Knock, knock. Who’s There?
Series on the Mount
Matthew 7:7-8
September 30, 2007
I’m going to start off with an apology. A couple of months ago I preached a sermon entitled, “Clothing is optional.” Well, apparently I was wrong. Check this out: A survey of 1,000 American women found that most valued their favorite clothes more than sex, and would gladly abstain for 15 months in exchange for an entirely new wardrobe. So I guess for many of us clothing is NOT optional.
Finish these pairs of words. Ask. ________________. (Receive). Seek. _______________ (Find). This one is not quite as obvious because you could respond in at least a couple of different ways. Knock. _______________ (Open).
We are going to talk about asking. Specifically Jesus is talking about asking in prayer. Luke uses these same verses in a chapter that includes his version of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus seems to be saying in chapter seven these things. Don’t judge others. If you judge them be prepared to be judged yourself in the same way with the same standards. Instead judge yourselves and then you might have what you need to truly help others. But also remember not to butt in where you are not wanted. Don’t give sacred truth and insight to dogs that don’t deserve it nor want it. Use discernment here. Be wise. And if there is any doubt about all this including all that I have just taught you about living in the Kingdom then ask. Because if you seek out the Kingdom and my Kingdom-ways, then you will find God’s favor. You will be blessed so that you can continue to bless others. Live out my Shema of loving God and loving others and in doing so, you will find that God provides just what you need even when you pray for your enemies as they persecute you.
If you fail, ask. Ask for forgiveness as you forgive others. If you aren’t where to go or who to turn to, seek out God and his ways. Seek the narrow way. You will find God there. If the doors of life are slammed in your face by those lie about, ridicule you and even try to harm you, then forgive them as you pray for them and the most important door, the door to the Kingdom of Heaven, will open to you. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. God is too good to fail you or forsake you despite all that you may have done to deserve it.
Keep knocking on God’s door. There is never a need to small or insignificant for his attention.
Knock, knock. “Who’s there?” Nobody. “Nobody who?” (Wait for several seconds and then go on).
Let’s look at this passage. Beginning at verse 6.
Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
"Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?
"Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
This passage is about prayer. When we have a need, pray. When something bad happens, pray. When something good happens, pray. Keep praying. Keep asking. Keep knocking. This passage is about being Persistent in Prayer. Notice I did not say “Praying a Persistent Prayer.” There is a difference. I sometimes have heard this passage taught and preached that we should persistently pray for things even when the answer or the answer that we are praying for is slow in coming. I believe there is a better way of understanding verse 7 and 8.
The point of the passage is this: God is All-Good. The point is about God and how God can be depended on. The point is not that if we keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking that we will eventually wear God down and he’ll give us what we want. This cheapens God. The tense indicates more about ones character as a person who seeks God rather than a description about how long or how often one has asked. After all Jesus already said that our Father knows what we need before we ask him.
One might translate this to mean “keep on asking” but in this context it does not mean keep on asking for the same thing but keep on being a person who asks and prays for God to provide. In other words don’t give up on faith even if you are persecuted and feel abandoned because you are storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
If we ask for a rock to eat because we sure think a rock would taste good right now and God gives us a loaf of bread, then should we keep asking God for the rock until he gives it to us? Of course not!!
Persistent in Prayer
Okay, there are several things here to remember.
• Ask
Sometimes we don’t have because we don’t ask. Maybe we don’t want to bother someone else. Maybe we think it too small. Maybe we believe (as a lot of us do) that we should be able to handle this on our own. This goes for God as well as for others. You’ve got to ask. And I mean be up front and ask. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t drop hints hoping that someone will pick up on it and then get mad when your unspoken (literally) request is not answered.
It’s kind of funny. Sometimes it is the difference between men and women. The other day, Terry ask Mark to bring her another old book. Mark grab one and Nancy ask, “Is it one that has a good binding?” I said, “She didn’t ask for an old book with a good binding. She just asked for one of the old books. Us guys need more specific information.”
Even with God in our prayers, we need to ask. It doesn’t mean we will get what we want, when we want, in the way we want. Sometimes we should just ask.
"The one spiritual disease is that of thinking that one is quite well." G.K. Chesterton
I saw an interesting statistic about people who leave one church for another. When asked why, the response by 48% said “their needs were not being met.” Now my first response was how wrong this is. My needs are not being met. Is that what we’ve reduced church membership to? A place where we purchase spiritual goods or programs. Of course that assumes we actually know what our needs are. I thought it was all about God. Serving Christ as we love others. I thought it was about putting into life not getting out of it. If Christians don’t get it, how in the world do we expect people in the world to get it. Yet, some of them do and they see how Christians don’t get it and they say, “No thanks!”
In the same survey, they found that 61% of Christians believe God wants people to be financially prosperous. Wow, maybe we really don’t get it?
Only 48% of Christians believe Jesus was not rich, and we should follow his example. Only 49% believe Christians don’t do enough for the poor. And 57% do not believe that 10% is the basic minimum God expects Christians to give.
After I sort of ranted to myself, I then began to wonder why not? It would be interesting to know if they had actually asked for something specific. Or did they just hope that somebody would get it. And when no one did, they left. Ask.
• According to God’s Will
In fact the prayer of Jesus or the Disciple’s Prayer includes the words “Your will be done.” One of the mistakes Christians have made is take these words of Jesus and other places where Jesus tells us to pray and whatever we pray for will be granted without including other passages and other principle especially about asking for things with the understanding that God makes the final determination.
A Jewish person especially a righteous Jewish person (a Tsadig) would never have dreamed of telling God how to answer a prayer. They have reasoned things out and believed the prayer should be answered in a certain way because of Scripture but I am quite sure the way that many Christians pray today would have seemed quite arrogant.
“I sense that there are growing suspicions that our Christian movement is simply not producing the kinds of Christ-followers who can stand up to the rigors of this new age in which we are being forced to live.” Gordon McDonald
Our asking should be more about asking for God to remove the things in ourselves as in getting the log or plank out of our own eye so that they do not become a hindrance for others in seeing the glory of God through us.
In the first game of the best-of-seven, 2004 American League Championship Series between baseball’s New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, Boston’s ace pitcher Curt Schilling was in pain. An ankle injury kept him from being able to plant his foot and throw the ball with his usual skill. Schilling was removed from the game after allowing six runs in just three innings. Teammates feared Schilling’s injury would end his season and their hopes to get to the World Series.
But in the sixth game against the Yankees, Schilling surprisingly took the mound again. Facing elimination if they lost, the Red Sox watched Schilling throw an amazing seven innings in which he only gave up four hits and one run. Every time the TV camera focused on Schilling’s ankle, viewers could see blood seep through his sock. Doctors had stitched his ankle tendon into place to allow him to pitch. The Red Sox won the game, and afterwards a FOX Sports reporter asked him about his performance.
Schilling answered, "Seven years ago I became a Christian, and tonight God did something amazing for me. I tried to be as tough as I could, and do it my way Game 1, and I think we all saw how that turned out. Tonight it was all God. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do this alone. And I prayed as hard as I could. I didn’t pray to get a win or to make great pitches. I just prayed for the strength to go out there tonight and compete, and he gave me that. I can’t explain to you what a feeling it was to be out there and to feel what I felt."
“My Lord and My God, I am willing that You should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that You now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to You and my community. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding.”
