Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Happy Mother's Day.
[00:00:02] Some of you, you know, it's Mother's Day. We're good. All right. You remembered you. You went and got a present for your mom, or you text her, or you remembered her. For some of you, Mother's Day is a memory of your mother. And that is. That can be a blessing as well.
[00:00:26] My mom is a particularly good gift giver.
[00:00:33] She likes to bring things.
[00:00:37] You cannot be on a diet and be loved by my mom.
[00:00:46] She was coming down this weekend and I told her, I said, you're staying the night, right? Like you stay at our house? And she said, yes, yes, that's what I was planning on. And I said, good, because we've already told Ruby, that's our dog who doesn't speak English.
[00:01:06] We've already told Ruby that you're coming, and she's very excited. And she said, well, I'll have to bring her something.
[00:01:17] And then. She didn't bring Ruby anything. She brought our kids stuff. Ruby's so mad.
[00:01:25] No, they have a. Like, mom's ability to just find things. She goes through stores and things remind her of other people, and she buys them and gives them to those people. I'm not wearing them today because I forgot to set them out last night so that I put them on. But I have a pair of Fozzie Bear socks that I just received in the mail.
[00:01:52] From Mom. Sorry, from Mom.
[00:01:55] Not from a secret admirer or anything, but like, from Mom. She sent me these socks and she said, I saw these and I thought of you. And I don't know what that says about me, but she saw them, thought of me, bought them, sent them. She's a gift giver.
[00:02:16] And so this passage that was read talking about God being a good God and God giving good gifts really is striking to me in particular on Mother's Day, because when I think of a good gift giver, I think of my mom.
[00:02:36] And so God is a good God, and God gives good gifts.
[00:02:45] Now, we've talked a little bit about that. We have a good God in the midst of an evil world.
[00:02:54] We have a God who is present with us in the middle of a difficult time. But that presence isn't all God offers.
[00:03:06] Now.
[00:03:07] It is the most important thing God offers.
[00:03:11] But God just knowing what we're going through and hating evil as much as we hate it. God hating death as much as we hate death. Except God had the power to do something about it.
[00:03:28] And so God did.
[00:03:30] And resurrection is real and the presence of the Holy Spirit is real. But when Jesus was Here he wanted people to be reminded of how good God is. And one of the ways in which he spoke about that was gifts.
[00:03:50] Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. We remember this from Matthew, chapter six. That's probably the one you remember, the one you said before basketball games or whatever it is.
[00:04:01] We would say the Lord's Prayer and then we'd say, go get them on three. One, two, three, go get them. And then we would try to hurt people for, you know, like the Lord's Prayer demands.
[00:04:14] But also here in Luke 11, he does a He teaches them to pray. And he says.
[00:04:20] He says, ask for the daily bread and forgive us as we forgive others. And then he says.
[00:04:28] Then he says to them in verse five, suppose you have a friend.
[00:04:35] He looks at Thomas and he says, just imagine it, Thomas. Because he messed with Thomas a little bit.
[00:04:40] I'm just kidding. But wouldn't it be fun if he said, suppose you had a friend? And then imagine, you know. Anyway, imaginary friends.
[00:04:48] We'll cut that out of the sermon online.
[00:04:52] Suppose you had a friend, and you go to them at midnight and say to them, friend, lend me three loaves of bread. Now this is at the door. Knock on the door, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.
[00:05:08] A friend of mine is on a journey and has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.
[00:05:14] Now, some of you who are emotionally healthy and have space and boundaries know that this is a you problem.
[00:05:22] This is not my problem.
[00:05:24] That you are unprepared.
[00:05:26] Unpreparedness on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
[00:05:33] But Jesus says, suppose that you show up and you say, hey, I really want this.
[00:05:39] And the one inside the door answers, as he should, don't bother me. The door is already locked and my children and I are in bed and I can't get up and give you anything.
[00:05:51] I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your I love this shameless audacity. The Greek here is unmitigated gall.
[00:06:07] Because gall is never mitigated.
[00:06:13] Because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up just, okay, Goodness my. I'll find some bread. This is crazy that you're here. I'm not gonna if you're just shamelessly audacious enough to show up at the door at midnight, he's going to give you, get up and give you what you need.
[00:06:36] So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock, and the door shall be Open now. Time out. Do not. This is not an allegory.
[00:06:49] God is not the neighbor who's annoyed.
[00:06:55] God is not representing this neighbor who.
[00:07:00] If you just beg and plead enough, and you just say the right words, and if I can just sort of cajole God into giving me what I want, then therefore God will roll his eyes and meander around his kitchen in the dark and give me the bread that he has left over. This is not a healthy way to understand this passage.
