So good morning and welcome to Supernatural Saturday.
This is our holiday edition.
We are in the Advent season, and I'm going to be doing a Supernatural Saturday next week
on Advent.
And so if you want to be anywhere live, you're going to want to be at that because we're
in a very supernatural and notable season.
We're in a supernatural season.
And so I'm going to kind of start the Advent series today by talking about a specific scripture
from the Sermon on the Mount.
But before I get into that, I want to talk to all of you new people about what is Supernatural
Saturday.
It is a time when we come together for the purpose of looking to heaven and stepping
into God's reality together.
You know, there's no distance in the spirit.
And we just had everyone put their cities and states, countries in the chat.
And you see that we're all over the place.
But we're together as one on this call.
And that is very powerful.
The Bible says when we gather together and we're in one mind and one accord, crazy things
can happen.
And so we've had all kinds of miracles happen on these Supernatural Saturday calls.
We've had people get healed.
We've had people get freedom, breakthrough.
We've had people get their prayers answered, long prayers, prayers that had not been answered
for a long time.
We've had people have answered prayers quickly, accelerated answers to prayers.
People have gotten clarity and wisdom and revelation.
All kinds of things happen when we gather together.
And it's not just about me leading you on these Saturdays.
It's about you coming and you adding your faith as well to your brothers and sisters.
And so Father God, we look to you this morning and we're so thankful.
We're thankful that you are not a man that you can lie.
You can't lie.
Everything that you've said is true.
And so we come into agreement with that this morning.
And we want to partner with heaven.
We want to lock arms with each other and with you.
And we want to see your will done on the earth.
We want to see breakthrough, not just for ourselves, but for the others around us and
for the others that we don't even know.
Father, we're asking that you would utilize us.
Your word says that you're looking, that you're searching for someone that you can show your
power through.
And so we're offering ourselves this morning.
We're volunteering ourselves this morning.
Show your power through us.
In Jesus name, amen.
So the other morning I hijacked prayer.
I a lot of times hijack on hump day.
I get on Wednesdays for whatever reason, I wake up with something that I want to share.
And then I jump into that prayer chat.
And so thank you for the grace to do that.
I'm sure that the prayer leaders, when I do hijack, I know that you're glad that I came,
but sometimes maybe what you were feeling in your heart doesn't get fully accomplished.
And so I appreciate you honoring me in that way.
So this Wednesday, I woke up and God had been talking to me in my sleep.
When else God kind of talks to you when you're in between being fully asleep and fully awake?
Raise your hand if that's you.
Lots of hands being raised.
One of the reasons why, okay, put your hands down.
We'll have another question.
Go ahead and put your hands down.
Go ahead and get your hands down.
Now raise your hands if God talks to you in the shower.
Got that shower prophetic life going on.
Okay.
So let's talk about that for just a second, because we are going to be doing a special
session this coming week on Thursday, and it is about hearing from God.
Now, it's great that we come here on Saturday and we gather together and we listen to what
Jackie heard from God.
And then God speaks to us when we're here in this group, just like I prayed a few minutes
ago.
But we want you to have those tools to be able to hear from God all the time, not just
under special circumstances.
Okay.
So the reason why a lot of times we feel like God's talking louder to us when we're in the
shower or in those moments right before consciousness, is because God is speaking to us in a way
that we can't hear.
like full consciousness when we're waking up in the morning
is because we haven't had a chance to get fully in gear
in our own minds yet.
Think about it, when you're in the shower,
there's a frontal cortex.
Everyone put your hand on the front of your head,
on the front of your forehead there, put your hand there.
Okay, your brain, you have a frontal cortex of your brain
and this is your learning center.
This is the part of your brain that lights up
when you're learning new things, okay?
And you have to use this part of your brain
to learn new things.
So when you're learning a new skill,
when you're on the job training
and you're learning new things,
or maybe when you're learning an instrument
or how to play a game,
this is the part of your brain
that's going to be activated, okay?
But when you've done something over and over and over
and over and over again,
you don't have to use that part of your brain.
You're operating on other parts of your brain
because now you could,
have you ever heard that expression,
I could do this in my sleep?
Right, it's almost robotic, it's so ritualistic.
You've done it so many times before.
And the reason why God seems to speak so loud to us
in the shower is because we are not fully engaged,
concentrating, we're just in there
kind of going through the motions.
We're kind of a captive audience for God
because we're not all up in our thinking.
Does that make sense to you?
It's the perfect time for him to talk to you
because you're not trying to figure anything out.
You're not, you're lathering up.
You know how to do that.
You're not even thinking about doing it.
It's just happening.
So there's space there.
There's space there for God to interject
because you're not running around,
worrying, thinking, trying to figure stuff out.
And then same when you're waking up in the morning,
you haven't had a chance to engage yet.
Now, as soon as you fully engage,
you're gonna be thinking about,
oh, what do I gotta do today?
What do I gotta wear?
What do I gotta eat?
What do I gotta do?
Those birds from that cartoon,
they're like, what are we gonna do?
What are we gonna do?
You remember those vultures?
I have no idea what movie that's from,
but some kid's movie, maybe.
Hold on.
We've got an unmuted friend.
Okay, so we're gonna talk about making space
to hear the Lord this morning,
which is why all of this is pertinent.
But that's why you seem to hear God
so clearly in those moments.
But you can cultivate that.
You don't just have to have the shower
be your prayer closet.
I mean, I like hearing from God in the shower,
and I've gotten some of my most crazy downloads
in the shower from God.
And right before I wake up in the morning as well.
And so the other morning, I started waking up,
and this is what God said to me.
Even the sharks say yes sometimes.
What?
God, what are you?
Okay, I wasn't watching Shark Tank, you guys.
I think I've only seen that show
maybe three or four times in my entire life.
All right?
So I wasn't watching Shark Tank.
I knew exactly what sharks God was talking about
when he said this to me, though.
He was talking about the sharks on this show.
If you're not familiar with this show,
maybe you don't live in America,
you've never seen this show.
This is like a angel investment kind of show
where there are three investors,
or three really rich, or maybe four really rich sharks,
they call them the sharks,
and people with new inventions,
or new products, or new companies,
they come and they pitch.
It's like a pitch fest.
They come and pitch to these sharks saying,
hey, look at what we've done.
Look what we've made, created.
Look at this product that we're selling on our own right now.
Would you get behind us?
Would you invest in us?
Would you partner with us?
So those are the questions that are asked on this show,
is will you partner?
Will you partner for this amount?
Will you invest for this amount?
So I'm waking up on Wednesday morning of this week,
and God says, even the sharks say yes
sometimes when they're asked.
Now, the three or four times that I've seen that show,
they have more than one company on, they'll just have company after company come on,
or, you know, inventor after inventor. And they don't always get a yes. And there's four,
three or four sharks, I don't remember how many, maybe five, that have an option to say yes. So
you kind of have even, you know, better odds because there's more than one shark that if one
doesn't want you, maybe another one does. And what was God trying to say to me when he said that
on Wednesday morning? He was saying, Jackie, you don't have because you don't ask.
Come on, y'all. I need you to lean in on this.
You have not because you ask not, girly girl. And you know what? He's not wrong.
I have a very hard time asking people for help.
I have a very hard time asking anyone for anything.
I don't know if I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't know if I think it's rude.
You guys, I have friends that have no shame. I have friends that will ask for a better table.
I have friends that will ask for a discount. I have friends that will ask strangers the most,
in my opinion, embarrassing requests. And I'm with them. And I'm like, oh, my God.
And you know what? Almost always, the answer is yes.
The answer is yes. They ask cops to get out of tickets.
They just ask. You know, their philosophy is, well, you know, you don't know until you try.
But I'm not like that. And the reason why I'm not like that is because most of my life,
I lived an orphan life where I just had to kind of figure it out myself.
It's easier to go get it myself than to ask for it. Because in my family growing up,
if you asked for it, the answer was always no. And so you hear no enough, you stop asking.
You just go figure it out on your own. Come on, y'all.
Raise your hand if that's you. You hear no enough and you just stop asking.
You just stop. Why should I ask? The answer is always no.
I'm just going to go try to figure it out myself.
And then that bleeds into our spiritual life, you guys. If that's been our natural
experience, then it bleeds into our spiritual life.
And I will tell you that I do pray. I pray for you guys. I intercede. I do have a Jesus Cares
board. For those of you that are new, you might not know what that is yet, but you will
as you get into your phase one heartwork. I have those things. I do. But I'm here to confess to
you today. The Bible says, confess your faults to one another, your weaknesses, your frailties,
your limitations, and be healed. I haven't really been asking God for anything.
I haven't. Specifically just for me.
You know, a lot of us have no problem asking God for other people. And I ask God for you
all all the time. But what about for you? What about your needs?
I know people who don't want to even bother God.
I don't want to bother God with that. I had someone tell me that the other day.
They're about to have another surgery because the first surgery didn't work
to fix a bone in their leg. And I said, oh, we need to pray that this time, you know, the doctors
have wisdom. And they stopped me. They're like, oh, you know, I don't want to bother God with
this. They're like, I'll be all right. What? What do you mean bother God?
And some of you feel that way.
Some of you don't want to bother God. You were raised in a religious environment where
you just you don't want to bug him. You know, he's got more important things to do. There are
people that are starving. There are people that are dying. And, you know, OK, you have a problem,
but your problem is not as big as theirs. Guys, I want you to know something. This is another
thing that God said to me this week. He said. Just because other people in the world are in
pain and you might think they're in more pain than you and that they deserve.
my attention more than you do.
He said, it doesn't negate your suffering.
Guys, it doesn't negate your suffering.
This isn't suffering on a scale where God's only going to help the
people that are the worst in need.
God's not limited.
I want you to say that to yourself.
God's not limited.
Yes.
If there was a limited supply of resources, they should go to the
people who most need them, but there's not a limited supply of resources.
We live in the kingdom of God.
And we're going to get into that in just a second.
There's not, I need you to start to reprogram your thinking here.
There's not a limited amount of resources.
Therefore, it's not whoever is first in line because of the
desperation of their situation.
It's all of us.
God cares for all of us.
A long time ago, when I worked at the homeless shelter, when I was going to
college to be a social worker and a psychologist, I drove a outreach van.
I saw the poorest of the poor and my focus was always on the people that were
down and out, the people that were in a desperate situation.
I never thought about the middle-class.
I certainly never thought about the upper-class needing Jesus, needing
anything, needing breakthrough, needing healing, and one day God just simply
said to me, Hey, you know, Jackie, pain is also driving a Porsche.
He was identifying someone behind the wheel of a Porsche as somebody who was
in pain, and that was a new thought for me.
I was like, Oh, it's not just these people, the quote unquote have nots that
are in pain, the haves are in pain as well.
They have broken lives and broken bodies and broken spirits and broken
relationships.
And so I'm just glad that we can show up together this morning and understand
that God does not have us on a list according to need, according to the
desperation of our need.
In fact, the Bible says that he knows what we have need of before we even ask.
So Wednesday morning, I wake up, God talks to me about the sharks and what
he's saying to me is, is that if these, these guys and girls, if they're even
willing to say yes, some of the time, then how much more willing am I to say
yes?
When you ask me, he was talking to me about not asking you guys, I can pinpoint
when I stopped asking God, when I stopped really asking God for myself and it's
when my mom got sick and died.
I did not want that to turn out that way.
That is not what I was asking for.
That is not what I was seeking God for.
That is not what I was interceding for.
And now almost five years on the other side of that, I can see it a lot
differently.
I can see what was happening.
I can see free will it play.
I can see so many different things, but what it did is it shut down my asking
God, not on purpose.
Okay.
I don't have a conscious grudge against God where I'm like, well, I'm just, you
know, I'm not going to ask you for anything now, you know, no, it's not
conscious.
It's just a situation where I have focused all of my energy on other things
and not myself.
So when God spoke to me this in the morning, that morning, he was talking to
me, but he was also talking to you.
And you know what it reminded me of?
It reminded me of the scripture of the unjust judge.
Guys know that story?
It's about the widow who needs justice.
There are bad things happening and they're out of her control.
So she comes to the judge and she's demanding justice.
She's demanding that he deliver her from her adversaries and she's coming every
day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every
day, every day.
We're going to get into Matthew 7, 7 here in a second.
That is the ask, seek and knock scripture.
And some commentators think that scripture actually is translated on keep asking, keep
not seeking, keep knocking.
They think in the original Greek that it's translated to mean keep asking, keep seeking,
keep knocking.
This is not a one-time situation, this is a lifestyle.
So she keeps on pestering him, she keeps on showing up, I need justice, avenge me of my
adversaries, avenge me of my adversaries.
Some of you need to be showing up every single day in the courts of heaven, avenge me of
my adversaries.
Avenge me, avenge my family, avenge my children, avenge my lineage, my legacy, avenge us of
our adversaries.
Remember this parable is about an unjust judge, it's not a righteous man, it's not a good
man, he's not.
And for those of you that need the political leaders in our era that we're living in to
be righteous and just people, no, we don't need them to be righteous and just people,
we just need them to do the right thing because God moves on their heart.
That's all we need.
And so in this story, the judge says, I don't fear God, I don't fear man, but this woman
is antagonizing me.
And because of her constant coming, I'm just going to give her what she wants.
What?
Come on, you guys, come on.
Because of her persistence, I'm just going to give her what she wants.
What is this showing us?
It's showing us the precedent that even when someone's unrighteous, they're not godly,
but we don't give up on what God has told us to do.
When we're consistent, when we're persistent, we will still see victory.
We will still see breakthrough.
So ask Seek and Knock, Matthew 7, 7, you guys, this passage of scripture comes from the Sermon
on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, 7.
If you ever really want to dig in the Bible, if you're new to the Bible, you want to dig
into the Bible, go to the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, stay there for a while.
Don't go into Paul's letters.
Stay out of Paul's letters right now, okay, unless it's Ephesians.
Stay in the Gospels.
Why?
Because you need to see what Jesus is like.
And while you're in the Gospels, ask Holy Spirit to show you Jesus.
Show you Jesus.
Don't just read the red letters.
That's Jesus talking in lots of Bibles.
They have his talking in red.
Don't just read the red letters.
Read the heart behind the red letters.
Ask Holy Spirit to show you the heart of Christ.
Religion will twist it.
It'll twist the words of Jesus and make them sound legalistic and condemning, make them
sound scary sometimes even.
You don't want to look at it through that lens.
You want to look at it through the lens of love.
And you can if you invite Holy Spirit to read the Bible with you, okay?
For those of you that are new to Holy Spirit, he's the God agent in the earth and he is
with you and he is for you and he is in you and he will help you.
And we'll get into a little bit more about him in just a second too.
But when you're reading the Gospels, go to Matthew chapters five, six, and seven and
look at the speech that Jesus made, the Sermon on the Mount.
Guys, there were all kinds of people.
Most of them were disciples and followers of Christ at this time.
This multitude, this crowd of people, they were following him everywhere.
They were disciples.
They considered him their teacher.
But there were some newbies in the crowd from all, all different walks, okay?
Jews and Gentiles, there were people in the crowd that were there just to crip him up
and try to get him to do something so he could get in trouble.
There was Pharisees, there was Sadducees, all kinds of people there listening.
And so Jesus was talking and he was talking in parables.
He was telling stories about the kingdom of heaven.
He was giving an invitation to the people whose hearts were softened, to who has an
ear to hear, let them hear.
And God is always doing that with us too.
There's always an invitation, you guys.
There's always an invitation to more.
Sermon on the Mount was an invitation to more.
Gosh, those of you out here that are weary and heavy laden, you know, I'll give you rest,
right?
That's what he was doing.
What he was doing is he was talking about, first of all, what Father God was like.
He was talking to them and telling them that God is a good father.
He's a good father that wants to hear from you.
And so Matthew 7, 7 comes from the Sermon on the Mount.
And you have to, it's important, you guys, even though these are scriptures to us, it's
important for you to know the original audience so you know you understand the heart of Jesus
when he was speaking.
He was speaking to people that did not know God as a father, a good father, an Abba, who
wanted to help them, who wanted to hear from them, right?
Everything was very ritualistic.
If they were a Jew in that audience, then it was all about rules and regulations.
It was all about the law of Moses.
It wasn't about relationship.
You guys, I want you to see that the Sermon on the Mount was trying to shift people and
invite them out of religion and into relationship.
Do you see it?
And that's what God wants to do with us this morning.
He wants to invite us out of religion and into relationship.
A lot of your prayers are religious prayers because you think that's the way you're supposed
to approach God.
You're only supposed to ask for what you need and you're not supposed to ask for what you
want.
You're not really supposed to ask a lot because God's got better things to do.
And some of you, like me, have kind of stopped asking because of disappointment and discouragement
and hurt and pain.
And now you're doing, you know, you're interceding for others and you have no problem asking
on behalf of others and their requests and their needs, but you've kind of just let yourself
go a little bit.
And so there's people in all different categories here this morning that need a whole different
word and there's a word for each and every one of you and what God is speaking over us
today.
So let's take a look at Matthew 7, 7 says, ask and it will be given to you.
He's talking to these people in the crowd.
They don't know God like this.
And maybe you don't know God like this either.
Ask and it will be given to you.
And for those of you that are worried that you might ask for something that you shouldn't
have, God might give it to you.
Well, first of all, God's not a magic genie.
Doesn't have to give you what you ask for.
Okay.
He's a good father.
I want you to take a look at James 4 verses 2 and 3.
What is that right there?
A lot of people are like, well, you know, you're going to ask, but you're going to ask
amiss because you're selfish and God's not going to give it to you.
That's not what that scripture means.
That scripture is actually telling us that we're God defended.
You know what that scripture is doing?
That scripture is giving you permission to ask extravagantly.
You know why?
Because you're God defended.
And if anything you're asking for is harmful to you, God will take care of it.
But he can't, you know, he can't direct a parked car.
Your prayers are movement.
They're ingredients that God will use to bless you.
When you give him permission to bless you by asking for those blessings, he will give
you the ones that are good for you.
He will.
Remember, prayer is not about changing God's heart.
It's about changing our hearts, but that can't happen if you don't ask.
And you guys don't ask just once.
Keep on asking.
And you'll find out that every time you're asking for the same thing over and over again,
every time you ask for it, it'll get a little different.
It'll sound a little different this time, and then you'll add this to it, and then you'll
take away that from it.
And pretty soon what happens is your prayers come into the alignment with the heart.
Heart of God.
Why?
Because God's directing the moving car.
Come on.
God cannot be the developmental editor on your prayers
if you don't pray them.
You gotta pray them.
So James 4 is not some kind of, you know,
scary scripture.
We're not reading it through the right lens.
What it's saying is you're God defended.
Ask.
This is the scripture that literally says
you have not because you ask not.
And then it puts in that thing about asking amiss
to consume it upon your own lust.
Guys, that is just a safety net for you.
Otherwise, y'all, some of us would have some crazy stuff
going on in our lives.
If there was no safety net, we would have asked for stuff.
You would have asked for people in your life.
And you know what?
God didn't give that to you because he knew
what those people were like when they weren't around you.
You didn't know, but he knew.
He knew that that job was gonna lay off
all of their new employees within six months
and you were gonna be one of them.
You guys, I cannot tell you how many times
someone has come to me and said,
you know, that thing that I was really praying for
and I was asking God for, you know, I didn't get it,
but this is what I found out about it afterwards.
Jesus, taking care of us, watching out for us.
If nobody else has your back, I'm telling you what,
God's got your six, he's with you.
He's with you, but it doesn't mean
that we shouldn't be asking extravagantly.
Because God can take the best parts of those prayers
and he can shape them and mold them and give them back to you
when you have a teachable heart.
And then the next time you ask,
like I said, it's a little different.
It's a little better, it's a little bit more in alignment.
God's watching out for us, he's defending us.
For those of you who are like, what God defendedness
is part of this culture in last year single.
So many of you have been doing life on your own for so long
that you only do what you feel safe doing
and you only do what you feel able to do
and protected to do.
And because of that, you're missing out on so much.
You have to trust that God will show you
what you need to see when you need to see it.
When you're living a life where you have surrendered to him,
that's what that supernatural surrender part
of the heart work is about.
When you continue to give him permission
to have authority in your life,
he will continue to show you the way, protect you,
lead you, guide you, order your steps.
Once again, show you what you need to see before,
when you need to see it,
instead of you trying to sleep with one eye open,
trying to save yourself, protect yourself.
That doesn't work, you guys.
We're human beings and our intuition,
our revelation is limited, but God's is not.
You guys, he knows what we have need of already,
but he wants us to ask, why?
Because he wants us to live supernaturally.
And we can't if we don't ask.
What does Ephesians 3.20 say?
Ephesians 3.20 says that he's able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all we can what?
Ask, think, or imagine.
There's that word ask again, hello.
To him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above.
What's that mean?
It's better.
Whatever you're asking for,
what God's gonna give you is better.
But then it goes on to say by the power that works in us.
What is that?
That's Holy Spirit.
What is Holy Spirit doing?
Holy Spirit is refining you and defining you as you what?
As you bring yourself boldly before the throne of grace
to ask.
Once again, prayer doesn't change God's heart,
it changes yours.
It changes yours.
You guys, we can constantly live in the.
He's in the advent.
Jesus is always coming.
He's coming.
He's showing up.
He's coming.
I want to tell you I raised three children and not one of
them ever left the house when they were kids.
Without asking.
For whatever they needed, but also without asking what was
going on today.
Not one of my kids just hopped out of bed, dress themselves,
fed themselves breakfast, picked up their little briefcase
and headed off into the world.
Not one of them ever did that.
In fact, our morning sounded more like mom, where's my pants?
Mom, what's for breakfast?
Mom, you know, what time is this going to happen?
Or that or what's going on after school today?
Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, and you guys know it for those of you
that have children.
Why is that?
Because they're dependent on me.
In that season of their life, they're dependent on me.
They need to know.
I need to tell them.
They need to ask and I will answer them.
I never held out on them like, oh, good luck.
Hope you figure it out.
What's going on today?
Oh, I don't know.
That's for me to know and for you to find out.
No, I never played games with them.
It was never a riddle or a puzzle.
And when we look to the Lord, like, hey, God, what are you
doing today?
What are you up to?
What's on your heart today?
God, can I come along?
Can I participate?
Can I call shotgun?
A lot of you wonder how I have such a crazy life.
That's how.
I'm like, hey, God, what's you what you doing today?
Can I can I do it?
I want to do it.
But as my kids got older, they knew what was going on today.
They had been in the household long enough that they knew the
culture of the household.
Can I get an amen?
Come on.
They knew the culture of the household.
They didn't have to ask me for every little thing anymore
because they knew my heart.
I'm trying to help you.
So many of you, you're you're using you're using the Bible
like a Magic 8-ball.
Okay.
That doesn't work.
That's not how this works.
You don't pray a prayer and then go home.
That's not how it works.
You don't pray a prayer and then go open a Bible and hope
that's how God's going to answer you by whatever scripture
you see.
The more that you immerse yourself in the kingdom of God.
The more you surrender your heart to the king.
The more you will understand the culture and the more you
will instead of being like for every little thing.
God, am I loud?
Can I do this?
Can I do that?
God, is this your will?
Is it not?
You will know because you know him.
You know the culture.
You know his heart.
The Bible says that when you spend time.
In this place of intimacy and relationship with God, the
desires of your heart actually are the same as his.
So you don't have to do any of these silly prayers where you
just get off a first date and you're in the car and be like,
man, that was fun.
But God, if they're not the one for me, then shut the door.
Let them disappear.
You don't have to pray those prayers because those are dumb
prayers.
You can spend your prayers asking for things that really
matter.
Instead of asking God to control your heart.
Ask God to control you like you're three years old.
Guys, I didn't even mean to go on any of this trail right
here.
So this is definitely for some people.
So please take that into consideration.
Philippians tells us to ask consistently to bring our
requests and our petitions before the Lord.
Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
What does that say?
And just give him something to work with.
Give God something to work with.
The Bible already says he knows what you have need of before
you even ask.
This is about a relationship.
This is about you giving up your orphan tendencies and coming
and becoming.
A child of God.
Briefly, let's go on to seek and knock, but you guys, it's the same thing.
Ask more, seek more, knock more.
Okay.
We're seeking God's face.
We're seeking his hand.
We're seeking his deliverance.
We're seeking his wisdom.
We're seeking clarity.
What's happening here?
It's love over survival.
We're seeking relationship over resources.
Did you know that you're more resourceful than your resources
because you're a child of God?
Write that down.
You are more resourceful than your resources.
You might not have it, but you have access to it because of who your father is.
Where's there a famous scripture where we see the word
seek besides Matthew 7, 7.
I will tell you where it is.
It is seek first the kingdom of God.
Guys, this is also from the Sermon on the Mount.
Coincidence?
No, it's Matthew 6.
I think it's, I didn't write it down, but I think it's like Matthew 6, 8.
Seek first his kingdom.
Seek first what?
The kingdom of God.
What is that?
The culture of heaven.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
What does that mean right there?
Well, Jesus is foreshadowing what's about to happen.
And that is that we are going to take on the righteousness of Christ.
Remember all these people would have been under the law of Moses if they were Jews.
And so their righteousness would have come from the blood of
bulls and goats, right?
Their righteousness would have been a temporary atonement for sin, but
Jesus knew that he was the lamb.
And he was the lamb.
So he's talking to these people, you guys, he's prophesying to these people.
He's saying, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
What does that mean?
That means seek to live in the finished work of the Lord.
Seek to live in the finished work of the cross for us.
Now the audience that's reading these scriptures is us.
Jesus has come.
We're not waiting for him to come.
There's still people in this world that are waiting for him to come.
They're waiting for his appearing.
We are too in a different way because we know that he has come.
And he has started something on the earth that we are here to finish with him.
That's our assignment.
Our assignment is to let heaven invade earth through our lives and through us.
And so he's telling us now let's read this through our eyes and our ears.
And this audience, he's telling us to seek first his kingdom and the
righteousness that was given to us at the finished work of the cross.
That means it's not in your strength.
It's not in your power.
It's not in your performance.
It's not in your works.
It's in Jesus.
Striving is out.
It's not part of our culture.
Don't forget what Psalm 126, two says.
It's vain for you to sit up all night and worry about your problems.
God gives and provides to his lovers while they're sleeping.
So we seek first his kingdom.
And we seek first his kingdom.
And the righteousness that's been provided for us.
And then what happens?
And all this other stuff that everyone else is worried about, all that stuff
will chase you, you don't have to chase it.
Love over survival, write it down.
Love over survival.
That's what that scripture is really talking about.
We are children no longer orphans.
And you guys, this is something we're going to have to remind ourselves of
every day.
Because that, that orphan tendency in this culture is strong.
It's hard to be dependent, especially because you've asked for things in the
past and they haven't shown up.
And so here for the last few minutes, I want us to all go to God because I
want to, I want you to, I want you to, I want you to, I want you to, I want you
to understand that God has things for you.
He has things for you that he doesn't have for me.
And I'm not talking about basic survival things.
Okay.
I'm not talking about needs here.
I'm talking about wants.
We don't all want the same thing.
We don't all want the same thing right now, but collectively together, we are
going to go to the Lord.
There have been plenty of times.
That's when God has just said to me, what do you want?
Has God ever said that to you?
He's literally said to me, what do you want?
And I wish that I could tell you that I was Jackie on the spot, able to answer
that question with a heart full of want, but I wasn't, I really just didn't
even know how to answer that question.
And a lot of times we are so bogged down by the cares of this life and
trying to get what we need that we don't even really know what we want.
That seems like a luxury.
And this is not, you know, this is not the toxic prosperity gospel of, you
know, blab it and grab it, name it and claim it, but I will tell you that the
gospel of Christ is about prosperity.
It is, it is about you living abundantly.
It is about you prospering even as your soul prospers, but it's for
you to be blessed, to be a blessing.
Not just in money, not just in goods,
not just in lands and inheritances, but in the most important inheritance.
And that is your spiritual inheritance, being rich.
You are rich.
You are rich in good things because of who your father is.
And so father, we look to you right now.
We want to have a shift in our hearts.
We want to become askers and seekers and knockers from this day forward.
We want you to consistently and persistently hear our voice on high.
We want our voice to be a regular voice that you hear every day, requesting
things for ourselves, for others, for the world, praising you, thanking you.
As you supply all of our needs from your riches and glory,
we know that you know us,
but we want to become a regular in the courts of heaven.
We want to become a regular in the places of power.
And so Lord, we thank you right now.
We ask God that you would give us the grace to believe that you're a good, good father.
And that is your pleasure to give good gifts to your children.
And to those who ask.
And so Lord, what do you have for us this morning?
Each and every one of us, what do you have for us?
