Missions- Narrow Gates
Redirecting our Perspective • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Narrow Gates
Narrow Gates
Traffic going down to one lane
shortcuts around it don’t actually save time
train trap on eureka
the road on the other side is going the wrong way
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Note that this verse starts by talking about gates
specifically gates that lead to the way or road
I think about gates in a large ancient city or castle
Gates draw the image to our minds of beginnings
We cannot begin our path in life without first entering the gate
We don’t just find our selves in sin, there was a decision that lead there
just like there is a decision that leads to Salvation
We do not drift into the kingdom of God, nor do we grow up in it unconsciously
we must make a decision to take that path, and enter that gate
A part of that path means repenting of our sins
we all have or had in our past, evil habits to be renounced
pride that needs humbling
and we must work to attain the simple trust like that of a child
We become Christians, or followers of Christ, by complete surrender to Christ
When it comes down to it, we don’t actually have to make the choice to do evil
Evil is all around us
all we need to do is let ourselves go, and we shall be swept through the wide gate along with the crowd
Our default is sin
Thankfully, life is more than its beginnings
We have to consider its whole course
We are all on different paths in life
some are retired, some are just beginning
some have been a Christian their whole life, and some here have only recently come to know Jesus
Some knew Jesus when they were young, but they finally came back to the right path after realizing that they were going the wrong way
Either way, we all walk this path together
The way of salvation is narrower than Jesus’ hearers think
Most first-century Jews believed that they were saved by virtue of descent from Abraham
Yet Jesus regards the assumption of salvation as a deception;
To enter the narrow gate of the kingdom, you must knock
that is, request that God make you a citizen of his kingdom as is mentioned in verse 7 & 8
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
The difficult thing about the kingdom of God and following Jesus, is that it includes persecution
“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
300 Illustrations for Preachers (Egyptian Woman Disappears after Becoming a Christian)
What happened to Nagla al-Imam and her two children? Egyptian citizen al-Imam converted to Christianity. In 2010 a controversial attorney made her conversion public. “In an interview broadcast by Free Christian Voice she described being arrested and beaten by Egyptian security forces for her change of faith. She said an officer took her by the hair and bashed her head against his desk.” She and her children disappeared on July 12, 2010, and have not been seen since. The television station that had helped her was unable to find her and had their offices vandalized by Egyptian security. Friends also reported that they were unable to locate her or her children.
We need to remember our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are persecuted for their faith.
We aren’t meant to look at a verse that talks about the gate being narrow and try and quantify “how many” will make it through.
It’s just to emphasize that those making it to heaven are the minority
such words should jar us out of our complacency
as we recall Jesus teachings on anger, sexual purity, and integrity that Jesus just taught us in chapter 5
Christians wear righteousness like a uniform
300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon Wear the Uniform of a Christian (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34, 38; Luke 9:23, 26; Romans 10:13)
What would Her Majesty think of her soldiers if they should swear they were loyal and true, and were to say, “Your Majesty, we prefer not to wear these uniforms. Let us wear the dress of civilians! We are honest men and upright, but we do not care to stand in your ranks, acknowledged as your soldiers. We would rather slink into the enemy’s camp, and into your camps too, and not wear anything that would mark us as being your soldiers!”
Some of you do the same with Christ. You are going to be secret Christians, are you, and slink into the devil’s camp, and into Christ’s camp, but acknowledged by none? Well, you must take the chance of it, if you will be so. But I would not like to risk it.
The wide road says .....The narrow road says
Follow your heart
Jesus said, “Follow Me”
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
Be true to yourself
Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself”
Believe in yourself
Jesus said “ Believe in ME”
Live your truth
Jesus said “
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
As long as you are happy or Whatever makes you happy
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
The idea of a gate to destruction should spark us to action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6YmKIoUdZc
Dad Saves
This verse makes it clear that hurt, pain, and destruction awaits anyone who doesn’t follow Christ
In the video, those dad’s acted with a sense of urgency
if they had been complacent, then several of those situations would have ended poorly
Yet we are complacent in our walk with Christ.
Most of us here have friends, family members, coworkers who don’t know Jesus
If you don’t, then you might need to get out of the house more.
I remember my teacher in ministry school telling us that we should all have friends who aren’t Christian.
God didn’t call us to live in a bubble
He called us to GO
And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
In fact, Jesus final command to us is to make disciples
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
“He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
https://agwm.org/en/videos/
state of the mission
Missions month
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.
Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord
Or loathe His reproof,
For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
The way I see it: it all belongs to God anyway since I surrendered myself as a living sacrifice to God. That means everything. God is giving me back 90% and then promises to bless me for my faithfulness.
And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.
A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.
Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;
for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”
This is why I don’t care about amounts. I never see amounts. I don’t want to see amounts. All I care is that you are giving.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
“You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
“Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts.
“All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.
My Altar Call today is a call to go and to give:
I want you to take a moment to make a plan on how you are going to share your faith today.
I also want you to pray about your giving. I’m not going to tell you how much to give. That is between you and God, but that verse in Malachi is the only time in the Bible that God says “Test ME...”
If you aren’t tithing yet, I encourage you to take God up on his offer to Test him and see if he will not open up the gate of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows
If you aren’t giving to missions, then I want you to pray about giving to the tithe first, but we support over 20 missionaries every month. I want you to pray about how much you want to give to missions and be prepared to give something as several of our missionaries are coming in a few weeks and we take up special offerings for them. I would love to take on even more missionaries, but our monthly missions giving needs to go up before we can make that commitment. Our monthly missions doesn’t even cover the missionaries that we already commit to most months. Now we always honour our commitment to those missionaries, so don’t worry about that, but I would love for us to be able to support even more.