Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: Give our children another round of applause. Amen. How great is our God. That is a great thought. That is a great song. That is a great inspirational moment. How great is our God. Amen. I hope your God is a great God. Mine is. Amen. I remember one time I preached a sermon and said, "If your God is dead, try mine."

I want you to join me now in a moment of prayer as we ready our hearts for this moment in the Word. Father, thank you for blessing us. Thank you for carrying us through another week. Thank you for allowing us to rest last night and arise early this morning. Thank you for blessing us to be here in the house of prayer.

We thank you for our children and our youth. We pray for their lives. We pray for their families. We pray, God, that you would continue to watch over them, and bless them, and guide them. Help us to be mentors and directors and people who point them toward the way they should go.

Bless now this morning as we come to the opening of your Word. Pray for divine guidance and understanding. We know that with you, there is a Word; without you, there is no Word. Bless now the words in our mouth and the meditations on our heart, that they may be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We ask it now in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to direct your attention this morning for just a few moments. I won't be long, and I'm not going to try to push it hard, but I do want to take a moment to encourage us all from the Gospel as recorded by Matthew. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 7. I want to look at a few verses there, seven through 11.

The scriptures say, "Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" This is the Word of God for the people of God.

I want to preach this morning about an awesome privilege. An awesome privilege. And the awesome privilege is to be able to talk to God. I am challenged this morning as I think about all of the graduates and think about all of the people who have experienced various levels of success in life, and those who are continuing to look forward to what's coming, that many do not have a clue as to how to go about getting it.

I want you to know it's more than just your academic ability. It is that you have got to have good sense. You have got to have common sense. But what you really need to understand is you need to be able to pray. I think it has happened to our nation. We have seen it recorded in the Bible in earlier places that when people stop praying, bad things start happening. And when people are praying, good things can happen.

The saddest comment that is in the Old Testament is in the Book of Judges. It is in the Book of Judges where it speaks of the new generation. It says, "And there arose a generation that knew not the Lord." You know why that's there? Because they stopped praying and they stopped teaching.

When I was a boy, I am sorry to say it, but in school you prayed. We had devotion every morning. We learned a song, we learned Bible verses, and we learned to pray. We prayed at home. Every night we prayed at home by the bedside with our mother. We learned to pray. And we prayed at church. I mean, I remember as a little fellow, standing in front of the church and they put a microphone in my hand and let me pray. I wasn't afraid to pray. I didn't know what I was saying, but I wasn't afraid to get up there.

I just think that we are minimizing what we can have, the quality of life, the values in our life, if we understand the power and the privilege that God has given us to pray. See, it is not only the access of power that is at stake. That is at stake. But you need to understand that we are living far beneath what we could enjoy.

God does not want us to walk around worried every day. God doesn't want us walking around afraid of what's going to happen and who is doing what and what decisions are being made. God wants us to live with confidence. But that confidence comes when we learn to pray and recognize the privilege, the privilege it is to pray.

Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pains we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. A few things, just the ones I can't handle, the ones I don't like. When we carry everything to God in prayer. I promise you, when I get up in the morning, "Okay God, what you got going today? What we got? What we doing?"

I have a calendar, but that's my calendar. That doesn't mean that's what God intends. And he has a right to interrupt my schedule. Do you understand that sometimes people say to me, "Well, why do you come to work every day, or most days?" It used to be every day, but it's most days now. And why you let people interrupt you? Well, that's the work. The work of God is to be interrupted. I am a servant, and when you are a servant, you are on duty for whatever God wants to use you for.

That requires a mindset. I want to tell you, this text here is Jesus. Jesus is preaching. It is the early years of his ministry, the early experience where he gathered the 12. Even he prayed. He prayed all night. The text says the context of this is from the Sermon on the Mount, Chapters 5, 6, and 7. But in early verses of Chapter 5, we see Jesus prayed all night long before he even chose who he was going to talk to or who he was going to bring along to learn from him.

He chose the 12 and he takes them up on a mountain and he sets them down. I promise you, I have been on that mountain. I have seen where this mount is that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. It is a beautiful place. They built a sanctuary up there now. They put all other kinds of stuff. Jews know how to make money. I just want you to know that. So they'll plant a church anywhere, especially if they can collect.

On the mount, they got this beautiful place and we were up there and we were going through this passage of scripture, and we reminded ourselves of what Jesus was saying. He was saying to these disciples the kind of people who are going to be in my kingdom. These are going to be people who are poor in spirit, because they are going to ultimately inherit everything. These are going to be people who are pure in heart, for those are going to be the ones that see God.

He reminded them that don't worry when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake. You are in good company because they persecuted the prophets who were before you. He goes on to talk about all of these things. Don't do good works to be praised, because once men have praised you for the good that you do, you got your reward. So if you are going to do something for God, then do it for God and everybody else doesn't have to know about it.

He even taught that when you pray personal prayers, he said, go into your closet and talk to your Father in secret, and your Father will reward you openly. How many know that some of the blessings that I received in my life come from time in the closet? Yeah, and I don't mean the closet the other way. I am talking about a private place of prayer with my God. That's what I am talking about. I just want to be real clear. Yeah, because somebody said they got to open the door. Got to open the door. Let them out. Let them out.

Jesus said you don't have to worry. He said you don't take no thought for your life, what you are going to eat, what you are going to wear, what you are going to drink, because that's what non-believers do. They worry about those things, but you know that you have a Father in heaven. See, but we sometimes sleep on these things. Basic principles, but principles that help us to recognize the privilege. When you know that you are a child of God, it is a privilege to be able to talk to your daddy.

My sons don't have no problem calling me. They don't. I don't care what time it is. "Daddy, Mike, doctor," whatever they want to call me. They call me and after a few moments of introductory, then here it comes. But it's alright, because I am their daddy. So we just need to know that we have a privilege with God too.

Jesus is teaching us that privilege. He tells us that we have to be careful about how we make judgments on other people. He said, "Judge not that you be not judged." Because with the same measure of judgment that you dealt out to somebody else is going to come back to you. I love the illustration that he put in there. He said, "Why are you going to worry about somebody with that little toothpick in their eye and you got that big old 2x4 hanging out of your eye?" He said learn how to get you together first, then you will see more clearly how to get somebody else together. How many know that is a problem in church? Don't you know it? Everybody can see everybody else's faults.

You've been married, while you know you can see what's wrong with them. You can see very clearly what's wrong with her, what's wrong with him, and if I could just straighten that out, they'd be just fine. If they would just let me. But God has not assigned that to you. So I am sorry to tell you. Get you together and everybody else will be alright.

So what are we saying here? That we have been given not just privilege, but we have been given an authority to ask. But to take authority, you've got to understand, you can't tiptoe around the throne. Listen at what another writer said. He said, "Come boldly to the throne of grace." Because that's what kind of throne it is. It's a throne of grace. When you come to God, you are coming to the seat of power and in grace and mercy, and you should come with confidence. Absolute confidence.

Now if you were going to the Oval Office, you might have a problem. Because they're going to look at you and they're going to look at your credentials, they're going to look at your skin color, and they're going to look at all of those things and decide whether or not you need to even be there. And if you stay in there too long, you might be getting a one-way ticket somewhere.

But when you come to God, see, that's what I want you to understand. The whole future is yours. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and all that are in it all belong to God. And God stands here just saying, "I am just waiting on you to come boldly to the throne and ask for grace and obtain mercy that you may need in your life, whatever time it is." That is the confidence that God wants us to have.

But in order to have that confidence, you understand that there are some prerequisites. So let me lay them down to you. You want to write these down. The first prerequisite is salvation. You've got to be saved. You've got to have a right relationship with God. How in the world are you going to ask somebody to give you something and you don't even know who they are? Are you understanding that? That doesn't make sense. If you're going to ask God, then make sure that you and God have a relationship. And that relationship gives you the confidence to know that you can ask because he is your Savior, he is your Redeemer, he is your judge, he is your Father. He cares about you. So you need to have that salvation relationship.

Secondly, when you come to pray or when you come to God, you have to use God's thoughts. And God's thoughts are expressed in God's Word. And so when you are praying the Word of God, you can be sure you're praying the will of God. Or you can put it the other way: if you're praying the will of God, you know that you're praying the Word of God.

What God does is the mind is to be a filter, and the Word of God is to be that guard over the things that come in and things that go out. We are having a problem in America right now, especially in air traffic control. And it is because they have removed so many air traffic controllers. And more and more planes are colliding and almost colliding and running into each other and clipping wings on the ground because no one is giving guidance.

The Word of God is your air traffic controller. This is the grid. When you're making decisions, when you're making requests, if they run into the grid of God's thoughts, you can be sure that God's results are going to come. Let's put it from the Old Testament, David. David said, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against God." So when sinful thoughts pop against the Word of God, we can dismiss it. You can decide which one of those planes get to land and which one of those planes keep flying. Some thoughts come up, and nothing quicker than a thought, and it can pop up right here in church. And you got to be able to say, "Keep flying." Or you can say, "Come on land." Do you understand?

So it's God's thoughts that's a second prerequisite. A third prerequisite is a pure heart. You've got to have a right heart now if you're going to ask God because God knows your heart. God knows your mind. God knows everything that's inside of you. Blessed are the pure in heart, but not only shall they see God, but they shall receive from God.

Okay, so we got to have a right heart. Let me tell you that if you ever want to be attacked or want to experience an attack from Satan, you pray. How many know that when you start praying, Satan will attack you? You get on your knees at night, and next thing you know it is morning, because you went straight to sleep while trying to pray because Satan will attack your prayer life.

He doesn't want you talking to God. He doesn't want God answering you. And so he tries to tell you how impure you are. Satan want to remind you, "Okay, you're supposed to be such a big Christian, you're supposed to be such and this and such and that. Get up from there. God don't want to hear you."

I remember, I was telling the class Wednesday night, I remember being in one of the biggest spiritual battles of my life was when I was sick. And Satan showed up. "You're not going to get up from here. God's not going to bring you through this time." And you come under those kinds of attacks, but when you know your heart is right, when you know... What does it mean to have a right heart? It just means that you confess your sin. You don't leave it out there. If something's wrong, you just say, "Lord forgive me. I had a thought, I did something I shouldn't have done, I felt some kind of way that I shouldn't have felt," and you clean it up. And that's how you maintain a pure heart. So you've got to have a pure heart if you're going to get God's blessings.

And your motives got to be right. Pure motives. That would be prerequisite number four. Pure motives. If you're asking for something from God, then you ought not to be asking for something to hurt somebody else. So the motive for the ask needs to be right. God wants you to have it. He just said the earth is his. He just said this is a throne of grace you can ask.

Old Testament, they used to tickle me sometimes, because David was bad about, "Lord, how long you going to let the heathen rage?" You know, I find myself sometimes asking, "Lord, how long you going to let this man do this?" You know, but then I have to back away. I have to make sure that my motives are right. I have to check myself. How many know you have to check yourself? Yeah, we can. Don't wish nothing bad on nobody. This wasn't in the Bible, but I learned it when I was a child. You got to be careful about digging ditches. When you dig one ditch, you better dig two, because one of those ditches just may be for you. So make sure your motives are right.

So you don't want to ask God for things that's designed to hurt or destroy or injure someone else. So everything's based on a pure motive. And then the fifth prerequisite is confidence. It is just knowing that when you're asking God... See, sometimes when you pray, and I know how it is when you're young in ministry or young in faith, you're praying, you got your eyes closed, but you can't visualize nobody. You don't know who you're talking to. You don't have an image of a heavenly Father. You don't have an image of a Savior. I'm not necessarily saying you have to create one, but you need to know that you're not praying in a vacuum.

That you're talking to someone. That prayer is a conversation. Prayer is a dialogue. That is, it's a two-way conversation. Prayer is not a monologue. How many know what a monologue is? A monologue is one-way conversation. And that's how many of us pray. We get down there and we tell the Lord, "Lord, this is me. This is what I want. This is what I'm telling you to do. Amen."

Prayer does not mean that you make demands on God. Maturity brings that to our understanding. That God is sovereign, he can do what he wants to do, he's willing to bless you, he gives you the privilege and the opportunity to pray, but you can't demand on him and you can't trip on him. So how do I talk to God? I talk to God just like I'm talking to anyone else.

I reverence him. I start off... Jesus taught it in this same passage in the model prayer. When you start off, you don't start off with your request. Not that you're trying to butter God up because you can't do that, but you acknowledge who he is. "Our Father which is in heaven, hallowed is your name." You know, you need to say something to God other than just, "Hey, this is little Willie. And I've come again with my big list." You know, that's coming, Willie, but start off acknowledging God.

Just like if you're going to call somebody on the telephone, you do at least say hello. And if they don't recognize your voice, you have to identify yourself. You know, but sometimes some people just call you and they just start talking. They just assume you know and you be going, "Who is this?" No, that has never happened to y'all. I know. And I know it doesn't happen now, but when my boys were young, we used to talk about being careful about three-way conversations. Because people would call you and they'd set you up. They have somebody else on the other line and they'd try to prompt you into talking and the other person is already listening.

And before you know it, you'd got yourself in trouble. God don't do that. God doesn't act like that. You can be confident that when you call him, you're calling him. You're calling your Father who is in heaven. You're calling the Son of God who is your Savior and your Redeemer. So you can talk to God. You acknowledge him, you reverence him, you praise him, you thank him, then you can make requests of him. That's an intelligent way of having a conversation with God. And that's a privilege too, isn't it?

But let me get to where I want to get to for the morning, because I ain't got but a few minutes. When you really get down into the meat and potatoes of a prayer, after you have given the salutation or greeting or acknowledgment of God, after you have praised him and thanked him and all of that, and you're ready for the request, you need to learn how to ask big. Uh oh. Uh oh. You need to learn how to ask big.

How many people got big dreams, but little faith? See, you got to ask big. You got to believe God for big things. I'm talking about where success is now. I'm talking about where dreams come true. I'm talking about where the deep desires of your heart become manifest in your life. I'm talking about where goals and aspirations are accomplished. I'm talking about where what they said you couldn't do, you find that you can do. Because I learned that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can't do all things on my own, but I can do all things through Christ. But I have to be willing to ask him for big things.

Listen at the text for the morning. Jesus says, "Ask, and it shall be given you." See, here when he's talking about asking, do you think he wants you to give me a penny? When he's your God in heaven? When the earth is the Lord's? When all of the silver and gold is mine? Do you think that you... I think sometimes we offend God because we are apprehensive about asking for big things.

Man, I remember when I just wanted to go to school, and I asked God to let me go to school. And then I got particular about the school that I wanted to go to. And I had not heard from them. And it just seemed as if the dream was not going to happen. But I kept asking. How many know that you have to ask more than once?

Let me tell you what happens to us. Our human pride will get us in trouble. Our human pride get in our way when we talk about asking God. We say, "Well, I asked you once." See, we thinking like we do with each other. "I asked you once. I'm not going to ask you no more." That is nothing but pride. Look, if you have to ask 50 times, keep on asking. Because it's not that God is hard of hearing, he just may be busy, he just may be doing something else. Or what I like to think is he's going behind your back and he's taking your hand on this side and he's holding your hand until he connects you with what he is wanting to connect you with behind your back and then he brings it together at just the right time. So you just have to keep asking.

That's what the text is. Ask, and keep on asking. Look at this, and it goes to another level. We talk about going to another level. It's right here in the text. Asking is on the knowledge level. It's on the verbal level. But look at the second thing: seek. See, that's going a little deeper than just asking. Asking I can do with my mouth, but when I start seeking, I'm looking for it, Lord. Is it behind this rock? Is it behind this door? Is it over here?

You know, God has promised that he will bless you, but sometimes you think that you can decide how he's going to bless. God will bless you in untold ways, so you have to look for it. When I wake up in the morning, I'm looking for it. When I go to bed at night, I'm looking for it. When I get mail out of the mailbox, I'm looking for it. Yeah, I don't know whether it's going to be from Publishers Clearing House or whether it's going to be from my aunt that I didn't know I had.

Man, I shall never forget I got a letter from Publishers Clearing House one day. I really did, God have the truth. I got a letter from Publishers Clearing House and it said, "Read the check. This is your check." And I looked at it, man, and I start my heart start beating a little fast. I read the check. "You have been awarded two dollars." I still got the check. I didn't cash it. I said, "Lord, I'll just hold it as a down payment on something else."

So look at the levels. First, asking. Then seeking. That's another level. But the highest level is knocking. Do you see? It's doing more than just verbalizing my request. I'm talking about when you're asking big. When you're asking big, sometimes you have to knock on some doors. Sometimes you have to talk to other people who are able to make it happen, and you don't know whether or not God has already gone in front of you to move on that life.

Again, another time in my life, man, I was going to London, England. I was going to be gone for the summer to study in London. And I didn't have no money. And I'm going across on the other side of the world for three months. And it's the day before I need to go. And I knew that well, where am I going to go in the family? You know, I could go, I could ask, but I understood too. I knew what was happening. I knew where everybody's circumstance was. So I wasn't going to put the pressure on nobody.

So I'm praying. I'm saying, "Lord, what do I need to do?" And I get this little mindset in my mind where I need to go and ask these people because they could make it happen. And I go and they told me no. And I said, "Lord, wait a minute. Did I not hear you well?" And I just went back home and I start praying again, continued to pray. And God said, "Where did I tell you to go?" I said, "I went, but they told me no." He said, "Go back." And I went back a second time and guess what? I got what I needed. And I went on across the water and I was smiling. And I had a good time. Not only learning, but traveling and shopping and everything else I needed to do because the Lord opened the door.

See, do you understand? The whole world waits on God to open his hand. Don't you understand when it rains, it may mess up your ballgame, but God may be providing water for a mountain goat. God may be providing water for an ant. A farmer somewhere has been praying for water. Somebody needs water for their grass. Some fish needs their pond to be refilled. You just don't ever know. But you are to do what God says. Ask, and keep on asking. Seek, and keep on seeking. Knock, and keep on knocking. What difference does it make once the door open that you had to knock 50 times? Once the door open, baby, the blessing comes.

So we have to shed ourselves of our pride and understand the privilege that we have been given. And Jesus goes on to say, "I'm not going to turn you down. I'm not going to mistreat you. I'm not setting you up for failure." He said, "Look at your own life." He said, "How many of you have a child? And if your son ask you for bread, are you going to play a game on him and give him a stone?" See, I know in our Western mind we don't see the connection, because we think of bread as sliced bread. But in Jesus' day, they baked loaves of bread, and those loaves of bread would look just like those sandstone rocks.

And so Jesus is saying, "Now you would not do that to your child. Your child trusts you to be the source and the provider. And you know that they have a hunger and they come to you and ask you for bread. Would you be so hard-hearted and hateful that you would give them a stone? Or if your child asks for a fish, would you be so cruel as to give them a scorpion? Something that you know is going to hurt them when they have come in innocence and with expectation and anticipation of what they would receive from you."

He said, "Then if you, being evil—and we know we are—know how to give good things unto your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things unto you?" Look at the privilege. When you come to God, if you're a young person and you're just getting out of high school and you're trying to go to college and you don't know, don't be afraid to ask. God still knows how to open the door, even if it's to Harvard. And by the time you get there, he'll have your scholarship waiting on you.

Oh man, y'all think I'm kidding here. But let me tell you, my prayer coming out of high school, I wanted to go—I had gone to a white high school and it was all white during that time—I wanted to go to a black college. And I wanted to be in the band. I had played sports, I had played music, I had done a lot of things in high school, and I wanted that black college experience. And the two top schools that I saw... well, the number one school that was on TV all the time was Florida A&M. The Marching 100. And I used to see them doing that little rip, you know, whatever that was they did, and I used to say, "Boy, I want to go there."

