Your Next Step Is Crucial

I will grant you that there is a point in life that you could get to where the next step that you take is absolutely crucial. Life can:

∑ Press on you

∑ Shove you

∑ Pressure you

∑ Force you

to that place where it is critical. Things can happen in your existence that can push on you until you feel that there is a choice that you must make in order to proceed. Life can put the squeeze on you until there is a step you must make and that step is a crucial one.

It’s like you or I have been traveling on a pathway up into the mountains and the path has become narrow.

∑ The farther we travel the narrower the path becomes.

∑ The farther we travel the higher we go.

∑ The higher we go the more dangerous the trail.

∑ The more dangerous the trail the more on guard and aware we should become.

We have been traveling down this path for sometime now when all of the sudden we realize that this path is only just a few inches wide and the edges are crumbling.

The enemy of your soul will start you off on a path in life away from God. He will tell you how easy this path is to travel on. He will tell you how wide the path is and how much liberty you have on this path. You can do anything that you want to on this path. But when you come to the end of the trail you will find out that he was lying to you. You will see that your next step is crucial.

∑ You will be bound up in sin and the pleasures of this world

∑ You will be hooked on drugs

∑ You will be addicted to the bottle

∑ You will be bound up in immorality

∑ You will be bearing the heavy load of the cares of your life all alone

And then you will realize that it wasn’t worth going my own way.

The edge of the path drops off into a huge canyon on the one side while the other edge hugs to the mountainside. We come to a point where one step in the wrong direction will lead to destruction and one step in the right direction will lead to safety. It is an important step to take. It is a stride that will bring one result or the other. The next step is crucial.

∑ That’s where some of us are in our walk with God.

∑ That’s where some of us are in our life.

∑ That’s where this church is in our existence today.

We have traveled to the place where the next step is an important one. We have journeyed to a point where there is a choice to make concerning our walk with God. We are at a position in our life where we must make a decision.

As a church we have got to decide whether we want to be a:

∑ Bible believing

∑ Truth declaring

∑ God fearing

∑ Lost soul loving

church or just a social club. The next step is crucial.

It could be today that you are at a point in your life that you are looking for something more than you already have in your life. Can I suggest to you that you give Jesus a try? Can I suggest to you that it is no accident that God has allowed you to be here today? He is reaching for you today in this service. The next step is crucial.

Deuteronomy 4 is a prophecy that Moses is speaking to God’s people. He tells them that by chance:

∑ If they ever come to a place in their existence that they no longer serve God the way they do now

∑ If you ever find that you have been corrupted by the things of the world

∑ If you discover that you are not in obedience to the word of God

∑ If you find out that you have taken the wrong pathway for your life

∑ If you are doing evil in the sight of almighty God

Moses says that there are some things that are going to happen to you as a people. God will scatter you. God will not prolong your days. God will cause heaven and earth to bear witness against you. You will serve gods of wood and stone. You will serve gods that cannot see and cannot hear. You will be in a big mess.

Moses says that when you get to the place that you are being influenced by other gods you had better beware because that is idolatry. Idolatry is always a corruption of the heart. Idolatry always begins in the heart. It is an issue of the heart.