ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN UNTO YOU

25TH JULY, 2010 (9th Sunday after Pentecost)

Rev 'd Foh Arkhurst, Asst Minister, TUC

BIBLE READINGS:
GEN. 18:20-32/COL 2: 6-15/LUKE 11: 1-13

FIRST SERVICE

TEXT: LUKE 11: 9,10
9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
New Living Translation

As humans one thing is clear that at any point in time we need one thing or the other. All of us here need something we want the Lord to do for us and our hearts’ desire is to receive whatever we ask of God. But in asking, we should have our motives right. Jesus is entreating us today that whatever we need, we should ask him in prayer and he is prepared to do for us.

In the first reading, God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sins but Abraham pleaded till God gave him what he wanted - saved Lot and his Family.

Our God is a faithful God when we hold Him to his word, for He watches over his word to perform. If we ask him for our needs he would grant our desires.

In the third reading, which is the basis for our Theme today, we read that after Jesus had finished praying one of his disciples asked, “Teacher, teach us how to pray…” We realized here 2 things:

a) That prayer must not be interrupted and so the disciples waited for the Lord to finish praying before putting in their request.

b) Jesus was a Role Model to his disciples as far as prayer was concerned; and so they wanted to pray just as he was doing.

Jesus responded in 2 ways- in the Lord’s Prayer - (verses 2-4) and in what is usually referred to as The Friend at Midnight (verses 5-13).

Jesus prayed a model prayer from which we can learn a lot of lessons:

1) It respects the God we worship - Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come... Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...

2) It shows our dependence on God. The Lord’s Prayer takes care of our daily wants - bread (all that we need) and forgiveness of sins (repentance before God)…. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

3) It takes care of our daily dangers - temptation and evil… And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil...

The Lord’s Prayer is our daily prayer, for it covers all that we need, our present needs, our past sins and our trials and temptation.

The 2nd response of Jesus as captured in Luke 11:5-13 is about a man who had a visitor in the night and had nothing to place before his guest and so he decided to go and ask a friend.

6 ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ 8 But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.* 9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

The man was not answering due to how congested his room was but his friend kept on knocking for his request to be answered. This is the way Jesus wants us to persist in prayer, to keep on knocking and asking on our knees and not be weary.

God always answers our prayers and He does so in three ways:

1) Yes - and you would have whatever you asked for

2) Wait - for a while (God’s time is the best) and

3) No - for you do not need this now.

If our earthly fathers know how to give us gifts how much more our Father in Heaven.

The 3rd Reading has some lessons to teach us.

We must learn from Jesus’ prayer life and from His Model prayer by

• Praying unceasingly

• Hallowing God’s name, praising Him and thanking Him

• Praying directly and simply, for God knows our hearts and understands our problems

• Praying persistently for the Lord will respond with what is best for us

• Praying expectantly, for we receive more than we ask for Ref : Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

I pray that we will continue to ask; and that we go first to God with our requests. Amen.
For Second Service Sermon, please click 'Read More' and scroll down.

MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE

PREACHER: REV. FIIFI FOH ARKHURST
TEXT: GEN. 18:1-10, COL 1: 15- 28 & LUKE 10: 38-42

All humans can’t do without making choices. We make choices every moment of our lives.
How do we make choices and how sure are we that the choices we make would be right? In Luke 10:42 the Scripture teaches that we need to do the most important things first. Martha thought her choice was right; she was in the kitchen preparing food to serve Jesus and was worried that her sister Mary was not helping her. Jesus’ response was this 'But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her' Mary has chosen the positive part of sitting at the feet of Jesus and it won’t be taken away from her. Which implies that listening to God enables us to set our priorities right. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to him. Listening is an act with which we need to discipline ourselves. We need to listen to God in making choices. What Jesus was telling Martha was this, she should set her priorities right. Make the right choice and we will end up doing the right thing. Sometimes we spend so much time doing things for God that we do not have enough time to spend with Him. Martha was spending all her time in the kitchen trying to do something for her guest, which was not bad in itself; but she needed to listen to Him. When Jesus comes into the picture our ways would be right. The choices we make today would determine what we would be in the future. However if you make the wrong choice, do not give up, but turn to Jesus. He is always ready to help us.

The question in the minds of many people is how do we make the right choice?
1. We need divine wisdom and counsel before making decisions; and that takes patience and diligence
2. Therefore we need to spend quality time with Him. Intimacy with God is necessary
3. He will then help us to set our priorities right because there are many unimportant things we are doing.

Our prayer should be that we make right choices and we can’t do that without Jesus.
Let’s come before him and do the right things to the glory of God.

THE REWARD OF BEING FAITHFUL TO CHRIST

PREACHER: DR. VLADIMIR ANTWI-DANSO                                      

THEME:”THE REWARD OF BEING FAITHFUL TO CHRIST”                

Defining “Who is my neighbour” today becomes a problem. In our first reading, Moses tells us a lot about what we should do to inherit the presence of God. David also when he was about die admonished his son Solomon, heir to the throne to walk in the path of God faithfully. He succeeded in completing the temple and the palace because he initially followed the commands of God. Later he took a lot of pagan wives who turned his heart away from the Lord. After his death the kingdom broke into two. Jeroboam took over part of the kingdom and Israel was taken into captive.

The bible tells us what we should do in order to live a faithful life. In Deuteronomy when the Israelites came to Eastern side of Jordan and Moses was about to die he then gave them the law and promised the blessings of God if they lived faithfully by the law. We need to know our history, where we are coming from, where we are going as a Church. It is easy because someone died on the cross to save us.

When the Teacher of the Law came to Christ and asked him “what he must do to inherit eternal life, (Lk 10: 25) Jesus referred him to what the scriptures say (v.27), which he quoted. Jesus then used the parable of the Good Samaritan to demonstrate our attitude towards people who are not of the same ethnic group or social standing with us.  Knowing what the scriptures say, is key to our walking faithfully with the Lord.  As we are inundated with preachings on healing, prosperity, deliverance by various “men of God” in the media, we must consider what the Bible says because it is the believer’s Constitution.    The salvation of  God is not in the aggregation of riches, but it leads us into His peace.

Walking in the light of the law gives us the favour of the Lord. We have to walk in the path of righteousness.

CHRIST OUR PEACE THEME:”CHRIST OUR PEACE”

PREACHER: REV. SETH KISSI
TEXT: ISAIAH 66:10-14, GAL. 6:1-6 & LUKE10:1-11.



Peace is a condition where a man’s heart is at rest, when we are without worry and when we can relax. But what would bring about peace to the one who has no hope of what to eat, the sick, the one gripped with fear about his relationship with God?

Peace comes to us in different ways. In Isaiah, the people did not have peace; and that made them anxious and worried. They were concerned about the condition of Jerusalem but God through Isaiah presented a message of hope to them. God promised to give peace that is like a river, her breast would be full of milk that would provide for people; this provision would be a source of comfort.

In Gal 14 Paul reminds us to rejoice when we see that God’s Word has been fulfilled. There is peace in rejoicing when good things come our way and that also makes us see the challenges ahead in life. God is disappointed when we fail to rejoice in his accomplishments. He acts in our life to give us peace and joy.

When Jesus sent his disciples he told them to go into any house they were welcomed. The receiver of peace is he who welcomes the Messiah. The mission was to go and give peace indiscriminately to the extent that they did not have to greet anybody on the way.

How do we receive his peace? In Gal 2 Paul makes a ‘contradictory’ statement by saying that

i. We should first carry each other's burden. Put yourself in that situation, feel it and adopt that attitude to make sure a brother has peace to go on. Then he said:

ii. Each person should carry his load. For each of us has a load to carry; and it is the peace of God that would enable us to carry our personal loads.

If someone thinks he is better off he should be careful. If you are good enough assess yourself and find confidence in your abilities not someone else’s.

We must celebrate God when he does little and good things in our lives

When we panic we disappoint God. Panic and anxiety closes our eyes to the other doors God opens in our lives.

We should not be anxious for anything – the food we shall eat or the clothes we shall wear – for when Christ sent out the 72, he asked them not to take sandals nor purse.

We should not give up hope in our state of despair.

We must have hope and faith in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that is too hard for him to do for us

Salvation and deliverance bring peace and Christ is there to help us see the solution in him.

Let us also go in the same mission the disciples went.

May God help us to walk in peace.

May God come our way with his provision that takes away the hunger that makes us weak.

There is a peace that comes when we have problems and a peace when our problems are solved.

May the peace of God be with us. Amen