Giong Through the Narrow Gate

Giong Through the Narrow Gate
Not knownig I'm making a difference
Why am I told to fear God

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM sixty on demand.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Okay, so slowly everyone squeezes out of the holidays now
in the new year, and seems everywhere you went for
the past couple of months, everything was crowded, right packed.
That's a good thing as far as economy goes. It's

(00:28):
a good thing. People are out spending money, being a
part of things, engaging other people. But with that and
with the crowds, you will notice there's certain patterns. Were
you somewhere that were was so crowded that you kind
of all kind of moved with everyone else almost as
one big mass. And if you've ever gone to a

(00:52):
place where it could be a concert, of ball game, whatever,
it might be, shopping somewhere where they're having a huge
sale and there's tons of people wherever you might be.
While you're with that many people, you'll see that the
mass kind of takes over the individual kind of becomes

(01:16):
a blob of humanity moving in one direction, and to
go in a different direction, or to have a single
mind or desire or focus becomes difficult, if not impossible.
It's not a good thing. I don't want you to

(01:39):
be a part of that mass that moves you from
point A to point B without you even having a
decision as to where you stand or where you go.
Scripture talks about this. Scripture talks about the two gates
and the paths that follow. Matthew seven thirteen says, enter
through the narrow gate. For the wide is the gate,

(02:04):
and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and
many enter through it. But small is the gate, and
narrow the road that leads to life, and only a
few find it. People go back and forth as to
what I was talking about here and what I meant,
And there's arguments as to why I use this particular language.

(02:30):
There are those that go back to Jewish canons and
say that there's certain measurements for different areas it So
it says in those writings, a private way was four cubits,
broad away from city to city was eight cubits, a
public way sixteen cubits, and the way to the cities

(02:52):
of refuge thirty two cubits. So these are measurements that
people get in their mind as to what a broad
road is, what a wide road is. Of course, two
thousand years ago, with all the city walls, oftentimes you
had to enter through a gate. There were times where
it's simple, and there's times where it's difficult, depending on

(03:15):
the size the place you're going. But I want you
to think about it in a different sense. You hear
the term narrow minded all the time, and of course
I don't want you to be narrow minded that although
many people believe that just by the very nature of
your faith, you're narrow minded, which is pretty narrow minded

(03:38):
of them, don't you think. But when people say narrow minded,
it's set as a pejorative. It's negative, telling you that
you have one thought and you don't ever add to it,
that you push anything away that's not that thought. That's
not what I want. Of course, I want you to
always test all things into study and to learn and

(04:01):
to show yourself approved. But when I say be narrow minded,
I mean being narrow minded like the narrow gate. Focus minded,
focusing on what God has for you, focusing on the
things of God and the things of Heaven as they

(04:22):
pertain to this earth and vice versa. Not focusing on
just you want when you want it. Not focusing just
on the things of the world, because that's where the
mass is. That's like that blob that I told you
about that. When you're at a concert, or you're at
a ballgame, or you're with lots of people, they just

(04:47):
kind of shuttle from one place to the other. And
really whoever's leading is at the front, and they may
be leading you down a path you don't want to go.
If you're a follow like a line of cars, when
you assume you're all going to the same place and
then you end up somewhere different, you oh, well, I
just assumed they were going where I was going. Don't assume,

(05:09):
of course, as you know what that does. But when
you assume those things, or you get caught up in
that mob mentality, you get pushed like that broad road,
that wide gate that leads to destruction, because you're going
with the flow, entering through the small gate, the narrow gate.

(05:32):
The narrow road is showing that you are walking with
God alone, that you're focused on the will of God
and not just the will of the people. Yes, many, many,
many people can be wrong. And it's not that I
don't want you to learn the skills of following and humility,

(05:57):
but to also learn the skill the skills of leading
in your life, of course directed by me, and in
doing so you become a leader of your life. It
talks about in scripture that God and his word is
the lamp unto your feet. So if I guide you
and you take that direction, and you guide yourself with it,

(06:21):
you are on that narrow road. You are narrow minded,
not in the sense the world wants to call you
narrow minded, but you're focused. You're of one thought. The
world wants to tell you that being of one focus
is a bad idea. You should just encompass everything, and
that gets you nowhere, That gets you on the wide
road end mass pushing and shoving and going a place

(06:46):
that you may not know or may not like when
you end up there, and that mentality is kind of well,
everybody's doing this or everyone's doing that. How many times
did your parents tell you, well, if you so and
so jumped off a bridge, would you Unfortunately, if you're

(07:11):
in a group of people that seems to be walking
down a particular path and you're not checking yourself and
you're not aware truly of where they're going, then you
tend to follow ask questions always when someone's it's okay
to be led by someone, but ask questions a point

(07:34):
your leaders don't just follow in a proper balance between
leader and follower. There should be communication, there should always
be questions, and there should be harmony. If there's a
breakdown in there somewhere, then it's just a pied piper.

