Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Luke chapter 9, verses 57 through 62.

As they were going along the road, someone said to Jesus,

I'll 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, first let me go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him,

leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

And another said, I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to those in 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 have shared before about the first time I ever heard Jim Shattuck's,

my mentor in ministry and preaching. The first time I ever heard him preach this text, and he

started the whole sermon by saying, my aim tonight is to talk you out of following Jesus.

You're speaking to a group of students, teenagers.

And I thought, well, this is an unconventional approach.

But it's what is happening in this text.

Doesn't it seem like Jesus is trying to talk people out of following him?

Dr. Shattuck's went on to preach this text and then gave an invitation of the end and all kinds of

students responded.

They said, yes, we want to pay the price of following Jesus.

And that really is the invitation. It's earlier here in Luke 9 as well. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself,

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