The Way that Leads to Life

INTRODUCTION

I want to talk to you today about the road that leads to life

I’m talking this morning to those Jr’s and Sr’s who’s lives will be drastically changing over the next few years

When you graduate from this school, and you move out of your parents house, you are going to have freedom like you’ve never had

You may be in a college dorm in another town or renting your own place

You may just move out and get a place of your own

BUT You will no longer be under the control and restrictions of your parents

There will no longer be a curfew

The rules will no longer be there

And you will have the complete freedom to choose the life you want to live

And I’m also talking to others here maybe your 6th, 7th, or 8th grade and you’re now old enough to begin making more serious choices

You now get to choose much of what you will allow in your life

The friends and groups that you choose to hang around

The morals you are developing that will be with you for many years

The seriousness that you approach God with

All of these decisions are part of your destiny

Jesus said this, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

We are are on one of those two road:

The broad road that leads to destruction

The narrow road that leads to life

It’s the kind of life that we choose to live that determines which road we are on:

What is The Broad Road like?

It’s the easy road. It’s the road where anything goes. There are no restrictions, everything is accepted. And it’s the road that most people are on.

I want you to look at the person sitting to your left. Then look at the person sitting to your right. Then quickly look at all your classmates sitting around you.

Generally speaking, if we were to apply this verse to everyone in this room, MOST of the people in here are on the road that leads to destruction.

The verse says, “broad is the way that leads to destruction and MANY enter through it”

What Jesus is saying is that the majority of the world is on a road that is leading them to eternal destruction.

How can we know whether or not we are on the broad road?

Jesus said, it has a wide gate and it is a broad road

These descriptions are metaphors for a way of life

Wide & Broad communicate that this road is spacious! It’s wide open and there’s plenty of room on this road!

This is the road where anything goes!

Any kind of sin that you want to practice in your life, you can carry with you on the broad road

There is room here for perverted language, cursing, and dirty jokes

If you want to bully others and mistreat people, you can do that on this road

There is room for greed and the lifelong pursuit of riches

There is room for drugs, alcohol, racism, sexual immorality

Don’t like you parents? The broad road welcomes you too! You do not have to honor your parents here. You don’t have to respect their authority or any authority. You can be defiant and rebellious on this road.

How about telling lies? No need for integrity on this road. There plenty of room for those who like to stretch the truth.

IN FACT, whatever kind of sin you enjoy, you can carry it with you on this road!

It is like the Burger King slogan, “Have it your way!”

This is ALSO the road where you DO NOT NEED any faith in Jesus Christ

Faith is believing in what you cannot see

It is on this broad road that you will find the atheists who say there is no God

You will also find those who place science and hypothesis over God’s revelation

On this road you do not have to attend the youth group, go to church to gather with believers, serve in the church, go to church camps, read your Bible, seek God in any way, or ever have to bow your head and pray to an invisible God!

IN FACT, You can believe in anything you want here:

You like Buddha? You can have him here

You want to be a pagan or worship the Norse gods of Thor and Odin? You can have them here

You can believe in reincarnation or pantheism

If you want to jump on board with much of the world today and blend all religions and say, “ll roads lead to heaven” believe that all roads lead to heaven, you can do that here too

On this spacious road there is room for anything the human mind can dream up

God’s truth doesn’t matter here!

Truth is relative on the broad road

This is also the road where you will find the majority of people in this life “many enter through it”

It’s so easy to get on this road because MOST EVERYONE you will encounter for the rest of your life is traveling down it

So it’s much easier to do what everyone else is doing rather than be different

SO those who fear being made fun of for being different will be likely to jump on this road

Those who are not willing to be persecuted for their faith in Jesus will take this easy road

Those who are not willing to suffer and turn down some of the pleasures of this world will find themselves on this road

There is not much loneliness on this road because there is always plenty of company

One more thing about this road, “It leads to destruction”

Jesus said this road leads to destruction

He is not talking about our earthly lives being destroyed

He is speaking about what happens when we die and leave this world

Destruction is a just a reference for hell

The Bible says, Heb 9:27 “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”

See what will happen when you and I die, we will stand before Almighty God and He will judge us according to our deeds

How we lived this life, the decisions that we made, the road that we chose to walk down will determine our eternal destiny

For the people on this road, this life is as good as it gets

The material things they have accumulated in an attempt to satisfy, the relationships they’ve had, the pleasures of this world are as good as it will ever get for those on the broad road.

Because on that road, they are walking to their doom

But God does not leave us in a hopeless world. Jesus said, “BUT small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only few find it”

Their is a Narrow Road that leads to life

Isn’t it amazing, that the road that leads to life is the road that only FEW people will find

It seems so obvious to us as we read this that this is the best possible way of life!

Why do only “few” travel down this road?

BECAUSE the road is narrow and constricted AND really the opposite of life on the broad road

On the broad road anything goes, but those who travel down this road live faithful lives committed to Jesus Christ

Sin is no longer part of their lives

They have turned from all those things that are practiced on the broad road.

It is not that they are sinless, but they no longer practice sin as they once did

And when they do sin, they repent and ask God to forgive them because they know every sin is a sin against God

Now they strive to live lives that are characterized by holiness

More than popularity, more than being accepted by this world they want to live to please their Heavenly Father

And this kind of lifestyle can be very difficult in a world that approves and even praises sinful behavior

This is also the road that the enemy of this world prowls upon

He targets followers and those who seek righteousness

He does so by tempting them sin and then discouraging them to stop following Christ

His goal is to draw people off this road back onto the road of destruction

And he uses friends, and drugs, and acceptance, and anything at his disposal

He is ruthless, cruel, and will stop at nothing to gain just one more soul to come back to the broad road

So the Narrow road requires faith to walk down it

Faith is the conviction of things not seen

For one to choose the more difficult way in life, he must believe that there is reason for it, there is a reward for it

For no one would choose to live a more difficult life unless he truly believed these words of Jesus, that this road leads to life.

Those who walk down this road believe that Jesus truly does give eternal life, and that if they will follow Him, they will receive a crown of glory

But there is one more thing we need to know about this road. Those who choose it are blessed with the power and presence of God Himself.

Jesus promises His followers over and over that He will alwasy be with them

So those who choose his road are not walking alone, but are equipped to persevere by the Holy Spirit of God.

It is God Himself who gives them strut and even the desire to live their lives on this road

Heb 13:5-6 “for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?””

Application

If your life is a cake walk and you fit right in with the majority, YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT RHE DIRECTION YOU ARE HEADED

Stand and have the courage to change your course of life.

Do not do what the the rest of the world does.

Start right now, make changes in your life.

Get serious about following after Jesus.

Get off the broad road! and Get on the road that leads to life

Jesus promises this: He came to give life and give it abundantly and becuase of that I can promise you this: the Christian life is much harder BUT IT IS SO WORTH IT!

There is purpose and meaning and a reason to live!

And I have never heard of anyone on the narrow road who regretted it

If you are on the narrow road, never, never, look back

You keep your eyes focused on the prize in Christ Jesus

AND do not be surprised when hardships come, when our faith is tested, when it seems like the whole world is against us…BE SURE OF THIS THEY ARE

BUT you are not alone!

The Lord will never leave you nor forsake you

And there are still “few” who find IT and walk with us on the road to life

All around the world there are faithful Christians who are walking the same path to glory with us

You remain faithful and in due time you will receive your crown.

~PRAYER~