Ask and It Will Be Given, Seek and You Will Find
Pastor Tan Thai · Nov 12, 2011
This sermon expounds Matthew 7:7-11, clarifying that Jesus' promise about prayer is not a blank check for any personal desire. Those whose prayers God answers must be in genuine relationship with Him, living according to His will and asking according to His good purposes.
The sermon opens by affirming the importance of prayer in the believer's life and in national history, referencing the United States National Day of Prayer and the apostle Paul's instruction in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The pastor argues that prayer arises from the deep human longing to be heard and to communicate, and that in the spiritual life, prayer is the expression of a desire to commune with God, receive forgiveness, and be transformed.
The sermon poses three difficult questions raised by Matthew 7:7-11: Who can pray and expect God to answer? What should we pray for? And why do some prayers seem to go unanswered? The pastor uses the stories of two young believers who prayed earnestly but experienced loss in relationships and health, illustrating the pastoral challenge this text presents. He warns against harmful interpretations — such as blaming hidden sin or demanding more faith in a prosperity-gospel style — that only wound the suffering.
On the question of who God hears, the pastor shows that the promise in Matthew 7:7-11 is embedded in the father-child relationship, meaning it is addressed to those in genuine relationship with God. He cites John 9:31, Psalm 66:18, Proverbs 15:8 and 29, James 4:2-3, and 1 Peter 3:7 to demonstrate that God listens to those who fear Him, live uprightly, and pray with right motives rather than selfish desire.
On the content of prayer, the pastor expounds the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, showing that a mature believer prays for God's name to be hallowed, His kingdom to come, His will to be done, daily provision, forgiveness of sin, and deliverance from temptation. He emphasizes that spiritual maturity is revealed by what we pray for, illustrating this with the story of a young person who asked for faith not to resent God in times of hardship — an example of mature prayer.
The sermon closes with two challenging points: first, that God owes us nothing, since every person already owes God an unpayable debt of sin; second, that what God considers good according to His purposes may differ from what we consider good, citing Isaiah 55:8 and 1 John 5:14. The invitation of Jesus to ask, seek, and knock is a gracious gift of God's kindness, not an entitlement, and it is the closeness of our relationship with Christ that guards us from asking for what is wrong.