The Narrow Path

And we're going to continue in our series, Build Your House, where we're in the Sermon on the Mount.

We're in the last part of the Sermon on the Mount.

We're going to be in chapter 7 of Matthew.

But let me ask you this.

How many of you know the name SUNY Lee?

How many of you have heard of the name SUNY Lee?

Anybody, anybody watch any Olympics over the last Olympics that were on TV and on the internet?

And who can tell you who SUNY Lee is?

Who is SUNY Lee?

Gymnast.

She won what?

She won the gold medal, right?

We all thought Simone Biles was going to win the gold medal.

She's the household name.

She's maybe the best ever.

But because of her injury, SUNY Lee jumped in, and man, it's amazing.

It was awesome to see somebody who was kind of relatively unknown become a household name overnight.

Anybody heard of Caleb Dressel?

Caleb Dressel.

Hey, you know, 915, you're usually the crowd that I'm bragging on, okay?

Somebody, Caleb Dressel, what did he do?

He's a swimmer.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Somebody jump in.

He's a swimmer.

He won gold medals.

He's built just like me.

I mean, he is a household name overnight.

I don't know why you're laughing.

Kind of like Michael Phelps, that Michael Phelps of this generation.

It's incredible to look at them, and when you see what God, what, what, what, how God gifted them, and you see what they were able to accomplish, you admire it.

You can't help but admire it.

But let me tell you what was happening while Suny Lee was winning the gold medal.

There was a little girl somewhere out in the Midwest that watched it, and she saw it with different eyes than you saw it.

You saw it and you admired it from a distance, but that little girl, something happened in her heart, and her heart started pounding, and she started dreaming about how she might want one day to do what SUNY Lee was doing.

And she said in her mind, I can do that.

And she probably has already enrolled in some kind of gymnastics class, and she believes she can become that.

And so she went beyond admiring, and she became a follower.

She became a follower.

She says, I want to be her.

I want to be like her.

Somewhere out west, there's a young man that was watching the Olympics, a little a little boy maybe in elementary school or middle school, and maybe he's already had some swimming competition.

Maybe he hasn't yet, but he watched Caleb Dressel win five gold medals.

And instead of just standing at a distance like you and me and all us old people do, and we say, Man, that's admirable.

That is worth admiring.

Some little boy's heart started beating, and he got excited, and he said in his mind, I can do that.

I can do that.

I remember when I was growing up, I went to see Rocky, the movie.

And man, I watched Rocky train.

And I watched him get ripped.

And man, my heart started beating inside.

And I said, Man, I can be that.

And then I.

That's not funny.

I got up three times at five o'clock and exercised.

And I said, I'm gonna admire it from a distance.

You see the difference?

There's a big difference.

Admiration and follower.

I was an admirer, but not a follower.

Big difference.

An admirer is impressed.

A follower is devoted.

Big difference.

An admirer applauds.

A follower surrenders.

A follower surrenders their life.

This is gonna become who I am.

It's gonna be my identity.

A lot of people admired Martin Luther King Jr., some marched with him.

Not many went to jail with him.

Not many got their houses bombed like he did.

A lot of people have admired Sister Teresa.

Not many follow her to live among the destitute and the poor in Calcutta.

Big difference between admiring and following.

Many people admire Jesus, but few devoted themselves to him.

Many people admire Jesus today, but few still devote their lives to him.

We've been through the Sermon on the Mount.

It's the most famous sermon, the best sermon, the most incredible, powerful sermon that's ever been preached.

And Jesus begins with the Beatitudes, and he begins to teach us what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom of God.

What is distinct, what is different, what changes?

He says, Blessed are you, happy are you.

Those who mourn shall be comforted.

He goes through the Beatitudes and then he challenges us.

He says, Your identity, your influence, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.

And then he gives these six antithetical statements where he refers to what had become or been made of the law by the religious leaders.

He would say, You've heard it said, do not commit adultery.

But I say to you, do not have lust in your heart.

You're just as guilty if you have lusted in your heart.

And he goes through those antithetical statements, and then he goes into spiritual practices and disciplines like prayer and fasting, giving, inward devotional life.

And he challenges us, like Jonah did a few weeks ago, where we talked about how we're not to judge, we're not to carry the gavel, we're to be a flashlight, which is a flashlight over the gavel.

And then we're to discern, not to condemn.

Last week was the golden rule, and how we treat others the way that we want to be treated through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus comes to this point.

He comes to this point, and it's it's the so what of the Sermon on the Mount.

You've heard me preach.

Jesus says, You've heard me preach, you've heard everything I've taught you.

So what?

And we say this all the time at Church of the Grove.

There's really two questions the disciples should be asking, that a follower of Jesus should be asking every day.

What is God saying to me?

And what am I going to do about it?

It's two questions, a disciple.

Two questions about your spiritual growth.

It's two questions that help you become moved from being a little piece of broccoli to a mature piece of broccoli.

God, what are you saying to me?

And then what am I going to do about it?

And here's the question.

Are you an admirer of Jesus or are you a follower of Jesus?

James, James, James says one in 122, he says, but don't just listen to God's word.

You must do what it says.

Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

And so Jesus has the disciples around him.

These are those that he's called to follow him as he's teaching this sermon on the on the hillside there next to the Sea of Galilee.

But but all outside of the disciples, they're all of this huge huge crowd of people.

Big crowd of people, all at different places in their spiritual journey.

Some maybe are like the disciples.

They're going to follow Jesus, but a lot of them are admirers.

They're going to turn away.

It's tough because admirers hold back part of themselves.

Admirers always hold back.

Man, I saw how Sylvester Stone looked.

I thought that is going to be awesome when my body gets to look like his.

And underneath the shirt, it actually does.

But man, I wasn't willing to pay the price.

Admirers hold back part of themselves.

In this section on the summer of the mount, Jesus is talking about two ways, two gates, two trees, two confessions, and two builders.

Today we're talking about two ways, two gates, and we're talking about the two confessions.

Listen, Matthew 7, 13 and 14.

Matthew 7, 13 and 14.

Here's what he says.

Jesus, you can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate.

The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for many who choose that way.

But the gateway to life is very narrow, and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

So the whole crowd admire Jesus as he's teaching.

But man, he throws down right here.

I mean, he lays all the cards on the table.

And right here's a pivotal moment in the crowd.

Like that little girl, that little boy.

The heart starts pounding.

Something begins to happen inside.

And somebody says, I want to follow him.

I want the narrow way.

I want the tougher gate.

Something happens.

They might not have been able to name it, but what they're thinking, what they're about to buy into is to be cleansed inside out, to be forgiven of all their sin and all the junk that has become part of their life.

And not only to be forgiven, to actually know God, to have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe.

I get to be part of God's mission.

I get to expand the kingdom.

I get to join in what is happening right here with Jesus.

I'm not afraid of death anymore.

I'm not going to let a pandemic control how I think.

I'm not going to let anxiety paralyze me.

And I'm not making light of something that is real.

It is very real.

But I mean, I'm going to give my life to something that lives on way beyond what's happening right here on this earth.

I would rather have what that man is talking about than to have every bit of wealth available to me.

I want to follow Jesus, is what they're thinking.

I want this way.

He said there's no third category.

There's two gates.

There's two confessions.

There's two pathways.

There's two builders.

There's no third category.

It's one or the other.

Now here's I let me.

I know what our culture says, and I know what even maybe some people who call Jesus their Savior would say.

Man, this seems so exclusive, narrow-minded.

It just seems to be insensitive to other religions.

But I want to tell you that when you hear that, it's not the way of Jesus.

Jesus says, all who want life are welcome to come follow me.

Everybody is invited to come follow me.

John 3.16, God so loved the world that whoever, whosoever, all are welcome, whoever would believe, the gift of eternal life is freely given.

It's free to you.

You can't even earn it.

It's a gift that God gives you through faith, through repenting and putting your trust in what Jesus did in his life and his death and his resurrection.

I can't think of anything more inclusive than that.

Now he goes to the to the confession, the two confessions, Mark Matthew 7, 21, 22, and 23.

He says, Not everyone, not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.

On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord.

People will say, Hey, I I prayed a prayer, I walked an aisle, I filled out a card, I did this.

I mean, you you could think of all the religious activity that people would claim.

We prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name, but I will reply, I never knew you.

Get away from me, you who break God's laws.

And so there has to be an understanding of the historical biblical context here.

This understanding it's an either-or proposition.

It's an all or nothing.

All or nothing.

When if you are a Jewish person listening to Jesus teach this on that hillside by the Sea of Galilee, they they thought of him, and theologians think of Jesus as the second Moses.

The Sermon on the Mount is almost an equivalent of Moses coming down Mount Sinai with the tablets containing the Ten Commandments.

He is the second Moses.

And so they would have thought of this verse.

They would have known this verse, they would have memorized this verse.

Deuteronomy 30, 19 says, Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses.

Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make.

Oh, that you would choose life, Moses says, so that you and your descendants might live.

Here's what Jesus is saying: it's not just a confession that flows through your lips, it's the lifestyle of repentance that leads to obedience.

Let me say that again.

It's not just a confession that flows through your mouth or your lips.

It's a lifestyle of repentance that leads to obedience.

Listen to this: the Christian life, the follower of Jesus.

I'm not talking about an admirer.

I'm talking about somebody that's really saying, hey, I want to follow him.

I want to surrender.

I don't want to stand at a distance.

I want to surrender.

It is entered into intentionally.

The Christian life, the Jesus follower life.

It's entered into intentionally.

Because listen, I have conversations with people all the time about Jesus.

Hey, and I invited a church, or I I sometimes however the conversation starts, I try to steer it always back.

It's not about religion, it's not about church attendance, it's not about it's about Jesus.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I I I I I grew up in church.

Not the right answer.

Well, I used to go to church.

Hey, I I try to follow the Ten Commandments.

How's that going?

I'll try that too.

Or I I was raised in a Christian home.

Or I've been a Christian all my life.

That's theologically impossible.

Because we're born into sin.

We're born with this issue, with this condition, with this brokenness.

We're born with it.

And so the Christian life has to be entered into intentionally.

You can't be born into it.

And here's how Jesus says it Mark 1.15.

He says, the time promised by God has come at last.

He announced the kingdom of God is near.

And what does he say?

You repent and believe the good news.

That word repent.

It literally means you turn.

I'm going down this path.

I'm thinking, hey, this is the American dream.

This is a way for me to have a life.

This is a way for me to get a great job, education, have a great car, have another extra garage.

All the things that life offers.

Even a little, I'm going to even have add a little bit of religion to that.

No, I'm going to I'm going to repent from that.

I'm going to do a U-turn, and I'm going to put all my faith in this man who gave his life.

He suffered and died on my behalf.

He was bodily resurrected to prove that he had power over sin and death and the grave.

Are you with me?

And so repentance is when you walk away and you say, I gotta give up that for this.

I didn't grow up in church.

Some of you know the story.

And my two older brothers had both been actively trying to pursue getting me to come to church with them.

And so I went.

And so on New Year's Eve of 1983, I gave my heart to Jesus.

And I listen, I'll never forget it.

It's just as real today as it was then.

I had a girlfriend, and I went back to the girlfriend.

And I said, Would you please come to church with me?

I had the best friend that I had from middle school all the way to high school.

His name was Joey.

I begged and pleaded, Joey, would you please?

I'm not just come with me one time.

And I remember I was sitting in my car, my girlfriend was in her car, and we were parked side by side, and we were both crying, bawling our eyes out, because she says, No.

I said, please come to church with me.

And I said, just once.

You know, I'm not asking you to commit.

Just come one time.

And she said, No, that's not for me.

And I drove away, knowing that I had to give up something I cared about to follow Jesus.

My friend Joey.

We'd been friends from middle school to high school.

His stepdad and mom had moved away to California for a job.

He didn't want to leave because he was going into his senior year.

He moved in with his dad in Conyers, who was a drunk, and he started showing up at school with black eyes and bruises all over his body.

And I finally got the truth out of him.

His dad was getting drunk and beating him.

He moved in with me for the last half of our senior year to get away from his father.

And so when I when Jesus changed my life, which was after we graduated, I said, Joey, please.

And we drove, we drove in separate directions.

We went in separate directions.

I had because I said, I've got I can't be an admirer.

I've got to, I've got to, if you're going to follow Jesus, you've got to give up something.

And turn and put your faith in him.

You see it.

In scripture.

Some of you have testimonies that you could tell.

There's a guy named Nicodemus that came to that came to Jesus in the middle of the night when I was in Africa with my older brother.

We were doing some mission work with a with a with an I and B missionary there.

And we had one of these experiences that Mali is a country that's 98% Muslim.

And we had been out in the villages sharing the gospel of Jesus.

And this guy named Musa, um, obviously the Holy Spirit was working in his heart.

He came, he came riding up to our place where we were living in these tent, mosquito tents out in the bush, and and it was like one o'clock in the morning.

And he wanted, he says, I want to I want to talk to you about that guy you've been.

Talking about Jesus.

Nicodemus in John chapter 3 comes in the middle of the night.

John 3 · chapter mention

He's a religious leader in the Jewish culture.

And he doesn't want anybody to see him.

And he comes in the middle of the night.

He says, How can I have eternal life?

Now, we know that Nicodemus ends up moving from an admirer to a follower because he helped take Jesus' body off the cross and helped put it into a tomb.

There's another guy that remains nameless.

He's just simply known as the rich young ruler.

He comes to Jesus in a very similar fashion.

And so he says, he ran up to Jesus and he fell on his good knees.

Here's what he says: good teacher, good teacher.

He was an admirer.

He liked Jesus.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says, one thing: go sell all that you have, go sell all your possessions, radically change your lifestyle, give away everything you have to bless the poor, and then you come follow me.

Now what happened to the rich young ruler?

He walked away what?

Sad.

He says, I'm just gonna have to be an admirer because I can't be fully devoted, because I can't let go of all my stuff.

So, what's God saying to you this morning?

Two questions.

What's God saying to you?

And what are you gonna do about it?

Here was my prayer.

Here's my prayer for this week.

This has been my prayer all week.

God, there's gonna be somebody, there's gonna be somebody here that's never stepped across the line of faith, say yes to Jesus.

Lord, God, please would you move in their hearts where they would say yes to Jesus?

Here's the second part of my prayer.

Father, there's somebody here that has had some kind of religious background.

And they've grown up in the Bible belt, and they filled out a card, walked an aisle, repeated a prayer, whatever it is, but they need to be awakened by the Holy Spirit to the reality that they're an admirer rather than a follower.

Father, would you work in their life this morning?

That's my prayer.

150 years ago, there's a guy named Charles Blondon.

He was uh he came to the United States, he was a actually a tight rope uh artist, you know, that you go to the circus, the guys that that that walk across a tight rope.

And his dream was to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

And he did it.

He he he he he had a hundred thousand people that were there that day.

They they strung a rope across um Niagara Falls, 1,100 feet across, 160 feet above the falls, and and he wowed the crowd.

He walked across back and forth multiple times.

Uh it said that he he um he he took a chair out and he and he and he put the chair down on the on the rope and he sat down in it, stood up in it, people just clapping and cheering and and just going crazy.

And then he says, How many of you, how many of you think I can take a wheelbarrow?

John, bring that wheelbarrow up here.

How many of you think I can take this wheelbarrow, take this wheelbarrow and walk it across the tightrope and then walk it back?

I mean hundreds of hundred thousand people.

So they're they're they're saying, yeah, I can do it, I can do it.

Bring it up here.

So everybody at home can oh man, you were you, dude, you've been watching Rocky.

Um, you're so strong.

Um and so he says, How many of you think I can take this across the tightrope?

How many of you think I can bring it?

And so everybody's clapping, and so he he takes the wheelbarrow out, man, walks it across, walks it all the way back.

He says, How many of you, how many of you think I could I could put a person in here and walk it across the tightrope and walk them back?

And everybody's ah yeah, you can do it.

Who will be my first volunteer?

It got quiet.

Who had already done this with Blonda?

And he steps out and he sits down in the wheelchair and he pushes them out.

The crowd goes crazy.

He brings him back, the crowd goes crazy.

And he says, is there any, are there any other volunteers?

Everybody got quiet.

Man, we're good at admiring.

Here's what Jesus is saying, are you willing to get into my wheelbarrow?

Are you willing to give your life?

Listen to me, listen to me.

Are you willing to step out of American Christianity into the authentic gospel of Jesus?

The good news that your king has lived and he has died and he was raised.

So you could have eternal life.

But there is no third option.

You're either in or you're out.

Would you pray with me?

Father, I pray for people that are in this room, and I pray for people that might be watching online.

God, that they, I pray that you would open their eyes to clarity, clarity on where they stand in their relationship to Jesus.

I pray for those that have never said yes, that this morning they would say yes to Jesus.

Maybe for the first time.

If you're online and this is your day, you say yes to Jesus.

There's no prayer to repeat.

Yes, it's a conversation.

You call out to Jesus, say, Jesus, save me.

I want to follow you.

So whatever it is in your heart and your mind, but you're saying yes to Jesus.

You're in this room saying yes to Jesus for the first time.

But I'm also asking for those of you that have that have maybe been around the church for a long time, maybe today the Holy Spirit is awakening you to the reality that you have been an admirer rather than a follower.

And so today you actually step out of darkness and into light, and you truly are saying, Yes, I'm in.

My heart is pounding.

I can follow that man, I can follow that savior, I can follow my creator.

He is gonna lead me, he's gonna lead me, and I'm gonna take other people with me.

I'm gonna join in with his mission.

If that's you in this room, if that's you in this room this morning, if you say yes to Jesus, whether it's for the first time ever or maybe first time for it being genuine and real, would you just stand up?

Nobody's looking, eyes are closed, heads are bowed.

Would you stand up and say yes to Jesus?

If that's you.

Anybody in here this morning?

I'm saying yes to Jesus.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Anybody else?

Thanks, Kelly.

You can have a seat.

Online, if that's you, I want you to text.

Start to follow to 9700.

The same goes for you in here, if you're in this room.

Start to follow, text it to 9700, and we will help you take your first steps as a new follower of Jesus.

We want to help you.

It's the time for you to consider.

As we close this time together, this song, it's a prayer.

This idea of coming to the altar, coming to Jesus, it's a place of surrender, not a place of admiration, it's a place of surrender.

We don't do this a lot at church at the grove, but if you want to come and pray, if you want to come and and grab me or one of our leaders, Jonah, we'll pray with you, encourage you.

Or if you want to kneel here at the front, it can be an altar, a place of surrender.

Maybe you need to confess something just with God, and maybe that physical response of praying here at this front might cement.

It might be a stake in the ground that you look back on and say, you know what?

That's where God got a hold of my heart and my life.

Father, we love you.

Would you continue to work?

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.