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Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Sunday Sermon – Enter into the Door of Promise

Sunday, 22^nd October 2023

Pastor Jonathan and Eileen Chow (Taipei BOL Senior Pastors)

Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

In the Jewish year 5784, we are about to enter the Door of Promise. But before that, we must learn to first overcome mammon the spirit of the world. This is about what we want to accomplish, the things of the world or the things of the Kingdom of God? If we are determined to achieve the things of the Kingdom of God, then we must follow the Holy Spirit

Matthew 6:25-34 says, ““Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

What spirit do we submit under? The spirit of the world or the Spirit of God? When a baby is still in the mother’s womb, when she goes for an ultrasound, the doctor will measure the size of the baby, and tell the parents about their baby’s growth, compared with the general growth of the baby. After the baby is born, they will be compared with other babies, and when they start school, their academic achievement will also be compared with the numbers given by this world. We are all living under a measurable data, and this value of the world has been engraved into our lives and our ways of living.

Matthew 7:13-14, says, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

What is the narrow way? The narrow way seems more dangerous than the boarder way, and we are often scared to go into. The Bible teaches us that narrow way will lead to eternal life, and the board way will lead us into the world, it cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus taught His disciples that they could not worship God and mammon at the same time, then He talked about worry. When we worship mammon, we will start to worry. There has been increasing number of children having depression, because we are worried about many things. But Jesus taught us not to worry, because worrying about things will not solve our problems. When we worry and when we feel anxious, then we cannot have peace. God wants us to have this peace and joy in our lives, so we must choose to enter the Kingdom of God.

Mothers worry about their children not able to catch up with other children at school, and children worry about not able to please their parents. The worry will not only be in our mind, but it will also affect our body, sometimes we will fell sick when we worry too much. It’s like how when an animal encounter threat, they will run for their lives because of their survival instincts, their bodies will have to produce certain adrenaline so they could live. When human bodies are under pressure for a long period of time, we will eventually break down.

So what do we have to do to not worry? The problems we encounter in life will still happen, but our attitude will be different. We will be facing the same circumstances, but we can have peace inside of us instead of worry and anxious. Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” It’s not that God doesn’t want us to come in, but it’s us, who cannot find the door. When we are anxious, we seek God with a wrong motive, and we cannot find the door that is right in front of us. This door is the Door of Promise God has already given to us.

There are two kinds of anxious, one is not able to sleep, and the other one is not able to wake up. We can be so worried about many things that we cannot sleep, but on the other hand, we can be so worried about facing our day that we cannot wake up. When we are unable to sleep or when we are unable to wake up, what we must do is to seek the Door of Promise from God, He has already promised us every blessing in the world, but the lies of Satan will often come to our mind and attack our spirit. During our sleep, our soul and spirit will become vulnerable, and Satan will try to come in and talk lies to us. Therefore, we must remind ourselves the promises of God, to go to the right channel, the channel of the Kingdom of God, not the spirit of the world.

There are so many things in the world that we cannot take control over, and that make us worry. But when we focus on God, when we ask God, “what is it that You want me to focus today?” Then He will talk to us, and He will make sure we walk on the right path. God promised Abraham that he would have a son, but he had been waiting for many years, and nothing happened. Abraham was not worried, because when he was waiting, he was also entering the promise of God, he knew it would happen one day, and he never doubted. That’s why he could keep the peace. When God speaks, He is not describing something, He is creating it. When God speaks, the reality happens, and when we look upon His promise, we also walk into the Door of Promise, and we will use the perspective of Heaven to see our surrounding.

Abraham was able to praise God, long before Isaac was born, because he knew when God spoke, it would become the reality. This is also how we should see the promise of God, facing the suffering of the world, we can have true peace, when we hold onto the promises of God, believe that everything He said will become our reality. Hebrews 6:19 says, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.” Our hope is like an anchor, it’s strong and unmovable. When we truly believe this, we will stop worry, and enter the Door of Promise.