R1607 The Church with the Door

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message called The Church with the Door. I can see your eyebrows through the radio, through the podcast. You're going, what, the church?

Well, just hold on a minute. As Dr. Don explains, we'll head to Revelation, chapter three, beginning in verse 14 in just a moment. But in the midst of all this opening God's word, we want you to know that we are open to connect with you. We believe firmly that God's called us to encourage you. We do that on our website 24 hours a day at www.tewonline.org. As a matter of fact, one of the resources that's become the most popular is the daily encouraging word email devotional from Dr. Don. You can sign up on our website. It's www.tewonline.org. Every morning about six o'clock, Dr. Don sends out a wonderful message of encouragement.

Again, sign up today online at www.tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. We've been looking at the churches in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation, the letters to the seven churches. We've been checking our own temperature. Now, can you feel that a little? You've been checking your temperature this morning, listening to our friends speak. I sit there and I find myself checking my temperature. I'm asking myself, how do I fare up?

How do I shape up? Where am I in this? You don't have to get sent to some remote place.

I'm doing that right here, right where we are. So in the seventh church, the final church that Jesus talks about giving us a picture, he gives us a fantastic picture here. It's the church at Laodicea. And my message today is the church with a door, the church with a door. Let me show you where this comes from.

Okay. The church with a door. Some of you are going to look at me and say, gee, where'd you get that from? You know, like every church has got a door. Do you know you've got a door?

It's called your heart. You know what the Bible tells us? Jesus standing there, knocking at your door.

So some of us just heard some serious knocking. Let me show you how this fits in with this church here. I'd like to read it to you, church at Laodicea.

So we're in Revelation chapter three and beginning at verse 14, to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write these things, the words of the Amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works. You're neither hot nor cold. With that you are either cold or hot. Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich. I've prospered.

I need nothing. But in reality, you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. And I counsel to you to buy from me, Jesus said, gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and that you would buy salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline. So be zealous and repent.

Here it is. Behold, I stand at the door and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in with that person.

I'll come inside and I'll eat with him and he with me and the one who conquers, I will grant that person the right to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. God gives us a picture here. This is Jesus talking to us, to the church. And the picture here is pretty plain. So if you want to picture it in terms of a church building, go ahead.

But it's not reduced down to a building. He's talking about us. We are the church. And he says, every church has got a door.

You and I have got a heart. And Jesus is standing there pounding on that door. And he's saying, open up. Now, evidently these people in Laodicea, this town, Jesus needed them to hear this because they were struggling.

Sounds like all of us. I'm going to break that down in a minute. So just watch this, guys, watch this. Can we talk about Laodicea for a minute?

Can I just share some stuff with you about this place? Laodicea was built up on a mountain. So the whole city was on a mountain. So they really thought they were the stuff. They were impregnable.

Nobody could touch them. And not only that, they were like Spartanburg, South Carolina, they were a very rich town. Sure, they had poor people like every town, but they were a prosperous town. They had BMWs and Millikins and restaurants, and they had everything. They had industries, all of it. They were very prosperous. It was a commercial center. They had two very distinct things.

Now, I want you to really get this because this is fantastic and it'll make sense here. You know what they were known for? Producing wool from sheep. But it was a unique kind of wool.

It was a black wool. Now, I don't know if any of you have been around black sheep. I have. They're incredible animals. I've worked among a lot of them in Africa.

So I'm one of those people who get it. And this part of Asia, they're pretty prominent, but they're very unique. They're specialized. They're a specialized brand of sheep.

You all got that? And the Laodiceans started an industry where they would harvest black wool. And hey, I guess they stuffed it in to make pillows with and blankets and rugs and everything, but they were known for their black wool.

Black colored wool. Second thing they were known for, and you've really got to get this, they were known for their aqueduct. Do you know what the word aqueduct is? Aqua.

What does that mean? Water. Aqua. Aqua. Water.

Duct. The movement. Back in those days, that's how you got water to drink. They would build an aqueduct. So I'm not going to walk very far off.

I'll fall off the stage here. This is where it came out of the ground. This was fresh. This was the source of the water.

You with me? This is where they got it from. So they built an aqueduct from the source, and it would run like this all the way along under the town, because it was built up on a mountain. And then at some point over here, they had the place where everybody went and got their water to drink.

Now you've got to go back a few years, guys. They didn't have trucks delivering their water. That's how they got drinking water.

So here it starts out real fresh. This is the good stuff. By the time it got to where they drank it, guess what? Stuff got into the water. Remember it ran under the houses, floorboards, toilets, garbage. All got into the water, into the aqueduct. It would seep in. Just seeping.

They did everything. They tried to seal the deck, but they didn't have a proper way to seal the deck. So it would seep. So fresh water, aqueduct, and finally here come the townspeople to say, oh, I think I'll have a good drink of water. And they would get their glass or whatever their jug, and they'd get it, and they would drink the water. Guess what the water tasted like?

Not too good. Like tepid. Like, you know, when you drink a Coke, it's been in the sun for 17 days at 100 degrees. Right? Like it had stuff in it.

Guess what? Fresh water had become lukewarm. So they would have their council meeting. And this was the big political hot issue. You know, if you ran for the local council, you were the guy that got up every year, every four years and said, I want you to know that when you elect me, I'm going to make sure you got fresh water.

And everybody said, that's the person I'll vote for. Right? Sound familiar? Four years later you look back and they still haven't made the water fresh.

It's just yada, yada, yada. So the council would get together and people would protest and they'd get all their glasses of water that they gathered over here and to protest, you know what they did? They'd all take a mouthful of this water and they'd all go pow and spit it out. The water was water, but it was messed up water.

Are you messed up water? Now Jesus here is talking to the church at Laodicea. He has what he says. He says, I want to tell you and what I'm going to tell you, I'm telling you from the perspective of myself.

He says, here's three things about me. Number one, I'm the Amen. Do you see that in the first verse there? I'm the Amen.

What does that mean? It means that I'm the affirming one. By the way, every time you say, Amen, you're not, you're saying? That's right. So on three, everybody say, Amen.

One, two, three. That's right. By the way, you should all be Amening the whole time I preach.

Right? I mean, it's just, it fires me up. You know, I say, Amen. That's right. You're saying, Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Right? Jesus said, I'm the Amen. He said, I'm the right one. I'm the Amen. That's right. Everything I'm saying is, you got it.

Take it to the back. Amen. Do I hear an Amen? All those in favor of Amen say, Amen. I better get on with it. He said, I'm the faithful one.

I'm telling you, this is fantastic here. He said, I'm the affirming one. Then he said, look, I'm also the completing one. He said, I'm faithful. You know what it means to be faithful? Faithful means that you complete what you said. That's faithful. A faithful, who is a faithful person? A faithful person is someone who completes what they begin. Jesus said, I'm the faithful one. I complete what I begin. I don't just tell you, I love you.

I do. And then the third thing he says is, I'm the true one. I'm the trustworthy one. So here he's speaking to the church and he's presenting this group of people and he's talking about a door and he's saying, I want all of you to know, I'm about to, I'm about to put something on you because I love you. I'm going to discipline you. I'm going to say some stuff to you right now. I'm going to put a number on you. You get ready, but I want you to know I'm the affirming one and I'm the faithful one and I'm the trustworthy one.

So here it is. So he tells them what? Three things. First thing he tells them right there in verse 15, he says, I know your deeds. I know, I know you. I know you. I know your deeds.

Jesus was saying to them, man, you can come with all your rich and your caravans and your football games and you can come with all your churchiocities and you can come with all your amens if you want to. I know you. I know you. I know you. I know you like nobody else because I'm the one who is the creating one.

Did you notice that he said that? I made you. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. Don't go away. We'll be back to complete today's message in just a moment. But Dr. Don insists, I remind you, we are here.

We're here to connect with you in a number of ways. I mentioned the website earlier, tewonline.org, but also there's a phone number. I pray that you might consider in this day and age the opportunity to pray with someone or have someone pray with you and for you. Our phone number is 866-899-9673. 866-899 word makes it a little easier to remember at times, but of course it's listed on our website as well at tewonline.org. Perhaps there's something going on in your life where you need to be reminded that you're a part of the body of Christ and together as we ask the Lord to work in us and through us, we pray for each other and with each other and see God do remarkable things. Again, the prayer line is 866-899-9673.

It'll also be a place where you can have questions answered and connect with great resources as well. Now let's dive back into today's message, The Church with a Door with Dr. Don Wilton. See, we're going to Atlanta. Kara and I jumped in the motor car and we just took this nice little drive up the road, a place called Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Listen, some of you parents, man, grandparents, you've got your grandkids living around you, you need to say amen. That's worth amening. So my other crew lives in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. It's another country up there somewhere. Beautiful, man. It is beautiful.

So we go all the way up there. Watch grandkids play football yesterday. So my twin grandsons, Mac and Burke are hot stuff now.

Okay. Mac is the quarterback and Burke, I don't know what he calls himself, but he catches the ball and the boys conspire. I'm convinced before they get onto that team, they've already decided which plays they're going to play. And I love it. Do you know they had a commentator with these little people, with a microphone that's commentating the game.

You know what my favorite one was? Wilton steps back in the pocket. He looks out there and he throws the ball. Wilton catches it and it's a touchdown. It kind of rang my bell.

I've never heard anything so fantastic like that. So Mac Wilton, one of my grandsons, these are the twins, he grabs the ball and he steps back into the pocket and he stands there and the next minute he is buried alive. I mean this is like obliteration. It means it's over. I mean he's down there somewhere.

All right. Well, when everybody else gets up, he's on the ground. I mean like this. I've got to do this slowly. He's on the ground like this.

And then while he's on the ground, his knees come up and they start doing this. So I'm getting off over here. This is easier. So I'm having a heart attack because I'm chief, man.

I'm looking over there. My grandson is on the ground. I'm not even going to where Ducky is. Ducky's sitting back there.

She's about to have a heart attack. Dad, my son Rob, says, get up Mac. I said, son, he's hurt. He said, get up.

You're just pretending. Get up. Get up. I said, Rob, Ducky is saying, oh, my baby wants to go over there and act like an ambulance all by herself.

All right. And he's lying there looking like he's writhing. And dad is saying, come on, stop it. Stop fooling around like that. Get up and get the ball.

And the next minute Mac looks over, gets up, gets the ball, and off they go playing again. Rob turns to me and says, oh, come on, man. You don't think I don't know my own son?

That's one big show. I didn't look like it to me. So here's Jesus, guys. And he looks at the church. He says, I know you.

So you can ride around all you want, squawk and scream like a chicken with its head cut off. You can complain. You can say this didn't do it. Jesus looks at us. He says, I know you, man. I know your deeds. Second thing he says is you're lukewarm.

Remember the aqueduct? You're neither hot nor cold. Can I put a rough translation on that? Jesus says, I don't do lukewarm. I didn't call you to be insipid.

I know you. I didn't call you to be lukewarm. In fact, I'll spit you out of my mouth. And third thing he says is you're deceptive. You're just being deceptive. He tells that to the Laodicean believers. You're just deceptive. You say you're rich, right?

You say you got it. You say you this and that and the other thing. Jesus calls it like it is, right? Looks into my heart and he sees my heart. So what does he tell the church to do?

That's the most important part. What does he do? He tells them to buy three things and do one thing.

Number one, here's what you got to do. You got to buy gold. Why does he use the word buy? You can't buy your salvation.

You know why he said that to the Laodicean people? Because they understood the value, the buy-in of buying, of investing. These were astute business people. When they made an investment, they said, you know what? I'm going to do this for the best return of my money. Jesus said, you need to buy me gold, the purity of who I am, free of all the impurities.

That's what you need to do. The second thing he says to them, he says you need to buy white garments. You're walking around dressed up in that drab wool that you manufacture, impressing everybody with how you look.

Remember what they were known for, guys? Jesus said, I'm in the heart business. I make people whiter than snow. I clean you out. I make you fresh drinking water because I'm the source.

I don't do the floorboards, and I don't have drippings. The third thing, you need to buy salve. That's like an eye ointment. Back in those days, by the way, Laodicea was also known for their medicine in the early days. One of their specialties was an ointment that people could put in their eyes that, you know when you've got something in your eye and you say, ah, man, and you take your top eyelid and you pull it over and then you're trying to get this thing out and you don't know what it is?

They had the salve that you could put and just clear your eye up, make you see clearly. Jesus, what did he say? He said, I'm pure, I'm white, I make you completely clean, and I'm the one who makes you see clearly. And then he said, there's one thing you have to do. Open the door. Open the door. Can you hear me? Behold, I stand at the door. I'm knocking at your heart's door.

It's a beautiful picture. Wow. I mean, these people had all kinds of drippings in their drinking water, and he's still telling them, I'm standing there knocking at your door. He says to them, here's how you do it. Number one, be earnest. The word there is zealous.

Be serious about your relationship with me. And secondly, repent of your sin. Call sin for what it is. Behold, I stand at the door and I knock.

Present continuous tense. Can you imagine that Jesus gives us this picture? And here are these people and he's letting them know it's not, he knows exactly what's going on.

They're not what they need to be. And he's saying, man, I'm knocking at your door here, guys. Hey, open the door. Let Jesus come in.

The picture here is twofold. The Spirit of God convicts us of our sin. He comes, he knocks at our door and he says, listen, I want to come in and save you. The Spirit of God convicts us of sin under the joy of our salvation as believers.

And he's standing there knocking at our heart's door saying, man, yeah, I know that you know me, but you're not living for me. You're leaving a bad taste because you are a bad taste. I want you to have pure drinking water. I want you to be the real thing.

Isn't that great? What a powerful teaching from Dr. Don Wilton today. And you need to know that this is possible in you. You can become that kind of pure, real thing by giving your life to Jesus Christ. You've heard Dr. Don preach, but now open your heart to him as he steps into the studio to share his heart next.

Are you ready? Would you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that Jesus loves me and that he died on a cross for me today. I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus. And I give him my heart and my life in Jesus name. I pray.

Amen. If you've prayed that prayer from your heart and you've given your life to Christ, I welcome you to the family of God. You are my brother, my sister in Christ. Let's get engaged together because we are connected together forever as believers in Christ. If you just gave your life to Jesus Christ or rededicated your life to Christ, I'm ready to tell you, God is preparing you for something remarkable here in 2021. I can give personal testimony in my own life and life of others who have allowed some of the teachings of Dr. Wilton to sink in and allow us to have a new purpose, a new focus, a new reason for living for Jesus Christ. These resources are available for free. If you just gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life, call us right now at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. You can also meet us online at tewonline.org.

Again, so many great resources you'll find online as well like this. God's intended purpose for us never changed. We are not defeated. We are overcomers through Jesus Christ. The word of God is alive and is relevant to all times in which we live. There are countless testimonies of people who walked with God in the Bible. They are our cloud of witnesses to encourage us on the Christian journey.

Learn from them. You can walk with God's giants. With your gift of $20 or more and support of the encouraging word, you will receive the first of Dr. Wilton's new dynamic two-part series, Walking with God's Giants. Series one, Walking with God's Giants is available on CD or DVD and includes four messages on the lives of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and Hannah. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request series one, Walking with God's Giants. Thank you for your continued partnership to help us share the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Our time's gone for today, but tomorrow, seeing this life from God's perspective. A wonderful message from Dr. Wilton from Colossians chapter three. I hope you'll join us. Bring a friend and between now and then let's stay connected online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. The encouraging word.