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Scenarios. Honestly, I can't last five minutes that somebody doesn't text me back, that I don't start making up the most screwed-up scenarios in my head. I feel for Paul. I'm serious. If I don't see bubbles within 25 seconds in my mind, she's dead. The car has flipped seven times. It's horrible. I know it's kind of funny, but it's really not in the moment. Anyone like me? You have two minutes to respond to me, and I'm freaking out. Maybe they don't like me anymore. Maybe they don't respond to me anymore. When it's on green, when I text you and it's on green instead of blue on my iPhone, oh, my God. Last week, I preached about green, but if the text comes back green, you've got your phone off. You don't ever want to talk to me again. I can get so offended. I am so bad at interpreting silence and space, and so this is Paul's moment. Paul's like, I sent Titus to find out, and I couldn't find Titus, so I left Troas because I couldn't find Titus. I left the open door because I had no peace. Opportunity, because although the door was open, see, that's the enemy's strategy. That's why he says you can't let the devil out with you. He is using stuff that hasn't even happened yet. Run you off from opportunities that are right in front of you. You see how smart he is? He's bringing movies from the past. He is bringing classic movies back. That happened 20, 20 years ago, and it keeps you from seeing what's standing two feet in front of you, but God said, when I open the door, no devil can shut it, and the reason that the devil is at the door to begin with is because what God has on the other side of it is so important. Oh, yeah, so important. There will always be a devil at the door of anything important that God brings you into, of anything significant that God brings you into. There will always be an enemy to any significant. You know why there's a devil at the door? Because what is on the other side really matters. You are an important city. You are a chosen vessel. You might not be Paul, but God has something with your name on it. There's a devil at the door, and the bigger the opportunity is, the bigger the devil is going to be. Don't you know that by now? The bigger it is what's on the other side of the door.
A while back... I don't know how to tell you. I don't know how to tell you. I don't know how to tell you. I don't know how to tell you this story, because it's kind of tender to me. I was about to do something really significant in this ministry. I can't tell you what it was, because it would expose me too much, and I'm not ready to have a relationship with you on that level yet. On the way to the thing I was going to do, I broke down crying. I don't cry a whole lot. Only Rudy and Rocky III can make me cry. It's the third time in my life I ever cry. Holly has seen me cry so little she thought I was playing. She says, "Stop playing." This is not funny, because my head was down, and I was laying on the bed, and my head was down on the pillow. She said, "Stop playing." I couldn't answer her to tell her I wasn't playing, because I was crying, and I didn't know why I was crying. Nobody had just died. I didn't have any technical reason to be sad in that moment, but what was on the other side of that evening was so important that I believed there was a devil at the door. There is always a devil at the door when God is bringing you into something important. Why do you think kids get demon-possessed as they go through puberty? If you don't know that, you'll think, "The devil is at the door." This must not be God. No, no, no, no, no. The devil is giving you an indication that this is so big. This is so important. This might be a life-saving word for somebody. Have you thought about this? Somebody might be on the brink of suicide while I'm preaching, and they can't understand. Why am I feeling this depressed? Why am I going through this darkness? But what you might not know is that the size of the devil that is at your door indicates the size of the assignment that is on your life. Don't die here. This is a door. This is a door. This is a door. And the door that God opens, nobody can shut. Nobody can shut. And don't you let the devil use the door of what you don't know to fill your mind with hypothetical scenarios that cause your heart to close. There's always a devil at the door. There's always an insecurity as you move deeper into your purpose and your awareness of your true condition in Christ. But he can't close the door. He can't close the door. He can't close the door. He can't close the door. God opens. All he can do is try to get your mind so screwed up that as you wait for Titus to bring you news, you say goodbye to Troas.
We don't see Paul walk away from any other open doors in Scripture, but he said, "I had no peace of mind." You know what? Four chapters go by, and Paul doesn't even mention what happens next. I said goodbye to Troas. I went to Macedonia, most probably Philippi, and I waited for Titus. Every day that I didn't see Titus, I started making up stuff in my mind. The enemy is using a story to keep you from going through your door. They won't really like you. They won't really accept you. Nobody really cares about you. You don't have what it takes. You're going to fail, and everybody's going to laugh. So he can't close the door, but he can tell you a story. And every day Titus doesn't show up, Paul has a little bit harder time trusting that everything's going to be all right. It isn't until chapter 7, verse 5 of 2 Corinthians, that we see that what Paul was so troubled about, God had already worked out. He said, when we got to Macedonia, we left Troas. We got to Macedonia. We had no rest. On every side, watch this. This is the trouble on the outside. He said, harassed at every turn, conflicts on the outside, but that's not what stops you. It's never the conflicts on the outside that stop you. Someone else has overcome much more than you to get where they are, but it's the fears within, Paul said. And then, in months of wondering, who am I preaching to? I know it's been about an hour I've been up here talking, but I've been talking to you, haven't I? It's been months you've been wondering. It's been in a suspended state for months. And every day you waited for Titus, and he didn't come with news of the solution, the outcome. It's your mind. It's your mind. It's your mind. Your mind is like that Mediterranean sea where you wonder, is everything going to be all right? But he said in verse 6, "But God, but God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us." The coming of Titus. The word of the Lord is Titus is here. Because when Titus finally arrived, verse 7, he said he not only comforted us by his physical presence and his coming, but by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for him, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever. So that my joy was greater than ever. Joy is coming. Hope is coming. Reconciliation is coming. The restoration of all things is coming. And I declare it by, faith, not by sight. My eyes haven't seen it yet, but I know it in my heart. Titus is coming. And he said, "I spent all those months worried about something that God had already worked out." So you're standing before an open door. You don't always see it. You don't always feel it. You can't identify it because you've got a troubled mind. But let's just take a moment. Stand up. Let's just take a moment and be still in the presence of God. Because all the conflict on the outside, that's nothing compared to the fears on the inside. Let's just take a moment and be still in the presence of God. Let's just take a moment and be still in the presence of God.
