Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: And our prayers need to be rooted in the promises of God and the will of God, so our faith is not in faith. We don't put faith in faith. We put faith in God.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University.

Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled The Religion of Jesus. Let's listen in as JP gives part two of Ask, Seek, Knock.

JP Jones: One of the prerequisites for praying in a way that God hears and answers our prayers is the barrier of sin has to be removed. And 1st John 1:9 says this, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

So, because Jesus Christ has died on the cross for our sins, when we confess the sin that's created a barrier between us and God, that barrier is removed, and our prayers have access back to God. But if we cherish sin in our hearts, we can't have any expectation that God is going to hear and answer our prayers.

So we need to pray in Jesus name. We need to pray with a clean heart. We need to pray with pure motives. Jesus addressed that in Matthew 6. We talked a little about it. If our motive is to be seen by men, if our motive is to make other people think we're really religious, God doesn't hear those prayers.

And James says this, James 4:2 and 3, "You want something, but you don't get it. You'll kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

See, if our only motivation in praying is just get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get from me, then our bad motives distort our ability to pray. God looks at our hearts. That's a whole teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. It's a transformed heart.

Now, there's a there's a tension here because Psalm 37:4 says this, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart." So there's a promise where God says He's going to give you the desires of your heart. So what's the difference between Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart," and James 4 that says you quarrel and you fight, you have not because you ask not, you have not because you ask with bad motives?

Well, it's the first part of Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord." When you're delighting yourself in the Lord, have you noticed that your desires are different? What you want is different. When you surrender your life to Christ, when you give your life to God, and you cross the line of commitment to Christ, your heart gets transformed and the stuff that you really want changes.

But if you're just holding on to control of your own life, being the center of your own life, just looking to satisfy your own selfishness, those prayers that come out of that place are not heard by God. But the prayers that come out of the heart of someone who's delighting themselves in God, God gives them the desires of their heart.

So our motives matter to God. Our motives matter. So we need to pray in Jesus name. We need to pray with a clean heart. We need to pray with pure motives. We need to pray out of an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.

John 15:7 and 8, Jesus says this, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples." Jesus is giving us an illustration about what it means to be in a connected relationship with God. We're to live dependently.

And He picks the example of a branch connected to the vine. And in a healthy plant, all the juices flow up through the vine, they flow into the branch, and fruit is produced. In the same way, if Jesus is the vine and we're the branch, when we have a real connection to Him, we're abiding in Him, all of His life flows through us and He produces fruit through us.

And part of that fruit production is Jesus answering our prayers. In fact, the promise is, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. And by this, My Father is glorified." God gets glory because He answers our prayer and fruit is produced, and everybody gets to see that we're disciples of Jesus.

The prayer that flows out of the life of someone who is abiding in Christ always gets answered. So the prerequisite is we need to pray out of an abiding relationship with Jesus. Here's a fifth prerequisite: pray according to God's will.

1st John 5:14 and 15, "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we've asked of Him." John's logic is this: we can have real confidence in our prayer life if what is characteristic of our prayer life is praying according to God's will.

Because if we're praying according to God's will, we can know that He hears us, and we can know that we have the requests that we're asking from Him. So the key is to pray according to God's will because it gives you confidence and it gives you the expectation of the answer.

Now, this is a rhetorical question. I don't anticipate anybody giving me a verbal expressive answer. I'm setting that up right off the bat. But is there anyone here who knows God's will on everything in their life? No, I don't. There's a lot of things I don't know about God's will. I don't know about God's will about things about related to my own life, my marriage, my family, about the church, about the future. There's many things about God's will that I don't now know.

But you know what? There are some things I do know. There are some things I know right now to be God's will. Every word that is written in that book is God's will. Every command in the Bible is God's will. And so when I pray the words of the Bible back to God, when I pray the commands of the Bible back to God, I know I am praying according to His will.

You know, like some of you have done, when my children were little, in fact, before they were even born, when we discovered that each of, you know, the children were going to be born, I began praying and asking God, "What, what's a scripture that you would want me to commit myself to be praying for each of my children?" And so for each of my kids, there's a passage from the Bible that I pray and have prayed virtually every day of their life, with a full expectation it's going to be fulfilled. Why? Because I'm praying according to God's will for my children.

For my son, it's Joshua 1. Be strong and courageous. Strong in the name of the Lord. "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall be careful to obey everything that's written in it, and then you will be prosperous and God will make you successful."

For my daughter, Kylie, it's from 1st Peter chapter 3. "It's not external beauty only that God desires, but it's the internal beauty, the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. This is precious in the sight of God."

And with my daughter, Ashe, it's from Psalm 31. "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she will be praised." And because those scriptures are God's will for His children, as I pray those scriptures for my children, I fully believe with absolute confidence it's going to be fulfilled because I'm praying according to God's will.

And we can do that with the promises and commands of the Bible for our self, for our family, for our church, because we're praying according to God's will and God's promises. When we pray according to His will, we have confidence because He hears us and He gives us what it is that we ask for. There's a lot of things I don't know what God's will is.

But for the things that I do, when I pray according to God's will, there's confidence of answers. Here's a sixth prerequisite for how we're to pray: we're to pray in faith. Now, I'm going to be the first to tell you, there is a lot of mystery about this whole issue of faith and this issue of prayer.

But I also know it's a biblical mystery because the Bible says there's a connection between our faith and our prayer. In Mark chapter 11, Jesus said this, "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he'll have whatever he says."

"Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." So Jesus says, in that passage, the key ingredient to answered prayer is to pray in faith. Pray believing you're going to get what it is you're asking for.

In James, James says a similar type concept relating it to a specific prayer request, the prayer request for wisdom. In James 1, he says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and God will give to him who asks." But then it says, "But let him ask in faith, without any doubting. For he who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. And let not that man expect he will receive anything from the Lord because he's a double-minded man and unstable in all his ways."

So our prayers need to be rooted in what we believe to be true about God, that He's good and that He's a giver and He wants to hear and answer our prayers and that He's sovereign and He's powerful and He can do whatever it is He wills to do. And our prayers need to be rooted in the promises of God and the will of God, so our faith is not in faith. We don't put faith in faith, we put faith in God.

Here's one last prerequisite. We need to pray persistently. Oftentimes when Jesus would teach something, and he wanted the real point to be understood, he would link a story or a parable to the teaching. In Luke 18, that's what he does about prayer. Luke 18:1-8, he says, "Then he, Jesus, spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart."

So, keep on praying, persistence. And so he said, "There was a certain in a certain city, there was a judge who did not fear God or regard man. And now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.' And he would not for a while. But afterward, he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'"

And then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said? And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears along with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

Jesus says, "Here's the point." He sets it up in hyperbole, in extreme fashion so that we really get the point. An unjust judge and a nagging widow. And she wears him down. He's not a good guy. But because he's tired of getting worn down, he finally says, "Okay, I'm going to give you what you want."

And now He flips it, believing the best in us, not a nagging widow, but a child of God who's asking from the heart from His Heavenly Father to give him what he wants. And not an unjust judge, but a loving Heavenly Father who delights in giving good gifts to His children. And the point is, if we will be persistent, how much more should we expect God to do for us what the unjust judge did for the widow?

After the first service out on the patio, I had a guy come up to me and asked me, it was a very good question. He said, "Help me understand what's the difference between the vain repetition that Jesus talks about, that when we pray with vain repetition over and over again, we don't get what we want." That's mentioned in Matthew 6. "And then this persistence of praying that Jesus teaches in Luke 18." I said, "That's a good question."

I said, "I think the vain repetition in Matthew 6 is when we take a phrase or a contrived prayer and just pray it over and over and over again like an eastern mantra. And the expectation is because we prayed it over and over again in a certain way with certain words, that somehow we're going to get it." And Jesus said, "You're missing the whole point of prayer when you do that. You're making it about the technique and not about a relationship with God."

In Luke 18, Jesus is saying because it's a relationship, God, our Heavenly Father knows what's best for us. Think about this, and especially if you have children, you understand this. Sometimes when your children ask you for something, you say, "Yes, but not now." Because you know, as their parent, it is a good thing and you want to give it to them, but now's not the best time for them.

Sometimes when your children ask for something, because you're a good parent, they think it's a good thing, but you know what? You know it's not a good thing. And so what do you say? No. And sometimes as a parent, in fact, what you'd hope to be able to do most of the time when your kids ask you for something, because you love them and you delight in them, you say, "Yes."

