Matthew pt. 18 - The Golden Rule and the Narrow Gate

Open your Bible to Matthew Chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

We are nearing the end of the the Sermon on the Mount, so I'll

give a a quick recap here. We've been going through Matthew

verse five verse. We found out that Matthew was a

Jewish tax collector. That meant he was hated by his

own people because he had essentially betrayed them.

Remember, we got the Romans who are ruling over the Jews and

they're like, you can kind of still do your Jewish thing and

have your rituals and stuff. We're really in charge, but

we'll let you have your little subculture.

But we want to make sure you're paying taxes appropriately.

So we're going to bribe and pay some of you really well to

basically turn on your kinsmen and work for us.

We'll make sure you're well taken care of, but you're going

to know the insurance and outs of everyone's business and their

life and their personal dealings.

So who wants to do that? Matthew said, I would like to do

that. I would like to be very wealthy

and it's worth it to betray my kinsmen.

So tax collectors were hated by their own people because it's

like you, you sold us out to the Jews or you sold us out to the

Romans. So that that's Matthew's life,

that's Matthew's role. And then Jesus comes and Jesus

calls Matthew to come and to follow me.

And that wasn't just a hey, come, you know, come listen to

me. I'm another rabbi who you might

just want to learn a couple life lessons from.

That's not what the invitation was.

And Matthew understood. It was that Come, Follow Me

meant you're abandoning your entire life and your role as a

tax collector, your entire identity, all the lavish luxury

that he enjoyed, all of the rich life, all of the good life that

the world had afforded him. Matthew is a perfect example of

what we're going to see today in the scripture where Jesus said

wide is the path to destruction, narrow is the path to life,

Matthew said. I will give up the wide path and

I will choose the narrow path. Christ is worth it.

You want to follow this rabbi through the wilderness who's

eventually going to get himself killed?

By the way, Matthew, you're also going to die for following

Christ someday. You want to sign up for that?

Yes, please. Why?

Because if I don't give up my life, then I won't ever actually

have life anyway. But if I give up my life now, I

will have the life that actually matters.

He believed that and he obeyed that.

So Matthew walked that out. Now Matthew has kept great

records for us, and he's been showing us who Jesus was and

what Jesus was like. And then he gets us to this,

this famous sermon on the Mount. This was where Jesus had been

teaching thousands, doing miracles already.

Ministry is happening. The reputation is running wild

already. But now Jesus is called

disciples. This is not come one, come.

All this is if you're one of my disciples come up on the

mountain. So they go up onto the mountain.

Jesus sits down to teach, as was the tradition.

The disciples are standing and Jesus begins to preach the

Sermon on the Mount, to say this is what the Kingdom of God looks

like. You want to know what my Kingdom

is about? I've already been doing

miracles. I've been showing you the nature

and the character of God through the miracles and the goodness.

I've been showing you that. But now I'm going to teach you

explicitly what the Kingdom of heaven is like and how it is so

opposite from this upside down, backwards, sick world, this

world that's broken, he said I'm restoring it and I'll show you

what it's like. So we've been walking through

the Sermon on the Mount. Now to know what is Jesus really

saying his Kingdom is like? What does it look like to walk

with him? He's he's talked to us already

in the sermon amount on the Mount about how we should not

worry because we have a Heavenly Father.

He's taught us about the goodness of God.

He has taught us how to pray. He taught us to ask and to seek

and to knock. Jesus taught that we are to love

our enemies. That's so backwards from what we

thought we were supposed to have happen.

He taught us that there is treasure in heaven.

Matthew believe that Matthew had all this treasure.

He had all the nice things, He was all the popular guy, all the

big parties. He was wealthy and he enjoyed

much luxury. He enjoyed much, much privilege.

And he said I'm not going to store up treasure on earth.

I'm going to store up treasure in heaven by following Jesus.

So Jesus continues here. Now we're in Matthew 7 and we're

going to go verses 12 through 14.

Today. Jesus gets to what is called the

Golden Rule. Often we've named that, named it

the Golden Rule here on the back end, verse 12.

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

them. For this is the law and the

prophets 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.

Heavenly Father, would you please bring such a clarity and

help us to see the beauty of your gospel?

Help us to see the worth of Jesus, just like Matthew saw.

Jesus was worth so much more than what Matthew gave up.

Matthew gave up nothing, essentially compared to Christ.

Anything that we would lose, like Paul said, would be

something that we would flush down the toilet anyway.

Compared to Christ, he is the Pearl of great price.

God help us to be the people who would sell everything we have

and then purchase the one Pearl that matters more than

everything and anyone else. Make much of your name Jesus

today. Walk among us, move to us and

speak. Move through us and speak to us

in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. So whatever you wish that others

would do to you, do also to them.

For this is the law and the prophets.

So it's interesting to know that others who had come before

Christ had a similar teaching, Similar.

But there's an important difference.

We're going to point out there were other philosophies and

other false religions that taught some version of don't do

to others what you don't want done to you.

Did you hear the difference? That was what worldly philosophy

and worldly religion taught. Hey, if you don't want them to

do it to you, don't do it to them.

But that is not what Christ taught.

So Buddha taught that actually before Christ, about 500 years

before Christ. Don't do to somebody what you

don't want somebody doing to you.

Confucius taught that before Christ, don't do what you don't

want done. Then there was Socrates.

Hinduism has this teaching. Islam has this teaching.

Taoism has this teaching. Zoroastrianism has this

teaching. They all had a command that

meant essentially if you did nothing, then you did well.

All I have to do to you to do right is to do nothing.

If I don't harm you. According to these religions and

these philosophies, I have done appropriately.

I have done well. I've done enough.

This is the standard that most people in the world actually

would say that they attempt to live by.

I try not to do anyone any harm. But then the king shows up, as

he is often done in the Sermon on the Mount over and over,

Jesus says you've heard it said this way.

And they go, yeah, I've heard that said, he says, I say it

this way like, oh, that's different.

That's a different standard. You've heard it said love your

love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

They're like, yeah, fair enough, he goes, yeah, well, I say love

your enemy and bless those who curse you.

And what? What?

That's different, He says. You've heard it said that you

shouldn't commit adultery. Yeah, yeah, we shouldn't do

that, he said. I say if you've even lost it,

you've already committed adultery in your heart.

What are you are you serious? That's a different standard.

If you if you hate anybody, Yeah.

Jesus, Then you've committed murder.

What? What then?

I'm then I'm an adulterer and I'm a murderer.

Am I the only one in the room? Maybe so.

Maybe it's just me. I'm an adulterer.

I'm a murderer. I'm a you name it.

That's bad news. That's that's pretty

intimidating. That's pretty heavy.

What hope is there? I'm so glad you asked.

His name is Jesus. So the King raises the bar.

He sets the gold standard. He does not just say don't do

bad stuff to others. He says proactively do good

things to others in the Kingdom of God.

If you do nothing then you betray your savior and you

betray your own nature as a new creation.

Because Jesus is the king who acts in love and requires the

same with his disciples. Jesus is the king with scars.

What? God has scars.

All the man made. Gods don't, because they think

that they've they've got to present, present this image.

It's only the true living God who actually humbled himself to

say I love the people that I created and all those they've

sinned against me. They deserve my wrath, no doubt.

But I'm going to rescue them because of who I am, because of

who I am now. John Michael.

God, this is God speaking. I'm going to love them and bless

them and rescue them because that's who I am.

I am good, so I will provide a way.

I will give them an opportunity to leave that broken path.

So God being so loving, when someone comes into the Kingdom

of God, that becomes our standard operation.

He takes out the old operating system.

He doesn't just add a new app to your operating system.

You got Android or you've got iOS and you just put a new app

on. Jesus is not a new app that you

add to your operating system. Jesus comes in and says, let me

see your phone. And then he stomps it into the

ground and he says you need a new phone and it's a new

operating system. Everything is new.

It's not a paint job. It's not a Have you got the

newest update? It's none of that.

Jesus says all of the old is so bad it has to die.

It has to be destroyed. This is what our baptism

represents. I died with Christ.

As far as God the Father is concerned, for those who are in

Christ, our sin was crucified on the cross.

Praise God. So we did die by faith on the

cross with Christ. So that is how our sin is

punished, you say? Well that's not quite fair.

It seems like Jesus took got the raw end of that deal.

Yes he did. And yet God offers his grace to

us through the love of Christ. So This is why in the Kingdom of

God for God's children, it is only right for us to love the

way that Christ loves. Do unto others as you wish they

would do to you. Every other religion and

philosophy says don't do anything wrong.

Jesus creates a standard that you cannot fulfill unless you

have God's power inside of you. How could I possibly do this?

You can't. Welcome to the point.

This is to put you in a position again.

Like he said at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. I'm just poor in spirit.

Lord, who am I? What could I do apart from you?

That's the right response. You're not somebody great.

You're not incredible. You don't have this hashtag

blessed life. You just want to sprinkle a

little Jesus. I'm just sprinkle a little

religion on there. It's not enough.

We need all of Christ for all of life.

Jesus says through this all of the law and the prophets will be

obeyed. All of the law and the prophets

will be obeyed. The 10 commandments, all of the

other 400 and some laws that were given to the Jews.

All of these things that had to be done.

Jesus said All that can be summed up by love God and love

your neighbor. If you actually do unto them as

you wish they would do to you, all the commandments are

fulfilled. How so?

Well, let's just look at a couple of the 10 commandments

here. Do not covet.

Do not murder, Do not commit adultery.

Well, loving your neighbor will cause you not to covet, but to

rejoice in what he has and not want to deprive him of it.

That's the proactive love. Loving your neighbor will kill.

It will cause you actually to never murder him, but instead

you would actually lay down your life for him.

It's higher and it's better. Loving your neighbor would cause

you to actively protect his marriage instead of just not

harming it. I'm not going to mess with his

marriage, but I'll go farther enough to protect and look out

for it. I am my brother and my sister's

keeper. I want to bless.

That's what love looks like. I can't do that on my own.

I don't even have those desires on my own.

I've got to have a new operating system that would even create

the prompt. Where's that desire come from?

From just being a good guy. Yeah, well, the problem is, I'm

not outside of Christ, and you're not outside of Christ.

No one is good outside of Christ.

Why? Because we're on the wide path

instead of the narrow one. If we're outside of Christ, what

do you wish someone would do for you?

Love is going to proactively bless.

Do you want others to assume that you have good motives when

you say and do certain things? Yeah, of course you do.

Do you want others assuming and suspecting that you're hiding

something under the surface? No, of course not.

So love how you want to be loved.

Do you want others tolerating gossip about you and negative

talk about you? Or do you want them to defend

you and insist on honesty and reconciliation?

So love like that. Come on.

Who has experienced the refreshing love of God through a

disciple of Jesus? You have.

You've been blessed by somebody in the work of Christ.

Was it loving encouragement? Was it a loving gift?

Was it a loving sacrifice? Was it their time?

Was it their prayers? Was it their resources?

Was it just a sincere compassion from them?

That's the way the the body of Christ moves in sports.

You got offense and defense, right?

As Christians, we're just on offense.

We don't play defense. We're full time offense all the

time. We're just moving forward with

the love of God in the Kingdom of light.

We're not defending against the devil and his demons.

We're advancing into hell to rescue souls in our personal

lives. We're not just keeping to

ourselves, We are. We are our brother's keeper.

Well, it's not my business. Yes, it is.

I want to bless. I want to protect.

I want to love. I want to help.

It's absolutely my business to care for.

Well, whenever Jesus was talking and giving the teaching on

loving your neighbor, there was a man who wanted to justify

himself and free himself of responsibilities.

And he says, who is my neighbor? Jesus begins to tell the story.

He says there was a man who was walking down the road and he

gets robbed. So even as they're listening to

this story, they understand this to be a man like them, right?

That's what all of us do. As soon as I start to say so

there was this person, we immediately start to go, well,

it could be like they could be just like me.

So they're assuming there's this Jew walking down the road.

He gets attacked, he gets robbed.

It's the story Jesus is telling them.

He said he's left for dead and bloodied on the side of the

road. And then a priest comes walking

down the road and the Jews like, oh man, we'll see what happens.

The Pre sees him and goes away on the other side.

And then another man comes down the road and he sees him, he

goes, I don't want anything to do with that situation and walks

by on the other side. So far the Jews like, OK, I can,

I can relate to these two guys. He didn't want to involve

themselves. Jesus then really throws a plot

twist in it, he says. And then a Samaritan comes

walking down the road. So for Samaritan, for them, you

need to thank tax collector, except this person isn't even

Jewish. So there's a lot of racism at

that time. Racism is not a new thing

country to popular belief. So there's a there's a lot of

racism going on at that time. And so they're going, oh, a

Samaritan, oh, what's this guy going to do?

