Matthew 7:11

0:00 My four-year-old daughter has learned, almost simultaneously to her learning how to talk, that when she asks a question at her grandparents' house, the answer is, almost uniformly, yes. May I have another cookie? Yes. May I have some juice? Yes. May I stay up a little later? Yes. My daughter has learned this and now actually has taken to calling her grandparents' house the house of yes.

0:38 Now, I just want to go on record, and I'm sure my brothers will back me up on this, their house has not always been the house of yes. I remember receiving in that household many no's. But at least with the grandkids, those days are long gone. In fact, I've noticed that even when the answer should and clearly is no, they say, why don't you go ask your parents? And then when the devastating answer is given, they unabashedly sympathize with the grandchild.

1:14 And my parents want what is best for my children. They share the gospel with them often. But as grandparents, they've earned the ability to focus on the fun parts. Our text tonight from Matthew, we're going to think about how God the Father responds to questions and specifically the prayers of his people. Our text is Matthew 7, verse 11. You can find the verse for our devotional on the front of your bulletin. I'm going to start reading in verse 7 to help orient us.

1:49 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 for bread, will give him a stone? Or he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? And then our verse, 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. 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?

2:34 I think the main idea of this text is this. Ask God, because he's powerful and because he delights to give good things to his children. Ask God because he's powerful and because he delights and wants to do good things for his children. I think from this verse we can pull three lessons and those will be our sections tonight. So first lesson, we learn about ourselves and our character.

3:05 We learn about ourselves and our character. Secondly, we learn about God and his character. God and his character, and then finally as application, we learn about approaching God through prayer. So final point, approaching God through prayer. So first point, what do we learn about ourselves and our character from this verse? You know, I suspect that many of you, if you've been around church even for a little bit, know this verse. It is very well known and very often quoted. And now I have to confess to you that while I too have read this verse many times I've spent my whole life glazing over the first sentence or the first few words. And so I want to do tonight something that you're not going to hear very often from this pulpit. I want to look at the first phrase of our verse out of context, because I think by doing so, it'll make the whole verse sweeter. So let's look at the first phrase of our verse. If you then, who are evil,

4:09 If you then who are evil. Jesus, speaking to the crowds, is assuming that everyone present is evil. Jesus isn't being flippant. Jesus doesn't waste words. And the gospel writers inspired by the Holy Spirit were careful about what they recorded. He's not giving people like his disciples a break. He's not targeting a specific group like the Pharisees. Everyone listening is evil.

4:40 And because he's speaking to the crowds, we can go ahead and say that he's speaking to us. We are evil. So just think about this for a second. Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the firstborn of all creation by whom all things were created, who will come one day to judge both the living and the dead, is describing you as evil. He's sized you up. John 2 says, Jesus knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. For the Christian, that should be a sobering thought, but if you're here and you're a non-Christian, that should terrify you. Jesus is saying here that it doesn't matter if you're an okay parent or an okay person, that who you are at your very core is corrupted and evil. The Bible is clear that that is the state of all of us, of all humankind, that we are evil, and the way that we are evil is that ultimately we are enemies of God who want to dethrone him

5:43 and set ourselves up in his place. That no matter how much real good we do, we cannot escape our evil nature. That is the witness of the Bible about us and Jesus here in this verse. And I think if we're honest, there's a lot of evidence out there in the world that this is true. We are evil. What I think this is highlighting is that we need something outside of ourselves to save us and to reconcile us to God. The judgment has already been made. We are evil. We need God himself to intervene in that verdict. But then the question becomes, how can we as evil people expect that so so let's let's take that phrase and let's put it back into its context if you then who are evil know how to good give good give good gifts to your children how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him

6:44 our ability to go to god and ask him is not conditional on our character or our goodness We don't earn the right or get to a place where we're good enough to ask God for things. The condition is that we recognize that we need Him. When one of my children calls for Dada at three in the morning, I go, even though I'm always evil and usually grumpy, because I like doing good things for them. To put it in a different way, I don't want my children to ever need something that I could do for them, but be unwilling or not think to ask me. I like it when my children recognize that they need me and ask me because I like to do good things for them.

7:31 How much more so does the good God love when we recognize our need of him and go to him? My favorite verse of my favorite hymn is this, let not conscience make you linger nor fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him. We go to God not because of anything we've earned or any righteousness on our part. We go to him because he is good. It brings me to my second point. What can we learn from this verse about God and his character?

8:07 God delights to do good things for his children and to give good gifts to his children. John 3 16 says, for God loved the world in this way that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in Jesus should not perish, but have eternal life. Gift giving is God's love language. So we give gifts at Christmas. And the great gift, the great way that God shows his love is by sending the gift of his son, Jesus. And why is Jesus a gift? Because Jesus was sent by God to save us and to reconcile us to God through his death and resurrection and remember he and his mission of reconciliation are exactly that a gift not conditional on our performance but only on our recognition that we need him he came while we were still enemies if you are a Christian God has already given you the greatest gift anyone could receive the forgiveness of your sins and reconciliation with God if you have that you can be poor and you can be sick you can be afflicted

9:13 but it doesn't matter because one day those things will seem like light and momentary afflictions jesus is the great gift he is the great gift but he isn't the only gift that god gives his children god is the good and perfect father so the other day my daughter and i were wrangling over the finishing of her vegetables and she looked at me as sternly as as a four-year-old can and said daddy this is the house of no to which i said actually and this is the house of what's best for you which admittedly is not as catchy as the house of yes matthew henry in his commentary points out that the converse of matthew 7 verses 9 and 10 are also true so if your kid asks you for some bread you're not going to give him a rock but at the same time when my son Ezra tries to eat a rock I stop him and give him bread instead

10:13 God is sovereign and powerful he knows everything and he protects his children even sometimes from themselves in our weakness and limited wisdom we can trust him God is a good father that brings me to our final section. What can we learn from this verse about approaching God in prayer? I want to give you five answers to that question as application. First answer, what can we learn about approaching God in prayer? We should not live like we're orphans. My kids have no need to be streetwise simply because they don't live on the streets. They have parents and more importantly a mom who loves them and who meets all their needs and even anticipates their needs if you are a christian you have a father in heaven who already knows your needs and has the power to provide them we should work hard we should have goals we should pray that god would bless our efforts but don't be proud on the front end and think that we can do things on our own and never

11:17 seek god or fail on the back end to praise him when he blesses your efforts god wants to be involved in your life and that is an enormous blessing. We should remember it. Second answer that we can learn about approaching God in prayer. Think about God's character to help your prayer life. So meditate on God's character and the gospel to improve your prayer life. I think it's the easiest and most generic of evening devotional applications so that I almost didn't put it in but to be faithful to the text, I think I have to say it. You should pray more. I should pray more.

11:56 But let me put a twist on it. Do you struggle to incorporate prayer into your life? Well, the solution is not just being more disciplined or putting together a better schedule or finding the right prayer guide, but instead to recognize why you need to pray more. And the reason is because God is good. Think about the gospel, how God shows his love by giving his son, Jesus. God delights to give good gifts to his children, so we should ask. Third point of application about approaching God in prayer.

12:29 Pray confidently. Pray confidently. I know that some of you have bad parents. As parents, we are sinful. But don't let the sin of your parents inform the way that you view God. He's not like that. He is good and he will answer. God delights when we come to him. We don't need to wait for a certain level of sanctification or for him to be in a good mood. We should go to him in confidence, knowing that he has commanded us to do so and loves us. Pray confidently. Fourth point, pray specifically. Pray specifically. Don't wait or struggle to pray for the right thing.

13:17 You might come to find out that you've been praying for a rock and praise God when He gives you bread instead. Ask God to bless specific events and endeavors in your life. Your prayer requests don't need to be vague and spiritual. It's okay to pray for real things that are occupying your mind and heart, like your tests at school or relationships at work and current events that worry you. Pray for specific things. Pray specifically. Finally, pray boldly.

13:49 You may have heard this story before, but it's so good I want to close with it. The pastor and theologian John Stott visited a small country church and quietly slipped into the back as the church prays. He recounts, when we came to the pastoral prayer, it was led by a lay brother because the pastor was on holiday. So he prayed that the pastor might have a good holiday. Well, that's fine. pastors should have good holidays. Second, he prayed for a lady member of the church who was about to give birth to a child that she might have a safe delivery, which is fine. Third, he prayed for another lady who was sick, and then it was over. That's all there was. It took 20 seconds.

14:29 I said to myself, it's a village church with a village God. They have no interest in the world outside. There is no thinking about the poor, the oppressed, the refugees, the places of violence, and world evangelization. As John Stott said, we don't pray to a village deity. We pray to the creator God of the universe who holds the nation and hearts of kings in his hands, and we should pray accordingly. Ask big things of God because he is good and powerful and he is able to deliver.

15:04 How should we approach God in prayer? We should not act like orphans. We should meditate on God and his gospel. We should pray confidently, specifically, and boldly. Ask God because he is powerful and because he wants to do good things for his children. Let's go to him in prayer. God, thank you that you are a God who delights to listen to our prayers. God, we ask boldly that you will watch over this church and its ministry we ask that visitors and family members of members will be saved we ask that you will thwart and convert those who would oppose your son we pray that our witness will be bold that our missionaries will be fruitful and that our elders will be wise thank you god for the gift of your son jesus it's in his name that we pray amen