Going For The Gold
Matthew 7:7-12
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QUESTION...
Are you ready for some Word of God this morning?
Are you open to whatever that Word has to say?
And do you believe that God’s Word really...
• is alive and active, sharper than a double edged sword?
• can judge the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts?
• is able to equip us for every good work that God has for us to do?
• will fall on us that today, and like rain and snow falling from the sky will not return to Him void, but will accomplish what He desires, achieve His purposes, causing our lives in Him to bud and flourish?
Me too...
Okay, here is our text for this morning...
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.
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:7-12
May God bless the reading of His living active word!
MGCC – 2000 years ago on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus preached the greatest sermon ever preached, His Kingdom Manifesto, about what it looks like to live in His Kingdom...
106 verses, ~ 2,349 words that are simply overflowing with: truth, power, depth, insight, beauty, encouragement and challenge.
AND – as crazy as it sounds MGCC... we have spent 37 weeks plunging the depths of Jesus’ timeless, vital and much needed message.
OKAY – now don’t put a lot of money on it (because you know how things can go with me) but nevertheless I am reasonably confident that next week we will wrap up our time in the SM with a conversation I am calling, “Gates, Fruit and Builders.”
AND THIS MORNING – we will be doing a deep dive into Matthew 7:7-12 in a conversation that I’m calling, “Going For The Gold.”
QUESTION – when you hear those words, ‘going for the gold,’ what images almost immediately come to mind...
The Olympics, right?
NOW - this week I came across the following video of some very unique Olympic games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x04jgjQ_hLI&t=1s
Baby Olympics
NOW – there was not any deep theological meaning in showing that clip... it was just for fun...
AGAIN - I just kind of stumbled across it this week.
OKAY – let’s do this, “Going For The Gold” and MGCC the way I want to attack our text is by unpacking two statements...
• The Golden Promise
• The Golden Rule
Prayer...
OKAY – let’s do this!
Matthew 7:7-12, “Going For The Gold”
I. The Golden Promise
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
QUESTION... so, what do you think of these two verses?
have you ever heard them before?
do you find them to be encouraging?
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you...
LIKE - what an awesome promise, right?
IF – you ask for it, you get? IF – you seek it, you will find it?
AND IF – you knock the door will be open.
I MEAN – it almost seems like the Maker of heaven and earth is offering to be our cosmic vending machine...
Just place the right prayer in the slot and God will give you whatever you ask for.
BUT – is that really what this verse is saying... that God is obligated to do and give us, whatever we want or ask for?
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you...
OR MAYBE - you have found these words to be a little confusing and discouraging... BECAUSE - there ever been times when you have prayed really hard about something... Times when you did not just ask, but you keep asking and keep seeking and keep knocking...
YET – you did not receive or find, and the door was not opened.
Why not? Was it because you asked in the wrong way?
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.
That’s 2600 miles per year and 52,000 miles until he retired in 2016... (around the world at the equator 2 times with 2000+ miles left over).
Plus 3 days each week with a few hours of weight training and stationary bike training.
MGCC – that’s how bad did Phelps wanted gold?
And Listen the diet he ate to fuel this ‘I want it’ was insane.
Phelps did not have a strict menu to follow.
He actually ate what he wanted to eat, whenever he wanted it.
ON – a normal day, here is what he usually ate (~ 10000 calories a day, normal is 2000-2500):
QUESTION – how bad do you want to live the kingdom life?
Enough to...
• ask and keep on asking
• seek and keep on seeking
• knock and keep on knocking (same word that was used in Acts 12 to describe Peter knocking on the door of the home where the church was gathered after his miraculous escape from prison)
NOW – this idea that we have to really want something before God will actually give it to us is not new.
LIKE – we see it in Jeremiah...
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:11-13
AND – we also see this you gotta really want it in order to find idea in Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom in Matthew chapter 13... where the people who found the kingdom where those who search for it, like someone looking for a treasure hidden in a field or for a pearl of great value.
AGAIN B/S – how bad do you want to live the kingdom life?
Enough to...
• ask and keep on asking
• seek and keep on seeking
• knock and keep on knocking
OKAY – image that you really love chocolate frost donuts.
AND – you have heard a rumor that there is a box of fresh ones in your house.
Ask – where are the donuts... (upstairs)
Seeking – where I can’t find them (JinTao’s Room)
Knocking – hey I know they are in there and I will keep knocking until you open up the door and give me some.
QUESTION – who here in this room thinks that they can live the Kingdom life that Jesus lays out in the sermon on the mount in their own power.
B/S – do you ever look at this stuff and are like, there is no way I will ever be able to pull this stuff off.
I MEAN – I try but I always eventually fail.
UNDERSTAND – we cannot live the kingdom life on our own and we were never intended too.
God will help us if we A.S.K.
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
MAN – I sure hope that this is making sense to you.
Matthew 7:7,8 is a very specific prayer and 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.
NOW BEFORE – we move on to the Golden Rule, let’s take a look at Matthew 7:9-11 and see why they tell us about God.
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! - Matthew 7:9-11
God is accessible
LIKE – He is near enough for us to ask.
God is accessible.
He (despite greatness that no one can fathom) is not distant and detached but up close and personal.
God is our Father
UNDERSTAND MGCC – Jesus is grounding our prayer in the realization that God is our Father.
AND LISTEN – throughout Scripture we over and over again this picture of God adopting us into His own family.
IN – John chapter one, Ephesians chapter one, Galatians chapter 4, Romans chapter 8...
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God... - 1 John 3:1,2
UNDERSTAND – the only person who dares to wake up a king @ 3 am for a glass of water is his child.
AND B/S – we have that kind of access!
God likes to be asked
NOW – there is this scene in CS Lewis’ book, ‘The Magicians Nephew,’ where a couple of children are riding on a magical flying horse.
And Aslan in these stories is a representative of Jesus.
SO – they (Polly Digory) are riding on this Magical horse named fledged and they decide to land in order to find a good spot to spend the night. Lewis writes...
The valley in which they had come down was in the heart of the mountains; snowy heights, one of them looking rose-red in the reflections of the sunset, towered above them.
“I am hungry,” said Digory. “Well, tuck in,” said Fledge, taking a big mouthful of grass. Then he raised his head, still chewing and with bits of grass sticking out on each side of his mouth like whiskers, and said, “Come on, you two. Don’t be shy. There’s plenty for us all.”
“But we can’t eat grass,” said Digory. “H’m, h’m,” said Fledge, speaking with his mouth full. “Well—h’m—don’t know quite what you’ll do then. Very good grass too.”
Polly and Digory stared at one another in dismay. “Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our meals,” said Digory. “I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge. “Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly. “I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse (still with his mouth full). “But I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked.”
QUESTION – why God wouldn’t just enable His followers to live the Kingdom life without asking, seeking and knocking.
NOW – one reason we already mentioned is that God wants to know that we really want it. AND ANOTHER REASON – is that
the key to kingdom living is our ongoing relationship with Him.
God is accessible, God is our Father, God likes to be asked, AND
God is the giver of good gifts
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:11
QUESTION – can you think of a better gift than the ability to live a kingdom life? A Life that Jesus says (among many other things) in His Manifesto...
• inherits the earth, experiences comfort, is filled and satisfied, is shown mercy, will see God, called a son of God, lives in forgiveness and not bitterness
• controls their anger, overcomes lustful thoughts, honors marriage, lives in truth and not falsehood, does not overreact when wronged, loves their enemies, does not need to be seen by other people but lives for an audience of one, overcomes worry and anxiety living one day at a time trusting in God
A life that also experiences such things as....
• a living hope
• an inexpressible and glorious joy.
• a peace that transcends all understanding
• contentment in every and any situation
• a family to belong to where we are loved, known and cared for
YEAH B/S – you better it, our God is the giver of good gifts
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.
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
II. The Golden Rule
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. - Matthew 712
QUESTION – do you why it is called the ‘golden rule?’
NOW – I really didn’t until this week.
(best rule, greatest and most valuable moral principle)
A Roman Emperor early in the 3rd century, Severus Alexander, came across these words of Jesus and them engraved on golden panels in his throne room, palace and in other buildings.
NOW – before Jesus there was a rule that was similar to the golden rule, but it was always stated in the negative.
IN FACT – the well-known Rabbi Hillel who lived during the time of Jesus, stated the principle this way,
“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow creatures.”
AND – that is a not a bad rule, right?
Like if you don’t want people to do bad stuff to you, then don’t do bad stuff to them
AGAIN – not a bad rule at all...
BUT – if you think about it, it is a rule that we can obey simply by not doing anything.
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. - Matthew 712
NOW – I really like what DA Carson wrote in his commentary on the Sermon on The Mount.
Jesus gives the positive form of this rule, and the difference between the two forms is profound.
For example, the negative form would teach behavior like this: If you do not enjoy being robbed, don’t rob others.
If you do not like being cursed, don’t curse others.
If you do not enjoy being hated, don’t hate others.
If you do not care to be clubbed over the head, don’t club others over the head.
However, the positive form teaches behavior like this:
If you enjoy being loved, love others.
If you like to receive things, give to others.
If you like being appreciated, appreciate others.
The positive form is thus far more searching than its negative counterpart. Here there is no permission to withdraw into a world where I offend no one, but accomplish no positive good either. What would you like done to you? What would you really like? Then, do that to others.
END Q
MGCC – can you even begin to imagine the difference that this would make in your relationships?
NOW - Charles Spurgeon (powerful preacher who served in England in the late 19th century) paints a powerful picture of the impact that JF living out this verse would have on our world... He writes,
This is the sum of the Decalogue, the Pentateuch, and the whole sacred Word. Oh, that all men acted on it, and then there would be no slavery, no war, no sweating, no striking, no lying, no robbing; but all would be justice and love!
What a kingdom is this which has such a law! This is The Christian Code. This is the condensation of all that is right and generous. We adore the King out of whose mouth and heart such a law could flow.
This one rule is a proof of the divinity of our holy religion. The universal practice of it by all who call themselves Christians would carry conviction to Jew, Turk, and infidel, with greater speed and certainty than all the apologies and arguments which the wit or piety of men could produce.
Lord, teach it to me! Write it on the fleshly tablets of my renewed heart! Write it out in full in my life!
END Q
A.S.K. (Matthew 7:7-11) is a ‘progression-persistent-passionate prayer,’ fueled by the promise of God to empower His followers who pray this way, to live out the kingdom life.
A life that passionately and consistently, does to and for others, all the things that would want others to do to and for them (Matthew 7:12).
