“Keep
on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened
to you. Matthew 7:7
There is nothing about the
Gospel which is simple or easy; especially Jesus’ call that we take up our cross and follow Him.[1] Living your life in response to that call is
dangerous. Following Jesus can be
dangerous to your popularity; you must make decisions that sometimes run
counter-culture. Following Jesus is
dangerous to your health or even your life, because in some places Christians
are still persecuted.
The previous six challenges
we’ve considered in this series validate how hard it is to live the Christian
life, particularly in 21st century America. Review those challenges with me:
1. Believe – having faith in Jesus Christ
means trusting Him, not yourself…counter-culture
2. Prayer – also counter-culture – we are a nation of action!
3. Forgive – is not only counter-culture, it’s
counter-intuitive in human nature!
4. Give – is counter-cultural in a world that lives and
breathes “getting”.
5. Minister – is ultra-counter-cultural in a world which never
puts others first.
6. Prosper – is overwhelmingly counter-cultural when
nearly every TV commercial promotes self-centeredness over soul maturity.
Today we are going to
consider the last of eight challenges to “embrace the grace of God”. I’ve labeled these the 7 most important things I’ve learned over
the past half-century about following Jesus. Our word today is “persevere”.
Perseverance brings forth images of epic
struggles. And there is a type of
perseverance like that. In Chinese
mythology Jingwei is the daughter of emperor Yandi. Still young, she drowns in the East Sea. According to the myth, after her death she
chose being a bird to exact revenge upon the sea by bringing stones and small
twigs from the mountains to fill it up.
In a short dialogue the sea mocks the princess, claiming that in a
million years she couldn’t fill up the sea; Jingwei retorts that she would then
take ten million, even a hundred million years – whatever it takes, so that
others would not have to perish as she.
From this myth comes the
Chinese expression, Jingwei filling the sea, meaning a dogged
determination and perseverance in the face of seemingly impossible odds.[2]
While the Sermon on the
Mount is hardly to be compared with mythology, commitment to a mission that is
fierce, and has as its object the good of others, seems to be a pretty good
description of the kind of asking, seeking and knocking Jesus told his
disciples they needed to consider.
First United
Methodist Church in Gastonia looks much the same as many of the “red brick and
steeple” churches you’ve seen. One year
I attended a conference there and noticed that the main entryway has a bit of
landscape shrubbery in an unintended place.
A tiny weed grows out of a sea of brick and mortar; it’s not supposed to
be there, but it is! The weed probably must
fight for every bit of nutrient and moisture, but, despite the conditions, that
weed perseveres. When I first saw it, I
immediately thought, if ever a sermon on perseverance had a ready-made
centerpiece, there it is; and so it is (our centerpiece of perseverance this
morning)!
What kind of asking, seeking, and knocking is the weed doing?
The key to
every part of this series is contained in these three little words (ask, seek,
knock), but they are overshadowed by one other word – disciple. It is
the follower of Jesus
who is pictured here. The way the world
looks at us, we are the weeds growing on a brick building…persistent, somewhat
annoying, always surprising.
At the end of this passage
Jesus talks about narrow gates guarding the way of life. It’s one of His metaphors for being in right
relationship with God. In short, Jesus says
only those who are serious about being His followers need ask, seek, or knock.
Let’s unpack the nature of
this progression of asking, seeking, and knocking:
Ask
Asking is natural; we begin
life that way. An infant child asks for
food with a wail. A baby chick opens
its’ little beak with a screech and the mother sets aside her own appetite and
feeds. A baby lamb’s bleating cry not
only brings Mom to the rescue, but it also causes the milk in her udder to
begin secreting. The cry of a child
brings the response of the parent. Jesus
was showing us just how ready our heavenly Father stands to answer when we ask.
Seek
The Psalms writer gives us
an important principle of seeking; it is an inside job:
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the
vows you made to the Most High. Then
call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me
glory.” Psalm 50:14-15
Generally, after “asking”
God, we begin seeking for stuff to meet our needs. But here the seeking is an internal search
for anything that stands between us and God’s response. What exactly is it for which you seek? Well, what is it that your heart
condemns? Are there promises you’ve
neglected? Is there a bad attitude? Are you insincere? Get your heart right before you seek for
answers.
We should also seek for what
is truly the desire of
our heart. At times we receive an answer
we didn’t expect because God is speaking to our heart, and our selfishness gets
in the way.
St. Augustine's mother
prayed that God would keep her son with her until she could win him to
Christ. But the boy left and went to
Rome. It seemed like God hadn't
listened. But while in Rome Augustine
met Ambrose, an eloquent preacher, and was converted, and became an important
instrument in God's hand. What
Augustine's mother REALLY desired in her heart, was given by a most gracious
Father.
Knock
Action must always follow
the search. This is where the rubber of
prayer meets the road of faith. The
apostle James[3] tells us
that merely talking or wishing is not what comprises real faith. You must somewhere along the line INVOLVE yourself with what God
wants to do. In prayer, a step of faith
is:
·
finding something you can be totally dependent upon God for (ASKING)
·
banishing selfishness from the matter (SEEKING)
·
finding something connected with the matter and helping-out until God
reveals His heart in the thing.
(KNOCKING)
A man feels unhappy with his
career. He is a Christian and desires to
honor God with what he does for a living.
So he ASKS , Father, I give
this job situation to You. Because I think I need another job, one where I can
be used better in Your kingdom.
He SEEKS, Lord, help me to know the reality of my
desire. Is it just that I can't stand
Horace who works in accounting? Am I
money hungry; is there some kind of selfish thing driving my prayer? Father, what’s going on INSIDE ME
that’s not in-sync with YOU?
Search my heart, Lord; see if there’s anything unholy in what I’m asking.[4]
And he begins to KNOCK. The next day he asks Horace about his
spiritual condition and makes up his mind to witness to him for a while before
he makes any final decision about a new job.
It ain’t over till it’s
over
Yankee baseball legend Yogi
Berra often said about a ball game that it
ain’t over till it’s over. What
that lacks in grammatical correctness is made up in its spiritual depth. Yogi was saying a team member never gives up
until the last out is made.
In spiritual asking, seeking,
and knocking we must also never quit. In
Jesus’ statement all three words are in the present tense, meaning there is a
continual action: Jesus-followers:
·
persevere, we keep on asking,
·
persevere, we keep on seeking,
·
persevere, we keep on knocking.
There is a saying that God is not finished with me yet; and
it is also true that He isn’t finished with the circumstances you can see.
The Finish Line
The follower of Jesus who
gives herself or himself over to being a servant of God is:
·
one who believes, rests in God’s strength alone
·
one who prays to develop a relationship with Jesus
·
one who forgives, because she is forgiven
·
one who gives, because all is given to him
·
one who ministers, because in serving others we serve God
·
one who prospers in his soul, because we want to believe, pray,
forgive, give, and serve stronger tomorrow than we did today.
For followers of Jesus who take
these issues seriously, asking, seeking, and knocking become possible.
And, when that happens, the
kingdom of God is glorified, and our Lord is pleased.
Our Prayer
Father,
nothing would be better for us than to please you by being people who live as
children of the King in His Kingdom.
Empower us, we pray, as we turn our hearts towards serving You, and turn
our backs on self-serving.
We
pray as those who would humble ourselves, seeking your face, all the while
turning from our wicked ways, knowing the only possible source of true healing
for our land is to live in your land, the Kingdom of God.
For
the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in
the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the
Majesty of the Father.
Let
it be so in each of our lives…Amen!
Watch Sermon Video
[2] In Wikipedia, quoting Long, M., C. H. Langley 1993.
Natural selection and the origin of Jingwei, a chimeric processed functional
gene in Drosophila. Science 260: 91-95.[1]
