A Messiah of Expectation
Text: Matt. 7:7-11
Introduction
1. Illustration: When I was a little boy, my Mom worked as a nurse at St. Thomas hospital in Akron. She was the head nurse in the nursery on second shift for 25 years. Of course because she worked second shift she wasn’t able to be there when I got home from school like other kids mom’s were, and I think because of this she felt a little guilty. As a result, she would frequently go down to gift shop on her break and get me my favorite candy bar - a Nestle’s Crunch Bar. She did it to show me that even though she couldn’t be there when I got home from school she loved me and did what she did to make a better life for me. I could expect my Mom to bring me home a Nestle’s Crunch Bar because she loved me so much.
2. If we can expect that our earthly parents will do things for us because they love us, how much more can we expect the Father to answer our prayers because He loves us?
3. Jesus teaches us about expectation in prayer by:
a. Persevering In Prayer
b. Trusting In Prayer
4. Read Matt. 7:7-11
Proposition: Since God loves us so much, we can expect that He will answer our prayers.
Transition: Jesus teaches us about...
I. Persevering In Prayer (7-8)
A. Keep On...
1. What is persevering in prayer? Jesus says, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you."
a. It is asking, seeking, and knocking until the answer is received, found, or opened.
b. It is being so obsessed with getting something that a person never gives up until God responds.
c. The words ask, seek, and knock are in the present tense.
d. A person is to keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. He is to persist in prayer.
2. Although some see the present imperatives "ask, seek, knock" as practically equivalent, it seems better to suggest that Jesus is indicating a rising scale of intensity in one’s prayers and points to the persistent manner of life lived before the Father (Wilkins, 312).
a. First you ask for what you need.
b. If that doesn’t work, then you seek God for what you need.
c. If that doesn’t work, you knock on every door.
d. However, all three are to be done persistently until the answer is received.
3. True prayer is persevering prayer. God expects all of our prayers to be persevering. When we sense a real need to pray, we not only ask, but we seek and knock.
a. "Ask" indicates coming to God with humility and consciousness of need, as a child fittingly comes to her father.
b. "Seek" links one’s prayer with responsible activity in pursuing God’s will, as when a person prays for a job and at the same time checks out leads.
4. Knocking contains two ideas.
a. First, we approach every door that we can until the right door opens.
b. We certainly would not pound and pound away at the same door. We must move about knocking until the right door is opened.
c. Second, we must continue knocking at the door of heaven.
d. We must wrestle with God, not giving Him rest until He opens. Such action shows dependency upon Him.
e. Our coming to Him in fellowship and communication is bound to please Him, just as such communication pleases an earthly father.
f. Revelation 3:20 (NLT)
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
5. Look what Jesus promises to those who do these things: "For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."
a. This verse essentially repeats verse 7, but with the emphasis upon the certainty of God’s answer (Horton, 129).
b. The Greek participles used in this verse also draw attention to the continuing action of the believer.
6. Prayer is conditional. Christ is pointed: if we ask, we receive.
a. If we do not ask, we do not receive.
b. If we seek, we find. If we do not seek, we do not find.
c. If we knock, it is opened to us. If we do not knock, it is not opened to us.
7. It would be an insult to to knock once at someone’s door and then leave.
a. The very word "seek" means to keep on searching dilegently.
b. To ask once and then cease asking is not an evidence of faith and trust in God.
c. Faith in God will cause a believer to keep on praying and not give up (Horton, 129).
8. On the other hand, if these present imperatives teach that the disciples are to exhibit persistence in prayers, then the parallel responses teach that they are to know the certainty of the answer of their prayers to the Father.
a. The predictive responses — "it will be given," "you will find," and "the door will be opened" (7:7) — are repeated to give a remarkable sense of expectation to the answer to the disciples’ prayers.
b. It teaches us that if we are obedient in following the commands of Jesus to continually ask, seek, and knock, then we will receive, find, and have the door opened to us.
c. It isn’t just a few who will have their prayers answered, but "everyone," meaning all those who have followed Jesus as his disciples.
B. Persistence Pays Off
1. Illustration: Bill Hybels tells about an interesting experience after a baptism service in their church. He writes: “I bumped into a woman in the stairwell who was crying. I thought this was a little odd, since the service was so joyful. I asked her if she was all right. She said, ‘No, I’m struggling.’ She said, ‘My mom was baptized today. I prayed for her every day for almost 20 years. The reason I’m crying is because I came this close to giving up on her. At the 5-year mark I said, “Who needs this? God isn’t listening.” At the 10-year mark I said, “Why am I wasting my breath?” At the 15-year mark I said, “This is absurd.” At the 19-year mark I said, “I’m just a fool.” But I just kept trying, kept praying. Even with weak faith I kept praying. Then she gave here life to Christ, and she was baptized today. I will never doubt the power of prayer again.”
2. James 4:2 (NLT)
You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
3. Persevering in prayer means never giving up.
a. Even when it seems like God isn’t listening, you keep praying.
b. Even when it seems like the answer will never come, you keep praying.
c. Even when it seems like you are barking up the wrong tree, you keep praying.
4. Persevering in prayer means never giving in.
a. Prayer is above all spiritual warfare.
b. The devil wants you to think that God isn’t listening.
c. The devil wants you to think that God doesn’t care.
d. The devil wants you to think that you are defeated.
e. But the Word of God says, "And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony..."
5. Persevering in prayer means you will get an answer.
a. You serve a God who doesn’t know how to be unfaithful.
b. You serve a God who doesn’t know how to break a promise.
c. You server a God who does answer prayer!
Transition: Jesus also teaches us about...
II. Trusting In Prayer (9-11)
A. Your Heavenly Father
1. Jesus clarifies the open-ended teaching on the certainty of the answer to the disciples’ prayers by demonstrating that the Father will answer with what he knows is good for his children.
2. Jesus says, “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?"
a. Loaves were round, flat, and not very large, something like the pita bread of today. They might easily be compared to stones.
b. The cruelest of fathers would hardly deceive his own son by giving him a stone to eat that looked like bread.
c. Even if the son discovered the deception before breaking a tooth, his heart would be broken by his father’s cruelty (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 1-7).
3. Jesus continues, "Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!"
a. In the same way, a snake and a fish might resemble one another in external appearance.
b. Just as no father would give his son a stone and let his son break his teeth on it, nor would any father give his son a poisonous snake and let it bite him (Horton, 129).
c. So if a responsible father will supply his children precisely what they need on a daily basis, the heavenly Father, who is absolutely trustworthy, will always give to the disciples what they really need.
4. Jesus comes to the point of his illustrations by saying, "So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him."
a. Earthly fathers have an innate sense of doing right by their children and are not primarily mean or hurtful to them, even though they are still evil by way of the entrance of sin to all humanity through the sin of Adam and Eve.
b. How much more will the heavenly Father, who is inherently perfectly holy and good, always give to his children what they need when they ask him.
c. For this reason the words of verses 7 and 8 simultaneously encourage trusting prayer and unwavering faith (Horton, 131).
B. Confident Faith
1. Illustration: Did you hear about the farmer that decided to buy a chain saw? A logging foreman sold him one that he guaranteed would cut down 15 trees in a single day. A week later, a very unhappy farmer came back to report that the power saw must be faulty - it averaged only 3 trees a day. The foreman grabbed the saw, pulled the cord, and the saw promptly went “Bzzzzzzzz.” “Hey” demanded the startled farmer, “what’s that noise?”
2. Exodus 34:6 (NLT)
The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
3. We can have confident trust that our prayers will be answered because of God’s love for us.
a. He loved us enough to die for us.
b. He loved us enough to forgive us.
c. He loved us enough to give us His Holy Spirit.
d. He certainly loves us enough to answer our prayers.
4. We can have confident trust that our prayers will be answered because of God’s promises.
a. God is a promise keeper.
b. He has never broken a promise.
c. He cannot lie.
d. If he says he will do something, he will do it.
5. We can have confident trust that our prayers will be answered because of God’s faithfulness.
a. 2 Timothy 2:13 (NLT)
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
b. God is faithful in his character.
c. God is faithful in everything he says.
d. God is faithful in all he does.
e. He will be faithful in prayer.
Transition: We can have confident trust that God will answer our prayers because we serve a God who hears the prayers of His people.
Conclusion
1. Jesus teaches us that prayer is a two way street.
a. We must persevere in prayer.
b. If we do, we can trust that God will answer.
2. Are you persevering in prayer?
3. Are you trusting God to hear your prayers?
