It Ain't Horshoes!

It Ain’t Horseshoes

Luke 9:57-62                        NOT EDITED

SIS: To experience the full impact of God’s love and grace in our life requires a full commitment to God’s control of our life.

Do you remember as a kid when you would be playing a game and someone would say, “Wow! That was close!”  Invariably, when one kid would say “Wow! That was close!” another kid would pipe up and say, “Close only counts in horseshoes!” As you all know, you don’t have to make a “ringer” to score at the game of horseshoes–you can get points just for coming close. 

Well, when it comes to eternal life–close doesn’t count.

To experience the full impact of God’s love and grace in our life requires a full commitment to God’s control of our life.

There is a great danger in not fully trusting God

in your life.  It is amazing how many “excuses” a person can come up with to try to side-step the “costly commitment” of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Following Jesus costs much more than most are willing to pay.  So, they make excuses for not following Jesus fully.  There is great danger in not fully trusting the Lord with your life.  The Scripture tells us of three dangers lurking in our excuses for not following the Lord:

⁵⁷ As they were traveling on the road someone said to Him,  “I will follow You wherever You go!” ⁵⁸ Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky  have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” ⁵⁹ Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”

“Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.” ⁶⁰ But He told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.” ⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Three men – three excuses.

So typical of what we hear today in churches–“I will, but . . .”

Jesus words regarding a “Yes, but” attitude cut to the quick:

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

     

Wow!  That Smarts.  Jesus isn’t very tolerant of excuses.

If you haven’t learned already, you soon will that

“a person who is good at making excuses is seldom good

for anything else.”

Excuse-making places you in perilous territory.

Shallow commitment is a dangerous position.  Consider 3 examples:

1.  First, the UNCOUNTED COST (57-58)

⁵⁷ As they were traveling on the road someone said to Him,  “I will follow You wherever You go!” ⁵⁸ Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky  have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.

Jesus was a master at thinning out the crowds.

What was he thinking?  Here was an “enthusiastic volunteer” apparently willing to follow Jesus “wherever Jesus went!”  Why then was Jesus so direct and harsh?  Because Jesus knew that temporary enthusiasm is no substitute for thoughtful commitment.  Crowds always followed Jesus.  But, they could scatter as fast as they gathered as soon as the road gets a little bumpy.

We live in a world that seeks “instant gratification.”

Many people come to church to “feel good.”  Certainly, there is nothing wrong with “feeling good,” but the emphasis in the Church that Jesus is building is “doing good.” 

People who join the church for what it

can do for them never become the kind of disciples that Jesus is calling–disciples that will pay the price.  Jesus is not calling us to “feel good,” but to “do good.”  Doing good requires that one count the cost of following Jesus and then make a willing commitment to pay the price.  As Jesus looked into this man’s heart, Jesus realized he had not “counted the cost.”  The “uncounted cost” places a person in the perilous position of thinking all is well with their soul when in fact it is not.

Toward the end of His ministry on earth

Jesus sharpened His messages on commitment.  On one occasion Jesus turned to his disciples and spoke of the final judgement saying:

^{Mat 25:31} “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels  ^q with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  ³² All the nations  ^t will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  ³³ He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom  prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you took care of Me; I was in prison and you visited Me.’

Jesus continued saying

{41}"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. {42} For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, {43} I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

The difference in the two groups is that the first

counted the cost of commitment and participated with Jesusin the Kingdom.  The second group, on the left, were likethe man in our original text who wanted to sign-up in theArmy of the Lord, but had not “counted the cost.”

The first example of shallow commitment we face in our text is the example of  the “uncounted cost” – temporary enthusiasm without lasting commitment.

Nobody should consider becoming a Christian unless theyare willing to follow Christ fully—including persecution and perhaps death.  Christianity is not for “sissies.”  The cost of commitment is high.

There is great danger in the UNCOUNTED COST.

2.  Second, the example of the UNBURIED CORPSE (59-60)

Again, Jesus confronts a prospective disciple.

This time the disciple agrees to follow Jesus after he takes care of some personal business.  Again, the words of the Lord are sharp and to the point.  Jesus declares:

Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

At first blush, the words of Jesus seem heartless and cruel.  Some scholars have attempted to soften the Lord’s words by suggesting that this was merely a “smokescreen”–an empty excuse.  Some Biblical commentators suggest that the man’s father was neither dead, nor near death. 

      But, the Scripture says what it means and means what it says.  Jesus was well aware of the local customs.  Jesus knew that it was a religious and social duty of the son to provide burial services for his father.  In fact, burying your father, according to Jewish law, took precedent over studying the law, killing the Passover sacrifice, or fulfilling the rite of circumcision.  Jesus knew the importance of this man’s worldly obligations.  Yet, Jesus said what He said, anyway.

The whole point of the passage is simply this:

To experience the full impact of God’s love and grace in our life

 requires a full commitment to God’s control of our life.

Service to God must be our “top priority.”

To follow Jesus requires a radical change in allegience.

Following Jesus may even cost us the companionship of friends

or family.

