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Bristol SDA Church

Garhett Morgan

Which Path are You on?

Our church in the 1800s was a very dedicated church, and yet they still weren't satisfied.

And we're going to be talking a little bit about that today, and we have a kind of a quote from the testimonies that we're going to read through in a vision that Sister White saw.

But it boils down to this, and we've been talking about it a lot over the past month or so, but we know that there's 2 groups of people.

The righteous, the unrighteous, the just, and the unjust.

You know, we don't just become righteous because we flick a switch in our head and we just think it's time to be righteous today, right?

Or we don't just think, well, I want to be unrighteous, but we follow a path, don't we?

If you would, turn with me to Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew chapter 7, Sermon on the Mount here, And this is probably, for most of you, verses that you know very well.

It's a pretty common theme in Christianity.

But Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, talks about these 2 paths that the righteous or the unrighteous walk on.

Matthew chapter 7, we start in verse 13, we're going to read verse 14 too.

And Jesus says here, Enter you in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go therein.

Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." When you look at modern society today, when you look at the church today, but most importantly, look at yourself today, which path are you leading?

In Testimonies, it's chapter 22, it's the chapter entitled, The 2 Ways, and you can go there if you'd like on your own time.

We're going to read a section of it in a minute.

But it talks about a vision that Ellen White sees of these 2 paths.

And there's a path that's narrow, just like the scripture says, and there's a path that is broad.

But she finds something interesting on this path as she looks, she sees those that are walking down the straight way, but then she focuses in on the broad path.

And I'm paraphrasing here and you can read this later, but on this broad path, she sees Christians walking.

People that claim to be like Christ, who should be walking in the straight way, right?

And as they're walking in this broad path that's smooth, and we'll read this in a moment, but they look like everybody else.

I want to ask you today, you know, Peter tells us that we are called to be a chosen generation, right?

When people look at my family, when people look at you, when people look at our church, do you think that they see anything different?

And again, we've talked about this in the past, but how and why do you look different?

Is it just because you might put on a different pair of clothes?

Or Is it something about you that's different than the rest of the world?

Is it something about our church that sets us apart from other denominations?

And I'm not talking about our, I mean, I'm not really talking about our belief system so much.

You know, the Sabbath sets us apart from the denominations, right?

The sanctuary message sets us apart, the investigative judgment, all of these things set us apart, but shouldn't our actions in the way that we communicate with Christ set us apart?

You know, we can have these different doctrines that are oh so important, but how are we acting?

You know, I have known people growing up in the church that could break down the doctrines to you verse by verse and prove it without the shadow of a doubt.

But I wouldn't want to be around that person.

I remember when I was growing up, I worked for someone that was pretty respected in the church and I was helping him move some things around.

I remember him, we were moving an engine on an engine mount and we were pushing it and he was cursing and swearing and losing his temper.

He took me out to lunch that day and he was mean to the waitress and all these things and I thought this isn't a good representation of who we are.

And I think sometimes we kind of fail to understand that you are a representation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

You know, people look to the elder and the pastor and they say, that's our pastor of the church, that's the elder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and we set that standard.

But it's not just the leaders of our church that are representative.

And not only are we just representation, a representative of our church, but we should be representing Jesus, shouldn't we?

We should be representing the God that we serve.

So going back to this vision on this broad path that there were some Christians walking on.

There was 1 thing that set these Christians apart from the non-believers on this on this broad path.

But let me ask you the question first of all, should there have been any Christians on this broad path at all?

It says this, I saw many traveling in this broad road, who had words written upon them, dead to the world, the end of all things is at hand, be you also ready.

We're all saying that we must be dead to the world, and we all look around at our family and friends, and we say, the Lord's coming, the end is at hand, right?

That's what we say as a church, but look what it continues to say.

They looked just like all the vain ones around them, except a shade of sadness, which I noticed upon their countenances.

Their conversation was just like that of the gay thoughtless ones around them." And again, that word means something different today, right?

They were happy-go-lucky type of people, right?

"...I noticed upon their countenances their conversation was just like that of the gay, thoughtless ones around them, but they would occasionally point with great satisfaction to the letters on their garments, calling for the others to have the same upon theirs.

They were in the broad way, yet they professed to be of the number who were traveling the narrow.

Those around them would say, there is no distinction between us, we are alike, we dress, talk and act alike.

These people were just like everyone around them, but they love to point to the words on their back and say, The kingdom of the Lord is at hand.

And then do everything else that everyone else was doing.

The Jesus Second Coming is coming oh so soon, and we love to say it, we love to talk about it, We love to preach our 3 angels' messages, which is so important.

I'm not trying to negate that, but let me ask you, what's your representation of Christ like?

Because I can tell you this much, first of all, those Christians shouldn't have been on that path.

But if they were around somebody that was on that broad way and they looked different, the people in that broad path probably would have listened a whole lot better, right?

Peculiar, and we've talked about that before.

You know, paths tend to lead to something, right?

She loved to, she likes to hike up mountains and things like that.

I did it every now and then but it wasn't a passion of mine.

And some hikers like to hike just to hike.

You know, my father and I, we would hike if there was a body of water up high.

Like if there was something cool at the destination we'd probably go.

But for true intense hikers or you know climbers they will hike just hike.

So they'll climb to the top of a mountain and get up to the top and go, cool, and just start climbing back down.

My dad and I like to get to the top and spend some time with the view, or you know, the lake, or where we are in Washington, glaciers, right, and all that stuff.

There isn't a whole lot of great hikes that you can have in Michigan per se, like climbing thousands of feet.

But anyway, the path that we are traveling on has a destination.

It's not just something that we're living and doing just for the sake of walking, but we're all traveling whether you like it or not.

As time ticks, that destination comes closer and closer, right?

And those 2 destinations get more imminent as time moves on.

We've been talking about this in prayer meeting, But if you would, turn with me to Revelation 19.

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Which Path are You on?

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