Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of seeking God's help with confidence and perseverance, particularly in the context of relational tensions. He explains that Jesus encourages us to ask, seek, and knock continuously, assuring us that God will respond to our persistent prayers. Bickle highlights that our relationship with God requires ongoing dialogue and effort, especially when faced with criticism or challenges from others. He connects the act of seeking God with the necessity of loving others, illustrating that our spiritual breakthroughs are intertwined with our ability to love those around us. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper commitment to prayer and relationship with God to navigate life's difficulties and relational conflicts.

Turn to Matthew chapter 7. Father. We love your word. We love your heart. We love your ways Jesus you're such a glorious teacher of the kingdom We love the grace of God and your invitation to cooperate with the grace of God We thank you in Jesus name Holy Spirit for your teaching ministry Teach my heart as I speak and teach the hearts of those who listen Holy Spirit break in and give even ideas spark thoughts Even there's the hearing that are new In Jesus name. Amen Well in this session, we're looking at seeking God's help But with confidence and perseverance on the Sermon on the Mount, that's our 19th session We're looking at chapter 7 verse 7 to 14 paragraph a Now if you remember the last context or that the last passage Jesus was talking about the challenges that we have in being critical of people and being criticized by people and He did does not want us Preoccupied with a critical spirit either having one or being attacked by one but in the passage right before Matthew 7 The final statement that he made was seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness so Matthew chapter 7 is actually applying in How we are to seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness in the context of relational tensions all throughout chapter 7 There's a backdrop of relational tensions. That is one of the major themes that he's addressing So, so let's read paragraph a Jesus is addressing issues that we seek in in Walking out the kingdom lifestyle, but in context to people that have differing values Now that's a nice way to saying people that annoy us and we annoy them. That's what that really means people with different values You look at him you think why are they doing that and they look at you and say why are you doing that? And Jesus says now walk out The kingdom first even in the context of that distraction. That's what he's talking about here I'll say this several times in different ways. Our challenge is to maintain a kingdom lifestyle in Context of the temptation of being critical while at the same time being criticized That's what he's talking about Paragraph C. Now we are to respond to both of these challenges By seeking God for help with confidence and with perseverance Now I'm stressing perseverance, but throughout this passage is also the theme of confidence. So I want to put that in there as well Now we can call it seeking first the kingdom. That's what he calls it in the Sermon on the Mount But a few chapters later in Matthew 22 37, he calls it the first commandment loving God with all of your heart So whether we call it seeking first the kingdom or loving God with all of our heart. That is our inheritance That is what he's called us to But it takes supernatural help to walk out this lifestyle particularly in the context of really relational tension that everybody has We don't walk out the Seeking of the kingdom first or the first commandment in a vacuum We do it in the midst of people that criticize us and we feel critical of him we got to get through all those emotions and get a breakthrough for our heart and at the same time get a breakthrough in the relationships and Actually, that's what Jesus is talking about here in verse 7 He says ask It will be given to you He says I promise you if you will ask and the Greek verb here is to ask and keep on asking There's that continuous present tense Ask and keep on asking He says I promise you it will be given to you if You will seek and keep on seeking don't draw back. Don't seek one time You will find the wisdom for the breakthrough if you knock You keep knocking on that closed door That obstacle that's in the way will be moved and the door will open It goes on in verse 8 And he says I want to assure you that you can count on this reality if you stay with it Everyone who stays with it who asked will receive in God's timing God's way Everyone who seeks they will find the wisdom of how to go forward Whether it's the breakthrough of their heart in the first commandment or seeking first the kingdom that break through in love in the heart Or whether it's the breakthrough in that relational tension that's described in verses 1 to 6 He says if you'll keep on knocking and you will stay with it That door will be open Now notice I want you to see the whole context here because they don't want you to miss Part of what Jesus is saying that that is as I've read on many Commentaries on this this one point is often missed. Although some people focus on it Verse 12. It's the word therefore Verse 12 is the key to the more complete understanding and Application of this promise that if you persevere in seeking God, you're going to get a breakthrough He says therefore Whatever you want men to do to you do to them Now at first glance you're thinking What is the therefore therefore and it's almost like he changes the subject what? Treat people like you want to be treated What's that have to do with anything to do with prayer because he's actually still talking about Getting a breakthrough in the relationships He's putting prayer and seeking God in a breakthrough of our heart Together with a breakthrough in our relationship So it's a breakthrough of loving God seeking first the kingdom and a breakthrough of loving people That's what he's talking about in its full context in verse 7 and 8 So he doesn't just stop and give a random teaching on prayer It's prayer related to a breakthrough of seeking the kingdom first having that kind of heart Cal that that that quality of experience in the heart But also it's not just a breakthrough with our heart in God It's also a breakthrough in the ability to love the people in the way We want them to love us Remember the context in verse 1 to 6 is people that we are tempted to be critical of or they're critical of us Verse 12 makes it clear. He's still talking about breakthrough of relationship with God or with people And he puts in this exhortation to persevere and asking persevere in seeking persevere in knocking With the promise of getting a breakthrough in your heart with God and a breakthrough even in relational tensions with other people paragraph D The the Premise of this exhortation to persevere and don't back away Asking keep on asking is This we are not to trust our Natural strength to maintain this lifestyle of the first commandment or seeking first the kingdom. I Mean we get captured with the vision to love God with all of our heart we get captured with the vision of Radically throwing our life into the kingdom of God, but it's not I but a short amount of time where the enemy comes Our thinking comes relational tensions come problems come and we get distracted and we lose Sight and vision of that breakthrough to walk out the first commandment What Jesus is saying here? If you really want to walk out seek first the kingdom or or love God with all of your heart You're gonna have to talk to me about it on a regular basis. A Time instantaneous event the moment I got saved it's instantaneous Therefore I will just approach my relationship with God in the same way if it's not Instantly there. I'm not gonna put any effort into the relationship at all and Jesus is saying just the opposite here He's saying ask seek knock Stay with it till the breakthrough comes and not just even your breakthrough with God a breakthrough with people as well So that you actually Love people in the way you want them to love you. That's the inheritance that we have Now let's look at a ask seek and knock What are we asking for we're asking for a supernatural intervention on our heart Jesus said keep on asking don't ask once don't ask just in November. I With it whatever breakthrough you get get a vision for a greater breakthrough Whatever level of experience you have in the grace of God Always go for more So we are discontentedly content We're content in God because of his goodness, but we want to experience more and The Lord is saying I've made a way for you to experience it and experience it freely But you have to interact with me more to experience me more you said ask me Also in the relational tensions you got a problem with that one brother the Lord says ask me about how I view that brother Ask me how to teach you to go forward for reconciliation with that brother. Who's criticizing you Ask me how to carry your heart in that relationship. I'll tell you I really will tell you I'll give you a supernatural breakthrough seek Now when we seek God, we're seeking his wisdom. We seek the wisdom by reading the word We seek the wisdom by hearing messages by godly fellowship by receiving counsel from other people the Lord speaks to us by the Holy Spirit in direct ways, but we're seeking the breakthrough of wisdom as well and We're knocking Now to knock means there's a closed door that we can't open by our own efforts We don't have the key in ourselves, but the Lord does And so we keep knocking we keep Asking the Lord for that breakthrough that overcoming of the obstacles Now sometimes the obstacles are demonic and we believe God that all of this will be moved. Sometimes it's financial Sometimes it's a relational obstacle Sometimes it's a spiritual one. Sometimes somebody says that I don't have a Bible. I don't know the word I need someone to help teach me. I need the obstacle to be moved Lord says we'll keep knocking that obstacle will be moved in due time, but don't quit knocking Look at paragraph 8 So the disciples abiding relationship with God Later in chapter John on John 15 Jesus is going to use the word abiding That means that continual dialogue with the Lord But here he doesn't use the term abiding. He just describes it That continual dialogue. He actually puts language on it later here. He calls it asking seeking and knocking John 15 verse 5 he calls it abiding in the vine That means continual dialogue the word I use for abiding I I change it out with the word When Jesus says abide in me, I put the word talk to me Ask seek and knock just keep talking to me and I'll talk to you. I'll abide in you now bitings more than that But that's the essential activity of abiding in Christ Now here's what's happening a paragraph II is that Jesus in verse 7 and 8 asked seek and knock He is Connecting the breakthrough of the heart to the abiding relationship Now the reason he connects this Because he knows how weak we are and he knows how much opposition we're going to run into And he says if you ask seek and knock if you'll stay in the dialogue with me Not for a week not for a month not for a year. I mean for decades of walking with God If you'll stay in the dialogue because you're so weak and Because the opposition is so real and the distraction is is so effective But if you stay in the dialogue with me the breakthrough of your heart Not only will you get a breakthrough in your heart you will sustain the breakthrough now what he's really saying here in verse 7 and 8 It's a fact of the New Testament grace message But this fact that I'm about to say is often distorted by people who claim to preach the grace of God here's the fact a wholehearted pursuit of the kingdom or to walk out the first commandment requires persistent asking seeking Knocking that's from the lips of Jesus nobody taught grace better than Jesus and He said if you have any vision of life in the kingdom that doesn't have central to it a Continual lifestyle of asking seeking and knocking you have the wrong version of grace And there's a lot of those. There's a lot of those voices out there today some and even in our own myths And I went and I'm what I'm wanting to do is not let you get caught into some kind of distraction and delusion That in the grace of God somehow Jesus's words here don't matter That what he did on the cross for us is what makes this asking seeking and knocking so effective but what he did in the finished work on the cross in sick in in Securing our place before the Father and our reception of the Holy Spirit as a free gift So that we could now enter the dialogue and with all of our heart and to and to invest Ourself in it with all of our strength as well now only the paragraph F Only the poor in spirit, which is the first of the eight beatitudes Matthew 5 verse 3 says blessed are the poor in spirit Only those that are poor in spirit end up getting the breakthrough because the poor in spirit Though we've received the grace of God we have Secure access before God. We have the indwelling spirit, but our problem is our unrenewed mind and our and our stormy emotions Which come as a fruit of our unrenewed mind our spirit is made new We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus in one moment We are instantly made new in our spirit man. Our born-again spirit is Completely saved completely righteous dwelt with the Holy Spirit. The problem is not there. It's instantly and fully saved the problem is with our unrenewed mind and our emotions that it flow as a result of that and Jesus Jesus doesn't renew our mind for us He gives us a born-again spirit as a free gift, but we renew our mind by active Participation and dialogue with him according to his word now the poor in spirit are those that recognize They are spiritually bankrupt. They have no ability to do this without a present tense sustaining of the grace of God and so the Lord saying if you think you can walk out of Kingdom lifestyle by a one-time Commitment you made a few years ago and that your mind as it is is in good enough position in order to sustain you Actually, that's called spiritual pride But being born spirit is saying our mind and our emotions are in such need We have to sustain the interaction for that grace to increase that grace. That's freely given to us Let's go to top of page two Now he calls us to ask seek and knock that Continuous present tense ask and keep on asking Seek and keep on seeking knock and keep on knocking keep the dialogue going Read the word and speak it back to me. Keep the dialogue going. It's called abiding in Christ so that our unrenewed mind is Changed because we're transformed by changing our mind, but our spirit man is full of the power of God That's not the problem Jesus did that for us a hundred percent and it was done instantaneously It's our minding emotions that we have to actively bring in submission to the word We keep it in that conversation That dialogue with the Lord look what James says now James is talking to born-again believers He goes God gives more grace He goes there's an experience in the grace of God where you receive the righteousness of God the indwelling spirit as a free gift Instantaneously, but he says beloved James 4 verse 6. There's more grace to experience in the realm of your mind and your emotions and God gives that greater measure of grace to the humble to the poor in spirit is the idea To the people that Believe they have need of that continual interaction with God in order to sustain the grace that he's given them I mean, I'm talking about to sustain the inspiring impact of it on our emotions. I Mean I know when I Talk to the Lord that he sees me and loves me and knows me and I have the Holy Spirit I'm gonna live billions of years in a resurrected body, but I want my emotions In countering the grace of God in an ever-increasing level all the time Oh, it's the years unfold and that's what James 4 is talking about Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 Talks on the same theme He says come boldly to the throne of grace. That means prayer. That means asking seeking knocking and What will happen if you come boldly you will find? grace Now he's talking to people who are filled with the grace of God they stand in grace, but he's talking about they'll Experience the grace of God in their emotions in their mind the grace that their spirit is completely established in grace, but they're thinking and their words and their emotions aren't and The writer of Hebrews says you'll find grace You'll experience more grace if you will come boldly if you will come consistently a paragraph I Jesus says ask seek and knock Now it's not because he's not aware of our needs. He knows our needs It's not because he's unconcerned It's not because we inform him. We have needs for our heart as well as for our body and our circumstances We don't inform him and the Lord says oh wow In that case. I'll I'll give you a miracle. I forgot Or it's not that he's unconcerned It's not that he knows but he's passive says, you know, I know but you know what you just kind of bothering me right now So I'm not gonna mess with it. I know what you need. That's not what's going on he requires That we Ask him not to inform him and not to stir up his desire But because it strengthens the relationship with us He so wants a greater interaction with us, that's how much he values us. I mean, it's most remarkable and at the same time in the context of that it produces gratitude and humility and love in us while we're in the dialogue, I Mean I still can't get over this The God of creation Really Wants relationship and dialogue with me. I've told the Lord many times Lord. I'm not that interesting Why are you so focused on me talking to you? He loves us because of who he is. I mean he really is into the relationship now paragraph J I'm just gonna mention it briefly. You can read it on your own Now in relationship Or in context to the relationships remember we've been tempted to criticize them They're bothering us or they're criticizing us. We bother them We ask seek and knock also for the relational tensions to be healed and restored Not just to get a breakthrough in our heart Of seeking first the kingdom but also a breakthrough in the relationships and I just give a little bit on that there Matthew 7 7 is about relational breakthrough. Not only spiritual breakthrough of our hearts Roman numeral to Seek with perseverance That's the ask and keep on asking Seek and keep on seeking knock and keep on knocking. We must stay with it and persevere persevere through the delays Through the hindrances through the setbacks Through the disappointments we have to stay with it And it's not like we get a breakthrough then we're done because whatever Breakthrough we get there's yet a greater measure of breakthrough for our heart yet to be had. I Mean till the day I meet the Lord Whatever measure I walk in I want to I want a greater measure. I'm grateful for what he's given me but desperate for more now some people When they're desperate for more they lose their gratitude don't do that That's a that's a a pitfall the enemy wants you in some people are so desperate for more They lose their gratitude and joy in the measure they have But others are opposite They have such gratitude and they enjoy the measure. They're not desperate for a breakthrough of a greater measure. I Want to be grateful but pressing in for more to the day I meet the Lord Then after that, well, you know just go with how it works up there Now there's seeking with perseverance. That's what Jesus is talking about Now there's a lot of folks in the kingdom that they ask and but it's a casual asking Lord, I want to break through they put little effort into it. It's not something they put before the Lord It's not before their heart Very consistently because they don't value it very much But when we highly prize a Certain dimension in our walk with God Then we give ourself to it and if we're hungry for it, the Lord will give it to us See the day we're born again, we're born again based on our need I Mean we need to be born again. We don't even really know it till we become born again and God sought us He ambushed us. He cornered us. He took away a bunch of our options. He sought after us And then we said I sought the Lord and found him and Lord says well, that's not exactly how it went But that's okay. You can go with that story but we received that Initial experience of the grace of God strictly based on need But to grow in the grace of God in terms of our mind and emotion being inspired and illumined God gives it to us based on hunger You can be born again on your way to heaven and live Carnal with a dull spirit for decades and the Lord says I won't make you hunger for a breakthrough if you don't want to if you don't want to So our initial experience of being born again God chases us down based on our great need but after that the Spirit still woos us But the Lord says I'll give it to you based on your hunger Because I only want to give the deepest things of my heart to the people that can't live without them And if we can live without something in our walk with God, we will go without it If we can't live without it, we will get it. That's what he's talking about here Asking seeking knocking When it's a treasure so prized We cannot live without that treasure Then we will have that treasure because God gives the deeper things of his heart to the people that value them not to the people that lightly esteem them paragraph B Paul The great preacher on the grace of God. He talked about all perseverance in our prayer life That's what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 7 all perseverance Paul actually used the word perseverance He said stay with it. I Mean, this is this is graphic language. And this is a man who understood well the grace of God and he knew the place of all Perseverance Again, the Ephesians 618 is really Matthew 7 verse 7 Roman numeral 3 Well, there's more than perseverance. Perseverance is critical essential. There's also seeking God with confidence This has to do with our view of God verse 9 10 and 11 Jesus is giving the disciples a proper view of God as a Heavenly Father. We know the passage well And we focus on a view of God. That's gracious and kind and tender and others of you've come from Spiritual backgrounds where they focused on that So you might not be able to imagine how radical this idea was in the generation. Jesus gave it He says what man is there among you if his own son asked for bread What man would fake him out and give him a stone because in the handing of it a stone and a piece of bread Might look similar He says God's not gonna fake out his own son. He doesn't do that I mean a man won't do that to his own son or if he asked for a fish and the handing of the fish It's not going to be a serpent. It's not gonna Be another something that's dangerous Verse 11. It's very simple logic if you being evil and evil here means selfish if we're naturally prone to selfish if a Natural man in his selfishness is that generous even with his natural selfishness? How generous is God who is perfect in love Now when God when Jesus calls Father's evil. He's comparing him all the fathers to God the father's perfect love So he's not comparing men with men, but he's comparing men to the perfect love of the father He's saying if men and their brokenness have a general Inclination to generosity with their own children How much is your heavenly father who's not broken at all who's infinite in love and power and wisdom? How much more is he focused on this? The idea that God's not a reluctant stranger Who's waiting for us to talk him into it? He's not a tyrant that's trying to trick us. Give us a stone instead of a bread just to kind of tantalize us He's not like that He's a heavenly father We can have full confidence That he will give us much more than the most general earthly father would give his own children The issue is not in God's willingness or lack or desire. He wants to bring forth our Relationship with him to a new level and he wants to transform us with gratitude and humility in the process of giving to us when we ask And again a quick casual kind of drive-by prayer, you know just on the run prayer on the run He says you don't really care about relationship with me if that's all you care about this breakthrough of your heart He's saying but when you care You will taste the fruit of caring about loving me with all of your heart. You'll feel the power of it more But I've found over the years I can have a breakthrough in that area and if I don't stay with it, I can lose ground that I formally gained in those in Tenderness with God and having a vibrant spirit So there's never a time in this age where we out grow the need to keep the dialogue fresh and continuous I Don't mean every minute every day. That's not what I mean, but we keep the dialogue with God's heart We keep the reaching and contending to walk in love and encounter him We keep that as the priority of our life. We never outgrow that reality in this age And if we outgrow it in our thinking we've been deceived. We've been derailed. We've been sidetracked But there's so many voices in the body of Christ that preach grace and they diminish this reality And they leave people Spiritually bored and Spiritually boring but with a testimony that they're in the grace of God in fullness. It's delusional And it steals their inheritance from them spiritually and there's so many voices out there today But I'm very jealous for you And I've walked with the Lord over these many years for 40 plus years and I want to assure you Sustaining the dialogue the reach is critical to experiencing the grace of God in our mind in our emotions What Jesus did on the cross for us completely Positioned us where we receive the indwelling spirit they get to righteousness So now we can sustain that dialogue which releases a sustaining inspiration on their mind in our emotions That's what he wants He wants a relationship where we love him with all of our heart because he loves us with all of his heart That's what he's after top of page 3 now we get to the relational passage he's going to end this dialogue of persevering confident prayer for breakthrough with a statement about relationship about walking in love and It's commonly called the golden rule And I've heard I put verse 11 here just so you can read it on the notes in the flow of it So if I just put verse 12, you might forget the flow Jesus said how much more Will your heavenly Father give good things if you keep on asking how much more? therefore Love people that's in essence what he's saying Therefore love people he goes. Yes, because I'm talking about a breakthrough in your heart. That's what you're asking for breakthrough in relationships a breakthrough of kingdom values a breakthrough of kingdom reality of kingdom experience where you become a a Picture of the grace of God flowing in love even in the midst of people that you have differing values You're not being swept away with a critical spirit So distracted by your annoyance of them and when they're annoyed and criticizing you you stay steady in love with them Beloved that's supernatural Paragraph B that therefore in verse 12 is looking back to seeking God in verse 7 and 8 But also it's looking back to verse 11 to the generosity of the Father How much more is your Father generous and if God is that generous to us He says how much more should we be generous if he's generous to us? Therefore we should be generous with one another is also part of the link of the therefore so Jesus is giving a practical application of Persevering prayer for a break a greater breakthrough in relationship of the heart what he's talking about Paragraph C. Now, here's the kingdom principle very simple. We know it We don't struggle with this principle because a lack of knowledge We struggle with the principle because of our unrenewed mind and our emotions don't feel inspired by the grace of God Principle simple Whatever we see is best for us Put yourself in their place and do that to them. I mean even the guy who was against you change places and The way that you would want him to treat you Jesus said that's it right there now notice He didn't say treat people in the way they treat you because that's our natural way The guys mean to us and he slanders us So Maybe we don't slander him back and maybe we're not fully as mean but we're cold at least Jesus said I didn't say treat them like they treat you Treat them the way you want them to treat you Treat them like the father treats you in verse 11 the graciousness of the father who gives you just simply for asking now this Reality, this is the ultimate breakthrough right here Loving God which in loving people really the first two commandments are one in the same in reality You love God with all of your heart. It will overflow to loving people You try to love people all of your heart. You'll get so bankrupt and frustrated. Your only way is by loving God and having an overflow You'll know no one has the strength to love people without the overflow of encountering God's love for them and us loving God back That's the power source of flowing over to other people having a happy spirit in the midst of relational tensions Because we're we feel God's love and we love God back. So we get the big picture So we're not lost in all the all the noise about what they think about us and what they're whispering and how they're acting Strange and mean we're not lost in the noise of all of that Because we're connected we've been asking seeking knocking we're interacting with the heart of the one who is love incarnate He is love incarnate Beloved therefore we can treat people in a different way even when they're mean to us from a number five Now he goes to the next verse verse 13 and 14 is critically connected to the verses. We just looked at Now he says in verse 13 enter the narrow gate Now he says you have to know there's two different ways to live We know this passage but beloved. This is a searching passage what I mean This thing really gets our attention if we pay attention to it. I mean it really it's serious It's weighty is what I'm trying to say Now Jesus commands us enter the narrow way And the narrow way can only be entered by sustaining the asking seeking and knocking relationship with confidence will never ever Sustain the inspiration and the grace of God to enter the narrow gate To enter that narrow road without that Regular dialogue and that constant reaching for an ever greater breakthrough in God's heart. I mean in our heart with God's heart Well, he warns there's Two different ways I'm talking about in the midst of people who profess to love Jesus I'm not talking about Christianity and a false religion and you know some Eastern religion Hinduism or something I'm talking about with among those that profess Jesus. There's two different ways He's talking to his disciples here. It's not talking to world religions He's talking to his disciples He said one guy Well the multitude they choose the wide gate they profess relationship with God they boast about Their relationship with God, but they live the lifestyle of the wide gate the broad way He says it leads to destruction and it's the popular message. The multitude will always go that direction I'm talking about professors of faith those who speak their loyalties To the Christian faith says verse 14 He goes the narrow Narrow is the real gate and the gates that entryway And he goes I want you to know it's difficult And what he means is it's difficult to our unrenewed mind. It's difficult to our flesh It's not difficult on our spirit I'll get there in a moment It's difficult to our flesh because our flesh tells us to serve and feed our flesh But the Word of God tells us to deny our flesh in context of our relationship with God And he says be aware of this it's not popular only a few a smaller percentage of the people that profess to know the Lord a Smaller number go that way so beloved don't look at the what's popular and what's big and all the hoopla and the momentum and how many people are Applauding a certain message go by the Word of God Now I want to assure you the multitudes are applauding the wrong message and the The few and that few by the way is millions worldwide. It's millions Don't ever get the idea that you're the only one who gets it. There's millions There's tens of millions worldwide But there's hundreds of millions going in the other direction even naming the name of Jesus Now Jesus only describes the two different responses in their extremes There's a whole lot of people that are kind of hat You know They're in between the two extremes and we don't know where they all are and that's not our business to know But Jesus sets forth the two extremes Paragraph B Now the narrow way is difficult Be clear about it. We're talking about the greatest grace preacher that ever walked the earth Jesus of Nazareth and when somebody says They've encountered Jesus and This passage is not real. They need to go read their Bible again I've found that a lot of folks Have located ten verses That give one side of the grace message They've ignored a hundred verses on the other side and they don't read their Bible. They just work with the ten verses Beloved your life is worth more than that and Jesus is worth more than that, too We're gonna search the scripture and do it his way Matthew chapter 16 he told Peter When Peter said don't take up the cross Jesus said that's Satan talking through you Peter. I know you're an apostle. That's Satan talking through you You're not mindful of God's things. You don't have a mind set according to the Spirit You have a mind set according to the flesh. He goes. Here's the answer Peter Deny your flesh your carnal mindset deny it That's Jesus 101 Deny your flesh and you will encounter life. He said you'll experience the things of That God has freely made available to us by the cross of Jesus paragraph see Now this verse is foreign to some folks who don't read their Bibles But it's familiar to people that read their Bibles regularly Luke chapter 13 He says strive to enter the narrow gate I want you to say to your neighbor strive Say strives on evil word Jesus said it the Western culture anything that takes any energy just makes Christians nervous But I tell you it's a delusion it's a serious delusion Jesus said Strive to enter the narrow gate now, so you're not confused We don't strive to earn forgiveness as always talking about that's freely given to us But we position ourselves The striving is in bringing our unrenewed mind into agreement with God and to bringing our the dialogue Of our heart into more consistent Conversation with him that's where the striving comes because everything in our culture is pulling us opposite of that direction Takes effort. I have to stop turn things off turn away opportunities and Give myself to the renewing of my mind and to renewing the conversation and it takes effort sometimes I get into that time when if I do it consistently in Private definitive times and I can do it on the run more consistently if I do it deliberately I Can do it more on the run, but if I don't do it deliberately where I take time for it I lose that fresh conversation with the Lord So many times not sometimes I'm tired my mind's right my mind's left. I don't feel like it. Somebody's mad at me I'm mad at them things aren't working my body didn't feel good. I'm hungry and I say no Just stop Mike Open your Bible talk to him Jesus I really love you, but I want to talk to you right now I'm sure none of you've ever felt that But I've learned over the years. I still do it. I don't always do it, but I do it a lot a lot more than I Used to in my earlier days, but not as much as I want to I'm not claiming to have attained in that but my point is I'm talking about the word strive I know what it means to go Okay Turn off turn away Shut down focus over my Bible renew my mind talk to him And I tell you many times things happen in my heart and many times I don't feel anything but over time the water level always goes up Jesus said stride Put some effort into the relationship look at paragraph D Striving and I'm using this word striving on purpose. I'm wanting to bother you Because what I want to do is we bother a religious mindset That's it religious in the extreme way calling it grace, but it's really a religious mindset. It really is religious It's living a passive life in the name of grace I want to disturb that is that again? It's a religious mindset though. That's their number one Anathema word is being religious the very thing that many of them are It's just a carnal type of religion, it's not Vibrant reality with the spirit. That's the opposite of religious. It's a vibrant reality with the spirit Anyway, striving has two different meanings in the New Testament Number one, we don't strive to earn God's love however, we do strive in the sense of putting effort into the relationship in the way we would put effort into a Relationship of our friend or family member if you don't put effort in a relationship And the other person is you're gonna have some conversations particularly, but your wife, but anyway I've just heard that before Striving in this sense is an expression of love you're putting effort into the relationship Whether you feel like it or not. We don't strive this way. We don't love God At least according to the Word put top of page 4 I want to say it again paragraph e so there's no misunderstanding I want to repeat we never strive to receive the love of God. It's freely ours when we when we're most undeserving I Mean before we're saved he's chasing us down to give us the free love of God It's also wrong paragraph e at the bottom to strive in other ways to To strive in the sense of Trying to establish your own agenda in your ministry where it's not born of the Spirit But you're determined you're gonna make this happen He put a lot of energy in you're trying to pressure people to respond or pressure them to agree. That's called striving Don't strive that way either Don't strive by trying to live in happiness without connecting with the Spirit in a regular way in a regular basis that's striving I Know a lot of folks