 This morning I want to just take a topic to speak to you about. It's called all you have to do is ask. All you have to tell your neighbor, all you have to do is ask. Tell your other neighbor, all you have to do is ask. And our scripture this morning that we want to read is from Psalms chapter 2. We're going to take verses 6 through 8. If you didn't bring your Bible, we're going to have it on our screens. And let us read. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. And the ends of the earth for your possessions. Tell your neighbor, ask of me. Ask of me. Why I labeled this morning's message? All you have to do is ask because it is as simple as that. And that's what God wants us to do. We have to understand in the Bible and there's around 57 verses in the Bible that has to do with us asking. And God is telling us to ask and to pray. God in heaven is sitting there and he's telling us there's one thing that I want you to do is to ask from me. I'm willing to give but what you have to do on your part is just very simple and it's not complicated. It's not rocket science. You don't have to get a degree to a certain thing or to do but all you have to do is just ask. It's as simple as that. First point I want you to write down is asking may seem too simple but that's what God wants us to do. It seems too simple. It seems like there has to be more to it but it's not. As we read in the scriptures in Psalm 2 verse 8 it says ask of me. There's over 57 verses in the Bible where God talks about ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and knock and knock on the door and it will be opened to you. There's so many scripture that talks about asking but it seems to be too simple but that's the instruction that God has given us today. You cannot receive. You cannot have until you ask. You cannot receive the blessing that God has for your life until you begin to ask of God. Until you begin to pray. Until you begin to stand and say God this is what you said in your word and today I'm asking what you said in your word. Why in our church we believe so much in prayer because that is one thing that we begin to understand that God says I have all the resources in the world. I have everything that you need for your life to prosper, to be healed, to be delivered, to be blessed. But you have to understand one principle is you have to open up your mouth and you begin to ask God for that thing that you're believing. Why we pray in our church every morning? Why we pray in our church on Friday nights? Why we pray today this morning at 9.15? Why we pray after worship? We take so much time to pray because we understand the simple principle is that God is willing to give. But are you willing to ask? God has so much room and have so much blessing in heaven that he's willing to pour out upon your life. But the question still remains, can you ask God for that? It seems too simple. It seems like, I mean it's God, I'm supposed to reach a certain standard. I'm supposed to do a certain thing but it's not that. We have to just open up our mouth and to begin to ask God for that thing that God's word has promised. It's not hard to get God's attention. You simply have to do is just open up your mouth. I have a niece, her name is Ellie, and one thing about her, the moment she opens her mouth, it's like four or five men just run her mom. Everybody just leaves everything and just runs to her to be able to see what is the child, what does it need? She cannot even speak but she can get that attention of people. How much more the children of God we, who know how to speak, who know how to ask God, how much more can we get that attention of God when we just know how to open our mouth and just ask God for that thing? Are we looking for promotion? Are we looking to have a home group? Are we looking for healing in our body? It's not that simple. How long can you suffer? How long can you be in lack? How long can you be inshortened and inshorted? All you have to do at the end of the day just come to God and open up your mouth and just say, God, this is what I want. This is the thing that you promise in your word and I'm standing up on your word and I'm asking you for that. And God says, I'm watching over my word. Whatever I said in my word, I will make sure that when it leaves my mouth it will not come back void. It will bring food. What are you asking God this morning? What is it that thing that is on your mouth when you come to God and you begin to say, God, I want to see my family say it? God, I want to be able that you're going to use my life to bring a glory in my schools to be able to change the history of my family. God, I am sick in my body and I'm standing up on your word that you said by a stripe to be healed. What is it that you're asking of God? Whenever you are quiet, whenever you don't open your mouth, God cannot give you that thing. God doesn't know if you do not speak, if you do not ask. It is very simple but that is what God wants us to do. When we ask it is faith that is speaking to God. When we ask of God it is that faith that comes out of us and God says that I honor faith. I am pleased when you ask of me because it's a point where you said, God, I cannot do it. I cannot accomplish on my own and it's only you that can provide it for me. Ask your neighbor, ask of God. What are you asking of God? What are you asking of God this morning? That is something that God will be able to give you. There's a famous scripture that comes out of James 4. It talks about when we ask, we do not receive because what we ask of it comes out with the wrong motives. I want to just talk about this scripture real fast is that the second point that I want you to write down is that we ask with wrong motives because we don't exercise the right in God's word. We ask of wrong motives because we don't exercise our right that is in God's word. God's word gives us the right and the standard. If you make God's word the standard for your life, there's not a thing that you can ask from God's word that will be with the wrong motive. If you're asking for the salvation of your family, if you're asking that your kids will be saved, that is not asking with the wrong motives. That's what God wants you to have. If you're asking for healing for your body, if you are sick this morning and you stand in the promise that by his stripes I'm healed, that is not with the wrong motives. That is what God wants you to have. When it talks about the wrong motives, it's many times is that when we ask, oh God, give me a car, why do you want the car? Is it that you'll be able to go to your places or is it that you want to show off? Is it asking that the wrong motives that we're talking about, is it why? It's not the thing that you're asking for, but is it why that you're asking God? It's the why and it's never the thing. If you're asking God for good health, it's not the good health. Why are you asking? Is it because God wants you to have it? Or is it just you want to show off or you just want it to have more or bigger things? It's the, it was never, it's never the thing. It is the motive behind your asking. When you make God's word that's standard for your life, when you begin to take God's word and you make it a part of you, you can never ask God with the wrong motive because it is what God wants. It's what God is saying in this word. How far do you keep your Bible from you? Jesus Christ cannot offer you scripture solution when you keep your Bible shut. When your Bible is closed, Jesus Christ cannot come to you and give you solution because the solution only comes from God's word. Jesus Christ and the word are one. It says in John. But we cannot begin to ask God if we don't know what God is saying to us. There's so many promises of God that is in the word of God. But if you do not read him, if you do not apply him, if you put it, don't put it into your heart, how can you ask of God? How can you know that this is what God wants when you don't open up the word of God? The word of God is so important to our lives. It is our spiritual food. It is our weapons that we use to fight against the enemy. It is the light unto our feet like it talks about himself. It is our rock that we stand upon. It is our refuge in place. But if the Bible only collects dust in your life, it cannot bring you a solution. How far is the word of God from your life? How far is the word of God from your heart? Do you meditate upon? Do you take it? Do you begin to apply it into your life? Because when you take God's word and you truly make it a part of you, it's by its very nature begin to change your conduct and your behavior. God's word cannot just go enter into you and do nothing. Only thing that God's word can do is produce fruit if you apply it into your life. That is the only thing that God's word can do for life. It can only bring fruit. How far do you keep the word of God from your life? Start exercising your right by quoting scriptures to yourself. It is very important that we take the word of God and you begin to take certain scripture. When you read God's word every day and there are certain scriptures that stand out to you, write it down, begin to memorize it. Begin to walk when you're prayers. You begin to just quote the scripture to yourself. Begin to, you know, by stripes I am healed. I shall be blessed in the city. I shall be blessed and walked in and walked out. All these scriptures, the Lord is my shepherd. Just take scripture and begin to quote it into yourself because you have to understand one thing. When you begin to say what God says, when you begin to take God's word and you begin to quote it, you're saying exactly the same thing what God is saying. And when you say what God is saying, God says that I will watch over my word, that it doesn't come back forward, that it brings fruit. So that is memorizing scripture. That is taking the scripture, begin to quote it. It is saying what God's word begins to say. You know, I've been married for about four or something months, and there's nothing worse than when your wife begins to quote you. There's nothing worse. When you begin to say something and your wife's like, but you said, you're like, damn it. Okay, I have to do it. You know, you never want to be proven as a liar. That's nothing you want to be proven in marriage that you're a liar. So whenever your wife just quotes you, but you said this and this, you're like, okay, we're doing it. And the same thing with God. When you begin to quote God's scripture, when you begin to quote the word of God, it is you're saying what God's word says. And God says, I am not a man that I should lie, and I'm not a son of man that I will repent. If I said it, I will do it. So when you quote God's scripture, you can never ask God with the wrong motives, because it is saying what God is saying. So we can never say that, oh, you know, I'm afraid I'm gonna ask for too much. I'm afraid I'm gonna ask with the wrong motives. I'm afraid I might do this. No, you cannot do that, because you're saying what God's word is saying. So when you take God's word, and you truly make it a part of you, a part of your mind, part of your heart, and it bides very nature, will begin to change your conduct and it begin to change your behavior. We have to understand when we quote scripture, we are exercising the right that belongs to us. And that right is in God's word. When you begin to exercise your right of healing, you stand upon Isaiah 53 that says, by his stripes I am healed. That is the right that belongs to you. If you are sick here this morning, you have to understand the right that God has for your life. When you take God's word, take the scripture Isaiah 53, and you begin to stand that by his stripes I am healed. That is the right that you have and you're exercising, and God sees that you're standing not upon what you think, not upon what you feel, but upon God's word. Upon what he said, and he begins to bring that word to pass in your life. When you stand upon the right that I shall be blessed, and you stand upon Deuteronomy 28 that says, you will be blessed as you come in. You will be blessed as you walk out. You shall be blessed in the field. You shall be blessed in the city. That means that everything that you do will be blessed. You're not standing upon your feelings, not standing upon what you believe upon what God's word had said. That is your right. That is the right you need to exercise. When you begin to exercise the right that whom the sun sets free is free indeed. It talks about, and John, you are exercising the right of freedom. So wherever there's an addiction, whenever there's a bondage upon your life, that is the right you are exercising. You have to take scripture, and you have to memorize, and you have to quote it to yourself because that is what God wants you to stand upon. He doesn't want you to stand upon your feelings because feelings come and they go. They go up and they go down, but God's word and Matthew talks about heaven and earth will pass away, but my word by no means will pass away. God's word has to be the standard of your life. And that is when you will never begin to ask God with wrong motives, but whatever you ask will be because God wants it to have for your life. Tell your neighbor all you have to do is ask. Third point I want you to write down is what keeps us from asking? What keeps us from asking? There's two things that I want to talk about. What keeps us from asking is we don't know who we are and we do not know who God is. We do not know who we are and we do not know who God is. The first we do not know who we are is many times we do not understand as we go through life, as we walk through our circumstances and our family and our marriage and everything that happens around us. We begin to clog, our minds get clogged to understand who we are in the presence of God. Satan begins to lie to us that we are our mistake. We are who our people call us. We are who our parents said that we are. Satan begins to clog our mind that we are not worthy enough to be in God's presence that we are sinners. God will not hear us and when we come to church and many people if they come to church that is the number one problem is they do not know who they are in Christ Jesus. They do not know. They think that they are sinners. They think that they are a mistake. They think that they are failure. They think that they are worthless. They think that they are just what their skin color or what their sizes or what their achievements are. This is what they think that they are. We have to understand that in the Word of God we are children of God. We are children of the Most High God. We are sons and we are daughters of Jesus Christ. God has begotten us and that is who we are in our position as children never changes. Your actions may change. Your fellowship with God may change but our position as children of God never changes. We have to as we are asking God of certain things when we ask maybe you are praying for a home group. Maybe you are praying to complete your education. Maybe you are praying for a promotion or your family members to be saved. You have to look at yourself as a child of God and nothing changes that. You have to look at yourself as somebody that is rooted in the Word of God and something that whatever you do will not change your position as a son and a daughter of Jesus Christ and my church. And we have to understand one thing when we sin that is something that helped me to understand. I remember a few days ago when I was in the office and my niece tried to climb down the stairs and she was very smart. I thought she could play. So she kind of fell and she started crying and everybody just jumped up because of the cry everybody just jumped up left and everything that we were doing in a matter of seconds ran to Ellie. She was okay and everything was good and that one moment just made me realize whenever as children of God, whenever we sin whenever we fall, whenever we hurt that same moment God runs down to hear that crying to see what is happening. The same moment you fall the same moment you make a mistake and it hurts which it does because sin can never bring life and only brings death can only bring pain and only can bring destruction the moment you sin or you fall Jesus Christ runs down and to hear you cry to help but he cannot force himself on you because you have a free will. But what do you do when you fall? Do you ask God or you do remain when you're when you're down? Just like my niece when she falls and she cries all of us we run to hear what's going on we just we leave everything same thing with God and God is much bigger than men whenever we fall he runs to us to hear what is happening but are you opening your mouth and you asking God to be able to come through for you. The same moment you fall that is when God runs to your rescue, runs and he stands there with his arms open eye but you have the right to ask God for forgiveness, to ask God for healing, to ask God for breakthrough to ask God for that promotion or for your family to be saved or you remain silent that is why I wanted to label the topic as all you have to do is ask because that is as simple as it gets whenever we fall, whenever we sin whenever we go astray Jesus Christ is there the same moment we fall the same moment we make a mistake and he's there with open arms and grant you the thing that you're willing to ask him but are you speaking to him, are you opening your mouth and are you talking that is we have to realize who we are as children of God that is we have to realize our position as a child of God never changes despite our mistakes, despite our shortcomings despite our failures, our position as children of God never changes, amen church and number two is we do not know who God is we do not know who God is we have to understand one thing as if you were a sinner if you were a sinner and the moment you cried out to God and you asked God to forgive us Jesus Christ has heard you and he's giving you the biggest miracle on this planet earth is salvation in your soul how much more when you give your life to Jesus and you're a child of God when you cry out Jesus can give you much less than salvation in your soul if you were once a sinner you were once a heathen you were once did not know God you had nothing to do with God but you came to Jesus Christ and you asked him to forgiveness he was there for you because he heard you how much more once you get saved once you give your life to Jesus become a child of God and you cry out to him how much more he's able to grant you the need that you have for your life if we were sinners and God heard us how much more God can hear us when we become children of God and the second one is we do not know who God is why God wants us to ask is because God wants you to understand how loaded, how rich how blessed he is God wants us to ask because he just wants to give you a revelation of the riches of his glory how much possession, how much blessing how much healing you have upon your life God is so rich he has so much stuff that you can never understand upon your mind your mind cannot even comprehend God and God says I want you to ask me because you do not know how much I have is it healing what is healing compared to salvation is it salvation of your child and your family how much less is that than when God has come and saved your soul you know we are we live in this planet earth this planet earth is small God created the sun sun is one million times bigger than this earth God just created like that you know they found this whole universe they say now they have more than one universe and God created it and they said that they found a star that is one million times bigger than the sun that is ten billion times bigger than this earth and God owns it why God wants you to ask because God says you do not know how much I have we might think oh God this healing this is so big so many people died of this sickness but God is like look around you look how much stuff I have the gold and silver is mine the earth that you are standing on the air that you breathe every it is mine you got to do is open your mouth begin to ask and begin to dream bigger don't begin to ask God God I just want to get by you know I don't have enough this month for my bills I just want to get by God says no you got to ask me you don't know who I am what I have what is in my possession you have to open your mind just to see that God is so much bigger than you think God is so much bigger than you can ever understand in your life sometimes we miss many people misinterpret the whole scriptures you know Jesus left heavens and became poor so that through his poverty we can become rich through his poverty somebody who leaves heavens somebody who leaves heavens to become poor so you can become rich maybe even think you know God is trying to humble me you know they always refer to Job you know God no God took off his protection Satan made him sick but then God healed him at the end of that God is God is much bigger than you think all you have to do is open up your mouth you begin to pray you begin to ask that is why we're gonna pray at the end of this sermon that's why we're gonna pray you know every morning every every day and during morning prayers Friday nights we're gonna pray because we understand who we are as the children of God we understand who our God is that his resources unlimited his power is infinite he's everywhere present at the same time he's holy he's just he cannot run out and we can never exhaust our God with the thing that we ask you can never exhaust him he can't come to a point says you're asking for too much what you're asking is I don't have enough you can never come to that one point he has more than enough but all you have to do this morning is ask Jesus brings a parable to when he was preaching he brings this parable he says that look there was this widow in this one sitting there was a wicked judge and this judge who didn't fear God didn't feel men just a wicked judge but there was a lady who came and he began to ask of her to give vengeance to be able to protect her and she came to ask of this wicked judge and she was just asking and asking and at the end of that the judge was just like man this woman keeps asking me and asking me I'm just gonna grant her because she's just annoying me and at the end of that Jesus says if this wicked judge was able to gift her how much more your heavenly father could give her than this wicked judge this morning whatever your view of God is you might see God as small you might see even God as not just you might even see God as evil because of certain things that happen you might even see God as God can't do it but even that point God can still give you you can see God as God who's small but at that point still God can give you because if a wicked judge can give a lady a widow and grant her need God that is what Jesus tried to illustrate for our life that we might see God as big or as small whatever but if you ask you will still receive but the question is are you asking are you asking this morning and what are you asking God is it are you asking for God for a small thing or a big thing but are you asking God because God is willing to God has so much to give you that you can never exhaust him this morning and lastly I want to just point out then John 14 14 says you may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it but you have to ask you have to ask will be a praying church because we understand the power of asking will be a church that will never stop praying because we know the only thing that God does in heaven and hears the prayer of his people and he's willing to answer the prayer but we will be the church that will never stop and it will never stop praying because we believe that God who said my ear is not heavy to hear and my hand is not short to save I will do as you say anything that you say in my name I will do church amen and the last things I never met I never met parents that did not want their child to live better than them as children of God God wants you to live blessed life healed life God wants you to live a prosperous life God wants you to live a free life God is a good God God says if you are earthly parents when you ask him for bread they're not going to give you a stone how much more does your heavenly father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask God compares earthly parents to evil but how much more is he willing to give you the thing that you ask our parents who bless us that want us to live better than them how much more does God this morning wants you to live far and beyond of your limitation far and beyond of your mistake far and beyond of your shortage of your family history of whatever you can accomplish God wants you to live above and more because he said that he's a good God and anything that you ask in his name he will give it to you but all you have to do this morning we're going to spend some time in worship we're going to spend some time in prayer and then we're going to do one thing that we're going to ask of God