The Two Paths // Matthew 7:13-23

Join us as we continue our Sermon on the Mount Series in Matthew 7:13-23.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, every year we take a group of students and
adult leaders on a mission tripto Mexico and we're actually
leaving here in getting close toa month, and so we're excited
for that.
But last year we were flyingback into town and we fly out of
the Cancun Airport, and ifyou've ever been to the Cancun
Airport, it's very nice.
There's a lot of things to dothere, there's a lot of stores,

(00:20):
and typically when I gosomewhere new, I like to see all
the things, and so when I gosomewhere new, I like to see all
the things, and so typically Iwould be trying to go to all the
shops.
And you know, man, thatsecurity spinny thing.
It was really cool.
I'm going to go through thatagain.
Like I want to buy one of thosecoffees from Starbucks.
They taste horrible and they're$20, but it's Cancun coffee and
I would want to do all thethings.
But this specific time when Iwas at this airport, I didn't do

(00:40):
any of that.
I didn't waste any time.
I went straight to the gate, Isat down and I waited for the
flight.
Well, why?
Because at that point I had abeautiful wife and a
one-year-old daughter and athree-month-old son waiting for
me at home, and I didn't getdistracted with the terminal and
the enjoyment of all thosedistractions because I wanted no

(01:02):
chance of missing my flight andmy destination, because the
destination mattered more thanmy enjoyment of the journey.
Why am I telling you this?
Because we live in a worldthat's going to tell you the
complete opposite, that it's allabout the journey, it's about
living it up.
If you can just get a bunch ofmoney and stuff, if you can get
some success and some influence,sleep around, maybe find your

(01:26):
soulmate, you'll be living thegood life.
Everything will be great.
The problem is there's so muchfocus in the world today on
enjoying the journey, live it up, get what you can while you got
it, that nobody stops to thinkabout where that journey is
taking you.
We live in a culture wherethere's fewer restrictions or
taboos than ever.
You're free to do what you want.

(01:46):
You have the world at yourfingertips and your smartphone
and, relatively speaking, wehave more money than ever.
And yet you would think, okay,well, we've got all this stuff.
We have so much freedom.
The world should be happierthan it's ever been, right Wrong
?
Statistic after statistic showsthat anxiety, depression and all
of these different copingrelated addictions are at
all-time highs, especiallyamongst our generation.

(02:08):
Gen Z and the upcoming GenAlpha are the ones who are being
hit the worst.
Something's not right.
We've bought a lie.
The path that our society saysis the path to the good life
doesn't actually lead to thegood life.
It's poison, it leads toanxiety, it leads to depression,
it leads to a miserable lifeand, ultimately, destruction.

(02:30):
We need a new path that leadsus to the true good life, life
to the fullest.
And thankfully our passage inour series on the Sermon on the
Mount tonight is going to talkabout just that.
We've been walking through theSermon on the Mount all spring
and we're getting to the end.
We've actually skipped around alittle bit to make up some
ground, and tonight we're goingto be in Matthew, chapter 7,
starting in verse 13.

(02:51):
So if you have your copy of theBible, then go ahead and flip
Matthew 7, 13.
We're going to be there tonightand it will be on the screen if
you don't have your Bible.
And so thus far in the Sermon onthe Mount, jesus has been
telling his crowd, his audience,all about what it looks like to
be in the kingdom of God.
Really, what that means is whatit means to be one of his

(03:11):
followers.
This is what it looks like, andso he's gone through that.
He's talked about all sorts ofdifferent topics we talked about
anxiety last week but he endsthis sermon by challenging all
the people who are listeningthat they need to respond.
It's not enough to just listento all of his words and say, hey
, that sounds really good.
I like the idea of that.
He says, no, you need torespond.

(03:33):
And that's these parables thathe gives at the end of this that
we're going to be walkingthrough tonight, that his
teachings demand an answer.
And these parables are going tobe painting a picture of two
different ways in life, and eachway has its own gate and its
own destination, and these pathsare really symbolic of
someone's journey in life one todestruction and one to true
life, life to the fullest.

