When the door of opportunity is opened for us, we have to be willing to enter.
Illus: Legend has it that the Mormons always gave Mark Twain a hard time about his opposition to their teaching that a man can have many wives.
He was always looking for an opportunity to set them straight. That opportunity came one day when two of them said, “Mark Twain, you are always giving us a hard time about us having many wives.” Then they said, “You give us one scripture that teaches it is wrong for a man to have a dozen wives if he so chooses.”
This was the door of opportunity that Mark Twain had been waiting for. He said in a humorous way, “I will be glad to tell you why the Bible teaches you can not have more than one wife.” He said, “It is because the Bible clearly teaches that No man can serve two masters.”
Opportunities are wonderful things, but with the opportunities come responsibilities.
The Lord says it this way in Luke 12:48, “…FOR UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN, OF HIM SHALL BE MUCH REQUIRED: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
All we can do in this life is take advantage of the opportunities that come our way, and do the best we can do. THIS IS ALL THAT GOD ASKS OF US!
Paul was very much aware of the opportunities that were placed before him.
Let me show you THREE things that illustrate this in the life of Paul. (We will deal with one thing this morning and two more in the next service).
First, let’s look at-
I. THE OPENING
Paul said, “...A GREAT DOOR and effectual IS OPENED UNTO ME”
Paul had the fantastic ability to recognize opportunities when he saw them. Paul recognized that there were SMALL and LARGE OPPORTUNITIES. But he said this was a big one, “A GREAT door …is opened unto me.”
We can have all kinds of doors OPEN to us but if we can’t RECOGNIZE them as opportunities, they will not do us any good.
Illus: Many are failures in this life, not because they did not have opportunities come their way, it is because the opportunities came but they did not recognize them.
Many folks have a difficult time recognizing opportunities.
Illus: Many people are like the woman who was always looking for an opportunity to go to a garage sale to buy something cheap.
Now anyone who knows something about garage sales knows this is a special breed of people. They can walk up to a table full of goodies, and with this very serious look they will ask “How much?” And the man will say, “A dime”, and they will get this horrible look on their face and say, “That much?”
This lady was the queen of the garage sales. She took her newlywed daughter-in-law with her to teach her how to really wheel and deal with these people.
They started out early one Saturday morning, and they saw a sign that said, “Garage Sale”. They drove down the street, and sure enough they saw a garage door open, and a man was dragging stuff out into the yard.
She spotted OPPORTUNITY. She stopped her car and immediately they walked toward the garage, looking at the things he had already placed in the yard, but mostly at some of the items packed into that garage.
The mother, the experienced flea market expert, knew she had hit it big. A garage full of stuff and they were the first ones there. She had a hundred dollars, and if she played her cards right she could buy everything in the garage.
After a few minutes and several stern looks from the solemn-faced garage owner, he asked if there was anything he could help them with.
The way he asked her this question caused some concern. She said, "This is a garage sale, isn't it?" He said, “Lady, this is not a garage sale, this is my garage and I have been promising my wife for months that I would organize it and clean it out!
A lot of people couldn’t recognize OPPORTUNITY if it was to hit them in the face.
Illus: Years ago, some of our forefathers could have bought land for a few hundred dollars. Today that land may sell for maybe a half a million or a million dollars.
When this door of opportunity was open, they could not see it. Today that door is closed and never again will they have an opportunity to buy it so cheap.
If our forefathers could have recognized opportunity in their day, we, their children and grandchildren, would be very wealthy.
(HUMOR) It’s all their fault. If they could have recognized the opportunity, we would have it made!
A lot of folks today are the same way. Opportunities surround them but they cannot see them.
Illus: Someone said, “When opportunity knocks for some people, they yell, ‘go away’ and they roll over and go to sleep!”
But some folks CAN recognize opportunity when it knocks.
Illus: One man was sitting on his porch in Kentucky. He had recently retired from the post office, and he was sitting there waiting for his first Social Security check to be delivered. He was very, very discouraged. He thought to himself, "Is this what life is going to be from now on--sitting on the porch waiting for my check to arrive?"
He decided he wouldn't settle for that, and so he made a list of all of the things he had going for him. The list was long because he listed everything he could think of that he could possibly do. It dawned on him that he had something no one else had. He had his mother's recipe for fried chicken that USED ELEVEN DIFFERENT HERBS AND SPICES.
He went to a nearby restaurant and asked if he could cook the chicken for them, and they said yes. It soon became the most popular item on the menu, and people were flocking into the restaurant to purchase it. Soon he opened his own restaurant, and then others, and finally a string of restaurants called “Kentucky Fried Chicken.”
Eventually Harland Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise all across America.
He finally retired a second time…and he continued in the service of the company as a public relations representative for a quarter of a million dollars a year, till his death. (-- Bruce Thielemann, "Dealing with Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 48.)
He recognized OPPORTUNITY when the door was open to him, AND HE ENTERED.
HOW ARE THOSE DOORS OPEN TO US?
• Barbara Bush said, “You don't just luck into things as much as you'd like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it's friendships or opportunities.” (Fresh-cut Flowers for a Friend. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 7.)
• Thomas Edison said it this way, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” -- Thomas A. Edison. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 2.
We have to be able to recognize opportunity if we are going to be successful as a Christian.
Let me show you two ways we need to LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES. First, we should look for OPPORTUNITIES with-
A. OUR CHILDREN
Illus: When our children are young they are like a small tree, they can be bent and shaped almost any kind of way. But when they become adults, they are like a grown tree, they can no longer be shaped and molded. At this adult stage in their lives THEY ARE ALREADY SHAPED AND MOLDED.
Every godly parent needs to be able to recognize spiritual opportunities for their CHILDREN. They should expose them to the Word of God in Sunday school, and the preaching of God’s Word.
In Proverbs 22:6 we read, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
That is simply saying that when parents take advantage of those opportunities, and put within a child all those things the Bible teaches, that instruction WILL BE WITH THEM TO THE DAY THEY DIE!
We have parents who have not done this, and today they are standing around scratching their heads. They can’t figure out why their child lives like a heathen, and it is because they were raised like a heathen.
Every time we get a chance to expose them to the Word of God, it is an opportunity we should recognize and take advantage of.
Why? Because every week:
• The television they watch
• The Schools they attend
• The music they listen to
• The friends they associate with
Are all pumping into them things that are contrary to what this Bible teaches.
PARENTS, OPEN UP YOUR EYES BEFORE IT IS TO LATE! RECOGNIZE OPPORTUNITY, AND GET THE CHILDREN INTO SUNDAY SCHOOL, where VALUE is placed on the Word of God. We have teachers in this church that want to TEACH YOUR CHILD THE TRUTHS OF GOD’S WORD, BUT THEY CANNOT DO THIS IF YOU DO NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPORTUNITY AND BRING THEM!
So many parents today cannot recognize opportunity, and cannot see what a tremendous price they are going to have to pay for not taking advantage of these opportunities.
Many parents are not able to recognize opportunity when it comes to THEIR CHILDREN.
Also, it seems that many are not able to recognize opportunities when it comes to-
B. OUR CHURCHES
This is the age of big churches, and there is nothing wrong with big churches if they became big because they preached and taught the Word of God. THE LORD IS PLEASED WITH CHURCHES LIKE THIS.
If they became a big church because they compromised everything this Bible teaches in order to attract the lost world into their churches, then THE LORD JESUS IS VERY DISPLEASED WITH THEM.
Sometimes lost people will come to a church with good intentions. But being ignorant of the scriptures, they will say something like this, “Pastor, I know what we can do to fill this church.” And the pastor will say, “What will it take to accomplish that.” Well Pastor, if:
• We had line dancing in the gym or the fellowship hall
• We had Bingo for the elderly who are too old to cut the mustard
• We had a relaxed dress code and encouraged people to come to church dressed any way they want to dress
• We had donuts, popcorn, and soft drinks to eat during the song service
• We encouraged people to come to church with their boats and ski boats each Sunday, and as soon as we get the church service over with they can head for the lake
• We cut the service short on Sunday evening so everyone can go to the movies
• We frequently have church parties, and everyone can bring their favorite alcoholic beverages, and drink in moderation
THEN WE COULD FILL THIS CHURCH!
You know, they are absolutely right! All across this nation, churches are following this format and they are packing them in.
Illus: Listen, if it takes a bologna sandwich to get them there, all you have is people full of bologna.
If it takes all this to get people in church, all you are going to have is a church filled with people who are drunks, liars and adulterers, who are attending church but have never been born again.
I want to say again, I do not have a problem with large churches if they became large churches because they preached and taught the Word of God. I THANK THE LORD FOR A CHURCH LIKE THIS. And there are many of them around this nation.
