3. Prayers of Asking

Introduction

Welcome back to your weekly dose of…taking a deep breathe and...slowing down. Not that anything else in our lives really slows down but when we are focusing on topics like “How we Pray”, it is good to be intentional about hitting the pause button to consider how we engage with this.

So in this series we are trying something different. We are really looking at How we PRAY from a more practical position. Instead of it just being something that we do because we feel we ought to, we are trying to unpack it in a way that illuminates what is there waiting for us when we Pray. How our God who gave us the gift of prayer desires to draw us in to pray because He wants us to have something, something of Himself .

And so we took the word P.R.A.Y. and broke it down to help us have an idea of what is waiting for us there.

The first week we looked at the letter P for Praise. This is a great place to start because it is a reminder not only of what God has done in the past for us, but also it reminds us of what He is capable of doing for us right now and in the future. Since our God both “is” and “does” it can help to think on both his Attributes and his Actions when we Praise Him.

Then last week, the letter R led us to consider what it means to Repent. To confess our sins to God in order to restore a right relationship with Him so that we can hear His voice and be empowered to walk in His ways and according to His will. From 1 John 1 we leaned how we cannot walk in darkness and still hope to maintain connection with our God who is light.

And our engagement in those two aspects of prayer work together well to prepare us for the this third part, which is often what we first think of when we think about praying. The “A” stands for the “Ask”.

Just like when we hear someone say “On your marks, get set, go!” or “Ready, Aim…Fire”, there is wisdom in spending some time in preparation and readiness for any thing that is powerful or impactful or meaningful. So on our way to the Ask it seems fitting to consider these other two aspects of pray.

To Praise. Repent…and then Ask.

Tension

But I wonder if that isn’t the question that we need to answer first and foremost. Do we even “ask” expecting or anticipating something powerful, impactful or meaningful to happen?

It used to be that we Christians universally believed in something called Divine Providence. This doctrine holds that God cares for and directs all things in the universe with His unlimited wisdom and unfailing love. This means that God is sovereign over all things.

He is sovereign over the universe as a whole

Psalm 103:19 (ESV) 19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

He is sovereign over the physical world (even the weather)

Matthew 5:44–45 (ESV) 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

He is sovereign over the affairs of nations and governments

Psalm 47:8 (ESV) 8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.

He is sovereign over human destiny (The Apostle Paul said...

Galatians 1:15 (ESV) 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

He is sovereign over human successes and failures (Luke 1:52),

Luke 1:52 (ESV) 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;

He is sovereign over and the protection of His people (Psalm 4:8).

Psalm 4:8 (ESV) 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

And this used to be a Christian doctrine that every Christian understood and they interpreted everything they saw and did - even prayer - through the lens of God’s sovereignty. And when you understand this to be true then it makes perfect sense to “Ask” something of a God like this.

Enlightenment

But a while back the Western World became so called “Enlightened”. Leading thinkers like Immanuel Kant and David Hume introduced something we now call the “Enlightenment” where they divided everything that we experienced into two realms.

They called it the realm of FEELINGS and the realm of FACTS.

Feelings were deemed as personal and private and included things like love, art, beauty, spirituality, religion, morality, myths and good stories.

Facts on the other hard were considered public and they were things like science, computers, history, carburetors, physical material, textbooks, trees and math.

Author Nancy Pearcey summarized the split between these two realms well when she said ...

“The upper story became the realm of socially constructed values while the lower story became the realm of publicly verifiable facts” - Nancy Pearcey Total Truth

Hopefully this is beginning to sound vaguely familiar to you, because this is a worldview that we have discussed many times before. It is the worldview that we call “secularism” and it is the dominant worldview in our world today.

And the reason that it is so dangerous is because it doesn’t out right reject the idea of things like spirituality, religion or prayer…it just relegates them to one’s “private or personal” life.

So if it makes YOU “feel” good to pray, then go for it but don’t take it too seriously and certainly don’t expect it to change anything in the real world, the “Fact-filled” world that the rest of us live in. Since prayer is in that upper realm, all it has the power to do is to make you personally “feel” better about something.

Worldly Secularism vs. Divine Providence

This “Secularism” stands in direct opposition to the “Divine Providence” that the Bible teaches. Where secularism tells us that prayer just helps you “feel” better about something, Divine Providence says that prayer moves the divine to provide for us. In short, it moves the heart and hands of God.

The big idea here is that at the heart of every “Ask” is the recognition of the ability to provide what was asked for. When it is a true “Ask” then it is done trusting that the one that we are asking has the power to do what are asking. Otherwise it isn’t a real ask.

And this is an important distinction, especially in light of verses like James 1:6-8 where it says...

James 1:6–8 (ESV)

6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

That person is not really asking, because they don’t have faith that God can do what they are asking. Maybe they are just trying to “feel” better about something.

And what I love about tackling this topic on this day is how it connects with the role of Fathers. I would like to take credit for coordinating this, but I am just not that good. It turns out that when we look at the Lord’s Prayer from the Gospel of Luke, we find that Jesus uses the example of Fathers to help us understand how we are to “Ask”.

So open your Bibles up with me to Luke chapter 11 and we will look at the “Ask” as Jesus taught it to us there. It’s on page 869 in the Bibles in the chairs. While you are turning there, I will pray.

Truth

So Luke 11 begins by saying...

Luke 11:1–13 (ESV)

1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

You might remember from last week that Jesus was always going off by himself to pray. In his human form, He was so dependent on regular fellowship with God the Father that He was drawn to spend focused time with Him in Prayer.

It was after observing how dedecated Jesus was to His prayer life that the Disciples asked Him to do what we are trying to learn how to do. Teach us to pray!

It appeared that John the Baptist taught his disciples and so they too wanted to learn from their Rabbi how to do what He was doing. This was a typical desire for every disciple, to learn and become like their Rabbi. What an opportunity we have, as modern day Disciples of Jesus, to learn from Jesus how to pray.

Luke 11:2-4 (ESV)2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Again we find another record of what we know as “The Lord’s Prayer”, this time from the Gospel of Luke. If you were here last week you remember how our four prayer prompts line up with the words of this prayer well. You can see here in these words instructions on how to PRAISE, REPENT, ASK and YIELD in how Jesus taught us to pray.

And this would be a good week to look at how and why Jesus taught us to pray to God as “Father”.

God The Father

The idea of referring to God as Father doesn’t even phase us today, but when Jesus taught His first disciples to pray He was introducing them to a new and somewhat remarkable concept.

Before this point, references to God as Father were very rare. Throughout the Old Testament the few times when God is called Father are not in reference to God as Divine creator, or “Father of all Life” like so many of the pagan religions in that day would have taught of “a god”.

Instead it was in reference to the special relationship that God had with his chosen people, the Israelites. (Isaiah 63:16-17, 64:8-9) Not the Father of all living things, but the Father of the children of Isreal.

This is why the Jewish Leaders got so upset when Jesus started referred to God as “My Father” because it indicated that He had a relationship with God that was unlike the rest of the Jewish people.

John tells us that this was happening early in Jesus’ ministry when He was accused of violating the Sabbath Laws. John explains in chapter 5 verse 18:

John 5:18 (ESV)

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

This enraged the Jewish Leaders and it got the attention of Jesus’ Disciples too. And then Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Father...” or “Our Father...” which meant that the followers of Jesus would now have this special relationship with God...not through their Jewish heritage as before...but through their relationship with Jesus.

Here we find the Greek word for Father as πατήρ (puh-tare) but you might have been taught the Aramaic version of the same word which was ABBA. It meant the same things just from two different languages.

What is important to remember was that in the Patriarchal society of the New Testament this reference would not just have been about who was in your family, but who was leading your family. The word “Father” conveyed one who had the power, authority, and responsibility to lovingly care for everyone in household, family or tribe.

So when Jesus said to refer to God as “Our Father in Heaven” it was a recognition that He has the power and authority to meet our needs down here on earth. We can PRAY with a true “ASK” because our God not only can do what we ask, as every loving Father does...He desires to do so.

Mixed Emotions of Father’s Day

I know that there can be a mix of emotions in any given crowd when it comes to the idea of Fatherhood.

Did you know that the idea for “Father’s Day” was birth by someone who was sitting right where you are? Well, not here in Wisconsin but Sanora Smart Dodd was sitting in her Church in Spokane Washington in 1909 when the idea hit her.

It was Mother’s day and her Pastor had just given a lovely message honoring Mothers. Well Sanora’s Mother had died when she was very young and her Father raised her and her 5 siblings all by himself. So she thought it might be nice to honor Fathers like hers as well. After the Church service she went up the Pastor to suggest it and the Pastor met with other Pastors on it and so on until finally after the idea had become cold and hot many different times it finally became a national holiday in 1972. (61 years later)

What started as a grateful daughter's desire to honor her hardworking and devoted dad has now become a tradition celebrated not only across the U.S. but also many other countries worldwide. A day when we all take a moment to express our love and gratitude for the men who lovingly helped raise us.

And that is what Father’s Day is for many if not most of us,…but not all of us. In fact our society right now is riddled with the negative effects of absentee and or abusive Fathers. And I know some of you have had that experience. Dad either wasn’t there, or you often wished He wasn’t because he was not being the kind of Dad that God intended for Him to be. I have talked to some who live with such wounds from their Father that they really struggle to address God as “Father” because it doesn’t bring to their minds what the title of “Father” is supposed to represent.

But hear me Church…Our heavenly Father is the perfect Father. We can “Ask” Him for anything and He will not reject us or harm us in any way. He promises to hear us because He is not far off and He will not abandon us. If your relationship with your earthly Father caused you to pull back from asking Him for anything, know that God is always ready to hear our “ASK”. In fact He invites us to ask! Moving down to verse 9 we read...

Luke 11:9-10

9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

We have an open invitation to “ASK”, but we need to be careful to not misunderstand what God is inviting us into here. God is not offering to be our vending machine, genie in a bottle or writer of a blank check. The Creator and Sustainer of everyone and everything in our world, the one who made it all and keeps it all going is not offering us the keys to the universe as if to say,

“Here, why don’t you take ‘er for a spin”. He loves us too much to put us in that kind of position. We don’t have the capacity to see or understand the consequences, collateral damage or long term impact of even one of our “Asks”…but He can.

What the one who holds those keys is saying is “When you need something, come to Me and I will give you what you really need”. Because implied in our asking is both the recognition that God has the authority to do whatever we have asked and that we know that He will give us an answer.

God Always Answers

That answer may be “Yes!” or it may be “No” or it may be “Not Yet” but we will be heard and answered. We will not be ignored, pushed away or punished for Asking, God wants us to Ask it shows our trust in his ability to answer…but then we need to accept His answer.

Ultimately what He is promising, is to treat you like a loving Father would treat his children. As Fathers, we may desire to give our children what they ask for, but we also know that everything they ask for isn’t good for them. We have the responsibility to protect them from anything they ask for that we know will somehow harm them or hinder them from growing into the kind of young man or young woman that God designed them to become.

Dad’s, this a right reflection of how our Heavenly Father answers our “Ask”.

And we know this because in the very next verse we read...

11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Father’s desire to give good gifts to their children, but God the Father has given us the greatest gift - access to Himself through the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 shows us how God protects us from “Asks” that won’t end up being the good things that we think they will be. It says in verse 26...

Romans 8:26 (ESV)

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

When we PRAY, the Holy Spirit works through us to bridge the gap between God’s perfect holiness and the unintended consequences of our “Asks”.

More than that, it is the Holy Spirit who helps us make the best use of any “Yes” response, understand or just accept the “No’s” and to be patient in the “Not Yet’s”.

What we have to know is that our Heavenly Fathers will and ways are always better than ours. He can see a bigger picture, a fuller picture, an eternal picture and although we might not always get the answer that we want, the love of God will always give us the answer that we need.

Gospel Application

Never was this more true than when Jesus PRAYED in the garden before his death. Never was there more at stake. In Jesus’ prayer we find the biggest “ASK” that has ever been “ASKED”. An “Ask” that if not answered correctly would have changed the entire course of human history for all eternity. All of that from in one simple “ASK”...

Mark 14:36 (ESV)

36 And he [Jesus] said, “Abba, Father, [just like he taught his disciples]

all things are possible for you.[Jesus came in faith that God could do anything… and what did He ask?]

Remove this cup from me. Do you hear what Jesus was asking! Jesus knew what it would mean to go to the cross the next day and in his humanness, he did not want to hove to go through with it.

He knew the pain that He would endure. He knew that his body would be torn open, that people would scorn and mock Him that He would be dangling from large spikes gasping for bits of air in unimaginable exhaustion and excruciating pain and so He drew near to the Father with this “Ask”.

But God the Father knew the consequences of this “Ask”. He knew what it would mean for us, that this was our only hope of being saved. So God the Father painfully and lovingly said “No” to saving his Son in order to say “Yes” to saving us.

Jesus knew that this was His mission. This was why He was sent. And so it seems to me that even though He knew the answer, there was something that just drew Jesus closer to the Father because he “Asked”.

As always, Jesus is our example both in how we “Ask” and in his next response. For He closed his prayer with

Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

In Jesus’ final prayer before the cross we have the greatest ask, and the greatest Yield…which is what we will talk about next week.

As we have in the previous weeks in this series I am going to lead us out into a prayer time. I did print a passage on the back of your notes page to look at, but this week I will begin our prayer time by praying the words of this passage and then lead us through a series of “Asks”. I will pause for just a moment after each one and that is an invitation for you to pray into what ever God brings to mind in that area.

So with that in mind, lets pray together...

Landing

Prayer time…

Colossians 1:9–14 (ESV)

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.