Ask, Seek, Knock | Frank Brancato

It's wonderful to be here with all of you today to worship God

in spirit and in truth. In looking out over the crowd,

it looks like we have several of our folks that are not here.

Maybe they're sick or traveling, but we have a wonderful crowd

because you're here and we're here together to worship God.

We have some visitors that are among us from other

congregations and we want you to know it's great to see you and

we are glad that you're here with us today.

And we say welcome as we continue our series on the

greatest sermon ever preached, and that's the Sermon on the

Mount. We now come to Matthew Chapter 7

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

and verse #7 where Jesus said this.

Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find and knock

and it will be opened to you. In this passage, Jesus gives 3

great imperatives. And all three of these, by the

way, are in the present tense. In other words, it's not just a

one time thing. What the Lord is saying here is

He's saying, I want you to keep asking, I want you to keep

seeking and I want you to keep knocking.

These are very important for our life.

And you know, really, by listing these three actions and then

repeating them in the very next verse, I think the Lord is

showing us 2 very important things #1 God wants us to have a

continual, ongoing relationship with Him.

We've talked about the relationship that we have with

God and with Jesus Christ. And it's not just something.

And in our Christianity where we go through the motions, it is

personal. And having a relationship with

God and a relationship with Jesus is everything.

The very fact that Jesus said to ask, seek, and find in a

continual way show number one, God wants us to have a

continuing, ongoing relationship with him.

But #2 I think it also shows that God wants all of us to have

an insatiable desire for spiritual things.

You know, it all goes back to this point too.

I don't know how it all works. And later on in this lesson, I'm

going to talk about a little bit about Providence, and I'm going

to say in advance, there are things about Providence that I

just don't understand. And I'm good with that.

I don't care that I understand it.

In fact, to me, it increases my faith to no one believe that it

does exist. And God is doing all those

things, even if I can't explain it and even if I can't define

it. There's one aspect of the

asking, seeking, and finding too, that goes all the way back

even to somebody that's not a child of God.

If somebody is looking for the truth and they're looking for

the Lord, I don't know how it all works, but if they're truly

asking, seeking and knocking and looking for it, God's going to

make that happen. Does that mean that God puts me

as a preacher in their life of people that I might have a

center of influence over? I don't know and I don't care.

I just know He gets it done. Does it mean that God brings

people to my life? I don't know and I don't care.

I just know He gets it done. Or to your life that you have an

influence over. God wants us to have that kind

of a relationship with him after we become Christians too.

And when Jesus talks about asking, seeking, and knocking,

he demonstrates an increasing increased intensity.

First, there's the verbal request in the asking.

But he doesn't just leave it there.

He talks about seeking. And that's the request is not is

active and not passive. And #3 and this is very

important. How about knocking?

Knocking shows a willingness to persist in spite of setbacks and

difficulties. I'm going to tell you right now,

you all know this. I'm not saying anything at all

to you right now. You do not know you're going to

have setbacks and you're going to have difficulties in your

life. Absolutely.

And you're going to have setbacks and you're going to

have difficulties in your life. Even if you are continuing to

ask, seek and knock, it's going to happen.

The whole point of this is Jesus says, I want you to continue to

do that, OK? The truth of these passages here

is demonstrated in two parables and you know what they are and

I'm not going to go into them very deeply.

One of them, when Jesus talked about persistence and prayer and

asking of God and trusting in God and having faith in God, he

likens it into a widow that is very persistent.

We all know the story. The persistent widow goes to an

unjust judge, and the unjust judge, the Bible says, does not

fear God and he does not fear man.

And this poor widow goes to him and she begs for mercy in terms

of justice for herself and for her adversary.

What does the judge do? At first he kind of dismisses

her, doesn't care, right? Jesus says at some point in

time, the judge, as I paraphrase, is saying this, this

woman is driving me out of my mind.

And finally the judge is going to give in, not because he's

good, not because he's wonderful, and not because he

wants justice, but because of her persistence.

Then Jesus says, how much more if this unjust judge will give

in? How much more will our heavenly

Father give to us who cry out to him day and night?

That's number one. Here's the second parable Jesus

gave, and you know this one too. It's the parable of the friend

at midnight and Jesus likens it like this.

He's teaching persistence in prayer and trusting in God.

And he says it's kind of like this.

You go to your neighbor's house and you knock on the door and

it's midnight and you say, can you give me 3 loaves of bread?

Because I got somebody that just stopped by and I don't have any

food to give them. And the friend is going to say,

hey, get lost, it's midnight, we're in bed, go away.

Jesus says eventually the friend is going to give in and give

whatever you ask, not because of your friendship, but because of

your persistence. The new King James says.

The old King James says because of importunity.

Here's my point. These are examples of men that

will give in due to persistence, but that giving in is done

reluctantly. Compare that with God.

When you are persistent with God and God gives to us, He doesn't

do it reluctantly. He doesn't do it painfully, and

He doesn't do it because He doesn't want to.

God does not reluctantly give to His children.

In fact, in verse 11, don't look there yet.

We're going to get there. We're going to get there.

But in verse 11, I think it shows and demonstrates that God

has tremendous joy in helping His children.

He gets great delight in helping His children.

Got to make a couple of points of clarification here.

Some people believe that this passage means anything.

I ask because I'm a Christian. I'm going to get.

That's not really the point, is it?

This verse does not mean that we're going to get things just

because we want them. Now.

There's a lot of things in my life that I'd like to have that

I would want, and there's things in my life I might be.

It's OK for me to ask because I want them, but doesn't

necessarily mean I'm going to get them.

God knows my needs and those things are the things that are

promised. But let me just say this, just

because you ask it doesn't mean God's giving it.

And notice we are not going to be given based upon our own

lust. Notice what James says on this,

on this idea in James four and verse three.

You ask and you do not receive because you ask a miss that you

may spend it on your pleasures. So just because I ask it and I

want it and I want to have it on my pleasure, doesn't mean God's

given it. That's not a blanket promise for

that. What else?

What else is it not a blanket promise for?

How about those that are insincere?

The insincere person is not someone that this promise is for

either. How about this?

Who else is not included in this promise that the Lord gives so

long ago? How about those that refuse to

listen to God? How about those that refuse and

reject God and aren't following a life of Christianity?

Those people aren't promised these words that Jesus says.

So who's the promise reserved for?

There's that word righteous, and please don't be afraid of that

word righteous. Sometimes people think when you

talk about righteous, we have an idea in our mind and we look at

our own shortcomings and sometimes we think that we can

never attain it. And we can never achieve it

because we think that righteousness means some sort of

really high level of holiness that we can't ever achieve.

I got news for you. Nobody's achieving that.

And if you think you have and you look down your nose is

somebody else because you don't think they have, be careful.

You just fill because guess what?

Humility just went out the window.

Don't do that. What does it actually mean to be

righteous? The word righteous means right.

Doing OK Now, about 10 years ago, I preached a sermon and I

put this little phraseology on the screen.

I'm going to do it again. So most of you probably remember

this, but I'm going to talk about the the connection between

godliness and righteousness and what all that really means

because sometimes people get godliness all out of whack too.

Godliness is not your own personal goodness.

It's not. Notice what it means to actually

be righteous and how do you actually attain it.

And guess what? All of us human people that are

imperfect, guess what? We can do that.

How are we going to do it? Well, notice righteousness is to

godliness. You've heard me say this before.

As conduct is to the heart, godliness is a practical

awareness of God in every aspect of your life.

That's the mind, by the way. You know what else that is?

That's called the heart of the Bible.

The heart is the mind. As a man thinks in his heart, so

is he. We're not talking about

something that's pumping in the chest, OK?

We're talking about the mind. As a man thinks in his heart,

the Bible says so is he. What is the heart of the Bible

do? It thinks, reasons, believes,

and obeys. That's what the heart does.

Guess what? It all begins with godliness in

the heart or the mind. That's a practical awareness of

God in every aspect of my life. You know what it's going to do?

It's going to demonstrate itself in my outward conduct.

You know what that's called? That's called righteousness.

We can all do that. We can all do that.

This promise is for anyone that is trying to live the Christian

life and doing their best to listen to God.

OK, got to add this though. Even if our requests are not

based on our lust and even when our requests are based upon

things we are allowed to ask for.

I touched on this a moment ago. I'm going to expand upon it now.

It doesn't mean that the answer is always going to be yes.

And here's why. We always pray it with the

provision, if it be your will. We always pray that and we

believe in that. We don't ask a miss.

We ask God according to his will.

That's what the Bible says that we're supposed to do.

And when you pray with the provision, if it be God's will,

it is not bending God's will to you, it is bending your will to

God. That's really what that means.

You're saying whatever you say, Father, however you answer this,

I'm good. That's what it means to pray

with the provision if it be God's will.

That's all true, but have you ever stopped to consider this?

That in the realm of praying or God receiving our prayers and

answering our prayers according to His will?

Understand He does so also by answering our prayers according

to His wisdom. I got news for all of us in case

you didn't know, and you do. God knows way more than we do.

It's like a guy said one time, you know, I know that there's

two irrefutable facts in life. There's a God and I'm not him.

And that's really true. Our thoughts are not God's

thoughts. His thoughts, His ways are so

far above us. And sometimes God just knows

better. No, always God knows better, but

there are times when we think sometimes that we know better,

but God knows better. And sometimes the answer is no.

It doesn't mean that we're not receiving what we're asking.

It means God is answering that prayer according to His will and

according to His wisdom. So all that being said, this

verse is not about receiving. That's not the emphasis of the

verse. What's the emphasis of the verse

here? It is one big word, faith.

That's the emphasis of this passage.

Faith is going to give us the ability to keep knocking.

OK, That's the persistence, regardless of the difficulties

and whatever is being thrown our way and discouragements, right?

Faith will give us the ability to keep on knocking no matter

what. But faith also will give us the

ability to trust God. That's a big word, trust to

trust God that God's going to open the doors that He chooses

in your life, and not just the ones that I think ought to be

opened. Then we go to verse #8 Jesus is

going to sum up what He just said in verse 7 for everyone who

asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it

will be opened. So this promise here is a

successful conclusion to our request that's contingent upon

the truths that I've just stipulated with you for the last

few minutes. OK.

I think this is a very comforting passage, by the way,

that the child of God has the right and the reason we have the

right not by our own goodness or our own audacity or our own

demands. We have the right because God

has given us the right to pour out our petitions to Him before

His throne and #2 to know that absolutely, while we do so, God

cares. I'm going to tell you what,

there's a lot of people in life just don't care.

There's a lot of people in your life that don't care about you,

but God cares about you. He cares about all of us.

All right, so what's God doing here?

This is a wonderful thing. Furthermore, our God is giving

us an open invitation to our ongoing and constant pleas.

Open invitation. I remember years ago my pal Don

King, Yeah, I quote him, absolutely.

My good buddy, I had cancer and when I was going through cancer

and I was getting toward the end of it, he goes, man, I wish

you'd get over this and stop bugging God about you.

I really appreciated his thoughts.

I appreciate his prayers about doing that.

That's the beauty, though, about what Jesus is talking about with

the persistence here. Don't you see that no matter how

many times you go to God in prayer on the same subject over

and over and over again, there's an open opportunity and an open

invitation for our pleas over and over and over again.

Wow. Then in verse 9 he says, or what

man is there among you? Now Jesus is going to give some

examples. I love this just as human

parents now with natural affection, with kindness and

love in their heart for their children, just like a human

father is going to give to his children and provide for his

children as he has opportunity and ability.

Just as that is the case, how much more is God going to

provide for us? So here's the first example He

says. Or what man is there among you?

The Lord was absolutely brilliant because everybody

would have understood that. And then he gives this example.

Who, if his son asks for bread, will they give him a stone?

I've always wondered about that. Why is he using these examples?

He can talk about bread and the stone.

He's going to talk about fish and a snake.

You ever wonder about that? Well, first of all, the word

bread here in this passage he always referring to, It's

referring to those flat round cakes that Palestinian women

would bake in preparation for their meals.

So get that in your mindset, get that in your mind that that your

mind's eye what that looks like. Those flat round cakes.

They were very similar in shape, in size, and in appearance to a

stone that was often found on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

What the Lord's point is this is even a human father who has a

child that is in need of bread is not going to give him a

stone. Here's the point.

No father with natural love takes one of these worthless

rocks and tries to pass it off his food.

OK. Likewise, God doesn't trick his

children. He doesn't trick his children.

And you know what's interesting about this appearance?

Have you ever stopped to consider when Jesus in Matthew

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 was being tempted by the devil 40 days in the

wilderness? He didn't eat, He fasted, right?

He's hungry. And the devil says, if you are

who you say you are, make these stones into bread.

Jesus responds by saying, it is written, man shall not live by

bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth

of God. OK, we know that the devil was

not just saying, by the way, oh, there's rocks over there, make

them into bread. What he was saying is he was

referring to these Palestinian rocks and this Palestinian

bread. And what he was talking about is

he was talking about these stones that look like bread.

The devil was saying this. Oh, by the way, if you were

Sarah, see these stones right there that look like bread?

Turn them into bread because that's what they look like.

A human father is not going to be deceptive to their child like

that and give him a stone when they ask for that.

Let's go to the next example in the next verse.

Or if he asks for a fish, will it give him a serpent?

OK, a common, another common food in Galilee was fish.

In fact, in the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee was filled

with all kinds of fish. It was really stocked full of

tons of fish, so much so that it gave a lot of fishermen a great

livelihood and it actually drew fishermen to actually live

around those areas because there was there was a, there was

plentiful amount of fish. OK, now why did Jesus say if a

if a son asked a human father for a fish, will he give him a

serpent or a snake? Let me tell you what this does

not mean, even though some people think this is what it

means. If you ask a son asks his

father, can dad, can I have some fish?

It doesn't mean that a father's not going to throw you a snake

that's dangerous and do something mean to you.

That's not what the context of this passage is.

The context of this passage, As noted commentators and scholars

would agree, he's talking about this.

He's talking about fish meat and snake meat.

That's what he's talking about. What he's talking about is if a

son asks a father for fish, he's not going to give him cooked

snake meat and then tell the son, hey, this is fish and try

to trick him into eating something disgusting.

We're setting the tone here now, aren't we?

He's saying that's what even a human father would not do.

Luke adds this dramatic example too, in Luke Chapter 11 and

Luke 11 · chapter mention

verse 12. Or if he asks for an egg, will

he offer him a scorpion? Same is true.

It's going back to visual likeness.

Going back to the bread example, same thing.

I read that large scorpions back in the East, back in those days

when they're all balled up or curled up, look like a bird egg.

What he's saying is, is no human father is going to trick you.

But the gifts from the Heavenly Father are even greater now.

It is true, by the way, it is true that there's a lot of

people in our life that will try to trick us.

I somebody tried to scam me this last week.

Big time tried to scam me. I've said this many times and

I'm going to say it again. I believe it.

I don't believe in the concept that there's bad in the world

and the only good are Christians.

I don't believe in that at all. There's a lot of wonderful

people in the world. It just doesn't necessarily mean

they're saved. There's a lot of wonderfully

good people in the world. That's why I'm glad the world is

still standing so we could try to reach them.

Wonderful, right? We pray for that opportunities.

I also don't believe in the concept that there's good in

everyone. I don't believe in that either

because there are some people that are rotten and there are

some people that try to do bad things to other people.

But I do believe in the concept like that country song, and I

think most people are good. I really do.

Human fathers that have natural affection for their children are

going to love them to the point they're not going to trick them,

even though the world wants to say that the world tries to

trick us. All that being said, that is the

good gifts of a father. Let's talk about the better

gifts from God. That's the next verse.

If you then being 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?

Now, first of all, the word evil here, why is he using the word

evil? Was he saying that everybody in

his audience was wicked and evil and terrible?

I don't believe that to be the case.

I think what he's saying is his listeners, by the way, were

those that were many of his listeners were some of the

greatest disciples the Lord ever had in this life.

I think we can honestly say too, that there were people in the

audience that were perhaps some of the nicest people and the

greatest people in the world, maybe at that time, I don't

know. Let's just assume that in this

massive crowd on the Sermon on the Mount, why did Jesus say if

you then being evil, the word evil is used in a comparative

sense. OK, The word evil simply

demonstrates the superior nature of God's care when compared to

the care that a physical father gives his son.

In similar fashion, when Jesus says except you hate your father

and your mother, he didn't mean hate them with disdain, He means

love them less, showing a comparison.

Our love for God has to be greater.

When he says evil here, he was not saying you're a bunch of

evil rotten people. He was saying even the human

fathers that I just talked about that are doing good things for

their sons and daughters and all of that and are not tricking

them and giving them good things, it pales in comparison

to the superiority of God's gifts.

OK, The point is, if human parents with all of our flaws

and imperfections, and boy, do we all have flaws and

imperfections, do we not? If we can demonstrate nourishing

kindness for our children, how much more will God perfectly

care for his children? Now I got to say this.

Luke adds the words Holy Spirit to what Matthew's account says

in this passage, and we're going to talk about that.

Let's notice Luke Chapter 11 and verse 13.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your

children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the

Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

All right, Matthew's account says good things.

Luke's account says Holy Spirit. What are we talking about?

We're talking about the comparison between man's gifts

and God's gifts, right? This is a very powerful

illustration because the gift of the Holy Spirit comes from God.

Acts 238 Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized,

everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission

of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now I got to say I'm going to talk about gift for just a

moment. My entire life I've heard the

Holy Spirit argued and debated, sometimes to the point that

people just get ugly and I don't understand that.

I really don't get that. One of the things that people

vehemently argue over is what the word gift means.

In this passage, there's two positions.

I say these in no particular order, but please listen.

One position that's argued is the gift of the Holy Spirit is

the Holy Spirit's gift, which is salvation and all spiritual

blessings in Christ, and that you get that at baptism.

That's one argument. The second argument is that the

gift of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit himself that you get

at baptism for the remission of sins.

I'm just going to say this, whatever your position is on

that subject, and by the way, I'm going to tell you what I

believe in just a moment about several things about God, Jesus,

the Holy Spirit, angels, and Providence.

I'm going to sum it up in a very short little statement, OK, And

just a second, So hang on. But let me just say whatever you

believe about the gift of the Holy Spirit here, it doesn't

change the narrative of of Luke's account because the Holy

Spirit is a gift from God that comes from God, and that gift is

far superior to any gift that any man could ever give a son.

OK, we get that. Now let me tell you what I

think, what I believe. First of all, about arguing over

it. Come on, getting mean over it.

Let me tell you what I believe. Here we go.

And the older I get, the more resolved I am with exactly what

I'm going to tell you right now. Number one, I'm a Christian.

I'm a baptized believer in Jesus Christ.

I've been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, washed in the

blood of the Lamb. And because of that, and I'm

trying to live the Christian life.

God is working every day in my life.

I believe that while my heart don't you #2 because of the same

reasons Jesus Christ is working in my life every day, and

because of the same reasons the Holy Spirit is working in my

life every day, and because of those reasons, the Holy Spirit

is indwelling me in a non miraculous way.

Why can't we just embrace those facts and stop arguing over

hell? Those are beautiful facts.

Beautiful facts. I also know this too, that

somehow, someway there are angels out there.

I can't explain everything, but I do know this.

The Bible says, and you might remember this from my sermon on

angels several years ago, that angels are ministering spirits

and God is using them for His purpose, for us, for the child

of God. How's he doing it?

I don't care, He's just doing it.

And finally, I believe with all of my heart in the providential

care of God and because of the things that I stipulated and set

forth originally for those reasons about God and Jesus, the

Holy Spirit, and dwelt all of that for the same reasons, God

has me in His hand and he's providentially taking care of

me. And I'm going to tell you

something, folks, I'm going to be 58 years old.

And there was a time in my life when I had to define it.

I had to, I had to explain it. I had to put it in a box.

I had to say why. I had to say how.

I'm going to tell you right now. I don't need to say any of that

now. I just know it gets done.

I just know it gets done and I'm good with that.

And do you know something, if that's you in your life, that

you know that God is doing all that stuff, but you don't have

to define or describe how he did it or say, well, that's all that

He did with that or He did with that.

And you just know that He did. And you know that all of those

things we already talked about are working for us.

Isn't that the demonstration of what we talked about not long

ago with what great faith actually is?

When you trust God, when there's no human reasoning for it, isn't

that better? It's a greater gift that any

human father can give. OK, so why this though?

Why did Matthew say good things and Luke say Holy Spirit?

I like what Burton Kaufman said. It was a great explanation.

Here's Burton Kaufman. This discourse in Luke comes

later in Jesus ministry, nearer to the to Pentecost than does

the Sermon on the Mount OK in which the passage cited in

Matthew occurs. Therefore, Jesus can be more

specific with reference to the needs of his disciples.

And what's the greatest need of his disciples?

All the things that come with salvation.

And that goes back all the way to Acts 238, the gift of the

Holy Spirit, remission of sins, all of those things.

I think the point is, folks, you can trust God.

I quoted my pal Don King moment ago, but I'm going to quote

Patsy. Patsy said to me one time, she

goes, you know what, Frankie? She goes, you can always trust

God as people you got to worry about.

That's true. Sometimes it's people that we

have to worry about when it comes to trust.

But you can always 100% trust God in your life.

So since all that's true and God gives good things and good gifts

and all the wonderful gifts that are far superior to man's gifts

because of that, we go to one more verse, one final verse, and

that's verse 12. And that finishes this section,

by the way, in Matthew Chapter 7, and then goes on to another

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

section. Some scholars say that this

verse probably should have been in the previous section or after

the previous section. But at any rate, whatever it is,

it's true because of what God does for us.

It leads us to this next passage.

We got to do the same to others. And this, by the way, this verse

is proactive in advance. Here it is.

It's called the golden Rule. And I know that people say if

you ask them what the golden rule is, they say, do unto

others as you would have them do unto you.

Some people say, what's going wrong?

Do unto others before they do it to you, right?

This is a proactive passage in verse 12.

What is Jesus actually saying? What did He really say?

He said, therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also

to them. For this is the law and the

prophets. It's called the Golden rule.

It is the foundation of Scripture.

In fact, it's the essence of the law and the prophets.

In other words, please get this about the phrase the law and the

prophets. The teaching of the Old

Testament brings man into the correct relationship with God

only by also bringing him into a correct relationship with his

fellow man. That's why Jesus says, for this

is the law and the prophets. In fact, I'll just say this, I

know it's a bold statement. 1 cannot be truly at peace with

God if he is not at peace with others.

You can't be truly at peace with God if you're not at peace with

others. If you have issues in your life

and you've got things in your life with somebody, please clean

those things up. Do we really think that in our

minds we can have odd with each other and just let it go and do

nothing at all to try to fix it? And it's all going to be OK

anyway? We're all going to be in heaven

together anyway someday, and my relationship with God is going

to be OK because I obey the rules.

Come on now. We can't be at peace with God if

we're not at peace with each other.

I love the fact that this congregation, and it's been for

many, many, many, many years, we are at peace.

Yeah, powerful. That is how important that is.

We're at peace. We're not divided on anything.

We love each other. I love it sometimes on Sunday

afternoon services are over and nobody leaves.

They love each other. We're at peace.

This verse is talking about being proactive about our

dealings with other people. First John chapter 4 beginning

1 John 4 · chapter mention

in verse 20. If someone says I love God and

hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his

brother whom he has seen, how can he love God who he has not

seen? And this commandment we have

from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.

You know what James calls this? James calls these words here,

the royal law. James says like this, James 2:00

and 8:00. If you really fulfill the royal

law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as

yourself. You do.

Well, that is the royal law according to James.

Wow, good stuff in it. But what about this right here

do also to them? You know what that means?

That means you have to initiate the process.

Let me tell you what it does not mean.

I had somebody the other day say he was apologizing to me about

something. A friend of mine, and he said

I'm sorry. But if you're not sorry too, I

take back my apology. Have you ever heard people say

this? This is also what it doesn't

mean here that this nothing. It doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean I'll be nice to you.

If you're nice to me doesn't mean that either.

This is a proactive way to live. Because God is so good to us, we

must be proactive in being the same to other people.

How is that to treat them like we want to be treated?

There was a story told one time about a Gentile, and the

Gentile, he comes to two rabbis. He goes up to the first rabbi.

He was a noted rabbi, and this rabbi was kind of grouchy.

And he comes up to him and this gentile says, make me a

proselyte. In other words, convert me.

Make me a proselyte based upon one thing.

I want you to teach me the law as I stand on one foot.

In other words, give me the short version.

Well, I stand on one foot. I don't want the book.

Just give me the crib notes on that.

The you know, the give me that. He was wanting to know this.

I want to know what the essence of the whole thing is.

Quickly and to the point. The first rabbi says get out of

here. He's disgusted with him because

he didn't think he really wanted to know.

Then he went to another rabbi, and this other rabbi, by the

way, was kind and generous and he was kind of sitting there.

He was listening to the man, and the man says the same thing.

Show me the whole law. If you can convert me, give me

the whole law as I stand on one foot.

And you know, he said, he said this here it is.

What is hateful to you do not do to another.

This is the whole law. The rest is just explanation of

it. That's what Jesus was talking

about, about how we're supposed to live and treat one another.

Powerful passages. So what do we learn?

What do we learn from the passage that Jesus is talking

about, about ask, seek and knock?

In conclusion this morning, what do we know?

We know six things here. They are 6 things we get from

this. Number one, God's gifts are far

superior to the good gifts of man.

That's number one. And these are the six things

that I hope you leave here with. God's gifts are far superior to

the good gifts of man. Number two of six, God wants us

to have a constant, ongoing relationship with Him, as well

as an insatiable desire for righteousness #3 Jesus shows in

verse 7 an increased intensity with our requests.

What are they that brings #4 It begins with a verbal request,

then add seeking, which shows that that request is active and

not passive, and then knocking shows our willingness to persist

#5 The point of these verses is what we said that it's faith.

Just as faith produces diligent knocking, it also waits for God

to open the doors that God chooses to open for us in our

life. And oh by the way, based upon

his wisdom, he knows so much more than we do.

And finally, finally, finally. All that being the case, it

brings us to number six. Since God is so good to us, we

must be the same to others and exercise the golden rule in our

life. And it's such a better way to

live. So I'll just say go and do

likewise. Let's go be that.

It's a better way to live. It's a life of faith.

It's a life of trust and it's a life of obedience to God, but

it's also a life of understanding our relationship

with other people too, and being the right kind of people and

treating other people the way we would like to be treated.

I'm through this morning. Thank you for your kind

listening. We've now come to a part of our

service where after we've taught from the Word of God, we extend

an invitation to somebody that might be subject to the gospel

call. I don't know how it is with you

in this audience. Maybe you're not a Christian.

The steps to become a Christian are very, very simple.

You got to hear the Word of God. Romans 10/17 So faith comes by

hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Upon hearing the word of God, we all have a choice to make.

We have to believe it with all of our heart.

Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith it's impossible to

please him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and

that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Then what? We got more to do.

We got actions to do. It's called repentance.

We have to repent of our sins. Acts 17 and 30, truly these

times of ignorance got overlooked, but now commands all

men everywhere to repent. I got to change my life.

I was going in this direction no more.

I'm going in that now. That's it starts with your mind

and with your life. Best part, it changes your

relationship with God. Great stuff.

Then what? I got to say those great words,

the greatest words I will ever say in my life.

I got to confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Acts 837 Then Peter said, if you believe with all your heart, you

may. And he answered and said, I

believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

All of these steps are pointing toward the point of salvation,

but it's when we are baptized for the remission of our sins,

we are saved. Mark 1616, He who believes and

is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be

condemned. Are you here today and you're

not a Christian? You can take those steps.

We'd love to assist you in that. Maybe you have, but maybe

there's things in your life that are not what they ought to be.

No problem, just fix it. Repent of those things, Confess

those things. We'll pray with you and for you,

and God will forgive and restore.

Be one of either class. Come forward while we stand and

while we see.