"Ask, and It Shall Be Given You" By Chris Ulrich September 20th,
2015
You may be seated. It’s good to see everybody this morning, and,
it’s a beautiful September day. A couple
of days before the start of fall.
Summer’s just about over. If you want
to get something done this summer, you’ve got two days left. So, as we had talked about, our
theme verse, John 15:7, and the theme for the month is, “Learning to, and the
Process of, Asking God.” It’s a little
bit lengthy, but, it’s something that—I know Parrish and Andy have talked about
that’s something that God dealt with them quite a bit about over the last
couple of months, as Andy shared, at 1:47 in the morning. That’s definitely something that makes a
difference; that’s definitely something that impacted him; it impacts us. And I
know there’s one thing—well, many, I suppose—but, there’s a big difference
between God and us, and—you don’t have to shout them out—God never sleeps. No doubt about it, God never sleeps; He’s
always there. He’s always there to hear
our prayers; He’s always there to deal with us in whatever capacity. And He meets us where we’re at. It’s not something where we serve a foreign
God, or somebody that doesn’t speak our language. I know something that Parrish preached on
last week; he preached from the Book of John, chapter four, about the Samaritan
woman that Jesus had met, and, not going to re-teach on the background on the
Samaritans and the Israelites, but, there was something that Jesus perceived
her thoughts, He discerned her past, but He also bridged the gap. And, Parrish, the part that really stuck out
to me was that God does speak all languages.
He communicates in every way imaginable, and He does reach us where
we’re at. Our general pastor, Pastor Paine,
he was here a couple of weeks ago, and He asked a very poignant question, and
that was the title of the sermon, “What do we do with sin?” I would say that it was more than a powerful
message; it was a life-changing for the better.
I’m not going to elaborate on that today, because it would take quite a
while, but I’m going to say, what I would suggest is that you go to our
website, mychristianfellowship.org, go to the part where it says,
“International,” “Great Lakes,” and then go to the Sermon Notes. I believe it would be worth your time. In addition to that, we have a study on
Wednesday nights at the ‘It’s All Good’ coffee shop in Zion, which Bob teaches,
in four days, usually, but this week, we’re going to do a revisit the blessing
of the sermon that Pastor Paine did give, so…
I believe that would be worth your time, so, if you’d like to make it
out there. But, at this time, Bob, I’d like
you to come and ask God’s blessing on the message. Ask that I would get out of the way and that
God’s Word would be taught, ad that we’d all receive something. Bob: Bow our heads,
please. God, I want to thank You for
giving us this great day, so far, God. A
great day of worship, Your Spirit in the house right now, God. Now’s the time for the Word, Jesus; Your Word
through our servant, here, Jesus. He
already asked, God, that he would step out of the way and let Your voice speak
through him, Jesus. Let that happen,
Lord, and let us receive what we need to hear, today, God: Correction, rebuke, encouragement,
forgiveness, whatever the case might be, God, that we could receive and walk
out a different person, today, God. Once
again, bless Your servant, here, in front of us, God, Red, we call him, or
Chris Ulrich, I know You know him by name, Jesus. God, I ask all this in Your name, I
pray. Amen. • What
are we asking for? • How
soon are we expecting it? • Not
forgetting what we’ve asked for and God has done. 1st Point—What
Are We Asking For? Matthew 7:7-11 Ask,
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you: For every one that
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it
shall be opened. Or what man is there of
you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a
serpent? If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father
which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? But, okay, I’m going to take the
next step and say, let’s just assume that we’ve checked that box off, we’ve baptized
in Jesus’ name and we’ve followed the Lord in being born again, so, now
what? I’m glad you asked, because now
we’re at the point that God can lead us every day, and bless us beyond our
wildest imagination or expectation. Now,
I’m not talking about a prosperity gospel, here. I think most of us have heard that, but, it
just means that if you give your life to Jesus then all your financial responsibilities
will be taken care of and you won’t have any problems at all. No, it’s not like that. I wish that were the case, but that’s just
not even reality. We live in the real
world, as Andy talked about before, and we’re still flesh and blood; we’re
going to talk about that more, later. And
I don’t think any of us here stand to receive a massive inheritance. I know I’m not, and, if you are, you don’t
have to raise your hand, but that’s something where then you’re set, but,
here’s the truth, even if that were the case, you’d still have to seek
God. I mean, it doesn’t matter how much
wealth we have; what would a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:37) So back to the question, what are
we asking for? Is it a combination of
the physical and the spiritual needs, because it should be? Are we praying for good health for our
family, friends, and enemies? Are we
praying for our jobs or even the company we work for? Are we asking God for peace, and not just
world peace, but for our immediate surroundings peace? Because, as far as what we’ve got right here,
we’re not affected by the world’s influences, as far as, if we shake it off, if
we get over it, if we pray it through, then we’re not going to be overwhelmed
and inundated by the influences of the world.
I’m not saying it doesn’t have an influence, but, I am saying that we’re
not going to be overwhelmed by it. We’re
going to be able to get over it; we’re going to be able to present ourselves a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God (Romans 12:1). Are we praying that our joy is abundant? And, I’m not talking about dealing with loss,
tragedy; I mean, we’re—we just lost a sister this past week, Stephanie
Johnson. I don’t know if any of her
family are here this morning, but… Weep
with those that weep; that’s what the Bible says (Romans 12:15). I mean, we can’t just “Oh, everything’s going
to be fine.” The Bible does say, “Precious
in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalms 116:15) But, you know what? Still weep with those that weep. That’s an important part of this life. So, getting back, what are we asking for? Are we asking God for forgiveness, or the need
to be forgiving when we need? Sometimes
we’re not sure what to ask, or even how to ask, and there’s nothing wrong with
that. But those are just a few things
that come to mind and it’s really just the tip of the iceberg, because there’s
not just one box, these are the only things you can ask God for. And we’re going to talk about that a little
bit, later on. Because, it could be the
most dynamic, the most miraculous, the most incredible expectation down to,
“God, I just want to have a good attitude getting out of bed.” I was talking with Andy this morning, and I
believe the Lord does speak to us, and I know the world, “Oh, God speaks to
you? What are you, some nut?” Well, guess what? Yes, he does.
That’s a fact. I don’t back off
of that. I’m not ashamed of the Gospel
of Christ. But I believe, and I know,
that when I woke up this morning, God just said, “You’ve got to present it with
enthusiasm and a good attitude.” And,
it’s like, well, you could just blurt out anything, “Oh, yes, well, I’m in
here,” you know, and if it doesn’t have any enthusiasm or good attitude, what
difference is it going to make? What
good is it going to be? “Oh, well, I
checked the box; I did my job. I got up
there.” That’s not what it’s all
about. I mean, there’s a lot more to it,
but… Romans 8:26-28 Likewise
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And He
that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His
purpose. So, what are we asking for? I want to reiterate that question; that’s one
of our main points today. James 4:1-3 From whence come wars and fightings among
you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to
have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask
not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye
ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. We can ask God for the wrong
things, but God still has our back if we allow Him to alter our thinking. So, I guess my point here would be, How many
have ever asked for something, but were glad they didn’t get it later on? I have.
I asked for something, and, you know what? time went by, and I didn’t get that, and I
thought, “Thank God I didn’t get that.” This
isn’t one of my main points but we can ask for the wrong things and be
reluctant to allow God to change our minds and that passage does reinforce
that. 2nd Point – How
Soon Are We Expecting What We Asked For? Luke 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls. So, this verse isn’t meant to
imply that God is slow and that He’ll eventually take care of what we’ve asked
a million years from now. And there are
certainly crises that arise that dictate a much more urgent perspective, and
God knows that, too. It’s not like God
isn’t order, or god doesn’t understand that there are times when there is an
urgency. But as the old expression goes,
“Rome wasn’t built in a day” there are things that are going to take time. I think there’s many parallels that we could
draw from our natural birth and life, to our spiritual birth and maturity that
we need to understand. We can’t make
ourselves grow any faster. I remember
this, as a kid, some nights where, I mean, my legs would just be sore, and this
wasn’t, like, from being out playing or any particular activity or anything,
but, it was like, “Oh, mom, my legs are killing me.” And she was like, “You’re growing.” And you know what? I’m not—she’s a nurse—and I’m not a medical
expert, and I’m not just going to sit there and say, “Oh, well, she’s just
trying to cheer me up.” But, the truth
is—did anybody ever feel that, as a kid, real sore? Oh, good, because, you know, that’s something
that—growing pains. I guess you just
call them growing pains; I mean, that’s a normal thing. It’s not something that’s that foreign to
us. But, getting back to How Soon Are We
Expecting What We Ask for? We live in a
“microwave” society and a culture of wanting everything right now, and
sometimes people get discouraged because it doesn’t happen instantly, or this
minute. “What happened? How come I didn’t get it? I asked for that job…” “I asked her to marry me, and she said,
‘Yeah, yeah, yeah! I want to marry
you!’” or whatever the case might be. I
mean, there has to be like, give people time to absorb what was asked, or what
we ask God for. This shows the patience of God, and
we’re supposed to be Christ-like. James 5:7-8 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the
coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of
the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter
rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your
hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 2 Peter 3:9-14 The Lord is not
slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering
to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a
great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and
the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for
such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot,
and blameless. God is longsuffering for our
sakes, not His, but longsuffering is a trait that we need to practice
ourselves. I’m not talking about being a
pushover, or, you know, just letting other people take advantage of us, but not
blowing up at the drop of a hat, either.
The Bible talks about in Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry, and sin not.” Just getting angry isn’t sinning but that shouldn’t
be our reputation. I want to tell just a
quick short story from about 15 to 20 years ago, that I started getting that
reputation. I know you probably can’t
believe it, but… Anyway, I won’t say the
names of the people, because they’re good, good friends, but I would be sitting
there with my “smile” on my face, and they would come up and say, “Are you
mad?” And I’d be like, “No.” Twenty minutes later, “Are you mad?” “No.” “Are you mad?”
“A little.” Twenty minutes later,
“Are you mad?” “Yeah, I’m kind of getting a little mad now!” It’s kind of fun to laugh about it now but, at
the time, it was like, “I really need to work on my demeanor.” I’m just telling you the truth; there are
things that we need to adjust along the way, and it might not be something
like, “Oh, yeah, as soon as we get baptized, we’ve got it all down pat.” That’s just not the case. There’s things that God deals with you—like
Parrish and Andy would share, about we need to ask. That’s what the theme of this month is about,
is asking God. Ask what you will. So how soon are we expecting to
get what we’ve asked God for? And if it
hasn’t happened yet, have we stopped asking?
I’m not saying that everything is going to crawl and God is going to put
us on the back-burner, but there are matters that might take many years to
develop, but in the end we need to know that God is always right on-time. If it’s something that we need, God will make
sure that it’s taken care of, and that’s a fact. 3rd Point – Not
Forgetting What We’ve Asked for and What God Has Done James 1:22-25 But be ye doers of
the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a
doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,
and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of
liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of
the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. So, we have to remember where we
came from. Remember the pit from whence
we were dug, and the rock from whence we were hewn (Isaiah 51:1). It would be impossible, though, to remember
every single act, miracle, dream, intercession of God, or the innumerable
blessings that God has given us. But
there was a kids’ magazine, years ago, and, actually, it’s still published,
called “Highlights.” I don’t if you
remember that, those of you who have taught in school… I don’t remember much about it, but I used to
just flick through it in kindergarten and first grade. But, that’s along the lines of what I want to
do today, is get some highlights. I’m going to get the ball rolling with
a relatively recent personal event; it’s not a harrowing tale of life or death.
It wouldn’t be considered miraculous,
and by all practical purposes, people might say, “That’s a little
run-of-the-mill. Really, that’s kind of
average. It’s really not a big answer
from God.” But I guarantee, if there was
medical complications in this procedure, I would have been, “Oh, God, why is this
happening, what am I going to do? I
don’t know if I can handle this!” So, I
precede that to say, I was at the dentist about 6 months ago, and there was a
tooth, below a crown, that some earlier x-rays had determined to be decayed;
relatively severely decayed. So, I asked
the dentist if he could take it off, and drill a little bit into it, and see if
they could build up—I’m not a dentist, but I’m kind of giving you some
terminology—and then put a crown on it, and he said, “Okay.” So, he takes care of that, and, of course,
I’m hoping it’s just a little bit decayed, and he can just put a new crown
on. He gets in there, and he says,
“Well, I’m going to suggest a couple of options here; One is, we can hope that
it isn’t so decayed that it won’t abscess, and that putting on a new crown,
down the road a ways, it might have complications, then. Or we could actually
extract it, put an implant in, and then give you a new crown. So, I was like, “Okay, well, how much is that
going to cost?” I’ve got to say, where’s
Phil? So, he says, “Just a crown is
about $1200 and an implant is about $3800.”
So, my reaction was like Phil, “Okay.”
Just a simple, “Okay.” And I’m
thinking to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I’m like, “All right, I have to think about
this before I actually give you the green light.” But the implant is a much more long-term and
certain solution. So, after a little
while, I opt for the implant. He
recommends a local oral surgeon who specializes in implantology. Now I’ve
got to look at my budget, get the day off from work, make the appointment, ask
for someone to drop me off, and then wait for the procedure. Remember that we’re talking about the process
of asking and learning. So, Jose G.,
actually that day, he was gracious enough to push his schedule out a couple of
hours and drop me off… Actually, he
stayed with me—the person has to say with you while you undergo this procedure,
so I appreciate that. First couple days
it’s OK and then the pain, I mean, severe, hits. I mean, like a ton of bricks. I was like, “Oh, my God! Ouch!” And, so much for me making the white water
rafting trip that Kirk Orelup had coordinated.
I was like, “Forget it, Kirk, I can’t make it. I can’t be camping up in the woods, and my
mouth is throbbing in pain. Fortunately,
the pain subsided after a couple of days.
Now, I also remember, a couple days later, Laygoze and Lorraine, they
brought me over a very tasty rib dinner. That was the first real meal I’d had; you have
to have smoothies. “What can I have,
now, to eat?” I asked him, the oral surgeon. “Well, you know, smoothies.” Great, great.
So that (the rib dinner) was very timely. I appreciate that a lot. Definitely a little heartier than a smoothie. So, I
resume my normal life schedule, a few months go by, I have to get, you know, the
oral surgeon gives me the green light, because he has to check to see that that
implant grafts into the bone. I guess
this ties into the previous point because it’s a lengthy process. I mean, we’re talking about over the course
of months. This wasn’t like, “Do it
right now! Can’t you get it in?” No, there’s these things, you’ve got to wait,
you know, a period of time, and, also, it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg. Okay, great, Lord, that’s just what I wanted,
to have to wait a long time and have it cost me an arm and a leg. But, you know what? I got it in this past week, and I give credit
to God. I thank God for that, making it
all work. So what does any of that have to
do with God? I told you it wasn’t going
to be a story of life or death or some great miracle. I just know that we still live here on planet
earth, we are all still flesh and blood, and we all have something to thank
God, that God has gotten us through. I’m going to read one more verse,
here, and then I’m going to open it up a little bit, and, hopefully, you’ve
been thinking a little bit about what God has given you, that God has changed
in your life, or given you an answer for.
A lot of us have herd this, especially as it pertains to communion: Luke 22:19-20 And He took
bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My
body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying,
This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you. Malcolm: I lost my
job in 2012, now it’s 2015. I’ve been
praying to God for a job, obviously.
I’ve had other jobs that were too dangerous, too whatever. The job I’ve got now, I just got last week,
it builds upon every skill that I’ve picked up, from twenty years ago until two
weeks ago. Every skill. And it expands beyond those skills to give me
better understanding, so I have a career, as opposed to just having a job. Jesse: Tina received a
complete healing in her hand. She has no
more pain in her hand. Samantha: I herniated a disc
in my back in 2010, and, it became worse after I had my son, I stress-fractured
my spine. I prayed and prayed and
prayed, and, the day I was baptized, I haven’t had any pain in my back since. Veronica: This was a couple
of weeks ago, I get up in the morning, and I’m prayerful to God that he covers
me and my family. I was taking my
children to the library, and a car, it went through a stop sign and hit
us. I was driving for a good couple of
minutes in oncoming traffic. We were
kept, and the car that hit us was totaled.
There was very little damage to my truck, and we were all fine, and I
know that was God. Bob H.: Back in ’88, I lost
these three fingers in a machine (holding up his right hand, with his thumb, what
was left of his index finger and his middle finger extended). They were going to cut my thumb off because
it actually died. So, they were going to
cut my thumb off, but you notice I still have my thumb. God healed my thumb, after we prayed that
week-end. Amen. Jason: I’ve been asking God
to get me a day-shift job so that I could see my daughter, who is finished with
potty-training—yay! She’s going to be
starting school here, soon, and I wanted to see her, and I can’t do that on
night-shift. I asked God for that, and I
was praying for humility in my life. God
gave me assistant foreman of a signal gang, so I got put on day-shift, and it
humbled me. Gloria: My granddaughter,
who has had grand-mal seizures, up to seven a day, and we prayed over her, and
even today, she’s had no more seizures. Mike H: During the course of
my life, I didn’t have a good church home to go to, until I came up here, and I
wasn’t feeling the Word, until now.
Jesse, and yourself, Chris, and Parrish, and now I’m feeling the joy of
the Word. Mike O: I can relate to the
seizures. A long time ago, we used to
pray for everybody, every ailment; we still do, but my wife would ask me, “Why
don’t you pray for yourself?” I always
thought, “Seizures I can handle.” And I went
through life, and I had one, and then I had another. I had one at church. One day, I said, “Okay, I give it to you,” and,
I wasn’t expecting this: I had one, I
got a huge skull fracture. Believe it or
not, that was God. I haven’t had one
since. Arman: We went on vacation
to the Philippines, back in 2005. My
niece came to me—we were having a prayer in the living room, and my niece came
to me, and she said, you know, that they’ve been trying to have a child, a baby,
with her husband for a long time, but… So, we prayed, and then I left. Six months after that, I heard that she was
expecting. Linda: A few years back,
Mike and I were in California, and his grandmother, we had gone up to see once,
and nobody had heard from her. She had a
lady that lived with her, and we went, and she wasn’t there. Nobody knew what had happened, nobody had
called Mike’s mom, and, so, we have to find the nurse; I don’t even know her
name. Mike’s mom, she’s just a praying
lady. She prays about everything. That meant that, right there, “Okay, God, You’ve
got to help us find this lady, in Jesus’ name.”
And, believe it or not, we went to Applebee’s, and Mike said, “I’ve just
got to go ask that lady if that’s her.”
And it as her nurse. It was the
lady, and we found out that she (Mike’s grandmother) had passed away, and we
got the information that we needed, and that was kind of a miracle of God. I’ll take two more. Alex, and then Parrish, and then we’ll wrap
up.
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