Keep Moving 1979

Once we have clearly heard the call of Jesus to follow him, a conflict begins to rise in our hearts. On the one side, there is that in us which wants to just drop everything and go with Jesus. But on the other side, there is the fear that if I do, I'm going to lose the comfort of this thing which I call my home.

Home for all of us, regardless of what our circumstances may be, is that place where we rest. It's the place where you receive the comfort of mother, father, husband, wife, child. We just unwind, recuperate, settle down, lick your wounds.

And intuitively, we understand when we begin to hear the call of Jesus that if we answer it, really answer it, home will never be home again. The way it was, Luke 9, as they were going along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. 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.

To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. But he said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead.

But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first go and say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

There was once a man who answered the call to follow Jesus, who took everything and went. And for a while, as he walked with his master, close with his master, he experienced unspeakable joy and unbroken joy in the midst of whatever sorrows his circumstances brought him. As he stayed close to the master, there was no loneliness.

There was no fatigue, no homesickness, no despair. And he constantly experienced a renewal. There was a rest, the Sabbath rest, that was his as he trusted himself to his Lord.

But one hot day, as he was following his master, he spied off to the side of this path a beautiful garden with willow trees and a crystal stream and green grass. And he thought he'd just turn aside for a moment and just drink it in. And so he did.

And the minute he stepped inside this garden, he experienced an inexplicable fatigue. His eyes became heavy, his bones started to ache. And as he looked up, he saw his favorite cousin sitting at a table under a willow tree.

And she invited him to come and have a glass of ginger ale. And by the time he finished his ginger ale and his respects to his cousin and got back on the path, the master was all but out of sight. And so he started to jog to catch up again.

And he was making good progress when suddenly he was distracted again by an unexpected scene. Looking at a house which was strangely familiar, he saw through the open window his childhood family sitting for a meal at a large table. There was one empty chair.

They called to him by name and beckoned him to come and join them. And again, he got really tired. He just had to sit down.

So he went in and sat in his chair and fell asleep. When he woke up, he found himself sitting on a rock at the bottom of a ravine way below the path, scrambling up the ravine. He got to the path just in time to see the master disappearing over the brow of a hill.

Seven times he almost caught up, and seven times he was distracted and turned aside by the illusion of something that promised comfort, something that looked like home. And just as it seemed like the master was going to disappear totally as a little speck on the horizon, he heard a loud call coming right into his heart, follow me. He shook himself out of his stupor and ran at top speed and didn't stop until he got to his master.

When he caught his breath again, he said, how come I experienced such fatigue back there? I felt like I couldn't take another step. What was wrong? And the Lord explained, it was because you allowed too much distance to grow between yourself and me. I am your rest and I am your home, but you will experience these things only as you stay close to me.

As they were going along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. 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. Another said, follow me.

To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. But he said to him, leave the dead, bury their own dead.

But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Jesus is dealing here with three men who want to follow him the way you and I most of the time want to follow Jesus. We want to follow Jesus, but we also want to retain a resting place, a kind of fulfillment of some kind, some security separate and apart from Jesus. But Jesus makes clear that we will find our resting place if we want to go with him, only in him.

We have to keep moving. We can never stop. We have to stay with him and find everything in him and only in him.

The man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Jesus had only one resting place and that was his father.

The disciple of Jesus has only one resting place and that's the master. Our home may well be legitimately be the place where we eat and sleep and spend time with our family, but if we ever let our home become the place, and we do, where we think we can take off our armor and forget who we are and what we've been called to, we're in trouble. If we think we can go into our home and shut the door, loosen our armor, unwind, let down our spiritual guard, indulge ourselves and sink down into the things of man, then our home becomes our undoing.

Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but sons and daughters of the kingdom have nowhere to lay their heads except on the eternal side of who is Jesus. To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

But he said to him, leave the dead bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. For 30 years, Jesus was surrounded by his family.

No doubt he carried his share of the load of work and was as dutiful a son as any other man in Nazareth. But when the time came for him to begin his ministry, he made no attempt to soften the shock to his family. He went out and he proclaimed the kingdom of God and let the dead bury their own dead.

Sure. Take care of your family obligations. Jesus teaches this.

He rebukes the scribes and Pharisees for cheating on their family obligations. You know, saying what I would have given to you is Corbin. I gave it to God and then they use it for themselves.

But don't let your family obligations become an excuse for stagnating in the things of the kingdom of God. Another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

I will follow you, Lord, but. And the but centers again on this favorite resting place of ours, our home. See, but once we have become disciples of Jesus, our resting place is no longer our home.

But Jesus. And he's up there moving and we got to move with him. So we press on.

We keep going. We never stop. When we allow ourselves to stagnate in anything other than settling down in the kingdom itself, trusting in Jesus, anything else, we lose our kingdom momentum and we begin to die.

This is why Jesus says you cannot serve God. Get yourself sidetracked in manner. You lose your kingdom momentum.

And this also is the reason for the hard words of Luke 14. Now, great multitudes accompanies him and he turned to them and said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters. Yes.

And even his own life. He cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

He's dealing here with these home attachments. Which we allow to keep us back from doing what we're called to do. From living the kingdom of God, from preaching the kingdom of God.

And he makes it clear that there is absolutely no way you can do both. We keep going with him. He becomes our home.

And only when he becomes our home can our relationship with our families be what they should be. Or our relationship with mammon be what it should be. And in this passage in Luke 9, you see a continuous motion.

You know, everybody wants to stop. And Jesus says, keep going, keep going, keep going. Now, there are several critical moments in our lives.

And we're always tempted to quit what we're doing, to turn around and run home. Just like we did when we were kids and got in a fight. First.

After we experienced some kind of victory. Things are going well. You know, we just had something quite successful happen.

And now we feel entitled to just kind of settle down and indulge in some illusion. Or to indulge our flesh. After all, I worked hard, I'm entitled to just a little spiritual vacation.

Spiritual relaxation. Now, physical relaxation is legitimate. Mental relaxation is legitimate.

But in the realm of the spirit, there is an area where there is never to be a letting down of the guard. Any more than your heart says, I'm tired of beating. I think I'll quit.

At those moments when you feel it's time to just get comfortable. You know, I deserve it. I owe it to myself.

That's what all the television commercials will tell you. You owe it to yourself. Use oil of Olay.

You owe it to yourself. Drink slicks. You know, get that gusto before it's too late.

Whenever that thought occurs, know where it's coming from. That's the critical moment to make yourself keep going. Look at Jesus.

He's healing people till late into the night. And he's tired. The next day they're looking for him.

And they find him off by himself. He got up early in the morning. Went off to a lonely place to pray.

And the disciples say, Lord, everybody's looking for you. You know. You know, we got something good going here.

Let's settle down. And build ourselves a cathedral of tomorrow. Or next week.

Or Messiah Lutheran Church. Or whatever. And Jesus says, let's go on to the next town.

You know, I have to preach there too. That's what I've been sent to do. Or take the time he fed the 5,000.

Particularly the account in John 6. But all the accounts of the feeding of the 5,000. How nice it would have been if Jesus had just sent the crowds away. And then said to the disciples, okay, break out the wine.

And let's celebrate. We had a wonderful day. But he says, okay, get going.

He shoves them off in the boat. Sends them out on the lake. Goes up on the mountain to pray.

He never allows himself to sag down. And neither can we. Another critical moment.

Is when we've been greatly disappointed about something. Big disappointment. After a disappointment, the tendency for us is to say.

What's the use? I tried so hard. And what has it gotten me? I quit. I think I'll just settle down in my favorite distraction.

And rock. You know, basically that's what we're going to get back at God. He let me down.

So I'm going to let him down. I'm just going to sit down here and slobber. And we feel justified in this.

You know. Jesus was disappointed. Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him.

But you can be sure that when it actually happened. Tremendous disappointment. He knew that Peter would deny him.

He knew that. It had been shown in his spirit. When it occurred.

It broke his heart. The look that he gave to Peter was enough to send Peter off weeping. All these people he had fed and healed and preached the kingdom to.

And was just so concerned for. Now they're crying for his blood. But he keeps right on going.

The most important time to make yourself keep on praying. And keep on serving. Is when you've been heartbroken with disappointment.

Don't ever use that as an excuse. What's the use? And finally. Another critical moment.

Is when we're afraid. Lord, I'm scared. I don't have the stamina to go up through that battlefield.

I can't make it anymore. It's been too much. Besides, I see that cross up there.

And it has my name on it. And I'm scared. I want to go home.

What home do you have but me? Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Where else can we go? The only home you got. If you got your eyes open.

Is Jesus. You have no choice but to keep going with him. Now it may be that some of us right now.

If we're honest with ourselves. We'll have to admit. That we are at this moment.

Off on a side path. Of spiritual stagnation. We're just tired.

So tired. We just can't keep going anymore. And our vision has become blurred.

All we want to do is sit. And have ginger ale with our favorite cousin. May God help us.

Right now. To see. That that willow tree with our favorite cousin.

Is not our resting place. Nor is our mother or our father. Or our husband or our wife or our child.

Nor is our favorite Shangri-La. Our resting place. The only resting place we have.

Is Jesus. He's moving. And will be renewed.

He promises that he will keep us. And he will renew our strength. If we'll keep moving with him.

As they were going along the road. A man said to him. I will follow you wherever you go.

But 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. To another he said follow me. But he said Lord.

Let me first go and bury my father. But he said to him. Leave the dead.

Bury their own dead. But as for you. Go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Another said I will follow you Lord. But let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him.

No one. Who puts his hand to the plow. And looks back.

Is fit. For the kingdom of God. Let's stand up and wait on God.

We're just asking Heavenly Father. That you would cause your spirit. To move with such authority.

Among us right now. That each of us may see exactly. Where he or she is.

And that we may. Be delivered from the delusions. That we have about ourselves.

And our place. And Lord give us the. Whatever it takes to get off.

Our pedestals of pride. And admit the truth. And get moving.

Put your finger Heavenly Father. On those things. Those attachments in our own hearts.

That are hindering us. From moving on with you.