Speaker 1: That song is one of my favorite songs right now.
Speaker 1: It's by Elevation, worship, and sometimes, in the middle of where you are, you have to start praising as if it is already done.
Speaker 1: And this song says the Lord is in this place, no matter where you are in your walk, or you may be sitting at home watching, or you find this years later and you're far from God and you have no clue who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: The Lord can still show up in the depths of your sin.
Speaker 1: That is what he promised.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 1: All that it takes is for you to call on the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1: All that it takes is a thought Lord, I need you.
Speaker 1: And he is there and he inhabits the praises of his people.
Speaker 1: It is a beautiful thing when you don't feel God and you can still say he is there.
Speaker 1: And it is done, because if we go off of our feelings, we wouldn't get out of bed in the morning sometimes.
Speaker 1: If we went off of our feelings, we probably some of us still wouldn't be married.
Speaker 1: If we went off of our feelings, some of us would not be parents anymore.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all almost broke out in a praise dance on that last one.
Speaker 1: But in the midst of despair and where we do not feel God, we can declare with authority, through Jesus Christ, that he is here.
Speaker 1: Whether we're talking about a physical place, such as now when we're praising, or when you are home crying on your bedroom floor and you don't know where God is, and if you're at home watching right now and you don't know where God is, he is here.
Speaker 1: He is here.
Speaker 1: Don't know where God is.
Speaker 1: He is here.
Speaker 1: He is not limited to four walls.
Speaker 1: He is not limited to our small thoughts.
Speaker 1: He is above and beyond.
Speaker 1: He is greater and more powerful than anything that we can think or imagine.
Speaker 1: Before we speak.
Speaker 1: He is already en route to where you are.
Speaker 1: Yesterday, before you knew today was going to happen, he was already here.
Speaker 1: When you lose that loved one or they don't know God, he already knows and the good thing is he is already at work, because his promises are yes and amen that when you call on me on behalf of someone else, he is so powerful that he stands up for you when you're standing up for someone else, and he shows up in the midst of all of our questions.
Speaker 1: I know from experience that God is usually found in the deepest and darkest questions that we start to begin having, and he's not limited, and he thrives in our doubt.
Speaker 1: That's when he shows himself.
Speaker 1: That's when he shows up in time, when we feel like time is running out.
Speaker 1: Woo, the Lord is here.
Speaker 1: The Lord is here where you are Right now, whether you're watching at home or you are right now, whether you're watching at home or you are here in despair, or you have a spouse or a loved one or a child, an uncle, an aunt, a grandma, a grandpa, god doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: He is no respecter of persons.
Speaker 1: That when we seek him, we will find him.
Speaker 1: When we ask him, he always answers.
Speaker 1: When we start knocking, the door will find him.
Speaker 1: When we ask him, he always answers.
Speaker 1: When we start knocking, the door will be opened.
Speaker 1: Because when we start seeking and asking and knocking and not in our own authority, but the authority of Christ, the gates of hell will not prevail.
Speaker 1: That we don't have to sit and wait for it to come to us.
Speaker 1: That we can suit up and go to it.
Speaker 1: That we don't have to wait for the devil to come knocking on our door because we're going to go knock on his for a change and that we don't have to sit and wait to see if the devil's going to come today, because we're going to show up on his doorstep.
Speaker 1: I don't know what Bible you read, but my Bible says that the authority in Jesus Christ, that when he left he said that there will be one to come after me.
Speaker 1: And in this power and in this prayer of fasting, we just got off the 21 day of prayer and fasting.
Speaker 1: It should have been full of intention.
Speaker 1: It should have been full of prayer and seeking God's face.
Speaker 1: For God, not what do you want me to do, but who do you want me to be?
Speaker 1: Who can we be to love thy neighbor?
Speaker 1: Who can we be in our communities, in our jobs, in our schools, in our lives that yesterday we didn't have that compassion for?
Speaker 1: But through prayer and fasting we do.
Speaker 1: Because when you start to ask and seek and knock, all of a sudden you stop worrying about this and you start going this way.
Speaker 1: Because I believe that God is a God of revelation and in this revelation we find that it's not us that is important, but it's those around us.
Speaker 1: Jesus came for those who are lost and if you have ever been lost, you should be seeking out those which are lost so that they can find that love that God once brought to you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a little blunt If you don't seek out those that are lost, you are doing a disservice to yourself, to this church and to God.
Speaker 1: We have to be actively on purpose, seeking out those which are lost.
Speaker 1: Jesus said I leave the 99 for the one.
Speaker 1: And if you ever do any research in sheep, the shepherd sometimes will break the legs of the sheep that keeps running off so that it cannot return to where it doesn't need to go.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we feel that the devil is attacking us because our legs are broken and it's Jesus trying to keep out of the snares of the enemy.
Speaker 1: I'll get back to my notes.
Speaker 1: Thank you worship team.
Speaker 1: Didn't they do an awesome job this morning.
Speaker 1: I appreciate Sister Lieschel coming and filling in.
Speaker 1: It helps me out so much.
Speaker 1: She does an amazing job.
Speaker 1: Continue to pray.
Speaker 1: Some of you asked this morning about Pastor.
Speaker 1: Continue to pray for him.
Speaker 1: He is on the road to pray.
Speaker 1: Some of you asked this morning about Pastor.
Speaker 1: Continue to pray for him.
Speaker 1: He is on the road to recovery.
Speaker 1: He said it just kind of feels like it's mild flu symptoms.
Speaker 1: He says nothing crazy, but they're taking precautions.
Speaker 1: I think he got his Z-Pak and he's on the road to getting that thing behind him and, as you know, a couple weeks ago it attacked our house when we came back from Christmas vacation and she had it.
Speaker 1: I tested negative because you know the blessings of the Lord.
Speaker 1: But I told another pastor friend of mine that was my mentor at the church we came from and he said that his wife got it first and all this other stuff and he was feeling okay, kind of how a pastor is.
Speaker 1: But he said that she was feeling really bad and worse than him, and I said well, you know, if our wives would start praying harder.
Speaker 1: He thought it was funny and I made sure that I wasn't on speaker when I said that to him.
Speaker 1: But so if you've been around any point in time here in the last couple of months, we've been talking about a connect growth track, which is where you as a church, we start to get together on the same page same book, same page, same line, same word and we go through our core values, we go through our core beliefs, what we believe.
Speaker 1: We believe these four things.
Speaker 1: We connect to God, to salvation, and we believe that Jesus is the only way.
Speaker 1: You cannot get there by works, you cannot get there by being good, because in truth, none of us are good.
Speaker 1: The second one after you find God, you should be on the road to finding freedom, whether it's habits, whether it's addictions, whether it's just some personality traits that the Holy Spirit needs to buff out Some of us.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more buffing that needs to happen than others, but God knows that and he understands that.
Speaker 1: And then we connect to the church family.
Speaker 1: So all these things are kind of going on.
Speaker 1: We're connecting with each other, we're loving on each other, we're building a strong foundation here.
Speaker 1: So then we can be on the fourth one and connect to the community, because a house divided by itself falls, and so we need to be on the same page as a church of believers that we love each other, we care for each other, we will help in discipline, we have to submit one to another, we have to be able to be on the same page.
Speaker 1: As far as listen, I trust this man If he says, hey, you're not supposed to do this, and he shows me biblical principles and verses.
Speaker 1: That shows me that I am wrong.
Speaker 1: I should be submissive enough to the Holy Spirit, to someone to have that accountability, even as a minister, especially as a minister.
Speaker 1: So each one of us need to be able to be accountable to someone.
Speaker 1: If you don't have that accountability partner, get one.
Speaker 1: It can be your spouse.
Speaker 1: We know that spouses sometimes will let you know quicker than anybody and more bluntly than anybody to correct yourself before you wreck yourself.
Speaker 1: And so your spouse is getting Josh is really he's like yep, this girl right here.
Speaker 1: So can I get a new partner?
Speaker 1: So I'm very excited because tomorrow night at 8 o'clock be in prayer Some of our leaders in the church.
Speaker 1: We're starting off with a smaller group.
Speaker 1: We're going to be going through this growth track.
Speaker 1: It's going to be core values of the church, core beliefs of the church, what we believe, and kind of dive in, dissect each one of those.
Speaker 1: And it's just a way for us to really know what we believe as a church.
Speaker 1: Because if someone asks you, well, what do you believe at your church?
Speaker 1: The honest answer right now, at this point in time, some of us are like God, you know we don't really have.
Speaker 1: So we're going to have something in your hands, something tangible where, if you want to look back one day and say that didn't sound right or I forgot this, you'll be able to look back and be like, okay, this is what we believe in, this is why they said this, and you can hold people accountable in the church house, which is okay.
Speaker 1: That's a blueprint God laid out for us to do, and then we're going to go through and have spiritual gifts testing.
Speaker 1: So one of mine when we went through minister training one of mine was faith.
Speaker 1: I am one of those people that I will be like, ah, it's going to be okay.
Speaker 1: And that doesn't work when finances happen, because you need a plan, which is this lady she is my anchor and I am her wings and we level each other out.
Speaker 1: We float about that high off the ground when we're together, so it works out great.
Speaker 1: So if we crash, we float about that high off the ground when we're together, so it works out great.
Speaker 1: So if we crash, we're not that far from the ground.
Speaker 1: So some of our leaders are going to go through it and we are going to get this thing rocking for y'all, because I believe, as a church, we should be making disciples.
Speaker 1: Do you have the logo for the church.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of what we've come up with disciples, servants and friends.
Speaker 1: These are a part of who we are as a church.
Speaker 1: This should be a part of who you are in Christ.
Speaker 1: We should be willing to submit ourselves, to become disciples.
Speaker 1: We should be servants to each other and to our communities and we should be friends.
Speaker 1: Somebody can come to us and have that about us, that we are available.
Speaker 1: So very excited about it.
Speaker 1: If you don't know, in the past few months I've been very excited putting this thing together.
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of fun for me.
Speaker 1: I nerd out sometimes and I got to do that, so it was very fun.
Speaker 1: So today we're going to be diving into a story of Jesus in Luke, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: And at the beginning of this chapter Jesus had just given in the first few verses of this and anybody who has been in church for any extended period of time can usually quote this our Father, who art in heaven, you know the Lord's Prayer.
Speaker 1: And they asked God or Jesus, how should we pray?
Speaker 1: And then he gave them this blueprint.
Speaker 1: So we're going to go right after that.
Speaker 1: So Jesus just told them this is how you pray, this is what you say.
Speaker 1: This is the order you go in you glorify God first.
Speaker 1: You thank him for what he's done.
Speaker 1: You know, I think of it as and I do this on purpose because of the Lord's Prayer that when I start praying, I first thank God for who he is and what he's done, because I want Him to know that when I come to pray to Him, that I am coming with a grateful heart.
Speaker 1: It's hard to be hateful when you're grateful.
Speaker 1: So I want to come into the throne room with a posture of gratitude, that I'm thankful for what God has done, and so I start thanking Him and going down the line.
Speaker 1: Top things on my list is my wife, my son and my church and the positions that he has led us in, the blessings that he has poured on us, because I know that where I am, where we are right now, is not anything done by us, but it is God orchestrated it for us.
Speaker 1: So Jesus lays this out and 90% of people can say the Lord's Prayer.
Speaker 1: And then he goes to explain them as an example.
Speaker 1: In verse 5, there are very important elements of prayer, and we're going to read it behind me.
Speaker 1: It says then Jesus said to them.
Speaker 1: Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and you say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine is on a journey Now they can have this conversation yelling through the door, but he don't want to have to get up.
Speaker 1: I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
Speaker 1: Now listen, the friend did not get up because of the friendship.
Speaker 1: He knew it was at the door.
Speaker 1: He didn't care who was at the door, he had shut it down for the night.
Speaker 1: It was in the middle of the night, he probably had work the next morning and he was not about to get up for this moron knocking on his door.
Speaker 1: But because of his audacity, because of his perseverance, because he would not stop knocking, that is what drove this man to get up.
Speaker 1: Verse 9, it says so.
Speaker 1: I say to you ask and it will be given to you.
Speaker 1: Seek and you will find Knock and the door will be given to you.
Speaker 1: Seek and you will find Knock and the door will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks, finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Speaker 1: In verse 11, it says which of you fathers, if your son asked for a fish, you would give him a snake instead, if he asked for an egg, would you give him a scorpion?
Speaker 1: Or if, then, though, you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him, ask, seek knock, ask, seek knock as children?
Speaker 1: If you've ever had a child, it's like their spiritual gift is asking.
Speaker 1: If you can make it through Walmart aisles without your child asking for anything, you might have a perfect child.
Speaker 1: I do not.
Speaker 1: Dad, dad, dad, what Can I get this?
Speaker 1: No, my spiritual gift is saying no, that's okay, that's fine for me.
Speaker 1: I'm not hurt by that.
Speaker 1: But he always wants something, and then for Christmas and his birthday they're kind of sandwiched together.
Speaker 1: In November, december, he got a bunch of cash from a lot of relatives, and that boy cannot hold on to money because all the no's that dad told him throughout the beginning of the year now became yeses, and he gets excited and he's like, ooh, I want this, I want that.
Speaker 1: I'm like Tristan, you don't, what would you do?
Speaker 1: Oh well, the kids and it comes down to the people around him at school end up having something that he's wanting.
Speaker 1: No one has to teach a child to ask no one.
Speaker 1: It is a natural gift that the Father has blessed kids with wanting things and wanting things and wanting things.
Speaker 1: And then we have seek.
Speaker 1: Does anybody?
Speaker 1: When they were a child, you played hide and seek.
Speaker 1: I bet you right now.
Speaker 1: If we would get our young adults together, they all would want to play hide and seek and would have a blast doing it.
Speaker 1: Even the ones who thought it was dumb in the beginning, they would end up having fun, because there's something fun about going and hiding in the dark and no one knows where you are.
Speaker 1: And they got to come and try to find you, scaring your friends, making them try to find you.
Speaker 1: And yet we seem to also do this in our spiritual walk in the adult life with God.
Speaker 1: So, god, if you can find me, good luck instead of seeking after him.
Speaker 1: And it's easy when we pray to push our own agenda, always ready to ask, but we forget to take the time to listen and really seek God's face, the main focus of my message today is knock.
Speaker 1: The first two we can do pretty easily.
Speaker 1: We're really good at even adults.
Speaker 1: We're really good at asking for things.
Speaker 1: That's why I started.
Speaker 1: Conviction hit me when I really studied the Lord's Prayer.
Speaker 1: I'm like man, I'm doing it wrong, I'm doing it backwards, I'm starting off with things that I need instead of just basking in his presence for a second.
Speaker 1: And I've never heard of a game talking about hide and seek.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of a game from the parents Say all right, you're gonna go stand at the door and knock and we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: It's weird, it's not even fun.
Speaker 1: Or hey, you stand over here on this side, I'm gonna go stand on the other side.
Speaker 1: You start knocking and guess when I'm gonna open.
Speaker 1: It Doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: And we forget to ask the most important questions God, where do you want me to go?
Speaker 1: God?
Speaker 1: Where do you want me to knock?
Speaker 1: God, what is your will for my life?
Speaker 1: And if we get deep into this intense asking and seeking, we start to really unfold God's will for our life, and not only God's will for our life, but we begin to find God.
Speaker 1: And behind me is going to be the title slide Don't stop knocking.
Speaker 1: Some of you may see this right here and you may panic from all the doors.
Speaker 1: Have you ever approached somewhere and you didn't know where to start knocking?
Speaker 1: If I was to walk up to this building I don't see numbers, they're all colorful and they all kind of on the same row, eventually have the same thing I would have no clue where to stop knocking.
Speaker 1: And in life we get to right here and we get analysis, paralysis and we don't know where to start.
Speaker 1: And if you're like me, if you haven't noticed, I've had this conversation with Brother Jay Dale.
Speaker 1: He plays bass and at first it kind of hurt my feelings, but I know he's right and he was like man, when you're playing the guitar, just calm down a little bit, because my hand, I'm going like this and he's like just chill out a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I started doing it and he's like man, your timing is perfect.
Speaker 1: Now I didn't realize that my squirrely personality was bleeding into my guitar playing.
Speaker 1: I'm just going nuts, I don't care about a tempo, I'm just getting with it.
Speaker 1: And so if you're like me and you might catch a case of an ADD every now and then, this may stress you out because you want to go, start knocking on all of them, running down the halls.
Speaker 1: But it takes an intense focus and so you can get lost in the choices.
Speaker 1: You get analysis, paralysis.
Speaker 1: You get lost in the choices.
Speaker 1: Do I choose the left one?
Speaker 1: Do I choose the right one?
Speaker 1: It's like one of those game shows with like door one, door two, door three.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's how I am.
Speaker 1: My personality, I'm a squirrely little guy.
Speaker 1: I will put holes in all the doors because I knock on all of them.
Speaker 1: Do I take the job?
Speaker 1: Do I pass it up?
Speaker 1: Do I end this relationship or do I wait for them to change?
Speaker 1: Do I come back to church or do I keep watching online?
Speaker 1: That's a really big one right now.
Speaker 1: Do I keep knocking or do I take the hint because the door's not opened In my job during the week?
Speaker 1: I'm a real estate photographer and so on a daily basis I knock on strangers' doors.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done that before?
Speaker 1: A place that you didn't know the person inside and you were new to the place?
Speaker 1: It gets real awkward when you knock for a couple of minutes and nothing happens.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden you feel like you don't belong there anymore and then someone here in East Texas might come out with a gun, especially the way that I look and they're like who are you?
Speaker 1: Nobody, photographer.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they'll open the door, like I wasn't supposed to be there, even though I scheduled it.
Speaker 1: So I can understand when you start knocking on a door and the door doesn't open right away Because something inside of us we want to start.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is awkward.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to turn around and go and God may not let that door open because he's trying to teach you something.
Speaker 1: When you're standing at a door and you're knocking and it doesn't open very quickly, you start to feel out of place.
Speaker 1: And Jesus pointed out this.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down the desperation produces determination.
Speaker 1: The man in this story did not knock because he liked to knock.
Speaker 1: He knew that there was something inside that he had to have, that his desperation was producing such a determination inside of him that he had no one's here.
Speaker 1: How many times do you not before you quit?
Speaker 1: And when you come to the end of yourself, you start knocking a little harder.
Speaker 1: Don't stop knocking.
Speaker 1: You start knocking with more purpose.
Speaker 1: You start knocking with more purpose than you did yesterday.
Speaker 1: Don't stop knocking.
Speaker 1: You will bloody your knuckles until you get the answer.
Speaker 1: Don't stop knocking.
Speaker 1: And the hardest part is not to start knocking but continue to knocking when you don't get an answer.
Speaker 1: It's knocking when there's no answer.
Speaker 1: Keep knocking when the door isn't open.
Speaker 1: Yet Keep loving when you don't feel loved.
Speaker 1: We live in a place right now and when I say a place, a place in time where divorce is crazy.
Speaker 1: The percentages on divorce are ridiculous.
Speaker 1: 50 years ago we never would have thought that mothers and grandmothers usually how it is would be raising their grandchildren because of problems in communication, problems in marriages, and it's hard to love when you don't feel loved.
Speaker 1: It is, and most of you know I've been married before and one of the hardest things for me was to let go when God shut that door in my face, because I had it in my mind that if I just held on a little longer, that everything was going to be fixed and God was going to do a miracle.
Speaker 1: And when you start asking and when you start seeking, your spiritual eyes become open and you know which doors to go to and start knocking and which doors to walk away from when God closes them.
Speaker 1: The asking and seeking is a prerequisite to the knocking.
Speaker 1: You have to really understand how to ask, you have to understand how to seek, because in this story we get this story from Jesus and we have to understand that the other person on the other side of the door is not God saying I'm not going to open the door.
Speaker 1: The story is not about the man on the other side opening the door or not opening the door.
Speaker 1: The story is about the person knocking, because if we knock with persistence and we keep knocking when we know that we are at the door that God has led us to, we know that we stay the course and we stay who God has called us to be, because we know that this door must open.
Speaker 1: There's not another option.
Speaker 1: I'm not letting the devil talk me out of this that we have to keep knocking, we have to keep persevering, we have to keep pushing, keep praying when the one you love does not know God, when the one you love does not know God.
Speaker 1: Man, that's hard and I'm not trying to embarrass anybody, but this is just my personal stuff.
Speaker 1: My brother has been running from God for years and I love him with all of my heart.
Speaker 1: But I have slacked in my prayer life and I have stopped knocking because God didn't answer in my time frame.
Speaker 1: Can I just be real this morning?
Speaker 1: It is easy to stop when we don't get our answer, when we feel like our hand is about to go bloody and numb from from knocking so hard.
Speaker 1: Don't stop knocking, don't stop pushing, don't stop praying, because, in my experience, as soon as I'm about to give up, god shows up.
Speaker 1: Our faithfulness is what God feeds on Our faith.
Speaker 1: In the middle of our faith, god shows up, keep knocking.
Speaker 1: And we know from this story it took extreme, an extreme need to drive this man to knock and knock, and knock and knock, to lead this man to go to his friends in the middle of the night with such persistence and desperation that he wouldn't stop even when the man inside said I'm sorry, I'm in bed, I put the kids to sleep, I've locked up.
Speaker 1: The door is locked.
Speaker 1: But intention will drive your ambition.
Speaker 1: So what is ambition?
Speaker 1: A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.
Speaker 1: When you find yourself standing and knocking, what has fueled you to get to where you are?
Speaker 1: Some of us are waiting at that door and we're knocking, and we're knocking, and we're knocking for our breakthrough, for our relationships to get better, for our finances to turn around.
Speaker 1: Last year was a blast on people's finances.
Speaker 1: We were pretty blessed here in East Texas, but people were losing jobs left and right In some of the largest cities in the world.
Speaker 1: Lockdowns could not go and do anywhere and people are sitting there and knocking and knocking, and knocking and nothing.
Speaker 1: And I feel that sometimes not to get political, but we're knocking on the government store, waiting for them to answer and answer our prayers and we forget that God is the one, that our help comes from the Lord, not the government.
Speaker 1: And so you may wear yourself out knocking on the wrong door because your focus has shifted from the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and we shift it from there to who sits on Capitol Hill and God is not opening the doors because we have not lifted our eyes to him.
Speaker 1: And it's hard when you get in your head that this I've said this before things are in my house a certain way If I put a tool somewhere and it's gone, I'm coming after a 12-year-old.
Speaker 1: If there's something moved in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: I go to my wife and I say, hey, where is this?
Speaker 1: And sometimes I'm the one that moved it and I didn't remember.
Speaker 1: So I end up knocking on the wrong doors and when my wife opens I limp for weeks.
Speaker 1: But we're knocking for our promotions.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're knocking.
Speaker 1: We live in a day, especially after last year, that we have the highest rate of suicide from loneliness, because we determine who we are by who we surround ourselves with, and so then when that's taken away, who are we?
Speaker 1: All of a sudden we're left to deal.
Speaker 1: It's like when you have a home I've not experienced this yet, but I've talked to a lot of people who have when you have a home that has kids and you're married or whatever, you're raising them by yourself, and then the kids are gone.
Speaker 1: You have nobody to deal with and talk to anymore, except for your spouse or yourself or your.
Speaker 1: You know what do I do now?
Speaker 1: There's no buffer, because we raise our kids and our kids are our world, and then all of a sudden they're gone.
Speaker 1: Anxiety rises because then we have to talk and learn our spouse again.
Speaker 1: So loneliness can be a door that we stand and knock on for the rest of our lives.
Speaker 1: We may be knocking for our marriage to heal, or that lost loved one, like I mentioned earlier with my brother.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's going to take, but see, this is the thing.
Speaker 1: This is my prayer level.
Speaker 1: I was praying every now and then when I would think of it.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever done that before?
Speaker 1: You just kind of pray on your problems and that's about it, and you forget to go outside of your little bubble.
Speaker 1: I've been guilty.
Speaker 1: I have slacked on praying for my brother when, if he died right now, I would not physically, but I feel like I had that blood on my hands because I stopped my prayer of God.
Speaker 1: Whatever it takes, I stopped seeking and asking for that lost loved one.
Speaker 1: God, whatever it takes, help me, god, to never stop knocking on the door of salvation for others.
Speaker 1: Help me to never lose that compassion.
Speaker 1: Help me never to lose that vision of God to where I'm outside of myself and trying to do things for others.
Speaker 1: Don't stop knocking.
Speaker 1: Action is required.
Speaker 1: There's no option to this, and I would love, I would love, I would love for me to tell you some magical verse or to say something that's just whoo, that was deep.
Speaker 1: But there is nothing that I can say to anyone here watching online that will change the atmosphere, or to change your door, or to change your perseverance on knocking on the door.
Speaker 1: This is something that you have to determine yourself.
Speaker 1: It's something that has to swell up from within you, something that pushes you to.
Speaker 1: Why am I doing this?
Speaker 1: Why am I letting life happen to me instead of happening to it?
Speaker 1: Why am I letting my finances be this way?
Speaker 1: Why am I letting my relationships be toxic and poisoning me and I don't even want to get out of bed in the morning because I have to look them in the face and I look in the mirror and I don't like who I am and I feel like I'm by myself and I'm alone.
Speaker 1: Why in the world am I stopped knocking, when all these things are what make us survive and thrive?
Speaker 1: These things right here is something that has to come from here.
Speaker 1: I cannot make, I can present, I can preach, I can do all these things.
Speaker 1: We can have classes and teaching, but until we start to put the biblical principles that Jesus put before us, do not stop knocking, even when all you hear is the echo on the other side.
Speaker 1: Don't stop knocking.
Speaker 1: You knock and knock and knock until that loved one has come to know Christ.
Speaker 1: It may not ever have you involved at all, but you prayed, and prayer is powerful.
Speaker 1: Prayer changes things.
Speaker 1: Prayer opens doors.
Speaker 1: Prayer is what will knock your doors down.
Speaker 1: It will give you strength again.
Speaker 1: It will give you faith again.
Speaker 1: It will give you love again.
Speaker 1: It will give you strength again.
Speaker 1: It will give you faith again.
Speaker 1: It will give you love again.
Speaker 1: It will give you perspective and if you have your prayer and faith driving your ambition, there is nothing that will not open for you.
Speaker 1: I'm not preaching prosperity.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching about salvation.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching about the promises that God has in the word of God for us.
Speaker 1: And the fact is some of us have went from this intentional knocking to now.
Speaker 1: We're just like, well, I guess it's not going to open.
Speaker 1: And Jesus even says that I stand at the door and knock.
Speaker 1: Some of us are on the other side and we could be the one at the door and knock.
Speaker 1: Some of us are on the other side and we could be the one opening the door for someone else.
Speaker 1: We could be that blessing to someone else.
Speaker 1: But we feel like, like I preached before, that we feel like what we have is not enough.
Speaker 1: But God says what you have is all that you need.
Speaker 1: If you have me, you have everything that you need.
Speaker 1: There is nothing else that can be added to this.
Speaker 1: There is nothing else that you need to put on top of this.
Speaker 1: This is what you need and this is all you have to have when you start trusting in God to open those doors, when you start trusting God to be that blessing and you're actively seeking out those who need a blessing.
Speaker 1: If you find anybody I challenge you on this any millionaire, billionaire, whatever the ones who feel fulfilled.
Speaker 1: They don't have to be filthy rich, but these are just ones that come to my mind.
Speaker 1: I've been listening to the Dave Ramsey podcast a lot, but every single one of them in the survey that they did, every single one of them had a fulfilled life because they were always giving.
Speaker 1: They were the ones that had the access to the other side of the door and turn the key and open it.
Speaker 1: Some of you sitting here or watching online, you have access to things that the ones on the other side of the door do not.
Speaker 1: You have exactly what they need, especially if they don't know God.
Speaker 1: You have exactly what they need Open the door.
Speaker 1: And if you have stopped knocking and you know that you are lined up with the Word of God and you are where God brought you to do not stop knocking.
Speaker 1: The cost is too great.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the knocking is not just a spiritual one, but it's also a physical one.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to be that person that steps out of your comfort zone, out of who you are and step into who God has called you to be, that person that steps out of your comfort zone, out of who you are and step into who God has called you to be.
Speaker 1: And those particular doors are some of the hardest ones to walk through, because if you're like me and you've done what I've done or you've been where I've been, you don't feel worthy to grace the presence of the house and you don't feel like the door you're knocking on or the door that God has opened and you are walking through.
Speaker 1: As you step through it, you're like I don't feel worthy.
Speaker 1: But, god, I will walk where you lead me, I will knock where you lead me, because we have the first two down.
Speaker 1: We are seeking and we are asking Because, if you've ever been in a marriage, it is very important for you to ask your spouse what's important to them.
Speaker 1: If you don't, you're in trouble.
Speaker 1: My wife is a very reserved lady.
Speaker 1: She's very quiet.
Speaker 1: It's very, very nice until she's too quiet.
Speaker 1: That's a door I don't want to knock on.
Speaker 1: But God sent me her because I began to get real with God and I started knocking when we first started dating.
Speaker 1: I may have already told you this story, but I'm going to tell you again in case you haven't heard it before.
Speaker 1: It's a part of my testimony.
Speaker 1: I was just out of jail.
Speaker 1: I was working odd jobs, drying out.
Speaker 1: I moved from the Palestine area over to the White House area because I didn't know anybody there.
Speaker 1: I had a cousin who was leading worship at the church that I met her at and God opened the door for me to be away from where I knew where all the drugs were.
Speaker 1: If you don't know, I was addicted to meth.
Speaker 1: I was homeless for a while.
Speaker 1: I was living in my car hotels.
Speaker 1: Every now and then I was dealing meth and God started to really shut the doors, even when I bloodied my knuckles trying to open them back up.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God will shut a door and bloody your nose, but if you're like me, I need that bloody nose to learn.
Speaker 1: I don't do things dumb twice, but when I do it the first time, sometimes I'm an idiot.
Speaker 1: And God led me to her and when I started, when I first met her listen, I felt so stupid.
Speaker 1: She shook my hand and told me her name.
Speaker 1: I could not remember anything she said.
Speaker 1: I was just so dumbfounded and I was like, oh, my Woo girl.
Speaker 1: And I knew she didn't know.
Speaker 1: But I knew God just opened a door, but he didn't open it for her yet and I literally took her.
Speaker 1: We've ate in the same booth at Chili's a couple of times by accident.
Speaker 1: I didn't ask for it, but God set it up to where we can remember that door that God opened Because I was fasting and praying, because we went on a few dates and that was enough for her.
Speaker 1: She's like, nope, sorry, not going to work.
Speaker 1: And I said no, no, no, no, hold on, because God put in my spirit.
Speaker 1: I've been asking and seeking, I have been knocking on that door and it was going to open one way or another.
Speaker 1: I got serious with God because I knew when I met her that it was going to change my life forever and in a good way, because I was in a place where I was desperate Because I was out of jail, I was dry on drugs.
Speaker 1: My life felt like it was falling apart because I didn't have what I used to have to hold on to.
Speaker 1: I had to find God's redefinition of me, and so then he opened the door to her and I said now, hold on.
Speaker 1: God told me you know that's going to work.
Speaker 1: On the first couple of days, god told me.
Speaker 1: She told me no.
Speaker 1: So I said okay, fine, will you at least let me sit with you and talk with you.
Speaker 1: I'll take you out to eat.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a good paying job.
Speaker 1: I was working maybe $10 an hour, 20 to 30 hours a week.
Speaker 1: Didn't even have my own vehicle.
Speaker 1: At the time I was borrowing my cousin's van just to go see her.
Speaker 1: And if you could pick a lady up in an old Ford blue van, you got some skill, all I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And so we went out to Chili's.
Speaker 1: Okay, it was one thing I could afford.
Speaker 1: It was pretty much all my money.
Speaker 1: But I was fasting and praying because the door that God showed me in my spiritual eyes that he was going to open had not opened yet.
Speaker 1: I was focused because I felt something in my spirit that God was about to do something in my life and when God spoke, I believed him.
Speaker 1: I was foolish enough to believe him.
Speaker 1: When God showed me the path, I was foolish enough just foolish enough that you know what.
Speaker 1: What I see in front of me does not mean that is truth, that when God promises and speaks into me, speaks into you, that, whether it looks a certain way or it doesn't, what he says is true, and I believe that God was going to open that door.
Speaker 1: I took her out to Chili's and I wasn't eating.
Speaker 1: She ordered food and she's like you're not eating.
Speaker 1: I said no, I'm fine, because I was fasting and praying.
Speaker 1: I didn't tell her and we were sitting there, we were facing each other and I said can I just ask you something?
Speaker 1: She's like I'm not feeling God telling me a yes.
Speaker 1: I said okay, is he telling you no?
Speaker 1: He said no.
Speaker 1: I said then, stop acting like he is Six years in April, y'all.
Speaker 1: Because I did not stop knocking.
Speaker 1: I knew that God made a promise to me when I met her.
Speaker 1: I said it out loud and the pastor's wife at the time heard me say I'm going to marry that girl.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know her.
Speaker 1: There's going to be things God brings you up on and you're not going to know.
Speaker 1: It's going to be foreign ground.
Speaker 1: There's going to be doors God brings you up on and you're not going to know it's going to be foreign ground.
Speaker 1: There's going to be doors that don't look familiar.
Speaker 1: You can knock on them and all you hear is the echo on the other side and it seems like no one's home.
Speaker 1: But when God leads you somewhere, when God promises you something and God is ordering the steps that you walk because you are righteous and you submit to his authority, he will not lead you to the wrong door.
Speaker 1: So when he leads you there, don't you dare disrespect God and stop knocking.
Speaker 1: Don't you dare let up and let somebody else tell you that that's not where God wants you.
Speaker 1: If God speaks it to you, tell the devil to get behind you, because that is the authority that we have in Jesus Christ, when we line our hearts and our minds up with the Bible, that there's no super religious person going to tell me what God said, because I got this between me and him.
Speaker 1: So I want you to leave here and I want you to be determined on the ones that you love that don't know God that are far from God.
Speaker 1: If you're watching at home somebody's praying for you, if nobody else knows you're in despair, this church is praying for you.
Speaker 1: And if you're sitting today and nobody knows your circumstance and nobody knows your situation, guess what?
Speaker 1: We still love you.
Speaker 1: We don't care what you did last night.
Speaker 1: We don't care if you were in the bar last night and you're hungover right now.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 1: God can save a drunk.
Speaker 1: God can save a meth addict.
Speaker 1: God can deliver someone from cocaine addiction.
Speaker 1: That is where he thrives.
Speaker 1: God is bigger than anything that can come to your door.
Speaker 1: Keep asking, keep seeking, and don't you dare stop knocking, don't stop digging, don't stop searching, don't stop sacrificing, don't stop learning, don't stop pushing, don't stop striving.
Speaker 1: Knocking is a test of endurance.
Speaker 1: I did not believe for a second that that lady was not going to be my wife, because when God told me, when he put that in my spirit, I had already been closed off with just me and God.
Speaker 1: And see, here's the thing, and I want you to watch out for this in your spiritual walk, because you have to do this yourself.
Speaker 1: I cannot instruct you, teach you, preach you into heaven.
Speaker 1: It has to be between you and God.
Speaker 1: If you do not seek and ask and get on the same page as God and line your heart up with the word of God, it is all pointless.
Speaker 1: I cannot do this for you.
Speaker 1: I cannot bring you to a place of repentance.
Speaker 1: If you're like me, repentance is not a one-time show, it's an everyday occurrence.
Speaker 1: I need God's grace and mercy every single day.
Speaker 1: I need God leading me to the new doors.
Speaker 1: Let me bring something to your attention Knocking on doors okay, this is what has been the focus Do not stop knocking.
Speaker 1: Do not stop knocking, but be led by the Spirit and do not, once God opens up the door that you have been led to, do not go in there and make camp and never go knocking again.
Speaker 1: We have made camp in our comfortable couches at the one door God opened and we don't grow any further.
Speaker 1: We don't move any closer and we're fine with the one door that God answered our prayer for.
Speaker 1: God is the God of growth.
Speaker 1: God is the God of movement.
Speaker 1: God is a God of answering our prayers on a daily basis, and it is tough to keep knocking when the door does not open, but God will always be faithful.
Speaker 1: Isaiah 40, 31 says this.
Speaker 1: It's a very well-known verse.
Speaker 1: All of you should know it.
Speaker 1: If you don't write it on your hearts, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Speaker 1: They shall mount up with the wings of eagles.
Speaker 1: They shall run and not grow weary.
Speaker 1: They will walk and not faint.
Speaker 1: They will knock and not faint.
Speaker 1: It will be a test of endurance and patience and you will have loved ones that you can't stand, but you may be the one that keeps knocking.
Speaker 1: That gets them to come to repentance.
Speaker 1: You may be the one on the other side to open that door and present that opportunity.
Speaker 1: We have to be sensitive and we have to be open to whatever side of the door God puts us on.
Speaker 1: If you'll stand with every head bowed and eye closed, just for a moment, I want to be sensitive to the Spirit.
Speaker 1: And if someone is here, if you're online watching and you are weary and you are tired of knocking and you feel that God is far from you and you have no clue what to do next, or maybe you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: Today he stands at the door and he knocks.
Speaker 1: God loves you, god cares for you.
Speaker 1: God cares for you so much so that he gave his only son to come and die on the cross for you, so as, together, to not single anybody out.
Speaker 1: If you're at home watching online or if you're here, we're going to all say it together.
Speaker 1: And if you have sin in your heart or you have something hidden in dark places, open the doors and let that out today.
Speaker 1: Don't hold it and keep it for later.
Speaker 1: God is a God of redemption and salvation.
Speaker 1: He loves you, in spite of who we are.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: Let's all pray together.
Speaker 1: Dear Jesus, I ask that you forgive me.
Speaker 1: I accept your salvation.
Speaker 1: I believe that Jesus is your son.
Speaker 1: He died on the cross for my sin.
Speaker 1: Help me, lord, to trust you and to go forward believing in you.
Speaker 1: In your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 1: If you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, your life will never be the same.
Speaker 1: God is a good God of love and mercy and grace.
Speaker 1: He is no respecter of persons.