Sermon Tone Analysis

Whatever You Wish

*John 15:7*

*October 4, 2009*

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Blackaby’s words of wisdom for today are entitled, “Long Enough on the Mountain” In Deuteronomy 1:6 the Bible says, /“The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough.”//

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If God allowed us to live on the “mountaintop,” we would not experience trials, but neither would we achieve any victories.

The Israelites had gathered at the foot of Mount Horeb while God spoke to them and gave them His law.

It was a breathtaking experience!

Fire and smoke covered that awesome mountain; lightning flashed, and loud trumpet sounds pierced the air in a deafening crescendo!

The ground at the foot of the mountain shook, and the people trembled in fear (Exod.

19:16–25).

As important as it was for God's people to have this inspiring encounter with Him, their Lord had not rescued them from Egypt in order for them to settle around a mountain in the wilderness.

God delivered them so that they could conquer the Promised Land.

God wanted to demonstrate His power to the Israelites so that they would trust Him in their conquest of Canaan.

Finally, God announced that they had been long enough at the mountain; it was time to go to battle.

The mountain is an enticing place to set up camp.

Peter, James, and John were prepared to reside on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, but their Lord knew that a demon-possessed boy needed their assistance down below (Matt.

17:4, 14–18).

At times God will graciously provide you a mountaintop experience.

These times come in many settings: during your time alone with Him, at a Christian conference, by reading a Christian book, or at a prayer meeting.

You may wish you could spend the rest of your life basking in the glow of your encounter with God.

But remember, these mountaintop encounters are God's way of preparing you for the battles that await you.

Oswald Chambers had a lot to say about mountaintop experiences this last while.

His October 1 devotional in “My Utmost For His Highest” describes the mountaintop as the place of exultation.

Listen to what he says, “ We have all experienced times of exultation on the mountain, when we have seen things fro God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there.

But God will never allow us to stay there.

The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain … It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may go down and lift up the demon-possessed in the valley.

We are not made for the mountains … those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration … The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something ….The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments … but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God ….

When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you are faced with the facts of the valley?”

Today we’re going to look at what God wishes for us in the valley.

*Our Scripture today is John 15:7 */If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.

/The verse has two halves, a condition and a result.

The condition — the if clause — is, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you . . .

" The result — the then clause — "then ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

When we studied the book of John,  we talked about meaning of Jesus' words abiding in us.

If we are to have consistent answers to prayer, the words of Jesus must abide in us.

That is, as we see in verses 4 and 5 /Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing/.

We receive and believe and remember and meditate on the truths that Jesus spoke and is speaking now as he abides in us.

Today I want to focus on the result clause in verse 7—"ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

If the words of Jesus abide in us, then the result will be that you pray with power and effectiveness.

There are four truths about prayer that come from this verse:

1. Prayer is for fruit-bearing.

God designed prayer to give his disciples the joy of bearing fruit while God himself gets the glory.

We can see this in the connection between verses 7 and 8 and then in verse 16.

*/"By This Is My Father Glorified . . .

"/*/ /

/If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you./

/By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

/And verse 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.

/

In John's way of writing the phrase "by this" at the beginning of verse 8 refers  to verse 7 and forward to the rest of verse 8. /"By this is my Father glorified" /— that is, by your asking him for things and his giving them to you.

He gets glory as the one who is rich and good enough to answer prayer.

But also . . .

/"By this my Father is glorified" /when you bear much fruit.

God gets glory when we bear fruit.

We have prayed and God has answered.

Therefore the primary point of prayer is fruit-bearing.

This is confirmed explicitly in verse 16.

Jesus says to his disciples, /"You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you."/

The logical connection between the two parts of this verse are tremendously important.

Jesus says that he chose and appointed his disciples that they should go and bear fruit that remains . . .

/"that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you."/

Shortened down it says, "I have given you a fruit-bearing mission in order that your prayers might be answered!"

This only makes sense if prayer is for fruit-bearing.

Remember what verse 16 says:* */your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you."/

You would expect the verse to be the reverse: God will give you what you ask in order that you might have a fruit-bearing mission.

But Jesus says it the other way around: I give you a fruit bearing mission in order that the Father might answer your prayers.

The point: prayer malfunctions when it is not used in fruit-bearing.

Prayer is for fruit-bearing.

DJ ,our new kid’s club, is for fruit-bearing.

The children who come and are disciples are the fruit of our labor.

When we pray for Club DJ we are praying for fruit.

Jesus said, since I want you to pray and to get answers to your prayers, I chose you and I appointed you to go and bear fruit.

Because prayer is for fruit-bearing.

If you are not devoted to fruit-bearing, you have no warrant for expecting answers to prayer.

Again I say, prayer is designed for fruit-bearing.

Club

2. Prayer is not for gratifying natural desires.

Now I know that Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day, our daily bread."

And what could be more natural than the desire to eat?

And I know that there are dozens of instances in the Bible of people praying for desires as natural as the desire for protection from enemies and escape from danger and success in vocation and fertility in marriage, recovery from sickness, etc.

My point is not that those desires are wrong.

My point is that they should always be subordinate to spiritual desires; kingdom desires; fruit-bearing desires; gospel-spreading desires, God-centered desires; Christ-exalting desires, God-glorifying desires.

And when our natural desires are felt as a means to these greater desires, then they become the proper subject of prayer.

Just before Jesus said to pray, /"Give us this day our daily bread,"/ he said, make it your heart's desire that God’s name would be hallowed and that the kingdom would come and that the will of God would be done on earth.

When your heart is caught up with those great desires, then having something to eat is not merely a natural desire, but a means to some great God-centered end.

And then it is the proper subject of prayer.

Prayer is for God's name and God's kingdom and God's will—it is for fruit-bearing in all those great things.

If our protection, and our escape from danger, and our eating and having clothes and houses and lands and education and vocational success leads to those great God-centered ends (the name of God and kingdom of God and will of God), then we pray about them with confidence.

This is what David meant when he said in Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

The desires of the heart cease to be merely natural desires when the heart delights above all else in the Lord.

Delighting in the Lord—in the hallowing of his name and the seeking of his kingdom and the doing of his will—transforms all natural desires into God-related desires.

They are transposed up into a higher key.

Prayer is not for gratifying natural desires.

It is for fruit-bearing, for the glory of God.

Another way of saying it is this: if you want God to respond to your interests, you must be devoted to his interests.

God is God.

He does not run the world by hiring the consulting firm called Mankind.

He lets mankind share in the running of the world through prayer to the degree that we consult with him and get our goals and desires in tune with his purposes.

The evidence for this in the writing of John is 1 John 5:14, /"This is the confidence which we have before him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."/

The key words being “/according to his will”./

Prayer is not for gratifying our natural desires.