choosing Which Doors You'll walk through by Rick Warren

regardless of who you are or what kind of week you had this last week God has not forgotten you he is with you he is for you it has a plan for your life and although we go through different things in life where we get disappointed we get defeated we get distracted we get detoured we get delayed none of those things stop God's plan and purpose for your life he has a destiny for your life other people listen to me other people cannot cause you to miss your destiny you just need to realize that somebody may walk in and out of your life God says I can use that thank fit that in the good the bad the ugly other people cannot cause you to miss your destiny only you can by the choices that you choose to make because God will not force his good plan on you now we've been in this series now for four weeks then I'm calling choosing your future and actually it's just kind of the appetizer to the big series I'm calling the doors to your destiny now we're gonna look for eight weeks about your future I do not want you to waste whatever time you've got left on this planet five or fifty or 500 years I want you to make the most of it I want you to be what God called you to be what he made you to be what he wants you to be and really what you'll enjoy most being because when you do what God tells you to do you go this is it this fits it feels good this is me this is why I'm alive this is why I'm here but you can miss your destiny and that's why before I even started the series on the doors to your destiny I wanted to deal with some of the preliminary things like the values we have to choose now those who've you been around Saddleback for a long time knows that every year we do a spiritual growth campaign and often it's called 40 days or something 40 days of purpose of 40 days of peace or 40 days of community or 50 days of love or 50 days of transformation or daring faith or decade of destiny 10 years ago we did a campaign called the decade of destiny to start this decade and I want to end this decade the 2018 19 and 20 talking about the doors to your destiny so as a book in on this decade the doors to your destiny and those are choices that you have to make in your life we're gonna look at those in detail now in the Bible doors have great spiritual significance in all of the different translations of Bible you can find the word door doors used about 400 times in the Bible I spent the last year in my personal quiet time studying every incident and reference to doors in the Bible and there are all kinds of important factors that I'm going to share with you in the week ahead if to take out your message notes I told you that I spent the last year studying every verse in the Bible about doors and the spiritual implications of the doors to your destiny and I actually came up with about 50 insights but since since I was so long last week I decided to only give you seven of them this week so while last week had 50 points this week's message will be pointless as I said doors have a great spiritual significance in the Bible they're mentioned hundreds of times and the Bible talks about our door can be used as an entrance to something or can be an exit to something and in your life a door can be an entrance to a new level a new level of life a new level of happiness a new level of love or if it's the wrong door it could it could be an exit to to where God wants to take you it can be a bridge or it could be a bear so not all doors are equal a it could be a gateway it can be a portal or it can just be a dead-end doors are used for different things that doors use to separate they not only let people in they keep people out they keep people out they can protect the door at night protects you from the cold weather and from animals and bugs getting in your house they can provide access they can be an entrance as they said and so in the in the weeks ahead we're gonna look at all of the implications of the spiritual doors in your life the doors for your career the doors for your family and your relationships the doors for your finances the doors for your health I said there are many many kinds of doors in the Bible and they represent all kinds of things there's the entrance door salvation there's the passage door of discipleship there is the service door of ministry there's the outside door of your your life mission there's the access door of prayer there is the holy door of worship there's the solid door of maturity these are all metaphors in the Bible there's the mirrored door of God's Word the Bible compares itself to a mirror and says as we look at it we not only see God but we see ourselves as we really are now our theme verse that's going to be for all of the next two months is the verse there at the top of your outline and it's the revelation three seven and eight here's the background on this verse last book of the Bible Jesus sends a message to seven actual churches that were spread across Europe and and Asia Minor during this time and one of those is to the church at the city in the city of Philadelphia now Philadelphia before it was given to a name of a city in America was 2000 years ago was a city in what is now modern Turkey it's near the a very famous river called the cogema stripper in Turkey and the city of felid Philadelphia phileo is the Greek word for love for brotherly love and Delphia City like City Delphi so Philadelphia means sit of brotherly love and there was the city where there was a church of at Philadelphia 2,000 years ago and in that passage Jesus commends that church and here's what he says I hold the key of David in my hand and the doors that I unlocked and open no one else can closed and any doors that I shut and lock no one else will ever be able to open now he says I've got it I got the key the key Dave what is the key David wait to the series because you're gonna need that key and I'm gonna teach you what it is but he says when I use the key of David it locks stuff and it stays locked it unlocks stuff and it stays unlocked and then he says this now I know everything you have done and of course that's true about you today God knows everything you've done good bad ugly and then he says so look so look I am placing before you an open door that no one can shut is I know you're not very strong he's being honest I know you're not very strong but in spite of all stuff you've gone through you know you've kept my word you've been faithful to me because you kept my word because you've been faithful to me even in the tough times going on in your life even when you felt weak you didn't feel like some super believer some deep disciple you weren't very strong but you stayed with me you hung in there and you've kept my word and you've been faithful to me so he says I'm gonna open a door for your life that's gonna blow your mind and nobody can shut it now God has done this many times in my life I know what this verse is talking about where God would open a door in my life for something to happen that I had no idea could be done no possibility and when I walk through that door and I'm standing on the other side I go there's no I could even expect myself to ever even be here in this environment and God has opened the doors for Saddleback Church many many times over the years to have influence all around the world a wide-open door this is called the door of opportunity and he says I have set before you an open door that no one can shut I know you're not very strong but he says you hung in there with me and so I'm going to give you the time of your life I believe that in the next few years 2018 2019 2020 these are gonna be open door years for your life and I think guys gonna open up some opportunities in your life that are gonna blow your mind that you never thought were possible and since it's gonna go through 2020 during this series we're gonna talk about having a 20/20 vision and a 20/20 vision means you can see things as they really are not as the world tells you but as they really are and during this series I'm going to help you develop a 20/20 vision a vision statement for the next three years of your life 2018 2019 2020 where do you want to be in three years what's your 2020 vision when you when you set out out in in specifics and you give it to God God says I will set before you an open door and nobody can close and it doesn't matter what an ex-partner says or what a parent said or what anybody else says if God opens the door for you it's gonna be open and it's gonna stay open so we're gonna look in this series how God opens doors why he opens doors what we're supposed to do while we're waiting for him to open doors what we're to do when he opens doors how we go through those doors and a lot of other things but let me give you some of those insights that I've studied over the last year I'm just going to give you seven of them of 50 things I learned about doors number one write this down every door in your life is is a decision every door is a decision they say what do you mean by that well I'm saying doors or metaphors they are metaphors for the choices that we make in life everyday when you walk by a door past a door you decide am I gonna walk through it or am I gonna walk past it am I gonna walk in it am I gonna ignore it every door you see is a decision it is a choice now you learn pretty early in life that some doors you shouldn't walk through and when that door is closed it meant don't don't dare walk through this door you know you've learned some doors aren't worth walking through you learned that some doors you can't walk through but every door in your life is a decision so in this series when we talk about the doors to your destinies we're talking about your choices choosing your future we're talking about the decisions you're going to have to make today to get to where you want to be tomorrow okay number two the second thing I've learned about doors is that my destiny will be shaped by which doors I walk past and which doors I walk through my destiny and your destiny will be shaped by which doors you walk past and which doors you walked through if you walk through the right ones it's great if you walk through the wrong ones obviously it's not so great and as you know the tough part is knowing which door do I walk through do I take this job or that job or that job do I move here here or here do I do this that or that do I marry are not married do I married him him or him or her her and her or what you're making these decisions every day with your life how you spend your money how you spend your time that my destiny will should be shaped by which doors I walk through and and which doors that I I I walked past okay confession how many of you have ever walked through a door that you thought was right and it was dead wrong all right we're congratulations we're all in the same boat okay and and when you do that it often takes a while to get back on track everybody agree with that oh yeah oh yeah it's not like Oh wrong door excuse me and I walk right back out no no sometimes you walk through a door and it takes you a year or more to get back and so when you make the wrong decision you walk through the wrong door you just wasted a part of your life that's why I've got to teach you in this series discernment let's talk about that in a minute okay there the Bible says there's a way that seems right but it ends in death it's a waste of time so waste of energy Deuteronomy 30:15 God says that I am giving you a choice you can choose life and success or death and disaster and we talked about this a couple weeks ago that we God gives us a choice why are we gonna do this series because I want you choosing the right doors I want to show you how to choose the right doors so you stop choosing the wrong doors I've met people who can constantly keep getting into the wrong relationship and I go I don't I don't get it is everybody in the world bad I go what's the common denominator in these bad relationships you now just be honest as your pastor I love you and this doesn't make me think any less of you but some of you you're chooser is broken you're not making good choices when it comes to relationships and that's why you need somebody else in your life kind of come along can I help you think this one through that's why you need some good women and some good men in your life because the truth is your chooser isn't really tip-top I could help you get it better I can teach you in this series how to make better choices so you walk through better doors and you're not wasting time in the wrong way then you ought to be excited about that because that's good news number three now adore may be many things and let me just give you three things that it might be number one a door may be an opportunity from God okay so you might write that down a door may be an opportunity from God and I believe that God is going to give you many of these doors he's going to open many of these doors in the next two or three years as we talk about the 20/20 vision first Corinthians 16 verse 9 is a good example this Paul says a huge door of opportunity for good work has opened up here now I didn't put the rest of that verse because we're talking about it later but the rest of that verse says this a huge door of opportunity is opened up for us here and there's an awful lot of opposition opportunity plus opposition equals God's will sometimes you walk through a door and you walk through a door and it's like you hit a bus on all sudden there's problems there anything wrong door no right door there's walking through the right door doesn't mean there's not going to be problems it just means God's gonna help you with those problems and Paul says pray for me where I am right now I get this huge opportunity but there are a lot of problems with it you're not going to have opportunities without problems because God's interested in developing your character we'll look at that but a door could be an opportunity from God or you might write this down it could be a distraction from others and I have no doubt that in the years ahead there will be some doors that look like open doors to you and they're not opportunities they're actually distractions how do you know the difference you got to have discernment how do you know the deer's between an opportunity and a distraction am I supposed to do this or is this a dead end it's just getting me off track it's something that that people are setting up because God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life but so does everybody else oh it's not so wonderful and that they have a plan for your life and if you don't know where you're going you don't know what doors are gonna walk through then other people are gonna open doors for you and some of those an open door does not mean it's God's will an open door does not mean you're called to do it an open door does not mean it's something that you should go through so you got to know how to deal with it it could be an opportunity from God or it could be a distraction from others here's an example in the book of Nehemiah God gave Nehemiah a wide-open door he was working for the Persian king and he was so sad that his home town he was living over you know in Persia is so sad that his hometown Jerusalem had fallen into ruins and there were no walls around it and so everybody was living there was getting raided all the time but terrorists and bandits thugs and one day he he decides to start praying about his city and that city with the walls torn down and and he decides to fast and pray and one day he walks in and he's the King's number-one guy assistant is a cup bearer and the King goes Nehemiah he looked kind of down today and he goes well I I am the King goes we'll tell me what it is it goes my home city is falling apart it's decaying at the center and and this was a wide-open door that God gave him and the king looks at him and said it's going well sorry he says what would you like done about it that's a wide open door he says well I'll tell you what I'd like to do I'd like to go back and be in charge of rebuilding the wall around the whole city get the thing organized and the King instead of saying we'll forget that he's a how long do you think it's gonna take they gave him a time but he had already thought through he had a plan for what he's gonna do he was waiting for the open door now some of you are waiting for an open door what do you do while you're waiting you plan some of you think well I'm just gonna wait here till God gives me a job I'm just gonna wait here till God gives me a mate or I'm gonna wait here until I God does this or that know while you're waiting God's working but God wants you planning and nee mi had thought it all through so that one day when he did get the opportunity the king says what do you want he knew exactly what he wanted I want to do this this this and this he had it all thought out have you thought it out if God were to open a door for you tomorrow to your biggest dream do you know exactly what you'd do somebody came up and said how do you need help how can I help you what would you tell him so while you're waiting you're planning you're planning but then he the King lets Nehemiah go he goes back to Jerusalem he starts the building the project and the moment he starts building it there are people who don't want it to succeed because they want the walls down so they can keep raiding and robbing the enemies and they try all kinds of things to distract Nehemiah they criticize him they laugh at him they make fun of him they spread rumors about him at one point they actually threaten him try to kill him but at one point they just tried to delay him and they said let's just meet and talk about it he's gone there's nothing to talk about this is what God called me to do and I'm gonna do it I know you don't want it I want it why do we need even talk and his critics are trying to get him to come meet with them and he go this is just a distraction and the Bible says in Nehemiah 6 verse 3 I sent the messages messengers to them with this reply I'm doing a great work and important work right now why should the work stop while I come down to see you now that sounds rude he just dude it was a delay tactic they didn't really care about me am i they just wanted to stop him from doing and some of the doors that you are going to have open to you in the days that are going to be distractions and you go is that gonna keep me from what God wants me to do with my life yes then I'm gonna walk past it so it could be an opportunity from God it could be distraction brothers minore could be a trap from Satan there are such things as trap doors there are trap doors in your life some of us have gone through them and we go up that was a trap I didn't see that one coming Jesus faced this Matthew 16 verse 23 get away from me Satan you're a dangerous trap to me you're looking at things merely from human viewpoint not from God's and they're gonna be people in your life who come up with great ideas on what you could do with your time great ideas with what you could do with your money and it is not God's will an open door is not necessarily God's will could be an opportunity could be a distraction could be a trap could be a bunch of other things to you but I just wanted you to understand that okay number four fourth thing that I learned is that if an open door is truly from God it will not contradict what he's already said in his word if an open door is truly from God it will not contradict what he's already said in his word so for instance if you're at work you're a guy and you're at work and you are miserable in your marriage and it's not working out and it seems like you're drifting further and further apart no marriage just stand still you either grown together you're grown apart it doesn't stand still so if you're not going together you're moving apart and and and you're moving apart from your wife and then all of a sudden right next to you the next desk is hired a gorgeous drop-dead babe anything an open door and she's nice and she gets you stuff and your wife says get it yourself you know and and you know and she complements you and and and and all you know and you just start making these stupid dumb dumb comparisons and you're getting entrapped you're getting ensnared and and then I've actually the reason I'm doing this is because I've talked the guys like this over the years so many times and they finally come to me and they want my blessing on it they basically say Rick I'm in a marriage that's dead dead dead and it's terrible and and so this girl has come into my life and it's clearly I know God wants me to be happy so so I'm gonna divorce my wife and I'm having affair with this woman could not be an open door from God because the Bible says in the book of Proverbs whoever commits adultery is a fool the Bible says whoever commits adultery destroys their own soul the Bible says it causes all kinds of heartache not just in your generation but in future ones God would never open a door in conflict to something he's already said in his word and so well why am I so miserable the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence the grass is not greener on this side of the fence the grass is greener where you water it and if you put as much time into cultivating instead of complaining things could change you see you can't change another person but you can change yourself and when you change you it automatically changes the other person because when I start act in a different way the people who've been relating to me can't react to me in the same way because I don't respond in the same way anymore when I start praying for that person loving that person being kind to that person acting my way into a problem in feeling if you say well when I feel loving that I'll act it no you won't because the feeling won't ever come it's easier to act your way into feeling than feel your way into enacting if you want your wife guy to treat you like a king treat her like a queen you start you make the first move that's what it means to be a leader you make the first move you make the first sacrifice you make the first step so if God opens a door and I want to know is this a temptation is this an open door it's never gonna contradict what he said in his word Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 heaven and earth will pass away but my word will never pass away if it's true it'll always be true so it's not like well that was said 2,000 years ago if it's true it's still true opinions change the truth doesn't okay number five sometimes God shuts a door for my protection that's painful but it is the truth and