Welcome! I would encourage you to continue to pray the secret prayer. Today I will give a brief message followed by a time of remembering the Lord with the bread and cup, and following this we will have a sharing time, where all in the body are welcome to share what the Lord is teaching them.
This is our final message in our Hard Questions series. The questions we are going to look at today, like the others in this series, asked by you, are these: How do we tell whether an open door is God’s will? How do we tell whether a “closed door” is God revealing that His will is something else?
Well, these questions are encompassed by the greater question of how we know God’s will. In order to get somewhere with the specific questions, we also need to touch on this greater question. This greater question encompasses a variety of intensely practical questions that come up in the life of every believer, specific questions like: What should I major in college? What do I do after college? Should I marry this person? Should I take this job? Should I move or stay here? What should I have for lunch after church today? Okay, maybe not that last one.
Well, one thing I will say is that the Bible does not have a verse in it that says, “John, you should major in engineering and go to Clemson.” That is, you will not find specific instructions for the details of your particular life in the Bible. But what you do find in the Bible are general instructions about God’s will. I want to start by going touching briefly on the nature of these instructions. Now, the fact that we won’t spend much time on them does not imply a lack of importance; these are critically important things. If you try to bypass these so as to get to your particular questions, you are making a giant mistake. Let me also say that these are not fancy ideas; they are the basics, and after you hear them, you will say that you already knew them. But the question for you is not whether you know them, but whether you are living them.
The first thing to know about God’s will is that it is God’s will that you be saved. There are many verses we could use to support this. The one we’ll look at today is I Timothy 2:
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. – I Tim. 2:1-6
Normally we think of these as “prayer” verses, verses that exhort us to pray, and indeed, they do urge us to do this. But in the middle of the passage it says quite clearly that if you are a person (and you are), then God’s will is that you be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. And that truth is spelled out in the next verses, that Jesus is both the mediator between God and you and the ransom for you, that is, He paid for your sin, your sin which separates you from God, your sin which demands penalty if God is to be just (and He is). Jesus is your mediator, the one who reconciles you with God, and He is the ransom money; that is, He has paid for your sin with His life, by dying on the cross. But for Him to be your personal mediator and your personal ransom, as other verses clearly explain, you must by faith believe in Him and ask Him to save you. And so the first and most important part of God’s will for your life is that you be saved. If you have not yet done this, all other discussion about God’s will is meaningless.
The second thing to know about God’s will is that it is God’s will for you to live for God. This too can be found in many places, but one of these I especially like is Eph. 5. Verses 10 and 17 clearly tie in this passage to the topic of God’s will:
…and find out what pleases the Lord. – Eph. 5:10
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. – Eph. 5:17
Here are the surrounding verses:
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” – Eph. 5:8-14
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Eph. 5:15-20
A theme running throughout this passage is that God’s will for your life is not the same as the message of the world. The world would say that you should live for yourself, doing what you want; the world even says that if you want to do something, well, not viewed particularly well in society, then as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else, go ahead and do it in secret. Note how the first part of the passage refers to this. And if you want to get drunk, again, our culture would say as long as you don’t hurt someone else (for example, drink and drive), then go ahead and do that too. And the second part of the passage refers to this. You could summarize the world’s view by saying, live for yourself, do want you want to do, as long as no one else is hurt.
But in contrast to all this, God’s will for your life is that you not live for yourself, but that you live for God. This includes the idea of living as children of light, being good, righteous, and true in all you do. And this also includes the idea of spending your time purposefully, not devoted to selfish pursuits but devoted to loving and helping others; this is the meaning of making the most of every opportunity. This would include being in meaningful fellowship with other believers, building into your family, if you are a parent, and reaching out to unbelievers. Central to all this is to be filled, that is to keep on being filled, with the Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit is something that only happens when you choose to live for God, repenting of your sin and making the constant little decisions to not only avoid evil, but to do the kinds of things mentioned in this passage, being in fellowship with other believers, personally worshiping God, praising Him and regularly being devoted to prayer. All of this is God’s will for your life.
I’m not saying you have to totally “arrive,” but if your mind and will and heart during the week are not at all focusing on these things, but are instead living “secularly,” with the mindset and priorities of the world, then, again, you are not following God’s will for your life, and this should be addressed before you deal with other questions about God’s will.
Now, the questions behind open and closed doors touch often touch on the other major decisions of life. For example, if you are offered a new job, should you take it? Is this an open door? Or if you ask someone to marry you and they say they want some time first, that they think both they and you should grow in the Lord more first, should you take that as a closed door?
As a first step in coming up with a Biblical response to this type of question, let’s look a bit at the use of the “door” analogy in Scripture.
There are actually only a few times that this analogy, the idea of a door representing a open or closed opportunity, comes up in Scripture. One of these is in Acts 14. To give the context, let me start with Acts 13.
In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. – Acts 13:1-4
So Saul (Paul) and Baranabas went out from Antioch on their missionary journey. How did they know it was God’s will? It’s not entirely clear. If this passage is meant to be understood literally, the Holy Spirit actually spoke to the group. Perhaps this is what happened, or perhaps what happened is that as they prayed and fasted as a group, the Lord put it on their hearts that they should go out and spread the gospel, and that this desire was particularly placed on the hearts of Paul and Barnabas. It is a pretty rare thing that the Holy Spirit does speak audibly to people, but it does happen, even today.
You can read what happened in this journey in Acts 13 and 14. There were some miracles, the gospel went forth, people were saved, but there were also some disasters, including the event that Paul was stoned and left for dead in Lystra. Keep in mind that the Holy Spirit had “sent them on their way.” Was this a closed door? Not in Paul’s eyes. He kept going. In Derbe, the next city, many came to Christ. They went through a number of other cities and then returned to Antioch. Here is what happened:
From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. – Acts 14:26-27
And so there is that use of the phrase “open door.” The open door here refers to how God had made many Gentiles receptive to the gospel. Now, there are three times Paul uses the phrase “open door” in his letters. Here they are:
After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. – I Cor. 16:5-9
Now 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 good-by to them and went on to Macedonia. – 2 Cor. 2:12-13
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. – Col. 4:2-4
I have two observations about these passages. First, the phrase “open door” is only used in retrospect, that is, after the thing has happened (this is the case in Acts 14, I Cor. 16, and 2 Cor. 2), or as a prayer that such a thing would happen (this is the case in Col. 4). In other words, the Biblical writers describe past situations where good things have happened as open doors, and they pray for open doors, but they don’t seem to fret about a current opportunity, trying to figure out whether it is an open door.
Second, in all four passages here, the context of an open door is very specific: it describes an opportunity for spreading the gospel. Nowhere is the idea of an “open door” used as an idiom for a job opportunity or in the context of any other life decision, major or minor. What this tells me is that if the idea of open and closed doors is a major part of our thinking about what I might call “regular life decisions,” perhaps we need to change how we think about these decisions.
It seems to me what we are often really doing when we are trying to figure out whether something is an “open door,” is that we are trying to somehow make safe decisions. “If I marry this person, will we have long happy lives together?” “If I take this job, will my life be easier?” “Which major will guarantee me good jobs that I like that pay reasonably well for the rest of my life?” But the problem is that God never promised us any of the these things; indeed He promises us that we will have trouble in this world. (But He doesn’t leave us there; He says, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”)
Compare this desire for a safe life to what Paul says in Acts 20:
“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace." – Acts 20:22-24
The Holy Spirit warns him! Wow! This sounds a lot more like a “closed door” than an “open door,” doesn’t it? Not to Paul.
Instead of trying to make safe decisions, we should seek to make bold decisions, decisions borne out of a love for Christ. There are decisions, such as what major to choose, what job to take, that have to be made. But perhaps these decisions, so important to the world, should take second place to the decisions we make each day about dying to self and living for Christ. Do we pray about these “regular life decisions”? Yes. Do we ask God for wisdom? Yes. Do we seek godly counsel? Yes. But do allow worry about these decisions to consume our lives? No. Instead, may we be more like Paul, who says, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. That task may vary a little for each of us, but for all of us, that task includes loving and living for Christ, being salt and light, making disciples, loving our families and fellow believers sacrificially, and, like Paul, testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
And we can start that task anew by remembering the Lord’s sacrifice of His body and His blood on the cross for our sins. He tells us, do this in remembrance of Me. Jesus is our mediator, and He is our ransom. He has paid for our sins with His life. Even the physical agony on the cross He experienced we cannot begin to imagine. But more than that, God poured out His the fullness of His wrath for all sins on Jesus. We don’t have any idea how to understand this, let alone sympathize. It may not seem like much, but what we can do is remember Him. Thank Him. Praise Him. And worship Him. He loves us, and we can choose to love Him.
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