Crosspoint Community Church Podcast

The Gate Has A Name

• Crosspoint Community Church

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SPEAKER_00:

Well, good morning, everyone. My name is Mac. I'm one of the pastors on our team here at the church. Good to be with you. Want to welcome all of you who are visiting and those of you who are joining from home. One of the things that really inspires me are those day in the life of documentaries. You guys know what I'm talking about? It doesn't have to be day in the life, just anything where you kind of get like a sneak peek behind someone how like how someone actually lives their daily life. And I really like the ones that focus on athletes. For some reason, I find those particularly inspiring because you just see how much time and energy they give to their craft and then what they're able to do as a result. So let me give you just one example is Michael Phelps. So you guys all remember Michael Phelps because he dominated the uh pool, any event in the pool for four consecutive Olympics. He ended up accumulating 23 gold medals, three silver medals, and then two gold uh bronze medals. And of course, this made everyone wonder how did he become so dominant? Like, what is he doing that makes him this good? And then you pull back the curtain, you're like, holy smokes, like this guy, I don't know if you could get more dedicated. So, first of all, just the volume. He was known for never taking a day off. He would uh work out 365 days in a row, pushing through holidays and birthdays and sickness, like he never stopped. He once said, if I miss one day, I notice it. If I miss two, the coach notices it notices it, and if I miss three, the competition notices it. So he would he would go all out uh every day. A typical day would involve two sessions in the pool, uh, each lasting two to three hours. Um he'd swim somewhere between eight and ten miles a day. And then in addition to that, in between these pool sessions, you know, four to six hours a day of swimming, he would do strength training to kind of build muscle and and be able to be stronger in the water. And of course, if you've ever exercised intensely, you know when you exercise intensely you actually are kind of prone to injury, and so he was acutely aware of that and would offset that by um hours stretching every day, lots of mobility. He uh really prioritized rest and recovery. He would take naps during this the day and sleep eight to ten hours a night. And you can't have this much energy output without fueling your body, and so Michael Phelps was known for eating eight to ten thousand calories a day. Just like this insane amount of food. But here's a guy who gave his entire life to swimming, right? This is all he did eat, sleep, swim over and over and over. He gave himself to it entirely, and what he was able to do as a result captivated the world. I mean, let's just be honest. And there are tons of other people, you just think about like other sports, pick any sport, there's someone like this that's giving themselves to their sport with this level of an intensity, and as a result, has become pretty incredible, whether it was Kobe Bryant and basketball or Serena Williams with tennis, like on and on it goes. And it's not just athletics. If you look at some of the world's most profound people who have made such an impact, they were usually very devoted every day to going after their thing. Um, Beethoven played music and composed for at least six hours a day. Uh Tolstoy wrote for at least six to ten hours a day. Einstein was known to put in long days, 10 to 12 hours a day, and Da Vinci would spend 12 to 15 hours a day designing and sketching and drawing. I mean, just an insane amount of commitment. Undoubtedly an unhealthy level of commitment, right? Like, let's get honest. Like, none of these people would get a uh a plus sign next to work-life balance. Okay, they were probably neglecting relationships. If they had kids, they probably weren't good parents. You know what I mean? So they're not getting a good grade when it comes to balancing the priorities of life. And uh, I think an arg argument could be made, they probably made an idol out of their thing. You know, like their whole life is revolving around this, and perhaps that uh replaced their commitment to God. But here's here's my point. My point isn't that, my point is this that we human beings, we're capable of giving ourselves fully to something. And when we do, it's noticeable. We're capable as human beings of really giving ourselves in a committed, dedicated way to something, and when we do that, it's noticeable. You know, Paul makes a similar point in 1 Corinthians 9 25. He says, Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get to get a crown that will last forever. Paul here is talking about like the athletic games in his day, which were nowhere near as intense as ours. And he's pointing out, hey, these athletes, even they go into strict training to win what? They would get like this little wreath that went on top of their head if they won their event. And of course that wreath would eventually like, you know, fall apart. It would wither and and and die. And he's going, so if they go into such strict training in order to get a wreath like that, you know, like how much more should we uh give full commitment to Jesus, to pursuing Jesus, to becoming like Jesus, knowing that we get a crown that lasts forever. Like what we're pursuing is eternal in nature. And this sets up the bottom line for today. So if you're gonna walk away with one thing this weekend, it's let it be this. Being a disciple of Jesus involves dedicated commitment to Jesus. Being a disciple of Jesus, it involves dedicated commitment to Jesus. Now don't hear that through the ear holes of salvation. I'm not talking about works righteousness, like you're gonna somehow earn your way to God through your dedication. That's not what I'm saying. Okay, remember what Dallas Willard said, that grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning. So we don't earn our way to God, right? Scripture makes it clear we're saved by grace through faith, yeah? But responding to God's grace, responding to the grace made available to us in Jesus will require effort. It will require dedication, it will require discipline, discipline, right? And this is exactly what Jesus is going to invite us into as he closes out the Sermon on the Mount. We're finally nearing the end, you know, after like 19 years, we're nearing the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Notice I said nearing the end, though, like we've got at least a year and a half to go. Um I'm totally joking. Um but we are nearing the end. We're not at the end, we're nearing the end because Jesus doesn't end his sermon abruptly. He ends his sermon with a triple conclusion. And today we're gonna look at the first part of it, but there's sort of this through line in the way Jesus concludes. Throughout his conclusions, he's inviting and challenging people to become disciples characterized by commitment, marked by dedication and a commitment to live out his teachings. And this just makes sense because I want to remind you how this sermon started. Remember, the disciples gather around Jesus and they sit at his feet ready to absorb his instruction, and then you have these crowds that are standing nearby listening in as Jesus instructs his disciples. You remember this? And so throughout this sermon, there's a dual audience. Jesus is teaching his disciples the way of discipleship. Here's what it looks like to follow me. But there's also this crowd over here that's listening in at a point of indecision, like, do I want to? I'm curious about this, but do I want to actually follow Jesus? Jesus, you'll remember, announces the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is arriving through me. And then throughout the sermon, which we spent the last 25 years unpacking, he's describing what it looks like to live in this kingdom. He's giving the ethics of the kingdom. Here's what it looks like to be my disciple and live a kingdom life. And now, as he's bringing it to a close, he's going to invite that crowd, those people kind of standing on the edge listening in, he's going to invite them to cross over and become disciples. And so this closing is designed to help people consider that, to take it seriously, to go from just observing to submitting their lives to him and living out his way in the world. So here's the passage for today. This is the first part of his conclusion. He says, 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. So Jesus here, I'm submitting to you, is inviting and challenging everybody who's listening to become committed disciples. That's what he's doing. And the way he's doing this is he's drawing on what's known as the two-ways tradition. This is something that every first century Jew would have been very familiar with. As they listened to this, they would have known exactly what Jesus was talking about. Because throughout the Old Testament, there's this consistent contrast between two different ways. On the one hand, you have the way of life, and the other hand, you have the way of death. And both of these ways involve moral choices along the way. So the way of life is all about obedience to Yahweh, faithfulness to his covenant, righteousness, wisdom, all of those things. And the way of death involves the opposite. It's not the way of righteousness, it's unrighteousness. It's living for yourself. Instead of wisdom, it's foolishness. So you have these two ways that are constantly contrasted and compared throughout the Old Testament. Let me give you some examples of this. It starts in the first two chapters of the Bible. In Genesis, you have two trees, the tree of life and the tree of death. Two trees, two ways. Yeah? When God rescues the people of Israel out of Egypt and then takes them to Sinai and enters into covenant relationship with them, at the end, after laying out all of his stipulations, here's what it looks like to follow me and be obedient to me, here's what he says in Deuteronomy 30. He says, See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws. Then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live in the land long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. You see what he's doing there? I've laid it out for you. Here's what obedience looks like. This leads to life and flourishing and blessing, but if you choose not to be obedient, it's going to go bad for you. And this is repeated again throughout the Old Testament. The first extended chunk of scripture I ever memorized was Psalm 1. And it's all about this contrast. Here's the way of the wicked, here's the way of the righteous, and then in verse 6, the final verse, this is what it says. It says, For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. There are two ways, the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. The same ways are put before the people of northern Israel. In Isaiah 1, 19 and 20, he says, Hey, if you repent and you follow my ways, well, I will rescue you from the Assyrians. But if you continue on this way you're going, you're going to be destroyed. And they continued on their way and they were destroyed. They were exiled. In Jeremiah 21, 8, he says, This, I'm setting before you the way of life and the way of death. There it is again, the way. Two ways, the way of life and the way of death. And then in Proverbs 4, 18 and 19, it says this that the path of righteousness is like the morning sun, but the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. So throughout the Old Testament, you have this contrast that first century Jews would have been intimately familiar with. The moment you started talking about a way or two ways or a path, this would have come to mind for them immediately. And we know from Second Temple Judaism, the time right before Jesus, that they were talking this way. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, it compares the way of light to the way of darkness. And in fact, the earliest extra-biblical document that we have that goes back to the early church. It's this document known as the Dadake. I had to translate it when I was learning Greek. And here's the first two verses. Going back to probably, this is probably written between 50 AD and 125 A.D. That's kind of the time period. It says this there are two ways, one of life and one of death. And great is the difference between these two ways. And then the rest of that document is describing the way of Jesus. So the point that I'm trying to make here today, if you're following along, is that this two-ways tradition was a strong tradition. And what Jesus is doing here is he's drawing on this tradition in a way all of his listeners would have been very familiar with. But then once he has their attention, he does something incredibly provocative because he changes it and he reframes it. And he does so by pointing to himself. So Jesus reframes the two-way tradition by centering it on following him. And you guys, this would have blown their minds. Because again, for a first century Jew, and the Gospel of Matthew is written primarily to a Jewish audience, the way of life, you guys, was all about Torah observance. It was all about following Torah, being obedient to Torah. And Jesus here is coming along and he's saying, uh-uh. The way of life is about following me. The way of life is about living in accordance with my teachings. You have the way of life, which Jesus names as following him and practicing his teachings, and then he names the way of death is pretty much anything else. So Jesus takes this two-way tradition, reframes it, and he reframes it by centering it on himself. So the way of life becomes discipleship to him. What Jesus is saying is that the way of life, the way to flourishing, the way to God, is to live a life of discipleship by following him. Are you guys following what I'm saying? I'm seeing a lot of blank faces. You're gonna have to pick up your energy level, okay? You can only do so much of the work. The way of life is discipleship to Jesus. Now, let me clarify a couple things that I'm noticing some evangelicals are confused by. The way of life is not a one-time prayer. I want to get really clear on this. I've said this a lot before in other sermons, but being a disciple of Jesus is not about praying a one-time prayer and then welcome to the family of God. Your name is now written in the Lamb's book of life. Nowhere in the Gospels do you see Jesus inviting people to do something like that. In the book of Acts, you not one sermon matches that template. Not one. Right? Instead, what you see Jesus doing is you see him inviting people to follow him in their everyday life. And that involves pledging their full allegiance to him, surrendering to him completely, which does involve receiving his forgiveness through the cross and so on. But now you're living a life as a student of Jesus, as an apprentice of Jesus. So it's not a one-time prayer, even if it can start that way. It better not finish that way. The other thing I'm noticing a lot of evangelicals are confused about is simply this. Yes, the gospel is free. Okay? You can't earn it. You can't achieve it. It's free. And it will cost you everything. It's free and it will cost you everything because in order to receive it, you have to pledge your full allegiance to Jesus. You have to surrender completely. This is what motivated Dietrich Bonhoeffer to write the book, The Cost of Discipleship, in direct disagreement with the cheap grace of his day. And by the way, the cost of discipleship is nothing but a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. That's what it is. So I want to get clear that it's not about just praying a one-time prayer, and it is free, but it will cost you everything because you have to surrender completely to Jesus, and that involves then becoming a lifelong student of Jesus, where you're now apprenticing under him. You walk with Jesus every day, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, you then become like Jesus in your life. Your character is conformed to the life of Christ, and the primary mark of that is love. And every one of Jesus' teachings is ultimately a manifestation of that love. And so you become a loving person who's able to live out Jesus' teachings alongside other people who are doing the same. John Mark Comer says this you can't just slip your hand up at the end of a sermon. It's a high bar of entry. It will require you to reorder your entire life around following Jesus as your undisputed top priority. Your undisputed top priority. Two inseparable steps. Step one is this enter the narrow gate. This is what Jesus says at the beginning of our passage. Enter through the narrow gate. There are two ways. Two ways. One that leads to life, one that leads to death, and the starting point is entering through a gate, the narrow gate. And so here's the question is well, what is the narrow gate? And how do you enter it? Right? Two ways. And first you've got to enter through the narrow gate. So what is this gate? And how do you enter it? Now I want to suggest to you it's not a what, it's a who. In other words, the gate has a name. And his name is Jesus. And this is exactly what Jesus says about himself. Here's what he says in John 10 9. He says, I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. Notice the definite article. That's the word the. I am the gate in John 10.9. And there's also a definite article in Matthew 7.13. Enter through the narrow gate. In other words, there aren't many gates. There's one gate. And that gate has a name. And the name on that gate is Jesus. You guys tracking so far? So if you want to enter, you have to enter through Jesus. Jesus is the gateway into the kingdom of God, into right relationship with the Father. This is why in Acts 4.12 it says, salvation is found in no one else. It's not found in anybody else. There's no other name by which one can be saved, other than the name of Jesus. So Jesus is the gate. He's the gateway into the kingdom of God. And entering through the narrow gate involves entering into a relationship with Jesus. Make no mistake about it, friends, this was bold and provocative, even in Jesus' day. Because the Roman Empire was much like our culture, it was polytheistic. There were many gods, and most people worshiped a lot of different deities. And so Jewish people already stood out because they said, nope, not many gods, one God, Yahweh, and we worship Yahweh alone. So they already stood out in a polytheistic culture because they were monotheists. But now notice what Jesus is doing. He's like taking it a step further, and he's going, yeah, one God, not many gods, and the only way to get to that God is through me. You see how provocative that is? Jesus says in another place in John 14, 6, he says, I am the way. Notice the definite articles. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. This was bold and offensive in Jesus' day, and let's just get honest, it's really bold and offensive to our listening ears in this moment. Why? Because it violates all of our values. We live in a culture of tolerance and inclusivity, and so you believe what you believe. Right? You get to believe what you believe, and you don't tell me that what I believe is wrong. That's like off limits. Right? You do you, but don't tell me what to believe or that what I believe is wrong. Like this is the culture we're swimming in. And Jesus seems to be doing something different here, doesn't he? He's making a pretty exclusive claim, which disrupts our values. It also raises some uncomfortable questions, doesn't it? Like, what about the person who doesn't walk through the narrow gate? What about the person who lives on the other side of the world in some, I don't know, African tribe, and they've never even heard about the narrow gate? What about that person? What about the person who was just raised in a different uh religion? And maybe even the way that Jesus was presented to them, if they heard it, was um not how Jesus presented himself? What about someone who grew up in the church but was abused by their pastor, for instance? And so now the very message that's supposed to be saving comes filtered through abuse. How do you explain, right? So what do you do with the unevelized, those who have never heard, or the pseudo-evangelized, those who have heard but didn't get a fair presentation? What do you do with this? This making sense? I've got bad news for you. I'm not gonna answer that question for you today. Uh, because that would require like an entire different sermon series, okay? But I am gonna give you some things to consider. If you're a thinking person, you've been troubled by that question, which I have. I just want to give you maybe some bullet points for now. Maybe we'll do a series on this later. However much you care about those who don't know about Jesus, God cares about one billion trillion times more. In fact, your maximum amount of care doesn't even touch where God's care starts. I sometimes encounter people who raise this question as an objection, and underneath it I just sort of sniff some arrogance, like you think you care more than God does, and I find that quite laughable. God cares more about every single person more than your maximum amount of care. Scripture also teaches that God wants all people to be saved. He wants everyone to come to know him and went to the furthest lengths possible, taking on flesh and going on and going to the cross for us. There's some really crummy theology out there that says God preordained some to be saved and some not to be saved before the foundation of the world. That does not capture the good news of the gospel. God wants everybody to be saved. Another point is that I think we can trust God's character. So however it shakes out, know this God is like Jesus. He's perfectly loving, perfectly good, perfectly just, perfectly holy. And so I think we can trust that God will sort this out in a way that doesn't violate justice. And lastly, I'll just say this: that there are a lot of smart people, people way smarter than me, who have wrestled with this and written about it. So if you're really hungry to grow or to dig into this more, there are answers and explanations. You know, C.S. Lewis, his position on this was look, I know how God has said I can be in right relationship with him, and that's through Jesus. That's what's clear. I'm not gonna make a statement about what happens to everybody else. He was basically agnostic when it came to that. In other words, God has made the way to him clear in Jesus, and I'll leave the rest up to him. The point is this however we sort out those big questions, let's not lose sight of the main point, which is that God has made a way to himself and through a gate, and that gate is Jesus. It's about entering into a relationship with Christ. And so how do you do that? It's it can start with a prayer, but it better not end there. It starts by receiving what God has already done for you. He's defeated the power of sin and Satan, he's offered you forgiveness and he offers you new life through his resurrection. It's simply about receiving that. And then pledging your full allegiance to Jesus as a committed disciple, saying, I will give you my entire life, walking with you, being with you, becoming like you, living out your teachings with and alongside other people. This is what it means to respond to the invitation Jesus gives to us. This is the first step. Enter through the narrow gate. I want to talk about the second step, and I want you to think about this as two feet that are walking. In order to walk, you need two feet. The first foot is about entering into a relationship with Jesus, entering a narrow gate. If you don't have this second foot, you're not going to be able to walk. Walking a kingdom life involves both of these things. So here's step two. It's you have to proceed on the narrow path. The gate, you enter the gate, you enter into a relationship with Jesus, but then you have to proceed on the narrow path, which is about living a continued in continued relationship with Jesus as a disciple of Jesus. Again, your life goal is to submit and surrender to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit such that you become like Jesus. You're walking with Jesus day in and day out, you're walking in step with the Spirit such that your character becomes like Jesus' character. And the primary evidence of that is you're living out his teachings, which are the supreme mark of love. This is what Jesus invites us into. So the gate has a name, the gate is Jesus, but the path is also a person. The path is nothing other than doing life with Jesus as one of his disciples, living out his teachings. Now here's what's concerning to me, you guys. We're living in a cultural moment where if you ask people, what did Jesus teach, many Christians, those who claim to follow Christ, actually have no idea what it is that Jesus actually taught. And so then it's no wonder that they're actually not living out his teachings or his way in their everyday life. You guys seeing the problem? If it just becomes about praying a one-time prayer, but not about actually walking with Jesus and living out his teachings, is it any surprise that we're gonna have a bunch of people walking around who actually have no idea what Jesus taught and aren't living out his way in the world? Jesus just got done for three chapters naming and describing his teachings. So let me review them with you. Instead of self reliance, we're to be living. Lives of God reliance, God dependence. This is what it means to be poor in spirit. Instead of being arrogant, we're to embody gentleness and meekness, for those are the ones who will inherit the earth. Instead of exploitation and being complicit in systems of oppression, we're to seek justice and righteousness for all people. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Instead of validating or committing acts of violence, we're to be everyday peacemakers because we follow the Prince of Peace. Instead of harboring anger and bitterness and using words like raca, right? We're supposed to pursue forgiveness and reconciliation. Instead of indulging in lust and objectifying other people, we're to practice purity of heart. Instead of treating marriage like a contract that you can enter in and terminate at any point of time, we're supposed to treat marriage as a sacred covenant. Instead of manipulating other people with our words to get them to do things that we want, we're to simply let our yes be yes and our no be no. We're to live lives of integrity, starting with our speech and our practice. Instead of retaliating, we're to practice creative confrontation in love. This is what it means to turn the other cheek or to go the extra mile. Instead of hating our enemies, we're to love our enemies. We're to pray and bless our enemies. We're to lay down our lives for our enemies. Instead of hoarding and accumulating possessions, we're to practice generosity and care for the needy around us. Instead of practicing our piety publicly so other people will think we're super spiritual and godly, we're to practice it privately and focus on our own inner transformation for an audience of one. Rather than seeking to build our own little kingdoms where I'm awesome and you're impressed by me, we're to seek first the kingdom of God. Rather than anxiously scurrying around to get our needs met, we're supposed to trust that God knows what we need and that He'll provide for us. And rather than judging others hypocritically for things we don't struggle with, we're to take the plank out of our own eyes and learn how to love indiscriminately. You guys, like these are the teachings of Jesus. This is what we spent the last few years unpacking. And as a disciple of Jesus, your job is to remain in Jesus, to abide in Jesus, to walk with Jesus, to surrender to the Spirit in your life, such that you're able to embody the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so on, and that these teachings become the primary thing you're living out in your everyday life. This is what it's about. It's not about anything different. It's about becoming like Jesus and living out the way of Jesus in your everyday life alongside others. And again, here's my concern as a pastor is it seems that we've separated these two inseparable steps. And as a result, we've made a massive misstep. We've done a great job emphasizing the first one. Enter into a relationship with Jesus. Jesus came to save you. Pray a prayer. Got it. That's great. But that can't be separated from continuing as a disciple of Jesus in your everyday life with obedience and commitment and dedication. Dallas Willard says this. It is now understood to be part of the quote-unquote good news that one does not have to be a life student of Jesus in order to be a Christian and receive forgiveness of sins. How do we get there? How do we get to this point where the good news Jesus announces doesn't require us to actually become disciples? I think we've taken a detour. We've stepped off the narrow path. You following? And the results are disastrous. Only 6% of people who came forward to pray a prayer at all of Billy Graham's crusades actually became Christians. Six percent. And unfortunately, some of the loudest people for Jesus look nothing like Jesus in our culture, and both their posture and their positions violate the way of Jesus in the world. And so we have these moments where we valorize people on social media because they have a giant platform, even though their character is nothing like Jesus, nor do their positions match the positions that I just described in the Sermon on the Mount. And this is systemic, it's everywhere. People proclaiming to be Christians, being loud about their faith, but actually not having the character of Jesus, nor are they advocating for the actual positions that Jesus argued for and that we just got done preaching through for the last few years. Far too many people are trusting a one-time decision but show no marks of discipleship. We've emphasized step one without step two. We've separated salvation from discipleship to our detriment, and the result is lots of people who claim to be Christians but don't look like or practice the way of Christ in their life. And guess what the word Christian means, guys? It literally means Christ-like. That's what it means to be a Christian, is you're becoming increasingly Christ-like. And you know what? Meaning in this sermon, and we'll get to this in future weeks, Jesus is gonna correct two groups of people. And we'll get to this. But the first are those in my position who claim to follow Christ but don't act like Christ and intentionally deceive groups of people as a result. These are the false prophets that Jesus is gonna talk about next. And then after that, he's gonna talk about those who are self-deceived, many people who are loud for me and say, Jesus, you know, here's all the things I did for you, is gonna be like, I never knew you. Why? Because you actually didn't do life with me. You didn't make it the center of your life to become like me and to embody my way in the world by surrendering to the Holy Spirit. You didn't do that. So, yes, we're saved by grace through faith, but it requires that we actually give our life to the person who saves us and continue in that relationship. And rather than constructing a Jesus in our own image, we let Jesus be Jesus and we submit our lives to him. And I'll remind you, we're capable of this because we have the Holy Spirit who empowers us towards this end. But remember, there's lots of people who have given an insane amount of commitment to things way lesser than following Jesus. Like the breaststroke or whatever, right? I mean, come on. Yay! Here's a gold medal. It's impressive. But also somewhat misguided, right? Like if we're gonna give our life to what matters, this is it. And we human beings are capable of giving our lives to something with dedicated commitment. We are. And when you do that, it shows. And you have a helper along the way who's there to help you, guide you, transform you. But it's gonna require dedication, it's gonna require your commitment, it's gonna require your undisputed allegiance, right? Yeah, it was one of those Sundays. Uh there are no accidental saints, friends. You're not gonna just like lollygag your way into discipleship. You don't become transformed without some degree of intentionality. It's just how it's just how it goes. I'm gonna close with some action steps because sermons don't change people. I read a statistic this week that if you count the number of churches in the United States and assume that each church is preaching a sermon every week, over the last 50 years that'd be 832 million sermons. If sermons transformed people, I'm telling you the United States would look a lot different. Sermons don't transform people. You have to respond to it by laying a hold of God's grace at work in your life. And so this is what we invite you to do as you leave today. Where is God working in your life? How does God want you to respond? A couple things. Practice one, uh enter into a enter the narrow gate. If you're here today, and I mean this, if you're here today and you've never entered into a relationship with Jesus and you feel something stirring in your heart, do not ignore that. Don't ignore it. Uh, if you came with a trusted friend, talk to them about it. They'll help you with this. If you want to come forward afterwards, I'd love to talk to you about how to enter into a relationship with Jesus. Don't ignore that. A lot of you I know though, and you've already made that decision. And so step two is to continue along the path of discipleship. Continue along the narrow path. So, a couple questions for you as you leave today. If you're not ready for step one, why not? Uh, what's getting in the way for you? Be honest about that. If you've already taken step one, how is your discipleship to Jesus going these days? Here's some audit questions. Is my character becoming more like the character of Jesus? Are you becoming more selfish or selfless? That's just the starting point. Am I embodying the fruit of the spirit in my everyday life and interactions? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. Am I actually practicing Jesus' teachings in my life alongside other people? Am I actually doing what Jesus just got done preaching in the Sermon on the Mount? Yes? You guys, let me tell you something. The CMA started, that's our denomination, with seven people around a fire. And the only requirement was to aggressively give themselves to Jesus. And we've now got, I don't know, lots of churches across the United States and the world. Seven people. Jesus started with 12. We've got more than that in this room. If we just go all in. If we just go all in, we can be part of turning the world upside down in the best way possible. So let's stand for closing prayer. God, we can't do this by ourselves. You know that, we know it. We're dependent upon your grace every step of the way through your spirit. We want to surrender to the spirit afresh today, and we ask that you transform us. Help us to be lifelong students of Jesus, becoming like Jesus and living out your way in the world, a way that is distinct and yet full of love and grace and mercy. And so empower us by your spirit as we leave today. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

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