What is...? Christ's command to seek/pray/come

Hey, good afternoon, happy Lord's Day to you. We're so thankful that we can be together,

Dan and I, and just to discuss God's word, to do it with you, to do it with this medium called social media with video cameras and microphones.

We're thankful for what the Lord is doing in growing his kingdom. We're excited about it.

We're thankful to be together on the Lord's Day, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as we did with our local congregations this morning.

And we're doing it together this afternoon. Jesus is Lord of the

Sabbath. We rest in him every day, but we celebrate his resurrection, his life, his second coming on the

Lord's Day, the first day of the week. And so we're just glad to be together and able to talk about his word.

What we're gonna do today, well, before I say that, I just want to ask if you would give us a like, a heart, a share, a comment, help us to be getting

God's word out through this medium. We want to reach our community. We want to encourage you. We want to see people saved through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So we would ask that you be a part of that and like, share, comment. If we can answer any question, we'd love to try to do that.

If we can pray for you, all you have to do is type me and we'll see that and we'll be glad to pray for you.

What we want to look at today is we are continuing in the commands of Christ. Daniel has been so gracious to come along with me and look at this together.

This is a notebook that my pastor is putting together called Multiply, a discipleship training manual.

And basically what the idea is, it's an idea that we all should have a desire for because it comes straight from scripture.

Matthew chapter 28, where we have the great commission for so long, the great commission to us has been go and evangelize, go share the gospel.

But we miss so much of the great commission there at the end of Matthew chapter 28, when we just focused on the individual evangelism aspect of that command of Christ.

Jesus tells us all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. So we go forward based on that statement with his authority and him giving us that command because he has authority.

And then he's telling us to share the gospel and to make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

And so that's where this discipleship manual comes from, teaching others to observe all that Jesus has commanded us.

And then using the same manual, same technique, same idea for them to do that as well with those that they come in contact with.

And that's why he called it multiplies because Jesus is having his desire or command is for us to multiply.

That's why you and I are here. That's why you and I heard the gospel, responded to the gospel is because someone received

Christ, had a desire to multiply, to share the gospel with somebody else.

And so as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is gonna give everyone that desire to multiply.

And this is a tool that he's putting together to help discipleship.

Today, we're gonna look at one of the chapters that he's got in there called seek and pray.

And the Bible uses other words referring to the same action.

You've got seeking, praying, which praying is just communicating with God. But you've got seeking, you've got asking, you've got knocking, and then you've got the word come.

All of these are commands of Christ to be telling us to be approaching

God, be coming to him, be seeking him.

The first verse that I wanted to go to was Matthew chapter 11, verse 28.

And Jesus is, here he's giving that command. And he says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And then 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble at heart, and you shall find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is easy and my load is light. When I read this verse,

I thought about all those that lean left in their ideology and their theology that I've come across in my life.

And their accusation, Dan, towards me, is that when I want to say that the

Bible is inerrant, infallible, inspired, that it's without error, without contradiction, and I believe and hold these conservative values, their main accusation towards me is, well, you're putting

God in a box. And have you ever heard that? Have you ever been accused of that?

I've heard that before, yeah. Yeah, you're putting God in a box.

You're limiting him. But I always like to say, I let God limit himself.

He tells me what he does, and he tells me what he wants me to do. So those parameters that I see are from God himself.

They're not parameters that I give him. And so I think that's important to note when we look at these verses today, that we let

God speak to us and see how he does things, how he wants the parameters that he wants to be laid out for himself and for us.

This is what I wrote down earlier. Well, this is a conclusion to reading some other verses.

So I'm not gonna read it quite yet. So I think what

I wanted to point out here in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, starting off this seeking, asking, knocking, and coming commands of Christ is that we need to see what

Jesus is not saying. He's not saying, he will not every time take us out of the struggle or take this burden off of us.

But Dan, you were telling me earlier, it kind of is taking that burden off, but it's putting a different one on.

And it comes from Christ. Right, what you were speaking of earlier with your left -leaning friends, the ones who say that you put

God in a box, one of the things that we need to realize is that when God reveals himself, he's not putting himself in a box, and neither are we when we read what he's revealed in his word.

He's just expressing who he is, which from the left, I mean, that's like the height of what they're going after is you're able to identify yourself as whatever you wanna be.

Where you end up putting God in a box is when you take away the inerrancy of scripture, you take away

God's revelation of himself, and then you're left thinking about who is God, but you're limited to your own thinking, your own imagination, and your own way of putting him back together, of reconstructing him.

And really, it's amazing that when people do that, God usually ends up looking a lot like them.

When God looks like something different than us, it's not always, but generally a good sign that we're onto something right, as long as what we're onto is in line with what

God has revealed about himself in the Bible. But to that other point about taking off a burden, when we don't have to think of who

God is when God has revealed himself to us, when we don't have to try to attain our own righteousness, when we don't have to try to seek

God by finding out where he is, and then figuring out a way to get from where we are to where he is, our burden is taken off of us because that's what

Christ has done in going to the cross. He went to the cross, he took our sin, that barrier between us and God away.

And the burden that he places upon us now is light, it is faith and trust in what

Christ has already done. It's not in doing something ourselves, it's in trusting God.

I was telling you the story a little bit earlier, me and my boy love to fish. We go fishing whenever we can.

It's just now getting warm enough up here in the great white North to go fishing. But we have this one spot and the place where we go, there's this little pier about half a mile off of, from the parking lot.

And so we'll grab our tackle boxes, bait, cooler with snacks and stuff, and we'll go out there.

And my boy, you know, he was four last year, five this year, always wants to help.

He grabs way too much stuff, there's no way he can carry it all the way over there. He's never gonna make it to the end.

And so we'll get 100, 200 yards down the path, and he'll say, dad, my arms hurt.

Buddy, you grabbed too much, you can't handle that, we're not gonna make it. Here, take this little fishing pole,

I'll carry the rest of it. That's kind of a picture of what's going on. If we try to make our way to God on our own, we'll never make it there.

But God takes that burden of getting to him off of us when he proclaimed the gospel to us, that Christ died for sinners, that the

Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men, that he draws a people to himself. And then the burden is light.

We trust in what God has done for us. He seeks us first, we love him because he first loved us.

All those things come together in that idea of his burden being light, of our heavy burden of sin taken away from us, and the light burden of Christ and keeping his commandments, because we keep his commandments through the power of the

Holy Spirit. It's not like we have to maintain that faith on our own. That faith is maintained by the power of the

Holy Spirit as a free gift from God. So it's an easy burden because Christ is doing all the lifting for us.

And he sent us the spirit as a comforter and source of strength. So that what he began in us, the good work that he began in us, he will see through to the finish.

I think a better way for me to explain what I was talking about to get to where I want to go, the point that I wanted to make, help me listen to you and explain the situation.

So I think from a worldly perspective, if you just have a nominal

Christian or non -Christian, somebody who's trying to read the

Bible themselves into it, or for whatever other reason, somebody other than, someone reading the text to hear from God, you'll hear that in the verse 28 says, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

So the thought there is, God will take the burden, take the circumstance, take the hardship away from you so that you are now free to live as you please.

But actually the process is he's giving you rest by yes, removing the burden, but giving you another yoke to put on your shoulders.

And it's, but it's his yoke. And that's, and like you were explaining, that's what makes it easy and light, but it's not a release so that you can,

I'm now free from hard circumstances. I'm free from going through difficult things.

No, that's not what God does. He lifts those burdens, but frees you by putting his yoke on you.

It's never about being autonomous, living for yourself. And that takes me to the point, because I wanted this verse to carry us over to the other verses.

We don't need to read these passages as self -seeking, but understanding them in their context, understanding them in light of how

God does things and how Jesus does things, how the Holy Spirit does things. So I think that takes us to Matthew 6, 33 and 34.

And I think this verse goes along well with our other topics that we were talking about. And I hope you'll explain to us what

Jesus is referring to here, maybe in a deeper way, more profound way than what maybe we were used to in the past.

Matthew 6, 33 and 34, let's see. We can read 33 and 34.

It says, but seek first his kingdom. So there's that seek aspect again, coming to God, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own.

So yeah, we're familiar with this. If we're Christian, we've been in Sunday school, all these things, he will take care of us.

But what does it mean to seek first? Well, you know what first means?

It's first priority, but Jesus is telling us about what we're supposed to seek, his kingdom and his righteousness.

Can you tell us what that means? Yeah, the context here is talking about the basically worry and anxiety.

What is it that you're gonna do? Can you add any length of life to your life by worrying about it?

No, you can't. Can you change anything by worrying about tomorrow?

And he says, no. So what God tells us to do is to seek first the kingdom of God.

Now, that doesn't mean that we don't do other things. It doesn't mean that we sit with a Bible under our tree and look for the kingdom to pop up around us.

It means that while we're going about our life, while we're living the day to day, that the very first priority that we have is the kingdom of God.

Now, that is a simple enough thing to say, but what does that look like? It really shows its biggest, deepest meaning when it comes into conflict with the other things that you're called to do in the

Bible. Take care of your family. Make sure that you are providing for them.

Make sure that you are working in a way that is fruitful. Now, there are situations where you'll come across at work where they may ask you to do things that are shady or not the way that things ought to be done.

You may have to sign something that goes against what the scripture says. The HR departments are getting absolutely ridiculous now with their anti -bullying policies and the way that they write stuff out.

There are people who would like you to, hey, stay quiet about this problem that we have. We're gonna sell this product anyway, even though there's maybe an

O -ring in the sauce somewhere or something. We don't really, no, they want you to be quiet or they want to sell that car that, you know, well, be quiet, it'll last a couple thousand miles and then we won't have to worry about it.

We can say, oh, that was your problem. It wasn't on us. The warranty's expired now, so don't worry about it. When you are doing the things that God would have you to do, living your life the way that you're supposed to, and you come across a situation where you can choose to either honor

God with the way you live your life, or you can shut your mouth and worry about providing for yourself and for your family tomorrow, always and forever, we choose to seek the kingdom of God first.

That is what it's getting at here. When we have our relationships with one another, we don't first seek, no, maybe perhaps you're in a situation where somebody is, say you're a single mom or you're someone, you say,

I need to share the gospel with this person, or I need to tell them the way of righteousness.

But if I do, they're gonna get upset with me. Maybe I won't have a babysitter.

I won't be able to go to work. Maybe if I do, they're going to,

X, Y, or Z. If I say something, I may upset somebody. And then if I upset somebody,

I'm gonna be in a world of hurt. I'm gonna be in trouble. What we do is we seek first the kingdom of God.

We do what God would have us to do. And why is that? Because we don't have to worry about anything else that comes because God has promised that he will take care of us.

He'll take care of us. Just like he closed the lilies in the field. Just like he makes sure that the sparrows don't worry about what to eat and they get fed every day.

Just like our days are numbered and the hair on our head, which some of us make that easier than others, but he knows all those things.

He takes care of every single bit of it. So what he's asked us to do is to live as subjects of his kingdom in the world.

And to do that, we leave everything, forsake everything, everything that we think this may cause me trouble later.

It doesn't matter. We seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And then it ends in verse 34.

So do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

If we can lay our head down at the end of the day, knowing that we have glorified God in everything that we did, we have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Because here's a little story. My dad and I were looking at colleges about 20 years ago for me to go to.

And we were on a trip up in Ohio. We were passing through Columbus and we saw

Ohio State University. My dad grew up in Toledo. It's one of his favorite places. We stopped by, we saw the football stadium and we saw a little gate that was kind of open, kind of not.

They probably didn't want people to go in, but said, what's the worst they can do?

Ask us to leave. So, you know, we, we walk out and see stuff. We, we ended up sneaking around and seeing weight rooms and a whole bunch of stuff we probably shouldn't have been.

We got to see those things. And our thought was, what's the worst they can do? Ask us to leave.

Like, oh, I'm sorry. We're from North Carolina. We had no idea. It's the same thing when we go through our life.

Very worst case scenario. What are they going to do? The absolute worst case scenario, we're killed.

And we're instantly in the presence and glory of God. That's not a bad thing.

Say someone gives us trouble and causes us to suffer here on the earth. We have been counted worthy to suffer alongside of Christ.

That's never a bad thing. We don't need to worry about tomorrow. We need to lay our head down each and every day, knowing that we, through the power of God and the trust in his gospel, have done everything seeking his glory and his kingdom first.

Everything else is going to take care of itself. Yeah. A lot of the stuff that you're saying is leading into thoughts that I had as we continue to look at these verses.

I actually added, I think I put down on the verses that I sent you,

Matthew 7, 7, but I think I added Romans 8, 31 through 33.

And what you were saying is kind of leading into what I wanted to say there as well. But thinking about his kingdom here and seeking his kingdom and his righteousness, it makes me think of James White and the sermon that he preached when he came out as post -meal.

And he was talking about those folks that fold the bulletin and that hand out the bulletin.

You were talking about the sense of, avoiding doing bad things, but also, you know,

I'm thinking about seeking his kingdom as far as doing things in a positive light as well.

Those mothers, fathers, whatever you do at home, bringing

Christ into your home, family worship, reading your Bible, folding a bulletin, everything that you do,

I'm trying to be careful with my words because it's so, I got into a conversation this week about post -millennialism and somebody using it or comparing it to something that it's not, shouldn't be compared to.

And so, how did James White say it? I can't remember, but whatever you're doing, even if it's the smallest act, you are behaving, you are exercising the kingdom of God and you are advancing the kingdom of God in every aspect of what you're doing.

So, as Dan said, you're at work, you're at home and you're seeking the kingdom when you do what's right.

This isn't always necessarily some high spiritual function that you need to seek after, like for me to seek his kingdom,

I need to be broadcasting myself, preaching the gospel to millions of people.

No, it's you are advancing his kingdom when you're folding a bulletin, you're advancing his kingdom when you are sharing the righteousness of Christ and the grace of the gospel to your children so that they can share it with their children.

And all those areas, when you're seeking the kingdom of God, you are advancing his kingdom, even in the smallest areas.

And so, that's not just about eschatology, but it's about obeying

Christ here to come to him, to seek him, to be obeying him.

And it's not just in these upper echelons of Christianity, it's in the trenches and it's doing the small things.

It's like living your life now, as if you, it's like you're imagining what perfection will be like after Christ returned and living your life now, as if that is already a reality.

You are looking at the finished work of the kingdom that will be forever and ever and saying, because Christ has promised those things,

I will live like they're a reality now. If they're not a reality everywhere, there'll be a reality where I am.

Absolutely, yeah. And that's a concept we all need to grasp and lock into our minds, have that mindset, living in light of certain things are reality.

Christ is king, it will be a certain way here on this earth.

Those realities that Christ is one of the victory for, exactly, having that mindset of living that way, it will change fundamentally how we live.

I guess our next verse, Matthew 7, 7, it's kind of, that's the key hope text there.

Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.

So what's Jesus talking about there, Dan? Jesus is saying that if you pray, you'll get an answer.

That's a simple way of putting it. Now, that sounds wonderful, and it is wonderful.

It sometimes runs, it pets the dog the wrong way sometimes to us when we think about things from a self -centered perspective.

Because he says, seek and you'll find, knock and it'll be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives.

There is a principle that if we don't ask according to the will of God, we'll still receive. If we pray in the power of the

Holy Spirit in the name of Christ, we'll still receive. It just may not be what we're asking for. You'll ask for something, and God's like, no, that's a terrible idea, but here,

I'm gonna give you the good gift. He goes on a little bit later, and who asks his dad for, like if my son asked me for a peanut butter sandwich, and I hand him a piece of bark, he's going to be upset.

It's not a good meal. And the same thing here. It says who asks his son for, or who asks his father for a loaf of bread, and he gives him a stone.

It doesn't happen. Who asks him for a fish to eat, and he hands him a snake. Now, if you're in Texas, you may like that because a rattlesnake apparently is really good.

I'd like to try it sometime. But what he's saying is when you seek after the kingdom of God, putting it back into its context, when you live as if the kingdom is a reality now, when you recognize

Christ's authority over all things, and you say that Lord's prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done.

Give me my daily bread. Just give me what I need for today. When you say your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What you're saying is, I trust in you to do what's best.

So when I'm praying, I'll pray for specific things, but I believe

I heard it put somewhere that you hold on to what you think you're gonna get or what you do get from God with an open hand.

Now, this is not mine to grasp onto. This is borrowed from God. What we understand is that God is a good father.

He will give us what we need. He understands the questions that we're asking, the things that we're looking for.