Let there be an invitation to each heart that is here to ask for something, bring it
from the unconscious to the conscious so that we can remember what it is that we
want, what it is that we need, what it is that we can now ask for.
What it is that we can now ask more, seek more, knock more for.
In Jesus name, let it be done.
Amen.
Right.
I want you to go ahead and put that thing in the chat.
What are you going to start pulling on daddy's sleeve about?
Do you ever do that with your granddad or your mom, grandma, anyone to pull on their
sleeve?
You're short, they're tall.
Pulling on their sleeve, trying to get their attention because you wanted
something.
Pulling on their pant leg.
Hey, hey, hey, I'm down here.
Take, take a look at me.
I want an ice cream.
I will tell you something about my kids.
I, I learned really fast that I better not say anything unless I plan on
following through.
Like if I'm just externally processing about doing something like going to the
fair or going to, you know, the bookstore or whatever, if I'm just externally
talking out loud, cause I'm external processor about, Hey, well, you know,
maybe later we should do blah, blah, blah, blah.
That's a mistake with my children and maybe your children as well, because as
soon as it comes out of my mouth, my kids would persecute me until it happened.
I mean, they would drive me up the wall until it happened.
And God's really inviting us to do the same, to let, and I never felt annoyed by
them because it was my promise.
And so if any of you can't figure out a promise, there's plenty of them in the
word of God.
Go pick one and understand that promises come with processes,
but start praying about it.
Say, hey God, your word says this.
I don't see this in my life,
but your word says I can have it and I want it.
Jesus, I don't know if y'all feel Holy Spirit
all confirming in here, but I do.
It says it here, Lord.
Didn't Daniel do that?
He's like, hey, wait,
aren't we supposed to be out of captivity already?
Wait a second.
This was written in the scrolls at this time.
And it says that we're only supposed to be in captivity
for this many years and that years is done.
And what did he do?
He went to God and he began to pray and said,
hey, we're supposed to be out of captivity.
The Babylonians are not supposed
to be in charge of us anymore.
I see it in your word.
Your prophets declared it.
It is true.
What's going on?
What's going on here?
And it said that when he asked,
there was a spiritual battle in the second heavens.
Did you realize that something that you ask
might be so important, not just to you,
but to the future generations of this earth,
that there will be a battle over the answer
in the heavenlies?
But it can't happen if no one asks for it.
Look, I don't know why God does what he does.
I don't know why he decided,
even though he's omnipotent and omniscient
and all powerful and all knowing,
to partner with people to get things done on the earth.
Seems kind of unproductive in my opinion,
but at the same time, that's how it works.
God is in control, but he's not.
He needs us to partner with him.
And so it's not just about asking for you,
it's about asking for all of those
who don't know how to ask.
So that those battles can start in the heavenlies
and they can be won,
because if you read the back of the book, we win.
So remember friends, when you're asking
for your husband or wife,
and I know that that's gonna be at the top
of a lot of your lists, and you know what?
It should be, because you need a partner
for what you're gonna do on this earth.
And relationship trumps everything else.
That's the only reason that we're here is relationship.
That's it.
All God ever wanted was a family.
But when you're asking,
you might wanna put in your future generations
and be asking for them,
because you don't know how to ask for them.
You don't know how to ask for them.
And be asking for them,
because your marriage is what changes everything.
You're not just asking selfishly for yourself.
You're asking for that partner
so that you can show your children
and your children's children's children's children,
if Jesus should tarry and not establish fully
his kingdom on earth during our lifetimes
or their lifetimes or their lifetimes,
what love looks like,
what marriage looks like,
what family looks like.
And how to raise them in the admonition of the Lord.
You guys, if you read the Chronicles,
you'll see that there was a lot of evil
that ran rampant in families
until one person stood up and tore down all the altars.
And then it goes on for generations to say,
and their children walked in the fear of the Lord
and their children walked in the fear of the Lord.
It just takes one and you're the one.
You are the one.
So Father, we thank you for today.
We thank you for everything that you've given to us.
Let our voices be heard on high.
Let us raise our voices, Lord.
Let us speak out loud your promises, God.
Let us declare them and decree them, Lord.
Help us to partner with you, God,
not just for a moment, God,
but for momentum in Jesus name, amen.
I love all of you and I'll see you tomorrow night.
Bye.