Introduction
Luke 9:57-62 NKJV Now it
happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I
will follow You wherever You go.” (58) And Jesus said to him,
“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay His head.” (59) Then He said to another,
“Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my
father.” (60) Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their
own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” (61) And another
also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them
farewell who are at my house.” (62) But Jesus said to him,
“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God.”
If you recognize this scripture, good! It’s the
same scripture from last week!Last week I preached the message “Me First!”
about how so many of us are willing to follow Jesus, but we have our own needs
to take care of first.There was these three examples, right, that
translated into three sermon points…First there was the main that said I will follow
you!But Jesus reminded him that following him may
not always be comfortable…That translated to the point “Me First! I need
to be comfortable”Then there was the man who said “I will follow
you, but let me first burry my father…” He was saying he had a very important
job that needed to be done, in this case taking care of his aging father.That translated to the point “Me First! I have a
job to finish”Finally there was the man who said “Let me first
say good bye to my friends and family” Suggesting that our relationship needs
come before Christ.This translated to the point “Me First! I need
to care for My Family and FriendsI thought it was a pretty good sermon, but as I
was debriefing with my wife she couldn’t shake the feeling that the sermon came
off as too harsh.I asked “How do you preach “No you can’t bury
your father, let the dead bury the dead” without coming off harsh, it was a
pretty harsh thing for Jesus to say!”Amanda agreed, but still that feeling persisted…And over the years I have learned to trust my
wife, she is a pretty smart cookie… so I started to pray about it…Then the Lord showed me, clear as day, how to
preach these verses without being harsh.Now don’t
get me wrong, the Lord wasn’t rebuking me, and I think the sermon last week was
fire, I know some people needed to hear that… but I think some people need to
hear the flip side too.
Bring Up Title Slide
So last week the sermon was “Me First”… this
week the sermon is “Jesus First”If our heart is Jesus first… if we are all in
with Jesus… if we will go with Jesus wherever He goes… the beauty of that is
that He will take care of everything else. Every stress, every anxiety, every
pressure, every job… If we trust Jesus with it, He will take care of it, He
will guide us, He will relieve us.I am going to tell you what I am talking about.
But first, let’s pray!
PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY
PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY
Point One – Jesus First! He Comforts Us
Luke 9:57 NKJV Now it happened as they
journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You
wherever You go.”
This is the heart we are supposed to have.
“LORD” this man says… that word means so much, that title means so much… it
means King, Ruler, Advisor, Director… It means what You say goes…“Lord, I will follow you wherever you go’.Folk’s Christianity is a journey, we are going
with Jesus!If we want to stay in Jesus we must go WITH
Jesus… because Jesus just doesn’t sit still, He has work to do. There are lost
to be saved.So this man says “Lord I will go with you
wherever! If you go there, then I am going…” And look how Jesus responds.
Luke 9:58 NKJV And Jesus said to him, “Foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay His head.”
Now when I preached on this last I talked about
the clearest reading of this, that Jesus was either rebuking or warning this
man that foll