Above It All | Just A.S.K | Jen DeWeerdt

Well, good morning, church, how are we doing today? So glad that you are here, each and every one of you. And I wanna take a second and just welcome all of our City First Church locations. We are so glad that you are here. You know, we're in the series called Above It All. And we are talking about the greatest, most impactful, most powerful sermon that has ever been preached. And that is the Sermon on the Mount. And it was taught by Jesus over 2,000 years ago to his followers. And his timeless message, guess what, is still for us today. And it is a blueprint for how to live this word, okay, called a righteous life. And the meaning of righteous is simply this, it's right living with God and right living with other people. You know, and the most complete teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is found in the Book of Matthew and the Gospel of Matthew, chapters five through seven. Can I just be your pastor here for a second? I wanna encourage you at some point during this series, okay, to sit down and read in the Book of Matthew, chapters five through seven. Read through the Sermon on the Mount. It will take you 10 minutes. And I would even encourage you to read it multiple times. Let it soak in, take your time reading it because it is impactful and it will help even

give a little bit more color to what we're talking about on Sundays. Today, I'm actually gonna piggyback on Jer's message from last week. He talked about the Lord's Prayer, which is found in chapter six of Matthew. And we've kind of been going in sequential order through the Sermon on the Mount. But today we're gonna jump forward a little bit because Jesus talks a little bit more about prayer in chapter seven. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. But before I read from Matthew, let me ask you something. And you don't have to raise your hand, okay, although you might wanna raise your hand, fan yourself. All right, have you ever prayed and felt like nothing happened? Have you ever prayed and felt like nothing happened? And I firmly believe that every single person within the sound of my voice today can answer yes to that question. I mean, every single person. You've prayed for healing, maybe, still hasn't happened. You've prayed for someone to find Jesus, still hasn't happened. You've prayed for a breakthrough in your finances, still hasn't happened. You've prayed for that relationship to be mended, still hasn't happened. You've prayed for your broken heart

to be put back together, still hasn't happened. You've prayed for that prodigal child, that prodigal, maybe your son, maybe your daughter, maybe even a parent, and still nothing has happened. You've prayed for the Bears to win a Super Bowl, or just, come on, just beat the Packers once in a while, right? Still hasn't happened. Prayer hasn't been answered. What do we do when it feels like our prayers aren't being answered? What do we do when it feels like God isn't listening, that the heavens are brass, as the old time saints referred to it as? What do we do when we feel weary in our prayers? Because has anybody here ever felt weary in your prayers? Right? Well, Jesus actually speaks to this in Matthew chapter seven and we're gonna read this together. And it says this, ask and the gift is yours. Seek and you'll discover. Knock and the door will be opened for you. I wanna pause there. Seems simple enough, right? I ask, you give it. But then he keeps going on. He says, for every persistent one, we'll get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he longs for. And everyone who knocks persistently

will one day find an open door. When you are reading scripture, when you're picking up your Bible and you're reading it, I wanna challenge you to read slowly. Look for words that are repeated and there's a lot of repetition here, okay? There's ask, seek and knock and that's repeated multiple times. But there's another word that is repeated in this translation and it's this, persistent. Persistent. If you want a picture of persistence, look no further than a toddler saying mom, mom, mom, mom on repeat, right? Our son Pax is right now really into Curious George and specifically wanting to print pictures, still pictures of Curious George episodes. I know, it sounds funny. I actually have a picture of a bunch of these. This is his like bathroom, this is his bedroom floor. These are just a few. He wants to take a still of, Pax has special needs and he wants. He wants us still and he wants us to print every single day. Mom, picture, mom, picture, printer, picture, printer. The bottom one on the corner there, he wanted something with a campfire. I asked Chad GPT to make one for me, and I did and I printed it. I was like, oh my goodness, yes, child, okay.

This is our daily life. Today, I'm taking up gifts for printer cartridges if anybody feels so led. Because every day, right, he is relentless. Every single day, multiple times a day. And Jesus in Matthew 7 is inviting us into this idea of persistent prayer. Don't give up. And I love how the Amplified version states it. It says this, ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you. Seek and keep on seeking, and you will find. Knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened unto you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and who keeps on seeking finds. And to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened. I told you there's a lot of repetition happening here, right, and you're like, why do we keep reading this stuff, Jen? Because this is the thing. I think Jesus is trying to drive a point home. Just keep on. Keep on going. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking in your prayer life. Just keep going. I noticed this this week, okay, as I was preparing this message, never seen this before,

that ask, seek, and knock actually creates an acronym of ask. Never saw that before. So what is prayer? It's ask. Ask, seek, knock. Even 2,000 years later in a translated Bible, Jesus is trying to drive a point home. Ask, seek, knock. See, not only is there repetition in this passage, there is also what I think a progression, right? Because asking, it takes a little effort, okay? I mean, it doesn't take much for Pax to yell across the room, mom, picture, right? But he seeks me out. Seeking is work. He'll be like, where's mom? She's hiding somewhere. I know I gotta go find her, right? I gotta ask for this picture. Seeking, I mean, it's, and even me, like I have to work hard every day. I'm seeking my lost keys, my lost phone, right? It takes time, it takes effort. And then knocking on the door is even more of a feat if you think about it. If you wanna find a door to knock on, you gotta go find a door to knock on. And so there's this progression. Asking is easy.

Yeah, no, maybe. It takes a little effort, right? And then there's the seeking, more effort. Knocking, more effort. Asking is not passive. That's what I'm trying to say. It's not striving. You're not trying to get God's attention. He sees you, he hears you. It's not striving, but it's not passive. You see that there's effort being put into prayer. It's not lackadaisical. And this passage in Matthew isn't the only time that Jesus talks about this idea of persistent prayer. And I love this next story, this next scripture we're gonna read. But Jesus tells a parable in the book of Luke, the gospel of Luke records, that he described a judge who didn't care about God or people. So this is an unjust man, just not a good person, okay? And he described this judge as he didn't care about people. And then there was a widow who kept coming to this godless judge and asking him for justice. And at first, this judge who didn't care for people or God just ignored her, but she kept persistently asking. And he finally gave her what she wanted just to stop her from bothering him, all right? And then Jesus continues on and it says this, Jesus continued to say,

did you hear what the ungodly judge said? That he would answer her persistent request. But don't you know that God, the true judge, will grant justice to all of his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Persistence. He will pour out his spirit upon them. He will not delay to answer you and to give you what you ask for. God will give swift justice to those who don't give up. So be ever praying, ever expecting, just like the widow was with the judge. Yet when the son of man, meaning Jesus, comes back again, will he find this kind of persistent faithfulness in his people? Wow, this widow is an example to us. And there's a couple things from this passage I wanna pull out. First is that the persistent widow knew who to go to. She wasn't just like griping about her situation to her friends on Facebook. Right? She was like, the judge is the one who can change my situation. See, all of us at some point in our lives have run to the wrong person, the wrong thing, the group of people to solve our problems. But we learn from this widow to go to the one who can help, the one who can actually make a difference in our situation. The second thing is this, and I love this word picture.

The Greek text that speaks of persistence in this passage uses an unusual term, it's only used two times in the New Testament, meaning this, ever tapping. Signifying the one who keeps knocking on the door of heaven until he receives what he came for. Anybody ever had you tap, tap you on the shoulder over and over again? You're having a conversation back to the toddler, right? Mom, mom, tap, tap. Wow, what a picture, be ever tapping, church. Third, the widow wasn't civil, I love this, or proper about her request for justice. One commentary I read as I studied this, it talks about how it was her annoying persistence. Sometimes it's good to be annoying, okay? Her annoying persistence is what got her request for justice answered. She begged at his door, she followed him in the streets and solicited him in the court. I think this is a picture that shows us that we can talk to God whenever, about whatever, wherever, it doesn't matter, everywhere you go, do you understand that you have access to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? In your car, at your workplace, when you're rocking your child, trying to get them to sleep for the hundredth time, whatever it might be, you have direct access to God, wherever, whenever, about whatever,

and that is your ever tapping. Keep coming back to him, keep coming back to him. This is what I love about the widow, she just kept asking, she kept on. She kept on. And here's the deal, if even an unjust judge responds to persistence, how much more will our loving God respond when we keep coming to him in faith and prayer? He's not gonna, I mean, the picture in the, Jesus was giving a metaphor here, he's giving a story, and he's not referring to himself as the unjust judge, okay? Not like you have to be annoying him, and it's not like he's gonna finally be fed up with you and answer. He's saying, I'm the exact opposite of that. I'm actually a good God who will answer you, but things aren't always gonna go our way. See, Jesus says a lot of things about prayer that will connect to this idea that he will answer, because he just said in the parable, right? And he just said in Matthew 7, listen, I will answer prayer, it's coming, it's coming, and there's even more scriptures that talk about this. We're gonna look at a couple, Matthew chapter 21, it says, if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. The next one is this, found in Mark, therefore I tell you, these are all Jesus speaking, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,

believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Matthew 18, again, truly I tell you, that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them. By my Father in heaven, for where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. What beautiful promises, if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. If two or three of you agree on earth, it will be done, right? It's gonna be done, but here's the problem. Jesus' words are pretty clear, but the problem is sometimes it feels like his words and our lived experiences don't line up, right? So another question, what about when our experience doesn't line up with these promises, or so it seems? I think, well, obviously, things happen, right? You get frustrated. You're like, what is going on here? These are what the promises say, Jesus, and this is what I'm asking for, and this is what we have to be careful of. We can sometimes look at prayer like this vending machine. All right, isn't this cool? Totally retro. All right, even a bottle opener in the front. Some of you young people don't even know what a bottle opener is.

Maybe for other things, but that's a different conversation. All right, so we can look at prayer sometimes like, Even those verses, right? Well, if I believe, I receive. So if I believe, I want a Pepsi. Pepsi. I got myself a Pepsi. I'm more of a Coke girl myself. And there's those here too. But you're like, okay, I put in my prayer. All right, Jesus, I wanted healing. I got my healing. I want my child to have to stop struggling with that. I got it, I got it. Okay, but sometimes this happens. I want a crush, cause it's a little toasty in here. A little toasty outside. I want myself a crush. I'm gonna give myself a crush. Give me a crush. All right, this is not a crush. This is an A&W root beer and it's warm. It's not what I need right now. All right, sometimes we put in our request and then we get something that's different than what we asked for. And we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'll put in the coins. I'll push the button, right?

I believe, I receive. This isn't what I wanted, Jesus. This isn't what I wanted. And then other times we put in the quarters and we push the button. This is an RC Cola, by the way. Some of you don't even know what that is. Maybe they don't exist in there. Come on, I put my 50 cents in. Okay, then we're like, well, I'll try again. One more. Oh, it gave me my money back. This, I'm pushing this button. How come I believe, don't I receive? I put the money in, what happened? Well, and this is what happens, right? Have you guys have all done this with a vending machine before, you don't get what you want? And then we start to do this. We're like, but maybe if I just put it in slowly. No, maybe if I do it fast. What is up? I put in my money, how come I'm not getting what I want? This, sometimes we think this is what prayer is. But here's the deal, okay? Prayer is not equational, it's relational. It's not just a transaction. I bring my quarters, I put in my money, I want a Coke now, maybe it'll give me my Coke. Yep, okay, you give me my Coke,

but this is what I wanted, God. We think this maybe is, and God's like, I am so much more than this. I am so much more than this. And I actually had to unlearn this idea. Because I always thought, you know what? If I act a certain way, if I do this, if I say it this way, if I put my quarter in fast, or if I'm perfect enough, or if I say the exact right words, or if I get my two or three people together, because that's what Jesus says, well, then it's gonna answer the question. But here's the deal, it's not one plus one equals two. It's not just an equation. It's not a formula where if you just plug in the right words God automatically gives you what you want. Prayer is relational, it's a conversation, it's a connection, it's a deepening of our walk with the one who loves us. Prayer isn't a formula, it's a friendship. It's not about magic words, but deep connection. And this is the beauty of it, persistent prayer grows trust, not just the results we desire. As we continue to come, and here's the deal, sometimes we're like, but I wanted healing, and God's like, I gave you peace. You wanted the crush. You wanted that child not to have to struggle with that anymore, but guess what?

