Disciples of Jesus Christ are citizens of a glorious kingdom and they look forward to an eternal home where all is good and all is right. But disciples of Jesus Christ also live in a world that has been defaced by sin. They encounter grief and treachery with a regularity that seems to be unending. Not only do they find within themselves a war-like struggle against temptation and sin, but they are surrounded on every side by people living in rebellion against their creator, who are ready enough to direct their hatred against God toward his children in this world. Jesus was sitting on a hillside in Galilee. His disciples were seated around him and a vast crowd on the periphery. He was well aware of the struggles his disciples would face. They would follow him. They would follow their master. where the world would hate the master and so the world would hate his disciples. And Jesus prepares them for that reality that they face. He, in these words, prepares us for that reality, for that daily struggle of living as disciples of Jesus Christ in a sinful world. There's an enmity against God. Jesus provides for us principles by which to live and in Matthew chapter 7 for the most part he is speaking about the need for discernment. Discernment particularly in how we relate to those around us because we must all face God at his judgment seat. We will all be examined and judged by him according to our deeds whether good or evil. Now we've seen in our studies that we are to live among our brothers in the church with appropriate humility. Recognizing that we are all sinners, all in need of God's grace and patience, all in need of each other's love. That we are to be long-suffering with one another and kind towards each other as we deal with our own sins and as we help our brothers and sisters to gain the victory over theirs through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have seen that at the same time, as we live in this world of wickedness, we need to exercise discernment in our relationships, knowing that the wicked may not only reject our attempts to share the gospel with them, but they may turn and attack us, either with words or worse. We'll see later in this chapter that there are those who are false prophets who will seek to lead the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ astray. And so great discernment is needed for we live in a world of wickedness and treachery and in facing these realities Jesus taught his disciples that they are not alone. They're not to lean upon their own understanding. They're not to proceed in their own strength, but they have recourse to divine resources which are theirs for the asking. And that is the focus of our text this morning in chapter 7 of Matthew and verses 7 through 11, where Jesus says, 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 to the one who knocks it will be opened. 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, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? I want you to notice first, the good news that God speaks. Good news for disciples, good news for followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who will inevitably face trouble in this world, who will certainly face persecution in this world, who definitely will come across those who will hate them in this world, who will find that they have obstacles strewn across their way as they seek to walk through this world, honoring the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and the Father as God in heaven. God speaks good news to such people. They have help at hand. In every turn along the way, in every confrontation with sinners, they have the resources of their Father in heaven. All they have to do is ask. All they must do is seek, all they need to do is knock. They'll receive, they'll find, it will be open to them. All that they need will be provided for them. They have access to divine help. When all around them, all the wicked who are seeking to do them harm, all those who would reject their witness, all those who scoff at and scorn, all who would seek to harm them, the best that they can do is to draw on the help of Satan, who is but a creature. whose strength is finite, whose knowledge is limited. Whereas we have access to the infinite God who knows everything and who has all power so that nothing can stand in his way, nothing can divert him, his course nothing is able to overwhelm him or slow him down or prevent him from meeting a need that he has in which he has determined to help. We have divine help at hand and all we need to do Jesus says is to ask for that help in our need and we will receive it such a simple thing and you know the biggest problem, the biggest hindrance to us asking is not the difficulties that we face as insurmountable as that may seem to us at the time and we may wonder well what can God do about this? Because we see no way through, we think that God can't see any way through. That's not actually the biggest problem. The biggest problem is simply that we're unwilling to ask. It might be by reason of pride. that we think we have the knowledge and the understanding and the means by which to resolve this situation and navigate our way through it all. And so we lean upon ourselves, we look to ourselves, we draw upon our own resources rather than drawing on the resources of heaven. It may be that we don't ask because we're so caught up in this world that our relationship with God is, is wanting. There is something missing. We're not used to communicating with him. We're not used to talking with him. And so in the moment of our greatest need, we do not think to call to him, to cry out to him. It may be that we do not cry out to him because we're unsure about him. We're not confident in our relationship to him. We don't know whether he will help us and so we don't even bother asking him to help us. But Jesus is telling his disciples they can ask, they must ask and if they ask they will receive. Over and over again the New Testament tells us that but over and over again the New Testament qualifies that as well. In John chapter 15 for example and in verse 7 Jesus said to his disciples, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. There you see is the relationship that must be maintained. He has given them the picture of a vine and its branches and it's evident isn't it that If a branch is detached from the vine, it will die, for it gains all of its nourishment from the vine. But if the branch is there, even one that has been grafted into the vine will survive. And as it remains in the vine, it will bear fruit. And that's the context then of what Jesus is saying to his disciples. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. There's a living relationship between the disciple and his master. between the believer and his saviour and it is this living relationship that grants the basis on which prayer will be answered. But there's more to that statement that Jesus makes there which is perhaps clarified by John in his first letter. In 1st John and chapter 3 He says in verse 22, whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what he pleases, what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So abiding has to do with a living relationship that involves obedience. It is a living in harmony with God, living a life of peace with God. To abide then is to know God and to walk with him. and those who do so, those who are walking with God, in union with God, will always be talking to God and will find that God is listening to them and that God answers them. James also speaks into this situation where he writes in James chapter 4 and verses 2 and 3 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend on your passions. And so it is possible that someone may ask and not receive. And it is because they ask amiss. They are asking wrongly. And so this statement that Jesus makes, ask and it will be given to you for everyone who asks, receives, must be understood to be a qualified statement. It's not an absolute statement. It's not that God is your little genie in a bottle and whenever you ask him, he gives you what you wish. If we're abiding in him, he will give us what we wish. Because in our abiding in him, our keeping his commandments, our walking in his footsteps, we are seeking his glory, we're seeking to do his will. Our minds and our hearts and our desires are in harmony with the mind of Christ, with the will of Christ. And when that is the case, then we can have absolute certainty that what we ask, we will receive. And so perhaps, the asking isn't quite such a simple thing after all. Just to ask, well that's easy. But to ask according to the will of God, Now, that's a little more difficult. And so Jesus doesn't just say, ask and it will be given to you, but he also says, seek and you will find. If you're searching, if you're desiring to know and to understand the will of God, If in a situation that you're uncertain of, your first desire is to know the mind of God concerning it, then you will seek him. You will seek to understand him, to know him, that you might know his will. When Jesus speaks of seeking, he's speaking of effort. It's not just looking. It's not just a glance out of the corner of the eye. Jesus told parables elsewhere of those who sought the shepherd, whose sheep had wandered off. He didn't just look over the fields, he went out and he searched for his sheep. The lady who had lost her coin, she didn't just glance around the room wondering where it was, But she searched, she moved the furniture, she went hunting for it in every crack and crevice that it might have fallen into until she had found it. It took effort. And so there is effort required as we seek God's help. That we might know his will and therefore pray with confidence. Proverbs has provided us with so much wisdom for living our lives in this world and in chapter 8 and in verses 12 through 17 we read, I wisdom dwell with prudence and I find knowledge and discretion The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance are the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom. I have insight. I have strength. By me kings reign and rulers decree what is just. By me princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. We desire wisdom, then we must seek for wisdom. And we must of course seek it in the right place, we must seek it in the word of God. For this is the revelation of his heart to us. This is how we discover his mind. This is how we know his will, through his word. Which is why Paul, writing to the church in Rome in chapter 12 and verse 2 says, do not be conformed to this world. They may seek after wisdom, they may seek knowledge and understanding, but they don't seek it in God's Word. They don't seek it from the one who is omniscient, who knows all things. They seek it within the world of which they are a part. Do not be conformed to this world, which is led astray by Satan's deception. But, Paul says, be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. We can know the will of God. As we face any circumstance in our lives, God doesn't leave us in the dark. Our circumstances not a surprise to him however much they may take us by surprise. We are where we are in the situation we find ourselves because of his will, because under his sovereignty he has brought us there at that time to that place with the surrounding setting that we face. He knows, and he knows everything that we need in that moment. And every situation that we face, where we struggle, and where we are tempted perhaps to give in, to give up, to no longer follow, to no longer abide. It's too hard, it's too difficult, it's too traumatic. There's always a way of escape. For God is there, he is in it. It is by his will. And so in his word, we may discover his will. We may know the right way, the right response. And so we may ask once we've sought and found. But seeking, seeking can sometimes be a long process. We may think that we've looked in every crack and every cranny. We may have circled the whole room looking for the lost coin and we've not yet found it. And so we do it again. Maybe we missed something. Maybe there's a corner of the couch, a cushion that we didn't lift, that we thought we had. We need to go back. We need to search again and perhaps again and perhaps again and again and again. And so Jesus says, not only must you ask and seek, but you must knock. You must knock on the door. To awaken the one inside must persist in knocking until they respond, that's the picture that Jesus gives in the parallel passage in Luke chapter 11 where he says in verse 5, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer him from within. Don't bother me. The door's shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, Jesus says, though he will not get up and give him anything because he's his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. There's this man, he's knocking and he's knocking and he's not taking no for an answer. That's the picture, that's the scene that we have. And Jesus is saying that we need to knock and persist and be patiently persevering as we seek God's will and as we cry to him for help. Jesus himself says in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20 that he was knocking as it were on the door of the church of Laodicea. He was knocking there and they weren't hearing he was knocking away and and they weren't responding knock knock knock and he kept knocking and he said if anyone will let me in. I will sit with him and sup with him. We'll have fellowship together and there'll be such joy and such peace. And that's what we want. We want to know fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of every situation that we find ourselves. We want to know him and his presence with us. We want to know his mind and his will for that situation. And so we knock and we knock and we persevere in knocking. Later on in Luke in chapter 18 and verse 1, Jesus will say, always pray and do not lose heart, do not faint, do not give up. It's this persistence in prayer. So yes, ask and it will be given to you, but perhaps not straight away. Seek and you will find but perhaps not immediately. Not until you've had a time in which you needed to knock on the door. This isn't because Jesus is playing games with us. He's not hiding from us. He is always accessible to us. but he knows our hearts and he knows our needs and sometimes the greater need for us is not an immediate answer to our prayers but a yearning for him, a desire for him. Sometimes it might be that if he answered our prayer immediately at first asking, we would hardly give a thought to him, we'd be on our way with hardly a thanks to him. Whatever God does, however God works, he is good. And that's the second thing that we observe in these verses, the good father that God is. Jesus gives an illustration, an illustration of an earthly father. and he talks about a son coming to ask this earthly father for bread and he says, what father would give a stone when his son is hungry and asking for bread? What father will give a poisonous snake when his son is asking for fish to satisfy his hunger? Even you, even you who are evil, not in an absolute sense, but the reality of each one is a sinner, each one for short. There is no perfect father who always does what is right, but even the worst knows something of the needs of his children. And Jesus is saying, but your father in heaven, Your father in heaven is not an evil father, he's not a fallen father, he's not a father who even just occasionally makes mistakes and doesn't live up to expectations. He is a good father, good in all of his ways, good in all of his works. We could spend the whole morning Thinking about the good works of God that flow out of the good heart of God. Because God is infinitely good. Not limited in any of his goodness. His goodness is immeasurable. You can never find the boundaries of his goodness. And so as a disciple of Jesus Christ you can never step out of the sphere of his goodness. Which is in part why the sun falls both on the just and the unjust. The rain falls and the sun shines to bless both out of the goodness of God who meets the needs of his creatures. Well how much more then? for those who are his children, they are his children through regeneration, his children through rebirth. John speaks much about that in his opening prologue to his gospel. In John chapter 1 and verses 12 and 13 he says, to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And as Jesus later in John chapter 3, Speaking to Nicodemus says you must be born again. It doesn't matter how much knowledge you have. It doesn't matter how much of the scriptures you've memorized and how much you quote and how much you're able to apply to any given circumstance of your life and you know where it works out and how it is to be obeyed. It doesn't matter you need to be born again or your heart is dead. It is stony, it is corrupt, it needs to be renewed, it needs to be regenerated. And so this good God has shown such love to this world that he sent his own son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, a regenerated life. Born again by the infinite Spirit of God to a life that is eternal. Another way that we have been made sons of God is through adoption. That we have been adopted into the family of God. Jesus Christ is uniquely the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God. But he is the firstborn of many brothers, all the others having been adopted into the family of God. As Paul tells the Ephesians in chapter 1. And verses 3 through 5, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. We have been adopted into the family of God, we are his children. By new birth we are his children by adoption. How good God is that we should be called children. And as his children he loves us, he loves us so deeply, he loves us so enduringly that he promises that he will never forsake us, no one will ever take us away from him. He will hold us as it were in his hands. He will not let us fall. He will not let anyone snatch us away from him. He loves us so deeply. He loves us so deeply that he corrects us. He doesn't let us continue in sin. He lets the world continue in sin. They who've rejected him, denied him, blasphemed him, rebelled against him, desiring nothing to do with him, satisfied in their own strength and living according to their own will, whatever that may lead them to. He leaves them. He gives them over to their lusts, Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1. He lets them go their way, he lets them choose their destiny, as mistaken as they are in believing that it will be good. But for his children, he doesn't let them go. He doesn't let them go their own way. When they make wrong choices, sinful choices, he comes and he corrects them. And he disciplines them. This is what the writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 12. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they discipline for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The goodness of God is seen in his correcting us. in his disciplining us, in his not leaving us over to our own desires but teaching us his will, his way so that our desires may be brought in line with his and we may know the fullness of joy that that brings and the great fruitfulness in our lives and the peace and the hope that will never be put to shame. God is good, he's good in his love demonstrated in salvation, he's good in his love demonstrated in our sonship and because we're his children and he loves us so deeply, of course he'll provide for us, he'll give us the bread, he'll give us the fish, He'll give us according to our needs. For He who, at the beginning, in saving us, gave His own unique Son, His only begotten Son, to be the propitiation for our sins, to free us from all our condemnation that we deserved, if He has done for that, that for us, as Paul says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 32, He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? And so we have this confidence that our God is on our side, that he loves us, and that he is good in all that he does, and he is seeking our good, he's seeking our well-being, And so we have the Father's heart. And we have the Father's power working for us. The good news, God speaks, is that we need simply come to Him. It may take some effort on our part, certainly, but we just need to come to Him. Nowhere else just to him, to the one who truly loves us. No one else loves us like he loves us. And we come to him because he gives good things. So let's observe the good things that God gives. When we ask him, what does God give us? Well, he gives us Everything that is in accordance with His will. Everything that is right and true and noble and good and pure. In 1 John, John writes in chapter 5 and verses 13 through 15, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. So we can have this confidence that as we ask according to his will, he will give us what we ask for. And that's why that search is necessary isn't it? That we may have that confidence. That we might know his will so that we might ask in accordance with his will. And throughout the scriptures there are many things that God has told us is his will for us. That we may ask for and be confident that we may receive from him. Of course it begins at the very beginning of our being children of God, doesn't it? It begins with our salvation, it begins with our request for life. You remember the account of Jesus on a journey to Jerusalem in which he passed through the land of Samaria and being weary and hungry he stopped along the wayside by a city there and as his disciples went into the city looking for food Jesus had knelt down by a well and there came to him a woman to draw water from the well and he entered into conversation with her and in John's Gospel chapter 4 and verses 9 and 10 we read The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. She didn't know him and she didn't know what she really needed. If she had known, she would have asked for living water, life-giving water. Jesus followed up in verse 14, whoever drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. And so we may know with confidence that we can cry out to God for life, for living water, for his saving mercy, That is where we must begin. Our prayers must start there. In acknowledging our need. Our need for God. Our need for a relationship with God. Our need for the life that comes from God. Everything else must follow that. It must not come before it. We mustn't put things in the wrong order. We must first humble ourselves before God, pleading for his salvation. And then, as his children, we may ask him for wisdom. As we read together from the letter of James, in James chapter one, James says in verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him. Ask him for wisdom and you will receive it but you must ask in faith with no doubting. You see you must have the life that feeds upon Christ. that has its anchor in Christ, its foundation in Christ, its basis in Christ. It's not good enough simply to cry out to God and say, God give me wisdom for this circumstance. If you're not in relationship with God, not walking with God, not confident in God, not knowing Christ as your saviour. But if you know him, If you're confident in him, if you're trusting him, he will answer your prayer, he will give you that which you need, the wisdom for that place and for that time. Paul wrote to the Colossians telling them that he prayed for them in chapter 1 and verse 9. From the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. That wisdom that we need for life, for a life of righteousness, We can ask God for it and he promises that he will give it to us. And as Paul indicates there, that wisdom leads to a particular way of life and that particular way of life leads to fruitfulness. And we can seek that, we can ask for that, that our lives may be fruitful. In John's Gospel chapter 15, Jesus himself points us to this when he says in verses 5 to 8, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." We can pray that we may be fruitful. fruitful to the glory of God, fruitful in righteousness. And so as we face this treacherous world, this world full of wickedness, as we face circumstances that puzzle us and confuse us and we're uncertain about, we can ask and we will receive the help that we need to face those circumstances. even though those circumstances may be full of opposition and even persecution. The apostles came to know this very early on in the life of the church, where in Acts chapter 4 we discover that Peter and John were imprisoned and they were commanded not to speak concerning Jesus Christ. and having been beaten and then released, they found where the other disciples were gathered and they went to them and reported all that had been done to them in chapter 4 and verse 23 of Acts. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, Now, Lord, look, verse 29, upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken. and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness. They asked and they received because they asked according to the will of God. And so in Luke's parallel accounts, where Jesus gives similar teaching to that in Matthew chapter 7. In Luke chapter 11, the ultimate good thing that God will give to those who ask him is the Holy Spirit. For he says in Luke 11 and verse 13, If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Now it's true that we receive the Holy Spirit when we're saved. And he indwells us from that point onwards. After Jesus' ascension into heaven he requested the Father to send the Spirit to his disciples and the Spirit was poured out on them on the day of Pentecost as we read in the opening chapters of the book of Acts. And then we find in chapter 4 that they're praying and that the Holy Spirit filled them. And so having been filled with the Holy Spirit they were subsequently filled with the Holy Spirit again, this is a repeated thing. And often through the Scriptures we have this language of the fulfilling of the Spirit at particular points of need, particularly where it concerns the Word of God and the testimony of his people. as it was in this particular case in Acts chapter 4. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. We can face today's trouble with confidence because our God is a good Father. and he is the giver of every good gift, everything that is necessary for us to live well in the midst of our needs, in the midst of the challenges that we face. He is a good and a gracious God who will meet us at our point of need. As we ask him for help, seeking out his will and asking according to it, he will answer. But don't ask just according to your own desires, misplaced desires, selfish desires. Ask according to the glory of God and he will come and he will meet with you. and He will fellowship with you, and all of His strength will be given to you, and all of His wisdom will be yours, and He will help you in that situation, in that place, under those circumstances, to give glory and honour to His name. Let's pray. Father, forgive us for not asking when we ought. Forgive us for our own self-sufficiency and self-confidence. Forgive us for our foolishness in thinking that we know the way. And we pray, dear Lord, that you would help us through your word to look for you, to follow you, to know your will, to walk in it, to ask for that which is consistent with your plan and purpose, to bring glory to your name and good to your people. And so may we walk with you all through our lives, trials and difficulties, confident in the God who is our helper. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.