Praying & Receiving

Well as we look this morning at these verses that we've read together from
Matthew chapter 7, allow me to make three observations. Number one, these
verses need to be understood within their context and the context is both a
broader context and a narrower context. The broader context is of course the
sermon on the mount. And in the sermon on the mount Jesus teaches his disciples
how he expects them to live as his followers particularly he focuses on
keeping the spirit of the law instead of just the letter of the law. Human
nature being what it is exemplified in the life of the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law human nature wants to focus on the letter of the law to the
exclusion of the spirit as long as I don't kill you as long as I don't sleep
with my neighbor's wife. Then I'm doing okay but Jesus says that's not good
enough. He is looking for hearts that from the inside out are transformed by
his grace and observe the spirit of the thing rather than just the letter of
the law. That's the broader context of these verses but there's also the
narrower context which is Matthew chapter 7. And as we've been looking at
Matthew chapter 7 in recent weeks we have seen that there is a consistent
theme that has emerged so far and that is the issue then of exercising correct
discernment in our relationships with other people. How do we judge people
rightly? Because the danger of course is too full accepting what we should be
rejecting and rejecting what we should be accepting. How do we on the one hand
obey the commandment do not judge unless you be judged and on the other hand
how can we be sure not to give that which is holy to the dogs and throw
pearl to swine. That takes a measure of discernment. So it's in this twofold
context then that Jesus brings up these verses that we have been reading
together this morning. Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find
knock and the door will be open to you. In other words this verse is not a
cart blosh that you can ask God for anything anytime anywhere and expect to
get it from him. Now there are some people who misinterpret the verse that way.
There are those who say well let's take that first said phase value I need a
bigger house I need a fancier card to drive I need a greater job I want to
climb up in the corporate world God says ask and I'll give it to you so
God I'm asking you and and you got to give it to me now if you listen to some
of the new age movement particularly the secret that we've talked about in
recent weeks you will find that there is an appeal to these kinds of verses in
scripture to make it sound as if Jesus is supporting this kind of consumer
lifestyle that only sets people up for disappointment because you can't make
God give you something that he doesn't want to give you. Now rather the
context is the servant of the mount living for Jesus the context is having the
ability to judge correctly so that you can condemn what God condemns and bless
what God blesses and that's why Jesus goes on then to say in verse eight for
everyone who asks receives he who seeks fines and to him who knocks the door will
be opened. Very important for us to understand this because what Jesus is
really saying here is that when it comes to the issue of following Jesus when
it comes to the issue of being more Christ-like particularly in our
discernment and evaluation we can go to God our Father we can ask we can seek
and we can knock and he wants to and will give it to us and why is that so
important because oftentimes in your life and in my life and the Christian
experience it doesn't seem that easy does it. We read the servant of the mount
you know look at a woman lustfully you've already committed adultery with her in
your heart have an evil thought and you've already murdered that person in your
heart we take seriously the commands of Jesus to become more like him and then
we look at our own hearts that are own emotions and our own feelings and and
our own you know be setting sins and and sometimes we just want to throw in
the towel and say well Lord you know this may work for everybody else but it
doesn't work for me understand something really clearly God in Christ has
made full provision so that one day he is going to present us before him
without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing and when we are confronted
by be setting sins deep pattern circumstances that cannot seem to change
anything at all that keeps us from following after Jesus hard the promise of
scripture is that if we ask we will receive if we seek we will find and if we
knock it will be open to us that hinges as we'll see later on on the very
character and the nature of God and to say I don't believe that or to say I can't
believe that is not humility it's unbelief so we need to understand what it is
that God promises in this passage he wants to bless us as he already has in
Christ so that we can run the race and do what it is that he wants us to do we'll
talk more about that later on but no matter what else we say about that let's
lay hold of the clear meaning of scripture because that's where faith
begins so it needs to be understood in its context and then we need to know that
there is in this verse a progression of intensity for note again how Jesus
words it ask and it will be given you seek and you will find knock and the door
will be opened to you and so there is a progression in the verbs from ask and
seek and knock and here's the picture as I try to follow Jesus as I try to take
seriously the scriptural command to love God above all and my neighbor as
myself not only in terms of the letter of the law but in terms of the spirit of
the law sooner or later I discover I don't have what it takes if you're here
this morning and you have not yet discovered that you don't have what it takes
to follow Jesus wholeheartedly well then just wait around long enough until
Jesus shows you what lives inside your heart all have sinned and fall on
short of the glory of God and so inevitably in the Christian life there comes a
