Four Forks in the Road

Matt 7:13-14

1st Fork in the Road:• What happens after death?• Is there a Heaven? How do I get in?• What path will I follow?• Is God real?• Can I trust God?

Salvation

1st Fork in the Road:Matthew 7:13-14 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.

Salvation

1st Fork in the Road:Mark 8:34-38 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Salvation

• Making the faith your own• Believing and acting something because you

think it is right and true

2nd Fork in the Road: Synthesis

John 4:28-30, 39-4228 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him…39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41

And because of his words many more became believers. 42

They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

2nd Fork in the Road: Synthesis

• No longer slaves of sin• No longer have to sin

3rd Fork in the Road: Surrender

Romans 6:1-11 1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

3rd Fork in the Road: Surrender

Romans 6:1-11 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

3rd Fork in the Road: Surrender

• No longer slaves of sin• No longer have to sin• Relying on God’s power instead of our power• Being who we are now, not what we used to be• Allowing God to be Lord of our lives

3rd Fork in the Road: Surrender

• Not complacent faith• Living on the edge of faith• Living in more and closer dependency on God

4th Fork in the Road: Seeking God’s Best

Jeremiah 6:16 16 This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'

4th Fork in the Road: Seeking God’s Best

Philippians 1:9-11 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-- to the glory and praise of God.

4th Fork in the Road: Seeking God’s Best

• Not complacent faith• Living on the edge of faith• Living in more and closer dependency on God• BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)• Culmination of the other three forks– Trusting God– Acting on that trust– Surrendering your way for God’s way

4th Fork in the Road: Seeking God’s Best

The Road Not Taken Robert Frost (1920)

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

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 thereHad worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally layIn 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. 15

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere 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. 20