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We're going to be in Matthew chapter 7, verse 13 and 14. And we got some good feedback going on this morning. Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, and verse 14. Just two verses today. This is again for those of you that might be new or guests. This is the Sermon on the Mount. We're actually coming to a close of the sermon. And here's what the scripture says. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the road is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it. Of growing up in the church where I heard teachings, both good and bad, but I heard some teachings on this, and generally this was one of the texts that was used for what we call a fire and brimstone sermon. You guys ever heard of those? Where people bring the fire, you know, and really try to scare the hell out of people, right? And so this is one of those texts that's kind of get used for that. And I can remember even coming to one of these texts and kind of trying to teach it before and feeling just a lot of anxiousness and like, oh man, this is really rough. And how how are people going to receive this? And how are they going to feel about me if I preach this text? And just really like self-centered, right? Really focused on me. But the longer I walk with God and the more I read his word and the more I engage in what it means to be a Christ follower, these texts actually get me excited. I get really pumped about them. Not because I don't have a real view of these difficult passages that does push on our flesh and does make us uncomfortable, but but actually because I see what Christ is trying to do and what he's trying to offer and what God offers, and it just makes me appreciate his grace so much. It makes me just like worship him and just thank him. We just sing a song, Jesus True and Only. And in this room, that's a pretty popular idea and sentiment, especially when we're singing it to a tune that we like. But the fact of the matter is, is that that's not real popular out in the culture. Jesus true and only, those exclusive words that are in that, that's pretty strong. I mean, our culture is completely okay if you say I'm spiritually searching. Like I'm I'm just trying to find my way. I'm open, I'm spiritually uh evaluating, I'm processing, I'm on this journey of learning. You can say all that stuff and everybody's totally cool, right? But if you say, I have found the answer, I have found the way, I have found the truth, if you say that, you've got to be prepared that you're gonna get like made fun of, criticized, ostracized, rejected, because our culture, and I would say just humanity at large, is not okay with this exclusive kind of claims. I don't know if you've experienced that personally. I I have. I've had people uh not respond well in those moments. Uh just a couple weeks ago, I was on my way back uh from a trip to Chicago with a friend, and um we were on the on the on the plane ride, and I'm sat next to a really nice-looking young dude who was in his uh mid-twenties, a really, really sharp guy. Uh he'd grown up in a Jewish home, had gone to a Catholic high school, and immediately like I just started praying, Lord, if you want me to have a conversation with him, I'm available, I'm here. And sure enough, we started a conversation, and I I don't remember exactly how, but it eventually it pretty quickly became a spiritual conversation, and we started talking about what we believe, and I was really asking him more questions than anything on the front end, and I just realized pretty fast, like he was he was relatively confused, uh, but he had done a lot of research, and he had he had read a lot, he'd really processed a lot, and he'd come to this place where, again, I was thinking I would say most uh people in our culture have, or even a lot of uh millennials or postmoderns, however you want to term that. And it's really just this idea that look, at the end of the day, there's lots of truths. And it's really just whatever you personally feel is true, then that's what you should go with. And we can all just kind of get along, right? And that's really where he landed with his thoughts. And the problem with that is that that's not what the Bible actually says. It's not actually what the Christian faith says, and it's why, again, it's criticized in our culture. Uh, anybody know who Robbie Zacharias is? I would assume that if you've been around church very long and you might have heard of his name, you maybe have watched a YouTube video where he's doing a talk. He goes on college campuses and he's very, very smart, okay? Um very God has given him a really incredible brain. And I appreciate Robbie a lot because from an apologetics perspective, a defending of the faith perspective, like he brings a lot of truth and he and he brings it to bear in a very logical, systematic way, and it helps people go, oh, okay, I can connect the dots. And in fact, even though he's so brilliant, he's so smart, you know people are really smart when they can actually bring a very lofty idea down to where like normal people can understand. Because it takes a lot of work to get there versus just like living in the clouds, right? And so Ravi, he wrote a book, um, and that book is titled Jesus Among Other Gods. He's from uh an Indian uh background, Robbie is, and he's um obviously like got a uh a world of knowledge uh of all the different views and uh religions around the world, but he wrote this book, and the actual uh subtitle is the absolute claims of the Christian message. And here's what he says about the culture today. So in the word the words are on the screen above me. He says, We are living in a time when sensitivities are at the surface, often vented with cutting words. Philosophically, you can believe anything so as you do not claim it a better way. Religiously, you can hold to anything so as long as you do not bring Jesus Christ into it. If a spiritual idea is eastern, it is granted critical immunity. If western, it is thoroughly criticized. Thus a journalist can walk into a church and mock its carrying ons, but he or she dare not do the same if the ceremony is from an eastern fold. Such is the mood at the end of the twentieth century. A mood can be a dangerous state of mind because it can crush reason under the weight of feeling. That's a pretty strong statement right there, right? But that is precisely what I believe postmodernism best represents. A mood. All religions plainly and simply cannot be true. Some beliefs are false, and we know them to be false, so it does no good to put a halo on the notion of tolerance as if everything could be equally true. To deem all beliefs equally true is sheer nonsense, for the simple reason that to deny that statement would also then be true. But if the denial of the statement is also true, then all religions are not true. Every religion at its core is exclusive. Truth by definition excludes. Truth cannot be sacrificed at the altar of a pretended tolerance. All religions plainly and simply cannot be true. Anybody else feel uncomfortable? I mean, again, in a room like this, it's safe to say we exclusively believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. But if you say these things in culture, you just need to know, right? You're it's you're gonna get pushback. You're gonna get resistance, you're gonna get opposition. My job today is not to try to pit ourselves against culture. The job is not to position ourselves, posture ourselves as like we got it right, everybody else has got it wrong, yeah. Like that's not the posture of a Christ follower. We are to be humble, we are to be gracious, but we also need to understand that when you stand on these truth claims of the scripture and the exclusive claims of scripture, you're gonna get resistance, you're gonna feel opposition, and Jesus even said that this would be true about us. So last week in the text, Alex was walking us through one verse, the golden rule, probably one of the most popular, well-known ideas or statements uh in the world. And Jesus summarized his entire sermon, his entire Sermon on the Mount, chapters five and six, and first part of seven, with this statement, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And goes on to say that that actually summarizes all of the law and the prophets. In our life group this week, as I said, my prayer is that Point Community Church is more than a service you attend. In our community group this week, we talked about some of those things. And we talked about how, again, it's so profound that Jesus could summarize this first 39 books of the Bible by saying, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And we know that in saying that, he was profoundly and simply pushing the crowd that was listening to him that day to understand that we are not just about not doing things, but we are called to be a people who do things in response to one who has done for us. And that, even in its day, was misunderstood by many. And I would say to us this morning, as Jesus is now winding down his sermon, he's getting to the end, he's gonna give us two paths, two trees, and even two houses. We're not gonna cover all three this morning, we're actually gonna cover those over the next couple weeks. But he is saying that every one of us in this room needs to make a decision. We need to decide, is Jesus crazy and is what he's teaching ridiculous, and we should reject it, or we should decide, no, actually, Jesus is speaking what is true and what is right, and we need to call on him and ask him to help us do it. But he's calling us to a decision. He's calling us to a point in our lives, if we haven't already decided to cross the line of faith and to put our hope in Jesus, he's definitely calling us to that today. And so I just say on the front end, if you are here as one who's exploring the faith, my job is not to pressure you into making some decision or manipulate you or try to cause some emotion to make you make some sort of decision to Christ, but it is to call you to consider the truth in front of you that Jesus says, again, there's only two paths his path and the world's path. Okay? So that being said, we've already read the text for today. And I want to break it down this way there's two entries or two gates, there's two ways or roads, two paths, there are two groups that we see, and there's two destinations. All right? So two gates, two paths, two groups, two destinations. And we're gonna look at each of those for just a few minutes together today as we go through this process. The first thing we come to is that there are two entries, there are two gates. The first gate, not that's listed first, but the gate that I want to talk about first is the broad gate. Now we've already kind of hit on this fact, but that if you were to look at the world, this broad gate that Jesus is speaking of is the gate that says anything goes. Whatever you feel in your heart to do, do it. Whatever makes most sense to you, do it. It's a broad entry. It's basically whatever you feel most natural doing, go with it. Follow your heart, follow your gut. Which, by the way, don't follow your heart, okay? I know people say that all the time. It's terrible advice, all right? But that's what the broad way says is it says, follow your gut, follow your heart, do whatever makes sense to you in your logical brain, because I mean it's what makes actually sharing the gospel very difficult in the world in which we live, in a pluralistic world, because what happens is all truth becomes just purely subjective. If it makes sense to me, if I can reason it, then it must be true. And that's the broad way is just go with what with what is normal, what is natural. And the fact is that it is wide because there is no clarity. There is no certainty, and I would even say within that that the word tolerance, you would package with that, there's really no care or concern for others. Does that make sense? Because it's really whatever you want. I don't care about you as long as I've got my thing figured out. So no clarity, because it's whatever. No certainty, I hope that it's right, but I don't really know. And I don't even really care about anybody else, I just care about myself. It's broad. It's very, very broad. We need to see it for what it is. And Jesus says that it's a wide gate. It's a very wide gate. So the other option that he puts in front of us is a narrow gate. It's a narrow entry. In fact, it's it's a very, very narrow entry with much clarity, with much certainty, and with even a call to care for others enough to speak that to them in love. Um ever walked through a turnstile? You ever walked through one of those when you're going into a sporting event or into a theme park? If you've walked into a uh a turnstile, uh it's a narrow entry, and you have to push the little turnstile over. And if you ever try to take too much stuff through that, it doesn't go well. I've seen that happen far too many times. I've seen people trying to carry bags through that, I've seen people try to push strollers through that, that did not go well. And I mean, I've seen some some really interesting things, right? People trying to go through. And Jesus says that there is a narrow gate. There is a very lean gate. What does this say to us? Well, this is what it says to us. It reminds us that in order to come to the narrow gate and go through the narrow gate, you can't bring stuff with you. Now, there is a gospel message that is in our world today that says you can keep everything as it is, you can keep doing what you're doing, loving what you're loving, doing life the way you're doing life, and then you can just add Jesus to the side of it in case, just in case that happens to be right and you want to go to heaven one day. The problem with that is that's not how actually Jesus presented the gospel. The way into the kingdom. He didn't use necessarily the gospel language like Paul does later, but he does use the way into the kingdom. And the way to the kingdom is narrow because it says you have to lay aside your stuff. Now, what's your stuff? At the core of it, it's our pride. All the stuff that we want and hold on to and cling to that was part of that broad path that we were on before. All of our self-help, all of our self-realization, all of our self-focus, selfish ambition. You notice there's a theme here. All these things about ourselves. That's the baggage. And when you come to Jesus, when you come to the kingdom, you're saying, Jesus, I'm laying everything down, and I'm saying, it's you. It's narrow. It's not all this stuff plus you, it's you. It's narrow entrance. And part of the problem in the church in the Western world, a world of affluence and comfort, is that our gospel is really weak. Because what we don't tell people is that to come to Jesus means to turn away from self. It means to deny self and follow Jesus. That's narrow. But it's clear and it's certain, and specifically, we'll come back to it in a minute, Jesus is that gate. He is that narrow way into the kingdom. Now, to summarize this, really, you would say one path is a path of self-reliance and self-absorption, while the other path is one of surrender. Not only do we see two gates, but we see two roads, two pathways. And once again, the first one is a broad one. It's a wide one. You're gonna see a theme here because they all fit together for obvious reasons, even though we're breaking it apart. Now, does anybody know Psalm 1? Some of you have actually memorized Psalm 1. If you were here in January, we memorized Psalm 1 for many of us in this church family. We encourage you, we challenge you to do that. And Psalm 1 says very plainly that there is a path that is leading people. Uh, you know, naturally they're going that direction. They're listening to the way of the wicked, they're they're walking in the way of those who are scoffing. But it says the other place that there's uh people who are actually following the way of the Lord. And all through Scripture you'll see this theme. One thing I love about the Bible is it makes things very cut and dry. There's only two ways to live your life, for God or for yourself. And so it just makes it very clear for us, again, that there are two paths, and that broad, easy path is the one you're living for yourself. It's the natural and normative way that we operate apart from God. So it's not something you have to work at, it's something you just do. You don't have to wake up in the morning and say, I'm gonna be on the broad path today. I'm gonna live for myself today. It's just what happens as a human being. Are you with me? You will naturally, I will naturally tend towards