About forty miles from our church here in Huntsville, Alabama is a business in Scottsboro, Alabama called "Unclaimed Baggage". The business sells items that were left unclaimed at airlines and can be purchased at a fraction of the original cost. They have everything from expensive watches and cameras to clothing and sports equipment - you name it. According to the store’s web site, "Over one million items pass through the store annually." It runs into the millions of dollars worth of items every year! Amazing!
What’s even more amazing are the unclaimed blessings we leave with God.
Here in Jeremiah 33 we find a familiar and spectacular promise from God: "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
Here is a promise born out of difficult circumstances. Interestingly, most of God’s promises were revealed in times of struggle. God is like a jeweler. Ever notice how a jeweler will take a fine diamond and display it on black velvet? There it catches fire from the lights of the room, its beauty multiplied, and its value becomes more apparent.
Jeremiah was in prison when he received this promise from God. Jerusalem was under siege from the enemy. Things weren’t looking so good.
Have you ever looked around at your circumstances and concluded things weren’t looking so good? Consider a couple of stories from the "Think you’re having a bad day" file:
One woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist toward the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Until that moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman.
Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn’t pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was a bomb; he opened it up and it blew him to bits.
Truth be told Jeremiah was in prison because he had faithfully passed God’s message on to the king that the enemy was going to succeed and the city of Jerusalem was going to fall. The king didn’t like that kind of negative preaching so he had Jeremiah arrested and placed under guard.
Isn’t it ironic how we stifle the bearer of bad news? Doesn’t matter if his message is true - doesn’t matter if its something we need to know - doesn’t matter that its often the acceptance of the bad news that can usher us to the good news - we shoot the messenger.
It was while under arrest that Jeremiah received the great promise of restoration for the people of God and the city of Jerusalem. The city of God would fall - but one day in the future - after the people had repented of their idolatry - a rebuilt city would rise from the ashes and God’s blessing would be on it! God would forgive the sin of His people and bless them with peace and prosperity!
God’s dealings with His people over 2,500 years ago set a precedent for today.
PRAYER BECOMES A PORTAL TO THE PROMISES OF GOD!
"Call unto me and I will answer." Not only did God say He would answer when Jeremiah called, but He said He would also show him some great things he didn’t know.
It’s exciting to learn new things. Deb and I are talking about learning Spanish since our oldest daughter and her husband are going to Spain as missionaries. We want to be ready to communicate with our grandkids after they come into this world and learn to talk.
Our youngest daughter told us last weekend that she might move to China after college for missions work. If she thinks I’m gonna try to learn Chinese she can forget about it!
"Call unto me and I will answer you and show you things you don’t know."
The scientist in his laboratory is looking for new discoveries. The inventor is looking for new inventions. We’ve recently been reminded by the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy that the astronaut is willing to take great risks in order to learn more about outer space.
All of these discoveries are exciting. But to discover what God knows has got to be the most fascinating discovery of all!
Would you like for God to show you things you don’t know? Would you like for Him to help you understand your relationships better? Would you like for Him to help you understand your finances better? Would you like for Him to let you in on spiritual secrets that even the gurus, the shamans, and the other supposed "enlightened ones" don’t even know?
Then all you have to do is call because He promises if you do He will answer!
Our problem is we aren’t calling so God can’t answer!
No one states our problem any better than Brother James in the New Testament.
"You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. YOU DO NOT HAVE BECAUSE YOU DO NOT ASK GOD." (James 4:2 NIV)
If we’ll ask - God will answer - and His answer will be enlightening and informative. Prayer is a great key to knowledge. Remember when Daniel needed to know the king’s dream how he and his friends prayed and God revealed the needed information? (Daniel 2) The king’s entire entourage of "psychic friends" couldn’t reveal the dream the king had dreamed but God revealed it to Daniel because of prayer! Don’t you love it! We need some men and women of God today saying "hey, those nuts are fakes - the answers are with God!"
Answered prayer is one of life’s most rewarding experiences! Especially when the answers are greater than we imagined!
Brian Roennfeldt of Perth, West Australia, submitted the following story to Leadership magazine.
"My wife, Angie, went to a rough high school. There were few Christians there apart from one teacher, David Bunton.
"Dozens of his students eventually became believers. Years after Mr. Bunton left, many of them entered the ministry as pastors and missionaries.
"I tracked down Mr. Bunton, now 70 years old and retired. He was choked with emotion when I told him of the many conversions since he taught at that high school.
"I wondered how his influence had brought such a harvest. He told me that many times he had prayed softly over his class as he sat back at his desk and watched them work. But apart from this, he’d done nothing to influence these students toward Christ. The only common point of spiritual connection the students shared was that they were prayed over by their teacher."
Surveys by Barna Research indicate that although 85% of Americans claim to pray in a given week, only 58% pray more than once a day, and the average prayer is only about five minutes long.
Stop and let that soak in.
That is a start but it is far from where we need to be.
We must each one gauge his or her own prayer life. If the time we spend with God is minimal we can’t be surprised that we face problems we can’t solve.
A young boy was out in the back yard trying to move a large rock so he could make more room to ride his bike. His father watched as the boy pushed and pulled at the stone. "Are you sure you’re using all your might?" the father asked. "Sure I’m using all my might!" the son replied. The struggle continued and still the boy couldn’t budge the boulder. Once again the father inquired, "Are you sure you’re using all your strength?" By now the boy was tired and quite a bit frustrated so he said, "Why don’t you come over here and help me move the rock?" So the father stepped in and right away the obstacle was removed. "Son", said the dad, "when you asked me to help you, you were then using all your strength, because any time you have a problem, I have a problem. Don’t ever hesitate to ask me for help."
Are we using all our strength? Not until we have asked our Heavenly Father for help we haven’t. We labor and complain of stressed-out lives while all the time God is anxiously waiting for us to call so He can answer!
Ever study the prayer life of Jesus? There are several books on the topic or you can just read "The Book".
The disciples were so impressed with Christ’s prayer life that they petitioned Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray." (Luke 11:1)
Funny how, even though Christ was the greatest preacher, teacher, and miracle worker the world has ever known, the disciples didn’t request instructions on how to do any of these things. Perhaps when they saw and heard the Master pray they realized this was the key to doing all the other things. "Lord, teach us to pray". That ought to be our petition.
Jesus prayed before sunrise (Mark 1:35) and after others had gone to sleep (Matthew 26:40). He prayed in the wilderness (Luke 5:16). He spent an entire night in prayer before choosing the Twelve Apostles. (Luke 6:12-13)
When Jesus prayed at His baptism - it caused the heavens to open! (Luke 3:21) It was "while He was praying" that He was transfigured. (Luke 9:29)
He prayed so intensely His sweat became blood. (Luke 22:44) He even prayed for those who crucified HIm. (Luke 23:34)
No wonder the disciples entreated, "Lord, teach us to pray."
If Jesus needed to pray how much more do we need to pray?! How much can we learn from His prayer life!
"Call unto me and I will answer."
Our problem is not unanswered prayer.
OUR PROBLEM IS UNASKED PRAYER!
We praise God that He is all-powerful and all knowing and everywhere present. Then we set out to do everything without Him. We suffer from a radical case of self-sufficiency.
We believe He created the world in six days but fail to ask Him to help us balance our checkbook.
We say we believe He cares. We just don’t go to the trouble of soliciting His assistance.
Like the oft-quoted barb, "I want to buy $3 worth of God please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine."
"We want ecstasy, not transformation. We want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. We want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack." (Paraphrase of Wilbur Reese)
In our prayer life we want a little assurance that comes from "now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep". But we don’t want the power that comes from "and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together." (Acts 4:31)
We don’t want our world to be shaken by God so we don’t pray over five minutes a day on average. We wouldn’t know what to do if God shook things up in our lives so we keep Him and His power at a safe distance.
We pray enough to get by...not enough to get beyond.
I told you about the business "Unclaimed Baggage" at the beginning of the sermon. The bargains are so good at this store that people literally come from around the world to shop at it. Yet in all the time I’ve lived near it I haven’t gone once. I wonder what I’ve missed.
Wonder what "unclaimed blessings" of God we’ve missed by not asking for them?
Let’s not let our blessings remain unclaimed. Let’s begin today claiming them by calling on God!
