{"id":2915,"date":"2021-05-02T21:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T21:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=2915"},"modified":"2021-05-02T21:00:56","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T21:00:56","slug":"that-your-joy-may-be-full","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/05\/02\/that-your-joy-may-be-full\/","title":{"rendered":"That Your Joy May Be Full"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rogate Sunday Sermon | Rev. Rolf D. Preus<\/em>\u00a0| \u00a0May 21, 2006| John 16:23-24\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.\u201d (John 16:23-24)<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray.  In response to their request, Jesus taught them to pray the prayer we know as the Lord\u2019s Prayer.  It is called the Lord\u2019s Prayer because the Lord Jesus gave it to us to pray.  If we would like to know the things for which we should pray we need look no further than to this prayer.  It contains seven petitions or requests.  These petitions include all petitions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To pray means to ask.  It is to make a request.  It is to plea, to beg, to petition God in heaven for what He alone can give.  In our text for this morning Jesus invites us to pray.  We see in His words four things that every prayer requires:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, every prayer is prayed in response to the promise of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, every prayer is prayed in confidence that God\u2019s promises are true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, every prayer contains requests or petitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth, every prayer is prayed in Jesus\u2019 name.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every prayer is prayed in response to the promise of God.  Jesus gives the promise.  He says: \u201cMost assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.\u201d  Prayer begins with God\u2019s promise.  Prayer does not originate with us.  It begins with God.  Without His invitation to pray and His promise that He will answer our prayers we would have no right to pray.  We could expect nothing.  To ask God for something without permission is to presume.  Nowadays religion has become quite presumptuous.  People have the idea that prayer is some kind of inalienable right like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It\u2019s as if there is this weak-kneed god out there waiting to take orders from his demanding children.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The true God \u2013 the only God who exists \u2013 does not live to take orders from sinners.  He lives in that unapproachable light that no mortal man can enter.  No one can see Him in His naked glory and live to tell about it.  Who would dare to come before this holy God and make demands of Him?  And yet this is the same God who promises to answer our prayers.  He binds Himself to this promise.  He has given His word.  He never goes back on His word.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer needs God\u2019s promise.  Without God\u2019s promise there can be no true faith and thus no true prayer.  How can we pray with confidence unless we first know that God has invited us to pray and promised to give us those things for which we pray?  We cannot.  Those who presume to pray to God as if they are God\u2019s boss do not really pray with confidence.  Only those who trust in the promise can pray in faith.  Prayer needs God\u2019s promise.  We don\u2019t pray to the saints who have died and gone to heaven.  Why not?  There is no promise from God that they can hear our prayers or answer them.  Without a promise faith is flying blind and is not faith at all but delusion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, every prayer is prayed in confidence that God\u2019s promises are true.  Faith is confidence.  It is trust.  Faith is knowledge.  It is a certain kind of knowledge.  It knows that God cannot lie.  When He gives His word it is as good as done.  St. James warns us about praying apart from faith.  He writes:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:6-7)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To doubt God is to question His word.  It is to take His name in vain.  It is to call His faithfulness into question.  We don\u2019t base our faith on what we see.  We may or may not see that God has answered our prayers.  We base our faith on what God says.  We believe that we will receive from God the things we ask because He has promised to give them to us.  Jesus said, \u201cWhatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.\u201d  He makes no limitations.  Whatever means whatever.  This is Christ\u2019s promise.  It is true.  Faith believes that God\u2019s promises are truth.  True prayer is offered in faith.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, every prayer contains requests or petitions.  The perfect prayer contains seven petitions, which is appropriate because seven is the perfect number.  We may pray a prayer with a single request.  Or we may pour out our heart and list as many things as burden us.  But prayer, by definition, asks God for things.  When we ask we ask for specific things.  A child is sick or in trouble.  A marriage is suffering strain.  Money is tight.  Health is bad.  Death looms.  Sadness overwhelms.  So we pray.  We ask God for all sorts of specific things, throwing upon His mercy every concern we have.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now when we ask for specific things we need to be ready to receive something perhaps a bit different from what we specifically asked for.  But that\u2019s simply because we cannot know as God knows.  He gives us what we ask, but He must often revise what we ask to fit into what is best.  We do pray according to God\u2019s will, after all, and God\u2019s will translates our specific requests into things far better than we could have put into words.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth, every prayer is prayed in Jesus\u2019 name.  This doesn\u2019t require that the name of Jesus be mentioned.  The Lord\u2019s Prayer doesn\u2019t mention Jesus\u2019 name.  To pray in Jesus name means to pray in the faith that receives Christ and all His benefits.  It is to pray with Christ as our Mediator before God, interceding for us.  It is to pray with confidence that we are justified by Christ\u2019s blood and that through faith in Him we have peace with God, access to the throne of grace, and eternal salvation.  To pray in Jesus name is to pray knowing that Jesus has brought us into fellowship with God.  By bearing our sins on the cross He has made us acceptable to our Father in heaven.  Jesus has given us the right to pray.  This is what it means to pray in Jesus\u2019 name.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus tells us the purpose of prayer.  We pray in response to God\u2019s promise.  We pray trusting in His promise.  Our prayers contain petitions or requests to God.  We pray in Jesus\u2019 name.  Why are we doing this?  What is the purpose of it all?  What is the goal, the reason, the end for which we are praying?  Jesus tells us: \u201cThat your joy may be full.\u201d  When we pray to God He answers our prayers and gives us the fullness of joy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer and God\u2019s word go together.  God\u2019s word without our prayer is God talking as if to a brick wall.  Our prayer without God\u2019s word is empty talk without any understanding.  In the prayer of the Christian, God joins in a beautiful way His own promises and our response of faith in those promises.  St. Peter tells us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us.  So we do.  We tell Him what bothers us, what troubles our consciences and brings us doubts.  We confide in Him what we feel when nobody else could possibly understand.  And He always hears us.  He always understands.  He always answers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

True, at times it seems as if He isn\u2019t paying any attention.  But what seems so isn\u2019t so.  The promise remains firm even when appearances conspire to contradict it.  It is especially when it appears that God is paying us no mind that we must be persistent and stubborn in our prayers.  This is a discipline.  We discipline ourselves to set before God those things that we see as our specific needs.  And as we do this, fighting against doubt, we go to God\u2019s word.  God\u2019s word will then mold and perfect our faith.  He will teach us to pray with more confidence and boldness.  Prayer and God\u2019s word go back and forth and form a conversation that lifts us up from our troubles and gives us true joy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus promises that through prayer our joy will be full.  It will be a genuine joy.  It won\u2019t be the joy in accumulating useless things that will perish with the world.  If we want to pray our way into material prosperity we don\u2019t yet understand what prayer is.  And it won\u2019t be the joy of sinful pride that places us above others as if in some kind of a spiritual competition.  It will be the joy of sins forgiven, of true peace with God and in true fellowship with one another.  Prayer is the heartbeat of the Christian\u2019s life, drawing its life from the pure promises of God\u2019s word.  God is always ready to hear and answer and give us more than we can ask, not because we deserve this from Him but because He has promised to do so for Christ\u2019s sake.  Our lazy flesh will claim that prayer does no good.  The flesh is a fool.  It isn\u2019t the good that prayer does.  It\u2019s the good that the God to whom we pray does for us for Jesus\u2019 sake.  He is our Father and we are His children.  So we with all boldness and confidence ask Him as dear children ask their dear father, in Jesus\u2019 name.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jesus\u2019 name we live and we will die; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If then we live, His love we will proclaim; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we die, we gain thereby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jesus\u2019 name Who from heaven to us came, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shall again arise to meet Him in the skies, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When at last, saved by His grace <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shall see Him face to face, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live with Him in Paradise.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rogate Sunday Sermon | Rev. Rolf D. Preus\u00a0| \u00a0May 21, 2006| John 16:23-24\u00a0 \u201cMost assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.\u201d (John 16:23-24)  Jesus\u2019…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,8,17,4],"tags":[198,478,238],"class_list":["post-2915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter-6","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","tag-easter-6","tag-john-16","tag-rolf-preus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2916,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions\/2916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}