Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / The Sermon On The Mount

Raising The Bar With Persistence 4/20/08

Message: ‘Raising the Bar with persistence’ Text: Matthew 7:7-12 

Intro: Anyone hate it when you call a business and you get one of those computer-generated answering services? Imagine if God operated the same way: As you begin to pray you hear...

Thank you for calling your Heavenly Father’s house. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance. Please select one of the following options:

·       Press 1 for prayer requests

·       Press 2 for prayers of thanksgiving

·       Press 3 for prayers containing complaints

·       Press 4 for all other prayers

I’m sorry; all of our angels are busy helping others right now. However, your prayers are important to us and will be answered in the order in which they were received, so please stay on the line.

If you would like to leave a voice mail message:

·       For God (The Father) Press 1 now

·       For Jesus Christ Press 2 now

·       For the Holy Spirit Press 3 now

·       If you would like to hear the King David Singers while you are holding, please press 4 now.

To find out if a loved one has been assigned to Heaven, please enter his or her Social Security number (without dashes), then press the pound key. If you get a negative response try again using area code 666.

For questions about dinosaurs, the real age of the earth, where Noah’s Ark is, and any other questions like that, please wait until you arrive here.

I’m sorry, our computers indicate that you have already prayed once today. Please hang up and try again tomorrow.

This office is closed on weekends, and any State or Federal  holiday.

Please pray again between the hours of 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM Monday through Friday  (except holidays).

 

If you need emergency assistance when this office is closed contact your local pastor. (Michael Luke)

Truth be told, sometimes we pray as if it was just a business…a job to be done, something to get over quickly so we can go about our real work. Is it any wonder we sometimes feel God is distant, that he fails to hear us when we pray?

Prayer is one of those practices, as Christians, we often fail to practice.

As we’ve been studying in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we’ve seen, over and over again, that Jesus demands radical obedience and life altering change. Many of the things he wants us to do, seem… impossible.

Jesus has raised the bar of spiritual expectations and actions to a height we can’t grasp. So, how does He expect us to live that way?

The answer is found in our text this morning. Jesus says that

·       to live a life that is radically obedient

·       to effect life altering change,

·       to reach the height of the standard Jesus has set…

·       we must pray! And pray, persistently!

Transition: Open your Bibles to Mathew 7:7 (pg. 742 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you. For it’s here we’ll find we raise the bar of spiritual expectations and actions in our lives with persistence.

I. Matthew 7:7-8         Persistence described

Read: Matthew 7:7-8

I have found at least 5 things we need to notice from this text.

First: Notice there should be a progressive intensity to our prayers.

·       We are told to move from asking, to seeking to knocking. Each action get more personal, more intimate.

·       Jesus is telling us not to take the easy way but to strive for intimacy in our prayer.

Second: Notice that God honors our persistence. Jesus says…

·       Ask…and it will be given to you.

·       Seek…and you will find.

·       Knock…and the door will be opened to you.

·       You have the promise of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Third: Notice that God honors everyone’s persistence. Jesus says…

·       Everyone who ask…receives

·       Everyone who seeks…finds

·       Everyone who knocks…the door will be opened.

·       By saying everyone, Jesus wants us to overcome the fear and hesitancy we sometimes display before we pray because we often feel that prayer might work for others but not for me. Jesus says …everyone.

ILL: Martin Luther wrote: ‘He knows that we are timid and shy, that we feel unworthy and unfit to present our needs to God. . . . We think that God is so great and we are so tiny that we do not dare to pray. . . . That is why Christ wants to lure us away from such timid thoughts, to remove our doubts, and to have us go ahead confidently and boldly.’ (Jaroslav Pelikan)

·       One more thing. The everyone Jesus mentions here does have boundaries. He’s referring to those who are Children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. It has always been the children of God who are beneficiaries of his wonderful promises.

Fourth: Notice that Jesus is not inviting us to pray…it’s a command.

·       His repetition in these verses is meant to say …look, I really mean this. I want you to pray.

·       The words are in the Imperative in the Greek…that means they’re commands…not suggestions.

·       And, there are two kinds of Imperatives in Greek: the Aorist imperative is a command to do a specific thing at a specific time…once. The Present imperative is a command to keep doing something, indefinitely. Guess which one these commands are? Present…keep on praying.

Fifth: Notice that Jesus expects us to pray.

ILL: Listen to this quote from a noted evangelist and scholar.  ‘We do not live in a praying age. We live in an age of hustle and bustle, of man’s efforts and man’s determination, of man’s confidence in himself and his own power to achieve things, an age of human organization, and human machinery, and human push, and human scheming, and human achievement; which in the things of God means no real achievement at all.’ 

This evangelist was Dr. R.A. Torrey and he lived in the early nineteen hundreds. Sounds like he could be living today.

·       Jesus expects us to pray. It’s not that his expectations are too high, ours are too low. That’s why this series on the Sermon on the Mount has been about Raising the Bar of spiritual expectations and action in our lives.

Read: Luke 12:48b ‘…From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; … from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.’

·       We have been so blessed by God. The fact that you’re sitting here in this place today testifies to that. God expects much from us, the bar has been raised…let’s not let him down.

Sidebar: Well, if all this is true, then why do some of our prayers go unanswered? I have found a few possible reasons.

·       Answers to prayer often take time. Too many Christians give up on God because they get tired of waiting for him to answer.

Read: Luke 18:1 ‘Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.’

Heaven standard time is not the same thing as Eastern standard time. Maybe God wants to give you the desires of your heart…but maybe now is not the right time…wait, pray, don’t give up.

·       Sometimes prayer is unanswered because of unconfessed sin.

Read: Psalm 66:18 ‘If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened’

This is another reason we have a corporate confession of sin each Sunday. I want you to experience God’s forgiveness. I want you to know the joy of his presence. I hope you make confessing your sin a habit each time you pray.

·       Sometimes prayer is unanswered because we have doubts or a divided heart.

Read: James 1:5-7 ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord’

You pray, you ask God for something then you go about your day not looking for God to answer or feeling like he won’t. You pray, but you’re not sure he is listening or will answer. Believe Jesus…God does answer prayer.

·       Sometimes prayer is unanswered because of wrong motives.

Read: James 4:1-3 ‘What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 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. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.’

The idea here is we want something but we don’t want to get it God’s way. Or we want something that God doesn’t want for us. Or we want something that God wants for us but we want to use it our way…not Gods.

·       Sometimes prayer is unanswered because we’re  disrespect full or inconsiderate.

Read: 1 Peter 3:7 ‘Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.’

Guys, did you hear that? Every other hindrance to prayer is gender neutral…men and women are capable of doing them. Not this one. This singles out men. Why? I would venture to say that the reason many Christian men have unanswered prayer is because they are inconsiderate or disrespectful of their wives.

·       Sometimes prayer is unanswered because of we make God our last resort.

ILL: The following story appeared in The Prairie Overcomer: A fisherman who was out of fellowship with the Lord was at sea with his godless companions when a storm came up and threatened to sink their ship. His friends begged him to pray; but he hesitated, saying, "It’s been a long time since I’ve done that or even entered a church." At their insistence, however, he finally cried out,

"O Lord, I haven’t asked anything of You in 15 years, and if You help us now and bring us safely to land, I promise I won’t bother You again for another 15!"

Although this story at first brings a smile, it’s sad to realize that prayer is often an escape mechanism rather than a way of life for a lot of Christians. This is true of believers who call on God only when they’ve reached the end of their rope and there seems to be no other way to solve their problems. (Jeffery Anselmi)

All the time we waste looking other places to solve our problems, our prayers are hindered.

Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ‘pray continually’

Read: Ephesians 6:18 ‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.’

Our knees should be the first place we go when there’s a need, or trouble or indecision, or hurt or…anything. God should not be the last place we turn for help.

·       Sometimes prayer is unanswered because we lack compassion for others.

Read: Proverbs 21:13 ‘If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.’

We come into contact with many people who need help. Those who shrug their shoulders and walk on by when they can help lack a heart of compassion and their prayers will be hindered.

Conclusion

ILL: I read a true story about a ship that was engulfed in fog off the coast of Newfoundland. It was Wednesday night. And they were moving very slowly. The Rev. George Mueller went up to the bridge and said, "Captain, I have to be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon." The captain said, "Pastor, that’s impossible. We’re not going to make it." Then Mueller said, "Let’s go down to the chart room and pray to God." The captain said, "Are you crazy? I can’t go to the chart room right now! Do you have any idea how dense the fog is?" And Mueller said, "No. My eye is not on the density of the fog. But on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life." Once they got to the chart room, Mueller got down on his knees and prayed "Lord, you’re the one who made the arrangements for me to preach the gospel in Quebec. I really believe with all my heart that you want me to be there on time. If it is consistent with your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. In Jesus’ name, Amen." They went back upstairs to the bridge. And within a matter of minutes, the fog lifted! It was a miracle! (Marc Axelrod)

 

·       Wouldn’t it be great to pray like that?

·       To have that kind of faith?

·       To trust God in such a huge way?

There’s nothing that reveals more about a Christian than his/her prayer life. How that person approaches God and what that person is willing to ask for,  reveals how he/she views God.

So…how big is your God? How persistent is your prayer life?

We raise the bar of spiritual expectations and actions in our lives with persistence.