(03:54):
And so let's go ahead and readMatthew, chapter 7, verse 13.
Enter by the narrow gate, forthe gate is wide and the way is
easy.
That leads to destruction, andthose who enter by it are many,
for the gate is wide and the wayis easy.
That leads to destruction, andthose who enter by it are many,
for the gate is narrow and theway is hard.
That leads to life, and thosewho find it are few.
So I'm going to read thispassage one more time.
I believe this is the beginningof verse 13.

(04:15):
The gate is wide and the way iseasy.
That leads to destruction, andthose who enter by it are many.
Would you all pray with me realquick, take just a minute, and
would you pray for yourself, foryour own heart, your mind, that
God would remove anydistractions, that you would
have ears to hear whatever it isthat he has to show you tonight
?
Maybe you've never prayedbefore.

(04:37):
Would you just try talking toGod, asking him to speak, asking
you to show him yourself in apowerful way tonight, asking him
to speak, asking you to showhim yourself in a powerful way
tonight that you would leavechange.
Would you pray for me that Iwould preach the Bible
faithfully, that what I saywould be helpful to you and not

(04:57):
misleading or distracting?
Lord, god, I thank you so muchfor tonight and I thank you for
the opportunity we have to comeand teach, or rather to learn
your word, lord, and to learnmore of who you are through it,
and I pray that we would beconvicted, encouraged,
challenged that you would meetus where we're at and that we
leave here looking more like you.
Jesus, we love you and praiseyou.
We pray all these things inJesus' name.

(05:19):
And everybody said amen.
So there's two paths, right.
The first one is the broad path.
Broad meaning wide, and Jesusisn't talking about just the
actual width of the road, he'snot concerned about that, but
he's describing the experienceof traveling it.
The wide road is easy.
It's the way of the world.
There's not really anyboundaries or obstacles, just go

(05:39):
with the flow.
Nobody really cares what you door say or think or how you live
.
This is the way of life.
That says, hey, chase yourpleasures, chase your popularity
, chase your status, do what youwant, stay true to yourself, do
what makes you happy.
And Jesus says, hey, this broadpath, many are on it.
Most people in the world are onthis path.

(05:59):
And the disturbing part of thismessage is that Jesus says that
road leads to destruction.
And the truth he's getting athere is that you can live a life
full of pleasure and comfortand think you haven't made, but
you're just living in a house ofcards.
It's a sham.
You're sleepwalking completelyunaware of the fact that every

(06:21):
day you're just getting one stepfurther from God, and every
step further from God is a stepcloser to destruction.
It's kind of like the movie Lordof the Rings.
Has anybody seen the Lord ofthe Rings movies in here at all?
Some people I actually haven't.
I had to research this for thisillustration, so if I get any
details wrong I apologize.
But in the third movie Frodo isone of the characters and he has

(06:43):
this task of destroying thisring and he has to throw it into
the mountain of Mount Doom.
And the problem is the path toMount Doom isn't easy.
They've got to travel thiswhole far distance.
There's all these dangers andobstacles, and so in order to
travel the whole thing it wouldtake great sacrifice.
And at one point Frodo and hisfriend Sam stand at a crossroads
and there's two paths in frontof them.

(07:04):
There's one that looks reallyeasy and one that looks really
scary and dangerous and hard.
And the easy one is temptingbecause it's easier, it's
comfortable, it's safer, it'snot as dangerous.
But the easy path actuallytakes them away from the
mountain that they're supposedto destroy, that ring in, away
from their mission.
And while it might be easier inthe short term, this path that

(07:26):
goes away from the mountainactually leads to destruction,
because that ring would continueto corrupt and enslave and do
all sorts of bad things to theworld that they lived in.
And so they ultimately choosethe difficult path because, even
though it would require greatsuffering and sacrifice, the
destination was better.
They'd be choosing peace, life,salvation.

(07:47):
And so, just like Frodo and Sam,we have a choice.
You can choose to live a lifeof comfort.
It's easy.
I don't really live accordingto any standard or rules or way
of life.
I just do what I want to do,and it might seem tempting, but
the truth of that path is thatit's from Satan.
Scripture is clear that youhave an enemy, a spiritual being
created.

