Date: September 12, 1999

Text: Matthew 7:7-11

Topic: Expectant Living

Title: "The Ultimate Lifestyle: Live Expectantly"

Theme: The key to expectant living is to pray believing .

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7

I read a magazine article the other day that was about how the average life expectancy has changed over the past century. I guess we'll see more and more articles of this sort as we draw nearer to the end of the century and the millennium.

The article said that in 1901, the average life expectancy for Americans was only 50 years old. This is much higher than it was in the Middle Ages, when the average age of death was 37. And substantially more than during the days of the Roman Empire when life expectancy was only about 18 years old. Today the average life expectancy for men is 73 years, for women it is 77 years.

According to this statistic I've already arrived at that magic age around the midway point in life when people go through all kinds of changes that psychologists have labeled a "mid-life crisis." This event doesn't affect everyone the same, but to a certain extent it does affect everyone in one way or another. I've found the best way for me to handle it is to just laugh about it and roll on with the inconveniences it affords me (blurred vision, loss of hearing, chronic pain J ).

In case you're wondering if you've hit your mid-life crisis yet I came across a list on the Internet called "How To Tell if You're Middle-aged."

able to listen to again.

Although I admit I have my good days and my bad days, my philosophy about aging is that you're only as old as you feel. Of course, some days I "feel" older than others! As a believer I've discovered that how old you feel has a lot to do with your expectations about life and about God.

We're in our second week talking about "The Ultimate Lifestyle." Whether you're young or old, teen-aged or middle-aged, I think it's safe to say that all of us want to live the ultimate lifestyle.

Last week we talked about how the Ultimate Lifestyle is not just one thing. We talked about it being multi-faceted and particular to the Christian faith. In case you weren't here last week, we talked about the first aspect of the Ultimate lifestyle, LIVING POSITIVELY.

Today we're going to focus on the second aspect of the Ultimate Lifestyle which is to LIVE EXPECTANTLY. It's appropriate then that we began by talking about how what you get out of life has a lot to do with what you expect out of life.

How about you? What sort of expectancy do you carry around about life and the world as you know it? Is the world a good place? Is it a safe place? Do you expect the best out of life and of those around you, or do you find yourself often apprehensive and worried?

When things are going well do you sometimes think to yourself, "Oh no, things are going too good right now, I wonder when it's all going to come crashing down around my ears?"

If there was one thing you could change about your life, what would it be? Have you prayed about that? Do you expect God to answer that prayer?

Actually, there are only TWO REQUIREMENTS for us to live expectantly - to live believing that good things are going to happen and that no matter what happens or how bad things may get, things are going to be alright.

To live expectantly we must FIRST have confidence that GOD CARES. Let's be honest about it. Do you really think God cares about us little nobodies down here on earth?

A few years ago Donna and I flew to Hawaii. As we took off on our return trip the plane climbed higher and higher before eventually leveling off to cruise at about 37,000 feet high. I had a window seat and I watched as we climbed. First you could see people on the beach and boats on the ocean, soon we were so high you couldn't see the boats, only the white "vees" of foam the boats made as they were moving. Eventually even these became obscured at the altitude we cruised at.

I said a prayer when we took off so I guess I was thinking about God at the time, but I remember thinking as I watched out the window "How in the world can God care about the little specks down here called people? You can't even see people at this height!"

Truth is, God does care, and assurance of that fact may be found in Scripture. First Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Jesus, reminding his disciples of God's care and love for us all asked them, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father...even the hairs of your head are all counted...so do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows." Matt. 6:29-31 I love that, God knows even the number of hairs on our heads!

There's a second requirement for us to live expectantly. And that is to believe that GOD CAN.

This one trips a lot of people up. They look around and see accidents, illnesses, mistakes and pain and they think, "I know God cares, He just must not be able to do anything about this." Again, Scripture refutes this. Matthew reminds us of Jesus' words, "...with God all things are possible." Matt. 19:26. And Luke recounts the conversation between the Angel Gabriel and Mary, Jesus' mother. When Mary questions how God can do what the angel has said he will do and Gabriel tells her, "… nothing is impossible with God." Luke 1:37

Jeremiah, speaking about his call from God describes how God told him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…" Jer. 1:5.

In it's March 31, 1997 issue, Newsweek contained an article titled "Is God Listening?" It carried the byline, "Most Americans say prayers every day, even though no one knows why only some are answered. The article went on to say that 87% of Americans believe that God answers prayers - that God cares.

God is our caring, loving parent - a parent who can and will help us to live the life he has created us to live. God can be trusted. Our response in return, is to live faithfully and expectantly.

As I'm sure you've realized by now, our passage today is about PRAYER. The passage is found very close in the Bible to where Jesus gives the disciples a model of prayer, the Lord's Prayer. As he goes on teaching in his Sermon on the Mount Jesus begins talking about exactly what we're talking about here today, living an expectant life. He says that an expectant life is a life of PRAYER. Then he teaches them how to pray expectantly. He uses the familiar Ask, Seek, Knock pattern, one which gives millions of people hope. Let's look at what he's saying.

First, Jesus says, we are to ASK - The first step is to make a simple petition. Think about it, ANYONE CAN ASK. Why ask? Because as Jesus said in John's Gospel, "Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." John 16:24. We ask so that our joy may be complete. But simply asking is not enough.

Next we are to SEEK - To seek is to make an earnest search for God’s answer. SOME PEOPLE SEEK! (SMART PEOPLE DO!)

What does he mean by seek? He means, "…seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…" Matt. 6:33. What Jesus is talking here is about going further than a simple petition. He's talking about having a real hunger for God and for the things of God. He's talking about having a passion for God.

Yesterday the Praise Team met here at the church to rehearse for the Jubilee singing event we're going to have this afternoon. Most of us arrived at around 9AM and stayed until after 3PM. When I got home Donna asked me how I could stand being cooped up inside that long on such a beautiful day. She said, "Didn't you get tired?"

I told her, "No, I didn't get tired or mind at all." You see, I love to play my guitar and sing. In fact, all of us in the Praise Band love to play and sing, so our extended rehearsal was a lot of fun for us. It brought us joy.

I have the same feeling about anything my kids are doing and I bet you do too. It doesn't matter if it's a ballgame, or a piano lesson or a drama rehearsal, we love to go and we always have fun. Not because we're great parents or anything - we go and enjoy it because we love them and we love seeing them happy.

God wants us to have that same kind of passion about Him and His kingdom as we do about our favorite things to do and our children. Remember, Smart People Seek Him!

The third thing we're to do besides asking and seeking is to KNOCK. To knock is to persevere or persist in prayer. KNOWING PEOPLE KNOCK!

Jesus once told a story about a widow who was trying to get justice from judge. The judge told the lady to go away, but she persisted. She went to his house and knocked on his door all night. Finally the judge relents and says, "..because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming." Luke 18:5.

The Greek verb Jesus used here for "knock" is in the imperative tense meaning continuous knocking. We are to knock and keep on knocking.

We are to be like children in this regard. Those of us who are parents know that children have an amazing persistence about things they really want to do. They find different ways of asking the question. They suddenly become helpful and friendly around the household. But more than anything they just keep on asking until they wear us down.

ASK - SEEK - KNOCK. This is a gift from God, a wonderful pattern and a promise to claim as we pray effectively and expectantly.

I want to close with one more verse of Scripture and a short poem.

First of all, the verse, It's Matthew 21:22. You'll see it on the PowerPoint. Let's read it together. "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." Matt. 21:22. The key to expectant living is to pray believing.

And the poem:

If this little poem characterizes your life of prayer. If you have days when you've got so many things to get done, that you forget to start your day with the Lord and commend all things into his hands before you get your hands on them and mess things up; Jesus extends to you and to me a wonderful invitation this morning; it's the invitation to pray to our God. It's the invitation to take all of our wants and worries, our doubts and fears, our hopes and dreams and lay them before the throne of the God who created the universe, the God who has all power to dispense blessing upon blessing according to his pleasure.

This week, try a little experiment for me, will you? Let's covenant to one another to take advantage of this awesome privilege that you and I have as believers as we follow Jesus' invitation to ask, to seek and to knock. Amen.