First, understand the significance of time. I am not talking about the mindless tick-tock tick-tock of a timepiece marking the passage of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. I am talking about opportunity, about redeeming the time. What makes today special? You should ask that every day. This is the day the Lord has made. Ask Him, “What good works have You crafted for me personally? What open door have You set before me that I should walk through it? What opportunity does today bring for me to serve You?”
If you are not a Christian, there is only one work for you on this day: to believe in Jesus. God gave you the opportunity to come here today to hear the Gospel. Let me say it clearly: God, who made Heaven and earth, is ruler over all nations. He put just laws in place by which we are to live our lives: the Ten Commandments, the two great commandments — to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. All humans have violated those laws. We have sinned against Almighty God. The wages of sin is death, not only physical death, but also for eternity in hell. It is no more than we deserve.
But God, in His mercy and love for us, sent Jesus, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life and did signs, wonders, and miracles that established him as the Son of God. Most important, He died a substitutionary death on the cross in our place. Our guilt was put on Him and He died. His righteousness is given to us as a gift, and we live even on Judgment Day.
If you will only repent and trust in Christ, you will have eternal life. That is the Gospel. Today is an opportunity for you to walk through the door of Christ into salvation. Jesus said in John 5:24, “…whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Today you have the opportunity to cross over. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, God is saying this to you: “‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Also He says in Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”
For You Christians… SEEK THE OPEN DOOR!!
For you Christians, I say this: Seek an open door. Ask God, “Where have You placed me that I can I be a witness for Christ? What unique opportunity do I have to reach the particular people that I will encounter today? What door have you set before me that I’m supposed to walk through?” Wherever you are in your vocation, you have a mission field with your co-workers, many of whom are unchurched. We have opportunities every day.
Ask the same for our church. We live in one of the best places in the world, the Triangle, for an evangelical church. People are pouring in from all over the country. They come to live here because of mild temperatures, economic opportunities, myriad reasons. We are among the few Bible-believing, Bible-preaching, evangelistic, fervently active churches in this area. And we, with our sister churches, are called to reach the people who are pouring into this area.
Pray for more open doors. Pray for doors to open in these new expensive apartments and condominiums that are rising around us in downtown Durham. Those who will move into these will be people who generally make more money than we do and who will generally not have the same world view that we have. Pray for an open door, for a chance to meet some of those people.
Think about the underserved parts of the community: African Americans, Latin Americans, refugees, undocumented aliens. That is a door of opportunity for us to share the Gospel. Think about unreached people groups like the Gujarati in Morrisville. Think about people flooding into this area from all over the world — perhaps you cannot reach them in their country, but they are here now. We can reach them with the Gospel. Ask God, “Set before this church an open door of opportunity and let us walk through it.”
Ask the same thing with missions. Let us continue to be a missions-minded church. You sent me to Cameroon last week — thank you. We will be sending short-term mission teams to East Asia and other places. Support those teams financially, pray for them, get to know those who are going. Give financially to the Great Commission Fund. Spiritually adopt unreached people groups and pray for them — for people in North Africa, in the Middle East, in Muslim countries — that the door of the Gospel would be opened for them.
Closing Prayer
Close with me if you would in prayer. Father, we thank You for the chance we have had to look at this incredible letter to the church at Philadelphia. Help us to take to heart its encouraging message and to be strengthened in the good works You have for us to do. Thank You for the Gospel, for our Lord Jesus who, at infinite cost to Yourself, by His blood, by His body, opened a door, a new and living way for us into Heaven. Father I pray for those who are lost, who have come here outside of Christ, that they would hear and take to heart the Gospel. Help us as a church to be fervently active in spreading the Gospel, both in evangelism and in cross-cultural missions for your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.