Sunday, July 27, 2025

Ask, Seek, Knock, Trust

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 27th of July, 2025.  Our air conditioning was not working, so we held the service in our Fellowship Hall.  For this reason, there was no streaming nor recording of this service.  Most of our services are available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]



My family, some of you know how much I hate to cancel a worship service, and will normally only do so if safety is an overriding concern.  So I didn’t want to cancel this one today.  But I will concede that the current situation is uncomfortable, so I am going to make this as short as possible while still getting God’s message across.  With that being said, let’s jump right into our scripture reading.

This comes right after Jesus taught His disciples the Model Prayer, or what we call the Lord’s Prayer.  Please listen and follow along as Jesus continues with a very important lesson for His followers, including us.  This comes from chapter 11 of the Apostle Luke’s Gospel account, verses 5 through 13, and I’ll be reading from The Living Bible version of our Holy Bible this morning…
5-6 Then, teaching them more about prayer, He used this illustration: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You would shout up to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit and I’ve nothing to give him to eat.’ 7 He would call down from his bedroom, ‘Please don’t ask me to get up. The door is locked for the night and we are all in bed. I just can’t help you this time.’

8 “But I’ll tell you this — though he won’t do it as a friend, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you everything you want — just because of your persistence. 9 And so it is with prayer — keep on asking and you will keep on getting; keep on looking and you will keep on finding; knock and the door will be opened. 10 Everyone who asks, receives; all who seek, find; and the door is opened to everyone who knocks.

11 “You men who are fathers — if your boy asks for bread, do you give him a stone? If he asks for fish, do you give him a snake? 12 If he asks for an egg, do you give him a scorpion? Of course not!

13 “And if even sinful persons like yourselves give children what they need, don’t you realize that your heavenly Father will do at least as much, and give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for Him?” 
--Luke 11:5-13 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, thank You for inspiring Your faithful children to come out this morning during a heat wave, knowing that our conditions are less than optimal this morning.  You fill us with faith, Father, and we use that faith to worship You and to follow Your Son.  But with all the challenges in life, we sometimes struggle to summon up the will to witness for our Lord.  If we really loved all others as You command us, we would gladly share Jesus with them, trying to lead them to salvation so they won’t have to suffer eternally.  Please forgive us our failures, Father.  Help us more closely follow Your command so that others may also find salvation through Jesus.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better grasp the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.


James Brown - not the singer, but the pastor of Evangeline Baptist Church in Wildsville, Louisiana - writes, “Some years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive.  I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen.  After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control.  It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help me at all.  After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again.  I quickly corrected the situation.  Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him.  He very calmly said to me, ‘There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of.  If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again.’  At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, ‘Remember this.  As you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of.  If you trust me, you will be all right.’  
That lesson has been proven true in my ministry many times over the years.”


There are two important conditions noted here for God getting us out of any situation.  The first is as we serve Him.  When we are serving God, He is helping us, no matter what we might get ourselves into.  And the second is that we trust Him.  Trust Him as we serve Him, and He will see us through.


Our scripture reading is quite familiar to most folks, even some non-believers.  Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.  And if this passage was all we read, we might lose faith when we ask for something and don’t receive it, if we look and look but can’t find, if doors all slam shut in our faces.

Sometimes non-believers use this as an argument against God and Jesus, noting that they never got what they asked God for.  James, the brother of Jesus, has an answer for them, in verses 2 through 4 of the 4th chapter of his letter to the early church…
2 You want what you don’t have, so you kill to get it. You long for what others have, and can’t afford it, so you start a fight to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you do ask you don’t get it because your whole aim is wrong — you want only what will give you pleasure.
--James 4:2-4 (TLB)

So, yes, there’s a little more to it than just asking.  God is not our fairy godmother or a magic genie, just waiting there in heaven to grant our every wish.  Jesus tells us there’s also the need to believe.  The Apostle Mark saved for us a declaration Jesus made to His disciples, in the 11th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 22 through 24…
22-23 In reply Jesus said to the disciples, “If you only have faith in God — this is the absolute truth — you can say to this Mount of Olives, ‘Rise up and fall into the Mediterranean,’ and your command will be obeyed. All that’s required is that you really believe and have no doubt! 24 Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you have it; it’s yours!”
--Mark 11:22-24 (TLB)

To me, this might be the hardest part.  While our mothers may have told us that anything is possible, that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to, life has taught us that we can only do so much.  Move a mountain into the sea?  Nope – not possible.  Turn water into wine?  Sorry, that’s above my pay grade.

We have trouble believing – truly believing in our hearts and our minds – that we can actually receive some of the things we ask for.  We think it impossible, and so we don’t receive.

And yet, as we saw in that little story at the beginning, there’s also the elements of service and trust, especially trust.  We must trust Jesus when He says if we will seek, we will find.  Please listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, in verses 6 through 10 of the 2nd chapter of his Letter to the Colossians…
6 And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust Him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with Him. 7 Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all He has done.

8 Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said. 9 For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; 10 so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power.
--Colossians 2:6-10 (TLB)

Trust in the Lord in all things.  Trust Him enough to get out there and serve Him.  Trust Him enough to believe we will receive what we ask for, we will find what we search for, doors will be opened and our way made clear.

Ask, seek, knock, and trust.  It really is that simple, if we could only believe.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Your Son Jesus, and by our belief, to hear and answer our prayers.  We pray that more people would come to accept Jesus as Lord.  It saddens us, Father, when we think of all the folks who will never recognize Jesus as Your Son or follow Him to salvation.  There are many who have never even heard of Jesus, have not been told of all He did and taught.  We admit that we have not done as good a job as we could reaching out to these people.  Too often we find excuses not to carry out our mission of making more disciples.  Sometimes we’re too busy, too distracted.  Sometimes we’re just too hesitant, too afraid of getting it all wrong and doing more harm than good.  Please forgive us those times, dear Father.  Please help us reach out to the lost, to anyone who does not know Jesus as their personal Savior.  Help us be more like Your Son in our love and our ways.  Help us show Your love to others by giving of ourselves, giving of our love freely, unconditionally, sacrificially, just as Jesus gave of Himself for us.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us every reason to trust You.  We know in our hearts and minds that we will receive what we ask for, we just have trouble fully believing it’s possible.  Thank You for assuring us that all we truly need is faith, full faith in You.  Lord, we know it disappoints You when we don’t go out into the world sharing the Good News and making more disciples.  But it's so hard for us to gather up the courage and the motivation to go face-to-face with other people, telling them all about You.  We want to serve You, and it hurts to admit it, but we often let little things get in the way of witnessing to You and the Gospel.  Please help us in our struggles to show You to the world.  Help us be more like You, loving all others, even those who hate us and wish us harm, without any concern for reward or recognition or even being loved in return.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to do to lead the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

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