March 14, 2011 Ask, Seek, Knock!

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

Good Monday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. When I look around the world and see all that is going on, I need to say this to you, please keep your faith in our dear Lord. Monday and the day we pray for our leaders, our president (and please pray for his soul first), all of our other leaders, and in fact we should pray for the souls of all first. Next please pray for our Military and remember those in the war zones and also on the mercy missions in Japan. Be thankful that our base in Japan was not hit or hit hard. Pray for our veterans, and remember some of them are just 18 and in military hospitals and some have lost limbs. Remember the families of those who gave their lives. Pray for our police and there has been a rash of police being shot lately. Pray for firefighters, many of whom give of their time.

Pray for our Asian brothers and sisters in Japan, pray for the families of the lost, and pray for the injured, and for those under the rubble to be found. Pray for the Asian families of those killed in the bus crash in New York, and pray for the ones injured. (If you have not heard, a bus rolled on its side and while sliding on its side, hit a pole and sheared the top off at the window level... 14 dead.)

Pray today and tomorrow for the Clouse family who lost seven children in a fire. The viewings are tonight and the funerals tomorrow. And would you believe with all they are going through, the NUT JOBS who think they are working for God, those from the Westboro Church are coming to protest at the funeral. (Folks, I refuse to refer to them as Baptist or Christians,) Oh yes, pray for these folks also.

The Big Trip 14-1 Ask, Seek, Knock 1 Matthew 7:7 - "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, how often have you wanted something in life, maybe when you were little and you asked your parents for it... Mamma, may I have that toy, I asked, and more often than not, my dear mamma who wanted to just say yes, had to say no because she did not have any money to get it for me. Like most kids I thought money grew on the trees, and my pop would remind me often, that "money does not grow on trees" and back in those days there were no credit cards. We had a pay as you go plan back then, and if we would have it today think of how much money you would save not paying interest.

Now when asking God, and this scripture would apply that if you were to ask for a million dollars it would be laid at your feet... Wrong, but if you were to ask for things for others, you might be surprised at what is laid at your feet. In my words, share your blessings, as you ask to be blessed. Let's look at some old testament scripture on this subject... From 1 Kings...

I Kings 5 - At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." 6 Solomon answered. "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to You and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 7 Now, o Lord my God, You have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" 10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, not will there ever be. 14 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for both riches and honor so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings."

So, folks, while so many people, when praying, ask for things for themselves we see here how it was with King Solomon when he asked for how to help his people and not things for himself in riches, etc. So God not only gave to King Solomon what he asked for but poured out so much more.

Folks, does our Lord still do this, "Ask and it will be given to you." Yes, for He is still the same, but does He give it to us on the same day we ask? Not always, and folks, I want you to always remember this, when you pray for those riches, and I know you, like me, have done it, and folks, have I received those riches, I really have, I am blessed with children and grandchildren, and blessed with a wonderful wife, and dogs and cats and food to give away to others... Folks, please never count your riches by what is in your bank account, count your riches by counting family and friends. I am blessed and have the riches of BEING ABLE TO WORK FOR GOD... AMEN I like to answer it in this way also. God is not going to give you something you asked for if it is not going to be good for you, and be used for good. In other words, don't ask for a gun to shoot someone for it is not going to happen. Remember always, God is good, He does not hand to You something that is bad. Also remember this, you need to always ask in faith, ALWAYS ASK IN FAITH...

Wow, time to go...

Dear Father in Heaven, please forgive us of our sins, and Lord, please look over our prayer list, and honor our prayers according to Your will for us. And Lord, we ask today that You give unto us, give unto me, what You want for us, for me, in my words, Lord, today, give to us according to your will, and not ours... Oh, that is Your words, Lord, I love You,. Lord.. in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings to others from your heart and in faith to God. Love ya, Pastor Dan.