Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. If you choose a door for a potential ministry and we say, no, I think I'd rather choose safety over ministry. I don't want to do that.
I don't want to go there. Even the smallest things, we end up choosing silence instead of speaking the truth and love the people that need to hear the truth. Safe, prudence, common sense, these are the by words of closed door believers.
It's safe for me. The truth of the day is this. What do I have to be to be an open door believer?
Because I'm telling you, this is not foggy. This is exactly what God wants from us. Thanks for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.
Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Dr. Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University, has spent her academic life doing studies on what factors contribute to successful people. Much of her research she wrote in her bestselling book, Mindset, the New Psychology of Success.
In the book, she explores people's ability to navigate adversity and limitations and obstacles and failure and change and yet still be successful. One study that she did, she did with 10 year olds, and when she did this study, what she wanted to do was it was a math study and she gave them a test and in the test, the context was that there would be increasingly difficult questions to the point that the children could not answer them. Most of the children that she tested became discouraged and depressed and angry. But a few of the children she tested had a very different response.
They were energized by the failure. One of the little boys said, I just love the challenge of this kind of test. A little girl said, I was hoping this would be informative and it is. She wrote in a book, she said, at first I thought, what is wrong with these kids? And she said, then it hit her. She said, these kids didn't think they were failing.
These kids thought they were learning. Her conclusion, in which she writes as really the theme of her book, is that human beings have two opposite mindsets about life. One she calls the closed mindset. And to these people, she said, to them, life is full of fixed amount of gifts and talents and that your worth depends on how talented or how gifted you are. And your goal in life is to convince others that you got it. She says that's most people.
She said they try to manage life so that either they are successful or at least they appear successful. She said what really is insightful to her is how often she found interviewing teenagers and kids saying things like this. I didn't even study for that test. Now you'd wonder, what do you mean I didn't even study for the test? And she said that those kids say that because they have a closed mindset. In other words, if they get a really good grade, hey, I got a great grade and I didn't even study for that test. And what if they do poorly on the test?
Hey, I didn't even study for the test. You see, so I'm still great. She said that's the way most people are. They either want to be successful and then let you know they're successful or if they're not successful, they have a built-in defense mechanism to tell you why they're not successful. She said but there's another mindset. And she said that mindset is what she calls the open mindset. And she says the open mindset is marked by people who the most important thing in their life is growth and that growth is always possible and that they embrace challenge. She said they care very little about what other people think. And she said they see failure as indispensable in their lives as they grow.
Her conclusion is this. Most people are closed mindset, but a minority of people are open mindset. Both groups have successful people in them, but the open mindset people are much happier with far less emotional problems. I think there is a spiritual parallel to Dr. Carol Dweck's research, her book and her conclusions. I think that there are closed door Christians and open door Christians.
And I hate to say it, but I would agree with her. Most Christians are closed door. Let's begin by looking at the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 13. Israel has been delivered from Egypt miraculously by God. They are on their way to the promised land. And they find themselves right on the doorstep. And before they go in, as you know, the famous story they send their spies in. They want to take a look at this promised land. And in verse 25 of Chapter 13 of the book of Numbers.
It says this. It says, when they returned from spying out the land at the end of 40 days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Perun at Kadesh. And they says they brought back word to them, to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And thus they told him and said, we went into the land where you sent us. And it certainly does flow with milk and honey.
And this is its fruit. It's exactly the way God told Moses it would be. Now, notice these are those people delivered from Egypt. And it's kind of interesting because if you think they had 400 years of slavery and usually after 400 years of slavery, you don't really get to become free. Secondly, they are freed, but they are freed by these plagues that hit Egypt. They see all the plagues. They see that the will of God usurps the will of Pharaoh. They see that the Passover lamb protects their firstborn and not the Egyptians. They see the Red Sea part.
They see the Egyptian army consumed by the Red Sea. They see all of these great things. And now they get to the land that God told Moses to tell them is flowing with milk and honey.
And guess what they see? It's flowing with milk and honey. In other words, it's extremely prosperous. It's all good at this stage. And then one word. Nevertheless.
Nevertheless. It's not one word. It's two words in Hebrew. Afki. That's really an unusual word, very rare in the Old Testament.
Afki. The reason it's so rare is that each word means the same thing. The word means surely. Surely. Surely.
