Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Well, thank you everybody for sharing. A little bit of an echo. Thank you everybody for sharing.
It is good to know that I’m part of a church that people are meeting the Lord throughout the week in various ways through the Word of God, through Christian books, through going on trips and watching commercials. There’s many different ways that God meets us. It takes all the pressure off of me that… you’re not starving and that I’m serving the first meal that you’re eating this week. But you’ve been meeting the Lord, so I thank God for all of you.
Today, I didn’t have a passage, or I didn’t have a clear word, but I think based on brother Abraham sharing, the Lord just connected a few passages together, and I’m going to try to say as little as possible and let God speak directly. So let’s turn to Luke 11:9-13. We’re just going to read several passages, a few comments. Let God speak.
Luke 11:9:
9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we ask that in this short time that you would speak. As you’ve already been speaking through the testimonies of all the brothers and sisters, we pray that you would just speak directly to us through your word because your word is always on target, it’s always accurate, it always cuts to the heart. So Lord, we ask that you would speak in that way today. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
The verses that I read are talking about the attitude of prayer, and if you read the verses just prior, it is the Lord’s Prayer. “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us this day our daily bread.”
2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, (Luke 11:2-3, ESV)
We have to understand the heart with which we’re praying to the Lord. What kind of heart? Like, let’s examine the prayers that we’ve prayed just in this last week. What was the heart behind the prayer? What were the actual requests?
And I pray that today God would help clarify how we should be praying if we really prayed, “Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done.” Like, what I want out of life, my will, it doesn’t matter. What does God want? Do we inquire of the Lord? What do you want? What are you doing that is so important? The heart with which we pray. Do we care about what God wants? Or do we have our will and “God just give me what I want”?
Give us this day our daily bread. We all have food to eat, but bread is not enough. We want avocado toast. We want, we want croissants, we want steak. We want just so many things. And God says, “I’ve given you what you need.” And yet we pray with such greed. So the heart behind how we pray is so important. It’s actually the most important thing.
You can tell some of what your heart is like by the kinds of requests that you’re making. What is dominating your prayers reveals a lot about the heart behind those prayers.
Luke 11:9-13 is this: ask, and it will be given; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. But have you been praying about certain things, but they’re not being answered?
And so we can go one of two ways. Either God is encouraging us, “Be shamelessly persistent in asking, because what you’re asking is right. Keep doing it,” and that’s why God isn’t answering, because He’s waiting to see, do you have faith to be persistent in asking what you know to be right? And this prayer request is the will of God. And you keep asking, you keep seeking, you keep knocking, and it will be given, it will be opened.
Or we’re asking the wrong prayer with the wrong heart, out of greed, out of selfishness. And we keep on asking over and over again, and it’s not answered because it’s not the will of God.
So in this short time, may God give us the answer of how to pray, what to pray, and how to pray with the right heart.
The same phrase is in Matthew 7:7-11. May the Lord just piece together His word and speak directly.
Matthew 7:7,
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11, ESV)
Sometimes the prayers that we pray may not perfectly align with the will of God. But because He’s our Father and He’s a good Father, and because we are His children, just out of the goodness of His heart, He knows we want this; He knows we’ve been asking for this, and just out of being such a good, generous God, He just gives it to us. Because children ask for things, and you may say no the first time, the second time. The tenth time, they ask for apple juice for them, but you, you just give in because once in a while, you just want to show, okay, you just want to show kindness to your little child who is just asking for this. And our Father, He does the same thing. But it doesn’t mean that everything we’re asking is right.
And so what is this prayer and what is this heart that is right? 1 John 5:14-15:
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15, ESV)
And did you see that if you “ask anything according to His will”? If you ask something over and over and it’s not according to His will, He may, because out of His heart, He may just bless you with that good thing. But there are many requests He is not answering because it is not according to His will.
And so we should ask, “What is God’s will? And what kind of prayer should I be praying? What kind of heart should I have as I pray?” The answer is in Jeremiah 29:12.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:12-14, ESV)
And so, did you catch what is the will of God and His heart for you, and the kind of heart we should have as we pray? Did you catch it? It says, “If you seek Me, you will find Me. If you seek Me with all your heart,” you’ll find Him guaranteed. Half-hearted, not guaranteed. Once in a while, maybe not guaranteed. But if you seek Jesus with all of your heart, and that is your primary prayer… did you pray that this week? “Jesus, I just want to meet you.” And you sought Him with all of your heart, and that was your main prayer. And your heart was, “I don’t care about anything else. Everything else is bonus. But if this one request is answered, then it’s been a good week.”
God, He knows our heart. He knows whether the things that we’re asking for, the avocado toast, the greedy things—if that’s really where our heart is—or if our heart is, “I want to seek you and ask for you with all of my heart,” and that is your main prayer. That prayer is the will of God. And that prayer will be answered. Guaranteed it will be answered. If your prayer is, “I want to meet you. I’m seeking you with all my heart.” God says, That heart, that prayer I hear. That prayer I will answer.”
There are many times when I’ve prayed for ministry. Early on, as I was a pastor, I asked all these questions: Should I do this? Should I do this? Should I do this? Should I do this? And God was just silent. He was silent for all those years. And then I said, “Okay, maybe I should ask a different question.”
And I started asking questions about who Jesus is and how I’m doing with him. And guess what? He started speaking. It was loud and clear because I was asking the right set of questions. He wanted to get my relationship with Jesus right. Now, a decade later, now I ask questions about ministry. And He says, “Go for it, go for it. It’s time. Do it. Every request, okay, I bless it. I’m there, go do it.” It wasn’t like that not too long ago. But things have changed.
We need to ask the right question at the right time, and it is always the right prayer: “Lord, I want to seek you. Lord, I want to seek you and find you.”
Let me end with Revelation 3:15.
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:15-20, ESV)
This is talking about an entire church, the church in Laodicea. They thought they were doing fine. But at the end, toward the end, God had mercy and He revealed their spiritual state.
This blindness is a real problem. One way to know if you’re blind is to examine the prayers that you prayed this past week. What did you pray for? What was really important to you this past week? With what heart did you pray? Are you praying the wrong prayers because you’re blind? Repent of your blindness. Ask God to open your eyes, and let’s start praying the right prayer.
God is knocking. Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts, and He wants a people who knock on heaven’s door, who know His heart. God’s heart for you is to fall in love with Jesus. Fall in love with Jesus to seek Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Don’t use Him to get community, to get friends, to get blessings. Don’t use Him.
That is rude. That is disrespectful. That is so beneath our Lord Jesus. Just seek Him for who He is. He is great, He is awesome, He is good, He is beautiful. Seek Him because He is worthy to be praised. If you pray this prayer, “Jesus, I want to meet you. I want to find you. I am knocking on heaven’s door,” I guarantee… I guarantee God will answer that prayer. Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we want to examine the prayers that we’ve been praying to you and the heart behind our prayers for ourselves and for our loved ones. Do we care about worldly things for ourselves and our family members more than spiritual riches, gold refined in the fire?
What is our true value system? What do we truly treasure in this life? Our prayers reveal it all.
So, Holy Spirit, bring back memory of what we prayed this past week. What was dominating our thoughts? And if we prayed, what did we pray? With what heart did we pray?
We see that your prayer, your heart for us, is that we would seek you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love you with all of our being.
Forgive us. We don’t love Jesus enough. Forgive us. We don’t care about the things of God. We care more about ministry and church than we do about the senior pastor, Jesus Christ, who birthed the church and who died for the church.
In the end, everything else fades. We will stand face to face on Judgment Day with Jesus Christ. On that day, will He be our best friend? Will He be our advocate? Will He vouch for us? Or will He say, “I don’t know you because you didn’t come to me for all of your years? You didn’t love me with your heart.”
Forgive us, Lord, for not loving you, for not coming to you. Search us, Holy Spirit. Where do we stand? What is our spiritual condition? Are we blind? Are we pitiable? Are we naked and not even realizing our condition? Please expose us, Lord.
Repentance, Lord, leads to refreshing. It is not a condemning thing. You’re wooing us into a covenantal love relationship. Thank you for your Body that was broken, your Blood shed. This is your commitment. You put the wedding engagement ring on. It is your commitment that you will come back for your bride.
And so, Lord, we want to say, “I do.” We love you. We want to follow you all of our days. And along the way, there will be ministry. We will serve your people. But Lord, that is not where our heart is. Our heart is with you. We seek you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And this prayer will be answered, guaranteed. You say it in your word. So Lord, help us to make this our main prayer request.
Jesus, please meet us as we close this service. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.