By Rev.
Brian Wilkie
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA
broadcast - Sunday, November 15th, 2015:
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Broadcast Notes:
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Welcome to Good News In the Morning a program of words and music
bringing a Christian message of hope and encouragement to those who are looking
for intelligent meaningful and spirited approach to faith and to life.
This program is sponsored by Good News Christian Ministries PO Box 184
Rideau Ferry, Ontario K0G 1W0. I'm your host today, Rev. Brian Wilkie of St.
Andrew's Christian church in Rockland. We are so thankful for your
encouragement and support. And we particularly want to thank you for the
support yesterday, as we met with John Counsell and heard about his experiences
as a pastor and a broadcaster. Thank you so much to all of you who came out to
that event. We also want to thank you for your support financially and for the
opportunity you give us to support you in your Christian walk through the
website, through this broadcast, and the other materials that you can download
from our website to encourage you in your Christian walk.
‘Ask Seek Knock’
Today want to open up to you a passage of Scripture that I hope is a
familiar one from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It's the passage where he speaks
about asking, seeking and knocking. This is what Jesus taught to the disciples
and to the crowd when they were gathered on the mountain. There he said:
(Mt 7:7–14) “Ask and it will be
given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the
door will be opened.
“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if
he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 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! So in everything, do to others
what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the
road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the
gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
This passage from the Sermon on the Mount is one of God's great promises
to us, as he opens up to us the secrets of the Kingdom of God. We can look into
what Jesus means when he tells us to ask and to seek and to knock and how we
can use this promise and invitation from God in our Christian walk.
Have you asked? Have you sought? Have you knocked on the door? What have
you found? Let's explore our experience of Scripture and the meaning of Jesus'
teaching here today as we look through it together.
Before we start I would like to introduce a song that has a great theme
of prayer; of asking God and coming to God for comfort encouragement. This song,
this version, is sung by Glen Campbell from his Inspirational Collection and the song is called Sweet Hour of Prayer. I hope you will listen
to it with me
I had the opportunity to preach on this text a few weeks ago at Redeemer
Alliance Church in Orleans, and as I spoke about asking, seeking and knocking
the worship team began with some music, worship songs that are popular today
called "I lay me Down" and another song "Better is One Day in
your Courts (than a Thousand Elsewhere)." These two songs together
expressed so much of what is already in the text today, for both of them spoke
about seeking the kingdom of God and laying down our lives for the sake of God.
In fact "Better is One Day in Your Courts" asked the simple
scriptural question, makes the simple scriptural plea: One thing I ask and that
is to dwell with you Lord, one thing I ask is to be in your presence. So as we
come to this text the Scripture I think will find that that's exactly what
Jesus is encouraging us to do. I mean, what do you ask for when you come to God?
Sometimes people seem to treat God as a genie in a bottle, to make your
three wishes of anything at all that you could possibly desire this only
stories and jokes about the genies in the bottle and the dangers of wishing for
the wrong things. It's a bit of a cliché in our society, and yet for some
reason some people take this Scripture to mean that they can ask God for all
kinds of worldly things. Let's face it all of us have desires, worldly desires.
In fact, if you see the advertisements for the lotteries, when they advertise
millions in winnings. Don't you sometimes think about what you would do if you
had that kind of money? What is on your wish list, if you could have anything you
want? If I pose this question to myself, I'm afraid I don't always give the
best answers. Of course if I know I'm going to be answering for Scripture, then
I'll come up with something great. But very often don't your thoughts, just as
mine, revolve around the comforts of life and things that would make our days a
little bit easier: entertainment for ourselves, our distraction from troubles. Don't
we all tend to ask for very small petty things? I don't mean small amounts - we
happily ask for large amounts of money, large amounts of pleasure. Yet these
are the smallest things in God's eyes, the least important in God's eyes. What
does God ask when he prays? For Jesus is at the right hand of the Father
interceding at all times. Jesus, when we see him walking on the earth, asks his
Father for things. We see the kinds of things that Jesus asks for and it may
help us understand what he is encouraging us to ask for. What is it that God
seeks? When God goes into the world and seeks to find something what is he
seeking? Jesus himself tells us that his mission was to seek something. Do you
recall what that was? What was it that Jesus knew he could seek and that he
would find because of God's promise? When Jesus knocks on the door, why is he
knocking? What's he hoping to find behind the door? What is he looking for?
I think if we take a look at the answer to these questions will know a
lot more about this promise of God.
You know when I was young "seek and ye shall find" was a
Scripture and a promise that I clung to him in a very small and childish way. If
I lost a toy and I was getting discouraged when I was looking for it, I'd
remember "seek and you will find," so I'd keep on looking and, lo and
behold! Very often I found it! Seeking, naturally, results in finding if the
thing that you're looking for exists. But what is it that God wants us to seek?
Is he telling me that I ought to pray to him about lost toys, that I ought to
take this is a promise that if I drop something and don't know where I put it
that I'll always find it? Well I'm not sure that's true. If we take a look at
this Scripture in light of the whole Sermon on the Mount we get some indication
of what Jesus was talking about.
For instance the word 'seek' appears in the Sermon on the Mount about a
chapter earlier when Jesus says to his disciples and to the crowds, 'You folks
worry about all kinds of things. You worry about what you're going to eat,
where you are to sleep, what you have to wear, but I tell you your Father in
heaven knows that you need these things. The pagans seek these things, they run
after them, but you - you know that you have a loving Father so why do you
worry yourself about such things?' In fact he says, 'Don't worry about these
things at all instead seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these things will be added to you.'
Is that the key to this Scripture that we should seek the kingdom of God
and we will find it? Is it not true that that Jesus has already told us what we
should be seeking? So when he comes to this promise he doesn't bother to narrow
it down with conditions and so on, because he's already explained to us what he
means. When we seek we should seek the things of God and we will, in fact, find
the things of God.
When we ask what ought we to ask for? When Jesus went to the Father we
see him asking many things, but what kinds of things? He asked for were the
things that lead to the glory of God. He asked for the things that lead to the
salvation of others. He says about himself that he came to seek and save the
lost. Is it possible that when he gives us this Scripture, when he gives us
this teaching and tells us to seek; and promises that we will find, that he might
also be telling us to seek the lost as he did? That we might seek those who are
lonely, those who are in difficulty, those who are lost and despairing? That we
might actually spend our days not seeking things for ourselves, but seeking
light and life and joy for others? That we might seek them, that they might be
brought back to the Lord.
When Jesus asks it's wonderful to see the things he asks for. He asks
his Father to heal the sick and to forgive the sins of those who have disobeyed
God. Jesus asked for many things for his disciples, and when the crowd is
hungry he feeds them. Jesus is able to ask our Father for so many things, but
when it comes to his own desires he takes a very different tone. The most
vulnerable moment we have seen Jesus life is when he's facing the cross, when
he's about to be arrested and he knows that he will be crucified the next day,
Then he says the Father, 'Father if it is possible let this cup pass from me,'
and then he stops himself and he says, 'Yet not my will but yours be done.' There
is Jesus obeying his own instructions. He asks knowing that it will be given to
him but what it comes down to it what he asks for, is that his Father's will
would be done, not his own.
Our lives could be an awful lot happier if we would focus on asking for
the will of God to be done in our world and in our lives. Too often, I'm afraid,
I fall into the trap of asking for two things: that the will of God be done and
that my will be done as well. You know I don't think that is enough room in one
life for both of those things to be fulfilled. Is your life hectic pursuing all
kinds of different things? Are you like Martha in that the story of Mary and
Martha when Jesus comes visiting and Mary sits at the feet of Jesus and listens
to his word but Mary is distracted by many things. Trying to get dinner ready,
trying to make a good impression, trying to impress everybody. She certainly is
glad to have Jesus around but she wants to make sure that she shows herself in
the best light when he's there. And Jesus says to her. "Martha you
distracted about many things but Mary has chosen the one right thing and it
will not be taken away from her" Do you feel like you are Martha,
scurrying around trying to get everything done? Or do you feel more like Mary,
waiting and listening and doing the one thing that God has called you to do? If
we want happiness we ought to ask for the things of God. We ought to even ask
that God would help us to set aside our own will in order to devote ourselves
fully to his will.
