Look Both Ways Before Crossing

TITLE: LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING

SCRIPTURE: ST. LUKE 14:25-33

I want to lift up this morning as a thought – Look Ways Before Crossing. This has always been sound advice. Matter of fact it is one of the earliest recollections of instructions that I have as a child. I can recall hearing the instructions to Look Ways Before Crossing. The advice was drilled into me and my siblings as children, it was repeated to us over and over again. I must admit that it is some of the soundest advice I ever received. This same advice was been repeated down through the generations.

• Much advice given has changed over the years

• Much advice changes with culture and with time

• But this particular advice is a Constant

• This advice has always remained the same

Although the advice is sound, we did not always take it to heart. Children riding bicycles – Skateboards – Crossing the Street – did not take heed and landed themselves in Crisis, or near disaster. Even driving our automobiles we have not always taken heed. We did not look both ways before pulling into traffic and landed our vehicle in the body shop. Simply because we did not heed to that age old advise Look Ways Before Crossing.

Sometimes those lapses in concentration span years or decades. I recall a conversation I had some years ago with a Minister friend of mine as he was sharing with me the many health challenges he was experiencing. He was always a relatively BIG GUY. His body was beginning to break down on him and his health was failing. He mentioned his regret for being TOO SEDENTARY and CARELESS with his food choices, the weight had crept up over the years exposing him to- HEART PROBLEMS – HIGH CHOLESTEROL - DIABETES. He admitted that he had been lax in looking after himself. HE HADN’T Look Ways Before Crossing.

Sometimes our ATTENTION BECOMES SO FOCUSED IN ONE DIRECTION that we fail to acknowledge other realities. The sharp hike in OIL PRICES has focused the attention of anyone who uses energy, and that would be all of us.

• We have known for years now that oil is a non-renewal resource

• Yet over the years no serious steps have been taken by anyone to anticipate the day that has now arrived

• We will continue to pay exuberant prices at the pump

• While no real research being done to help the consumer

• A failure to look both ways

In our text this morning we find the importance of Look Ways Before Crossing. We find the disciples caught in dialogue with Jesus, they are receiving STRONG and SOUND Words of Counsel. We consider the disciples to be FAITHFUL and ADAPTIVE men who followed the Lord. The gospels tell us that these were men who essentially DROPPED EVERYTHING they were doing to follow Jesus.

• From the time we were children in Sunday school the twelve disciples have been portrayed as heroes to be emulated

• From the time we began to read the Bible for ourselves, the disciples were Heroes of the Faith

• The Disciples took Jesus’ call very seriously

• Fact of the matter is they are deserving of our respect

• But they were not perfect

• A fact that was most consistently demonstrated in one basic area

• Their eyes were in most instances set on glory

• Even as the eyes of the Lord were set on the cross

The message and words of Jesus were always on Point and Clear, however; the disciples did not want to hear it – Look Ways Before Crossing.

• In their minds’ eye they saw opportunity

• The coveted prize of sitting at the Lord’s right hand and his left in glory

• The disciples had convinced themselves that they would stand in the first rank at the awards banquet in heaven

• They had aspirations for themselves

• But those aspirations in very important ways didn’t align with the Lord’s

• They failed to Look Ways Before Crossing

I remember in the early 1970’s we were stationed in Panama, I was just a kid then. There were some boys in my class who were in the Cub Scouts. Looked cool in their blue uniforms with yellow scarf and different patches. I wanted to be a Cub Scout too. Mom made the proper contacts and I became a boy scout had my little outfit with the short pants, Panama warm climate - had my scarf thought I looked pretty cool.

• Then I found out we had to go camping

• Then I found out we had to go to the woods

• Then I found out we had to be outside to bird watch