Matthew pt. 17 - Ask, Seek, Knock

I'm still excited to preach from Matthew to you.

I haven't gotten bored yet. My prediction is that I'm not

going to The Bible is awesome. If you think the Bible is

boring, you're boring. That needs to be one of our

values. God's not lame.

You're lame. So the Gospel of Matthew is

awesome because all the gospels are awesome.

The whole Bible is awesome, but the gospels are awesome because

we get to see Jesus, you know? Remember the bracelets back in

the 90s? What would Jesus do?

Well, I have found I believe the best way to know what Jesus

would do is to look at what Jesus has done.

I find it an accurate predictor. I'm a simple guy like that.

So we're going to, we're going to keep looking and seeing what

Jesus has done. We're going to look and see what

he taught. We're still in the Sermon on the

Mount, the sermon that, if you were to read it, would take you

less than 20 minutes for sure, if you were even to read it

slowly. But we've been taking weeks and

weeks and weeks to unpack the gold to mine out those rich

deposits that the Lord has left for us.

So Jesus's words are powerful, they're profound, and they're

worth meditating on, chewing on and considering.

Lord, what would you have us do in light of this?

So Jesus showed us what the Kingdom looked like right away.

He preached right away. He said repent, for the Kingdom

of God is at hand. So the gospel is a gospel of

repentance. And then He also shows us what

the gospel looked like. He just went off healing.

Everybody, everybody. He healed him.

We looked at all the different kinds of things.

He healed all the different scenarios.

He healed. He healed.

He healed. He healed, He healed.

And then we still said, yeah, that that shows us something

that shows us God is good. It shows us He loves us.

It shows us He's merciful, shows us.

He calls us sinners. He calls us to repent.

We see a lot there. But could we get something more

precise? And then Jesus brings his

disciples up onto the mountain and says, we're going to get

more precise. I want to tell you exactly what

the Kingdom is like and exactly what my disciples should live

like and what it should look like.

The Sermon on the Mount is not intended to crush us as a

checklist to go. Once I do all of these things, I

will be a disciple of Christ. But instead Christ says this is

the target, This is the bullseye.

This is what my Kingdom is like. This is how my disciples are to

live. These are the standards.

If we miss these, the standards don't change.

We've missed it. And then we can repent, we can

be restored, and we can continue to pursue him.

So he's still in that sermon on the Mount.

We're in verse 7 this morning. We're going to go verses 7

through 11. 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, 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 is in heaven,

give good things to those who ask him?

Good. Father in heaven, we ask you for

the good thing right now of Revelation.

Would you open the eyes of our hearts to see and know what you

intend to see and know what you want, and to see and know what

you've already accomplished continue to bring us revelation

and light to receive the fullness of your word.

Today in Jesus name we thank you.

Everybody said Amen, Ask, seek and knock.

That's the title of today's message.

Ask. This seems obvious, but it's

not, which is why Jesus commanded it.

It seems obvious, but it is necessary.

If. You are not asking God.

You should be asking God. That is an encouragement to you.

Not even a rebuke. That's an encouragement, a

reminder and an encouragement. Are you asking God for anything?

No, I haven't really been. You should be.

Your father wants you to. Ask.

It seems obvious and necessary, but Jesus tells us to do so.

God wants to walk with you. God wants to talk with you.

God wants to be your father who provides for you.

The child comes to the parent. We all did.

It as kids. We went and we made requests.

We went and we made provisions. We didn't have to beg for the

things that were good. We might have begged for things

that weren't good. We might have begged for

something of more treats, but for the things that were the

objectively good for us, Like the food.

May I have food, May I have bread, May I have fish.

Whatever it may be. These things the Lord tells us.

Ask, seek when we seek. This is looking for something

that you don't currently have. I'm seeking it because I don't

have it right now. It's either gone or it's lost,

but you don't wait for it to automatically come to you.

Jesus said ask. Jesus said seek.

Jesus said Knock Not if the Lord wills it.

Then I would have it. That's different from what he's

teaching here. If the Lord wants it, I guess it

will just appear. No, Jesus said I want you to

ask. I want you to seek and I want

you to knock. What does knocking look like?

Well, when you get to somebody's front door, do you just stand

there and go? If it's their will to let me in,

they'll open the door and we will have hospitality and it'll

be wonderful. Of course not.

