Devoted '25 - Session 2

Choosing the Narrow Path in a World of 8 Billion

Scripture References: Matthew 7:13-14; Galatians 5:13-26; Matthew 24; John 15

Sermon Notes:

Intro: (Podcast intro music fades) Welcome to today's sermon. We are living in an unprecedented time – the population has exploded from 4 billion to over 8 billion in roughly one lifetime. It took all of human history until 1804 to reach 1 billion, yet we've added 4 billion recently. What is God doing? You have been chosen by God to be alive now, handpicked for the greatest potential harvest in history. He's setting the stage. But how do we partner with Him effectively in this unique moment? Jesus speaks of two paths: one wide and easy, chosen by most, leading to destruction; one narrow and difficult, leading to life (Matt 7:13-14). We're called to this narrow path. This path is vividly described in Galatians 5.

Key Points: The Narrow Path (Galatians 5)

1. Marked with Love & Service (v. 13-15): Live a life of constant love and committed service, not just to those like us, but to anyone in need (the Good Samaritan principle). Resist the end-times trend of love growing cold (Matt 24). True joy is found outside self-focus.
2. Yielding to Purpose (v. 16): Yield to the Holy Spirit's power, abandoning self-life cravings. God has an incredible, unique purpose written for your life. Don't just coast; ask Him what it is for this season.
3. Obedience (v. 17-21): Recognize the conflict between self-life (flesh) and the Spirit. Actively avoid sin ("obvious" behaviors listed). Obedience isn't a burden; it's the key to freedom, peace, and clarity.
4. Full of Fruit (v. 22-23): The narrow path produces limitless spiritual fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, etc.) as we stay connected to God (John 15). The world needs to see this authentic fruit, not just gifts.
5. Complete Surrender (v. 24): We who belong to Christ have crucified the self-life. This death to self is central. Surrender control ("dead people don't talk"). It's counter-cultural but leads to true freedom.
6. Embracing God's Rhythms (v. 25): Live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit. Honor His pacing, including rest (Sabbath) and the season you're in. Pursue holistic health.
7. Humility (v. 26): Forsake arrogance, comparison, and jealousy. Value all people, made in God's image. Be quick to honor, bless, and build up, not tear down.

Conclusion: The narrow path is challenging, yes, but it's glorious – it's what we were made for. Dissatisfaction often stems from settling for the wide road. A man from Iran's underground church, who met Jesus supernaturally, shared his struggle finding that same Jesus in American Christianity, asking, "I didn't know people like you [living the narrow way] existed." His words are haunting. The 8 billion people on this planet desperately need to know that Christians like you – committed to the narrow path of love, service, purpose, obedience, fruitfulness, surrender, rhythm, and humility – exist.

Call to Action: Recognize the significance of this moment in history. Choose today: will you settle for the comfortable, wide-road Christianity, or will you embrace the narrow path where Jesus is? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Commit to walking the narrow way outlined in Galatians 5. Let's be the people the world needs to see.

Transcript

Thank you so much, and we just can't wait for more. Lord, thank you that there's more. Um, thank you that there's more. And we just posture our hearts before You again, saying yes, Lord, yes, Lord. We want to hear You, we want to know You, we want to see You, we want all that You have for us today. We don't want to miss a thing, and so we ask that You would come and fill her with Your Holy Spirit. You would speak through her to us, and You would ready our hearts to receive what You have for us today. In Jesus' name, Amen. Will you tell us more about your awesome books? Good morning, everybody. How are you? It's good to be here. Um, well done! You could have slept in.

 Today, and you are here, you're like, 'No, I couldn't have... I have children at home or whatever but you could still be on your couch and you are here, so well done. Um, okay, I want to just briefly tell you guys about some books-two books that I brought that I hope um are a blessing to you. Um, the first one is called 'Children in the Supernatural' and this book is a collection of stories from about a decade of um wild ways that we saw and continue to see God move through children, and how many of you know our kids don't get like a junior Holy Spirit-right? Our kids have full access to the Holy Spirit, and what really started with God speaking to me of Will you teach the next generation the undiluted gospel, and me being like, 'Ah, you know, um, diving into this beginning to watch God move so incredibly powerfully through children.

 And, and, so this this whole book is is actually a great book to read like to your kids or your grandkids, or if you just need to strip your faith stories of um. Taking kids into hospitals in Kenya and I remember the very first time we ever took a group of kids into a hospital in Kenya and I was like, 'What the heck are we doing? You know, oh my gosh, how is this going to work out?' And um, the room was packed and it was um, if you've ever been to a hospital in a third-world country It's like blood and urine on the floor, and maybe two two people to a bed, and it is like it is a whole situation.

 And um, we take this group of kids in there, and I remember um, everything in me wanted to be like, 'This is how you pray for the sick and this is what you do, and God was like, 'I let Me be God' and 'And so I was like, okay. So here's what Scripture says; the Bible says Jesus can heal the sick, and Jesus is inside of You, the Spirit of God is inside of You, so go heal the sick. And then I wanted to be like, well, but sometimes they don't always get healed; sometimes they don't always get healed; sometimes they don't get healed or whatever, and God was like Shut your mouth, you know, like let my word stand.

 And so we took these kids into the hospital and we get to the very first time we get there and uh they were like what do we do and I was like you have to ask the Holy Spirit. And this little boy where they're praying and he tugs on my arm and he says Auntie, I think I'm supposed to sing a song. And I was like okay. Little Richard, he goes into the middle of this room; he's an orphan, he has this wild story and he he just looks around and people are like oh my god, he's like oh my god, he's like oh my god, get these kids out of here. And it's just all the smell, all the things, it was just all the things and he Just stood there, and Richard he just begins to sing the old hymn 'I surrender all'

 and I am just undone; this little boy hands lifted to heaven, tears streaming down his face, the most pure worship I've ever heard, and it was one of those moments I don't know how to explain it other than it was like the presence of God was so strong in the room. I was like 'oh my god', I was like terrified to even open my eyes; it was like 'oh my gosh' like as he was worshiping, it was like something ripped open in the atmosphere and heaven began to fill that room and I was just like feeling the presence of God so strong, and people started to scream in this room I'm On fire, I'm like 'oh my god what's happening, like I don't know what to do, you know?

