Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-8

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

What if this verse read, “if you don’t ask you will get only what you can get on your own, if you don’t seek God you will never really find him and if you don’t knock the important doors will ever be opened to you.”

Because that’s what is actually being implied here.

I could ask you, “where do you live?”

That will give me some information.

But it will not bring me to your house.

I will not know how you live.

I will not know what your neighborhood looks like.

If I don’t ask you anything, I’m really saying, “I’m not interested in knowing anything about you.”

Isn’t it the same with God?

Ask

Asking is the basics.

If I ask, I learn. It leads to knowing how.

NOT JUST Is there a God?

What kind of God is he?

What’s in the Bible?

Is He still the same as He was with those I read about in the Bible?

The answers to those questions lead us to more basic questions.

Can we still act and think and believe the way we used to?

Can we hang out with our old friends?

Do we have to change our attitudes?

Our choices?

All important questions.

But…this is the 2+2 phase.

This is not the quantum physics phase.

Let’s look at what the Hebrew children were taught to ask:

Deuteronomy 4:32-40

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other.

Ask people about the stuff that happened to before you met God.

32 Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

These were the basic questions that gave Israel their foundation.

Joshua 4:5-7

Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ASK you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

They were taught to ask.

These days, we tell our children, “Don’t ask me!”

Then, when Jesus came along, God said we could ask for more:

Matthew 21:22

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

If we don’t know that we CAN ASK, we’re going to be stuck trying to work things out ourselves.

Mark 11:24-25

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

The basics of “believing” comes from learning that we CAN ASK.

Luke 11:12-13

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 the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

That’s basic information.

It’s a STARTING PLACE.

John 14:13-14

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

The whole system is built around ASKING.

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

He’s talking about GODLY WISDOM.

Want it??? Ask.

Do you KNOW THAT???

You can’t get anywhere with God until you have that understanding.

1 John 3:21-22

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

The more you obey, THE MORE YOU CAN ASK.

I tell teenagers…you want the car?

Hold your tongue. Clean your room. Treat your mama right.

You DON’T want the car? Fine. Keep on truckin’!