No, You knock. And do you just knock once?

Have you ever just knocked once? I doubt it.

Right. That's not if that doesn't get

it done. I guess they just hate me and

they really just don't want me to be here.

No. Hey, I'm here.

Maybe. Maybe they maybe they didn't

hear that. I'll go again now.

The Lord is not hard of hearing. And yet still Jesus commands us.

Ask, seek, and knock. No, we knock and we continue to

knock. What is Jesus teaching?

What's the heart of what he's after?

Jesus is teaching that you should persist in your pursuit

of God. Persist in your.

Pursuit of God. That's the heart of what we're

after here. Walk with God in the cool of the

day, the restoration of the garden.

Whenever you wonder what is life supposed to be like, you can

always open up to Genesis 1, or you can always just go and open

up to the life and ministry of Jesus.

What's it really supposed to be like?

Or you can look at revelation in the eternal Kingdom to come.

What's it supposed to be like? Those are good examples.

Our circumstances are not always telling us what it's supposed to

be like. The world is bad, the devil is

broken, and you are foolish. I usually say John Michael is

foolish, but I'm not pulling my punch today.

You're foolish, and that means you add those things up.

We're going to have problems in life.

Tires are going to go flat. Bodies are going to have

malfunctions. Relationships are going to have

strain and offense. This is what's going to happen.

But this isn't? God's This isn't God's best and

God's highest for every situation.

So Jesus says you know what you should do, you should ask, you

should seek, and you should knock.

Stubborn faith is the only faith that gets anything done, really.

That's what faith is. Faith is stubborn.

We kind of categorize faith, but faith is so powerful that Jesus

said look, don't emphasize so much faith.

There's so little A mustard seed can move a mountain.

OK, so there's a lot of potency. Why?

Because it's not about your faith.

It's about who your faith is in. So if your faith is sincere, the

most minuscule amount the Lord is moved.

To power his power. Begins to move, so it's not.

Wow, look what my. Faith accomplished.

No, you had faith, as you obviously and logically should,

in the King of Kings. The King of Kings.

Everything is easy for him. Nothing is difficult for him,

but stubborn faith is the only faith that gets anything done.

James 217 tells us that faith without works is dead, or faith

without deeds is dead. Sometimes the deed is the

persistence of the asking, of the seeking, and of the

knocking. We've said before, Pastor.

Daniel brought it up. Last week that hope deferred

makes the heart sick. But I believe that hope and I've

experienced that. Haven't you experienced heart

sickness from a hope that's been deferred and deferred and

deferred? But that's a distinction we want

to make. Is the distinction between hope

and the distinction between faith?

Because there is a difference. So whenever I'm in unbelief,

then yes, I've become heartsick, but when I'm renewed and

restored, things begin to change, Hebrews 11/6 says.

And without faith it is impossible to please God,

because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and

that he. Rewards those who earnestly seek

him. Another translation says he is a

rewarder of those who diligently seek him, A rewarder of those

who diligently seek him. Show up on the doorstep, Knock,

whatever. I guess it's not God's will.

I wouldn't be so sure, but I am sure that he's a rewarder of

those who diligently seek him. It's not a begging.

You're not an orphan out in the rain.

You're a child coming to your father.

Don't get it twisted. And yet still your father says

ask, seek, not pursue, engage, fellowship.

Walk with me with diligence, walk with me with faithfulness.

What's interesting is even when you're in that kind of when

you're in that kind of living faith, a persistent faith, a

long term faith, Come on, don't you have some long term things?

I've got things over the years. I picked him up and I was in.

Faith. And then I sat him down.

I got back into a place of hope, which is.

I I hope you know, we'll see. I I certainly would desire that

to happen. But I'm not asking and seeking

and knocking in this season. I've I've just let it go dormant

and then the Lord might renew it again and go.

You you stopped asking me for that.

You stopped asking me for that. What have you stopped asking the

Lord for? What have you stopped seeking?

What have you stopped knocking for?

Well, I started to get. Discouraged.

I bet you did. I've been there and still we're

commanded to come back. Come.

Back with diligence Why? He wants you to, and he earnest,

and he rewards those who earnestly and diligently seek

him. And when we do this, when we

really get into that living faith, we won't waver because.

