SEMESTER 6
286 – Seeking God for our Needs
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: SOTERIOLOGY VI LESSON # 86
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
SEEKING GOD FOR OUR NEEDS
Read: Mat. 7:7-12
INTRODUCTION:
1. James 4:2 teaches us that notwithstanding our mutual violence we have not because we ask not.
2. We are taught here by our Lord, that the remedy for this is to learn to seek God for our needs.
3. Sometimes this category of privilege is forfeited because of weak faith.
4. In other cases our needs are not met because the approach to God is wrong. (James 4:3)
5. Still others are missing because the necessary relationship with God is non-existent.
6. Let us consider the fundamental requirements for the fulfillment of this promise.
I. THE ONE TO WHOM WE MUST GO FOR THESE GIFTS
1. He is the heavenly Father who is the giver of every good and every perfect gift. (James 1:17)
2. He knows our need and cares for us even as mere creatures. (Luke 12:6-7)
3. Either unbelief, ingratitude or greed will blind us to this comforting truth.
III: We should live with both a compulsion toward, and a joy in, saying, God is so good to me.
4. Is your attitude rather, “Yea, I guess He is.”
II. THE PERSON WHO IS PROMISED THESE GIFTS
1. Though God shows benevolence to all, this promise is not a general one.
2. It is to those same people to whom He said, “Ye are the light of the world.”
3. They are those with the admonition of Matthew 5:44-45, and the relationship of Matthew 7:11.
4. What folly to imagine that all people have the same access to God and His blessings.
III: “I talk to the man upstairs when I am in trouble.”
5. Ask yourself quite candidly and humbly: Do I have this promise?
III. THE GLORIOUS BENEVOLENCE BEHIND THESE GIFTS
1. Our Lord calls attention to our joy in giving our children good gifts. (Mat. 7:9-11)
III: How we love to give good gifts to our children, and would not do them harm.
2. The comparison then is HOW MUCH MORE does God enjoy giving good gifts to us.
3. Have you realized that under the right conditions God likes to give you good gifts?
4. Even to men, as mere creatures, God shows His goodness. (Mat. 5:44-45)
5. For His people, He delights to open the windows of Heaven. (Mal. 3:8-10)
6. If He so blesses in our sin, how He would bless if we walked more closely.
IV. OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN APPROPRIATING THESE GIFTS
1. We are by no mean told here to be passive, and just assume God will see our need.
2. We are taught that He knows our need even before we ask. (Mat. 6:8)
3. Yet, we are clearly taught to ask, seek, and knock. (Mat. 7:7)
4. This constantly keeps the spirit and the worship of Hannah in our Hearts.
5. Do you have the father-child relationship? And do you follow the Lord’s admonition?
6. When we do not, we are living in terrible sin.