Shopping Without a List: Six Reasons God's Children Don't Ask

Sermon outline

God's Word always works and He wants His children to prosper, but many do not receive because they do not ask, or ask without faith, without specifics and without expectation.

1. God's Word always works: His children must work the Word

   Deuteronomy 28 promises the blessing, surplus of prosperity and being the head and not the tail, but it was conditional: if you do, I will do. Everything changed, yet God is still a God who blesses abundantly, and all His promises are yes and amen. The problem is not that God's Word does not work but that God's children fail to work the Word.

   “It's not that God's Word doesn't work, it's that God's children fail to work the Word.”

   • Deuteronomy 28:1-14
   • 2 Corinthians 1:20
   • Isaiah 55:11

2. Be doers of the Word: obey the message

   The key from the Old Testament to the New is James 1:22, which the Amplified renders 'obey the message'. When the Word is preached, the responsibility to obey it lies on your shoulders. The spirit of the age feeds us human reasoning, logic and common sense, but children of God must live on the undiluted Word, which has eternal life and power to change you.

   “When God's word is preached and God's word is taught there is an onus and a responsibility that lies square on your shoulders to obey the message.”

   • James 1:22
   • John 6:63

3. It is God who gives you power to get wealth

   Beware of saying your own hand got you this wealth: it is not your budgeting, your boss or your business but God who gives power to get wealth. Power means ability: He gives you the ability, the means, the enablement and the wisdom, which together is an anointing. Meditate on it until it is in the marrow of your bones and becomes a consciousness, and that anointing starts to draw success to you level upon level.

   “There is an anointing, an ability on the children of God to produce wealth and prosperity.”

   • Deuteronomy 8:17-18

4. Ask, seek, knock, and ask specifically

   Everyone prays, but Christians often stop short of asking. Jesus said everyone who asks receives, with no room for 'you may not receive'. God's children need and even dream about money, to be debt free, live better and help others, but they do not receive because they do not ask, and when they ask they must be precise and do their homework on how much.

   Illustration: An elderly lady asked a preacher to pray because she needed money. When he asked how much, she said, 'just anything', so he gave her a nickel. That was all she expected.

   “The problem comes when you don't receive because you don't ask.”

   • Matthew 7:7-8

5. 1. Many rebel against asking

   Asking requires humility, so some find it an agitation. The world runs on self-confidence, but the child of God has confidence in God, which shows as boldness and assurance. Faith, not self-confidence, is the currency of God's economy, and sometimes it looks like boasting, as when David spoke of the uncircumcised Philistine, but his confidence was in God. A doer of the Word is built on the rock.

   “The currency of God is faith, not self-confidence.”

   • 1 Samuel 17:26
   • Matthew 7:24-27

6. 2. Many refuse to ask God for a financial harvest

   If your church attendance, tithing and prayer are inconsistent, you lack the boldness to ask when a crisis hits, and look back asking what you have not done. Be consistent in the good seasons so that when financial storms, sickness or attacks on relationships come, you are already built on the rock and the house stands.

   “In seasons of good times, in seasons of nice times, you should be consistent.”

   • James 1:22
   • Matthew 7:24-25

7. 3. Many refuse to ask God for specific amounts

   Prayer without a specific need and amount is hit-and-miss, aimless prayer. You cannot use your faith without a target: tell God what car and what colour, and when you come for prayer say which disease you reject. Being specific removes double-mindedness and gives your faith an instruction. Faith is a spirit that moves, as when Jesus spoke to the fig tree and nothing was seen until the next day.

   Illustration: A man sent by his wife to the hypermarket without a grocery list wheels his trolley up and down the aisles for hours and comes back with nothing in it.

   “You cannot use your faith without a target.”

   • James 1:8
   • Isaiah 45:11
   • 2 Corinthians 4:13
   • Mark 11:12-24

8. 4. Many refuse to ask God in faith

   Many people cry, whine and shed tears but do not ask in faith. Wrap your request in two garments: faith and expectation. God wants to be believed and rewards those who diligently seek Him; tears, desperation, manipulation and education do not move Him. Faith comes by hearing the Word.

   “Faith is the only force present in the whole of the universe that moves God to act.”

   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Romans 10:17

9. 5. Some think provision is sovereign, based on God's impulses

   Some say God knows our needs so there is no need to ask, but God did not shower you or put on your lipstick this morning: asking expresses faith in Him. Write your requests down like a contract, remind Him He is Jehovah Jireh, leave the how to the One who runs the universe, and thank Him before you see it. Ask big, because He is a big God, and ask Him rather than people: He fed Elijah by ravens and gave Israel water from the rock and manna, and He speaks to people on earth to bring you what you asked for.

   Illustration: When Wesley showed him the prices of new television cameras and studio equipment, he complained about how much the ministry needed. The Lord asked whether he had asked; he admitted he had only complained, repented, and began writing his requests down. That is how this message came.

   “You know why some people don't receive big? They don't ask big.”

   • Philippians 4:6
   • 1 Kings 17:6
   • Exodus 17:6
   • Exodus 16:4
   • Psalm 121:4
   • Psalm 34:15
   • John 16:24

10. 6. Some think money is a trap

    Some fear that if they become rich they will backslide, but if money caused backsliding the devil would offload truckloads at your house. Money is not a trap; you just need wisdom when it comes. God wants you in a place of abundance, more than enough, and the bridge from where you are to there is a mind renewed by the Word.

    “If that was true, then the devil would bring truckloads of money and offload it at your house because he wants you to backslide.”

    • Romans 12:2