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[ Music ] >> You may be seated. [music] Hear this word recorded in Acts chapter 14 verses 26 through 28.

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and thence sailed to Antioch from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the word which they fulfilled. This concerns the journey of Paul and Barnabas. When they were come and had gathered the church together,

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They rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles and there they abode long time with the disciples. subject of the message an open door an open door. An open door is a sign of freedom. An open door is a sign of opportunity. An open door is a sign of

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of welcome. Our land welcomes the wayfarer. It's a beacon light of freedom for pilgrims. This is the basic principle on which this nation is built. At the New York harbor is the new Colossus, the Statue of Liberty with this inscription, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

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The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. America is envisioned as the golden door

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for the despised and rejected, for the disinherited and disadvantaged. This is good news to our entangled world. Many doors have been shut.

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Thousands, yea, millions have come here because they faced doors that were shut. Energies are stifled. Progress is hindered because the door is shut.

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The church, the apostles of Jesus Christ, those people who constitute the colony of heaven in the world are concerned about an open door. And I believe that all of us,

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and especially young people are concerned about an open door. You hear young people say, "Give me a break, "give me a break." We want a chance, an opportunity, an open door.

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A certain freedom of spirit is expressed by the open door. There is comfort, relaxation, and refreshment. in an open door. An open door was a familiar scene in the neighborhood in which I grew up.

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In fact, most of the time the door would just be open. And when a person came to the house and the family would be inside, The word was, "Come right in. The door is open."

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And for a long time, even after my marriage, we didn't lock the door. It was open. And even in a sense then when we did lock the door, it was a skeleton key, and that could be gotten by most people.

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It's just sort of an openness. We call it Southern hospitality. It's open, come right in. There is genuine acceptance, openness, the open door. Now the message that the early church proclaims is that of an open door. First of all, this open door is extended to the Jewish community.

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The invitation is extended to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The invitation is first extended in the realm of the familia, to the family out of which the Christian faith comes. Well you see, openness is an attitude of acceptance. The family is a good place to begin learning how to accept each other. If there is a shut door in family

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relations, there's a serious problem at the very source of the spring. And this is a decision that each one of us must make. The soul selects her own society And then she shuts the door on her divine majority of truth no more. We decide the degree to which we will be open or shut. An attitude of

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acceptance does not always prevail within the sacred presence of the family. Family members did not accept Jesus at the beginning. They really didn't understand him and the gospel record reveals that they came on one occasion and sent word for him to come outside. They thought he was mad. They closed the

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door on him. He had a period of prosperity or popularity I'd rather say but soon the tide of public opinion turned against him and the door was shut. He became a fugitive so to speak. He said during this period foxes have holes birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his head. The

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door was shut. And there is a story which he tells concerning ten maidens in a wedding. Those who were late, who were not prepared, who had no oil in their lamps, were not in a position to go in. Those who were prepared, who had oils in oil in their lamps, went in and the door was shut. The door was shut. So part of

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learning to live is learning to accept family, is learning to abide by rules and regulations, certain openness to your responsibilities. And sometimes that doesn't come easy. You know, when I look at the list of things I was to do when I was a A lad, you know Marvin, you are to bring in the wood,

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you are to clean up your room, you are, in that case I was to put the beans on when I got home from school, you know. All those little things I was to do.

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And those were not always pleasant instructions to follow, but as one gets older and as you look back upon that experience, you realize that you were being equipped for life.

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Because really learning to live is sort of being open to rules, to regulations, to open to a certain kind of discipline. The Jewish church wanted to keep the Christian faith for Jews. And they wanted to reserve it for those

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who were prepared to live a life as a Jewish convert. But the open door was to be extended to strangers, to Gentiles, to other people. That we must not only be concerned about family,

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but we must reach out beyond that family unit of which we are a part. The door needs to be open wide, and this kind of openness is expressed in our attitude.

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You know, we talk about an open door policy for our nation. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be, to breathe free. But then we are disturbed by a growing number

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of our undocumented friends from Mexico, and we discourage the influx of Haitians. Where is the open door? Many come looking for that golden door.

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And even when we bring it a little closer home, there are those who love Austin. It's a beautiful, beautiful city, but we want it to remain the kind of Austin that we knew a few years ago. We don't want to see it grow. And so those who come want to close the door so others can't come in and enjoy

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the beautiful city with us. We want it to be the same size it was after we got in. Youth need to shut the door on some things however and we need to open the door on others. We need to shut the door on drugs. We read that so many young people become acquainted with drugs when they are junior high and even in

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elementary school getting a point we need to shut the door on that. There's a growing number of teenage pregnancies and we need to shut the door on that. Too many are becoming grandmothers at the age of 24. We need to shut the door on school dropouts and we really need to shut the door on planning to fail. You

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know there's been a great deal of uproar over whether or not I can make 1F in school. You know when I was when I was coming along and I was not to bring home any failing grade. You know in other words if I failed in school I knew what I was going to get when I got home and so I didn't run that risk. We need to

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shut the door on that and we need to open the door on more serious study and hard work. We need to open the door on decency and respect and morality and sobriety. One of the things before the legislature has been whether or not we gonna raise the teenage drinking law and there's been a great deal of discussion

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about that. And no nation has ever become great when the people become increasingly concerned about consuming an increasing degree of alcohol. We must become concerned about opening the door on the things that really matter most. You know Albert Swythe was recognized as one of the greatest persons of his time.

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He was a man who was a great organist, he was a great theologian, he was a great physician. With all of that talent he went and so to speak buried himself in Africa, in West Africa. There he went and he gave his life in working with the natives of West Africa and he was recognized as one of the greatest persons of our time. But what he said

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about it as he looked upon his life, he said, "When I look back, I see so many people who gave me something without knowing it." And all of us can sort of identify with that. So many people who gave us something without even knowing it, but we got something from them. They were there and somehow we

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got it because we had an openness to them that the door was open and many years later we realized what we got. You see we all live spiritually by what other people have given us in the significant hours of our lives and much that has become our own in the way of gentleness, modesty, kindness, willingness

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to forgive, in the way of truth, loyalty, and suffering we owe to people in whom we have seen or experienced these virtues at work. It's because of an openness, an open door, and we benefit when there is an open door, the willingness to receive because living is in giving and receiving. Paul and

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Barnabas returned from their first missionary journey and report to the church in Antioch and they tell how God opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. Oh they encountered shut doors but God opened the door. There may be be doors shut in our faces, but God opens the door. Which means, my young friends,

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that we are going to have difficulty, we're going to have opposition no matter how noble may be our plans, no matter how praiseworthy may be our purposes, we're going to face some shut doors. But God is able to help us and to direct us into opening closed doors. Paul says on one occasion, you know he said I had decided

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as he looks back and writes about he said I had decided to remain in Ephesus. He said in Ephesus I fought with beasts. I had a great deal of opposition, brutal forces of opposition in Ephesus. He said there were many many adversaries and you can say that about life as we begin now in the morning of our lives. All of us can

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identify with that in some period of our lives. He said, "But, but, but, I decided to remain in Ephesus because I saw in Ephesus a wide door of effectual opportunity in Ephesus." God opens the door to us in Jesus Christ and Jesus says, "I am the door." If we really want to make it in life, to somehow recognize

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that Jesus Christ is the door, He's the door that somehow we must go through if we would really, really succeed in life. He says, "I am the door." In other words, I am the way. And that's good news. That's good news. No matter what may be your condition, no matter what may be your circumstance, no matter how many back-dragging forces are

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against us, that's good news when we hear it, Jesus speaking to us saying, "I am the door." Old John was out there on the Isle of Patmos. They put him out there. tradition says that they tried to get rid of him that he had been boiled in oil but somehow he miraculously escaped and they put him out there on the Isle

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of Patmos alone. They thought he would die from loneliness. But John says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and the heavens opened and he saw a vision and he He said that in the midst of that vision, he said, "I saw a door that was open in heaven, and no matter what may be against us, that God somehow has a door that he opens unto

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us that we can live our lives in spite of everything." So the crucified Lord of history says, "Behold, I set before you a door that no man can shut." Life is an open door, so use it. Put your hand on the doorknob. Go through that door. Life is an open door of opportunity.

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Prayer is the key we sing, and faith is the door. Life is an open door of hope. It's open. It's open. We must have the courage, the determination to walk through it. Life is a door of love, falling in love with life. Whatever life brings, somehow take it and use it. Make your life what it ought to be. Life is an open

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door to all that includes you and me this is made possible through the grace of God as shed forth in the life of Jesus Christ I'd like to go back to that Statue of Liberty for just a moment stands there in New York Harbor where often there's a great deal of fog, but the statue is still there amid all of the fog

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with the words, "I lift my lamp beside the golden door." And that's a good word for you and me to be able to say today in our heart of hearts, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. It's a golden door of opportunity.

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Youth, all of the challenges, to live in America, and to put it as has been expressed by one of our writers, oh, to be young, gifted, and black

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such a time as this, an open door, open door. Paul and Barnabas rehearsed all of the great things that God had done as they went on their journey. I don't have time to rehearse all the great things God has done in my life. We'd like to do that today. We come to rejoice. But I can say, I can rehearse a few things that all along the way I started when I was

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just a lad, nine years of age. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. I heard the preacher as he said, "The door of the church is open! Whosoever will, let him come!" And I came. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. And those who said now, if you go and you're baptized and we're going to go down to that lake and there's

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snakes in the lake and all of that and I listened to all that talk but I came. I left my lamp and there's been a great deal of fog. I came through high school they were saying that boy's too poor his parents will never be able to send him to college. There's a great deal of fog in the harbor. But I left my lamp and somehow by the grace of God

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God I was able to go to college and to finish not only in four years but in three years. I lift my lamp. There's always a door. Sometimes it looks like a wall, but there's a door that God creates that no one can take away. Lift your lamp. Lift a lamp of love. Lift a lamp of concern. Lift your lamp beside the golden door.

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As we come now, this is the opportunity for you to lift your mask. (soft piano music) (dramatic music)

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music)

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(choral music) (gentle music) (gentle music) ♪♪

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♪♪ ♪ And heaven and earth adore thee ♪ ♪ And heaven and earth adore thee ♪ ♪ And heaven and earth adore thee ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ The power and glory ♪ ♪ Of our God ♪ ♪ God's love for us ♪

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♪ Will be evermore ♪ ♪ To thee we raise this song ♪ ♪ Of joy and wonder ♪ ♪ To thee this song of praise ♪

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♪ Is sung for ever ♪ ♪ Now I know ♪ ♪ I know ♪ ♪ That there's a heaven ♪

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♪ He was born again in the age of light ♪ ♪ When he came down from the hills of Egypt ♪ ♪ And came to the place of the Father God ♪ ♪ And I'm coming home ♪

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♪ Just as the lamb ♪ ♪ Was killed this evening ♪ ♪ And the lamb will come ♪ ♪ And bless me ♪

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♪ Because the Lamb of God ♪ ♪ God is in the air ♪ ♪ And I'll fly high ♪ ♪ Fly high ♪

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[MUSIC]