Transcript for No Busy Signals Here! (Closed Captioned)

Sunday, 8-01-2010

Sermon text: Matthew 7:7-11 [NIV]

... this sermon text recorded for us in Matthew's Gospel

where we read from Chapter 7, beginning with Verse 7:

"ASK AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU;

SEEK AND YOU WILL FIND;

KNOCK AND THE DOOR WILL BE OPENED TO YOU.

FOR EVERYONE WHO ASKS RECEIVES;

HE WHO SEEKS FINDS;

AND TO HIM WHO KNOCKS, THE DOOR WILL BE OPENED.

WHICH OF YOU, IF HIS SON ASKS FOR BREAD,

WILL GIVE HIM A STONE? OR IF HE ASKS FOR A FISH,

WILL GIVE HIM A SNAKE? IF YOU,

THEN, THOUGH YOU ARE EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS

TO YOUR CHILDREN, HOW MUCH MORE WILL YOUR FATHER

IN HEAVEN GIVE GOOD GIFTS TO THOSE

WHO ASK HIM!" This is the Word of our Lord.

Let us pray:

Glorious and gracious God, may the words of my mouth and

the meditation of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your

sight, our only source of hope and comfort.

Amen.

Text taken from the HOLY BIBLE:

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION 1978,

used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Dear Followers of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:

I used to think that, if I asked a question,

people were going to think that I was stupid.

Or that I was foolish.

But I think a lot of people share

that common thought in their lives.

That if we don't know ...

it's better for us to just live

in our own ignorance, than to maybe ask the question

to have someone think that we don't know

the answer. So we have some convoluted thinking.

Because the only way we're going to get to

know things, is to ask

questions. To be

inquisitive of the world around us. To find out

answers that we need to know.

Asking is what we as people,

really need to know how to do

to be aware of and to take advantage of that.

I mean there are even commercials on television

that talk about how people will ask tons of questions

about insigificant things.

And then as they sit in a doctor's office,

and he says to them: Do you have any questions?

They remain silent.

Sometimes,

it is really clear in our lives

that we don't receive information,

we don't gain understanding,

because we don't ask.

And Jesus shared that

same thought with His disciples

hundreds of years ago when He said to them:

Ask! I want you to ask

your heavenly Father for the blessings that you need

for your life. Ask and God

our heavenly Father will answer you.

He will answer you because you are

His child through faith. God doesn't

answer us or hear our prayers because

we are so wonderful or we think that we have to

be in a good place in our life spiritually

in order to go to God so that He's going to hear us.

God's ears are open to us because of what

His Son did and our faith in the fact

that we believe and trust that

His Son, Jesus Christ, is our Lord

and Savior. That, we, in and of

ourselves are sinful human beings

that could do nothing

to save ourselves. We could do nothing to gain

God's worthy attention

to make us His own. We were born as children of sin.

We were born as the children of Satan. We were

the enemies of God until by the

grace of God ... and the power ...

and the love of God ...

He sent to us His Holy Spirit

and His Word, to bring us to faith.

To teach us,

of the glories of His heaven

and the extent of His love

that He would take children of sin

destined to be condemned.

Children of Satan who wanted

nothing to do with God.

But to make them His own ...

to live in His grace. To live

in His love. To live in

His Kingdom. To be with Him

not just in this earth, protected by His care,

but to be with Him in the eternal glory of heaven

serving Him and praising Him

and seeing how wonderful He is

with our very own eyes.

That our heavenly Father

has brought us to faith

and trust in what His Son does

is that tremendous gift of God.

That He loves us so much

that He not only sent His Son to be our Savior;

He sends the Holy Spirit

to call us to be His own!

To live with Him.

To interact with Him. To be able to

approach God in the holiness

and blamelessness

of Christ. To have that same access

that we have with our own earthly parents.

To run to Him when we're happy and

overjoyed with what's going on in our life.

To thank Him for those blessings that have

come to us and created in us joy and

made us happy and made us smile today.

To thank Him for the children who

bring us joy and the wonderful things

that they've done.

And just as we go to our parents when we're in need,

and we need and desire help,

we run to our heavenly Father

in the same manner. To pray for those same

children that are aggravating us to no end

because of their behavior.

To pray that God would come to them and strengthen them

and keep them in the faith.

That God would protect our loved ones

and care for us ...

because He sees us in our need. He sees us

in our daily life. He is our heavenly Father

who loves us.

And our Savior reminds us today that we're to go to Him

and ask. Yes! He knows exactly

what we need even before we could think of it!

But He encourages us

to come to him: Ask and

you will receive. Seek

and you will find. Knock

and the door will be opened to you.

That God hears us ...

It's such a wonderful blessing! But it's not some

kind of magic door that we're supposed to knock on

and that when we open it up, all of our heart's desires

are there. It is what is there

to keep us in the faith.

To strengthen us because our God

knows what's in the future for us.

Our God wants us kept in His

eternal care. And just like anyone

who is a parent understands what

their children needs ... Jesus puts it simply:

If your child comes to you and asks for bread,

who of you is gonna give him a stone?

If your child comes to you and wants a fish,

who of you is gonna give him a snake?

You know how to treat your children.

You know what your children need.

When your 12-year-old comes and says to you:

Dad, I need a car.

You're gonna say: No!

And as a parent, you understand why that is.

It's for their own safety

and the safety of others.

When your daughter runs up to you and says:

Mom, I wanna wear this 8-inch skirt today

because everybody who's 13, is now.

And you say ... Nooo!

You understand the reasoning

behind that.

Jesus taught us that

because the same thing is true about our heavenly Father.

Because sometimes

we come to God not knowing what's ahead for us.

And thinking there is one thing that's the only thing

that we need. It's the only thing that's going to make us

happy and God looks us right in the face and says:

No!

And we come back and understand that

He loves us so much He is not

going to give us something that is detrimental.

And it's going to hurt our faith.

The other thing is, sometimes He says:

Not now! Look at our example of Hannah

in the Old Testament Lesson for today.

How many times must she have gone to her heavenly Father

praying that she would have a child!

Praying that God would bless her with an heir!

But when the time was right,

God granted her that request.

But in the meantime, she kept coming

to God ... with her prayers

and with her concerns. And pouring out

her soul to Him.

We're reminded that sometimes God answers our prayers with

such a resounding YES ... it astounds us.

And then we hear those words

of Paul, in our Epistle Lesson

where he said to the Philippians: Present your requests

to God with thanksgiving.

With rejoicing. Returning to

Him for the blessings that He has poured out upon you.

The blessings that He gives to each of us

as His children as we live in this world.

We're reminded today that God is waiting

in His heaven ... to bless us!

To bless us with the things that we NEED

to keep us in the faith.

Blessings of gentleness, as Paul

encouraged the Philippians to be:

To let their gentleness be shown to all.

To let our light in Christ shine forth.

To direct others to our heavenly

Father so that they, too, may know

His blessings and His love.

Now is not the time for us to be silent.

Not in worship and not in prayer.

But today is the day ...

to ask, to seek,

to knock, to know that

God will hear us. He will answer us. He will give to us.

He will open the door to us.

And supply us with everything we need

to keep our bodies and souls

safe in Him until He calls us

to be with Him for all eternity.

So start talking. Start asking.

Go to our heavenly Father

and He will hear and

answer your requests.

Amen.

Let us rise. Now may the peace

of God, which goes beyond all of our understanding, keep

your hearts and your minds and especially your lives,

in the one true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.