KEY TEXT
Matthew 7:13-14- “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.”
Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Jesus Himself said that – ultimately- there are only two ways to live: there are two paths; there are two gates; there are two destinations and there are two groups of people.
This morning, I would like to share a message on TWO WAYS TO LIVE.
Let us see two contrasting ways of life that we can choose from.
1. TWO PATHS TO CHOOSE: NARROW OR THE BROAD PATH
Matthew 7:13-14- “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.”
In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus spoke about two paths of life and described the final destination of each. To emphasize His point, Jesus contrasted small and wide gate; narrow and broad way.
Christ limits our choice to only two possible paths. During our lifetime, we must walk on either one or the other. In our passage here, Jesus already warns us of the consequence of our choice and this brings me to a humorous story that I just read:
Story: A man was driving along a narrow, winding road, in his sedan car, when all of a sudden, a woman driving a large Rolls Royce came hurtling around the corner, nearly driving him off the road. As she drove by the man, he heard her shout, “PIG!” Immediately, the man retaliated by yelling back, “Fat old cow!” Then he drove around the bend himself and crashed head-on into the biggest pig he’d ever seen.
Let’s take the warning of Jesus about the path we are going to choose:-
THE BROAD WAY
The most commonly traveled path has a wide gate and offers FREEDOM TO BELIEVE WHATEVER ONE DESIRES. All religions, philosophies and opinions are welcomed and accepted.
• This is a crowded path
Many people choose this path because it offers them the freedom to do what they want and go wherever they desire.
• This broad way is ungodly
Those who travel it don’t want anyone telling them what to do. Satan walks this path convincing people that an UNDISCIPLINED LIFE is the way to freedom and happiness. What people on this “freeway” don’t see is its consequences which result from an UNGODLY LIFESTYLE.
• It’s a path of darkness
Proverbs 4:19- “The way of the wicked is like darkness.” Jesus confirmed this when He said that men love the dark because light exposes their deeds as evil (John 3:19-20). Many choose this road because the darkness makes them comfortable with their sin. They reject Jesus, who is the Light of the world in order to avoid conviction and guilt.
There was a high crime rate in a town called Austin in Texas. So the residents of the community petitioned the city of Austin to put up streetlights in this crime area. Once the lights were up, crime subsided for a while. But someone took a rock or something and knocked out the streetlights and crime in that area resumed. This took place over and over again until the city gave up and left that particular area unlit to the chagrin of the petitioners and other residents of that community. This emphasizes the fact that world hates light.
• This broad path brings disappointment
The travelers on this path try to convince themselves that following their own desires will make them happy and content, but it ultimately results in bondage to sin and disillusionment. Sin never delivers the rewards it promises.
• This broad path ends in destruction
Those who choose this path keep hoping their lives will improve but they will eventually face destruction. In trying to save their lives, they will lose their souls for all eternity (Mark 8:34-37).
THE NARROW WAY
Jesus calls people to take this narrow path. There is no mixture of religions here. Only those who believe in Jesus can enter this small and narrow gate.
• The path requires discipline
Those who walk this road practice SELF-RESTRAINT and avoid sinful practices.
• It is the way of the few
Christians are in the minority compared to the world’s population. Even when Jesus ministered on earth, only a small number of people followed him.
• The narrow way is the path of wisdom
Those who walk it listen and ACCEPT INSTRUCTION from the Lord, knowing it guides their way (Proverbs 4:10-14). They are committed to living a holy, righteous life and experiencing the peace and joy that come with obedience.
• It is the path of following Jesus
This is not the glamorous highway of the world but the road of faith in Christ. Those who enter the small gate believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for their sins. They trust Him as their personal Savior and surrender their lives to Him. This requires giving up their old ways of life and walking as new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). His Spirit lives within them guiding their way and empowering them to live a godly lifestyle.
A man was on his way to the airport to catch a plane. He came to an intersection where his wife had told him he needed to turn left to get to the airport. It was a narrow little road and he was on a broad road that also would let him see some of nature’s beauty. He decided to take the broader road. There is a way that seems right to man, the Bible says. The time was getting away and a little voice kept saying turn around and take the narrow road. He reasoned, “I feel like an idiot.” Pride and stubbornness kept him going on the scenic road. He got to the airport and raced to where he was to board the plane only to hear, “The gate has been shut. The doors are locked. The plane is leaving. You have been left behind.” He was so late because he made the wrong choice. The plane would not be coming back for him.
JUDGMENT
At the end of both paths is JUDGMENT. After death we will all stand before Christ. Those who took the narrow path will come before Him washed in His blood, holy and righteous because of their faith in Him. But the people who rejected Christ and walked the broad path will stand in their sins. There will be no rationalization or excuses in the presence of His radiant holiness and glory as His light reveal the darkness of their sin. At the end of the narrow road is the entrance into heaven but the broad way leads to hell and eternal separation from God.
Which path are you travelling today- the narrow road or the broad road? Have you tried to straddle both paths so you can have your way and still go to heaven? This won’t work because we can only choose one way.
Illustration: ONE OR THE OTHER MUST GO
At a meeting in Massachusetts, a speaker who had just delivered an urgent appeal to a group of young people to accept Christ, was asked this startling question by a young girl, “Sir, I should like to know how we can be Christians and have our own way.” Perhaps many of us have consciously asked this same question. We have sought, in a measure at least, to do God’s will but we have reserved the right to have our own way whenever it pleases us. This is not God’s plan for Christian living and service and it always brings conflict, unrest and lack of joy and power.
We can only choose one of the two paths- the broad path or the narrow one. Which path will you choose today?
2. TWO ATTITUDES TO GOD: HATE OR HONOR
Psalm 50:16-23 (RSV)- But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are a friend of his; and you keep company with adulterers. “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I rend, and there be none to deliver! He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; to him who orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God!”
When it comes down to it, there are only two possible attitudes to God. We can honor Him or we can hate Him. For God says, “He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me” (verse 23). He contrasts those who “who hate discipline and cast His words behind him” (17a).
Those who “hate” God – ignore Him and “forget God” (verse 22). The twentieth century saw the terrible consequences of the actions of those who forgot God and hated His instruction. Nazism and Communism are two of the worst cases.
A great Russian Novelist, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent fifty year studying the history of Russia in the 20th century. As he considered the great disasters that swallowed up some sixty million Russians, the best explanation that he could come up with was the “men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”
The principal trait of our 21st century too is the people have forgotten God.
Phillips Brooks in Flowers of Thoughts wrote an article called -NO ROOM FOR CHRIST. There he narrated, “A friend says to me, “I have not time or room in my life for Christianity. If it were not so full!! You don’t know how hard I work from morning till night. When have I time, where have I room for Christianity in such a life as mine?” It is as if the engine had said it had no room for the steam. It is as if the tree said it had no room for the sap. It is as the ocean said it had no room for the tide. It is as if the man had said he had no room for his soul. IT IS AS IF THE LIFE HAD SAID IT HAD NO TIME TO LIVE, WHEN IT IS LIFE. A man is not living without it. And for a man to say, “I am so full in life that I have no room for life,” YOU SEE IMMEDIATELY TO WHAT ABSURDITY IT REDUCES ITSELF.”
Traits of people forgetting God are:
• Hate the discipline or instruction of God – verse 17
• Friends with thief – verse 18
• Keep company with adulterers – verse 18
• Give our mouth free rein for evil – verse 19
• Frame deceit with our tongues – verse 19
• Sit and speak against our brother – verse 20
• Slander our own mother’s son – verse 20
• Ignorance of the judgment of God – verse 21
Look at our nation today – it is a nation ridden with violence, crimes, injustice, flesh trades, corruption, disparity of wealth, and exploitation by the rich upon the poor, LGBT, immorality and many live their lives forgetting that there is a God who sees and judges. Many thought that “these things they have done and God has been silent and so they thought that God was one like themselves.” They forget God; they hate God. “But the day will come when God will rebuke them and lay the charge before them.” (verse 21-22).
How about us? Do you find that sometimes, possibly because everything seems to be going well in your life, you forget to pray, read the Bible or give thanks to God for all his blessings? It is almost as if you have forgotten about God? There are times in our lives when we forget God and mess things up.
The contrast to forgetting God is a life of honoring Him – one full of thankfulness and praise. “It is the praising life that honors me. As soon as you set your foot on the Way, I’ll show you my salvation” (verse 23, Message).
There is a story about an old village in Spain. The people of this village heard the king planned to visit there. No king had ever done that. So naturally, they became excited and wanted to offer a great celebration that would show their adoration and that would honor the king. But what could a village of such poor people offer?
Someone proposed that since so many of the villagers made their own wines – very good wines- they could offer that to please the king. And they each decided that they would all take some of their best wine and combine them as a gift for the king.
On the day of the king’s arrival, they all came to the village square early in the morning with a large cup of their finest wine and poured their offering into a small opening at the top of a large barrel. They were excited to see the king enjoy the best wine he’d ever tasted.
When he arrived, the king was escorted to the square where he was ceremoniously presented with a silver cup and invited to draw wine from the barrel. He was told the villagers were delighted to have him taste the best they had to offer.
He filled his cup with wine and when he drank it, to his surprise he tasted only water.
Had some miracle-worker turned wine to water? Had someone stolen all of the wine that was meant for the king?
No. Each villager had reasoned, “I’ll withhold my best wine and give water. There will be so many cups of excellent wine poured into the barrel that mine will never be missed.”
After all was said and done, the king was left with a town full of people who simply went through the motions of showing their love and admiration for him.
And many of us are like these villagers. Isaiah 29:13- “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Are you hating God or are you really honoring God totally from your heart with your best? Which attitude to God are you choosing today?
3. TWO DESTINIES TO EMBRACE: BROKEN OR REDEEMED
The world is full of broken things- broken bones, broken windows, broken wings, broken hearts, broken homes and as we have just seen the video just now – broken dreams.
Generally speaking, when something is broken, it is useless unless it can be repaired.
The first occurrence of the word “BROKEN” in the Bible is found where the description is given of God’s judgment upon the world in the days of Noah:
Genesis 7:11- In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
When things are broken in your life, you are in trouble.
Proverbs 25:28- He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
Proverbs 15:13- A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
But the good news is God is able to mend:
Broken hearts
Broken homes
Broken hopes
Broken dreams
Broken health
Broken happiness
Our Lord specializes in healing broken things!
Now we come to one of the paradoxes of the Christian life. The word “broken” is almost always negative. However, the word “break” can be positive. For instance, when a person gets an advantage in business, it is often said to be “his big BREAK.”
To be BROKEN in heart, health, hope or dreams, COULD be your big BREAK. For instance, God gives you His attention when your spirit is broken, more so than when your spirit is proud.
Let me give you a few examples from the word of God of people who were broken, yet became greatly blessed and used of God because they turned over their broken destiny to God and allowed Him to redeem it to be useful for God.
• JOSEPH WAS BROKEN WHEN HE WAS BETRAYED BY HIS OWN FAMILY BUT WAS EXONERATED BY GOD IN THE END
• MOSES WAS BROKEN WHEN HE WAS BRANDED BY PHAROAH AS AN ENEMY BUT WAS MENDED BY GOD AFTER 40 YEARS TO BE THE GREATEST DELIVERER OF ISRAEL
• PAUL WAS BROKEN WHEN HE WAS BUFFETED BY A THORN IN THE FLESH BUT GOD USED IT TO BECOME A MATTER OF POWER
• OUR SAVIOR WAS BROKEN WHEN HE WAS BRUISED FOR OUR INIQUITIES BUT HE WAS RESURRECTED TO BECOME OUR GREATEST REDEEMER
Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body” which was broken for you. It represented the broken body of our Lord. John 21:19- “This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.” Christ glorified the Father in life, but in no other manner could He have glorified the Father more than to have glorified him with a broken body on the cross. Although not a BONE of our Lord was broken, when the Lord was crucified and bore our sins in His body, the Bible describes His body as being broken.
The broken body of Christ was not a waste or a shame to God.
Through the broken body of Jesus on the cross…..
• His blood promised REDEMPTION
His blood became the price He bought us back from a broken life due to sin.
