Follow the Narrow Path Matthew 7:12-14

Children's Church is dismissed. It is common for people to say that life is complicated.

When people say this, there is some truth to it. When someone approaches a subject that is difficult, a common saying used is that it's all

Greek to me. Some subjects in life are very complicated. And no one is an expert on everything, so no human is exempt from having something be over one's head.

Life is also complicated in the sense that it can be a fog. We can be faced with difficult decisions and not know the right one to make.

We can be confused about what is happening in our lives and what is happening all around the world.

But when we talk about the most important realities in this world, life is not complicated, but rather, incredibly simple.

It is so simple that a four -year -old might be able to understand it. We live in a world created by God.

The Bible addresses what we already know about ourselves if we are honest, and that is that something is seriously wrong with us.

Humans, left to themselves, will go down the wrong path. World history is a story of people doing the wrong things, largely speaking.

Even the most decent people know there is something wrong inside. I once heard it said that if the thoughts of every human could be played on a screen for everyone to see, no one would want to talk to each other.

And we all know that's true. The Bible teaches this fundamental problem with every human.

Humans are sinners by nature and by choice, and there is only one solution to this greatest of all problems.

No religion has the answer to this other than Christianity. As 1

Peter 3 .18 says, Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

Jesus rescues people from their hopeless state as sinners.

He is the only one who can open the door, the prison door, and welcome people out to walk with Him and to be free.

John 3 .36 says, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever does not obey the

Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Every person has a choice to choose life or to choose death.

In this sense, life is not complicated. It's simple. This morning, in the

Sermon on the Mount, we are going to see Jesus describe this very simply. Jesus is going to describe life as only two paths.

Not many paths, but two paths. One is so wonderful and life, and the other one is so horrible and it is death.

Everybody on planet Earth right now is on one of these two paths. At this time,

I encourage you to turn to the Bible with me to Matthew 7. We will be looking at verses 12 -14.

And if you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page 965. This sermon is titled,

Follow the Narrow Path. And we're going to begin by reading these verses. And as I mentioned in the call to worship,

Jesus is now making His way into the conclusion of this sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, which is the most famous sermon in the history of the world.

So He speaks this as He is talking to these people overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

And this is what He says, 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. This sermon is calling each of us in this room.

And anybody listening maybe on Facebook Live or if you listen on the recording later on, choose the way that leads to everlasting life.

Choose the way that leads to everlasting life. And we're going to see two ways how in this sermon. And we will see that as we go through this text.

But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were last Sunday. We looked once again at the topic of prayer.

Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, we looked at the Lord's Prayer where Jesus taught us how to pray. But that was not the focus of last week's sermon where the topic was more focused on asking for the right things and being persistent in prayer.

The first reason why we are to knock on heaven's door continually is that you will receive when you ask rightly.

We cannot treat God like a genie who grants our every selfish desire.

When we ask rightly according to His will, He will answer those prayers. We also looked at the second reason why we are to knock on heaven's door continually.

And that is your Father in heaven is more caring than any earthly parent could ever be.

The point Jesus made was your earthly parents take care of you. And most of the time, they want what's best for you.

But what happens, of course, is that parents eventually let their children down.

No parent is perfect, but God is. He's a Father who always takes care of His children.

So if your parents on earth take care of you, how much more your Father in heaven will take care of you.

Now this leads us to our text this morning that we've already read. Now we're gonna dig into it.

And I'm gonna begin by reading verse 12 again. Jesus says once again, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

For this is the law and the prophets. This verse, verse 12, ties in to the teaching we have already seen in the

Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5 .17, Jesus told the crowd overlooking the Sea of Galilee that He did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.

Jesus wasn't some rogue prophet who came on the scene who said, let's just forget about the

Old Testament and let's teach something completely new. And by the way, there was a famous teacher in America who said that.

And I'm thinking, okay, this guy's a false teacher. Jesus is a true teacher. He says, I'm coming to say exactly what the

Old Testament said. And then there's a teacher in America who says, we need to unhinge ourselves from the

Old Testament. I mean, how scary is that? But Jesus here, what He says is

He's fulfilling the law and the prophets. And Jesus fulfills the

Old Testament by being the promised Messiah and accomplishing salvation for anyone who would believe in Him.

As the Messiah, He is going to reign over His people in the future as the

Old Testament predicted. First in the millennial kingdom, and then on the new earth during the triune reign of God, also known as the eternal state.

Jesus also fulfills the law and the prophets by continuing the teaching of the Old Testament. As God's son,

Jesus is the greatest prophet and His teaching agrees with the prophets of the

Old Testament. There are two commandments in the Old Testament that sum up all the commandments.

Jesus addresses this later on in the book of Matthew. In Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40, a lawyer who was also a

Pharisee asked Jesus a question in order to test Him. And this is how the conversation went.

He said, "'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?'

And Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart "'and with all your soul and with all your mind.

"'This is the great and first commandment.' "'And a second is like it. "'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

"'On these two commandments "'depend all the law and the prophets.'"

So Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 .5 and Leviticus 19 .18.

And what He is saying is on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

As I just mentioned, Jesus' teaching continues the teaching of the

Old Testament. So in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is telling them in so many words to love

God and to love others. If our love is correct vertically by loving

God, then that'll take care of the horizontal of loving others.

And He says this in a very helpful way in verse 12. He says, "'Whatever you wish that others would do to you, "'do also to them.'

"'If everyone lived this out,' "'think of how wonderful the world would be. "'Everyone wants to be treated with kindness, "'so treat others with kindness.

"'Everyone wants to be treated with patience, "'so treat others with patience. "'Everyone wants to be treated with gentleness, "'so treat others with gentleness.

"'Everyone wants to be treated fairly, "'so treat others fairly. "'Everyone wants to be respected, "'so treat others with respect.

"'Everyone wants to be given the benefit of the doubt, "'so give others the benefit of the doubt.'"

Verse 12 is famously known as what? Anybody know?

The Golden Rule. Very good. This virtuous statement is not unique to Christianity.

For example, Hinduism and Buddhism have an ethical statement like this.

And our secular world also knows the Golden Rule. I remember being in science class in high school.

I liked the teacher we had, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't a believer. He taught the Big Bang Theory. He taught evolution.

From what I can tell, he was not a believer. But when he mentioned the

Golden Rule, my ears perked up and I'm like, okay, we learned that in church. And what he told us was do to others as you would have them do to you.

And what was interesting is that he didn't mention Jesus' name. He just said this is the Golden Rule.

So I found that interesting. Even the people here that Jesus has been going after, the

Jewish false teachers emphasize the Golden Rule. This is a universal thing. People talk about the

Golden Rule. The rabbinic tradition from whom the Pharisees came had a saying that said what is hateful to yourself, do not do it to someone else.

These Jewish false teachers, which Jesus has been taking aim at throughout the Sermon on the Mount, taught this.

Not everything they said was wrong, but much of it was. And to follow their teaching would lead one to hell.

But they were right on this point, the Golden Rule. And even though this is a universal statement that most people in the world agree on, treating others as you would want to be treated, only in Christianity will living this out lead one to heaven and not to destruction.

In other words, one can believe they are living out the Golden Rule and be on their way to hell.

There is a right understanding of this verse that is eternally important.

This is where we need to understand the proper teaching of Scripture. In Matthew chapter five, verses 17 through 20,

Jesus described the importance of living out the commands of the Old Testament. What he said in verse 20 is, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the

Pharisees, these people who so much emphasize doing these things in order to earn their way to heaven, when you could never earn your way to heaven on your own, what

Jesus said is, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Unless your righteousness exceeds them, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

So this Golden Rule that the Pharisees are living out is going to send them straight to hell.

And many others in our world trying to live this out will stand under God's judgment also.

So what is missing? What's missing? Why are these apparently moral people in danger?

Why was my science teacher, who was a nice guy, why was he in danger?

What is missing is that you are not saved by your works. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

The kids probably learned this in children's church because it's such a popular verse. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The false Jewish religion that rose up after the Old Testament prophets taught that you are saved by your works and not by grace through faith alone, which the

Bible teaches. So one can try to live out the Golden Rule on one's own apart from God's work in their life through the

Holy Spirit. And this does not lead to salvation. So even though the

Golden Rule is a universal ethical claim that people everywhere proclaim, the one who practices it apart from Christ is in great danger.

But the flip side is that those who live out the Golden Rule rightly are the ones who are on the path of glory.

This is why this verse precedes what we are going to see in verses 13 and 14.

It's so interesting. I emphasize this all the time. I'm reading things in context. Why does

He say this right here? We need to understand that. There's a reason Jesus says this before what

He's going to say in verses 13 and 14. And we'll see that in a little bit.

When you are saved by Christ, everything changes. You are saved 100 % by what

He did at the cross and through His resurrection. However, when He saves you, you start doing good things.

You start doing things that please God. And that's because you have the Holy Spirit. And I always talk about this.

The reason you're saved is because of what Christ did for you. 100 % of what He did for you at the cross.

But if there's no works in your life, then you aren't saved. The works are the evidence that that happened because the

Holy Spirit is going to change you. He's going to transform you. Paul wrote this in 2

Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15. He says, The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

And He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.

As you love God with all your heart, you are sincerely able to love others also.

Now, you won't do this perfectly, but this will show in every genuine believer in Christ.

As you grow, you will live this out more and more. That's the path we want to be on.

So choose the way that leads to everlasting life. And the first way, how? Is by loving others as one transformed.

Another way to say it is, doing the golden rule through the power of the Holy Spirit, and not in your own sinful flesh.

Okay, here's the second way how. We are to choose the way that leads to everlasting life. And that is taking the road less traveled.

Taking the road less traveled. We'll see this in verses 13 and 14.

Now, I've already implied so far in this sermon, the narrow way of carrying out the golden rule.

The golden rule is the only legitimate way, sorry, is only legitimate in God's eyes when it's done through the power of the

Holy Spirit. We have already seen in the Sermon on the Mount that one can have outward obedience and not please

God. This was the error of the Jewish false teachers. The golden rule performed outwardly and not out of a sincere love for God does nothing to help your eternal destiny.

Nothing. And Jesus makes this clear in verses 13 and 14.

This is what Jesus says, these sobering words. 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.

I mentioned last week that Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount by breaking up life in two categories.

In future Sundays, we will see two types of false teachers or I should say two types of teachers.

One's false, one's true. We'll see two types of disciples, one true disciple and one false disciple.

And then we're gonna see two foundations that everyone is building on right now on earth. But today, he's talking about a path.

There's two paths. And as I mentioned in the intro, there are many things in life that are complicated, but the most important reality in the world is not complicated at all.

Either you choose Jesus or you don't. Either you receive eternal life or you choose eternal death.

What you do with Jesus determines where you will spend forever. And these truthful words come from the very mouth of Jesus Christ.

We live in a world that has been overtaken by secular liberal thought.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that our society has a wrong definition of love.

What the secular world says is that if you truly care for someone, then that's love.

If you truly have feelings for someone, then that's love. We should put boundaries on love.

You can just do whatever you want, right? If it makes you feel happy, if it makes people feel good, let's just love.

That's false teaching. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that love must be connected with the truth.

And if it's immoral, then it's not love. Love is only love if it's tied to the truth of Scripture.

If it's tied to true morality. If it's immoral, then it's not true love.

And really, if you think about it, this is really an anything -goes worldview. If it feels good, do it.

Or as long as you do what you think is right, then in the end, you will be OK since in the afterlife, you will be rewarded.

But this is not how this works. Not at all. What is tragic about these ideas is that they attach this to Jesus.

The one who is spotless. The one who never sinned. The one who, when

He spoke, spoke the very words of God. What people in our society have done is they have taken the golden rule and say

Jesus just wants everyone to love. Jesus doesn't judge anyone.

But understand this, what the secular world has done is created a Jesus of their own making.

He's not the Jesus that really lived. He's a Jesus. He's a modern Jesus that they have fabricated.

They have manufactured themselves. What they are doing is saying world history has had all of these spiritual teachers.

Buddha, Krishna, Gandhi, Muhammad, Jesus, and more.

And all of them have been enlightened. We can learn from all of them. As long as you follow the moral teachings of the world, you are

OK. You will go to heaven. And there's a secular teaching that's called comparative religions.

It's called pluralism, right? All paths lead to heaven. You can just find your own way. It's OK. If you want to be a

Muslim, be a Muslim. If you want to be a Buddhist, be a Buddhist. If you want to be a Hindu, be a Hindu. Some of them even say you can be an atheist as long as you're a good person.

You'll be OK in the end. In fact, the Pope even said that an atheist who is a good person might go to heaven.

What in the world is that? That's a false teacher.

I'm going to say it. That's a false teacher. I cannot tell you how many times

I've seen these bumper stickers on cars that say co -exist. How can you co -exist when their world views are completely different?

Anybody who's thinking clearly can see there's a difference between Islam and Christianity.

There's a difference between Hinduism and Christianity. There's a difference between Buddhism and Christianity. There's a difference between modern secular thought and Christianity.

There's a difference between critical race theory, which is the slang term is social justice.

There's a difference between social justice and Christianity because social justice came from Karl Marx.

It didn't come from the Bible. As you can see here, I'm getting hot. But it drives me crazy because this is

Satan's work. This isn't God's work. This is evil. What they're really saying is there's really no difference between religions.

But that's false. Anyone who tries to tie

Jesus into this teaching is dishonest. And you don't listen to them.

Anyone who tries to say Jesus fits this secular liberal idea, making

Him a Jesus of their own making, that's dishonest. We just read what

Jesus said. We take Him at His word. Jesus is not this pluralistic religious figure.

He's offensive to people. He divides homes. He divides friends.

That's who He is. And He does it because truth matters and true love matters.

He said there are only two paths, one that leads to eternal life and one that leads to being lost forever.

He describes life as two gates. Not too long ago in Sunday school, we went through the

Christian classic, Pilgrim's Progress. This is the story of a man, appropriately named

Christian, who leaves the city of destruction to go to the celestial city.

And on his way, he passes through the narrow gate. In the book, John Bunyan, the author, calls it the wicket gate.

Not wicked, but wicket with a T. He calls it the wicket gate because wicket means a small door or gate.

This narrow door. There were all these paths that he could have taken.

But he went through this narrow gate and sometimes he got off the narrow path a bit, but then eventually he got steered back on until he reached the celestial city.

The only way he was able to go through the narrow gate and enter the celestial city is because of his faith in Jesus Christ.

He did not go down the wide gate and wide path that led many to destruction.

And like many that he encountered on the journey, many of these people went down the wrong path and took the wide path.

And they were destroyed. He took the narrow way. Earlier this summer, my brother and I, we took a hike on the

Superior Trail up near the Arrowhead by Lake Superior. And we were on this trail.

And it's interesting, the Superior Trail, if any of you have ever walked the Superior Trail, it's very narrow. It's only a few feet wide.

We came to this part of the trail where there was this huge wide path, probably 20 feet wide.

And it looked like the right way to go. And we took it and we went a mile out of the way before we realized, wait, this isn't right.

Something seemed wrong. And we got lost. And so we had to go all the way back a mile.

And then there was this little sign that said, Superior Trail to the left. And it was this narrow path.

And we missed it on the way there the first time, but then the second time we saw it and we took it and we were on our way.

The wide path looks enticing. And it looks easier.

And so it is easy to go down that path. And this is what Jesus says in verse 13, the wide path is easy.

It's the path where most people go. Jesus tells us in these verses why most people aren't

Christians. The cost is too great. It's much easier to live a life going after selfish desires rather than counting the cost and following Him.

In the Gospels, Jesus tells people to count the cost before you follow Him. In Luke 9 .23,

He says, if anyone will come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me. The path of following Jesus is the most joyful path there is.

But to go on this path means to die to your sinful desires. It means to die to yourself.

The desire to worship self and to live for idols. But this path leads to misery.

The wide path. And the enjoyment that there is is only short -lived.

Psalm 16 .4 says, the sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.

Jesus explains the end of one who lives for self. He says in verse 13 that their end is destruction.

What Jesus means by destruction is hell. The Apostle Paul wrote this about unbelievers in 2

Thessalonians 1 .9. He said, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

Lord and from the glory of His might. It was the 11th century monastic priest named

St. Bernard of Clairvaux who said hell is full of good intentions and desires.

This later became popularized to say, the road to hell is paved with what? Good intentions.

And I think that's what he meant when he said that the first time. What Jesus says is that many people on this path think that they're doing good, but really, they're on their way to hell.

Many people that you may talk to may think that there is a heaven and a hell.

Most people you talk to will say, yes, there is a heaven and a hell. A number of years ago,

I remember reading Randy Elkhorn's book about heaven. And in this book on heaven, he wrote a chapter about hell.

And what he wrote is that people think heaven is the default place. Isn't this what people think?

We know this in our conversations. People think that most people go to heaven when you die.

Only the really bad go to hell. The only ones who go to hell are people like Adolf Hitler.

People who were really bad in this life, and everybody agrees, and they get what they deserve. But this is not the truth.

This is not what the Bible teaches. Remember, what the Bible teaches is always 100 % true.

This is what Satan wants people to believe. This is why the saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions is so true.

Heaven is not the default mode. Hell is. Jesus says in verse 13, that many travel down the wide path that leads to destruction.

The only way to receive entrance into heaven is through Jesus Christ. That is narrow.

This is the only path that leads to life. Every other path is the wide path.

This very wide path that people are going down that leads to hell.

What this means is that Muslims, and Hindus, and Buddhists, and Jews who haven't believed in their

Messiah are on their way to hell. This means that Jehovah's Witnesses, those people who go to your door, and Mormons, and atheists, and agnostics, and any non -religious unbeliever are on their way to hell.

There are even professing Christians who are not truly saved. People who may say they are a

Christian, but there is no fruit to suggest that true faith is really there. As my old pastor used to say, not all who profess faith in Christ possess faith in Christ.

I think if we were to poll St. Croix Falls and say, are you a Christian? I think we would probably get more than 50 % of the people to say, yes,

I am a Christian. But how many of these people are really living like Christians? How many people have the Holy Spirit working in their hearts?

I would say it's much smaller than we might realize. Now you might be saying,

Pastor Seth, will there be anyone in heaven? Yes, there will be many people in heaven.

Down through history, millions, and it's probably correct to even say billions of people have been saved.

Some are in heaven right now, and some are on earth waiting to go there. The Holy Spirit has been given as a deposit to receive entrance into this glorious place.

Hebrews 12 .1 says that we Christians on earth are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, the people who've already run the race before us.

And one day, all believers on earth will join them in heaven.

But Jesus refers to the saved in verse 14 as the few in this world.

They are few because they are outnumbered by those on the path to destruction.

What we must understand is that this world we live in is so dangerous. There are so many obstacles to reaching the celestial city.

Many people won't go down this path because it means giving up a lot. It means giving up idols that one loves, and giving this up is hard.

And this is why in verse 14, Jesus describes the narrow path as narrow and hard.

It's hard to die to your selfish desires. And for those who do, they enter the difficult path that leads to heaven.

This is so because after conversion, the Christian has three enemies according to Ephesians 2 verses 1 -3.

Those three enemies are the flesh, the devil, and the world. Your flesh is your sinful desires.

You have natural sinful desires that are contrary to God's desires for you.

Romans 8 -13 tells us to put to death these desires with the Spirit's help.

You also have the devil as an enemy. 1 Peter 5 -8 says that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking one to devour.

But our weapon against him is the Gospel. We need to remind ourselves and Satan that because Christ won the victory at the cross and through His resurrection,

He has no hold on us. Our third enemy is the world. Living in our world following Jesus is living life upstream.

If you live like the world, you are going downstream. It's easy.

Everyone likes you. You say what is acceptable in society. You know what

Revelation 21 -8 says? One of the characteristics of the hellbound is that they are cowardly.

They would not stand for Christ if it came to it. They wouldn't want to become a

Christian because they would put themselves at odds with society. And worldly people love being accepted by the world.

But Bible -believing Christians are always going to be misfits in this world. And for so much of our nation's history, it hasn't been that way.

And now that it is, we think it's so strange, but in reality, most of history, that's how it's been.

Bible -believing Christians are always the misfits of society. We don't go with the flow.

We're Neanderthals. We're these old souls who don't change, who don't try to improve society.

And the reason we don't go with them is because their path leads to destruction. What they see as progress is regression.

We must understand that. And you know who else was a misfit? Jesus was a misfit.

He was a misfit in this sinful world. And look what they did to Him. They nailed Him to a cross. Listen to the words of Jesus in John 15, verses 18 -20.

He says, If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world will love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted

Me, they will also persecute you. In the history of this country, biblical

Christianity has never been more at odds with society. Never. And so when

I preach on Sundays, I'm trying to prepare you to face this. As you go out in the world, prepare to face this.

2 Timothy 3 .12 is very sobering. All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Persecuted. We shouldn't be surprised when it comes. Jesus said the world would hate you.

And one of the reasons the world is going to hate you in our country and in our world is if you believe in the exclusive claims of Jesus.

If you take Jesus at His word, you're in trouble with our world.

But Jesus says with crystal clarity that He is the only way to God.

I remember watching a clip. I don't watch Oprah. OK, don't get me wrong here.

But there was this clip on a video clip on Oprah where Oprah said, you know, people say that there's only one way, but they're all wrong.

There's multiple ways to God. And there was this courageous lady who stood up and said,

Jesus is the only way. And I was thinking that took courage. I mean, think of how many, she's on national

TV. All these people are nodding their heads with Oprah. And this courageous lady gets up and says, that is not true.

Jesus is the only way. And we need to do that. We need to tell people, you know what? You need

Christ. You're not going to be popular in this world. And that's OK. But you will gain eternal life.

You don't want to be on the path of destruction. That's what we need to tell people. And the path is narrow because more do not believe than do.

And it's hard because you will live life in this world upstream. The world goes down south on the

St. Croix River. We go north, paddling up on the

St. Croix River against the strong current. Following Jesus means turning from your idols, fighting against the devil and living against the opposition of the world.

Not trying to earn their approval, but to try to shine bright for Christ by following him.

And I even get concerned when churches are trying to do things. How can we get the world to like us? You're never going to get the world to like you.

Just be a Christian and then they will be drawn to you. We can't be like the world.

We have to be like Christ. And when we do that, some will be drawn. And it's probably a small percentage of people compared to most.

And most of the people will look down on you. And that's okay. That's the call of a

Christian in this world. We must understand that. We don't want to be pragmatists.

And what I mean by that is, if we're trying to get as many people in the door as possible by trying to look like the world, that doesn't please

God. We're here to please the Lord. We're here to follow his way. So anyway, we must do that.

Jesus tells us to count the cost and the path of following Jesus gives you fullness of joy that you will experience in full measure in the age to come.

But in this life, you taste it. You taste it. And it's coming in the future as you live life upstream.

So choose the way that leads to everlasting life. We've seen two ways how in this sermon.

The first is by loving others as one transforms. So truly living out the golden rule by the power of the

Spirit. And the second is by taking the road less traveled. The world we live in is very complicated.

And yet the most important truth there is, is very simple.

Who is Jesus to you? Is he just another guy from history?

Or is he who he said he is? Is he your Lord, Savior and treasure?

If you are a Christian here today, and I know there's many here, be grateful that God rescued you and run with his strength all the way to the celestial city and invite others to join you on the narrow path.

But if you're not a Christian, my plea is to stop going down the wide path and enter the narrow path and follow him.

By choosing Jesus, you choose life. You choose fullness of joy.

Now next Sunday, Jesus continues the theme of speaking about life in two categories.

And I should say next Sunday, not next Sunday, but two Sundays from now, I will be preaching on that as Jesus looks at two different teachers.

There's a false teacher and there's a true teacher. Next Sunday, I will be gone. And you will have a different pastor here.

Kevin Morris will be preaching. And Kevin is from First Baptist Church in New Richmond.

And he was a longtime pastor. He served there for many years. And so he's going to fill in next week. And I look forward to hearing how that goes.

I know you'll be blessed by his preaching. But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, you know, these are offensive words.

I understand that. And we need boldness to hold tightly to this and to live this and to proclaim this.

These are the words of Christ and we take Jesus at his. So, Lord, may we be bold in sharing this to others.

I pray, Lord, that we would be grateful that he has showed us the way. Straight is the way and it's narrow.

And may we walk down this path. May we not veer to the right or to the left, but maybe walk faithfully towards the celestial city.

And may we invite others to join us on this. And, Lord, I praise you this morning for sending

Jesus Christ. What a great Savior he is. He has saved us and we do nothing to earn it.

He did all the work. And we receive the blessing and we praise you in Jesus' name.