As part of this series in the 40 days of prayer, we're looking at the teaching of Jesus on prayer. What does Jesus teach us about prayer? How can we pray ourselves and how can we help others learn how to pray? We started out a couple of weeks ago on Matthew six, five to eight. And the key idea there was that prayer is just simply talking to our heavenly father, not trying to impress him. or others. Last week, we looked at what we know to be the Lord's prayer. Prayer as Jesus taught it focuses on God and his glory in everything. That's what the Lord's prayer is about. And we're going to, we're going to camp there for just a minute before we dive into the passage for today because that passage the Lord's Prayer is so important for the Christian life. It's so important for prayer and it is also so important for understanding the passage that we're going to look at today. I would contend that if you don't understand and live out the Lord's Prayer then the passage we're going to look at today from Matthew seven is meaningless. You have to understand this in order to rightly pray what Jesus says in Matthew seven. Otherwise you're going to pray for all kinds of strange things potentially and think they're God's will. So Matthew six and Matthew seven are very, very linked. So here is the Lord's prayer with the six petitions that starts out our father in heaven. And he says, how would be your name? Which means may your name be treated as holy. May your kingdom come, which indicates that we're asking God to fix our broken world right now. And we're asking him for that final consummation. Then we pray your will be done. And as we pray that we're surrendering to God and to his purposes in our lives. Give us today our daily bread. We're asking God to meet all of those daily needs so that we can serve him and live for his kingdom and do his will and forgive us our debts. We're asking God for forgiveness. even as we forgive others and then lead us not into temptation. We're asking God to deliver us from Satan's strengths and wiles. So here's what we're going to do. I want the six people that are helping me to stand and take their places. We're going to have six different groups, two in each section. He is going to talk about how do you start by saying our father in heaven? What does that mean? Okay, that's a, We're going to just hear briefly, kind of just to help us so we can pray in these ways as we start our father in heaven. We're praying in relationship. He's our father, right? And he's in heaven. He's powerful. So prayer is both personal and powerful. And each one of these guys just go in and take 30 seconds to talk about the kind of requests that you guys have there. Hallowed be your name. God's name be made holy and we talk about praying in a way that through our lives that we would reflect that holiness and that in our actions we would be able to show God's holiness. Or in occasions where God's name's not being made holy, where it's been taken in vain, that we'd be able to stand up and correct that thinking and make sure people understand who God is. I got a whole list here. Our kingdom come. We know he's coming. There's no doubt about that. And so we talked about how that would look now and we need to start with changing our heart. God owns it all. We're living in a very broken world today and We as God's people need to come together and we need to equip the church. We need to share the gospel. We need to look into our own hearts and be good models for our children, our grandchildren, and help others to get ready to build relationships with the Lord. And let there be peace on earth and let it begin with us. Your will be done. So we talked a lot about surrender in different aspects, all the way from knowing what you're supposed to do and fighting it and asking for help to not knowing what God's will is and praying for it so that you can know how to be obedient. And then even to praying for our world that more of our culture or more people will actually do God's will so that His will will be done by more people. For daily bread, we talked about some of the actual specific requests, maybe actual food God would provide for us when we're in need for wisdom in dealing with relationships with our families or friends, coworkers, and that even leads into wisdom and courage to share Christ with other people. But within that, we wanted to recognize that the first part of the prayer sort of shapes what our daily needs are, because we've already recognized who God is. So our list of what we need isn't at God's command, but rather we're trusting him to meet those needs as he sees fit. Forgive us our debts. We talked about how it's something we ask for daily. It happens every day that we need God's forgiveness. We also talked about how, you know, God keeps no record of our wrongs. And it's difficult for us sometimes not to keep a record of other people's wrongs. And that could be different if it's a non-believer that we don't keep the record of their wrongs versus a believer or someone that's very close to us who we hold to a higher standard. And we also talked about how it is debt, which seems more serious. We actually owe God something, but he is able to provide pardon and protects us. We talked about lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And we touched on areas of being tempted to forgive, not to, of not to forgive. We also talked about materialism as well as entertainment choices that we make and how this doesn't refer to that God would tempt us but that we're praying that God would deliver us from areas maybe that we would be prone to temptation and that God would be glorified in our lives through the choices we make in all areas of where we, whether that be home or church or work, family, um, and being aware of, of the, the devil's areas where he might, uh, attack like in lies or in areas of division and how we need to be able to love other people. Uh, and so those are some of the things we talked about and praying for those things. Okay, thank you. And let's all finish together the way that prayer finishes in some versions. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Well, as I mentioned, I wanted us to spend time with that because it sets the stage for what we're about to look at here in Matthew chapter 7. It sets the context. The passage that we're going to read in Matthew seven is part of what we know to be the sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaching on the sermon on the Mount. And in that sermon, that's been a very demanding sermon. He has laid out some very hard, high ideals for his would-be followers. They are to be poor in spirit, they are to be mourning over their sin, they are to be meek, they are to be hungering and thirsting after righteousness, merciful, turning to the other cheek, refraining not only from murder but anger, refraining not only from physical adultery but lust in the heart. Not only were they to retaliate against enemies, they were to love their enemies and do good to those that persecute them. We were to give, he said, you're to give and pray and fast with the right motives. You're to store up your treasures on earth or in heaven rather than on earth. And you're not to worry and you're not to judge others. Now he asks a lot. He demands a lot. In fact, he really demands more than we're capable of. And after talking about those types of things and teaching us to pray about the kingdom in God's name, we come to a spot sometimes where we go, wow, how can that happen? This is overwhelming. How can I do these things? The good news is he leads us to a source of help in Matthew chapter seven, verse seven through 11, where he says, ask. and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. He 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're 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? We're going to talk about today what motivates us to pray. What motivates us to pray in this passage? So again, just to reiterate the context, there's an immediate context and a broader context. The immediate context, this comes right after Matthew 7, one to six, in which he was talking about judgment, about not judging others, but also making the right kind of discernment so that people who aren't responsive and therefore are unworthy of, in that sense, that don't cast your pearls before swine. So we need wisdom to know how to do all that. Where does the line cross between judgment and, and discernment. And so we get that wisdom through prayer. We ask, we seek, we knock. That's the immediate context of these versus the broader context is set in The sermon on the mounts, these commands that I mentioned a few of them where Jesus is asking us to pray for God's rule, to come into the world, for God's kingdom, to come in the world, to put his purposes. First, Jesus is making promises here in Matthew seven, not to anybody. Not to everybody. It's not that just anybody, no matter what their values are and what their priorities are and what their dreams and ambitions are, not just anybody can open those verses and take them out of context and say, well, see, it says right here, ask and I'll get it, seek and I'll find. No, it's not just for anybody. It's for those whom Jesus assumes are living kingdom values. So if we don't do anything else today, it's a great question for all of us to ask ourselves, when I walk out of these doors, am I gonna live the values of the kingdom of God this week? Because if I am living the values of the kingdom of God, I've got some pretty awesome promises behind me. If I'm living God's kingdom values and I'm focusing on him and doing his will and seeking his purposes, I've got the promise that I can just ask and I can seek and I can knock. But that's a great question for us to ask. He told us, and this prayer that we looked at, pray your kingdom come, your will be done. You can't really pray that prayer without submitting to it, can you? It would be inconsistent to not be submitting to God's kingdom and yet still praying for it, right? And then he said, Matthew 6, 33, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well. That's the context. We have to understand those things because those things lead us into the verses today. To those living those kingdom values, here's what he says, ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. Jesus is urging us in this passage to do one thing basically. He's not really urging us to do three things. He's urging us to do one thing and one thing only and that is persist in prayer. Persist in prayer how many of you like me? sometimes Struggle with persisting in your prayer prayer you pray about something sometimes But it's hard to keep praying about it over and over if it doesn't come true. How many of you like that? Anybody else? I okay. I want to make sure that we're all human and normal here Persist in prayer the verbs here in the present tense. I And that's important because it stresses continuous action. It gives the idea that this is something that should continue to keep happening. So you could translate it. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on Knocking there is There's repetition here and it builds the intensity ask is one level seek is another level and Knocking is yet another level. It's building an intensity So asking you ask God in humility Because you know you need his help just like a child goes to a parent and asks for help seeking is pursuing God and his will and knocking is continuing to persevere in your requests. Richard Glover suggests this picture. I like, I like the picture. I think it helps us with prayer. If a child's mother is not near nor visible, the mother is not near. I'm sorry. If the child's mother is near invisible. So the child and the mother in the same room, the child is the mother is near and visible to child ask. But secondly, if she's not near and she's not visible, I can't see her. The child can't see her. Then the child takes it a step further and seeks, right? And he says, if she is in her room with her door closed, mother's no confessions today, but if you go in your room and close your door and lock that door, because you've had enough. Then the child's got to knock. You see, you see the levels. And I think it's that way. Sometimes with God, we ask and sometimes, wow, we, the answer comes. Okay. We've asked, but sometimes we got to seek and keep it up. And sometimes it feels like God's in his room with the door closed. And that's when we knock. That's what Jesus is telling us to do here. The point is persistence and doing whatever it takes to get your requests before God, the father, Jeremiah 29, verse 12 and 13 says, then you will call on me and come and pray to me. And I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. The prophet said, D.A. Carson says, 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. Our environment loves hustle and bustle, smooth organization and powerful scheme, powerful institutions, human self-confidence and human achievement, new opinions and 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 contemporary paganism. Well, there are encouragements. There are two encouragements in this passage. for us to pray. He wants us to pray persistently. And here are the two encouragements. Hopefully if you are normal and struggle sometimes to persist, hopefully this will, these truths today about God will help you persist in those prayers that are focused on God's kingdom and his will and needs being met. First of all, God promises to respond to our prayers. For everyone who asks receives that little word for that begins. The word, the sentence is a very important one. It links it back to the call to ask, seek, and not why, because, or for everyone who asks receives the one who seeks finds. The one who knocks to the one who knocks the door will be opened. These words are indicating that these are not things we do for ourselves, they are done for us. So you might translate receives and finds and will be opened by adding words like from God or by God. You will receive from God. You will be found. You will find it because of God. It will be opened by God. John Newton, who wrote many hymns, including amazing grace, wrote these words. 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 such, none can ever ask too much. Some of you are in here today. You've, some of you been at harvest a long time and you know, the history of why we're sitting where we're sitting. Some of you don't know the history. I can give it to you in a nutshell. It's an answer to prayer. We come to, we moved from Chicago, we start the church, we meet in four different schools and locations as we're planning the church with 11 people and we're going along and we're praying, God, where do you want us to be? God, will you provide something for us? Will you provide something for us? And that was a persistent prayer. And you know, it didn't get answered the first day. It didn't get answered the first year. In fact, it was five or four, maybe four or five years into the process that as we started looking for land and starting doing a search, we looked in this Eastfield Carter, which at that time was kind of a curved road with cows and stuff off to the side. And there was a guy down the street here that we knocked on his door and asked him if he would be interested in selling his property. He said, I won't sell without my two sisters on either side. And so it was total was 45 acres. And we're thinking we were looking for about 20. So we contacted a man that we knew that was an investor. And we said, Hey, we got a guy who's got more land than we want, but he's willing to sell all of it. Would you go in Us and we buy the land together and then you take part of it and we take part of it And he looked at me and he said how much or what else have you looked at? And I said, oh, well, we've looked at a 26 acre piece down the road, which you're sitting on part of it today And he said well, how much do you think that will cost? I said I think we can get it for about 300,000 and he looked in the next breath without my asking and said I'll buy that for the church That was an answer to prayer We are sitting on an answer to prayer. We have prayed often for God to use harvest, not to just touch this quarter, this street, these neighborhoods, our city, which we want him to do, but to touch the world. And one of the guys that we prayed over this morning, David Hancock was raised up and is in Peru. Justin Barber is in China. Tom and Sherry Muma came through this church and they are trying to reach the nation of Chad. Steve and Kim Thompson are in Maine trying to revitalize a church up there. God is answering prayers in many ways. Don and Sahil, who were atheists and Buddhists, are now in Thailand reaching people and planting. You know, God answers prayer. It's not because of us, it's not because we're wise. We sit around and strategize all that. Oh, let's see, how can we strategize for Thailand? No, we just prayed and God answered it. So many international people, God is just bringing international people to Charlotte and bringing them to the campus over here at the university. And one in particular started coming right away. And he kept coming and he kept coming. And when his wife got here, they were going to be here for a year. They were visiting scholars and they were only going to be here for a year. And they'd never been in church or really heard about God. And we kept praying for them and praying for them and really, really hoping, really hoping they would trust Christ. And I remember meeting with them right before they were going back to their country in East Asia. And I was in their apartment, sitting at their table. They had fixed a nice meal for us. And I said, if this is where you were when you came to this country, and this is following God completely, where are you on this line? Have you come to this spot? And he said, well, I'm about right there. I'm like, oh, but I want him to be right here. But many people prayed for this couple for a long time. He went back to China without making that decision until a couple of months after he got there, he was put his faith in Christ and was baptized. We heard from him this week or last week that now one of the people that he's playing badminton with has gotten interested in Christ and their church and his mother, is it mother-in-law, honey? is living with them or with them and studying and reading the Bible with them. You know what? God answers prayer. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it'll be opened to you. I'm reading a biography now of George Mueller, lived in the 1800s with no money and no organization. had a burden to feed orphans and train them for God. And he just started with one here and one there and a few here. And he, in his conviction, said, you know, I'm never going to ask a human being for money. I'm only going to ask God. And he did it. And at one point in the 1800s, he was feeding and housing 2,000 orphans a day. all by faith in God and trusting God and asking God. November 30th, 1835, he wrote this, being in great need, I was led yesterday morning earnestly to ask the Lord and in answer to this petition, a brother gave me last evening 10 pounds. The author of the biography, Basil Miller, writes, morning prayer was answered by the evening gift. Mr. Mueller testifies, listen to this, in his lifetime, 50,000 of his definite prayers were answered. And you say, well, how do you know that? Well, he had a notebook. His iPad wasn't working back in the 1800s. But he had a physical notebook, and on the left side of the page, he would write the date and the request, and whenever that prayer was answered, he would write it out on the right-hand side. That's a lot of definite answers to prayer, right? God answers prayer. Let me encourage you today. God promises to respond to your prayers. Not always in our time or our way, but he does promise to respond. Secondly, God gives good gifts to those who ask. as a good heavenly father. He is a good heavenly father, which of you, if your son asked for bread, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asked for a fish, we'll give him a snake. The bread was often shaped like a stone. And so it would be almost like a cruel trick. Can you imagine a father's child comes up and hungry wants a piece of bread? Oh, well, I'm going to give you this stone or worse. I want a fish and you get a snake, man. I hate snakes. I'm manly enough. I'm confident enough in my manhood to say, I'm scared of snakes. Anybody else with me here? This one. Okay. Don't like them. They crawl on the ground and slither and all that. So no good father is going to give his son a snake. It's ties back. That's the NIV. The NIV translates it that way. Give him a snake. I'm gonna give you the BIV. That's the Barber International Version. Which of you, if your friend asks for a club sandwich, will give him this? That looks pretty good. Club sandwich, right? A little bit of meat there. Roast beef, turkey, ham. Thursday night. No, Wednesday night. We had a service, because last Sunday it was snow and some people came, so we had another one on Wednesday night. And a staff member, who shall remain nameless, but has something to do with music, and usually stands right here with this guitar. We were talking about, hey do you, he's like, I'm like, are you staying here through? Yeah. Yeah. What are you going to do for supper? He said, Oh, well, Chris is coming over. And, um, he said, do you want us to bring you something back? We're just going to go and bring something in. I'm like, sure. I said, he said, what do you want? I don't care. I said, just text me when you decide where you're going and I'll just tell you what I want. So they, Chris comes and our unnamed brother here, um, they get in the car, I get the text from him and he, and he says, we're going to subway. So I'm like, okay, so I pull out my phone and I want to read you the exact wording of the text that I sent to him. Six inch club on honey oat bread, provolone. toasted, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, honey mustard, and a little pepper. I have a drink here. That was my text. So in a few minutes, our two brothers arrive back with a bag and knock on my door, bring it in, sit it there, and I'm ready to eat before we're going to gather and I, it looks a little bit thin. It doesn't look like that right there. So which of your friend, which of you, if your friend asks for a club sandwich, we'll give him this. I took an actual picture of it. I had taken a couple of bites in there because I took the first bite of my club sandwich and there was honey mustard in there and there were cucumbers and spinach in there, but there was not an ounce of meat on that sandwich. Not one ounce. And I thought, okay, they're playing a trick on me. They're playing a trick on me. So I went back out there and said to this brother right here, Did you order me a club sandwich? And the other guy just started laughing. Chris just started laughing. He was interpreting club to be just like a sandwich. And so he ordered all this without, that was my club sandwich. So I want to say, which of you, if your friends ask for a club sandwich, nobody would do that to anybody. Nobody would have the heart. I mean look at me this morning, I look a little bit weak and pale and sickly since that was my lack of nourishment on Wednesday night. Well, I'm gonna buy him a Subway gift card just for, we laughed about it. And he did say, he got a footlong, a footlong turkey, footlong, footlong turkey over there. And he said, well, here, eat this half. I couldn't do that, but I did reach in there and grab a little bit of turkey and threw it on mine. So I got a portion of a club. Well, you know, God's not gonna give you bad things when you ask for them. Don't give you bad things. No father is going to give their children stones and snakes. One Jewish sage, perhaps a century after Jesus, said this, If a member of a man's household is well treated, how much more a member of the Creator's household? I want you to realize something today. I want you to realize it today. I know you know it in your mind. I want you to know it in your heart today. If you're a Christian, if you're a believer, if you're living for Jesus Christ and your values are the kingdom, guess what? You're part of God's family and he is your heavenly father and that That's why we're encouraged to pray not because Some ritual that we're gonna do but because he loves you. He cares about you. He cares about his work He wants you to be involved in his work, and he wants you to ask him About those things he's a good father This isn't name it and claim it You know, that name it and claim it, all the people say, oh, name it and claim it. No, don't name it and claim it, that's selfish. You name it if it's named in the Bible, right? If God says, this is what I'm interested in, then you can approach that with faith and with confidence. But if it's just like you yourself decide you're gonna name some big thing for you, I'm more than skeptical about that. God alone is sovereign. Guess what? If we could name and claim everything we wanted, who would that make sovereign? That would make us sovereign. But God is the sovereign of the universe and the sovereign of the universe says, if we're in keeping with the kingdom values, we can ask, seek and knock. I think Grant Osborne captures the essence of this when he says, the main thrust here is not just the need for prayer, but the certainty of God's response. And I'm borrowing part of his last phrase as I construct the main idea of this sermon. If you then 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? We are motivated to keep on praying by the certainty of God's response. That's what motivates us. It's not our prayer. It's not our dedication. It's not our ideas. It's the certainty of God's response that motivates us. to pray. The emphasis is on God, not on us. The stress is on our heavenly father who promises to respond. Archbishop Richard Trent says prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It's laying hold of God's willingness. So how can you pray persistently this week? We all struggle with this. Let me give you one tip that will help you pray persistently this week, and that is this, keep your focus on God, not on your praying. Keep your focus on God, not on your praying. D.A. Carson says that what is fundamentally at stake in this passage is our view of God. He says, God must not be thought of as a reluctant stranger, a malicious tyrant, or even an indulgent grandfather. He is the heavenly father, the God of the kingdom who graciously and willingly bestows the good gifts of the kingdom in answer to prayer. Keep your focus on God this week. Think about who he is. Think about the kind of father that he is. Well, how can you train others to pray persistently this week? What magic formula do you have to come up with? Well, it's not magic formula at all. It's keep their focus on God, not on their praying. Keep their focus on God. In his book, Soul Shift, One of the authors, Steve Danoff, tells about an experience he had a long time ago. He said, when I was in the sixth grade, he had accomplished something special. And so his dad took him to Kmart. Dad took him to Kmart, took his hand and did like this. And he said, son, I'm going to let you go buy anything in this store and I'm going to give it to you. Anything you want. He said, my eyes widened as I thought about the possibilities. At that moment, I didn't have a grasp of how money worked or how much money my dad had. So he said, I kind of limited things in my mind. I didn't look at the huge stereo systems, expensive bikes, or anything that cost more than $100. Instead, I chose a cassette tape case that was less than $50. Some of you need to go home afterwards and Google cassette tape case. It was a little thing that, oh, nevermind. He said, I was content with that case because it was much more than I could afford myself. It was nice. But he said, I learned years later. My dad was serious when he stretched his hand out like that. He said, my dad had a thousand dollars in his pocket and he brought his checkbook in case he needed to go over a thousand dollars. And he says this, imagine how much God has in his pocket for you. You don't ask God for all the spiritual power you could, Because you forget that you're his child. Like me and my earthly father, you don't realize all he could do for you, in you, and through you. Remember, again, biblical prayer is different. We're not asking for a toy or a prize for ourselves. We're not asking for selfish things for ourselves. We're asking for things for God and his kingdom and his glory and his will. But guess what? God wants us to ask big. And he wants us to keep asking, and that is why he tells us that we are motivated to keep on praying by the certainty of God's response. Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. Let's bow our heads for prayer, please. Here's the neat thing. Today, this is all in the context of relationship as a father. And God wants to be our Heavenly Father. In fact, that's what happens to us at the moment of salvation. Jesus Christ died for our sins, paid that price when we turn to Him, when we turn from our sin, turn to Him in faith, receive Him, believe on Him, and start following Him we enter that relationship with him. That's by faith. That's not by works. So please, if you're in process spiritually, you're not a Christian yet, don't hear this message to think, well, I got to keep asking God a hundred times to save me. No, that's an instantaneous thing that starts. This is an encouragement for us to pray for those who are already there. So my two invitations today are for those of you who are in process spiritually, open your heart and receive him today and begin an amazing life of relationship with God. And for those of you in that relationship, don't forget about it. Don't forget who he is and who he has made you as you pray. Lord, we gather today In your name, thank you so much for the great promises you've given us in prayer. And as we pray all week long, may it be true. As our ladies pray Wednesday night, may it be true, God. As we pray in our small groups, may it be true. As we even pray to wrap up our time here one more time, Lord, may it be true that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.