Intro/Outro: Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We're taking a break from a revelation series while our lead pastor, Darren Roundson, is on sabbatical. During this time, we're gonna continue to push into the Garden's mission of creating resilient disciples by working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. Over the next few weeks, we'll have some amazing pastors from all over the world coming to impart their wisdom and insight on what is the most influential and profound sermon ever given. Enjoy.
Jon Rosene: We just got back from Mexico. I just got back from Mexico. We have a team that went down to Chihuahua, Mexico. If you don't know, we have a church down there, a church plant we planted over nine years ago called Iglesia Jardin Garden Church and we're like, wow, didn't even know that. Pastor Carlos and and Cynthia, they were members of our church, leaders in our church over nine years ago.
They had to go back to Chihuahua, Mexico and with that we helped them plant a church down there. That is such an incredible place for him that he is moving in that community right now. And we go down there once a year to encourage, equip, empower. We do a yearly holy spirit conference with them. It was called Empowered.
And so we just saw the Lord move in such mighty ways. I just wanna have a couple people share some testimonies of what he did. So would you welcome Josh and Hayden and Mello to the stage? So good. So just a a a context for this territory.
It they they are such an eager community, a hunger hungry community for his presence. And when, you know, sometimes you people when you send people to go to a place, it reminds you both two things. It reminds you who you are, but it deposits who they are. Like, they they had a revelation of who they are, and they are there for a specific reason. That region is ripe for revival.
You see just a religious spirit over the entire, like, community that that not not unless it's Hardim, but just the church, the big church in general. There's just, a religious spirit. There's youth that are leaving the church. They're not coming back to the church. The their their parents is parents are they're leaving with the faith of their parents, and they're not following it.
They there's just a hardness of hearts within a lot of men towards the church. And it's like all those conditions seem like negatives, but they are conditions ripe for revival. And we are seeing this happen in in Galicia Hardin at Garden Church down there where youth are returning to the gatherings. We're seeing men on their knees weeping before the Lord with broken hearts open to being filled with the spirit for the first time. So there is such an expectancy and there's a just a ripeness for revival in that region that we are so excited to be a part of their story with.
So we'd love to hear just a couple stories from these folks of what the Lord did during our time there. So Josh, why don't you kick us off?
Josh: Yeah. So, one thing, Hayden and I, my wife and I were on the ministry team, down there. And we got to pray over the marriages in the community and then we invited married couples up to get prayer and there was like a hesitation and then all of a sudden something broke. And pretty much all of the married couples came forward, received prayer. There was people like face down on the ground just in the presence of the Lord.
And we got to see just a renewal and a healing in marriages that have experienced a lot of strife and Yeah. Brokenness. And it was just this beautiful picture of God's heart for his church and heart for marriage as well.
Jon Rosene: So good. So profound.
Hayden: Yeah. I had a cool instance where so at the very end of the trip, we had this big staff meeting where we were sharing testimonies of things that happened throughout the week. And, I think it was on the first or second night, I was praying over this lady and thought none of nothing of it. But, in a staff meeting, her son was on the sound team there and he says, Hayden, like you prayed for my mom and she doesn't know any English and you prayed for her in English, but she understood what you were saying. And it touched her like the Lord used those words in such a way that she had kind of walked away from the church a little bit.
She used to be super involved on the prayer team, wasn't really praying anymore. And her son was saying, whatever she understood you were saying, like, Lord was using that and like restored her heart back to prayer. And by the end of that gathering, she'd prayed over like just about everyone in the room. Like, she was just on fire. And so it was really cool to see the Lord like break the language barrier even and revive her heart.
Jon Rosene: So good. Hayden's being pretty humble here. She actually prayed that she would receive the gift of tongues to preach the gospel and to share God's word. And that is exactly what happened. Like, the the the this person had no context.
And so it just it's a it's a mark not of it's a mark of of posturing and what the Lord wants to deposit in this time to be open to what he wants to do. So it was it was beautiful, incredible. Mello.
Melodie: Yeah. It's so good. One of the other things that we had been praying for really specifically was that every single person who stepped foot in the building for any reason would feel like God is visiting me and he's encountering me. And so, we had prayed that because everyone knows what it's like when when you've been in the kingdom when God has a word for you and you feel so seen and so known. And so, are the stories, like, we saw miracles and we saw signs and they were so beautiful, and we also saw the Lord meet people and their families.
Yeah. There was a worship leader in Chihuahua who visited Friday night, because she's, every single Sunday, she's leading at her church, So she was like, I just need some time in the Lord's presence around other believers. And she said the presence was so thick, like anywhere she went in the room, she couldn't escape God's presence. She said, I didn't know it could be this sweet. So it was just really special to see how the Lord met us and met the church in Chihuahua with a really special gift.
Jon Rosene: It's so good. Yeah. And I feel like it's a even a word for our our church and our community, even the service. But we the the the goal of the time was to encourage them that the Holy Spirit isn't a force. He's a person.
He's a person that wants to reveal Jesus. The greatest thing that the the Holy Spirit loves to talk about Jesus. Loves to reveal him in greater measure and that is what they experience. And so can we pray for Chihuahua, Iglesia Hardin right now? Pray that the the the wave, the the tide of revival would just continue to rise in that region.
Just grab someone next to you and just pray. Pray for Carlos and Cynthia. Pray for the leadership that they have over this time. Pray for their their kids, Ian Mateo and and Luna. And just pray for a greater measure outpouring of the spirit.
So for the next few minutes, just pray with the person next to you. Pray for Iglesia Hardin and and we'll close-up.
Hayden: Yes, Jesus. We just come before you on behalf of Iglesia Hardin and we just ask that you continue the work that you started in that church and that you pour out more of your holy spirit Lord. Even just the dry and desert land that that city is in Lord. Just the tears of intercession, the tears of like coming to see your face, Jesus. Would those tears just be sown into the ground?
Would you begin just to change the culture starting with Iglesia Hardin? Would you just like open their doors from their church and allow your spirit to just like flow out from there? Just your living water to rush into the land. Yeah. And just make that dry land, a place of flourishing, Jesus.
Would you just bear much fruit there, Jesus. Would your hand of protection be over that church? Would you go before and behind them, Lord, and bless them mightily? We just pray for leadership and strategy for Carlos and Cynthia, Lord. And just protection over their family in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Jon Rosene: Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Alright.
Hey, as we continue our our worship gathering, can we stand one more time as we enter the the giving of our finances or tithes and offerings to the Lord. We a liturgy we read every week that just ingrains in our hearts the kind of generosity that that God has for us. So let's read this together in one voice. King Jesus, we approach this giving moment as an invitation to receive more of your kingdom. We believe generosity is the way of your kingdom, that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
We give joyfully because you have held nothing back from us. We give generously because we want to be more like you. We give sacrificially because we want others to taste the life of
Glenn Packiam: your
Jon Rosene: kingdom. Receive these gifts and use them to build your church for your glory. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat.
The QR code's gonna come up. Just give give generously. Give abundantly in this time. If you call Garden Home, this is a time to sow into what the Lord's doing to be a part of all that. So with that, we are so honored.
I have a privilege to have an incredible friend with us, pastor Glenn Packiam with us this morning. Drove all the way from Costa Mesa to be with us this morning. And so he's a lead pastor at Rock Harbor Church, a church that is near and dear to our hearts. It's a church that we planted out of over fifteen years ago. And so we owe we owe a lot of debt of gratitude to the community and the the legacy of Rock Harbor.
I found Jesus. I accepted Jesus at Rock Harbor in their sanctuary. Met my wife at Rock Harbor. So, yeah, I owe a lot. So and Glenn is such a gift.
I want you just to know to receive, to posture your hearts, to receive from a man of wisdom, but a father's heart. So would you welcome pastor Glenn Packing.
Glenn Packiam: Thanks John. Can I
Josh: pray for you?
Glenn Packiam: Sure.
Jon Rosene: Yeah Jesus, I just pray right now that there would just be an openness in our hearts to receive from you. God, you are our perfect father. And so God, I pray right now that just wisdom and the spirit of wisdom revelation would fall upon our gathering right now. God, we have a greater insight to see you more clearly as we posture our hearts towards you. And just fill Glenn with your spirit, Jesus, fill him afresh.
We love you, praise him in Jesus name.
Glenn Packiam: Amen. Thank you, John. Good morning, everybody. It's great to be with you. Feels like family here at the garden.
I love your pastors, Darren and Alex are amazing people. And so when our family moved here, we moved here in the summer of twenty twenty two to take the role and to serve Rock Harbor. And when we moved here, you know, it's a big move and know, later in ministry career and all this stuff. And so friends are a big deal and Darren was a really good friend to me especially early on and so we've enjoyed praying together, talking with one another and I wanna say to you, Garden, you have great leadership at the helm here and it's a blessing that they've been able to go away and be refreshed and I know the Lord's gonna continue to do wonderful things among you. And just actually being here with you this morning is such a gift to me because one of the things Darren and I have talked about for for you know, couple years is just the sense that the Holy Spirit is bringing renewal to Southern California.
And when you get a chance to go to other places and witness it, you go man, this is amazing. The water levels rising and all boats rise when God starts breathing and moving across the region, amen. And so you're part of it, Garden. And that's an incredible thing. So it's a gift to be here with all of you.
Can I tell you just a little bit about myself before we open up the scriptures this morning? I grew up in Malaysia, like that's where I'm from. And Malaysia is about as far as you can go on the other side of the world before you start coming back around unless you're a flat earth person then we have another conversation to have. But my dad was raised Hindu and my mom grew up as a Christian but kinda nominal Christian and then they met at the University of Singapore and my mom's like, look, I'm not gonna marry a Hindu. My dad goes, okay, that's great, I'll become a Christian.
Now we don't recommend dating as an evangelistic strategy. The truth is the story is much deeper than that. In fact, my dad when he was so When he heard the story of Jesus, he just thought, I've never in all of the many different gods that Hinduism has to offer, I've never heard of a God that would come and give his life and and and to save us, to rescue us, to forgive us. And so it was the love of God that brought him, to knowing Jesus as is the case for all of us. And so then, you know, growing up there in that home, I grew up in a family that already knew Jesus, was following Jesus.
And when I was 10 years old, our family moved from Malaysia to America. My parents went to bible college in Portland, Oregon and they were major vocational shift in the middle of their lives. And so I often tell people, grew up speaking English but it was those years that I learned to speak American. And then we moved back to Malaysia. I finished out my high school years and then I came back to The States on my own and I went to a Christian school in Oklahoma called Oral Roberts University.
And my junior year there, I met this girl and and when we met, know, we both kinda thought, I don't know if we're you know, if we're each other's type. I certainly thought she was out of my league. She had blonde highlights, blue eyes, tan skin, and what did I know, American TV stereotypes. Growing up in Malaysia, I was like, she's probably like a cheerleader from California. And she looked at me and I had really short hair, gold rimmed glasses, Argyle sweaters before Argyle came in again.
And and she thought, you're probably sweet nerdy foreign student guy. And we started hanging out. I found out she was really a farm girl from Iowa and she found out that I was really a sweet nerdy foreign student guy. And so here we are but this summer will be twenty four years of marriage which is great. We have four kids.
We have four kids ages 20 all the way down to 12 And when our older two were a little bit younger, I think they were probably six and eight, Sofia and Nora, and we were watching that documentary that had just come out called Planet Earth. Now I don't know if you remember but when it first came out, it was like groundbreaking because of the footage that they had and the cinematography and the quality. It was incredible. And so we're watching this in the living room one day and you know the there's there's like a cheetah chasing a pack of antelope and the narrator makes it sound very dramatic and the antelope leave behind the baby, know. And they isolate this one and the cheetahs, you see it tracking and he's about to pounce on the weakest antelope of the herd.
