Good afternoon, everybody. I count this to be an honor and a privilege to be with you and to bring the word to you. And I'd like to read some verses to you from Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter seven. And I always think it's worth noting whenever I'm in this section of Matthew's gospel, that chapters five, six, and seven constitute what we know as the Sermon on the Mount. And what that means is that this is Christ's sermon. When I think of all the sermons that we have access to these days, and of course sermon audio is a very effective tool for that, all the thousands of sermons and the various speakers that we can tune into. And if that weren't enough for you, you could pick up 64 volumes in print of Charles Spurgeon's sermons. in the Metropolitan Tabernacle. So vast amounts of sermons, and yet here we have in this section of Matthew's Gospel, the Lord's Sermon. And I'd like to refer to it, and I think rightly so, as the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived. And very often I think It's the preacher's task when you're in this portion of Scripture to get out of the way, so to speak, and let Christ preach his own sermon. And in this sermon, Christ has some things to say about prayer. You're familiar, I'm sure many of you, with the Lord's Prayer in chapter six, our Father which art in heaven, and so on. And now when we come into chapter seven, we find that the Lord is addressing the area of prayer again. I think in chapter six, you could say that he is addressing the substance of our praying, giving us even the very words we can utilize in prayer, also showing us the priority in our praying when it comes to our petitions, desiring first and foremost for God's name to be hallowed, for his kingdom to be advanced, And now when we come into chapter seven, I think you could say that the Lord is addressing the manner in which we are to pray. And so we read beginning in verse seven of Matthew seven, ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Amen, we know the Lord will bless the reading of his word for his name's sake. As I say here, the Lord is addressing the manner in which we are to pray in these verses. And any first year Greek student would be able to tell you that the tenses are very important, especially when you're looking at a present tense verb. And in this case, all these verbs in verse seven are present tense verbs, And so you could read it like this, keep on asking continually, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, and it shall be opened unto you. There was a call here, I think, for persistent and fervent prayer, that we are to ask, seek, and knock. And when you look at those terms, one on top of another, I think the emphasis becomes very plain. There are different ideas about what distinctions you could draw between asking, seeking, and knocking. And I don't know if the distinctions are the main point that the Lord is making here. What he is calling for is persistent and fervent prayer. I look at that term knock, and I am reminded of an event that took place when I lived in an apartment complex many years ago. And there was a fire in one of the apartments somewhere in the complex, a kitchen fire of some kind that made it necessary for the fire department to show up. And the police were going door to door and knocking on the doors. And as you might imagine, if you get a knock on the door from a police officer, it's not a light tap. It's a very strong knock. You know, he practically knocks the door down, so to speak. And that's what the Lord is calling for here with us in the matter of our praying, to keep praying, keep asking, keep seeking. And what I would like to leave with you today before we go to prayer are just three simple inducements that we can draw from this passage that should encourage us, that should motivate us to pray after this manner. asking, seeking, and knocking. The first inducement pertains to the Lord's purpose in our praying. Okay, the Lord's purpose. And the Lord has seen fit in his grace and in his mercy to have his people seek him out for his blessings. He doesn't give too quickly, in other words, in some instances. He would draw us out. He would know how serious we are, how fervent we are, how much do we want the things that we're praying for. I can remember when one of my granddaughters was about four years old and she was riding in a buggy that is pulled by a bicycle. Her mother was on the bicycle pedaling, my little four-year-old granddaughter is in the buggy and she shouts out to her mom, a little four-year-old, she shouts out to her mom and she says, faster mom, pedal like you mean it. And all the things you hear from four-year-olds. But that comes to mind right now when I look at these words from Christ, because I think there is a sense in which you can say that the Lord is saying to us, pray like you mean it. Pray like you're serious. Be fervent. We know, don't we, that the Lord is not a rewarder of those that seek him half-heartedly. We're told in Hebrews 11 and verse six, that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And I look at these terms, ask, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. And there was a call here for diligence. Now I say, this is an inducement based on God's purpose. And Christ makes that very plain when in another passage in Luke chapter 18 and verse seven, he says, It shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them. And doesn't that verse indicate very clearly to us that it is the Lord's purpose for his people to seek after him. He is going to bear long, but we need not count that as something that is unusual. The Lord specifies that he is going to do that. And there was a purpose behind him doing that. He would test our faith. He would know how serious we are in pursuing him for the things that are on our heart. How serious are we about revival? How serious are we about the salvation of those for whom we have been praying? Oh, we need to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, and never stop, never stop. There's a verse in Isaiah, I don't have it right before me, but it speaks of seeking the Lord and giving him no rest until he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The Lord, you could say, wants to be bothered by us. So keep asking, keep seeking, keep praying. Don't be tempted to give up just because the Lord is bearing lawn with us. This is in keeping with his purpose. So that's the first inducement. The next inducement pertains to the character of God. There is an inducement here about God's character. We know, of course, that the Lord is holy, and we know that we are sinful. And I find it interesting to note that in these verses that we've read, the Lord draws a comparison and a contrast between himself and between parents, you could say. Let me read the verses again, beginning in verse nine, where Christ says, or what man is there of you, whom if his son asked bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asked a fish, will he give him a serpent? And then note what it says in verse 11. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him. What condescending grace the Lord is manifesting here in comparing Himself even to those that are evil. Of course, we know that that fits the bill for all of us. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We still continue to fight against a carnal nature within our hearts. And even in the realm of non-Christians, even in the realm of the heathen, you could say, there is an ability, a natural affection, generally speaking. You can find exceptions to it, I know, but generally speaking, parents know how to give good gifts to their children. And if that is the case, how much more is the Lord willing give good things to them that ask and seek and knock. I find it interesting that in the parallel passage to this in Luke's gospel, when Christ makes reference to those good things, he actually specifies something. He says, how much more shall the Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? Now I'm aware that the Holy Spirit dwells within us, but I'm also aware that he too is to be sought out. And here we have a statement in Luke's gospel that God is willing to give us his spirit. I have suggested to my congregation that that ought to be a prayer that you utilize in the morning before your feet even hit the floor in getting out of bed. Lord, grant me the power of thy spirit today so that I will keep close communion with thee so that I will pursue thee and overcome temptation and pursue the advancement of thy kingdom and live for thine honor and glory. Oh, how we need to be seeking the Lord for those things. And if you're tempted at times to give up on prayer, you've asked, you've sought, you've been knocking for a long time, and you're tempted to think that the Lord is not going to answer that you ought to recognize the fact that that really is a blasphemous thought to think about our God. That makes Christ, you could say, worse than a heathen man who knows how to give good gifts to his children. Does God know better than that? Well, then our unbelief, that's actually the place we relegate him to if we're tempted to think that he won't hear and answer prayer. So we have those two inducements And then I'll leave you with one more in a very similar vein to the character of God, narrowing the scope of our consideration. You could add to it the faithfulness of God. Okay, the faithfulness of God. And Christ makes this a point of emphasis in the words of our text. Notice what he says, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. knock, and it shall be opened unto you." So he makes that a point of emphasis, doesn't he? Unless you'd be tempted to think that this is only true for perhaps those that have attained a high spiritual level, maybe a higher than yours and higher than mine, the Lord makes it a point of emphasis in the next verse to point out that this applies to everyone. For everyone, verse eight, that asketh, receiveth. Okay, everyone, not just the ministers, not just the church leaders, not those who are more advanced in their walk with Christ, maybe more mature in their faith than you are, though everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. And so you can see here in a sense that God puts his own faithfulness on the line. by giving us this promise, by tripling it and then tripling it again. It shall be done. God will answer. And so my hope and my prayer for us in the course of these prayer meetings is that we won't grow weary in well-doing. We shall reap if we faint not. And if we understand that God does have a purpose in bearing long with us, oh, if we understand the purpose of God, That should be a great encouragement to keep asking, seeking, and knocking. If we see how this is tied into the character of God and how it relates to his faithfulness, then all may God encourage and stir our hearts to continue to ask and seek and knock for things that are granted impossible with us, but are not impossible with God. So may the Lord indeed stamp his word on our hearts.