Title: The Sufficiency of Prayer
Text: 1 John 5:14-15

When we were home this past May my great Aunt on my mother's side was telling us about having actually met five US presidents. I can only remember three of them, I think she said she met President Eisenhower, President Nixon and President Carter. Most of us will never meet a president, and if we were to travel to Washington I doubt if we would get an audience with the President. We certainly wouldn't be able to boldly approach him. The only thing that would likely get us would be arrested. If we called we probably wouldn't get through to him and even when we email him as I did recently it's received and reviewed by a staff person and more than likely the president will never know you sent it at least not personally.

But John shares something remarkable with us in verses 14 and 15 verses of this 5th chapter.

I Jn 5:14"And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." (NAS)

John is instructing us in the matter of prayer and the first thing tells us is we can have confidence before Him. Confidence here means we have bold assurance in approaching God. The Bible says in Heb 4:16: ALet us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. "

Boldness is not to be confused with arrogance or conceit. When we pray we actually come into the presence of God. We do so in the spiritual realm rather than the physical realm, but it is just as real. When we come before Him in prayer we must still recognize He is our Creator and our Redeemer He is the Lord God the Almighty. Like Isaiah we must see Him high and lifted up so we approach Him with reverence and awe.

The truth is we generally don't approach Him like that. I suspect, that if we are honest more often than not our prayers never take Him into consideration at all. We must always remember to whom our prayers are directed that when we pray we come into His very presence and in prayer we are to give Him the honor and glory His is due.

At the same time we have confidence in approaching Him, confidence that comes not from ourselves but from what He has done for us. In Heb 10:19 the Bible explains that we have confidence to approach God by the Blood of Jesus. In this letter John wrote that we have been made His children, we have been born of Him and in verse 13 we have been given eternal life all of these as a result of the blood of Jesus. So while we must humbly come before Him we can do so with confidence any time and any place.

Our confidence also comes from the fact He hears our prayers. Hearing in this verse means He doesn't just hear the words, He acts favorably on what He hears, or that He answers our prayers. This expectation for answered prayer is qualified, however, by the phrase "if we ask anything according to His will."

The clear teaching of Scripture is that not just any prayer is answered. Scripture teaches us God does not hear the prayers of those who are not His and not in fellowship with Him. In John 9:31 the Bible says: "We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing, and does His will, He hears him." (NAS) Sinners in this case referring to unbelievers those who have never trusted Christ as Savior. God does not hear the prayer of the unbeliever except the prayer of repentance and confession.

The Bible also teaches God does not hear those who are believers who are not living in fellowship with Him. In the Old Testament Isaiah wrote in Isa 59:2: ". . .your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden {His} face from you, so that He does not hear. (NAS) The psalmist in Ps 66:18 wrote: "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear;" (NAS) In Prov 28:9 the Bible says: "He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination." (NAS)

On the other hand the Bible teaches God does hear the prayer prayed according to His will. That means He hears the prayer of the disciple who is in fellowship with the Father (John 15:7); who asks in Jesus name (John 14:13; 15:16) and Jesus name means in accordance with His will and purpose; and who is obedient (1 Jn 3:22).

To have the assurance that God hears and answers my prayers means my life must be conformed to His will. How do I know if my life is conformed to the will of God? The first way is to be sure you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus said in John 6:40: "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life;" (NAS) As we saw earlier John wrote in verse 13 because we have eternal life we have confidence to approach God in prayer.

If our lives are to be conformed to the will of God we must also know the Word of God. The psalmist wrote Ps 119:11 "Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee." (NAS) the Bible reveals the will of God to us, sometimes explicitly, other times it gives us principles we can use in different situations.

For instance we have the "Ten Commandments" from the Old Testament. These commandments are God's will for our lives. In the New Testament we have the beatitudes, part of the "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew chapter five, that guide our understanding of God's will.

But consider some other passages that provide guidance for us to determine God's will: Rom 12:1-2 "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, {which is} your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (NAS)

We often hear that verse used as admonishment to keep ourselves in good physical condition. While that principle could be drawn from that it's not what the verse principally tells us. What it tells us is, it's God's will that we make ourselves available to Him to be used by Him. Paul said that in Rom 6:13: and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin {as} instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members {as} instruments of righteousness to God. (NAS)

God's will is also that we are also not to be conformed to this world. Again we can look to Scripture to provide understanding.

