Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Hebrews

The Narrow Gate

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Matthew 7:13-14

The road to Heaven is not an easy one. Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but almost nobody wants to live for Jesus. Preachers today make it easy for people to think their eternity is secure by preaching a gospel of “easy believism.” These churches are exploding in numbers, and a great move back to God is being lauded in the press. It seems people are coming to Christ in droves.

But Jesus said, the path that leads to life is narrow, and few will find it (Matthew 7:13-14). What then to make of all these coming to the Lord? The only option is they are coming on the wide path that leads to destruction. It is notable that Jesus’s warning against the wide path comes just before His warning about false teachers (Matthew 7:15).

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Two Foundations

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Matthew 7:24-29

We call Jesus Lord, but we don’t live like He is. While we hear what He says, we don’t act on what we hear. Since we do not obey His Word, we show we do not love Him (John 14:15). We still love and cling to the things of this world (1 John 2:15-17) although we claim to have left everything to follow Christ (Matthew 16:24). Our supposed Christian life is a house of cards.

Man thinking through which of the two foundations he will build his life upon, desiring to build on the bedrock of God's WOrd and live a life of surrender, commitment, and discipleship

We are building without a foundation and will crumble at the slightest breeze. When the storms come, the disaster will be catastrophic. Jesus said there are two foundations we can build our lives upon: the bedrock of obedience to His Word, or the shifting sand of cultural whims and man’s opinions (Matthew 7:24-27).

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Don’t Just Listen

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We live in an age of incredible blessing. There are so many resources at our fingertips with which to study God’s Word. There are books, videos, websites, audio programs, and a plethora of churches where we can find God’s Word taught and expounded. Each of us could fill our days watching and hearing God’s Word preached and never run out of programming.

Woman clutching her Bible determined to have the focus and disipline to not just listen to the Word of God but to live out the commitment to obey it in discipleship to Christ through prayer and Bible study

Every one of us has the potential to know God in a deep and rewarding way. But don’t just listen to solid teaching. If you do that, you will go away not much different than you are today. The Word of God should not be background noise, something that plays throughout the day without ever penetrating any further than our ears (Ezekiel 33:31-32; Matthew 13:13-14). How dare we glance at the very Word of God with such casualness?

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Walking in God’s Will, Part 1

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There is perhaps no greater confusion among Christians than in what it means to follow God’s will. Everyone wants to know God’s will for their lives, but so many seem to have no idea what that will is. I used to think this was an issue just for newer or less mature Christians, but over the years I’ve heard people who have been following Christ for years express the same questions about wondering what God’s will is for them in their situation.

Woman contemplating what it means to be walking in God's Will with discernment, humility, and obedience

No doubt you’ve heard the admonition to pray for God’s will, but people have a tendency to take that on a personal level as opposed to seeking God’s overarching will. I think this leads many to be confused. So, let’s look at what it means to live life walking in God’s will.

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Bad Fruit

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The Bible uses the analogy of good and bad fruit to distinguish between what believers and nonbelievers will produce in their lives (Matthew 7:17-20). Genuine followers of Christ will produce good fruit (John 15:8). Jesus says if we abide in Him, we will produce fruit that is growing and desirable (John 15:4-5), as we cannot produce any other kind.

a crowd with raised hands at an event espousing a false gospel and generating bad fruit showing a lack of discipline and discernment for those in attendance which belies their discipleship

But for those not in Him, Jesus likens them to bad trees that can only produce bad fruit (Matthew 7:18). A bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit every now and again; it produces bad fruit every time. Sure, it might look appealing on the outside, but inside it is rotten and sour. If we consume enough of it, what do you imagine will become of our spiritual health?

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