Man on a Mission: The Road Less Traveled
The Road Not Taken BY ROBERT FROST Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
The easier road will always be the more attractive road. Whether you are talking about putting the minimal amount of effort into your work, academics, relationship with family members or church community, the road that leads to God's best where people are fully prospering in life is an atypical one. To walk in the purposes of God, you must discover the road less travelled, be able to identify the right paths by their fruit, and build your life upon the rock of God's Word.
Matthew 7:13-29 (NIV)
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. 15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
The Road Less Traveled
When Jesus speaks of the wide road, it is what others in scripture will identify with the nomenclature, "the world." The apostle John wrote:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17 NIV)
What this should practically tell us is that the manner in which the majority of people live around us should be at the very least evaluated in relationship to the precepts of God. If only a few find the way to life, it should be an indicator that I am not going to stumble upon it through the supporting cries of the proud and riotous masses that bellow for moral autonomy while raging against a God who ironically gives His law to set people free from their bondage to destructive appetites. These appetites include our lust for power, unrestrained sexual gratification, and the approval of others at the cost of our convictions and dignity.
It takes less effort to go with what is handed to you, but, "If it were easy, everyone would be doing it."
A Tree and its Fruit
“Unless there is within us that which is above us, we shall soon yield to that which is about us.” ― P.T. Forsyth
The description of sheep and wolves is important when thinking about the natural enmity that exists between them. Wolves look to devour sheep just like false prophets can ultimately kill the relationship that you maintain with God.
Old Testament prophets were known for speaking on behalf of God and having a predictive element to their ministry. False prophets were also known for several things: 1) They turned the people away from the only true God to follow false gods. 2) They predicted things that did not come true, because their predictions were not authored by God (i.e. - Ponzi schemes). 3) They encouraged people with an illegitimate peace when the people were making war against God with their behavior.
We need to surround ourselves with people who will speak the truth of God's Word to us, not just what we want to hear. The Bible applies to all areas of life, including our relationships, our business practices, our finances, and how we spend our time.
If I am to beware of false prophets, how can I truly know that I am saved?
John the apostle wrote to the church: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13 NIV)
Jesus is making it very clear that the sad reality is that many people who call themselves Christians and think that they have peace with God will be judged as evildoers. This is primarily because of the lifestyles in which they persist while convincing themselves that they are spiritual.
The danger is that we can be our own false prophets. We speak with self-appeasing, empty affirmations with thoughts such as: "I can just be a good person. I don't have to accept Jesus as God to be good."
The problem with this mentality is that it starts with the premise that we are good enough to be accepted by a perfect God. What begins to happen when we realize that according to His standards, we are not righteous, is that we begin to engineer our own standards of what is good enough and gravitate towards the false prophets that will agree to such terms. The gospel is good news, because we realize that only through the substitutionary sacrifice of an unblemished Savior can we ever truly be brought into friendship with a Holy God. When we come into relationship with Him, our entire nature changes, and we no longer have to live justifying things that fall terribly short of his standard. This is why Jesus says unless you are born again, you can not see or enter the Kingdom of God because you will intrinsically be a bad tree bearing bad fruit. Jesus gives us a new root, a new heart, and a transforming relationship with the living God.
The Rock in the Storm
“Are you letting culture, not scripture, determine your sexuality, how you date, how you present yourself, how you engage in certain relationships with members of the opposite sex? We need to be very clear that the way we do life is different than the rest of the world.” ―Mark Driscoll
As a carpenter's son, Jesus shows familiarity with proper building patterns of his day. The analogy that He uses is one of alluvial sand which makes up the banks of the Sea of Galilee. Alluvial sand is by definition loose and unconsolidated sediment which has been eroded and reshaped by the water around it. It is usually comprised of a mixture of fine particles like silt and clay combined with larger particles of sand and gravel. Expert builders in Galilee knew not to be fooled by the hard surface of the alluvial sand during warm summer months. Instead, they realized that with the winter rains overflowing the banks of the Jordan river flowing into the sea, the alluvial sand would be sifted and anything built upon it would crack at its foundation. To counteract this, wise builders would dig many feet deep, sometimes ten feet below the surface to the bedrock below, to establish a firm foundation for homes.
The picture of building a house upon sand reflects the sad state of modern Christianity which many times seems flaky at best and insincere at worst. The alluvial sand is similar to the maxims that are circulated in our culture from a variety of sources to make a menagerie of philosophical towers in which people hide their lives. They are eclectic, sounding enlightened, yet follow the pattern of the seasonal behaviors of the sand in environments like the one Jesus was describing. Without a proper understanding of who God clearly identifies Himself to be in His Word, we are left beaten and crumbling under the circumstances of life. However, through His Word, God's self-revelation provides stable theology and true doctrine which are the elements of an authentic relationship with God:
Orthodoxy Orthopraxy Orthopathos.
Jesus makes it clear that it is not if, but when the storms come that we will need to have this foundation on the bedrock established.
The Bible is to be that foundational bedrock through which all other philosophies, pursuits, agendas and relationships are weighed, filtered, and judged for long-term success. Anything else will, either in the short-term, or at the latest in eternity, lead to the destruction of what you have attempted to build with the quick and easy path. This is why it is important during the inconvenient seasons to make the things of God a priority, because they will keep you both during the calm and the storm.
The law of entropy following the second law of thermodynamics says that things naturally go from a state of order to disorder. Whatever you don't put effort into will eventually die. Building this type of life on the Word of God takes a time, relational, and resource investment that many are unwilling to make. It is no wonder that they become self-fulfilling prophecies with their worlds coming down with a crash. This is the constant struggle between people's perceptions of communities where there is predominantly a surface Christianity steeped in hypocrisy vs. those with an authentic love for Jesus, His people, and His purposes.
As we prepare to move into the theater, we encourage people to find time to work through and meditate upon the Scriptures found in The Purple Book with a small group.
Second City Church – Man On A Mission Sermon Series 2013