that live in striving and they hate striving according to their testimony But they're trying to live connected to God without without talking to him. That's called striving It's the opposite of how I've heard it defined many times over the last 10 year paragraph F I Give a number of ways in the New Testament that Jesus and Paul talked about striving Paragraph G the most radical action of all now, of course, this is only symbolic Metaphorical he says pluck out your right eye if it makes you sin. They don't really do that Cut off your right hand. Don't do that either. But what he's saying is he says take radical action to participate with the grace of God this idea that you don't do anything and those sins will disappear is a Deception and a delusion. It's not the teaching of Jesus He said take radical steps Now again, he's getting speaking metaphorically or symbolically here, but he goes no matter how costly it is Invest yourself in the process in the grace of God and don't wait in vain for it to suddenly one day Disappear I've watched people go to three decades waiting for that spiritual dullness and that addiction to disappear and they need to be taking radical action of interaction with Jesus in the Holy Spirit Paragraph H. I have a few verses here where Paul talks about striving the great gospel of grace man himself Talks about striving a number of times. He's using it in the sense of putting effort not of earning love Two very distinct ways paragraph I Hebrews 4 We are diligent to interest that sounds like a paradox It's not a paradox We're diligent to bring our mind in agreement with God and to renew that Dialogue with him called asking seeking and knocking or abiding in Christ We're diligent in those ways because we want to interest paragraph J Now Jesus appears to contradict himself, but it's there's no contradiction You will only get the truth the whole truth by putting these two passages together he talks about striving to enter the narrow gate or or It's it's it's difficult is what he says in Matthew and Luke. He uses the word striving. It's the same thing It's exerting energy as the point effort Then he talks about are his yoke being easy I've heard people say which is it is the narrow way hard or is the yoke easy and the answer is both There's no contradiction. It's understanding it, right? What sense do we resist striving and what sense do we embrace driving to answer this wrong is to embrace? serious heirs in a religious spirit on each direction of a religious spirit of compromise That's disconnected from the Holy Spirit or a religious spirit of legalism that's disconnected from the Holy Spirit Paragraph K and I break it down here And I'll let you just read it on your own so I want to bring this to an end it's all there But the yoke is easy on our heart. In other words our spirit can be vibrant That's what a easy yoke is. Our soul is at rest meaning The effort it takes to live a fleshy lifestyle the emotional turmoil and anxiety and Rejection and fighting for my honor and making sure I get my place beloved. That is wearisome And when Jesus is saying the easy yoke he's talking about a life Liberated from that internal turmoil Because we've put the yoke of Jesus the yoke of Jesus is not forgiveness. The yoke of Jesus is meekness the yoke of Jesus is embracing a lifestyle of Abandonment of everything to the will of God so there's no strife on the inside. You have no other agenda. It's easy That's what he's talking about People have misunderstood or they think the yoke here is the yoke of free forgiveness. The yoke is meekness as a lifestyle Meekness meaning denying our flesh and saying yes to the Spirit to where our Agendas are not in conflict. So we don't have the turmoil the fear the anxiety and all that Stirring and all the time on the inside. That's the easy way to live now What happens let's go ahead and read this Paragraph in the last one because I have them a couple of paradoxes. What is difficult to our flesh? In other words denying ourselves in biblical ways, I'm only talking about biblical ways is What leads many times because it's really the dialogue with the Spirit is what brings these yoke But it brings an ease to our heart the yoke to our heart We have a spiritual vibrancy Now the denying of ourself is not what causes our heart to be vibrant The interaction with the Holy Spirit is what causes our heart to be vibrant But that happens best in this age in the context to denying our flesh Many believers matter of fact according to Jesus the majority They want what's easy on their flesh, but beloved bad news. It's really difficult on your spirit You will live with a spiritually dull heart you'll live spiritually bored and you'll be spiritually boring beloved That's a difficult yoke. It's easy on the flesh But it's really heavy on the heart now what vanity is my last sentence here. I had to get to here Vanity Foolishness I Say that I want to say that redemptively. I'm trying to be helpful is Where a lot of folks are looking for an Easy path on their flesh and hoping it results on an easy yoke on their spirit. There is no such thing That's what many are holding out for They say you know what it's hard on my flesh, but my spirit is alive What's easy on my flesh my spirits dull What they're aiming for is easy on the flesh pepper their flesh and have a vibrant walk with God beloved Jesus said it's not going to happen in this age, and it's our destiny to walk with a vibrant spirit amen Let's end with that