The Outsider

Okay, I want to start the message with a question that I already know the answer to.

It's like one of those obvious rhetorical questions, but I'm just trying to get our minds in the right place.

Have you ever felt like a total outsider?

Have you ever been in a situation where you were with a group of people and you're like, I do not belong with this group of people, I don't get them, they don't get me.

I am I am an outsider here.

I hope that none of you are thinking, yeah, in church, like right here at his hands.

No, no, no.

Like if you're here, you fit, I promise.

Um, I've had a lot of experiences in life where I felt like an outsider.

The one that probably jumps out to me the most is in seventh grade, my family moved from southern Missouri to the middle of Wisconsin in January, which was a terrible time to experience the weather of Wisconsin for the first time.

Like we should have gone in May and then like eased our way in.

No, no, we went in January.

But up to that point, I had lived in southern Missouri my whole life.

And so we go to Wisconsin and it was like a total culture shock.

I felt like a complete outsider, and you know, seventh-grade kids are super secure in who they are, uh, really confident in that.

So it's a great time to like throw them into a situation where they talk different than everybody else and and all that.

But like it felt like I was in a whole different place.

It actually felt like it was a different language because you know, I don't know if you you've ever heard the way people in Wisconsin talk, uh, but it's just it's wrong.

Um just talk wrong.

Like very first day of school, I'm sitting in my class and it starts with a pledge of allegiance, and I'm sitting there listening, and they say on the speakers, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And I like was like, what was that?

What is a flag?

And then they were looking at me like, how do you say it?

And I said, flag, and they're like, flag?

Flag.

And I'm like, clearly, you've watched television and understand that no one calls it a flag.

It's a flag.

That's the normal way to say it.

You guys are wrong.

You're wrong, you're the weird ones.

I'm normal.

Like, that's how it felt.

But you know, when you're in a new place and everyone else is different, you you feel like you're the weird one.

They had different words for all kinds of things.

I remember early in school I asked a kid where the water fountain was, and he looked at me like I was crazy.

I said, Hey, where's the water fountain?

And he's like, The water fountain?

I'm like, Yeah, like the water fountain.

He means you mean like a like a statue that sprays water in the air, like in front of a like a government building?

I'm like, Clearly, no, that is not what I'm talking about.

The water fountain, like you bend over and you get a drink out of the water fountain.

And if any of you have ever lived up there and you know what they call water fountains in Wisconsin, just shout it out.

A bubbler.

Which is dumb.

Like, just dumb.

And he looks at me and he means, you mean the bubbler?

And I felt like I was being pranked.

I'm like, no, it's not a bubbler.

This is something they do to new people, you know, to mess with them, like get them to call it a bubbler, and then the joke's on you.

But no, no, no.

They call it a bubbler, makes no bubbles, zero bubbles, out of water fountains because it sprays water.

And like it's it was awful.

And and like I had to become a Packer fan because if you live in Wisconsin, you don't like the Packers, they'll kill you, they'll exile you, they send you out in the cold to die, like you have to.

And it was awful.

Like, I just I just tried to fit in, I adjusted, I changed, I changed the way I talked.

I became a Packer fan, I'd watch Packer games with friends, and instead of yelling like go packers go, I'd yell, goal packers go, you know, and like talking like that.

And it was terrible.

It was terrible.

And then right when I started talking like that, normally my family moved to Tennessee, which was like the worst.

Because then I had to like readjust.

It was it was bad, it was bad.

But I felt like such an outsider, and I hated that.

Because I think, you know, we we all hate that feeling of being on the outside looking in.

Today we're gonna look at a story of a character in scripture, a person who was, by every sense of the word, an outsider.

And yet, this is a person that God brings into his family, into his story.

It's just something he really, really likes to do.

And her name is Rahab.

We're in a series right now called People God Uses, and every person we're talking about, we're giving them a nickname.

And so Rahab is the outsider.

We started with Abraham, the believer, then we talked about Jacob, the wrestler, and last week we talked about this guy named Judah, the sibling, the brother.

Uh, today is Rahab, the outsider.

