Grosey's Messages

Law grace reading James 4:1-17

Bible reading:  Matthew 7: 6-12    

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?11 If you then, who are 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!

12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

 

Benediction  Ephesians 3:20, 21  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

 

A. Ask: Desire

B. Seek: Discernment and Direction

C. Knock: Determination

D. Discover

God Is Good

God Is Wise

God Is Love

 

Coming out from last week.  We focussed on the positive focus for our lives, seeing the Glory of God.

Seeing the grace of God in Christ,  Seeing the goodnss of God worked out in our lives.  Our focus is not to be on material things. They are of less importance, but not unimportant to God.

What is of mot importance is the recognition of all we have in Christ, and how this contributes to the kingdom of God.

Remember  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things wil be added unto you.

But as this is so, we still have our urgent needs that arise in our hearts.  These urgent needs may have to do with daily bread, food,  finances, security etc.  And these things the Lord promises to look after. If we look to His interests first, He will look after ours.

I have always found this to be true.

The consequence is that as we trust in Him, we will bring all our needs to Him. 

That will be the focus of our lives.

And that is the confidence the Lord Jesus wishes us to have.

Matthew 7: 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?11 If you then, who are 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 an increasing intensity described here: Ask Seek Knock!  Anxieties cause us stress.

God wants us to approach Him as our Father!  It is about communication.

ASK   IT'S ABOUT YOUR DESIRES

Ask and express desire to God. "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them." (Mark 11:24) God wants you to tell Him your desires—not just the big ones;; the little ones. Can you think of anything that's big to God? God is interested in you so much that the very hairs of your head are numbered. (Matthew 10:30;; Luke 12:7) There's not a sparrow that falls but what God attends the funeral. (Matthew 10:29;; Luke 12:6) So, you can ask Him. Don't get the idea that you can ask God for spiritual things but you cannot ask Him for material things, you can ask Him for sacred things but not for secular things. Can you ever imagine the Lord Jesus Christ dividing His life between the sacred and the secular? When you're saved, every day is a holy day, every place is a sacred place. And, if you want something, ask God for it.

 

SEEK   IT'S ABOUT DIRECTION  

But, sometimes we ask and we don't receive. What do we do then? We seek so we can find. So, the next factor is what I want to call "the direction factor": seek, and expect direction from God.

Now, if you don't have the desire of your heart, and you ask God for something and you don't get it, you have to ask yourself, "Well, why didn't I get it? Why didn't God do for me what I asked Him to do? Well, maybe I was asking for the wrong thing." James said, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." (James 4:3) God

is too good to give us the wrong thing;; and so, we pray until God directs us. We expect direction from God.

The Apostle Paul, who was a better Christian than anybody in this building, had a thorn in the flesh, and he asked God to remove his thorn. God didn't do it immediately. He prayed once—one session of prayer—and God didn't answer his prayer. He prayed another session of prayer, and God didn't answer his prayer. He prayed the third time, and God did not answer his prayer. But, God gave him an answer, but God did not answer and give him what he asked for (that the thorn would be removed). God said, "Paul, I've got a better plan for you. I'm going to give you extraordinary power. I'm going to let my strength rest upon you." Paul said, "Well, praise the Lord!" He didn't say, "What can't be cured must be endured." He said, "It will be enjoyed." He said, "I take pleasure in what God has done for me." (2 Corinthians 12:7– 9) Why, you see, Paul was seeking. He wanted God's will on a matter. He wanted God's best not Paul's best. He needed direction.  He needed Discernment.

Some years ago  a dear friend, former lecturer in Greek for theological colleges in Western Australia, was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Ken Panton was about 60 ish.  He asked me to come pray with him  on the Monday before he had a further MRI on the Tuesday.

Already his oncologist had said there was no hope, and he'd be gone before the month was out.   It is rare for an oncologist to be that blunt.

We met to pray. Not that he get well. But that we might discern God's will in the matter of the cancer.  We prayed for half a day.  Then we had lunch.  We put it together. What do we think the Lord wanted?

Amazingly we came to the conclusion that God wanted him around a bit longer to care for his two year old grandson Kenneth, who had no one else to care for him.

We then prayed very shortly for healing.  He went  in the next day to Dr Ackerman.  "What are you doing?"

Ken said, I met with my pastor to pray.

"well I don't believe in prayer, but you better keep doing it. It has worked! Your 3 cm tumours have shrunk to less than a tenth of a millimeter."

We discerned God wanted Ken to be around for another two years. It was two years later that a different form of cancer quickly took Ken home to glory.

Sometimes God's answers are not what we expect.

Now, you may be sincere in your prayer, but God may not be wanting to give you that exact thing that you're asking God for because He has something better for you.

KNOCK  IT'S ABOUT DETERMINATION

So, when you pray, remember the desire factor: you ask and express your desire to God.     Then Seek Direction from God. Then keep on keeping on.

Now, He says, "Ask…seek, and…knock," (Matthew 7:7) and these are in the present tense, meaning, "Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Don't pray and then quit." Luke 18:1: "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." (Luke 18:1)

Now, this scripture that I gave you from Matthew chapter 7, this promise is repeated

in Luke chapter 11 with a great illustration. So, you might want to turn to Luke 11:5–10 And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves,6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him';7 and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'?8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

 

Jesus told the story of a widow. She didn't have anybody to stand up for her. And, somebody had cheated her financially, and she didn't have anything to live on apart from that. So, she went to the judge and said, "Judge, I want you to rectify this matter."

The judge said, "Go away. I'm not interested in this." Jesus said the judge didn't fear God or man. The woman came again and said to Mr. Judge, "You need to help me. I don't have any other help." The judge said, "I'm not interested in you. Go away." But, she kept coming over and over and over again. And, Jesus said, "Finally, the judge said, 'Lest this woman weary me, I'm going to adjudicate her case in the right way.'"

(Luke 18:1–6) Now, was Jesus saying that God is like an unjust judge? No. Again, what He is saying is there is a principle of persistence. It works in the world. It works in the neighborhood, and it works in the kingdom of heaven. We have to persist with God.

There was a story in the Bible about a woman who was a Canaanite woman. The Bible calls her a Syrophoenician woman. She had a daughter that was demon-­ possessed. She heard that Jesus was in the neighborhood. She thought this was her opportunity. She comes to Jesus, falls down in front of Him, and says, "Lord, have mercy upon my daughter. She's possessed with a devil." You know what Jesus said to her? "Look, I haven't come to you Canaanites. I've come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Do you think that I'm going to take the children's bread and give it to dogs?"

You would think the woman would say, "Well, some Messiah He is! Some loving man He is! I've never been treated so rudely in my life!" You'd think she'd turn and go away. But you know what she said? She said, "You're right, Lord. That's what I am. I'm a Gentile dog." But, she said, "Lord, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table, and I am under your table. And, if I'm a dog, I'm your dog, and I'm under your table." Jesus' heart broke. Now, He wasn't being cruel to that woman;; He was trying to teach her to persist in prayer. And, He said, "O woman, great is [your] faith." (Matthew 15:28)

He was showing to them all that for this woman faith was real.

And, that woman had her prayer answered and her darling daughter delivered from demons. (Matthew 15:21–28;; Mark 7:24–30)

Jacob was out at night seeking peace, seeking meaning to life, and the Bible says that an angel of the Lord pounced him. Now, can you imagine being asleep out in the wilderness and getting pounced by an angel? This angel, the angel of the Lord, was really the angel Jehovah, which was Jesus, a preincarnate Jesus. And, the Bible says that they wrestled all night. Now, can you imagine a man wrestling with an angel—the angel of Jehovah? And, the angel says to Jacob, "Let me go." (Genesis 32:26)  He could get away any time he wanted to. That fight was fixed. And, Jacob said, "I will not let thee go, [until you] bless me." (Genesis 32:26) And, the Lord says,

"Oh, that's great. You prevailed with God. I'm going to give you a new name, "Israel," because you have become a prince to prevail with God." (Genesis 32:24–30) Sometimes you have to ask. Sometimes you have to seek. Sometimes you have to knock and keep on knocking because God does business with those that mean business. Your answer may be direct.

Your answer may be different.

Your answer may be delayed.

1 Kings chapter 18, Elijah has prayed, and he shut up heaven. And, it would not rain on the earth for a number of years. And then, God tells Elijah, "You go tell Ahab that it's going to rain." (1 Kings 18:1) Now, I'm going to pick up the reading here—you can turn to it if you want to—in 1 Kings chapter 18, beginning in verse 41: "And Elijah"—he's an Old Testament prophet—"said to Ahab"—he's an Old Testament king—"Get up, eat and drink;; for there is a sound of abundance of rain"—by the way, it had not rained a drop when he said this. Not a drop—"So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel"— that's a mountain. I've been on top of Mount Carmel.

And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times"—now, here is a man who already knows. He's been told of God that it was going to rain. But, he prays once, twice, thrice, four times, five times, six times, seven times—"And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not." (1 Kings 18:41–44)

 

Are we a praying church?" Ask yourself this question: "Am I a praying Christian?" You see, the Church is nothing but a composition of all of us. So, ask yourself this question: "Am I a praying Christian?"

"Ask…seek…knock." (Matthew 7:7) Rivet those three words in your mind. Etch them upon your heart: "Ask…seek…knock." (Matthew 7:7) Ask—that speaks of desire. Seek—that speaks of direction. Knock—that speaks of determination.

Prayerlessness is not only a missed opportunity;; it's a sin. Samuel said, "God forbid

that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you." (1 Samuel 12:23) The

Desire.        Psalm 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him,  And He shall bring it to pass.

Ask.  You are not going anywhere until you ask.

James 1:4:1-10 Yet you do not have because you do not ask.3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

 

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?11 If you then, who are 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!"   (Matthew 7:8–11) Now, why can we be so assured that God's going to answer our prayers?

God Is Good    Because God is good. Notice the logic of Jesus: "If evil men—if evil men—will take care of their children, how much more shall a good God answer the prayers of His children?" (Matthew 7:11)

God Is Wise      And, not only is God good, but God is wise. God is not going to give you something that would harm you. God's not going to give you stones if we ask for bread. And, thank God, He's not going to give us stones if we ask for stones. He's going to give us what we want. God is wise.

God Is Love       And, God is love. He calls Him "Our Father which [is] in heaven." (Matthew 6:9;; Luke 11:2).