Sermon Transcript
From Matthew chapter 7, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks 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 asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will 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!
If, if we are honest, Um, we might not say it at church, but we might know it in our hearts. There are at least some moments when we wish prayer to God worked like demanding wishes from a magic genie, that he would provide exactly what we ask as soon as we ask for it. Like the Disney movie Aladdin, you remember this? The magic genie had no choice but to do the bidding of whoever it was that rubbed the lamp. If you remember, Genie, as the character was called, he even referred to Aladdin as master sometimes because he was bound by the curse of the lamp to obey.
It’s as if Genie were a slave. And we’re like, I think I can get on board with that, right? An all-powerful being calling me master? Yeah, like, now we’re talking, right? How could I get God on a leash like that?
With prayer, sometimes we want to know, like, exactly how many times is it I need to rub the lamp? What incantation is it that I need to say so that I can get exactly what I want? Let’s just admit it, okay? This is a safe space. At least sometimes, maybe not all the time, at least sometimes, that’s how we wish prayer worked.
I mean, we know, right, especially if we’ve been Christians for a long time, we know God knows best, right? And we know we should trust His plan even if it’s not what we want, but then an opportunity comes along or we get in a really tight spot. And we think something like, I don’t really care what God thinks is best. I still want my way. Just once, God, come on, can I have my way once?
Even if it’s not your plan, I still want it to happen. Like, how can I twist your arm so that you will give it to me at least sometimes, right? I, I hopefully I’m not alone in this. That’s what we want. To happen.
If that weren’t in our hearts, if that weren’t ever in our hearts, I doubt the prosperity gospel would be as popular as it is. If you’re not familiar, the doctrine of the prosperity gospel is if you just have faith or you ask the right way, right, God will heal you. He will increase your wealth. He’ll give you favor before your enemies. You’re going to be on easy street and all pain and suffering will be removed from your life if only you ask or if only you ask the right way.
And people the world over buy into that message. Prosperity gospel started here in the U.S. and now we have exported that heresy to the 4 corners of the earth and people who are looking for a quick fix really latch onto that. But listen, Listen, I’ll state what should be obvious. That’s not the way prayer works. That’s not the way prayer works.
I know that’s how the darkness in our hearts would like for prayer to work sometimes, that God would be our servant and He just grants our every whim. But that’s not how it works. And it upsets me as a pastor, or it even upsets me as a human, to tell you the truth, to see people looking for hope where there isn’t any. It’s cruel to give people false hope. So I want to do everything I possibly can to prevent you from buying into the prosperity gospel, no matter how attractive it might sound.
Which brings us to our verses for today. The passage of scripture we are studying this morning, which Laura just it could give the impression that God is like a magic genie. I mean, Jesus says right here, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives. Everyone who asks receives. And the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it’ll be opened. I mean, that certainly makes it sound like we might be able to twist God’s arm to get Him to do whatever we want, doesn’t it?
Sounds like a guarantee we will receive if only we would ask. And frankly, prosperity preachers read a verse like this and explain, see, God will grant whatever you wish. So, let’s take a look at these verses. And figure out what is really going on here. As we do, we will see what to ask for, how to seek it, how to know we’ve found it.
What to ask for, how to seek it, how to know we’ve found it. So first, what to ask for. Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you. But what’s the it? Knock and it will be opened to you.
But what will be opened to us? What are we asking for here? Cookies?
No, it’s God. We ask for God. Jesus is promising to grant our requests if we ask for something specific, namely God or more of God in our lives. I realize that may not be obvious upon first glance of this passage, so let me prove it to you, hopefully, in 4 different ways, and then we’ll move on to the second point. But first, what Jesus says here in Matthew 7 is, of course, in the context of the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7.
And in past weeks, if you weren’t here, we’ve already touched on praying for God to be in our lives, lives or praying for more of God to be in our lives twice before. We’ve talked about it twice already. We can’t repeat, of course, the entirety of those sermons, but with both, when we studied the Lord’s Prayer, we said, not my will, but yours be done. And secondly, we talked about worry and anxiety. We said, if we look to fill ourselves with God, then we will always be full.
Remember, Jesus says, seek first God and His kingdom, and you will have more than Solomon. Is it coming back to you now, what we talked about? But we won’t have materially more than Solomon. No one’s ever going to have materially more than Solomon, but we will have more of what matters, what we really need, which is God Himself. His presence will be so enriching in our lives that it will actually meet all of our needs.
Whereas if If instead we look to anything in this world for comfort, security, approval, we will always be disappointed. Always. We said everything in this world will ultimately let us down. So if we want to never be let down, we must trust in, hope in, ask for— ask for the only real reliability in existence, which is God through Jesus Christ. All that?
That’s the context in which Jesus now says, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find. So he’s talking about asking for or seeking God himself. It wouldn’t make any sense if Jesus has been consistently teaching here, like multiple chapters, God is the source of life, God’s approval of you is enough approval for you, you don’t need from others. You don’t need their praise. God’s presence is enough sustenance.
You don’t need to worry about even basic needs. Jesus had been going on and on and on about the sufficiency of God for everything in our lives. So now it wouldn’t make any sense if He said, ask for God— ask God for a boat and He’ll give it to you.
It just— it wouldn’t make any sense. That’s 180 degrees the other direction from what Jesus has been been talking about. He wouldn’t suddenly undermine everything that he has been saying. So the first piece of evidence that Jesus is talking about asking for God himself is the context of what Jesus has already been saying. Second piece of evidence, Jesus says God is going to give you, or give us, what is good for us because God is a good Father, verse 11.
He actually says, you, even though you are we’ll come back to that. But he says, even though you are evil, you, you still give your kids what’s good for them, so how much more will God give you? Meaning, God is going to give us more than what is good for us. He is, in fact, going to give us what is best for us. And what is best for us?
It’s God Himself. Again, if you’d like a deeper development of that idea, go back and listen to sermons titled Not to Worry or He Knows What You Need. But for today, just think, if He really cares about us, and He does, He is not going to let us have less than the best. So, He’s not going to grant us something if us having that thing will somehow diminish his presence in our lives. Giving us anything that would decrease himself in our lives is selling us short.
He’d be giving us less than the best, which he won’t do because he’s a way better dad than any of us are. C.S. Lewis said it like this: God cannot— bold statement— God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there. There is no such thing. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there.
There is no such thing. That’s C.S. Lewis. Now, in the short term, of course, there are flashes of happiness or peace outside of God. These are flashes.
Right? We’ve all experienced those. But those will fade, just like a kid asking if he can have sugar for dinner. I mean, it’d be great for a minute. It’d be great for the parent too, right?
You don’t have to force your kid to eat. But you can’t— the kid can’t live on that. So we don’t give our kids sugar for dinner. And we understand that even though we’re evil. And Jesus is like, if you understand that, how much more does God understand what is actually good for you?
You, what will truly nourish you, is God himself. Jesus says, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Jesus says that Jesus is the true manna. Jesus is the bread of life. God is not going to give you something that will pull you away from true bread.
If he did, he wouldn’t be a good Father. But he will always give you true bread if you ask. Third piece of evidence that Jesus is specifically talking about asking for God rather than asking for more of what’s in this world: Jesus guarantees, he guarantees we will receive what we ask for. He says, ask and you will receive. Not might receive, will receive.
Knock and the door will be opened. Not will probably open most of the time. It will open every single time. Seek and you will find. Always.
Period. No exceptions. Jesus promises to deliver 100% of the time something.
But what is it that God will always no exceptions, grant if we ask? What kind of request is it that God never declines? There’s only one such request, and it’s to have God himself. Throughout Scripture, God declines just about every other kind of request. God declines requests from people who we would consider to be very esteemed pillars of the faith.
Like, if anybody was going to ask for something, these guys would get what they asked for, right? Abraham asked for Sodom and Gomorrah not— or to be spared. Like, God, please don’t destroy that city. Moses asked to be able to enter the Promised Land. Elijah asked to die.
And we kind of, again, wrongly think that these super rock stars of the faith, they would get what they asked for. But that’s not the case. God’s like, nope, nope, Nope. Nope. Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed.
Moses, you’re not going to enter the Promised Land. Elijah, not your time to die. God declines all of them. But there is one request that will never be declined. And it is never declined anywhere in Scripture.
If people wanted God, they got Him every time. Sometimes even if people didn’t want God, they still got Him, but that’s a different But even really messed up people in the New Testament, if they wanted Jesus, he received them. Tax collectors who were essentially mob bosses, like the scum of the earth, right? Prostitutes, the thief on the cross. If they were like, Jesus, I want you.
Jesus, I want to be a part of what you’re doing. Will you let me be with you, Jesus? Jesus is like, climb on. Aboard. Every time.
There’s no exception.
Well, there is one.
There is one instance in all of Scripture when someone wanted to be with God and God said, no. You know when that was? It’s Jesus on the cross. Jesus requested not to go to the cross, not to be forsaken, and God says, no. No, you must be forsaken.
And that is why, Christian, we never will be. That is why no matter who we are or what we have done, God will always grant us access to Himself if we ask. Always. Because Jesus was forsaken, we never will be if we ask. King David, Psalm 51, he says, please don’t take take your Holy Spirit from me.
And God says, okay, I won’t. And this was David, who was an adulterer and a murderer, and he says, can I still be with you, God? And God’s like, sure, David, you can still be with me. Why? How is that fair?
