[Matt. 7:13-14; narrow vs. wide gate] …Right, the wide gate… You know you can incorporate Jesus into your life. You can fail to [take] heed to like… Matt. 16 says, “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow me.” Amen? If you come in any other way, then it’s not His way. There’s a lot of people that try to take a short cut. It’s a broad way. The reason it’s broad [is] it’s the way many choose. So, you have to take heed of this…. If Jesus is calling one broad and one narrow and saying many are leading on this one road and fewer on the other way… so the popular consensus… listen to how we preach the gospel: It’s all about us going to heaven. It’s all about God meeting your needs, blessing you - applying your faith to get through the day in a more convenient way. And the whole tone is about us, about us, about us. Unfortunately, in that message and mindset you see a lot of discouragement, people mad about God, people in identity crisis, people ready to give up all the time because this isn’t working for me. It’s not something that works for you. It’s something that transforms you. Right? So it seems like a common thing for people to incorporate the gospel into their life and travel on this broad way… Here’s what I see when I read that. I see very simply: selfishness and selflessness. That’s the two roads. That’s what I see, selflessness and selfishness. It’s the thing that made the two wilderness experiences the Hebrews’ and Jesus’ totally contrast - same God - same wilderness - two different perspectives - the Israelite’s: selfish - Jesus: selfless - they die - He’s anointed with Spirit and power - same devils - same temptations - same hunger - same sun - same elements - same wilderness - 40 years - 40 days - Spirit and power, selfless - die there, never get out of there, selfish. The only thing that separates these kinds of scriptures in my view, what I see personally, what speaks to me is selfish and selfless. Jesus didn’t come for you to live for Him. He came to live for you so that you would be so touched by that and overtaken by that that you would follow Him.1
Note:
1. Dan Mohler audio recording 2010 Kingdom Living School W7S27A [58:00]