Matthew 7 Verse 7 Seek

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary

Short Summary
The discourse explores the biblical concept of “seek” from Matthew 7:7-10, emphasizing that seeking is an active, sequential process involving asking, seeking, and knocking to find God and His truth. It highlights that seeking requires diligence, emotional craving, and a sincere heart, and that understanding spiritual truths depends on God’s granting of His Holy Spirit, which is given based on the seeker’s genuine desire. The speaker stresses that seeking God is not passive but involves persistent effort and genuine intention, assuring that those who truly seek will find.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on “Seek” Based on Matthew 7:7-10

Introduction and Personal Reflection:
– The speaker begins by sharing a personal approach to understanding scripture, emphasizing a mechanical, organized method of thought, influenced by his work background.
– He attempts to categorize the phrase “Seek” from Matthew 7:7-10, initially considering it a command but later viewing it more as advice from Jesus.

Context and Sequential Nature:
– The discourse highlights that the text presents a sequential list: “Ask, seek, knock,” which can be understood as steps in the process of finding God and His divine plan.
– The speaker stresses that this teaching is universal, applying to all people seeking the true God, not just Bible students or believers.

Focus on the Word “Seek”:
– The Greek term for “seek” (Strong’s 2212) appears in verses 7 and 8 of Matthew 7 and is pivotal to the message.
– “If ye seek, ye shall find” is a definitive promise — there is no uncertainty or partiality in the outcome.
– The speaker compares this to an equation, where the input (seeking) guarantees an equal output (finding).

Deeper Meaning and Layers of “Seek”:
– “Seek” is more complex and profound than commonly thought — like peeling an onion with many layers.
– The word implies actively searching for something hidden, akin to the childhood game “hide and seek” where the game ends only when the hidden object is found.
– This analogy underscores that seeking requires persistence and does not cease until the object is found.

Jesus as the Perfect Example of Seeking:
– Jesus, though perfect and filled with God’s Spirit, continued to seek God’s will and counsel throughout His life.
– Example: In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed deeply, seeking confirmation that He had fulfilled the Father’s will perfectly (Matthew 26:36-44 implied).
– This illustrates that seeking God’s guidance and comfort is a continual process, even for the Son of God.

Seeking as an Active Verb and Process:
– “Seek” is an action word (verb) that involves looking, searching, uncovering, and striving to learn more about God and His plan.
– The process involves deliberate effort, not passive waiting.
– The goal is to find the “hidden object”—the truth about God and His divine plan.

The Promise and Its Implications:
– The promise “If ye seek, ye shall find” is absolute and reliable.
– Some people seek but come away with different understandings of God—some inaccurate or incomplete.
– The speaker references 1 Timothy 2:4 (King James Version): “God…will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
– The Greek words for “knowledge” (1922) and “truth” (225) imply precise and accurate understanding.
– Hence, seeking must lead to accurate knowledge, not just general or false beliefs.

Emotional Dimension of Seeking:
– Hebrews 11:6 emphasizes that without faith it is impossible to please God and that God rewards those who “diligently seek” Him.
– The Greek word for “diligently” (1567) implies craving or intense desire.
– Seeking is thus a three-dimensional activity: intellectual, physical, and emotional — involving a heartfelt craving for God’s truth.

Seeking and Debate/Questioning:
– The Greek definition of seek includes “to debate,” which the speaker ties to the importance of questioning and verifying teachings.
– Acts 17:11 portrays the Bereans who examined the scriptures daily to verify Paul’s message, exemplifying healthy spiritual inquiry.
– Seeking involves not just accepting information but actively testing and confirming it.

Role of God’s Holy Spirit in Understanding:
– Matthew 13:11 explains that Jesus spoke in parables because spiritual understanding is granted by God’s Holy Spirit.
– 1 Corinthians clarifies the difference between earthly (terrestrial) and spiritual understanding.
– Receiving the Holy Spirit is subject to God’s selection, based on the seeker’s heart and sincerity.
– God watches the seeker’s heart to determine if the seeking is genuine or superficial.

Persistent Seeking and the Process:
– Seeking requires effort, work, and persistence, much like the Israelites gathering and preparing manna in the wilderness.
– God’s word and truth do not simply fall into one’s lap; they must be sought, studied, and worked on.
– The process is ongoing and requires a proper attitude and willingness to persevere.

Conclusion and Encouragement:
– God, through Jesus, provides a sequential and practical guide to find Him.
– The promise of finding God is certain for those who truly seek.
– The discourse concludes by encouraging all to maintain a strong desire and persistent effort to seek God, as He desires to be found.

