back to index2018-03-25 How Much More
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It's an honor for me to be standing here before you today on this Palm Sunday. 00:00:13.760 |
It's only at Berean I get called by my last name as well because people get confused with 00:00:19.840 |
So my name is Peter Chung and like Pastor Peter mentioned, I'll be rejoining the staff 00:00:26.320 |
I was one of the pastors here until 2009 and as Pastor Peter mentioned, in 2009 my wife 00:00:34.240 |
and I were sent out to Beijing, China to lead the team there. 00:00:37.400 |
It was supposed to be a one-year chapter in Beijing that turned into a nine-year journey. 00:00:43.320 |
In 2012, we were planning to be in China long-term as Berean's full-time missionaries, but in 00:00:50.800 |
2012 Compassion International recruited me to Korea to work as a vision trip leader and 00:00:56.640 |
one of the main speakers for Compassion Sponsored Children and our global partner churches. 00:01:02.560 |
And I was working for Compassion in Korea for about five and a half years. 00:01:07.280 |
My main job was to take people to the field, so basically it was my job to travel. 00:01:13.280 |
I averaged about 56 flights a year, but whenever I flew, I visited children, families, and 00:01:22.240 |
churches in the slums, fishing villages, dump sites, and rural hidden corners in various 00:01:29.520 |
And so on average, I spent about 100 days of the year with the poor. 00:01:35.160 |
So we were supposed to be away from Berean for just one year, but somehow it turned into 00:01:38.720 |
nine, and our family's back, and we're looking forward to this new chapter in ministry. 00:01:45.840 |
I don't get nervous, but for some reason, first service, I was like super like nervous 00:01:51.000 |
I'm not nervous now, okay, but I think we're nervous and excited just to be back. 00:01:55.160 |
Berean has changed a bit since we've been gone. 00:02:00.200 |
Jeremy was in elementary school when we left, and I'm the one who started Berean So, students 00:02:08.080 |
of the word, but now all the kids that are in there, most of them didn't exist when we 00:02:14.480 |
There have been many changes, and at the same time, many things have remained the same. 00:02:21.400 |
I was just kind of tickled the other day when I saw on the church's Facebook page that the 00:02:25.640 |
Passion Week chart, I made that for the church in 2008. 00:02:28.360 |
I was a little bit shocked that it's still being used. 00:02:32.600 |
The core values and the visions of the church and commitment to Christ and to his word have 00:02:39.920 |
changed a little bit in the sense of it's gotten deeper, and so I'm so excited about 00:02:45.640 |
So bear with us as we acclimate ourselves to living in the States, adjusting to this 00:02:50.880 |
church and beginning this new chapter of our lives back at Berean. 00:02:54.360 |
I was at the cafe, and Jen and I said the most encouraging thing to me that I've heard 00:02:59.600 |
I told her, "I feel like a newcomer," and she's like, "I feel like a newcomer, too," 00:03:05.960 |
But we're looking forward to getting to know you and to doing life with you. 00:03:12.360 |
I'd like to start by reading our passage for today. 00:03:17.800 |
The passage is going to be up on the screen on the wall here, but I think it'll be helpful 00:03:25.120 |
I'll be reading from verses 9 to 13, so Luke 11, verses 9 to 13. 00:03:35.320 |
And I tell you, "Ask, and it will be given to you. 00:03:41.720 |
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds. 00:03:45.800 |
And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. 00:03:48.680 |
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a 00:03:53.720 |
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 00:03:57.480 |
If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more 00:04:04.120 |
will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" 00:04:08.760 |
Lord, this is your day, and we pray that your word would be honored. 00:04:18.600 |
Help us to understand your purposes in our lives, and help us to love Christ. 00:04:26.780 |
And I pray that we would leave here understanding you a little bit more and resembling Jesus 00:04:37.800 |
You are our audience, so would you receive our worship and our praise today? 00:04:45.400 |
Today is Palm Sunday, the day in which we remember the Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 00:04:51.920 |
