all of us right let’s just no more ice let’s go all right and but yeah we do also have another dear woman that turned for home recently and Judy Wadley and this Thursday is a service to celebrate her life and the life of the one that changed everything for her Jesus Christ so Jeff’s here and we will gather again this Thursday for that so a lot of heart in this place a lot of heart and moments like that that we share together it’s what families do

so I’ll say it again and then move on into the wonderful truth that God has for us today but come and join us afterwards it’s really if you’re not even in the habit of doing that or have to cancel a plan blame it on the pastor just say he guilt tripped us into it we had to come okay so I want to talk to you about something you haven’t been able to do for the last two weeks and that’s drive on a freeway right most of

us have been sort of cloistered at home and you know that’s we we just you know lived and bore a lot I guess in some respects but think about what you know on a freeway maybe right here in Portland the biggest freeway we have is i5 and it’s north and south and if you haven’t if you don’t get out much it actually goes all the way to Mexico so you know it just keeps on going you know so and all the way up to Canada so

but on I5 in our area of I5 there’s a it’s pretty wide it’s as wide as freeways get in Oregon they need to be about 10 lanes wide on both sides okay get back on point here let’s so but anyway they’re they’re wide roads these freeways are and every so often and when we first moved here I noticed a a store that was to the west of I5 down by Wilsonville and it caught my attention and and I thought that I want to go into that

store because I love the name of it and I’m actually a member of it it now but it’s called Camping World right and I and I but I had a problem on my hands because in that stretch of I5 there’s no exit and and there’s the store and I’m thinking I had a big truck I could get through that fence I think I’m not not sure how to do this exactly but and I realized there is actually a road in front it’s very small Road it’s

called a frontage road so you have freeways and then you have Frontage Road like this one road and I thought I I just got to find that so sure enough I figured it out and this this was a long time ago but I I found it was a rather circuitous windy way to get to Camping World and now I’m sometimes wish I didn’t find it because I spent too much money there but anyway you get my point so today I want us to take a look

at words of Jesus when he talked about actually two roads my Bible’s open to Matthew 7 and I hope yours is now as I prompt you to go to verse 13 and we’re going to just read these two verses and then find our way to a little piece of one of the letters that Peter wrote first Peter and we’ll get to there to that point shortly but Jesus is talking about two roads a big and wide and easily accessible freeway we could call it because that’s

what it is all right and a narrow hardto find Frontage Road that’s actually right near the freeway he describes them both and talks about them in this as you are going to become more and more familiar if you aren’t already sermon that he preached it was epic and it’s it’s always been the gold standard it’s The Sermon on the Mount Matthew gives us the most complete retelling of it in chapters 5 six and 7 okay so that’s the context for all this and when Jesus preached

about these two roads and by the way there are two gates and I have a little contact issue but we’ll get through it okay so anyway if it comes out I will ask for help but so these two roads and there are two gates that go to get this you need to know this before we read these verses very different places two roads two gates that lead to very different places and he presents something now that’s quite a quite startling contrast verse 13 enter these are

words of Jesus I’m I’m breaking in mid sermon if you will enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and Broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it verse 14 but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads someplace to life and only a few find it all right we got to we got to talk about this it’s part of the this series what if Jesus was serious so he’s a phenomenal teacher but I have always believed

my entire life since meeting him and my grandmother putting a Bible in my hand and I just couldn’t stop reading it I believe he’s more than a teacher and a good one at that I think he he taught this and everything he ever spoke with a purpose with the intended impact and I tell you now if you’ve not heard me say this the impact is first on me I live by Ezra 710 it’s a Bible prophet in the Old Testament Ezra studied the word of God

then he taught no studied the word of God comma then he practiced and then he taught so I can’t guarantee I’ve practiced everything you’ve ever heard me say but I can tell you this it’s Hit me hard and personally and so these words are those kinds of words two roads leading to two different locations so I want us to start with the wide Road and the wide gate it is the way says Jesus that the majority take are you catching that already many are those on

that Road I five that’s why I had you imagine that many are those and if you’re one who tends to decide H I’ve got two roads I can pick from and if you happen to be one and there are many that tend to decide which road to take based on which is the road most traveled then According To Jesus you would be on the wrong road you with me I hope you’re hearing wow it’s kind of easy to be on the wrong road then is that

kind of the implication here okay so the the claim that everyone is doing it whatever it is is not a very strong case that what the majority is doing is right okay I’m just trying to stretch it out here and make sense of this these words I’ve read countless times endless times in fact Jesus leaves no mystery whatsoever where that wide Road leads his word destruction you know what that’s one of those words I don’t have to say anything about I could say it’s hell I

could just say it’s bumpy but either way I don’t want to be on that road if it if it leads to let’s say the bridge is out we went down to Eugene recently and after a lot of rain and we decided to take because our phone navigation told us we could we decided to take a little different way and avoid the highway that had red on it you know the the experience we took that way and as we were kind of fishing our way through I

think it was Harrisburg if I remember sort of sort of North and Harrisburg home of the GI the biggest water tank I’ve ever seen right in the middle of town so there’s more there sorry Harrisburg I I know you guys are great and all but so we get on and we keep following and we we Cruise along and I happen to just glance up at a sign that looked like one of those signs that can be like ice or no ice you know one of those

flipper signs and this one said high water ahead and I just kept cruising and we’re in a Subaru Forester which means we can go anywhere some of you know where we’re heading right and we cruising along right and we we come and and it’s very swampy and stuff on the on the gravel road that we were on I guess it was a paved Road and then all of a sudden I look up and it was kind of getting Dusk and I I see what is a

a set of train tracks but strangely close to the road and then we kind of get closer and we notice I think I think that’s a lake I think that’s the biggest puddle I’ve ever seen on a road and so we stopped and we all focused our eyes and went oh it is and I said yeah there was a sign back there that said we’re heading there and we and just then a guy came behind us and he was cruising in a truck and and he

just he didn’t really slow down a whole lot right he just kind of kept going and he went under this train trestle and water went and he appeared on the other side and obviously he’s a local so he knew what was what was going on and we thought okay we can do it well okay some of you are thinking and we’re buying a new car now cuz we we no the truth is we we got all we got through it but Debbie when we got to

the other side said okay pull over pull over and she opened her door and she says oh there’s dirt on my car and mud and crud so anyway that’s just a little supplemental piece at the end there but this is the moment in my notes it’s not in my notes but avoid eye contact right now just a avoid it but no so so there’s this wide Road and what I was getting at is destruction can be defined a lot of ways but I don’t think Jesus

was describing a road that might get you a little wet or might get you a little dirty destruction is it’s over it did not turn out well next of kin are notified because you were on the wrong road now I want you to quickly notice there’s a second road we’ve mentioned that Jesus mentioned that it’s the narrow road and the small gate they describe the only way as I read it the only way that leads to one of the words you can’t say without smiling life

life you hold your newborn baby in your your arms there’s life this is so good and that’s what Jesus is saying but it’s less popular and it’s it’s less populated for sure right and and much less than the wide Road and he he doesn’t hide this from us and few are those who find let’s call it again the frontage road that’s what he’s saying here so you you see the flow here but though few find it hear me now it is the right Road it is

it’s a road that requires you to leave the freeway you’re used to the freeway you were born to travel on not not born for the purpose of traveling on but the moment you were born you were on that wide Road you got to hear that’s the truth so so it it requires us to leave the freeway that we are fairly knowledgeable of with all of its appetites and its attractions for the frontage road okay I can see your look you’re getting it this this is the

the narrow road According To Jesus will be hard it’s going to be hard without apology he says it is narrow which because few are on it it’s lonely and it’s costly so there it is you get it I get it most who heard these words preached that Day by Jesus or are hearing them read and expounded on today by me would agree they they seem pretty plain and clear that’s how I would describe it however I want to show you something you will see in this

very funny video people in our day who have somehow discovered a hidden interpretation for the words of Jesus check it out and the arguments I’ve had where where you know people have said you know one guy been in my church for like 15 years ever since it started I thought it was one of the key guys and and he comes to me you know just just not too long ago and he goes you know Francis here’s the problem with you he goes you think everyone needs

to be this radical you you think that Jesus calls us all to be radicals he he goes he goes you know you think there’s just these these few radicals and he goes you know there’s this you got to understand there’s there’s this Middle Road where where you know people you know they profess Christ and they do some good things and it’s like you’re you’re you’re you’re neglecting that whole Middle Road did you guys know that there’s a narrow road that leads to life there’s a wide

road that leads destruction and now there’s this new Middle Road yeah I didn’t know that like a carpooling you it’s just this this weird new road we created where you can just do some good things in the name of Jesus and still hold it’s it’s you know you know you just go you’re serious right now you’re dead serious you found a Middle Road you guys I I’m not a real you got to understand those who know me know that I’m not a real complicated guy I

tend to think like a kid I tend to just go well it seems like what it says you know I remember when when I was a kid we used to play this game called Follow the Leader remember that I Mayan some of you guys don’t cuz you used to play video games and but we play this game called Follow the Leader where the leader you know flaps his wings and you do the same thing and it was easy you you just do what the leader did

and it’s so weird how in the church we’ve Twisted this and follow Jesus is a different game you don’t really have to Flap your wings you don’t actually you can just sit there and do it in your heart seriously you know when I read the scriptures says man whoever claims the to know him must must walk as Jesus walked but we go well no I’m doing that in my heart you’re like the kid sitting on the recliner go no I’m flapping my wings in my heart

it doesn’t make sense it’s it’s it’s we we distort things because of what we want you know remember you remember Simon says that was easy right Simon Says Pat your head but Jesus says it’s a totally different game if Jesus says something you just have to memorize it that’s what we do in the church if Jesus said you just got to study it you you just got to you just have to be able to quote it in the Greek you you just it’s it’s it’s it

has nothing to do with hey Jesus says you look look when my daughter you know comes to me and I go look go clean your room she knows better than to come back a few hours later and goes dad I I memorize what you said I can say it in Greek in fact some of my friends we’re going to they going to come over we’re going to do a little study on what it would look like to clean my room it just it’s not making sense

to me and and all I can say is that we’re twisting things we do we do in the church and we we create this little way where we don’t actually have to do what Jesus called it’s Francis Chan if you’re interested he he has a wonderful way I’m going to help go a step further with his commentary let’s give a name to the Middle Road it’s called compromise I think that’s the road that is neither wide nor is it narrow but it’s it’s this Middle Road

and it’s it’s compromised so that means when Jesus said over in Luke in his gospel chapter 9 verse 23 if anyone wants to come after me remember those those it start the verse started that way if anyone wants to come after me and then he followed his appeal cuz we were left hanging what do we what does that mean if you want to follow you then what and he says You must deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow me so so you must deny

yourself that means you got to do it daily you must take up your cross that means daily and then that means follow me also Daily it’s it’s all in did he mean on Sunday and never mind Monday I’m just I’m just these are uncomfortable questions because I don’t sin a lot on Sunday but I have a bigger problem on Monday I I don’t know did he did he mean when we worship like we do every week here on Sunday but not when we work Monday to

Friday I wish I wish you could just say well Pastor that’s that’s that’s you’re just you’re just being a a communicator and you’re right until I met a man who was a a principal of a middle school a public school he was a leader in his church an elder as I recall wasn’t this church but I suppose it could have been at some point in some way we were talking about impacting the world that we live in and work in and I’ve never forgotten what he

said about his work in a public school district he says you know what I am a Christian but on Monday morning I’m a principal of so and so school district and he named the school and that means I have to put Christianity on the Shelf as I do my work Monday through Friday and I I quietly breathed the sigh of relief that he wasn’t the principal of one of my kids’ middle schools but I thought Jesus has a work to do in this man’s heart because

he’s willing to deny himself and take up his cross on Sunday maybe but he’s missing it Monday to Friday I don’t want to throw him under the bus I just think he’s got some growth ahead because Jesus didn’t put those kind of limits to this I’ve observed that some have found a way to apply Jesus words occasionally Which is far short of daily wouldn’t you agree I mean it it just seems that way to me the road we are to take daily we would have to

agree with Jesus it is narrow it is lonely and it’s costly no wonder so many people today kind of tend to gag at the thought that God changes lives because too many of them will tell you what well say why do you pass by the church and not pull in why do you whatever not you’re not a religious person well I’m not either but I love Jesus but why are you and very often it will Trace its way back to well well I you know I

hear this Jesus is going to change people’s lives and and then I see evidence that that’s not so much the case all the time can I can I just give us all a sigh of relief here I have some of the most profound images in my mind of people in this Fellowship this church that are so incredibly dialed into Jesus they are doing it daily they are walking with him daily and good for you when I get phone calls during this ice storm that say who

needs my help that wasn’t on Sunday that was whatever day it was really beautiful it was really a picture of people that are living it when we hear there’s a financial need or some kind of struggle we we don’t just go pray for you that’s good but do something and we do that’s what we do do in the name of Jesus because after he saved us he says I’ve made you as a workmanship created in me for good works that you might do those things right

that’s but Brennan Manning he calls out people that are expedient Christians by saying the greatest single cause of Atheism in our world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips on Sunday and walk out the door and deny him by the way they live that is what an unbelieving World simply finds unbelievable but can I tell you as I flip it that’s Brennan Manning it’s also one of the most compelling reasons people turn into the parking lot CU they saw some somebody that’s living for

Jesus daily his word they’re on a narrow road some people will call them weird some people will actually say they’re too pure oh gee you’re no fun you’re too pure okay guilty if you want to be that person you know you know what I’m saying so if we’re to take Jesus seriously we must choose the right Road and stay on it I I use I want to I want to have you turn now to First Peter and I told you we would First Peter chapter 1

when Peter said you must be holy in everything you do that was a different peter than the Peter we met in the Gospels okay Peter was the one who was an equivocator you can write that word down and check it out okay so he was expedient he was whatever he needed to be wherever he needed to be not in the First Corinthians 9 cents but in the Galatians 2 cents in other words he was a hypocrite Peter was that guy that wanted to you know fit

in so much so that he’s known he’s known in history as the one who said I don’t know Jesus when he was asked after they arrest Jesus and he repeats himself two more times no I don’t know that I’ve never met the man I have no idea who you’re talking about by the way just for context Peter said that the very same night just hours maybe minutes after he had said Jesus want you to know something I will go with you you anywhere I will follow

you anywhere I will give my life for you so he’s an equivocator in those days by saying I don’t know Jesus and then he becomes 20 or 30 years later this great Apostle and he wrote two letters near the end of his life after can I say and use these words to describe him he he made his choice no more wide Road no more freeway for me I’m going to I’m going to walk on the narrow road because Jesus calls all of us to do so

and he said this in chapter one of his first letter verse 13 therefore with Minds that are alert and fully sober set your Hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming then when he returns set your focus on him as obedient children do not be conformed to the freeway the evil desires you had when you traveled on that road when you lived in ignorance but verse 15 just as he who called you as holy so be holy

in all you do for it is written be holy because I am Holy when Peter said verse 15 you are to be holy in everything you do what is the plain explanation of words in all you do we do we mean holy in your heart but somehow it doesn’t translate into the habits of your heart that’s a problem and Jesus wants to talk about that problem does it does it mean that we Are Holy in our talk but not so much in our walk what if

Jesus was serious that’s why this Ser the series is important this author author gets what Peter was saying Peter tells us to be like our heavenly father in the words we just read holy in everything we do Holiness means being totally devoted or dedicated to God set apart from the freeway the sin and its influence were to be set apart and different not blend in with the crowd God’s qualities in our life make us different think about what we say a lot Jesus saved me and

sent his holy spirit to live in me and if that’s true how does the Holy Spirit look it’s really a good good question it’s like well wait a minute the god God who is Holy came to live in me and he cleaned up the place and and now he’s supposed to show through me what is Holy let’s let’s just make sure we get it near at the here here near the end holy is fundamentally at the basic root different so now you took a really complicated

word or something that’s we say holy smokes or we don’t quite use it the way it’s meant it’s it’s different it’s a person who verse 15 says holy in all he does is someone who is in his present life in Christ different from his past life before Christ is he holy that’s how it looks but different isn’t easily done let me ask you is is your life different today than what it was before you became a Christian it it should be that’s God’s purpose in in

coming in at your invitation and living inside you saving you and he rolls up his sleeves and says okay we’re going to go places and I’ll do the work you just got to cooperate you have a role to play here so that’s what’s going on here are you are you different from the practices of the people around you who don’t know Christ that’s holy are you holy different from unsaved people hear me hear me clearly you should be but not in a condescending way in a

contrasting way you just live a little different way in some sense places in some some ways a very different way but you don’t go looking down no that’s not what we do it’s there is a contrast but it’s not a condescending one the world is constantly and you know this without me saying it pushing its agenda on us trying to make us conform come on just a little just that’s what happens in this world we live in so we must be people who resist being Unholy

being undiff and he says where it begins so how do I do that it begins in your mind look back at verse 13 Minds that are alert and fully sober it means to think clearly or to kind of get your head in the game I think of high school musical our kids love that actually I loved it a lot in great movies and there’s this basketball team and all but there’s this song get your head in the game get you gotta get your head in the

game you gotta get your head in the game because the star was not focused this team needs you to be focused God would say to me and you I need you to be focused focused on what the basket no his name is Jesus focus on me focus on my promised return and when you do it will make a difference in you how do I make how do I look different you got to get you get you get you get your head in the game right try

that on before you have food in your mouth next door that that could be messy but so that’s I think what I had to share I put a a sentence together I want to read to you be holy because you belong to a holy God who lives in you to make you holy so be holy that’s the assignment but do it because a holy God took up residence in you to make you holy so if the road that you’re on has you doing some things and

there’s probably no exception to this hearing my words right now including the on saying them if it has you doing certain things that aren’t holy then you can be sure that there’s something the Holy Spirit wants to work in and on in your life my life Life That’s Good and though tempting we saw it earlier the Middle Road that’s that’s that’s not meant to be taken by God’s people at all Jesus actually went so far in Revelation chapter 3 I’d rather you be hot or cold

because lukewarm doesn’t cut it I think I think the reason he said that is because you get a false positive you think you’re okay and you’re really not so go all out or maybe I should say go all in and be holy in all you do I’d like you to Bow your heads with me Lord we we live in this world there it’s not the day you save us you rescue us and call us home but we live in a world that you’ve said so yourself

is mostly a a wide Road taken and Christians you tell us are to be different be people that live and walk and live out the narrow road and I pray that more of us would do that daily because when we aren’t different and holy and the world shakes its head and walks away and I I think something we don’t normally think happens to them in that moment they they get a little further away and I don’t want that Lord because then I become a stumbling block

and you expect more from me but God you are doing a work in me and every one of us can say this too imperfect people but when we choke when we fail when we when we aren’t different when we are Unholy help us to just be candid and transparent and say I I that that was bad I’m so sorry and don’t justify well you know Christians are just forgiven not perfect or help us to just be honest about it Lord and to remember that you’re the

one living in us making beautiful things out of broken people and one by one as we live out holy lives different lives in a world that’s on the freeway help them to look over and see the the frontage road and through our influence find a way to get there and meet you thank you for doing beautiful things out of dust and out of us as we’ll sing now in Jesus name as we prepare to sing this song this morning I was really struck when Steve was

talking about the Middle Road and if you picture in your mind i5 and that Frontage Road that he described there is a Middle Road in there and it’s called a ditch and and it’s it’s easy to find yourself there when you’re continually making those compromises in your life and the ditch doesn’t always reveal itself as something bad because sometimes you’ll find little wild flowers and little poppies and things growing in it and you’ll be drawn to that but if you walk in that long enough you’re

going to hit the muuk and the Meer and the mud and all of this Wastewater stuff that comes with the storm drain but it’s a great reminder that God doesn’t promise US that the road won’t have bumps in it he doesn’t promise US that it’s always going to be easy to stay on that narrow road but he does promise that even when we walk off that narrow road and we do find ourselves in a ditch he will never leave us he will never forsake us and

he can make beautiful things out of our missteps it just takes us a little bit longer to get there all this pain I wonder if I’ll ever find my way I wonder if my life could really change at all all this could all that is lost ever be found could a garden come up from this ground at all you make beautiful things you make be

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,648 words.