The Simplicity of Supplication

Introduction

Good morning Church. Today we will be continuing on in our study of Jesus Sermon on the Mount.

Last week, if you will remember, we looked at Jesus teaching on our judging of others.

And today, we are going to be looking at His teaching on The Simplicity of Supplication.

If you will notice here, Jesus is teaching His listeners about their relationship to others.

In Chapter’s 5 & 6 He dealt a lot with our relationship to God and how to pray, how to worship, how to serve and also He dealt with us and our focus on God and our relying on God.

Here in Chapter 7, He starts with our relationship towards others and how that we ought not to judge and then it’s almost as if He takes a break here and gets back into prayer but when you read this section in context down through and including Verse 12, I feel like there’s a deeper meaning here that also deals with our relationship towards others that He is trying to get across.

So, with no further ado, if you have your Bibles with you this morning and turned to Matthew Chapter 7 Verse 7, would you say, Amen.

The Priority of Prayer

Now, there are 5 points this morning I want us to look at and I promise I will get through them as quickly as possible but the last thing I want to do is fly through it and miss something important.

I want to begin this morning with a simple overview of the Priority of Prayer.

What is The Priority of Prayer? What is the goal when we go to God in prayer? Why do we pray?

As I began to think of this, many different things came to mind but ultimately they all boil down to a very simple concept...

When we go to God in prayer it’s ultimately to seek out the will of God for our lives and then to show us how to live out His will for our lives.

Now, you may say, “Preacher when I go to God in prayer it’s because I have a need that only He can fix and so I take my petition to Him.”

And I’d say to you that you are correct in the fact that He’s the only one who can fix any problem you run into but the reality is, whether or not our request is answered or not is according to whether or not our request is according to God’s will.

Let me give you some verses to help us here. Paul told the Romans in Chapter 28 Verses 26-27...

Romans 8:26–27 KJV 1900

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

You see, what the Bible is saying here is that when we go to God in prayer, we don’t even know what we need to ask for but because the Spirit resides within us and because God knows our hearts, the Spirit of God makes intercession on behalf of the Saints of God according to the will of God.

Flip back with me real quickly to Matthew 6:7-8.

Matthew 6:7–8 KJV 1900

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

You see dear friend, God knows what we need before we even ask Him and as someone has well said, “He wants for us what we’d want for ourselves if we were smart enough to ask for it.”

But at the end of the day, God has a plan that is far above and beyond anything we could ever imagine and He knows exactly what needs to take place in every situation throughout all eternity in order for His plan to be accomplished.

So, when we go to God in prayer, ultimately it is to seek out the will of God for our lives and then to show us how to get His will accomplished in our lives.

That is The Priority of Prayer.

Now, I want to move on to The Process of Prayer.

The Process of Prayer — (Vs. 7-8)

Now, we spent a whole lot of time on what our prayers should entail, but Jesus gives us here in these first two verses a very simple process for prayer.

And when I show you how simple it is you may be amazed.

Look at Verses 7-8 with me.

Jesus says to His listeners here, the first step in praying is simply asking!

“Ask, and it shall be given you;”

How many blessings, how many answers, are still sitting in the storehouse of God because they have simply not been asked for!

Jesus says if you want something from God the first step in getting it is simply asking for it!

Adrian Rogers said. “Do you know the greatest problem in prayer is not in unanswered prayer, it is unasked prayer.”

The problem with many believers today is that we simply don’t take the petitions of our heart to God in prayer. We want to try and fix it on our own or get it on our own instead of asking God to provide it for us.

How important is it that we ASK God for the desires of our heart you ask?

Important enough that even in His process of telling us how to obtain what we want that He created an acronym for ASK.

Look again with me if you will.

Jesus said first we must ASK.

Secondly, we must SEEK.

Thirdly, we must KNOCK.

Now, take the first letter in each one of those words and put them together and tell me what you get?

You get the word…ASK!

Listen friend, you can’t blame God for not having what you want if you never ask Him for it to begin with!

The Simplicity of Supplication starts with ASKING!

Now, this word ASK used here, is the Greek word (aiteo) and it means to beg, to plead, to desire something.

But it also has a deeper meaning.

Vine’s Dictionary says it more frequently suggests the attitude of a suppliant, the petition of one who is lesser in position than he to whom the petition is made. The attitude behind the word is humility.

It’s speaking of when we take the desires of our heart and bring them “humbly” to the throne of God and kneel in prayer begging, pleading for God to intervene in our situation.

It’s understanding that there is someone much greater than we are who can actually change the outcome of the situation we’re in.

But the key is that in order for our desires to be met, we must first kick start those petitions by simply asking.

And Jesus says if we ask it shall be given us!

Now, I know without a shadow of a doubt there are some people sitting here at this very moment saying…“well I’ve asked God for this or for that and He didn’t give it to me so this is wrong.”

No, dear friend, that doesn’t mean God’s word is wrong, it simply means your understanding of God’s word is wrong.

God doesn’t say He’s always going to give us everything we want.

When you read the Bible in it’s entirety what you will find is that there are a few reasons as to why you may not get your prayers answered.

First off, in the Book of James 4:2b Jesus says, “you have not because you ask not.”

This goes back to what we were talking about a second ago.

When was the last time you simply got on your knees and poured out your requests to God?

When was the last time you asked God for something in sincerity?

It starts with asking.

But then the Bible goes on to say there in Verse 3 of James 4…You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.

Basically, you’re asking for the wrong reasons. You’re asking for something outside the will of God due to a fleshly lust or desire.

This word “amiss” means evil, badly, wrongly, incorrectly. It can sometimes have a meaning of harm or injury, in a sense it can mean something grievous.

Listen, so many times God doesn’t answer our prayer because He knows better than we do, the thing we’re asking for can one day lead to something bad for us and therefore He’s simply trying to protect us and yet here we are…“God why did you not let me have that or allow this or that to happen?”

We want to complain instead of simply saying…“God not my will but thine be done!”

Now, for those who think that God is just mean or that He doesn’t hear you because He didn’t answer your prayer let me give you a quick reminder about something.

Look with me if you will in...

Matthew 26:38–44 KJV 1900

38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. 40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 43 And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. 44 And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Jesus the one and only Son of God Himself asked the Father that if it be His will that this cup would pass from Him.

Now, someone tell me…did God the Father give Jesus what He asked for?

The answer is no.

But notice what Jesus said there… “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will.”

Not my will be done Father but thine will be done.

Now if the Father wouldn’t even answer the request of His own Son because it wasn’t His will, who are we to moan and groan and complain when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want them to be answered?

At the end of the day, if a prayer of ours doesn’t get answered it’s because...

We asked for something in the wrong manner.

We asked for something outside the will of God.

It’s simply not in God’s timing yet.

A lot of times we ask for something and it doesn’t happen right then but later on down the road it comes to pass. It simply wasn’t in God’s timing.

But the first step in the process is to simply ASK!

Next, and I’ve got to hurry here, Jesus says to seek.

First ask, Second seek.

The word implies serious effort as in the sense of coveting something earnestly or striving after it.

How many times do we simply offer up half hearted prayers without putting deep thought or contrition into them?

Jeremiah 29:13 KJV 1900

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

With all of our heart!

If we want God to answer a prayer of ours, we need to take it to Him with all of our heart!

We need to seek and search for His will in that situation.

We need to ask for discernment on whatever it is we’re praying about.

We must ASK, then we must SEEK!

And thirdly, Jesus says here, we must KNOCK.

Now, do you knock on an open door?

No. You knock on a closed door, right?

Now, I got to thinking about this…When you knock on a door what’s the reason you knock?

You knock in search of permission to enter correct?

I mean you don’t just knock then open the door and barge in without the person on the other side saying, “come in” as that would be very disrespectful, right?

But we knock in search of someone on the other side to give us permission to enter.

Listen, if you’re knocking on Heaven’s door and it ain’t seeming to open, don’t go barging through on your own accord or your sure to run into problems.

If God’s not opening the door, then that means He’s not ready for you to go that route or take that next step.

But if you are praying earnestly for something and God open’s that door, don’t be afraid to walk through it because that means it’s finally time for Him to bring to pass His will for that next phase in your life!

How many of you have ever been praying for the door to open and then it opens and your like, “nope, not ready, just kidding! Let’s shut that back!”

Do you know what we’re doing when we do that?

We’re basically saying, “Sorry God, I know better than you what’s best for my life!”

Now think of how many blessings we’ve missed out on because we shut the door instead of walking through it!

That’s almost enough to make you sick to your stomach huh?

So the process set before us is to first and foremost, ASK!

Then, we SEEK!

And lastly, we KNOCK!

ASK, SEEK, KNOCK!

That’s The Process of Prayer. Now, before we look on down, I want to spend just a second on The Persistency of Prayer.

The Persistency of Prayer

Look back at these three words with me really quick because there’s something very important you need to know about them.

And unless you’re an English scholar or own a Strong’s Dictionary and a ton of commentaries like myself, you’ll be sure to miss it.

These three words…ASK, SEEK, KNOCK…are all in their present active tense form.

Now, you’re probably thinking the same thing I was thinking when I first started studying this… “what in the world does that mean?”

It means they are continuous action words meaning that the form they are in means that we shouldn’t stop asking, we shouldn’t stop seeking, we shouldn’t stop knocking!

Listen, if you stop asking you’re never going to get an answer.

If you stop seeking, you’re never going to find what it is you’re looking for! You’re never going to find out what God’s will is for your life!

And if you stop knocking....you will never know when it’s ok to open the door!

What a shame to know we turned our backs on a door that God had opened all because we got tired of waiting!

Anyone ever heard that old phrase… “the best things in life are worth waiting for?”

I can tell you the best things in life are given of God and they are definitely worth the wait, Amen!

So don’t get discouraged, don’t get down hearted, don’t get down trodden!

Keep on ASKING!

Keep on SEEKING!

Keep on KNOCKING!

And when the time is right, when the ask is according to God’s will for your life, when God is ready for you to find that thing that you’re searching for…your prayer will get answered!

Now, you may pray for something your entire life and it never get answered. Sometimes things happen that we don’t quite understand.

When those times come, simply know that God knows best and His ways are above our ways and past finding out and be ok with knowing you may not get an answer until you get to ask Him face to face in eternity.

I assure you though there’s an answer to your question for nothing catches God by surprise and nothing happens without Him knowing about it and it ultimately being a part of His grander master plan!

Which leads us to the next section here the Principle of Prayer.

The Principle of Prayer — (Vs. 9-11)

We’ve looked at the Process of Prayer and the Persistency of Prayer, now I want to look briefly at the Principle of Prayer.

Look what Jesus says next here in Verses 9-11 as He describes how God works.

Matthew 7:9–11 NLT

9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

Can I tell you this morning that God only wants what’s best for you?

Jesus uses a principle here that would hit home for all of His listeners and not just them but for every generation all down through history.

Let me ask you all something this morning...

How many of you if your kid was hungry would say, “ah you’re ok. Here’s a rock to chew on!”

Or if they asked for a piece of fish you’d instead give them a snake?

The reality is not a single person here!

Jesus uses extremes here to help them understand the extremeness of the thought.

He says, “if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”

If we being flawed creatures have enough intuition to give our kids good gifts, how much more will our perfect creator give to those who ask Him?

Now, I do want to make something very plain here before moving on and finishing this thing up…if you expect to ever have a prayer answered, first and foremost you must be a child of God.

Jesus said here, “your heavenly Father.”

That’s means those who have made Him their Father.

Those who have put their trust in His Son.

Lost people pray all the time and then wonder why they don’t get their prayers answered.

Friend, if you want access to the rewards of the Father, you must first accept the gift of His Son!

John 14:6 KJV 1900

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Dear friend, the Psalmist said in...

Psalm 37:4 KJV 1900

4 Delight thyself also in the Lord; And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

God wants to give us the desires of our heart. And when our hearts are rightly fixed on Him and His will for our lives the desires of our heart we shall have.

But in order for us to have anything of God we must first have a relationship with God. Paul told Timothy in...

1 Timothy 2:3–4 KJV 1900

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Do you have a relationship with God with this morning?

If not, dear friend it’s my job to tell you need one!

There’s going to be trials and tribulations that one day come your way and when they do, man can only do so much to help you but with God, all things are possible and there’s nothing to big or too little for God to handle.

Won’t you trust in Him this morning?

Won’t you believe upon His Son Jesus, the sacrifice made for you and I, the payment for our sins. Trust in His provision and ask Him to save you and He will do just that.

Jesus said in...

John 6:37 KJV 1900

37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Come to Him while there’s still time. Come now. Come today for the Bible says, now is the accepted time and today is the day of Salvation!

Dear friend there’s one point left I want to talk you about this morning and that’s The Practical Application found in Verse 12.

The Practical Application — (Vs. 12)

With God leading the way, I hope to bring this ship full circle with this last Verse.

Jesus has been teaching on praying but then He circles back around and says in...

Matthew 7:12 KJV 1900

12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Now, most of the time this passage, Verses 7-11 is taught on just prayer and this verse isn’t tied in with it but to me when Jesus says, “therefore” we have to stop and look at what He said beforehand right?

He ties prayer back into our relationship to mankind and says whatsoever things you would have men do to you, do ye even so to them.

Treat others the same way you would like to be treated.

Now, Brother Bobby what in the world does treating others the way we want to be treated have to do with praying?

Verses 7-11 teach us to learn to rely on God for our every need, right?

And then Verse 12 tells us to treat others the way we want to be treated, correct?

I believe that Jesus is trying to help the people understand that sometimes God uses people to answer prayers!

Two times Jesus sent disciples out to share the good news that the Messiah had come and the Bible says He sent them out two by two but He sent them out in a specific way.

He didn’t send them out laden down with goods and foods but rather He sent them out with nothing but the very clothes they had on.

Luke 10:2–17 NLT

2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. 3 Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. 4 Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road. 5 “Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ 6 If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. 7 Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay. 8 “If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. 9 Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’ 10 But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this—the Kingdom of God is near!’ 12 I assure you, even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a town on judgment day. 13 “What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. 14 Yes, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. 15 And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead.” 16 Then he said to the disciples, “Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.” 17 When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”

These men relied on God to open doors for them. They relied on God to provide for them food. They relied on God for power to heal the sick and the lame!

Jesus was teaching these men a lesson; learn to lean on God and trust that He will provide your every need.

And the way He provided was through other people and this is why I believe He added this golden rule in right here of all places in His sermon on the mount.

You never know when you might be the one who is put in a position to be the answer to someone else’s prayer.

It’s not always about just us, Amen!

It’s not always about what God can and will do for me, myself, and I.

But sometimes it’s about how can I be a blessing to those around me, those I come in contact with day by day.

How can I be the answer to someone else’s prayer!

As often as we make requests for our own selves, I think it’s equally as important to ask God to use us to be a blessing to others.

I want to encourage you this week to incorporate this into your prayer time.

“God, today I simply want to come to you and ask how I can be a blessing to someone I come in contact with. I want you to use me to be the answer to someone else’s prayer!”

Man how rich is that!

I’m telling you dear friend, if you want to ring the doorbells of Heaven, stop making it all about you and make it about those around you!

Ask God to help you live a life that is sacrificial to and for Him!

When you do that, when you start treating others as you want to be treated, you will have come to the knowledge of the simplicity of supplication!

ASK, SEEK, KNOCK, TREAT!

For those who are born again, that’s what I want you to leave here with today…The Simplicity of Supplication.

And for those who may not know Jesus as Lord, you need to understand the importance this relationship with Jesus holds.

If you’ve never made Him Lord, you can ask, you can seek, you can knock but your prayers will never be answered until you make Jesus Lord of your life.

Quite the opposite though is happening here today.

If you’re lost, if you’ve never been saved, then today, Jesus is actually the one doing the knocking.

He’s knocking on the door of your heart asking you to let Him in and He’s waiting on you to open that door.

Will you keep Him shut out this morning?

Will you keep the Lord of all creation waiting, knocking on your heart’s door?

Why don’t you answer it right now?

I assure you, He’ll be the best guest you’ve ever invited in!

If you’re lost and in need of being saved, invite Him in right now.

Let us pray.