Ask, Seek, Knock | Matthew 7:7-12

For something that takes about 15 minutes to say out loud, give or take, it's taken

us months to just begin to scratch the surface.

And even then, let me emphasise this, we have only just begun to scratch the surface.

This is a sermon that you can revisit for the rest of your life and see something different

every single time.

Such is the powerful and deep preaching of the world's greatest teacher, the Word made

flesh who came to be with us.

I mean, think about what we've heard over the months.

Jesus has revealed to us what it is to be blessed.

In fact, that's where he started, right?

It is those who are poor in spirit who are blessed in the sight of God.

It is the poor in spirit who enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now Christ's original audience like us may have been sitting there going, I wonder what

that means.

I wonder what it means to be poor in spirit.

Well, they didn't have to wonder for very long as Jesus showed what the law was really

given for.

And he showed that over and against what the Pharisees had taught the people.

And Jesus showed us that the law was given to expose the very thoughts and intentions

of our hearts.

I mean, once he did that, it was very obvious to all who heard and even us that no one can

live in the sight of God perfectly in all that they do.

It's simply impossible in light of what Jesus has to say on things like hatred for others,

lust, truth telling, revenge, and even loving one's enemies to then walk away feeling like

you're doing a great thing with this thing called life.

But Jesus didn't stop there, did he?

No, he dug his point in even deeper.

Not just exposing the wrong teaching of the religious elite of the day, but even exposing

their very actions as false.

Saying to his disciples that the way that the Pharisees acted was in no way something

to emulate, as all that they did was a show for others, their giving to the needy, their

prayers, their fastings.

It was all an act to draw people's attention to themselves and not for the audience of

one, namely, God's.

You can imagine it right, these disciples sitting there at the feet of the Lord Jesus

having been educated and shown the way on how to follow God all these years by the Pharisees,

all their life with all these impossible standards.

And Jesus says to them, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers

of the law, you'll certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

You can imagine it right.

On the one hand, you're listening to Jesus and possibly thinking to yourself, yeah, I

can see how the law goes so much deeper than just washing the grime off the surface.

But on the other hand, thinking, but those whom I've looked up to and listened to my

whole life, well, I thought that they had it all together.

I thought that they were holier than thou.

I thought that they were the ones that I was meant to be like to please God.

You might for a moment imagine the original disciples sitting there thinking, so if my

righteousness is to surpass the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, what am I meant

to do?

How am I meant to act?

But this is the thing that Jesus has been doing for his disciples from the very beginning

of this wonderful sermon.

He's been taking their eyes off the religious teachers of the time with their traditions

of men and slowly bringing their attention to a real and living relationship that his

people, the church has with God whom he reveals to be our heavenly father.

Notice that throughout the sermon, God in the language of Jesus Christ is our heavenly

father.

And so what we see in the ministry of Jesus is that all those who trust in Jesus and all

those who follow Jesus as his disciples have a right, a privilege and an honour to be able

to go to God as none other than their father.

Amazing.

And we've seen this theme come to the forefront through the sermon on the mount in the way

that Jesus talked about his people as being the light of the world in chapter five.

And how his disciples, how our light will shine before others and that the world will

glorify our father in heaven.

Then again in chapter six, Jesus makes his point even stronger in saying you, you have

an audience of one in all that you do.

So when you give, when you pray, when you fast, all of that is leading you to a closer

intimacy with none other than your heavenly father.

Not to mention the incredible intimacy that Jesus reveals that we have with God in the

prayer that he gives us saying that when we go to God Almighty, we go to him as our father

in heaven.

Now I want you to think about that for a moment church.

The world's greatest Bible teacher, the word made flesh tells us, his disciples, that when

we go to God in prayer, we're to call him none other than our heavenly father.

I mean think about that for a moment brothers and sisters.

For those of you who have trusted in Jesus Christ, who have called upon his name to save

you from your sin, you have intimacy at this very moment with the creator of the universe.

Let that soak in for just a moment.

The Lord Jesus is telling us, his disciples, that when we approach the creator of all there

is, the judge of all living creatures, the one who spoke everything into being, well

we're to go to him like a child goes to their father.

I mean what a radical understanding in the nature of God that we have seen in this sermon

over the months.

God Almighty isn't to be approached through a whole bunch of religious babbling and pious

hoops like a poodle might go to their master, but we're invited to go to God by and through

Christ as none other as our father.

It's mind blowing stuff which would have been so alien to those who were under the yoke

of the phariseeical system of the time.

And so Jesus here again in chapter 7 takes his disciples tender minds from that which

is before them and again raises their hearts heavenward to our heavenly father saying,

ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be

opened to you, verse 7.

Okay so that's big picture stuff and now I want to slow down a bit here and have a think

about a couple of things.

First, about why Jesus uses these interesting descriptive words and second, what is he wanting

to draw our attention to?

Okay so the first thing that we might ask here is what exactly is Jesus talking about?

What does he have in mind using ask, seek and knock to illustrate his points?

Well it's all language that's directing our attention to the way in which we're to approach

our heavenly father in prayer.

That's what we're meant to have on view here.

Jesus is using these words to describe how we're meant to go to God in prayer which is

all language that's meant to bring our attention to someone who is persistent in their endeavour.

And that answers our second question here this morning, and what is Jesus wanting to

draw our attention to?

It's all about being persistent.

Now I use that word persistent because the command that Jesus is giving us isn't said

in a way that we're just to do it once or haphazardly.

You know it's said in such a way that it shows us that we're to consistently go to God in

prayer.

Using words which make us think of someone who's kind of annoying in that they keep asking,

keep seeking, keep knocking at the front door kind of thing.

You might be thinking to yourself this morning, so does that mean we're always playing hide

and seek with God, always trying to find Him to no avail?

Well no that's not being said at all.

In fact just the opposite.

Look again with me at verse 7.

Jesus says ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

This is incredibly encouraging language because I don't know about you but sometimes when

I pray it feels like I'm just vibrating the eardrums of other people or speaking to the

ceiling.

Not so says Jesus.

You're in no way playing hide and seek with God.

Just the opposite.

Your prayers are actually being heard by the creator of the universe.

And more than that, He's concerned about the things that you share with Him and more than

that He's ready to act upon those things that you bring to Him.

What an encouraging sentence right?

Including in the fact that when we go to our Heavenly Father our prayers have an audience

with none other than God Himself.

That begs the question.

Why wouldn't we want to be persistent in that?

Why wouldn't we want to consistently go and share what's on our heart with the one who

can really do something about what we bring to Him?

Well I think disciples of Jesus become dispassionate in prayer, become cold and don't persist because

at the end of the day they lose sight of God's personal touch in their lives.

And so I want you to notice that more than a rebuke on His disciples, Jesus is in fact

again lifting our eyes heavenward to the awesome nature of our relationship with God to encourage

us to keep on keeping on.

I want you to notice a few words.

First, that word ask.

Now it's a word that's used in a sense of an inferior to a superior expecting a reply.

With let's say a child in need asking for help kind of thing.

But again remember the context here.

These people were taught that they had to go through a company of things to feel like

they were heard by God.

Yet Jesus says here simply go in prayer, ask and keep on asking and not only will He hear

you but what you ask for will be given.

That word seek, it's meant to bring to mind something more than a text message.

Hey dad, just letting you know I sinned a bit today, sorry about that but could I please

have such and such.

That language of seeking is deeply rooted in the Old Testament and it draws our attention

to actively endeavouring in our communication with God, taking time to really spend with

Him in the so called prayer closet.

And again this is mind blowing in that we can approach God in this way.

That we would even gain the attention of the Almighty.

But not only do we have it but our Lord and Saviour says we're invited to it.

As Jesus says here ask because you're heard dear ones, seek because you'll find what you're

looking for and finally knock because the door will be open to you.

Now this last word that Jesus uses is interesting because it's a word that's more associated

with banging on a door.

Now I don't know about you but when I go to a stranger's house I might politely tap and

then walk away if they don't answer because I'm not sure if they're home or not, I don't

want to be impolite.

But that's not the sense that Jesus gives here.

Now this is more like you know dad's home, he's probably just taking his time to get

to the front door so you pound on that front door because you want to get him moving because

you know he's there and you want his attention.

So you keep pounding with a boldness so to speak.

All this to say what Jesus is giving us here is all language to indicate a personal relationship

between a father and his children.

We ask knowing that we're heard.

We seek knowing that we won't be ignored and we knock because we know dad's home and he

doesn't ignore his children.

Admittedly church I think that many don't pray like this with this fervour in our western

world because a lot of the time we have everything we need right?

If you have an infection you go to the doctor, if you're hungry you go to the shops, if you

need money there's government helps.

We live in a world in a day and age where so much of our needs are taken care of by

what we can do with our very own hands.

That's so much of the time we don't go to our father in heaven in a position of need

but more in a stance of want.

Kind of trading places with him as if we're the father and he's the child, as if we know

how to better run our lives than he does.

And so if we're not careful our prayers can become more of a to-do list, a to-do list

of things that we want God to do for us.

And thus we become annoyed or discouraged because we don't get the answers that we want.

But we have to understand something here church.

Jesus isn't giving us a formula to get God to do whatever we want him to do for us.

That's not what Jesus is getting at here.

So God is our father and when we pray to him we must come to him in that position of where

a child comes to a father.

That's how Jesus taught us to pray in chapter 6 right?

That's how he taught us to approach God.

He's dad and we're the children.

Meaning we ask and we heard it this morning from Matt, we ask for his kingdom to come,

for his will to be done not the other way around.

In other words God's not a genie who's in heaven waiting on standby for our wishes to

be thrown up to him so that he can do our will.

Now it's as it's been said this morning, he's our father and our father knows what's best.

And sometimes we're not asking for the best things.

Now don't mishear me this morning, I'm not saying that your dreams aren't big enough,

that your wants aren't lavish enough and you just gotta reach for the sky.

No I'm saying that we don't ask for what's best because sometimes our hearts aren't gravitating

towards God's way of doing things in his world.

James says it like this, when you ask you don't receive because you ask with wrong motives

that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

And I want you to hear that, he's basically saying that God isn't out to automatically

answer every request that his children have.

Because sometimes we ask for things with totally wrong motives in mind.

Which is another way of saying our own ways over God's will as revealed in his word.

So keep that in mind here.

Jesus isn't saying to us disciples, hey if you're just consistent enough, God's gonna

give you whatever you want.

Tell him your heart's desire and he'll make your dreams come true.

Now Church he is raising our eyes heavenward in the midst of this incredible sermon for

our encouragement because of all that has been said.

Because of all that is going to be revealed in the New Testament and about where we fit

in the scheme of things.

He's encouraging us here because of all that we're called to do in this world.

And he encourages us because we need to be going to God and asking, knocking, seeking

on Dad's door for the grace to live it out in the way that he wants us to.

You see Church as we've seen over the months, the kingdom of heaven requires poverty of

spirit, purity of heart, truth, compassion, a life of integrity amongst many other things.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that you're a lot like me.

A work in progress.

I mean for just one example, think about what we looked at last week.

Jesus told us disciples as brothers and sisters in the family of God that we're meant to not

judge one another by each other's standards, but get rid of the planks in our heads and

help one another with those specks in each other's eyes.

I mean how much wisdom and discernment does that take?

How much love and tender care does that require with those around us?

These are things that are impossible to do and to keep on doing in our own strength.

But this is the incredibly encouraging thing.

Jesus says when you see that need dear one, go to your Father in heaven.

Seek, knock in prayer because not only is God totally accessible to you, but everyone

who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Verse 8.

What blessing we see here church.

What incredible access through the Lord Jesus Christ that we have at this very moment.

When you see those things in your life that you know you fall so far short in that like

Paul you might cry out, oh wretched person that I am.

We have an invitation from the Holy One.

When you see those things that we just don't have a clue how to deal with, we can go to

the one who is ready and willing.

When it all seems so dark and it all seems so hard to be the light, the salt in the situation,

we can get in that room of ours and go to the one who will take you from that place

of despair to the place of hope.

I want you to notice one last thing in 7 and 8.

