Speaker 1: I wanted to remind you real quick about Elevation Nights
Speaker 1: starting on October twenty six, going through November fourth, We're
Speaker 1: going to be in Atlanta, Nashville, Tulsa, Fort Worth, Houston, Orlando, Sunrise,
Speaker 1: and Jacksonville. And if you know anybody that lives near there,
Speaker 1: tell them they better get their ticket. Now. It's going
Speaker 1: to be hyperactive, it's going to be ridiculous. We're going
Speaker 1: to be ripping the roof off and expecting the glory
Speaker 1: of God to come in a powerful way. So if
Speaker 1: you live in any of those cities, or if you
Speaker 1: live close enough to get an uber or a scooter,
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to get to the presence of the Lord,
Speaker 1: we would love to see you there. Go to Elevation
Speaker 1: Nights dot com. But right now, somebody shout right now
Speaker 1: in all caps, put it in chat, right now, right now,
Speaker 1: right now, right now. Throw an exclamation point on there
Speaker 1: in the chat. It doesn't cost you anything to put
Speaker 1: an exclamation chapter right now, who's ready for a word
Speaker 1: from God? Thank you, Jeeve. I want us to go
Speaker 1: to Second Corinthians chapter two. Remain standing for like one
Speaker 1: more minute out of respect for God's word. Second Corinthians,
Speaker 1: chapter two. I've been messing with this passage for like
Speaker 1: four months, trying to preach it. So today's the day,
Speaker 1: So you'll help me out, because I've been looking forward
Speaker 1: to this. You know, when how many y'all ever cooked
Speaker 1: a big meal for people and then they just ate
Speaker 1: it so quick and didn't even yeat, which looks like
Speaker 1: for me when I spent a long time looking at
Speaker 1: a passage and y'all just yawn at me, and anyway,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good. Tewod Corinthians chapter two, Verse ten.
Speaker 1: Anyone you forgive, I also forgive, and what I have forgiven,
Speaker 1: if there was anything to forgive, I have forgiven in
Speaker 1: the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that
Speaker 1: Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware
Speaker 1: of his schemes. Now verse twelve, when I went to
Speaker 1: Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ and found that
Speaker 1: the Lord had opened a door for me, I want
Speaker 1: to read that scripture again, because I've lived in the
Speaker 1: door had opened or excuse use, the Lord had opened
Speaker 1: a door for me. Tell somebody, it's not your door,
Speaker 1: it's my door. God gave it to me. Paul said
Speaker 1: the Lord had opened a door for me. Point to yourself,
Speaker 1: the Lord, say it the Lord. Type this. The Lord
Speaker 1: opened a door for me. When I found that the Lord.
Speaker 1: When I went to Troas to preach the Gospel of
Speaker 1: Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door
Speaker 1: for me, I still had no peace of mind because
Speaker 1: I did not find my brother Titus there. So I
Speaker 1: said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. That's
Speaker 1: the scripture. The Lord had opened a door for me,
Speaker 1: but I still had no peace of mind. And we're
Speaker 1: going to call this message a troubled mind and an
Speaker 1: open and door. Last week I shared with you green
Speaker 1: light at the Red Sea. You remember, man, y'all forget quick,
Speaker 1: because I've been thinking about it all week, at every
Speaker 1: traffic light. I've been thinking about God's goodness and how
Speaker 1: he gives us the ability to overcome any obstacle, and
Speaker 1: sometimes the obstacle is the opportunity. But today we'll continue
Speaker 1: that thought from a little different angle, and we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about a troubled mind and an open door.
Speaker 1: Speak Lord in Jesus name, Amen, you may be seated.
Speaker 1: Troubled mind and an open door that it feels like
Speaker 1: in this text, we've stepped into the middle of something.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you felt that when I was
Speaker 1: reading it, but back around verse ten, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like one of those tense arguments you sometimes got caught
Speaker 1: in the middle of a argument that you don't know
Speaker 1: how it started, but you know, I get I'm a
Speaker 1: tiptoe out real quick. So we understand in the text
Speaker 1: that we're reading. You know, like when you read Bible
Speaker 1: verses in isolation, it doesn't really give you the integrity
Speaker 1: of the thought. So if you just read one verse,
Speaker 1: that's good, but it's better to read a few so
Speaker 1: you can understand. They taught us in seminary the text
Speaker 1: in context, because a text without a context is a pretext.
Speaker 1: Whatever that means. I spent like fifty thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: learn it in seminary. Interestingly enough, Paul is dealing with
Speaker 1: one of the most important churches that he ever laid,
Speaker 1: the foundation for, the Church at Corinth. The Church at
Speaker 1: Corinth is responsible for a lot of Paul's pride as
Speaker 1: a pastor and a lot of his problems, and it
Speaker 1: seems in this passage that we're reading right now to
Speaker 1: the Corinthian Church, Paul finds them very important. I don't
Speaker 1: know if Paul, that dignitaryan statesman, that gospel practitioner who
Speaker 1: erected altars for Jesus Christ and all of the known
Speaker 1: Roman world to the gentiles who were previously not even
Speaker 1: considered worthy of the message. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: had favorites, but he certainly understood that some people are
Speaker 1: more strategic than others. Doesn't mean that somebody is more
Speaker 1: valuable than others or And I was even out here
Speaker 1: today before church started. I don't always do this, but
Speaker 1: today I came out in the auditorium and sat down
Speaker 1: in one of the seats here at this beautiful Ballentine campus.
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken, it was the fifth row of
Speaker 1: this section on this side of the aisle one two
Speaker 1: three four five seats in one two three four five.
Speaker 1: So you in the hunter green looks like shirt. I
Speaker 1: was in your seat, preaching, praying, praying for who I
Speaker 1: was going to preach to today, preaching to myself to
Speaker 1: get ready to preach this morning before you got here.
Speaker 1: So you feel a little something extra over there today.
Speaker 1: But I was thinking, how in each seat is somebody
Speaker 1: whose situation is uniquely difficult and uniquely wonderful. While we
Speaker 1: were praising the same God a minute ago, we were
Speaker 1: praising the same God for a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: Somebody was praising God just because you didn't get caught.
Speaker 1: You were praising him because you memorized Colossians in your
Speaker 1: men's Bible study. Okay, you were praising him just because
Speaker 1: nobody found out about it. Mm hmm. But as we
Speaker 1: preach and teach online and just go ahead and put
Speaker 1: your name in your city in the chat, God, has
Speaker 1: you situated? God? Has you situated? Now? Now, Corinth was
Speaker 1: a city that was situated. It was important because it
Speaker 1: was a cosmopolitan city that also represented a seaport, and
Speaker 1: it was a it was it was a it was
Speaker 1: a flourishing place in terms of culture because you kind
Speaker 1: of had to go through Corinth. It was It was
Speaker 1: the third largest city by population in its time. The
Speaker 1: only cities that were bigger than Corinth would be Roman Alexandria.
Speaker 1: So Corinth is not only populated, but it situated. Now
Speaker 1: when you think about this from a minute, it was
Speaker 1: a very important city because it was a port city
Speaker 1: and that meant that the ships came through there, and
Speaker 1: it was situated well enough, the distribution could happen in
Speaker 1: trade could happen, and commerce could happen because of where
Speaker 1: Corinth was situated. On the other hand, Corinth was a
Speaker 1: very ungodly city because the same situation that made it
Speaker 1: so effective for business made it susceptible to temptation. Corinth
Speaker 1: was a city where there was a lot of sexual immorality.
Speaker 1: You know, back in the Bible times, they had different
Speaker 1: problems than we have today. They had sexual immorality even
Speaker 1: in the church. Some people were messing around in the
Speaker 1: church at Corinth. Can you believe those crazy Christians at Corinth,
Speaker 1: and Paul spent eighteen months with them, and he couldn't
Speaker 1: cast out all these sexual devils. He couldn't cast out
Speaker 1: all of these idolatry devils. They were so greedy. They
Speaker 1: were getting drunk off the Lord's communion wine and Corinth
Speaker 1: a bunch of crazy Christians in Corinth. I used to
Speaker 1: find it funny people would say, I don't go to elevation.
Speaker 1: Back when we used to start. They would say, I
Speaker 1: don't go to elevation because some of the people that
Speaker 1: go there. Some of the people that go there aren't
Speaker 1: very good Christians. And I would always think that should
Speaker 1: be your invitation to join us. I always wish I
Speaker 1: could put a c old circuit camera in their house
Speaker 1: when they talk like that, just a little nest cam
Speaker 1: so I can catch you in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night doing the crazy stuff you do. But really, no,
Speaker 1: really to get to the core of how crazy you are.
Speaker 1: I couldn't put the camera in a room. I'd have
Speaker 1: to put it. And Paul is talking to a group
Speaker 1: of people who are very important to him. He's invested
Speaker 1: a lot in them, and they've hurt him deeply. Nobody
Speaker 1: can really hurt you deeply if you haven't invested in
Speaker 1: them greatly. The proof that I love you is that
Speaker 1: I have the capacity to hate you. You can't hate
Speaker 1: somebody you don't love. You can ignore them, you can
Speaker 1: be annoyed by them, you can be perturbed by them.
Speaker 1: Then you can pray for them. But you can't hate
Speaker 1: somebody that you don't love. It's not that Paul hates
Speaker 1: the Corinthian Church. It's that his relationship with them is
Speaker 1: so important, not only to him personally, now it's important personally.
Speaker 1: We find out more about Paul through his writings to
Speaker 1: the Corinthian Church than anything else. He wrote in the Bible,
Speaker 1: the Book of Romans. If you want to really understand
Speaker 1: Paul's theological construct for justification by faith in Christ, not
Speaker 1: through works of the law, you should go to the
Speaker 1: Book of Romans. But if you want to see inside
Speaker 1: of Paul's mind how he thinks not only about our
Speaker 1: relationship with God, but his relationship with others, you should
Speaker 1: read First and Second Corinthians. And it might interest you
Speaker 1: to know that as powerful as Paul was with God,
Speaker 1: he still had dysfunctional relationships with people through which God
Speaker 1: worked to get the Gospel to the earth. The church
Speaker 1: at Corinth was important for Paul. It served, as it were,
Speaker 1: as a hinge for the Gospel to go forth into
Speaker 1: the hitherto previously unevangelized gentile world. This important church in
Speaker 1: a seaport city that was established by the apostle himself,
Speaker 1: and now he's having to write them about a conflict
Speaker 1: that should have been resolved by now. He said, I
Speaker 1: need to forgive you. I need to forgive you. It's
Speaker 1: not that I'm saying you're not important. Fifth row, fifth seat,
Speaker 1: hunder green golf shirt. But all seats in this church
Speaker 1: are not created equal to me, I've learned through time
Speaker 1: that this seat, and they probably aren't showing it on
Speaker 1: the camera, the one we're Holly sitting right now, that's
Speaker 1: the most important seat in the church to me. To
Speaker 1: me now, early in my ministry, I thought that having
Speaker 1: all the seats full was the whole goal. Where I'm
Speaker 1: at in my life right now, I think that if
Speaker 1: every seat in this church was full, but that my
Speaker 1: wife didn't respect my life enough to want to hear
Speaker 1: me preach what I had to say, because the way
Speaker 1: I live at home, that I would be a hypocrite.
Speaker 1: I think that if this seat, when Holly tells me,
Speaker 1: she told me last week she said that spoke to me.
Speaker 1: I said, well, good, because I've kind of put some
Speaker 1: stuff in there for you. I know why I didn't.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is in the eyes of God,
Speaker 1: fifth seat, fifth row is just as important as this one,
Speaker 1: but not in my eyes. In the eyes of God,
Speaker 1: there's equal value to every human being. So if there's
Speaker 1: a millionaire on your row and then somebody who can't
Speaker 1: even doesn't even know where their next meal is coming from,
Speaker 1: to God, the worth of his children is not based
Speaker 1: on something called network or occupation, or any of these
Speaker 1: opportunistic ways that we see people. But to us, to us,
Speaker 1: we have to realize that certain things we have to
Speaker 1: learn to prioritize what's really important in our lives, what
Speaker 1: opportunities we give our energy to. Some of us are
Speaker 1: praying for God to give us things that He simply
Speaker 1: cannot give us the way we're asking them to come.
Speaker 1: If we're asking God to give us peace in our lives,
Speaker 1: but we have no priorities, we will never receive the
Speaker 1: peace that God gave us through Jesus, who is our peace,
Speaker 1: when he died on the cross. So that's the setup.
Speaker 1: And here's the sermon. Paul said, when I went to
Speaker 1: preach the Gospel of Christ intro ass and found that
Speaker 1: the Lord had opened a door for me, I still
Speaker 1: had no peace of mind. This is Paul point Guard
Speaker 1: of the New Testament Church to the gentile, saying I
Speaker 1: had an opportunity. Now, Paul has seen God open so
Speaker 1: many doors, and so have you? I said, so have you?
Speaker 1: How many of you just wave at me? Have seen
Speaker 1: God put you and situate you and position you in
Speaker 1: places that you could never earn or deserve. And don't
Speaker 1: know how you got here. Yeah, how many of you
Speaker 1: were smart enough and competent enough, and you did it
Speaker 1: all by yourself, and you created your own oxygen that
Speaker 1: you breathed into the lungs that you formed with your
Speaker 1: hands in your mother's womb. Even listen, Even your success
Speaker 1: was because of how God situated you. The reason Corinth
Speaker 1: was was because of where it sat in relation to
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean Sea. Some of us get very prideful about
Speaker 1: things that we accomplished, but if God hadn't put Corinth
Speaker 1: by the sea, it wouldn't have been a port city.
Speaker 1: So even when God blesses me, I understand that if
Speaker 1: he did not give the wisdom, if he did not
Speaker 1: give the strength, if he did not give the opportunity,
Speaker 1: I don't care. If you're a professional tennis player, if
Speaker 1: somebody didn't give you a racket, if somebody didn't give
Speaker 1: you a ball. You can have all the athletic ability
Speaker 1: in the world. But without the opportunity that God gives,
Speaker 1: all of your human ability means nothing. Even the ability
Speaker 1: itself comes from God. This is what Paul knows, and
Speaker 1: that's why he uses a phrase that we can use
Speaker 1: to Sometimes we can say the Lord opened the door
Speaker 1: for me. The Lord opened the door for me, So
Speaker 1: don't be mad at me about the blessings that I'm
Speaker 1: walking in. The Lord opened those doors for me. Remember,
Speaker 1: real early when I was preaching, I invited myself to
Speaker 1: preach out a church. I didn't like it. I didn't
Speaker 1: like how it felt because he said yes, and once
Speaker 1: I got there, I felt like it to me to perform.
Speaker 1: I was seventeen years old. Spirits spoke to me, said,
Speaker 1: don't ever invite yourself somewhere to preach again. You can
Speaker 1: put your messages out, you can put them online, you
Speaker 1: can use all the platform blah blah blah and social
Speaker 1: media and all that. You do everything you can do
Speaker 1: to get the gospel out, but don't ever situate yourself
Speaker 1: in a position through manipulation, because then you will carry
Speaker 1: the burden of performance. It's something awesome about knowing the
Speaker 1: Lord opened this store. It's just something freeing about knowing
Speaker 1: the Lord opened this store. It's something great about knowing
Speaker 1: that God brought me into this relationship. Because see, you
Speaker 1: can get into a relationship and really God wants you
Speaker 1: in it, and then you have to spend the rest
Speaker 1: of the relationship trying to get somebody to like a
Speaker 1: pretend version of you that you had to put on
Speaker 1: like a costume to get them to accept you. But
Speaker 1: if you had to compromise yourself to gain their acceptance,
Speaker 1: what did you really get? Something awesome about the Lord
Speaker 1: opening doors? There's something awesome about the Lord closing doors.
Speaker 1: I need both. Last week we talked about the red
Speaker 1: light and the green light, praising God for one and
Speaker 1: not the other kind of foolish. You know, the green
Speaker 1: light is only as effective as the red light. You'll
Speaker 1: want all green lights in the city of Charlotte, where
Speaker 1: everybody's just smashing into each other all the time. So
Speaker 1: why do we want all green lights from God just
Speaker 1: to be crashing into stuff that we could have avoided
Speaker 1: if we would have heard his voice. Pray this Lord
Speaker 1: open the door. Now, pray this Lord close the door,
Speaker 1: because either way, I want your hand on the knob.
Speaker 1: Everybody over twenty five ought to give God a shout
Speaker 1: of praise. You don't notice shout over that closed door
Speaker 1: till at least twenty five. What's interesting about this text
Speaker 1: to me is that we could argue the most important
Speaker 1: figure in the New Testament other than Jesus, who Roughly
Speaker 1: over a third of the New Testament is devoted to
Speaker 1: either his letters or his life. Paul formerly Saul of Tarsus,
Speaker 1: the one who got knocked off of his horse on
Speaker 1: his way to kill Christians, and God closed his eyes
Speaker 1: and blinded him, sent him to Anonius in Acts chapter
Speaker 1: nine to receive his sight, and he spent the rest
Speaker 1: of his life taking the Gospel to the known world.
Speaker 1: He started at least fourteen churches, and he started out
Speaker 1: as a Christian killer. God used him to multiply in
Speaker 1: the earth the thing that he tried to uproot in
Speaker 1: one season. Only God could do that. Only God could
Speaker 1: take somebody trained under Gamali and get him to let
Speaker 1: go of all the traditions of men and call it rubbish.
Speaker 1: He said, the things that I once counted as game,
Speaker 1: I now count as lost. God has completely reversed my
Speaker 1: understanding of my value system. Of what's important and what
Speaker 1: was once gained to me I now count as loss,
Speaker 1: And what was once lost I now count as the
Speaker 1: ultimate gain. And all I want to do is no Christ.
Speaker 1: And all I want to do is make him known
Speaker 1: as I come to know him better. Now I know
Speaker 1: what's important and of all churches he establishes, and he
Speaker 1: started at least fourteen, at least fourteen that we know about.
Speaker 1: That doesn't count all the spinoff churches. That doesn't count
Speaker 1: all the churches that had baby churches, of baby churches
Speaker 1: and the grand baby churches that Paul started, every gospel
Speaker 1: drop that entered the gentile world, Paul had a pardon
Speaker 1: it sometimes sowing in tears and pain. But that's Paul
Speaker 1: who God opened a door for. And I want to
Speaker 1: say one word thing about that before I move on
Speaker 1: to the other that that I'm going to say after
Speaker 1: I say this about that. The whole reason that Paul
Speaker 1: took the Gospel to the Gentiles was because the Jewish
Speaker 1: people rejected him. You know, sometimes rejection is one of
Speaker 1: God's greatest doors. While Paul was preaching in Judea, they
Speaker 1: didn't want to give up the customs and the rights
Speaker 1: of Judaism. So God said, that's fine, I'll open a
Speaker 1: door for you somewhere else. When God opens a door,
Speaker 1: nobody can shut it. And if the door you're standing
Speaker 1: in front of right now won't open, it's not yours.
Speaker 1: God will open a door in the desert. We found
Speaker 1: out last week He'll put a green light at a
Speaker 1: red sea. He will lead you through. And one of
Speaker 1: the greatest ways that God will lead you in your
Speaker 1: life is through people who don't like you and lead
Speaker 1: your life to bring you to something else. I'm preaching
Speaker 1: to three people. It's only three, Lord, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it. I'm a do it. So it's been some
Speaker 1: conflict with the church at Corinth and Paul has spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time trying to defend himself to the
Speaker 1: people who honestly should have come to his defense at
Speaker 1: certain points. He must have struggled with bitterness about that.