 And people are like 'who is God' like, and I'm just like and the kids are looking at me scared, like 'what do we do'? And I'm like 'I don't know, go, you know'. And when I tell you, we did not have to preach the gospel that day because every single person wanted Jesus, every single one, every single person. That hospital ward got saved that day and we saw started seeing healings and so many things break. That was the very first time we took the kids and it just began to explode, and I'm talking. We begin to see every single one of these stories. The publishing company I was like really made us get too documented like from the

 government in kenya like i witnessed two documented sources for every story because they're so wild and we begin to see government hospitals cleared out typhoid malaria like people healed we begin to god begin to move so powerfully through these kids so much so that actually the president of kenya came two times twice with his entire cabinet to bongoma western kenya to meet with the children in that area because he was like i i need to know what to do i need to know what to do i need to know what to do i need to know what the lord is saying over this nation the president flying In to me, and I'm talking these were like former street kids orphans meeting with them because they had God with them, and it just began to spread and spread, and so this is full of stories of not just kids in Africa but here kids that are experiencing God, kids that are hearing God's voice, kids that are are stepping out and seeing miracles.

 And my heart with this is that it would totally just provoke you and inspire you towards childlike freedom. I'm talking about the President of Kenya, and I'm talking about the faith, and to open our eyes that this is what God is doing, this is who God is right um the other book I brought is Called 'Eyes at Sea' and 'Ears that Hear', I have both of these, actually, in Spanish. I think I need to pull the Spanish ones from the car for this one, but um, if you need them in Spanish, but this I wrote 19 years ago on a weekend because I was mad that there were no resources to teach kids how to hear God's voice and it has become like this.

 I mean it's so funny because it's; I feel like it gets used maybe even more with adults than kids um because I feel like adults were, 'It's too complicated, how do I actually hear God? You know, this whole thing was meant to help parents teach their kids together as a family how to hear God's voice. Voice and how vital it is that we can all hear God's voice for ourselves. Right, the world is constantly giving us messaging, but can we hear God for ourselves? And, um, we've had so many beautiful just things as kids watch been able to see as kids hear God's voice, you know. I remember one story where this little girl; we'd taken kids out and, um, she was like five, little, but she was learning to hear God's voice, and I gave all the kids crayons and paper, and we said, 'Okay, ask God to highlight somebody for you.' And when He does, ask God if He could draw them any picture what He would draw them.

 So, she's doing that, and she's drawing, and she's just smiling. Faces all over her paper, and I'm like, okay smiley faces, you know. Did you ask God what the smiley faces are? And she's like, yeah, I already asked Him, and I'm like, okay. And she's like, it's for that lady over there. Now we're out, like, downtown area, and she walks up to this lady, and she just hands her her picture. She goes, here you go, and the lady's like, oh thank you know. And she's like, it's not from me, it's from God. And the lady's like, okay. And she said, well, aren't you gonna ask me why God wants you to have smiley faces? She's like, okay, why does God want me to have smiley faces?

 And she just looks at her and she goes, ma'am, when God sees you He's Not mad, he smiles, that's all she said. This woman just just starts crying, crying right on the street, you know, and we come up and we're like what's going on. She's like, 'You don't understand. I was just walking down the street, right now, having an argument with God, saying no. You must be mad at me.' I've walked away from God; I haven't you know. I've been angry at God; I've walked away from God and and I keep telling 'I know you must be mad at me.' And I'm literally interrupted by my thoughts by a little girl walking up to me, handing me a picture of smiley faces, and telling me 'God's not mad at you.' She smiles.

 That woman gave her life back to the Lord that. Day incredible, right? Incredible, and I think of another story. Um, this happened in our church, um, where our kids were learning how to hear God's voice, and we were taking all of our kids through this again. And one of the boys in our church, um, we went through a very, very difficult season. Um, my youngest son's best friend, and so, um, one of our staff kids had been diagnosed with bone cancer, and it was very hard; there was a lot that was going on at that time. And, um, another one, other best friend, uh, he comes running out in the middle of the night, and he said, 'I just had a dream. I've been asking God to speak to me what He's saying'.

 Doing with Caleb and I had a dream, and he begins to tell his parents this dream, and they voice record it. He's like, 'I saw Jesus in Caleb's hospital room.' Now, Caleb had bone cancer in his leg; they've been the kids have been praying for his leg because they were told he might probably gonna have to amputate his leg. It was this whole thing, right? What nobody knew except my husband and I was that the cancer had spread, and obviously his parents but they told us it had spread to his lungs. They didn't want to share that information yet with anybody; they had just found out, they had just done scans, it had spread, he had multiple nodules.

 cancerous nodules in his lungs and he was going to need an immediate lung surgery so nobody knows this ty says in the dream i see jesus in caleb's hospital room but mommy was interesting he wasn't working on his leg he was working on his lungs and he goes and he was like he was sweeping sand out of his lungs and he said and then he did something really weird he put bread and i think it was wine in his lungs and and then it was like fire came on caleb's body and he got strong and he got up wow so they share this with you know caleb's parents and caleb's parents of course are like oh my gosh he's literally been scheduled in 48 hours for An emergency lung surgery and so, you know, he's at Children's Hospital.

 Lung surgery comes and they're like, 'God, you spoke through this child! You're doing something I know these kids can hear you right!' Just because somebody has a small body doesn't mean that their spirit is small. And so we nurture our children's spirits, like it's like when Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me.' He meant it; let them come to all of Him. And so get there for his surgery and um, you know, the doctor's explaining the process and he goes, 'You know now here's how it's gonna go, it's a very long surgery; there's multiple surgeons in the Room, he said. Now when cancer gets in the lungs, it's like sand. We're all like, 'Oh my God!' Right? What he's like it's like sand.

 We have to go in there with our bare hands and feel for the little granule nodules of the cancer. And so it's a long process. He's showing them the scan, so here's all the multiple nodules that are in his lungs that we're going to be removing. These scans have been done, you know, like 48 hours prior. And uh, and so we're like, 'You know...'? It's a he gets cut open from here to here; it's a massive surgery. And um, so we're all waiting, and the doctor comes in and he's like, 'Oh my God!' I'm gonna have to go to the hospital. He's out. And he looks kind of with this look on his face and I'm like, oh dear God, oh dear God, oh dear God, it's not the look you want on your doctor's face right when they're operating on your child.

 And he walks out and he begins to talk to our friends and he goes, 'I wanted to start by saying I'm really, really sorry. I cut your son open.' They're like just standing there, and he goes, 'I don't know what to tell you. We've spent the last several hours, multiple surgeons in his lungs. We can't find a single cancerous nodule in his lungs because there's communion in there. Like, what are we talking about? This is crazy! What is the power of being able to hear God's voice, right, knowing how to partner I don't know, incredible, and you know, um, it's interesting, right, because I feel like, I mean, we talked some of you, we've talked about this this morning, how so much of our Christian faith is living in these tensions.

 You know, the tension in that way is not just about the fact that we're not going to be able to live in this way; we're going to be able to live in this way; we're going to be able to live in this way. We saw God do miracle after miracle after miracle. Caleb didn't have to lose his leg, I mean, miracle after miracle, literally. He'd be getting chemo and he'd be doing push-ups, feeling fine never. Once felt sick, I mean just crazy the way God moved in his body and um because of these miracles um Caleb got five years, he was literally given zero chance of survival, five more years, and then all of a sudden, you know this past year we lost Caleb, and it was very hard in our community.

 And it's these tensions which I wish I could give you some magical like it's always one or the other; it's not so much that life is holding these tensions but what it's so vital that we know how to hear God for ourselves. It's so vital that we know that our God is the God that does the miracles, that will be with us no matter how how this turns out, all right that. Was very long, there's books if you need them; um I lost track of what I was talking about. Okay, are we ready to jump in? Okay, I want to start a little bit macro this morning and then we're gonna, we're gonna go more into teaching, but I want to kind of just give you a global picture for a moment if you'll let me, okay.

 So it is estimated that when Jesus walked the earth; I don't know who estimates these things, don't ask me, okay. It is estimated when Jesus walked the earth that there were all these things that were going on in the world that were going on in the world that there were only 200 million people on the planet, 200 million it took about Of human history until not that long ago, all of human history until 1804 when we finally got a billion people on the planet. The entire human history and then what took all of human history to do we suddenly did in 123 years? And in 1927 we hit two billion people on the planet. And we finally got a billion people suddenly we did it again in 33 years, in 1960 we hit three billion people.

 Now I was born in the end of 1979 which is weird because I'm only 25 don't do the math but from when I was born right so when I was born there were four billion people on the planet in my lifetime one generation of people were born in the end of 1979 we have gone From four billion to over eight billion people on the planet, I want you to get your head around this: it took all of human history forever, thousands and thousands and thousands of years to finally get a billion people. And in your lifetime, in your lifetime, human population has exploded on the planet. What's happening right now? Your theology should inform your anthropology; what you believe about God should shape what you believe about humans and the human story.

 You can say Jen, it's called penicillin; I know it's part of it. Penicillin has a big part to play in those numbers. Farming, modern farming-there are things that you could look at and say it from a natural perspective but i believe god is intricately involved in the human story i believe god is doing things with purpose why has god allowed so many people at one time on the planet in fact this has never happened in all of human history you have been chosen to be born to be alive to be handpicked by god and placed down in the middle of the planet and called salt and called light and called his ambassador you have been chosen by god to be alive with the greatest harvest you have been chosen by god to be alive with the greatest harvest ever known in all of human history i truly believe saints of Old are like looking down and are like really, I had like five people on the planet.

 You get eight billion, like our potential to impact for eternity is unlike anything that's ever existed, any other human has ever had. Are you tracking with me? What's God doing? You know I truly believe I do, because I don't think God does anything on accident. I truly believe God is setting the stage; He's packing the stadium for the greatest display of His power the world has ever seen. I believe God is longing to reach a generation; I believe God is setting things up for a divine move. How many of you in this room have ever prayed for revival? Prayed for a move of God. You prayed for people to get saved, okay? Do we even know who we’re praying for?

 Who are these eight billion people that you have been placed in the middle of and invited to partner with heaven to see them encounter Jesus? You know I want to just give you a couple of things that I want to share with you a bit of an idea of who is out there. Who are these eight billion people? First of all, they're young; almost half of the world's population are children and youth, which means the church, our ministries, the dreams in our heart, the things we're going for our callings cannot be adult-centric all the time. We're going to have to figure out how to really really raise up children and youth children and youth

 aren't just the church of tomorrow they are the church of today and so we're going to have to adjust nobody gets to say I tell people all the time they don't like it when I say it but nobody gets to say I'm not called to children it's like saying I'm not called to men I'm not called to women it's half the planet you don't get to say you're not called to half the planet right you might not have a specific call but you are called to love and go and disciple and raise up children and youth half the planet like you can't you can't cut out half the planet Right, we're all called to children and youth, so that's keeping that in mind that a lot of these eight billion are young.

