Our Scripture reading this morning, I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 7. We're going to read the first 11 verses of Matthew chapter 7. We'll be focusing particularly on verses 7 through 11 of that chapter. This of course comes within the context of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which begins in Matthew chapter 5. the familiar words of blessing or the Beatitudes. And Jesus continues to offer instruction in chapter six. He gives us the model prayer or the Lord's Prayer, a prayer we're taught to pray. And then beginning in chapter seven, Jesus continues with a variety of instructions relative to what you have perhaps what the people at that time had been taught by the teachers of the law. And Jesus trying to show us, indeed revealing to us, that it's one thing to keep the law outwardly. It's another thing to have your heart in it. And we all know what that means. We can sometimes even address one another superficially versus sincerely. Well, Jesus is very much after sincerity. And so we want to begin the reading at verse 1 of chapter 7 and we'll read to verse 11. These words, judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge you will be judged and with the measure you use will be measured back to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother Let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye. Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces. will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or 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 he give him a serpent? If you then, being 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? Thus, our readings, and may the Lord bless His Word to us. Dear congregation, I think it's important for us to not think we always know what we know, if I may put it so awkwardly. In the light of the first six verses of chapter seven here, it's very clear that we face certain dangers in the Christian life precisely because we want to serve God, precisely because we care, precisely because we don't want to live like the world, Nonetheless, we can fall into trouble, and that's the danger of being judgmental on the one hand, or on the other hand, the danger of lacking judgment. There's perhaps nothing uglier in the eyes of worldly people and perhaps nothing uglier in the eyes of God's people than a kind of judgmentalism, a pointing the finger at others like sort of puffing oneself up in the process. Let me point out your faults to you. And meanwhile, one seems oblivious to their own. It's a danger, particularly, I think, for people who are trying to serve God. And so Jesus gives us that instruction that we're all familiar with about the plank in our own eye while we're looking for splinters in someone else's eye. He's not denying. He doesn't deny, in fact, that there can be splinters in other people's eyes. And I'm sure, so to speak, if you would look at one another, you can point out faults in one another. And yet we have to be very cautious in how we go about pointing them out, as we would correct someone else what is wrong with us. And perhaps our own vision is a bit blurred or obscured. Because there's a plank in our eye and we're not really ready to perform the surgery, the delicate surgery on someone else's life and someone else's sins and someone else's problems because we have these glaring sins in our own life. So a word of caution there. And yet at the same time, he's calling us not to be people who lack judgment. There's that danger too of lacking judgment And that's illustrated in when he says, do not give what is holy to dogs or cast your pearls before swine, which is a very vivid way. It's one thing to bring the gospel and the good news to people. It's another thing to continue to do so even after they have rejected it, they scorn it, they laugh at it. It's sort of, there comes a point in which you do kick the dust from your shoes and move to someone else. You don't give what's sacred to dogs. You don't cast pearls before swine. I used to live in the rural Midwest, and my wife grew up on a farm. In fact, her father, among the livestock he raised was hogs. And I never witnessed him casting pearls. I didn't even witness him giving pearls to his wife. But I never witnessed him casting pearls before swine, you know, you get some sort of feed corn or something. That's ridiculous. And it's ridiculous to try to bring the gospel to people who, having heard reject and scoff and scorn, have discernment, exercise appropriate judgment. And you can apply this in multiple ways. Now, it's in that context He's going to, in actually a bigger context in which he's been giving all sorts of instructions to us here. Words about salt and light and Christ's fulfillment of the law and telling us you'll remember what murder is about. And it's not necessarily having a knife in your hands because you can have a knife, but you can have sort of a dagger tongue. And the things you say can be an act of murder. how adultery can take place in the heart, all these kinds of things, loving your enemies, doing God's will, learning to pray according to the prayer Jesus has shown us, laying up treasures in heaven, not worrying, and then these words about judgment, being judgmental and not lacking judgment, all of these things, oh Lord, how do I do that? because Jesus hasn't said, it's by your willpower and your resolve, it's New Year's Day recently, and you made a resolution, I'm going to keep the whole law of God and live a perfect Christian life because I've resolved, it is done. Indeed it's not, is it? We can resolve that each day and perhaps ought to resolve to love God that way, but that doesn't make it done. To even begin to live a Christian life, we have to ask, we have to seek, and indeed we have to knock. And that's what we want to look at this morning as Jesus calls us to such discipleship, to find all our blessings from Him, from our Heavenly Father. Very simply here, we want to look at an admonition we're given, a promise we're given, how this is illustrated in the assurance that comes from it. Notice the kind of admonition here. It's indirect. Ask, it will be given to you. Seek, and you'll find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. The reason it's a kind of admonition is that we simply have to be told this, commanded to this. Isn't this peculiar that we're children of the Heavenly Father and He has to come back and tell us, ask, seek, knock, You know what happens in the Christian life? What happens in the Christian life is we say to ourselves, we start to think like unbelievers, or at least like half-believers. God knows what I need. God knows everything. Why do I need to ask when He already knows? What's this business of me having to chase after blessing when God knows more what's going to bless me than I do? And so since God already knows everything, I don't have to be very diligent in asking or seeking or pursuing the things that are necessary. It's very important for us to avoid that temptation or that error or a slightly different one that comes along and says, who are you to bother God with your needs and your concerns and your burdens and your struggles? There's actually people that sometimes take an attitude of God's busy with other bigger things and I don't count very much and so I won't bother Him. I don't know what might characterize you or what challenges you might face, but the imperatives that come here, the admonition, ask, seek, not, being told to do it, is a way of offering some correction to us. There's kind of an ascending scale of urgency here. I think every mother has experienced this when their, her little child is, is nearby and visible. He can see mommy there. He might come up to her and tug on her skirt or something. And may I, he'll ask, can I have that? He uses grocery store stuff. That, this, put that in the basket, huh? But he wanders off down one aisle, mom's down another aisle. Hey, I want that, but where's mom? I got to go get her. I got to go find her. I got to take this item with and this! Yes, please! Right? Well, none of your children are ever naughty. Give me a break. Come on! This is what it always... and even more urgency. Moms, you've come home and there's some crisis at home, there's some... maybe it's a fight between brother and sister and it needs resolution, it needs mom's intervention. Mom's in the bedroom, the door is closed. Bang, bang, bang. Where's mom? Not enough, she's out of sight. Not enough. There's a door. There's a barrier. That doesn't matter. I need in. I need Mother. Right? Now, Jesus is saying to us, why would we be any different than little tots? Do we possibly think we're different than little tots before our Heavenly Father? Everything we have is a gift. Everything that we would possibly possess is a gift. God knows all our needs better than we do, to be sure. all the more for us to come to Him, ask and seek, and with an even greater urgency, knock. That's the sort of admonition and blessing offered here. It comes with a promise, though. Notice that. Notice how Jesus says it. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. You. These are universal statements that he attaches here. For everyone who asks, receives. Notice how he universalizes it. Everyone. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. There's the promise given to us. It's not a waste of time. It's not a waste of breath. So why do we fail to pray? Why do we neglect it? Think about that. It seems to me that the only reasons we would possibly neglect prayer is because we're falling back into that error of, well, God knows everything I need anyway, and he knows it better than I do, so he'll take care of it. Congregation. That isn't what God has taught us. That's not what he's taught us. to do or how we're to relate to him. It's certainly not a matter that prayer is an unseemly business where we're trying to twist God's arm and bully him into granting us what we want and then he's sort of begrudging and gets worn out and gives in because he just can't take it anymore. That's not really the appropriate image of God. And it's certainly not that he can't be bothered