Sunday 29-09-19 Ascend part 19 Learning to ride again, for the first time.
Matt 7:7-14 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matt 7:7-14 (MsgB) “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? 12 “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behaviour: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get. 13-14 “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with sure-fire, easy-going formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.
This morning I want to break some preaching rules. I want to preach on a text…backwards. Here’s why: If your bible is like mine, there will probably be a big gap in the text and a title between the end of verse 12 and the beginning of verse 13. I have said this before but we need to remember, that all of that has been inserted later. It’s not like Jesus pauses mid sermon and says; ‘now we’re going to move on to a different topic.’ So I want to address it in reverse order.
- Re-learning to ride.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Jesus doesn’t mince his words. He is quite clear that most people in this world; religious or irreligious are going to miss out on the Kingdom, are going to miss out on him. The question is why? To explain that, (and seeing as it is school holidays) I’d like to show you this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0 (stop at 6.30)
Ok, so if the fall of humanity is in fact a thing then it means that Sin has completely rewired us to the very core of our being. We are so used to the bicycle of sin that living the kingdom life is like learning to ride a backwards brain bike. Moreover, that’s also why kids find it so much easier to learn the rhythms of the Kingdom that us adults do. What’s even more confronting is that the more success we’ve experienced doing things in the world’s way, more life experience puts us at a disadvantage rather than advantage. It’s why humility is important; because you’ll always look a bit dumb when you’re a grown adult learning to ride again.
It’s easier to go with the flow of self-protection, consumerism, distraction, taking offence and operating out of fear and doubt rather than, leaving our defence to Jesus, living generously, solitude and prayer, loving the enemy and operating out of faith and confidence. It’s hard. It’s narrow. So, very few find it because very few are prepared to look like an idiot in front of culture. If that is all true, then the question arises: If it really is that hard, how am I going to be able to do it.
Let’s be honest, this is probably one of the most important questions that we’ll ask ourselves because it concerns our eternal destiny; new creation or eternal judgment. So what is Jesus’ answer?
- Jesus’ Riding lessons:
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus, is personally committed to helping learn how to ride this new backwards bike. Isn’t that great news? Verses 7-12 in the 7th chapter of Matthew are essentially lesson 1. Again, in the theme of moving backwards, we see that verses 12 and 11 are immediately squashed up against each other. 12 speaks about our conduct to others connecting it with the fulfillment of the whole law. It says this immediately after 11 which all about the nature of God towards those who ask for his good gifts.
Why are these two seemingly separate themes right next to each other? Because such is the connection in the New Testament between our relationship to God and our relationship to others that they are constantly informing and diagnosing each other. Asking is not the same as demanding on one hand or ignoring on the other. When I’m in a conflict situation, my first step is to audit my prayer life before responding. Part one of that audit is ‘what is my gratitude level’? Folks, honestly, were not that hard to read. How we treat others, especially when they are not in the room is basically broadcasts to anyone in earshot what our prayer life is really like.
If you think this is drawing a long bow, have a look at these verse written by Jesus’ brother James years later: James 4: 1-3 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Connecting interpersonal relationships directly to the subject of prayer. Who do you think he got that from?
This is the first part of learning to ride all over again: “I’m going to trust in the spiritual power of a simple request.” I’m not going to hide my needs. Neither am I going to make demands. I’m going to ask and make it a habit. Straight up, I’ve had to really work through some stuff in this area recently. Willard connects all the dots so beautifully when he says: “Our confidence in God is the only thing that makes it possible to treat others as they should be treated.”
Friends, it is through prayer in the context of community that Jesus answer the deepest cry of our redeemed hearts which is this: I’m sick of brining shame to your name, I want to be different, I want be transformed. That is the good gift of the father; making us fit to dwell with him. The greatest gift God can give us, is a future of communion with him.
- Did you notice something?
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but as we’ve moved through the text backwards, we have begun by illustrating the journey of sanctification and then moved immediately into the context of community and its connection with prayer. Have you noticed a question or wrestle that probably hasn’t crossed your mind this morning that so much popular teaching on these texts is constantly addressing?
Here it is: What do I do when God says no to my prayers? What do I do when God tells me to wait? What do I do when I am tempted to give up? Notice how we haven’t had that discussion? Here’s why; because we’re realising that (please hear this) this is not a text about dogged perseverance in prayer as a way of getting what you ask for. (3x) Don’t get me wrong, there are other texts that talk about that, (Luke 18:1-6 for example) It is rather, a text about (what?) the narrow way. That is, a completely different system of interaction and relationships which is formed by yes persevering prayer.
Let’s get blunt. There are so many people in this world who pray all their lives and die without ever seeing an answer to certain prayers. Has God failed them? No. Why? Because it’s not about our lives. It’s about the Kingdom of God and one day at the resurrection of the dead, THAT is when is all the prayers of the saints will be answered and the tensions resolved. And those same people who do persevere, persevere precisely because at some point in their prayer life, that is the ‘click’ that has happened. They see with eternal eyes rather than temporal, they’re now riding a different bike.
Can I say something a little controversial? The questions we ask reveal which bike we’re riding. Our bias reveals which kingdom we’re serving. Praise God, along the way, in his abundant grace gives some gifts that we are alive to see, but friends, perspective changes everything and we are an eternal community, that is lesson one of learning to ride a totally different bike. The narrow way is not narrow because it contains a bunch of rules to be obeyed or things hoops that need to be jumped through. It’s narrow because it is the way of relinquishment. Giving over our rights, schedule and our needs into the hands of God. Amen.