Re-routing

Yeah, the Jesus way is what we call our summer series in the Sermon on the Mount. My name is René. I'm another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, and it is great to be with you back from vacation. I would love if you would just thank with me all of the wonderful TLC pastors who filled in while I was away. Don't we have a great team? Really, really great.

Well, one of the things I love to do is to pour over maps. Show of hands, do we have any other map people here today? You just love maps. Yeah, they're so interesting, so fun. So this itineraries. For example, just for my own entertainment, and we're gonna put up the map here, you could start a road trip in Grip, Arizona. How many of you've started a road trip with a gripe? That is very possible. Then you could hit the road to dismal Tennessee and then on to hazard Kentucky and then panic Pennsylvania. Doesn't this sound like a great vacation so far? And I'm not making any of these town titles up.

Then up the coast to Mistake, Maine, and who gives their towns these names anyway? There's just some sort of a scheme to lower housing costs or I don't know. And then finally, after Mistake, you can go along the shores of the Great Lakes and wind up in Hell, Michigan. That's right, this is literally the road trip to Hell. Well, in a way, you could say that this is the road trip that Jesus encourages us to avoid in the part of the Bible that we look at today. I call this message rerouting. If you have your Bibles or Bible apps turned to Matthew 7:13–23.

And also don't forget those notes that are on the back of the bulletins that you were handed when you came in. So what this is, this passage is the conclusion to the sermon on the Mount. We're going to be looking at this both this week and next week. So just a recap, if you're new, I've already met tons of new people that are joining us for the first time this morning. It's great to have you with us.

So what we've been doing since the beginning of the summer is going through the whole sermon on the Mount. Just as a quick recap, some of what Jesus has been saying, and this is just a sample, is let your light shine. Stay faithful. Stay faithful in marriage. Be honest to your word. Don't sexually objectify people. Love your enemies. Pray for your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Practice non-violence. Don't be a hypocrite. Don't live for money. Don't worry. Trust God as your loving Father. Don't judge people, right? These are the sorts of things that we've been studying and looking at all summer long. That's the Jesus way.

And now he's wrapping it all up. He's bringing all of this to a conclusion and saying, "Here's what all of this sort of adds up to, the truly abundant life that you were created for, the wonderful life God wants you to enjoy." And to enjoy this life, you need to make these three choices that he's about to set before us. Now, these choices don't come naturally. There are times in your life when every fiber of your being will mitigate against these choices. There are times when every voice in our broader culture shouts against these choices. But Jesus is saying, "This is the way to truly have your best life." So jot these down.

Number one, most clearly, you need to take the right path. The right path because not every road leads somewhere good. Let's look at Jesus's words starting in verse 13 of Matthew 7. "Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate, and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." I want to challenge you with something here this morning. For most of my Christian life, when I was brought up, I found that my teachers of the way I was given to understand this verse kind of conflated the meaning of this verse with another verse in the Gospels where Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me." And Jesus did say that, and I believe that with all of my heart.

But here in this verse, in this context, Jesus is talking about something else. Jesus by narrow gate and narrow path, what Jesus is talking about is what he has just been saying. Remember, this is the wrap-up to his sermon. The narrow gate is his teaching. And how do I know that's what Jesus meant? Well, because he says that's what he meant as these verses go on. He's contrasting the world's way with the Jesus way, and in many ways, if you look at the Sermon on the Mount, really it's a lot of it, maybe most of it, is about how to respond to provocation.

For example, excuse me, let's say somebody insults you. The world's way, of course, is to insult back; the Jesus way is you bless them. Let's say somebody opposes you professionally, personally, they become an enemy. The world's way is to hate them, actually. The Jesus way is to love them. Let's say somebody literally slaps you, like hurts you physically in one of the most outrageous teachings of the Jesus way. The world's way, you know, is to slap back. The Jesus way is non-violence. Turn the other cheek. Let's say somebody offends you, curses you. The world's way is to curse back. The Jesus way is to forgive them.

Just generally, what if bad things happen to you? The world's way is to freak out and worry about it. The Jesus way is to don't worry but trust in your loving Father. Now, if you look at the world's way and the Jesus way, Jesus is saying the world's way, all of this stuff, this is easy, this is not hard, this is lizard brain stuff, this is just knee-jerk reaction to provocation. The Jesus way, this is hard, right? This goes against the grain, but he's saying the world's way leads to destruction. If you live like this, it's gonna destroy yourself, it's gonna destroy your well-being, it's gonna destroy your relationships.

If countries live like this and just live pugilistically all the time, aggressively all the time, ultimately it'll lead to the destruction of the country. And Jesus is saying his way may be hard, but it leads to life at every level, and he really, really wants his hearers to understand this. When he says the wide way leads to destruction, he's not just talking about your eternal destiny, about hell one day. You know, one of the problems people have when they insert hell into this sentence, he says destruction is if you punt the effect of living a bad life all the way into the afterlife, all of Jesus' teachings really in some ways, you know, removes the urgency of them.

You think, well, you know, hell seems so unreal, I don't believe in hell anyway and I'll repent before I die. Jesus said destruction, and it does lead to destruction. Dr. Karen Swartz, Dr. Johns Hopkins, an expert in the effects of chronic anger. Anger, bitterness, the world's way, leads to an increased heart rate, higher blood pressure, impaired immune response, increased risk of depression, increased risk of diabetes, I could go on and on. In one word, destruction. But the Jesus way, he says, leads to life and not just life, like one day in heaven and the great bye-bye, because that, you know, people are like, well, why should I leave the Jesus way? I don't know.

Again, it punts it so far into the future that the urgency of his call is removed sometimes for us. Look at this, I saw a Mayo Clinic article on their website on the benefits of forgiveness, in other words, the Jesus way. How about this list? Improved mental health, less anxiety, stress, and hostility, fewer symptoms of depression, lower blood pressure, a stronger immune system, improved heart health. In other words, life. The world's way leads to destruction, like on every level now and in the afterlife. And the Jesus way leads to life again at every level.

Now, note that he says it leads to destruction and it leads to life. In other words, not immediately, right? The outcome is not at first evidence, but eventually, I mean, and let's be honest, this is the same thing with every good habit, right? Like, let's say you want to work out because you want to, you know, you want to look more like Adrian Moreno or something like that. If you start lifting weights, it's not like after one pull, it's gonna be, "Oh wow, there's my bicep." It leads to health eventually, and that's exactly the same way with the Jesus way.

You can look at it this way. The wide way is kind of like a cone that opens wide on one end. You walk in, it's easy, it's even fun, but eventually it constricts until you're living a cramped life, an enslaved life, a dead-end life. And some of you have been there. What starts as a party morphs into a prison, but the narrow way is the exact opposite. It starts hard, "Well, I have to forgive, I have to turn the other cheek." But as you live that life, you find that emotionally and physically and spiritually it opens up and it actually frees you.

Now, I want to be careful that here this does not illustrate our welcome. Jesus's welcome is always wide. He always welcomes anyone and everyone. What he's saying is you can't tell wisdom by majority vote. He says, "Many enter into the path that leads to destruction." People stream into it, but they're going the wrong direction. So don't judge it by majority vote. I saw a great analogy for this this week. I learned how ants can get trapped in a death spiral known as an ant mill where they just go around in a circle forever until at last they just die of exhaustion.

And here's how it happens. One ant will be laying down a pheromone track and get lost and walk in a circle. And then all the ants behind him follow his scent trail and then more ants follow and more ants join, and they will go around and around and around going nowhere until they die. The majority can lead you the wrong way. Now, here's the tricky thing. The majority really actually like Jesus's teachings, right? I mean, look back at this summary. Love and pray and bless, practice non-violence, don't be a hypocrite, don't live for money, don't worry, don't judge people.

I mean, I don't know about you, but that kind of reminds me of the hippies and the sixties, you know, that they believed all that stuff. But if you read the biographies of like some of those hippie bands, most of them broke up rancorously. They sued each other, they ended up hating each other. What's the problem there? The problem wasn't that they didn't love the things that Jesus taught. The problem was, one of the problems, was they thought it would be easy. They thought it would be like floating downstream some river in Humboldt County, right? The problem is you can float downstream all the way over a waterfall, right?

Jesus is saying the Jesus way, you need to swim upstream. There has to be intention, there has to be a choice not to just think his teachings are beautiful, but actually live the Jesus way. So ask yourself this question, am I intentional about walking the Jesus way? There's a word for this, discipleship, right? But this is not easy, I'll admit it, none of us does this perfectly. I think back, personal true confession here, and some of the many, many ways I've fallen short.

One time during the Christmas season, I was out shopping at one of these big malls over the hill and I'm walking back to my car and I'm thinking of my Christmas sermon, how it's the good news of great joy, and I need to radiate joy. And Lord, give me an opportunity to witness to somebody right now and bring them the good news of great joy. And then I see a guy littering, throwing a banana peel into my car, throwing this peel out of the driver's window of his massive truck, his compensation mobile, right into my open, tiny little Fiat convertible that I loved so much.

And all that good news of great joy stuff just went right out the window too. And I ran to my car and I fired it up and I tailgated his gigantic truck all around the parking lot until I found a space where I could pull up right next to him and I took the banana peel and I tossed it right back through his open window. And I yelled at him, and I wanted to yell something truly angry and cutting, and I opened my mouth and I thought, "Oh, but I can't swear because I'm a pastor." And so all that came out was an indignant, "I believe this is your banana peel, sir!"

And I was so wound up that it came out like Don Knotts on the Andy Griffith Show. "I believe this is your banana peel!" And then I tried to race away dramatically and mashed down on the accelerator, but it was a Fiat. And I just putted away, sounded like a lawnmower, and I could just hear, I heard behind me echoing in the parking garage the truck driver and his friend just laughing at me. Such a wonderful contribution to the joy-filled evangelism of the lost, right? In that moment, was I going to the Jesus way or the world way? The world way. Did not forgive, did not bless, did not pray.

So here's my question. Did Jesus go, "All right René, you're out!" Of course not. We all fail. So did Jesus' first disciples. But Jesus works with us and allows us to keep rerouting, and that's what this new fall series we're starting is all about. Flawed follower. Hope for those of us who really love Jesus but find, "Wow, we're so imperfect! I'm so excited about this!" As Kyle said, you can get your book today, sign up for a small group today. We still need more host homes because we have so much interest in this. Jim's outside to help you get signed up.

And here's something that's really exciting. This past week we met with pastors from all of the other churches doing this with us across the Bay Area. We have 10 churches doing this with us in English and in Spanish and also in Japanese and also in Eritrean. So I'm very, very excited about this. Again, that starts the weekend of September 22nd, and by the way, nobody's making a dime off of this. All the money from the books, all the proceeds goes back to the ministry of the church, not to me or anybody else. So I hope you get your book and pray about this, pray for this, that God will teach all of us very flawed followers how to go the Jesus way.

Well then there's a second way to going the Jesus way, and that is follow the right leaders. Follow the right leaders, the right teachers. Earlier this summer, headline from England, "Runners Directed Off Race Route by Prankster Teens." Articles said some 425 runners attempting a five-kilometer race were sent in the wrong direction after a group of teenagers moved directional signs and cones. Organizers said only nine of the runners took the correct route.

Now I got to be honest with you, if I had thought of this as a teenager I would have tried this. But this is the kind of thing Jesus is warning us about here, but the consequences are much more dire. Verse 15, "Beware of false prophets." People are going to lead you on the wrong route. "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. By their fruit you'll recognize them." So on vacation, I got to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I hadn't been there in years. How many of you have ever been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium? It's amazing, isn't it? One of my favorites, the sea otters. We all love the sea otters.

So I got to be there for feeding time, and one thing that I learned there that I hadn't known before, when you think of a sea otter what do you think of swimming, floating, wrapping themselves up in kelp, hunting and bashing open shells with rock, cleaning, grooming, they're for... What I didn't know was otters actually don't know how to do any of that by instinct. A hundred percent of that has to be taught to them by their mothers. In fact, otters don't even know how to swim. Their mothers give them swim lessons. They have to be taught. So if a baby otter is abandoned, it's toast. Unless aquariums like ours rescue them, we humans have to teach them all of this stuff they need to survive, even how to wrap themselves in seaweed and so on.

And raise your hand right now if you're just overdosing on cuteness because this is amazing. So it struck me, human beings are exactly the same. We basically don't know how to do anything by instinct. We don't know anything. We have to be taught all of it. And particularly we don't know how to manage anger. We don't know how to handle the inevitable enemies and opposition. We don't know how to handle our worries. We have to be taught just like a baby otter. So the question is who is teaching you how to deal with that stuff? Jesus is just saying there are bad teachers who are teaching you the world's way instead of the Jesus way.

But he says you can spot them how? By their fruit you will recognize them. Got that? Fruit. Say fruit with me. Fruit. I've said it before one of the biggest tragedies of the Christian church is that we act like Jesus said by their gifts you will recognize them. Listen to that pastor. Listen to that teacher. Look at this author. They're so funny. They're so charismatic. They're so popular. They must be called of God. Gifts. And gifts are great. Gifts are wonderful. God gives gifts. But Jesus didn't say you can recognize them by their gifts. Cult leaders can be very gifted. Abusive pastors can be very gifted. He said what? Fruit. Say by their fruit you will recognize them. By their fruit you will recognize them.

Here's how important it is for Jesus that you learn that principle. Look at how often he reiterates this. He says our grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so then by their fruit you will recognize them. Fruit seven times in these verses he says you have to judge your pastors, your teachers, me, the other pastors on staff here by our fruit. By the fruit of the Spirit which is love and joy and peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Nobody's going to be perfect at these things, but are we growing in these things? Are these the things that we value? There's a lot of pastors, frankly, whose ministries are not loving and aren't joy-filled, and they're twitchy, impatient, unkind people, and this is what they're teaching their followers to be like. Jesus says one day God will deal with these abusive religious leaders. He says not everybody who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day Lord, Lord didn't we prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles. This is the false teachers talking, and look how everything now these are good things, these are beautiful things potentially, but look at their CV, their resume that they put before God. It's all works and it's all very showy spectacular works. They love to be on stage.

It makes you wonder whether they did these things for the personal accolades or whether they were really serving Jesus because look at what Jesus says next. Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Now I want to take a closer look at the word lawlessness because when I was younger I just thought that just meant these people are, you know, without control, they're out of control in terms of self-discipline. But that's not actually what this means. The word in the Greek is anomia, which can be translated contra commandments. In other words, Jesus is saying depart from me, you doers of the opposite of my teachings. These teachers are actually teaching the very opposite of the Jesus way.

If you look back at that chart, they're teaching their followers to insult back, to hate, to slap back, to curse, to freak out. Maybe they're not teaching these things didactically, but they're teaching these things by their example. You look at them and their ministries, and there's insults and there's hatred and there's like punching back and shoving back and pushing away their enemies, things Jesus never did. And Jesus is saying if you come across a pastor like on YouTube or personally who is demonstrating by their anger and their hostility the opposite of the Jesus way, run away as far and as fast as you can.

And you have to honestly ask yourself who am I allowing to influence me? Whose disciple are you being? Now, of course, these days we're taught not just by religious leaders, far from it. We're influenced by all kinds of people. There was an article last weekend in USA Today: social media influencers tell you to buy, buy, buy. Stop listening to them. This is not some pastor; this is an editorial list in USA Today. It says influencers are pushing purchase after purchase at their viewers. Ninety-four percent of social media influencers make money via brand partnerships. They're paid to market product to their viewers. Their content is based on the idea that happiness or at least the illusion of happiness is found through stuff. What they're teaching you is materialism.

Who is discipling you? Who's teaching you? Who's influencing you? Rolling Stone earlier this year had an article headline: influencers are making content designed to make you angry, and it's working. So again, you have to ask yourself the question, who am I really allowing to influence me? That's a tough question. Who is discipling you? Is it Jesus or is it somebody who teaches you the opposite of the Jesus way? And then finally, for your best life, have the right focus. Have the right focus. Are you focused on just saying the right words about God or actually doing what Jesus really taught to do?

Look back at that last verse, verse 21 again. Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Not says, but does. Jesus is saying don't just agree with me. Don't just say, "Yes, Jesus, that teaching is so beautiful." Actually do it. Live it. Anybody can say Jesus' words. Are you doing what Jesus' words tell you to do? This is pretty sobering, isn't it? It is for me. I mean, look at that summary again. Just look at these things. I want to ask you right now in your life, what is a narrow gate related to one of these teachings that Jesus is asking you to go through? It's hard, it's not easy.

Could it be staying faithful? Could it be loving your enemies, praying for your enemies, blessing those who curse you, not sexually objectifying people, not lusting? Whatever, it's hard, isn't it? But is Jesus calling you to do it? Will you go that direction? I love this quote from GK Chesterton: "The Sermon on the Mount has not been tried and found wanting; it's been found difficult and left untried." And Jesus sees that tendency of people to go, "These words are so beautiful," and then not do them. Now, why would we do that? Well, when I look back at how I was brought up as a Christian, I think there's some historical excuses for evading the clear teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, and you could summarize them like this.

It's just for then. Jesus was teaching some kind of like an interim morality for the three years before his death and resurrection, and it no longer applies to us because now we're saved by grace. I don't have to do this stuff. Or it's just for Jesus only; he could do this, so don't even try. And of course, only he could do it perfectly. Or it's just for priests and nuns and monks, you know, professional Christians, not for the rest of us. Let them do it for us, right? Or maybe it's just for the future, one day in heavenly perfection we can all live like this, but certainly we can't live like this now, so don't even try. Don't worry about it. This is what people will be like in heaven.

And I got to be honest, even as a kid, I thought, well, that can't be it because who's gonna insult me and slap me in heaven and dare me to live like this? It just doesn't make any sense. And the one I personally heard most growing up was it's just for conviction of sin. The intent of the Sermon on the Mount is I look at these things Jesus said and I think I can't do this; it's impossible. And so I turned to Jesus as my personal Savior for forgiveness and for strength. And of course, there is some truth to that. Of course, we should turn to Jesus as our Savior. Of course, he gives us strength to live like this because we cannot do it on our own, right? We're powerless to do this on our own, so we turn our lives over to him, and he lives this way, giving us strength.

But for me, the effect of this teaching was that the whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mount was just to make me feel convicted, and once I felt convicted of my need for Christ, I didn't have to pay attention to the Sermon on the Mount anymore. I look back now and I see that these five historical excuses are really just ways of evading the kind of life that Jesus is recommending to us as the way to life, kind of like an Orthodox Jewish rabbi quoted by Sky Jethani in his book, What If Jesus Was Serious, said it seems to me that the history of Christianity is a history of Christians trying to evade the Sermon on the Mount and avoid living according to its plain meaning. And I think he's onto something.

And I think what Jesus is challenging you and me to do in his conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount is ask ourselves this question: am I only saying Jesus' words or am I doing Jesus' things? Right now, some of you may be saying, "Now wait a minute here, René. Are you saying that we're saved by works, that we get into heaven based on how good we are? Because if that's true, I'm doomed." Me too. Thank God the Bible clearly says, like in Ephesians 2:8–9, "It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it's the gift of God, not by works, so no one can boast." Thank God.

But we often forget the very next verse: "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." We're not saved by good works but for good works. Somebody said the Sermon on the Mount is not some unattainable goal; it's a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting his own nature in me. Let me wrap this up. I think the most important word in the passage we've looked at today is the very first word Jesus said: it's a verb, enter. Enter into life. Choose to follow Jesus.

Jesus doesn't say admire the narrow gate, be moved by the narrow gate, stand at the narrow gate and think what a beautiful gate. He says enter. Make a choice to follow Jesus and keep following Jesus. Now maybe right now your road trip looks a little bit like this road trip. You've gone from gripe to dismal to hazard to panic to mistake. Jesus is not saying, "Yep, you chose the wide path; you're doomed now." He's saying it's never too late to choose your path to reroute. In fact, you may be kind of parked at mistake right now. The good news is you can reroute. You can go to his love and then to life. And yes, fellow map fans, there is a town called life.

But Jesus is calling you into abundant life now and eternal life then. He's calling you into the Jesus way. Will you follow? Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? You know, if these words I'm about to pray reflect your heart, please pray them along with me. Heavenly Father, I want to live my life in such a way that my actions align with the Jesus way, not the world's way. And maybe for some here that's a very first-time decision. You might want to pray, "I have detoured over to mistake for too long. I want to reroute to life. I want to choose you, Jesus, as my Lord and as my Savior right now this morning."

And if you prayed that prayer, I just want to encourage you to talk to one of our Stephen ministry prayer team members after church and let them know so that they can just pray God's blessing on your decision. And with our heads still bowed, I want you to pause just for a minute to consider what hard thing, what narrow way is Jesus asking you to walk in this week specifically? Maybe forgiving somebody, maybe not worrying, maybe not lusting, some other thing that he's taught in the Sermon on the Mount. What is a specific narrow path for you this week? Ask Jesus for supernatural strength to do that, and he will give it to you.

Lord, we recognize we don't have the strength in our sinful selves to live like this. Empower us with your Holy Spirit. Lord, we look around and we see what happens to us human beings when we live the world's way. We see wars, we see destruction both on a personal level and on national and international levels. God, we pray for peace. We pray for your kingdom to come in all of these war zones around. But as for us, may we choose to go not the way of the world but your way, the Jesus way, and be peacemakers and be grace givers. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.