Now the last message is the door of opportunity or the doors of opportunity. Now the one thing I want to stress today is that opportunities come and they go. I remember I stood outside a center with an old gentleman and he took my two hands in his and we were just talking about things and he said, oh you're in such a hurry. I was in a hurry but I sat and I stood and I talked to him I didn't know by the next day that old man would be gone. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to speak to him but I didn't realize that that was my last opportunity. So opportunities come and go. Now Isaiah 55 verse 6 gives us a warning. It says, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. call upon him while he is near. He says call upon me, seek me while the door is still open to you because one day the door is going to be shut. There's going to be such horror at the judgment throne when we realize if we didn't enter the door of salvation that it's too late. It's forever too late. The opportunity of an open door I have thrown away. I've just passed by. and I can never have the chance to enter that door again. And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after that, the judgment. Once you've died, that door's gone through, there's no more chance to enter the only door. How fearful it'll be one day when we've gone through the door that divides life and death for us. No return anymore. We'll stand before a holy God and face His piercing eye and answer if on earth His call we spurn. and did deny, how fearful, oh how fearful to hear that final clang. The door of life has swung shut, how ominous the bang. The chances for repentance, the sins hidden and sly, the time for a confession, the chance for it gone by. He's searching I will crush you. His voice ring out to say depart sinner you will be flung in hell on judgment day. We cannot play the fool with God and we need to ask ourselves in this final meeting if we have passed the doors of salvation or if we have grabbed the opportunity while there was still time to enter. but they're not only doors that we fear, they're doors of welcoming life, aren't they? The doors that say come in. Now, I remember not so long ago, it was a few years ago, we live on a river and my parents' farm was, the farmhouse was on a hill. And there's a river that surrounded it and there's a little bridge that went up the hill. That's before the, they're not there at the moment, but that's where they lived. And when the river came down in flood, it used to just absolutely burst the banks and there was no way we could get over that little bridge and get to the house. It was just a roaring torrent, I mean the waves and whatever. Now, the problem was the river just came down within minutes, you cut off. There's no way that you can get over because the rains came down a hundred miles away and all those rains gathered together in the big river and then they came rushing down and sometimes it was literally minutes a phone would ring and say hey just remember the river is coming down get into your house as fast as possible. Well, Keith and I were in Port Elizabeth, which is an hour away. We were shopping and actually getting supplies for my parents. We left his mother with my parents and she gets a little bit uneasy. She used to get uneasy if we, Keith or I, weren't with her. And we were in Port Elizabeth when suddenly my dad rang and he said, Jenny, Keith rushed back, they're warning us, the river's coming down in flood. You've got to get there. We don't want to be stuck here. We haven't got milk, we haven't got bread, we haven't got things. We're going to be marooned. Please hurry, bring the stuff." Well, you know what it's like when you're shopping. And Keith said, oh Jennifer, we must remember this, we must remember that. And well, perhaps if they are going to be marooned, there's this extra. And so we were pottering around and eventually we get back to the little village called Hankie. Believe it or not, it's called Hanky. And we get there, my brother said, you're too late. You're cut off. There's no way I can get you across. And I said to him, but listen here, I have to get across. Keith's mom is going to get into such a state, I don't know what's going to happen. And my parents haven't got food. We have to get across. I said, listen here, it doesn't matter if I've got to walk over the hills that are behind the house, but I have to get to them. So my brother says, well, if Keith and the boys will sleep at my house, which is on the other side of the river, I will get you there. So I said, how? So he said, well, I've got a Land Rover and a Land Rover can ride anywhere. So it's a very old rickety Land Rover. So he rode. Oh, we went up almost like cliffs and down. And I was screaming and holding to the side of the Land Rover. And I was, you know, the groceries were just almost my nose was sticking out above them. It's quite scary when you prop like that. And eventually, we came down the last hill and we parked at the cement pathway at the back of the house. And so we got everything out and now we're walking to the back door. Now, my dad and him didn't expect anybody. I mean, how could they expect anybody? They were cut off. You know, there was nobody. You can't get across the river. And who thought of the mountains? So I knock on the door. There are monkeys there, lots of monkeys. So my dad must have thought the monkeys have learned how to knock. There was just no way. And then my dad opened the door. And as he opened the door, he said, oh, genie. I think as big as I was, he could have lifted me off the ground. It was that welcome. I can't believe it. Come in, come in, come in. And of course we had tea. But you know, that's the kind of welcome God will give us if we belong to Him. And one day, we don't have to fear the judgment after death. But when He comes, He'll say, oh, Ursula, or oh, Wendy, or oh, Mary, or whatever the name is, He'll say, come in. Isn't it going to be wonderful? How wonderful to enter the presence of the King. What joy to hear a welcome from heaven's portal's ring. What matter if the journey had been an upward road? with many sorrows, heartaches, upon us thrown, bestowed, all earthly cares forgotten, all our tears are wiped away when we step through the doorway to face God one glad day. The question is, are you going to dread it? Are you going to dread standing before God? Or is there going to be a welcome for you? Only you know if you've gone through the right door. Death needn't be an entrance of fear. It can be an entrance of joy when we cross that final door of life. But you know in life and especially because you're going home now and going to different circumstances there are many many doors that are going to lie before you in this year before you hopefully come to next year's camp where you can do good. What does Galatians 6 verse 10 say? As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Ephesians 4.32 says, and be ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. There's lots of things we must be kind, we must be tender-hearted, we must be forgiving. You know sometimes it's difficult to reach out to people and we can use excuses. I used to use, sorry I've got something in my mouth, I used to use the excuse of being shy. I used to say well Lord I would love to reach out and I'd love to help but you made me shy. So I mean how can I reach out and you know the Lord said well Jennifer stop thinking about yourself. If you stop thinking about your shyness and yourself and start looking around and seeing all the ways you can reach out even if it's not as a talking magpie You can reach out, you must forget about yourself and think about them and not about yourself. In fact, I've written a story, a mouse story about this very problem, about a mouse that really was very awkward and shy and how she overcame that. A little word of comfort, a smile. How do you do? Is a door that God places for you to enter through. These doors lie in life's pathway. You meet them every day. Be careful that you enter those placed upon your way. Your timely word of witness can change another's life. Your soft answer and caution can stem a storm of strife. But other doors at Beckham beckon hold frowns and cruel words or gossip that says slyly, have you this rumor heard? If you pass through, you stumble and hurt those in your way. Rather turn back, don't go through. Be careful what you say. So you can be kind or you can be unkind. We must never blind our eyes to the doors of kindness that God places in our way. Now the Lord Jesus gave an example of this in Luke 10 and we can take a lesson from it. Luke 10 verse 30 and Jesus answering said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead. and by chance he came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side and likewise a Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him Did he stop? Did he help? No. And passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to her inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pens and gave them to the host and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. which now of these three thinkest thou was a neighbor unto him that fell among thieves and he said he that show with mercy on him then said Jesus go and do thou likewise." Who was kind to him? Who went through the door of opportunity to reach out to him? It wasn't even the so-called religious, it was the unsaved, in inverted commas, Samaritan. The man didn't look a pretty sight, he was manhandled by robbers, he was weak, he was unable to rise and walk, his cry was feeble and you know in the same way and they were put off by what he looked like and you know we can be put off by the personalities of others. I find some personalities, to be quite honest, I find some personalities difficult to deal with. It might be the way somebody dresses, or their loud speaking, or their sniggers. You know, we need to look past those things to realize the need of a person behind that. What's lying behind the door that is so needful for us to go through? The Lord Jesus stressed they walked by, they had their nose in the air, they looked down on him, they ignored his cry. Sometimes the unsaved are kinder in reaching out than the Christians are and we are rebuked by that. It was the Samaritan that reached out and what was the Lord Jesus saying? He said listen here you supposed to be religious but you're not using the doors of kindness that I place in your way and this unsaved Samaritan had the grace to grab the opportunity. Are my eyes blind to many doors which suddenly face me and point to deeds of kindness called opportunity? Do I walk past these beckoning doors too selfish to take heed of other people's troubles? my eyes shut to their need? Or do I stop consider what God would have me do, eager to be a comfort and lift their burden too? How sad if we as Christians ignore the doors that lie upon our very pathway, resounding with a cry. of heartache and of pathos, of sorrow and of woe, because we were not willing within those doors to go. One day it was the closure of a grade 12 ceremony in a school and they had a little speech about every grade 12. Now the problem was it was the prefect of grade 12 that actually gave the speech. So they gave, you know, they said quite strange things like they'll say, oh, this grade 12 is Mr. Muscle Man and that grade 12 is the comedian of the day, you know, and he'll end up there and whatever. Now, there was one grade 12 at that school who was very precious to me, so I thought, oh, what are they going to say about him? Because you never knew what they were going to say. And then this is what they said about him. They said, well, he wasn't the most brilliant scholar. He wasn't going to be the future president. But he was the one that always encouraged those that were left out, the friendless and the lonely. He would befriend those who didn't have companions. He would cheer them up when they thought they were failures. And this young man, they called him the big friendly giant, his eyes were always open to doors of kindness. We don't realize how much is at stake. when we pass by the door of kindness that God places upon our pathway. Now in Knight's illustrations page 376 we read of a condemned criminal in the Cook country Illinois who before he was electrocuted was given an opportunity to say something. So they said all right you're going to be electrocuted, you're about to die, what would you like to say before this is done? And this is what he said. No one cared for my soul. How terrible if someone we know and we had a chance to be kind to, should one day say, no one cared for my soul. Nobody cared for me. How heart-rending those words! What remorse for acquaintances whose hearts he never stirred! They passed him by and did not see his yearning for their care. They simply walked and left him in his misery, despair. But one day God will challenge them for this man's rending cry. Did you not care this man faced hell the moment he would die? The door of deep compassion is beckoning to you. Did you not see it in the face of someone near to you? But then we have the door of witness. Now, not all of us have got bubbling personalities. Some people have just got away with it. Nephew's wife is just the most amazing person to witness. She just bubbles the gospel. You know she's hardly sitting with a person when suddenly in such a loving and gentle way they are somehow brought to sense eternity and God and whether they write with God. Now I am I find it a little bit much more difficult because I'm shy but you know what these wonderful things like tracts that we can hand out and sometimes all it is is a smile, a smile that can reach somebody and just a wonderful word you know God is wonderful to me I'm just so grateful today when I think of this lovely day I just think of the God who made it so lovely you know there's just a little word that God can use. Now in Knights again on page 377 a cabman was driving, it tells the story of when the cabman was driving Charles Spurgeon and he says, this is a long time since I drove you in my cab and Charles Spurgeon said to him, I don't recall you and the cabman says well 14 years ago we were together in the same cab and he pulled a New Testament out of his pocket and you know the New Testament was old and worn and used and faded and he said 14 years ago you just gave me this New Testament as a gift and he said to me please read it he said you know what happened I read it and I sought God and I found Him as my Savior and you could just see He's been reading it ever since. Isn't it wonderful? It's just a Bible. Charles Spurgeon probably didn't have an opportunity to have a full-on conversation. He just gave a New Testament and that's man's soul was saved, the door of witness. Now in one of my old books at home it tells a true story about somebody with the name of Sam Ferguson. Now he was an impossible child. Have you ever heard of that saying, I don't know, we say it in Afrikaans, they've got ants in their pants. I don't know, do you hear that expression in America? Well he couldn't sit still. He caused chaos in the Sunday school class. He was impossible to control. He was 12 years old, he had curly black hair and he had the naughtiest little mischievous face that could be seen. Now the superintendent was despairing. He said, well he just He just disrupts the whole meeting. He said, you know what, I think we'll have to expel him. But the teacher said, please, please, just give Sam Ferguson another chance. And you know, she sometimes wished she hadn't asked for it, because really, he was impossible. And sometimes after a bad day, she would go home and she said, Lord, just give me more patience. Give me more wisdom in how to deal with him. Well, the teacher left eventually, other pupils came in the place of Sam Ferguson, he grew up, other teachers appointed at the school. But the author says that one day he was walking down the streets of Edinburgh, one of the streets near John Knox's house. I don't know who's heard of John Knox, he was a great reformer, right? But anyway, he's walking down the street and there he sees a soldier, young soldier, strapping soldier in that wonderful picturesque garb of the Royal Scots Brigade walking briskly to him. And he said, good morning sir. And he stopped and he saluted him and he said, do I know you? Don't you recognize me? I'm Sam Ferguson. So he said, you Sam Ferguson? He said, I see you've become a soldier. So Sam says, yes sir, but much, much, much more important. I've become a soldier of the Heavenly King. And he said, you know, Sir, those lessons that that teacher taught me, they never left me. When I left the Sunday school, they followed me. They haunted me. I used to remember them in the dead of night. They just kept coming back to me. And one day I sat in a soldier's meeting and I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ and he said and I have been changed ever since and he said do you know anything about my Sunday school teacher I'd like to go to her and tell her what happened. He said well she's gone abroad so you probably never going to be able to see her on earth but isn't it wonderful sad you can see her in heaven and you know sometimes we don't know what God does if we are faithful in our word of witness. It may be one day in heaven somebody comes up to you and says you know you said I must be careful where I'm heading or you said have I ever thought of becoming saved and you know that thought never left me, it followed me and I'm in heaven because of that first little word that you said to me. So we must not neglect that door of opportunity to witness in any way that God opens up to us. There are so many ways and means that we can use to say a little word of witness. They fill up every day. As doors upon our pathway, they beckon, enter in. Speak up, take heart and testify about your Heavenly King. How sad! if we don't enter those doors upon our path to warn, encourage others who face hell and God's wrath. God knows each door that opened before us on our way and we will have to answer for those passed by each day. God's going to say, what did you do with that opportunity that I gave to you? But there's not only doors to do good in life, there's also doors to do evil, to do bad. The devil isn't sleeping and he continually will place for you, especially when you leave camp, he's going to place before you tempting doors to go through and that invite us to do wrong. Now we've spoken about the media, the internet, the phones, the firms, the books, the dances we're invited to, all those wrong things that are held out to us. They are doors that Satan holds ajar and says come. It's going to be so nice. You don't want to be the odd one out. You want to be in. You want to enter those doors. But have you ever been in a building and there's a door with a skull on? Have you seen those doors? With a cross over the two bones over the skull and it says, Danger! no entry. It's usually a room where there's gas or wrong things in there and it's dangerous to go into that door and when you go you, you go into that door? No! You stand away from that door because that is a dangerous door to enter. Now there was a certain little village, we don't have snow in South Africa except little spots, they're so small that you can almost put a car on the spot, they're very small, but there is one little section in South Africa near the mountains where there is a place where it really snows. I've never been there, it's very far from where we live, but this little place, it fills up with snow and then there's a little causeway that goes to the place and when it snows heavily then the people stay there, they can't go over the causeway because the river is all snowed up and the bridge is snowed over and so you never know how to get out of it because you might land up in the soft snow. Well, there was a terrible, terrible snowstorm and they said, listen, we're all going to be marooned here for about two weeks, there's no way we can get out. But there was one family that says, you know what, I cannot. be marooned and shut in like this. We are going to go out. We know exactly where that bridge is positioned even if it isn't seen and we know that it will be there underneath the snow and we're going to push our way through. So the people said, please do not go that way. It's dangerous. You're going to end up under the snow. You're going to die. You can't get out. You know, we sometimes feel so sort of shut in by the warnings of scripture of the things that we dare not do. That we sometimes just think, oh, well, it's going to be safe for me to break out and to do my own thing. Well, they did. They ignored the danger sign. They went and they miscalculated. And you know, that whole, they plunged into the snow and there was no way the people could get them out. It was so stormy that the car was covered, the people were covered and they'd gone on their own so nobody even knew where they'd gone over and all the lives in that car was lost. It's dangerous to go into those areas. Love not the world! That's a danger door. Neither the things that are in the world. See the skull on that door. Don't go in. Be not unequally yoked. Be not unequally yoked. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14. Don't have an unsaved boyfriend even. Don't ever think of courting somebody who's not saved. You may say it's okay for me, I'll get over this bridge. I'm not going to land under the snow. I can witness to this young man. I can win my unsaved husband. I will lead him to Christ. I'll never forget the one lady with tears in my eyes. She said, oh, my parents were Christians. I was part of this very loving Christian home. They warned me, they begged me, they plead with me. We went to a magistrate's office. We were just determined. I was determined, she said, I ended up miserable and divorced. It's a danger door, don't dare entry. I said if we persistently ignore each danger sign and push right past the warnings intent on our design, How terrible, how terrible to reap what we have sowed. For don't enter was bright and clear to us not unbeknown. How tragic, oh how tragic, our deep regret when we must confess that our willful steps ended in tragedy. It's also our responsibility to warn others about the danger door. Now there was a blind man and he had a dog. and he approached the lift. Now he knew the lift door was open because there was, you know, the air of the lift, you know, you can feel there's a draft. So he felt the draft, he knew that the door was open, but his dog, his guide dog started pushing him back and pushing him back and he wouldn't let him get to the lift. So he tried to push the dog away to get to the lift because the lift was open, he knew it was open. But the dog just stopped him and snapped at him and actually was quite angry and growling at him. Eventually he said, get out of the way and he stood there and wanted to almost kick this dog. And then people came running and suddenly they saw there was something wrong. The lift was at the bottom of the shaft and the doors were open. And suddenly he realized this dog that he had mistreated had actually saved his life and the horror of it. Now sometimes when we warn others about dangers and we say to them, please don't do that, you mustn't do that. Listen here, this film that you are watching or you say you're watching, there's terrible things in this film. You can't watch it as a Christian. You can't go there on the internet sites. You shouldn't dress like that. It's drawing attention. And then people get angry because we warn them. But don't worry if they get angry because just like that dog you might be saving another person from ruin. We all know the story about the little girl I think in the railway story who realized that the bridge was down and the train was heading towards the chasm and so she had a red petticoat on. So she took off her red petticoat and she stood in the railway track and she held the petticoat up for the train to see. Well the train was coming at such a speed that you know it was difficult to stop and the brakes screeched and screeched and screeched but she held that petticoat up and she almost felt the breath of the train before it stopped almost at her feet and the little girl fainted. when they got up. But how thankful everybody was when they saw the chasm that lay behind it. And so it is with us. We have to hold up the red flag of warning. Please repent while there's still time. Don't head the wrong way. Don't do this. We warn, we call out, even if we are unpopular, because we can rescue somebody from the death of hell. Oh Lord, have I been faithful to hold up the red flag? even though people were angry and said, please do not nag. Their souls are in the balance. One word may turn their course. Arrest them on life's journey. Fill them with deep remorse. Keep on warning of danger. Point out the doors to sin. Your words can be the beacon, a weaker soul to win. But when I'm saying we warn them, listen here, we just hold up the red flag. We don't say, You bad, bad person. You are, you know, we don't, that's not, what did I say? We just hold up the red flag. We hold up the red flag by the example of what we are and by loving, gentle warnings. Now, as a conclusion. What have we been talking about for the last few days? What has our theme been? Can somebody tell me? What has our theme been? Yes, Raleigh? Doors. Yeah, open and barred doors. Doors that confront us every day. First of all, the first day we spoke about the barred door. and the wall of sin, the closed entrance to Eden and so there's a wall between us and heaven. We can't go there because it's a holy God and sin cannot enter heaven. It's insurmountable by man. We can't get over it. We can't get under it. We can't get around it. But then on the second day we talked about the door. the only door, the only way that God provided through this wall of sin and the wonderful thing is all are welcome. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. So God provided the only door. People talk about other doors but they are not real. I once read a story about Mrs Weeks of the Cabbage Patch and she lived in a very poor locality and just to be smart she put a fake door next to her other door. So they lived in the house with two doors. But if I was to take the fake door and pull it off and try and walk through. I'd bash into the wall and so it is with the doors that other people hold out and say to us this is a door into heaven. All we'll get bashed into is that same wall of sin. The only way to heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ repenting of your sin and accepting Him as your Savior. And then the third message was let the King come in to every area, every room in your heart and in your life. And then we spoke about something horrible might have happened to you, there might be a room in your life where there's terrible memories and you haunt this area of your life and you can't get over those memories. and then we spoke about the hospital ward remember and the nurses that came with antiseptic brushes and everything and they brushed it from top to bottom that all you could smell was antiseptic and in the same way God says let me come into that area of your life and wash away all the things that are part of your memory. Let me wash it clean. And though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Isn't that wonderful? And then we saw the danger of doors that are ajar, the whispers of Satan. And we open the door to sin. We open the door to temptations, to suggestions, to our friends that try and influence us. And the danger then, the door of our lips, We have to be, our lips can be a power for good or it can be a fire of iniquity that just leaps and causes havoc in people's lives. And lastly today we spoke about the door of opportunity to do good not evil, to encourage not discourage and also the warning that there are no entry danger doors. This life is full of endless doors. They fall upon our way. We choose which doors we enter continually each day. Have we gone through the entrance that Christ called the narrow gate? The only way to heaven before it is too late? Many delayed to enter in. They thought they'd rather wait. But then their cord of life was snapped. The haunting cry, too late. Christ calls each one of us to come and enter through the door. Your time is running out, he warns. Don't dally anymore. And then to every Christian a thought. Christ sees our heart. Nothing in there is hidden. Each dark and recessed part. Is there a place where we store things that are full of shame? Thoughts and desires that blemish the honor of God's name? Let Christ come in and transform. His blood will wash it clean so that no dirt still lingers or spot therein be seen. Another door confronts us, the fearful door, the tongue. What devastation, havoc it has already done. We need to let our tongue be a messenger of joy, submissive to our Master and used in His employ. Not like a rampant fire, not like a plunging horse, not like a ship that's veering and steering far off course. And then have we considered the doors we face each day? For each one a decision is made upon our way? Do we heed all the warnings contained within God's Word, the no entries and danger where caution is implored? How sad if we ignore them! What misery and woe if we with willful boldness within those doorways go! And lastly comes the question, do we seek to do good, to bless lives and enrich them as every Christian should? This life is full of endless doors that fall upon our way, important which we enter or turn from every day.