April 2
Deut 21:1-22:30 | PS 74:1-23 | Prov 12:11 | Luke 9:51-10:12
Lord, I will follow you, but…. Now complete that sentence. But, when I finish school, when I get married, when I finish getting through those “fun years”, etc. Whenever we insert the word, "but", we are choosing to procrastinate. We are letting God know that there is something more pressing, and more important than Him. In reality this is how we often choose to live our lives. Most don’t consider God at all, if they were honest. Some give Him a small sliver of our lives, keeping the bulk of our lives to ourselves and apart for Him. When we choose to follow Him with all of our heart, we no longer give Him a sliver of our pie, but we make Him the filling of the pie that permeates every aspect of our lives. We invite Him into our homes, our workplaces, our areas of recreation. By inviting Him into every area, we will find fulfillment and purpose as His ambassadors everywhere. No excuses, just total abandonment. So as not to deceive ourselves, if you were raptured, brought up to heaven, would your eyes be on Jesus, or would you be craning your necks back to earth for one more glimpse at your children or grandchildren, your spouse, your home, your project you were working on, your school that you were about to graduate, even the last inning of the ballgame that you were following. These areas are not necessarily bad, but they can all serve as idols which distract us or cause us to procrastinate from wholehearted devotion to our Savior.
We read in Luke 9:51, “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,”. When it was time, nothing would deter Jesus from His destination and His mission, even though this would result in His abandonment, torture and death. Aren’t we thankful, that Jesus didn’t insert any but’s to this? You might think, well, this is Jesus. We read in Acts 21:12-13, after Paul was prophetically told that he would be persecuted and bound in Jerusalem, “Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”” Nothing was going to stop Paul. You might think, well that was Paul. To which we read of 70 unnamed disciples of Jesus in Luke 10:1-3, “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.” Being sent out as lambs among wolves did not deter this group.
But the truth is they had excuses then, and we often make excuses now, as we read in Luke 9:59-62, “Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”” Lest anyone think Jesus was not being sympathetic to the one who wanted to bury his father, the man was not yet dead, he was waiting to receive his inheritance first. It really doesn’t matter where you are in life, what is in your past, present or future. What matters is what is your excuse for not following Jesus completely. Remember Paul’s words in Philippians 3:13-14, “ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” It's interesting that most procrastinate from serving God, but most don't understand when it appears that God is procrastinating with us, such as when it seems as though He is delaying responding to our prayer, as we read in Psalm 74:10-11, "How long, O God, will you allow our enemies to insult you? Will you let them dishonor your name forever? Why do you hold back your strong right hand? Unleash your powerful fist and destroy them." Jesus is calling you right now. Is there anything more important than this? Whatever is holding you back is an excuse. Are you saying, “but”? Like Paul, none of us will do this to perfection, but may we continue to reach forward in our walk.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: