Steven Furtick - There's Another Door! (09/28/2018)
In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus forgives and heals a paralytic lowered through the roof by his four friends, showing that when crowds block the obvious way, persistent faith finds another door—leading to forgiveness first, then miraculous healing that amazes everyone and proves Jesus' authority.
When the Crowd Blocks the Way
We're going to have a little fun today. I'm going to take you to a Bible passage that we can all relate to. Turn in your Bible or just watch the screen. Whatever you need to do, let's go together to Mark, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. And this passage practically preaches itself.
God, get me out of the way. Say what you need to say to your people. Help them hear it, even if they're hardheaded. In Jesus' name, amen. That's an honest preacher's prayer.
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four of them.
Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat. So we've got four men and we've got a mat. This is March matness. It's the final four.
Whoa. You're so hateful. You are so hateful. I worked on that joke for about three hours this week, and look how you treated me. God will find me in another church where they appreciate advanced humor. I am. One of these days, you can look up here. It's going to be somebody not as funny as me. I'm taking my wit for granted. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I see some of the guests looking at me. Now let's get back to the text.
Faith That Opens Unexpected Doors
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. What did their faith have to do with his sins? Is it possible that your example affects more than your existence? When he saw their faith, he said, your sins are forgiven.
Now, some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts.
And he said to them, because he is such a savage, he wins an imaginary argument. He responds not to what they said but to what they thought—they didn't get the chance to say it. So he knows your intentions. Touch somebody and say, you can't fool him. You might be able to fool me, but you can't fool God. He knows your motivations and he knows your thoughts too.
So he said to them… He responded to their thoughts. Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… He said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.
He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone. They praised God, saying, we've never seen anything like this. This is remarkable. This is miraculous.
Verse 2 is really where my sermon hinges. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Touch your neighbor, give them my title, say, I have good news. I have good news. I know your heart was broken. I know you lost some things. But I have good news. There's another door.
Turn to your next neighbor, the one you really wanted to talk to, and tell them there's another door.
Life's Greatest Opportunities Aren't Always Obvious
So let's lay a principle here, overlay it on this narrative from Mark chapter 2. Here's the principle. Life's biggest opportunities aren't always obvious. Life's biggest opportunities aren't always obvious. After the fact, they seem obvious. It was an idiot that cut Michael Jordan from the team, but life's greatest opportunities aren't always obvious.
Holly paid me a compliment Friday. I think it was a compliment. She said, I didn't know what I was getting when I married you. What I took that to mean is, is so much better. What I took that to mean is, it's an Ephesians 3:20 kind of thing, exceeding abundantly above all that she asked or imagined. I think that's what she meant. I did not clarify. Sometimes assumption is a beautiful marriage tool, but I just took it like that.
Anyway, she said, I didn't know what I was getting when I looked across the North Greenville University cafeteria and saw that silly boy with a buzz cut and an extra-large Superman T-shirt that I bought for $1.25 at Goodwill. She didn't know that there was a Superman inside that silly shirt. I'm just talking a little bit.
This is what she said. She said, I didn't know what I was getting when I married you, because life's greatest opportunities… I'm having fun. I'm just enjoying my life. This is scriptural. This is scriptural. This is thoroughly scriptural.
God Disguises Calling in the Common
Life's greatest opportunity. Moses, deliver a nation. I am calling you to deliver an entire people group. What will you give me as a sign? Your stick. The stick in your hand you are using to shepherd sheep is the sign I'm going to give you, but I am going to point to your calling through something that to you seems common. God disguises calling as common.
God wraps calling in diapers and allows the Savior of the world to be born in a barn, so much so that the people he came for missed him, because life's greatest opportunities aren't always obvious. It was interesting to me that callings can appear common on the surface to the point that Gideon was called a mighty warrior while he was hiding in a wine press.
Why would God hide such a mighty calling in such a wimpy man? Because sometimes Superman wears a baggy shirt. Sometimes God uses earthen vessels to release something that has precious value.
I'm preaching to somebody today who has been deceived about your destiny. You thought God was going to show up in your situation looking like Superman. Instead, God shows up in your situation looking like a mustard seed. The seed doesn't look like the tree. It shares the genetic code of the tree, but according to the exterior there is nothing to associate the seed with the tree.
Might it be that what God is doing in your life right now is not obvious, but that does not mean there is no opportunity. For he says, when I open a door, no man can shut it, and when I decide to do something through your life, no season, no person, and no human limitation can stop me.
From Mistakes to Greater Blessings
I was always interested to learn that after David made his biggest mistake by sleeping with Bathsheba and having her husband Uriah killed on the front lines of battles, he went in and had another baby because the one that was born from his mistake died, but the next one he had was named Solomon, who was the wisest man who ever lived at that point in time, and David's greatest wisdom was born after his biggest mistake.
Now, it's not always obvious. It's not always obvious that you are becoming wiser. Usually wisdom feels like dumb decisions. While you are gaining wisdom often, you have to gain wisdom at the expense of today for tomorrow. It's very powerful.
It's a principle I preach a lot, and I forgive you if you're a little bored right now because this is pretty much what I try to say every single week. I try to show you how reward dresses as responsibility. God is not going to put the reward right in front of you. He is going to wrap it in responsibility.
David had no clue that Goliath was waiting for him. He just knew he had bread to take to his brothers. It was his responsibility that unlocked his reward. If he had waited for the possibility of an opportunity to demonstrate his warrior-ness… If he had waited for Goliath to show up, he never would have had the opportunity to see what God could do through him, but it was in his assignment that his giant was waiting.
Resurrection Dresses Like Death
Now, if this is true, it gives a whole new meaning to what John chapter 11 says that when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was a little while longer, because Jesus is about to show all of those in Bethany that resurrection is not an event but a person. I am the resurrection.
But if Jesus shows up and heals Lazarus when they want him to, he will not have the opportunity to reveal who he is that they don't yet perceive him to be. In his waiting, which seems cruel to Mary and Martha, he is actually staging a miracle so that when he gets there and Lazarus has been dead, it's a good thing, because resurrection dresses like death.
Sometimes God lets something in your life die, but don't worry when it dies. Resurrection is who he is and what he does. If you can get the stone rolled away long enough to believe for a little while, I hear a voice calling Lazarus out of the grave.
See, the grave clothes wrapped up the revelation of who Jesus was when he got on the scene and said, Lazarus, come forth. The grave clothes had no choice but to fall off, because the voice of the Lord unwraps death to present resurrection. He needs a miracle today.
Hidden Doors and Persistent Faith
I came to preach to you. The greatest opportunities are not always obvious. The greatest opportunities are often hidden. Jesus even taught in parables to hide the wisdom of God from the people who wanted to understand it with their human minds. He didn't want the elite to get it, and so he put it in parables. He hid it. He hid the kingdom.
The kingdom didn't come announcing itself with trumpets and red carpet. It wasn't obvious. It came looking like conflict. Now, Mark chapter 2 is the first of five conflict dialogues where we see this carpenter from Nazareth doing ministry in Galilee, having to confront the wisdom of this world to reveal the wisdom of God.
He's teaching one day, and so many people have come to see him. The crowd has gathered. In Mark's gospel, the crowd is not necessarily a positive thing. We would think that if Jesus was trying to build a ministry, he would need a crowd. Jesus is so savage. Sometimes, if the crowd got too big, he would start running people off by saying stuff they didn't want to hear. He really would.
You'll have to read how he fed people, and they were happy, but after they ate their Happy Meal, he turned around and said, I'm not your Burger King. I know I'm mixing restaurants, but go with the illustration. He said, If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, then you can have this kingdom. They said, Whoa! I was into the miracles, but this took a dark turn, this cannibalism thing. Even the disciples couldn't understand it, but Peter did after.
When he was recounting to Mark, so Mark could write this gospel account, he talked about the crowd. The crowd had gathered, and they were listening to Jesus preaching. The Bible tells us about four men who brought their friend, and they could not get in because of the crowd. They had high hopes. You could say that their hopes were through the roof.
Four Doors You Might Miss
But then they were met at the door. By the way, there are four doors in this passage that are not obvious. Four doors in this passage and in our lives that are not obvious, because life's greatest opportunities are not always obvious.
So they come to the front door, and they can't get in. This represents the door of disappointment. How disappointing it must have been that after you have carried your friend all this way, only to find out at church that not only is there no room in the main auditorium, but they're not even seating in overflow. Thank you very much. You can watch livestream.
These men were met at the door with disappointment. If they had subscribed to the theology that many of us live our lives according to, they would have turned around and gone home, because obviously it's not God's will for our friend to get healed today. If it were God's will for our friend to be healed today, we would have gotten in the door.
I wonder, do I have four crazy ones? Just four. These boys said, we did not carry you all this way with your heavy self to turn around and go home now. I think these boys had a little bit of a… Well, maybe this is the monk's corner in me, but I picture their conversation. I picture these boys. These boys didn't drive a Prius. That's what I'm trying to say.
These boys, they're met at the door with disappointment, not to mention the man's disappointment. He's learned to deal with disappointment. His entire life is a disappointment. He can't walk. He can't dance. He can't do what other people do, but they've come this far. I said, they've come this far, and they didn't come this far to go home.
Making Your Own Door When Needed
So Bubba says to Tommy, hey, man, I was looking around. I didn't see no security cameras right back around the south entrance, man. I reckon I wonder if you could…. Bubba and Tommy. Who else? Rufus. Rufus. That's the last one, I promise.
He said, what do you reckon if we get around there? They're whispering because they don't want the man on the mat to know what they're about to do. Don't tell everybody all your plans. Sometimes you just have to do stuff. You don't always ask permission. Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness.
What if we went up? I know we can't get in, so what if we went up? Sometimes the reason you can't get in that door is because it wasn't your door. God is calling you higher. Who am I preaching to? Sometimes the reason you got rejected is because it was the wrong level of relationship. If those people would have liked you, it would have actually limited…. I'm caffeinated today.
High five somebody and say, go higher. Come on. When they go low, we go high. He's calling me higher. They go up, and they do not find a door. They make a door. Have you ever had to make your own door? Yes. Nobody gave me money to start this church. Nobody sponsored me officially. I wish they would have, but I'm kind of glad they didn't because I had to learn how to dig.
Sometimes one of the greatest things that can happen to you in your life is to be turned away at the front door because you discover another door. Somebody shout, there's another door.
This is not the normal door. This is not for normal people. This is not for people who want to quit because the Wi-Fi was a little slow or skip church because it was 43 degrees. No. This is for the people who have determined. We have a frou-frou view of faith. We think of faith as being something to fall back on, not Mark.
Mark mentions faith four times in his gospel, and none of them represent an attitude. They always represent actions. Faith to Mark is something you can see. Actually, it's something you can see in response to something you cannot see. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It is something you can see in response to a hope you can't see. That's a series right there.
There's another door. There's another door. When Jesus, verse 5, saw their faith, not heard their faith… It wasn't that they talked about how much they trusted God. It's that they refused to go home that easy.
Faith in Action Through Interruptions
I'll tell you this real quick. Just a little side thing. Me and Chris were trying to write a song the other day, and I said, I know this is the 51st revision on this song, but I want the devil to know I'm going to keep coming because I feel like we're supposed to finish this song. Chris Brown looked back at me and said, If that joker doesn't know that by now about us, he hasn't been paying attention.
I'm going to tell you something. I'm not always the smartest, but I don't turn around the first time somebody tells me, You can't come in this door. That's just not how I'm wired. Now, it's fine. It's fine. If you don't like me, you don't have to, but I'll find somebody who does. It's fine. Some people, when I started Elevation, didn't want to come because they said it was a cult. That's fine, but I'll find another way.
See, if you've just got four good friends, just four good friends, and sometimes if you don't have four Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and me, that's four. We're going to do this. Those boys were like, We ain't going home. He's heavy. No, no, no, sir. We'll put him up on that roof, and we're going to dig through that mud, and we're going to make a door.
I'm going to get through to my kid one way or another. I'm not just going to give up on him. It's not that easy. I'm going to find a way to get through. I might have to shut up. I might have to speak up. If that doesn't work, I'll do the other. I might have to hug him. I might have to try some different ways.
Now, we come to the door on the ceiling. There's another door. If you can't get in the front door, go up. There's another door. You have to make it. It doesn't look like a door. You have to dig through it. There's a door, but you can't see it. It's not visible. It's not something you can see. It takes faith. Faith is something you can see in response to something you can't see.
So you have to make a door, make a door, make a door. Somebody say, make a door, make a door, make a door, make a door. Jesus respected their carpentry. Jesus liked their work. He actually, in verse 5, he's preaching, and there's a distraction overhead.
Now, he's not even healing this day. It's not even on his agenda to see sick people. Some of life's greatest opportunities are not always obvious, and some of God's greatest invitations will show up in the form of interruptions.
He's preaching, and he's probably doing a really good job just going off context clues. He is the Word, so if he preaches what he is, it's probably pretty good. He has a big crowd. All of a sudden, Peter says something Matthew doesn't say. Matthew describes the incident. He simplifies in Matthew 9, verse 2. Matthew says, Some men brought to him a paralytic lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, What did Matthew leave out? The fact that they ripped off this dude's roof.
It sounds so nice when Matthew says it. It just looks so easy. And they brought their friend, and Jesus healed him. No! Something. Did you hear that? Jesus is preaching. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them in practice like a wise man to build his house on the rock, rank him downstream, drove his wind, blew it against that house, it didn't fall because it had his foundation on the rock.
Right about the time he's making his point, here comes a sound. Remember that Mark is writing what Peter told him to write. And consider that most scholars believe that it was Peter's house that Jesus was preaching in. So Matthew remembered the healing. Peter remembered the roof. It's funny to me. It's perspective.
Did you hear that? Keep preaching. Keep preaching. Keep preaching. We're going to check it out. But about the time that the dirt starts falling from the mud on the ceiling… Are you willing to get your hands dirty, by the way? Or are you too afraid to mess up your manicure to go after your miracle? I could preach manicures or miracles. The choice is yours.
And they had to drop him. You can't get him all the way down. And here comes the dirt, and here comes the man. We'll call him Matt. We don't know his name. Jesus says, I like your style, boys. That's what I did when I came down through your dirt, through your shame, through your sin. I like it, boys.
And now Rufus and Bubba, Willie and Jimmy, all looking in now. What's going to happen next? And Jesus leans down and says to the man, son, your sins are forgiven.
What Happens When God Gives What You Need First
And Willie says, what'd he say? And Jimmy says, sounded like he said something about sins. And Willie says, did he say anything about healing? And Jimmy says, no, just something about sins. And Rufus says, that's good that he forgave his sins, but can he fix his legs too while he's at it?
Because they did not bring the man before Jesus to get him forgiven. They brought him before Jesus to get him healed. So the question is, what do you do when God bypasses what you want to give you what you need?
The most obvious thing to do is to heal the man. But sometimes before God can do what is obvious and change your situation, he wants to work within you so that when he changes your situation, you will be ready to receive it.
In the Jewish mind, sin and suffering were highly connected. So it was often assumed that if you were suffering, it was because of sin. Jesus dispels this in John chapter 9 when the man born blind was declared to be not a sinner, but blind so that the works of God and the glory of God might be revealed. We can't always connect situations with behavior.
Yet it's something that he said, before I do anything for you, I want to do something in you. And that's where it takes faith because it's the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. To know that God is working.
And you know who I thank God for in this passage? I thank God that this man had friends who believed for him what he might not have been able to believe for himself. And if I were preaching this at what's it called now? Youth X. It used to be called Student Takeover. I can't keep up with all the names. I would preach the message around who are your four. That's really important. Who are your four?
You've got to have the right four because the wrong four would have dropped him off at the door, but the right four were willing to put him where he belonged at the feet of Jesus. Now, are they bringing you to Jesus or driving you away?
But to me, they're not the primary heroes in the passage because other than Jesus, the most important people in the passage are the people who doubted him. I want you to notice something. Please pay attention to this. It's going to revolutionize the way you see some of your resentments in life.
When Jesus saw what the friends did for the man, he forgave him. But the man was still on the mat. When he heard the thoughts of the critics, or we might say haters, what the haters thought got the man healed. What his friends did got him forgiven. What his haters thought got him healed.
I thought I'd give you 15 seconds to praise God for your haters. You might want to do it. Did anybody ever doubt you? Did anybody ever walk away from you? Did anybody ever stop supporting you? Did anybody ever walk away when it got a little tight? Thank God right now.
Because sometimes God will use Judas more than he uses Peter. This is a messy message. This is a message for the people who are ready to thank God, not just for the ways he blesses me that feel good, but I thank him for my pain. I thank him for my heartbreak. I thank him for my disappointment. I thank him for my opposition.
Opposition as Proof of Opportunity
That's the second door. It's the door of opposition. One time Paul said, I'm staying in Ephesus a little while, and the reason I'm staying is not because the temperature is so great and the cuisine is so wonderful. I'm staying because there is a great and effective door of ministry that God has opened for me. And you know how I know there's an open door? Because there are many who oppose me.
And you know how I know that God is blessing is because the enemy is so busy and he would not be busy if God was not blessing me. Come on, I'm going to give you one more chance. Thank him for the conflict. Thank him for the confusion. Thank him, thank him, thank him, thank him, thank him for the thorn. His grace is sufficient. Thank him for the loneliness, thank him for the wilderness, thank him for the no's. Somebody say yes!
If there had been no haters, he wouldn't have got healed. If there had been no weakness, you wouldn't be strong. If there had been no resistance, you wouldn't be so resilient. There are many who oppose me. I'm going to calm down and say it for all the intellectual people. The opposition proves the opportunity.
Investment terms. The really good investments you don't know about unless you have money. It's a barrier to entry. The investments most of us can't invest in are not the best investments. The best investments are reserved for people. Now, I'm saying this about money, but I mean it about battles and trials.
The biggest battles are reserved for the people God has his hand on, that he put a deposit in, and you cannot be defeated, because if he opened the door, nobody can shut it. So quit blaming your haters and write them a thank you note.
Remember that youth pastor that stood up at Inside Elevation? Were you in here, Anna? He said, There's a lot of critics. I'm just getting started in ministry. What do I do about the critics? I said to what I said to him, right there, right in that section. Sit down this week and write three thank you notes to him.
From experience, I know that God will use some of that stuff to strip away your self-sufficiency, and if everybody is clapping for you, the crowd is not always your friend. So, write them a thank you note, because honestly, every time we have a baptism in the church, I think about it.
Because the only reason we do baptisms every week instead of two or three times a year like we did for years is because of that news story they ran about us where they said we fake baptisms in the church. I still don't know exactly what a fake baptism looks like, but I don't care, because it gave me an idea.
If you're going to hit us at the point of our baptisms, what we'll do is not two or three times a year, but how about if every single week we put it in the Devil's face that you can't stop when God opens a door. I don't even care what they say.
While we're at it, let's ban the word hater, because most of us don't have haters. We just have people who don't agree with us, and we label that haters. Your coach is not your hater, because he is not going to play you right now. Your coach is a trainer. He is teaching you that you are not good enough yet to get playing time, Timmy.
The reason, Timmy, you're not playing, Timmy, is because you're not a player yet. Thank your coach. He's not a hater. He's teaching you to be a player. You need to thank that boss who was hard on you. My boss is a hater. No, you're late to work. Your boss is not a hater because she expects you to be on time.
I saw a supervisor just give him some praise right there on the eighth row at Ballantyne. Thank God for it, because the opposition is the opportunity. I'm so anointed to say this to you right now. It feels like a freight train. This word is coming through the roof. It's coming through the teachers of the law.
Jesus is preaching. Jesus is healing. Nothing can stop it. Jesus is preaching. Jesus is healing. Nothing can stop it. He uses the opposition to bring the man healing. What is God using in your life right now that you are trying to get away from?
The Door of Obedience and Revelation
There's another door, and this door is called obedience. The first door is disappointment. The second one is opposition. This one is obedience. It is the kind of obedience that has to trust God in an impossible situation.
What the friends did got the man forgiven, but there was something he had to do to be healed. It is by grace we are saved through faith. It's the gift of God. It's not of works, but faith expresses itself in works. Please don't sleep on me, brother. This is very important.
It is your faith expressing, Jesus said, so that they may know who I am. It's not even about you anymore, and it's not about your dysfunction, and it's not about your limitation anymore. This is bigger than you.
So I want you to do what you can't do. I want you to do what you've never been able to do, and the proof of my presence is going to be enabling you to do something practical. Get up. Take that thing they carried you in and lowered you down on. What you came in on you're going out with, but instead of it holding you, you'll be holding it.
Help me, God. Help me right now, because somebody is still lying on that mat. You have resurrection power on the inside of you. It's on the inside of you, but you have to walk it out.
Now, that man came in through the roof, but he left out the same door that they wouldn't let him through when he got there. What I'm declaring today by the Spirit of God is, if you will get up, you can get up. If you will forgive, you can forgive. If you will be whole… I'm not saying the mat will go away. I'm saying you will not spend the rest of your life lying down on it and blaming others for the condition you're in.
So get up in front of all of these other people. Think about the courage this demonstration requires, because the people that are watching this man are not even cheering for him. They don't even like the fact that he interrupted the service and that Jesus thinks he can forgive them.
So now he has to get up and walk in front of people who don't want him to. Now he has to get up and take his first steps. When most of us took our first steps, somebody was cheering us on. But he has to do it in the face of conflict. He has to do it in the face of doubt. He has to do it in the face of critics. He has to do it in the face of people who didn't even want him in the room.
And I wonder, are you willing today, in the face of adversity, in the face of weakness, in the face of everything that has been against your entire family, your whole life, will you get up? Will you become a door? When God wants to show people who he is, he picks somebody with an issue, and he wants to show who he is through you. Somebody say, there's another door.
This is the door of revelation. And the people were not amazed when the roof came off. They were amazed when the man got up. They were not amazed even by Jesus' preaching. They were amazed by the man's demonstration.
And there are some of you that are about to become a door for people to see Jesus through your life. And here's who he's going to pick. The people who were paralyzed, who have made a decision, I may not be able to get rid of my issue, but my issue is not keeping me from Jesus.
See, there's another door, and when you've done all that you can do, and you've tried all that you know to try, and self-help isn't helping, and people have stopped believing in you a long time ago, and truth be told, you've given up on yourself, but God called me to be like those four men and carry you today and put you at the feet of Jesus.
Let me tell you about Jesus. Jesus is not your average preacher. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the resurrection. He is the good Shepherd. He is the true vine. And in John chapter 10, verse 9, when he got ready to say who he was, he said, I am the door.
So if you want to come in, come on in. If religion locked you out, come on in. If your sin kept you out, come on in. I am the door. And because I'm the door, nothing can come into your life without first going through me. So I've allowed some things in your life that you don't like right now, but don't let them paralyze you another day, because all I'm asking you to do is walk through this door.
That's all I'm asking you to do. I'm not asking you to be perfect, but I do expect progress. I am the door. Your ex-husband is not. Your dad who wasn't there is not. Your own opinion of yourself is not. I am the door. I am the door.
And when I open a door in your life, no mistake, no sickness, no situation, even if they roll a stone to seal the entrance on Friday, I am the door. And when I speak it up, the resurrection power. Come on, praise is the door. Give him some praise right now. Don't you miss this moment. This is the door.
Stand up at every location. No one leaving. Shut those doors. There's another door. The Lord gave me this message as an announcement, not as an intellectually stimulating conversation or a monologue for your entertainment purposes. But you are standing at an open door.
The door is open, but it's not always obvious. It doesn't look like a door, does it? It looks like a ceiling. It looks like disappointment. It looks like teachers of the law. It looks like opposition. It looks like a command to do something you can't do. It looks like obedience. It looks like Jesus. It looks like revelation. It looks like the Word made flesh.
This is your door. This is your door. This is your door. I know it didn't work out the way you planned. I understand that. I know it's disappointing. It's fine. Be disappointed, but don't die in it. Don't die at an open door. There's something on the other side.
There's another door. There's another door. Yes, Lord, I'll say it again. There's another door. It might not be who you expected, what you expected, when you expected, how you expected. There's another door. Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. For the one who has the key of David says, What I open, no man can shut.
Behold, Jesus said, I stand at the door. That's me knocking. That's me trying to get your attention through the circumstances of your life. That's me. If you open it, I will come in.
Heads bowed, eyes closed. There's somebody in this place who needs a relationship with Jesus. That's him at the door. That's not a preacher. That's not an emotion. That's the Spirit of God. Heads bowed, eyes closed. Right now, if you're far away from God and you hear him knocking on your heart today, he wants to come in. All you have to do is believe. It's by grace through faith. Faith opens the door.
With heads bowed and eyes closed on every location, I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now. If you want to come home to God or come to him for the first time, this is your moment. This is your door. All praying together as a church family. Repeat after me.
Heavenly Father, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and today I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead, and I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I believe I am saved. This is my new beginning.
With heads still bowed and eyes still closed, if you just prayed that, on the count of three, shoot your hand up boldly. Come forth. One, two, three. All over this room, all over our campuses, all over Lake Norman, all over Matthews, online right now, let's glorify God for this new beginning. Somebody just stepped through an open door. Somebody just stepped into a resurrected future. I can't hear you, church. Let's praise God like somebody just came running back home.