God Thought You'd Never Ask
Preaching
Shaking Wolves Out Of Cherry Trees
And 149 Other Sermon Ideas
Purpose Statement: Most Christians are not very serious about looking for God or receiving help unless they are in dire circumstances.
Matthew 7:7-11 offers a great promise. Jesus says to ask, seek, or knock and God will respond. He goes on to say that we as parents know how to meet our children's needs with love, and God's love and gifts are far greater. It finally dawned on me that our situation with God is exactly like the game show, Jeopardy. This show has turned it all around by giving the answers and the contestants must respond with the correct question. (In reality, they are fooling no one. Basically, the contestants are given questions and respond with answers. Because Jeopardy switched the names around means nothing.) Nevertheless, God provides the answers and we must come up with the correct questions! Most of us fail to take God up on the promise. We must:
a. Be concerned enough to ask. In many cases, people only get involved in social action over an issue that touches them personally. If they are not directly affected, people will generally not be very interested in the cause. It may take something out of the ordinary to catch our attention and motivate us to become involved. When frustration sets in, the problem gets too big, or we feel offended, we look for help.
b. Know what to ask. What would most people pray for or desire? Perhaps money, popularity, success, our team to win, something bad for our enemies, more free time, and more along these lines. How high on our list would be such things as knowing the right side on a controversial issue, really providing food for the hungry, strength and patience for each day's Christian witness, a greater sense of wonder about our universe, or finding a new way to serve?
c. Recognize the answers. If we offered an appropriate prayer and it was answered, would we even know it? Do we dismiss answers as coincidence or luck? Sometimes we are searching for an answer or solution, when we are that answer "walking around ready to happen," and we don't know it.
d. Believe the answers. The answer might easily be different than what we expected or wanted, and thus relegated to a non-answer status. Our values are so often different from God's values that we would not believe the right answer. Hagar the Horrible (a comic strip about a bungling Viking) was asked by his peace-loving son, "How can we have peace in the world?" Hagar answers, "It isn't easy, son; we have to constantly fight for it."
Will you be asking God any new questions this week?
Matthew 7:7-11 offers a great promise. Jesus says to ask, seek, or knock and God will respond. He goes on to say that we as parents know how to meet our children's needs with love, and God's love and gifts are far greater. It finally dawned on me that our situation with God is exactly like the game show, Jeopardy. This show has turned it all around by giving the answers and the contestants must respond with the correct question. (In reality, they are fooling no one. Basically, the contestants are given questions and respond with answers. Because Jeopardy switched the names around means nothing.) Nevertheless, God provides the answers and we must come up with the correct questions! Most of us fail to take God up on the promise. We must:
a. Be concerned enough to ask. In many cases, people only get involved in social action over an issue that touches them personally. If they are not directly affected, people will generally not be very interested in the cause. It may take something out of the ordinary to catch our attention and motivate us to become involved. When frustration sets in, the problem gets too big, or we feel offended, we look for help.
b. Know what to ask. What would most people pray for or desire? Perhaps money, popularity, success, our team to win, something bad for our enemies, more free time, and more along these lines. How high on our list would be such things as knowing the right side on a controversial issue, really providing food for the hungry, strength and patience for each day's Christian witness, a greater sense of wonder about our universe, or finding a new way to serve?
c. Recognize the answers. If we offered an appropriate prayer and it was answered, would we even know it? Do we dismiss answers as coincidence or luck? Sometimes we are searching for an answer or solution, when we are that answer "walking around ready to happen," and we don't know it.
d. Believe the answers. The answer might easily be different than what we expected or wanted, and thus relegated to a non-answer status. Our values are so often different from God's values that we would not believe the right answer. Hagar the Horrible (a comic strip about a bungling Viking) was asked by his peace-loving son, "How can we have peace in the world?" Hagar answers, "It isn't easy, son; we have to constantly fight for it."
Will you be asking God any new questions this week?
