Two Ways Of Life

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 red 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 for the title page of the original printed edition.
The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come delivered under the
assimilitude 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 is 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 had 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 and put together a little presentation for you.
This is the path you must now follow.
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 love, and
you die.
To the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
But go!
Wait!
Let me walk with you.
Stop!
Get your stuff right here!
Everyone else will work what you have and that makes you important.
My name is Judge Haidt, you are charged with disturbing the prayer.
You want 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 me, you will be here for quite a while and pray.
My name is Judge Haidt, you wander from your path in onto my land, and now you belong
to me.
Hopefully, I may doubt, in the world may lie, but there is one who cannot lie, and 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 King.
Beyond this wall-wise, the river of death, it is the final passage before reaching the
celestial city.
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.
I see it.
As you can tell, the imagery of the Pilgrim's progress is taken from many places in Scripture,
but foundation lay, it's really rooted in these verses that we've read together from
Matthew chapter 7, 13 and 14, enter through the narrow gate.
Where 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, the 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 and 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 easy to travel on.
To travel on this broad road, all I have to do is what comes to be naturally.
You heard me, I heard 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 318 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.
He are those who walk this journey."
Now in contrast to that as the narrow road and that, of course, is the way 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,
God's 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 in the world, are always constantly trying to pull us back."
And what are the reasons the Pilgrims progress has become such a classic over the centuries?
Is because so many of God's people can identify with a 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, important 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 there for 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 and sinned.
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, gods, 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.
By 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, "Glory is 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's central tenant 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 goddism.
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 or belief in Jesus,
death is at its own for sin, and the omnipotent love of God for that matter, there is no omnipotent
god or gods either.
Now that professes to be 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 go 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 cheer, 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
on 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 in the cross for
my salvation, and so I turned 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 ever 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 a Jesus preach, he preached the message of repentance.
What are 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, or 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 feared all right.
So when you start measuring yourself by that first commandment of love God with all of
your heart, soul, strength and mind, and the second commandment of love your neighbor
is yourself, and God's will begins across 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 help 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 said 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 all 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 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, eh?
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.
If 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, drive along.
We're doing just peach keen every so often.
I want to 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 her services.
It wasn't 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 her hearts, and he knows what her 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 on 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.
Where 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.
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 a guest at His teaching, and
at one point in Luke's gospel they come to Him and they ask Him the question, "Lord,
there 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, "Againnitsamai in Greek."
And you know, without any translation, what the English equivalent of that is, "Aganize."
"Aganize," if you read a story of Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress and one of the things
of the book captures is that that sort of easy believeism 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 relationship.
You don't get in there with your own unrecrucified 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.
Why is the gate says Jesus?
The road 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?
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?"
All the answers as Jesus is that each road leads to a very different destination.
The one leads to destruction.
The other leads to life.
And if life is relationship with God and a sharing of all that He is and all that He has,
and 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 is myself.
That doesn't mean I won't have struggles.
It doesn't mean that I won't experience persecution or hardship.
No, Christians' 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
a 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 face 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 somebody wanting to go because there is a destination that I 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 a hundred 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 see it, 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 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 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 ires.
Their place will be in the fiery lake of birding 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."
And 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 infelish
you 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
retreat 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 it isn't one 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?"
We're all set 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 tried 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?"
Easy street?
Or 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?
Are 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 servant on the mount on that final day,
many, many, many will be there saying, "Lord, Lord, in your name have it, 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."
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, won't make a bit of difference whether you were
rich or poor, happily married or unhappily married, successful or a failure, live the
long life or live the 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 everybody that knocks the door will be opened.
To follow you, to give my destiny to you, to give my destiny to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my destiny to you, to give my life to you, to give my love to you.
To give your worship to you, to follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To give my love to you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.
To follow you, to give my love to you, to give my love to you.