Choosing the Narrow Path: Discipleship and Obedience
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "The most important thing in discipleship is our daily consistent obedience to him in the simple things. The most important thing in discipleship is our daily consistent obedience to him in the simple things." [09:09] (7 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
2. "Discipleship is not easy. Following him is not easy. The messages that we've heard in the last three months from this pulpit from various preachers and teachers and myself, these are not easy things to put into practice. These are not easy things to follow. It's actually the opposite. It's the hard path. It's a difficult path. One commentator puts it like this: to sin is natural, to repent is unnatural. It's easy to sin. It's hard to not sin. It's hard to live a life of discipleship." [11:01] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "There is a simple decision in the end about discipleship, about following Jesus. Will you follow Jesus? Will you follow God's way? Or will you follow your own way? One way leads to life. And one way leads to death. For Jesus, that choice always comes down to a simple, black or white. Life sometimes doesn't feel like that. But in discipleship, when you come down to this decision to follow Jesus or not, it's always that simple. Life or death. Jesus or your own action. Jesus' words or your choice." [16:33] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "Sin is natural. Following Jesus is hard. But one of these paths leads to life. One of these paths leads to death." [15:33] (17 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "We are judged by our obedience because in the end, that is what Jesus is after in our lives, isn't it? He wants our lives to be transformed. He wants us to be obedient to him. He also wants our hearts to be transformed. He wants our hearts to be devoted to him. But it's not just enough to just have a good feeling in our hearts. He wants our actions to be aligned with that. It's not just enough to do things. But he wants our hearts aligned with what we do. He wants the whole package." [32:17] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
### Quotes for Members
1. "At the heart of these images, at the heart of this contrast is the idea of sincerity, the sincerity of the would-be follower of Jesus. For the fake disciple, the pretend disciple, there is this disconnect between the inner life and the outward action, the inner world and the external world, between what the disciple actually feels and does or feels and what he actually does. The contrast is between a disciple here who does and performs mighty works, Jesus says, things that are showy, things that are visible, that are easy to see, but yet somehow they've missed the whole point. They look like sheep. They look like disciples on the outside, but the inside, on the inside, they're ravenous wolves. They're people who are far from the Lord and who are dangerous for Jesus' flock. They seem like they're doing great things, but they've missed the whole point." [18:53] (80 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
2. "The principle is this, that the more influence you have in the church, the greater your role, so-called, in the church, the more accountable you will be for your actions, your daily obedience to Jesus. Because not only is your own life at stake, but so are those whom you're influencing. All those whom you're influencing, their lives are at stake as well. So you will be held accountable to that." [21:08] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "We are judged by our actions. We are judged by what we do. It is our actions that in the end will tell who we actually are and what we actually believe and what our hearts actually are like and whether we truly are loyal to Jesus. It is our works, it is our actions that judges us. And Jesus will judge us by them. Now, does that mean that we have to live our lives motivated by fear? No, I don't think so. I mean, there is so much grace in the Christian life. There is so much grace in the Bible. It is all of grace in the sense that God has begun it. God began this relationship with Israel. Grace is not just in the New Testament but in the Old Testament as well." [28:33] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "Jesus is doing something like that to us. He has the end goal in mind for our lives. He knows what he wants our lives to look like. Is it easy? No. No, it's not easy. But if you follow it, if you listen to him, if you trust him, then that end goal will be worth it. That end goal, our lives transformed obedience and submission, to the Lord Jesus, to the Father. This is what he wants of us." [34:57] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "It's not just about hearing, not just about understanding, but choosing and about willing some area in your life that you want to change, that you know that you want, the Lord wants you to change. Okay, so here's what we've gone through in the last three months. You can kind of think about it like this, organize like this. First of all, there was in chapter five, Jesus talks about our relationship with others. Anger, lust, marriage, truthfulness, retaliation, love of enemies. You remember all those passages? They should ring a bell for you because we walked through each of them together. And then you can think about chapter six like this, relationship with God, our piety or our spirituality, our giving, our praying, our fasting. Remember hearing about all these things? Interesting that these things are presupposed in Jesus's mind. That we are doing these things, our relationship with God, how we express our relationship with God. And then finally, the last one, our relationship with the world, money, worry, like finances and the kingdom. Remember that message? And then we had, last of all, this, this exhortation, you know, having gone through all of this, not to judge, right, not to judge. In the chapter seven. Now, why I think Matthew structures it like this is not to say that this is exhaustive of the Christian life, but what he's trying to tell us, I think is what Jesus is trying to tell us, that discipleship is comprehensive. It's not every other, not every possible topic under the sun, but it's, it encompasses our whole lives. Relationship with others, relationship with God, relationship with stuff. And then finally, how do we perceive others?" [36:05] (132 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
