“I Have Some Good News and Some Bad News!” (A Lenten Evening Worship Message)

Scripture: Luke 14:25-35

Many years ago, there was a farmer who was considered rich by the people in his village because he owned a horse. One day, the horse ran away, and the villagers said to the farmer: "How unfortunate your horse ran away." And the farmer said, "How do you know it's unfortunate?"
And his friends didn’t understand!
The next day, the horse returned bringing with it a wild horse, thereby making the farmer even richer. The villagers exclaimed, "How fortunate." The farmer again said, "How do you know it's fortunate?"
And his friends didn’t understand!
The following day, the farmer's son, while trying to tame the wild horse, was thrown from the horse, breaking his leg. The villagers commented, "How unfortunate." And once again the farmer said, "How do you know it's unfortunate?"
And his friends didn’t understand!
The following day, the king's men rode through the village and took all the young men for the king's army. But they didn't take the farmer's son because of his broken leg.
And his friends began to understand!

The moral of the story is that one person’s good news may very well be another person’s bad news, and vice versa!! And even for ourselves, that which may seem impossible or way too strange, or totally undesirable can look like “bad news”, but when it’s the Lord who is sending that news, we need to remember what Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Even when we know, without a doubt, that the news is not to our benefit, God’s plan and his call will always be the best we will ever hear!

Read Luke 14:25-27

This is the first of our “good news, bad news” for this evening. Bad News – we have to hate our family if we are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? That doesn’t make much sense – after all, doesn’t one of the Ten Commandments tell us that we are to “honor our father and mother” (Exodus 20:12)? Why would Jesus want us to hate them?

The Good News is that the literal interpretation of these words is not what Jesus wants us to know. For Israel, family was everything – it was your name, your identity, your life, your worth, your past and present and future. Family was everything, and they were seen as being the foremost people in your entire life. Above all others, they were your number one influence and commitment.

In telling us that we must hate our family if we wish to become one with Jesus, he is saying that they can no longer be our number one, we have to surrender everything about this life, and begin living in him. The Lord is to be our identity, our worth, our present and future, and that we are to take on his name – the name of Christian. Our earthly family can no longer hold first place in our life.

Our New life in Jesus, and setting aside the priorities that we had in our worldly life, are both the Good News AND the Bad!

The second of our “good news, bad news” is that we have to pick up our own cross and follow the way of Jesus. The Bad news is that we just might have to suffer death, just as Jesus did. But again, the Good News is that while some may suffer death in the name of Jesus, that isn’t exactly what each of us will experience. What Jesus wants us to understand is that a life in him will be anything BUT a “cake walk”. There will be opposition, there will be conflict, there will be those times when lifelong friends, as well as family, will decide that they can no longer be with us.

Our walk with Christ, along with letting our previous contentment go, is both the Good News and the Bad – change is never easy, but when we are changed through a life in Christ, the past no longer matters – not our strengths, not our weaknesses, and not even our sin.

Read Luke 14:28-31

The third is that before we take one step with Christ, we need to understand what it will mean for our life. Obviously, the Lord isn’t suggesting that we build some kind of tower, but he is saying that we are to prepare and understand what a life in him will entail.

The Bad News is that all that we had ever depended upon can no longer be part of our life. Our abilities, our experiences, our strengths, our accomplishments can no longer help us or encourage us, because life will be totally new. But the Good News is that in our new life with Christ, we will have the Holy Spirit providing all of the support, all of the authority, all of the power that we will ever need.

The Bad News is that the familiarity that had always comforted us will no longer work to our advantage. The Good News is that we will never need that kind of help again.

The Good News and the Bad News is that by faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord will be making all things new for us. We just have to trust it.

Read Luke 14:32-33

The fourth is that surrender will be the most difficult part of gaining faith in Jesus. Remember Isaiah 55:9? This “Good News, Bad News” is all Good News! That we will be giving up our limited abilities and understandings, and in return, will be able to depend upon the higher and greater ways of the Divine, which will enable us to do far greater things in the name of our Lord.

But giving up the old ways and dependencies will never be easy, and may very well be the most trying aspect in our new understanding of life. But not for long, for as the power of God begins to work within and through us, we will soon realize that this will be the Good News of our eternity.

Read Luke 14:34-35

The fifth, and last, of our Good News / Bad News is this confusing saying about salt. After all, how in the world can salt loose its saltiness? The truth is that I can only think of one way – if it was diluted to the point that the salt is undetectable. And again, Jesus isn’t actually talking about salt – he is warning us about the depth, or rather shallowness, of our faith.

All too often, faith becomes “diluted” by our dependency on the world’s ways. If faith remains shallow and nearly undetectable by those we come in contact with, what good is it? In Revelation 3:16-17, in the Lord’s words to the Church in Laodicea, we read “So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” That sounds like the ultimate in being relegated to the manure pile!

These five warning for our life in Christ, our discipleship, have struck a chord for me. Let me take just a moment for each one, and share how they have applied n my own life.

First, that I had to “hate” my previous life. For years, I had prayed that God would reveal his desires for my life, so that I could go and do it for him. The problem with this attitude, was that “I would do it”. Since those days, I have discovered that it isn’t that we are to do anything grand for God – in my case, the only thing he wanted me to do is to Trust Him. After that bit of revelation, and after I had received my new identity in Christ, the Bad News got a whole lot Better!

Second, it wasn’t that I would be directly persecuted or oppressed in any overt way, and I wouldn’t have to face death because of my love of Jesus. It was my dependence on my own intellect, my own abilities, my own understanding that would have to die. I must confess that it isn’t quite dead yet, but it is wavering between being on critical life support, and Satan’s resuscitation. But faith in Jesus continues to encourage me in his New Life, and less and less in my old one.

Third, at first, I thought that my new life in the Lord was just a great relief from my past, but as time went on, I discovered that he had more and more that I had to give up, and more and more that he wanted me to claim. First, he called me to a nursing home to lead worship once a month, a calling that has now grown to worship at 5 additional nursing homes. Once I was fairly comfortable with that, he gave me an invitation to join a ministry team at Waymart prison – a place that I had tried my entire life to stay out of! But when I grudgingly went, I discovered that the Holy Spirit was already at work there, and that I was there to watch and help and learn. And of course, that led to pastoral ministry, which I truly believe has yet to reach maturity.


Fourth, by that time, surrender was becoming a way of life, and each time he calls, and each time I have to give something else up, it has been getting easier and easier. It isn’t second nature yet, but we’re getting closer.

And the fifth, my saltiness for the Lord, has been gaining in strength and intensity with every passing day, and with every opportunity to walk closer to him.

Christ’s passion for me and for all people throughout the earth, has been having that kind of effect on my life, and I fully expect that my Lord and Savior will continue to strengthen me and improve my focus on what and who he would have me be.

Glory to God, all praise to my Living Lord, this day and for the rest of my life. Amen and Amen.