We've had a chance to begin to look at the Scripture and understand how
God has asked us to seek the things of his kingdom. Before we go further I
would like to have you listen with me to a song that's been sung by a women's
barbershop chorus, the North Metro Chorus. This is from their album Seize the Day. The song is "I asked
the Lord."
Well I'd like to get back to this question of asking, seeking and
knocking.
It's funny that Jesus should use these particular instructions or this
particular question when he says, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread,
would give him a stone, or, if he asked for a fish, would give him a snake?"
You know, when our kids were small they had a taste for all different kinds of
pets. It started with one daughter wanting a leopard gecko, another one wanting
hamster. Then one of our sons wanted a boa constrictor and another one wanted a
scorpion. We had quite a ménagerie around the house and as a loving father I
actually did give my son a snake! I did give my other son a scorpion! But God
is using this example to tell us about how we know what our children want and
need and we are willing to give them good things. So Jesus says if we, who are
so foolish, as we are, are still able to know how to give good things to our
children don't you think that God is able to give good gifts to those who ask
him? In the gospel of Luke, when Luke records another time that Jesus taught on
the same thing, he says, 'and don't you think your Father in heaven will give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask? To
Jesus the Holy Spirit was the good thing that God would give to those who ask. The
Holy Spirit is God's counselor to us, God's companion to us, God's teacher for
us, God's helper for us. God wants to give us the best that is available. So
often we ask for petty things. God wants to give us his own presence, his own
counsel, his own love. We can look at this promise and think about what God has
offered to us. it is something better than that the list that we might have asked
of the genie if we let the genie out of the bottle. We know it's a better thing
because God has more wisdom and when we understand the Scriptures in the light
of God's own word we see that they are great and precious promises, not
promises that disappoint.
Have you been asking for all the wrong things? Have you been looking in
all the wrong places? Have you been knocking on all the wrong doors? Jesus is
calling us to look for something new, to ask for something different: to ask
for the salvation that God gives - to seek the will of the Lord and to do the
will of the Lord. Jesus has done something in addition to just asking us to
knock on the right doors. He himself it says in Scripture has come and knocked
on our doors. Jesus is knocking and says, 'whoever opens the door to me, I will
go into them and eat with them.' and the promise there is that anyone: a
Christian who has drifted away or even a Christian who is in a good place and
just want closer fellowship with God, there is Jesus knocking at the door. But
also He is at the door of the lost, also the door of the lonely, also the door
of those who have lost hope. Jesus is knocking and he says 'If you will open
the door to me then I will come in and be with you. Once you open that door and
invite Jesus into your life and asked him to cleanse you of all wrong and set
you in the right place with God, your life changes a lot! Perhaps then we will
know where we need to knock, perhaps then God will be sending us on a mission
to knock on the doors of others, to open up our lives, to give our time and a
listening ear to those who need to hear and experience the love of God.
Well I want to thank you so much for listening to little bit from the
word of God and I do hope that you continue to listen as the as the next
broadcasts come on over the coming weeks. I do want to thank you for your
encouragement support. Especially we want to appeal to you for the financial
support that keeps our ministry running. Your four radio hosts, Brent, George,
Juliet and myself are volunteers and so are the people who manage our website,
organize our events and operate our board. So your support helps us to meet
that one cost: the cost of broadcasting which allows us to give this message
out to thousands of listeners each week in the Ottawa River Valley if you can
make a check payable to Good News Christian Ministries and send it to PO Box
184 Rideau Ferry Ontario K0G 1W0. We will be happy to send you a receipt at
income tax time. you can also donate directly from the website. I do also want
to encourage you more than anything to tell others about this program so they
can hear the Good News in the Morning Week by week.
Please be sure to worship in a church for the gospel is soundly
proclaimed and lived out with compassion integrity and resolve.
Now to conclude our program I'd invite you to have a listen to this song
from Acquire the Fire's album, Live the Difference.
This song simply says Lord I seek you.
I do pray that the Lord will hold your heart and you would know Jesus
personally and profoundly. May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart,
may the heavenly Father surround you with his constant and abiding and
accompanying love.
Good News In The Morning is produced in the Studios of News Talk Radio 580
CFRA.
Rev. Brian Wilkie
St. Andrew's
Christian Community, Rockland,
Ontario
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To listen to the above
broadcast, click on the following link:
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