July25

Sermon 7/25 “Just Ask!”

The prelude that Romayne played this morning was specially selected for this service. It is her prayer for you. It is called “Make Your People One” and the words go like this:

If I make one prayer to You my God,

If one song is lifted to Your name;

It is to ask that your children might see they are one,

might learn to love as You love Your Son.

Refrain:

Lord, make your people one -

Let Your will be done;

Finish, O finish the work begun,

Lord, make Your people one.

We have many ministers here at La Anna. People who are the church and who will see that this church prospers and grows to the glory of God, no matter who stands in the pulpit. This morning, I have asked a few of those people to join me in offering a prayer to our Lord. You heard Romayne’s prayer in the music she played. You have heard the choir’s prayer in the song that they sang. So that Marge can get downstairs and be with the children of our church, I am going to ask her to come forward and offer a prayer for our children everywhere.

Morning Prayer:

Almighty God, healer of the world, we stand here before you, and do what you have commanded us to do through your Son Jesus Christ. For it was He that said to us “Ask and it shall be given.” We are asking Dear Lord. We are imploring that you give us the power to grow and prosper so that we can spread the good news of Your salvation and peace in our community and to all the world, and prayer is that power. We are asking that You give us all the peace that can only come from Your healing touch. Hear each of us as we pray silently to you for the guidance we need in order to glorify Your Name.

- - - Pause

Now hear us, O Lord as we pray in the manner you have taught us, plowing every word and feeling deep into our souls. . . Our Father . . .

This morning we will be reading from Luke, Chapter 11:1-13. I will be reading from the New King James Version.

Luke 11:1-13 (NKJV)

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." 2So He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

3Give us day by day our daily bread.

4And forgive us our sins,

For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one."

5And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; 6for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; 7and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'? 8I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

9"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word.

I asked someone else, through interpreters, to offer up another prayer this morning. Patti is going to sing the Lord’s Prayer for us.

I have often heard that singing is like praying twice. I would say that was twice and then some.

The version of the Lord’s Prayer given in Luke is a little shorter and slightly different than the one we are used to from Matthew, but they say the same thing.

One of the things that has always concerned me is the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer, week after week. After while, we just say the words and do not pay any attention to what they really mean. We do it out of habit. This was the way Jesus used to show us how to pray, but there are other examples in the Bible.

Remember the story of Peter when he took a few steps on the surface of the water towards Jesus. His faith wavered and he began to sink. He offered up a quick prayer to his Lord. “Lord help me.” He said.

Now, had Peter started off saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come – help me!, he might have been blowing bubbles by the time he got to the help me part.

I believe there are no wrong ways to pray. One of the greatest prayers I have heard in a long time came last Tuesday night at a Bible Study meeting. There was a man there who is about my age. His name is Frank and he started coming to Bible Study several weeks ago with his wife Fran. We often close our study with prayer, going around the room so that those who wish to pray may and those who do not want to pray just remain quiet. Fran would usually pray; Frank would not.

Last week, as we were going around the table, some of the group prayed and some did not and when it came around to Fran, she offered up a simple, sweet prayer. Then there was a silence. Frank cleared his throat and said, “I don’t know how to do this.” Another period of silence. Then he continued, “So I guess I’ll just say thank you.” Some more awkward silence, then Frank stammered a little and said, “Thanks for all you do for me.”

Wow! That was it. That was all he said. There were a couple of other people who prayed after Frank, but I have no idea what they said. I was still in awe of Frank’s prayer. There was power in that prayer. That was a prayer of humility, a prayer of thanksgiving and a prayer of praise, all rolled up in those few, broken sentences.

So, you see, I don’t think there are any wrong ways to pray. As long as your heart is in the right place, you can say just about anything to the Lord, using whatever words you want and there will be power in what you pray. You can stutter and get the words in all the wrong order and forget to say things in between and stumble and even fall, but God will hear your words and God will know your heart, and God will bless you.

So, back to the Lord’s Prayer.

The introduction, to this model prayer, Our Father, is an absolute change from the way people called upon God in the Old Testament. What Christ was teaching us was how very accessible God is. The term father is translated from the word Abba. This means that Jesus spoke with God the same way a child speaks with his father; simply, intimately, securely and in a child-like manner. Here Jesus was telling us that we could talk to God in the same manner that we would to our own earthly father, our Abba. It would be more appropriately translated as Dear Father or even Daddy.

Jesus used this term in every prayer and every utterance about His Father with one exception. That was the time He was on the cross, dying for the sins of the world and cried out “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me!”

So, we call out, Dear Father, Abba, Daddy; Holy is Your Name. Holy are You.

Your kingdom come. . . Later in Luke 17:21, Christ says “The kingdom of God is in your midst” So, this prayer reminds us that the kingdom of God can be here on earth for those that have acknowledged Christ as their Savior and have repented of their sins. We can live in that kingdom, right now, today. We can share in the grace of God here on earth, today, just as we will one day share in His love and understanding in our heavenly home.

Give us our bread, give us the daily bread that sustains our human, physical bodies, but, more importantly, give us the bread that sustains our spiritual souls, the bread of life, every day.

Then, dear father, daddy, forgive us when we do wrong. And help us forgive those who do wrong things to us. For we know if we cannot forgive others, then how can we ask for forgiveness?

I have asked Jack Donaghy to offer up a prayer of thanksgiving and also to ask the Lord to forgive us.

Do not lead us into temptation. This part of the Lord’s Prayer has always puzzled me. I do not believe that the Lord would purposely lead us into temptation. When looking at various commentaries and studying for this sermon, I found that a better translation of this line would be asking the Lord to preserve us or help us from falling away from His will and love. In other words, help us not to sin when we are tested.

Protect us from evil. Protect us from Satan who does his evil works here on earth to destroy what God has put in place for all of us. It is evil that works to tear apart our churches. It is evil that works around us everyday to lead us away from the Lord. It is the weeds that tend to choke out the plant before it flowers. We must be diligent. We must pluck out the weeds and throw them out. Then our garden, our church will flower. And sometimes we find those weeds growing in our own heart. We must pluck them out and let our soul flower.

I asked Ross Smith to offer up a prayer for our church.

So, the Lord’s Prayer was the example of how to pray. This was the model that Christ gave us. He did not say it was the only way to pray, but it was a pattern that we could follow on regular occasions.

Luke shows us that Jesus prayed at every important occasion. He prayed at His baptism: Luke 3:21 says:

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.

He prayed at the time He chose the 12 disciples: Luke 6:12-13

Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:

Jesus prayed often and was often by Himself as He prayed: Luke 5:16 (NKJV)

So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

And in

Luke 9:18 (NKJV)

And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, . . .

And He prayed while others were around Him:

Luke 9:28-29 (NKJV)

Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening.

And from our scripture for this morning:

Luke 11:1 (NKJV)

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."

He prayed for Simon Peter:

Luke 22:32 (NKJV)

But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; . . .

And He prayed in the garden before His betrayal:

Luke 22:40-44 (NKJV)

When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." 41And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 43Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus even prayed when He hung there on the cross, broken and dying:

Luke 23:46 (NKJV) And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.' " Having said this, He breathed His last.

And those were just the references from Luke that I read to you. Throughout the Gospels, there are many, many more times that Jesus prayed. He showed, by example the need for us all to go to the Father, our Daddy and ask. He showed by example that we should pray before making any important decisions. He showed by example that we need to turn to God for help. He showed by example that we should pray for the wisdom to understand and bow to the will of God. He showed by example that we should pray for those who are broken and in need of healing.

I have asked Keely to offer up a prayer of healing for us all. A prayer for healing of this church, of healing for the physical illnesses of people in this world who are suffering and of healing for our spiritual wounds that can sometimes cut more deeply than those of a blade.

Our scripture this morning, goes on to tell us something else. The words from verses 9 and 10:

So, this tells us to ask. That does not mean that we should pray to win the lottery and expect that God will make it happen. What it does mean is that if we are sincere and need help with something, we need only ask God and He will help. God will be available to us if we ask. We may not get what we are asking for, or we may get it at a time later than we think should happen, but we must remember. . . God knows what is best for us and for all those who would be affected by what we ask. You see, sometimes we may be asking God to do something or to help us do something that we don’t realize might affect someone or something else. We cannot see as far ahead as God. He knows what is best for all of His children.

And, after we ask, we are told to seek. This means an action on our part. We ask, but then we must go out and look for what we are asking. So, if we are ill or hurt, we ask God for help and healing, then we go seek out the doctor or the medicine that will best be able to help us and God will guide us.

If we are in spiritual trouble, we ask God for His help, then we seek out those who we believe can give us the most help. That could be a pastor, a friend, a family member, or even that dreaded Samaritan that we talked about the other week. Again, if we are sincere in our asking, God will direct us to the right person or will give you an answer in His instruction book, the Bible.

But, sometimes, we ask and we seek and we run up against closed doors. So, Jesus tells us to knock. Don’t turn around and go home if the door is closed, knock. If the doctor’s office door is closed, knock to see if he is still there. If you go to a friend for spiritual help and the friend is busy talking about their day, stop them. Knock on the door of their heart and ask them to open it to you. Ask them to let you come in. Ask them to listen.

In this morning’s passage, Jesus is also telling us to be persistent. The true interpretation of this phrase is that we are to be shamelessly persistent. We should knock and keep knocking until the door is opened; we should seek and keep seeking until we find what we are looking for. We should ask and keep asking until we get what we are asking for.

You see, too often, we ask for things that we don’t really need or sometimes-even want. We make frivolous requests of our Lord. And, sometimes, He waits until we ask again and again, just to be sure that we know that what we are looking for is truly something we desire. He already knows, but He is waiting until we are sure or until we think it through a little more.

So if there is something that you truly desire, remember that prayer is the power. Ask the Lord for help, seek out the answer and knock when you come upon closed doors. And be persistent, shamelessly persistent and the Lord says He will give you what you ask and He will show you what you seek and He will open all the doors for you.

Thanks to everyone that helped me and participated in the service today. This is what a church is all about. People who are willing to open themselves and make themselves vulnerable, just to share the love of Christ. People who are willing to stand up and say they love Jesus through their prayers, their words and through their actions. They step out of their comfort zone and let you take a look at their souls. These people are the church and God will bless each of them for willingly and eagerly accepting the challenge that Christ gave them. It was me that did the asking, but it was Christ that booted me in the behind to do it. And I know there are more of you who would not hesitate to say yes if I had asked you to help me this morning.

There are many seedlings here, but with the power of prayer, we will all become flowers in this church and in this community.

St. Teresa said, "The life of prayer is simply being with God and enjoying being with God."

Remember that the power is in prayer. Let that power grow and blossom in each and every one of you. Become flowers for your Lord. Spend this coming week being with God and enjoy being with God. That will be your greatest, most powerful prayer

Amen.

Benediction: May the power of God, the power of His Son Jesus Christ and the awesome power of the Holy Spirit, flower in your life every day of this coming week. Be aware of all that is around you. Amen.