Copyright © 2026 S P Townsend
What Do You Want Me To Do For You?
Westhill Community Church
Sunday 28th June
Reading: Matthew 20: 20-34
In our reading this morning Jesus asked this question: “What is it that you want me to do for you?” There were two different scenarios, but a similar question. In the first case a mother is seeking the best for her sons, and comes with a bold and, some would say outrageous, request. In the other scenario there are two individuals who suffer from a debilitating condition that would last for a lifetime, and they cry out in their desperation.
There are a number of lessons we can learn from this passage, and it seems to me that one of them is this.
God loves to give us the desires of our heart.
It’s not just from this passage. This is a lesson repeated again and again in Scripture.
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps 37: 4)
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33)
“Therefore I say unto you, ‘Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.’” (Mark 11: 24 KJV)
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt 7: 11)
What an amazing insight this gives us into the ways of God. God created us in his own image, and part of that likeness is the ability we have to make choices. What is it that you want, said Jesus. What are you seeking, what are you longing for, what do you want your heavenly Father to do for you? Ask, and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened (Matt 7: 7).
I love the way that Jesus invited his hearers to consider the way parents respond to their children when asked for something good. “That’s a picture of what God is like with His children,” he said. He loves to give us what we need; he delights to give us what we want; he invites us to ask and receive.
Now of course sometimes parents have to say “No” for good reasons, particularly if to do what the children ask would not be good for them. So it is not surprising that we cannot always expect to receive what we ask for from God. And this is certainly the case in the first story we read from Matthew 20 this morning. Salome, the mother of the disciples James and John, asked for something that Jesus could not say “Yes” to. So a second lesson we can learn from this passage is this.
Our requests must fit with God’s sovereign purpose
In the Lord’s prayer that we regularly pray Jesus taught us to ask for those things we need. But to start with he taught us to ask:
1) that we might bring glory to our Father in heaven (hallowed by thy name);
2) that God would use us to advance his kingdom (thy kingdom come);
3) that we might fulfil our Father’s will and purpose (thy will be done).
So Jesus’ reply to Salome was effectively, “My Father has not yet revealed His will and purpose for that time, so I can’t say yes.” Notice his response was not to say “no.” Instead he sought to clear up their misunderstanding of what their request implied (indeed the misunderstanding of all the disciples) and then to ask them if they were prepared to walk in his footsteps.
“We are,” replied James and John, and Jesus then said that they would indeed do so. About eleven years after this James was arrested by Herod Agrippa and executed, almost certainly by beheading, the first of the apostles to be martyred. John, who was known as the beloved disciple, is thought to be the only apostle not to be martyred. However he did endure persecution for his witness about Jesus. Church tradition has it that on one occasion he survived being thrown into boiling oil. He was exiled on the island of Patmos, possibly for two years, for preaching the gospel and refusing to participate in emperor worship. John served the early church faithfully. It is believed that he wrote five of the New Testament books, and that he died as a very old man in the city of Ephesus having led and been a servant to the church there for many years.
Yes, James and John did indeed drink from the cup of servanthood and suffering that Jesus drank from, each in the way God purposed for them. Their original, perhaps outrageous, request had been transformed as they heard his words and followed his example.
And that leads to a third lesson.
We sometimes cannot receive exactly what we ask for
So why is that? In what circumstances might God say “no” to our prayers, however earnest they may be? In what circumstances might we be in need, in spite of the fact that God watches over us and cares for us? The Bible gives us a number of reasons.
James, not the son of Zebedee but actually Jesus’ half-brother, James the Just, taught this in his New Testament letter.
“You do not have [what you want] because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4: 2-3)
(1) When We Don’t Ask
The first reason that we sometimes don’t receive is that we don’t ask.
I was going to skip over his first point that we don’t get because we don’t ask, but something made me pause and think again. It’s an important question for each one of us. Do we humbly ask God for the things we need, for the things that are on our hearts, or do we just assume that we can easily get them by ourselves? I have to confess that even though Jesus taught us to ask God for our daily bread, before I prepared this I can’t remember the last time that I prayed, “Lord, please would you provide the food we need this week?” Oh, I’ve often recited the Lord’s prayer since childhood, and regularly thanked God for his bountiful provision. But as for setting aside time to ask God to supply the food, water and other essentials of life, I think I’ve always just assumed that it would all be available without me bothering to ask. And, thank God, always it has, because of His loving kindness. But when we ask it reminds us that we depend upon Him for everything we have, it stirs up gratefulness in our hearts, it builds our faith and inspires us to ask for much more besides, and it develops a habit that hopefully will last a lifetime.
King Asa was Solomon’s great grandson, and he reigned over the kingdom of Judah for 41 years. His grandfather Rehoboam and his father Abijah both led the people of Judah deeper and deeper into sinful ways, but Asa brought spiritual reform and did what was right in God’s sight. On one occasion a massive army from North Africa invaded the land and threatened to overwhelm the people of Judah. Asa prayed to God with these words.
“Help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude” (2 Chron 14: 11 AKJV).
God heard and answered his prayer with an amazing victory over the invading army.
But, near the end of his life, Asa, started depending on his own wisdom and resources rather than seeking God’s provision. He died of a severe disease in his feet, and we read these sobering words of scripture.
“Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the doctors. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died.” (2 Chron 16: 12-13)
What a sobering epitaph [1]. You have not because you do not ask God, said James.
(2) When Our Motives Are Selfish
The second reason that we sometimes don’t receive is that our motives are selfish.
James went on to say that when you do ask you don’t receive because you have the wrong motives. You ask from selfish ambition, he said. Instead of seeking God’s purposes, you seek only your own advantage. So again we return to Jesus’ teaching in the Lord’s Prayer. First and foremost our desire must be that we might bring glory to our Father in heaven (hallowed be Thy name), that God would use us to advance his kingdom (Thy kingdom come) and that we might fulfil our Father’s will and purpose (Thy will be done).
(3) When We Don’t Have Faith
The third reason that we sometimes don’t receive is that we don’t have faith.
At the beginning of his letter James wrote these words.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt … That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” (James 1: 5-7)
To me this is the most challenging part of what God is saying to us this morning. When Jesus ministered on earth the most frequent concern he expressed regarding his people, and especially the apostles, was about the weakness of their faith. Indeed, it seems that he often used the words “You of little faith” when he was addressing them all (Matt 6:30, Matt 14:31, Matt 16:8). After Jesus rose from the dead he revealed himself to the eleven apostles as they were having a meal together. And Mark tells us that he rebuked them. Why did he rebuke that distressed, frightened and confused group of disciples?
“Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.” (Mark 16: 14)
I find that sobering. These disciples that walked with him, talked with him, and were amazed by the miracles they saw him perform, who were empowered by him to see similar miracles happen, what seemed to trouble him most about them was the poverty of their faith. But perhaps more sobering is the comment he made at the end of the parable he told of the persistent widow who would not give up seeking justice from the uncaring judge.
“Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? … However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18: 7-8)
He was possibly speaking of our generation. When Jesus returns, and all the signs seem to say this will be soon, will he find the kind of faith that pleases him? He leaves the question hanging, almost as if he’s saying to us, “You answer it for your generation.”
This made me think of an individual from a previous generation whose attitude seemed to be, “If Jesus comes back in my lifetime then he will definitely find faith.” As part of my first degree studies I spent fourteen months working at an establishment in Dorset, and for part of this time I was provided with accommodation by a Christian couple in Weymouth. They had a daughter who worked with the George Muller organisation, set up to care for orphaned children. I think this was the first time I had come across the ministry of George Muller.
During the nineteenth century George Muller in Bristol and Dr Thomas Barnardo in London, were both led by God to set up homes to care for orphaned children that were wandering the streets. The original homes they set up are no longer needed, because in a quite marvellous way their passion and example, along with that of many others, eventually led to the government itself making provision for the care of children in need – a wonderful example of God’s people being salt and light within society. George Muller was determined to live fully by faith. When a church pastor in Bristol he had refused to receive a stipend, believing that he should trust in God alone without any appeal for support to others. In 1834 a cholera epidemic devastated the city of Bristol, and as a result hundreds of orphans were left with no one to care for them. George Muller and others prayed to God for the wherewithal to meet this desperate need. George wrote in his journal these amazing words, based on his own experience of trusting God for all his needs.
“If I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained without asking any individual the means for establishing and carrying on an Orphanage House, then this would provide visible proof that God is faithful still and hears prayer still.”
An Evangelical Times article on the work of George Muller and Dr Barnardo has these words.
“By 1870, when Müller was 65, there were 5 Orphan Houses caring for 2,000 orphans, with about 200 staff to look after them. The money required to run them was over £30,000 per year — all raised in answer to prayer without direct appeals.” ( https://www.evangelical-times.org/god-is-faithful-still-george-muller-and-thomas-barnardo/)
It is indeed faith that is the key to seeing what we all long for and strive for – For God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done. Romans 10: 17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Listening to God’s voice, perceiving the pathway that he wants us to walk, enables us to ask with boldness and confidence for the resources and enabling we need.
So this morning let us all in quietness seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance as we respond to Jesus’ question to each one of us: “What do you want me to do for you?”
Copyright © 2026 S P Townsend