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ATTN:
DVD – Prayer - Sermonspice
I still remember being shocked to hear it.
I was standing in the Doctor’s entrance to Mission Hospital in Asheville, NC.
I was standing there with my buddy who also sold pharmaceuticals.
We were there meeting the docs as they left from or arrived for their morning rounds.
As they waited for the elevators, just wanting to get on with their day, our job was to say something . . .
anything to catch their attention and engage them in a conversation about our products.
Mine was a medicine for arthritis.
I thought it was simply supposed to ease the discomfort and reduce the swelling of arthritic joints.
That’s why I couldn’t believe what I heard.
My buddy starts talking about our drug actually rebuilding joint cartilage.
Without getting too involved, his saying that was akin to saying that, if you just took enough of our drug, your rheumatic joints that were crooked from years of disease would eventually just straighten back out.
It was quite a claim . . .
and not one which seemed credible.
So when we had a “break in the action” and no one else was around, I asked him about it.
Our conversation went something like this: I said, “Hey man, where are you getting that ‘rebuilding’ joint cartilage stuff from?”
He said, “O it was from a study I read.”
“What kind of study and why have I never heard about it?
Who were the patients?”
“O,” he replied, “they weren’t patients.”
I said, “Well, if they weren’t patients, how did they do the study?”
“O,” he said, “that study was done in dogs.”
I was thinking to myself, “That’s not a good detail to leave out! You’re here making outrageous claims, while I’m standing here with you and you’re using DOG DATA??
There goes my credibility.”
Wow!
Now, as incredulous as I was, I’m sure he wasn’t the first salesman to make an outrageous claim.
In fact, we’re so used to outrageous claims that, whenever someone is selling us something, we tend to look at them with suspicion.
We don’t quite believe everything we’re told, and that’s a good thing.
You can’t even blame yourself for feeling that way because you’ve been burned before.
You took someone at their word and they took advantage of you, so you don’t quite believe.
The sad thing is that people often feel that way about prayer, especially the prayer promises in the Bible.
It has been said so often that it becomes a cliche with little substance.
“Prayer changes things” we say, but people hearing that often think, “Well, I prayed, but nothing changed.
Guess that’s another one of ‘those’ promises you can’t quite trust.”
BACKGROUND
This doubt sort of frames the debate of that next phrase in the Lord’s prayer.
It’s the place where you ask for stuff!
You know blessings, healings, comfort, power, food, clothes, all the things that we need to live life.
Very often, in our praying, it becomes the “be all” and “end all” of our petition, but I want to remind you that this is our fourth message on this prayer.
It has taken us four weeks to get to the part where we ask for what we think we need.
This tells us two things:
In the first place, it tells us that our needs are always framed in the context of God’s purpose.
His Kingdom comes first.
In the second place, it tells us that there is something more vital to His glory and our well-being than what we’re having for supper.
And yet, there is some pretty incredible things promised to Christ-followers when it comes to our daily needs.
In fact, if you just turn over to the next chapter of Matthew, you find one of the most awesome promises ever made to disciples.
In Matt 7:7, Jesus says this about our praying.
He says:
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!
There is this feeling of power that flows out of this promise.
If I pray, God responds.
Through my praying, I can actually move the Hand of God.
I ask, He gives.
I seek, He reveals.
I knock, He opens.
Praying for our needs is a two-sided coin.
I pray, God responds.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
I can’t really claim any credit because all the strength, ability and gifts come from God.
But there is this sense in which, when I actively pray, He works.
NEED
Seems simple doesn’t it?
And it is simple, until . . .
Until you try it and nothing happens.
You pray for the house to sell, the money to come in, the job to be offered, but it doesn’t, it goes out and it’s given to your best friend.
And then you can really become confused.
You think you’ve got this prayer thing nailed, but you pray only to be disappointed and you are left scratching your disillusioned head.
And this confusion can take many forms.
For one thing, confusion can come over just how passive you should be.
I mean, do you just pray and sit back and wait for God to act.
If you’re trying to sell your home, do you just pray and trust God or do you try to get the very best Real Estate agent you can find and spend 10,000 dollars on your “curb appeal.”
If you’re praying for a mate, do you sit home on Friday nights, or do you sign up for e-harmony?
How do you depend?
And then there is some confusion over just what God is promising.
What does it really mean when God says “Ask and you will receive?”
Will He really give me anything I ask for?
And if He will not do that, why does He seem to say that here?
I want us to take a look at this “daily bread” thing again.
I want us to examine just what this partnership of prayer really means.
How does this “asking” and “receiving” work together?
Well, if you’re going to practice this partnership of prayer, you must first understand:
DIV 1: YOUR PART
EXP
ASK - Now the first rule of praying is this: You must do it, if something is to happen!
Prayer is the primary conveyor belt God uses to get His grace into our life.
As if to emphasize that prayer is an active thing, three commands are given here in these verses.
In fact, they are one-word commands that form a kind of terse “prayer-chain.”
We are to ask!
We are to Seek!
We are to Knock!
While some see these commands as different words being used for the same concept, I believe, from my study, that there is a rising intensity in these words.
For instance, we are told to Ask.
Asking speaks of TRUST.
When I ask, I come to God with a great humility that recognizes my own need.
We, like children, have no way of providing for ourselves, and we simply come to Him and “ask” Him for our needs, trusting Him to provide.
But, in this asking there is one fact that works against us.
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