The Narrow Road

Well, for the last several months, we have been in a series called A King and His Kingdom.

We're talking about Jesus and the movement that Jesus started.

Jesus' favorite language for that movement is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.

So if you read the teachings of Jesus, you'll hear him say, The kingdom of God is like this, or the kingdom of heaven is like that.

That's the language Jesus liked to use to describe the movement that he began.

And it's the greatest movement, by the way, this world has ever seen.

There has never been a movement like the movement of Jesus that has changed as many lives, that has literally shaped history.

It's what we've been doing for the last few months is just opening up scripture and reading the teachings of Jesus, reading what Jesus said about his kingdom.

It's so important for us as Jesus followers to know what Jesus actually said.

We can't settle for just knowing what Jesus did.

We've got to know what he did and what he said because the things that Jesus said give context and meaning to the things that he did.

And the things that he did showed that he really meant what he said.

And so we've got to know both.

But sometimes it's a lot easier for us as Jesus followers to settle for just knowing a little bit about what Jesus did and a little bit about what he said.

If we're going to follow Jesus effectively, we've got to know what he taught.

And I know that not all of us in the room are Jesus followers.

If you're here this morning because someone invited you to church, like you should thank them.

That doesn't mean they think you're a horrible person and like some project that needed to be here.

Obviously, they're here too.

That's because that's because they they've experienced something and they love you enough that they want to share it with you.

But I know that not all of us here would say, yeah, I'm a Jesus follower.

Well, if that's you, just take in Jesus' own words, reflect on it, let him speak for himself.

I believe that there's there's never been a person that's displayed the kind of power and insight that Jesus displayed.

And it's not just the miracles that he did that blow me away.

It's when I read his teachings and I really understand that, wow, he knows us.

He understands us.

He understands the deepest parts of us more than we do.

It's almost like he made us.

That's why we study his teachings, because no one can reveal things to us the way that Jesus does.

No one can.

And right now we happen to be in this specific section of Jesus' teachings that we find in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

This is often called the Sermon on the Mount.

That's a term people gave it.

That's not what Jesus called it.

For our intents and purposes, we should think about this like an orientation class that Jesus taught.

It's really, really early in his ministry.

And what he's done is he's taken all of his disciples, which really isn't that many at the time.

He's taken his disciples to the side and he said, Hey, before we get into this, before this really gets started, here's what you need to know.

Here's the way that my kingdom, that my way of doing things really works.

And what we found as we've gone through this teaching is that Jesus thinks very differently than we do.

And Jesus sees the world and he sees God very differently than we tend to see him.

And Jesus is teaching his followers, look, it's not gonna work with me the way that you think it's gonna work.

He's showed us how he values people in a way that no one does.

He showed us how inclusive he is of all people.

He showed us the generosity of God, he's taught us how to pray, he's taught us how to give of ourselves, he's taught us so much.

And right now we find ourselves on the tail end of this orientation.

And Jesus is gonna deal with some things this week and in the next few weeks that are pretty heavy.

And if you're just starting, I want you to understand that Jesus didn't start here for a reason.

And so I would encourage you to go back and listen to some of the podcasts that we've had over the last few weeks so that you can understand where Jesus is coming from.

But but Jesus, he's gonna get into some stuff that makes us deal with some pretty heavy subjects, things like the concept of heaven and hell, things like the reality of evil in this world and those who do evil and what that really means.

Jesus is gonna force us to deal with those things.

And one of the things I appreciate about Jesus is that he's not afraid to shy away from tough subjects.

Like he hits them head on.

In our world, our leaders sidestep every difficult question, right?

That's what they're trained to do.

You ask a major politician a hard question and they find a way to dance around it, and they're really good at it.

You have to admire them sometimes.

You're like, wow, you totally didn't answer that at all.

And Jesus, he just goes there.

And I appreciate that about him, about him so much.

And so, with that said, let's just go ahead and dive into what Jesus said.

We're gonna be reading Matthew 7, verses 13 through 23.

Matthew 7:13–23

He says, Enter through the narrow gate.

For wide is the gate and broad 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.

Watch out for false prophets.

They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

By their fruit you'll recognize them.

Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear fruit, bear good fruit, is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus by their fruit you will recognize them.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?

Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers.

Yea, for orientation class.

There's a lot there.

There's a lot there.

And and look, there's no way for us to go into all of this today.

So we're gonna spend a few weeks dissecting this specific bit of Jesus' teaching because it's it's so like Jesus.

I'm a person who's, if you know me well, pretty wordy.

So if I ever say, hey, can we have a meeting?

It'll be like five minutes.

It's gonna be an hour.

Um, I find the longest possible way to say very simple things.

And it's very frustrating for Megan at home.

Like I'll I'll have a conversation with her, and 20 minutes later, she's like, all you had to say was that.

I'm like, I know, I just it took me a while to get there.

Jesus, he's like the opposite of me.

He he says very few words, but in those words, there's so much.

And so we've got to take some time to go through it.

What we're gonna do specifically today is just look at that first statement that he makes, verses 13 and 14.

Enter through the narrow gate.

For wide is the gate and broad 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.

This is one of those statements of Jesus that is pretty typical, actually, of him.

It is both insanely practical in our day-to-day living and deeply profound when it comes to life overall.

So we're just gonna explore it, and and what we're really finding here today are three three filters, three decisions for all of us that will help us navigate life the way God intends.

How many of us would be honest enough to say that at this point in your life you thought you'd be in a different place?

Anyone?

Like I kind of thought I would have been somewhere else.

Anyone maybe think you would have been further than you are right now?

Anyone would say, hey, life's been a little harder to navigate than I thought it would be.

I I thought life was gonna be so easy.

I remember watching my parents and feeling like I could do that better than them.

So excited to be an adult, to you know, do it right, do the easy things that they seem to struggle with, and then you become an adult and you're like, wow, this is hard.

This is so hard.

And if you have children, you know what it feels like to look at your kids and go, I'm trying.

This is so much harder than you think.

If you would stop screaming for a second so I could think, it would be easier.

Just give me give me some slack because it's hard.

Life is difficult.

It is hard to navigate life, but Jesus knows how to do it.

Because he did it.

Like you ever stop and and think about how beautifully Jesus navigated life.

I mean, there's never been someone like Jesus.

Even even philosophers who are atheists have noted that the life of Jesus is profound.

That we can never aspire to live a better life than the life that Jesus lived.

He knows how to navigate life.

And he's telling us to go through him and he'll help us, he'll show us the way.

He'll show us the path.

He essentially says that we all find ourselves at a crossroad.

And there's there's two choices.

He says we can take the wide path, the easy path that many people take, that most people take, or we can take the narrow path that few seem to find.

One is is ultimately good and the other leads to destruction.

I don't know if you've ever found yourself in a situation in life where you had a choice to make.

And if you make choice A, life will be completely different than if you make choice B.

I had that happen to me uh about 10 years ago, 2010.

I was the youth pastor here back in those days, and uh life was a lot more simple.

I had a lot more free time, didn't have as many kids, and so I used to, in my my spare time, write sports articles.

I talked about this a few weeks ago, but didn't talk about this aspect of it.

So I love sports.

I love to write.

And I love to write about a lot of things, and I spent a lot of my time writing about God, about life.

This this message, like every message I give, begins with writing.

And so every once in a while I like to write about something else.

And I used to spend a decent bit of my free time writing about college basketball, about sports stuff.

And in early 2009 or so, I started doing it a little bit more aggressively, and and some amazing things started to happen.

And it was like they were falling from the sky right in front of me.

Opportunities just falling into my lap.

I was I was having opportunities to write for pretty big publications like the Washington Post and CBSsports.com, and these are people reaching out to me and being like, hey, will will you write something for us?

And I'm saying sure.

And I'm having people call and find, you know, find me on online and email me and say, hey, can you call into our sports radio show and be a guest speaker and we want to ask you some questions?

And I'm like, yeah, okay, I don't really think I should, but sure, I'll do that.

And I'm doing this kind of stuff.

I'm I'm getting invited by like major networks to cover huge sporting events, and they're like hiring me to do it, and I'm getting press passes, I'm getting to be there press row and interviewing people that I kind of idolized up to that point.

It was it was awesome, and it was all happening really, really quickly.

Within less than two years of me starting to do that as a hobby, I get an email one day, 2010, that I did not see coming.

And it was from ESPN.com.

And it was a guy who said, Hey, we've been we've been following your stuff, and we want to fly you up to Bristol to interview you if you're interested in working for ESPN.