As you guys know, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey to shout of, "Hosanna to the Son 00:04:58.000 |
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 00:05:02.040 |
And you're going to see that all over your, like, Facebooks and stuff today. 00:05:08.080 |
It says in Matthew 21, verse 10, that the entire city was stirred up. 00:05:16.400 |
And there was so much excitement in the crowd, the energy level was high, and everyone was 00:05:27.240 |
But just a few days later, many in this crowd would be crying out, "Crucify Him! 00:05:41.600 |
Because, over the course of the next few days, Jesus would turn out to be a very different 00:05:52.200 |
You see, the Jews had been asking, they had been seeking, they had been beseeching the 00:05:59.660 |
Lord of Heaven to come in power, to come in majesty, to come and restore. 00:06:05.920 |
They had been asking, they had been seeking, but they rejected the Son of David. 00:06:15.200 |
Maybe it's because Jesus loses it at the temple. 00:06:19.680 |
He angrily overturns tables and disrupts business. 00:06:24.680 |
He gets into heated debates with religious leaders, some of whom the people probably 00:06:31.440 |
And Jesus, over the next few days, teaches and says things that no Messiah of their choosing 00:06:41.120 |
So we see in the way Jesus' reception was over the course of the Passion Week, that 00:06:46.120 |
there is often a world of a difference between who people think Jesus is and who He actually 00:06:55.680 |
There's a huge gap between what people desire from Jesus and what He desires to give. 00:07:06.540 |
And what does it mean for you and me to have a relationship with Him? 00:07:10.220 |
What does it mean for us when we say, "Jesus Messiah"? 00:07:14.680 |
What does it mean to ask things in Jesus' name? 00:07:21.440 |
And I want us to think just through this together, what Jesus came to restore. 00:07:28.840 |
I want us to think through that by first examining how He exhorts us to approach the God of heaven. 00:07:37.820 |
So I'm going to be talking a little bit about our relationship to God the Father, what made 00:07:43.900 |
that possible, and then I'll return back to the Triumphal Entry. 00:07:48.760 |
So in our passage today, Jesus finishes praying and the disciples come up to Him and ask Him 00:07:56.880 |
It might be helpful for you and me to remember that His disciples were Jewish men who were 00:08:06.600 |
They probably grew up praying, watching and hearing others pray. 00:08:12.560 |
They grew up being taught the importance of prayer, and more than likely, they were praying 00:08:20.080 |
But it's not too far a stretch to imagine that something about prayer was difficult 00:08:26.960 |
If I asked you guys all to raise your hand if prayer is difficult, I'm sure all of you 00:08:29.400 |
would raise your hand, but we're not going to do that, okay? 00:08:33.800 |
Well, you're participating, but not raising your hand, all right? 00:08:42.240 |
They didn't feel the intimacy with God that they sense Jesus had in His times of prayer. 00:08:50.120 |
So if you look at Luke 11, verse 1, it reads, "They asked, 'Lord, teach us how to pray.'" 00:09:06.760 |
And what follows is Luke's account of what we know as the Lord's Prayer. 00:09:11.320 |
And Jesus continues by exhorting them to persist in prayer. 00:09:16.920 |
And He puts it in terms ordinary people, ordinary disciples, ordinary folks like you and me 00:09:23.560 |
First, between verses 5 through 8, if you have your Bibles open, you can look at that. 00:09:29.440 |
He gives us the picture of a sleeping neighbor. 00:09:33.060 |
You pester him long enough, out of sheer annoyance, that sleeping neighbor, simply because of 00:09:40.120 |
your audacity to ask for bread at such an hour, will get out of bed and give you three 00:09:47.320 |
So even an agitated neighbor, if you pester him long enough, will give you what you need 00:10:01.820 |
So Jesus is putting prayer in terms that you and I can understand. 00:10:05.980 |
And then following this, Jesus goes on to ask a rhetorical question. 00:10:10.800 |
Luke 11 and 11 reads, "What father among you," or as the NIV states, "Which of you fathers?" 00:10:20.320 |
So He's going to go into how we are to draw near to God. 00:10:26.960 |
The relationship you enjoy with God is unlike the one you have with your buddy next door. 00:10:39.080 |
