Prayer Changes Things
A Sermon on Matthew 7:7-11
The story is told of a young boy who wanted $100 very badly. He prayed for a long time, but nothing happened. Undaunted by the lack of response, he wrote a letter to God presenting his request once again.
When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to “God, USA,” not knowing what else to do, they decided to deliver it to the President. Mr. President was interested in the letter enough to instruct his secretary to send the little boy $5. He thought this amount might be enough to encourage such a young boy.
And indeed, the little boy was delighted with the $5 bill. He sat down immediately to write a thank-you note to God. This too was forwarded to the President. It read:
Dear God, Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you sent it through Washington DC and those guys deducted $95 in taxes!”
While I can’t claim that this story is true, you have to give the little boy credit for persistence in putting his prayers before God, and his faithfulness in believing that it was man, and not God, who had messed up the answer.
This morning I am concluding our Extreme Makeover Christian Edition series with a sermon on prayer. Our prayer lives have a tendency to cycle. Sometimes we are good at praying, laying our requests at God’s throne and listening and waiting for His answers. At other times, it is more the case that our prayer lives are dead or dying. We don’t pray with the faith or persistence of that little boy, and we don’t have his faith that God will answer.
For some of us that is because we’ve never really come before God in honest prayer. For others, it is because our prayer garden needs some weeding and watering to remove the complacency and nourish our souls. If we can turn our prayer life around, I believe we will see that prayer changes things.
Whatever your current situation is, Jesus has some words of encouragement for you today.
If you have your Bibles with you, why don’t you take them out and turn to the seventh chapter of the Matthew’s Gospel. We’ll begin at verse 7.
Go Ahead – Ask
Jesus says:
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. (Matthew 7:7-8, NIV)
This section of scripture is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Earlier, in chapter 6, He taught His disciples how to pray. He told them it was an activity that was between them and God. They were to keep their words simple and not worry about the jargon. And He gave them an example of prayer, which we today call the Lord’s prayer.
And here in chapter seven, He returns again to the topic of prayer. And it is interesting that there are no qualifiers in His statement. There is no how-to explanation. It is simply: Ask and receive; seek and find; knock and it will be opened. There is no indication of a possibility of failure. Prayer does change things.
But when we pray, is that our experience? Can what Jesus says really be true? I imagine we have all asked for something of God that we didn’t receive.
Driver’s Ed
I remember well the day I overslept for my Driver’s Education class one summer. The class allowed a total of 5 days that could be missed without having to start again from the beginning. I was certain I would not miss, so I chose to take the first five days off to go on a mission trip with my church.
Then one day, three-fourths of way through the class, I woke up at the exact moment when the class was ending for the day. I prayed very fervently for a way to work things out so I wouldn’t have to repeat everything. After all, I was almost done. But no matter how much I sought the Lord and petitioned the school board, it was not to be.
Ask and you will receive. Well, not that time. We probably all have similar stories.
So what does Jesus mean when He says, “ask and you will receive?” God isn’t just a big genie – when you rub the lamp He has to grant your wish – or a big vending machine in the sky – you put in your tithe and you get a blessing.
But God does want us to come to Him with our needs and our wants. He wants us to not be afraid to ask. Yes, our God is a holy God, but He is also a God before Whose throne we are welcome when we come in the Name of His Son.
Jesus wanted His hearers to be encouraged that God is good. He had already taught them how to pray. Recognize God’s holy nature – hallowed be Your name. May the will of God be done. Give us our daily needs. Forgive us and help us to forgive. Save us from temptation. He had already said that this is to be the focus of our prayers. We might detail our needs before God or ask for a better understanding of His will, but that was the basic template. And here in chapter 7, Jesus didn’t repeat that I believe because His intent here is to get people to start praying.
If Jesus had said, “Ask, but make sure you are right with God first, and ask for all the right things, and then you will receive,” a lot of people wouldn’t take the first step of asking. And if they didn’t ask, they wouldn’t go deeper and seek, and ultimately, they wouldn’t knock on God’s door that He might give them what He really wants to give them.
There is a sense of intensification as we look at these words: ask, seek, knock.
