There is but one vaccine, One Way!
- I don’t know how many of you sit at home thinking, when will this madness end, but I
find myself pondering that notion more & more.
- I’ve taken note of all the potential vaccines that are running through our drug
corporations.
- There’s over a hundred potential vaccines going right now.
- Then, it hit me.
- It doesn’t matter how many vaccines are in the works. If none of them work!
Q- Isn’t That a scary thought?
- Our plight, fear, & seclusion could never end.
Q- Does this scenario sound familiar?
- Let’s read it together in Matthew 7:7-14.
- Then I want to begin talking about verses 13-14, before we back up to verses 7-12.
Matthew 7:7-14
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
- Enter In Through the narrow gate, or you can only have one vaccine, the one that
works.
- Think about the tough medicine offered here. God says, it’s my way, or the
highway.
- Whoa! That sounds kind of bold for God!
- No, not really.
Q- Do you want to get better?
- Then you must take the only medicine G O D approved!
- Let’s pray as we think about that for a minute.
Prayer
- Something we often get hung up on is, we think it’s limiting of God to say it’s a really
narrow way you must go in to be saved.
Q- Why can’t the way be broad, or easier?
- It’s because those other ways won’t save you. Just like any of the 100 vaccines. If
only one works, the other 99 are useless to take.
- Narrow be the way, one out of ninety nine. Broad be the way that leads to
destruction, 99 different ways to still get sick & die.
Q- So, is God mean to say you must go the narrow way of accepting Jesus as your
Savior?
- No!
Q- Think about this, Could you live a perfect life?
Q- Could you be rich enough to buy your way into Heaven?
- God owns cattle on a thousand hills, which means everything.
Q- Could you do enough good to go to Heaven?
- Listen, outside of Christ, all your works are as filthy rags. Which means when
you turn them in to God, expecting a pat on the back, He’s going to throw them
in the trash can. Then He’ll ask, What else you got?
Q- Do you think you could get in on your looks?
- There’s lots of people who think they’re God’s gift to mankind, but after the
good works are thrown out, & you stand to say I’m too beautiful or important to
not go to Heaven.
Q- How Do you think God Would respond to that?
- I know you are beautiful. I saw you before your conception, & formed you
in your mother’s womb.
- There’s nothing left. You tried the other vaccines, & they all failed.
- You know the verse, Matthew 7:23
Matthew 7:23
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
- In that moment, Jesus looks at His most beautiful creation, & says, I never knew you.
- The broad path leads you to many specialists, Doctors, & smart people who tell
you will never get sick, but it’s nothing but lies.
Q- Where do they get their lies from?
- Satan himself, the father of lies.
- Back to my first question.
Q- Why can’t God just make the path broader, & easier?
- As people ask that question they dwell on verses 13-14, but if we back up again to
verses 7-12 I think we’ll get There’s a different perspective to the, so called,
calloused God.
Matthew 7:7-14
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Q- Is Jesus withholding the vaccine from anyone?
- No, Listen to the Psalmist!
Psalm 46:8-11
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
- Leading up to the day Jesus was born a vaccine was coming.
- A way to, Once & for all, cleanse us from our corruption, sin, trespasses was coming.
- The Psalmist announced God doesn’t destroy the world. No, He saves it.
Q- Could God be mean, or calloused towards His creation?
- Listen to God’s affection in Matthew 5:45.
Matthew 5:45
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
- God has given life to every one of us. He extends the offer of eternal life to every one
of us as well.
- The offer came like this,
1. Ask for it.
Q- How must I receive eternal life?
- It is by the blood of Jesus Christ alone.
2. Seek for it.
- Our first response to solving problems is to fire up the internet.
Q- Do you want the vaccine that gives you an eternity with God, with Jesus?
- Seek for how you can receive it.
James 1:5
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
- Freely the pathway is revealed.
3. finally He simply says to knock, & the door will be opened to you.
- You asked, & sought for the way.
- Now, you stand at the foot of the cross. The only thing that stands between
your burdens being laid down, & life eternal being lifted up is an invisible
door, between you & the cross.
- The door is made of stereotypes (Jesus couldn’t be God, if God was so
good why didn’t He just fix everything & let us live in peace?)
- It is made of insecurities (He couldn’t, or wouldn’t save me. There’s
nothing special about me.)
- It is made of manmade Wisdom (How could there be a God)
- All Jesus asks is,
Q- Would you knock?
- Put aside fears, pride, failures, & realize He died to rescue you.
Q- Rescue you from what?
- Death, Death eternal!
- Our vaccines, much like the flu vaccine, while they don’t have the ability to stop
the virus. They are given to stop death from the power of this virus.
- This is what Jesus did. He stopped the power of sin, Death!
- He is our vaccine!
Q- Would you knock on the door, & say Jesus give it to me?
- I miss the invitation, the altar call. So, I’m going to do something that is completely
different.
- I know there’s people out there who won’t, or can’t come to church, but you still
need salvation.
- So, I want to lead you in what’s called the sinner’s prayer. It’s the prayer where
you’re telling Jesus, I’m knocking, save me.
"God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. However, I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness. I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!"
- I may never know you, but the command after you have prayed that prayer is to
confess it. Tell someone Jesus is your Savior, & you shall be saved.
- Even in a pandemic Jesus saves lives, & let’s praise Him that He’s saved mine.
- Let me close now in prayer.
Prayer
