One of the things God wants to attack in your life and my life is selfishness. Dr. Tony Evans says when we act unselfishly, we can expect the good we give to come flying back to us like a boomerang. And then testify about the doors God opened for you. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. The Christian life is about focusing first on God, on others. But where do our own needs fit into that equation? That was the question Dr. Evans addressed as he delivered this message on activating the golden rule.
Let's listen in. It's something that you throw out that returns. When I talk about third, I'm talking about a boomerang principle. A principle that Jesus talks about in Matthew 7 verse 12 in everything, no exceptions. Therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you for in this you have the law and the prophets.
Or you have the whole Old Testament. God says, love me first. Nobody outranks me and you do not choose anybody or anything over me. Second, he says, I want you to be sensitive to the needs of others called your neighbor. The person whose need you see, feel and are able to address. Guess what's gonna happen?
A boomerang. It's gonna come back to you. In introducing this principle, he gives what we call the golden rule. Now everybody wants the gold, they just don't want the rule.
But you need to know how this rule works because if you catch the principle I will share with you today, it will revolutionize your experience. of God personally, because now I'm talking about yourself. That is, what do you get out of this deal of loving God first, loving others second, and how does third come back and hit you? One of the things God wants to attack in your life and my life is selfishness. Have you ever noticed that you never had to teach your child how to be selfish?
You ever noticed that? That you never had to give them a lesson one-on-one in how to be selfish or self-centered or how to make it all about me? They kind of picked that up all on their own or perhaps from you. But selfishness has a way of just being natural to who we are.
We're all concerned about three folks called me, myself, and I. We're selfish and God must attack that. And so he has come up with this boomerang principle called the golden rule or the you part of the great commandment where it spins back to you. And you see this all through the Bible.
God says where there is a need, first place, plant a seed. So he tells the widow of Zarephath, you're hungry. I know, you're down your last meal.
Your son is hungry. I got you. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to feed the prophet Elijah.
Say what? God, wait a minute. Come on now. I don't have much. But what do you need? I need food.
Why? Because I don't have much food. I just told you, feed the prophet Elijah.
Yeah, but you're not, you ain't paying attention, God. I don't have much. I got that. So what I want you to do because of your need, I want you to plant a seed. And I want you to plant the seed in the area of your need.
You need food. Plant the seed of food in the prophet Elijah when she planted the seed of food in the prophet, the Bible says, and she did not run out of food for many days. So it boomeranged back to her. Over and over, this principle is seen in scripture. The boomerang principle, the golden rule.
What you want to get back is what you give out. And God raises up in his own way, in his own unique time through his own inimical ability they, other situations, other people, other scenarios who come along. Sometimes the folk you didn't even know, the things that you didn't even know. Where did that come from? And he says, I saw what you did.
I saw that you seeking to make me happy and you're touching the lives of others. I saw that. So that's the concept of three, of third. But that's associated with a command.
Notice it in verse seven. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.
Knock and it will be open to you. Ask, seek and knock. Those are present imperatives. Present imperatives. An imperative is a command. Present tense means keep on asking.
Okay, I don't want you to miss this. Ask, seek and knock is not a request. It's an imperative. It's a command. It's like saying, you better. I'm telling you. Pay attention. Ask, seek, knock and it will be given to you.
Now, we all like that one. One of the condemnations of scripture is you have not because you ask not. But some people say, but I ask and nothing happened. James 4 says, because you ask a miss wanting to consume it on yourself.
See, he's attacking selfishness. He says at the beginning of James 4, he says, yeah, you either don't ask or you ask and it's only about you. So let me give you the secret of prayer. Ask, seek and knock. That's all prayer.
Let me give you the secret. When you go to God for something for you, which is fine. It's okay to do that.
You're told to ask. Let him know when you're talking to him if he does it for you. It will benefit folk beyond you. Tell him on the front end, God, this is what I want you to do for me. But if in your grace, your goodness and your provision, you do this for me, this is how it's going to flow beyond me to let him know I am not so self-centered.
So only me focused that I don't want to be a blessing. I just want to be blessed. And then while you're waiting for him to answer what he gave you, what you're asking him for, whatever opportunities he brings before you to express it to somebody else, do it in faith, believing that he heard your prayer. You've been around this door for years, ain't nobody answering. You ask and you seek and you knock until you get an answer.
See, there's only three answers. There's yes, there's no, and there's wait. So if you haven't heard yes and you haven't heard no, then that means you keep knocking. You knock till you get an answer.
Okay? If you're doing one and two, you knock until you get an answer. Obviously, if God says no, that's an answer.
But you knock till you get an answer. And here's the beauty of third is that you're going to see more of your prayers answered. You're going to see more of God's provision because you're doing it in alignment with how he has prescribed it. You're pleasing him.
You're getting the log out of your eyes. You're serving him. 1 John 3.22 says that God answers the prayers of believers who are obedient to him. 1 John 3.22, he answers the prayers of those who are obedient to him.
And guess what? John 3.22 is in the context of loving your brother. So he says, you obey me in the context of loving your brother, and then you'll see me start to answer your prayers. One of the reasons, so if your prayers are being answered, is God is not getting the love, others aren't getting the love, and we want all the love.
And God will not respond to our selfishness. In this series, Dr. Evans explores the many different ways we can bring ourselves back into a closer connection with God and others, increasing our effectiveness as believers who have a vital role to play in God's kingdom. And right now, we've created a special resource package for our listeners that includes not only the full length audio messages in this collection, but also two terrific books from Dr. Evans. His popular devotional book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, as well as an exciting new release called Kingdom Kindness, a movement to bring calm to the culture.
In a time when many are feeling anxious and uncertain about the future, the stress of unsettling societal issues are taking a toll on our well-being. Now more than ever, it's imperative that we allow God's love to flow through us as we extend kindness to one another. These resources will help you discover how to do that, and we'd like to send them to you as our gift. And thanks for your support of our work here through the Alternative Broadcast Ministry. To find out how you can take advantage of this special offer, just visit tonyevans.org, where you'll find all the details right on the homepage. That's tonyevans.org. Or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, where one of our friendly team members will be happy to help with your request.
Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information for you after part two of today's lesson, and this. In a world shrouded by fear, prophecy seeks to make sense of it all. Dr. Tony Evans' latest book, Thy Kingdom Come, reveals the secrets to deliver us through dark times. Now is the time to gain clarity in the midst of confusion. Be prepared for what's to come by picking up your copy of Thy Kingdom Come at tonyevans.org. It comes with a bonus sermon series, Staying Right with God. Arm yourself against the impending storm.
The story is told in Luke 11, verses 5-13. The story is this guy comes to this guy's house late at night, and he said, look, I got some friends, and they just came over, and I've run out of bread. Can you give me three loaves? And the guy hollers back down, I'm asleep!
My children are asleep! Leave me alone. I'm not getting up and giving you any bread.
But the guy kept knocking. I need some bread. I got some of my homies here. They come over.
It's late at night. They're hungry. I gotta feed them. I need some bread. He said, I told you, I'm asleep.
My kids are asleep. He said, yeah, but I need some bread. And he says, because the guy kept nagging him, kept getting on his nerves, he said, for the sake of just getting this guy out of my hair, he gets up and gives him the three loaves of bread. He said, now, if a man who doesn't care will respond to somebody nagging him, what do you think your Heavenly Father who does care will do to those who ask him? God is not holding back because he wants to be mean.
He's holding back till we get right. When you're not so selfish that you want it only for you, then I will bless you, because now you're expressing my personality. You're expressing my heart. You're expressing my passion. He says, you'll receive, you'll find, and it will be open. Verse 8 of Matthew 7.
Mm. Asking, that's verbal. You're requesting. Seeking means I'm looking, I'm hunting, I'm trying to find it. Asking for a job is saying, Lord, I need a job.
Would you provide it? And somebody calls you up. I like that too.
Yeah. Seeking means I go job hunting. I'm out looking for a job. So I ask, but nothing is happening when I ask, so I seek.
I'm looking for a job and I find it. If you ask for something God wants you to seek, you won't have it because you're not looking. But then he says, knock. The problem is we got a door that's closed. We have a situation that won't open up for us. We have an opportunity that's not breaking for us.
And we need something to break through for us. He says, you knock until that door gets unlocked. You heard the story of the two dogs. We got two dogs. And one is a poodle and the other is a German shepherd. And the poodle and the German shepherd are arguing. They're fighting and arguing about who has the most power to open the door.
The German shepherd says to the poodle, you so tiny. You can't, you can't even get up to the knob. You can't, you can't open the door. I'm big.
I'm strong. I can open the door. Poodle says, I think I can get it open before in less time than you can. German shepherd says, no, you can't.
He said, okay, you go first. So the German shepherd jumps up on the door, puts his mouth on the knob, gets his paws around. He's trying to fiddle with the door.
Oh, he's big. He's strong, but he can't open it. German shepherd looking poodle, you can't, you can't open that door. You can't, you can't even get up to the knob. It's your turn.
Let's see what you can do. Poodle went up to the door and went. The owner inside came and unlocked the door and opened up the door. See, the owner knew his voice. The owner knew that the poodle was outside.
Ain't how big you are. It's does the Lord know your voice? He says, knock and it shall be opened for you. Somebody else is going to open it for you. Oh, and that's when you know it's God, when it's something you couldn't open, was locked up, was hopeless and it got open for you. What man is there among you? Verse nine, who when his son asked for a loaf will give him a stone or if he asked for a fish, he will give him a snake.
He won't give him a snake, will he? Your son comes and says, I want bread. In the biblical days, bread was round. If you look at the TV shows in the Roman Empire, you'll see these round loaves because that's how they baked them round. Well, many of the stones were round like that and would look like the flat bread, flat round bread. So a son wouldn't say, Dad, I'm hungry. Give me some bread. And his father could go find a lookalike stone, a flat round stone and bring him there and say he'll eat.
You know why? Because he can't eat it and if he could eat it, it would hurt him because that's not bread. So in other words, he's going to bring something that is healthy, not unhealthy for his son. He says, but what if he asked for a fish? Daddy's not going to bring him a snake. Well, you have to understand snakes were unclean animals.
Leviticus chapter 11 verse 42. Anything that crawls on its belly is unclean. What do you do with fish?
You clean them. So your son asked for a fish. You're going to clean the fish.
You're going to give the fish to the kid. You're not going to go out and cut a snake, clean it, fry it. Not because you can't eat snake. You can eat snake. But because in their economy, snake was unclean. So you're not going to go out and he asked for a fish and you give him something that was spiritually unhealthy.
See, the rock is physically unhealthy, but the snake is spiritually unhealthy because it was unclean. So why is he telling you that? He explains in verse 11, if you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. We're sinful, but we know how to take care of our kids. How much more will your father, who is in heaven, give what is good to those who ask him?
Okay. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying you got a daddy up there in heaven and he knows what's good. He knows what's good for you. He knows what's good to you.
And he is not going to give in the boomerang principle something to hurt you that's not in at some point beneficial to you because your daddy is out for you. Now, wait a minute. Everything, watch this now. Stay with me. Everything that's good doesn't always feel good up front. There are times in our Christian experience with God when it does not feel good. I called on you.
I'm pleading with you and nothing's happening. So let me be clear. It all may not seem or feel good right now, but all things, Romans 8 28, works together for good.
Guess what? To them who love God and are called to his purposes. We'll hear more from Dr. Tony Evans in just a moment.
Stay with us. These aren't sermons. They're teaching courses to help you engage, understand scripture and not just to hear about, but to explore the kingdom of God on your own. Find out more at Tony Evans, training dot org.
Tony Evans, training dot org. Before we get back to Dr. Evans, I wanted to encourage you to take advantage of that special offer I mentioned earlier in thanks for your donation to the Alternative Broadcast Ministry. We'd like to send you two exceptional books from Tony, his popular devotional book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, and his newest release, Kingdom Kindness. And that's in addition to all nine full length audio messages from our current featured series called Returning to God in Unity. If you contact us before time runs out, we'll send all these to you as our gift and appreciation for your contribution. Get the details on this exclusive bundle by calling our 24 hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.
That's 1-800-800-3222 or make the arrangements online at Tony Evans dot org. There are many things we face in life that can be difficult and scary for us, but there's one source of dread you have the ability to absolutely circumvent. And here's what Dr. Evans had to say about it. One of the great fears in life is the fear of death and the uncertainty that lies beyond the grave. Well, you can change uncertainty into certainty and you can do it right now, right where you are.
Stop what you're doing. Go to God and say, God, I want certainty about my eternal destiny. I acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and I'm believing in Him now for my salvation, which He promised to give me if I came to Him for it. Thank you for giving me of my sins and for the new certainty of eternal life. Learn more about what surrendering your uncertainty to Jesus Christ can mean for you. Visit Tony Evans dot org and follow the link at the top of the home page that simply says Jesus.
Of all the people we can choose to give to, you'd think our enemies would be at the bottom of our list. But on Monday, we'll hear from Dr. Evans as he tells us about a gift we give our enemies that's actually a gift to ourselves. Right now, though, let's rejoin him for the closing of today's teaching and this unchanging biblical proposition. You know, God offers you to try Him in the Bible. He says, test me. So don't take my word for it. Don't take my sermon for it.
Don't don't buy it because, you know, test me. See, if that rule done that way, first, second and third gives you a greater, real, fresh experience with God at a whole nother level. God first, touching the lives of others whose needs you see, whose needs you feel, and whose needs to some degree you're able to address. Second, and then third, ask, seek, and knock, and then testify about the doors God opened for you. .
