HOPE
OPENING DOORS AND OPENING HEARTS
DR. JIM DIXON
MARK 16:15
OCTOBER 26, 2008
Godspell was the name of a stage musical that was highly acclaimed. Hollywood made it into a movie that was not very good. The name Godspell is Old English. It means “good spell,” or “good message,” or “good news.” Godspell is the equivalent of the word gospel. The problem is that if you watch the stage play or if you went to the movie, you really wouldn’t be sure what the Gospel is. You really wouldn’t be sure what the good news is, but fortunately we have Bibles. And the Bible tells us what the Godspell is. The Bible tells us what the Gospel is. The Bible tells us what the good news is, and the good news is Jesus. The Godspell is Jesus. He is the Gospel. His coming into the world was good news. His sinless life: good news. His atoning death, his sacrifice for the sin of the world: good news. His resurrection from the dead, his victory over death: good news. His offer of salvation and everlasting life to all who believe in him and receive him: good news. And his way, the life that he has called us to live: it’s all good news. It’s all part of the Gospel. It’s all part of the Godspell. Jesus has instructed those of us who follow him to take his Gospel, to take the good news to the nations.
Now the Church of Jesus Christ over the centuries has noticed that sometimes there’s resistance to the Gospel. In some nations, doors are closed. In some hearts, doors are closed. But we have been called to take the Gospel anyway. We understand that God can open doors. So, you look at 1 Corinthians 16 and you see the Apostle Paul and he says he wants to remain in the city of Ephesus because God has opened a door there for the Gospel, so he wants to remain in until Pentecost. And you look at 2 Corinthians 2, and you see Paul saying he wants to remain in Alexandria Troas, which was near the ancient city of Troy, modern day Turkey. He said, “I want to stay here because God has opened the door here for the Gospel. People’s hearts are open.” Then you go to Acts 16 and Paul says he wanted to go to Galatia, and Bithynia and Phrygia, but he was not going to go because the doors were closed. The doors were closed to the Gospel.
This is the experience of the church of Jesus Christ over time. Sometimes the door is open. Sometimes the door is closed. We’ve had this experience with our next-door neighbor or with someone at work. Sometimes their heart is open. Sometimes the heart is not open. We have this experience at the national and international level as well.
And what is our role in this? It is true that ultimately it is the Spirit of God, it is the Spirit of Christ that opens doors and sometimes closes doors in certain events and certain places and certain nations, but it is the spirit of Christ who can open the door. What is our role? We have a role in this. There is a sense in which we have a roll in opening hearts and in opening doors. Even though the ultimate power belongs to God, He’s given us a responsibility. And I would like to take a look this morning at what we can do to open hearts and open doors.
First of all, we can pray. That’s the first thing God tells us. If we would see hearts opened and doors opened to the Gospel, we need to pray. So, in Colossians 4:2-3, the Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Colossai and he says, “Pray for us also that God might open a door for the Word, to preach the mystery of Christ.” Paul was constantly seeking prayer that God would open doors for the Gospel.
Abraham Lincoln was certainly one of the greatest presidents our nation has ever known. When he lived in Springfield, he went to a Presbyterian church there, and when he was President and he lived in the White House and lived in Washington D.C., he went to the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, and the pastor at that church was Phineas Dunsmore Gurley, and he was a famous pastor and that was a famous church. Abraham Lincoln went there and he went there on Sunday mornings, but he always went to the prayer meeting. That’s what the stories tell us. Abraham Lincoln always went to the prayer meeting at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. And those prayer meetings had a brief message from Dr. Gurley, but there was also a great deal of time spent in prayer.
I read just this week where Abraham Lincoln made this statement, “I like Gurley. He doesn’t preach politics. I get enough of that during the week. When I go to church, I want to hear the Gospel.” When he went to church, he wanted to hear the Gospel. He also wanted to pray for the Gospel to go forth unto the nation. That’s exactly what they did at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. They had prayer meetings to pray for the Gospel, that hearts would be open, that doors all around the world would be open, and the Gospel would go forth with power, and Abraham Lincoln was part of those prayer meetings. We have that same call to prayer.
Many of you have heard of Jean-Francois Millet. He was a famous French painter and many art historians believe he was the greatest painter of rural art and rural scenes in the 19th century world. His most famous painting, at least one of his most famous paintings, was called Angelus. It shows a farmer out in his field. It shows his wife. Their heads are bowed in prayer and in the background just faintly in the distance you can see a church steeple. You might wonder when you look at Millet’s painting what this farm couple is praying for. We know, and indeed Millet wanted us to know and that’s why he called it the Angelus. The word Angelus was used to describe a three-fold prayer, and throughout much of Christian history, the whole Christian world would pray this prayer three times a day called the Angelus. At the sound of church bells in every Christian community there would be the prayer called the Angelus, and the Angelus was a prayer thanking Christ for coming into our world and committing oneself to Christ to proclaim his message to the nations.
At certain times in Christian history the Angelus changed, or was different, or varied, and sometimes the prayer was given three times a day, but each prayer was a little different. The morning prayer was for Christ coming into the world, the midday prayer was for His death for our sins, and the evening prayer was for His resurrection from the dead. But in every case the Angelus was a commitment of the Christian to tell the world about Jesus every time the bells rang, three times a day. And what a wonderful thing that was. Would that today that were still true. Would that today all over our nation, church bells would ring in a specific pattern three times a day to remind us to pray and to thank God for the Gospel, for Jesus, for His coming into the world, for His victory over sin and His victory over death, and that we would be reminded three times a day to make that commitment to tell people about Jesus.
I think somehow in the Western world the church sometimes seems impotent. We’ve lost our passion. We’ve lost our prayer, and the Gospel is not bathed in prayer. There are parts of the world where the church is strong and in almost every case there are people of prayer undergirding it. And then there are parts of the world where the church is kind of failing, and oftentimes Christians have ceased to pray. We want to be people of prayer and we want to pray that God would open hearts and God would open doors, and the Gospel would go forth in power.
If you have come to this church for any period of time, you’ve probably heard of George Muller because I’ve mentioned George Muller many times through the years. George Muller was one of the great men of God in Christian history. He was a man of great faith and he helped establish the Christian orphanage movement globally. In England George Muller established orphanages that served thousands of boys and girls. Thousands of orphans, he ministered to them and served them with the love of Jesus Christ. George Muller. And early in his life, because George Muller had a great passion for souls, a great passion for the Gospel and he loved to see people give their life to Jesus Christ, made this covenant with God that he would pray every day for his five friends who knew not Christ. George Muller had five childhood friends who had rejected the Gospel and were not Christians and George Muller was still friends with them and he made a covenant with God that he would pray for them every day, all five of them, until they were saved. His first friend he prayed every day for five years and that friend became a Christian. And then the second friend, he prayed every day for 10 years before that friend became a Christian, the third friend he prayed every day for 12 years, and finally that third friend became a Christian. And then the fourth friend he prayed every day for 25 years and finally that fourth friend became a Christian and gave his heart to Jesus Christ. The fifth friend it was 52 years. In fact, George Muller died praying for that fifth friend and it was after his death that that the fifth friend finally asked Jesus to come into his heart.
God answers prayer and God wants us to never cease to pray. He wants us to be faithful to pray for those we love, for our children, and our spouse and our parents and our grandparents, grandchildren, friends, associates, even our enemies. God wants us to pray, and He wants us to continue in prayer and be faithful in prayer, knowing that prayer is effectual.
My mom was one of three girls and they grew up in southern Missouri on the farm. This was north of Springfield, south of the Ozarks, and our whole family year after year would go back to Missouri and to the farm to see the relatives. My mom’s older sister was named Ruby and her younger sister Elsie. There were a lot of farm girls in Missouri named Ruby and Elsie. Mom’s older sister Ruby died well into her 80s. She was in great health, but she was alone. Her husband had died. She was alone there at the farmhouse and one winter night she fell outside the house and broke her hip and she could not move. The milkman found her the following morning and she was still alive. They took her to the hospital, but she had pneumonia. My mom and her sister Elsie went to see Ruby and they saw her before she died and they prayed together. They told each other they loved each other and reminded each other they would be together in heaven.
My mom herself died earlier this year and she died almost at 95 years. God had blessed her and she died of renal failure. And Elsie, my mom’s younger sister, is in her 90s and she lives in southern California and Elsie is doing well. Elsie’s husband, my Uncle Fred, died some years ago, but he accepted Christ before he died and Elsie had prayed for her husband for almost 50 years and finally he gave his heart to Jesus. Never quit. Never quit if you love somebody. If you love people, never cease to pray. Prayer changes hearts. Prayer opens doors. It does this with those we love. It does this with nations. So, we need to bathe the Gospel in prayer.
If you have ever traveled to Herrnhut in Germany, Herrnhut was the international headquarters for the Moravian Missionary movement and at Herrnhut you can see an artistic rendering of praying hands. And one hand is a man’s hand and one hand is a women’s hand. This is a backwards look to the Moravian Missionary movement that was soaked in prayer. Twelve men and twelve women joined together to being a prayer meeting that would not end for 100 years. Those twelve men each agreed to prayer for an hour every day for the Gospel to go to the nations, and the women did the same, so they covered 24 hours, every day, in prayer so that there would never be a moment that prayer was not going up for the Moravian Mission movement. That continued generationally, and that prayer meeting that began in Herrnhut did not end for 100 years. And they went forth to the nations and doors were opened, hearts were opened, and the Gospel went forth with great power.
George Smith, who I’ve mentioned before, was one of those early Moravian missionaries that went forth in great fear and trembling but anointed in prayer. You remember that I told you that he went to Africa after years of preparation and only had one convert before he died, but when they went back into that region of the African continent, that one convert had shared her faith with others and they found 11,000 Christians. How do you explain that? Prayer. The power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, when His people pray. So we need to be people of prayer. And I think we do not pray enough.
There is a second thing that we can do to open doors and open hearts beyond prayer. The second thing has to do with money. Money can open doors and money can open hearts. I know some of you are thinking, “Oh, Jim. There you go again.” But, you know, it’s true. It really is true. The church of Jesus Christ, the missionary movement, the Gospel itself, all needs to be supported more by the gifts of God’s people. It can’t happen without money.
I know that most of you are familiar the Five Pillars of Islam and you know that one of the five pillars is Ramadan. And you know that Ramadan is the yearly fast, the one month fast. Ramadan is the name of the ninth month in the Muslim calendar and that is the month of fasting for faithful Muslims. But they don’t just fast. I mean they do fast in the daylight hours, but that’s not all they do. They pray five times a day, head to the ground. But that’s not all that they do. Every day during Ramadan, the faithful Muslim must read one-thirtieth of the Koran. So, they read 1/30 of the Koran each day for 30 days and after 30, at the end of Ramadan, they have read all the through the Koran.
But that’s not all they do. There is something else that they must do at the end of the month of Ramadan, and it fuels the Muslim world, and that is they must give 2.5 percent of their aggregate wealth. They must at the end of Ramadan give 2.5 percent of their accumulated wealth to the cause of Islam. Not all Muslims do this, but enough Muslims do this, by the millions and hundreds of millions. Their movement goes forth in incredible power. So, if your accumulative assets are four million dollars at the end of Ramadan, you got to give a $100,000. Two and a half percent. Now, Muslims pray that in the course of the next year, by the time they hit Ramadan again, their accumulate assets will have grown and of course they give the 2.5 percent again.
But can you imagine? Here in the Christian world, we ask folks to tithe not on their accumulative assets, but on their annual income, and we can’t even do that. Throughout the Christian world the giving is pathetic and it’s tragic, and God weeps because it takes prayer and dollars to fuel the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has always been so and it always shall be.
I got in a little trouble last Sunday; I do that from time to time. In mentioning giving our first fruits to God, I mentioned some material that went out at MOPS, and said I disagreed with it and some of you took that to mean that I disagreed with MOPS. I thank God for MOPS. I want you to know that I would never say anything against MOPS. It’s an awesome ministry. My wife has been involved in MOPS and my sister-in-law is involved in MOPS. Our daughter has gone to MOPS. My niece has gone to MOPS. Our grandchildren are all blessed by MOPS. MOPS is an awesome ministry to moms and children, and it faithfully serves Christ. And everything I said about giving the MOPS organization agrees with, so I didn’t want any misunderstanding on that.
The point I was trying to make was that we should give our first fruits. Don’t let anyone tell you that God wants your leftovers. God doesn’t want your leftovers. God doesn’t want you to take care of everything else and then see if you have anything left to give him. God wants you to begin with him. He wants you to begin with Him and give to the cause of heaven on earth. That’s the first thing you do. That’s your first fruits. And then you ask God, providentially, by his mercy and his grace to bless everything else and to guide you as a good steward. But God wants our first fruits. This is core critical to the cause of Jesus Christ on the earth.
I’ve always loved the stories of Henry Crowell and Robert Welch. Henry Crowell accepted Christ through D. L. Moody. D. L. Moody was the great evangelist and in the city of Chicago today we still have the Moody Bible Institute, a great force for Christ, and the Moody Memorial Church, a great force for Christ, all this rolls out of the ministry of D. L. Moody. But one day when Henry Crowell heard D. L. Moody, the Holy Spirit moved and Henry Crowell gave his heart to Jesus. He wanted to be a missionary. Henry wanted to be a missionary, so he made preparation for that. He wanted to take the Gospel to the nations, but his health was not good and his doctors told him that he could never survive the rigors of a missionary’s life. So, Henry Crowell made a commitment to raise money: to raise money, to make money for the cause of Jesus on this earth. He founded Quaker Oats and every time you buy some Quaker Oats you should think of Henry Crowell. He established the Perfection Stove Company and through those two businesses, Henry Crowell made millions and millions of dollars, and he gave it to the church and to the missionaries and to the cause of the Gospel he gave it. What an incredible thing.
Robert Welch also wanted to be a missionary. He accepted Christ when he was young. He went through seminary, was approved by a Missions Agency, and was ready to take the Gospel overseas but his wife became ill. A doctor said that this illness would be chronic and that she could not survive the life of a missionary. So, Robert Welch decided he’d do what Henry Crowell did. He would make money and give it to Jesus. He founded the Welch Grape Juice Company. In the beginning, did you know, Welch’s grape juice company, as it began just made grape juice for communion? It made grape juice for churches in the use of communion services. And then it began to expand and the Welch’s grape juice deal became huge and you still see Welch’s Grape Juice in stores everywhere. He made millions and he gave it to Jesus and gave it to the cause of Christ. You see, the Kingdom of Heaven has always needed this. The Kingdom of Heaven needs you and me, needs us to be faithful, too, in this hour and all hours. It never changes.
At this church we have three schools: Cherry Hills Christian Schools. We have a preschool, an elementary school, and we have a middle school. They all are blessings to the Kingdom of Heaven. We have wonderful principals and Robert Bignell is our superintendent of schools and he has an awesome love for Christ and kids. He is just leading our schools with excellence. It all began with a vision that came up early in our church’s life. Suzy Miller was part of that early vision, and through the years God has blessed it, but it has taken money. It’s always required money. That’s true of everything.
You can look at Valor across the street. There was a wonderful article yesterday in the newspaper about Valor. I promise you, if Christ tarries, thousands and thousands, generations of young men and women will rise up out of Valor to serve the cause of Christ on earth. But it takes money. I was just at a Valor board meeting last week (I’m privileged to be on the Valor board and this church has connections with Valor), but it takes money.
I was at a two-day board meeting last week with Colorado Christian University, and I’m grateful and blessed to be on their board. We met on Thursday and Friday. Bill Armstrong, who is the president of Colorado Christian University and a member of this church, cast a vision. I believe the vision and I believe it’s from God. It’s awesome, but it’s going to take money. It’s always that way.
Youth for Christ is an incredible ministry. I remember some years ago Barb and I and Gene and Lorna went to the international board meeting of Youth for Christ in Singapore. We went with Tory Johnson, who was the founder of Youth for Christ, and with Jim Gruen, who is the international President of Youth for Christ, and we saw a vision for what Youth for Christ wanted to do all over the world. But it takes money.
Young Life is an incredible ministry founded by Jim Rayburn, and Young Life has staff that serves Jesus all over the world and they’ve impacted the lives of millions of boys and girls and led them to Christ. They have a camping movement that is all over North America, but it takes money. It takes money.
Bill Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ. Bill Armstrong, the president of Colorado Christian University, is on the international board of Campus Crusade for Christ. It was Bill Bright that had that original vision as he came out of Hollywood Presbyterian Church and the ministry of Henrietta Mears. God gave Bill Bright this vision, but through the years as Campus Crusade for Christ has grown, it has taken millions. It takes hundreds of millions of dollars every year to fuel the ministry that goes global through Campus Crusade for Christ.
I was so glad just recently to see that Doug Nuenke had become the new president of Navigators. Doug and Pam Nuenke are former members of our church. Doug used to be the head of our youth ministries here. Doug and Pam have been supported by us as a church because they’re missionaries that we support, and now Doug has just been made the national president of Navigators. Navigators was founded by Dawson Trotman, has a great vision and serves the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But again, it takes money. Just to run the headquarters down at Glen Eyrie takes money. Just to take the Gospel to kids and adults all over the world takes money.
Just yesterday here at the church it was so great. So many of you came out to help us with our caregiving kits that we are sending to Uganda and sending to AIDS victims and poor children and orphans and families. We’re doing this through World Vision. I am so proud of you because I know we had a morning gathering and we had an overflow crowd helping. And we had a midday gathering, Barb and I and our kids came to that. The midday gathering and then there was an afternoon gathering and they were all overflowing. And you filled all of those kits. As you left last Sunday at the retiring offering you gave $40,000 to pay for these things. I could not be more pleased or proud, and I know Christ smiles for you. But it takes money.
World Vision was here yesterday and I talked to some of their staff that was here and they said, “We love your church. We love your people,” and I do, too. But you understand, the ministry of World Vision takes money. It all takes money! This is the reality. There’s no use complaining about it. It all takes money.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has done so much. Think back to George Beverly Shea, Cliff Barrows, and Billy Graham—God raising these three men up, giving these young men a vision. Now they are old men—still alive, but barely. But, oh, how God has used them the world over, and it’s taken money. It’s taken lots of prayer, lots of money.
So, here we are at Cherry Hills Community Church and we’re just small compared to some of these big things, but important to Christ. God raised us up, too, twenty-six years ago to bless children, to bless this community and to bless the nation and to be a force for Christ, and a light in the darkness, a salt in the corruption. And it takes money. It takes money and we as a congregation need to be faithful every month as we approach year-end. Doors are opened, hearts are opened to the Gospel when we pray and when we give.
Finally, I just want to say it takes love. If we want to open doors, if we want to open hearts, it takes love. And it’s really all about love. The reason we pray is because we love. We love God and we love people. The reason we give is because we love. We love God and we love people. It’s really all about love, whether or not we really love God or love people, and it’s love that really opens hearts and it’s love that opens doors, and it was Jesus who first taught that all the rabbinical law is summed up in love. There are many rabbis, but only Jesus taught that all the rabbinical law was summed up in love. And it was Jesus who took the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, “You shall love the Lord your God,” and it was Jesus who took Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and he said, “Upon these two rest all the law and all the commandments.” It’s all about love. So, Jesus taught his people to love and today he is still teaching his people to love, and he’s trying to teach all of us, myself included. He’s trying to teach us what it means to love the people and how love empowers the Gospel.
I love the quote from C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis had a journey to faith as he went from atheism to agnosticism to theism to Christianity and faith in Jesus. And when he finally came to Jesus, he was told that he that Jesus had called him to love, and he was told that he should hate sin, but he should love sinners. In those early days C.S. Lewis said he didn’t understand that. It seemed schizophrenic to him. How can you hate sin and love sinners? That seemed schizophrenic. But as he grew older, he said he came to understand and he finally had this epiphany that there was one guy whose sin he had always hated and yet he’d always loved, and that was himself. He had this epiphany where he realized his whole life, he had hated his own sin, but he had really loved himself nonetheless. Suddenly he said it gave him new understanding of the commandments of God that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. The mercy you give yourself you need to extend to your neighbor. The compassion you give yourself, you need to extend to your neighbor. We really need to love people despite their stuff. We really need to love people because it opens doors and it empowers the Gospel.
There’s a story that I’ve told in my ministry many times. I’m going to keep telling it from time to time, every few years, because I love it and because I think it’s powerful and because it’s true. It’s the story that took place in Edinburgh, a story of St. George’s Church, the story of Alexander White. Barb and I went with my brothers and their wives some years ago to Scotland and Edinburgh. It’s still there, but it’s not the same force it once was in their ministry to the poor, and there is a lot of poverty in and about Edinburgh.
At one time St. George’s was one of the great churches in the world and Alexander White one of the great preachers of the world. Alexander White loved to see hearts opened. Alexander White loved to see people fall in love with Jesus. He had the heart of an evangelist. There was a guy in his church named Rigby, and Rigby didn’t live in Edinburgh, but he came to Edinburgh on the weekends because his business took him to Edinburgh every weekend. He always went to St. George’s. Rigby had this ministry that took place every Sunday morning at the hotel he stayed at. Every Sunday morning at his hotel in Edinburgh, he’d go down to the lobby, get a cup of coffee, and he’d just start talking to some people. He just loved people. He just loved a few people and tried to get to know them, and then invite them to go with him to St. George’s. Most Sundays he would take a person or two with him to St. George’s Church.
One Sunday he took somebody from the lobby of the hotel, and after the service, this new friend said to Rigby, “I want you to know that after the sermon when the pastor gave the invitation, I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior and I became a Christian today.” Well Rigby just teared up. He’d taken a lot of people to church; he’d never had one tell him this. Later that afternoon as he was taking a walk in and about Edinburgh, by the providence of God he came into the neighborhood where Alexander White lived. Rigby saw the name of Alexander White and said, “I’m going to go up and tell the pastor what happened in church today.” And he knocked on the door and Alexander White came to the door. Rigby introduced himself and said, “I just wanted you to know that I brought a friend to St. George’s this morning and when you gave the invitation, my friend accepted Jesus Christ.” Alexander White thanked him and said, “I’m sorry, what was your name again?” He said, “My name is Rigby.” Alexander White began to cry. He said, “Rigby. Rigby. I’ve been wanting to meet you for years. Come into my house.” He took him back to the study where Alexander White showed him a stack of letters that had all come from people who’d been sitting in the lobby of a hotel when a man named Rigby had come up and invited them to St. George’s. They all accepted Christ, and ten of them had gone into the Gospel ministry.
I tell that story so often because it doesn’t show the power of Rigby, it shows the power of Jesus. It shows the power of the Holy Spirit. It shows the power of the Gospel to save lives if we’d just be willing to love a few people. This is not that hard. If we’d just walk across the room, if we’d start a conversation, if we’d be a friend, if we’d invite somebody to come to church… I’m no Alexander White, but the Gospel is preached here. And it’s not that hard for us to love people because love opens hearts and love fuels the Gospel.
Years ago, I marveled when I first read a story about Charlemagne and a similar story about Frederick Barbarossa. Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on Christmas Day in the year 800 by Pope Leo Ill. Frederick Barbarossa also was crowed emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but in the twelfth century. These two men, when they took their armies into war, would drive the defeated enemy into the sea or into the rivers and force them to receive Christian baptism. I remember when I first read that my jaw dropped. I just thought, “The Gospel is about love. To drive opposing armies into the sea and force them to receive Christian baptism?” How many of those baptisms do you think really took? Couldn’t have been too many, right? Couldn’t have been too many because the Gospel is meant to be bathed in love and communicated by people who love and who love Christ and who love others. We’re called to love.