“Bible promises: Ask, and it will be given to you”
Matthew 7:7
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
It was December of 1777, one of the darkest times in the history of the Revolutionary War. Though the Continental Army had won a few of their battles, they lost a number of others, including the Battle of Long Island, the Battle for New York, the Battle of White Plains, and the Battle of Bennington. And now that winter had come, General George Washington moved his army’s headquarters twenty-five miles north of Philadelphia, to a place called Valley Forge.
And though their location was good, their prospects were dire. For one, the roads were impassable because of the snow, so the twelve thousand men of the Continental Army were undersupplied and underfed. For another, their clothing was tattered, their shoes were worn out, and their shelters were nothing but cold, dark log huts with dirt floors and a sheet for a door. And with twelve men crammed into each hut, disease spread quickly. Historians estimate that as many as two to three thousand men died that winter.
But one day, a man named Isaac Potts was strolling through the woods in Valley Forge and he happened to see someone on their knees in prayer. Later he said, “I heard a plaintive sound as of a man at prayer. And as I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly into the woods, to my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his hat on the other. He was at prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with His divine aid, as it was His crisis, and the cause of the country, of humanity, and of the world. Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. So I left him alone praying, then went home and told my wife, ‘I saw a sight and heard today what I never saw or heard before.’” And he said, “We never thought a man could be a soldier and a Christian, but if there is one in the world, it is Washington.”
In 1982, President Reagan said, “The most sublime picture in American history is of George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. That image personifies a people who know that it’s not enough to depend on our own courage and goodness. We must also seek help from God our Father and preserver.”
It’s easy to say that Christ’s Sermon on the Mount is the most important sermon and the most vital sermon that anyone has ever preached. It’s the Magna Carta, the “great charter” of the kingdom of God.
In the words of John Stott: “The followers of Jesus are to be different, different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious, and the Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture. Here is a Christian value-system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, lifestyle, and network of relationships--all of which are totally at variance with those in the non-Christian world.” And he wrote, “And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed, but lived out under the divine rule.”
And what a sermon it is, for it’s here that we find words like these: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)...”Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)...”You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13)...”You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14)...”Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
And it was in this sermon that Jesus taught them how to pray saying, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name” (Matthew 6:9).
It’s no wonder then that, when He was done, the Bible says, “The crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:28-29).
And it’s in this sermon that we find our Bible promise for today. As 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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!” (Matthew 7:7-11).
Now before we talk about what these words mean, let me tell you what they don’t mean. When Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you,” He didn’t mean that He would give us a quick, three-step formula to get whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted it, and however we wanted it. God is no vending machine where you put in your dollar, press the button, and get your bag of chips, soda, or candy bar. And neither is He a prepaid MasterCard with a balance of several million dollars to use in any way we please, or a magic genie where you rub the lamp and He pops out to grant you your three wishes.
Or think of it like this--imagine if you, as a parent, gave your child absolutely everything he ever asked for. Imagine taking him to a store down the toy aisle and the candy aisle and letting him fill the cart with everything he ever wanted.
Would it be good for them? Probably not! Living on a steady diet of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and M&M’s doesn’t end well for anyone!
Besides, the Bible says in the book of James, “You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. And when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may squander it on your pleasures” (James 4:2-3). And David wrote in Psalm 66: “If I had cherished the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18).
Instead, when Jesus said “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find,” He didn’t mean we should seek after wealth, but that we should seek the kingdom of God. And when He said knock, He wasn’t saying we should break down the door of opportunity just to gain more wealth and success. That’s not what His kingdom is all about!
So what does He mean?
Notice, first of all, that this command to ask and seek and knock is something absolutely anyone can do, whether you’re young or old, rich or poor, in the spring, summer, fall, or winter of life, whether you’re physically healthy or handicapped, strong or weak, feeble or frail. Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself in life, you can ask and seek and knock.
Even more, in the original, the words aren’t just in the imperative; they’re in what’s called the present imperative. So it’s not just “ask” and “seek” and “knock,” one time and you’re done with it. Instead it’s “ask, and keep on asking,” “seek, and keep on seeking,” and “knock, and keep on knocking.”
And best of all, those three words--“ask” and “seek” and “knock”--come with a promise! As Jesus said, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).
So let’s look for a moment at that word “Ask”. What’s it mean?
When we ask for something, we’re not demanding or commanding. And neither can we ever, ever assume. Instead, it’s like a child before his parent, a peasant before his king, or a creature before his Creator.
As Jesus said in Matthew 21: “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22).
And not only should we ask, Jesus said, we should seek.
And seeking isn’t just a simple, half-hearted glance, or a “one and done.” Instead, it’s an all-in. It’s Jacob’s “I will not let You go until You bless me” (Genesis 32:26). It’s when you come to realize that this life is not all there is, that there’s something bigger, something truer, something good; that there’s Someone bigger, Someone truer, Someone good, and you will not rest until you find Him. “Seek,” Jesus said, “and you will find” (Matthew 7:7).
As the prophet Jeremiah once wrote, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
And there’s one more. Not only does Jesus invite us to ask Him and to seek Him, He also says “knock.” “Knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
What does it mean to knock? To knock on a door means that the door is closed and we’re desperately asking the Lord to open it. It means constant prayer, persistent prayer, bold prayer. It’s a widow pleading for justice against her adversary (Luke 18:3), a never-giving-up kind of prayer. It’s not just one time or two times. It’s fifty times. It’s a hundred times.
And what happens when we ask and seek and knock? Jesus said, Jesus promised: “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).
Born in May of 1874, Howard Carter was the youngest of eleven children. Since three of his siblings had died young and since he was a rather frail and sickly child, his parents sent him away to live far from the city and out in the country, cared for by a nurse. And though he seemed to have a passion for art, he was also fascinated by Egyptian antiques, so much so that he began to study archaeology. In time, he became the Inspector of Monuments for Upper Egypt and oversaw a number of excavations in the Valley of the Kings.
And while he was there in the Valley of the Kings, desperately searching for a tomb that had not yet been discovered, he stumbled across a step buried beneath a layer of rock debris. After he dug it out a little more, he found a staircase leading down to a doorway plastered with mud, bearing strange Egyptian writing. Immediately, he sent a telegram to his patron, a man named Lord Carnarvon.
Two weeks later, after Carnarvon and his daughter arrived, Carter took a chisel his grandmother had once given him for his birthday, then slowly and carefully chipped a hole in the top, left-hand corner of the doorway. And as he peered into the sealed darkness by the light of a candle, Carnarvon asked, “Can you see anything?”
Amazed to see all the dazzling treasures of gold and silver, daggers, a throne, and a coffin bearing the remains of King Tutankhamun himself, Carter answered, “Yes, wonderful things!”
It was one of the greatest finds in the history of archaeology!
And that’s the challenge and the opportunity that lies before every one of us today--to ask, to seek, and to knock.
But do you know what happens when we do? Jesus said, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).
And that’s a promise!
We thank You, Father, for the power and the privilege to come before You in prayer. Grant us all that is Your will, that we may bring glory to Your name. This we ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen