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Life: Connected
Asking, Seeking, Knocking
Speaker – Crispin Schroeder
2.20.10
I. Intro
II. Matthew 7:7-12
A. Dynamic Spiritual Life
B. Barriers to Asking
1. Abuses of Asking
2. Risks of Asking
C. The Importance of “ing”
D. God’s Goodness
III. Conclusion - What if We Took Jesus Seriously?
40 Days of Faith 2010
Northshore Vineyard Church
1. Invite God to address a couple of personal needs.
A. Ask
• What do you want Jesus to do for you?
• What do you really want Jesus to do for you (motivation behind the desire)?
B. Seek
• In what areas do you need God’s guidance and wisdom (be specific)?
C. Knock
• Is there a door you need opened in your life right now?
2. Three is Enough Group - Do this journey with others. Find 1-3 other people that you can meet with for 1 hour a week to process your faith journey together.
3. Follow along with 40 Days of Faith resources which will be updated weekly on our website www.northshorevineyard.org
4. Anyone can participate in this journey. For some, this may be simply trying out faith for 40 days to see if you might want to be a Christian. For others of you this may be a chance to reignite a faith that has not been very dynamic lately.
5. Pray daily (asking, seeking, knocking) for God to meet the needs that you have listed.
Just for the record I raised my hand here in my study when you asked the questions of “Who listens to the NSV podcast?” and “Who has visited our resources page?” Thank you. Uhthankyouverymuuuuuuuuuuuuch!
ReplyDeleteI thought you made an excellent point about how the “Ask, seek, and knock” gospel has been twisted at times, as of late from those that want to preach the “prosperity” gospel, as if God is the mighty bank ATM and will respond to our means to an end requests if our hearts and lives are not right in relationship with Him and His will for our lives.
Certainly I agree that I have been reluctant at times in asking anything of God. At one point in my earlier walk with Christ I somehow (and erroneously) thought that if God wanted me to have what I was going to ask, then He’d give it to me. And that if I had to ask, then I was showing that I did not have faith. Ouch. Couple that with the problem that Jesus said that if we had the faith of a mustard seed we could move a mountain. Ouch again. I thought that I must really be missing the mark in that if I can’t even get my smaller requests met, than I must have a faith even smaller than the mustard seed!
I can smile a bit about that now, thank God. He has reminded me that it is He who supplies the faith that leads to a changed life, and in the context of your sermon, it is He who provides the faith to ask, seek, and knock. It’s not like we can “will” more faith on our own. It’s God who decides what measure of faith He will provide and equally important, when he will provide that measure of faith. While faith is a gift and the Word tells us that we should seek the “higher” gifts, it’s important to remember that He gives us exactly the right measure of faith, at exactly the right time, in accordance with His perfectly plan for our lives. And that is just another awesome example of just how much He truly loves us. Awesome, huh? Thanks Bro. TA