Sermon for Sunday, May 18th, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Old Testament Reading:
[Jer 29:10-14 ESV] 10 “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
New Testament Reading:
[1Jo 5:13-15 ESV] 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Gospel Reading:
[Mat 21:18-22 ESV] 18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Sermon Text:
[Mat 7:7-11 ESV] 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are 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!
Introduction
Like many texts, this is a difficult text.
From the various commentaries and sermons I read in preparation for my own sermon, I found the following ideas as being the central message of this text. There really should be one central message to any text, though there may also be subsidiary or secondary messages well. Anyways, I found the following:
1) Matthew 7:7-11 is about the three needed levels of effort and perseverance you should be putting into your prayer life.
or
2) Matthew 7:7-11 is about the fact that God wants us to communicate with him more.
or
3) Matthew 7:7-11 is about the fact that you need to pray better for God to reward you. (This is basically the Prosperity Gospel which is this idea that if you give to God—or to the mega-church pastor’s Gulfstream jet fund—you will be rewarded. (This is just a wrongheaded approach)
Well, I’d like to suggest we look at this passage another way. It is not so much about man as it is about God. This passage tells us something about HIS CHARACTER. It tells us GOD GIVES GOOD GIFTS. That is what I’ve titled this sermon – God Give Good Gifts. We are blessed by Him; therefore we can trust Him.
I. Ask, Seek, Knock
We continue now in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount where he says:
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
But,
What is it to Ask?
What is it to Seek?
And what is it to Knock?
From the later context in verse 11 we find that “Asking God” is in view. And THAT is prayer.
We are to ask God, in prayer.
We are to seek God, in prayer.
We are to knock on the door that is Christ, in prayer.
There is a 3-fold pattern here. Ask, seek, knock.
Taken individually we might say asking is about what we desire, seeking is about what we are lacking, and knocking is about being let in where we seem to be shut out.
Taken together, asking seeking and knocking is an increasing strength of inquiry and search; a rising scale of intensity.
Don’t only ask, but seek. And don’t only seek, but knock. It is as if to say “have a great desire for the Lord.” Don’t passively pray once and then move on, forgetting about your prayer.
Rather, as the Greek should translate.
KEEP ASKING
KEEP SEEKING
KEEP KNOCKING.
We see in this a humility in asking, a perseverance in seeking, and a persistence in knocking. “Don’t give up easily.” See it to the end, with great desire.
Matthew Henry says:
We must not only ask but seek; we must second our prayers with our endeavors.
We must not only ask, but knock; we must come to God’s door.
and our labour in prayer, if indeed we do labour in it, shall not be in vain.
In short, we are to pray, pray, pray.
Calling out to the Lord in greater and greater intensity, asking for His blessings.
Praying, no doubt, among other things, the Lord’s Prayer which Jesus has just given to us in the previous chapter.
So we Ask, Seek, and Knock.
II. Receive, Find, Open
Then, we read that there are corresponding answer to those prayers.
Again in verse 7:
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
But what is “IT” that will be given to you?”
And WHAT will you find?
And WHAT will be opened to you?
There is repeated then in verse 8 with slightly different words the culminate of those prayers:
8 For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds,
and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Again, what is IT that we will receive? WHAT will we find? WHAT will be opened?
So often, and so falsely, it is thought that this is “anything and everything.” Pray for it; you get it. A car, a computer, a cure for cancer. This can’t be right. We know that from our own experience. God’s isn’t a cosmic vending machine.
It is dangerously wrong to say that “you pray … and anything and everything” comes to you. I once spoke to a man who’s blind great-grandfather had come from Sweden to the United States a 100 years ago. He was told, persuaded, that if he saw a certain healing-pastor that he’d be cured of his blindness. When it didn’t happen, the man lost his faith entirely, until near the end of his life when it returned. So it can be very dangerous because people will say “you were healed because you didn’t have enough faith.” That’s a terribly wrong view.
Well it can’t be “everything and anything” that is given to the one praying for the simple grammatical reason that the passage really says “keep asking,” “keep seeking,” “keep knocking” and if you received upon the first ask, the first seek, and the first knock then you wouldn’t need to keep on with them.
We’re not looking at a prosperity Gospel here.
Jesus is not suggesting that he is “the bank of dad” from which we receive handouts.
There are other reasons too which make us to understand that it is not “everything and anything” that is in view, which God gifts us. There are certain CAVEATS in other Scripture passages, which LIMIT in certain ways that which is given from God in response to prayer.
According to 1 John 5:14, we receive only that which is “according to God’s will.”
[1Jo 5:14-15 ESV] 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
So we certainly can’t ask for immoral things and think God is going to grant THOSE prayer requests.
Then, another caveat, Matthew mentions later in chapter 22 that we must ask IN FAITH.
[Mat 21:22 ESV] 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
This is trusting in the Lord, knowing who he is and what he gives to his people. It is being aligned with God; accepting his plan.
So what is IT? What do we receive, find, and open?
Simply, IT is “Good Gifts from God.”
We see that exemplified in the final two verses of our passage.
9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are 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!
GOD GIVES GOOD GIFTS.
Just like last week we see an argument from the lesser to the greater. If your father on earth gives you good gifts, how much more your heavenly father.
The next question then must be, WHAT SPECIFICALLY ARE THOSE GOOD GIFTS?
It can be physical things that we need. Jesus taught his people to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.” And food indeed is a good gift from God.
But even more, because man does not live on bread alone, the Good Gifts of God are MOSTLY AND ABOVE ALL ELSE (1) the Fruit of the Spirit and (2) Salvation itself.
The gifts of love, of joy, of peace, of patience, of kindness, of goodness, of faithfulness, of gentleness, of self-control.
And the gift of forgiveness in Christ. And eternal life because of Christ’s death in our place.
The Lord readily gives these good gifts.
This is confirmed in a corresponding passage in Luke’s Gospel. There Jesus has a similar saying, but with one change.
He says:
[Luk 11:13 ESV] 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Instead of saying God will give you “good things,” he says “God will give you the Holy Spirit.” And indeed, the Holy Spirit gives us faith unto salvation and changes our lives with His fruit, the fruit OF THE SPIRIT.
Now, if you think, BORING, I don’t want THOSE gifts, recognize that the gifts from God are great gifts; far greater than a Lamborghini, or a new computer, or even the cure to the physical illness you have. They are incredible gifts.
Just to think of one of them – peace. I’d far rather live humbly in peace than live in great wealth with constant worry.
III. The Character of God
Now, this fact that God Gives Good Gifts, it points us to the character of God – that He is a loving God, even our Heavenly Father.
That is the term Jesus uses “Our Father is in Heaven.”
So it is natural for a Father to give good gifts to his son.
And our Heavenly Father gives willingly; not because of our prying out of him those gifts. He STANDS AT THE READY, looking to give good gifts to His people.
So this passage isn’t about OUR NEED to PRAY HARDER, but it is about the Character of God; pointing out that all we need to do is pray and he hears us. Then, that threefold – ask, seek, knock – that is the NATURAL way a Christian should live, utterly dependent on God, willingly and joyfully going to God in prayer. This isn’t a task you need to accomplish, it is a privilege you are given. ASK of the Lord, and He gives good gives.
Those are the gifts we are to desire – the very things of God. The fruit of the spirit, a reflection of the very attributes of God Himself. And to be in His presence; that is our desire.
Ask of the Lord and He will give you HIMSELF.
Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
APPLICATION 1: Knowing the Character of God, let us pray at all times.
Pray from the smallest thing to the greatest thing. Pray for everything.
He is even a Heavenly Father.
So do not be hesitant to pray to him, but pray ceaselessly.
This passage is to be an encouragement to prayer, because in it we learn “God answers.” God Gives Good Gifts.
Consider the thief on the cross. He asked, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus — God who gives Good Gifts — said back to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Indeed, Paul says in Romans:
[Rom 8:32 ESV] 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
APPLICATION 2: We seek because God first found us.
This is a turn on the phrase from 1 John 4:19 – “We love because he first loved us.”
Similarly, we seek because God first found us.
This is to say that the passage is not speaking about unbelievers searching for God. Unbelievers DO NOT search for God. They run from Him.
Only believers, who know God, seek for MORE of Him.
I’ve taken a great quote from a sermon my cousin gave. Did you know I have a cousin who is a preacher of the Gospel? In Minnesota. Eric Douma is his name. I listened to his sermon on Matthew 7, and he noted this:
“The seeker-senstive movement that devastated the church is built for a category of people that don’t exist.” – Eric Douma
Indeed that is true. The church service is to be a time where we worship God, not water anything down to some level of people that do not exist.
The Gospel is preached. And Holy Spirit seeks and finds the people of God and brings them to faith.
God does the seeking:
[Luk 19:10 ESV] 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
If you are “seeking” the Lord, know that it is IN FACT God who has DRAWN you here. Trust not in your ability to believe, but trust in the Lord who has caused you to believe. Recognize that you seek God because He found you.
This is in according with what Jesus says in John chapter 15:
[Jhn 15:16 ESV] 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
So it is that God chooses us, and then gives us good gifts, drawing us near in prayer even unto our eternal life.
Conclusion:
So let us live with confidence knowing that our Heavenly Father will provide what is best for us, according to His will.
And as God has given us the Fruit of His Spirit and as God has given us His Son, let us never doubt that God Gives Good Gifts.