I gave you the wisdom to walk through that with that child. I gave you a church community that can come alongside you and pray with you. I gave you a youth group that's going on summer camp and God's gonna change lives. That's what I gave you. I gave you Kids Summer Blast, you can send your kid there. Listen, this is the beauty of it. God's like, I'm answering prayer, just not always the way you think I should. See, even the fact that Jesus talks about persistent prayer confirms that we might not always see prayers answered in our timing and in the way we would like. As he's saying, be persistent, keep on. Well, that in itself denotes that sometimes it's not gonna be like the vending machine. So I want us to go back to chapter seven really quick. Jesus doesn't stop at ask, seek, and knock. Says, do you know of any parent who would give his hungry child who asks for a food, a plate of rocks instead? Or when asked for a piece of fish, what parent offers child a snake instead? If you, imperfect as you are, know how to lovingly take care of your children and give them what is best, how much more ready is your heavenly Father to give wonderful gifts to those who ask him? And what I love about this is it speaks to the character of our God.

Our heavenly Father is good and he is kind. He doesn't give a stone when we need bread. He is ready to give wonderful gifts. Sometimes those gifts are just different than we want. God always answers prayers. He always does. And why do we know that? Well, because Jesus, we just read multiple scriptures. And here's the deal, Jesus actually never talks about unanswered prayers. There's not once he talks about unanswered prayers. And I love this quote by Oswald Chambers, an old time theologian. He says this, our Lord never referred to unanswered prayer. He taught that prayers are always answered. Everyone who asks, receives. And he implied that prayers are answered rightly because of the heavenly Father's wisdom. Your Father knows the things you have need of before you even ask him. Wow, God doesn't ignore prayers. He answers them with wisdom. God answers all prayers. I think you're still going, I don't know, Jen. I don't think I really, I'm buying that. But he answers in, I believe, four different ways. He says, yes, we like that. I push the Pepsi, I get the Pepsi, right? He says, no, you push the RC Cola, you don't get the RC Cola.

He says, no, and we don't like that. We, I think many times, we think of the no that God says as an unanswered prayer. And here's the deal. God loves us so deeply. As a heavenly parent, I do not give my children everything they ask for. Not in the way they think I should. I am working in the background to help them in other ways. But I would be actually a terrible parent if everything my children asked me for, I gave them every time. Because I can guarantee you, especially my two older boys, they would not be where they are right now if we were just like, go right ahead. All right, fine, you want that? Do whatever you want, uh-uh. There is a heavenly father who knows when it's good to say no. The third thing is this, is that he will say, I will if you will. I will if you will. Like, let's just take for example, you're like, God, I need a better paying job to make ends meet. God's like, and we're praying for it, and we're praying for it. God's like, I am going to lead and guide you in that, but I need you to be filling out 100 applications a week, and let's just see what happens.

He can't direct a parked bus. He can't do it. Sometimes he's gonna go, I will if you will. I will if you will. And then last is, not yet. Ooh, and we don't like waiting. I don't like waiting. He'll say, not yet. Now is not, God's timing is perfect. God always answers. My friend, Kevin Chavo, sitting on the second row right now, God doesn't always pay on Friday, but he always pays on time. He'll answer it. Just not always in the timing we want. God always answers. Now here's the deal. Don't let delay make you doubt his love. It's good. And this is important, okay? Trust his wisdom, not just his power. I want you to let that line sink in. Write that down. Trust his wisdom, not just his power. Because so oftentimes we're like, I serve a powerful God. He's gonna give, he can do this, he can do that, and yes, that is true, but guess what? You also, you need to trust his wisdom. That he is working things out

beyond what you could ever dare to ask, dream, or imagine, and I don't get it. I don't understand it. I don't like it sometimes. I am not, I'm the first one to say, I don't like the no answers, and I don't like the just wait answers. I don't like it. I don't like the not yet. But God, I trust His wisdom, not just His power. And I want us to watch this story. We showed this story a little while back, but as I was preparing this message, I was reminded of this story, because it reminds us of the power of persistent prayer and that it is never wasted. Let's watch this. My name is Barb Seaworth. This is my husband, Ralph. I've been attending City First since 1985. I was around church a couple of times a year to come for Easter and Christmas and stuff. But when I thought of God, I thought of Him as a heavenly being that I really wasn't sure just how real He was. I guess I felt I really didn't need to know Him. I didn't need to know Him. I didn't need to know Him. I guess I felt I really didn't need to know Him. I didn't need Him. And at the same time, I thought I was a good person,

always standing up for what was right, doing what was right. But in the long run, I was not leading a Christian life whatsoever. Years would grow by, and Ralph did not go with me. As the kids got a little older, I would say, let's go and pray for Dad at the end of the service. We'd grab their hands, and we'd go up, have prayer with someone. And I would be crying because I wasn't seeing any changes. And then COVID hit. I started watching the service online at home. He would come and join me and watch it. It's amazing when the Lord works in a way like that, that takes something that is not good and turns it into good. The one thing I did get right in the whole thing, I listened and I obeyed. The rest of it is all God. It's Him. He changed me. I did not change Ralph. December will be three years that I've been serving with Barb and kids. I think they give us more than we give them. We have kids that will come back after they move on to fives, and they'll take time to stop and say hi to us. And it just touches and melts my heart so much to see young kids like that, that you've actually been able to help teach them about Jesus. I get more joy out of serving people and doing for others

than I did by far trying to make myself happy with worldly things. The passion that I have for being a Christian, for loving Him, I never ever thought I could have that kind of passion. It's just an incredible feeling to love Him that much. For someone that is out there saying, where's my breakthrough? I've been praying. Why isn't my spouse changing? Why isn't my situation changing? It's all about the timing. It's all about God's timing. Just hold His hand. Just keep holding His hand and it will happen. And from my standpoint, being saved at the age of 61, it's never, never too late to come to the Lord. I can never ever imagine going back to the way I was. I'm so looking forward to what else God has in plan for me, for us as we move forward. I just hope that I am blessed with years that I can serve Him and do everything that I can to make His light shine. I want you to let that sink in for a second. 40 years. 40 years. Don't give up. Don't give up. Keep on praying. Keep on asking.

Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Don't you dare give up. You have no idea what God is working in the background. You have no idea when He's gonna answer the prayer. We just don't know. 40 years of faithful prayers. And I don't know if you caught this one question at the end of Jesus talking about the story of the persistent widow. And this is the question He put forth. He said, Yet when the Son of Man, Jesus, comes back, will He find this kind of persistent faithfulness in His people? City First Church. I don't know what you're carrying right now. I don't know what prayers you're praying, but this is what I know. When Jesus comes back or I pass from this life to the next, I wanna be like, I was found faithful, persistently faithful. God, I was that persistent, annoying widow. I just didn't give up. I'm not much of a, honestly, I don't have a lot of gifts and talents, I don't, but there is one thing I would say. If people could say, what's gender work? She just doesn't stop. She just doesn't quit. And this is what Jesus is asking for.

This is why he's saying, listen, I can't wait, I wanna see your persistent faithfulness. He knows it's not easy, but guess what? I can tell you one prayer he will always answer, and that is this, his prayer for peace. His peace is always near, his presence is always near. That always is, I hit the Pepsi, I get the Pepsi. God is good, he is faithful, and my prayer is that we would be found with a persistent faithfulness. Persistence, listen, is a demonstration of faith and trust in God's goodness. You're not just annoying God. What you're doing is saying, I trust your wisdom. I don't just trust your power, I trust your wisdom. In that situation, church, keep asking. In that difficulty, keep on seeking. In that struggle, keep on knocking. Yes, your arm might be tired, and I'm gonna pray in just a moment that God would strengthen you in this journey. I can guarantee you there were times when Barb was like, I don't see any change, but she just kept tapping, just kept tapping. Don't you dare give up. God is near, he is listening, he is working. He is a good father who wants to give wonderful gifts like scripture says, so stay the path and keep trusting. Will you stand with me? I just wanna pray for us,

and this is, I don't have a huge takeaway today other than this, is that I want you to just know that God actually speaks to the feeling that you're feeling sometimes when it feels like your prayers aren't matching up with the promises that he makes. He's like, I spoke to that. There's the persistent widow, there's the keep on asking. Don't you dare give up. God is working in the background. So let me pray for us today. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this church. I thank you for what you're doing in this house. God, I thank you for every single person that is within the sound of my voice. And I know that each and every person, Lord God, has prayers, God, hopes, and dreams that they have, Lord God, for themselves, for others, for their situations, for their children, for their parents. I know that, God. And I pray that today, God, you would strengthen the weary hands today, that you would strengthen the weary souls. You would strengthen the ones who don't see what they feel like they've asked for yet, God. I pray that you would give them strength, that you would give them courage, that you would build up their spirit even as they walk out of this place today, Lord God. They would leave with such a different mindset, God,

that they wouldn't feel like they're not praying right or they're not doing things right, Lord God, but they keep on coming to you, God. You are a good father and you are listening and you hear. So God, I pray that you would be with my friends. And I do pray for breakthrough. God, I pray for answered prayers, that this would be a house of answered prayers, God. God, the prodigals would come home and the healings would take place because you are a good God and we believe you, but we trust in your wisdom just as much as we trust in your power. With every head bowed and every eye closed, every time that we gather together, we give people an opportunity to say yes to Jesus. And if that is you today, you've tried doing life on your own, but today you heard about a God who loves you. Jesus died on the cross for you. You don't have to walk in guilt and shame. You can have a brand new life in Jesus. And with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that is you today and you just say, Jen, I wanna make Jesus, I wanna follow Jesus. I'm tired of living my life on my own. Just lift up your hand right where you're at and we're gonna pray a prayer. I see that hand. I see that hand.

There's multiple hands up. And I know online and other locations, there are hands up. So this is what we're gonna do. Collectively, we're gonna pray this prayer together so that each and every. person who's making that decision understands that there's a room that is with them. So let's pray this together. Dear Heavenly Father, today I choose to follow Jesus. I choose to turn from my way and follow Jesus. Forgive me of my sins. I receive the new life you have for me. Thank you for Jesus. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Can we give those who prayed that prayer a huge hand clap? Well what an incredible message by Pastor Jen DeWert. I know today as I'm walking away just going, man keep asking, don't give up. What an encouragement and I want to take a second and talk to those individuals that maybe prayed that prayer for the very first time or recommitted your life today. First of all, best decision you have ever made. We are celebrating with you and we want to encourage you in a few things. Let somebody know that you made that decision. Let them know that you made Jesus the leader and the forgiver of your life. I know others around us would love to celebrate with you. We also have a resource for you called New Beginnings so you can scan the QR code in the chat and get that digital resource. It's gonna answer the question of now what? I made this decision, what's next? And I just want to encourage you as well. Keep coming back, watching online. If you are near one of our locations, join us for services. We'd love to have you but we're just so excited for that decision that you made today. Yes and one of the best next steps that you can take for your faith journey is now lean into the purpose that God has given you and that you have found because of your relationship with Jesus. And so in two weeks we're starting our next round of online growth track and so if you're interested in signing up for that, really what it helps with is just learning who God designs you to be and then who he's calling you to be as well and learning more about God here at City

First Church. And so make sure to sign up by visiting cityfirst.church forward slash growth track. That's right and listen we're here and we would love to pray with you so if you haven't had a chance to go on the app, submit a prayer request. We have a team of people every single week that would love to be praying for the needs and the things that you care about and that you are praying for. So go ahead and do that and we will be praying with you. Yes and so what an amazing message from Pastor Jen and let's go out and live it in this world and also we just encourage you as you're walking into your rest of your week, God is with you and be praying and God will answer those prayers in his timing and in his way. And so we love you City First Church. We're praying you into this week. God bless and we'll see you next week.