Speaker 1: Well, every year we take a group of students and adult leaders on a mission trip to Mexico and we're actually leaving here in getting close to a month, and so we're excited for that.
Speaker 1: But last year we were flying back into town and we fly out of the Cancun Airport, and if you've ever been to the Cancun Airport, it's very nice.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things to do there, there's a lot of stores, and typically when I go somewhere new, I like to see all the things, and so when I go somewhere new, I like to see all the things, and so typically I would be trying to go to all the shops.
Speaker 1: And you know, man, that security spinny thing.
Speaker 1: It was really cool.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go through that again.
Speaker 1: Like I want to buy one of those coffees from Starbucks.
Speaker 1: They taste horrible and they're $20, but it's Cancun coffee and I would want to do all the things.
Speaker 1: But this specific time when I was at this airport, I didn't do any of that.
Speaker 1: I didn't waste any time.
Speaker 1: I went straight to the gate, I sat down and I waited for the flight.
Speaker 1: Well, why?
Speaker 1: Because at that point I had a beautiful wife and a one-year-old daughter and a three-month-old son waiting for me at home, and I didn't get distracted with the terminal and the enjoyment of all those distractions because I wanted no chance of missing my flight and my destination, because the destination mattered more than my enjoyment of the journey.
Speaker 1: Why am I telling you this?
Speaker 1: Because we live in a world that's going to tell you the complete opposite, that it's all about the journey, it's about living it up.
Speaker 1: If you can just get a bunch of money and stuff, if you can get some success and some influence, sleep around, maybe find your soulmate, you'll be living the good life.
Speaker 1: Everything will be great.
Speaker 1: The problem is there's so much focus in the world today on enjoying the journey, live it up, get what you can while you got it, that nobody stops to think about where that journey is taking you.
Speaker 1: We live in a culture where there's fewer restrictions or taboos than ever.
Speaker 1: You're free to do what you want.
Speaker 1: You have the world at your fingertips and your smartphone and, relatively speaking, we have more money than ever.
Speaker 1: And yet you would think, okay, well, we've got all this stuff.
Speaker 1: We have so much freedom.
Speaker 1: The world should be happier than it's ever been, right Wrong?
Speaker 1: Statistic after statistic shows that anxiety, depression and all of these different coping related addictions are at all-time highs, especially amongst our generation.
Speaker 1: Gen Z and the upcoming Gen Alpha are the ones who are being hit the worst.
Speaker 1: Something's not right.
Speaker 1: We've bought a lie.
Speaker 1: The path that our society says is the path to the good life doesn't actually lead to the good life.
Speaker 1: It's poison, it leads to anxiety, it leads to depression, it leads to a miserable life and, ultimately, destruction.
Speaker 1: We need a new path that leads us to the true good life, life to the fullest.
Speaker 1: And thankfully our passage in our series on the Sermon on the Mount tonight is going to talk about just that.
Speaker 1: We've been walking through the Sermon on the Mount all spring and we're getting to the end.
Speaker 1: We've actually skipped around a little bit to make up some ground, and tonight we're going to be in Matthew, chapter 7, starting in verse 13.
Speaker 1: So if you have your copy of the Bible, then go ahead and flip Matthew 7, 13.
Speaker 1: We're going to be there tonight and it will be on the screen if you don't have your Bible.
Speaker 1: And so thus far in the Sermon on the Mount, jesus has been telling his crowd, his audience, all about what it looks like to be in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Really, what that means is what it means to be one of his followers.
Speaker 1: This is what it looks like, and so he's gone through that.
Speaker 1: He's talked about all sorts of different topics we talked about anxiety last week but he ends this sermon by challenging all the people who are listening that they need to respond.
Speaker 1: It's not enough to just listen to all of his words and say, hey, that sounds really good.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of that.
Speaker 1: He says, no, you need to respond.
Speaker 1: And that's these parables that he gives at the end of this that we're going to be walking through tonight, that his teachings demand an answer.
Speaker 1: And these parables are going to be painting a picture of two different ways in life, and each way has its own gate and its own destination, and these paths are really symbolic of someone's journey in life one to destruction and one to true life, life to the fullest.
Speaker 1: And so let's go ahead and read Matthew, chapter 7, verse 13.
Speaker 1: Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy.
Speaker 1: That leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, for the gate is wide and the way is easy.
Speaker 1: That leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard.
Speaker 1: That leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to read this passage one more time.
Speaker 1: I believe this is the beginning of verse 13.
Speaker 1: The gate is wide and the way is easy.
Speaker 1: That leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
Speaker 1: Would you all pray with me real quick, take just a minute, and would you pray for yourself, for your own heart, your mind, that God would remove any distractions, that you would have ears to hear whatever it is that he has to show you tonight?
Speaker 1: Maybe you've never prayed before.
Speaker 1: Would you just try talking to God, asking him to speak, asking you to show him yourself in a powerful way tonight, asking him to speak, asking you to show him yourself in a powerful way tonight that you would leave change.
Speaker 1: Would you pray for me that I would preach the Bible faithfully, that what I say would be helpful to you and not misleading or distracting?
Speaker 1: Lord, god, I thank you so much for tonight and I thank you for the opportunity we have to come and teach, or rather to learn your word, lord, and to learn more of who you are through it, and I pray that we would be convicted, encouraged, challenged that you would meet us where we're at and that we leave here looking more like you.
Speaker 1: Jesus, we love you and praise you.
Speaker 1: We pray all these things in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: And everybody said amen.
Speaker 1: So there's two paths, right.
Speaker 1: The first one is the broad path.
Speaker 1: Broad meaning wide, and Jesus isn't talking about just the actual width of the road, he's not concerned about that, but he's describing the experience of traveling it.
Speaker 1: The wide road is easy.
Speaker 1: It's the way of the world.
Speaker 1: There's not really any boundaries or obstacles, just go with the flow.
Speaker 1: Nobody really cares what you do or say or think or how you live.
Speaker 1: This is the way of life.
Speaker 1: That says, hey, chase your pleasures, chase your popularity, chase your status, do what you want, stay true to yourself, do what makes you happy.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says, hey, this broad path, many are on it.
Speaker 1: Most people in the world are on this path.
Speaker 1: And the disturbing part of this message is that Jesus says that road leads to destruction.
Speaker 1: And the truth he's getting at here is that you can live a life full of pleasure and comfort and think you haven't made, but you're just living in a house of cards.
Speaker 1: It's a sham.
Speaker 1: You're sleepwalking completely unaware of the fact that every day you're just getting one step further from God, and every step further from God is a step closer to destruction.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the movie Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 1: Has anybody seen the Lord of the Rings movies in here at all?
Speaker 1: Some people I actually haven't.
Speaker 1: I had to research this for this illustration, so if I get any details wrong I apologize.
Speaker 1: But in the third movie Frodo is one of the characters and he has this task of destroying this ring and he has to throw it into the mountain of Mount Doom.
Speaker 1: And the problem is the path to Mount Doom isn't easy.
Speaker 1: They've got to travel this whole far distance.
Speaker 1: There's all these dangers and obstacles, and so in order to travel the whole thing it would take great sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And at one point Frodo and his friend Sam stand at a crossroads and there's two paths in front of them.
Speaker 1: There's one that looks really easy and one that looks really scary and dangerous and hard.
Speaker 1: And the easy one is tempting because it's easier, it's comfortable, it's safer, it's not as dangerous.
Speaker 1: But the easy path actually takes them away from the mountain that they're supposed to destroy, that ring in, away from their mission.
Speaker 1: And while it might be easier in the short term, this path that goes away from the mountain actually leads to destruction, because that ring would continue to corrupt and enslave and do all sorts of bad things to the world that they lived in.
Speaker 1: And so they ultimately choose the difficult path because, even though it would require great suffering and sacrifice, the destination was better.
Speaker 1: They'd be choosing peace, life, salvation.
Speaker 1: And so, just like Frodo and Sam, we have a choice.
Speaker 1: You can choose to live a life of comfort.
Speaker 1: It's easy.
Speaker 1: I don't really live according to any standard or rules or way of life.
Speaker 1: I just do what I want to do, and it might seem tempting, but the truth of that path is that it's from Satan.
Speaker 1: Scripture is clear that you have an enemy, a spiritual being created.
Speaker 1: He's not all powerful, but he's a spiritual being, and he seeks to steal, kill and destroy.
Speaker 1: He wants to take you, your future, your family.
Speaker 1: He wants to take all of that out, and one of his favorite ways is to just lull you into the sense that everything is good when it's not.
Speaker 1: There's an author named CS Lewis.
Speaker 1: He wrote the Narnia books and that's how most of us have heard of him, but he was actually a very devout Christian and wrote a lot of Christian books.
Speaker 1: There's one book called the Screwtape Letters, and in this book he kind of plays the role of these demons who are riding back and forth the senior demon and his junior demon and they're discussing how they can tempt these people, how they can get them to stray away from God, and so there's a few quotes in here that speak perfectly to this point.
Speaker 1: I've changed them a little bit so that it can be easier to understand.
Speaker 1: But one of the senior demons is writing to the junior demon and this is what he says your job is to stop them from actually meaning talking, and they're trying to tempt Just get them thinking about literally anything except God and what's going on in their heart.
Speaker 1: A distracted Christian is basically on our team.
Speaker 1: He continued on and he said success ties people to the world.
Speaker 1: They think they're figuring out where they belong, but really the world is getting a grip on them.
Speaker 1: As they get more popular and busier and feel more important, they start feeling like this world is all that they need, and that's exactly what we want.
Speaker 1: And then he continues just remember, the main goal is to pull them away from God.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how small the sin is, as long as it slowly moves them further from the light.
Speaker 1: If playing cards get the job done better than something huge like murder, fine, take the easy route.
Speaker 1: The safest road to hell isn't some wild, obvious path, it's the slow, quiet, drift, smooth, comfortable, with no warning at all.
Speaker 1: And that's what Jesus is warning you about.
Speaker 1: He says the way of the world may let you do things the way you want it to.
Speaker 1: It might be easy, might not have a lot of restrictions and it might not ask that much from you.
Speaker 1: But the danger is not a hard life.
Speaker 1: The danger is that you get so consumed with the things of the world passions, pleasures, getting the GPA, going to school, getting the grade, getting into the school.
Speaker 1: You want that.
Speaker 1: You live a pretty easy life, but you don't see where you're going, that you walk through life blind of your need for Jesus, because you think you've got it all, you've got your life together, you don't need anything, living in a house of cards, thinking it's a mansion.
Speaker 1: So ask yourself that tonight Is that you Like?
Speaker 1: Do you find yourself on the broad path?
Speaker 1: And it might not look wild or rebellious, it might just be normal.
Speaker 1: It's the path where your biggest worries are how many people liked your post whether you made varsity, if your plans this weekend are fun enough to keep you entertained and not feel bored or out.
Speaker 1: It's filling your sport or your schedule with school social life, but leaving no space for a relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's about chasing comfort, a good reputation, a GPA, a solid friend group, a boyfriend or a girlfriend, without ever asking the deeper questions like what is my life really about?
Speaker 1: Or who am I becoming?
Speaker 1: Or it's about numbing that anxiety and that discomfort in your heart when you start to ask big questions, just numbing it with Netflix or TikTok or gaming.
Speaker 1: You know, going to church sometimes, but really just because it's out of habit or your parents expect you to.
Speaker 1: You might chime in once or twice as small group, but if you're honest, jesus has no role in your life as a whole.
Speaker 1: He's just another thing on your to-do list and slowly, one day at a time, you're taking further, more and more steps away from the one who made you, the one who created you to know him.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says that road is wide, it's easy and there's a lot of people on it, but it doesn't take you where you want to go.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus is obviously warning us against that.
Speaker 1: But what is he calling us to?
Speaker 1: It's not just like he's trying to bash down the world, but he's actually calling you to life, calling you to something better.
Speaker 1: And the beautiful part of this text is that he's calling you to himself.
Speaker 1: He's saying that way leads to death, but I have life.
Speaker 1: And so that's what he goes into in verse 14.
Speaker 1: He says for the gate is narrow and the way is hard.
Speaker 1: That leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Speaker 1: And so the second path is the narrow one.
Speaker 1: It's following Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's the opposite of what the world is going to sell you, of how to go through life.
Speaker 1: And when he says it's narrow, he's talking about there's boundaries.
Speaker 1: In John, chapter 9, he says I am the gate, and if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
Speaker 1: And what he's saying is that he is the entrance.
Speaker 1: The way to life goes through him.
Speaker 1: You cannot get eternal life without first placing your faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1: There's no other way.
Speaker 1: But it also means that there's boundaries on your beliefs.
Speaker 1: Following Jesus, entering the narrow path, means that you don't just get to believe and think whatever you want anymore.
Speaker 1: You have to take your thoughts.
Speaker 1: You have to take your assumptions, your opinions, your biases and you have to set them aside and say I might think these things, I might come from this type of home, but I'm going to choose to pick up Jesus's view on the world, his reality, the truth of the God who created everything that we see.
Speaker 1: And it says I'm not going to live by my understanding anymore, I'm going to live by his, and I don't just get to pick and choose the commands.
Speaker 1: I like you know, like, oh yeah, I'm all for being kind and not judging people, but I don't really pay attention to the whole, like God caring the type of words that I say or who I sleep with or how I spend my money, like that stuff, I'm just gonna sweep to the side.
Speaker 1: You don't get to do that.
Speaker 1: You have to surrender, and it's conscious too.
Speaker 1: It's a choice.
Speaker 1: You're not ever gonna just stumble into looking like Jesus.
Speaker 1: You have to choose to enter the gate and follow him.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is honest.
Speaker 1: He says hey, this is gonna be difficult.
Speaker 1: In Luke 14, 33, he says any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Speaker 1: And so he's not saying that you literally have to go out and sell everything that you have.
Speaker 1: He's saying that if you are not so surrendered to me that you would be willing to lay down anything if I called you to do it, you're missing the point, and that takes time, but it's the narrow way.
Speaker 1: But the difficulty is not just with us, though.
Speaker 1: In John 15, 18 through 19, jesus says if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before.
Speaker 1: It hated you, because if you were of the world, the world would love you, but because you are not of the world and I chose you out of the world, the world hates you.
Speaker 1: The reality is, the people on the narrow path are not believing and thinking and doing the same things as the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: They're doing the opposite, and because of that, the world is always going to look at those people and they're going to view them and put them on the outside.
Speaker 1: They're going to persecute them, they're going to judge them.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the show Duck Dynasty.
Speaker 1: I know hard shift there, which is apparently coming back.
Speaker 1: By the way, they're putting a new season, they're filming or whatever.
Speaker 1: You might not know, but at the peak of its popularity there was some controversy.
Speaker 1: Phil Robertson, who's the grandpa he's like the patriarch or whatever was interviewing with a newspaper or what is it?
Speaker 1: A magazine, gq.
Speaker 1: And they asked him hey, what do you believe that sin is?
Speaker 1: And they were kind of baiting him, trying to get something that they could use, and he just responded, honestly, he paraphrased 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 10, don't be deceived, neither the adulterers nor idolaters, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards.
Speaker 1: They're not going to inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: And he ends you know he's pretty frank, but he ends by saying look, it's not my place to judge as to who is going to heaven or not going to heaven.
Speaker 1: I try to share the good news of the gospel and I let the Lord be the judge.
Speaker 1: And so he ended that he wasn't being hateful, he wasn't trying to throw stones at anybody, he didn't say it perfectly, but he certainly wasn't trying to tear anyone down.
Speaker 1: But afterwards, if you turned on the news, you would have thought that he like killed someone and liked to kick puppies, like he was getting blasted on every news media outlet, social media.
Speaker 1: There were people.
Speaker 1: He actually got suspended by the network from the show.
Speaker 1: He was accused of hate speech.
Speaker 1: They wanted to cancel the show just for simply saying what Christians had believed for thousands of years.
Speaker 1: And there's been so many other instances where somebody gets a platform, they're popular, they're a celebrity, and then they're a Christian and somebody asks them what they believe and they tell them and all of a sudden everyone hates them.
Speaker 1: Because, remember the words of Jesus if you were of the world, the world would love you, but if you're not, the world's going to hate you.
Speaker 1: That's the fact that the narrow path of following Jesus is not popular.
Speaker 1: Part of the difficulty is having to break away from that and choose Jesus instead.
Speaker 1: So why in the world would you do it?
Speaker 1: Why would you choose to follow Jesus If it's this narrow path?
Speaker 1: It's difficult like this is not a great sales pitch, garrett.
Speaker 1: Well, remember, the destination matters more than enjoying the journey.
Speaker 1: You can live an easy life that doesn't take you where you want to go, but the truth is that faith in Jesus, a relationship with the God who made you, is the only way to eternal life, and that's not just like getting into heaven one day.
Speaker 1: That's eternal life that starts now.
Speaker 1: That's a satisfaction, that's a fulfillment that nothing else no amount of popularity, no amount of boys or girls, or sports or graves or money or stuff is ever going to give you here on earth, because you weren't made for any of that.
Speaker 1: You were made to know Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so, for Jesus, he says that, hey, even though following him means the gate is narrow, the narrow path leads to life.
Speaker 1: He says I'm the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 1: Nobody gets to the Father except through me.
Speaker 1: Everybody's on one of these two paths.
Speaker 1: There's no in between.
Speaker 1: There's no.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of on the fence.
Speaker 1: You're on the path that leads to life or the path that leads to destruction.
Speaker 1: And that broad path.
Speaker 1: It offers you this fake freedom that you can just ride your independence and do whatever you want all the way to living your best life.
Speaker 1: But really, what happens is you just become a slave to your sinful desires, and we all know that that can happen.
Speaker 1: But really what happens is you just become a slave to your sinful desires, and we all know that that can happen.
Speaker 1: But what we don't always understand is that the narrow path actually offers us freedom from restriction.
Speaker 1: And we've seen this before.
Speaker 1: If you've ever been to a marriage, you know that every wedding is actually a funeral.
Speaker 1: What do I mean by that?
Speaker 1: Well, when you stand up in front of your family, your loved ones, your friends, and you give your vows before the Lord to your spouse.
Speaker 1: There's a version of you that dies.
Speaker 1: Like you take that old, independent version of you and you take him behind the woodshed and you, like old, yell at him like he's gone right, because now you have a commitment, you have somebody else to care about.
Speaker 1: You have somebody else that you are doing life with right.
Speaker 1: Guys, you're going to want to go play golf or do whatever with the boys and play video games late at night, and you're going to get that call.
Speaker 1: That's like, hey, yeah, we made plans to like go shop around later, right.
Speaker 1: Like you're going to come.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds like so much fun, I'm totally going to come to that, cool.
Speaker 1: Or girls, you're going to realize, hey, that guy doesn't really care about feelings as much as you do.
Speaker 1: Or like cleanliness or like conversation, right.
Speaker 1: And you're going to see all these things where, all of a sudden, I am not just getting to do whatever I want anymore.
Speaker 1: So then, why do people do it?
Speaker 1: Why do people still get married?
Speaker 1: Well, because through that commitment, you receive life, you receive fulfillment, you have a person that you get to do life with right.
Speaker 1: That's why none of us look forward to marriage.
Speaker 1: When there's like, oh, that's gonna be terrible, like for many people, you look forward to it because there's a joy that comes from that restriction.
Speaker 1: And in the same way, when we give ourselves to Jesus, when we say, hey, I'm gonna enter through that narrow gate, there's a freedom that comes from that.
Speaker 1: Tim Keller says it this way Culture says that freedom means doing whatever you want whenever you want.
Speaker 1: But real freedom isn't about having zero rules.
Speaker 1: It's about choosing the right ones.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you've got to give up certain freedoms in order to gain something better.
Speaker 1: It's not about no limits.
Speaker 1: It's about setting the right limits that lead to real life.
Speaker 1: And Comer, one of my favorite authors, adds this.
Speaker 1: He says the best example of this is love.
Speaker 1: If you really love someone, you can't just do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: To get close to someone, you have to be giving up being totally independent.
Speaker 1: Real closeness only happens when there's a commitment that you can count on.
Speaker 1: And so what's happening here?
Speaker 1: Jesus isn't calling you away from doing whatever you want because he's this buzzkill who doesn't want you to have any fun in life.
Speaker 1: He's calling you to himself because he is where life is found.
Speaker 1: He is where fulfillment is.
Speaker 1: He loves you and he wants what's best for you.
Speaker 1: And did you know, like when most people reject God I would say most I think it's fair to say it's not because there's some rational proof that he doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: You know, people argue for and against, and apologetics.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people way smarter than me that have been arguing for thousands of years as to the reason God can or cannot exist, and I think there's very strong evidence why it's the God of the Bible.
Speaker 1: But for most people, the reason they don't want to actually follow Jesus is because they don't believe he's good.
Speaker 1: You know, they can acknowledge there might be a God who's out there somewhere.
Speaker 1: He made the world, everything in it.
Speaker 1: He might care or whatever.
Speaker 1: But when he starts telling me what to do, I don't want any part of that right.
Speaker 1: When he starts telling me how to talk or who to have a relationship with, or you know the way I'm supposed to act like I'm not going to do that whole thing Like when his will starts to come into conflict with mine, I'm going to jump ship, I'm out.
Speaker 1: And so very few of us would actually say that's what we believe, but ask yourself what does your life show?
Speaker 1: Do you live your life in a way that shows that you follow Jesus?
Speaker 1: Or are you like, hey, you know, I'll go to church on a Wednesday, I'll go to church on a Sunday, I'll check the box?
Speaker 1: But I don't really want him to tell me what to do, because I don't believe he has my best interest in heart.
Speaker 1: I can do this better than he can Do.
Speaker 1: You believe he's good, because true belief in God's goodness will always lead to surrender and obedience.
Speaker 1: And that's what Jesus hammers home in this last part, in verse 21.
Speaker 1: He says not everyone who says to me, lord, lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but one day, or sorry, but the one who does.
Speaker 1: And this is a scary passage for a lot of us.
Speaker 1: We hear this passage and we're like, oh my goodness, what if I live my whole life thinking that I'm saved and that I'm not?
Speaker 1: And I don't think that this passage is meant to instill fear from people who are genuinely loving and following Jesus.
Speaker 1: Like that's not his point here.
Speaker 1: He's not trying to make us all tremble and be terrified, but what he is doing is trying to create this picture where you understand hey, you actually need to think about this.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't just take it for granted Like you need to wrestle with this and ask yourself where do I stand in my relationship with Jesus?
Speaker 1: And he said earlier hey, there are few that find the narrow gate.
Speaker 1: And how, then, can so many people be mistaken?
Speaker 1: Well, one way is that people are wrong about how they enter the gate right.
Speaker 1: They're wrong about what it looks like to be saved, to place your faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1: They think, well, I was just born into it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to enter the path by living off my heritage, and my grandparents were Christians, my parents were Christians and I always went to church with them.
Speaker 1: Other people think, hey, I can get in based off what I know.
Speaker 1: Right, I went to a private Christian school or I went to Sunday school growing up.
Speaker 1: I have all the answers, I know all the things, so God's going to accept me then.
Speaker 1: Or it's passion, it's zeal.
Speaker 1: I'm going to post about Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do everything I can for him, I'm going to serve him.
Speaker 1: It's works.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do great things for Jesus, but the reality is Jesus doesn't ask for good works.
Speaker 1: No amount of our good works can make up for our sin.
Speaker 1: You don't enter the gate by knowledge or works or passion or bloodline.
Speaker 1: In fact, I read this quote the other day the only thing that can effectively keep you from God's mercy is thinking that you deserve it right.
Speaker 1: Because the truth of the gospel is that we were completely dead in our sin, gone, lost without hope, and God sent his son, jesus, to live a perfect life, did everything that we could not and yet died on the cross for our sins, that he became our sin, and Jesus punished him for that sin.
Speaker 1: And so if you want to talk about how you get through the gate, you place your faith in what he did for you.
Speaker 1: You say, hey, I did not do anything to make up for my sin, but I know and trust the one who paid for my sin and I'm going to follow him for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: You come to him and you say I've got nothing but my own sin and inadequacy in my hands.
Speaker 1: I've got nothing to show but all the reasons that you shouldn't accept me, jesus.
Speaker 1: But I trust that you are good, I trust that you love me, and so I want to follow you.
Speaker 1: Will you save me?
Speaker 1: And if you do that, he will, if you tell him God, I can't do this on my own.
Speaker 1: I've been sleepwalking, I've been living however I want, I've tried to earn it and I've failed.
Speaker 1: I've been on the road to destruction and I need you to pluck me.
Speaker 1: I need you to take me off, I need you to help me.
Speaker 1: He will.
Speaker 1: Scripture says God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.
Speaker 1: If we confess, if we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we would be saved.
Speaker 1: And once you're saved, you become his child.
Speaker 1: Right Scripture says not everybody is a child of God.
Speaker 1: Everybody is made in God's image.
Speaker 1: But before we place our faith in Jesus, when we are under God's wrath for our sin, we're not his children.
Speaker 1: But when we place our faith in him, we become adopted back into the family we were made to be in all along.
Speaker 1: And when we're his children, he loves us, like his children that he cares for you.
Speaker 1: Scripture never says hey, enter the narrow gate and then travel the treacherous path and try to make it to the end.
Speaker 1: He says enter the gate, because once you enter the gate, once you place your faith in Jesus, the destination is secure.
Speaker 1: You're not holding on to God.
Speaker 1: God is holding on to you and you don't have to put on your hiking boots and try to climb up the top of the mountain to get God's favor.
Speaker 1: You've been given it freely, as a gift, because of what Jesus did for you, and so we're going to close here in a second.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to give a chance to pray.
Speaker 1: Everybody.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead, close your eyes, bow your head.
Speaker 1: I just want to give a time for reflection.
Speaker 1: Psalm 139 says this search me, o God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Speaker 1: And so ask God to show you tonight.
Speaker 1: Have you entered through the gate?
Speaker 1: Which path are you on?
Speaker 1: Are you on the path that leads to life or the path that leads to death?
Speaker 1: Is there something that you need to surrender?
Speaker 1: Maybe you've placed your faith in Jesus and you've been following him for years.
Speaker 1: But, guys, being on that path does require a continual surrender, an ongoing daily.
Speaker 1: Jesus says take up your cross and follow me.
Speaker 1: It's a daily thing.
Speaker 1: And ask yourself have you been on that broad path?
Speaker 1: Is that where you're at right now?
Speaker 1: Maybe you came in here.
Speaker 1: You come to church regularly, but if you're honest, you're living life how you want to.
Speaker 1: You say the things you want to say.
Speaker 1: You hurt people for your own benefit.
Speaker 1: You do what you want to do.
Speaker 1: You don't respect anybody.
Speaker 1: That's not yourself.
Speaker 1: And if we're honest guys, there's a lot of that in this city it's a blessing that we live in a town where it's easy to call yourself a Christian, but a lot of times that comes with this hey, I'm going to run my life and just slap a Christian label on it.
Speaker 1: That's the broad path.
Speaker 1: That path doesn't lead to life, and so my invitation to you tonight will be the same one that Jesus gave his disciples.
Speaker 1: These past few weeks, you've heard over and over and over again of what it looks like to follow him, and so ask yourself is that where you're at tonight?
Speaker 1: And if not, what's holding you back?
Speaker 1: What's the one thing you've been holding on to that's keeping you from going through that gate, stepping into the life that you were made to have, the thing you've been looking for your entire life, but don't even realize it, that emptiness, that hole that you've been trying to fill with all sorts of stuff people, pleasures, status.
Speaker 1: It's not going to work and so would you tonight say I'm done with the striving, I'm done trying to do it on my own, I'm done trying to act like I've got it all together.
Speaker 1: I'm going to surrender and I'm going to follow you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna surrender and I'm gonna follow you.
Speaker 1: I'm done living for the terminal.
Speaker 1: I want the destination, and the destination is you, jesus.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say, as we, I'm about to pray for us and we're gonna do small groups.
Speaker 1: If that's you and you say, hey, I have not been on that narrow path, I'm not following Jesus, I don't have my faith in him, but I want to make that decision tonight, come find me afterwards.
Speaker 1: I'll be down by the stage, leaders will be around the room, everybody will be moving over, so there's no pressure.
Speaker 1: Maybe you responded last week.
Speaker 1: There are four or five people I saw that responded that I never got to have a conversation with Follow up.
Speaker 1: Don't do it alone.
Speaker 1: You're not made to have that struggle and wrestling Like that's not made to be done in isolation.
Speaker 1: You're made to do that with other people who can help you, who've been there, who love you and care about you, and so have that conversation.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're just like I got questions.
Speaker 1: I don't know what any of this is about.
Speaker 1: I got invited and I've never even opened the Bible.
Speaker 1: I don't own one man.
Speaker 1: We are so glad that you're here.
Speaker 1: Keep coming back, but whatever God is calling you to do, whatever he's put on your heart, I would just ask that you would respond tonight.
Speaker 1: Be obedient.
Speaker 1: I'm going to pray for us and we'll go to small groups.
Speaker 1: Lord God, we thank you so much for tonight and we thank you for the opportunity to be here to worship you, to hear your word.
Speaker 1: And, lord God, I praise that we go to small groups.
Speaker 1: You would give us an openness and an honesty for discussion and help us to just be vulnerable and to be honest with where we're at.
Speaker 1: And, lord, that we wouldn't just stay where we're at, but you would move us more closer towards you.
Speaker 1: Tonight, jesus, we love you and we praise you and.