—

Key Bible Verses Referenced:

Matthew 7:7-8
*“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”*

1 Timothy 2:4
*“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”*

Hebrews 11:6
*“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”*

Matthew 13:11
*“Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”*

Acts 17:11
*(Paraphrased) The Bereans were noble for searching the scriptures daily to verify the teachings they received.*

—

Summary Keywords:
Seek, Matthew 7:7-10, sequential steps, ask, knock, hidden object, persistence, Jesus’ example, Garden of Gethsemane, action verb, accurate knowledge, faith, Hebrews 11:6, craving, emotional seeking, debate, Bereans, Acts 17:11, Holy Spirit, spiritual understanding, God’s will, sincerity, manna analogy, diligent seeking, God’s promise, divine guidance.

—

This detailed summary captures the key points, scriptural references, and theological insights presented in the discourse on the concept of “Seek” as taught by Jesus in Matthew 7:7-10.

Transcript

Blessing to be here. Our portion this evening is based on the text Matthew 7, 7, 10, and our portion is Seek. When I first looked at this, I’m the type of person, my character is such that I have to figure things out in a mechanical sense. Most likely comes from my background and my line of work that I did. I’m always trying to organize, although I’m not saying I’m organized.

If you could just ask my wife, Sister Cindy, and I’m sure she’ll tell you the opposite. But I try to put things in categories. The reason I do that is because it’s easier to remember and it’s easier to come to a conclusion every time. You can always find that same page of thought if you organize it. So I was doing that with our thoughts today.

First I says, oh, this is a command from our Lord, but it’s really not a command. He’s not dictating. You must do this. Although it can be applied, and I thought, well, maybe it’s more another category, the heading of advice.

And I tended to like that more. This is more of an advice, and I did some more research and studying and I realized he’s giving us a list, and it’s a list that’s sequential. You ask, then you seek, then you knock, and it’d be the same as if you were looking for anything.

Of course, we know this pertains to the love of God and his divine plan, but it helped me organize that thought, that this is a sequential list. So I want to make this statement ahead of time. This scripture is not just a Bible student scripture. This applies to anybody that is seeking to know the true and living God, whatever path of life they walk. Now, that’s not to say that it doesn’t apply to the household of faith, but it definitely applies to outside.

The term Sikh that we’re looking at tonight. It appears in two of the verses, verses seven and verse eight, and it’s very short, and I want to look at it. I want to look at this in a comprehensive sense.

So I want to look at it in context as well before we look at the individual word. It basically says in both, it says, seek, or if you seek, ye shall find. Important notice it doesn’t say if you seek possibly or maybe you’ll find a little bit. Doesn’t say that at all. It says, if you seek, you shall find.

Very positive statement.

Reinforcing that thought that what you put into it, God’s going to give you an abundance back. So for all of our mathematicians out there, this resembles an equation, equal portions on both sides. I want you to keep in mind as we’re going through our thoughts, As I did do some research on this subject, and I realized that this term seek is. It’s much more. It’s deeper than I ever imagined.

Seek. I said. Oh, seek. Okay, give the explanation and try to fill in for 15 minutes. This is just not up there.

But I was way off. I was way off. There’s a lot. It’s deep. You’ve heard the analogy of it’s like an onion.

If you peel it back, there’s a lot of layers. Well, that’s exactly what this seek is, and tonight, with the short time that we have, that’s what I’m going to try to do. Peel back some of them layers and show the intensity or the depth of this term seek.

It’s a common word, isn’t it? We all know it. I can imagine that there’s nobody here that doesn’t know the term seek and know the definition, at least in part, and you know why that is? It’s because if I asked for a show of hands, how many of us played hide and seek when we were little?

No doubt I’d get 100% response.

So we all understand the term seek, and what is that? That’s you. You. You’re looking for a hidden object, and that’s important.

A hidden object, and you’re searching for it. So go back in time when you were playing it, possibly at Bloomington, like I did, or Albion, when I started to get out of the childhood stuff. But when you were. When you were playing hide and seek, when did the game end?

When you found what you were looking for. Very important. Very critical to our thoughts tonight. Very critical.

So you’re looking for a hidden object, and you don’t stop until you find it.

Now, we know that our Master, the Son of God, Savior, we know that he was that perfect example. We know that he truly possessed every good quality, especially the ones that he gave advice on for us to take. These are Christlike qualities. But I started to think, okay, wait a minute. Let’s get this organized.

In my mind, our Lord was always devoted to God, and then on his 30th birthday, we know he met John the Baptist at that river, and John baptized him, and he came up and that miracle that God endowed him with the spirit from heaven gave him complete understanding, and it landed on him like a dove.

So one might think that Jesus didn’t have to seek after that. That’s a natural assumption. But that’s not True. Not true at all.

Even though he was a perfect man, even though he was filled with God’s spirit, the scriptures show us that he never stopped seeking. Now, recount. I’ll just give you a quick recount of the. Of the scriptural time, of the event that took place. Remember, on the last day, his living life as a man, Jesus.

After he established that memorial, they went off into the garden, and the burden of what he was about to do.

Became very heavy. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

He had that realization that he was going to suffer intensely. He was happy to do it. He never shuddered once. But he went into deep prayer. We don’t know exactly what he asked for, but I can assure you assume that it was.

Father, have I completed your will to the letter? Have I done everything that you asked? Father, are you pleased with my efforts? What was he doing in that prayer? He was seeking God.

He was seeking the counsel of God on the last day that he was alive as a perfect man. It never stops, brother. Never stops, and that applies to you and I, too, because we don’t just seek the word of God. We seek his counsel.

We seek his will in our lives, and we also seek his comfort. So seek is a. It’s a broad stroke of the pen or a broad stroke of the brush. It has a lot of avenues to look at.

Now we realize that it applies directly and emphatically to the word of God. We’re going to look at that. In a sense, we’re going to start to peel that onion back a little bit.

The Greek word seek, it’s number 2212. 2212, and the definition, it really. That’s in the Greek dictionary. It really contains no surprises.

It basically means to seek, to search. We all knew that. But there was one particular added definition that I found interesting to say the least, and it said to debate. Hmm.

I’m trying to organize that in my thoughts, and I finally come up with a thought. But we’re going to. I’m going to ask you to put that on the shelf. Put that on the shelf in the back, just for a moment. We’re going to get to that in a second.

If you really want to get a better understanding of the word seek, go to the English dictionary. Simple. It gives you a comprehensive look at what the word means.

It’s classified as a verb, as Brother Michael said, and everybody knows what a verb is. What is a verb? It’s a word of action. Doesn’t mean you just sit there and wait for stuff to happen.

You go do it. You go do it. It’s a verb, it’s an action word, and it means to look or to search or to uncover an object or some information about an object or a subject and try to find more out about it. This kind of places it in perspective.

And we pretty much already knew that.

So what our master is telling us, he’s advising us in this comprehensive list, in this sequential list, that we have tools. We have tools, specific avenues to follow in order to find out about the Heavenly Father and his great plan, and that’s what we’re looking for, the gifts of God, broad stroke of the brush.

So we know it’s an equation. At least I think you can agree with that, the way it was presented. So I’m going to pose a question to you. I want you to really think about this.

If ye seek, ye shall find.

I have a lot of friends, Christian friends in the world. Some are neighbors, some are co workers, don’t work with them anymore. A lot of good people came across a lot of good people, and I know that they had Bible studies that they attended. I know they read.

And I’m not going. I’m not trying to. I’m making this as a point to prove a point. I’m not trying to degrade anybody. So I’m going to put it in this, this tense.

They seek, I have sought. But yet our knowledge of God is vastly different.

Many of them, many of them comprehend the God of the author or the creator of hellfire.

Many of them hold to the belief that God shares his glory with other beings.

They saw it. I saw it. So the question is, is it the equation that’s wrong?

No, it isn’t, brother. The equation is solid.

We look at 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 4, and somebody earlier today referenced it, and I love that scripture, and it says, and I’ll quote this from memory, God desires everybody to be saved, and he continues and says, and come to a. I’m going to quote from King James. I use King James, Even the thees and thous, they get a little monotonous.

I know where the mistakes are, so it’s easy for me to remember them.

I lost my thought. God wants everybody to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. That’s King James. He didn’t do a good job interpreting that, did he? Because we know that that’s far from what was implied by Apostle Paul.

The word knowledge in The Greek is 1922, and it implies precision or a precise knowledge.

And then the word truth is 225 in the Greek dictionary, and it means the facts or accurate. So what Apostle Paul was saying is God wants everybody to be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of the truth. So if there’s accurate knowledge, what does that mean? There is also inaccurate knowledge.

Very simple. Very simple. We don’t want that inaccurate knowledge.

Peeling that onion back just a little bit more.

So the Lord is instructing us to seek, to search his word until we find that accurate knowledge.

We have a craving, brethren, and it’s not unique to just us, but our craving is unique. What is that craving? I don’t want to stop until I find exactly what it is about God, what there is to learn about God. How many here have had.

Outside of the Bible students, in your experience, how many have had a craving? Whether it was while you were carrying your child or just in the middle of the evening, you just had a. A hunger for pizza. Yeah, we all do. We all have a craving.

What satisfies that craving? Only the thing that you crave. Only the thing that you crave.

Matthew 13:11.

I seem to have passed up a page of notes, so forgive me, but as time moves on, I’m probably good to do that.

There it is. Okay, So there’s one scripture that really clarifies this thought of seeking, and it actually uses the word seek in it and it puts it in perspective, at least for me, and you can ask any of my classmates, and I’m very happy to say that West Newton Ecclesia is very well represented here.

66% had to do some quick math. 66% of our classes here. That’s pretty good cross country. You can ask some of my classmates. This is a scripture that I quote as often as I can because it has such a wide variety of application.

And it’s Hebrews 11, 6, and we all know that, and it says it’s impossible to please God without faith. We know that part, but it’s the second part that applies to what we’re talking about, and that is that God is the rewarder. Those whom diligently.

King James could diligently seek him.

That word in the Greek dictionary, Diligent, 1567, it means to crave. We all understand what cravings. So now this, this concept of seeking takes on a third dimension, doesn’t it? Now it’s attached to your emotion. This is the instruction of our Lord.

By the way, this is not words from me. This is scripturally proven and supported that it’s three dimensional. So it’s attached to your emotion.

So what God Is saying is. The Lord is saying is, you seek, you search up, uncover this hidden object, and you do not stop until that craving is satisfied.

That’s the instruction.

Now let’s go back to that original. Remember I asked you to put that thought on the shelf about debate. Let’s pull it off the shelf debate. How does that apply to seeking the word of God? Well, it actually does.

You think about it.

If someone walked in here or someone came up to this podium and says, I want to tell you something, brethren, hellfire is real, and what is three in one? I’m just being sarcastic, of course. What would you all do? You’d probably boom off the stage.

But before that, you would get in your book and say, hold on, hold on. Look at this right here. It defies exactly what you said. You’re debating him. You’re questioning what he has presented to you.

That’s also part of seeking. We are not to take for granted what we’re taught. In Acts, I think it’s chapter 17. It says we’re to be like the Bereans. The Bereans questioned everything.

They didn’t question it in the sense that I don’t believe you. They said, I want to prove it, and that’s what you’re supposed to do.

There’s another layer to this. Now that we. I think we. In the short time I had that, I’m running out quickly. Brother Steve knows there’s a.

We have a general understanding of Sikh, and I’m satisfied, and I hope you are. It’s much deeper. You can. You can study it on your own. But I think we grasp the concept.

There’s another layer to this, and we have to address it. Matthew 13:11.

This is our master talking, and he says, the apostles, the disciples were saying, lord, why do you talk in dark sayings? Why do you say these things? They’re so hard to understand, you know, and he told them, he says, because it’s for you, it’s given to them, but for them it’s not.

That’s a direct link to God’s Holy Spirit. We heard a wonderful discourse about that today, didn’t we? The Holy Spirit. Why do you need God’s Holy Spirit?

Well, the scriptures, especially in Corinthians, Apostle Paul breaks this down very nicely. We are terrestrial, earthly, and there’s a complete difference between the spiritual aspect or the nature of a spiritual being. Completely different. So as we mature and get whiter around the collar, we have a well to draw from from our earthly experiences, and all that earthly experience is not Going to explain the spiritual aspect.

So God has to help those to understand it, and we know that is to be His Holy Spirit. That’s how the scriptures determine it. It’s God’s influence to understand spiritual aspects of his plan, and without it, you can’t understand it.

And who decides who gets that Holy Spirit? Not me. Not any of you. God himself, the Creator. Why is that?

Because he’s searching your heart. He wants to see the intentions of your heart. How serious are you about seeking Him? Are you just seeking temporarily, just as a fad? Are you just seeking?

Yeah, I need God in my life, but I have some other business. This much is enough. I don’t need this much. This is plenty. God’s searching that God’s watching your heart.

So God decides who gets that Holy Spirit, who gets the understanding.

God mandated that long before you and I came into this knowledge.

So if someone is willing to accept general knowledge, they have stopped seeking. They have found the answers they’re looking for. Right. Because you don’t stop seeking until you finish that crave. Till you satisfy that crave, that craving.

So we can see that seeking is based on the heart’s desire. So what we have come to know, brethren, in this short time, I hope I’ve presented in this sense that it’s not only a proper sequence of events that leads us to God, that we have to follow under the advice of our Lord. But it’s the hard attitude, it’s the attitude in how we do this that God’s watching and determining if we are worthy of his understanding. You know, we all know that God’s word doesn’t grow on trees. Oh, I think I’m going to grab a little bite of mercy today.

It doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t fall down out of the sky. You have to seek it. Same as that example of the manna in heaven, the manna in the wilderness. They had to pick up the manna.

Yes, it came down from the above. They landed on the ground and they picked it up. It didn’t come in loaves of bread, did it? What did they have to do? They had to grind it, they had to work it, then they had to bake it.

It’s the same with God’s gospel. You have to seek it, you have to work it. You cannot just pick it up and say, oh, there it is. I got it. I can move on.

So seeking is a process, brethren. We’re going to close out our thoughts now. Just remember that our loving Heavenly Father through His grace gave us by his son. These instructions, this sequential order on how to find him, and what does that tell you?

He wants us to find him.

Click Here for the PDF transcript.