Seek and You Shall Find
- Scriptures: Matthew 7:7-11; Luke 11:1-13
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Being a is about seeking. It’s about striving. It’s about aiming. And Jesus says much about this in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 6, Jesus said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” In Matthew chapter 6, 19 through 21, Jesus said don’t lay up treasures on earth, but lay up treasures in heaven, because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
In Matthew 6:33, He said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Seek the kingdom of God first. Seek the kingdom of God above everything else. And now we come to Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 through 11. Jesus said, “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, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 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 good things to those who ask Him?”
Now before we talk about what this does mean, let’s clear the air and let’s consider some things that Jesus does not mean in this passage of scripture. He’s not talking about what many people refer to as the sinner’s prayer. He’s not talking to impenitent people here. He’s talking to his followers. He’s talking to his disciples.
In Matthew chapter five, verse one, the Bible says that these are his disciples. And so He’s not telling sinners in this passage what they need to do to be saved. The Bible says in Acts chapter 2 verse 37 that the sinners on the day of Pentecost asked the question, “What shall we do?” And Peter told them in verse 38, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
The Bible says in Acts chapter 9 verse 6 that Saul of Tarsus asked, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” And even in Acts chapter 16, verses 30 through 34, where the Philippian jailers said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” They took him the same hour of the night, after that they had taught him the gospel, and he was baptized.
So, the Bible answers the question “What must I do to be saved?” in a lot of passages, but this is not it. When you look at the story of Saul of Tarsus in Acts chapter 9, you find that he was praying in Acts chapter 9, verse 11. That wasn’t the sinner’s prayer as many people describe it today. They’re talking about the idea that you can just pray a certain prayer and say, “Lord, come into my heart” or “I receive you as my Savior and I confess my sins” and so forth and then that person allegedly is saved.
You don’t read about that in the Bible. If you go through the book of Acts, you don’t find people praying and being saved because they prayed. Let me go back to Saul of Tarsus. In Acts chapter 9 verse 6, he asks, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” And then, in Acts chapter 9 verse 11, the Bible says that Saul of Tarsus was there in the city praying.
He was there three days. He was without food and water. He was blind and he was praying to God, but that didn’t save him. We know that because when Ananias came to him, the Bible says that Ananias asked him, “Why do you tarry? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22, verse 16). So if Saul of Tarsus was saved by praying, then why on earth did Ananias say alright, you need to arise and be baptized and wash away your sins? That’s how you call on the name of the Lord. He’s not talking about calling by words in prayer. He’s talking about calling on the name of the Lord by doing what the Lord said.
And here’s something else that Jesus does not mean when he says, “Ask and it will be given to you.’ That does not mean that God will give us anything that we ask for without any kind of limit whatsoever. The Bible says in 1 John chapter 5 verse 14, “If we ask him anything according to his will, he hears us.”
Now there are preachers today who say that if you just pray long enough and hard enough, that God is going to make you wealthy. He’s going to give you great riches without exception. Some of them say that if you just pray enough, because Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you, then God will give you good health.
And they mean that without any kind of qualification, without any kind of exception whatsoever. But now remember, the Bible says in 1 John chapter 5 verse 14, if we ask him anything according to his will, he hears us. The Bible shows that not every faithful Christian in the first century was wealthy and healthy.
It’s just a fact of life, folks. The Bible talks about that in James chapter 2 verses 5 and 6. God has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith. Today, people are being told by some preachers that if they just have enough faith, then they won’t be poor. They’ll be wealthy. That passage in James 2 absolutely denies that, because it says that these people were rich in faith, and yet they were poor in material things.
Also, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 7 through 10, the Bible talks about the thorn in the flesh that was given to the Apostle Paul. Do you remember what Paul did in response to it? He did what we would do. He prayed that God would relieve his suffering. He prayed to the Lord and asked Him three times to deliver him from this thorn in the flesh.
But God did not. Now the Apostle Paul was a faithful man. The Apostle Paul had great faith, but even his prayer was not always answered with a yes. Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you” and Paul had to learn to live with that bodily ailment. Now, I’m not trying to discourage prayer here, especially prayer about some kind of health problem, or prayer about some kind of financial difficulty.
Obviously, we need to pray. What I am saying is that there are some people that get this out of proportion. They take it too far. They over apply what Jesus is saying here, and they don’t take the rest of the Bible in account. So this is a passage about what we need. When he says ask and it will be given to you, this is about what we need from God’s standpoint, not ours.
Remember, the Bible says in Matthew chapter 6, verse 8 that God knows what we need before we ask Him. So these are a couple of things that we need to avoid when we interpret Matthew 7, verses 7 through 11.
Now let’s talk about what Jesus wants us to understand from this passage. Let’s look at what it means, and I’m going to use Luke chapter 11 again as a commentary on what we’re reading here because these words are basically repeated in Luke chapter 11, but there’s a story that Jesus tells before this that really emphasizes the need to keep on praying.
So it’s in Luke chapter 11 beginning in verse 5. Here’s the story. He said, “Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight, and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you.’ I say to you, Though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.” That’s the point that Jesus is talking about here. Be persistent in prayer.
If it’s a scriptural prayer, if it’s not in violation of God’s will found in the New Testament, then it’s lawful to pray that prayer as a Christian person. And Jesus is saying in Luke chapter 11 that we need to be persistent in prayer. That’s the key. The King James uses the word importunity in Luke chapter 11, verse eight. That word is not as familiar to us today as the word persistence. We know what that means. You just keep on praying. You continue in prayer. As the Bible says in I Thessalonians 5:16 and 17: pray without ceasing. And then here’s how He says this in Luke chapter 11 beginning in verse 9. He said, “So I say to you, 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.”
Now remember, you have to understand what he means in verse 10 when he says, “Everyone who asks…” This is not a person who turns away his ear from listening to the word of God. This is not a person who lives any way that he wants to, and disobeys God, and when he’s in trouble, he prays a prayer but he has no intention of doing what God says. The ‘everyone’ here is everyone that follows God’s word. The Bible says in Proverbs 28 verse 9, ‘He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.’
God’s not going to hear a man like that. You also see that in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 15 through 18 and many other passages in the Bible. In fact, Jesus said it like this in Luke chapter 6, verse 46. He said, ‘Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?’ But, for those who do the will of God, the Bible says everyone that asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened.
And then Jesus gives the same illustrations that you find in Matthew chapter 7. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? If a son asks for a piece of bread, will he just hand him a rock? And of course the answer is no.
And then Jesus says or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? If a son is asking for a piece of fish to eat, will a father give him a snake? The answer is no. And then Jesus uses a third illustration here. He says, or if he, that is a son, asks, his father, that is, for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Now the answer to all these things is obviously, again, no. So then, he says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
You say, “But he says that we’re evil here in Matthew chapter 7, verse 11, and also in Luke chapter 11. Why does he call us evil?” Because compared to God, we are evil. Do you remember what your Bible says in Romans chapter 3? Verse 10: “there is none righteous, no not one.” Romans 3 verse 12: “there is none who does good, no not one.” Romans 3 verse 23: “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But in spite of that shortcoming that we have because we’re sinners, the Bible says we still know how to provide for our children.
A man that doesn’t provide for his children doesn’t have what the Bible calls natural affection. In Romans chapter 1, verse 31, that means a love for your own flesh and blood. There’s something bad wrong with a man or a woman, or a child, or anyone in a family that does not have love for their own flesh and blood.
That’s what the Bible means when it talks about those who are without natural affection. But these people here that he’s talking to were not like that. They had natural affection. They knew how to give good things to their children. Look at this again. Matthew 7 verse 11: “If you then, being evil”—because we’re sometimes selfish. Sometimes we don’t have the right kind of attitude and our heart is not right. Sometimes we’re filled with pride and other things that should not be there. But in spite of that, Jesus said, “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 good things to those who ask Him?”
Jesus said you’re evil, and yet you still do good things for and give good things to your children. That’s just natural. But He says if you can do that as an imperfect sinner, then how much more do you think that God is able to do for those who ask Him? You know, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter three, verse 20 that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Now he’s talking to the church at Ephesus. He’s talking to Christian people, but I wonder sometimes how much Christian people really believe that.
The Bible says, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” And Jesus teaches us in Luke chapter 11 to keep on asking, to be persistent in prayer. Alright, let’s look at a few things that we should ask for in prayer.
One of them is wisdom. In James chapter 1, verse 5, the Bible says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
Verse 8 says that he is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. That’s interesting in this book of James, that if you keep reading it, James talks about people being unstable and he talks about people being double minded and he tells us why.
In James chapter four, verse four, James said, “You have not because you ask not, and then in verse three, he says, “You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your own pleasures.” They’re asking out of the wrong motive. And the reason they had the wrong reason for praying is given in verse four: their hearts were full of worldliness.
They were selfish. That’s what the whole context is about here. Look at verse four: “Adulterers and adulteresses…” They were adulterers and adultereresses in the sense that they were unfaithful to God. Now, some of them may have been guilty of physical, literal adultery, but the idea here is spiritual adultery, because when we try to love God and love the world at the same time, that’s adultery, that’s unfaithfulness in that sense.
And so James says, you adulterers and adultereresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” And with that in mind, look at what he says in verse 8. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.” That’s the kind of double mindedness that he’s talking about. So remember that when you read James chapter one when he says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
And when he talks about doubting here, he’s not talking about the occasional question that we might have in our mind. He’s not talking about a moment of weakness. He’s talking about a man who has turned his back on God and does not believe God like he should, because he has the world in his heart. And James says don’t let a man like that think that he will receive anything from the Lord. Faith means that we’ve set our hearts on God and we trust in Him.
With that in mind then, let’s look at James chapter 1, verse 5 again. He said if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. And he says that God gives liberally. He gives without reproach. That simply means that God is going to give generously to us as Christian people. He’s not going to reprove us, He’s not going to scold us, because we’ve asked for something that we need and that He can give us.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 verse 7, “Ask and it will be given to you.” In James chapter 1 verse 5, James said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God and it will be given to him.” Now there are different ways that we can acquire wisdom. We receive wisdom when we read the Bible. In 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, the Bible says that the scriptures are “able to make us wise unto salvation.”
So this is not a denial or some kind of bypass of studying the Bible and learning the Bible. There are different ways that we can learn wisdom in this life. We learn by experience—experience that comes especially with age. We learn from our mistakes. We learn from listening to other people when they give us good advice.
So there are many sources of wisdom in this lifetime. But here the Bible says that we need to pray. This passage says pray for wisdom and search for it. In general, every day we need to pray that God will give us wisdom to remember what’s most important in life.
So many times we get confused. So many times we get our priorities out of order and we don’t have the kind of organization and structure to our life that we ought to have. Let’s remember that the Bible says in Matthew 6 verse 33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Remember that story of Mary and Martha? In Luke chapter 10 verse 38 through 42, Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, Martha, You are fretful and worried about many things, but one thing is needful.”
And many times we need to hear Jesus’ words instead of saying, “I have this to do, and I have that to do” and making ourselves all kinds of lists, and driving ourselves crazy. Sometimes what we need to do is simplify everything under that list, under one statement and one heading. And that is, I have one thing to do today.
I have one thing to take care of. I need to put God first in my life and just take care of things as they come because you don’t even know if you’re going to live another hour. You need wisdom every day as a Christian because you don’t know what’s going to happen and there are so many things that are pulling at you.
There are so many things that are clouding your mind, and so we need to be able to see clearly what’s most important. To discern what’s best. To see the bigger picture. That is wisdom. And when you’re making choices and decisions that affect your soul, that affect your family, that affect your future, then remember we need to pray to God for wisdom.
James chapter 1 verse 5 says if you lack wisdom, if you realize that you don’t have the answers, then turn to the one that does, and pray to God. Wisdom also means this. It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about the overriding hand of God in your life even when you’re not careful, even when you’re not wise.
So wisdom means that we are humble enough to admit that we don’t have the answers and that we need the constant help and supervision of God.
Number two, we need to pray for comfort. We need to pray for peace. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7 verse 7).
We need to pray for comfort in our lives. Life has a lot of joys, but it also has a lot of pain and a lot of sorrow. Eliphaz said it this way in Job chapter 5 verse 17, “Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Just as naturally as you find sparks flying up from a flame, man is born to trouble.
It’s natural to have troubles in life. Here’s how Job said it in Job chapter 14, verse one, “Man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble.” Now, in light of the fact that we have so many problems and so many troubles in life, it only makes sense for us to seek God instead of trying to solve all these troubles ourselves, instead of worrying about them.
The Bible says that we need to seek God as Christians. Here’s the promise that is given in second Corinthians chapter one, verse three and four. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
The Bible teaches that God does give comfort to his children. God gives strength to Christian people. Sometimes we say, “I don’t feel very strong. I don’t feel strong enough to do this. I don’t feel strong enough to bear this burden.” And you’re not by yourself. That’s the whole point of praying. That’s why you need to turn to God: because you don’t have the strength within yourself.
But He can give it. Listen to Psalm 27, verse 14. “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.” What does that passage tell you to do? Wait on God. Put your trust in God. It may take a while, and sometimes Christians give up prematurely. They stop praying, or they quit praying as much as they used to because they don’t see any visible results.
God determines the time at which He will give you strength. God does not answer our prayers like taking a pill and feeling the effects 30 minutes later. Sometimes we have to wait. Sometimes we have to keep praying. That may be hours, it could be days, it could be months, or it could be years. But let me give you another passage that talks about the fact that we need to wait, we need to be patient.
In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 30 and 31, the Bible says, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Listen to that again. People who wait on the Lord, that trust in Him, that put their hope in God, shall renew their strength. “They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” That’s Isaiah chapter 40, verses 30 and 31. God says: I will give you strength, but you have to trust Me. You have to place your hope in Me. You have to pray to Me, and you have to be willing to wait, and God will give you that spiritual strength.
Sometimes we confuse good health with spiritual strength. We say, “Well, my body is failing. I just don’t feel good, and so I don’t feel like that I have any strength spiritually.” Those are two separate and completely different things. Just because your body doesn’t feel strong doesn’t mean that your spirit is not strong.
Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16. “Our outward man perishes, but the inward man is renewed day by day.” So even when your body is declining, even when it’s going back to the dust, even when it is in great pain, the Bible says that we can have spiritual strength. So don’t mistake bad feelings in the body for strength in the soul because you can be strong inside although you feel bad on the outside.
Let’s go back to Paul’s thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. After Paul said that he’d prayed three times and God didn’t take that suffering away, he said in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 10, “When I am weak,” that is, physically, “then am I strong.”
And remember what Jesus said about God being our Father that gives good things to us in Matthew chapter 7. He said ask and it will be given to you. And then he says if a son asks for bread, is the father going to give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, is he going to give him a snake? And then he says, if you then, if you earthly parents, being evil, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things, not bad things, not evil things, but God will give good things to those who ask him.
And this is the whole point that Jesus is trying to get into our minds. And that is, you have to ask, you have to seek, you have to knock, you have to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking.
Here’s another area that we can apply this principle to, and that is growth in the Christian life. And obviously, we have to do our part to grow. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.” In 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 18 the Bible says “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Earlier in that same book he said in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5 through 11 that we are to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.” We need to study our Bible. We need to put all these things into practice. And as we do make that effort, we need to pray for God’s help. We need to pray that God will keep us from temptation. We need to pray that God will keep us from evil and from distractions that will keep us from growing. We need to pray that God will help us to grow spiritually day by day.
And we also need to pray to God that he will open doors of opportunity to us. You remember what the Bible says in Galatians 6 verse 10? The Bible says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” When it comes to opportunity, sometimes Christians make excuses. We say, “Well, I just don’t have anybody that I can talk to about the gospel. I don’t have any opportunity to teach someone the gospel.” Now, if you’re homebound, if you don’t really have much contact with other people, I understand that you’re very limited.
But for people who are able to get out and get around, people that do mix in society, you have opportunities. Sometimes people say, “Well, I know the Bible says that it’s more blessed to give than to receive and I need to do more benevolent work. I need to give and do good for people that are in need. But I just don’t have a lot of opportunities.” What does Jesus say? He says, ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Are you seeking? Are you looking for opportunities? Because often times they’re right before you, like Jesus said in John chapter 4 verse 34 and 35: “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, because they are white already to harvest.” Now, the harvest might not be as big as you want it to be, but there are opportunities that are there. We just have to ask, we have to seek, and we have to knock on the door and keep knocking.
Here’s a good example. It’s the Apostle Paul himself in Colossians chapter 4. Here’s what Paul said in Colossians 4 verse 2 to these Christian people. He said, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the Word to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak.”
Now, notice what he says. He says be vigilant in prayer, continue earnestly in prayer, and then he asks them to pray for us. What is it that Paul wants them to pray about? Paul says, I want you to pray for us so that God would open to us a door for the Word. That’s the gospel. That’s the Word of God. Paul said I want you to pray that God will open a door into people’s hearts, a way that we can teach other people the Gospel. A way that we can reach lost souls. Pray that God will open that door. Even the Apostle Paul asked for prayers that God would open a door for the preaching of the Gospel.
Now, when it comes to opportunities to teach other people the gospel, there are different situations that you’ll find. Sometimes the door is open, and you can see that it’s open, and it’s pretty easy to walk in. It’s pretty easy to invite that person to church. It may be that that person has asked you a question about the Bible, and so you’re able to talk to that individual. At other times, you’re going to have to make more of an effort.
At other times, you’re going to find that the door is completely shut, but at least you can pray that God would open a door to that person’s heart, or to those people’s hearts. Sometimes you pray this about the nation, that God would open the hearts of people. Sometimes we pray this kind of prayer about opportunities in foreign lands to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that God would open a door in a distant land.
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 7 verse 7 that we’re to ask and it will be given us. We’re also to seek those opportunities. Sometimes opportunities are right in front of us and we don’t see them. Because we’re preoccupied with earthly responsibilities or we’re so absorbed with our own interests that we don’t see the advantage of the opportunity that is standing right in front of us Everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 through 11).
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