Matthew 7:7-11, “ask, seek, knock” [Listen]

Jesus is now beginning to close his discourse. In Matthew 5-7 he has boldly challenged his hearers to think about being the people of God in a way that was different from their religious programming. In fact, Jesus was very confrontational in laying the truth before his listeners. In his words we hear about the people the Holy Spirit creates as Jesus becomes their treasure. He repeatedly challenged the rightness of the religious leadership. It could very easily sound as if Jesus was attempting to overthrow the current power base – he was. To make matters worse, he just finished comparing the religious leadership of the day to pigs and dogs. He was really stretching the minds of anyone who would listen. You can easily imagine all the doubts and uncertainty that would come up after hearing this. And so now he says: Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew 6:7-15, “the Lord’s prayer” – part 2 [Listen]

As you may know, the concept of prayer and the topic of prayer runs throughout Scripture. Some of Jesus’ most amazing promises were made about prayer. Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew 6:5-10, “the Lord’s prayer” – part 1 [Listen]

This section is familiar to many and very profound. The Lord’s prayer (or the Disciples Prayer) gives us a glimpse into how Jesus would have us pray and what we should pray for. Read the rest of this entry »