1 John 5:13-15 Pentecost 19
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace-Tucson, AZ
October 16, 2022
Don’t you hate it when you don’t know what’s going to happen or how things are going to turn out? I mean, suspense is okay if you’re watching a movie, but who wants that kind of drama in their own life? How many of us as we went through school—or maybe you’re in school right now— how many of us really enjoyed having to wait for the teacher to correct the tests so we could see what we got? Whether we thought we did great and wanted to confirm our “A” or whether we waited in dread, fearing the worst, the waiting wasn’t always easy. Do you like having a medical test and then having to wait a week or two to find out whether you have cancer or not? Or what about the girl waiting, waiting, waiting to see if he’ll ever pop the question? Do you like not knowing if you’ll have enough money to cover the bills? Are you comfortable sitting there wondering day after day, “Am I doing the right thing?” Maybe you have found what many Christians have found in these types of situations— we pray a lot! Many of our prayers are offered in times of uncertainty. We don’t like sitting around wondering; we would like to know for sure what is going on. And as we pray and pray and wait and wait, we can even begin to wonder if God is hearing us. Or are my concerns so minor to the Almighty God that they don’t even appear on his radar? If he does hear me, what is taking him so long? Maybe this prayer thing is overrated. Have you been there before? The Apostle John speaks to us today about some things that are certain, things that you can trust, that you can rely upon—sure things. In case there is any question in our minds, any doubt at all, we are given this assurance about God and our prayers: YES, HE IS LISTENING 1. Because you are his child 2. Because you ask according to God’s will 3. Because he wants to answer you The Apostle John wrote this letter to Christians in about 100 AD, but we are also included when John writes: I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. The purpose for his writing is clear: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. God had John write these things so that we can have confidence! He doesn’t want you to be uncertain about whether you will be in heaven one day! So, if someone asks you “If
you died today, would you be in heaven? the answer is not “I don’t know” or “I hope so!” God has given us the Bible, which proclaims that salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ—his perfect life, his death on the cross as payment for sin, and his resurrection from the dead on Easter morning. God tells us this in his Word so that we can KNOW that we will be in heaven one day! What a relief that is because if my eternal salvation hinged on whether I’ve been good enough or done more good things than bad things or something like that, then there would be uncertainty! Then I would be sitting here waiting to find out the test results— did I pass God’s test?! What a relief! There is no uncertainty! We know that we have eternal life by believing in Jesus. So, what does this have to do with prayer. Well, it means that since God has given you faith in his Son, you are part of God’s family. You are a righteous child of God—that’s what he has made you and that’s how he sees you. To you, he gives the privilege of talking to him. God is actually listening when you pray. John wasn’t the only one who shared this truth with God’s people. Peter did too, he wrote this: For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their requests. And he was really quoting King David, who wrote to people centuries before (Psalm 34:15-16). God’s people have God’s ear. This has always been, and it is the case with you too— 24/7 access to God! There is nothing uncertain about this. YES, HE IS LISTENING! He is listening because you are his child. When you pray, when you come before the Almighty God of heaven and earth, the one who came to save you from eternal death and who gave you faith in Jesus, how do you think you ought to come? Well, if you were coming before a president or queen, how would you come? Respectfully and with humility. This is that on steroids! Yes, God wants us to come to him; he urges us to come to him. We can go to him anytime and anywhere. We pray with complete confidence that HE IS LISTENING because we are his children…BUT we ALWAYS pray respectfully and humbly “according to his will.” That means that we may really want the thing we are asking for, and we may pray for it constantly—with the persistence of the widow who went before the judge in our Gospel lesson or Jacob, who wrestled with God and pushed for an answer—but finally we are willing to accept whatever answer God says is best. Maybe you know about how the Apostle Paul prayed to God to take away some extremely difficult thing he had in his life. We don’t know what that was, but it wasn’t good. Paul called it a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me (2 Corinthians 12:7). He prayed, but he bowed to the will of God and accepted a “no” answer from him. Paul was actually able then to rejoice over God’s answer and actually boast about his difficult situation in a way that honored Christ and showed that despite that bad thing, Christ was the strength in his life! It was God’s will, so Paul accepted it.
John promises us: This is the confidence we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. YES, HE IS LISTENING because you ask according to his will! When we love God and trust him with our lives and our very souls, we will pray like Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. You think you have things on your mind and stuff going on in your life! You think you have drama and hardship and problems? Jesus was hours away from what he knew was coming— bearing the pressure and suffering of the entire world’s sin and having his Father turn away from him as he hung there dying on a cross. But listen to his prayer: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26:39).” Let me share two things about that. Certainly, we should see in Jesus the example of how to pray according to God’s will—that’s the first thing. Jesus did it perfectly and under a crushing burden that we will, thankfully, never know. And that’s the second thing—his perfectly doing that paid the price for our imperfections when it comes to prayer. In Jesus’ perfection we find forgiveness for the times we don’t take our concerns and requests to God at all, for the times we are not persistent in our prayers, for the times we blame God for not caring, not listening, not being there, and for the times we pray according to our will and not God’s. Jesus did perfectly what we have such a hard time doing, and when he offered up his perfection and shed his blood, it was to take away all our wrongdoing when it comes to prayer…and everything else. According to his loving will, he did that for us. Since he was willing to do that, don’t you think that it is his will do whatever is best for us in this life? The respectful and humble Christian trusts that HE IS LISTENING and that he will do what is best for us. There is still another reason you can be confident that HE IS LISTENING: because he wants to answer you! He assures us—And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we also know that we receive the things we have asked from him. We have a loving God who is there, listening and giving us what we ask for! “Really? Okay, I ask for $5,000,000 then!” Whoa, hold on! God is not some storybook genie, there to grant my every wish. I don’t get to boss God around and make him do MY will! I don’t get to impose my will on God just by saying a prayer! “Well, if that’s not what it means…just what does it mean?” Let’s think for a minute about what John explains here. When a child of God goes to him in prayer and asks for something according to the Lord’s will, they know that they have what they ask for. So, if YOU ask for something from God, according to his will, YOU have what you ask for. “But my friend died after battling cancer—that’s not what I asked for.” “We ended up losing our house—that’s not what I asked for.” “My child is still making horrible decisions—that’s not what I asked for.” “My team lost—that’s not what I asked for.” “My classes aren’t going so well—that’s not what I asked for.” “Is this promise right?
Listen again. If you ask for something from God—according to his will—you have what you ask for. When a respectful, humble Christian prays, they are saying that they are willing to accept whatever answer God gives. God could say “Yes.” He could say “No.” He could say “Not right now.” He could even say “How about something better.” A Christian—who is praying according to God’s will—says, “I will accept whatever your answer is, God.” And if I’m saying that, then I am getting exactly what I am asking for! I may or may not get the “thing,” but I do have what I have asked from him—I have his will done in my life. Is God listening? Intently. Is he doing anything? Absolutely. He is, in fact, doing exactly what you asked, AND he is doing exactly what he knows is best for you! What more could you and I possibly want? God wants to answer you and he does answer you. How wonderful is that?! Should God listen to us and do the exact things that we ask for no matter what? We sometimes think so—maybe often! We’re sometimes so bold as to charge God with unfairness if he doesn’t. We’ll claim that he must not really be powerful or loving or even paying attention to us if he doesn’t do exactly what we want when we want it. But try applying that reason to your life, and you’ll see how ridiculous that is. If you’re a kid, do you think your parents should do everything you think is a good idea? What if you wanted to have a campout in your living room? Mom and Dad say it’s okay, so you set up blankets as tents, roll out sleeping bags and then you go out to the backyard and grab some wood so you can start a campfire on the living room carpet because every campout has to have a campfire! They wouldn’t let you do that because that part would not be according to the will of a loving and protective parent! So, we are familiar with this concept that God talks about when it comes to prayer. A child sometimes doesn’t understand, sometimes doesn’t think everything through, sometimes just doesn’t know any better, and sometimes even gets angry at mom or dad for not letting them have exactly what they want. You and I really are children of God, aren’t we?! As God’s children, we find comfort in knowing that we will receive just what we ask for—whether that comes in the form of the exact thing we’re asking about or in an answer that is different but is according to God’s loving will for us—which is also what we asked for! God wants to answer us and he does. You and I don’t see what God sees, and we don’t know what God knows, so we pray. We pray with the confidence that HE IS LISTENING because we are his children. We pray with the certainty that HE IS LISTENING because we ask according to his will. We pray with the assurance that HE IS LISTENING because he wants to answer us. There is nothing uncertain about this. It is a sure thing. God promises. Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.