(Line by Line) Matthew 7:7-12

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Gabe, I am here with the Timothy mens group from Scottsdale Bible Church and I am very excited to be sharing the word with you all this morning.

A bit about me, I was born and raised in the Christian church. My father is a Pastor and has been for almost 25 years. I have a beautiful wife and too many pets! I love to build things out of wood, play board games, and I enjoying playing sports as well!

We wanted to continue in the series that JP has been taking you through on Discipleship so today we are going to be spending our time in Matthew 7:7-12. But before we dive in, I would like to pray for us!

Opening Prayer

Father, thank you for this community gathering and for allowing myself and the other men from Arizona to be able to be here today. Please bless our time together and I pray that your word fills this room, stirs hearts, and brings us closer and closer to you Lord. In your name we pray, Amen.

Ask, Seek, Pray

To give some context to where we are at in scripture, we are towards the end of what is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. Thousands of people are sitting and listening to Jesus teach as he lays the foundations on how to live a life centered around God and Christ. In this particular part of his Sermon he dives in to explain a bit more about prayer. He says…

Matthew 7:7 ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Matthew 7:8 “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

Jesus tell us “Ask and you will receive”, “seek and you will find” “knock and it will open”.

What Jesus is not saying here is that we can ask for everything we could ever want and that we are guaranteed to receive it. Much like if a child says they are hungry and asks for sweets, they will most likely be given food for their hunger.

God does not grant selfish requests. We need to have a heart posture that is aligned with God’s will and what he desires for us and what he knows is best for us.

Going even further, God already knows whats best for you before you even ask! So what’s the point? Why is Jesus telling us to ask in the first place? The creator of the universe is inviting you into a closer understanding of what he desires for you and to be aligned with his will.

This is incredible! God is not just a vending machine that dispenses our needs, he invites us to see how it works and learn more about why he gives what we need.

This interaction with our Lord is not transactional on either side. I like to think of prayer as like a conversation with a close loved-one. This invitation of closer understanding is also an invitation for you grow closer in a relationship with our creator.

Going to the Lord in prayer to ask, seek, and knock is not to inform God, its to transform you and to experience his love.

If you go to the Lord to ask, seek, knock, and you feel like he’s not answering you. There are 3 things that could be happening.

1. You are asking for the wrong thing. Continue to ask the Lord to align your heart with his.

2. He has answered it. It just may not be the way you wanted, or even expected. Continue to seek out for his answer, searching all aspects of your life.

3. It’s not God’s timing yet. You may be asking for the exact right thing, but God has a better time in mind. Continue to knock to know when the door will be open to you.

Story

My wife and I have been married for over 7 years now and we got married super young. For our first few years of marriage we waited to start trying to have kids but we each agreed that we wanted them.

We eventually got to a point where we started actually trying and month over month we were met with no pregnancy.

We prayed and prayed for the Lord to gift us a child but he did not. We both still wanted a child, so we started to look into Adoption and began the process of getting approved to be able to take a kid into our home.

In America, we have to work through an agency to be paired up with a child. They have rules, and safety requirements that you have to go through to make sure the child is going to be taken care of properly.

During our first interview with the agency, the Lord answered another prayer of mine that I really was not wanting him to answer.

Years ago, I developed a sin that I had been struggling with for over 14 years. I didn’t want to be struggling with it, and I prayed constantly for him to take it away from me. The only problem was that every time he opened a door and answered my request, I didn’t take it. It was uncomfortable, it was scary, I didn’t have faith.

I was not properly searching for the ways he was answering me, I just wanted him to snap his fingers and take it away.

Well on that morning with the adoption agency, the Lord answered my prayer to free me of my sin. I had been honest with them about this sin that I was struggling with and they told me that even though we were a perfect couple to adopt a child, that I had to be free of my sin for at least a year before we could be even considered for adoption.

I was devastated. I wept. I felt like I had robbed my wife of something we both desired to badly for so long.

There are three things from this story that I want to point out.

I was asking for the wrong thing in the midst of the sin I was struggling with. I just wanted to God to take it away. I was not asking to change my heart to embrace the doors he had opened for all of those years to get rid of it.

The Lord answered my prayer. It was definitely not the way I wanted him to answer. In my stubbornness I only continued to ask him to take away my sin and ultimately he answered by saying “okay, well you can either choose to continue in your sin, or you can have a child like you also so desperately want.”

The agency said at least “1 year” not “never”. To me, that sounds a lot like the Lord’s timing. I am still in the middle of this 1 year, but I firmly believe that the Lord will give my wife and I a child. It may not be immediately, but I know that it will be on the Lord’s timing and I know that he wanted me to kick this sin first.

Guys God gives hope! Not only has he answered my prayers, but he is transforming the way that I view him working in my life.

The Lord, will gift us things beyond our wildest imaginations if we ask him in prayer. In verse 9 Jesus continues his sermon saying;

Matthew 7:9 “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?”

Matthew 7:10 “Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?”

Matthew 7:11 “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!”

He’s saying that when we ask one another, we know how to provide each other with the things that we need. Even though we have sin, and live in a sinful world we can do good. So how much more incredible will gifts be from our perfect Father and creator?

God doesn’t just give things to satisfy the here and now, he also gives gifts that transform hearts for a life time.

In verse 12, Jesus summarizes all of this with one final challenge;

Matthew 7:12 ““So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you” - This includes everything we just talked about here with asking for things from God. He’s included in that “others” - “Do also to them”.

If we are to expect God to have a heart posture to provide for our needs and to be gracious then we must also turn to others and offer the same heart posture when they come and ask of us.

“Treat others the way you want to be treated” and that includes the way you want to be treated by God.

In these 6 verses, Jesus does not ask for much of us. He asks us to ask, to seek, to knock, and to love others and then promises good things beyond our wildest imaginations.

At the core of this, it’s not just about receiving good things from a loving father. It’s the blueprints for how we can change our heart posture to be more in line with what God’s desires are for us and a deeper understanding of the things we really need.

In the months since the news of having to wait, the Lord has made me more comfortable with being uncomfortable. I love looking back at the months leading up to that moment and it’s so clear that the Lord was at work to perform massive heart change in my life.

Because we truly care for you I invite you this week to go to the Lord in prayer to ask for things you may not have asked him before. I invite you to seek for his answer to your prayers throughout your daily life whether they are small or large, good or inconvenient. And I invite you to continue to knock on the door for the things you have been asking him for. You will be surprised at how differently you view the way the Lord works in your life each day.

Lets pray!

Lord thank you for this time together. Thank you for your word and your wisdom to guide us closer to your heart. I pray that this week we answer call to align our desires with yours. I pray for a safe week as we share food, play games, and work hard together. Than you for everything that you give us Lord. Amen.