The one you are beseeching in prayer, He is the creator of the universe. 00:10:43.040 |
He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. 00:10:45.920 |
But at the same time, He's your "appa," your daddy, your father. 00:10:55.680 |
Because though He is the God of the universe, He is your father. 00:10:59.200 |
Though He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, you have access to Him. 00:11:04.920 |
Tim Keller, a couple months back, put this on his site. 00:11:08.720 |
The only person who dares wake up a king at 3 a.m. is his child. 00:11:16.160 |
And that's the kind of access you and I have. 00:11:18.700 |
The only person who dares wake up a king at 3 a.m. is a child. 00:11:29.200 |
And in my 18 years of serving His church, there are a lot of things that I learned about 00:11:38.080 |
First and foremost, I learned so much about God through His Word. 00:11:46.000 |
God's Word has changed me, has healed me, has fixed me, and is continuing to transform 00:11:58.040 |
And with His Word as the foundation of all of my ministry, over the last nine years, 00:12:04.840 |
God has deepened my understanding of His Word by expanding my worldview. 00:12:11.120 |
Spending time in communities in various parts of the world, I have felt deeply His broken 00:12:17.680 |
Scripture says that God is close to the poor. 00:12:21.000 |
And you learn a lot about God as you spend time with those He is near to. 00:12:27.120 |
And my relationship with God through His Word, through my job, got even deeper once I became 00:12:37.380 |
For many of you guys who don't know our family, Becky and I will be celebrating our 11th year 00:12:43.240 |
– it goes fast – our 11th year anniversary later this week. 00:12:49.840 |
But the first eight years of our marriage, God did not give us children. 00:12:55.320 |
So we are 11 years in, and we are running around raising 35-month-old toddlers. 00:13:04.420 |
We are parents of a twin boy and a girl, and you can imagine how special they are to us 00:13:22.040 |
And one of the advantages of raising a twin boy and a girl is their development is at 00:13:30.000 |
And our love for them is the same because they appeared at once. 00:13:36.520 |
And we don't have a firstborn – I mean, we do, it's usually pulled out first – but 00:13:42.560 |
So we love them equally, albeit a little bit differently depending on their need. 00:13:47.860 |
And as I have been interacting with them, caring for them, and investing in them, there 00:13:52.840 |
are many things that I, an evil father, have learned about my Heavenly Father. 00:13:59.480 |
And I'm just going to share two things about what I've learned about God the Father through 00:14:04.020 |
my heart's transformation in front of my kids. 00:14:08.520 |
First, lesson one, fathers discipline their children in love. 00:14:14.800 |
It says, "Though you are evil, you know how to give good things to your children." 00:14:19.740 |
I am a sinful, fleshly, selfish human being, but I know how to give good things to my kids. 00:14:27.400 |
And one of those good things is actually discipline. 00:14:31.840 |
Revelation 3.19, God says to His church, "Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, so be 00:14:39.120 |
Hebrews 12.6, "For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son He 00:14:47.800 |
The Greek word for discipline is paidouo, if you want to spell it, it's P-A-I-D-E-U-W. 00:14:56.800 |
And when you say paidouo, there is both a positive and a negative feel for this word. 00:15:03.480 |
There is a negative discipline given in response to behavior or attitude that needs correcting. 00:15:09.040 |
But at the same time, there is a positive one, a discipline that is used for teaching, 00:15:16.160 |
So nod your heads if you think discipline is a good thing, yeah? 00:15:20.360 |
A good father disciplines his children not because he hates them, but because he loves 00:15:27.520 |
And we know it intuitively, even if our parents are imperfect. 00:15:31.720 |
And as a child changes, the parent's discipline will change. 00:15:38.040 |
In Korean, we call a spanking, what do we call spanking in Korean? 00:15:44.600 |
I typed it out, it said meme, but it's like memme. 00:15:48.640 |
So when the child is little, fathers will give memme to their children. 00:15:54.740 |
But there comes an age where memme is no longer appropriate. 00:16:01.400 |
If you give memme to a high school-aged boy, that's not going to be a good thing, right? 00:16:08.140 |
