Sep 17, 2009

Matthew 7:7-11 - Series on the Mount #28

Let’s Pray….

Tonight we will talk about prayer as Jesus discussed it in the Sermon on the Mount.

This is the second time that Jesus talks about prayer and this is truly one of the greatest encouragements in the three chapters that document this sermon.

Before we get into that passage in Matthew 7, lets first dig into another piece of Scripture that I was shown this week, which I think informs the way we read Matthew 7.

Turn in your bibles to Ephesians 3:14b-21 (NIV)
This is a prayer written by Paul to the church in Ephesus and it is just such a boost to the spirit. It’s a reminder of who we are and who our God is and how He feels about us.
Let’s look at it and don’t read this as a prayer from some old dead guy to some ancient church. No! No, hear this and read this with YOU as the one who benefits from the prayer. Let this be an encouragement to YOU just as it was intended to be for the Ephesians…


Let this be a prayer for all you who are weary tonight. Weary from striving to do things on your own; weary from trying to fix the world; weary from trying to fix yourself and weary from falling short. Again,


Remember it is in Christ that all things are possible. From our salvation to the upcoming restoration of all things, it is all in Christ. May we all be strengthened by knowledge of His life in our hearts. What an amazing gift!


In other words, Paul prays for the Ephesians, and family, I pray for you to see that there is no way around His love for you. He is covering you. Look all around you. His love FOR YOU stretches past the horizon on all sides, but it’s not far off like the horizon, it’s right up on you. It is a warm embrace of the Spirit. Yield to the embrace of Christ.

His love FOR YOU is in front of you and behind you. His love FOR YOU is being poured into you by His Spirit. And if you can grasp it you will sometimes feel like you are about to burst because it is so real and so overwhelming.

I pray that YOU would be overwhelmed by the Love that your Father in Heaven has FOR YOU right now.


Verse 20 is key for where we are going tonight; let’s read it again, read it with me:

Did you catch that? The Father who has this great love FOR YOU wants you to tell Him about what you want! Give Him your hopes and dreams. ASK!

So many times I’ve read this passage and seen a word that isn’t even there.

I’ve read it: …to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we CAN ask or imagine …

But it doesn’t say CAN. I never realized that until a pastor named Eric Mason broke it down for me on a vodcast.

It doesn’t say more than we can ask, or more than we intend to ask. The promise is that He can do immeasurably more than all we ask. All we DO ask!

And then it tells us that we can know He will do it for us because He is our loving Father, but the reason He does it ultimately is to bring Glory to Himself. When He blesses you or me or us or the church universal, it’s so that those outside of the church and inside the family of God might look at the blessings and say, “WHAT A GREAT GOD!” AMEN?!

With all that in mind – With an understanding that we have been given strength and boldness from a Father that loves us! Loves us more than we can fathom. Knowing that His desire is that we ask Him for gifts, lets now read Matthew 7:7-11.

Matthew 7:7-11


Oh, praise God. This is a wonderful text. Let’s unpack it.

Matthew Henry summarizes verses 7 and 8 this way:
"Pray; pray often; pray with sincerity and seriousness; pray, and pray again; make conscience of prayer, and be constant in it; make a business of prayer, and be earnest in it. Ask, as a beggar asks alms.’ ’


Notice that this is a command. Jesus wasn’t one to give a lot of suggestions. He got right into and said ASK, Seek and Knock. So take this as a command. Don’t put on some false humility and say, “Well, I’m not troubling God for anything else, I’m just happy to get in the side door to Heaven.”

No, ASK.
Now the first question that you might ask is what should I ask for? Can I ask for a new car? Can I ask for a boat? How about flatter stomach diet and exercise?

I’m not going to tell you not to ask for those things. I would point you back to scriptures though.

That’s my job as a pastor.
I would point you back to the context of this command, it comes right on the heels of two full chapters of hard teachings and commands that on our best days, many of us still fall short of.

With that in mind, with the will of the Father in Heaven in mind and with the facts of our inability to live by God’s design on our own, Jesus tells us – commands us to ASK!

I carry around this little book nearly everywhere that I go. It’s called the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It was put together by a group of really smart church leaders. It isn’t the Bible, there are a couple of things that I don’t agree with in here, but that’s another sermon.

Anyway, this little book points me back to Scriptures and I use it as an on-the-fly devotional. If I get a free moment, I can flip through this and simply be reminded of some basic truths and teachings in the Scriptures. It’s my landing gear when I see myself coming close to flying off the handle. It’s the pier I can tie my spirit to when I begin to drift back toward my old sin nature.

Anyway, there’s a section where the Westminster fellas break down the Lord’s prayer and in Question 103 they ask: What do we pray for in the third petition (or the third part of the Lord’s prayer)?

Then they answer it like this: In the third petition, (which is, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,) we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

And then we are given this footnote to Psalms 119:34-36, where we find yet another comforting and Gospel reminding passage for our walk with the Lord.

Psalm 119:34-36
34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law
and obey it with all my heart.
35 Direct me in the path of your commands,
for there I find delight.
36 Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.

You see this is so beautiful because it reminds me that it is ultimately God who gives me the understanding, direction and heart motivation to follow His commands.

I find my rest in Him, not in my abilities, thank God.

My abilities always fall short. So what do we ask for with a guarantee of receiving it from God? We ask for something in particular. We ask that He would give us the ability to follow His design for our lives.

And then Matthew 7:7 continues, “seek and you will find…”

What’s the difference between asking and seeking? Action.

Seeking involves movement. The difference between me asking my wife where the remote is and getting up and seeking it is obvious. In the same way, once we realize that we need our Lord to enable us to follow His design, we then begin walking in the truth that what we asked for was given to us.

How will we ever know if He has given us the ability to walk in obedience if we don’t go out and obey? How would the paralyzed man know that he could take up his mat and walk if he never then got up and moved?

Sometimes the extent of our faith can be seen in the way we operate after we pray. Don’t keep walking around like your still defeated, believe God when He tells you that you will be given what you have asked for in context of the Scriptures; in the context of His will for your life.

Let’s take this back to last week’s message. We talked about Matthew 7:6 where we are warned against constantly trying to get the Gospel into the hearts of people who won’t accept it.

And we said that we should absolutely mourn over their unbelief because we know where the road leads without Christ.
But we ended last week with the instruction not to stop at mourning over your friends and family. No, get on your knees and pray earnestly for them. Ask that they might receive Jesus before the end and then walk boldly to the next person God wants you to share your faith with.

And when He gives another opportunity take it, ask then seek, then get to work.

This principle holds true in whatever sin you are struggling with as well, whether your sin is self-righteousness, or greed, or lust or idolatry.

Go back to the Beatitudes where we are taught to recognize our sin, mourn over it and ask God to remove that obstacle from our life, then move out in faith that He is doing a good work in you that He will not stop until you are done, until you are perfected.

And here’s the thing, seeking victory that you have asked God for includes not only searching the scriptures and not only turning to the community of other believers for Christ-righteousness, it also includes fleeing from the people, places and things that used to drag you back into sin.

That’s a way that you can work WITH the Spirit of God.

When we move to knocking, we see a level of persistence. It’s still action, but it is persistent action.

We knock like the man knocking on the door for bread (Luke 11:7-10), his persistence wins over the protests of the owner of the home.

In the same way we are persistent with our prayer, we don’t give up, we strive for what God is calling us to. We pray earnestly that His Kingdom would come in all of its fullness. We knock and knock until He answers.

But remember, we are talking about prayers in His will not our own. By this point in the Sermon on the Mount, we should know what a heart conformed to God looks like.

If you’ve missed any of the last 30 sermons, you can go online and study up. And truthfully, you may get more out of just reading through Matthew 5, Matthew 6 and Matthew 7 again.

Then, conform your will, conform yourself to the things of God when you come to ask, seek and knock.

If you are honestly praying that His will be done in a situation let Him know be persistent. He never tires of hearing from you. Remember His love unstoppable, unquenchable, unshakable and unconditional love. Don’t be ashamed, don’t be afraid and don’t hold back.

Now let me point out that Jesus is so serious about this that He practically repeats Himself in verse 8. Repetition is used in the Bible to add weight to what it being said.

Also though, look at the key word that Jesus adds into verse 8 that surely would have rankled a few feathers in the crowd.


He adds the word EVERYONE. To the religious leaders and to many of the workaday Jews in the crowd this was completely different. See the religious leaders taught that it was the Jews and the Jews alone that were to be ushered into the Kingdom when the Messiah came. But Jesus said, no, the Nation of Israel was designed to be the light on the hill that drew EVERYONE in.

And through the cross, now there is no more division because of race or nationality, or gender, or past. The only distinction that exists now is that of forgiven and un-forgiven sinners.

And look again at the verse in that context.

It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, how bad you’ve been or how good you think you are compared to everyone else.

The common denominator for all of us is that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all deserve death and Hell for the sins, whether it was murder, or a little white lie, God doesn’t play with sin or sinners.
BUT, that’s not where it ends, He sent His son, who was holy and blameless to come down to earth and live the sinless life that we could not live and then die on the cross to take the wrath of God onto Himself FOR US.

Remember what we started with tonight. Love for you was demonstrated on the cross. God so longed for YOU to be with him in Heaven and He so longed to bring Glory to Himself that He saved EVEN YOU by sending His son to die for you.

So, when You believe that God loved you so much that He sent His only Son to die for you and when you believe that it was His death on the cross and nothing that You did to save yourself, than you can simply ask him to cover you with His righteousness — His perfection through the cross and you will receive forgiveness. You will be justified.

That is true for ANYONE – EVERYONE who asks receives. That can be true for you tonight if you’ve never taken that step.

And this is no bait and switch. God the Father loves to give you the good gifts of the Kingdom. First salvation, then sanctification through the Spirit.
Let’s read 9-11 again:


Now one more point and then we’ll get out of here. Our passage ends: how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Don’t buy into the prosperity Gospel, what is sometimes disparagingly called the Name it and claim it preaching, which says you just need to trust God for anything your heart desires and — Poof! There it will be.

God is not a genie. God isn’t there to give everything and anything you demand, but He does promise good gifts for you.

And remember, what is a good gift for you, might not be right for someone else.

Just like a parent will not say yes to everything that his or her child asks, neither will God say yes to things you ask for that not good for you or things that are outside of His will for your life.

My wife and I were talking about this yesterday. She said, you know if one child asks for a cookie and some Cool-aid, we might say yes. If another child is diabetic, it might be un-loving to give them that much sugar.

So don’t compare what you have to what someone else has as a gauge of God’s love.
Remember that God knows better than you what you need and what is good for you.

Brothers and sisters, instead of more stuff, instead new or different relationships, instead of a great new job, instead of a healthier body, I would urge each of you and I would remind myself: Ask that the Love of God might transform you. Ask that you would be transformed into a clearer reflection of Him to the world.

Seek to know more about our wonderful Lord by reading the Scriptures and living in community with other Christ followers. Seek Him by fleeing from sin.

And knock persistently at the gates of His Kingdom, asking that His Kingdom would come in all of its perfection and Glory sooner than later. And never stop praying that prayer until you see Him face to face in heaven.
Let’s pray…
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