Options, choices, alternative, opportunities! The richness of life is found in these. Part of what makes a trip to the ice cream shop a delight is choosing between cinnamon drop vanilla, chocolate fudge swirl, and oreo crunch mint for your ice cream cone.
Everyone of us makes dozens of choices everyday. Most are routine; which clothes, which cereal, coffee or tea. But some of our choices have the potential to be life-changing. Often we cannot imagine how today’s choice will affect tomorrow. Toss a small stone into a pond. What happens? Ripples spread across the surface of the water from the place where the stone splashed into it.
Our decisions have that kind of ripple effect in our lives and those who live around us.
The central truth of this message is: The choice of obedience to the will of God has eternal consequences.
In the Scripture text this morning, Jesus talks about choices and consequences.
Turn with me to Matthew 7.
2 Gates, 2 Trees, 2 Foundations
[ read 7:13-27 ] [ PRAY ]
2 Gates
All choices have a beginning, an entry point that shapes the process. For those of us who would be followers of Jesus, the beginning point of our decision-making must be our willingness to enter,
to embrace the will of God in our daily choices.
By the will of God I am not so much speaking about the specifically revealed daily plan of action as much as I am speaking of our overall moral framework. We must decide clearly whether we regard our life as belonging to us alone or to God as Lord and Master. Jesus calls on us to understand if we declare Him Lord certain choices and/or options in our life will be limited by that decision.
He uses a powerful illustration of this truth.
In the time that Jesus spoke these words cities depended on walls for defense against invaders. Each night the wide city gates that allowed passages of carts and large numbers of people were closed. Inset in the large gate or to one side of the gate was a narrow door that allowed passage of a single person at a time. That gate was guarded and only those who were known to be inhabitants of the city were allowed in.
Are you entering the narrow gate of obedience to the will of God?
Such a question goes directly against our cherished American ideal of unlimited personal freedom. We value personal choice in every area of life - in ways that become ridiculous.
∙ Conceive a child at an inconvenient time in life? Exercise your freedom, your right, to end the pregnancy.
∙ Want a sexual experience that is not available in your marriage? As long as nobody gets hurt, go for it!
Everyone talks about their rights, but few are discussing their responsibilities. The idea of sacrifice of self for the greater good of a family, a community, a church, or even God is not a popular idea today. Many people’s highest goal in life is simply to be happy at a given moment in time.
Even serving God is being turned into a deal-making proposition. Many people think,
"OK, I do what God wants me to God as long as I feel that there is a direct benefit in it for me."
Jesus calls on those who would follow Him to be prepared to forsake the broad gate of unlimited personal choice for a narrow gate of choice shaped by the plan and purpose of our holy God. Our vocational choices, our choices regarding possessions, our choices in relationships, our sexual choices - every choice we make - He asks that we fit that choice to His desire for life. While limiting our options may seem undesirable to us initially, Jesus promises that in the end the narrow gate will lead us to a fuller life.
2 Trees
The second major point of this passage concerns what is produced in our day to day life, the kind of fruit that our words and actions produce.
Our internal reality will become evident in what we say and do!
We have spent weeks considering Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. The repeated emphasis is on inner reality versus external image. Here we are reminded, what you are inside; how you think and what you value, will show up in the way that you live. In Galatians 5:16-24, we read....
...live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want..... The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
Have you entered the narrow gate of submission to God’s will and experienced the renewal of the Holy Spirit? It will show! Your life will be fruitful with love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
If your life is characterized by discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, drunkenness, etc. then you need to go back to the beginning point. You need to ask yourself if you have in fact, truly accepted the Lordship of Christ and given the Holy Spirit freedom to begin to transform your life.
Dr. Haddon Robinson writes-
"Some people are attracted to Christianity because they have a leaky faucet that they want God to fix. Perhaps they struggle with a destructive habit and they would like to tap into God’s power to help them break it. Or maybe they have broken relationships that they want God to mend. But they learn from this Sermon on the Mount that God is not a plumber. Leaky faucets are minor league stuff to Him. God wants to tear the plumbing out entirely and deal with the well from which the water flows. He wants to change what comes out of the faucet, not merely stop its leak." – The Solid Rock Construction Company, pg.122
Have you given Him the kind of permission that allows Him to invade every secret corner of your mind bringing your most basic ideas into line with His plan and purpose for you? I hope you are starting to grasp that this is no simple, easy weekend project. Being shaped into person that brings honor to the living God is an ongoing work with potential for tremendous results.
Make the choice to open your inner life to the work of the Holy Spirit. In prayer, meditation, worship, and study of the Scripture give Him the opportunity to change your heart. That change will be evident to the world in the fruit of your life.
The paradox is that spiritual fruit is not produced by our striving, but by presenting ourselves to Him, by practicing the disciplines of the Spirit that open up channels for the Spirit to flow into our hearts.
Ill. - The living trees in an orchard produce fruit simply by being alive.
Take a look again at the text. [ read vv.21 ]
This is an exceedingly important part of this passage. What really matters to God is want we do, not just what we say! It is possible to look good, talk well, and even do great work in the name of God without having a changed heart that is submitted to Him and accepting of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
In this same passage, Jesus says that there will be men and women who will have been miracle-workers who have never entered the narrow gate of salvation. But how can that be? How can someone function in the power of God without knowing Him?
Friend, in the Bible we learn that God even spoke through a donkey to a foolish prophet named Balaam! If you are aware of glaring sins of selfishness and rebellion in your life, but think that because God blesses others through you He is somehow over-looking your sin problem, you’re in for a big surprise. Some will find themselves judged by God as having done all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
This is important!!!
To evaluate your relationship with God don’t look at your spiritual gifts, look at your spiritual fruit. Fruit comes from godly character. Gifts come from the Holy Spirit who uses whatever and whomever He wills to accomplish the purposes of God.
2 Foundations
The final words of this passages have to do with the durability of our life’s work. If we choose the will of God we can expect that we will create a legacy that transcends time. If we choose self-will, we can expect that what we do will be swept away in the surging current of stormy life.
If your hope in serving God is go through life without encountering any storms it is time for a reality check. Troubles come to both the righteous and the sinner alike. The difference is in the stability of the person in the time of trouble. The person who has embraced God, who has entered the narrow gate, has a foundation that will hold him together. The person surrendered to God is able to look at the storm with hopefulness knowing that even in the most extreme instance if his life is swept away, God will bring him to everlasting life.
The Apostle Paul worked tirelessly for 35-40 years to establish the church of Jesus Christ. He endured storms of rejection, of deprivation, of all kinds of difficulty. In the end, he found himself chained to a wall in a dark dungeon in Rome. Awaiting his death sentence to be carried out, he dictated these words: [2 Tim. 4:18] "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." He had entered the narrow gate and set aside selfish rights. He had build a foundation of trust in God during his day to day obedience to the Lord over the years.
Do you know that kind of trust?
Does your life have a foundation that gives you stability and endurance?
Close:
It is decision time. What I have preached today is more than an exercise in philosophy.
It is a call to commitment.
In Joshua 24:14-15 the last words of this faithful, old leader are written for us....
"Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
We have the same choices today. We can choose to serve the old gods of self or we can choose the living God. We can hang on to all our options, choosing for convenience and short term pleasure or we can choose to enter the narrow gate of obedience to God.
The first step through that narrow gate involves acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Lord, as the forgiver, and as the Savior of our soul. We give up every hope of earning God’s approval and in faith, trust that Christ has settled the debt that we created through ignorance and disobedience. We then enter a covenant with God giving ourselves to Him for His purpose.
As you make your way to the front tell the Lord -
"I am walking through that narrow gate into your will.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for opening this gate to me by dying on the Cross.
Now I walk through it. I want to live with the goal of pleasing God and
finding the fullness of life that He has purposed for me."
Jerry D. Scott
copyright 2007 all rights reserved
www.WashingtonAG.com
