Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
July 7, 1985
Ask, Seek, Knock, Do
Matthew 7:7-12
Lately Celeste has left two-year-old Rebecca with me when she takes off for work. It has nothing to do with Becca's need for fatherly care. Celeste is not awake enough to drag out two little bodies. After I get Rebecca up, I give her the run of the house while I study (and make the bed) upstairs. Rebecca is no fool. She heads right for the kitchen and digs out one of these - [hold up a Pop Tart].
It's called a Pop Tart. Rebecca will kill for a Pop Tart. However, she is a well-disciplined child. So she calls out, "Daddy! Daddy!" No response. She'll look in all the usual places: the bathroom, the bedrooms, the study. Soon her little calls get closer and closer, till I feel her grubby little hands clinging to my pants. "Daddy, can I have this Pop Tart?" Being a good and loving father, I split it with her 50/50.
Kids make great sermon illustrations and I think this one is a good description of prayer. Rebecca stands for a Christian who makes a request and I stand for . . . .
Jesus has already talked about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount but here he adds more detail and gives us some precious promises. These promises are that God wants to give to us, to be found by us and to open up to us.
The God of the Bible does not want to stiff us or keep us at arm's length. This is reinforced by verses 9 through 11. Earthly fathers, like me, know how to give good things to our children. It's not because we are perfect - in verse 11 Jesus actually describes our basic human character as evil. We give our kids good things because we love them.
In Jesus' day bread did not come in long, sliced-up loaves. It was small and round and hard. You could mistake it for a good-sized rock. But no self-respecting father would make a substitution like that. Or maybe your kid asks you for a fish, which is literally an eel. Why a kid would want to eat an eel is beyond me but people overseas actually consider them a delicacy. It would be mean to substitute a snake instead.
We, who are evil, want good things for our children. God is not like us. According to Jesus, he is far better than we could hope to be. If you agree with Jesus, then you will want to ask God for your needs in life.
Ask, Seek and Knock are repetitive but they also gain in intensity, just like Rebecca calling me, looking for me and finally grabbing my leg. Jesus teaches us to pray intently and persistently with the knowledge that God wants us to be satisfied. Why pray? God wants it to be the desire of our heart.
All of this sounds great but it doesn't always agree with our experience with prayer. The most obvious problem is that we often don't get what we want. There are several possible reasons for this. The first would be that God is a liar or does not exist. If this is true you should have slept in this morning. A second possibility is that you do not have a personal relationship with God. God is not the spiritual Father of all people. Only those who repent of their sins and ask Christ to take charge of their lives can rightfully claim these promises.
Related to this is the matter of obedience. Even if you have committed yourself to God and are a born-again Christian, your prayers may be unanswered because of sin. 1 John 3:22 says,
"And whatever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."
Sin is one of the most effective ways to destroy the power of your prayers. If you are not right with God you should focus your prayers on that before you worry about anything else.
Another reason God doesn't always give us what we want is that he knows what we need. Children have a way of asking for dangerous and harmful things like snakes and stones. A loving parent does not give into these kinds of requests.
I believe this principle is behind many good prayers that seem to fail. It is hard for us to understand why we can pray for someone else to be healed and then watch them get worse. But according to the Bible there is always a loving reason for it, even if it doesn't make sense this side of heaven.
Sensitive Christians have always known that not all prayer can or should be answered. Alec Motyer has written:
"If it were the case that whatever we ask, God was pledged to give, then I would never pray again, because I would not have sufficient confidence in my own wisdom to ask God for anything."
There are many times when we have to trust God's wisdom.
Verse 12 seems to change pace completely, even though it is connected with the word "therefore." I believe the tie-in is that Christians should have the same loving attitude that their heavenly Father does.
The Golden Rule, as it is called, has many parallels in history but each has a main difference. Confucius said,
"What you would not have others do for you, do not do to them."
The famous rabbi Hillel, who lived some time before Jesus, said,
"What is hateful to yourself, do to no other. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary."
The key difference between these men and Jesus is that their sayings are negative. You don't harm people but you don't have to love them either. Jesus asks for this extra step of love.
To summarize this sermon in two sentences:
Trust in God -- the best gift from God is salvation
Pray to God -- our best gift to God is living it.
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Typed on March 7, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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