Andrew Fountain - Prayers that Get Answered

Full sermon notes - Prayers that Get Answered

Two things to remember from last week:

1. God wants you to treat him like your closest friend, be totally honest and open with him.
   You can do that!
2. Cause and effect. Prayer is just as much how this world works as the law of gravity.
   Your prayers this week will count

Extract from George Muller—The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans by Janet and Geoff Benge

• From Chapter 14: God will supply [pp. 166-168]

“I hate to bother you, Mr. Muller,” began the matron, “but... the children are all ready for breakfast and there is not a thing in the house to eat. What shall I tell them?”

George stood up. “I’ll take care of it."... [He] reached down and took [a little girl’s hand] hand. “Come and see what God will do,” he said. Inside they found three hundred children standing in neat rows behind their chairs. Set on the table in front of each child were a plate, a mug... and spoon. But there was no food whatsoever to be seen....

“...where’s the food?” Abigail asked in a whisper.

“God will supply,” George told her quietly, before he turned to address the children. “There’s not much time. I don’t want any of you to be late for school, so let us pray,” he announced.

As the children bowed their heads, George simply prayed, “Dear God, we thank you for what you are going to give us to eat. Amen.”

George looked up and smiled at the children. “You may be seated,” he said. He had no idea at all where the food he had just prayed for would come from or how it would get to the orphanage. He just knew God would not fail the children. A thunderous din filled the room as three hundred chairs were scuffed across the wooden floor. Soon all three hundred children sat obediently in front of their empty plates.

No sooner had the noise in the dining room subsided than there was a knock at the door. George walked over and opened the door. In the doorway stood the baker, holding a huge tray of delicious-smelling bread.

“Mr. Muller,” began the baker, “I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept thinking that somehow you would  need bread this morning and that I was supposed to  get up and bake it for you. So I got up at two o’clock and made three batches for you. I hope you can use it.”

George smiled broadly. “God has blessed us through you this morning,” he said as he took the tray....

“There’s two more trays out in the cart,” said the baker. “I’ll fetch them.” Within minutes, the children were all eating freshly baked bread.

As they were enjoying it there was a second knock at the door. This time it was the milkman, who took off his hat and addressed George. "I’m needing a little help, of you could, sir. The wheel on my cart has been broken, right outside your establishment. I’ll have to lighten my load before I can fix it. There’s ten full cans of milk on it. Could you use them?" Then looking at the orphans sitting in neat rows, he added. "Free of charge, of course...."

A. Jesus our Prayer Example

• Why?
  • Because he’s God?
• But how can he be an example to us then?
• Happened to meet President Obama’s daughter:
  • My dad’s very accessible you know, all you have to do is to text him and he’ll reply immediately.
• But Jesus was our example, showing us how to live, and prayer was no exception.
• The book of Hebrews presents one of the highest perspectived of Jesus in the New Testament
  • Yet it contains these curious verses:

• Jesus took on our humanity, including some aspects of learning
  • “I learned to drive a car this week”, “Oh, what kind of car were you driving?”, “Oh, no, I was learning from a book”
• So God only heard his son because of his obedience?
  • The Queen of England is head of the military. Her grandsons have all spent time in military training.
    • What if they called her up “grandma, I don’t like the food. Can you ask them to get me some hamburgers?”
    • “If you can call me up at any time and get special conditions, it defeats any point in you being there.”

B. Obedience and Answers to Prayer

• In many places our obedience is linked to our prayers being answered:

• Now we come to the main passage for today:

John 15:5–17

5. 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.
6. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
7. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
9. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
10. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
11. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
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.
17. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

based on NET Bible

• See how strong the connection is between obedience and our prayers being heard?
  • I want to throw it open for questions now:
  • Is it all about our performance: the ones that perform best, get heard
  • God grades us as Christians
    A+ gets heard every time
    D —why bother even to pray?
• DISCUSSION TIME
• There is a very common idea that underneath amounts to this:

• God is a divine vending machine that if we put enough coins into, we get answers.
  • The main coins are earned by obedience. The more we obey, the more coins we get.
  • We get extra coins from fasting
  • If more people are praying, then there are a lot more coins
  • Some people carry more weight with God, so if you can get a “spiritual” person to pray for you, that will help a lot
• But Rom 11:35:
  “Or who has ever given to God, that God needs to repay him?”
• Prayers answered are NOT a reward for obedience
  • So why does Jesus tell us that if we do his commands, the Father hears our prayer?
  • I’m going to give you two answers, in order of how helpful I think they are
• At the heart of the matter is 1 John 5:14.
  “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

• Problem:
  • You can be totally obeying God
  • And your desires are totally aligned with his commandments
  • But what you pray, while generally being his will, is not his plan for this particular instance
• Jesus did more than obey God’s commands—he knew exactly what God wanted at every point.

• Later: in Jesus’s name

• Revelation flows out of that loving obedience

• What about all those references to “praying in Jesus’s name”?

• What does this mean?
  • It is not talking about simply tacking the words “in Jesus’ name” on the end of our prayers, as if that gives them some extra power.
  • Actually it amounts to the same thing as obeying him.
• Praying according to Jesus’ agenda, with his stamp of approval
  • example of a letter of authority from a military commander
• As we walk in obedience to God’s will as revealed in Scripture, we get revelation about his will in the current situation
  (To those that have, more will be given. +indwelling of Spirit)
  • We can then pray according to his will

• Note that obedience=love in many cases.
  • Following Jesus in self-denying love

Updated on 2014-08-17 by Andrew Fountain