Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Host Pastor Lee Day.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
Behind Locked Doors
Have you ever tried to lock certain parts of your life away from God? Behind those closed doors of fear, pain, or past mistakes, Jesus still appears, offering his peace and purpose.
In this vulnerable and powerful conversation, Pastor Lee and guest Brother Frankie explore John 20:19-23, where the resurrected Christ walks through locked doors to meet his fearful disciples. What unfolds is a profound discussion about the barriers we create that can never truly keep the King of Kings out of our lives.
"There's not a lock big enough or strong enough to keep God's love out," Pastor Lee reminds us, as the two pastors unpack why we compartmentalize our pain and how this creates what they call "wasted real estate" in our hearts. Brother Frankie offers a transformative perspective on fear as "Face Everything And Rise," challenging listeners to step beyond their comfort zones into God's calling.
The most poignant moments come during their exploration of forgiveness. "Unforgiveness is a tool that Satan uses," they observe, revealing how holding onto offenses weighs us down spiritually. Through personal stories and biblical insights, they illuminate how forgiveness sets us free to follow Christ wholeheartedly.
Whether you're carrying burdens you were never meant to bear or hiding behind locked doors of your own making, this episode offers three simple yet life-changing words: "Lay it down." Because the beautiful truth remains—even if you never unlock the door yourself, Jesus will still show up in the room.
Listen now and discover what might be blocking God's peace in your life today, and how to step into the freedom He's offering.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. How is everybody, and I want to personally say welcome to the podcast Beyond Sunday? I'm Pastor Lee and I pastor the church located in Amelia, virginia, christ Family Outreach Church, and today I have a special guest at the table. You may remember from a prior episode he was here. We enjoyed it so much. The Spirit of the Lord was moving, and so I have invited him back. Pastor Jim is currently still not in Virginia. He's been on a mission trip in Peru, and so I invited Brother Frankie. It's been on my heart to have you back for a while. So good morning to you, brother. How are I invited, brother Frankie? It's been on my heart to have you back for a while. So good morning to you, brother. How?
Speaker 2:are you, brother Frankie? Good morning, brother. I'm blessed to be back. Amen, I'm grateful to be here. Talk about the Lord again today, yeah.
Speaker 1:Amen, brother, I know I shot you a text early in the week so you just had a few days to a couple of days to prepare and get ready, but sometimes that's how the Lord works.
Speaker 2:Amen. Hey, sometimes he just calls on you Amen.
Speaker 1:And you got to be ready, right? What's scripture say In season and out of season. So here you are at work, you're grinding, you're doing your thing, and then you get a text saying hey, come do an episode.
Speaker 2:That's right, and I want to give a shout out I miss our brother Jim today too. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We're grateful to be here, absolutely.
Speaker 1:But we press on. The Lord is working and still ministry takes place at the table, Amen. So John, chapter 20, 19 through 23, my friends, is where we're going to get digging into the Word of God. So if you've got your Bibles, go, grab them, flip them open, let's get going. John, chapter 20, 19 through 23,. And this is what the Word of God says.
Speaker 1:On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, jesus came and stood among them and said to them Peace, be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them again. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them again Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me. Even so, am I sending you? And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Brother Frankie, jesus has just been crucified at this point in the text. He was buried in the tomb, he was resurrected and prior to this meeting with the disciples in the house, he had already appeared to Mary Magdalene at the tomb there. So, mary, after seeing Jesus had resurrected, right, she takes off, she's running, she goes back, she's telling the disciples all that's going on. Hey, good news, right, jesus is alive. You know he's not in the grave, no more. He's up, he's walking, he's breathing, he's living, he's talking, jesus is alive. So here they are, after getting the news from Mary Magdalene that Jesus is alive and well.
Speaker 1:And the 19th verse tells us that they've gathered together in a room, but instead of having jubilee, instead of being in celebration, great celebration, they're scared. The doors are locked for fear of the Jewish leaders. And how many times do we, as Christians, fall guilty of that? You know what I mean. Like we're not fighting as Christians. We're not fighting for victory. We already have victory because of what Christ has done and fulfilled the work on the cross, amen. So here, even today, too many Christians are living, walking, operating, breathing in this place called fear, and they're not called to be there. Mary's brought good news to these brothers, but yet they lock themselves in the room. So rather than rejoice and have jubilee that Christ is alive. They're locked behind this closed door. They're behind this locked door simply because they're in fear of the Jewish leaders.
Speaker 2:What really spoke to me about this verse is that they were locking the door because of fear. Yeah, and I got to thinking. Oftentimes we do that in our hearts and minds. We'll put locks on certain things, especially as Christians, where we don't want exactly the Lord to come in and do his thing. Yeah, but I love this verse right here, because the locked door didn't keep him out. That's so good. He walked right through it, bro. Yeah, that's so good. And and what I got from this is there ain't a lock secure enough to keep the king of kings out? Yeah, yeah, he'll walk right through them. Locks, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's so good, bro, like I, I was telling my oldest son one time I rode up to college and we were just up there talking together late one night and I was letting him know like, look, man, you've got a call on your life, right? We all do. You know what I'm saying and I was just sharing with him. As people, we can run and we can run and we can run, but we ain't never outrunning God you know, and as a dad, I had the opportunity to share with him this this one particular time.
Speaker 1:Like there's one thing that you can never outrun from your, your earthly dad, you know myself I said you'll never be able to outrun my prayers for you. You know you'll never be able to outrun that and that I've just reminded of that when you bring up this thing. I love the, I love the angle you're taking on it. Um, because I believe it's a God angle. You know that that that people lock up certain compartments in their heart. They lock up certain compartments in their mind as if they're going to keep God away. You know, like that may work for some people, but you ain't keeping God out of a locked room. No, you know so. That's so powerful man, because even as we're talking, people are listening to this episode, whether it be morning, nighttime, maybe they're driving to work, whatever they got going on, but they've got locked rooms. And so if you're out there today, you've heard what Brother Frankie has just brought to you with this right on man. You know, it doesn't matter how they barricade the door, god gets inside.
Speaker 2:I want to ask you your take on it too, because oftentimes I believe that we will lock in, like the pain or the hurt, all your years of ministry. Why do you think that the human mind thinks that if I lock this away and keep it untouched, like it's somehow protecting us or helping us?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's a great point. 99% of the time I'm not gonna say a hundred percent, but 99% of the time it's because the people don't want to deal with it. Because if they, if they open up that door and let this stuff get exposed, then it's gonna potentially cause people from their past or maybe even their present that they don't want to deal with, that they're going to have to deal with these people in order to have forgiveness or give forgiveness or ask for to receive forgiveness. So most people keep compartments locked up because they just don't want to deal with what they're hiding on the inside. They would rather just treat it as though it's not there.
Speaker 1:The problem with doing that is it's kind of like a monster that grows. You know, it's like that yeast that just grows and gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and it's a breathing living thing, you know. And so it's dangerous to just lock something in the back room thinking that you know, well, I'll never go back in that room, but I'm going to keep it there. Number one that's wasted real estate. You know that's wasted space. You're such a precious individual, a creation of God Almighty. We should never have wasted real estate in our hearts or in our minds. Use that for some good, use that for the glory of God. You know, and the Bible tells us that if we go to the altar and we're praying and we know that there's someone that has something against us or we have something against somebody else, it says leave your gift at the altar, go, get it straight, reconcile, get it right, give forgiveness, give forgiveness, seek forgiveness, get that relationship mended and then come back and offer your gift to the altar. So this whole thing of dealing with things and forgiveness is a really, really big deal in the heart of and he gives a word.
Speaker 1:I love that Jesus doesn't just walk into the room and look at the fellas with his arms crossed like, all right, boys, what's going on? Kind of like as an angry dad walking into the room where the kids haven't cleaned the room up and he's been telling them for 30 minutes clean that room. And they're like all right, we will clean that room. All right, we will. You know nothing gets done. He walks in there and he's just like you see fire in his eyes, right? So, jesus, I love that Jesus doesn't waste time. Jesus, we never see in scripture God wasting a moment, you know. So Jesus enters the room and he gives a word.
Speaker 1:So what a picture we can draw of this being the church. So I want to kind of take this angle for a moment. Just like the disciples are in this moment, we too is the church. So I want to kind of take this angle for a moment, just like the disciples are in this moment, we too, as the church, we gather into a room together as believers on the first day of the week. This is when the disciples, the apostles, are in this room. It's the first day of the week, brother Frankie, it's the first day of the week, and here they've gathered in a room as Christians. The first day of the week is Sunday. You know, most people think that's the last day of the week, but it's not, which I love, sunday being that first day of the week. I mean, what better way to start your week off before you hit the grind at work than to come into the house of God and recharge and refresh and get a word from the Father right, and to be able to worship and praise Him at the front half of your week, at the beginning of the week, it's not the end or the back half, right? So, just like the apostles, they get into this room on the first day of the week.
Speaker 1:We, as the church, we gather into the room on the first day of the week, sunday morning, and can I just say this before we go any deeper Our gathering is not in vain, amen. The church should gather with great expectation. We don't gather without hope. That's right. Right, I mean, if so, we're wasting time. You know, like I'm not just going up there just to look at everybody, see how everybody's doing. You know, I'm going up there to worship God, to honor the Lord and to sharpen as iron sharpens iron, with my brothers and sisters in Christ, but then to also offer hope and love to the hopeless and those who feel unlovable or those who feel like they don't have love or they're lacking love. Right? So, as the church, we gather trusting and having great expectation, brother Frankie, that God is going to provide His Word, that God is going to speak to us, he's going to minister to us, but we also gather believing that Jesus Christ is going to show up in the room. You know that the Spirit of God is going to do a great work in the room. So, no matter, my friends, what you're going through, you need to understand that Jesus Christ will absolutely show up in that room. You know, no matter where you find yourself at right now, as you're listening to this podcast, jesus Christ is willing to show up there for you and be with you. All you need do is call on his name. You know there's that song out. One of the lyrics is the king is in the room. Oh man, I love that brother because we just realized that he truly is in the room.
Speaker 1:What do you think about Brother Frankie when it comes to and this is the piece I want to bring up next a question for the listeners would be this what's blocking your peace? Right, like what's blocking the peace that God has for your life today, because there could be a few things. It could be multiple things. Is it something, is it someone? Is it a particular situation or circumstance?
Speaker 1:What's blocking the peace of God in the lives of people today? Here's the deal no one has the power to successfully block what God is trying to give you. Now, I know the enemy can try, right, but I'm talking about successfully block, which means if you want to receive the peace of God today, you can. The only way that you cannot receive it is if you choose to forgo it. You want to forfeit it or you're allowing things into your life that are going to block this thing. But, brother Frankie, I believe that some people are living today they're guilty of living today off of last week's peace and they simply haven't re-upped this morning. What do you think about receiving new peace every day from the Lord?
Speaker 2:I think fear is that thing, just like we mentioned in the start of verse 19,. They locked themselves in the room for fear of the Jews. So maybe we can take this approach as the Jews being past things that we've done, things that we've been guilty of. Maybe it can be past people, maybe it was a parent that didn't treat you right, that belittled you, spoke down to you your whole life, even as an adult. It could be many different things, but those things could be the Jews and we fear those things. But I want to present to us, especially the listener, the acronym for fear that helped me rise up one time, and it's face everything and rise.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so good Face everything and rise, and rise, and so what I'm really saying? In preparation for this podcast, I meditated on Jesus coming in through my locked doors and standing among me for a second, just standing there in the midst of my anxiety, my fear, and I say my fear, but it doesn't belong to me no more, because I choose to start to give it to him. But I picture him standing among those things and then saying peace unto you. And and maybe today, as a listener, you need to, you need to visualize jesus walking through your locked doors of your heart and your mind, right into your situation. You, you meant to keep those things out, but he's walking, slapped through them things. They ain't holding him back and he's standing among you, saying peace unto you. Yeah, and I'm here with you, like what's up?
Speaker 1:yeah, let's, let's take care of this yeah, you know, that's so, that's so good bro, that's so good, you bring up a great point, like they, they were, they were, it was the jewish leadership that crucified jesus christ and because of that, they're they're. They're thinking, hey, they did this to our, to our teacher, they did this to our leader, they may do this to us. You know so. So, so they find themselves behind the locked door due to the Jewish leaders. So you bring up a good point, like you know. What is that Jewish leader, if you will, in our lives? What is that thing in our lives, in our life, that keeps us behind a locked door? That's so good, that is good.
Speaker 1:Moving on, in the 21st verse, jesus said to them again. He says peace, be with you, as the father has sent me. Even so, I am sending you. So, brother Frankie, this reminds me of, really, the great commission. You know that that Jesus gave the disciples in Matthew 28, 18 through 20 and Matthew 28, 18 through 20. In Matthew 28, 18 through 20, jesus says the following Then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Brother Frankie, we cannot let fear get in the way of doing God's work. Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:And I've heard too many people, brother. I've heard too many people say to me over the years that they don't witness to people in public because they're too nervous. I've heard all types of excuses I'm too nervous, I don't have it in me, I don't have that gift of evangelism, I just can't witness to people. But let me just say this, my friends, if you're saved, then the good news is you've got the Holy Spirit living inside of you, which means that you've got the power that you need to do it. It means you've got the ability that you need to do it. It means that you do have the gift to go out there and witness and share your faith. This is the whole point of testimony.
Speaker 1:The Bible tells us that the enemy was defeated by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ and by the word of our testimony. You know what I'm saying. So, man, I just get tired of hearing. And it's really a sad thing, man, when you hear Christians say well, I just can't go out there and be bold. Well, if that's you this morning, I want to encourage you and say did you need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit? Because that power is bold, that power is the gift that you need, and so, as a Christian, we have everything on the inside that we already need. Amen Brother, frankie, amen Brother, what do you think about this 21st verse? My man, here we have Jesus a second time saying peace, be with you, and I am sending you peace, be with you and I am sending you.
Speaker 2:I love it because we know in Scripture, whenever Christ repeats himself, he's trying to emphasize to you that there's something great coming, you know. And for these disciples who have locked themselves in a room out of fear, I believe the last thing they want to hear is peace, be unto me. I'm about to send you out, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:You're going on the other side of that door, fellas? Yeah, but I heard this one said that on the other side of fear lies opportunity. Yeah, and so what Jesus Christ was offering them was the peace. You're not going to find peace. Oh, I feel the annoyance. You're not going to find peace in your locked room. You're not going to find peace in your locked room. You're not going to find peace sitting inside the compartments of your life fearing the Jews coming and knocking on the door because they're coming. They're always going to come, like they crucified our Lord. What do you think they're going to do to us?
Speaker 2:The scriptures tell us that, but the peace he was giving them is the peace I'm sending you out with is that you're going to go make other disciples all around the world, every nation, it says, every nation of every tribe.
Speaker 2:That's a very unique group, because it's going to be all kind of different individuals in there that you would have thought would never have accepted the call, because at one point we didn't even think that we would and we weren't.
Speaker 2:But I really like that a lot because I believe the greatest offensive weapon we have that the enemy tries to shut, shut us down with, is discipleship. Yeah, how can you stop that? Yeah, how can you stop one man being on fire? And and, like you said and you mentioned earlier, it's the spirit that's doing it in us. The spirit that's doing it in us. So if we aren't out there, like, say, we ain't at the gas station sharing Christ, or at the grocery store sharing Christ, or wearing t-shirts, and our words suggest that we know we have a personal relationship with him, it's simply because we're not in the word, that spirit. Man ain't being built up and the spirit is the only thing that's going to empower us. I was reading somewhere in the New Testament. It says we have extraordinary power, amen, extraordinary, bro, amen. And that's the power of the living Spirit of God Inside of us.
Speaker 1:Inside of us. In layman's terms, it's as if Jesus walks in the room and says Fellas, you're not staying in here, you can't stay, it's time to get out. You can't stay here, man. When I say that, I kind of chuckle inside man, and now I'm laughing outwardly. It reminds me of my dad when I was little.
Speaker 1:You know, he worked a night shift job and he had to sleep during the daytime and in the summers we were home, you know, and mom would be at work. Dad's got to sleep. We had one job, you know, and mom will be at work, dad's got to sleep. We had one job not to wake my dad up, you know, and if we did, dad will wake up. And he said look, I got to go. You know I've got to sleep because I got to go to work tonight. I need y'all boys to quiet down. We had one opportunity to quiet down. If we woke him up again, he would come out and say that's it, guys. Y'all got to go outside, you got to go outside. There's something greater out there that y'all got to go get involved in. And what you got going on in here, you know, because being inside the house, we would just find ourselves doing basically nothing, to the point to where we would get in trouble because we were getting bored. Y'all getting bored, you know. And the next thing, you know, my brother and I get into it. You know what I mean. So dad would just wake up and say, hey, go outside, there's something better out there for y'all to do than just being in here.
Speaker 1:And I think oftentimes that really is what hurts the body of Christ, that's what hurts Christians. You know, when we get so closed-minded that we're going to put locks on doors and windows and say I'm not going out of my parameter of being comfortable, I'm not going out of my parameter, I'm not willing to go farther than where I've grown. No, no, no, you've got to go from faith to faith and glory to glory, and you can only do that by the living power of the Holy Spirit working in your life. So yeah, man, it's, it's something that I chuckle about, you know. I see Jesus show up in the room and he's like hey guys, y'all aren't, y'all aren't staying here, y'all are fitting to go out. And and you're gonna, you're gonna go out to the entire world and I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to encourage the listeners too, that, um, I want to encourage you today that I, uh, was one of the ones that were fearing being sent out. That was one of my if I'm being honest, that was one of my greatest fears. But I want to encourage everybody that's listening that, um, if I, if god is sending me out and I, I'm seated here at the table with you right now, that anybody can be sent out, man, because it's not us doing the work, it's the Spirit. That's right. I know that sometimes that doesn't make sense, but if you're in that Word and you're trusting God where he's leading you, if he's called you, he's faithful to take you there, yeah, he's going to make the means, he's going to equip you is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes it feels like we ain't equipped, but that's a feeling. The helmet of salvation is a knowing yeah, amen. So we know that he's equipped us and called us.
Speaker 1:That's so good, brother. That's so good I know I want to touch on before we close this episode. I want to touch on John, chapter 20, the 23rd verse. It's the last verse that I led into at the beginning of this episode, and verse 23 says if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. And what do you think about that verse, Brother Frankie? There's great power in forgiveness.
Speaker 2:Hey, forgiveness will set you free. I was looking deeper into these words, studying for this and the word retain. There is a powerful word, but it means to take hold of, and when I read it for the first time, maybe in a different lens and seeing what this word actually meant, you could read it, one could, one could render it. If you hold on to the sins of any, then you're holding on to them, and so I want to. I want to say that if, maybe, if you feel heavy today, your spirit feels heavy within you, take an inventory of your life, ask the Lord to examine your heart, and I bet you that there's something that you're holding on to that's not meant for you to hold on to, because oftentimes, of course, we hold on to our own baggage, you know, but if we're not careful, we'll be taking everybody's luggage with us. Yeah, we'll be so burdened and weighed down, man, how can we go out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. What is there in life that maybe we need to let go of, right? Jesus lets us know that we're to come to him, that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And so, my friends, if you're walking around feeling like you're carrying the weight of the world, then you're carrying way too much stuff. We were never meant, nor are we called, to carry the weight and the burdens of everybody else and not deal with our personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:The truth is, brother, we can't.
Speaker 1:We can't carry it, even if we want to, we can't yeah no, no, and that's how I see, brother Frankie, that's how I see people get burned out. You know they're, they're carrying too much, they're carrying too much load and rather than focus on the peace, the joy, the love, the recharge, the renewal of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in them, they're just focused on hitting the grind and carrying everything for everybody, and oftentimes those types of people who are the ones doing everything for everyone, they tend to forget. They're so busy, they tend to forget to recharge their own personal relationship. I love that. Yeah, what's a final point, bro, that you could give? To recharge their own personal relationship? I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. What's a final point, bro, that you could give to the listener today, just off the scripture?
Speaker 1:I think that the power in forgiveness is greater than what we realize. I think that we go through life not looking nor understanding forgiveness, that there's this forgiveness that maybe someone is looking for from us, that we're holding just because we've not opened our eyes enough to know that we've committed an offense. That's so good. You know, I read a book one time. It's called the Bait of Satan, powerful book man. But it's all about, like, how Satan operates off of offense and how Christians can be easily offended and divides come in relationships because of this thing called offense.
Speaker 1:So I guess, closing the episode today, I would say that as Christians, we need to understand the power we have in forgiveness. It's a great tool. We can look back at Christ with this, look at the power that we have through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and so forgiveness is a huge thing. It's a beautiful gift to offer somebody. It takes the weight of the world off of someone Once we can say, hey, look, I know that that was an offense, but I forgive you, I love you, let's move forward. We're no longer going to. And let me just say this as I'm speaking it, I'm speaking it out loud, I'm just the Spirit's just just working in me.
Speaker 1:When when, when we, when we offer forgiveness, you know what happens the enemy no longer has a tool to work. Amen. You know, unforgiveness is a tool that Satan uses. So when we offer forgiveness, it really dismantles what the enemy is trying to do. And Satan hates it, bro, satan hates it.
Speaker 2:Forgiveness, personally for me, freed me up to follow after Christ in the spirit. I was too weighed down to do it. Yeah, I was doing it. I was burning out. Yeah, trying to do it on my own, you know from a prideful, fleshly standpoint. Yeah, but when I laid it down and offered that forgiveness, his words is if you want to forgive, he won't forgive you. Yeah, that's powerful. So that slapped me across the face and I'm like God, I got to do something.
Speaker 1:That's powerful, I'm going to trust you with it Three words. If you're taking notes, brother Frankie just said, just kind of jumped out and spoke to me Lay it down. So you're taking notes, you write them three words down. Lay it down and maybe you got something going on in life that you need to lay down. Right now. Maybe there's a locked door that you need to go unlock.
Speaker 1:And I got news for you. Like we said earlier, even if you don't go unlock it, the Lord will still show up in the room. Let's pray, father. I'm grateful for every listener that you've got tuning in and, father, I pray in the name of the blood of Jesus Christ, that their heads and their hearts would be set free today. Father, in Christ Lord, I just lift up every person that needs to understand that they've got a lock on the door of their heart. They've got a lock on a compartment in their mind. Maybe it's a lock on a relationship, but it needs to be unlocked, and the truth is is that there's not a lock big enough or strong enough to keep your love out, and we may try to build up walls to do it, but we'll never be successful. So we thank you, father, that you are in the room. We love you, we praise you, we honor you and it's in Jesus Christ's mighty, precious and cleansing washing blood. We ask all these things and everybody, my friends, said together amen, precious and cleansing washing blood.
Speaker 1:We ask all these things and everybody my friends said together amen, amen and amen. God bless you. My friends, until next time on Beyond Sunday, you.
