ASK

Matthew 7:7–11 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

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Do you believe God answers prayers?

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Has God answered all of your prayers?

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We all know that prayer is not as simple as saying some words and expecting God to answer yes. On the other hand, there are times when we are desperate for God to provide relief and he does not, and it can cause us to question "does prayer work?"

The result often is tepid prayers - praying out of the habit but without real expectation for God to work or for change to occur.

Or, sometimes we may not even pray, seeking to take things into our own hands and only releasing it to God when we have exhausted our resources and ingenuity.

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Our scripture for tonight invites us to consider prayer from a different perspective. This scripture does not answer all the questions we might have about prayer. I don’t expect this sermon to answer all those questions, either.

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Someone has noted that in all of Jesus’ teaching about prayer, he assumed that our prayers would be answered. Yes, there are various qualifications about prayer. But Jesus’ basic teaching about prayer is that if we pray and believe, God will hear and answer our prayer.

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Why? And, how can we know this for sure?

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Again, our study into the topic of prayer tonight will be far from exhaustive, but here is the main truth we find in Matthew 7:7-11.

Big Idea: God delights to answer the prayers of his people.

How can we know God delights to answer the prayers of his people? Consider, firstly, …

1. The Principle of Prayer, vv. 9-11.

Matthew 7:9–11 ESV

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Loaves of bread in ancient Palestine often resembled the common stones found lying around. No parent would mock a child by giving something worthless when the child had asked for the basic sustenance of life.

Hahn, R. L. (2007). Matthew: a commentary for Bible students (pp. 109–110). Wesleyan Publishing House.

There are some fathers who are not so good, right? There are absent fathers. There are alcoholic fathers. There are abusive fathers. There are selfish fathers. And, of course, there are many good fathers.

But even fathers who are not so good typically are not so sadistic to give their hungry children a stone in place of bread. And, it would take a truly wicked father to purposefully give a child a poisonous snake in place of a fish!

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Parents, especially good parents, recognize their responsibility to care for their children. Even if they don’t have a lot of money, they often sacrifice so their kids can benefit.

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It would be a cruel joke to offer a stone in place of bread. It would be downright dangerous to hand a snake to one’s child instead of fish!

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We can trust that God, our Father, is loving, good, generous, and faithful. Even if our earthly fathers aren’t always the best, we can know that God is different. God loves us with an everlasting love!

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Someone has noted that in this scripture:

What is fundamentally at stake is man’s picture of God. God must not be thought of as a reluctant stranger who can be cajoled or bullied into bestowing his gifts (6:7–8), as a malicious tyrant who takes vicious glee in the tricks he plays (7:9–10), or even as an indulgent grandfather who provides everything requested of him. He is the heavenly Father, the God of the kingdom, who graciously and willingly bestows the good gifts of the kingdom in answer to prayer.

Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8, p. 187). Zondervan Publishing House.

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The principle of prayer is that God will hear and answer us because of his good and holy character. God delights to answer the prayers of his people!

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This analogy of human fathers and God our Father is encouraging. But can we know for sure that God delights to answer the prayers of his people? Notice, secondly…

2. The Promise for Prayer, v. 8.

Matthew 7:8 ESV

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

The Greek verbs for ask, seek, and knock are present tense. This indicates an ongoing, persistent, continual asking, seeking, and knocking.

In this verse, the Greek word for “receive” is also present tense. So, the sense is that the one who continually asks will keep on receiving.

In the same way, the verb for “finds” is also present tense. The one who keeps on seeking will experience a life of finding.

For the last verb, however, the tense is changed to the future. Whoever keeps on knocking will find the door opened at some point. One commentator explains the meaning this way:

Having established God’s pattern of consistent gracious response in the present, Jesus notes that we can count on that grace in the future.

Hahn, R. L. (2007). Matthew: a commentary for Bible students (p. 109). Wesleyan Publishing House.

Can we truly count on God to answer our prayers? What did Jesus say, in addition to our text for tonight? Consider just a few more of Jesus’ statements on prayer:

Matthew 21:22 ESV

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Mark 11:24 ESV

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

John 15:7 ESV

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 16:23–24 ESV

In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Matthew 18:19–20 ESV

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

John 14:12–14 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

We understand, of course, that there are certain limitations on prayer. For example, the only prayer an unbeliever can be certain God will answer is the prayer of repentance.

Likewise, a believer who is praying for the wrong reason, according to their carnal desires, may not have their prayer answered. How we treat our family may hinder our prayers.

Furthermore, God’s answer to our prayer may be “yes” OR “no” or “wait awhile”.

As someone has written:

Moreover one of the most pervasive features of Jesus’ teaching on prayer is the assurance it will be heard …. But such praying is not for selfish ends but always for the glory of God according to kingdom concerns. So here: the Sermon on the Mount lays down the righteousness, sincerity, humility, purity, and love expected of Jesus’ followers; and now it assures them such gifts are theirs if sought through prayer.

Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8, p. 186). Zondervan Publishing House.

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I think we understand this, even if we often struggle because God doesn’t answer prayer the way we think he should.

If you like to watch TV shows… there is a argument I have found that a lot of TV shows use when the characters are faced with a problem they can’t fix, but then are given ONE alternative - an alternative that is not a good alternative, may be ethically questionnable, and often does not work out like they hope.

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What do the characters in favor of this ethically and practically problematic solution say?

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“IT’S THE ONLY WAY!!!”

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The truth is, there are other ways, even if they don’t like them. There may be even more solutions that they have not considered. But they are willing to risk everything because they think it’s the only way.

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I’m afraid our arguments with God sound much the same. “God, it’s the only way. You HAVE to do this my way because I cannot see any other way.”

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And then God shows us it isn’t the only way.

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This can cause us to doubt God, to doubt the efficacy of prayer, or to doubt our faith. But the point of prayer is not to bend God’s will to ours, but to surrender ourselves to His plan.

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God delights to answer the prayers of his people. If we truly believe this, then we can take him at his word and believe his promises to us regarding prayer, even if we don’t understand how he is working to be faithful to his promise.

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How then should we pray, seeking that God delights to answer the prayers of his people? Note that Jesus calls for our…

3. Persistence in Prayer, v. 7.

Matthew 7:7 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

As we’ve noted already, “ask”, “seek”, and “knock” are all written in the Greek present tense. This denotes something that one does and keeps on doing. But consider the verbs themselves.

ASK - The first definition for this word from The Complete Word Study Dictionary says:

Ask, request, beg. The seeking by the inferior from the superior (Acts 12:20); by a beggar from the giver (Acts 3:2); by the child from the parent (Matt. 7:9); by man from God (Matt. 7:7; James 1:5; 1 John 3:22).

Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). AMG Publishers.

A few years ago while I was working for an insurance agency, I began to study a lot about sales. One of the key things I learned was that often salesmen do not make sales because they never ask the client if they want to buy the product.

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I wonder how often we don’t receive what we need or desire because we fail to ask God… or we fail to keep on asking God.

That reminds me of a funny story about persistence.

In the early 1960s, the publishers of Time Magazine were concerned about their declining circulation, so they designed a campaign to send out thousands of letters making an emotional appeal to potential subscribers.

In the past, such mailings had been done manually, at a great cost in human resources. IBM was developing something called a computer, so they made a proposal to install a fully automated system that would write the letters, seal the envelopes, address them according to a selected database, stamp them and send them into the postal system without the letters ever being touched by a human hand. The huge computer was installed with much fanfare and anticipation.

However, as is still the case with computers, there was a glitch, and as a result a poor rancher in Wyoming received 12,634 letters appealing to him to subscribe to Time Magazine. The surprised rancher, who didn't ordinarily get much mail, opened the mail-bags and started reading the letters. After reading a few dozen, he sent in a $6 check for a subscription with a note that said, "I give up!"

(From a sermon by David Dykes, The Rejected Stone, 8/20/2012)

Are we faithful to ASK God?

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SEEK - The meaning behind this word is

to seek after, look for, strive to find.

Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). AMG Publishers.

Put that idea of looking and striving to find something with the continuing action of the present tense. Such a person is looking, striving to find, laboring, searching.

On Monday of this week, I decided to do most of my work from the house instead of coming here to the office.

I have a little magnetic wallet that holds my driver’s license, debit card and another 1 or 2 cards. I often detach it from my phone while I’m in the house and put it in the keyholder.

At a certain point, I decided to come back to the church. I needed to practice the songs we would sing for chapel on Tuesday and I would get the presentation ready to go.

I then realized my wallet was missing. I thought I remembered taking it off my phone and putting it somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where. I started to search - the keyholder at the door, the countertops in the kitchen, our bed, our dresser.

I even went downstairs because I had briefly gone down there earlier. I looked under my bed. I moved some of our living room furniture. I went outside and looked in the car.

I went over and over these various spots again and again. I prayed - yes, I prayed! It didn’t show up. I thought about going over to the church without my wallet; it wasn’t like I needed it for that short of a drive.

I looked under the seat in our car. I about gave up.

Finally, I decided to drive to the church. I really needed to practice some songs. I got in the car. Sure enough, in the crevice between the door and my seat was my wallet!

I had looked on the other side of my seat. I had looked on the dash. I had looked under the seat. I had looked in the door sidepocket. But it wasn’t until I sat down that my eyes spotted the missing item.

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When we pray to God, are we as desperate, as thorough, as repetitive in seeking for His answer… as we are for a lost wallet?

KNOCK - The Complete Word Study Dictionary has this definition for this word:

To knock, rap at a door for entrance (Luke 13:25; Acts 12:13). …

Syn.: túptō (5180), to thump, strike; plḗssō (4141), to pound, smite; rhapízō (4474), to rap, slap.

Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). AMG Publishers.

Jesus seems to be pictured a knocking that is a bit more forceful than two or three timid taps on the door before leaving and going to another residence.

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NO!!! Jesus is talking about pounding, rapping, thumping a door. And again, this is present tense, so the picture is of a continued… continuing pounding at the door… until it is opened.

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Does God find our prayers so persistent, so importunate, so determined?

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Prayer is a huge topic. There are extremes that we must avoid. There are certain qualifications that we should keep in mind.

But with all of our sophistication in prayer, we should remember this simple principle:

Big Idea: God delights to answer the prayers of his people.

How can we truly know this to be true?

The principle of prayer Jesus teaches us is that God is a good Father who desires good for us.

The promise of prayer is that if we keep on praying, we will receive answers to our prayers.

That brings us then to the persistence that must characterize our prayers: keep on asking, seeking, and knocking.

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Paul Tournier, the great psychiatrist and Christian counselor, tells in one his essays about the first time he tried to pray for a solid hour.

He says that he set his watch on the table and began to pray, and after what he thought was a good while, checked the watch. Only ten minutes had passed!

Several times he did this, just struggling to stay with his prayer for an hour. And, says Tournier, when the sixty minutes had passed, he felt nothing, only fatigue: no sense of blessing, no sense of relationship with God at all, just sixty minutes of drudgery.

But then, Tournier says, on a whim he fell on his knees for one more minute – just one more minute after the sixty – and in that one moment felt God flooding into his life in a fresh, cleansing, exciting way.

The hour of struggle had been the necessary prelude for that one moment of spiritual joy.

(From a sermon by Joseph Smith, Ark, Anger, Assurance, 11/24/2010)

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This then is our challenge: let us commit to persistent, importunate prayer. Let us pray … even when God doesn’t seem to hear. Let us pray till he answers… however he desires to… and let us trust him that his answer is for our good.