The Narrow Road To Life

When I drove in this morning I parked our truck at the back and I walked up and I could see Tyler's family they were out on a walk this morning and when you drive in the big entrance here there's a pretty big gate and you can go through the gate with your vehicle but there's a little tiny door on the right and that's the door and when I walked up the alleyway I see Carter instead of going through the big the big wide gate he goes through the little narrow door why gates wide open with a little narrow door you have to go and open it yourself and I thought man that's amazing he could have gone through the easy wide gate but he chose to go through the little tiny narrow door at the side and he got me thinking of a passage in Matthew 7 just how easy it is for us to take the easy road but the way to life is narrow and it's hard and it's difficult and there's few who find it some of us want an easy path in life but if we want to enter eternal life we have to go the narrow road and it's going to be difficult it's going to be full of challenges and it's going to cost you it's going to cost you you're going to lose relationships you're going to lose friendships you're gonna have to change your lifestyle and the Lord's going to ask you to surrender all to him your hopes your ambitions your wills your plans all those things that you want to do have to be subject to him and I want to read in Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 it's a familiar passage that we all know but it's easy to forget Matthew 7 verse 13 it says enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it the gate is wide and the way is broad that lead to destruction and many enter that way for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life true version is the gate is small and the way is difficult the gate is small and the way is narrow the gate is small we know who the gate is it's Jesus we have to enter through him if any of us want to enter eternal life we have to go through Jesus and that means we have to be crucified with him on that cross we have to share in the likeness of his death so that we may share in his resurrection says he who has died has been freed from sin and if there's sin in our life and there's things in our lives that is leading us to sin or sin has dominion in our life then we have to ask ourselves if we are in Christ and it's a true statement I had to ask myself many years ago I kept praying the prayer but I was still living a life of sin and I had to acknowledge to the Lord and the thing that set me free was I was honest with him and I said Lord I'm not in Christ I'm not I have a faith in you I believe in you but I am NOT born again because I am a slave of sin and I needed salvation and the best thing a part about that was in my honesty towards him was he didn't condemn me he didn't shut me down he didn't push me to the ground no he set me free and that's the wonderful blessing and that's why the world hates Jesus is because Jesus comes to convict the world of sin of judgment and of righteousness he comes to do it because men don't believe in Christ they don't believe that there's going to be an eternity that they will have to stand before God and God's going to judge their lives he doesn't believe it but it's going to happen there's no way that you can go through this entire life and not expect to stand before him and give an account of everything that you've done in your life if people don't believe that then this is the fool in his heart says there is no God how does Hitler go through his whole life murdering so many people and then at the end of his life just get off scot-free it's because the devil has done such a good mind it's such a good job of blinding the minds of the unbelieving so that they cannot see the glory of God so that they don't have a fear of God in their hearts that they're gonna have to give an account and this is what brought me to repentance this is what brought me to my knees was that Lord I am deserving of your judgment I'm deserving of hell I'm a hundred percent guilty and when I started to take ownership of that Jesus didn't he didn't condemn me in that place no he came and he lifted me up he set my feet on a rock and he gave me a hope in a future but it was not easy there was a cost to count he started to convict me of things in my life I experienced the salvation I experienced the forgiveness but then there's an actual obedience that needs to take place in your life where that freedom and that application of Jesus can become reality it's one thing to know about things but it's another thing to become you know for it to become a reality in your life to become true in your life when they say of you that person is a Christian I used to say I was a Christian for many years but people would look at my life and I live like a devil I live like a devil you know and finally I was an honest with the Lord I said Lord I I was like in the city that I live in I was like a curse in a byword none of my friends wanted to hang out with me because they knew what kind of guy I was people don't understand because they've only seen this side of me but if you people knew me before you would know that that man was a devil I robbed I stole I stole from my parents I lied I cheated I did everything that wrong that you can do in the book I broke every single one of them tenfold a hundredfold but God being rich in his mercy didn't condemn me in that place no he had mercy on me and he changed my life and he saved me but through that process of experiencing salvation there was now a narrow way that you had to enter that's why I was encouraged by Carter this morning because he went and instead of going through that wide gate he stopped and he went all the way over to that little narrow gate and he went through it and you know what you have every opportunity in your life to go the wide road but you know what there's gonna be that one small voice in your heart that says you need to go the narrow road at this point you need to do something that's difficult what's it gonna cost you what are you gonna really lose you may lose your life you may lose your soul's desire you may lose your ambitions you may lose these things but what are you gonna gain you're gonna gain eternal life you have to be able to surrender your plans to the Lord and make them subject to him I used to make every decision in my life and my life was a mess and finally I just said you know what Lord I have to surrender my decisions to you you make the decisions you decide for me what I'm gonna do where I'm gonna work how I'm gonna live the relationships I'm gonna have you decide for me and when he started to make those decisions for me it's gone well it's gone well for me he's preserved me but it's been a narrow road again I need you to cut off your Christian friends who are still wanting to go to the club with you the ones who want to go sit in the restaurant and drink with you I need you to cut them off what do you mean cut them off why would I do that they're my friends they're good people I love them it doesn't matter your heart is desiring to serve me their heart is not desiring to serve me you have to choose what fellowship has light with darkness well we go to church together it doesn't mean it just because you go to church together doesn't mean you have the same ambition doesn't mean you have the same desire my desire is that you come and follow me and so you have to take up your cross daily and come after him and follow him and some would say well this this is worse it's not my friends it's not it's because of what he's done for me he died on the cross for my sins that I no longer can live with myself it says those who you were bought with a price therefore you should no longer live for yourself but for him who died and rose again on your behalf Lord wouldn't you have me do if we don't have that attitude in our heart then there's something wrong with us we obviously have not seen how much he's died for my sins I have not seen the magnitude of my sins no when I see the magnitude of my sins and I see what Jesus did for me and how he forgave me on that cross it should produce a love in my heart to want to serve him and follow him it should produce a desire in my heart to want to please him and you know what we can ask the Lord and say Lord I have done wrong confess it to me I need your mercy today and the Lord is able to show mercy to us he's able to change our lives for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves you will know them by their fruits grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles I want to speak about this we preach a lot about a message of being obedient to the Lord and having good fruit in your life and why is it important that you would have good fruit in your life because the Lord wants to look at your fruit he wants to save your life is your tree bearing good fruit or is your tree bearing bad food I remember when I was in this place I was living on my sister's couch and I had a wonderful dream and in that dream I was standing there it was actually a terrible dream it was a reality of my life I was standing there and in the dream there was a tree there and it was totally withered and the fruit on it was so gross like you would you didn't want to be near it was like black figs that were just completely full of death the tree was so dead and there was a man standing beside him and he was smiling at me and I was looking at him like why are you smiling at me that tree is ugly and I could see that I was this tree I was this tree and then the man turned and it's like the vision it's like a movie thing where it turns the screen it turned the screen and then there was a wonderful tree there and it was full of Granny Smith apples and in every branch you could see but on the branch you couldn't see the branches all you could see was the Granny Smith apples and and he pointed at it and he smiled at me and I was like in the dream I said I want that I want that and he came to give us life my friends he came to give us life but unless we chop the tree down at the roots it will not will continue to bear bad fruit in our lives John the Baptist came preaching a message of repentance a message of repentance so that they would prepare their hearts for the coming of the Lord and before the Lord comes there has to be an attitude of our heart of repentance and even today as we walk with him he continually asks us to repent this week I was repenting every day I was repenting I was crying I'm saying Lord forgive me change my heart change my heart make me more like you not because I'm some bad guy or he's condemning me no because I'm convicted of the way that I am and it's not Christ like if you don't have that desire in your heart you can ask him for that desire and you can say Lord give me that desire I want to serve you I want to have good fruit in my life and you know what he can start to produce in us the fruits of the Holy Spirit it says you will know them by their fruits and some of us we preach this message some people don't like it but you know what it's very important to Christ that you would have good fruit in your life and if you don't you can acknowledge it and say Lord the fruit is bad my tree is bad but you know what I know you can make me a new tree fill me with your Holy Spirit fill me with your Holy Spirit make me new make me more like you it says and that's why it's so difficult because it's hard to enter through that gate because it takes an acknowledgement that we've sinned and we have need of a Savior that's why many go through the wide gate because they are righteous and they have no need of a Savior they hate Christ because they don't want to acknowledge that they've sinned but those who have acknowledged that they've sinned there's a wide door a narrow door that's been opened for them and that's Jesus Christ and he's going to lead them to eternal life it says every tree bears good fruit but the bad tree bears bad fruit a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit some would say well it seems like I'm always producing bad fruit is there a desire in your heart to change you can call on the name of Jesus and he can change that fruit from bad fruit to good fruit I don't know about you but I love a good apple a good Granny Smith apple and it was amazing in the dream that the Lord spoke to me about my desire he said when I go to the store I buy big bags of Granny Smith apples because I love them but by the time the week's over my kids have already eaten them but God desires that we would have good fruit love joy peace patience kindness gentleness this is one of the biggest difficulties that we have this is a narrow road is that the Lord would produce gentleness in us and the only way that you're going to learn to have gentleness is when people make mistakes and you have to learn to show gentleness if you don't do that and you don't learn from these things then you will not produce good fruit you're going to produce bad fruit and we have to repent of the bad fruit in our lives verse 19 it says every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so then you will know them by their fruits if we do not bear good fruit we will be cut down this is why we have to have a sober judgment of ourselves and say Lord there's bad fruit in my life I don't want to be cut down so I'm going to repent and I'm gonna humble myself and get on my knees before you have to chop me down you know there's no it's the worst feeling when the Lord has to take you down versus when you get on your knees and you get down on the ground and you say Lord have mercy on me change my heart my proud heart my proud heart my stubborn rebellion my stubborn pride change it Lord it says then you will know them by their fruits not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven many on that day will say to me Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles and he will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice sin it's not important that I get up here and preach or I play music or I do miracles or I feed the hungry God's looking at the fruit in my life how am I responding in a situation with my children how am I treating my family what are the things that I'm looking at what am I watching what are the things that I'm saying what's the attitude of my heart in the way that I speak to people this is what we need to look at inwardly and that's where God is looking he's looking at the heart and we can say Lord I can see that there's areas here the wide gate says it's fine it's fine if you live like that the narrow gate is saying no it's not fine if you don't live like that that's why I appreciate I lean because he shares these messages it's not fine that I look good outwardly you can look so good on the outside but God sees the heart and there may be things there that aren't right and so we need to humble ourselves and say man there's things in my heart that aren't good I have greed I love money and all I can do is think about is the future and planning and looking at for these things and how to get ahead we have to stop that we have to give that to the Lord we need to seek first this kingdom we need to entrust him with these things and say Lord all that I have is yours I'm gonna be faithful with where you have me right now this is a narrow way and that's why it's important that you hear a message like this because you're not going to get it in most churches most prophets in the churches today will not preach a message like this they will say things about the Bible they will say things but it won't appeal to your heart and it won't bring conviction in your life you don't want to run after people who give signs and wonders who speak in a tongue or some prophecy of something what about all the prophets in the past five years you've had prophecies about Donald Trump or all these other things and all we've got is listen to them and I know some people here can relate to this because but yet all of their prophecies were wrong it led you nowhere near to more righteousness in Christ it led you nowhere near to have more of a relationship with him all it led you to was to focus on what's gonna happen rather than say Lord I need you to do a work on the inside of me because I want to have good food in my life I want to have a good food in my life I was encouraged by a testimony his brother called me the other day and he said you know I was encouraged by this person they said to me that that they that they've been seeking the Lord and they woke up the other day and there was no anxiety in their heart for the first time in a long time I praise the Lord for that you want to know why because the Lord can change our hearts he can set us free he can set us free from demonic influence from fear anxiety all these things Jesus can set us free and we need to give those burdens to the Lord if you're anxious or worried you have to give that to the Lord and you have to say Lord I'm leaving it in your hands you have to surrender it to him may the Lord help us to enter that narrow gate a childlike faith it was so convicting watching him he could have gone through the whole wide open door this is so easy I'm just perfectly fine I'm a good person I gave to the poor I even helped a homeless guy I did all these things but then there's a guy who goes through the narrow gate and he just comes right through he says okay Jesus keep doing a work in my life what do you have for me today you know that's awesome we need to have a childlike faith and a humble attitude and say Lord I have much to learn when we start to justify ourselves and defend ourselves and start to push back that's what we need to see a man maybe there's some self-righteousness and self-justification in my heart maybe there's some attitudes that need changing but I did do it right well maybe we didn't maybe we need to look inward and say man I'm not doing it right the worst thing that you can have at the end of your life is that the whole time you went and say Lord I prophesied in your name I did miracles in your name I fed the hungry I cast out demons and he's gonna say I don't know who you are that's the worst place to be because you were deceived your whole life we need to ask the Lord to help us in that regard so we don't be deceived and if he's tough on us and praise God he's tough on us because he wants to see us produce good fruit