And all of a sudden, I'm thinking, oh man, this is going to get a little bit gruesome for my young, precious, impressionable daughters. And before I could even formulate the words out of my mouth, the six year old says, dad, we have to pray that the cheetah doesn't eat the antelope. And I'm thinking like that's very sweet but this is a documentary. This has already happened. I believe in prayer but I don't know if it can change the past.
Before I could even figure out what to answer, her eight year old older sister being at the first born who takes charge says, Nora, sometimes prayer doesn't work. Now I have a different problem. Now I don't have a planet earth antelope, mother nature's tough kind of problem. Now I have a prayer problem. If you've been following Jesus for any length of time, this is our most honest objection to prayer.
But sometimes it doesn't work. We've you've been working through the sermon on the mount, this collection of Jesus's teachings in Matthew's gospel, Matthew five, six and seven and this morning we're in Matthew seven where Jesus says something really striking about prayer. It's depending on how you count it the second or third time prayer has come up in the sermon on the mount. He's talked about going to your room and closing the door. He's given us words to pray the our father, the Lord's prayer and now he talks about something else.
And in verse seven, Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you and here's the words that are stunning to us for everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds into the one who knocks the door will be opened which of you if your 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? Now when we read a passage like this, we kinda have two options because we were faced with the reality of our own lives and the reality of our own unanswered prayers.
And so you kinda have two options. The one is to double down on faith talk and to go well, but Jesus said it. I believe it. That settles it. It's gotta be true.
It's just that I don't have enough faith. Now I told you where I went to college for my undergrad. That I get the faith talk kind of stuff. And so we think, the problem is me, don't have enough faith or maybe I've got sin in my life and so if I just try harder, double down on faith talk, then I'll get all my prayers answered. And sometimes it's it's always good to have self reflection and self examination but we know that it's not as simple as just doubling down on faith.
The other way is to is to respond to this and go well, know, prayer is a mystery. Whatever it will be will be just who who knows? Maybe we'll ask, maybe we won't ask, maybe God will answer, maybe he doesn't. File that away under things that don't matter to my daily life. And we kinda have these two options of either we double down on faith talk or we give up on it and we go, yeah, I don't know.
Let's just carry on. But I wanna suggest you this morning that Jesus actually wants us to think more deeply about this invitation to prayer and to actually change three things at a deeper level. I wanna give you three things, three changes that Jesus is inviting us to make by giving us this challenge. The reason he says ask and seek and knock is he wants us to change three things and the first is this, Jesus wants us to change our posture. You see to be a person who asks is to be a person in need.
To be a person who seeks is to be a person with lack. To be a person who knocks is to be on the outside of something and we don't like to admit that. We're modern day Americans, we're self sufficient. If I need to know something, I'll Google it. I'll ask perplexity.
That's my latest thing right now. Perplexity AI, tell me. If we don't know, we don't want anyone else to know that we don't know. But Jesus says if you're gonna be people who ask and seek and knock, you have to be willing to be people who need, who lack and who are on the outside of something. And that requires tremendous humility.
See when I say Jesus is calling us to change our posture, it's to take the posture of powerlessness. I just finished reading a book on a meditation towards the recovery program 12 steps process. And one of the most humbling things that we learn from people who've walked through the journey of recovery is how you have to begin by saying, I'm powerless. And Jesus knows if we're gonna become people who ask and people who seek and people who knock, we have to begin, we have to dethrone ourselves from the center of our lives. We have to dispel the myth that I know it all, that I'm strong enough, that I'm good enough.
We have to say actually I lack. I need God help. Change the posture of our heart. We live in a world where there's two postures available to us. The one is the posture of taking.
And so we have all of this self talk mantras and you can follow influencers and podcasters who'll tell you, listen, if you want this kind of lifestyle and you have to go take it. And I love initiative and I love agency but there's something that shifts when it becomes a I need to take and I need to get and I need to And this is the very beginnings of sin in the world, isn't it? In the Garden of Eden it says, the woman saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eyes and good to taste and so she took the fruit. Sin enters the world by taking. The very essence you might say of a life that's lived against God is a life that says there is no God therefore if I want it I have to take it.
But there's another posture in the world today. It's not the posture of taking, it's the posture of working or earning. You say well man, you know, you get what get what you deserve. This is your bed now lie in it. You get what's coming to you.
Whatever you put out there is what you're gonna get back. And so everything is this quid pro quo. Everything's transactional. Everything is a market dynamic exchange. Now what happens with there's a lot of truth to that.
A lot of life works that way. But what happens when you bring a workers mindset to your life with God? Now all of a sudden, the things God offers you is a wage not a gift. And so you go well, God, I just want you to know I've been pretty good this week. I've read my bible at least five out of the seven days.
So I'm about to ask you for something, go ahead and say yes. Right? And we treat God like he's a great sort of manager in the sky who's checking your time card and saying, well, that's pretty good. Here you go. Right?
And if I prayed harder, if I fasted more, if I raised two hands instead of one, if I serve more, give more, go more, then God will. And this is the posture of a worker. When Jesus says, wanna change your posture. He's changing us from the posture of self sufficiency. He's moving us from the posture of takers and he's moving us from the posture of workers.
There's some other posture he wants us to take. See Jesus broke the pattern of taking. In first Samuel eight when the people ask for a king, Samuel says, hey listen, I just want you to know, if you ask for a king, kings take. And all through that chapter over and over and over again in Hebrew the word take shows up. They'll take your children, they'll take your land, they'll take your livestock, they'll take your grain, they'll take, they'll take, they'll take.
And Jesus comes and he says, no one takes my life. John 10. No one takes my life from me, I lay it down. Jesus breaks the cycle of taking. He's the king who gives and not takes.
Not only that but he changes our paradigm from being workers to being receivers. Romans eight verse 32 it says, God did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. Will he also freely give us all things with him? Few chapters before that Paul says one of the most profound things about the gospel. He says the wages of sin is death but the And then you would expect okay for parallel the wages of sin is death so the wages of faith and a righteous life is heaven.
It doesn't say that. But the gift of God is eternal life. It's not just life and death that are different, it's our postures that are different. So you can approach God like he's a manager paying out a wage or like he's a father who loves to give gifts. The wages of sin is death.
Sin is a master and a tyrant but God is a father who delights in giving gifts. And that's why Jesus that's why Jesus frames this instruction to ask and to seek and to knock. He says, you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your kids. How much more? I want you to say that with me, how much more?
How much more? Sometimes Jesus tells parables or micro parables and he's pointing out the similarity. The kingdom's like a mustard seed. It's just like that. This time he's using dissimilarity to make his point.
You do this and you're wicked, how much more will a good father give good gifts. You know one of the great tragedies for us in prayer is that oftentimes we stop asking or seeking or knocking because we're confused about the nature of God. We're confused about the character of God. I have a friend who over twenty years ago or so traveled to Russia to a Russian orphanage and adopted two boys from there. And he writes about this story says that the most eerie sound in the orphanage was the sound of silence.
Because a room full of babies shouldn't be that quiet but it was quiet because they had stopped believing that there was someone who cared, that there was someone who was close, and there was someone who could do something about their need. I know for parents with babies, kids when they cry, they fuss, it it's it can be inconvenient but in that moment you could switch your paradigm go, thank you God that my child, that my baby believes that I'm near, believes that I care and believes that I can do something about this. See that will change your life of prayer when you believe that God is near, that God cares and that God can do something about it. That's what changes the posture of our heart. We don't approach God like a self sufficient person trying to match God's power.
We don't approach God like someone who has to take it, pry it out of his cold, dead hands. We don't approach God like a worker just saying, oh God, please, can I have a bit more? We approach God like a free child who trusts in the love of a parent and says, God here I am again asking, seeking, knocking because my whole posture towards you has changed. But that's the first shift. The second shift that Jesus wants us to make is Jesus actually wants us to change our priorities.
The things that we begin to ask for change as we begin to follow God. Have you ever wondered why so many times in the gospels Jesus meets someone and he asks them a question and oftentimes that question is what do you want me to do? It's it's kinda strange you're like, oh Jesus the dude is blind. Like like it's like, let me have some like read the room you know. Obviously he's not doing it because he doesn't know.
He's doing it because he wants to know if we know. A beggar could ask for money or a beggar could ask to see. And Jesus wants to know, do you want me to address your deepest need or do you want me to address your surface needs? Jesus is saying ask, seek or knock but you can't have a life of asking, seeking or knocking if you ask, seek and knock for surface level things. That gets old after a while but you start asking for the deeper things.
Okay God, this is my truest need. Okay God, this is your truest gift. Actually God, I want you to change the whole priority of my life. I've thought that a job or a spouse or a vacation, I thought those are important but but there's something else that's higher. There's a church leader in North Africa in the April named Augustine.
And Augustine began to talk about sin as disordered desires. You're chasing, sometimes you chase bad things but do you know you can also chase good things but in the wrong order? And I think this is what Jesus is saying. What do we How do we reorder our priorities? Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus already told us what to seek.
Matthew six, what does he say to seek? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you. Matthew six thirty three, seek first. Make that your priority. Make that the center of your requests and your prayers.
You know what I think this looks like? I think it looks like saying God what are you up to in my life? Where's your rain arriving in my family? Where's your rain arriving in my place of work? Where's your reign, your rule arriving in my business meetings?
And this might be some of you already live this way. I think of people at Rock Harbor who already live this way and they say, God, here I am in this new season. I think of a woman who's an empty nester and she's not She's able to meet be with some of her grandkids but not as frequently as she's as she's as as she would like and so she's got a lot of time. And she's like, God use my time and she uses her time to mentor young moms and she uses her time to meet with people who are walking through doubt and deconstruction. I'm like, well you're filling up all your time.
And she's like, yeah, but my life is God's. I think of a businessman who says, I know that the temptation will be more more more more more and so I've decided to cut out a giant slice and we wanna give give give give. And goes, I don't just wanna send money, I wanna send my time and so he's mentored people over the course of his career and and and people who maybe wouldn't have access to his opportunities. He's opened doors for them. See that's someone who's re scrambled their priority list.
The kingdom of God, garden you know this, the kingdom of God is is God's activity in the world. It's God bringing his will to bear in a in a place you know this here as it is in heaven. That's your prayer and that's what Jesus wants for our lives. What if every morning you wake up and you say, okay God here's my calendar on a good day. I do this on a good day.
Say God I got these meetings, I got these appointments, I got these phone calls, I got these to do list. Lord, Take a breath. What do you wanna do in this meeting? How can I join you in the midst of that? God go ahead of me in this phone call.
God be with me and it's not just because I work at a church, that's for all of us. That's for all of us. A life of asking, seeking, knocking is a life of asking God's kingdom to keep arriving in every moment of your schedule. Every season of your life and every sphere of your activity. And you say God come, do your will here, do your work here.
But there's a third and final thing that Jesus wants to change when we become people who ask seek and knock. Not only do we change our posture and not only do we change our priorities but thirdly Jesus wants us to actually change our pursuit. What's the thing that you're going after? One one commentator says ask seek knock seems to be escalating degrees of intensity. It's possible that we're meant to sort of see Jesus using a technique here to say yeah, make sure that this whole thing is funneling your life and your energy into a pursuit.
But what is that pursuit? What is the thing we're chasing? There's a parallel story parallel text to this one in Matthew six and it's found in Luke 11. Luke 11 it says Jesus said to them, suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say friend lend me three loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him.
This is not such a big crisis for us in the West but in The Middle East and actually to this day in the East and in many other cultures, hospitality is one of the highest ways to honor your guests and also to let your own household be honored. When when my wife, you know, when she came to Malaysia and we got engaged there and then we had these celebrations, we met with different extended family. It was like all these aunties and uncles were trying to give her food all the time. Just feed her constantly. And then like, do you want another scoop of curry?
She's like, no I'm I'm full actually. Have one more then instead of three more you know. Hospitality is such a way of this guy this this story that Jesus is telling his listeners are like, oh this is a crisis. This is a place of desperate need. In verse seven, and suppose the one inside answers, don't bother me, the door is already locked and my children and I are in bed.
I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you even though he will not get up and give you bread because of friendship, here again is a story of dissimilarity. Even if you won't do it because of friendship yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. Okay? Verse nine Jesus says, so 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. Everyone who seeks finds and to the one who knocks the door will be opened. Which of your fathers, which of you fathers if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion?
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? And then here it is, the Holy Spirit. This is how Luke, you read the Bible side by side and you let scripture interpret scripture and you go in Matthew's gospel, he doesn't spell it out. He says good gifts. But now here in Luke's gospel we go, oh you talking about the holy spirits.
And actually the clues were there all along. Matthew's gospel talks about bread. I wonder if Jesus is trying to say knock at the door, not of a stubborn and unconcerned friend, but knock at the door of the father's house. Seek seek for the bread of God's presence. Ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This is what we're pursuing in all of our life. The pursuit of our life is for this above all. Now maybe at this moment you're kinda like I don't like what does that mean? Like to pursue the gift of the Holy Spirit like I mean I like I got the Holy Spirit, I've prayed for the Holy Spirit, like isn't that like I've got it like check. What does it mean to live a life that's pursuing the Holy Spirit?
It's easy to sort of think that what this means is to chase another experience. But to work ourselves up and go if I feel this then I've I've I'm being God is answering my prayer for the Holy Spirit. You know the the work of the Holy Spirit comes in all kinds of ways and the New Testament talks to us about gifts of the spirit. We just heard a story of one of those gifts of languages and interpretations. There are gifts that we can pursue.
Paul says, earnestly desire these gifts. That sounds a lot like asking, seeking, knocking. Those are prayers God loves to answer. But you know what else? How about the fruit of the Holy Spirit?
Paul just lists a few of them nine in Galatians five, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Do you think, can you imagine yourself saying, God I want more of the fruit of the spirits work in my life. I want you to produce gentleness in me and God's like, yeah I don't know. I don't know about that one. Of course not.
How much more? God's like, oh I've been waiting for you to be open to becoming more gentle. And your friends around you are like, yes God answer that prayer. I'm telling you when when you see the kind of confidence Jesus says, everyone who asks it will be given. Lord produce your love in my life.
Those of you who've been walking with Jesus for many years, can't you Isn't it true you look back at your life and you go wow, God has been answering those prayers. I see my life as different. I see more faithfulness in me. I see more peace in me. I see this because you orient your life around asking and the work and presence and power of the Holy Spirit begins to take over.
And what Jesus wants for all of us is a life that continues to pursue. In fact one way to translate these words is not just ask but keep on asking. Not just seek but keep on seeking. Not just knock but keep on knocking. John said earlier that the Holy Spirit is a person not a force and I love that because it helps us think about why, why keep on orienting your heart towards this pursuit of the Holy Spirit, why?
Because if the Holy Spirit's a person, you know that there's a difference between a friend that you had twenty years ago and the friend that you've had for twenty years. There's a difference. All human relationships, all relationships with persons, if you do nothing, those relationships just fade. If you're over it with a friend, just stop texting. Right?
And then it just starts to fade and you go, well, we lost touch. Right? But if you want to keep something going, you have to keep turning toward them, turning toward them. The famous marriage counselors, John and Julie Gottman, they say the strength of a marriage is when couples continue to turn toward each other. Turn toward, turn toward.
I think when Jesus is saying ask, seek, knock. He's saying keep turning your face toward the father. Keep turning your heart towards Jesus. Keep opening your life to the Holy Spirit because I don't want you to just say, oh yeah, Jesus check. I I got saved back in '97, you know.
He's like, no, I want I want you to say I've been walking with Jesus for all these years. I've been seeking the Holy Spirit for all these years and I've got a life now that bears the fruit of it and the gifts of it. There's another illustration of this the word for the spirit. One of the words for the spirit in the New Testament is pneuma, this idea of wind. Out here are all these boats and picture with me a sailboat.
Why do we need to keep asking, seeking, knocking for the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You know why? Because if a sailboat's gonna keep moving, it needs to keep having wind in it. Jesus is asking us to change our posture so we could live with sails up. Jesus is asking us to change our priorities so we could go on course and on mission with him in the world.
And Jesus is asking us to change our pursuit so we could live with a life that is saying, if I don't have the wind of God in my life today, if I don't have the breath of God in my lungs today, if I don't have the presence and power of God with me today, we're not gonna make it. And so we end the way we began with the place of desperation. A place of saying, I I I don't wanna pretend that I've got it all together. I don't wanna pretend that I'm enough, that I'm strong, I'm good, I'm smart. I want to bring the mask, bring the walls down, take the mask off, exhale, and say, Lord, I don't got this.
Maybe it's the household and kids and tasks and maybe it's work and financial pressures. Maybe it's health. Listen, the tendency is that life doesn't actually get easier, it gets harder. But by the grace of God, you
Intro/Outro: get
Glenn Packiam: stronger. After seeking and asking and knocking, you learn how to live with your sails up. When I left home at 17 to come back to The States to go to college, I had no car, no computer, no TV, no girlfriend. And I would often go to the music building, find the piano practice rooms, go to the very farthest hallway, find the room on the end, close the door, turn the lights off, and just sing and pray and turn my heart towards God. And I sometimes would weep, sometimes would laugh, sometimes would emerge with a song, but it was about a life of asking, seeking, knocking.
There have been years I look back. That was a long time ago. I look back and there's years when it's been easy to be faithful. There's been years when it's been hard to be faithful. There have been years where there's been a lot of time to give to those kinds of prayer.
And there's been years where there's not a lot of time to give. But I'm telling you, you start working out those muscles now. You start working out these habits now. So that it could just be that you're in your car at a stoplight and you just become aware of God's presence. You go Holy Spirit, I need you.
I feel overwhelmed. I need you. So I'm asking. So I'm seeking. So I'm knocking.
Do you feel that today? The longing in your heart. I think the Lord the Lord is tugging on some of our hearts saying, come on. Come on. I'm here in the secret place.
I want you to knock on the door and I'll open it up to you. I'm here with the bread of my presence. I just want to know if your heart is gonna focus your hunger toward me. And so this morning, if you're able to stand, would you stand with me? I wanna invite the ministry team to come and just take their place along the front.
And we're just gonna create some space here for the next ten minutes or so. John and I were talking between services and just the sense that some of you have stopped turning your heart towards God because of disappointment. You're like the baby in the orphanage that has stopped crying. And this morning, the father is saying, no, no, no. I'm not like that.
Whatever has hurt you, whatever has scarred you and shaped you, I'm not like that. I'm a good father. And so this morning is a chance to reawaken your cry to God. Some of you, you've lived a segmented life and you're like, church, check, work, fine, health, fitness, you know. And God wants to obliterate those categories and say, no, no, no, make me the center.
Make me your priority. Let me reorder your life. Some of you need to hear God do that. Be willing to work on that maybe this afternoon or tomorrow morning. And then others of you it's just it's a subtle shift.
Just a shift to say, okay God, remind me that I need you. And maybe you're asking certain fruit of the spirit. You're like, I really need the long suffering, the fruit of perseverance, the fruit of self control, the fruit of faithfulness. I need that Lord. So wherever you are, would you just be willing if you're wanting to respond to the Lord, just raise your hands up to the Lord this morning.
We're gonna start like this. Just raise your hands up. Say, that's me. I wanna welcome. I wanna reorient the posture of my life, of my heart towards the Lord.
To be a person who lives asking, seeking, knocking. Thank you. Come Holy Spirit. Some of you it's just would be a great gift to have someone pray with you or maybe just even the step of walking towards the front is a symbolic action that says, God, I wanna change. I just wanna think about prayer as a transaction.
I I I wanna change this, change my posture, my priorities, my pursuit. And so as the worship team leads us now this morning, just begin to respond. Come spirit of the living God.
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