The Courage To Follow God | Revelation 3:7-8 | Dr. Leonzo Lynch

God bless you.

God bless you, pastor Bowers, chosen City, happy anniversary.

God is working in a mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty way.

I thank God for Pastor giving the history of how we got here.

Pastor, given the history of how we got here, many of you have been on that entire journey, some have just come, but either way, we're all here together.

I am excited, I am overjoyed, I am amazed at what God continues to do here at Chosen City.

When Pastor Bowers and I were taking a tour of the building, the realtor and whoever else was with him kept trying to give us the history of whatever church was in here before.

Do you know songs?

I said no, we don't need to know all that.

We're going to pray for them.

We work on going forward.

And we stood right by the middle of the way.

I said Pastor, see this wall right over here.

I said, see how that's blank.

I need you to dream and dream big, you and the Holy Ghost, and go for broke.

And that's what God has been doing.

What God will yet do through Pastor Bowers is yet to be seen.

God is still getting him ready for the future of this ministry and I'm glad to be a witness and glad to be along for what God will do.

You've already had preaching.

One of my good friends was here and the other service Bishop Jenner.

Right, we go way back.

I want to look for a few minutes in the book of Revelation, the third chapter.

I would ask that you read the entire chapter.

I want to live, beginning at verse number seven.

Revelation, chapter three, beginning at verse number 7.

Whatever your custom is as the reading of the scripture, we stay with that.

Revelation, chapter 3, verse 7.

Revelation 3:7

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.

I know your works, see, I have set before you An open door and no one Can shut it.

That's far enough.

I want to talk a few minutes about the courage To follow God.

The courage follow God, the courage to follow God.

The book of Revelation is the closing chapter, the closing book of our entire Bible.

And yet there are still many that do not read much in the book of Revelation, because there's a lot of symbolism in there and sometimes we start to read and we see all of this imagery and all of this symbolism.

But God didn't put anything in the scriptures to bring us fear, but to enlighten and lift our understanding.

Some look in the book of Revelation because you're trying to figure out when is the end of the world going to come?

And every now and then somebody will read the book of Revelation and they get a great big marker board and just fill it up with scriptures and this means this and this happened in the world and this means that and they have all of this and they'll say this means that the world going to come to an end such and such a day, such and such a year.

I wish I had kept the newspaper.

I was traveling in you know you're at the hotel to get the US, what's it called USA Today.

Somebody had taken out a full page ad announcing when the end of the world was going to be.

I saw it.

I thought it was some kind of play or stage play or movie or something, but then I kept seeing it.

I said, oh, they're serious, and I then I kept seeing it.

I said, oh, they're serious, and I wish I kept it.

So I'd have it as a reminder.

We guess at when the world is going to come to an end, based on the book of revelation, but the book of revelation is not trying to tell us when the world is going to come to an end.

The book of Revelation is not searching for that question.

That's our question.

The book of Revelation has a different approach.

The book of Revelation does not say here's when the world's going to come to an end.

The book of Revelation says since the world's coming to an end, live right.

And since you don't know when, live right.

And since we don't have a privilege to look on God's calendar, get your house in order.

The gospel writers teach us a lot about Jesus, but we also learn a lot about Christ from the book of Revelation.

The gospels talk about the Messiah, but when you read the book of Revelation you'd hear about the conquering warrior and the conquering king.

The book of Revelation is the book of the slaves, is the book of the slaves.

The slaves caught it.

Jesus is strong.

Jesus is powerful, jesus has strength, might.

Jesus moves in victory.

Jesus walks among us and the slaves sang their theology right on King Jesus.

No man, no government, no slave trade, no injustice.

No slave master, no taskmaster can hinder thee.

I a part of the faith.

You won't fully catch it until God wants you to catch it.

The slaves in this country had to operate with coded language and disguised language.

They, they were saying, going to lay down my burdens down by the riverside.

That's calling for the meeting.

We're going to meet and discuss how we're going to escape all this.

They were saying you got shoes and I got shoes.

All of God's children got shoes and when I get to heaven either north by freedom or heaven by death I'll put on my shoes, shout all over God's heaven.

But then they would keep singing and they look over at the slave master and they smile and they say heaven, heaven.

Everybody talking about heaven ain't going there.

Revelation is a story I like to look at like this, about the cowboys and the Indians, but this time the Indians win John, a condemned man on a condemned ship, landed on a condemned island, but his punishment, his crime, was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the government didn't agree with him.

So Domitian, in 94 AD, sentenced him and banished him to this barren island called Patmos, 40 miles from Asia Minor.

Not a big place, 10 miles long, five miles wide.

But John testified when I got there didn't have a choir, didn't have instruments, didn't have singers, didn't have this sanctuary.

But John said I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard a voice speaking with boldness and power and I turned looking for the voice and the voice said John, write down what you see and write down what you hear.

So John writes for us and he presents for us in these early chapters Jesus over the churches, jesus walking amidst the churches, jesus presiding over the churches.

The first church was Ephesus.

He said you lost your first love.

The second church was Smyrna.

Satan is about to take you out.

The third church was Pergamon.

Be careful of false teachings.

The fourth church was Pergamon Be careful of false teachings.

The fourth church Thyatira.

Be careful following wicked Jezebel.

The fifth church was Sardis Wake up from the sleep of death.

The sixth church in this text Philadelphia.

Keep up your good works.

The seventh church was Laodicea you need me, but you won't let me in.

Life is a journey.

This Christian walk, this Christian journey is presented unto us.

And one way in which God guides us, he uses doors.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right, these things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, shuts and no one opens.

Verse 8, I know your works, but I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it.

He opens doors no man can shut and then at the same time, he'll shut doors.

No man can open doors no man can open, because sometimes we don't have enough, whatever it is in us to pick the right door.

So he shuts the door right in front of us, the very one we thought we ought to go in.

He'll slam it shut and we can't get it open for anything, but then later he'll open another door and we'll find out.

We come out much better.

So the question when you look at a text like this is the Bible just a historical book or is the Bible about a living God?

And I believe today the Bible is about a living God.

How can you tell?

I can tell because November 2019, god opened this door and Ebenezer Steel Creek, now Chosen City Church, was born and no person has been able to shut the door.

Amen, amen.

Pastor just said we were looking for land to build and all and God adjusted the vision, enlarged division, second location grew into this independent church plant.

To God be the glory.

And one way you know, when something is of God, you're always going to have some negative folk about it.

But the negative folk never outweigh the true believers.

God opened the door and since that time, look at what God has done, the souls that have been connected to Christ, the number, that several hundred, that have been baptized and accepted Christ as their Lord and their Savior.

That's been the purpose of all of it.

You see, the challenge becomes following God when God moves.

Chosen City has done well going through some open doors.

One open door was the door to evangelism.

That door is still open.

You're still working, they're still joining, they're still getting baptized and that's one of the measurements I say of a healthy, spiritual church.

You keep the pool wet.

You've been through the door of innovative ministry, these business incubators going on here where entrepreneurs can come, get a footing and get themselves together as they're offering themselves and growing their business.

That's a door that God opened.

But God just doesn't open doors for the church.

He opened doors in your life.

He opens doors in your family, my life, in my family.

Now here's the challenge.

A lot of us won't go through the doors that God opens.

Why is that?

Old-fashioned fear.

Fear is a human element.

Has nothing to do with how many scriptures you got memorized, how many Bibles you got at the house, how many crosses you got on your jewelry or on you.

Fear is a human element.

The only way to combat fear is faith.

Now, there's some in church.

When you start talking about faith, here they go again, always just talking about prayer and faith and believe and trust.

Well, that's, it's real.

That's why we keep talking about it.

The only way to combat the fears that are holding us back as a church, holding us back as individuals, holding us back as families, is to build our faith.

That's the work of the church.

The Bible studies that take place, the learning that takes place, the ministries that take place all of these things work together to build, nourish and nurture our faith.

Well, what is faith?

Faith is one of them.

Good church words.

Faith is one of those words that some of us believe.

If we keep using it in a sentence, folk will think we got some.

But what is it?

Hebrews 11 and 1 has the definition of faith Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

The best definition I ever heard came from the late Nelson Smith, who pastored the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Birmingham, alabama.

Smith was doing revival for my daddy and he said we were at lunch.

He said his mother sent him in the yard to catch and kill two chickens.

He watched his mother clean and dress and fry those chickens.

Sunday dinner was coming but he said, growing up, at that time the children had to wait till the grown folk got through eating and on that day the grown folk would never get through eating.

So when he got his dinner, smith and his little brother, he said his mother gave them biscuits and chicken gravy.

He then understood Hebrews 11.1.

The substance, the evidence, the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

What is faith?

Faith is that spark in the fire that won't go out.

Faith is the hope in us that won't die.

Faith is the dream in us that keeps us moving.

Faith is what gets us up in the morning, even though when we went to bed last night All our problems were not solved.

Faith has night eyes.

The darkness of situation, the darkness of our circumstances, the darkness of our predicament cannot be hidden from the true eyes of faith, because faith has night eyes Because of our biological makeup.

We have to have light in order to see in darkness or else we will stumble and we will fall.

But a deer has a different eye.

A deer can run through the woods at midnight and never hit a tree, because of the way the deer's eye is made.

Faith sees when you're up.

Faith sees when you're down.

Faith sees when you got money.

Faith sees when you're broke.

Faith sees when you're sick.

Faith sees when you're well.

Faith sees when things go in your way.

Faith sees when things not go in your way, because faith sees through darkness.

And if we church and individual and family are going to overcome fears that come in our pathway, we have to strengthen and develop our faith.

What is it in your life that God has put before you and shown you?

And you can see it, but you're scared to take that step.

What is it for your family that God has laid out right before your family as an opportunity?

It's clear, but fear got you paralyzed.

What is it in your life that makes us think I don't have enough strength, even though God has made the provision for me?

I don't have enough strength.

Even though God has made the provision for me, I don't have enough strength to walk in what God has put before me.

What is it that keeps us from not leaning on ourselves but trusting God's power to carry us through what God has laid before us?

The text says I have set before thee an open door.

He opens doors no man can shut.

Then he shuts doors no man can open.

What are you waiting on?

God has put some things at your hand, some of the things you've been praying for.

God has laid it right in front of you, but you won't move on it.

Some of the things God has revealed to you in times past has now been presented to you in times present, but we can't get our actions to align with God's work.

How do you overcome fear?

Old-fashioned faith?

There's a door Facing Chosen city right now.

See this sign right here.

Possess the land.

God has given the vision and made it plain to our pastor.

Our pastor has given the vision and made it plain to us, but some of us are still saying how y'all going to do that, not how us going to do it, not how we going to do it.

How y'all going to do it, not how we going to do it, how y'all going to do that.

Y'all got to move and become us and we Thank you.

Pastor has already found out one of the greatest challenges for any church, any size, is spiritual giving.

I've always tried to figure out what is more difficult to get folk to forgive or folk to tithe.

They're running neck and neck.

The same way, it's difficult for us to forgive folk and we like to hold on to grud.

Same way, it's difficult for us to forgive folk and we like to hold on to grudges.

It's difficult for us to fully yield ourselves to God and tithe and give, spiritually and financially, time, talent and treasure, as God has laid out in his word before all of us were born.

But if you ever take the step of faith and join the us, all of us and we can possess the land.

The question before us does God still open doors?

Is the Bible A history book Of what God has only done In yesteryear, or is God A living God and God still working?

For today I declare and I believe and I know God is a living God.

He's still working and unveiling and moving and lifting and delivering and guiding, making ways out of no ways, opening doors no one can shut and shutting doors, no one can open.

I think sometime our fear keeps us frozen because we want God to open the door all the way so we can see clearly.

Sometimes he doesn't do that.

Sometimes we got to make that step of faith and then it's sort of like this I had was making some visits once at the jail and security is tight when you go to these law enforcement centers and concrete floor steel doors and they slam them with an echo.

So I'm on my way in.

You stop here.

You get all your ID checked, you get verified where you're going, who you're going to see.

You go there, go to this station.

Then they open this door, loud, buzzer Door, come back.

You walk in.

The other door ain't open yet but you stand there and you wait till this one slam behind you and it echoes and seem like it take a long time for the other one to move and seemed like it'd take a long time for the other one to move.

Buzzer, go off, door open.

So I'm on my way in and I'm talking to the security folk Now you aren't getting ready to get off work, are you?

You going to be here for a little while longer.

I just need you to remember I'm in here and I need to be able to go home, but I remember that because it helps me understand a text like this.

Sometime God got to close the door first before we get enough courage to go forward.

Does God still open doors?

Yes.

Does God still open doors in our home?

Yes.

Does God still open doors when we are weary?

Yes, does God still open doors when our family's in trouble?

Yes, does God still open doors when we get sick?

Yes, he opens doors no man can shut, and he shuts doors no man can open.

So how do we maneuver?

How do we keep going forward?

How do we decide that we can trust God enough to go through his doors?

It's based on God's proven record.

It's based on God's proven record.

God has already done enough in every individual's life In here, in every individual watching on live stream.

God has already done enough.

If God doesn't do anything else, he's already proven unto us.

We can trust in him.

We live in a world where you can't trust much.

Now.

Things are going on so quick and things are happening all around us.

Everything we see is not as it appears.

We can't always trust what we see, what we hear.

This current election everybody's saying everything about everybody else.

How do you know what?

But with God, his record is proven and his record is true.

So I can't see around the curve and I can't see over the hill, but I can see God and I'm going to stay with what I know God has already done and I'm going to stand on his promise.

I love the way the hymn writer put it I've seen the lightning flash and I've heard the thunder roll.

I've felt sin break a dash and trying to conquer my soul.

But I heard the voice of my savior.

He bid me still to fight on.

He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.

He promised when I got down he'd come pick me up.

He promised if I ever got weak, he'd come pick me up.

He promised if I ever got weak, he'd give me new strength.

He promised when I got lonely he'd walk by my side.

He promised when I didn't know which way to turn, he'd guide my every footstep.

He promised.

He promised I'm going to stand on his promise.

I'm going to stand on his word.

I'm going to stand on what God has already done in my life.

He promised and I declare to you today.

If you stand on his promise, god will stand with you.

He opens doors no one can shut.

Shuts doors, no one can open.

Amen.