(08:07):
He's not all powerful, but he'sa spiritual being, and he seeks
to steal, kill and destroy.
He wants to take you, yourfuture, your family.
He wants to take all of thatout, and one of his favorite
ways is to just lull you intothe sense that everything is
good when it's not.
There's an author named CS Lewis.
He wrote the Narnia books andthat's how most of us have heard

(08:28):
of him, but he was actually avery devout Christian and wrote
a lot of Christian books.
There's one book called theScrewtape Letters, and in this
book he kind of plays the roleof these demons who are riding
back and forth the senior demonand his junior demon and they're
discussing how they can temptthese people, how they can get
them to stray away from God, andso there's a few quotes in here
that speak perfectly to thispoint.

(08:49):
I've changed them a little bitso that it can be easier to
understand.
But one of the senior demons iswriting to the junior demon and
this is what he says your jobis to stop them from actually
meaning talking, and they'retrying to tempt Just get them
thinking about literallyanything except God and what's
going on in their heart.
A distracted Christian isbasically on our team.

(09:13):
He continued on and he saidsuccess ties people to the world
.
They think they're figuring outwhere they belong, but really
the world is getting a grip onthem.
As they get more popular andbusier and feel more important,
they start feeling like thisworld is all that they need, and
that's exactly what we want.
And then he continues justremember, the main goal is to

(09:33):
pull them away from God.
It doesn't matter how small thesin is, as long as it slowly
moves them further from thelight.
If playing cards get the jobdone better than something huge
like murder, fine, take the easyroute.
The safest road to hell isn'tsome wild, obvious path, it's
the slow, quiet, drift, smooth,comfortable, with no warning at

(09:55):
all.
And that's what Jesus iswarning you about.
He says the way of the worldmay let you do things the way
you want it to.
It might be easy, might nothave a lot of restrictions and
it might not ask that much fromyou.
But the danger is not a hardlife.
The danger is that you get soconsumed with the things of the
world passions, pleasures,getting the GPA, going to school

(10:16):
, getting the grade, gettinginto the school.
You want that.
You live a pretty easy life,but you don't see where you're
going, that you walk throughlife blind of your need for
Jesus, because you think you'vegot it all, you've got your life
together, you don't needanything, living in a house of
cards, thinking it's a mansion.
So ask yourself that tonight Isthat you Like?

(10:39):
Do you find yourself on thebroad path?
And it might not look wild orrebellious, it might just be
normal.
It's the path where your biggestworries are how many people
liked your post whether you madevarsity, if your plans this
weekend are fun enough to keepyou entertained and not feel
bored or out.
It's filling your sport or yourschedule with school social

(10:59):
life, but leaving no space for arelationship with Jesus.
It's about chasing comfort, agood reputation, a GPA, a solid
friend group, a boyfriend or agirlfriend, without ever asking
the deeper questions like whatis my life really about?
Or who am I becoming?
Or it's about numbing thatanxiety and that discomfort in
your heart when you start to askbig questions, just numbing it

(11:21):
with Netflix or TikTok or gaming.
You know, going to churchsometimes, but really just
because it's out of habit oryour parents expect you to.
You might chime in once or twiceas small group, but if you're
honest, jesus has no role inyour life as a whole.
He's just another thing on yourto-do list and slowly, one day
at a time, you're taking further, more and more steps away from

(11:42):
the one who made you, the onewho created you to know him.
And Jesus says that road iswide, it's easy and there's a
lot of people on it, but itdoesn't take you where you want
to go.
And so Jesus is obviouslywarning us against that.
But what is he calling us to?
It's not just like he's tryingto bash down the world, but he's
actually calling you to life,calling you to something better.

(12:03):
And the beautiful part of thistext is that he's calling you to
himself.
He's saying that way leads todeath, but I have life.
And so that's what he goes intoin verse 14.
He says for the gate is narrowand the way is hard.
That leads to life, and thosewho find it are few.
And so the second path is thenarrow one.
It's following Jesus.
It's the opposite of what theworld is going to sell you, of

(12:25):
how to go through life.
And when he says it's narrow,he's talking about there's
boundaries.
In John, chapter 9, he says I amthe gate, and if anyone enters
by me, he will be saved and willgo in and out and find pasture.
And what he's saying is that heis the entrance.
The way to life goes throughhim.
You cannot get eternal lifewithout first placing your faith

(12:48):
in Jesus.
There's no other way.
But it also means that there'sboundaries on your beliefs.
Following Jesus, entering thenarrow path, means that you
don't just get to believe andthink whatever you want anymore.
You have to take your thoughts.
You have to take yourassumptions, your opinions, your
biases and you have to set themaside and say I might think
these things, I might come fromthis type of home, but I'm going

(13:10):
to choose to pick up Jesus'sview on the world, his reality,
the truth of the God who createdeverything that we see.
And it says I'm not going tolive by my understanding anymore
, I'm going to live by his, andI don't just get to pick and
choose the commands.
I like you know, like, oh yeah,I'm all for being kind and not
judging people, but I don'treally pay attention to the
whole, like God caring the typeof words that I say or who I

(13:33):
sleep with or how I spend mymoney, like that stuff, I'm just
gonna sweep to the side.
You don't get to do that.
You have to surrender, and it'sconscious too.
It's a choice.
You're not ever gonna juststumble into looking like Jesus.
You have to choose to enter thegate and follow him.
And Jesus is honest.
He says hey, this is gonna bedifficult.
In Luke 14, 33, he says any ofyou who does not renounce all

(13:57):
that he has cannot be mydisciple.
And so he's not saying that youliterally have to go out and
sell everything that you have.
He's saying that if you are notso surrendered to me that you
would be willing to lay downanything if I called you to do
it, you're missing the point,and that takes time, but it's
the narrow way.
But the difficulty is not justwith us, though.
In John 15, 18 through 19,jesus says if the world hates

(14:20):
you, know that it has hated mebefore.
It hated you, because if youwere of the world, the world
would love you, but because youare not of the world and I chose
you out of the world, the worldhates you.
The reality is, the people onthe narrow path are not
believing and thinking and doingthe same things as the rest of
the world.
They're doing the opposite, andbecause of that, the world is
always going to look at thosepeople and they're going to view

(14:41):
them and put them on theoutside.
They're going to persecute them, they're going to judge them.
It reminds me of the show DuckDynasty.
I know hard shift there, whichis apparently coming back.
By the way, they're putting anew season, they're filming or
whatever.
You might not know, but at thepeak of its popularity there was
some controversy.
Phil Robertson, who's thegrandpa he's like the patriarch

(15:01):
or whatever was interviewingwith a newspaper or what is it?
A magazine, gq.
And they asked him hey, what doyou believe that sin is?
And they were kind of baitinghim, trying to get something
that they could use, and he justresponded, honestly, he
paraphrased 1 Corinthians 6, 9through 10, don't be deceived,
neither the adulterers noridolaters, male prostitutes,
homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards.

(15:23):
They're not going to inheritthe kingdom of God.
And he ends you know he'spretty frank, but he ends by
saying look, it's not my placeto judge as to who is going to
heaven or not going to heaven.
I try to share the good news ofthe gospel and I let the Lord
be the judge.
And so he ended that he wasn'tbeing hateful, he wasn't trying
to throw stones at anybody, hedidn't say it perfectly, but he
certainly wasn't trying to tearanyone down.

(15:44):
But afterwards, if you turnedon the news, you would have
thought that he like killedsomeone and liked to kick
puppies, like he was gettingblasted on every news media
outlet, social media.
There were people.
He actually got suspended bythe network from the show.
He was accused of hate speech.
They wanted to cancel the showjust for simply saying what

(16:05):
Christians had believed forthousands of years.
And there's been so many otherinstances where somebody gets a
platform, they're popular,they're a celebrity, and then
they're a Christian and somebodyasks them what they believe and
they tell them and all of asudden everyone hates them.
Because, remember the words ofJesus if you were of the world,
the world would love you, but ifyou're not, the world's going
to hate you.
That's the fact that the narrowpath of following Jesus is not

(16:28):
popular.
Part of the difficulty ishaving to break away from that
and choose Jesus instead.
So why in the world would youdo it?
Why would you choose to followJesus If it's this narrow path?
It's difficult like this is nota great sales pitch, garrett.
Well, remember, the destinationmatters more than enjoying the
journey.
You can live an easy life thatdoesn't take you where you want

(16:48):
to go, but the truth is thatfaith in Jesus, a relationship
with the God who made you, isthe only way to eternal life,
and that's not just like gettinginto heaven one day.
That's eternal life that startsnow.
That's a satisfaction, that's afulfillment that nothing else
no amount of popularity, noamount of boys or girls, or
sports or graves or money orstuff is ever going to give you

(17:10):
here on earth, because youweren't made for any of that.
You were made to know Jesus.
And so, for Jesus, he says that,hey, even though following him
means the gate is narrow, thenarrow path leads to life.
He says I'm the way, the truthand the life.
Nobody gets to the Fatherexcept through me.
Everybody's on one of these twopaths.
There's no in between.

(17:31):
There's no.
I'm kind of on the fence.
You're on the path that leadsto life or the path that leads
to destruction.
And that broad path.
It offers you this fake freedomthat you can just ride your
independence and do whatever youwant all the way to living your
best life.
But really, what happens is youjust become a slave to your
sinful desires, and we all knowthat that can happen.

(17:53):
But really what happens is youjust become a slave to your
sinful desires, and we all knowthat that can happen.
But what we don't alwaysunderstand is that the narrow
path actually offers us freedomfrom restriction.
And we've seen this before.
If you've ever been to amarriage, you know that every
wedding is actually a funeral.
What do I mean by that?
Well, when you stand up infront of your family, your loved
ones, your friends, and yougive your vows before the Lord

(18:15):
to your spouse.
There's a version of you thatdies.
Like you take that old,independent version of you and
you take him behind the woodshedand you, like old, yell at him
like he's gone right, becausenow you have a commitment, you
have somebody else to care about.
You have somebody else that youare doing life with right.
Guys, you're going to want to goplay golf or do whatever with
the boys and play video gameslate at night, and you're going

(18:37):
to get that call.
That's like, hey, yeah, we madeplans to like go shop around
later, right.
Like you're going to come.
Yeah, that sounds like so muchfun, I'm totally going to come
to that, cool.
Or girls, you're going torealize, hey, that guy doesn't
really care about feelings asmuch as you do.
Or like cleanliness or likeconversation, right.
And you're going to see allthese things where, all of a
sudden, I am not just getting todo whatever I want anymore.

(18:59):
So then, why do people do it?
Why do people still get married?
Well, because through thatcommitment, you receive life,
you receive fulfillment, youhave a person that you get to do
life with right.
That's why none of us lookforward to marriage.
When there's like, oh, that'sgonna be terrible, like for many
people, you look forward to itbecause there's a joy that comes
from that restriction.
And in the same way, when wegive ourselves to Jesus, when we

(19:22):
say, hey, I'm gonna enterthrough that narrow gate,
there's a freedom that comesfrom that.
Tim Keller says it this wayCulture says that freedom means
doing whatever you want wheneveryou want.
But real freedom isn't abouthaving zero rules.
It's about choosing the rightones.
Sometimes you've got to give upcertain freedoms in order to
gain something better.
It's not about no limits.

(19:42):
It's about setting the rightlimits that lead to real life.
And Comer, one of my favoriteauthors, adds this.
He says the best example ofthis is love.
If you really love someone, youcan't just do whatever you want
.
To get close to someone, youhave to be giving up being
totally independent.
Real closeness only happenswhen there's a commitment that
you can count on.
And so what's happening here?

(20:04):
Jesus isn't calling you awayfrom doing whatever you want
because he's this buzzkill whodoesn't want you to have any fun
in life.
He's calling you to himselfbecause he is where life is
found.
He is where fulfillment is.
He loves you and he wantswhat's best for you.
And did you know, like when mostpeople reject God I would say
most I think it's fair to sayit's not because there's some

(20:24):
rational proof that he doesn'texist.
You know, people argue for andagainst, and apologetics.
There's a lot of people waysmarter than me that have been
arguing for thousands of yearsas to the reason God can or
cannot exist, and I thinkthere's very strong evidence why
it's the God of the Bible.
But for most people, the reasonthey don't want to actually
follow Jesus is because theydon't believe he's good.

(20:45):
You know, they can acknowledgethere might be a God who's out
there somewhere.
He made the world, everythingin it.
He might care or whatever.
But when he starts telling mewhat to do, I don't want any
part of that right.
When he starts telling me howto talk or who to have a
relationship with, or you knowthe way I'm supposed to act like
I'm not going to do that wholething Like when his will starts

(21:05):
to come into conflict with mine,I'm going to jump ship, I'm out
.
And so very few of us wouldactually say that's what we
believe, but ask yourself whatdoes your life show?
Do you live your life in a waythat shows that you follow Jesus
?
Or are you like, hey, you know,I'll go to church on a
Wednesday, I'll go to church ona Sunday, I'll check the box?

(21:25):
But I don't really want him totell me what to do, because I
don't believe he has my bestinterest in heart.
I can do this better than hecan Do.
You believe he's good, becausetrue belief in God's goodness
will always lead to surrenderand obedience.
And that's what Jesus hammershome in this last part, in verse
21.
He says not everyone who saysto me, lord, lord, will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but oneday, or sorry, but the one who

(22:07):
does.
And this is a scary passage fora lot of us.
We hear this passage and we'relike, oh my goodness, what if I
live my whole life thinking thatI'm saved and that I'm not?
And I don't think that thispassage is meant to instill fear
from people who are genuinelyloving and following Jesus.
Like that's not his point here.
He's not trying to make us alltremble and be terrified, but
what he is doing is trying tocreate this picture where you
understand hey, you actuallyneed to think about this.
You shouldn't just take it forgranted Like you need to wrestle

(22:28):
with this and ask yourselfwhere do I stand in my
relationship with Jesus?
And he said earlier hey, thereare few that find the narrow
gate.
And how, then, can so manypeople be mistaken?
Well, one way is that peopleare wrong about how they enter
the gate right.
They're wrong about what itlooks like to be saved, to place
your faith in Jesus.
They think, well, I was justborn into it.

(22:49):
I'm going to enter the path byliving off my heritage, and my
grandparents were Christians, myparents were Christians and I
always went to church with them.
Other people think, hey, I canget in based off what I know.
Right, I went to a privateChristian school or I went to
Sunday school growing up.
I have all the answers, I knowall the things, so God's going
to accept me then.
Or it's passion, it's zeal.
I'm going to post about Jesus.

(23:09):
I'm going to do everything Ican for him, I'm going to serve
him.
It's works.
I'm going to do great thingsfor Jesus, but the reality is
Jesus doesn't ask for good works.
No amount of our good works canmake up for our sin.
You don't enter the gate byknowledge or works or passion or
bloodline.
In fact, I read this quote theother day the only thing that
can effectively keep you fromGod's mercy is thinking that you

(23:32):
deserve it right.
Because the truth of the gospelis that we were completely dead
in our sin, gone, lost withouthope, and God sent his son,
jesus, to live a perfect life,did everything that we could not
and yet died on the cross forour sins, that he became our sin
, and Jesus punished him forthat sin.
And so if you want to talkabout how you get through the

(23:57):
gate, you place your faith inwhat he did for you.
You say, hey, I did not doanything to make up for my sin,
but I know and trust the one whopaid for my sin and I'm going
to follow him for the rest of mylife.
You come to him and you sayI've got nothing but my own sin
and inadequacy in my hands.
I've got nothing to show butall the reasons that you
shouldn't accept me, jesus.
But I trust that you are good,I trust that you love me, and so
I want to follow you.
Will you save me?
And if you do that, he will, ifyou tell him God, I can't do

(24:20):
this on my own.
I've been sleepwalking, I'vebeen living however I want, I've
tried to earn it and I'vefailed.
I've been on the road todestruction and I need you to
pluck me.
I need you to take me off, Ineed you to help me.
He will.
Scripture says God is faithfuland just to forgive us of our
sins.
If we confess, if we believe inour heart and confess with our
mouth that Jesus is Lord, wewould be saved.
And once you're saved, youbecome his child.

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Right Scripture says noteverybody is a child of God.
Everybody is made in God'simage.
But before we place our faithin Jesus, when we are under
God's wrath for our sin, we'renot his children.
But when we place our faith inhim, we become adopted back into
the family we were made to bein all along.
And when we're his children, heloves us, like his children
that he cares for you.

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Scripture never says hey, enterthe narrow gate and then travel
the treacherous path and try tomake it to the end.
He says enter the gate, becauseonce you enter the gate, once
you place your faith in Jesus,the destination is secure.
You're not holding on to God.
God is holding on to you andyou don't have to put on your
hiking boots and try to climb upthe top of the mountain to get
God's favor.
You've been given it freely, asa gift, because of what Jesus

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did for you, and so we're goingto close here in a second.
I'm just going to give a chanceto pray.
Everybody.
Just go ahead, close your eyes,bow your head.
I just want to give a time forreflection.
Psalm 139 says this search me,o God, and know my heart, try me
and know my thoughts and see ifthere be any grievous way in me

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, and lead me in the wayeverlasting.
And so ask God to show youtonight.
Have you entered through thegate?
Which path are you on?
Are you on the path that leadsto life or the path that leads
to death?
Is there something that youneed to surrender?

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Maybe you've placed your faithin Jesus and you've been
following him for years.
But, guys, being on that pathdoes require a continual
surrender, an ongoing daily.
Jesus says take up your crossand follow me.
It's a daily thing.
And ask yourself have you beenon that broad path?
Is that where you're at rightnow?

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Maybe you came in here.
You come to church regularly,but if you're honest, you're
living life how you want to.
You say the things you want tosay.
You hurt people for your ownbenefit.
You do what you want to do.
You don't respect anybody.
That's not yourself.
And if we're honest guys,there's a lot of that in this
city it's a blessing that welive in a town where it's easy

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to call yourself a Christian,but a lot of times that comes
with this hey, I'm going to runmy life and just slap a
Christian label on it.
That's the broad path.
That path doesn't lead to life,and so my invitation to you
tonight will be the same onethat Jesus gave his disciples.
These past few weeks, you'veheard over and over and over

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again of what it looks like tofollow him, and so ask yourself
is that where you're at tonight?
And if not, what's holding youback?
What's the one thing you'vebeen holding on to that's
keeping you from going throughthat gate, stepping into the
life that you were made to have,the thing you've been looking
for your entire life, but don'teven realize it, that emptiness,
that hole that you've beentrying to fill with all sorts of

(27:34):
stuff people, pleasures, status.
It's not going to work and sowould you tonight say I'm done
with the striving, I'm donetrying to do it on my own, I'm
done trying to act like I've gotit all together.
I'm going to surrender and I'mgoing to follow you.
I'm gonna surrender and I'mgonna follow you.
I'm done living for theterminal.

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I want the destination, and thedestination is you, jesus.
I'm just gonna say, as we, I'mabout to pray for us and we're
gonna do small groups.
If that's you and you say, hey,I have not been on that narrow
path, I'm not following Jesus, Idon't have my faith in him, but
I want to make that decisiontonight, come find me afterwards
.
I'll be down by the stage,leaders will be around the room,
everybody will be moving over,so there's no pressure.
Maybe you responded last week.
There are four or five people Isaw that responded that I never

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got to have a conversation withFollow up.
Don't do it alone.
You're not made to have thatstruggle and wrestling Like
that's not made to be done inisolation.
You're made to do that withother people who can help you,
who've been there, who love youand care about you, and so have
that conversation.
Or maybe you're just like I gotquestions.
I don't know what any of thisis about.
I got invited and I've nevereven opened the Bible.
I don't own one man.

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We are so glad that you're here.
Keep coming back, but whateverGod is calling you to do,
whatever he's put on your heart,I would just ask that you would
respond tonight.
Be obedient.
I'm going to pray for us andwe'll go to small groups.
Lord God, we thank you so muchfor tonight and we thank you for
the opportunity to be here toworship you, to hear your word.
And, lord God, I praise that wego to small groups.
You would give us an opennessand an honesty for discussion

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and help us to just bevulnerable and to be honest with
where we're at.
And, lord, that we wouldn'tjust stay where we're at, but
you would move us more closertowards you.
Tonight, jesus, we love you andwe praise you and.