Matthew: Narrowness Unto Spaciousness

So we're still in the Sermon on the Mount.

We have two more weeks.

We've been going through this core of Jesus' teaching.

And what we've been saying as we've been going through it is it's the core of Jesus' teaching, and what we've seen is that it's driving us into the core of ourselves over and over again because Jesus is talking about how we should live.

He's talking about, he's constantly talking about the standard of who we should be.

And so this is just a little bit of a review that we did many weeks ago, and we talked about the law because at the very beginning of this sermon, Jesus says, Hey, I've fulfilled the law.

Now the law is who we should be.

The law in the scriptures of who you should be, who you should be as a as a follower of Jesus, as a Christian.

It's what you should do.

It's, you know what?

Love people, it's uh be kind, it's pray, it's all of these things.

And so that's why we get Matthew 7, verse 12.

Matthew 7:12

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

For this is the law and the prophets.

She's saying, hey, let me sum it up for you.

He sums it up several times in the gospels.

He says, Hey, let me sum it up for you.

Love other people, let me sum it up for you.

Do uh do to other people as you would want them to do to you.

This summarizes the law.

Now we also hear law in the world, right?

All the other shoulds in life be a big deal, be beautiful, be thin, start a business and grow a business, right?

I mean, I watch Shark Tank over and over and over again, and I love it, and then it stresses me out because I think I should be able to start a business and celebrate.

Like, that's the thing I should be able to do to prove that I am a man in this world, and then I can retire to Sea Island, right?

And your kids shouldn't, your kids shouldn't make any mistakes as well.

And like we've said before, it also means you shouldn't be eating talenty at night, you should be eating kale.

Or much less that maybe the law would be, um maybe talenty's the law, and the thing even lower than that would be like Briars or the thing lower than that, it's just like Kroger brand, right?

Like so like there's all these shoulds in life, even unto what brand of ice cream?

Like all of this law.

You know them and you feel them.

They're the shoulds, they're the shoulds in life.

And now for scripture, the law is good, the law is holy.

We need it.

We need it to tell us how we should live, and we need it to crush us, because we need it to drive us to our need for grace and for our need for Jesus and his sacrifice.

So the law, this is what we said before.

The law apart from grace crushes us because the law by itself, the law by itself, if we're just trying to live up to standards and principles, the law by itself is inept to produce the righteousness it calls for.

And you have felt this.

You felt it.

Whether you realize it or not, you've you've felt it because when you feel exhausted because you're not quite the person you wish you were, it hasn't worked out for you to be the 30-year-old, the 60-year-old, the 70-year-old, the 16-year-old you thought you would be, or the Christian you thought you would be, or the husband or the wife, or the dad, or the friend.

Like, and it hasn't, you have you haven't become that person you thought you should be.

That exhaustion of that shortcoming, that's the law crushing you.

And without the grace of God to relieve you, you just you just live burdened.

You live burdened.

And this whole time throughout the Sermon on the Mount, we're just seeing Jesus say to us over and over again, right?

He's driving us into our heart for us to see this, right?

This is why he said, like, you've heard it said before, this, but I'm telling you this, and he takes us deeper.

You've you've heard it said before, don't commit adultery, but I'm telling you, don't even lust.

You've heard it said before, don't commit murder, but I'm telling you this.

Like over and over again, he's taking us deeper, taking us into our hearts.

Because he's teaching us this about more than behavior, it's about the heart, and he's teaching us we don't have the ability to live up to the standard that God is calling of us.

And because of this, we get to this Matthew 7, 13 and 14.

And this is where it gets really interesting to a whole bunch of people who live in a culture where the idea, even the idea of being narrow, is a horrible, horrible thing.

And then we get this passage, verse 13, enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

So this word narrow means a lack of space.

It's the idea of being in a in a tight spot.

Thursday, I had been studying this all week.

Thursday, I go to drive to downtown Atlanta to eat lunch with a friend, and so I get in my car, I have 30 minutes to get down there, and so I'm like, okay, I got just enough time.

I get in my car, I need to check the route, just make sure.

So I hit up the ways and go, like everything's clear, I can just get on 75 South, everything's fine.

And as soon as I get on, you know, just not but like half a mile down, I hadn't been reported yet on ways we hadn't caught up to it, and I'm right in front of like a three or four-car pileup.

And I'm like car five.

I mean, I can see it all, and everybody's getting out and they're walking around, and everybody's staring at it.

We're all merging, but we're all staring and judging that you know they're the bad drivers and we're the good drivers, and everybody's out walking around.

So we're all looking at these cars that are all smooshed together, right?

The cars had been narrowed.

The space was gone.

There's no more space.

The the cars had literally been narrowed, and then the space between the cars had been narrowed.

There was no more space.

It was just like last week, Christy with my wife was in the den, and I hear, and she had Mr.

Miyagi to fly between her two hands.

She had completely ninja a fly between her two hands.

What happened to the fly?

The fly ran out of space.

He had been narrowed by her ninja-ness.

He had been smushed, he had been narrowed.

