Topic: Worship
Everyone is on a spiritual journey as they travel through life. Each of us has our own way to reach the goal of lifetime. Whether religious or not, we travel a spiritual path; every day we make choices that affects the direction in which we are headed.
On the last message, we studied about the “Courtroom of Eternality.” In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus gave us a clue on how many people would go to Heaven and Hell according to each individual verdict from how Lord Jesus Christ would judge each of them. Many people think that the paths we can travel are many. In one sense that may be true; there are all kinds of religions, but in another sense there are really only two paths or ways.
Since we looked in Matthew 7:13-14 with the view of Heaven and Hell, let’s study on the application of it. I understand that most of us may hear on the Hell and Heaven from our local churches few times in our lifetimes, because of these reasons:
1) Preachers may do not like to teach on the topics that speak on the conviction of their sins, because they would like to keep their people to run the businesses, such as:
· Hell & Heaven (talk more on Heaven and less on Hell)
· White throne judgment
· False doctrines, teachers, and prophets
· Last Day of the Earth (they would expand the day into many thousands years rather than it’s process in our generation)
2) We would like to hear messages that are smooth and soft.
3) We would not like to recognize our sins.
These or more reasons that some pastors may do not preach on subjects that would be harmful to them and the rest of the church. But, God is recommending us to learn what is hidden on the other side of Heaven. If we don’t learn what is right from wrong, how we would suppose to know the right way of handling our situations.
In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus spoke the one of two ways to enter His Kingdom and another way to go to Hell. Each with its own beginning, each with its own end; and one way is heavily populated; the other is traveled by few.
Where are you? Which road that you would be taking? It’s interested that the most of people go for the wrong way to handle the situation. Remember that most people were panic about the Y2K computer system problem in 1999. Most people worried about the digits in date on the computer when the year 2000 would arrive. They believed that when it would be January 1, 2000, the digits on the computer would recognize the year 1900 when the date would print as 1/1/00, which it would conflict our economic system. As a result, there weren’t any issue after the first couple months of 2000 passed by.
Now, let’s read Matthew 7:13-14 again to set this topic.
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
As we read in this passage, there are two gates to the eternity, two ways, two sets of group of people, and two destinations. Now, look these phrases that came out from the two verses of Matthew 7. This is the basic process for us to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Heaven and Hell. If the Hell wouldn’t exist, why do we need to learn on the two ways of living? It wouldn’t make sense for us to educate on the subject. Since Eve and Adam disobeyed God (Genesis 3), we are living on one of two ways of life—good or bad, smart or dumb, godly or ungodly, being like child of God or being like child of Satan.
Let’s first study on the two gates in Matthew 7. Jesus says that going to wide gate of eternality is bad choice to live the everlasting life. Why? The wide gate is easy to receive the invitation to Hell, because there is no standard of regulation. People don’t have to wait on a long line to accept invitation. Like in the big city, such as Las Vegas, there are many places they can go and entertain themselves without worry about the risk they involve. But, on a narrow gate, they can focus more on their main goals. With receiving some instructions from teachers, they can gain more skills to meet their dreams. If we decide to go to the narrow gate of eternality, we can go closer to Jesus Christ and spend the eternality with Him.
Two ways: the broad and constrict ways. Living a life in the broad way makes people set free. They can live any behavior and lifestyle they want to live until they died. Like they would decide to enter the wide gate, they feel that they do not need to change their goals or hearts to go after Jesus Christ. For instant, you may decide to play the lottery machine to try to win $1 million. If you keep play the lottery game until you’d get the $1 million, you might have a chance to loose all the money you have and become poor, because you keep putting your money in one machine. Sadly, many people love this path until they would realize that the broad way leads to destruction of life.
Now, let’s talk about the constrict way. Living a constrict way of life requires our individual effort to reach our goals. Matthew 7:14 said that this is the way to enter God’s Kingdom. This is the way because it requires a righteousness that exceeds that of many religious people (Matthew 5:20) and a change in our behavior (cf. Matthew 5:21-7:12). If we study for the college exam, we will get a chance to receive the perfect score, for example. God wants us to live in a constrict way of life to reach to Him, such as being like Christ.
Two groups of people. Psalm 1 tells us that there are two groups of people are living this world. The people who are godly (Psalm 1:1-3); and who are ungodly (Psalm 1:4-6). The people who are godly find God’s blessing in Him and ungodly finds curse (cf. Deuteronomy 28). Ungodly people find destruction in their lives, although their ways may seem to be easy and smooth; and godly people finds abundant harvest in their lives, even though they may seem to go through rough and hard roads.
Read about the life of Job. He faced many tragedies in his life, because God and Satan were at the battleground (Job 1-2). Even though he received many accusations from his friends to help him (Job 4-5; 8; 11; 15; 18; 20; 22; 25; 32-37; 38:1-40:2; 40:6-41:34), Job didn’t let deceptive words come into his life. He trusted on God. In the beginning of the Book of Job, he lived as a rich man and became homeless, but at the end of his book, God gave him more blessings than in the first chapter of the book.
Which group of people are you? Do you focus more on the way of world or on the way of God? The world has so much to offer something to you, but it will not be lasted. We cannot take our physical things, even our bodies, to the eternality.
Two destination points. Where are you going with all your accomplishments in schools and colleges? There are only two destinations in our life and there is no middle ground. We can accomplish anything if we put ourselves together, but we can go any directions that we would like with our accomplishments. We can go to music industries and make big buck as career. But how we would perform our music to the public viewers is another challenge. We can use our music to bring people into destruction or give them life. If we would use the music that is destruction, we wouldn’t go our career further; destination would come to end. If we use in other way, we are reaching our destination much further.
We are living in a war zone with two masters of this world, Jesus and Satan. If we want to go to our destinations to reach Jesus Christ, even though the road is rough, we are heading toward to the eternal life and celebration. If we to go to our destinations to reach Satan, because the road is easy and wide, we are heading toward to the eternal torment.
Where are you going to spend eternality? Hope that we make a wise decision before Jesus Christ comes to rapture the Church and judge the rest of the world.
Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)
If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, "That if you confess with your mouth, `Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Posted by MGJC Web Ministry
at 12:01 AM EST
