In the last days, there is going to be a falling away and few there will be that find it.  Broad is the way that leads to destruction, to death, and then there’s this narrow path.  He wasn’t speaking to the world when he made that comment, and He wasn’t speaking to the pagans.  He was speaking to people who believed they were on the right road to heaven and He said, “You guys don’t have a clue about the condition you’re in.  Let me remind you this is not a broad way.  It’s narrow; it’s narrow, and few will find it.”  Are we finding it?  There’s a fine line between confidence in God’s finished work and thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.  Paul, as we’ve shared before, was just laboring over the fact and speaking things that many of us wouldn’t have the humility to speak, but he spoke, saying, “…lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”  Peter, in all of his overconfidence making that statement, “though everybody else forsakes You, I will never do it,” but they all did.  Peter gets most of the attention, but if you read closely, they all forsook Him.  They all ran to protect their own hides.  “But not me; there is no way I would deny the Lord!”

We see the need of the body and we see the need of the church.  It’s important to understand spiritual authority, especially in this last hour, that God has set in the church.  Ephesians 4:11 says that “He gave these gifts; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to perfect the saints to do the work of the ministry.”   One of the jobs of spiritual leaders is to make sure that the spirit of sedition isn’t allowed in our midst, meaning separation or doing your own thing.  One of the main jobs we have is to get each life here intertwined with others so that we can continue to care for one another.  The church is here to care for, to be intertwined with, and to meet the needs where we each lack.  Yet, we see that one of the powers that is so innate within us is our desire for independence.  As we’ve made our choice to subordinate to the Lordship of Jesus, He’s made very clear the commitment that is necessary, hasn’t He?  “Unless you love Me more than mothers and fathers, wives, children, houses and lands, you are not worthy of Me.”  That’s quite a statement.  You’re not worthy of Me.  Can I encourage you with this thought?  Jesus is not an addendum to our lives.  Jesus is not first on the list.  Jesus IS the list; amen?  All of these other things that enter in, that are so common to man, this independence, it says these things will enter in and choke the Word of God out of our lives.

God has put in the church those to help us war against ourselves to make sure that the body is maturing to where it can love one another maturely, not an adolescent love, but a love that lays its life down for its friends; amen? There is no greater love than that.  This self-demeaning love, this love can’t be a feigned love.  “We can’t be bothered.  I’ll love you if it’s not inconvenient.”  He said, “I want you to grow up and come to the full stature of Christ.”  Christ loved us while we were sinners; amen?  We’re told to love one another and be patient while we’re growing, maturing, those among us that are sometimes rubbing us the wrong way, and we’re kind and we’re gentle, but we are not compromising the truth.  These ministry gifts come in and require this intertwining.  That’s why you can go anywhere and find great preaching.  We can find great teaching anywhere, but to find shepherds after God’s own heart, the heart that gives his life for the flock (John 10), is rare.