April 17, 2016 Teaching Outline

                                      Holiness for Hurting People: “THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED”
Matthew 7:13-23

                                                                 There are only two roads…
Jesus said that the road to heaven is the road less traveled
 
Matthew 7:13-15  “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.  

• Not even all of the people who call Jesus Lord are on the right road.

Matthew 7:21-23  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 

The Well-Traveled Road:
Isaiah 35:8 “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 
 

•   Those who turn back2 Peter 2:20-22 “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

 

•  The unfruitful

John 15:2 “ Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
 
 
                                                   On the Road Less Traveled: Jesus is the only way
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
 

 
Am I on the Road Less Traveled?
 
THE FIRST CHOICE BEFORE JESUS IS THE PRESSURE OF THE CROWD VERSUS THE PURPOSES OF GOD!
 

• Jesus knew the role model to which He was expected to conform. 
  Jesus told His disciples that He must suffer and die. He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many”

 

• Jesus agonized over the pressure of crowd versus the purposes of God.

“Not My will, but yours be done.”


THE SECOND CHOICE FACING JESUS WAS PERSONAL INTEGRITY VERSUS PUBLIC POPULARITY
 
  
THE FINAL CHOICE FACING JESUS WAS SUCCESS VERSUS SERVICE!

If you are on this Highway of Holiness it is because you have the power of Christ in you, because, it is “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” 
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Keep running a good race, and “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”, Galatians 6:9).