Don't Answer The Door

Don’t Answer The Door!

Scriptures: Genesis 4:6-7; First Peter 5:8; Revelations 3:20

Good morning Strangers Rest. This morning, I am here to warn you, so the title of this message is, “Don’t Answer the Door!” The message I will be delivering this morning is a warning, not just to Strangers Rest, but to the Church as a corporate body. With that said, I want to emphasize something early in this message: as God’s sons and daughters, we have spiritual authority, through His Son, Jesus Christ, which enables us to overcome and avoid all the warnings that we see in Scripture.

Let me give you three examples. First, there are many Christians who believe the extent of being a Christian is going to Church, participating in Church activities, praying, and reading their Bibles. They read the stories of the things that Jesus and the disciples did in the gospels, but they do not believe that they are empowered to do the same things today. Secondly, we ask for prayer when we are sick, but many of us do not honestly believe that God will heal us miraculously versus being heal through the actions of a physician. And please understand, there are things that I am dealing with medically that I see a physician for, so I am right there with you. The third example is there are Christians who read about demonic spirits in the Bible, but do not believe they are active today. God has given us authority here on earth and I hope, before we leave this world for the next, that we will choose to walk in it because when we do, lives will change. Remember my message from last week on “let” being a choice? Well, I hope you will make that choice this morning because this message is about our walking in our authority to not “let” something happen – opening a door to our lives that should remain closed.

So let me tell you a personal story about when to leave a door closed. A few years ago, Nikki and I had just gone to bed when we heard a noise out on the patio. We got out of bed, turned on the patio lights and saw an opossum rummaging through the things we had on the patio – specifically the can that I use to clean out my grill. You see, when you have good barbeque even the wildlife come out of the woods to enjoy some! When I saw the opossum, I decided that I would get my pine-sol sprayer and spray the area (and the opossum) so that it would leave as they hate that scent. As I went to open the door, Nikki yelled at me not to do it because the opossum could potentially run into the house. As I calmly shared with her that I would not let that happen, she quickly left my side and went across the room just in case it did happen. I could have easily listened to her and just not have opened the door, but I am a man and I do what men do – which is often going against the sound advice of their wives. While this situation worked out in my favor as the opossum did not come into the house – what would have happened if the opossum had gotten into the house? Do you think I would have heard the end of it? Do you think there would have been any sleep gotten that night until that thing was found and removed from the house? Do you think I might have joined the opossum outside and been sleeping on the patio that night? Sometimes we must use wisdom and simply do not open the door! As you think about my boldness in handling that opossum, consider this: why do we feel obligated to rush and answer the door whenever someone knocks or rings the doorbell? Most of you know that there are times when we should keep the door closed and that will be the focus of the warning this morning.

Consider this question, “Is it really rude not to answer the door when the person knows you’re home?” When I was younger, I watched scary movies. It always seemed so stupid to me that when the monster, vampire or murderer was roaming through the neighborhood seeking someone to devour that people, knowing that the danger was lurking outside, when the danger knocked on their door they would always answer. Common sense would dictate that if a monster were at the door, you would not answer it. But that never was the case in these movies. Even though they knew it was dangerous, they answered the door anyway. I would talk to the TV trying to encourage the person not to answer the door, but they would answer it anyway and that would be the end of them. I used to wonder what would happen if they simply did not answer the door. Would the monster go away, and they would live, or would the monster break the door down? I never found out because the people were drawn to the door as if they had no choice but to answer it. Maybe that was because of how the script was written. But in real life, did you know that we do not have to answer the door every time someone knocks?