Moments in the life of a Pastor

Revelation 3:19-20

19 “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. 20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”

God wants our hearts, He wants into our lives, He wants a face to face relationship where we fellowship together. Yet Christ is reporting that—in His own church—some know that He is at the door, but they will not rouse themselves from their spiritual lethargy to open it. What keeps us from such a relationship? Why don’t we answer the door?

1—WE DON’T HEAR—

There is so much noise in our lives that we simply don’t hear the knocking! What has dulled your hearing? We need to be quiet and listen

2 WE ARE TOO BUSY

Entangled with the affairs of life we have become so busy that we don’t have time to answer the door. We need to slow down and be still.

3 WE ARE NOT EXPECTANT

We are so pre-occupied that we don’t pay attention to what is really important in life. We have become so self-focused that we don’t hear what is going on outside of us. We need to get an outward focus and make room for more than just ME, MYSELF, and I.

4 WE ARE TOO FAR AWAY

Some of us are just too far away to hear, we are like Peter following afar off.

Mark 14:54 “And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.”

Something happened in your life and now you feel like God is a million miles away but God never moved, you did. With that distance you now have a hearing problem, you are so far away you don’t hear the knock. Will you come back?

5 WE HAVE BARRED THE DOOR

Lots of times things get in our lives that shouldn’t be there. We hurt so we turn to what makes us feel good and we build up barriers fearing to hear the voice of God. We didn’t just walk away we barred the door to our hearts in an effort to not feel the pain. But we are dying in there we have become the prisoner in our own cell. Will you open the door and come out.

How tragic that our Lord Jesus would have to stand on the outside of our lives and knock continually only to be ignored. We leave Him standing on the outside of the innermost parts of our hearts only to wonder why we feel so empty and alone.

Two verses later the letter continues and says “After these things I looked and behold a door standing open in Heaven.” This is the door that the Lord wants you to open, come with me and see what the Scripture says lies beyond the door that the Lord wants you to open today, right now. ………..

   “Immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and One sat on the Throne.”

We are in the very throne room of God, we have stepped into the innermost sanctuary of the mighty God of all creation. This is the place where we fall on our faces casting down our crowns before the throne saying You are worthy, Oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. The awe and the majesty and the trembling power of that place will completely take you over and you will cry “Holy holy holy . For too long we, as the people of God, have only entered into “His courts with thanksgiving and into His gates with praise.” And while there is great emphasis in ancient Israel for worship of joyful abandon and gladness, this is not the only “mood,” of worship. Even prior to Jesus manifesting Himself on the earth there was a worship of awe and of reverence where one could barely lift their heads. The power would fall, the shekinah glory of the living God would fall with such a “Holy heaviness,” that one could barely lift their heads.

If we are to go deeper in this relationship to a different place with God we must answer the knock at the door of our hearts. In order to hear that knocking we must abandon the “cares of the world. Instead of seeking the treasures of this world, we must turn our eyes to the treasures of heaven and its throne room. If we are to hear God, we must become silent before Him. We are moving into a time where it will be vital to be intimate with Him. There is a time for shouting and praising God, but if we are ignoring the knocking, then all of our shouting and praising God will just be noise. If our lives are not reflecting the Glory of God, if we are not becoming like His Son, daily then it may be time to stop shouting to go deeper than the courts and into the throne room to kneel before the King.

Are you keeping Him on the outside looking in? If you are then it is really you who are on the outside looking in, content to just know about Jesus instead of Knowing Him.  There is HOPE the word “if” holds out hope—hope because we can repent, we can change, we can choose to open the door to Christ rather than ignore Him. Are we opening the door? Are we opening ourselves up to Christ to build the kind of relationship He desires and we need? His knocking is for the purpose of renewed fellowship. Is it time to answer the door and get alone with God?

Genesis 3:8-11

8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

God’s question to Adam and Eve “Where are you?” was really a call to intimacy, it’s quite obvious that He already knew where they were! God still asks us that same question, “where are you?” If you were to answer that question what would you say? What is really going on in your life? It’s not a location question like God has lost track of you! It’s a REFLECTIVE question – intended to cause us to reflect on where we are really at, not physically but relationally. Answering this question requires getting real with ourselves. Adam needed to deal with where he was at relationally, he needed to get real with where he was at.

He was hiding in the trees – Trapped behind the leaves, trying to cover things up instead of walking freely with God. He was hiding his sin instead of running to the Father seeking forgiveness. His mind was consumed with excuses, doing anything he could to keep from admitting he had done wrong instead of apologies. His lips were filled with blame instead of confession. Instead of enjoying relationships he was destroying them.

Sin affects our intimacy, it destroys our relationships, so we don’t want to be alone with God we want to hide. The fruit looked better than fellowship. How true that is for us there are many shiny things that distract us from walking with God. Adam hid from God because he couldn’t face up to what was happening. He thought “If I hide here and cover myself up before He sees me…then he won’t know and I can pretend everything is fine.” No matter how many leaves he sewed together, he was still naked underneath. You can’t cover up your own sin, you need God. No matter how many things you get together, without God it’s never going to be enough. Our “fig leaves”, our good works, our own effort never cut it.

God knew Adam was afraid. He knew he was hiding, he knew he had sinned, yet He simply came to the garden as He did before, God didn’t change. He came looking to spend time with His friend, He came to offer man a relationship. He came with compassion asking Adam to come to Him and not hide in fear. God was simply asking why you are not coming to me with this sin. Why are you turning from me?

Today God does this with us. We all have hidden at one point or another. We try to avoid the reality that we need to come to God. But the truth is God is waiting for us, not to judge us, but to rescue us. He loves us even in our darkest moments. What would have happened had Adam stayed hidden when God called? Adam would have remained naked. He would have spent the rest of his life working to cover up his sin. He would have spent his life hiding in the shadows. He would have missed the opportunity to be free to come to God and to allow God to heal his relationship so they could walk together again.

How long do you want to hide? Do you like doing life cold, naked, and alone?

What will you do? Is there something causing you to hide from God? Are you pretending you can get those fig leaves sewn together and then be ok? Is God calling and asking “Where are you?” Come to God. Face the truth now. Admit where you are and let God do the fixing. I am so thankful that I have a God who still seeks. He sent Jesus to seek and to save. We have a God that KNOWS, We have a God that SEES, We have a God that CARES

Stop hiding from God and start HIDING THIS: Psalms 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you

Start SEEKING THIS Deuteronomy 4:29

But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him