Theme: Prayer
Keeps us From Overreacting
1. By acknowledging
our limitations
2. By trusting
God’s will in Christ
Matthew 7:7-12 "Ask, and it will be given
to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8
"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who
knocks it will be opened. 9 "Or what man is there among you who, if his
son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 "Or if he asks for a fish,
will he give him a serpent? 11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven
give good things to those who ask Him! 12 "Therefore,
whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and
the Prophets.
When’s
the last time someone overreacted in front of you? We all know it happens,
right? People get bent out of shape over things – often things that don’t
matter all that much. No one likes when this happens either, whether you’re the
person who does it or the one who experiences it. Think of the little kid who
doesn’t get exactly what he wanted for his birthday or who doesn’t get picked
first for the kickball game. Overreaction.
Let’s not just focus on little kids either. Consider the teen who gets their
phone taken away as a discipline or isn’t allowed to stay out as late as they’d
like to with their friends. Overreaction.
And surely, grown adults are not immune either. The weather turns ugly and
ruins the long-awaited and planned vacation. People take a little too long in
the grocery check out line. Grandma so and so can’t decide what to order in the
take-out lane. Overreaction. And the
list goes on and on.
Sometimes,
we’re so foolish in our reactions that it spills into our faith. We think of
such a reaction here in our text during a lesson about prayer. The statement
primed for the outburst of reaction comes in verse 11: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who
ask Him!”
Think
about what Jesus says here. There’s a positive message about the Father’s gifts
to His children – no one has an issue with that. However, that positivity is
contrasted with the gifts we offer as sinful humans – even the good ones. Jesus
is highlighting the Father’s grace by showing the insufficiency of our own
gifts. Sure, we know how to be nice to one another, but not even near the level
of what God does for us. When Jesus says, “how
much more…” He is expressing a greatness of both quantity and quality. God
the Father is able to give more than us and give better than us.
The key
difference is holiness. No matter how good our own actions are, they are not
done in righteousness. We are still evil people because of our sin. We are
still limited people because of our sin. The truly amazing aspect of Christ’s
work of salvation on our behalf, is that His actions become ours. Therefore,
faith offers a way to serve as God serves – to give on His level, in
righteousness. But, only through Jesus. Here’s where the overaction comes in.
The unbelieving world doesn’t like this distinction because it excludes them.
They don’t like the passages of Scripture that tell us, “without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6)” and “There is none who does righteous, no not
even one (Romans 3:10).” The world doesn’t like this because it shows that
even the best of our actions cannot measure up the treasures given by
Christ.
You’ve
heard this overreaction before. You have probably even felt it in your own
heart. It goes something like this: “How dare
a Christian insinuate that my works aren’t as good as theirs!” Notice, from
the start, the focus on the person and not the Savior. What the
Word of God tells us about this truth is that it’s all about God. The Christian
is simply the vessel through which God works. It’s not about comparing one
person to another. It’s about comparing Christ to sinners. And in Christ, we
can do His will. Think about it from the other perspective. Who would want to
believe in a God whose works are no different from those whom He is supposed to
save? All unbelief seeks to lower God down to our level. To fashion Him in our
image, instead of being conformed to His.
You don’t
have to feel minimized by standing for Christ above yourself. You don’t have to
be angry or ashamed at the prospect of not being good enough on your own.
Perhaps Jesus puts this statement in here, which is so prone to overreaction,
at the topic of prayer for the express purpose of pointing us to our needs.
Isn’t that what prayer is for? Jesus says earlier: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock,
and it will be opened to you. 8 "For everyone who asks receives, and he
who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Jesus wants us
to come to Him and receive, but those who have no needs won’t do that.
Here,
Jesus was speaking to the common people – during His sermon on the Mount. This
was no judgment upon the hypocritical Jewish leaders, just ordinary people like
you. However, Jesus did say something similar to the Pharisees: Jesus answered and said to them,
"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Luke
5:31-32)."
The truly
hypocritical Christian is the one who spends time making themselves look good
but is dishonest about needing Jesus. The world despises hypocritical Christians.
Yet, at the very same time, they despise the truth that protects us from
hypocrisy, that our works and not as good as God’s. You see, the height of
unbelief is playing the comparison game with other people. Without God in your
life, it’s a constant rat race to try to be the best. Therefore, the world
overreacts when Christians speak about serving in righteousness by faith as the
higher call. Yet, by the same token, they despise Christians, who do the
opposite, who talk good but don’t practice their faith. The world does both
because it is fueled by comparison.
Jesus, in
contrast, wants us to look to Him. Look to Him to compare, not to others. Look
to Him for help, not to yourself. Jesus is above the struggle and toil of this
world. Jesus is not caught up in the never-ending quest to prove Himself better
than others. Don’t be misled, Jesus is better than others. But unlike sinful
humans, He doesn’t spend His time trying to constantly prove it and show it to
the detriment of other peoples’ lives. He proved it once for all, in complete
love, when He offered up His life for everyone in the world.
Prayer is
the gift that Jesus now gives to keep us attached to Him. Look at the certainty
with which Jesus speaks. He wants His children to have confidence that He will
hear their prayers and bless them. But the nature of a Christian’s prayer is
like its blessings – both are unique in Christ. Both the nature of prayer and
what God gives us through prayer are built around Jesus. This tells us that a
devoted faith and prayer life, which trusts Jesus above all things, will be
different than the things we do on our own. To say that we trust in Jesus and
we desire to communicate with Him through prayer, yet defiantly hang onto the
justifying our own actions against His makes no sense – and God’s point here is
that it impedes our prayer life and faith. The very confidence we have in faith
stems from the fact that it is Jesus alone whom we trust – even over ourselves.
Therefore,
in faith and in prayer, there is no need to overreact. When we overreact
because of the glaring contrast between God’s holiness and our sinfulness, it hampers
the gospel’s effect in our hearts. The apostle James writes in his letter about
prayer, saying, “You do not have because
you do not ask (James 4:2).” Think of how many Christians limp along weakly
in their faith simply because they do not communicate with God – they fail to
even ask. Too many of these situations are borne from an overreaction to the
Word of God, when it tells us about the honest, but unpleasant truth about my sin.
When we
get upset at God for telling us that our works are less than His, it implants a
death trap in our minds that is directed at our faith. It’s one thing to
believe a lie – that’s dangerous enough. But, some lies we feel justified in
believing. If we are self-righteous in our actions, even to the point of
thinking we are as good as God or that we don’t need God, we are committing
idolatry. And why pray to another God when you control and dictate the matters
of your life?
Jesus is
focusing on something greater than mere human morality – what we might call
civil goodness. Jesus is talking about the “Law and Prophets” morality – the
type of goodness that only comes from through the Holy Spirit working through
the Word. Jesus says at the end of our text: "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them,
for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus
paired this thought with loving God above all things as the summary of God’s
will. This is the higher morality. What God deems as righteous comes down to not
only what is done but how it is done. Basic human nature simply looks at what
is done and deems it right or wrong, but it never considers the source.
Therefore, human morality changes and is often dictated by the majority in the
culture. Jesus, here, when showing the difference between our works and God’s,
points to the source as well – the Law and Prophets. The difference between
works done in faith and those done without faith – comes down to both the
nature of Christ and the source through which He reveals and shares Himself
with us. On our own, we have neither the nature of Christ or the source of His
Word, whether we call our actions good or not.
Prayer
gives us confidence in God’s blessings through Christ, and dispels the insecure
fear of losing our own power in the situation. The uniqueness of faith and
prayer is that to have them we have to lose something first. Most people never
get past this because they overreact about what they lose. Confessing sins.
Getting rid of anger and pride. Trusting in God’s will. Leaving all control to
Him. These are things we give up from our own hands.
But, if our
God is the only one. If He is better than anyone else. If He can bless in ways
no one else can even imagine, is it worth hanging onto our control at the
expense of our faith? Should we not strive to serve a God that is higher than
us, and that can grant blessings in greater supply and quality than us? There’s
no need to fear in our faith about what we might miss out on – for all the
treasures of heaven are found in Christ Jesus.
Be
confident in your Savior. Don’t go without simply because you didn’t ask. Don’t
limp along in faith because you’re wrestling with God for control. There is
security and confidence in trusting Jesus – trusting Him over the threats and
temptations of the world, but even more so, trusting Him over the fears of your
heart. Your heavenly Father knows you. He knows your needs. He knows your
desires. He knows your mistakes. He knows your fears. And He’s given you His
Son in place of them all. Faith in Jesus and operating by prayer is about
living in reality – the good and the bad. It’s about being open and honest with
God in all matters. And through faith, those blessings of our Lord and Savior
are unrivaled. Amen.
The peace
of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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