SF 1639 Matthew 7

***** SERMON MANUSCRIPT*****

Melburn H. Hardin, D.Min.                Kerrville, Texas

TITLE:    Asking, Seeking, Knocking

SCRIPTURE:   Matthew 7:7-12

TOPIC: 

SERIES TITLE:   The Sermon on the Mount   

INDEX NUMBER:   SF 1639

DATE PREPARED:   2009/01/05

DATE PREACHED:   2009/01/11

PLACE PREACHED:  Kerrville Sunrise Baptist Church

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Introduction

1.  Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, in Chapter 6:9-13, Jesus gave us a model, a template, to use when we pray: 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  (for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.)

1. According to the example that Jesus gave us: our prayers should begin and end with praise and adoration of our Heavenly Father. Our prayers should be a plea for the Father’s will to reign in our lives—and throughout this earth, just like it does in heaven. William Barclay had a profound insight into true prayer when he wrote: “True prayer is asking God for what He wants.”

1. We are to ask for our daily physical needs. We are to ask for our daily spiritual needs, the primary one always being the need for forgiveness of our sins—and we are to pray for spiritual prayer and guidance, that we will live lives that are pleasing to our Heavenly Father.

1. And now, here in Chapter 7:7-13, Jesus commands us to make prayer to our Heavenly Father an essential, studied effort in our lives. 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 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! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

1. Not only do we find here Jesus’ demand that we take prayer seriously—but also his assurance that our prayers will be answered.

I.                   GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS…

1. We are commanded to pray. Notice how our Lord greatly expands the whole concept of praying. For the ancient Jews prayers consisted of reciting portions of the Word of God and petitioning God for physical and spiritual needs. In these you have probably seen orthodox Jewish men praying, wearing their prayer shawls, rocking their shoulders forwards and backwards as they pray.

1. We Christians have different prayer customs among us. Some of our more liturgical brothers and sisters read their prayers from the Scriptures or from “prayer books. Those of us who are less formal, usually bow our heads, close our eyes, and say our prayers to God extemporaneously. But for nearly all of us who pray—would you not agree—that our prayers consist of saying something to God. Either we say what someone else has written as a prayer, or we say what is on our hearts personally. For us this is prayer=saying something to God.

1. But how our Lord expands the idea of praying: “ask… seek…knock…”

1)      Obviously, the concept and the practice of prayer is more profound that we usually realize: according to our Lord it involves “asking,” “seeking,” and “knocking.”

2)      Prayer involves our “asking.” Not only did Jesus give us a model prayer to us for our asking. But we have record in the gospels of several personal prayers that our Lord himself said to the Heavenly Father.

3)      Also, here our Lord taught us that Prayer involves our “seeking” and “knocking.” Prayer is not to be simply a passive thing on our part. We are to participate in prayer actively.

4)      God expects us to be involved in the answer to our prayers! When we pray for our daily bread, we are not to be like little birds, sitting in the nest, with our mouths wide open, expecting them to be filled. No! We are to get out and work for our daily bread, as much as we are able. If we ask the Lord to help us find a job, then we are to clip newspaper ads, knock on doors, wear out some shoe leather, seeking and knocking until we find the job.

5)      We are to knock on doors, discovering what the Lord has prepared for us. We are to knock on doors finding the people to whom the Lord sends us to minister to. I suppose that in the day in which we live, “seeking” and “knocking” would include “telephoning” and “e-mailing.”

1. We are given assurance that our prayers will be answered.

1)      “Ask and it will be given to you…”

2)       “… seek and you will find…”

3)      “… knock and the door will be opened to you.”

4)      It seems that our Lord tells us that we must persist in our prayers until we have his answer. The verbs here, “ask,” “seek,” and “knock,” are present imperatives in the Greek language. This means that they denote, not an action that is done once and is over with, but rather, continuous action.

5)      Sometimes God’s answer to our request is “no”; sometimes it is “wait”—but if we persist our prayers will be answered.

6)      Remember that the Apostle Paul pled with God that “the thorn in his flesh” (probably some physical illness or infirmity) be removed. But God did not remove it. He made Paul strong in the Lord’s strength, not in his human strength.

7)      Remember that Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed that the “bitter cup” of humiliation, suffering, and death on the cross, be removed from him—but, even so, that the Father’s  perfect will be done. The bitter cup was not removed. Christ died a humiliating death, but in so doing he arose from the dead to life forever and to save us all!

8)      An unknown Confederate soldier wrote these words: “I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

9)      “I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

10)  “I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise.

11)  “I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

12)  “I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

13)  “I got nothing that I asked for—but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all men most richly blessed.”

II.                GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS BECAUSE HE LOVES US!

1. The fundamental basis of answered prayer is not simply that there is a God in heaven and all is well with the world. The fundamental basis of answered prayer is that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us! “…how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

1. Here Jesus makes the argument “from the lesser to the greater.”  Speaking to us men who are earthly fathers of our children: 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!

1. Certainly there are parents who demonstrate very little love and carefulness for their children. But most parents do love their children and want to provide what is needed and what is best for them. 9 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?”

1. We are told by historians that the Palestinian folk of Jesus’ day typically ate bread that was baked in little round loaves, something like the muffins we eat today. Baked until they were brown, the little loaves resembled little brown stones. No loving father would give his hungry toddler a rock when the child needed bread to eat.

1. Perhaps, the fish Jesus referred to here was an eel, that snakelike water creature considered as a food delicacy by many cultures. But not by the Jews! The Mosaic Law forbade them eating eels. No loving Jewish father would give his child a fried eel when he asked for a fish to eat.

1. If earthly fathers are so concerned for the welfare of their children, how much more our Father in heaven will give good gifts to us when we ask him!

1. Out of his divine love for us, our Heavenly Father wants to provide our needs.