SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, we invite you into this time.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, establish the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_00: You gave us breath today.
SPEAKER_00: We don't take it for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, convict our hearts where they should be convicted.
SPEAKER_00: Encourage our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Give us peace.
SPEAKER_00: Take away our anxiety where you want to comfort us.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that each and every one of us today would hear your voice through your perfect living and active work.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: We don't take you for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Feel free to take a seat.
SPEAKER_00: We have a special treat for all y'all today.
SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that I never thought that we'd get to do uh this early, the church is only two and a half years old, three years if you count the binge uh grungy, dingy basement days um is get to see and raise up new preachers.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a couple in the room who have already gotten to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Mike, if you wouldn't mind coming up here, go give it up for Mike.
SPEAKER_00: So I mentioned before, but I'm going to say it here again.
SPEAKER_00: Mike and his amazing family, Kristen, his wife, um Aspen, Beckett's kids uh are about to start their official church planting residency here at uh Skyline Church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's fun, dude.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to.
SPEAKER_00: Um I just want to show this when it's a monitor.
SPEAKER_00: You know, for us as a church two and a half years old, it normally would be weird and totally unexpected to have a person come full time to be a church planting resident at our church, this young of a church, and get the firepower that comes along with someone like this and his family.
SPEAKER_00: But because uh Mike decided to the way the funding worked in in our network crossway pays a third of the planter's salary, the local church is supposed to play a third of the planter's salary, but because we're, as you saw, an adolescent church, Mike decided to raise this church's portion.
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to give this man some honor, show him some thanks, because it really is an amazing thing that we get to have him and his fam here.
SPEAKER_00: And today's his first term.
SPEAKER_00: So give it up for Mike.
SPEAKER_00: Mike probably put a hundred hours into it.
SPEAKER_00: No, wait, we want to set up the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: One hour.
SPEAKER_00: You put one hour into this.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna be one hour.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be one hour.
SPEAKER_00: All right, you might let it up.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Steve.
SPEAKER_01: Can you all hear me?
SPEAKER_01: I am perfect.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01: Be willing to listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: Um and I say welcome to all of you who are new here.
SPEAKER_01: I would love to meet you.
SPEAKER_01: Come introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And I know even some of you that have been here way longer than me have not met you yet.
SPEAKER_01: Please introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm also thank you for family and friends that came here uh today to heckle me.
SPEAKER_01: So I thank you for Brian for hyping me because I'm expecting to be heckled by family and friends that have come to hear me for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: But um I'm very thankful that Adam and Justin um recognized that Matt Brown's time was coming to an end, as he was being sent out, and that you guys were gonna have a void of having a middle-aged man in the church.
SPEAKER_01: So uh Adam reached out, and I'm glad to fill that role as the middle-aged guy for you.
SPEAKER_01: But uh many of you don't really know me, so let me share just a little bit uh about me and talking about um what we're gonna be talking about today.
SPEAKER_01: So I grew up in a Christian household, and I came to a saving faith uh because of my father and the Holy Spirit at a young age of five, but I had a long life of living in just duty for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I think many of us have those points in life where uh something truly changed greatly, and we can remember everything about it.
SPEAKER_01: And for one of those for me was uh I was a paramedic for my first career.
SPEAKER_01: I was driving down I-25 below Highway 36, just a few miles from here.
SPEAKER_01: No patient in the back, but I was struck.
SPEAKER_01: I was struck in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: I was just praying as I'm driving and saw that my life has been such a life of duty to the Lord, but very little desire.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, God just changed that in me.
SPEAKER_01: Kristen was pregnant with our second, and I was working as a medic, and then over time that desire grew into a greater and greater and greater devotion for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then that devotion turned into a great dependence on the Lord, especially when God then thrust me into vocational ministry about four or five years ago.
SPEAKER_01: That dependence really had to grow then.
SPEAKER_01: So the big point I want to communicate to you guys from the scripture today is that our good God gives generously to those who seek him in dependence.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna read two passages: the the account of uh Jesus and the disciples of Mary and Martha, as well as then the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna see how those connect.
SPEAKER_01: So let's start in Luke 10, 38 to 42, talking about the account of Mary and Martha.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read together.
SPEAKER_01: You can see it up on we read in ESV.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read it.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
SPEAKER_01: And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.
SPEAKER_01: But Martha was distracted with my serv much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
SPEAKER_01: Tell her then to help me.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.
SPEAKER_01: Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
SPEAKER_01: So what we see here, what Luke is doing in his writing, is he's uh showing a character contrast.
SPEAKER_01: He is not highlighting a good and a bad, he's actually highlighting a better and a best, and we're gonna see that.
SPEAKER_01: So his emphasis, we see an emphasis here that Jesus Christ is the good portion, and we depend on him by listening to him.
SPEAKER_01: So that very first uh uh verse we see it's kind of setting the stage for this short account.
SPEAKER_01: We see that uh Jesus is, we're on part three of Luke, where he is, him and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem, on the way to the cross, and on the way to resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And um he stops in this town to meet with Martha and Mary, two disciples of his.
SPEAKER_01: And we see right here at the very beginning that Martha invites him in.
SPEAKER_01: Martha is the first one that actually shows love to Christ of these two sisters by bringing him in.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that hospitality is a virtue that we know that even in our society, but even in this society, it is so much more cultural in this time and held to an even greater importance than we do today in our modern American culture.
SPEAKER_01: But uh we see immediately Martha is serving the Lord, loving him through hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: But then we see the next verse, right?
SPEAKER_01: Mary is doing something different.
SPEAKER_01: What is she doing?
SPEAKER_01: She is sitting at the Lord's feet and listening to him.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a significance here at sitting at uh his feet.
SPEAKER_01: One, it's showing he's a dis that she is a disciple of him, a rabbi.
SPEAKER_01: That is a common thing to be sitting at the feet.
SPEAKER_01: It shows dependence and submission, but there's also something uncommon here that is we see over and over the counter-cultural nature of Jesus Christ, that he is showing that he cares for all, even in the story of the Good Samaritan, and now we see that he cares for women.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a common thing for women to be at a rabbi's feet, but she's showing dependence and submission.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we see a response from her sister about this, right?
SPEAKER_01: She says to the Lord, says, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
SPEAKER_01: Tell her then to help me.
SPEAKER_01: So I need to be a little bit careful to not assume tone.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the tone was in her voice.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I tried to capture the tone of not too much offense, but I feel definite definite frustration in her in this.
SPEAKER_01: I think there might be two parts.
SPEAKER_01: One, she's doing the work.
SPEAKER_01: And then secondly, she probably actually wanted to sit at the Lord's feet as well, right?
SPEAKER_01: She wanted to do what uh Mary was doing.
SPEAKER_01: And the irony was she could have done it, right?
SPEAKER_01: So again, we're not seeing a contrast of good versus bad here.
SPEAKER_01: We're seeing a contrast of better versus best, right?
SPEAKER_01: Even in the account of the Good Samaritan, just last week, we see that the Good Samaritan is commended for his service, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so we're not saying that she's making the bad choice.
SPEAKER_01: It is, but it is Mary who is making the best choice.
SPEAKER_01: So, because we need service, clearly, right?
SPEAKER_01: We need service and devotion, but it is a service rooted in devotion.
SPEAKER_01: So, so then the Lord answers in a gentle and direct manner, says, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.
SPEAKER_01: Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
SPEAKER_01: So, so often what are we told to do?
SPEAKER_01: Truth and love.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Lord corrects her with gentleness.
SPEAKER_01: He even recognizes her emotional state, right?
SPEAKER_01: She's clearly frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: And even that repetition shows that care.
SPEAKER_01: That's how they speak, and that shows that care for her by repeating her name.
SPEAKER_01: Um but again we see doing and receiving are not mutually exclusive.
SPEAKER_01: Um because it is Jesus first that we must go to because he is the one who sustains us.
SPEAKER_01: But he he we he shows us very clearly that one thing is necessary.
SPEAKER_01: One thing is necessary, and it's the overriding priority.
SPEAKER_01: And that is to choose him.
SPEAKER_01: He is the good portion.
SPEAKER_01: It is spending time with him, being devoted to him, and depending on him.
SPEAKER_01: It's really it's choosing the eternal over the temporal.
SPEAKER_01: So um that really then is a reminder to us and a lesson to us then that the call is for us to sit in dependence and in submission to the Lord as well in his teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And where's that teaching?
SPEAKER_01: We have it in his word, right?
SPEAKER_01: She had the blessing of sitting at his feet, but we get his word in our pockets and in our hands.
SPEAKER_01: So the emphasis we see here from Jesus again is that Jesus Christ is the good portion, and we depend on him by listening to him in his word.
SPEAKER_01: So um we've all we all have our priorities, right?
SPEAKER_01: And even if we don't explicitly think about it, our actions speak to our priorities.
SPEAKER_01: So so often um um our priorities can get out of whack, and it is such a common thing for the American man, the American father and husband to um work too much, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um, even when it's for others.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a trap that so many of us fall into.
SPEAKER_01: I've fallen into it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And that's provision of your family is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: It is commanded in his word, but there is a priority, right?
SPEAKER_01: I spent a lot of time as a paramedic and emergency manager, even leading, helping lead the COVID response for a hospital system, and then I was a missionary to fatherless boys with a ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And and yet I would spend too much time in that.
SPEAKER_01: My priority at times would be that work that even was for other people, and yet who was supposed to come first?
SPEAKER_01: It was supposed to be my own family, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so priorities is should I be serving others through even my profession?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: But even more so than being a provider is to be a pastor to my own family.
SPEAKER_01: So my my there is a better and a best there as well.
SPEAKER_01: So for you, um, where does that come into play?
SPEAKER_01: Where does that come into play?
SPEAKER_01: Are you spending too much time of your time providing like the cliche trap us men get into?
SPEAKER_01: Providing for your family when they need more of your time with them, even pastoring them?
SPEAKER_01: Are you spending too much time on your physical health when your spiritual health then is going to suffer?
SPEAKER_01: Are you prioritizing learning in school for that future profession more than you're actually spending time learning about the Lord who saved you?
SPEAKER_01: So then the question then is what are those good things in your life that you need to set aside for the greatest of things, which are spending time with Jesus, listening to him and his word.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're gonna move on to Luke 11 and the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And at first, when I was assigned this passage, I was like, how do these connect?
SPEAKER_01: And it took me time to see uh uh as I was studying the word to see how they connect.
SPEAKER_01: So this first passage of Martha and Mary, it was teaching us about the relation of the disciples to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And now he's gonna teach us about the relation of the disciples to God the Father by teaching us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: So the emphasis we're gonna see here is, I hope you see, is that the prior of a Christ follower is spending time with God by talking to and depending on him.
SPEAKER_01: Before it was learning about him and listening to him, and now it's talking to and depending on him.
SPEAKER_01: So in this passage, we're gonna see the disciples make a request of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus then giving us the patterned prayer of the Lord's Prayer, and then he's gonna give us a couple parables about prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So let's go to the first portion, the actual Lord's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read it together.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: As John taught his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, All right, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.
SPEAKER_01: So what we see in here is kind of two parts of a focus.
SPEAKER_01: First, in the prayer, he focuses on God, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then secondly, it starts to focus on self.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean selfishly, but it focuses on self.
SPEAKER_01: But um where we're getting the stage set for us as well.
SPEAKER_01: We said he was in a certain place praying, um, and then the disciples ask that question of how do I pray?
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: So again, this is I think the fifth time in the book of Luke where we see Jesus going off to pray, right?
SPEAKER_01: It is something when you see repetition, there's repetition for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: That's for emphasis.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what is he doing so often before he goes and does something significant?
SPEAKER_01: He goes and prays.
SPEAKER_01: So he's modeling that for the disciples, and then as we see it, it's modeling even for us as we get to read the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: But he's doing it in prayer, which then prompts the disciples' request.
SPEAKER_01: I think if you look earlier in the chapter, talked about the 70 or 72 being sent out, and he said, All right, first pray before you'd be sent out to go do this big thing.
SPEAKER_01: Remember a couple weeks ago?
SPEAKER_01: I would have thought that the disciples at that point, if they didn't really know how to pray, would have asked.
SPEAKER_01: Like, teach me to pray, but evidently they're slow, like I'm slow.
SPEAKER_01: And um, so he asked, they asked now, right?
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus says, When you pray, say.
SPEAKER_01: So he's telling us, like, this is a model prayer.
SPEAKER_01: He says, when you pray, that one you're gonna do it, but this is a model that you can mimic.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and one that you would do frequently.
SPEAKER_01: Some uh a prayer that is is prayed all through uh the church history that we get to even connect with previous believers through.
SPEAKER_01: And he continues and says, Father.
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't miss the significance of him saying father, because if you go look at the scriptures, when whenever you see in the in the New Testament, they're talking about the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: What are the scriptures?
SPEAKER_01: At the time, they didn't have the New Testament, they only had the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That was the Scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, there is only a few places where God is called Father.
SPEAKER_01: So him to be calling, you see this over and over in the New Testament, in the church age as well, of being of calling God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And there's an additional meaning then attached to that.
SPEAKER_01: Already in the Old Testament, God, there's so much reverence and fear of the Lord for God, but now there's an additional closeness, a relational closeness that is added.
SPEAKER_01: And I think uh as we're gonna read now a cross-reference from Galatians 4, 4 to 5, it really speaks to that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, let's read that now.
SPEAKER_01: It says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
SPEAKER_01: So that last part, adoption.
SPEAKER_01: So he is our father because he has chosen us and he has adopted us.
SPEAKER_01: There is great relational closeness because of that.
SPEAKER_01: He has chosen us.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so we get to call him father, finally, because he is one, we are one of his.
SPEAKER_01: And then it continues, the prayer continues, it says, hallowed be your name.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you use the word hallowed in your normal vernacular?
SPEAKER_01: I think very few of us, right, say hallowed, right?
SPEAKER_01: But we says, hallowed be your name, or great is your name.
SPEAKER_01: Um so this is really a phrase of exaltation and worship, right?
SPEAKER_01: But this is a great way to start any prayer of ours, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um and it's showing, again, the focus on the Lord and our prayers and not just our own gimme gimmies, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not just our own gimme gimmies.
SPEAKER_01: Great way to start our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Then it continues and says, Your kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: So, what is the kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: This is really talking about we desire for his will and purposes and plans to happen in this world.
SPEAKER_01: We want to see this world and people's lives transformed as they place their faith in him and grow in him.
SPEAKER_01: But this is there's a secondary element of your kingdom come as well, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is looking at the future because we know and it is promised that he is coming again.
SPEAKER_01: He is coming again, and everything is going to be made right.
SPEAKER_01: So we want his kingdom here today, and we look forward to his physical return when he comes again and makes everything right.
SPEAKER_01: So we prayed that.
SPEAKER_01: We're praying his will to be done.
SPEAKER_01: And then, what probably one of the lines that we know more uh better than others in this, it says, give us each day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate that he says bread because bread is the best carb.
SPEAKER_01: I will fight you over that.
SPEAKER_01: Pasta is the bottom, bread is at the top.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a now starting their quests for self, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not selfishly, but that bread is both actual little bread, food, right?
SPEAKER_01: Your daily needs and sustenance, but it's also symbolic of the spiritual sustenance that we need as well, right?
SPEAKER_01: We all know that little book, uh the daily bread that's been around for what, 50 years, that uh sitting when we were young on the the shelves at our churches that we could take.
SPEAKER_01: But um in the cultural context of the time, um, they actually were having to pray for their daily sustenance, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because so often those people they didn't get paid until the end of the day, and they needed that to buy food for their day.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a day-by-day uh need, a dependence on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And do we have that today?
SPEAKER_01: Not so much, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some of us do, right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to discount that, but the majority of us, we have a pantry stocked full, and if our pantry is empty, we have food all around us that we have access to.
SPEAKER_01: And even um if you have lower income, like I had a life before as a paramedic, I was an EMT basic, and my family was on Medicaid.
SPEAKER_01: And we had to help help to even uh feed our family, but we had help even, even when we I couldn't buy it all myself as a father.
SPEAKER_01: So um there is a band called Ghost Ship.
SPEAKER_01: I love this band, and there's a song.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna I'm gonna share the verse.
SPEAKER_01: The name Ghost Ship sounds like a death metal band, does it not?
SPEAKER_01: But it is not a death metal band, it is a uh Americana, uh Christian Americana folk rock band.
SPEAKER_01: Kira's shaking her head.
SPEAKER_01: You know you're familiar with them?
SPEAKER_01: Is anybody else familiar with Ghost Ship?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, maybe it's less obscure than I thought.
SPEAKER_01: So there is a song called Poverty Nor Riches that it's meant a lot to me because of the last five years of really being forced into dependence on the Lord because I actually was thrust into that position of having to rely on him in a totally different way than I had before in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And it's also based off of Probs Proverbs 37.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the first verse goes like this says, Give me neither poverty nor riches, give me just the sustenance I need.
SPEAKER_01: Lest I become rich, I will forget you, lest I become poor, then I would steal.
SPEAKER_01: This world has nothing for me.
SPEAKER_01: You are all I need.
SPEAKER_01: And man, there's like working in ministry and having to raise your support as a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: Your support does this, and you have to really rely on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So they're sharing in this same concept as asking for the daily bread, but in this artful way, um, showing that dependence on your daily needs and provision to be from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's continue.
SPEAKER_01: It says, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a continual ask of forgiveness of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is not salvific, this is not for our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We know from Scripture that uh God never contradicts Himself, and we know that our salvation, our justification is a one and done thing.
SPEAKER_01: The moment we place our faith in Christ, his death and resurrection to save us from our sins is the moment we are saved for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot lose it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That is clear.
SPEAKER_01: For all sins, past, present, and future, we have great peace and assurance of this.
SPEAKER_01: So then, what is this talking about?
SPEAKER_01: It's saying to continually ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Even after we're saved, we're not perfect, we still have our flesh, and we still choose wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I bet you the vast majority of us at some point, at least some sin was committed this morning, whether it was impatience with your spouse or whatever it was, before we even made it to church.
SPEAKER_01: So then what is this talking about?
SPEAKER_01: It's that we need continual forgiveness for the maintenance of our relationship, our fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_01: So what does this look like?
SPEAKER_01: That's confession.
SPEAKER_01: It's like speak to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I have sinned against you.
SPEAKER_01: I was impatient with my children again today.
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: It's acknowledging your sin and then turning from it, repenting of it, and being all confident, trusting the Lord will forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: Because he says he will, and he always meets all of his promises.
SPEAKER_01: He always will forgive.
SPEAKER_01: So then when we forgive others, we are reflecting Christ's forgiveness that He's given us.
SPEAKER_01: So we are reflecting God in that.
SPEAKER_01: So now, lead us not into temptation, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's almost in the English, it almost makes it look like we're saying, oh, that's an option that he would lead us from temptation.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, that's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Again, God's word never contradicts.
SPEAKER_01: He is all good, no evil in him.
SPEAKER_01: He does not tempt others to sin.
SPEAKER_01: So if we see a contradiction, it's just our lack of understanding, right?
SPEAKER_01: So this is asking God to preserve us from sin, to keep us from sin, to keep us out of those situations.
SPEAKER_01: And also when we are in those situations, it's giving us the strength and conviction to choose righteousness over our own flesh and sin.
SPEAKER_01: So now let us move on to the parables.
SPEAKER_01: Because that was the patterned prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move to the parables now.
SPEAKER_01: So in these parables, we're going to see some character contrasts again, just like Martha and Mary.
SPEAKER_01: Again, it's not a good versus bad, it's a better and a best.
SPEAKER_01: So look for it, what the contrast is.
SPEAKER_01: So let's read this first parable.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And he said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.
SPEAKER_01: And he will answer from within, Do not bother me.
SPEAKER_01: The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot get up and give you anything.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you see here, this parable, this contrast, is showing a point to us that God is willing to answer.
SPEAKER_01: God is willing to answer.
SPEAKER_01: So now I have a buddy Jared who lives just a handful of blocks from me.
SPEAKER_01: If he shows up in the middle of the night and he's banging on my door, I am very concerned.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm concerned that there's something uh emergent going on, especially with his family and these young children.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm going to come to the door, he's banging, and ask him what he needs.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jared asks me for bread, I am very annoyed that he's waking me up in the middle of the night for bread.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm probably gonna go back to sleep and not give him any bread.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if he continues banging on my door, he's gonna be not just be waking me up, he's gonna be waking up my entire family.
SPEAKER_01: And culturally, back then, they're all in the same room.
SPEAKER_01: So he said, We're in the same, they're in the same bed, right?
SPEAKER_01: Luckily, my kids, they sleep in a different room, right?
SPEAKER_01: But if he's banging on the door, I'm like, fine, fine, I will give you bread.
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably gonna be a little bit petty, and I'm not gonna give him some of my wife's homemade bread.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give him some wonder bread, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of like, all right, get out of here now.
SPEAKER_01: And but also like, yeah, you should have been a better host, right?
SPEAKER_01: Again, hosting is uh hospitality is important, but the point of this parable is clearly not uh go on praying because God will eventually uh respond to your impudence.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, it is go on praying because God responds graciously to the needs of his children.
SPEAKER_01: God is not like this, he is willing to respond and give us the good that we need.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: All right, the next parable now uh we see another character contrast.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're gonna see a contrast of an earthly father and a heavenly father, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not a good versus a bad, but a better versus best.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so let's read this parable now.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_01: Seek and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.
SPEAKER_01: For everyone who asks receives.
SPEAKER_01: And the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened.
SPEAKER_01: What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, well instead of a fish, give him a serpent?
SPEAKER_01: Or if we ask for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.
SPEAKER_01: If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, those first couple of verses, do you not love the poetic nature of it?
SPEAKER_01: Right, and there in verses nine and ten.
SPEAKER_01: What we see here, though, in the the greater parable, is that that's contrast that God is ready to answer your prayers with what is good for you.
SPEAKER_01: He was willing, and now he is ready to answer your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: So that first one he says, Ask, it'll be given, right?
SPEAKER_01: In faith and independence.
SPEAKER_01: The Father is generous.
SPEAKER_01: He is generous.
SPEAKER_01: So do any of you doubt his generosity?
SPEAKER_01: Do any of you doubt that he would give to you generously?
SPEAKER_01: Um if so, ask him in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Ask him, ask him.
SPEAKER_01: So, and with the realization, right, he is not a genie in a lamp, right?
SPEAKER_01: It may take longer than you want, it may look different than you want, um, but it'll be what you need, and you can have great confidence in that.
SPEAKER_01: Then the next one says, seek and find.
SPEAKER_01: This is an active pursuit, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is not passive.
SPEAKER_01: Seeking implies that active pursuit of God's will and truth, um, which should be encouraging believers to diligently, diligently seek for God's guidance and presence.
SPEAKER_01: So this, I really like Jeremiah 29, 13, that is directly relates to this.
SPEAKER_01: If some of you are familiar with it, it says, because there's actually lots of verses that repeat the same thing of seek and find, seek and find.
SPEAKER_01: And in here, Jeremiah, a prophet from a handful of uh uh centuries before, says, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_01: So here there are no half-hearted efforts.
SPEAKER_01: This is wholehearted seeking of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is using your whole heart to do so.
SPEAKER_01: And then the third part of this poetic verse we see now is that it says, knock, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it'll be opened.
SPEAKER_01: This shows perseverance and determination.
SPEAKER_01: Um we keep so we keep asking in faith, we keep seeking with our whole heart, and we keep knocking persistently.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Now to the actual parable.
SPEAKER_01: It says, What father among you, if his son asks for fish, we'll instead uh of a fish give him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg, we'll instead give him a scorpion.
SPEAKER_01: So again, that last character contrast was um friend versus heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's earthly father to heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: This is the last character contrast.
SPEAKER_01: And it's showing his goodness, and his goodness is greater even than an earthly father's goodness and generosity.
SPEAKER_01: Because even an earthly father desires to give good to his children.
SPEAKER_01: That crosses all cultures and all time, and that fathers desire that.
SPEAKER_01: All right, but his is even greater.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I may or may not have given a symbolic serpent or scorpion to my own son.
SPEAKER_01: It was about um probably 10 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: It was his birthday, and Kristen was dutifully making a birthday cake for uh Beckett.
SPEAKER_01: And I saw that the frosting she was making looked exactly like the drywall mortar that we were using that day.
SPEAKER_01: And I could not help myself because I'm I was 30 going on 13, and I gave him a dollop of drywall mortar to try instead of frosting.
SPEAKER_01: So, unlike me, God has always given his children good gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we can approach him with trust and confidence and persistence, knowing that he will supply every need according to his perfect wisdom and love, and that's not to eat drywall mortar.
SPEAKER_01: So now it he continues, says, If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_01: So, evil here, this obviously does not mean every act is malicious, right?
SPEAKER_01: This just means that our hearts are bent away from God so often, and that we have this sin nature.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means by we are evil, we are all evil.
SPEAKER_01: We're sinners by nature.
SPEAKER_01: But again, the natural desire of earthly fathers, even though they're evil, is to provide.
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is built into us.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it is only the Father who does it perfectly so.
SPEAKER_01: So now we are let me find my place, um, introduced to the Holy Spirit entering the uh the picture.
SPEAKER_01: So we've already we're talking about God the Son, we're talking about God the Father, and now God the Holy Spirit has entered.
SPEAKER_01: So we read that uh the Holy Spirit is given as a gift.
SPEAKER_01: He is the third person of the triune God.
SPEAKER_01: He is a person and he is a gift to us as well.
SPEAKER_01: So God is the giver of the greatest of gifts, our salvation, but uh as well as salvation and adoption, but as well as the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So what we have to understand is that all of us at one time has have been in rebellion against our God, the Creator and the Savior, and yet he loves us.
SPEAKER_01: And that is why he sent his God man Son, Jesus Christ, to live that sinful life that we could not live on our own.
SPEAKER_01: And then he sacrificed himself on a brutal Roman cross for his love for us.
SPEAKER_01: And then he rose again, like was predicted for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years prior to, and in that resurrection, proved who he was.
SPEAKER_01: And then he tells us to choose him, choose him, trust in and place faith in him, in his work, and his person of dying and rising again, to be that payment for that sin we've committed.
SPEAKER_01: And that we do not need to suffer that eternal damnation that uh we rightly deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he took the punishment for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: So, and then with that salvation, it's not just salvation of no longer getting that punishment that we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just the adoption to be sons and daughters of the king, it is also we get the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So we here let's read Ephesians 1, 13, and 14 that says, In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, we're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: So the Holy Spirit's a person, and he's a gift, and he continues to give us gifts.
SPEAKER_01: His presence is within us, he guides us, he comforts us, he empowers us, um, and he seals us for all eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So we see in this passage of the Lord's Prayer the emphasis that the priority of a Christ follower is spending time with God, talking to and depending on him.
SPEAKER_01: So, in closing, then um our relationship with Jesus we see as a two-way street.
SPEAKER_01: It is a two-way street.
SPEAKER_01: He is devoted to us and we are devoted to him.
SPEAKER_01: So the answer is always devote yourself to God and spend time with him.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Um, read about him in his word, the Bible, and talk to him in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So are you hurting?
SPEAKER_01: Talk to him and read about him.
SPEAKER_01: Are you unsure what to do with a difficult situation?
SPEAKER_01: Read about him and talk to him.
SPEAKER_01: Are you thankful for your life and your blessings?
SPEAKER_01: Talk to him and read about him.
SPEAKER_01: Are you even unsure if he is even real and that he cares for you?
SPEAKER_01: Read about him and talk to him.
SPEAKER_01: Spend the time with him.
SPEAKER_01: So walk away with this, then, guys.
SPEAKER_01: Our good God gives generously to those who seek him independence.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: All right, let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you for the privilege and the honor and the burden to get to proclaim your word.
SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you that you are a good and generous God who cares deeply about us more than any friend or earthly father, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Lord, uh, thank you that we can depend on you and you will always meet all your promises.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, and if there's anything that I said today that is not of you, let it fall out of their heads and not implant in their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, may you be honored and uh our people be edified.
SPEAKER_01: We love you and you praise you.
SPEAKER_01: It's in your son's name out of praying.