10/20/2024 - Two Roads / Two Gates

Choices

Choices scare the stuffing out of the next generation

People are afraid to make the wrong choice

I remember as a kid

I made stupid choices all the time

I remember flying down a hill on my Big Wheel at top speed

when I hit the bottom of the hill we had a gravel driveway

I would hit that driveway at top speed and pull the brake lever on the back of that thing

and spin out

It was at some point when I learned about the physics of inertia

the bigger I got the faster I went

the fast I went the more inertia I would create when I pulled that lever

the more inertia that was created the more g-force was created and

as one point I was whipped around so fast I hit the rocks on that driveway

and I was wearing shorts and tore my leg all up.

I learned from my mistakes

failure is a great teacher

To add insult to injury

I remember coming inside the house

and my mom was busy so my older sister was going to help me

she sat me down and looked at my knee

and I she grabbed a bottle with some toilet paper

and daubed the toilet paper and was going to clean off my knee

mom always used peroxide to clean a wound

my sister grabbed a bottle that looked like peroxide

but instead was rubbing alcohol

another thing to add to the remebrence of the event not to do it again

FOF - Fear of Failure

People are afraid to fail today

A study written in a book done by Dr. Jonathan Haidt called, The Anxious Generation

reveals some information about this

There are two what he calls experience blockers

these are things that block student from experiencing life

The first is the smartphone.

The smartphone is proven to push out or reduce all other forms of non-phone-based experience

which is the kind of their experience expectant brains most need at an early age

The second experience blocker is what he labels as safetyism

This is when we make children’s safety an excuse

and don’t allow them to take any risks

we block them from overcoming anxiety

learning to manage risks

and learning to be self-governing

all of which are essential for becoming healthy and competent adults

These two experience blockers removed rites of passages

and created what he and other sociologists call the great rewiring between 2010 and 2015

The great rewiring created four great social harms

social deprivation - and isolation from each other due to social media

shallow friendships and superfluous or unnecessary romantic relationships

sleep deprivation - the average teenager needs at least 9 hours of sleep

because of the smartphone, it is calculated that most teenagers only get at the most about 6 hours of sleep

attention fragmentation - the average number of notifications on a students phone was calculated at around 192 alerts per day.

that’s just the apps for communication, not including gaming, or any other notification that comes to the phone

Imagine trying to stay committed to one mental road or task with a constant buzzer going off in your pocket 192 times a day

and addiction

neurotransmitters in our brains release a chemical in our brain called dopamine

dopamine is the chemical most responsible for pleasure and pain

but it’s not just pleasure, it’s a wanting

like, that felt great I want more

it’s the lay’s commercial in reality

I’ll bet you can’t eat just one

It’s the same chemical that is released when you get a win in Fortnite

or a like on Instagram

that is the same chemical released for a gambling addict or drug addict

It’s not that the great majority of adolescents are addicted to Fortnite or Instagram,

but what was discovered is

their desires are being hacked and their actions are being manipulated.

All this leads up to a fear of failure and anxiety of making choices

I’m not sure how many people are afraid to make the wrong choices in life

but even before the great rewiring in society

people were afraid of making choices

because sin has corrupted our ability to choose well

God in the garden of Eden gave us the choice

this is why we have free will in society

God created a tree in the garden called the knowledge of good and evil

it was the only tree with a rule

don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

God plants it there because He wanted us to have choice

and for the first 2 whole chapters out of 1,189 chapters in the Bible we chose well

After that time when the first man and woman chose to disobey God

Sin entered the world and the world has been broken ever since

It separated us from Him

It put to death our spirit that was connected to His

it made us finite human beings with a death date for our body

God knew this would take place, but still gave us the choice

so, He still gives us a choice

we can choose to live without our spirit connected to his

and live without His guidance and direction in our lives

and one day when our body quits

we will spend eternity with the choice we made to stay separated from Him

the choice is written in the Bible in the book of Romans

Romans 6:23 (CSB)

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You can accept His gift or you can still choose to live without Him in your life

When you choose to place Jesus over your life

and choose to believe that Jesus died for You

You get to have the benefit of the Holy Spirit living inside of You

to help make better choices in life

He still allows us to make choices, but eternity is paid for by His choice

to send Jesus Christ to pay for the sin in our life

You also as a follower of Christ live from a different perspective

we live from a perspective of victory instead of worrying about defeat

but that’s also a choice

All these choices are important

Because how we live our life will determine how we will treat others

Our convictions determine our behavior

If you are constantly tied to your phone

and refuse to look up because you are on a dopamine hunt

then you will live your life disrespecting those that are right in front of you

because your convictions tell you it’s more important to please yourself

than it is to pay attention to others

I love people watching at restaurants

we were at the high fancy restaurant on Monday called Waffle House

Just a side note, those people got it going on

it’s an orchestrated symphony to watch them cook

better than any Japanese hibachi place

because instead of one guy doing all these fancy moves

there are about four people all moving and cooking together for the entire restaurant

and for a cheaper price than the hibachi food

but most of the people in the restaurant wouldn’t ever notice because they are so tied to their phones.

too busy taking dopamine hits

almost 85% of the restaurant were on their phones

even people sitting across from each other, texting each other

or sending messages with funny memes to each other

never bothering to look up and notice what was going on around them

The story of being a follower of Jesus is all about relationships and choices

it’s first about restoring a relationship with God

It’s secondly about helping people to restore their relationship with God

The question we have to ask ourselves is this

what part of God are we displaying in our life that other people will want?

what are we choosing to display on a regular basis to people?

If I were to ask your friends and family who you really are

would they describe what we see on a Sunday morning

or would there be an entirely different description

all based on our convictions and choices?

We’ve spent a year talking about what it means to be a follower of Jesus

It took a year to unpack all that Jesus was trying to tell us

in a sermon that He delivered in about 45 minutes

How much of it is still with us

that when people see us, they notice something different about our lives

and want what we have?

Jesus, and us in turn, are coming to the end of His sermon

and He is going to summarize it all in one phrase

Summary of the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 7:12 (CSB)

12 Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Got to find out what the therefore is there for

The therefore leads us to go backwards to find out what is Jesus talking about

You would have to go back to the beginning of the sermon

and we would discover that Jesus is about to summarize His entire sermon in one statement

All of the beatitudes, all the talk about relationships, sin in our life,

divorce, taking oaths, revenge, practicing our righteousness, charitable deeds, praying ,fasting, judging

all comes down to this

whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them

big choices

here are some things that we take away from this statement

Jesus was the perfect example

This is the easy one to get when you ask what did you get from this passage

the three Sunday School answers are always yes, no, and Jesus

This is the Jesus answer, and it is correct

Jesus was the perfect example of whatever you want others to do for you, do also for them

The problem was that Jesus was without sin trying to teach a group of sinners how to act

they eventually got it, but they wouldn’t fully get it until after He died and the Holy Spirit came into their lives

This would be a huge indicator for the need for the Holy Spirit

If we ever hope to be godly in our actions, you cannot do it without the Holy Spirit in your life

that’s a choice we spoke about earlier

if at the end of this message you aren’t sure about Jesus in your life

come find myself or Luke and we’ll help you with that

Another big choice

what ever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them

means that we are known by our actions before we are ever known by what we say

People will know who you are by what you do

If you spend all you time in a casino gambling

you might be a gambling addict

If you spend all your time in a club getting drunk

you might be an alcoholic

If you spend all your time stealing things you might be a thief

If you hide behind your phone all the time

they know that you are a dopamine addict

If you want others to take you seriously, you treat them how you would want to be treated

I worked for Disney World Florida

I remember the time when at the Magic Kingdom, the old guard

they would line people up on the street before the park opened

and the park managers would walk down the street looking for fingernails that were more than an eraser length

looking for something other than a post earring

no visible tattoos on your body

hair had to be over your collar and above your ear as a guy and could not be more than shoulder length as a woman

Why? Because the culture was to represent wholesome America

and people treated the cast members, the employees pretty well

because they were treated and looked well

There was a class we had to take called traditions

this was a week long class

The first day was the history of the company and there was a test at the end of the day

things like what was the first Disney movie and can you name all 7 dwarfs

by the way the first full length feature animation was Snow White and it came out in 1937.

Day two was all the ways you can get fired from Disney

Day three was all about the Disney magic all about the stories and experiences taht several of that cast members had with Make a wish children and guests

Day four we were allowed to explore the parks

Day five we came back and told on all the cast members that weren’t doing things right

All this to make sure that when we got out there on stage

we represented Walt Disney himself

and treated others the way that Walt would want them treated

Jesus is telling us the same thing

He’s given us an entire book of how we are to treat other people

and He even boiled it down to one statement

treat others the way you would want to be treated

and boiled the whole Bible at that time into one statement

for this is the law and the prophets

The point being

If our convictions control our behavior

Jesus wants our convictions to match His

If we can match His convictions

then our behavior will be the same as His

This is a struggle because of our sinful bodies

It’s not a one and done thing

don’t ever think that you’ve got it all mastered

or that you have arrived

don’t ever proclaim yourself as self-righteous

because sin in our bodies won’t let us be all righteous

until we enter into heaven

the hope that Jesus has for us as a follower of Jesus

that we would treat others the way Jesus would treat other people

because we deserve hell and punishment

yet Jesus treated us with grace and mercy and died for us

So we should not only treat others that way Jesus would want us to treat others

but treat others the way Jesus treated us.

That’s difficult to do if we aren’t treating yourself very well

and we aren’t pouring into ourselves the convictions of the Bible

That’s a choice we have to make

This is not a command, but a choice

How do I know that?

Because for the rest of the sermon on the mount

He is going to present us with four different choices to make

The choice between two different gates

the choice of two trees or two different fruit

the choice of two different confessions

the choice of two different hearers or two different builder

and the ultimate choice

are we going to follow what we know or are we going to follow what Jesus says

Choice#1 - Two Roads/ Two Gates

Matthew 7:13–14 (CSB)

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Here’s the choice that Jesus gives to us

remember all these choices are based on doing unto others as you would want them to do unto you

placing convictions in us so that the behaviors will match Jesus

Jesus tells us to enter through the narrow gate

many times this has been used for salvation and that’s not entirely correct

Jesus is the narrow gate where people do enter into the kingdom of heaven

Remember that Jesus is speaking to make people followers

He is teaching disciple-making and how to be a follower of God and Himself

Every decision we make that follows Jesus is a narrow gate decision

Jesus is using common Jewish teaching here

This is how the rabbi’s taught

by creating a choice, a dualism, contradicting two things

the wise and the fool

the sheep and the wolves, the sheep and the goats

the house on the sand, the house on the rock

This creates choice on the part of the disciple

What are our choices here?

We have the narrow gate, a difficult road, but it leads to life

or a wide gate with and wide road and easier travel, but it leads to destruction

Doesn’t sound like much of a choice if you keep the end in mind

who on earth would want to be headed toward destruction?

And yet, there are millions that want the easy road and the wide gate

Remember who Jesus is talking to

Jesus is sharing with these people

there will come a time in your life there will be a decision to make

one that you may have to change the entire culture of what you know

change the patterns that were ingrained in you as a child

you are going to have to make a choice

Two weekends ago we learned a lot about missions

There was one particular number that kept flashing on the screens that got my attention

It was the number 174,000

In the world there are statistically 174,000 people that die everyday without Jesus Christ

Scott Ray last Sunday said you could snap your fingers every 2.5 seconds and someone died and went to hell

Let me put this into perspective

The population of New Hanover County is about 234,000

The population of Pender County is about 66,000

If I were to snap my fingers, we would create a Thanos moment in two finger snaps

I would wipe out the the population of two whole counties that would go to hell

These are wide gate moments

Justification, the payment for sins, is easy for us

and it cost Jesus everything

sanctification, the process we move to to become more godly seemingly costs us everything

it’s difficult to stand up stand up for Jesus

It’s easy to sing of the Old Rugged Cross

because it didn’t cost us anything to pay for our own sins

but the road that follows after that narrow gate seems difficult

and the gates that come after that initial gates are no easier

Our hope is the life that lies ahead and that Jesus has promised

nothing worth gaining is ever easy

and the life that Jesus is talking about after that narrow gate is worth looking ahead to

It’s not just eternity, Jesus promises abundant life here on earth in John 10:10

John 10:10 (CSB)

10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

But it takes narrow choices to enjoy an abundant life here on earth

God gives us the playbook of how to make narrow gate choices

how to deny yourself and selfish desires

how to have pleasure within the limits of what He’s designed for us

God doesn’t want to eliminate joy or pleasure in our life

He does want us to experience it safely within the boundaries He created for us.

It’s a narrow gate for a reason

It’s narrow because it’s restrictive

God is love, but God has rules

The ways of the world is whatever makes you feel good, do it

The ways of God are restrictive according to the world

but never take your eyes off the what the end goal is

and why God puts some boundaries out there for us

He’s protecting us many times from the consequences of our potential actions

IT’s all about the choices we make

and we make choices based on our convictions

we gain convictions by how much Jesus we can put into our lives

that’s not just knowledge, but also obedience

Remember in the Great commission Jesus said

Go there, making disciples of all nations

baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit

Teaching them to OBEY all that I have commanded you.

It’s not just about head knowledge

actions speak louder than words

actions come from convictions

It’s a narrow road to follow according to the world’s view

It’s so much easier to walk the wide path,

but look at where it leads

narrow roads and narrow gates

narrow choices are difficult, but in the end, we get life,

both eternal and life more abundantly