Jesus Knocking On The Door Of Your Heart

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. First of all, Happy Father's Day to all those fathers out there. And even if you do not have children, many of you are father figures to others. And what does it mean to be a father, really? There's a lot of different definitions going on. From what we know, in the Bible at least, the role of father is to nurture, to be generative, to be sacrificial, to give, to model. There's so many great things, and thank you for doing that to those around you. So today, we continue our series called Misquoted, and how to avoid misusing the Bible, because, boy, does it get misused, right? Our section today is probably one of the lesser examples of misuse. It's not the worst case of misquoting, but it has been used multiple times. I've heard it many times at evangelistic rallies, at crusades, at all sorts of different events. And it's the verse that says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. It's taken out of context, often, to say something like, You have to let Jesus in to your heart, because the door to your heart, he's knocking on it. We'll see what this verse actually does mean, and I think what we're going to learn is a much deeper and more profound understanding of this verse than what might come across in some applications. So in the past, we've done this, and today we're doing it again. We're going to look at what Jesus is not saying, what he is, and why it's better than what these misquotes or misuse or lack of good application of the text. So we're going to read from Revelation. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, I need nothing. And realizing that you not realizing that you are pitiable, wretched, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may be may clothe yourself. And the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and sad to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love. I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. So as we're going through this, we're going to first talk about what Jesus is not saying in these verses. So the the best known verse in this is behold, I stand at the door and knock. And you might notice note this from a number of paintings. We had one in my house when I was growing up of Jesus knocking on the door, but it was a little more cheese. This one's probably the best one I know. It's by William Holman Hunt. It's entitled Light of the World. And in it, he's taking the metaphor of Jesus as the light of the world, carrying this lantern in a very dark place, and he's knocking on a door that's overgrown. As you can see, it's looks like it hasn't been open for a long time. The hinges are rusted. The nails as well. It's. And the question is, how do you interpret that? Right. I think it's a great painting. It's a wonderful painting. What people take often from this painting, as well as what I've mentioned a little about the evangelists, is that the door represents your the human heart, the individual. And you need to invite Jesus into your heart. And notice the door on this painting does not have a knob or a latch or any way to open it from the outside. And so you have to do the work and bring Jesus into your life. Now, that's not what he's saying. We're going to get to that. And here's the danger. If you interpret it that way, it implies that Jesus is kind of waiting on you. It implies that you've got the power to open up to Jesus whenever you feel like it. And you have the free will to make that decision. And you've got plenty of opportunities is almost the way it comes across. Now, evangelists will say today's the day to do it. But they also imply that you've got the power to do it. And I've known people and actually you can find people in human history that have kind of done this. I said, well, you know, when I am good and old. When things aren't going well anymore. When I feel a need for him, then I'll get around to opening the door and he'll come in. But right now I'm doing okay. Things are good. Now, this is assuming and this is the assumption behind this and why I think it's dangerous. It's assuming that you're really in charge of when that can happen. That you've got the power to just decide whatever an...