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Title: The Tenacious Pursuit
I want to fully confess that I went back and forth on how to prepare this lesson. I prayed, I read other theologians, I did research online. In the end, I decided only to do teaching this morning on these two verses because I think there is a deeper level of practical theology that we gloss over far too often.
Ask, seek, and knock. I believe we’ve made the mistake of assuming these three words essentially mean the same thing. I’m going to argue that this is not the case. I want us to pause to consider in depth what these three powerful words, “Ask, seek, knock” really ought to mean to us, in regard to how we pursue not only the things of this world, but how we pursue God himself.
(read/pray)
In these two verses we see the poetic device employed by Jesus of repetition. Why might Jesus on the sermon on the mount use repetition? (take answers)
I think the biggest reason is to make it more memorable. And, if that’s the case, he must be saying something pretty important during this section of the sermon on the mount, so his audience knew to dial in and listen intently.
Ask: Make request before God.
James 4:2 “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet, you do not have because you do not ask.”
The tragedy of this verse is that these people are going by all evil means to get what they want: they lust, murder, covet and fight, and God is saying simply: ask. Here is the simple and profound key: when we ask, what do we learn? If we get the thing we ask for, we know it was God’s will. If we do not, we know that it’s not God’s will, either because that thing is wrong for us entirely, or because it’s the wrong time.
Application: How often do we, even as believers, fail to stop and ask God for this thing we are pursuing? The simple act of asking God often brings into focus very sharply whether this thing we are pursuing is God’s will. If God says “Yes,” then our Father is granting us a gift. If God says “No.” we are free to stop pursing it. If God says, “Wait.” Then we move on to step two.
Seek: Look for God.
Romans 3:11 “There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God”
Here Paul is, of course, describing the plight of the fallen man. Not only are his actions completely evil, but he doesn’t even seek after God to find him. It must not be so with us. We are not fallen, but regenerate. We are not blind, but have been given sight. We are not dark, but have been illuminated. Therefore, necessarily, we should behave differently from the unsaved when it comes to how we seek after things. Yet, this brings me to a sad question, that I must ask, not only of you who are here today, but also of myself.
Application: How often do we look for God in the midst of our desires? How often do we ask, “Okay, I want this thing. Where do I see God in all of this?” Or, “If I pursue and get this thing, how will this benefit Christ’s glory? I believe it will benefit me, but is that all there is to life, wanting things to benefit ourselves? Seems like a pretty secular way to live; exclusively for self-benefit.
I admit, I tend to get excited about things. I think about something, I do some research, the research makes me more enthusiastic, which leads to more research, and pretty soon, I’m thinking about this thing night and day. I’m thinking of ways I can obtain it, ways to fit it into the budget, ways to make it work. More than once, my beloved wife has challenged me with this absolutely brilliant and totally appropriate question: “Ben, where is God in you desire?”
I could save myself a lot of heartache, not to mention a lot of time, if I’d just asked that question sooner. If I can’t find God in my desire, I need to excuse myself of that desire, lest it take hold of me.
If we ask and God says “maybe” and we seek and find God in our desire, then we move to the final step of knocking.
Knock: Go into God’s presence.
Rev. 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.”
These are the words of Christ. He has turned the equation around to show how he pursues us in this example, but the principles are the same. If I am invited to a wedding, I receive an invitation in the mail, and the invitation lists the date and time of the celebration. It is in a foreign city but I have the address.
Imagine if I looked up the address online, booked a flight online, drove to the airport, took a flight to the city, rented a car with a navigation system, entered the address of the wedding, drove to the location, got out of the car, walked up the drive to the front door, and then just stood there. I don’t knock. I don’t enter. I just stand there. Mike Ringler, on a scale of 1 to 10, how insane is that?
So, you may be asking, “What is the correlation?” What is the connection between our asking, and then seeking, and this final command to knock.
Application: Do we receive and enjoy this gift in the company of the Father?
This begs the question of not just “Did we get it” (asking) or “Did we get find God in the midst of the blessing” (seeking) but goes a step further to ask “Once we found God in the midsts of our blessing, did we abide with him?” (knocking and entering).
What exactly am I saying? What, exactly does that look like? It’s hard to put into words eloquently, but what I’m trying to arrive at is this: When I receive that wedding invitation, and pay money for a flight, take time off of work, rent a car and drive to the house, but I don’t go into the house, I don’t celebrate the wedding with the family. Will it mean anything to them if I don’t enjoy the celebration with them?
I don’t have a personal relationship with the lady a Beuhler’s who sells me a candy bar, I pay for the candy bar, she says “Thank you” and I eat it. But my daughter, at my side, she eats the candy bar with me, we enjoy it together, because I love her.
Do we treat God like the cashier, or like a member of the family? Is God only the source of our blessing, or is part of that blessing sharing it in the presence of God? Knocking speaks to abiding the presence of God as part of the blessing of that thing we’ve been blessed with. Knocking is enjoying that thing because it brings you into the center of His will.
I don’t know about you, but I do a lot of asking, I do some seeking, and I fall woefully short in knocking, entering, and remaining with God.