God and Ourselves

Intro

Story of my 6th/7th birthday in Durango, CO

Spiderman themed

Spiderman 3 laptop

I didn’t know it existed, I didn’t ask, but I had received

Relates to God’s goodness in giving what is good for us, keeping away what is not good for us

Recap

We have made it so far through the introduction and part of the body of the Sermon on the Mount

            The introduction is all about our Kingdom Identity

He starts by portraying the essential elements of Christian character in the Beatitudes

He then moves to describe the influence of good we have if we exhibit this character in the metaphors of salt, light, a city

The first section in the body of the Sermon is how we are to have a Greater Righteousness than the Pharisees and Scribes

This righteousness is to be focused inwardly, not externally, and it is to penetrate our mind, motives and even the secret places of our hearts

We then moved into the second section of the body of the sermon where Jesus describes our inner righteousness towards God the Father in the ways we express our devotion to Him

We express our devotion to God out of love for Him that brings a real reward of knowing Him and being known by Him

We continue into the last part of the body of Jesus’ sermon that teaches of our relationships with God and with others

Are we serving God and are we doing so in a healthy manner?

Lean on your Faith in trusting your Father as you seek His Kingdom First

We do not bring condemnation but we first self-evaluate our sin

Scripture

Matthew 7:7–8 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Pray with PERSISTENCE

Jesus now seems to be bringing in something totally random by going back to prayer when He already mentioned prayer in 6:5-15

Just like last week, it feels like this is out of place, like it doesn’t belong here

As Jesus is Jesus, He spoke this here for a reason, and that reason is prayer

But it is not just prayer, it is persistent prayer

We walk through life in relationships with other people

We walk through life and catch glimpses of stranger’s lives

Whether stranger, friend or family, we do not judge to condemn but judge to call out sin

We learned that last week

Judging correctly, after we had evaluated ourselves, it takes wisdom to know when to judge sin in someone’s life, and even more wisdom on the timing to bring it up

Because it takes wisdom, Jesus invites us to create a habit of asking for wisdom

Like Solomon 1 Kings 3

It takes wisdom to live in relationship with someone

It takes wisdom to discern the fruits of someone whether they are of the Spirit or flesh

Ask, Seek, Knock - they are invitations and commands to promise

These promises are conditional, meaning, if we are to ask, seek, and knock - we receive the promise and they are expressed universally, available to everyone

If they were unconditional, God would be like the Genie and we would be Aladdin asking the Genie to do anything that we wish

This would mean God answers to us, and not us to God, it would be a burden for us to bear because our wisdom would fail in things we request

Keep asking - seeking - knocking we give God the opportunity to keep showing us His character, mercy, and love

This invitation shows us that God desires to bless us and respond positively to our prayers and needs

God will bless us according to what He knows we need, according to His will, and according to what He knows we will use for His glory

Within this there might be some problems that arise:

Prayer is improper

It seems we may have to inform or persuade God of what we need by the constant asking, seeking, knocking

Like we are pestering God to pay attention and answer us

That is not what is communicated here

God already knows what we need, He is just waiting for us to ask, like a parent waiting for their child to ask for food when lunch times rolls around

When we do come around to asking for whatever it is we are asking for, it lies in us if we are ready to receive that blessing/want or not

This is also a humbling act for ourselves to recognize our dependence on God and ask for such things

Prayer is unnecessary

We can look around at life and see people, who do not pray and who do not know God, living the life

They have a 6-digit salary, the nice car, the nice house, the big family, they have it all and they don’t pray so it is unnecessary

Jesus, is not referring to specific material blessings

We can seek material blessings from Jesus and He can grant them, that is true, but not the main idea here

Jesus is referring to spiritual blessings

Daily forgiveness - deliverance from evil - peace - increase in faith - hope - love - being filled with the Spirit (Luke 11:13 “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”)

In prayer, in persistent prayer, we can seek out these spiritual blessings as we pray over and over for them and allowing God the opportunity to move in our lives as we seek Christ, we look to find Him and draw close to Him

We seek Jesus through prayer, through Scripture, through fellowship, through singing songs and its available everywhere (in church, at home, in your car, at work)

Prayer is unproductive

We may see this problem when it comes to unanswered prayers

This leads us to understand that God does not always have to say “yes” to our prayers

He is God, He has all the wisdom and He knows our hearts

If He seeks us knocking on the door of something, whatever it may be, and He knows it is good for us He may say “yes” to that and open that door for us

Vice versa, if He seeks us knocking on something that is not good for us, He may say “no” and keep that door closed

God knows what is good for us and what is not good, let us trust that wisdom whether He answers “yes” or “no”

Persistence we are to have, we keep praying those prayers of provision, healing, guidance, deliverance, we keep praying and we don’t want to give up until we see God answer, hear God answer, or open the doors

Jesus compares how God answers prayers in this parable

Scripture

Matthew 7:9–11 ESV

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Pray with CONFIDENCE

Jesus speaks in another humorous parable, just like it is humorous imagining us walking around with a 2x4 in our eyes

Pretty simple, a child asks their father for some bread and a fish and that father gives his child some stones and a snake

Which parent would do that? NO PARENT

And if no evil parent would do that to their child, rather they would give good gifts to display their love, God can do even more than that because He is not evil

This idea of evil refers to our sinful and selfish nature just as humans

We have been redeemed by Jesus, we have been filled with the Holy Spirit, we know God, and because we know God - we now know good and we know how to be good as we are being shaped and molded into the character and image of Jesus

But we all sin, we all do, it is just the way of life

The difference between us knowing God and not knowing God is that His Spirit convicts us of sin, and we are moved to repentance because we notice how sin separates us from God and from others

So we self-evaluate, we confess our sins, and we repent and draw closer to God

The evil within us, is the pull of sin, the pull to do what we want, to live in the pleasures that we want, not to live God’s way

If we are this evil, and we have children, or a family in general, we are going to provide and love on that family

We are not going to mock our child when they ask for something they need like food, no we quickly provide

God is contrasted the same way

Not as an evil parent, but as a good parent, a parent who knows no evil because He is our Heavenly Father who knows all of our needs before we ask Him

Now that we have been redeemed by Christ, we are now adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters and we have access to pray to God and ask Him for bread and a fish, to ask for what we need

Because we belong to this family, we belong to God, and we know Him as a good good Father, we can pray in confidence that He hears us, and He will answer us

We can ask God for anything and everything just as we would ask our earthly fathers for anything and everything

That is our foundation for prayer, confidence in God’s goodness!

Whenever I played basketball, my freshman year I was a shooting guard, and then I hit my growth spurt, when from 5’9” to 6’3” really quick, in the span of one summer, and then my coach moved me from guard to forward

I went from playing on the outside to playing the inside

And I hated it

My sophomore year, I was not a good forward, I didn’t like the physicality

Junior year, I started to get used to it especially playing against some other big guys on my team

Come my senior year, after playing with the bigger guys on my team, I finally had enough confidence to play against any other forward

We played Santa Fe High School in a tournament and they had a 6’7” guy who was a junior that already signed with UNM to play basketball

Whenever I stepped on to the court for a game or for practice, it was this mindset that I had that I was going to win any fight against the big guy because of the confidence I had

We can have that same idea with prayer

We have a Heavenly Father who knows all we need, knows all that we are, knows who we are, but also, has the whole world in His hands, nothing is out of His control

That should give us confidence

The God who created the universe desires to answer our prayers and provide for our needs, that is the confidence we should pray with

Scripture

Matthew 7:12 ESV

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Prayer is an INVITATION

We know this verse as the “Golden Rule” and it may be listed in your Bibles as the “Golden Rule,” it is in mine

This is the way Jesus concludes the body of His sermon

“So” refers to so much

It refers to the passage this morning, v. 7-11

It refers to last week’s passage v. 1-6

It refers to all of chapter 6

It refers to chapter 5:17-48

This verse encourages us to evaluate others fairly and it shows us the theme of a Greater Righteousness in the world and in our relationships

This gives us a vision that brings the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (5:17) and describes how we can be perfect just as God is perfect (5:48)

This verse is the invitation to be compassionate and kind and patient to others

It gives us the invitation to live out our prayer lives by treating others the way we wish to be treated

Jesus tells us we can choose how we respond when others are doing wrong

When someone treats us with hate, we have the chance to love

When someone treats us with impatience, we have the chance to show compassion

The other night, Mason and I drove to Floydada to get some Dairy Queen ice cream, and we go inside to order because we didn’t understand the drive-thru, and we are inside, standing at the counter waiting to be helped

And there is a worker doing something at the counter, I am starring at her, she is doing something, I wasn’t paying any attention to what she was doing because the question that was going through my mind was, “why didn’t she greet us when we came in and told us to wait and she would help us momentarily?”

At the Brew, when I am usually busy making some coffee drinks, someone shows up to the counter to order and as I was taught, to address the customer and tell them I would be there when I finish

That whole idea is going through my mind as we stood there for five minutes before being helped by someone else

This verse ran through my head

How would I like it if someone told me how to do my job while I am on shift

Even though, those things were running through my mind, the Golden Rule gives us this invitation to bring down the Kingdom of Heaven in the way we choose to treat individuals

I did love on those dairy queen workers the best I could as a customer

The Golden Rule is more than just an ethic or a way to live life, it is a command from Jesus that is the summation of the essence of God’s character and what God requires of His people

To love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself

The Golden Rule is an aphorism, or maxim, or summary, of the 2nd greatest commandment

The Golden Rule is something we can pray, that we would have the strength and wisdom to treat others the way we want to be treated, for the opportunity to show someone the love of God

Conclusion

With that, this brings the body of the sermon to a conclusion

We are one step closer to finishing out the Sermon on the Mount and one step deeper in understanding the foundational teachings of Jesus

Even with prayer today that Jesus reveals some important information when it does come to prayer that may answer some of our biggest questions:

Why didn’t I get an answer to my prayer?

Why does it seem God doesn’t hear me?

God does hear, He desires to answer our prayers as we ask Him, as we seek Him, as we keep knocking at the door for wisdom in direction for life, for wisdom in correcting sin in our selves and in our brother’s and sister’s life, for wisdom as we discern who to share the truth of Jesus with

Wisdom is the one thing God does not fail to give, and He will give of it to whoever asks

As you pray today and this week, what is the one thing you are persistently praying about?

Are you praying in confidence or do you feel you are bothering God? Remember, you are His child and He loves to talk to His children, He loves to hear your voice

Where are you invited and given the opportunity to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth?

Don’t stop asking, don’t stop seeking, don’t stop knocking

PRAY