Ask
When we ask, we are looking for information or help. We may think of it as expressing a wish or desire. For example, ‘How do I get from A to B?’ or ‘Can I have a hundred dollars?’ Prayer can start like this.
Point and Invest
Like the two high school friends who met up after many years. Jack asked his friend how things were going and he said, “Well, one day I opened the Bible at random and dropped my finger on a word – it happened to be oil – so I invested in oil. Boy did those wells gush! Then a couple weeks later, I did it again, and my finger pointed to gold, so I invested in gold and those mines really produced. Today, I’m as rich as Rockefeller!”
Jack was so impressed, he ran back to his hotel and opened his Gideon Bible, flipped it open, and dropped his finger down. He opened his eyes and there under his finger were the words: Chapter Eleven.
This story is a great reminder to us that prayer isn’t just a series of requests, but ultimately requires a more passionate desire on our part. Asking is the start, but it isn’t the finish.
Seek
Seeking is a more intense action. It’s like going on a quest to discover a way to obtain the thing we desire. We seek solutions to problems. We seek to convince people to see things our way. We seek to understand. It’s more than a simple question with a straight forward answer. Instead of just asking for a hundred dollars, we investigate the ways we might go about getting it, including everything from asking mom to writing a letter to the president. Seeking is much more passionate than mere asking.
Knock
And when we have asked, and our question has set us on a quest to seek out the object of our desire, we learn along the way. We might even find it necessary to adjust our desires and requests as we gather information. But one day, we see the answer before us. Our search is over. It is then that we much knock.
Knocking is what we do when we’ve finally reached the end of our quest. You don’t go on a treasure hunt only to find the chest and walk away without opening it. Maybe we knock on a few wrong doors along the way, but if we keep knocking, we will either receive that which we seek, or we may find something even better.
Our prayers are a journey, not just a list of requests. So is it as simple as ask and you will receive? Yes, and no. When Jesus says, ask and you will receive, He doesn’t say you will receive what you asked for, does He? I think that is because sometimes God has something far better in mind. And through our seeking and knocking, we can find out what that is. It is true that prayer changes things – and sometimes the thing that needs changing is us.
If we allow our asking to turn into seeking and knocking, we will receive and find things that are perhaps even better than our initial request. But we will receive. And the best way to begin such a journey is simply to begin. So ask.
Why Don’t we Receive?
Now as I said earlier, sometimes our asking doesn’t produce receiving – at least not the way we anticipate. In our seeking we don’t always find what we think we’re looking for. What is it that keeps us from receiving?
When Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive,” He was simplifying things so that we could better understand the generous and loving nature of our God. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus taught that our prayer focus ought to be on discovering the will of God and fulfilling our daily needs rather than seeking out extravagant luxuries. Much of this teaching was assumed when Jesus said, “ask and you will receive.”
We Don’t Ask
James shares a similar thought in his letter. In Chapter 4, verse 2, he says
“You do not have, because you do not ask God. (James 4:2b, NIV)
While it is true that God knows our every need before we ask (Matthew 6:8), I believe He delights in our asking. So first and foremost, if we want to receive, then we ought to ask.
We Ask with Wrong Motives
But James goes on to say:
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3, NIV)
Self-centered, selfish prayer will not delight our Lord, nor will it produce what we request.
The Pine Wood Derby
Peggy, a single mother, told the story of her little boy, Gilbert, who came home from a Cub Scout meeting charged with creating a pine wood derby car. He was supposed to give all the materials to dad, but that was something he couldn’t do.
Mom did her best to read him the directions, and the boy did his best to create a car. The car was a bit lopsided, but not having seen any of the other cars yet, Gilbert was pretty proud of what he had created all on his own.
When the big day came, it was pretty obvious that he was the only one who had not had the help of a loving father or grandfather. And to top it off, he was the only one with a mom by his side.
Amazingly, after all the elimination rounds, the race came down to Gilbert’s car and the sleekest looking car there. Gilbert asked to pray before they began, which he did quietly for a very long minute and a half. Then he said, “Okay, I’m ready.”
Gilbert stood at the top of the ramp with his heavenly Father by his side as he watched his car wobble down the ramp, and finish a fraction of a second ahead of the other car.
After the race, the Cub Master came over and asked Gilbert, “So you prayed to win, huh?”
“No sir,” Gilbert said, “That wouldn’t be fair to ask God to beat out someone else. I just asked him to make it so I don’t cry when I lose.”
That little boy knew how to pray with right motives. If he’d prayed to win, he would have prayed to spend it on his pleasures. Instead, he prayed for a right attitude, and God was delighted to give him that and more.
Sometimes we pray with wrong motives, but at least we’ve got a conversation going. It is times like that, that our prayer can change us, if we are willing to let it. In all our seeking, we can come near to the heart of God. And it is then that God smiles and we aren’t at odds anymore.
In John’s gospel, Jesus says that we will receive whatever we ask in His name. (John 14:13-14; 15:16).
I’ve listed two references on the screen – John 14:13 and John 15:16. [1]
13 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. (John 14:13-14, NIV)
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (John 15:16, NIV)
Both of these times, Jesus is speaking to those who have faith in Him, to those who obey Him. When we desire that God’s will would be done, and we seek to be obedient to Him in faith, our prayers will reflect that, our motives will be right, and we will receive what we ask for.
We Don’t Believe
One other reason we don’t receive is because we don’t believe. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus says:
"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ’Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:23-24, NIV)
Moving Mountains – or Not
When I read this passage, I always think about the story of the woman who lived under the shadow of a mountain. She only saw the sun for a very short period each day and wanted more sunshine. One day she was reading her Bible and came upon this passage in Mark’s gospel, so she decided to try it. She prayed that the mountain would fall into the sea that night so she could see the sunrise in the morning.
The next day came and she got up and ran outside. There was the mountain in all its glory and the woman declared, “Just as I expected!”
I’ve heard this verse used to support the name it and claim it version of the gospel. If you want something, just claim it as yours and it will be. While I do believe that God can give us absolutely anything - for nothing is impossible with Him, I don’t think that was the only point of this story.
In this passage Jesus was answering Peter, who was amazed at the things that Jesus could do. Peter doesn’t strike me as the type of man who was afraid to ask for something. And though he wasn’t always perfect, I think his heart was right. All that was left was an issue of confidence in his faith and in the power of God. We really need to believe that God can and will do great things.
Now I’ll admit, there are times I don’t really expect God will answer my prayers and give me what I ask for. Sometimes I need something so badly, I’m just afraid to hope. But nevertheless, I do believe that God will give me whatever He has in mind, and that He’ll bring me to the point of desiring His will. And I can only do that by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we only hope for the things that we can imagine, then I think our God is too small.
In order for us to receive that for which we ask, we must be asking for that which God wants to give. And it is by the power of His Holy Spirit that this is revealed to us. But don’t be discouraged - we don’t come to that point overnight.
When Jesus said “ask and you will receive,” He encouraged us not to wait until we fully understand to begin asking. Because it is in asking and seeking that we begin to understand the will of God. It is in our seeking that we can begin to ask rightly.
Trust God to Give the Best
I think the real key to understanding the whole ask, seek, and knock trilogy is an issue of trust. Let’s look at Jesus words in verse 9 and following. He says:
"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 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! (Matthew 7:9-11, NIV)
Here Jesus compares two things that are very different in their inherent goodness, yet quite similar in their visual appearance. Middle Eastern flat bread and a flat stone can look quite similar, yet only one would be a good gift to a hungry child.
I’ve heard it said that there were some eel-like catfish that could be caught in the Sea of Galilee. And when fishing, eels – sometime called water snakes – were often caught with the fish. One might look similar to another, but apparently some eels, if eaten uncooked, can cause you to die of internal bleeding due to a toxin in their blood. I’m not certain if these are the eels found in the Sea of Galilee or not, but certainly no good father would mix them up on his son.
While we not all are so fortunate as to have good fathers in this world, and tragic news always surfaces of fathers who go far beyond giving rocks for bread in their failure to care for their children, when Jesus asks these questions – who would give a stone for bread or a snake for a fish – the rhetorical answer that is expected is a resounding, “No one.”
If your earthly father was not one to care for you, then this may not be a helpful illustration. If so, change it so that you can understand. Let go of the father imagery and think of the best person you ever met in your life. Would they give you a rock if you asked for bread? Even if all the people in this world fail you, you can trust that God will not.
There are people in this world who know how to give good things. But the point is, that no matter how good we are, or how much good we do, in comparison to God, we are evil. Our good pales in comparison. If our good is evil in comparison to His good, and we can give good things, ought we not expect that God will give good things too?
The reason we are to ask, to seek, to knock, is because we can trust that God has great plans for us. We can expect that what He gives to us will be good – indeed, it will be great.
Ask for Good Things
Now, I imagine if a little boy had asked Jesus for a rock to eat, He probably would have given him bread. Even if we don’t know how to ask, or what to ask for, we can trust God to give us good things if we are faithfully seeking Him.
Part of the picture here is that the request is for something good. When we ask for something good, we receive it. Our frustrations come when we think our requests are good, but God has something better in mind – and our conception of God isn’t as big as He is.
DL Moody
There is a wonderful story told about D.L. Moody, evangelist and founder of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He entered a tavern one day to ask the bartender if his two daughters might attend his Sunday School.
Apparently there was an atheist club that met at the bar every Thursday and the bartender didn’t want to offend them. Moody pleaded with the man on behalf of the girls until finally the bartender offered, “Preacher, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If you’ll come down here Thursday night and meet with the boys in a joint discussion, and win, you shall have the children. But if not, it’s all off!”
Moody agreed and immediately went to find Tommy, a crippled newsboy he knew who really knew how to pray.
On the night of the meeting, Tommy and the evangelist entered the tavern which was full of men eagerly awaiting the coming debate. Moody began by saying, “Gentlemen, it is our custom to open with prayer. Tommy, jump up on that barrel and lead us in prayer.”
Tommy began to beseech the Lord for the souls of all present. As tears began to roll down his cheeks, some of the men headed out the door. Little by little, even the hardest hearts found the exit. All that was left was Moody, Tommy, and the bartender.
Moody turned to the father and said, “I claim your girls for my Sunday School!”
The bartender answered, “All right, you win, but it’s a queer way to fight.”
Moody responded, “It’s the way I win many a battle.”
That’s asking, seeking, and knocking if you ask me. And God gave much good that night. I suspect it wasn’t just the little girls who learned about Jesus at Sunday School as a result. There were many seeds planted and watered in the hearts of those men that night too.
Conclusion
God wants to give you good gifts. Above all, He wants to give you His Spirit to guide you into all truth so that you can ask and receive, and your joy will be complete. God does not begrudge us our requests. He delights in giving to us without charge. In John’s revelation, Jesus says:
To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. (Revelation 21:6b, NIV)
Whatever your need today, take it to God. And don’t stop asking and seeking until you are satisfied. Come thirsty and come often. God’s love for us is so much greater than an earthly parent’s love for their children. His great love ensures that the answers we receive will be what is truly best. And this should give us confidence in our prayers, knowing that even if we mess up, He won’t.
© Susan Blader, 2/18/07, from the Sermon Series, ‘Extreme Makeover Christian Edition’
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Sources:
1) Bible Works 5, Revision 2, (Bigfork, Montana: Hermeneutika Computer Bible Research Software, 2001).
2) Kenneth Bailey, Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables of Luke, Combined Ed, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), 1983.
3) Mickey Bell, ‘Prayers the God Doesn’t Answer,’ http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=89489
4) David Jeremiah, How to Live According to Jesus, Volume Two, (San Diego, California: Turning Point for God), 2004.
5) Peggy Porter, http://www.bible.org/bits/bits-153.htm (accessed 2-7-07) - pinewood derby
6) Robert H. Stein, Difficult Sayings in the Gospels: Jesus Use of Overstatement and Hyperbole, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House), 1985.
7)http://www.sermoncentral.com/illustration_topic_results.asp?TopicName=Prayer&category_name=&topic_id=74 – Little boy’s prayer and DL Moody Story
8) http://jokes.christiansunite.com/Bible/The_Oil_Find.shtml
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[1] See Also: John 15:7-8 and John 16:23-24.
