He Keeps On Knocking I Letters From Jesus I Frank Santora

So many of us think that Jesus would give us an American gospel when he spoke to us. He would talk to us about all the the wonderful things only, but but the fact of the matter is Jesus challenging this church, which shows us something incredibly sobering, That it's possible to have activity, religious activity without intimacy. It's possible to have religion without true relationship. It's possible to have prayer without his presence, worship without affection, direction without divine guidance, blessing without surrender, and success without spiritual sensitivity. And eventually, when that happens, we discover that Jesus is standing outside of the door of our life instead of invited in. [00:07:04] (48 seconds)  #ReligionVsRelationship

We become materially blessed, but spiritually bankrupt. And we can deceive ourselves into thinking God approves of us because of the stuff we have. Here's what God told me to tell you. Don't let the blessings fool you. A lot doesn't mean aligned. Having doesn't mean your heart is right. Success does not mean you are surrendered. Prosperity does not mean proximity to God. That that's not how God measures those things. Think about the rich young ruler. He had everything, power, influence, wealth. He was spiritually bankrupt though. Jesus offered him a way to have both, eternal life and true purpose. He said, go sell everything you have and give. [00:21:06] (50 seconds)  #BlessedButBankrupt

Not condemnation, because convicted conviction and condemnation are not the same thing. Conviction says, what you did was wrong, come back to God. Condemnation says, you are wrong, stay away from God. Conviction draws you closer. Condemnation pushes you further away. Conviction lifts lifts you up. Condemnation holds you down. Conviction leads to repentance and restoration. Condemnation leads to shame and separation. And Peter responded with conviction and found restoration. He resumed his divine assignment. He became a pillar in the church. He preached the inaugural message on the day of Pentecost, and 3,000 people came to Christ because he opened the door when God knocked. But Judas did not. Judas did not. [00:34:33] (54 seconds)  #ConvictionNotCondemnation

Revelation chapter three verse number 20, we often think is is a metaphor of of how God tries to gain access into the heart of a sinner so that he can save their soul. And although there's truth in that, that's really not the context of the verse. The context of the verse is God trying to gain access into rooms in believers lives where we have shut him out. Which means that Jesus is knocking on the door of the heart of people who already know him, trying to gain access to places not so he can hurt them, but so that he can spiritually strengthen us. And if you think about this, this is kind of bizarre because this is Jesus' church. [00:05:25] (48 seconds)  #KnockingAtBelieversDoors

Here's what the scripture teaches. The scripture teaches that God wants each one of his children to be blessed. But if we don't, if we don't tether our treasure to Christ, the unsurrendered blessings can block the knock of Christ in our lives. We need to be very careful. And so God has built into his system of financial prosperity into the DNA of it a way for us to tether our treasure to Christ to make sure that we never have unsurrendered blessings that block the knock in our lives. And what God has built into it, it's called the tithe. Watch when God talks about the tithe. [00:13:21] (48 seconds)  #TetherTreasureToChrist

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. But here's the good news, that Jesus doesn't abandon them. He doesn't walk away from them. He doesn't cancel them. He doesn't say, I don't wanna have anything to do with you. You know what he does? He keeps on knocking. The question remains, will we let him in? Which brings us to our first truth. Number one, unsurrendered blessings block the knock. Unsurrendered blessings block the knock. Before we understand what Jesus is saying to this church, we have to understand where this church lived. The the city of Laodicea was one of the wealthiest cities in the entire Roman world. [00:08:31] (42 seconds)  #UnsurrenderedBlessingsBlock

She said, I want to do more than just give him some dinners. We we wealthy That's sad. The only thing we're doing with the wealth that God has given us is making him a dinner here and there. We need we need to do more for Jesus because he's done more for us. We don't even want nothing back from can we just build them? It's gonna cost us. We're gonna have to put some lumber into it. We're gonna have to put a table, a lampstand, a light. We're gonna have to make some sack. We're have to live with a mess for a little while because sometimes when you make room for Jesus, it's messy for a minute. Hey? Because you gotta reorganize for Jesus? She just wanted to have him there. [00:54:03] (51 seconds)  #MakeRoomForJesus

She wanted a relationship with God for for God to fix everything. She was in a relationship with God because God and make it modern. God already fixed her soul. God already She opened the door, and the door became a doorway for God to fix even the areas of her life that she thought was going to be permanently broken. She said, I'm gonna live with this the rest of my life. I'm gonna have a disappointment the rest of my life. And you know what? God said, no. No. You don't understand what you did when you opened the door. When you opened the door, it became a doorway to me to heal your disappointments. It became a doorway to your dreams. It became a doorway to your financial success. It became a doorway to your marriage. It became a doorway to your family. It became a doorway to everything in your life. Because when you open the door, guess what happens? The king of glory comes in. When you open the door, who is the king of glory? The lord, [00:57:16] (75 seconds)  #OpenDoorForHealing

When we begin to think it's by our power, by our strength, by our brilliance, by by everything that is good about us that we have enriched ourselves. James reminds us not to stray in this way. He says, every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the father of lights in whom there's no variableness, neither shadow of turning. In Deuteronomy chapter eight verse number 18, he says, you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth. If we don't tailor our treasure to Christ with the tithe, which makes God first in our finances and material blessings, we run the risk of locking Christ out of our lives. [00:20:26] (40 seconds)  #WealthComesFromGod

And then here's what happens is the reason why Jesus is knocking is because there are rooms in the house that we haven't given him access to yet. And and what happens is we say to Jesus, Jesus, you can you can come in this room. And Jesus is like, no, but I wanna go in that one. And we're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, That that one's not for you, Jesus. There there's still some stuff in that room that I I don't want you to see and I don't want you to have and I don't wanna surrender to you and Jesus, that's that's my room. That's it. That's my man cave. That's my she shed. That that's that's the area that nobody else put me. And Jesus is like, I I want into that room. And [00:04:27] (41 seconds)  #OpenAllRoomsToJesus

I have to be careful of this in my life. I I I get around ministers where where where ministry is is is just about the stage. It's just about the next thing to conquer. It's it's not about loving people. It's not about caring for people. It's not about discipling people. It's about configuring a message and a service so as to, you know, attract people. Can I tell what I learned? I learned the gospel is attractive. I learned that if you lift Jesus up, he said, I will draw all men onto me. You don't need tricks. You don't need gimmicks. You don't need all of that kind of stuff. But even people who are in ministry have to watch because unsurrendered ministry can block the knock of Christ in our life. [00:28:37] (46 seconds)  #MinistryNotShowmanship

If God is telling you to return to him, that means that you have departed from him. So to this people that he's speaking to, the fact that he leads with that tells us that they have strayed away from God. And he says, and if you return to me, I will return to you. And if you read the whole contents of Malachi chapter number three, they have gotten to a place where they bring as their offering maimed sheep, blind sheep, skinny sheep. Imagine going to pick out your own cow. Right? Imagine going, you know, you know, back in the day before they before they butchered it for you, before you go to the grocery store and and get any meat you want. But imagine yourself and I have a friend who does this with goats. [00:14:56] (47 seconds)  #ReturnAndBeRestored

This is the place that is supposed to be built for him. This is the place that is supposed to worship him. This is the place that is supposed to revolve around him, and he is locked out of his own church. He keeps on knocking, but can he get in? And here's the thing about these people is they don't even realize that they have locked Jesus out. Matter of fact, when they assess their situation, here's what they say about themselves. They say, I'm rich, I've become wealthy, and I don't have any need of anything. And then Jesus turns around to them, and they don't even realize this. And he says, yeah, but the truth is you're wretched, [00:06:13] (39 seconds)  #BuildARoomForGod

And my prayer for us is let that not be us. Let that not be the kind of people that we are. Let that not be the kind of church that we are, where we think we have everything, but we don't realize that we have nothing because we don't have a growing, thriving relationship with Jesus Christ. Because if you have everything and not that, you have nothing. Right. [00:07:53] (35 seconds)

I think, and I know that what Jesus was doing here was he was calling out to Judas even to the very last breath of life that he had. Will you betray the son of man with a kiss? It's the most common title Jesus used to describe himself. It's used 80 times by strip Jesus of his deity tries to use this as a proof text for Jesus not being God manifest in the flesh. But every Jewish mind knew exactly what this meant. Matter of fact, if you read later on in the gospels, they tried to stone him for calling himself the son of man. And really what they accused him of was claiming that he was God. So how is calling yourself the son of God the same the son of man, the same as declaring that you are God manifest in the flesh? Because it was the prophetic utterance of Daniel from back in the old testament, [00:35:56] (63 seconds)

Judas, repent even at this late hour. Can I tell you it's never too late to repent? It's never too late to repent. It's never too the thief on the cross, it's never too late to repent. Repent. Repent. Repent. Repent. Open the door of your heart. Swing it open and let the king of glory come in. Don't keep him standing on the outside. Let him come in. Judas Judas did it. And instead of experiencing conviction, which led to redirection, he experienced condemnation, which led to rejection. Don't block the knock. Because when you block the counsel, when you block the conviction, then you deal with the third way God knocks, coincidence and consequence. Let me say this carefully. God's preference is not to use consequence as a way to knock on the door of your heart. [00:37:40] (61 seconds)

See, open invitation because she wasn't foolish. She knew every time this man was around, some good things happened. She knew every time this man was around, some good things happened. Rivers parted and poisoned waters were drinkable, and armies received water in the desert and oil multiplied. And she understood good things happen when the man of God is around. So she said, we can't leave him outside. We've got to invite him in the house. And if the woman knew that it was wise to keep the door open for the prophet who carried the power power of God. How much more should we leave the door open for the one who is the power of God personified? She said, can can can we build them a room? But watch this. Watch this. They didn't have room in the house. There was no room in the house. [00:50:42] (55 seconds)

And he says, oftentimes we think that we're just inviting Christ in to to fix a few minor repairs. To fix a leak in the roof or to patch the wall or to caulk around the bathtub. And maybe we think that, but when he comes in, he starts knocking on different doors. And when we open those doors, we find out that he isn't just renovating the house, he's rebuilding it. And walls we thought were gonna stay all of a sudden are torn down. And rooms that we thought belonged all of a sudden are reclaimed, and and new wings that we never imagined are being constructed. Constructed. And Lewis says, the reason is simple because God didn't come to make the house a little nicer, [00:03:41] (43 seconds)