I've Gone Too Far To Look Back

“I’ve Gone Too Far to Look Back”

12/29/24 a.m. Luke 9:51-62

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I hope you had good food, good family and good fellowship.

Well, we’ve made it to the last Sunday of 2024. It’s been quite a year hasn’t it? A lot of UPS and a few DOWNS. Some GAINS and some LOSSES. TRIUMPHS and TRIALS!!!

Listen, I’m not what you’d consider old but I’m not what you’d consider young either. I’m pretty much PAST my mid life but I am still planning on having a MID-LIFE CRISIS. I’m hoping it will be a lot of FUN.

ILLUS: I wanted to tell you about a fellow who was going through a MID-LIFE CRISIS. He went to the barber shop and got his hair cut in the style of the young guys. He bought new IN STYLE clothes and shoes. He sold his Lincoln and bought a Corvette convertible. He learned the new LINGO and how to talk like the younger folks. And then he put his plan into action. He went to a restaurant where he knew a pretty young waitress worked. She came to take his order and asked what he would like and he said, “I’ll take you. Where have you been all of my life.” She looked at him and said, “Listen pops, I wasn’t even born for the first 40 years of your life.”

I’m just kidding folks. I’m not gonna have a mid-life crisis. I’m too happy with what God has blessed me with to try to change anything.

And listen, I’m to the point where I have more behind me than in front of me. And a lot of you all are in the same boat.

But this time of year we often do LOOK BACK. Look back over the YEAR, the DECADE or SEVERAL DECADES. And by looking back we RELIVE the past both GOOD and BAD. I CHERISH some of the memories I have and I CRINGE over others.

This morning I want to read out of the Book of Luke Chapter 9 and we’ll read Verses 51-62.

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

57 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

When I look back over time I relive the past. And there’s really nothing wrong with that. Memories are blessings from God. But in this passage Jesus says something that gets our attention. He says, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

What does Jesus mean by that? What was He talking about? We’ll get into what Jesus was saying to us here but before we do, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

Brother ______, would you lead us?

In this passage Jesus gave us three, little, short, two Verse examples, to EMPHASIZE what He wanted us to get. THREE TIMES someone SAID they were ready to follow Him. And THREE TIMES Jesus answered them. And we’re going to look at His answers but before we do I want to point out a couple of things.

A. So let’s look at Verse 51,

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”