Praying with Confidence

1st John Sermon Series

GETTING BACK TO THE BASICS

Part 16

Praying with Confidence

Scripture: 1 John 5:13-21

Intro

We have been on a long journey through the Book of 1st John. And through the journey we have had some remarkable revelations about God and our faith. In the last couple months, we have studied the Word of God through the Letter that the Apostle John has written to the church and today we are ending our journey through First John.

If you have your Bible with you and I hope that you do. Open it with me to the book of 1st John chapter 5.

If you are unfamiliar with 1st John just go to the last book in the Bible and work your way forward five books- Revelation- Jude- 3-2-1 John.

As you know, some difficulties spurred up in the 1st-century church, and I wish I could say that these letters squashed those problems. Yet it is obvious today that we find similar issues within churches all across America today and even the world.

As you might remember, there were a group of people who were going against what was being taught by the Apostles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. John called them liars, non-believers, and Antichrists – today, they are termed as Gnostics and we know through our study that they believed that Jesus did not come in the flesh because anything physical was evil, which led them to believe that Jesus was a spirit rather than a man. We have forms of Gnosticism in our world today through world religions.

We are aware of the falsehood behind such claims- but none the less in John's days, these people were creating problems within the Church.

The apostle John wrote to the believers in Asia Minor to set the record straight and taught that they had specific knowledge of Christ, but he also taught about the personhood of Jesus and the salvation that came from Christ. He was vitally concerned that his "little children," where to know several things as they had come to faith in Jesus as the Son of God. John then reveals what believers should know based on their faith and teachings of the Apostles.

1) We can know that we know God (2:3, 13, 14; 4:7).

2) We can know that we are in God (2:5).

3) We can know that it is the last hour (2:18).

4) We can know the Spirit of truth (2:21; 3:19).

5) We can know that Jesus is righteous (2:29).

6) We can know that we will be like Jesus (3:2).

7) We can know Jesus came as a man to take away the sins of mankind (3:5).

8) We can know that Jesus is sinless (3:5).

9) We can know that we have passed out of death into life (3:14).

10) We can know the love of the Son and the Father (3:16; 4:16).

11) We can know that God abides in us (3:24; 4:13).

12) We can know the Spirit of God (4:2).

13) We can know the discernment between the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error (4:6).

14) We can know that we love God's children (5:2)

15) We can know that we have eternal life (5:13).

Last week we said that we know that Jesus is the Son of God because of the testimony from heaven and earth.

John wants to remind us as children of God to know our faith is in a real God, who came to earth as a real person, as the Son of God, and that He brought eternal life to us and that if we believe in Him as our Savior, we possess this priceless gift of eternal life. We can have confidence when it comes to our faith because WE KNOW IT TO BE TRUE.

Well, If you are there in the 5th chapter of 1 John, let's begin reading from the 13th verse. This is the Word of God and it begins like this:

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps 7 himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”

WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR TAKE-HOME TRUTH TODAY:

THE TAKE HOME TRUTH IS:

IF WE ARE CONFIDENT IN GOD'S WILL, WE ARE CONFIDENT IN PRAYER.

Folks' prayer is the heart and soul of every successful relationship with God.

John has repeatedly given us these snippets of the truths about God and His Son, which should provide us with the confidence to live our lives of faith knowing that God is always right here for us, and He has His and our best interest in His heart.

Faith is about knowing that God's will prevails over the world's evilness and our lives. Not just when we gather as the Church, not just when we speak of the assurance that testimonies give us, but also in prayer.

Here in our scripture today, John speaks about the confidence we are to have in our prayer to God and he reinforces it with his closing remarks of what we know about us and God.

We can come before God with great confidence knowing that he hears us. We can do so because we know that our God wants the best for us. We can trust His Word, we trust His character.

That word 'confidence' in this context means freedom of speech. It means; we can come before our heavenly Father freely and tell Him our needs, wants, and desires. John mentions a specific condition that must be met about those prayers. Our prayers must be in line with His will and purposes for us (v 14).

You see, prayer is not a blank check in which you put your name, and your request is cash in. Yet, we can boldly ask God to provide for us our daily bread because Jesus tells us to pray for it (Matthew 6:11).

John puts this condition in so that we understand not to waste time and energy praying for things that are not God's will.

God speaks through His Word, and He tells us there are things that we should be praying about and things that we cannot pray for. We cannot pray about doing something, which is sinful and not in God's will. And that is John's point.

So how can we be assured to pray in such a manner that God answers?

Our text today explains four steps that John gives us to be confident praying in God's will.

The First step to be confident prayer is:

WE ARE TO SUBMIT TO GOD

Look back at verse 13 with me:

"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

You might be thinking that this is obvious, but it is not. Because if it was so obvious, why would John spend so much time telling us about our salvation? He mentions it six times in this letter. John's heart of the letter is that he wants the people to know, and to be confident in salvation, God, and living a new spiritual life.

John writes about this throughout this letter is for those who know the name of Jesus Christ to receive eternal life.

We know that this is God's will, that people become a followers, disciples, believers of His one and only Son Jesus Christ. And the only way that you can do that is to submit to Him, yield yourself, and give yourself to God. To profess the name of Jesus is one thing, but for you to yield, to consume it into your heart is another.

The Bible Says in Ephesians 2-8

"For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing, and it is the gift from God."

The Bible goes on to challenge people in James 2:19

"You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror".

Some people have professed Jesus as their Savior, but refuse to submit to Christ, they don't yield their lives to Him they are not devoted to Him. Yet they cry out for God to intervene. But the key of knowing God's will is to submit to Him.

Here is a Biblical illustration of this: it comes from the book of Matthew chapter 7:21 Jesus said these words:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away [depart] from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23)

In this story, Jesus speaks of people who knew the name and works of Jesus, but their salvation was in their works, in what they were doing rather than who they were.

Let me explain further- These people Jesus never knew were doing many things in Jesus' Name. They said they prophesied, drove out demons, and even performed many miracles. Yet they were not doing the will of the Father! Jesus calls them evildoers.

How is that? They knew Jesus, they did the work that Jesus did in His ministry.

He doesn't know them because they are not within the will of God- Jesus said in John 6:28, "This is the work of God that you believe in the One He has sent"

If you want answered prayers, then give your heart in submission to Jesus, which is God's will. And folks, it's not just submitting to God for salvation, but through prayer- what I have learned is this: we take care of what we treasure the most.

To be confident in prayer, we must first submit to God.

The second step of being confident in prayer is that:

WE MUST ENTER INTO HIS PRESENCE.

Notice with me the first part of verse 14

"Now this is the confidence we have in Him."

Look at those words “We have in Him”Having or being in the presence of God. We are to come before the creator, before Him who is seated at His throne.

First lets recognize that prayer is not just mumbling through a list or repeating some formula. Prayer or the lack of it is not a time issue. It is a priority issue.

Prayer is coming before the living God, humbling ourselves in His presence. Our souls thrive not for our own accomplishments, but through simply being with God. If we have not come before God, we haven't prayed.

I think that what would help us in this situation is remembering what it took for us to be able to be in presence of God.

In the Old Covenant, God was in the section of the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. This was the inner part of the sanctuary where Gods presence was.

A thick, embroidered veil separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies inside the tent of meetings. Regular priests were allowed in the outer holy place, but the Holy of Holies could be entered only by the high priest on the annual Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur.

On that day, the high priest would bathe, then put on the clean linen garments of the priest. His robe had solid gold bells hanging from the hem. The noise of the bells told the people he was making atonement for their sins. He entered the inner sanctuary with burning incense, which would produce thick smoke, hiding the mercy seat on which God's presence was on. Anyone who saw God would die instantly.

The high priest would then sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the atonement cover of the ark to make amends for his and the people's sins.

With the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, the new covenant was established. When Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, signifying that the barrier between God and His people who had been taken away.

On Jesus' death, the Holy of Holies, or God's throne in heaven, became accessible to every believer. It took the death of God's Son so that we may approach God confidently, not on our merit, but through the righteousness credited to us by the blood of Christ, which makes us righteous before the Holy God.

Jesus atoned, once and for all, for humanity's sins, and at the same time became our high priest, acting on our behalf before His Father.

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:14-16, "since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens — Jesus the Son of God — let us hold fast to the confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time."

We must understand the most that it is a privilege to approach God's presence in prayer and not a right. Listen non-believers, and those who just know the name of Jesus cannot be in the presence of the Father.

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God"

Psalm 84:1-2 "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord all mighty"

We must be in the presence of the Father.

To be confident in prayer, we must first submit to God. Second, we must enter into His presence.

The Third step in being confident in prayer is: TO ASK.

Verse 14b-15 "if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."

I believe that John is taking what Jesus taught him so many years before in John 14:13 and applying it here. "whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

Let me just say that the Father cannot be glorified in something that is not of His will.n

Now I believe that there are many things that we don't either know or understand about prayer. But John makes it clear that God won't even entertain something that is outside of His will. But the one thing that is crystal clear is the phrase "according to His will" This is undoubtedly the key to answered prayer.

To pray in the will of God, we must discern the will of God. Dr David Allen, Dean of the School of Preaching at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, said, "it is one thing to do God's will, but we need to discern God's will in our lives. Many people, Dr. Allen said, think discerning the will of God is one of the most challenging things to do. But God has given us two great helps.

The first is scripture, and the second is the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Bible tells us a lot about the will of God. It tells us of the do’es and the don'ts of God. We pray for things that we already have the answer for right here in the Word of God. There are things that we can read and know that this is what God wants us to do.

The Holy Spirit then guides us when we don't have the answer.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:26, "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."

James, the brother of Jesus, points out in James 4:2-3: "You do not have because you do not ask. "You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures." To ask in God's will is to pray according to what God wants, rather than our wants and desires.

I believe many believers need to change the way they pray from their will to Gods will.

Ill- Sammuel

To be confident in prayer, we must first submit to God. Second, we must enter His presence. The third is to ask in His will.

And then lastly, the fourth step is: we must be expecting God to answer.

Look back at verse 15:

"and if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we have asked Him for."

The promise is when we ask in His will, not only will He hear us, but also that He will answer. Now let me say this our timing is not God's timing, and all though we are asking in His will, it is His timing. In other words, we may not see it for many years:

A Biblical example is Abraham. Abraham prayed for a son, and God promised to give him that son. But it was 25 years before Abraham held Isaac in his arms.

The Bible speaks and illustrates about waiting on God. Sometimes in His purpose and wisdom, God delays the answers to our prayers for years. Yet, in another sense, He has already granted the requests.

Listen, folks, biblical prayer is not trying to talk God into giving us what we want. Instead, it is submitting our will to His will. It is praying, as Jesus instructed (Matt. 6:10), "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Yet too often, many are quick to pray, but are not slow to listen. I know I have been neglectful in this area a time or two; we tend to run off the list and move on without waiting for God to place something on our hearts or simply being quite enough to hear Him.

The simple truth is we have been conditioned to pray and go rather than to pray and listen. We must be ready to listen for God to answer.

Look at verses 16-17, these verses are a prime example of praying within the confines of God's will.

Look at verses 16-17 with me:  “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.”

I read this the other day studying, and I thought I would share it with you:

What John does not say is, "If anyone sees his brother sinning, go tell the pastor so he can deal with it." Nor does he say, "If anyone sees his brother sinning, call up all of your friends and tell them about it so that they can pray." That is a thin spiritual cover for gossip. Nor does he say, "If anyone sees his brother sinning, he should shake his head in disgust and ask, 'How could he do such a thing?'" That is called "judging your brother."

Instead, he says that if you see a brother in sin, pray for God to renew their life. Because that is the will of God- for the lost to become saved, the dead to have life, For those in sin to be forgiven.

While we all are responsible for our sins, only God can truly deliver us from sin. Still, at the same time, the sinning person is responsible for turning from his sin and taking the necessary steps not to fall into it again. Also, before we speak to them about the sin, we need to talk to God about the brother. Prayer is essential in the restoration process!

Forgiveness of sin and restoration of the relationship with God for His glory is the primary will of God.

And if that wasn't enough to be confident about John shares with us three more “WE KNOW” statements of confidence.

It’s like the cherry on the top or the icing on the cake!

The First of the We Know statements is this:

WE KNOW AS CHILDREN OF GOD WE ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO LIVE IN SIN:

Verse 18: “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps 7 himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.”

How incredible is to know not only that we have salvation, and that God answers prayers but also, we can victory over one thing that causes separation from God, sin?

We all have a basic knowledge of sin and that sin is what separated mankind from God in the beginning with Adam and Eve. And it has been and still is today the very issue that mankind cannot overcome sin with our own power. Therefore, we find that Christ gave His life for and showed His power over evil so that we can live a life pleasing to God, so that we can have victory over sin.

The Second We Know statement is this:

WE KNOW THAT WE BELONG TO GOD.

Verse 19 “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

This is a restatement of 2:15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Let me point out that this is the constant struggle that we have and even that the church deals with. It is the struggle between God and the World- We live in the physical world and yet our faith is from the spiritual world. We tend to believe what we see than what we don’t.

Throughout the letter, John has drawn a sharp line between believers and the world or those who don't believe (3:1, 13; 4:4, 5:4). John says there is no middle of the road for believers who keep one foot in the world. Either you are “of God” and separate from this evil world, or you are of the world and you lie in the arms of the evil one. However the New testament alone teaches over and over that we are Children of God and because we know that we belong to the family of God.

Then the Third WE KNOW STATEMENT IS:

WE KNOW THAT THE SON OF GOD IS TRUE

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

Notice first that Jesus is the true one.

The Bible tells us that people who are saved have a spiritual understanding and those who are not don’t have it. We have this understanding that Jesus is the foundation of our faith and that He is the great rock upon which everything rests. Our faith does not rest upon men's guesses, our faith doesn’t rest on the simple knowledge of humans, not on clever ideas, or on untested theories. It rests solidly upon the great events of God's actions in history. It rests on facts that Jesus came, died and was resurrected.

Notice second that “we are in Him who is true”

And how do we know Him who is true? The Holy Word of God tells us. We are part of His family—He has saved us! Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, when we entered into God’s family, we also received the Holy Spirit, who works in us to give us understanding, and to help us discern the truth.

He is in us and we are in Him.

Then third Jesus is the true God.

This is what the entire letter has been about; The BASICS OF FAITH and the basics is the importance of knowing the one true God who holds eternity in His hands. We can have confidence that if we are in Christ, we are his forever—He will sustain us to the very end.

To be confident in prayer, we must first submit to God. Second, we must enter His presence. The third is to ask in His will, and the fourth, we must be expecting God to answer. Knowing as children of God that are not to sin, that we are of God, and we know that Jesus is true.

Invitation: