ASK GOD FOR THE VERY BEST (Outline)
July 29, 2007 -
PENTECOST 9 -
1 Kings 3:5-12
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INTRO: What do need? The question is not what do you want, but what do you need? For whatever you need God is ready and willing and able to hear, listen, and answer. Time and again our gracious and loving, heavenly Father invites us to come to him with all of our needs. Our Lord’s answer is to provide us with what we need in this life for the next life. God provides what we really, really need. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work”(2 CORINTHIANS 9:8). Today’s familiar text encourages us to:
ASK GOD FOR THE VERY BEST.
As believers we ask God for the very best
I. in humility, II. confidently.
I. ASK GOD FOR THE VERY BEST IN HUMILITY.
A. God uses Solomon this morning as a fitting example of a believer wisely praying.
1. In his great mercy God had made Solomon king over his people, the children of Israel.
2. The Lord God knew Solomon would need help whether Solomon realized it or not.
B. In verse 5 God offers to Solomon whatever he wants. This is quite an offer!
1. Anything in the world could be Solomon’s. This could be a very tempting offer.
2. Verse 6a describes how Solomon understood God had shown mercy to his father, David.
3. In verse 6b Solomon acknowledges that God’s kindness has now also been shown to him.
C. Solomon admits to his own unworthiness in verse 7. He is only a “child” in experience as a king.
1. In humility Solomon realizes that he needs help, verse 8. All of these people and one king.
2. With great humility Solomon asks for wisdom to know right and wrong in ruling, verse 9.
D. God makes a point here. Certainly the Lord knew what Solomon needed. Certainly our Lord today knows exactly what we need. Yet, how often we do not ask. We do not have because we do not ask. Over and over the Lord invites the believer to pray. There is not one place in the Bible that says, “You have prayed enough, stop praying”. The opposite is true. Our gracious God finds it necessary to quietly encourage us to pray continually, pray without ceasing. Why? It is simply because we do not pray as we ought. Here is Jesus’ own encouragement. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”(LUKE 11:9). Start with asking and seek and knock.
E. There is a reason that our Lord wants us to pray to him. The reason our heavenly Father delights in our prayers is that he promises to hear. More than just hearing the Lord then also promises to answer. There is no other god like that in any other religion in this world. The mercy of God and the love of the Lord and the grace of our Savior cause us to stand in humility. Here is the Lord Almighty creator of all things. Here is our Lord Almighty inviting us to come to him and ask him for anything. How awesome! We bring only our sins and deserve nothing. Still, the Lord promises everything. How humbling! “’Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?’ declares the LORD. ‘This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word’”(ISAIAH 66:2).
F. Humbly we come before God with nothing to offer. Humbly we come before God realizing his great and gracious power to provide whatever we need. All too often we sell ourselves short. We come asking God for a great list of things. All too often all these things are just, just so earthly. God wants us to have more, much more. What we truly, really, absolutely need is not what the world offers but is only what God can give and freely provides. “He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever--holy and awesome is his name”(PSALM 111:9). Ask God for the very best. By grace we have been saved. God increase our faith. God give us wisdom to love you and your ways more and more.
ASK GOD FOR THE VERY BEST.
In the presence of our awesome God we come in humility.
II. ASK GOD FOR THE VERY BEST CONFIDENTLY.
A. Solomon already realized that God’s power and God’s promises were sure.
1. Solomon also understood that he did not deserve to stand in the presence of the Lord.
2. Solomon did have some doubts concerning his ability, verse 8.
B. The undertaking to be king of God’s chosen people was enormous. It would take godly wisdom.
1. Verse 10 reveals the Lord’s happiness at Solomon’s request for wisdom to rule as king.
2. In verse 11 the Lord lists all the selfish things Solomon might have asked for, but didn’t.
C. Verse 12 has the Lord’s answer to Solomon of great blessings: wisdom, + riches, and + honor!
D. Solomon is a great example for our own personal prayer life. We, like Solomon, approach our inviting Lord with humility but also with great confidence. The Lord asks us to ask him for whatever we need. God does this that we find in him our comfort -- for our souls, forever. Consider these words of the Lord our God. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”(HEBREWS 4:16). Come before God in confidence.
E. The confidence that is ours is ours by faith. We know, believe and confess that our Lord God Almighty is anxious to hear and help us. Our confidence is ours in knowing that our Lord God Almighty treats us far, far better than we deserve. God does not hold our sins against so that he might withhold his answer from us. In fact, the very opposite is true. “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”(JOHN 14:13,14). The creator of the heavens and the earth and everything is willing to do what we ask!
F. Rest assured, dear Christian friends that the Lord our God wants us to pray as bold believers. Our gracious God want us to pray as confident Christians. Our boldness and our confidence do not really come from within us. Our boldness and confidence comes from without. God gives us faith to understand that our sins are forgiven. We do not stand before God as condemned criminals. Rather, we boldly, confidently come to God’s throne of grace as sinners now forgiven and saved. “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him”(1 JOHN 3:21,22). Ask God for the very best.
CONC.: Our heavenly Father constantly invites us and encourages us to come to him and to pray to him. God does this because we often only use prayer as a last resort rather than our daily visit with him. Sadly, then, we cut ourselves off from the many great blessings the Lord God himself wishes to shower upon us. Worse, at times, we all too often only concentrate on earthly things. The Lord wants us to have the very, very best. The very best in God’s eyes and hopefully our eyes are those things spiritual. These are the very, very best things that each and every one of us truly, really need. Consider the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus left as an example for his disciples. The seven petitions contain only ONE (1) centered on the earthly. The other SIX (6) petitions concern themselves with those things spiritual. ASK GOD FOR THE VERY BEST in humility but also confidently. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!”(EPHESIANS 3:20,21). Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
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PENTECOST 9 readings:
GENESIS 18:1-14;
COLOSSIANS 1:21-28;
LUKE 10:38-42
