This sermon is based on Matthew 7:7-11 and Romans 8:26-27. It explores the ongoing relationship of the Holy Spirit with the believer in prayer. Understanding that prayer is a joint venture between God and the believer is crucial to an effective prayer life. You can watch by clicking below. If you prefer to read, the text is included under the link.

https://www.christianworldmedia.com/watch?v=3Pvt5g0l83cV. (Start time is 25:33.)

(Matthew 7:7-11) 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!

When the psychologist and Christian writer Larry Crabb was 10 years old, he first heard Matthew 21:22, where Jesus, whom he knew never lied, said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

He ran outside, stood on the driveway, closed his eyes tight, and prayed: God, I want to fly like Superman. And I believe you can do it. So, I’ll jump, and you take it from there.

He jumped four times—and each time landed half a second later and half a foot further down the drive. He had believed (or at least he tried to believe), and he had asked, just like Jesus said. But he didn’t receive. And so began Larry Crabb’s lifelong confusion about prayer.[1]

Lots of us have been confused. The promises regarding prayer, some made by Jesus himself, seem so extravagant, and yet our experience of prayer seems so paltry. We have had some answers that we can point to, but we’ve also had many letdowns. Is it possible that we have misunderstood Jesus? Or misunderstood prayer? Or misunderstood ourselves?

The answer, I think, is … yes, yes, and yes. For example, we might misunderstand Jesus and so mistake ourselves for the recipients of this promise. But Jesus was talking to his disciples (5:1). He did not and could not make this promise to the Pharisees or Sadducees, even though they were very religious people. He would not say it to the irreligious. He could only say this to “his disciples.”

They had devoted themselves to him. They used their energy, time, and money in learning to live the Jesus way, which they practiced until it became “their way.” Their goal was to do what Jesus would do if he were (like them) a farmer or a fisherman, if he were married to their spouse or was raising their kids.

Today’s disciples are in exactly the same position. They are learning to live with God the Jesus way. They are learning to do what Jesus would do if he were in their place – if he were an engineer, a store employee, a CNC operator, a teacher, or an insurance salesman. They are learning to do what Jesus would do if he were married to their spouse or raising their kids.

So, when we read what Jesus says here, we must remember who his audience is. He is not making these promises to moderately religious folk safely ensconced in society’s hierarchy. He is making them to disciples who have relinquished the ordinary way people live for the extraordinary way of Christ. The “everyone” Jesus mentions in verse 8 – “everyone who asks” – is everyone within the corps of disciples.

But in saying that, I am not trying to explain away the promise. Jesus absolutely meant what he said. This is not hyperbole or exaggeration. Just remember that he is talking to people who were all in, to disciples, who had committed themselves to Jesus through thick and thin. It would be a mistake to suppose these promises were made to anyone else.

I make a point of this not to gloss over what Jesus said but to save the moderately religious from confusion and doubt when their prayers are not answered – which will certainly be most of the time. There are no promises of answered prayer extended to half-hearted Christians. The adventure to which Jesus invites us is reserved for those who are all-in.

It is better from the outset to know that. If I, a half-hearted Christian, expect God to answer my prayers, I am like a man that goes to a business owner known for his generosity. He explains that his financial responsibilities have increased because he’s gotten married, and he really needs $25 an hour to make it. The compassionate owner asks the man’s name and writes it down. They he says, “Let me see what I can do.”

The businessman asks his secretary to bring up their files on John Smith … and discovers that John Smith doesn’t even work for him. John Smith is asking for $25 an hour but he is not even employed in the shop.

That is what it is like when a person who is not a disciple of Jesus assumes that God is obligated to answer his requests. That person neither understands Jesus, nor himself. He mistakenly thinks that Jesus made this promise to him when he has merely overheard Jesus talking to his own disciples.

What did he tell those disciples? He told them that God will answer their prayers, but that they must persevere in praying. When Jesus says, “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened,” he is not talking about asking once, or seeking for a minute, or rapping a brief knock. In Greek, each of these commands is in a tense that implies ongoing action.

When I was pastoring a church in northeastern Ohio, I met a man whose wife had been diagnosed with cancer. We were standing in a hospital hallway and I was about to pray for her when he said, “I prayed once. I am not going to dishonor God by praying again.” That man didn’t understand the first thing about prayer. Jesus expected his people to pray and keep on praying.

But why? Why is once not enough?

There is much about this I do not understand. Someone has said, “I cannot tell you why a prayer that has been prayed for ten years is answered on the 1,000th request when God has met the first 999 with silence.”[2] I cannot tell you either. But I can tell you that Jesus wants us to persist in prayer, to “pray always and not give up” (Luke 18:1).

A Chicago company is one of the world’s largest magazine fulfillment firms. They handle millions and millions of subscriptions. (They are the ones that send out renewal and expiration notices.) Because of a computer glitch, they sent a rancher in Colorado 9,734 separate mailings informing him that his subscription to National Geographic had expired.

He may have ignored the first one or two, but 9,734 got his attention. He drove to the post office, which was miles away, and sent in the money to renew his subscription. He added a note that said, “I give up!”

Is that why we persist in prayer, so that God will give up and do what we want? No, we persist in prayer in order to participate with God in what he is doing in the world. Remarkable as it seems, he intends human beings to be his coworkers, and prayer is the nexus of that work.

Yet no answer to prayer – not even the healing of our best beloved from the illness that threatens their life – will ever content us. After our best beloved is healed, discontentment will grow again. We will not be content until we become like Christ. God knows this, and he uses even our troubles and our needs to transform us into Christlikeness. Prayer – continuing, earnest prayer – is one of God’s chief instruments in shaping us into contented, joyous, productive people.

God cares about what happens in us and not just what happens to us. Prayer not only works to change things; it changes us. And when we are praying as Jesus intended, our requests will change as well. That’s important to understand.

If you are old enough, you will remember analog TV and its blurry, fuzzy pictures. When I was a kid, when my favorite rerun wasn’t on the nearby Cleveland stations, I could get it on one of the Toledo channels. But Toledo was far enough away that the picture was usually fuzzy. So, I would “adjust the dial,” zero in on the frequency, until the best picture I could get emerged.

Something similar happens when we pray. We need to adjust the dial. Our first request got us going in the right direction – we’re in the frequency range – but we are not yet asking for what God is ready to give. If we will continue to pray, the Spirit can help us dial in, and find that right frequency: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26). Effective prayer is always a cooperative venture between us and God. It is a process, not an isolated occurrence.

We take for granted that our first prayer is a direct hit on the will of God. So, if the answer doesn’t come, we get discouraged. But that is not how prayer usually works. We need to keep praying so that the Spirit can steer our prayers, alter their course, change their goal until we are asking for what God intends to give. But the Spirit cannot do that when we’re not praying, just as we cannot steer a bicycle that is not moving.

During the Second World War, artillery commanders would fire at enemy locations, but from where they were, they could rarely see if they had hit their target. So, they would have “spotters” behind enemy lines, reporting back by walkie-talkie. A spotter might say: “A quarter-mile short of target to the south, 750 yards wide of target to the west.” The big gun would then be redirected and fired again. This time: “One-eighth mile south, 350 yards west.” Redirect again. And again.

In our lives, we know something needs to happen and we pray in the general direction of the need, but our request is a quarter-mile short and 750 yards wide. If we stop praying right then, we will never hit the target, we’ll not see God’s answer, and we’ll not be changed into the confident, joyous believers that God intends us to be.

God wants to answer our prayers. If you don’t believe that, you will never be any good at prayer. God has given us prayer for our joy (John 16:24). He wants us to partner with him in his great campaign. He wants us to succeed, to overcome, to be productive with him. Remember what Jesus said? “…ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8). God wants to give. He wants to answer our prayers.

Years ago, a sixth-grader’s dad wanted to reward his son for his performance in school, so he took him to K-Mart. As they walked through the entrance door, he made a sweeping gesture with his hand toward the whole store, and said: “To congratulate you, I’ll buy you anything in this whole store tonight.” The boy’s eyes widened at the thought of the possibilities.

But he was a boy, and he didn’t yet have a grasp on how money works or how much of it his very successful dad possessed. So, he didn’t even look at the huge stereo systems, expensive bikes, or anything that cost over a hundred dollars. He chose a cassette tape case that cost forty-some dollars. Only many years later did he find out that his dad had a thousand dollars in his pocket that night. What’s more, he brought his checkbook just in case that wasn’t enough.

God has more in his pocket than we can imagine.[3]He is ready to give – not to reward us for our performance, but to include us in his. And that happens as we pray. Prayer is more important to the Christian life than we have begun to realize.

Please note that Jesus does not rest this remarkable promise of answered prayer on our spiritual maturity, exceptional faith, or successful performance. He rests it on God’s character. Look again at verses 9-11.

 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” 

The basis for this promise is the unchanging nature of the gracious and compassionate God, not the attainments of his imperfect little children. Thank God that is so, for we are still very imperfect and very little.

During the height of the pandemic, grocery shopping services sprang up all around. You can download the app, order your groceries, and someone will pick them up for you and deliver them to your door. But global supply chain issues left grocery store shelves depleted, and often what you ordered wasn’t there. So, the services substituted recommended replacements for unavailable items.

A couple of years ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an article on these shopping apps. They learned that order packers often replaced missing items with whatever they could find. Roses were swapped for bell peppers. A thermometer was switched for mac and cheese. A rapid COVID test replaced Halls cough drops.[4]

God is not like that. He will not give us a stone in place of bread or a serpent in place of a fish. If we don’t receive what we have asked for, we are probably not yet dialed in on what God wants to give us. We mustn’t give up. If God has a substitution recommendation, it will always be an upgrade, something “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.” But he wants to give us what we ask.

That is why we keep asking, seeking, and knocking. By doing so, we give the Spirit opportunity to work with us to dial in our prayers. God wants to give, and he wants to give us what we ask, for our joy, his glory, and the advancement of his plan for the world.

There seems to be a progression here in what Jesus says. He starts with asking, which, as Andrew Murray pointed out in his classic book, With Christ in the School of Prayer, means asking for something. Seeking goes beyond asking. “Seek” is the strong word biblical writers use of searching for God himself. For example, “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (Ps. 105:4).

But knocking goes beyond even seeking. Knocking opens the way into God’s presence; it opens the door to join him in what he is doing. God made us for this. It is his desire. It is our destiny.

Let’s apply this. God wants to answer you, to give you what you ask. That’s how he wants this to work. You ask; he gives. In that way, you have joy, and he gets glory. He does not want you to ask for one thing when he intends to give another. He wants to give what you ask. I don’t think we appreciate this enough. But that means asking for what he wants to give, and for that we need the Spirit’s help.

Our asking does not usually start off on target. (This may be the main thing many of us need to understand.) If what we are asking is a quarter mile short and 750 yards wide of what God wants to give (which is often the case), that doesn’t mean we should give up or settle for something other than what we ask. It means we need to keep asking, trusting God’s Spirit to keep dialing in our request until it hits the target.

It is not enough to say, “I guess it wasn’t God’s will,” and give up. It is God’s will to give and it is God’s will that you ask. That means, if he has not yet answered your prayer, keep praying and pay closer attention to the Spotter – the Holy Spirit. He will guide your prayer to the target of God’s will. Don’t give up. God wants this for you. And it entails benefits that go far beyond the answer to this or that request, for the process shapes us into people we would not otherwise be, people who are a delight to God and to themselves.

Blessing/Sending

Though we leave this building, we do not leave God’s presence. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, interceding for us when we don’t know how to pray. Rest in the sweet assurance that God works all things for good for those who love Him. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

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[1] Larry Crabb, “Great Expectations,” Pray! magazine (November/December 2006), p. 34

[2] Stand Firm (September 1999), p.19

[3] Steve DeNeff and David Drury, Soul Shift (Wesleyan Publishing House, 2011), p. 55

[4] Jem Bartholomew, “Raspberries for Cauliflower? The Bizarre World of Online Grocery Store Substitutions,” The Wall Street Journal (2-3-22).