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Is it snowed in your bulletin? 
We're going to be in the gospel 

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of Matthew, The Sermon on the 
Mount chapter 7 verses 7 to 11 

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and children. 
As you hear this listen 

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carefully to what Jesus is 
saying, he's making a promise, 

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it has to do with us asking our 
heavenly father for things. 

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This is an amazing passage 
again, Matthew 7, beginning at 

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verse 7, through verse 11 ask 
and it will be given to you seek

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and you will find knock and it 
will be open to you for everyone

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who asks receives the one who 
seeks finds to the one who 

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knocks it will be opened or 
which one of you. 

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If his son asks for bread, will 
give him a stone or if he asks 

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for a fish, will give him a 
serpent if you then who are evil

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know how to give good gifts to 
your children. 

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How much more will your father? 
Father, who is in heaven? 

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Give good things to those who 
ask him. 

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This is the word of the Lord. 
Thanks be to God. 

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Amen. 
I'm sure some child about 15 or 

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20 minutes from now will say to 
their parents. 

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Why did we get to here to 
sermons today? 

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May feel like that and this very
special day. 

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But children, I want you to 
really listen to something 

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because you can help us here the
vs. 

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Are Matthew, 7:7 211. 
I want you to even maybe think 

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of a 7-Eleven, as you see them 
some days maybe when you see 

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them to remind you of what Jesus
is saying here just to think 

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about it. 
Jesus tells us to ask to seek to

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knock and we're not doing it. 
If a pastor were to ask me to 

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describe the spiritual health of
our church, there's lots of 

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things I could say when I'm a 
guest preacher somewhere. 

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I often asked that question, 
what's almost always consistent 

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is this? 
The congregation doesn't show. 

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They really fill their need for 
Jesus and the way they come for 

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prayer, the congregation doesn't
really show. 

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They feel their need for Jesus. 
When it comes to them, coming 

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for prayer. 
This is important. 

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Here's why if you ever want to 
know how to apply any sermon you

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ever hear. 
If you ever want to know how to 

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apply any Christian book, you 
read, if you want to know how to

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apply any podcast, Christian 
podcast, any Christian Bible 

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study here in if you want to 
know how to apply it. 

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It's right here. 
In these few verses where Jesus 

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applies very clearly, how his 
audience, Was to receive what 

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they just heard. 
Here's what I mean for less than

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15 minutes, Jesus, preached 
these words. 

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His sermon, even if you read it 
slowly, those three chapters 

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take less than 15 minutes. 
And then Jesus comes to this 

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point in his sermon where he 
says ask, and it will be given 

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you seek and you will find 
knock. 

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And the door will be open to 
you. 

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What is he talking about? 
He is not here. 

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Teaching name it and claim it. 
Whatever you want. 

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Ask for it. 
If you want a new car, then pray

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for it. 
If you want a job to build 

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afford a new car, pray. 
This is not at all with this 

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section of Matthew. 7 is about, 
it is about Jesus showing us. 

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After at this point, he had 
probably preached about 12 to 13

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minutes. 
It's recorded that everything he

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has said up to this point. 
Everything, not just some 

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things, everything that he said 
up to this point, you can't do 

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it. 
Neither can I we're not smart 

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enough, we're not diligent 
enough, we're not spiritually, 

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mature enough, there's not one 
line in the sermon where you 

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could say. 
I know some of them are hard but

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because of my giftedness because
of my mental capacity, because 

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of my diligence, I can do it. 
Jesus is closing his sermon. 

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He's going to follow with a few 
illustrations, but he's closing 

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his sermon with its incredible 
truth. 

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You can't do it. and one of the 
reasons pastors like me would 

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say our congregations, don't 
feel their need for prayer is 

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because when we take time and 
invite people to pray The 

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attendance is really poor, this 
isn't by the way to make you 

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feel shame. 
This is to open your eyes to the

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fact that you might really 
believe you don't need. 

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What Jesus is saying, you 
desperately need you can't do 

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any part of The Sermon on the 
Mount apart from Jesus, none of 

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it, none of it. 
If you don't believe me, just go

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back to it. 
Go back to the beginning, we 

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started there. 
About a year ago. 