time when God says I want you to love somebody that naturally you cannot or
will not love or forgive somebody that naturally you cannot or will not forgive
or you need to step into a new situation when everything inside your heart says
I cannot go there I will die I do not have what it takes remember how the
sermon on the mount begins blessed are the what pouring spirit for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven so yes there is a reduction in our lives when the cross does
its job brings us to that place where we are helpless it's a place the world
absolutely hates and does everything that it can avoid but it brings the
Christian to his or her knees so now what happens well you've already discovered
you haven't got it in you yourself and pretty soon if you haven't already you
will discover that whatever it is that you need in there the rest of the world
around you hasn't got it either so now it's just you and God so God here I am this
is what my need is I don't know how to get through this will you please help me
what happens well sometimes blessed God he answers that prayer sometimes more
quickly than you can imagine this is especially true if you're a seeker after
him or if you're a new believer and he wants to confirm the reality of his
love and of his power that's why Christian communities always need new
believers around because they replenish and they refresh our faith and they
are often a living demonstration of the immediacy of God's presence but you
know just as well as I do this warning that once you've been in the family of
God a little while it doesn't always get easier does it in fact you ask and
you ask and you ask and God seems to have moved away and you say to yourself
now what well you either throw in the towel take matters back into your own
hands or if you're desperate enough you get down on your knees and you're
ratchet the intensity now you're not only asking now you're seeking like God
where are you I thought you loved me don't you like me got something against me
are you punishing me for that terrible thing I did 20 years ago I I knew it
would find me out someday God where are you and so you search you cry out and
sometimes you know in the middle of that search God comes along and he
points out something that you've been missing he uses it as an opportunity to
reveal more of his character and of his nature the story like that on the Old
Testament where King David lives in a period of time where for three years now
there has been a famine in the land and Israel has been crying out to God and
so God how come it's not raining our lives are on the line here one year a
drought we can take two years maybe but three that's pushing it what did God
say well the King who was here before you King Saul broke covenant with the
Ghiblianites put him to death when he had promised that he would not and now
there is judgment on the land so repent and they did and the rain came see part
of the purpose of seeking is that you go deeper into the things of God rather
than just saying well God must not like me God must be against me so give up
and God do my own thing but sometimes when you seek like sometimes when you
ask doesn't get any better he gets worse now you're really befuddled and
confused because all your neat categories of theology all the things that you
thought you do about God nothing seems to work anymore now you're really up
a creek without a paddle because remember you're going deeper with God you've
lost most of your supporting mechanisms that have been a substitute for God so
far and now there's no God to be had anywhere so what do you do well you're
ratchet the intensity another notch now you're not just asking you're not
just seeking you're getting pretty blue and desperate what do you do in your
desperate you begin to pound on the door you begin to knock on heaven's door and
you almost become violent with God and you say God bless me or I die now a lot
of us think that's pretty blasphemous and we're just supposed to bow our heads
very reverently and say not my will but yours be done please God glory
hallelujah and you know what we do in the meantime we just shut our hearts off we
compartmentalize our lives and don't allow God into those places anymore and we
just live our life the way that we had wanted to live it because it's too
dangerous when your heart is out fully there with God and God is nowhere to be
had not true so here's the question if God is so good and he loves us so much
and he so wants to bless us then pray tell why does he sometimes make it so
blooming difficult yeah fair question is or not he says ask receive seeking
you'll find knock it'll be open and I'm asking and I'm seeking and I'm knocking
the tar out of that door and nothing much has happened I you know the answer is
because God is trying to get us to know his character better let me give you
three reasons and there are many more but let me give you three reasons why
sometimes it goes from asking to seeking to knocking and the first is this the
time has not yet fully come the time has not yet fully come the Greek language
and that's of course the language of the New Testament has two words for time the
one is Kronos and the other is Kairos now Kronos is the kind of time we in the
Western world are comfortable with we get the word chronology from it we get
the word chronic from it chronometer it has to do with calendars seasons dates
and clocks modern people are ruled by appointments alarm clocks schedules and
date books Kronos says next month on such and such a day at such and such an
hour I expect to arrive at the airport and please pick me up that's a kind of
time we're accustomed to Kairos time is very different from that it has to do
rather with a fullness of time when circumstances are right for something to
take place and in between services and illustration that came to mind is a
little risque but I think you'll understand it certainly those of us here who
are married will understand it man and a woman there together and part of the
nature of the relationship of course is intimacy and some of the battle is how
do you get desire and passion and time to line up from his side and her side now
men typically live by Kronos time tomorrow night eight o'clock ready to go let's
do it the woman what does she do she lives by Kairos time I got a feel right the
circumstances have to be okay and just because we agreed to a date and a time
when to an appointment doesn't mean that I'm ready at all that's why smart men
know that sex begins in the kitchen long before the bedroom evening rolls
around Kronos and Kairos Kronos is a fixed period of time Kairos is God's way of
saying the circumstances have come together and now the time is right and one of
the ways in which you can see that is for example in the birth of Jesus the
birth of Jesus is already prophesied in Genesis chapter three when God says
the seed of the woman well one day conquer the seed of the serpent right that's a
prophecy understood the Old Testament Israel as well as many others in the
Old Testament that the Messiah is coming and for years and years and for
generation after generation God's people are praying God let this be the
time and even to this day there are people who try to set the time for when
Jesus comes again but there is no time set why because a certain set of
circumstances have to come together and so Paul tells us in the book of
Galatians that when the time had what fully come when the time had fully come when
the Kairos moment when all the circumstances had come together when the right
season had rolled around that's when Jesus was born how do we know when Jesus is
coming back when the right circumstances roll around he says to the Pharisees
you can tell what kind of weather you're going to have by looking at the sky you
know the signs of the times in that regard but he says you're blind to the signs
of the times in every other way because he says whenever God's kingdom comes it
is preceded by a Kairos moment and part of being God's people and part of
praying with wisdom and praying intelligently is to understand the difference
between Kronos time and Kairos time because here sees what happens we begin
praying for something over here remember we have this need now I go to God and I
say God please answer this need and God says good I'm at work and he begins to
set in motion the events that will one day bring the answer that you need but
remember in order for that answer to come about there's a lot of things that
need to happen we often go through this with people when we talk about
inner healing you know people say well I prayed for God to fix this up how come
it's taking so long what I'll tell you why it takes so long took you 30 40 50
years to get to where you are and it's gonna take long a season of time to roll
everything back but it already begins when you start that process in fact it
already started in God's mind long before you ever started to pray because
God's the one who thought of it to begin to have so he gets you on board praying
and so the challenge of praying then is to discern the signs of the times and
to recognize okay God is at work in this and it has to reach the right time and
the right moment and you can see this everywhere in nature a lot of us
pretty soon will be out in the garden planning seeds waiting for the seed to
sprout to grow to bear fruit now you can look on the you know the back of the
little package and it'll tell you well these tomatoes are gonna be ripe what
90 days or whatever the variety is that you're planning that's Kronos time you
can go home and your little calendar put it on there first tomato such and
such a date well you come out there on such and such a date what happens to
me it was in half right why because the weather has not cooperated or it's been
too dry there's a difference between Kronos time and Kairos time and one
reason it sometimes takes a long time for a prayer to get answered is that God
is just starting the process and for those of us who think we're wonderful and
great prayers because we've had such powerful immediate answers to prayer gas
what just to keep us humble a little bit it might help us to realize that God
brings us in in the process right about there the thing is ready to fall out
of the sky and our little prayer just knocks it over the end and we say well
here's a man or a woman of great faith and power look what God did through my
prayer well you're standing on the shoulders of a thousand generations that have
prayed that prayer before you ever did so the time has not yet come more than
that God also wants to test our faith now faith is the assurance of things
hoped for the conviction of things not seen faith is knowing that God and God
alone holds the answer to whatever it is that we need now that is a terribly
miserable place for a human heart to find itself because it is very difficult
to trust God and God alone in fact typically our faith is in God plus my wife
plus my kids plus my neighbors plus my bank account plus my job and all of the
rest of life that makes life happen for us and so our forefathers often talked
about historical faith that's the kind of faith that you inherit from your
parents you believe it because your parents believe it they've talked about
intellectual faith where intellectually you believe all the things the Bible
says but they also talked about saving faith which is where you know it to be
true in your heart and for many of us in many places faith is a mixture so how
do you sort out a mixture well you put it in the fire Peter says rejoice at the
testing of your faith that your faith may rebound to honor and glory in the
day of Jesus Christ because you see the fire and this is an important
distinction the fire not only burns off the draws it does that but it also
reveals the gold and the one thing that we don't have to be afraid of when we go
through fiery trials is that our faith disappears altogether because in those
places where our faith is truly the faith of Jesus grafted in our hearts you
know the fires of life and the darts of hell cannot destroy it we are more
than conquerors through him who loved us even the person of Jesus Christ so
God sorts it out and though fiery trials are no fun we can come through those
fiery trials refined knowing that God has sustained us and sustained our faith in
ways that we never ever thought were possible and I'll tell you painful though
that bay and I know a little bit about that in my life I'll tell you is better
to find it out now that in the final day of judgment when all our works are
gonna be tested by fire and we stand there bear naked and we say not what better
know now so we can ask and we can seek and we can knock to receive the grace
that we need from Jesus to live before his face so the time isn't always right
God wants to test our faith and of course he wants to teach us what perseverance
consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds because
you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance perseverance must
finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything why
is perseverance so important from God's point of view because it
demonstrates that your faith is real too often we're like children we're
aware of a need we go to God in prayer we ask him we pray maybe for a week maybe
two weeks if we're desperate maybe a little bit longer but after a while when
the answer doesn't come like kids we get tired of this prayer we have all our
theological ducks in order to explain why it must not be God's will after all
and we just go on to other things and God says to you and me listen does this
thing really matter to you whether you come alive in this area of rural does
it really do you care do you care whether you can learn to love your enemy
do you care if you learn how to forgive do you care about stepping into life in
such a way that you can prosper before God and bless his name do you care to
become like Jesus do you care for God's kingdom to come and his will to be
done on earth if you do how can you just walk away from it and say well I must
not be God's will there's a lot more things that are God's will than most
of God's people are ever ready to believe God for I'll tell you that so part
of perseverance is not only saying this really matters to me God but I happen
to believe that this matters to you I think you care whether I can live a
godly life I think you care whether my marriage succeeds I think you care whether
your kingdom comes and your people's purposes are accomplished I think you care
so Lord I'm asking and I'm seeking and I'm gonna pound on the door of heaven
until it opens and you and I we look at that and we say that's blasphemous
far better to bow our heads humbly and say well not my will but yours be done and
don't misunderstand me there's a lot of things that we ask for that we ask for
wrongly that we will never again but there's a lot of things that God has
already revealed that he wants us to go after him with everything we've got
until we get it and just approve my point Luke chapter 18 you can read it for
yourself sometimes there's the story of the impotune widow this is a woman who
has been wronged by somebody and she's appealing to the judicial system a
judge in particular and this judge is crooked as get all has no interest in
defending the poor and the widow and the orphan which in scripture is always a
high value and so she's calling after him every time she meets his dude in the
street she goes up to him and says judge how about my case and he doesn't want
angry with her so he just turns his back keeps on going well she's not about to
be undone she goes after him and goes after him and you know the story where he
finally gets to a point of frustration where he says listen even though I don't
care about her and I don't care about justice and I don't care about doing
what I'm supposed to be doing here she's making such a spectacle of
herself in such a nuisance I'm gonna give her what she wants because she is so
persistent that is knocking on the door and Jesus elsewhere in Luke's
hospitals is a similar story friend comes late at night he wants some bread my
first inclination is to say no I'm already in bed with my children the guy
doesn't have the manners to go home and leave me alone keeps pounding on my
door what is the man do he gets up and Jesus says even though he might not get up
and give him bread because he is his friend he's going to get up because it's
the only way to get rid of his knocking ask and you will receive seek and you
will find knock at it will be open to you but somebody says what if it
doesn't work what if after all of that I'm just barking up the wrong tray well
the third observation I want to make on this passage then as we bring this
together is that when all has been said and done it's not only a question of
the passage being understood in its context it's not only understanding if there
is a progression of intensity really when all is said and done the key to
answered prayer is knowing understanding and trusting the father's
character because notice how Jesus continues I love this 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 follow his logic with me what is he saying Jesus always logically
argues his point it's a very interesting thing and he says look at yourselves
particularly those of you that are parents you know and understand that you
are flawed human beings in fact that's putting it rather generously Jesus is
much more blunt and he says you're evil Jesus never was one to make us feel
good for the sake of feeling good or puffing us out no you're evil why because
as fallen sons and daughters of Adam and Eve we are fundamentally self-centered
at the core but Jesus says you can take the most self-centered parent think of
him or her in connection with a daughter or a son and a daughter or a son's
need so your son comes to you and says dad or mom I asked for bread or I need
a fish that is to say I need food or something to sustain the hunger of my life
and Jesus says which one of you even when you're evil in response to that kind
of a request would give a stone for bread or a snake for fish now there can be
the occasional saddest who is so warped and twisted that he might just step
into that despite his son or despite his daughter but even the most pagan of
pagans all things being equal loves a son or a daughter so much that he or she
would do everything within his power to meet or to satisfy the needs of that
nature of course that's true well Jesus says now look at the father who is in
heaven your evil he's not I mean there isn't a shred of evil in the heart of
God the Father if you or 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 what's
the key to prayer it's knowing the character of God the Father if your kids are
even reasonably smart they've got you figured out well enough to know what they
can ask for and what they cannot ask for not true and they're smart enough to
know which parent to play off against the other parent because sometimes one is
a little more favorably inclined than the other and smart parents put their
heads together so they don't get into that situation I used to think years
ago that the key to faith and the key to answered prayer was memorizing the
promises of God in scripture and standing on them and I still think that's
very important but I discovered that memorizing all the promises of God
didn't help me trust him any better I discovered is far more important to know
the character of him who makes the promises and when I know God the Father and
when I know his heart when I know what beats within him which is my
privilege through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ then I know what it is that I
can go to him and ask for boldly and with courage and with determination
because I know my Father's heart that's when prayer becomes natural and that's
when we begin seeing answers to prayer because we're no longer shaken up by
circumstances or by events or by is this unshining or do I feel spiritual or do
I feel good God doesn't change and his mercies are new every day so it all hinges
on the character of God and that's where our struggle lies you see because by
nature we don't trust him very much by nature we believe the lie he's not good
remember that's how the devil started in Genesis chapter 3 has God really said
that's what he said to the woman and since then our natural disposition is to
disbelieve the goodness of God and that's reinforced then by the things that
happen in the course of life every prayer that doesn't get answered every
situation and circumstance that I ever find myself in where it isn't going my
way and other nail in the coffin until I become for all practical
intents and purposes a practicing atheist here's my little Sunday self where I
go through all my you know nice religious routines and yes praise God glory
hallelujah I love you but then here's all the rest of the week where I fight
just as dirty as everybody else down the alley and I just have as much lack of
faith in God that he cares about me and the guy down the street who's a raw
pagan in fact sometimes the raw pagans live better in that way than you and I do
and the antidote to that is growing in the revelation of the character of God
and why do our prayers not always get answered so fast why do we sometimes have
to seek so miserably why sometimes do we have to pound on heaven's door
wondering if God has got a hearing problem it's because God is one thing to bring
us to a place where we get to know him and his character because how do you know
that God is your provider if he hasn't put you in a place where he's the only one
who can provide how do you know that God is the only one who can lift you out of
the Murray Driggs of your life unless you've been in the Murray Driggs and you
have discovered the reality of God's power and we're way beyond a time in
history when God's people can just do business as usual and expect to have an
impact in the world because they look at us and they say it doesn't eat up and
God puts many of us through the fire by different times so that out of the
fire comes a deeper knowledge a deeper understanding of his character so that
when the whole world goes to pot we are a people who know their God and they
are rooted on the rock whose name is Jesus so here's my challenge to you this
morning as we wind this up in one of those moments where you are reflective
when you're in touch with those deep longings and desires of the heart but
often we just sort of have to shove aside and keep on going because we can't bear
to live in the pain of that hunger when you get in one of those moments where
you feel that pain and you want to move to whatever addiction it is that you
have adopted to cope with that pain as God to give you grace to enter into it to
step into it and to say God reveal yourself to me in this and if you don't know
what it is that you need to pray for then say Lord show me what my hunger is
show me what the burden is on your heart I can promise you that you will and if
he's already given you a specific desire then just lay aside your religious
self for a little while and just be honest and say this is how I feel these are
my refealings towards you these are my refealings towards other people I know
a thousand of them are wrong I don't know what to do with this but you know
me and you understand me and so Lord I cry out to you show me how to pray in this
situation show me how to ask show me how to seek and show me how to knock and then
keep at it and I promise you something long after you will have forgotten your
prayer maybe years later all of a sudden God will come along the light will go on
in your mind and the Holy Spirit says remember what you prayed five ten twenty
years ago this is that and you will stand in awe and you'll worship God like
you've never worshipped him before
it's all together see verse one in the ladies echo verse two and three
see he first a king of the God and his righteous head west and all these things
♪ And shall be added unto you ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪
♪ And shall live our New Year ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪
♪ Father, say to the New Year ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪
♪ Father, say to the New Year ♪
♪ Father, say to the New Year ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