Matthew | Ask the Father, Trust His Heart

I ask you to grab your Bible and open to Matthew Chapter 7 Now.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

While you're grabbing it, you can grab your worship guide.

You'll be able to take notes there.

So I encourage you to do that as you follow along in the sermon

this morning. We are actually nearing the end

of the Sermon on the Mount portion of Matthew's gospel, and

Jesus has been teaching us through this, as we've said each

week, what life in his Kingdom is supposed to look like.

Now, Jesus has taught us what we're calling Kingdom citizens,

right believers. Jesus has taught us that Kingdom

citizens are poor in spirits, they're meek, they're merciful,

they're pure in hearts, they're peacemakers, they're willing to

suffer for righteousness sake or for the name of Christ.

He's added to those things a lot of other teachings, right?

Like He, he's taught us that our righteousness must surpass that

of the scribes and Pharisees, the the religious elites of the

day. He, He's taken us beneath the

surface of outward obedience and has pressed the law into the

heart of man. We see it this way.

Anger is murder in seed form. That's where it begins, in the

heart with hatred. Lust is adultery in the hearts.

Truthfulness must mark our speech.

Love must extend to our enemies. Giving, praying, fasting, all of

these things must be done before the Father and not for men's

applause. We must lay up treasures in

heaven. We must seek first the Kingdom

of Christ. We must not judge with

self-righteous hypocrisy. And so it's no wonder that every

week when you guys leave here, your toes are all curled up,

right? It's a lot.

Christ has laid out a lot for us.

A lot that causes us to be introspective and to wonder, how

in the world can I do this? How can I be a true Kingdom

citizen, right? How can I live for the glory of

the Lord? Like if you're listening to

those things week in and week out, and I know that you are,

then we may rightly ask, Lord, who is sufficient for these

things, right? Surely you feel that pressure.

How can I, Lord, live this way the way that you're laying out?

How can I reflect what it means to be a Kingdom citizen day in

and day out? Well, Jesus doesn't leave you

with this burden. His answer is in our passage

today, and his answer is wonderfully simple, right?

Christ knows that sheep are simple.

Not dumb, not stupid, just simple, right?

But it's deeply comforting as well.

Like, like it's a simple truth, but it's deep and it's comfort.

And here's what he says. Here's what he's going to say to

us. Ask your father.

Seek your father. Knock at your Father's door.

The Kingdom alive cannot be lived in self-sufficiency.

And that's really the tension you ought to feel after several

weeks in the Sermon on the Mount, right?

I It must be lived in prayerful dependence upon the Father.

That's what Jesus wants us to see today.

So if you're able, would you please stand as we read Matthew

7, seven through 11. When I'm finished reading, I'll

say this is the word of the Lord and you can respond, thanks be

to God. Chapter 7, verse 7.

Jesus is still speaking. Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to

you, for everyone who asked receives, and the one who seeks

finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Or which one of you? If his son ask him for bread,

we'll give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him

a serpent. If you then, who are 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? This is the word of the Lord.

But speak to God, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful

to be in a place of worship this morning where we can lift high

your name. And I thank you, Lord, that we

have done that already in our prayers and our singing, our

giving. Today, Lord, we want to lift

high your name in the preached word.

We're going to lift high your name.

As listeners today, Would you grant to us ears to hear and

eyes to see? Would you grant to us hearts

that contain good soil, that Your Word is planted in our

hearts, that it would bear fruit in the weeks and months and

years ahead? Father, I ask that you would

turn our attention to this text today, that we would hear the

words of our King, that we would receive our marching orders for

prayer from him today. And Lord, would you help us to

be a prayerful people as a result of having heard your word

preached and having believed it today, it's in the name of

Christ to pray. Amen.

Amen. You may be seated.

So at first glance, this text may seem like just a general

encouragement to pray, and it is to some degree.

But it's more than that, right? Jesus is not giving you in this

text a blank check for your selfish desires.

All right, we know this to be true.

But we are inundated with the message of the health, wealth,

and prosperity gospel. We're inundated with this idea

that we can come to God and He is like a cosmic Santa Claus who

will meet every need that we have so long as we ask, almost

as if he's a genie in a bottle doing our bidding, right?

But, but Christ is not teaching us to treat God like a vending

machine today, right? In a vending machine, you might

put in the right words, you may push the right buttons, and you

expect your selected option, your selected blessing to drop

down and you take hold of it. And you don't return to the

vending machine again until you need something.

Right now Jesus is teaching here that Kingdom citizens are to

come to God as their heavenly Father, right?

A vending machine gives you what you select if you make the right

payments. A father gives what is good

because he loves his children, right?

A vending machine responds mechanically.

You put your money in, you push the button, it drops down what

you've asked for. But a father responds wisely,

right? A vending machine gives you what

you choose. A father gives you what is good,

right? So the question in this text is

not having read ask, seek, knock, will God grant me

everything I want exactly when I want it right?

We we know that's not true. We might approach God that way,

but we know that that's not the way this works.

The the better question for this text is can I trust my Father to

hear me? Can I trust my Father to help

me? Can I trust my Father to give me

what is good as I seek his Kingdom and his righteousness?

And Jesus answer is yes, yes you can, right?

The main point, if you're taking notes from our text today, is

this. Kingdom citizens should pray

with confidence because their Father is good and he gives what

is good. All right.

Kingdom citizens should pray with confidence because their

Father is good and he gives what is good.

Now we're going to see this in three movements or three truths.

The first will be come to the Father with persistent

dependence. Secondly, we'll see trust the

Father's generous goodness. And 3rd and finally, we'll see

rest in the Father's greater love.

So let's look at the first truth now #1 come to the Father with

persistent dependence. So it's examining verses 7 and

8. Christ says again, ask and it

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

it will be open to you. Jesus gives 3 commands here,

right? Ask, seek, knock.

These are simple words, to say the least, but they're not

shallow words, right They they describe the posture of a needy

disciple before a generous heavenly Father.

Ask of him, seek him, knock at his door.

What? To ask is to admit I have a

need. It's to admit I'm not

sufficient. It's the language of dependence,

right? The one who asked knows that he

does not have what he needs within himself to seek.

This is the idea of pursuing, right?

The prophet Jeremiah tells us that, and it's God speaking

through him. He says if they seek me, they

will find me. So this is the language of

active dependence, but it's the it's the coming to the Father.

So seeking him out, it's the heart that says, Father, I need

you. I, I need your Kingdom, I need

your righteousness, your wisdom, and your grace.

To knock is to come to the door and keep looking to the one who

can open it. All right?

It pictures urgency, persistence, expectancy.

It's knocking at the door. I know you're in there, right?

Open the door. No answer.

All right. Knock.

Be persistent. Ask persistently.

Seek persistently. Knock persistently, right?

Seek him out. Knock at his door.

Ask him. And so Jesus here is calling his

disciples those Kingdom citizens.

He's calling them to persistent dependence.

Prayer. Again, I think this matters a

lot for its placement in the text, right?

We want to consider the context. If we want to understand the

text, we have to understand where it falls.

We're in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.

We're in the middle of all of those things I described earlier

in the intro, right? All these different commands,

all these different ideas that Christ is sharing about what

Kingdom citizenship looks like and how it must manifest itself.

And we must have a righteousness that's greater than the

Pharisees, right? I mean, think about it.

Jesus has not given us commands that we can fulfill by the

strength of our own flesh, has He?

I mean that there's not one in there that I can fulfill just by

pulling myself up by my bootstraps each week.

But I can't muster the strength for this.

He's described A righteousness that reaches down outside the

exterior of the man and into the interior of who he is.

It affects His heart. Now you and I don't have the

power to transform hearts, not even our own, right?

We might create some good habits, we might build some

healthy routines in our lives just by matter of strength,

right, by matter of discipline, but we cannot affect the heart.

We need the Father through His Son by the Spirit to transform

our hearts. That's what Christ is saying

here is if you're going to be a Kingdom citizen, then prayer is

not an optional part of your Christian life.

It's not optional. You don't pray only when you sit

down to eat. You don't pray only when you go

to bed at night, right? We need to ask repeatedly.

We need to not persistently. We need to seek the Lord

constantly. Prayer is essential to the

Kingdom life. It's the language of spiritual

poverty. That's how we express our need

for the Lord. This is what Kingdom citizens do

because they know that they cannot produce a Kingdom

righteousness apart from the grace of the God.

And so verse 8, verse 7, having given us the commands, verse 8

reinforces this great promise from Christ to us.

And it is a promise for everyone who asked receives and the one

who seeks fines and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

You see, Jesus is just repeating the pattern that he's encouraged

us to do because he's encouraging his people with the

promise behind the pattern, right?

If you ask, you'll receive. If you seek, you'll find.

If you knock, the door will be opened.

Now you may say, well, not every prayer of prayer, not ever, not

every asking I've brought to the Lord, not every request, not

every seeking, not every knock has been answered or so who's

wrong? Is Christ wrong or am I missing

something? We can answer it if we ask it

that way, right? Christ is never wrong.

So what Christ is not saying is that every prayer is answered

exactly as requested. The rest of Scripture will not

allow us to interpret the passage this way.

But what Christ is saying is that the Father truly hears you.

The Father truly responds. He truly gives what is good to

his children. And so Jesus is inviting us here

to pray with confidence, to know that your Father hears this

passage tells us something about us and something about God.

What it says about us is that we are, we are needy.

We, we are dependent. And I don't mean needy in like a

bad way. I mean it is like an encouraging

way, right? We are needy, we're we're

dependent, we're weak, we're not self-sufficient.

And what it tells us about God is he.

He's totally different than all of those things, right?

He's the opposite of all of that and he's approachable.

Ask your father. Seek your father.

Knock at his door. He's approachable.

He's attentive. You don't have to wonder when

you pray or when you seek the Lord.

Is he paying attention? Of course he is.

He's attentive. We read here that he's generous.

All right, we'll see that further in a moment.

But he's generous. He welcomes the prayers of his

children. You see, the God of heaven, the

God who created all things, the God who is so high and so lofty

and so above us, is not irritated by the cries of his

people. Do you understand that?

He's not irritated when you cry out to him in the same way that

I'm not irritated when one of my sons cries out for my help.

And I'm an evil father, right? According to the text, he's not

distance from your cries, he's not cold towards you, right?

I don't know what your experience with an earthly

father might be. Some of you have a great

experience. Some of you may have a terrible

experience, or times of terrible and times of good, right?

Not sure, but what I want you to understand is you're talking

about a perfect father here, one who is not cold towards you.

He is your heavenly Father. And Hebrews 416 tells us that we

should draw near to Him with confidence.

We should come to the throne of grace with confidence that we

might receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.

So ask. Ask the Father.

In the book of James we read you have not because you ask not.

We also read you ask and do not receive because you ask with

selfish ambitions. That doesn't.

Neither one of those say don't ask.

They say ask right, Let the Lord train your heart, let the Lord

redirect your desires, Let the Lord answer the prayer right.

Ask God big things. When's the last time you asked

God to make you holy as He is holy?

When's the last time you asked God to grant you wisdom or ask

God to help you forgive someone? Or ask God to strengthen your

marriage. Ask God to make you patient with

your children. Ask God to help you fight lust

or anger or anxiety or bitterness or hypocrisy.

When's the last time you asked God to make you faithful in

secret, not merely impressive in public?

When's the last time you ask God to help you seek first His

Kingdom and His righteousness? When's the last time you ask God

to save someone who's lost? When's the last time you prayed

for God to grow his church or ask God to make you more like

Christ? You see what I'm saying?

There's all sorts of big lofty prayers and often times we don't

consider these things that we read in the text as

opportunities for prayer. And so we'll come to the Lord

with just really, they're not even trivial things, They're

things that matter, but they're typically always about someone

else or some health problem or and we really do kind of use

prayer like a vending machine, but prayer is meant to be a

major part of your communion with God, your daily fellowship

with him. But when you pray those big

prayers, the encouragement here in the text is not to ask once

and then stop as though God didn't hear it or didn't care or

didn't want to answer it. Well, he says ask, seek, knock.

Now the truth of a text like this, you know, it's not all not

painful. Anything Christ says is going to

hit us right between the eyes sometimes.

So the truth of this at times is some of us do not pray because

we are too self-sufficient, right?

We're, we're too dependent upon our own ability to do things.

We, we live as though we can manage life on our own.

Others of us do not pray because we are discouraged.

We've prayed before and we have not seen the answer we wanted,

and so we quietly drifted into prayerlessness.

I want you to know Jesus is speaking to both here today.

To the self-sufficient, He says ask why?

Because you are needier than you think you are.

You're not as sufficient as you have estimated.

Ask your father to the discouraged, he says, ask why?

Because your father is better than you fear.

He's a good God. But I want you to understand,

the confidence of prayer does not rest in the strength of our

asking right? It, it rests in the character of

the one to whom we pray. That's where the confidence of

prayer rests in His character. And that brings us to point #2

trust the Father's generous goodness.

Trust the Father's generous goodness.

Or which one of you? Verse 9 If his son asked him for

bread, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asked for a fish, we'll

give him a serpent. So Jesus is now just offering an

illustration from ordinary family life.

A son asked his father for bread, and the father, being

kind, does not give him a stone. A son asked for a fish, and the

father doesn't give him a serpent.

Now Jesus is using something pretty obvious here to make

something glorious plain to us. Even fallen human parents know

the difference between a gift and a danger.

They know the difference between nourishment and horn.

They know the difference between bread and stone, between a fish

and a serpent's. A decent father, Not even a good

father, but just a decent one, right?

He does not mock his child's hunger.

He doesn't trick his child. He doesn't give something

harmful when the child is asking for something that's necessary

to life. No, Jesus teaches us here to

reason from earthly fatherhood to heavenly fatherhood.

Now, the contrast is important. A small limestone rock, which

might look like a loaf of bread, could not nourish the child.

Rather, it would frustrate him. Me.

Picture it, Dad. I'm really hungry.

You have some bread? Yeah.

Here, here's some. And he bends down and picks up a

rock and hands it to the child. That would frustrate the kid,

right? He might hurl it at his dad.

A serpent would not nourish the child.

It would endanger him. Dad, do you have some fish?

I know we caught some fish the other day.

You got some left that we could eat?

Yeah, I do. Here.

Here's a a serpent, right? There's an endangerment there.

The the point is not merely that the father would refuse to give

something useless. The the point is that a father

would not deceive his child by giving something harmful instead

of something good. Jesus is using this to say to

us, Your Father in heaven is not cruel.

He's not deceptive, He's not careless about your needs, and

when you come to him, he does not toy with you.

This point highlights God's goodness.

When we talk about God's goodness, we're, we're saying

what what we mean is that he is benevolent, He's kind, he's

generous, he's wise and all his dealings with his people, right?

He, he's not good in a merely sentimental way, right?

We can think God's good and we can get kind of the warm fuzzies

about it and we can know that it's true and it is sentimental.

Like it comforts us to know that God is good, but it's not merely

sentimental. That's not what Christ is

explaining here. He, he's saying that God is good

in a sovereign way, right? His goodness is joined to all

that he is, to His wisdom, His Holiness, His power and His

love. What that means is that he knows

what is good, right? He has the power to give what is

good. He, he has the wisdom to give

what is good in the right way. He, he has the love to give it

for the good of his children. And This is why prayer requires

a deep trust in God. We can trust that he is good.

