Prayer and God's Word

Several weeks ago my Pastor was led to ask me to do the sermon while he was away. Before I wrote it, I asked the Holy Spirit to use me as a tool to do God's will. What follows is that sermon, that was delivered on May 13th.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

“woot woot” A couple of years ago that was a popular teenage slang for “cool”. The first time I used it around my kids, they told me that that wasn’t what was said anymore.

Have you ever had the feeling as soon as you got where you want to be in this world that it wasn’t important anymore?

Long before I realized that I belonged to Jesus, I belonged to the world. Let me explain what I mean. As Christians we live “in” the world, but we do not belong to it. This world is not our home. Our home is with our Father in heaven.
You see, unlike many of you, I have not known Jesus my whole life. I went to church with my family as a child and when I visited my parents. I never knew Jesus. I followed the world’s suggestions.
The result ... loneliness, and a constant struggle to achieve what the world said I should have, and just when I thought I was getting there, the world changed what was important! I can remember wishing there was a rule book or a how to book. I spent thousands of dollars on self help books and tapes, looking for The Book that would help me make it in the world. Unfortunately the “wise” information from these books changed every few years.
Finally, I found life’s instruction manual, and it never changes.
The Bible!

It wasn’t even when I started coming here(to Our Redeemer Lutheran), that I figured this out. I didn’t have time for the Bible. I was to busy making the “ends meet”. (And not doing a very good job of it, as my family can attest to.) It wasn’t until our Don Bracken, a church elder, asked me to become a reader in our worship services. You see, I had to make sure that if I was going to get in front of people and read, I had to know what I was reading. In order to do that I had to read what was before and after the verses I was responsible for.
Thus began my journey into God’s Word.
The best part is that the Holy Spirit really started convicting me. He started proving to me that being in God’s word was important in today’s world. The Holy Spirit did this by pointing out where things I had read directly pertained to my life, or something would happen and then I would read about it in the Bible. Soon I got a concordance, which is a book with every word in the bible and it’s meaning in the original language. I bought it so I could better understand what I was reading. I started doing more reading. Then I was led to the knowledge that I can’t accomplish anything of value WITHOUT Gods help.
I did more reading.
God helps us when we PRAY!! I learned later that God helps us when we pray, just not always the way we want or in our time frame.
In my worldly days, I can remember praying to God to help me when I was in trouble. I remembered a verse from Luke 11:9 where Jesus says “And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you”. As I mentioned I had gone to church as a child and on occasion with my parents when I was older.
So I prayed to God on my own merits, promising to be nicer than I thought I already was, if He would help me to win lotto so I could pay my rent or mortgage. I never won! In this case He, God, was of no help.
But then I began to grow in my faith here, my praying had not changed much; however, God was making things happen for me. Still, the only answers that he gave me were those that brought me closer to Him. This doesn’t mean I always liked or understood the answers! In retrospect even the “no’s” brought me closer to Him.

But, there is more to prayer.

{1 Peter 3:12} For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayers, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

The word righteous refers to a person in accord with God’s standards.

Now in John 15:7 Jesus says "If you abide in Me, and My word abides in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you”.
This verse from John specifies “If you abide in Me, and My word abides in you.” The IF makes it a conditional statement. That condition… is reliance upon God. Reliance upon God is part of being righteous, which brings us back to 1Peter 3:12, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears attend to their prayers.
…More reading…

The more I got into His word the more I understood about praying. In today’s gospel (John 16: 23-24) Jesus says; “…Truly, truly, I say to you, “if” (there’s that condition again) you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask (as a response to and from faith), and (notice no if) you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”

So, does this mean we ask Jesus so he can go to His Father on our behalf?

Let’s skip down to verses 26-27. “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, - the Father Himself loves us! – because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”
Awesome!

We can talk to God himself! “He” is going to answer our prayer. God’s response, is based solely on Jesus’ love for us. (I struggled with this part for a while, but the Holy Spirit made it clear). Why does Jesus love us? Because we love Him and believe that He came forth from the Father.

But wait… Here’s a tough one. Can we truly love someone we don’t know? We were not there 2000 years ago to get to know Jesus. We didn’t travel with Him, listen to Him, and eat with Him. Do we really know Him? Do we really know Jesus? When we study our Bible we do. In the New Testament we travel with Him, listen to Him, and eat with Him. His words and the words He inspired the apostles to write is who He is. Because you know His words you will know Jesus, and you will know that He travels with us, listens to us and eats with us. You won’t be able to keep from loving Him and carrying out his will.

Hmm… Three things here. First…
We are to bring people to know who Jesus is… Not just His name, but WHO He is, that means we have to know and share His word.

Second…
Husbands, we are to “love” our wives as Christ loves his church…
Two things here; how do we know how Christ loved His Church?
From His word.
Second, how do we come to love (agape) our wives?
We have to know them…we travel with them (I don't mean to the supermarket, I mean through life), we eat with them, we need to listen to them!! Communication !!

Third...
As Christians we are to “love” our neighbors…
A couple of weeks ago, while I was working on this lesson, I was driving up the island listening to the Mars Hill Network, A Christian station, and the speaker was telling a story. He said his room mate had a poster that showed a drunken bum passed out on the side of the road. Beneath the picture were these words “You can only love Jesus as much as you love the person you love least.” Then my radio went dead for about 10 minutes… Not full of static, dead quite! During that time those words kept going over & over in my mind. God really knows how to make a point.

Do you see what is happening here? If we just read the words in today’s gospel we learn we need to pray in Jesus’ name. We learn that if we love Him, God will answer our prayer. But, when we know more of the Bible, and Study His word we will know the spirit of His word. With that, the power of prayer, and a living relationship with Jesus we will go to places we can’t even imagine. Three years ago I could not have imagined I would be standing up here giving a lesson. Five years ago, running & biking in the woods was how I was “close” to God.

Let’s say we went out to eat a few times this month, and we didn’t just go to our local pizza place, but instead went out to some really nice restaurants, jacket & tie kind of places. Now the mortgage comes due, and we are $400 dollars short. We start praying to God to let us win lotto. What do you think His response is going to be?
Let’s say the father of the family next door looses his job, and their mortgage is due and they are $400 short. You and your spouse pray and ask God if you should give them the $400. What do you think Gods response will be this time…
You go to work the next day and your boss comes up to you and says remember that idea you had a few months ago, well we tried it and, well, here is a $500 bonus. Thanks.
To the worldly minded this sounds ridiculous. To those of us who know His grace best, this is exactly how He works.

Let’s go back to the last part of vs. 24 in today’s gospel. “…ask and you will receive, that your JOY may be made full.” What will give us joy? Loving Jesus, walking in his light, and accomplishing His will!
So… we should pray for what will increase our love for Jesus, help us walk in his light, and help us accomplish His will! Pray for what will assist another to love Him. Then see how God answers your prayer and increases your joy!

Study His word; Pray without ceasing; Experience God’s awesome power in your life!

He truly is An Awesome God!!

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds, through faith, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen