Let us bow our heads and our hearts in prayer:

"May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen!"

I have chosen for my text today the 7th Ch. of Matthew the 14th verse.

Jesus said:

"Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life and few there be that find it!"

The spelling of the word strait is not spelled like the word signifying a straight line but rather a strait that connects two large bodies of water. Though now consider archaic or rare in its usage the word spelled s-t-r-a-i-t meant not only a straight line but it also meant that line was very exacting, narrow and difficult, restricted and constricted, rigid and distressing .

In our search for God and for meaning and peace within our lives many of us have tried to walk the walk that they believe God wants us to do, and we might see that walk represented by this piece of paper. (8X11 folded long way in upside down vee shape).

For strait is the gate and narrow is the way. There are many things that distract us or lure us away from having that one-on-one relationship with God through Jesus Christ. For many feel like they're walking a tightrope of sorts, how easy it is to take our eyes off of the path and slip and fall, and its not very easy to get back up and resume our walk.

Pastor Lynn spoke last week about the many things that we end up substituting for God. Though God has declared that: "He is the Lord God and we shall have no other God before Him." Pastor pointed out how many well meaning people have fallen into the trap of putting many things first in their lives before God. For some of us it might be our quest for wealth, or for fame, sometimes it's our jobs (trying to get to the top at all cost), or our homes or our cars, sometimes it might even be our "Church" where we strive to protect our church building, our churchology, and fail to do the work that God has called us to do. When any of these things become front and center for us, God gets moved down or taken completely off the list of what is important in our lives.

Sometimes we even put our family before Jesus, in St. Luke the 14 Ch. vs. Jesus said: "If any man comes to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children and brethren, and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." That words hates not can be changed to read loves more. Anytime we put anything before God even our most important relationships then that becomes what we live for, and God is moved out of the equation.

As I mentioned sometimes it is our own wealth or lack there of that becomes our God. As we seek to find new ways of making our money work for us. What's the best stock to invest in, who's paying the highest interest rates? Will we have enough to retire on? Should we build bigger barns? In St. Luke the 12 Ch . God has said to that person, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall those things be, which thou has provided?"

And then there's the equally wrong thing to be doing and that is fretting about the money we don't have, always wishing for more to the point that we're obsessed with it. Our lack of money makes us sad and miserable and not nice to be around. How much money does one need to be happy? It's always just a little bit more than what we are making or what we have . It's a sin of coveting and God has commanded us not to desire that which is not ours. We are to be happy with what God has provided for us and we're to give thanks. If we can't be faithful in a little than how can we be faithful with a lot.

For strait is the gate and narrow is the way. We slip off the path or stray from the fold when we use the Lord's name in vain, yet seldom if ever do we lift his name up in praise or in thanksgiving. Do we do things that honour our parents? We are to honour them, in spite of who they are or what they've done. The commandment did not have a codicil attached to it saying honour them only if they were good parents. For some of us whose parents maybe didn't fit the perfect role model, it is interesting that what we didn't like in them, we seem to be repeating in our own roles as parents.

For strait is the gate and narrow is the way. As Christians we celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. But it seems we find it difficult to keep the Sabbath as a holy day, a day of rest, a day to worship and praise God, a day for the family. God has said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. God who created the Universe in six days, even He took a day off and rested from his work and behold it was very good. And do you know what happen on the eighth day? Guess what, the universe was still there.

For strait is the gate and narrow is the way. In our desire to have more or our feeling that we have the right to something that is not ours we will end up stealing. Maybe it's nothing big, just the pens you bring home from work, the company's got a lot of them what's the big deal. I remember when I was a young boy; I got it in my head that I wanted to steal a chocolate bar from the local drugstore. And I did. I never got caught, but that didn't make it right. Not my biggest sin by any stretch of the imagination, but nonetheless one that convicts me of wrongdoing and counts me as unworthy. Maybe some of you here have stolen something or cheated at something, maybe you lied on your income tax, or maybe you cheated on your wife or your husband. It was only a onetime occasion, or just for a season, what's the big deal? What's hidden sin here on Earth is open scandal in Heaven.

For strait is the gate and narrow is the way. And then there's this thing about forgiveness. I recently finished reading a book by R. T. Kendall called "Total Forgiveness". Where we are not only told to forgive those who have offended us, but also we're to pray for them and we're to ask God to bless them. And here's the real kicker, the writer suggests we're to do this and he backs it up with scripture, even if the person who offended us has never made any attempt to seek our forgiveness or make any sort of retribution .

Earlier this year at one of the schools that I work at a principal had a 8 x11 sheet on her door that said: "To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then realize that the prisoner was you!"

For you see when we carry anger and hatred and harbor ill feelings towards those who have hurt us, we grieve the Holy Spirit which in every one of us as Christians. And the love of Christ cannot work through us, because we have decided this is something that we're going to deal with. Sometimes we bury a hurt, a violation against us, or an abuse so deep within our hearts that we ourselves deny that it is there. There's a verse that I heard that speaks of "a room in my heart where no one is allowed in". And we bury that hurt there and we hold on to it. Maybe it's because we want justice done against the person who hurt us. Maybe we want that person to feel the same hurt and pain that they inflicted upon us. Possibly more! We refuse to let go of it; we refuse to give it over to God. But God has said if we do not forgive those who have sinned or trespassed against us then He will not forgive us our sins (Mark Ch. 11 Vs. 26 ). Maybe we attend church, maybe we're even leaders within our church, (the writer of the book, R.T. Kendall was the Pastor of his church) and God may sustain us, but we cannot grow to the fullest in our faith, unless we're willing to totally forgive. And if we hold on to it too long it will grow like a cancer and manifest itself in other ways and gradually destroy us.

For strait is the gate and narrow is the way. Human nature hasn't changed much since time began and Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin entered the world. This past week a number of people have mentioned the movie "The Passion of Christ" to me, which I have not seen yet. Two comments stood out that I would like to share with you. The first was from someone at our Praise and Prayer last Sunday. They were struck by the fact that as a human race, in spite of all the technical advances we have made in the last two thousand years, we have not made any gains in the way that we treat one another. And the other was at the men's breakfast in Stonewall that I attended yesterday; a fellow (actually a former inmate of Rockwood) mentioned that various emotions ran through him as he watched the movie. One was that of conviction , realizing that Christ had died for him and that his sins put Christ on the Cross. But another emotion rose up inside of him, it was one of anger. Anger at the crowd, at the Roman soldiers, for what they had done to Christ and just as He was wishing that God would intervene with force and stop this horrible event, Jesus utters these words:

"Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do."

Yes strait is the gate and narrow is the way. Even when you come to Christ daily and lead a holy life Satan will attack you from all sides. If he can't get you, then he'll go after your job, your possessions, and he'll attack your family. He'll attempt to destroy you anyway he can. He'll go after your children. He'll steal them from you with his lies and his deception. Some people here have shared with me how they have wept for their children, praying for them night and day because of the Godless path they have chosen to walk. Involved with drugs, alcohol, illicit sex, chasing after their own lusts and all the while forsaking God. And Satan laughs at us and says: "Where is your God?" and we might even buy into it because of our grief and devastation. We may even become disenchanted with God. Satan will do whatever he can to get us to take our eyes off of Jesus so that we take a wrong turn, or slip down some immoral slope or question His love for us. But do not lose faith my friends for the battle is not ours, it belongs to the Lord. And He will fight it for us, but we have to surrender totally to Him, we have to go to Him daily in prayer.

For strait is the gate and narrow is the way. But this piece of paper that I've used to demonstrate our walk is for the one who maybe knows of this person called Jesus but they don't know Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. They don't have a relationship with him. This walk is for the lost that are trying to find God in their own way, desperately creating God in their own likeness and trying to sell their God as the true God. It's for the person who treats Jesus as an "Insurance Policy" - just in case there's some truth to this whole creation story, and judgment, "I better keep up the payments and make sure my membership is current."

(Hold up folded paper in upright V shape!)

As Christians when we accept Christ into our lives as our personal Lord and Savior our walk with Christ is still straight and narrow but it's a path that is a straight path with a hedge of protection around us. The apostle Paul writes in the Bk. of Romans the 7th Ch. "But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter". We may err in our ways but because the Holy Spirit, which comes from God the Father and Jesus, lives in us, we can never stray far away because the Spirit convicts us on the spot when we sin. If we curse and use the Lord's name in vain we're convicted on the spot. If we see someone of the opposite sex that is appealing to us and we think of betraying the vows we made with our wife or husband we're convicted by the Spirit not to go there. If we wish we had more money, more wealth, more possessions, more notoriety the Spirit shows us that this will not bring us happiness, regardless of what lies Satan may try to tell us.

Mel Gibson got to share on international T.V. with I believe an interviewer from Entertainment Tonight how he had it all. He had more money than most people could dream of having, he was famous worldwide as an actor and even was chosen by Time magazine as the "most sexiest man in the world". He had a wife and I believe six or more children. He could afford to do just about anything and go anywhere he chose to and yet he was miserable inside. He resorted to alcohol and drugs and that didn't fill the emptiness inside of him. He said that one day he just fell to his knees and asked Christ to come into his life. It was only then that he found peace for his trouble soul.

He was walking this walk (Upside down V) before (he apparently was somewhat of a churchgoer) but now he's walking with Christ (reverse paper to V shape) and his walk though still strait and narrow took on a new meaning. And one can't help but believe that God has great plans for him. When we surrender ourselves to Christ He can do wondrous things in us and through us.

When we view the way that is strait and narrow in this manner we see how God protects us, there is no slippery slope; there are no dangerous pitfalls. Christ died on the cross, shed his blood for our sins, and paid a debt for us that we could not pay. He gathers us in his arms, and cradles us in his bosom and if we trust in Him and seek Him out daily we will find fulfillment in our lives.

In our gospel lesson today Christ wept for Jerusalem, because it rejected him. Yet He longed to gather them like a mother hen gathers her brood together under her wings and protect them from all the forces out there in this world.

As Christ wept for Jerusalem, He also weeps for you. If you do not know Him or have continued to reject Him He's calling to you now and there's only one thing that you need to do and it's found in the verse of John 3:16

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life ."

Believe in Him! Trust in Him! Turn your search for God, your walk with God from this (upside down V) to this (V). Jesus knocks at the door to your heart and waits for you to answer. If you haven't done so I invite you now to take that step of faith, believe in Christ Jesus, and ask Him into your heart. Everything else has been done God asks nothing more of you than accept His gift of Grace. Christ is the only one that can fill the emptiness that is in your heart. Won't you make that decision today?

Amen!

? 2004 Bill Rumley All Rights Reserved