CERTIFICATE OF SUCCESS IN PRAYER
LUKE 11:9-10
A couple of guys had a building project and needed to go to the lumber yard, so they get in their pick up truck and go. Now it so happens that their names are Heath and Steve. Well Heath walks into the office and said, "We need some four-by-twos."
The clerk said, "You mean two-by-fours, don’t you?"
Heath looked at the man a little confused and said, "I’ll go check," and went back to the truck.
He returned a minute later and said, "Yeah, I meant two-by-fours."
"Alright. The clerk say, “Now how long do you need them?"
Again Heath gets that confused look on his face and says, "I’d better go check."
After awhile, Heath returns to the office and says to clerk, "A long time. We’re gonna build a house."
As can be said about many of my jokes it as nothing to do with my sermon this morning other then now I have everyone’s attention. For the past several weeks we have speaking on the subject of prayer. And the great need that we have to pray.
I would go so far to say is that prayer is an instinct of man. As Spurgeon states, “To seek aid in time of distress from a supernatural being is an instinct of human nature.” While all men may not pray to the true God during times of distress most seek some divine being. There is perhaps no more sincere a prayer then of the one who has ridiculed prayer in prosperity, but now finds themselves in the mist of trouble. Many a person’s atheism has evaporated in times of trouble.
I believe that there is an instinct in man that tell us we ought to pray. Man’s prays because there is something in prayer that meets a basic need. Our creator has created us with the power of thirst, and He has given to us water to meet that thirst, to meet that need. God created in us hunger, and food to meet that need. God has created in us an inclination to talk to Him, thus we have prayer to meet that need.
We see what happens when a person does not drink, they will soon perish. When a person does not satisfy there desire for food, it will not be long before they die. When a person refuses to pray, they to will soon drift away from our heavenly Father, they will wither spiritually.
We must believe that we will have success in prayer, just as we believe that water will cure our thirst, or food cure our hunger. Our God would not call us to prayer, and then have prayer have no effect. How it is that our prayer moves the arm that move the world I do not fully understand, but I know that it does. And as we look to our verse this morning, we will see that we have a certificate of success in our prayers.
Please turn with me to our passage for this morning. That would be Luke 11:9-10. That is page 900 in your pew Bibles this morning. What we see in this passage is a guarantee give by our Lord Jesus Christ that our prayers are heard.
These are the words of our Lord, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
What we see in this passage is what Spurgeon calls “three moral wounds for Christian’s doubts as to prayer.” Those three wounds are; first “The weight of His authority”, second, “A presented promise”, and third, “the indisputable fact that our prayer will be heard.”
Let us look at there three moral wounds to doubt in our prayer. First is that we have the weight of His authority”. Notice how the Lord begins this passage, “I say to you”. It is the Lord Jesus speaking here.
The first mark of a follower of is that he believes his Lord. We cannot say that we are followers of Jesus Christ unless we believe the words He says. To be a follower of Christ we must believe every word He is spoken or we are not a true follower.
Some folks say they are followers of Christ yet they do believe the Words He speaks. So say they follow Jesus yet do not believe Him when He does state; “ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Some say they believe in Jesus yet they do not believe when He states that He is the “Way the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him.” People say they are followers of Christ yet deny that He is the only way to salvation as He has said.
If you sit in the pew this morning and claim to be a follower of Jesus then you must believe His word.
Some may say how do you know that Jesus answers prayer, This is the only argument we need, Jesus says “I say to you”. No more argument is needed. I know that Jesus answers prayer because Jesus said it was so. Jesus cannot lie, He cannot fall into error. When He states, “I say to you” the debate has ended.
Until the Lord Jesus had said those words or words to that effect it what His own option to hear the prayer or not. But that is not so know. Because the one who cannot lie, who cannot break a promise, has said “I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” we know that our prayers are heard.
We may well ask, who is it who as said, “I say to you”. It is the one who as created all things. Col. 1:16 tells us; “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” The one whom has created all things has said “I say to you”.
The One who has all power and authority has said, “I say to you”. Jesus states in Matt. 28; “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” The one who has all authority in Heaven and on earth. The one who has all power, has said to us, “I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”.
It is the one who sustains all things, that is the One who has said, “I say to you.” Also in the first chapter of Col. ver 17; “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Nothing that has it’s being consists without the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is it who has said, “I say to you”. It is our teacher, our Lord, our Master, our Saviour, it is our God. John 1:1; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Let us understand that there are no forces that can prevent the fulfillment of the Lord’s words here, because the one who speaks them is God Himself. Thus the debates ends with the words, “I say to you”. Because the one who speaks those words is almighty.
We also should keep in mind that the one who has spoken those words, is the one who as removed the veil, the one who has taken His seat at the right hand of the Father in glory. The voice that speaks those words is a voice of a King, enthroned in glory, the voice of the one who can bring all things to pass.
When you present your prayers to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, a part of His authority cloths your prayers. If your prayer is rejected then Christ would be dishonored, and that my friends not only will not happen, it cannot happen.
Let us now turn to our the second mortal wound of doubt from our passage. That is the Lord presents us with a promise.
Notice from our passage the varieties or forms of our prayers. "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Our passage assures us that all forms of true prayer will be heard. Some are vocal prayers. We ask. We speak to the Lord, we plead with Him through our voices. May we offer up every day the prayers of our tongue.
Then there are those that “seek” the Lord in prayer. This is active prayer, by the use of means they seek for the blessing of God. Their heart speaks to God through their longings and labors. I think of my wife and the work she does in getting everything ready of GNC. The work in itself a “seeking” prayer. She desires for God to bless the club, but understands she cannot just sit there and wait for the material to miraculously prepare itself. God will use means to bless the Club. So Darleen seeks that blessing by those means.
Then there is the form of prayer that uses both. Those who cry out to the Lord yet seek His blessing through means. That is the knocking. Our prayers ought to go from asking, to seeking, to knocking. With knocking being a loud kind of asking, and a vehement form of seeking. It involves both noise and action.
As noted in our passage whatever form we may assume, we have a certificate that it will succeed. If you ask you shall receive, if you seek you will find, if you knock it will be opened to you. It is clear as well the we need not do all three to receive an answer.
Some men in times past have looked at this verse this way, faith asks, hope seeks, and love knocks. Faith asks because she believes God will give. Hope seeks because having asked, expects and therefore seeks for a blessing. Love will not take a denial from God, but desires to enter into His house, and there knocks on the door until it is opened.
One of the beauties of this passage is that each one of these description of prayer is exceedingly simple. No one can say that cannot ask, everyone can ask. A little child can ask. Long before a infant can utter a single word it can ask. Just ask Deirdre and Nels if little Eileen can ask. There is not one here who cannot ask the Lord. There is not one here who cannot stand on this promise that if you do ask, it will be given.
There is also no difficulty in seeking, all can seek. We might have a hard time in finding, but we can all seek. I think of the women mentioned in Scripture who loses a coin, and lights a candle to seek for it. I do suppose that this women had some sort of degree in coin searching. No mention of how smart she was. She did not need any education to seek. Seeking prayer is simple and any one of us can do it.
Then there is knocking. Again not a great thing of difficulty. I am sure that some of you knew quite well how to knock when you were younger. You would knock on the neighbors door, or ring the door bell and then run. Of course in my neighborhood there was only about six boys so the neighbors did not have to be to smart to figure out who was doing it.
The point is you need do not need training, schooling, you need no talent, to pray. All you need to is ask, seek, and knock. Believe that to be true because it comes from the one who cannot lie.
The final moral wound to doubt we see in our passage this morning, is we have Jesus Christ testifying that our prayer will be heard. Having asked, having sought, have knocked notice what Jesus states in verse 10; “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Our Lord’s guarantees that our prayers are heard.
You can be certain that His promise will stand not just because I say so, but because that is the way it always has been.
If I were to tell you that the sun will rise tomorrow how many of you would believe me? Why? Because the sun as always risen. We believe it because that is the way it always as been since the creation of time.
Well them, will you believe me when I say that they Lord Jesus will hear your prayer, that your prayers will be answered. Believe me because that is the way it always had been. Our Lord has shown us that true prayer as always been answered.
I also want us to understand that there are qualifications to answered prayer. There are limits. We cannot say I have prayed for a new Porsche and I have yet to see delivery on it.
James chapter 4:2-3 tell us; “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
The Lord is not interested in purely selfish prayer. We further must pray according to the Lord’s will not our own. As 1 John 5:14 tells us; “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
Let us understand that Jesus words in Luke 9 are not blanket statement saying that we can prayer for anything we want and expect to get it. God is not a giant vending machine.
With that said I still do not want to take away from the fact that when our prayers are in the will of God, they are heard and answered. This is even true at times with the wicked and ungodly.
I thing of Ahab, whom the word of God states, “Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him.” Yet during troubled times Ahab prays, and this is the response; This is the Lord speaking; “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.” The Lord heard the prayer of this wicked man.
The Scripture also states that that Jehoahaz whom scripture states did evil in the sight of the Lord yet, in 2 Kings 13:4 we read; “So Jehoahaz pleaded with the LORD, and the LORD listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.”
He prayed in the will of the Lord and the Lord heard his prayer.
This should not surprise us. The Lord blesses daily those who curse Him. Even unsaved men have been plucked from the sea and saved from burning houses. Do you think that not one of them was praying to the Lord almighty.
This one of the glories of God’s grace, that He will hear the cries of unsaved and at times sent deliverance.
Now if God has heard the pleads of the unsaved, who reject His Son, and given them at times temporary deliverance, how much more will He heard the cries of His own children. How much more will He hear your cries when you pray according to His will.
The Lord’s word are true here; “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
There has never been an instance yet of a man truly and sincerely seeking spiritual blessings from God and not receiving them. I think of the publican, so broken in heart he dare not look up to the Lord, but confessed “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” He would not look up, but God looked down.
If I were to ask everyone in this church this morning could there be one who could say I have sought the Lord and He rejected Me. There could be no one, as the Lord states, “...let God be true but every man a liar...”
There shall be no one found on that last day of judgement who will stand before the Lord and say, “I asked and did not receive, I sought but did not find, I knocked and it was not opened to me.” The Lord’s promise will stand, Everyone that asks receives.
Let me say to those of you who doubt that promise, I say try it. Ask, and see if you will not receive. Seek and see if you will not find, knock, and see if the door is not open to you. Trust in the Lord Jesus as Lord and Saviour and you will receive Eternal life. Believe in the cleansing power of His blood to forgive you of all your sins. Believe in Him and He will give you eternal life.
Then are those who may say I have been calling on God, and have not gotten an answer. I have asked, I have sought, I have knocked but nothing had come.” To that one I say, which is true, you or God. Which shall I stand by your word, of the word of the One who has never lied.
God will save those who call on the name of Jesus. God answer those who ask, those who seek, those who knock. I know this because we have a certificate of success that our prayer will be heard.
In closing I again call on you to pray. I call on this church to be a church of prayer. Let us pray because we have a promise that our prayers will be heard. It is guaranteed. And let us praise God that we do have a promise such as that. TO God be the glory.
LET US PRAY.
