Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Thank you, Jesus, for your presence today.
I have a word this morning for this
church.
You know, sometimes what I preach goes beyond
the borders of this sanctuary, but today I
feel the Lord has given me a prophetic
word, in one sense, for Times Square Church.
Now, it may have a spillover effect in
other places, but it's a word for us.
If you'll go to Revelation chapter 3, please,
with me.
What will we do when Jesus knocks?
What will we do, Times Square Church?
What will we do when Jesus knocks?
Now, Father, I thank you, God Almighty, for
your presence, as thick and as powerful as
a holy anointing oil.
Thank you, Lord, that you're with us.
You're wooing us, you're guiding us, you're helping
us, you're strengthening us as a people.
Give us hearts to embrace your word and
ears to hear it.
Help us, Lord, not to stay entrenched in
closed positions and in a place where we're
not willing to hear you.
Father, I thank you for the anointing of
your Holy Spirit that will give me the
strength to speak this word today.
And I thank you for this with all
of my heart, in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.
Now, wisdom dictates that you and I must
never consider ourselves above any portion of Scripture.
If we ever get to the point that
we consider that we're above a passage of
Scripture, then that is a pride that can
actually lead to destruction, according to the book
of Proverbs.
You remember at the Last Supper, Jesus said,
One of you shall betray me.
Now, after three years of walking with Jesus
himself, the men that were around him at
that time knew enough to know that it
could have been any one of them.
And instead of saying, not me, everyone around
that table said, Lord, is it I?
And if we're wise today, we will let
the word of God prove us and reprove
us.
And it can be that it doesn't apply
to you, but I think it's a stronger
position to have an open heart and to
say, Lord, if I have embraced, if I'm
moving, if I am becoming something, Lord, that
you need to change, you need to alter
for your glory, then please, God, give me
a tender heart this morning.
Revelation chapter 3, beginning at verse 14.
And to the angel of the church of
the Laodiceans write, For these things saith the
Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither
cold nor hot.
I would that thou wert cold or hot.
So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither
cold nor hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be
rich.
And white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed.
And that the shame of thy nakedness do
not appear.
And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou
mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten.
Be zealous therefore and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
And if any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come in to
him and sup with him and he with
me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to
sit with me in my throne.
Even as I also overcame and am set
down with my father in his throne.
He that has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit speaks to the churches.
Now many who study this passage make the
argument that this church represents the true spiritual
condition of much that professes to be Christianity
in the final days before the return of
Jesus Christ.
The last church in Revelation he speaks to.
It is an argument that has been presented
with some validity.
Now there are traces of all the seven
churches available in every generation.
But perhaps the Laodicean condition might be the
predominant one that we face as a testimony
of Christ in the last days of time.
The Laodicean church represents a self-focus that
has almost entirely excluded the genuine work of
God from its profession of faith.
And practice.
Now the Apostle Paul would call it a
perversion of grace.
It's a self-made closed-door fellowship where
sin remains unchallenged.
Selfishness is encouraged.
And a call of God to be given
for the freedom and betterment of the poor
and the afflicted is not only shunned, it's
actually resisted.
Let me just read this to you please
if I might from 2 Timothy chapter 3
beginning at verse 1.
This know also that in the last days
perilous times shall come.
Men will be lovers of their own selves.
Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful
and unholy.
Without natural affection.
Truth-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of
those that are good.
Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more
than lovers of God.
And all of this is covered by the
next verse.
Having a form of godliness.
But denying the power thereof.
From such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep
into houses and lead captive silly women laden
with sins.
Led away with diverse lusts.
Ever learning and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Janice and Jambres withstood Moses, so
do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the
faith.
A perversion of grace.
A closed-door fellowship.
Sin is unchallenged.
Selfishness is applauded.
And even considered to be godly.
The call of God to be given for
the freedom and betterment of the poor and
the afflicted is actually resisted.
Paul said as these sorcerers that had gained
access to Pharaoh's court.
And they had a comfortable lifestyle.
They had position, influence, authority and power.
And suddenly a man appears on the scene
that is crying for the freedom of an
oppressed people.
The betterment of those who have no helper.
God has heard the sighing and crying of
a society that has been marginalized.
Has been pushed to the extreme.
And he has sent a man of God.
And yet these sorcerers who claim to have
some form of spiritual power actually stand and
resist.
The man of God who is sent to
bring a people into freedom.
And Paul said in the last days.
There will be a spiritual authority of some
sort that will actually resist the call of
Christ.
Now think for a moment.
In Luke chapter 2.
And now this is the first time that
Jesus Christ figuratively speaking knocks on the door
in the New Testament.
Of the very people who are supposed to
be his own.
Isn't it interesting that when he's just about
to be born into the world.
He's knocking vicariously of course through Joseph and
Mary.
On the door of an inn in Bethlehem.
And these are the people of God of
that season.
Do you understand?
The scripture says he came to his own
but his own received him not.
And that's of course the nation of Israel.
And in the last church in the book
of Revelation that he speaks to.
He's knocking on the door of that which
represents the body of Jesus Christ.
And tragically receives in measure the same response
as in the days in Bethlehem.
Now we spoke last week about the fact
that their society and their time was much
like ours today is.
Society was in upheaval.
People were losing their jobs.
They had to leave their homes.
Go back to their initial hometowns and be
numbered for the purposes of taxation.
They've taken inventory.
They've gathered most likely by wealth, status and
influence.
Think of those that were the first to
get.
Historians say there was only actually one major
inn in Bethlehem.
And you can be sure that those who
had connections were the first ones to get
there.
Those who had the influence, the money, the
authority, the relatives to make reservations.
They got there first.
They scooped up the best rooms.
They most likely brought in a measurable supply
of food and firewood and everything else that
was needed.
And then they shut the door.
And they said, well, at least for this
season we're going to ride out the storm
that we seem to be in.
And they left the poor outside to fend
for themselves.
I wonder if they nervously assured each other
that around the table that God was with
them and would help them ride out the
storm.
And folks, please don't make any mistake about
this.
We're going into the storm of all storms.
You know it by now.
You have to know it.
California declared a state of emergency just a
few days ago because there's no money to
pay any of its civil servants anymore.
Maybe they were singing a song or reading
a portion of scripture.
When a soft knocking suddenly came to their
door.
A quiet, a gentle knock.
Revelation 3.19. Remember Jesus said, as many
as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
And you can see that somebody's saying in
the midst of all of the activity, whatever
it is that's going on.
I think the fire is burning in the
fireplace.
I think people have sat and they've had
a good meal.
They're talking about the situation.
Some might have been praying.
Perhaps it's even possible they had opened the
text of scripture and were reading.
Maybe they were having a Bible study.
They were an extremely religious people.
And another knock came to the door.
No doubt there had been many knocks at
the door at this time, but I think
they had gotten used to turning people away
by this point.
I think wrong had become right.
And if there's anything we know about Christianity,
if we're not careful, wrong becomes right.
You think about the history of this country.
How many went to church to praise the
good Lord, but yet we're abusing an entire
race of people.
And you know what that's all about.
And many of you have seen that.
You've lived through that.
Where wrong became right.
And if we're not careful, that's exactly what
happens.
We can start turning away people and somehow,
in the illogical thinking of the human heart,
take wrong and make it right.
You remember that was the temptation of Satan
to Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden.
You can be as God and you can
determine what's right and what's wrong.
It doesn't matter what God says.
You make the determination.
You don't have to follow the narrow thinking
of God.
And so, as the knock comes to the
door, you can see somebody saying, Well, who's
there?
Who's at the door this time?
Oh, it's a poor couple.
They're about to have a child.
And they're asking if we have any room
for them here.
Now, can you imagine each person there looking
at his plate of warm food, the comfort
of the fireplace, and the thoughts of the
nice warm bed upstairs?
Think for a moment of the awkward silence
as each person considers the inconvenience that opening
that door might bring.
A young couple.
Somebody's got to give up their bed.
Somebody's got to give up a portion of
food to feed them because they're obviously poor.
From the report that's coming from the person
at the door.
There's going to be...
She's going to deliver a baby.
Are they going to lose sleep?
Is there going to be some measure of
groaning or even screaming as that child is
born?
And then there's the crying of the child
and there's the inconvenience that comes with childbirth?
I think it's inconceivable that anybody called by
the name of God could turn these people
away.
I don't know how you feel about it.
I feel something inside that begins to boil.
Just the thought of it.
A woman in labor.
A young couple at the door.
And God's...
It's family, folks.
It's not even...
It's family at the door.
They're all of the same blood.
The kindreds.
The tribes.
They're all the sons and daughters of Jacob.
And yet, how callous we can become.
How cold-hearted we can become.
When society moves to a place where the
preservation of ourselves becomes more or less the
predominant thought.
And we're moving into that now.
Very, very rapidly, actually.
Can you imagine the relief if someone might
have said, Well, tell them we'll pray for
them.
Yeah, tell them we'll pray that God make
a way for them.
We'll pray.
You know, it's funny.
I remember the time when I was a
young Christian.
And I was only saved a couple of
years.
And I was going to church.
And I was saved in a fairly affluent
church.
And I remember after a service one Sunday,
I went down and there was a men's
coat room.
And here we are in the men's coat
room.
A lot of the men are down there.
And this fellow comes down and says, There's
a man upstairs who just came into the
church.
And he has no coat.
Now, this is a sub-zero Canadian winter
day.
It's very cold out there.
Now, I had just been reading the Bible.
And I remember where the soldiers and such
came to John.
And they said, Well, what do we have
to do?
And he said, Well, one of the things
he said, If any man has two coats,
let him give one to the one that
has none.
And I had just read it that week.
Now, I don't have a lot of money
compared to these other people.
And I had just bought a brand new
coat.
And I had just brought it to church.
I think it was my first Sunday with
my new coat hanging on the hook.
Now, I've got an old one back home.
And I've got a new one hanging on
the hook in the church.
And I remember standing there as all these
men who have a whole lot more money
than I do.
It was pocket change for these men to
do something about this.
And yet, they all stood in silence.
And everybody kind of stared at the hook
of his coat.
And then finally somebody actually said, Tell him
we'll pray about it.
I remember the words.
And I remember standing there thinking, Well, what
is there to pray about?
This man doesn't have a coat.
And the Lord said to me, But you
have two.
And I said, But my old one is
at home.
And the Lord said, Give him your new
one that you've been saving for all this
time.
And so, I'd just been reading the word
of God.
I'd just read that verse.
And I remember thinking, What are these people
praying about?
Most of these men that are standing here,
It's chump change to buy this man a
coat for them.
And for me, I had to save and
scrape for weeks to be able to buy
a new coat.
And yet, I took my coat and I
gave it to this usher that had come
downstairs and said, Here, give the man my
coat.
Now, I went home that day in minus
10 or 15 degree weather with no coat.
But I tell you, I believe to this
day it was the turning point in my
life as a Christian.
It gives me an understanding of this passage
of Scripture.
I've actually walked through it.
I've lived through this in small measure.
They were neither hot nor cold.
I mean, they would actually stop and stare
at their coats for a minute and actually
give it a minimal amount of thought.
After singing the hymns and after the professions
of dedication to God and to His work,
after whatever it is, the kind of a
benediction prayer was prayed and declaring ourselves to
be the people of God.
And God sends a man in out of
the cold who turned out to be the
backslidden husband of one of the ladies who
actually attended that church.
And they have moments of conscience.
That's what happened with Laodicea.
But they were rarely, if ever, translated into
action.
That's why they were neither cold nor hot.
They weren't so cold that they just simply
pushed it away.
But they weren't so hot that they would
actually do something about it.
They would think about it.
And if you and I are not careful,
we deceive ourselves to where we get to
the place that we feel that thinking about
something is the same as doing it.
I'm thinking about giving to the poor.
I'm thinking about abandoning my life to the
purposes of God.
I'm thinking about one day taking a portion
of what I have and giving it to
somebody who needs.
I'm thinking about it, so leave me alone.
I'm thinking about it.
It doesn't mean I'm actually cold to it,
but it doesn't mean I'm hot to it.
I'm just in that place of just thinking
about doing something about human suffering.
Jesus said to the Laodiceans, when he said,
I'll spew you out of my mouth, it
just simply means I'm going to stop confessing
you before the Father.
I'm confessing you as my church, but if
you stay in this condition, if you don't
move from this condition, if you don't move
into becoming what the church is supposed to
be in the earth, I will cease to
confess you before the Father.
I wonder if some of them at that
table at that inn in Bethlehem went back
to their Bible study.
Oh yes, where were we before we were
so rudely interrupted by this young couple?
Oh yes, here we are.
Is this not the fast that I've chosen
to lose the bands of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go
free and that you break every yoke?
Is it not to deal your bread to
the hungry and you bring the poor that
are cast out to your house?
When you see them naked, you cover them
and that you hide not yourself from your
own flesh.
Then shall your light break forth as the
morning.
Your health will spring forth speedily.
Your righteousness will go before you and the
glory of the Lord shall be your rear
guard.
Then you will call and the Lord will
answer.
You'll cry and he shall say, here I
am.
If you take away from the midst of
you the yoke, the putting forth of the
finger and speaking or vanity or means empty
talk.
If you move to the burden to remove
it and this pointing forth of the finger,
which is just simply not doing something by
blaming somebody else for the problem and empty
talk.
And if you draw out your soul to
the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then
your light will rise in obscurity and your
darkness will be as the noonday.
And the Lord will guide you continually and
satisfy your soul in drought and make fat
your bones.
And you shall be like a watered garden
and like a spring of water whose waters
fail not.
Now, folks, the tragedy of all of this
is that these people knew these verses of
Scripture.
They knew them inside out.
They knew them backwards.
They could argue it theologically.
But yet when Jesus himself came knocking at
the door, when the Son of God came
and it was time to put what they
had learned into practice, one by one, as
one of the New Testament parables says, they
began to make excuse.
One said, no, I've just gotten married.
I don't have time for this or I've
just bought a farm.
I have to go and check it out.
I've just acquired some oxen.
And some of them, if they were here
today to argue the point, would say, but
it makes so little sense to give to
others in calamitous times like these.
Surely God knows that we need a supply
for ourselves.
It can't be possible that God would be
asking us to take everything that he has
given to us and to use it for
human suffering.
But haven't you read that the ways of
God are not the ways of man?
How much sense do the ways of God
make?
When he takes Elijah midway through a famine,
that's about to bring the nation back to
the worship of the true God for a
moment in time.
And he takes Elijah and when Elijah runs
out of water and food and he says,
now go to the widow, I've commanded her,
go to a starving widow.
He said, I've commanded her to feed you.
It doesn't make sense, the ways of God,
but it's a type of the church of
Jesus Christ.
God said to Elijah, and as he says
to us today, if you go to the
widow, if you move towards the starving in
the time of famine, he said, not only
will she be provided for, you will be
provided for.
It will unlock to you the resources of
heaven.
It doesn't make sense in the natural.
The natural man wants to gather his supply,
wants to hide it to himself and lock
himself behind a closed door and let God,
in a sense, deal with human need.
I've got my own problems.
I don't need to be looking after somebody
else's problems.
It doesn't make sense to use four lepers
to defeat an enemy army and open a
food supply for an entire city, but that's
the way God works.
Takes the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise and the weak things to
bring down to nothing those things that have
become mighty in themselves.
And he says to you and I today,
if we will draw out our soul to
the hungry, if we will satisfy the afflicted,
the light of the testimony of Christ in
us will rise in obscurity.
And even the darkest of times will seem
as the noon day to us.
God says, I will guide you continually.
I will satisfy your soul in drought.
I'll make fat your bones and you'll be
like a watered garden and like a spring
of water whose waters fail not.
And not only that, but those that are
born into the kingdom through you will be
those who repair the foundation of many generations
and you will be called the repairer of
the breach and the restorer of the path
to dwell in.
Think about Jesus for a moment crying out
to this church.
O Laodicea, let me come in.
He says, behold, I stand at the door
and knock, and if any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come
into him and sup with him and he
with me.
And to him that overcomes will I grant
to sit down with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame and am set
down with my father in his throne.
If you'll open the door.
Remember at the end of time when he
says, come blessed to the Lord, enter into
the joy of your salvation.
For I was hungry and you fed me.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was a stranger and you took me
in.
I was sick and you visited me and
I was in prison and you came to
me.
When did we do it to you?
The people say to him.
And he says in so much that you've
done it unto the least of these, my
brethren.
You've done it to me.
Number one, we dare not ever turn the
family of God away in difficult times.
In so much you've done it to one
of the least of these, my brethren, the
least of these.
You notice here that when he calls together
those who are going to receive a reward
in the last days, he doesn't say, well
done, Carter Conlon, you pastored a church of
8,000 in New York City.
Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.
There'll be nothing like that said.
None of those things.
Those things are great, but they don't really
matter in the long term.
It's not about what I did in ministry.
It's about who I am as a Christian.
Individually, you and me.
I can be preaching from this pulpit and
closing the door of compassion in my heart
to human need.
If any man sees his brother have need
and shuts his bowels of compassion, how does
he say the love of God dwells in
him?
Folks, it's not about the fact that we
meet together and we have wonderful worship.
It's about what you and I are collectively
as a church and individually as people.
There are some here today would say, Pastor,
when human need comes to New York City,
drain the bank account of the church.
Take all the money out and use it
to meet human need.
And I fully intend to do that in
the days ahead.
But what about when the bank account is
drained of the church?
How about your bank account?
Ah.
Gets quiet now, doesn't it?
My bank account?
You mean my bed, my meal, my fire?
My sleep, my inconvenience, my trial, my trouble?
You're talking about...
I mean, I've got troubles enough of my
own.
But you see, it's not about what we
collectively do as a church.
It's about what we individually do as the
body of Christ.
And a lot of what you do will
never be seen.
It'll never be known.
You'll never get a tax receipt for it.
But it will be marked down in the
kingdom of God.
Luke 13, 24, Jesus said, And
you begin to knock at the door saying,
Lord, Lord, open to us.
And he shall answer and say to you,
I know not whence you are.
That's an incredible...
He said there's a day coming when those
who have shut the door are going to
have the door shut on them.
And he says, Then you shall say, we've
eaten and drunk in your presence, and you've
taught in our streets.
But he shall say, I tell you, I
don't know you.
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.
There's a day coming when the door will
be shut, but it's not us shutting it
anymore, it's God shutting it.
Then you can just see the day coming
when the religious start banging on the door
of the ark one more time.
Hey, listen, we studied the Bible.
We sang your songs.
We were in places where...
I went to Times Square Church, for goodness
sakes.
But then he says, But none of it
ever became part of you.
It was nice to learn it.
It was actually...
You were more or less hot for the
truth, but cold to its application.
You loved the word of God.
You loved the truth of God to a
point until it brought you to the point
of actually following Jesus and being what Jesus
has called you to be in the world.
What a tragedy when so many of satin
churches in this nation have been led into
another gospel in the time of crisis, find
themselves actually locked out of the provision of
God, locked out of the ability to see,
locked out of the compassion of God, simply
because they had locked the word of God
out long before any of this ever happened.
Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and
you stone those that are sent to you.
How often I would have gathered your children
together as a hand gathers her brood under
her wings, and you would not.
Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
Verily I say to you, you shall not
see me until the time when you shall
say, Blessed is he that comes in the
name of the Lord.
Now, this to me talks about the mercy
of God.
He knocked in Bethlehem.
He knocks again in Revelation, but he knocked
in the center of both in Jerusalem, the
very heart of worship, the very center of
what was supposed to represent God and the
earth, the city of God, Jerusalem.
