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First Presbyterian Church – Willmar
September 23, 2012
Sermon “Asking
Rightly”
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37
Some time ago, I prayed that God would let me become
wealthy. I even offered God a
bargain: If You give me a lot of money,
I’ll give back a lot of it to Your causes.
For some time after that I wondered if God knew how much He
was costing His favorite causes by not giving me the money to give back! In the end I came to my senses – such as they
are. I realized that God had given up
all that money that might possibly have gone to God’s favorite causes because
God knew only too well that no matter how much I gave away, whatever was left
would have cost me my soul.
Nowadays, I don’t blame God for failing to make me wealthy. I thank God for giving me a life sufficient
to my needs and an opportunity to give God’s world all that I can; to use
whatever gifts I have for God’s glory. I
thank God for shielding me from more temptation than I could have handled, and
for saving my soul.
The Epistle lesson says: “You ask and do not receive, because
you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Submit
yourselves therefore to God.”
Some years ago there was a big deal made out of something
called “The Prayer of Jabez.” The prayer
itself is from First Chronicles 4:10: “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.”
The prosperity preachers on television made a lot more money selling books and
amulets and necklaces and bracelets , and on and on, with the prayer printed or
inscribed on it. But the worst thing
that they did was once again to corrupt the Gospel and try to convince people
that wealth – to spend on your own pleasures – was what God wanted for us
all.
There is no way that one can read the Gospels and the story
of Jesus and come to the conclusion that God wants each of us to get materially
rich. If that’s your deepest desire then
you have missed the point of Christ’s message.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus clearly declared: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also. [Matthew 6.19-21]”
And in case you still didn’t get the point he added: “No one
can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
wealth. [Matthew 6:24]”
Just a few verses before these words Jesus taught us the Prayer
of our Lord. That teaches us how to “ask rightly.”
In that little prayer we call upon the name of God, give God
praise and gratitude, then we pray that God’s Kingdom and God’s will shall be
here – here – among us, on earth. Then
we pray for what we need to get through another day, and we ask that in
the same way that we forgive those who have sinned against us, we pray
the we will be forgiven by God.
Let me ask you a question.
Are you willing to be forgiven based on the model by which you forgive
others? Do you really want to commit
your life to the realization of God’s kingdom and the establishment of God’s
will here among us, today? You see,
that’s a stewardship question. If the
life of Jesus teaches us anything it’s that the maintenance of God’s kingdom on earth requires something
from us. Is that what we want or do we
want to say it and then add, “But not just yet!”
Sometimes people get a little confused about something that
Jesus said – in varying ways – on several occasions about prayer. It often gets interpreted as, “Whatever you ask in my name you
will be given.” “Whatever!” Maybe
that’s what I had in mind when I tried to make my bargain with God about wealth
and my charitable nature.
But these words – like all of the words in Scripture – cannot
be taken out of context. If you look
closely at the places where this sentiment is expressed by Jesus, it has
nothing to do our desire to gain things, as James might say, for our own
pleasures. It has to do with the fruits
of our faith; with the command to spread to Gospel. Perhaps it’s most clearly stated in John
15:12-17: “This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to
lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I
command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does
not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I
have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not
choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that
will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I
am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
In other words Jesus is telling us that He has called us so
that we can live out our faith, and whatever courage, whatever resources that
you need to do that faithfully in His name, God will grant to you.
We have been given a great treasure by the Lord, and we have
been called to be stewards of that treasure.
We have been called to bear fruit.
We have been called to live out our faith for the glory of God. More importantly, God will provide the
resources for us to use our gifts – however great or small they may be – God
has provided that our gifts are sufficient to the task. If we need more strength, more courage, more
fortitude so that the name of God may be glorified – so that the commandments
of Jesus may be known to all – God will give us whatever else we need to live
our lives in Christian witness. That’s
what it means to ask in Christ’s name.
That’s what it means to submit yourself rightly. It happens when we submit ourselves to the
Lord.
Amen.
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