WEBVTT 00:00:05.169 --> 00:00:07.073 That song is one of my favorite songs right now. 00:00:07.073 --> 00:00:17.774 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. 00:00:17.774 --> 00:00:37.771 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. 00:00:37.771 --> 00:00:41.475 The Lord can still show up in the depths of your sin. 00:00:41.475 --> 00:00:44.886 That is what he promised. 00:00:44.886 --> 00:00:46.161 He said. 00:00:46.161 --> 00:00:49.466 All that it takes is for you to call on the name of the Lord. 00:00:49.466 --> 00:00:56.280 All that it takes is a thought Lord, I need you. 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:04.509 And he is there and he inhabits the praises of his people. 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:10.771 It is a beautiful thing when you don't feel God and you can still say he is there. 00:01:10.771 --> 00:01:19.112 And it is done, because if we go off of our feelings, we wouldn't get out of bed in the morning sometimes. 00:01:19.112 --> 00:01:24.152 If we went off of our feelings, we probably some of us still wouldn't be married. 00:01:24.152 --> 00:01:28.730 If we went off of our feelings, we probably some of us still wouldn't be married. 00:01:28.730 --> 00:01:31.299 If we went off of our feelings, some of us would not be parents anymore. 00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:36.552 Some of y'all almost broke out in a praise dance on that last one. 00:01:36.552 --> 00:01:47.685 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. 00:01:47.685 --> 00:02:02.448 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. 00:02:02.448 --> 00:02:04.474 He is here. 00:02:04.474 --> 00:02:09.364 Don't know where God is. 00:02:09.364 --> 00:02:09.585 He is here. 00:02:09.585 --> 00:02:09.945 He is here. 00:02:09.945 --> 00:02:12.819 He is not limited to four walls. 00:02:12.819 --> 00:02:21.001 He is not limited to our small thoughts. 00:02:21.001 --> 00:02:21.461 He is above and beyond. 00:02:21.461 --> 00:02:25.610 He is greater and more powerful than anything that we can think or imagine Before we speak. 00:02:25.610 --> 00:02:28.495 He is already en route to where you are. 00:02:28.495 --> 00:02:34.044 Yesterday, before you knew today was going to happen, he was already here. 00:02:34.044 --> 00:02:43.167 When you lose that loved one or they don't know God, he already knows. 00:02:43.167 --> 00:03:08.540 And the good thing is 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. 00:03:08.540 --> 00:03:24.112 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. 00:03:24.112 --> 00:03:26.235 That's when he shows himself. 00:03:26.235 --> 00:03:31.705 That's when he shows up in time, when we feel like time is running out. 00:03:31.705 --> 00:03:38.730 Woo, the Lord is here. 00:03:38.730 --> 00:03:56.090 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. 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:57.626 He is no respecter of persons. 00:03:57.626 --> 00:04:01.269 That when we seek him, we will find him. 00:04:01.269 --> 00:04:04.620 When we ask him, he always answers. 00:04:04.620 --> 00:04:05.627 When we start knocking, the door will find him. 00:04:05.627 --> 00:04:06.393 When we ask him, he always answers. 00:04:06.393 --> 00:04:07.920 When we start knocking, the door will be opened. 00:04:09.344 --> 00:04:20.634 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. 00:04:20.634 --> 00:04:25.750 That we don't have to sit and wait for it to come to us. 00:04:25.750 --> 00:04:28.428 That we can suit up and go to it. 00:04:28.428 --> 00:04:41.648 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. 00:04:41.648 --> 00:04:52.170 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. 00:04:53.860 --> 00:04:58.932 And in this power and in this prayer of fasting, we just got off the 21 day of prayer and fasting. 00:04:58.932 --> 00:05:00.365 It should have been full of intention. 00:05:00.365 --> 00:05:02.928 It should have been full of prayer and seeking God's face. 00:05:02.928 --> 00:05:07.266 For God, not what do you want me to do, but who do you want me to be? 00:05:07.266 --> 00:05:12.132 Who can we be to love thy neighbor? 00:05:12.132 --> 00:05:20.201 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? 00:05:20.201 --> 00:05:21.603 But through prayer and fasting we do. 00:05:21.603 --> 00:05:32.572 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. 00:05:35.281 --> 00:05:43.125 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. 00:05:43.125 --> 00:05:56.031 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. 00:05:56.031 --> 00:06:06.646 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. 00:06:06.646 --> 00:06:14.428 We have to be actively on purpose, seeking out those which are lost. 00:06:14.428 --> 00:06:17.189 Jesus said I leave the 99 for the one. 00:06:17.189 --> 00:06:28.846 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. 00:06:28.846 --> 00:06:41.389 Sometimes we feel that the devil is attacking us because our legs are broken and it's Jesus trying to keep us out of the snares of the enemy. 00:06:41.389 --> 00:06:51.331 I'll get back to my notes. 00:06:51.331 --> 00:06:52.192 Thank you worship team. 00:06:52.192 --> 00:06:55.483 Didn't they do an awesome job this morning? 00:06:55.483 --> 00:06:57.689 I appreciate Sister Lieschel coming and filling in. 00:06:57.689 --> 00:06:58.872 It helps me out so much. 00:06:58.872 --> 00:07:03.673 She does an amazing job. 00:07:03.673 --> 00:07:04.495 Continue to pray. 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:05.531 Some of you asked this morning about Pastor. 00:07:05.531 --> 00:07:06.060 Continue to pray for him. 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:08.146 He is on the road to recovery. 00:07:08.146 --> 00:07:10.937 He said it just kind of feels like it's mild flu symptoms. 00:07:10.937 --> 00:07:13.805 He says nothing crazy, but they're taking precautions. 00:07:13.805 --> 00:07:26.206 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. 00:07:26.206 --> 00:07:32.588 I tested negative because you know the blessings of the Lord. 00:07:32.588 --> 00:07:41.682 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. 00:07:41.682 --> 00:07:52.812 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, he thought it was funny and I made sure that I wasn't on speaker when I said that to him. 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:15.747 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. 00:08:15.747 --> 00:08:17.901 We go through our core beliefs, what we believe. 00:08:17.901 --> 00:08:19.204 We believe these four things. 00:08:19.204 --> 00:08:25.286 We connect to God, to salvation, and we believe that Jesus is the only way. 00:08:25.286 --> 00:08:26.944 You cannot get there by works. 00:08:26.944 --> 00:08:30.509 You cannot get there by being good, because in truth, none of us are good. 00:08:30.509 --> 00:08:43.860 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. 00:08:43.860 --> 00:08:48.633 There's a lot more buffing that needs to happen than others, but God knows that and he understands that. 00:08:48.633 --> 00:08:52.307 And then we connect to the church family. 00:08:52.307 --> 00:08:54.231 So all these things are kind of going on. 00:08:54.231 --> 00:08:58.130 We're connecting with each other, we're loving on each other, we're building a strong foundation here. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:13.160 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. 00:09:13.160 --> 00:09:15.547 We have to submit one to another. 00:09:15.547 --> 00:09:17.831 We have to be able to be on the same page. 00:09:17.831 --> 00:09:20.187 As far as listen, I trust this man. 00:09:20.187 --> 00:09:26.828 If he says, hey, you're not supposed to do this, and he shows me biblical principles and verses, that shows me that I am wrong. 00:09:26.828 --> 00:09:35.735 I should be submissive enough to the Holy Spirit, to someone to have that accountability, even as a minister, especially as a minister. 00:09:35.735 --> 00:09:39.144 So each one of us need to be able to be accountable to someone. 00:09:39.144 --> 00:09:43.102 If you don't have that accountability partner, get one. 00:09:43.102 --> 00:09:44.928 It can be your spouse. 00:09:44.928 --> 00:09:51.671 We know that spouses sometimes will let you know quicker than anybody and more bluntly than anybody to correct yourself before you wreck yourself. 00:09:51.671 --> 00:09:59.113 And so your spouse is getting Josh is really he's like, yep, this girl right here. 00:09:59.113 --> 00:10:04.149 So, pat, can I get a new partner? 00:10:04.149 --> 00:10:09.431 So I'm very excited because tomorrow night at 8 o'clock, be in prayer. 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:10.903 Some of our leaders in the church. 00:10:10.903 --> 00:10:12.188 We're starting off with a smaller group. 00:10:12.188 --> 00:10:13.865 We're going to be going through this growth track. 00:10:13.865 --> 00:10:26.541 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 and it's just a way for us to really know what we believe as a church. 00:10:26.541 --> 00:10:37.393 Because if someone asks you, well, what do you believe at your church, the honest answer right now, at this point in time, some of us are like God, you know we don't really have. 00:10:37.393 --> 00:10:44.431 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. 00:10:44.431 --> 00:10:53.115 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. 00:10:53.115 --> 00:10:55.482 That's a blueprint God laid out for us to do. 00:10:55.482 --> 00:10:59.613 And then we're going to go through and have spiritual gifts testing. 00:11:02.980 --> 00:11:06.750 So one of mine when we went through minister training one of mine was faith. 00:11:06.750 --> 00:11:21.946 I am one of those people that I will be like, ah, it's going to be okay, 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. 00:11:21.946 --> 00:11:24.342 We float about that high off the ground when we're together, so it works out great. 00:11:24.342 --> 00:11:25.274 So if we crash, we float about that high off the ground when we're together, so it works out great. 00:11:25.274 --> 00:11:29.048 So if we crash, we're not that far from the ground. 00:11:29.048 --> 00:11:41.731 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. 00:11:41.731 --> 00:11:44.624 Do you have the logo for the church? 00:11:44.624 --> 00:11:55.881 So this is kind of what we've come up with disciples, servants and friends. 00:11:55.881 --> 00:11:57.086 These are a part of who we are as a church. 00:11:57.086 --> 00:11:58.029 This should be a part of who you are in Christ. 00:11:58.029 --> 00:12:00.317 We should be willing to submit ourselves to become disciples. 00:12:00.317 --> 00:12:03.904 We should be servants to each other and to our communities and we should be friends. 00:12:03.904 --> 00:12:09.475 Somebody can come to us and have that about us that we are available. 00:12:09.475 --> 00:12:11.806 So very excited about it. 00:12:11.806 --> 00:12:16.070 If you don't know, in the past few months I've been very excited putting this thing together. 00:12:16.070 --> 00:12:16.991 It's been a lot of fun for me. 00:12:16.991 --> 00:12:21.009 I nerd out sometimes and I got to do that, so it was very fun. 00:12:23.022 --> 00:12:27.243 So today we're going to be diving into a story of Jesus in Luke, chapter 11. 00:12:27.243 --> 00:12:42.590 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. 00:12:42.590 --> 00:12:46.527 And they asked God or Jesus, how should we pray? 00:12:46.527 --> 00:12:48.625 And then he gave them this blueprint. 00:12:48.625 --> 00:12:49.946 So we're going to go right after that. 00:12:49.946 --> 00:12:55.373 So Jesus just told them this is how you pray, this is what you say, this is the order you go in. 00:12:55.373 --> 00:12:56.524 You glorify God first. 00:12:56.524 --> 00:12:57.966 You thank him for what he's done. 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:13.035 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. 00:13:13.035 --> 00:13:17.182 It's hard to be hateful when you're grateful. 00:13:17.182 --> 00:13:31.485 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. 00:13:31.485 --> 00:13:40.493 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. 00:13:43.400 --> 00:13:46.830 So Jesus lays this out and 90% of people can say the Lord's Prayer. 00:13:46.830 --> 00:13:52.859 And then he goes to explain them as an example in verse 5, that are very important elements of prayer. 00:13:52.859 --> 00:13:54.602 We're going to read it behind me. 00:13:54.602 --> 00:14:01.961 It says then Jesus said to them suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and you say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread. 00:14:01.961 --> 00:14:06.306 A friend of mine is on a journey Now they can have this conversation yelling through the door. 00:14:06.306 --> 00:14:26.198 But he don't want to have to get up. 00:14:26.198 --> 00:14:45.139 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. 00:14:45.139 --> 00:14:47.582 Now listen, the friend did not get up because of the friendship. 00:14:47.582 --> 00:14:48.365 He knew it was at the door. 00:14:48.365 --> 00:14:52.510 He didn't care who was at the door, he had shut it down for the night. 00:14:52.510 --> 00:15:07.500 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. 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:17.421 But because of his audacity, because of his perseverance, because he would not stop knocking, that is what drove this man to get up. 00:15:17.441 --> 00:15:19.182 Verse 9, it says so I say to you ask and it will be given to you. 00:15:19.182 --> 00:15:21.644 Seek and you will find Knock and the door will be given to you. 00:15:21.644 --> 00:15:28.792 Seek and you will find Knock and the door will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives. 00:15:28.792 --> 00:15:30.975 The one who seeks, finds. 00:15:30.975 --> 00:15:36.562 And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 00:15:36.562 --> 00:15:45.163 In verse 11, it says which of you fathers, if your son asked for a fish, you would give him a snake. 00:15:45.163 --> 00:15:47.850 Instead, if he asked for an egg, would you give him a scorpion. 00:15:47.850 --> 00:16:03.094 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? 00:16:03.094 --> 00:16:12.923 Ask, seek knock, ask, seek knock as children. 00:16:14.027 --> 00:16:28.147 If you've ever had a child, it's like their spiritual gift is asking If you can make it through Walmart aisles without your child asking for anything, you might have a perfect child. 00:16:28.147 --> 00:16:29.772 I do not. 00:16:29.772 --> 00:16:36.910 Dad, dad, dad, what Can I get this? 00:16:36.910 --> 00:16:42.811 No, my spiritual gift is saying no, that's okay, that's fine for me. 00:16:42.811 --> 00:16:43.732 I'm not hurt by that. 00:16:43.732 --> 00:16:46.447 But he always wants something. 00:16:46.447 --> 00:16:49.768 And then for Christmas and his birthday they're kind of sandwiched together. 00:16:49.788 --> 00:17:05.128 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. 00:17:05.128 --> 00:17:08.106 I'm like, tristan, you don't, what would you do? 00:17:08.106 --> 00:17:09.573 Oh well, the kids. 00:17:09.573 --> 00:17:13.384 And it comes down to the people around him at school end up having something that he's wanting. 00:17:13.384 --> 00:17:20.201 No one has to teach a child to ask no one. 00:17:20.201 --> 00:17:31.125 It is a natural gift that the Father has blessed kids with wanting things and wanting things and wanting things. 00:17:31.164 --> 00:17:31.926 And then we have seek. 00:17:31.926 --> 00:17:32.689 Does anybody? 00:17:32.689 --> 00:17:34.821 When they were a child, you played hide and seek? 00:17:34.821 --> 00:17:38.209 I bet you right now. 00:17:38.209 --> 00:17:47.266 If we would get our young adults together, they all would want to play hide and seek and would have a blast doing it, even the ones who thought it was dumb in the beginning. 00:17:47.266 --> 00:17:53.211 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. 00:17:53.211 --> 00:18:01.148 And they got to come and try to find you, scaring your friends, making them try to find you. 00:18:01.148 --> 00:18:07.292 And yet we seem to also do this in our spiritual walk in the adult life with God. 00:18:07.292 --> 00:18:14.553 So God, if you can find me, good luck instead of seeking after him. 00:18:14.553 --> 00:18:26.593 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. 00:18:28.800 --> 00:18:36.130 The main focus of my message today is knock the first two we can do pretty easily. 00:18:36.130 --> 00:18:39.930 We're really good at even adults, we're really good at asking for things. 00:18:39.930 --> 00:18:42.443 That's why I started. 00:18:42.443 --> 00:18:45.779 Conviction hit me when I really studied the Lord's Prayer. 00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:53.689 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. 00:18:53.689 --> 00:19:01.165 And I've never heard of a game talking about hide and seek. 00:19:01.165 --> 00:19:07.000 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. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:08.920 It's weird, it's not even fun. 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:12.840 Or hey, you stand over here on this side, I'm gonna go stand on the other side. 00:19:12.840 --> 00:19:15.083 You start knocking and guess when I'm gonna open. 00:19:15.083 --> 00:19:18.336 It Doesn't make any sense. 00:19:18.336 --> 00:19:31.230 And we forget to ask the most important questions God, where do you want me to go? 00:19:31.230 --> 00:19:32.398 God, where do you want me to knock? 00:19:32.398 --> 00:19:34.064 God, what is your will for my life? 00:19:34.064 --> 00:19:42.983 And if we get deep into this intense asking and seeking, we start to really unfold God's will for our life. 00:19:42.983 --> 00:19:47.762 And not only God's will for our life, but we begin to find God. 00:19:47.762 --> 00:19:59.041 And behind me is going to be the title slide Don't stop knocking. 00:20:00.223 --> 00:20:04.395 Some of you may see this right here and you may panic from all the doors. 00:20:04.395 --> 00:20:10.628 Have you ever approached somewhere and you didn't know where to start knocking? 00:20:10.628 --> 00:20:25.282 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 road, eventually have the same thing I would have no clue where to stop knocking. 00:20:25.282 --> 00:20:33.182 And in life we get to right here and we get analysis, paralysis and we don't know where to start. 00:20:33.182 --> 00:20:44.355 And if you're like me, if you haven't noticed, I've had this conversation with Brother Jay Dale. 00:20:44.355 --> 00:20:59.247 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. 00:20:59.247 --> 00:21:03.346 And I started doing it and he's like man, your timing is perfect. 00:21:03.346 --> 00:21:07.982 Now I didn't realize that my squirrely personality was bleeding into my guitar playing. 00:21:07.982 --> 00:21:10.989 I'm just going nuts, I don't care about a tempo, I'm just getting with it. 00:21:12.496 --> 00:21:27.048 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, but it takes an intense focus and so you can get lost in the choices. 00:21:27.048 --> 00:21:28.369 You get analysis, paralysis. 00:21:28.369 --> 00:21:33.615 You get lost in the choices. 00:21:33.615 --> 00:21:34.198 Do I choose the left one? 00:21:34.198 --> 00:21:34.838 Do I choose the right one? 00:21:34.838 --> 00:21:37.365 It's like one of those game shows with like door one, door two, door three. 00:21:37.365 --> 00:21:37.806 I don't know. 00:21:37.806 --> 00:21:39.470 That's how I am. 00:21:39.470 --> 00:21:41.837 My personality I'm a squirrely little guy. 00:21:41.837 --> 00:21:45.703 I will put holes in all the doors because I knock on all of them. 00:21:45.703 --> 00:21:47.887 Do I take the job? 00:21:47.887 --> 00:21:48.749 Do I pass it up? 00:21:48.749 --> 00:21:54.839 Do I end this relationship or do I wait for them to change? 00:21:54.839 --> 00:21:57.246 Do I come back to church or do I keep watching online? 00:21:57.246 --> 00:22:01.694 That's a really big one right now. 00:22:01.694 --> 00:22:04.423 Do I keep knocking or do I take the hint because the door's not opened? 00:22:07.736 --> 00:22:13.980 In my job during the week, I'm a real estate photographer and so on a daily basis I knock on strangers' doors. 00:22:13.980 --> 00:22:20.319 Have you ever done that before A place that you didn't know the person inside and you were new to the place? 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:24.305 It gets real awkward when you knock for a couple of minutes and nothing happens. 00:22:24.305 --> 00:22:38.945 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 Nobody? 00:22:38.945 --> 00:22:40.689 Photographer. 00:22:40.689 --> 00:22:45.243 Sometimes they'll open the door like I wasn't supposed to be there, even though I scheduled it. 00:22:45.243 --> 00:22:57.865 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. 00:22:57.865 --> 00:23:00.020 Okay, this is awkward. 00:23:00.020 --> 00:23:05.865 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. 00:23:13.155 --> 00:23:23.421 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, and Jesus pointed out this. 00:23:23.421 --> 00:23:29.506 If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down the desperation produces determination. 00:23:29.506 --> 00:23:35.684 The man in this story did not knock because he liked to knock. 00:23:35.684 --> 00:23:56.343 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. 00:23:56.343 --> 00:24:03.502 How many times do you not before you quit? 00:24:07.116 --> 00:24:11.103 And when you come to the end of yourself, you start knocking a little harder. 00:24:11.103 --> 00:24:14.380 Don't stop knocking. 00:24:14.380 --> 00:24:17.743 You start knocking with more purpose. 00:24:17.743 --> 00:24:23.702 You start knocking with more purpose than you did yesterday. 00:24:23.702 --> 00:24:25.207 Don't stop knocking. 00:24:25.207 --> 00:24:29.903 You will bloody your knuckles until you get the answer. 00:24:29.903 --> 00:24:31.705 Don't stop knocking. 00:24:31.705 --> 00:24:37.426 And the hardest part is not to start knocking, but continue to knocking when you don't get an answer. 00:24:37.426 --> 00:24:40.138 It's knocking when there's no answer. 00:24:40.138 --> 00:24:46.203 Keep knocking when the door isn't open yet Keep loving when you don't feel loved. 00:24:47.234 --> 00:24:54.462 We live in a place right now and when I say a place, a place in time where divorce is crazy. 00:24:54.462 --> 00:24:58.654 The percentages on divorce are ridiculous. 00:24:58.654 --> 00:25:18.144 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. 00:25:18.144 --> 00:25:43.520 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. 00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:57.164 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. 00:25:58.679 --> 00:26:01.402 The asking and seeking is a prerequisite to the knocking. 00:26:01.402 --> 00:26:05.023 You have to really understand how to ask. 00:26:05.023 --> 00:26:10.240 You have to understand how to seek, because in this story. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:19.226 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. 00:26:19.226 --> 00:26:21.948 The story is not about the man on the other side opening the door or not opening the door. 00:26:21.948 --> 00:26:23.670 The story is not about the man on the other side opening the door or not opening the door. 00:26:23.670 --> 00:26:44.125 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. 00:26:44.125 --> 00:26:46.259 There's not another option. 00:26:47.201 --> 00:27:03.734 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. 00:27:03.734 --> 00:27:10.186 Man, that's hard and I'm not trying to embarrass anybody, but this is just my personal stuff. 00:27:10.186 --> 00:27:25.317 My brother has been running from God for years and I love him with all of my heart, but I have slacked in my prayer life and I have stopped knocking because God didn't answer in my time frame. 00:27:25.317 --> 00:27:28.984 Can I just be real this morning? 00:27:28.984 --> 00:27:38.643 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. 00:27:38.643 --> 00:27:50.945 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. 00:27:50.945 --> 00:28:01.023 Our faithfulness is what God feeds on Our faith. 00:28:01.023 --> 00:28:06.550 In the middle of our faith, god shows up, keep knocking. 00:28:10.097 --> 00:28:34.267 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. 00:28:34.267 --> 00:28:35.048 The door is locked. 00:28:35.048 --> 00:28:39.202 But intention will drive your ambition. 00:28:39.202 --> 00:28:40.967 So what is ambition? 00:28:40.967 --> 00:28:47.382 A strong desire to do or to achieve something typically requiring determination and hard work. 00:28:47.382 --> 00:28:53.464 When you find yourself standing and knocking what has fueled you to get to where you are? 00:28:53.464 --> 00:29:08.965 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. 00:29:08.965 --> 00:29:13.163 Last year was a blast on people's finances. 00:29:13.163 --> 00:29:19.647 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. 00:29:19.647 --> 00:29:25.606 Lockdowns could not go and do anywhere and people are sitting there and knocking and knocking and knocking and nothing. 00:29:28.135 --> 00:29:42.567 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. 00:29:42.567 --> 00:30:05.507 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. 00:30:05.507 --> 00:30:14.989 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. 00:30:14.989 --> 00:30:18.025 If I put a tool somewhere and it's gone, I'm coming after a 12-year-old. 00:30:18.025 --> 00:30:24.259 If there's something moved in the kitchen, I go to my wife and I say, hey, where is this? 00:30:24.259 --> 00:30:28.304 And sometimes I'm the one that moved it and I didn't remember. 00:30:28.304 --> 00:30:39.461 So I end up knocking on the wrong doors and when my wife opens I limp for weeks. 00:30:39.461 --> 00:30:45.182 But we're knocking for our promotions. 00:30:45.182 --> 00:30:48.041 Sometimes we're knocking. 00:30:48.515 --> 00:31:10.846 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? 00:31:10.846 --> 00:31:13.221 All of a sudden we're left to deal. 00:31:13.221 --> 00:31:23.980 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. 00:31:23.980 --> 00:31:28.398 You have nobody to deal with and talk to anymore, except for your spouse or yourself or your. 00:31:28.398 --> 00:31:30.845 You know what do I do now? 00:31:30.845 --> 00:31:38.162 There's no buffer, because we raise our kids and our kids are our world, and then all of a sudden they're gone. 00:31:38.162 --> 00:31:45.006 Anxiety rises because then we have to talk and learn our spouse again. 00:31:45.006 --> 00:31:52.026 So loneliness can be a door that we stand and knock on for the rest of our lives. 00:31:57.474 --> 00:32:02.948 We may be knocking for our marriage to heal or that lost loved one, like I mentioned earlier with my brother. 00:32:02.948 --> 00:32:06.163 I don't know what it's going to take, but see, this is the thing. 00:32:06.163 --> 00:32:07.619 This is my prayer level. 00:32:07.619 --> 00:32:11.201 I was praying every now and then when I would think of it. 00:32:11.201 --> 00:32:13.366 Anybody ever done that before? 00:32:13.366 --> 00:32:19.400 You just kind of pray on your problems and that's about it and you forget to go outside of your little bubble. 00:32:20.944 --> 00:32:21.465 I've been guilty. 00:32:21.465 --> 00:32:39.481 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. 00:32:39.481 --> 00:32:46.396 Whatever it takes, I stopped seeking and asking for that lost loved one, god. 00:32:46.396 --> 00:32:52.402 Whatever it takes, help me, god, to never stop knocking on the door of salvation for others. 00:32:52.402 --> 00:32:54.603 Help me to never lose that compassion. 00:32:54.603 --> 00:33:01.260 Help me never to lose that vision of God to where I'm outside of myself and trying to do things for others. 00:33:01.260 --> 00:33:04.161 Don't stop knocking. 00:33:04.161 --> 00:33:06.604 Action is required. 00:33:06.604 --> 00:33:18.944 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. 00:33:20.336 --> 00:33:29.087 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. 00:33:29.087 --> 00:33:31.500 This is something that you have to determine yourself. 00:33:31.500 --> 00:33:35.980 It's something that has to swell up from within you, something that pushes you to. 00:33:35.980 --> 00:33:37.002 Why am I doing this? 00:33:37.002 --> 00:33:40.400 Why am I letting life happen to me instead of happening to it? 00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:42.506 Why am I letting my finances be this way? 00:33:42.506 --> 00:33:45.585 Why am I letting my relationships be toxic and poisoning me? 00:33:45.585 --> 00:33:52.482 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. 00:33:52.482 --> 00:33:59.489 Why in the world am I stopped knocking when all these things are what make us survive and thrive? 00:33:59.489 --> 00:34:05.082 These things right here is something that has to come from here. 00:34:05.082 --> 00:34:05.944 I cannot make. 00:34:05.944 --> 00:34:09.005 I can present, I can preach, I can do all these things. 00:34:09.074 --> 00:34:19.961 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. 00:34:19.961 --> 00:34:21.960 Don't stop knocking. 00:34:21.960 --> 00:34:27.967 You knock and knock and knock until that loved one has come to know Christ. 00:34:27.967 --> 00:34:32.900 It may not ever have you involved at all, but you prayed, and prayer is powerful. 00:34:32.900 --> 00:34:34.400 Prayer changes things. 00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:36.021 Prayer opens doors. 00:34:36.021 --> 00:34:39.503 Prayer is what will knock your doors down. 00:34:39.503 --> 00:34:41.500 It will give you strength again. 00:34:41.500 --> 00:34:42.063 It will give you faith again. 00:34:42.063 --> 00:34:42.329 It will give you love again. 00:34:42.329 --> 00:34:42.614 It will give you strength again. 00:34:42.614 --> 00:34:43.594 It will give you faith again. 00:34:43.594 --> 00:34:44.981 It will give you love again. 00:34:44.981 --> 00:34:53.244 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. 00:34:55.376 --> 00:34:56.681 I'm not preaching prosperity. 00:34:56.681 --> 00:34:58.101 I'm preaching about salvation. 00:34:58.101 --> 00:35:03.159 I'm preaching about the promises that God has in the word of God for us. 00:35:03.159 --> 00:35:11.021 And the fact is some of us have went from this intentional knocking to now we're just like, well, I guess it's not going to open. 00:35:11.021 --> 00:35:18.380 And Jesus even says that I stand at the door and knock. 00:35:22.215 --> 00:35:23.882 Some of us are on the other side and we could be the one at the door and knock. 00:35:23.882 --> 00:35:27.985 Some of us are on the other side and we could be the one opening the door for someone else. 00:35:27.985 --> 00:35:32.583 We could be that blessing to someone else. 00:35:32.583 --> 00:35:36.221 But we feel like, like I preached before, that we feel like what we have is not enough. 00:35:36.221 --> 00:35:38.664 But God says what you have is all that you need. 00:35:38.664 --> 00:35:40.902 If you have me, you have everything that you need. 00:35:40.902 --> 00:35:43.300 There is nothing else that can be added to this. 00:35:43.300 --> 00:35:45.465 There is nothing else that you need to put on top of this. 00:35:45.465 --> 00:35:57.056 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. 00:35:58.818 --> 00:36:08.532 If you find anybody I challenge you on this any millionaire, billionaire, whatever the ones who feel fulfilled, they don't have to be filthy rich, but these are just ones that come to my mind. 00:36:08.532 --> 00:36:17.827 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. 00:36:17.827 --> 00:36:25.161 They were the ones that had the access to the other side of the door and turn the key and open it. 00:36:25.161 --> 00:36:33.201 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. 00:36:33.201 --> 00:36:38.882 You have exactly what they need, especially if they don't know God. 00:36:38.882 --> 00:36:52.641 You have exactly what they need Open the door 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. 00:36:52.641 --> 00:36:54.235 The cost is too great. 00:36:58.949 --> 00:37:01.960 Sometimes the knocking is not just a spiritual one, but it's also a physical one. 00:37:01.960 --> 00:37:14.958 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. 00:37:14.958 --> 00:37:35.393 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. 00:37:35.393 --> 00:37:37.579 As you step through it, you're like I don't feel worthy. 00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:46.856 But, god, I will walk where you lead me, I will knock where you lead me, because we have the first two down. 00:37:46.856 --> 00:37:58.782 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. 00:37:58.782 --> 00:38:06.338 If you don't, you're in trouble. 00:38:06.518 --> 00:38:09.123 Is a very reserved lady. 00:38:09.123 --> 00:38:14.123 She's very quiet. 00:38:14.123 --> 00:38:16.918 It's very, very nice until she's too quiet. 00:38:16.918 --> 00:38:21.135 That's a door I don't want to knock on. 00:38:21.135 --> 00:38:32.056 But God sent me her because I began to get real with God and I started knocking when we first started dating. 00:38:32.396 --> 00:38:34.956 I may have already told you this story, but I'm going to tell you again in case you haven't heard it before. 00:38:34.956 --> 00:38:36.536 It's a part of my testimony. 00:38:36.536 --> 00:38:38.356 I was just out of jail. 00:38:38.356 --> 00:38:40.998 I was working odd jobs, drying out. 00:38:40.998 --> 00:38:44.416 I moved from the Palestine area over to the White House area because I didn't know anybody there. 00:38:44.416 --> 00:38:55.099 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. 00:38:55.121 --> 00:38:55.923 If you don't know, I was addicted to meth. 00:38:55.923 --> 00:38:56.385 I was homeless. 00:38:56.385 --> 00:38:56.728 For a while. 00:38:56.728 --> 00:38:58.331 I was living in my car hotels. 00:38:58.331 --> 00:39:12.079 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. 00:39:14.269 --> 00:39:37.001 Sometimes God will shut a door and bloody your nose, but if you're like me, I need that bloody nose to learn I don't do things dumb twice, but when I do it the first time, sometimes I'm an idiot and God led me to her and when I started, when I first met her, listen, I felt so stupid. 00:39:37.001 --> 00:39:38.635 She shook my hand and told me her name. 00:39:38.635 --> 00:39:40.336 I could not remember anything she said. 00:39:40.336 --> 00:39:45.780 I was just so dumbfounded and I was like, oh, my Woo girl. 00:39:45.780 --> 00:39:48.532 And I knew she didn't know. 00:39:48.532 --> 00:39:56.556 But I knew God just opened a door, but he didn't open it for her yet and I literally took her. 00:39:56.556 --> 00:39:59.530 We've ate in the same booth at Chili's a couple of times by accident. 00:39:59.530 --> 00:40:09.740 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. 00:40:09.740 --> 00:40:18.170 She's like, nope, sorry, not going to work. 00:40:18.170 --> 00:40:19.335 And I said no, no, no, no, hold on. 00:40:19.335 --> 00:40:20.637 Because God put in my spirit. 00:40:20.637 --> 00:40:26.780 I've been asking and seeking, I have been knocking on that door and it was going to open one way or another. 00:40:26.780 --> 00:40:35.474 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. 00:40:35.474 --> 00:40:48.331 Because I was in a place where I was desperate, because I was out of jail, I was dry on drugs, my life felt like it was falling apart because I didn't have what I used to have to hold on to. 00:40:48.331 --> 00:41:00.422 I had to find God's redefinition of me, and so then he opened the door to her and I said now hold on. 00:41:00.422 --> 00:41:03.365 God told me, you know that's going to work. 00:41:03.365 --> 00:41:06.291 On the first couple of days, god told me. 00:41:06.291 --> 00:41:07.112 She told me no. 00:41:07.112 --> 00:41:12.476 So I said, okay, fine, will you at least let me sit with you and talk with you? 00:41:12.476 --> 00:41:13.398