He came and knocked on the door, but
they were so entrenched in certain viewpoints and
ways of doing things, so calloused and hard
that they even were enraged when he would
heal somebody who was in infirmity on the
Sabbath day.
And he walks away from Jerusalem, and Jerusalem's
about to go into destruction and be overrun
by the Gentiles.
But I love this passage of Scripture because
when he says, you'll not see me again
until, which means that I have knocked, you've
resisted, but I'm willing to come back and
knock again.
And I will come to you when you
say, Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord.
The word blessed in the original text means
to speak well of what Jesus says and
who he actually is, to let one's life
come into agreement that not what I desire,
but what he speaks is what is right
for my life.
That's what it means.
It's not just to say the word blessed
is he who comes in the name of
the Lord, but Jesus, your words are right.
Your direction for my life is the only
one that I want.
And what you tell me to do, I
will do.
And so Lord, knock on the door of
my heart again.
God Almighty, don't ever stop knocking on the
door of Times Square Church.
And if we've resisted, if any of us
have, and you've walked away, come and knock
again because we will open to you this
time and say, Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Can you imagine if they had opened the
door to Mary and Joseph and Jesus?
Can you imagine the difference in that end?
Can you imagine the glory that would have
come down?
The angels that had to appear on a
mountainside would have appeared inside of the end.
The glory of the Lord would have been
in that end.
The presence of God would have been there.
The miraculous would have abounded.
People would have been dumbstruck and awestruck just
because they took the time to let in
this poor family that were about to have
a child.
When we turn our hearts away from helping
the poor and the addicted and afflicted, we
rob ourselves of the actual presence of God.
All that is left is religion and reading
of scripture.
A feel-good religion that, when calamitous times
come, doesn't feel very good anymore.
There's going to be a lot of people
at this door, folks.
There's going to be lines, I believe, in
the street looking for food.
And it's going to take time, and it's
going to cost us.
What will we do?
What will we do when Jesus knocks?
What will we do?
Well, what we do when Jesus knocks depends
entirely on how we are responding to his
knocking on our hearts today.
What is he asking?
You know, suddenly, we don't suddenly just open
the door and enter into the fullness of
God's work when we have built up resistance
to God in some area of our lives.
When you start locking the door anywhere, it
becomes easy to lock the door everywhere.
And you can actually get quite religious in
it, self-justified.
You'll be growing in knowledge, but not growing
in grace.
What is he asking of you now?
What is that soft knocking of God asking
from you?
Is he asking you to leave where you
are and come home?
Is there somebody here this morning that you're
just in the wrong place?
You've taken the life of God that he's
given you and you've gone far away from
the heart of God and you know it.
How long will you resist God?
Don't think that you're going to become this
super Christian in calamitous times when you're not
even in the right place now.
Is he asking you to believe for the
strength to get up out of somewhere that
you shouldn't be?
Doing something you shouldn't do?
With people that you shouldn't know?
Is he knocking on the door of your
heart?
Did you feel it?
In the club you were in last night,
did you feel it?
As you were looking at pornography on the
internet, did you feel that soft knocking of
God on your heart?
Did you feel it?
Those who woke up in bed this morning
with somebody that's not your husband or your
wife?
Did you feel it?
That soft knocking of God where Christ says,
let me come in, I'll sit down with
you, I'll open to you a source of
supply and strength that will take you far
beyond anything that you've ever known before, anywhere
you've ever lived, anything you've ever dreamt you
could become.
Is he knocking for you to simply have
an open heart and be willing to be
given for others?
That's a great starting place.
Just the willingness.
That can be a victory in itself to
say, God, I'm just willing.
If you knock on the door of my
heart, I'm just willing to open the door.
I'm willing.
I don't know how to find the strength.
He said, just open the door.
I'll give you the strength.
I'll give you the heart.
I'll give you the compassion.
And I'll open to you a supernatural supply.
There'll be a supply that comes.
Folks, these things in the Bible are not
just, they're not comic books.
This is reality.
The oil will not fail.
The meal will not go away if you
just simply do it God's way.
Is he asking you tonight to open the
door of our lives to someone we'd rather
not open it to?
It's Christmas time.
And all of the family and faces start
coming back that we'd rather not deal with.
People that we just really hope don't come
to our door.
We hope a letter from them doesn't come
to our door.
We don't even want to see a Christmas
card from these people.
But Jesus says, would you open the door?
And I'll come in and I'll give you
the supply.
We are preparing in this church to feed
a lot of people.
We're making provision and have been in the
seven good years.
We've been putting away handfuls for the seven
lean years.
We're preparing to feed, but it can't be
just a corporate thing.
It has to be individual.
There's going to have to be a lot
of works that we do that are not
seen and not known by men.
God forbid that when Jesus knocks on the
door of this church, that we turn him
away.
God forbid that you get out of your
apartment on Monday morning and you see some
kid just across the hall that goes to
school every day and he's starting to look
more lean and more lean and you become
aware that there's not very much money to
go around in that home.
God forbid that you and I have the
resource to make a sandwich and simply don't
do it because it's inconvenient.
God forbid.
God forbid that any family from this church
ever end up on the streets because nobody
would open the door to them.
God forbid that anybody ever shows up in
this church at this door with nowhere to
live, with three and four kids in tow
and we say, we'll pray for you.
We'll pray for you.
Matter of fact, we'll put it on the
top of our list on Thursday night.
God be with you.
Here's a chocolate bar.
God forbid.
It's gotta be more than that.
And the Lord will give us the grace
and the strength in these coming days.
If we have to put people in the
annex, we're gonna put them in the annex.
Whatever we have to do, that's what we're
gonna do.
Now I know that Jesus has been knocking
on the door of many hearts.
He wouldn't have given me this message if
he hasn't been.
It really is time to start saying yes
to him.
It really is time to open the door.
Whatever it is that he's asking of you,
it's just simply time to open the door.
And we open the door by simply coming
into agreement with him.
Remember when we say, blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord?
The word blessed means what he says is
right.
And where he leads is where I need
to go.
Not what I think, but what he thinks
is important.
Not where I wanna go, but where he's
leading my life.
That's what it's all about.
And I believe with all my heart that
the Holy Spirit has been speaking a hundred
ways deeper than I have today.
He's been going deep into many hearts.
He's been knocking on many doors.
And you know what it is that God
is asking you to do.
You say to me, Pastor, where do I
start?
Well, start at the start.
Start at where you are.
Start at whatever it is that God's asking
you to do.
If he's knocking on the door and saying,
put away that bottle of whiskey that you've
got hidden in your closet, then start there.
Start with some form of obedience.
Start with saying yes to God.
Start with opening that door, saying yes, Jesus.
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord.
Blessed are you, God.
Blessed, oh, thank God you've come to my
heart.
Thank God you've come to my home.
Thank God you're asking me to lay this
down.
Lord, I will lay it down.
And he says, now I'm gonna come in.
We're gonna sit down and I'm gonna unfold
a banquet before you.
I'm gonna give you strength and provision in
the midst of your enemies.
And at the end of your days, you're
gonna be able to say, goodness and mercy
followed me all the days of my life.
Thank God.
There is a point, folks.
There is a point where you make a
decision and it affects the rest of your
life.
And it's the point where you simply say
yes to God and you say, Lord, let
this be the pattern of my life.
Let me not justify wrong.
Let me not call indifference holy.
Let me not call selfishness godly.
Let me not hide behind this facade, but
Lord, let me not hide from human need.
Whatever that need is, Lord, you're going to
meet it through my life.
I'm believing that with all my heart.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.
Whatever the Holy Spirit is speaking to your
heart today and whatever he's calling you to
do, folks, it's a decision you have to
make.
But I'm going to give an altar call
here in a moment and in the education
annex.
And those who are willing, when you're coming
to this altar, is a symbol of actually
getting out of your seat and coming and
opening the door and saying, blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord.
No matter if it's an inconvenient thing to
me or not, or whether I fully understand
it or I don't, God is asking me
to do this thing.
And so I'm simply going to obey him.
And if it means giving up my bed,
I'll give up my bed.
I love this story, and I want to
close with this.
Some of you might be familiar with it.
It's quite a well-known story.
And I don't remember the dates and everything,
but it actually happened.
And I read it again last year of
a Christmas pageant that was held in a
local school.
And there was a young boy there with
Down syndrome, considered mentally handicapped.
And they gave him the position of the
innkeeper.
And he had one line.
When Mary and Joseph and the baby came
to the door, he was supposed to open
the door and say, there's no room at
the inn.
That's his whole line.
There's no room.
And so they went through the rehearsals and
everything, and then finally it came to the
night of the play, and the knock came
on the door.
And this little fellow opens the door, and
he looks, and he'd never seen them in
costume.
And so Mary is crying, and she's very
pregnant, and Joseph looks desperate, and they've got
this fake donkey.
And here they are at the door.
And please, my wife's about to have a
baby, and we have nowhere to go, and
we don't know what to do.
And he just stood there and stared at
them.
And he didn't say anything.
And the people in the audience are going,
there's no room, no room.
The people behind the curtains are going, there's
no room, no room.
And he said, I know what I'm supposed
to say, but she can have my room.
And we call him mentally challenged.
That's the irony of the whole thing.
Now, I think the people yelling no room
were mentally challenged.
I don't care what I'm supposed to say.
She can have my room.
And that's just the way it has to
be.
God lumped me in with him.
I don't know what I'm supposed to say,
but she can have my room.
Father, I thank you, God, Lord, Jesus Christ.
Oh, Jesus, we have prayed in times past,
send us the poor, send us the addicted,
send us the widow, send us the orphan.
And now you're about to answer our prayer
in great measure.
Jesus, help us to open the door.
Lord, help us, God, to get beyond our
study and to be hot for the work
of God.
Lord, give us grace to start saying yes
to you.
Whatever it is that you're asking of us,
whatever you're asking of me, Lord, help me
to say yes and to open the door.
I ask it in Jesus' name.
Now, we're going to stand, and if the
Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart, come
to this front of the sanctuary, and let's
open the door together.
Whoever God is speaking to, you can slip
out of your seat in the balcony, go
to either exit and come down.
Main sanctuary, education annex, just come.
Let the stepping out of your seat be
just the opening of the door.
Lord, whatever you ask of me, whatever you
ask me to do, this is what I'm
going to do.
Whatever you bring my way, don't let me
back away from it, God.
Don't let me be selfish.
Help me to be generous.
We're going to worship for just a moment,
then we're going to pray together.
Let's do that.
Lord, make your way here, please, if you
will.
Lord Jesus Christ, Father, we ask today, I
ask as the pastor of this church, Lord,
that we be truly light and salt in
this city.
Lord, you are good, and your mercy endures
forever.
You are kind, and you've left us on
the earth to be a physical display of
who you are.
So help our hearts, Lord, to line up
with yours and our ways and our practices
to be such that you can point to
us and say, this is my church.
These are my beloved and whom I'm well
pleased.
God, help us.
Whenever you knock, not to create excuses to
leave the door closed, whatever area of our
hearts that you ask for, whatever practices you
want to change or to expand, I pray,
God, we always be willing to hear you.
I pray for my brethren, Lord, that you
give us a supernatural compassion.
It has to be your compassion, and we
have to know the difference between human need
and human greed.
God, help us to understand these things.
Be that voice to us that says, this
is the way, walk in it.
Speak clearly to us, Holy Spirit.
Father, we thank you for this, God.
Give us ways, innovative ways, that we can
be a blessing to this city, to our
young people in the schools, Lord.
God Almighty, let it be known that the
hand of God is being extended in the
city.
Naomi came home because she heard there was
bread in Bethlehem, and Ruth came with her,
and the lineage of Christ was greatly brought
to another place because of this.
Let it be known that God's people are
generous.
Break the bonds of selfishness, Lord, off of
all of us, Lord, and let our hearts
be an open door.
I thank you for this with all my
heart.
In Jesus' name.
Hallelujah.