The Currency of the Kingdom
Kingdom Living

Transcript

Good morning, church! It’s good to see all of you here. It's good to be back; I am happy to be back in the pulpit and I'm thankful to have some time off to rest and also to study about our church's future.

I'm thankful for a church that recognizes the need for a pastor to be able to get away from the day to day just for a little while and to pray about and study about future things. It's a much needed thing for pastors. I'm thankful that this is a church that loves their pastor. Thank you for loving me.

I'm thankful for you. I'm also thankful for our teaching team. We're very thankful for Mike Laramee and Stephen Combs who filled in here while I was gone. I've been told by many of you that we didn’t miss a step; that when I leave, I don't have to worry about what's being preached and you are fed. We're a blessed church, aren't we? Amen.

I'm thankful for those two men of God who filled in in my absence. We are continuing our series through the Sermon on the Mount. We are going verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount. We're in week 13 of this series entitled, “Kingdom Living.” We are talking about the greatest sermon that was ever preached by the greatest preacher Who ever lived.

We're now in chapter seven. We've covered chapter five and chapter six; we began chapter seven last week. We're in the middle of chapter seven. We're getting close to the finish line, but not quite. In this passage in Matthew 7:12, Jesus invites us into a relationship with our Heavenly Father,

where the norm is not earning but asking. That's the world's system. That's the world's currency, if you will. You get what you earn. You have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

You have to get to work; you have to be self reliant - this is what the world says. But the currency of the kingdom is asking. The currency of the kingdom is not earning, but asking. It's coming to God, asking and coming to Him as a generous Father.

Now, this goes against everything we were brought up to do and to think many of us were raised to be self-sufficient; to never ask for help, to earn our way forward. The world says you get what you earn. You need to plan ahead. You need to prove yourself.

These are things: success, performance, hard work and self reliance, but the Kingdom says, ‘Come and ask. Ask the Father.’ Here's what happens to us when we try to earn; some of us will try to be perfect.

How many firstborn children do we have here? Are you a firstborn? Yeah, we're most guilty of this; this tends to be in the family system. Firstborn, we want the approval of our parents.

We want them to tell us we're the best, we're the best child, you know. We get an “earning” kind of performance personality and God wants to correct that in us. He wants us to recognize that. He wants us to be fully dependent, as His children, upon Him as Father.

It goes against our grain. We're constantly trying to live up to God; He says that you don't have to do that. You don't have to live up to My favor. Jesus did that for you.

You have nothing to earn. You have only to ask. But then, some people are here and they feel unworthy. They feel unworthy. I know God's a good God.

I believe that God exists. I just don't think He's going to give good to me because I don't deserve it. Maybe that's you. Maybe you've been trying to live the Christian life in your own strength for a season, and you're exhausted. You feel empty. You have stopped asking.

Maybe something you asked for, you haven't received. You've been asking for a while, you haven't received it and you've given up.

Maybe you've asked for something and you got the opposite, yet the very opposite of what you asked for. Now you doubt God; you believe He exists, but you've stopped praying. In today's message, the Lord Jesus comes to us saying, “Ask, seek, knock.” He invites us back into this relationship that perhaps we've forgotten about, or maybe we've never lived into it before.

It's this relationship where I'm His child, He's my Father, and He invites me to ask. We need today's message. You don't earn God's favor, you ask for it.

The currency of the kingdom is not earning. The currency of the kingdom is asking. You ask. As we look at the text today In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus continues His sermon on the Mount by teaching kingdom citizens how they can experience His generous provision to asking, seeking and knocking. As we look at the text, I believe we, as kingdom citizens, can follow Jesus as our king and we can live out this kingdom lifestyle.

The currency that we, that we pay as citizens, as children, is asking, seeking and knocking. The Father promises to meet our needs. So, let's look at the text today and we'll see three ways that we can experience our Father's generous provision. We're starting at verse seven of chapter seven. Matthew 7:7-12 (ESV) 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you;

seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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! 12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” This is the word of God. Amen.

We're looking for three ways on how to experience the generous provision of our Father. Here's the first:

1. Take hold of the Father’s promise in persistent prayer.

Jesus returns in chapter seven to His topic that He had visited back in chapter six. He returns to the topic of prayer. Make no mistake, these three command words, these three imperatives, “ask, seek, knock” are describing a prayer relationship with the Father and so, we're talking about prayer. He doesn't say prayer, but that's what we're talking about. He returns to this topic.

Back in chapter six, He had told us to not pray to be seen by others, because that's hypocritical. Then, He says that here's how you pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” That was back in chapter six.

He taught us to call on Him, his Father. Then, He taught us to seek first the kingdom of heaven. He told us not to worry about what we eat, what we wear and those kinds of things. So, He's weaving this thing together. But then, He said this other thing; He said, ‘don't just keep mumbling repetitive words to the Lord like the pagans do, because your Father already knows what you need before you even ask.’

Then, here we get to the next chapter, and He says to ask anyway.

I love Jesus and you've got to go deep with Him. It seems like if He already knows, why do I need to ask? You need to ask, you need to seek and you need to knock. John Stott's insight is helpful here. Here's what John says.

He says,“Jesus seeks to imprint his promises on our mind and memory by the hammer blows of repetition. First, his promises are attached to direct commands: Ask…seek…knock. These may deliberately be in an ascending scale of urgency.

He says that these are present imperatives, present active imperatives, which indicate the persistence with which we should seek the promises of God, which He promises. If you go down and see that to everyone, everyone who what? Asks, seeks and knocks, this is the promise and the command to receive. The promise to receive God's favor, to receive God's grace is asking, seeking and knocking. The New Living Translation seeks to give us the sense of these Greek imperative present tense words by translating it like this. Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.

Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be open to you. It's correct to say ask, seek and knock. Underneath that, in the Greek original, it would imply persistence, persistence in prayer. So, we see this now as we look at these three words.

Stott calls them “hammer blows” of increasing urgency, but he still sees them as one unit. Others seem to see it that way. Dr. Charles Quarles doesn’t see the three as “introducing distinct ideas.” He says that all three are to be seen as “pleas for God to act, different metaphors for prayer.” He's not introducing three distinctive ideas. He thinks they're all to be seen as pleas for God to act.

However, others see three unique or distinctive kinds of ways of praying, perhaps. Andrew Murray, who writes much on this, says that by asking, we're asking for the gift. We're thinking about the thing or the person that we're praying for. We're praying for the gift. But he says by seeking, you begin to seek the giver.

So, now you're no longer just trying to take hold of the gift, you're trying to take hold of the Father, Who's the giver. Then knocking, you seek to enter into fellowship with the Father. He sees something unique here in the three imperatives. He says that knocking “speaks of admission to dwell with Him and in Him.

Asking and receiving the gift would thus lead to seeking and finding the Giver, and this again to the knocking and opening of the door of the Father’s home and love.” I kind of see that. I can see both sides of this. Here's something I've been thinking about this week; I’ve been thinking about “ask, seek, knock,”

the way God has made the way we think and the way what comes to our attention seem to be connected in this regard. I don't know if you've ever thought that you need to buy a new car, or it doesn't have to be brand new or you need to replace your car. Have you gone through that or have you thought about that? I've got all the young people on the front row. You may not have thought of that, but maybe you've thought of something else you want.

So, you begin to, in your mind, say, I want that. Maybe you even pray about it; you ask God, ‘Can you supply that for me?’ Now, here's what will happen. Just with your mind, this will happen.

It begins to activate your eyes and your ears, to look for it and to listen for it. In other words, you'll start seeking it. So, you think, I need a car. I think I need this kind of car in order to accommodate the size of my family and to have this gas mileage. You begin to fine tune it down to where you're seeking a particular model that you can afford.

Are you with me? So, you need a car. You ask, you start seeking. Now, you have never noticed this car before, but everywhere you go now, you see it.

Am I right? So, there's something about Jesus. He made us. You recognize that He's God. He created us. He knows. Ask, seek, knock;

it activates different parts of our prayer life. So, if you name a thing to God and you ask for it, it's hardwired into your thinking. You start looking for it, you start seeking it and guess what?

You start finding it everywhere. But, you still don't have a new car. You have to go knock and make an offer, right? Maybe, I overworked this a little bit, but I think there's something I'm getting a hold of here.

If I name a thing specifically to the Lord and I ask for it, now I start expecting and seeking it to happen. I begin to knock on the door of the Father's home and say, ‘I'm really believing you for this, God. I'm really looking for this. In fact, I can think of verses here. I've quoted several of our “friends.” We call them our “friends,” these commentators.

We have these commentary books that we study. We have a rule on our study team, on our preacher team, that you have to do the word studies. You have to do a grammatical, structural diagram, you have to chew on it and pray over it before you're allowed to look at the commentaries, which we call our “friends.” We can't be looking at our “friends” yet until the Holy Spirit's told us all we have to chew on this. Then, we can go look at these other guys. I've been quoting some of the other guys.

Here's another “friend” that probably is preferable to quote. It's Jeremiah. Here's what Jeremiah says. He says, quoting the Lord,
Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV) “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

This word, “seek,” throughout the scripture often is related to the Father, the seeking the Lord. I think that kind of lends itself to what Andrew Murray said, that the idea of seeking causes you to seek the giver. Then, we have this verse from Jesus in John, chapter 10, Jesus speaking. He says, John 10:9 (ESV) “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved…”

And so the door is Jesus, and He wants to give you Himself. This prayer life of persistence that Jesus is teaching here is not that we're aggravating the Father and just because I have been so persistent, He is finally going to give Gary what he's asking for, because he just won't stop asking. That's not the way the Father works. It's more about life change

for me, that persistence is showing God, I can't do this. I'm fully dependent on You as my Father. Can you make a decision about whether or not the next breath is available to you, that your heart will beat the next beat? Are you telling your heart to beat right now? No.

Our entire life is in the Father's hands. And when we pray persistently, we are saying that. We're saying, I'm dependent on You.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV) “pray without ceasing.” In 1 Thessalonians, Paul teaches us to pray without ceasing; to be constant in prayer. Colossians, chapter four, says this,

Colossians 4:2 (ESV) “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Jesus told two parables in the Bible about persistent prayer, to illustrate persistent prayer. Both of them are in Luke. In Luke chapter 11, we actually have a parallel passage where He teaches the prayer of, “Our Father, which art in heaven…” Then he tells this parable;

He says, “ask, seek, knock,” so it's kind of a parallel passage, but He gives you a different story. The story He gives is of a neighbor who has a friend drop in about midnight. That's a particular kind of friend, isn't it, who just drops in at your house at midnight and they're hungry. So here you are, and they've dropped by your house.

So, you desperately go next door and knock on your neighbor's door and say, ‘Hey, I've had a friend drop in and I need three loaves of bread. The person on the inside says, ‘Go away. I'm asleep and my children are in bed.’ But the neighbor keeps knocking.

Finally, they come out and because of their impudence, because of their persistence they say, ‘Take the three loaves and anything else you want. Just go away.’ I added some of that, but most of that's in the parable.

Then, He says, in Matthew 7:11, “...how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Then He tells another story in Luke 18:1-8, again teaching persistence in prayer. He tells the story of a widow who was going to an unrighteous judge in order to find help for a situation she was in. The Bible says that he was unrighteous and he didn't respect God nor man.

But, she just kept knocking on his door. He finally says, ‘I'm going to give her what she wants, then maybe she'll stop bothering me.’ Then, the Lord goes on to say, 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.” What is this He's trying to teach us?

Why persistence? Why, earlier, does He say in the same sermon, ‘Don't just keep mumbling repetitive phrases over and over again,’ and then, here, He says, ‘Ask, seek, and knock, and keep on asking, keep on seeking.’ What's the difference? Well, the other is just repetitive phrases without thought in one prayer.

But this is the same prayer, the same ask, every day, week after week, month after month, believing God for it. Now, some of you here are praying for a lost person. Maybe it's a parent, maybe it's one of your children. Maybe it's one of your teenagers. Maybe it's one of your friends, young people at school, that you really care about.

Maybe you got one of these cards and you wrote their name down and dropped it in here, because that's what we're doing here. We're praying for people that are far from God, that God will bring them near. Maybe, there's someone that you really have almost given up on and you put them as your “long shot.”.

It's a “long shot” that they'll come. Really, it's a miracle that any of us come to Christ. It's a miracle of God. I've almost stopped asking.

Here's what Jesus is saying, ‘Keep on asking, be persistent.’ Why does God need reminding? Do we have a forgetful God? No, but we are forgetful people.

We are forgetful people. Can I tell you some reasons, even though the Father already knows what we need before we ask? Here are a couple of reasons. I have more, but I don't have time.

Here's a couple of good ones of why you should be persistent in prayer, even though the Father already knows what you need. Here's the first one. I think this is a good one: (1) Because persistent prayer is not a transaction—it’s communion. This persistent prayer is not just about getting what you're asking for.

It's about fellowship with the Father so that you hear His heart, so that really you're asking then comes into alignment with what He says is best for you. It's communion.

It's not inviting. It's not trying to wear God down by your persistence. But it's about being a child, crawling up into the Father's lap and asking. Now here's the second reason that I think he teaches us: (2) Because persistent prayer forms us spiritually.

Why is He teaching us this? Because persistent prayer forms us spiritually. It forms Christ in us. In all the Bible, who do you think prayed the most? What human being prayed the most often, the most regularly?

I think it was Jesus. So, wait a minute. The Son of God, the perfect, holy Son of God, found that persistent prayer, constant prayer, prayer without ceasing was what He needed. That's what He needed. If Jesus needed it, we do too.

To pray like Jesus is to pray often and regularly with persistence, believing God, and it begins to form Christ in us. We become more like Him. Here's what CS Lewis says about this persistent kind of prayer. He says, “Prayer doesn’t change God; it changes me.”

I'm dependent on You, Lord. I'm asking You because You're the only one that can provide this. God already knows what we need. We don't pray to inform Him. We pray to answer His invitation.

We don't pray just to fulfill our needs. We pray to have fellowship with our Father. What have you stopped praying for that you used to pray for? Ask, seek, knock. What are you doubting?

What have you given up on? Start praying for it again and be persistent in your prayer. Will you obey Christ's command to ask, seek and knock persistently. Here's the second way we can experience God's generous provision:

2. Look to the Father with confident expectation.

Jesus appeals to something we all understand: Parenting. We all understand that. Even if we're young people, we understand that the parents are supposed to be the ones who watch over us, take care of us and provide food,housing and clothing; these kinds of things. We look to them if we have a need.

Some of you might have jobs, some of the young people here, but most of you probably don't. If you have a need, what do you do? You ask. You ask your mom or you ask your dad. This is the little bitty parable that Jesus gives here.

It's a very small one, but it's one that people understand. He says, 9 “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?” I guess a loaf of bread and a certain size stone might look similar. One will nourish your body, the other will break your teeth, right? But they look similar.

10 “Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?” They're kind of similar looking. One of them will feed your body and the other one will poison you.

They probably laughed. They probably said, ‘Yeah, who would do that? Nobody would treat their child like that.’ Jesus says, 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!” Maybe somebody in the crowd at that point said, ‘That's you He's talking to right there.’

Notice, He didn't say we are evil. He didn't include Himself; He's the sinless Son of God. When He says they're evil, what is He saying? He's not talking about on some scale.

He's saying that even though you're sinners, you still know how to give good gifts to your children.

He says, ‘How much more will your Father who is in heaven give you good gifts when you ask?’ It is because the currency of the kingdom is not earning, it's asking. He invites us to ask. This is His invitation.

If we look at the parallel passage over In Luke chapter 11, He says something different. Instead of saying how much He will give good to you here, He says in Luke 11:13 (ESV) “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” Luke seems to take it to the very highest good. What's the highest good that God could give us? He gave us Himself?

Indeed, Paul reflects on this in the book of Romans; he says this, Romans 8:32 (ESV) “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” If He's not spared His own son. If He's given us the greatest good of all, which is His own son, His own spirit, He's not going to withhold any good thing from you.

He's going to give you good. Now, this is not an unconditional promise. In other words, you might pray, ‘I'm praying that there will be a…’.

I hear my son is “Amen”ing me right now and I'm appreciating that he's just straight back from being with this great group of youth. My son, Stephen, thanks for the “Amen,” but I'm going to tell a story about you.

Do I have your permission? Good, thanks.

So on his 16th birthday, he was convinced there would be a CJ7 Jeep sitting in the driveway. When he woke up, he was absolutely convinced. I think he jumped up that morning and looked out the front door, but it was not there. He'd been asking for one. I could not afford it.

He got a car a little bit later, but he still remembers what he did get on his 16th birthday. I think he got a fold out couch, a bed thing or something. A futon. Yes, he even remembers.

He really does remember this. Here's the thing about being a parent. You will give the best good you're capable of giving, but you won't give them everything they asked for because they don't always ask with wisdom, right? They don't always know what's best for them. So, with the Father you ask, seek and knock.

Part of that thing that's going on there is you're getting your will in alignment with His will. We read these kinds of comments from the word of God. James says, James 1:5-8 (ESV) 5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

You have to believe. You have to believe. In James, chapter four, he says, James 4:1-3 (ESV) 2 “…You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” So he's not just going to give you something that's going to hurt you.

John tells us, 1 John 5:14-15 (ESV) 14 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” So, this asking, seeking and knocking is not like you're saying, “open sesame!” and praying to the celestial Santa Claus, who's going to give you everything? No, that'd be the most dangerous thing in the world if He gave you everything you asked for.

That'd be a horrible father. But He's a good father. He's going to give you good things. When I was 8 years old, that year prior, when I was 7 and I turned 8, was the year my father's health started to decline. He was 39 years old.

I'm the oldest of four children. My dad was my hero. His health started going down. They couldn't find out what was wrong with him. About two months before he died, of a year, watching him decline in health and losing weight, they found out it was cancer and he died just two months after the diagnosis.

My mom was a well known gospel singer. I grew up in a blessed house. That whole year, as his health declined, every preacher she knew came to visit and prayed over my dad. They prayed for his healing and prayed for these little kids. I'm the oldest at 8;

the others were young, all the way down to 1 years old, praying that she wouldn't be left a widow. But God took him. And I was a little boy. There's something about a little boy's prayers; a little kid that believes in God,

because I believed in God and I didn't have any doubt. But, He took him anyway.

I didn't doubt God after that. I still believed He existed.

But something shifted in my thinking about who He was.

I started thinking, He's good, but He's not good to me now. I was little. When you're young like that, you don't know how to manage your emotions. I was afraid of God, not fearing God out of respect and reverence, but

I was afraid that He would hurt me as He'd already hurt me pretty good. Somebody needs to hear this.

I was afraid of Him. When I was 13, 14 years old, there were some seniors in my high school that got on fire for Jesus. I hope some of you all got on fire for Jesus this week. They came back and started a Bible study before school; they got permission from the principal. You had to come an hour before school.

You had to get there early. A couple of the seniors came and invited me. I was in the ninth grade. They said, “You should come, Gary.” I wasn’t sure.

Then, one of the seniors said to me, “You know, I've been seeing some of the things that you've said, what you're kind of known for. You are trying to play both sides.” You know, I was trying to be “cool in school.” In fact, I couldn't let my mom see what people wrote in my ninth grade yearbook there because they wrote stuff like, “You're the funniest kid in our whole school. You know more dirty jokes than anybody.”

I did. Aren't you glad you came to this church?

This senior told me, he said, “You need to start cleaning your life up because you're called to be like Jesus; you're a representation of Jesus.” It really hurt my feelings, you know? He said, “Did you ever talk to your dad and say, dad, I want to be just like you?” I said, “My daddy died.” He says, “Yeah, but when he was alive, did you ever say that?”

I didn’t have to guess if I did that. I used to climb up in my daddy's lap and tell him, “Daddy, I want to be just like you when I grow up” and he would say to me, “Son, I'm so proud of you. I want you to just be what God wants you to be. I just love you.

I'm proud of you.” I didn’t have to guess what he would say. This senior directed me to this passage, and he said, “Your Father loves you so much more. Your Heavenly Father, If you ask for a piece of bread, He won't give you a stone.

If you ask for a fish, He won't give you a snake. He'll give you much more than you ever could desire, and it'll be perfect for you.” I was afraid to give my whole life to Jesus. I believed in His existence. I believed that He had died for my sins, but I was afraid to turn my whole life over to Him because I was afraid He'd hurt me.

I was afraid He'd take something away from me that I loved. I knew He was a good God, but I didn't know if He'd be good to me. At the age of 14, God changed my mind and changed my heart. From that day to the present, I'll be 67 next month, my soul, my heart's been on fire for Jesus.

When I was 14, that's when it happened.

The shift was that I was convinced He's a good God and He wants good for me, even when He took my dad, that He would cause all things to work together for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I probably wouldn't be a pastor today if He hadn't trusted me. My dad's in heaven, I'll see Him someday. He trusted me with trouble and suffering in order to conform me, shape me and allow me to move towards following Him as my Father. I want to be like Him.

How are you praying today? Are you asking, but deep down thinking God won't answer? Are you asking, but believing He'll answer somebody else's prayer, but He might not answer mine. Ask, seek, knock, and do so expectantly with confident expectation.

3. Live out the Father’s generosity toward others.

We've said persistent prayer. We've said to pray with confident expectation.

Now, we've got this final verse, verse 12. If you've got your Bible open, you'll see that almost all Bibles break this one verse apart and they give it the header, “The Golden Rule,” but I believe this verse is connected. So, we've connected it here because those that have received the Father's exorbitant generosity, now have the ability to be generous towards others, which speaks of “The Golden Rule.” In fact, this Golden Rule is placed perfectly right here with “ask, seek, knock,” but also, “judge not, lest you be judged.”

because it's basically concluding that segment by saying this: ‘Whatever you want for yourself, you should want for others. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ That whole passage now is being summarized right here and in so doing, you will fulfill the law and the prophets.

Remember back earlier in the sermon, He said, “I didn't come to abolish the law and the prophets, I came to fulfill them?” Now, He's saying that we, as Kingdom citizens, are to fulfill. How do we do it? By “doing unto others as we would have them do unto you.” Some call it “The Golden Rule.

We researched who named it “The Golden Rule.” One said that there was a 4th century Christian king who put it on a gold plaque behind his throne. Maybe that's where it came from. Others have said, ‘Well, it's because gold is the most valuable, so it's the most valuable commandment.’

It sounds like, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So it's just worded in a different way. It's the greatest commandment. James calls it “The Royal Law,” so that's what the Bible calls it.

Maybe that's what we should call it, “The Royal Rule” or “The Royal law.” James 2:8 (ESV) “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.”

Having received the Father's generosity through asking, seeking and knocking, depending on Him, receiving the gift, looking to the Giver, abiding in Him, now, you're the ones that are like God in this world, pouring out generously to others. Now, that's not how we usually look at “The Golden Rule.” We usually look at it from the negative side. Bear with me and I'll explain.

D.A. Carson, in his commentary, talks about this. He says, “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.”

That's the negative view; that tends to be the way we view it. But Carson says that the positive form that Jesus is saying here, because he's saying, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to others.

That's what he says. It’s positive. So, let's put that into practice. If you enjoy being loved, love others.

If you enjoy receiving gifts, give gifts to others. If you enjoy being appreciated, appreciate others.

In fact, he takes it so far as to say that the highest wish you have for yourself, you should wish for others. That's hard. I can do that for my wife. I can do that for my children. I can come close to doing that for my grandchildren.

But I don't know that I can do that for you all to want everything that I want for myself, to want that for you, and not only to want it, but to give it to you. How can I do that? How's it possible for me to do? You now see the power of this. Here's what DA Carson says.

He says, What would you like done to you? What would you really like? Then, do that to others. Duplicate both the quality of these things, and their quantity—“in everything.”

You'll be like the Father who wants to shower His favor on all. How can we be kingdom citizens, children of God? It's only by persistently asking, seeking, knocking, and then confidently expecting God to supply our every need. Having received from the Father, we pour out what He supplies. That's the only way you can keep this great, golden, royal rule.

When I was young, I wanted to be just like my daddy. I grew up with a father wound. I was looking for a mentor. I looked to my Papaw (my mom's dad,) I looked to my uncle, I looked to my baseball coach. Somewhere around 17 or 18 years of age, somewhere in there, a shift began to happen.

I began to pray to my Father. I began to think of Him, really, really think of him as my Abba, my Father. That Father wound, that hole in my heart, healed up and I don't think I'd be a pastor today without that whole story because it broke my heart. But then, it healed my heart and it gave me a heart to be a father, to be a grandfather, to be a pastor. My greatest gift came out of my greatest pain.

You can have it, too, if you'll ask, seek and knock, because it is what Jesus is inviting us to. It's not a performance-based religion, it's a grace-based relationship. The currency of the kingdom is not earning, it's asking.

Let's pray.

”Lord, I pray, first of all, for that one that would say, I need a father. I need a relationship with God. I came in on a thin thread today. I'm hurting, I'm empty, I need help.”

This begins with an invitation. It begins with seeking, asking, seeking and knocking and saying, “Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner, but I believe You died on the cross for my sins, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I invite You to come into my life, forgive me of my sin, make me a child of God, adopt me into the family. I want to follow You all the days of my life. I give You my life without hesitation.

I want to follow You as my Lord, Savior and King.” If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, He will save you and He'll adopt you into His family. He'll do a work in your heart.

Others are here and you're a Christ follower. You've received Jesus but you've stopped asking. You're trying to live in your own power or you're afraid of God like I used to be because of some deep hurt that you're blaming God for. Now, you don't ask and you feel empty. Or, maybe you've been asking for something so long that you've lost faith.

What is it? You know what it is. “Lord, we ask, we seek and we knock. We're your children, according to Your wisdom, Lord, according to Your will.

Answer us, Father. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”