Even if we don't, if we don't have the full context, if we seek and if we knock and if we ask

God, he is faithful to respond to us in a way that is beneficial to us.

Romans 8, all things work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose.

We know that everything that happens happens because God is working out a plan after the counsel of his own will.

So when we pray, we pray in that vein, God, I need this. He will give us what we actually need and not what we think we need.

So what I would take away from it is that God answers prayer. He answers it without exception.

When we pray, we need to expect God to do things, not necessarily what exactly what we ask or how we ask it, but we need to pray with a faithful expectation that God is going to act upon our request.

Not because we're anything special or that we're changing what

God is doing, but because God delights in answering the prayers of his people.

The book of Revelation calls the prayers of the saints bowls of incense before the throne of God.

Incense is a pleasant smell. God delights in answering the prayers of his people. And this is the section where I wanted to kind of go back and touch on that thing that I've written down before.

And I was trying to bring it back up, but it just wasn't the right time. As we look at Jesus, Jesus telling us here to ask, seek, and knock, and he's going to answer our prayers, kind of looking at the verse in chapter six, verse 33, seek his kingdom, seek his righteousness.

And he says, all these things shall be added to you. So Jesus is kind of opening it up to, he's not limiting what the answer is gonna be.

I mean, he's opening it up to all things. And then if you go to Romans chapter eight, verses 31 through 33, what then shall we say to these things?

If God is forced, who is against us? Because he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, he will not also with him freely give us all things.

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. So he will not also with him freely give us all things.

So like you were saying a few minutes ago, we can take that different ways.

People go in one ditch or the other. I was listening to somebody today saying, you got your hyper -Calvinists that believe that everything's already ordained.

There's no need for prayer or intercession because it's already gonna come to pass.

And that just negates everything that Jesus commands in scripture and how he wants us to obey him and our involvement in it.

But then you also have the charismatic movement side of it where it says you don't have enough faith, you're doubting.

So that's why your prayers aren't being answered. It's like you can ask for anything you want to.

It says all things, all things. So therefore, whatever you want, you can ask for it.

If you're not getting it, then you're not having enough faith and you're just falling in the other ditch on the other side, instead of the obedience road going right down the middle and understanding who

Jesus is, how he works, how God works.

Which is the principle that I wanted to carry over from Matthew chapter 11, understanding that we don't take or read ourselves into the

Bible. We need to interpret this, understanding who God is and how he works.

So when he says all things, he's not saying you can ask for anything you want to.

Like I want a red Ferrari and all

I need to do is pray for it. If I'm not getting it, I don't have enough faith or an all expense paid trip to the

Bahamas. If I'm not getting it, I don't have enough faith. That's how it's taught in some circles, but that's not who

God is and that's not his means for us in praying and coming and seeking to him.

Which goes back to the, when we start speaking not like that, this is not

God's means, this is not his methods. That's when we start getting accused of putting

God in a box. And I think you were right on the money earlier when you were talking about how it's actually those folks who would accuse us of putting

God in a box and limiting God, when they do that themselves, it's just not as obvious to them.

They're limiting God and they're putting him in a box. Right, God has to do what I ask for, otherwise it's not really answering prayer.

Instead of realizing that God is free to think outside the box, so to speak, when it comes to answering the prayers of his people.

Right. No, I want a Ferrari, but instead we lose all of our vehicles, but we never have to go anywhere out of walking distance.

It's still giving us all the transportation we need. Yeah. Yeah.

And this is what I wrote down. Those seeking to keep God out of a box are the ones truly putting limitations on God.

God said all things, good gifts, which is what he says in Matthew 7, verse 11.

If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him?

And that may be the key to understanding this section,

Matthew 7, and prayer and asking, seeking, and knocking. He said,

God said all things, good gifts, the request will be answered, but according to the good gift giver, because his answer is always better than our request.

So, you know, we may be requesting something, like you said,

I may be requesting a red Ferrari, but what I really need is transportation. And God's answer is gonna be better than my request because he's got the whole plan laid out and ordained.

And it's leading to a greater fulfillment, a greater glory for himself that we're not always able to see.

Right, think of it on a larger scale. This may upset some folks, but who cares?

Let's do it anyway. We pray for our nation and our nation's leaders all the time.

We pray, God, we pray that you would take care of us, that you would cause us to have a revival, that you would cause

America to be a great nation. God has a plan though, that we do not know.

We don't have written scripture about what God's plan is for America. We pray those things because we want the welfare of our nation.

Very well may be that God desires to completely destroy America, to throw us to the ground, to obliterate us, wipe us off the map and have us barely be a little 300 year blip on the radar in order to bring about the salvation and preservation and the perseverance of his saints and the growth of his church in this area that we call

America now. Now, when we say God, we pray that you would bless

America. The blessing of America may be its downfall in that it was used to grow

God's church, that its destruction was brought about the salvation of many people, just like Joseph's brothers who threw him down in a pit looking to kill him.

What they meant for evil, God meant for good. So we talk about the

Ferrari and the transportation, but it could be those big things as well. So we really need to just be ready for anything, be it small, be it big, maybe eating out of garbage cans, hiding from people who speak a different language from us before the end of our lifetime, we don't know.

God may grant us repentance as a nation, but whatever it is, we know that God's answering our prayers and doing so faithfully, that his blessing is going where his blessing is supposed to go, that his people are being taken care of, that all things are working out for our good.

It gets a little difficult to stomach sometimes because we have a certain idea of the way that we want things to be.

But we have to remember in times like these, when we're not facing those things, that God is a good

God, that God is a good father who's not going to give us a stone when we want a piece of bread. He's not going to give us a snake when we ask for a fish.

He's a good God who takes care of us. And he will, it says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him?

It's times like these when we need to beat that into our brain so that if something like that does happen in the future, we know that this truth still remains, that God is a good

God, that we've been seeking him, knocking on doors, asking him, and he will be found and he'll give us exactly what we need.

Because it can get tough at times to see that through the fog of living in a portion of history.

Oh yeah. And so I'm going to apologize for continuing to go on, going back to our favorite subject or at least it seems like it's mine.

But you think with that scenario in mind, not knowing the future, not knowing what's going to happen in America, not knowing where we could be, you would think it would be us

Christians who would be keeping this command most heartily, most zealously in our lives because we don't know what's going to happen in the future.

This means of fellowship that we have right here could not exist in the near future.

And so we don't have this fellowship, this support, this accountability, this communication.

Bibles and commentaries aren't readily available to us anymore because electricity's gone.

It could happen. We're not conspiracy theorists or doom and gloom, but things can happen.

I mean, we have enemies out there and there are weapons that are capable of wiping out electronic systems.

We just saw that a gas pipeline was hacked. You know, their computer system or whatever.

Things are possible. And I'm going somewhere with this, but you would think that we as Christians would be the ones most zealous to obey this command of Christ, to seek him, to know him so that we are prepared, have his word in our hearts when we're going through those things, to be able to encourage ourselves as we go through them.

But I think the answer is going back to this pessimistic eschatology.

There's a reason why people refer to it as escapism is because I'm going to escape.

We're looking for this tribulation period to come in the future. And so it's gonna be bad, but I'm not gonna have to go through it because I'm going to escape in the rapture.

And so therefore, this zealousness in seeking Jesus through prayer and through obedience, through the word, through the spirit, it's just not there.

And so we have this carnal Christianity in America because we're ready to escape.

Does that make sense? It does. We were in Matthew 7. We stopped at verse 11.

If you look at verse 12, it actually ties everything you just said together with what it was saying. It's a very familiar verse says, and everything therefore treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the law and the prophet.

The reason why that ties everything together is that a lot of times what we pray for, what we seek

God for is individual. It's my piety, my righteousness, my wellbeing.

Even if we pray for those around us who are sick, we rarely, or at least in my experience,

I rarely hear folks praying that, and praying and working towards the end that they would actually build something that would benefit others through times that may be tough in the future.

God, we need to educate our children faithfully, not by sending them to the public schools.

The public schools are, that's probably gonna ruffle feathers too. Public schools are just, they're by definition, a secular governmental institution who are going to take

God on purpose out of the education process. They're going to teach a godless ideology, the same ideology that is failing

America right now. What are we doing as Christians in our prayer life?

Not seeking after ourselves, but seeking after the welfare of others as well.

I know that I wish the generations that had gone before me had something in place already.

If I want it, why am I not praying for the end for my children or for my children's children?

That those things would be brought about. Part of what

I grasped from American Christianity is that we think about our own salvation on a personal level, and we don't go much past that.

And the reason why that's an issue is that while it is important, we need to individually believe the gospel.

We need to individually repent of our sins and trust in Christ. We need to individually have a relationship with God and to pray.

But God is not simply dealing with individuals on an individual basis. He is dealing with his people collectively.

He's dealing with his creation as a unit. He so loved the world, the whole creation that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

He's dealing with a large scale group corporate thing as well as dealing with individuals.

And when we turn in upon ourselves, we lose an entire aspect of the

Christian faith that we are living in community with one another, that we are living in order to bring

God glory, not just through what we do, but through the people and the culture that we have as we grow together in Christ.

Because God, that was part of God's design in the beginning. His design in the beginning was that we fill the earth, subdue it and multiply.

And that was given before the fall. So part of God's original end game, his original idea for the garden as it was created was that the world would be populated by a people who do not sin and all every expression that they have as a species,

I guess would be a weird way of putting it, as mankind, everything points to the glory of God that we all would seek his kingdom because we'd be living in it from the beginning of time.

When we lose that corporate aspect, we tend to lose a sight of the kingdom,

I guess. Does that make sense? Absolutely. We do that so often and we've done it for so long.

We do it so often. We do it with so many verses. We only focus on one aspect of it.

Of course, it makes sense why we do that is because we're sinners.

We are self -centered. And so, of course, everything is going to lean individualistic when we're reading scripture, interpreting scripture, living life.

We say, well, I'm living out scripture. I'm trying to be obedient to Christ, but it's from an individualistic type interpretation and reading from the scripture.

As you were talking about that and leaving things out, prime example,

I mentioned that at the very beginning of this video. You go to Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, 19 and 20.

For so long, I mean, for my whole life, the only part that I ever heard was verse 19, go.

And sometimes I would hear, go and make disciples. That's it.

They never finished the phrase of the nations. Yeah, and there's that corporate aspect again.

And it's not just individualistic, it's nationalistic, it's global, it's a big thing.

But even beyond that, I never knew, growing up as a young person, hearing this,

I never knew that Jesus said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

It was never read, it was never recited, never part of this missions conference.

It was never part of the name or the title of camp that week or whatever.

You have the banner that says, go. This is our discipleship training or whatever, go.

So I never heard all authority, it had no relevance. Right, the catchphrase for the missions conference was never all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Right, exactly, exactly. So there's just an example of how we leave things out and we interpret in such an individualistic way.

All the authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, based on that, we need to go.

I mean, that. It's foundational, it's just kind of left. Yeah.

Or thrown away as a, well, of course, God's sovereign, but Satan's really in charge of the world. Yeah. No, it's not what the

Bible says. That's right, that's right. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I'm with you to the end of the age.

So yeah, you're exactly right. If you look at the second Psalm, the second

Psalm says to the kings of the earth, kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way.

It's talking about Christ, because it says, I have my ruler and he's coming.

Right now we know who that is, it is Christ. That's right. So Christ is the one that these kings of the earth, the rulers of the earth are supposed to be bowing the knee to.

They're supposed to kiss the sun or pay homage to the sun, or they will perish. So to disciple the nations is not a call to individual discipleship only.

It is a call to tell kings and rulers and lesser magistrates as well, that what they need to do is to rule and reign as those who have been given authority by the one who has all authority.

Right. So as we seek his kingdom, we seek his kingdom as it says in the

Lord's prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Christ has all authority in both places. So we want to see his kingdom come and his will be done on earth among the nations as it is in Christ's throne room in heaven.

Where the prayers of the saints are like an incense before him and we can go before him and speak to him and he answers us as a good father who gives us bread and fish, not sticks and stones that break our bones.

That's right. Or snakes and serpents. Yeah. Throughout this whole thing, you've said several things that I have recalled things to my mind that I wanted to say, but I keep forgetting.

But I want to say them before I forget them again. You were talking about how we were living. You were giving examples of how we live, advancing the kingdom, living as a kingdom citizen as if the kingdom was already in its fruition.

It's already in its perfect state because we are living, because Jesus is king, he's ruling right now.

So we should live that way, even though Christ hasn't completed it yet.

We live as if it's completed because he's ruling and reigning right now. So we're going to get in trouble sometimes, but we're living in light of the fact that Jesus is ruling and reigning.

He has authority in heaven on earth. And that's one of the things that I wanted to mention when I brought up Romans chapter eight, verses 32 and 33.

Verse 33 says, who will bring a charge against God's elect? So when we're seeking

Christ's kingdom and his righteousness, then we are living in such a way as if his kingdom has already advanced fully.

And the reason we do that is because he has authority in heaven on earth. But living like that can get us in trouble.

And it made my mind goes to the pastors currently in Canada who are obeying

Christ and opening up their churches and getting arrested for it and taken to jail for it.

But then I would think about Romans chapter eight, verse 33. I've got the picture in my mind of them handcuffing.

They've got the pastor handcuffed and they're taking him in custody. And Romans 8, 33 says, who will bring a charge against my elect?

They may have him in physical handcuffs, but they're only doing what the sovereign king is allowing them to do.

They can't bring a charge against him because he's obeying the one who's over them.

Right. And the thing that's scary is that those lesser magistrates who are arresting those pastors will one day have to answer for how they use the authority that was given to them by God.

Yeah. So again, we bring up verse 12 of Matthew seven.

Therefore treat people the same way you want them to treat you. If I'm running headlong into danger where there is clear scriptural proof that what

I'm doing is sinful and that I will have to answer to God for it, then

I want someone to tell me how dare we as Christians be silent?

Well, someone may get upset. We can't use up our cultural capital because then we may not have the ability to speak to someone later.

The fact of the matter is no one's going to listen to us anyway unless Christ grants them repentance.

Yeah, that's right. We need to speak out whenever, wherever. Now there's time for tact and how we say things, but the time to speak is always today because that is the day that God has called us to salvation.

There's a day appointed salvation that says in Hebrews and that day is today. We always need to be speaking the truth of God knowing that we're going to face trouble.

But as we seek the kingdom of God in this world, why would we not expect those who are, you know, you've been evicted,

Satan, in Satan's kingdom, leave now. They're going to say, oh, okay, we're out of here.

Check you later. No, they're going to fight back. Yeah. So we need to look at them with compassion, look at the nations with compassion, look at our rulers and magistrates with compassion knowing that we were once centers in need of salvation just as they are.

And so, as we look at the world around us, as we seek the kingdom of God around us, as we pray for those around us, we're not silent, but we faithfully, compassionately, with love in our hearts, call them to repentance knowing that there is a serious, serious day of judgment coming for those who take the authority and power of Christ to wield the sword and use it for evil.

Yeah. It's a scary thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. Yeah, yeah.

The other thing that I wanted to bring up too, that you recall to my mind was the sermon that our pastor preached this morning.

He's still going through Hosea. He's in Hosea chapter 12. And Hosea is talking about God.

He's saying that Israel and Judah, they're lying, they're liars, and they're lying about God.

And they have unbalanced scales.

And our pastor went to the Proverbs and how God hates unbalanced scales, how

God cares about the weight of the bag. And it should be precise and accurate, but when you have an unbalanced scale, you're lying on God because you're saying that he is okay with cheating and harming somebody else.

And he's okay with looking like a liar when it goes against his character.

So God cares about people and he cares about his character. And so as you're talking about, this is how we live every day in light of the fact that Jesus is the

King, he's on his throne, and we live out our lives at home and our workplace in light of the fact that Jesus is ruling and reigning as an all authority in heaven on earth.

So when we're seeking his kingdom, we're doing things with balanced scales, which means that we're doing things right.

And otherwise we're calling God a liar. Right. So those things just, you know, that God is teaching us all the time in different places and it just kind of all come together there.

So I think this is a good place to kind of, to wrap it up.

I wanted to summarize, if you're watching, if you want to write down these other verses,

Luke chapter 11, verses five through 13, John 15, verse seven,

John 14, 16 through 17, John 17, 17,

Ephesians 6, 18, Ephesians 6, 13 through 17, Jude verses 20, 21, and James five through eight.

Just a summary, unless there's, you know, something that you wanted to hit on that you feel like is very important that we need to talk about.

Kind of a summary that I gathered, if we take all these verses and kind of wrap them together, we're going to be looking at how

God's word is truth and the Holy spirit is the spirit of truth.

And he's concerned about truth and he's concerned about us abiding in truth.

And so, and then we learn about praying and seeking God through prayer.

And we're commanded to pray in the spirit and understanding what that means.

And so I see the scriptures putting those two things together. Praying in the spirit is praying the truth of God's word, you know, praying according to his will, basically.

And so you've got, you know, in Ephesians chapter six, you've got the sword or the gird your loins with truth.

So your whole, everything is being held together by the truth of God's word.

And then the sword is the sword of the spirit and it's the spirit of truth.

So they're all connected. They're all have this connection with one another, the truth, the truth is

God's word. My word is truth, Jesus says, and you've got the spirit of truth and the sword.

So the truth holds everything together. And it's also a sword, which is, which protects and defends.

And our prayer is communication with God. So when we're communicating with God in the spirit, we're communicating, you know, in his truth.

And so we're asking him and praying in light of the fact that we want everything to be held together in our lives, according to his truth.

And we want to be praying because, you know, God is battling, you know, for us and through us.

So therefore we want to be praying according to his truth as our weapon, because, you know, we'll fail apart from his truth and according praying outside of his will.

I think the only other thing that jumped out to me in that, and I want you to kind of explain what you, how you understand praying in the

Holy spirit, but sometimes that can be confusing. But the only other thing that jumped out to me was 11,

Luke chapter 11, verses five through 13. Verse eight is interesting.

It says, I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend,

Jesus is telling this parable about this man, he's at home, it's night, he's already, you know, his children are already asleep, he's already in bed, he's asleep.

But he's got this friend that comes and knocks on the door and the guy's like, you know, we're already, you know, tucked in for the night.

I'm not coming to give you bread. Jesus is saying, I'm not, the guy doesn't come up and give him bread just because he's his friend.

He gets up and he takes him bread because of his persistence. And I looked up that word and I saw that the alternate definition is shameless.

And I wondered if you had any thoughts on where Jesus was going with this when he was, when he's saying that with the friend that is persistently knocking, shamelessly knocking, what that looked like for us practically, what

Jesus is telling us, you know, practically this is what I want you to do. Right?

This is, it comes up in contrast to something else that he says. He says, when you pray, don't pray like the pagans who just say the same words over and over and over again.

But then here he says, act like your neighbor who's gonna annoy you for a loaf of bread and keep on knocking.

And you're like, hey, open up. I know you got bread in there. Come on, I don't care if you're in bed. I know you got bread in there.

Yeah. So what's he getting at? Well, number one is he's saying, don't repeat yourself over and over again.

Just because you say words over and over again doesn't make God any more likely to give you something.

What he's saying here is when you go to God and you go to God repeatedly, so not just one time saying a bunch of words, when you go to God over and over again, day in and day out, ask for the same thing, expect results.

Just like a guy who's going and knocking on the door. He's doing it without shame. He's not worried about Jim Bob next door who's gonna say, what are you doing?

Why are you knocking on the door? Like, I need bread. He's got bread. I know he's got some there. Like he's standing there at the door, knocking, expecting at some point, even if he gets thrown out the door at him, he's expecting at some point, this door's gonna open and my neighbor's gonna hand me a loaf of bread or three,

I think it says. No, give me three loaves of bread. He's gonna, they may get chucked at his head, but he's going to get them.

That is the same thing that we should do when we look to God in prayer. We don't just say the same words over and over again, you know, without feeling or meaning.

We repeatedly ask God for something, knowing that at some point when

God is good and ready, even if it's thrown at us from, no, through a window or something,

God is going to answer the prayers of his saints. Yeah. He is going to listen.

He's going to ask. So if you don't hear a response tomorrow for something you pray for today, pray again for it tomorrow, knowing

God's gonna answer me. God's gonna say something. No, I'm speaking to God.

I'm asking him something. He will respond. And at some point you stand there just waiting for the door to open and for God to throw three loaves of bread at your face.

And you just wait. God's coming with an answer. And he's going to respond to us.

Yeah. I think that's so interesting what you were talking about, that it's, you know, there is the verse, there is a scripture that says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But here we see that it's even our Christian living that is foolishness to the unbeliever.

You know, we're shamelessly pursuing God, waiting on him no matter what it looks like to the world.

It's gonna look like foolishness, but we're to shamelessly pursue God despite what other people think.

We're gonna continue to wait on him because we know which door to knock on. That's why we're persistently going, you know, we're not going to different doors.

We're not going to different guides. We're not going to different, you know, just like going back to Hosea chapter 12.

Our pastor was pointing out the fact that they were, they were trying to make military alliance with Assyria.

And then they were trying to make military alliance with Egypt, the people who enslaved them. And then the people who were getting ready to enslave them because they weren't relying on God.

And here Jesus is saying, shamelessly pursue me at the door.

Doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. Right. You don't need any other alliance.

You need to stay at this door. Throw all your eggs in one basket because the basket is sure and you can take it to the bank.

Now, one thing Christians need to, because you made up a good point there.

You only go to the one door. One of the things that I've seen is that Christians will do, will act in a way that's not consistent with waiting on God for an answer.

They'll say, I need to, I need to find healing. And then you see them with, you know, crystals hanging around their house or I need to get in shape.

Then they'll go start practicing yoga, which is, was designed or developed in order to be a system of worshiping pagan deities.

But that was its purpose. You see Christians doing stuff where, whether they know it or they don't, they're not waiting on God for a response.

They're actually going to these other deities. So one thing we need to make sure of that our actions and our prayers are consistent with one another, that we are not saying,

God, you need to give me this. And until you do, I'm gonna go over here and worship at the temple of Baal because at least it's something to do while I'm waiting on you to come answer my prayer.

Yeah. Yeah, just leave it at that for now. I'm sure somebody's gonna say something about yoga later, but we'll come to it.

What is yoga? You're kind of optimistic about our viewership, the quantity of our viewership.

If not today, tomorrow. Yeah, there you go. So I guess to answer this last question, because this can be kind of difficult, we're commanded to pray in the

Holy Spirit. So kind of what does he mean by that?

What does it look like? Praying in the power of the Holy Spirit, as best

I can tell, is not relying upon your own work and effort to pull a response out of God.

But like it says in Romans 8, that when we pray, we pray in such a way that the

Spirit will interpret for us because we are doing as Christ commanded us to pray.

We are praying those types of things. Your kingdom come, your will be done.

Give us what we need. Keep us from sin. We're acting faithfully, not grieving the

Spirit who is within us, asking for things that we shouldn't be asking for or trying to go outside of.

God, I know that you want me to stay married to my wife who hasn't cheated on me, but make an exception.

And then you pray and pray for God to make you feel okay about getting a divorce. And then you magically find those feelings because you've been beating it into your own head that you wanna divorce your wife.

And then the Anglican church starts and I'm sorry, a different history lesson.

But it's like that. We rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit because we rely upon God who is triune.

We pray to the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Spirit because we know that the

Father will answer. The Son is there seconding our petitions and the

Holy Spirit is there to make sense of the muddled mess that comes out of our sinful mouths and brains.

The way I actually just preached on this passage maybe a couple of months ago, the way

I illustrated it was that if you're at a wastewater plant, the wastewater plant has all sorts of gunk flowing into it.

You've got, well, if you've ever flushed a toilet, that goes into a wastewater plant. And so you look down,

I look down in the hole and it's brown and there's floaties and it's smell is terrible.

But when we run it through this system, when it comes out the other side, our little tube that we test the different pH levels and the different solids levels and everything, when it comes out, it comes out crystal clear, perfect.

The Holy Spirit has a way of taking our sinful wants and desires when we're truly trying to pray in the power of God, when we are seeking

His will, even when we don't understand it ourselves, when our sinful flesh is muddying things up for us, when we pray in the power of the

Holy Spirit, we pray knowing that the Holy Spirit will interpret for us what we ought to be praying.

No, God, I want this. And the Holy Spirit's like, no, He doesn't. God, this is what

He really wants. We pray in the power of the Spirit, relying on the Holy Spirit to interpret our, it says groanings that cannot be uttered.

We trust in Christ to mediate for us between God and we trust the

Father in heaven to give us good gifts. So praying in the power of the Spirit is not to pray in our own power, but to pray to enter

God's throne room, knowing the power of prayer is in God Himself.

The reason the gift is good is not because of the gift itself, it's because of the gift giver.

Yeah, that's right. The prayers are also not good because we offer them. The prayers that we offer are good because of the one who fields our prayers and responds to them.

And that best I can explain is what it means to pray in the power of the

Holy Spirit. Yeah, one other thing that I've seen that I think is correct that can go along with this is when

Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well, and she's saying that your folks, they worship on this mountain and my folks, they worship on this mountain, but there's gonna come a day and now is when true worshipers will worship the

Father in spirit and in truth. So through the Spirit, it's about,

I wanna say it's about location, but it's also just right along with what you were saying, praying and seeking and worshiping, coming to God through the

Holy Spirit, through His power and not through anybody else's means, like we don't have to go to a temple, we don't have to go through a sacrifice, we don't have to go through a priest, where it is through the

Holy Spirit because of the mediator, Jesus Christ. And it has to do with location.

Now, we can worship Him anywhere, but it's also in His power. We don't have to go to anyone else.

So I'm gonna ask you to pray for us here in just a moment, but before we do that,

I just, I want to share the gospel with you because Isaiah reminds us,

Isaiah 55, six, that we should seek the Lord while He may be found. There's gonna come a time when there's not going to be opportunity any longer for us to seek

Him, to pray to Him, to knock and get those good gifts from a good gift giver.

That opportunity one day will end for everyone through death or through His coming.

And so we would urge you, seek Him while He may be found.

If you feel the Holy Spirit convicting your heart, then turn from your sins, repent of your sins, and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

We have all sinned, we've all missed the mark. We've all broken all of His commandments, whether in word or in deed, or in spirit and in the heart.

We miss the mark terribly. And our filth, even our righteousness is as filthy rags to the

Lord. So we need a Savior. We need someone to come and rescue us.

And that person is Jesus. So we would urge you, seek Him while He may be found. Today is the day of salvation.

And then go on enjoying the good gifts from the good gift giver for the rest of your life and for eternity.

And it's worth it. So repent of your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And with that,

Dan, would you mind to close us in prayer? Sure. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for today.

Thank you for your spirit, for your word. Thank you for Christ who has died on the cross for sins.

We pray that you would be with each and every one of us, that we would know you, love you.

God, we pray that your will would be done upon the earth. We pray that your kingdom would grow and that your influence would be known among the nations.

God, we pray for boldness as we speak, that we would speak even if we are afraid, even if we think it's going to be harming to us.

We would speak honestly, truthfully, with compassion to those who need to hear your word.

God, we pray that you would protect us, guide us, pray these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Thank you, Dan, for your help. Thank you, Holy Spirit for your guidance.

Thank you, Jesus for the cross. And thank you, Father, for your grace. And I just say, remember that Jesus is

King. Go live in that victory and let's continue to go out together and proclaim the gospel.