Psalm 100 verse 5 says that he is faithful, He's abounding in

Psalms 100:5

love, and that he's good to every generation.

And I don't want you to miss the point of this.

We're we're not praying. You're not praying to a weak

Father who means well, but he's unable to help.

We're not praying to a powerful ruler above us who can help yet

doesn't care. We are praying to our Father in

heaven who is both sovereign and good.

I think this corrects some suspicion we might have about

God. You think suspicion about God?

Well, I think we can be more guilty of this than we realize,

because it's really subtle. Ever since Genesis 3, the the

fall of mankind in the garden, fallen humanity has been tempted

to question God's goodness. The serpent suggested that God

was withholding something good from Adam and Eve.

If you take that fruit, you will be like God, and he's trying to

keep you from that. I think that same suspicion

still creeps into our hearts. I mean, Satan is, he's a

tempter. He's the father of lies.

He's a deceiver, A murderer from the beginning.

This is one of his oldest tricks, and it's one of his most

useful tricks. We, we might say things like

this. If God is good, why has he not

answered my prayer yet? If God is good, why did he say

no to my prayer? If God is good, why is this

station in life, the circumstance, so hard?

If God is good, why did he give them that person over there?

What I've been asking for if God is good, why does obedience feel

so costly? If God is good, why are bad

things happening in my life? And what verses 9 and 10 do is

they call us back to the Father's heart.

Your Father is not handing you stones when you need bread.

Your father does not hand you a serpent when you need fish.

Your father is good, now does that.

That doesn't mean that you will always understand his answers,

You just might not. It It does not mean you will

always immediately see how his answer is good.

But Jesus calls you to trust the Father's heart when you cannot

trace the Father's hand. And then Jesus presses this

argument even further. He does not merely say the

Father is good, He goes on to say the Father is infinitely

better than even the best earthly father.

Which brings us to .3 verse 11. Rest in the Father's greater

love. Now Jesus presses the lesson

home, if you will. If you then who are evil know

how to give good gifts to your children.

Now we'll stop there because that phrase is quite striking.

If you then who are evil, can't say Amen, you say Ouch, right?

Ouch. Now Jesus is not about

flattering human nature, right? He, he tells, he tells the truth

about us, even the best earthly fathers.

What Christ is saying here is even the very best earthly

fathers are still fallen humans. We may love our children

sincerely, but we are not loving them perfectly.

We we are limited, we're inconsistent, we're impatient,

we're selfish, and we're sinful. Yet even fallen fathers know how

to give good, give good gifts to their children.

So Jesus is not saying that earthly fathers are perfect.

He is saying that even sinful fathers typically understand

that a hungry child should receive nourishment, not danger.

Right. And then comes this great

encouragement. How much more will your Father

who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Now the phrase how much more really does kind of carry the

weight of this verse. How much more I like what Jesus

is doing here. He is arguing His point from the

lesser to the greater right. If fallen fathers know how to

give good gifts, how much more does your heavenly Father know

how to give good gifts? If sinful fathers can show

genuine care, how much more does your heavenly Father, who is

perfectly holy, wise, generous, and loving, care for his

children? And so the point lands right.

You can see it. Notice what Jesus says the

Father gives good things. It doesn't say that the Father

will give everything. We ask for exactly how we ask.

He says the Father gives good things to those who ask him.

Now that is not a smaller promise.

That's a better promise. Brothers and sisters, Amen.

That might be hard to agree with because again, in our

self-sufficiency, we think we know best.

We think we know what we need better.

But again, we're talking about the Heavenly Father here.

It's not a smaller promise, it's a better promise.

Our desires. Here's why it's a better

promise. Our desires are not always wise.

Our vision is limited. Our hearts can be mixed.

We can have two masters at times.

We we can ask for things that look like bread to us but would

become stones in our hands. We we can ask for things that

look like fish to us but would become serpents to our souls.