For emphasis. Surely. Surely.
What? The people who live in the land are strong. The cities are fortified.
They're very large. We saw the descendants of Anak there. Wow.
Looks rough. Down to verse 31. But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people. They're too strong for us.
Wow. Closed door people. You see, I believe that most closed door Christians are not controlled by faith. They're controlled by fear. And that's exactly what you have here. Notice how we disguise it if we're a closed door believer to an opportunity that God gave us. You see, all we're exercising here is common sense. Prudence.
That's what we're doing. I mean, look at these guys. These guys are huge. You see, these guys, they have chariots. Listen, I'm not taking anything away from the Canaanites. But they're just a speck compared to the Egyptians.
How did God deal with the Egyptians? No, nevertheless, nevertheless. It's interesting. Same criteria. Same exact criteria. Verse 30. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, We should, by all means, go up and take possession of it, and we shall surely overcome it.
What's the difference? Mindset. Caleb's an open door mindset Christian. Believer.
The rest of them are closed door mindset believers. You see, the whole idea is, look, God's given us an opportunity. He's opened the door. He said for us to go, let's go. God's going to give it to us. Notice no fear.
Just faith. Now I think about the story of David and Goliath. You know, you know the scene of giving it to you many times before, but Goliath is taunting the armies of Israel, and he's nine feet, nine inches. And he wants one guy to come out of their camp and fight with him in the winner take all. And this young teenage boy goes and he's all excited about thinking he's going to see a big battle and no battles taking place, except that every time Goliath would speak, the armies of Israel would shake and then back away and away from him.
And so he works his way across this large valley every day, taunting them. And so David finally gets there and he's now looking down at Goliath and he's all excited. And pretty much he's pretty much like, who's going to go and get this uncircumcised Philistine? Who gets to go get him? Remember what his brother did? Eliyab, the older brother. He said to David, he said, What are you doing here?
Why don't you go back and tend those few sheep you have? And in the numeric and standard, he says, I know your insolence. Your Zadok is the Hebrew word. It means arrogance.
I know you're such a cocky teenager. See what's going on here? Well, there's another thing about closed door believers. Not only do they use prudence and common sense, but when you call them out, they'll use anger and sarcasm. They don't like being called out. Why aren't you doing this ministry? Why aren't you involved in this process? Hey, who are you to tell me what to do? You see, that's exactly what he does. David, remember, David said, look, it was just a question.
I'm sorry. You know, David doesn't look. You're not my enemy. My enemy is down there. And by the way, David is an extremely open door believer.
He goes right through the door. You know, when that teenager did that, I think one of the things we never think about is that I'm sure everybody was pretty excited to see a nine foot, nine inch guy go down with a stone from a sling. I'm sure that was pretty impressive. But I wonder how many men there who have given their career to the military thought, what was I doing? That's a shepherd boy.
He went straight down and faced him and he framed it perfectly. Who are you to taunt the armies of a living God, you uncircumcised Philistine? In other words, that could have been me and it could have been all you had to do was go through the open door. You see, all you had to do was do it.
But to close minded people, they don't want to do that at all. You see, and it's not just about 10 spies in the land. It's not just about David's brother.
It's about you and me. God opens doors for us to serve. He opens them all the time. God opens a door and we choose hoarding instead of generosity. He gives you an opportunity, opens a door and there it is.
This is mine. God opens a door for a potential ministry and we say, no, I think I'd rather choose safety over ministry. I mean, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to go there. Even the smallest things, we end up choosing silence instead of speaking the truth and love the people that need to hear the truth. Safe, prudence, common sense. These are the by words of closed door believers.
It's safe for me. The question of the day is this. What do I have to be to be an open door believer?
Because I'm telling you, this is not foggy. This is exactly what God wants from us. I think four things. The first was found in a passage we looked at last week or implied Revelation Chapter three. Let's look at that passage again. We looked at it last week because we said it's the basis of all this idea of open doors. And we talked about the myths of open doors last time. We have a lot of myths about open doors. And most of the time, open doors to us have nothing to do with God.
It has nothing to do with us. You see, I've got please open the door that I get the right house. Please open the door I get the right job.
Please open the door that I find the right spouse. Please open the door that I'm open those doors, God. But that's not exactly what God implies in Revelation three, the Church of Philadelphia, verse seven. He said into the angel of the church in Philadelphia.
