8/29/21 Luke 14:25-33 “The Invisible Rabbit!”

27 Aug 8/29/21 Luke 14:25-33 “The Invisible Rabbit!”

8/29/21    Luke 14:25-33       “The Invisible Rabbit!”

One of the misconceptions that folks often have is that a pastor sits down on Saturday afternoon or evening and dashes off a sermon.  Their way of thinking is that I am the pastor so I shouldn’t have to spend much time on the message.  It should come naturally.  Well, it probably does come naturally but it comes through Jesus Christ.  I have heard of some pastors who have been in the ministry for 30+ years that spend very little time in preparation.  I can only say that they are probably a lot better than I am or else it sounds like they didn’t put a lot into it.  We heard an old guy one time who obviously wasn’t well prepared and he rambled on for over a ½ hour.  It was hard to sit and listen to him.  I could probably do the same thing but I think that you deserve a little better effort on my part.  You see, if I didn’t spend a little extra time putting this together, I probably wouldn’t have come up with such a catchy title this week, “The Invisible Rabbit!”  I’m going to let you hang on that for a few minutes and we will get back to it.  In today’s reading we find Jesus explaining what it means to be a disciple.  Let’s see if we measure up to this or do we need a little work.

I would like to begin with some actual comments from comment cards given to the staff at Bridger Wilderness Area in Wyoming several years ago as told by Mike Neifert.  Some of these are just hilarious!  One said that the trails need to be reconstructed.  Please avoid building trails that go uphill.  Another said that there were too many bugs, leeches, spiders and webs.  Please spray the wilderness area to get rid of these pests.  Another, please pave the trails…Chair lifts are needed in some areas so we can get to these wonderful views without having to hike.  Another said that a small deer came into camp and stole my jar of pickles.  Is there any way to get reimbursed?  Others suggested escalators, said there were too many rocks in the mountains and finally a MacDonald’s at the trail head would be nice.  I just had to share these with you.  I think that it is pretty obvious that these people know nothing about wilderness areas.  There are also many, many people in our churches today who know nothing about being a Christian.  So many people come to church, sing the songs, pray the prayers, bring their kids so they can be confirmed and still know nothing about being a Christian.  They do all the right stuff but they miss the relationship.

I think that it is interesting to note what Jesus was doing here.  He was traveling with a large crowd.  These were the people who followed him everywhere.  These were the people who loved Jesus and everything that He did.  These were the people who knew they were in the presence of someone special.  Now it doesn’t say what prompted this conversation.  Maybe it was just time for Him to tell his followers what it meant to follow.  Following wasn’t just a good time.  It wasn’t just one continuous party.  There was a cost involved.  This crowd reminds me of a story told by Tim Zingale.  There was an old Christian sitting on his porch with his dog and a young man who asked him this question. “Why is it, brother, that most Christians zealously chase after God during the 1^st year or two after their conversion but then fall into the complacent ritual of church twice a week and end up not looking any different than their neighbors who aren’t even Christians?  I have heard that you are not like that.  You have fervently sought after God for years and years.  People see something in you that they don’t see in most others who become Christians.  What makes you different?”

The old man smiled and replied, “Let me tell you a story: One day I was sitting here quietly in the sun with my dog. Suddenly a large white rabbit ran across in front of us. Well, my dog jumped up, and took off after that big rabbit. He chased the rabbit over the hills with a passion.

Soon, other dogs joined him, attracted by his barking. What a sight it was, as the pack of dogs ran barking across the creeks, up stony hills and through thickets and thorns! Gradually, however, one by one, the other dogs dropped out of the pursuit, discouraged by the course and frustrated by the chase. Only my dog continued to hotly pursue the white rabbit.”
“In that story, young man, is the answer to your question.”
The young man sat in confused silence. Finally, he said, “Brother, I don’t understand. What is the connection between the rabbit chase and the quest for God?”
“You fail to understand,” answered the old man, “because you failed to ask the obvious question.  Why didn’t the other dogs continue on the chase?  And the answer to that question is that they had not seen the rabbit.
This is the problem in our churches today, we have not seen God.  We don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  If we don’t have this then we are just going through the motions.  And when we are just going through the motions, then bad things happen and we start to believe things that are not in the Bible.  There are many churches and denominations who have never seen Jesus.  Jesus is telling us that to be a disciple of His we have to hate our fathers, mothers, spouses and children.  Now don’t be misled here.  If you read your Bibles at all, you will find that many times Jesus uses parables, metaphors and other kinds of figures of speech to make His point.  That is what He is doing here.  Also, if we look closely at the ancient word that we translate to hate, we find that this really means a lesser love in the original language, not necessarily hate.

What Jesus wants us to do in these first couple of verses is to die to ourselves.  He wants us to love Him first, above all else.  We are to love Jesus before we love our spouse, before we love our families and before we love anything else including chocolate.  We are not called to necessarily hate these things, only love them less than we love Jesus.  What happens when we do this is nothing short of a miracle.  When you love Jesus first above all other things, you find that Jesus in turn allows you to love your spouse first.  He allows you to love your babies and children first.  There are so many things that Jesus does that are really hard for us to understand and this is one of them.  You have to love Jesus first, period.

This is the relationship that we talk about.  This is the closeness you get when you ask Jesus to live in your heart.  This is life changing and it is always life changing for the best.  If you don’t have this relationship, then confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him into your life today.  Let this miracle begin to happen.  When you begin to trust and love Jesus 100% above any and all other things and people, then miracles will begin to happen in your life also.  Soon people will look at you too and want what you have.  And they can have it also.  Don’t be like all the dogs who are chasing something they have not seen.  Jesus Christ is there for you.  Go to Him and you will never regret it.  He can always be visible to you.

The next thing that Jesus is talking about here is the cost of following Him.  What Jesus is trying to say here is that you don’t go out and buy a farm and not know what the price is.  You don’t go out and buy a new house and not know what the price is.  Only the US Congress is stupid enough to pass a bill without ever reading it.  You should also not try to follow Jesus and not know what the price is.  These people who were following Jesus that day did not know what the price was for following Him.  About all they knew about Him was that He did miracles and He was from God so they should pay attention to Him.  After all, this would be the man who would finally free them from Rome.  They were following Jesus for all the wrong reasons.  This is one of the first examples of cheap grace.

Cheap grace has been around since the beginning and it is definitely around today.  It is rampant in our churches today.  And it is not just the people coming looking for cheap grace, it is also the pastors who offer cheap grace.  And by the way, cheap grace is no grace at all.  I have gone to some services in large churches and it is all about the show.  If the music and show are good enough, then the people will love it and come again; cheap grace.  If I only stand up here and tell you all the good things that happen when you are following Jesus and I don’t say anything about the cost, then I offer cheap grace.  If you come here looking to feel good, that is cheap grace.  If I stand up here and offer you forgiveness without requiring repentance from you, you have cheap grace.  Or if we have Communion without confession, or baptism without church discipline or absolution without personal confession, we will have cheap grace.

I want you to understand that grace is not cheap.  Jesus Christ went to the cross and died a most horrible death so that you may have grace.  God sent His Son to do this for you.  There is nothing cheap about grace and there are no short cuts.

The cost of grace is so high because it condemns sin and we love our sin.  The cost is high because there are definitely things that are wrong in this world and it is up to us to tell everyone. There are so many things that are legally right in this country but morally wrong.  You only have to look as far as your television set to find this.  Sin is everywhere and it is time that we stand up against it.  Otherwise, who knows what will happen.

I would guess that if I went around to each of you and asked if you were a Christian, about everyone would say yes.  But if I asked if you were a disciple of Jesus Christ, I’m sure that I would get a little hesitation.  We have taken the word disciple and set it up on a pedestal.  The word discipleship is a buzz word in our modern church.  We take classes to be disciples.  We study books on this.  We visit the sick in the name of discipleship.  I hate to burst anyone’s bubble today but a disciple of Jesus Christ is nothing more than a Christian.  The word Christian was rarely used in the Bible until later.  Then it was used to refer to being a disciple.  Therefore, if you consider yourself to be a Christian, then you have to be a disciple.

We shouldn’t need things like visitation teams or teams that go and feed the hungry and teams that do this and do that.  All of these things are things that we should all be doing all the time because we are Christians.  If we are disciples, then we are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

For the most part being a disciple means going to another person to help them in some way or another in the name of Jesus.  It could be food or clothing or helping them to know Jesus.  Sometimes it means giving money for missions far away.  But what it does not mean is to give money so that someone else will go out and do the work and you do nothing.   This is an area where we really fall down.  If we throw some money in the mission’s pot, then we get all proud and think we have done a great job when our next-door neighbor is house bound and has no one to come to help and visit them.  Senators and Representatives think that when they throw enough money around the problem will be solved.  Many churches have adopted the same philosophy.  This approach has nothing to do with Christ.  He wants us, you and me, to go out and visit personally.  Christianity gets spread one person at a time.  We started a new service one time and we didn’t just open our doors and pray they would come.  We went out 4 times to reach people personally, door to door, and invite them to come.  You need to remember that while Jesus Christ did teach to large crowds, He spent most of His time in one-on-one relationships.  Don’t get to chasing rabbits you cannot see.  Get a relationship with Jesus and follow His lead.

Max Lucado tells a great story that applies here.  Suppose you want to learn to dance.  I would guess that you are a pretty rational, cerebral person so you go to the bookstore or online and buy a book on dancing.  You read the book and you get to practicing what it says.  Finally you think that you have it so you call your wife in to watch as you show her how you can now dance.   You hold the book open and follow the instructions.  You even read aloud so that she will know that you have been doing your homework.  “Lean with your right shoulder,” you read and lean.  “Now step with your right foot,” and you step.  “Turn slowly to the left,” and you turn.

You continue to read and then dance and read and then dance until the dance is completed.  Then you plop down exhausted on the couch and say, “I executed it perfectly!”

She just looks at you and sighs and says, “You executed it all right, you killed it.”

“What?” you say.

She replied, “You forgot the most important part.  Where is the music?”

You never thought about the music.  You were so busy trying to read the book and do what it says that you forgot the music.

“Do it again,” she says as she starts the music.  “This time, don’t worry about the steps; just follow the music.”  The next thing you know, you two are dancing and you don’t even need a book.

As Christians we sometimes get so caught up in the rules, committees and regulations that we forget about Jesus Christ.  We chase a rabbit we can’t see. Take the hand of Jesus and He will lead you into the most fulfilling life that is possible.  He loves you that much.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.