A gathering of friends at an English estate nearly turned to tragedy when one of the children strayed into deep water. The gardener heard the cries for help, plunged in, and rescued the drowning child. That youngster’s name was Winston Churchill. His grateful parents asked the gardener what they could do to reward him. He hesitated and then said, “I wish my son could go to college someday and become a doctor.” “We’ll see to it,” Churchill’s parents promised.
Years later, while Sir Winston was prime minister of England, he was stricken with pneumonia. The country’s best physician was summoned. His name was Dr. Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered and developed penicillin. He was also son of that gardener who had saved young Winston from drowning. Later Churchill remarked, “Rarely has one man owed his life twice to the same person.”
Similarly, we owe God our lives twice. First, we are God’s because He made us. Second, we are His because He bought us on the cross. Christ paid a price to redeem all of us by the blood that flowed from his broken body. God is both the purchaser and the price; for Christ, who is God, purchased our salvation by offering Himself as the price of our salvation.
• His burial promised a REMOVAL
This is removal from the reproach of your sins.
• His body promised a RESURRECTION
Christ is able to resurrect your bodies and your dream in newness.
Our Lord was broken, but through His brokenness, salvation was made available for you and me.
Isaiah 53:5- But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
The story of the three trees in the video that we have just seen, all had lofty dreams in the beginning. The first tree dreamt that it would become a wood for treasure chest but it ended up as a trough for animal in the hands of the carpenter. The second tree dreamt of becoming a mighty vessel, shipping all royalties across the sea but the shipyard turned it into a fishing boat. The third tree just wanted to stand as the tallest tree on the mountain, letting all men see how straight it was pointing towards heaven. But the woodsman just cut it down and laid it at one corner. All did not have their dreams fulfilled. Their lofty dreams were broken but when their lives came into contact with Christ, their disappointments and broken dreams were redeemed, turned around by God to serve God’s highest purpose – the trough became the cradle where Jesus was laid after he was born in the manger; the small fishing boat carried Jesus across the Sea of Galilee with his 12 disciples where Jesus performed one of the greatest miracles by calming the storm. The third tree that was laid aside was picked up by Jesus to become his cross to be hung on Calvary’s Hill so that the cross could point many men to God.
Let’s face it – all of us are broken by sin in this world. The Bible says that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). “All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong: no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12). “We all, like sheep, have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). Sin has broken our lives; sin has caused us to go astray from God.
This is the destiny of a fallen human race – BROKENNESS. It is part of the curse of sin – to be broken by sin; by this fallen world and by the devil.
You can embrace this destiny of brokenness due to sin or you can embrace the Redeemer –Jesus Christ who has the power to buy back our brokenness and transform it for His glorious purpose.
There are many broken things that became glorious things when they were turned over to Christ. Our broken things can become the glory of God.
• A Broken Banquet
Matthew 15:36- “He took the seven loaves and the fish and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds.”
When few loaves of bread and fishes were turned over to Jesus, he broke them and was able to use the scanty supply to feed 5000 multitudes.
• A Broken Building
Mark 2:4- And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
It was when the 4 friends of the paralytic dare to break the roof of a house that the miracle of healing took place for the paralytic.
• A Broken Box
Mark 14:3- And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon, the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly and she broke the flash and poured it over his head.
Without brokenness in our lives, we couldn’t offer Jesus our best worship. The best sacrifice acceptable to the nostril of Christ is still a broken and a contrite heart (Psalms 51:17).
Jim Cymbala is the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle –a church in the slum of New York and he tells this story: “It was Easter Sunday and I was so tired at the end of the day that I just went to the edge of the platform, pulled down my tie and sat down and draped my feet over the edge. It was a wonderful service with many people coming forward. The counselors were talking with these people.
As I was sitting there, I looked up the middle aisle, and there in about the third row was a man who looked about fifty, disheveled and filthy. He looked up at me rather sheepishly, as if saying, “Could I talk to you?” We have homeless people coming in all the time, asking for money or whatever. So as I sat there, I said to myself, though I am ashamed of it, “What a way to end a Sunday. I’ve had such a good time, preaching and ministering and here’s a fellow probably wanting some money for more wine.”
He walked up. When he got within about five feet of me, I smelled a horrible smell like I’ve never smelled in my life. It was so awful that when he got close, I would inhale by looking away and then I’d talk to him, and then look away to inhale, because I couldn’t inhale facing him.
I asked him, “What’s your name?” “David.” “How long have you been on the street?” “Six years.” “How old are you?” “Thirty-two.” He looked fifty – hair matted, front teeth missing, wino, eyes slightly glazed. “Where did you sleep last night, David?” “Abandoned truck.”
I keep in my back pocket a money clip that also holds some credit cards. I fumbled to pick one out thinking, “I’ll give him some money. I won’t even get a volunteer. They are all busy talking with others.” Usually we don’t give money to people; we take them to get something to eat. I took the money out. David pushed his finger in front of me. He said, “I don’t want your money. I want this Jesus, the One you were talking about, because I’m not going to make it. I’m going to die on the street.”
I completely forgot about David and I started to weep for myself. I was going to give a couple of dollars to someone God had sent to me. See how easy it is? I could make the excuse I was tired. There is no excuse. I was not seeing him the way God sees him. I was not feeling what God feels.
But oh, did that change! David just stood there. He didn’t know what was happening. I pleaded with God, “God! Forgive me! Forgive me! Please forgive me. I am so sorry to represent You this way. I’m so sorry. Here I am with my message and my points, and You send somebody and I am not ready for it. Oh God!!”
Something came over me. Suddenly I started to weep deeper and David began to weep. He fell against my chest as I was sitting there. He fell against my white shirt and tie and I put my arms around him and there we wept on each other. The smell of his person became a beautiful aroma. Here is what I thought the Lord made real to me: IF YOU DON’T LOVE THIS SMELL, I CAN’T USE YOU, BECAUSE THIS IS WHY I CALLED YOU WHERE YOU ARE. THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT. YOU ARE ABOUT THIS SMELL.
Christ changed David’s life. He started memorizing portions of Scriptures that were incredible. We got him a place to live. We hired him in the church to do maintenance and we got his teeth fixed. He was a handsome man when he came out of the hospital. They detoxed him in 6 days.
He spent that Thanksgiving at my house. He also spent Christmas at my house. When we were exchanging presents, he pulled out a little thing and he said, “This is for you.” It was a little white hanky. It was the only thing he could afford.
A year later, David got up and talked about his conversion to Christ. The minute he took the mic and began to speak, I said, “This man is a preacher.” This past Easter, we ordained David. He is an associate minister of a church over in New Jersey.
And I was so close to saying, “Here, take this; I’m a busy preacher.” We can get so full of ourselves.”
Here is a touching example of how God redeemed David – a BROKEN homeless man, transformed him gloriously and then used him for His kingdom purpose. The whole broken destiny of David changed to become God’s destiny when he was willing to turn over his broken life to Jesus – our Great Redeemer. Our Mess can become our Mess-age and our Test can become our Testimony. Our brokenness can become our Breakthrough in life through Jesus.
There are two ways to live. You can choose only one of the two ways. And your choice will determine your destiny.
You are given the choice between…
Broad path or the narrow path
Hating God or honoring God
Staying broken or being redeemed by Christ.
A gentleman captured two baby eagles and raised them with great care. They grew to be fine specimens of this noble bird, until one day the door of their cage was left open by accident and the birds escaped. One flew to a nearby tree, where it roosted on a low branch for it could not use its wings, never having learned to fly except in the close confinement of its cage. It was not long until it met an untimely death by the gun of a hunter. The other eagle fell or was knocked into a swift flowing river and was drowned. Both of these eagles missed God’s plan for their lives. They were created to live in high places and to soar aloft in the sky, but instead they were doomed to live on the ground and to meet an early death.
God created you and me to live on a high plane and to carry out the great plans He has for our lives. May we have wisdom to yield our lives to Him so that the forces of sin may not take us captive and cause us to miss His will and fog our lives.”
God cannot make the choice on how you may live your life. Choose wisely so that your life will be lived on a high plane and not low plane.
End of sermon
PREACHED AT ETAB FIRST SERVICE HARVEST MONTH ON 29 MAY 2016
