Twisted Scriptures – Ask, Seek, Knock
Luke 11:5-13 – July 2-3, 2016
Introduction
 I can’t believe they found that car right here in Easton. That was amazing. And in case you
were wondering, I looked up what ‘Illest’ actually is and learned that it’s a brand name
for clothes, stickers, and other merchandise. Apparently, it’s a term that the cool kids are
using – which is why a dork like me has never heard of it – to describe something that’s
the absolute best...something that’s super-duper swell.
 Well, today we’re going to be looking at one of the most commonly twisted scriptures
around, PP Luke 11:9-10 “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will
find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one
who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
 So if you would open up your bibles to Luke 11, which is page 869 in the blue pew bibles
in front of you, we’re going to be unpacking this twisted scripture and learning what Jesus
was really teaching us. As you turn there, let me pray.
Twisted
 This is going to be a pretty straightforward sermon today. First, we’re going to look at
how these verses are often misunderstood and misused. Second, we’re going to unpack
what they really mean for us. That’s it. A simple two-point sermon.
 So point one, PP how are these verses twisted?
o If you’ve been attending Cornerstone for more than a couple months then you’ve
probably picked up on the fact that we’re not adherents to what has come to be
commonly referred to as ‘prosperity theology’, or the ‘health and wealth gospel’.
Basically, it’s a theological viewpoint that believes that material and financial
blessing is the will of God for His people. PP
o It teaches that so long as you have enough faith, live a godly life, and donate
generously to the church, God will bless you with good health, abundant material
wealth, and you won’t experience any hardship in your life. Just ask God for what
you want – like a really nifty looking Toyota – and He’ll give it to you. Name it and
claim it with faith, and it’s yours.
 Now, there are of course nuances to that theological viewpoint, but generally
speaking that’s what it teaches. Naturally, people who believe this teaching
didn’t make it up from nothing, they created it based off various verses
throughout the bible – one of the main verses of which is the one we’re
studying today. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the
one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
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 These verses are very commonly paired with PP Matthew 21:22 “And
whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” See also Mark
11:22-24 – which is another commonly twisted passage, though I don’t think
we’re unpacking that one in this series.
o So basically, the ask, seek, knock verse is commonly misused as a proof text that
the Lord gives us whatever we ask for, so long as we ask with faith.
 If you see a sweet new ride or a shiny Rolex watch, ask and it will be given to
you. If you’re tired of being lonely, just seek a relationship and God will give
you the man of your dreams. And if you don’t like your job, knock on Jesus’s
career door He’ll find you a new one – and it’ll probably pay more too. Now,
these examples are intentionally over the top. But they’re meant to illustrate
the thinking that this theology teaches.
o The key is that those who use the passage this way view the verse as being all about
how God will interact with us if we just come to Him in obedience and faith. PP
They make it a promise that God will respond favorably to us with whatever we ask
in faith. As if Jesus is making a promise that God will always bless us the way we
want to be blessed when we just faithfully seek His blessing. And that’s just not true
– this verse is not a promise of God blessing us with whatever we want as long as
we faithfully ask, seek, and knock.
 The thing that makes this tricky is that God does love to give good gifts to His
children – as we’ll see shortly. But that doesn’t mean He’s always going to
give us what we want.
 God is not a heavenly genie sitting on his celestial throne that we rub every
time we pray whereby He grants us our wishes because we have enough
faith.
Straightened
 But if the point of these verses isn’t God answering our prayers, if it’s not a promise of
how God interacts with us, what is this passage about? PP Well, let’s straighten this
scripture out and learn what Jesus was really teaching.
 Now, in order to understand verses 9 and 10, we’ve got to go back to verse 1 as we see
that this passage is first and foremost about how we are to approach God – not about
how God responds to us. PP These verses aren’t about God’s interaction with us, their
about our interaction with God. We’ve got to get the direction right here. Let’s look at
verse 1.
o Luke 11:1 PP “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one
of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.””
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o So we see right off the bat that Jesus is praying – something He did regularly – and
one of His disciples asks Him to teach them how to pray. This first verse is critical in
framing the next 13 verses because it tells us that these verses are all about how
we are to pray; how we are to interact with God.
o And so the first thing Christ does is give them an example of what they should pray
for – which we’ll come back to shortly – and then he tells them a parable that
teaches them to persist in Prayer. So two key things Christ teaches them about
how they should pray: their attitude in prayer and their ambitions in prayer.
o First, their attitude in prayer. PP Let’s pick up the text in verse 5.
o Luke 11:5-8 “And he said to them, PP “Which of you who has a friend will go to him
at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has
arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from
within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in
bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up
and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence
(persistence) he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”
 Here’s where we need to know a little something about the cultural
background Jesus was speaking from.
 Hospitality was a really big deal in the ancient near eastern culture. If
someone showed up at your door, you were culturally obligated to feed
them and host them. And it wasn’t uncommon for people to travel at night
either because there was no heat at night. So to receive a visitor at midnight
wasn’t something that was out of the ordinary.
 Moreover, the fact that the man ran out of bread is a big deal because the
bread wasn’t just the staple food to eat, it was also the main utensil to eat
all the other food with. They used bread for dipping and sopping all the other
food up. So if you had no bread you had no utensils.
 So we see this guy is really in a bind He has to show hospitality, but he doesn’t
have the means to do it. So he’s got a choice; either fail in his cultural duty
to extend hospitality or annoy his neighbor. Thankfully, Jesus says this guy’s
neighbor is his friend, and he goes to him at midnight and wakes him up.
 Now, his neighbor would have been asleep for several hours already
since most everyone went to bed shortly after sunset, and in a one
room home – which was what most people had – families slept
together on a shared bed mat.
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 So this friend doesn’t take kindly to being woken up as its disrupting
his whole family. But he ends up grudgingly giving his frantic neighbor
the bread anyway because of what Jesus calls the man’s impudence.
o Now, if we’re to understand asking, seeking, and knocking as being about how God
interacts with us, then this parable would be about the neighbor who grudgingly
gives up the bread. And the point would be that God is some sleeping curmudgeon
who we can pester into giving us what we want.
o But God doesn’t grudgingly answer our prayers. The purpose of the parable isn’t to
highlight the fact that the bread was given, the purpose is to highlight that it was
asked for in the first place.
o I am blessed to have four children. They are a tremendous joy to me...most of the
time. One thing that my children excel at is persistently asking for things. Dad can
a friend come over? Dad, can we go swimming? Dad, let’s play a game. Dad, one
more episode? And on and on. And let me tell you, parents, don’t ever answer
‘maybe’, or ‘let me think about it’. And especially don’t stay silent or say ‘let me
talk to mom about it.’ Because they will just keep on asking, and asking, and asking.
Parents, I’m sure you can relate. And if you don’t have children, just think back to
your own childhood; you were probably pretty persistent yourself.
o Jesus is making the point that this persistence PP – which we all know how to do,
we’ve done it since we were kids – is how we’re to approach our Heavenly Father.
 The Greek word for impudence PP (Gk. Anaideia) is only used here in
scripture and it refers to someone who persistently acts without any
sensibility to shame, disgrace, or social convention. They’re shamelessly,
persistently, presumptuous...audaciously bold.
 What Jesus is teaching is that the attitude with which we go to God in prayer
should be one of shameless, persistent, boldness.
 And we need to fight against our cultural norm which says we
shouldn’t ask for something over and over. We’re supposed to be
polite and not pester or annoy. But Jesus is saying – yes, keep on
shamelessly asking God for the things He has promised.
 Unlike the pagan gods, Yahweh is loving, approachable, and generous. He is
completely unlike the grudging man. And if that grouchy neighbor was willing
to give the bread, how much more will our gracious Heavenly Father give
good things to His children?
 This leads us into our commonly twisted verse where Jesus then continues with the
teaching on shamelessly and persistently going to God in prayer as he says Luke 11:9-10
PP “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened
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to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who
knocks it will be opened.”
o This isn’t a promise about God answering our prayers if we just pester Him with
enough faith, this is about knowing that our God is so much better than anyone or
anything else, that if this neighbor gave the bread, how much more will God give
to us when we come to him with our needs.
 Prayer isn’t a way of getting God to do what we want, or of persuading Him
to do something that He does not want to do. But prayer is an audaciously
bold request for God to do what He’s already promised to do and what He
delights in doing if we would just ask Him.
o Much of the time the problem is that we don’t ask. PP James 4:2-3 “...You do not
have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly,
to spend it on your passions.” Now, PTV is going to expound on our desires next
week, but the key here is that we’ve got to shamelessly and boldly go to our God
with the things we need and that He has promised us.
o The tense of the Greek in verses 9 and 10 is continuous, meaning that we are to
continually do them. And these words are actually imperative commands. Jesus is
commanding His disciples – which includes those of us who have put our faith in
Him – to keep on asking, keeping on seeking, and keep on knocking persistently and
boldly as we rely more and more on God.
 So we are to have an attitude of persistence; and the reason why we can have this attitude
is because we know the characer of God.
o Luke 11:11-13 PP “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of
a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you
then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will the heavenly Father give...”
o We can boldly approach God because we know He is benevolent and full of love for
us. How do I know this, because He has already given us everything in Jesus.
Romans 8:32 PP “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how
will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
 The Father has already sent the Son to die for the sins of the world...that all
who would put their trust in Him and submit to Him would be assured of
eternity with God. God has saved us through Jesus, and He desires to
continually transform us, as He’s invited us to participate in the work He’s
doing in this world as we all await for the restoration of all things when Jesus
returns.
 We can ask boldly of our God, because He has already boldly given us everything in Jesus.
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 Alexander the Great story – “He treated me like a king in asking, and so I shall be a king in
giving him what he asks.”
 Jesus is teaching us in this passage that we should have an attitude of shameless
persistence when we pray. PP But secondly He is also teaching us what we should pray
for. He is teaching us what our ambition should be when we pray.
o In verses 2 through 4 He lays out the famous Lord’s prayer (the longer version is in
Matthew 6) where he teaches us to bless our Heavenly Father and seek to do His
will in all things and teaches us that it’s appropriate for us to ask for food,
forgiveness, and fortification from the enemy.
 These are all things that we need to survive and these are things that God
has promised to do as we continually ask, seek, and knock for them.
 And in case the Lord’s Prayer isn’t clear enough. Jesus sums everything up in verse 13
when He says “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
 You want to know what your ambition should be when you pray? You want to know what
God will always say ‘yes’ to as we constantly seek more and more? PP It’s the Holy Spirit.
o The Holy Spirit is the epitome of all the promises of God as He is the power that
provides us with everything that we could ever need.
o This is the climax of the entire passage as Jesus is showing the disciples that the
greatest gift anyone could receive is freely available to all those who ask for Him.
 If you were here last summer you should remember our series on the Holy
Spirit called ghost sightings, but just as a brief reminder here are some of the
things that the Holy Spirit does for us: PP
 He Saves us through spiritual rebirth, cleansing, and adoption (John
3:5-8, Rom. 8:15)
 He convicts us of our sin (john 16:8)
 He teaches us the knowledge of God (1 Cor 2:11-12) and He leads us
into the truth about Jesus (John 15:26, 16:13)
 He seals us so that we may be confident in our eternal security (Eph
1:13)
 He frees us from slavery to our sin so that we may overcome it (Rom.
8:2, 2 Cor. 3:17)
 He baptizes and indwells us (Rom 8:9, 1 Cor. 6:19, 12:13) and fills and
empowers us (Eph. 5:18, Acts 1:8) and gives us gifts (Rom 12, 1 Cor.
12, Eph. 4) that we may do the work God calls us to.
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 He produces godly fruit within us (1 Cor. 6:11, Gal. 5:22-23) and is
transforming us to be more like Jesus every day (1 Cor. 6:11, 2 Cor.
3:18)
 He pours God’s love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5)
 He comforts us (Acts 9:31) and helps us through our times of trouble
(John 14:26)
 He gives us Hope (Rom. 15:13)
 There is no greater gift than the Holy Spirit...God’s presence and power
dwelling within us. This is why Jesus said it was better for us that He should
go so that the Holy Spirit could come. (John 16:7)
 This is the gift that the Lord will always say yes to. PP God will always give us the things
He has promised and we should shamelessly and boldly ask Him to fill us with His Spirit
every day.
Conclusion
 So we see this isn’t a promise that God will give us Rolex watches or crazy cars or a good
bill of health and prosperity when we faithfully pray. This is about us boldly and
shamelessly going to God over and over asking Him for the things He has promised us –
most especially the Holy Spirit – trusting that the One who has already given us His Son
and has adopted us into His family, will now delight to give us the Holy Spirit to fulfill all
of our needs and desires.
 Let’s be children of God who boldly and shamelessly approach His throne of grace and
ask, seek, and knock to receive more and more of the Holy Spirit every day. He is the
‘illest’ gift we could ever receive. Amen. Amen.
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