Which Road - Narrow or Wide - Life or Death

Memory Verse: Deut. 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Your book gives an illustration of how impressive the obedience and commitment of Alexander the Great’s soldiers was and the effect it had on the enemy king’s army. Even though they were vastly outnumbered by the enemy king’s army, the obedience of Alexander’s soldiers – even to their death—showed them that Alexander’s soldiers would not stop fighting until the final victory. This demonstration caused the enemy king and his vast army to surrender without fighting any battle. Obviously the enemy king’s army did not come close to the level of obedience and commitment that Alexander’s army had. Were Alexander’s soldiers forced to obey his order to march, knowing they were standing on the edge of a cliff, ensuring certain death, or did they choose to do so?

Most of us would look at that illustration and think Alexander’s soldiers were really stupid to die like that. But, ask yourself. Did he force them to obey or did they choose to obey? Life is choosing one way or another. Every decision you make during your whole life is some kind of choice. The choices that you make will either honor God or not honor Him.

Deuteronomy 12:28 28 "Be careful to obey all my commands, so that all will go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and pleasing to the LORD your God."

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 15 “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

At first glance, it looks like God is forcing the Israelites to obey Him by threatening them if they don’t. Our God of love never forces anyone to obey Him. What God is doing here is telling them that there are natural consequences that will happen if they choose to live like the pagans around them. He is telling them that there is another way. He gives them a blueprint – His laws and statutes by which to live, so that they can live their lives in peace, health and prosperity. If they choose to abandon the blueprint and live their lives as the pagans around them, He lets them do it and He lets them experience the natural consequences of living that way. That is God’s tough love.

God never forces anyone to obey Him. He wants you to obey Him because you choose to obey Him out of love for Him. His heart breaks to see the horrors that the natural consequences of living without His laws wreak on the lives of the people He loves so much. The people He loves so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ, who willingly volunteered to become one of them, live a sinless life and to die a horrible death for their sins – just so the relationship that was broken with Him when Adam and Eve sinned, would be restored.

What is your level of obedience and commitment to God? Are you willing to fight, even to your death, against Satan’s temptations and your own human nature? Is loving Christ and believing in Him enough without obedience? Can you live your life the way you want to and expect to be in God’s kingdom? What part does obedience have in the life of a Christian?

What does obey mean? Webster’s dictionary defines it as following commands or guidelines. In the Hebrew, Strong’s Concordance #8085 – shama’ – obey – means hear intelligently, consent, consider, discern, cause to hear, listen to, perceive, regard, understand. The same word in the Greek is #5219 – hupkauou (hoop-ak-oo’-o) listen attentively, hearken. Hear intelligently, cause to hear, perceive, listen attentively, hearken – all these words indicate the idea of using your mind. Obedience is not blind – obedience is a considered, intelligent choice to follow the leadership of something or someone that you trust. Those that do not know Jesus Christ or His way of life trust themselves and others to lead their lives. Those that do know Jesus Christ trust either God or themselves and others to lead their lives.

Would you put yourself and your life in the hands of those around you? That is what you do when you give in to peer pressure. You allow someone else to decide how you will live your life. Look at the world around you. Peer pressure drives this world. What do you see that peer pressure leads to? (Smoking, drug use, premarital sex, extra-marital sex – adultery, theft, murder, homosexual sins, clothing and fashion styles, the kind of car you drive, hairstyles and hair color, tattoos, body-piercings, broken families, shattered lives, etc).

Why do we do it? Most of us are so afraid to be different, to stand out from the crowd that we choose to be like it. Are we choosing the wrong road – the road those that do not know Jesus or those who refuse to know Him choose?

Matthew 7:13-14 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

How do we know what gate and road to choose? Is there a standard that we can measure against? Yes! God gave us His laws to give us that standard. Jesus gave us His life to show us that blueprint. We can choose to listen to God or we can listen to those that do not know Him.

The narrow road is God’s road. It is narrow because it is specific. He tells us what things are not good for us. He knows us. He made us. It is not arbitrary – not without reason. He became one of us so we would know that we have a God who understands us and how we think. It is specific – we know exactly what we should or should not do. It is clear and definite.

The wide road is the road that most of the world follows. It is wide because it has no standard except self. Self will do whatever self wants whenever self wants wherever self wants and doesn’t worry or even care about the consequences – good or bad. The wide road encompasses or contains every whim and desire and imagination of self. The wide road has many things on it that look exciting and fun to do, but when you do them, they have bad consequences. They hurt you and they hurt others. The wide road is not specific; it is wide. It is not clear; it is fuzzy.

Revelation 18:4 4"Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues”

We are told to come out of the world’s way of doing things. We are to live differently than the rest of the world. We are to show the world that there is a better way to live. We do this by the example we set in our own lives by following God’s way of life and following the blueprint that Jesus left us of His life and His choices.

John 14:21 21"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him."

I John 5:1-3 "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. 2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome."

Jesus tells us that obedience shows God that we love Him. Choosing to obey God shows love to Him just as choosing to obey your parents shows love to them.

What things can you do that shows God your level of obedience and commitment? Do your friends determine the clothes that you wear, the words that you speak, the attitudes that you display, the activities that you participate in? If your friends use bad language, do you also use the same bad language when you are with them? Are you different with your parents than you are with your friends? If your friends decide to see what smoking cigarettes or pot is like, will you also participate with them? If your friends decide to shoplift and you are with them, what would you do? If your friends are having sex with their girlfriends or boyfriends, would you too? If kids make fun of you because you dress modestly or go to church on Saturday, will you become like them to fit in? What would be the natural consequences of these choices? (smoking or drug addiction; jail, prison, family embarrassment; pregnancy and possible abortion; fatherless children; loss of attaining your life dreams; loss of respect for yourself)

You should be thinking of things in your life now – in situations that you find yourself in now, or situations you may find yourself in the future. What are you going to do? What choices will you make?

The reward of obedience to God’s way of life is knowing that you are in His will at all times—that you are showing love toward Him for what He has done for you. He promises other rewards also – eternal life with Him forever.

Colossians 3:23-25 23 "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. 25 But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites."

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the LORD, you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

God has given you the choice. You choose how you are to live. You choose the person you will become by the choices that you now make in your life. What kinds of choices will YOU make? You have the freedom to obey or disobey – life or death – narrow or wide. You choose.

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