The Jesus Way: Progressive Praying

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Stay standing for a second.

Just want to remind you, look at me.

I don't know how you came in today.

I know most of you because I'm your pastor.

Some of you I don't know.

Some maybe this may be the first time you've been in church in a long time.

But I say this to you with all authority.

Uh, because it's not based on my word, it's based on the character of God.

He's not giving up on you.

There's nothing you've done that caused God just to look away and say, That's it, deal breaker, you're on your own.

So the fact that you're here today is not an accident because he wants to say something to you in a language that you understand.

And so just relax.

It's not about guilt or manipulation.

I'm gonna pray a prayer.

My friend Creepy here has a word for us, and then I got a word for you.

So you're gonna get two sermons today, and you'll be better for it, okay?

Let me pray to you.

Let's pray.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, we just come to say two things today.

Number one, we understand that it's better.

We say better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

So we we we understand the betterness of God.

Second thing we want to say, God, is that we're done with elsewhere.

We all got a different definition of elsewhere, but we're done there.

We're done going to the far country and squandering our inheritance with with sinful living.

So we want to come back to our father.

We want to have that aha moment that says, now wait a minute.

How many of my father's hired me and have more than enough food to spare?

And here I am starving to death.

I've gotten out, I've gotten outside of the realm of the bitterness of my father.

What my father provides is better than what I'm trying to create.

So, Lord, we uh we're done with elsewhere.

So I pray for people right now that are living in elsewhere that you're just gonna turn their heart toward home and begin to make their way back.

Lord, liberate us from the unnecessary nature of guilt and shame.

You've not given up on us.

You said in your word, if I didn't forget you, I would have to cut off my right hand.

That's never gonna happen.

And so from that, we understand you're never gonna give up on us.

So no one in this room today, no one within the sound of my voice is beyond the pale.

No one's done so much that they can't be forgiven.

Everybody can be forgiven.

That's the gospel, that's the good news of Christianity.

That's why we're here today.

Give us a deeper, fuller, juicier taste of it today, God.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

Uh, while you're having a seat, I want to introduce you.

This is my friend Creepy.

I saw him last month out in the warehouse, our student minister building.

He had a book in his hand.

I said, Are you reading that?

Or are you just carried around because you're trying to pick up chicks?

And he said, No, I'm reading this.

And I said, Well, you get anything out of it?

He goes, Yeah, a lot.

I really like it.

And I said, Well, why don't you take a Sunday in August and just share with your church what God's teaching you through this book?

So that's what Creepy's gonna do.

He'll introduce himself and tell you his real name, but give your attention to my friend Creepy.

Where's your microphone?

That's all right.

We'll we'll stay here.

I got it.

There you go.

You got it.

Okay, second time.

Hello, my real name is Zane Smith, and I am in fifth grade, and I am ten years old.

And this summer in the bridge, we have read we have read the book Who Jesus Is, which I really recommend.

When we first started talking about Jesus as a friend of the sinners, my friend Ben Snyder asked, if God can't be in the presence of sin, then how could Jesus with God be with a gifts?

Well for me this actually took some time, but being in the presence of sin doesn't actually mean that you're being around people that sin, not being around people that sin, but you're not sinning.

In the chapter Jesus' grace, he he says that people take hugs like God's grace, which is sit there stiffly and wait for the hug to be over so they can get on with their life.

And instead, they should embrace the hug instead of waiting for it and earning their way back into heaven by doing good deeds.

I didn't know I should accept the hug until in the summer of twenty thirteen when I finally embraced it.

I just want to read you something that he wrote or that the author wrote.

Believe it or not, rules are easier to deal with than grace.

That's a big part of their attraction.

That's why they keep making up rules even when we can't we can't keep the ones we already have.

Rules are tidy, messy as grace is grace is messy, unpredictable, and undeserved.

I can hold my life against a set of rules and decide if I am a good person or a bad person.

I can do the same with your life without the messiness of getting to know you or understanding what you're going through.

Not so that with grace.

It risks its reputation to eat with notorious sinners, it sacrifices its schedule to help hurting people, but grace doesn't allow the luxury of being separate from people, it doesn't get so distracted with doing good things that it forgets about people.

For me, the chapter that really stood out was Jesus is the point that has many reasons, but a few of the reasons are because it um told me about like how the Pharisees how the Pharisees kept making new rules even though they couldn't keep the ones that uh they even made, and pointed out that there's other sinners.

And one day, one day Jesus came and talked to some people, and he tell he told them that they had to have faith higher than the Pharisees.

They thought he was crazy, but really all he had to do was accept God.

For me, what really helped me understand this was John 14, 6.

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

For me, I used to believe you had to get good into heaven, and finally I found that out, as I said earlier, in the summer of 2013.

And from I just wanted to end on one note.

Who do you think Jesus is?

Thank you for your time.

Stay right here.

Now, are you are you?

Just to be clear, you're recommending this book, right?

Yes, I am.

And how old are you?

I am 10 years old.

So if you can read this book, see this is how you never miss an opportunity to shame your people, okay?

Watch this.

So if my friend Creepy, who's 10, can read a book, get you a good book that's got some spiritual truth in it, put it on your nightstand, and just read a chapter a night before you go to bed.

If you miss a night, that's okay.

Read it the next night, okay?

Because it that's how your understanding begins to exceed your appetites, okay?

How about a hand for my friend Creepy?

Thanks, buddy.

And now for your second sermon.

If you've got a Bible, take it and open up to Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, I'm on page 812.

Uh there's a Bible in your row somewhere.

You can just pick it up, open up if you want to follow along.

The verses will come up on the screen.

Uh, we are in a series called the Jesus Way.

It's a sermon series based on the Sermon on the Mount, probably one of the most profound ethical, moral teachings in the history of civilization, hot out of the mouth of Jesus Christ, who the Bible teaches and reveals to be the Son of God.

And so, uh, and I want to talk to you this morning in the series of Jesus Way about this topic: progressive praying.

Progressive praying.

And what you say, what do you mean?

I don't know about you, but I learned to pray, and this is not good.

I learned to pray when I became a Christian at 18.

I went to church and I started listening to other people that prayed, and I learned to pray by listening to other people pray.

That's not necessarily great because my prayers all sounded the same.

God is great, God is good, let us thank him for a food.

Amen.

When I took a test, I prayed this prayer, mighty power from above, come a swooping like a dove.

Lord, you know I've done my best.

It's up to you to pass this test.

Uh that didn't always work.

Uh, I would pray things that I didn't understand.

I just heard said in church, like, lead God and direct, bless the gift and the giver, be with the sick and the shut-ins.

And I was like, I don't know what that means, but that sounds spiritual.

And then one day I got in a prayer group with some people that prayed.

I mean, people were praying, and then about three people prayed, and after the first three people, all the good things have already been said.

And then there was kind of a pause, and then this cat over here on his knee started praying, and he said out loud to God, wasn't disrespectful.

It was so real.

You know, when you pray, everybody's supposed to close their eyes, right?

What page is that on?

Anyway, uh, so we all got our heads bowed and our eyes closed, and there's kind of a lull, and something everyone's kind of thinking, if I start, am I gonna be interrupting somebody?

And we're trying to who should pray?

I should pray, they should pray.

And all of a sudden, this cat says, Lord, that sucking sound you hear is me.

I'm sucking wind today.

And I broke the rules and opened my eyes.

Because I had never in my life heard anybody be that honest with God in prayer.

And he said, God, I ain't mad.

I'm just dying down here, and I need you to throw me a bone, give me an indication that you're not forgotten about me.

And I was like, and I was waiting for the I was backing up, like, oh, God's gonna get you.

Because I thought when I first became a Christian that being a Christian was just about faking it and just kind of smiling, like, how you doing?

Good.

The more I spent time with this guy, the more I realized every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before.

Yeah, mama.

And I was like, and so every time he prayed, I would just sit there with my eyes open.

He would pray in church, and I would be like, everyone would be like holding on to the pew, and I'd be like, Yeah, they got that crazy guy.

It was never novel.

It was it was intimate.

It was intimate.

It was like watching a man kiss his wife on the mouth.

You realize the older your parents get, the creepier that is.

It's kind of like, ho, ho, shut up.

You didn't just do that.

You say, that's not the way.

Kiss in front of your kids and see what they do.

They'll be like, okay, y'all get a room.

Come on.

We don't want to see this.

Come.

Why I tell you all that?

Because there's a progressive nature to the way the Bible talks to us about praying.

Jesus talks about it in Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He says, This, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

Or which one of you, if his son asks 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 is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

For this is the law and the prophets.

Jesus, the Jesus way, uh, the the way the Bible instructs us to live our lives.

It involves that we gotta have this progressive reality to our prayer life.

The Bible tells us five things I want to put before you to think about this morning.

The first one is this right here is that prayer is about persistence.

Prayer is about persistence.

You say, What do you mean?

There's three words ask, seek, and knock.

Those are all what I call postures of prayer.

And one of the reasons we don't persist is that we get stuck in first gear.

We're like my friend Troy Smith, who drove his girlfriend Tammy Shrooms, uh, Chevy Malibu back from Dallas, the shift indicator, that little orange thing on the shift column, was off, and he thought it was in drive, but it was in second, and he drove it back from Dallas in second gear.

Yeah, get you some of that.

And I'm like, you didn't smell that transmission burning up and about 30 miles from our town, that thing just had enough, and it just shut down on the side of the road.

And he says, Well, it was on D.

And she said, Well, I forgot to tell you, my shift indicator is off.

When it said D, you were really in second.

I'm like, I'm surprised you made it that far.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because some of you, the shift indicator on your prayer life is off.

You don't have it in drive, you got it in, and you got stuck in one gear, and it's ask.

It's ask, ask, ask.

Nothing wrong with asking.

The Bible, Jesus says right here, very clearly, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you.

But here's when I say that prayer is about persistence, all three of these are imperatives in the present tense, which means it's this, it indicates this is this ongoing habitual practice.

And by the way, it's not just asking.

Some of you aren't getting answers to your prayer because all you do is ask.

You don't seek.

You just kind of wait for God to drop it out of the sky, or we pray twice and we ask and go, okay, clearly you want me to take it from here.

So I check the box that says I've prayed, and I'm gonna go make it happen.

And what that happened, what you end up doing is you end up with a real small definition and experience of good.

We'll get to that in a minute.

And so when it comes to these three postures of prayer about ask and seek and knock, think about the two or three things you pray about the most and ask yourself, hey, what should which one of these should I be engaging in right now?

I'm not, I'm not making light of asking.

Obviously, that's what prayer starts there, but it doesn't stop there.

Sometimes you've got to start seeking what you're asking for.

And then sometimes you're gonna get to places in your prayer life or you're up against the door is closed, and what do you do?

You just you just you gotta knock.

You just gotta knock and you gotta keep knocking.

It's like the the the first service.

This was too old school for them.

But does anybody remember the Nockey commercial with Dennis Leary and Bo Jackson?

And he said, I think you hear me knocking.

I got Bo Jackson out here in his bad hip, and we're coming in.

What if the Bible invites clearly you didn't have a TV in the 80s either, right?

The Bible, here's what I'm saying, I'll show you in the Bible in just a minute.

The Bible invites you, what if the Bible invites you to have that kind of a posture in prayer?

Not disrespect, not demanding, not this selfish insistence on getting your way, but this, hey, I've outgrown manners.

Because here's my concern that our manners are killing our prayer life.

Let me say that again.

Our manners, our religious manners are killing our prayer life because I, there was one thing, when that one cat, whenever he would pray, and our pastor wouldn't call on him all the time because I heard him say one time in a deacon meeting, well, we gotta watch so-and-so.

He just prays differently.

And I remember thinking, yeah, he does.

Yes, he does.

Think watching your parents' kids.

It's like, this is creepy, but I can't stop looking at it.

Why?

Because prayer is about persistence, okay?

Secondly, prayer is an expression of faith.

Prayer is an expression of faith.

Um, by the same token, lack of prayer is an expression of the fact that you have faith.

You just don't have faith in God.

You got more faith in yourself than you have in God.

What do I mean when I say that prayer is an expression of faith?

Maybe this will help.

This is the Bible's version of the old Bo Jackson commercial.

This is Luke chapter 18, starting in verses 1 to 8.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

This is Jesus talking.

He says, and he told them a parable to the effect that they always ought to pray and not lose heart.

That don't skip past that to get to the parable, to the story.

Hear what he says.

He told them this parable to the effect, in other words, this is the effect I want what I'm fixing to tell you to have upon you.

I don't, I want you to always pray and not lose heart.

Why is that in the Bible?

Look at me.

Because God understands that we lose heart when it comes to prayer.

Don't walk out today and beat yourself up and go, man, I don't pray enough.

I stink.

I tell you what.

No, when God walked up to me last week after the sermon where he talked about member of the log, get the log out of your eye before you try to get the speck out of somebody else's eye.

God walked up to me and said, I got a forest in my eye.

I'm like, all right.

That's a target-rich environment.

Let's start somewhere, all right?

Don't just walk out and go, I stink, and the Bible convinced me of it today.

Same thing here.

You say, What he said, told him a parable and said, Hey, you to the effect you should always pray and not lose heart.

In other words, God understands that we're prone to lose heart and kind of go, never mind, God, just the same prayer I've said for the past 20 years.

There you go.

He tells this story.

He says, 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 afterward 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 coming.

And he and the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

Hello.

What do you hear the unrighteous judge saying?

Because Jesus says, Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

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?

Nevertheless, as a summary statement, it's like Jesus saying, in conclusion, or as football players say, at the end of the day.

At the end of the day.

At the end of the day.

Football season has started, by the way, much to my wife's chagrin.

She walked in last night, the Cowboys are playing the Rams in a preseason game, and she said, Really?

This is on already?

Shut it.

Shut it all the way.

You need some help shutting it?

She's like, You're gonna need some help seeing if you talk to me that way again.

I'm like, it's preseason.

They got the dumb one draft choice.

Football's back in LA.

Oh my gosh.

When's it over?

February.

Is God good or what?

But you start listening to these football players being interviewed, they ain't the sharpest knives in the drawer, is all I'm saying.

And they all say the same thing at the end of the day.

When Jesus says, nevertheless, he's really saying at the end of the day, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Why?

Because the way you pray and the manner in which you pray is an expression of what you have faith in.

But let's go back.

Jesus says, hear what the unrighteous judge says.

Do you hear what the unrighteous judge says?

It says right there, the woman says, Give me justice against my adversary.

And it says, for a while he refused.

Let me give you a couple of questions to think about.

Maybe, maybe take your wife for a walk today, gentlemen, after dinner tonight, and talk about these questions.

Here's a question to think about.

Do you wonder if God ever refuses you in prayer just to invite you to persist?

Because look at me.

God loves the communion with you more than he loves just giving you stuff.

Because the stuff is not the issue, and I'll prove that in the Bible in just a minute.

But he says, hey, for a while he refused.

What if sometimes God refuses you?

Not so you'll go away and do it on your own, but you'll come close and just say, hey, better is one day in your courts and a thousand elsewhere.

Hey, that big sucking sound you hear is me, and I ain't going anywhere.

I'm done with elsewhere.

I'm here.

Read on.

He says, but after he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, though I neither fear God nor respect man, the Bible refers to him as an unrighteous judge.

Here's another question: Do your prayers affect unrighteous people?

My concern is that for most of us, if we're not careful, our prayers are really tailor-made for the righteous.

Our prayer is where we kind of convince and impress all our Christian friends, but they don't really tear down kingdoms in this world.

The Bible says in Revelation, the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ because things that were once unrighteous now are becoming righteous because righteous people are praying the kingdom down on them.

And so I just wonder, hey, this guy says, I don't fear God nor respect man.

And Jesus says, hear what the unrighteous Jed says.

Prayer has a capacity to affect people who don't even believe.

Third question the text gives us this morning is simply right there.

He says, Hey, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.

Third question is simply this.

What do you need to keep bothering God about?

Now, some of you, especially if you grew up in church, that that that phrase is like, I don't know about that, Pastor.

Be careful.

A trap door may open on that stage, you may fall through.

What if?

What if God so wants to see your face and hear the word, the contents of your heart set to words that he invites you to bother him?

What if he just, you know, hey, I remember when our kids were little, my wife was like a great mother.

I just watched her and did what she did with a man spin on it, okay?

And so we she taught our kids early on not to interrupt us when we're talking with other people or we're talking with each other.

So our kids would come in and put their hand on our hand, which meant I have something to say.

Because my wife was dead sad on, hey, our kids are not the center of the universe.

We love our kids, but our kids are gonna be well-mannered and behave, and they're gonna respect somebody besides themselves.

And so it's funny because even to this day, our oldest is 18, every once in a while, she'll put her hand on my hand, and I'm like, you're 18 now, you ain't gonna do that anymore.

Okay?

I'm not saying you're grown, but you're not four anymore.

Uh but but but God says, Hey, here's here's the deal.

I I'm inviting you to keep bothering me.

You say, Well, I don't know if that's exactly let me give you this.

This is Isaiah 62.

What I'm saying to you is Luke 18 is not a one off kind of thing.

This is way back in the Old Testament, long before uh Luke 18, long before.

Matthew 7, this is what God says.

He says, Isaiah 62, verse 6 and 7, On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all the day and all the night.

Isaiah 62:6

They shall never be silent.

You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.

Now, notice a couple of things.

He says, You who put the Lord in remembrance, that doesn't mean God forgets.

That means that God likes to see that you remember.

Let me say that again.

When it says, hey, you put the Lord in remembrance, it's not like, oh, God forgotten.

God loves it when you pray his word and his ways back to him.

When you say, I've heard from the Lord, well, you better pray that back to God and walk in that because that's not a light phrase that you ought to just sling around to get respect from other Christians.

That's a weighty responsibility.

And God says, Hey, put me in remembrance.

Take no rest.

And then secondly, give him no rest.

In other words, God says, bother me.

Bother me.

You just wear me out until I give you what it is you're asking for.

Third thing about prayer, prayer puts us in touch with the nature of God.

Prayer puts us in touch with the nature of God.

Now, uh I went to college and then I went to what's called seminary.

It's like graduate school for preachers.

And a lot of stuff you learn there is great.

Some of it you're never going to use again.

I don't know why they taught us that, but one of the things you have to, you have to take Greek classes and Hebrew classes, because the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, New Testament was originally written in Greek.

And there's things I learned in those classes I never thought I would use until a couple weeks ago.

I was studying for today.

Now, obviously, you use the original languages, but in verse 11, look at what it says.

The first three words.

He said, if you then, if you then, look at that.

If you then, now, this is free, beloved.

I had to learn this for a test.

In the Greek language, that is a concessive participle.

You should write that down.

What'd you do today?

I went to church and our pastor talked about a concessive participle.

You're like, I'm good.

Let's go to Lubies.

Come on.

What does that mean?

Here's why.

See, because the Bible is so textured.

You can't just look at it in one dimension.

It's like putting on 3D glasses.

You see all the dimensions God intended.

In verse 11 is one of those, he says, if you then, that is a concessive participle, which stresses the fact that this behavior is contrary to their character.

It's like the word, English word, although.

That's what I remembered it in seminary.

I wrote my notes, although.

And what Jesus is saying in verse 11 is, hey, although you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, and by the way, he's not making fun of people.

He's making a statement about himself.

Hey, although, hey, you who, although you 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?

God's not making fun of them, he's making a statement about himself.

What is the statement?

Here's the statement.

God is saying, hey, this kind of behavior is outside of your character, consessive, participle.

What God is saying is, hey, this kind of behavior is right in line with who I am.

This is in keeping with who I am, okay?

If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts, if you can act outside of your character, you can count on God to always act in keeping with his character.

And prayer is one of those things that puts you in touch with the nature of God.

You say, I don't know what you mean.

Think of it this way: I've been to two professional basketball games in my life.

Both of them were Dallas Maverick games when I lived in Fort Worth when I was in seminary, and both of them were in the reunion arena.

Does anybody remember reunion arena?

Right now they play in the American Airlines, whatever, centered.

Before that, it was reunion arena.

And a friend of mine was coming through town with his youth group.

He said, Hey, we got tickets to the Mavericks game.

They're from Missouri.

He said, I got you a ticket.

Would you come to the game, meet us there?

Absolutely.

I said, Well, where are the seats?

He goes, Man, they're center court.

I was like, rock on.

The party left out was they were at the very absolute top of Reunion Arena.

Center court.

I leaned back against a wall.

I was like, they look like little ants down there chasing a BB on the basketball court.

And I was just like, I mean, I was afraid to lean over and look because I just fall down on the court.

We were so far up there.

And the whole time I was thinking, this is miserable.

We're gonna be the last people out of this bad boy.

And so we, oh, I forgot to tell you.

I just had, I blew out my ACL playing basketball.

I was on crutches.

Up the steps, one at a time, to the top of reunion arena.

I mean, if resentment was people, I am like just a volcano of resentment.

I am sweating profusely.

I mean, I'm sweating like Mike Tyson in a spelling bee by the time I get up there.

I sit down.

And my friend Joey looks at me and utters these words.

Hey man, thanks for coming.

Shut up.

So the next year I get a phone call from some friends of mine that have money, okay?

In church, we say, Well, they're blessed.

No, they're rich.

They're very successful.

And they're like, hey man, we got tickets to the Mavericks game.

You want to go?

And I said, Where are the seats?

And they said, Oh, they're good seats.

I got a map.

I just, don't ask me why, but I got a map of reunion arena.

Tell me where we are, and I'll make the decision.

I'll say, Oh, they're floor seats.

What do you mean floor seats?

We're in the third row.

I'll be there.

So I met them outside.

We walked in.

By the way, in the third row of reunion arena, you have waiters and waitresses that come bring in.

My friend said, Hey man, we're going to bless you.

Get anything you want all game long.

All the food and drink, you just tell them they'll bring it to you.

Shut up.

By the way, up in the top row, everybody talks noise.

Dark Newitzki, you couldn't stand on a pier and throw in the ocean.

You couldn't hit water if you fell off a boat.

One guy yelled down, cupped his hands, I've seen better arms on a snake.

I was like, that's funny.

And they're like little gnats.

In the third row, them cats is big.

I mean, they're ginormous.

And as a result of that, no one talks smack.

No one's running their mouth in the third row.

We're just like, yes, sir, go ahead with your bad self.

James Donaldson.

That's old school right there.

And they had short shorts on.

James Donaldson, big old number 42, lumbering down the court.

I was like, hey man, that guy looked like he's about to have a stroke and he heard me.

I was like, I'm sorry.

Bless you.

It's all good.

You want some of my sausage on a stick?

Here you go.

What am I telling you there?

And when God says in verse 11, don't miss this, if you then who are evil, because that's a part of the simple, if you can act outside of your nature and do good, Jesus is saying, think about what I can do when I act in keeping with my nature.

And Jesus is saying, get out of the top row today.

Stop saying, Well, my God's a God of love.

Get down in the third row and get up close in person with my nature because that will rock your world.

That's what we mean when the Bible talks about when you say prayer puts us in touch with the nature of God.

Fourthly, prayer exposes us to a bigger experience of good.

Let me give you a weird question.

Who's defining good in your life right now?

We say, What do you mean?

That's the hard part about parenting, is that we parent from a bigger definition and an experience of good than our kids do.

And sometimes my kids like to compete with me and fight with me and push back and go, I don't, I don't know.

And I'm like, Do you trust me?

Oh, I hate that question.

Hey, I'm not asking that question because your dad's always right.

It's just that my definition of good and my experience of good is gooder than your definition and experience of good.

Well, that's bad English.

It's great theology.

You say, Well, what do you mean who's defining good?

Who's defining good in your life right now?

Here's how you know who's defining good.

If you're defining good, then at some point in your life, some place, some area of your life, you're settling.

You're settling.

If God's defining good, you're savoring.

That's not even a word men use.

See, some of you men are kind of like, don't do that again.

Yeah.

Don't turn the butt, write this down.

Psalm 34, starting about verse 8, down to verse 12.

Two times, at least two, maybe three times, in those five verses there, the psalmist says that he starts a sentence with this phrase, oh.

Oh, comma.

And it's not, oh, because he says in verse 8, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

But we don't read the Bible like it's written.

We read, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

No, it's O, comma.

And all you school teachers, you remember how to be school teachers?

A comma means what?

Pause.

And so what the psalmist says is, oh, oh, that's so good.

I hate everything I've ever put in my mouth before because I just tasted something that was so delicious.

If you ever go to Lockhart, Texas, there's a barbecue place called Black's.

Yeah.

You put that in your mouth and you're like, yo.

Yes.

It's like the cream corn at Rudy's.

You're like, oh, thank you, Jesus, for cream corn.

It tastes like bluebell ice cream.

So what am I gonna have a heart attack?

I don't care.

Here's the problem.

You guys don't savor anything.

You just eat it.

Here's how you know.

Hey, who's defining good?

You say, What do you mean?

Look at the Bible.

He says, hey, 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?

Exclamation point.

That's what Jesus, he's not yelling at them.

He's going, hey, you're missing out on this because you got a you size definition of good.

Thank you.

This will do.

I'll live with this.

And he's like, My, my, my, what are you doing?

Oh.

How much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

See, this passage can only be understood by acknowledging that God gets to define and determine what is good for us.

Ask yourself this question today.

What would your life be like if you just laid down your little definition of good and said to God, I want to live in your definition of good for me.

I want to live, because this is, this is, I ain't savoring this.

This is this is harder every day.

It ain't gonna get easier.

It's not.

Why is it not gonna get easier?

Why did if God loved me?

Why wouldn't he make it easier?

Because God has a bigger definition of good with your name on it.

That's why.

It's not hate, it's love.

Fifthly and finally, prayer moves us beyond ourselves.

Look at verse 12.

You still with me?

He says in verse 12, so whatever you wish, just don't miss that little word so.

Summary statement.

In conclusion, uh, our Catherine, our pilot has indicated our initial descent into Houston Hobby Airport.

Please return your seatbacks and trade tables to full upright and lock position.

Flight attendants are walking down the sermon on the mount picking up trash.

Like, if we can get off this bad boy, Jesus says, so.

So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

For this is the law and prophets.

Now, this is probably the most consequential verse in the entire story so far.

Y'all are like, Really?

What do you mean?

Back in chapter 5, verse 17, Jesus says this.

He says, Hey, do not think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.

When the Bible talks about the law, the prophets, it's all into Old Testament.

The law is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

The prophets are the other people.

It's like anything homeschoolers name their kids, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, that's the prophets.

That's what he's talking about.

He says, hey, don't think that I've come to say, oh man, the Old Testament's outdated.

The New Testament's where it's at.

That's what it's all about.

No, no.

He says, I've come to fulfill the law.

And so when he says there right here, Jesus is so subtle.

He shanks you with a knife that's so sharp, you don't even know you're bleeding.

You're like, I have a warm red sensation on my side.

It's what he does in verse 12 when he says, Hey, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also for them.

For this is the law and prophets.

He says back in verse chapter 5, hey, don't think I've come to abolish the law and prophets.

I've come to fulfill them.

What do you mean?

What if it's this?

If he didn't come to abolish the law and prophets, you should ask yourself, why did he come?

Now what is this?

I'll be done this morning.

What if he came?

And what he's been talking about all this time, what Rick talked about last month, what I'm talking about this month, what Jesus was unpacking in this Sermon on the Mount.

He's talking this whole time.

It's about making you and I into the kind of people that live lives that are filled to the full.

To be people who are released from self and free to bless others by doing for them, serving them, blessing them, because this is the character and nature of our God, and we trust him.

That's why he says in John 10, 10, Jesus said, Let me explain myself.

I am come so that you can have life and have it to the fullest.

What if that's what he's all about?

What if what Jesus says in what's called the golden rule here in verse 12?

Hey, here's the deal.

Stop keeping score as to whether or not you're getting what you want.

I'm gonna so take care of you that you can turn around and be a blessing to other people.

That's why when Garcia Middle School over here, we called him and said, We want to bring lunch to your teachers and bless them like we do for Oyster Creek.

Can we do anything else?

He goes, Well, we got about 6,000 textbooks or in-class textbooks, they can't take them out of the room.

We gotta distribute them to all the classrooms.

Not a problem.

We would love to bless you.

And so Jeff and Matt and Don Minton and some of our students went over there and took, they said, This usually takes three days.

They knocked it out in about an hour and 45 minutes.

And people were like, I don't know.

I just thank, oh my gosh.

Thank you.

No, this is this is this is the way we get to live.

We don't obsess and keep score.

Am I getting my way?

Is this good according to me?

Why?

Because I have a heavenly father who's great, and I can pray constantly and consistently to him and progressively.

I just can't get stuck in one gear.

I'm burning this thing up.

And he hears me.

And sometimes that means I have to ask, other times I need to seek, and sometimes I need to knock on a closed door.

And all these behaviors free me from obsession over myself and allow me to fulfill the essence of the law by loving God and loving my neighbor.

What if?

That's why Jesus came is to make you and I into these kind of filled-up people who are just enjoying the good that can only come from God.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest today, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible and then give you some time and space to think about it.

So that's what we're gonna do right now.

Lindsay's gonna come and sing something or just a brief chorus or something over you.

But I want you to think about a couple of things.

First of all, I want you to think about how do you pray?

You don't have to be a professional.

You don't have to use big words.

God's not impressed by big words.

God's impressed by the honesty of your heart.

And so maybe during this time of reflection, you could just ask the Lord.

You could just say to him, you know what, I want to start praying.

That may be your big takeaway today.

And that would be awesome.

I just want to start praying, God.

I don't pray that much.

Maybe you just have it stuck in ask.

Maybe you're driving back from Dallas in second gear and don't even know.

God's going, Hey, why don't you start seeking?

Why don't you put some feet on these prayers?

Why don't you start knocking on some doors when your way gets plucked?

He says, Ask.

For everyone who asks, receives.

Seek.

For everyone who seeks, finds.

Knock.

And it should be open unto you.

Let's think about these things for a minute.

Yes, Lord.

That's what we want to be.

We want to be that people.

We want to be that generation that seeks your face.

Because you said, Jesus, those who seek, find.

We can't just sit and ask for you to drop in our lap.

Sometimes we've got to go out there and pound the pavement and say, just in the tabernacle of our heart, we're just saying to you, God, I'm seeking what I've been praying for.

And I'm going to knock if I need to knock.

But over all this, Lord, we want to be a seeking people.

We want to be an asking people.

We want to be a knocking people.

We want to be persistent.

We've heard what the righteous judge says, the unrighteous judge said, Jesus.

And we've learned from the widow's example.

You are the God who invites us to give you no rest, to wear you out, to keep bothering you.

We believe today that sometimes you resist us just to see do we want do we want just stuff or do we want you?

And sometimes no is not no, it's an invitation to a bigger yes.

And so, Lord, we hear that today.

And we respond accordingly.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, let me say thanks for being a part of our service.

When you came in, part of that little worship uh folder you were given is a little part to ask for some information.

If you had a chance to fill that out, or if you take time before you leave to fill it out, just fold it and tear it and drop on these wooden boxes by the doors.

Uh, we're not gonna show up at your house and invite ourselves in.

Uh, we just want to know that you're here.

If there's a way we could be praying for you, absolutely let us know that.

We'd be glad to do that.

If you don't have a church home, uh you're more than welcome here.

Uh, this is what we do every Sunday.

We worship and we teach the Bible.

We try to teach it in a way that people understand, okay?

Uh I usually do the bulk of the preaching because I'm the lead pastor, but other people preach because our church is not built on one person or personality.

By the same token, uh Clyde, the guy that baptized, he's our worship pastor.

Uh, but, and this is by way of announcement, Lindsay, this is Lindsay Freidelick over here who led us today.

Uh, Lindsay is transitioning, she's been an admin here at our church on a part-time basis.

Uh, and we the elders met with her, and we've just been watching her, and we realize that that's not the best use of her gifts or her priesthood.

That God has his hand on her to lead worship.

And so she'll be transitioning out after Labor Day, and she's going to become a worship leader here at our church.

She'll lead in here on Sunday mornings uh uh on a consistent basis, but absolutely.

Uh but on Wednesday nights, she'll be back uh with our students uh starting this fall because we want to raise up worshipers from a young age.

And so some Sunday she may pop in over the children's building, but she'll be a part of the worship rotation.

Just like Rick Rick Callahan, our teaching pastor, other people preach, she'll be one of the people that leads worship on a consistent basis.

And so it means nothing for Clyde.

His job is the same.

He'll continue to be the worship pastor, he'll continue to teach classes on Wednesday night and stuff.

We just want to acknowledge how God's working and leading and who he's made Lindsay to be.

And we don't think it's the best use of her gifts sitting behind a computer screen all day.

So uh there's my one announcement for the day.

All right.

Uh as always, myself and some of our uh pastors will be available down front, some of our elders.

If you have a question or we can pray with you about anything, we'd love to do that, okay?

Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

God's good is gooder than your good.

Now leave this building and believe that.

Lay your good down because you believe there's a bigger good.

And he wants you to have it because he's your dad.

And it is the nature of fathers to sacrifice so that children can have what's best in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you to meet.