The Door
⌥ Type: Sunday Morning Service
⛪ Sermon: The Door
🗣️ Speaker: Pastor Tom Van Kempen
📜 Description: Jesus declared himself the one and only door to God — not a choice among many, but the exclusive path to salvation, a claim that cuts against cultural preferences for open-ended spirituality. Like a shepherd who physically lay across the opening of a sheepfold to protect his flock, Jesus stands as both the escape from the traps and deceptions of the enemy and the entrance into a life of abundant purpose, peace, and relationship with God. The life he offers through grace is not merely survival or a future hope of heaven, but a rich, present-tense abundance that includes healing, belonging, forgiveness, and joy — beginning here and now.
ℹ️ Tip: The video is set to start at the beginning of the sermon, but you can scrub the playhead to any part of the service. ℹ️
Additional Info
The info below was generated by an AI from the audio recording of the sermon.
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Use the questions listed below as a launching point to discuss the sermon points together as a family. These are great for dinner table discussions and small groups.
Small Group Discussion Guide Estimated time: 45 minutes
KEY SCRIPTURES
John 10:7 — "I am the door of the sheep."
John 10:8 — "All whoever came before me were thieves and robbers."
John 10:10 — "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
John 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Romans 3:23 — "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 6:23 — "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
James 1:14 — "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed."
2 Timothy 2:26 — "...that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will."
OPENING (5 minutes)
Take a moment to welcome everyone and open in a short prayer. Ask people to share one word that describes how they arrived today — emotionally, spiritually, or otherwise.
ICEBREAKER (5 minutes)
Have you ever ended up in the wrong place because you went through the wrong door — literally or figuratively? Share a brief story.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (25–30 minutes)
Jesus says "I am the door" — not "a door." Why do you think the exclusivity of that claim bothers so many people? How do you personally wrestle with it, if at all?
The message connected the idea of God's love with God's justice, saying you cannot fully have one without the other. Does that connection make sense to you? How does it change the way you think about God's character?
Read James 1:14. The passage says the enemy uses our own desires to trap us. What are some everyday desires that seem harmless at first but can become traps? How have you seen this play out in your own life or the lives of people you know?
The message made a distinction between religion and relationship — "religion says clean yourself up; Jesus says come as you are." Which of those two voices do you find yourself listening to most often? What makes it hard to simply receive grace?
John 10:10 promises life "more abundantly." What does abundance actually look like in your day-to-day life right now? Is there an area where you feel like you are just surviving rather than truly living?
The ancient shepherd physically lay across the doorway of the sheepfold to protect the flock. What does it mean to you personally that Jesus stands in that gap for you?
CLOSING (5 minutes)
Read John 10:10 aloud together as a group, paying special attention to the comma and the word "abundantly."
THIS WEEK'S ACTION STEP
Identify one area of your life where you have been settling for survival rather than abundance. This week, bring that specific area to God in prayer each day, and ask him to show you what it would look like for his grace to be the master key in that space.
Close in Prayer
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Historical Context: John 10:7–10 and John 14:6
When Jesus declared "I am the door" in John chapter 10, he was speaking to a first-century Jewish audience that immediately understood the agricultural imagery. Shepherding was not a romantic profession — it was rugged, daily, dangerous work. In the hill country of ancient Judea and Galilee, shepherds often had to keep their flocks in the open overnight. They would gather the sheep into a naturally enclosed area — sometimes a cave, sometimes a low stone enclosure — and when no gate was available, the shepherd himself would physically lie across the opening. His body became the barrier. Nothing entered or left without going through him. The flock's safety depended entirely on his willingness to stay there through the night, exposed to cold, predators, and thieves.
This image was culturally loaded. The Old Testament is filled with shepherd imagery — Moses, David, and the prophets all used it to describe God's relationship with Israel. When Jesus stepped into that imagery and said "I am the door," his audience would have recognized both the intimacy and the authority of that claim. Sheep were not pets. They were vulnerable, valuable, and completely dependent. The shepherd's role was not optional — it was essential to survival.
The declaration in John 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth, and the life" — carries equal historical weight. Jesus spoke these words in the upper room on the night of his arrest, in the context of the Passover. Passover was the defining moment of Jewish identity: the night God's people were delivered from Egypt through the blood of a lamb placed over the doorpost. The parallel was not accidental. Jesus was presenting himself as the fulfillment of every act of divine rescue Israel had ever known — the ultimate door, marked with his own blood, through which those who trust him pass from death into life.
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Kids Lesson: Jesus Is the Door Ages 5–10 | Total Time: 45 minutes | Easy to lead — no experience required!
INTRODUCTION (5 minutes)
Welcome the kids and ask: "Has anyone ever accidentally walked through the wrong door — like walked into the wrong bathroom or the wrong classroom?" Let them laugh and share. Then say: "Today we're going to talk about the most important door in the whole world — and Jesus says he IS that door!"
SCRIPTURE
John 10:7 — "I am the door of the sheep." (New King James Version) John 10:10 — "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (New King James Version)
Read both verses aloud together twice. Have the kids repeat after you: "Jesus is the door — and he gives us a great life!"
LESSON (7 minutes)
Tell the kids: "A long, long time ago, shepherds would take care of sheep out in the hills. At night, they needed to keep the sheep safe from wolves and thieves. So the shepherd would build a little fence with one opening — and then do you know what he did? He lay down right across the opening himself! He became the door! Nothing could get in or out without going through the shepherd first."
"Jesus says that's exactly what he does for us. He protects us, he loves us, and he's the way we get close to God. Some people think there are lots of different doors to God — but Jesus says, nope, I'm the one. And the cool thing is — this door is open for everyone who wants to walk through!"
CRAFT (10 minutes)
What You Need: One half-sheet of cardstock per child, markers or crayons, stickers (optional).
Instructions: Have each child draw a door on their cardstock — any kind of door they want (big, small, colorful, fancy). On the door, have them write or trace the words: "JESUS IS THE DOOR." On the other side of the paper, have them draw one thing they want to ask Jesus to help them with. Leaders can help younger kids write or draw their ideas. When they're done, encourage them to hang it on a door at home as a reminder this week.
GAME: The Right Door (8 minutes)
How to Play: Set up three large pieces of paper on the wall, each labeled with a different destination (example: "Pizza Party," "Muddy Swamp," "School on Saturday"). Choose one paper ahead of time to secretly be the "right door" — the one that leads to the good place. Kids take turns closing their eyes and pointing to a door. Whatever they choose, you dramatically describe what happens. Then reveal the "right door" and talk about how choosing Jesus means we always end up in the right place — with God. Play two or three rounds.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (5 minutes)
Why do you think Jesus calls himself a door? What does it mean that Jesus protects us like a shepherd? If Jesus gives us a great life, what does that look like for a kid your age? Is there anything you're worried about that you could give to Jesus, the good shepherd?
WRAP-UP PRAYER (2 minutes)
Have the kids bow their heads and repeat after you:
"Jesus, thank you for being the door. Thank you for protecting me and loving me. Help me to follow you every day and walk through the right door. I want the great life you have for me. Amen."
Leader Tip: If any child wants to talk more about what it means to follow Jesus, let a parent or lead teacher know right away — those conversations are precious!
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I asked the internet for a list of some of the greatest songwriting teams in history.
And it gave me exactly what you'd expect.
Rogers and Hammerstein.
Who knows who that is?
Let me see.
Sure.
McCartney and Lennon.
Captain Antonille.
I could not find Booth and Van Kempen anywhere.
I wanted to see it maybe someday in the future.
It's just not there.
Not anyway.
A door is a boundary.
A door, if you're on one side, it can be cold and blizzardy and and uh wet If you're on the other side of the door, you can be before uh or be beside a fire, being warmed by that fire.
I want you to understand that a door can be a good thing, a door can be a bad thing.
There's prison doors, there's trap doors, there's revolving doors.
But in John chapter 10, verse 7, Jesus says this: most assuredly I say to you, I am the door.
He says it again a couple of chapters later, and I want you to take note that he does not say I am a door.
He doesn't say I am a choice among various doors.
He says, I am the one and only exclusive door And I understand our culture does not like exclusive claims.
You could say culture actually hates it People want to be inclusive.
They want to say things like this: all roads lead to God.
Just find your own path.
Pastor, you know what's really important is if you're just sincere in your beliefs, you will be okay.
But I've discovered you can be sincerely wrong.
You can sincerely choose the wrong door.
Last year, two young ladies flew to Europe from the United States of America.
Their names were Brittany and Hannah, and uh they spent uh a number of days in Rome, and their next stop was Nice France.
So they went to the airport, they got their tickets, they went to their gate, and they went to the wrong gate somehow the ticket person allowed them to get on the airplane and they went through the wrong boarding door.
Brittany and Hannah didn't just end up at a slightly different airport.
They ended up on an entirely different continent.
They wanted croissants in Nice and then got couscous in Tunisia instead.
They chose the wrong door.
They were sincere.
They were excited about their trip, but they were 1,000 miles off track.
Sincerity does not make a good GPS This is what we need to understand.
All say all.
All doors lead somewhere.
And Jesus says that that I am the the only door that leads to God Four chapters later in John chapter 14, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father.
No man comes to to Father God except through me.
So Jesus is the only door to God.
And this is hard.
This is hard for some people to understand, for some people to believe.
One of the things that I hear over and over again is God can't be the God of the Bible because he's a God of love.
He's nice.
He would never send anybody to hell.
He would never be that harsh on everybody.
And listen to me.
God is a God of love.
That's true.
And he loves us probably more than we could ever imagine.
But here's my question: Where does the concept that God is a God of love come from?
Does it come from culture?
No.
Does it come from other religions?
No.
It only is found in one place.
And that is the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible says our God is a personal God of love that wants to be actively engaged in your lives.
Who can say amen?
But if you believe that part, you have to believe the rest of the Bible too that says our God is a God of justice.
You cannot have love without justice.
Let me try and make it simple for us to understand.
Last weekend Uh my daughter came and she preached for our women's conference here and she brought two of her kids with her.
She brought Rosie and and Reagan and Rosie is this beautiful ten-year-old girl.
She's tall for her age.
She looks like she's in seventh or eighth grade because she's she's a tall one.
And her sister's seven and her name's Reagan and she's actually short for her age.
So they look completely different, but but they are the apple of their grandfather's eye.
I I love them.
I adore them.
You could say I'm I'm passionately in love with these two little girls.
But if you mess with them, if you try and hurt one of those two little girls, you're gonna have to deal with me at one level or another.
Now my hope is that I will remain and and keep my my Christian uh character and and that I will allow the State to do its thing, but I can tell you one thing, at the very least, I will demand justice.
It must be done if evil is perpetuated against either of my two little granddaughters evil must be dealt with I find it interesting that the Bible says, vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
And just me thinking about it teaches me why it probably says that.
Because I'm telling you, if I was involved in the the dispensing of justice for whatever someone did to one of my granddaughters, I would probably overreact just a little bit But that's that that human part of our being, right?
We don't want justice sometimes.
What we really want is vengeance.
We want people to pay a price even higher if necessary to appease what I'm feeling But listen, God is not only a God of love, he's a God of perfect love.
And if he has perfect love, we can trust him for perfect justice.
Who can say amen?
So how does that affect you and I?
Romans three twenty-three says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
We're all familiar with that verse.
That's very common.
Romans six twenty-three says, For the wages of sin is Oh, ouch.
So that means your pastor deserves death based on the sins that he's committed.
That means you all, every one of you in this room, you deserve death for the sins that you've committed.
But God has dealt with this ultimate conundrum.
He loves you Intimately and infinitely, and yet his holiness demands that your sin be judged.
And the way that occurred is he sent Jesus Christ.
The way that occurred is Jesus took our place.
It's called a substitutionary sacrifice.
Amen?
The judgment that our sin required was placed on an innocent person on Jesus when he died on the cross.
So the way that Jesus gets us to God is He's the door, the only door to salvation.
And I want you to see how Jesus frames this here in this particular verse.
He doesn't just say I'm the door.
He says that in another scripture, but in this one he says, I'm the door of the sheep.
That imagery matters because Jesus is telling us something very honest about our condition.
Do you want to be called sheep-headed?
No, it's not a compliment, just so you know.
Sheep are not known as uh You know, you take a dog, you teach a dog tricks and all that kind of stuff.
You don't teach a lamb tricks.
They're not able to do it.
In animal farm, the sheep are the ones who mindlessly just follow people wherever they want to take them.
But but the scripture says that God cares about the sheep.
He wants to make a difference in our lives.
Sheep, yes, they're they're vulnerable, they're weak, they they can't defend They can't take care of themselves, but neither can we.
Religion says try harder.
Jesus says you need a shepherd.
Religion says fix yourself.
Jesus says you need to be rescued.
Okay.
Where does this imagery of of the door come from?
Well, in ancient sheepfolds, the shepherd would take the the sheep out into the the hill country, and as night was approaching he would start building himself a pen of some kind And he would leave one opening, and that opening would be made available for the sheep to get in.
And then the shepherd himself physically would lay in front of that opening.
In other words, the shepherd became the door.
The safety of the sheep depended completely on the shepherd himself.
Nothing could come in and nothing could go out unless it went through the shepherd.
The same is true today.
Who can say amen?
See, that's what Jesus did for us on the cross.
He is the only door to salvation because he's the only one who lived without sin, died on a cross, rose again, is at the right hand of God.
Jesus stood in the gap for all of humanity.
Point number two, Jesus is also the escape door.
He's the exclusive door, the one and only.
The one and only what?
He's the escape door.
John 10, 8.
All whoever came before me were thieves and robbers.
I want to focus on the word thieves because it's repeated again in chapter 10, verse 10, where this is what it says, the thief does not come except to steal, kill, and You know that one too.
The Greek word here for thief is a very specific word for thief.
It means to to steal deceptively.
It means to trick someone into giving up their stuff.
And John has been talking about this all the way back in chapter 8 when he describes the devil as a liar and the father of all lies.
So he's trying to communicate something here in chapter 10.
He's trying to get us to understand that the devil, his minions, his philosophies of the world, they use one common ploy, and it's deception.
They try and trick you.
They try and lie to you.
And when they try and get you to go through a door other than Jesus Christ.
And if you do, you'll find yourself behind a trapdoor.
The enemy never labels this traps honestly.
He never says, hey, hey, come on this direction and ruin your life.
All of his doors are attractive.
They're beautiful.
They look like they're gonna be fun.
They look like it's the right direction to go.
But just the opposite is true.
But James tells us that the evil one traps us by using our own desires against us.
There's a whole portion on temptation in James chapter 1.
And I love this translation of James 1.
14.
Listen to what it says.
We are tempted by Our own evil desires, no, I'm sorry, our own desires that drag us off and trap us.
So temptation, sin nature, and desires add up to a trap.
Most of us understand that.
We understand that sometimes our anger gets a little too hot.
We understand that that sometimes we we want justice and other times we just want our way.
There are people who use anger to bully, there are people who use anger to intimidate.
And so we confuse that type of anger with the wrath of God, and they are not the same thing.
Other people have fallen prey to addictions.
And that's because they tell themselves, I'm just gonna have one drink, that's it.
You know, I'm gonna have a cigarette, it's no big deal.
How many have seen that vape commercial on television where that girl's lying on her bed and she says, I'm not addicted to vaping, and she has a vape in her hand.
She says, I've only got one And she goes, oh, I've got one at school too.
And I've got one under the seat of my car.
And before you know it, her whole bed is full.
Flooding in vape sticks, and she's drowning in them because the devil has deceived her and tricked her and put her behind the prison door of addiction.
I've seen it.
I know what it's like.
And once you're trapped, the enemy wants to lock you behind those prison doors.
Remember, sin always promises freedom or fun, but it delivers misery and slavery.
Jesus might challenge you, but the devil chains you.
He enslaves you.
And while you're in bondage, remember he will come to steal, kill, and destroy.
I talk to people all the time who say, Pastor, Christianity is just too restrictive.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no.
Your lifestyle is too restrictive.
You're locked behind a prison door and you don't even know it.
Paul is talking to his young mentee in 2 Timothy chapter 2, and he's saying that he hopes that they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for They have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants them to do.
The way you come to your senses is by realizing Jesus is the escape door.
It's by realizing that Jesus wants to give you a get out of jail card or key.
It's called grace.
And grace is literally the master key that leads you to Jesus and sets you free.
Who can say amen?
That's what it does.
Again, it's one thing to be out of prison.
It's another thing to have a good life afterwards.
You know, God doesn't send you to some spiritual halfway house of some kind.
His plan is to not just to deliver you from something, but to deliver you to something.
And that's the whole last point that we have here.
And this is Jesus is the entrance door.
He's exclusive.
He's the escape door, but he's bringing you into something.
He wants you to realize that you can have a real vibrant relationship with God himself.
Beyond imagination.
It sounds too good to be true, but we are stuck in our religious mindset way too often.
What we need to see is that once you become a Christian, God wants to take you off the most wanted list and put you on his VIP list.
And that's all about a personal relationship with him.
Again, I love to contrast relationship with religion because religion says clean yourself up and maybe God will tolerate you.
If you do enough good things, you can work your way up the ladder and you've got a chance with God.
But the Bible doesn't say that.
Jesus says, come here right now, just the way you are, because I love you already.
I love you just the way you are.
That's completely different kind of relationship with with a deity.
God's not looking at you like an irritated TSA agent trying to find a reason to deny your entrance into heaven.
He wants you to come on in.
He will do everything that he can for you to be a part of the family who can say amen.
Jesus didn't die for you just so you could occasionally have a time of emotion or a good moment.
He died so that you could walk with him every single day.
Prayer is not supposed to be a chore.
Prayer is supposed to be real and authentic communication Worship is not something that you have to do.
Worship is a love language that we express towards our Heavenly Father when we understand how much that He loves us.
Scripture becomes nourishment.
Church becomes family.
We're a family And so Jesus is the entrance door to a new relationship with him, but it's also an entrance door to a life of peace.
Security, safety, provision, once inside the pen, the sheep were completely safe They could relax.
Nothing from the outside world could touch them because the shepherd, remember, placed his body in the gap.
We should understand that and have the peace and assurance of knowing that nothing can come into our lives unless it first goes through Jesus.
First has to go through Jesus.
Some of you walked into this room burdened down Carrying the weight of the world, filled with anxiety, maybe some depression, fear.
Maybe you got some bad medical news this week.
Maybe your children are far from God and you've been carrying these burdens with you into the house of God.
Well, we're about to take communion.
And I want you to know that you can leave it at the foot of Jesus.
You can give him everything today in Jesus' holy and precious name.
Remember, sheep don't find pasture by panicking.
They find pasture when they follow the shepherd.
They find pasture when they do what the shepherd asked them to do.
And this means Jesus is finally the entrance door to a brand new, abundant kind of life.
And as the team comes on up and starts playing some music, I want to read what is probably many people's favorite verse, or at least half of the verse.
Because John chapter 10, verse 10 says the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more Abundantly.
I I want to look.
Keep that scripture up there for a second.
Nope.
Put it back up there.
Give me it.
Thank you.
Does anybody notice what is after the word life up there?
A comma.
Yeah, and what's the next word?
See, here's the mistake that most Christians make.
They think only the first part of that verse is true.
That Jesus has come that you might have life.
Woo!
Wow.
I'm not going to hell.
I got life.
Woo!
Everything's good.
I'm going to heaven someday.
But do you understand that that true eternal life does not begin in heaven.
It begins in the here and now.
And so I love this translation that puts a comma in there.
And I love that word and so that you and I can understand that life is not the end.
We're not talking about survival.
We're not talking about just barely making it.
We're talking about God has come that you might have life and have it more abundantly in Jesus' name.
So hear me, hear me.
That word abundantly in the Greek language, it means more than necessary.
It means super added or super abundance.
I'm not talking about lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Okay?
I'm not talking about a Cadillac in every garage.
I'm talking about we serve a God that brings satisfaction to life.
We serve a God that that takes the burdens of this life.
If we just offer them to him and give them to him in Jesus' name, we serve a God who gives us purpose and peace, family and belonging.
Healing, forgiveness, love, and joy.
That's the God that we serve And we're about ready to have communion here and connect the door to the cross So I want you to just find your your cup.
Understand that the cracker is on the bottom, the juice is there in the middle.
Earlier we sang this song that Pastor Jeff wrote.
It wasn't my work that turned the lock.
My hand that had to knock just his grace, the master key.
Today's message is really quite simple.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It's as simple as that.
It's not complicated.
Oh, sure, you have questions.
I get it.
Sure, some things in life don't make sense.
I get it.
But but but the basics are real simple.
We need rescuing.
We need a savior.
And God sent his savior, Jesus Christ, to change our lives forevermore.
And so Jesus says, I am the door If you come through me, you're going to find a lot of answers.
The most important one is salvation.
But if you dedicate yourself to pouring through those scriptures He will answer so many questions that seem impossible to answer.
I don't know if I mentioned this, but uh we play basketball here on Tuesday nights, and uh I got the pleasure of doing the lesson one time And instead of doing a lesson, I just said, guys, what are the hardest questions you can come up with for me?
Things about religion, things about Christianity, things about life that just drive you crazy.
Ask me the hardest ones.
And they did And I answered them to the best of my ability, as found in the Word of God.
But people want answers, do they not?
People are looking for the solutions in this world.
And you and I have them.
It's Jesus.
He is the solution.
He's what the world needs.
So once in a while we just need to be reminded of what it is that Jesus did 2,000 years ago.
So you'll notice there's uh two uh lids.
One on the bottom and one on the top.
And the one on the bottom has a piece of cracker in there.
And if you hold your hand underneath the container and pull that lid, the cracker will drop into your hand.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, he blessed it, he broke it.
He gave it to his disciples and said, Do this in remembrance of me.
Let's eat the bread together.
The same night he took the cup.
You can peel that top lid back a little bit and yet keep it on the container I said in uh our membership class today, I told the class that the old, the new testament Is hidden or concealed in the Old Testament.
But the Old Testament is revealed or made alive in the New Testament.
And there's no story that better depicts that than the story of the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament transforming into the one-time sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Those animal sacrifices really didn't even appease the wrath and anger of God.
All it did was cover up man's sins until Jesus finally showed up.
And when Jesus finally showed up, there was a stampede into the presence of God, unlike anything you've ever seen.
Every Old Testament saint that had ever put their faith in any word of God, they were ushered into the very presence of God in a new dynamic way.
And now whenever we die, like the thief on the cross, we are immediately in a place called paradise with God when we die.
Who can say amen?
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took the cup, he blessed it, he gave it to his disciples and said, This cup represents a new covenant.
Better. superior, ultimate, do this in remembrance of me.
Let's drink the cup together.
Would you stand with me, please?
I would like to invite the prayer partners to come forward at this time.
And as they're coming forward, let me explain a couple of things.
Maybe you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
And you heard this simple presentation of the gospel and it it resonates with you, it makes sense with you.
I think it would be very appropriate for you to come forward at this time and just express what God is doing in your heart right now with another person.
These men and women have been trained to pray with you, to hold everything in confidence, and so it would be their honor and their privilege to to talk to you and and answer questions if you have any.
But there's a second thing I think is really important.
And that is The scripture says that by the stripes of Jesus Christ we are made whole.
That we are and were healed.
And the idea behind the past tense is that you can appropriate today what Jesus did 2,000 years ago.
That's salvation, yes, but it's also healing in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
And so for whatever reason, God loves to heal during communion messages.
So if you are broken in body, if you've been given a diagnosis that seems dire, if hope is diminishing in your life, I want to encourage you to come on forward.
The team is going to sing a song, and while they are singing, I think it would be time to come on forward.
Would you lead us, Pastor Jeff?
Blog Post
Why Sincerity Alone Is Not Enough
There is a popular idea that says all roads lead to God — that what matters most is how genuine and earnest a person is in their beliefs. But sincerity, as comforting as it feels, does not guarantee you are headed in the right direction. A traveler who boards the wrong plane with great excitement and a warm heart still ends up on the wrong continent. The door you choose matters — not just the feeling you have when you walk through it.
What It Means That Jesus Called Himself "The Door"
In John chapter 10, verse 7, Jesus makes a striking declaration: "I am the door." He does not say he is one door among many options. He says he is the door — the singular, exclusive entrance to life with God. This claim is not popular in a culture that prizes open-ended spirituality, but it is grounded in a specific understanding of who Jesus is and what he accomplished. Four chapters later, in John 14, he reaffirms the same truth, saying he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him.
The Connection Between Love and Justice
Many people resist the idea of a God who holds people accountable, preferring instead a God who simply tolerates everything. But here is something worth considering: the very idea that God is a God of love does not come from culture or from general human intuition — it comes exclusively from the Bible. And that same Bible presents a God who is not only loving but just. You cannot fully embrace one without the other. Perfect love and perfect justice are not opposites; they are inseparable. Just as any loving parent would demand justice if their child were harmed, a God of perfect love must also be a God who takes wrongdoing seriously.
How Jesus Resolved the Problem of Sin
Romans 3:23 reminds us that every person has sinned and fallen short of God's standard. Romans 6:23 follows with the sobering reality that the consequence of sin is death. This creates what might seem like an impossible dilemma: a God who loves us deeply, and yet a holy God whose nature demands that sin be dealt with. The resolution is Jesus himself. Through what theologians call a substitutionary sacrifice, Jesus — the only person who ever lived without sin — took the penalty our sins required by dying on the cross. He is the door to salvation because he is the only one who could open it.
The Shepherd Who Became the Door
In ancient times, a shepherd guarding his flock overnight would build a simple pen and then physically lie down across the opening himself. He became the door. Nothing could enter or leave without going through him. This is the image Jesus is drawing on when he calls himself the door of the sheep. It is a picture of complete protection and total commitment. And it says something honest about our own condition: like sheep, we are not especially capable of protecting or rescuing ourselves. Religion tells us to try harder and clean ourselves up. Jesus says we need a shepherd — someone to rescue us, not grade us.
The Enemy's Strategy: Deception and Attractive Traps
John chapter 10, verse 8 warns about thieves and robbers — and the specific Greek word used for "thief" in verse 10 means someone who steals through deception, through trickery. The enemy never labels his traps honestly. The doors he offers are attractive. They look like freedom, fun, and fulfillment. But James chapter 1 makes clear that we are often trapped by our own desires being used against us — desires that pull us in directions that ultimately lead to bondage. Addiction, anger, pride, and countless other patterns begin with what looks like an inviting doorway and end in a prison. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and he rarely announces his intentions.
Grace: The Master Key That Sets You Free
Second Timothy chapter 2 speaks of people who need to come to their senses and escape the devil's trap. The way out is not through greater willpower or personal reformation — it is through grace. Grace is the master key. It is what leads a person to Jesus and sets them free from whatever has held them captive. And freedom from something is never the end of the story. God's design is not merely to deliver people out of bondage but to deliver them into something — into a new life, a new identity, and a real, ongoing relationship with him.
The Abundant Life: More Than Just Getting to Heaven
John 10:10 contains one of the most well-known promises in all of Scripture: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly." Many people read the first part and stop — relieved to know they are not going to hell, grateful for the promise of heaven. But notice what comes after the word "life" in that verse: a comma. There is more. The word translated "abundantly" in the original Greek language means something like "super added" — more than necessary, beyond what is required. This is not about wealth or material comfort. It is about a life filled with purpose, peace, belonging, healing, forgiveness, and joy — a life that begins now, not just in eternity.
Religion vs. Relationship: What the Door Opens Into
Religion says clean yourself up first, then maybe God will tolerate you. It turns faith into a ladder you climb by accumulating enough good deeds. But Jesus says something entirely different: come as you are, right now, because I already love you. God is not looking at you like a suspicious security agent trying to find a reason to turn you away. He wants you in. He has done everything necessary to make you part of his family. Prayer becomes real communication rather than a chore. Worship becomes a love language rather than an obligation. Scripture becomes nourishment. Community becomes family. This is the life that is waiting on the other side of the door.
