Sunday message · That’s What He Said series
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Message Summary
Continuing the That’s What He Said series through Matthew, Pastor Phillip Santillan moves between Matthew 7:7–12 and Luke 11. Familiarity breeds contempt, he says: we tend to take for granted what we know best. He recalls a Switchfoot song from his early years as a husband and father, about a man who dreams of having everything he wanted and wakes up realizing what he wants most is the life he already has. The things most valuable to us are the ones most threatened by familiarity, and Jesus here presses home truths his listeners already knew.
The Sermon on the Mount describes how to be salt and light, and throughout it Jesus calls listeners to set their hearts where God is: hungering for righteousness, praying for his kingdom, storing up treasure in heaven and seeking first his kingdom (Matthew 6:31–33). Following Christ is not a single yes, Phil says; those who do not seek God’s kingdom are not really following him. Other lives bring rewards, but only for this life, which passes like a vapor. How can anyone love enemies, live free from sexual immorality or be a light to others? Ask, seek and knock.
In Luke 11, after teaching his disciples to pray, Jesus tells of a friend who knocks at midnight and gets bread because of his shameless boldness. The lesson is persistence: “Persistency towards God moves the heart of God.” When prayers seem unanswered, we feel like the exception, but Jesus urges us to keep praying and seeking. God is not a cosmic vending machine, and this is not name-it-and-claim-it faith. Sometimes God says yes, but the greater truth is that asking, seeking and knocking let God do something in us. The change we need most is not in our circumstances but in our hearts.
Matthew promises that the Father gives good things to those who ask, but what are they? Letting Scripture interpret Scripture, Phil notes the Beatitudes rule out health and wealth or a life free of mourning and persecution, and Luke 11:13 says the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. “The greatest gift from God is God,” Phil says. Persistent prayer sometimes shows that God wants to work in us first, or that we have been praying for the wrong thing. Even then, God honors a persistent, dependent heart and gives his Spirit.
Phil closes by asking when we were last desperate for God. A hard season of his own brought a desperation for God he had not known in a while, and a longing for the Spirit’s power to be Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8). Quoting a pastor who warns that familiarity makes us stop examining, noticing and celebrating, he asks whether God’s grace, forgiveness and promise never to leave us have become information rather than inspiration. Wonder can be found again by asking, seeking and knocking. He prays Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, that believers would be strengthened by the Spirit and grasp the vast love of Christ, then invites everyone to confess any lost wonder and keep seeking God.
Questions about ask, seek and knock
Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Pastor Phil reads it within the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus calls listeners to set their hearts on God’s kingdom, loving enemies and living as light, and asking, seeking and knocking is how we live that life, by depending on God.
No. Pastor Phil says ask, seek and knock is not name-it-and-claim-it faith, and God is not a cosmic vending machine. Letting Scripture interpret Scripture, he notes the Beatitudes rule out a promise of health, wealth or a life free of mourning. Sometimes God says yes, but asking and seeking also let God change us, and sometimes show we were praying for the wrong thing.
Jesus says the Father will give good things to those who ask Him (Matthew 7:11), and Luke’s version says the Father will give “the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13). Pastor Phil concludes, “The greatest gift from God is God.” Even when prayers seem unanswered, God honors a persistent, dependent heart and gives His Spirit.