Open Door Myths - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. If you just do a casual reading of the Bible, I think you'll find something out. The vast majority of the people on the planet anytime soon after Genesis gets going to the book of Revelation are anti-God. There is always only a small group of people that are God's people.

He never has a numerical superiority ever because God doesn't see it that way. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Many years ago, a challenge was given to literary giant Ernest Hemingway to use his handwriting genius. He was asked to describe a human life with just six words. Insightfully and sadly, Hemingway wrote this, for sale, baby shoes never worn. Certainly a description of a human life.

Many years later, an online magazine picked up on what the Hemingway challenge was and it asked readers to describe their lives in six words. Just a few of them, one tooth, one cavity, life's cruel, cursed with cancer, blessed with friends. It was not written by a wise old grandma, but a nine-year-old boy with thyroid cancer. The psychic said, I'd be richer. Maybe they would have been if they didn't waste their money on psychics.

Tombstone won't say, had health insurance. Not a good Christian, but trying. Thought I would have more impact. But the response that became the follow-up to a book that was published was this one, not quite what I was planning. That describe your life?

Not quite what I was planning. John Ortberg decided to take that challenge and apply it to some biblical characters and he does so with great insight. Abraham left Ur, had baby, still laughing. Jonah, no, storm, overboard, whale, regurgitated, yes. Noah, hated the rain, love the rainbow. Mary, manger, pain, joy. Cross, pain, joy.

How insightful. The rich young ruler Jesus called, left sad, still rich. Zacchaeus climbed Sycamore tree, short, poor, happier. The apostle Paul, Damascus, blind, suffer, right, change world. And then Ortberg says this, but I think all the biblical characters could have written not quite what I was planning. I thought about that and if I was to describe a life, yours and mine, I would probably describe it this way. God opens doors. God closes doors.

That's pretty much a description of my life. In fact, over the centuries, Christians have viewed their lives as God opening doors and God closing doors. Ironically, by the way, almost all of this is a misinterpretation of a particular passage. Let's look at that passage. Revelation chapter 3. The ascended and glorified Christ is addressing the church of Philadelphia. In Revelation 3 and verse 7.

John writes this. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right. He was holy.

He was true. Who has the key of David, who opens. He says and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens says this. I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut because you have little power and have kept my word and have not denied my name.

That's where it sort of started. God's saying. I provided you an open door.

But when you look at this, it's pretty easy to see that is a particular application to this. What the Lord is saying to the church of Philadelphia is because you have been faithful, I am going to give you boundless opportunities. Unlimited choices. To serve me. That's what the open doors about. It's about serving the Lord and it's backed up by the word of God. In Acts 14 and verse 27, Luke says that God opened a door of faith to the Gentiles in First Corinthians 16 nine. God opens a wide door for Paul to keep teaching in Ephesus in Second Corinthians 12. God opens a door so that Paul can share the gospel intro as and in Colossians four three.

Paul is in prison and he asked the church of Colossae to pray that God would open a door so that he could continue to teach the word of God. In every one of those cases, it's serving God. However, whenever I've dealt with people, it's almost never about serving God. When people come to me and they want to know if God's opening or closing a door, it's virtually never about serving God. It's almost always about the agenda for their own life and their own plans.

It's sort of like this. Pastor, I don't know if God is opening the door for us to move. I don't know if God is opening the door for me to get engaged. I don't know if God is. And it's almost always an agenda that we have. Rather than service for God. I think Christians have a very murky non-biblical view of God opening doors.

And I want to address that today as I start a series on open doors. We have a lot of murky views as Christians. I remember someone told me this once. Well, pastor, you know that the Bible says when God closes the door, he opens a window. You may have heard that. The Bible doesn't say that.

That was Mother Superior in the sound of music. That's who said that. That's not unusual.

I mean, we do this and you're probably as guilty as the rest of us. And giving scripture credit, it isn't due. Mike Ditka, when he was fired by the Chicago Bears, said, as the scriptures say, this too shall pass. The Bible doesn't say that. God will never give you more than you can handle. The Bible doesn't say that. In fact, God almost always gives you more than you can handle. God moves in mysterious ways. Not in the Bible.

That's an old hymn that was written. So as we look at this, I want to talk about open doors because there's so much confusion. I start thinking after all these years of experience talking to you that Christians have a view of open doors that's more like superstition. It's more like magic. It's more that kind of thing. And what we usually do is we talk about open doors and closed doors. And almost always it's like to get God to sort of work into our agenda.

That's not very, very good to do. Kind of things you hear is this, you know, if God wants me to go to that school, the sun will come up in the east tomorrow. God wants me there.

You can't break up with me. God already told me you're the one. Do you know God opened the door for us to buy a 40000 square foot mansion on the beach so that we could host small groups once a month? I'm not so sure God's opening those doors.

You see, when we try to treat God as a Ouija board or a magic eight ball, I think we violate the relationship we are to have with God. I think the question is, how do I make doors part of my faith journey and not an exercise in superstition? Because I am convinced that God opens and closes doors, but he has a very particular agenda when he does. So what I want to deal with this morning are some myths about open doors.

The first one will be found in Zachariah Chapter four, Zachariah, the next to last book of the Old Testament, Zachariah Chapter four. And this is one we don't admit, but I think many of you feel. This is the myth. My life is too insignificant for God to be opening and closing doors. My life is too insignificant for God to be opening and closing doors. I think that the reason for that is that we see ourselves in the wrong way. We sort of see God as this massive, gigantic CEO of the biggest operation that exists. And then we see ourselves as sort of like part time night janitors in some remote area.

And that the CEO is not really that interested in us. He opens and closes doors. Yeah, I mean, if you're the apostle Paul or you're Martin Luther, you're Billy Graham and guys like that, I mean, he opened doors, but not for me.

That's dangerous, dangerous thinking. Notice in Zachariah four. Verse nine, it says the hands of the rubable have laid the foundation of this house and his hands will finish it, and then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. Zachariah, this prophet is talking.

He's talking to the people. The rubable came back into the land after they were in the Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple and the temple that they rebuilt was what they could rebuild. It's extremely small and modest.

It didn't compare to Solomon's temple at all. And in fact, when the people saw it being built, they cried because they viewed it as so insignificant. But then notice what God says in verse 10.

For who has despised the day of small things? He says these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand as a rubable. He's talking about the perfect eyes of the Lord. He says these are the eyes of the Lord which range to and fro throughout the earth. God will be happy.

You see, there's a big problem that we have. We have this terrible tendency to try to measure things and assume that God measures them like we do. It's never that way. By the way, if you just do a casual reading of the Bible, I think you'll find something out. The vast majority of the people on the planet anytime soon after Genesis gets going to the Book of Revelation are anti-God. There is always only a small group of people that are God's people.

He never has a numerical superiority ever because God doesn't see it that way. In fact, you remember Elijah the prophet was complaining about that and said to God, you know, I'm the only believer in Israel. You see, I'm the only one who hasn't bowed his knee to Baal.

I'm the only one, Lord. And basically God said to him, ah, shut up. God said there are 7,000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal.

That's on the planet. And believers are on the planet 7,001. And God's okay with that. You see, you've got to really understand that with God there's no such thing as he has the major leagues and then he has the minor leagues. And some of you are probably thinking, you know, I'm way down in the minors. You know, there are big time Christians and all that, but God doesn't see any of that.

That's not the way he operates at all. Think about a young man who's apparently just a young boy. And he hears that there's this great speaker coming, the one who claims to be Messiah, and he's going to have an open air form of speak. And so he says to his mom, Mom, I want to go and hear him. And she said, well, go ahead. Oh, wait a minute, she said, but you need to pack your lunch. And so they put a few loaves and a few fishes in a bag.

How'd that work out? 5,000 fed. It was significant. It wasn't anything. Last time I talked about the widow who walked up to the offering in the temple grounds and gave a penny. And Jesus points it out to his disciples. And remember what he uses to describe her gift. He says she has given more than any of them.

Why is that? Because God sees things in a very different way. You see, God sees your life as intricate to God's plan as any life on this planet. None of us are insignificant.

We all have different roles. You see, this whole idea that my life is so insignificant that God would not be involved in opening and closing doors with me is simply not true. There is no endeavor that's so big that it doesn't need God's help. And there's no project so small that it doesn't generate God's interest.

Don't despise small things. The second myth will be found in Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1. And this is usually when I get involved and someone's facing a decision.

And the myth is this. If I can't tell which door to choose, something is wrong. If I can't tell which door to choose, something's wrong here.

Yes, there is something wrong. You're thinking. You see, we view doors in such a different way than God does. As I said, God opens and closes doors so that we can serve Him and that we can spiritually grow and mature.

That's why He opens doors. Look what He says here in Ephesians 1, verses 3 and 4. He said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us, that's you and me, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. That's an amazing statement from God's point of view. Wow. I know when I believed, I know that day, God chose me before there was a physical creation. The same with you. That's an amazing thing.

Can't get my thoughts around that too easily. And then He says this, though. Just as He chose us before the foundation of the world, why?

Why did He do that? That we would be holy and blameless before Him. That's why He chose us. So that we'd be holy and blameless. What does holy mean, set apart? That's all it means.

It means set apart. That we would be holy and blameless before God. In other words, God set us apart to be a people for Him.

And He did everything needed for us to become those people. Turn with me to Romans chapter 8 for a moment. Romans chapter 8, a very famous verse, especially the one before the verse I want to look at. Romans 8, 28, you all know that one, I am sure.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose. Boy, that's a hard verse to figure out at certain times in your life. That's a verse that's interpreted in rear view mirrors.

You have to go down the road a ways. And sometimes I think you'll have to be in heaven before you'll fully understand. But then He says in verse 29, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined. So those He foreknew, He also predestined. Don't want to get into that discussion, but I want you to see why He did it. He says, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

I'll oversimplify. God has one agenda for your life, and He's relentless with it. He wants to conform you to the image of His Son, and He will. He'll do as much of it as He can in this life, and then He will do it finally in the heavenly state.

But He will do it. That's God's agenda for you. His agenda for me is that I serve Him, and He conforms me to the image of Christ.

He has me spiritually grow and mature. That's what the doors are all about. That's what God is trying to accomplish when He opens doors or closes doors or offers doors.

You see, we often think, if I can't tell which door to choose, there's got to be something wrong with this. It's important for us to go through that process. If you have a child, and the child is four years old, as a good parent, do you think you should make most of the choices for the child? I hope I get yeses. Yes.

Yes. Child's 14. Should you make most of the choices for the child? Or should you make some of the choices for the child? See, it's not easy. Child's 24.

I imagine that people saying most at 14 are still going to say most at 24, but that would be an error. You see, what is that? What happens as a child matures? You want the child to make more and more choices. That's the whole idea of parenting.

That's launching. You want the child to, and that's why, by the way, when does this become an art form? The teenage years.

That's an art form because how much slack do I leave in the line? There are some parents that say no slack, just a choke collar, and I'll hold them. And there are other parents that say, oh, you're 13, and they unleash you, and then just say go. Live your life.

Both are wrong. But eventually, as they mature, you want them making their own choices. God treats us exactly the same way. One of the most important things for us as we grow spiritually is that we make choices. You see, if you say no, God's going to make every choice of my life, every single choice, that'd be ridiculous and foolish, but you know what that is? That's fatalism. There's not much of a point of being alive.

You see, the whole idea is that if I can't tell which door to go through, something is wrong, it's not necessarily true. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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