God Keeps the Door Open

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

[0:00] All right. Well, today we're going to continue. This is actually number 10 in our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. Our reading today is Matthew 7, verses 7 through 11. It's on page 961 of the Bible that we have here at the church. So that's page 961, Matthew 7, 7 through 11. So I want to just give us a background of where we've been so far in this Sermon on the Mount series. And to tell you that this has actually been very revolutionary for me as a preacher. I have actually, not actually, I'm not going to say actually like it's a surprise, but I have learned so much more from doing this than I knew before. And I've been challenged in some really amazing ways by it. And so I think it's true that the Word of God is powerful. It can do things to us. And it can change us. We have to let it. We have to study it. We have to pursue it. But it will do amazing things to us. And I'm surprised at how powerful the Sermon on the Mount is. It's incredibly powerful words of Jesus. Just a reminder of where we have been. We started at the Beatitudes. This is just a great memory lane here. We started at the Beatitudes. We looked at what it meant to be salt and light in the world. There was a very long section on law and its intensification that would drive us to the cross.

[1:22] And then a very important section on the Bible. This is the important part that we need to spend more time on in the future on non-retribution, on loving your enemies and not returning violence with violence or hatred. Also a section on private spirituality. The spirituality that we have is best done in private so that God can see it and reward it. A lot of words about wealth and possession and having a generous eye towards other people. Really powerful.

[1:50] A life that's free from worry. This is a good one. This is a good word for this time that we're in. And last week we talked about judging others with fairness and developing wise discernment about what we see in the world. And I want you to kind of notice that so much of what the Sermon on the Mount talks about has to do with our perceptions. What do we see? What do we hear? What do we judge? How do we discern? And so when Jesus is asking us to transform and be his disciples, he's asking us to transform how we perceive the world around us. So that could change and be more like him. And that's really powerful. If I were only able to see people as God sees them, that would change my life so incredibly. Today we're looking at a very short section that we often call Ask, Seek, and Knock. It's about going to God in this persistent, engaged, connected way with Jesus and in the full confidence that God will give to us what we ask for. And we'll kind of flesh out with that. And we'll talk about what that means before. I mean, a little bit later. So with that, let's go to our reading. It's Matthew 7, starting at verse 7. This is what Jesus says. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.

[3:11] For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? Let's pray.

[3:43] Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. First off, I wanna admit that there's some tension here in all these passages that talk about God giving us what we want or what we ask for, because in my experience, that's not always true. And so we have to flesh that out a little bit.

[4:08] It sounds like God wants to give us everything. And there's some challenges there. When I was a kid in Sunday school, one of the kids put his hand out, and said god give me a chocolate milkshake and poof nothing happened right and he was kind of joking but he was kind of making a good point too like you can ask for a lot of things but you're not going to get them and some people say well you may get them you just have to wait a while or other people might say well if you save up your money you can get enough money for a chocolate milkshake and go buy one yourself and that's all true but the reality is that this idea of asking and getting is not as simple and so we're going to deal with that a little bit today because it is it is not as simple and we're going to there's but there's some really good news in here there's a word of hope um sometimes our prayers need to come true in community and so if we pray that seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you all these things being what shall we eat what shall we wear you know what shall we drink those come through in community sometimes it means that we have to be living in such a way that that prayer is answered by god

[5:26] through us to other people so community is important and we we have to we have to face challenges together and we have to share resources together and in that way we're going to overcome more things and see more answers for things than individuals will benjamin franklin said this when he signed the declaration of independence which was really like a death warrant for anybody who said that scientists said they had this nice declaration of independence and if the british got their hands on it they'd be like this is a perfect list of people we now need to round up it's just simple you know all this these people are all traitors and and we're going to go find them what did abraham lincoln not did i say abraham lincoln earlier i meant benjamin franklin benjamin franklin that's better yeah abraham lincoln wasn't alive but four score and seven years ago he was or it was later anyway what did benjamin franklin say you know this if you if you remember your history he was a great man he was a great man he was a great man he was a great man he was a great man hang together. Community is important. Generosity is important. We give to others because we have an overflow of what God has given us. God will answer prayers through us. But then there's those

[7:02] less than serious requests like chocolate milkshakes and things like that. So Jesus makes the invitation that God is generous when we ask for what is needed. And I want to look at that in these next few verses. So go ahead and look at your text right now. And it says, ask, verse 7, ask. Then it says, seek. And then it says, knock, ask, seek, knock, all in verse 7. And I want you to notice, and you don't know, you can't really tell this from where you are now, that all of these are what are known as the Greek present tense, which is a little different than our present tense. Somewhat. I know my brother-in-law Ryan is probably watching now and he's super excited about the grammatical ideas going on here. But the idea in the Greek present tense is that there's an emphasis on continuous action. Not one-time action that's completed, but a continuous ongoing thing. So while we say it's translated as ask and seek and knock, it really is more like this. Keep on asking.

[8:13] Always. Always be seeking. Never give up knocking. That's the present tense, this ongoing active thing. So already Jesus, in the way he's saying this, is inviting his listeners to be in a continuous state of asking, seeking, and knocking. And then I want you to notice this, that there's a progression in these verses, in this one verse. Ask, and then seek, and then knock. And when we think about it a little bit, we're going to see that there's a progression. And we're going to see that there's a progression. And when we think about it a little bit, we realize that these go up in intensity as you go along, from the simplest or the easiest to the more complex and the more involved. And so obviously asking is very simple. It's just a request that we make in prayer. But actually, you may not even have to pray, because the scriptures tell us sometimes we live in such a state of who we are with deep longings that the Spirit himself actually asks us to pray. And so obviously, asking is very simple. It's a request that we make in prayer. But actually, you may not even have to pray. And so obviously, we need to ask on our behalf, because he knows that we need it. The Spirit intercedes on us. So asking is simple. Anyone can ask, although Jesus says keep on asking. Now for seeking, that's more involved.

[9:28] It means we act in a way to obtain what is asked for. So for example, if I ask for wisdom, I should also seek for wisdom. I should seek in the scriptures. I could seek the wise counsel of others. If I seek peace, I need to seek for wisdom. I could seek for the things that make peace. So seeking is always pointing towards the object of what is asked for. And that's more complex. It invites some work on my behalf. And then finally, you get to knocking.

[10:00] Knocking shows that we've actually found that place at the end of our seeking, and we're persistently hoping to enter into what God has for us, which is a very powerful idea. So we ask for it, then we seek for it, we seek those places out. Then when we find those places, we persistently stand at the door and wait until God lets us enter. And then we receive these riches of what God has for us. It's a very beautiful thing. And there's more, okay? And this is going to get even nerdier. So you're ready for the next level nerdiness is coming right now. The receiving that comes from asking, and now you'll look at the rest of the verse. Pardon me for verse eight. Everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. The receiving from asking and the opening from knocking are in what is known as the future passive indicative. There's going to be a quiz later. Future passive indicative. Write this down. The future passive indicative. Grammatically, this is a theological or divine passive construct. And it means that God is the one who is acting here. So inside the tense and the voice of this verb is a promise from Jesus. God is the one who's going to give what you receive, and God is the one who's going to open when you knock.

[11:31] God is going to do these things. God is very much involved. And now you're wondering, well, what about the finding when you're seeking? I'm so glad you asked. What is that in? What is that in? That's in the future active indicative. Not the future passive indicative, but the future active indicative. And since it's active, it means you. It means that you are acting and you will find on purpose, not on accident. It implies some intentionality on your part. It will not just happen for you. There's purposeful activity. And though so thus, if I want wisdom and I seek for wisdom, I need to find those places where wisdom is, and I need to pursue them. Now, I know that sometimes we can make too much of these tense and voice and mood of Greek verbs, but not in this case. In this case, they really draw everything together. And so in this case, the nerdiness is warranted, really. And they're arranged in a deliberate pattern. There's some parallelism here that Jesus is famous for and Jewish thought and literature is famous for. And so even in the structure of this, the structure and the grammar, Jesus is inviting us into this beautiful complex but also directed encouragement to ask and seek and knock. And so we look at all the clues when we look at a text and then we pull meaning out of that.

[12:58] And that's the meaning that we pull out. And it doesn't end there. Look at the next verse. This poetic construct, you could call it continues when Jesus employs a classic how much more rhetoric. And this is common. in the scriptures, and you'll see it somewhere else. For example, you might find it in the parable of the persistent widow and other places too. This idea that you may be bad people, but even bad people do good things every now and then. How much more will God, who is perfect, do even greater things and be even more righteous and even better? And so this happens here too. And so he gives these sort of rhetorical questions. You would not give bad things to your children unless it was a good joke. You know, like on Christmas, you could just put out coal and see what happens, and then you'd have the other present somewhere else, and you can trot them out and give them a lesson about, you know, gratefulness, or I don't know. It would be hilarious, I think. Maybe not the kids listening, if they're still listening, going, that's not a good idea. Don't do that. But so you would never give bad things to your children. You wouldn't give them a scorpion. Or a rock, or a snake, or any of those things. You would give them good things. And Jesus says,

[14:14] you know what? You would never do that to your children because you love your children. And as much as is possible, we say we do, but it's not 100% true. We love our children unconditionally, or as close as we can in human terms. But God loves us truly in an unconditional way. So you who are sinners, you who are evil, even you give good things to your children. How much more will God give you? And so he says, you know what? You would never do that to your children, but as much as is possible, we say we do, but it's not 100% true. We love our children unconditionally, way. How much more is God a good giver and an unconditional giver? And we also, we ask unconditionally. We ask because we have need. We don't think necessarily that there's anything we can do in exchange for God's gift. And so God gives us unconditionally, as a parent does to a child, but much more unconditionally, much more lovingly than we're ever able to muster. Praise God for that. Okay.

[15:09] We're getting near the end here. I want us to look at this in a larger context pretty soon. We see that we are to ask and seek and knock. This involves effort on our part. It requires openness. It requires persistence. And on the other side of that, we're confident that God is a good father. He even gives the birds enough to eat, gives the flowers beautiful clothes. Will he not give his children better than we give our children? And so we should ask for all these things in complete confidence, not necessarily chocolate shakes, but for something else. And the something else I want to get at now, in the context, the larger context of the Sermon on the Mount, what is it that we ask for? Because if we actually can ask for it in the confidence that we get it, then I want us to start asking. I really do. And I want you to start asking so that you can be confident that you'll get it and that you will get it.

[16:09] So let's kind of maybe go back a little bit in time and ask ourselves, what is this larger context that we're in so that we know what to ask for? So much about the Sermon on the Mount is about being a disciple. It's about surrendering our lives completely to Jesus. And it's also about being connected to Jesus. And I want you to hold those two things together. And they are related, but they're different. We're completely surrendered to Jesus as Lord, and we're also as connected to Jesus as we can be. And so then what would we ask for? We would ask for the things that Jesus says our life will look like in the Sermon on the Mount. You could actually go back to the Beatitudes, and you could ask to be made poor in the Spirit, or poor in Spirit. And if you haven't heard what that was about, you can go back in time on our website and listen to that sermon on the very first one. But to be poor in Spirit means to be aware of my own brokenness and to need God desperately. And some of us need that. Or that our hearts would be broken for the world, or that we would be meek and hunger for righteousness. These are all the Beatitudes, at least the first half of each one. That we would be merciful, that we would be pure in heart, that we would be peacemakers. And even

[17:34] at the end, and this is a tough one to pray for, that we would be persecuted, because of righteousness, so our light will shine in the world. And I know God will answer that one, because he actually already is. You can pray that you would experience persecution because of righteousness' sake. And I think God will answer that question. You have to really think about what that will look like before you do it, but I think you can do it. All of these things we can ask for, all of these things we can seek, all of them we can identify where to find them, and all of them we can pursue. And so we can pray for them. And so we can pray for Pastor Edmonds says to Pastor Edmonds says to Pastor Edmonds says to Pastor Edmonds says to Pastor Edmonds says to Pastor Edmonds says to Pastor Edmonds says to Pastor Edmonds says to