 Also thinking about these eight billion, they're not here; they're out there out there as in 60 percent are in Asia alone, 18 percent are in Africa, nine percent in Europe, eight percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. You know how much we have here in the good old USA-four, four percent. You know what this tells me? If we're going to impact and be really bring the change that God has for us in our generation, we cannot be consumed with four percent. We have got to become global thinkers; we have got to become global. Thinkers, we have got to become global thinkers, we cannot be American-centric, we just can't be. We must be kingdom-centric because God looks at the hundred percent. We can't be so enclosed in our little bubble when God is moving in the eight billion. God's heart is for the eight billion; God loves the eight billion equally.

 Something else we need to know about the eight billion is that God loves the eight billion, and one of the things about these masses is they live in great injustice. I mean it still blows my mind that it's you know it's 2025 and there's still 2. 2 billion people who still don't have clean water; like what in the world, 120 million plus people have been displaced by war, 49 million these are all estimates but trapped in modern-day slavery I mean on and on, right? Gender inequality, racism, land grabbing, corruption, poverty. I mean, on and on. Now, here's the good news: These numbers are actually getting considerably better over the last couple of decades because people have decided to start doing something about them. But injustice isn't just out there; it's everywhere.

 You know, we're living in a day, both in this nation and around the world, where injustice is hurting people God cares about. It's not something we can just look away. I hate how the enemy has tried to brand justice as liberal or something political. Justice is kingdom. In fact, justice is so kingdom, it is not a Christian elective. It's not for those real kind of hippie liberal Christians. Justice is central to the gospel. What you do to the least of these, you do to me. What you didn't do, right? What is true religion? Yeah. Looking after the poor and the widow. Do justice, love, mercy, like every scripture, like the whole Bible, right? It's just interesting when you look at these things, when you look at kind of who's out there, you know, something else to keep in mind.

 This is the most digitally connected generation that's ever existed. You want to stop? That'll blow your mind. Here's one: more people have a mobile phone than a toothbrush. I know, look it up. It's weird. I have so many questions. But it's interesting. God, I truly believe God is setting us up. Why am I telling you all of this, right? Like, I really believe we are called to, obviously, scripture tells us we're called to bring impact, which means we're going to have to get good at moving in these spaces. We're going to have to get good at moving in the space of children and youth and really valuing them and discipling them and raising them up. We're going to have to get good at raising up disciples and people who have a global mentality, who aren't afraid to, you know, enter into these global dynamics, who can love, who can go, who aren't just consumed and, and drunk.

 Drunk on Americanism, who are more consumed with kingdom than anything else. If we're going to be effective, we have to be people who aren't afraid to wade into these spaces of injustice, where we say, I don’t care what people think about me. I don’t care what people call me. I've got to roll up my sleeves because the reality is we're actually statistically in this nation, losing an entire generation of young people who've grown up in the church, who are now leaving the church at unprecedented rates because the church is not engaged, not engaging in issues that they know Jesus cares about. This is what statistics are showing us. And we're called to wade into the mess, to the hurt, to the pain, to roll up our sleeves and show up with solutions, to show up with healing, to show up with strategy.

 We live in a really wild time in history where the stakes are high. Systems are crumbling. There's famine and war and power struggles and environmental disasters and scandals and corruption and on and on. And yet, in the middle of all of that, God places you and I, and he says, Christ in you is the hope of glory. He says, you're my ambassador. You carry the kingdom. The Holy Spirit is in you. You have access to everything you need. You are the salt. You are called literally to go into places that would decay if you weren't there. You are the light. You are called to step into darkness and to bring hope and healing. Transformation is inside of you. And we're like, wait, me? I'm just, I'm just nobody.

 I'm just, what can I do? And then he's like, all I've ever used are just simple nobodies who actually believed I am who I say I am. Will you believe? Will you, partner with me. You see, 8 billion beautiful people desperately need to see a God who loves them, a God who's real. The world is sick of a bunch of religious talk. The world is sick of just playing church. The world is sick of the enmeshment, if I can be so honest, the enmeshment of our politics and our faith. It is not working. It's not going to be American culture that saves the world. It's going to be kingdom. It's going to be the kingdom. It's the king and his kingdom, right? The stakes are high in our generation and there is so much potential.

 God wants to move so powerfully. You could have been born in any time in history and he chose now. And he chose you. Christ in you. You know, when I was 15 years old, I had a God encounter in Taco Bell. I did. Probably praying for my life. I had a God encounter in Taco Bell. It was lunch. I was in high school. You know, back, once again, talk about the 90s, right? We got two dollars a day. That's what you lived off of. These kids today, mom, slip me some cash real fast. I'm over here trying to get an acai bowl. I'm like, what are you talking about? Mom, I want a poke bowl. Get your life, get a job, get a job. We're out here hustling on two bucks a day, you know?

 So yes, two burritos. It's exactly what my order was. Yep. Two green burritos. Yes. Okay. So, um, I'm sitting in Taco Bell eating my two burritos. And, um, as clear as could be, I heard the Lord speak to me and he said, 'Are you going to serve me or are you going to serve yourself?' And I was like, that's a weird question. Like, why can't we do both? It wasn't like, why not like serve God or serve the devil? Like, yeah, that's easier. That's an easy answer. What do you mean serve you or serve myself? Like, I want to serve you, but can I like, like just have a little hand on the steering wheel? Like, can I just give a little opinion and some input on how I'd like my life to go?

 Can I just be in control a little bit? Let's not even call it control. Can I influence? How do you want me to package this for You, Lord? You care about the desires of my heart. I start using scripture to manipulate Him, you know? And I'm like, what do You mean? I sat and I was so convicted. And so I did what any good Christian girl would do. I ditched the rest of the school day. And I did, which was the worst. If you don't know, if you know, my mom was the freaking like attendance clerk for our high school. It's the worst. And she was like, so never would ever steal, like, give me a little pass, anything. I'd have to like go to the other lady and like steal one out of her desk or something.

 But anyway, anyways, all for the glory of the Lord. So I ditched the rest of the day to go home and cry my heart out and be like, I want to serve you, but like, I want to live. Like I want to do things my way and had a good cry, but that really marked me in realizing. And I remember actually one of the things I told the Lord, why are you asking me this? I, this is, this is the truth. I said, I people, I see people serve you and themselves. And he's like, that's not what it was like. I, it was almost as if, I don't care what you see. This is the line. Are you going to serve me or you're going to serve yourself?

 And, um, that began a real journey for me of saying, God, I'm going to serve you with everything in me. Um, I want to, I'm going to start in Matthew seven, 13 and 14 says, turn through the narrow gate because the wide gate and the broad path is the way that leads to destruction. Nearly everybody chooses the crowded road, the narrow gate and the difficult way leads to eternal life. So few even find it. Maybe we've heard this verse before. Some of us, this is Jesus, the rabbi teaching, and he's actually teaching his disciples. The sermon on the Mount says that Jesus sat down and began to teach. His disciples. So often we hear this verse and we're like, 'easy', you know, there's a wide road and a narrow road.

 All you sinners are on that road. And us Christians, we're on the narrow road. Right. And we think of it that way. And the reality is Jesus is talking to all of his followers and he's like, 'guys', there is a, an entrance and it's, there's a wide wood and there's a narrow one. And then there's a path. There's a wide path and it's comfortable and it's easy. And nearly everybody chooses that path. And then there's a narrow road. And it, but that road leads to life. So Jesus outlines these two paths, right? You know, I think often about the narrow path, how in a lot of ways it's, it's difficult. It can be lonely. It's stretching. It's uncomfortable. It takes commitment and grit.

 Like we were talking about last night, but that is the path that leads to life. That's the path where the joy is, where the power is, where the peace is. Are we comfortable? This is a hard question that I've genuinely had to ask myself over and over many times in my life. Am I comfortable? Am I comfortable with a fairly powerless Christianity that keeps me comfortable? Hey, I'm saved. I know Jesus. But like, it's pretty, it's pretty broad in these streets, right? I'm comfortable. Or am I hungry to see 8 billion people know Jesus? Am I, am I hungry to see Jesus really glorified? Am I hungry? Am I hungry to really walk where Jesus is walking? Am I really willing to follow him because he's on the narrow path?

 And if I really want to be with him, that's where the peace is. That's where the joy is. That's where the power is. That's where the miracles are. That's where, that's where the life is, but it's on the narrow path. And I think we're really living in a time where we have to choose. Are we going to be people who rise up and step into what God has really called us to step into? Narrow path Christianity. Are we going to be people who rise up and fully live in the, in the calling and the invitation over our lives when we have been chosen and had the ability to impact more people for Jesus than ever before? Are we going to walk in our purpose or are we going to just settle in like the majority of people into comfortable, wide road living?

 And I would make it a little bit more specific, comfortable, wide road Christianity. You know, there's a similar moment like this in the Old Testament where the people of God were told to choose. A line was drawn in the camp and they said, 'Choose.' And Joshua responds for, as for me and my house, you've got the sign. I know you got it at Hobby Lobby. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. How many of you have a sign that says that? Anybody? Yes. See, see, I love it. As for me, I'm going to serve the Lord. As for Radiant Church, we're going to serve the Lord. As for my family, we're going to serve the Lord. We're going to keep choosing the narrow path because it's worth it because he's there.

 So this morning, I want to talk about some practical narrow road living. So we're going to be looking at Galatians 5. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Galatians 5. Now, Galatians 5 is all about how to walk the narrow path, how to live in the spirit, how to align ourselves to the path that Jesus is on. How do we cast off the human way of doing things, the wide way? And how do we stay faithful in our love and our devotion to the Jesus way, the kingdom of God? And how do we stay faithful in our love and our devotion to the Jesus way, the narrow way? All right, so let's jump in. We're going to begin in verse 13.

 Once again, sorry, I'm reading out of the Passion, so you might have a different translation, but I think we have, oh, we have the verses for you behind me. I don't know if you can see them. Okay, great. Beloved ones, God has called us to live a life of freedom. But don't view this wonderful thing as an excuse to set up a base of operations in the natural realm. Constantly love each other. Constantly love each other and be committed to serve one another. For all of the law can be summarized in one grand statement: Demonstrate love to your neighbor, even as you care for and love yourself. But if you continue to be committed to serving one another, you will not be able to criticize and come against each other over minor issues. I'm going to send this verse to my children later. You're acting like wild beasts trying to destroy one another.

 All right. So I did not plan this. I actually normally am more of like a three or four point person. But when I was looking this over, I'm like, you know what? We have seven whole more points again today, just like we did last night. So you know what? Just bringing you all the points. Okay. So the first point I want us to look at here is that the narrow path is marked with love and service. Narrow path living is a life of love and service. Constantly love each other and be committed to serve one another. Those words 'constant' and 'committed', they're not so passive. They're not like a little dab. Constantly love each other. Be committed to serve one another. Right?

 If we're to live out our purpose and walk in our destiny, we're going to really follow Jesus. It looks like a life marked by constant love. Like a life that is poured out serving other people. You know, you might remember the story Jesus shared when he was asked, well, what does like loving our neighbor look like? Who's my neighbor? Remember that story he tells? He tells the story of the good Samaritan who stopped for the one in need. What was the point of that story? The point in a nutshell is, who's your neighbor? Anybody. Anybody in need. Anybody in need is your neighbor. And love looks like stopping and showing up for people in their need. We don't just love people that we like. We don't just love our family and our friends well.

 We don't just love people who look like us, think like us, vote like us, live like us, and do life like us. The whole point of Jesus's story is to stop and to love and to sacrifice for people who are radically different than you. Loving people is like showing up for people and their pain and their needs. You know, in Matthew 24, Jesus warned that in the end times, people are always like, 'Are we in the end times?' I'm like, 'How am I supposed to know? I know this.' We're more in the end times than anybody that's ever lived. So this applies to us more than anybody. Okay. And Matthew 24, we're more in the end times than anybody that's ever lived.

 Matthew 24, Jesus warned that in the end times, the love of many would grow cold. That deception would be rampant and that people would turn on each other and start hating each other. Welcome to America. What? Let me tell you that again. You can read that in Matthew 24. Jesus warned that in the end times, the love of many would grow cold. Deception would be rampant. People would turn on each other and start hating each other. That is literally the enemy's playbook. The enemy's playbook is to get you to get your love to grow cold for other people. To get you to buy a lie about your neighbor. To other them. To be irritated with them. Critical, disgusted, eventually hateful. Don't bite the bait. Be radically unoffendable in your love.

 Constant love and committed to service. You know, culture tells us, live your best life. Fill your day with what makes you happy. Put yourself first. You do you. Live your truth. Right? Focus on your happiness. But according to scripture and actually statistics, the self-focused life doesn't actually make you happy at all. In fact, it leaves you more empty than full. The reality is a life of service awakens and multiplies joy inside of us. I know it's counterintuitive, but it's absolutely true. True life is found in getting outside of ourselves. Right? When we stop centering ourselves and focusing on ourselves and we open up our eyes and our hearts and our wallets and our friendship groups and our table to people who are very different than us. And we love them and we serve them.

 And we lay down our perspectives and our politics and our whatever. And we, we enter in like Jesus did. He put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. We move into people's pain and we listen and we show up all of a sudden. This is the kind of love and service that begins to change the world. This is what narrow path Christianity looks like, which should provoke us to ask, 'Am I even serving other people in my life right now? Or is my life pretty me-centric? Is serving a part of my family culture? Or am I kind of like, Hey, you know, like if somebody needs something, let me know. Maybe I'll catch a stray, you know, serving opportunity here and there, but it's not really like a part of my culture.' And I would encourage you to begin to ask God, 'How can I really love and serve?

 How can I really show up in my community?' The narrow path is marked with love and service. Number two, the narrow path is yielding to purpose. Let's continue on verse 16. Let me emphasize this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. I love this word 'yield' to give way to, to lean into. As you embrace the exciting, beautiful life that God has for you, you begin to come to God. And as you embrace the exciting, beautiful life that God has for you, you begin to come alive. You know, there's two choices before us. Am I going to live the life that I have built for myself, the self-life, or am I going to really step into the life and the purpose that God has for me?

 Listen, God has an incredible plan for you. While you were in your mother's womb, he was writing an incredible story for your life. I say this all the time and I mean it. If we are bored, it is entirely our fault. Do not tell me that the ultimate creator, the most creative being in all of time, the guy who made the dinosaurs and the weird little fish with the light bulbs on their head on the bottom of the sea. Don't tell me that guy wrote some lame, boring story for your life. I will not believe you. God has an incredible purpose for your life. There, there are good works set aside for you to do things. Only you can do it. You can do it. You can do it.

 You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. Only you can do. Conversations only you can have. People who will only ever receive from somebody like you. Hugs only you can give because of what you've been through. Songs only you can write. Books only you can write. There are things that God has ordained for you. Are we walking in our purpose or are we just like we talked about last night? Is life just happening to us? Are we just coasting and existing? The narrow path is yielding to purpose. The narrow path is yielding to purpose. You know, I wonder how many of us are just simply not thriving because we're just not where we're supposed to be. We're not doing what we're supposed to be doing. We're frustrated.

 We're irritated. I don't know about you, but I experienced this, right? If I find myself irritated, frustrated, grumpy, it's often not even the thing or the person I'm acting frustrated or grumpy with. Insert husband. It's-I'm frustrated because I'm not actually doing this thing in my own life. I'm not actually doing this thing in my own life. I'm not actually doing this thing in my own life and it's like gritting away in me. You know what I'm talking about? There's something out of alignment in my own life and often I'm projecting it onto whatever is happening in front of me. The life, the joy is an actually just yielding to purpose. Have we asked God lately, God, what is your purpose for me in this season?

 How can I best partner with your spirit for what you're trying to do? Number three, the narrow path is obedience. Verse 17, when your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit, you hinder him from living free within you and the Holy Spirit's intense cravings hinder your self-life from dominating you. So then the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the spirit. But when you yield to the life of the spirit, you will no longer be living under the law, but soaring above it. All right, now we get the list. The behavior of the self-life is obvious. Sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, pornography, chasing after things instead of God, manipulating others, hatred of those who get in your way, senseless arguments, resentment when others are favored, temper tantrums, only thinking of yourself.

 Here's my favorite one. Being in love with your own opinions. Why do you have to throw that up there next to like, you know, pornography or something like, dang. Being envious of the blessings of others. Murder. Just lumping these all together. Uncontrolled addictions. Wild parties. And then he's like, you know what? Dot, dot, dot. And all the other similar behavior. Everything else, it kind of looks like it fits that bill, right? Haven't I already warned you that those who use their freedom for these things will not inherit the kingdom realm of God? Narrow path living. If we're going to really walk in power, if we're going to really walk in the fruit of the spirit, if we're going to really walk in the things God has for us, it's going to be a lot of work.

 So, if we're going to really walk in the fruit of the spirit, it's going to require obedience. When we let self-rule, when we tolerate sin in our lives, because, you know, everybody else is doing it. Or it's not as bad as what they're doing. Not only does it dishonor God, but it actually is going to drain you of your peace, your joy, the life, the clarity. True freedom, true power comes from living God's way. Right? The great lie of sin is this is going to make you happy. And over and over, we know it doesn't. It actually just leaves you more empty with a bigger mess to clean up. There's just a freedom and a joy that is unexplainable when you know you're living right. You sleep better at night.

 You know, you do. You just take deeper breaths. You sleep better. Even if it's hard, you're like, man, I chose to forgive that person and they didn't deserve it. But it feels good. I chose to keep my mouth shut when I was so tempted to gossip today. It just feels good. It feels good. It feels good to obey, to do it God's way, right? When you choose to be generous when you don't want to or whatever, it feels good. We're designed to walk in alignment with God. I'm trying to retrain myself to not think about obedience as like a bad word. Obedience is my ticket to freedom. Obedience is my joy. Obedience is my ticket to peace. Obedience is my ticket to a good night's sleep. Number four, the narrow path is full of fruit.

 Verse 22, but the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love and all its varied expressions. Joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness and action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities for they are meant to be limitless. Ooh, wait, what? Meant to be limitless? Like love is meant to be limitless in my life? Limitless peace? Limitless self-control? I didn’t even know that was an option. Limitless? Patience? I need to introduce my patience to Ms. Limitless over here because my patience seems to only know some limits. This is what’s available. On the narrow road. And we’re taught in John 15, if you remember, we’re taught fruit grows as we stay connected, right?

 As we stay connected to God, as we are in relationship and communion with him, fruit will naturally grow. You don’t have to try to be more patient. You don’t have to try to be more loving. It will naturally flow out of you as you're connecting to God. You see, on the narrow road, the narrow road is full of fruit because it's a path where it's being connected to God. And God is longing to fill us with peace and with joy. We cannot give what we don't have, right? Nobody wants what we have if we walk into the room and we're just as anxious and spun out and depressed as everybody else. And once again, this isn't fake it till you make it.

 This isn't like, I'm going to pretend to be so joyful because I'm a Christian. No, this is get in the process. Get in the process. Get in the process. Get in the presence of God. Get on that narrow path. Live His way. And from there, joy and peace begin to flow out of your life. Real fruit. You see, the thing is that I think sometimes we confuse what fruit is. We think fruit is often gifting. And we're so enamored with gifting. We think fruit of being with God is, wow, they can preach really good or they can prophesy. And, you know, miracles happen. There's major breakthrough in their business. Or, you know, we think of it something along the lines of gifting. But the reality is gifts are free. Fruit is earned.

 Fruit is nurtured. The fruit of the spirit are things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Those are things that are grown in us as we are communing with Him. The narrow path is where the fruit is. And let me tell you what, the world is hungry to see fruit. And I don't know about you. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry for fruit. I need fruit. I need to drink of the cup of patience. I want some peace, some joy, right? Like, these are the things that await us on the narrow path. Number five, the narrow path is complete surrender. Verse 24, keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus Christ have already experienced crucifixion.

 Verse 24, keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus Christ have already experienced with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Messiah. You know, I think this might be one of the most lost messages in Western Christianity. And yet it's the central message of Jesus. To be born again, one must die. Christianity is the religion of the dead. When we come to Christ, we surrender. We surrender our own way of living. We die to ourselves. We let go of doing things our way. We pick up the cross and we become surrendered vessels. This is literally what baptism, when we're being baptized, is symbolizing. We're letting go. We're dying. We're surrendering our control. Why can't I serve myself too, right? We're surrendering it. That's literally what baptism is.

 We're letting go. Death is never easy, but it's so glorious. There's so much power in surrender. You know, how many of you like to play Mafia? Anybody ever play Mafia? Remy, I know you've played Mafia. Okay, Mafia. If you're in the middle of playing Mafia, you've probably heard somebody yell out, 'dead people don't talk.' Right? If you know the game, it's so tempting. When you're dead, to be like, you say something, you know, like you still want to engage. And it's interesting. I was thinking about that. I heard somebody scream that out the other day when my kids were playing Mafia. And I was like, dead people don't, dead people aren't still playing the game. Dead people don't play the game. God, help me to be so dead to myself.

 Not in a weird, like, I have no, you know, feelings. I don't honor my body. Not like a weird thing. I'm talking about, like, surrender. Help me to truly surrender my own will and agenda and comfort and everything. Help me to truly surrender that I'm not caught up in the game like everybody else. That I can be free. Truly be free. The narrow path is complete surrender. Are there areas in my life that I need to surrender? You know, I think in a lot of ways that Western Christianity has led us to believe that, that death to self is not really necessary in Christianity. In fact, I would argue that in a lot of ways we have celebrated the centering of self in the name of God. We see it in celebrity Christianity.

 We see it in our politics that lack love for our neighbor. We see it in weird prosperity gospel. We've seen this centering of self and slapping a God sticker on it. But the narrow path, the path of Jesus is the path of complete surrender, but it's the path of wild freedom. You know what's really great? You can't offend a dead person. You can't disappoint a dead person. There's a lot of freedom on the other end of that, of really surrendering. Number six, the narrow path is embracing God's rhythm, God's rhythms. The narrow path is embracing God's rhythms. Verse 25, if the spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the spirit to direct every aspect of our lives. If you have an NIV Bible, you probably read it this way.

 Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Here we find in Galatians 5, another great secret about how to stay on the narrow path. We've got to learn to move. We've got to move at the pace of the spirit. Listen, God is not interested in burning you out for what you can do for him. Many of us lack joy, peace, life, creativity, vision, simply because we're not honoring, we're not in step with the spirit. We're not honoring God's rhythms. We're out of step. God is serious about things like Sabbath. This might sound really simple, but it's literally, you know, I think sometimes we over-spiritualize things. I think sometimes we're out of step just because God told us to jump and we didn't do it.

 And now we're frustrated. Or God told us to sit down and rest and we didn't do it. And now we're sick. Sometimes you just need some water and a nap. You know what I mean? Yeah. Sometimes you just need to drink some more water. And have a nap on that narrow road. Honoring God's natural rhythms. Understanding the season he has you in and honoring it and not bucking against it. I don't know about you, but I always, you know, not always, but often want to be in a different season than the one I'm in. And it's exhausting. And part of narrow road living is learning to stay in step with the spirit. Don't move till he says go. When he's moving, don't stand around and dig your heels in. Right?

 Honoring those natural rhythms. You know, a farmer understands that if the branch is staying connected, it's going to be healthy. If the soil's healthy and the branch is healthy, it's going to produce fruit. So the farmer's concern isn't necessarily the fruit. The farmer's concern is to make sure it's a healthy environment so that fruit will naturally be produced. God wants us healthy. I tell our church all the time, listen, all of us go to therapy, do all the things like we need to be healthy. We need to be emotionally healthy, physically healthy, spiritually healthy, relationally healthy. This is part of walking in God's healthy rhythms in our life. Amen. Okay. Last but not least, I got four minutes. The narrow path. Is humility. The narrow path is humility. Verse 26.

 So may we never be arrogant or look down on another for each of us is an original. We must forsake all jealousy that diminishes the value of others. Man, nothing will suck the life out of you like pride. Do you know that being judgy and argumentative literally will steal joy out of your life? As people living in the spirit, as people living on this narrow road, we're called to really value people regardless if you agree with them or not. Jesus doesn't only value Christians. Not only, it's not just Christians that are made in the image of God. Every human is made in the image of God. Every human He died for, every human has purpose and destiny. He doesn't start really loving people when they get saved.

 So he has some strong feelings when we don't love his kids. Right? And it's easier often to love people maybe who sin like us. A little harder to love people who sin differently than us. The path of humility says, you know what? I, the cross makes us all equal. I need Jesus just as much as the person next to me. And it makes us curious and humble. And it's not about being right, right? When you're humble, it's nobody ever felt put off by Jesus or judged by Jesus because he was so humble. He, everybody felt welcome at his table. Everybody felt loved and seen. Humility looks like I'm going to bless and serve and celebrate and choose to honor and build up. I'm going to be a champion of people.

 I'm going to be safe. Don't bring your beef and don't bring your tea to my house. I don't want it. In other words, don't, don't come to my house to talk trash to me about somebody else. That's not what we're going to do. Like, I want to be a safe place, right? Like part of being a humble person is it's like, I'm not a dumping ground. I'm not going to entertain a culture that just devalues anybody. And you know what? I think sometimes it's easy to be like, okay, we can do that in our real life, but you know what? Let's devalue politicians and celebrities and pastors and people out there. It's the same thing. I'm not going to devalue anybody. I'm going to, I'm going to see God's, you know, hand in everybody's life.

 I'm going to bless. I'm going to honor. I'm going to call it great. It doesn't mean you can't critique when necessary and those kinds of things, but it's a totally different spirit, totally different spirit. Okay. So we're getting ready in a moment. We're going to, we're going to, uh, I think Tiff is going to lead us into an exercise in a moment, but I want us to be thinking about these seven things because the narrow path, yes, is challenging. But I want to stir you up this morning that the narrow path is so glorious. It's what you were made for. And in fact, I think so often we feel so, um, unsettled because we're just not walking in the fullness of what we were made for. We feel very dissatisfied.

 I do when I'm not walking in the fullness of what God has for me. And we are living in a wild time in history. And God has uniquely positioned you and I to take a stand. You know, a couple of weeks ago, I was shocked, mortified, I don't know, filled in the blank, had a conversation with this man who asked to meet with us, him and his fiancée. They don't come to our church. They had come to, uh, his wife had come to our women's conference or something. And, um, he's from the underground church in Iran. Um, he was a Muslim man, had a radical encounter with Jesus. Nobody preached the gospel to him, had a dream where Jesus showed up and revealed himself to him.

 This man finds the underground church, okay, has a radical experience and ends up coming to the U. S. But he, and he's like, it's a Christian nation. I want to be in freedom, da, da, da, da. So he'd been in the U. S. for about five years. He's engaged, uh, yeah, actually they just got married last weekend. Okay. He sits down with us and he asked to meet with us. And we're like, okay. And he begins to tell us his story. And he says, I need help and I need you to pray for me. We're like, okay. He goes, I'm considering walking away from the Christian faith. Jesus showed up, you know, like, okay. And he said, I don't know what to do. I know the Jesus that came to me in Iran.

 I can't find him here amongst his people. The way I wept into my coffee cup. And he said, the church I'm a part of is very, all the, it's this constant blend of, of Jesus and politics. And I've seen what that does in my country. He said, 'I just, I really thought that this was the same, like the Jesus of the Bible is I'm finding so many people who call themselves Christians. I'm finding so many people who call themselves Christians. I'm finding so many people who call themselves Christians. I'm finding so many people who call themselves Christians. I'm finding so many people who call themselves Christians here. Don't even know the Jesus of the Bible. He's like, 'I don't know what to do.' Do I stay?

 I want to stay true to Jesus, but I don't know that I can call myself a Christian in this country. And we ministered to this man and talked with him. And at the end of the conversation, he said, 'I didn't know people like you existed.' And I have been so haunted by those words. Because you know what? There are 8 billion people on the planet who need to know that a Christian like you exists. There are people that need to experience God in you. There are people longing to, to see what, what narrow road Christianity looks like. And it's time. It's time for us to rise up and to step into all that God has for us.