When we get into that place, we're actually in God's

presence. And inside of God's presence,

your confidence will literally grow, even in spite of the

passage of time when you haven't yet seen the thing that you're

asking for, the thing that you're seeking, and the thing

that you're knocking over. Your confidence can even grow.

And should grow in that season. Far.

From giving up, you'll actually be renewed like we read earlier.

Even the youths shall be faint and be weary.

Even young men shall fall exhausted, They shall they shall

fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord

shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings

like Eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. This is what the presence of God

does. It makes the difference so that

you and I can withstand, so that you and I can persevere in

prayer, so that you and I can persevere in faith.

So we can say I don't see it yet, and it is hard even to

imagine. I can't even imagine honestly,

that that loved one coming to Christ.

God build my faith. God help me to keep asking, to

keep seeking, and to keep knocking.

I already know that's your will. I'm praying for a an objectively

good thing. I'm asking for bread and I'm

asking for fish. I'm not asking for kool-aid and

candy. I'm asking for the for the

things that you promised. Ask the Lord for the nations.

He will give them to you as your inheritance.

So this is what we're asking. This is what we're seeking.

So who's holding? On to a self evidently and

objectively good thing that you haven't seen yet.

Or maybe who walked away from the door altogether.

Maybe you knocked and you knocked and you knocked and you

knocked and then you walked away.

But I'm telling you, church come back in Jesus name, come back to

the door and get all that your good.

Father wants to give you ask, Seek.

And knock, because you're not a beggar, you're a son.

And all of his promises. To to his sons are yes and Amen.

So what are the right? Ways to ask What is the right

way to ask? The right ways to ask is in

faith, with persistence, for what is objectively good and

with good motive. So we're going to, we're going

to answer. A few of these.

What do these look like? With faith and persistence?

We just touched on what is objectively good.

Well, these are things that again, we're going to define

good here in a moment, because Jesus defines good here.

And here's the big here's the big spoiler good means good, and

a six year old knows what good means.

We don't have some complicated definition and some way to twist

it up and to get into the gymnastics that well, actually

it's good because, you know, good just means good.

We don't have to make it complicated.

If you look it up in the dictionary, good means something

to be desired, right? So a thing that we that someone

would naturally desire would be a good thing.

Well, I could desire bad things too.

Well, yeah, that's possible. So we'll rule those things out

as we go. And then with good motive, in

James 43, we're told that we don't have because we don't ask,

he says. Or you do ask, but you ask so

that you may squander it on yourselves and on your selfish

pleasures. So there would be something that

we would say, well, I have a desire.

Does that make it good? No.

Desire doesn't make it good alone.

And then another way to check our motive is to make sure is

this something I'm asking for? And my whole motive behind it is

to only squander it on my own selfish pleasures.

So now I can start. To see what maturity.

Looks like right, what sanctification looks like in my

prayers And then I can go. This is an objective good.

This is something that I can contend for and I can continue

to ask and seek and knock. So those are the right ways to

ask what will happen when we ask and when we seek and when we

knock, it will be given to you. You will find the door will be

opened, say that it will be given, I will find the door will

be opened. So Jesus connects these ideas

and then he makes the proof to you.

He wants to show you exactly what he has in mind.

So I'll start back in verse 7. Ask and it will be given to you.

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

For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds the and

to the one who knocks it will be.

Opened and now he's making his comparison and his example.

For us it's almost like he's saying for example, he says 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, Thanks Jesus, know how to give good.

Gifts to your. Children, you evil people know

how to give good gifts to your children.

How much more will your father in heaven give good things to

those who ask him? So the evil man knows how to

say, OK, my child's hungry, then I'm going to feed my child.

Generally speaking, right? The evil man even knows how to

do that. Evil humans, all of us.

That he threw us all into that category.

He's talking to his disciples and he lumped them all in.

Hey, you evil people know how to do it.

Yeah, yeah, we know. We know what's good.

You're not going to go. Oh well, here's a snake.

But it's good because, like, he might bite you, but later you

can eat him if you're still alive.

That's stupid. It's not good.

A child knows. What good is, and even evil

people know what good is, so he's continuing and he's making

the connection. What can I expect when I ask,

when I seek and when I knock? It's interesting, and it's

discouraging. A lot of times when I'm

preparing messages, I'll listen to other sermons on those same

passages. These are men who are better men

than me, better pastors than me, better preachers than me.

Just outrank me in a million ways.

No way, brother. Well, well, well, that.

But they're not on this issue. I listened to three sermons this

week and they all blew it. They absolutely blew it because

they came to ask and seek and knock, and then they began to go

into the disclaimers of why it doesn't seem to say what it

plainly says. The same thing that happens that

we talk about often with marriage, with gender, headship

and submission. Here's why those verses don't

seem to say what you think they say.

That's what most pastors do with those messages.

The same thing happened here. You know, so they're like, now

this doesn't mean I'm like, here.

He goes, here he goes. And sure enough, it wasn't a

message of why the church should have asked why the church should

have been seeking, why the church should have been knocking

and believing and expecting. It was more about like, now

don't take this to me. Don't take it to me.

What? What he said, bro.

I deal with enough doubt and unbelief all by myself, pastor

man. Like, I don't need your help.

Let Jesus talk to me. Let Jesus talk to me.

He has something to say. So Jesus is talking to you and

he wants to bring you this confidence.

What does it look like? What?

What can you expect? When you ask.

When you seek and when you knock, he goes, look, yes, for

fish, you're going to get fish. Yes, for bread, you're going to

get bread. Tada.

That doesn't mean you you stop. I don't want to take a

gymnastics class. We're just going to take Jesus

at his word. Jesus taught that even we have

an appropriate understanding of what good looks like and that

God is far better than us. But what many have come to

believe is just the opposite. If you ask for a fish, a

self-evident and objectively good thing, he might give you a

snake, but you have to pretend that it's good.

You'll say like. Oh, this is good because God did

it. Well, that's that's the problem

though. God didn't do it.

That's that's why that belief has to follow through.

And and for those who believe that, it's a theological

conundrum, because they will act appropriately when bad things

happen. They will mourn as they should

when bad things happen. And of course we love and we

comfort and we bless. And that's not a time for debate

of theology or anything like that.

But. If there's a broken logic in

that theology, that would say God did this thing, so why would

you mourn a good thing? Is it good?

Well, it's a good, but it's like a weird good like.

I'm not following and I don't believe in a weird good.

I believe in good, good. I believe in bad, bad.

I believe in kind of good. You know, it's like somewhere in

the middle. It's not great, but it's it

can't be good with poison. So it's bread, but there's it's

it's going to destroy me at the same time.

But many have come to believe this.

And I think it's because we look at our circumstance as opposed

to looking at what the Lord has said.

So we come to believe if you ask for safety, a self-evident and

objectively good thing, he might give you a car wreck, but you

have to say that that was a good thing.

If you ask for health, a self-evident and objectively

good thing, he might give you cancer, but you have to say that

that's a good thing. Saints God is good, and a six

year old knows what good is and what good means.

And as we go through the Gospel of Matthew, you're going to

continually see Jesus's absolute lack of subtlety when it comes

to revealing the goodness of God.

Over and over and. Over.

It's a bit. On the nose.

As they say. It's hard to get around because

you just go. Well, what would?

Jesus do well. What did?

What did Jesus do? What would Jesus do?

Well, Joe. Michael.

This begs the perfect question, and it's a good question and a

fair question. Then why doesn't it always?

To which I would say, Did you notice we just read some

qualifiers? Ask, seek and knock.

Then it will be, Then it will be.

Then it will be. As opposed to I didn't knock,

but they should just know that I'm here.

Is this the same thing as earning and deserving?

No, there's no such thing as earning.

There's no such thing as deserving.

Not for you and I. Jesus earned it all.

Jesus deserves it all. But for you and I, Yes, there

are things that I must do. There are things that I must

step into to qualify for the promise.

This is an if then statement. Ask and it will be given.

If you ask then you will then it will be given to you.

If you seek then you will find if you knock then it will be

opened. So the goodness of God is

profound. The goodness.

Of God is consistent. You can trust in the goodness of

God, and when you ask and seek and not, don't worry about

what's going to happen next. Well.

Circumstances could happen, yeah, life can happen.

Bad things have happened to you. Bad things will happen to you

again. But in in those moments, we

still go to our father and say father, look what happened, this

bad thing. But I'm coming to you.

I'm asking. I'm seeking.

I'm knocking. The magnification.

The Psalm we read this morning. God, the enemies are attacking

me. Would you come and defend?

Not God. You're attacking me.

And it's so good, this lesson that I'm learning through it.

Would you also stop? Why would you want him to stop?

He's blessing you. Is it a?

Blessing or isn't it? This cancer is such a gift from

the Lord. Really.

Why are you going to get it removed?

Have you told your doctors from God they might not be so eager

to help you remove your blessing?

Jamaica, are you being. I'm not trying to be.

I don't want to stab to harm, but I do want to perform surgery

to heal. This is why you'll hear me use

the phrase often. And I talk about broken logic.

Which is it? Is it a blessing or not?

It's not. And you can say it out loud.

Good is good, bad is. Bad.

Car wreck. Bad.

I posted that passage in my message online.

I was hoping to get a lot more responses so I'd have more to

answer this morning. Because I want to serve you

well. I can't serve the whole Internet

well, but I want to serve you well.

And. And one brother said, I don't

get your whole perspective here. He's like, you know, yesterday,

yesterday at work. Just to show you how folks think

about this. Yesterday my car wouldn't start,

OK. Bad.

And I worked on it for a while and got it running good.

Got to work. Had to start it up again.

It wouldn't start bad. He didn't.

He wasn't calling the goods and the bads, he was calling the

whole thing. Just an overall good.

Which I agree because every good and perfect gift comes from the

father above who there is no variableness or shadow of

turning. But he was saying he's like, I

ended up getting a a a new starter for free because it was

still under warranty and my my company paid me to work on my

car in the middle of the day. He's like that was all.

Good. And he totally, like, missed the

point. I'm like, yeah, bad thing

happened. God was good to you.

Bad thing happened. God was good to you.

But he was lumping it all in. He's like, look, the Lord

wouldn't let my car start, and then the Lord made my car start

it. Bro, where are you going?

It's just AI. Don't know if that was just

maybe a misunderstanding, a lack of clarity.

But the the belief for that brother sincere, faithful

brother I'm sure was still that the Lord was doing every single

thing. Car won't start.

It will. The Lord's just, you know, good

bad. But we we can call.

It's no one goes to start their car and doesn't start and go

well that's awesome. No, you you might literally say,

well, that's not good. I could even see me saying that,

Like, that's not good. I'll probably say that a few

weeks ago with the Buick. That was a bad sound.

Yeah. I didn't go.

That sounds like a blessing to me.

It wasn't. It wasn't.

But John Michael did some good come out of it.

I'm sure I could fish for it and see it.

Yeah. And I'd call that resurrection.

I call that a good father who in spite of broken, were like, come

on guys. Look at the Look at the whole

arc of the Bible. In the garden.

Bad. Right.

The sin, that is, it was all good who made it good.

What did he call it? Good.

Was there any death? It's not a trick question.

Was there any sin? Was there any sickness?

Was there any devastation at all?

And God called it. And then Adam sinned.

And then we get the glorious gospel of resurrection because

of Adam's sin. We wouldn't even have the cross

if it wasn't for Adam's sinned. So we I think we confuse the

beautiful resurrection that the Lord brings us.

This guy got to work on his car, got his new alternate, got his

new starter and his company paid him for his time during the day.

I'm like, praise the Lord. God is good to you man.

On the good things, the other things was just stuff breaks.

It's life in that in that particular case.

So God is good. You should ask.

You should seek. You should not.

You don't need to be afraid. Even an evil earthly father

knows how to give you what you need.

How much more does your Heavenly Father give you the bread?

And the fish that you asked. For Let's make this more plain.

Let's bring this more home. What good thing are you asking

for? What good thing?

What objectively good thing are you asking for?

Are you asking? Are you seeking, are you

knocking for something that you know?

That's a good thing. Duh, duh.

I'll name one for a few. Children are a blessing from the

Lord. Children are a gift from God.

It is a. Good objectively good thing that

is beautiful bread and beautiful fish that you should continue to

contend and expect the Lord to make good on his word.

How about those loved ones that you're praying for?

You should expect the Lord to answer those prayers that he

would be sending other workers into that harvest healing for

your body for that thing that's been there chronically forever.

And you're going, man. I still just ask and seek and

knock. Based upon what, Joe?

Michael? I didn't pull these out of

nowhere. Saints.

We're going to keep looking at the scriptures together.

You're going to keep seeing Jesus over and over and over.

What would Jesus do with your knee, Angelina, if he was here

right now, what would he do? I don't know.

Look at all the knees he wrecked in the Gospels.

Maybe yours is a blessing. Every other occasion throughout

the scriptures, you know, apparently was a curse.

But maybe yours is like a lesson.

You don't think so. Well, I don't either.

So I'm going to continue to ask and seek and knock for the

things, for the things that the enemy would say.

Hey, just live with that one. Just live with that one where

the enemy would want to push my line of faith back.

And my faith's all right. I can't trust him for that.

My faith is still pure. Where it's pure.

You're still loved, But Satan goes, hey, hey, you're.

You're you're a little greedy. You're you're getting a little

too prosperity there, Christian. OK, let me back up a little bit.

Let me be more holy. Let me back up a little bit

more. Back up a little bit more.

By the end of it, I'm like, hope I go to heaven.

Can I have faith for that? Is that a good thing?

I'm allowed to believe God for like I'm trusting him for that

right? Not allowed to expect fish or

bread. It's just getting greedy.

But you know, but his eternal Kingdom, he'll give to me,

right? It's silly.

He was spared not his own son. How will he also freely with him

not give us all things? Lower things, lesser things, no

doubt. So don't put them above the

blood in the body, but also know that.

Duh. Yeah, you're mine.

I love you. So, like, can I, like, use the

refrigerator too? Yeah.

Son, it's your house. Can I, like, borrow the car?

Son, I don't think you're hearing me.

Kill the fatted calf. Put a gold ring on his hand.

Give him new sandals and a new robe.

That's good, isn't it? That's called good.

God is good and God is good to you.

The world is still broken, the devil is still bad, and you and

I are still stupid, and God is still good.

So what good things are you asking, seeking and knocking for

in 2024? You can and should be asking and

seeking and knocking for wisdom, for provision, for more of His

presence, for loved ones to come into the Kingdom.

I challenge you, Saints. Put all of your eggs in one

basket. All of them.

All of them. What's the basket?

The basket is him. All my hope, all my expectation.

If he doesn't come through, then I'm doomed.

That's the way to live. And then he goes.

Who? Faith don't have to be big, but

it's real. It's living.

It's active. It's not.

We'll see what happens. I sure hope it gets good.

I hope. I hope for all kinds of stuff

you do too. It's automatic.

That's a good thing. Nothing wrong with that.

But hope deferred makes the heart sick.

But those who ask are going to get.

Those who seek are going to find.

Those who knock, get doors opened.

Those who hope, maybe I get lucky and they open the front

door and they go. What are you doing here?

I've been standing here six hours.

I wish you had knocked. Well, I shouldn't have to.

What are you praying for? What are you believing?

For man? I've.

I've gone dormant. We'll wake up.

Ask and seek and knock. What are we as a church?

Praying for and seeking and knocking for?

This year, I want to share a few of these things with you that we

together are praying for, asking, seeking and knocking.

I'll do a quick sidebar here. This is not John Michael's

church. If this is your church, then

this is your church and my church.

Just like I could be sitting there with you, OK, take

ownership of it and what we're praying for, it's not.

Oh, Joe Michaels asked us to. We're a body.

I am the pastor, and these are the things that we're praying

for together. I am praying that the Lord would

bring another elder into salt church this year.

When I say elder, I mean pastor interchangeably.

Another pastor into this church. I want you to pray for that

another. A worship leader so we can fire

YouTube. And have live worship for all of

our services. I want you to pray into that.

And then the other thing I want to emphasize.

Last year we baptized 3 people. How many does the Lord have for

Saul to baptize this year? How many people are supposed to

come into the Kingdom through you and I this year?

That's the other thing that we need to be praying into.

That's our whole purpose. That's our whole mission.

Go into all the world, Make disciples.

Teach them to obey everything I've commanded, and I'll be with

you to the end of the age. And baptize them in the name of

the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and I'll be with you to the end

of the age. So how many?

People, Are we supposed to baptize?

They're out there right now. Those people were supposed to

come into the Kingdom through you and through me.

This year. They're there.

Maybe they're already in your life.

Maybe it's already a person of peace and you just need to be

reminded like that is such a person of peace.

There's such a warmth between us.

There's such a receptivity. Remember we learned just last

week or a couple weeks ago about not casting your pearls before

swine. If somebody hates the pearls

that you have, the Kingdom pearls that you have, don't keep

throwing them over there. There's somebody who's ready to

to be adorned by those pearls and go.

I love them. They're beautiful.

What a gift. What a treasure that you've

given me. So honor the Pearl of great

price, who is Jesus and look for those persons of peace in your

life and go. This guy, he's open to me.

This woman, she's open to me. All I need to do is continue

that conversation. All I need to do is invite them

over for the Bible study. All I need to do is begin to

shepherd and love and pray for more.

Ask and seek and knock. And I want to.

I want to finish up by refreshing you and reminding you

of some of who we are. Now's a good time here at the

beginning of the year to remember what Salt Church is and

what Salt Church is about. Our mission, why we exist at

all, is connected to what we just prayed to, what we just

mentioned. It is to make His Kingdom come

and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That's what we're here to do. That's a that's a lot.

And we're only one church. We're not the entire body of

Christ. We're one tiny part of the body

of Christ, and we rejoice in our part.

And we take our part seriously. What makes us unique?

What is our vision? We.

Seek to live out what we call 1st century Christianity.

That means New Testament Christianity.

That's our target. That's the kind of Christianity

we want. We want prayers answered.

We want people added. We want people going out.

We want to be ascending church. We want to see the gifts of the

Spirit. We want to see the.

Fruits of the spirit. And we want to see the Saints of

God embrace Christ's Commission to make disciples.

This is not a church where everybody goes.

Preacher man's got to get folks saved and I just got to invite

them on a Sunday. This is a church where we go.

I'm the church. I'm on the mission and in the

mission of God. So this is a church.

Where the elders, the pastors, I'm speaking by faith.

You hear that plural speaking there the elders the pastors

primary primary focus is equipping the Saints and

shepherding a Christ following community, not creating the most

attractive gatherings possible for all non believers.

We want to be welcomed and hospitable and warm and loving.

But our priority is Saints being armed, Saints being equipped

Saints, Saints being cared for, Saints being loved well.

Because Saints are the workers in the harvest.

Saints are the workers. Of the ministry.

We're a church. Who is?

Going to continue to share our lives together.

Why am I sharing all this with you?

So you can also be stirred to pray.

So you can also write this down so you can also punch these in

your phone. You're about to hear something

if you haven't already, that stirs you.

That is the Holy Spirit saying pray, ask, seek and knock on

that. Ask me for this, seek this, and

knock on that. Don't just sit back and go.

If Jamichael was a great enough leader, he could usher us into

all those things. I have a surprise for you.

He's not. He's not a great enough leader

to get you there on his own. But your prayers will move

mountains. The Lord will do mighty things

as His people ascend His throne and ascend His hill.

We want to share our lives together in real and profound

ways. To act, to actually be a New

Testament family. To not just be see you next

Sunday, but to actually have a unity that really feels like

family life, where we care and feel responsible for one

another. We actually want to walk in the

power of the Holy Spirit. We want to see our region

transformed because we're here. We want to see new believers

constantly being added who expand Jesus's Kingdom and will.

New churches constantly being planted which spread Jesus's

Kingdom and will. Families being led by Christ

following men, godly, families who then enhance their community

in every possible aspect, social, economic, physical,

spiritual, political, from a position of health so that we

can seek the good of the land that we live in.

And then our values. We have 7 values that we

emphasize. We say we love God for real.

For real. That's our very theological,

theologically rich way of saying seriously, not just I'm going to

church, but Jesus is king and I love him. #2.

We are noticeable. Salt is meant to be bold, not

vanilla. Not is it in there.

Oh, it's in there. And it's.

Good. It is a preserving thing.

So we're going to be bold and we're going to be noticeable #3.

We multiply. As individuals, you're a

disciple maker, and as a church, we want to plant churches

aggressively. We want to plant a church.

We want to plant a church yesterday.

We want to cede out a bunch of people with another pastor,

another elder, and say go do it again, go do it again.

And the Kingdom just keeps expanding.

We are, by design, never going to exceed 200 people in this

congregation where I'm the shepherd by design, because when

we get around those numbers, we're going to seed out a group

of people with another pastor, another elder, and say go, go.

We don't need, we don't need the.

We don't need to just keep growing indefinitely.

We just need the Kingdom to grow.

And this is a particular calling.

Is there something wrong with that?

No. But this is a particular calling

for us. This is what makes us us.

Each household is unique. It's no problem with that.

Each church has a thumbprint. This is ours, our 4th value.

We fight where the fight is. This means we're going to

prioritize things that matter in our culture and our day.

We're not going to talk around him and go, That's a political

issue. Jesus is political.

He's the king. So we're going to make

everything that that that our society needs and we're going to

tell the truth about it. The reason societies get into

decay is because the church stopped telling the truth about

something anyway. So we're going to tell the truth

because we love them so much and we love God's will in his way,

#5. We're deeply committed to each

other. If you have a need, I have a

need. If you're hurting, I'm hurting.

If you're rejoicing, I'm rejoicing.

Number six, we believe God is good.

That is a nail that we're going to smash with that hammer every

time we see it. That is good news.

God is good, and a six year old knows what good means. #7 We

pursue the gifts of the Spirit. We actually want to see the

gifts of the Spirit in operation, not with spookiness

added to it, but with sincere power.

Where the Holy Spirit is moving and speaking and revealing Jesus

to people, and people are being blessed by the Kingdom.

We want the fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.

So I'm excited. That's why you know the ladies

are going through the book, that they are right now going to

continually be stirred into that.

So what are those things? Did you just hear about that?

The Lord said who something lit onto your spirit and you went,

man, I want to I want to ask the Lord for that.

Then do that. Do that.

We need you to. That is your assignment that the

Lord has just assigned to you. That asking what did you?

Say, man, I'd like to see some of that in this church.

Then seek it. Seek it, man.

I'd like to. I'd like to come across some of

that. Then knock for it.

Let's let's persist. Not beg, but let's persist.

Father, you said. Bring his word back to his ears.

Father, you said. You said, God, we're asking.

These are fish. This is bread.

This is fish. This is bread.

Father. Give it, Father.

Pour it out. Father, we're asking.

We're seeking. We're knocking.

We're not trying to twist your will.

We're not trying to convince you of something that you don't

want. We're coming pursuing what you

have already promised, what you already want.

These objective, good things. Do it, Lord.

Glorify your name. Glorify your name.

We give you all the glory for it right now.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. For what you have done in

Christ, through Christ, by Christ, you are the vine.

We're the branches. Keep us connected to you, make

us people who ask and seek and knock things in our hearts and

minds. Prayers, dreams, visions that

you've given us. Those objectively good things

that you've told us to pursue, that you've told us to enjoy,

that you've told us to seek. Now would you refresh it?

Now would you refresh vision? Would you refresh hope?

And would you refresh faith? Give us the courage to ask and

to seek and to knock again when we see you as you really are.

We'll be quick to ask. When we see you again, we'll be

quick to knock. We won't wait.

We won't allow the enemy to lie to us any longer.

I call down every imagination that would raise itself up

against the name of Jesus. Every thought, every weed that's

grown into a mighty tree. Lord, would you uproot those

things? Would you pull them up?

Would you tear them down? Establish more of your Kingdom,

more of your will, more of your ways?

We ask. We seek, we knock, and we know

exactly what will happen when we do.

So. When you open the door, we know

what we'll get. We know that there's going to be

bread and fish. From our father, we being evil.

Know how to give good things. How much more will you care for

us? God make us qualified, make us

qualified. Not entitled children, but

loving children who thankfully and joyfully receive what their

Father provides. We thank you for it all.

We lift up all these needs, all these desires of our church,

these visions that we have, these expectations, the calling

that you've given us God. Would you make 2024 a year of

asking, seeking and knocking? We know that if you would for us

that automatically it's going to be a year of receiving.

It's going to be a year of finding.

It's going to be a year of the doors being opened.

Make your Kingdom come and your will be done in Jesus name.

And now the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face shine down upon you and be gracious to

you. The Lord lift up His countenance

upon you and give you great peace.

In Jesus name, Amen.