By Gregory S. Kaurin, associate pastor

Texts: Philippians 4:4-7

Matthew 7:7-11

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At beginning of service:

How many here have been praying for something and are still waiting for an answer from God? Our specific emphasis in the lessons and message for today’s service is about persistence in prayer. Does God get tired of our prayers and requests? When should we stop? What do we do with the silence?

Before we start, I wanted to offer something practical for your prayer life: praying out loud. Anyone find that difficult, for whatever reason? It is hard. Sometimes we’ve heard other people praying and know we could never match up to that. But I recently overheard this exchange. One person said, “You know, it doesn’t have to be long.” Another person added, “It doesn’t even have to be good!” They were exactly right!

You are not praying to the people around you; and our goal is not to impress God with eloquence. It’s to be honest with God and to speak to him. I encourage you to start at home, alone as a whisper. Focus on God.

Try Biblical praying—I ran across this idea last week—Biblical praying. You can take many passages in scripture and phrase them as prayers. Let me show how as our opening prayer. Look at our first lesson from Philippians. I’ll show you how you can pray it:

“Lord, help me to rejoice in you always, so that others may see gentleness in me. Thank you for being near, Lord, so that I can give up my worries. Teach me by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to make my requests known to you. Give me your peace, which surpasses all understanding, and guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

The sermon:

Knock, Knock. Who’s There?… Who’s There?…

Do you know a good knock, knock joke? The idea of knock, knock jokes is that there is an answer to the knock. Dead silence on the other side of the knock, doesn’t work. Matthew 7 promises an answer to our knocks.

One of my college professors had been involved in translating the Bible. I remember him talking about this specific passage from Matthew 7: “If a child asks you for a fish, would you give a snake?”

The translators had some trouble with this specific passage. They were translating it for a specific group of native Africans. That group preferred snake in their diet, even over fish when possible. So, after asking for fish, but receiving snake, most of their children would have been delighted. In that translation, they reversed the snake with a specific inedible fish, and that way, got the right meaning!

The meaning is that, if the child asks for nourishment, parents doing their job do not give inedible stuff. They give good food (maybe not always the best tasting, but good nonetheless).

I wish Jesus would have answered this question though: what if the child asks for big package of Snickers® bars for dinner? What does the good parent do? But I guess we know the answer. All you youth here, answer honestly. What does a good parent say to a kid who asks for a bunch of Snickers® bars?

There’s a well-phrased ending to this passage. Jesus says, “If each of you then, who are evil (if even a sinful person) knows how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?”

“Good gifts.” That’s the key. And there’s that proverb. How does it go? “Good gifts come to those who…? [Wait.] That’s right: “wait.”

Waiting. That can be tough on us mortals, can’t it? But at least we know an answer will come. Jesus promises, “Everyone who asks, receives; searches, finds! Knock, and the door will be answered.”

I’m going to try something, not to be irreverent, but to make the point: [Knock on podium; hold out hand.] “God will you please give me a sack of Snickers® bars?” [Wait about 20 seconds.]

(I was almost afraid he would drop a sack of them in my hand—just to be funny, and ruin my point.) I knocked. Did anyone hear or see an answer? [Accept ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Both are right. While, we didn’t hear or see anything. So far, the answer is ‘no.’]

But I guarantee, God did answer the knock. I guarantee you that he listened and heard! And since I look for God, in worship, even in my preaching, I know he is right here! I don’t need Snickers® to know it. I need faith.

Look at the cover of your bulletin. I think this passage from Jeremiah was on top of Jesus’ mind in Matthew 7. Jeremiah told the exiled people that, even though they were far away in Babylon, God promised he was still as near as the asking: “When you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek my with all your heart, I will let you find me.”

So, the important point here is that when you pray—no matter how many times, nor when, nor where—God has firmly established and promised that he is listening. Present and listening …whenever you pray. Your prayers are never ignored!

What seems like silence when you knock on God’s door is not absence. And just because we often don’t get what we ask for, that doesn’t mean our knock didn’t knock loud enough with big enough faith. Even the weakest faith knocks loud enough for God to hear and answer the door. Even the weakest faith is not too weak to be heard and answered by God.

When I read these passages from Matthew and Jeremiah, I don’t hear God saying, “When you look, search, and knock you’ll find whatever you want.” He says, “You’ll find me.” “It will be given; you will receive,” Jesus said in our Matthew lesson. But I don’t think he meant, “You will be given exactly what you asked for.” If what I ask for is a pot of gold, then God may as well be a rainbow or a personal genie. God has greater treasures in mind for us.

And maybe the hardest thing for us to hear is this: sometimes, that thing (whatever it might be) that thing that we have our heart set on might be like praying for a pot of gold. Compared to what God really offers us at the doorway, our heart and prayers might be set on something that it is actually keeping us from hearing and accepting God’s greater gifts. That may explain some of the silence we think we hear from God—when we refuse to accept answers we don’t like, and then we call it silence or absence.

I say that carefully and with hesitation. I worry that you’ll hear me say that, and use it as an excuse to give up on your prayers.

Absolutely not: we are to persist! What did our first lesson say? It said, “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” In everything.

There are two great parables that Jesus told. One was about this woman. She bugged and pestered a judge for her rights, for justice. Finally, he gave in—not because she convinced him of her case—but because she wore him out and he wanted her off his back.

The second is about this fellow that bangs on his neighbor’s door at some ridiculous hour for bread to feed visitors in his house. The neighbor finally answers the door and gives him bread—not because he’s a nice guy—but because the fellow wore him out and the neighbor wanted him off his doorstep. In both cases, Jesus added, “If these people heard, answered and gave for all the wrong reasons, how much better will my Father answer you, how much more readily.”

On top of that, those parables encourage us to pray at all times. Pray what’s on your heart. God is the one ear that won’t tire of it. Martin Luther called it rubbing God’s ears. If you get worried that God is getting tired of a request, then rub his ears with his own promise. “You told me, God, that I could do this. So here I am; I’m back. Listen to me.”

But don’t you forget to listen to God. Allow the silence to be a part of God’s answer; and let it give you time to reflect and consider the things for which you ask.

St. Paul asked God, time and again, to heal what he called his own “thorn in the flesh.” As far as we know, God never did. Maybe God did not feel that the healing was a necessary part of Paul’s mission.

In fact, Paul, as he reflected on his thorn, began to incorporate it as a part of his proclamation, a weakness that witnessed to God’s strength. Paul was healed of his thorn, not physically, but by accepting it as a part of himself, and a part of his mission. I’m not saying his thorn in the flesh became a good thing. But by the prayers of Paul and the power of God, good things came out of it.

Our prayers might change as situations change, or as we change.

But we don’t stop praying.

I will end by coming to what I think is the most important thing to remember about how, how often, and for what we can pray to God: pray because it’s in your heart, or on your mind. You don’t need to sit and worry and try to censor the things you say to God. He knows what’s going on already, so you don’t need to fuss for the right words or attitudes.

What God wants most in his relationship with you is honesty. Attention and honesty. Express it because you feel it. Say it because you think it. Ask for it, because you want it. That’s honest.

Remember Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that we read last week in all our services. He asked honestly, “Father, if possible, let this cup pass.” But Jesus was open to accepting another answer. He placed it in God’s hands, and allowed God’s will to be what he wanted most. He ended his prayer by saying, “Yet, not what I want, but what you want.”

So we pray. And each time we place it in the best hands. It will not be ignored. It will be heard and answered in the best way. In God’s time and his way. Faith in God frees us to be patient and open. Our first lesson said it this way, “Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Amen.

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