Generous Giver of Good Gifts

God, our Father is a Generous Giver of Good Gifts

When I look back at childhood memories, holidays usually stand out in my memory. My parents always went above and beyond to do their best to make them special - especially Christmas. They were all pretty special, but there is one Christmas that stands out to me as memorable beyond all of the rest.

I’m not really sure how old I was, probably around 12 or 13. My dad had been laid off from his job for several months, and with a large family, things were pretty tight financially. I wasn’t really expecting to get much for Christmas that year, because I thought they would focus more on providing a good Christmas for my younger siblings.

There weren’t as many gifts that Christmas morning, but they got me a stereo. It was the stereo my aunt had bought when she graduated from high school - she later sold it to my uncle, and my parents then bought it from him to give to me. Yes, it was a third hand stereo - yes, it had an 8 track player instead of the newer technology. Yes, it had been well used prior to becoming mine, but that didn’t matter to me. It made my Christmas, and obviously I have not forgotten it.

I have never been a very good giver of gifts. I try, but I never know quite the right gift to give. Some people have a gift of being able to select just the right gift.

Most people who are parents want to give the best gifts they can to their children. Of course, that doesn’t always mean giving physical things to them. Sometimes the best gift we can give are not physical things at all. Memories and experiences are sometimes the better gift to give. Sometimes the very things that a child wants most are not the kind of things that are good for the child, so we will avoid giving those things.

What kind of gift giver is God? We have been diving in deep to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7 over the past several months, and this morning we continue that deep dive as we turn to Matthew 7, beginning at verse 7.

Matthew 7:7–11 NRSV

7 “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10 Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

The verbs in verse 7 are all in the present tense. The implication is clear -

Ask, Seek, Knock

Ask - continue asking, Jesus says, and it will be given to you.

Seek - continue seeking, and Jesus says, you will find.

Knock - and keep on knocking - He says, and when you do, the door will be opened to you.

Ask - When a child first learns the concept behind the word “why”, they will use that word ad nauseam. It seems that everything you say, the response of the child is “why?” The asking never stops. There is a natural curiosity as young kids want to know why!

Kids ask “why” so much that parents get to the point that they don’t want to hear it anymore. In fact, parents often wish their kids would just stop asking why.

Jesus had taught us earlier in this Sermon on the Mount how to pray. We spent several weeks looking at that prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus returns to the topic of prayer here in these verses. He tells us that if there is something that we deeply desire that we should ask. In fact, Jesus says we should ask, and keep on asking! Over in James, chapter 4, we read this about asking:

James 4:2 NRSV

2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.

Ask and you will receive, Seek and you will find, Knock and the door will be opened to you.

Apparently, God does not tire of our asking, but if we are going to receive His best for us, we need to continue to ask.

Seek - As kids, who didn’t like to play hide and seek? Or, when I was a kid we played “kick the can” a game that had a similar idea, but involved a coffee can - yes, coffee used to come in an actual can! Jesus says if there is something you are seeking, continue to seek - do not tire of seeking, and you will find.

Knock - Incessant knocking can get annoying, and yet, Jesus says keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.

Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

So, is this a prescription for how to get what we want out of our Father in heaven? For sure, some people read this passage in that way, but I think there is so much more than trying to get stuff or to get the things that we want.

At first reading, if we would take this out of the context of the Sermon on the Mount, it would seem as if Jesus is here describing the way we get God to give us things that we wouldn’t otherwise get. Keep asking, Keep seeking, Keep knocking, until He gives in to our persistent and consistent asking, seeking, and knocking, and He provides everything we are desire.

Can that really be what Jesus is saying in these verses? There is so much more to these verses than that, though. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount and all that we have been studying over the past several months, the mindset that this is all about being able to get our way misses the point. While it is true that good parents want to give their kids the things they desire, good parents do not give their children everything they want! If my parents had always given me everything I wanted as a child, I would have never eaten a vegetable! A good parent knows that sometimes the very thing that a child desires is not beneficial, but will actually be harmful.

Yet, God will never hesitate to give us good gifts, in fact,

God, our Father is a Generous Giver of Good Gifts!

To drive home this point, Jesus uses some examples from everyday life. When we think of bread, we usually think of sliced loaves of bread to make a sandwich, but the bread that was usually eaten in Israel during Jesus’ day was a small loaf that resembled a rock. So, Jesus uses this play on the look and says: “who of you if your child asks for bread will give them a stone instead?” That maybe would be funny for a moment, but it would be mean and it could be cruel!

Or if your child asks for a fish, what good parent would give them a snake instead? In that Mediterranean culture, bread and fish were 2 staples of their diet. We know that in the story of the feeding of the 5,000, it was the lunch that a young boy brought and was used to feed the huge crowd. Bread and fish - staples of their diet. Bread and fish - important for their continued growth and development. Bread and fish - good for you and important - Jesus says that a good parent is not going to prevent their children from having these things that are essential to their development.

Just as a good parent will provide these things, Jesus says, how much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to His children - to us, when we continue to ask, continue to seek, and continue to knock. In contrast to God, we are evil, but we will give good gifts to our children and grandchildren, how much more will God give good gifts to His children?

In fact, God is a generous giver of good gifts!

Jesus then gives us what we know as the golden rule.

Matthew 7:12 NRSV

12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

Here is another verse that is well known even outside of church and outside of Christian circles. There are similar sayings in the Old Testament and even in the teachings of other ancient teachers. Yet, as far as we know, Jesus is the first to say it in a positive way. Others had said You should not do to others anything that you would not want them to do to you, but Jesus is the first to say it in a positive way. It is not enough, in other words, to avoid doing harm to other people, but we are to treat other people the way we would want them to treat us.

This is the way that God has treated and continues to treat us. God is a generous giver of good gifts. He provides for us everything we need. In the same way, Jesus says we need to to do to others what we would like them to do for us. Just as God is a generous giver of good gifts, you and I, if we are going to follow His lead, will be generous givers of good gifts!

I would like to close with a quote from Thomas Long. Long writes: “The school where I teach gave an honorary degree several years ago to a man named High Thompson. On March 16, 1968, Thompson was a young helicopter pilot flying on patrol over the countryside of Vietnam. When he and his crew flew over the village of My Lai, they saw a nightmare taking place below them. United States Army troops in Charlie Company, under the constant pressure of danger and the madness of war, had lost control of their discipline, reason, and humanity. They had begun slaughtering unarmed civilians in the village, most of them women, children, and elderly men. 504 people had already been killed.

Thompson set his helicopter down between the troops and the remaining villagers. At great risk to himself, he got out of the helicopter and confronted the officer in charge, William Calley. He than airlifted the few villagers still alive out of My Lai, and radioed a report of the scene, that resulted in a halt to their mission, thus saving thousands of innocent lives.

Standing there on the platform at the university commencement, Thompson was given the microphone, and he spoke to the question, “How could he have found the moral courage and strength to do what he did that day?” His answer surprised the audience of graduates, and brought them to a thoughtful silence.

“I’d like to thank my mother and father for trying to instill in me the difference between right and wrong,” he began. “We were country people. I was born and raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and we had very little. But one thing we did have was the Golden Rule. My parents taught me early, ‘Do unto others what you would have them do to you.’ I was raised as a Christian. That’s why I did what I did that day. Each of you are going to have to make many decisions in your life. Please make the right decisions, because we all depend on you.” Then he simply sat down.”

God, our Father, is a generous giver of good gifts

we are to follow His lead!

The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.

The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.

All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.

In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:

The minister may offer a prayer of confession and supplication, concluding with the following prayer of consecration:

Holy God,

We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.

On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Matthew 26:27–29, Luke 22:19)

And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.

By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:

(Here the congregation may pray the Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Before the partaking of the bread, let the minister say:

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

Before the partaking of the cup, let the minister say:

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.