Matthew 7:7-11

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 145:10-13
• Hymn — O Worship the King (#2)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Psalter Reading — Psalm 13 (Psalm 13 in Trinity Hymnal, #787)
• Hymn — How Long Wilt Thou Forget Me (#641)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Matthew 7:7-12
• Sermon
• Hymn — Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare (#628)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Persistent Pleading Before a Good and Giving Father

Scripture: Matthew 7:7-12

I. Why You Must Plead Persistently

A. Jesus commands persistent prayer — ask, seek, knock (Matthew 7:7-8)

1. All three verbs are present tense, expressing continuous, ongoing action
2. We are to be urgently, incessantly, persistently pleading — more like a child calling out than politely waiting
3. Examples of persistent prayer: the neighbor at midnight and the persistent widow

B. Because your heavenly Father is good (Matthew 7:9-11)

1. Jesus argues from lesser to greater: an earthly father gives bread and fish, not a stone or serpent
2. Even the best earthly father is evil compared to the perfectly holy God — Nahum 1:7: the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble
3. The same argument from lesser to greater appears earlier in the sermon regarding anxiety (birds and flowers)

C. Because your heavenly Father is giving (Matthew 7:11)

1. Creation itself was an act of pure, unobligated giving — your existence is not inevitable or necessary
2. Every day of life, every provision, is a gift; God is not obligated to maintain our comfort or the status quo
3. Persistent pleading trains the heart to trust, to align our will with his, and to depend on him daily

II. For What You Must Plead Persistently

A. General good things — daily necessities

1. The Lord's Prayer teaches us: "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11) — a daily posture of dependence
2. The illustration of bread and fish echoes the feeding of the five thousand and four thousand in Matthew's gospel
3. Persistent asking is not because God withholds unless reminded, but because it is the daily fitness training of the heart

B. Specific good things — the context of the chapter defines what to ask for

1. Verses 7–11 are sandwiched between the call to right judgment (vv. 1–6) and the Golden Rule (v. 12)
2. The word "so" opening Matthew 7:12 (the Golden Rule) connects it directly to the teaching on prayer — it flows from it
3. Right judgment, needed discernment, and truly doing to others as you would have them do to you — all require divine help
4. The Golden Rule is limitless in its demands and scope (Sinclair Ferguson): it is positive, not merely negative; it summarizes the law and the prophets
5. Human attempts to fulfill the Golden Rule in their own strength — slogans, utopian ideals — consistently fail

C. The supreme specific gift: the Holy Spirit

1. Luke's parallel account (Luke 11:13) identifies the good gift as the Holy Spirit himself
2. The Spirit is Helper, Counselor, Comforter — the one who, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, makes us by true faith share in Christ and all his benefits
3. The Father and Son send the Spirit; the Spirit then sends us back to Christ and gives us Christ and all his benefits
4. Martin Lloyd Jones: in giving the Holy Spirit, God gives us everything — every fitness, grace, and gift required
5. J.C. Ryle: "Do we indeed pray for such things? Then let us pray on and not faint… everyone that asks receives"

D. Closing encouragement to keep asking

1. God does not tire of your asking — his patience is never exhausted
2. Psalm 84:11: no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly
3. The Son of God himself invites you to plead persistently — keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking