A Giving Father
Matthew 7:7-11
There is a crisis of Fatherhood in America today. There is a whole generation of children who are growing up in one parent families (often with a mother) who do not have a good relationship with their father’s even if they know them at all.
We have dead-beat dads who don’t give anything to help support the children they have fathered. We have workaholic dad’s who spend so much time at work that their kids feel like they are a very low priority. We have angry dads who often are abusive or controlling and who take out their anger on those who are least able to defend themselves, the children. Then we have abdicating dads who are present, but who are weak and unable to provide the kind of strength and stability in the home needed by children.
As a result we have kids who if they even believe in God, view their heavenly Father in a variety of wrong ways. Some see God as absent and uncaring. Some see God as a sugar daddy who gives them lots of toys, but who demands little respect. Some see God as too busy to care about them. Some see God as distant and cold. Some see God as weak and unable to do anything to help. And some see God as angry and abusive and controlling, someone to be feared but not loved.
It is absolutely essential that we obtain our view of God as Father, not from our experiences or from our culture, but from the Holy and True Word of God. Scripture alone can give us the correct view of who God really is. And there is no better way to understand God than to look at Jesus.
Please turn with me to Matthew 7:7-11 as we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount.
"Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks. You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 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.”
My Big Idea this morning is this:
When you know God as Father you will pray!
Most of us have very weak prayer lives. We pray, but it is sporadic at best, and often we are discouraged in our prayer lives. We want to pray more, but we do not find the internal motivation to pray. When we do pray, we pray with little faith and often with little result. Why is this?
I want to propose today that the problem stems from our lack of clear understanding of what it means when we say: “Our Father, who art in heaven.”
And so to correct this, I want to look at the life of Jesus as it relates to this passage in Matthew.
1. The prayer life of Jesus
2. The prayer challenge given by Jesus
3. The prayer promise made by Jesus
First, let’s look at the prayer life of Jesus.
a. Jesus had an intensely personal prayer life.
Even a casual reading of the New Testament will demonstrate that Jesus approached prayer differently than the people around Him, including the disciples.
When Jesus prayed, He seemed to be having an intimate conversation with His Daddy. Only His relationship with His Father was not like most of our relationships with our Dads.
- Jesus had complete trust in His father. If his Father said turn right, He would turn right. If His Father said, go into this town and preach, He would go into that town and preach. Jesus was in tune with the Father’s will, and He chose to always obey His Dad. How could He do this? I want us to think this morning of the humanity of Christ, not the divinity of Christ. Of course we know that Jesus was God’s Son, but Philippians teaches us that Jesus emptied Himself and became a servant. He willingly chose not to use His Divine powers. Instead He depended fully upon the Father’s direction and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. Jesus was a fully devoted, fully surrendered man of God. And Jesus trusted that His Father was good, loving, kind, just, holy, righteous, and always knew what was best.
- Jesus understood His heavenly Father. He had learned how to listen. So much of prayer is not talking to God, but listening to God. What does God want? What would please God? Where is God at work and how can I join Him in it? These are the kinds of things that occupied the prayer life of Jesus.
- Jesus approached God with confidence and faith. Never do we see Jesus wondering if God cared, or if God was capable of answering a prayer, or if God had enough power to give. Jesus believed God rewarded those who sought Him, and so Jesus sought God the Father often in prayer.
- Some scriptural examples:
John 17:1
When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.
John 17:25
"O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me.
Mark 14:36
"Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine."
Luke 23:34
Jesus said, "Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.
Luke 23:46
Then Jesus shouted, "Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!" And with those words he breathed his last.
Matthew 6:9
Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.
Romans 8:15
So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his family—calling him "Father, dear Father."
The secret to a powerful prayer life is a strong relationship with God as Father. If you are close to your Father you will talk with Him often. If you are close with your Father you will seek Him out for help, for guidance, and for blessing. If you are close to your Father you will come into His presence with trust, with understanding, and with confidence.
Because of this, Jesus had an intensely personal prayer life.
b. Jesus put a priority on prayer.
Again, this is relationship driven. Because Jesus depended upon His Father and looked to His Father for guidance, Jesus prayed a lot. We find Jesus praying privately on mountain tops, praying publicly for help when He was going to heal or when He was ready to feed the 5,000. We find Jesus praying before He chose His disciples, and before He sent them out to preach. We find Jesus praying when He heard the news about the beheading of John the Baptist.
Jesus prayed often and Jesus prayed a lot! The priority of prayer flowed out of the priority of relationship. Jesus would not think of ignoring His Heavenly Father. He kept the lines of communication open at all times.
Luke 6:12
One day soon afterward Jesus went to a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.
Luke 11:1
Once when Jesus had been out praying, one of his disciples came to him as he finished and said, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
Matthew 14:13
As soon as Jesus heard the news, he went off by himself in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed by land from many villages.
Jesus’ prayer life was intensely person. Jesus made a priority of prayer.
c. When Jesus prayed, He was filled with power.
Jesus humbled Himself and became a man. Instead of calling upon His own power to heal and to rule, He depended upon the power of God to heal the sick and to calm the sea. He prayed before feeding the 5,000. He prayed before healing the blind man. He prayed before walking on water.
Jesus talked about prayer and power. He said, ‘You can say to this mountain, be moved, and it will be moved.” Our powerlessness in life can be directly connected to our prayerlessness.
Mark 9:27-29
But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, "Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?"
Jesus replied, "This kind can be cast out only by prayer."
So let’s review this prayer life of Jesus:
- It was intensely personal. He had a strong relationship with God as His Father.
- It was a priority. He would not do anything without first talking to the Father about it, and learning the Father’s will in a matter.
- It resulted in amazing power for good.
Secondly, let’s look at the prayer challenge of Jesus.
Look with me again at Matthew 7:7-8
"Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.
I want you to notice first of all, that these verses contain 3 commands.
Ask, Seek, knock are all found in the imperative voice. This is not an option for us as believers. God expects us to ask, to seek, and to knock.
What can we say about these words? I’d like to make a couple of observations:
Asking implies the following:
- When you ask for something, you ask clearly. Your request is to be straightforward. You don’t beat around the bush. You simply ask!
- When you ask for something, you ask specifically. It doesn’t do any good to ask for things in generalities. That tends to only lead to disappointment and unmet expectations.
- For example: When I was a teenager I really wanted a TV. When asked what I wanted for Christmas, I told my parents – oh, it doesn’t matter, whatever you want to give me. On Christmas morning they brought out a large box. I became really excited and thought, WOW – they read my mind, they got me a TV. Instead of a TV it was a typewriter. Now I was pleased to have a typewriter, but disappointed I didn’t get the TV. The problem wasn’t with my parents desire to bless, the problem was with my failure to be specific about what I wanted.
- Another way of saying this is that when you ask, you need to be direct. Too often we expect people to read out minds. Now it is true our heavenly Father knows our thoughts, He knows what we want and more importantly what we need. But He still wants us to acknowledge Him by asking directly.
- When you ask, you must verbalize. There is something about speaking out loud as a demonstration of faith. We receive Christ by faith, but this is also to be a verbal confessing of Him as Lord in our lives. We can think prayers, but it is far better to speak them aloud.
I also want you to observe the progression of persistence found in these commands:
- First we are to ask.
- Then we demonstrate our faith by seeking the answers. Seeking implies that we are looking. We are surveying the world around us to see How God is answering our request. We are open to the how, when and where of the answer.
- Then if we still have not found the answer, we should knock. When Jesus told some parables of persistence in prayer, he always seemed to use the illustration of someone getting out of bed and knocking on a neighbor’s door for a loaf of bread, or knocking on a judge’s door for a verdict. Again the message is persistence. Keep at it. Don’t give up.
- Now why does God want us to be persistent? Is it because He doesn’t want to answer our prayers? Or does the persistence do something in us? Perhaps the persistence helps us to see that we really don’t want it after all. Perhaps the persistence helps us to see that it might not be best for us. Perhaps persistence helps us to see how desperately need God and His work in our lives. Perhaps persistence deepens our relationship with the Father.
We are commanded to ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, and knock and keep on knocking until God has spoken.
Now, notice too that the promises are found in the future passive voice.
Ask and it will be given
Seek and you will find
Knock and the door will be opened
This tense of grammar teaches us that in prayer our only responsibility is to ask, seek and knock. We don’t do anything to make the answer come. We are the receivers of God’s blessing. He is the one who answers and opens. And He does this at some point in time in the future.
Sometimes the answer is almost immediate. But often the answer takes some time. Often the hardest thing for us is believer’s is to hear the Lord say “Wait”. But that waiting is not to be one of inactivity. We are to keep on asking, seeking and knocking. We are to walk by faith, trusting that God will answer in His time.
So far, we have looked at the prayer life of Jesus and the prayer challenge of Jesus.
In closing, I want you to look at the prayer promise of Jesus.
Jesus promises that your heavenly Father will give only good gifts to His children. A couple of observations here as well:
Matthew 7:9-11
You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 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.”
- The gift from God is always good. God does not withhold His blessings from us. Sometimes these good things take the form of challenging situations and circumstances, but God always works out our situation for good.
- The gift from God is usually what we ask. Jesus says, if you ask for bread, you’re not going to get a rock – you’ll get bread. If you ask for a fish, you’re not going to get a snake – you’ll get a fish. This is even more motivation to realize that God wants to bless us. He gives us what we ask for.
- But again, based upon our strong relationship with God as Father, our asking is going to grow more and more into His Will for our lives.
- Barclay writes: “True prayer is asking God for what He wants.”
- There are some stipulations to our asking as well:
a. Did we ask in faith? (James 1:6-7)
But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
b. Did we ask while willfully sinning? (I Peter 3:12)
The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil."
c. Did we ask to gratify our own lusts? (James 4:3)
And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
d. Did we ask for God’s will to be done? (I John 5:14)
And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will.
One final word: In the parallel passage found in Luke 9 it is obvious that the good gift Jesus is talking about is the Holy Spirit. God longs to give us His Holy Spirit. He wants to fill our lives with the fruit of the Spirit. He wants us to live lives of victory in the fullness of the Spirit.
He wants to direct us and guide us through the Spirit’s presence and power. Asking for the filling of the Holy Spirit is a good place to start any prayer life! Let’s pray!
