231129 BITES Open House: "He is the Way"

Introduction 6:05pm:

(SMILE) Oh, I am so glad you have chosen to come tonight. It is such an encouragement to me and I am sure to the team that you have allowed us to serve you this evening.

For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight our youth group goes by the name BITES. Biblically Instructing Teens for Evangelism and Service. We gather weekly every Wednesday at 6pm and do what we are doing for you. We cook, we serve, we place others before ourselves and we learn from God’s Word how to share the Gospel. It is our great pleasure to serve you this evening.

Order of Service 6:07pm:

Prayer: As soon as I finish asking God to bless our meal the team will begin bringing your meal out to your table.

Menu: We will be enjoying a Hot Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake with a chopped salad with Italian dressing and dinner rolls. We will also be serving as a beverage red grape juice. If you have special requirements please do not hesitate to let your servers know.

Fellowship: You will notice that some conversation kick-starters have been added to your tables around the candles. The intent of these is to focus our fellowship on our Savior to stir us up in our praise of Him for what He has done for us.

Message: At 630pm a brief message will be given.

Dessert: Afterwards dessert will then be served; which will be Angel food cake with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. Tea and coffee are also available.

Final Comments: Lastly if you know someone who would appreciate a meal please let your server know and they will prepare a to-go tray for you. At the conclusion of the meal we will be tearing down the room - which you are welcome to participate in although it is not required. Only tear down is necessary, we will not be setting up the chairs as some routine cleaning will be taking place later this week.

Prayer 6:10pm:

Abba Father, Your Son Jesus Christ has given us not only His very life in payment for sin. He has not only given us His very Spirit to comfort us day by day and convict us when we go astray from You. He has also given us an example.

He said that we ought also to serve one another as He has served us (John 13:13-17). He has humbled Himself in every conceivable way, by becoming a Baby, by living as a Man in perfect submission to every human institution, to imperfect parents, under Your own good Law as well as flawed human government.

He submitted to Your will and achieved appeasement of Your righteous wrath against sin and perfection for all who believe. We love Your beloved Son, Father. We ask Your blessing on this evening. We ask that You direct our hearts and mouths toward Him, toward encouraging one another and we ask that You be glorified. It is in Christ’s perfection we come to You, amen.

Transition at 6:28pm

Message at 6:30pm:

I love to speak of Jesus, to read His word and to share what I have learned with others that drives our youth group and this desire to Know Christ and Make Him Known drives our body of believers. I was struck this week by what Christ said in Matthew’s Gospel Account.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:13–14““Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

He said what? Matthew 7:13–14 ENUNCIATE CLEARLY “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

From this text it is apparent that Jesus has in mind two routes into eternity… an easy way and a hard way. The easy way is obvious, it looks good because everyone else is on it! There are many who enter this way. Its broad, like the I-5 and the pace is hurried, frenzied, hard to escape… There are many advertisements on this routes, distractions and diversions… This easy way, this broad way leads to destruction, termination, annihilation, ruin… PAUSE

What did Jesus say? The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it. Do we see the wide gate open today? Yes, this way has been open since mankind fell in the garden and many have pursued it PAUSE QUIETER to their eternal grief

But there is another gate. A gate that doesn’t lead to hell. This way is hard to find, there are very few signs. If perchance you find yourself approaching this gate you will likely not receive the encouragement of neighbors, family or friends to enter it. Quite the contrary, there may be discouragement and a hundred reasons not to enter it. This gate is small. This gate is constricted, restricted and forces the traveler to conform to it. This gate leads to eternal life. It leads to paradise. It leads to Christ. PAUSE

This is not a new theme in Scripture…

In Noah’s day in Genesis 6-7, the Ark that carried he and his family to safety, past the destruction that fell on the world, had one entrance that admitted only those who desired to go into it. While the world in its depravity mocked Noah, he and his family alone entered through the one door designed by God and they were saved… while the world was drowned.

In Exodus 12, the only way to escape the 10th plague which would utterly devastate Egypt by taking the lives of all the firstborn, the only way to escape was to take blood from a perfect lamb and mark their homes. Those who did, through that one act of faith, were saved while those who failed to do so perished.

Life is the destination for those who take God at His word. Life is the ultimate end for those who swim upstream from the current that has captured nearly all of mankind. If Your hope is in Christ, your way will be hard in this life, if you believe in Christ your way will be constricted. If you trust in Christ you may have to go alone where no one else follows, there may be mockers, there may be discouragement but you will lay hold of that most precious gift, Eternal life. PAUSE

EARNESTLY Can I make it more plain than Jesus did in John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Friend, may I ask you which way are you on? Can you honestly affirm that you are in all seriousness pursuing truth to wherever it takes you? Are you grasping for the Lord? You need to know this that eternal life is available through faith in Christ alone. Acts 4:12 ““And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.””

If you have placed all of your confidence in Christ’s perfection under His own Law, if you have rested in His righteousness established on Calvary when He paid sin’s debt by nailing it to the cross. If you will come to God not in your own merit or morals but only by clinging to Christ you will be saved.

Romans 10:9–10“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.”

Friend today is the day of salvation, today is the day to come through the narrow gate and receive eternal life now. Eternal life is waiting. Revelation 21:27“And nothing defiled, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Freedom from sin, from death, from tears is waiting for those who come through Christ. It has been my prayer this week that by God’s grace there are some here who having heard this message will finally leave the broad way and come through Christ to life and light and peace with God.

If this message has resonated with you please come and speak with me as soon as possible, do not wait.

Thank you

Completion of the Evening:

Before we conclude this evening’s events may I ask for all the BITES Team to join me up on stage. They have worked very hard so please let us give them a round of applause. Thank you all!

Now, as I mentioned earlier we are going to begin tearing down the tables and chairs. If you can assist in bringing the chairs into the kitchen or the tables that would be very much appreciated.

Prayer 7:00pm:

Abba, we do thank You for this wonderful opportunity. Thank You for giving us the ability, the means, the resources to serve others. I thank You for each one of these kids. I thank You for their growth, their maturing - You are the One who has caused it Abba. May You alone receive glory as You alone are the One responsible for all that is good. Please go with us this evening, and may the name of Your Son be ever on our lips. It is in Christ’s name I pray, amen.

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Matthew 19:16–26

Mark 10:17–31