LEARNING TO ASK

Jesus says that the children of this world are wiser
in their generation than the children of light. This
is certainly true when it comes to knowing how to ask ^.
for help from God.

Again and again we see the children of  this world
lifting up their voices without shame, crying out to
God for help, white the children of light keep limping
along somehow unable, or unwilling, or too timid to
pray a real prayer.

The children of this world never turn to God except
when they're in trouble. As long as life is running
smooth, the money is coming in, their health is good,
the thought of God never enters their mind. Then
along comes a crisis, sickness, death, a layoff, a
family problem - now it's "Please dear God help me!"
And God helps them.

God knows very well that when the crisis is past they

will forget him until the next crisis - but he answers

their cry. The pity is that even though they ask only in

a crisis the children of this world do more real, definite,

believing asking than many people who have met and

known the living Christ.

What is it?

Is it laziness?

Is it shoddy thinking?

Or is it this abominable pride that keeps

believers walking through this world with their drooping
heads and drooping hearts and never asking for the
blessings the Father is just waiting to give them?

Why is it that when people become religious they know
less about asking God for the things they need than
they did before.

In our Lord's parable of the Pharisee and the Publican,
the Pharisee is praying up a storm with his these and
thous but he doesn't ask for one thing. He thinks
he has it all.

God, I thank thee that I am not as other
men are ---

God, I thank thee that I am so much more
righteous than other men ---

I fast twice a week ---

I do such marvelous things ---

And all the while this pompous Pharisee is, in fact,
wretched, pitiable, prior, blind, and naked. This man
ought to be asking for help.   He ought to be on his
face pleading.

But to break down and ask for something he'd have to
give up his front.

The Publican, on the other hand, does nothing but ask.

He doesn't go through that goody  goody routine.   It's
just,

"God be merciful to me a sinner."

And the mercy comes. God visits that man's heart with
holy peace. And all heaven breaks forth into singing.
In our Lord's parable of the Prodigal Son we see the
older brother, the good boy who stays home and does
everything right, in the same condition - he doesn't
know how to ask. He complains that the father has
killed the fatted calf for his no-good brother.

"You never even gave me a little goat

that I might make merry with my friends."

 
"Son, you're always with me. All that is
mine is yours.'"

But it didn't do that young man any good because he
never asked.

"Lo, these many years I have served you
and I never disobeyed your command."
"But did you ever ask me for anything?"

What a picture of so many believers. They're so good and

proper, but they bore you to death! Because

they have never learned to ask the Father for one of those

promised blessings that their joy may be full.

The prodigal son came home with one thing on his heart,
a request. He just wants his father to hire him. He's
not claiming any rights... He does not say - "I'm your
son you ought to do something for me."

"Father, I have sinned against Heaven

and before you; I am no longer worthy

to be called your son, just hire me",

and before

he can get another word out, "Bring quickly the best
robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand and
shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill

it. And let us eat and make merry".

Blessings the young man never dreamed of come pouring
down over his penitent head. The father was just waiting
for him to come and ask.

That's the kind of God we have. A God who is a thousand

times more ready to give than we to ask.   He sent his

only begotten into this world to show us just that.

He gave his only begotten son.

He gives his crucified and risen Son to
every soul who asks.

Jesus is God's 'yes' to every cry a human
heart could ever raise.

Never once did Jesus turn to a sick man crying for
healing and say "No".  Not once did Jesus ever answer
a penitent sinner pleading for forgiveness with a "No".
Always "Yes".

If you want to - Lord - you can make me
clean.

Of course I want to. Be clean. And the
leper was healed.

And how Jesus labored with his disciples trying to
teach them to ask!

Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and
you shall find, knock, and it shall be
opened to you. For every one who asks re-
ceives; and he who seeks finds, and to him
who knocks it shall be opened.

If you ask your father for bread you're not going to
get a stone!

If you ask him for fish you're not going to get a
scorpion!

Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask
anything of the Father, He will give it
to you in my name. Hitherto you have
asked nothing in my name; ask, and you
will receive that your joy may be full.

If two of you agree on earth touching
anything they shall ask, it shall be
done for them by my Father who is in
Heaven.

Every redemptive miracle, every healing, every unbinding
of a human life is tied directly to some child of God
lifting up his heart to the Father and asking.  Two believers

over here or two believers over there coming together in unity

and asking.

The Father has those blessings all lined up, ready to

fall like showers upon the dry ground but somebody has

to ask. It won't happen until somebody does ask.

If you who are evil know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more shall
the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask him.

This flock has seen blessings. The stream of living
water has been flowing in our midst. Many have been
quickened - many have been healed. But we haven't seen
anything compared with the blessings that will be flowing

out of our lives into that dry thirsty world when the children

of the Father here start taking the Master at his word and

really asking - not just in a crisis but day after day.

"Oh, but I tried that, nothing ever happened.
I prayed and prayed and nothing happened:"

Sometimes people think they're asking, but in truth they
aren't doing anything but mumbling to themselves. It's
a monologue - not a prayer. The heart is fixed, not on
God but on itself. Their spirit is clothed not with the
name of Jesus, but with its own phony righteousness.

Complaining is not asking.

The older brother of the prodigal was a complainer. "Lo,
I've done this and this and this - and you've never done
anything for me." "I've worked so hard in the church
all these years - and look at the thanks I get."

A complaining spirit cannot pray, all it can do is complain.

Don't think that because you've done a lot of complaining

and nothing happened, God failed you. Repent of your

complaining spirit and draw near to the Father with

a heart that has been to the Cross and seen the Father's

love and ask, and you will receive.

Brooding is not asking.

There are people who go into their room and shut the
door and get down on their knees and brood for half an
hour. They wonder why their prayers are never answered
- they never prayed.   

 
            Envy is not asking.

You see power moving in another man's life and instead

of rejoicing at what God is doing in that man  you envy

him - you begrudge him those blessings.

..."when my no-good brother comes home,
you kill the fatted calf."

You may get a raise out of the boss that way but you'll
never get blessings out of God with envy.

Self-pity is not asking.

We all sympathize with the man who is married to a
woman who is forever moaning about her aches and pains,
her incisions, and shots and pills and trips to the
doctor. But this is the kind of garbage the heavenly
Father hears in our hearts day in and day out.

Not cries for help   --   Not cries for mercy,

but an incessant spewing forth of self-pity. What a joy
it is to the Father when this self-pity stops and he
hears one decent prayer!

Asking is more than saying the words.

Sometimes we say all the right words. but our hearts are
miles away and ^:the words fall to the ground like stones.

Asking is more than shedding tears.

We can become deeply emotional about Brother Jack's
drinking problem and shed real tears, but our hearts
aren't there.

             Asking begins with finding out from your
             heart what it realty wants -

not what you think it ought to want - but what your
heart deeply and truly is crying out for. If you have
to sit still in a chair for 10 hours and unwind your
tangled thoughts, (or 10 days), it's worth it.

Do you really want to be set free from that bondage?
Do you really want the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
even though fire comes with it?   Do you really want
that child of yours brought into the Kingdom, even
though he never becomes Valedictorian of Michigan State?
Do you really want God to make you a more effective
laborer in his vineyard? Do you want to see a harvest

of multitudes in this city coming under the living Word?

When you have that clear then take your request to the

Father.  Lift up your heart to God, whose eye is upon you
and whose love for you is deep beyond  words, who sent
his own Son to the Cross so that you could lift up your
heart like this and ask.

Here, O Father, is my need.
Here is the cry of my heart.
Help me! Give me these people for your
Kingdom!

O God, open up those windows of Heaven
upon us all.

Truly, truly I say to you, if
you ask anything of the Father
he will give it to you in my name.

So now you believe that in Jesus name you have this
thing you asked for. You believe before you see it.
You believe because you know your heavenly Father has
heard you, and it's done.

The message of the Spirit to this flock today is one
word:  ASK.

Don't sit around and brood and complain
and feel sorry for yourself.

Lift up your heart to the Father and ask
and in the name of Jesus you shall receive.