And He Will Answer

I'd like to begin by reading from Psalm 34, verses 4, 5, and 6. I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him and were like him, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

To follow Jesus, to be a Christian, is to live a life of radical faith in a world which systematically disregards God. To live a life that trusts God, that trusts that God really cares about us, really watches over us. Trusts that if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, everything else will take care of itself.

This life of radical faith is sustained by two certainties. Number one, the certainty that God will speak to us, and will keep speaking to us all through this life. This word that he speaks to us becomes our daily bread.

This word is our life. The second certainty is that we can speak to God, we can pray, and God absolutely will hear us and answer us. Jesus is God's gift to bring us into these two certainties so that we can live them.

In Jesus, the God who is so far away and so awful for us, who seems so unreachable, comes near. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him, because when you hear him, you're hearing me.

The words that I speak to you, Jesus says, they are spirit and they are life, because they come from God. Now when we turn away from our vanity and submit to him, to Jesus, he brings us the life-changing revelation that when we seriously begin to listen to God, God also listens to us and answers our prayers. From the book of Luke, chapter 11, verse 1, he was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

He was praying in a certain place. Jesus, who lived by every word that proceeded from his Father's mouth, never did anything except in response to that word from the Father, also knew that the Father heard him when he prayed. And so he prayed, and he prayed and he prayed.

He was all the time praying. He came up out of the waters of his baptism, and as he prayed, heaven opened and the Spirit descended upon him. He prayed all night long.

The next day he chose the twelfth. On the Mount of Transfiguration, as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered. His face began to shine as the sun.

When he broke the bread, he prayed. When he saw the disciples weakening, he prayed. When he went to Gethsemane, he prayed.

When he hung on the cross, he prayed. He prayed because he was confident. He was certain that the Father heard him.

And he wants us to be certain that the Father hears us too. And he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

And he said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins.

For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. Now, the Lord's Prayer is not just an empty form that we mumble before we go to bed at night.

But it is a prayer that never wears out. It is a prayer that contains all the basic elements of prayer. Every petition that we can be certain God will hear and answer.

And then to reinforce this certainty that God will hear us and answer us, Jesus goes on in Luke 11 to say, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within. Do not bother me.

The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, his persistence, he's a pest, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it is opened. What father among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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? Now our problem, basic problem with prayer, is that we have trouble believing that God is really listening to us.

Jesus says, not only is God listening, he absolutely will answer. And he says the more your heart is in line with the Father's heart, the more clear the answer is going to be. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it will be done for you.

Where the heart is when we pray is the thing that makes the difference. For instance, the Pharisee stood and prayed, God I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector over here. So where is his heart? His heart is out in left field.

This isn't a prayer, it's a monologue. And so nothing happens. Over here we have the tax collector who prays, God be merciful to me a sinner.

See this man's heart is under God, it's in union with God, it's broken before God, it's penitent before God. This is prayer and it gets answered immediately. He goes down to his house justified.

The Pharisee's lips formed the prayer, but his heart was miles away. The tax collector's lips could hardly find words, but his heart was joined to that of God. And Jesus says just as the tax collector got an answer to his prayer, God heard him and answered him, so God will hear and answer us too if our hearts are joined to the Father's heart.

And really he teaches us this in every lesson, and he gives us many, on prayer he gives us. And God confirms it every time we pray with the heart. Jesus teaches, join your heart to the Father's heart and pray and you'll get an answer.

That's exactly what Jesus is teaching us in the Lord's Prayer. Half of the Lord's Prayer is simply spent bringing our hearts in line with the Father's heart. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your will, O God, not my will.

Your glory, not mine. I want to see it your way. I want to fit into your plan.

I want to give up my own ways. I want to yield to you. When we do that, when we in fact bring our hearts to that point and then ask for daily bread, forgiveness, deliverance and protection that comes pouring down upon us from heaven because our hearts are joined to God's heart.

Join your heart to the heart of the person who comes to you in need for help and pray and you'll get an answer. Friend, lend me three loaves. A friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.

My friend is hungry and I have no bread. My friend's in trouble and I don't know what to do. These people, Lord God, are coming to me with thirsty hearts and hungry souls and awful needs and I'm empty, empty, empty.

Help me. Give me the Holy Spirit. Fill me with the Holy Spirit.

See, when my heart is joined to the heart of God in the needs of these people, now I connect it to them and I join myself to them. I commit myself to them under God. I care about these people.

Now my heart is in line with the will of God and his purpose and now when I pray for the Holy Spirit, I'm not just asking for joy bells for myself. I'm asking for bread to give this person. I'm asking for life to give to somebody else.

Not just for, you know, a spine, a tingling coming down my spine or some kind of mystical experience for my own satisfaction that I can tell somebody else about, but I'm praying for something valid to give to my brother, my sister, my neighbor in need. When I do this, the Spirit comes. Heaven opens and the Spirit comes down like a waterfall and I get more than I could ask or think.

And now I have bread for the hungry, healing for the sick, deliverance for the captive and life for the dead from God in answer to my prayer. Join your heart to the heart of the Lord Jesus and pray, you get an answer. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it will be done for you.

Now you don't ask whatever you will in a vacuum. You don't ask whatever you will when you're off on a tangent of your own. The Lord says, you join your heart to mine.

You abide in me. You let my words abide in you. Become one with me.

Now ask whatever you will. When my heart is set to walk in the ways of Jesus, when I really want to live in his light, want to walk in the light he gives me, and I'm committed to doing that, then I can come before the Father's throne and I can ask for anything I want to. Because what I want and what my Lord wants become identical.

My will has been joined to his. And the answer comes. And finally, join your heart to the heart of your sister and your brother in the body and ask.

And you'll get an answer. From Matthew chapter 18, verse 18. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Where two agree, where they're joined. Where two or three are gathered in my name, joined. They can bind and loose, they can ask and they will receive.

Heaven will open, the answer will come. Again, the issue is, where are our hearts? Are we really one? Are we in unity around Jesus? It's not around anything else, just Jesus. Are we one? If we are, we can ask.

I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. I prayed. They looked to him and were like him and their faces were not ashamed.

They prayed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. He prayed.

All of us here pray. Most all of us here pray with a fair bit of regularity and discipline. We pray even when we don't feel like it.

We pray even when our faith seems weak and tired. We make ourselves pray and that's good. But the Lord still has some lessons to teach us about prayer that will increase our confidence, our certainty that he absolutely is hearing us.

Wonderful things happen to our prayer when we're certain that God hears. Confident that he indeed is going to answer. That it's not words bouncing off the wall or sighs just drifting down into the floor.

This certainty comes when we take the trouble to join our hearts to the heart of the Father. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

This certainty comes when we take the trouble to join our hearts to the heart of the person who comes to us in need. A friend of mine is coming on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. I need the Holy Spirit.

I need bread for him. This certainty comes when we take the trouble to join our hearts to the heart. We seek him, draw near to him.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it will be done for you. This certainty comes when we take the trouble to join our hearts to each other. Where two of you agree on earth about anything they shall ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

May the Spirit of God help us today and in the days ahead to pray as men and women who know that God hears, who are certain that he will answer because our hearts are joined to him. To our friend in need. To our war.

And let's just wait upon him in silence.