sometimes God shuts a door for my protection in Genesis 7 verse 16 there's a simple phrase it's five words and it says then God shut the door you know it's talking about Noah and the Ark after Noah got everybody in there and all the animals stuff it says God shut the door and when he shuts it it's not opening until he opens it he's doing it for their protection why did God shut the door for their protection now listen some of you are single adults and you've had somebody in your life and you loved them but they didn't treat you well and and they may even be mean or it's on and off on and off or on off and and and and you keep giving in to their their impulsiveness and and sometimes God removes a person from your life for your protection do not run after them sometimes God will remove somebody in your life and every bone in your body wants cusps oh please come back please come back I'll do anything I can no no no don't run after him okay sometimes God shuts the door and he's doing it to protect you I can't tell you the story of a man in this church who's been a member of Saddleback from the first Sunday and he was there were three Laura I'm not even mention the kind of business but there were three large competing businesses and he was on the staff of one of them he wasn't the head of it but he's on staff and but he was so good at what he did he was he kept getting promoted and promoted and promoted and and then the competitor invited him to come over and join that that company and he went over and joined them but then he discovered that the CEO was was corrupt was dishonest was unethical and he asked this guy from our church to start doing unethical things and my friend said can't do that can't do that and he gets fired so the door is shut sometimes you get fired for doing the right thing they're doing the right thing then he gets hired by the other company that company because he's doing it ethically gets blessed God has opened the door over there this company is doing it wrong starts dying a year later the other two companies have died and this company has incorporated both of them and he's made president of all three okay now there's a similar story like that in the Bible it's called Joseph so sometimes God shuts a door for your protection and he said I'm not gonna do that ethical thing he got fired that's a shut door friend and you know it means to what it's like to be out of work didn't go what I'm going to do and not knowing that he and a half later you may be the CEO of all three companies in one combined thing God will do it that way number six God will open doors for me this is a very important one we're gonna spend a lot of time on it God will open doors for me if I open doors for others now this is all through Scripture this is of course the golden rule jesus said do unto others as you would have them do unto you God wants to open doors for you but he also wants you to learn to be unselfish he wants you to learn to be kind he wants you to learn to be generous and so he watches to see if you're opening the doors for anybody else and the more you open doors for other people God goes that's my guy that's my gal I'm gonna bless them there are doors that God wants to open in your life right now right now but he's waiting for you to do what you can help somebody else first he wants to see are you self-centered or are you other centered it's not about me it's about the kingdom of God and when he sees you helping other people being generous with other people opening doors for other people being hospitable that's what hospitality is Hospitality means opening the door to somebody being hospitable it's one of the basic Christian values being nice to people when God sees people who open doors for others there's almost nothing he won't do for them he just starts pouring blessing on and blessing on and blessing on and blessing on look at some of these verses proverbs 11:25 anyone who generously blesses others will be generously blessed it's just the economy of God it's the way he set up the universe and when you refresh others you will be refreshed yourself God is a giving God God is a generous God everything I have and you have comes from God's generosity his goodness his graciousness and his generosity everything we have in a gift in the world is again those clouds outside our gifts of God the electricity we have is gift to God the air I'm bringing it's got I would have nothing if it weren't for the generosity of God God wants you to be like him like father like daughter like father like son you cannot become like Christ if you don't learn to be generous you know my story in case story of learning to be more generous percentage-wise every year with our money but I'm talking about far more than that I'm just talking about a spirit of generosity that when you have a hospitable spirit caring about other people God will open doors for you in ways you can't imagine friend I'm Exhibit A of this principle growing up there were some key people in my life who opened doors for me one of them I talked to you about in detail last week Billy Graham who opened up doors for me gave me platform when I was in my 20s did things that there's no way I could open that door myself the Billy Graham opens some doors for me Peter Drucker opened some doors for me and my dad opened some doors for me and Harry Williams opened some doors for me now guy and all nine of the different mentors in my life we're men who opened doors for this young kid and they gave me experiences and they believed in me and they put me gave me a platform that I could have never had on my own they just were good generous people God was blessing them because they were helping guys like me and now I've opened many doors for you many doors of wisdom many doors of insight I've opened doors for you if you've been around Saddleback over the years to help you though I want to do it that way and now you need to be opening doors for some other people and one of the things we're gonna do in this doors to your destiny 20/20 vision campaign is I want to teach you how to open doors for others why do I want that happen because I know the more you open doors for other people the more God will open doors for you it's just the way he works when he looks down he says give and it shall be given unto you he says the generous man shall be blessed he says you're blessed to be a blessing and so in this series I'm gonna help you to get outside of yourself and and really I want you to focus on how you can open doors and I'll give you some practical ways to do this to help other people because I know when you do that God's gonna say there's a person I can use there's a person that I can bless job and job 31 verse 32 he says I've never turned away anyone but I have opened my doors to everyone now that's an interesting statement coming from the man who was the wealthiest man in the world he was the wealthiest man in the world and you know he lost it all and then he got it all back it says after he prayed for his friends God healed Jobe not when he prayed for himself God healed job when he prayed for his friends they got it all back and he says I have never turned down anyone but I've opened my doors to everyone and God sees you opening doors for others he's gonna open them for you and that's why in this campaign we're gonna do something little bit different in our small groups every year and campaign you know what those you've been around know what we do in a campaign I teach a new series of the campaign we have a new workbook you watch the video discuss it and that's what you do for the six weeks of the campaign I'm gonna do that at all this year in fact instead of you sitting and watching a video and discussing it I'm going to give you some events and activities that will help you open doors to other people like having a dinner for somebody a lot of other things will give you the details as we get into number seven sometimes God cracks open a door to give me a glimpse of my future long before I'm ready to walk through it okay now everybody look up here for just a minute this happens a lot and what happens is sometimes God cracks open a door you go oh man that's what God is in store for me and you get so excited about it okay all right great and once you have a glimpse of it you think I'm supposed to do it now no what happens is you get a glimpse of the vision of the 20/20 vision that God has for you and then you think well now that I know what I'm supposed to do with my life I can go out and fulfill it in any away and you go out and you try to do it on your own and you'll stumble and you fall and you fall flat on your face and you come back to God and you say God did I miss your vision because no you just didn't wait for part two and part three part one is I'm going to show you what's going to happen in your life part two is I'm going to show you how and my way is going to be the exact tops of the way you thought and then part three is the time timing and timing is perfect sometimes God gives you a vision of where he wants to go with your life but you're not ready yet you don't have the character you don't have the maturity to handle that level of success yet and so why does God give you a glimpse of the future if he doesn't want you to start on it right now you might write this down he wants to inspire me to grow why does God give me a glimpse of my future to inspire me to grow so that I worked on my character my relationships with God and with other people so that I will be ready when he not only just cracks the door open but he blows the door off that says come on down come on through behind door number three is your destiny and and he's he gives you a little glimpse so you can get excited about it it doesn't mean you're ready for it it does mean there's some stuff I want to work on in your life first there's some character development I want you to see God has a destiny for your life he has a vision for your life he has a dream for your life but he doesn't give it to you all at once never never never why first place it would overwhelm you if you could see everything God wants to do in your life it might scare you to death second reason is he wants to keep close and by giving it to you step at a time step at a time he keeps you close and you're dependent upon him and he third he wants you to grow now here's a verse we're gonna come back to several times in this series so back up to verse three the things God says the things that I'm planning for you won't happen right away but slowly steadily surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled if it seems slow do not despair for these things will surely come to pass count on it just be patient they will not be overdue a single day in this series I'm not saying you're gonna get everything in your vision in the next eight weeks that isn't gonna happen what I am saying is I'm gonna give you the skills on what you need to be doing to prepare for it while you're waiting on God to open that door and when he opens that door you will be ready you will be ready I want you to get a glimpse of what God wants to do in your life and then I want that to motivate you to start opening doors to other people and helping them and as you grow and as you help others God's gonna go I think they're ready now and then he blows the door off in the sky's the limit and things happen in your life that you could not imagine the Bible says God is able to do that which is greater more than we could think or ask or imagine now I don't know about you I'm a pretty big dreamer nobody's ever accused me of small thinking but the Bible says Rick think of the biggest thing the greatest thing the most wonderful thing I could do in your life and I can top that that's the kind of God we serve so I totally this message is letting you know where I'm gonna take you the first thing you need the first thing that I need for my personal 2020 vision is I need to learn discernment to learn discernment and that helps me know which doors to walk through and which doors to walk past we got to stop having you walk through the wrong doors so in this series I hope you'll sign up to be here all eight weeks so you'll learn discernment my prayer for you is the same prayer that Paul had for the Philippians Philippians chapter 1 8 and 9 he says this this is my prayer for you that your love will keep growing more and more with knowledge and greater discernment circle greater discernment I pray that you grow in love but pray that it'll grow with knowledge and greater discernment so that you will be able to make the right choices that's what I want you doing I want you going through fewer dead-end doors I want you to go through having it more clarity we go should I do this or this what should I do and knows what helps you make the right choices discernment how do you get discernment we're gonna talk about that in a series number 2 second thing you're gonna need to learn besides the tournament is you're gonna need to learn courage you're gonna need to learn to be courageous because once you know the right door to walk through now then then mean you walk through it you're going to need the courage to walk through the right doors and I'll come back and explain to you why you're gonna need that courage in walking through the doors that God has because when you you don't get the piece on this side of the door you get the piece after you've walked through it most people miss God's will because they expect to feel peaceful about it before they do it and there's a choice out there Nagaya I just don't feel any peace you're not supposed to when God wants you to walk through the door it's gonna it's gonna stretch your faith it's gonna choir risk that's not something that usually makes you peaceful every major decision I've made in my life and this pastor Saddleback Church I was scared to death to do it when I made it I just happened to believe I'm not gonna let fear dominate my life so I do the right thing no matter I feel courage is not the absence of fear courage is when you do the right thing even though you're scared to do it courage means you just do it anyway no matter how you feel you're going to feel scared when God opens some doors cuz they're so big and they're gonna stretch you and if you're thinking well I I don't know if I should go through that door I don't feel any peace about it you shouldn't feel any peace about it the peace only comes after you walk through the door this is such an important truth count on it I'm gonna teach it to you again in this series we'll come back to it but you got to learn courage here's some good advice that David gave his son Solomon first Chronicles 2028 be strong and courageous and get to work don't be frightened by the size of the task for the Lord God is with you he will not fail or forsake you and he will see to it that everything is finished correctly he's ultimately in charge I learned discernment I learned courage here's a third thing you're gonna need to learn and will you'll learn it in this series if you stay with me on it you're gonna learn how to open doors for others it's a skill but it's skill you can get good at when this involves hospitality and you're gonna hear me use that word over and over in this series 1st Peter 4 9 open your home to others and show hospitality without grumbling about it each of you should use whatever gifts you have received from God to serve others I want God to open doors to you so I'm going to teach you how to open doors for others and we've already created a whole list of tools I don't have time to go into them now but there's some cool things that we're gonna do with your neighbors and what we call a red door project and a week of hot topics live seminars we're going to send to your home that you can invite some friends to watch all kinds of different things instead of you sitting and watching a video all right let's bow our heads father I love our family in all of our campuses we're from all kinds of background all ages men and women different races different economic status different backgrounds and yet you've built this beautiful mosaic called Saddleback Church I thank you Lord that you love diversity I thank you that you don't want us all to be like look alike talk alike sound alike and father I'm excited about this series of helping our family our church family open doors for others knowing that as we do that you're gonna open doors for them and I believe that the next three years may be the best three years of their lives give us a vision a 2020 vision and what you want to do we thank you for the doors you're going to open in our lives and in the lives of others in the days ahead and I pray this blessing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen

Channel: Saddleback Church Hong Kong

Views: 21,208

Rating: 4.7606835 out of 5

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Id: Uuyy0rW5cC4

Length: 47min 28sec (2848 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 08 2018