with us. The reason why God calls us to pray and to ask and seek isn't because he's ignorant of what we need, and it isn't because he's reluctant to give us until we can persuade him. It's neither of those. The reason has to do with us, not with him. The question isn't whether he's ready to give, but whether we're ready to receive. Why would you fail to ask and seek and knock? You don't need anything in your life? You're a perfect father and husband? You're always patient and kind and gentle and wise? You're a mother who has always had it all together. Your business is hitting on all cylinders. You work with your employer or you're an employer with employees and it's all just fine and dandy all the time. Or you're the master of your faith. You're the one who grants your security of your life and all that you know and love each day. You're the lord of disease and viruses and bacteria and all that? Of course not. We know the answer to that. Of course not. We know all of our failings, all of our trials. In fact, we can probably all make a big list of worries, concerns, burdens, fears, challenges, failures. We have no reason to ask, seek, Not? It's all really about us though, isn't it? That we would learn to submit to God. That we would learn to see our needs. That we would learn to understand our dependency. That we would learn to see our lives under the umbrella of God's providential care and blessing. That we would live life not as an unbeliever who just says, well, things are the way they are because they are. But God is the sovereign over our lives and everything. Each day the hairs on my head are numbered and God has ordained my days. And so, Lord, I ask for your will to be done. I seek for your kingdom to come. And I would knock on your throne of mercy that your blessing would prevail so that I might begin to be a person who knows the blessing of being poor in spirit and mourning and meekness and all those Beatitudes and I would start to be a person who understands my tongue can be a dagger of killing others and my heart can be a place of adultery and and I can be someone who's ever worrying and concerned about tomorrow and all of these things and I can be that person who's ever trying to get specks out of other people's eyes while planks are in my own All the reason we need to understand why we should ask and seek and knock. That we would learn to submit ourselves to God. You know the good news here is our Father never spoils us. He doesn't shower us with blessings that will harm us. Now we do that as parents. We come through the Christmas season and maybe we try to have a certain budget and what we might want to give gifts to our family and children and the like and as parents we sometimes make mistakes. We give our children things that really aren't good for them or we give them so much they don't appreciate the hard work it takes to own and have something and that's why we talk about spoiling. Something doesn't smell good here. There's a character trait that's developing that isn't healthy or good. We can see that. God doesn't do that. God comes to us and reminds us and would tell us in the words of James, you do not have because you do not ask, on the one hand, saying why would you live your life as if you don't need to pray The testimony everywhere, the evidence everywhere is, man, do you need to pray? And yet, at the same time, he would say, as he teaches us here, that he gives us good gifts. He illustrates that for us. He illustrates that for us in verse 9 and following. Notice what he says. What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone. Here's a real simple homey illustration. The boys and girls can understand that. Daddy, I'm hungry. Can I have some bread? No. Here's some rocks, though. I know there's pebble cereal, but those aren't real pebbles, are they? We're just having fun with pebbles. But no father literally gives their child a bowl of rocks. I'm hungry. Rocks. Real simple stuff. Jesus wants to get it down. No one can make an excuse. What? I couldn't follow this. He offers another one. And if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent, a snake. Daddy, can I have some fish? No, here's a cobra. A live one. I hope it bites you. No one does that. We don't have boiled rattler, do we? We give to our children what they need. No doubt most of you probably ate breakfast this morning and maybe it was some pebbles in a bowl. The cereal kind. And maybe some toast or oatmeal or bacon and eggs or what have you. Because these are needs that you have, needs your children have, and you're glad. It doesn't even cross your mind to begrudgingly give these things. It's obvious, of course I give these things to my children. Now Jesus comes along and says, now he's going to teach us, understand something about your relationship with God. Learn something here. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more? It's one of these powerful how much more things. If you, broken by sin, flawed sort of people, who have a tendency to stinginess and selfishness, who in all sorts of other ways might be miserly or stingy or something, if you know how to give good gifts, Your mind obviously understands that easy concept. How much more now? God who isn't miserly, or stingy, or covetous, or selfish, or anything like that, isn't worried about stretching things out. How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask? Why would we doubt these things? Thoughtful Christians look around and sometimes what happens to us is we say to ourselves, I know this is all true but there's all sorts of unbelievers who have what I don't. There's all sorts of people who never asked and they received We don't like these thoughts to cross our minds much, but sometimes they do. They seem to receive without prayer. There seems to be people out there who don't serve the Lord and don't love Him, and don't ask, and they're getting things. And then sometimes we start to reach the conclusion, well, it's not with prayer that we receive things, it's through hard work. The farmer gets his crop because he plants in a timely way and works hard. The mother gets her baby because of medical technology and skill and the like. Or a family, we're able to balance our budget because we keep ourselves under a tight budget and we work hard. I remember years ago, I saw this a movie with Jimmy Stewart, so you have to be a little older to know who that is, probably. But it was about a farmer during the Civil War. And this, the character he played in this movie, it's during the war, and he's a farmer in Virginia. And he had something like 10 sons and one daughter, and they're all around the table. And the wife is gone and I guess this matriarch of the family was the devout religious one, but he was trying to carry through in the family and so he felt the necessity to pray, but this is the kind of prayer he offered. And I was just a younger child and I remember seeing this movie and hearing this prayer and how it struck me. Because his prayer went like this, Dear Lord, we thank you for this food. Of course, It was all our hard work that has provided this. We're the ones who put the seed in the ground. We're the ones that tilled the soil. We're the ones who, with all our sweat and toil, weeded it. We're the ones who brought it in to harvest. It was our hard work and know-how that prepared. It was our hands that did all these things so that now it sits before us. But, nonetheless, Lord, we thank you all the same." Some version of that. And I remember thinking, boy, that's not a very good prayer, is it, Mom? Dad? What's that? I'll never forget what my mother said. She said, well, what a foolish man. Who gave him sons? Who gave him land and soil? Who gave him strong backs and healthy bodies to work? Who gave him the sunshine and rain in due season so that these things come about? Who, in fact, she didn't say this, but you can expand it, and who gave an ordered society so that robbers and other thugs didn't come and take everything he owned? Who gave him everything so that he could do anything? Quite warped, isn't it? when we start thinking, our hard work does it. No, we're taught by Jesus, how much more do we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, who cares for us, who knows our needs, who knows our burdens, our fears, our worries, who knows our diseased bodies, who knows our old age, who knows our struggling to be a consistent, wise parent, Who knows our temptations as young people? Who knows the ridicule we can face from others sometimes? Who knows our insecurities? Who knows our hearts? Who knows us? How much more is He able to give us the good gifts we need? And He'll give us good gifts. This isn't a magic wand prayer, is it? This isn't a prayer when He says, ask, it will be given. Seek, you'll find. and it will be opened to you. Whoever asks, receives, seeks, finds, knocks, will be opened. It's not a magic wand. Ask for anything and you'll get anything. Bang on the door of heaven for any stupid thing and God will be stupid too and give you a stupid blessing. I put it strongly so you get the point. This isn't saying God will bless you according to greed. No, we remember the Lord's Prayer. We ask for daily bread. We have physical needs. He'll give us that and most of the time He gives us much more. Most of us don't live hand-to-mouth, day-by-day, do we? Most of us have even savings accounts and certainly we have some food stocked up on our house. We have Much more, much more than just daily bread. We're taught to pray for daily bread, not years worth. Of course, what is also in mind here is all these kinds of spiritual blessings, these sanctifying blessings, these faith blessings, these trusting in God blessings, these poor in spirit blessings, mourning blessings, being meek blessings, hungering and thirsting after righteousness blessings, being merciful blessings, having purity of heart blessings, being a peacemaker blessing, being persecuted for righteousness blessing. Now we start to see something of the content of what we're called to ask, to seek, and to not. Because God wouldn't love us and He wouldn't be a good Father who knows how to give us good gifts far better than we do if He gave us whatever we wanted, no more than we do it as parents. Yes, I have the money. Yes, I have the means. Yes, I could, but no, I won't, because that's not good for you. Daddy, can I have a pet rattlesnake for Christmas? Well, of course, son, you want it, you can have it. Here it is. Hope it doesn't bite you. Hope. That's not a good guess. God knows what will not be a good gift to us. Now notice the word of assurance that comes here, since He is our Heavenly Father. In fact, we can have assurance that our asking, our seeking, our knocking isn't in vain, isn't foolish, and all the more why we ought to do these things. Notice what He says in verse 11. Being evil, you know how to do these things. How much more will your Father, who is in Heaven, good things, notice the phrase, give good things to those who ask Him. Now I pause and I ask you a simple question. If you're lacking good things in your life, have you asked for them? I find myself from time to time, I hate to admit it's true, but sometimes I do get lazy in prayer. I do get a bit too generalized and just, well, Lord, you know the needs we have as a family. I ask for your blessing. And yet, if you search your own heart, you know there's things much more specific. You might be concerned for a child, how they're doing at school, or their social development, or how they think about themselves, or their faith relationship, and their nurture this way. And now there's something very specific and good. It's a good thing to ask for from God, a very good thing. It might be that you do have particular financial needs. And then there's the good thing you might have to ask for isn't, first of all, more money or a better paid job. It might be the good thing to ask for is that you learn to be a good steward of what you already have. Here's the good thing. Lord, make me a better steward. Make me more responsible. Teach me contentment with what I have. Perhaps God will be pleased to give you more. But we pray for daily bread. And so we pray to be sanctified in a way that we're not making the happiness of our life determinative upon this kind of thing, but shape me, Lord, into the person that will have so I can also bless others. That's a good thing to ask for. And in your marital relationship, you kind of sense, you know, we used to just be starry-eyed in love with each other and we appreciated and we always spoke respectfully to one another. We were patient. We never put the worst interpretation upon each other's words or intentions, and now it seems like whatever we say, there's an edge there, and we're always making the worst of everything. Little patience with one another. What's going on? What is going on? Here's a good thing to pray for. Maybe I simply need to learn to forgive, and then forget, and not throw someone's failings in their face again, you know, coast along for three or four months, it's going well, and then have a little tiff, and then it's all forgotten. And every problem we've ever had is reintroduced into this small little tiff. Well, here's a good thing to pray for, Lord. Change me. Let forgiveness be real forgiveness. Let me have respect for my wife or for my husband. Speak that way. Behave that way. Sometimes we as husbands and wives could do well as you ought to be in dating mode all the time. Meaning, best foot forward at all times. I'm going to shower in a timely way. And I'm going to be a person who wants to impress her or him. And I'm on my best behavior. Yeah, why not? I think your marriage is a good thing to ask for. That I would treat the one most dear to me that God has given to me with the utmost respect and patience. It's good for husbands. It's good for wives. It's good for your marriage. It's a good thing to pray for, to ask for, to beat on the door of heaven about And we can multiply these things. You know your life. You know your struggles. You know the challenges you face. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we have so much to ask God about. He doesn't give us snakes. He doesn't give us stones. He gives us His Son. He gives us Christ Jesus Himself. He gives us the grand prize And now he's not suddenly going to get stingy, having given us Christ himself, will he not, as the Apostle Paul says, along with him, give us all good things. Therefore, let's start asking for these things, seeking these things, knocking on God's throne of grace in pursuit of these things. Let us be people who realize prayer blesses us. It's not that God needs it, but we do. Our faith needs it. And indeed, God has assured us that he will hear our prayers and give us exactly what we need. Amen. Shall we pray? Our gracious God, may your mercy and grace abide upon us. Indeed, help us to heed the command to pray to you. May we remember your promise. May we see how much more you love us than we're even able to love our own children and provide for them. Lord, may we rest in that assurance and so sanctify our prayer life that our lives would be sanctified unto you. For Jesus' sake, Amen.