“Choosing Which Doors You’ll Walk Through”
Pastor Jerry
Revelation 3:7-8
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Last weekend Vonda and I visited Historic Colonial Williamsburg and roamed the 18th century streets. As we meandered through buildings, we encountered many doors. Many doors with many different purposes.
In the Bible doors are metaphors for a lot of important things in your life. There’s so many implications to how doors are used in your life, but there are also many, many implications how they are used spiritually in your life.
The Bible itself is called a door. The Bible says, the Word is like a mirror. When we read the book of God, it’s not just telling us about God, it mirrors what we’re really like.
(Our Scripture Reading) Rev 3:7-8 …Jesus says, “I hold the Key …in my hand…Now I know everything you have done. So look! I am placing before you an open door…” Now this is what’s called the door of opportunity. This has happened many times in my life, where God has opened doors for me that I would have no way been able to open on my own. God has been doing this for our church, here at the Boones Mill Church, over the past two years. There have many new doors of opportunity opened for us.
God wants us to understand about the implications of Him opening new doors for us in our lives. I’m going to give you Seven points.
First thing you need to learn about doors:
- Every door is a decision.
In the Bible, doors are metaphors for the choices that we make every day. Your choices determine your destiny more than anything else. Every time you see a door, you’ve got a decision. Will I go through it or not? Should I go through it or not?
The second thing you learn about doors concerning God.
- My destiny will be shaped by which doors I walk past and which doors I walk through.
Your destiny, your life will be determined by your choices. Now, the tough part is knowing the right door, because every time you walk through the door, there’s a cost. Some doors takes years to get back on track. If you want to make wise decisions and to choose the right doors and not the wrong ones; you have to have what the Bible calls discernment (wisdom).The Bible in Deuteronomy 30:15, God says, “Today, I’m giving you a choice. You can choose life and success, or you can choose death and disaster.”
The third thing you learn about doors concerning God.
- A door may be… different things. First, it may be
- an opportunity from God
Those are the good doors you want to go through. When God gives you an opportunity. And if you walk through them in the right way, at the right time, and do the right thing, it’s going to be amazing in your life.
- a distraction from others
Distraction, keeps you from doing what God wants you to do. That door ends up getting you off track. That’s why you need discernment. God has a wonderful plan for your life, but so does everybody else.
- a trap from Satan
There are trapdoors in this world, and many of us have fallen into them. Matthew 16:23, Jesus says, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You’re looking at things merely from a human viewpoint, not from God’s.” Anytime I look at my life from a human viewpoint, instead of God’s, that’s a trap.
Here’s the fourth thing you need to know about doors concerning God.
- If an open door is truly from God, it will not contradict God’s Word.
If God says, “Don’t do this,” God’s not going to open a door for you to do it. That door is a trap. It’s not an opportunity. In Matthew 24:35, Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Word will never pass away.” If it was true a thousand years ago, it’ll be true now and true a thousand years from today.
The fifth thing I’ve learned about doors concerning God.
- Sometimes God shuts a door for my protection.
God shuts the door sometimes for your protection. In Genesis 7:16, it says, once Noah’s has done everything God told him to do on the ark, he says, “God shut the door.” Why did God shut the door for Noah? To protect him from all the rain and the storm. God knows how to shut doors to protect you and God knows how to open doors to bless you.
Number six is a really important lesson you have to learn about doors concerning God.
- God will open doors for me if I open doors for others.
This is the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. God wants you to learn to be a giver. He wants you to learn to be generous. The Bible says in Proverbs 11:25, “Anyone who generously blesses others will be generously blessed. And when you refresh others, you will be refreshed yourself.” We are told in the Bible to be generous all the time with people, generous with our money, with our time, with our praises, generous with our possessions. This is called hospitality. It’s one of the key values of being a follower of Jesus Christ. The more you are generous, the more God will open doors for you.
Okay. Number seven. Let me give you one more thing you learn about doors concerning God.
- Sometimes God cracks open a door to give me a glimpse to inspire me to grow.
God has a destiny for your life. By the way, no one can destroy your destiny except you. God won’t. The devil can’t. Other people can’t. The person who can destroy it is you: wrong choices. The way God intends to fulfill our life is often the exact opposite of the way you think you should do it. And God can do more in five minutes on his timing, than you can do in 50 years on yours. He could flip things around in amazing ways. And He does.
Now, what you are going to need to develop to move forward in your life…you need 3 things.
- Learn discernment to know which doors to walk through…which not to.
My prayer for you as your pastor is the same prayer that Paul prayed in Philippians 1:9-10, “…that your love will keep growing more and more with knowledge and greater discernment,” why? “so that you will be able to make the right choices.” Notice what helps you make the right choices, love, knowledge and discernment.
- Learn courage to walk through the right doors
You may know the right thing to do, but you don’t have the faith to actually take the step. It’s not enough to just know it. You’ve got to have the courage to do it. Now, what is courage? Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing the right thing, even when you’re fearful. Courage is when you do the right thing, even when you’re scared to do it.
- Learn how to open doors for other people.
Start opening doors, being nice to people, being kind to people, being hospitable to people, just something that’s an act of love, and watch what God does. 1 Peter 4:9, “…show hospitality without grumbling about it. Each of you should use whatever gifts you have received from God to serve others.” So I want to open doors for you, I want God to open doors for you. This is not something you learn by listening, but by doing. Being hospitable, being loving.