Asking God
June 30, 2013 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: God has allowed us the privilege to approach Him and make requests of Him.
Focus Passage: Matthew 7:7-11
Supplemental Passage: pray without ceasing; (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB)
Introduction: There’s a story about a little fellow -- one who had been sent to his room because he had been bad. A short time later he came out and said to his mother, "I've been thinking about what I did and I said a prayer." "That's fine," she said, "if you ask God to make you good, He will help you." "Oh, I didn't ask Him to help me be good," replied the boy. "I asked Him to help you put up with me."
I. Ask with right motives
a. … You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:2b-3 NASB)
b. James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, *came up to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You." And He said to them, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" They said to Him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. "But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." (Mark 10:35-40 NASB)
II. Ask knowing your relationship
a. "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7 NASB)
b. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; (1 John 3:1a NASB)
III. Ask according to God’s will
a. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. (1 John 5:14-15 NASB)
b. saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." (Luke 22:42 NASB)
c. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27 NASB)
[The audio of this sermon can be downloaded at http://sermon.net/rboyne/sermonid/1200053389]
