Ask and You Shall Receive Wealth!

Luke 11: 9-13 "Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing—you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?"

Most pastors when giving a sermon using these verses focus on "Ask for what you need." They preach that God will give you whatever you ask. If you want a BMW then get to work and ask God to provide it. If you want a bigger house then start building and trust God to give you that 10,000 square foot house. If you want a yacht learn to navigate and ask God for it. The wealth touting group would use this scripture to convince you that if you just ask God for more and more stuff as you sow more and more seeds in their ministries you will get what you ask for. 

Mark Warner, the lead pastor at the Vineyard Church in Overland Park, KS, moved us into this scripture and focused on the end of the passages rather than the first. Getting stuff is not what this scripture is about. It is about getting the Holy Spirit, the true wealth of the Kingdom.

Mark explained that Jesus did nothing unless He asked the Holy Spirit to be involved. Every miracle and every healing came as a direct result of Jesus not because of Himself but of the power of the Holy Spirit. 

He encouraged us to seek more of that power and with that power working in our lives we could do the ministry of Jesus found in Luke 4: 16-21 He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!"

I believe that if you are a follower of Jesus you can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel, or help release the captives, or bring healing to the sick or to help those burdened and battered.

What greater wealth could we ask for?