I love those little odd things in life that make you scratch your head and say, "Hmm, how can that be?" or "What’s the answer to that?" I thought of one the other day. You know how many shopping malls have those Orange Julius’ where you can buy orange juice, orange drink or an orange froth? Orange Julius’ are in malls, but have you ever seen one that wasn’t it a mall? (Hmmm?) Here is another I was contemplating this week as I prepared this message on prayer. How much time should you spend praying about a message on prayer?

The title of this 7^th core value is Intercessory Prayer. As I explained last week, (O.H.) both words are important. We don’t want to say we just believe in prayer, for there are all kinds of strange prayers spoken to strange gods. Here is an example of one prayer offered by another church in Viroqua. (Overhead) We don’t just believe in prayer, but we believe in intercessory prayer. What do we mean by intercessory? Synonyms for the words intercessory help us understand what we mean. Mediation, intervention, petition, plea. Mediation–we need someone to help us solve our problems. Intervention–we need someone who is powerful enough to enter our world and intervene between us and the struggles of life. Petition and plea–we are asking, no we are begging someone to help us in our time of need. Intercessory prayer then is throwing ourselves at the mercy of someone who has the power and wisdom to help us.

Let me read our main passage this morning from Matt. 7:7-11. ⁷"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹If 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! Part of understanding Scripture is understanding the context of a given passage. The context of Jesus’ teaching on prayer here in chapter seven is the Sermon on the Mount which begins way back in chapter five. Our first principle is drawn from 5:3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Here Jesus tells us we are poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge that we have nothing good in ourselves and in our own strength. The word poor does not capture the meaning of the term, rather it should be extreme poverty. Think of it this way. Say you and a friend are sitting down to solve a problem in your area of expertise. (Give examples) What do you bring to the table with you? You bring your knowledge, your wisdom, your unique experience. You will have a lot to offer in solving the problem. Now instead of you and a friend sitting down to solve a problem, it is you and God sitting down together. What do you bring to the table this time? What are you holding in your hands that you can offer to God to solve the problem? Nothing, right? That is poverty of spirit. We say, God, when it is you and I, I have nothing, you have everything. That is how you begin to pray and is our first principle, We pray because we must. If I have an extreme poverty of spirit, if I have nothing to offer God in this world, then I must pray–I have no other choice.

Kay Arthur, the founder and of Precept Ministries illustrates poverty of spirit from her own background. Kay was a PK, a Pastor’s Kid and went to church all her life. She sincerely believed she was a Christian but exhibited attitudes similar to Simon the Pharisee form last week, "Lord, I deserve to be in your kingdom!" Even with all of that Christian background, at 26 years old she divorced her husband, completely rejected God and began to live an immoral lifestyle. Her two young boys would see the latest man in her life and ask, "Is he going to be our daddy?" She began to grow tired of her lifestyle and wanted to break free from it, she wanted to be good, but she could not. Finally at the end of herself, she understood what it meant to be poor in spirit. She left behind her prideful, self-sufficient ways and became a helpless beggar pleading for God’s mercy. Christians are not horrible, sinful creatures, but when we come to the spiritual table with Jesus Christ, we come empty-handed. We pray because we must

The second principle is that we pray to get what we need–NOT what we want, but what we need. Look at vv 7-8 again. ⁷"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Could anything be more plain? Jesus says it twice for clarity. If you ask you will receive; if you seek you will find and if you knock the door will be opened. Prayer is not a magical formula. As we will see later, for various reasons, we don’t get everything we ask for. But I believe this verse is telling us there are some things that we need that we don’t get simply because we do not ask.

This is certainly the premise of the wildly popular book, The Prayer of Jabez. Bruce Wilkinson has written a 92-page book based on one rather obscure OT verse about a man named Jabez. Bruce causes us to think of gifts and blessings that were intended for us, but instead sit alone on a shelf somewhere simply because we did not ask. He challenged the student body of a Christian college to ask God for the island of Trinidad and a DC-10. What resulted was the provisions for 126 students and faculty to spend an entire summer ministering on the island of Trinidad..

How many things do we need but don’t have for no other reason than we have not asked? What do you need this morning? What are the most obvious needs you have right now? Have you asked God to provide for those needs? Are you quick to worry but slow to pray? Is yours a material need? Maybe you need a car, nothing fancy, just a reliable car to get to work. Have you asked God for a car? Maybe your need is spiritual. Maybe you need strength in order to forgive someone who has hurt you? Maybe you need a friend. Maybe you need help making an important decision. Have you asked God about every single need you have? Now don’t see God as a cosmic vending machine. You can’t put in 50 cents worth of prayer and always expect to get what you want. If you ask God it is possible you might not get what you need. But if you don’t ask it is absolutely certain that you won’t get it.

The other reason we can have confidence is answers from our prayers is our knowledge of who we are praying to. We are not praying to the Birther of the cosmos or a tree or the stars. We are praying to the almighty creator of the universe who has revealed himself in 3 persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and who has both the power and the goodness to answer our prayers. If God were good but not powerful, he would listen to our prayers and often not be able to help. If God were powerful but not good he would listen and have the ability to help, but he would choose not to help. But God is both perfectly powerful and perfectly good. We pray to the Good Gift-giver. Jesus illustrates this in vv 9-11, ⁹"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹If 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! Politicians like to tell us that they believe in the inherent goodness of men and women. Jesus reminds us of the inherent evil in mankind. But even with our bent toward evil, we can accomplish acts of kindness toward one another. If a hungry son asks his father for food, even the worst of fathers will give him some food. Jesus then argues from the lesser to the greater. If human fathers who are corrupted by sin can give good gifts to their human children, how much more will our heavenly father give good gifts to his spiritual children.

Kids and teens in the group, if you want to ask your dad for something, what is the best time to approach him? Do you wake him up at 4 am to ask him? Do you interrupt him while he is paying bills to ask him? Not if you’re smart you don’t. You wait until your dad is well fed, rested and in a good mood. If you ask him for something when he is in a bad mood or is busy, chances are you will get a negative response. Our heavenly father is not like this. No time is a bad time to ask him because his moods do not change with circumstances. He is perfectly good and therefore always gives only good gifts. By the very essence of his being it is impossible for him to give a bad gift.

Here is another tactic that young people use to get what they want from their parents. If your request is denied the first time, what do you often do? You strengthen your argument for why you need the thing you are requesting. You have a bucket full of reasons why your request should be granted,. What are you trying to do in this instance? You are trying to change the mind of one or both parents. You know that if you can weaken them sufficiently, they will eventually give in. Just the opposite is true with God. When we pray it is not to try to change God, but we pray in order to be changed by God.

When we ask God something, what are the possible responses? Yes or No. Some have created a more complicated answer to this question by adding other options like "wait". But if God answers your prayer by saying "wait", isn’t he actually saying, "No, not right now"? So there are two answers to our prayers, Yes and No. If the answer is yes, how does that change us? When we see answers to prayers we change by becoming more thankful. We change by growing in our confidence and trust in God. Answers to prayer may also come somewhat disguised. Say you are praying for more patience. How do you think God might answer that prayer? Is he more likely to give you a booster shot of patience or will he put you in multiple situations where you can grow in patience? Either way would be an answer to prayer and both would more conform us to the image of God.

A "yes"answer to our prayers can change us, but a "no" answer also has an equal ability to change us. This is especially true if we are aware of the possible reasons that God would give us a "no" answer. If we don’t know these reasons and we get no answers to our prayers, we might conclude that God had abandoned us or doesn’t care. That is certainly not the case.

There are several reasons why God may not answer your prayer.

1. Not a good gift (7:9-11) The first reason is that what you were asking for was not a good gift. Remember, God can ONLY give good gifts and if you ask him for something that is not good for you personally, then he won’t give it to you. You might think, "well my friend asked God for the same thing and God answered my friend’s prayer." What God considers a good gift for one person may not be a good gift for you. God knows you so intimately and personally that he alone knows what is best for you.

2. Selfish motives (James 4:3) The second reason is that you may have prayed with selfish motives. I have never bought a lottery ticket, but several years ago I was seriously tempted to do so. The Powerball jackpot was over 200 million and I began to think, "what if..." What if I won all that money–think of all the money I could give away! I had it figured that I could give most of it away, I even thought of what ministries and charities I would give to. I never bought that ticket and I never asked God to help me win so that I could give the money away. But had I asked him, do you think he would have answered my prayer? What appeared like an unselfish though in my twisted mind, was actually a very selfish thought and it would have been a very selfish prayer. If you are getting "no" answers, consider if they are selfishly motivated.

3. Unrepentant sin (Ps 66:18) A third reason God may answer no is that we have unrepentant sin in our lives. I don’t think the Psalmist had in mind the daily struggle with sin, but when we hold known, unrepentant sin in our hearts, our prayers are answered with a resounding NO. Has God told you to do the right thing, but you have ignored him? Are you getting answers to your prayers? Confession of our sin reestablishes the intimacy with God. We tell God that our spirits are in a state of extreme poverty.

4. Not according to God’s will (Mt 6:10) Jesus taught us to pray in this portion of the "Disciples Prayer" by making sure we pray according to God’s will. This could also be an issue of timing. Perhaps God wants to grant your request, but according to his perfect will and plan, he knows that right now is not the best timing for you. When I graduated from seminary I just assumed I would move right into a pastorate somewhere. Karen and I waited for almost 2 years. I sent out over 100 resumes, completed 20 applications, went to 10 interviews in seven different states and was in the top 2 or 3 on several occasions, but nothing came together. This wasn’t according to God’s will. We learned much patience and trust during that time and looking back, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

5. Doubting and disloyal to God (James 1:6-8) Don’t misunderstand this passage. James is not assuming that we can never doubt what we pray for. If we pray for someone to be healed, does that mean if we lack faith have doubts the person will not be healed, but if we have faith they will be healed? Some churches teach this false doctrine. The kind of doubting James is referring to is best understood by the phrase double-minded man. This kind of person is not really committed to following Christ. A double-minded person serves God with one hand and serves the world with the other. A double-minded person has one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the world. If this in any way describes you, then you know why the answers to your prayers are always NO.

6. Not a Christian The prayers of a non-Christian would most likely break one of these principles. They would not be according to God’s will, they would be selfish, the person would have unrepentant sin. I believe God answers only one prayer from non-Christians–a prayer of repentance and forgiveness.

Rich Maurer

March 3, 2002