arthur askey the bee song

you do not have because you do not ask

You Have Not Because You Ask Not ask not // Lynette Hagin John Wesley once said, "God does nothing except in response to believing prayer." That's the law He has designed to operate on this earth—the law of prayer. In other words, our Heavenly Father works through the prayers of His people. He shapes the world by the prayers of His saints. But that means He has to find someone who will intercede in prayer. If we want the will of God to be done in this earth, it is our responsibility to pray that His will is done. The Lord's Prayer says, "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:9–10). I don't know about you, but as long as I'm here on this earth, I want to be surrounded by the will of my Heavenly Father! Prayer is our responsibility as Christians. God has called each and every one of us to pray. In fact, it seems that He cannot carry out His plan on the earth without the prayers of His saints, which means we have a mighty job to do in prayer! The law of prayer requires us, as believers, to pray so God can answer our prayers. In other words, we are supposed to ask, and then He answers. Now, I know that God is all-knowing. Jesus said the Father already knows what we need before we ask (Matt. 6:32). He also knows our desires. But He still requires that we ask Him for those things. James 4:2 says, "Ye have not, because ye ask not." God expects us to ask! Let me share a story with you that illustrates what I'm talking about here. When I was 16 years old, I had some babysitting jobs and was beginning to earn some money. At the time, contact lenses had just come out, and I desperately wanted to have some contacts. I knew there was no money in our family's budget to provide contact lenses for me. So being the independent person that I've always been, I said to my dad, "I desire to have some contact lenses. I want to go to the bank and borrow the money for contacts." My dad thought it was a good idea for me to establish some credit, even though this was certainly establishing credit at quite an early age. But my dad was not only a minister, he was also a businessman. And he thought this was a good thing for his daughter to do. So he told me, "OK. I'll go to the bank with you and you can borrow the money." When we went into the banker's office, my dad and I sat down. Dad introduced me to the banker, and I thought surely he was going to explain what I wanted. But we just sat there for several minutes, and my dad didn't say a word! Finally I thought, "If I'm going to get this loan, I'm going to have to ask for it myself." So I gathered up my courage and said to the banker, "This is what I want to borrow. I have a babysitting job, and I'll pay it back." "That's fine," the banker replied. Then I signed my name on the paper, and when we walked out of his office, I had the loan. As we were leaving the building, I looked over at my dad and said to him, "Daddy! Why didn't you tell the banker what I wanted?" My dad replied, "Lynette, I wasn't the one who wanted something. It was you. You needed to ask." It's the same way in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We can't depend on our spouses to ask God for the things we need. We can't depend on our friends to ask for us. And our children can't depend on us to ask the Heavenly Father for the things they desire. Yes, we can all lift each other up in prayer. But we all must learn how to ask the Father for ourselves! Jesus Said to Ask There are a number of passages in the Bible where the Lord Jesus Christ told us to ask. Let's read one of those passages from the Book of John. JOHN 16:23–24 23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Remember, when Jesus spoke those words, He was not addressing a crowd of world-renowned Christian televangelists. He was speaking to His disciples. He was speaking to you and me. And He said that whatsoever we ask in His Name, the Father will give it to us. Jesus was urging us to ask! In another passage from the Book of John, the Lord told His disciples, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13). After Jesus made that statement, the disciples must have looked at Him incredulously. They probably thought, "Jesus, are You talking about anything that we ask?" So what did He do then? In the very next verse, He repeated what He had just said—"If ye shall ask ANY THING in my name, I will do it" (v. 14). But then He gave them the qualifier for their asking. Verse 15 says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." If you love Me! Jesus is talking about relationship, isn't He? You see, our asking is tied to our relationship with the Lord. It's tied to our love for Him and keeping His commandments. If we have a close, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and we're obeying His commandments, then if we ask anything in His Name, He will do it for us. God desires to give us the things we need and want. But we still must ask Him for them. This is the law of prayer—the law by which God brings His will to pass in the earth. As we boldly ask God to meet our needs and wants, we will receive answers from Him.

Bruce Morton - Live Floor Show.mov

Elders and teaching

September 14, 2017 Must Elders Be Skilled in Teaching? Thumb author david mathis Article by David Mathis Executive Editor, desiringGod.org Does the qualification that pastors and elders be “able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2) mean skilled in teaching or something more akin to willing and able when necessary? In the New Testament, “pastor,” “elder,” and “overseer” are three names for the same teaching office (Acts 20:28; Titus 1:5–7; 1 Peter 5:1–2). Pastors are elders are overseers. And the pastors are the chief teachers (Ephesians 4:11). Pastoral authority, in the New Testament, is always tied to teaching. Faithful leaders exercise oversight centrally through teaching, and teaching is their main instrument of exercising authority. Ongoing teaching is centrally important in the Christian church, and is the central work of her lead officers. But how central? The qualification is “able to teach,” but able is an ambiguous word in our English. Is “able to teach” a high bar or a low one? Is this a minimal standard or maximal? Does able point to elders being skilled teachers or simply willing to teach if needed? More to the point, are elders the kind of men who can teach if a gun is put to their head, or are they the kind who won’t stop teaching even at gunpoint? Ability or Possibility? “Able to teach” translates a single word in the original (Greek didaktikos), which appears only twice in the New Testament, in the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:2 and the qualifications of “the Lord’s servant,” who “must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Timothy 2:24–25). Neither of those texts alone answers our question, but Titus 1:9 sheds some important light. Given the clear overlap between the elder-overseer qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, we find Titus 1:9 puts more flesh on what Paul means by “able to teach”: [An elder] must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. What the eldership requires is no mere willingness, but ability and proclivity. Which is why some translations have rendered it “apt to teach” — apt meaning inclined, disposed, or given to teaching — or even “skilled in teaching.” Teaching with Ability Bill Mounce, in his thorough and insightful commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, makes this important observation about the civic context of the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy: The problem in Ephesus was false teaching, and it is difficult to see Paul allowing for only the passive possession of the gift [of teaching] and not active participation. [2 Timothy 2:24 and Titus 1:9] confirm that those who could teach did teach. (174) In other words, elders are practicing teachers. Gifted teachers become elders, and elders continue to exercise their gift for building up the church. Mounce adds, “This is one of the more significant requirements of an overseer and sets him apart from the deacons. The elders are the teachers; the deacons are more involved in the day-to-day serving.” Philip Towner agrees that “able to teach” is not just willingness but “skill in teaching” or “ministry skill or gift.” “Church leaders,” he writes, are to be “chosen from among those who display this gift.” David Platt also agrees. Elders, he writes, can’t just know the Word extensively; it is imperative that elders communicate the Word effectively. . . . An elder must know the Word and spread the Word throughout the church and from the church throughout the world. He must be able to persuade people with the Word, plead with people from the Word, comfort people with the Word, encourage people from the Word, instruct people in the Word, and lead the church according to the Word. This is nonnegotiable. (1 Timothy, 56) “Able to teach” is not a minimal criterion, but a maximal one. The question is not whether elders can teach if necessary, but are they effective teachers of the people? Are they fruitful in their context as teachers? Pastor-elders are among Christ’s gifts to his church, for her good, and they are gifts first and foremost associated with teaching, not mere decision-making or oversight: He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11–12) A literal rendering of “the shepherds and teachers” here is “the pastor-teachers.” “Shepherds” and “teachers” are not two groups, but one. And throughout the New Testament, the office of pastor-elder walks hand in hand with the gift of teaching. It’s not as if one group in the church is the “pastors” or “elders” and then some other group is the “teachers.” The pastors are teachers, and those who are skilled in teaching God’s word, while meeting the other qualifications of the office, are those who in time, and in view of the church’s need, become the pastors of the church. What About 1 Timothy 5:17? The often-cited text against all pastor-elders being teachers is 1 Timothy 5:17: “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Some read here a larger council of elders who “rule well,” and then, within that council, a subgroup “who labor in preaching and teaching.” Some even go so far as to name two kinds of elders: ruling elders and teaching elders. But is 1 Timothy 5:17 implying — as no other text does — two classifications of elder, those who teach and those who (typically) do not? A key detail in the verse is how we understand the word “especially.” Platt comments, That word “especially” might be better translated as “that is,” so that the verse might also be translated, “The elders who are good leaders should be considered worthy of double honor, that is, those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” In other words, good leaders in the church are those who labor in preaching and teaching. (1 Timothy, 90) Platt cites George Knight, who writes, “Paul is giving here [in 1 Timothy 5:17] a further description of those he has already mentioned” (Pastoral Epistles, 232). In other words, the “elders who rule well” are “those who labor in word and teaching.” Elders “rule well” by laboring chiefly as teachers. All elders are teachers in an important sense, not just a subgroup of a larger council. Mounce agrees: “A straightforward reading of the text would infer that all overseers were supposed to be skilled teachers” (Pastoral Epistles, 174). Skilled in Context But isn’t “skilled in teaching” simply too high a standard to work out in practice? Does a small, rural church stand a chance of finding “skilled teachers”? Wouldn’t such a qualification leave thousands of good churches not only without the plurality of pastor-teachers the New Testament prescribes, but even without a single pastor-teacher? One brilliant attribute of the elder qualifications is that they are relative in the best sense. They are not simple boxes to check, but criteria for sober-minded evaluation. They are meant to be appropriately flexible and therefore apply to, and serve, local churches throughout the ages, around the world, in vastly different contexts. One way to say it is that “able to teach” is analog, not digital. It’s not meant to be either true or false of any given man’s life whatever the context. Rather, it’s a qualification to consider at a particular time relative to a particular context. A seminary degree doesn’t necessarily make a man “able to teach.” It just makes him a “seminary graduate.” Some given local church must determine for itself whether he is “able to teach” this specific flock. Whether a man is “skilled in teaching” in a country church plant may be quite different than whether he is “skilled in teaching” in a long-established, bustling, city church. What individual churches should look for in their elders is not men who are “skilled in teaching” relative to the best preachers online, or even the church across town, but whether they are “skilled in teaching” relative to this specific congregation, whether urban or rural, fledgling or mature, long-established or newly planted. Will this man be able to teach our people (not any people) in a compelling way? Is he skilled enough to feed us regularly by teaching us God’s word? Will our hearts soar regularly under his teaching God’s word to us? Will he not just be willing but eager to rise to the occasion to persuade our people away from error? Is he skilled enough as a teacher to lead and engage and inspire the people of our particular church to love God and his word and fulfill the mission Christ calls us to in this community? These are the kind of questions church leaders and congregations can ask when appointing new elders. Such questions will help us keep our standards appropriately high, guard the indispensable place of teaching, and ensure we have the right men in the right offices for the long-term health of the church. Making sure that our elders really are “able to teach” — not just able to get by, but able to teach with skill — will not only keep our churches well-fed, but have them ready to face the challenges that are coming, and are already here, when we will need both faithfulness and effectiveness in combatting false teaching. David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at Cities Church in Minneapolis. He is a husband, father of four, and author of Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines.

The last of the summer wine

The Last of the Summer Wine The last of the summer wine, The sweet bouquet of memories, Of you and I, as time goes by, I still remember these. The last of the summer wine, When passing shadows still recur, Of golden days, so young in love, And that's the way we were. We had our dreams, To change the world, As people will, But now we're known as the folk, Who live on the hill. The last of the summer wine, A vintage love, a vintage brew, And now my love this toast I give, Thank you for being you. Bill Owen 1914-99

One Thing Sets Elders Apart

One Thing Sets Elders Apart Thumb author david mathis Article by David Mathis Executive Editor, desiringGod.org Able to teach. Ah, that memorable criterion in 1 Timothy 3:2. That flashing light that distinguishes the elders from the deacons. That one qualification for the pastoral office that sets it apart from what the New Testament expects of all Christians (though all should pursue maturity, and become teachers, in some sense, Hebrews 5:12–14). All church officers should be above reproach, one-woman men, good household managers, not drunkards, not greedy, not untested. The respective lists of qualifications for pastor-elders (1 Timothy 3:1–7) and deacons (1 Timothy 3:8–13) read so similarly in substance, with just this one trait sticking out: “able to teach.” Authority Through Teaching It is teaching, after all, given the nature of the New Testament church, that is at the heart of the pastoral office. What Christian pastors offer, most fundamentally, is not their cosmopolitan and interdisciplinary learning, ability to entertain masses, or executive facility. They are stewards of God’s very words. God has given his church “the pastor-teachers” (Ephesians 4:11) as those with the ability to receive, understand, integrate, index, access, winsomely defend, and effectively communicate his word to his people and to the world. The New Testament does not vest pastor-elders with authority in and of themselves. Rather, their influence is tied directly to the true source of authority in the church: Christ himself, expressed in the words of his first-century apostles. Christ is head of his church. He has the final say. And he appointed apostles to speak authoritatively on his behalf in that first generation of the church. The church’s enduring objective source of authority today is their written word. Which is why teaching that word is so centrally important in the Christian church. Faithful pastors in faithful churches have authority only to the degree that they faithfully teach the apostles’ word, which is the very word of God. Centrality of Teaching Inevitably, our churches will lose their way over time if we lose touch with the central importance of teaching in the New Testament. If we think of teaching more like getting a degree than having our next meal. More like something we endure for a while and then graduate, and less like something we receive regularly to stay alive. But teaching, right across the Scriptures, from old covenant to new, is plainly the latter, not the former. Sitting under gifted teaching is not a season of life for the Christian, but a lifestyle. Just to take a sampling from the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), teaching serves a much more central role in the life and health of the church than many of us today are prone to think in the twenty-first century. Consider just seven observations, among others. 1. God’s reputation relates to what the church teaches. The very honor and name of God himself in our cities is at stake in what our churches teach. “The name of God and the teaching” go together, either in being revered or being reviled (1 Timothy 6:1). This alone should be enough to awaken us to the importance of Christian teaching. 2. It was essential for the apostles to be teachers. The nature of the Christian faith — with ongoing teaching at its heart — means that it was essential for the apostles to be teachers, not just decision-makers. Twice Paul mentions that he is not just an apostle (which might seem like all he needs to say), but also a teacher (1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11). 3. The church’s mission requires teaching. Christian disciple-making, the lead charge in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) requires teaching. It is essentially teaching. The word disciple means “learner.” To be discipled is to be taught, to follow another’s teaching (2 Timothy 3:10), and vital to the disciple-making process is not simply training up new Christians, but training up “faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). And the Commission makes it explicit: “make disciples . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” 4. God means for his word to be taught. The word of God, spoken through first-covenant prophets and new-covenant apostles, is not simply to be heard, but taught. “All Scripture is . . . profitable for teaching” (2 Timothy 3:16). Church leaders, like Timothy, are charged, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). Teaching, as we have seen, goes hand in hand with true authority in the church. “To teach or to exercise authority” (1 Timothy 2:12) are not two distinct activities, but one. In the church, leaders exercise authority centrally through teaching, and teaching is their chief channel of exercising authority. 5. Error spreads though “false teachers.” Error in the church spreads through teaching (1 Timothy 1:3–7; 4:1; Titus 1:11). What do false teachers do? They teach. The fact that those who spread error are called false teachers alerts us to the importance of teaching, for good or for bad, in the church. 6. Elders address error through true teaching. The battle lines between truth and error are drawn between teachers, not any other proficiency or skill. Faithful leaders propagate “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,” while those who infect the church “teach a different doctrine” (1 Timothy 6:3). When the time comes that wandering souls no longer “endure sound teaching,” they “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Timothy 4:3). It’s not a matter of whether we will have teachers, but who they will be. 7. Pastor-elders in the church are teachers. Leaders in the local church devote themselves to teaching (1 Timothy 4:13). False teaching must be answered with true teaching, and true faith only stays true through ongoing true teaching. Teaching is not optional in the church; it’s essential. So Paul instructs Timothy to “teach these things” (1 Timothy 4:11; 6:2), and to keep a close watch not only on himself but on the teaching (1 Timothy 4:16). Titus must “teach what accords with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1), and “in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned” (Titus 2:7–8). Leaders in the local church, then, are not defined as savvy decision-makers or experienced businessmen, but as “those who labor in word and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17). So when we remember our leaders, we remember them as “those who spoke to [us] the word of God” (Hebrews 13:7). Food for Hungry Souls Simply put, the idea of pastor-elders being savvy decision-makers, but not teachers, is foreign to the New Testament. Also foreign is the concept of ministry-specialized “pastors” who mainly administrate programs and jettison the regular practice of pastoring through teaching. Such men who are gifted servants, but not teachers, aren’t barred from church office. They are a tremendous blessing to the church. They are useful for many forms of ministry leadership and service, but they are not elders. This is why God has given us a second office called “deacon.” The cultural pressure today is extraordinary for pastors and elders to be practicing, and proficient at, just about anything else other than teaching. But if we are to be faithful to the teaching of the Bible, to God’s own word to us, we will push against the tides to reduce, minimize, and go thin on teaching in the life of the church. We’re not handing out degrees, but feeding souls. And that doesn’t happen well without skilled, dedicated teachers working week in and week out to shepherd the flock. David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at Cities Church in Minneapolis. He is a husband, father of four, and author of Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines.