"The Narrow Road!"
“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. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13 -14
If you have driven a car for any length of time, you all have experienced it. You are driving down the road and all of sudden there is a man or woman standing there holding a pole with a sign attached to the top of it. One side reads “Slow” and the other side reads “Stop.” You know, seeing that sign, that one side of the road is closed for construction work and one side is open for traffic. And you also know that when you are allowed to go “Slow” that much of the road is taken up by the workers and equipment and only a small narrow portion of the road is open for traffic. If you are going to get through you have to watch out, be careful, travel slowly, and stay on the narrow part of the road to be safe or things will not go well.
Terry, Emma and I were traveling to Sunset Beach on Monday morning to visit a few days with some friends that have rented a place for the month of October. Traveling through Scotland County we drove up on a man holding a sign that read “Slow.” There were a few cars and trucks ahead of us driving very slowly and we followed. You could see the huge dump trucks on the other side of the road waiting their turn to dump their load into the machine used to resurface the road. This was on a back road, not one of the major highways, so the road was narrow already, but these huge trucks made it feel even more narrow.
As we passed by the workers and got to the other end of the work site Terry said, “Oh My!” I said, “What?” And I looked over to see a Nissan Maxima on its side down in a deep ditch. The lights were still on and emergency flashers going. The accident had certainly just happened.
What appeared to be the cause of the accident was the person driving the Nissan, coming from the other direction, never saw the man holding the sign to “STOP” until it was too late and drove off onto the side of the road to keep from hitting the man and road construction equipment. But in doing so, ran into the ditch and the car went up onto its side. Thank goodness it appeared no one was hurt.
As we continued our trip down to Sunset Beach, I thought about the accident we had just seen. I thought, this mirrors our lives in so many ways as we live in this lost world. There is a safe, narrow way that leads to life (life eternal) and there is a broad way that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13 -14). When we follow the instructions and stay on the narrow path, the narrow way, doing what is right in the eyes of God, not veering from side to side, the way is safe and secure. Life is secure. But when we veer off the narrow road, we aren’t looking ahead of us for the obstacles around us and think that the way we travel is broad and big, no problems to deal with, we often find a ditch. We find that destruction lies ahead and if we don’t get back on the straight and narrow, well, lets just say the future does not look good at all!
Jesus is teaching His disciples and the crowd that has gathered around. This passage from Matthew is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is giving a foundation for living, a guide to eternal life, life with Him. And He states the way is narrow and few will find it.
Are you on the narrow road? Are you aware of the things around you that are destructive and are you staying away from them? Like the person we saw on Monday, if you take your eye off the narrow way, destruction can jump up and bite you in moment. You can end up in the ditch!
It’s a jungle out there! Be safe! (as one TV show used to say as cops went out for a shift). Folks please, lets be aware of our surroundings. Stay on the straight and narrow road. The alternative is not good!
Blessings, Pastor Marty Duffell Pastor, HOPE Church Raleigh
Worship - Grow - Serve
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