Asking God for more

 

Readings 1 Chronicles 4.9-10 and Luke 14.16-24

 

AJM October 2005

 

Introduction

 

Nye Bevan, a Labour cabinet minister in the 1950s and a former trade union negotiator, once emerged from a meeting between a trade union and management in tears, with the words ‘I am heartbroken by the paucity of their expectation’.

 

So I want to ask this morning, do you think Jesus ever feels like that?  Jesus is a negotiator too. He came to secure us a deal. It cost him a lot, and it was a very good deal he got for us. What is your expectation of that deal for you? are you claiming everything that’s on offer, or are you settling for something less? Is Jesus heartbroken by the paucity of our expectation?

Let’s pray.

 

Luke 14 – the dinner party

 

Jesus told a story about a man who gave a great dinner. He sent out the invitations. He didn’t have email, so when the day drew close he sent out a slave with the reminders. And back came the replies:

 

 

Sorry, sorry, sorry. They didn’t bother to come. The man was devastated. He was angry. He’d gone to all this trouble, they’d said they’d come, and now they weren’t going to. How would that make you feel if it was you? I know how I’d feel. I’d feel rejected. I’d think they didn’t like me. I’d wonder why I’d bothered.

 

So why didn’t they come? Perhaps they’d accepted because they didn’t want to be rude. But when it came down to it they had other things on. They were satisfied with what they already had in life. They didn’t need more.

 

Come, ask

 

If you read the gospels you find Jesus used two words, over and over again.

The two words were: come, and ask.

 

He says come (Is 55.1; Mt 11.28; Jn 6.35; Mk 10.14, Mt 25.34 etc).

 

 

And then Jesus says ask. We are supposed to ask. We are supposed to want things.

 

So Jesus says come. He also says ask. We are to want things.

 

·         Luke 11. 1-8

 

Do you remember what he said to the disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray, in Luke chapter 11? He told them the story of a man who had a visitor come to see him in the middle of the night. He had no food to offer him. So he went outside to his neighbour’s house, and banged on the door until the neighbour got up and gave him some food. That’s how you are meant to pray, said Jesus – pray as if you mean it. Pray as if you expect to get it. Pray loudly. Pray persistently.

 

Then he told them another story. He told them about the boy who asks his parent for an egg. What will you give your child, if he asks you for an egg? Will you give him a snake? Of course not. That, said Jesus, is what God is like. He’s like this:

 

So I say to you. Ask, and it will be given you, search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.

 

He will give you what you need.

 

What should we ask for?

 

What then should we ask for? The Old Testament tells us the story of King Solomon (2 Chron 1.7). When Solomon became king, he made 1000 burnt offerings,  and ‘that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ask what I should give you.’. What did he say? ‘Well, thanks, but actually I’m OK at the minute?’ Or, as my children would put it, “I’m good”? (2 Chron 1).

 

If God were to appear to you tonight, what would you ask for? Solomon asked for wisdom, and God was pleased that he had asked not just for himself but for others. Jesus said the same; he told us that if we ask first of all for the things we need in order to play our part in the kingdom of God, then everything else we need will be given to us as well.

 

Testimony

·         We prayed for a man with failing sight in Chipili. He said could we help, he couldn’t see to read indoors, and he wanted to lead a Rooted in Jesus group, he’d got a hospital appointment but he couldn’t afford the bus fare. We prayed, standing inside the church. He took out his Bible, and read. Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God, and everything we need will be given to us (Mt 6.33).

 

·         Child in Chipili – walked 30km with ancient grandmother because she had heard we were there, and asked for nothing; that child will be blessed by God!

 

Wanting more

 

I read an article on happiness recently. After years of pouring money into researching depression, it’s beginning to occur to psychologists to research happiness. It’s called positive psychology. Should we expect to be happy? What makes you happy?

 

Apparently the research shows money doesn’t make you happy. Children don’t make you happy. If you win the lottery you are happier but it fades after a year. If on the other hand you are disabled in an accident you become just as happy as you were before. The only thing they could find that consistently made people happier was company. Which after all is what the man was inviting his guests to enjoy – each other’s company.

 

But there was one experiment I thought rather interesting. Look at this. It’s a brain scan of people meditating. The reds and yellows mark brain activity associated with positive emotions. Maybe happiness is most reliably to be found in God. Loving one another, loving God – that’s how Jesus summarised the 10 commandments.

 

So Jesus says Come. And he says Ask. His brother James explains in his letter that:

 

 

So maybe we are like the guests in the story we began with. Maybe we don’t come, and we don’t ask.

Why not?

 

Maybe we don’t because

 

o       we don’t know we are allowed to ask – is it OK to pray for my own concerns, when there are so many people starving in the world, so many leaders doing great things for God, so many needs?

o       we don’t think there is anything else to ask for – all that miraculous stuff, we don’t really expect to see that happen nowadays

o       we don’t want anything else – we just like a quiet life, a regular pattern, the sense that God is with us somehow, even if we’re not quite sure what that means

o       we don’t think we will be heard – who, me?

o       we don’t think we are worth anything – problem is, God knows what we’re really like, and we don’t suppose he likes it all that much

 

Some stories

 

And yet the Bible is full of stories of people who knew what they wanted and asked for it. People whose expectations didn’t disappoint JesusHave you ever wondered why the Old Testament is all about people and not about doctrine? It’s so we can learn from them.

 

*       Take Jacob. Jacob knew what he wanted all right. He wanted a wife. He was prepared to work 14 years for the woman of his choice. He wanted a flock of goats. He got one by agreeing with his father in law he could have all the spotted sheep, and inbreeding them so loads were. He wanted his father’s blessing, and got it by pretending to be his brother. He wanted God’s blessing, and fought with an angel in a dream until he got it, acquiring a permanent limp in the process. Nye Bevan would not have been disappointed by the paucity of Jacob’s expectations. God blessed him because he refused to settle for less. (Gen 25+)

 

*       Take Joshua, Exodus 33.7-11. Moses had this tent which he called the tent of meeting, where he would go when he wanted to talk with God. Most people just watched him go, and watched him come back again. But one young man, called Joshua, used to insist on going with him, and staying behind in the tent afterwards. Joshua wanted to meet with God. What happened? When the time came for God to choose the leader who would take the people into the Promised Land, God chose Joshua. Joshua wanted more. (Num 27.18;32.12; Josh 1.1-2)

 

*       Or take Jabez. Jabez occupies 2 verses in the whole OT, 1 Chron 4.9 and 10. This is what it says about him: Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!" And God granted what he asked.

 

Why do we have his story, 2 lines on a man who lived more than 3000 years ago? Well, about 3 years ago I listened to a persuasive tape that extolled the virtues of praying as Jabez did. So I decided to pray it. I prayed it in sections. I prayed that God would bless me. That he would extend my ministry, give me an outlet to share what I had received from him with others. That I would see his hand at work through me. And that he would protect me. I prayed like that for several weeks. The results? Well, too many to tell. But briefly, since then:

 

·         I was asked to join the Council of SOMA UK, as far as I can see just because I turned up at their prayer conference

 

I think that counts as God extending my borders! For someone who at one time or another has believed all those reasons why I shouldn’t ask, that’s a bit of an astonishment.

 

 

What stops us getting more?

 

So, what about us? What stops us having these kinds of expectations of God? What keeps us from pitching up to the party, from praying the prayer, from hanging around in the tent?

 

Well, maybe some of these things:

 

·         We don’t realise what’s available. Like in Ephesus. Apollos led them to Christ. Paul turned up some time later and asked, ‘did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’. What Holy Spirit, they said, we’ve never heard of any Holy Spirit.

·         We don’t want to lose control. I mean, let’s face it, who knows what might happen? I’ve discovered I really like Africa; but what if I hadn’t?

·         We don’t want to give something up. My husband tells a story of a Cambridge student telling a famous evangelist he had intellectual doubts. Ah yes, and what is her name? the evangelist asked. He was quite right! Maybe we’re afraid God wants us to give something up. Our lifestyle. Our money. Our friends. Our freedom.

·         We don’t realise what’s holding us back – we have an enemy, Satan, who wants to keep our attention on other things. After Jesus was baptised in the Holy Spirit, he didn’t get on with ministry – he was tempted in the wilderness. Satan loves to offer us temptation. Or success. Or defeat. Or anything, really, as long as it gets our minds off the main issue.

·         We’re happy to settle for less – the Bible tells the story of the journey to the Promised Land. While they were still on the way they came across a place where there was really good pasture for cows. Two of the tribes, Gad and Reuben, specialised in cows. They said they’d like to stop right there; never mind about the Promised Land, this would do fine, and it was a lot easier to get to.

·         We haven’t claimed what’s already on offer – the resources of Word and Spirit are already fully available to us. But maybe we aren’t making the most of them.

·         We feel there’s nothing special about us – But that’s a nonsense. If you’ve been invited to the party, it’s no use sitting at home feeling inferior – just go! I’ve often found myself thinking, oh, they don’t really want me there, they just think they ought to ask me, or they’re just making up the numbers, or they’re asking me because I asked them. But Jesus doesn’t invite people for those kinds of reasons. He invites you because you have been chosen by God. Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘he who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?’ (Rom 8.32). You are entitled to the whole package.

 

So, there are lots of reasons for turning down the invitation, for getting on with your life, attending to the urgent things. And yet we are built to want more. The conclusion of the positive psychologists is exactly that – we get depressed because inbuilt somehow into our DNA is the desire for more. At the same time, all progress has come from the fact that we are designed to want more, designed to be like Jacob, designed not to settle for what we’ve got. It’s a fundamental part of our being which our economic system plays on all the time – it invites us to want more things, to confuse happiness with possessions, to deflect what’s meant to be a hunger for God into a hunger for stuff. And stuff doesn’t do it for us.

 

So it’s not just a matter of wanting more – we’ve got to want more of what we can actually have. I read a really good book recently, by Simon Ponsonby; it’s just called More (it’s on the bookstall). Wanting more, he says, is a sign of maturity; it’s the authentic cry of the true believer, it’s part of the DNA of the spiritual life, and mirrors the natural desire of God himself. He says ‘Christianity was never meant to be merely a meal ticket to heaven and a disciplined gritting of the teeth until the day we get there.’ It’s more. Are you expecting more?

 

 

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

 

Let’s look at another story from Luke. It’s in Luke 18. Jesus is walking into Jericho. There’s a blind man sitting by the road. He hears the crowd going by. Who is it, he asked. Jesus, they say. His response? He yells at the top of his voice, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me’. They try to shut him up, but he just shouts all the louder. This man wants to be heard. He’s desperate. He believes Jesus can help him. Jesus stops in the middle of the crowd, orders the man to be brought to him, and asks, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’. Let me see again, says the man. ‘Receive your sight’, said Jesus. Hey presto.

 

So what do you want Jesus to do for you? Let me make some suggestions. Maybe you want him to:

 

o       Forgive your sins?

·         He knows already, you can tell him – imagine he is here, you can sit down with him, tell him all about it. → 1 John 1.8-9

 

o       Heal you?

·         Remember the blind man. Maybe you want physical healing. I prayed recently with a friend who’d had an infected 7 inch wound across her abdomen for 8 weeks after a hysterectomy. We prayed, and within a few days the wound had shrunk to 2”.

 

·         Or maybe it’s emotional healing you need. We’ve just prayed with a roomful of depressed Tanzanian clergy. There has been serious conflict in the church there, and a lot of them were very discouraged. But as we invited them to come to God, to offer their pain to him, to ask for his healing and forgiveness, and to expect more, the atmosphere completely changed. They just let it all go, and their shoulders went back, their smiles returned, their confidence was restored.

 

o       Anoint you for ministry?

·         there is a ministry he has prepared you for, Eph 2.10; Eph 4 you are given as leaders to the church for ministry

·         we cannot minister without the anointing of the HS

·         in the OT people were anointed as king, as prophet, as priest

·         in the NT we are anointed by the HS for ministry; the Spirit of the Lord is on me, he has anointed me’, Jesus said at the beginning of his ministry. Even Jesus could do nothing without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Ask for the anointing of the HS on you for the work to which he has called you.

 

So, what is the more that you want? If you were to go to the party, if Jesus were to pass by in the street, what would you ask him for? What would your expectation be?

 

My experience is that Christianity only makes sense if you really respond to Jesus, if you really do come, if you really do ask, if you really do expect more. It only really makes sense if you go out of your depth. My expectations far exceed what I know I can do myself, and they are possible because if we ask for them we have the resources of God himself, made available to us through the Holy Spirit. This is the fundamental thing Jesus urged us to ask for. The difference between Christianity and other religions is that Jesus died and sent us the Holy Spirit. If you live as if you don’t need him you are settling for a pale shadow of what you’re meant to have, and Jesus too will weep at the paucity of your expectation.

So in a moment we are going to pray. But let’s just get something straight first.

 

But…

 

But maybe you’re saying that’s all very well, but that’s not where I am at. I’m not in a place where I can start asking for more. I can’t cope with what I’ve already  got. Life life isn’t going well for me. I need to wait a bit till I’m out of the tunnel, till things have settled down. Then I can do it, then I can ask for more, then I can raise my expectations of God.

 

It’s surprising that Jesus’ ministry doesn’t begin immediately after he received the Spirit at baptism, but only after facing his adversary in the wilderness. Maybe that’s not a coincidence. Maybe it’s part of the plan. Maybe the wilderness is a training ground prepared by the Holy Spirit for those who desire to minister in the power of the Spirit. Maybe it’s the wilderness experience that sorts out the men from the boys. Many Christians are unwilling to go there; but I think it’s only there that we learn to depend on God and not on ourselves. The wilderness is the making of the men and women of God. Think about it. Just think of the names of the men and women of the Bible who were formed in the wilderness, who got going when it all went wrong – Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah, John the Baptist. In all their experiences, time in the wilderness waste places was never wasted. The wilderness isn’t a disaster, it’s the only possible starting place. It’s the place where you learn to depend on God. I’ve just been to Zambia, and that’s a wilderness if ever there was one. Zambians have the lowest life expectancy in the world – 33 years. It’s also a country where age is valued, where leadership is for the old and wise. So the key task for the church is to persuade its vulnerable young people that they are called to lead. Every time Mark introduced himself, he said ‘I am 20 years old’ – and there were gasps all round the room, gasps from people who were learning to raise their expectations of what God can do in and through them. This is how Ponsonby puts it:

 

The deep things of God are learnt in the fiery furnace of the desert. It is here that he digs deep wells of the Spirit into our life. We receive more of God’s Spirit only as we empty out more of our self, and this takes place in the desert... We must embrace it.

 

An ambitious faith

 

So let’s be ambitious in our faith. Let’s not be the ones who say

 

·          sorry, I can’t make it after all

·          sorry, I have to sort out my investments first

·          sorry, I’ve got an important project on at the minute

·          sorry, it’s the wife

·          sorry, I know it’ll be great but to be frank I haven’t the time.

 

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Do we really want to say that to the Lord of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, the one who holds our destiny in his hands, the one who alone has the power to bring about change in the world?

 

Let’s come. Let’s ask. Let’s expect more.