Pearls, Pigs, Prayers, and People, Part 2

In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivered a number of strong reprimands. For instance, He called out the hypocrites for their duplicity, and He chastised those who sat in judgment over people in pain. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Matthew chapter 7 and a shocking section of Jesus' sermon that exposes the damage caused by phony and judgmental behavior.

Through this study, we hope to choose compassion over arrogance and discernment over judgment. Chuck titled today's message, Pearls, Pigs, Prayers, and People, and we begin with prayer. Speak, Lord, in the silence as we wait on you. Teach our hearts to listen with expectancy. We often miss what you're saying to us because we are so busy, so often in a hurry.

Catch a quick meal here or take care of an appointment there to rush back, to hurry through the rest of our day. You have a way of infusing strength when we stop the churning and sit quietly before you. I pray right now that you will lift the burden from hearts represented in this gathering. It may be some concern regarding another person, some unfulfilled dream or request, some long-standing sickness or issue or conflict that's not yet worked out, not yet resulted in healing, not yet been resolved. Speak, Lord, in the stillness as we wait on you. We live in a country that's marked by constant change and clearly a movement in the wrong direction. Our hearts ache for godliness among our leadership, for strength of character among those who hold high offices.

How rare are those people. Oh God, come to our rescue. Remind us that you, Lord, are able to guide us, that you, Lord, know the right direction where to go. May wise and bold counselors bring words of good advice to those who make decisions in high places. Lift the hearts of those in the military who feel discouraged, unappreciated. Give them strength, Lord, hold them strong.

And those who do the work of protection over our freedom, give them discernment, keen minds. Remind all of us, Lord, that the greater forces are invisible. The prince of darkness, grim, we tremble not for him. We know that our adversary hates everything we love and loves everything we hate.

And in the midst of that conflict, he would woo us and hopefully win us and our attention. But Lord, may it not be. Give us the strength of character to sense that this is evil, this is wrong. Teach us again how to say no to moral compromise and ethical decisions that would hurt your name.

Bring reproach to Christ. These fine men and women who gather in this place, we together, Lord, are weak in ourselves. But with you, you make it all a majority. So we lean on you for the strength we need, which we haven't in ourselves. Finally, Lord, I pray that we will realize yet again the power of the written Word of God. May the truth from this sermon preached centuries ago have a ring of relevance about it. May we see ourselves in the pages. May we see our faces in the words. May we understand he preached to us, not just those of his day. We worship your son, Lord, as we worship none other. These things we commit to you, though we do not deserve the answer, we commit to you for your glory and our good. In the name of Jesus, who does all things well, we pray.

Everyone say, Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled Pearls, Pigs, Prayers, and People. Today, I'm going to give you a warning. I want to warn you, at least to begin with, about dogs and pigs and pearls and treasures. They're found right here in this sixth verse of Matthew 7 where we're told not to do something.

Look at what he says. Do not give what is holy to dogs. Do not throw your pearls before swine. But he's not referring to dogs as literal dogs, but people with dog-like natures.

They're hostile against the truth of the Gospel. And then he goes to the next illustration, and don't throw the pearls before swine. Now, I understand some people have potbelly pig pets. These are not cute little potbelly pigs that you wash up and put a ribbon on.

These are filthy swine that live belly deep in slop. There's a principle in all of this I don't want you to miss. This has to do with discernment.

Don't give what is precious and treasured to someone who stiff arms you and says, I'm not interested. Now, look at the next several verses. This is about prayer. Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find.

Knock and it shall be opened. By the way, this is a great place for me to mention correlation. Remember what I taught you earlier about the value of observation, what the scripture says, interpretation, what it means.

Correlation has to do with comparing one scripture with another. So you read this about prayer in verse seven, but you need to go to another passage of scripture that tells you something else about prayer. You're to ask it in the will of God.

So if this is your will, I would want this. In fact, one of the Psalms says, 6618, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So I need to have a clean heart if I expect my prayer to be effective. At the same time, James says in James 5 16, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Often there's fervency in it and it avails much.

It gets a lot accomplished. Don't be afraid to go to Lord with energy. Lord, Lord, I plead with you about this. There's a sense of urgency in the repetition of ask and seek and knock.

D.A. Carson put it in these words, and I love the way he writes this, the Western world is not characterized by prayer. By and large to our unspeakable shame, even genuine Christians in the West are not characterized by prayer.

Our environment loves hustle and bustle, smooth organization, powerful institutions, human self-confidence and human achievement, new opinions and novel schemes, and the Church of Jesus Christ has conformed so thoroughly to this environment that it is often difficult to see how it differs in these matters from contemporary paganism. Wow. That cuts to the quick. Pray. Don't carry that burden any longer. Pray. Leave it with him. And if you find yourself picking it up, pray again about that. Let him take the burden. Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.

The Hebrew word picture in that is like tossing a heavy pack off your back and leaving it with him so that you can walk with a lighter load. Pray. Pray.

So the principle is clear. Persistence must characterize our prayers. Pray often. Pray repetitively. Come before him without reluctance.

Look at the promise of verse eight. Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks will find, and the one who knocks, it'll be opened. I've had that happen. I've had it happen in a time of prayer, and I'm bringing to the Lord this situation. I can't see my way through it. I've wrestled with it. I've tried to work it out, and so I decided, Lord, this is going to be your... I got it! I don't know how that happens, but in my mind comes the answer.

And some of you have had that happen as well, and you go, thank you, Lord. What's happened? It's been opened. The conflict has been resolved or at least the confusion has been removed, and he says it will be. You will receive. You will find. Now you may not get exactly what you're requesting.

We said this earlier, but you will get what he wants you to have, which is always better. Never seen it fail. His no often leads to the finest answer I could have ever received, but it wasn't what I was asking for. In fact, he used a rather humorous illustration. Look at the next couple of verses.

I love these. What man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Your boy's really, really hungry, so you gift wrap a rock. Here, son, this ought to satisfy.

No, you don't do that. You're not that kind of dad. Well, how about a son that asks for a fish? You don't give him a snake.

Of course you don't. I happen to have a... By the way, you want to make it meaningful, change it to grandfather and grandson. Oh, a grandson needs something? What do you need, son? A new Porsche?

What is it you have on? What do you have in mind here? A little facetious there. It won't quite go that far, but I have a grandson who loves seafood. And every time I get a chance to go out to dinner with Austin, I want to take him to Papadose, our famous seafood restaurant down the street here. And I always know when I go, he's going to order enough for two people.

After all, he's 20, 21. You know, he could stand in front of a refrigerator and the food just gets sucked out of the refrigerator. It's amazing. I get frostbitten while he's drawing everything out.

Okay. So we go to Papadose and he orders the platter. You ever seen the platter?

They fry everything but legs. I mean, the thing is filled with fried everything and they put it in front of him. He's already had a salad, big salad. So he looks at this big... I'm thinking he's going to share something with me.

Are you kidding? He starts in and man, he'd eat the tail of the shrimp if I didn't say, you don't eat the tails. You leave the tail. So he devours this and he orders a dessert, of course. Hungry. What kills me? He's about that thin.

Looks like a ruler. It isn't fair. I get fat looking at his meal. He loves fish. I don't serve him a plate of snakes. How cruel. I make sure he gets plenty to eat because I love him and I have an evil nature like you.

Left to myself and my own meanderings, I'll move into treacherous territory. And that's the beauty of this 11th verse. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, to your grandchildren, to your family. Just think about it. How much more? Don't you love much more?

How much more? There's grace in much more. How much more will he, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? It's a beautiful thing when you let God be God. You take him at his word. You believe this book more than you believe any other piece of literature. You read what it says and then you lift that black print off the white page and you let it come into your life by kind of a spiritual osmosis and you begin to live it out and you find yourself living on tiptoe. What's God gonna do next?

What will he do next? I often say to my dear wife as we talk about people we love and sometimes they're our own. I'll say to her, you know what, this is a page and there's a whole chapter to be written and the chapter will be a part of a whole book that's not yet finished. Let's not think that this page represents the final statement or act or response because I know my Heavenly Father who is good and have a bit of evil in him when he decides to give and pour forth his answers. Oh, it amazes all of us.

She reminds me of the same thing. Let me read to you how Eugene Peterson in The Message renders what we have just gone over. I want you to hear it through fresh words. Don't bargain with God. Be direct.

Ask for what you need. This isn't a cat and mouse hide-and-seek game we're in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust?

If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing. You're at least decent to your own children. So don't you think God who conceived you in love will be even better? Here's a simple rule of thumb guide for behavior, writes Peterson.

Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's law and prophets and this is what you get, which brings us to this 12th verse. I love the way the verse begins, in everything.

I pause to let you imagine, in everything. In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you. For this is the law and the prophets, meaning this is the summation.

This says it all. This is known as the golden rule, isn't it? One of my resources referred to it as the Everest of ethics.

I like that. This is the Everest of ethics. It would be among the most famous sayings that Jesus ever spoke. Universally loved and quoted, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, we have learned it.

It kind of forms the capstone of the sermon. It's a beautiful way to live. These are words fitly spoken.

They're like apples of gold in the settings of silver. Next time you're in a situation and you see another struggling, another going through a tough time, or another who is a little difficult to deal with, another who isn't responding as you think he or she should, remember the rule. What could you do that would be best for that person? It's to do for them what you would want him to do for you or her to do for you if you were in that strait. This is everything to do with living the life of Christ. The beauty of this verse is that he leaves it up to you and me.

He doesn't write out all the rules and guidelines. She may need this today. That would be the best thing. Day after tomorrow, he may need that.

That would be the best. But you will find if you live your life based on that rule, you will have very little difficulty sharing the Savior with the person you help. Because frankly, they would never have seen anything like you.

They may mistake you for some angel. I heard the moving story that happened at the end of World War II when a starving little boy was standing in front of a donut shop. One of the few that had endured through the war, war-torn, bombed-out London. The window was covered over with a little mist.

It was cold outside and warm in with the donuts being made. A soldier stands there and looks at the little boy who has his nose pressed up against the glass and he says to the little boy, would you like one of those? Oh, yes sir, I would. So he goes in, he gets a half a dozen and he brings them out in a little box and he hands them to the little boy. The boy looks at him and says, are you God? Are you God?

Isn't that interesting? When you respond as Christ would respond, they might take your words more seriously than ever before in your relationship. It's been said that the world reads.

The only Bible that it has, and that's the life of the Christian, and what the world needs is a revised version. Does your family need a revised version? Your neighbor? Your golfing partner? Your buddy at work?

Your friend going through a tough time? One quaint poet wrote, you are writing a gospel, a chapter each day, but the deeds that you do and the words that you say. Others read what you write, whether faithless or true, say, what is the gospel according to you? Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold, settings of silver. Words faithfully modeled are like undeniable proof to the hardest heart. You know what this principle is? Modeling must accompany our message. That's the principle. Modeling must accompany our message. It gives it such significance. The greatest message we can communicate is a life of Christ lived out through our flesh and blood. Living a Christ-like life before a world that so rarely sees anything near that.

What a great way to live. Bow with me, will you? I often leave the personal application to a message like this to you individually, but today allow me. Are you wasting your time trying to force-feed someone who doesn't want to hear? Don't waste your time. The time isn't right. Discern that this isn't the right moment. Have you become weak in prayer because the answer hasn't been forthcoming or as soon as you expect it or the way you thought it would be answered? Persist.

Stay at it. You're around those who really hurt. You wonder the best response.

Model the message. Christ, quick to forgive, never to hold a grudge. Among his final words, Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing. May the Lord give us that kind of character. Lord, help us in this journey from earth to heaven to interpret life through your eyes. Remind us again and again, Lord, that you know the end from the beginning. You've got the whole book finished and we're trusting you in the middle of the book.

Give us patience to wait and let you work. Thank you for the way you meet with us and speak to us and reprove us in areas where we need attention. Thank you for holding us accountable to representing you among others on this earth. We're grateful, Father, for your special presence through this message and we give you thanks for speaking to us in such a direct way as if the Savior were delivering that sermon to us this day. In his name we pray with gratitude.

Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living and the Bible teaching of pastor and author Chuck Swindoll. To learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at InsightWorld.org.

We never know when we're preparing these programs what challenges you might be facing. It's quite possible, however, that you're praying intently that God would provide for your needs. Well, we thought you'd be encouraged to hear this first-hand story from one of your fellow listeners.

It reinforces that people across our country are using the teaching they hear on this program to point them to Jesus. This note came from a listener in New Jersey who suffered a tragic loss of his career. He said, I owned a home in a wealthy suburb, an apartment downtown, and a fancy car, but I was in such a deep hole that I couldn't even afford the maintenance payments for anything.

In fact, my wife, three young children, and I began to run low on food. We were broke and I had hit rock bottom. He continues, one day I drove to a public park to be alone with God. I needed to hear a word from him, a whisper, anything.

I turned on my car radio and stumbled onto a radio program by a guy named Chuck Swindoll. You were preaching on King David, who was at his wits end, hiding in a cave, because like me, he was desperate. God showed up in the middle of that public park, my private hiding place. Yes, God came through, though I was at a point of losing everything.

God didn't allow me to lose one single thing. Well, if you're among those who financially support Chuck's teaching ministry, rest assured God is using your generosity to touch lives like this man in New Jersey. We couldn't reach men and women around the world without your partnership. As God leads you to give a donation, we invite you to call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or give a donation online when you go to insight.org. Listen again Friday when Chuck Swindoll describes three non-politically correct warnings from Jesus on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Pearls, Pigs, Prayers, and People, was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.

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