Everybody Is Going Somewhere

May 20, 2001

Sand Flat Baptist Church

David Yarbrough

“Everybody is Going Somewhere”

Matthew 7:13-14

As a boy one of my favorite pass times was fishing. I grew up between two lakes that provided an abundance of opportunity for me to fish. My favorite lure was a little spinner bait called an H&H. My mother worked in Tyler and if my brother and me would do all our cores through the week Mom would get us a weeks supply of H&Hs. I had to have several to make it through the week because I was constantly loosing mine in brush and what not. Mom also as an added bonus would buy us a large crank bait type lure every week. These special lures always looked so good. I would always tie then on first and give them a try, but I noticed a funny thing would often occur. I would catch some of the smallest fish with the largest lures. Sometimes the fish would not be much bigger than the lure. Then with my little H&H I would catch bigger fish and then the really big fish somehow always got away.

The devil is a fisherman also and it doesn’t matter to him how big of a lure he uses as long as he catches his fish. He is constantly throwing his lures of temptation before us trying to lure us away from living for God. These temptations are not necessarily evil things sometimes he uses “good” things to tempt us. Because the devil knows if he can get us involved with too much good stuff it will keep us from the best. When our schedule is swamped with “good” things many times there is no room left for God.

Jesus also said that we as Christians are to be fishers of men. But our method of fishing involves no deceptions or hooks. It much like fishing for crawdads. All you use is a string with a piece of meat tied on to the end. You lower the meat in the water and wait for the crawdad to grab the piece of meat then you slowly raise him out of the water. The crawdad grabs the meat of his own free will, he’s not hooked, he merely chooses to grab the meat and hold on even though he is getting pulled out of his underwater world. Christianity is a choice also, all we do is present the gospel to the lost, and it’s their choice to receive it or reject it. Then once we take hold of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit He pulls us out of our underwater sea of sin we are destine to drown in, and places our feet on the rock of His eternal salvation.

1. God desire is for all to find the small gate.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

a). What does God want? He wants you to find the small gate and the narrow path. God is at work right now leading us all either to the small gate or down the narrow path.

Illustration: Have you ever wondered why Jesus came when He did? With thousands of years of Biblical history preceding His birth, have you ever wondered why He didn’t come earlier? The time of Jesus’ birth was the perfect time for the gospel to effectively spread throughout the entire world. Before His birth God was using pagans to prepare the world so that the gospel could spread rapidly through the world. The Romans had taken over and made it difficult for anyone who didn’t speak Greek to function in their society. So when the disciples go to write and spread the gospel they use the Greek language that people everywhere can read and understand. What does every Empire strive for? Money and Power! And Rome was no exception, so for them to be more effect in spreading their commerce they built paved roads throughout their Empire. As a result travel for everyone was faster, including those carrying the gospel. The Jewish nation had been spread out all throughout the world due to their rebellion to God. So everywhere you found Jewish people you found a Jewish Synagogue, that provided Jesus and His disciples a place where God fearing people who where already reading the Old Testament would be gathered together. So as we look at this we can see that it was the perfect time for Jesus to live and spread the gospel rapidly.

Today God through our past and other people has built Roman Roads to lead us to Him. To lead us to the small gate and down the narrow road. God has provided us with His Word which the full revelation of all we need to know of Him and His salvation. His Church right here in your town and your community to worship Him. These are all to turn our attention to the small gate.