Confronting Closed Doors - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, February twenty-eight. When opportunity knocks, most of us are quick to open the door. But how should we respond when a door that appeared to be the one is slammed shut?

Today, we learn about confronting closed doors. Well, you had your plans made and they were plans that you led a long time ago and you were just all excited. All of a sudden, the door to your plans was slammed shut.

And you asked the question, why? What's caused this? God, what's going on? I was so absolutely sure and certain this was Your will for my life.

And I was equally as certain this is the time. Why have You allowed this door of my life to be closed? Well, all of us have been to that place in our life when the plans that we'd made, somehow they just got shut down. And so, we either responded in one or two ways.

Either we responded in a way that brought more difficult circumstances, or we responded in a way that caused us to be able to enjoy what we dreamed about, what we'd hoped for in a far greater way. And so, what I want to talk about in this message is this, confronting closed doors. And I want you to look, if you will, to the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts. And here is a perfect example of God's servant, the apostle Paul, who got the door slammed before him two times in a row.

When he'd laid out his plans, planned the second missionary journey, knew exactly what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go, and God stopped him. So, there's some tremendous lessons to be learned in this passage of Scripture. And I want to encourage you to take good notes because I know that you're going to face some closed doors in your life.

All of us do. And we respond in one or two ways, a good way or a bad way. So, let me give you a little background, what's happening. Paul's leading on his second missionary journey and he's going in order to strengthen the churches where he's already established. And he and his cohorts here had a little disagreement. And Barnabas wanted to take John Mark along and Paul said, no, nothing doing.

But the simple reason, when he was with us last time, he deserted us, I'm not taking him, so he takes Silas. And so, John Mark and Barnabas head on and so, Paul and Silas begin this second missionary journey. And here's what's happening, if you'll look, in the fifth verse of this sixteenth chapter.

So, the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily. So, they were having a successful trip and journey, missionary journey. They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. So, that's where he was headed. And the Spirit of God said, no, shut the door on him.

Well, that'd be bad enough. Then, after they came to Masea, they were trying to go into Bithynia and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And passing by Masea, they came down to Troas. And while they were at Troas, the Scripture said, a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So, putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace and on the day following to Neapolis. And from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. And we were staying in this city for some days. And then, of course, on the Sabbath day, they're down by the riverside and they meet Lydia there.

And God begins to work. And the next thing you know, Paul is in one of his favorite places. He's back in jail. In fact, the apostle Paul spent more time in jail than he did out.

He was familiar inside of the jail houses. And so, on this second missionary journey, here he ends up in jail. What I want you to see that's so very significant. What appeared to be a mistake? What appeared to be wrong plan? What appeared to be something that would be very disappointing to the apostle Paul? When the Spirit of God forbids him to preach the gospel in Asia. And then forbids him to preach the gospel even in an area close to that. That is, instead of going east like he planned, the Spirit of God now calls him to go west onto a whole new continent.

And what's so significant about that is this. It is in this moment in the life of the apostle Paul when he obeys the Holy Spirit that absolutely was a moment in time when civilization was affected. Because had he continued the way he was going, the gospel of Jesus Christ would have gone to Asia, China, India, and those countries. Instead, God led him to a whole new continent and brought it to Europe and all the way to our nation. Suppose he had said, I plan to go to Asia.

This is what I have attempted to do. We need to strengthen the churches there. I must be not having a good day for the Spirit of God. Whatever this is that's causing me to think in terms of something totally different.

That moment in time, the apostle Paul obeyed the promptings of the Holy Spirit and history. Civilization has been affected as a result of it. And so I want us to think in terms of these closed doors.

The title of this message is simply this. Confronting closed doors because we have them in our life. And sometimes they appear to be insignificant. Sometimes they appear to be very significant.

They're always significant. And so I want us to think in terms of how this applies in your life and mine. Because we have all been there at times. Things we've planned.

We just knew it was God's will. Shut it down. Close the door.

And sometimes it was to just absolutely shatter your dream. Whenever God chooses to shut the door in your life and my life, there's always a reason. And we have to decide how we're going to respond. And so I want us to think in terms of what God is up to when He does this.

What is He trying to say to us? And so the first question I want us to ask is simply this. Who's responsible for it?

Who's responsible? What causes these doors to be shut? Well, one thing could be this. And that is just pure circumstances. The circumstances in which we're living at that moment, that time or relationships or whatever it might be, it just doesn't work out the door shuts. Sometimes it's because of something someone else does. They intervene in your life and cause a door to be shut. Sometime it's just a pure devil at work. And then sometimes it's God who chooses to shut a door that appeared to be His open door.

And I want you to be careful you jot down these notes for the simple reason you're going to find this situation in your life. And you're going to be asking the question. It's a legitimate question, God. Why have you closed this door in my life? And so the first reason is this, is to protect us from making a mistake.

To protect us from making a mistake. Sometimes an open door appears to be absolutely exactly what we want. And yet on the other hand, God closes it.

Why? Because you see, on opportunities like this, whatever it may be, you and I can only see on this side of the opportunity. God sees on the other side of that door. We look at the door and think, this is the door I want to walk through. This is God for sure. If you and I could walk around on the other side of that door and take a look, we'd say, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm.

Was I about to make a big mistake? And so this is where our trust is so very important. If God closes the door, it is because He knows what's on the other side. And remember, He closes that door to protect us from making a mistake. Now, He also knows that you and I oftentimes really and truly want to do the will of God.

We're committed to that. He also understands that you and I don't always have all the information. We just have some of the information. So therefore, what appears to us to be certainly an open door and one that God would have you walk through, whether it's vocationally, marriage-wise, financially, or schooling, or vocation, whatever it might be.

But the facts that we have, it looks like the right thing. God knows what we don't know. And therefore, when He closes a door for you and me, whatever it may be, He closes it in order to keep us from making a mistake, which means it's motivated by His love for us.

God doesn't want to see us make mistakes. He knows that we don't have all the facts. He knows that if you and I knew what He would do, and this is very comforting to me. He knows if I knew what He knows, I wouldn't do what I'm about to do.

Now that's a very comforting fact. He knows that if I knew what He knew, I wouldn't do it. Therefore, He's not there to judge us, but to protect us knowing we don't have all the facts. If we did, if we could see what He sees, we would not do what we would do.

Now some people say, well now listen, wait a minute. God just expects us to make up our own mind and use our own judgment. Well, if that's true and that's all there is to it, then you have to deal with two passages of Scripture. Here's what He says. He says, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Which means He's expecting you and me to seek His guidance and direction and He says He'll direct our path. And so therefore, He's not judgmental. He just shuts the door because He loves us enough to protect us from making a mistake we would not make if we knew better. Now the apostle Paul certainly was confused and probably a little frustrated when all of a sudden the Spirit of God very clearly said, Paul, can't go to Asia. So naturally, he'd have a reason to doubt. He'd have a reason maybe to fret a little bit about it and ask in God, well, what in the world are you up to and why would you cause me not to go there?

Well, it would have been a mistake from God's perspective. So, one reason he shuts the door is to keep us from making a mistake. A second reason he does is to redirect us. That is, it isn't necessary that God shuts all doors, but He redirects us from this door to another one. And so, when you think about it in that light, you think about it in this way. That is, He's redirecting us to a greater opportunity.

Now watch this. A greater opportunity. Asia and the area in which Paul is speaking of here is where the seven churches Asia Minor are that you read in the book of the Revelation.

And the cities there were somewhat cities, but there was one there that was a fantastic city and that's Ephesus. What God was doing by closing the door to the apostle Paul to preach the gospel in Asia, what was he doing? He was simply giving him a far greater opportunity.

Here's what he was doing. Instead of going to Asia where he'd already been, established in some churches, he was moving him to an entirely different continent. And the fact that he obeyed God when the Spirit of God spoke through this angel or he saw in this vision this particular servant of God saying, Come over to Macedonia.

Come over into an entirely different continent and preach the gospel over here. The Spirit of God made it so clear he knew that he had to go. Now, what was God doing? He was giving him this awesome opportunity to affect all of civilization. And as a result of that, Paul is going to experience something that absolutely amazed him because what he's doing, he's redirecting him to greater service.

Now think about this, for example. Those other cities were rather small cities, but now what's God doing? He's opening up to the apostle Paul the key cities of the world of his day. So, he crosses that strait and he goes up to Philippi, a Roman colony. Very, very, very important part of Europe of that day. Then he comes down to Thessalonica. And if you look in your map, he's just coming around the coast. He's coming to Thessalonica, then to Berea, then to Athens, then to Corinth.

And so, what happens? Here's Athens, Corinth, Philippi, and then Ephesus. Those major metropolitan areas of the day would be like, for example, coming to America and saying, well, I'm going to build a church or establish a church in New York City. Then I'm going to Atlanta.

Then I'm going to Dallas and up to Chicago and Kansas City. What he did, God opened this awesome door of opportunity for him to build churches, to establish churches in great metropolitan commercial areas where there was so much transportation and people coming through that area, going into all parts of the known world that day. Far greater opportunity, far greater opportunity, far greater service for the Lord than he had, than he would have had, had he done what he had planned to do, which seemed to be the right thing to do, strengthen those local churches. He gave him an awesome, wonderful opportunity to preach the gospel and also to change, as it were, human history from that point on. God made an awesome decision, a decision by His own divine wisdom, to make it possible for Europe, the western world, to receive the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God, establishing churches.

And you think about today. In the western world, we have the technology. In the western world, we've had years and years and years of preaching and teaching the gospel. There are enough resources and technology and people in this country alone to witness the gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire known world. And God has given us that wonderful opportunity. To Paul, when this was going on, it certainly had to be strange to him, because the other part of the world was so much easier and so much better known by him. And so, here's God saying, no, you can't do this. Now watch this. There'll be times when God will shut doors in your life and mine, and there seems to be no human reasoning that you and I can justify that.

You and I can't afford to live by reasoning. We must live by the promptings of the Spirit, which is exactly what happened. When the Spirit of God speaks to you, He is not going to call you by name.

He's not going to scream and holler. He's going to give you a very quiet prompting in your conscience and your spirit. He gave to the apostle Paul a vision that made it very, very clear in his mind. Now, you asked me, well, have you ever had any visions?

You'd probably go out and quote me saying all kind of things. I'm going to make this real clear. The answer is yes, and I can tell you how clear it was. I was about to make a mistake, and I'd been praying for a number of days for God to show me what He was trying to say to me. One night I got on my knees asking God, Lord, You must show me what to do. And this was my third night crying out to God, and I'd been preaching in revival, and I'd come home at night being very disturbed in my spirit. And God said to me very clear, here's what I'm going to do. And I said, Lord, when? I've only been here for a few months. When? I can remember this. It's photographed in my mind.

All of a sudden, quickly, just about like, here's this screen in front of me, bottom left hand corner, right top corner in big bold black letters, September. He knew that at that point in my life, I needed desperately for Him to make it so clear, unmistakably clear what I was to do. And I made the right choice. I made the right decision.

You know what? I would have been an absolute fool not to have done what He said to when He made it so clear. I believe the Apostle Paul saw it just that clear. He saw it so clearly. He knew it was the voice of God.

He did exactly what God told him to do. If I had not obeyed that simple vision that night, you wouldn't know me, I wouldn't know you. I wouldn't be a part of this fellowship, and we wouldn't be preaching the gospel all over the world. There are moments in time when you and I must listen carefully to the promptings of the Spirit. Now, you say, well, what's a prompting of the Spirit?

Here's what it is. The promptings of the Spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit doing what? Urging you, nudging your spirit to do something specific. And that's God loving us and protecting us and redirecting us about something we're about to do that's not of Him. And so, the Apostle Paul, listen to what the Spirit said.

He heard and he saw this vision. And you say, well, should I pray for visions? No. I've never prayed for a vision, never. Have I had many?

No. But here's what I've noticed. When they were extremely, very extremely important, God knows when you and I want to do what's right and need what only He can show us at the moment what is right.

Why? Because He loves us. So, you don't pray for visions and you pray for some kind of sign, you just ask Him.

Now, watch this. If I'm willing to listen to those quiet, simply nudgings of the Spirit, then if I need to know more than that, and if God needs to send somebody specifically to me to speak to me and to clear my mind and help me to see a particular thing that I need to see, He'll send them. Or He may give you just that, just about that fast.

You know, it's Him. Paul listened to the prompting of the Spirit. He happened to have seen a vision and he obeyed exactly. He could have said, oh, I just had this crazy dream. But he obeyed exactly what God was doing.

And what happened? God listened, redirected him not only to greater service, but to greater fruitfulness. Thank you for listening to Confronting Closed Doors. If you would like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.