How do we on our end get to the place where we have such an intimacy with God so that we discover what we're praying about is either the yes or the no, and in that case, we don't want it either because we discover it's not a good thing, or the yes, but wait, you got to just keep on praying. It's the only way. You got to do what Jesus says. You got to be persistent. You got to keep on praying.

So now here's been the mini crash course on the prerequisites to answered prayer. Put those back into the context of Matthew chapter 7, what is Jesus saying in Matthew 7? What's the general prayer teaching? "Ask, seek, knock." And guess what? If you ask, you receive. If you seek, you find. If you knock, it'll be opened up to you.

Okay, I believe that. I want to lay hold of that. How do I put that into practice? Well, Jesus has already told us in this sermon how to put that prayer promise into practice. This is what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, the very previous chapter. "In this manner is how you ought to pray: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen."

Jesus tells us that in our implementation of asking, seeking, and knocking, we're to be God-focused in our praying. We're to be praying for God's holiness and God's Kingdom and God's will. He says we're to pray for whatever it is we need. "Give us this day our daily bread," what we need today, God. And we're to be very specific and bold in asking for it.

And we're to pray for our inner spiritual life. "Forgive me of my sins and help me forgive the people who sin against me." And we're to pray for our spiritual victory. "Don't lead me into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one." So Jesus says, "Take me at my word, follow the pattern I've laid out for you, and believe in the goodness of God. Ask, seek, knock."

"And because your Heavenly Father is so good and because He loves you so much, He will delight in giving you good gifts." That's the amazing teaching of Jesus to kingdom disciples in prayer. And the reason it's possible is because we have a relationship with God in the first place. And the only way we have a relationship with God is through what Christ did on the cross.

He took all of my sin and He took all of your sin, and He was nailed to the cross and He said, "It is finished." Christ died in our place and then He rose again from the dead and the doors of Heaven are open wide for all who come to God through Jesus Christ. And He said, "Celebrate that often, remember that often, remind yourself often that you come to God through Jesus Christ, and your hope and faith are in Christ alone because of what He did for you."

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. Oftentimes I jokingly say that I like to say a profound word in every message that I give. Here was the profound word. It was at the beginning of my message. We don't put our faith in faith, we put our faith in God and in God's word. You see, it's the object of our faith that makes the difference. Many people have faith. In fact, everybody to one degree or another lives by faith. The difference is what do we put our faith in? The follower of Jesus Christ puts his faith in the Lordship of Christ and then in the absolute authority of His word.

We put our faith in God, and when we come to this issue of prayer, our faith is not in faith, it's not how strongly we believe it, it's are we believing the right things, and are we believing in the right person? You see, God is the one who's made promises to us about His love for us and His desire to bless us and His plan to answer our prayers. We put our faith in the person of God and in the purpose of God. We put our faith in the promises of God. We put our faith in the fact that God is all-powerful, and that God is loving, and that God is kind and gracious, and that God is wise and He's the sovereign king, and that God is the one who can do anything, that nothing is too difficult for Him.

And we put our faith in His purposes, the fact that He wants us to come to know Him, the fact that He wants all men to know Him, the fact that He wants everything to result in His glory. We put our faith in that. And we put our faith in His promises, promises like Matthew chapter 7, where Jesus says, "Ask and seek and knock, and it will be given to you. To the one who asks, to the one who seeks, to the one who knocks, it will be opened up to them. It will be given to them." Promises like what He says in Matthew 7 that if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him. That's a promise from God that He wants us to believe.

We put our faith in who God is and in what God has promised. And that's why we can come to prayer with the expectation that God will hear and that God will answer, because God is good and God is powerful and God has promised that if we come to Him, if we ask, if we seek, if we knock, He will answer. It's that's the confidence that we have when we go to God in prayer. And let's do that right now.

Lord, thank You for what You've promised in Your word. Thank You for how You've revealed Yourself to us. You are good and awesome and sovereign and powerful. You are our Heavenly Father, and You promise that if we come to You, You will hear us, and like a Father who loves His children, You will bless us. Thank You for that in Jesus name. Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.