The Good Gifts of Wisdom, Unity and Restoration
Series: The Sermon on the Mount
August 22, 2021 - David Stockton
Well, let's go to Matthew, 7:7-12:
“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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”
Nobody answer that, please. Some of you might have been there before. I've been close.
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
Hopefully nobody's been there.
“If you, then, though you are evil…”
Jesus Christ is talking to his disciples and, we can safely say, to us. He's calling us evil, which is interesting, and we are, in comparison with God. If we’re evil and we know. How to give good gifts to our children…
“…how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
So basically, we're at our third chapter of of the book of Matthew on the Sermon on the Mount. And what that means is that Matthew, who was writing this, you know, a long time ago, who was a disciple of Jesus, he had spent time with Jesus. He'd spent years with Jesus following him around, touring with him as Jesus went around the Sea of Galilee and preached about the kingdom of heaven.
Now, Jesus, three times we know, went to Jerusalem to go and teach there as well. But most of the time, Jesus stayed in a very small town, a very village-type environment. And he would speak to people around the Sea of Galilee. He would proclaim to them the kingdom of heaven, which again is so wild to think about what the teachings of Jesus and the name of Jesus has meant to the world over — when Jesus was such a small town individual. And yet he would preach about the kingdom of heaven.
So this sermon we've talked about is a little bit like Jesus’ stump speech. Matthew was able to record this, and it's recorded in Luke too, in mostly the same shape. He was able to record this some some years after Jesus was gone because it was so familiar to him, because every village that Jesus would go to, Jesus would say, “Hey, let me tell you about the kingdom of heaven.” And he would basically share this similar type thing.
So we have in Chapter five where Jesus kind of shocks us with the Beatitudes. He says, “Let me tell you about the kingdom of heaven. The blessed are the ones who are poor in spirit,” which is such a reverse to our economy. The economy of the world is — if you're poor in spirit, you're not blessed in any way. But in the economy of heaven, it's kind of an upside down kingdom.
As one commentary talks about, really, there's a reversal in the key role. The first shall be last, the last shall be first. There's this understanding that we have to — if we really want to be good or rich in the kingdom of heaven, we're going to have to learn the kingdom of heaven’s economy — which is almost in direct opposition to the economy of this world. So we've been kind of digging into that.
And then he goes right after that and he talks about the kingdom of heaven is not only upside down, but it's more of an inside out kingdom. And he starts to talk about the hypocrites and those who seem really great on the outside, but their hearts are far from God. They seem to be doing all the Christian things really well, but there's no relationship with God in the secret place.
So the kingdom of heaven, according to Jesus, is a real inside out kingdom. It doesn't really matter what the outside looks like, but as we know, we all judge from the exterior. It used to be that we were judged based on the way someone looks in any moment, but now we judge them based on the way they look in Instagram after they’re all prettied up and their life looks so awesome. We're so external in the way that we judge or value things, but that's not the way it is in the kingdom of heaven.
And so Jesus is kind of unpacking and reversing things and the disciples, as they're hearing these words, their lives are literally being turned inside out and upside down. And those of us who've been with this for four months, we've kind of felt some of that.
And Jesus gets to chapter six and he really starts to talk about not just our relationship around the world with us, but our relationship with God. And he kind of turns some things on its head there. And in the midst of that, he gives us the Lord's Prayer, which is such a beautiful way for us to react and and interact with God. He actually says that we're supposed to use the word Daddy when we pray, which in a first century Jewish custom would be so blasphemous and offensive. That's what Jesus taught his disciples to do. Call him Daddy when you pray. You need to realize how close he is and how for you he is.
Then, right after that, he launches into this,”Don't worry, don't be anxious for anything.” You know, “Look at the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. God's taking care of them. So you who God loves so much more, he's going to take care of you.” It’s this real hopeful thing and it was way, you know, better and comforting than Chapter five.
And now we're in Chapter seven. And in some ways, it does seem to be like a closing to the to the sermon. Right after all of that nicety, all of that kindness and the generosity of God at the end of Chapter six, he hits us in Chapter seven with, “Don’t be a judgmental jerk.” And in some ways, he's almost saying, “All of these teachings I've given you, don't use them against other people. You're supposed to use them against yourself. But you're going to have this tendency. Once you've been with me for a while and you start to feel a little progress in these areas, and you start to get to know the rules pretty good, and you start to get to know the ways pretty good, that instead of using them to apply to your relationship with me and your walk with me, you're going to start wanting to use them to tell other people about how much better you are than them and how horrible they are. That's going to make you feel better in some weird, sick way.”
And so Jesus, at the end of this message, is starting to caution his people, saying, “Hey, don't ever use this stuff against somebody else.” And he uses the funny illustration of, “Don’t start looking at the speck in someone else's eye and say, ‘Let me help you with that,’ while you got this giant plank coming out of your eye.” He's saying, “Don't be so judgmental, don't use this stuff against people.”
But then he kind of balances that out. He says also, “Don't let the dogs and the pigs, you know, into what is sacred, because they'll tear it to pieces.” And so this is kind of the lead up that we have to Matthew 7:7. It's this, “Don't be judgmental, but also be careful that you don't let the dogs and the pigs in too close.” And then we have our passage. And then you know how this thing finishes? With Jesus teaching on false prophets, false teachers and foolish builders.
There are two things that I want to do today. I want to first look at this passage and unpack it a little bit, but then I want to back us up a little bit and try and figure out why this passage about prayer, basically, and the good gifts that God wants to give wasn't put in Chapter 6, when Jesus was teaching all of those things. Why Jesus, or Matthew, or both, decided to put this good gifts in prayer teaching right in the midst of judgmental, right in the midst of, you know, being careful you don't let the dogs and the pigs get too close, and false teachers, false prophets and foolish builders.
So at first it's going to be pretty easy going, but then you're gonna have to do some work. All right? School's back in session, so guess what? Church school back in session today. We're going through some exegesis, hermeneutics, staying away from eisegesis. You with me? No, you don't have to be. It'll make sense, hopefully, in a little bit.
All right. So ask, seek and knock. Jesus is teaching, Matthew's recording it for us. He says:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
This is awesome teaching on prayer. This is awesome teaching about our relationship with God. It has two things. First, we're supposed to be bold. It's bold to just go up and ask.
It's interesting because we have foster kids that live in our home from time to time. We have one right now. And it's interesting to see the way my kids will ask for things. And then, you know, a foster kid, when they first get with us, whether they feel the the comfort of asking for something or not, we have to help them start to feel a little more bold. And then at some point, it's like, “Okay, you can back up the boldness a little bit, maybe.” Feeling a little bit bold. No, we don't want that. I mean, we kind of want that, but not want that. We don't want that.
But there's a boldness that Jesus is saying. Again, we can hearken back to the context of the Sermon on the Mount and think about the Daddy. The Daddy. I wrote these things down. Daddy over the heavens is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You should be asking God because God is so excited about giving you things, is what Jesus is trying to say. Daddy over the heavens is a rewarder for the secret good we do.
Do you remember that God is always watching what we do in secret? We learned from Matthew Chapter 6 he cares more about what we do in secret than what we do publicly. Doesn't mean he doesn't care what you do publicly. I think that's important. But he cares about what you're do in secret. Jesus constantly said, “And your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you openly.” So God is watching the secret place of your life, what you do in secret, not so that he can say, “Ha! Caught you doing something!” No, he's looking there because he wants to reward you for the good you do in secret.
And our daddy over the heavens cares more about you than the birds of the air, or the flowers of the field, and they're taken care of and they're beautiful in their own way. That's what Jesus is pointing out. And your father in heaven cares so much about you. So you should come to him boldly asking and seeking and knocking.
But then in this also, there's a persistence to it. There's a persistent succumbing to God, and there's actually kind of a little bit of that conjugation going on in the original language here of this, like persistent, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Don't stop pounding on the door. And there's an importance to that and I just heard this recently, I know a lot of us are burdened about Afghanistan and other things going on in the world, Haiti and then, even closer to home. There's these challenges, these very difficult situations. And I liked what this person said about outcry being a form of prayer, where we just kind of cry out to the Lord. And let that be enough.
And what he says is,
“The outcry is great. And as tragic as that is, it's very important for there to be an outcry. Why? Because scripture gives witness to the God of the Bible is One who responds to outcry.”
God's not put off by outcry.
“Outcry is actually a form of hope that says there has to be something better — that this is not the way it should be. Outcry is filled with hope because it refuses to sign off on the status quo.”
And then what he was saying was,
“May we join in the outcry that rises up from Afghanistan as we offer our prayers to God and anticipate that God will act and bring deliverance.”
A form of prayer, outcry prayer coming from Habakkuk. Just in case you don't know what that is, it says,
“How long, Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen. Or cry out to you, Violence, but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that the justice is perverted.”
And this is what was coming out of Habakkuk’s heart as he came to the Lord in his day and age. And the Lord did meet him there. And there's more to that story. But outcry is a good form of prayer, because ultimately it is a hopeful prayer. And then what is so hard is he says that we need to come with these outcries to the Lord with anticipation.
That's what I think Jesus is trying to encourage to his disciples. Remember, they were in a rough situation. They were under complete and total Roman domination. They were under complete oppression from the religious leaders and the wealthy of that day. So much so that Jesus, he continued to say the things he was doing, do the things he was doing, and they actually pinned him to a tree. That was the kind of society he was living in in that day. The animosity and the demonization that was going on led them to that point. And yet Jesus was telling them to pray with anticipation. To pray to a God who loves to give good gifts.
That's tough for me sometimes in my own troubles, and when I look at the world's situations, it's hard for me to pray with expectation and hope of answers.
And there's this quote from a guy named William Carey, who was actually a missionary in India, and his big quote that I've heard many times, but I've never really been able to trust it, but it says:
“Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.”
And I think that is a way that we're supposed to come to the Lord — asking, seeking and knocking, that we just are expecting great things to come from God.
My wife just recently, I guess it's been probably a couple of years now, but she just was kind of at this point of like this tension between praying and having expectation, and praying and just being like, “Nothing ever happens.” And so she just started writing prayers on our wall and in our TV room. And it was like at first it was like, “Okay, a couple of prayers right there.” But she just kept writing. And now there's like whole corner of the wall that was just like written with all these things. And it's not like it's like all artistically done. It is just like Blaah! Right there on the wall.
And what's interesting, though, is because they're written they're on the wall, like for us to see she's gone back from time to time and she's written an answer. Like, “This happened,” and “this happened.” “This still hasn't happened.” And then sometimes she'll like write some arrows and be like, “Well, this happened, but it was kind of like over here on this side.” It's interesting the way she's connected some of the dots. But it's actually given our family just now a little bit of proof that the good gifts do come. They don't always come in the way that we're wanting them to come, but the Lord is very faithful to answer and to give good gifts to those who ask and seek and knock with some boldness and some persistence.
So that's simple there. We've got that. No problem. And then we've got the good gifts that he wants, the way we all would love good gifts. We love to think about God wanting to give us good gifts. But that's kind of the easy unpacking of this, because this is this passage is put right in the midst of a context that Matthew has connected — inspired by the Holy Spirit — and the very last verse in this section says, “So ask, seek, knock. Expectation, boldness, persistence. God loves to give good gifts you. So do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So all of that I just told you is so that you will begin to do unto others as you would have done unto you.”
Which brings us back to the other bookend of that where basically, Jesus says in verse two of this section, “Judge others in the way that you want to be judged.” And so all of this really does tie together in the writer Matthew's mind and in Jesus's mind as he’ teaching.
And so this is where it's been a little bit more difficult to kind of say, “Back up. Why does this fit here? Why didn't this passage on prayer get put in with all the other passengers on prayer in Chapter 6? And all the happy times, thinking about God as someone who cares for the birds and the flowers. Why is it put right in the midst of this about judging and all of that?”
So that's what we're going to kind of work on now. So exegesis — Jesus is basically trying to draw out what the person writing the scriptures meant to the people that they were writing to. So it's trying to get your mind back into a first century Jewish perspective. Right? And think about it along those lines.
So Jesus is teaching, and we know Jesus, Incarnate Word of God. He's got a pretty good understanding of what the kingdom of heaven is. And he's teaching his disciples and his disciples, interestingly enough, we think of them — or at least I've been thinking about this — I think of them as the disciple, like there's this one disciple, but it's disciples. There's like 12 of them. Cookie cutter, whatever.
But the truth is, we think about the disciples that Jesus chose, you’ve got people in such various forms on the political spectrum, various forms on the socioeconomic perspectives. I mean, you've got you've got a zealot, who's basically like, “Burn Rome to the ground —yesterday!” Like, “Let's go, let's do this.” When they beheaded John the Baptist, the 5,000 men that went out to Jesus, those 5,000 men were coming out to say, “Jesus, let's march.” And Jesus gave him some bread. They tried to make Jesus king and he departed from them to a quiet place. So there was that kind of political intensity going on and some of Jesus’ disciples were totally bought in to the “Down with Rome. Let’s revolt.”
And then you had Matthew, who, a tax collector who's basically like, “Nah, we could work with Rome. That’s cool. They are, you know, they're not that bad, I guess.”
And then he had everybody in between.
You had the Sons of Thunder, John, his brother James. I don't know exactly what that means, except for they probably liked to fight. They're like the Enneagram eights. They're like those people scrolling through on Instagram just looking for somebody to chomp. You know? Like, “Come on, baby, somebody say something because I'm ready to thunder.” You guys know who I'm talking about. Some of you were like, “Why is he talking about me?”
They were different people, and Jesus was drawing them together into something — a unity that was supposed to be more powerful than all their differences, somewhere a little bit further along in their theological understandings.
Some were rich, some were poor. And Jesus was trying to bring this brood into something beautiful. And he's teaching them about, “Don’t be a judgmental jerk and use these teachings against others; but also sometimes remember that there is a little bit of healthy separation necessary watching out for the pigs and the dogs, false teachers, false prophets, foolish builders. And ultimately, as you're seeking me and praying all these things, I want you to remember to do unto others as you'd have them do to you.”
It's kind of this interesting type thing. And so here's the way I would unpack it. Someone who is prone to being critical — it’s interesting because well, two things. First, you need to know about me, when I walk home, like I open the door to my house and it's like instantaneous. There's 15 things I can point out that are not going right. Now some of those things I shouldn't take too much, you know, fault for, because like they leave the door — I go home and it's like every day the doors are wide open. And obviously, in the summer in Phenix, that's a problem for a guy who's got to pay the bills. Right? So everybody gets that.
But there's a deeper kind of challenge there, because when the doors are open in my house, that means, yeah, for sure, all the hot air is just like, whoosh, flowing out the door. That's hard. But that also means there's probably a chicken or a tortoise inside my house. I'm glad you think that's funny. It's not. I don't go home and think, Oh, how funny is this? That there's a chicken or a tortoise? Because you know what chickens and tortoises do inside your house? They poop! I can't tell you how many days I've come home in the last week. And there's just like chicken poop all over. And then I'm like, “What is going on?”
And then I hear, “Baaaahr.” And then I have to go find the chicken and get the chicken out. Pick up the poop. And one time — I’m not joking — I came home and I was just like, “This is not chicken poop. This is larger.
And we have dogs. And it's like, “But this doesn't look like dog and it looks smeared everywhere.” And it was a tortoise. And we have those giant desert turtles and they do come in. They've been like, “Hey, this is cool.” And it pooped. And then it walked this way and then it walked back. And they don't have a lot of, like, you know, clearance going on. And so when it came back, it just like, scrrrrrrr, all the way into my bedroom, it was in the corner of the bedroom on top of my guitar. Yeah. You guys think it's so funny.
But it's interesting because that critical nature, it's weird because I've noticed like one of my gifts, you know, Romans, 12-type gifts that God has given me is is to be an encourager. And so, it's so funny how my encouragement gift when I, like, encourage people can distort into, “I'm really encouraging you to do the things I want you to do.” And really, it's coming off very critical. I don't know if some of you struggle with that same thing, but like I'm supposed to encourage people and build them up, but instead in my unhealth, I use words of encouragement to really belittle people and to critique them.
And what's sad is, sometimes I'll see it on my daughter's faces. I’ve had to apologize so many times. And we have to watch that in our own lives. Again as we start to develop in the Lord and get better, and the more we got to watch that, it doesn't just turn into, “Here. Let me encourage you. Let me pray for you,” in a way that's really going to be demeaning and belittling.
But anyway, so with all of that, we've got to try and figure out what Jesus is talking about, why this was put in this context, and this is what I did. So to exegete this chapter, I think this was what we would say:
Don't be judgmental. Don't be a judgmental jerk to those around you. The fellow struggling Jews, the fellow disciples you disagree with might be exegesis in that context. Don't be the judgmental jerk to the Pharisees or the Romans, even though you might be tempted to. And don't be judgmental to those who don't get to be as close to Jesus as you did, disciples. Understand that the grace that you've been given, the mercy you've been given, is a generosity from God and extend that generosity.
But instead ask, seek and knock in prayer on their behalf for God to give them the gift of waking up to the kingdom of heaven — not to your version — but to the actual kingdom of heaven. I think that's why Jesus is putting this,”Ask, seek and knock, because you're going to get into tough relationships and I want you to ask, seek and knock on their behalf that they would be able to awaken and understand what God is doing in their life.
And remember to not let someone who is selfish or couldn't care less — the pigs and the dogs — have access to what is holy and sacred in your life. Remember that the healthy separation is good.”
And I think this is a bit of what Jesus is trying to teach us in this passage, is all of this is pointed to the judgment of the the people we critique, the people who are not like us, the people who are hard for us. And one way to think about it easily is maybe it's a child of yours that's that's gone astray. And you're supposed to consistently, persistently, boldly be asking and seeking and knocking that the Way Maker would make a way for them to return.
It's supposed to be like that prodigal father who goes to the edge of your property every single day just to look and see if maybe they're coming home. And to watch your heart from becoming cold and judgmental and critical towards them, so that the day when they do come, you'll be able to pull out the robe and the ring and have a party.
And then the good gifts he talks about actually — sorry, let's continue to talk about — so now the hermeneutic for us today: Don't be a judgmental jerk to those around you, your fellow Christians, those who are different on politics, race, sexuality, gender roles and Covid. Ever heard of those things? Use Jesus' teaching. Don't use Jesus’ teaching to judge others before you judge yourselves with it. It's better to ask, seek and knock in prayer on their behalf for God to give them the waking up to your ways that are right and you know it? No! That they would wake up to Jesus’ ways which are right. And we're all trying to fall in line as best we can.
And remember: You don't have to let someone selfish, who couldn't care less, have too much access to you. This is an important point, I think, that we need to have; because a lot of you are embracing the tension of loving in a really difficult way. And that's awesome. But what Jesus is the saying here about the pigs and the dogs is there are people who are like dogs. They really are just trying to get what they can get. You know, think of the dog, like, going up on the table, you know, trying to snag that whatever piece of bread. The dog's not thinking about who needs the bread or what's best. The dog is just trying to get what they can get.
And there are people in your lives that are claiming to really want the truth and want genuine relationship. But really, they're just trying to get what they want to get. And in those situations, Jesus is saying, “Don't give what is sacred to those. Don't give the sacredness of a fellowship that's built on where you're trying to trust each other and really find common ground and figure out the unity of the Spirit. Don't trust those things to the dogs who really are just trying to get whatever they can get.”
And then the pigs who couldn't care less. These are people who might act like they really want to be in relationship. They act like they really want to, but really, they just don't care. They don't care the way you do.
And what happens is, if you let those people in too much or too often, you find yourself with kind of this depleted amount of grace and patience all the time for the relationships that really do matter. It's important as believers that we kind of have that healthy separation, so maybe those relationships, those friendships that you've lost in light of all of the ideological warfare going on lately, maybe some of them, you said, “Hey, why don't we get together every year instead of every day? Why don't we have a conversation maybe every few months instead of weekly?” Because there's a proverb that says, “Guard your heart, for out of it springs the issues of life.” And if you're not paying attention to that sacred, holy place, that secret place in there, it might cause the rest of your life to not be making much sense either.
And then ultimately, to conclude, let's talk about the gifts that I think Jesus is wanting to give here, what Jesus is talking about, when in this context of all of this relational challenge, he talks about these good gifts that God wants to give.
And I think the good gifts that God wants to give are different than the gifts that we want. For us, we want, you know, gifts like gift card to Chipotle or something like that, in case you get hungry. We want gifts like Suns tickets, because now they’re worth going to watch. We have all these different ideas of gifts that we want to bring, but if you're going to go with the kingdom of heaven and the economy of heaven, what are the gifts that God thinks are good? What are the gifts that he longs to bring?
