WEBVTT 00:00:17.269 --> 00:00:23.589 Good morning and welcome to our 11 o'clock adult service, and welcome to those of you joining us online. 00:00:25.509 --> 00:00:35.670 The topic under consideration today is the significance of doors in our lives, the spiritual significance of doors. 00:00:36.549 --> 00:00:44.390 And we begin with Revelation chapter 3, portions of 7 through 13. 00:00:46.149 --> 00:01:07.909 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, these things says he who is holy, who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. 00:01:08.950 --> 00:01:11.189 I know your works. 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:19.269 See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. 00:01:19.829 --> 00:01:27.670 For you have a little strength, and you've kept my word, and have not denied my name. 00:01:28.710 --> 00:01:42.710 Because you have kept my command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 00:01:43.030 --> 00:01:45.270 Behold, I am coming quickly. 00:01:45.590 --> 00:01:51.350 Hold fast what you have, that no one may take away your crown. 00:01:52.150 --> 00:02:00.150 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. 00:02:00.710 --> 00:02:15.750 I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name. 00:02:16.469 --> 00:02:22.229 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 00:02:23.430 --> 00:02:27.909 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. 00:02:28.149 --> 00:02:35.189 If any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to them and dine with them, and they with me. 00:02:36.949 --> 00:02:44.389 Turning now to the book Apocalypse Revealed, we get an explanation of the open door. 00:02:46.789 --> 00:02:49.989 See, I have set before you an open door. 00:02:50.629 --> 00:02:55.429 An open door clearly symbolizes an entryway. 00:02:56.389 --> 00:03:07.030 In the spiritual world, there are actually paths that lead to heaven, and here and there one finds gates and doors. 00:03:07.669 --> 00:03:15.349 People who are being led by the Lord to heaven go along paths that lead to it, and they enter through the gates. 00:03:15.989 --> 00:03:25.989 Since the Lord alone leads a person to heaven and opens the door, therefore he calls himself the way and also the door. 00:03:27.269 --> 00:03:45.429 Because a door symbolizes an entryway, and the new Jerusalem symbolizes a church formed of people governed by the Lord's truth and goodness, therefore the New Jerusalem is described as having gates, and they are said to not be shut. 00:03:47.189 --> 00:03:49.349 And no one can shut it. 00:03:50.629 --> 00:04:05.909 The Lord alone opens and closes the doors to heaven, and because it is the Lord alone who does the opening and closing, it follows that hell cannot prevail against these doors. 00:04:08.389 --> 00:04:23.350 And lastly, a portion of Divine Providence number thirty-three that speaks to the fact that we have a role to play in the opening of the doors in our mind. 00:04:25.430 --> 00:04:39.990 Surely anyone can see, simply on the basis of reason, that the lusts of evil with their delights obstruct and close the doors to the Lord. 00:04:40.310 --> 00:04:55.349 And that the Lord cannot cast these lusts out as long as we ourselves keep that door closed and throw our weight against it from the other side to keep it from opening. 00:04:56.230 --> 00:05:03.430 That we ourselves have to do the opening is evident from the Lord's words in the book of Revelation. 00:05:03.829 --> 00:05:06.789 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. 00:05:07.029 --> 00:05:11.829 If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to them. 00:05:13.110 --> 00:05:13.750 Amen. 00:05:14.709 --> 00:05:18.949 May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his word. 00:05:21.189 --> 00:05:27.750 The text for our sermon this morning is from the book of Revelation, chapter 3, verse 8. 00:05:28.870 --> 00:05:37.670 See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. 00:05:40.149 --> 00:05:47.509 I invite you to reflect at the beginning of this sermon on the experience of opening and closing doors. 00:05:48.389 --> 00:06:01.750 You may not have even thought about it this morning, but you have likely opened and closed ten doors, twenty doors already, and the day has only just begun. 00:06:02.389 --> 00:06:05.670 How many doors do we go through in a week? 00:06:06.230 --> 00:06:16.310 Now, obviously, the experience of going through doors can be relatively mundane or routine, like opening and closing your car door. 00:06:17.349 --> 00:06:27.349 But then the experience of going through an entryway or a door being opened into something that you were anticipating takes on more significance. 00:06:29.909 --> 00:06:35.029 Think of waiting to go in for a concert. 00:06:36.230 --> 00:06:55.750 Or think closer to home here in this congregation, the tradition of waiting outside at Christmas time for the tableau with the doors being closed and then the doors are open, and you can come in to experience that beautiful sphere of worship. 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:04.069 There are profound moments where doors open for us that we still remember. 00:07:04.230 --> 00:07:23.750 I remember as a 14-year-old coming to this country, and we were going through the airport and through customs and security, and then I remember these big sliding doors in the international part of the airport swinging open, and here I was coming into this new country, America. 00:07:24.469 --> 00:07:28.389 No idea what the experience was going to be like. 00:07:28.870 --> 00:07:32.550 And uh I remember that as a profound thing. 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:41.750 The doors to this cathedral, if I'm not mistaken, every single door in this cathedral is different. 00:07:42.789 --> 00:07:49.509 And each one is handmade and incredibly special. 00:07:50.149 --> 00:08:07.349 And the significance of that, which we'll get to in the sermon today, is that each one, since this is a house of worship, each one of these doors, unique in its craftsmanship and its uh entryway, is a picture of a truth from the Lord's Word. 00:08:07.509 --> 00:08:15.269 Every single truth having a different purpose, a different function in terms of us entering this house of worship. 00:08:15.430 --> 00:08:17.430 A really remarkable thing. 00:08:20.230 --> 00:08:33.830 What made me think of this topic for this Sunday is that this is the time of year that many of us are involved in one way or another with school graduations and school closings. 00:08:34.470 --> 00:08:44.149 And so this whole concept of graduation is that of a person moving from one phase of life to the next. 00:08:45.670 --> 00:08:50.389 And whether we have experienced that directly or not, we can relate to it. 00:08:50.470 --> 00:08:58.549 And there's many other things that happen in our lives where there is a transition from one phase to the next. 00:08:58.870 --> 00:09:03.669 A door is closed and a new door is opened. 00:09:04.149 --> 00:09:30.069 That could be the loss of a job or the beginning of a new job, thinking of the graduates yesterday at the Bernathan College and the new opportunities in front of them, which, perhaps no surprise, the door corresponds to opportunities, new opportunities, and thinking of those graduates and the new opportunities in front of them as they think about their future life. 00:09:30.470 --> 00:09:35.909 But wherever we are, we all have that experience of going through these transitions. 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:40.549 And it's useful because this is the function of correspondences. 00:09:40.629 --> 00:09:49.429 They're not just simply a nice thing to remember, like water represents the Lord's truth, or a mountain represents love to the Lord. 00:09:49.669 --> 00:09:53.509 They have a very strong functionality to them. 00:09:53.750 --> 00:10:00.309 And that functionality is to get our mind into the right kind of mindset. 00:10:00.950 --> 00:10:07.350 So again, that's why I wanted to start with our experience of going through entryways, going through doors. 00:10:07.509 --> 00:10:18.389 It might be into a beautiful park or into a beautiful garden, into a mansion that has been opened up to the public with incredibly beautiful manicured lawns and things like that. 00:10:18.870 --> 00:10:23.429 That experience actually has a spiritual counterpart. 00:10:24.789 --> 00:10:38.789 And so this is why the scriptures mention doors many, many times, doors and gates, because they correspond to this concept of moving forward, motion, changes. 00:10:40.789 --> 00:10:44.870 We talk about in the new church about changes of state. 00:10:45.350 --> 00:11:06.549 And I think sometimes we might think of a change of state as sort of this amorphous thing that doesn't really have any boundaries, but changes of state from being single to married, or married to having a partner leave us, there's these different changes that happen. 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:20.149 And so all of the states that we experience in life, childhood and young adulthood, and then older age, each of those states have a beginning and a middle and an end. 00:11:20.389 --> 00:11:33.189 And so for the purposes of the sermon today, I'm inviting you to think of these beginnings and middles and ends as going through doors, as going, because this is what's happening to us spiritually. 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:36.069 We are spiritual travelers. 00:11:36.309 --> 00:11:40.950 As we go through life in this world, our spirit is traveling. 00:11:41.189 --> 00:11:44.069 It's traveling along different paths. 00:11:44.309 --> 00:11:46.309 And we're coming to doors. 00:11:46.789 --> 00:11:51.350 Some doors that seem to be locked to us, some that appear to be open. 00:11:51.669 --> 00:12:02.389 So it's a fascinating thing to be thinking about that if our spiritual eyes were to be opened, we would see this incredible network of paths. 00:12:02.629 --> 00:12:17.830 And in the context of today's sermon, what the Lord is doing to encourage us and lead us toward the paths that lead to heaven, every path being different for each one of us, because each person is their own unique person. 00:12:19.429 --> 00:12:21.269 So the function of a door. 00:12:22.230 --> 00:12:29.029 The thing about doors is that they serve a very powerful and important function, closed as well as open. 00:12:29.509 --> 00:12:37.110 And we're going to end by thinking about this open door that is spoken of in the book of Revelation. 00:12:37.509 --> 00:12:46.870 But the scriptures do encourage us to close the door sometimes, obviously, close the door on evil, and we have the ability to do that. 00:12:47.269 --> 00:12:53.669 But also think of when the disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray. 00:12:53.830 --> 00:12:59.110 The very first thing that the Lord said, and when you pray, close the door. 00:13:00.069 --> 00:13:02.149 Close the door to your mind. 00:13:03.830 --> 00:13:06.870 Or close the door to all of the distractions. 00:13:07.189 --> 00:13:14.230 And that's really important because we really do need what you might call head-down time. 00:13:14.470 --> 00:13:20.870 We need to be able to when we're reading the word or when we're thinking about something, concentrating on something really important. 00:13:21.429 --> 00:13:24.629 It's a bit disconcerting to have the door open. 00:13:25.189 --> 00:13:27.189 Now close the door, head down. 00:13:27.269 --> 00:13:28.629 Let me think about this. 00:13:29.350 --> 00:13:31.669 Let me put some real concentration into this. 00:13:31.830 --> 00:13:41.590 Interestingly, in the book Conjugal Love, we're told about the sort of the routine of how a day in heaven goes. 00:13:41.669 --> 00:13:50.789 And we're told that in the morning, it starts off with this beautiful singing, just like it, like this is basically the heavenly temperature outside right now. 00:13:50.870 --> 00:13:55.350 I'm sorry for those of you online if you're not in such a nice uh day. 00:13:55.509 --> 00:13:58.950 But we happen to have this incredible day, beautiful day. 00:13:59.110 --> 00:14:05.269 And so the day starts off in the morning in heaven with this beautiful quietness, the birds singing. 00:14:05.750 --> 00:14:11.830 And then what happens is in the morning it's that head-down time. 00:14:11.990 --> 00:14:21.909 And then this passage talks about how the windows are closed, the doors are shut, because the angels are engaged in their use in the morning. 00:14:22.149 --> 00:14:26.149 It's a really nice deal because the concentration is in the morning. 00:14:26.230 --> 00:14:35.189 And then at midday the doors and the windows are swung open and people are invited inside, and there is an engaging with the neighbor. 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:38.789 But in the morning, we're engaged in our use. 00:14:38.870 --> 00:14:42.149 And so you have to have times where the door is closed. 00:14:42.230 --> 00:14:45.990 So that's an important thing to remember. 00:14:47.350 --> 00:15:00.549 So when it comes to the correspondence of doors, we are taught in the teachings of the church that doors and gateways have this functionality having to do with being introduced to something. 00:15:00.789 --> 00:15:05.830 Being introduced to something really, really amazing and cool. 00:15:07.830 --> 00:15:10.309 Being introduced to something new. 00:15:11.509 --> 00:15:20.789 And also, I think it's without trying to get too bogged down in the details, the door also has to do, it's not so much the intellect as it has to do with the will. 00:15:21.269 --> 00:15:33.509 And this comes to something that I think we all experience, which is the experience of feeling like all the doors around us are options, have been shut, and we don't know where, well, where's the door? 00:15:33.669 --> 00:15:36.069 Where's the door to a new opportunity? 00:15:36.230 --> 00:15:38.389 And it's a it's a hard thing, it's a will thing. 00:15:38.549 --> 00:15:45.509 It can be very painful for people, for all of us, when we feel like the doors are being slammed in our face. 00:15:45.909 --> 00:15:53.990 So they have to do with the will part of our mind, wanting something that we don't have and or that we realize we are lacking. 00:15:54.950 --> 00:16:01.429 Now, interestingly, doors in the word almost always have a good correspondence. 00:16:01.750 --> 00:16:09.990 In the recitation this morning, Jesus said, Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 00:16:10.309 --> 00:16:11.509 I am the door. 00:16:12.309 --> 00:16:14.149 It's a curious statement, isn't it? 00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:22.149 There's many, many names that are given to the Lord in the scriptures, and one is the door. 00:16:22.470 --> 00:16:23.990 The Lord is the door. 00:16:24.950 --> 00:16:50.149 And as I mentioned earlier, in terms of what's happened in this cathedral, with all these incredibly beautiful, intricate, unique doors that lead into this temple of worship, each one is uh different in the sense that it represents a different truth, a different truth that the Lord uh is guiding us to experience. 00:16:50.789 --> 00:17:09.110 So, doors in the scriptures, there are the doors to the temple that's often mentioned, especially in the Old Testament, the doors to the tabernacle, and of course at the end the twelve gates of the holy city, which interestingly, those gates, are also gates that are never shut. 00:17:09.509 --> 00:17:11.670 I want to get to that in a moment. 00:17:12.309 --> 00:17:22.789 So the correspondence of doors is that there is this sense of when we go through an open door or we're able to find the door and we open it, there is a communication. 00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:27.829 A communication, in the case of all of these good correspondences, of the Lord. 00:17:27.990 --> 00:17:32.069 The Lord is desiring to share something with us. 00:17:34.309 --> 00:17:37.109 And so that's really the spirit behind this text. 00:17:37.349 --> 00:17:39.910 See, I have set before you an open door. 00:17:42.549 --> 00:18:09.190 So doors are the Lord's truth, the many very different truths in the word, which introduce us to new ideas, new attitudes that we can take on, new habits, noble goals and ambitions that we have, we're just not quite sure how to get there, and ones that we don't even realize, didn't even realize existed. 00:18:10.470 --> 00:18:18.470 So this is the significance of these doors and why they are mentioned so much in the scriptures and in the teachings of our church. 00:18:20.309 --> 00:18:28.230 So again, if you think about whatever stage of life you're in, your spirit is on the move. 00:18:28.629 --> 00:18:33.589 We are in motion, we are traveling down paths right now. 00:18:34.390 --> 00:18:51.509 And I think it's fair to say that what we're trying to do in terms of looking for purpose and direction in our lives is we're trying to find doors to open that will bring more meaning and more purpose to our lives. 00:18:53.349 --> 00:19:05.750 There's a phrase in the scriptures that I think is useful to think about because it speaks to the challenge that we have about finding doors that we know are there but we can't find them. 00:19:06.230 --> 00:19:29.829 And the phrasing is from early Genesis, and it talks about these uh the this enemy that was against Lot's family that surrounded their house, but under the protection of the Lord's angels, this enemy labored to find the door. 00:19:30.869 --> 00:19:32.309 Almost sounds like a dream. 00:19:32.390 --> 00:19:43.589 I mean, laboring, trying to find something in a dream, but I think we all have that experience of there's something that we know that we're missing, and we cannot find the door. 00:19:43.750 --> 00:19:47.190 We cannot find that portal, so to speak, or that gateway. 00:19:47.430 --> 00:19:49.269 It's a very powerful thing. 00:19:49.589 --> 00:19:56.069 And it probably, if you think about it, it doesn't take too much to think about well, why is that? 00:19:56.390 --> 00:20:10.549 Well, the busyness of life, our occupation, stress, there are many things that make it so that we labor to find the door that the Lord wishes to open for us. 00:20:12.390 --> 00:20:23.109 Our reading today, Divine Providence 33, makes the point that the Lord is always knocking at the door of our mind, but that it is our job to open the door. 00:20:23.670 --> 00:20:41.109 And the point is, we cannot open the door so long as the weight of our anger or annoyance or self-righteousness or judgment or unforgiving heart is leaning against the door. 00:20:41.829 --> 00:20:45.750 That wording is so striking in Divine Provence 33. 00:20:46.309 --> 00:20:50.629 I don't know whether you've ever had the experience of going up to a door and it's like, it's locked. 00:20:50.789 --> 00:20:53.349 And then you realize, oh, it's a push. 00:20:54.470 --> 00:21:05.750 And in a similar way, we have blind spots where we cannot see our own selfishness or things that are in the way of us being able to open the door. 00:21:05.829 --> 00:21:10.789 Because the Lord is knocking on the door and he's waiting for us to open the door. 00:21:12.230 --> 00:21:21.670 And it's almost like, I mean, it's a humorous thing if you hit that passage, it's our full weight is against the door, and we're trying to open it. 00:21:22.710 --> 00:21:24.629 Well, it's just not going to work. 00:21:28.869 --> 00:21:37.269 Now, ultimately, it is the Lord who does the opening and the closing of all doors, but there is obviously this freedom of choice piece. 00:21:37.509 --> 00:21:45.670 We have to be uh the ones who discover these blind spots and discover that there's something that we're missing. 00:21:46.869 --> 00:21:56.390 I want to leave you as we move to the conclusion of today's sermon, to one of the most powerful things that we can do to open all these doors. 00:21:57.750 --> 00:22:08.950 And this is a passage from from very early on in Arcana Celestia or Secrets of Heaven that talks about the enemy at the door or sin at the door. 00:22:10.230 --> 00:22:15.269 And it just says this simple thing, which is just so powerful. 00:22:16.390 --> 00:22:24.869 That love to the Lord and the neighbor is the thing that will open the doors that appear to be shut. 00:22:25.750 --> 00:22:27.670 This is the quote directly. 00:22:27.990 --> 00:22:38.390 The only thing that will put to flight the devil and his crew from the door is love to the Lord and love to the neighbor. 00:22:38.629 --> 00:22:41.349 And isn't that what we're trying to do as we go through life? 00:22:41.509 --> 00:22:47.109 We're trying to find new ways to serve the Lord and to serve the neighbor. 00:22:47.349 --> 00:23:02.150 Because it is from turning from self to things that are higher than us, to the neighbor, and to the Lord, that we learn new things and we experience new and beautiful things. 00:23:03.589 --> 00:23:07.509 I think it's really likened to sort of a breakthrough experience. 00:23:07.670 --> 00:23:14.710 Think of the most glorious door or the most glorious gates that you've ever entered through. 00:23:15.349 --> 00:23:24.470 And you found them, and they've been swung open, and you're now able to experience something that you weren't able to experience before. 00:23:24.950 --> 00:23:31.589 And it's from that recognition that this is what I can do for my neighbor, this is what I can do in service to the Lord. 00:23:31.750 --> 00:23:33.430 It's a powerful thing. 00:23:34.150 --> 00:23:45.430 There is a post-lude piece right after this service, an organ piece, that you can really think of as the gates being flung open. 00:23:45.589 --> 00:23:50.950 It's a very powerful piece which has this sort of grand entrance feel to it. 00:23:51.109 --> 00:23:57.269 And think of it as the Lord opening doors to you that had been shut. 00:23:57.910 --> 00:24:07.509 And they're open to you because you found a way to go and close that door first, pray to the Lord in secret for help. 00:24:08.309 --> 00:24:10.470 And then you get a breakthrough. 00:24:10.629 --> 00:24:19.029 You find that door, and these doors are swung open, and there's this incredible experience of seeing a new vista. 00:24:20.710 --> 00:24:26.470 See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. 00:24:28.549 --> 00:24:34.710 I think it's fair to say that the teachings of the new church and her doctrines are that open door. 00:24:35.589 --> 00:24:39.589 And I may have hinted at it at the beginning of the sermon that there's a little bit of unease. 00:24:39.670 --> 00:24:43.750 I mean, if you think about our experience of doors, we like to have our door shut at night. 00:24:43.829 --> 00:24:46.629 We don't want critters coming in and things like that. 00:24:47.829 --> 00:24:49.269 There's a security to that. 00:24:49.430 --> 00:25:02.629 But the way that the scriptures end, both in terms of this invitation, see, I step before you an open door, and the twelve gates to the holy city all being open and never being shut. 00:25:03.829 --> 00:25:06.069 What is the significance of this? 00:25:06.309 --> 00:25:11.829 And why can this why is it that this door isn't shut or can't be shut? 00:25:12.789 --> 00:25:18.789 It's because this is coming directly from the Lord, this open door. 00:25:19.990 --> 00:25:28.150 And this invitation gives us a clear line of vision to a world of unending opportunities. 00:25:28.710 --> 00:25:35.829 And the point is, there is no one that can take those opportunities away from us. 00:25:36.470 --> 00:25:41.750 No one can shut the door, and that is a very, very powerful thing. 00:25:41.990 --> 00:25:46.710 And this is why the Lord sets this open door before us. 00:25:48.150 --> 00:25:48.789 Amen.