Good morning. Morning.
Hey, if I am a new face to you, welcome.
My name is Grant, and I'm one of the pastors here at the church.
If you are new today, today just might be the absolute best day
to be new here at the church. And if you can, if you have the
time, if you would like to, we would love to have lunch with
you. And so it's already been
announced. But let me just take a second to
say, hey, it would just be a delight and an honor to meet
with you here in this youth room, which if you don't know,
that's great. Fine.
It's just the room at the back of the sanctuary here and we
would love to have have a meal with you, tell you a little bit
about us and hear a little bit about who you are.
So it's just a good opportunity to connect.
Now here's the thing. Some of you might be sitting
here and going well, how new do you have to be like?
This isn't my first Sunday and here's my here's here's what I
came to. I I came here as pastor is
September 1st, one year ago, so just over.
It's been just over a year. So if you're newer than me, we'd
love to have you. And even if not, listen, if we
gotta order pizza, great. But we just want this to feel
like an open invitation. There's no check box, no
security standing at the door, nobody going like, OK, yeah,
three weeks, three times here doesn't count.
OK, alright. So if you've shown up since I've
been here, we would love to connect with you, tell you a
little bit about the church. And if you've got questions for
me and for some of the other pastors and staff, great.
So that's it. We are working our way through
the Gospel of Luke and we've come to a, a passage that in my
mind really, I think is one of the reasons why I really enjoy
preaching like this. So we began in Luke 1 and we are
reading every single verse through the entire book.
This is Luke's biography of the life of Jesus.
And the reason, one of the reasons, one of many reasons why
I like doing a book like this from beginning to end is that it
makes us read every single line, even the ones that make us
uncomfortable, even the ones that we really would rather not
read, even the ones that we would personally tend to try to
avoid. And this, I think the end of
Luke Chapter 9 is one of those verses.
There are lines that challenge us and that sound a little bit
harsh. And you're like, Jesus, we're,
you know, not quite sure what you're saying.
And the challenge that it puts on my life, on our lives, you
know, maybe that makes us a little bit uncomfortable.
And so in my mind, this really is one of the best reasons I
think to read through a book like this, because it does allow
you, cause you even force you to confront some of these passages
and some of these verses that can feel challenging.
So that's just, you know, not much of but a little bit of a
disclaimer as we begin this morning reading through Luke 9,
the last few verses in my Bible, this is called the cost of
following Jesus. It's versus 57 through the end
of that chapter. You can see kind of how far
through the book of Luke or the Bible we are rather.
But let me pray and then we're going to read this slowly and
then work our way through. My coffee is hot.
Sorry, that's what that was about.
Let's pray, God, thanks for your love and thank you for your
grace and thanks that you're with us.
And thank you that you invite us into this slowed down way of
being gay. We're grateful to gather and and
lift high the name of Jesus and sing praises about who you are.
God, thanks for turning our hearts and our minds toward you.
And you got things that you meet each one of us like don't have
to have been a a Christian or a churchgoer forever.
Yeah, you meet each one of us along the road and you challenge
us to take a next step. So God, whether that next step
is a first step, I would pray. Jesus, would you do it?
Would you speak to us whether it's a new step or an old step?
Yeah, whether it's something that we've been sensing you
challenging us to do and to take and to move for a long time.
Would you, would you speak that word to us as well?
So as we read this, would we find ourselves in it?
But more than that guy, would we find you in it, and would you
remind us of whose we are? In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
So today I'm reading from the ESV, which may be different than
your Bibles, and that's fine. I chose this, this version today
for one word, literally one word in the entirety of what we're
going to read. And I'll mention it when we get
there, but this is how it sounds.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I
will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, follow me,
But he said, Lord, first let me go and bury my father.
Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead, but
As for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.
Yet another said, I will follow you Lord, but let me first say
farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who
puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
Kingdom of God. I heard in a sermon actually
fairly recently, and I just listened, Disclaimer, like, yes,
I also listened to sermons. I heard a pastor friend of mine
tell this story and it was a story that he had read in a
book. And I'm pretty sure it's a
made-up story. But the story goes like this.
There's a husband and wife on their wedding day who have
planned for this day for a long time.
And you can imagine how it's, you know, taking them the better
part of a year to get ready and to prepare and to go and to buy
the suit that usually takes less time.
But to go and find, like, the perfect dress.
And the guest list has been written and made and they've
spent hours deciding who's gonna sit where at what table, because
that's something you have to do. And they get to their wedding
day and everything is going perfectly.
The ceremony was just absolutely incredible.
It was everything that they hoped for.
And the guests, all of them, were now sitting around tables.
Every single person was getting along like life was great.
And the husband and wife, they're sitting at their table
and they finally get a couple of minutes just to themselves to
talk and to kind of take it all in.
What an amazing day. And in that moment, the husband
leans over to his new bride and asks her this question.
What is the least that I can do in order to still stay married
to you? What's the least that I can do?
Now? Listen, like you don't have to
be married to know how that conversation goes from there.
Like I said, I'm fairly certain it's a made-up story, but that's
beside the point. What is the least that I could
do to still stay married to you? Like I hope and pray none of you
wrestle out that question. In his book on discipleship,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this line and it's been haunting me
this week. He said it is becoming clear
every day that the most urgent problem besetting our church is
this. How can we live the Christian
life in the modern world? Now if you know anything about
Bonhoeffer, he knew what it was like to live a Christian life in
for him. What was Modern World and in his
book called The Cost of Discipleship, where he wrestles
out the cost that the discipleship has, that the
gospel has, that grace carries with it the cost of Jesus's life
and his death and his resurrection.
If you know the story of Bonhoeffer's life, you may know
that him for him, the cost was his own death.
Proclaiming the gospel, being a Christian, having a Christian
witness in the world led him toward his own death.
That question by Bonhoeffer was posed in that book in 1937.
But I still think that it's one of the most important questions
you can ask yourself as a follower of Jesus.
And it's one of the most important answers that you can
prayerfully come to as a follower of Jesus.
And I think for us as a church, one of the most important
questions that we can ask ourselves is how do we live the
Christian life in the modern world?
Because I think you can ask that question, or at least you can
chase down answers in two very different ways.
And the one sounds a lot like that husband on his wedding day.
What do I need to do in order to still call myself a Christian in
this modern world? In other words, what I mean is
this, What is the least I can do and still get away with calling
myself a Christian? You can ask that form of the
question, what is the least I can do?
Or you can ask, how am I called to live my life out as a witness
to the resurrection of Jesus, as an ambassador to the Kingdom of
God every single day as I enter our modern world?
Now, those are two very different questions, and I think
they lead to two very different answers.
But I have never more been convinced than I am today that
we need fully formed followers of Jesus who are spiritually
mature, who are emotionally mature, pursuing Jesus in
relationship with others, living out their life on mission within
the growing Kingdom of God in our world.
I'm convinced that what we need are people whose lives are
transformed by Jesus and who then carry that transformation
into our world. But in order to get to that
place, I think each one of us needs to wrestle out that
question, How do I live as a Christian in our modern world?
In his book called In the Name of Jesus, which is a great book,
Henry Nowen offers this framework for Christian life and
leadership for pastors. Yes, for sure, but he poses 3
challenges to what it means or how you ought to be a pastor,
leader, Christian in the world. And then what he does is he
poses 3 practices that kind of counter form or push against
those three challenges. And So what I thought this week
in preparation as I was wrestling out this passage is
this might be the closest. Again, I say this a couple times
a year. Closest thing to a three-point
sermon you're going to get from me.
What I want to do for us today is name three challenges that I
think we face when we are confronted by living a Christian
life in the modern world, when we are confronted by Jesus's
call to follow me. And then what I want to do is
suggest 3 practices that will push against those challenges
and help, I hope, encourage all of us to live life out on
mission in the world. So the first challenge, that's
how we're going to go. Challenge Practice.
The first challenge is the challenge of comfort, and I
think these are three challenges that are posed by the text.
These are three challenges that arise in Jesus teaching.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, Now
this someone, this one word is the reason why I chose for us to
read from the SV today. Because your Bible might say a
man, it might say someone, it might say a person said to him,
I will follow you wherever you go.