1Thes 4:3-5 says: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; {that is,} that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; (NAS) Verse 7 also says: "For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. (NAS)

The worlds view is that anything goes, there are no taboos. What has always been called sexual immorality is now called acceptable and right. The will of God is we are not to buy into that false premise.

Two areas where our minds are constantly assaulted from media sources of all types is first in the area of sexuality which is used to sell everything from A to Z. The world presents this false concept of what beauty is of what a beautiful person must look like dress like and that beauty and sexuality are one in the same, then that concept is used to entice us to not only buy products but to falsely believe we have to look like that and dress like that and act like that to be beautiful.

The Hollywood establishment, the media and much of society has been shocked and dismayed to find that true love waits works, because it teaches morality rather that amorality or immorality.

The second area in which we find ourselves assaulted is alcohol consumption. In Eph 5:17-20 The Bible says: "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

Almost every professional sporting event is sponsored by a brewing company. They spend millions I sponsorships they spend millions more for some of the slickest ads ever produced. They have created a culture of acceptance that says drinking is ok. It's the thing to do. And, Christians have bought into it probably as much as the rest of the world so we say the key is moderation, it's ok to drink as long as we don't get drunk.

But the Bible warns us of the dangers of alcohol in Prov 20:1 the Bible says: "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise." (NAS) It caused problems for Noah in Gen 9. It caused problems for Lot in Gen 19. I think I can present a strong biblical case for abstinence from all forms of alcohol. I know I could present a strong argument against it from personal experience and from research I did in college I know that in almost every area of social problem in our country an astoundingly high percentage are in someway associated with the consumption of alcohol including broken homes, infidelity, spouse abuse child abuse drug addition and the list could go on.

The point is this when alcohol possesses your mind the Spirit of God can't and God's will is that you be possessed by the Spirit at all times.

Another area where the Bible gives guidance is found in Heb 10:24-25. The bible says: "let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging {one another} and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." (NAS)

Being active in corporate worship is part of being in the will of God. We don't make our own rules about how we will worship God. It's obvious from every study that has been conducted that a great many of those who claim to be Christian are not part of a local church.

We wonder why Christians are so ineffective in prayer when even in our own denomination which is considered one of the most conservative of any denomination and on any given Sunday less than half of our 15 million members are even in church many of that missing 7 million haven't been in a church in years. We can't expect to be effective in prayer we can't expect answered prayer if we are not praying in God's will and if we are forsaking our own assembling together we are not in God's will.

The last area I want to mention concerning God's will is found in 1Thes 5:18-22: "in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything {carefully} hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil." (NAS)

This passage tells in order to be in the will of God we must be thankful in everything in every situation. We must not quench the spirit, but rather be yielded to His leadership. We must not despise prophetic utterance that's the Bible. Prophetic utterance It's not just what we think of as foretelling the future, but also forth telling that is bringing things into view. The Bible doesn't just tell us of the future to give us hope, but also reveals the truth to give us life. It says some things that are hard for us to understand it says some things we don't want to hear, but the will of God is that rather than rejecting it we hide it's words in our hearts û all of it's words, not just what. That passage also tells us to examine everything carefully in light of God's prophetic word and hold fast to that which is good. And verse 22 is kind of a catch all "abstain from every form of evil."

We can spend a great deal of time trying to figure out God's will for our lives, but the first step in understanding it is to make sure we are already following what's He's made known.

The first part of praying in the will of God is living in the will of God. The second part of the equation for answered prayer is asking for the will of God. God wants us to be honest and open in prayer sharing with Him our hopes, our fears, our frustration, our anger, our doubt and our desires. But, prayer should never be an attempt to convince God or persuade God to see things from our point of view or handle things the way we think they should be handled. James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend {it} on your pleasures." (NAS)

Prayer is not a time for our wants. Prayer is a time for allowing God to help us see and do things His way. Not for our wants to be fulfilled, but for His wants to be accomplished. To pray in the will of God means we always insist His will be done in our lives and in the lives of those for whom we intercede. That's what it means to pray in Jesus name, to pray according to His will. And we know if we pray according to His will He hears and answers our prayers.

Are our prayers effective? Are they being heard? If not we must examine our own lives to find the reason. We must allow Him to have His own way because His way is perfect.