A Troubled Mind And An Open Door

of God to come in a powerful way. So if you live in any of those cities, or if you live close enough to get an uber or a scooter, whatever it takes to get to the presence of the Lord, we would love to see you there. Go to Elevation Nights dot com. But right now, somebody shout right now in all caps, put it in chat, right now, right now, right now, right now. Throw an exclamation point on there

in the chat. It doesn't cost you anything to put an exclamation chapter right now, who's ready for a word from God? Thank you, Jeeve. I want us to go to Second Corinthians chapter two. Remain standing for like one more minute out of respect for God's word. Second Corinthians, chapter two. I've been messing with this passage for like four months, trying to preach it. So today's the day, So you'll help me out, because I've been looking forward

to this. You know, when how many y'all ever cooked a big meal for people and then they just ate it so quick and didn't even yeat, which looks like for me when I spent a long time looking at a passage and y'all just yawn at me, and anyway, it's gonna be good. Tewod Corinthians chapter two, Verse ten.

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive, and what I have forgiven, if there was anything to forgive, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware of his schemes. Now verse twelve, when I went to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I want to read that scripture again, because I've lived in the door had opened or excuse use, the Lord had opened

a door for me. Tell somebody, it's not your door, it's my door. God gave it to me. Paul said the Lord had opened a door for me. Point to yourself, the Lord, say it the Lord. Type this. The Lord opened a door for me. When I found that the Lord. When I went to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. That's

the scripture. The Lord had opened a door for me, but I still had no peace of mind. And we're going to call this message a troubled mind and an open and door. Last week I shared with you green light at the Red Sea. You remember, man, y'all forget quick, because I've been thinking about it all week, at every traffic light. I've been thinking about God's goodness and how he gives us the ability to overcome any obstacle, and

sometimes the obstacle is the opportunity. But today we'll continue that thought from a little different angle, and we're going to talk about a troubled mind and an open door. Speak Lord in Jesus name, Amen, you may be seated. Troubled mind and an open door that it feels like in this text, we've stepped into the middle of something.

I don't know if you felt that when I was reading it, but back around verse ten, it's kind of like one of those tense arguments you sometimes got caught in the middle of a argument that you don't know how it started, but you know, I get I'm a tiptoe out real quick. So we understand in the text that we're reading. You know, like when you read Bible verses in isolation, it doesn't really give you the integrity

of the thought. So if you just read one verse, that's good, but it's better to read a few so you can understand. They taught us in seminary the text in context, because a text without a context is a pretext. Whatever that means. I spent like fifty thousand dollars to learn it in seminary. Interestingly enough, Paul is dealing with one of the most important churches that he ever laid,

the foundation for, the Church at Corinth. The Church at Corinth is responsible for a lot of Paul's pride as a pastor and a lot of his problems, and it seems in this passage that we're reading right now to the Corinthian Church, Paul finds them very important. I don't know if Paul, that dignitaryan statesman, that gospel practitioner who erected altars for Jesus Christ and all of the known Roman world to the gentiles who were previously not even

considered worthy of the message. I don't know if he had favorites, but he certainly understood that some people are more strategic than others. Doesn't mean that somebody is more valuable than others or And I was even out here today before church started. I don't always do this, but today I came out in the auditorium and sat down in one of the seats here at this beautiful Ballentine campus.

If I'm not mistaken, it was the fifth row of this section on this side of the aisle one two three four five seats in one two three four five. So you in the hunter green looks like shirt. I was in your seat, preaching, praying, praying for who I was going to preach to today, preaching to myself to get ready to preach this morning before you got here. So you feel a little something extra over there today. But I was thinking, how in each seat is somebody

whose situation is uniquely difficult and uniquely wonderful. While we were praising the same God a minute ago, we were praising the same God for a lot of different things. Somebody was praising God just because you didn't get caught. You were praising him because you memorized Colossians in your men's Bible study. Okay, you were praising him just because nobody found out about it. Mm hmm. But as we preach and teach online and just go ahead and put your name in your city in the chat, God, has

you situated? God? Has you situated? Now? Now, Corinth was a city that was situated. It was important because it was a cosmopolitan city that also represented a seaport, and it was a it was it was a it was a flourishing place in terms of culture because you kind of had to go through Corinth. It was It was the third largest city by population in its time. The only cities that were bigger than Corinth would be Roman Alexandria.

So Corinth is not only populated, but it situated. Now when you think about this from a minute, it was a very important city because it was a port city and that meant that the ships came through there, and it was situated well enough, the distribution could happen in trade could happen, and commerce could happen because of where Corinth was situated. On the other hand, Corinth was a very ungodly city because the same situation that made it

so effective for business made it susceptible to temptation. Corinth was a city where there was a lot of sexual immorality. You know, back in the Bible times, they had different problems than we have today. They had sexual immorality even in the church. Some people were messing around in the church at Corinth. Can you believe those crazy Christians at Corinth, and Paul spent eighteen months with them, and he couldn't cast out all these sexual devils. He couldn't cast out

all of these idolatry devils. They were so greedy. They were getting drunk off the Lord's communion wine and Corinth a bunch of crazy Christians in Corinth. I used to find it funny people would say, I don't go to elevation. Back when we used to start. They would say, I don't go to elevation because some of the people that go there. Some of the people that go there aren't very good Christians. And I would always think that should

be your invitation to join us. I always wish I could put a c old circuit camera in their house when they talk like that, just a little nest cam so I can catch you in the middle of the night doing the crazy stuff you do. But really, no, really to get to the core of how crazy you are. I couldn't put the camera in a room. I'd have to put it. And Paul is talking to a group of people who are very important to him. He's invested

a lot in them, and they've hurt him deeply. Nobody can really hurt you deeply if you haven't invested in them greatly. The proof that I love you is that I have the capacity to hate you. You can't hate somebody you don't love. You can ignore them, you can be annoyed by them, you can be perturbed by them. Then you can pray for them. But you can't hate somebody that you don't love. It's not that Paul hates

the Corinthian Church. It's that his relationship with them is so important, not only to him personally, now it's important personally. We find out more about Paul through his writings to the Corinthian Church than anything else. He wrote in the Bible, the Book of Romans. If you want to really understand Paul's theological construct for justification by faith in Christ, not through works of the law, you should go to the

Book of Romans. But if you want to see inside of Paul's mind how he thinks not only about our relationship with God, but his relationship with others, you should read First and Second Corinthians. And it might interest you to know that as powerful as Paul was with God, he still had dysfunctional relationships with people through which God worked to get the Gospel to the earth. The church at Corinth was important for Paul. It served, as it were, as a hinge for the Gospel to go forth into

the hitherto previously unevangelized gentile world. This important church in a seaport city that was established by the apostle himself, and now he's having to write them about a conflict that should have been resolved by now. He said, I need to forgive you. I need to forgive you. It's not that I'm saying you're not important. Fifth row, fifth seat,

hunder green golf shirt. But all seats in this church are not created equal to me, I've learned through time that this seat, and they probably aren't showing it on the camera, the one we're Holly sitting right now, that's the most important seat in the church to me. To me now, early in my ministry, I thought that having

all the seats full was the whole goal. Where I'm at in my life right now, I think that if every seat in this church was full, but that my wife didn't respect my life enough to want to hear me preach what I had to say, because the way I live at home, that I would be a hypocrite. I think that if this seat, when Holly tells me, she told me last week she said that spoke to me. I said, well, good, because I've kind of put some stuff in there for you. I know why I didn't.

But what I'm saying is in the eyes of God, fifth seat, fifth row is just as important as this one, but not in my eyes. In the eyes of God, there's equal value to every human being. So if there's a millionaire on your row and then somebody who can't even doesn't even know where their next meal is coming from, to God, the worth of his children is not based on something called network or occupation, or any of these

opportunistic ways that we see people. But to us, to us, we have to realize that certain things we have to learn to prioritize what's really important in our lives, what opportunities we give our energy to. Some of us are praying for God to give us things that He simply cannot give us the way we're asking them to come. If we're asking God to give us peace in our lives, but we have no priorities, we will never receive the peace that God gave us through Jesus, who is our peace,

when he died on the cross. So that's the setup. And here's the sermon. Paul said, when I went to preach the Gospel of Christ intro ass and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind. This is Paul point Guard of the New Testament Church to the gentile, saying I had an opportunity. Now, Paul has seen God open so many doors, and so have you? I said, so have you? How many of you just wave at me? Have seen God put you and situate you and position you in

places that you could never earn or deserve. And don't know how you got here. Yeah, how many of you were smart enough and competent enough, and you did it all by yourself, and you created your own oxygen that you breathed into the lungs that you formed with your hands in your mother's womb. Even listen, Even your success was because of how God situated you. The reason Corinth was was because of where it sat in relation to

the Mediterranean Sea. Some of us get very prideful about things that we accomplished, but if God hadn't put Corinth by the sea, it wouldn't have been a port city. So even when God blesses me, I understand that if he did not give the wisdom, if he did not give the strength, if he did not give the opportunity, I don't care. If you're a professional tennis player, if somebody didn't give you a racket, if somebody didn't give you a ball. You can have all the athletic ability

in the world. But without the opportunity that God gives, all of your human ability means nothing. Even the ability itself comes from God. This is what Paul knows, and that's why he uses a phrase that we can use to Sometimes we can say the Lord opened the door for me. The Lord opened the door for me, So don't be mad at me about the blessings that I'm walking in. The Lord opened those doors for me. Remember, real early when I was preaching, I invited myself to

preach out a church. I didn't like it. I didn't like how it felt because he said yes, and once I got there, I felt like it to me to perform. I was seventeen years old. Spirits spoke to me, said, don't ever invite yourself somewhere to preach again. You can put your messages out, you can put them online, you can use all the platform blah blah blah and social

media and all that. You do everything you can do to get the gospel out, but don't ever situate yourself in a position through manipulation, because then you will carry the burden of performance. It's something awesome about knowing the Lord opened this store. It's just something freeing about knowing the Lord opened this store. It's something great about knowing

that God brought me into this relationship. Because see, you can get into a relationship and really God wants you in it, and then you have to spend the rest of the relationship trying to get somebody to like a pretend version of you that you had to put on like a costume to get them to accept you. But if you had to compromise yourself to gain their acceptance, what did you really get? Something awesome about the Lord opening doors? There's something awesome about the Lord closing doors.

I need both. Last week we talked about the red light and the green light, praising God for one and not the other kind of foolish. You know, the green light is only as effective as the red light. You'll want all green lights in the city of Charlotte, where everybody's just smashing into each other all the time. So why do we want all green lights from God just to be crashing into stuff that we could have avoided if we would have heard his voice. Pray this Lord

open the door. Now, pray this Lord close the door, because either way, I want your hand on the knob. Everybody over twenty five ought to give God a shout of praise. You don't notice shout over that closed door till at least twenty five. What's interesting about this text to me is that we could argue the most important figure in the New Testament other than Jesus, who Roughly over a third of the New Testament is devoted to

either his letters or his life. Paul formerly Saul of Tarsus, the one who got knocked off of his horse on his way to kill Christians, and God closed his eyes and blinded him, sent him to Anonius in Acts chapter nine to receive his sight, and he spent the rest of his life taking the Gospel to the known world. He started at least fourteen churches, and he started out as a Christian killer. God used him to multiply in the earth the thing that he tried to uproot in

one season. Only God could do that. Only God could take somebody trained under Gamali and get him to let go of all the traditions of men and call it rubbish. He said, the things that I once counted as game, I now count as lost. God has completely reversed my understanding of my value system. Of what's important and what was once gained to me I now count as loss, And what was once lost I now count as the ultimate gain. And all I want to do is no Christ. And all I want to do is make him known

as I come to know him better. Now I know what's important and of all churches he establishes, and he started at least fourteen, at least fourteen that we know about. That doesn't count all the spinoff churches. That doesn't count all the churches that had baby churches, of baby churches and the grand baby churches that Paul started, every gospel drop that entered the gentile world, Paul had a pardon it sometimes sowing in tears and pain. But that's Paul

who God opened a door for. And I want to say one word thing about that before I move on to the other that that I'm going to say after I say this about that. The whole reason that Paul took the Gospel to the Gentiles was because the Jewish people rejected him. You know, sometimes rejection is one of God's greatest doors. While Paul was preaching in Judea, they didn't want to give up the customs and the rights of Judaism. So God said, that's fine, I'll open a

door for you somewhere else. When God opens a door, nobody can shut it. And if the door you're standing in front of right now won't open, it's not yours. God will open a door in the desert. We found out last week He'll put a green light at a red sea. He will lead you through. And one of the greatest ways that God will lead you in your life is through people who don't like you and lead your life to bring you to something else. I'm preaching to three people. It's only three, Lord, but I'm gonna

do it. I'm a do it. So it's been some conflict with the church at Corinth and Paul has spent a lot of time trying to defend himself to the people who honestly should have come to his defense at certain points. He must have struggled with bitterness about that. Have you ever struggled about bitterness for people who should have taken up for you? Or this is just only a preacher problem. Sometimes I don't know if you go through the same things somebody who should have defended you,

somebody who he spent eighteen months with these jokers. And now he's had to write several letters. You know, we've got First Corinthians and Second Corinthians. Let me give you a little textual background because it's really good. There's a lost letter that we don't have that Paul references and he calls it my tearful letter. They got so crazy in Corinth, turning up on communion, wine and things like this. There was incest in the church at Corinth. Paul's like,

are y'all absolutely crazy? But then they had the audacity to accuse Paul and say he wasn't a real apostle. And so rather than validate himself, he makes a decision in Second Corinthians too, he says, I'm letting it go. Isn't that amazing? He says, the one who said all this about me, the one I know, I saw it, I heard it, I heard about it. I'm forgiving and I'm moving forward, and y'all need to let it go too, because I refuse to let unforgiveness in my heart block

the future that God has for me. He said, So I want you to forgive because I'm forgiving. And we got to get we got to get our mind right. Because here's what happened. This is the part of the text. I couldn't figure out that Paul who saw the greatest opportunities for the gospel the life that in resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's the gospel that if you believe in his name, you will be saved. That's the gospel that His blood atones for your sin, that you don't have

to have the blood of bulls and goats. Old Testament sacrifices that by believing in His name you may have life. Nothing could stop the Gospel from progressing through Paul, but he described something very interesting, and I want us to study it today. He says in verse twelve, Now, when I went to troe Ass to preach the Gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened the door for me, I still had no peace of mind because I didn't find my brother Titus there. So I said

goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. Wow, so we got troe Ass. That's a whole city, and we got Titus. That's one person. Let's look at this together again because I don't know if you had your Starbucks today, and I don't want you to miss it. In verse twelve, he said, I went to troe Ass and God gave me an open door to share the gospel in this city. Troas is also a port city. Look you see this zoom in on the camera. I don't know if this is this a worker. I don't know if we get

close enough, but try to focus. You can't really see is there another camera? I need to show you this. Focus. I'll be still you focus. That's it? What this one? I went that page? Right there? Y'all see my tattoo on my wedding ring finger? Get close? Get close? Can we get closer? I want to show you something because it's a picture that's close enough. I'm starting to get a little freaked out. Now, yeah, you see it? Can you see Corrinth, Corant? You know we could have done

this professional. I gonna put it on the screen. It could have been great. And there oh look look look there's troe Ass. See troe Ass and there's emphasis in Macedonia. So Paul's like, I came here, Corinth, and I preached the word in this important city, this isthmus that connects southern Greece to the mainland. It's important, Its important. But I say it's important, and he says, you are more

important to me than being right is. I'm not going to argue with you about this because it's stopping the gospel from flowing. I'm not gonna argue with you about this because there's stuff that needs to happen. There's something important that needs to get distributed. See Paul understands if the Church at Corinth doesn't get right with him, it's going to affect the rest of his ministry to the gentile world. So he said, I'm letting go of the

offense to seize the opportunity. Why am I preaching about that, because some of you are losing the opportunity because you won't let go of the offense. Y'all went to sleep while I was over here messing with this camera. Wake up. I said, the opportunity is greater than the offense. And so that's Corinth, you see Corinth. I'm so sorry y'all about this. And then there's true ass anyway, take my word for it. Between the two, this is what I

want to get to. Between the two is Macedonia. And now Paul has sent a letter to the church at Corinth. Following me so far, they said, Paul's not a real apostle. We like the Paul is better. We don't like Paul anymore. He told us to put our pants on and stop sleeping around and calling ourselves good Christians, and we don't like that, and Paul told us to straighten up. We don't like Paul anymore. We liked him when he was telling us be saved and received the free, get the forgiveness.

But now he's trying to put something in place that'll actually help us live in Christian freedom. And we don't like that anymore. We're got to be slave to these mute, deaf idols. So Paul's like, no, no no, no, no, no, to stop that. You gotta stop that. God has given you an open door. You are an important city. You are an important city. I'm not preaching about them. I'm preaching about you. You are an important city. You are an important city. Bye, you got the confidence to say it,

say it out loud. I am an important city. I am an important city, even though I came from a small town. I'm an important city. I am a shipping destination. I am a port for the Hospel of Jesus Christ. I am an opening to generational freedom. Yes, I am. I am an important city, Oh little town of Bethlehem, from you shall come a ruler. I am an important city, and I have an open door. And God has placed opportunities in my life in this season that are amazing.

And the Word of God says that if God opens a door, nobody can shut it. That's in Revelation, chapter three, verse seven and eight. Thank you very much. The Lord told the church at Philadelphia through the apostle John, who was exiled on an island, and God still showed him a door. Exiled on an island called Patmas, and God showed him a door, isolated in a terrible situation. But God showed him a door. And listen what he prophesied

to the Church of Philadelphia. He said, these are the words of him who is wholly and true, who holds the key of David. That means that Jesus Christ has a kingdom over which he has all authority, the key of David. That's the God you serve. So when people leave you out, you're not locked out because he has the key to that room. WHOA. I'm just happy, y'all because everybody doesn't like you. Everybody doesn't have to. If God is for you, If God is for you, you

don't have to say anything. You don't have to defend yourself. You'll have to go back and forth. Let it go. I get through this door. The gore is yours. Okay. So he says he holds the key of David. What he opens this is speaking about salvation. This is speaking about how Jesus Christ is the door, how you come to God through Him, through nothing else, through no other system. He is the author of salvation. He is the finisher of our faith. He holds the key of David. I'm

preaching about Jesus. Now, I'm preaching about Jesus. And he said, what I open no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. Next verse. Please, let's stay on this for a second. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door. The Lord said, I've placed before you is not going to be in your past. That's why Paul had to forgive. He said, whatever happened that, whatever they did. Now, look, Paul forgave the guy, but he didn't put him on his senior leadership.

He just said, I'm going through the door, and what he opens no one can shut. What he shuts someone can open. I have put before you an open door that no one can shut. Now, listen to this what God says to the church at Philadelphia, and I believe he might say it to the church at Elevation too. I know you have a little strength. It's not about strength. Can I show you something? This is really cool? Everybody

says strength. Now everybody says scheme. Go back to Second Corinthians, Chapter two, Verse eleven is one of those that I've read out of context for years. I didn't even really know what it meant. I never really read it in the context of Paul's conflict. But now have and I saw something. He said in verse eleven. We got to forgive and get through this in order that Satan might not outwit us, for we're not aware of his schemes. Now, what was interesting to me is he didn't say in

order that Satan put the verse back up. He didn't say in order that Satan might not overpower us. He said outwit us. Because the battle is not about strength, it's about strategy. Put this in the chat. Say it out loud if you're with me in the room. It's about the strategy. And Satan is not stronger than you. We just read this. If God opens the door, nobody

can shut it. No devil, no depression, no trauma, no abuse, nothing, nothing can stop the Gospel of Jesus Christ from going forth in your life, in your heart, in your marriage. We give the devil too much credit sometimes because we'll say, oh, well, the devil is attacking my marriage. The devil is attacking my finances. That's where you're feeling it, but that's not where the attack is happening. He didn't say in order that Satan might not overpower us, because that would make

it about your strength. And we already know from John sixteen thirty three that Jesus said peace. I give to you my peace I leave with you in the world. You will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. It's not about the trouble in front of you. We can have a testimony service about your trouble. What's the point we can all line up and blake. Can I top your trouble? I have a headache, I have a back ache. I don't have a back, I don't

have a head I'm decapitated. I've seen people do it, and we top each other with our trouble. But that's not what this is about, is it. It's not about what's happening in my life. Satan's not stronger than you. He can't make you do anything. If God opens the door to freedom, if God opens the sea, you can go through it. I don't care who's chasten you. I don't care who said you couldn't. I don't care how long you've struggled with it. It's not about who's stronger.

It's about who's smarter. Because you're like, well, that's Jesus. Jesus has overcome the world. I'm not Jesus. But first, John four Ford says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So he's not stronger. That's not why you're stuck. He's not stronger. You have the spirit of God. He's not stronger. The condemnation that haunts you at light, in your in your midnight hour has been nailed to the cross. The written regulations have been nailed to the cross. That's dealt with.

That is not what is standing at the door. Paul said, I had an open door, but I had a troubled mind, And so he sent Titus with a letter to the Corinthian Church because he didn't know if things were going to be all right. You know, your body can be one place and your mind can be another. And Paul's at Troas, and God's given him opportunities, and he can preach the gospel to a whole city. And he said, but I couldn't find Titus, so I left, and it

didn't like he left because he wanted to. When Paul says in verse fourteen thirteen, excuse me, I believe it is he said, I said goodbye. That's the only time he uses that phrase in all of Scripture. It's a solemn farewell. He's almost embarrassed about it. He's like, I couldn't get my mind right, so I couldn't seize the opportunity. Now that hit me because I'm trying to raise these kids, you see, and I know God has given me an

opportunity to be a great father. But sometimes, if I'm honest with you, I'm sitting at the table with them, and my body is there. My body is there, but my mind is on other stuff. And some of it is real, and some of it is completely fabricated, of stuff that might happen three years from now, maybe, and so my mind will drift to the possibly and slip away from the present. Now. When I saw Paul, I

saw us. He said, I was intro ass and so was the open door that God gave me, and great things could have happened intros But I had to say goodbye, not because of the trouble in troass, But because my mind was trouble. The enemy wants to mess with your mind so much that you can't even go through the doors that God opens for you, that you can't even

enjoy the moments that God gives you. He wants to mess with your mind and scramble your perspective to the point where you can't even focus long enough to sit down and pray about something. He wants to He wants to get you so focused on something. And I put down four things that spell the word door with each first letter. When was the disappointments in your life? When

was the outcomes that you can't control? That's the oh, disappointments outcomes When we mentioned the offenses that you can't get over, and one is the regret of the opportunities that you can't get back. So I realized that not only does God use open doors, so do Satan. Have you ever opened a door in your mind to the devil?

A door of just like going down a trail? And I like to imagine the Bible how different it was from our day where look, if there would have been technology today like there would have been in if if Paul would have had the same technology as us. Rather, none of this would have been an issue. What Paul does. He sends tight Us with a letter, and remember I tried to show you on the Bible. Don't worry, we

are not going through that again with the camera. But he sends ted Us back to Corinth over the AGAs you see, and he goes, all right, you go to Corinth, and when you get back, tell me how it's going. Tell me if they receive my correction. He's trying to direct and saw the relationship. But he sends Titus with the letter is trustworthy a companion in the gospel, And he said, Titus, when you get there and find out.

Let me know now, if this would have had a zoom call, if Paul could have got on a zoom call, just imagine with me, he could have stayed in tross because Titus would have got on the zoom call and said, hey, Paul, it's all good. I got a quilla in Priscilla here and uh, we're all here on the zoom call Paul, and it's all good, Paul. We were all good. They got your letter and they love you and it's all

good and whatever whatever. But see the reason I wanted to show you the map is because between Corinth, where Paul's mind was, and tro As where his body was, there was a seat. And to me it looked like my mind. It looked like how sometimes my body is in one place, but my mind is in another. And Paul, with a note of sadness, said, I had to say goodbye to the opportunity that God gave me because I couldn't get my mind right in the process. Has that been you? Let me give you a little test to

see if that's been you. Have you been not letting new people love you because of how old people hurt you. Have you stopped trusting people period because you found out that people are not trustworthy totally. You never should trust anyone totally other than God. Even if they want to do good for you, they're going to let you down. They can't help it. It's the human condition. But for you to sit there and go, well, I'll never trust anybody with anything again. I got to do it all

on my own. If you want something done right, you got to do it yourself. And people are just Yeah, people are just people and you want them and j just di brawl of us. So you've got to get back in the game and do some stuff in this life and not get so bitter that you don't go through the door. Have you have you? Have you been standing at an open door, but the enemy's got your mind soul in trouble that you can't go through it. I mean, like real opportunities God has given you to

be fruitful. But you're scarred. Not only scarred. Scarred is good. It means it's healed. You're wounded, and the wound is still open. So now the door is closing, and weeks and months of your life are slipping away, and you say goodbye to Troas and you go to Macedonia. Why was Paul so desperate to find Titus? Because Titus had the news. If Titus could have texted Paul, this could have all been over with. But they didn't have a

text message. It takes months to cross the Mediterranean Sea, so Paul's waiting for Titus to see is it all right in Corinth? Is it gonna be all right? Are they gonna accept the correction? Are they back on track? Because he loves them and they're important, And every day that goes by the Titus doesn't show up. Paul's mind gets more and more burdened. Honestly, I can't last five minutes that somebody doesn't text me back, that I don't start making up the most screwed up scenarios in my head.

And so I feel for Paul. I'm serious. If Holly doesn't, if I don't see bubbles within twenty five seconds, in my mind, she's dead. The car has flipped seven times. It's horrible. I know it's kind of funny, but it's really not. In a moment, anybody like me, like you have two minutes to respond to me, and I'm freaking out. Maybe I don't like me anymore. Maybe I don't respond

to me anymore. And when it's on green, when I text you and it's on green instead of blue on my iPhone, oh my god, last week got for green. But if the text comes back green, you've got your phone off. You don't ever want to talk to me again. I can get so offended. I am so bad at interpreting silence and space, and so this is this is Paul's moment, Bob, Paul's like, I sent Titus to find out and I couldn't find Titus. So I left trow ask because I couldn't find Titus. I left the open

door because I had no peace. I left the opportunity because although the door was open. See that's the enemy's strategy. That's why he says, you can't let the devil out with you. He is using stuff that hasn't even happened yet to run you off from opportunities that are right in front of you. He is you see how smart he is. He's bringing movies from the past. He is bringing classic movies back that happened twenty years ago, and it keeps you from seeing what's standing two feet in

front of you. But God said, when I open the door, no devil can shut it. And the reason that the devil is at the door to begin with is because what God has on the other side of it is so important. Oh yeah, so important. There will always be a devil at the door of anything important that God brings you into, of anything significant that God brings you into, there will always be an enemy to anything significant. You know why there's a devil at the door because what

is on the other side really matters. You are an important city, you are a chosen vessel. You might not be Paul, but God has something with your name on it. There's a devil at the door, and the bigger the opportunity is the bigger the devil is gonna be. Don't you know that? By now? The bigger it is what's on the other side of the door. You me asking God, why am I having to go through all this? A while back. I'll know how to tell you this story because it's kind of tender to me. I was about

to do something really significant in this ministry. I can't tell you what it was because it would kind of expose me too much and I'm not ready to have a relationship with you on that level yet. And on the way to the thing I was going to do, I broke down crying. I don't cry a whole lot. Only Rudy and Rocky three can make me cry. Third time in my life I ever cried, and Holly has seen me cry so little. She thought I was playing.

She says, stop playing. This is not funny because my head was my head was down on the I was laying on the bed and my head was down on the pillow. She says, stop playing. And I couldn't answer her to tell her I wasn't playing because I was crying. I didn't know why I was crying. Nobody had just died. I didn't have any technical reason to be sad in that moment. But what was on the other side of that evening was so important that I believe there was

a devil at the door. There is always a devil at the door when God is bringing you into something important. Why do you think kids get demon possessed as they go through puberty? And if you don't know, if you don't know that, you'll think the devil is at the door. This must not be God. No, no no, no, no no no. The devil is giving you an indication that this is so big, this is so important. This might be a

life saving word for somebody. If you thought about this, somebody might be on the brink of suicide while I'm preaching and they can't understand why am I feeling this depressed? Why am I going through this darkness? But what you might not know is that the size of the devil that is at your door indicates the size of the assignment that is on your life. Don't die here. This is a door. This is a door. This is a door,

and the door that God opens nobody can shut. Nobody can shut and don't you let the devil use the door of what you don't know to fill your mind with hypothetical scenarios that cause your heart to close. There's always a devil at the door. There's always an insecurity as you move deeper into your purpose and your awareness of your true condition in Christ. But he can't close

the door God opens. All he can do is try to get your mind so screwed up that, as you wait for Titus to bring you news, you say goodbye to Troe as. We don't see Paul walk away from any other open doors in scripture, But he said, I had no peace of mind. You know what. Four chapters go by, and Paul doesn't even mention what happens next. I said goodbye to troeas I went to Macedonia, most probably Philippi, and I waited for Titus. Every day that I didn't see Titus, I started making up stuff in

my mind. The enemy is using a story to keep you from going through your door. They won't really like you, they won't really accept you, nobody really cares about you. You don't have what it takes. You're gonna fail, and everybody's gonna laugh. So he can't close the door, but he can tell you a story. And everyday Titus doesn't show up, Paul has a little bit harder time trusting

that everything's gonna be all right. It isn't until chapter seven, verse five of Second Corinthians that we see that what Paul was so troubled about God had already worked out. He said, when we got to Macedonia, we left Troe. As we got to Macedonia, we had no rest on every side. Watch this. This is the this is the trouble on the outside, he said, harassed at every turn. Conflicts on the outside. But that's not what stops you. It's never the conflicts on the outside that stop you.

Somebody else has overcome much more than you to get where they are. But it's the fears within, Paul said. And then after months and months of wondering, who am I preaching to? I know, I know, it's been. It's been. It's been. It's been about an hour. I've been up here talking. But I've been talking to you, haven't I it's been months. You've been wondering, it's been in a suspended state for months, and every day you waited for Titus, and he didn't come with news of the solution. Ye'll come.

It's your mind. It's your mind. It's your mind. Your mind is like that Mediterranean sea where you wonder, is everything gonna be all right? But he said in verse six, But God, but God, who comforts to downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. The word of the Lord is Titus is here. Because when Titus finally arrived verse seven, he said, he not only comforted us by his physical presence in his coming, but by the comfort you had

given him. He told us about your longing for him, your deep sorrow, your art and consume for me, so that my joy was greater than ever, so that my joy was greater than ever. Joy is coming, Hope is coming, Reconciliation is coming, The restoration of all things is coming. And I declare it by faith, not by sight. My eyes haven't seen it yet, but I know it in my heart. Ty does this coming? And he said, I spent all those months worried about something that God had

already worked out. So you're standing before an open door. You don't always see it, you don't always feel it. You can't identify it because you've got a troubled mind. But let's just take a moment. Stand up, Let's just take a moment and be still in the presence of God. Because all the conflict on the outside, that's nothing compared to the fears of the inside. God, we came today with troubled minds. I pray for the one who is worried about their job. I pray for the one who

is worried about their kids. I pray for the one who is worried about a report in their body from the doctors or someone that they love. I pray for the one who is worried about an event that is in front of them that they do not believe they

have the resource to fulfill. But God, today I think you wanted to use me, just like Titus, just to carry the message to them that the door is still open, Thank you Jesus, that the door is still open, that it's not too late, that you're not too little, that you're not too lost, he said, he comforted us by the coming of Titus. God, let me be like Titus today, bringing a message that God is not counting their sins against them, that you are not angry with them, that

the season of your favor is upon them. Almighty God, opener of doors, way maker, miracle worker, all that that you are. But we need our minds right, We need our minds right. We thank you, Lord that you hold the key of David. It's important to us to know that you are our door. You are our door. We came into your presence today because you are our door.

And God right now, for everything that we can't forgive others for, and we can't forgive ourselves for, we just want to take a moment before we leave this place and slam the door in the face of Satan and say, you've cost us enough, and you've taken enough, You've robbed enough, you've destroyed enough. No more. That door is closed. I'm not going back there. That door is closed. I'm not playing that out anymore. That door is closed. I'm not

entertaining that anymore. I'm going forward. There is an open door set before me in heaven. I'm not waving goodbye to this open door. I'm going through it. In the name of Jesus. I will live and not die. I will declare the works of the Lord. I've got more to do. I'm planning. I'm blessed, I'm flourishing in the courts of the Lord. Lord. This is an open door moment. Right now, with your head's bowed and your eyes closed,

the door of salvation is open. There's somebody today. You thought it was too late for you to have a relationship with God. You thought you'd done too much, run too far, lost too much. You thought there were things that God couldn't forgive. You thought you were one of those ones who just missed God. It's not true. Today is the day of salvation. This is the moment, this is the hour, This is your time. God brought you here for this. The door is open. He stands at

the door and knocks it. He wants to come in. So I want to lead you in a prayer right now. You've been far away from God, and this is your moment to receive his grace. We don't come to God through our effort. We don't come to God by improving our behavior. We don't come to God with our knowledge. We come to Him with our faith. The Bible says that if you will believe in Jesus Christ, his son whom he has sent, you will have life. If you confess with your mouth Jesus's Lord and believe in your

heart God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. There is no more important decision than this. This is the door. This is the door, so for you who want to come through and receive Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, who purchased you with his blood, who knows you by name, who has walked with you through every season of your life. You've been far away from him. I'm inviting you home right now. This is

your door. Now you pray after me out loud. We're gonna slam the door in Satan's face today to let him know he's lost. He's lost another one. We're gonna pray this as a church family, out loud, for all of those all over the world who are coming to Christ today to place their faith in him. Repeat after me, Church, Heavenly Father. I am a sinner in need of a savior, and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. And today I

make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. This is my new beginning. On the count of three, shooter, hand up. If you prayed that one, two three, shoot him up. God bless her, God bless her. I'm amazing o. Who else? Who else? Who else? Come on? Slam that door in the devil's faith. Let him know I came home with my father. Stop coming home. Let the ring on their fingers dark. Come on, let's kill up at a tap,

Let's tell him, pray what let's sad? Let's again, holle come on, lift up a break shout A pray my break out, a pray well. If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.