[Podcast] I Am The Door

1440iam-thedoor

What is it that defines you?  All of us are tempted to let the slammed doors in our lives tell us who we are, and where we do or don’t belong. But Jesus has good news for us.

Lifegroup Discussion Questions are up next!

If you are the group discussion leader, have everyone open this page on their mobile device, and take turns reading and asking questions.

John 9:1-2 NLT
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” 

The disciples ask the question, “Why him, Jesus?” Why does this man have to deal with this affliction?

Have you ever asked “Why me, God?”

Generally, we ask this question whenever a door has slammed in our life. What does this moment in our lives feel like?  What are we generally feeling when we express this question to God?

What doors tend to get slammed in our lives?

On Sunday, I talked about carrying the result of that slammed door around for the rest of your life, letting it speak into you. Letting it define you.  Is that true? Do we actually do this?  What kinds of things do we let those doors say to us about ourselves?

Don’t these closed doors turn into false beliefs about ourselves, limiting our capacity to become what God desires for us?  How?

Okay, I can’t verify the validity of this illustration… But I am told that if you catch a bunch of fleas (how do you catch fleas?) and put them in a jar, and close the lid, the fleas will jump inside the jar, bouncing off the closed lid.  After a short time of banging their tiny little flea-heads against the closed lid of the jar, they will learn what their limits are.  They will continue to jump inside the jar, but they will jump lower, avoiding the pain of the lid.  Allegedly, you can then remove the lid, and the jumping fleas will remain trapped inside the now-open jar. They have been taught by the formerly closed lid that they can only jump so high.

Now, you are welcome to try that experiment on your own, but not at my life group!

Is that illustration true of us?  Do we really allow the perception of closed doors to tell us how high we can jump?

What is the truth about who we really are?

Ephesians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Jesus desires us to have a life with open doors.  Why? because HE is the Door.

John 10:9 ESV
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

What do you think that means for us?

Read John 10:10 in the following four translations, and talk about Jesus’ description of living HIS life.

John 10:10 NLT
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

John 10:10 ESV
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 MSG
A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

John 10:10 NIV
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Often, when we are asking the question, “Why me, God?”  We are really just comparing our life with our perception of other people’s lives.  What does Paul’s example tell us in the following verse?

1 Corinthians 7:17 MSG
And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. Don’t think I’m being harder on you than on the others. I give this same counsel in all the churches.