Two Ways of Life

SERMON: 2008-05-30--sm0853--two-ways-of-life SOURCE DURATION: 00:48:16.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 2 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with historical context setting up the sermon's topic (John Bunyan's book). The material concludes with a strong theological application and call to action, which are integral parts of the main sermon message. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the start and end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:03:05.980-00:03:16.060, 00:03:26.020-00:03:32.060, 00:03:39.160-00:05:20.180, 00:05:24.580-00:06:10.320, 00:44:03.540-00:48:13.460 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: start, end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:00:00.000; remove through 00:03:16.060] [CUT] Back in the year 1678, an English preacher by the name of John Bunyan published a book that would eventually become one of the most beloved and read classics in all of the English language. Who of you can tell me the title? Very good, the official title is the Pilgrim's Progress, subtitled from this world to that which is to come. Here is the fly leaf or the title page of the original printed edition. The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream, wherein is discovered the manner of his setting out, his dangerous journeys, and safe arrival at the desired country. Pilgrim's Progress, if you've read the story, is the journey of a man by the name of Christian, who in reading a book, which we know as the Bible, comes under the conviction of sin and starts looking for the celestial city. And so he enters through the narrow gate, and he eventually comes to the cross of Jesus, where his burden is rolled away, and then the rest of the journey describes what he all goes through on the Christian journey until he gets to his destination. Now the Pilgrim's Progress has been made into a number of movies. Back in 1977, Anderson Films made a movie of it, I suspect that's in our library downstairs, as should be copies of the Pilgrim's Progress, in case you have never read it. In fact, more recently, today, as a matter of fact, May 25th, a company by the name of DRC Films, is releasing in DVD format, the latest version of the Pilgrim's Progress. And I've seen the trailer of that, I was tempted to show it to you this morning, but I have instead settled for the trailer of a 2006 animated film version of the Pilgrim's Progress. I felt as I viewed the two trailers, that the animated version does a better job actually in telling this story. So as we set the stage for this discussion of the Broadway and the narrow road and all of that sort of thing, please take a look at this first. My name is Christian. You see, I had been given a book, the Holy Bible, and as I read it, I became more and more aware that the city I lived in was going to be destroyed by fire. I'd tried desperately to convince my wife of the destruction that was coming, but she enjoyed the world too much and didn't want to face the possibility of losing it. I've been told by a man named Evangelist to go to a gate, and we will be given instructions there. I am the interpreter. I've put together a little presentation for you. [CUT] This is the path you must now follow. [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:03:16.060; resume after this marked segment] Stay true to this straight, narrow path to the place of deliverance, then you can finally be free of that burden once and for all. All of this is worthless compared with just a small piece of what I hope to enjoy. I seek an inheritance in heaven away from this world. You will get there if you stay on the path. However, there will be difficult times before you reach them. You must pass through the valley of humiliation, then the valley of the shadow of death, which is full of traps to snare your spirit. You want to turn back? You want to turn back? You want to leave? You want to run? You will die! You walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Hello? Wait, let me walk with you. Stop! Get your stuff right here, everyone else will watch what you have, and that makes you important. My name is Judge Hate. You are charged with disturbing the bear. You are to be locked in the dungeon and beaten until you decide to join the rest of us. This road was supposed to lead to the delightful mountains, but I don't know anymore. This road is only getting more difficult. Well, good morning. I hope you like your room. You will be here for quite a while. My name is Giant Despair. You wandered from your path and onto my land, and now you belong to me. Hopeful! I may doubt, and the world may lie, but there is one who cannot lie. When I stood before the cross, God made a promise to me that I would be saved. My doubts and fears don't change a thing. God made a promise that goes beyond my people doubts, don't you see? His promise! We already have his promise, and that is our key! Beyond this wall lies the river of death. It is the final passage before reaching the summit. No, it's too deep. I've been abandoned. My sin was too great. You have been made whole. Look there. He waits for you. He made a promise to you, Christian. Yes. Yes, I see him again. I see the other side. I see it. Thanks. As you can tell, the imagery of the Pilgrim's Progress is taken from many places in scripture, but foundationally, it's really rooted in these verses that we've read together from Matthew chapter 7, 13 and 14, "Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." As we look at those two verses together this morning, allow me to point out three things in that passage that I think are of critical importance for each one of us. The first is that Jesus, in this passage, clearly talks about two different roads. Wide is the gate, broad the road that leads to destruction, small is the gate, and narrow the road that leads to life. Now these two roads, of course, represent two entirely different ways of life. The broad road represents a worldly way of life, and the narrow road represents the way of life in the kingdom of God. One of my favorite posters is the one that is up there. It is a poster entitled "The Broad and the Narrow Way." It was originally done up by a German woman in the early 1800s, has been translated into many different languages, and anybody that's ever been in my office will see that it hangs there on one of the walls. Whether or not you can see that clearly, here is the broad road that leads to destruction, and then through here is the narrow road that leads to life. As I said, these two roads represent two different ways of life, and the broad road represents a worldly way of life. It is founded on the premise that God either does not exist, or if He does exist, He's not interested in my life, I cannot trust Him, I certainly will not obey Him. In fact, as the poet said, I am captain of my own soul, I am master of my own destiny. My thoughts, my feelings, my wants, my pleasures, my desires are the dominating force of my life. I do what I want to do when I want to do it. We all, said the Apostle Paul, by nature walk after the flesh governed by the powers and the principalities of this age. Why is the road broad? Because it's easier to travel on. To travel on this broad road, all I have to do is what comes to me naturally. You hurt me, I hurt you back. Our relationships are strained. I walk away from you, you walk away from me. We experience pain, we'll do whatever we can to minimize the pain. It's all about me, it's not about God, and therefore, according to the teaching of Jesus in this passage, there are many people on this road. In fact, if you were to do a scan of many of the relationships that you have, and many of the people that you know, I'm willing to bet, if I were a betting man, thought I better add that, that many of your acquaintances, in fact, are people who walk on this road. Unless you and I think that the people on that road are only out there, let me remind you of what Paul says in Philippians 3, 18 and 19. He says, "As I have often told you before, and I'll say again, even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame and their mind is on earthly things. Many are those who walk this journey." Now in contrast to that is the narrow road, and that of course is the way of the kingdom. It is founded on the principle that there is not only a God, but He created me. He is the provider of all that I am and all that I have, and He expects me to look to Him, to give gratitude to Him for the way that He nourishes, provides, cares, protects me. He is the one who in the giving of His Son has made salvation possible so that I can be restored to fellowship with Him. He wants me to honor and obey Him in all things, not because He is some kind of petty insecure tyrant who demands our allegiance, but because He loves us truly and purely and He knows what's good for us and He wants what's best for us. And so the narrow road is a hard road. And Jesus says, "When you travel the narrow road, you're not going to have a lot of companions." Why? Because it is a difficult journey. It is difficult to take up your cross and to follow Jesus and to obey Him and to honor Him and the flesh, the devil, and the world are always constantly trying to pull us back. And one of the reasons the Pilgrim's Progress has become such a classic over the centuries is because so many of God's people can identify with the journey. Who has not found Him or herself at some point in the slew of despond? Who has not been captured by the giant in the castle of despair? And who has not wondered by times, "Are my sins really forgiven? Do I really have what it takes to carry on in this journey?" Many on the broad road, few on the narrow road. It's hard to understand because we live in a day and age where just about everybody who will in some remote fashion admit to their being a God expects to be saved and thinks God will not in His kindness turn anybody away. And one of the things that we have to embrace is what Jesus Himself says about the truth of the matter. Two ways of life, many on the one road, few on the other. That's the first observation I want to make. The second observation I want to make then is that each of these two roads has a unique entry point. Jesus calls it a gate. He says, "Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction." So each road has a corresponding gate. The narrow gate has a small or a narrow gate. The broad road has a gate that is big and wide. And the broad gate then represents the world's way into the world's way of living. It is easy because it is easy to enter. No soul searching there, no striving. You just come as you are by nature, plenty of room for you and all that you want to take along with you. All your baggage, all your illicit relationships, all your pleasure, all your sins, all your passions, all your desires, on the road you go and you enjoy the journey. Now the other gate by contrast is narrow. Why? Because it is hard to find and it's even harder to get through. And it's hard to get through for three reasons. Let me walk you through those. It is hard to get through first of all because to get through the narrow gate you have to acknowledge the truth of the gospel. Now think that through with me. What is the truth of the gospel? What is truth? Well truth is that God exists. He is the eternal I Am. Everything else therefore in the universe that exists comes from God, owes its allegiance to God. God demands its worship and God demands that all creation bow down and obey Him. That's the truth about God. What's the truth about us? We are conceived and born in sin. We are rebels by nature. We don't want to acknowledge everything comes from God. We don't want to praise Him. We don't want to worship Him. We don't want to love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. And we don't want to do what He wants us to do. And we don't want to have to humble ourselves, come to the cross and acknowledge that we cannot save ourselves. And so we are by nature God's enemies. We are alienated from God and we are rebels at heart. That's why the Bible says the message of the cross is foolishness. It is offensive to those who perish. It's offensive to be told that I'm a sinner. It's offensive to know that I can't save myself. It's offensive to know that I can't save my own world. Unless you think that's just, again, out there in the world, let me read you a little piece of an article in the Globe and Mail that appeared recently that somebody emailed to me a number of weeks ago. It's about a lady preacher at a mainline denominational church in Toronto. She just recently published a book called "With or Without God? Why the way we live is more important than what we believe." And in the book she argues that the Christian church and the form in which it exists today has outlived its usefulness and either has to shed its no longer credible myths, doctrines, and dogmas or its toast. And so when this church celebrated Easter a while back, it got rid of everything related to the name Jesus. And he was replaced with the words "glorious hope." And so it is hope that is declared to be the resurrection, an expression of renewal of optimism and the human spirit, but not Jesus. Contrary to Christianity, central tenet about the return to life on Easter morning of the crucified divine Son of God. No divine anybody makes an appearance in this particular church's Sunday morning liturgy. Now listen to this. There is no authoritative big godism. There are no petitionary prayers as in "Dear God, step into this world and do good things about global warming and the poor," no miracles-performing magical Jesus given birth by a virgin coming back to life, no references to salvation, Christianity's teaching of the final victory over death through belief in Jesus' death as an atonement for sin, and the omnipotent love of God. For that matter, there is no omnipotent god or gods either. Now that professes to be a Christian church. And as you can tell, in a setting like that, the message of the cross is offensive and it is foolishness. You can't get through this gate. You can't get on the narrow road until you come to grips with God's reality. He's holy, you're not, and you need Jesus, and without Him, you don't make it, no matter how good you think you are. That's the offense. That's the narrow gate. But be cheered, it gets worse. Not only must we acknowledge the reality of this truth, we have to embrace it in a process that is called repentance. The word repent or repentance means to change my mind. It's metanoia in Greek. It means that there was a time in my life when I thought a certain thing about myself and the universe, and now I've come to understand that I was wrong and I must change my thinking. I used to think that I was at the center of the universe. I used to think that everybody existed for me. I used to think that I was a pretty good person who could save myself, that I was in control of my life, and now my mind has come to understand that that is a fundamental lie. I am not inherently good. I cannot save myself. I need to give my life over to Jesus who died on the cross for my salvation, and so I turn my life over to Him. I am ready to give up all known sin in order to follow Jesus. Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher in the mid-1800s, put it this way. He said, "You and your sin must separate or you and your God can never come together." You don't hear a lot about repentance in this day and age, but repentance is foundational to the gospel message. What was the first thing John the Baptist preached? He said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." What did Jesus preach? He preached the message of repentance. What did the disciples preach? When they became the apostles and were sent out to declare the good news of the gospel, they said, "Repentance." What did Jesus say to the apostles before he commissioned them? In Luke chapter 24, "Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem." You can't get through the narrow gate unless you're prepared to repent. You don't ooze into the kingdom. You get into the kingdom by humbling yourself, acknowledging your sin and beholding the cross of Jesus. So we must embrace the truth, we must acknowledge it, we must repent, but then we must also surrender our lives to God so that He becomes increasingly not only our Savior, but also our Lord. "I urge you, brothers," says Paul in Romans 12 verse 1, that familiar verse, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship." Now listen to me really carefully. I am well aware that the Christian life is a journey and that for all of us, part of the journey in the Christian life is that we learn more and more to surrender and to yield to Jesus. That is a lifelong process. There isn't a one of us who, when we come to Jesus and we invite Him to be the Lord of our lives, in fact are letting Him be the Lord of our lives in every area because most places we don't even know how rebellious we are. In fact, part of living the Christian life is that God usually puts us in situations and circumstances where He lays bare our illusions because fact of the matter is again, most of us thought we were pretty good until we met Jesus. As long as we measured ourselves by ourselves or by other people, maybe we fared all right. So when you start measuring yourself by that first commandment to love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind, and the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, and God's will begins to cross your will and then He puts a miserable somebody or another in your life that you cannot love, that's when you discover what lives inside. And so part of the whole Christian journey is indeed that progress that we call sanctification where you say, "Lord Jesus just held me to grow up in You and to become everything that You want me to be." Now listen again very carefully. The Christian journey starts, however, not only by recognizing our sin, not only by repenting of our sin, but by surrendering to Jesus as best as we know how. Everything that needs to be surrendered. You cannot in secret corners of your heart knowingly hold on to something or somebody that God is putting His finger on and think that you've passed through the narrow gate. Commitment begins with a surrender that is as complete and as total as we know how to make it. And just in case you think I'm making that up, let me read you these words of Jesus. If anyone comes to me, does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. This kind of surrender is not the end point of the Christian life, it is a beginning point recognizing that there will be many cases and many instances where again and again we have to go through that process of laying it down and surrendering it to Jesus. But it begins by letting Him be Lord, particularly in this specific area where He puts His finger on our lives. And many of us will have discovered this, that as we set about following Jesus, which is what it is to be a Christian, not just intellectual head knowledge, it is obeying Him and walking in His ways, it is a path of life. Many of us will have discovered that, oh, He is perceptive. He knows how to put His finger on the one place in my life where I want to remain on the throne of my own life. Haven't you ever discovered that? Oh, maybe it's a favorite sin, you don't want to give up. Maybe it's a relationship that's too valuable, you don't want to surrender it. Maybe it is some agenda that you're pursuing in the course of your life. And if you're anything like me, you've made all kinds of bargains with God over the years. You can have all of this and all of this and all of this, but you can't have this. Can I please hold on to this little bit? And sometimes we think we can outmaneuver God, but He doesn't play the game very well because He knows that one issue is way out of proportion to the value we place on it because that one issue becomes symptomatic about who is the boss in my life. And if we want to go somewhere with Jesus, guess what? Who's going to be the boss? Not me. It's Him. As somebody has said, if Jesus is your co-pilot, swap seats. Most of us think we're pretty good having Him in the car and saying, "All right, Lord, here we are driving along. We're doing just peach keen every so often, I look to you for a little advice on direction, but basically I know how to run the ship." And He says, "Remember that last crash, that telephone pole you turned into? I want to drive the chariot of your life." And whatever the issue is, Jesus will find it and you will have the battle of your life on your hands. I'll never forget, many years ago in the church I was pastoring, all of a sudden out of nowhere a young woman started attending our services. It was in the month of January, as I recall, clearly a seeker hungry for God. And she came four weeks, I think, in a row, and eventually she and I sat down to talk about what it was that the Lord was leading her into. And in the course of the conversation, it became very clear that she was living with an unbelieving boyfriend in a sexual relationship. Now hear me well, the Lord knows our hearts and He knows what our needs are and He knows the difference between those places that we will not yield and those places that we cannot yield and He is sometimes amazingly gracious in recognizing that part of growing up with the Lord is learning how to sort out all these values. But I knew almost instantly when I was talking with her, to her chagrin and certainly to my chagrin, that if she was going to go somewhere with Jesus, she would have to give up living with that boyfriend. And I remember the struggle in her soul, hungry as get all for God, tied into a dependency relationship with this dude and in the end, she couldn't make the transition, stuck it out with him and stopped coming to church. And I remember not only the pain in my own heart because she was an incredibly talented woman who could have done so much for the kingdom, but I remember thinking that's how Jesus felt when the rich young ruler walked away after Jesus had laid on him the challenge, sell all that you have and come follow me. And the young man went away sorrowful and scripture says, if I recall correctly, that Jesus loved him. I've often said in any evangelical church that I know of today, the rich young ruler would have been a shoe in for membership. In fact, we would have gone running after him and we would have said, well, we didn't really mean it. Just give God time in your life to get you over this hurdle, but we'll take you and your money. But Jesus knew what the issue was and he knows the issue in your life and he knows the issue in my life. And I can promise you that if it hasn't happened to you already, there will come a day when his will crosses your will, when he invites you to give up something or somebody or do something or go somewhere where you have not gone and you will be in the battle of your life and you will say with the disciples, Lord, who then can be saved? As a matter of fact, Jesus made this so clear to his disciples that they stood aghast at his teaching. And at one point in Luke's gospel, they come to him and they ask him the question, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? And that's clearly the impression that you get. But you notice Jesus never answers that question, what does he say? Don't worry about everybody else out there. You make sure that you're on the right road. Make every effort to enter through the narrow door because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Many will try to enter, make every effort. The word there is aganitsomai in Greek, and you know without any translation what the English equivalent to that is, agonize, agonize. If you read the story of Christian and the pilgrim's progress and one of the things the book captures is that that sort of easy believism whereby you can lead almost anybody to the Lord if you do it in the right way is replaced by a struggle that says it is a battle for the flesh to die and for me to yield my authority to Jesus and let him be the Lord and the master of my life. Why is the gate narrow? Because you don't get in there with all of your baggage. You don't get in there with illicit relationships. You don't get in there with your own uncrucified self sitting on the throne of your life. You only get in there. If you humble yourself before Jesus, repent of your sin, truly, with godly sorrow, and you say, "Lord, in as much as I know how, I give everything that I am, everything to you." Why? Because, and this is the final thing I want us to notice, not only are there two roads, not only is there a unique entry point to each of these two roads, there are also different and divergent destinations. Wide is the gate, says Jesus, broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life. People often ask the question, "Why make it so tough to follow Jesus? Why do I have to deal with my sin? Why do I have to deal with my issues? Why can't I just hold on to whatever it is that I want to hold on to? Why do I have to study the scripture? Why do I have to repair difficult relationships? Why can't I just go with the flow and bask in God's love and God's forgiveness? And why not just live life the way that everybody lives life?" Well, the answer, says Jesus, is that each road leads to a very different destination. So one leads to destruction, the other leads to life. And if life is a relationship with God and a sharing of all that he is and all that he has, then destruction is the opposite of that. It is the removal of any vestige of life. And this destruction and this life of which Jesus speaks here, this end destination has both a temporal fulfillment and an eternal fulfillment. That is to say, the gospel is good not only for eternity, it is also good for the here and now. Think this through with me. What happens when I enter by the narrow gate? What happens when I walk in the ways of God? What happens when I allow Jesus to be Lord of my life and I try to honor him? Well, I have a relationship with him. He lives in my heart. He guides my steps. He blesses me with his presence and he brings me to life because that's who God is. He knows who I am. He knows that how he has created me and he cherishes me coming fully alive because as I'm being restored, I can experience life with him and I can learn how to do life with people all around me. I learn how to love God above all and my neighbor as myself. That doesn't mean I won't have struggles. It doesn't mean that I won't experience persecution or hardship, no. Christian's journey in Pilgrim's Progress is filled with falling down and getting up. The paradox of the Christian life is that as long as we're in the here and now, on the one hand, we have the peace of God that passes all understanding. On the other hand, we have all kinds of tribulations that sometimes comes our way because God is making us strong in spirit so that we can be ready to occupy our eternal destination. So where does Christian end up? He ends up in the celestial city, which is the destiny of all God's children. Why? It's the hardships of the Christian life. Why bother dealing with sin? Why try to raise your kids in the ways of God? Why get up on Sunday morning and go to church? Because there is a destination that eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, and the heart of man has not even imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. Jesus put it this way, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my sake, will receive 100 times as much and will inherit eternal life. And what happens when you walk the broad road? What happens when you give yourself over to sin and to the pleasures of the world? Well, destruction begins to happen both in time and in eternity. The more you sin, the more your conscience has to be deadened in order to keep on going. The more broken relationships that you experience in the course of your life, the more lonely and alone you become. The more you defy the living God and deny him, the further he retreats from you, the more you are given over to messing around with the powers of darkness to try to make something out of life. And while superficially the world looks at you and you look like you're successful, sometimes much more successful than God's children, and though you look fat and sleek and happy and content, the Bible says it's all an illusion. Because even if you go sailing through life without hardship or danger because, you know, it's all about you, everybody else around you is paying the price. You're leaving a trail of disaster. And not only that, but when you come to that final day, you're going to hear those fearful and dreadful words, "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The book of Revelation says, "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic are the idolaters and all liars. Their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." And a lot of people say, "Well, God wouldn't do that. God's love." A lot of people say, "Well, Jesus didn't really mean to say that either because doesn't he always love everybody?" Well, I want you to know there's nobody in scripture that talks more about hell than Jesus. Did you know that? And you know why? Because the wrath of God is the reverse side of His love. And if He loves His creation intensely, and if He wants to see it restored and in fellowship with Him, then He must hate with equal passion, all that which ultimately stands against His glory and stands against His authority. And the love of God is made manifest in this, that God holds off judgment, He holds off the return of Christ, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. The amazing grace of God is not that people end up going to hell, the amazing grace of God is that a lot of people aren't going to go to hell because He doesn't want people to go there. He's done everything He can to stop people from going there, but only on His terms. And His terms are repentance and faith. And so here's the question this morning, what road are you on? When all is said and done, we're all on one road or the other. You can indefinitely straddle both. In fact, if you were to look closely at this picture, then you will find there's a chasm between this road and this road, and there's a little bridge over it, and a guy who's trying to cross over that bridge, and that refers to the story that Jesus tells about Lazarus and the rich man, and how there are some who want to cross over, but who cannot because you must first come via the way of the cross. And so again, here's the question, if everybody is on one road or the other, what road are you on? C Street, where most of the world lives? You say, how do I know? Well, what are the values that you live by? Are the values all about you, your passions, your feelings, your desires? Do you decide things on the basis of what feels good to you? Or are you on the narrow road? Are your passions governed by the authority of Jesus? Are you seeking to live out your call to discipleship with Him? I'm not asking, are you sinless? Are you perfect? I'm saying, have you taken up your cross, and are you following Jesus? That will determine your destiny. As Matthew later points out in the end of the Sermon on the Mount, on that final day, many, many, many, many will be there saying, "Lord, Lord, in your name, haven't we done all of this?" And he says, "I never knew you. Don't take for granted that you know Jesus unless you've been to the cross and have surrendered your life to Him there." And not only is the question, "What road are you and I on?" Because that will determine our destiny. But what road are your relatives on? What road are your family members on? What road are your neighbors on? So we can try to whitewash it all and say, "Well, God's merciful and God's gracious. He's not going to be any more merciful and any more gracious than what Jesus says He is. So we better just take it seriously and call one another to account and draw each other to Jesus." Because you see, again, when all is said and done, that's what matters. I've often said this 100 years from now. It won't make a bit of difference whether you were rich or poor, happily married or unhappily married, successful or a failure, lived a long life or lived a short life. 100 years from now, barring the Lord's return, we're all going to be dead. And the question is, are we going to be with Jesus or are we not going to be with Jesus? That's the fundamental issue of life that needs to be settled. If you're not clear about that in your own life, there's lots of people around here who can take you by the hand and who can lead you to the cross so that you know that you know that you know, come hell or high water, nothing will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He died in heroes to make that possible. He wants your salvation more than you want it. And all He is looking for is a hunger inside that says, "Lord Jesus, just help me find you," because everybody that asks receives, everybody that seeks will find. [PROPOSED CUT 2 START at 00:44:03.540; remove through 00:48:16.000] Everybody [CUT] that knocks, the door will be opened. And I'm going to ask you, I'm going to ask you, to follow you. As for me and my house, we will serve you. As for me and my house, we will spend our lives on you today. Today, true, to follow you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to give your life to me, today, true, to give your life to me, today, true, to follow you. Today, true, to follow you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to follow you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to follow you, to follow you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true, to follow you, today, true, to give my life to you, today, true. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 2 END at 00:48:16.000; resume after this marked segment]