[00:07:25] Jesus oftentimes compares God to earthly people as if to say, they're awful and they do it.
[00:07:36] But God is good.
[00:07:38] Can you imagine all the more what God will do and what God can do?
[00:07:44] So I say to you, go to God.
[00:07:49] Ask, and it will be given.
[00:07:52] Seek and you will find.
[00:07:54] Knock and the door will be open. We serve a God who gives good gifts for everyone who asks, receives those who seek. Find and those who knock, the door will be open. Which of you fathers, if your son asked for a fish, you would give him a snake.
[00:08:18] Which of you would do that? And of course, everyone. No. No, of course not. Or if he asked for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?
[00:08:27] If you. Then, even though you're bad fathers, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
[00:08:55] We serve a God who gives good gifts as people who aren't always good at asking for what is good.
[00:09:09] Our God gives good gifts.
[00:09:13] When we ask for bread, obviously he will not give us a fish. He will not give us a snake. And when we ask for an egg, he obviously won't give us a scorpion. We wouldn't do that. He won't do that. But I feel like sometimes, as flawed human beings in a world that values things that the kingdom of God does not value, we find ourselves on our knees saying, God, why didn't you give me the scorpion I asked for?
[00:09:43] I wanted a scorpion.
[00:09:47] I wanted what I wanted because I wanted it, and God doesn't give me what I want.
[00:09:55] When we say that God gives good gifts, we are not declaring that God gives you what you want.
[00:10:04] That there is somehow, if you pray the right way and you have the right prayer, then you'll get wealthy, and then diseases will be gone, and so on and so forth. And there is. There is a gigantic church south of us with a gigantic golden globe with a preacher who blinks a lot when he preaches.
[00:10:29] His name's Joel Osteen. We'll use that name to protect his.
[00:10:36] Who will and they'll prom.
[00:10:39] And this is a very popular teaching at times. They'll promise you that if you can just sort of do the right things or pray the right prayers, then you can tell by your life will be blessed, your life will be easier.
[00:10:53] They'll tell stories of people who were hurting and they were sick and they prayed and it went away.
[00:11:04] But that doesn't happen all the time.
[00:11:09] One of my favorite people growing up, we had cancer when he was young. And we prayed and prayed and prayed, and three times we prayed and it seemed like the cancer went away.
[00:11:26] But when you're three for four against cancer, you can still find yourself at the end going, well, where was God in all of this?
[00:11:37] We prayed and we asked and we prayed and we asked. And God, if God is good and God gives good gifts, then I asked for a thing. Where was that thing?
[00:11:49] And what Jesus says here is, we have a God who gives good gifts, and obviously, even though you're evil, you give good gifts. But wouldn't we. And we leave out this part at the end where he says, wouldn't he give you the Holy Spirit? When you ask, what we're asking for is not health and wealth.
[00:12:15] What we're asking for is not ease of life.
[00:12:18] We are asking for the presence of God in a difficult walk, the Holy Spirit's presence.
[00:12:28] How much more will God give you? The Holy Spirit? God wants to give you a good gift. And that gift is the presence of the Holy Spirit.
[00:12:40] Not so that our life can be easy and healthy and wealthy, but so that God can be present and walk alongside us when we can't seem to find our steps.
[00:12:58] I was talking to a mom once who had four daughters.
[00:13:03] They were each two years apart.
[00:13:06] Like an itinerary of birth.
[00:13:11] Two years apart, each of them. And when we met them, these girls, when we were at that church we started, they were 12, 10, 8, and 6.
[00:13:22] And Rachel was pregnant at the time.
[00:13:26] And we had Clara first, and then we had Macy pretty quickly thereafter.
[00:13:33] And we were talking about how. She was telling us about how, you know, the first times.
[00:13:38] First time your first baby walks. She said, that first baby walks. And you just say, oh, my goodness, she's walking.
[00:13:47] But when you have that fourth girl and she said she took her first step, I just pushed her over.
[00:13:58] I was not ready for that.
[00:14:03] But like.
[00:14:04] But a mom watches those kids, parents watch those kids take their steps, and you celebrate those first steps. But you realize really quickly, for about a year after the first steps, they, A, want to walk everywhere, and B, are Awful at it.
[00:14:28] They're real bad at it.
[00:14:30] Just meandering out in front of buggies. And they take forever getting places.
[00:14:38] The things they're distracted by, they just go to and grab.
[00:14:45] One time Nolan had started walking, he was 2 years old and he decided that the first time he ever wanted to sprint away from me at Walmart was to grab an old man's cane.
[00:15:01] Now I'm faster than Nolan, but he. Well, not. Well, I am now, too.
[00:15:09] We're having a race in the lobby afterward, but I caught him, but he was just going for it. And I just disast. This guy needed this cane. It wasn't a decorative cane, but you walk alongside them in those times and you're just. You're still on edge watching them the whole time. But it's a joy to watch them the whole time. You're excited about it. And God's presence with us. God is delighted to be with us through the dark valley.
[00:15:50] And the presence of God is a gift from God. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God.
[00:15:57] And when God looks at us and says, what's the best thing I can give them?
[00:16:03] Whatever they're asking for, what's the best thing that I can imagine God giving us is the spirit that is holy, that produces fruit.
[00:16:14] Because in those dark valleys, in those difficult times, in these evil days, we need from a good God the fruit that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. We need what the spirit can produce in us.
[00:16:32] We need the presence of God.
[00:16:36] God is a good king, gift giver.
[00:16:42] But God also knows that the best gifts come from those who are present with you in difficult times.
[00:16:54] You remember the people that showed up.
[00:16:59] You remember the people that made an appearance, the darkness.
[00:17:09] You know, part of my job is that I get to be in hospitals with people during difficult times.
[00:17:18] And one of the blessings of that, and what's funny is people will say, oh, it's just like a light walked in the room.
[00:17:28] Everyone in the hospital sounds like that. Apparently they're just excited.
[00:17:32] It's not me.
[00:17:33] You know, it's not Benjamin's light.
[00:17:36] It's the light of presence.
[00:17:39] It's the light of being there with and showing up.
[00:17:47] Anybody can show up and aid in those moments of difficulty.
[00:17:56] God dying to show up with you, so he gives good gifts.
[00:18:07] As I get older, I need less things. I mean, rarely am I just laying in bed thinking, I hope I get that video game for my birthday. You know, I just don't. Like, I don't have those things.
[00:18:25] But I want to go on trips with the people I love.
[00:18:29] Mostly just me and DJ Going places together?
[00:18:36] No, but I want to just be with people I love, have experiences with people I love in great places.
[00:18:44] And Paul, Jesus here says that the God we serve gives good gifts.
[00:18:57] And of course he's going to give you his Holy Spirit.
[00:19:04] We do an injustice to this passage when we take our scripture scalpels and take that little last bit off.
[00:19:15] God gives us what we ask for.
[00:19:19] When we seek, we find.
[00:19:23] Sometimes we ask for scorpions, and God doesn't give us scorpions.
[00:19:28] Sometimes we ask for wealth. And God knows we don't need wealth.
[00:19:35] Sometimes what we ask for isn't quite a good gift.
[00:19:45] Hands down, 100% of the time, God's presence is a good thing.
[00:19:54] God's spirit is a holy thing.
[00:19:59] And so when we are in the middle of difficulty, in the middle of evil days, we can know for sure that God's presence is quick to show up.
[00:20:14] And in the end, that proves God's goodness.
[00:20:22] He is a light in the middle of darkness.
[00:20:28] So it's tough being affluent people, you know, in this part of the world. And this we are unpersecuted. We are free to worship the way we want. We are.
[00:20:44] It's easy.
[00:20:47] Sometimes I've often wondered if we've gold plated our tombs.
[00:20:59] And so when Jesus calls us out of the grave, we're a little uncomfortable going out in the sun.
[00:21:11] But what God calls us to is his side.
[00:21:16] We serve a resurrected king, and sometimes we don't feel like we need anything.
[00:21:23] But God calls us and we need to answer the God who offers good gifts, the God who is a good God. And all that is good comes from God.
[00:21:38] That God calls us out and we answer because while it may not feel like we need everything, we need the Lord in all situations.
[00:21:55] We need the presence of the Lord.
[00:21:59] And so when we step out there and it's Mother's Day and some of you are going to a restaurant and it's going to be chaos.
[00:22:18] You need the Lord.
[00:22:22] You're gonna. I'm not joking. You're gonna go back into your work day and you're going to enter into difficult systems. You're gonna go back to your house and y' all may be fussing about this or that. You're going to need the Lord.
[00:22:39] And the gift God shows up with is not a fix to difficulty, but the gift God shows up with is the God who shows up, the Holy Spirit.
[00:22:55] He gives it freely because he is the God of good. Gifts. If you need anything this morning, if you're going through a rough patch and you need someone in the name of the Holy Spirit to stand alongside you, we have people in the back willing to pray for you. You can come down and talk to me and pray for you. If you want to give your life, life to this God who is good, Today's the day. Don't hesitate, Please do whatever you need to do while we stand and while we sing.
