The Open Invitation

From 1st Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, here's Dr. Michael Milton. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. If you take that passage out of context, you can become disillusioned and even disappointed with God. We all have questions about prayer. When you have prayed for someone that you love, and they were not healed, and you feel confusion about prayer, and you prayed for someone you love, and they died. There are infertile couples who sob softly at night in each other's arms because they feel like their prayers are unanswered for a child. And for those people, this passage taught wrongly becomes theological cruelty. The Bible declares, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. Welcome to Faith for Living with Dr. Michael Milton, the radio outreach ministry of 1st Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, a ministry with one great passion and belief that faith comes from proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, as found in God's Word, and that faith in Jesus Christ is faith for living. This week, Dr. Milton continues our series, Life on the Vine, with a message entitled, The Open Invitation. If you follow a recipe, you can make a good meal. But if you just throw ingredients into a pot on the stove, you are more likely to make a mess. Many believers have weak powerless and unsatisfying prayer lives because they neither understand nor follow biblical principles about this vital spiritual discipline. Do you make a mess of your prayer life or do you enjoy a fruitful, effective prayer life? The Bible text for today is from John chapter 15, verses 7 and 8. Here again, is Dr. Michael Milton with today's message entitled, The Open Invitation. We're going through a series called Life on the Vine, which is based on John chapter 15. This morning, we're coming to a very enigmatic, perhaps mysterious, verse, difficult verse to apply. It is verse 7. Before we get to verse 7, I want us to go to the Old Testament to Psalm 37. But the reason I take you to chapter 37 is because verse 4 is another one of those verses about promises related to prayer. But what I want to do this morning, even in the public reading, is to show you the promise in the context of the rest of the scripture. Because I believe that these promises about prayer and answer prayer from God are real and powerful, but must be understood in the larger context. So we begin our reading of the inherent and infallible word with chapter 37 of Psalm. And so I'd like to read verses 1 through 7. Front not yourself because of evil doers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb, trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Here's the verse. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Now, what I want you to see is that the promise delights yourself in the Lord and He's going to give you the desires of your heart is set in the context of fretting not over evil doers and the invitation to pray comes also with the command not to fret when you see evil doers having good things and you have nothing. Don't fret. God's going to take care. He will give you the desires of your heart. And also we see here God saying, be still and then God saying, wait patiently. But to wait patiently, to not have and also to have a promise that says, just delight yourself in the Lord and He's going to give you promises, those seem to be in conflict but they're not, they're complimentary. It's the whole package, wait on the Lord, don't fret, just wait patiently and delight in Him He's going to give you the desires of your heart. If you take that passage out of context, you can become disillusioned and even disappointed with God. Now move to the New Testament where we get further clarity on this and if you would move to 1 John chapter 5, let's look at verse 13 through 15, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us and if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of Him. So here the request of God, the going before God is to be made in His name and now according to His will, in this context then, God hears your prayer and He answers prayer. Now move to our passage in chapter 15 of John, the context is verses 1 through 6, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser, every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, He takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. See you are clean because the word that I have spoken to you, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you and less you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in Him, He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, He has thrown away like a branch in withers and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord remains forever. Once upon a time there was a little boy who was six years old and he went to his bedside to pray as he prayed every night and he prayed for the same things and he started praying again and right as he started he got up and he gave one of these frustrated looks with his arms crossed to his parents and he said I am tired of praying for Aunt Greta to get a husband and for Uncle Bob to get a job and for Mama to lose weight and daddy to get hair. When are we going to get some results in this family? He was hitting on something we've all got questions about prayer. Larry Krab the noted Christian counselor said that when he was a boy he heard this very passage preached and he heard that you could ask whatever you wish and it would be granted for you. And so he went home and he said he was six years old and he said I wanted to fly like Superman so I said God you said ask whatever you wish I wish to be Superman and he said he went and he bound it up at a half a foot off the ground and moved about a foot down the driveway. He asked again and the same thing happened and a third time and he said that that began for him and I quote a 50 year journey of some confusion about prayer well I can do one better than Larry Krab I heard