So as a child changes, the discipline that the father takes with the child will also 00:16:17.080 |
So as a child becomes an adult, the father's discipline may be more informed in the form 00:16:30.340 |
Our son's name is Matthias, we call him Maddie. 00:16:33.660 |
So the first, I vividly remember this, the first time I ever gave Maddie a memme, when 00:16:41.400 |
So during dinner, he had the habit of throwing food down to the ground. 00:16:48.960 |
So he would put some in his mouth, throw some on the ground, put some in his mouth, throw 00:16:53.380 |
some on the ground, and that drove my wife nuts. 00:17:01.120 |
He looked at me, he was like, "Hey, no, no, no." 00:17:13.920 |
So I took a little ruler, and I took out his hand, and I whacked his hand. 00:17:20.540 |
Immediately tears filled his eyes, and he started crying. 00:17:34.540 |
I didn't enjoy it, but I deemed it necessary at the time, so he got a little memme. 00:17:42.300 |
But the thing with Karis was that memme at that time didn't work. 00:17:46.780 |
When you memme Karis, she would be like, "Hehehe," which is super scary. 00:17:53.300 |
But worse than that, when we were looking, she would take a ruler and whack her dolls. 00:18:02.620 |
And then if her brother came near her, she would go, "Memme, memme," and she would 00:18:09.200 |
So we're like, "Okay, this ruler doesn't work on my daughter." 00:18:15.140 |
What we found out worked was isolating her on a timeout. 00:18:18.840 |
We put her in the room, and she would scream bloody murder. 00:18:22.100 |
See, if we put Maddie in a room by himself, he would find something to do, play with his 00:18:31.340 |
Two different kids, two different forms of discipline to fit each child. 00:18:36.540 |
We took no pleasure in disciplining our children, but at times, we deemed it necessary. 00:18:42.500 |
I have not once been excited to put my child on a timeout or a memme or to take away a 00:18:49.580 |
And not once did I give my kids a memme without explaining why they're getting a memme. 00:18:58.580 |
So if I gave them a memme and said, "Guess why you got hit?" 00:19:07.060 |
We will always make it clear when our kids are being disciplined, because that's parenting 00:19:13.020 |
No father will discipline his child and tell him to guess, and even bad fathers know not 00:19:19.120 |
So this is something that's very important to remember as you relate to the Lord. 00:19:23.540 |
When our heavenly Father disciplines us because of our sin or our disobedience, I believe 00:19:29.740 |
with all my heart that He will always make it clear why. 00:19:35.700 |
If God the Father is disciplining us, He will always make it clear why. 00:19:43.980 |
Because there are times where life is not fun. 00:19:50.900 |
And sometimes we feel like, "Is God punishing me for something?" 00:20:00.620 |
So if you cannot understand why something difficult is happening in your life, if you 00:20:04.580 |
cannot understand the reason behind a struggle, God is not punishing you or disciplining you 00:20:10.580 |
for something you've done wrong as a judgment. 00:20:15.500 |
John chapter 9, the disciples ask about a blind man, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man 00:20:24.420 |
And Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works 00:20:37.660 |
God never disciplines without explaining to His children why we're being disciplined, 00:20:40.780 |
and this is something that I, as an evil father, have come to understand. 00:20:48.220 |
When life gets tough, we're not necessarily getting spiritual memmeh, but it's a different 00:20:55.660 |
Trials, hardships, and suffering, especially those you can't understand or explain, will 00:21:03.020 |
always be for your good or for the good of His other children. 00:21:13.140 |
Trials, hardships, suffering, especially those you can't understand or explain, will always 00:21:22.740 |
Hebrews 12, 11, "For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later 00:21:29.620 |
it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." 00:21:34.100 |
Trials, hardships, and suffering will always be for good or for your good. 00:21:39.500 |
So negative discipline is in response to a behavior that needs to be fixed. 00:21:44.900 |
Positive discipline comes in the form of instruction, teaching, or training. 00:21:49.260 |
One of the things that we are working really hard right now to teach our kids is how to 00:21:53.900 |
Yeah, you guys, you parents in here, that's not an easy thing, right? 00:22:01.420 |
But this is another good thing that I, as an evil man, know how to give to my children. 00:22:09.140 |
In my visits to the poor, I have seen a lot of depressing and very painful things. 00:22:19.580 |
And when we would go visit these communities, the compassion sponsors who would go with 00:22:25.780 |
me, a lot of them would break down and cry because people should not be living like this. 00:22:31.420 |
One older, he was in his early 70s, non-Christian sponsor actually said this, "Poverty is God's 00:22:39.820 |
And I could understand the logic because if God is all powerful, all knowing, and truly 00:22:54.860 |
Why does 40% of the world struggle just to eat once a day? 00:23:00.220 |
I met a mother in Ethiopia who had nine children. 00:23:04.580 |
Eight of them she buried before they turned five. 00:23:09.220 |
And she blamed herself for each of their deaths. 00:23:22.740 |
See, I trust in God's goodness, but there are oftentimes tension in my heart when I 00:23:27.900 |
see things in this world that are unjust and painful to look at. 00:23:33.800 |
So when that sponsor said, "Poverty is God's fault," God kind of gave me a quick insight, 00:23:41.080 |
In order to teach our kids how to share, in the mornings when I have baby duty, I will 00:23:47.640 |
pour milk into both their bottles, and I mean, I would give it to each of them, but 00:23:53.080 |
sometimes I would give both of them to one kid. 00:23:56.640 |
And I would say, "Here, Maddie, go share it with Charis," or, "Here, Charis, go give 00:24:00.960 |
And then they would run along and just, "Here," and just give it to, and I'll say, "Maddie, 00:24:06.800 |
Because we want to teach them how to share and how to give thanks. 00:24:11.520 |
Milk is easy because it's like an everyday thing for them. 00:24:23.760 |
I gave Maddie two cookies, and I said, "Hey, you give one to Charis." 00:24:29.320 |
And Charis is like, turned to Maddie and had her hands open, but Maddie ran away that way. 00:24:38.520 |
He's like running, and I tried to get him, and I was like, "Hey," and then he went, boom, 00:24:49.720 |
She didn't look at Maddie when she was screaming. 00:24:52.680 |
She looked at me, crying and screaming her head off. 00:25:03.260 |
So she was screaming because I did nothing to stop Maddie from committing this horrible 00:25:13.040 |
What was rightfully hers is now in his stomach, so she's mad. 00:25:18.320 |
And I didn't seem to care, and I let it happen. 00:25:33.680 |
But see, I don't want my kids to learn how to share out of compulsion or fear of punishment. 00:25:42.160 |
I want them to learn how to share from the heart. 00:25:46.520 |
So I will wait, even at the expense of the unfairness that one of the kids feels at the 00:25:59.040 |
God has given me wisdom to wait, but in their little minds, I did a wrong thing. 00:26:06.000 |
A few months ago, I was sitting at the dining table. 00:26:10.400 |
I was over there in the corner playing with a doll. 00:26:15.320 |
So I opened the refrigerator, peeled the tangerine, and I just gave it to him without thinking 00:26:22.480 |
And then he took the tangerine, he split it in half, ran over to where Charis was, and 00:26:31.000 |
gave her the other half, not because I told him to, because I wasn't paying attention 00:26:36.880 |
He did it because that was just now a natural thing for him to do. 00:26:52.720 |
See a lot of times, the discipline that God allows to take place in our lives, the positive 00:27:02.040 |
kind when our lives are hard, is sometimes for the good of those around you. 00:27:09.160 |
And in His wisdom, God waits so that the body of Christ can often rejoice with those who 00:27:14.920 |
rejoice, mourn with those who mourn, like we've been learning in Romans. 00:27:22.160 |
Lesson one, fathers discipline their children in love. 00:27:25.240 |
Second, fathers delight in their children and desire to give them the best of everything. 00:27:30.960 |
These are things that I, as an evil father, have come to learn. 00:27:43.760 |
Because I waited and prayed so long, eight years, for them, I enjoy spending time with 00:27:49.600 |
them and I love watching them grow and change. 00:27:52.240 |
I love coming home and as soon as I walk in the door, my children run. 00:28:01.240 |
I don't care if they broke things, made a mess, or were bad babies that day. 00:28:06.160 |
The best part of my day is when I go home and see my children, scoop them up, smother 00:28:15.660 |
When music comes on, sometimes my daughter dances. 00:28:19.120 |
It's the awkwardest, ugliest thing, but it's so cute. 00:28:24.240 |
I love watching them do silly stuff, like put underwear on their head. 00:28:28.880 |
The other day, Karis blew her nose by herself. 00:28:40.840 |
And she beamed because she was like, "Oh, daddy was so proud." 00:28:45.360 |
I love watching them do ordinary, silly, stupid things. 00:28:52.080 |
Because I love them and because they're mine. 00:28:57.360 |
How much more does God enjoy watching us do silly and stupid and ordinary things and just 00:29:15.080 |
When I go to Target, I went yesterday, I brought back home a toy. 00:29:19.640 |
I always visit the toy section because I want to give my kids stuff, but I do not because 00:29:32.720 |
I may get it for them later, but not now because they're too little. 00:29:39.000 |
Scripture says, "What father among you, if a son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish 00:29:42.760 |
give him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?" 00:29:57.600 |
No father will give his child a scorpion for food or even for a pet. 00:30:08.840 |
So even selfish and stupid fathers desire to give their children good things. 00:30:12.320 |
They want to give their children things that will benefit them. 00:30:15.560 |
Lesson one, fathers discipline their children in love. 00:30:17.800 |
Two, fathers delight in their children and want to give them the best of everything. 00:30:21.920 |
It says, "If you then being evil, I love my kids, but if you asked me, do I love my kids 00:30:40.520 |
I mean if I had to defend my kids with my life or sacrifice my body for them, I'm pretty 00:30:47.960 |
But do I love Maddie and Karis more than I love me? 00:30:53.400 |
I'd have a very hard time answering that because I love myself a lot. 00:31:03.080 |
And there are times, even though I love my children, where my parenting is affected negatively 00:31:11.440 |
When I haven't slept much and I'm tired and cranky and grumpy, my interaction with my 00:31:22.200 |
When I'm under a lot of stress, I can be a bad dad. 00:31:27.000 |
When there are difficulties in my relationship with Rebecca, Becky, my kids will be affected. 00:31:33.520 |
But even as a self-centered, selfish, weak, sinful father, I won't deliberately give my 00:31:49.800 |
You don't have to answer, but how many of you love your kids? 00:31:53.680 |
I know your love isn't perfect and it's a struggle, but you love your kids. 00:31:59.880 |
But you know what radically changed in my relationship with God? 00:32:05.200 |
When I came to the realization that God loves me more than I love my kids. 00:32:16.080 |
God loves me with a fierce, intense, passionate love a whole lot more than I could ever love 00:32:41.120 |
So if you have been adopted into the family of God, your Abba Father loves you with a 00:32:53.520 |
And He loves you so much more than you could ever love your kids. 00:33:01.320 |
Because if that does, the next time you pray Luke 11, "Our Father in Heaven," your heart 00:33:13.400 |
Sunday worship will be special because it's time with Dad. 00:33:21.960 |
If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will 00:33:26.000 |
God give the Holy Spirit to those who love Him or to those who ask Him? 00:33:29.160 |
This is a slight tangential, but I feel worth bringing up. 00:33:32.520 |
As I was preparing this sermon, there was a little bit of a tension in my heart. 00:33:39.360 |
Two groups of people came to mind, and it caused me to stop and pray. 00:33:44.920 |
The first group is for those of you who have had objectively bad earthly fathers. 00:33:50.720 |
And I want you to call your attention back to the beginning of verse 13, "If you then 00:33:54.640 |
For you guys, first, don't allow your bitterness toward your earthly father keep you from opening 00:34:03.480 |
up your heart to the Heavenly Father who loves you perfectly. 00:34:09.160 |
And second, remember, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:34:16.200 |
There is need for Christ for all, and there is need of grace for all. 00:34:25.520 |
The second group that I felt burdened for as I was preparing this sermon are the barren 00:34:42.680 |
There's a little bit of guilt and pain as I was preparing this because I felt like I'm 00:34:50.920 |
We were childless for most of our marriage, so I've been there. 00:34:57.920 |
What I want to share with you who are waiting is this. 00:35:21.480 |
You know, something really challenged me within the last year as I was thinking through how 00:35:29.040 |
to pray and encourage others who are waiting for children. 00:35:35.560 |
You know, when you pray for a child, it's an earnest prayer. 00:35:42.720 |
Months and months of waiting and being disappointed. 00:35:46.120 |
There's a sense of like, it's not even frustration because you can't control this. 00:36:02.520 |
You know what's more of a prayer that can hit the heart of God? 00:36:08.760 |
It's a prayer of a child who doesn't have parents. 00:36:12.480 |
So perhaps God is moving your heart to love on an adopted child as if he were your own 00:36:24.360 |
He desires the wholeness and completeness of your family more than you do. 00:36:29.800 |
These are tangential, but I wanted to address that. 00:36:35.560 |
And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. 00:36:39.960 |
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. 00:36:46.000 |
And what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him 00:36:50.160 |
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 00:36:53.520 |
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much 00:36:57.680 |
more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? 00:37:02.000 |
So what are we to be asking, seeking, and knocking for? 00:37:14.520 |
You've heard this before, but what is it that we're supposed to be asking, seeking, and 00:37:34.640 |
If we're asking God with all our hearts, seeking and knocking, he's going to give the Holy 00:37:43.040 |
And you guys remember, the disciples didn't have really a concept of who the Holy Spirit 00:37:47.960 |
So this is kind of going to be weird for them. 00:37:52.120 |
But for you and I, as we look upon this passage, it makes sense. 00:37:56.480 |
Because the greatest things that I can give to these kids that I love are not objects. 00:38:06.340 |
The biggest blessings and gifts I can give to Maddie and Karis are not a house, money, 00:38:18.720 |
If you're a parent, the best thing you can give to your kids are not physical, material 00:38:25.920 |
No, the best thing I can give to my children is my heart. 00:38:31.120 |
The best gift a father can give to his children is himself. 00:38:47.240 |
More than the stuff, more than the gifts, they grow to love the giver. 00:38:53.760 |
I appreciate and understand my sinful father now more than I did when I was 15. 00:39:01.860 |
When I was a kid, I appreciated or I didn't appreciate my father for what he could or 00:39:09.880 |
Now I appreciate my father and value him just because he's my father. 00:39:21.760 |
The best thing that God can give you and me is not health and wealth, comfort and riches, 00:39:29.680 |
although so much of our prayer lives are just focused on that. 00:39:34.880 |
The best thing that God can give you and me is a relationship with him. 00:39:40.080 |
But some of us who are spiritual toddlers, we still want the stuff. 00:39:46.120 |
Some of us who are spiritually impetuous teens would prefer the health and the wealth and 00:40:00.640 |
How do you gauge how mature you are in your faith? 00:40:04.200 |
Answer this question honestly in your heart and you'll get your answer. 00:40:09.240 |
Is your relationship with God a means or the goal? 00:40:16.200 |
Is your relationship with God a means or the goal? 00:40:23.040 |
Because the best thing that God can give to his people is not stuff. 00:40:34.560 |
It's not just about enjoying heaven on earth and then going to heaven and enjoying heavenly 00:40:40.400 |
That they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 00:40:47.800 |
If you say the thing about it, this gift, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall 00:40:52.240 |
find, knock and the door will be open and then the heavenly father will give you a Holy 00:40:57.920 |
This is strange stuff to the first century Jew. 00:41:03.800 |
First of all, the disciples who asked Jesus to teach them how to pray at this time didn't 00:41:07.000 |
have quite an understanding of who the Holy Spirit was. 00:41:12.240 |
Ask seek, knock and your father in heaven who is good, who is keeper of promises and 00:41:20.520 |
The first century Jew had a few things he prayed passionately about. 00:41:25.140 |
He prayed passionately that the Messiah would come. 00:41:28.840 |
Why did the first century Jew pray for the Messiah to come? 00:41:32.020 |
Because the Messiah would come to deliver the people of Israel from their oppressors. 00:41:37.040 |
The Jew would pray for the Messiah to come in might, in power to restore and liberate 00:41:42.440 |
Israel and to return Israel's wealth, their fame and their land. 00:41:49.600 |
This was promised to Abraham's descendants by God the father. 00:41:54.440 |
Messiah come because we're sick of these pagan oppressors. 00:41:58.880 |
Give us back our wealth, our land and our fame. 00:42:02.640 |
If I were a first century Jew at first hearing on this Holy Spirit, I would say no thanks. 00:42:16.520 |
I don't want to have these pagan Romans scoffing at me, making me carry his armor for a mile. 00:42:31.120 |
So many first century Jews, for many first century Jews, a covenant relationship with 00:42:41.560 |
Matthew 21.9, "And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, 'Hosanna 00:42:48.920 |
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:43:02.400 |
The word Hosanna comes from the combination of two Hebrew words, yasha, which means deliver 00:43:11.280 |
If you're taking notes, Y-A-S-H-A, deliver or save, yasha. 00:43:18.220 |
And then, Anna, like Anna, the name, beg or beseech. 00:43:26.000 |
Anna, we beg you, we beseech you, we implore you. 00:43:30.200 |
And the word Hosanna is found only once in the Old Testament. 00:43:35.400 |
Psalm 118, verses 25 to 26, it reads, "Save us, we pray. 00:43:47.040 |
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:43:55.680 |
Over time, in Israel, Hosanna started becoming a declaration of praise, like, "Hooray! 00:44:18.560 |
So the crowds literally were shouting, "I beg you to save! 00:44:27.860 |
But over the course of the Passion Week, over the next few days, they stopped shouting this. 00:44:34.000 |
And by Friday, their shouts turned into, "Crucify him." 00:44:43.440 |
Because this Son of David wasn't delivering what they wanted to receive. 00:44:51.480 |
On this Palm Sunday, do you shout, "Hosanna to the King of Kings! 00:45:21.040 |
Because many in today's church want to be saved from comfort or discomfort. 00:45:37.880 |
More and fewer people desire to be saved from their sins and restored to the Creator. 00:45:44.920 |
You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises. 00:45:59.020 |
Salvation from your discomfort, anxiety, and boredom? 00:46:04.600 |
Or are you singing with a desire to be restored to your Maker? 00:46:11.840 |
You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises. 00:46:17.000 |
Is He worthy of praise only when your life is good? 00:46:21.700 |
What is the significance of remembering this Passion Week? 00:46:24.760 |
What is the significance of remembering the Passion Week? 00:46:29.920 |
It's to remember the means by which our adoption into the family of God came. 00:46:36.160 |
To remember the means by which our sonship and our access came. 00:46:41.560 |
The means by which the gift of eternal life came. 00:46:50.120 |
Jesus' life, sacrificial death, and resurrection have given us access to this good, good Father. 00:47:02.400 |
"The only person who dares to wake up a king at 3 a.m. for a glass of water is his 00:47:14.840 |
If Christ is your Lord and Savior, you have been adopted into God's family. 00:47:33.460 |
He loves you more than you could ever love anybody else. 00:47:45.040 |
So when you cry out, "Hosanna, come have your way among us," may that praise and that 00:48:03.760 |
I would like to close with a passage for us to read. 00:48:10.800 |
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ 00:48:17.240 |
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. 00:48:21.920 |
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless 00:48:26.100 |
before him, in love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, whom we remember 00:48:37.560 |
According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he 00:48:51.840 |
May this week and the events this week cause you to reflect on the love of our heavenly 00:49:03.200 |
That while we were yet hostile, rebellious, sinful, selfish men and women, Christ died 00:49:12.560 |
for us to restore us to the Father, because that is the best thing he could ever give. 00:49:27.680 |
May you remember that you're God, that your Daddy loves you, and he loves you passionately.