Ask
Ask
Today’s churches are filled with people who pray in such a way that it offends God not honors Him. I know what you’re saying, “Pastor what are you talking about?” We pray out of habit not with sincerity or love, passion, respect or even worship. We pray with out courage today. I feel, today’s churches have turned away from true worship and prayer. We have conformed to the world and how the world says to pray. I once heard a country song and a verse read like this: “A man never stood as tall as a man who gets down on his knees.” Men and women alike but mostly men are afraid to pray in public. I want to show you something today, How churches and the people in them have lost courage and have gone just the opposite, the opposite of courage in our society today is not cowardice, but it is conformity. We find it easier to conform to the world than to stand against it. Listen to what Jesus says.
Turn with me to:
Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We conform to this world even though the bible says not to. But I always hear, that’s easy to say, but we live in the world so we must adapt. So we live our lives and do as we see fit. Then we pray and blame God for unanswered prayers. We have turned God from the King of Kings, Our Heavenly Creator into a character we go to when we need Him. Our Goal should be to be transformed by the renewing of our minds to Gods perfect will. I want you to know that Jesus wants to answer your prayers, Jesus wants to pour out blessings and gifts on all of us. Turn with me to:
Matthew 7:7-11
Ask, and It Will Be Given”
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Also Luke 11:9–13
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Pray
Now’ what Jesus is saying is that God welcomes prayer and is urging His disciples and other to come to Him continuously and persistently. (without stopping) This is emphasized by the present tenses in the verbs: “keep on asking”; “keep on seeking”; “keep on knocking” (7:7). Why? Because your Father in heaven (. 11) delights in giving good gifts ( James 1:17) to those who persist in prayer. (Luke substitutes “the Holy Spirit” for “good gifts,” Luke 11:13.) No decent father would give his son . . . a stone instead of a round loaf of bread (which looked like a stone), or a snake instead of a similar-appearing fish. If an earthly father, with his sinful (evil) nature, delights to do right materially for his children, it makes sense that the righteous, heavenly Father will much more reward His children spiritually for their persistence.
When most people pray, we pray without any guidance or a goal other than Lord please answer my prayers.
For instance, I want you to think of a ship leaving a harbor. And think of it with the complete voyage mapped and planned. The captain and crew know exactly where the ship is going and how long it will take. It has a goal, and 99.9% of the time it will reach it’s goal.
Now let’s take another ship- Just like the first- only this one has no crew, no captain, no heading, no destination and no goal. We just start the engines and go. If it makes it out of the harbor, it will either sink or wind up on some beach somewhere. It can’t go anywhere, because it has no destination and no guidance.
Church Listen it is the same with us. Before we even pray to the almighty creator God, we should first ask for guidance. We need to ask our Savior to help place value on the things of value.
What does that mean? We place value on things that we pay money for. But the things that are free, we place no value in. Let me explain:
Everything that is worthwhile in life came to us free. For instance Our minds, our souls, our bodies, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our intelligence {I know school cost money, but God gave some of us the ability to learn and reason} our ability to love, the love of family, children, friends and country and yes even prayer.
All these are priceless possessions and are free. Think about this the things we get for free, we can never replace. But the things that cost money are actually very cheap and can be replaced at anytime. A car breaks –buy another, your house burns –build a new one etc.
I once read a quote from Grove Patterson the late editor-in-chief of the Toledo Daily Blade. He was giving a speech and at the end he said this. “My years in the newspaper business have convinced me of several things. Among them, is that people are basically good and that came from someplace and we are going somewhere. The architect of the universe didn’t build a stairway leading nowhere.”
We have so many motivational and inspirational speakers out there today, with sayings such as, “if it’s gonna be, it’s up to me, or we need a check up from the neck up, Gratitude is a attitude. They teach us we must believe in ourselves, we must have faith in our selves, we are the only ones who can change our destiny We buy into it because it must be good because it cost money.
The greatest teacher of all time, the carpenter from Galilee, taught us about faith, time and time again.
Mark 11:22-24
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
It’s as simple as that, in fact, It’s so simple that our seemingly complicated world says that it is to difficult to understand, that all we need is faith and God will give us a purpose.
When we ask we must have faith: Faith works miracles, not because it gives us confidence in ourselves, but because it moves us to trust all to God.
That’s all God wants from us is for us to trust totally in Him, to give ourselves 100% over to His will. He offers us Salvation with a small price to pay, we must die to our sin. We must surrender all to Him. We must come to Him with the right attitude and faith and your heavenly father give what ever you ask in prayer.
As I close, I want to leave you with one final verse:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Continual prayer is not prayer that prevails without any interruption, but prayer that continues whenever possible. Paul was speaking of maintaining continuous fellowship with God as much as possible in the midst of daily living in which concentration is frequently broken.
Proverbs 23:7
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
1. Do you have a goal with God?
2. Do you pray with out ceasing?
3. What have faith that God will answer our prayers.
Do you have a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior?