In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of making time for God and having fellowship with Him. He encourages the audience to sit down and spend alone time with God, even if it's just for 20 minutes. The preacher highlights that God desires to have a close relationship with His people and wants to love, heal, and strengthen them. He references the verse in Revelation where Jesus is depicted as standing at the door and knocking, symbolizing His desire for fellowship with individuals who are willing to hear His voice and open their hearts to Him.

We've been reading through the book of Revelation and in the chapters two and three, we have seven letters that John took down from Jesus to seven Christian churches. Notice, what I'm about to read to you was written to a church, to Christians, not to people in the street who didn't know the Lord. So let's look at it. To the angel, that means messenger, possibly the leader of the church, rather than an angel from glory. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, these are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. That's Jesus describing himself. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. We don't know what that means and what it would work out to look like, but it can't be good. This is the Lord talking to his own people. But notice, that's what he says. Notice their confession where people say, just speak whatever you want and then whatever you speak, it comes to pass. You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing. But you don't realize that you are wretched, stay there for a second, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. So this church seemed to be prosperous material-wise. It seemed financially to be doing well, this church. But there's a difference between how you're doing material-wise, financially, and how you're doing spiritually. So you can be poor and be rich, but you could be rich and be poor in God's sight. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich. He's not talking about physical gold, talking about a symbol for spiritual riches. And white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness. And salve to put on your eyes so you can see. They were blinded spiritually. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. So now we find out that one of the signs that God loves us is that when we go the wrong way, he rebukes us, most of us don't like a rebuke, and he also corrects us and disciplines us. Like any parent would their child who's not doing well. You don't reinforce bad behavior. You don't support someone who's wandering away into trouble. Be zealous and repent. Turn around and go the other way. You've drifted away. So notice how does God rebuke and correct? He can do it in your heart through the word of God. He can speak to you. He can keep you up at night. He can trouble you. He can take away your peace. Many ways God can do that. Sometimes he can send somebody into your life who corrects you. And many times we love when God sends someone in to encourage us, but when someone comes to correct us, we can't receive that that's from God. But it is from God sometimes. So be earnest and repent. And finally, here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. Let's look at that again. Here I am. I stand at the door and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. Let's look at some of the key words in that verse. Here I am, Jesus said. I stand at the door. What door? Obviously not a physical door, but the door of the church. And I knock. Notice he's not barging in. He knocks. If, the conditional word, if, not coming in, God's gonna do what he's gonna do. No, that's not what this verse teaches. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. What do you have to do to have them come back in? If anyone hears his voice and then opens the door of your heart, of your church, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. I will have fellowship. Notice the thing that the Lord is after. He wants fellowship. Eating isn't a meal that he wants to sit down and have. Eating, supping with him means renewed fellowship. What I want to do is give this very encouraging word. Here's a church that was not in a good position. They were neither hot nor cold. What would hot be? Fervent, full of faith, on fire, en fuego. Ready to do the work of the Lord. They weren't that. But they weren't cold, totally cold, lifeless. They just had enough heat and cold mixed together to make them look warm. And that combination was very distasteful to our Lord. And he said, I'm about to vomit you out of my mouth. Then he describes, he says, you have your confession. You think you're such and such, but I'm gonna tell you how you really are. You're this, you're that, you're this. And then he tells them, I have what you need. And he says, don't be discouraged. The sign of love that God loves us is when he gives us pow-pow sometimes, right? How many have ever been disciplined, corrected by the Lord, and you knew it was the Lord? Lift your hand up high, right? That's not a sign he's angry. That's a sign he loves. The worst thing that can happen in your life is if God just leaves you alone. That's the worst. That is the ultimate. So as long as God is showing his love, he shows it many times by, he says here, whomever I love, I rebuke and I discipline when they go off the road. So don't be discouraged today if you're being chastened by the Lord. But here's the key verse that I just wanna leave with you. Lo, here I am. I stand at the door and knock. Now, since I was a little kid, I've seen pictures of Jesus standing at a door and knocking. Anyone ever see some rendition of that in painting oils? The Lord standing at the door. Lo, I stand at the door and knock, it says at the bottom of the picture sometimes. I've heard evangelists use that and say this. If you don't know Jesus today and you're not a Christian, I want you to know he's knocking at the door of your heart, for he says, lo, I stand at the door and knock. And if you will just hear his voice today and open the door of your heart, you can receive him and become a Christian. And there's truth to that, but it has nothing to do with this verse. This verse is not to people who don't know Jesus. He's knocking at the door of his own church. He's knocking on the door of Christians. He's knocking on our hearts. He's knocking on the door of Brooklyn Tabernacle or whatever church in Honduras. And this is amazing. Why would he be knocking on the door of a church so messed up as that? Here they thought they were all that. They thought they were all this and rich and increased with goods and they have need of nothing. You would think he might say if he was like us, you know what, you all make me sick. And I'm not knocking on any door. Because you know what, then have your way. I'm done with you. So this is an amazing picture of God's grace to a church that doesn't want him, that's blind, that's hard, that's naked, that's all soiled and messed up and lukewarm. He's knocking on that door because he still wants to have fellowship with them. Is that not amazing? Can we not put our hands together and thank God for that? Next time you see some Christian who's not what they ought to be, just remember he's standing at the door and knocking for them. Because we like to get judgmental and say, oh, what kind of life are you living? He never gives up on us. Why are we all here today? Why am I up here? Because he never gave up on any of us since we've been a Christian. Since we've been a Christian. Notice also, this picture is amazing because Jesus is outside the door of his own church. How could that be? It is. Obviously, this is imagery. Revelation is full of very difficult images to always be able to discern and interpret, especially after chapters two and three. But here, he's outside his own church. He's not calling on sinners, come home. He's saying, could you please let me back in my church? Boy, that should make every pastor, make our hearts beat and say, oh God, could it possibly be that you end up outside your own church? You get so involved in politics. You get so involved in selfish living, so selfish praying. You don't think about Jesus, his honor. You get so involved in living that grieves him that he's forced out of his own church. Don't say that can't happen. The church at Laodicea is an example. It can happen. So now, he gently is knocking. Notice, he doesn't walk away, but he doesn't push in the door. Notice the ways of our Lord. He could push down the door, he's gone. Or he could say, enough with you, I'm out. No, he gently knocks, like he's maybe knocking on some of our heart's doors tonight. Who are Christians? What's he want? This is the most amazing thing, I'm done. He wants that fellowship. If anyone hears my voice, if anyone opens the door, two things, you got to hear him, discern it. You got to know, he's calling me. And then you got to open su corazon. You got to open the door, la puerta. You got to open the door of your heart. You got to open the windows, and you got to say, God, come back in the way you should be in my life. I once knew you in a way better way than I know you now. I hear you speaking to me, and now I open up. And what does he want? He says, just open up so that we can sit down and have a meal together. What does that speak of? Fellowship. To a church that's lukewarm, to a church that's full of itself, to a church that is grieving his heart, he loves us so much that he says, please, let me have fellowship with you. You know, that's what just breaks your heart about the Lord. We run from him, we spurn him, we grieve him, and he's still knocking on the door saying, can't we talk, can't we have fellowship? Last thought, notice this. The answer to every problem they have seems to be him coming in. They need garments, they need true gold, they need eye salve. Remember this, brothers and sisters, remember this. You can't get anything from God apart from Jesus himself. You can't pick and choose, I want a little of this, a little of that. I don't want Jesus, I just want a little help here, I need a job here. The blessings of God all come through Jesus. He's the amen for every promise. Can we say amen to God? So what Jesus is saying, I can change your condition, I can give you true riches, I can make you see the way you should see, but here's how it's all done. Just let me back in and let's have fellowship together. Now notice they had relationship because they were a Christian church, but relationship is different than fellowship. Relationship is my dad or I have a certain brother, Bob, a sister named Pat, I can prove from a birth certificate check that they are my siblings. But some of us have siblings, we don't even talk to them. A wall has come up between family members. Do you have relationship? Are they biologically your family? Do you have fellowship? Nunca, never. What Jesus is saying is we have relationship, you're in my church, but I want fellowship with you. You know, sometimes I wonder why in the world would Jesus want to have fellowship with me? Why would he want to, he's Jesus. This is his love, it's so great. He's saying can't we have fellowship together? You're so busy, you have never time for me. You're running, running, running, running, running, you never have time for me. You're texting and you're running and you're all type A and you never take time to share your life with me. Talk to me, I'll talk back to you. Sit down with me, I'll sit down with you. Just get yourself in a seat. You know, some preacher said the hardest battle in a lot of our lives is to sit in a chair for 20 minutes. That's a famous sermon that was once preached. The preacher said the hardest thing in life is to sit down in a chair all alone and just spend 20 minutes alone with God. When the minute you sit down, you'll get thoughts running through your head. How many know what I'm talking about? Oh, I got to take out the garbage, I got to do this. I got to call, oh yeah, I got to call T.T. Chena. She called me and I never got back to her and all of that and all these things are going on. And the Lord is just saying to us, just spend time with me. My best days in my life have been when I've spent time with the Lord. The worst days of my life have come when there's been a period of no time or little time with the Lord and many times why it didn't happen was I was so busy working for the Lord that I had no time to be with the Lord. Now that is sad. Let's close our eyes, I'm done. In just a second, those of you who have to go, I'll let you go, but I think some of us maybe need to just come and just spend five, 10 minutes. It's early. And just stand in his presence and say, God, that word was for me. Pastor Symbolist said one sentence that I knew the minute he said it, that you're talking to me. I do hear your voice and I will open the door because you don't want to hurt me. You want to fellowship with me. You want to love me. You want to put your arms around me. You want to heal where I'm hurting. You want to strengthen me where I'm weak. Why would I run from you? Because the other things I'm occupied with, they don't fulfill me, they leave me more empty. Anybody here today that just says, Pastor Symbolist, I want God to help me with my life of fellowship, communion with him, I have relationship. I'm in church tonight because I'm a Christian, but my fellowship with the Lord has gotten weak, and that brings a lukewarmness, a shallowness in my life. Lack of faith, lack of trust, lack of joy, lack of peace. Remember, wherever he comes in, the answers start coming. Just get Jesus, get close to Jesus. He'll take care of all the specifics, but don't go after the specifics and think you can have them separate from Jesus. Jesus is the answer. Anybody here just want to get out of your seat and come and say, Pastor, I want to stand with you. I want to just stand with you at the altar because I want to draw near to God. I know God, but I'm not near where I need to be. I want him nearer to me. Just come up out of your seat. Stand up here in the front with me. Just come up, come right to the edge. Come on up. Come on, man. Pastors, deacons, if you would just walk among the people, just gently put your hand on their shoulder. Here's what we're praying for tonight. Lord, I'm drawing near to you. I'm going to draw near to you. Don't want to be lukewarm. I want to be all in.