(07:59):
And this goes forward everything love, relationships, politics, religion, all
of it. And if you get lazy, you get complacent,
if you just do what everyone else is doing, you'll

(08:19):
end up where everyone else ends up. And it may
not be where you think, and it may not be
what you want, and it may not be what you
think is going to be at the end of it all.
Now there are narrow gates and there are wide gates.
And I realize when you see the wide gates it

(08:40):
looks simpler, easier, more welcoming. But to take the time
to use discernment so that you can decide which is
the best way for you to go, and to know
that on the ways and paths that are best for you,

(09:02):
oftentimes they'll be the ones that you travel on your own.
They don't need to be wide. The narrow way. The
narrow path is so that it is there's enough room
for you and enough room for me. Steve, Welcome to

(09:30):
the Jesus Christ show.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Praise you Jesus and your show because it's a great
teaching tool.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I'll glory to God. Thanks Steve. How can I help you?

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Well? One of the things I was looking at in
was a very valuable lesson to me was when I
was working for the probation department at Juvenile Hall. And
the thing that I learned and I thank God for it,
was that you don't know when you make a difference
because the people don't come back, it's like the ones

(10:02):
that do come back, it's like God's giving you another
chance to make a difference in their lives.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
That's interesting, but in your line of work, but in
the probation when they don't come back, that's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
That's true because you know you made a difference in
their life and that was God's direction.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know, there's many miracles that are noted, and you
go through scripture Steve, and you can see where I
healed the sick or I cast out demons, and there's
only one case where someone actually physically comes back to
thank me. And it's just one of those things that

(10:45):
you don't always get to experience what you've done or
how you've touched somebody or helped them in some way
in some shape. That's just not the way it always works.
But you have to trust that when you're doing that
which is right, that other people see that and then
it will motivate them. And in a type of work

(11:08):
like the probation office, that's one of those. Often you know,
you don't get a whole lot of thanks, and the
work that you guys do is very very important, and
it's very easy to get that feeling of being unnoticed,
but there's a lot that goes on there, and really
the reward of it has to be doing things right.

(11:29):
You see parents that say, you know, I pay my
kid five dollars to clean his room. Now, I don't
have any problem with an allowance or anything like that,
so don't get me wrong. But what I do have
a problem with is that is when you teach a
child that the reward is the money and not the
clean room. You see, when you clean a room, the

(11:50):
reward is the clean room. When you have good hygiene,
the reward is the good hygiene. When you do your chores,
when you do all that, the ward is the clean house.
Is an organized house is an orderly house. That is
the reward. So I whenever there's an allowance given, I'd
like to see that they that you at least take

(12:11):
the time to teach the child that the reward is
what they've done, not the money. Henry, Welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Good morning, Jesus Christ. I feel that I'm at a law. Say,
I've been following your radio show and trying to learn
from your scriptures. H. What's weighing on my heart now
is uh? And when when you mentioned Matthew six and two. Uh,

(12:48):
what we've done is we had an issue with the
Christian flag flying on our Veterans Memorial, with the A
c l U wanting to take the flag down.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Well, we we got together in a bunch of the
people protests. Uh. We did have a thirty day visual Uh.
And before I started was we started seeing so many
veterans coming from everywhere. Well, what we found out is
a lot of these these people were homeless and hungry.

(13:24):
So I got with some some people up there. I said,
we can help these people.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Well, we formed uh a foundation and we said, well
you know, let's get with these people and see if
we can't can't help them. We got with one of Uh.
And I don't want to call the church's name, but
it's one of the biggest churches in our area. And uh,

(13:53):
you know I felt good about it. The people that's
working with me felt good about it. Uh and uh,
it's it's we have over seven hundred thousand just veterans
alone that's homeless, three that are female. And then whatever
really felt good is is I said, well, we can

(14:16):
make an impact on this.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Okay. So so you you were moved to actually be
active and start an organization to help homeless veterans. That's
a wonderful thing. Okay. And earlier as we talked about
Matthew six six and Matthew six two about feeling like
nobody's seeing what you're doing and if you seek the

(14:40):
reward on earth, that's what you'll get and it won't
be much, but that God sees even the secret things
and knows what's going on. And how does that tie
into your call today?

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Well, thos In is a you know, hunger is a
terrible thing and I don't think there should be anybody
in the world hungry.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Amen.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Oh, And I said, well, you know, we can help
these people with a can of soup or something. So
I says, well, I got with the pastor of the
church and I says, can we do something? Well, what
I'd got uh from him, was well, this is not

(15:17):
the issue. The issue is the king Christian flag. So
I said, fine, we'll, we'll, we'll.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
So their concern was more about whether the flag could fly,
the Christian flag could fly, or a flag with Christian
symbols could fly over whether somebody got food to eat.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yes, Uh, that was the issue.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
And I felt, I said, well, you know, it's more
of who am I You know, when all the Camber
cruise and everything was gone, I mean they weren't around,
uh so uh. And talk with some of these veterans,
and majority of them had tattoos from back hey John

(16:02):
three sixteen okay, for which told me they were believers.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Sure, I would imagine it takes some faith to get
a tattoo of Scripture on your arm.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
And I feel, well, have they lost faith in God?
Or have they lost faith in Man? Or what do
I do? Where do I turn on saying God hasn't
forgotten you? Well, you'll find a way.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
I mean it's no God has God has not forgotten them?
And that actually does tie in Henry to the scriptures
we talked about, because there is a lot of men
and women that fought for the United States and for
the freedoms therein that do end up going into bad
situations when they get home. I'll find it hard to

(16:49):
find work and things like that, and are caught up
doing so many having done so many great things for
the United States, and now in a situation of being
desperate or homeless or as you say, even hungry. There's
a lot to that story. So and it's you know,

(17:10):
the amount of time that we have to kind of
iron through. It is not what we'd always like. But
I would say this what I can sort from the
things you were telling me, that the church could very
well be misfocused. Absolutely, that local church there could be
misfocused on what they're fighting for. And this is something

(17:31):
we've talked about on the program many times, Henry, is
that the church oftentimes gets focused on one thing and
it becomes a political thing, and it becomes more important
than anything else, and then people lose sight of that
which is important. And because of these things, should you

(17:52):
defend yourself and your right to worship the way you
want to worship? Absolutely, should you be able to fly
a flag with Christian symbols on in the United States. Absolutely,
are there concerns that the ACLU has with separation of
church and state, Yes, but how that ties into a

(18:12):
man or woman needing to eat is beyond me. It's
not an either or, it's a both, and you can
defend things personally. I don't care whether flag is flown
or not. If every man, woman, and child gave their
life to me, then a flag is unnecessary. So it's

(18:33):
really kind of misses the point. People don't necessarily drive
by a flag and say, well, that has Christian symbols
on it. I want to give my life to God.
But when they see an act of kindness, when they
see you feeding somebody who needs to eat, when they
see you showing love and compassion, that that moves people
to want to change their lives as well. So there's

(18:55):
a lot of sides here, and we don't have all
the participants. So I'm going to leave you with this
that if you feel moved to do something and it's
a noble cause, a cause that's in line with the
will of God, then by all means do it. One
of the most difficult things, and this is why there's
four Gospels. Is that it's very easy for people to
get caught up in their world. And that is because

(19:18):
everybody's the star of their own movie, and they get
caught up in their world. And that means whatever their
focus is is the most important focus. And if you
feel moved to take care of veterans, that is an
incredibly noble and wonderful thing. Do it. Gather those that
can help, gather all those that will hear, and do it.
But don't expect everybody to have the same response you do,

(19:40):
because the purpose of having so many people with different
focuses is to complete all the needs to the best way,
in the best possible way. And if everybody's focused on
one thing. I know churches go through this all the time.
They have their Philippians Fund or whatever they have that
they give to people in their church when they are

(20:01):
out of work, or these types of things, feeding them,
doing things for them. But then another group will come
in and they have their charity or their group and
they'll come to the church and they'll say, hey, we
need money for this. Church says, I'm sorry, we don't
have money for that. We have it set aside for
this and that organization walks away going that church doesn't
love God and aren't doing it. No, that church has
a calling as well, and everybody kind of gets wrapped

(20:26):
up in their own focus and what their own interests are.
There's a lot of worthy causes out there and they
all need attention. And this way different people are being
moved and called and emotionally motivated, then people more people

(20:46):
will get taken care of. So continue to holler and
use your trumpet to get people to notice. But don't
expect every church or every Christian to necessarily participate, as
they might be helping someone else. And my reference to

(21:08):
the Gospels is that the reason why there's four Gospels
is for perspective. You want to get the perspective of
the individuals as they see fit. Because some were preaching
to the gentiles, some were preaching to the Jews, and
the different insights are important to understand in their fullness.
Just too easy to get so hyper focused that everything

(21:32):
else becomes unimportant based on what you're doing. Now. The
second part of that Henry dealing with the people of
faith that are kind of losing their faith and humanity. Well,
join the club. There's a lot of people that experience that,

(21:52):
and you can either let it consume you and pull
you from God, which the devil would love, or you
can use to motivate you and propel you into doing
something great, which I think you've done. So it really
is what you do with that information, what you do
with the experiences of dealing with these people that have

(22:13):
given up so much for their country, that are now
in need, and that it surely would be wonderful if
every man, woman, and child in the United States did
their part to take care of these veterans. But there's
also other things that need to be taken care of,
and you can't hate somebody for that, or you can't

(22:37):
you can't raise your fist at somebody who's taking care
of someone else. That's what they're feeling called to do.
You just have to make sure that everybody understands that
there's a need, that you facilitate a process in which
people can help that need or take care of that need.
And that's doing a wonderful thing right there. And you'll
see that the veterans and the people that are being

(22:59):
taken care of and that are receiving these this help
or these goods from you, that their their spirit will lift,
but don't underestimate them. They're warriors by nature, and they
have taken a lot and they will continue to fight
and they continue to have faith as is their nature,

(23:19):
and that is why they are the ones that are
chosen and to do the things that they've done is
because of their character and their ability to stand tall
and tough in times of great turmoil. Andrea, welcome to
the Jesus Christ.

Speaker 4 (23:37):
Yes, hello, thank you for taking my.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Call, my pleasure helping me help you.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
I'm fairly new to Christianity and the study of the Bible.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, welcome, and there's thank you.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
And there's something I've been grappling with and confused by,
and that is why does the Bible so often ask
us to have fear or to fear God? Is this
reflection more of the historical time the Bible was written.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
No, but it does seem that way, and it does
tie into that a little bit because one of the
things that should be feared or respected is the concept
of God's wrath. So imagine it this way. And there's
two basic types of fear that are talked about in scripture.
The spirit of fear is the kind of fear that

(24:23):
comes to mind when you hear the word fear, and
it's that that insecure type feeling of something might happen
more tied into anxiety and things like that. That is
not of God, that is not a good thing, and
that's not the type of fear you should have towards God.
The fear that it's talking about, it is a type
of reverence. But even beyond that, So imagine this, if

(24:46):
you were walking on a tightrope, there should be a
healthy fear of falling. That fear is what keeps you
on the tightrope not wanting to fall, and that's what
teaches you the proper balance and proper technique to get
across that tightrope and not fall. If you didn't fear
and you didn't care, then you would more likely be

(25:12):
out of balance or not take the time to focus
yourself or learn how to do it. Now, that's the
proper type of fear. Now, if you had anxiety about
it and you walk that tightrope, you'd be in the
same place if you didn't have any fear at all.
So that's the different types of fear.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
It's a healthy sphere that we're discussing here, not maybe
a fear of older biblical times where they actually had
that anxiety.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Fear, Well, it's more about the improper understanding or belittling
of God. If you can light a fire in your house,
you can light a match, you can use it to
warm yourself. You understand the concept of fire, but you
have to respect it in a way to know that
if you misused it, it can destroy your entire life. Now,

(26:01):
with God, it's not about a punishment issue the same
way it is about the will of God is perfection,
and that's that you should always desire to continue to
refine yourself throughout the process of your learning and knowing
more about God, and that when you stray from God
is when problems can occur. So fearing God, it says
in scripture that the fear of God is the beginning

(26:23):
of wisdom. That means you're truly understanding life and creation
and everything that surrounds it. If you understand that God
has to come first, and that God is the uncreated
creator of all creation and holds the key to all things,
that is a reverence that supersedes what you would say.
With reverence, it becomes a fear.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
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