Well, we purpose in our heart that we want to reach out and share the light of Jesus Christ out into the world, bring people in, and then the spiritual atmosphere gets charged with interferences and problems. I wonder if you have had any this week.
All kinds of things. I got home last Sunday, and in twenty-four hours I lost both of my cars and had no car all week long. One lost his whole engine and is now getting a new one put in, and the other—I have a diesel—had ten gallons of water in the diesel tank, and it shot the injector. Somebody put in bad fuel. So, you know, things like that.
I walked around all week and caught a cold this week. How about you? And I thought to myself yesterday, as I was fighting off a cold and taking some vitamin C and laying low, “You know, I would not miss this weekend for anything.”
I am thankful to be here, and I am very encouraged to hear of the prayer meeting Wednesday night, of the doors that our Lord Jesus has opened already and is opening. The people anticipated on coming tomorrow—if they get here, you know they will come through spiritual flak. It will be a spiritual victory just to see people here. Really, it is a wonderful opportunity.
Now I want to share with you one detail which was not clear last week, just to help us all trust the Lord a little bit more. In gospel meetings, you are used to having the focus down here in the front, where somebody shares testimony, somebody preaches the gospel, and somebody gives the invitation.
Well, we are going to do most of that. But the invitation is the unique part of tomorrow’s gospel meeting. After I share a simple gospel message, I am going to stop my message. At that point, there are going to be twenty-five brothers scattered throughout this congregation—basically one for this side here, front and back, one for this group, and so forth.
These twenty-five brethren are going to stand up and be identified, and everybody is to group around these brethren. They are going to pose the question to everybody in the group that I am going to pose.
I am talking tomorrow morning on Psalm 23, and the end of it, where David said, “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” I am going to pose this question: Are you in the house of the Lord? Are you outside the house of the Lord? Or are you in the house of the Lord, but not at home with the Lord?
Basically, I am talking about salvation and lordship. But I am going to pose the question and leave it sufficiently ambiguous, giving people latitude, depending on where they are coming from, to express how they feel.
The brother will say, “Now, would anybody like to answer that question, or perhaps raise a question?” I want a Christian to be the first to speak. It would be wonderful if somebody who is just a visitor were the first one to chime in, but most likely it will take one of the brothers or sisters.
Make your confession. “Well, I believe by the grace of God I am in the house. I would like to be more at home. Could we pray about it? I wonder how I could be more at home.” Let us just be honest, and then pray for one another.
Eventually, the heat is going to get on, and some of the people in the group who are just there visiting are going to get their chance to say where they are coming from. Somebody might say straight out, “I am outside.” Somebody might say, “What does it mean to be in the house anyway? What is this guy talking about?”
The whole group together gets an opportunity to pray silently inside, and sometimes pray outwardly for the various people. The brothers need to be bold enough to say, “Could we pray for you?” Somebody might say, “Well, I do not know if I believe in God.” You say, “Good. Can we pray about that?”
What we do in the small context is invite people to declare where they are at and pray for them. Some people will get saved. Some people will come closer to the Lord. We do not know what is going to happen.
This will be different from the usual meeting where one person draws a net and people come up to the front. You are going to be evangelizing right there in your little group. How does that make you feel? Is that not great?
The person that you bring or have invited to the meeting—by God’s grace, I hope you will commit yourself, as He enables you, to follow up on that person. We have no follow-up system here in the house of God except your heart being faithful to find out where somebody is coming from.
Let us say you brought a friend who absolutely mummifies during this little group and does not say a thing. Do not try to force somebody open; just go on to the next person. But you brought this person.
After it is over—tomorrow, on Monday, during lunch, or sometime—you should really go to that person and say, “Where do you think you fit into that little thing? What did you think of the meeting? What do you think of the Lord Jesus?”
You have the opportunity of following up the people that you have invited. Now please, brothers and sisters, do that. Otherwise, we have no system. We have no cards. We are not going to write down any names. But we need to have our hearts sensitized.
What is liable to happen here is the beginning of some people’s conviction by the Holy Spirit, which will lead them down the road at some point to the Lord. But you and I need to follow up.
I remember a meeting three years ago. We had a Christmas party, really—a turkey dinner at a little fellowship out on Long Island. These people brought all their non-Christian friends. They came for free turkey. We had singing, sang some Christmas carols, and then I shared the gospel.
We gave an invitation. I think maybe one person accepted the Lord—a teenager. But that was the beginning of a snowball that eventually resulted in over fifty baptisms in that little group, because the brothers and sisters followed up with those people.
One of the sisters and brothers started a Bible study in their home for twelve or fourteen of those people who came, heard, and wondered what was going on. That started a snowball going out in Mattituck, Long Island. It is amazing what can happen.
But if we just say, “Whew, man, sure glad Sunday is over,” and let everybody drift, we have missed it. I hope you will be very aware of the people that you brought. If they feel very uncomfortable, help them.
We are not going to pressure anybody. Listen, I do not believe in a gospel where they have to accept it tomorrow morning or it is too late. We need to share the gospel, and for some people it may just start to penetrate.
Let people express where they are coming from. Pray for people, be kind to people, and be confessional ourselves as Christians. If we all say, “Praise God, I was delivered from hell, and I live at home with Jesus,” anybody who is struggling immediately has a tough time with that kind of a statement.
I know all of you are almost perfect and ready to be raptured, but you do not have to tell that to everybody. Sometimes it is better just to be a human being and thank God that you believe you are in the house of God, and perhaps explain why.
I would like to share a few things tonight regarding the Lord’s presence with us. If you turn to John 10, I would like to start off with a thought that I mentioned briefly last week and take it up a little more fully.
I will begin reading in John 10:1.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.
But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.
This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.
So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.”
Here is a wonderful picture of Jesus as the door—the door of the sheep. If you go over to Israel and see shepherds with their flocks and the little sheepfolds where they take them at night, you find these stone enclosures with an opening for the sheep to come through. There is no wooden door and no iron gate.
When the sheep come in, the shepherd sits down in the doorway. He is the door of the sheep. Nobody comes in unless they go through the shepherd. He is the ultimate door. There is no safer door than having Jesus sitting in the doorway.
Jesus is using this illustration to show that He is the door to salvation—for people who come in and for people who go out and find pasture. As I mentioned last week, it means that Jesus is the way to salvation, but it also means something very practical for us on the inside.
Jesus is not only the way; He is the actual means. He is not only the way, but He is the mechanics. When you look at the Book of Acts, you see Jesus as the door.
You have heard the debate over whether the Book of Acts is the acts of the apostles, the acts of the Holy Spirit, or the acts of Jesus Christ. Luke says at the beginning of the book that he is continuing the story of what Jesus began to do and teach.
Obviously, these are the acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit and through the apostles. But if you look at the Book of Acts in a simple way, you see that Jesus opens the door—in this place and in that place—for people to be saved.
In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost. There was a mighty wind, tongues of fire came down on the disciples, and they began to speak the languages of visitors who had come for the Feast of Pentecost.
People rushed to find out what was going on. Peter stood up with the other apostles and explained it. His sermon was rather simple: “We are not drunk. The promise from the Book of Joel—that in the last days the Spirit would be poured out—you are seeing right in front of your eyes.”
Peter showed them that they had been culpable in putting Jesus to death, but that He had been raised again. The people were pricked in their hearts and asked, “What shall we do?” Peter told them to repent and be baptized, and three thousand were saved that day.
How could the disciples ever have gotten started? What would your strategy have been? They had been told to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power of the Holy Spirit and then be witnesses there. They could have asked, “Peter, do you have any ideas? James? John?”
But they waited for the Lord to take the initiative. Suddenly, on the day of Pentecost, the Lord took the initiative. In the context of that miracle, Peter simply explained what was going on, and three thousand people were saved.
In Acts 3, Peter and John were walking to the temple and saw a lame man sitting there. They had seen him every day. But on this particular day, something struck them: this man being there was not a mistake.
They said, “Silver and gold have I none; but in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk.” That man stood up and walked. Acts 4 tells us that five thousand men had believed. Jesus opened the door further in Jerusalem through an event that caught the attention of the people.
God did a divine act, and the disciples explained what was happening. Jesus opened the door through an event planned by God. All we have to do is be obedient to those events planned by God.
In Acts 6, Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. Men from the synagogues argued with him, but they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. It was an act of God.
Then in Acts 8, Philip went to Samaria because of persecution. He preached the gospel, and the Lord came behind him with signs and wonders. Unclean spirits came out, many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was much rejoicing in the city.
The door opened to the city of Samaria because Philip was willing to preach the gospel, and the Holy Spirit came behind him with signs and wonders. Jesus came to Samaria with Philip.
In Acts 9, Peter came to the saints at Lydda and found Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years. Peter said, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” Immediately he arose, and all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
Then Peter went to Joppa, prayed for Tabitha, and she was raised from the dead. It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Peter simply went in obedience, and God said, “I am going to open the door.”
In Acts 10 and Acts 11, Peter had a vision and went to the house of Cornelius. Peter did not know quite what to do about preaching to Gentiles. He simply went in obedience.
As he was preaching the gospel, God took the initiative. The Holy Spirit came down, and those people were soundly saved right there on the spot. Then they baptized these Gentiles. There was the door opening to the Gentiles—and who opened the door? Jesus.
When Paul and Barnabas went to Cyprus in Acts 13, they encountered a magician named Bar-Jesus, who tried to prevent them from preaching the gospel. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, confronted him, and the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened.
The door opened. When the proconsul believes, the door opens for the gospel. God just opened the door.
In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas came to Iconium and spoke boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace by granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. They preached the gospel, and signs and wonders confirmed that these things were true.
In Acts 16, Paul tried to go south, and the Spirit prevented him. He tried to go north, and the Spirit prevented him. Circumstances made him stop and wonder. Then he received the Macedonian vision: “Come over and help us.”
At Philippi, they went down to the river on the Sabbath day and met Lydia, who listened and turned to the Lord with her household. Then a girl with a demon followed Paul around, and Paul commanded the evil spirit to come out of her. He was put in jail, an earthquake came, and the Philippian jailer was saved.
Jesus was the door in Philippi. His way of opening the door was through Lydia, through the Philippian jailer, and through their relatives and the people they knew. It happens through people communicating with people at the right time.
In Acts 19, God opened the door in Ephesus. Mighty wonders and miracles occurred, believers were saved, and people who had magic books burned them. It was a real time of revival.
In Acts 28, God opened the door in Rome. Paul was in jail, yet freely and unhindered preaching the gospel in Rome. God used jail to open the way for Paul in Rome.
Brothers and sisters, I am not saying that what we need is to emphasize miracles. What I am saying is this: when I say Jesus is the door, I mean there is a specific door that He opens in an area. It is specific, unique, His timing, and His opening.
When He opens it, no man can shut it. We need to be aware of these doors. Each door in Ephesus, Philippi, Iconium, Derbe, or wherever you want to take, was unique. There is no single pattern.
Sometimes a door is a college. Two people on a college campus know the Lord, they begin to get together with a few others, and next thing you know, a door opens to a particular assembly and thirty people come from one college because somebody was there at the door.
Then perhaps the door closes, and a door opens in a neighborhood. Somebody meets somebody, they have a Bible study, and suddenly that neighborhood is hot. People begin talking about the Lord, coming to the Lord, and coming to the meetings.
Sometimes it is a family. One family gets saved and has influence over other families. They bring neighbors, and a network of six or eight families becomes connected. When that one family is saved, six other families may come in and be saved.
This whole thing is worked out by Jesus. We need to be faithful and witness in many different ways, but God has doors that He opens. Sometimes they are not doors we like or doors we would choose.
I want to talk about doorknobs, because those are the people the Lord uses to open the door. God can do things sovereignly, but He chooses to use what I am calling doorknobs—people willing to be turned, people willing to be there at the right time when God opens the door.
You have doorknobs right here. There are certain people in a fellowship with a gift. I can almost spot them when I go someplace. There is a young girl in the assembly I attend, just a young Christian, and she is an absolute doorknob. She brings in people off the street. She brings in friends.
The whole rest of the group does not bring as many people as that one person. She is willing to be turned. She has a network of people she knows and cultivates, and she is willing to bring them. She has a way with people, and they come.
These are, in a non-technical sense, the evangelists in the assembly. They are the door-openers, the Andrews. Andrew was always bringing people to Jesus: first his brother, then the boy with the loaves and fish, then the Gentiles in John 12.
Call them Andrews or doorknobs, whatever you want. These people are vital in the assembly, and they should be encouraged—not discouraged all the time.
Not everybody is a doorknob. Thank God there are shepherds in the body of Christ, people concerned with teaching and things that need to be done within the body itself. Doorknobs are part of the overall function, but they are not the entire function.
The long-range outreach in the Richmond assembly is in large part dependent upon you doorknobs being safe to keep stirring up the saints, to keep encouraging them to reach out, and for you to keep being a door, encouraging people to come.
A few characteristics of a doorknob: first of all, they have a giving spirit. In Luke 16:9, Jesus says:
And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness;
that, when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
How do you make friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness? Whatever we have could be consumed in a moment. But I think the Lord is saying, “Take what you have as an opportunity to reach out. Use what you have for the Lord’s sake.”
Christians can become so stingy with their hearts, stingy with what they have. We build walls instead of giving away. A doorknob is somebody always giving tapes to people, giving books to somebody, opening their home, and having people in.
Some women say, “Oh, my house is nothing. I cannot have anybody over.” Another woman with a house just as little, just as tiny, or overstuffed with children says, “Let us have somebody over.” That kind of generous spirit, I believe, the Lord really honors.
Be generous with your car, picking people up and taking people places. The Lord Jesus had the greatest giving spirit of anybody. He had so little materially, yet He was always giving, always giving.
Another thing is an opportunistic spirit. In Colossians 4:5-6, it says:
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.
Make the most of the opportunity. We have opportunities all the time—bumping into people at work, at home, and in our neighborhood. Do we take the opportunities?
I am not talking so much about going out and knocking on doors cold. I am talking about starting with the opportunities we have and taking advantage of them. It is incredible what happens when we take advantage of them.
I remember being with a witnessing team in Nottingham, England. My wife and I stayed in the home of a wonderful Christian couple who had such a burden for their neighborhood but did not know how to make contact.
I said, “Why do we not have a tea party? Invite all the neighbors in.” They had never done that before and thought nobody would come. We told the neighbors that an American couple was staying with them and that we wanted to meet English people.
At ten o’clock nobody was there. At ten-fifteen, the first neighbor came in. Then another neighbor came, and another. My wife and I sang “Amazing Grace,” explained why we were there, and told them we were Christians. The couple then told them they were Christians too.
Shortly after we left, the wife next door became very sick and was in the hospital. This young Christian couple kept the children. Both the husband and wife got saved. They had been afraid of rejection, but there was quite an open and willing response.
Hospitals are opportunities. I am not talking about taking advantage of people; I am talking about going to them and sharing the love of Jesus. When somebody moves into your neighborhood, what an opportunity to welcome them, find out where they are at, and talk with them.
When there is a death experience in somebody’s family, sincerely say, “I am really sorry to hear that. How is your mom doing? What is her name? I would like to pray for her.” People do a double take. They cannot believe somebody cares for them.
There is an opportunity coming up in a couple of weeks: the Super Bowl. I am concerned about men. Women catch hold of this and reach out to people they know. How about men? How many doorknobs do you know who are men?
Some men ought to get together with a couple of buddies from work, have a Super Bowl party at the house, have some light snacks, watch the Super Bowl together, and talk about the Lord a little bit during halftime. I believe men would eat that up when you are real.
Gospel opportunities for men include sports, breakfast together, golf, and simply spending time with other men. Invite a friend to share an outing, have a meal afterward, and share the gospel. Men can be impressed with the Lord in your life just by you being natural.
If we do not plan to take hold of opportunities like that, they slip by, and we do not get around to it. You cannot always be haphazardly winging it.
Your area groups are probably among the best ways of reaching out. Perhaps every fifth meeting could be devoted to reaching out in your particular local area: have a meal, invite friends over, have a light evening, and let people see what Christian fellowship is.
If you do not plan for outreach, it does not happen. If you do not plan for outreach corporately on a larger basis, it will not happen either. Some people have to have the vision and say, “Jesus is the door. If we will be faithful, He will open the door.”
God is certainly wanting to reach out to people. If you will be faithful, He will show you some doors, some specific doors to go through. If you go through those doors faithfully, the Lord will lead you through, and you will lead some people to the Lord.
Then the Lord will close the doors because there will be a time of consolidation. These people have to be developed, discipled, and helped. The Lord does not always keep the door swung wide open. There are seasons of ingathering and seasons of consolidation.
Let the Lord add daily to the church such as are being saved—not to make it a big, exhausting, continual crusade, but to follow the season, sense where the Lord is, and do it faithfully.
Much of the church lies latent and dormant. But as soon as people start coming to the Lord, gifts in the body of Christ wake up. There are discipling gifts. Brothers and sisters, it is a costly thing to disciple somebody, is it not?
They tell you all the problems they have. You spend time on the phone, pray with them, talk with them, share Scripture, and try to deal with particular sins they are having trouble with. Are you willing to pay the cost?
I wonder if the Lord sometimes does not say, “I can bring people in. They can come to the Lord in a moment. But where is an incubator where I can grow up some people?”
We do not neglect our emphasis upon family, prayer, corporate life, teaching, and understanding what God is doing today. These things are not de-emphasized. But certainly the Lord is not all inward.
Are you willing to be open and say, “Now, Lord, is there an opportunity today? I want to be open to it.” That is the most important thing you can do.
Are you willing to take some little section out of your life and let that be for other people? Perhaps one little section every two weeks, for somebody outside the church. If we do not plan to do that, it will be a great intention, but it will never happen.
If every two weeks you invited somebody over just for dessert one evening, you would begin to find all kinds of people upon whom the Lord is working. It is a matter of willingness and of changing our intentions into some simple plan of action.
There may be people here tomorrow who will surprise you. They will come to the Lord, and you did not think they were ready. Then it is up to us to help them grow, teach them the ABCs, and introduce them to the Word.
I think there is no greater environment than the sincerity of the saints here for somebody to grow. First, they have to get in. I hope you are as concerned with that as I am.
Lord Jesus, You are the door. When You moved in the Book of Acts, how could the apostles take credit? Sometimes they did not even know what to do, and Your Spirit had to take total initiative.
We ask that Your Spirit would be poured out upon us tomorrow, as our brothers and sisters share testimony, as a song is sung, as the gospel is simply stated, and as the groups turn around to talk.
We need the outpoured Holy Spirit, evidencing the simple words that are spoken, opening the hearts of people who are ready to receive. Lord, we expect to see some harvest tomorrow. But we also expect to see people initially impacted and brought under conviction.
We thank You for the opportunity to share the gospel. Perhaps tomorrow will be an opening of doors. Perhaps some family will be saved and become a network that opens the way to other families, other people they know, people in their community, or workers where they work.
We simply want to be faithful to You, to present the gospel, and then ask: Lord, as You did in the past, so You can do it today. Come along with the reality of Your life, confirming the words that are spoken.
We do not want to be in the position of trying to out-argue somebody. We want to share the truth that is so authentic because Jesus is behind it, giving His authentic stamp. People simply either accept or reject that which they know is real.
We pray that You will give us order, give us power, and open us up with faith. If somebody is sitting there with a specific need, give somebody in the midst of a prayer a word of wisdom to speak to the situation, or a prayer of faith to speak to a need.
Lord, help us be alive to You as You walk among us and do Your amazing work. We thank You that You are the door, and when You decide to open, we stand in amazement at the things that You can do.
Lord, raise up in this assembly some faithful doorknobs—people who can open the way, bring in people, and feel that this is a ministry they should take seriously. Help them, Lord, and encourage them.
Help us to get out from under the bushel and realize that, when it comes to the message of the gospel, we do not have to be afraid of the enemy. He fears us.
We thank You for the great power of the gospel. We say along with Paul:
I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.
We believe that when the gospel goes forth, it will have that same power. We pray with anticipation and thanksgiving. O great Door, we thank You that we can come and knock upon the door tonight, knowing that You are the Shepherd who will open the way tomorrow.
Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus.