Matthew 7:7-12

Speaker 1: Men. My man. Thank you for that song. Take your Bibles if you have them and turn to Matthew chapter number seven. Matthew. Chapter number seven, verse number seven. And as you find your place, if you wouldn't mind, join me in standing in honor of reading God's Word. Matthew. Chapter seven, verse number seven. The Bible says ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open done to you for every one that ask it, receive it, seek it, find it, and not knock it. It shall be opened. What man is there of you, whom, if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will you give him a serpent? If he then being evil, know how to give good gifts under your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Let's pray, dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you help us. Now, as we look into your word, please give me the words you have me to say. Help the folks that are here to listen and apply here to their lives. God, I pray that you would increase our dependance upon you for this time here together today. Lord, we love you so much and thank you for all you do for us. It's in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you. May seen it. All right, I need some interaction. You have to raise your hand. This isn't a classroom. You can just say it. But those of you that have had kids, maybe you're in the process of raising kids. Maybe have some that are older. If you could pause and age for your children, what age would you have paused them at? 53. Nice. I hear an eight someone say they are the time. Five six. Eight. At birth. Oh. Were that even trouble ever since then? Somebody else. To wish. Six months. So, Alison, I think we agree on this one. Three seems to be a really sweet spot for all three of our boys. Three years old just seems to be about perfect. Now, my oldest is only eight. I heard a couple of eights out there, but hey, man, they're really getting goofy, you know? But three, they're just so sweet. And they're still small. They're potty trained, mostly. You know, I mean, it's just been one of our favorite ages for our boys. And right now, Carter is three years old. And I just want him to stop. Just stop right here to stay like this forever. The last couple of days, I usually get up before anybody else, and he's been coming in and he knocks on. I go sit on the back porch and drink coffee and watch the dog. And he comes in, he knocks on the window of the door he's knocking to come outside. And I looked over at him and he points at me and I'm like, Yes, come, come on. Well, then he can't get the door open. So I had to get up and go, go, let him out. But then he comes and he sits on my lap and he curls up and it's just been like really awesome and sweet. I love it. But, you know, there's, there's, there's still a lot of dependance upon mom and dad at three years old. They're starting to be able to do some things on their own. But but they still need us a lot. I mean, he he couldn't have made it here today if his mom hadn't driven him here today. You know, if he tried to walk here, it's still not even be out of the neighborhood. You know, he when we go home, he's not going to make his lunch. Now, I know some of you might have some genius three year olds, but artists can't make their own lunch at three years old. I mean, they'd be a huge mess. So we're going to have to we're going to do that for him. He can't work a job. There's child labor laws. So, you know, that's not allowed. And so he still depends upon us. And there's still some times where we'll be out on a walk, we'll take the boys to go do something, and he'll look up at me and said, Daddy, can I sit on your shoulders? I'm like, Yes, absolutely. I pick him up, I put him on my shoulders. You know, if Titus asks me to do that, I'm like, No, you're way too big. You're going to hurt me, you know? And so I just I'm loving having this little three year old in my house. It's just so much fun, you know, when he asks me for things and he is so sweet, he says, Daddy, will you push me on the swing? I mean, it's really hard to say no to him at that age. You know, when we think about our children, you know, we realize that children teach us things about how God views us. Having kids in our house teaches us some of the things that God feels when our kids do something right and we're proud of them, that that is something that comes because God views us that way. When our kids do something and they disappoint us, it breaks our hearts. And God wants us to feel that because that's how God feels. And I appreciated what Brother Randy said in his prayer. There are probably lots of people here that that are on the mountaintops when it comes to their relationship to their children. But there's also some people here that are going through a valley, and it does seem to be a dark time in their relationship with their children. But here we see in Matthew Chapter seven that God is drawing a a connection between our relationship with him and our relationship with our kids. And it's a very powerful thing that I want us to be able to see together here today, because in verses seven through eight, Jesus is trying to express to His disciples the absolute dependance that they are supposed to have on him. There is supposed to be a growing dependance upon our Heavenly Father, as you and I mature as disciples. Now, that seems to be counterintuitive, because as our children mature and grow, we expect them to have a greater what independence. We expect them to depend upon us less and less as they grow up, as they mature, as they strengthen. But as a disciple of Jesus Christ, the opposite is true. As you and I mature and grow in our Christian faith and in our discipleship under Jesus teaching. Our dependance post to grow and our independence is supposed to wane. Unfortunately for many of us. We've been living the Christian life for decades now. I'm going to turn 34 next month. I got saved. Who was four years old. That means I will have been saved for 30 years. I can tell you're impressed by that. You would think, you know, after 30 years, surely you got the whole thing figured out. I mean, you went to Bible College, you went to grad school. You didn't get enough of it. So you went back to grad school. Surely you've got it all. You know, spiritually, you're where you need to be. No. In fact, it's those times where I think I am, where I need to be. That shows me just how far from where I need to be. I actually am. Because I do rely a lot on my own power, my own wisdom. My own wisdom. You just said you're 34. What wisdom do you have? Okay, fine. But my own experience tend to get me by. When in reality all of us need to come to the conclusion of I can do nothing without him. If we do not come to that conclusion, we'll never get what he tells us to do in verses seven and eight. Because what we see in verses seven and eight are signs of a disciple who is absolutely dependent upon His Master, His Heavenly Father, for everything Jesus says ask. He tells us to seek and He tells us to knock. There are three actions described here in relation to our relation with God that all of us need to take a look at. Because although much has been written about the trio of Ask, Seek and Knock. I mean, it's it's a it's a pastor's dream. Ask, seek and knock because it's the perfect yearly thing. You just put ask up there and it's an acrostic, ask, seek, knock. How did God do that? Speaking in Jesus, speaking in Aramaic, the being recorded in Greek, but in English it fits. We? There's something special. Will ask, seek and knock. If I ask you a question, then have I asked? Okay. That's a dumb way to say that, but you get it. If. If. If I am looking for something and I look once. Have I saw it. You know, my wife tells me where where the milk is in the fridge. You would think it'd be the obvious giant white container. You know, but I go and I look for 2 seconds and I close the doors. I can't find it. We must be out. She's like, There's three gallons in there. It's right in front of your face. But I looked and I didn't see it. I'll go back and look again and then go back and look. Oh, there it is. And if I knock. And that's it. Have I knocked? Yes. I could ask you one question and never ask you another question and say I asked. I could look once for something and never look again and say I saw it and I could knock once, never knock again, and say I knocked and I didn't get what I wanted. He said, Well, that's. That sounds foolish. Why are you even talking like this? Well, because that's really how a lot of us interact with God. We pray for something. Once we don't get it, we say, Well, I asked. We look for the answer. They will even go to the Bible, which is a good place to find answers. We don't find it. We say, Well, I saw it. We may even knock, you know, to get God's attention and say, Hey, Lord, where are you going to do what I ask you to do? Are you gonna help me to get through this time? And he doesn't seem to give us an answer. He said, Well, I knocked. This asks seek not thing. It doesn't work. But you're missing the point of what ask, seek and not really is telling us. You see. Yes. In English we see ask, seek, knock. Those seem like one time deals. But if we were to look at the case of those words in Greek, they are continuous acts, actions. It's not that you would ask once and give up or seek for something once. Not find it and give up or not once. Not get an answer and give up. The the the message that Jesus is trying to get us to see here is that we are to ask and ask and ask again. I love Carter. My three year old. But if you don't give him an answer, guess what he's going to keep doing. Asking over and over and over, I know about this one, but, you know, if something is lost. You're supposed to look for it tirelessly until you find it. What does a mom always say when you've lost something? Where was the last place you had it? Well, if I knew that, it wouldn't be lost. Sometimes on a Friday morning. Friday is usually a day off the day that I like to sleep in. Unless the kids wake me up. And, you know, that little hand doesn't knock very loud, but it knocks a lot until somebody gets out of bed to go open the door. That is the picture. That Jesus is painting for us here. We're going to ask and ask and ask. We're going to look and look and look. We're going to knock and keep knocking. Now, why does God tell us to do this? Why is God presenting this to us? I mean, is he trying to say that there are things that that God just doesn't want to do? But if we'll pester him enough, then he'll give in. Is this where the illustration breaks down? Because sometimes there are things I just really don't want to do for my kids. But if they ask me enough times, eventually I'll break down and give in. Some of you are like, Yeah, some of you like, I would never do that. You must not have children. Is that the way God is, though? Do we have to break God's will in order for us to have our will? I mean, it seems like maybe what he's saying here, maybe it's not that. Maybe it's like a test. You know, he wants us to ask and keep asking, knock and keep knocking, seek and keep seeking. Is it a test? Like if we ask him for something 347 days in a row, then he'll do it. No. Oh, sorry. You only asked 346 days in a row and then you missed a day. And so now you have to start all over. Is this, you know, something that you and I are supposed to just, like, try really hard to drum up the right amount of spiritual effort so that we can convince God to do what we want. No, that's the opposite of what it is, actually. This is not about you and I proving to God how spiritual we are. This is not about you and I. Proving to God just how committed we are to getting what we want. This is about a people or a person that realizes I can do nothing. And if I'm going to have something happen in my life or in the lives of the people that I love, then it has to be God that does it. So I'm going to keep going to him until the answer is given. I'm going to keep seeking for the answer until I find it. And I'm going to keep knocking until I get the answer. Whether it be yes. No, not right now. We're going to come back to that. Not right now, because I think I've got a really good illustration for that. I'm excited to share it with you. You see these options make sense to us. They make sense to us because a lot of times we think about God the way we think about people. When you enter into a bartering or a negotiation situation with someone else, you know that you're going to have to change their minds if you're going to try and buy something off of someone you've been to a car dealership or something like that, you know you're going to have to go through the haggling process. We have to build a case for what we want. We're focused on producing something in the other person, and we often assume that we have to try and produce a willingness to to to give us what we want in God. Ask, Seek and knock is not about us changing God. It is about God changing us. Remember in the last chapter, Jesus said in Matthew 632 that the Heavenly Father know, knows that you have need of all these things. God knows exactly what we need before we even ask for it. You know, when my kids are knocking on my door at 7:00 in the morning, I know what they want. Right. Don't you know they want breakfast? Fruit bar and apple juice. Fruit bar and apple juice every day. That's what the little guy wants. We also previously stated, if you've been with us in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, that prayer is not about overcoming God's reluctance. We're not trying to convince God of anything. And so here in Matthew Chapter seven, we see more clearly what God is trying to accomplish in us. What is it that is going to cause us to go to God for something over and over and over again? I can tell you what won't motivate us to go to God continuously. Self-sufficiency. If you can do it yourself, why would you keep asking God for it? If you can get it for yourself, why would you keep looking for God to do it? And if you already know all the answers, then why would you keep knocking on God's door looking for an answer? You see, self-sufficiency is the enemy of our prayer lives. Self-sufficiency. Self independence is the enemy of us going to God and asking, seeking and knocking continuously. Over and over and over. Prayer is not a means by which we change God. Prayer is a means by which God changes us. The method here of coming back to God again and again is meant to produce within us a spirit of dependance upon Him. So how does ask, seek and knock produce dependance in a disciple? Well, number one, we will only continually ask, seek and knock if we are convinced of our need for God. If I can do it myself, why do I need to go through God? Why should I wait on his timing? Why should I risk the possibility that what I want isn't what he wants? Have you ever heard the phrase It's easier to ask for? Forgiveness, then permission. Don't our kids take that tact sometimes? They know if they asked us to go, do whatever we tell them, no. But if they've already done it and then they come and say, Hey, you know what, I feel really bad. I did this. I probably shouldn't have done it. I just. I'm really sorry. Well, you know what? I appreciate you telling me, and. And I forgive you. It's tricky. I'm just saying it's tricky. But we don't ask God because we can do it ourselves. We don't ask God because I don't want to wait on his timing. I want it right now. We we don't ask God because we're afraid that if we do ask God and we put it in his hands, he might tell us no. When we ask and seek and knock. Continually. This will only happen in the life of someone that is dependent on the timing and will of God. They will consistently turn to Him in prayer. So number one, we have to be convinced of our need for God. Number two, as our dependance grows, so does our urgency. Is the ask, seek and knock build on each other. You can see the progression of the energy that is required. You can see a progression in the commitment that is required. Is he asking is low energy, low commitment? They may have $5 that they would give me. With interest. Nobody. Okay. Well. Oh, well, I mean, I just asked. It didn't take a lot, and it didn't take a lot of commitment. But what if I started going person to person? If you have $5. Are you sure? What do you do for work? Don't they pay you enough? Do you have $5? No, I'm not going to cash out. Oh, hey. Five ones. I'll take it. All right. Cool. Hey, seek. And you shall find. So you can have your bike. Take over the boy. Is your allowance. Okay. Now, that was a little awkward for some people, I don't think really. Clarence liked me coming down there asking him for money. I know it's cashless society. We're going to give you some barcodes so that you can just scan your. Oh, don't do that. But then knocking. What if I followed you home? After the service. Huh? I get shot while going over to Miss Nancy's house anymore. But your neighbor. Oh, okay. Okay, sure. Sure. But knocking. I mean, that takes more energy, more commitment. I mean, really, Tony, he lives in my neighborhood. That wouldn't take that much to go over there. But I'm sure he's probably not going to be happy if I'm knocking on his door while he's eating lunch, then it's only got five bucks. Do they do that to him already? What's happened with them and. But you see, Ask, Seek and Knock is a progression of of of energy and commitment as you try to get what you're looking for. And if what you're looking for is help and answers from God. And are you willing to ask? Continually. Are you willing to seek until you find. Are you willing to knock until you get an answer? You can gauge your dependance on God by the energy and commitment of your prayer life. Remember at the beginning in Chapter seven, we talked about judging, judge, not that you be not judged, but then we said, Hey, self judgment is necessary. So this morning. Self judgment in the area of dependance on God is what is called for in all of our lives. Jesus knows that we struggle with self sufficiency. He knows. He knows better than anyone else what you face, who has failed you, who's betrayed you, who's mistreated and abused you. He knows all of that. And he knows that because of the past failings that we have had to experience, we adopt a variety of fleshly coping mechanisms, such as cynicism, withdrawal, distrust, suspicion of others, don't we? Surely I'm not the only one. Come on. And sometimes if we're not careful, we as the disciples of a wholly imperfect God, can approach God with the same cynicism, suspicion and distrust. Sometimes we will withdraw from him the way we have withdrawn from other humans because we read into him the same failings or potential for failing as we've experienced from others. Which is why in verses nine through 11, Jesus is kind of asking us the question. Who do you really think God is? And what do you really think about God? How do you picture him? Jesus tells his listeners that disciples that ask, seek and knock, they will have their prayers answered. That's what he said in verse Some rape. Everyone that ask it, receive it. And he that seekers find it. And to him that knock it, it shall be opened. And so a cynical person would say, Yeah, but what kind of answer am I going to get? Sure you're going to give me an answer, but what's that answer going to be? Well, we have to trust that a perfect God is going to give us the best answer. Even if it's a no. Jesus appeals to the parents in the audience. Most of us would like to think that we are good parents. We know we're not perfect. If we were honest, we would even admit that we are incredibly sinful and selfish. And yet we do try to be good to our children. I seen some really like from an outsider's perspective, what you would consider to be a bad parent. But even the worst parent by our standards still tries to be good to their kids in their way. Very rare, is it? Honestly, it makes the news, but very rare. Is it that you find a parent that truly tries to mistreat their children? If you're here this morning, then I would guess that you would probably agree with what Jesus has to say here. He says, What man is there of you whom if his son asks, Red, will you give him a stone? Or if you ask a fish, will you give him a serpent? If your little child came to you, your little three year old, and asked for a loaf of bread, would you give him a stone? So if my kid can't tell the difference between a loaf of bread and a stone, then he deserves to crack his teeth. Well, loaves in their day. We're not loaves like we have today. I mean, you're thinking of a nice long loaf of bread. We're talking about a a biscuit that is just a few shades softer than an actual rock. We talked about the five loaves and two fish. I mean, these were like smaller than your fist in dark brown. If you threw them down on the gravel road, you'd lose your bread because you wouldn't be able to tell what was bread. What was rocks? And so you can just imagine some some dads standing around with a bunch of other dads and watch this, you know, and he he gives his son a stone, says, here's son how a loaf of bread. And he's like, oh.

Speaker 3: Thanks, dad. It's still warm. You guys.

Speaker 1: Mean? What an evil person. You give your kid a rock and watch him try to eat it? Not as a joke, but just to be mean. Nobody does that kind of stuff. You wouldn't do that. You'd be a bad parent. Now, if you're a youth pastor, you can definitely do that kind of stuff. Mariana has four kids with her here today with Mason and Stephanie, and invited him back to night. Brother Mason is a preacher and he's gonna be preaching our evening service. But they were in our youth group and we did some fun stuff with the teenagers. One of the things that we did, we would do a snicker eating contest. And I told you about the Snicker eating contest before you give them three or four Snickers. All of them are normal, except for one that's frozen. You know, and so you get lulled that you lulled into a sense of of safety. You know, they're eating Snickers.

Speaker 3: And.

Speaker 1: Then they get to that last look and they can't bite into it. It's always funny. The other one's a Twinkie eating contest. I think we actually did that one here at our church one time. You take the Twinkies, you open them all up. You line them up in a in a row and you have a start line. In the finish line, you really lean into this, make them think they're really in for a fun time. Okay. We're doing a Twinkie eating contest is the greatest thing ever. All the Twinkies are normal except for the last one. Last one. You take a toothpick and you poke little holes all around the bottom so that you can pull off the bottom. You scoop out the whipped cream and you replace it with mayonnaise. You put the bottom back on. You set it on the plate. Nobody knows. The crazy thing is, more than one teenage boy has eaten that last Twinkie and not even thought a thing about it. Like, for real. And then that last Twinkie tastes weird to you. It was a little sour, but it was fun. If your kid came to you and asked for a fish, did you give him a snake? We would not seriously do this to our children. If my kid is hungry, I'm going to do anything I can to give them something to eat. I have a responsibility to care for my family, not to harm them. Not going to intentionally mistreat one of my children or do something that would hurt them. I may be a sinner, but I love my kids and I want to do what's best for them. Like feed them. Jesus point is that if we do that for our kids, how much more will God do that for us? If he then being able know how to give good gifts into your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them than ask him when we think that God is out to hurt us? Really, what we're saying is I'm more noble than God. Because I would never do that to my kids. But I think that that's what God is going to do to me. Do we love our kids more than he loves his children? And if we know how to give good gifts to our kids, God is able to surpass our sinful imitation of Him. This truth helps us understand the way that we should depend on God. We depend on him. The way our kids depend on us. When they are little, we go to him for our needs consistently. The way that our kids persist in asking us for the things that they need. Like lunch. 10 a.m.. Your kid asks for lunch. And you say, not yet. It's too early. In a little bit, we'll eat and that suffices. They go off. They go to play. 11:00 comes. They've already asked. So now they come in. They don't say anything. They just go. And they look at the counter. And they look at the table. They're seeking to see if lunch is ready. So it's not time for lunch yet. Go play for a little bit longer. You go and. You know. You're in the bedroom or maybe the bathroom, and it's now noon. There's no respect for privacy in a house with children. And as you're trying to deal with your own business. Is it lunchtime yet? I'm hungry. You said you were going to feed me. Our kids ask, they seek and they knock until we feed them. Was it ever possible that you weren't going to feed them? Oh, of course you were. You were just waiting for the right time. How dependent was your child on you to fix their lunch? Well, at certain ages, they were totally dependent on you to fix their lunch. And that's true with us with God as well. You see, you and all. You and I all need to learn or realize our dependance on God. For everything. There is no part of this life that you and I can say to God. No worries, Lord, I can handle this. Every part of our life requires us to ask, seek and knock for his intervention. Everything at home. You cannot say, You know what, I've got this husband thing down. I've been doing it for, you know, six months. I think I've figured it out. Lauren. I got this. I don't need your help. Can't do that. You need his help every day to be the kind of husband he wants you to be. The same is true with parenting. Parenting is hard as parenting. Can you go a day? Can you go a week? Can you go a year? Without seeking for God's help. For God to maybe make up for some of your mistakes in the lives of your kids. You're not gonna do everything perfect, are you? No. You need his help. What about at work? I mean, hey, work. This is what you were trained to do. This is in your wheelhouse. You have got the perfect job for you. It matches your personality. You could do that job better than anyone else with your eyes closed and your hand tied behind your back. You don't need God at work. Or do you? Are we totally dependent on him or are we not? How many of you have found that it's harder sometimes to maintain your Christian testimony at work than at any other place? I mean, at work, you can be whoever you want. I mean, everybody else is acting a certain way. Why can't you act that way, too? And after all, we don't want to stand out. We don't want to be weird. Heaven forbid they start calling us the church kids or something like that. You need God's help at home. Whole work. And that church. Most of the members of this church are involved in some type of ministry. I hope Brother Treacy doesn't mind me taking on him. Seem like your brother Tracy has been our son's school superintendent for several years now. It's probably the thing that, I mean, he's got his routine down. He's even trained Brother Joe on the routine. I mean, they know what is required of them when they show up. It would probably be very easy to just kind of go through the motions for the mat where they are. When you came here, you weren't really you never really led singing in church a couple of times, but not on a regular basis. But you've been doing it for three years now. I would imagine that there's probably some systems in place that you can just kind of fly through the routine, the motions, and be ready for Sunday and and get up here and probably do a job that most everybody would say, you know, a good job. Way to go, brother. Matthew's just really awesome. And yet inside, you know. I didn't depend on the Lord for that. Would you believe it that I can get up here and preach to you? Totally in my own strength? Would you? Well, I do. I do when I can. I know how to put a sermon together. Brody and I were working on putting a message together that hopefully he's going to preach soon and just go in through the the steps. It's real easy to just go through the steps and put together an outline with some historical background, some some word studies so that you would be impressed with our our linguistic skills. You know, look, I showed him I said, look, I've got all these books of illustrations. And his face was like. You think I just made all these up myself, did you? And, you know, you put all the parts together and get up in and share it and everything. Like, that was a great message and do it all oddly dependent on yourself. All of us fight this battle of thinking. I can do it. I don't need God. Jesus says no. My disciples as they mature. They don't grow in their independence. They grow in their dependance upon me. So much so that they are continually asking, seeking and knocking for me to be with them. This morning. How much dependance do you have on God? How much are you depending on him at home and at work and at church? How many times do we sell God through our actions? I don't need you. I've got this. You want to self judgment. Probably examine your prayer life. That'll give you a good indicator as to how much you're depending on the Lord. How many of us need to depend more on God? Let's make that commitment to him today. How do I do that? Ask him. To help you grow in your dependance, seek for your dependance to grow. Not until he helps you to become more dependent on him. Let's pray differently, Father. Thank you for this day. Thank you for the good attention of the folks that were here. Or thank you for making yourself available to us to depend on you. You don't push us away. You stand with open arms to welcome us into your strength. Or I pray that you'd help all of us to be very painfully aware this morning of of our own failings, of our own in Inadequacies Lord, that we would not be puffed up or proud of our talents and our abilities, which all come from you anyways. But Lord, we would truly see ourselves as standing in need of you. God help us to be dependent upon you as parents, as moms and dads and husbands and wives, as children, as as employees and employers, as members of the church. Officers of the church. Ministers in the church. Whatever we are doing, Lord, help us to realize that we need your help to do any of it. God, I prayed that we would come to you continually asking and seeking and knocking for your strength to be made evident in our lives. Lord, we love you so much. Thank you for this time. Help us now, during this time of invitation. Help us to be submissive to you, to express our need for you, Lord, through our prayers. It's in Jesus name that I ask these things. Amen.

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