Ask a question about this sermon
1. "The most important thing in discipleship is our daily consistent obedience to him in the simple things. The most important thing in discipleship is our daily consistent obedience to him in the simple things." [09:09] (7 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
2. "Discipleship is not easy. Following him is not easy. The messages that we've heard in the last three months from this pulpit from various preachers and teachers and myself, these are not easy things to put into practice. These are not easy things to follow. It's actually the opposite. It's the hard path. It's a difficult path. One commentator puts it like this: to sin is natural, to repent is unnatural. It's easy to sin. It's hard to not sin. It's hard to live a life of discipleship." [11:01] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "There is a simple decision in the end about discipleship, about following Jesus. Will you follow Jesus? Will you follow God's way? Or will you follow your own way? One way leads to life. And one way leads to death. For Jesus, that choice always comes down to a simple, black or white. Life sometimes doesn't feel like that. But in discipleship, when you come down to this decision to follow Jesus or not, it's always that simple. Life or death. Jesus or your own action. Jesus' words or your choice." [16:33] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "Sin is natural. Following Jesus is hard. But one of these paths leads to life. One of these paths leads to death." [15:33] (17 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "We are judged by our obedience because in the end, that is what Jesus is after in our lives, isn't it? He wants our lives to be transformed. He wants us to be obedient to him. He also wants our hearts to be transformed. He wants our hearts to be devoted to him. But it's not just enough to just have a good feeling in our hearts. He wants our actions to be aligned with that. It's not just enough to do things. But he wants our hearts aligned with what we do. He wants the whole package." [32:17] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
### Quotes for Members
1. "At the heart of these images, at the heart of this contrast is the idea of sincerity, the sincerity of the would-be follower of Jesus. For the fake disciple, the pretend disciple, there is this disconnect between the inner life and the outward action, the inner world and the external world, between what the disciple actually feels and does or feels and what he actually does. The contrast is between a disciple here who does and performs mighty works, Jesus says, things that are showy, things that are visible, that are easy to see, but yet somehow they've missed the whole point. They look like sheep. They look like disciples on the outside, but the inside, on the inside, they're ravenous wolves. They're people who are far from the Lord and who are dangerous for Jesus' flock. They seem like they're doing great things, but they've missed the whole point." [18:53] (80 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
2. "The principle is this, that the more influence you have in the church, the greater your role, so-called, in the church, the more accountable you will be for your actions, your daily obedience to Jesus. Because not only is your own life at stake, but so are those whom you're influencing. All those whom you're influencing, their lives are at stake as well. So you will be held accountable to that." [21:08] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "We are judged by our actions. We are judged by what we do. It is our actions that in the end will tell who we actually are and what we actually believe and what our hearts actually are like and whether we truly are loyal to Jesus. It is our works, it is our actions that judges us. And Jesus will judge us by them. Now, does that mean that we have to live our lives motivated by fear? No, I don't think so. I mean, there is so much grace in the Christian life. There is so much grace in the Bible. It is all of grace in the sense that God has begun it. God began this relationship with Israel. Grace is not just in the New Testament but in the Old Testament as well." [28:33] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "Jesus is doing something like that to us. He has the end goal in mind for our lives. He knows what he wants our lives to look like. Is it easy? No. No, it's not easy. But if you follow it, if you listen to him, if you trust him, then that end goal will be worth it. That end goal, our lives transformed obedience and submission, to the Lord Jesus, to the Father. This is what he wants of us." [34:57] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "It's not just about hearing, not just about understanding, but choosing and about willing some area in your life that you want to change, that you know that you want, the Lord wants you to change. Okay, so here's what we've gone through in the last three months. You can kind of think about it like this, organize like this. First of all, there was in chapter five, Jesus talks about our relationship with others. Anger, lust, marriage, truthfulness, retaliation, love of enemies. You remember all those passages? They should ring a bell for you because we walked through each of them together. And then you can think about chapter six like this, relationship with God, our piety or our spirituality, our giving, our praying, our fasting. Remember hearing about all these things? Interesting that these things are presupposed in Jesus's mind. That we are doing these things, our relationship with God, how we express our relationship with God. And then finally, the last one, our relationship with the world, money, worry, like finances and the kingdom. Remember that message? And then we had, last of all, this, this exhortation, you know, having gone through all of this, not to judge, right, not to judge. In the chapter seven. Now, why I think Matthew structures it like this is not to say that this is exhaustive of the Christian life, but what he's trying to tell us, I think is what Jesus is trying to tell us, that discipleship is comprehensive. It's not every other, not every possible topic under the sun, but it's, it encompasses our whole lives. Relationship with others, relationship with God, relationship with stuff. And then finally, how do we perceive others?" [36:05] (132 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
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