The Journey To Jerusalem

THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM

~ Part One ~

In the recent weeks, I have become excited with what God is doing in this family of believers. There is a remnant of people that is growing in number and in purpose for the future of Lighthouse Assembly of God.

Many see the vision of what God has for restoring our fellowship. We are heading in the right direction, but not without the sacrificing of our time and energy.

Listen carefully. It’s important that we all know where we are going. Allow me to share with you a story about a successful business friend I once knew in Evansville, IN. Although John is a very smart man, he is a little different. John is always getting himself into risky predicaments.

He loves expensive toys like motorcycles, race cars and speed boats. And John is known to be a little reckless with his toys.

John’s friends and family seldom ever go with him when he takes any of his toys out for the day. (John was dangerous.)

A few years ago he decided to take up flying as his new hobby. In spite of his failing eyesight and heart problems, John bought an old dilapidated single engine plane. He studied and worked hard to get his pilot’s license. The day finally came for John to take his solo flight.

And since that first solo flight, all of John’s flights have been solo flights.

One day John invited me to go flying with him. He could tell that I wasn’t too excited to go. John tried to convince me that I would be perfectly safe.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his pocket sized (GPS) Global Positioning Satellite device and said,

“Don’t worry, I know where I am going.”

Right away, I was decided I wouldn’t go anywhere with John in his airplane.

My friend, there are many folks who think they know exactly where they are going. But they really don’t know.

Let me caution to not rely on the wrong friend to show you, or take you where they want to go. It could be dangerous.

The fact is that without God’s direction for our lives, we can easily find ourselves not going where Christ wants to take us.

Let Jesus become your best friend and let Him show you where you need to go!

Here’s the Truth for today: If you consider yourself to be a believer in Christ, then you must also be a follower of Christ.

We must mean what we sing, “I’ll go where You want me to go…dear Lord.”

Text: Luke 9:51 thru 53

Prayer: Lord, Your direction is where we desire to go. Take us, lead us, and may we JOURNEY with You TO JERUSALEM?

My hope is that today’s message will cause each of us to prepare our hearts for Easter. We will begin a series that will focus on the events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

The title of the series is –

THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM.

In our passage, we find Jesus at an interesting, if not difficult, moment in his earthly life of ministry. Jesus is quite busy with the task of healing the sick, raising the dead, delivering the demoniac, teaching the people, and (oh yeah) preaching to those who were religious.

All is well. Jesus can easily see the fruit of His labor with those who wanted His ministry. But when it came to those who opposed His ministry, Jesus simply stayed the course. Jesus was focused and determined not to become discouraged.

We have to admire that in someone.

Taking/carrying the Gospel to the world is seldom ever easy to do.

In our scripture, Jesus is suddenly, almost without warning, summoned to go to Jerusalem. Nothing else mattered…

The disciples may have been surprised, but Jesus wasn’t.

Jesus lived every moment of His life knowing the specific purpose and the specific destiny for His life. So many times Jesus tried to warn the disciples.

Just a few verses earlier (in verse 22), Jesus said,

"The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day."

Again He tried to tell them in verse 44,

44 "Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men."

45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.

My friend the disciples did not understand what Christ was saying. His speech was clear and simple, but the disciples heard what they wanted to hear.

Have you ever had that problem?