Lesson: Matthew 7.7-11

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Carol Courvisier of Gilbert, Arizona, tells of her fifth grade library students learning about collective biographies. ⁽¹⁾

She illustrated her point by mentioning Lewis and Clark, for example.

One student piped up: Don't you mean Lois and Clark?

The student was referring to Lois Lane and Clark Kent, a reporter on Daily Planet and Superman.

1. What this little incident points out is that we need to know our God.
1. We need to know what we are talking about.
2. We need to know what we are asking for, seeking after, and knocking for.
3. We need to know because we want not to find relief, but to be healed

There is the story of a man who came to a holy person seeking healing.

The holy person listened patiently as the man listed his complaints and then asked, Do you really want to be cured?

The man was shocked by the question and said, Of course I want to be cured. Why else would I have come?

To which the holy person replied, Most come, not to be cured, that is too painful. They come for relief. ⁽²⁾

2. To be healed, we need to become intimately acquainted with what we might call the Christian's job description.
1. As I was reading the Pulpit Commentary I discovered this defining statement.

"Christ is not speaking of men in their wide, scattered, uncertain relations to the world and to one another; he has the beginning of his own school before him, which should indeed become large and various till it gathered all in its embrace, and it is what these, as his learners, his followers, his servants, may rely upon, that he declares.

"Let the world speak for itself, publish its manifesto, which it does large enough, loud enough, false enough. Jesus here speaks his own manifesto, and it is deficient by no means in largeness, but awaiting the test of quality and reliableness! Ever since, all who have in any sense, in any appreciable degree, really known Jesus, have been investigating, testing, pronouncing upon these two things--what his Word is good for, and how good he is to his Word." ⁽³⁾

1. Jesus manifesto, his statement of principles is found in what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
2. It is the source of the spirit's life and health.

Psychiatrist and student of Freud, James Tucker Fisher, closed his books Few Buttons Missing with this revealing discovery: ⁽⁴⁾

I dreamed of writing a handbook that would be simple, practical, easy to understand and easy to follow. It would tell people how to live - what thoughts and attitudes and philosophies to cultivate and what pitfalls to avoid, in seeking mental health. I attended every symposium ... possible, ... and took notes on the wise words of teachers and my colleagues who were leaders in the field.

And then quite by accident, I discovered that such a work had already been completed...If you were to take the sum total of all the authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene--if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out the excess verbiage...you would have an awkward and incomplete summation of the Sermon on the Mount. And it would suffer immeasurably through a comparison.

3. It is the Christian's job description.

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MAIN BODY:

1. As I was preparing this sermon I was overwhelmed with the sheer, utter joy of knowing Christ and our relationship with one another.
1. Jesus came to reveal truth in a way that we can comprehend and apply in practical ways to our personal and relational lives.
1. His truth which promotes the development of the mind.
2. His truth which enlarges the heart, revives the emotions, develops sensitivity, and resuscitates empathy.
3. His truth which generates a broadening and deepening of life.
4. His truth which encourages the improvement of knowledge.
5. His truth which promotes the best of the arts and sciences of civilization.
6. His truth which inspires the growth of human brotherhood, the kinship with all peoples.
7. His truth which is supportive of practical benevolence for the improvement of life for the poor and the poor of heart.
2. It is no wonder that we speak of the sheer and utter joy to be found in the life that Jesus encourages us to live.
3. To be able to understand the job description and to apply it to our lives Jesus speaks of asking, seeking and knocking.
2. We are to ask.
1. What are we to ask for?
2. Part of the answer if found in James, chapter 4, verses 2 and 3

²You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:2-3 (NRSVA)

3. Paul, in Ephesians 3:14-19, (NRSVA), offers a prayer for the Ephesian believers.
1. He prays that:
1. he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit,
2. ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
3. as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
4. ¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
5. ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
6. so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
2. Here are some of the things we need.
4. Jesus also offers a promise that is not to be taken lightly.

John 14.13, I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14.14, If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

John 15.16, You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.

John 16.23, On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

John 16.24, Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

John 16.26, On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;

1. Name is perceived to be a representation of personhood.
2. Again this is not a magical phrase, but a condition of life.
1. So we need to define our asking.
2. We need to refine our asking.
3. We need to purify our asking.
3. Then we will get the results that we truly desire.
5. If we ask we will receive.

⁹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

2. The second part of the job description is that we are to be seekers.
1. There are a number of biblical references in both the Old and New Testament which emphasize this necessary quality.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Proverbs 8:17 (NRSVA)

²Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart, ³who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. Psalm 119:2-3 (NRSVA)

¹⁴Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Amos 5:14 (NRSVA)

¹⁶But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation

say continually, "Great is the LORD!" Psalm 40:16 (NRSVA)

⁴Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, "God is great!" Psalm 70:4 (NRSVA)

⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6 (NRSVA)

⁷to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; Romans 2:7 (NRSVA)

2. To acquire the Christian graces, Faith, Hope and Love, the true food of the Christian requires persistent seeking.

Seek True Food ⁽⁵⁾

A child who suffers from severe malnutrition, kwashiorkor, mercifully loses all appetite. After weeks of nothing to eat, the desire for food finally shuts down. When aid workers begin to dip a sugar-sweetened finger in such a child's mouth, tears are the first sign of hope. The cries of hunger mark the return of the child's appetite and the birth of hope. ⁽⁶⁾

The gospel of God's grace awakens our hunger. The Holy Spirit births in us the sweet reassurance that in Christ we are God's beloved sons and daughters in whom God is pleased. We cry in pain over our malnutrition and seek true food. At such a moment, rehydration fluids and carefully prepared nourishment are essential. Filling the belly of a starving child with the wrong food only ensures his or her starvation.

3. There must be purpose and method to our searching.

One year 80,000 people paid $3.00 apiece to look, but only 1400 found what they were looking for.

What were they looking for, they were looking for diamonds.

Crater of Diamonds is in the center of a state park in Murfreesboro, Pike County, Arkansas.

Flawless, colorless diamonds--the most perfect, desirable and, therefore, most costly--are the rarest of the rare.

You have to wonder why 66,000 people didn't find a diamond.

Perhaps their difficult to find.

Perhaps they were unlucky.

Perhaps they used the wrong methods.

Some people did and dig and dig. Here and there trying to find the best spot. Not spending enough time in one place to be successful.

Some people kick the dirt around moving quickly from place to place.

I read of one person who in 1964 found a 32.45 carat diamond that was very valuable.

The method employed was simple. You arrived early. Sat in one spot. Watched the spot as the sun moved across the sky looking for the gleam of diamond. A lot of hours were spent looking for the light. In one moment the effort was greatly rewarded.

4. Searching is like that.
   
3. Finally the last part of the Christian's job description is knocking.
1. Knock and the door will be opened for you.
2. People are often stopped short and refuse to go on by the difficulties circumstances that confront them.
1. The numerous individual peculiarities of character.
2. The petty and stubborn tyrannies of habit.
3. The confrontation with the events and the circumstances of negative people which have such influence on us.
4. The wider world, with all its conflicts, threats of terrorism and war which generates fear and anxiety.
5. The concealed, unconscious motives with which we must cope.
3. Against all this, like the sound of some welcome trumpet of morning, are these words spoken by the voice of heaven upon earth, " Knock, and it shall be opened
4. Knock until you knuckles are sore and even bleeding.
5. It sometimes takes many attempts, enormous energy, and even pain.
6. We are to keep knocking until the door is opened.
7. It will be opened.
1. We have the promise
2. Nothing can deter or cancel it.

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CONCLUSION

1. It is a necessary part of the Christian's job description from beginning to end to hold to the conviction that there is a place of mercy and help.
1. It is a necessary part of the Christian's job description to discover and hold on to this place with undivided conviction and determination.
2. It is a necessary part of the Christian's job description to ask, to seek and to knock knowing that:
3. The necessity to Christian life, to the beginning of it and continuously to the very close of it, of holding a direct, undivided conviction that there is an accessible and an approachable place of mercy and of various help.
4. Because we know that ¹¹If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
2. We are not asking sources which may prove unreliable, but the most reliable source in the whole universe.
3. In 1930 William Temple preached at the opening of the seventh Lambeth Conference. This is part of what he said: ⁽⁷⁾
1. While we deliberate, God reigns; when we decide wisely, God reigns; when we decide foolishly, God reigns; when we serve God in humble loyalty, God reigns; when we serve God self-assertively, God reigns; when we rebel and seek to withhold our service, God reigns - the Alpha and the Omega, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
2. Almighty God reigns. We do indeed have, as our kids would have us put it, an awesome God.

1. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used with permission

2. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 128. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used with permission

3. Rev. P. C. Barker, Homily on Matthew 7.7-12, The Pulpit Commentary, Eds. H. D. M. Spence, M.A., D.D. and J. S. Exell, M.A., Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1950, pp. 300-303.

4. Fisher and Lowell S. Hawley, A Few Buttons Missing: The Case Book of a Psychiatrist (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1951), 273. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used with permission

5. Tim Dearborn, Taste & See: Awakening Our Spiritual Senses (Downers Grove: Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1996), 53. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used with permission

6. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used with permission

7. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used with permission

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