Would You Give Your Child a Stone?

Well, good morning.

Welcome to the very first, 11 o'clock.

Get together at His hands, worshiping Jesus.

It's awesome.

So excited.

Some of us have been waiting to sleep in for years, and so today is a really good day for us.

But uh man, I I cannot think of a better way to start this day, this whole new season for us as a church than to have 18 kids go all in with Jesus.

Was that not amazing?

It's awesome.

And then there were seven at the first service, so that was just, you know, part of it.

But what an incredible, incredible day.

I've got a few quick announcements before we jump into what we're gonna be talking about this morning.

Want to let everyone know that the week of September 21st, home groups kick back off.

We're really excited about this.

You know, we are supposed to follow Jesus together.

We are a family.

And so we're supposed to come alongside one another, to sharpen one another, help one another.

The Bible says that we're a body and we literally cannot exist without each other.

And home groups is the best place for that to happen here at His Hands.

We have groups for couples, groups for men, groups for women.

And at the Connect Desk this morning in the main lobby, you'll have someone that'll help you sign up for a group or give you more information about one if needed.

So just head up there and talk to whoever's there.

They'll give you all the info that you need.

We have a few big events coming up in October, one for ladies, one for guys.

Guys, ours is called Fearless.

It's a men's adventure.

We're going to Tennessee for a couple days.

We're going to Whitewater Raft.

We're going to just be out in nature.

We're going to smell terrible and we're going to reconnect with that adventurous spirit that God has put inside us that we desire to have as men.

It's going to be incredible.

It's going to be re-energizing.

It's October 3rd through the 5th.

Ladies, your event is October 10th and 11th.

It's called Sacred.

We know that you give a lot of your time to provide sacred moments for the people in your lives.

And this is going to be some sacred time for you.

Both events are, there's more information about both events at the desk by the source in the main lobby.

You can find out what you need there.

All of the information and the forms, the payments, that's all due next week if you're going.

So get that stuff now.

Make a quick decision if this is your first time here.

And then be back next Sunday to let them know.

It's going to be great, though.

Only other thing I want to say before we pray and talk about Jesus a little bit is a big thank you to everybody who is helping out financially.

God is using it.

If you're here for the very first time, we don't pass a plate, we don't tell you how much to give.

We give 10% of everything that comes in as a church, we give it to this community because we're a family.

We pitch in together, we serve together, we help together, and God is doing a lot with it.

You don't have to look very far to see that.

You know, this morning, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So thank you for being faithful.

What we do ask is that if this is your home, if this is your church, to pray about a percentage.

A percentage that God wants you to give and commit to giving that every month.

And if we all do that, he will give us what we need, and we can trust one another as a church family to hear from God and respond.

That's as simple as it is.

So thank you again.

There's kiosk at the back if you want to do that this morning.

Let's pray and jump into the word.

Jesus, thank you so much for uh for who you are.

Every stain is washed away.

Every single one.

You have forgiven every sin.

And thank you so much, Jesus, for your presence, for being able to be in this space and experiencing your presence together.

That is everything, Lord.

We love you.

And we pray now that you would teach us.

You are you are still and you will always be our teacher.

So teach us, Jesus, through your word this morning.

We ask all this in your name.

Amen.

Well, this morning is the last Sunday in our Questions Jesus Asked series.

We have looked at a number of questions Jesus has asked.

Questions like, Why are you afraid?

Who do you say I am?

Why have you abandoned me?

These are very thought-provoking questions.

They're pretty intense.

This morning's question is one that actually centers on children.

And so it's very appropriate that we're talking about this question this morning.

I mean, I love that we had all these kids going all in with Jesus because the simple truth is that when kids get baptized, it's just cute, right?

Like you can't deny that.

We laugh, there's there's cute moments.

It's awesome, but it's every bit as real.

And it's every bit as powerful as what God is doing in our lives as adults.

What's happening in the lives of our children, it is every bit as real.

That's why we invest so heavily in our kids and in our youth.

In fact, we don't do this very often or really ever, but um, but I think it's appropriate this morning.

If you're someone that invests time with either our our teens, nursery, his kids, would you stand up for just a moment, if you won't mind?

Just for a second.

I'd like to give everyone a big round of applause.

That helps with our kids.

Thank you so much.

And I'm so glad we have two services now because uh in the past you've had to sacrifice a lot of Sundays in here to be with our kids.

So I'm glad that's gonna be more convenient.

But thank you for that time because things like this wouldn't happen without you.

Jesus talked about children a lot, and it was always in a positive way, every single time.

When he points to children, he is lifting them up as a shining example of how we should be.

And if you spend much time with young children, that's not hard to understand, right?

You can look at kids and go, man, I have a lot to learn.

Or maybe I have a lot to unlearn.

Because there's something about children, there's something about their simplicity and their faith that's powerful.

Jesus said that we should come to him like children.

Jesus said that we should have faith like children.

He never looks at the disciples and says, Grow up, stop acting like a bunch of kids.

And he had plenty of opportunities.

Like one time the disciples were arguing about who was gonna get to sit next to Jesus when Jesus was gonna reign on his throne.

I mean, it's like children arguing over the front seat of a car.

And Jesus could have looked at them and said, You guys are a bunch of children, and I'm sick of it.

But he never does that.

When he points to children, it's always as an example.

And this morning we're gonna look at a question that Jesus asks in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

And if we had to categorize this question, we wouldn't say it's a loaded question per se.

We wouldn't even say it's like a challenging question.

It seems very obvious.

If anything, this is kind of an insulting question.

I don't know if you've ever been asked a question where as soon as the person asked you, you're like, what are you trying to say?

What are you getting at here?

I had that happen to me last week.

I was having lunch with my wife and her parents, and I love her parents so much, we're really close as a family.

And Megan was talking about Sacred, the women's event in October, and her mom realized that Megan was gonna be gone for the weekend.

And keep in mind, I'm I'm right there, I am at the table.

And so Megan's mom looks at Megan and says, Well, who's gonna watch the kids?

And there's like this awkward silence where Megan looks at me and then she looks at her mom and she says, Well, well, Justin, their dad, he's gonna watch the kids.

And then I'm not lying, Megan's mom looks right at me, doesn't say a word, and looks right back at Megan and goes, by himself?

And and like I'm their dad I'm their dad.

I watch them pretty often.

I am a little terrified that I'll have them for two full days.

And, you know, are they gonna go to bed on time?

No.

Are they gonna eat healthy?

No chance.

Are they gonna be well dressed and maybe no, it's not gonna happen, but they'll be alive.

Like I can promise that.

As much as it depends on me, they will be alive, they will be okay, like by himself, really.

And that that question only insulted me a little bit because I know that I know that she means well.

I know that she loves me.

And literally, she's thinking maybe I shouldn't go to sacred because I I might need a help.

He might need backup, and I might, but it's gonna be awesome.

This question that Jesus asked in Matthew 7, it's much more insulting.

If it's meant to be a direct question, right to somebody as a parent.

So in Matthew 7, 9, this is where the question comes.

Jesus says, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

If your children ask you for a loaf of bread, do you go outside, find a rock, put it on their plate, and say, here, eat this?

And obviously the answer is no.

Who would do that?

Who in their right mind would do that?

What halfway decent parent?

I'm not even talking about a good parent, right?

We wouldn't defend ourselves as a good parent and say, hold on a second, I've never made my kids eat rock, so I'm I'm a good dad.

Like this is this is ludicrous.

It's a crazy question.

And I want to make sure we we have the right picture in our minds here.

When Jesus says loaf of bread, he's not talking about like a loaf of sandwich bread.

That's what we picture when we hear the word loaf.

Believe it or not, the sandwich was not invented till the 1700s.

Sliced bread didn't show up until the 1920s.

It's crazy, I know.

When Jesus says loaf of bread, he's talking about like a dinner roll.

I mean, in his time, they didn't waste anything, and so they cooked bread in these very small loaves.

So it's like Jesus is saying if your child comes to you and asks for a slice of bread, do you give them a rock instead?

No.

Good answer.

And this question, it's so it's so ridiculous that it seems like it must be hypothetical.

It has to be some hyperbole, some crazy example Jesus is giving to make a point.

But in reality, this is a this is a personal question for Jesus.

This is a question that he is asking out of experience.

In Matthew chapter 4, verse 1, the Bible says, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.

Matthew 4:1

For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

Might seem kind of odd that the Holy Spirit would lead Jesus to be tested.

But the truth is, temptation is inevitable.

Every human being that has ever lived has been tempted.

That's why Jesus prayed in the Lord's Prayer, deliver us from temptation.

He didn't pray, Jesus, help us avoid temptation because you cannot avoid temptation.

Jesus had to be tempted as well, and it's the devil that's doing the tempting.

But Jesus goes to this place called the wilderness.

Now, we might think of woods and trees, but that's not where Jesus was.

It was a place called Yeshimon.

It's about a 35 by 15 mile stretch of desert, and the word Yeshimon literally translates the devastation.

So Jesus went to the devastation to fast and pray.

It is nothing but sand and sun-scorched rock.

And in this desert, there would have been all these small stones baking in the sun, heat rising off of them.

I imagine they looked a lot like little loaves of bread.

And this is a theory, I can't 100% back this up, but I think Jesus was a bread guy.

I don't think he was a no-carbs kind of person.

And I like bread.

I crave bread.

And I think Jesus did too.

And I'll just say that anytime someone comes to me and says, Don't eat bread, bread's not good, I'll say this.

Look, I want to obey Jesus.

And he said, Eat this bread and remember me.

That is the only food he told me to eat.

And cheddar biscuits fall under the umbrella of bread.

So it's all, I just want to obey Jesus.

That's that's important to me.

So I'm not sure if Jesus was craving bread or not.

I'm not sure if these little stones baking in the sun look like little loaves of bread, but it's at this moment that Satan comes and tempts Jesus.

It's in Matthew 4, 3.

It says, During that time the devil came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

I heard this story hundreds of times growing up.

I've read it dozens of times, and I talked about this in a message about two years ago.

If you would have asked me two years ago, what was the first temptation?

What did Satan tempt Jesus with?

I'd have said bread.

Jesus was hungry, Satan shows up and offers him bread, but that is not what happened.

Satan did not offer Jesus any bread.

Satan offered Jesus stones.

He said, Hey Jesus, if you're hungry, you're craving some bread, look, here's some rocks.

Turn those into bread, eat those.

And it's subtle and it's sneaky, but Jesus saw it.

And Jesus knows his father.

He knows the nature of God.

We we all just need to know who our dad is sometimes.

And Jesus knew that his father would never offer his son a stone.

And so Jesus says in Matthew 7, 9, you parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

This is something that Jesus has lived.

And I believe it affected him greatly.

God does not give us stones.

And there are times that we pray for things and we ask for things.

And it looks like what we are given, some solution presents itself and it seems perfect.

It looks like bread, it smells like bread.

And then we find out later that it wasn't bread at all, it was a stone.

We have to be really careful not to attribute those things to God because God does not give stones.

When the Israelites were in the desert wandering around for 40 years, God literally made it rain bread.

Again, just saying, bread from heaven, carbs raining from the sky, and there were no stones mixed in.

The Israelites didn't have to go sift out the stones to find the bread, it was just bread.

God does not give us stones.

And there are great people who mean well that will look at situations and see us going through some type of hardship and go, oh, God is giving this to you.

God is doing this to you to teach you something.

That's a lie.

God does not give stones to his children.

And Jesus goes on in Matthew, he says, You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?

Of course not.

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him?

I mean, we're parents.

Many of us.

And we know what it's like to see our children want something.

Do we give them stones?

No.

It's the opposite, right?

Even if it's something trivial, we care about it.

How many of us have waited in line for hours to get something for our kids?

How many of us have sacrificed, saved up, denied ourselves to provide for our children?

We would all drive much nicer cars and live in much bigger houses if we didn't care so much about the needs of our children.

And if that's us as sinful, normal people, what's God like?

Because He is the perfect Father.

And that's what Jesus is trying to teach us here.

The nature of God.

God does not give us stones.

And if we see something and it ends up being a stone, we can know that God did not give it to us.

And there might be some of us in the room this morning that believe that events in our past, moments in our lives that were incredibly difficult, full of pain, were given to us by God.

I want you to know this morning, God did not give you that stone.

He does not do that.

It's not his nature.

In fact, James chapter 1, verses 16 through 18 says, Don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.

James 1:16–18

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.

He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word, and we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

You are God's prized possession.

He will never give you a stone.

See, that's important because there's this idea of God that religion really reinforces.

It tells us to be careful what we ask for, be careful what we pray for because we might get it.

And by the way, that phrase, be careful what you wish for, it just might come true.

That's not in the Bible.

God never said that.

And so we think, oh, don't pray for patience because God will give you patience.

He's gonna make you go through the most horrific ordeal to teach you patience.

But you'll get the patience you asked for.

Don't pray for strength because God's gonna bring you to a breaking point to teach you how to be strong.

Don't pray for wisdom because God's gonna make you read the Bible, and that's actually a really good idea.

But I think you get the point.

We have this suspicion sometimes that we shouldn't ask God for what we need because he might give it to us and it might be with this big catch.

And that is not God.

He does not give us stones.

So we shouldn't hesitate to ask him.

To ask him for what we need.

We shouldn't hesitate to ask God for what we need because we think he doesn't care about what we need.

Jesus, when giving the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6.11, says, and again, I'm just saying with the bread thing, give us today our daily bread.

He likes bread.

You know, of all the things to pray for, all the injustice in the world, and he did pray, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So he cares about those things greatly.

And we should pray for those things.

But but Jesus says when asked, how should we pray?

Pray like this.

God, feed me today.

And we can go a day without food.

We can survive for a few days without food, many actually.

And Jesus still says, no, no, no.

God, give me the food I need today.

Something as small as that is important to God, or Jesus would not have told us to pray for it.

He cares about you, he cares about your needs.

He is that father that looks upon his children and says, their cares, their needs become mine.

So we're supposed to ask.

We're supposed to ask and be like children.

God never calls us his grown-ups, he never calls us his mature adults.

He calls us his children.

And we have a lot to learn from children.

I have a son that's four years old.

And in his short time on this earth, he has amassed an armory of toy swords.

We are not violent people, my wife and I.

But he loves swords.

He's a boy.

We have nerf swords, we have pirate swords, ninja swords, we have lightsabers, we have swords that make noises, we have swords that transform into other swords.

And I'm serious.

We have two swords, you click them together, giant sword.

It's awesome.

Last week, my son added a new sword to his collection.

This sword's a little bit different.

It's a paper sword.

Little tiny paper sword.

Not a sword that's like origami.

I'm talking about a piece of paper printed off in the shape of a sword and cut out.

He holds it and it droops over in half.

This is my son's new favorite sword.

I've wasted a lot of money on swords and it makes me a little mad, but it's okay.

And a few nights ago, my son was going to bed, and many of you that have children or have had children, you know what this is like.

Children often want a specific toy or precious thing to take to bed.

And are they afraid to ask for it?

No.

Are they afraid to ask over and over again?

No.

If it's 2 a.m.

and they wake up and realize it's not there, are they afraid to wake you up and ask?

Not at all.

I live that every single night.

And a few nights ago, Liam says, I want my paper sword, and I looked over the house, I could not find it.

I could find every other sword that we have spent hundreds of dollars on, but not the one tiny piece of paper that we printed off for him to color on one day.

I couldn't find that one sword.

So I got the other swords, the big ones, the cool ones, and I took them to Liam and I'm upselling.

I'm like, son, look at the features this sword has.

That your paper sword does not.

Namely, it's not made out of paper.

It cannot rip in half.

It doesn't get crumbled.

It stands up straight.

You should take this sword to bed.

And Liam says, No, I want my paper sword.

And he's crying, so I'm panicked.

And I looked over the whole house until I found it.

He did not stop asking until it was found.

And you know it's interesting because wanting something, needing something, and not asking for it is a learned behavior.

That is not natural.

Just look at a three-year-old.

The concept of desiring something in our lives, wanting something, recognizing that we need something, and saying, no, I'm not gonna ask for it.

I'll just do without.

That is not natural.

That is a learned behavior.

It happens to us when we hear no enough that we start to say, okay, I'd rather not ask than get my hopes up.

But what we have to understand is we do not have a don't get your hopes up, God.

We don't have a be careful what you ask for, God.

We have a God that says, get your hopes up because I love you, because I'm your dad, so get your hopes up and ask me.

I mean, this whole question of bread and stones, it comes in this section of verses where Jesus says in Matthew 7, verses 7 through 8, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.

Matthew 7:7–8

Keep on seeking and you will find.

Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives.

Everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

And so if we believe that asking God over and over again for what we need is pestering him or annoying him, it's not.

It's actually obeying him.

He tells us ask me, ask me again, ask me more.

Keep asking, keep asking.

Remember who you are.

You are my child.

Ask me for what you need.

And I don't know what you need this morning.

I know what I need.

And I know that God can provide it.

Whatever you need this morning, whatever's missing in your life, He can provide it.

Jesus is the answer.

We said this last week.

Christianity isn't the answer.

Church isn't the answer.

It's great to have this.

Jesus is the answer.

And we can go to him and we can get what we need.

You know, we can do that as a church.

Today is an exciting day for us.

It's a new start.

We're making room for a lot more people to love to Jesus.

And God's going to bless us and he's going to help us grow and he's going to help us fulfill the vision that He's given us.

It's not going to happen because we plan.

It's not going to happen because we strategize.

It's not going to happen because we vision cast.

Those are all good things, and we will do that.

It's going to happen because we're going to ask God for what we need and He's going to provide it.

There is nothing that beats asking God.

And you may be lonely this morning.

You may need friends.

You may need a spouse.

Ask God for it.

He will not give you a stone.

Maybe your finances are a wreck or your marriage feels like it's DOA.

Ask God to fix it.

He will not give you a stone.

Maybe what you feel like you need is more of God.

You feel like your relationship with him is empty.

You see other people that seem to have some magic connection to God and you want that, you feel like you don't have that, ask him for it.

He will not give you a stone.

In fact, he'll give you himself.

The same question that Jesus asks in Luke 11, he phrases it a little bit differently.

He probably taught on this often.

He says, So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Jesus will give you himself.

He will not give you a stone.

James 4, 2 says, You don't have what you want because you do not ask God for it.

And I love children.

They get that.

They're not afraid to ask.

They're not dignified when they ask.

They are shameless.

And I would hate to stand in front of God one day and go, God, I needed this in my life, and hear God say, You should have asked.

Ask.

There's a few takeaways this morning.

As the worship team gets ready to come back up.

Number one, let's make sure we take a lesson from Jesus.

And when we pray for something and when we ask for something, when we need something, we examine it close enough to tell if it's a rock or if it's bread.

Because Satan tempts us and he is sneaky.

Number two, start asking.

Whatever is missing in your life, have you asked God for it?

Do you ask God for it?

Because you can ask in any situation, in the car.

As soon as you leave today, we have an amazing prayer room in the back.

And it's just a sacred place for you to go and pray.

It's open the entire time on Sundays.

You can go have a quiet place to pray and talk to God.

And there are amazing people in there who are gifted with prayer that will pray with you if you desire.

The Bible says that the prayer of a righteous person is effective.

And that's why they're there.

We have prayer request cards at the back, the same kiosk where giving happens, just drop in prayer requests and 100 plus people will pray for you this week.

Start asking for what you need.

Don't have not because you ask not.

And the final takeaway, keep asking.

Don't stop.

If you have prayed for something in your life and you've quit because it hasn't happened and you've gotten discouraged, keep asking.

Get your hopes up.

We have a get your hopes up God.

Are you excited about that?

Because I am.

I love him.

He will not let you down, and he will not give you a stone when what you need is bread.

So let's pray as we worship him this morning.

Let's let's ask him for what we need.

Jesus, you are amazing.

We love you.

Thank you so much for blessing us this morning with a family to worship alongside, with a family to support one another, to pray for one another.

Lord Jesus, give us the courage to start asking for what we need.

To come to our dad like children, undignified, shameless, and just say, I want this, I need this.

Help us trust you, Lord Jesus.

We pray all this in your name.

Amen.

Amen.