That's what this word is.

To run out of space, that you are crushed.

So here's what verses 13 and 14 are saying.

All that in mind.

Point number one.

Two points, a lot of other stuff coming around there.

But point number one: narrowness is to be crushed first, as to be relieved later.

That's what this is about.

To be crushed first as to be relieved later.

Narrowness is essentially to be crushed or squeezed to death for the very breath to be squeezed out of you.

And Jesus says, life is through that path.

That's probably why maybe you've heard things like die that you may live.

Or maybe you've heard like be crucified with Christ that you might be raised in his resurrection.

So the image that came to mind for me this week was, and I'm not going to put on this dog cone, I won't do that.

But this was the image that came to mind to me was this idea of a cone and that life comes through this narrowness and your squeeze.

But on the back side of it, on the back side of the narrowness is spaciousness.

So, but through this, through this narrowness, this squeezing, this exhaustion, this death, is the idea of I'm done with building my resume of righteousness before God.

I'm done for paying for my guilt.

I'm done for trying to work my way out of my shame as to be accepted by God.

I'm done trying to justify my existence with my production or my popularity.

All of that is being crushed, is being squeezed to death.

I'm narrowed now so that there's more spaciousness on the backside.

Tim Keller, the author, pastor, he says it this way: the narrowness leads to spaciousness.

The Dixie Chick says she needs wide open spaces, room to make her big mistakes.

Amen.

Any Dixie chicks lovers just want to admit it and just come out and say, I've been thinking that the whole time.

Alright, so point number two is that the wide gate, this is point number two because uh Jesus says he's teaching this, he flips it.

Point number two, the wide gate is to seemingly be in control and have all this room.

Yet you are eventually crushed.

Jesus says the broad way, that wide way, it seems so easy, but it actually starts over time to come in on you.

Right?

And so that's that's the the that's the flip.

That's the flip.

Is that all that spaciousness of all that that you can do you can do whatever you want, and you're gonna self-save with your with how good you are and your effort, and you can do it, and you can prove you are great and you are righteous before God, and you can work your way out of your shame, you can keep your righteousness before God by your effort, and you can prove your value in this world without grace.

You don't need that.

You can just do it with your effort and all of that.

You think it's so roomy and so big, and then over time, over time it starts to feel tighter and tighter.

And so you thought you were in control, but slowly you are crushed.

You are crushed over time by your self-saving path.

And it's destruction.

That's what this word is.

This word destruction is a s it's a strong word.

It means to be damned or wasted.

I mean, in that way where you think everything's so spacious and you can do it on your on your own, and your record means everything.

That doesn't sound spacious and freeing to me, but that's what it is.

Your approval and your reputation by others, it means everything because you need it.

You need it.

And so, what happens when you fail?

What happens when you fail as a Christian with your righteousness?

You fail with your purity, you fail with your discipline.

What happens when you fail in this life?

What happens when you lose the business?

The wife walks out on you.

What happens when you fail in that world?

Well, everything narrows in on you and you're crushed.

And Jesus is saying, be narrowed now.

Be crushed now, and God's grace be done.

Die that you may live.

Be crucified with Christ that you might live.

Jesus' name, be narrowed.

And see, in that idea and in that path, that gift brings spaciousness.

So you fail.

So you fail.

You don't like it, you don't like that you fail.

You fail with that purity, you fail with the career, you fail with the fail with the marriage, you fail, you fail with whatever you fail with, you fail, and you fail.

But you know what?

Your identity is secure because your identity is based in Jesus and his work for you, not in your work for him or your work in this world.

So your failure can only go so deep.

Do you see how freeing that is?

See how spacious that is?

And so there is a vastness and an openness and a freedom on the backside of being narrow-minded.

When I was in college, a friend took a few of us caving.

I was up in North Georgia, I don't even remember where we were at.

All I remember is there was a little gravel parking lot, and one guy knew about this cave, and there was a little hut, and you signed your name in in case you disappeared.

I guess somebody would come looking for you eventually.

And you walk down this path, and this is back, and I was in college, where when a friend said, like, hey, drop your body through that crack in between those two rocks that's super narrow, and it's really it's gonna be great down there.

And I just go, that sounds great.

Sounds like a great idea.

And so we signed our names and just this narrow little, I mean, just a few rocks in the middle of the woods and tight squeezed down, and you got down in there, and just these huge rooms.

Huge rooms.

See, the way of Jesus is this very narrow entry in the woods.

And you just think there's no possible way it could open up and be that open on the back side.

Because it's so hard to give up our nature of self-saving and proving and earning.

But on the inside of the grace of God and Jesus' sufficiency for you, and his work being your security of your identity and before God, oh, there's such a big room for you to exist and to rest and for transformation to occur.

So you know what?

Grace is so narrow in that way.

It is so wonderfully narrow for us because it's no longer resting on our shoulders and our effort.

It narrows us and it crushes us and it leads us to our need to be found in Christ's death and resurrection.

And then he goes into verses 15 through 23 and warnings that there's gonna be people who teach other stuff.

