I stand At The Door

Good morning to you all. May the God of all love and grace be with you as we worship together. As we share together, let us hear his voice and bow the knee

Staff Songsters: Bow The Knee

Scripture Reading: Revelation 3:20-22

20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. 21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

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Time Of prayer

As we journey into a time of prayer let us, Offer Up Our lives to Him.

Let us pray

Father, thank You for Your Word which is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path and thank You Father, for Jesus Christ, the living Word made flesh, Who has life in Himself and is the light of the world in Whom is no darkness at all. Who stands at the door and knocks.

Lord, more than anything else, I desire to bathe in that light of the Lord Jesus so that the light of His love and grace may shine through me to others, especially at those times when the circumstances of life seem to be particularly gloomy and dark.

Father, You have called us to be lights in the world, reflecting the glory and light of Christ and I pray that I may become His reflection, so that men may see my good works and glorify my Father in heaven.

Lord, I know that this requires me to decrease to nothing so that He may increase in everything and become all in all. Father, I pray that whatever it takes, that You would purge out anything that diminishes the light and love of Christ in me, so that Jesus is lifted up high in my heart and life, and may my self-life become so translucent and unclouded that Christ may be seen in me, to Your praise and glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Let us share together in the lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Sit back and enjoy the music from the Staff Band: Guardian Of My Soul

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Before we go to the word let us sing: Near The Cross

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I Stand At The Door

The reason that so many people spend so much time, running and hiding from God, is this sense that they’re not worthy. I thought that for a long time. Thinking such as, I’m not good enough. I thought for a long time that I needed to clean up my act before God would even look at me. And since I never manage to do that, I’m here to tell you that’s not true. Jesus doesn’t want you to clean up your act first. He wants you just to go to Him as you are.

When I know I have visitors coming to stay, there's somthing I always do. With my upbringing I couldn’t help myself. I had to do a major cleaning operation before my visitors came. I whizz around with the vacuum cleaner; make sure the bathroom’s sparkling, the kitchen and all that. It’s not that I live in a mess, I don’t. It’s not that I’m interested in impressing people, because I’m not. It’s just that, that’s what my parents used to do and somehow that behaviour has been imprinted on me. I enjoy a clean, tidy place, buit I don't enjoy doing it.

So, as I was hauling the vacuum cleaner around the house, I’m wondering to myself if this is the trouble I go to for visitors, imagine, if Jesus was coming over for dinner tonight. Imagine if I knew that at 6.30pm tonight the Son of God was going to knock at my front door and come in and join us for dinner. I suspect that impulse to clean up would have been a zillion times stronger. I suspect that I would have been wanting to clean the place within an inch of its life. But the question is, is that really what Jesus wants us to do?

To tell you the truth, it was that idea, the idea that I needed to clean up my act before God would consider me, that caused me to keep my distance from God. I was doing stuff in my life that I knew was wrong. And when you know, that what you’re doing is wrong and you want to keep doing that, how can you possibly get close to God. I mean, any child learns very early on that, if you do something wrong, you are going to get told off, grounded.

I remember, numerous times in my childhood being caught out by my mother. She’d say, “You wait until your father gets home.” Do you remember that feeling? You would sit there in dread of Dad getting home from work. From an early age, its possible to see a father figure who gives out punishment. And as we grow that can stay with us. Even though we know there is a Father God, we run away from Him because that’s the natural reaction when we continue to do something wrong. There’s nothing new in that. Adam and Eve had that very same response after their very first sin. Eating the fruit from that one tree from which God said, “Don’t eat the fruit.” But they ate it anyway. Then, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Many people spend a vast majority of their lives hiding from God simply because they think they must clean up their act first. Are you relating to any of this? I think we can all say this has happened to us at some point in time. And so, like Adam and Eve, we feel compelled to run and hide from God. Have you ever thought how stupid that is? As though we can hide from an all-seeing, all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God! And I wonder how that looks from God’s vantage point. We must look silly.

And so there we hide, thinking to ourselves, “ I can’t face God; I have to clean up my act.” Until one day God comes looking for us, just as He did with Adam and Eve. But the Lord God called to the man and said, ‘Where are you Adam?’ ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself’. That’s the discomfort we feel when God comes knocking at the door of our hearts. We feel the sense of condemnation.

We know we must clean up our act. We know we aren’t good enough to face God. So, we try to run and hide, but when God’s on our case that’s not an easy thing to do. Have you ever noticed that? I’m here to tell you the most amazing thing I have ever learned after giving my life over to God. We don’t have to clean up our act first. That’s something that Jesus will help us do later. Have a listen again with me to exactly what He says. Revelation Chapter 3 verse 19 and 20. He says:

The people I love, I call to account. I discipline those I love. Be earnest therefore and repent. Listen, I’m standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me.

In other words, I love you, and because I love you, let me help you. So, in other words, what Jesus wants to do for us and with us, out of His great love, is to help us clean up our act. The point is, not to run around with the vacuum cleaner first, the point is simply, hear the knock and open the door.

And what does He want us to do? What’s our part in this transaction of transformation? Quite simple, he wants us to repent. Now that word may seem strong and old fashioned. But repent simply means “to change our minds” or “to turn back to God”. The reason we want to run and hide from God, is that we have the sequence confused in our heads. We think that it’s

1. – “clean up my act” and then 2. – “turn back to God through Jesus”.

And right here Jesus is saying, “No, no, no. You’ve got it wrong. You’ve forgotten about this thing called grace.” What God wants us to do is one – repent. First simply change our mind and come back to Him. And secondly – together we’ll clean up our act. And that makes perfect sense, because you and I simply don’t have the power to clean up our act.

When Jesus knocks on our door to have dinner with us, we don’t have to race around and clean up, and tidy up and vacuum and dust and straighten the cushions on the lounge. He hasn’t come for a tidiness inspection. He has come to have dinner with you. Cleaning up the mess, no.

Jesus say’s let us have dinner first. Let us sit and chat, let us be together, lets build a relationship. Let us journey together. Let us share happy times and sad times together. Then I’ll help you clean up. You don’t believe me? Have another listen to His very own words:

Listen, I’m standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me.

Nothing there about cleaning up first. Its a beautiful invitation to share a journey with Jesus, the one who will help clean up the life of anyone who earnestly has a change of mind; anyone who opens the door to Him. Amen.

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Have you heard God calling you? Is he standing at the door? Then say with me:

Here I Am Lord. It Is I Lord. I Have heard You Calling. Let us Sing.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee

The Lord make His face to shine upon thee

And be gracious unto thee

The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee