Seek And Find

Seek and Find Matthew 7:7-11

• When I was growing up I remember one particular thing I enjoyed about going to the doctor or dentist office

• As a child you are always nervous whether it is for a regular checkup

• Or maybe you are actually sick

• The worst was when I was going to have to get my shots or a cavity filled

• I would sit in that waiting room

• I could hear somewhere deep within the bowels of that maze of hallways

• Behind that door a random child crying or even screaming hysterically

• I could picture the size of that needle the doctor was going to stab me with

• Or I was sitting waiting for the dentist

• And I hear the most awful sound in the entire world

• The drill spinning and whirring and grinding

• My eyes would get really big, imagining that they must be using a drill just like Dad’s power drill he has at

home

• Sitting there in horror I would look around the waiting room and my eyes would land on the stack of

magazines

• And there it was, a copy of Highlights for Children

• Right there on the cover it said the words

• Fun with a purpose

• All of my fears would fade away for a moment

• Of course I loved the funny stories and comic strips

• The back cover had the What’s Wrong with this Picture

• But my favorite part was the Hidden Picture puzzle

• Finding all those hidden objects was so much fun

• Unless of course some idiot had ruined it by already circling all the objects

• And taking all the fun out of it for the rest of us

• For over 75 years Highlights has been entertaining children and helping them stay calm in those waiting

rooms

• But then, that door would open and the nurse would say, “Brian”

• And my nightmare had returned

• As kids most of us loved those seek and finds

• Then of course Where’s Waldo came along in 1987 and became wildly popular

• Our kids would check those giant hard back books out of the library and lay in bed at night searching for

Waldo and all of his friends

• I loved those too

• Seek and finds, popular with kids of all ages

• That is the title of this morning’s message

• Seek and Find

• Many people today, believers and non-believers alike, are seeking

• Seeking answers to hard questions

• Seeking guidance, seeking wisdom, seeking truth

• Or seeking after their own desires and passions

• What do some very familiar verses in Matthew have for us when we seek and find?

• We will see three main points in this passage

• Three Actions on our part

• Three Affirmations on God’s part, and

• Three Analogies for our lives

• READ MATTHEW 7:7-11

• Ask, seek and knock

• As we read these words you will notice, if you have a red letter edition Bible

• That these words, and all the surrounding words are in red

• These are words directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ

• This passage is part of the greatest sermon ever preached

• What is known as the Sermon on the Mount

• This ask and it shall be given portion is close to the end of Jesus’ sermon

• And is wedged between two of the most famous parts

• Previous to this Jesus speaks to us about judging others and uses the beam in your eye versus the speck in

another’s eye illustration

• What follows this passage is what is known as The Golden Rule

• Do to others what you would have them do unto you

• This sermon covers a multitude of topics

• Blessings, murder and adultery

• Giving of oaths, prayer and fasting

• And it finishes up with the wise man built his house upon the rock

• The Sermon on the Mount’s call to moral and ethical living is so high it seems unattainable to many

• Seems completely unrealistic

• But there is no doubt that Jesus gave this sermon as a standard for all Christians

• That we could only meet through the power of the Holy Spirit

• So we see in Matthew 7:7-11

• Ask, seek, knock

• We start out with Three Actions

• First is ask

• Jesus simply says ask

• Similar to what God said to Solomon in 1 Kings 3:5

• Ask what I shall give you

• What do you think of when you picture yourself asking God for something?

• Prayer, that is what these verses are really all about