Keep Praying
Notes
Transcript
Keep Praying
Keep Praying
Matthew 7:7–12
Matthew 7:7–12
Series: Follow the King
Main idea: Keep depending on your Father for the wisdom and resources to live his commands, trusting his goodness and reflecting it in active love.
Anchor: Trust Your Father’s Goodness. Reflect Your Father’s Goodness.
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes the hard part of prayer is starting.
We worry, make plans, talk to friends, and try to figure things out. We carry the need all day without bringing it to God.
Other times, the hard part is continuing.
You have prayed about your family, a friendship, or something that keeps you awake. You meant what you prayed.
But the situation is still there, and you wonder, “Should I ask again?”
Today’s message is called Keep Praying.
That could sound like one more demand placed on someone who is already tired. But listen to how Jesus teaches it.
He invites us to ask, seek, and knock, and then shows us the Father we are approaching. His goodness gives us reason to keep coming.
Last time, Jesus called us to face our own sin, help others humbly, and exercise discernment. Think about what that requires.
How do you correct a friend without becoming self-righteous?
How do you recognize when someone needs patient help and when they are determined to reject it?
Removing the log from your own eye does not mean you suddenly possess all the wisdom you need.
MacArthur explains verses 7–11 as the bridge between that teaching and the command to love in verse 12.
Jesus’ disciples need their Father’s help to live what Jesus commands. Prayer belongs here because kingdom living requires dependence on God.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Here is our question: Why should we keep praying, and how should trusting our Father change the way we live?
Jesus gives us an invitation to keep coming, a reason to trust, and a command to love.
1. Depend on Your Father’s Provision Matthew 7:7–8
1. Depend on Your Father’s Provision Matthew 7:7–8
Keep Asking for What You Need v. 7
Keep Asking for What You Need v. 7
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus gives three commands: ask, seek, and knock.
These are familiar pictures. Asking acknowledges a need. Seeking involves pursuit. Knocking pictures approaching a door for entry.
Together, they describe dependence that keeps coming to God.
These are present imperatives in the Greek and are understood here as continued or repeated action: keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking.
Present imperatives are verb forms used to issue commands, requests, or instructions that are to be carried out immediately or as a continuous habit. They are primarily found in the second person (singular and plural) and, in some languages like French, Latin, and Greek, also in the first person plural ("let's") to express invitations or collective actions.
Jesus calls us to make prayer an ongoing expression of dependence.
MacArthur also sees increasing intensity in the pictures: asking, actively seeking, and knocking for entry.
That is an observation about the images together, not three grammatical stages of prayer.
The point is earnest dependence.
You do not move to a stronger technique when God fails to respond to the first one.
What should we be asking for?
The promise is broad, but this context makes wisdom a pressing need.
This idea connects to James 1:5, where the person who lacks wisdom is directed to ask the God who gives generously:
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
You may know that you should help your friend. You still need wisdom about your words, your timing, and your own motives.
That sends us to both Scripture and prayer.
We do not ask God for guidance while ignoring what he has already revealed. But knowing a command does not make us independent of its Author.
We need his help to understand and obey it in the actual situation before us.
MacArthur puts it this way: “In His Word God gives enough truth for us to be responsible, but enough mystery for us to be dependent.”
God has told us enough to take obedience seriously.
He has not made us self-sufficient.
You can bring the same painful concern to him again and admit that you still need wisdom.
Persistence also belongs with obedience.
If you are praying about a damaged friendship, you can ask for wisdom while taking responsibility for what you said.
Prayer does not excuse the apology you already know you need to make.
What need are you carrying as though you must handle it entirely by yourself?
Jesus does not simply command us to keep coming. He gives us assurance that approaching the Father matters.
Receive the Promise as His Child v. 8
Receive the Promise as His Child v. 8
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Notice how verse 8 repeats the promises: the one asking receives, the one seeking finds, and the door is opened to the one knocking.
Jesus gives us reason to pray with confidence.
God hears and gives. Prayer is more than speaking into an empty room to make ourselves feel better.
Notice who Jesus tells us to approach: “your Father in heaven.”
This promise rests on a relationship.
Jesus is assuring his disciples that they can bring their needs to the Father who cares for them.
When he says “everyone who asks receives,” he is encouraging his children to come confidently.
And verse 11 tells us what kind of answer to trust him for: good gifts, given according to his wisdom.
Being God’s child changes how you approach him.
You come as someone received into his family through Christ, not as a customer who has found a way to obligate him.
Your access rests in that relationship; the gift remains in your Father’s hands.
MacArthur then brings together three biblical qualifications: obedience, right motives, and submission to God’s will.
First John 3:22 connects receiving with keeping God’s commands.
and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
James 4:3 exposes requests governed by selfish pleasure.
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
First John 5:14 places our confidence in asking according to God’s will.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Those qualifications describe a child learning to trust and obey the Father.
They are not a payment that purchases his generosity. You do not have to become sinless before you pray.
Confessing your sin and asking for help to change are expressions of that dependence.
But you cannot use this promise to demand God’s support for a course of disobedience.
For example, asking for help in a conflict should include willingness to surrender your desire to humiliate the other person.
We may begin by asking God to change someone else and discover that our own motives need his correction.
So the promise is neither empty nor unlimited permission to follow our desires.
Jesus assures his children that their Father responds.
We should expect his help as we seek to obey him, rather than treating prayer as a last resort after our own resources run out.
But what gives us reason to keep coming?
Persistence would offer little comfort if the One receiving our prayers were careless or cruel.
Jesus now directs our attention to our Father’s character.
2. Trust Your Father’s Goodness Matthew 7:9–11
2. Trust Your Father’s Goodness Matthew 7:9–11
His Gifts Express His Care vv. 9–10
His Gifts Express His Care vv. 9–10
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
A child asks his father for bread. Would a caring father hand him a stone instead?
The child asks for fish. Would the father answer with a snake?
The questions are meant to draw an obvious response: of course not.
The child asks for food, something needed to sustain life. A stone cannot nourish him. A snake is an unsuitable substitute for the fish he requested.
The father would be exploiting the child’s trust if he answered hunger with deception.
Jesus draws on our recognition that a father should seek his child’s welfare.
Notice who is being examined in this illustration.
Jesus does not ask whether the child has found the perfect wording.
He asks what kind of father would respond that way.
Our confidence depends on the character of the One receiving the request.
The child’s need gives him reason to approach; the father’s care gives him reason to expect something good.
For some of you, that picture feels familiar.
For others, talking about a father brings up disappointment or hurt. Jesus is not claiming that every earthly parent has cared faithfully.
Your father may have failed you. Those failures do not define your heavenly Father. We learn who he is from what Jesus tells us about him.
Even with human failures, we recognize the goodness of caring for a child. Jesus takes that familiar goodness and points us to something greater.
His Goodness Exceeds Our Own v. 11
His Goodness Exceeds Our Own v. 11
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Notice that Jesus acknowledges two things about these parents: they are sinful, and they know how to give their children good gifts.
MacArthur explains that “though you are evil” describes our fallen human nature.
Jesus is speaking about ordinary parents, not merely a few exceptionally cruel people.
Sin affects even the people we love most. A parent can sincerely love a child and still struggle with selfishness, anger, or pride.
Yet that same parent can recognize a hungry child’s need and provide food.
Sin has corrupted human goodness without making every person incapable of doing something beneficial.
That is what makes “how much more” so important.
If parents whose love is affected by sin can still care for their children, how much more can we trust our heavenly Father?
His love is never corrupted by selfishness.
His judgment is never clouded by ignorance.
His ability to provide is never exhausted by our need.
Jesus wants us to reason from the care we recognize in imperfect parents to the greater goodness of our perfect Father.
Even the best earthly parent cannot show us the full extent of his care.
OUR CONFIDENCE IN PRAYER RESTS IN THE GOODNESS OF OUR FATHER.
That gives us confidence to ask. But notice what Jesus promises: good gifts.
The Father’s goodness governs his answers.
We bring him what we believe we need, trusting that his wisdom exceeds our own.
His love gives us reason to ask boldly; his wisdom gives us reason to submit the answer to him.
1 John 5:14 expresses that confidence:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
As MacArthur explains, confidence in prayer belongs with submission to God’s will.
We can ask specifically for healing, reconciliation, provision, or relief.
Submission does not require pretending those desires do not matter. It means bringing them to our Father while trusting his judgment.
That becomes difficult when we keep praying, and the situation remains unchanged.
We should be honest about that difficulty.
Jesus does not explain here why every particular request remains ungranted.
We should not invent an explanation or assume someone’s suffering proves a lack of faith.
What Jesus does give us is a reason to keep approaching God: our Father gives good gifts to his children.
You can tell him, “Father, this still hurts. This is what I am asking you to do. Help me trust you and obey you while I wait.”
You do not have to understand the answer before you bring the request.
You can keep praying because you know the character of the Father receiving it.
TRUST YOUR FATHER’S GOODNESS.
And in verse 12, Jesus turns our attention toward the people around us. The Father whose goodness we depend on calls us to reflect that goodness in how we treat them.
3. Reflect Your Father’s Goodness Matthew 7:12
3. Reflect Your Father’s Goodness Matthew 7:12
Take the Initiative in Love v. 12a
Take the Initiative in Love v. 12a
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,
Verse 12 begins with “So.” Jesus connects what he has said with what he now commands.
We have just heard about a Father who gives good things to his children.
Now Jesus calls us to seek the good of others. We receive our Father’s care, and we are called to reflect his character.
This verse also gathers the wider teaching about our relationships throughout the sermon.
Jesus says, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”
The command is positive: “do to others.”
MacArthur writes, “The mere absence of hatred and ill will does not constitute love.”
You can avoid insulting someone and still ignore them. You can stop criticizing a person without ever seeking their good. Jesus calls us beyond leaving people alone to actively loving them.
Imagine a student standing alone while everyone else gathers with friends.
You have not mocked them. You have not pushed them away.
But what would you hope someone would do if you were standing there?
You would probably hope someone would notice, introduce themselves, and make room.
The command calls you to take that step.
It asks us to move beyond, “I didn’t do anything wrong to them,” and consider, “What good should I do for them?”
The standard is what you would want done for you, not what they have already done for you.
That distinction changes the motive.
If I am kind only to obtain kindness, I am negotiating an exchange.
Jesus commands me to seek the other person’s good even when they cannot improve my popularity, return a favor, or repay the cost.
Notice the reach of the command: “in everything.”
This is not limited to the person who is easy to include at church.
It reaches home, school, group chats, and the person whose kindness you cannot count on receiving back.
Our Father’s care frees us to seek someone else’s good without making ourselves the center of every decision.
We give because we trust him, without demanding repayment from the person we help.
Remember how we said trust your father’s goodness earlier? Now you must
REFLECT YOUR FATHER’S GOODNESS.
But our wishes alone cannot define what is loving. Jesus gives the command a foundation in what God has revealed.
Let God Define What Love Does v. 12b
Let God Define What Love Does v. 12b
for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
“The Law and the Prophets” refers to the Old Testament Scriptures.
Jesus is showing that this command grows out of what God has already revealed about righteousness. Seeking our neighbor’s good belongs to the purpose of God’s commands.
Later, in Matthew 22:37–40, Jesus identifies two great commandments: love God with your whole being, and love your neighbor as yourself.
He says the Law and the Prophets hang on those two commands.
Those two loves belong together.
The God we claim to love commands us to seek the good of the people around us.
Our treatment of them is part of our obedience to him.
The Golden Rule gives that love a practical direction.
We naturally notice our own needs.
We want others to treat us truthfully, patiently, and fairly.
Jesus commands us to extend that same concern toward our neighbor.
Love takes the concern I already have for myself and directs it toward someone else.
That explains why love fulfills our obligations toward our neighbor.
MacArthur connects this verse with Romans 13:8–10, where Paul teaches that love fulfills the law because love does no harm to a neighbor.
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Consider the commands against stealing and lying.
If I love my neighbor, I will protect what belongs to him.
If I love him, I will care about telling him the truth.
The commands identify concrete obligations; love moves me to pursue the good those obligations protect.
This gives obedience depth.
I can congratulate myself for never stealing from someone while remaining completely indifferent to their need.
Jesus calls me to ask what good I should actively do for them.
Love is the purpose we pursue through obedience, not permission to set God’s commands aside.
That means my preferences cannot define what is right.
If I want others to approve of my sin, that does not make approving their sin an act of love.
God’s revealed truth governs what it means to seek someone’s good.
This also explains why last week’s command to help a brother with his sin belongs with this week’s command to love him.
Humble correction can be an expression of love when it seeks his restoration rather than my superiority.
But this command also exposes us.
How often does my concern for another person end where it begins to cost me?
I may gladly help someone who appreciates me, includes me, or can return the favor. Jesus commands a love that seeks their good even when there is no advantage for me.
Our problem reaches deeper than knowing the rule. We need hearts changed by God.
MacArthur makes that dependence central: only Christ can supply the power to live the love he commands.
He connects this with Galatians 5:22, which identifies love as fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Fruit grows from life. Christian love grows from the Spirit’s work within the believer.
We need more than an improved public appearance; we need God to change the desires that govern our actions.
Romans 5:5 speaks of God’s love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
1 John 4:19 tells us that our love begins with God’s prior love for us.
We love because he first loved us.
Together, these passages direct us to God as the source of the love we are called to express.
That order matters.
We do not love people well enough to persuade God to receive us.
We receive his grace through Christ, and his Spirit works in us to produce a life that reflects our Father.
People who do not know Christ can show real kindness.
Jesus has already acknowledged that sinful parents give good gifts.
But occasional kindness does not remove our sin or make us independent of God. The life Jesus commands requires his transforming work.
And the Spirit’s work calls for our active obedience.
We confess the resentment we have been defending.
We ask for help to love.
We tell the truth, make the apology, give our time, or serve without demanding recognition.
We depend on God for the power, and we take responsibility for the obedience.
Now we can see how this passage holds together.
We ask our Father for wisdom because we need help to obey.
We trust his goodness because he cares for his children.
And we seek our neighbor’s good because we are called to reflect the Father whose love we have received.
TRUST YOUR FATHER’S GOODNESS. REFLECT YOUR FATHER’S GOODNESS.
Conclusion: Keep Praying and Walk in Love
Conclusion: Keep Praying and Walk in Love
Ephesians 5:1–2 brings that connection into focus:
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We imitate God as dearly loved children.
His love comes first. And we see that love in Jesus, who gave himself for us, dying for our sins.
You do not earn a place in God’s family by praying impressive prayers or doing enough kind things.
Our sin calls for forgiveness, not a performance that makes us appear better. We come to Christ in repentance and faith, depending on his sacrifice rather than our goodness.
If you have been trying to prove you are good enough for God, hear the invitation to trust Christ.
And if you belong to him, the grace you have received should shape how you depend on your Father and how you love others.
We began with two struggles: starting to pray and continuing to pray.
Jesus has given both people a reason to approach: your Father is good.
Consider two responses as we close.
What is one real need you will bring honestly to your Father?
You may have carried it for a long time. Bring it to him again, entrusting the answer to his goodness.
And who is one person toward whom you can take a concrete step of love?
That act of love does not purchase an answer to your prayer. You are responding to the goodness God has already shown you.
Keep praying when you recognize your need. Keep praying when you do not understand the waiting.
As you pray, remain willing for your Father to correct your desires and direct your steps.
Persistence means continuing to depend on him, even when obedience requires releasing the outcome you wanted.
And while you keep praying, take the next step of love. You may still be waiting for an answer, and you can still love someone today.
[PAUSE.]
TRUST YOUR FATHER’S GOODNESS. REFLECT YOUR FATHER’S GOODNESS.
Keep praying. Your Father is good. Let’s bring our needs and our response before him.
