Closed Doors - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You're selfish and you basically want God to be involved in your selfishness to carry out your agenda. And you're willing to ask almost anything and the door would be shut. I mean, some of you I'm sure on a daily basis, Lord, please let me hit the lottery. Please, Lord, let me hit the lottery. I'll think of you afterwards. I'm going to guess if you're a child of God and you're praying that you're not likely to hit the lottery. You see, why are you praying for that door to open? Thank you 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. If you follow professional sports and I've been known on very rare occasion to catch a game or two. That general managers often say that sometimes the greatest trades are the one you never make. Let me give you an example that in 1987, the Los Angeles Clippers offered five players, which included their two first round draft picks to the Chicago Bulls for one guy named Michael Jordan.

The Bulls said no. And the rest is history. I think that in life and certainly in the scriptures. Some of the greatest doors are those that are never opened. Think of the door to the Garden of Eden. Once he drove Adam and Eve out, it was shut the door to the ark. Once judgment came and through that flood, it was shut. David was not able to build the temple for God shut the door. I imagine each in those cases there were a lot of disappointed people because there's something about closed doors. We don't like them. We don't like the door to be closed. And not only that, we almost never understand why is this door closed.

If you think about it, though. What's the greatest motivation you have to pray? See, what makes you a prayer warrior? What makes you want to pray a lot? Well, I can tell you answered prayers. If you pray and they're answered, that encourages you to keep praying. So if you pray for someone who is ill and they are restored to health, that encourages you. When you pray for someone's marriage and that marriage is restored, it encourages you.

A runaway child comes home. You land that job you always wanted. Mr. Wright does step into your life and you're encouraged to keep praying. But what's the biggest demotivator to prayer? I have heard it from many of you over the years.

I can't tell you how many of you over the years have told me this. I don't know why I pray. I mean, I pray and I pray and I pray and really almost always nothing happens. It seems as though the door is always shut to my prayer life. You pray for that right person to come along and they never do. You pray for justice to prevail and an unfair situation at work and the company lets you go instead.

We pray with overwhelming emotion for our runaway child who left home and they don't come back. Closed doors discourage us, but they shouldn't. Open your Bibles to Revelation Chapter three. We're in the final message on this series called Doors. We have dealt in virtually every way I could think of with doors and except in this way. We have talked about all the different ways that doors are opened.

But I want to talk about doors being closed. In Revelation three and verse seven, the first text we've used in this series and to 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 then this phrase and who shuts and no one opens says this.

Wow. We never think about that. We think all about God opening up a door. The Lord will open up a door. No one will be able to shut it. But John tells us here that the Lord also shuts doors.

And he makes it abundantly clear that no one will be able to open it. It's kind of confusing, though, because when you get in the gospels, remember that Jesus said that one of the things you should do when you pray is keep praying. You should be persistent. You should pound on that door. You should stay at it. Just stay at it and stay at it and stay at it. But if it's a door that shut and no one opens, doesn't that seem sort of like futile?

It does. You see, when you're facing a shut door, you ask yourselves the questions. Well, how long should I keep doing this? How loud should I keep pounding? How do I know which doors will remain closed?

How do I deal with this? Well, over the last week and really for the last couple of months in this series, I've studied all of the pertinent text and I have an answer for you this morning. And it's just three words, so you'll all be able to remember it. I don't know. I don't.

I don't know. But I have come to this conclusion. I know this. That God has greater things in mind for us than that we know for sure which doors we should keep pounding on. And that we should understand that some doors shouldn't be opened. That's very important for us. There are some reasons why God keeps doors shut from you and from me.

The first one is going to be found in Mark 10 in verse 35. And the first reason is this. Sometimes we are knocking on the wrong door. We're capable of that. We go to the Lord in prayer. We want something to happen. But all we're doing is knocking on the wrong door.

And here's a classic example. In verse 35. Says James and John, the two sons of Zebedee. Came up to Jesus and they said, Rabbi, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

That's kind of an interesting. They didn't say would you do us a favor. We want you to do for us whatever it is we ask you because we've heard you say, ask and it'll be given. We've heard you say that. And so we want to ask you something to do for us when we ask you.

I love Jesus's patience. He said to them, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, grant that we may sit one on your right and one on your left in your glory.

That's all we want. Now, we're going to let you be in the center, OK? But we want to be on the right and we want to be on the left. Look, you know, we're special because any time we separate from the twelve, there's three of us. Peter, he's not here. And and James and John, we're always the special ones.

So all we want is to sit on the right and on the left. And Jesus said to them, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism, which I'm going to be baptized? And they said to him, we're able. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you shall drink and you shall be baptized with the baptism in which I'm going to be baptized.

That's true. You'll give your life. But to sit on my right or on my left, that is not mine to give.

But it is for those, he says, for whom it has been prepared. You're knocking on the wrong door. By the way, another reason why they were their mama put them up to it. OK, their mama did, because what you find in Luke and especially if it's another, I think what they did is they went back and said to mama.

He said, no. And she said, well, then I'm going to talk to him. And so she goes and you find the account and look at she goes and wants to talk. And she says, look, I'm not going to ask for much.

All I want is when you come into your kingdom, I want my boys right here. Now, Jesus answers her exactly the same way he answers them and says the same thing. And those two guys again say we're able to do it just like they did before. But you know what? The answer was still no. And the door was still shut. To them.

We're capable of this. One time, Jesus was going through Samaria and again, James and James and John, and they were rejected by a Samaritan town. And the reason they were rejected is the Jews hated the Samaritans. Samaritans hated the Jews.

So they were rejected. And they basically said, Lord, this bring down fire and brimstone from heaven and wipe this place out. And Jesus said, no, no, I appreciate your zeal, but no. Moses, Jeremiah, Elijah and Jonah all said to the Lord, take my life.

Please take my life. In every case, the answer is no. And the reason in all these cases, they're knocking on the wrong door. You see, you and I have a propensity for that kind of thing, because I don't know if you've noticed this about yourself. You're selfish. You are. You're selfish. And you basically want God to be involved in your selfishness, to carry out your agenda.

And you're willing to ask almost anything and the door would be shut. I mean, some of you I'm sure on a daily basis, Lord, please let me hit the lottery. Please, Lord, let me hit the lottery.

I'll think of you afterwards. I'm going to guess if you're a child of God and you're praying that you're not likely to hit the lottery. You see, why are you praying for that door to open? You see, why? I want more.

I want to be more secure. The Lord said, then what am I here for? You see, what am I here for then? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all this will be added to you.

What am I here for? You see, sometimes we have this capacity to just pound on the wrong door. And whenever we do that, the door is going to stay shut. Secondly, sometimes the door is closed because God has plans that we don't know about. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 50, right at the end of the book of Genesis, right before the book of Exodus. If at the end of Genesis, you know, we're in the story of Joseph.

And before we actually go to the text, I want you to think about Joseph and what his prayer life must have been like. I mean, first of all, Joseph grew up in a dysfunctional family. I mean, and pretty much everybody but his one brother, Benjamin, hated his guts. And now he brought a little of that on himself because he would have dreams. And then he would say, all of you one day will come and bow before me.

And brothers don't like that much, you know, when they hear their brother saying that. And so they hated him so much that they decided they would murder him. Then they had some sense of responsibility and decided not to murder him. They put him in a pit and then they sold him.

And they sold him to Midianites who were on their way to Egypt as a slave. Now, if you're a young man like Joseph and you're on your way into Egypt as a slave, what do you think your prayer life is on the way? Lord, please let me get out of here. Lord, please let me escape. Lord, please allow me to go home to see my father and my brother. Lord, please. You imagine, he's praying that all along.

But it doesn't work that way. So then he gets to Egypt. Now he gets to find himself thrown in prison.

So what would you do if you were him? What's the universal prayer of a prisoner? Especially, I want out.

I want out, Lord, please let me get out, let me get out, let me get out. And he does. So that door sort of opened for him away, but it closes right up again. He gets this really good job at Potiphar's house. But then he started realizing something. Potiphar loves him and Potiphar's wife loves him even more, but in a different way. And so what do you think he prayed? Lord, keep this woman from me.

Keep this woman away from me, no matter what. Didn't happen, you know the story, back in prison. Then eventually he gets to interpret some dreams, gets out of prison, and works his way up and in a sense becomes almost prime minister of Egypt.

Incredible thing. There's a famine back in the land and his brothers come down in order to get food. So you know the rest of the story. But notice at the end of it all, in verse 18 of chapter 50, it says this. And then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, for I am in God's place.

Wow. Do you think he thought he was in God's place when he was in the pit? When the Midianites bought him for 20 pieces of silver?

When he was sold, gone into, he should be sold as a slave, went into prison. Do you think, Oh, I'm in God's place? No, this is hindsight. This is hindsight and it's hindsight because now he knows that God sometimes has plans that we don't know about at all. He says, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive.

Wow. You see, he looked back on it and he saw something. The conclusion is sort of this. God has the fundamental right to keep a door closed because he knows what will lead to a better outcome. God will do that in your life all the time.

He will close a door because he knows of a better outcome that's going to come. Just imagine this. Just imagine if God said yes to all of our prayers. Whatever you pray, God said yes. Do you realize what a disaster that would be? Do you realize how horrible that would get?

He said yes to every prayer you had that all of us had. You see, we have this propensity because of our sinfulness to turn anything good and make it terrible. Think of mankind. Anytime mankind makes a discovery that can help people, he figures out how to use that discovery to kill people.

That's man. Now if all of us got everything we wanted when we wanted it, it would be a disaster. So God keeps a lot of doors closed.

A closed door is a very important part of our prayer lives. This past week I was reading a biography about a young man who was born in abject poverty. And he resolved that one day he wouldn't be poor. He was a really hard worker. And from his teenage years on, when he worked, no matter how little he was paid, he always found a way to save some of it. And so he saved all that he could, and he decided that he wanted to go into business for himself. So he took his savings, and he had to put it with two other things. He had to put it with a partner, and he had to borrow as much money as a lender would give him to start a grocery store. Now one of the problems that he ran into that his partner was an alcoholic, and that created enormous problems. The other thing that he ran into is he didn't know the first thing of running a grocery store, and so it was an absolute total failure. And he says in the biography, I prayed every day for this grocery store to succeed, that I wouldn't lose my life savings, that I'd finally get out of poverty, and it failed miserably. So after it failed, he realized he'd never be an entrepreneur, so he decided to go back to school. And he went back to school, and he studied law.

And he had an average or decent law practice, and then decided from the law practice to go into politics. And in 1860, he was elected president of the United States. And it's interesting that when you read Lincoln from Lincoln's point of view, one of the things that amazes me, sort of like what happens with Joseph, in his second inaugural address in 1864, one of the things he says in that address is that he had great confidence of how God is at work to bring about an outcome of that war, that civil war with infinite wisdom, rather than the will of two sides who are praying every day that they win.

And I thought, he got it. That's the way it works. Sometimes God has plans that you don't know about.

It happened in my life, it's happened in yours. I think of all the plans that I had when we finally went to seminary and we were going to go into ministry and go into a church. One of the plans we had was to plan a church in Plano, Texas.

And so we were planning it, and it seemed like the perfect deal. We had about 20, 25 people, but the people were uniquely gifted. We had people who had financial resources that would say, we'll do whatever it takes to make this work. We had people who had spiritual wisdom and experience. We had people who had giftedness with children and teens.

We had people that could sing, play guitar, play piano. I mean, really, looking back, it must have been me. I just thought of that. Anyway, but I was praying about that on a regular basis, and the door stayed closed. It failed.

I remember once getting a chance to maybe apply to a church near State College, Pennsylvania, and I was really excited about that, sent off my resume, prayed about it fervently. Nada. Nothing.

I had never even heard of Metairie, Louisiana. Now I look back, and I think, wow, all the blessings, all the people that have crossed my path, all the chance to influence so many people for Christ when traded for anything in the world ever. But see, that's the way God is. We're shut, but it's shut for a reason, because He knows what we don't know in a very different way. 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.