Going For The Gold Series

Was it because you did not have enough faith?

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. – Matthew 7:7,8

NOW – this week as I began diving into these very familiar words, words I have known for years, words that I have repeated in conversations and in teaching. I found myself thinking hard about what this golden promise actually means...

(as you know this has happened a lot in our verse by verse through Matthew’s Gospel)

AND LISTEN – whenever we are trying to figure out what a particular section of Scriptures means, it is important for us to remember that context is... king.

UNDERSTAND – many times when we pull a verse out of its context, we end up losing its actual meaning.

Let me share a few examples of what I am talking about.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. – James 1:5

Context: consider our suffering and hardships as cause for rejoicing.

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. – Matthew 18:20

Context: church discipline

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Context: their partnership with Paul in spreading the Gospel message.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13

OKAY – so what is the context of the Golden Promise?

A.S.K. (Matthew 7:7,8) is a ‘progression-persistent-passionate prayer,’ fueled by the promise of God to empower His followers who pray this way, to live the kingdom life.

QUESTION...

o How bad do we want it?

o How bad do we want to experience the golden promise?

UNDERSTAND – when someone really desires the gold, the lengths that they will go through in order to get it are pretty incredible and mind-blowing...

Take Michael Phelps for instance,

Winner of...

• 28 Olympic medals (23 gold 3 silver and two bronze) he won 8 gold medals in Beijing alone, and the winner of

• 43 gold medals, 11 silver and 1 bronze in other world championships.

• 66 gold, 14 silver, 3 bronze = 83 medals.

Phelps competed in 5 Olympics, the first were the games in Sydney at age 15… Now he did not win a medal, he did make the finals and finished fifth in the 200 meter butterfly.

QUESTION – how bad did Phelps want gold?

WELL – checkout the diet and training routine that enable him to accomplish all of that he did...

Now though Phelps began swimming at the age of 7, and was setting national records at the age of 10...

He did not start serious training until the age of 11.

AND – from that time on...

He trained six hours a day, six days a week, without fail for 20 years. Even if Christmas day fell on a training day, he still did a full day of training.

AND – there was actually a period of 1800+ days (5 years) when in the water training every day.

He swam approximately 50 miles each week, which is over 8 miles per training day.