Right. He was holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens, says this. In other words, God is sovereign when it comes to open doors. He said, 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 me. My favorite phrase and all that, by the way, is God says, look, I know you've been faithful.
So you know what you might do to a faithful believer? I open a door. I give you opportunities, opportunities to serve me, opportunities to glorify me.
I give open the door for you. And he said, and one of the reasons I do that is you have little power. You see, that's great. Open door Christians know I don't have any power. You see, I just have an opportunity.
And that's what God says. So the first thing you need to do if you want to be an open door believer is you need to be ready. You need to be ready.
That may seem strange. God's opening doors all the time and all of our lives in a variety of different ways. But you need to be ready. When God opens a door.
You see, open doors always seem more perplexing than closed doors. Should I? Should I do that? Should I go there? Should I be part of that? Pastor Brad was giving some announcements. What were those?
I think they were opportunities for ministry, weren't they? Should I? Should I? No, I'd rather not. See, I'd say for right, I don't want to get involved. You see how we think this way? That's a mindset. When you ask yourself the question, what am I getting into? Let me tell you the answer. You'll never know until you go through the door. Never.
God doesn't tell you that. I remember one of the first open doors that were profound in my own life. I'd just been saved. I was in my mid 20s and the pastor of the church that I was attending had Hodgkin's disease and he was going through chemo.
And I can remember on a Saturday he called very sick and he just said, Bill, could you bring the message to the church tomorrow? I can't even imagine how I felt. First of all, I didn't know anything. You know, but secondly, I hated being in front of people and speaking. So and I said.
Yes. Now, I want you to think about this. What if he would have told me what if God would have told me, Bill, here's an opportunity, but I want to let you know exactly how this whole thing is going to play out for you. OK, the first thing I want to tell you is you're going to speak in this church and then you're going to speak in a lot of other churches.
I'm going to speak all over the place. And then oh, by the way, and then you're going to end up finding a church that teaches the Bible and the pastor there is going to encourage you to go to seminary. So then, Bill, you're going to you're going to have to go to night school.
So and do all the other things you love. There'll be got to go to night school. And then, you know, once you go to seminary, you're gonna have to quit a good job in an economy that's not very good. And you're gonna have to go to Texas. And no one in my family ever moved 50 miles away from where all of us lived. You're going to go to Texas and then you're going to have not had to make any money in Texas. You're just going to spend a lot of money in Texas to go through seminary. You see, and then after all of that, then you're going to get to go to New Orleans or Metairie, as I used to call it.
Metairie, Louisiana. And then you're going to give your life to those people. I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have done it.
Not then. See, God never tell you're never ready. God doesn't tell you that. He just said, here's an opportunity. It's an open door.
You're going to go. And then let God be God. That's exactly what happened. Frederick Buechner says this. He says, God's coming is always unforeseen.
If I had to guess, the reason he does that is if he gave us anything much in the way of advance warning, more often than not, we would have made ourselves scarce long before he showed up. The truth about being ready is that you're never really ready. Serving the Lord in ministry is a lot like the first child you have. And you bring the child home. Now, what seemed like a perfectly easy environment, as long as the child was in the womb. All of a sudden, now the child is in the room. And when you're a first time parent, you know exactly how you feel.
What you have to have the thought. I'm not ready for this. I'm just not ready. Now, second, third, fourth, it gets quite a bit easier after that.
No question. But you see, feeling ready is highly overrated. Very few people have ever felt ready to go through an open door. Turn with me to Exodus Chapter three, Exodus Chapter three. Speaking of the nation Israel, I want to speak of the great deliverer.
One who was a type of Christ. Moses. Verse 11, God speaking to the Bernie Bush tells Moses, I've opened a door for you. The door is open, Moses.
I prepared you 80 years to do this. Moses's first response, verse 11. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?
You got the wrong man. I have a lack of identity. Who am I?
The answer is, God says, Who am I? You see, once I pick you, you think I made a mistake? That's the implication.
That's the by the way, we make that implication often. Ministry opportunities come your way in your life and you say, Who am I? Who am I to go and do that? You're exactly the person the Holy Spirit convicted that this is an open door at that moment.
But with a closed door mindset, you don't. 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.
At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station, by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.
That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.
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