And we have scriptures that help us with that. First of all, we know that God loves to give wisdom generously. James teaches us, “Anyone who asks of God for wisdom, he will give generously.” It's one of his favorite things to give, is wisdom. And we need wisdom and direction right now. How to navigate these times that we're living in. How to love those that are really hard for us. We need wisdom. We need guidance. Who are the pigs and the dogs? And, “How come I can't call everyone a pig and a dog in life?” They aren't all pigs and dogs, if you're calling everyone a pig and dog, you do need some wisdom.
But this is the good gift that God loves to give. That's why I think it was tucked into here as opposed to the other things. The other things are a little bit more about the provisions and needs that we have in this life, physical felt needs. But here the gifts that God wants to give a little bit more about the wisdom, of how to navigate all of these relationships.
And another gift that God loves to give is unity. “Behold how good and how pleasant it is when we dwell together in unity. There the Lord commands a blessing.”
When we actually unify, when we come together, whether it's easy or hard, but we come together in genuineness, God can't help it. He's just like,”Bam. Where’s my checkbook?” You know, he doesn’t have a checkbook, but like, you know, he's just like, “I just love to see you guys as one.”
And ultimately, John 17, the last thing that Jesus prayed, for his disciples, in front of his disciples, before he went to the cross, he prayed that they would be one.
And in some magical, seemingly almost-blasphemous-unless-Jesus-said-it way, that our oneness would not just be with each other, but also with the Godhead. This is the gift ultimately that Jesus came to bring, that we would have a oneness with the Father, a oneness with the Son, a oneness with the Spirit and a oneness with His Bride, which is all of us — the Church, the family of God.
So what are the good gifts that Jesus wants to give and why is it tucked into this section about false prophets, false teachers, foolish builders, judgmental pigs and dogs? That's because I think these are the gifts that Jesus wants to give us. And I think these are the gifts that we really need to be crying out for right now: wisdom and guidance and unity and restored relationships.
I have some of those relationships where people have decided that I'm wrong, and they have to go somewhere else now. And we've been together for a long time. But I mean, I haven't really changed, but they just decided, you know, “I need to go over here because you're wrong.”
And there's this whole concept of progressive Christianity where it's like, “Hey, we need to rethink everything. We go through deconstruction.” And I'm all for deconstruction. I'm all for progress. No doubt about it. And I think the evangelical church, me, my own life, our church, our society, America, everything has things that need to be deconstructed and reevaluated and reformed. No doubt about it. And I'm all for that.
But like one of my pastor friends says, as he says, everybody I've seen go progressive Christianity, it’s really just one step before post-Christianity. And he wasn't saying that to call them bad or anything, he was just grieving because he's seen so many people kind of step outside the fellowship, outside of the scriptures, outside of these things, and they don't come back. They don't make it back. Or they go through healthy deconstruction, which is good, but healthy deconstruction, as the world's describing it now, has no hope of reconstruction. As soon as you start to construct anything, they say that you're bad.
And so you have people just in deconstruction long enough to where, eventually, they just have nothing. And when I read this and when I was hearing the Lord say, “Ask, seek and knock,” I started to just have this hope and think maybe, just maybe what you want me to pray for some comeback stories in some of these relationships. Whether it's a family member, whether it's a child, whether it's a friend, whether it's someone that used to have sweet fellowship with in the Lord and now it's gone. And I think Jesus is saying, “I want you to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, and know that one of the best gifts I love to give is these comeback stories. Remember that story I told about the prodigal came back home.”
And I don't want people to come back to my way of thinking, I want people to come back to the Lord's way of thinking and realize we can walk together, that the unity of the Spirit has to be stronger and better and bigger than all of the differences we might have politically, even though those things can be important.
And so I'm asking I'm seeking, I'm knocking. And I think Matthew and Jesus are inviting us to do the same.
So let's pray:
“Jesus, we do so much, that you just don't let us do our own thing, but you keep teaching us and guiding us. And I pray that we would know how to interpret it as well as apply all of this teaching today. For your glory, Lord, in Jesus’ name, amen.
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