​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday June 25, 2023)
Elder Russ Long
 
Finding Rest
Matthew 11:25-30
25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.  26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father.  Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.  28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am [a]gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I don’t know about you, but some days I am just plain weary.  I let the daily things in life weigh my spirit down.  The last two sermons I shared came from a personal struggle I was having, and I thought I would share that with you, as you might be struggling too.  The last was about sharing one another’s burdens.  This one is about finding rest.
Some thoughts borrowed from Rev Ken Sauer sermon Central:  Life and stress…they go hand-in-hand.  We will all experience this.  There is no getting around it.
Ultimately, the only way to find the rest we need is to turn to Jesus.
A yoke is a wooden instrument that yoked two oxen together and made them a team. You wouldn’t think a yoke is light, but Jesus is saying let’s share the load.
Jesus is saying:  “Be my teammate and together we will pull the load.  Together we will deal with the stresses of life.  Together we will carry your Cross.  Together we will lift your burdens and help lift the burdens of others.  Together we will be victorious over those things that seek to destroy you.  Together we will live the life you have been created to live.”  Being yoked with Jesus means that we are in a relationship with Him where we have the opportunity to learn from Him the art of gentleness, warmth, love and assurance.  Being yoked with Jesus means to walk with Him and do the things He does—to be humble, putting the cares and needs of others before our own.
And in this relationship with Christ we find life—eternal life and life abundant.  We experience true freedom because we no longer need to go it alone.  Because, when we are walking with Jesus Christ—we are too concerned about the feelings, the well-being and the salvation of our fellow human beings that we don’t have time to be all wrapped up in self.
“Come to me,” says Jesus.  “Come to me with anything that wears you down.  Come to me with any burden on your heart.  Come to me and I will give you rest.”
Not only is a yoke a wooden instrument that was used in farming.  The term was also often used to refer to the task of obedience to the Torah.  Earlier and later in Matthew, he calls out the legal yoke imposed by the Pharisees.  An impossible yoke to bear.  He says that they “tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other peoples’ shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” 
            The religion of Jesus’ day was based on rules and regulations.  It was a weight and a burden that was loaded onto peoples’ shoulders.  The Pharisees—the leading sect of Jesus’ time—had 600 rules and regulations having to do with just about every aspect of life.  They made people feel guilty and “not good enough” as no one was able to follow all the rules to a “T.”
Jesus came teaching the “heart of the Law” which is to love God and Neighbor.  He taught people not to judge one another.  He said that “God desires mercy, not sacrifice.”  And He told folks over and over again how much God loves us.  And then, to prove the full-extent of God’s love and to save us from our sins—Jesus went to die on the Cross—only to rise again, defeating sin and death and the Law that stood against us once and for all.
Many people think God is disappointed in them.  That is the kind of thing Jesus came to erase.  Some of us deal with feelings of “I’m not good enough for God to love me.”  And so, we try all the more to be some kind of “perfect person”—which is an impossible task.  And the more we try the more disillusioned and depressed we get until we finally give up.  And it’s easy to fall into this trap.   But that is not what God is like; that is not Who God is.  And Jesus came to show us Who God really is.
In the verse right before our Scripture lesson for this morning, Jesus says:  “All things have been delivered to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”  When we look to Jesus, we see God.  And Jesus is compassionate, merciful, unconditionally loving, and forgiving.  He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”  Jesus died for us once and for all.  He died to forgive us.  He died to set us free from sin. He died so that we may live abundant, fruitful lives in Him.
He calls those of us who are carrying enormous burdens around.  He calls us during times of trial and trauma.  He calls us as we mourn.  He calls us from our self-destruction.  He calls us as we are stressed out and burned out.  And if we heed His call, we learn that the yoke Jesus gives us is not packed with the dead weight of sin.  Instead, it is the yoke of Christian freedom, the joy of serving Him, the joy of helping others, the opportunity to live a life of praise and thankfulness.  
We are not meant to go through this life struggling on our own.  So, let’s not try.  He is our God Who is right here every day and will never stop calling out in love:  “Come to me.”  Won’t you come to Him today, right now?
Jesus’s great invitation for us to come to Him, exchange yokes, and find rest is not intended for us to do in isolation.  He intends for us to come to him in community, to come together.  That’s one of the reasons the church exists.
We all bear burdens and become weary, but in different ways, for different reasons, and often at different times.  When we are weary, we are easily discouraged and can be given to cynical unbelief.  I have a term I call “praying, not believing”.   In those moments we are often not the best preachers for our souls.  We need others to speak truth to us and help us.   That’s why we are not to neglect “to meet together, as is the habit of some, but [to keep on] encouraging one another” (Hebrews 10:29).  We are to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).
So if you are weary, for whatever reason, however complex, Jesus invites you to come.  Come, take His light yoke of believing in Him.  And if it’s hard, don’t come alone.  Come to Jesus with and through a believing friend.  Believe, abide, and follow Jesus’ example.  And you will find rest for your soul.
As we look forward to the next phase of this congregation and what the future has in store for us, the load may seem overwhelming.  But as we look to Jesus to guide us, the yoke will be light and indeed rewarding.  And at just the right time, He will show us who He has prepared for us.
Amen.

​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday, June 18, 2023)
Rev. Dr. Scott Morschauser
 
 
A FISH STORY
Romans 5:1-8
 
   
Today is Father’s Day.  We celebrate all those who have assumed that important role and all who have carried out their tasks with commitment, dedication, and love. 
 
It is not surprising if on this occasion, I remember my own father.  My dad was an avid fisherman, and an extremely competitive one, at that. 
 
One year, he took my brother, Tommy, and me on a fishing trip to Canada.  On that excursion, we caught a lot, but it was my brother who landed the biggest fish -- a huge pike that weighed over twenty pounds.  I congratulated my brother, but I also warned him, “Dad will not rest until he outdoes you.”  And for the remainder of our stay, my father would be up at dawn, he’d keep fishing the entire day without a break, until sunset.  In northern Quebec in early summer, that meant from about 4:00 AM to 10:00 PM.  He just would not give up.
 
The day came for us to return home.  We packed up our equipment and began the long trip back to New Jersey.  But a few miles down the road, my dad saw a lake by the road.  He pulled over, “Just one more cast.”  He took out his rod and reel which he conveniently left on top of the other gear, went down to the shore, and tossed his lure into the water, without success.
 
We continued on.  Another couple of miles there was another lake.  We stopped, “Just one more cast.”  My father threw and retrieved his line for twenty minutes, with no result.  We proceeded on to another lake.  Same thing.  Then another, and another, and another.
 
For my dad, there was always one more lake, one more cast, one bigger fish out there. Whatever else I learned on that trip, my father taught me about his persistent character, perseverance, and hope. 
 
“Just one more cast.”
 
 “We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because by the Holy Spirit, whom God gives, God has poured out his love into our hearts.”
 
Our Scripture reading for this morning from Paul’s letter to the Romans is centered around perseverance, character, and hope.  These verses are among the most quoted of all the writings of the apostle.  And they are sometimes taken as proverbs about how experience is crucial in molding our outlook on life.  Challenges strengthen character.
 
The German philosopher, Fredrich Nietzsche parodied Paul when he once said, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” and these sentiments can often be heard from the lips of high-school coaches, “No pain, no gain.” 
 
Yet, some of you may know of people whose life-experiences have not shaped them in a constructive way.  Instead of offering them perspective, they are bitterly pessimistic.  Even worse, suffering -- past experience --has made them resentful, even vengeful:  “I’ll make others know how I felt!”
 
Nietzsche for all of his posturing about how hardship creates heroic supermen, himself went mad, for want of hope.
 
But what is hope?  According to standard dictionaries, “hope is a belief that something you want will happen.  It is to cherish a desire with anticipation; to want something . . . to be true.” 
 
We do certainly see these sentiments in antiquity.  Throughout the Mediterranean world, there was a little deity -- the goddess of hope -- who was often appealed to, and prayers offered to make your personal wishes come true:  your desire for romance; your yearnings for success; your achieving riches.  You’d often see a statue of Hope at racetracks:  she was the goddess of long shots.
 
But this being was fickle; she was linked to chance and fortune and noted for her unreliability.  A famous writer stated:  “One can indulge in hope if one already has advantages to fall back on- - - but those who risk their all on her, find out what it really means, only when they are already ruined.”
 
Hope is for the desperate.  Hope is undependable.  Hope almost always disappoints.
 
So, what does the apostle Paul mean when he refers to hope?  I would like to explore this with you this morning.
 
The first thing to grasp is that for the apostle, “hope”--as well as suffering, perseverance, and character--were not lofty philosophical concepts, nor intellectual abstractions.  No, these things were part of a story, and have to be understood within that story.  Ironically, it was around a figure that the early Christians referred to by the Greek word for “fish:   “ichtus”  -- I-C-Th-U-S -- with the letters forming an abbreviation --  “Jesus Christ the Son of God Savior.”
 
Paul is telling us a fish-story.
 
Accordingly, when he speaks about “our suffering,” he is referring to the Fish- - - Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Savior’s- - - suffering on our behalf.
 
When Paul talks about “perseverance” it is about the Fish -- Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior’s -- obedience and dedication to God’s plan of salvation for us.
 
When Paul upholds “character,” it’s about the character of that Fish -- Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior -- and his fidelity to the Father’s Will to us.
 
And when Paul mentions “hope”- - - it is about the Fish- - - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior’s- - -  total dependence upon and trust in, God to bring His Story to its fulfillment- - -revealed in the suffering, perseverance, character, and hope of the Fish- - - in the life, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior.
 
That story encapsulates our hope.  That one embodies the Christian’s hope.  The story of the Fish, which Paul declares, is not accomplished through our dreams, our wants, our yearnings, our assertions, our feelings.  No, it is “the love of God” -- his faithfulness, poured out into our hearts -- borne witness, “through the Holy Spirit.”  The center of which is “while we were still weak . . . Christ died for the ungodly . . . while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
 
The hope of the Christian -- the Christian hope -- is that Fish Story -- the Story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior.  That’s what Paul is teaching his friends in Rome and us.
 
Still, there is another aspect to this hope, which we cannot forget.  That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior- - - that Fish, through his suffering for us, through his perseverance in his mission, through his humble and obedient character, through his hope in God- - - He claims us, as part of his school.  That we are to follow him as he leads us through the currents and torrents of existence.
 
That “our sufferings” are themselves to imitate and reflect the life of Christ.
 
That our perseverance is to endure whatever obstacles we face, faithfully through Christ.
 
That our character is one molded and shaped and defined by Christ’s own character.
 
Our hope is one which we confess is not in ourselves, in our cleverness, our wisdom, our experience- - - that’s not what makes us who we are, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior.
 
“Therefore, since we are justified by God’s faithfulness in Christ, we have peace with God through our lord Jesus Christ.”  This is Paul’s mighty announcement that whatever we may have been, whatever we may have done, however the world might try to define us, the loving and forgiving God, does not toss us back.  In Christ, he assures us that we are worth catching, and keeping and saving.
 
And that the Fish Story- - - the Story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior- - - the Gospel includes us, too.  The Eternal God, in Jesus Christ, has entered into our stories, and has taken up into His- - - he has made us part of his story, and we have a part to play in his story.
 
That is the Hope of the Christian.  The hope of the world. We are to get the Story right.
 
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, two of the characters, the hobbits, Frodo and Sam, are embarked on their dangerous mission to destroy “the ring of power” on Mt. Doom.  As they go on their perilous journey, they are mystified at the events about them, and as to why they- - - little unassuming creatures- - - are tasked with such terrible responsibility.  As they puzzle it over, Sam says, “Mr. Frodo, I understand now that all those old stories about good and evil, and right and wrong, are really true.”
 
Some of you may know that Tolkien’s epic fantasy is really a Christian allegory about fallen man’s idolatry of power and the knowledge of good and evil- - - represented by the Ring- - - and the only way to freedom is to give it all up through sacrificial and self-giving love.  It is the gospel story.
 
“You know, those old stories are really true.”
 
When Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, he was reminding them that the stories on which we base our lives, the plots we follow, are of the utmost – eternal --importance.    Crucially, Paul was not thinking theoretically here.  At the time of his correspondence, the church was living under the reign of the emperor Nero, who was a very young man.
 
Nero was a person who loved stories:  he liked to perform in them on stage -- dressing up like gods and heroes.  But Nero wanted to create his own story.  Actually, he wrote an epic poem that started with the Creation of the world, but whose end-point -- the climax of history- - - was he.  He proclaimed that he was “the Savior of the world,” and all were to acknowledge him as such, following his dictates and commands, and imitating his ethics.  Nero’s character was to be the model for everybody else.
 
Nero announced that his rule would be “the Revolution of Youth,” the center of which was his overturning all past standards.  Gone were the ideals of dignity and seriousness and replaced with exhibitionism and excess.  Nero redefined nature, gender, human relationships.  Roman senators were pressured to follow the new order, and the rest of the population fell into line, with Nero rewarding them with food and entertainment.
 
This was the culture encountering the church in Rome, with its story- - - the Story of Nero, His Revolution, His New Creation, his Salvation.  But Paul reminds his friends, about the Fish- - - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior- - - of his suffering, his perseverance, his character, his hope- - - God’s story of his being with us.  That it’s crucial to get the story right- - - the Story of God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ.  Because it will not be very long before everything will go wrong with Nero’s Story.  And it will result in the Christians in Rome having to suffer, persevere, show their true character, and understand that their only hope is the Fish.
 
There is no other person in the New Testament who writes more about hope than Paul.  The hope of the Christian- - - the Christian hope- - - which is anchored in the faithfulness of God in Christ, and to live faithfully in and by Christ.  That the more we know about Christ, the more we grow in Christ, the more we go with Christ:  that is the Christian hope.  That is our hope.
 
Towards the end of another letter, this one written from a Roman jail, the same apostle recounts to the church in Philippi his autobiography, the story of Paul’s own life:
 
“Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. . . I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.  For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things . . . in order that I may gain Christ, and being found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, but that which is through faith in Christ.
 
The righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his suffering becoming like him in death, that, if possible, I may attain the resurrection of the dead.”
 
I, Paul, gave up all other stories, and trusted the story of God’s promise of salvation- -- the Story of the Fish- - - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior.  That I may share his suffering- -- that I may live according to Christ’s life; becoming like him- - - that I might have the character of Christ- - - that if possible- - - I hope, my hope- - - is that I may attain the resurrection with Christ.
 
Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.  A hope based in the Story of the Fish.  It is not a wish, but the Truth, by which all other stories are measured and judged, and to which they are to be conformed and transformed.
 
Let me end with Paul’s own prayer for the church in Rome and for us:  “May the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope- - - that you may trust in, and entrust yourselves to the old, old story about a Fish, indeed: the Story of Jesus and his love.” 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday June 11, 2023)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor
 
“God Is Able!”
Psalm 121; Jude 24-25
 
The story is told of a little girl and her father who were crossing a narrow bridge.  Concerned about his daughter’s safety, the dad turns to his little daughter and says, “Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into the river.”   The little girl replied, “No, Dad. You hold my hand.”  “What’s the difference?” asked the puzzled father.  “There’s a big difference, daddy,” said the little girl.  “If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go.  But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.”  In a greater, deeper, and richer way, our Scripture lesson from the Letter of Jude reminds us this morning that God is ABLE.  He is able to keep us when we feel we cannot keep ourselves.  Real power comes from clinging to God.
 
In the Bible, God’s hands are described as mighty, righteous, strong, delivering, upholding, healing, creative, good, and powerful.  As children of God, we can be comforted knowing that God’s hold on us is never at risk, even as we falter.
 
Jude is a very short letter. It is one chapter, only 25 verses long. The purpose of the letter is found in verse 3: “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”  The Book of Jude, therefore, is a call to live faithfully and to hold onto the truth of the gospel.
 
Well, since this is my last Sunday in the pulpit as your Pastor and at the same time, we are celebrating two baptisms today, Rae and Dean are getting baptized, I thought to leave you with a word of encouragement.  Like those early Christians who lived during the time of Jude, we live in a culture that’s not very friendly to the Christian faith.  Those early Christians were persecuted and discriminated against because of their faith.  Will the Christian faith be able to stand that hostility?  Will the second generation embrace the faith of their parents?
 
The words of Jude 24-25 remind us that God is able when we realize our own inability.  The doxology of Jude 24-25 is a song of victory, a high note of praise, and a great assurance of the redeemed.  Out of the most desperate situations in life, we are to keep our eyes on the Lord when everything else fails us.  So as we look at this short Scripture passage this morning, please allow me to underscore two observations:
 
First: God Will Keep us from Stumbling
Jude reminds us in verses 24-25, “To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”  Friends, we live with the awareness, the daily possibility of stumbling.  We know the weakness and wickedness of our own heart.  In James 3:2 we read, “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”
 
If stumbling is a sad reality, there is even a greater and more comforting reality. God is fully committed to us.  Like in the story of that little girl, our hope does not lie on the fact that we hold God’s hand, but on the truth that He holds our hand. His work in us is being perfected.  He will keep us from stumbling today, until by His grace, stand before His throne faultless and fully sanctified by the blood of the Lamb.  1 Peter 1:5 states, we are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
 
Second: To God Be Glory, Majesty, Power, and Authority
As we contemplate the depth of this truth this morning, as we think about God’s ability to save and to perfect, we find ourselves shouting our halleluiahs.  “To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore,” says Jude 25.  May our lives reflect not our inability, but God’s capability; not our limitations, but God’s limitless power and grace.  “I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” Psalm 121:1-2.
 
Friends, may the God who is an ever present help in times of need strengthen this congregation and keep you from stumbling in the days to come.  May the God of might and power give extra grace to young families as they raise their kids in the instructions of our Lord.  Pray for Franco, Erica, Rae, and Dean.  May we learn to lean on the everlasting arms of God.  Be there for each other in the days to come and even more importantly, remember that Christ, our companion, is always there for you. “To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday June 04, 2023)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor
 
“The Friend at Midnight!”
Psalm 78:1-8; Luke 11:1-13
 
Compared to the other three gospels, the gospel of Luke has, by far, the most emphasis on prayer.  Luke has more references to the prayer life of Jesus than any other gospel.  There are at least 13 times in Luke where we encounter Jesus praying or encouraging others to pray.  No wonder that one Bible scholar calls Luke, “The gospel of prayer.”  Luke tells us that prayer was so central to the life and ministry of Jesus, therefore, it should be important to those who follow in the way of Christ.  
 
Having seen the power of prayer in Christ’s life, one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.  This is what Luke says in chapter 11:1, “He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”  The prayer life of our Lord prompted that disciple to press Him to teach them to do likewise.  In other words, seeing Christ’s intimacy with His Father in Heaven, seeing His focus on His Father’s mission, and seeing Christ’s spiritual strength, that disciple approached Jesus and said, “Give us the formula of your strength.  Give us the secret of staying focused and firm despite opposition and rejection.”  
 
Jesus’ response was short and direct.  Prayer!  Prayer was the need of Christ’s disciples back then as it’s one of our greatest needs today.  “Teach us to pray!”  The disciples not only needed instruction; they also needed motivation to spend more time in prayer.  I believe we do need the same.  This morning I would like to spend a few minutes with a story that Jesus told his disciples to motivate them to pray and from that story we will draw a single application.
 
First: The Story ~ Luke 11:5-8
In response to the disciple’s request, “Lord, teach us to pray”, Jesus tells a story.  A friend arrives at your door unexpectedly late in the evening.  He is hungry and tired from the long journey.  Your friend expects lodging and food, which was commonly given.  Back then, you could not run to a store, or to a late-night drive through at the local MacDonald’s!  They didn’t have freezers or refrigerators full of food.  Where do you go?  You go to a friend’s or a neighbor’s house.  
 
At any rate, even though it was late, this man knocked at his friend’s door, woke him up, and asked for food for his guest.  Luke says in chapter 11:5-6, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.”  It’s dark inside and the door is bolted shut.  The family would all be sleeping together in one place.  The guy inside says, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.”  But the “friend” keeps on knocking and asking!  Finally, the guy in bed realizes that the quickest route to getting back to sleep is to get up and give him what he is after.
 
Second: The Application
Then Jesus gives an initial application in Luke 11:8 before expanding on it in verses 9-10. In Luke 11:8 Jesus says, “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.”  We are to approach God with bold persistence, knowing that as a loving and gracious Father, He will always provide for our needs.
 
Jesus continues to say in Luke 11:9-10, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  We are to approach God with boldness, persistence, and assurance.
 
As we reflect on this story, however, we should recognize the stark contrast between the friend in bed and our God.  The man in bed was asleep, whereas God never sleeps.  The friend in bed did not want to be disturbed, whereas our requests do not disturb God.  The midnight request probably put a strain on the relationship between these two friends, whereas our midnight requests do not strain our relationship with God.  Jesus’ main point here is that we should be boldly persistent in bringing our requests to God at any hour and in any situation.  What Jesus was saying if a cranky friend responds to this kind of bold persistence, how much more will your true friend and Father in heaven respond!
 
Church, be encouraged to pray in the days to come.  Pray for this congregation.  Pray for me and pray for God’s Kingdom.  A few months ago, I came across this poem that sums it all up. The poem entitled: “Go On!”  It goes like this: One step won’t take you very far; You’ve got to keep on walking; One word won’t tell folks who you are; You’ve got to keep on talking; One inch won’t make you very tall; You’ve got to keep on growing; One deed won’t do it all; You’ve got to keep on going.  And I might add – One prayer won’t keep you close; You’ve got to keep on praying.  The great British Preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) once wrote: “By perseverance the snail reached the Ark.”  By prayers, the impossible will happen.  Our greatest motivation to keep going today is that we have a loving heavenly Father who is present and attentive to our prayers.  In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!