Luke 11:9-13 “It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask”  3-21-10

⁹ "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened. ¹¹ "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for ^[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

                I have to be honest, I have spent too much of my life being afraid to ask.  So this passage, goes against my grain.  If you don’t ask, you see, you won’t be turned down.  So when we had the first dance in middle school times, I would sit with the guys, and not go over and ask the girl to dance.  The dance director had to grab my hand and take me over to the girl and tell me to ask her.  There are some who do not have a problem asking- I do.  I can remember asking a girl out on a date for the first time.  I thought I was going to faint.  Somehow I, along with a lot of others, get this idea that if you ask for something it is a sign of weakness.  So when I have been lost- wandering around in circles- looking up and down at street names- I don’t want to ask for directions.  Thank God for a GPS- now I can ask a machine instead of a person- and a machine won’t tell me I’m lost or I’m dumb- it’ll just say “recalculating directions.” 

                It is true that if you don’t ask, you won’t be embarrassed.  But it is also true if you don’t ask you will not receive.  If I never asked Kay on that first date, we would have never dated.  You should have seen how I hemmed and hawed about asking Kay to marry me- or asking her 6’4” ex-marine father for permission to marry her.  If you’ve ever watched NCIS imagine asking a Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) for permission to marry his daughter.  I followed him around his tractor lot, trying to find the right moment and the right amount of courage to ask him.  Finally he asked me, “Why are you following me around all day, do you have something you want to say?”  He had no idea.  In the end, he was great, but if I had never asked, I would not have received his permission. 

                God is saying to us- why are you wandering around miserable all day long?  Why don’t you ask for my help?  Ask and you will receive.  James 4:3 says something similar- “You do not have because you do not ask.”  God knows what we need before we ask Him, but He still wants us to ask Him. 

                Some think that God doesn’t mess with small things in our lives.  Others think that God doesn’t fool with stuff so big.  Some think that God is too busy- some think that God just isn’t interested.  But we need to change our perspective.  God created all that we see- big and small.  All the things we see under the microscope were created by God.  He says he cares for the hairs on your head, and the sparrow.  All the tremendous things you can see with a telescope He has made as well.  There is nothing too big for Him, and there is nothing too small for Him.  God is powerful enough for the big things, and His love is so great He can even help you with the little things.  Our problem is we don’t believe in the power and love of God enough.

                It is important for us to ask God.  It is important for us to know where our blessings come from.  It is important for us to acknowledge His ability and willingness to help us- by asking. 

                The greatest part of prayer is just getting up the courage to ask.  God would rather you ask Him for something wrong- than to not ask Him at all.  There is only one verse in scripture that speaks of asking God wrongly- out of selfish motivation- to spend stuff on our own pleasures (James 4:3).  But even here, it doesn’t say it is wrong to ask, it just says you don’t receive when you ask wrongly. 
                Once a philosopher in the court of Alexander the Great asked for his financial help.  Alexander said he would give him anything he would ask.  The man immediately asked for $100,000.  The treasurer was shocked at the amount.  But Alexander told him to go ahead and give it to him. He said, “Let the money be instantly paid.  I am delighted with his way of thinking.  He has done me a singular honor.  By the largeness of his request, he shows the high idea he has conceived of my wealth and munificence.”  So God is honored in a similar manner.

                Have you ever been afraid to seek for something?  “I don’t want to look!”  If I look my worst fears might be confirmed.  If I go out to seek my fortune, I may not find it.  If I go out to a new place, with new people, and new circumstances, I might be disappointed.  Sometimes, I think, people will not see something they are looking for because they are not really looking for it.  There are some people who refuse to seek God because they are afraid of what they might have to give up.  They don’t see the blessings on the other side.  He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.  There are those who are afraid if they ask God for something and He says “No” that this will mean that God doesn’t love them.  So they won’t ask, they won’t seek, and they will never know.  Part of having faith is being willing to seek, believing that you will find.  Some of you visitors are here today seeking more, seeking a place- a family—the presence of God.  You are in the right place. 
                Have you ever been afraid to knock?  Yesterday we went on a neighborhood canvass around Milford Park.  We would go up to a stranger’s door and knock.  Lots of people would be nervous to knock on a strangers door.  Once every blue moon someone acts rudely.  But some people have never been asked, and they are open to the idea.  If you never knock, the door will not be opened.  Some of you have been looking for a job- and you have called, you have sent out résumés, you have gone to a hundred places, and you are tired of asking, tired of seeking, and tired of knocking- and tired of being told “No.”  Maybe you feel like you have been beating your head against the wall- but you still know it is the right thing to do.  The verbs here are in the present imperative.  They could have been translated- “ask and keep on asking”; “seek and keep on seeking”; “knock and don’t give up knocking.” 

                Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and sup with him and he with me.”  Jesus is not afraid to knock- or ask- or seek.  He is not asking for favors- He is asking for a relationship.  He is not asking for your help- He is asking you to let Him come in and have fellowship with Him.  Prayer is not just about asking for help as much as it is communicating and relating to the living God.  I am so glad Jesus didn’t knock once at the door of my heart and give up- or even twice, or even seventy times seven.  It is the same with prayer-we must continue to ask and not be afraid to do so.

                Then Jesus says an amazing thing- that God wants to help us, not hurt us.  You know the Greek (and Roman)  idea of God is one who is fickle and who likes to jerk people around just to show their power, deceive and lie. God was powerful but not trustworthy.  Many have gone back to that idea of God in their minds.  Today, many Christians have squeezed the power out of God.  Science, they deem, is more powerful than the God who made the world that science is still trying to investigate.  Medicine and health care is a more important and powerful thing than the God who made the white blood cells that heal.  Wine, Music, sex, basketball, football, boating, even golf- whatever, is seen as having more priority for many than God-- who is seen as irrelevant and unhelpful.  The person of faith knows better.  God is like salt that makes all the good things of life taste better.  God is like light that allows us to see the good in life and to have hope.  He is the giver of every good and perfect gift.   God is also the One who loves us.
                This passage is not just a passage about prayer- it is a passage about God’s love.  If we ask for a fish- do we think God will give us a snake?  Maybe we don’t believe in God’s love because sometimes we haven’t been given what we wanted.  Some people need real therapy because they have been hurt so much by the evil in life, that they are just unable to see any good. 

                How do you know God loves you?  It is a matter of faith, of trust.  If you are going to ask someone for something, being aware that they look favorably upon you is essential.  It not only gives you confidence in asking, but it also makes us aware of what that person is likely to give us. 

                In a week and a half we’ll remember Good Friday.  It is a visible sign to us- that God loves us enough to come down for us.  It is a visible sign for us that God cares about what we do, and don’t do.  It is a visible sign that Jesus died to forgive us of our sins.  Some will look at the crucifixion and say it was a wasted act.  But Jesus and eventually his followers saw the crucifixion as an Old Testament sacrifice.  Jesus saw Himself as the Passover lamb who takes away the sin of the world- and that means your sins and mine too- if we believe.  If you don’t believe God loves you, the cross means little, and Jesus is just a good man.  If you don’t believe God loves you, then you won’t ask- because you won’t believe God really cares or really will answer your prayer.  The root of our prayer life lies in believing in the love and goodness of God. 

                I have brought to church our little rescue dog- Ali.  When we first got Ali she had been let out or run away- and this white dog was brown-gray.  She was scared to death of men- and we think she had been abused.  She would not get within five feet of me.  I have told you how now she has warmed up to me, and believes I care for her.  But there has been another change to.  Before she would never beg or ask for anything.  Now she will bark when she smells good foor and do little circles and jump up- asking for attention and also for food.  When she was scared of me, she would never ask.  Now that she knows I would not hurt her for anything in the world, she doesn’t mind asking.  We need to trust God- He loves us.  And because He loves us we can approach the throne of grace with confidence (Heb. 4:15,16) - seeking, asking, and knocking.