

It's going to get better and better from here on out.

Buckel, your seatbelt, praise God.

This roadblock, it appeared when Jesus told another man, follow me in verse 59.

He saw another guy there.

He said, follow me.

Now, he said, follow me because he saw he had the potential to be one of his followers.

Follow me.

To which he responds, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

Now, how many of you think that sounds like a reasonable excuse?

That's reasonable, right?

That sounds credible to me.

Like, God, I'm going to do it, but it's like I have this to take care of.

That sounds very reasonable to me.

I may have said, all right, well, you know, go and do that.

And then, you know, why don't we follow up sometime this week?

I don't know.

But watch what Jesus said.

You see it there on the screen.

He said, let the dead, speaking of the spiritually dead, bury their own dead.

But you go and preach the kingdom of God.

Someone say, ouch.

This statement appears to be odd and callous at first, but there's a reason for Jesus saying this.

Let me explain some things to you, and I need to just take a few moments to do this because you got to understand the Jewish cultural practices.

Of that time to get why this was not as offensive as we might think it is.

Jewish custom dictated that the eldest son would bury his father twice.

The first burial occurred on the same day of passing.

The day they died is the day they got buried.

The second occurred a year later when they would take the bones, exude the bones,

and then rebury the bones in a family tomb.

Now, either scenario would have posed a dilemma for this man.

If it was the first burial, the dilemma was that he had to be physically present in order to receive his inheritance.

You couldn't receive your inheritance long distance.

If you were going to get the inheritance, whatever it was, property, money, things,

then you had to be there present when the father was dying.

And so following Jesus on the road less traveled would have meant valuing his heavenly inheritance more than his earthly one.

So if that was the case, we don't know which burial it was, Bible doesn't tell us,

but let's say it was that first burial, when he heard Jesus say, follow me, he was thinking, man,

if I follow him right now, I am leaving a lot of inheritance on the table,

and then my younger brother is going to go get it, I don't want him to get it,

because they would kind of get what was left over, right?

And so he might have been thinking, man, this is costly, I don't know if I'm ready to let go of whatever inheritance my father is leaving me over there to follow Jesus.

And we all at some point in our life will be faced with the same decision point.

It's a question of priority, it's a question of what matters more.

It's a question of what treasures we are laying up for ourselves.

It's a question of what inheritance we are living our lives for, our earthly one or our heavenly one.

Amen, somebody.

So he may have been perplexed by that, and if it wasn't the second burial, which had to do with inheritance,

it may have been, or excuse me, the first burial, it may have been the second burial.

Many Jews mistakenly believe that the sins, I find this interesting,

that the sins of the deceased would be forgiven between the two burials.

They falsely believe, doesn't say this anywhere in Scripture,

but Jewish cultural practices at that time, they had picked up this belief along the way

that between the first burial and the second burial, a deceased person's sins could be atoned for.

It's not biblical, but that was the going belief at the time, very prevalent in Judea at the time.

And so there was the spiritual, or let's call it a superstitious belief that was being held.

And so when Jesus tells them, let the dead bury the dead, you go and preach the kingdom of God.

His reply was sort of rejecting that whole notion that someone could, through whatever process of decomposition

that was happening, whatever process of being buried could save themselves.

He was rejecting this false doctrine, this false ideology, this false superstitious belief among many Jews at that time

that one could save themselves and atone for their own sins.

I find that to be a fascinating truth bomb when I'm reading this because now it's like,

no wonder this man may have been a bit caught in a dilemma of what to do.

Because if he believed like a lot of Jews at those times, and those times did,

that this period of time where his father was buried the first time and the second time

had eternal consequences, then that might have weighed on him as Jesus is saying,

why don't you just let the dead bury there and come and follow me.

But Jesus was trying to drive home a point to him, and he's trying to drive home a point to all of us here today

that if you are to follow him on the roadless travel, you've got to believe at your very core

with all of your being that there is no other means of achieving eternal security

and salvation, the forgiveness of our sins other than Jesus Christ

and the blood that he has shed for us. Somebody give God a hand-praise today. Hallelujah!

Jesus said, I am the way! I am the truth and the life!

How many of you believe that to be the truth today?

And so this was a loaded statement that Jesus made to this man.

Loaded when you consider the cultural implications of what was happening.

But Jesus said, look, if you understand that I am the answer that you're looking for, all will be well.

But I think the real problem, and I'm only going to be a few more moments here,

but listen, I think the real problem got started for this man.

Not that he said, I have to bury my father.

The real problem was that he said, let me first go.

That was the red flag. That was the red flag that Jesus was not his top priority.

It wasn't just that he said, let me bury my father. He said, let me first bury my father.

Can I tell you something today? God knows that all of you, and I'm going to say this respectfully

because I think that this applies across the board, all of you have important stuff to do in life.

All of you. Amen? Amen. You all have important stuff to do.

All of us have things to do. You have a house to run.

You got bills to pay. Amen?

If you're in school, you've got tests to study for.

You've got business to conduct. You've got places you've got to show up to.

Everyone here today has important things to do.

We're not devaluing, decreasing the level of importance things you have to do.

I'm not saying, nor is Christ that those things are not important.

Let's not misconstrue what Christ is saying here.

God knows all of them.

The only thing is, is that among all the things that life demands of us.

Hear me today church. God insists on being your number one.

God knows you have a lot of other things to do. God knows that you have a place to go,

but he insists on being number one.

God is not interested in your leftovers.

Is this okay?

He wants to be first.

He doesn't want your leftover time.

You might have to come up to the keyboard real soon.

Not yet. 30 more seconds.

He doesn't want your leftover treasures.

He doesn't want your leftover talents.

He wants to be your first fruits.

Oh my God.

He wants to be your first.

He wants to be the first day of your week.

Sunday is the first day of the week, and it's the Lord's day,

and it's going to be the Lord's day until he comes back.

Amen.

But pastor, there's a lot of things that are happening outside.

I know.

There's a lot of important things that are happening.

There's a lot of things that could consume our time.

Are you saying that I should quit my job if it's keeping you?

First is first. I'm going to say first is first.

Are you saying that I shouldn't do this and I shouldn't do that?

I'm not saying anything.

What I'm telling you is what Jesus said.

He said, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And what?

Help me out church.

And what?

All these things.

What things?

The things that are demanding of you in life.

The things that you are trying to attain.

The things that you are working for.

The things that you want.

These things shall be added unto you.

He wants to be number one.

He does not want to be in the back seat.

He does not want to play second fiddle.

He wants to be your first.

The first day of your week.

The first fruit of your life.

The first of your increase.

He wants to be the first and the very best of everything that you have.

Somebody say amen today.

And the problem that many are running into in this hour.

Hear me today church.

And I may not get a lot of running and dancing today, but hear me.

The problem that many are running.

I need to say this as your pastor.

I need to say this as your shepherd.

Is that they are competing for what is first in their life.

And they're allowing other things to come first.

And they say well as long as I give him.

No, no, no, that's not what it is.

God is not another bill that you pay.

You don't pay your tithe brother.

You give them.

God's not broke.

He doesn't need you to pay him anything.

You pay yourself bill because it will turn it off.

If you don't pay him nothing.

Guess what?

He's still going to be your God.

What he wants is our first.

First fruits.

First fruits.

And this would be disciple.

He struggled with this concept.

He struggled.

There's one more roadblock.

And I'll end with this.

I didn't even get to everything I wanted to say about the other ones.

But for the sake of time.

The final roadblock is just what I would call the past roadblock.

Because I think this next disciple would be disciple.

To be more accurate.

Probably had the most going for him.

Probably had the most going for him.

Verse 61.

It says, and another one also said, Lord, I will follow you.

But let me first go.

And bid them farewell that are at my house.

He may have had the most going for him.

It doesn't seem that he was dealing with any of the other things that the others had.

Didn't have the same issues as them.

But yet.

There was something about him that he said, let me know.

All you wanted was just so.

Can I just go say bye?

How many of you think, don't give me a spiritual answer yet.

How many of you think that's just a reasonable request?

Like it's reasonable.

And if you don't, if you're like, I don't know.

I mean, when Elijah called Elisha.

Right.

He let him go back.

He killed all the 12.

I mean, they had a big family barbecue.

So there's not, it's not like there's not precedence for allowing someone to go say goodbye.

Jesus is not against your family and against you, you know, doing things like that.

That wasn't the issue here.

It's that Jesus detected that there was something in this man that he was having trouble letting go of.

He's not against wishing farewell to family and having mama's cooking one more time and getting everybody together.

And verse 62, he said his response.

This is what you'll find in all of the responses that Jesus had with these people.

His response diagnosis the problem that they were having.

And he said, no one have he put his hand to the plow.

Looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

No one who puts his hand to the plow of the work of God and looks back.

Jesus detected in him, this man, that there was something holding him back in his past.

Something that he was struggling to let go of.

He knew Jesus read right through this guy.

This guy, nothing to do with your mama's cooking.

You're going back and kissing everybody.

The problem is you can't let go of something.

And he knew that if you go back home and have mama's cooking one more time and say goodbye to everybody, Jesus knew that if he allowed him to do that, he would never see him again.

Because whatever it was that was on him that was pulling and drawing on him, he knew it would keep him from following him.

The message to us today as we think about the road to resurrection, resurrection power, more of God, our destiny and calling in Christ is that there are some things that we need to let go of.

Some things are good, some things are bad, some things are ugly, whatever they are.

But Jesus is telling us if you put your hand to the plow, you need to let go of the past.

He's using an agricultural metaphor of a man plowing the fields. If a man plowing the fields with an oxen or a mule was creating those lines that you see in the fields.

If he was plowing with an oxen and looked back, what would happen if he takes his eyes off the plow?

That plow starts to drift to the left or to the right. Looking back produces crooked lines.

Oh my God. Looking back produces crooked things.

And I can tell, and you can tell, the reason why some people have got crooked obedience and crooked this and crooked attitude and crooked lives and crooked relics and just crooked is because they keep looking for it.

They keep looking back to places that God has called them to let go of. Would you stand with me here this afternoon?

I have come today to preach for you. I have come to tell you about the road that is less traveled and it may not cause people to jump up and down.

It may not cause a lot of excitement, hooping and hollering, but let me tell you the nature.

I've got a responsibility to tell you about the cost of discipleship and if you're going to follow Jesus all the way to the resurrection,

if you're going to follow Him all the way to the cross, then you need to do what these men would not do is let God lead you all the way.

Would you close your eyes right there? I feel the spirit of God in this place right now.

I know I have taken some time today to preach, but that's all right because we need some good preaching today to remind us of where we are and where we need to go in God.

We need to hear the word of the Lord confront us today and tell us that we have got to get on the right path.

We've got to, we've got to let go of our past. We've got to let go of our preconceived ideas.

We've got to let go of whatever is competing for number one in our life and let God sit on the throne of our hearts.

Hear me today. You may not run the aisles today, but somebody under the sound of my voice before you leave this church service,

you've got to make a decision is what you've got to do.