selfishness. I will naturally tend to demand other people meet my needs. I will naturally tend to making life about me and how I can be happy and how I can be self-fulfilled. That's the normal human heart. That's the way of the broad path. In fact, through this Sermon on the Mount, if you go look at what Jesus has been speaking, for those of you that have been with us, this has been really, really good for my heart and really hard. Because I've had to confront sin in my life, had to confront areas where I've struggled, where I fail, where I fall, where I do not believe truth and believe rightly. Listen, it is normal to promote yourself in this culture, in this world. It is normal to say, hey everybody, look at me, I'm awesome. That's why social media does so well, right? It is normal in this world to ignore God's instruction. It is normal to find your worth in your work. It's normal. It is normal to seek people out, to get them to love you, to accept you. It is normal to love people who like you and to hate people who don't. It is normal to treat people however you feel best. You should treat them. It is normal to judge people. The broad path is a path of judgment where we all size ourselves up against each other and we compare. That's the broad path. That's not the narrow path. That's the broad path. It's normal to value earthly stuff more than heavenly stuff. To live for the temporary instead of the eternal. It's normal to ditch asking God for help and just trying to willpower your way to be a better person. That's normal. Those are all broad path things. Are you still with me? He's just trying to make, just trying to make sure we understand that those are the broad path realities. But Jesus says in contrast to that, there's a narrow path. And as I said, just like we don't always do a good job, and I'm just owning it, we don't always call people to turn away from self and follow Jesus and enter the kingdom. We also forget to remind people that if you follow Jesus, it's going to get harder, not easier. I know that, you know, if I was a pastor that was really committed, if I was an elder of a church that was really committed to just growing the amount of people here, I would say to them, hey, everybody, follow Jesus and you will have the most amazing life. Everything will be great. You'll have plenty of money in your bank account, you'll never fight with your spouse again. Your kids will perfectly behave. You'll never lose your job. You'll never get sick. It's going to be awesome, right? That's bogus. That's not true. And in fact, we're going to come back to this later on. It can seem like that the world and the people in the world who are not following Jesus are doing better than us. Right? But the truth is that this narrow way is difficult. It is sacrificial. It is not easy. Now, I I don't know again about how you guys feel, but when I hear the word narrow, um it's not a not a word that's very warm and very um I don't like it. And I and I think there's something about that. I mean, I first off, I'm a person who has claustrophobia. Anybody have claustrophobia? Like, I don't like small spaces. I never have. Um, and and I can remember like doing some hikes in this one area where we have some rock formations, and there was this little thin area where you could crawl through out in West Texas. And I I remember getting in the middle of that one time, and I like literally had like a panic attack. Like the the this rock is going to squish me, right? I feel so constrained, so, so refined, like, like, uh, like this is this is too narrow for me. I do not like this. I've got to get out of here now. Freaking out. I don't know how people crawl into small spaces. I just don't, I just don't get it. I'm not a fan. And people hear this narrow language and they can feel like, yes, it's restrictive, it's controlling, it's pushing. I mean, and let's be honest, I mean, there narrow, it can be a really bad thing. Like, you can you can actually see things uh die because of narrowness, right? Like, for example, I heard this this week and it stuck with me from a guy that I really appreciate. He said, uh, you know, when you step on a bug, you know what that bug dies from? Narrowness. From the bottom of your shoe to the floor, space was too narrow. And some of us think about narrowness. We feel this restraint, we feel the restriction, we feel the control, and we're like, no, God, you're not gonna restrain me. You're not gonna restrict me. We push against it, right? But in the narrow path, the sacrifice and the restraint is actually for our good. Following Jesus and his ways and saying no to our flesh is actually beneficial. Yes, something will die, and that something is our flesh. The evil in our hearts that needs to die because it is killing us, it will die on the narrow path. Now, I want to say something about this because there is a problem that comes up. I've heard people preach this passage, and in fact, somebody was in our home last night, and the moment I told them which passage I was preaching, they're like, oh no. I happen to know that their story is that they came from also a very moralistic background. And there is a weird thing that happens when people hear this idea of narrow and broad, where they begin to take this language and they apply their own view of what it means to be spiritually mature and what it means to be on the narrow path versus the broad path. And so it goes something like this to be on the broad path is the people who do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want. They kind of all agree on that, right? But then on the narrow path, it's, well, the narrow path of the people who don't cuss, who don't drink, who don't have sex too much, like basically create a whole list of these behaviors, right? Now, let me just say to you, yes, a Christ follower's life looks distinctive. But we need to understand something that's really significant here, just a moment. Jesus is not diverging from the topic of his sermon that he's been making the entire time. He has been painting a picture that there are two groups of people in the world. There are two different groups of people. And I want you to understand that when he was saying that these guys don't need to pray, when you pray, don't pray to be seen by men. When you give, don't be to give to be given so that other men will see you. And when you when you fast, don't fast so you get people see you. Listen, what Jesus was saying is that there are people in the world who live for God and there are people who live for self. And there are people, catch this, there are people who are church-going, conservative politically, moralistically upright people who are still doing all that for themselves. There are people who are behaviorally right, but in their heart, it's all about them. And I know that because I've been there. And I know that I can drift to that. And I can say, well, God, I'm doing all this list of things for you, and I'm not doing these things. So I'm on the narrow path, right? The narrow path is a heart issue. It's a question of, am I using God to get what I want, or is my life an offering to God because of what he's given me? Are you still with me? There's a big difference here. Because here's the problem. You could be the complete rebellious, worldly person, and you're just going down the broad path. But you can also be walking right alongside religious people who are going down the broad path. Because the heart behind both of those is the same, and that is it's all about me. Maybe one is saying, I reject God, the other one says, I'm trying to prove myself to God. One is saying, Who cares about God? You can't know truth. The other one says, I'm gonna build a resume, and God is gonna be, he's gonna be so proud of me. But it's about me. And this is this is something that I didn't understand until later on. So it's not, hey, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, and then you're on the narrow way. It is come to Christ and to receive the gift of salvation. And when you enter that gate, your life is lived as a response on the narrow path in humility. I said a while ago, the broad path is the path of judgment. That's where Christians and non-Christians stand in judgment over other people. But the the narrow way is one of humility and appealing to God's judgment. Seeing ourselves rightly. Are you still with me? Are you still tracking here, okay? Because this is huge. This is hugely significant. One road, one path has self at the center, while the other has God at the center. Now there's two groups of people in this passage as well. And this couldn't, again, not not should not come as a surprise. There's the large group and the small group. The large group is those that are in the crowd. It's the popular opinion. This is the normal way of operating. So it's not hard to do it, therefore, there's a lot of people doing it. Living for self, living to please self, living to worship self. We wouldn't maybe wouldn't go that strong, but that's really what we're doing. To self-realize, to accomplish what we feel like must be accomplished, to gain security and status and significance and satisfaction that we're all pursuing. And so everybody's looking at each other like, well, yeah, this is what we want to do. This makes total sense, right? I mean, I was a I was an 80s child. Um and I remember going to church, and there was all this conversation at the time about peer pressure and not giving into peer pressure. One of the statements was, um, you know, when you hear people say, Well, everybody's doing it, you're supposed to say, No, well, I'm not. I remember this, like stuck out, you know. And it's so funny like how those kind of things stick with you. But here's the deal. In the world, the majority of people are walking down the broad path. They are doing what, again, makes sense and what feels right. But we as Christ followers, those who have died to our flesh, to ourselves, who have embraced the narrowness of Christ being the only way, truth, and life, we are living a different and distinct life. Not in our own power, by the way, but because of the grace and the power of God through his Holy Spirit. So there's the small group of people, and I would say that the small group of people on the narrow path are there because they've been changed by grace. They've been transformed by the grace of God. Not because they willpowered their way to better behavior, not because they just act good and nice and moral now, but because Christ has changed them, because they've seen the King, they've seen the Lord, they've seen the suffering Savior, and yes, we're still even on that narrow path, struggling day to day to fight off that flesh. We are making steps, we are making progress because we see the beauty of Christ, and he is worthy, and he is good, and he brings joy and peace and satisfaction. Now, we need to understand that when we choose to walk the narrow path, as I said earlier, just with entering the narrow gate, you're gonna get resistance, you're gonna get opposition. Jesus predicted it. He said people will reject you because