Before it is too late

Matthew 7:13-14 “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. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

What did your pastor preach about this weekend? What scripture did they expound upon? Did they show the relevancy of the Bible in the context of today’s events? Did they expound upon what Jesus, or one of his disciples said, or did they inject their “opinion” or their interpretation of scripture? Did they present the gospel, and show your need for a Savior? Did they offer an invitation to come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Would you like to read Jesus’ longest Sermon? Read Matthew 5-7 and see how his words will speak to you through the Holy Spirit as no other pastor can. He will encourage, convict, and challenge you on every level of your life. Likely you will see your life differently as the Holy Spirit works on you in this passage.

When Jesus began the closing in chapter seven, he injected many warnings, but he also put the solid staple of promise to those who sought God with all their heart, mind, body and soul. Those who will live their lives as his disciples, will enjoy all the hearts desires, because their hearts desires will to be in the center of God’s Will for their lives. 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. There is an indescribable peace to the disciple that lives in the freedom of life, the freedom that prays the humble prayers of “not mine will, but Thine will.” When you get it, when you grasp all the Bible says about discipleship, living this life in preparation of the next, living your life in honor of the One who gives you eternal life, that promise in verses seven and eight become alive to you. You worry not (chapter six), because you want not what this world provides, but what He provides temporal and eternal.

Jesus made is clear to the religious leaders of the day, that he was the ONLY way to heaven. It was not by a list of religious rules, for he had came to fulfill the law. It was only by the humble faith to respond to his tug on their hearts, to repent and believe in Him alone. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. The recognition of your need for a Savior, leads you down the path to eternal paradise. But, Jesus uttered the scariest passage in the Bible to those who don’t live as his disciples in the closing of his sermon also; those who think they are saved, but are not. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Full circle back to the question of how you are living your life. Are you living your life seeking his will for your life, and as a result producing the fruit the New Testament proclaims his disciples are to do? If you are praying to benefit you, and your faith proclaims that, you had better do a soul analysis before it is too late.