Sermon Notes — October 13, 2024
October 13, 2024
Revelation 3:7-8
“O the Places You’ll Go!”
Dr. Craig Goff
In our text today, the resurrected Jesus, appearing to John the Revelator, talks about a door, a special door. Lots of images can come to our minds when we think of a door. You might think of the safety of being behind a closed door or the privacy of a closed door.
I heard of a survey recently in which young mothers were asked to name their favorite room in the house.
Guess which room was named as a favorite? The bathroom. Because it is the one room where you can close the door and get a little privacy.
But the door in our text today is not closed, it is an open door; to be grammatically precise it is an opened door. It is action that has been taken and in the context of this passage it is God who has taken the action.
If you have been around the UMC very long at all you’ve probably heard the expression, Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors which was introduced in 2001.
I love it. I think it is great, especially when you think of God as the One who has opened the door of the church and new life for us all.
There is something deep inside all of us that longs for new life and the adventure that an opened door makes possible.
Dr. Suess’ book “O the Places You’ll Go” definitely speaks to that yearning.
It speaks so much to the spirit of this text, I’d like to read a little of it for us:
O The Places You’ll Go
We are born into this world looking for an open door and God is the One who has opened a door for us all, a door of adventure for us all.
We have opportunities to make an impact on our world, not because we are smart, not because we are gifted, not because of where we live, but as a gift of grace from God. We can make a difference in our world because God opens doors for us.
God has been opening doors for a long time.
Early in the beginning of the Bible, God opened a pretty special door for Abraham.
In Genesis 12, let’s take a look verses 1-4:
To paraphrase what God said to Abraham, here is what that conversation sounded like:
God came to Abraham out of the blue and said to him, “Congratulations, today is your day. You’re off to great places, you are off and away.” And Abraham said to God, “where are these places to which you want me to go, will I need a degree what do I need to know?” Where is this map of your plan for my life? I must know all these things. I must talk to my wife….
The Lord was terribly fuzzy about all the details. The Lord said, “don’t worry about all that, leave it up to me.” That would take all the fun and mystery out of it, God’s first command to Abraham is just “go.” Go to where I am sending you. I will show you where to go. You are going to have to trust me.”
Abraham did go and did trust God, which is why I love him so much. (Me and a few billion other people.)
God tells Abraham to go, then he tells him why he wants him to go. It has to do with one word. The word is “bless.”
God wants Abraham to go so he can bless all people.
One other reason I love this story is that it begins with something small, with God telling Abraham what to do, but it ends up involving the whole world.
God opens the door for Abraham and has something for him to do for a reason. The reason is not just Abraham’s own self-actualization or inner peace or sense of contentment, but for the whole world.
It starts small, ends big.
Let’s look at verse three which ends with the phrase, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
We are part of that mission too. We are all blessed to be a blessing. We are called to be a blessing on a scale we can’t even imagine.
Just think of the number of people who have been fed through Feed America First, the number of people who have been helped with Restore Ministry from Belize to Ukraine, and Stephen Ministry, think of the number of children who have received luggage and maybe a stuffed animal from Love on Wheels.
We are blessed to be a blessing.
Abraham was called to bless all the people of the earth. All that might sound a little grandiose or maybe like I am making too much of one little scripture, so let’s look at some more.
Here is Genesis 18:18: “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.”
Genesis 22: “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me.”
Genesis 26:3 “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.”
Genesis 28:14 “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.”
This is a mission statement for Abraham, for Israel and for me and you.
The purpose of the open door and our mission as God’s people is to bless others.
So what does it mean exactly to be a blessing?
First, I think it means we care about someone’s life. When I go to read with a child at Project Transformation, it is because I care about the child. It is because I want to make a positive difference in that child’s life. And that is at least part of what it means to bless somebody.
We can’t do it on our own which is why our text from the Book of Revelation is so important.
God opens a door that enables us to begin an adventure that blesses others.
Because while it is natural to want to take care of ourselves and maybe a few others, but we were created for something more, we were created with a supernatural purpose. We were created to be a part of God’s effort to bless everybody and the whole world.
I saw a video recently of a fish out of water by a bayou. It had flipped itself up on the bank…not a good situation for a fish. But then, there was a big bird about 4 foot tall just several feet away from the fish. I thought to myself, “this is not good.” The bird started walking over to the fish. I thought “o no this is really not good.” It sort of grabbed it with its beak. I thought this is really, really not good for the fish.” The bird walked a few feet into the water and dropped the fish in. (not what I was expecting). Now if a man or a woman had gotten that fish to safety we would say that is humanity, but it was a bird that did that. How do you explain that?
So here is my theory: (it might sound a little weird)
Here is what I believe, I believe God has created all of us, men and women, birds and fish, quarks and neurons, everything in the universe to be partners with God.
And that God opens the doors for all of us to part of God’s adventure, but that God has also created us so that we can choose to be part of what God wants and to be a blessing or to do our own thing.
That is why trust and faith is such a big deal and that is why God said to Abraham and to the people in the Church in the Book of Revelation, “I have a plan for you. I have opened a door for you, a door no one can shut.”
But you have to decide whether or not to walk through whether or not to join in the journey. But if you do, O the places you go, and if you do, you will be a blessing. Because God will always be with you.