But let me say this, many times people who attend these large churches are people who ARE NOT LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE THE LORD. They want to attend these large churches and get lost in the big crowds.
Illus: The only thing they are going to be able to say as they stand before the Lord, is, “Lord, I kept that bench warm for thirty-five years. While the lost world died and went to a devil’s hell, I sat there singing, ‘I SHALL NOT BE MOVED’!”
When a church is too large to give you an opportunity to serve in some capacity, it is too large.
All across this nation we have churches that desperately need people to help them reach the lost, and all this talent is sitting on these benches in these large churches.
When these Christians get to heaven, they are not going to have any rewards because they could never recognize OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE THE LORD.
Paul could recognize opportunity. Look at 1 Cor. 16:5-9, “Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia. And it may be that I will abide, yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my journey whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit. But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. FOR A GREAT DOOR AND EFFECTUAL IS OPENED UNTO ME….”
In these verses we see two things:
(1) We see what Paul wants. He said, “I will come unto you.”
(2) We see what the Lord wants. He said, “For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, IF THE LORD PERMIT.”
Paul was saying, “I want to come and see you in Macedonia, but here in Ephesus, I recognized a great opportunity is open unto me, AND I AM NOT LEAVING THIS PLACE!”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful today, if we had people in our churches that could recognize opportunities like this, and they would:
• Tell their families, “You could have planned this family reunion on Saturday, but you chose to plan it on Sunday. I am a Christian and I have an opportunity to teach the Word of God this Sunday. I won’t be coming to the family reunion, because I have an opportunity to do something for the family of God and for my Savior who died for my sins.”
What a tremendous witness they could be to their lost families if they were to take such a stand.
What a witness it would be if we had Christians who could recognize OPPORTUNITIES and-
• Tell their boss man, “Boss man, I will work for you six days a week but I will not work for you on the Lords day, because one day, what He will give me will make what you give me look like chicken feed.”
This is what Paul was saying. He would like to come to see them in Macedonia, but he is not coming because THE DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY HAS BEEN OPEN TO HIM and HE WON’T BE COMING!
To walk through these doors God places before us, we must recognize several things, such as:
(1) It Is A Door That Requires Surrender
Rom. 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
The open door before us to serve the Lord requires that we surrender our lives to His will. We will not enter if it is not in our hearts to enter. If our hearts are filled with the things of the world, we will not enter the open door of service to God.
What are we willing to set aside in order to serve the Lord?
Illus: I heard about how they trap monkeys by cutting a hole in the top of a coconut, and placing food inside. The hole is just big enough for the monkey to get his hand inside. Once he takes the food in his hand, he can no longer pull his hand out of the coconut. Rather than leave the food, the monkey will sit there and be captured.
Christians sometimes have grabbed hold of the pleasures of life, and will not let them go in order to serve the Lord. They remain captives of their pleasures.
To take advantage of the opportunities that God sends our way, sometime It Is A Door That Requires Surrender. But also-
(2) It Is A Door That Requires Sacrifice
Luke 9:23 “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
Paul wanted to be with the Christians in Macedonia, but he had to sacrifice doing what HE WANTED TO DO, to take advantage of the GREAT DOOR that was opened unto him.
• Listen Sunday school teacher, a GREAT DOOR IS OPENED UNTO YOU, but you have got to be able to recognize it and step into it.
• Listen you who work on bus and van routes, a GREAT DOOR IS OPENED UNTO YOU, but you have got to be able to recognize it and step into it.
• Those who have special skills, in that you can play musical instruments, a GREAT DOOR IS OPENED UNTO YOU, but you have got to be willing to recognize it and step in.
• Those of you who have time on your hands, a GREAT DOOR IS OPENED UNTO YOU, but you have got to be able to recognize it and step though that door. It can be spent in prayer and visitation.
God has something for you to do, and you need to find out WHAT IT IS, and DO IT! Opportunities in life MAKE US or BREAK US!
Conclusion:
Part #1
I. THE OPENING
Part #2
II. THE OPPOSITION
III. THE OPPORTUNITIES
Lost Person, did you know that the biggest door that you will ever have opened for you is open for you today? The Lord Jesus made it possible for you to have eternal life. He paid the price, now all you have to do is to take advantage of the opportunity and allow Him to come into your heart today. It would be the smartest thing you ever did.
