Ask, Seek, Knock

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Hey, thanks for being here today. My name, as she said, is Abby. My wife and I have been attending The Table since about April, and we have been just incredibly grateful for this place and for all of you. So I just want to say thank you to all of you. I'm also grateful to be up here today and to be able to share the Word of God today and look alongside you as we look at this next part of the Sermon on the Mount together.

You know, this time of year is my absolute favorite. It always has been. This, like, season, the season's changing, the different holidays that come up, maybe not so much the snow on the roofs this morning, but we're going to make it through. But there's one day that I always remember as a child growing up, you remember when you used to get, like, the newspaper every morning delivered to your house? So there was one day where there was this one ad that would show up in the newspaper. It was the Fleet Farm Christmas ad. Right? The Toyland Christmas ad. This wasn't just an ad. This was an entire catalog, right? With everything a child could dream of and then some. It was like the Sky Mall magazine for kids. Like, the things you didn't know that you needed, but you did, and you suddenly needed it and wanted it. But, man, that thing, I'd grab my pen or my marker and I'd go page by page by page and circle all the things that I dreamed of, that I imagined opening for Christmas, what I could ask my parents to get me for, my time to dream. Now, how many of those items did I actually receive? I don't think even one of them. You see, because my parents knew me and they knew that budget-wise, I could get, like, either one gift from the catalog or a couple other things. And, you know, the quantity of gifts matters as a child. You'd rather get 20 $1 gifts than one $20 gift, right? And they knew me better than that. They knew that I'd want quantity. Toyland is open at Fleet Farm now, in case any of you are interested or in need of that information.

But this fall, we've been looking at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' longest recorded sermon that we have, a sermon about the kingdom of God, what the kingdom of God looks like, that we are a part of not just someday in the long-distance future that we look to, but now. In the here and now, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And it is a kingdom that is saturated with, and it only works within this realm of love. Not a love born from us that we can muster up and we can try to be more loving in our own power, but a love that is given to us, that is shown to us, poured out upon us, and emulated for us from a good and faithful Father.

So before we get today's passage, I'd love to pray for us: Heavenly Father, we come before you during this time and we acknowledge that you are God and that we are not. We open our hearts today to what you have. No matter what kind of morning or week that we've had, we come to this place, I pray that you would clear it all from our minds, that would be in this place present to hear your spirit and what you have for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

And today's passage is Matthew chapter 7:7-12:

Ask and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who searches finds and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you if your child asks for bread would give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish would give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? In everything do to others as you would have them do to you for this is the law and the prophets.

Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. What does a relationship with Jesus look like? There's many times in my own life where I've been asked that question and I would immediately start to feel guilty because I'd have this checklist in my brain of all the things that I should be doing. Reading my Bible, having my quiet time, praying every day and I wasn't very good at it. So even though someone didn't ask me how's your relationship with God going, this guilt would wash over me or I'd compare myself to what I believe other people's relationships with Jesus would look like. What does a relationship with Jesus look like? In and out. The day of daily life. What does prayer look like? Sometimes I think we can view our relationship with Jesus. I think sometimes we can view prayer in general as a transaction. I do something and I get something in return. I do good, I get good, right? And I do bad, I get bad.

Now I don't know about you, but this passage feels kind of transactional in nature a bit. Doesn't it sound a little bit like Santa Claus? Everyone who asks receives. It's like a waiter at a restaurant. What would you like? I would like this, great. Let me bring that to you. Or a vending machine you put in your quarter, you pick what you want. How often do we come to God through prayer like that? But this passage almost seems to encourage it, right? Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you.

But how many times have you asked and asked and asked and not received? How many times have you searched for answers, searched for understanding and found none? How many times have you knocked at opportunities, knocked at door after door after door and none seem to open? So am I doing it wrong? Am I using the wrong words? Are my prayers too short? Am I not doing good enough? Because if I was good enough, then my prayers would be answered, right? Like this passage says, maybe if I gave more money or if I was knocking on the right door, then it would open. So I just need to figure out which is the right door and then that one's going to open. What am I doing wrong? Anyone ever felt that way? It says everyone who asks receives, everyone who searches finds, everyone who knocks, a door opens. So why isn't it working for me? Been there, felt that. At some point or another, I think we all have. But I want to take a step back for a moment because all of that's real and frustrating and hard. But I want to invite us to remember a couple things and keep them in mind when we come to this passage.

First of all, this verse, verse eight, this isn't the first time that God's people have been invited to seek Him in this way. In fact, Jesus' words echo something that said centuries earlier in the book of Jeremiah. You see the Israelites were people, the Israelite people were in exile. God's chosen people, they are in captivity to the Babylonians. They've been stripped from their land, their homes, their safety, their security, their freedom. And it is to this group of people in exile that Jeremiah states these words to the people. Now Jeremiah 29:11 is one that many of you may know, but have you read 12 and 13? Starting in verse 11:

"For surely I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "Plans for your welfare and not for harm to give you a future with hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me if you seek me with all your heart."

How many times do you think the Israelites prayed to be back home? How many times do you think they cried out to God to be free and out of Babylon? I can only imagine. Anyone know how long it took? 70 years. Do you think they too thought their prayers were falling on deaf ears? They too were frustrated and desperate for their prayers to be answered. And that is the context that Jesus states these words.

Because it is within the darkness, it is within the hardship, it is within the hardest of moments when the diagnosis is fatal, when the loneliness gets too hard to handle, when the pregnancy test keeps coming back negative, when the checking account only holds zeroes. It is within the hardest of the hardest that Jesus says, "Seek me and you will find me. Ask, seek, knock." You see, the very things and circumstances on this earth that would normally distract us and are designed to pull us from God are the very things that can propel us toward Him in prayer because of His love.

The second thing we need to remember is that we live in a broken, fallen and shattered world. We don't have to look any further than our own front doors to know it, our own lives to know it, to feel it, and that Jesus never promised that those who had a relationship with Him would be free of pain. In fact, He guarantees we will have trouble. He never says He's going to remove us from the world, but in fact, He calls us to stay in it and to be lights in the darkness. He never says He's going to take away our pain and our grief and hardship because we are in this place of sickness and of death and of pain and we are human. Prayer can and does change things, but it's not a formula for our circumstances to change. It's how God changes us. Prayer was always designed to be our connection to our Lord and Savior. It was not designed to be a tool to fix it or a formula where if we put the right input in, we'll get the output that we desire. Designed to connect us in a daily relationship to the one who cares, the one who sees, the one who knows, the one who provides, the one who loves bigger than we could ever imagine.

Which brings us to the last thing to remember, and that's something about God. God is so much bigger. He functions outside of our world and out of time, and yet He chose to come into the world to be with us and to love us. It's just hard to grasp, but His knowledge of our situation and the people involved in our situation, His knowledge of our pain is even more than we know. He knows our pain and hurt and sorrow, and it is within that pain that He comes to, He tells us to come to Him, to ask for His discernment, ask for His peace, ask that He would show you His Spirit, and He will show in His time. Because what we see is this much, and what God sees is everything. And that's where faith steps in, because we have a God who promises to love us, provide for us, care for us, and so often it's in ways that we wouldn't have chosen or planned for ourselves. But He tells us to rest in Him. He's not out to get us.

He uses an example of a father in verse 9. "Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, would give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, would give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?" Now I'm not going to spend time on the fact that Jesus just called His listeners evil, because that's a whole other road and hard and confusing things that Jesus said at times. But for now, just see that as a contrast between who we are compared to God.

I'm not a parent, but I am a child of parents. And I have friends who are parents. Many of you in this room are parents, and I continually see why God uses this relationship between a parent and a child as an example to how He interacts with us. Because the parent-child relationship is and is designed to be in a perfect world based on love. Parents, for the most part, want what is best for their kids. Now if your child asks for a cupcake and you say, "No, you need to eat your broccoli," it's because you love your child. It's not because you're trying to withhold something good from your child. It's because you know what is good for your child. And none of us would say otherwise. But if your child asks for dinner and you give them a rock to eat, we would have some struggles with that. You know how to give the right gifts to your kids, even if they don't always see it or feel that way. We have a Heavenly Father who knows and gives good gifts to those who ask even if we don't always see it and it doesn't always feel that way.

Now we're not talking about Christmas gifts, that car you've been eyeing, the new four-wheeler, golf clubs. Growing up, I loved every part of Christmas, yes, getting the Toyland catalog. But one of my favorite parts was opening gifts that were under the tree. Now I know I say this from a place of privilege because I know there's a lot of people who don't get Christmas gifts. But I did growing up. And we'd sit around and we'd take turn opening up gifts from our parents, the things we'd ask for, the things they knew we'd like.

But you know what Christmas looks like now, 37 years later? I’m not as young as you think I am. (Laughter) There aren't gifts anymore. But you know what? I'm just as excited to go to my parents for Christmas, not because of what they will give me, but because I have a relationship with them. I love them and they love me and I just want to talk to them and share our lives together. And that is just what a glimpse of what Jesus gives us and is talking about in this passage. Ask, seek, and knock is not about getting what we want in our timeline in the way our heart desires. It is about a relationship with the Savior of the universe who wants to hear from our heart to tell him our desires, to seek him in his love.

I do home renovations for a living. And every single day my wife at the end of the workday sits next to me and says, "Will you tell me about your day?" And I have to fight the urge in me to not just say, "You know I was painting today, I just painted all day." Or, "You know I was putting in flooring, that's what I did all day." Because I quickly realized that's actually not what she wants to know. She wants to know what I listened to as I worked. She wants to know who I interacted with, what was on my heart, what was on my mind. Did I get any new cuts and bruises that day? Did I stop at Menards? Did I buy anything at Menards? She loves Menards. Who doesn't, right? But she wants to know my heart.

And that's what Jesus invites us into. A relationship of love and faith with him, where we crawl up on his lap, when the tears flow, and we know we have a good father who's not withholding goodness from us. In fact, he wants to lavish us with his goodness. He wants to overwhelm us with his presence and his love. He wants to guide us with the good gift of his spirit. He gave everything for us. He sent his son to the cross to take what we deserved so that we didn't have to get what we deserve, in exchange for giving us what we don't deserve. Life, forgiveness, mercy, grace, relationship with him. This is how we know what love is. In this kingdom of God, a kingdom built on love is a kingdom built on relationship with our Savior, where the love of the Father flows into us and out of us. And when we live from that kind of love, when we know the Father's heart, it changes how we treat everyone else.

And that's what Jesus is getting to then in verse 12. It says, "In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law of the prophets." The golden rule, right? The law of the prophets. It finishes the flow chart, a love that flows out of the Father into us and out of us, into the world around us. In the ways we've been talking about through this whole series, through our anxieties, how we interact with the world around us, how we treat the world in which we live, what it means to not judge others and only in the way we too would be judged. A law built on love from the giver of love who is desperate for us to be in relationship with him, to ask, to seek, to knock, and to receive a peace that passes understanding and a faith that cannot be shaken even in the hardest of times. And unlike the other end of a knock-knock joke where when we knock, we have a God who never asked, "Who's there?" Instead, he opens the door with open arms and he says, "I've been waiting."

Let's pray: God, we thank you for your goodness and your grace, your mercy, and your love. We thank you that there is room for all of us in relationship with you, that you seek us out individually, and you draw us to yourselves. All you desire from us is to ask, to seek, and to knock, and to come to you, our faithful Father who loves us more than we can comprehend. I pray that you would give us opportunities this week, tug on our hearts, nudge us towards yourself, and remind us that we can always come to you, that you desire to hear from us, to talk to us, and to give us all of yourself. Thank you for your goodness, in Jesus' name, amen.