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“The Sermon on the Mount”
“The Hard Road”
Matthew 7:13-14
Last week we came to a place in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is bringing this particular teaching to a close.
Last week we read the first statement in what we could consider His closing arguments.
He said, “Therefore whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and Prophets.”
Because of everything you have just heard me say, treat people the way that you would like to be treated.
Because of everything you have heard me say, Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.
What we will continue to see in the coming weeks is that His final statements follow the theme of the Sermon on the Mount and they continue to be hard.
When we started this series at the beginning of the year I said that Matthew 5:20 is the thesis for the entire sermon on the mount.
It should easily be considered the goals that we live our lives by.
Jesus said that “Unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees we cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
The expectations that Jesus set forth in Matthew 5:20 aren’t easily accomplished, but that are super simple!
They aren’t easy because we cannot just willy nilly our way through life doing what is common and what feels good.
We have to be intentional about following Him, BUT, it is simple in the fact that all we have to do is follow Him.
There isn’t a lot we have to go about figuring out on our own.
He has laid it all out for us.
What we have to understand, and I will continue to emphasize, is that exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees isn’t something we do on our own.
Our duty in this is to give up and give it to God!
We understand that the only acceptable righteousness is His righteousness.
The funny thing about Christianity is that what should be so easy, in reality is the hard way more often than not.
Jesus said that it would be hard on more than a few occasions, but hopefully this morning you will see that even though it is hard, IT IS WORTH IT!
We will be picking up this morning where we left off last week in Matthew 7:13-14
Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV)
13 “Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
PRAY
I think most everyone here knows that Kristi and I got away back in September for our 20th anniversary.
We flew to Phoenix and spent a few day exploring Arizona.
What I realized while I was studying for this message was that I had yet to share any photos from the trip.
So, this morning I am going to share a few of those pictures.
I will say that easily one of the highlights of the trip was the Jeep that Kristi reserved for us to have as a rental car for the week.
It was our transportation to adventure.
The funny thing about it was that no matter where we went or what we did, we were on some kind of road.
Some of them were wide, flat, and smooth others were…well as you’ll see here in a minute they were a little more difficult.
First day to Tombstone.
3 1/2 hours of highway and other than the nostalgia of being where the Earp Brothers had been and seeing the OK Corral, it was pretty much a total bust.
BUT THEN WE WENT TO SEDONA!
This first Picture was a while after we left Phoenix.
There was some touristy place off the side of the road where we stopped to get something to drink and some snack.
We found a place to snap a couple pictures.
Way off in the distance you can see a mountain range.
We didn’t know it at the time, but that’s where we were headed!
The Second Picture… As we got closer we realized that there was a pretty good chance that somewhere in all that beauty we would find the city of Sedona.
At this point we had been on regular roads.
There were wide, flat, and smooth.
There was enough traffic to keep you mindful that you weren’t alone.
It wasn’t wall to wall cars, but it was a typical highway with typical traffic.
Some cars would go faster, others slower.
Some got off at exits, others merged on.
There were some cars that we seemed to track with for long periods of time, while others got left behind.
Everyone was kinda doing their own thing.
Once we got in to Sedona I started to feel like this was not my kinda place.
There was a strong New Age vibe all through town.
Lots of crystal shops, psychics, tarot card readers….you
get the idea.
I was afraid that this was going to be another wasted trip…like the 3 ½ hour trip to Tombstone…
But while we were in town I kept noticing these Pink Jeeps (NEXT SLIDE) LOTS of Pink Jeeps.
I decided I was going to see where they were coming from.
Long story shorter, we ended up at a gate to some kind of recreation area.
Shortly after a small parking area with lots of cars, we found a…well for the sake of this mornings message we will call it a road.
NEXT SLIDE
For an hour and a half we had been seeing mountains off in the distance.
We had seen beauty and majesty, BUT NOW, we are almost in the mix of it all.
We had NO IDEA WHAT WAS COMING NEXT!
I. Choices
a.
The rest of Jesus’ teaching involves Choices
b.
ONLY 2 CHOICES
i. Hard Road vs. Easy Road
ii.
False Prophets vs. Real Prophets vv.
15-20
iii.
True Followers vs. Wanderers vv.
21-23
iv.
Solid Foundations vs. Shifting Foundations vv.
24-27
c.
Choices aren’t a new thing in the Bible.
i. Deuteronomy 30:15-20
1. Deuteronomy 28 blessings and curses
2. Deuteronomy 29 reminders of all that God had done
3. Deuteronomy 30….CHOICES!!!
4. Moses’ Final Words
ii.
Joshua 24:14-15
1. Joshua’s Final Words
iii.
Choices have consequences
1. Good and Evil
2. Clean and Unclean
3. Holy and Unholy
4. LIFE AND DEATH
iv.
The Road Determines the Destination.
1. N. on Main, E. on 160, and E. on 44 won’t take you to California.
You will end up in St. Louis!
II.
The Easy Road and No Truth (Matthew 7:13)
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