This is a bold declaration. Jesus, I will follow you
wherever you go. Someone comes to Jesus.
As Jesus is going along the road, someone comes to him and
that's someone. Listen, that's someone.
Could be me, that someone could be you.
Someone comes to him and says, Jesus, I will follow you
wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes
have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Man has nowhere to lay his head. I think we you face the
challenge of comfort and the modern version of this challenge
says, I'll follow you, Jesus, as long as I can still build all of
my savings and hold on to them and do with them what I please.
As long as I can choose my own career path, As long as I can
enjoy the things that I've always enjoyed.
As long as I can continue doing the things that make me
comfortable. As long as I can still have the
house and the cars and the life that I picture.
Jesus, I'll follow you as long as you give me all these other
things that I hope for and and long for and that I think are
good in this life. Jesus, I'll, I'll follow you.
Just don't challenge me or call me or ask me to step out of my
own comfort zone. Don't make me give anything up.
Please don't make me experience anything that I don't like.
Toward the middle of this chapter, Chapter 9, we see Jesus
set his face toward Jerusalem, turns his face, turns his body,
turns his being toward Jerusalem and moves in that direction.
And as he is going in that direction, as Jesus is moving
toward Jerusalem, this someone comes to Jesus and declares
Jesus, I'm gonna follow you wherever you're going.
I'm not quite sure where it is, but I'm gonna attach my life to
yours. They want in.
They, they say, listen, Jesus, say I'll, I'll follow you.
It's this great affirmation of faith.
I'll follow you wherever you go, wherever you're going.
I'm going to. I'm with you, Jesus.
My life is connected to yours. But Jesus responds with caution.
Jesus kind of puts the brakes on, Jesus cautions.
He says, listen, foxes have holes and birds have there.
They've got nests, they've got homes, they have comforts, they
have places where they will stay and and remain.
I have none of those things, he says.
The Son of Man does not move toward comfort.
He says. I have nowhere to lay my head at
this point. These would be disciples and,
and even the disciple disciples, those who have been with Jesus
for a long time, they don't know the fullness of where Jesus is
going. They don't know all that is
going to happen in Jerusalem. They don't know what exactly is
in store for Jesus or for them. All they know is that Jesus is
going in a particular direction. He is moving and they must also
follow, literally walk behind and go where he goes.
If they want to learn from him, they must be with him.
So they must move in that same direction.
And Jesus cautions he says, listen, it is not a road that is
comfortable. It is in fact quite
uncomfortable. Now you don't need to put up
your hand, but who here likes a little bit of certainty in life?
Who likes having a plan? Like how many of you university
students like show up and you're like, hey, I'm not only do I
have the next one, three or five years of my life planned out,
but like the five years after university.
The great thing of university is that within those one three or
five years, all of your other plans get messed up.
Like, listen, I'm not the first person to say that I like love a
10 year plan or a 15 year plan or like everything like, but I
like certainty. I like to know that whatever
direction we're going, like there's an actual end.
And please tell me what it is. Don't make it a surprise.
I I want to know that when we get there, there's going to be a
warm bed and a hot meal and a shower.
Like I like to know that where I'm headed is worth the pain
that it is gonna take to get there.
And Jesus doesn't offer any of that reassurance to this would
be follower. In fact, he cautions everything
toward the opposite. There is no place, nowhere that
I will build to lay my head. We are going to move.
We are going to continue to move.
There's going to be change and there's going to be continued
need for more change. Life on the road with Jesus is a
life of movement and of change and of growth, growth.
And it is uncomfortable. Jesus will always be moving
toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem, where Jesus died and
was raised, and where when we go, as we go, as we arrive, we
behold our own salvation and the salvation of the entire world.
And it is an uncomfortable journey because it is one that
asks of you and even demands of you to let go.
We're going to see that in a minute and turn and continually
follow behind Jesus. But the uncomfort, the
discomfort is all in the name of getting you to the foot of the
cross. The great thing is that like
along the way, and I love this, whenever I sit with someone
toward the end of their life, like for so many people, this is
what they speak to. Along the way, you will discover
that Jesus is leading you to places that you'd really rather
not go. Along the way, you are convicted
and confronted with the worst parts of who you are, your own
sin and your own brokenness. You're challenged to have honest
and vulnerable conversations with those you've hurt and those
who have hurt you along the way. You have to surrender and let go
of the pieces of your life to Jesus, even the ones that you'd
really rather not share with anyone.
But along that way, you're also going to discover that you are
freed from your past and that you can lay down guilt and
shame. And that you can pick up love
and grace. You can receive and give
forgiveness. Along the way, you'll find that
you are made into a new person, and along the way you're gonna
begin to experience joy again, The life that is really life,
the life that leads to life, to life to its fullest, fullest
measure. Life abundant is found on the
road following Jesus, especially when the road is uncomfortable.
And so when we come to a passage like this, we find ourselves
again like sitting in this tension.
The fullest measure of life is found on the road following
Jesus, and very often that road leads us to places that I don't
want to go, to confront things we'd rather forget.
Because Jesus says, listen, I have come so that you may have
life and have it to the full. But he also said, take up your
cross and follow me. Jesus said, take my yoke upon
you and learn from me, for I am gentle and I'm humble and heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
That's what we read at the beginning of the service.
Are you weary, broken, burned out?
Our own religions just says come to me and you'll find rest for
your souls. But he also says the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head. Are you ready and willing to
pick up discomfort to follow Jesus?
So that's the challenge. One practice that I want to
suggest for you to confront the challenge of comfort in your own
life is the practice of generosity.
Learn to live with a generous spirit.
Learn to live with a generous spirit toward others.
Learn to live with a generous spirit toward yourself.
Learn to give. Learn to forgive.
Practice it over and over again. It's going to feel awkward at
the beginning. You might even hate it along the
way. But at some point Jesus is going
to free you up to give, and then to give again, and to give more,
and to lean in and to learn the rhythm and habit of open handed
generosity. What is gonna push against my
wanting to follow Jesus while still grasping at the things
that make me comfortable in my life is learning to become more
generous in giving away more and letting go of things like
convenience and security and possession and lifestyle.
Learning to focus more on what I give than what I receive.
And ultimately, I think at the end of the day, what generosity
does is it causes us to realize and to embrace and to enjoy and
to sit with the fact that the gospel was not, at the end of
the day, just for me. It's for you, and it's for your
family and three friends and your coworkers and for your
neighbors, even the ones that you don't like and you don't get
along with, especially those. So practice generosity.
The second challenge I think that we're confronted with in
this passage is the challenge of priority.
So to another he that's Jesus said again, follow me.
But he, the man, said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.
And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead.
But As for you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God, let me first
bury my Father. Listen, I read this one and I
go, Jesus, Are you sure about like this sounds harsh.
Like I don't understand you sit in pastoral care class because
it doesn't. This wasn't on the curriculum.
Like this wasn't part of our reading and I wrestle it out.
So what was it for a son to bury a father in Jesus Day was the
absolute number one priority responsibility considered by
Jews. One of the most holy and binding
obligations that a son had to his father was to see that that
man was buried when he died. And there were a number of
different things that would happen again in Jesus Day.
There were a couple of different burials.
There was the initial burial at the time that the a person died,
they were buried, they were put in a tomb like Jesus was after
his death. And what would happen is the
body would decay and that would be a year.
First burial would be one year. And after that one year, they
would just be bones left and those bones would be taken out
and they would be placed in a box.
And then that box after one year would be buried permanently.
So that was a second burial. And and so there's a couple
different a couple different options here.
This man comes to Jesus. Jesus says, Hey, follow me and
he immediately responds, he says, Lord, first let me go.
Now it could be that the father has just died like this is
imminent, like immediate. This is in the midst of, you
know, what's going on. It could be that he literally
has to go and bury his father into that first tomb.
A lot of people suggest that that's the least likely
scenario. It could be that his his
father's already died and he's within that one year period of
waiting where after which he will take all of the bones out
and bury them permanently. Could be that he's asking Jesus
for about a year up to a year. Or it could be that his father
is not dead yet and he is just waiting as the Son is saying,
hey, Jesus, this is my #1 priority in life.
So you need you need to let me do this before I will follow
you. And many people agree that
that's, you know, potentially some of the most powerful
argument for what's going on here.
I think regardless of where that this man is, what he is saying
that Jesus is Jesus First, let me do this, what I would
consider my number one priority in life.
First, allow me to go and bury my Father.
Let me wait until he dies. Let me bury him.
Let me wait the year. It it doesn't matter.
And so Jesus's response seems harsh.
Leave the dead to bury their own dead.
But As for you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God, I don't
think that Jesus is like kicking this guy while he's down or you
know, beating upon some guy for grieving the death of his of his
father. I think at the end of the day,
what Jesus is doing is challenging his priorities.
He's challenging this man's priorities, this man who wants
to follow Jesus but is conflicted inwardly.
He also wants to do this thing that is good.
He he wants to bury his dad. And so this man is is conflicted
internally and Jesus is simply asking him, what are you willing
to give up in order to follow me?
Are you willing to reprioritize your life if that's what I call
you to in order to follow me? I think what Jesus is saying to
this do is, hey, listen, like the train is leaving the
station. I love for you to be on it, but
this thing is moving whether you are on it or not.
And so I think the challenge for us, the challenge of priority is
to ask ourselves and to allow others to ask ourselves, ask of
us, what do you prioritize in this life?
What gets your time? What gets your attention?
What gets your affection? What gets your best energy?
What gets your most focus? What do you spend your greatest
resources on? And I think you can pretty
simply just begin by looking at how much time and how much money
is dedicated to your priorities. What do you prioritize in this
life? One of the challenges in this
passage is Jesus isn't asking this man to prioritize him over
like the devil. Jesus is saying this actually
reorganizes your best and good priorities in life.
All of it submitted. And so I want to offer this
practice, the practice of surrender.
This is the practice that Jesus himself demonstrated in the
garden when he prayed. God, not my will, but yours be
done. It's found in the prayer that
Jesus taught us to pray when he says pray like this, your
Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is, as it is in
heaven. And again, the challenge of that
prayer isn't to pray it like generally like, yes, God, like
your Kingdom come on earth out there.
That's a good prayer, but that's a distant prayer.
It's not like your will be done out there.
Look how bad everybody is. Look how against there.
I'm sorry, always point over at you all and I'm just realizing
that now to pray your Kingdom come, your will be done out
there doesn't affect me in here. What Jesus is saying is no, your
will be done in my life, Your will over my will.
That's the prayer. Your Kingdom come over all of
the little mini kingdoms that I'm trying to build over all of
the things that I'm trying to prioritize and organize in my
life. God, your Kingdom come.
Wipe out what needs to be wiped out.
Push out what needs to be gone. None of it.
That's what it looks like to surrender.
CS Lewis wrote that the proper good of a creature is to
surrender itself to its creator. When it does so, it is good and
happy. And then he writes.
He says since I am I, I must make an act of self surrender
however small or however easy in living to God rather than
myself. So here's the thing, like don't
get caught up in like, how do I surrender the whole thing?
I'm going like this week. What's one thing that you can
surrender on Monday? What's one thing you can
surrender on Tuesday? How can you present your will to
God on Wednesday and say change it?
However that needs to happen again?
I think the challenge of this second call isn't that Jesus is
calling you to follow and priority prioritize Him over all
of like evil and wickedness and ways of the world and sin and
death. He is, but He actually
challenges us to prioritize Him over even the best things in
life. And the irony is that the more
relentlessly you pursue Jesus, the better you become in those
other areas of your life. And this isn't, don't get it
mixed up. This isn't like if you follow
Jesus, he's gonna make you rich. If you follow Jesus, he's gonna
make you powerful. If you follow Jesus, you're
gonna get your will, you know, arranged.
And then it will come to fruition.
Don't mistake it for that. That's not what I'm saying.
What I am saying is what I know to be true, and that is the more
relentlessly I pursue Jesus, the better a husband I am to my
wife, and the more faithful I am and surrendering my will and my
want to Jesus, the better father I am to my three daughters.
That's it. Those relationships are
healthier as you learn to surrender all of them to Jesus.
So learn to surrender your will, your want, your desire, your
Kingdom, your priorities to Jesus daily #2 #3 this is the
challenge of history. So to 1/3 who says to Jesus, I
will follow you Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at
my home. Jesus said to him, No one who
puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
Kingdom of God. I know we probably have some
farmers in here, right? We're Guelph.
We probably got some students in agriculture in here.
But let me let me do a little bit of translation for you.
When I sit in my car and I'm driving along the highway and I
got two hands on the steering wheel and my kids are chucking
stuff at the back of my head. One of them is hungry, one of
them has to pee, and the other one is just, you know, being the
other one. I love them all dearly, but when
we're 203 hundred, 400 kilometres into a long road
trip, it does not matter how straight I have driven for the
last 203 hundred, 400 kilometers, the moment I look
back and try to attend to what's going on back here, what's gonna
happen to my car? It's going in that direction
too. Now listen, I maybe you have a
fancier car than me and it does the self driving thing and you
can let go of the steering wheel for a few seconds and turn
around and do that. The point remains.
What Jesus is saying is, hey, you're moving in a direction.
We are moving in a specific direction, and that direction is
toward Jerusalem. It is toward the cross, it is
toward your salvation, it is toward the Kingdom.
It is toward the Kingdom coming. And the more often you're doing
this, looking back behind at what has happened, the more off
course you are going to drive, or in this case, plow till along
a field. It doesn't matter how straight
you've gone, as soon as you go, you're going to move now.
I don't know why we do this, but I know a few reasons why human
beings really tend to look back and and I think the first reason
is because we're enamored with the past.
Like we look back because maybe we think, hey, things were
better back when I remember the good old days, right?
We look back with fondness to remember it's not in and of
itself a horrible thing. I think churches are great at
doing this. We have a fascination with the
past. Why?
Because in part, we want to honor and be thankful for all of
the Saints who have gone before us on whose shoulders we stand.
Like we KPC this church. 45 years of faithful followers of
Jesus who have worked to build what we now get to enjoy and
live into and steward. 45 years of prayer and studying scripture
and worshipping Jesus and having a missional witness in our city.
But here's the danger with looking back.
We can worship the past and the path can become an idol, and we
can spend our days longing for and waiting for something to
come that's just never going to. And Jesus says, hey, life inside
the Kingdom of God, you need to look toward where I am leading
you, where Jesus is leading you. So I think we look back because
we're in America, the past. We also look back because of the
hurts and the wounds that you may carry that we carry.
And so you look back and you focus on what has been.
Not because you're fascinated and enamored and thankful for
it, but you look back and dwell and hold and carry forward the
ways in which you've been hurt and harmed, and maybe even the
ways in which you've harmed and hurt others.
And so those hurts, those wounds are so loud in the back of your
head that you spend most of your time looking back and dwelling
on them. I think one of the greatest
challenges of history, and the third one that I'll give is not
allowing Jesus to get ahold of every aspect of your life.
So why do you look back? Because you get something out of
it. There's a piece of your life
that you're still holding on to, be it positive or negative, be
it resentment, be it something that you're just refused to
allow under the control of God. And so maybe it sounds like
this. Jesus, I'll follow you, but let
me keep this coping mechanism. Jesus, I'll follow you, but just
let me keep this little addiction like I'll follow you.
I'm moving where you're moving, like we're going in this
direction. But just allow me this one
indulgence over here. And I know it's not healthy and
I know it doesn't lead to life. And I know it's harming my
relationship with you, and I know it's harming my
relationship with others and I know it's harming my family.
But like I enjoy it. It makes me feel good.
So can I just keep this thing? I promise for all the other
areas of life, we're going to go where you're you're going.
Just let me first. Let me first do this.
Let me continue to listen. At the end of the day, I believe
that you were designed to and that you want to respond to
Jesus's call. Like the first disciples.
Like the first disciples who got out of their boat and left a
whole miraculous catch of fish and followed Jesus.
Like other fishermen who hopped out of their boat and left their
dad behind and turned and followed Jesus.
Not like these would be disciples.
I believe that you want to respond like Peter, who abandons
his profession, and James and John, and like Matthew, who gets
up and leaves his entire career behind in order to follow Jesus.
At the end of the day, I think that is something that you want
to do and I want to do and we're created for.
We want to have the strength and the willpower to leave
everything behind and follow Jesus.
But inwardly, so often we're in conflict.
We want to follow the way of Jesus, and we also want to
follow our own way. This is Paul who writes Listen,
I don't understand it. I do not do the good that I want
to do, but the evil I do not wanna do.
I keep doing it like I keep struggling with this thing and
then he says now. If I do what I do not want, it's
no longer I who do it, but it is sin that dwells inside of me.
Each one of these would be disciples wants to follow Jesus,
but they wanna do it with their own conditions attached.
They wanna do it with their own sort of way of being, being
incorporated into the way of Jesus when we have conditions
attached. When you have conditions
attached to following Jesus, Jesus might be your friend when
you need him. He might be your comfort when
times are troubling. He might bring you peace when
storms rise and rage around you. But, Bonhoeffer writes, he will
never be the Lord of your whole life.
He may be your help in trouble, but he will never be Lord of
your whole life until you unattach your conditions, until
you release the thing that he's been calling you to release.
And so for the challenge of history, I wanna pose this
weirdly worded, awkward practice of curious obedience.
I like curiosity. Curiosity is not cynicism.
It is not bitterness. It is not worried.
It's not anxiety. It's not fear.
It's not what if it's not what might happen?
It's you had what might happen. I'm waiting to see what you'll
do when, What would life look like if.
And I think one of the most powerful things you can do is
learn to ask God what He might do as He convicts you to let go
of your your conditions if you surrender the part of your life
that you've been holding back. And in this curiosity, in this
wonder, in this waiting, what is one step of obedience that
you're being invited to take? What one step are you being
asked to make? What's the thing that's been
weighing you down and holding you back?
What's the thing that you're thinking of in this moment?
Like, what are the beliefs that you cling to to tightly?
What are the behaviors that you want to surrender to Jesus but
haven't? Jesus wants you to go with him
to Jerusalem, where we will all behold our salvation and the
salvation of the world. But in order to get you there
freely and lightly, there are some things that you need to let
you're going to have to let go of along the way.
There are some things that you are going to need to surrender
as you go, and they're gonna look like sin and they're going
to look like shame, and they're gonna look like resentment and
bitterness and the things of your past and the priorities
that are all mixed up and upside down.
And maybe even a greater challenge still are the good
things in life that you know, still need to be surrendered to
the will of God. So for the challenge of comfort,
generosity, for the challenge of priority, surrender, and for the
challenge of history, curiosity and obedience, Let me pray.
God, thank you for your love and for your grace.
Thank you that. And at the end of the day, like
these are the words that you speak to us.
They're words. Come follow me, take my yoke
upon you. Learn from me, I am gentle and
humble and heart and you will find rest for your souls.
God thanks that the gospel feels like that, thinks that your love
does that in our lives. So, God, I would pray that you
would challenge us and that you would encourage us to learn
these practices of surrender, of generosity, of obedience, of
curiosity, that, yeah, we'd respond to your love and your
grace by letting go of these things that you long for us to
let go of and thanks that as we do, there is hope and there is
freedom and there is joy and there is life abundant on the
other side. So, yeah, I would pray like for
the person who's really wrestling saying like, I know
I've got to let go of this thing.
And I know that that's going to mean a hard, a hard
conversation. And I know that's going to mean
a difficult Rd. at first at I would pray.
Would you release them from fear and from anxiety and from worry?
And would you speak life into them God, for those of us who
need to actually let go of and wrestle with like the depths of
our own sin and the the power and wonder of your forgiveness
and what it means to embrace life for the first time inside
of a a good and healthy and right and established
relationship with you got our prey.
Would you convict our hearts? Would you remind us that we need
you, and would you give us a glimpse of the hope and the life
that there is on the other side of knowing you forgotten all
these things? We pray the strongest name, the
name of Jesus, Amen.