The only problem with that is that I worked here.

And what's what's funny is for a long time in my life that was a dream.

In fact, when I was in the ninth grade, I had a class, and we had to, as part of a project in this class, we had to put out there like what we wanted to do.

And I, in ninth grade, said I want to work for ESPN.

And here I am, 2010, and we're interested in hiring you.

We'd like to fly you up to interview you.

But like I said, I worked here.

And to be completely honest with you, I wasn't enjoying working here at the time.

I love this church.

I knew that God wanted me in this church.

I knew that this church was good, not just good in terms of what God was doing in the community and through this place, but it was actually good for me.

That's why I say this pretty often.

It's very, it's very strange and a great honor for me to be the pastor here because this is the church God used to change my life.

So it's a bit of an odd thing to lead what God used to change you.

I knew that me being here was good.

I knew it was a God thing.

But you know, there's there's God, and then there's like ESPN.

You know, it's like, I mean, I'd like to.

Obviously, I know which one's more important, but sometimes you don't know that you have an idol that you worship until you're face to face with that idol, right?

And so I'm I'm torn.

And I was torn for a very specific reason.

The church stuff was harder than I thought it would be.

I came here 23 years old and cocky, thinking, oh man, this is gonna be awesome, it's gonna be easy, I'm just gonna crush it.

And three years in, it was way harder than I thought.

It hadn't gone as smoothly as I had hoped, and I was struggling.

But the sports stuff, it was just like falling in my lap.

It was easy.

I'm putting in very little effort, I'm having all these opportunities, I've been doing this for less than two years, and ESPN is already reaching out to me.

That must be a sign from God that this is what he wants me to do, right?

Because if it's easy, it must be from God.

And so I prayed.

And more specifically, I asked my wife to pray, which is a dangerous thing.

Because I have found over the years that my wife and God almost always hear the same thing.

Like, it's like they have the same opinion.

That's what I'm trying to say.

Like, my, and sometimes that's not convenient for me.

Sometimes when I asked my wife to pray, I'm like, no, I shouldn't do that because she's gonna tell me what God thinks, and I'm not gonna like that.

I'm teasing.

Um, but I asked my wife to pray with me, and she did, and we both got the same answer, and that was that we were supposed to stay here, that we knew that this was where God wanted us to be.

And so I broke up with ESPN.

I said, hey guys, it's not you, it's me.

I promise.

Um I said no.

And what followed staying here was six of the hardest years of my life.

The six years after I said no to ESPN were some of the most challenging years of my entire life.

You've been part of this church for long, you know a couple of things.

Number one, God has done some amazing things here, things that don't make sense.

This church was really established by him and he takes care of it.

But you also know that at times we've had some bumps in the road.

And it's taken some twists and turns that that none of us expected.

And it hasn't necessarily just been smooth sailing and easy.

I would like to say that, hey, I said no to ESPN and yes to what I knew God wanted me to do, and he made it easy.

He made everything work out, he paved the way, and it was just obvious that it was what he intended, but that's not the story.

That's really hard.

See, one of the things that Jesus is teaching us here, and I think maybe a better way to put it would be teaching us what we need to unlearn, is that we have this idea in our minds that if God is in something, it's gonna go smooth and it's gonna be easy.

We we hear stories of that, and by the way, this does happen from time to time.

I have friends whose lives have been blessed incredibly, and it's like God's just blessing them and they're not even trying, he's just favoring them.

That does happen.

But there are a lot of us who who have grown up believing that if God is in it, it must be easy.

If God is really in it, that means it's gonna go really smoothly without a hitch.

And that's that's just not the way it tends to go.

And for reference, I would encourage you to read pretty much any of the Bible.

Just any of it.

See, Jesus is calling us to choose what is good, not what is easy.

And that's the first choice we've got to understand.

Do I want easy or do I want good?

They're not the same thing.

They're not the same thing.

Most people choose what's easy.

But Jesus is challenging us to choose what's good.

And what's good often comes at a cost.

For example, let's let's look at a few specific stories in scripture.

There's the story of a young man named Joseph.

We find his story in Genesis.

Joseph is the 11th of 12 brothers, and he's his father's favorite.

His dad, honestly, not a good dad.

His dad favors Joseph highly above the others.

Joseph's kind of a special kid, and he really hears from God.

He has God dreams.

Like he's pretty awesome, but his dad makes sure that his brothers know that he thinks Joseph is the best.

And so his brothers are very jealous of Joseph.

They think Joseph's all high and mighty, thinks he's better than them.

And so one day Joseph has a dream.

Genesis chapter 37, verse 6.

Genesis 37:6

He decides, it's a bad idea, to tell his brothers about his dream.

And here's what he says: listen to this dream.

We were all out in the field tying up bundles of grain, and suddenly, this is awesome, my bundles stood up, and your bundles gathered around and bowed low before mine.

What a crazy dream, right, bros?

And they go, We're gonna kill you.

And they don't actually kill him, they just fake his death, make his dad think that he's dead, and they sell him as a slave.

You know, so worse than death, depending on how you think about it.

And he spends the next 13 years of his life in Egypt, either as a slave or in prison.

And then after that period of time, the king of Egypt, a man called Pharaoh, finds out that Joseph has some unique talents.

He brings Joseph in.

Joseph solves a problem for him that no one else can solve, and he's so impressed by Joseph that he elevates Joseph and makes him second in command of the whole kingdom, second only to the king.

But it took Joseph 13 years to get there.

13 incredibly difficult years.

God promised him through that dream that he was gonna be be risen up, and that his brothers were actually gonna bow before him.

And what's crazy is about 20 years after he had that dream, Joseph's been in Egypt for a while now.

His brothers are in desperate need of aid from Egypt, and they go to Egypt and they actually have a meeting with Joseph, but they don't know it's him because he's 20 years older and he's dressed like an Egyptian.

And they walk in the room and they bow in front of him, and his dream's fulfilled.

That was 20 years after he had the dream.

And for 13 of those 20 years, he was in more difficulty and and and and pain than we could probably imagine.

Like, and it was the will of God.

He was he was not out of God's will being disciplined, he was in the will of God, enduring hardship.

Because God had something good for him, but good is not the same thing as easy.

We can look at the story of David, King David in the Old Testament.

A lot of people love King David.

Anyone say, hey, David's like one of my heroes?

Okay?

You got an interesting choice in heroes, if David's one of your heroes.

He's one of mine too, but David's kind of a messed up person in like a lot of ways.

That's one of the beauties of the Bible.

By the way, if you're skeptical of the Bible, I understand that.

But if the Bible was just a bunch of BS, it would have whitewashed all of the stories of its heroes.

The Bible doesn't do that, though.

It literally captures for us the worst moments of almost every person's life.

Because the Bible is not the story of amazing men and women doing great things for God.

It's the story of an incredible God who uses broken people to do his work in this world.

And that should give all of us a lot of hope because that's that's kind of who we are.

David's a broken person, he's got some issues.

But when he's young, probably between 15 and 20, a prophet named Samuel comes to David and says, Hey, you're gonna be the next king of Israel.

And he's anointed.

We see this in 1 Samuel chapter 16, verse 13.

1 Samuel 16:13

As David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil, this is a tradition in their culture, that he had brought, and he anointed David with the oil.

And the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on.

And so David's promised, you're gonna be the next king.

And you would think that if God wants him to be king, God is just gonna remove all the obstacles, he's gonna pave the way.

It's gonna be easy, smooth sailing, and David's gonna say, Let me tell you the story of how God made me king.

It was so it was so easy.

I didn't have to do anything.

But that's not the way the story goes.

It's kind of how it starts.

Like early on, David has some triumph, and it seems like things are gonna go smoothly, but then Saul gets really, he's the king of Israel at the time, he gets really jealous of David, he gets paranoid that David's gonna take his kingdom, which is technically completely true.

And so he wants David dead.

And David has to spend about 15 years on the run.

It's 15 years after that promise that David becomes king.

And for many of those years, especially the last five to ten years, he literally lives as an outlaw.

He sleeps in caves, he has to be completely disconnected from his family, from his wife.

He has no comfort.

He's being hunted by the very people he's supposed to lead.

And then he becomes king.

So God's plan for David was good, but it wasn't easy.

Because good and easy aren't the same thing.

Look at Jesus.

Jesus gets baptized, Matthew chapter 3, verses 16 and 17.

Matthew 3:16

It says, After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were open, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.

And a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved Son who brings me joy.

God makes it so clear what he thinks about Jesus.

The Father makes it so clear what he thinks about the Son.

And you'd think that if that's the way God feels about his son, then he's just gonna make it easy for him, right?

He's gonna remove all obstacles.

Surely, surely no one is gonna be able to stand in Jesus' way, make life difficult for Jesus, the Son of God.

But that's not the way the story goes.

The most powerful people in the region at that time decide that Jesus, he needs to die.

And they're plotting his death.

And they're standing in his way, and they're they're opposing him at every single turn, and ultimately they have him tried and arrested and crucified.

And we know how that story ends, but but I think we can all agree that's a difficult journey.

That was a challenging path for Jesus to walk.

But it ended up being really, really good.

See, Joseph became second to the king, David became the king, Jesus became the king of kings.

Because God's desire for us is good, but it is not easy.

And Jesus is challenging us to choose good versus easy, to say, hey, the wide road, the thing that looks the easiest, the thing that looks like it's the simplest, the path that everybody's taking, the path that you see everyone else walking, there's a better way.

God has a different path.

And to be honest, if you take it, if you find it.

But those who do, they find life.

We'll get into that a little bit later.

The second choice if we want to experience what Jesus is promising, is a choice between conviction or convenience.

Like if you want to experience the best that life has to offer, if you really want what Jesus Offers you.

You have to be a person that lives by conviction, not by convenience.

The challenge with living by conviction is that it's very inconvenient.

Megan and I have some convictions as parents, and look, we're working this out like everybody else is.

When you don't have kids and you grow up, you're like, ah, being a parent, I got it.

It's so hard.

And we have some specific convictions that our children do not agree with.

And they let us know it.

Like it's a fairly normal thing.

In fact, there's this one specific conviction that we have, and and a couple of our kids are very vocal right now about how they feel our convictions are.

And the word that they choose is stupid.

And you know the thing is, I'm aware of the fact that when my kids get older, they they may choose different convictions.

I just want them to learn what it's like to live with conviction.

I just want them to see modeled for them.

Megan and I have made decisions based on things we believe are important.

And it really doesn't matter to us if everyone else disagrees.

It really doesn't matter to us if no one else does this.

We believe this is important, so we do it.

When you become an adult, choose your own convictions, but have them.

Every single one of us probably has an area of life that we want to see transformed.

All of us probably have something where we would say, you know what, I would give my right arm, and I'm left-handed, so it's convenient for me to give my right.

I would give my right arm to see this changed.

Maybe it's something in your career, maybe it's your marriage, maybe it's maybe it's just your dating life, and you want to find that person, maybe it's one of your children.

You would give you would give so much just to see them transformed.

And look, God transforms things all the time.

Rarely does he snap his fingers and just zap someone or zap some situation, and it's just better.

Like he can do that.

He just doesn't very often.

It happens as the result of decision after decision after decision made by conviction.

I meet people all the time who will talk to me about how they want to see some part of their life totally transformed and changed, but it's like they're waiting for life to organize itself around what's important.

Life does not do that.

Like, has anyone experienced life just organizing itself around your priorities?

Nope.

I'll give you an example of that.

I uh I drink too much Diet Dr.

Pepper.

Um, and I think technically drinking any of it is drinking too much.

And and God has surrounded me with really like health-crazed people that are kind of like if I drink a Diet Dr.

Pepper in our office, people are like, you know that's gonna kill you, right?

I'm like, I yes, thank you for reminding me.

Um but last December, I'm working on it.

Last December, I made a really like, I'm I'm done.

I'm done.

No more Diet Dr.

Pepper.

And I'm not lying, I'm not exaggerating.

Carol Rogers, if you're here, you can back this up.

Uh, the very next day I walk into the office and the staff, they didn't know I'd made this decision.

Like I told Megan, I'm done walking away from this, putting down the juice.

And uh and I I come into the office, and there is literally a pyramid of Diet Dr.

Pepper 12 pack, like 12 can packs in my in my office.

It was my Christmas gift from the staff, which I think means they want me dead.

But like I literally the day before I was like, I'm done with this, I'm ready, I walk in, and there's like 72 cans on my desk.

Life does not participate, life does not organize itself around what you decide is important.

And in fact, oftentimes life, it's fighting against it.

And so, if you want things to change, you've got to make decisions based on your convictions.

What do you believe is important?

Do that and do it over and over and over again and watch what God does through that.

Watch what God does through your faithfulness.

Live by conviction.

You want to see your marriage transformed, but what do what do you believe about marriage?

What are your convictions?

Live by them.

Take that path, watch what God does.

There's one final choice, and this is really, to be honest with you, the biggest choice.

I want to go back to what Jesus said in Matthew 7.

It's the choice between life or death.

I'd be doing Jesus a disservice if I acted like his teaching here is just about success and failure.

It's much more than that.

He says, enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate 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.

Jesus is telling us that the stakes are really high.

Like I'm not someone who considers myself the the foremost theologian on a lot of major issues.

Like if someone says, hey, tell me exactly what you believe about heaven and hell, I can tell you what I what I what I believe is true, but here's the simple reality.

God does not seem to make it a priority to tell us exactly how all that stuff works.

And if you find someone who tells you they know exactly how all that works, they're lying to you because they don't.

In fact, there are even things that that Jesus was asked regarding all that stuff.

And once Jesus was asked a very specific question, he's like, I don't know.

Only the Father knows.

And so I don't know how all it works, but I can tell you this when I read scripture, when I read the teachings of Jesus, I may not know how all of it works logistically, but I can tell you this the stakes are really high.

This is really important.

About a third of Jesus' parables are warnings, and they end with really strong statements like you'll be sent away, where there's the weeping and gnashing of teeth, and and like we just read a few minutes ago, away from me, evildoers.

It's it's kind of intense.

The stakes are high.

And Jesus says, Here, the stakes are life and death.

It's an interesting concept.

Jesus is always offering people life.

And why would you offer life to someone who already has it?

Right?

Like I would never offer a fish a glass of water.

I just feel like that wouldn't be a felt need.

You know?

That's redundant.

Why would Jesus offer life to people who are alive?

It's almost like what he means by life is very different than what we mean by life.

See, when Jesus talks about life, he talks about something that few people experience.

Such that what we call life, Jesus might just call existence.

When Jesus talks about life, he talks about it in eternal terms.

John 3, 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Eternal life.

When we hear eternal life, we pretty much just think about living in heaven after we die, and yeah, that's that's part of it.

For sure.

The life of Jesus is like he showed us that death can't stop it.

But it's more than that.

Because eternal life, it's it's it's the God life right now.

So Jesus says in John 10, 10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I've come that they may have life and have it to the full.

And look, Jesus followers, we've got to look ourselves in the mirror and be really honest.

If we're not experiencing life to the full, we're not experiencing what Jesus promised us.

There's a disconnect somewhere, and we've got to figure that out.

See, when we think of life to the full, we are conditioned as Americans to believe that life to the full means that all of your circumstances are great.

That you have no problems.

That's life to the full.

Anyone ever had this experience?

You have no problems and you are bored out of your mind and feel like you have no purpose in life?

Like it's it's amazing how often my picture of the perfect day is just a day where no one bothers me.

And that never happens.

But but like in my mind, oh, like perfection would just be convenience and and everything's working out, and I can eat what I want, and I can sleep until I want, and I don't have to do anything.

And and it's it's funny because rarely do I get a day like that.

And when they happen, I'm like, well, this is worthless.

I need a problem to solve, you know, I need something to do.

See, life to the full, it doesn't mean circumstantial bliss.

Life to the full means you have something inside of you that is so alive, that is so on fire, that no circumstance could ever stop it.

And I've known people that have that.

I'm challenging, I'm looking in the room at people who have that.

I have seen people in this church face situations that are so tragic and so hard that it would crush most people.

And yet they stand in the face of those things with a boldness and a faith and a hope that doesn't make sense.

It's almost like they believe that no matter what happens, they've already won.

And that's because they have.

Because they have eternal life, and eternal life is not being slowly drained from you, eternal life is being constantly added to you.

It's overflowing, it's abundant.

I think about people like Bill Patterson.

Bill lives in Louisiana now, but he was part of our church for a really long time, still is, still family, but lives in Louisiana, and uh Bill was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer ten years ago, and told by doctors that he only had a few months to live.

And I love Bill because he's a he's an awesome guy and he's very direct and he always puts things really simply.

And he looked at his doctor when his doctor said you only have a few months to live, and he said, Hey, no offense, because I know you're just doing your job, and I'm grateful for what you're doing.

But I don't think you have the authority to tell me how much longer I have to live.

Only God has that authority.

And here he is ten years later, and he's alive, right?

See, our culture, like cancer is a big deal.

I'm sure many of us in the room are either being affected by it now, either directly or indirectly, or or have been, or maybe will be, I don't know.

But we we're taught in cancer that or in culture that cancer is the capital C.

Right?

Christ is the capital C.

There's nothing bigger than Jesus.

And the life that he gives us, no matter what we face, the life that he gives us, it's it's eternal life.

It's life to the full.

And Jesus, he's being very honest with us.

He's letting us know that the choice is it's legit, it's it's life or death.

He's essentially saying that that you're not really living, that you're not experiencing life the way that God intended it, that whether you realize it or not, you're on a path to destruction.

And that path to destruction, by the way, it's easy, it's smooth, it's almost like someone wants us to go there.

But would you rather have a smooth, paved, enjoyable path to destruction or a difficult, treacherous journey to life?

It's a choice that all of us have to make.

And Jesus is pleading with us.

And he tells us what?

He says, Enter the narrow gate.

Enter the narrow gate, enter the narrow path.

And if we go just a few verses back from that statement in John 10, where he says, Life to the full, Jesus says this, therefore, very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved.

They will come in and go out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

Jesus says, Enter the narrow gate.

And he says, I am the gate.

And worship team, you guys can make your way out.

He says, I am the gate.

We see language like this with Jesus in other places.

John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

Now, that's a pretty absolute statement.

He doesn't say, I'm a way, I'm a truth, I'm an option for life, and I'm one of the ways.

You can you can know the Father.

He's he's really really certain.

And I think we can be honest that sometimes it's these statements that actually bother us a little bit.

And there's this disconnect because when I look at the life of Jesus, he's so inclusive.

He's so inclusive.

The people that Jesus invited to hang out with them were people that made all of the religious people really upset.

Jesus is hanging out with criminals and and with prostitutes, and I will say this when they started following Jesus, they left that stuff.

They left it because Jesus called them to something greater.

But Jesus is including people that the religious people would never have included.

He's so radically inclusive, and then he makes these extremely exclusive statements.

Like, I'm the gate, I'm the way.

You have to go through me.

And I think sometimes that that scares us a little bit.

Maybe we think about people that we know and love and and they don't have their faith in Jesus.

We're like, what's that all about?

And you know, what I'd say to you is I've just learned to trust Jesus with those things.

But but I think we have to understand something here.

We've got to see like the heart of Jesus.

We have to understand that he knows what's what's real and what's what's not.

I'll hear people sometimes ask questions, they don't use this language, but it's like they're trying to figure out is there a way to bypass Jesus to get to heaven?

Like, isn't it possible?

Isn't that come on Jesus?

I know you say you're the way.

I know you say that you're the gate.

You you call us to enter the narrow gate, you tell us that you're that gate, that we've got to choose you, but I mean, come on, Jesus, isn't there another way?

Isn't there a way for us to, or for someone else to maybe bypass you and still get to heaven?

But when we say things like that or even think things like that, what we we grossly misunderstand is what heaven even is.

It's so much more than just an awesome vacation spot.

If you read the descriptions of heaven in scripture, it's all about Jesus.

In fact, in Revelation it says that when God's kingdom finally takes hold on this earth, because heaven is not a place that's up in the clouds, it's a recreated earth.

That there won't even be a sun to shine, because the light of Jesus will be our light source.

So asking if I can bypass Jesus to go to heaven, well, no, because he is heaven.

That's like saying, Can I bypass California to go to LA?

Like that, no, you can't.

It's there.

It's about him.

And he knows that.

And so he's pleading with us, he's pleading with everyone to please choose him because he knows what's real and what's not.

He knows that with him we have life, and he knows that without him we just don't.

And we might wish that wasn't reality, but that is reality according to Jesus, and he's pleading for us.

See, when you when you read statements like this where Jesus says, No one comes to the Father except through me, don't think for a minute that Jesus is like some bouncer standing at a door saying, Sorry, you don't get in.

That's not Jesus.

He's not He's not guarding the door, He's the one who kicked the door in.

He's the one who made the path.

And so Jesus, He's He's standing at the door and He's literally pleading with people saying, Hey, come in, please change, make it make a different choice.

You're walking on the wrong path.

He's looking at people saying, Take a look at my scars.

I bled for this.

I made this door, I opened it, I've created the way.

I'm the trailblazer, I'm the one that made the path, and I'm begging you, please come in.

Come in, let me be part of your life, let me transform you, let me make you the person that you were meant to be.

Just invite me in.

Come on.

He's pleading with us to come.

He doesn't tell us no, he says, Come.

But we have to, we have to make that choice.

Jesus does not make the choice for us.

He loves us too much to do that.

You can't have a relationship with someone that you don't allow to choose.

Right?

God desires relationship with you, and so he wants you to choose him.

Now, I know that in the room there's a few of us that maybe have never made this choice.

You've just never made the decision to give Jesus your life, and you have that option right now.

There's nothing like him.

I have so many days where I just fall so short, but I'm I'm okay because I've got him with me.

That's the beauty.

When you're walking on the path that Jesus calls you to, you never walk alone.

You're surrounded by brothers and sisters, and you're you're led by Jesus Himself.

And so even on my worst days, I have hope because I've got Jesus.

And his mercies are new every single day.

If you've never made that decision to give your life to Jesus, make it now.

Because he's real and he's awesome, and the life that he's offering you, it is so good, it is so strong, it's so powerful.

You cannot muster it yourself.

You don't have it, but he's got it in abundance and he'll give it to you.

And if you're here and you have given Jesus your life, you've done this, and I know many of us, maybe most of us have.

Live it.

Like live it every single day when you wake up, live the life that He's won for you.

Take the joy that He's given you, take the peace, take the power, take the wisdom, and live it.

Believe that it belongs to you.

Because it does.

It does just live it.

Like we as believers, so many of us, we struggle, and I'm like this too.

Where it it's like it's like we have it's like we, I don't have a nice car in my driveway, just so you know.

Uh it's not bad, it runs, and the mirror got fixed after about seven years this week.

So, shout out to to Warren who fixed my mirror.

My my passenger mirror has been duct taped to my car for about six years.

Um, and I'm not exaggerating, it has been that long, but uh, not anymore.

New mirror.

Color of paint doesn't match, but it's good, it's an improvement.

I I've I've never known what it's like to look out in my driveway and have like an awesome car.

I'm not really a car person.

But it's funny, I I can imagine that if if I did have one of those, and I looked out in my driveway and I saw that car, and then my car, even though it has a new mirror.

Um, hmm, which one do I want to drive today?

When you become a new person after following Jesus, your old self, it's like it's still parked in the driveway.

Like you're familiar with it.

Your old way of doing things, your old way of thinking.

It's like a it's like an old car still in the driveway, and you still have the option every day if that's the one you want to drive.

But you have this new life through Jesus, and it's like souped up in other car lingo terms that car people know.

I don't.

It's choice.

And every day you walk out the door, you have this decision.

Which one do I want to drive today?

Choose the life that Jesus won for you.

Actually live it and enjoy it.

Drive it.

Watch what it can do.

But you've got to choose, you've got to make that choice every day.

I'm gonna choose good, not easy, I'm gonna choose conviction, not convenience, I'm gonna choose life, not death, and live it.

Alright, let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for this awesome church, this amazing group of people.

Lord, I thank you for every person in the room right now.

And Lord, there's there's a lot of people who aren't.

They're not here.

And there's a lot of people in our community that don't know that you're for them, that they don't know who you really are.

Maybe they've heard your name.

Maybe they think they know who you are, but they don't really understand who you are and the life that you're offering them.

And Lord, I pray that you would make us people with so much compassion, so much conviction, that we refuse to keep you to ourselves, that we share your light and your life with everyone we interact with.

Lord, I pray that you give us the courage to live the life you want for us.

I pray you give us the courage just to go for it, to trust that you're gonna be with us, that we don't have to worry when things aren't going smoothly.

Lord, I pray right now in your name that if there's one person in this room who believes like they're a failure, like you're not with them, like you've abandoned them because their path has been difficult, that you would remind them that you actually promised our path would be difficult.

That you have not abandoned them, that you are with them right now, just like you were with Jesus, just like you were with David, just like you were with Joseph and countless others.

That even though our path might be hard, it leads to a beautiful destination if we stay on it.

So give us the courage to stay on the path.

We love you, Jesus.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.