The Right Road

Revelation 2:4-5
Matthew 7:13-14
 
I don’t think there is a man or woman that’s been traveling that has not made a wrong turn while traveling. If you’re not exactly sure where you are going a lot of times you will make the wrong turn. In this day and time we have GPS and these things  that talk to us and tell us which way to go, and some of us like myself still use paper maps.  Even with these things, we can get on the wrong road.

The wrong road never leads to the right road.  Once we discover that we are on the wrong road we have to stop and turn around. In Revelation chapter 2 John was writing to the church.  He says in verse 4 “Thou hast left thy first love.” When we have left our first love that means we made the wrong turn or the wrong decision. 

You see I was baptized as a kid and I strayed away - I got on the wrong road. Let me tell you what was on that road: a lot of loose women, there was drugs, there was alcohol, gambling - all kinds of things on that road.  I experienced a lot of that stuff. I was on the wrong road. I had to stop; there came a time in my life when I had to stop and maybe some of you all can testify to that too. When I realized I was on the wrong road I had to stop. I had to get on my knees.

The road I was on lead to nowhere.  That road that I was on was not going to lead me back to the right road.   That’s what I had done - I walked away. The Lord didn’t leave me, I left Him. I walked away from the church. I walked away from the word of God and got caught up on that wrong road.

Matthew 7:13-14
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Jesus is telling us enter at the straight gate. The straight gate is real small; you gonna have to ease through there.  Now that wide gate is like that door; you can just walk straight on through. You can walk through holding hands.

If we’re going to follow Christ, if we’re going to live for Christ we’re going to have to go through that narrow gate.  There are a lot of folks on the broad road.  When I was on the broad road I had a bunch of folks with me.  Everybody loves a party animal. I was one of those guys - I loved to party; chasing women, staying up half of the night, eating, and drinking. But when the folks around me found out that I recommitted my life to Jesus Christ they started falling back. They would come by the house – “Man what you got to drink?”  I’d say “there’s a beer in there, you can have that. Man you don’t want it? Man you can have that; I got some strong stuff you can have that too.”

When they saw the transformation in my life they realized this brother, he’s getting off that road. They realized that something was happening.  He’s not partying anymore. He’s not drinking or smoking - he’s not going with us now.  They started dropping off one by one and they quit coming around.
When you start walking and living for the Lord and you begin to speak his word, people don’t want to hang around you if they’re not trying to get on that road.

We’ve got to be willing to get on that road, that road that leads to life. It says there are few that find it.
“Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way…. Few there be that find it”.  We want to be in the few that find it.  In order to find something, you have to look for it. We have to seek after it.

​Jesus tells Thomas “I am the way the truth and the life…..” Thomas wanted to know: How do I get on that road? I want to know how I get on that road, Jesus. Jesus tells Thomas, I am the way - I’m the one that’s going to lead you. I am the map. I am the source. Jesus says “I am”.

​So if we’re going to walk on that road, we need Jesus.  We need the “I am” God walking with us in order for us to get to our destination.  There are some brothers that I grew up with that I hung out with that are gone now.  And they that didn’t get on that road. I’m not saying they didn’t get back on it on their death bed, but I don’t think all of them got it right. But I thank God that he is a second- third -fourth -fifth –sixth chance God. He allows us to come back.  I thank Him, my brothers, for allowing me to come back and recommit my life to Him.

Twenty years ago if someone had told me that I would be here standing up trying to preach or teach somebody, I would have thought they were crazy.  I didn’t see it but God has a plan; He has a plan not only for my life -he has a plan for each one of our lives.  We have to see where we fit in God’s plan.

There is an old song that says it’s getting late in the evening and the sun is going down. The sun is going down for all of us. Jesus says in one passage we must work while it is day, because when night comes no man can work. Night will be when we go on to glory - when our eyes close on this side of glory, never to open again.
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Let us all get on that right road.
~J. T.