Speaker 1: Have you ever struggled about bitterness for people who should
Speaker 1: have taken up for you? Or this is just only
Speaker 1: a preacher problem. Sometimes I don't know if you go
Speaker 1: through the same things somebody who should have defended you,
Speaker 1: somebody who he spent eighteen months with these jokers. And
Speaker 1: now he's had to write several letters. You know, we've
Speaker 1: got First Corinthians and Second Corinthians. Let me give you
Speaker 1: a little textual background because it's really good. There's a
Speaker 1: lost letter that we don't have that Paul references and
Speaker 1: he calls it my tearful letter. They got so crazy
Speaker 1: in Corinth, turning up on communion, wine and things like this.
Speaker 1: There was incest in the church at Corinth. Paul's like,
Speaker 1: are y'all absolutely crazy? But then they had the audacity
Speaker 1: to accuse Paul and say he wasn't a real apostle.
Speaker 1: And so rather than validate himself, he makes a decision
Speaker 1: in Second Corinthians too, he says, I'm letting it go.
Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing? He says, the one who said all
Speaker 1: this about me, the one I know, I saw it,
Speaker 1: I heard it, I heard about it. I'm forgiving and
Speaker 1: I'm moving forward, and y'all need to let it go too,
Speaker 1: because I refuse to let unforgiveness in my heart block
Speaker 1: the future that God has for me. He said, So
Speaker 1: I want you to forgive because I'm forgiving. And we
Speaker 1: got to get we got to get our mind right.
Speaker 1: Because here's what happened. This is the part of the text.
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure out that Paul who saw the greatest
Speaker 1: opportunities for the gospel the life that in resurrection of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, that's the gospel that if you believe in
Speaker 1: his name, you will be saved. That's the gospel that
Speaker 1: His blood atones for your sin, that you don't have
Speaker 1: to have the blood of bulls and goats. Old Testament
Speaker 1: sacrifices that by believing in His name you may have life.
Speaker 1: Nothing could stop the Gospel from progressing through Paul, but
Speaker 1: he described something very interesting, and I want us to
Speaker 1: study it today. He says in verse twelve, Now, when
Speaker 1: I went to troe Ass to preach the Gospel of
Speaker 1: Christ and found that the Lord had opened the door
Speaker 1: for me, I still had no peace of mind because
Speaker 1: I didn't find my brother Titus there. So I said
Speaker 1: goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. Wow, so
Speaker 1: we got troe Ass. That's a whole city, and we
Speaker 1: got Titus. That's one person. Let's look at this together
Speaker 1: again because I don't know if you had your Starbucks today,
Speaker 1: and I don't want you to miss it. In verse twelve,
Speaker 1: he said, I went to troe Ass and God gave
Speaker 1: me an open door to share the gospel in this city.
Speaker 1: Troas is also a port city. Look you see this
Speaker 1: zoom in on the camera. I don't know if this
Speaker 1: is this a worker. I don't know if we get
Speaker 1: close enough, but try to focus. You can't really see
Speaker 1: is there another camera? I need to show you this. Focus.
Speaker 1: I'll be still you focus. That's it? What this one?
Speaker 1: I went that page? Right there? Y'all see my tattoo
Speaker 1: on my wedding ring finger? Get close? Get close? Can
Speaker 1: we get closer? I want to show you something because
Speaker 1: it's a picture that's close enough. I'm starting to get
Speaker 1: a little freaked out. Now, yeah, you see it? Can
Speaker 1: you see Corrinth, Corant? You know we could have done
Speaker 1: this professional. I gonna put it on the screen. It
Speaker 1: could have been great. And there oh look look look
Speaker 1: there's troe Ass. See troe Ass and there's emphasis in Macedonia.
Speaker 1: So Paul's like, I came here, Corinth, and I preached
Speaker 1: the word in this important city, this isthmus that connects
Speaker 1: southern Greece to the mainland. It's important, Its important. But
Speaker 1: I say it's important, and he says, you are more
Speaker 1: important to me than being right is. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to argue with you about this because it's stopping the
Speaker 1: gospel from flowing. I'm not gonna argue with you about
Speaker 1: this because there's stuff that needs to happen. There's something
Speaker 1: important that needs to get distributed. See Paul understands if
Speaker 1: the Church at Corinth doesn't get right with him, it's
Speaker 1: going to affect the rest of his ministry to the
Speaker 1: gentile world. So he said, I'm letting go of the
Speaker 1: offense to seize the opportunity. Why am I preaching about that,
Speaker 1: because some of you are losing the opportunity because you
Speaker 1: won't let go of the offense. Y'all went to sleep
Speaker 1: while I was over here messing with this camera. Wake up.
Speaker 1: I said, the opportunity is greater than the offense. And
Speaker 1: so that's Corinth, you see Corinth. I'm so sorry y'all
Speaker 1: about this. And then there's true ass anyway, take my
Speaker 1: word for it. Between the two, this is what I
Speaker 1: want to get to. Between the two is Macedonia. And
Speaker 1: now Paul has sent a letter to the church at Corinth.
Speaker 1: Following me so far, they said, Paul's not a real apostle.
Speaker 1: We like the Paul is better. We don't like Paul anymore.
Speaker 1: He told us to put our pants on and stop
Speaker 1: sleeping around and calling ourselves good Christians, and we don't
Speaker 1: like that, and Paul told us to straighten up. We
Speaker 1: don't like Paul anymore. We liked him when he was
Speaker 1: telling us be saved and received the free, get the forgiveness.
Speaker 1: But now he's trying to put something in place that'll
Speaker 1: actually help us live in Christian freedom. And we don't
Speaker 1: like that anymore. We're got to be slave to these mute,
Speaker 1: deaf idols. So Paul's like, no, no no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: to stop that. You gotta stop that. God has given
Speaker 1: you an open door. You are an important city. You
Speaker 1: are an important city. I'm not preaching about them. I'm
Speaker 1: preaching about you. You are an important city. You are
Speaker 1: an important city. Bye, you got the confidence to say it,
Speaker 1: say it out loud. I am an important city. I
Speaker 1: am an important city, even though I came from a
Speaker 1: small town. I'm an important city. I am a shipping destination.
Speaker 1: I am a port for the Hospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: I am an opening to generational freedom. Yes, I am.
Speaker 1: I am an important city, Oh little town of Bethlehem,
Speaker 1: from you shall come a ruler. I am an important city,
Speaker 1: and I have an open door. And God has placed
Speaker 1: opportunities in my life in this season that are amazing.
Speaker 1: And the Word of God says that if God opens
Speaker 1: a door, nobody can shut it. That's in Revelation, chapter three,
Speaker 1: verse seven and eight. Thank you very much. The Lord
Speaker 1: told the church at Philadelphia through the apostle John, who
Speaker 1: was exiled on an island, and God still showed him
Speaker 1: a door. Exiled on an island called Patmas, and God
Speaker 1: showed him a door, isolated in a terrible situation. But
Speaker 1: God showed him a door. And listen what he prophesied
Speaker 1: to the Church of Philadelphia. He said, these are the
Speaker 1: words of him who is wholly and true, who holds
Speaker 1: the key of David. That means that Jesus Christ has
Speaker 1: a kingdom over which he has all authority, the key
Speaker 1: of David. That's the God you serve. So when people
Speaker 1: leave you out, you're not locked out because he has
Speaker 1: the key to that room. WHOA. I'm just happy, y'all
Speaker 1: because everybody doesn't like you. Everybody doesn't have to. If
Speaker 1: God is for you, If God is for you, you
Speaker 1: don't have to say anything. You don't have to defend yourself.
Speaker 1: You'll have to go back and forth. Let it go.
Speaker 1: I get through this door. The gore is yours. Okay.
Speaker 1: So he says he holds the key of David. What
Speaker 1: he opens this is speaking about salvation. This is speaking
Speaker 1: about how Jesus Christ is the door, how you come
Speaker 1: to God through Him, through nothing else, through no other system.
Speaker 1: He is the author of salvation. He is the finisher
Speaker 1: of our faith. He holds the key of David. I'm
Speaker 1: preaching about Jesus. Now, I'm preaching about Jesus. And he said,
Speaker 1: what I open no one can shut, and what he
Speaker 1: shuts no one can open. Next verse. Please, let's stay
Speaker 1: on this for a second. I know your deeds. See,
Speaker 1: I have placed before you an open door. The Lord said,
Speaker 1: I've placed before you is not going to be in
Speaker 1: your past. That's why Paul had to forgive. He said,
Speaker 1: whatever happened that, whatever they did. Now, look, Paul forgave
Speaker 1: the guy, but he didn't put him on his senior leadership.
Speaker 1: He just said, I'm going through the door, and what
Speaker 1: he opens no one can shut. What he shuts someone
Speaker 1: can open. I have put before you an open door
Speaker 1: that no one can shut. Now, listen to this what
Speaker 1: God says to the church at Philadelphia, and I believe
Speaker 1: he might say it to the church at Elevation too.
Speaker 1: I know you have a little strength. It's not about strength.
Speaker 1: Can I show you something? This is really cool? Everybody
Speaker 1: says strength. Now everybody says scheme. Go back to Second Corinthians,
Speaker 1: Chapter two, Verse eleven is one of those that I've
Speaker 1: read out of context for years. I didn't even really
Speaker 1: know what it meant. I never really read it in
Speaker 1: the context of Paul's conflict. But now have and I
Speaker 1: saw something. He said in verse eleven. We got to
Speaker 1: forgive and get through this in order that Satan might
Speaker 1: not outwit us, for we're not aware of his schemes. Now,
Speaker 1: what was interesting to me is he didn't say in
Speaker 1: order that Satan put the verse back up. He didn't
Speaker 1: say in order that Satan might not overpower us. He
Speaker 1: said outwit us. Because the battle is not about strength,
Speaker 1: it's about strategy. Put this in the chat. Say it
Speaker 1: out loud if you're with me in the room. It's
Speaker 1: about the strategy. And Satan is not stronger than you.
Speaker 1: We just read this. If God opens the door, nobody
Speaker 1: can shut it. No devil, no depression, no trauma, no abuse, nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing can stop the Gospel of Jesus Christ from going
Speaker 1: forth in your life, in your heart, in your marriage.
Speaker 1: We give the devil too much credit sometimes because we'll say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: the devil is attacking my marriage. The devil is attacking
Speaker 1: my finances. That's where you're feeling it, but that's not
Speaker 1: where the attack is happening. He didn't say in order
Speaker 1: that Satan might not overpower us, because that would make
Speaker 1: it about your strength. And we already know from John
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty three that Jesus said peace. I give to
Speaker 1: you my peace I leave with you in the world.
Speaker 1: You will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome
Speaker 1: the world. It's not about the trouble in front of you.
Speaker 1: We can have a testimony service about your trouble. What's
Speaker 1: the point we can all line up and blake. Can
Speaker 1: I top your trouble? I have a headache, I have
Speaker 1: a back ache. I don't have a back, I don't
Speaker 1: have a head I'm decapitated. I've seen people do it,
Speaker 1: and we top each other with our trouble. But that's
Speaker 1: not what this is about, is it. It's not about
Speaker 1: what's happening in my life. Satan's not stronger than you.
Speaker 1: He can't make you do anything. If God opens the
Speaker 1: door to freedom, if God opens the sea, you can
Speaker 1: go through it. I don't care who's chasten you. I
Speaker 1: don't care who said you couldn't. I don't care how
Speaker 1: long you've struggled with it. It's not about who's stronger.
Speaker 1: It's about who's smarter. Because you're like, well, that's Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus has overcome the world. I'm not Jesus. But first,
Speaker 1: John four Ford says, greater is he that is in
Speaker 1: you than he that is in the world. So he's
Speaker 1: not stronger. That's not why you're stuck. He's not stronger.
Speaker 1: You have the spirit of God. He's not stronger. The
Speaker 1: condemnation that haunts you at light, in your in your
Speaker 1: midnight hour has been nailed to the cross. The written
Speaker 1: regulations have been nailed to the cross. That's dealt with.
Speaker 1: That is not what is standing at the door. Paul said,
Speaker 1: I had an open door, but I had a troubled mind,
Speaker 1: And so he sent Titus with a letter to the
Speaker 1: Corinthian Church because he didn't know if things were going
Speaker 1: to be all right. You know, your body can be
Speaker 1: one place and your mind can be another. And Paul's
Speaker 1: at Troas, and God's given him opportunities, and he can
Speaker 1: preach the gospel to a whole city. And he said,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't find Titus, so I left, and it
Speaker 1: didn't like he left because he wanted to. When Paul
Speaker 1: says in verse fourteen thirteen, excuse me, I believe it
Speaker 1: is he said, I said goodbye. That's the only time
Speaker 1: he uses that phrase in all of Scripture. It's a
Speaker 1: solemn farewell. He's almost embarrassed about it. He's like, I
Speaker 1: couldn't get my mind right, so I couldn't seize the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Now that hit me because I'm trying to raise these kids,
Speaker 1: you see, and I know God has given me an
Speaker 1: opportunity to be a great father. But sometimes, if I'm
Speaker 1: honest with you, I'm sitting at the table with them,
Speaker 1: and my body is there. My body is there, but
Speaker 1: my mind is on other stuff. And some of it
Speaker 1: is real, and some of it is completely fabricated, of
Speaker 1: stuff that might happen three years from now, maybe, and
Speaker 1: so my mind will drift to the possibly and slip
Speaker 1: away from the present. Now. When I saw Paul, I
Speaker 1: saw us. He said, I was intro ass and so
Speaker 1: was the open door that God gave me, and great
Speaker 1: things could have happened intros But I had to say goodbye,
Speaker 1: not because of the trouble in troass, But because my
Speaker 1: mind was trouble. The enemy wants to mess with your
Speaker 1: mind so much that you can't even go through the
Speaker 1: doors that God opens for you, that you can't even
Speaker 1: enjoy the moments that God gives you. He wants to
Speaker 1: mess with your mind and scramble your perspective to the
Speaker 1: point where you can't even focus long enough to sit
Speaker 1: down and pray about something. He wants to He wants
Speaker 1: to get you so focused on something. And I put
Speaker 1: down four things that spell the word door with each
Speaker 1: first letter. When was the disappointments in your life? When
Speaker 1: was the outcomes that you can't control? That's the oh,
Speaker 1: disappointments outcomes When we mentioned the offenses that you can't
Speaker 1: get over, and one is the regret of the opportunities
Speaker 1: that you can't get back. So I realized that not
Speaker 1: only does God use open doors, so do Satan. Have
Speaker 1: you ever opened a door in your mind to the devil?
Speaker 1: A door of just like going down a trail? And
Speaker 1: I like to imagine the Bible how different it was
Speaker 1: from our day where look, if there would have been
Speaker 1: technology today like there would have been in if if
Speaker 1: Paul would have had the same technology as us. Rather,
Speaker 1: none of this would have been an issue. What Paul does.
Speaker 1: He sends tight Us with a letter, and remember I
Speaker 1: tried to show you on the Bible. Don't worry, we
Speaker 1: are not going through that again with the camera. But
Speaker 1: he sends ted Us back to Corinth over the AGAs
Speaker 1: you see, and he goes, all right, you go to Corinth,
Speaker 1: and when you get back, tell me how it's going.
Speaker 1: Tell me if they receive my correction. He's trying to
Speaker 1: direct and saw the relationship. But he sends Titus with
Speaker 1: the letter is trustworthy a companion in the gospel, And
Speaker 1: he said, Titus, when you get there and find out.
Speaker 1: Let me know now, if this would have had a
Speaker 1: zoom call, if Paul could have got on a zoom call,
Speaker 1: just imagine with me, he could have stayed in tross
Speaker 1: because Titus would have got on the zoom call and said, hey, Paul,
Speaker 1: it's all good. I got a quilla in Priscilla here
Speaker 1: and uh, we're all here on the zoom call Paul,
Speaker 1: and it's all good, Paul. We were all good. They
Speaker 1: got your letter and they love you and it's all
Speaker 1: good and whatever whatever. But see the reason I wanted
Speaker 1: to show you the map is because between Corinth, where
Speaker 1: Paul's mind was, and tro As where his body was,
Speaker 1: there was a seat. And to me it looked like
Speaker 1: my mind. It looked like how sometimes my body is
Speaker 1: in one place, but my mind is in another. And Paul,
Speaker 1: with a note of sadness, said, I had to say
Speaker 1: goodbye to the opportunity that God gave me because I
Speaker 1: couldn't get my mind right in the process. Has that
Speaker 1: been you? Let me give you a little test to
Speaker 1: see if that's been you. Have you been not letting
Speaker 1: new people love you because of how old people hurt you.
Speaker 1: Have you stopped trusting people period because you found out
Speaker 1: that people are not trustworthy totally. You never should trust
Speaker 1: anyone totally other than God. Even if they want to
Speaker 1: do good for you, they're going to let you down.
Speaker 1: They can't help it. It's the human condition. But for
Speaker 1: you to sit there and go, well, I'll never trust
Speaker 1: anybody with anything again. I got to do it all
Speaker 1: on my own. If you want something done right, you
Speaker 1: got to do it yourself. And people are just Yeah,
Speaker 1: people are just people and you want them and j
Speaker 1: just di brawl of us. So you've got to get
Speaker 1: back in the game and do some stuff in this
Speaker 1: life and not get so bitter that you don't go
Speaker 1: through the door. Have you have you? Have you been
Speaker 1: standing at an open door, but the enemy's got your
Speaker 1: mind soul in trouble that you can't go through it.
Speaker 1: I mean, like real opportunities God has given you to
Speaker 1: be fruitful. But you're scarred. Not only scarred. Scarred is good.
Speaker 1: It means it's healed. You're wounded, and the wound is
Speaker 1: still open. So now the door is closing, and weeks
Speaker 1: and months of your life are slipping away, and you
Speaker 1: say goodbye to Troas and you go to Macedonia. Why
Speaker 1: was Paul so desperate to find Titus? Because Titus had
Speaker 1: the news. If Titus could have texted Paul, this could
Speaker 1: have all been over with. But they didn't have a
Speaker 1: text message. It takes months to cross the Mediterranean Sea,
Speaker 1: so Paul's waiting for Titus to see is it all
Speaker 1: right in Corinth? Is it gonna be all right? Are
Speaker 1: they gonna accept the correction? Are they back on track?
Speaker 1: Because he loves them and they're important, And every day
Speaker 1: that goes by the Titus doesn't show up. Paul's mind
Speaker 1: gets more and more burdened. Honestly, I can't last five
Speaker 1: minutes that somebody doesn't text me back, that I don't
Speaker 1: start making up the most screwed up scenarios in my head.
Speaker 1: And so I feel for Paul. I'm serious. If Holly doesn't,
Speaker 1: if I don't see bubbles within twenty five seconds, in
Speaker 1: my mind, she's dead. The car has flipped seven times.
Speaker 1: It's horrible. I know it's kind of funny, but it's
Speaker 1: really not. In a moment, anybody like me, like you
Speaker 1: have two minutes to respond to me, and I'm freaking out.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't like me anymore. Maybe I don't respond
Speaker 1: to me anymore. And when it's on green, when I
Speaker 1: text you and it's on green instead of blue on
Speaker 1: my iPhone, oh my god, last week got for green.
Speaker 1: But if the text comes back green, you've got your
Speaker 1: phone off. You don't ever want to talk to me again.
Speaker 1: I can get so offended. I am so bad at
Speaker 1: interpreting silence and space, and so this is this is
Speaker 1: Paul's moment, Bob, Paul's like, I sent Titus to find
Speaker 1: out and I couldn't find Titus. So I left trow
Speaker 1: ask because I couldn't find Titus. I left the open
Speaker 1: door because I had no peace. I left the opportunity
Speaker 1: because although the door was open. See that's the enemy's strategy.
Speaker 1: That's why he says, you can't let the devil out
Speaker 1: with you. He is using stuff that hasn't even happened
Speaker 1: yet to run you off from opportunities that are right
Speaker 1: in front of you. He is you see how smart
Speaker 1: he is. He's bringing movies from the past. He is
Speaker 1: bringing classic movies back that happened twenty years ago, and
Speaker 1: it keeps you from seeing what's standing two feet in
Speaker 1: front of you. But God said, when I open the door,
Speaker 1: no devil can shut it. And the reason that the
Speaker 1: devil is at the door to begin with is because
Speaker 1: what God has on the other side of it is
Speaker 1: so important. Oh yeah, so important. There will always be
Speaker 1: a devil at the door of anything important that God
Speaker 1: brings you into, of anything significant that God brings you into,
Speaker 1: there will always be an enemy to anything significant. You
Speaker 1: know why there's a devil at the door because what
Speaker 1: is on the other side really matters. You are an
Speaker 1: important city, you are a chosen vessel. You might not
Speaker 1: be Paul, but God has something with your name on it.
Speaker 1: There's a devil at the door, and the bigger the
Speaker 1: opportunity is the bigger the devil is gonna be. Don't
Speaker 1: you know that? By now? The bigger it is what's
Speaker 1: on the other side of the door. You me asking God,
Speaker 1: why am I having to go through all this? A
Speaker 1: while back. I'll know how to tell you this story
Speaker 1: because it's kind of tender to me. I was about
Speaker 1: to do something really significant in this ministry. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you what it was because it would kind of
Speaker 1: expose me too much and I'm not ready to have
Speaker 1: a relationship with you on that level yet. And on
Speaker 1: the way to the thing I was going to do,
Speaker 1: I broke down crying. I don't cry a whole lot.
Speaker 1: Only Rudy and Rocky three can make me cry. Third
Speaker 1: time in my life I ever cried, and Holly has
Speaker 1: seen me cry so little. She thought I was playing.
Speaker 1: She says, stop playing. This is not funny because my
Speaker 1: head was my head was down on the I was
Speaker 1: laying on the bed and my head was down on
Speaker 1: the pillow. She says, stop playing. And I couldn't answer
Speaker 1: her to tell her I wasn't playing because I was crying.
Speaker 1: I didn't know why I was crying. Nobody had just died.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any technical reason to be sad in
Speaker 1: that moment. But what was on the other side of
Speaker 1: that evening was so important that I believe there was
Speaker 1: a devil at the door. There is always a devil
Speaker 1: at the door when God is bringing you into something important.
Speaker 1: Why do you think kids get demon possessed as they
Speaker 1: go through puberty? And if you don't know, if you
Speaker 1: don't know that, you'll think the devil is at the door.
Speaker 1: This must not be God. No, no no, no, no no no.
Speaker 1: The devil is giving you an indication that this is
Speaker 1: so big, this is so important. This might be a
Speaker 1: life saving word for somebody. If you thought about this,
Speaker 1: somebody might be on the brink of suicide while I'm
Speaker 1: preaching and they can't understand why am I feeling this depressed?
Speaker 1: Why am I going through this darkness? But what you
Speaker 1: might not know is that the size of the devil
Speaker 1: that is at your door indicates the size of the
Speaker 1: assignment that is on your life. Don't die here. This
Speaker 1: is a door. This is a door. This is a door,
Speaker 1: and the door that God opens nobody can shut. Nobody
Speaker 1: can shut and don't you let the devil use the
Speaker 1: door of what you don't know to fill your mind
Speaker 1: with hypothetical scenarios that cause your heart to close. There's
Speaker 1: always a devil at the door. There's always an insecurity
Speaker 1: as you move deeper into your purpose and your awareness
Speaker 1: of your true condition in Christ. But he can't close
Speaker 1: the door God opens. All he can do is try
Speaker 1: to get your mind so screwed up that, as you
Speaker 1: wait for Titus to bring you news, you say goodbye
Speaker 1: to Troe as. We don't see Paul walk away from
Speaker 1: any other open doors in scripture, But he said, I
Speaker 1: had no peace of mind. You know what. Four chapters
Speaker 1: go by, and Paul doesn't even mention what happens next.
Speaker 1: I said goodbye to troeas I went to Macedonia, most
Speaker 1: probably Philippi, and I waited for Titus. Every day that
Speaker 1: I didn't see Titus, I started making up stuff in
Speaker 1: my mind. The enemy is using a story to keep
Speaker 1: you from going through your door. They won't really like you,
Speaker 1: they won't really accept you, nobody really cares about you.
Speaker 1: You don't have what it takes. You're gonna fail, and
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna laugh. So he can't close the door, but
Speaker 1: he can tell you a story. And everyday Titus doesn't
Speaker 1: show up, Paul has a little bit harder time trusting
Speaker 1: that everything's gonna be all right. It isn't until chapter seven,
Speaker 1: verse five of Second Corinthians that we see that what
Speaker 1: Paul was so troubled about God had already worked out.
Speaker 1: He said, when we got to Macedonia, we left Troe.
Speaker 1: As we got to Macedonia, we had no rest on
Speaker 1: every side. Watch this. This is the this is the
Speaker 1: trouble on the outside, he said, harassed at every turn.
Speaker 1: Conflicts on the outside. But that's not what stops you.
Speaker 1: It's never the conflicts on the outside that stop you.
Speaker 1: Somebody else has overcome much more than you to get
Speaker 1: where they are. But it's the fears within, Paul said.
Speaker 1: And then after months and months of wondering, who am
Speaker 1: I preaching to? I know, I know, it's been. It's been.
Speaker 1: It's been. It's been about an hour. I've been up
Speaker 1: here talking. But I've been talking to you, haven't I
Speaker 1: it's been months. You've been wondering, it's been in a
Speaker 1: suspended state for months, and every day you waited for Titus,
Speaker 1: and he didn't come with news of the solution. Ye'll come.
Speaker 1: It's your mind. It's your mind. It's your mind. Your
Speaker 1: mind is like that Mediterranean sea where you wonder, is
Speaker 1: everything gonna be all right? But he said in verse six,
Speaker 1: But God, but God, who comforts to downcast, comforted us
Speaker 1: by the coming of Titus. The word of the Lord
Speaker 1: is Titus is here. Because when Titus finally arrived verse seven,
Speaker 1: he said, he not only comforted us by his physical
Speaker 1: presence in his coming, but by the comfort you had
Speaker 1: given him. He told us about your longing for him,
Speaker 1: your deep sorrow, your art and consume for me, so
Speaker 1: that my joy was greater than ever, so that my
Speaker 1: joy was greater than ever. Joy is coming, Hope is coming,
Speaker 1: Reconciliation is coming, The restoration of all things is coming.
Speaker 1: And I declare it by faith, not by sight. My
Speaker 1: eyes haven't seen it yet, but I know it in
Speaker 1: my heart. Ty does this coming? And he said, I
Speaker 1: spent all those months worried about something that God had
Speaker 1: already worked out. So you're standing before an open door.
Speaker 1: You don't always see it, you don't always feel it.
Speaker 1: You can't identify it because you've got a troubled mind.
Speaker 1: But let's just take a moment. Stand up, Let's just
Speaker 1: take a moment and be still in the presence of God.
Speaker 1: Because all the conflict on the outside, that's nothing compared
Speaker 1: to the fears of the inside. God, we came today
Speaker 1: with troubled minds. I pray for the one who is
Speaker 1: worried about their job. I pray for the one who
Speaker 1: is worried about their kids. I pray for the one
Speaker 1: who is worried about a report in their body from
Speaker 1: the doctors or someone that they love. I pray for
Speaker 1: the one who is worried about an event that is
Speaker 1: in front of them that they do not believe they
Speaker 1: have the resource to fulfill. But God, today I think
Speaker 1: you wanted to use me, just like Titus, just to
Speaker 1: carry the message to them that the door is still open,
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus, that the door is still open, that
Speaker 1: it's not too late, that you're not too little, that
Speaker 1: you're not too lost, he said, he comforted us by
Speaker 1: the coming of Titus. God, let me be like Titus today,
Speaker 1: bringing a message that God is not counting their sins
Speaker 1: against them, that you are not angry with them, that
Speaker 1: the season of your favor is upon them. Almighty God,
Speaker 1: opener of doors, way maker, miracle worker, all that that
Speaker 1: you are. But we need our minds right, We need
Speaker 1: our minds right. We thank you, Lord that you hold
Speaker 1: the key of David. It's important to us to know
Speaker 1: that you are our door. You are our door. We
Speaker 1: came into your presence today because you are our door.
Speaker 1: And God right now, for everything that we can't forgive
Speaker 1: others for, and we can't forgive ourselves for, we just
Speaker 1: want to take a moment before we leave this place
Speaker 1: and slam the door in the face of Satan and say,
Speaker 1: you've cost us enough, and you've taken enough, You've robbed enough,
Speaker 1: you've destroyed enough. No more. That door is closed. I'm
Speaker 1: not going back there. That door is closed. I'm not
Speaker 1: playing that out anymore. That door is closed. I'm not
Speaker 1: entertaining that anymore. I'm going forward. There is an open
Speaker 1: door set before me in heaven. I'm not waving goodbye
Speaker 1: to this open door. I'm going through it. In the
Speaker 1: name of Jesus. I will live and not die. I
Speaker 1: will declare the works of the Lord. I've got more
Speaker 1: to do. I'm planning. I'm blessed, I'm flourishing in the
Speaker 1: courts of the Lord. Lord. This is an open door moment.
Speaker 1: Right now, with your head's bowed and your eyes closed,
Speaker 1: the door of salvation is open. There's somebody today. You
Speaker 1: thought it was too late for you to have a
Speaker 1: relationship with God. You thought you'd done too much, run
Speaker 1: too far, lost too much. You thought there were things
Speaker 1: that God couldn't forgive. You thought you were one of
Speaker 1: those ones who just missed God. It's not true. Today
Speaker 1: is the day of salvation. This is the moment, this
Speaker 1: is the hour, This is your time. God brought you
Speaker 1: here for this. The door is open. He stands at
Speaker 1: the door and knocks it. He wants to come in.
Speaker 1: So I want to lead you in a prayer right now.
Speaker 1: You've been far away from God, and this is your
Speaker 1: moment to receive his grace. We don't come to God
Speaker 1: through our effort. We don't come to God by improving
Speaker 1: our behavior. We don't come to God with our knowledge.
Speaker 1: We come to Him with our faith. The Bible says
Speaker 1: that if you will believe in Jesus Christ, his son
Speaker 1: whom he has sent, you will have life. If you
Speaker 1: confess with your mouth Jesus's Lord and believe in your
Speaker 1: heart God raised him from the dead. You will be saved.
Speaker 1: There is no more important decision than this. This is
Speaker 1: the door. This is the door, so for you who
Speaker 1: want to come through and receive Jesus Christ for the
Speaker 1: forgiveness of your sins, who purchased you with his blood,
Speaker 1: who knows you by name, who has walked with you
Speaker 1: through every season of your life. You've been far away
Speaker 1: from him. I'm inviting you home right now. This is
Speaker 1: your door. Now you pray after me out loud. We're
Speaker 1: gonna slam the door in Satan's face today to let
Speaker 1: him know he's lost. He's lost another one. We're gonna
Speaker 1: pray this as a church family, out loud, for all
Speaker 1: of those all over the world who are coming to
Speaker 1: Christ today to place their faith in him. Repeat after me, Church,
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father. I am a sinner in need of a savior,
Speaker 1: and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of
Speaker 1: God and the Savior of the world. And today I
Speaker 1: make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he
Speaker 1: died that I would be forgiven and rose again to
Speaker 1: give me life. I receive this new life. This is
Speaker 1: my new beginning. On the count of three, shooter, hand up.
Speaker 1: If you prayed that one, two three, shoot him up.
Speaker 1: God bless her, God bless her. I'm amazing o. Who else?
Speaker 1: Who else? Who else? Come on? Slam that door in
Speaker 1: the devil's faith. Let him know I came home with
Speaker 1: my father. Stop coming home. Let the ring on their
Speaker 1: fingers dark. Come on, let's kill up at a tap,
Speaker 1: Let's tell him, pray what let's sad? Let's again, holle
Speaker 1: come on, lift up a break shout A pray my
Speaker 1: break out, a pray well. If you enjoyed today's podcast,
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