Be careful, is what he says.

Be careful, be careful about false ideas about how God regards people and what he requires.

Be careful.

Test is what he's saying.

Test what you receive to be true.

Consider the source, be wise.

You know what?

If you're here and you're from another faith, you're here and you're from no faith, we're so excited you're here with us.

We'd love for you to keep coming every week, even if you don't believe what we believe.

We love that you're here, but this is something for you to consider.

It's a question, something for you to consider.

How is it that you are made right before God?

Is it based on your work and your record, or is it based on God's work and his effort for you?

And maybe you're here in your church, like you know the camp songs, you can do the deal, you know the deal, but there's never been a heart connection.

There's never been a narrowing, you've never been narrowed.

You've the effort and your self-saving has never been crushed out of you.

Where you just go, yeah, I can't, I can I can't do that.

I can't foremone righteousness, I can't get into security with God, I can't overcome this shame.

I can't, I can't, I need the gift of righteousness.

I thought about all week I've been thinking about this a lot.

I mean, I think for me, a lot of it's been coming around this idea of being open-minded.

I think partially because there's a lot of a lot of divisiveness this week.

And so that's come into it, you know, and about I think this and you think that, and I think this, and I thought this, and I voted this, and you voted that, and all this, you know, and and I like being open-minded partially because I was so rigid and judgmental for so long.

So even if I believe a certain thing and hold to a certain thing, I I try to pride myself in some measure of I like to listen, I like to hear what you have to say.

Maybe I can learn something.

And so a lot of this, this idea of being narrow, I've been wrestling with it all week, all week.

And what what I learned was and came to kind of closure about is that being narrow-minded on certain issues, being narrow-minded on certain issues actually creates so much more space and freedom on the backside.

Being narrow-minded on this issue is incredibly narrow, and it's the best possible thing for me and for you and for anybody else.

And not only that, being narrow-minded on this issue, that that literally that you are just like anybody else, and I am just like anybody else, and we need to be squeezed to death, crushed, and receive God's grace.

This is actually the best possible way for you to have a chance, a chance of becoming a non-judgmental, open, compassionate presence in this world.

This is your best chance of loving other people.

Is what Jesus would say.

Let me sum up the law.

This is the spaciousness of Christian spirituality.

At least for me, I haven't known it for a lot of my life.

Not until I let this law continue to guide me, but also crush me.

And for me to see, oh my gosh, I really, I, I really need, I really need God's grace to me.

I need it today.

Not like 20-something years ago when I became a Christian.

I need it today.

So for clarity, for clarity, what you know, what is what's on the backside of being narrowed?

What is this spaciousness?

What's in this resurrection, in this new life, in this eternal connection with God?

That is not the being damned and being wasted, but in this freedom and connection with God.

I listed three things.

There are things that we say over and over again.

We say all the time here.

Maybe your list is longer.

Maybe it'd be good for you this week to make a list.

I don't know.

Maybe you want to share your list.

But here's the three things that came to my mind.

Number one, your mistakes and your shame do not have to define you.

Your mistakes and your shame do not have to define you.

Number two, you can grow in confidence that you are secure as a human being, defined as God's child, imperfectly, imperfect, yet perfectly loved.

Say that again.

You can grow in confidence that you are secure as a human being, defined as God's child, imperfect and yet perfectly loved.

And number three, you can move toward a life of honoring God out of humility and gratitude.

Even though you won't do it perfectly, you can move toward a life of honoring God out of humility and gratitude.

Listen, you don't have to live your life in constricting tightness around your heart.

You know the feeling.

The narrowing of grace is about discovering your secure belovedness as God's child.

Yes, you're imperfect.

We're all imperfect.

That's why we need this narrow way, is because we're imperfect.

We need it to be incredibly narrow.

We need this because we need to be, we need to be crushed, we need it to be squeezed out of us, all of our self-saving methods, so that we live in this open-handed posture before God of receiving, receiving his grace, his sufficiency to us, so that we can face our sin, our shame, our imperfections, our wounds.

We can face all of that.

And while we face it, they don't threaten who we are, because that's already been secured.

And we live in this growing spaciousness and freedom.

So my brothers and sisters, may you be narrowed.

May you be incredibly narrowed that you may live in growing spaciousness of Jesus.

Let's pray together.

God thank you.

Thank you that the way is narrow.

Whether it be through the escape of really bad addictions and practices, or whether it be the escape of religiosity and moralism.

For so many of us, what needs to be squeezed out of us is our judgmentalism and comparing our lives to others, and constantly thinking we need to strive today to please you without regard to your grace toward us.

Would you help us to race rest in your sufficiency toward us?

That Jesus died, we are absolved of our sin.

Would we rest in our identity secure as a daughter, secure as a son?

Would this be transformative in our hearts, in the core of who we are?

Would we be crushed?

That we might be relieved.

And in that, would your spirit begin great transformation that we might grow in a way of being a loving presence in this world of loving people as we would want to be loved?

We pray this in Jesus' great name.

Amen.