TD Jakes - The Door of Expansion
Now Peter is going down to Cornelius's house, and they're coming down from Joppa down to Cornelius House to have an encounter with God. And Cornelius has invited all of his friends and his family to something, he's not really sure what he's invited them to but he's so excited that the house is full of people, and then he hears that knock at the door. What drew me to the text in the first place is not the meet, or the clean and unclean, and it's not the Italian soldiers, it's none of that that drew me to the text in the first place. What drew me to the text in the first place was the door.
Yeah, I was reading the text and I got stuck in the door, and I ask myself what is a door? What is a door? The word door is not used, it just says that, "Peter entered in," but I have enough sense to know that if you entered in your have to come in through the door, because doors are how you get in. Yeah, for anything I want to get into I have to find the... Yeah, if I don't find the door, I'll never get in. And when I think about a door I think about a wood frame and a door knob and a handle, and something I turn and I open it and I come in and I walk in the door, and that's how my mind pictures the door until I remembered that Jesus said...
And so, suddenly, I began to realize that my understanding of the door is limited to my past experiences, that I see doors as wood and brass handles but God sees doors as access to new dimensions. Because when Jesus says, "I am the door," he is neither wood nor handle, he is a place of access to the next dimension. And for everything you're trying to get into there is a... there is a door. And I wanna warn you that all doors are not made of wood and all doors don't have handles but all doors do access something that you were locked out from before.
And somebody in this room, the Lord said you're standing at a door, you're standing at the door and I want you to be careful that you don't think that a door is always a door, it might be a person, it might be a job, it might be an opportunity, it might be a place, but god said you're standing... Touch somebody say this is a door, you don't understand it but this is a door, this is a door. This is a door, this thing that's going on in your life right now, the Holy Spirit said this is the door.
This thing, this thing that you're contemplating right now, this thing that you're wrestling with and wanting with, the Holy Ghost said it is a door. It is a door, is a door, it may not have wood, it may not have handles, it may not have a lock and key but it is a door, it is access, it is a point of entry, it is a door. I have met people that were doors, I have spoken places that were doors, that one place open up a door. Preachers don't wait on the big engagements because doors are not always big, the room may be bigger than the door.
One time I spoke at a little place, didn't have but 40 people, but one person heard me and brought me before thousands of people. The room is always bigger than the door, so don't save your best stuff for the big crowds, use your best stuff even when the door is small. Just because the door is small doesn't mean that the room is small, no matter how big the room is, Brother Oscar, you must come in at the door. Oh, y'all are too young to know nothing about them old songs, but the old song says, "You must come in at the door".
So what drew me to the text was the door and I struggled to understand the door because when Cornelius opens this door and he sees Peter he prostrates himself on the floor, he prostrates himself on the floor and worships Peter. He is a man in and under authority, he is a man of power and influence; you have to be a big guy to go low. Only little guys stay puffed up 'cause they don't feel safe enough to go low. You have to be strong to go low, you have to know who you are to be willing to get down low. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying, what I'm saying is so good I'm about to shout myself.
I learned a long time ago that people who are arrogant are always small, that small people dress up in arrogant clothes to make themselves look big so that you'll be distracted from knowing that inside I am small. You have to be big enough inside to get down low 'cause you know if I got down I can get back up again. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. Oh, I feel like getting down this morning; Cornelius went down low.
So what drove me to the text, Kelly, was I got stuck in the door. I got stuck in the door and suddenly I realized that God is stretching both of them, he's stretching both of them, he is stretching Cornelius with an opportunity that is beyond his wildest imagination. Cornelius's house is the icon, it is the app that opens up a new dimension of salvation to the Gentiles. An app is what you click on to access a program that is bigger than what you touch, Cornelius's house is the app Peter had to touch to open up the Gentile nation. Do you hear what I'm saying to you? Oh, do you hear what I'm saying?
And God is stretching Cornelius, he said, "Your alms have gone up before me, your prayers have gone up before me," I'm getting ready to take you into a new dimension, a new expression of yourself. Can I teach this Word? Cornelius doesn't know that he is a door, he thinks he's at a door. See, some of you think that you're at a door and you don't recognize that you... So, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I'm about to get happy off my own preaching, because suddenly I realized I got a door at a door. Oh, I'm gonna drive this home, can I drive it home?
Lay your hands on yourself, say I am a door. Yeah, yeah, I am a door, that's what Jesus said, "I am a door". I want you to be like Jesus, lay your hands on yourself, say I am a door. It may be possible that the enemy may not be attacking you because you are you, it may be possible that the enemy is attacking you because you are a door. It may be possible that the enemy is trying to take you out because he's after what's behind you, you are a door. I don't know who I'm talking to but you had to be here this morning because you are a door, that's why your childhood was so rough, that's why your life has been so tough, the enemy's been trying to stop you not just because you're at a door but because you are a door.
When you get loosed everything around you, touch three people and say I am a door, I am a door, I am a door. I'm a point of entry, I am access, I am access to another dimension, I am a door. There's something behind me, there's something that I open up, there's something that I bring that nobody brings like I bring when I bring it, I am a door. That's why the devil hates me, because I am a door, that's why the Lord called me, because I am a door, that's why people are drawn to me, because I am a door, that's why people are attracted to me, because I am a door.
We had a door standing at a door, we got Peter, who preached the inaugural message on the day of Pentecost, who is also a door. Peter is a door because he unlocks the New Testament experience of the Holy Ghost, that's why Jesus called him a rock. "Peter, thy are the rock, and upon this rock I'll build my church," the revelation you got is what I'm gonna build my church on. And so Peter, too, is a door coming to a door to meet a door, and they are all stuck at the door. And this is a place of expansion, when doors meet doors, I will say that to you all in the balcony, when doors meet doors, you've been meeting locks but you're about to meet a door, when doors meet doors things expand. When doors meet doors, things expand, God has a door coming to meet a door standing in a door 'cause somebody's about to be expanded.
If you're about to expand give him a praise right now. This is a Word of revelation from the Lord saying to you that you have to be willing to give up on your past revelation to be stretched into a new direction. This is a Word from God preparing you that these will be unlikely doors, they will not be obvious doors, they will be doors that challenge the way you think and the way you perceive things, they will be doors that do not meet within the landscape of your normal philosophical ideas. This is a Word from the Lord warning you not to walk in what he has said, oh, this is tough now, this is a tough now.
This is a Word from the Lord saying you cannot get there walking in what I have said, you have to get there walking in the Word that I am saying, because if Peter continued to walk in the Word that God had said he would have never come to Cornelius's house. Because it was God that said, "Don't eat with the Gentiles," in Leviticus, but now, in Acts, he has cleaned what was unclean, and what was wrong is now right; and you have to be broad enough to handle a God in transition and not just a God of tradition. Because doors are transition not tradition, doors are transition and you cannot have transition if you hold onto your tradition, and that's where God is stretching you, because if he does not break your old normal you will miss this new opportunity.
My God, I feel the Holy Ghost. Can I go deeper? Now the door has come to the door, everybody in the house and nobody knows what's gonna happen. Here's my tipping point; no, I got two, can I give you two, can I give you two? First of all, before I give you the one I was about to give you, let me give you this one, let me tell you how good it is to be in the room. I may be confused but I'm in the room, I may not have all the details, but I'm in the room. Nothing happens if you're not in the room, if you don't get in the room I'm not even talking to you.
I don't know who I'm preaching to but God said he put you in the room, he put you in the environment, he put you in the right place around the right people at the right time and something is about to happen, and it cannot happen if you're not in the room. If I'm talking to you, thank God you're in the room. No, no, come on with me, come on with me. Come on with me, come on with me. You came a long way to be in the room, you paid a high price to be in the room, you came up some rugged hills to be in the room, now thank God you're in the room.
That's the only thing I know, Pastor Montell, that's the only thing I know, is that I'm in the room. I don't know what's gonna happen but I know I'm in the room, I don't know who God's gonna use but I know I'm in the room, I don't know what God's gonna do but I know I'm in the room, my soul knows I'm in the room. I came too far, I'm in the room, ain't no devil in hell gonna run me out. I'm shouting 'cause I'm in the room, I'm dancing 'cause I'm in the room, I'm leaping 'cause I'm in the room, yeah. I could have been in hell, but I'm in the room. Devil should have got me when he had the chance but it's too late now, I'm in the room. Now we're clear of this confusion, I'm...
What do you do when you don't know what to do? What do you do when you don't know what you're supposed to do? What do you do when you don't know what's gonna happen? And you've been asking God, "What am I supposed to do? I'm in a place of uncertainty, I don't know what I'm supposed to do". And that's what Peter was saying, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and Cornelius said, mmm, I don't know what you're supposed to either, I just invited you here. And this is the first time, watch this, in the New Testament that this happens: Peter just started doing what he does.
When you are in a place of uncertainty, just do what you do, and if you do what you do, Lord, y'all shouldn't do me like this on a Sunday, y'all shouldn't do me like this on a Sunday. I can feel your spirit pulling at me, don't get in a place of uncertainty and stop doing what you do, because God brought you to that place to do what you do, and the expansion is going to occur, expansion is going to occur, expansion is going to occur when you do what you do.
Touch your neighbor and tell them I'm getting ready to do what I do. Whatever it is you do, do what you do, whatever it is you do, just do what you do. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and do what you do, stop moaning and groaning and just do what you do, stop complaining to your friends, stop being angry with your brothers and sisters and just do what you do. Somebody holler, "Do what you do".