Now, for some context, here's what this is all about.

We're looking at the family tree of Jesus.

And I'm sure in your family tree, there's some interesting characters.

There's probably some people that you're really proud of.

Probably some people, maybe not so much.

They don't come up in conversations when people talk about, you know, your family.

Like everyone's got anyone a black sheep and you're willing to admit it, you're like, I am the black sheep of my family?

Okay, cool, cool.

You belong here, by the way, at his hands.

We got lots of black sheep.

Um, but like like we all have families like that.

We all have families where, you know, there there's some interesting people with some stories.

You guys have been sending me information about your families and some of the characters in your family trees, and I love it.

We have a person here whose whose cousin uh escaped from Alcatraz, which is pretty neat.

Uh that doesn't happen very often.

And uh I'm sure the person was totally innocent and uh it was all a big misunderstanding.

But uh no, they they sent me the articles and proof.

They're like, you're not gonna believe this.

It's yeah, there you go.

And so if you ever, if you ever need to find a way out of somewhere, you need to talk to this lady, and she'll ask her cousin.

He's like, I can get you out of whatever you're in, because I got out of Alcatraz, okay?

Like it's a big, big deal.

We've all got people like that in our our family history.

Jesus has a crazy family tree.

I mean, it's it's like a who's who of really interesting characters from the Old Testament in the Bible, and here's the thing: some of them are really inspiring, awesome people you would look up to, many not that at all.

But all of them are deeply flawed people with major issues because that's the beauty of the Bible.

You know, scripture, it doesn't cover over the ugly parts, it doesn't hide all the mistakes that people make, which would make us feel like that if you want to be a person that God uses, you have to be this perfect person.

Like right now it's political season, right?

So we're seeing ads on TV, and it's just gonna get worse as time goes on.

Every political ad's the same.

It's like, you know, the music plays, here's this person, they're shaking hands with people, and it's like they're the greatest person that's ever lived.

They're amazing, they're awesome.

You should vote for them because they're perfect.

And the Bible's like, look at the stupid things these people did.

If God can use them, guess what?

He can use just about anybody.

He can use us, he can use every single one of us.

And he he desperately actually desires to use us, to partner with us, to do the work that he has in this world.

And it doesn't matter that we have problems and issues and regrets.

He can use all of that if we'll let him.

And so we're just studying the family tree of Jesus.

We're looking at these flawed people with these really interesting stories and saying, hey, God, what can we learn from them?

Because we want to we want to be used by you.

I want to be part of the story that God is writing.

And today we're gonna look at Rahab.

Now, just to make sure we understand where we're at in the story, I'll give you a quick update.

We started with Abraham, and he's this guy that God speaks to one day and says, Hey, just leave your home, leave your land.

Trust me, I'm gonna take you somewhere.

You're just not gonna know where we're going.

We see this in in uh Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Oh man, I clicked out of the thing.

That's all good.

There we go.

It's quick.

Use the mobile app, it's very effective.

All right.

Genesis 12, 1 through 3.

The Lord said to Abram, Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you.

I'll make you into a great nation.

I'll bless you, I'll make you famous, and you'll be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the families on earth will be blessed through you.

And so that's how the whole nation of Israel begins.

And so Abraham responds, he's the believer, he has faith.

And then he has he has a child named Isaac.

Isaac has a couple of boys, one of them is named Jacob.

Jacob has this really crazy encounter with God, and God changes his name to Israel, which means to wrestle with God.

And so if you've ever felt guilty because you struggle a little bit with God, like you wrestle with God, some stuff doesn't quite click, and you're trying to figure that out, you're in really good company because the word Israel literally means to wrestle with God.

And then he has 12 sons, and his sons become tribes of the nation of Israel.

And Jesus is from the tribe of Judah.

We talked about Judah last week.

It's why Jesus is sometimes called the Lion of Judah.

And when we left off last week, Judah and his brothers have all come together in Egypt, and everything seems like it's going really, really well, and it is for a while until eventually uh the Egyptians sort of take over and make the Israelites slaves, and this goes on for like well over a hundred years for generation upon generation.

The Israelites, these people that have come from the promise of Abraham, they are now slaves in Egypt.

And you probably know the story: a guy named Moses shows up, crazy stuff happens, they're free, they live in a desert for 40 years, finally, they get to this place called the Promised Land.

He said, Moses is dead, new guy's in charge, his name's Joshua, and Joshua leads them into the promised land, and they have to fight a bunch of people.

I just covered a lot of scripture in like a minute, but that's basically the story.

And so they're they're in this promised land that God has promised for them, but God forgot to put like a reserve sign in the promised land to say that this is not for anyone but this group of people that I've promised this to.

So other people have moved in, and these happen to be really ancient, pretty nasty cultures.

And if the Israelites want to live in the land, they're gonna have to fight because that's that's kind of what ancient cultures did.

And so one of the biggest obstacles to them is this city-state called Jericho.

And we get to this place in Joshua chapter 2, and this is when we meet Rahab.

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

So here's what it says Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove.

He instructed them, scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.

So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and stayed there that night.

But someone told the king of Jericho, Some Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.

And so the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, bring out the men who have come into your house, for they've come here to spy out the whole land.

Rahab had hidden the two men, but she replied, Yes, the men were here earlier, but I didn't know where they were from.

They left the town at dusk, as the gates were about to close.

I don't I don't know where they went, but if you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.

Actually, she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them beneath bundles of flax that she had laid out.

So the king's men went looking for the spies along the road leading to the shallow crossings of the Jordan River, and as soon as the king's men had left, the gate of Jericho was shut.

Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up to the roof to talk with them.

She said, I know the Lord has given you this land.

We're all afraid of you.

Everyone in the land is living in terror, for we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt.

And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed.

Just so you know, the Israelites did not did not pick that fight.

No wonder our hearts have melted in fear.

No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things, for the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.

Now swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me in my family since I've helped you.

Give me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you let me live, along with my father and mothers, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.

We offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety, the men agreed.

If you don't betray us, we'll keep our promise and be kind to you when the Lord gives us the land.

And then, since Rahab's house was built into the town wall, she let them down by a rope through the window.

Escape to the hill country, she told them, Hide there for three days from the men searching for you.

And then when they've returned, you can go on your way.

Before they left, the men told her, We will be bound by the oath that we have taken, only if you follow these instructions.

When we come into the land, you must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window through which you let us down.

And all your family members, your father, mother, brothers, all your relatives, must be here inside this house.

If they go out into the streets and are killed, it will not be our fault, but if anyone lays a hand on people inside this house, we will accept the responsibility for their death.

If you betray us, however, we are not bound by this oath in any way.

I accept your terms, she replied, and she sent them on their way, leaving the scarlet rope hanging from the window.

And so things play out pretty simply.

I know we just covered a lot of ground, but but here's the thing about Rahab.

She is the definition of an outsider.

She's the definition of an outsider.

She does not belong at all with the group of people that she ends up with.

Not by any standard of measure from her time.

Number one, she's a foreigner.

And in ancient cultures, you didn't value diversity, you didn't value foreigners, everyone was kind of after everyone else.

And so if someone was a foreigner, you did not trust them, you did not let them in.

But she ends up being let in.

She's not just a foreigner, she's an enemy.

It's not like she's just from anywhere.

She happens to be from the very place that's standing in Israel's way.

So so she's an enemy.

She's a complete outsider, and yet she's let in.

Even if she was an Israelite, she would have been an outsider because of the way she lived her life.

She was a prostitute.

So morally, she's an outsider.

By every standard of measure, she has no place among God's people.

She has no claim to the promises that God has made them, but yet she's brought in, and that promised land becomes her promise.

The blessings that God promised to Abraham belong to her now.

She's an outsider who becomes an insider.

And that's actually a really common story in Scripture.

You look at Jesus.

Jesus, like, he loved to bring outsiders in.

In fact, it made him pretty scandalous.

Sometimes it's easy for us to forget that Jesus was an incredibly scandalous person.

Like he was scandalous.

The way that he interacted with people, the things he said, the things he did, the people that he hung out with.

The people that Jesus hung out with, it bothered the religious people of his day.

They couldn't stand it because Jesus was always bringing people into his inner circle that by their standards should have been as far away as possible.

In Matthew chapter 9, we get a little taste of this.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth.

Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him.

Now this is crazy because in that time, the worst person you could be was a tax collector.

Like by far, the worst person you could be was a tax collector.

And what they would expect was for Jesus to walk up to a tax collector and, I don't know, spit in his face, rebuke him in some way, but he says, Hey, you want to come be part of my team?

And so Matthew does that.

He got up and he followed him.

And later Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

I love that they're not just sinners, guys.

They're disreputable sinners.

Like, we've got a lot of sinners in this room, like this is all of us, by the way.

But are you disreputable?

That's what I want to know.

Like, how many, like how many of us take that seriously, right?

That's what it says.

Like, just think about it.

Tax collectors, which they're their own category, and other disreputable sinners, and those are the people that Jesus hung out with.

Those are the people that Jesus first laid out God's plan to.

Those are the ones that Jesus brought into his inner circle.

Because with Jesus, there's this passion for people who are on the outside being brought inside.

Religion's all about keeping people on the outside.

It's all about making lines and saying, hey, you're in, you're out.

You don't measure up, so you're out.

The people who are always saying you're out happen to be in conveniently.

But but Jesus, it's it's so different.

He has this passion for bringing everyone you can imagine inside.

That's always been God's heart.

Always.

I mean, go back to that promise that he made Abraham.

He said that through you, who would be blessed?

All the nations of the earth.

That from the very beginning, God's desire was not to just bless a certain number of people, it wasn't to pick out his favorites, that God had a desire to bring everyone to himself.

And so he calls this person who ends up leading a family that becomes a nation.

He says, You're gonna be the like the tip of the spear, you're gonna be my entry point to bring blessing to the whole earth.

And he brings Jesus to us through that nation.

But his heart was always for every single person to be included in his family.

That's why Scripture says that God wills that no man should perish, but all should have everlasting life.

He wants everybody in.

And if you give your life to Jesus, you become instantly an insider in God's family.

You become instantly an insider in the kingdom of God.

It's clear.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 13 says, But now you've been united with Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:13

Once you are far from God, but now you've been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ.

It doesn't matter what you've done, where you've been, the mistakes that you've made.

If you put your faith in Jesus, you have been brought inside the family of God.

That means you are included in his love.

That means you're included in his plans for the earth.

That means you're included in all the blessings that he's promised you.

He's promised us an abundant life.

He's promised us his spirit inside of us, working within us, making us the people that he created us to be.

And it works, guys.

It actually works.

I want you to know this.

I just got finished coaching my oldest son's uh fourth grade basketball season.

We lost yesterday in the final four.

Um you know, I thank you for your sympathies.

Um it was mainly my fault.

I'm not that good of a coach, but I got zero technical fouls this season.

Thank you.

I was warned seven times.

Uh but like what I'm saying is apart from Jesus, those seven times, because I like naturally I would have just I would have kept going.

I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit, that's that's all the work of the Holy Spirit.

I would be thrown out of half the games if not for that.

Like it works, the Holy Spirit, I'm serious.

Like the Holy Spirit changes you, makes you the person that you're you're meant to be, transforms you.

Jesus has promised us blessings that we have friendship with God, that we can actually know God, that we can hear God speak to us, that we can pray and have confidence that God hears us, that he responds to us.

Those are those are the promises that Jesus made, and when we give our lives to him, we're brought inside.

I don't know if you've ever like had the inside track on something.

Like, have you ever known a guy?

You know what I mean?

Like you had a connection.

It's kind of nice, that feeling.

I I've only had one of those really.

Like I knew a guy who owned a t-shirt company, and uh every once in a while our church would order t-shirts and they'd be like, oh, it takes at least three weeks to get t-shirts, and I'm like, oh, I know a guy.

And I pick up my phone and be like, we need 50 t-shirts, stat, and he's like, on it.

You know what I mean?

It felt great because I I knew a guy had the inside track.

Do you understand?

If you're a Jesus follower that you have you you know a guy, right?

You know a guy.

His name's Jesus, he's God.

Like anyone know him?

Do you actually live though with the confidence that you know a guy on the inside?

Like, like do you do you approach your problems and your struggles in life with the confidence of someone who really believes they're an insider with God?

You know, like like you have an issue, you have a circumstance, something comes up in your life, and it's it's tough, it's hard, and the normal response will be to panic and cower and cry, and and and that's that's fine.

Sometimes you gotta go through that, but like if you have if you have the inside track with the God of the universe, maybe you have some confidence, maybe you have some strength because you're like, you know what, I happen to know a guy, I've got I've got the inside track with you know with God, and so I'm not really worried about anything that happens to me.

Does it really feel on a day-to-day basis for you that you are an insider in the kingdom of God?

Or sometimes do you find yourself feeling like you're on the outside looking in?

That there's other people who have this connection to God and they have this faith and that they're experiencing these blessings and things are going really well for them.

They seem to really hear from the Lord and they seem to have this deep connection with God, and they have a joy and a peace that surpasses all understanding, like that's a promise God makes us peace that surpasses understanding.

In other words, peace that doesn't make sense, but you're struggling with anxiety and depression, and you're like, what am I missing?

You ever feel like you're on the outside looking in versus actually being an insider when it comes to your relationship with God?

I think most of us do.

And when that's the case, what's going on?

Like, I want to explore that this morning.

You know, when you're not experiencing some of the promises that God makes, what's happening?

Either God is holding out on you, which is a possibility, or or maybe there's something that needs to change in us.

Like, what if what if God's holding out on us?

What if what if he gives some people peace, but others he skips?

What if he gives some people tremendous blessings and favor, and they have great family lives and really great relationships with their kids and spouses and all that's going great, but other people he's like, Yeah, that's not for you.

It can feel like that sometimes.

But it's not the truth.

God never holds out on his people.

Scripture says he is no respecter of persons, he doesn't play favorites, he never holds out on his people, he holds nothing back from us.

In fact, the very first mistake that people make in the Bible happens because they're convinced that God is holding out on them.

They're convinced that God is keeping them from something.

God does not do that.

So I want us to understand.

I guess you're just gonna have to take my word for it, but I I invite you to pray about it, really explore scripture, whatever you want to do, God does not hold out on people.

When people seek Him, every time in Scripture it says, if you seek me, what?

You'll find me.

If you draw near to me, I'll draw near to you.

That's what God does.

He doesn't hold down on his people.

So when I have those times in my life when I'm genuinely lacking something that God has promised me, and that does happen, by the way.

There are times in life where I can look in the mirror and say, you know what, I'm missing something because I don't have the joy that God promises me to have.

I don't I don't have the peace.

That he promises.

I'm not experiencing the abundant life that Jesus talked about.

I'm not even talking about my circumstances.

I don't care about circumstances that much.

I want to have something internal, something inside of me, some passion for life that Jesus promised.

No matter what's going on, but sometimes I recognize clearly I'm missing something.

So what's going on?

Has God somehow pushed me outside of that?

And I believe that the answer is absolutely no.

In fact, I believe that more often than not, the issue there for me at least is that I'm just not letting him in.

Let's go back to Rahab's story for a second.

How does Rahab become the insider?

How does she go from being the outsider to the insider?

Well, it's actually really simple.

She just lets God's people in.

That's all she does.

Like the whole thing starts by Rahab opening her door and allowing God's people in, which is my extension was her allowing God in.

And that's it.

She opens her door.

They come in, and now she's she's an insider.

She becomes part of the lineage of Jesus.

Like it doesn't get more inside than that.

With that in mind, look at something that Jesus said.

Very famous statement in Revelation chapter 3, verse 20.

Revelation 3:20

He says, Look, I stand at the door and knock.

And if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.

I love this.

This is one of my favorite things that Jesus ever said.

I have a ranking list, and there's a few things like, I wish Jesus hadn't said that.

Um because it's difficult, it makes you struggle with things, you know.

But this is like one of my favorites.

That's gone on the screen.

Whatever.

Um, you guys ruined it.

I wanted to see it again.

Can you put it back?

Can you put it back?

Nope, never mind.

I have no I have no authority here.

Um there it is.

Look, I stand at the door and knock.

If you hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in.

We'll share a meal together as friends.

Leave that up for a second.

Because the context here is really cool.

Revelation begins with Jesus appearing to this disciple of his named John.

This is years after the resurrection.

John's an old man by now.

The church has really started, and in several cities in that area, there's there's a church.

And and Jesus has a word for all the different churches, and most of the churches is kind of a mixed bag.

He's like, hey, I love this.

You guys really, you're doing this great, but I've noticed this is going on, that really needs to stop.

There's one church though that just is is just bad.

Like there's nothing Jesus has nothing good to say.

It's a church in a place called Laodicea, and Jesus says nothing but but really challenging things to the church at Laodicea.

Like you may have heard the statement, if you know, you're lukewarm, so I'll spit you out of my mouth.

Uh that's what Jesus said to Laodicea.

And he just kind of goes on like this has got to change.

It's bad.

It's bad.

But then at the end of his rebuke of the church at Laodicea, he says this.

He doesn't say, Look, I'm done with you.

He doesn't say, Hey, because of all the stuff you've you've messed up, I'm gonna part with stuff is wrong.

All this stuff is way off.

Share life together.

That's the heart of Jesus.

He just wants to come in and share life.

So what we're gonna do is uh here in a second.

This is something we only do from time to time, but but we're gonna have we're gonna have a little bit of worship at the end because I really, really believe that this morning is a morning where it's not just a chance for us to think about some things, which is really good, but it's actually a chance for us to make some decisions.

And sometimes when we'll do this, we'll actually have the the the what's the word?

Front?

Yeah.

You like it when your brain stops for just a second?

And it's like a super normal word.

Front.

Yeah, it's a tough one.

We'll have the front right here opened up, and you're free if you want to come forward and actually just bow and pray.

This is something that we do from time to time.

It's actually really powerful.

You can you can stay where you're at, that's totally fine.

But there's something really powerful about walking forward and just getting on your knees and surrendering to God completely together with other people.

But here's what here's what I want us to do for just a few minutes.

I want you to really think about that metaphor that Jesus uses the door.

He's at the door.

And he's knocking.

You know, in this metaphor, your life, your heart is a house.

And and a lot of us in the room, you've let Jesus in.

Now, maybe some of us in the room you never have.

You've heard that knocking, you've you've sensed that there's a desire there to give yourself to God, to open your life up to him, to let him come in, but for whatever reason you you've pushed it off.

Maybe you come here with a family member, a parent, a spouse, a friend, and it's like you're here and and you're like you're interested, you sense something, but there's part of you that's just like hesitant.

I'm telling you, let him in.

Because here's what's not gonna happen.

Jesus is not going to stand there and you open the door and he takes a look in and go, ooh, never mind.

Uh wrong house.

You know, I'm gonna keep going.

That's not gonna happen.

He he desperately loves you.

And he has no greater desire than to be intimately connected in your life, than to make your heart his home, to come in and to transform who you are.

Like that's what he wants to do.

Sometimes in our American church culture, uh we we boil Jesus and Scripture down to life hacks and life improvements.

And I want you to understand, Jesus does not have that much interest in improving your life.

He wants to transform your life.

There's a big difference.

He doesn't just want to make a few tweaks to give you a slightly better life.

He wants you to want you to be completely transformed so that who you are is not who you used to be.

But that only happens when you let him in.

And so if you've never let him in, my prayer is that today you would let him in, that you would make a decision today before you leave this room and you would walk out of this room forever changed because you can say that March 1st, is it March 1st?

I just realized I don't know the date.

Is it?

Is it March 1st, 2020, you let Jesus in through the door.

And you can leave forever changed because of that.

But you have to let him in.

And please understand, by the way, that if he's been knocking for a while and you haven't responded, like, not responding is a response, right?

If someone calls you over and over again and you never pick up the phone, like you've responded.

Like, let him in.

But to those of you who are Jesus followers, which is probably the vast majority of us, here's what I find happens a lot, at least in my life.

You know, if I think about my heart being like a house, I've got a lot more than one door in my house.

I think what's what's really easy to do is you have a moment in your life where you let Jesus in.

And he comes in.

And like all of our homes, you have common spaces.

You have places where if you have friends over, like you can be here.

And then there's other rooms.

They're a little bit more private.

Not everybody gets to go into those rooms.

And so it's really easy for us to let Jesus into our lives and be like, hey, I'm so glad you're here.

Make yourself at home.

There's the fridge, here's the couch, just man, I'm so glad you're here.

And Jesus is like, I'm so glad to be here.

I've got big plans.

And eventually, I'm gonna tell you, Jesus, he'll he'll annoy you.

So, you know, let if you let him in today, just know what you get into.

Um, Jesus said, Count the cost, by the way, it's important.

Uh He's gonna want to mess with stuff and he's gonna wander around.

He's not just gonna, he's not content to just stay on the couch and be like, Yeah, I'm fine, just I'm just here.

Every once in a while you you'll pass me by and we'll say hey, and I'm good.

No, no, Jesus wants total access because he has huge plans for every part of your life.

He wants to free you of struggles and hardships and addictions and mindsets that have held you captive for years.

He wants you to experience forgiveness and mercy and grace for things that you've held on to, mistakes that you've made, things that you've beat yourself up about for far too long.

He wants you to let him in every single door in your house, every single area, aspect of your life, and truly give him permission to change it, to transform it.

Because again, Jesus is not gonna walk into any room and go, Whoa, this is pretty messed up.

I've never seen anything this bad.

I mean, that's why we're going through this story.

That's why we're going through all the stories of these people in scripture because their lives are jacked up.

Trust me, whatever you've gone through, whatever you're going through, he's seen it before.

It doesn't freak him out.

He's excited about it.

But it's so easy for us as people, even people who love God, to let him in, but then to sort of say, hey, these rooms are off limits.

This is kind of my area.

And so, so, God, I love you, but you gotta just, this is my thing, you know?

And it might be your romantic relationships, it might be your finances, it might be your relationship with your kids.

That's something I'm really fighting right now, and it's kind of sneaking up on me because I'm realizing as my kids are getting older that I have plans for their life.

That I've seen certain things, and I'm like, oh, you know what?

This is this is what they're gonna be, this is who they're gonna be.

And I'm realizing, what if God has a different path for them?

Well, I don't want them to.

You know?

And is is that door to my children's life, is that open for God?

Am I truly open for God to come in and work with me on letting that go and trusting Him with that?

Or am I just gonna kind of push them along the path that I think is best for them?

I mean, it can be anything, but for a huge part of my life it was an addiction that I had to pornography for 15 plus years.

And that was an area of my life that I just I would crack the door every once in a while and be like, no, God, I want you to come in here and kind of work on this, and then I'd shut it real quick for a variety of reasons.

Number one, it was an addiction, and addictions help you cope.

Number two, I was ashamed.

I was ashamed.

I had this mindset, like, hey, you know, God, well, let me clean it up first.

Let me let me get it in order, let me make it better, and then you know, then you can come in.

Just not yet.

Let me do some stuff, it's it's a mess, God, and and if you'll just let me work on a few things, then then I'll let you in.

That's not the way it works because Jesus is the one that fixes it.

This is what's so cool.

You know, I I knew that this is what we're gonna talk about on Monday, and this whole house thing and this this illustration of your life like a house.

And on Friday, I got an email from a gentleman that I did not meet until this morning.

Never met this person before.

But he sends me this email.

Again, keeping in mind with what we're talking about this morning, that was already all planned out.

This is what he said.

He said, On January 22nd, after years of battling addiction and its hold on my life, I checked myself into treatment up in Blue Ridge.

I'd been crying out to God for so long for help, but he was wanting me to take a step toward him.

One of the last Sundays I was recently at, you spoke about being baptized and how people have backed out, often using their lives not being in the right place as a reason.

I was one of them.

So now, although I know my house is not all in order currently, I know beyond all doubt there is only one housekeeper that can truly give my life the purpose it's designed for.

How awesome is that.

Guys, let him in.

There's not one aspect of your life that he's ashamed of.

Nothing freaks him out.

But every moment that you keep him out, you're just delaying the transformation that he wants you to experience.

And so what we're gonna do for just a moment, I've asked Matt if he would just worship a little bit.

And we're just gonna have an opportunity for three, four minutes to just connect with him.

And you're free to stay where you're at.

You're also free to come forward and get on your knees and just pray and say, Lord, I'm ready to let it go.

I'm ready to open that door.

You know, for some of us guys, it's it's not just some general area of our life.

You know, in all of our houses we have rooms.

We also have closets.

I don't really invite people into the closets in my house.

Because your closets are usually full of stuff that, you know, some of it you need, some of it you don't, some of it you should have gotten rid of a long time ago, but you just you can't seem to find the time to get rid of it.

Some of us are holding on to anger this morning that we need to let go of.

But we're so used to having it that it's hard.

Some of us, we were abused, we were abandoned, and for our entire lives, we've we've held on to those feelings.

We've held on to the abandonment, to the abuse, we've held on to the hurt, and we've allowed it to define us in some small way.

We've kept it locked away in a closet, maybe, but it's still there.

And every once in a while it messes with us, and it's time to let Jesus in completely.

It's time to open up that door and let him take that stuff that does not belong in your life and move it away.

He's the only one who can get rid of it, he's the only one who can replace it with what you really need, but you have to open the door.

He doesn't kick the door down, he doesn't pick the lock, he doesn't go in through the window.

In fact, and and this is the last thing I'm gonna say, I promise, there's this really, really awesome painting from like 200 years ago.

And it's very famous, and it's Jesus knocking on a on a door.

Um and uh if you zoom in on it a little bit, what makes this painting really famous is that the door has no handle on the outside.

It was painted in the 1850s and asked about it, uh the artist said, I didn't put a handle on the outside of the door because the only way to let him in is from the inside.

If you want the life that he's promised you, you have to let him in.

Whether it's for the first time or it's the first time that you've opened up a door that you've kept closed up to this point, and I want to give us a chance to do that.

And so I'm just gonna pray, and I invite you to pray with me, and let's take a few moments and let's really reflect and let's really examine our hearts.

And if there's one aspect of life, one relationship, one struggle, open that door to him right now and trust him with it, okay?

Let's pray.

Lord, we love you so much.

Thank you, God, for everything that you do in our lives.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessings that you've promised us.

Lord, we want to experience that.

We want to believe that we are insiders, that none of us are outside of your love, that none of us are outside of your plans, your purpose, that none of us have disqualified ourselves from any blessing that you've promised us.

We all, we all have a claim to those blessings, Father.

To the peace, to the joy, to the love, to the faith and hope, all of it.

You just want us to open ourselves to you completely.

And Lord, I pray in your name that if there's one person in this room right now who's yet to open their life to you, that changes right now.

They do it for the first time.

And Lord, for those of us that have closed off parts of ourselves, for those of us, Lord, who have who have kept you out of certain aspects of our lives, I pray that right now that ends, that we open up to you and that we experience the transformation that you promise.

And it's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

Call it my name.

Salvation pours down my grave, flooding my host.

I give my life, come in, baby.

For an opportunity to connect with you, to give our lives to you over and over again, Lord, we give ourselves to you.

And I pray in your name, Jesus, that our heart as a church would be simply this: that if you knock, we open.

If you knock, we open.

And Lord, I pray that you don't even have to knock that heart.

That we would become so sensitive to you, so so excited about the work that you have to do, Lord, that the moment we hear the faintest knock, we open our hearts and we say, Come in.

Do your thing, do your work, Lord.

We surrender to you.

We're tired of doing it on our own, we're tired of trying to make it our own way.

Lord, you do your work.

We surrender to you, we give our lives to you.

Come inside.

Make us new.

We pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.