Prioritizing Jesus

Luke 9:57–62 NIV

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Introduction: Benjamin’s conundrum two weekends ago. Go on the Youth Retreat, Compete with his Robotics Team in the tournament that week. Work. - How do you prioritize?

We may have unexamined priorities.

1. The person’s eagerness to follow Jesus anywhere is commendable, much like we often pledge our unconditional allegiance to go wherever or do whatever Jesus calls us to. But God reminds us that following Jesus is rarely convenient or comfortable. If we want to follow Jesus wherever he goes, then we will quickly have to give up our places of comfort and security and take risks, following Jesus into places that stretch us and require us to rely on him. - Comfort and stability can be a priority that we put before Jesus.

1. The 2nd Person Interestingly, in Matthew’s account of this exchange, the person is referred to as a disciple (Matthew 8:21). This doesn’t mean he did not become a believer because he wanted first to bury his father. According to Matthew, he was already a disciple of Jesus. Jesus invited the disciple to follow him more closely and join him in his travel. The man wasn't ready to do it right then. He wanted to delay his opportunity to come with Jesus. The urgency of Jesus’s mission at that moment, however, required an immediate response: leave all and follow him. Likewise, in our lives as children of God, the Holy Spirit often offers us an invitation to join Jesus in his work on this earth. Some of those invitations are so urgent that to join Jesus, we must put off all excuses, forsake other responsibilities, and immediately follow him. - Lack of Urgency can be a barrier to prioritizing Jesus First.

1. In the final scenario, another person states that he will follow Jesus but first wants to return home and say goodbye (Luke 9:61). On the surface, the person’s response seems reasonable. However, Jesus responds, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (v. 62). Jesus’s response sheds some potential light on the situation. A farmer whose hand is on the plow must keep looking forward to guide the plow. If the farmer looks back, the plow will veer off course. Therefore, we must focus on the mission ahead of us and avoid becoming distracted by things around us. - Distractions can be a barrier for prioritizing Jesus first.

In each of these cases there seems to be a desire to want to follow Jesus, but when fully examined on what that means they have other priorities.

Discipleship prioritizes following Jesus.

This video asks how many people today would become believers if the call was phrased “Come follow Jesus, and you may face the loss of friends, family, reputation, career, and possibly even your life”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbks-45i4kY.

What Jesus is bringing up are not priorities for all times and all places. They are priorities that these individuals had that Got in the way of Jesus’ direct call on their life.

The Urgency of the particular call

Jesus is about to send out 72 disciples to do what he is doing. Jesus is doing this on his somewhat slow journey to Jerusalem, but there is no time to waste. They Good News has to get out there.

So they will be expected not to stay in their comfy homes. There is no time to waste even to go back to a funeral, because this message has to get out before Jesus dies on the cross and is risen, and quite frankly there is no time to say good bye to family.

For us the call may be urgent, but in different ways. So this is not, “No One should never go to your Father’s funeral ever in order to follow Jesus.” This is if Jesus specifically directs you to do something and that means not going to your Father’s funeral than do what Jesus says.

High School Basketball - My role on the Bench.

Baseball - My role was different than the lead off hitter - find anyway I can to move him around the bases - base hit, bunt, hit to the opposite field. I did my job well - I didn't have a huge batting average, but I only struck out twice all season one season, and I hit behind the runner, which meant I had a high percentage of at bats where I was moving runners around the base path. This allowed the guy behind me to be able to hit for percentage, because we likely put the lead off hitter in a position where the third guy just needed to get a single, and we have scored a run.

Application Point 1: Spend time listening to the Holy Spirit about what Jesus wants you to do.

Application Point 2: Do it.

It may be costly - to prioritize

However, Dallas Willard Quote on the costliness of discipleship.

Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines)

- Toothbrush first thing, or make your bed. What you put first sets the tone fore everything else - Jesus is the resurrection, and Jesus is saying let the spiritually dead deal with the dead, but Jesus is bringing a new tone - the Resurrection.

When I was in High School when I decided to give my life to Christ.- I believed I had to have everything together.

Today - All of the expectations other people have for me.

Friend who was hesitent to accept Jesus into his life. He was afraid that he would revert back to his old ways of life. He believed in Jesus, it all made sense to him, but he didn't trust himself to trust Jesus. "Someday I just need to do it, I just need to give my life to Jesus." I asked, What's stopping you from doing that now? I would be willing to pray with you about it.

Application 2: List things that may hold you back.

- Prioritizing Comfort and Stability? - Home, financial stability, life of ease...

- Not Prioritizing the urgency of the call - Fear, Sadness, Others thoughts about you.

- Prioritizing Distractions. - Cell phones, news, hobbies, family and friends.

Conclusion:

You Wonder about Ben - We signed him up for Youth Camp out of that priority and his desire to go for discipleship. However, He was quarantined for COVID - which came back negative. So we sent him to CranHill with the Scouts the following weekend, in which he participated in worship and life training.

Reference the Reformed Confessions: The Reformed Confessions are statements of faith written to clarify the Gospel at times when the Church was in crisis. Heidelberg Catechism: Q&A 32, 43, 55, 76, 86 Belgic Confession: Article 24 Canons of Dort: Head V: Articles 12-14