Kingdom Life: Ask and Receive (Matthew 7:7-11)
Introduction: An Abrupt Shift?
At first glance, this text seems like an abrupt shift — from the topic of judging rightly to the topic of prayer. But on closer look, Jesus is simply reminding us that He provides for what He requires. Judging rightly in this world, both inside the church and outside it, requires great wisdom. It is truly beyond us. But if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask — and ask in faith. This is the connection between these two texts.
This section of Scripture is a beautiful teaching on prayer, but I want to make sure we do not remove it from life in the kingdom. It is easy for us to treat prayer like our own genie in a bottle, but prayer is meant to be more than a means to the desires of your heart. In other words, prayer should not just be about you. This is clear in the prayer Jesus gave his disciples, which begins with “Hallowed be your name” and “Your Kingdom come.” It’s constantly a prayer for “us” and not “me”.
A Familiar Solution: Trust in a Good Father
This teaching on prayer comes after a difficult teaching on discernment and right judgment in the world, and it offers a solution similar to the one presented in chapter 6.
Both passages answer a hard demand with the same remedy: the provision of a good Father. He never commands what He will not supply — He provides for what He requires.
There we see that the solution to anxiety is trust in a good Father, who says that as we seek the kingdom, everything will be added to us:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
We are anxious about our lives. We are anxious about what is going on in our little world. But Jesus calls for a bigger vision — a vision of His kingdom, of His righteousness dwelling in the earth. And His promise is that as we gain that vision and walk in it, His blessing of provision follows.
The Problem and the Solution: Communion with the Father
Here we come to another problem to which Jesus provides the solution. There is a high bar and a high calling for Christians in the kingdom of God — to live out the salt-and-light life before a watching world. And the only way we will ever faithfully do this is in communion with the Father. Healthy hearts must be deeply rooted in relationship with Jesus, who is the living water.
Apart from this connection to the vine — to use another analogy — we dry up and die. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” So the solution to the difficulty of walking faithfully in this world, especially in our relationships with others, is prayer: ongoing communion with God that consistently seeks His face for provision.
But the seeking of provision is not only inward; it has an outward dimension. Whoever asks for wisdom to interact with the world in faithful ways — to judge rightly, to discern rightly — will be given all that they need.
Ask, Seek, Knock: The Intensity of Prayer
Jesus escalates the intensity of the ask by repeating synonyms: ask, seek, knock. This implies that prayer is meant to be earnest, consistent, and persistent. It implies that our heart cannot be flip-flopping in its attitude toward the kingdom, but should instead be full of passion and zeal. Zeal for God’s kingdom and righteousness to fill the earth should show in our prayers. And when we do not feel passion, our zeal is stoked through prayer.
A Story: Dryness Broken Through Obedience
Have you ever experienced a period of dryness in your faith? I sure have. And many times I have tried to break the dryness in the wrong ways.
I remember one instance when I was exhausted from life and ministry, and I went out to pursue some silence and solitude. I just wanted to be alone. Now, Jesus certainly loves it when we seek silence and solitude — He welcomes us into it, and oftentimes prayer requires it. But in this instance, I think my heart was selfish and wanted silence and solitude for me.
The Lord surprised me that day. As I walked, trying to be alone, I passed a basketball court, and He impressed on my heart in a strong way that I needed to share the gospel with some men playing there. I resisted very firmly — even in my head, and perhaps with a whisper — saying to the Lord, “I just need to be alone. I don’t want to do that. Just let me be alone.” But the burden didn’t leave.
So I finally gave in. I went over to the court and began sharing the good news with a group of seven or eight guys. After two or three minutes, most of them went back to playing — but there was one young man who gave me his attention. We ended up discussing his faith and the prayers of his family members for several hours, spending the evening together in God’s Word, and I called him to faith. At one point he even said to me, “God must be calling me, because just this week I’ve heard from multiple people in my family that they’ve been praying that I would surrender to Jesus.”
How do you think I felt coming away from that moment? I felt alive. I felt full of joy. The dry spell seemed broken, and my communion with the Father seemed restarted and reignited.
The point of this story is not to say that you should never be alone. In fact, some of you need to stop working so that you can be alone. But for others of us, the solution to our dryness is not to be alone more — it is to seek the kingdom, to move outside of ourselves, and to welcome God to use us as His instrument, to be His mouthpiece.
The Promise: Ask and You Will Receive
Jesus gives us a promise similar to the “seek first the kingdom” promise: if we ask, we will receive; if we seek, we will find; and if we knock, the door will be opened to us. The promise to you and me is that as you go through this life diligently seeking Him for all that you need — especially the matters of His heart and His kingdom — everything will be added to you.
I am reminded of Jesus’ teaching in John:
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
The idea here is that when your heart is aligned with God’s will, your prayer life will not be merely self-centered, but constantly outward-facing and kingdom-oriented.
Notice the condition Jesus attaches: “if you abide in me, and my words abide in you.” This is no blank check. It is the promise that as His Word takes up residence in us and shapes what we want, our asking is remade — we begin to want what He wants, and He delights to give it.
The Parable: How Much More Your Father
Jesus drives His point home with a parable, reminding us that no good parent gives a child who asks for food something harmful or inappropriate to the need. No — they hear the need and respond to it with good. The desire for an egg receives an egg; the desire for bread receives bread. The ask gets, the seeking finds, the knocking opens the door.
If that is true even of evil parents — that is, flawed, sinful, selfish parents — how much more, Jesus says, will the holy and righteous Father of all give you all you need?
God Our Father
I want to settle on this idea of God being compared to our Father, because Jesus interacts with God as Father and welcomes us to do the same. His teaching is full of this familial relationship with regard to our communion with God. What a precious image and comparison we have been given — that our God wants to be known as Father, and us as His beloved children.
What a good God, who wants to relate with us like this. This sets Christianity apart from every other religion.
When “Father” Brings Pain
Surely for some, the image of “father” creates tension and pain, as there are many examples of truly evil fathers and mothers in this world. But the whole point of this passage is that He must not be compared to those people. He is holy, set apart, and good — and He only gives good to His kids. James writes:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”
What kind of gifts does God give to His people? Good and perfect ones. In fact, every good and perfect gift has come from Him.
Security Overflows in Love
Have you ever noticed that people who are secure are not selfish, inward-focused, fearful, and controlling, but generous with their time and energy in relationships? This is true broadly, but even more so in relationship to parents. You can see a direct correlation between two-parent, loving care and a child’s behavior in the world. This is why you may have read sobering facts — that children from fatherless homes are far more likely to end up in jail, and parentless kids are far more likely to end up in abusive or dangerous situations.
[Preacher’s note: verify these statistics against a citable source before delivery, or keep the general phrasing above rather than citing specific multiples.]
The Father wants you to know that you are secure, that you are protected, that you are provided for. You are the apple of His eye. And as we come into this knowledge of His personal love toward us, there is an overflow of love toward others.
The Best Gift: The Holy Spirit
I appreciate Luke’s Gospel, as it adds a simple phrase that guards against selfish requests meant to be spent on our own passions. He writes: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke’s Gospel records for us a short way to make no mistake in how we petition our God. God is our chief good. What you need in this world is certainly bread and water, shelter and protection — but we are reminded by our Lord that all of those things are given by the hand of our God through the Holy Spirit, who indwells each of us, providing for His people all that we need.
The Holy Spirit’s presence is the guarantee of God’s “yes” in Christ Jesus to all that we ask Him. So whatever you ask, remember that God wants to give Himself as the primary answer — and with Him comes everything else you need.
Do not miss how good this is. The Father’s best gift is not merely something from His hand; it is Himself, poured out. Every other “yes” is secured in this one, for the Spirit who indwells you is the down payment and seal of all that God has promised. When you have the Giver, you can trust Him for every gift.
The Gospel
And this is the gospel. None of us is sufficient to live righteously before the Lord. In fact, we have all been condemned. No one is righteous — no, not one. So do not pretend that you can do it alone.
The gospel says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” The gospel says He is our righteousness. The gospel welcomes us to lay our sin at His feet — to receive the washing, cleansing blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus through faith — and it invites us into daily communion with our God through the Holy Spirit in prayer.
Jesus is alive and powerful to save. He ascended on high, and He gave us the Holy Spirit to show us that He is near. This is the kind of God He is: He is near, He sees, He cares, and He wants you to ask Him about everything you need — little things and big things. He wants you to ask.
So What Now? Draw Near, Don’t Just Try Harder
Because the cross has settled the Father’s heart toward you, everything changes about how you live this week.
So if you feel anxious, the answer is not to fix the problem that makes you anxious, but to draw near to your Father, who wants to prove His trustworthy and capable care.
If you feel inadequate — in ministry, in parenthood, in work, in life — the answer is not to try harder, but to come to a God who sees and hears and knows and loves to give His children good gifts as they ask Him.
Kingdom life must not be an insular life. It is a life lived in community that overlaps enough with the world so that the world might see good works and worship God. As we interact with the world and live in community, we will be presented with countless difficult situations that require the help of our God. And the invitation of our God is to know that He wants to answer us as we seek His kingdom — that He wants to give us everything we need to live out the life He requires.
Remember the feeding of the five thousand — how Jesus gave twelve baskets full of leftovers, precisely for those who had just poured out their lives in ministry in the many towns He had sent them to. Jesus secured twelve baskets of leftovers, one for each of His disciples, to show them that as they seek the kingdom, do His work, and ask, they will receive all that they need. This is the kind of Father we serve.
Examine Your Prayers
What are your prayers like? Are they self-centered, focused only on what you need in this world? Or do they began with a passion for his name and his kingdom to spread? Do you petition the Father for help to be a blessing? Do you ask Him for wisdom? Do you ask Him for opportunities to bless your community? Do you ask Him for words for your neighbors and family members who don’t know the Lord? Do you ask Him for help to manage your schedule, to steward your money, to be more generous? Do you ask Him for grace to navigate difficult relationships in a Christlike manner? Do you ask Him for help to disciple and train your children patiently? Do you ask Him for opportunities to share the good news?
Church, He wants to give you every single thing that aligns with His will and His kingdom — and as you ask for these things, everything will be added unto you.
A Praying Community
There are five hundred moments in a single day where you make judgments about how to use your time, how to use your money, and how to interact with others. I want to invite you to welcome God into at least a hundred of those little moments. I want our community to be one that doesn’t pray once, or twice, or three times a day, but one that prays without ceasing — one that welcomes God into the everyday stuff of life: our gardening, our cooking, our diaper changing.
What if we began to commune with our Father over the dishes, or over simple administrative tasks? What if we turned those simple daily things into occasions for faithful service and love that would exalt His name before our children, our neighbors, and our coworkers? This is the vision Jesus presents to us — setting up the difficult problem of judging rightly in this world, and answering it with the promise of His provision for all that He requires.
Response
So let us spend some time in prayer — asking, seeking, and knocking. And I want to call you to do the same all week: to bring every little moment of trying to judge rightly in this world into His presence, and to receive from Him His provision, as you seek first the kingdom and His righteousness.
Transcript:
Ask and Receive
Matthew 7:7–11
All right, guys, let's dive in and read this again together. Chapter 7, verses 7–11. Can we read this aloud together?
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 in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
Let's pray for another moment.
Lord, we thank you that you taught us to pray, and we thank you that you taught us that when we come to God, we should address you as Father. You are this good Father who gives good gifts, as we just read. I want you to impress on our hearts this morning—in a fresh way, in an increasing measure—this faith that you welcome us to bring every need, and that we can have an expectation, Father, that you want to answer us and give us good things. Meet with us now. Illuminate our hearts to your word and strengthen our faith, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Everybody said, Amen.
The Tension of Prayer
This is a wild text. Jesus often says things about prayer that blow my mind—they really throw me into a tension in my heart. How can it be possibly that easy? He would just say, "Whatever you ask in my name, it will be done for you." Those words give some of us hope and excitement every time we read them.
But some of us who are still waiting on prayers to be answered are like, "I don't get it, God. I've been asking this prayer over and over again, and I don't see how this is true."
Nevertheless, Jesus wants his people—his kingdom people—to believe from the depths of their heart that this is the kind of God we have. This is the kind of father: a good father who loves to answer our prayers. He wants us to pray often—a lot. He wants us to pray every time, believing that we can actually get what we ask, as we ask in his name, according to his will.
So I want to wrestle with that for a second. Just tell me: what does this do in your heart when you read, "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened"? What happens in your heart? What has happened in the past? What's going on in your heart as you read that?
Community Member 1:
It challenges me. Do I actually believe it? Is this a 100% every single time kind of level where God answers your prayer? The second part is where I struggle: if I can ask God for anything, who determines what is appropriate? I'm trying to figure that out.
Daniel:
Thank you for that. There's something helpful about what kids get that we don't. With kids, it's so simple for them to live like that, but it's really hard for us. We don't want to ask, we don't expect anything, or we expect something and it doesn't happen and we get mad. But kids just come to their father so freely—it's like, "Dad, I want this." They expect it.
Community Member 2:
That's really well said. We can grow jaded over time as things don't happen the way we expect them to. It's hard to fight to live in that trust that he's a good father, that there are good reasons behind what he does.
A Father's Heart: Finn's Bold Requests
Daniel:
Can I tell a quick story about you? Hey, Finn, can I tell a quick story about you?
Community Member:
As a former pastor's kid, I really appreciate that question.
Daniel:
Finn has lately been asking bold requests of me, and I love it. Just this morning, he said, "Dad, after lighthouse, I want to play golf." And what was the other part of it, Finn? You asked for something else with golf?
Finn:
Watch a show.
Daniel:
Golf and a show—maybe. The requests are getting bigger. Every morning there's something like, "I want to do this with you, and then this and this." They're bigger events—more expensive, more time-intensive. But I'm giving them to him. I show them little things in life. We'll talk about soccer, watch soccer, hit a golf ball in the backyard, and then he's like, "That's what we're going to do. That's what I'm going to ask for."
And what happens when you ask daddy and mommy about different things? Do you get it every time? Do you get it a lot of times?
Finn:
Just know. Sometimes.
Daniel:
So you know it's good to ask then, right? My kids and your kids—rightfully, as Sarah was saying—pick up on this: if I ask, something's going to happen. If I don't ask, it probably won't happen. So they keep asking. And oftentimes, parents give good things to their kids. Sometimes it's a very particular desire. "I want this kind of food right now," and just so happens that the very thing they ask for comes to their hand or mouth. It's a beautiful thing that our kids, by God's grace, are growing up in these families and getting a taste of what the Heavenly Father is like in these interactions with their physical parents. It's beautiful for them to be trained that it's good to ask and to keep approaching God that way.
More of Him: The Holy Spirit
Community Member 3:
I love this passage because in Luke's version he says, "If even bad fathers give good things to their kids, how much more will the heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit?" It's a very literal invitation: every time you ask for more of God, more of his presence, more of his power, more of his Spirit. I believe he gives it every time. When that's in the forefront of my request, I take that in faith that he gives it. Really dialing in on that—he wants to open the door to us. He wants to give himself to us. So I take it less as stuff and more as more of him. That's an incredible promise that has proven true in my entire life.
When I actually knock, when I actually seek—the problem of not having the powerful presence in my heart is not because God doesn't want to give it. It's because I'm typically not asking. I'm not knocking. I'm not seeking.
Guarding Our Hearts
Community Member 4:
I feel like I have to put up caveats just in case it doesn't get answered. Like, maybe I'm not asking the right thing, or I'm making excuses for why God might not answer. It seems so simple—ask and you will receive—yet I've been asking for things like wanting to be married, and that hasn't happened yet. It feels like it's taking forever. Why? Is this something I'm asking for that hasn't been given to me yet, even though it's a good thing?
I think I put up these guards to protect myself, and then I end up not asking because of that. I forget to ask, or I go wary of asking.
Daniel:
I remember when I was single and eager to get married in my late twenties, and the girl I wanted to marry kept saying no. Eventually she said yes, but I pursued her for a long time. One day my mom asked, "Daniel, are you praying about this?" I said, "No, I'm not. Not very much at least." She said, "Daniel, this should be one of the primary prayers of your life every single day. Pray that God would give you a godly spouse. Pray specifically for Kate. Ask, and just ask for that, and put it in his hands with open hands."
I needed that exhortation because I was guarding my heart too. I was surprised that I needed to be encouraged to pray in that direction. I think we all do that. At some point, we start guarding our hearts. Maybe we're losing faith that God is going to give us the thing we've been asking for because we've been praying for so long. Maybe it starts to feel like what I do in this world just matters more. I'm going to stop asking because, really, what matters is I get on a dating app and get to work, or try to meet people. If I want to make more money, I just have to go do it. Why do I pray about this? Just go do it.
So we build a vision of life that pushes God out. Our need is really just to work hard on our own. All of that happens from our faith getting diminished through experience, or maybe it's just pride. But there's a lot that's true for me—there's a proud heart that grows in me, and it makes me prayerless.
How We Ask Matters
Community Member 5:
I think about something often. It says, "Ask and you will receive," right? But the way you ask—there's something super humble about that. Even just thinking before you're asking: How am I asking? And what is my expectation of what I'm getting? That also kind of purifies the ask, making it more about really seeking him.
A lot of times, I think, "I asked for something and then I don't get it, or I don't get it the way I want it, and then I'm like, 'Well, that's not fair. I'm not asking again.'" But just remembering that it doesn't say when or how—you'll receive it, but not necessarily when or how. The timing is part of his answer.
Persistence and Faith: Mother's Healing
Daniel:
Here's another story. My mom, for years, had an issue with her heel. It was very painful, and she had asked many times for God to heal it. My dad had prayed many times over her with great faith. He had people with healing gifts pray over it. One day, she grimaced in pain, and my dad, in the kitchen, said, "Honey, give me your foot. We're going to pray again"—full of faith and ready to go.
She sort of pulled away and said her heart said, "No. Too many times we've asked, and it didn't happen."
But the Lord checked her and reminded her, "Hey, that's not my heart towards you. That's not how I want you to be towards me."
So she recognized the rebuke of the Lord, turned to my dad, and put her foot up there. He prayed for it, just like he had every time. There was nothing abnormal there—he just prayed with faith. And guess what? The Lord healed. Just like that. She hadn't been able to go on walks for a season, and she got up and started walking around the block. It was such a beautiful moment. The timing wasn't promised to her, but God did answer it, and it came in a way that taught her a huge lesson: stop doubting me. Keep persisting. Don't worry about the timing.
God's Wisdom in Saying No
Community Member 6:
When we pray for stuff we shouldn't have, he doesn't give it to us because he cares about us. We don't have to worry—he knows we're not going to get something that's wrong. When I was younger and praying for someone I wanted to date, he fortunately didn't answer that prayer. Something else worked out. God knows what's best.
Daniel:
Amen. He's a wise and good Father. Think about kids again. How often would they eat candy if every single time they asked, you gave it to them? They'd be eating candy all the time. Maybe they'd get sick of it, but I doubt it. That wouldn't be good for them. It wouldn't serve them. Lots of other things like that in our life.
When Prayers Feel Unanswered
Community Member 7:
It's really hard for me to, year after year, pray for something that hasn't been answered. It's just so discouraging. To protect myself, I just stopped asking. Because it's like, it's scarier to go down the path of thinking, "What is this? Why isn't this being answered?" The analogy of children and our kids is helpful for me because I say no to my kids for things they ask for and really want. And if that led them to not ask for things or not want to ask, that would break my heart.
It's interesting because they don't always understand the reason. And my reasons aren't always good as they know. But to know that our heavenly Father's reasons are always good. It would break my heart if my kids weren't asking me for things because I've been saying no. So there's really that the Father's heart for us is that and much more.
Holding Both: Joy and Suffering
Community Member 8:
I think on both ends of the spectrum—reading this at face value, he's a God in this age, and when we ask, we're going to see him move in miraculous ways or simple ways. I think we've seen that so much in our family for the last eight years—the miraculous birth and different things in our family. We've seen that so clearly.
But on the other end of the spectrum, I've been processing receiving everything in life as a gift from him—including hardship and suffering. Trials really do challenge that. The reality is everybody suffers, and everybody doesn't get what they want immediately. People die, things don't happen the way you want them to. But it's the tension of being able to hold both: this childlikeness and also this maturity. Everything you give, everything I experience, I can see as a gift from you—something that's growing me and pulling me toward worship.
I feel like I'm right in the middle of that. I don't want to say it's a balance necessarily. It should be a fullness of both. But that's a really hard thing to have.
Daniel:
I love that. Maturity, to summarize, looks like having a childlike faith that asks a lot for a lot of different things, and yet also receives from the Father everything he gives as a gift of his goodness, his timing, his plans. It's humility before God to receive it as a gift. That is a tension, but it's also a fullness of both. That is the mature Christian—to be able to understand that.
The Root Problem: Anxiety
Oftentimes in this life, we don't get what we ask for—what we feel like we need. And so it leads to a problem. People grow anxious. Jesus addressed anxiety just before this passage, saying, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life—what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and clothing?"
He goes on to say, "The Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all." That's an odd thing—Jesus says the Father knows that you need them all, and yet there are people within God's kingdom that feel like they don't have enough. They're actually worried about tomorrow because they don't have what they need.
James speaks to both the poor and the rich in his letter. He's saying to them, "You guys feel like you need wisdom because you really lack it. Some of you are watching your rich brothers thrive, and you're struggling over it. It's something that requires great wisdom."
But Jesus gives a solution to this problem. He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." The solution to their anxiety is to turn their attention back to God and in faith say, "I'm going to seek your kingdom, God. Whatever it looks like, I'm going to seek your kingdom and your righteousness first, and I'm going to trust that you're going to provide everything I need."
Judging Not and Asking Boldly
There's another problem set up, and this is really interesting to me. Last week we read, "Judge not, lest you be judged." It gives this whole section on a really complicated life thing—we need to judge rightly. We need to discern rightly. We need to act in this world appropriately. And it feels to me like that is a difficult word. We all wrestle over what it means to judge not. How do we judge in this world?
I think part of judging not is looking at brothers and sisters we worship with and looking at their lives and saying, "Why do they have it better than me right now?" Or looking at them and thinking of looking down on them, or trying to put them in a negative light so you can build yourself up. We do that with each other because of differences in gifts, wealth, or whatever else. We start to compare ourselves, we start to judge, and ultimately it harms our relationship with the Lord.
But there's a solution. Jesus and Luke want us to get the solution right after this text. He goes from, "Judge not that you be not judged" to "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find." The problem we have in trying to live holy lives, the problem we have in trying to navigate the intense difficulties of living a Christian life, are met again with the same call from Jesus: to put trust in a good heavenly Father who invites us to come to him. He wants us to come to him. It's comforting and challenging. I'm so grateful that the thing we need the most is communion with our Father, that he's always welcoming us back. Every problem has a solution found in our God. Getting more of him is what we need.
The Catch: According to His Will
What is the catch to Jesus's promise? If you could fill out some of Jesus' teaching with other things he's said, is there a catch at all? If he says, "Ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened"—is there a catch? Is there some condition?
Community Member:
According to his will. Don't other passages talk about that? According to God's will. It reminds me of Jesus' prayer in the garden because he humbled himself to ask the Father if the cup could be taken from him. But he said, "Not my will, but your will be done." I think that's a big one—lots of passages talk about praying in accordance with God's will.
Community Member:
In the previous chapter, Jesus says, "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." So I think about asking two ways: we can ask for treasures on earth in ways that are not synced with his will at all. We need to be reminded that this isn't just about you getting everything you want when you want it, how you want it.
Community Member:
Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." A good father won't give you rocks and serpents. He'll give you a trial that will grow you, and there will be seasons where there's a pause on your ask. When we ask for things that are not in line or don't have a vision that aligns with what God wants for his children and for the world—like asking for candy for the thirty-seventh time—we kind of miss what God is doing.
At a heart level, every prayer is either "I want more of you, God" or "I want less of you—I want more of an idol." At a heart level, it's either God or something else. When the heart level is "I want God," and we create a path toward how we think we'll get it—maybe "I want to be married" or "I want land"—those things may or may not be God's path. But God will answer the heart level request. He might say "not now." He might say something different. But he will still answer the foundational prayer: "I want more of you. I want your kingdom to come."
We should try to call down his will into our lives and the places we think it would be best. We actually want God, and we pick specific ways. He's going to give us God. If it's not the best version of him, he's going to wait and give us the best version. Sometimes that's suffering. Sometimes that deepens our dependence on him.
Abiding in Christ: John 15:7
Look at John 15:7 with me. Let's read it aloud:
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
That's an incredible insight that Jesus gives. It's so important for us because we struggle sometimes to know what is good for us. But Jesus says it's got to come from this healthy heart relationship with him. There's got to be an ongoing, abiding relationship with me. He says earlier, "Apart from me, you can do nothing at all." You have to abide in me. You have to be in this relationship with me.
Then he says, "If my words abide in you—not only are you in relationship with me, but you know my heart. You know what I say, what I think, what I want. And then ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."
How does that still feel? Does it feel good? What are your thoughts when you get the fuller picture of what God wants for you? Does this give you peace, or does it stir tension in your heart?
Community Member 11:
Understanding the heart level makes me more eager and more free to ask. But even if my asking isn't perfect, or my motives aren't perfect, sometimes it's hard to ask if I'm like, "I don't know if this is selfish. I don't know if this is a good thing." But I don't really have to know. He can show me if I need to know. It just gives me more freedom.
Community Member 12:
I think Jesus is offering a broad, open promise of asking just because he wants us to ask. He wants us to see. If you're going to swing one direction, swing toward prayer. Then if you have to correct—if your motives are wrong and you were asking to serve your passions—you can repent. But if you're going to err on one side, err on the side of prayer.
A child asks his father for a kid for the second time, like, "I told you fifteen times ago, I'm not going to eat the candy." And then he still asks for what he wants. That's better than the child not asking. He wants that interaction, wants that relationship, and he's looking to work through us to get that relationship.
That's so wise—just ask. And if you're struggling with God saying no, ask him why. Say, "What's going on? Why not, Dad?" My kids say that all the time when I say, "No, not today, not right now." They say, "Well, why not? When can we do it?" Just keep talking, keep that communion. "What is your heart then? If not today, when is it? Help me to understand."
Keep that communion with him, and then keep diving deeper: "Am I not aligned here with your heart in some way? Show me what it is that you want me to see here. What do you want me to do?" But just keep talking to him. Keep asking him. He gives us this similar word: "Seek first my kingdom and his righteousness, and everything will be added. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of your heart."
As kids grow mature, they begin to understand more the wisdom in what their father or mother is saying. They grow to be more and more aligned. Think of Jesus at the cross. He said, "I have a cup to drink," and then he says, "Please let this cup pass from me. But I know, Lord, your will has to be done here. Your will be done." We grow this heart that looks like our Father's—we're so abiding in him, so close to him, that we know his words, we understand his heart, and then we ask according to his will with this deep faith that he's going to give it.
Kingdom-Minded Prayer
Sometimes we ask for the wrong things. We ask to spend it on our passions. I've done this many times—I've gone into prayer times very selfishly, not Godward, not outward. But the big difference between kingdom-minded people—people aligned with God's heart—is that our prayers are not just inward all the time. They're going to be seeking the needs of those around us, thinking about what God is doing around us.
I had an experience when I was in my early twenties. I was actually pretty exhausted from ministry, and I went away to be with the Lord. I went on a walk, and my idea of what was going to be good for me that day was just to be alone. I said, "God, I'm kind of tired of these people and this ministry, and I just want to be alone." That day, I was walking and I saw a group of men playing basketball on a court. The Lord really laid a burden on me to go and share the good news of Jesus with them.
I was upset. When that burden came—"you need to share the gospel right here, right now"—I legitimately walked past it. I said, "No, Lord, I'm tired of ministry and I want to be away. I don't want to be around people right now. You told me it's good to get away from people, right? I'm trying to pray and get communion with you." But I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to be there. I felt this burden, and I kept walking. The further I walked, the heavier I felt. I said, "I can't do anything but turn around and go. I have to." So I went over there reluctantly.
I got their attention—probably seven guys on the court. Most just stared at me like, "What is going on?" I shared for probably two minutes. Five of the seven just started playing again. They went back to it. But two guys locked in with me, and then one in particular. We ended up having a conversation that lasted for several hours. He stopped playing altogether. At the end of our conversation, he said, "I think the Lord is calling me. I'm sure that God is calling me. This week, my grandmother, my ex girlfriend, multiple people said, 'We are praying for you to surrender your life to Jesus. We are asking God to save you and that you would give yourself.' I think it's real. Here you are today calling me to come and follow Jesus."
What do you think I felt like after that? Was I empty anymore? My heart was on fire. I was like, "Let's get back to work. Let's go. I'm ready to go."
I tell you that story not because this is a teaching on evangelism, but because so often our prayers are still so self-centered. We're not aligned with God's heart for those around us. We're praying like, "My Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come in my life only, your will be done. Give me this day," rather than "give us"—all the plural stuff that Jesus is teaching them to pray. Get outside of your own thing. Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. Get your head into what my head is, where my heart is. Pray that way. Pray those kinds of zealous prayers, and I want to answer and I want to work.
I don't want to divert from your personal needs—Jesus doesn't do that. He says, "If you're anxious, know that your heavenly Father knows all you personally need." But sometimes we can get stuck in our own little world, and he invites us, starting with prayer, to commune with him about the needs of others. Your wife, your children, and moving outward, your neighbors, your coworkers, and beyond. Just zealously praying that God's kingdom will come in those spaces.
The Heart of the Father: Bread and Fish
Let's look at verse 9:
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 in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
Here we get to the heart of our Father. I'm blown away by this. One picture that came to mind this week is the feeding of the five thousand. What do they get fed with? Bread and fish. Bread and fish. And he did it abundantly. There were all these people with need, and he multiplies the five loaves and two fishes just by asking the Father. He prayed, he blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it. Bread and fish. And then twelve basketfuls left over.
Who are those twelve baskets for? The children of Israel, but more specifically, the people he was distributing and teaching with—the disciples. The twelve apostles he had called, and there were twelve baskets left over. In certain places in the Gospels, the feeding of the five thousand comes right after they've been laboring. They've been out ministering, and Jesus says, "Come away with me. We're going to get fed. We're going to get spiritual nourishment." Then all these people rush in and surround them, and Jesus shows us with the feeding of the five thousand that he's going to meet every single need we have as we pour ourselves out for the kingdom. Every single one. The twelve baskets full for those apostles—he gives that. That's the heart of the Father—he's so abundant in his giving.
If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more? How much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him? We need to hear that. We need to understand that our God is that kind of God. He loves to give good things to those who ask him.
James says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." We need to get this. Our God is that kind of God.
Just a quick note on the security that overflows from understanding God's goodness. Have you ever been around kids that feel secure with their parents? They are not afraid to ask. They're not afraid to explore. They're not afraid to do. But they're definitely not afraid to ask because they know they have good parents that are going to answer them. When we feel secure in the goodness and love of our Father, it stirs that sort of bold behavior and trust in him.
The Ultimate Gift: Luke 11:13
We're getting to the end of our time, and I want to focus on one last thing. This is Luke 11:13. "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?" Why does he give that? Why is that addition there? What does that do for you?
Community Member 13:
Abide in me. The indwelling was always here—all that precedes is what makes us children and makes him our Father so that he can give to us what we need and what we desire. The tendency is not even belief that he's listening, let alone what he'll give. But he's giving us his Holy Spirit to live in us. There's no time of day, no time of night that he's not listening to us or knowing us. We're so full of him and his love that that's the baseline. He's going to give us the Holy Spirit. That's the baseline—then how much more? He's given himself to us. You can kind of expect anything else with him, right?
Community Member 14:
I always think of the Comforter. Oftentimes when we ask, when we have a desire that's not aligned, we're desiring something else to come comfort us. And we're looking for comfort in the wrong places. But when our prayer life is aligned and wanting to simply, first and foremost, abide—which gives us the ultimate comfort, the comfort that will never fade—everything else. Yes.
Daniel:
The thing we ask for might provide some comfort for a moment, whether it's lasting or not. But the Holy Spirit—no greater gift. He's the Comforter. "God did not spare his own son," so of course "he will also graciously give us all things." That it is. God is not a barely sufficient God. He's so abundant. "How much more?" That's the kind of guy he is.
He gave his own son. He pours out his Holy Spirit on us. He dies. He goes to the cross for us. Talk about feeling secure in God's presence. He's literally erased everything that would stand in the way of a relationship with him. All the sin washed clean by his son's blood. Then the Spirit comes to dwell in you. If we feel that reality, if we know that reality, it will cause us to be secure. It will cause us to come and keep coming and believe this "how much more" idea.
Community Member 15:
The Holy Spirit is also talked about as the guarantee of our inheritance—the seal. It ties so much in with that—given as a seal and then having that assurance of our future inheritance, and that security. It just changed everything.
How Do We Live in Response?
So what do we do? How do we live as a result of this bold invitation to ask, knock, and receive? There are three different ways: ask, seek, knock. There's sort of an intensity to the asking. So there's a welcome to just keep going, keep doing it. We know in other places he says, persist. Be persistent in your prayer. We don't want to have a prayerless life because he has a heart of a good father.
Second, we want to ask and keep asking in faith. "How much more" needs to ring in our ears in everything in our life—whether it's personal or ministry related. We need to just keep asking and believing he's a good father who loves to give us good gifts.
And third, just live in this security of the gospel. He is a good father. He's already given us everything, including himself. If himself, how much more everything else we could ever need?
A healthy heart is fed by this abiding relationship that believes, that has this deep faith: I can ask whatever I need. Yes, he's aligning my will more and more with his, but I'm just going to keep asking boldly and trusting him in the process.
Closing Prayer
We're going to pray right now in groups. I want us to take our personal needs and our ministry desires, everything that's on our hearts this morning, and I want us to kind of babble like kids—whatever comes to mind. Little popcorn prayers with your groups. Would you just ask him for a lot of things? Can we do that this morning? Just ask him for whatever is on your mind, aloud with your small group. I want us to pray like we believe that he's going to meet our needs. He's going to meet the needs of this community.
So let's do that as we close here. Jump into groups of three or four, and we'll spend the next several minutes doing that.