Sermon, August 15, 1999

Sunday, August 15, 1999

Matthew 7:13,14
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

If you were accused of being narrow minded, would you be upset or pleased?

When we think of someone being narrow minded, we think of a man like Buford Furrow. He is the white supremacist who was arrested this week for the shootings at the Jewish Community Center and killing a postal worker for being, as he said, either Hispanic or Asian in California.

Like myself, I am sure you have encountered someone, who sees their way and their way only. They will ignore facts and argue until they are blue in the face that they are right. They have blinders on, and nothing that you say or do will ever convince them that they are wrong.

This morning’s words of Jesus call us to be narrow minded.

Let’s not for one moment confuse what Jesus is saying. By being narrow minded He is NOT telling us to be a racist, or down right pig headed and stubborn.

The kind of narrow mindedness Jesus is calling us to is virtuous. Being narrow minded toward God. This means you and I are to have a magnificent obsession concerning God and be totally committed to God.

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction...for the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life..."

Simply stated, there is only one way to live eternally with God. The WAY is NOT being Roman Catholic, or Methodist, or Presbyterian, or Reformed. The only way to heaven is believing in Jesus. It is He who was sent by God. It was He who said,

"I am the way the truth and the life, no one goes to the Father except by me."

He alone died for our sins and made us right before God. Living His way may not be popular, but it is true and right.

Living God’s way, is viewed by many as being too restrictive. We live in the age of individualism. People choose to live their own way and they justify their lifestyle by saying everybody’s doing it. Or they rationalize their acts by thinking, ‘if you like it, it must be right.

If the waters aren’t already muddy, they become more so with the New Age religion. Their point of view is that it real doesn’t matter what you believe we are all going in the same direction. That there is a god in all of us. It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere.

Still others feel that all we need is love. Love is the answer.

Love is an excellent thing, BUT we must be careful to preserve the truth together with it. We depend too much on what feels right and not enough on what God says is right. I fear that we are more concerned about being politically correct, than we are about being Biblically correct.

Jesus is warning us about this kind of thinking in His call to us to be narrow minded.

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide AND the road is easy that leads to destruction...For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life..."

Jesus presents you and me alternatives. Alternatives which call for discernment, for decisions, for commitment.

Narrow is the gate. Narrow is the way. Simply drifting with the current is easy, but it is a path to destruction. Eternal life is not something you get if you are good enough. A good marriage is not something you get just because you got married. Shawn Michael will not grow to know God or love God just because he was baptized today.

In my twenty-three years of ministry I have baptized more than two hundred babies. At the time of the child’s baptism commitments were made, like they were made today. Yet some of those 200 children no longer believe in God. They all don’t profess Jesus as Lord and Savior. They don’t pray. They don’t worship. What happened?

Lack of follow through.

Jesus is calling you and me to be totally and inflexibly committed to God. Jesus is calling you and me to make the same kind of decision Joshua challenged the Israelites to make.

"Choose this day whom you will serve."

You might remember reading about the moral failures of the Israelites in the later chapters of Joshua. The nation was in shambles. WHY?, because as Joshua 24:25 reads,

"In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes."

Who OR what is king in your life? What is directing you? Is it God? God’s Word? God’s Will? Is Jesus the Way in your life? He is your Savior, but is He your King.

"Choose this day whom you will serve."

Your choice determines your destiny. If you choose Jesus you choose life. To choose something or someone else you choose death.

This may sound cruel of God. Why would God condemn someone for not believing in Jesus? God doesn’t. The person condemns him or herself by not believing.

Think of it this way.

You are in an airplane making its final approach for landing. As you look out the window you can see the airport. The airstrip is lined with bright lights. How would you want the pilot to line up the plane to land between the row of lights that line the runway or ignore the light.

We make similar choices everyday. We can line up our lives with God’s Word and Way. Or we can ignore his Word and live it as we choose.

The choice is yours to make. Just remember there is a consequence to each choice.

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life."

Amen

Reverend Richard Hayes Weyer