One writer sums up these two verses very well.  He says,

“Obligations due to the world must yield to those due God.” V. Doren

The words of Jesus reveal the man’s dilemma.

“Let the dead bury the dead.”

      Jesus recognized the battle that was raging inside this prospective disciple.  The man wanted to follow Jesus, but he didn’t want to give up the life to which he had become accustomed.  He want it all: the things of God and the things of the world.  Sadly, no one can have both.

As William Barclay points out,

“The man had stirrings in his heart to get out of his spiritually dead surroundings” but because he hesitated, he never escapes.

Did you know that psychologists have identified clinically what many of us have learned through experience?  If we have a feeling or stirring to do something and we do not act upon it at that time, we most likely will never act on it at all.

For example, how many times have you felt the desire to write someone a letter, send a card, or make a phone call to give them encouragement.  We put it off until tomorrow, and more often than not, we never do it at all.  Psychologists say that when we do this the emotion of the moment becomes a substitute for the action itself.

Jesus very pointedly suggested to the man, and to you and I,

that we either act upon the stirring in our heart today and make a full, unreserved break from our past lives, or perhaps we never will.  If we do not make a complete break with the world, we will forever carry around the unburied corpse of our past.

In a moment, I am going to ask you to make

a complete break with the world and give yourselves completely

and unreservedly to Jesus.  I’m going to ask you to bury

the corpse of your worldly ways here at the altar of God’s Church.

An UNCOUNTED COST and an UNBURIED CORPSE

are evidence of a dangerous, shallow commitment to Christ.

3.  Third example, the UNFORSAKEN INFLUENCES (61-62)

⁶¹ Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.” ⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

UNFORSAKEN INFLUENCES.

This is much like the previous man.  An unwillingness to choose Jesus Christ over friends and family.  In the previous example the things of the world-- wealth, social standing, tradition–kept the man from making a full commitment to Christ.  Here, the excuse is family and friends.  An unwillingness to be unpopular with the world.

We here a lot about “peer pressure” and teenagers.

I want to tell you that it is NOT ONLY

teenagers that suffer the ill-affects of peer pressure.  Don’t raise your hands, please.  But, what if I were to ask you: are you as excited about Jesus Christ on the job or in the marketplace as you are when you are in church?  I wonder what kind of response I would get if I did a survey of your friends and fellow-workers.  What if I asked them about your behavior or language on the job?  Would I be embarrassed by their answers.  Better yet—would Jesus be embarrassed by your demeanor in the marketplace?

I know, if you live for Jesus on the job,

people may make fun of you.  People may avoid you.  People may even persecute you.  But, listen to what Jesus said,

(Mat 19:29)  And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Some of you are not experiencing the full impact of

your relationship with God because you have UNFORSAKEN INFLUENCES.  Some of you are not experiencing the full impact of a relationship with God because you care more about what your friends and family think than what God thinks. 

I’m not suggesting that FORSAKING FELLOWSHIPS

is easy.  I’m only telling you that it is necessary.  We can be friends, and should be friendly, with people who are not in God’s family, but our closest, most cherished, and most valuable relationships must be with others who have given their lives to Jesus Christ.

Discipleship is costly, but a shallow commitment is deadly.

Jesus shows us this through the example of the UNCOUNTED COST, the UNBURIED CORPSE, and the UNFORSAKEN FELLOWSHIPS.

That’s why I say, “Discipleship isn’t for sissies!”

Some of you a close to a full commitment to the Lord.

You’ve had stirrings in you hearts.  You’ve been close to

coming down the aisle and making a full and total commitment

or rededication of your life–you’ve been close, but

close only counts in horseshoes.

To be Almost Persuaded means entirely lost.

It doesn’t matter if you miss heaven by an inch or by a mile.

Close, Almost just isn’t good enough.

One of the greatest hymn-writers and soloists

in the 19^th Century was a man by the name of Philip Bliss.  History records that in the 1870's sinners by the thousands walked the sawdust trail in revival meetings to give their lives to Christ as Philip Bliss sang his songs.

      One of his famous hymns, familiar to many of us, Bliss wrote while waiting in a station for a train.  He wrote:

“Almost persuaded” now to receive;

“Almost persuaded” Christ to receive;

Seems now some soul to say,

“Go, Spirit, go Thy way,

“Some more convenient day,

On thee I’ll call.”

      Bliss took his lyrics from Acts 26:28 when Paul stood before King Agrippa, greatgrandson of Herod, being tried for crimes against the state.  Agrippa said sarcastically to Paul, “Almost thou persaudest me to be a Christian.”  Upon that statement of missed opportunity, Bliss built his great hymn while waiting for a train.

      Ironically, only a short time later while travelling Bliss and his wife were in a train accident returning home to Chicago.  Bliss tore away the debris of the burning twisted wreckage to free himself.  Not finding his wife, he tore his way back in only to die with her at her side.

We never know when some “calamity” may

snatch us from this world.  We must be ready.  We must be fully persuaded to be fully saved.  Almost Persuaded will leave us entirely lost.

When it comes to salvation: Close only counts in horseshoes.

Let’s Pray.