Thur. 4/19/2012 Promises From God 3

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. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Good Thursday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Thursday and the day we pray for Churches, Schools and families. Now if we pray and pray we should be praying for God to head up all of them. Of course we know that God should be the head of the churches, and if you really think about it, you know that God should be heading up your family, and then the husband. And if we ever want our schools to work again we need to have God head them up. So the common here is that God should be ahead of all we do, very simple to me.

Please keep praying for Ron and Alison who has cancer, Dolores for infection, for Vicki who is going to have surgery in a week. Also new to the list, Clarella Hanna, a young mother with extreme pain throughout her body. Now let's get to the message.

4/19/2012 Promises from God 3: Luke 11:9 - 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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (NIV)

The first part of the scripture states to us. "Ask and it will be given to you."

Looking back to when I was but a child (yes when the streets were still dirt) and I wanted something, let's say an ice cream cone, sometimes when I would ask my mamma, she did not give me a yes right away and I had to ask again, and little Danny would ask so many times my mamma would think I was bugging her. And after asking over and over again, if I was a good little boy, she might give in, but if I was bad, no ice cream for me.

Now if we go to God in prayer, making a request for something and maybe that something might be for food, or let's say healing. If your prayer is not answered right away, do you ask again, and again? Sure we do, look at our prayer lists, we ask over and over and I wonder sometimes does God not answer us right away because we, well, like my mamma told me, I was bad! Maybe God would answer faster if we were not sinning. Just thinking, folks. Maybe if little Danny would have been a good little boy instead of a "brat" maybe I would have gotten that 5 cent ice cream cone on my first asking. Maybe God's will might hinge on us doing better when it comes to not sinning.

Now the next part of the scripture. "Seek and you will find."

How often have you been looking for something, and I am not talking about seeking out God on this, I am talking about just looking for something. Just yesterday I was looking for my watch, I looked and looked, I did not stop after just looking once, I knew I put it someplace. That was yesterday morning, last night when I emptied my pockets after being up all day and looking for my watch several times, I located it, in my shirt pocket, with my cell phone. Now let's relate this to seeking out God. When God gives me a scripture to use, often times I have had that same scripture before, in fact last week He referred me to the same scripture two days in a row, and I had two messages out of it. While I know I am saved, I have given myself over to God the Father by going through His Son Jesus and asking Jesus into my heart, I still need to seek Him out for help and guidance over the days. You see each and every day of our lives we need to be seeking out our Lord Jesus. I think I was in a Sunday school class one time called the Seekers. I hope you can see what I am saying on this. Please, don't stop seeking out God, just because you have become saved. In fact the more you seek Him, the more fun, yes, fun it is.

Now that next part of the scripture tells us this. "Knock and the door will be opened to you."

Ok, we go to someone's home, and you ring that old doorbell, and no one comes to the door, do you just leave, or do you think, I wonder if the doorbell rings, so you knock lightly on the door. No one comes to the door so you knock harder and harder. Now if you see someone pull down the blinds then you know they are hiding from you. But what I am saying is we do not just knock once, never, we just keep knocking. Now let's relate that to God. When we knock seeking out God and asking for Him, if we do not hear back from Him right away, do not give up, God is there, and He loves us and He will get back to us, but caution, folks, sometimes we must understand that NO is an answer. But God will never hide from you, He will not pull down the blinds and shut you out of Heaven. IF YOU ARE SHUT OUT OF HEAVEN, you have done it to yourselves.

So dear brothers and sisters, if when you ask God for help, please be polite but also don't be afraid to ask over and over again, and folks, when you are seeking out His face, please remember to keep on seeking, and praying and praying and seeking. And as for knocking, please keep on knocking, remember even when you tell the jokes, you always knock more than once... remember, "knock, knock" (oh that was bad).  Anyway, I think you get my point. Remember this, anything worth asking for, or asking to, or seeking out, or knocking for, is sure worth doing it more than once, and folks, when seeking out Jesus you are seeking out the best...

Now let's go to that final part of today's scripture and see what it tells us... "For everyone who asks receives, He who seeks finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened."

And brothers and sisters, that is just another great Promise from God... Don't you just love all these promises? Let's pray.

Dear Father in Heaven, we are never going to stop asking for you to cure the cancer in the bodies of Ron and Alison and others who have cancer, and I am not going to stop asking, Lord, for you to clear the infection from Dolores until it is done. And Lord, I pray that I will never stop seeking You to get nearer and nearer to You, help me with it, Lord. And Lord, I am knocking on Your door and when You are ready for me, I am ready also, until then I want to keep asking and seeking and knocking and working for You. As always,  Lord, please answer our prayer requests according to Your will for us... In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Now brothers and sisters, let's move forward, asking and seeking and knocking and also "sharing our blessings" that we know come from God... Amen... love ya, Pastor Dan.