SPEAKER_01: Welcome to City Church Dublin's Durban Archives.
SPEAKER_01: Join us in session three of our Family Church weekend away in 2022 as our guest speaker Colin Crichton speaks to us from Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_02: So if you do have a Bible, do flick open um Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_02: I uh I I said at the start when I was a kid growing up, I didn't I didn't have uh any interest in Christian stuff or church stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Um and when I was at school, um uh my brother, my oldest brother had invited me to go to England to this summer Christian camp that sounded a bit weird, but I went and and I remember when I came back, I was at my final year in secondary school.
SPEAKER_02: Um so I was 17, 18.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I I remember wrestling with I'm struggling to say it's not true.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't want it to be true, but I'm struggling to say, you know, it's it's it's as silly as I thought I was.
SPEAKER_02: Um and and kind of in my last year at secondary school, I was exploring it, and it's uh it's amazing what you see when you look for it.
SPEAKER_02: So I hardly I hardly knew that there were Christians in my year group.
SPEAKER_02: I was part of a uh you know, it was a reasonably sized school.
SPEAKER_02: There's about 150 in our year group.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, my world uh in school was sports, so it was it was rugby through the the first two terms and athletics and the final one.
SPEAKER_02: My weekends were spent for the fellows who drank and went to the nightclubs.
SPEAKER_02: And after I went to that camp, I noticed that there were actually Christians in my year group.
SPEAKER_02: And not only that, they'd organized like this little weird CU group that sort of met after school.
SPEAKER_02: And I like I was struggling to get my head round.
SPEAKER_02: You would actually you would actually put church on in school.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's the strangest thing.
SPEAKER_02: It's bad enough to go when you're dragged to it, but you actually're doing this yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and there was one time, and I think rugby practice was cancelled.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and and and I was wondering about all this Christian stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I remember I sneaked in and and I and I sat in the in the back and I watched people in my year group who I didn't know them very well, but like they were up at the front leading stuff and and praying and and doing all that sort of stuff, and and I can't remember a thing that was said, and and and I wasn't in there long, and I sneaked out before anyone talked to me.
SPEAKER_02: But as I look back on that little after-school CU group, I've I've learned a lot about prayer from that.
SPEAKER_02: And and this passage in Matthew 11 just warm in Matthew uh 7 just warms warms my heart.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got it there, let me um let me let me read it out.
SPEAKER_02: Ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_02: Seek and you will find.
SPEAKER_02: Knock and the door will be open to you.
SPEAKER_02: For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
SPEAKER_02: And like the way that he he says that, it's it's it's so simple.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know ask and you receive, seek and you'll find, knock, and the door will be uh open, and and there's no great trick to it.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is just like, just come and ask.
SPEAKER_02: Um but the reason that there's no great trick to it is because of verses 9 to 11.
SPEAKER_02: Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
SPEAKER_02: Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake.
SPEAKER_02: If you then, though you're 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?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what it is that uh that shapes your prayer life.
SPEAKER_02: But do you see what what Jesus is saying?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I want you to shape, here's what I want to shape your prayer life, and it's what you understand God to be like.
SPEAKER_02: And he's saying, if if if if you want to come before God in prayer, you gotta know what type of God it is that you're coming before.
SPEAKER_02: And what he says is, this is a God who knows how to good gifts, and and even even a human father knows how to good gifts.
SPEAKER_02: Well, well, this father is amazing, and that's really important because if we if we have this picture of you know, God is this sort of grumpy old man in the sky, and I have to come before him and try and twist his arm in order to get him to give me what he wants, what I want.
SPEAKER_02: You know what happens?
SPEAKER_02: Eventually I get tired.
SPEAKER_02: It's too hard when I'm when I'm hurting, when I'm vulnerable.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to come before a grumpy old man to try and wrestle something out of his hand.
SPEAKER_02: And she says, Isn't no grumpy old man that that you have to come and beg for some bit of bread?
SPEAKER_02: His father loves you.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he loves you to bits.
SPEAKER_02: And I uh I I love this verse from Isaiah 49.
SPEAKER_02: Now remember, this is this is like hundreds of years before Jesus comes on the scene.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 49, verse 15.
SPEAKER_02: Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?
SPEAKER_02: Though she may forget, I will not forget you.
SPEAKER_02: See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
SPEAKER_02: Oh he has, hasn't he?
SPEAKER_02: Could could a mother forget her child?
SPEAKER_02: No, a mother couldn't forget a child, but even if she did God's not gonna forget you.
SPEAKER_02: He has engraved you on the palm of his hands.
SPEAKER_02: This is hundreds of years before the nails are put through Christ's hands.
SPEAKER_02: Could a mother forget her child?
SPEAKER_02: No, she couldn't, but even if she could, God's not gonna forget you.
SPEAKER_02: Um I suspect in a few weeks I'm gonna be c putting kittens again on Facebook.
SPEAKER_02: Um we we live out in the country now, there's there's about an acre of of of the site.
SPEAKER_02: Um the first time that cat had kittens, you can imagine my three daughters.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and and as soon as the kittens were ready to lift, they they were going to the our next door neighbour across the hedge and showing off these uh little kittens.
SPEAKER_02: Um and and I could see my daughters in the in in the distance, and I could see by the they've got the kitten, they're showing, they're showing Breed, our neighbour, uh, how gorgeous these kittens are.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and as I walked over to them, I'd walk past the mother cat.
SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden, as I started walking towards the girls, this bolt of lightning shot past me.
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't hear it.
SPEAKER_02: But she could.
SPEAKER_02: The little kitten was just meowing.
SPEAKER_02: This is across an acre of a field.
SPEAKER_02: I could barely see my daughter.
SPEAKER_02: That mother cat heard that little cry and like a bullet came up to my daughter, put her paws on her leg, and asked for the kitten back.
SPEAKER_02: And she took the kitten by the scruff of the neck and walked across an acre of a field to drop her back safe.
SPEAKER_02: Don't underestimate the love of a parent.
SPEAKER_02: Don't underestimate how their ear is attuned to their cry.
SPEAKER_02: Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?
SPEAKER_02: Though she may forget, I will not forget you.
SPEAKER_02: See, I have engraven you on the palm of my hand.
SPEAKER_02: Even a mother cat can hear the cries of her kitten across the field.
SPEAKER_02: Your heavenly father hears every cry and his ear is listening.
SPEAKER_02: And his his palms in Isaiah 49, his palms are engraved with our names.
SPEAKER_02: And if that's how much a parent loves a child, then imagine a father that would give up his son for us.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 8.
SPEAKER_02: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_02: For God forenew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that we might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_02: Those he predestined, he also called.
SPEAKER_02: Those he called, he justified, those he justified, he also glorified.
SPEAKER_02: What then shall we say in response to these things?
SPEAKER_02: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_02: He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_02: This is the Father who did not spare his own son because he loved us, and on the palms of Jesus are the scars the scars that paid the price for our sin.
SPEAKER_02: And when we come before God in prayer, we're not coming before a grumpy old man that we've gotta twist his arm in the hope that he might give us some crumbs off his table.
SPEAKER_02: We're coming to the father who did not spare his own son.
SPEAKER_02: We're coming before Christ, who has engraven us on the palms of our hands.
SPEAKER_02: Can a mother forget the baby at her breast or have come no compassion on the child she has born?
SPEAKER_02: Though she may forget, I will not forget.
SPEAKER_02: See, I have engraven you on the palms of my hands.
SPEAKER_02: Which of you, if a son asks for bread, will give him a stone, or if asks for a fish, will give him a snake.
SPEAKER_02: If you then, though 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?
SPEAKER_02: This isn't a grumpy old man.
SPEAKER_02: And until we get a picture of this loving father, it's that picture that sets our prayer life on fire.
SPEAKER_02: Because he wants us to come.
SPEAKER_02: And he is listening for the cry of his people.
SPEAKER_02: And if a mother cat can hear it across the field, let me tell you, God is listening to your cry and my cry, and he knows how to give good gifts.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a grumpy old man, but here's the thing, he's he's he's also not a genie in a magic lamp.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, you you rub the lamp and you get your three wishes.
SPEAKER_02: And if we think God is like a genie in a magic lamp, what happens is we start off really excited of my prayer life or my wish life or whatever it is is just, you know, it's on fire until hang on, the magic lamp isn't working for me.
SPEAKER_02: We know he's not a grumpy old man, but he's not a genie in a lamp either.
SPEAKER_02: Because you know, this passage is saying if a son asks for bread, the father doesn't give him a stone.
SPEAKER_02: If he asks for fish, he doesn't give him a snake.
SPEAKER_02: You know, when children come and ask for things that are good for them, the father knows how to give good gifts.
SPEAKER_02: But he doesn't give snakes, he doesn't give stones.
SPEAKER_02: And and when you're reading this passage, you've got to read it in the whole sermon of the mount that Jesus has been given from Matthew 5, Matthew 6, Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, listen to some of these verses because he's telling us to ask, he's telling us to seek, he's telling us to knock.
SPEAKER_02: Actually, he's been telling us that the whole way through the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, read read some of these, uh, Matthew 5, verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 6, 19.
SPEAKER_02: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew six, thirty-one.
SPEAKER_02: So do not worry saying, What shall I eat, or what shall I drink, or what shall I wear?
SPEAKER_02: For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
SPEAKER_02: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
SPEAKER_02: See, the whole way through, Jesus has been saying, seek the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: And God knows that we need all the physical stuff as well.
SPEAKER_02: He's going to give us, but seek first the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus isn't some genie in a magic lamp where he just makes everything nice and comfortable for us.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, Seek the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And when you seek it and you come before your Father and you ask and you seek and you knock, he is ready to give those good gifts.
SPEAKER_02: Jeremiah 29, verse 12.
SPEAKER_02: Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
SPEAKER_02: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_02: I will be found by you, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God is saying, seek him.
SPEAKER_02: Seek his kingdom, seek his righteousness, ask and knock, and you will receive.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a grumpy old man, but nor is he a genie in a magic lamp.
SPEAKER_02: And if we don't get the right view of this father, our our prayer life might be on fire for a while, but it'll fizzle.
SPEAKER_02: This is a father that we come before and we trust him.
SPEAKER_02: And we ask.
SPEAKER_02: And we seek and we knock.
SPEAKER_02: I said that that Christian union meeting I went to in school taught me so much about prayer.
SPEAKER_02: I haven't got a clue anything that was said in that meeting.
SPEAKER_02: But after I I left that school, that's that's when I came to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That's when I saw how amazing Jesus was and the forgiveness of sins that he offered.
SPEAKER_02: And I went off to university.
SPEAKER_02: But most of those people that I was at school with, I I lost touch with them, I hardly saw them again.
SPEAKER_02: And and as I went to England to train to be a teacher, I got converted and I trained to be a teacher, and then I uh and and and I took a career break and I went to train to be uh a minister.
SPEAKER_02: It was when I was in London training to be um a pastor, I met folk like Mark Smith and other Irish exiles living in London.
SPEAKER_02: And my intention had been to train in London and go back to the north of England to minister there because there wasn't anywhere near as much going on Christianly in the north of England than there was in the south.
SPEAKER_02: And then I met these Irish exiles who were having this little prayer meeting, and they would have a map of Ireland, and they could look at entire counties and name the gospel witnesses that were going on.
SPEAKER_02: And I you have to remember, I wasn't a Christian when I lived in, I didn't have a clue about the spiritual scene here.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sitting looking at this map and saying, that can't be right.
SPEAKER_02: Surely we surely there's and and and and that's that started me sort of exploring um, well, actually, could we come back to Ireland?
SPEAKER_02: It would be very strange to come back, but I didn't know anyone Christianly in Ireland.
SPEAKER_02: And so I started asking around if I could come back in my summers and and preach at different churches.
SPEAKER_02: And and what I didn't realize, and I'm in a Baptist church now, forgive me that, but I am.
SPEAKER_02: Um I didn't even realize in my hometown of Lisbon there were two Baptist churches.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, I knew there was one because it's it was in a pr it's in a particularly rough part of the town, and and and the entrance is kind of set back from the street, and so it's kind of in shadows, which means when you're coming home from the nightclubs, it is a perfect place to be because it's just it's there, the chip shop's there, the facilities are there, and you can go.
SPEAKER_02: So that was my only understanding of Baptist churches in my hometown, and it had a big Baptist church, all different Baptists, and and so I spent I spent my summers trying to preach at as many churches that would have me as a totally unknown quantity, and and lo and behold, one day I got to preach in one of the Baptist churches in my hometown.
SPEAKER_02: Now I didn't think it through because I I hadn't been in my hometown for 12 years, and I remember going to preach in this church, and it was on John 3 about the new birth, and I didn't think it through at all because I didn't know any Christians when I left Lisbon.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember I went into this church and I uh and I preached John 3 about new birth and the amazing news of Jesus and the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And and I remember getting down from the pulpit, and normally in these churches, you you go to the back and you, I was told you shake everybody's hands.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and and as soon as I got down, I saw this fella like running up the aisle.
SPEAKER_02: I thought, who's this old man coming?
SPEAKER_02: Actually, he was in my year at school.
SPEAKER_02: It was disconcerting.
SPEAKER_02: And he ran up to me, and as he got closer, I recognized him.
SPEAKER_02: He was in my year, I didn't really know him, he was one of the Christians.
SPEAKER_02: And as he came up, a strange feeling came over me.
SPEAKER_02: Because the last time I saw that man, I was the guy who spent the weekends in the nightclubs.
SPEAKER_02: I was the guy who peed on his front door of the church.
SPEAKER_02: And I had just walked in to his church, and I felt such shame.
SPEAKER_02: And he came up running to me, and I couldn't I couldn't speak.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, what is he going to say?
SPEAKER_02: And he was so excited, and he was saying, it's Colin preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, What happened?
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Colin, I remember you when you were 18 in your last year of school, because I was leading one of the CU meetings, and as I was leading it, I saw you sneak in the back.
SPEAKER_02: And you thought none of us saw you, but we did.
SPEAKER_02: And after the meeting, me and six other people in your year group, we sat and we prayed that Colin Crichton would come to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And I was standing there with shame, and he was standing there with joy.
SPEAKER_02: I thought, that's the prayer life that I want.
SPEAKER_02: To pray those big prayers and to come before your heavenly father, who listens to the cries of his children, who has their names engraved upon his hands.
SPEAKER_02: I learned a lot about prayer from that meeting that I sneaked into.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know the people that God has put in your lives.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know the things that you're doing as a church that come before him.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a grumpy.
SPEAKER_02: Old man that you've got to wrestle stuff away from.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a genie in a lamp who just grants you magic wishes.
SPEAKER_02: He's a father we trust.
SPEAKER_02: And we come before him and we know he hears our cry.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Come, ask, seek, and knock.
SPEAKER_02: And know that the one that you come to is the one that did not spare his own son, but give him up for us all.
SPEAKER_02: How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?
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