SERMON SERIES
FOR LENT
Don’t
Quit
Matthew 7: 7-8
Pastor
Do you ever feel that no matter what you do, and no matter how hard you
try you just can’t seem to get ahead; you can’t seem it get a break? Do you
ever feel like things were pressing in on you from every side? Have you ever
simply wanted to quit? Have you ever gotten tired of fighting, gotten tired of
trying, and simply wanted to run away and start over again? Have you ever felt
overwhelmed?
I felt a bit like that a couple of weeks ago. I remember it distinctly.
It was on a Friday night. The reason I remember it so well is that for a minute
or two I became so angry I swore, which is very unusual for me. And you know, I
don’t really know what bothered me more—the fact that I swore or the fact that
I didn’t feel any better when I did.
You know I kid a lot with Larry, but in the past few weeks, I’ve said
things a time or two that really cut into him. I don’t remember doing that much
in the past, but I did recently, and I can’t explain it. I love him more than I
can say.
Some people have the mistaken idea that when we become Christians, we
don’t have any more struggles, we don’t have any more trials. Suddenly, we’ve
got it all together. That’s nonsense. My friend, when we know and love Jesus,
when we realize the standards He calls His disciples to live up to, it can be
overwhelming. All of a sudden we’re hit with the realization that God has given
us a great honor…and an awesome responsibility: We are called to be Ambassadors
for Christ, His representatives in the world.
It is supposed to be good news that we are part of the family and part
of the neighborhood. But a lot of the time it is downright tough to do so. Most
of us have times when it seems that God expects and life requires more than we
have to give.
Don’t you imagine the crowd Jesus talked to when He preached the Sermon
on the Mount felt the same way? Jesus told them they were supposed to be
merciful. They were supposed to focus on storing treasures in heaven and to
trust God to provide for them in this life. He said, “Turn the other cheek, and
if someone requires you to go one mile, go the extra mile. Oh, and by the way,
unless your righteousness is greater than the Pharisees, you can forget about
getting to heaven by ‘being good’; and while you’re trying to exceed those
Pharisees, don’t judge them.” It sounds like Jesus requires an awful lot.
I imagine about that time someone in the back of the crowd spoke up,
like many of us want to do, “How in the world am I supposed to do that?
Believing it is one thing. Living it is something else.”
It is then that Jesus tells us what to do when
we want to stop trying, when we simply want to quit.
Read Matthew 7:7-11
In these verses, Jesus tells us to pray when things get tough. He uses
three words, ask, seek, knock, but
they all mean the same thing.
Jesus tells us that when we want to quit, we need to pray with:HUMILITY
Verse 7 says that we are to ask. You know, there
are some people who will never ask anyone for anything. They are more than
happy to help you with a problem, or to help you with something, but they will
never ask for themselves. Often, those who will never ask, refuse to do so
because of pride. They want to handle things themselves. They don’t want to
need anyone for anything.
Sadly, some people feel the same way about God. They don’t want to go to
Jesus; they don’t want to ask Him for anything, they just want to handle it
themselves. Does this sound familiar? “You have not, because you ask not.”
(James 4:2) My friend, if we want to make it through, we need to ask God.
When we want to quit, we need to pray with: RESPECT
Again, notice verse 7 says we are to ask, and seek, and knock. Jesus
does not teach us that we are to TELL
God what we need. Jesus says we are to knock, not break the door down.
Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God.” I would like you to highlight that in your mind. Did you
hear that we are to ask God? Yes, we are to ask God, but we are also to
remember God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and God’s ways are not our ways. (Isaiah
55:8) And guess what? God knows more than we do. That means we don’t always
know what to pray for and we don’t always know what is best. We don’t want God
to give us everything we pray for. We want God to give us what is best.
Helen Graham, wife of famous Billy Graham once said that if God had
answered all of her prayers, she would have married the wrong man, several
times. Oh my friends, when we pray remember we’re talking to the All-mighty,
All-knowing, Ever-present God, not the pizza delivery guy. God is not waiting
on the celestial throne wearing a plastic nametag and asking, “May I take your
order?”
We’re talking to the God who knows more than we’ll ever know, who sees
around the corner of today down the road of tomorrow.
We are to ask with humility. We are to ask with respect.
When we want to quit, we need to pray with: PASSION
Ask, seek, and knock. In other words, what we desire means something to us.
It’s important to us. The most fatal thing in the Christian life is to be
content with passing desires.
It amazes me at times, the number of people who pray as if they really don’t
care if God answers them. Do you pray that God will protect your son or
daughter, grandson or granddaughter? Do you pray that God’s Spirit will keep their
hearts open toward Christ? Do you pray that God will give them a loving and
faithful spouse? How can we pray such a prayer without passion? Do you pray
that God will help you be the example God wants you to be for your children or
grandchildren? Do you pray God will save your neighbors, that God will
transform you into a person who can tell others of the power of God?
We may not understand how God does it, but scripture is clear that
through our prayers, God works to change the world.
Pray with humility, ask with respect, seek with passion, and knock with
persistence. When we want to quit, we need to pray with: PERSISTENCE
Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock. In the original Greek these
words mean “keep on asking,” “keep on seeking,” “keep on knocking.” Jesus is
emphasizing the importance of persistence. At the same time it is strange that
Jesus commands us to keep asking when in chapter 6 and verse 32 Jesus says that
God knows we need all of these things. If God knows what we need, then why keep
asking, seeking, and knocking? Why keep praying?
Sometimes there can be delays –
In Daniel (Daniel 10:12-14) we are told there can be delays in the
answers to our prayers. Detractors will do everything they can to delay an
answer to our prayers, so we’ll quit before we hear an answer. Don’t hang up
the phone. Don’t stop talking with God.
Sometimes our hearts need changing –
James 4:3 says, “You ask and don’t receive
because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure.”
Sometimes we ask for the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Sometimes God
delays answering our prayers because our hearts need changing. Do we really
need a new car, or do we need another car? Do we really need a new
job, new spouse, new friends or does our heart need to be changed for the job,
spouse and friends we have?
Sometimes we need to grow – Larry
and I didn’t become parents until our mid-thirties. We had been married for
fourteen years, trying to get pregnant for many years and then trying to live
as a couple without children for many more as God slowly changed us. If God had
given us children earlier than He did, I don’t know if I would have appreciated
the gift of children as much as I do. Perhaps I would have taken family for
granted. I needed to grow so I could see what a great gift adoption is. I
needed to grow so I could appreciate God in all things, even in my own
suffering.
When we want to quit, we need to pray with: TRUST – Jesus goes on to
tell us God, as a good parent, will never give a bad gift. Sometimes we moms
and dads can make mistakes in what we give our children, but God never does. God
is not selfish, begrudging, or stingy, and we don’t have to beg or grovel as we
come with our requests. God is a loving parent who understands cares and
comforts. If humans can be kind, imaging how kind God, the Creator of kindness,
can be.
In very few words here in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus teaches us to pray
with HUMILITY, RESPECT, PASSION, PERSISTENCE and TRUST.
When we want to quit…Don’t quit!