Because Jesus, the perfect one, the blameless one, was cast away from in our place as our substitute. Jesus says, it doesn’t matter how evil you are, you can still have God because I was cast out in your place. Remember I said we’d come back to this. Jesus said, you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your kids. How much more would God give you?
So he just kind of nonchalantly calls us evil. As if no one would protest, right? As if no one would say, how dare you call me Jesus? Haven’t you taken an intro to psychology class? You’re going to give people a complex calling them evil.
What are you doing? Please don’t be offended by Jesus calling you evil. That should be the most comforting part of this whole passage for you. Jesus is saying even evil people get their prayers answered.
He’s like, you, even though you are evil, if you ask, you will receive. Hallelujah, right? We think we need to get ourselves cleaned up before God will come into our lives, and Jesus is like, no, you’re still evil, and even right now, if you ask, you will get him. How great is that? No matter who you are, you ask for God 100% of the time, God will grant your request.
No fine print, no exceptions. Ask and you will receive.
And that is the only prayer that God will grant 100% of the time. So it must be what Jesus is referring to here when he says, ask and you will receive, guaranteed. Okay, 4th and final piece of evidence Jesus is telling us that we will will receive God, if that’s what we ask for, comes from the parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel. As a reminder, we’ve been reading Matthew’s Gospel. And Jesus didn’t have one biographer, he had 4: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
They never contradict each other. If you think they do, come talk to me. We’ll try to figure it out together. But they each tell Jesus’ story from a little bit different angle. So each one can help add clarity to the others.
And Luke recorded Jesus saying, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find. Everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, which of you will give him a snake instead? It’s all very similar, right? Sounds very exactly like what we’ve been saying.
But Luke goes on, if you, though you are evil, he says that to, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more, and this is where it’s different, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Matthew recorded, how much more will your Father give good things to those who ask him. But Luke gets more specific. Luke, what is this good thing Matthew was talking about that God will give us? What is the more that God gives us than our earthly fathers?
It’s the Holy Spirit. It’s getting God himself, being filled with him, experiencing his power, his presence, his approval. Luke is explicit where Matthew is more vague. They both told the truth. Both accounts are accurate.
Bible’s inerrant, I know. But one is more detailed.
So conclusively, and I think irrefutably, but send in sermon questions if you want, Jesus promises if we ask for God, we will receive. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask for other things. Go back and listen to past sermons, okay? That’s not what I’m saying here. But that’s not what Jesus is talking about here.
He’s not asking for— he’s not talking about asking for anything under the sun. Okay? All of those things are not guaranteed. That’s not the context of this. But this is.
Getting God is guaranteed if we ask. So, second, how do we ask? How do we seek? How do we do that? And don’t worry, the first point was by far the longest.
But how do we seek? I mean, you might wonder, like, how do we seek someone we can’t see? See? It’s not like I can go on a pilgrimage to find God because he’s kind of like everywhere. So what does it mean to seek?
What does it mean to ask? How do we seek? The answer is just as desperately or as passionately as we would pray for or seek anything else. Here’s the deal: we already know how to pray. We already know how to seek.
We all do it naturally. Even if you aren’t a Christian, even if you don’t believe in God at all, you still do it. Prayer still happens, seeking still happens. Our minds will drift toward whatever it is that we want most, and then we’ll just keep fixating on it if it’s something that we don’t have. We will say, or we will think something like, if only I had that.
If only I had that job. If only I could get that promotion. If only I could own a house. If only I had a relationship. If only I had a child.
If only my child would listen to me. If only my child was happy and could find his or her place in the world and would move out of my basement If only I had health. If only I didn’t hurt and have these aches and pains every day. If only that person liked me or affirmed me. If only I could take that vacation.
If only I could have a little more income. If only I had a spouse. If only I could get rid of my spouse. If I could have that.
Do you have one of those?
Where you think, if I had that, everything would finally be okay. I would do anything in order to have that. I would give up everything else if it meant I could have that, right? Life would finally be tolerable if I had that. If I had that, it would just— it would make up for everything else that has ever gone wrong in my life up until this point.
Like, that’s the thing that I need. It’ll solve everything.
Have you felt that way about something? Are you currently feeling that way about something? Does your mind drift to that no matter how much you try to focus on something else? This that just keeps coming back into your attention. You are praying You don’t even believe in God, but you are praying.
You already know how to pray. You already know how to seek. It is the longing of your soul. It’s the cry of your heart. It’s what you want most, right?
You’re desperate for it. Maybe you’re even doing it right now at this moment. Your mind has drifted to that thing again.
Jesus says, like we studied a couple weeks ago, instead of seeking whatever your that is, seek first God. Jesus says change the object that you seek and you will have more than Solomon. More approval, more satisfaction, more affirmation, more security than you can possibly imagine.
Jesus says, do the exact same thing you’re already doing when you say, if only I had that. Do the exact same thing. Say the exact same thing. Let your heart cry out just as passionately. But instead of crying out for that, cry out for God.
This can change your life.
I don’t say that lightly. It changed my life. Some of you have heard me talk about it before. Some of you have heard me talk about it many times before, but I heard this from Tim Keller, of course, and I am indebted forever for the benefit that it brought me. But when you find yourself longing for the thing, the thing you feel like you must have, anytime an if only pops up in your head, right?
If only I had, then I would be okay. Or your mind has drifted again and you’re thinking about having that thing again, right? We’ve all been there. When that happens, even if it’s just kind of an emotion, right? Even if like a sentence doesn’t form in your mind, I mean, you might not actually think the words specifically, if only I had that.
Instead of that, it might just be kind of an emotion. It might be like, I want— right? When that happens, grab yourself mentally. Say out loud if you need to. Say no.
Stop yourself as forcefully as you need to. Say no, I don’t need that.
When your heart is longing for that, say, no, I don’t need that. What I need— change yourself. Say, what I need is to feel God’s love as real as it is, as big as it is. What I need is to feel God’s grace as good as it is. What I need is to feel God’s presence as close as I know it actually is.
I need to grasp his approval of me as unconditionally as I know it is. Say that every time your mind drifts to the thing in this world that you think that you need. Like, grab your mind and shake yourself. Slap yourself in the face metaphorically, or really, as many times per day as it takes. As many times a day as your if only pops up in your mind, you find yourself thinking, if only I had had that, and you say, no, not if only I had that.
If only I had God. God, give me you. You are the thing I need. I need your grace. I need your love.
I need your approval. I need your acceptance. I need your forgiveness. I need the reputation you give me. I need the significance you give me.
I need the worth you give me, not any of that that I get from the world. I need you to be real to me. That’s what I need. Do that because then at least you’re praying right. You’re still asking for something.
You’re still seeking something, but now you’re like shoving your heart in the right direction. That may not sound very profound, but I’ll tell you, especially over a period of time, if you keep praying that, 6 months or a year later, if you keep redirecting yourself every time your heart burns for something other than God, if you point your heart to God, you really do change.
You find something amazing beyond your wildest dreams, more than Solomon.
So, let’s talk about finding. How do we know we’ve found it? How do we know we’ve found God?
We have peace even if we only have Him. We have peace even if we only have Him. We’re not frantic anymore. We lose the job, we lose the relationship, we don’t get the house, we lose the approval of someone that really matters to us, and we’re sad, of course, but we are no longer devastated. The failure, the loss, it doesn’t like keep circling around in our mind.
It doesn’t keep us up at night. We’re not consumed by it because we really have and we really feel like we’ve internalized, it’s become reality to us. We have something better than what we lost. We have God himself and he is enough.
This is how Jesus could say in previous weeks, don’t be anxious, don’t worry because you have him and he has become your treasure. He has become your reward, Himself, His presence, being with Him. And if other pleasures come along, great, but we don’t really need those. We aren’t consumed by those. We can ask for them, sure, but they aren’t what we need.
Can you say that you are there, or is there still something circling around in your mind?
Are you fixated on getting something in creation instead of being fixated on getting the Creator himself?
If so, grab your heart, yell at it, say, I don’t need that. I don’t need financial security. I don’t need health. I don’t need my kids to be happy. It’d be nice.
Totally okay to pray for it, but I don’t need that. What I need, the only thing I need, is God. To feel His love, His acceptance, His security. Point yourself in the right direction every time your heart wants to go astray. Do it 85 times a day if that’s what it takes.
And depending on how entrenched your heart is pursuing something other than God, it might take a while to turn the cry of your soul toward him instead of toward the thing. But keep at it. There will be breakthrough. God will shine into your life in a way that you never imagined could happen. He will answer your prayer.
He always does, 100% guaranteed. Because Jesus was cast out, you will always get God if you ask. You will know the peace that surpasses understanding. You won’t have anxieties or fears. You will feel stable because you will have more love, more acceptance, more approval, more connection than you could even dream of right now.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you for being enough. Thank you for being more than we can even imagine, Lord. Thank you for providing yourself in abundance, and thank you for providing yourself in abundance at the cost of Christ. Thank you for Christ who volunteered for this role to be a substitute in our place.
Place, being cast out as we deserve so we can be welcomed into you. Lord, I pray that you would be the desire of our heart. I pray that we’d be more consumed by you than we would by anything else, that you would be what our mind is fixated on, that you would be our obsession, that you would be what we can’t not think of. May you actually take primary place, and may we cry, if only we had you, Lord. Lord, then we would be okay.
We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
