Hello, my name is Jim Evans, more affectionately known as Papa Jim, and I’m out of Austin, Texas. The word I want to bring to you today is from Matthew 7:7, and I’m going to be reading it to you today out of the translation called The One New Man Bible. And I love this translation because the translators spent time in Israel studying Hebrew close to 20 years actually, and he spent time studying Greek. My Hebrew and Jewish friends tell me this translation is much closer to the original Hebrew and Greek, so I really love it. I’m going read this to you and note that it has words in there that are a lot more action oriented, a little bit more aggressive than what we’re used to. Matthew 7:7, “You must regularly ask and it will be given to you. You must continuously seek and you will find, you must knock habitually and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, takes, and the one who seeks, finds. And it will be opened for the one who knocks.”
Now, you probably noticed that this is a bit more aggressive than probably what you’re used to. The message here is that this is not a passive Gospel. That we need to be aggressive in our approach to God and in our Gospel, and sharing the Gospel. Regularly ask, not just ask, but regularly ask. You must continuously seek and you will find. You must knock habitually and it would be opened to you.
The other day I was going to my neighbor’s house to console them about something, and I knocked on the door and I didn’t hear anything at first. And there were cars all over, so I knew there were a lot of people in the house. I knocked again and I knocked again, and finally my neighbor John came to the door and we had a great conversation. But if I hadn’t habitually knocked that door wouldn’t have been opened.
And that’s the message of this Gospel. We need to take action. We need to be aggressive. This is not a passive ride that we’re on in this journey. Just as Jesus was, Jesus did not passively sit by and wait for things to happen. Jesus was continuously teaching. Jesus was continuously demonstrating the power of the Kingdom of God. And we need to do the same thing. This is not a passive Gospel.
If you are seeking God, just like the woman with the issue of blood, she was a woman, she could have been stoned to death by being in the company of that many men, but she was aggressive. She forced her way through the crowd because she knew if she simply touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. She wanted the presence of God that much that she risked everything to go through that crowd and touched His garment. Folks, I’m telling you, we need to have that same kind of zeal with God. And if we do, the Gospel and the Kingdom will open up for us like never before.