#1)
Count the Cost
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
I think as Christians we would all like to think that we would follow the Lamb wherever he would lead us. These redeemed are what we wish we would be many times. They were the first fruits of God, they were Christians when being Christians wasn’t cool.
Their lives were like a full pitcher that was poured out upon the world.
Involvement and Commitment?
Perhaps I can best explain this by way of analogy with bacon and eggs
In bacon and egg, the hen is involved but the pig is committed
Luk 9:57 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.
Luk 9:58 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.
Some will follow the lamb wherever he goes as long as were he goes benefits them. There is no room for fair-weather Christians in the kingdom of God.
I often think about this scripture as I hear the prosperity preachers preach. Christ concern or his disciples was never about their prosperity, but the prosperity of the lost and afflicted.
Notice in all his preaching Christ never fit into a sect or a religious group. His teaching was not popular or often accepted but completely biblical. Everything about him was a extension and fulfillment of the scripture.
Notice we sometimes are completely opposite, always trying to find some place to lay our theological heads, some denomination box to fit the word in. I have noticed the more I study the word of God the less I fit in the religious world.
Sometimes being a disciple of Christ isn’t any more popular in church as it is in the world.
2Co 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich
#2)
Seek first the Kingdom / PROCRASTENATION
Luk 9:59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luk 9:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
The BUT’S
Notice first of all his commitment was dependent on a BUT. I will follow you Lord wherever you go BUT .
Father wasn’t DEAD yet. Let me live first.
ROBERTSONS WORD PICTURES
The burial of one’s father was a sacred duty (Gen_25:9), but, as in the case of Tobit 4:3, this scribe’s father probably was still alive. What the scribe apparently meant was that he could not leave his father while still alive to follow Jesus around over the country.
What he was really saying was he would follow Christ after the affairs of life.
He was busy preparing for his fathers death whereas Christ would have given him life. Why do we limit God?
Christ quickly teaches us that his work can not take a backseat to our work , our family, our concerns, our dreams etc.. A true disciple does not make himself center of life, but Christ the center of his life.
2Ti 2:4 No man that wareth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
The Years of Our Lives
Someone has figured that in the average life span of 70 years, we will spend our time this way:
Eight years in amusements
Six years at the dinner table
Five years in transportation
Four years in conversation
Three years sick or convalescing
Less than one year for God-that is if a person attends a 90-minute service every Sunday and prays every day for 10 minutes.
The Story of a Fool
One day there was a little task
God wanted me to do.
I said, "Lord, You’ll have to wait,
I’ve got no time for You.
I have this little child to raise
And prices are so high;
Besides we’ve found a house and lot
We thought we’d like to buy."
So I took on some extra work,
No church-I was too tired.
But I got up on Monday morning,
I had to-or get fired!
And so I went along for years
With never a thought of God;
Until one day my little child
Was laid beneath the sod.
The lovely home we’d bought for her
Seemed empty now-so bare.
In anguish then I turned to God
And cried, "It isn’t fair.
That you should take my little one
And cause my wife these tears;
When we have been so happy here
These few, short, busy years."
’Twas then I heard the voice of God
Come ringing in my ear-
"I called upon you once but then
My cry you would not hear.
Now in your grief you cry for Me,
’Why must this sad thing be?’
Your little child became your god,
She took the place of Me."
Oh my dear friend, find time for God
In everything you do
If not, you’ll find that one day He
Shall have no time for you!
#3)
No farewell to sin
Luk 9:61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
Luk 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Friends and Home = Temptations of old life
To be a disciple of Christ we must not allow sin a foothold in our lives. To go home would mean absent from Christ, and might allow the comforts as well as his friends at home to beguile him to remain in his same old life.
Looking back = crooked plowing / Crooked life
Plowing and sowing = breaking up the fallow ground(Holy life before men)
Remember in Luke 8:5-10 the Lord gives a parable of the sower and how he would sow the seed into the ground, and we know that in verse 11 we find that the seed is the word or the Gospel, the good news of Christ. What am I getting at? Friends as Christians and disciples we all want to plant the gospel seed in the heart of the lost, and we are commissioned to do so, but here Jesus informs the seeker that any man that puts his hand to the plow is not fit for the kingdom of God.
Why? Before you can ever plant a seed the ground must be broken up, or in other words before you can tell people of Jesus Christ and his gospel there heart must be prepared. Prepared by a Christian that lives a holy life before them, which is like pushing the plow deep into the ground or the heart, and if we hold the plow or live good one day and are looking back another day , the heart of the sinner will not be broken up but hardened by your hypocrisy, whereas any attempt to sow the seed will be unaccepted.
What is the motive of your heart today? As the lamb passes by and calls out, “follow me” will you follow the lamb wither so ever the lamb goeth? Or will you to be a reluctant disciple?