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Can you believe it? 
We have about five sermons, 

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maybe six left to Jesus, 15 
minutes, taking us over 50 weeks

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and we actually could keep 
going. 

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But at the end of every sermon, 
At the end of what you heard 

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last week. 
So beautifully. 

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Preached by Chad, what you'll 
hear next week and every week, 

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and every book you read, The 
application is the same in Jesus

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gives it to us. 
It's very, very simple. 

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Ask. 
Ask a SK. 

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Ask ask it will be given to you 
seek and you will find knock. 

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And the door will be open to 
you. 

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When we have afternoons, where 
we invite you to pray or 

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occasionally will have people in
the corners. 

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Very few people come. 
There's a reason why there's a 

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stronghold in our culture that 
tells you don't look needy, if 

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you're over there, praying. 
Somebody might wonder. 

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Well, what's really wrong with 
you? 

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You know what, they might be 
saying something like this. 

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I really want to love my 
enemies. 

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Pray for me. 
I really want to be pure in 

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heart. 
Pray for me. 

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I really want to stop lusting. 
Pray for me. 

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I really want to know what it 
means to be generous. 

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Pray for me, the prayers that we
typically bring not minimizing 

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these at all or four things that
we really feel need over 

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physical health. 
We should pray. 

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Relational Health, we should 
pray. 

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But friends, what Jesus is 
saying here? 

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It's all centered on the 
spiritual life. 

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And what he's saying is when you
hear what I have preached, when 

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you hear what I have said, you 
can't do it. 

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You can't sew. 
Ask your father. 

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Seek your father, knock at the 
door and it will be given you. 

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I'm going to give you two 
points, but before I do, I want 

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you to hear this. 
We've made much. 

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Of what Jesus has made much of. 
And that is the father. 

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One of my favorite things that 
Chad Scruggs said last week was 

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when he talked about grown-up 
theology. 

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You remember what? 
That was grown up. 

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Theology is when his children, 
not just the little ones, but 

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all of us, Run and Jump into the
lap of the father. 

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That's grown up, theology. 
But he said grown-ups don't do 

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that professionals. 
I remember saying that don't do 

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that. 
And I think it's true that we 

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don't think of God that way. 
Either friends not as children, 

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who are desperate for something 
from their father. 

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Martyn lloyd-jones, listen to 
what he says. 

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If you should ask me to state in
one phrase. 

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Now Martin lloyd-jones is saying
this is really significant. 

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If you should ask me to state in
one phrase, what I regard as the

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greatest defect in most 
Christian lives. 

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Now, let me pause for a minute. 
If somebody were to ask you 

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that, what would you put there? 
What would you say from your own

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perspective, even your own life?
This is what I think. 

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The greatest defect is in most 
Christians lives in my life. 

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What would you say? 
I don't think you would say what

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he says. 
Listen if you should ask me to 

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state in one phrase, what I 
regard as the greatest defect 

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and most Christians lives. 
I would say that it is our 

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failure to know God as our 
father as we should know him. 

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That's amazing. 
Jesus in this sermon uses the 

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name, father, over and over and 
over again. 

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When he's teaching about this 
application of a sermon. 

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He has the father in mind that 
he's the one that we should ask 

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seek and knock. 
So here's what I want you to 

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take away. 
We are to ask the father. 

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With persistence and weird to 
ask the father with confidence. 

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Persistence and confidence. 
And here's why I would say 

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persistence, unless, you know, 
Greek or reading a commentary 

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that speaks to Greek. 
The grammar here wouldn't mean 

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much to you, but it actually 
means everything. 

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It's written as a present 
imperative, versus an heiress 

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imperative in erised imperative 
means to do something. 

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Once it would be like me saying 
to you right now, pick up your 

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hymnal. 
Fairest imperative, you pick it 

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up? 
Once you you obey what's being 

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asked When Jesus says, ask seek 
and knock, it's not an heiress 

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imperative. 
It's a present imperative, which

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means continually. 
So, what Jesus is saying, here 

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is, when you think about all 
that, you have just heard that. 

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I've preached, all the 
Beatitudes, all that he says 

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about relationships, all that. 
He says, about hypocrisy, all 

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that. 
He says about prayer, what is he

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saying? 
For those things? 

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Which you In of yourself cannot 
generate continually ask. 

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Continually ask continually seek
continually seek continually 

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knock, if that's not what we're 
doing. 

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That means we don't truly feel 
our need of him. 

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Even if we quote, great books 
are seeing great hymns. 

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When we truly feel the need of 
something, that makes this 

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desperate. 
It affects the way. 

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We pray our spiritual condition 
because all we've already 

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proclaimed reveals that We 
actually can profess that we see

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ourselves as sinners in need of 
a savior. 

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So continually ask continually 
seek continually knock, there's 

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something else here the way in 
which Jesus uses those three 

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present imperatives ask seek and
knock shows that there is an 

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ascending intensity. 
There is an ascending intensity 

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We Begin by recognizing a need 
at hope you're recognizing it 

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even now. 
And so we ask there's an 

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ascending intensity that moves 
towards effort. 

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Now, many of you heard what Chad
said, last week, effort matters,

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not in our justification, but 
certainly in our Progressive, 

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sanctification, Seeking is 
looking, it's moving. 

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It's not just asking. 
And then, lastly, you have this 

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idea of perseverance, 
persistence knocking at the 

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door, beating down the door. 
There's something you want so 

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badly. 
Jesus, as the Luke records, this

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gives us this picture of That 
intensity that persistence turn 

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in your Bible very quickly to 
Luke chapter 11. 

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This is where the counterpart is
Jesus. 

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In Luke 11, he records the same 
statement. 

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But he says this before it verse
5, 11 5 which of you who has a 

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friend will go to him, have been
diet and say to him friend lend 

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me, three loaves for a friend of
mine has arrived on a journey 

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and I have nothing to set before
him, and he will answer from 

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within In do not bother me. 
The door is now shut and my 

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children are with me in bed. 
I cannot get up and give you 

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anything. 
I tell you though, he will not 

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get up and give him anything 
because he is a friend, his 

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friend yet because of his 
perseverance, that's really the 

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word persistence. 
He will rise and give him 

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whatever he needs. 
And I tell you ask, and it will 

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be given to you seek, and you 
will find knock and it will be 

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open to you. 
There it is. 

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I want to do one more picture 
that Jesus gave us turnover and 

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Luke a little further to Luke 
18. 

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This is the illustration that 
also speaks of persistence and 

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confidence. 
Jesus told them a parable to the

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effect that they ought always to
pray and not lose heart. 

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I want you to think about this 
for a minute. 

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Before I read the parable. 
How many of you know, that on 

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your smartphone device, whatever
you use that there is a history 

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section. 
And you can look at that or 

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somebody else can and tell you 
everything. 

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You've searched. 
I mean, you know that that's a 

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reality good. 
I want you to think about your 

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history. 
Not so much in terms of where 

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your eyes have gone on the 
internet but I want you to think

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of your history even today. 
And yesterday since winter 

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Grace, what's been the history 
of what you have asked God for 

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How many of the things have you 
been asking God for that are 

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really related specifically to 
what he preached in The Sermon 

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on the Mount. 
I'm not saying that anything 

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you've been asking for is wrong.
but I think for many of us, 

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Praying with ascending intensity
praying, with this present 

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imperative that we are not going
to the Lord begging him to give 

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us what he promises to give us. 
Those are the things of his 

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righteousness. 
So, Jesus gives the picture. 

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It's a parable of a woman, most 
likely in your Bible. 

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It says, the parable of the 
persistent Widow, which I don't 

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thinks the best title. 
Those things are not inspired. 

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Their things above the word that
just Just helps us identify them

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and I'll tell you why in a 
minute, but let me read the 

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parable. 
It's very short. 

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He told them a parable to the 
effect that they ought always to

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pray and not lose heart. 
So, what's the point? 

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We should always be praying and 
not lose heart. 

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He then said in a certain city, 
there was a judge who neither 

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feared God nor respected man. 
And there was a widow in that 

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City, who kept coming to him and
saying give me Justice against 

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my adversary for a while he 
refused. 

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But afterward he said to himself
do I neither fear God nor 

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respect man yet Because this 
Widow keeps bothering me. 

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I will give her justice so that 
she will not beat me down by her

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continual coming. 
The Lord said, hear what? 

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The unrighteous judge says. 
And will not God, give Justice 

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to his elect who cry to him day 
and night. 

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Will he delay long over them? 
I tell you, he will give Justice

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to them speedily. 
Nevertheless, when the son of 

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man comes, will he find faith on
Earth? 

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The imperative here is very 
clear. 

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Don't stop asking God. 
Seeking God knocking on that 

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door for the things that he 
himself. 

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Has said, he will give us that 
relate to our sanctification are

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being made like him. 
Don't just simply say I have bad

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habits on wired this way. 
This is the way God made me know

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friend. 
If, you know, there's some part 

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of your heart, your body, your 
mind, your soul. 

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That is not living. 
According to what Christ is 

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preached, take it to him. 
Ask seek knock but here's the 

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Danger of this Parable being 
titled the persistent Widow. 

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It's that we think the main 
point is for us just to be 

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persistent. 
That's not the main point. 

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It's certainly part of it, but 
there's another subtle thing 

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that you can't miss. 
We can't miss this. 

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We are to be persistent in our 
prayers, friends. 

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Don't stop praying, don't lose 
heart. 

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Keep asking keep seeking. 
Keep knocking. 

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But here's the difference, we 
are not asking and unjust judge 

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and we are not widows and 
orphans. 

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We have the heavenly father who 
is good and does good. 

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Who Jesus tells us Delights to 
give us good gifts. 

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In Luke section, he would speak 
specifically of that being the 

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Holy Spirit. 
We don't persist in prayer to a 

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judge or even a father who's 
saying just knock long enough 

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and I'll become fed up, and then
I'll give you what you want. 

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He's not that. 
And so, we're too persistent 

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prayer to a father who Delights 
in giving us good things and 

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work to persistent prayer. 
Not as a widow or an orphan, but

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in his beloved daughters and 
sons, who really can? 

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Like we've been singing run into
the arms of the Living. 

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God, we really can sit in the 
lap of our heavenly father. 

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But when you get there, when you
are there, what are you asking 

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him for? 
Friend. 

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Go back over The Sermon, on the 
Mount. 

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Ask the Holy Spirit to show you 
what is not well in your soul. 

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What areas of your life are you 
not living according to what 

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Christ has said and I said it 
clearly asked the Holy Spirit, 

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you can't see it apart from him 
and when he reveals that 

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whatever it might be, are those 
things whatever they might be. 

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Ask him to change you. 
Ask him to make you hunger and 

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thirst for righteousness. 
Ask him to turn your eyes from 

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looking at worthless things. 
Do it with persistence, but also

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with confidence. because Jesus 
says, it will be given you. 

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You will find. 
It will be opened for everyone 

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who asks receives and the one 
who seeks finds and the one who 

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knocks it will be opened. 
What would bless? 

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This body greatly. is, if we all
really believed, what we say we 

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believe That apart from Jesus we
can't do any of this. 

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But in Christ with confidence we
can come asking continually, 

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seeking continually knocking 
continually with confidence 

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believing that he and he alone 
will give us what we ultimately 

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need. if you want to pray today,
come and see us. 

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Send an email. 
Meet Carrie and Eleanor right 

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00:21:53,700 --> 00:21:57,300
here, don't meet you in the 
corner. those men that we're up 

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00:21:57,300 --> 00:22:04,600
here, standing scatter around If
you need prayer friend come and 

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00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:10,200
let me make it easy, you do. 
Every Sunday. 

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And at the end of every book, 
you read, And every Christian 

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thing you intake, this is the 
application always. 

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Ask seek and knock Father in 
Heaven. 

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00:22:28,900 --> 00:22:35,200
There's so much good news. 
And I have to be honest, Lord. 

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This culture is so strong and 
making us. 

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Say one thing and seemingly 
believe it. 

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But this still live. 
Is it? 

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Everything is okay. 
Father, I pray today that your 

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grace would truly show itself to
be sufficient. 

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As you say, hear our prayers 
Lord, whether we pray with 

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someone or even out loud right 
now, to you have mercy on us and

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give us the ability to believe 
what you preach Christ, ask and 

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00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,800
it will be given seek, and you 
will find knock. 

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00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:17,500
And the door will be open to 
you. 

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00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,200
We pray this in Jesus name, 
amen.