I didn't even know about my dream school until I went to Fisk with my sister for a football game, and a couple of buddies of mine were there and they said, "Do you... have you ever been to Tennessee State?" I said, "No." They said, "It's right down the street. Come on, we'll take you down there and bring you back. We're playing a game." And I went down there and I saw, and I saw the band, and I saw they had six-foot-tall majorettes, and they all looked like they had come from Playboy bunny. I said, "I'm going to that school."

I applied, I didn't hear anything. It was time for school to start. My mother, lovely self, said, "Son, you haven't heard nothing from them. They're not interested in you. You're going to have to go to Miles." I said, "Well, Miles good school." My other siblings went. I said, "I want to go. I'll go out there." She said, "Go out there. Boss will give you a scholarship." So I go out to start band practice and I go out to first day of class.

And I got home from the first day of class and there was a letter. And I opened the letter, and the letter was from Tennessee State University, telling me that not only had I been accepted, but I had a full scholarship. Tell me what God won't do. I—time won't permit me to go story by story or incident by incident, but I've been some places. I've seen some things. And it's all because I recognize the privilege of asking God.

Is there a believer in the room today who have asked God for impossible things? There are people who will tell you that's too big. Satan will tell you, "That's too big. That's too much. God's not going to do that." That's all the more reason you ought to keep on asking. You ought to keep on seeking. You ought to keep on knocking. Every young person in here today, the world is at your hand. Dream the biggest dream you can dream and go for it. You're all of the best men have had: two arms, two legs, two eyes, and a brain to use if you would be wise. With this equipment they all began. So start for the top and say, "I can." You can, baby. You can go. You can soar. You can be all that God wants.

And if you are older in life, it's not too late for you either. God blesses old people too. Caleb—just going to mention him in closing—Caleb in the Bible was one of the two young spies that spied out the land of Israel. But having worked and waited 40 years in the wilderness, when he come into the promised land, he's 80 years old. And he goes up to God, goes up to Moses and he said, "Moses, give me this mountain." The mountain that you promised. He said, "I feel just as strong as the day we came out of Egypt." See, God will use you no matter what level or age you are. Don't cancel your check, baby. They might take away your Social Security, but they can't take away the blessing from God. They might take away your Medicare, but they can't take away your health benefit that come from God.

All of my help. All of my help. All of my help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. Oh, he will. He will come through. You can be bent, but you don't have to be broken. You can be broke, but you don't have to be disgusted. You can be down, but it don't mean God won't pick you up. It may not have gone your way yet, but tomorrow is coming, baby. Lift up your head, oh ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Somebody want to know, "Who is the King of Glory?" The Lord, strong and battle. The Lord, mighty in battle. He is the King of Glory. Lift up your head and be ye ever lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.

So ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you. And then it says, not some, but everyone that asketh can receive. And everyone that seeketh can find. And everyone that's bold enough to knock, the door shall be opened. What a privilege. What an awesome privilege it is to pray. I give you my life, Lord. To you. Yeah. Everything. Withholding nothing. I don't have to withhold nothing because God gives me everything. Doors open. Doors of the church open. Somebody might be here this morning. Somebody might want to give their heart to Christ.

Nobody like the Lord. Nobody got the resources, nobody got the power, nobody have the grace and mercy. Let's get bold, baby. Let's go strong. Let's go big. Let's believe God for great things, and you'll see great things happen. But you got to recognize the privilege that's already yours.

Hope you enjoyed the broadcast. You have been listening to a message from the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where we are reaching the world for Christ. Located at 2135 Jefferson Avenue Southwest, Birmingham, Alabama, 35211. For a copy of this message, you can reach us at 205-925-9750 or 9751 or visit us on the web at www.greatershiloh.org. For another uplifting message, we invite you to join us for our next broadcast.