How to Send Knee-Mail - Part B

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. But I will tell you plainly about the Father.

Stop right there. Do you remember last week's study? It's all in one chapter, but we're breaking it up, so I just want to remind you. Jesus says, you see Me now. Later on, you won't see Me, and then you'll see Me again because I go to the Father, and they go, we don't get what He just said.

What do you mean? Now you see Me, now you don't? You'll be sad, and then you'll be happy?

We have no idea what He's saying. Jesus addresses that. I'm speaking to you in figurative language. The time is coming.

That's not going to happen. Look at the next verse, verse 26. In that day, you will ask in My name, and I do not say that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and believe that I came forth from God. Now Jesus knew that these disciples didn't understand everything He was talking about. They were wondering about it. But He anticipates the day when they will understand everything He's talking about, and He says, in that day, you will ask in My name, and I do not say that I shall pray the Father for you.

You can go directly. In that day, you'll understand. You don't understand now. In that day, you'll understand. He anticipates the day when they'll get it. They'll get the presence. And so He anticipates that they will pray intelligently in that day.

They'll get it. Here's the principle. Prayer must never become a mindless activity. We should always pray intelligently. Some people think, well, I'll just repeat the phrase over and over, glory, glory, glory, glory, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

No, pray intelligently. You wouldn't sit down and write a letter without some kind of cohesion to it. You wouldn't write a meaningless letter. You wouldn't talk to somebody on the phone and just babble everything you see in your eye. I'm looking out the window now, grass is green, trees, birds just flew by, cool.

Oh, here's a cup of coffee. You wouldn't talk like that. You would think through.

It would be meaningful conversation. Don't pray in autopilot, where your mind is on hold and your mouth is on automatic, and it's like turning on the hose and letting it run. This is what Jesus said on the Sherman on the Mount. When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask them.

Now, why did He say that? He said that because religion at His time, and in that time it was Judaism, had degenerated to such a low level in their prayers. Their prayer lives, well, let me describe it to you. At that time, prayer was pretty formalized.

There was no spontaneous expression. Prayers were either memorized or read. It was sort of like, now I lay me down to sleep on steroids. There was the Shema, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, the Jewish declaration of faith uttered in prayer.

All words without real meaning, and others like it. It became formalized. Also, there were prescribed prayers.

Now, get this. Prayers had been written and sometimes memorized for just about every occasion. When you light a fire, you say a special prayer. If there's lightning outside, like there was at about, I don't know, two in the morning last night if you were awake, you'd say a special prayer. When it rains, you say a special prayer. If there's rain, you say a special prayer.

Usually, hallelujah. If you see a lake or a river, you say a special prayer. If you enter a city or you leave a city, there were prescribed prayers for all of those events.

Sounds good. Sounds like you're trying to bring all of life under the purview of prayer, but again, it had become something you just spout off, prescribed prayers. Times of the day that you should pray.

Nine in the morning, 12 noon, three in the afternoon, and prescribed places. Oh yeah, you can pray anywhere, but the best place to pray is the synagogue, and the best place to pray is the temple. Even still, when you go to Israel today, the tour guides, tongue in cheek, though somewhat meaning it, they'll tell you this. Hey, when you're in Jerusalem, make sure you pray.

Go down to the western wall and pray, because though you can pray anywhere in the world and God will hear it, hear it's a local call. They like to say that. It's a local call. You know, because this is the place God decided to hang out, so here, it's a local call.

Let me tell you something. Since Jesus died and rose from the dead, and the Holy Spirit is living within you wherever you pray, it's a local call. But they had these prescribed times and places. Also, it was believed that when you pray, the more flowery the prayer and the longer the prayer, the better. So they would try to impress each other in their public expressions, adding adjective after adjective before the name of God. One recorded prayer I found lists 16 adjectives before God is even mentioned. So something like, oh wonderful, gracious, merciful, sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent, loving, and Lord. There was a preacher who used to pray like that. He'd pray long, flowery prayers, using words that most people never really understood. And this happened week after week after week, and there was one wee Scottish lady in that church who was in the choir who got so tired of this.

And if you know the Scots, they just like to be up front and speak their mind. So this pastor begins to pray this long prayer, and she grabs his robe, tugs at it, and says, ask him, Father, and ask him for something. I would say amen to that prayer if she prayed it.

Just ask him for something. Jesus says that here. Ask.

Think about it. Pray intelligently. Prayer should be as natural as talking to someone. Jesus gave us the model. When you pray, say, our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done.

He gave us the pattern of prayer. It was done in a natural manner. Be confident, be intelligent.

Here's the third. Be compliant. Be compliant. When you talk to God, talk to God, God's way.

Would you agree with this? That the prayer that God accepts is the prayer that God directs. If Jesus says, boys, here's how to do it, and for them to go, nah, I don't really want to do it that way. I got my own way.

No, be compliant. Let me explain that. I want to unpack that thought. If you go with me to verse 27, you'll get a hint. He says, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me, notice that, and have believed that I came forth from God.

Notice that. He is assuming that those who talk to God will be in right relationship with God, and that right relationship means they love Jesus. They believe he is who he said he is. Furthermore, in the next verse, he explains, I came forth from the Father. I've come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.

Boy, there's a lot in that verse. First of all, he said, I came forth from the Father. It means you believe in his incarnation that he came from heaven to the earth, the virgin birth at Bethlehem.

He wasn't just born. He came forth from the Father. It implies that when you pray, you believe that, that he was incarnate as the Son of God.

Notice also, and have come into the world. It implies you believe in his humiliation. He came among sinful men and women and suffered the death of the cross. And then finally, he says, I leave the world and go to the Father. That implies you believe his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and his eventual exaltation. They love Jesus, and they'll really believe it later on, and that's the basis of their approach.

So, let me boil it down. The first real condition for prayer, and this precedes all the others, this is the first real condition, is that you are a believer. You're a child of God. Yeah, anybody can spout off words to God, but I can talk to a wall, and I won't get any results. A lot of people say, I pray, but the first prerequisite, since prayer is a family privilege, is that they are a child of God. I found it interesting that Donald Gray Barnhouse, who used to pastor the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, would often close the church services by praying, Lord, dismiss us with your peace, except for those who don't know you. Never, especially for a pastor. Keep them miserable until they come to know the Prince of Peace. That's the first prerequisite.

You are compliant. You come to him believing that about his son. Jesus Christ is an un Athletics character, and graced with illuminating illustrations. This gripping tale is rooted in the limitlessness of Christ's love, and helps young readers understand why Jesus left heaven to be born under and die upon a tree. This exciting resource, along with a companion audio experience, are available to you now as our way of saying thanks for your gift of $25 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heidsink.

go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Not only compliant in your relationship, but compliant in your approach. I'm only gonna touch on the next little thought here because we dealt with it in chapter 14, but three times in this section, Jesus talks about approaching the Father in my name, he says, him speaking, in my name. Approach the Father in my name, ask in my name, do this in my name. And that's why we pray and we say at the end of our prayers, we're praying this in Jesus' name. Please don't see that as a magical thing to attack at the end of your prayer. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, in Jesus' name. That's where the magic happens. That's the abracadabra phrase.

All I gotta do is tack that on. Or some people think it means I'm done now. I pray this in Jesus' name, over and out, I'm hanging up now.

It's not what it means at all, neither of those. To pray in Jesus' name simply means I pray based on his merit, what he has done. I'm coming to you, Father, on the merit, the work, in the name of Jesus Christ, who paid for my sins on the cross. That gives me access, he gives me the access. We don't pray to the Father in Buddha's name, Muhammad's name, Moses' name, or Mary's name, but in the name that is above all names, the name of Jesus, because he's the one who did the work.

It means something more than that. Not only that I pray based on his merit, but I am praying according to his objective. If I bring you a message in somebody's name, it's as if I'm representing that person to you. To pray in Jesus' name is say, Lord, I'm praying this because I'm pretty confident this is something Jesus himself would want.

Now, don't you agree? If you're asking the Father for something that you're reasonably sure Jesus would want, you're gonna have a whole lot of confidence when you pray that prayer. If you're thinking, I don't know if Jesus would want this or not, I mean, I've asked for a brand new Hummer, supercharged. I don't know if that's exactly what Jesus wants for my life but it'd be really cool.

You're not gonna have as much confidence. To pray in his name is to pray with his objective. Now, do we always know what Jesus wants when we pray?

No, we don't. That's where we leave it with God. But I will say this, the more you know the Bible, you're gonna get a better idea of what God wants and what his will is and what his mind is, what he likes, loves, doesn't like, doesn't love. So you're gonna approach God differently.

I read something I wanna read to you this morning. One of the best books ever I would recommend for a Christian is called The Fight by John White. And he has a little section on prayer and he speaks about this little phrase that Jesus tells his disciples, to pray to the Father in my name. This is what he says. Jesus gave his followers authority to draw checks on the power bank of heaven. Clearly, however, the checks may only be drawn when the purpose of the check conforms with heavenly policy.

That's the idea. It is only when I am acting as Christ's agent that I may pray in Jesus' name. So be confident, be intelligent, be compliant.

Here's the fourth dynamic. Be expectant, be expectant. I prayed in the name of Jesus and because I prayed that, I live in expectation now. I had a conversation with Dr. Tony Evans. He's a preacher down in Texas. This was a couple years ago and he said that he was asked to pray at a public event in Dallas. They wanted the local preacher to open up the event in prayer. He said, I'd love to do it.

He was all prepared. Well, when he got to the event, they said, Dr. Evans, we want you to pray but we don't want you to use the name of Jesus in your prayer. There's a lot of people here, a lot of different belief systems. We don't want to offend anybody, so just pray generically but don't pray in Jesus' name. He says, well, then I won't pray.

He goes, let me ask you something. Do you want this prayer to work or do you want somebody who's mouthing things off because you want a God present here? Because if you want this name to work and you want this prayer to work, then you want a child of God who's in right relationship to God by faith who will pray in the name of Jesus and things will get done. Otherwise, you don't want me to pray. So here's a man who would say that because he would pray in expectation. And so Jesus says in verse 23, in that day, you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. That's the promise.

That's the expectation. Again, verse 24, until now, you have asked me nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. Let me tell you about a little story.

You can chase it down later on. It's in Acts chapter 12. Here's the dynamic. Peter's been arrested. He's in jail. The church gathers together in the house of John Mark's mother to pray for Peter. So a bunch of Christians praying to get Peter out of jail. You know what happens? Peter gets out of jail. An angel come, springs him out of jail. The shackles fall from his hands. Peter goes through all the prison gates, goes to the house where they're having their prayer meeting and knocks on the door.

A little girl named Rhoda answers the door. She sees Peter there and instead of opening the door, she runs back, kids do this. They run back in the house and say, Peter's at the door. And this is what they say to him. Listen to their faith. They've been praying, God, bring him out of jail, please.

They go, you're out of your mind. I don't know what you call that. I really wouldn't call it prayer. There's wasn't much expectation there. It's like saying, I pray for rain every day.

Really, do you carry an umbrella? Do you have expectation that anything's gonna happen? So they're praying for Peter. Peter gets out.

Peter comes in the house finally and they still had a hard time believing that it was Peter. Here's God answering their prayer and they have a difficult time believing that God answered the thing they asked for. So be expectant. Jesus said, ask, it will be done. Do it in my name, come directly, come boldly. Do it with the agenda that I would come to the Father with and it will be done. And then finally, in verse 24, that your joy may be full.

Let's tie the bow on the package. Last week, we saw that Jesus said your sorrow will be turned into joy. One of the ways sorrow gets turned into joy is by a healthy prayer life. You say, well, how does prayer make me happy, preacher?

Easy. One, when God answers your prayer, you see that God is at work. Your joy increases. But number two, when you realize what we're talking about here is a higher level of life where you realize I'm connected directly to God. I don't have to go through a saint. I don't have to go through a special person. I don't need an earthly ambassador. I am speaking these words. They're in the ears of the Father directly. I have made an instant contact between heaven and earth, and I gotta tell you something. When you realize that and you practice that, life is lived at a higher level. If you ever go to New York City, I want you to go to Rockefeller Center.

You probably would anyway. Over by Rockefeller Center, there's this great statue of Atlas. It's enormous. I don't know, 30 feet tall. He's buff, right? And he's sort of crouched down muscles, lower legs and upper body, and he's holding the world on his shoulders, just strong, buff, holding them like this. But he's pushing it up, but he's doing it. It's impressive. But on the other side of the street is St. Patrick's Cathedral. And at St. Patrick's Cathedral is a motif of Jesus holding the world in one hand.

I love the comparison. And here's my question. What side of the street do you wanna live your life on? You wanna live it over here going, oh, I'm holding the world up, it's tough.

Okay, have fun, see ya. Have a good life. Or do you wanna live over here, where you realize God made the world, he made me, and he's capable of holding my world in his hands? You know, when you live over on this side of the street, you're living life like this. When you live over here, it's like. I don't wanna sound simplistic. I don't want you to think. You just spout off a few prayers every day and you'll just smile your way through life. Everything's good all the time. I'm a Christian.

I'm not an idiot. Here's Jesus saying your sorrow will be turned into joy, implying that you have to have sorrow for it to get converted into joy. That's part of life. But I wanna close with something that was said years ago. John Bunyan wrote it. He said you can always do more than pray after you've prayed but you can never do more than pray until you've prayed. Please don't, after this day, see prayer as a last resort.

I hear it all the time. There's nothing left to do except pray. Oh goodness, that's where you begin. You're never more powerful than when you're on your knees in prayer. We're glad you've joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $25 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Nate Heitzig's new children's book, Christmas Under the Tree, which includes a companion audio experience.

Just in time for Christmas, this book will help young readers understand why Jesus left heaven to be born under and die upon a tree. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app, where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast your burdens on his word, make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.