Aggressive Towards God 1978

I'd like to start out by reading a few verses scattered through the upper room discourse in John 14, 15, and 16 that are very close in meaning and of strong encouragement. Just, uh, you can, if you want to find them, just read through John 14, 15, and 16. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, she do, because I go to the Father.

Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. You did not choose me, I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it you. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.

Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. There was this place outside of town that was called Hospital Hill, because it had two hospitals within a hundred yards of each other.

To look at them, there was no comparison, as far as their appearance was concerned. The one was up-to-date in every respect. It was a modern building with clean lines, manicured lawns, and the staff of physicians and nurses and residents and interns and technicians was superbly trained, all the best and latest equipment.

The other hospital looked like a railroad station out of the 1880s, and the staff gave the impression of being somewhat clumsy and somewhat unprofessional. And so, whenever any traveler needed the emergency service, invariably, of course, they would choose hospital number one. But most of the townspeople, when they needed hospital attention, went to the second.

The reason was that the townspeople knew that in spite of all the latest equipment and the highly trained staff of hospital number one, that hospital also had a mortality rate that was ten times higher than the other one. They knew that people who went into this old hospital with its rather clumsy staff recovered quickly and stayed recovered. And so, when it comes to a hospital, it's not what does the thing look like, but do you get cured? Now, we can apply the same test to people who say they are followers of Jesus.

The test that is to be applied to them is not how slick are their churches, how well can they quote the Bible, how skillfully can they grasp the intricacies of systematic theology. The test is, are these people able to impart the reality of God to those who come seeking? What are we doing for the people who come to us with their despair and their confusion and their pain and their anguish and their sin? Are we sending them on their way touched with the touch of God or are we, in fact, dismissing them just as sick, if not sicker, than they were when they came to us? By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. And fruit in this instance is not like the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, but it is rather bringing people into the reality of God, like also John 12, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it divides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

The grain of wheat multiplies itself, that's the fruit. And when the issue is, are we bearing fruit in that sense, multiplying children of God, you know, what are we doing for the people who come to us? Are we, in fact, touching them with a touch of God, the forgiveness of God, the life of God, the peace of God? The basic requirement for us is that we also have access to God's presence. Now what so often happens is that we know the theory, or you could say, in fact, the fact that Jesus died for our sins and in doing so opened the way to the Father's presence.

We know that the door is open and that anyone who will can enter it, but we can know all those things and yet when it comes to prayer, when it comes to actually trying to make some kind of contact with God, we find ourselves, in fact, standing outside an ironclad door that won't open. Jesus often talks about doors that won't open. He talks about the door that shuts against the five foolish virgins and never opens again, or in Luke 13, the door that shuts against people who ate and drank in his presence, but now it's too late and that door will never open again, but there is one door Jesus talks about that he promises us will verily open, and this is the door we're dealing with here.

If we're able, if we're ever going to be able to manifest God to people who come to us in their need, we're gonna have to get this door open. On the other side of the door is our friend, the most wonderful and true friend we ever had, but he won't open the door for us because he is our friend. He will only open the door for us when we start getting aggressive, and he said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him, and he will answer from within, do not bother me, the door is now shut, my children are with me in bed.

I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs, and I tell you, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be open.

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion? 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? Now here's a situation that really fits us to a tee. People come to us in their anguish and need. We set them down at our table, and then we go out in the kitchen and start opening all our empty closets and stall for time, rattling our empty dishes.

Maybe we can entertain them, sing them little songs, show them pictures of delicious food, describe the meals that we have often cooked, but we have no food to give them. Now the problem is compounded by the fact that very close by we have a friend who has all kinds of bread, but the door to his place is shut, and the fact that the door is shut is a sign, see, of our inability to sense God's presence. Somehow or other we have no consciousness of how near God is to us, or how willing he is to answer our prayers.

In fact, when we start to pray, not only do we seem to get nothing, but we actually start getting discouraging negative answers. First thing we hear through the door is, don't bother me. How many Bible-believing, Bible-quoting, doctrinally sound Christians in their actual living are hearing really only one word from God, as far as they can tell, and that's, don't bother me.

You know, they tiptoe up to the door with their polite little petitions and rub their hands together and start, you know, asking for something, you know, and all of a sudden, don't bother me comes out, and no wonder they're afraid, they're chicken about asking anything more, and finally they get brave enough to say, but Lord, I thought you were a good God. Didn't you send Jesus to die for our sins? And here I come to you asking for bread, not for myself, but for somebody in need. Why do you say, don't bother me? Because the door is now shut.

Why didn't you come when it was open? It was open all day long, why didn't you come when they were baking the bread? It's midnight, and how often this is the way. The door was open for Peter, door was open for Mary, the door was open for Paul, but for me, it's closed. The door was open during the Bible days, door was open during the time of Wesley and Luther and those guys, door was open during the early times of the Pentecostal movement, or back in the 19th century revivals, or in the latter reign movement that started in the 40s, but for me, the door is closed.

And here I stand on the outside of the door trying to pray and getting nothing. Now comes another word which is even more discouraging. My children are with me in bed.

My children who belong to me are in here, they're safe and sound and warm, and you're not one of them. How often we feel that way. It's not right to take your children's bread and throw it to dogs.

See, when Elijah prayed, things happened because he was one of the children, and he's inside the door. In Acts 4, when the people cried out to God with one voice, it was so wonderful, the building shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness because they were among the children, and now they're inside the door, but I'm outside. Then comes the final word.

I cannot get up and give you anything. And how often that seems to be the clearest thing we hear when we pray. If we're honest with ourselves, it seems that's all we get.

I can't get up and give you anything. Don't bother me. The door is now shut.

My children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. But is this really God's heart? You know, when we put ourselves actually where we are when we try to pray, so often that's what seems to come back.

You know, but is this what God really is like? What about when Jesus says to the Syro-Phoenician woman or the Canaanite woman, I've been sent to the law sheep of the house of Israel. That's all. It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to dogs.

And how are we going to somehow get through and find out what God's heart toward us really is? The only way we will ever penetrate through to the heart of God is to get aggressive. But instead of getting aggressive, what we do so much of the time when we get the negative answer is we just mutter piously, thy will be done, and then we hurry back to that person sitting at our empty table and outside our empty kitchen and we say, well, I'm sorry. It mustn't be God's will.

Isn't it something, when it comes to our relationship with other human beings, we know how to be aggressive. When our check comes late, we can make noise. When the electric company or the gas company overcharge us, we know how to make waves.

We know how to push our way inside the church. We know how to cajole and threaten and manipulate people in our sweet little Christian way and get things going our way. But when it comes to praying to God for bread for these hungry ones who come to us and we seem to get a negative answer, the door is now shut, don't bother me, we shrug our shoulders, shed a few little tears, and mumble, thy will be done, and expect nothing.

There's only one time in Scripture when Jesus said, not my will but thine be done, in resignation. And that was when the cup was coming toward him, the cup of agony, and the Father was saying, drink. Every other time Jesus says, thy will be done.

It's not a prayer of resignation, but it's an aggressive assertion of the redemptive will of God. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That means, thy healing will be done down here where things are sick.

You know, thy releasing, liberty-giving will be done in this world where everything is bondage. Jesus stands outside the grave of Lazarus and he folds his hands and he says, now Father, I'd really like to raise him from the dead, but nevertheless, not mine but thy will be done. It's not how it was.

He says, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. Lazarus, come forth. And when we find ourselves desperately needing bread to give these hungry, Jesus commands us to be aggressive.

Stop wasting our energy being aggressive with other human beings and pushing everybody else around to get our own way, and start getting aggressive with God. The one on the other side of the door is our friend, but he will never open the door because he is our friend. He will only open the door when we start getting aggressive enough, persistent enough, to pester our way through our own hardness of heart and unbelief to God's mercy.

Only God understands why this is, but this is the way it is. The door remains shut to the passive and opens to the aggressive. This is not works righteousness, but this is a matter of purity of heart.

You will only indicate where your heart really is when you show that you are desperate enough, hungry enough, needy enough to keep at it. So he commands us to keep asking our way through that, don't bother me. And seeking our way through, the door is shut, my children are with me in bed, and knocking and knocking our way right through, I can't get up and give you anything.

And when we do this, the door absolutely opens, and we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he stands there with his arms loaded with so much bread you wouldn't believe, and he gives it to us. We take this bread from his hands, and pile it on the table in front of that needy woman, or that needy man.

We fill that person with the very life of God. If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit for those who ask him? Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do. In greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.

Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. You did not choose me, I chose you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.

Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Let's pray.

We just ask that today, Heavenly Father, by the searching light of your Spirit, you would help us each to see how much of the so-called piety in our life is nothing but a veneer of unbelief. Help us to get to the place where we admit the truth. And Father, in whatever way is necessary, drive us back into that corner until we have nowhere to turn but you.

That we might learn to in fact pray the way you're teaching us to pray, Lord, in these passages. That this may become no longer some kind of teaching that we get in our heads, and it dies there, but something that becomes our life, day in and day out, during all the days we have, until we see you face to face. Help us, Lord.

Amen.