Ask, Seek, Find Luke 11:1-13; Genesis 18:20–33; Colossians 2:6–15

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, whom we seek and follow.

Our message is based on today’s Gospel, from Luke chapter 11, especially verse 9:

I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Have you ever been locked out? 

Have you ever gotten locked out of your car… locked the doors, and left the keys inside? 

Or have you ever locked yourself out of your house?

It’s a bit of a panic to lock yourself out of your house, or your car.

I used to have OnStar for my car, which can unlock the doors by satellite.

There’s another star that can unlock far more than a car door, a star that can unlock the door to your heart, the One who in 2 Peter 1:19 is called, the bright morning star, who rises in your heart.  

That star is Christ in us. His Spirit unlocks the door of our hearts, that we might believe, and receive God’s present and eternal blessings.

With hearts that believe in Christ, the doors of the Church and the gates of Heaven are opened up for us to come in and rejoice… and for us to invite others in.

Last Sunday, in our Old Testament we heard Abraham invite three travelers into his home: the Lord and two angels, in the appearance of men. 

After promising Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child, they left, and Abraham walked with them for awhile. 

Then the Lord told Abraham that they were headed for the city of Sodom, to see how bad things had become. 

Abraham pleaded with the Lord that He would show mercy and spare the city for the sake of any righteous people who might live there.

The Lord agreed, showing the truth of what Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given you.”

Then the Lord left, Abraham returned his home, and the two angels continued the journey to Sodom.

When they got there, they found that no one who was righteous; everyone was given over to sin and evil; no one cared about anything except gratifying their own selfish, immoral desires, even wanting to commit sexual violence against the two men, who were really angels.

God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah; He would have unlocked Heaven for them, had they only done what Jesus calls us all to do, to seek God and His righteousness, to repent and ask for mercy, and so, find favor in the eyes of the Lord.

But they wouldn’t seek the Lord’s righteousness and mercy; they stubbornly persisted on a godless course that led to their own destruction. 

In our Gospel, Jesus tells us how the mercy of God can be unlocked to us, and His abundant blessings made available to us. He shows us how close they are to us, yet how far away we can make them to be.

In the stubbornness of our sin, we can lock God and His grace out of our lives, as was done by the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and sadly is still done today.

So much in our world would pressure us to lock our hearts toward God and Heaven; to keep godly ways out, and worldly ways in; to live as if we are dead in sin, as our Epistle says, rather than as alive and baptized in Christ.

From within, sin would lock the door of your heart toward all that is good and born of God. 

But our Epistle says that having been buried with Christ in Baptism, we are now raised with Him, a resurrection of faith and love in us, and a drowning of sin.  

By Baptism the Holy Spirit comes to us, and from within, unlocks our hearts and opens our minds toward Christ. 

He opens the door of your heart, that you might ask, and seek, and find God and all that is good for your life, and your mind, and your spirit.

God unlocks your heart by faith, and encourages you to ask for and receive such great and abundant blessings, that it will take eternity for Him to give them all to you. I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you.

Your time on earth, no matter how many days and years, are not enough for God to give you all the blessings He has planned for you.

His blessings are so abundant that all the earth, even the universe, can’t contain them all -- it takes Heaven to hold all the blessings God has in store for you.

So let us be diligent to seek and bold to ask -- diligent to seek the Lord and follow His ways, and bold to ask for His blessings; not worldly or selfish blessings, which are no blessings at all, but godly blessings, holy blessings. 

So I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

There’s the phrase, “You asked for it”, meaning that you’re getting what you deserve. 

When we ask God, He gives His baptized children, not what we deserve, but what HE deserves, what His dear and only Son deserves.

What that means is we can never go wrong in asking for God’s blessing, not with our faith and our life in Him. 

So I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

God would open up the door of your heart and enter in, and richly bless you from within. 

As God has opened up the door of our hearts to receive HIS love and blessings, so let us open up the door of our heart to others, that we might be a blessing to them.

I’m reminded of the old Paul McCartney song, “Someone’s knocking at the door; someone’s ringing the bell… open the door, and let ‘em in.” Meaning into your life, into your heart.

Earlier we said that there are things and places we can get locked out of -- that includes people and relationships.

Soon in life we’re introduced to cliches and clubs; they can be places for us to belong, but they can also be designed to keep people away; to exclude some, and lock them out.

The Gospel is all about unlocking the heart to bring people in, into a healing fellowship, a loving family, and into a saving relationship with God. 

We have only to ask, and by faith, God welcomes us in, and we have a place to belong forever, a most blessed place; a place too big, and a grace too great, for just a few.

So we seek out, and find, and invite others to believe the Gospel and enter into this Kingdom of mercy; to rejoice in the many blessings given here, blessings that make our lives, not necessarily easier, but definitely better, more like Christ. 

These are the blessings for us to ask and pray for, to seek and receive and share.

And finally, as we seek the Lord and His extraordinary, holy gifts, we find His peace, which passes our understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, who has opened the door of God’s Kingdom, and brought us in to be wonderfully blessed forever. Amen.