Good morning to you again. We are in the 7th chapter of Matthew. We are in the latter portion of the Sermon on the Mount. And we've come to verse 7. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. I would submit to you that this is one of the greatest promises in the entire Bible. So important, in fact, that Jesus repeats it. Verse 8, in case you missed it. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. It's an absolute promise. What has come up continually, I hope you've noticed in the Sermon on the Mount, is Jesus' concern that we understand the importance of the biblical view of life and how to have it. What some call a world view or a world and life view, that is seeing all of life as under the Lordship of Jesus. and living into that reality. Now, when that happens, when that happens, when we live and believe as though Jesus is Lord over everything, our life is not primarily defined by what happens to us, but rather what God is doing in and through us. There's an old hymn that ends with the line, I may not know the way I go, but oh, I know my guide. That's the Christian worldview. But very often we don't know the way that we're going. Like Abraham, he went out not knowing whether he went, not knowing where he was going, but he was trusting in God. But we know our guide. We know that Jesus doesn't promise to come in and change everything about our circumstances. Not to remove all problems and all troubles. In fact, in this very Sermon on the Mount, we've heard things like, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you. Say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. But He also tells us that whatever happens, we don't need to fear. We don't need to worry, right? If He feeds birds and makes flowers beautiful, we're going to be under His guidance and goodness. I may not know the way I go, but oh, I know my guide. Now why does Jesus say these words at this point? Verse 7, I'm on page 1118, if you're using one of the Bibles in the pew. Ask and it will be given to you. Why bring in this statement at this point in the sermon? Remember I tried to show you last week that the theme in this chunk of the sermon is judgment. That we're always living life before the face of God. And in chapter 7 so far, we've heard about judging others, that is, condemning people, hating them in our hearts. We've heard about hypocrisy and this metaphor, this analogy about trying to help somebody with the speck in their eye while you've got a plank or a log in your eye. And the standard by which we judge is the standard God measures us. But we still have to be discerning with the precious and the sacred gifts of the Gospel. That was verse 6. Is that not kind of devastating? When you hear these words, judge not, because by the same measure that you judge other people, it'll be used to you. And, oh, by the way, make sure that you're still handling the holy and the sacred well. These are enormous statements. And so the result is, I can't do this. I need help. I need grace. Where can I get it? Jesus has the answer for you. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. These are, in the Greek language, these are present tense imperatives. And in the English language, as it happens. In the language, what's being communicated, many of you know this already, you've heard it before, what's being communicated is this idea of ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking and the door is going to be opened. Now why? The answer is in verse 11. Because our Heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask Him. And so when we know God is our Father, the result will be that we come to Him in confident prayer. And when we come to Him in confident prayer, we have more faith and more confidence that He is our Heavenly Father and He's good. Do you see? It sort of works into this cycle. That the more that we ask, seek, and knock, the more we understand that He's our Father. The more we understand that He's our Father, the more we're going to go to Him asking, seeking, knocking. This is about perseverance and persistence in prayer. Martin Lloyd-Jones once said, the most fatal thing in the Christian life is to be content with your passing desires. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they and only they will be the ones who are satisfied. You see, this is not just pray because you're supposed to. This is persistent prayer. Persistent prayer actually opens your eyes to the goodness of your Father, the goodness of God. The reason why we have trouble with that is, for one thing, we are sinful. And so we have a need to know the depth of our own sinfulness. That's step one. The reason this pattern of knowing that God loves us, knowing that He's our loving Father, and coming to Him in prayer, the reason why this breaks down is because we don't realize how much we need it in our life. That's part of the reason. You see, face to face with the Gospel, the only rational conclusion is that we are broken, we are unworthy. You must be perfect, Jesus said, as your Father in heaven is perfect. That levels us. So how can we find grace and help in a time of need? How can I possibly live up to this? And since it was just Reformation Day a few days ago, I thought it good to quote the last dying words of Martin Luther. And with His last breath, He looked up and said, we're all beggars. That's the truth. You see, only the one who says, what a wretched man that I am, can seek after the deliverance of the Gospel. The first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit. I know I'm spiritually bankrupt. I know I can't live out the Sermon on the Mount. If that was what Jesus was calling me to do, it's over. I'm crushed. I know I can't live out this sermon. I can't even start to live out this sermon. I need grace and help. And our Father says, through His Son, you only need ask. You see, the good news of the Gospel is that God is no longer our enemy. He is, in fact, our Father. But how does that happen? How does God become my Father rather than opposed to me? Well, it's by knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior. Savior from what? from my rebellion against God, sin and death. In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, verses 11 and 12, we read that as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become the sons of God. The children of God. You become a child of God when you're born again. You receive a new nature. And we've sinned against God. We deserve His wrath and punishment. But He's dealt with our sin by sending His Son to die on the cross. And so if I needed any greater evidence that He is my Father, that He's interested in me, that He's concerned about me, that He's watching over me, has a purpose and plan, is always working for my good, for my blessing, for my help, whatever happens, when He looks at me, when God looks at you, if you know Jesus, what He sees, is not what you so often see. What He sees is simply the beauty and perfection of His Son. And so that means His love for you is unbreakable. We have to take hold of this. We have to get a real firm grasp on it. And that's why Jesus gives us this understanding of our relationship to our Father. It's one of asking and seeking and knocking. It's why Jesus phrases His words that way. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. That's why He even repeats Himself. And if you still weren't convinced, He then even makes an analogy to earthly fathers, which we'll get to in a moment. But the first point I wanted to make is about our need before God to know the depth of our sin. And secondly, even after we know Jesus, we need to know the depth of our weakness and our struggle. Specifically, our weakness in trusting in the reality that God really and truly is our Father and that He's good. Again, I'll quote Martin Lloyd-Jones. He said, if you should ask me to state in one phrase what I regard as the greatest defect in most Christian lives, I would say it's our failure to know God as our Father, as we should know Him. That's why he repeats this, because we need the repetition. He repeats a present tense imperative, which means he repeats verbs of ongoing action. He's ongoingly repeating. Why? Because we need it. Because we don't naturally respond, listen, we don't naturally respond to difficult circumstances by asking, seeking, knocking. Usually, we respond to difficult circumstances by panicking, freaking out, getting upset, and then maybe asking. The reason why that happens though is because we have a distorted picture of our Father. You see, that's why Jesus actually says in verse 9, What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then being evil, he calls them evil. Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more is your Father who is in Heaven going to give good things to those who ask Him? Now, the idea of fathers giving stones and snakes to their kids sounds ridiculous. That's why when we hear stories, perhaps, of particularly awful cases of domestic abuse, we are shocked because it ought not be this way. How much more ridiculous is it when we live as though our Heavenly Father who has given His Son for us must somehow be stingy? When the most loving and wisest human father on the planet is but a faint echo of the love and goodness and wisdom of God. Now, what this teaches us then is that our Father, and this is what we have trouble believing, our Father will never give us anything that is evil. Our Father will never give us anything that's evil. On planet Earth, there are lousy fathers. You see them on the news and you hear stories. Jesus is not unaware of that, but it really doesn't do anything to the point that He's trying to make. We need a transformation at the ground level of our hearts about God's attitude toward us. Because of our ongoing fight against sin and temptation and difficulty in the world, we're always tempted to believe that our Heavenly Father isn't really being good. Now, if we compare this to how A child might act toward a father that's failing to be a father. So, if you have, for instance, if there's a father who is extravagantly generous, but just kind of thoughtless about it. Doesn't think about consequences. Whatever you want, you've got. Whatever it is, you name it. Anytime. Anything you want. You just pick it out. Doesn't matter the cost. There will come a time when the child approaches with arrogance, right? Lays down his demands, knowing he will not be refused. On the other end, you might have a child with a stingy, ill-tempered, or even abusive father, who will seldom ask for anything, fearing more and more disappointment, or worse, more and more meaningless punishment. We are given, I think, to either one of those false images of God. Either God as Santa Claus, essentially, right? You behave, you be good, and He'll give you whatever you want. Or, He's not really loving enough. Really, He's just kind of... He's abusive. He's kind of messing with you. He pulls on your heart strings, but doesn't actually deliver anything. It's in those moments when we have to, again, preach to our own heart, saying, you're doubting again, heart. Get a hold of yourself. And that's why Jesus repeats this. We need to hear it. And I think the reason why Jesus talks about asking, seeking, and knocking is that this is mainly experiential. That is, there are times in life, emotionally, spiritually, when you have a sense of the intimacy of God where it is as though you can just look up and ask Him. There are times when He feels distant and you have to seek. That takes a little bit more work. That takes a little bit more energy. That takes a little bit more Stick-to-itiveness. And then there are times when it feels like the door is shut in your face and you have to knock and knock and knock until it opens. D.A. Carson once wrote that the Western world is not characterized by prayer. By and large, to our unspeakable shame, even genuine Christians in the West are not characterized by prayer. That's because our environment loves hustle and bustle, smooth organization, powerful institutions, human self-confidence, new opinions, novel schemes. And the Church of Jesus Christ has conformed so thoroughly to this environment that it's often difficult to see how it differs in these matters from its contemporary paganism. That's why we fast, by the way. Fasting looks really weird to a watching world. It's consumed with, well, consuming. That's why That's why we're doing what we're going to be doing on Tuesday. Because it preaches a different message. That our faith and our hope is not in a political candidate. There's a great song by a singer named Derek Webb. You can look it up when you get home. It's called Savior on Capitol Hill. I recommend it. But Jesus is reasoning here from the lesser to the greater. Right? If he asks for a fish, which of you evil earthly fathers are going to give your kid a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more? Earthly fathers make mistakes. Sometimes you think you're doing what's best for your kid. Turns out to be a mistake. But your father in heaven never makes a mistake like that. Do you see? Never makes a mistake like that. How do I know that? Because the last point that Jesus makes. How much more? If you then, being evil, knowing 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? What is it we receive? If you ask that at the start, ask and you receive, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be opened. Wait a minute, Jesus. Ask and we'll receive what? Seek and we'll find what exactly? Knock and the door is going to be opened to what? What are we going to see when the door gets opened up? It's right there in that verse. We're going to receive the good things. And I want to be careful here, because it's very easy to misunderstand this verse. Does that mean, whatever I want, God's going to give me? Whatever I want, if I just want it enough, God's going to give it to me? For one last time, I go to the doctor, Martin Lloyd-Jones. He said, I thank God that He is not prepared to do anything that I might chance to ask Him. I thank God that he's not prepared to just do willy-nilly any random thing that I ask him. This text is a command to ask, seek, and knock. And what God does in response, regardless of how it looks to you, to me, or to the watching world, it gets put in the drawer labeled good things. How much more will your Father give good things? That's the only category that God has for what He gives to us. It often doesn't look that way, I know. This is distinct from the emotional experience and our limited perception. But what God does in response to the asking, seeking and knocking will be good, regardless of how the world interprets it. The problem with saying that this text is about me asking for whatever I want, that I get to dictate to God what the good things are, is that at that moment we've elevated gifts above giver. We are ultimately coming to God for what He gives us, rather than going to God for Himself. We must not elevate gifts above giver. even if the things that God gives us are not what we anticipated. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. And so, ask for the deepest needs of your soul. Chase after them. Knock all night on the door until your Father opens wide, because He's always going to do what's best for you. And so what confronts us then, in this text, is a need to make sure that day by day we are refreshing our memory with the truth of how good our Father is. Don Carson says, many of God's children labor under the delusion that their father extracts some malicious glee out of watching his children squirm now and then. Of course, they're not quite blasphemous enough to put it in such terms, but their prayer life reveals, your prayer life reveals, and my prayer life reveals, that we're not thoroughly convinced of God's goodness and the love He has for us. We are dealing with the God who once said to His people in Isaiah 49, Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she's born? Has there ever been a rhetorical question that's more obviously, no? And then right afterward he says, She might. Though she may forget, how much faith does that take? I will not forget you. John Newton, the hymn writer, is best known for Amazing Grace. Here's a lesser known one that is enormously powerful in its own right. Come, my soul, thy suit prepare, Jesus loves to answer prayer. He himself has bid thee pray, therefore will not say thee nay. Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring, for his grace and power are such that none can ever ask too much. And so, in prayer, we wait. Sometimes it feels like asking, sometimes it feels like seeking, sometimes it feels like knocking, but we pray and we wait in faith. Sometimes we pray and fast. There are times of fasting, like Tuesday. And then, at the same time, there are times of feasting. right here at this table. He calls us to come to Him to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, to keep on knocking. That's how we discover the depth of fatherly goodness that He has for us. But what if we get tired? What if we get weary? Jesus says, come and be fed. Come and be nourished. Come and be filled with Christ. Not because of any power in Brian Rhodes, you understand, not because of any power in Brian Rhodes to transform food and drink into something else. But because our Father is good, He keeps His promises, and that Jesus is spiritually present here with us, and in this supper, inviting us to come to His table and be filled with Him. That's why it's more than just a memorial or a remembrance. This is where we're coming to receive the food we need for the journey ahead. And so Tuesday, while we're asking, seeking, and knocking, we'll wait. Today, we feast. We rejoice in the victory of our King over sin and death as we wait for His return. Let's pray. Our God, we thank You that You are our Father. Ask that You would forgive us for doubting. Asking that You would feed us now. Give us grace that we might keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. Grant to us stories, testimonies of Your goodness, that we might forever trust in and proclaim our Father, who is always and forever good to His children. We love You. Stir our hearts. to love you even more. In Jesus' name, Amen.