And Jesus said in the Samaritan goes and helps the man.

He he blesses him. He binds up his wounds, he

cleans him up. He takes him to be cared for by

others and pays for it. So it really made the Jews

cringe to hear that story because their two heroes did

wrong. And Jesus takes the supposed

villain of the story and lets him do the right thing, which is

just funny. Jesus just messing with people

and the way that they think about things.

And he says, but this is what love looks like.

It is. It takes an offensive measure.

I'm going to proactively, It's my business.

It's my responsibility. And that's what the body of

Christ does. We're the salt of the earth.

That means we're here to preserve.

We're the light of the world. That means we're here to shine

the brightness of the Kingdom of God.

So wherever I see the darkness, I go.

Well, that's my responsibility. If I have the means, if I have

the opportunity and the means, I don't have to question.

Am I called to it? The answer is yes.

Lord, do you want me to let me pray about that for the next 4

decades and see if the Lord would have me do anything for

the Kingdom? Well, spoiler alert, the answer

is yes. He most definitely would want

you to act in in the in the good of others.

What would you wish they would do for you if the roles were

reversed? Well, there's your answer.

You've already been called to love.

It's a high standard. So Christians live differently.

We think differently. We act differently.

If somebody hurts you, you will forgive them.

If they curse you, you will bless them.

If they strike you, you will embrace them.

If they're helpless, you will defend them.

If they kill you, you're immediately with God, your

father, and you win. The victory is always going to

belong to the people of God. Love like Jesus, and this

connects to the point he's making next.

When we love like Jesus, that is a narrow way to live.

Let's keep going in 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 already.

This flies in the face of what modern philosophy tells us,

right? Especially where we live in the

United States. We've got, we've got, we've got

some remnants of Christendom which praise God for that.

And at the same time, we have such a a post Christian culture.

It's becoming more and more post Christian.

And it's the idea that everybody's truth is the truth.

Well, that's your truth and that's your truth.

Well, this is my truth. Hey, that's not how truth works.

You keep using that word. I don't think.

You don't think that word means what you think it means.

Truth is capital T. There's one standard for it.

And I can't reinvent my own. Now, it's popular, but that's

Jesus just calls that the wide path.

We think that there are many paths.

There are many ways to live. There are many, many different

ways to live. There's not.

There's two ways to live. That's it.

There's the way of Christ and the other way.

Oh, but there's so many unique perspectives.

There's the way of Christ and there's all of the trash can.

There's the way of Christ. And there's the wide path.

It's a wide Interstate. It's 200 lanes wide, So you can

pick your lane. I'm not arguing with you there.

You can definitely pick your lane.

I'm a new ager. I'm a this, I'm a that.

I'm an atheist. I'm an agnostic.

I'm a hodgepodge. I'd like to take from everything

and build. That's fine.

You can pick whatever lane you want to.

But guess what? This Interstate arrives at the

same destination. It's the same thing.

So Jesus says there's two paths. There's there's this one over

here. It's very narrow.

There's not a lot of people on it.

And then there's the one over here.

It's very wide and everybody's on it, and everybody on it

thinks they're super unique, by the way, and like totally

different in their perspective and their philosophy and the way

they see things 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.

This is devastating. This is awful news, because this

means that most people are going on the path of destruction, and

God loves all of those people, and Jesus died for every single

one of them. Some of us, that is who we were,

some of us that might be who we are right now.

But there are only two paths. Both paths, though, make the

same promises. The wide path is called the

world. The narrow path is called

Christ. They make the same promises.

They both promise that they're going to fill us with joy.

Christ promises that and the world promises that.

You're going to be filled with joy if you just get on my path

and you're like, OK, that sounds good.

You're going to have an abundant life if you just come on this

path. Doesn't the world tell you that?

Tells me that you will be filled with peace.

You'll be filled with hope. You'll be so free.

Don't go to the narrow path. It's so limiting over there.

That path is so closed minded. Over here.

You can be whoever and whatever. You have.

So much freedom, there's so much reward, there's so much deep

soul satisfaction. Both paths make the same

promise. Only one of them keeps its

promise. The other one is the exact

opposite of everything promised. The other one will lie about

everything. The other one gives just the

opposite. The wide path promises

everything that Christ promises, whereas Christ keeps His word on

all of those things. The wide path.

Gives despair. If this doesn't take you to a

neutral, it takes you to despair.

The wide path takes you to hopelessness.

The wide path takes you to shame.

The wide path takes us to bondage.

The wide path takes us to fear. And ultimately the wide path

takes us to torment and destruction.

That I deserve because of my sin.

But Jesus says come out of that. So we're all born again, or

we're all born. Let me say this accurately.

We are all born and we begin on the path of the world by default

from day one. When I was born, that's the path

I was on and that's the path you were on to.

We have to opt out through faith in the name of Jesus, in the

Lord Jesus Christ, but otherwise that is our default setting.

We must then enter in, he says, through the narrow gate.

By putting our faith and giving our life to King Jesus, the one

who gave his life for us, he says many are on the path that

leads to destruction. If you're already on the narrow

path, this motivates you to pray with fervency.

This motivates you to ask and to seek and to knock for that good

bread, the salvation of many that you love and that the Lord

loves to open their eyes. We have family members that are

on the wide path. We have politicians that are on

the wide path. We have pro athletes that are on

the wide path. We have friends that are on the

wide path. We have Co workers that are on

the wide path with the self-righteous are on the wide

path. The atheist is on the wide path.

The agnostic is on the wide path.

The Muslim is on the wide path. The Jehovah's Witnesses on the

wide path. The Mormon is on the wide path

and all this breaks our heart. Well I don't see it like that,

but Jesus does. So Oprah's opinion doesn't get a

vote here. The worldly philosophies don't

add up to King Jesus. So always remember, well, I see

it. What?

Be careful because you're not arguing with me.

It's Jesus. So if you want to say somebody's

a liar, go all the way and say it's him.

I don't want to say that, but that's.

But you don't have any other option.

You either call him Lord or you say bless his heart, he was a

crazy guy. He thought he was Lord.

Fair enough. Or he's a liar.

What else is there? I'm being logical.

I'm being reasonable. He's either the king because he

said he was or he's a crazy person.

Bless his heart. He can't help it, poor guy.

Or he's he knows it's not true and he's a liar.

But when you say I am the bread that comes down from heaven, and

when you say I, I have the the abundant life.

When you say there is no other way to the Father except through

me, you you make some distinct claims.

And now, especially when you give your life for the sins of

the world, and then you bring your life up again, which you

say you have the authority from your father to do, and then you

ascend into heaven. You appear at over 500 people

after your resurrection, and then you send the Holy Spirit to

fill the earth. You have some credibility in Joe

Michael's eyes anyway. And then he keeps.

He makes good on his word. He actually has brought me joy.

Actually, he has actually set me free.

He has actually brought me peace.

He has actually freed me from shame.

He has actually released me from the bondage of my sin.

He has actually already secured me for eternal life.

And he has given me the down payment of the Holy Spirit

inside of me to know that I'm secure and loved.

Why? Because I'm somebody?

No, because he is everything. And I just simply said you're

worthy, you're worthy. I bend the knee.

I worship the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust I put faith in him

through his cross. No other name can save me, and I

don't honor any other name. I don't treat them as equal.

Jesus is my truth. But anyone can.

No, no, no, no, no. He's everybody's king.

We don't see it that way. Well, well, listen to me then,

please, because you're wrong and I love you so much.

And you need to know that there's no other way except

through King Jesus. If his sacrifice wasn't needed

for everybody on the earth, then his sacrifice was pointless.

Why? Why did he have to go through

what he went through? Oh, that saved like half the

people, but the other people could get in through that.

No, no, no, There's only one gate, he says.

I am the gate. I am the only way in.

This is good news. This isn't bad news for anybody.

A lot of people just go. That's going to hurt me.

It hurts. You know what it hurts?

It hurts your ego. It hurts your will.

It hurts your own flesh because you were actually on the throne

of your life. And that is what it's going to

cost you. That's why the narrow path is

hard. It's not hard to become a

Christian, except that your flesh has to die.

And that's why it's hard. You don't earn the narrow path.

Don't misunderstand, Don't misunderstand and think that

you've got to do something to accomplish and to deserve it.

But yes, it will cost you something.

Even the Sermon on the Mount. As we already pointed out, that

alone shows that Jesus is that. Jesus's way is narrow.

Jesus's teaching is far more narrow and exclusive than any

man would ever come up with. Like we said, if you lost,

that's adultery. If you hate, that's murder.

Who can save me from my guilt? Only the narrow gate.

But we're attempted to stay on the wide path because it's easy.

It's paved, it's an Interstate. That other one is man.

It's got twists and turns and there's all kinds of stuff going

on in that other path. All of our all my friends are on

the wide path. The wide path makes me believe

I'm unique. I get into the lane of my choice

and I feel special and I feel set apart, not realizing that

every other lane on the Interstate, like we said, is

leading to the same place. Well, I've got a different

perspective on God and life and on eternity.

Yeah, you and everybody else on the wide path.

Spoken like a wide path. Well, I I see it like this.

Yeah, that's just one lane on the wide path instead of the

humility of the narrow path. Because I didn't.

I didn't cast my vote. I didn't.

I didn't orchestrate. Hey, Jesus, I think you ought to

rule like this. That's not how the Kingdom

works. Jesus is king and I am not.

That sounds like submissive. Yeah.

Welcome to it. Yeah, exactly.

Which is why many will stay on the wide path.

Because I won't submit. I won't submit.

I won't. You want me to submit to

somebody? That's not happening.

Exactly. We've arrived at the root.

I won't submit. I won't bend my knee.

I'm not going to worship. Like if he wants to just bless

me. I'll take it.

I'll take a blessing. Thank you.

I'll take your little blessings. But like you want submission and

worship. No.

Well, you can do that. You have that ability and G and

it breaks his heart. And he died even for that very

sin, that very sin or that pride he also died for and pay the

price for for you to be free from.

But it will cost the death of that will.

It will cost the death of that ego.

What does Jesus say about the narrow path?

That it's a hard way, and it leads to life, but those who

find it are few. So does he mean that we have to

earn our place on the narrow path?

No, not at all. Jesus paid the price for us to

come onto the narrow path. But he is telling us that

walking on the narrow path will have different difficulties than

the wide path. The wide path is full of

difficulties by the way it's paved.

That's about it. It is full of all the miseries

that we listed earlier, all the guilt, all the shame, all the

chaos, all the torment. But a Christianity that doesn't

cost you is a Christianity that cannot save you.

It doesn't mean you earn it or you deserve it.

But if your Christianity costs nothing, it costs nothing, then

it's a Christianity that's worthless and ultimately isn't

saving anyone or anything. Christ and the abundant life

will cost you your will. Christ and the abundant life

will cost you your ego. Christ and the abundant life

will cost you your pre Christian dreams.

Christ and the abundant life will simply cost you your

throne. It's the throne.

Yeah. It's the throne.

I'm going to be on. The throne of my life.

Well, you can. You can.

But it's awful. It's really, really awful.

And you're a terrible ruler. And Jesus will love you so much

more than you love yourself. And he'll be way better to you

than you've been to yourself. Come into the Father's house

where you'll be loved. Set aside your foolishness and

your pride. Don't talk to me that way.

There's no other way to talk to you.

I'd be a liar if I did it differently.

You're really great. You're a bowl of ice cream.

You just need a cherry on top. But that's not what Jesus has

taught us. That's not what he says.

All of your righteousness, John Michael.

It's filthy rags. Throw it away.

But he's not going to leave you naked.

He's going to clothe you with white robes and keep you washed

clean, but it will cost you your throne.

But there are pastors, there are churches that, let me put these

in in scare quotes. There are pastors.

There are churches. There are entire denominations

who are on the wide path telling people what they want to hear

instead of what Jesus says. I am the way, I am the truth.

I am the life. No one comes to the Father

except through me. They tell people the opposite of

what the king said. You can keep the world and gain

your soul. You can have it all you want.

The whole world. Yeah, I sure do.

More than anything, you can have it.

Just repeat after me. Just repeat after me.

You don't need a new life marked by repentance.

Just repeat after me. That's all you got to Just just

repeat it. Can't a parrot be taught to

that? Yeah, yeah, but just repeat

after me. You can keep the whole world and

keep your whole soul. The king didn't teach that way.

Look at the Beatitudes again in chapter 5.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying Blessed are

the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Humble, desperate, needing the Lord needing his grace, his

provision and his comfort, Jesus told a story about two men who

go into the temple to pray. One man was a Pharisee.

The other man was just a regular guy, but he was a Sinner.

He was a Sinner. And the and the Pharisee goes in

and he begins to pray and says, God, I thank you, that I'm not

like this man. That's how he prayed, thank you

that I'm so awesome, thank you that I am so great, Thank you

God that I'm awesome. He went in to worship himself,

And the other man, it says, who was too ashamed to even draw

near, stood at a great distance and beat his breast, and said,

God help me, forgive me a Sinner.

And Jesus said, one of those men went home justified and the

other did not. And it was implied who was who,

the one who was humble, the one who said, I have to die, I have

to be less so God, that you would be more blessed are the

poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn what over their sin, Over who they

were over the wide path. Blessed are you.

If you're mourning over the wide path this morning you're going,

oh, I've been on the wide path. Then you are blessed if you

mourn it, if you rejoice in it and delight in and go.

No, you're not getting this out of my hands.

I won't pry. I will plead but I won't pry.

I will plead and I will pray. But if you're mourning the wide

path, you shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they

shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and

thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

In John chapter 10 Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, I am

John 10 · chapter mention

the door of the sheep. All who came before me are

thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will

be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

That's wide path I came, narrow path that they may have life and

have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

Satan has lied to us. Satan says I won't hurt you.

And then he does over and over and over and over and over

again. And then he he looks, he has

the, the, the boldness to stare us in the face after it all and

says I won't hurt you anymore. And we say, OK, And then he

does, and he does and he does. And he says, I won't hurt you.

And we say OK, He says, And then he continues to harm.

And Jesus, on the other hand, says, I will love you and I will

bless you. And then he does.

And then he keeps his word. He is faithful.

He is true. If you know the Lord, if you're

walking with him, all this should motivate you.

This love, this narrow path should motivate you to love even

more deeply. To see how deeply people are

hurt, to remember what it was like to be on the wide path, how

painful it was. I don't know how people live

without Jesus. I walk with him and the narrow

path is pretty difficult sometimes.

But to walk without him, I don't know how to make it a weak.

You're that you're that weak. Yeah, I am.

I'm weak. Weak.

Oh, Christianity is just a crutch for, you know, it's like

a whole, like, support life support system.

It's the oxygen, it's the wheelchair, it's everything.

But thankfully, we're not gimping around in Christ.

We've been made strong through His power.

But if you don't know him, if you don't walk with him.

I I, I encourage you and I plead with you by the love and the

mercy of God. Change fathers, change teams,

change sides, change paths and come through the narrow gate.

You're welcomed. You were loved.

Heavenly Father, I plead the blood of Jesus over these

precious people. God, I ask that you would make

your light shine so brightly in their hearts.

God, I pray that for all those who were already on the narrow

path, that they would walk faithfully and that they would,

that they would advance the Kingdom, and that they would

love so deeply everyone on the wide path.

That we would be those who are on offence.

Rescuing, bringing the healing power of your salt, the healing

power of your light, the healing power of your gospel.

Rescuing people from the awful, from the awful leader, their

their ruler, Satan who destroys our lives, who's cruel to us and

God for those who have not yet walked on the narrow path.

Or maybe they did it one time. I walked away from it.

I I pray that you would draw them near right now.

That they would have such a heart of humility, such a heart

of of reassurance. Remembering how sweet it is to

be loved by you. Remembering how good it is to

walk closely with you, Reassure Holy Spirit, give them such a

confidence that they are loved and draw them in.

Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

He loves you. He has provided the way through

his Son Jesus for you to actually walk in the abundant

life. God, we thank you for your word

today. I pray that it would stay lodged

deep in our heart and don't let the enemy come stealing.

The word comes, but then the cares of life choke it out.

The enemy comes to steal the seed away.

I pray that this seed would take root right now in every single

one of us. Holy Spirit, would you please

secure it? Would you please make our hearts

good soil and secure this word down inside of us?

Sprout the roots right now. Don't ever let it be pulled up

and make it bear fruit for your name and for your glory in Jesus

name. And now the Lord bless you and

keep you. The Lord make his face shine

down upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you great

peace in Jesus name. Amen.

You're dismissed.