But your Father in heaven knows the difference.

He he knows what will nourish you.

He knows what will harm you. He knows what will make you

holy. He knows what will draw you

nearer to Christ. He knows what will serve his

Kingdom purposes the best, and he knows then what is truly

good. So Jesus isn't promising that

God will always give us whatever we would choose if we had his

power. He's promising something far

better. Don't don't miss his points.

Our Father will always give what is good according to his wisdom,

his will and his love. Now this first teaches us about

God's fatherly goodness. God isn't reluctant to hear his

children. He's not stingy with his mercy,

right? There's a reason we sing his

mercy is more around here. We believe it.

He's not annoyed by our dependence.

He's not cold toward our needs. He's not bothered when his

children come asking and seeking and knocking.

He is our Father in heaven, and that means that he's both near

and sovereign. He's near enough to hear.

He's powerful enough to act, He's tender enough to care, and

He's wise enough to know what is best.

He's generous enough to give, and he's holy enough to never

give you what would destroy you. So we can say rightly from the

text his yes is good. We can say rightly from the text

that his no is good. We can say rightly from the text

that his weight is good, his redirection is good, his

discipline is good, his comfort is good.

We could go on and on and on. He is good through and through.

Not because every circumstance feels good.

Many circumstances do not feel good.

Not because every answer is easy to understand, many are not.

But because the father himself is good.

He cannot deal with his children in a way that contradicts his

character and the greatest proof of the father's goodness.

It's not that He gives us everything, every earthly thing

we desire or demand. The greatest proof is that He

has given us His Son. He's given us Christ to be the

sacrifice for sinners. He's given His beloved Son to

live in perfect righteousness, to die in the place of his

people, all who will call upon His name, to rise from the grave

to bring us into the family of God.

This is the ultimate test of God's goodness.

When we come to God in prayer, we're not trying to convince a

reluctant God to be kind. No, we're we're coming to the

Father who has already revealed his heart at the cross.

He gives good gifts to His children.

So then you may have the question that I have, How then

should I pray? I'm going to walk you through a

few things. First, you should pray

confidently. Jesus invites us to come.

He says ask, seek, knock. Do not hold back because you

think your needs are too small. Do not stay away because you

think your sins are too great. Do not stop praying because the

answer has not yet come. Come to your Father.

Come confidently. Secondly, you should pray

biblically. Now, how do we know we're

praying according to God's will? We pray according to God's will

when our prayers are shaped by these three things.

Number one, God's Kingdom #2 God's character and #3 God's

word. So we walk through those, pray

in accordance with God's Kingdom.

Jesus has already taught us how to do this.

He's, he taught us to pray this way.

Your Kingdom come, your will be done.

So when we pray, we should ask questions like this.

Does this prayer seek God's glory?

Does this prayer submit to God's will, whatever may come?

Does this prayer align with seeking first His Kingdom and

His righteousness above all else?

Secondly, you should pray in accordance with God's character.

Bring your request to Him as your heavenly Father.

Trust that he is holy, that he is wise, that He's good, that

He's sovereign, that He's merciful and faithful and

generous to every generation. Pray according to his character.

Pray in accordance with God's word #3 the most practical way

to do this is to simply pray the Scriptures back to God.

To pray Scripture is simply to take God's words and turn them

back to Him in faith. If you're unfamiliar with this

idea, there's a great book by Donald Whitney called Praying

the Bible. Small little book, very helpful,

Praying the Bible. And here's essentially how we do

this. You read a command, and then you

pray it back to God, and you ask for grace to help you obey it.

You read a promise, you bring it up before the Lord in prayer,

and you ask for faith to believe it.

You read a warning, you bring it to God in prayer, and you ask

for mercy to heed the warning. You read about God's character

and you bring those things before the Lord, and you just

exalt, and you praise Him and you magnify His name.

You read about Christ and you cling to Him in prayer.

So I'll give you a few examples from the Sermon on the Mount in

Matthew 5. We read blessed are the poor in

spirit. We read blessed are several

folks, but blessed are the poor in spirit.

And you can just bring it to the Lord in prayer like this.

Heavenly Father, make me poor in spirit, heal, crucify my pride.

Teach me to depend upon you. In Matthew 6 we read Seek first

the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything

else will be added unto you so you can pray it this way.

Father, would you reorder my desires?

I've got a lot of anxiety. I've got a lot of worry.

I've got a lot of concern about all these varying things going

on in my life. Would you help me now just to

teach me to seek first Your Kingdom in Matthew 7 or text

today, ask, see, knock. You can bring that before the

Lord in prayer this way. Father, I come to you today as a

needy child. I'm trusting You to give me what

is good. I understand that I don't always

know what's best for me, but you do, and I'm trusting your hand.

Help me trust your wisdom when your answer differs from what

I've expected. So I think Kingdom citizens hear

the kindness of Christ's invitation today.

At least I want you to. He's saying ask, seek, knock.

What he what he's telling you is do not try to live as Kingdom

citizens. Do not try to live the Christian

life in your own strength. Do not try to obey the Sermon on

the Mount by sheer willpower. Do not try to fight sin and

pursue holiness and love your enemies and forgive those who

wrong you and seek the King. Seek first the Kingdom, or

endure life's burns as though you are on your own.

Because you are not. You're not alone.

Your Father in Heaven is for you, and He's good.

He's better than the best earthly father.

He is wiser than you are. He is kinder than you can

imagine. He is more generous than you

deserve, and he gives good things to those who ask him.

And so I implore, implore you, along with Christ this morning,

come to your Father. Come to him needy, Come to him

honestly. Come to him persistently.

Come to Him submissively. Come to Him, trusting His heart

for your life. And if you are not in Christ,

you are not a believer. This invitation begins here.

You must come to the Father through the Son.

Hebrews 725 says of Christ that He is able to save to the

uttermost all of those who draw near to the Father through Him.

Romans 10 tells us that all who call upon the name of the Lord

will be saved. You cannot go know.

You cannot know God as a heavenly Father apart from Jesus

Christ, but through Christ and through the cross, through the

resurrection, sinners are forgiven, rebels are adopted as

sons and daughters, and the needy are welcomed home.

So I urge you, I implore you today from this passage, repent

of your sin and come to Christ in faith today.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your word. God, I ask that you would help

us to be the kind of people who ask who see Kunak, who pursue

you with our prayers. We pursue you with our lives.

Help us to be the kind of people who come confidently to the

Father in our time of need, that we might find mercy and grace to

help. And Father, would you forgive us

of self-sufficiency? Forgive us where we have tried

to live independent lives. It's ingrained deep in our

souls. But Lord, would you help us give

up some independence today. Help us to lay that independence

on the cross of Christ, to crucify it there, that we might

be dependent upon our Lord, that we might come to you, Father, at

all times, in all things, and trust Your goodness, Your care

for us, Your love, Your holiness, to trust Your

decisions and Your will above our own.

Father, I pray for anyone here who doesn't know you, who's not

made Christ the Lord of their life, who has not been

reconciled to You, Father, through Him.

I ask that you would save them today, that you would grant them

new life in Christ, that you would help them to see that they

are poor, needy, spiritually dead sinners who are in need of

a new life. We're in need of a new heart

with new desires and God. May they call upon the name of

the Lord and receive His salvation today.

I'm going to give you a moment there in your seat to pray and

to seek the Lord. Ask him.

Seek him. Knock at his door now for all

that you need. Confess sin to him.

Be reconciled to God this morning.

Heavenly Father, it's my prayer that your people gathered today

have found mercy and grace as they have sought you.

Lord, would you help us to be more dependent, to be more

deeply trusting in your character and in your will in

every area of our lives. In the name of Christ, I pray.

Amen.