of my name. So we have to encourage each other, right? As believers, we have to encourage each other. What you are preaching, what I'm preaching, what we say is not popular, but that doesn't make it wrong. Now it's interesting at this point is that if you're like me, my brain goes, wait, Jesus said few people are on the narrow way. Few people entered the narrow gate, few people are on the narrow way. So does that mean just few people are actually going to be saved? I mean, it's a logical question, right? I don't really know what the number is. I don't know what the percentage is. I don't know. I just know that Jesus' words say few people will actually find it. Few people actually live it. In fact, Jesus' disciples in chapter 13 of Luke, Jesus was asked this exact question because his disciples had been listening to him teach. And the disciples are like, is anybody gonna get in? Like, are few gonna only few gonna get saved? I mean, they were listening to Jesus' teaching, and that was their conclusion. And they said to them, they said, Lord, someone asked, are there few being saved? And he said, Yeah, only a few. Uh let me let me tell you, only 144,000, right? Some of you guys know what I'm talking about. No, he didn't give them a number. You know what he said? He said, make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won't be able once the homeowner gets up and shuts the door. Then you will stand outside and knock on the door saying, Lord, open up for us, and he will answer you. I don't even know you or where you're from. Whoa. What is Jesus saying? I'm not gonna tell you how many are gonna get in. My question is, where's your heart? How about you? Where what are you putting your trust in? What path are you on? Because there's a day coming when you won't be able to choose the narrow path anymore. There's also two destruct two destinations, and this is pretty pretty weighty, guys. As I said earlier, this is why this passage is used for fire and brimstone sermons all the time. And you can see why it's hard to preach it. Because there is nothing in my heart today that stands on this stage saying, I want to condemn people to hell. And there's nothing in the heart of God that says, you know, like I hope all of you go to hell. I think sometimes we get that picture. That's not from God. In fact, the Bible tells us in John 3, verse 16 for God so loved the entire world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him, whoever believes, there's an ex there's an inclusive, whoever, and then there's an exclusive believes in him. They can have eternal life. But the two destinations are very clear in Scripture, and they're very clear today. There's one path that leads to destruction, that's the broad path, the broad gate, with a lot of people on it. And then there's the path that leads to life. Now I want to just say something here because this is the mirage. The world and its systems, which, by the way, if we're honest, we're part of that, right? We're part of this culture. We don't get to like say, well, we're we're not actually in this, we're not actually working through this in ourselves. But but the world system, the way the world thinks, the way the world processes, the values of the world, right? It seems like it is leading to your best life now. But what's weird is that when you understand that behind all that is self, then what you're really saying is that all of the weight of you finding your security and your significance and your satisfaction is on you. That's very narrow. And in fact, will ultimately destroy you. Are you with me? And what's so amazing is that when you think of the narrow path that feels so restrictive and controlling, but on the backside actually opens us up to the grace and generosity and beauty of Christ, which is the most open and amazing free place we could be because it's not on our shoulders, but it's on the Christ's shoulders. It produces joy. It produces exactly what we were made for and what we're looking for, what we're longing for. So there's a day when everyone will land in one of two spots. The path to the broad of the broad will lead to death, and the path of the narrow will lead to life. But in the here and now, if you're like me, you're looking around and you may be thinking, like, well, it looks like right now that the people who don't love Jesus and are not following Jesus are having a pretty good time. I mean, I see teenagers feel this way, but adults are just as bad. I mean, we're we're just as bad. We look at the world and we go, man, life looks pretty awesome for people who don't follow Jesus. They get to do this and this and this and this and this. I mean, look at it. They got big houses, they got lots of money, they got lots of friends. I mean, it's like a rap video. They got gold and girls and bling and all, man, this is awesome. I think I want that path. I actually talked to one of our elders this week, and he said that he grew up around people talking about the narrow path, and in his mind he said, Well, when I get to be 45, then I'll turn my life over to God because until then I want to have fun. You ever thought that? You ever thought, you know, I think I'm just gonna have a little fun for a while, and then I'll choose God later on. Listen, you don't know how long you have on this planet Earth. You don't know when your last breath will go. God could be gracious and extend your life. He did with this man. But in Psalm 73, it's a Psalm of Asaph, and he says something that really, really ministered to me and struck me this week. In Psalm 73, I actually have it on the screen above me here. Asaf's having this exact argument in his head. He's having this exact issue. Here's what he says It says, God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart. But as for me, my feet almost slipped, my steps nearly went astray. For I envied the arrogant, I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well fed. They're not in trouble like others, they are not afflicted like most people, therefore their pride is their necklace, and violence covers covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge out from fatness. Whoa, wow, they've eaten a lot. The imaginations of their hearts run wild, they mock, they speak maliciously, they arrogantly threaten oppression, they set their mouths against heaven, their tongues strut across the earth. I don't know how your tongue struts, but basically like these people are so prideful, they're so arrogant. And look, look what it says. It says, they set their mouths against heaven, their tongue strut across the earth. Therefore, his people turn to them. I mean, even God's people are looking at them going, oh man, these people are awesome. We bow down, we're like, we want their approval, we want their, we want to be like them. I think about how Christians many times will like view celebrities and go, man, I want to be like that. If I could get to that. And ASAP's saying that. He says, um, the wicked say, how can God know? I mean, they're mocking God. Does God, the Most High, know everything? Look at them, the wicked. They're always at ease. They increase their wealth. And then notice this question. I know you probably have asked this question if you're a Christ follower. He says, Did I purify my heart and wash my hands and innocent for nothing? I mean, God, did I give you my life and follow you and choose this narrow way, this righteous way of living for nothing? I love the honesty of the Psalms. Don't you agree? For I'm afflicted all day long and punished every morning. If I had decided to say these things aloud, I would have betrayed your people. I mean, if I spoke these things out loud, people would be like, whoa, Asaph. And yet, probably in their own hearts, they had the same challenge, right? And he says, When I tried to understand this, all of it seemed hopeless. And verse 17 is awesome. Catch this. Until I entered God's sanctuary. You know what Asaph is saying? Then I got in God's presence, and what happened? Then I understood their destiny. Indeed, you put them in slippery places, you make them fall into ruin. How suddenly they become a desolation. They come to an end, swept away by terrors, like one waking from a dream. Lord, when arising, you will despise their image. When I became embittered, my inmost being was wounded. I was stupid. I was, you know, I'm foolish for seeing it that way, God, and didn't understand. I was an unthinking animal towards you. Wow, he's really going, he's realizing how foolish and silly and just dumb he was. Yet I am always with you. You hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me up in glory. Who do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you, my flesh and my heart, they fail. But God, you are the strength of my heart, my portion forever. Those far from you will certainly perish. You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, God's presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell all about you. Do you see what Asaph is saying? Maybe you needed to hear this today, because you've been tempted this week to think that following the world's way will get you what you really want. And I want to remind you, it will not. God wants to remind us it will not, because in the end, the broad path of pursuing selfishness, pursuing stuff, and I'm not telling you you need to go sell all your stuff. I'm not telling you that, you know, this is not a poverty gospel. You don't earn your way into the kingdom. Like, this is not again a behavior modification project, right? This is us today saying, if you think that in this world you're gonna find what you ultimately long for, you are being fooled. Just like ASAP. Because what's gonna bring you the most joy and pleasure and goodness in your life is giving your life to Jesus and following his way. Listen, a few reminders. Just because the message seems narrow and tolerant and exclusive doesn't mean it's wrong or unloving or bad. Just because the world offers satisfaction, significance, and security immediately does not mean that it will provide any of these things ultimately. Just because people seem to be doing great right now does not mean that it will end well. And by the way, you don't even know what people are thinking internally, do you? People could put on a great show. People in your neighborhood, people in your workplace, people around, they could put on a great show. Just because the Christian life is difficult doesn't mean it's wrong or that it's not worth it. Just because we think that following Jesus is hard, um doesn't mean that we shouldn't do it. What is wide now will become narrow, and what is narrow now will become wide. One leads to death, one leads to life. So as we wrap up today, John 10. Jesus said, I am the gate. He's the gate, he's the entry point. And you know why he's the entry point? Because Jesus died to purchase the gate. He laid down his life for you to purchase the way into the kingdom. He is beautiful. You don't get there by doing enough stuff. A few church service attendances, uh, reading your Bible, praying, sharing the gospel with someone, serving