Sermon Tone Analysis

Getting What We Ask for in Prayer

 

1 John 5:14-15

\\ January 21, 2007

 

*Opening*

/The story of a famished voyager/

A man traveling to America on a passenger ship decided to save money by not eating in the ship's dining hall.

Instead he packed enough crackers and cheese in a trunk to hold him until he arrived.

But on the last day of the voyage he decided to splurge and buy one good meal before disembarking.

Noticing that prices were not listed for the meals, he in­quired of a waitress and was informed that the cost of the meals was included in his ticket.

All he'd had to do to receive his meals was to come to the dining hall and place his order.

Misunderstanding the ship's ticketing system, he had failed to receive what was rightly his.

There are many Christians today like that man—Christians who are spiritually impover­ished because they do not realize that all they have to do is ask to receive what God in-tends for them.

*Scripture*

In 1 John 5:14-15 God's Word encourages us to ask with confidence so that we will re­ceive what we ask of him if we ask in accord with his will:

/“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything ac-cording to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”/

*Topic Sentence*

God gives his spiritual riches to those who unceasingly ask him for them.

• We are talking here about prayer for ourselves—prayers that we usually call peti­tion—not about intercession, which is prayer for others.

* *

*1.

*The *Confidence *We Have in Approaching God

·          Is based on /who /God is

Our confidence in prayer is not based on a formula or a law of the universe.

It is not simply a cause-and-effect interaction.

It is not a reward system.

Our confi­dence is based on the promise of a personal God, who is very wise, loving, and all-powerful.

In his wisdom God knows what is best; in his love God always wants what is best; and in his power God is able to achieve for us what is best.

No power in the universe will stop him from delivering on his promises.

Also, the confidence we have in approaching God is based on what God has already done (Romans 8:32 says: \\ /He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

)/

We know God's nature because of what he has already done.

That message is particularly clear in this passage.

We recognize this as an argument from the greater to the lesser.

It's like saying that if a person can lift 100 pounds, they can surely lift 10 pounds.

Paul is saying that if God was willing do such a major thing as to give his Son to die for our sins, surely he will do the lesser thing of giving us, along with that great gift, the spiritual blessings we need in order to live for him.

And lastly, our confidence is not only based on who God is and what He has done already but it is based on God's /good-faith invitation /(Heb.

4:16)

The writer of Hebrews gives us another reason to be confident that God will de-liver on his promises.

Hebrews 4:16 challenges us to /"approach the throne of //grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."/

Our confidence is based on God's good-faith invitation to come to him.

It's a throne of /grace /to which we come, not a throne of judgment.

God's door is open.

He is expecting us.

He is glad that we have come, for he has much to give us—both mercy (not giving us what we deserve) and grace (giving us what we do not deserve).

Confident prayer is for all true believers—those who know God, those for whom he gave his Son, those who have a standing invitation to come into God's throne room because they know him.

2.

The *Conditions *for Those Who Petition God

Before we get to the heart of this wonderful promise—the certainty of receiving what we ask for—we have to take note of some conditions.

Some of the conditions are in the text; some are in other Bible passages.

The first condition is found in 1 John 5:14-15.

Turn there with me now and follow as I read the passage:  /”This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him”.

/

We must ask.                                                                                                                                                                     1 John 5:14-15 is clear.

Those who ask are those who receive.

Other Scriptures convey the same message.

In Matthew 7:11 Jesus underscores the need to ask.

When speaking of the Father's willingness to give, he says, /"How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"/

And James reminds his readers, who apparently were experiencing spiritual poverty, /"You do not have, because you do not ask God" /(James 4:2).

The point is simply that askers receive from God and non–askers do not receive.

That is condition 1.

Condition 2 is                                                                                                                                                                        We must ask /in faith./

Faith is the certainty that God always acts in accord with his character, his prom­ises, and his plan.

James reminds us that we can always receive wisdom from God if we ask for it, but he goes to emphasize that we must ask in faith or we will not receive what we ask (James 1:6).

In other words, askers must believe that God, true to his Word, will always deliver on his promises.

The same holds true for any "good and perfect gift" you ask for and need from the Father (James 1:17).

So, we must ask and we must ask in faith.

There is a third.

§     We must ask with /a clean heart and an obedient spirit./

David reminds us in Psalm 66:18 that men and women who hold sin in their hearts will not receive from the Lord.

John states this teaching in a positive way when he says, /"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his com­mands and do what pleases him"/ (1 John 3:21-22).

God is always ready to help us do what pleases him.

God is eager to contribute to an obedient lifestyle.

He will never be an accomplice to evil.

So set yourself on a path of obedience and pray boldly for the help you need from God to be His faithful, obedient servant.

·          We must ask /in accord with God's will./

This is the most basic condition in the verse.

This is what we spoke of extensively last Sunday.

Asking /in accord with God's will /means asking for the very things that God wants you to have, things like /"love, //joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"/ (Gal.

5:22-23).

If you ask for wisdom, spiritual enlightenment, spiritual power, a closer walk with God, the filling of the Holy Spirit, a renewed mind, devotion to the Word, greater depth in prayer, abiding in Christ, grace upon grace, or any other spiritual blessing, you will be asking /in accord with God's will.

/The Bible mentions hundreds of good gifts that are /in accord with God's will.

/If, on the other hand, your asking is motivated by selfish ambition, wrong motives, or sinful desires, you should not expect to receive these from the Lord.

At times we have to be /persistent// /in asking (As Luke 18:1-8) says, /“//Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men.

And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

"For some time he refused.

But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'"

And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?

Will he keep putting them off?

I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" /

·           

If we ask /in accord with God's will /and meet all the other conditions, we still cannot expect that we will receive what we have asked for according to our own timetable.

Jesus taught two parables that illustrated the need to pray with persis­tence—the parable of the friend at midnight in Luke 11:5-8 – it reads /“Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'

"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me.

The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed.

I can't get up and give you anything.'

I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

)/ and the parable of the persistent widow, which we just read in Luke 18:1-8—a reminder that even prayers that are /in accord with God's will /can be long delayed.

When God asks us to wait as we go on pray­ing, it is usually because he is working out something in us.

His temporary with-holding of the answer grows our faith and increases the clarity of our vision.

God delivers on his promises according to his own timetable.

If at first we don't re­ceive, then we need simply to keep on asking.

If we are asking according to God’s promise for His good and perfect gifts mentioned by James in the first chapter, verse 17.

Good and perfect.