Taking it to the Next Level

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. The teaching of Jesus. Teaching is what? Giving the information. The preaching of Jesus. Preaching is telling people what they should do with the information.

Not all teaching contains preaching, but all preaching does contain teaching. But the exhortation of Jesus to his followers is to pray. And to pray without ceasing. Right? 1 Thessalonians 5 .17. You know what it says.

You want to memorize a Bible verse this morning? 1 Thessalonians 5 .17. What does it say? Pray without ceasing. Why do preachers emphasize this? Because they know it's an issue. Not everybody does it.

Commentator. Matthew Henry says this. Prayer is the appointed means for obtaining what we need. Pray. Pray often. Make a business of prayer and be serious and earnest in it. Ask as a beggar. Ask for alms.

And ask as a traveler. Ask the way. When you're on a trip, do you ask for directions? You know, this is kind of the joke about men, that men refuse to ask for directions. So when a traveler is lost and they refuse to ask for directions, what happens oftentimes?

They get more lost. So it is with prayer. You have not because you ask not. Or maybe you just ask that one time and you didn't ask again. And God sees you're not really all that serious about it. So we don't have what we need, maybe, because we're not asking for it.

That's one thing to consider. Here's the thing about prayer. It is the God-ordained method where we talk to God. We express to Him our needs and He provides our needs. He does that and it's all done through prayer.

Persistent prayer. And God, like a good parent would, He provides exactly what we need. He doesn't always provide what we want.

Right?

This is another thing like I was talking about with parents and fathers. A father who gives their child everything they want, everything they ask for, that's not good. I think we all recognize that. But a good parent gives a child what they need.

Look at Luke 11, 9 through 13. So we've got some additional context. This is a parallel passage from Matthew 7. Jesus says, So I say to you, 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 he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. And this is a little different but same idea as Matthew 7. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, and that just mankind is flawed, man is sinful, but you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask of him?

So you see a little difference there of God giving the Holy Spirit, which may talk about salvation, not just God providing for your needs. All right, let's go back to Matthew 7, and we'll start to bring this to a close, try to bring it together and give some application.

So ask, seek, and knock. If you go to someone's house and you just stand at the door and you just expect them to know that you're there, and you're just standing there, standing, it would be unreasonable to think that they're just going to open the door without you knocking, right?

We recognize the necessity of knocking. So it is with God. If we want things from God, if we want God to bless us, we want to do a work for the Lord, we have to ask. We have to ask again and again and be persistent about it and show the Lord that we actually mean it, that we care.

Matthew 7, verse 7, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. If I can use this illustration, I think illustrations help sometimes. Because if you're not seeking, are you going to find that thing if you're not seeking for it?

No, you're not. One of my daughters, I won't mention which one, both of their heads came up. One of my daughters, she has this habit of losing things, and this doesn't happen as much anymore, but it used to be like a weekly occurrence, if not daily.

Unless what she was looking for was in her immediate field of vision, she couldn't find it. And she would ask me to come up and look for it. So I'd come in, and I'd put in that diligent effort, just really a little bit of effort, and moving things and opening things, and within 30 seconds, just about every time, I'd find that thing like that.

Why couldn't she ever find it? Because she wasn't seeking. She wasn't seeking. She's going to be mad at me for telling that story, but I didn't say which one it was. And in fairness, she has grown out of that.

But I say all of that to get this point across. Many people are not walking in the blessings of God because they're simply not seeking it. Many people don't have that close fellowship with God that they once had or that they desire because they're not seeking it.

Maybe they asked once, maybe they did something, but they're not really seeking. They're not diligently seeking. You know, in any relationship, you get out of it what you put in. That's just pretty basic.

So are you asking? Are you seeking?

Are you knocking?

Jeremiah 29 verse 13, the Lord says, and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with what? All of your heart. You know, some people don't know Christ because they've never sought him by faith.

But the promise of Jesus is this, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Therefore, Jesus says, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them for this is the law and the prophets.

Christ came to preach and to make the father known. He came to let people know that God is a merciful heavenly father who cares for people. And because he cares, we should care. And God has already sought you.

God has already been seeking the people of this world. How do we know that? Because he sent Christ into the world to die on the cross for our sins. And he rose again the third day. And here's the promise to all those who would trust in the Lord by faith, we would be given life and life more abundant.

That's a life with purpose here and now, but also in the next age, a life that never ends. This is how God has sought us. And he has ordained that message be spread by preaching. So God has done his part.

Now are we seeking him? Now here's the most important application.

We're almost done.

To seek salvation in Christ, we must do it by praying to him and asking, Lord, I recognize that I have sinned before you. I recognize that I need to be saved. Please, based on what Jesus did on the cross, dying and rising again, please save me.

If you do that, if you seek the Lord, will you find him? Yes, you will. But let's say, let's go to the next group. Let's say there's a group already been saved, but maybe something has happened. You've known Jesus for a long time, but things take place and things seem to be cooling off.

You don't have that close relationship with him that you once did. Might I suggest you need to seek the Lord again? Consider how much are you seeking him?

I get it.

Life can be hard. Things wear you down. Sometimes something will happen. People feel like it's never going to be good again. It's never going to be like it once was. And you've just sort of accepted that that's just the way it is and there's nothing I can do about it.

You know, accepting defeat is really a lack of faith. We forget the necessity of faith, believing that it can be like that again if you do what? Seek, seek, and you will find. We can't change things that have happened, but we do have some control over how we respond.

So if you become backslidden in your faith or you feel like the fire is starting to go out, seek the Lord while he may be found. And let's move on to the final group. Let's say there's people that you've been saved and you're not backslidden.

Matter of fact, things are going well. You have a close relationship with the Lord, but you want to bring it to that next level because we always want to be closer with the Lord, right? And whatever we're doing for God, we would always love to do a little more.

And as the pastor of this church, I appreciate everything that we do and people we've reached, but always want to kind of bring things to that next level and our spiritual growth and our outreach and what we can accomplish for the Lord.

So in order to reach that level, either personally or as a church, what do we need to do? How do we start? Seek, pray, be persistent in that. So what are some things you can do? Some final thoughts. And this applies for you personally and for us as a congregation.

On Sunday morning, I mean, that's kind of where we all come together. This time is where we get renewed in our spirit. You know, you feel like you're going throughout the week and you get like a spiritual gas tank and you're starting to run on empty by Saturday maybe.

And you come back to the Lord's house on Sunday and get refueled or recharged, however you want to describe it. Here's the thing. Worship is a way, it's also a way of fighting spiritual warfare. We're under assault in the world.

People 10 years ago, maybe they didn't recognize it. Now, I think just about everybody recognizes it. We are under assault from the world. Discouragement and everything else. So coming together for worship is a way of fighting spiritual warfare.

If all God's people were committed and worshiped week in and week out, that would have such a powerful impact. So here are a few ways, a few suggestions. We can kind of build and strengthen the things, the good things we already have.

If we want a church that is going to thrive, we need to seek it. We need to do our part. We need to put in the effort. Some simple things you can do. When you're in God's house, hey, this is pretty simple, smile.

Look like you want to be here.

Smile. And we don't really have that many problems with this, just basic advice. Smile, be friendly, you know, sing out the hymns, pay attention, invite a friend to church, let visitors see your zeal.

When somebody comes into this church, they should be able to see that the people here love God and we're committed and we want to do something for the Lord. I've told you this before. If we have the hymn book and we're, to God, you know, staring out the window and we want to God be the glory, you know, that's what we want, right?

And I can't sing. So if I can sing it out, you can do it. But I get, you know, this is the biggest issue, I think. Our mind starts to wander. When I'm preaching, my mind has to stay engaged. But when I'm not, I get it.

It's easy to allow our mind to wander. So sing out the hymns, read the responsive reading out loud. Don't be afraid to shout out an amen or a hallelujah. The best way to get fired up for God is to be around other people who are fired up for God.

So let's all seek the Lord and ask him to light that fire of revival, not just here at Morris Corner Church, but in all the churches around this area, that a mighty work would be done for God. But it ain't gonna happen unless we seek it.

It ain't gonna happen unless we ask. Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened unto us.

Let's pray.

And Lord, how thankful we are for all that you've done. You've given us life and breath. So as we come now with praises before you, let the amen, as the hymn says, let the amen sound from your people again.

Bring revival to your churches so that in this dark world, in this dark age, our light, the gospel light will shine even brighter. And may it all be done for your glory. And we ask it in Jesus name, amen.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornerchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.