the poor, taking care of widows and orphans. Like those are all good things, but those are not how you enter the kingdom. In fact, if you if we feel like those are the ways we get into the kingdom, then again, you're on the broad path, just a different form. Jesus purchased the gate with his very life, his blood, his body broken on the cross. And in John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Here's the great thing. Jesus didn't just die, he actually lived. He didn't just die for us, he lived for us and showed us the way. He showed us that narrow way, like Alex said last week, that we are living in the way of Jesus, that Jesus is actually the one who treated us like we want to be treated. Even though he didn't have to. So if you have never received Christ to be your savior, my invitation is simple enter the gate. And if you have received Christ as your savior, my invitation to you is Jesus is your way, look at his life, follow it, and you will find joy and peace there. Man, the enemy works double time to get us distracted, to get us. Thinking things that aren't true. The enemy works double time to get us valuing the things that the world values, to loving the things that the world loves. And today I just want us in this moment just be reminded like even here, the enemy works to try to keep us thinking from thinking about eternal things. It's just focused on temporary, just keep our thing going on, keep it floating along. But if you want real life, it's in Christ. It's not in that stuff. I've been fooled before, so I can speak from experience. A path that is broad and wide, that feels right, leads to destruction. But the path Jesus gives us leads to life. Let's pray. God, we are so flippant with you. In fact, because we fear failure or we fear rejection, because we fear fear facing the truth, God, we just try to ignore you. Try to block you out. But God, I pray that today, by your Spirit, you would do the supernatural work of drawing people to yourself. God, I pray in this room today that you would help every person in this room to get honest before you, to get honest with you, to get honest with themselves. Thank you that it's not my job, Father. Thank you that it's not my job to save people or to even help fix people's behaviors when they're off. That's not my job. Thank you that your Holy Spirit will lead us, to lead all of us to grow in understanding truth and to living that out. I just, I just, God, want to faithfully encourage people and remind people that we today have the choice of either living on a path to self-worship or a path to worshiping you. And I just pray that God you'd give us the grace and the power to actually worship you. That we would turn away from ourselves and our stuff and our self-salvation projects. And we would turn to you and receive by faith the gift of grace. So we love you, Jesus. We praise your name. Amen. Um again, uh just want to simply say like if you need Jesus, you have the opportunity to call on him and be saved. Some of you know Jesus, but you're running from him. You know him, you know about him, you've actually received him, but your life, if you were to look at it, looks no different than anybody else in the world. And Jesus is saying, Hey, I got life for you. I got life for you, I got I got blessings for you, and and and I've got things that in my kingdom I can give you the satisfaction and the joy and the peace that you're longing for. You can keep looking for it and stuff. He's you can keep doing that. Today, God's calling us back to himself. And then some of you uh in this room today, I'm I'm sure of it. Like there's some people here that you know a lot about religion or about Christian faith or church, but you never actually entered the gate. Like said Jesus. I'm calling on your name to save me. I'm stopping trying to save myself. I'm calling on you. If that's you today, my prayer is that you would just be bold and come talk to me or to one of our people in the back at the prayer time, or even with somebody that brought you, and just say, Hey, I like I need to give my life to God. I'm living my life for myself, and it's a path to pain and destruction. We also have around the room uh five communion tables, and on those tables there's um the symbolic elements of the bread and the and the blood uh that's rip shit by the juice. And so those elements um are there because we we celebrate what Christ has done to purchase the gate, to purchase the entry. And my my prayer is that if you are a Christ follower, that you would take a minute to go and to take that with someone. And just remember, don't do that lightly, like don't rush over to that because it's very, very serious that Jesus gave his life to purchase that. So we're remembering that. And also as you do it, um, if you're not a believer, first off, I would encourage you, don't do that. I would challenge you, don't do it because it's meaningless and offensive. You're not you're not doing anything that's gonna actually get you into the kingdom. That's through Jesus, putting your trust in him. But if you are a believer, let's take it soberly and then also celebrate. Like just celebrate God's goodness. Okay? We love you guys. We're thankful for you. I'm personally thankful, and I'm thankful that we have a community of people, though it may be small in the scope of the world, that we have community of people that are trying to live out Christ's commands and instructions on this narrow way together. Imperfectly for sure, but together in community. So uh let's respond now as God calls us to.