How Prayer Transforms The Golden Rule | Matthew 7:7-12 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Is everything you’ve been taught about the Golden Rule wrong? Discover how persistent prayer and resting in the generous nature of God completely transform the way we view Matthew 7:12.

In this sermon, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon preaches through Matthew 7:7–12, dismantling popular misunderstandings about the Golden Rule. Rather than a transactional, karma-like formula for manipulating others into treating us well, unpack how authentic prayer—asking, seeking, and knocking—connects us to the limitless nature of our Heavenly Father. Learn how trusting God's provision frees us from scorekeeping, enables us to endure closed doors, and empowers us to genuinely bless those around us.

In this episode, we cover:

• 3 Types of Persistent Prayer: Understanding the distinction between asking for provision, seeking for direction, and knocking for breakthrough.
• Need vs. Nature: Why praying out of God's limitless nature yields far greater results than praying merely out of our limited human needs.
• Parenting & Functional Atheism: How over-accommodating our children can accidentally rob them of experiencing their personal need for God.
• Rethinking the Golden Rule: Shifting from a self-centered expectation of what others should do for us to a God-centered freedom that blesses others.
• Liberation From Scorekeeping: How experiencing our Heavenly Father's "how-much-moreness" frees us from manipulating people and keeping track of favors.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro: Escaping the Scorekeeping Mentality

01:11 – Passage Reading: Matthew 7:7–12

02:40 – Point 1: Prayer Involves Persistence (Asking, Seeking, Knocking)

04:30 – The History of Grand Parkway: A Byproduct of Knocking

09:40 – Praying Out of Need vs. Praying Out of God's Nature

13:50 – Point 2: Prayer Puts You in Touch With the Nature of God

16:00 – Avoid Becoming a Functional Savior to Your Kids

18:20 – Point 3: Proper Relation to God Changes How You Relate to People

21:00 – How Prayer Transforms the Golden Rule

23:30 – Closing Prayer & Reflection Questions

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Transcript

– Intro: Escaping the Scorekeeping Mentality

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So here's the golden rule. You were created by a heavenly Father who is so good and his nature is so beyond our need that you cannot waste your life. You're rescued from wasting your life thinking about what people could and should do to you and keeping score. Living lives that are ruled by math and never hearing the music of the kingdom. This just kind of helps you move to the unforced rhythms of grace. Translation: your father's nature is so good and generous and willing, you can stop trying to manipulate people. Stop with this, oh, do unto others as you have them do unto you. Put good in the universe, it'll come back to you. That's karma to stupidity. I just end with a simple question. Again, golden rule. Can you envision a time when you are so set free by the nature of your heavenly father that the rest of your life you could stop looking to manipulate people and you could start blessing them?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parquet Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yes,

– Passage Reading: Matthew 7:7–12

SPEAKER_01 1:11

yes, yes, yes. Let's pray together, church. Lord, we know that to be true of you. You're our Father in heaven. And there's a how much moreness to your nature that we want to understand today. And so, Holy Spirit, illuminate scripture so we understand it's not just a song. The song comes from your word. It's based on what the Bible teaches us to be true about you. So we don't have to reach because you're a God of revelation. We don't have to create because you're the creator and we're creative. We don't have to look around when we're 17 and go, everybody, all my friends have a boyfriend. I gotta manufacture a boyfriend. No, you don't. Not at all. We're not keeping up with the Joneses. We're here to further understand our Father and his disposition towards us. And so, Lord, we we we we repent of all these other behaviors that are insulting to your nature. We're gonna stop underrepresenting your faithfulness to people in the hopes that they'll do for us what you're gladly will do for us. And so, Holy Spirit, just brood over us as you already have been in worship. Brood over us and speak life into us, Lord, and put to death death. This is our prayer. We pray in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, amen. You can have a seat if you got a Bible. I invite you to take it open up to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. I want to talk to you this morning about how prayer transforms the golden rule. How prayer transforms the golden rule. Now, when I say the golden rule, if you have any idea what

– Point 1: Prayer Involves Persistence (Asking, Seeking, Knocking)

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I'm talking about, say amen. Uh most of you, a lot of you, something like that. I know it's time change Sunday and it's overcast, and you'd rather be home sleeping right now. Uh, but but but say with me this morning because I remember in the second grade, you may find this hard to believe, but I was a little unruly in school. I like to just do stuff. I like to look out the window and throw crayons out the window. I like to get in trouble. We had, remember, I'm I'm so old, we had a time, we had a little folding mat you had to put on the ground and you had nap time. Remember, remember that? Uh yeah. I was poor. We had a towel, not a little folded mat. And I remember laying on the towel on the hard floor, just thinking, something's wrong in this picture, because all the rich kids had folding mats that were red and blue. I just had a green towel with a big hole in it. I'm not bitter or scarred by the experience or anything. Uh but school for me was not that, it was boring, and so I had to come up with things to make me interested. And one of the things that interested me in the second grade, I looked over and on the wall in Miss Forster's class was this little thing said the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And I just thought, well, I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm going to suggest to you that what you've been taught and told about the golden rule is not right. Okay? Let me just put all my cards on the table from the get-go. What you've been taught and told about the golden rule is not right. Not only is it not right, it is destructive because it's this works-based mentality that says if I put good out in the universe, good is gonna come back. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna be a certain way to people, and they're gonna be a certain way back to me. And then they're not. And then you're drinking too much, uh, or whatever, to to kind of self-medicate. And so just stay with me, because there's two things you have to understand and believe about prayer uh before you get to this,

– The History of Grand Parkway: A Byproduct of Knocking

SPEAKER_01 4:30

how prayer transforms the golden rule. So let's read Matthew chapter 7, verse 11, Jesus, or excuse me, verse 7, Jesus is talking, he says this ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be open. Or which one of you, if if his son ask him for bread, will give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask him? So, whatever you wish that your uh others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Now, when it says for this is the law and the prophets, he's that's a reference to the Old Testament. Laws, the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the rest of it is a reference to the prophets. In other words, if you want to summarize the entire Old Testament teaching, then you do this. But I'm gonna suggest to you and say to you, even now, that you can't do that unless you understand a couple things about prayer, okay? So the first thing I want to point to in the text is simply this. Here's the first thing you gotta understand about prayer. Prayer involves persistence, it involves persistence. It's asking, seeking, and knocking. And by the way, these are all present tense verbs, which in the Greek which refers to this ongoing activity. Uh, this is what I mean by persistence. It's not one and done. Well, I ask and God didn't answer, so God must not be real. So I'm gonna give up on this whole Christianity thing. I don't think it can be trusted. No, it is an on it is a life of asking and seeking and knocking. It's not like I just ask and seek and knock, and then boom, the door swings open. No, no, no. The Bible frowns upon this vending machine mentality when it comes to prayer. Asking and seeking and knocking are not just three different words. Look at me, they're three different kinds of prayer. So when someone comes to you and says, Hey man, would you pray for me? You should learn to ask this question back to them. Hey, are you asking? Are you seeking, or are you knocking? And get prepared for them to look at you like, what? Yes. Just ask them again. Hey, I'll I'm glad they pray for you. But but but if you're telling me, are you asking, seeking, or knocking? Because that will inform the kind of prayers that I pray for you. See, asking is a prayer for provision. God, I need this, I need I need you to provide this. I'm working, I'm doing my part, but I'm looking to you, God. I'm asking because it is not in my capacity to get this. And so don't ask God for things that you can do for yourself because that doesn't tap into God's nature. That's just you trying to cover your bets and have extra, okay? So asking is a prayer of provision. Seeking is a prayer for direction. I I don't know if I knew where to go to get this, I would go, but I do not know where to go. And then thirdly, knocking. Knocking is a prayer for breakthrough. Uh let me say like this. Look at me. Sometimes God's gonna close the door just to see if you'll persist in prayer. Sometimes God is gonna close the door to see if you'll persist. Oh, if you'll just go, oh, okay, oh, that's how it's gonna be. You're gonna close the door. I tell you what, I'm gonna take matters into my own hands. Good luck. Good luck. And now he says that uh uh let me be careful because he says, ask, it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. Those are general statements on his part. He doesn't say that, hey, you're gonna get what you asked for. Sometimes what he opens to you uh seek and you'll find sometimes what you find is so much better than what you were looking for. You're just like, oh my gosh. But I want to draw your attention to that little word knock. He said knock, and it will be open unto you. Again, this means sometimes that the door is closed, and this is where you and I have to persist in prayer. Now, now why you tell us that? Because you are sitting right now in persistent prayer. You're like, uh no, I'm no, no, no. You are sitting in a room that is the byproduct of persistent prayer. Allow me to explain. When I first started here as a pastor about 20 years ago, we had the building right over there, that's all we had. A little asphalt parking lot around it, had big holes in the in the parking lot. I was like, can anybody fix this thing? Uh and so somebody asked me recently, what was it like when you first started? Well, physically, the building looked and felt like a divorce had taken place, and the man kept the house and decorated it himself. You kind of walked in and you're like, hey man, just because you went to Kirklands and bought a lot of stuff, don't put it on the walls, okay? Uh and so it was just like, whoo, this is ha! But there was a bobware fence right out here where that row of cars is. There was a little rolling berm, there's a bobware fence. This was the pasture, and it was owned by the prison uh down the road down here. And somebody told me, and I quote, because I said, Man, I am praying that God gives us land because when God does what I think God wants to do, we're gonna need some more buildings. And the guy laughed and put his hand on my shoulder and said, Good luck, bro. That land is owned by the prison, it'll never come up for sale. God's not making more land. And I said, Okay, uh-oh, okay. And then, not long after that, some developer that was developing some mythical neighborhood called Aliana came along and he bought this land. And so we went to him and said, Hey, because not only did you buy the lamb, they

– Praying Out of Need vs. Praying Out of God's Nature

SPEAKER_01 9:40

were gonna put a hospital right here where you're sitting. The memorial herman up here at 59 and 99 was supposed to go right here. They were two weeks away from signing the contracts when we reached out to him, and he said, and he wasn't a Christian, he was honest about it. He said, I'm not a Christian, and so uh I try to do my best because I need God's help, but uh, we're fixing to sign the contract in two weeks, and so too bad, so sad. And so I had visions of a big chiller yard being right here. I was like, no way. So we went to Mr. Chang, the developer, and said, Can you just get us a little easement? Easement is, hey, can you move that thing maybe 50 feet over or 100 feet over or whatever? He called back about nine days later and said, Hey, my deal with the hospital fell through out of the blue. Because, yeah. Now, by the way, we were had a church service in the old sanctuary, and I had people reach out their hands towards this land over here, and we prayed. I said, We're gonna stretch out our hands and we're gonna pray and ask God to make these people favorably disposed towards us. One of my golfing buddies came up to me afterwards and go, hey man, don't ever do that again. That was weird and creepy. And I was like, What? That whole stretching at your hands. I put my hands in my pockets. I said, I saw you. He was just standing there like I said, he said, Why'd you make us do that? I said, Because we do there is no, we are asking because there's no way we could get this in our own power, okay? We need God to come and act on our behalf. And so at the time we had 40 acres over here off Madden Road that we couldn't build on. It was like a boat anchor around our neck, it was choking us to death. But Mr. Chang, the developer, he needed a place to put his water for this development. So we gave him that, and he gave us this nine-acre piece of land right here that we built the student building on, the kids' building, and the sanctuary. So you're sitting in a room that is a byproduct of people knocking. Knocking. Now, let me show you who these people are. If you were here when I first became the pastor, would you stand up? This won't be many people. Get ready. These are the people that knocked. It wasn't me. Did I pray? Absolutely. Yeah. No, stay standing. Stay standing. No, sit down. These are the people when it was just like we're imaging people. Uh my first Sunday, there were 238 people total. Babies, children, youth, everything. There were two services, and the first service had be 30 people. I'd want to go out back and just off myself after that. My fourth Sunday, a lady came up to me with a spiral notebook and a pen and said, We got a petition to bring our former pastor back. And I said, Okay, I'll sign it. And she's like, That's not funny, Neil. I said, I'm not being funny. I miss, I I I used to, my my job was eating out and living in hotels for a living. I miss that, okay? Y'all about to drive me crazy. And so she goes, You'll sign it? I said, sure. I signed it, and she goes, Well, you might just sign your death warrant. I said, or my bail bond. And I said, This person, this, I said, listen, here's the thing. If this is of God, I can't stop it. If it's not of God, you can't stop it. Huh, we'll see how this goes. I'm not I'm not mocking that lady. She's a sweet lady, but these people that are standing are the people that prayed. Because those 238 people total, in about eight weeks, I was so successful as a pastor, I grew it down to 124. And the reason I know that, I came into work one day and my secretary was crying. And I was like, what are you crying for? Did you get drunk and beat your husband? Oh, shut up. People are leaving, and it's your fault. I don't want people to leave, but listen, we gotta get healthy, we gotta stop tolerating unhealth. And so these people, and and there was a few others since moved, died, whatever. These people were knocking and knocking. So we're talking about ask and seek and knock. It was people like this that were like, all right, Lord, we're in, we're praying, we're knocking, we want you to do something. And we are seated on a piece of land and in a building that is a byproduct of people's persistent knocking. Because look at me, sometimes

– Point 2: Prayer Puts You in Touch With the Nature of God

SPEAKER_01 13:50

God closes the door just to see how long you're willing to knock. You really believe, you really want what you're asking for. I appreciate you, knockers. You can be seated. See, here's the thing you have to you have to embrace prayer involves persistence. We were asking, understand this, we were asking out of our need. We need an easement, we need a break. We don't want to be in the shadow of a hospital. That doesn't look too good, okay? And so we were asking for an easement, but God had something we were asking out of our need, God was answering out of his nature. And look at me, God's nature is limitless, and your need has limits to it. Because sometimes the worst thing God could do is answer your need because your need doesn't really tap into the nature of God. And so sometimes because you answering your need doesn't tap into God's nature, because you what you do not want to do is have a transactional relationship with God where you pray and you receive and you go on and do your own thing. Sometimes God says no to your prayer request because what he has in mind is bigger and better and beyond what you're asking for. And he's waiting for you to change the way you you you pray to him and you engage him. We were asking out of our need. God was answering out of his nature because God's nature always has more in mind. This is why the Bible says in like Ephesians 3.20, now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we can ask or imagine. Do you, when you pray, do you realize you're praying to a God who can do exceedingly, abundantly beyond anything you ask or imagine? And if you believe that, would that begin to alter what you asked for and what you imagine? Because this is what the Bible says. Now, by the way, when I say that, sometimes answering your prayers wouldn't tap into God's nature. So it would be hate, not love, to answer that prayer. Because this is true. You and I can sometimes live with what we call unanswered prayer. God is saying no because he has something better or more or different in mind. Now, why is this important? Because if you do not believe that, you will not persist in prayer.

– Avoid Becoming a Functional Savior to Your Kids

SPEAKER_01 16:00

If you do not believe that, you will not persist in prayer. I was at jury duty about maybe four months into my into the job here. I'm at jury duty, miserable, waiting. I'm like, I believe in capital punishment. Let's just kill them all, let God sort them out. Let me out of here. And the guy next to me nudges me and hands me a note. And I was like, and he pointed over there. And across the there's like a hundred and something of us in this big room. And there's a friend of mine that goes to another church here in town, and the note said, We'll give you half a million for you in the building. And I was like, What? And he says, I saw him in the lobby afterwards, and he said, We'll give you, we want to buy your church, your building, and it'd be a satellite campus for our church. So we'll give you half a million for you in the building. Everybody else can stay or go, we don't care. And I said, Rumors of our death are highly exaggerated. And he said, I don't know, bro. This doesn't look good. And I said, I don't think we prayed to the same God. So you go tell your pastor, I said, Thank you for the offer, but no, thank you. And he said, You might regret this. And I said, and I might not. I'm willing to just walk in that for a little bit. Again, you got to persist. If you don't believe, you ask and seek and knock. And sometimes he closes the door because he's inviting you to just keep knocking. I want you to persist. Now the Bible has a bunch of pictures of persistence in prayer. One of my favorites is in Luke 18, verse 1. He says, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart. That means, look at me, sometimes in your prayer life, you're going to lose heart. You're going to be like, oh Jesus, here I am saying the same thing again. I'm sick of saying the same thing. So is God sick of hearing the same thing. Say something different. Talk to God about his nature, not just your need. So they ought to always pray and not lose heart. He said this in a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused. But afterwards he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual

– Point 3: Proper Relation to God Changes How You Relate to People

SPEAKER_01 18:20

coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says, and he will, and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? See, the point of comparison is not that God is unjust, because in this parable, God is like the unjust judge. And Jesus is saying, Hey, understand that God gives in to prevailing prayer. So don't miss this that one of the ways you demonstrate that you really are a Christian is how you pray. Because he says this. And will not God, verse 7, give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night. Will he delay long over them? Elect is just a Bible word for this. Is people who really know God. And he says, when God's people pray to God, He will give them justice, okay? You gotta be careful, like my um youngest is flying back from Florida. She was at a bachelorette party this weekend. And I'm like, hey, listen, when people ask you to be in your wedding, their wedding, you just say, I can be in your wedding, but I can't come to your bachelorette party. Uh, because y'all generation, y'all, y'all, y'all think of reasons to celebrate yourself. And so uh my wife actually was went to a family, a family friend passed away in Florida. And so my wife was in Florida too. They were on the same flight on Thursday night, getting out of here. And so Thursday night, 8:30, they left. And we were talking about as a family, and I said, Hey, why don't you drive? Sophie flies back on Sunday, I'll pick her up, and you can have your car on Monday. And there was kind of a well, I guess we could. And I'm like, well, and then they looked at each other and they looked at me and said, Well, if you took us, you could just drop us off right at the door. We wouldn't have to park and walk. And I'm like, Are your legs broke? Well, it's spring break. There'd be a lot of parking there. Get there early. And I'm like, What is the thing? And then I realized about two minutes into the conversation, it's like they run the okie doke on me, and they're like, Oh, and so today I gotta go pick up one. Now, again, he says right here, he says, and and and God will give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night. Will he delay long over them? So my youngest does not like to mess with, like, she says, hey, I don't want to have a carry-on because I got a kidneck and fly, so I'm gonna check my bag. It's $35. This is what I'm thinking. Why is this my problem? I got a text after the first service

– How Prayer Transforms the Golden Rule

SPEAKER_01 21:00

this morning. A reminder from my my 22-year-old. Hey, by way of reminder, my bag was $35. By way of reminder, whose problem is this? I didn't go to a bachelorette party. Well, mom said you would take care of it. Your mother is a liar. Don't trust your mother. She wrote back, Dad, if you could transfer the money, I'd appreciate it. And I just flipped over to my banking app and said, Here you go. Why? Look at me. My children know how to appeal to my nature. Okay? I don't delay long over them. The Bible says that God will not delay long again. One of the ways you demonstrate you really are a child of God is how you talk to God in this thing called prayer. The elect persist in prayer. God's people they persist in prayer. Okay? Now, some people use unable. Answered prayer is a reason to not believe in God. And I would just say, no, no, no, no, no. This is not about, hey, God didn't answer my prayer, so I don't believe in God. It for me has more to do with you probably don't really have a relationship with God, which is like you're which is why you're like jelly roll. You only talk to God when you need a favor. That's not how the children of God respond to God. And so the first thing you got to do, prayer involves persistence, okay? Here's the second thing you got to understand about prayer. Prayer puts you in touch with the nature of God. Prayer puts you in touch with the nature of God. This is why after Jesus said, ask, seek, and knock, he says this, or which one, because he some makes some really big statements, okay? Uh and he's like, let me ground these things in the nature of God. Because if you and I do not understand and trust the nature of God, we will never pray like we should. He says this, or which one of you, if a son asks for him for bread, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Now, by the way, the Bible says God gives good things, not all things. Ask and seek is not a Christmas list. Prayer puts you in touch with the nature of God. It's the nature of God that allows him to answer our prayers in ways that far exceed our ability to ask, okay? Our need limits us in prayer. God's nature is limitless. So ask yourself a real simple question:

– Closing Prayer & Reflection Questions

SPEAKER_01 23:30

which one of those do you want God to answer you out of? Your need has a limit to it. God's nature is limitless. See, Jesus begins with an argument. Uh in philosophy, it's called an argument from the lesser to the greater. He makes some statements that we could easily again ask seek and knock. Man, I'll get all over that. And then he grounds it in his nature and he calls us to trust in his nature. Because when you don't get what you're asking for, see, the promise of the Father is good things, not all things. I don't know what you mean. Just if you kept reading in Matthew, eventually you get to Matthew chapter 26. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's pouring out his heart. Now, by the way, just picture this in. Jesus, every once in a while, he had 12 disciples, and he would go away with them. But even among the 12, he'd pull these two guys, Peter and John, aside. Like in the garden, he he he calls them a little further away and he kneels down and he pours out his heart to God. Can you imagine me and Peter and John? And you hear Jesus say this, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Don't you think they were like they were bowed for prayer. Yes, Lord, go ahead and pray. Oh Lord, if it's be possible, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Did he say what I think he said? Yes. Yes, he did. This is proof positive. God answers prayer out of his nature, not our need. My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Do you know enough about the nature of God to subject your will to it? Or does God have to constantly prove himself to you by doing everything you ask him to do? Verse 11 starts with this conditional statement. I'm gonna get up in your business now. If you're a parent, say amen. It's about to get real up in here, okay? This is coming from a heart of a man that loves you. And I work on this myself, okay? Uh verse 11, he has this conditional statement. He says, If you then who are evil, Jesus distinguishes himself from them. If you then who are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask him? The conditional status of the first part of this verse assumes the correctness of the second statement of this verse, okay? What do you mean? Uh hey, if you're evil and you know how to give good gifts, how much more does your heavenly father, here's where it gets personal, all right? Uh one of the things we're seeing today, a growing trend in kids, is it takes longer to launch to get out of the house and start adulting. Uh, much of this is because they have parents who violate this verse. You say, What do you mean? We become the functional savior to our kids by over-providing and over-accommodating for them such that they never see, feel, or respond to their need for the goodness of God. And some of you, it's like it's not the parents, it's the grandparents. And by the way, it feels so good. It feels so good. When our oldest first went to college every month, we transfer money into her account. And one of my friends said, How much? Do you mind if I ask you how much you give her? I said, Yeah, we'll give this much. She goes, Bro, that's not much. I said, I want her to feel her need from God. I don't want her to think her dad is her savior. He's like, Oh, well, if it was me, but it's not, so whatever you're fixing to say, I don't care. Again, you got to ask yourself, does your parenting leave room for your kids to feel their need for God? Because if not, you are destroying your kids. You can parent in such a way that your kids will grow up to be a functional atheist. They don't have to believe in God because my dad takes such good care of me, my mom takes good care of me, my grandparents take such good care of me, grandma and grandpa. Do you, grandpa and grandma your kids in such a way that they feel their need from God? Or are you using your grandkids to meet needs in you? I need to be needed, and this feels so good, man. This is great. No, it's not. Because one day you're not gonna be there, and your kids are not gonna know how to relate to God, and they're gonna look for somebody else just to depend on. You see, unless you embrace these two things, you never get to this last thing. Here's the third, here's where the golden rule gets get get get gets set upon its ear. The third thing is this if you relate to God properly, we will relate to people differently. If you relate to God properly, you relate to people differently. What do you mean? Remember, Clyde read it, 121st Psalm. I lift my eyes up to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. Verse 12 says this so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Uh I was talking to a preacher friend of mine this week. He said, Oh, you preaching the Sunday? Yeah. What are you preaching on? I'm preaching on Matthew 7, verses 11, down to like verse 12 or 7 down to verse 12. Uh he goes, Well, what are you gonna talk about? How just prayer just kind of transforms the golden rule? He said, Hey, bro, I wouldn't touch the golden rule. That thing's sacred. No, it's not. I said, I just think we've consumed the golden rule upon our lust. It's become this little formula. Do unto others as you have them do unto you. It's just moralistic uh behavior modification. He said, Man, I don't know if I'd say that. I said, I won't. And yet here we are. He said, What do you mean? Uh here's what I mean. Prayer transforms how you think about the golden rule. And I think you've been taught to think wrongly about it, okay? So how that's this question. Do unto others, do you have them do unto you? Why does verse 12 start with the word so? Or therefore, depending on your translation. Because it's hearkening back to what Jesus started talking about back way back in chapter 5, and it builds all the way to this, and and and right before verse 11. If you are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more your father who is in heaven will give good gifts to those who ask him. So, because this is true, then this is this is possible. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. So here's the golden rule: you're liberated from manipulating people to meet your needs because God's already doing it. You're not like, hey, you go, you know, people, every time you see them, they walk into the conversation their biggest need. Hey Bill, how are you? I'm good, man. Good. My truck broke down. Well, my took my truck did the oil chains, and they they called and said, Well, we found some other stuff. It's $1,468. Man, I'm sorry to hear that. We've all been there. You'll get through it. Yeah, did I tell you it's $1,468? Yeah, you did. Yeah, you go on talk for 15, 20 minutes, and then you're like, all right, Bill, I gotta go. Hey, when you get home, ask Susie if y'all got $1,468 just laying around anywhere. After a while, people see you coming, they're like, oh man, come on. By the way, I did a funeral yesterday. Right here in this room. Had a sweet time. Afterwards, we went over there to the adult building for a reception. It was catered by Sandy McGee's. Tasty. I had a big old slab of that Mexican chocolate cake, and I didn't feel bad about it at all. Guy comes up to me and he says, Hey man, that was really good. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed that. I said, Oh, I don't recognize you. Where's home for you? Where do you live? He said, I live in Austin. I said, Oh, what do you do in Austin? He said, Well, I'm in investments. And then he paused and he said, Private equity. And I said, Did I tell you I've got a Venmo account? You said it was good. How good was it? No, I didn't. I said, I hope you had a good year. I'll have, man. Oh, man, glory to God. Anyway, man, thank you. I said, Where do you go to church in Austin? He told me that at church. He said, Man, I again, man, that was, man, I just loved that. Thank you so much. Hey, uh, can you swipe your credit card right here? Because I got something. No, no. Why? Because I understand the golden rule. The golden rule is it doesn't have anything to do with man, it has to do with God. You say, I don't, again, if we relate to God properly, we'll relate to people differently. One of the reasons you relate to people like you do is because you do not relate to God properly. Some of you always got your palm up. So here's the golden rule. You were created by a heavenly father who is so good and his nature is so beyond our need that you cannot waste your life. You're rescued from wasting your life thinking about what people could and should do to you and keeping score. Living lives that are ruled by math and never hearing the music of the kingdom. This just kind of helps you move to the unforced rhythms of grace. Translation: your father's nature is so good and generous and willing, you can stop trying to manipulate people. Stop with this, oh, do unto others as you have them do unto you. Put good in the universe, it'll come back to you. That's karma to stupidity. I just end with a simple question. Again, golden rule. Can you envision a time when you are so set free by the nature of your heavenly father that the rest of your life you could stop looking to manipulate people and you could start blessing them? You could just, no, I'm I'm not, hey, I'm not doing unto others, so they'll do unto me. No, I I I am past the first part of what I used to call the golden rule. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, can you stop wishing what people would do to you and for you? And escape the gravitational pull of your own depravity and just be like, you know what? Maybe I'm here to bless them. Maybe I don't know. But here's what I do know. Jesus says this sums up the entire Old Testament. Just you're free. The Golden Rule is not what you've been told. And the thing that transforms the Golden Rule is that you and I understand the nature of God more than we feel our need when it comes to prayer. Let's pray together. If you're our guests, just relax. We like to teach the Bible. We'll give you some space to think about it. Now is that space? Some questions come on the screen. We'll talk about these in our community groups, but you can take a picture if you want to and talk about them over lunch. Let's just, but right now, let's just be still for like a minute or so and just ask God what he said to you. What had your name on it today? And engage your mind in that for just a moment. Lord, our confession today is that it is the how much mourners of our Heavenly Father that keeps us asking and seeking and knocking. For everyone who's facing a closed door today, I pray they just keep knocking. They're like, man, my knuckles are bleeding, but just keep knocking. Do not insult God in the way you knock. Keep asking, seeking, and knocking. Those are ongoing behaviors, Lord. And while we're asking, seeking, and knocking, we just rest in the how much mourners of our Heavenly Father. We do not let our need alter the way we view your nature. Lord, help us with that. We pray in Jesus' name and everyone said, Amen.

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