All right, remember last week, we talked about the value and necessity of assurance, of certainty. Remember that we said that John was gonna cover some serious ground? He was about to tell us, we know that he hears us whatever we ask. We know that we have what we ask. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. We know that we are children of God. We know also that the Son of God has come, and we know him who is true. From verse 14 on, we're probably dealing with a post-strip by John. He's covered the ground that he promised at the beginning of the book, but we all know how we are as people. And those people who love us are frequently like our mothers or fathers, giving us a bunch of last minute advice. They've only got one more shot at this, and so they're running in those last few things as we drive off for that long destination. John is covering the last minute details of what God's children need to be sure about in order to live an overcoming life. This morning we're gonna focus on verses 14 and 15. And we'll be talking about prayer. We had a wonderful prelude in Sunday school, getting all ready for this with the questions that were posed. Now, what topic could be more important than the topic of prayer? It doesn't take much study at all to see how important prayer is in the Christian life. Jesus said this in Luke 18, one, he said, then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. And Jesus not only talked about it, he did it. Mark 1.35, we see now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. Jesus also prayed all night prior to selecting the disciples. Scripture tells us from beginning to end of our need to call out to God in prayer. We're to be in prayer continually. Martin Lloyd-Jones said that there has never been a man or woman of God that has been singularly used of God in this world, but they spent much time in prayer. I don't know if that's true, but I bet that it is. Now, this is a puzzle, isn't it? If God is sovereign, and God knows what we need before we ask, And we know that God will accomplish his will with or without our contribution. Why prayer? Now, if we rely only upon reason, we could easily come to the conclusion that prayer is not necessary. And we could definitely conclude that Jesus certainly had no need to pray. He was God in the flesh, after all. And all that our perfect reasoning would do in this instance is lead us When we're dealing with God, there are things that we do not understand. They don't violate reason, but they transcend reason. They're above that which we can figure out. We often talk about how our reason cannot reconcile the facts of God's sovereignty and a human's responsibility. We talked about that this morning. How can a man be held responsible for responding to God's call on his life when the man is incapable of doing so without God first performing a miracle? How can this be? Well, we don't know, but we do know that scripture clearly tells us that it's true. Okay then, now if God is going to do what God is going to do, how can anything be dependent upon someone praying for it? Again, we don't know, but we know that scripture plainly says it. So how do we think about this? How do we make sense of this? The God who determines the ends also determines the means. I think that's the truth, that if we wrap our heads around, we begin to understand this. The God who determines the ends also determines the means. Part of God deciding what he will do is planning how he will do it. We use the word planning loosely. It's not like God has to come up with anything. He's got it all. He's got it all figured out all the time. But part of God deciding what he will do is planning how he will do it. God determines that some things he will only do as a result of prayer. So he determines that prayer will be in the process of him doing it. Would it happen if someone did not pray for it? No, not if God had determined that prayer would be part of the process, no. Just like would a person come to Christ if we did not present the gospel to him? We like to say, well, yes, of course, God will send someone if he determines to save that person. So, you know, they'll get sent. We'll just miss out on the opportunity to do so. And there's truth in that. But there's another way of looking at that. No, if God determines to save a person by us witnessing to that person at some time and space event, it is an impossibility that this event will not happen. So that person would not be saved if we did not witness to them, but it is impossible that we would not do so. If God has it arranged ahead of time that that is what he's going to do, it's going to happen. So do you see what I mean? There is the theoretical about principles in the Bible. And the theoretical is God does not need us. He does not depend upon our choosing the right option so that his plan works out. We know that for certain. but neither does he do much of what he does apart from our involvement. His will involves people doing things that result in the accomplishing of the things he wants to accomplish. He determines both their obedience and the outcome of their obedience. All the links are connected in God's sovereignty. So, are we to pray only because prayer changes us? No, that is not a biblical concept. No, our scripture here says, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. That is not a psychological statement of the benefit of prayer. That is a statement of the power that accompanies a faithful prayer. Prayer does change things. It doesn't change God's plan. It is what God has planned to do. But He uses prayer and he uses it in the outcome that he intends. And it changes more than just us. It may change our attitude, but that's not the primary benefit. Mike taught over and over that prayer is asking and the answer is receiving. And we can't dodge the fact that there's truth to this. There is a certain kind of asking God that is more than wishful thinking. We ask with a certainty that we are asking the right God for the right thing with the right attitude and we will receive that thing. There is that kind of prayer. Whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him, John says. We can't make light of the scripture just because our prayers may not reflect this truth. We always need to adjust our perceptions of our lives by what truth says, instead of adjusting our perceptions of truth because of what our lives say. Prayer involves us. Prayer involves us in the process of what God intends to do. And it matters. It matters intensely. There is much that God will not do if he has not called people to pray for him. We can't close this logical loop too tightly where we limit what God can or cannot do by how well we cooperate. But we should not conclude that normally if God is going to do something, people are going to be praying for it. Or we should conclude that normally if God is going to do something, people are going to be praying for it. He is going to call people to pray for it. Prayer matters because God has called us to it. Prayer matters because God has called us to it in order to participate in what He is doing and to bring glory to God when He is done. Everyone who prays knows who gets the credit when God does the thing. Those who pray know when prayers are answered. They know who to ascribe it to. and they have been drawn into the very process of thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So without a doubt, prayer does change us, but we cannot limit that effect as being the only or even the primary purpose that God has for it. Ultimately, in this sense, we pray to see God move. that sometimes we cast our cares and anxieties upon Him because He cares for us. Sometimes we cry out, Abba, Father. We land on the line with God. We become transparent with God. We call all of that prayer because we're communicating with God. But the kind of prayer that is asking and receiving may well be what is referred to in Scripture most often as prayer. Okay, let's start again at verse 14. Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Notice the word confidence. Again, we're talking about certainty, certainty. We are talking about assurance. We are to have this confidence. It is assumed, so it must be attainable. Isn't it wonderful that we don't need to go through life like weeds blown by the wind? We can be solid and unmovable in our certainty that God loves us. We can be sure that we are His children. And as His children, we gain the wonderful benefits of His family. John has drilled the signs of life into our heads over and over again. We are meant to have certainty. and we are meant to pray. John shows us here how we can pray with certainty. Now, for us to pray with certainty, there are several conditions. First, we must know that we are in Christ. Second, we must ask according to God's will First, we must know that we're in Christ. Second, we must ask according to God's will. Third, we must believe that Christ hears us in a special preferential way. And fourth, we know God will give us what we ask. We must know that we are in Christ. Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him, 1 John tells us. This is the confidence we have in Him. There's nothing inherently powerful in people praying. Non-believers can ask God to do stuff all day long and it will fall on deaf ears. Jesus said, Luke 13, 24 through 27, says, strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able to. When once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside knocking the door saying, Lord, Lord, open for us, And he will answer and say to you, I don't know you. Where are you from? Then you will begin to say, we ate, drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know you. Where are you from? Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. It's easy to see that prayers, even to the one true God, normally have no effect on God when made by a person who's not his. Now, sometimes God in his grace is calling a person to himself, and he will answer that person in accomplishing that person's salvation. But human beings outside of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ have no reason to expect God to move on their behalf. However, if a person calls out to God in repentance, God will swiftly moved to assure that person's passage into the kingdom, because he created that desire in the first place. The only predictable prayer for a person who does not have a relationship with Christ is to make a prayer asking for God's forgiveness. That's the starting place of a prayer that's sure to be answered. But we're different. 1 John has already spoken of our confidence before God. God's children are different. 1 John 3, 21 and 22 says, beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. This confidence John is speaking of is confidence in God's presence. before him in prayer, pleasing in his sight. Isn't that wonderful? If we're in Christ, prayer is more than a wishful exercise. We can know it is a productive behavior. Then next we must ask according to God's will. Well, what does God tell us about asking according to God's will? What does scripture teach us about effective prayer? Well, first, prayer must be made for the proper motive. James 4.3 says, you ask and you don't receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. When our hearts are aligned with what God wants, we ask for what God wants. What will best aid his kingdom? Sometimes those are things that we need, and that's all well and good. But sometimes what we ask for is basically food for our fleshly, sinful desires. And that's what James is talking about. And in that case, we're not gonna receive what we ask for, because we're not asking according to God's will. We're asking according to our will, and we want God to line up with our will. It's very good for us from time to time to ask, why am I really praying for this? Take the things you pray for and ask, why am I really praying for this? Down deep, with complete self-honesty. Why am I praying for this? Does it really have anything to do with God's benefits? Or am I asking this thing because it would make my life more enjoyable, or less hassle, or easier? It would increase my comfort, decrease my dishonor. There are some things that I ask for that I know would simply make things easier for me. my discomfort. And I can justify it by saying, well, it'll help somebody else that I'm praying for or whatever, but deep down I can't say that this thing is primarily for them. It may not even be something that God wants done, but I sure want Him to do it. And that in itself, when we are just voicing our concerns and our cares to God, that's one thing. And God is very open to our honest communication. He welcomes it, and that's a good thing. But when we start expecting from God as if He needs, if He loves me, He's gonna answer what I'm putting in front of Him. And what we're putting in front of Him is fleshly. That is an extremely dangerous position to be in. But sometimes with these prayers, we need to tell the truth about it and finally say, thy will be done, Lord. Thy will be, I mean, that's how Jesus taught to pray. That's kind of how we circle. Back to, thy will be done. And whatever I'm saying, this is my stance. This is where I stand, thy will be done. I will accept this thing if you never choose to do it. I do not need this thing for me to be happy in you. Ultimately, that's the proper attitude for all prayer. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, just like Jesus said. Just like the angels do it. Anything outside of that attitude is already suspect. The next thing we see about asking according to God's will is we ask in faith. And this, I think, answers some of the questions that we had this morning inside of school. Matthew 21, 22 says, in whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. James 1, 5 through 8 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Okay, what does it mean to ask in faith? This is the million dollar question. What does it mean to ask in faith? How you answer that question will determine a great deal about how you will pray. To ask in faith is first to have placed faith in the God that you are praying to. You start by being in Christ as opposed to being outside of him. And then it means living by faith in that relationship with Christ. We live from faith to faith, it's all about faith. And we're looking to this God that we're praying to in the proper relationship where we fully trust him to look out for our best interest and to deliver on every one of his promises for our good. Then to ask in faith is to ask as it were from inside that relationship. We are asking for those things that he has revealed are in his will for us to have. So we fully expect that he will give us those things. We fully expect him to deliver those things to us. We ask by faith. The unstable man in James is coming from not one position but two, and that's the problem with that prayer. Both flesh and spirit are ruling in this man's life, intermittently. So he asks one day for things of Christ and the next day according to the lust of the flesh. One day he believes that what Christ has for him is the ultimate fulfillment and he is trusting in that. The next day he wants God to bless an alternative path of fulfillment. And that man isn't gonna get either of the things that he asks until he surrenders. Do you ever have a time in your life where you didn't seem to grow much? Look for double-mindedness. Look for living for two things instead of one thing. Now I wanted to add this in because I think it's helpful. There's a lot of confusion about asking in faith. This also pertains to our next topic as well, of asking in Jesus' name. So now there are three ways that people typically understand this prayer of faith that Jesus talked about. The first view says that the trick in getting what you ask for involves convincing yourself beyond a shadow of a doubt that the thing you are asking for you will receive. They focus on James where it says you must not doubt. They take that to assume that you must not doubt that you will receive the thing you are asking for. So the trick in getting what you want is to name it and to claim it. If you can trick yourself into having absolute certainty that you will get it, then wallah, God is impressed by your blind belief, and you will have it. While this is often a sincerely held belief, it is patently not biblical, and it sets up people to be suckers and to have their faith imploded. This is not what the God of Heavens responds to, and that is not faith. That is not faith in God. That is faith in your own ability for self-deception. It is faith in faith. That is not what is meant by the prayer of faith. Then the second point of view of praying by faith relies upon divine guidance. I believe this is exactly what James speaks of when he speaks of the prayer for healing. I don't know how else to explain it. For this to happen, God must divinely reveal to you by the Holy Spirit that not only should you pray for a certain thing, but that you should believe the result as a direct promise from God to you. This involves your perceptions. I am not comfortable with this because there's no way that it can be verified. but God seems extremely comfortable with it. So it doesn't really matter what I feel about it. It doesn't really matter what box I would particularly like to put God in right here. Can't do it. God surely does this. I've heard lots of testimonies about healings or prayers for a person's salvation where God led that person to pray for that certain thing and conveyed to that person that it was going to happen And they prayed sometimes for years, believing in the promise that they had received from God directly and mystically. And then God did it. We can't create a formula for when and where God will do such a thing, but he does. And if you read the book of Acts, you're gonna see God's divine guidance given in supernatural ways that don't fit our categories very well. But that, I think, is the prayer of faith that was given for healing in the book of James, where if a person could pray that in faith, it was going to happen. But not everyone we pray for to be healed like we do every Sunday morning. We are praying that prayer of faith because we have not been given that inside information that that person will be healed. And then the third view of praying by faith relies upon reading God's word to discern God's will. And I think this is far and away the most common prayer of faith. This is where we pray the promises of God and claim them for ourselves. This is great because the promises were made to us. This is fitting, this is where we pray the Psalms like our brother Sisler taught us at church camp two years ago. We should read to discover what the will of God is that scripture reveals, and then we should pray according to it. That's a prayer of faith we can pray every day, and we should. I hope that's helpful in clarifying some things, especially of things like healing, especially of things like praying for someone's salvation. Okay, and one more thing about asking according to God's will. We are to ask in the name of Christ. John 14, 13 through 14 says this. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. John 15, 16 says, 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 the Father in my name, he may give you." We can't separate this from our understanding of God's promises regarding prayer. Now, there are a lot of charlatans out there who regard the name of Jesus as some kind of magic chant that makes God do what they want him to do. It's as if you stamp the name of Jesus to get something, like you would stamp a diplomatic immunity stamp on something that goes through customs, it's going to have the effect that you desire. But that isn't it at all. Something in Jesus' name is really in Jesus' stead. It's something he wholeheartedly endorses and stands behind, with or without you, but you have aligned yourself with his wishes and his desires. Your will has been aligned with His will, not the other way around. You're not trying to trick God into giving you something because now His hands are tied because you said the magic Jesus word. Not at all. You are displaying that you have died to your will, and now the name and desires of Christ have taken first place in your life. That is praying in Jesus' name. And at the end of the day, that is the only way you are heard by Christ. John 14.6 says, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We usually interpret this to mean salvation, and that is surely true. But it's also true of communication as well. It is only in Jesus' name that we ever get to communicate with God. OK, now back to our list. For us to pray with certainty, there are several conditions. We must know that we are in Christ, we must We covered these two this week, and in interest of time, we're gonna cover the next two next week, Lord willing. The third is we must believe that Christ hears us in a preferential way, and we know that God will give us what we ask. I hope that we've been challenged to pray this week. Imagine that Christ were to call you on your phone. Imagine if Christ were to call you on your phone and he were to tell you that he wants you involved in several projects that he wants to do in your world. Some are little, some are big. Some he'll do quickly, some might take more than your lifetime. But he wants you in on it. He wants you involved. And suppose he were to say he wants you in on this because he loves you. He wants you in on this because He wants your life to be meaningful. He wants you to have purpose. He wants you to grant to you the fulfillment of seeing Him work firsthand in your life and in others. Suppose He were to make that call to you. Would you respond by saying, I'm sorry, Lord, I have too much stuff to do to do that. Or, Lord, it would be hard to set aside time to do that. Or would we say, Lord, how do you expect me to do that with all the other stuff I have to do and want to do? You see the point? Scripture's calling us to prayer is exactly what I described earlier. Christ is calling us to be involved in what He is doing. And He is calling us to be involved as His friends, because He's revealing to us what He wants to do through His word, like He said to His disciples. Not treating you like slaves, but treating you like friends. Do you want your life to count? Do you want your minutes to matter forever? Do you want to invest them, trade them in on long-lasting reward? If we really believe that the Bible is true, here sits opportunity this morning. If we were to do nothing but pray, We'd be doing an amazingly eternal effective thing. An eternally effective thing. Does that not sound like opportunity to you? Well, we'll probably have another week to show exactly what we believe about. Let's see how we do. Let's close in prayer. Lord, we come to you and we're thankful. You invite us to share in what you are doing in this world. You invite us to join with you, to be involved, to be even used in the process of it coming to be by playing the part that you appoint us to play. Help us to see this for what it is. Help us to see how important a role that you have granted to us as a privilege to be in on what you are doing on planet Earth. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, this week to see prayer as you see it. Help us to see it as an opportunity to foster that which you are going to do. And help us to see it rightly, so we play our part in the way that it should be laid out. Move us, change us, make us more and more people of prayer. We ask this in Jesus' name.