Lord, in this hour of worship, we lift up our hearts to you in prayer. We lift up our voices to you in praise. We open our minds and attitudes to your Word. May we feel the presence of your Living Spirit and be connected to you in new and deeper ways. Amen.

 

 

This is the Word of the Lord for us this day.

 

 

 

A couple of weeks ago we started a series on prayer – Christian prayer – and the power of prayer to change lives, specifically the power of prayer to change your life and the power of prayer to change my life. We talked about the three purposes or the three activities of prayer, if you were with us. 

 

We said first that prayer is an act. Prayer is always an act, an act of dedication. It’s the way we remind ourselves of our complete dependence on God. It is an act of dedication. 

 

Secondly, it is an act of communication. It is a way we speak, a way that we, more importantly, listen to the Creator of all that is. The fact that we can communicate with the Spirit of this universe is rather phenomenal. 

 

Third, we said that Christian prayer is an act of supplication. It is the way we make our requests known to God.

 

Today I want to focus on the keys to answered prayer, getting an answer to our request. You probably have heard people say, maybe you have said it yourself, you may be saying it today, “You know; I have tried prayer, and it basically doesn’t work. I have had a need. I have a need right now. I have prayed for it, and when I prayed for it, nothing happened.” Or, “I have a loved one who is very sick. I prayed for that person. No result. I am disappointed. I think prayer is a farce. I think it is merely autosuggestion. I think people merely pretend that it really works. They want it to, but it really doesn’t. Quite frankly, I just don’t have the time for it. I do not believe in prayer.” 

 

Anybody besides me been there before? Yes, you have. You just don’t want to put your hand up. Folks, it is pretty clear in Scripture, as well as in our own experiences, that sometimes the power of the Living God ignores, or remains completely silent to some of our requests, and I think people stop praying. I think people don’t even start to pray. I think people in today’s environment take prayer so lightly, because they don’t see results. My guess is those same people are not aware that, according to Scripture, which I hope to lay out for you today, God has laid out some conditions to answered prayer. Did you know that? Did you know that there were conditions? Indeed, the Bible says that God loves us unconditionally. Yes, but there are some conditions in meeting or granting our requests. And those conditions make all the difference in the world to a person who is genuinely looking to change or to have their lives transformed by the new life that Jesus offers. 

 

I want to lift up four of those for you today. In the time we have, I think we can do that today, together. Four keys, if you will, to answered prayer, not to prayer, but to answered prayer. 

 

Number One: You have to have a real relationship. You have to live in, you have to make your home, according to today’s text, in Christ. You not only have to make your home in Christ, but you have to allow and welcome the Spirit of the Living Christ to live in, to make that home in you. 

 

The image in today’s text, as you know, is vine and branches. You and I, said Jesus, are the branches. We Christians live, because we are connected to the vine. Apart from the Spirit of the Living Christ, you and I, according to Jesus, can do nothing. 

 

How do you know if you are connected? Well, it is sort of like this plant. This plant symbolizes our culture. We have a pot full, this melting pot, called America. And it has a bunch of people in it, and we looked pretty much like this. We have a lot of branches that are not connected. We have a lot of branches that are there, but nothing is going on.   We have a lot of branches that are deader than doornails. And there is a ton of them. 

 

Now, according to today’s text, the branch has to be connected to the vine. You can see that some of those branches are connected to the vine. Some of them are green. Some of them are healthy. Some of them are growing. Some of them are producing blossoms. They are producing the fruit they were created to produce. What an image. I hope that you will keep that image in your mind of today’s culture, the place in which you and I live. 

 

Jesus makes an incredible statement in today’s text. He says, “If you remain connected, if you live in, if you make your home in me and my word, my words live in your heart, you can ask anything, anything, anything you wish, anything you want, anything you desire and it will be given to you.” 

 

I didn’t say that. He did in John 15. That is a powerful, powerful statement. That is a huge promise. What I think you and I need to know is that when we read the Scripture from beginning to end, every promise you find in Scripture always, always has a condition. Did you know that? It is not just what you want. There is a condition. It is not just praying. There is a condition. Every covenant has a premise. The promise in this text is, “I will give you what you want if, (key word, if,) if you remain, if you abide, if you make your home in me.” 

 

That is the first key. That is the most important key to answered prayers. All of the other dimensions of prayer take a back seat to this one. Answered prayer is about relationships. It is about meeting, and encountering, and being with, and living with the Spirit of the Living God. And that Spirit has been made known to us in Christ Jesus. And like every relationship you and I are in, it is always personal. It is when this notion of God, the Creator, the Sustainer, whatever word you want to put, when that becomes my God, it becomes very personal. And when Jesus doesn’t just become the Christ, but He becomes my friend, you see, it is very personal. It gets even more personal when we give to God what God claims to us and of us all the way back in Genesis. 

 

You remember the claim: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one.” What’s the claim? “You shall love the Lord your God with all (how much), all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6). 

 

I heard a young Christian woman being interviewed on NPR several weeks ago talking about the kind of man she wanted for a life partner in marriage. Never been married before, she was young, and she was being interviewed on NPR about the kind of man she wanted as a life partner in marriage. I heard something I have never heard a woman say in 64 years. She said, “I want to marry a man who loves God more than he loves me.” 

 

I had to pull over to the side. What? You know, that is amazing. Now, I want to hear the man say, “I want to marry a woman who loves God more than she loves me.” And then I think we have something here. Right? This is not just a one-sided thing. 

 

It seems to me that at the heart of the New Testament, it is all about a love affair, about a relationship with the Creator of the universe, the Spirit that we talk about so much and hopefully experience, and that is an awesome, awesome thing. Here, I suggest, is the secret to answered prayers. Jesus came to this earth for a purpose, to reveal this incredible Spirit, this energy, this force, this Creator of all that is to us. 

 

John says, “To all who receive him, he (Jesus) gives power to become the children of God.” 

 

Great Christians, faithful Christians, some of them you know, some of them you don’t know. Maybe you have just read about them or heard about them. They come. They go. They give their words. They give their witness. They do their deeds, but they cannot give us their power. They cannot give us the power to become like them. There is only one source of that kind of power, and we call him Lord and Savior. 

 

That is what we are talking about. If you want answers to prayers, if you are ever going to know the power of living prayer, you and I have to appropriate this truth, that the Spirit of the Living Christ is very much alive; is as alive today as that Spirit has ever been. 

 

This is not about a concept. This is not about something we think or hope. This is a Spirit that lives at the heart of the universe, that is right here, is right now, is with us on every occasion of every moment, of every day, of every night. That Spirit loves this world and has never left it. Indeed, the witness of the faithful has said by the demonstration of their faithful lives and the service they have rendered, that Jesus, the Christ of God, is with us as much today, if not more than he was when he was with us in the flesh. This very day, that Spirit of the Living Christ is ready to give you power. 

 

“I am the vine,” he said, “and you are the branches. If you live in me and my Words live in your heart, you can ask.” 

 

When we know this, when we get this, maybe when the Spirit gets us, grasps us, we can claim a power at the very source of life that continues to reshape and reform and recreate us. 

 

As some of you may know, the Board, this past Monday night, authorized the leadership of this church to call this community of faith into three months of prayer. It will be three months of talking to God; hopefully, more importantly, three months of listening to God. To my knowledge, we have never asked our congregation to do it at this depth and this level before. Three months of living our life in Christ and finding and welcoming and spending time in appropriating Jesus’ words – not just any words, not your words, not my words. We are not interested in your words or my words. We are interested in Jesus’ words. We are not interested in a particular group’s or a particular concern’s words. We are interested in Jesus’ words. Three months asking our people, not just our leaders, not just the worship team, not just the prayer ministry group, or the Stephens Ministers, not just the elected leaders, elders, and deacons of the church, but the people of the church to pray. 

 

I think it is going to be an adventure. I think it is an amazing thing to consider. I have absolutely – I have to tell you publicly – no idea where that Spirit is going to lead us. But I do know what Jesus said. He said, “Those who live in me and I in them will bear, will produce, much fruit.” The key to answered prayer, not prayer, answered prayer, is number one; you must have an honest-to-God relationship.

 

Number Two: You have to unblock the channels. Mark 11 says, “And when you pray, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins.” 

 

You know, it wasn’t just any weekend. It wasn’t just a special occasion, and it wasn’t just another holiday. My goodness; it was Christmas morning last year, 2006. Do you remember that morning? It was about 3 degrees outside here in Columbia. We had this house full of people. The kids were in town. We were expecting a boatload of guests for dinner about six hours later, and the sewer jammed up, and our house was full of people! We couldn’t take showers. We couldn’t use the bathroom. We couldn’t wash our hair, and in our house that is a big problem. We couldn’t shave. We couldn’t do the wash, and we couldn’t use the disposal. Let me tell you. We paid double time for two guys who came and left the warmth of their Christmas morning with their families – God bless them – to come to our house and to make it functional again. Indeed, we made them breakfast. We thanked them profusely, and we paid them gladly. Why? Because they opened up the channels, so that the house could become useful and functional again. 

 

We human beings are pretty much the same way. Even we Christ followers, we mess up. We hurt others. Other people hurt us. It collects. It festers. I have seen it. I have experienced it. It builds up. Nothing will kill your prayers faster than resentment. Nothing will kill your prayers faster than bitterness. Hebrews 12 says, “Watch out that no bitterness takes root among you, for it causes deep trouble hurting many in their spiritual lives.” 

 

It is not just “don’t be bitter so that people will like you.” It interferes with your spiritual life when you are bitter. Bitterness is like poison. 

 

One of the easiest places, as you and I know, to be bitter and have resentment and let those things build up is where? Right there at home with your family. It is a weird thing. We are harder on our own, the people we love the dearest, than we are on anybody else. That is why Peter says in Chapter 3, “Spouses be considerate as you live with each other and treat each other with respect.”

 

Why? So that nothing will hinder your prayers. Not that you are just going to have a better day; it hinders your prayer life. Resentment. Bitterness. Harmony where you live, where you work, where you worship, where you play, and the land you call your home. Bitterness, resentment; it blocks our prayers. 

 

Jesus’ remedy for this is very clear: 1) confession. Confession cleans us, cleanses, it cleans things up. It is owning; it is naming what it is that is blocking. 2) Forgiveness. We pray it everyday here, every week, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Forgive us, Lord, as much as we are willing to forgive somebody else. Forgiveness is one of the keys to answered prayer.

 

Number Three: The third key today is you have to be willing to share the results of your blessings. If we pray to God, and we start to get responses… If you ask God to bless your lives, you have to be willing to bless other peoples’ lives with the same benefits that God has given you. Did you know that? 

 

Proverbs 21 says, “If a person shuts their ears to the cry of the poor, they, too, will cry out someday, and they will not receive an answer.” 

 

The prerequisite for God’s blessing your life and mine is that we be a blessing to other people. Not just other people in general, but people who really need help. 

 

1 John 3 says, “If anyone has material possessions and sees another in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God possibly be in them?” 

 

The only reason I have ever been able to discover, in Scripture, why anybody has ever been blessed in this world is only so that we can use that blessing to be a blessing to others. It is basic Christian stewardship. We are managers. We are channels of God’s blessing. People pray that God will bless their business. They pray that God will bless their families. They pray that God will bless all kinds of things. We ask God to heal people here constantly. We do that all the time. 

 

Spiritual question today: What are you going to do if you get a healthy body? What are you going to do if the surgery works? What are you going to do if the medication actually fixes things? Are you willing to share? Are you willing to give? Are you willing to bless somebody with the same benefits God has given you? It is the secret key to Christian stewardship. It is just about that simple.

 

Number Four: The fourth and final key to prayer today, F-A-I-T-H, faith. When you pray, you have to have faith. 

 

Matthew 9 says two men were out searching for healing, and they approached Jesus.  When Jesus encountered them, Jesus asked them one of the most interesting questions in all of Scriptures. He asked these two who were looking for healing these words, “Do you believe that I am able, capable of doing this?”

And their answer, according to Matthew is, “Yes, Lord.” And Jesus said in response, “According to your faith, will it be done to you.” 

 

What do you believe God is actually capable of doing in your life? What are you expecting God to do in your life? I ask this from time to time, and I get this sort of blank stare. It basically says, “I don’t actually expect anything from God.”

 

And you know what? That is pretty much what that person is getting. Nothing. Hebrews 11 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” 

 

Did you know that? Why? Because faith is trust. It is complete trust in God. When we say something to the effect, “I believe God can do this or that,” that is not faith. God can do what God’s going to do whether you believe it or not. That is not faith. If you say, “I believe God might do,” that’s not faith. That is hope. You hope that God might. I would ask you not to pray that prayer. I would ask you to pray and say, “I believe that God will do this or that.” That is faith. It is complete trust in God’s ability and capability.

 

I have been wondering for some time now what it would take, what would motivate, what would cause the people of this community of faith to spend the next three months, every single day, 20 minutes a day, to set aside to do absolutely nothing other than pray? Knowing what the conditions of prayer are to receive an answer, would you be willing… Do you think… What would cause you… What would motivate you to spend 15 or 20 minutes a day when you did absolutely nothing else other than pray? 

 

If 20 minutes sounds like a lifetime to you, let me suggest that during those 20 minutes you open a New Testament and turn to the gospel of Luke. (If you have a red-letter-edition, that will work, but it doesn’t matter.) While you are spending your 20 minutes a day, and you get a little anxious and twitchy, and you start having your mind wander about your schedule, just spend some time hearing, reading, listening to Jesus’ words – just his words; not anybody else’s words. Twenty minutes a day just listening to his words. 

 

I am going to ask you to consider that. I am going to ask you to do that. This is not about the leadership, not about the elders, and the deacons, not about the prayer ministry, not about the Stephens Ministers. It is not about the 14 people who will show up if we hold a prayer vigil here. It is about the people who say they are friends with Jesus, and they believe themselves to be branches, branches that are alive and growing and connected. 

 

I would ask you to practice. I would ask you to take that on. Start tomorrow morning: 20 minutes, and nothing else planned. It is going to be an adventure. It is going to be difficult at times, but I ask you to do it in the name of Jesus Christ and for the future of this church. 

 

And we all say together… “Amen.”

 

 

Holy God, you are the vine, we are the branches. Help us to reside in you that we might bear much fruit; that we might have strength to do all things; that we might abide and rest in your Holy Spirit. We can do nothing apart from you; therefore, we ask you into our lives and invite your Spirit to be our guide. Amen.