Luke 14:25-35 November 16, 2008
“Win, Place, or Show?”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
“Hey, I’m going to visit some folks from the church this coming Wednesday night. Would you go with me?” “Sorry. I already made plans.”
How many times have you asked someone to do something, or go somewhere and the answer is, “I can’t. I already made plans for that time?” We all make plans: we make doctor’s appointments, we call a friend to share lunch with us, we put committee meetings on our calendar, we have schedules for the Turkey Supper – planning who will do what for what block of time. We make plans to go on a date, we buy tickets to go to a concert, we plan a block of time to study, or to go to a sporting event. We go buy gas for our lawnmower because we plan to mow the grass, or we go purchase paint because we plan to paint the porch, or we pick out yarn at Michaels because we plan to crochet a blanket for someone. We plan to watch a particular TV show, to go on a mission trip, or to sleep in on Saturday mornings. If you’re farming and you want to go away, plans must be made in order to care for the animals while you’re gone. Everyone makes plans.
Making a plan can be a very good thing – as we shall soon hear, it’s biblical to plan! But notice that I said, “Making a plan can be a good thing,” because certainly it is true that if we become completely inflexible about deviating from the plan, the plan itself can become a stumbling block on the way to something better.
Listen to a few quotes I found about planning:
Richard C. Cushing: Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Edward Everett Hale: If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Let’s listen now to Jesus’ words found in Luke 14:25-35. I’m going to read from The Message – a contemporary paraphrase of the Scripture by Eugene Peterson: 25One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, 26“Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. 27Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple. 28“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? 29If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 30‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’ 31“Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? 32And if he decides he can’t, won’t he send an emissary and work out a truce? 33“Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple. 34“Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing. “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
Two weeks ago, I preached about being good stewards (good managers) of the resources God has given to us to use – specifically preaching about how we manage money. Did you know that Jesus talked about money more than He did Heaven and Hell combined – that Jesus talked about money more than anything else except the Kingdom of God – that 11 of 39 parables talk about money – and that 1 of every 7 verses in the Gospel of Luke talks about money? Obviously, our Lord knew we would struggle in this area.
Last week, I preached about being good stewards of our gifts and our time, so that we would model for the world what Jesus taught us: That we are here not to be served, but to serve for the sake of Christ and those he came to save.
Today, I’m taking the stewardship of our resources and the stewardship of our gifts and time and combining them in a teaching about the stewardship of planning - for good planning has to do with what we do with the time, the energy, the gifts and the resources that God has graciously chosen to give to us.
In the passage I just read from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is talking to a large crowd of people; he was constantly bombarded by people because of his kingdom preaching and power. Think about what many of us have read in the Public Opinion this past week about the Extreme Home Makeover happening out in Quincy. Thousands of people spent hours of their time this past week to go out and watch the work being done. There were hundreds of volunteers actually doing the work that had been planned for months, but thousands just wondered and watched. This is undoubtedly like what was going on with Jesus. He had thousands of people gaping at him day after day, but only a small percentage of those with him were actually doing the work of a true disciple. Jesus wants commitment. He wants all of your life – not just the 5% of your time that it takes to come here on Sunday mornings. The plan for our lives is to visibly love God and love others - following Jesus step by step – keeping our eyes on him all the way.
So, when Jesus tells us to “let go” of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters, even our own self – what he’s saying is that our commitment to him, our love for him must be so great, so overwhelming that our natural love of self and family pales in comparison. That sounds important to us, but it also sounds unreasonable – because this kind of thinking and living doesn’t come naturally to sinful human beings. If we don’t plan to live as Jesus calls us to live, trust me, we won’t be walking in Jesus’ footsteps. Too many other things clamor for our time and our resources.
How many people do you know who say they love God, but have no connection to Christ’s earthly body, the Church? I know quite a few. I also have heard quite a few folks say that the reason they aren’t in church is because they can’t get their husband to come with them, or their wife, or their kids, or their parents, or a friend … It’s not hard to see what priority a person’s love for God really has in one’s life. It’s hard to put and keep our love for God at the top of our priority list. Believe me, I know it’s hard. I didn’t grow up surrounded by those who shared my all-out commitment to the Lord. I know it’s hard to follow only Jesus. But God’s plan for our lives includes working in all of our relationships when we choose to let go and trust him to work as only he can.
Jesus is teaching us here in this passage that it is important to know what your end result is going to look like. He is teaching us the importance of having an end goal in mind before setting a plan in place. In other words, if your goal is to go to college without paying a cent or borrowing a dime, you know that the plan you need to meet that goal will include doing very well in high school, making application for a lot of scholarships which includes writing a host of essays, probably enrolling in a work study program, etc., etc., etc. If your goal is to own your own home, you know that the plan you need to meet that goal will include working for a down payment, watching for a house that fits within the right percentage of your income, applying for a mortgage once you find the right property, caring for that which God has given you, and then making sure you consistently have enough income to cover all the expenses that come with owning a home. It is important to know where you want to go before you set out on the journey.
28“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? 29If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 30‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’
Have you heard about, or maybe even seen the steel skeleton along Interstate 68 in western Maryland with the sign beside it, “Noah’s Ark Being Rebuilt Here?” Reaching three stories high, with a concrete foundation stretching the length of one-and-a-half football fields, the structure definitely grabs your attention. For over 30 years, a local pastor has slowly worked on the ark that he believes God told him to build. A newspaper article stated, “In Frostburg, the Ark is a long-standing source of both amusement and irritation, a kooky roadside amusement…” The builder is 69 years old now. It doesn’t look good for his ark to be completed in his lifetime unless things really step up here, or his life is extended way beyond current norms.
Jesus wants us to have a clear destination, and to have a plan for how we will get there – otherwise those who look at our lives as Christians will have nothing to do but shake their heads and laugh at a life that says one thing, but does another.
This past summer, a 6 member planning team was formed for this congregation. Ruth Frazier, Chris Metcalfe, George Baker, Jama Hampson, Joni Frey, and I got together to assess where we are as a congregation – and put some processes in place in order to discern where God was calling us to go. On Sunday, September 28th, we had a 6-hour meeting down in the basement with about 35 people from the congregation who were willing to stay to help formulate a plan for the future. Those who committed themselves to this process had a good time as they shared with others in the church family their hopes and dreams for this body of believers. Don’t think for a moment that just because we’re all sitting in the same church that we all have the same ideas and opinions about things. Many ideas were shared that day!
Since then, your planning team has met three times to pull all of the information together into a five-year plan that includes specific measurable goals to expand the mission & ministry of the church, and specific improvements that must be made to the property in order to carry out the mission and ministry; the two go hand-in-hand in a good plan. It wasn’t the easiest process, but I’m grateful to say that the first draft is nearly ready to be shared, and will be shared at our congregational meeting following worship on December 7th.
Planning is important. But we must remember that the highest goal is not the fulfillment of the plan, but to keep following Jesus every step along the way.
The Sunday school class I’m leading right now is studying the book, The Disciple Making Church. In this book, Glenn McDonald defines a disciple as “one who trusts in and follows Jesus Christ, growing in his likeness and committing your heart, mind, soul, and strength to obey and serve him.”
Trusting and following and growing and committing and obeying and serving takes intentional planning. It doesn’t just happen. Do we really want to win at being a disciple of Jesus, or do we just want to keep our same place in the same pew because that’s just where we sit, or do we just want to show up when it’s convenient for us? Win? Place? Or show? Remember, Jesus said, “Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple. 34“Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing. “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
So, you need a plan to get out of credit card debt. Why? Because credit card debt is like a bottomless dark pit? Yes, and no. To get the creditors off your back? Yes, and no. To have more money for more important stuff? Yes, and no. We need a plan to get out of credit card debt because being a disciple means that you are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – committing your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to obey and serve him (not creditors).
So, you need a plan to break the addiction to pornography. Why? Because those DVD’s and magazines are getting way too expensive? Yes, and no. Because my spouse is threatening to leave me if I don’t? Yes, and no. We need a plan to break an addiction because being a disciple means that you are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – commiting your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to obey and serve him (not the addiction).
So, you need a plan to get away from a tough group at school you’ve been hanging out with. Why? Because my parents are having a fit? Yes, and no. Because there’s this guy, or this girl in another group I’m interested in? Yes, and no. Because I’m feeling pressured to develop an attitude of rebellion? Yes, and no. You need a plan to get away from a tough group at school because being a disciple means that you are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – committing your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to obey and serve him (not the people or image of the group). If you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, Jesus says that you can’t be his disciple.
So, we need a plan to move forward as a congregation for the next five years. Why? Because Meagan said we should have one? No. Because our consultant Jim Moss said we should have one? No. Because it’s the only way we’re going to get some stuff done around here that needs to be done. No. We need a plan to move forward as a congregation because being a disciple means that we are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – committing our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our strength to obey and serve him (not ourselves or ‘the way we’ve always done it.”). “Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing.”
In Proverbs 16:3 we read, “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established,” and in 16:9 we read, “The human mind plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps.” Planning is biblical. A faithful disciple makes plans based on the teaching of the Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit. A faithful disciple plans how he or she can follow the Lord more nearly and more dearly with each passing day. But a faithful disciple also knows that ultimately it is the LORD who must direct our steps.
In 1896, the book In His Steps was written by Charles M. Sheldon. In simple style, In His Steps tells the story of self-satisfied congregants of a midwestern church who are challenged by a beggar during a Sunday service to live up to their declaration of faith. The beggar then dies in their midst. So moved are the minister and his parishioners that they pledge and plan to live their lives for one year asking themselves, "What would Jesus do?" Their example of how they suffered, faced ridicule and emerged victorious inspired and still inspires other churches throughout the country to do the same.
“The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.” I pray we will be a congregation full of disciples who eagerly plan the work and work the plan, but always with our eyes on Jesus, who alone must lead the way.
Amen.
“Win, Place, or Show?”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
“Hey, I’m going to visit some folks from the church this coming Wednesday night. Would you go with me?” “Sorry. I already made plans.”
How many times have you asked someone to do something, or go somewhere and the answer is, “I can’t. I already made plans for that time?” We all make plans: we make doctor’s appointments, we call a friend to share lunch with us, we put committee meetings on our calendar, we have schedules for the Turkey Supper – planning who will do what for what block of time. We make plans to go on a date, we buy tickets to go to a concert, we plan a block of time to study, or to go to a sporting event. We go buy gas for our lawnmower because we plan to mow the grass, or we go purchase paint because we plan to paint the porch, or we pick out yarn at Michaels because we plan to crochet a blanket for someone. We plan to watch a particular TV show, to go on a mission trip, or to sleep in on Saturday mornings. If you’re farming and you want to go away, plans must be made in order to care for the animals while you’re gone. Everyone makes plans.
Making a plan can be a very good thing – as we shall soon hear, it’s biblical to plan! But notice that I said, “Making a plan can be a good thing,” because certainly it is true that if we become completely inflexible about deviating from the plan, the plan itself can become a stumbling block on the way to something better.
Listen to a few quotes I found about planning:
Richard C. Cushing: Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Edward Everett Hale: If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Let’s listen now to Jesus’ words found in Luke 14:25-35. I’m going to read from The Message – a contemporary paraphrase of the Scripture by Eugene Peterson: 25One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, 26“Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. 27Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple. 28“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? 29If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 30‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’ 31“Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? 32And if he decides he can’t, won’t he send an emissary and work out a truce? 33“Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple. 34“Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing. “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
Two weeks ago, I preached about being good stewards (good managers) of the resources God has given to us to use – specifically preaching about how we manage money. Did you know that Jesus talked about money more than He did Heaven and Hell combined – that Jesus talked about money more than anything else except the Kingdom of God – that 11 of 39 parables talk about money – and that 1 of every 7 verses in the Gospel of Luke talks about money? Obviously, our Lord knew we would struggle in this area.
Last week, I preached about being good stewards of our gifts and our time, so that we would model for the world what Jesus taught us: That we are here not to be served, but to serve for the sake of Christ and those he came to save.
Today, I’m taking the stewardship of our resources and the stewardship of our gifts and time and combining them in a teaching about the stewardship of planning - for good planning has to do with what we do with the time, the energy, the gifts and the resources that God has graciously chosen to give to us.
In the passage I just read from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is talking to a large crowd of people; he was constantly bombarded by people because of his kingdom preaching and power. Think about what many of us have read in the Public Opinion this past week about the Extreme Home Makeover happening out in Quincy. Thousands of people spent hours of their time this past week to go out and watch the work being done. There were hundreds of volunteers actually doing the work that had been planned for months, but thousands just wondered and watched. This is undoubtedly like what was going on with Jesus. He had thousands of people gaping at him day after day, but only a small percentage of those with him were actually doing the work of a true disciple. Jesus wants commitment. He wants all of your life – not just the 5% of your time that it takes to come here on Sunday mornings. The plan for our lives is to visibly love God and love others - following Jesus step by step – keeping our eyes on him all the way.
So, when Jesus tells us to “let go” of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters, even our own self – what he’s saying is that our commitment to him, our love for him must be so great, so overwhelming that our natural love of self and family pales in comparison. That sounds important to us, but it also sounds unreasonable – because this kind of thinking and living doesn’t come naturally to sinful human beings. If we don’t plan to live as Jesus calls us to live, trust me, we won’t be walking in Jesus’ footsteps. Too many other things clamor for our time and our resources.
How many people do you know who say they love God, but have no connection to Christ’s earthly body, the Church? I know quite a few. I also have heard quite a few folks say that the reason they aren’t in church is because they can’t get their husband to come with them, or their wife, or their kids, or their parents, or a friend … It’s not hard to see what priority a person’s love for God really has in one’s life. It’s hard to put and keep our love for God at the top of our priority list. Believe me, I know it’s hard. I didn’t grow up surrounded by those who shared my all-out commitment to the Lord. I know it’s hard to follow only Jesus. But God’s plan for our lives includes working in all of our relationships when we choose to let go and trust him to work as only he can.
Jesus is teaching us here in this passage that it is important to know what your end result is going to look like. He is teaching us the importance of having an end goal in mind before setting a plan in place. In other words, if your goal is to go to college without paying a cent or borrowing a dime, you know that the plan you need to meet that goal will include doing very well in high school, making application for a lot of scholarships which includes writing a host of essays, probably enrolling in a work study program, etc., etc., etc. If your goal is to own your own home, you know that the plan you need to meet that goal will include working for a down payment, watching for a house that fits within the right percentage of your income, applying for a mortgage once you find the right property, caring for that which God has given you, and then making sure you consistently have enough income to cover all the expenses that come with owning a home. It is important to know where you want to go before you set out on the journey.
28“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? 29If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 30‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’
Have you heard about, or maybe even seen the steel skeleton along Interstate 68 in western Maryland with the sign beside it, “Noah’s Ark Being Rebuilt Here?” Reaching three stories high, with a concrete foundation stretching the length of one-and-a-half football fields, the structure definitely grabs your attention. For over 30 years, a local pastor has slowly worked on the ark that he believes God told him to build. A newspaper article stated, “In Frostburg, the Ark is a long-standing source of both amusement and irritation, a kooky roadside amusement…” The builder is 69 years old now. It doesn’t look good for his ark to be completed in his lifetime unless things really step up here, or his life is extended way beyond current norms.
Jesus wants us to have a clear destination, and to have a plan for how we will get there – otherwise those who look at our lives as Christians will have nothing to do but shake their heads and laugh at a life that says one thing, but does another.
This past summer, a 6 member planning team was formed for this congregation. Ruth Frazier, Chris Metcalfe, George Baker, Jama Hampson, Joni Frey, and I got together to assess where we are as a congregation – and put some processes in place in order to discern where God was calling us to go. On Sunday, September 28th, we had a 6-hour meeting down in the basement with about 35 people from the congregation who were willing to stay to help formulate a plan for the future. Those who committed themselves to this process had a good time as they shared with others in the church family their hopes and dreams for this body of believers. Don’t think for a moment that just because we’re all sitting in the same church that we all have the same ideas and opinions about things. Many ideas were shared that day!
Since then, your planning team has met three times to pull all of the information together into a five-year plan that includes specific measurable goals to expand the mission & ministry of the church, and specific improvements that must be made to the property in order to carry out the mission and ministry; the two go hand-in-hand in a good plan. It wasn’t the easiest process, but I’m grateful to say that the first draft is nearly ready to be shared, and will be shared at our congregational meeting following worship on December 7th.
Planning is important. But we must remember that the highest goal is not the fulfillment of the plan, but to keep following Jesus every step along the way.
The Sunday school class I’m leading right now is studying the book, The Disciple Making Church. In this book, Glenn McDonald defines a disciple as “one who trusts in and follows Jesus Christ, growing in his likeness and committing your heart, mind, soul, and strength to obey and serve him.”
Trusting and following and growing and committing and obeying and serving takes intentional planning. It doesn’t just happen. Do we really want to win at being a disciple of Jesus, or do we just want to keep our same place in the same pew because that’s just where we sit, or do we just want to show up when it’s convenient for us? Win? Place? Or show? Remember, Jesus said, “Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple. 34“Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing. “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
So, you need a plan to get out of credit card debt. Why? Because credit card debt is like a bottomless dark pit? Yes, and no. To get the creditors off your back? Yes, and no. To have more money for more important stuff? Yes, and no. We need a plan to get out of credit card debt because being a disciple means that you are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – committing your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to obey and serve him (not creditors).
So, you need a plan to break the addiction to pornography. Why? Because those DVD’s and magazines are getting way too expensive? Yes, and no. Because my spouse is threatening to leave me if I don’t? Yes, and no. We need a plan to break an addiction because being a disciple means that you are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – commiting your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to obey and serve him (not the addiction).
So, you need a plan to get away from a tough group at school you’ve been hanging out with. Why? Because my parents are having a fit? Yes, and no. Because there’s this guy, or this girl in another group I’m interested in? Yes, and no. Because I’m feeling pressured to develop an attitude of rebellion? Yes, and no. You need a plan to get away from a tough group at school because being a disciple means that you are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – committing your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to obey and serve him (not the people or image of the group). If you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, Jesus says that you can’t be his disciple.
So, we need a plan to move forward as a congregation for the next five years. Why? Because Meagan said we should have one? No. Because our consultant Jim Moss said we should have one? No. Because it’s the only way we’re going to get some stuff done around here that needs to be done. No. We need a plan to move forward as a congregation because being a disciple means that we are ever growing in the likeness of Jesus – committing our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our strength to obey and serve him (not ourselves or ‘the way we’ve always done it.”). “Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing.”
In Proverbs 16:3 we read, “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established,” and in 16:9 we read, “The human mind plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps.” Planning is biblical. A faithful disciple makes plans based on the teaching of the Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit. A faithful disciple plans how he or she can follow the Lord more nearly and more dearly with each passing day. But a faithful disciple also knows that ultimately it is the LORD who must direct our steps.
In 1896, the book In His Steps was written by Charles M. Sheldon. In simple style, In His Steps tells the story of self-satisfied congregants of a midwestern church who are challenged by a beggar during a Sunday service to live up to their declaration of faith. The beggar then dies in their midst. So moved are the minister and his parishioners that they pledge and plan to live their lives for one year asking themselves, "What would Jesus do?" Their example of how they suffered, faced ridicule and emerged victorious inspired and still inspires other churches throughout the country to do the same.
“The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.” I pray we will be a congregation full of disciples who eagerly plan the work and work the plan, but always with our eyes on Jesus, who alone must lead the way.
Amen.
