Aug 29, 2016
Speaker: Tyler Chroniger
SDB Church of Shiloh, NJ
Father God, we know Your spirit is here tonight.
We know You are moving in our hearts and our
minds. I pray for myself, and the message You
have given me; that it would not be of me but of
You and the words spoken tonight would be glory
and honor to Your name. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
There are a lot of truths to be found in the Gospel of Luke. My main focus is going to be on those last few verses of Luke 11:11-13. It is basically speaking about the relationship between a father and son or our father and us, His children. (For those of you who don’t know…August 25, 2015 @ 2:02 in the morning my wife and I were blessed with Brayden Jaymes Chroniger).
What I believe is that God has allowed me to have a son to help me understand His relationship to Jesus as well as help me understand how God relates to us and how we relate to Him.
Throughout the course of human history, God has wanted to bless the human race. I have to tell you this story. Jenn and I were making dinner and Brayden was playing on the floor of the kitchen. Jenn went over to the stove to put something in the oven and Brayden, being the inquisitive child that he is, proceeded to crawl over and pull himself up on the front of the hot stove. Needless to say we pulled him away and told him “No.” He continued this several times but still refused to receive the warning. I believe that we treat God a in very similar manner. We treat God as children who don’t understand. The problem is that we as adults, young adults, and young people who are starting to “get it,” have numerous examples from our past where people have traded in the blessings of God for the consequences of the world.
Take, for example, Adam and Eve. They were created to live in a beautiful garden. They had extreme fellowship with God and they chose to squander it all because of a lie. They traded in the blessing of God for the consequences of the world.
When God was going to give Israel the Promised Land, what happened? They sent in spies — and if you recall the children’s song, ten said “no” and two said “go.” They decided it was better to listen to the ten and not accept the blessing of God. So, they ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years.
Eventually, they received the Promise Land again but that wasn’t good enough. So they asked God for Judges and Kings. God said, “you think you know what you want so here they are.” The problem here was that the people fell away from God. They were taken into captivity and basically made slaves.
In each case, all God wanted to do was to bless His people. But they choose the consequences of the world over the blessings of God.
Look at the state of our world and our nation today. There is death, destruction, brother versus brother, wars, and famine. All of these are consequences of falling out of the will of God.
In Genesis 1:31, God called everything that He created very good. As I said in the story about Adam and Eve, God blessed them by allowing them to live in a beautiful garden and allowing them to be in a direct close relationship with Him. He ultimately blessed them with one rule: “Don’t eat of the tree of the ‘Knowledge of the Good and Evil’ or you will surely die.” Even God’s rules are blessing. Why?
Part of my job as Brayden’s father is to keep him from harm. I tell him “no,” maybe smack his hand, because I know that certain things will cause him harm. I don’t know if any of you parents have kids that do this but Brayden absolutely loves electrical sockets. You put him down on the floor and he makes a beeline for them. They are especially awesome when there is something plugged in to them.
It seems like we have that problem — not to believe or trust God. God wants to bless us, which includes keeping us from harm. James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. Matthew 6:25-26 says: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” If verses like this are true, why do we act like children who don’t know better rather than trusting the God who has our best interest in mind?
If you recall our text Luke 11:11-13: “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The parallel text in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 says this: “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Jesus is saying that not only will we get good gifts or blessing from God, we will get the Holy Spirit. Why is this a good gift?
The Spirit is the one who picks us up when we have fallen, dusts us off when were are dirty, comforts us when we are sad, encourages us when we don’t want to go farther, and leads us through the mess of the world.
If we believe that Christianity is true then the next big step is believing that God will provide us His spirit. When Jesus says you “who are evil still know how to give good gifts,” He uses the worst of the two words for evil in the Hebrew. I would go as far as to say that this would encompass anybody not following the will of God.
In the parallel text in the Gospel of Matthew, Mathew puts this take on prayer between judging others and narrow is the gate. Matthew 7:14 says, “but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Basically, only a few people are going to find the narrow gate and get through it. I think this is completely accurate, because like a child who doesn’t understand, we have the inability to learn from our past and the past of those before us. We would rather suffer the consequences of this world, than receive the blessing from God.
I want to give you one more example of this, which comes from Genesis 11. God wanted to bless the people and allow them to spread all over the world and subdue it. What happened? They decided it would be better to stay put and build a huge tower to heaven to make a name for them. Ultimately, God’s will wasn’t being complete and the people weren’t receiving the blessing of God. So, God confused their languages so they would do His will.
Think about this example of a “road closed” sign. If some of you deal with construction, what is the purpose of a “road closed” sign? Well if you go through it or around it, you could end up severely damaging your car or damaging the people working in the construction zone, or worse. So again, part of God blessing us is to keep us from harm.
So I ask, what is keeping you from receiving the blessings of God? If God blesses those who follow His will and the Holy Spirit is one of the best blessings of God, what is keeping you from receiving the blessings of God? Once we get back into the will of God with the power of the Holy Spirit, we will start realizing and seeing the blessing of God all the more clearly.
For me, this has been a struggle. I have often times not listened to what God wanted me to do and have told Him “no.” God said, “do this” and I said, “what for?” Maybe some of your struggles aren’t like mine and you struggle with depression, anger, and bitterness. Maybe you grew up with a father who didn’t give you good gifts, and you struggle to understand the fact that God wants to bless you. All of those things are consequences from decisions we have made and not allowing God’s perfect blessings to flow freely in our lives. Is your life the more abundant life Jesus talked about in John 10:10? Once we realize that we aren’t following the will of God — and the consequences that we have are based on decisions we have made — we can start the course correction and honestly pray the way Jesus was teaching us from Luke. 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father,[a] hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.[b] 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.[c] And lead us not into temptation.[d]’”
It is our active prayer life that helps facilitate the blessings of God. So pray with eagerness. Pray with sincerity. Pray with all authority in the name of Jesus, all while seeking the will of God.
I want to give you six practical applications.
1. Stop thinking you know better than God.
2. Stop accepting that maybe the consequences
aren’t that bad.
3. Start to understand that God wants to bless you.
4. Start to understand that part of God’s blessing is
to keep you from harm.
5. Start to understand the impact of the Holy Spirit.
6. Start to understand the impact of prayer.
This is your opportunity to respond to God and get right with him. Jesus said that if you ask for anything in His name it will be given to you. So think about the times when you have accepted the consequences rather than the blessing of God. Think about the fact that God wants to keep you from harm — maybe by putting roadblocks in your way. Listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and receive the blessing of God.
