They Limited God (1 Of 2)

He is saying that God wanted to do so much more for Israel, but the choices in life they made limited the Lord from doing more for them.

Illus: A wealthy father, who had one son, loved that son very much. The father had influence and wealth and he could help his son in many ways. But one day he was heard to say of his son, "I love my son and I would like to help him, but his life-style limits me so that is not possible!”

The children of Israel are like the children today; they will shock you with the foolish decisions they make.

Illus: There was a farmer that grew watermelons. He was aggravated by some local kids that would sneak into his watermelon patch at night and eat his watermelons.

After some careful thought, he came up with a clever idea that he thought would scare the kids away for sure.

• He made up a sign and posted it in the field. The next day, the kids showed up and they saw the sign that read, "Warning! One of the watermelons in this field has been injected with cyanide."

• The kids ran off, made up their own sign and posted it next to the farmer's sign. When the farmer returned, he surveyed the field. He noticed that no watermelons were missing, but the sign next to his read, "Now there are two!"

These kids will shock us with these foolish decisions they make.

Illus: An honest seven-year-old girl admitted calmly to her parents that Billy Brown had kissed her after class.

• Her mother screamed and said, "How did that happen? "

• The young girl said, "It wasn't easy, but three girls helped me catch him!"

Like I said, when we think we have these children all figured out, they shock us with the decisions they make!

As they grow, we constantly need to determine if they are mature enough yet for us to help them with certain things we would like to help them with.

It is not that we as parents do not want to do certain things for them, it is that they limit us in doing certain things for them.

God desired to bless Israel, but He could not, because the Bible says they, "... limited the Holy One of Israel."

Let us look at some of the ways we limit God from blessing us. We limit God through the-

I. LACK OF PRAYER

In James 4:2, we read, "Ye have not because ye ask not.”

I know that some of you are saying, “Preacher, I pray and ask God all the time for things and I don’t get them!”

This verse of scripture, "Ye have not because ye ask not,” comes with instructions.

Many people buy something that comes with instructions and they believe those instructions are for everyone BUT THEM. So they discard the instructions. When it comes to these instructions concerning prayer, they apply to everyone!

But you have to admit that sometimes these instructions can be confusing. Here are some actual label instructions on consumer products:

• On the bottle-top of a flavored milk drink – “AFTER OPENING, KEEP UPRIGHT.

• In some countries, on the bottom of Coke bottles – “OPEN OTHER END.”

• On a Sears hairdryer – “DO NOT USE WHILE SLEEPING.”

• On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding – “PRODUCT WILL BE HOT AFTER HEATING.”

• On a Korean kitchen knife – “WARNING: KEEP OUT OF CHILDREN.” (Who are they to tell us how to raise our children?)

• On a string of Chinese-made Christmas lights – “FOR INDOOR OR OUTDOOR USE ONLY.” (As opposed to use in outer space?)

• On a Swedish chainsaw – “DO NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP CHAIN WITH YOUR HAND.” (What kind of consumer phone-call led to this warning?)

• On a child's superman costume – “WEARING OF THIS GARMENT DOES NOT ENABLE YOU TO FLY.”

• On some frozen dinners: “SERVING SUGGESTION: DEFROST.”

• On packaging for a Rowenta iron: “DO NOT IRON CLOTHES ON BODY.”

• On Nightly sleep aid: “WARNING: MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS.” (Duh!)

The Lord said, "Ye have not because ye ask not.” This verse of scripture seems simple enough, but it comes with instructions.

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONS? Simply this: there are two kinds of prayers…the right kind and the wrong kind.

• When we pray the right kind of prayers, God answers

• When we pray the wrong kind of prayers, God does not answer

A lot of folks know how to pray the WRONG KIND OF PRAYERS, but they do not know a thing about praying the RIGHT KIND.

God knew this would be a problem, so God gave us the lives of two men to look at.