Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Anger
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Introduction
How many of you have ever received or gifted someone with a box of chocolates?
Whether it be valentines day, an anniversary, a birthday, or an out of the blue surprise, these boxes are delicious but they can take quite a while to fully devour.
There was once a little boy who was given such a box and he received some instructions along with it.
You can have one at a time, no more than one, but any one that you’d like.
The boy sat with his box of chocolates contemplating each chocolate in the box.
Should he begin with the biggest one?
How about the smallest?
What about the chocoliest sounding name?
How about the one that he hadn’t ever heard of before?
Who knew a box of 16 chocolates could present so many pressing questions to a young boy!
We face choices each and every day.
What outfit should I wear?
What should I do first on my to-do list?
Should I come to church today?
What should I eat for dinner?
It’s estimated that we make 35,000 choices each day!
That’s an insanely high number and many of these choices are made instantaneously such as whenever we wake up and have to go to the bathroom or get something to eat.
Those are choices, but we naturally do them because our body tells us that it’s time to go or it’s time to eat!
There are other times throughout our day, though, when we must make a hard choice.
Should I accept this job?
Should I work out today?
Should I eat what I want or what is healthy?
Some of our choices are hard simply because there are so many options available to us in our world.
Now instead of there being 4 TV stations, we have thousands.
Instead of there being 2 soda brands, there are hundreds.
Instead of there being a handful of things to do in the summer time, there are millions on our phones and tablets.
We simply have too many choices… Enter Jesus Christ as He helps us simplify things.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes things black and white for us.
There are 2 gates. 2 roads. 2 trees. 2 foundations.
2 paths.
There aren’t a million options… There are 2: There is right and there is wrong.
What a lovely idea in a world of indecision and confusion!
Our problem today is this: We stand before a fork in the road and we must make a decision that will carry with is lasting consequences!
On the one side, we can look to others and see that many people are going through a wide gate and a broad path and follow them because it’s what most folks are doing.
On the other side of the fork we see very few people walking and the path is very narrow.
Where are you at this morning?
Are you walking down the narrow path after Christ or are you chasing after the bright lights of this world?
Friend, today I pray that wherever you stand that you would choose to follow Jesus and continue to do so each day of your life.
While we have many important choices that must be made, this is the most important choice of your life!
Choose Your Gate (13-14)
If you’ve ever traveled to a major US airport such as Dallas, Atlanta or Chicago then you know how confusing it can be to get from one flight to another because of all of the gates and terminals they have.
You might get off of one flight and have to get on the sky tram to get to another terminal in a matter of minutes to hit your next flight.
This can be a little stressful as hundreds of thousands of other people are doing the same thing!
Think of what your airport gate represents.
Your flight ticket will have a gate number and if you get to that gate in time, you will board your plane and that plane will take you to your destination.
If you’ve ever watched the 2nd home alone movie, you know the danger of going to the wrong gate and boarding the wrong plane.
What happens if you go to the wrong gate?
You end up at the wrong destination!
You might be planning on going to Orlando and you could end up in New York separated from your family.
Airports have lots of gates and lots of destinations and these gates send you out to your future city.
In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus tells us that there are 2 different gates… Not 100, not 25, not even 10… Just 2! This should make our choice pretty simple, right?
Not so fast.
Jesus shares that these gates are not exactly the same.
One gate is large and inviting and many people are walking to it.
The other gate is small and not as many people are standing next to it and walking through it.
What are our options?
Today you have 3 choices.
You can do nothing.
You can walk through the wide gate.
You can walk through the narrow gate.
Let’s evaluate our options here.
Jesus gives us a command in verse 13 and says with authority for us to ENTER through the narrow gate!
Doing nothing is something and doing nothing will lead you to the wrong gate.
Why would He give us this instruction?
Why tell us what to do?
After all, who does Jesus think He is, our world wonders?
What is so important about this narrow gate?
Let’s start by looking at the bigger, nicer looking, more popular gate.
If there are 2 gates and Jesus says to enter one, it follows that He is telling us not to enter the opposite gate.
Why not?
Jesus answers this question by saying that the wide gate leads to destruction.
What kind of destruction?
How can Jesus know this?
The picture being painted by Jesus here is one of a gate, a road, and a destination.
The wide gate and broad path will lead to destruction.
Jesus doesn’t say that it might lead to destruction or problems… It’s black and white.
This decision will always lead to destruction.
But this way looks so nice on the outside!
The literal idea of this gate is that it is roomy.
There is room for everyone on this path.
You can feel this way or that way or believe in this thing or that thing and there is room and inclusion for everyone in this gate and path and as a result it is so appealing for people.
The lights are neon and they are flashing and they are attention grabbing… But it will lead to eternal destruction.
What is the other gate option?
The narrow, unpopular one.
If the broad gate is roomy, the narrow gate is restrictive.
There isn’t room for all sorts of views and beliefs through this gate.
There is room for belief in one person.
The path isn’t easy.
It’s not glamorous.
It’s not rainbows and butterflies.
The plane ride is bumpy.
The obstacles are intense.
But this is the gate that Jesus says to enter through.
Why?
Because this is the gate that leads to life.
The popular gate might draw a crowd, but it leads to separation.
The narrow gate might look like a drag, but it leads to celebration.
DA Carson once said this, “Entering the Kingdom begins here through the small gate, onto the narrow way of persecution, under the authority of Jesus Christ.”
Just as a plane gate serves as entry to the plane ride and to your eventual destination, these 2 gates will lead to radically different paths and radically different outcomes.
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