The invitation isn't to some Christians.

It's to everyone who asks in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The promise is that everyone who goes to God in faith through Christ will not only be heard

but will be answered.

And that's significant for us to notice church and I want you to see this.

The language from verse 7 to verse 8 changes.

It changes from a future tense to a present tense.

Meaning that not just one day will you be heard and answered but that you'll be heard

and answered now.

All this to say Jesus is encouraging us here to be persistent in our prayer life and is

determined to show us that we never ever labour in vain when we go to our heavenly Father

in prayer.

It is never in vain, never wasted time.

God really cares for his children, really hears his children.

He really answers his children when they cry out to him.

But our Lord, he knows how discouraged we can get.

So he kindly explains to us just how wonderful, how beautiful our heavenly Father really is.

Verses 9 to 11.

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 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?

Now there might be some of you here this morning who are thinking to yourself, that is just

so awesome what Jesus is saying.

But I've gone to God in prayer.

I've pleaded with him in prayer.

Yet I've struggled to see God do anything.

Well brother, sister, God knows the hidden doubts in his children's hearts.

He knows we wonder sometimes if it's really worth taking that matter to God in prayer.

He knows that situation that you're going through even at this very moment.

He knows that there are people who have gone before the Lord with all sorts of situations

and said, Lord, spare me from this thing.

And the Lord hasn't seen to spare you from that situation.

So we might wonder, well, does this praying really work?

Why should I bother?

Jesus tells us two things to help us in these verses when we face those doubts.

First, church, as it's been said, we go to God as children.

We ask in such a way that we trust that he will hear us and will give us what we need.

And notice this, we are to trust and expect that God gives us good things.

It's what it says here, good things.

When we go to him, just as a child asks for food, we don't give them rocks or even something

that can harm them.

Even parents who have had a rough night's sleep because of their screaming child wouldn't

stoop that low.

Now, when we go to God in prayer and when we ask, we should expect that he will give

us good things because he is a good, good father.

Meaning he's not tainted by sin and selfishness with a temporal nature.

No, he can see things and he knows things that are far beyond our comprehension.

And sometimes, brothers and sisters, as it's been said, we set our hearts on things that

are not the best for us and we plead and beg God for them.

Imagine if we did ask God for a snake.

But in our heavenly father's wisdom, when he hears our requests, when he does say no,

that's not because he's ignored us or because he wants to watch us squirm.

It's because he knows in his infinite wisdom what's best for us.

I mean, for any parent out there who adores their child, if you were to say yes to absolutely

every request that they made, it would be tantamount to child abuse.

I mean, could you imagine the damage they would do to their little developing bodies

if you gave them everything they wanted to eat?

Let them do everything that they wanted to do?

Be any imaginary Pokemon that they wanted to become?

I mean, my own son would quite happily try to drive us all to church if I just said yes

to his requests.

Sometimes dad says no.

And from our point of view, admittedly, it seems so unfair, so unjust.

But that's the point Jesus is driving here.

Even us, even in our human parenting, we know what's good for our children.

So how much more our Father in heaven who sees all, who is the Father of lights, in

him there is no shadow of turning.

Sometimes for whatever reason, we get no from dad.

But let me say this, isn't no sometimes the biggest blessing of all?

I mean, I thank God personally that he said no to some of my silly requests in the past.

And I'm sure that there's others here this morning who can testify to that very thing

in their lives.

But with other things, we're being called to trust by the Lord Jesus Christ, the word

made flesh that our Father who spared not his only son knows what's best for us.

And that as we've asked, as we've sought, as we've knocked, he's answered us in his

goodness in a wise and gracious way.

We might not see it now, but we can trust that he has heard and given what's needed,

even when we don't know what we need.

The apostle Paul puts it like this, we know that in all things, God works for the good

of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, Romans 8 28.

That's what Jesus is driving at here.

Our heavenly Father hears our prayers and we can trust him to answer wisely and graciously

in his goodness.

He is a good Father.

To which Jesus ends this section of his teaching by pointing us back to our responsibility

that we have with others around us.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the

law and prophets, verse 12.

And that's where we were last week.

We have a responsibility to each other, both in the family of God to help one another and

to those outside to be the light and the salt of this world.

And it's difficult, it's time consuming and sometimes it's downright disheartening.

But that's what we are called to do as the community of Christ's disciples.

But as we have seen again here this morning, we're not alone in any sense church.

No, as we've heard, we all have one Father in heaven whom we can go to and seek and find,

whom we can speak to and know that we will be answered.

That's the great privilege of being in Christ.

And Jesus reminds us here again, we're not alone, not alone in our Christian walk because

we have a Father in heaven who loves his children and a worldwide family here on earth, whom

we're learning to love more and more and more.

And so church, we have a responsibility.

We have a responsibility on this side of eternity to serve each other in everything that we

do, both in the church with our gifts and those outside with our testimony.

And know this, whatever we face, in whatever season we go through, whatever trial comes

our way, both individually and as a community of believers, both here in Armidale and the

wider church in the world, we can go to our Father asking, seeking, knocking with great

boldness and consistency, all because we know through Christ, we will never be ignored.

So as we end our time in this passage this morning, I do want to say a few things by

way of application for you to think about.

First, God wants you to ask.

He wants you to ask.

That's what Jesus is showing us this morning.

God wants us to bring our needs to him because he cares for you.

There's been things that have come up in the series of Matthew that for many of us have

been confronting.

Week after week we've asked the Lord to help us not to put it in the too hard pile, but

to help us in our discipleship, in our saltiness, in our light shining, if you will.

This is the encouragement, such encouragement that where you fall short, where you see you

need to grow, you can go to God, ask, seek, knock.

And for those things that you don't know how to go to God about, well go ask, seek, knock.

Because you can know without a shadow of doubt that because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ,

who gave his life for his people and who is now seated at the right hand of the throne

of God, we will never be ignored.

We have a good Father and he will answer us and he will give us what we need.

Second, we've seen this morning that it's our Father who gives us good things and so

it puts limits on requests to those things that are in line with his good purposes as

revealed in his word and thus restricts his giving to us what is good.

And we've seen this this morning that that's actually a wonderful thing.

But sometimes like little kids who don't understand why they're not allowed to eat all the chocolate

in the house or swim in the deep end because they haven't all figured out.

We can get down because Dad says no.

So please be encouraged this morning that no is sometimes a great thing.

We don't know why right now, but he knows.

He is good and he gives us what's best because he loves us.

And finally church, we're always on mission towards doing to others what you would have

them do to you.

And this incredibly simple principle would revitalise human relationships if everyone

was to do it.

But as we know that's simply not the case in this world.

That doesn't mean we are to join in and live like the world.

No, we're told in Peter that repentance starts in the household of God.

And thus as we turn our attention and intention and actions towards the obedience of our Lord's

commands, the light that we have been entrusted with, the salt that we have become in Christ

will really do something great in this world.

So church, would you please join me now in praying for some of these things?

Would you please join me in asking God to show us where we fall short individually,

corporately, so that we can turn from our ways and follow his lead?

Father God, we thank you that as we've heard this morning, our prayers are not vibrating

the eardrums of other people or hitting the ceiling, but they are coming up before the

throne of grace because of the Lord Jesus.

Father, we are asking as a community that you have put together, that you have purchased,

that you have brought together to be the salt and light in Armidale, in Perth.

We're asking Father, where we are doing things that are not pleasing to you, would you please

show us?

We ask Father where we can be more mindful, more loving, more serving, would you please

show us?

Father, where we can be holding Christ higher in our midst through the working with your

spirit and not grieving your spirit, not quenching your spirit among us, we ask that you would

show us that we might repent from our ways and do things in your way.

Father, we desperately want to make Jesus known in Armidale.

We desperately want to take the light, the salt into wherever you have us during the

week.

We're asking that you would help us, that you would lead us, that you would guide us.

Father, would you please make this church a disciple-making church, not one that is

consumed with our own agendas, inward looking, but one that is looking to you and leading

people to you, from everything with welcoming people at the door to the proclamation of

the word and everything in between.

Father, we ask that you would use this community for your glory alone and we ask this in the

name of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Amen.