I went to the funeral a few weeks years ago and those were the words I heard from the preacher. What if you’re wrong?
I don’t like being wrong. Do you?
I don’t want to have the wrong form with my exercises. If I’m wrong, then correct me.
I don’t want to be wrong when it comes to my taxes? If I did something wrong, please let me know.
I don’t want my doctors to be wrong with my diagnosis. If they are wrong, I want to know about it, so I can go so somewhere else.
What about religion? Oh boy, you may be thinking, “He’s going there.” Yep!
If you were wrong with what you believed, would you want to know? If not, why not?
Jesus spoke about a narrow path and a broad path, Matthew 7:13-14. There’s a right way and a wrong way.
Are you going the right way or the wrong way? If you were going the wrong way, would you want to know it?
Jesus spoke about false prophets, Matthew 7:15-20. There were those who spoke true words from God and there were those who spoke lies.
Today, there are false teachers! That’s hard for some to accept! But it’s true. But if you were following a teaching that was false, would you want to know it?
A mighty man named Apollos was once teaching, Acts 18:24-26.
He spoke with conviction…
He spoke with power…
He spoke with authority…
But he was going the wrong way!
A couple heard him speak. They saw he was going the wrong way. They gently pulled him aside and said, “You’re going the wrong way!” Okay, they didn’t literally say those words, but that’s the idea. They saw he was going the wrong way, and corrected him. That took courage!
Then something happened! Apollos listened! He didn’t get angry, but he became wiser. After all, who really wants to go the wrong way? He turned from going the wrong way and started going the right way!
He was preaching the baptism of John. That baptism had gone out of business. It had served its purpose. There’s one baptism, Ephesians 4:4-5. The one baptism for men is in the name (authority) of Jesus, in water, for the forgiveness of sins.
Apollos may have been the one who taught the disciples in Acts 19:1-7 that Paul encountered who only knew about the baptism of John. They were going the wrong way! That’s what happens when we’re taught wrong. But they were corrected.
They wanted to go the right way. Do we?
Sometimes it’s hard when you learn you’re going the wrong way. I get so frustrated when I get lost and my wife says, “You’re going the wrong way!” All that time wasted. But hey, who really wants to go the wrong way?
What about you? Where are you going?
Are you going the right way? Am I going the wrong way?
Many believe Adam and Eve ate an apple. But to absolutely say they did is to go the wrong way! The text never says they ate an apple, Genesis 3:1-7.
Many believe that it’s necessary to say a prayer to receive Gods saving grace and to be saved. But to believe that is to go the wrong way. Now someone may say, “Now hold on a second, how can you say that? Everyone believes that?”
It could be that many believe that but the question is WHY?
What if I said you’re going the wrong way? What if I said that people in the first century never said a prayer to be saved?
How might you respond?
Okay, what about this…
What if I said where do you find in the New Testament scriptures any example, command, or anything implied that people were saved in this manner. Could you provide me something?
Going the wrong way is no fun!
Sometimes, it’s hard to understand that we may be going the wrong way.
So how can we know if we’re going the right way?
We can pick up our Bibles and read!
Have you read what Jesus said in John 3:5?
Or what about Luke 13:1-5?
And what about Mark 16:16?
What about Ephesians 2:8-9 and then back to Acts 19:4-6 to see how those people in Ephesus received Gods grace?
What if I’m going the wrong way? Then I must turn and go the right way.
So must you!