Matthew 7:13–14
13“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. 14“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Focused Thinking:
WOW! Read verses 13 and 14 again, they are 110% in opposition with the thinking of the world.
What does the world say?
The world says the way that leads to life is broad and the way that leads to destruction is narrow.
The world says all roads lead to heaven.
The world says all religions are the same God with a different name.
What do you hear on the news when people die?
The general opinion is that everybody goes to heaven.
What do you hear at funerals?
Again the general opinion is that everybody goes to heaven.
What is the truth?
13a—“Enter through the narrow gate;”
13b—“For the gate is WIDE and the way is BROAD that leads to DESTRUCTION,”
13c—“And there are MANY who enter through it.”
14a—“For the gate is SMALL and the way is NARROW that leads to LIFE,”
14b—“and there are FEW who find it.”
Notice the contrast:
WIDE and SMALL
BROAD and NARROW
MANY and FEW
DESTRUCTION and LIFE
Personal Application:
We must never compromise the truth.
God doesn’t desire for anyone to go to Hell, but Hell does exist.
God doesn’t send people to Hell; people choose Hell.
We must teach about heaven and hell with compassion without compromise.
We need to identify specific truths like this one and incorporate it into our teaching and response time on a consistent basis.
Interactive Prayer:
Father, how would our urgency change if we could truly see the glory of heaven and the reality of hell? Forgive us for not living with greater urgency. Forgive us for not living like the gospel is the cure to death. We have the cure to death and for the most part we are lazy with it. Father, give us the ability to see people as lost or saved, as knowing you or not knowing you. Give us incredible capacity to love people with Your love and to love them to faith. Wow that is a different expression, love them to faith, not educate them to faith. Somehow, I don’t think the world would resist being loved to faith? They resist being pressured to faith, but it is hard to resist love.
Father, give us the ability to receive love from You, to return love to You and to love others with Your love. Father, fill us with Your love so that we can empty Your love on our family and friends. Father, give us a vision for evangelism that isn’t the standard Evangelism Explosion process. Every form of evangelism is valuable and needed in its proper context, but nothing compares with relational evangelism. Father, give us the capacity to love one another. Father, give us the capacity to love every type of person. Help us to be inclusive in our love and never exclusive. Give us the grace and ability to reach every type person in Memphis. Help us reach all of Memphis, not just white Memphis. Father, I pray that the common denominator will be our imperfection and our perfect God.
Father, I pray that the people that make decisions in our church will follow the Lord in baptism. Give us wisdom to know the best ways to help people in the decision process as well as the follow up process. Father, protect people from the lies of the enemy and his attempts to steal and destroy the seed before he lands on good soil. Father, in a way that is truly unexplainable give us the ability to see unlimited numbers of people saved and baptized for the purpose of making God priority, making discipleship priority, and making mission priority. Father, I pray that we will see at least 200 people baptized this year. Father, give us Your favor, Your anointing, and Your grace for this purpose. Help us to follow up with people and get them plugged into the Ignite classes. Father, I pray that the Alpha Course will be a huge blessing to reach people for the sake of the kingdom. Father, give us the ability to truly be a church that is great at “Going” and great at “Making Disciples.”
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