Where Good Comes From
Transcript
All right, we're in Matthew chapter 7 today. It's on page 474. If you have one of these white Bibles, my name's Chet. If this is your first time hanging out with us, I want to tell you a little bit about what we do, what we believe, who we are. We believe that the Bible is trustworthy, that it is true. We believe that the God that we meet in that Bible is loving and good.
And so we get together, we open the Bible, and we study it. We spend a good bit of time every Sunday. We just take the time to read what it says, to study it. We believe that it's true, so we then try to seek to apply it to our lives. And so that's what we're about to do now. We've been walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount, which is probably the most famous sermon in the world.
Jesus preaches for three chapters, chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Matthew. And so we've just been going through chapters 5, 6, and 7, verse by verse, trying to understand what he's saying, what his point is, and how that looks for us to actually try to apply that in life. So we're going to be in Matthew chapter 7 today. We're going to pick up where we left off last week in verse 7. And I think we're in a bit of a danger today, just in our time this morning. And so we're going to read.
I think it will be most helpful for us to read the whole passage that we're going to look at this morning. And then I want to tell you what I think is a danger to us, what we actually need to be aware of as we study this this morning. So let's read it together. 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. 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?
So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. That passage is so nice. It's so nice. It's like a warm blanket out of the dryer. Like, by the time we get here in the Sermon on the Mount, like, this is just, it feels like your soul just got home from a hard day of work, opened the door, and your house smells like fresh-baked cookies.
Like, that's how nice that passage is. That, oh, you ask and you'll be answered. Seek and you'll find. Knock and the door will be opened. God is like a good Father who gives good gifts to his children. So, treat others the way you want to be treated.
Like, if you have, like, the old school flowy Jesus voice in your head, this is where he gets most Jesus-y sounding. Like, you can almost see him penning a lamb where he's just, everything is said. So soft. And so smooth. Like, but the problem, the danger that I think we're in today, is that we've all heard this 1,000 times. We know this.
Like, even if you're not a part of a church, even if you've never studied the Bible, maybe when we just read, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or treat people the way you want to be treated, you were surprised that that was in the Bible. You've heard that your whole life. You know that's the golden rule. You just didn't know Jesus said it. Or, you've heard even people who don't believe in anything, or just believe that there's a God, will tell you that he's a father, and that he's good. Like, that's mainline stuff.
So here's the deal. We'll read this. We're in danger of reading this section, that God's a good father, that he answers prayer, that he loves you, that he gives good gifts, and that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. And we'll all go, mmm, yes. When's lunch? And we'll move right on.
And here's the truth. As I've studied this this week, and I've thought about my life, and I know y'all, I've thought about y'all, I don't think we believe this, and I don't think we do it. This is such a beautiful passage, that it gets cross-stitched on little lacy pillows, and I actually don't think we believe it, and I don't think we do it, so let's cross-stitch that on a lacy pillow. Just put nuh-uh under it, I guess. Psych. Thanks, but no thanks.
That'll be on the backside of the pillow. So, here's what I want to do. I want us to see what he's saying, then I want to show you why I believe we don't believe it, and then, after we've done that, I want to show us how I think we can believe it, and how it can actually help us. Is that fair? Can we do that? Doesn't matter.
I'm going to. Let's pray, and then we'll start studying. God, we ask for your help this morning. As we approach some of the most, I think, warming, helpful, beautiful teaching that you give us in the Sermon on the Mount, I pray that we would not shoot past it, or convince ourselves that we believe it, because we know it, because we could repeat it, because we've heard it a thousand times. I pray that you'd help us to see with new eyes today, and evaluate ourselves well. We ask this in your son's name.
Amen. Okay, so, there is a difference between knowing something and believing it. There's a difference between having information in your head, and actually having it, it seep into your heart, and so that's what I, I think we all have this information in our heads, and I think it hasn't necessarily seeped into our hearts. So let's start looking at what he says. I just want to spend some time saying, this is what he says, and what it means, and then I want to say, here's why I don't think we believe it, and then we'll talk about how we actually can. So let's look at the first section first, verses 7 through 11.
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. 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? So Jesus sets this up as ask, seek, and knock towards God. So you want to ask God, you want to seek God, you want to knock on God's door. That's what he's saying. That's why he ends and says, how much more will your Father in heaven?
So he's calling us, commanding us, he gives three commands here, towards prayer, towards pursuit of God, knowledge of God. So this would include reading your Bible, this would include serving, giving, this would include any pursuit that helps you believe in, trust, and know God, that you would ask him, that you would seek him, that you would knock on his door, and that he would respond. So he gives three commands and six promises. Ask, and it will be given. Anyone who asks, receives. Seek, it's a command, and you will find.
Anyone who seeks, finds. Knock, and the door will be opened. To the one who knocks, it is opened. So he tells us to do something three times, and then he gives six promises that pair with those. And it's actually really encouraging. If you're praying, if you're seeking, if you're the type of person that you're here today because you're just checking this thing out, you don't know how you feel about Jesus, maybe you think he was an okay guy, maybe you think he was a prophet, maybe you kind of grew up around people who you believe, genuinely believe this stuff, but you don't know where you stand, this is an encouragement to you.
Start asking your questions. Start seeking the truth. Start knocking on Jesus' door. Start trying to talk to him. Start trying to understand what's going on, and he promises he'll respond. And then I love the illustration he gives.
He says, which one of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? It's a rhetorical question. People are like, no, I wouldn't do that. Like, I said to my kid the other day, he's two. He wanted some fish for dinner, so I stuck a snake on his plate and gave it to him.
It was hilarious. Nobody would do that. Like, y'all should call the cops. That is terrible. That's the point. He's like, this sounds ridiculous because no one would do this.
And then he says, you who are evil know how to give good gifts. He looks at them, looks at us, and says, y'all know you're messed up, right? Yes. You know you do pretty terrible stuff. Yes. Right.
But you wouldn't do this to a kid, would you? No. That's the point. That your God, your Father in Heaven, loves you so much more. How much more is he going to give good things to those who ask him? He's saying, nobody comes back empty handed.
You get to go to God and make your request. You get to go to God seeking and searching and he responds. But he actually tells us something that I think makes this so much better. He says, verse 11, 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? You know why that makes that so much nicer? He doesn't give you the thing you ask for.
He gives you good things. Sometimes what you ask for is a good thing. Sometimes it wasn't. He's not a genie. And I think a lot of us think it would be really nice if he was. But let's think about that for just a second.
If God just answered all of our prayers. First of all, that would mean all of our prayers, not just yours. So you may think my prayers are great. It's like, right. But if he's just going to answer everybody's prayers, your neighbor's an idiot.
No? Y'all's neighbors are great. The guy lives two doors down. Like, if he answers everybody's prayers. And you know how afraid you'd have to be about asking for the exact right thing? All right.
Let me give you an example of God not being a genie. When I was in middle school, I think in sixth grade, I was reading my Bible. That may be weird. I used to read my Bible. I'd read two chapters a day starting when I was about 12. I was reading my Bible and I would come across stuff where it said, if you have faith, anything would happen.
Like, God can answer prayers. If you have faith, you have faith. So I started trying to test this out. And what I would pray for before I would go to sleep, and I must have done this for a couple of months, was that I would wake up with a full beard. This is a legit, real prayer I had when I was in sixth grade. And I would wake up and think, I must not have enough faith.
I'd keep reading my Bible. I'd try it again the next night. And I kept thinking, maybe one day it's just going to happen. Here's the thing. You know how terrible that would have been if I'd have woken up in sixth grade with a full beard? My parents would have had to have taken me to the doctor because that would have been like a really scary thing to have happened.
I would have been like, no, I prayed for it. And they'd be like, no kid, like we got to go get you tested. Something wrong here. Also, like I'm really glad I didn't have to shave constantly through middle school. Some of you did. I'm sorry.
God didn't answer your prayer, I guess. I don't know. I didn't have to shave all the way through middle school. But eventually, and I don't think, I don't know if this has anything to do with that consistent amount of prayer in seventh grade, but I am the only one of my two brothers, there's three of us, who can actually grow a full beard. So they should have started praying in middle school.
They might have worked out. One of them can grow an amazing mustache and he cannot ever not grow that because when he shaves it it immediately pops back out, but that's about it. And the other one can grow a really awesome, like Fu Manchu, but that's it. That's why he rocks a Fu Manchu. He's one of our group leaders and you don't ever see him do anything else. They can, though, to make it fair, God evened it out, they can get a tan.
My skin just turns red and then falls off. So maybe he gave me a beard to protect my face. Here's the thing. God's not a genie. He gives good gifts. I have a two-year-old son.
He, when he turned two, was like, I'm going to start talking now. So that's been pretty cool. When he wakes up in the morning, he and I get to eat breakfast together a couple days a week because we both get up early and we'll eat breakfast before I go to work and I'll fix him breakfast. And on a very consistent basis, at least a couple times a week, he will say no to all the breakfast options. No eggs, no cereal, no Pop-It, which is how he says Pop-Tart, which is basically candy. But his mom is still asleep so I can feed him what I want.
But then he will, he'll go, because he's thinking about the options of things and he'll go, candy, chocolate, Pep-It, which means peppermints, which would be a terrible thing to eat for breakfast. He just likes them. And I will say, no, you're not eating candy for breakfast. Like, that's just not going to be good for him. If he ate it that morning, he would think it was delicious. He would think this was the best thing that ever happened.
But, it actually, he wouldn't understand the consequences later in the day when he didn't have any energy and he was frustrated. He wouldn't understand if we did this over time, like if I always let him eat candy every time he wanted to or if I always let him stay awake at night when I tell him it's bedtime and he says no sleep, I was just like, well, you know your body, bud. If you don't want to go to sleep, I'm cool with it. Like, that would be terrible for him. If he just ate candy and slept on his schedule, it wouldn't be good. So, I'm a father.
I care about him. So, I'd say no. Like, I'm slowly teaching him that bacon is better. That's what I'm doing. And here's the promise that Jesus makes here is that you get to go to God and ask. You get to walk to him every day and say, God, candy, chocolate, and peppermints.
And he, because he's a good father, gets to go, no, but I am slowly going to show you that bacon is better. Like, that's the promise here. That he's good. That he gives good gifts so that we get to ask him, but then we get to trust him. We get to ask. We get to seek.
We get to knock. But then we get to trust that he's going to take care of us, provide for us, and give us actual good gifts. I think that's the first thing Jesus is teaching here. Now, I want to show us, if I can, quickly, why I actually don't think we believe this. I'll start by kind of giving us an illustration, help us picture this. When I was growing up, my dad, I mention him periodically because he's a big figure in my life, and I'm really blessed to have the dad that I have, but he is a very intense man, and I slept so soundly in my house when I was growing up.
Because if you broke in my house when I was growing up, good luck. My dad is the equivalent of an angry bear in some ways. And so I just, I'd hear a noise and I'd be like, if that's a bad guy, good luck, buddy. I'd just go back to sleep. I didn't care. I wasn't afraid.
I wasn't scared. My dad would walk around the house at night. He would check things out. Like, I was never worried about this. I've had him before tell me that if, like, I was in a situation when I was in T-ball, and a coach was yelling at me, and I told my dad, like, I was kind of worried because there's a grown man yelling at me, and he was like, look, as long as he yells, it's okay, but if he touches you, you let me know, and I'll break every bone in his body. And my dad was serious.
Like, he'll go to the penitentiary for me. I didn't even bat an eye at that. I was like, all right, sounds good. So, a coach would yell at me, and I just wouldn't even flinch. Like, I, and that was how I slept. Like, my whole life, I just, I just knew that was the person who lived in my house, and I was going to be okay, and I could just rest because I knew if something went down, he would handle it.
He had our back. He was going to protect us. He would take care of us. I knew that. Like, I, there was never even a question in my mind. Fast forward to the time that I get married.
I get married, and my ability to sleep soundly disappeared. Every little noise. Like, there was something in my house, it would be like, like, it was like a cricket sneezed, and I'd be like, because suddenly, my dad wasn't there anymore. I had to do this. And my wife, who weighs about 100 pounds, it's never her turn. Like, we don't have a schedule of like, if someone breaks in on Tuesday, that's your turn, or I got the last one.
It's never like, hey, babe, you're up. Like, that's always my job. And so she would say, that's nothing, go to sleep. And I'd be like, yeah, you can say that, because if they come in the door, it's suddenly my problem, not yours. I'm going to go walk around and check. And so on a consistent basis, a couple of times a month, ever since I've gotten married, maybe a couple of times a week, just depending, sometimes a couple of times a night, I'm walking around my house looking for stuff because I heard some sort of phantom noise, and I won't be able to go to sleep until I find the person and attack them.
I also have it mapped out in my house which rooms I'm checking first and how I'm doing it, because, you know, I've got to pay attention to people getting behind me and stuff. I know what's up. Here's the thing. Here's why I think we don't believe this. Much of our lives, much of my life, is spent not in the peaceful, restful sleep of someone who knows their father is good and there and can handle it, but is in the restless, wakeful, tense, worry of is this going to work out is in the state of I have to make this work. I'm the one responsible.
So when it comes to work, when it comes to family, when it comes to children, when it comes to relationships, we're not living our lives as people who are at rest because their father is good and there. We're living our lives as people who have to be in control and make everything work out. You see, he says your father's good and good things come from him and you can trust him and you can ask of him and you can seek him and you can knock at his door and you can know that he'll give good gifts, but I think we spend so much time worrying about our ability to make this work that I just don't think we truly believe that. And I think it's not just our worries, our fears, our anxieties, our nightmares that betray us.
I also think it's our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, and the thing that we'll get on our grind for because what he says here is that good things come from God and I think for many of us, if you were going to say good things come from, you wouldn't end the sentence with God. You wouldn't end the sentence with Jesus. You wouldn't end the sentence with a heavenly father. You'd end the sentence with something like good things come from popularity, good things come from having a lot of friends. Good things come from being able to rest and vacation. Good things come from money and we know this when we're looking at our bank accounts that we've tied our hearts to it.
We know this when we're paying attention to our children. All the things that we put so much weight and pressure on, I just believe that we don't spend our life in the restful peace that this offers and so I think we don't actually believe it. We could say it. You could quote it to somebody. You would tell somebody in your community group that. God's a good father.
He's got you. I just want you to know they're sitting on the other side going it doesn't feel like that and I can't trust that right now. I really need my finances to work out. And you're going no, he's a good father. He's got you. But five months later when you're looking like you might lose your job and they're saying God's a good father.
He's got you. You're going it doesn't feel like that and I don't see that and I really need my job to work out. And I just think we don't truly believe this. It hasn't really sunk into our heart yet. Let's look at verse 12.
We're going to do the same thing. We're going to see what it says. I'm going to try to show you why I think we don't really believe this. We don't really practice this. So whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets.
So he's kind of coming to a conclusion here in the Sermon on the Mount the next couple of weeks as we go into Easter and the week after we're going to be finishing up and Jesus is going to kind of he's going to basically have said everything he's going to say and then he's going to kind of conclude it with let me be really clear about a few things. So this is kind of the end. He's actually tagging back to verse 5 chapter 5 verse 17 where he talks about the law and the prophets and he says so it's kind of in conclusion treat others the way you want to be treated. Do also whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them.
Where he talks about the law and the prophets and he says so it's kind of in conclusion treat others the way you want to be treated. Do also whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them. This is the law and the prophets. There's a book I heard about recently by a guy named Robert Fulham it says all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten I want to read y'all a little bit from the first chapter of that book
He says all I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten these are the things I learned share everything play fair don't hit people put things back where you found them clean up your own mess don't take things that aren't yours say you're sorry when you hurt somebody wash your hands before you eat flush warm cookies and cold milk are good for you
Take a nap every day when you go out into the world watch out for traffic hold hands and stick together he says everything you need to know is in there somewhere the golden rule that's this that's Matthew 7 verse 12 to do unto others as you have them do unto you or treat people the way you want to be treated he says it's in there the golden rule and love and basic sanitation ecology politics
Equality and sane living what he says is if you took any of those concepts and extrapolate them out into adult terms we'd be great things would work out fine if countries would put things back where they found them and clean up their own messes if everybody just followed the rules that you learned in kindergarten we'd be fine and here's the thing I don't think there's anything on that list we would disagree with some of you might disagree with naps and we'll begin the church discipline process soon
I don't think there's anything on there that we would disagree with but we also don't do that in life we just don't like treat others the way you want to be treated if we were in high school and you forgot you had a presentation today but it was on that you could show up to class be reminded you had the presentation walk up and wing it and you'd do fine because you can make arguments for that everybody can make an argument for why treating others the way you want to be treated makes life better we just could
But we don't do it we don't actually practice that that just means that in life you would think in every situation how do I wish they would act towards me and then you would use that as your framework for everything he says this is the law and the prophets this is what all the Old Testament was getting at in so many ways was just trying to get you to treat people the way you want to be treated but let's look at this if you're buying a house how honest should the seller be about the house's
Issues quality things that have happened things they've just fixed how honest okay thank you if you're selling a house 65% honest is okay mostly honest like I was pretty honest plus I kind of fixed that thing and you can't really see it unless you knew that it happened and looked in that corner with this type of lighting alright you hear a really good secret really good piece of information about someone it's like crazy interesting
And you know that other people want to hear it someone hears something like that about you how do you want them to respond I think I'd like for them to say something like that doesn't really sound all that true plus if we told people about it I don't think it would be that helpful maybe we should go talk to him and sort it out now that's how I'd like for them to respond but I can tell that I don't do that by how annoyed I would be
If a person said that to me after I told them something really interesting I don't think that's actually very helpful to spread around I think we should go talk to them and maybe you should apologize for telling people their information about their personal lives I would be like I hate you right now you just made that secret not fun at all and I would be actively fighting against people doing unto others like I'm glad I would love for people to do that towards me but I don't want to do it
Towards other people like that's a very difficult thing to do when the trash can's full or the sink is full how do you want people to treat you how about your neighbors or your waiter if you were a waiter or a waitress and you are just really having a rough day life's been going really poorly you have more people in your set you got scheduled because people had called out and so you were the one person who showed up because a couple people were sick and so you're handling
More tables than you can handle right now and you're not doing a great job because you had some stuff going on in life and you're a little bit frustrated that you're there and so you actually aren't the best waiter or waitress that day how do you want the people eating meals to treat you I want them to be pretty forgiving and gracious and to just assume I'm having a bad day and to tip me better because of it but if I'm sitting at the table
You've been sitting at a table and you're like frustrated about the service and you say something and a person at your table says they may just be having a really bad day how annoyed are you with them it's like maybe they're a terrible waiter it's possible he's having a bad day because he's a moron no just me come on this is what I'm saying like we know how honest do we want people to be how forgiving
How gracious how generous we can answer that question easily I can answer how I'd like to be treated so easily and then if you walk through my life and say let me show you how you treated this person let me show you how you spoke to them let me show you how you responded let me show you how you responded to their anger like for the most part I think my rubric is treat people how they're treating me if you're really nice there's a good chance
I'll be nice if you're rude I'll be rude if you've already done something to me if you've been spreading rumors about me and I suddenly get the chance to do that like there's a there's a chance I'm gonna go let's do this and that's the opposite every single one of us could stand up here and tell how beautiful the world would be if we just did this but we don't do it see I don't think
We truly believe that God's good and that he's our father and I don't think we actually practice this even though we would argue for it even though it would not automatically pop out of our mouths if we were dealing with a child where somebody would do something we go hey is that how you'd want to be treated I just don't think we believe it I don't think we do it here's why well let's look at this here
I think Jesus gives us a clue in the text as to how we can actually treat others how we can actually live out the golden rule I think he gives us a clue in the text I want to show it to you it's at the very beginning of verse 12 so I'll read that again in case I lost you so it's a two letter word it begins the sentence here's what it means in light of what I've already said that's what it means so like
You've been using the word so since first grade you use it all the time in normal language it's a concluding word you say stuff like I'm really hungry so I could eat anywhere somebody's like where should we go to lunch you say something like I don't have any money so I'll go with you wherever because I'm not going to be eating I'm going to be watching you like you take a bit of information you say so and now you have a conclusion and so it's weird to me because
Jesus says so whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets he says it as a concluding statement to some stuff that doesn't seem real connected to me he just got done saying that God's a good father who give you good gifts and then he says so treat others the way you want to be treated and it feels a little bit like he went A B green and thought we were supposed to catch that like it's just it feels a little weird
I don't know why he jumped to this but actually as I got to thinking about it it seems to make a lot of sense I think the primary reason that we don't treat others the way we want to be treated is that we don't want to lose if you treat others the way you want to be treated if you actually sit and spend any time thinking about this you're suddenly going to go wait I'm the only one who ever cleans up every time I see the sink is full I fill it up when a co-worker has been spreading rumors about me and then the boss comes and asks me
How I feel about them I'm suddenly supposed to think how do I wish they would treat me and even though I don't really like them try to find something gracious to say and maybe highlight some of their good qualities rather than just dogging them as best I can here's the problem with that I won't get a promotion how honest would I like someone to be if I was interviewing them real honest but I don't think I'd get a job if I just sat down and was completely honest with every question they asked
If I didn't put a little bit of spin on it some of you just thought yeah no you can't be honest in an interview that's my point like we don't believe the reason we don't do this is we don't want to lose we don't want to come in last we feel like there's so much pressure for us to make it work out for us to get it for us to accomplish it for us to make this work so that when Jesus says your God's a good father and good things come from him so treat others the way you want to be treated what he's saying is
You'll quit looking to others and to the world for all your good things so you'll actually be free to just treat them well you see when we spend all of our time looking at everybody else and needing them to fill us up and to make us okay that we believe that our good things are out there at our jobs and in our relationships and in our friendships and in our money when we believe all the good exists out there we can't treat people the way we want to be treated but once we believe
And fully know that God is good and our good comes from him then we're free then you're free to actually love people the way you want to be loved you're free to treat people the way you want to be treated see the reason I'm anxious and the reason I'm worried is because I feel like I'm going to lose I feel like I'm going to I'm going to mess this up I'm going to come and last other people are going to get ahead of me I'm going to fall behind so I can't treat people the way I want to be treated because I've got to get an edge I can't always just be serving and showing up early
And leaving late and filling in everybody's schedule every time they don't show up for work I can't be the only person who fills in slots for people who are sick that can't be just me but that's because we're not fully believing that our good comes from him we believe our good comes somewhere else we're actually asking and seeking and knocking in so many other places trying to find the good in life and we've forgotten that he's a good father who gives us our good things let's think about it this way if we're in a river and we're drowning
Just a couple of us if you're being washed down a river and you're drowning you're trying to keep yourself up the only way to keep yourself up if you've got other people around you is to grab them and pull them down it's the best way to get your head out of water is to grab somebody and pull them down if that's all you have around you is to grab something and pull them down but if it's just people if it's just the people around you all you can do is drown them a little bit so you can get some air but if as we're floating along someone's able to grab a hold
Of a root or a big tree limb or even the trunk of a very small tree suddenly they can pull themselves out and then they can help everybody else out in the river not because they're strong or amazing but because the tree is I think that's what Jesus is saying that as long as we believe that good is out there at work and in relationships and friendships as long as I believe that the good of my life will come from my wife do you know what will happen? at best I'll drown her I'll spend my life trying to get all the good
Out of her I can get and she won't be able to handle it she'll be the reason I'm happy and I'm okay and fulfilled and satisfied and I'll drown her or I'll drown if you're looking to your job and that's where good comes from if you're looking to your finances and that's where good comes from if you're looking to relationships or marriage or future marriage and that's where good comes from the best thing that can happen is you can either drown somebody else or you can drown see we're running around asking seeking and knocking so many other doors
And so many other places we're searching in so many places and asking so many people and so many entities and jobs and everything trying to get it to find our good and what he says is once you realize he's a good father and good things come from him then you're anchored then you get to be like the person standing on the riverbed holding on to a tree who can just give and it's not a problem to give because you know where all the good stuff comes from where all the strength comes from you've got a firm grip on him and his roots are dug deep and you are anchored
That's why he says you have a good father who'll give you good gifts so treat others the way you want to be treated but until we know that he's a good father and until we know that he gives good gifts we won't actually ever be able to do that now for some people in the room you're saying okay I've asked I've sought I've knocked that's a lie I begged I pleaded I searched I dug I read I prayed I wept I was banging on his door and cancer won
They still left it was a train wreck and that's a lie if you're going to stand up there and tell me that that was a good gift from a good God I'm out I don't want to tell you that if Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7 is all Jesus did this was all he did was walk around and teach things like this I'd be with you if all he did was maybe teach stuff like this and then heal some people if all he did was teach stuff like this and then maybe he fed 5,000 people and maybe he walked on water if that was all he did I'm with you I think that's a lie because I've stood next to people
In our church family and people I loved and I've watched things that I could not in any way say that's a good gift that I could only sit with them and cry and say I have no clue how a good God is even going to make anything of this this looks terrible and evil and broken and I am so sorry and if this was all we could hang it up we could walk away and I'd go with you but today is Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is in the Christian calendar it's the celebration that Jesus rode into Jerusalem
And he had people yelling Hosanna in the highest they were proclaiming his name they were worshipping him they were waving palm branches it was beautiful and they were celebrating that he was a good teacher and a good prophet who could feed 5,000 people and who could heal the sick and make the blind see they were celebrating all of that about Jesus and if it was just Palm Sunday I'd leave if it was just he said stuff like this that God's good and he's a good father and he's going to take care of you some of you are saying I was asking for bread and he gave me a stone
But you see Palm Sunday is a week out from Easter you see this Thursday we get a picture of Jesus Matthew's story isn't done here we get a picture of Jesus in a garden sweating drops of blood dripping out of his head as he begs his father if this cup can pass from me let it he's asking his father if I cannot have to go to the cross if there's another way let that happen and then he ends his prayer with not my will but yours and his father said no there's not another way
But this is the only way I'm going to be able to give good gifts and this is the only way I'm going to be able to bring good about you see the primary thing that on Good Friday that happens is that Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross that he was massacred that God's greatest gift he ever gave was an execution that his wrath was poured out on Jesus in our place and that it was in the midst of that pain and fear and upheaval and chaos that he was turning the world on its head
So that we could actually have good gifts so that he could actually pursue us and redeem us and set us free from sin and give us himself and if it was just this if Jesus just taught and did some miracles I'd walk away with you but because he didn't we get to stand with each other and say I don't know how this is good I think it's a train wreck I know that sin's at work here but I trust that Jesus is good and I know that he's trustworthy because of the cross God definitively made this true when he when Jesus was nailed to a cross when he gave his son for us
He definitively guaranteed that he is good and he is for our good because he loves us enough to give his son for us Romans 8 verse 32 says he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give all things give us up give all things give us all things see the promise we have in the cross is that God's not withholding from you he's not going to give you a stone he's not going to give you
A serpent he is good and he definitively proved it on the cross now your circumstances may not work out the way you want them to what you're praying for may not be what you get but you can trust definitively and forever that he is good and he is for your good because he gave us his son and how much more will he not give us all things how much more is he not using that to redeem us and to make us okay some people say I trusted God and he failed me
The truth was we trusted him to fulfill our plan and our wisdom and he didn't but because of the cross we can know that he's trustworthy so that we can continue to trust him when it doesn't work out the way we want to that's the promise we have in the cross and that's the king that we have and that we follow in a few minutes when we get done here there's going to be about 30 children running laps in this room it's going to be a lot
It's a lot to take in if you don't have kids I'm sorry I have to try to like I got one he's running around I have to pay attention because every once in a while he just scoots out the door and it's like I really don't want him running out in the parking lot but there's just a pile of kids running around here and one of the coolest thing to see about children is when something happens that scares them or if they just suddenly realize that they don't see their parents anymore have you ever seen a kid do this so they're running around playing
And it's like ah ah ah and all of a sudden they'll go ah like they just they lose it my son says mama are you mama are you that's what he does he runs around he'll like he'll freak out there's one little boy in our church his dad and I were talking the other day and his dad kept trying to put him down and his son was fine but as soon as he would do this he would go ah ah
And grab him he's like I'm not going anywhere you've lost your mind you think you're setting me down here with all these other kids running around it's something bad going to happen I ain't going to trust these people it's built into them that protection and safety and goodness comes from their parents and we as a church have to have it soul level bedrock deep built into us that all of our good
Comes from God or we'll never be free we have to be so fixated on the cross so changed by his love for us so overwhelmed by the grace that was given to us that we don't have to be good or moral or perfect or fix ourselves or clean ourselves up but that he died for us so that we could be clean that he loves us so much that he gave his own son for us that we can be welcomed into the family and it's got to be our natural reaction
That when things in life aren't going well that we're just grabbing onto our father and saying okay I'm alright if you're here I can trust because you're here you see so many times we get shipwrecked because the thing that we were holding on to to tell us we were okay was a relationship and it just can't keep you afloat the thing that we had grabbed onto to tell us we were going to be fine was money
And it just can't keep you afloat and we have to train ourselves that when anything happens our head snaps around we run to God and that we're already just nestled in the crook of his arm holding tightly to him and knowing that all my good comes from here so I'm actually now free to love people the way I'm supposed to I'm free to give free to care because I'm firmly fixed in Christ and what he's done for me and in the father
Who's good who gives good gifts I do want to say this he says ask seek knock those are action commands us being firmly rooted in this good God involves us pursuing him so that we actually know how good he is so this means praying this means reading our bibles this means taking time to really be
Devoted to our community group some of you are kind of in a group but it's optional for you because you have a lot of other things that you're asking seeking and knocking and wanting to have fill you up and fix you this takes actually saying no this is this matters because it's one of the ways that I tether myself to the cross tether myself
To God's people some of us this is money you'll make you'll set aside money for anything you care about so one of the bible tells us is what Jesus said earlier that our monies are our monies our money is tied to our hearts and some of us just need to start giving need to start setting aside money to just try to move your heart a little bit to begin
To trust and believe some of this is serving it's an action that needs to be taken so I just want you to think if you just need to say okay I can set aside time for my favorite tv show I actually work my whole schedule around it or it's not uncommon for me to binge on Netflix but it's hard for you to pray for more than
Three minutes maybe you're asking seeking and knocking is just saying I'm going to set aside time every day I'm going to pray for at least 15 minutes I'm at least going to stay in the chair even if my mind wanders one of the things I do if someone's like I have ADD I can't pray I set a phone alarm for three
Minutes I'll only be distracted for three minutes then it beeps and I restart it and remember I was supposed to be praying some of you it's bible reading you say well I don't really read you know all the stats for your favorite sports team maybe you watch that on ESPN but they're also bible apps that
Will read to you so I really have very little like we have way more opportunity to get to the bible than anybody else ever has in history but he says ask seek knock and then he promises you won't miss out it won't be a waste of time I will respond I'll open the door I'll answer you'll find it's worth it so I would just challenge us as we
Try to begin to fully not just know but believe that he is a good father so that we can actually be free to love people the way we want to the way we're supposed to that we would actually act on that not just not alone and go home and go right back to what we were doing and miss out on what was so beautifully promised to us by the by Jesus who
Loved us so much that he gave his life for us let's pray God we ask that you would give us the courage the determination and the discipline to ask seek and knock that you would help us to see all the places that we're running to right now believing that good things come from there all the doors we're knocking
On all the things we're seeking all the all the questions we're asking that ultimately just lead to our own destruction and our own failure Lord show us where we're drowning and drowning others so that we might begin to actually pursue you and to begin to realize where all the good things really come from
We love you we praise you in Jesus name amen