Pray

Sermon Series: I’m Supposed to do WHAT?!?!

(Some of the points from this message were adapted from a sermon preached by John Piper on December 28, 2008 entitled Put in the Fire for the Sake of Prayer.  You can find that sermon at www.DesiringGod.org)

As a parent I have made a lot of mistakes.  All of us will at times.  It’s good when we recognize them because then we can make efforts at apologizing for those mistakes and correcting them.  But what can really be bad is when we don’t recognize our mistakes and continue in them.  Not only are we setting a bad example for our children, but we are teaching them to follow our example and to do things the wrong way as they get older.  Let me give you a silly example.  I grew up with one brother and no sisters – so beauty techniques and hygiene were never topics of discussion around my house.  Now I have three daughters and I’m having to learn some important lessons.  One of the lessons I have recently learned pertains to ‘conditioner.’  As our oldest daughter’s hair got longer one of the things I began to notice was how knotty her hair would get.  I didn’t have a clue what to do about it, so Amy said I needed to start using conditioner when I would give her a bath.  Not really knowing anything about conditioner I set out to do my best during the next bath time.  When I picked up the conditioner bottle I looked at the back of the bottle to see if there were any specific directions that I needed to follow.  The only thing the bottle said was to apply to wet hair after washing with shampoo and rinsing.  That couldn’t be too hard, right?  So after washing and rinsing her hair I got a little conditioner in my hand and started to apply the conditioner to the top of her head and working it down to the roots like I would with shampoo.  But that conditioner sure didn’t lather as good as shampoo and there didn’t seem to be enough to get to the ends of her long hair.  So I got more (a lot more) in my hand until her hair was as close to lathered with conditioner as possible.  Feeling like I had accomplished the task at hand I rinsed the conditioner out of her hair and this became my regular practice.  Wash and lather with shampoo and rinse, then apply an enormous amount of conditioner and lather and rinse.  I also figured if I was supposed to use conditioner on my daughter’s hair it probably wouldn’t hurt to apply it to my son’s hair too.  So I began to do the same thing to him.  Well until recently this was my practice at bath time.  But after feeling a little unsure of myself I finally asked a hair dresser about the whole conditioner thing.  After I explained to her what I was doing and after she finished laughing at me, she explained to me that I was doing things all wrong.  Conditioner is primarily for the ends of the hair (not so much the roots) and that using a lot of conditioner wasn’t a good thing, that it would make hair really oily.  She explained that I just needed to use a little condition and that I just needed to concentrate on working it into the longer portions of my daughter’s hair (not working it into the roots on top of her head).  And as for my son, his hair was so short that he probably didn’t even need conditioner.

Think about this.  I was making a mistake in how I washed and conditioned my children’s hair and that was having some negative impact (though not really all that significant) on their lives.  Had I not been rightly instructed I would have continued in that mistake.  And eventually my children would have made those bad habits the norm for their lives as they grew up because their father had modeled for them poorly how they were supposed to shampoo and condition. 

While this is a silly example, the unfortunate truth is that many of us have an unbalanced prayer life.  And what’s worse is that many of us don’t even know that.  We’ve grown up having prayer modeled for us in a way that isn’t exactly right, but it has become so normative that we have made practicing prayer in that manner our regular practice.  As believers in Christ we need to be taught rightly about prayer so that we can pray well.  We need to understand how it is to be done, what its aim is, what its content should be, and what should satisfy us most in our prayer lives.  It’s not enough to assume that we are praying well and that we just need to continue with more of the same.  We need to see prayer from Jesus’ perspective and practice prayer the way Jesus instructs us to.  So this week I want to look at a couple of verses from the Gospel of John in which Jesus is teaching on prayer and point out some important distinctives concerning prayer that I think many don’t understand.

We’ll begin our examination of Scripture this week with John 14:13-14 which say, “Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”  The first distinctive we ought to note in these verses is that our prayers must be Christ-dependent.  Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in My name . . .”  As believers in Jesus one thing we must recognize and be committed to is the central role that Jesus plays in our prayer life.  We would all affirm that Jesus is absolutely central in our salvation – we are saved through Him; but Jesus is also central in our supplication – we pray through Him.  Praying in Jesus’ name is praying with the understanding that the only reason we are able to come before God and make our requests known to Him is because of the salvation we have in Jesus.  It’s also praying in such a way that the things we are praying for are things that fall in line with who Jesus is and what He stands for.  Praying our prayers “in Jesus’ name” isn’t a fancy way of closing our prayers and it’s not a phrase we use to signal to others that we are through praying and it is now their turn to pray.  Praying “in Jesus’ name” is recognizing that our dialogue with God is completely dependent on Jesus and what He has done, and striving to make sure the content of our dialogue with God is in accordance with Jesus’ character and mission.

Jesus says when we pray in this way that He will do what we ask, so that “the Father may be glorified . . .”  Here Jesus makes clear another distinctive of prayer - the aim of prayer – which is the glory of God the Father.  We talk about the glory of God a lot here.  All that we as believers in Jesus do should be for God’s glory and to make much of Him.  As fallen, broken, and insignificant people we can’t assume that things are ultimately purposed for our own glory and to make much of us.  When our eyes are opened to the reality of a God who not only created all things but is also the One who sacrificed His only Son so that those of us who were far from Him might have our sins atoned for and be reconciled to Him, then we will recognize that all praise and glory belong to Him.  And if that is the case then everything we do – everything – should be to make much of and bring glory to the only One who is deserving of it.  That includes our prayers.  Jesus reminds His disciples of this here.  We are to offer prayers that are Christ-dependent and God-exalting.            

Jesus says that when we pray this way He will do what we ask.  Jesus’ purpose while He was on earth was to bring glory to the Father.  That was what His aim was day in and day out.  And although Jesus is no longer residing here on earth His purpose has not changed.  His purpose and His aim are still to bring glory to God the Father.  One of the ways in which He does that is by answering the Christ-dependent, God-exalting prayers of His followers.  Some of you might raise an objection here.  “But doesn’t verse 13 say that Jesus will do ‘whatever’ we ask as long as we ask in His name?  Aren’t you limiting what Jesus says He will do?”  Those are fair questions.  But if the aim and purpose of prayer is to glorify God then there are clearly some prayers that Jesus will not answer.  We can’t pray prayers like, “God, cause that child molester to get what he deserves in prison.”  “God, give me some time alone with another woman while I’m away from my wife and kids on business.”  “God, let there be more than one Sunday paper in the box outside the grocery store so that I can get several papers and coupon inserts for the price of one.”  If we pray prayers like this then the glory of God is not our aim.  Our wants and our desires become the aim of our prayers.  And Christ is not obligated to fulfill these requests.

Jesus builds on His teaching on prayer in chapter 14 in 15:7-8.  He says there, “If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”  According to Jesus’ teaching in verse 7 the effectiveness of our prayers is directly related to how we abide in Christ and how His words abide in us.  Now it’s not an all or nothing type thing.  It’s not that some individuals completely and fully abide in Christ and have His word abiding in them and those individuals have all of their prayers answered; while no one else abides in Christ at all, don’t have His word abiding in them, and they don’t have any of their prayers answered.  It has more to do with degrees.  Those individuals who abide in Christ well and who have His word abiding in them well will be more in tune with the heart of God and will do a better job of praying in accordance with His will, which will ultimately result in them seeing more of their prayers answered.  Those individuals who aren’t abiding in Christ as well and who don’t have His word abiding in them well will be less in tune with the heart of God and will wrestle with praying in accordance with His will, which will result in them seeing fewer of their prayers answered.  In verse 8 Jesus makes an interesting transition.  Jesus says in verse 8 that the Father is glorified when believers in Christ bear much fruit and prove that they are His disciples.  Bearing fruit is largely seen in two different areas.  Spiritual fruit is seen in the lives of individuals and churches.  Paul writes in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control . . .”  When individual believers in Christ grow in these characteristics and the churches that they are apart of grow in these characteristics, then God is glorified.  These individuals and churches reflect better the character of God and put Him on display more clearly in their communities.  The other area where bearing fruit is seen is when we see those who were not followers of Christ coming to faith in Him.  As disciples of Christ we have been given the command to ‘make disciples.’  So seeing other individuals come to faith in Jesus is a second area where we see fruit.  Now let’s talk about how bearing fruit and prayer are connected.  In placing these two thoughts together Jesus seems to be implying that the answered prayers of verse 7 have to do with the fruit bearing in verse 8.  In other words it seems that the prayers of those who are abiding in Christ and who have His words abiding in them are focused in the area of fruit bearing.  Prayers directed towards fruit bearing are prayers that align with the heart of Christ.  Fruit – both spiritual fruit in the lives of individuals and new believers in Christ – brings great glory to the Father.  And those are prayers which Christ will work to answer and honor.

The reality is that many of us haven’t been taught to pray about fruit bearing.  We haven’t been taught to pray that God would develop in us a character like His.  We haven’t been taught to look for the areas in our lives where our character doesn’t look like Christ’s and then to ask God to help us develop our weak character traits to be more like His.  We haven’t been taught to pray for the lost around us.  We haven’t been taught to continuously bring them before God and to plead with Him to bring them to saving faith in Christ.  What we’ve been taught to pray for are illnesses, traveling mercies, rain, and the most recent gossip around the church.  Since our childhood these are the prayers that we have had modeled for us and these are the prayers that we learn to pray.  But Jesus suggests that our prayer efforts ought to be directed in a different direction.  Verse 16 adds additional support for this idea.  Jesus says in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”  Jesus explains our mission here in verse 16.  He chose us and appointed us to bear fruit.  Some of you today are wondering, “What’s God’s will or purpose for my life?”  Look no further!  God has chosen you and appointed you to bear fruit.  There’s freedom to choose your job or career path.  There’s freedom to choose your hobbies and how you spend your free time.  But when you are doing those things you need to be working hard at bearing fruit.  Now in addition to clarifying our mission in verse 16 Jesus also tells us why we were given that specific mission – we were given the mission so that God would answer our prayers.  It’s an odd combination, but Jesus is the one articulating it.  We have a mission of bearing fruit and that mission is tied incredibly closely with our prayers.  John Piper summarizes the idea about as clearly as possible, “You have a mission so that you may enjoy having your prayers answered.”  John Piper also illustrates this idea incredibly powerfully.  If you are familiar with John Piper you may have heard this illustration before.  If not, you need to be familiar with it.  John Piper says that prayer is a war time walkie-talkie, it is not a domestic intercom.  He says that God intended prayer to be the means of communication in which we call down divine fire-power to help us in the midst of our mission to advance His kingdom – it’s not a domestic intercom by which we buzz the butler and ask him to adjust the thermostat or bring us another pillow.  Piper says that our prayer must serve the mission or it will malfunction in our hands.

Jesus continues to build on His teaching on prayer in chapters 14 and 15 in 16:23-24.  He says there, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.  Until now you have asked for nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”  In verse 23 Jesus makes another ‘whatever’ statement.  He says “whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”  But Jesus follows that statement with verse 24 in which He says, “Until now you have asked nothing in My name.”  We have to make sure that we read this verse in its proper context.  Jesus was still present with His disciples and had not yet ascended into heaven.  Up until that point if His disciples had needed anything they had simply asked Jesus for it.  But a time was coming in which they would no longer be able to ask Jesus in the context that they had been accustomed to.  Jesus wouldn’t be present with them.  They couldn’t look Jesus in the eye and ask Him to do things for them in the way they had in the past.  A time was coming in which they would have to speak to God the Father and Jesus through prayer.  So Jesus instructs His disciples to ask the Father and they would receive, so that their joy “may be full.”  If we love God the way that we ought to and really believe that He is the only One worthy of glory and praise, we will be committed to living for His glory and we will experience the greatest joy when He is glorified.  We said earlier that the aim of our prayer is God’s glory.  When He answers our prayers and is glorified as a result, we will experience great joy to see God made much of.

The way that I was conditioning my daughter’s hair was wrong.  But I didn’t know that until I was rightly instructed.  Then, after receiving those instructions it was necessary for me to make some changes to make sure that I was taking care of her hair and to make sure that what I was modeling was right for her so that she can grow up and take care of her hair the right way.  But far more important than the proper use of conditioner is the praying the right way.  I’ve got to strive to pray Christ-dependent, God-exalting prayers directed towards the mission that God has given us.  I have to do this well for my own sake and I have to do it well so that I model it well for others.  If that’s not what I’m doing right now then I need to make some adjustments to my prayer life so that those are the type of prayers I’m praying.  To receive right instruction but to ignore it and continue doing things the way I had simply because that was what was modeled for me would not be helpful to anyone.

Allow me to conclude with just a few points of encouragement.  First – understand that if you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are a chosen individual with a specific mission.  We are to bear fruit!  So ask yourself, “Am I on mission?”  If the answer is ‘yes’ then keep at it – keep plugging away and keep working hard.  If the answer is ‘no’ then you need to make whatever changes are necessary for you to get on mission.  Second - understand that God has entrusted us with a very valuable tool for our mission – prayer.  Prayer is our war time walkie-talkie and we need to use it appropriately.  We need to be calling on God for His divine power as we are in combat with Satan and his forces to develop in us the spiritual fruit that will reflect His character.  We need to be calling on God for His divine power as we are in combat with Satan and his forces to bring those who have not trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to saving faith in Him.  Satan is an incredibly powerful enemy and he uses every resource and means available to him to keep us off mission and to render us useless to God.  We desperately need God’s power in this battle and have to make sure we are pleading for His power and presence in our lives and in our ministry efforts.  One of our core values at Escalate is the Undergirding of Prayer.  That core value states that “all that we do must have the thorough undergirding of prayer support or else there is no reason to anticipate the attending power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our ministry.”  I believe the most important and valuable thing we do throughout the week is our corporate prayer time.  It is the most important time and the most important ministry effort that we can be involved in, but too often we treat it as if it doesn’t have any real significance or importance.  This can’t be an attitude or characteristic that marks us as individuals or as a church.  When need to continuously petition the Father to have His hand and His power in all that we do.  Third – we must make every effort to make sure that our prayers are God-centered (focused on His glory) and Christ-dependent (‘in Jesus’ name).  When we pray prayers that will ultimately bring glory to the Father, He will answer our prayers, and we will have great joy in our lives as our greatest joy comes when the Father receives the greatest glory.