Ask, Seek, Knock
Download MP3I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7. It's good to be back in the pulpit. I've I've been away for the last 5 weeks. I've been at some other churches, and then I took some time to go on vacation. So it's good to be back here, and be with you guys.
Joel Brooks:I've missed you a lot. While I've been gone, some really heavy things have been happening here, not just in the country, but here at our church. I've been keeping in touch with all the elders through different emails and texts over the last couple of weeks. And, and really the entire threads are nothing but who's visiting who in the hospital, who is going over to So's house to pray for and to care for them. And I know that some of you, over the last couple of weeks, you have, tragically lost family members.
Joel Brooks:Some of you have received the lab results that you were not hoping for. Even one of our elders had an emergency surgery that did not go well. And there has just it's it's been a pretty discouraging last couple of weeks. One of the the texts that we got from one of the elders said, does anybody else feel like the last 2 weeks have been horrific with just a few sprinkling of some new babies? And that's pretty much what it has felt like.
Joel Brooks:And so before I even get into the text this morning, I just wanna remind you of the good news of the gospel. That of all the people on earth, we are the most hopeful people to walk the planet. Jesus went through hell and death on our behalf to give us life. There is a reason that Paul could sing in prison. There is a reason Christians could sing as they were being thrown to the lions.
Joel Brooks:It's because they of all people have been given new life and new hope. And Jesus said, he warned all of us. He said, in this life, you will have many tribulations, but take heart. I have overcome the world. We worship a risen King who has overcome the world.
Joel Brooks:And that's where our hope is. And we believe that a day is coming that there will no longer be any tears. There will be no more sorrow. It will just be eternal life and joy forever. There's this obscure passage in the bible.
Joel Brooks:It's in Psalm 56, in which the the psalmist talks about God preserving our tears in a bottle. That God keeps our tears in a bottle. And, I've I've heard that expression used in different songs and, different poems, written about over the years. But but most people don't really understand what is meant by that. And there's there's two reasons that tears are kept in a bottle.
Joel Brooks:One, it shows that our tears have meaning and purpose and value. That our tears are not just something we throw away. Not something that we just forget. But every tear, every trial, every suffering has a value to it and is to be kept. Not a tear is wasted.
Joel Brooks:And the second is that tears need to be preserved because a day is coming when there will be no more tears. And if we wanna remember God's goodness, we'll actually have to look at the tears we've shed in the past as a way of reminding ourselves how God has saved us faithfully and carried us through those old trials and tribulations. Because a day will come and, Lord, may it come quickly in which there will be no more tears and no more sorrow. And so Jesus, once again, did not go through hell and death for nothing. He is currently now on his throne redeeming all things.
Joel Brooks:And I just feel like there's sometimes we, as a church, just need to remind ourselves of that and live into that and celebrate. Amen? Amen. Alright. So Matthew chapter 7 as we continue our study on the Sermon on the Mount, I'll begin reading in verse 7.
Joel Brooks: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 the one who knocks it will be opened. Which one of you, if his son asked him for bread, will give him a stone?
Joel Brooks:Or if he asked for a fish, will give you us 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 gifts to those who ask him? This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord, we ask that through your spirit, you would open up these words to us. Father, that we would hear your heart for your children. We would hear of your goodness and your kindness and how you long for a relationship with us. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Alright. So by far the most nerve racking classes that I had when I was in seminary, were the classes that were on preaching. For starters, I didn't like them because I'm I'm somewhat introverted and I don't really like getting up in front of people and and having to talk.
Joel Brooks:But I knew that was something I was gonna have to get over. So yes, you know, you have to take preaching classes. But but the real reason that the preaching classes were just horrible is because who you had to preach to? Seminary students. Alright.
Joel Brooks:And and all the seminary students that you're preaching to, they're they're all out there and they have their notepads, and they're all writing things down. And and you make a point and they're writing it down, but they're not writing notes down because they're moved by what you say. You know, they're they're not thinking, I would love to apply that to my life, you know, and this is this is, making me a deeper spiritual person. No. They're writing down criticisms.
Joel Brooks:That's what seminary students do. And so every time you would see that pen to the paper, you'd like, what am I doing wrong? I mean, as they are just critiquing you. But it's necessary, I guess. I guess you have to, you know, learn how to preach and, you've gotta learn all of those valuable things like establishing eye contact with everybody.
Joel Brooks:You've gotta learn your your your hand motions, you know, when to put your hands out. I once had a, I was a orthopedic doctor was visiting 1 Sunday and came up to me afterwards and said, so how many shoulder surgeries have you had? It's like, well, I've had 8. Why? But how would you know that?
Joel Brooks:And they're like, because you preach like this. And, and so now you'll see me I'd make a point and then I do this because I I I don't wanna quench the holy spirit, you know, and I just, you know, full effect out there. You learn things like how you're not supposed to stand behind your pulpit, you're supposed to move to the side, which I never do. So I I really fail at how to preach often. But but I was really surprised as, I was studying this text, and I've been able to just chew on it for weeks now.
Joel Brooks:Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach, only how to pray. Literally, he's gonna use those disciples, those 12 men to change the world. These are men who are gonna go and speak before the rulers and the authorities of their day. They're gonna be people who are gonna be put on trial and have to give a defense. And yet Jesus never talks to them about hand motions or keeping eye contact or how they're supposed to preach.
Joel Brooks:He only talks to them about how to pray, because it is way more important to learn to talk to God than to talk about God. He wants these people to change the world. Therefore they need to pray. Now this is a groundbreaking earth shattering truth that that every Christian just needs to chew on. And I wanna say that's especially true for every elder and every pastor here.
Joel Brooks:If you wanna change the world, pray. If you want to help others, pray. If you wanna care for others, pray. If you wanna be free from all of your anxieties, pray. If you want to gain wisdom, pray.
Joel Brooks:You hear Jesus' heart here in which he is pleading with us to come to our heavenly father and pray. Now Jesus had already been talking about prayer throughout this sermon. He he taught us what we know as the Lord's Prayer, which which is really better should be better labeled the the disciples prayer. So he's already taught us about prayer, but he knows that this needs reinforcing. Uh-uh how many of you have ever done this?
Joel Brooks:You know families out there. Either you grew up in a family like this or this happens now. You were eating dinner and then you're a minute into it. And And so I stopped to go, hey, did did we did we say the blessing? Did we pray?
Joel Brooks:And you're trying to wonder, did we do this or not? And and usually I respond by saying, well, I don't know about you, but I remember when I talked to the creator of the universe. I'm sorry children that you forgot. No, we all do this. You know, you're a minute in and you're like, did we pray or did we not?
Joel Brooks:That's pretty much what our prayer lives look like. They're so shallow, they lack depth. We can't even remember if we did this or not. And Jesus knows this. He's not wracking guilt on us.
Joel Brooks:He just wants to show us the benefit and the kindness and the goodness of our Father, and he pleads with us. Come to him. Come to him. Alright so I want us to walk through this text. Now like I said, I've had a few weeks to just think on this.
Joel Brooks:So you would you would imagine that it would come up with something, you know, some kind of nice acrostic or three points in a poem. I mean, you actually have, like, the ask, seek, knock. It spells ask. It's ready made there for you, but, but I'm not gonna do that. I I never will do that.
Joel Brooks:But I'm just gonna just walk through some some observations. Some observations about this text. First thing I want us to notice is, how astonishingly open ended Jesus's statement is. Look again at verse 7. Ask and it will be given to you.
Joel Brooks:Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who ask receives and the one who seeks finds and so the one who knocks, it will be opened. We are not told what to ask for. Just to ask.
Joel Brooks:We're not told what to seek for. Just to seek. We're not told what to knock for, just to knock. This is an astonishingly open ended statement. Jesus doesn't seem to be too concerned about you abusing this.
Joel Brooks:Perhaps maybe asking for things you shouldn't or perhaps praying too much. That's not Jesus' concern is that you're gonna take that and just pray too much. He's not scared of you abusing this. Now in other places, there's gonna be some qualifications. We have to pray things in his name.
Joel Brooks:Or James is gonna say, you don't have because you're asking with the wrong motives. But Jesus doesn't do any of that here. He doesn't fear that you're going to listen to that statement and start asking for that new Ferrari. And start asking for that new home. You're gonna ask to, to win the lottery or something.
Joel Brooks:He's he's not scared about doing that. Now I immediately wanna read that and put qualifications all over Jesus's statement. We have found as we've been going through the whole Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes statements and we immediately wanna put all these qualifications to them. And I wanna do that here. I want to say things like, ask anything according to his will.
Joel Brooks:And if you do that in due time, maybe in this life, but more likely in the next, God will answer your prayer. That's how I would like to put qualifications to this. But Jesus doesn't. I wanna tell you, if if you pray to win the lottery, there's a good chance God's not gonna let you win. I'd say probably a 1 in 300,000,000 chance that you are not going to win.
Joel Brooks:But Jesus is not worried about that. And the reason He's not worried about that is because He knows us and He knows that we're a people who just don't pray. He knows that we have all of these desires swirling around in our hearts and we rarely actually take them to the Lord. We don't go to our heavenly father with them. I think the most consistent lie that Christians tell others is, hey, I'll be praying for you.
Joel Brooks:That's just below. Hey, we really should get together. Alright. So but but we consistently lie. We we how many of you have done this?
Joel Brooks:You've texted somebody, hey, I'm I'm praying for you this week and you're about to hit sin. You're like, oh, I haven't. That'll be a lie. Lord be with this person. Sinned, alright?
Joel Brooks:I mean y'all are evil. I don't do that. So, But we lie. We consistently lie to others and we lie to ourselves about prayer. How many times have you told other people when you're talking about some big issue in your life, you're like, man, I've just been prayin' about this.
Joel Brooks:Whether it's this big decision or it's your health or whatever it is and you're like, I've just been praying. But if they were to call you out on it and say, have you? I mean have you really? What would your answer be? I mean we know you've posted on social media about it.
Joel Brooks:We know you've gone to other people to talk to them about it. Get advice about it. But have you actually been getting on your knees asking, seeking, knocking the Lord over this? The reality is, we don't just lie to others, we lie to ourselves and we talk about prayer way more than we actually pray. That's why Jesus isn't worried about you abusing this.
Joel Brooks:He's just giving you an invitation. Come to your Father and pray. As I look around this room, I know this one certainty, and that's that every single person here carries something. They are carrying some burden. Carrying some anxiety.
Joel Brooks:Some stress. Some guilt. Some decision that needs to be made, they are carrying it. And Jesus is saying, if you're gonna carry this, carry this to me. And I'll carry it for you.
Joel Brooks:Why just carry it? Carry it to me. So Jesus is pleading with us to just go to our heavenly father in prayer. I mean, you look at this. Mean, we had time to go into all of this, but like in verse 7, he promises us that God answers our prayer.
Joel Brooks:Verse 8, he repeats this promise. Verse 9, he illustrates this promise. Verse 10, he illustrates it again. He essentially says the same thing 6 different times in 6 different ways. I mean, you can really hear his heart here.
Joel Brooks:He's just going, pray. Just pray. Now I want us to notice the increasing intensity of how we are to pray. We're to first ask, and then we are to seek, and then we are to knock. And these are not synonyms.
Joel Brooks:There's an ascending order of emphasis given here. And there are times where prayer looks like asking. Just kinda love those times. You ask. God gives.
Joel Brooks:Jesus says there's times that prayer looks like that. So then there's times where prayer looks like seeking. And the word there, it it it means scouring. Where you're you're diligently seeking. You're scouring.
Joel Brooks:It's what you do when you lose something precious to you and you're looking all over the place for it. And, can can I just say it's not here in Greek, but it should be. It means scour like a mom. Alright? Not like a dad or a child.
Joel Brooks:Okay? You scour like a mom. Man, I can't tell you how many times our children, or or or me, will go up to Lauren and we're like, we can't find anything this thing anywhere. She's like, have you checked your pocket? And I'm like, what do you know?
Joel Brooks:Like, there it is. I once lost my wedding ring, and I was throwing a football on some field someplace back when I actually had a good shoulder and could throw. And, and I just looked down. My wedding ring was gone. It just fell off.
Joel Brooks:And so I did the, the husband search. Like, I don't see it anywhere. Like, I guess I gotta get you ringed. And I tell Lauren about it, and Lauren's like, no. And she scours.
Joel Brooks:She's looking all she doesn't find it. She goes in. She gets a metal detector. Lauren is going all up and down the field, and then she finds the ring. Scours for it.
Joel Brooks:That's what Jesus says. Sometimes prayer looks like that. We have to scour. There's times that God seems hidden. We know he's out there somewhere, but we just can't readily find him.
Joel Brooks:Look and look and look and scour until you find him. And then there are times that we have to knock. We have to just keep knocking on that door. In Luke 11, Jesus gives us, an illustration about prayer in which he talks about a man going to a neighbor's house because he needs something and he just knocks on that neighbor's house. And of course, the neighbor's in bed, it's midnight, doesn't want to come.
Joel Brooks:He says, you just keep knocking, and you just keep knocking, and you knocking, and eventually, that neighbor's gonna get up just because he wants you to shut up. He's gonna come to the door. Now, you don't knock when you believe no one's home. You knock because you know somebody's on the other side of that door, And you knock and you knock and you knock. But Jesus isn't like that sleeping neighbor.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is there, ready and willing to open the door. Matter of fact, in Revelation, he switches the analogy and it's Jesus who's knocking on our door, asking us to come in. But sometimes prayer is like that for us. We knock and we knock and we knock. I want you to notice something about all three of these words.
Joel Brooks:Ask, seek, knock. All of them imply need. Need is what drives us to prayer. Jesus is saying unless we recognize our need, we're not going to pray. Or another way of putting it is this, unless we are poor in spirit, we will not pray.
Joel Brooks:But if we see ourselves as wealthy in spirit or not having need, we're we're not going to pray. But those who see their need, see their poverty, come to the Lord in prayer. If you were not praying like you know you should, it's probably because you believe you're spiritually middle class or possibly spiritually wealthy. Those who know their poverty can't help but pray. Some of you might be thinking that, if we just always come to God asking for things, Isn't that really selfish?
Joel Brooks:And the answer is no. Absolutely no. That's not selfishness. That's worship. Asking God for things is an expression of worship and an expression of praise.
Joel Brooks:I shared this story a few years ago. It's about Alexander the Great. Most of the stories about him are legendary. This might be, it might not, I'm not sure. But one of his generals had a daughter who was getting married.
Joel Brooks:And so needed money like any dad would would need money when their daughters are getting married. I have 3. Pray for me. And so goes to Alexander the Great. He's gonna ask for money.
Joel Brooks:And Alexander the Great says, you've been a great general. Yes. I'll give you money for your daughter's wedding. And he just tells one of his servants to take care of it. And so this man, this father spends an enormous sum of money on this wedding.
Joel Brooks:And the servant comes back to Alexander the Great and is scared of his reaction when he gives him the final tab. But he finally, he shows him the tab and Alexander the Great's reaction is, oh, isn't this wonderful? And the servant's confused. He goes, oh. He treated me as both generous, as a generous and wealthy king.
Joel Brooks:The greater the ask, the more we honor the person we ask. When we come to God with these little requests, we treat Him as small and powerless, but when we come to him asking these enormous things, he says, oh how wonderful. You're treating me as a generous and a wealthy king. We give honor and we give praise to Him when we come to Him with these ask. We always come to God as the giver.
Joel Brooks:He's the giver. We come and we receive. Luke 18 gives us Jesus gives us another illustration about prayer and it's of 2 people who go to the temple to pray. One of them is a pharisee. The other is a tax collector.
Joel Brooks:And the pharisee gets up there and he prays at the temple and he just reminds God of everything he's doing. Says I'm tithing. I'm fasting. And he reminds God of that. And then you have this tax collector who comes and all he brings is his sin.
Joel Brooks:And he asked for mercy. And God says, it's the tax collector who went home justified. If you come to God trying to be the giver, you bring no honor and glory to Him and you walk away condemned. But if you come to God poor and needy and asking, you walk away being forgiven and He is praised and glorified. God's the giver.
Joel Brooks:We're the ones who receive. Now let's look at the illustration that Jesus gives about prayer. Verses 9 says, 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 I think I love how Jesus just slips side in.
Joel Brooks:I mean, he just literally just If you then, who are evil people, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? Jesus tells us that if we who are evil, if we know how to give good gifts to our children, just think what a actual good heavenly father is gonna do for us. Children do not think twice about asking their parents for anything. They they don't think twice about it. And Jesus is saying, you should not hesitate to go to your father and ask.
Joel Brooks:And it's really this father child dynamic which is a great way for us to understand why sometimes God answers our prayers and why sometimes he doesn't. When Lauren and I, we had our first child Caroline, you know, we're new parents. We're fresh out of the box. Everything's shiny new. And, we were resolved.
Joel Brooks:We said, we're going to say yes way more than we say no to our child. You know, because when we grew up, our parents were always saying no, no, no. And we're gonna be the yes parents. And perhaps some of you who dedicated your children, you're bright eyed out of the box right now and you're thinking, that's what I wanna do is say yes, way more than I say no. Now I just wanna say you are so naive.
Joel Brooks:Like, you you are so so naive. I appreciate that you wanna be kind and you want to be generous to your child, but you also want to keep your child alive. We say no 10, 20, 30 times more than we say yes as parents. Sometimes we don't even finish hearing the request and we're like, no, I don't even know what it is, but I can see the gleam in your eye. No.
Joel Brooks:No. You cannot get up on the roof with daddy. No. You cannot help daddy with the grill. No, you can't touch that.
Joel Brooks:No, you cannot play with permanent markers. No, you cannot go outside without any clothes on. No. You cannot have a pocket knife. No.
Joel Brooks:You cannot help dad cut wood. No. You cannot use the chainsaw. I mean, we're always saying no no no. And the reason is this, because rarely, if ever, does a child come up to you and go, Mom, Dad, I was wondering if could I talk to you about something?
Joel Brooks:You're like, Yeah. I'd like to ask you, is it okay if I go in my room and quietly read a picture book? No child asks that. They're they're asking for things that might harm them. One time I was, I was I was drinking a little bourbon for medicinal purposes only.
Joel Brooks:And so I'm, I I I I'm drinking some some bourbon and and and one of my children's like, dad, it was actually 2 of them. They're, dad, can we have some? I'm like, no. And they're asking like, no. And so we had a fire going and I got a little and just spit it in the fire and just goes and they look at and they're, like, god, please, can we have some?
Joel Brooks:Like Like like, no. Like, we we ask for things that will ultimately harm us. Jesus, the the main theme he's putting here before us is we have a father who's generous and kind and who longs to give us things. But because he's a father and he's kind and he's good, we know that he's not gonna give us everything. He will not give us ultimately the things that will harm us.
Joel Brooks:And that there are gonna be times that we seek. We ask and we seek and we knock and the answer is going to be no. But Jesus here, he encouraged us to pray because we have a good father. But it's because of that relationship, Now every person in here, I'm sure, has experienced God saying no at some point. And if we were to be honest, we would probably say, sometimes this has been devastating to us.
Joel Brooks:And it's caused us really to doubt everything. I mean, in this room, I know there's people who have prayed for healing and they haven't received it. There is people who've prayed for a job and they didn't get it. There's people who've prayed for all sorts of things and you've prayed fervently for them and you haven't heard anything. And I don't wanna sugar coat over all of that.
Joel Brooks:I I've I've heard all of the answers. I've I've heard them all. I've I've heard, you know, God hasn't said no. He's just saying wait. Which might be true, might not.
Joel Brooks:Or, I've heard the, God, He answered, just not in the way you were expecting. Or you're asking, you know, probably with the wrong motives. But I think the best understanding we have is of how a father relates to their child. It's the best way we have to understand prayer. If a father doesn't give a child what he or she asked for, it's not because the father doesn't want to do it.
Joel Brooks:And we know for our heavenly father, it's not because he lacks the resources. He's got the resources. It's because He's not gonna give us anything that will harm us. It's because He understands the big picture in a way we do not. And so He'll give us the answer no.
Joel Brooks:Now sometimes, my children, they have had meltdowns. Probably their biggest meltdowns have been when they have asked for something and I've said no, because I knew it wasn't for their good. And they've gone off saying that I was a terrible dad. Didn't care about them at all. They would have some kind of tantrum and they go off to the room.
Joel Brooks:We sometimes do that to God and we doubt his goodness. We doubt his kindness. We doubt his graciousness to us. But he's a father and he loves his children. And hear me, we never ever have to doubt God's heart or his goodness to us.
Joel Brooks:Never in light of the cross. I received 2 texts this past week. Both of them were very similar. They're going through a a pretty significant trial And they both said, it's caused them to doubt. Just wonder whether God is good or not.
Joel Brooks:And my response has been, we never ever have to doubt it in light of the cross. Ever. What more can God give than the gift of his son? Is there any greater way that our heavenly father could show his care and his concern by giving his precious own son to us? We know the verse, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?
Joel Brooks:Never ever doubt that God's goodness. And the most gracious thing that God has given us is his spirit and our sonship. The most gracious thing that God has given us is the relationship we have that we get to call Him father. In Luke's version of the sermon on the mount, which is really the sermon on the plain, it ends with not, Jesus saying, how much more will your Father who's in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him. He says, how much more will your Father in Heaven give His spirit to those who ask Him.
Joel Brooks:So we have Matthew here and the sermon on the mount is really pulling out what we get and Luke is really pulling out the source of who gives it. The most precious thing we have is a gift of God's spirit and we know from Galatians that that spirit allows us to say, Abba Father. The relationship that we now enjoy with him. So I wanna encourage you, church. Pray.
Joel Brooks:Pray. Focus on the generosity and the kindness and the love of your father and pray to him. Pray with me now. Jesus, thank you for taking the time not to teach us not what to say or how to say it, but to teach us whom we should talk to, where we should carry all of our burdens and anxieties and our desires. Thank you for teaching us about the generosity and wealth and kindness of our father.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for not giving guilt as a motivator to go to pray, but instead, just lifting up who our heavenly father is, in such a way that we long to go to him. And I pray that you would make us a people who take full advantage of being a child of God. We pray this all in the strong name of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
