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This is the manuscript of the ninth and final sermon in the "Listening To Heaven's Infallible Teacher" series from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapters 5-7.
Matthew 7:7 NIV “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Prayer is for real! It cannot be explained away psychologically as an expression of wishful thinking. It can't be ignored as the residual of some ancient social custom. Prayer is neither child’s play, nor is it a religious exercise. It is as much a part of life as breath itself. Prayer is first a relationship. It’s a dynamic conversation between two individuals who love, care for and enjoy one another. It is an interaction between you and God.
In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ unequivocally said, “Prayer is for real! Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you
In this assertion that prayer is for real, Jesus offered a pattern, a promise, and a proof (3 Ps).
Scripture:
Luke 18:1-14 NIV Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Sermon Scripture
Matthew 7:7-11 NIV “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Text
Matthew 7:7 NIV: ““Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Introduction
Personal comments
Prayer is for real! It cannot be explained away psychologically as an expression of wishful thinking. It can't be ignored as the residual of some ancient social custom. Prayer is neither child’s play, nor is it a religious exercise. It is as much a part of life as breath itself.
If you surveyed books on prayer in a Christian bookstore, you'd find varied and often conflicting advice. Some authorities insist that successful prayer is scheduled; others favor impromptu prayer. One writer says fasting should accompany prayer, but another tells us to pray in any circumstance. Still another says that prayer is best done when alone, though someone else urges us to join with others. Some claim that prayer requires careful preparation and thought, while a conflicting authority says prayer should flow spontaneously from our hearts.
Prayer is first a relationship. It’s a dynamic conversation between two individuals who love, care for and enjoy one another.
It is an interaction between you and God.
But the question still comes, though often unspoken, “Can we, in a scientific age, continue to believe in prayer?” This question is not unique to today. People have always questioned the value and effectiveness of prayer, even in the time of Christ. Some have honest doubts, some are skeptics, and still others question the value of prayer because they have observed professing Christians misusing prayer.
Naming and claiming stuff in prayer out of selfishness.
In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ unequivocally said, “Prayer is for real! Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you
In this assertion that prayer is for real, Jesus offered a pattern, a promise, and a proof (3 Ps).
First the pattern.
Jesus offered a pattern for prayer in Matthew 7:7, our text today. It is a pattern of asking, seeking, and knocking. The followers of Christ recognized that he, more than any other person, could teach them how to pray.
Luke 11:1 NIV One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
They were fascinated with his preaching, yet they never asked him to teach them how to preach. They would sit for hours and listen to him teach, yet they never asked him to instruct them in how to teach. But when they heard him pray, they came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray”
He more than anyone else could give the perfect pattern.
Jesus continues to stand as the supreme authority on prayer. His whole life was immersed in the spirit of prayer. He knows what it can accomplish, and he knows the power it can apply to any situation. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus outlined the pattern to be followed. Ask, seek, and knock.
A. “Ask.”
To ask means that we acknowledge our need and admit our own helplessness. We all experience times when we can only come before Christ asking. We are very much like a blind person on a corner who asks for someone to take them safely across the street. He asks and at the same time has nothing to offer in return.
When we pray we can't be self righteous like the Pharisee in one of Jesus' parables. Jean read it for us this morning.
Luke 18:9-12 NIV To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Well, prayer has nothing to do with personal merit or the promise of doing better in the future. Real prayer is expressed in the words of the tax collector.
Luke 18:13 NIV “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Asking means that we acknowledge that we have a need.
When we ask for something, we have to address our need to a person. We can't ask some inanimate object for a response. So, when we pray, we address ourselves not to a thing, but to a personal God who hears and cares.
In telling us to ask Jesus was saying that God is always approachable. He is present with his ears open, and his hands extended. Remember what I said earlier, prayer is a relationship. It is an interaction between you and God. It’s a dynamic conversation between two individuals who love, care for and enjoy one another.
Asking also means that we can pray specifically.
Philippians 4:6 NIV Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Max Lucado, one of my favorite authors gives three reasons to be specific in prayer
A specific prayer is a serious prayer. If I say to you, “Do you mind if I come by your house sometime?” you may not take me seriously. But suppose I say, “Can I come over this Friday night? I have a problem at work, and I really need your advice. I can be there at seven, and I promise I will leave by eight.” Then you know my petition is sincere. When we offer specific requests, God knows we are sincere.
Specific prayer is an opportunity for us to see God at work. When we see Him respond in specific ways to specific requests, our faith grows. Let me give you an example. The book of Genesis relates the wonderful prayer of Abraham’s servant. He was sent to Mesopotamia, Abraham’s homeland, to find a wife for Abraham’s son. How does a servant select a wife for someone else? This servant prayed about it.
Genesis 24:12–14 NLT “O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham. See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug.’ If she says, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’—let her be the one you have selected as Isaac’s wife. is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.” —
Could the servant have been more detailed? He asked for success in his endeavor. He envisioned an exact dialogue, and then he stepped forth in faith. Then scripture says,
Genesis 24:17-20 NLT Running over to her, the servant said, “Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.” “Yes, my Lord,” she answered, “have a drink.” And she quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink. When she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough to drink.” So she quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw water for all his camels.
Wow she said the exact words. The servant had an answered prayer. He saw God at work.
Specific prayer creates a lighter load for us to carry. Many of our anxieties are threatening because they are ill defined and vague. If we can reduce the challenge into a phrase, we bring it down to size. It is one thing to pray, Lord, please bless my meeting tomorrow. It is another thing to pray, Lord, I have a conference with my supervisor at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. She intimidates me.Would you please grant me a spirit of peace so I can sleep well tonight? Grant me wisdom so I can enter the meeting prepared. And would You soften her heart toward me and give her a generous spirit? Help us have a gracious conversation in which both of us benefit and Your name is honored. What you have done by being specific is you have reduced the problem into a prayer-sized challenge.
Now this doesn't mean that we can make demands or put conditions on our prayers. I am also not suggesting that
the power of prayer is in chanting the right formula or quoting some secret code.
Don't think for a moment that the power of prayer is in the way we present it. God is not manipulated or impressed by our formulas or eloquence. But He is moved by the sincere request. After all, He is our Father, and as His children we honor Him when we tell him exactly what we need.
We don't have to filter out our requests before offering them to God, but like a little child, we are to open our hearts to God. He is a good and loving Father who will answer those requests that he knows are best for us. And he will answer them in such a way as to fulfill his will for us.
Matthew 6:9-10 NIV “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
To pray is to seek God’s will. Many times we do not know what God’s will is, so we simply let our request be made known and ask God to grant it only according to his will. This way we can pray with confidence, knowing that if we pray according to God’s will, he will hear us.
B. Ask then “Seek.”
Seeking requires effort. In the model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, in which Christ told us to pray for our daily bread, he was not instructing us to sit down and passively do nothing.
Matthew 6:11 NIV Give us today our daily bread.
Rather, he was indicating that we should ask God to give us the opportunity to earn our daily bread. When a farmer prays this prayer, it means that he is asking for the opportunity to prepare the ground, plant seed, cultivate the crops, and tend the plants.
And when we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying that we will become so committed in the matter of personal soul winning and building up one another that God’s kingdom will be consummated soon.
C. Ask, seek and “Knock.”
The third step in Christ’s pattern of prayer is to knock. Knocking carries with it the concept of effort plus persistence. Jesus illustrated this with the story of a man who continued to knock late at night on his neighbor’s door until the man got up and honored his request.
Luke 11:5-8 NIV Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
So here's the question, How long must we keep on praying?
Here's the answer, pray until the answer comes.
Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Luke 18:1-5 NIV Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”
So the pattern is ask, seek, knock.
II. There's A promise that comes if we follow the pattern
Matthew 7:8 NIV For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
In Matthew 7:8 Jesus offered us the promise that if we ask, we will receive; and if we really seek, we will find; and if we continue to knock, the door will be opened to us. The verbs ask, seek, and knock are present imperatives. This means that Jesus is telling us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. We are never to be discouraged in prayer.
God promises that he will always answer our prayers. He may not answer them in our way, but he will always answer them in his way, which is the best way. He alone has perfect love, perfect understanding, and perfect wisdom.
The question is, “Who is this promise made to?” It is certainly not a blank check written out to everyone in general. It is a promise made to followers of Christ who are sincere enough to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. Prayer is for real when the pattern is followed and the promise is accepted. But keep in mind we can only be confident in this if our prayer is in God's will for us.
III. We have the pattern, ask, seek, and knock, we have the promise if we follow the pattern now here's the Proof.
Matthew 7:9-11 NIV “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
The proof is in these 3 verses. Here Jesus used the analogy of a father responding to the request of his son. Then he drove home the point that if we as frail, sinful human beings desire to answer our children’s requests, our heavenly Father surely desires to answer the requests we bring to him.
Proof that prayer is for real is found in the God to whom we pray. It is found in his nature, his resources, his wisdom, and his love.
Conclusion
Prayer can become real in your life if you follow these simple steps: First, decide what your need is and get it clearly focused in your mind. Second, in light of what Scripture teaches, determine if your desire is right.
As you talk to God, get in such a place or such a state of mind that other things will not distract you. Remember that you are talking to God and not to a human being. Share with God what you will do to help bring about the answer to your own prayer. Answered prayer is more often a cooperative effort between a person and God than simply unilateral action on the part of God.
God has graciously chosen to give us the privilege of being His partners in both the physical and spiritual areas of life. Through prayer we work with Him in defeating the powers of evil and in bringing about the fulfillment of His loving purposes in the world. God established the partnership from the very beginning.
Genesis 1:28 (NLT)28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Genesis 2:15 (NLT)15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT)20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
God has a long history of accomplishing His will through people. Often having the people who have been doing the praying do the work.
When Jesus was teaching His disciples, He left no doubt as to who God would rely on to carry out the work of His kingdom.
Luke 10:1-3 (NKJV)1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.2 Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.
God does very little on earth without you. When we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth” we are opening ourselves up to being used by God for Him to accomplish just those things. We all have a role to play and so that we can perform that role we have been given talents and spiritual gifts.
Ephesians 4:11-16 (NKJV)11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Since we are in a partnership and we know who the stronger and more dominant partner is we want Him to do the heavy lifting and He does but prayer shows that we want to and are willing to do our part, no matter how small that may be.
Prayer is consenting to cooperate with God. He works with us He doesn’t overpower us.
Since we are in a partnership and we know who the stronger and more dominant partner is we want Him to do the heavy lifting and He does but prayer shows that we want to and are willing to do our part, no matter how small that may be.
Prayer is consenting to cooperate with God. He works with us He doesn’t overpower us.
Matthew 6:10 (NKJV)10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
This is what the partnership is all about. Prayer is God’s way of getting His will done on earth. The emphasis is His will not ours. God takes our requests which we through prayer and meditation become our desires which should match God’s desires for us. When we pray we should be asking God what actions He wants us to take as His partners.
When your prayer is finished, never forget to be grateful to God and express that gratitude through thanksgiving. Be willing to accept God’s answer, whatever it may be, remembering that God’s will is always best.
Partners with God—what a privilege! What an incentive to pray!
Invitation for Salvation
I heard a story once about a man who worked for a train company. He manned a junction booth at an old bridge that crossed over a river. He had to manually operate the rail switches on the dated bridge tracks, otherwise the train was likely to derail and go careening off the bridge.
The man had a preschool-age son who loved to accompany his daddy to work. He was fascinated by trains and enjoyed watching them as they passed by. Sometimes he’d even get to sit in his dad’s lap and help operate the switch controls. It was the perfect playground for a little boy.
One day the boy was standing down by the river when a train was approaching the bridge. As the boy took a few steps out so he could better see the train, he tripped and tumbled headlong into the swirling waters. His father, seated in the control booth, saw the accident and knew immediately that he had only a few seconds to act before his son would be out of reach. He also knew with gut-wrenching clarity that he could not retrieve his son and get back to the booth in time to secure the train’s safe passage over the bridge. If he went for his son, the train would probably derail, fly off the bridge, and kill all the passengers on board. . After a brief pause, the girl continued. “I’ve been told that that’s what God did for me, that basically he sent his Son to die on a brutal cross so I wouldn’t have to. I’m not sure I understand it all, but if that’s true, if that’s what God is like, then that’s the God I want to believe.”