this preached when I was about that age and I wanted to be a superhero not necessarily Superman but when I had made up and so I climbed on top of a 10 foot outhouse jumped off with a cape and thought I could fly and I broke my arm but you know we all have questions about prayer and maybe even like Larry Krab you feel confusion about prayer when you have prayed for someone that you love and they were not healed when you prayed for someone you love and they died there are infertile couples who sobbed softly at night in each other's arms because they feel like their prayers are unanswered for a child and there is a child who will lie awake at night and wonder why God took his daddy from him I was that child too and for those people this passage taught wrongly becomes theological cruelty I am not so proud or think so highly of myself that I will now answer all of your questions about prayer but I do ask God to give me his Holy Spirit and to give each of us the Holy Spirit that we may understand this passage in this way in context with the condition given and then arrive at clarity and at each point in those three movements from context to the condition given and then the clarity that we could make an affirmation together from this passage now first of all I want to say clearly what verse 7 of chapter 15 of John is not saying it is not saying that you can ask God to give you something and he is obligated to give it to you without any other criteria for the prayer I know the prayer says whatsoever you wish but again that text has a context and a condition but this passage is not saying that we have the power to dictate to God there's a bad theological era that happens in prayer on the other side of the spectrum that goes like this since God knows why pray God moves his sovereign hand through the prayers of his people so that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much so God ordains prayer he ordains evangelism so that people can be saved how are they going to be saved and unless they hear how are they going to hear unless there is a preacher who is sent to them God ordains the means God ordains the end now when you come over to the other side the polar opposite of the era you come to what we could deal with today that since this says whatsoever you're bound to answer what I ask of you as if God were a divine Santa Claus or if God happened to be a puppet of ires or slave to our whims and our wishes even a good father you have to admit even a good father who desires to give the best to his children will not simply say well whatever you ask for I'll give you so this passage is not saying that and there have been many people who have been disappointed with God when in fact they're disappointed with the theological error that has no place in reality so it's not saying that God is that divine Santa Claus or that God is your slave but the passage is saying something and it is saying something that is definite about prayer and about the way God desires and will answer prayer now to get to that we've got to start with the context and the context of this passage of course is Jesus teaching that I am the vine and you are the branches he says if anyone does not remain in me he is like a branch there's thrown away and withers such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned but then he moves from verse six to verse seven to talk about answered prayer and then in verse eight he says this is to show using another translation this is to show my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples and so the context for this this passage in verse seven about asking whatever you wish and it will be done for you the context is is abiding in Christ and fruit coming from your abiding in Christ the affirmation that we could make could be this when we seek more of Jesus for our lives we bring more honor for God in the world because you see the passage is saying that as we abide in Christ there's life in us and life the life of Jesus Christ begins to flow through us we are to use a phrase God besotted through prayer and exercise of the means of grace words sacrament and prayer we're we're coming into the presence of God and as a result then we begin to pray and God begins to answer prayer to the degree that fruit begins to emerge that's the answer to the prayer is verse eight fruit new life begins to emerge in the branch they are strengthened they begin to grow and through this God is glorified and the world knows that you are my disciples so God's purposes are realized and that's the answer to the prayer so that's the first affirmation I would make when we seek more of Jesus for our lives we bring more honor for God in the world now that's the context of verse 7 now there is a condition in verse 7 because it begins with the word if if you abide in me and my words abide in you so if there is this organic union between the branch and the vine if there's an organic union between you and Jesus Christ then there's going to be a flow that's going to happen the word of God is going to begin to flow into your life and to begin to transform you and fill you and change you and then through that condition you go to the Lord in prayer John Piper put it like this and you put it in a rhyme more saturated by the word more surely will our prayers be heard what that is going to require is for some of us to move beyond a sort of road religious experience to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ so that the opening if you will of the branch widens so that we desire God and we desire more of him than it flows through us for the Christian who says well I don't have time for the Bible I don't have time for Bible study I just want to whizz through worship and get on to the next thing in my day and you miss the very means of grace that God gives you in order to grow it would be difficult to imagine how you're fulfilling this condition and therefore difficult to imagine how the kind of answer prayer and the kind of relationship which the open invitation of God to ask whatsoever you you wish could happen in your life and so for some of us it's this morning it means a repentance so for some of us this morning it means a recommitment to God in our lives and for some of us this morning it means a receiving of Jesus Christ into our lives so that we have that kind of relationship of prayer an effective prayer and prayers that are answered it means receiving in by faith this morning well we've noted the context in the condition and I want to see if we can arrive at some clarity in the passage because he says then if we understand the context and he says that I'm the vine and you're the branches and I want you to abide in me and if you're abiding in me you can ask this prayer and the result of this prayer is that you're going to have greater fruit and God is going to be glorified and the kingdom of God is going to go forward then the clarity of the passage the answer to the passage must be that our wills are somehow being conformed to his will and my wishes in some sense equate to his wishes now if we think that using the name of Jesus as a sort of mantra and that's not what this is talking about if we mean though that abiding in him leads to answered prayer because we are abiding and beginning to know his nature his lordship his kingdom his purpose his glory in our lives and that's where the text is leading us not to a blank check that says give me what I want or I'm living a righteous life therefore we God you've got to answer my prayer the way I want if that were so how about the apostle Paul was the apostle Paul not abiding in Christ was the apostle Paul not not showing forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit and yet Paul goes to the Lord with the thorn and the flesh asked that it be removed and God doesn't remove it in fact Jesus said my grace is sufficient for you what was going on Paul was a preacher of grace and therefore Paul had to personally experience grace and there was a new fruit that God was going to bring through this prayer of Paul's and that was that was a fruit of faith a faith and a God who would who would strengthen me with his grace even in my weakness and that was something Paul had to learn for himself if he was going to preach it to you and me he had to know it and so God answered the prayer of Paul but in a different way he gave him he gave him his grace in a new way grace in the midst of suffering so do we pray for people to be healed well of course we do and does God answered the prayer yes he does sometimes his answers come in different ways but in this passage do we pray to abide in Christ to be closer to Christ have the fruit of the Holy Spirit come into our lives to blossom in our lives yes and God says I will answer that prayer so you go to God and you say I have a heart ailment and Lord God I'd like you to fix it that's a good prayer and as your pastor I'm going to pray that with you but what if God begins to so abide in you in Christ that your prayer begins to be Lord God I now ask not only for healing if it's your will but I ask Lord for a faith to come to trust you in the midst of this heart condition there may be a young person who's got to reach their reach school their stretch school is Harvard but they wanted it a full-ride scholarship so they're praying for Harvard for full-ride scholarship and their parents are praying with them every every step of the way but maybe in the process of growing in grace and growing in Christ you submit that to the Lord and say if that's your will Lord I would like to go there but you begin to say Lord God could you also work patience in me and humility as I wait for that answer to light yourself in the Lord he'll give you the desires of your heart for fret not and wait patiently maybe you need a job and you don't like the job where you are but maybe as you're praying for the new job and maybe you pray for gratitude for a spirit of gratitude for at least you have some job I quote a w pink real prayer is communion with God so that there will be common thoughts between his mind and hours what is needed is for him to fill our hearts with his thoughts and then his desires will become our desires flowing back to him one of the reasons I share the real-life testimonies of people right here in our congregation is that I want you to know that this is a faith for living I want you to know that all theology is practical and all teaching aims at lives which are transformed for the glory of God and so this morning I want to tell you about a young woman that is in our congregation and I prayed with her last night and I've been walking with her and her family through a time of trial through a time of illness a disease when you're around this young woman for any time and her husband you walk away and you feel like you've been around Jesus Christ and we prayed fervently together with her family for an answer to prayer that there would be healing and there was in large part through an operation but then we learned that they would have to be more treatments and there are question marks here's what she wrote in her reflections God is so good as he has shown my husband and me his love mercy and provision as we journey through this we continue to pray that he will be glorified and that Satan will not get a foothold thank you for your prayers we know that it makes all the difference we are in his hands sound familiar abide in me and my word in you and ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples what do you think is God answering her prayers to bear more fruit is he glorified and do you want that kind of faith in your life it's not through religion but through relationship it's not through duty it's through grace it's not through the flesh it's through the spirit it's not just for then it's for now and it's not just for others it's for you that's Christ open invitation wherever you are whatever you were going through if you'll abide in him ask whatever you wish it will be done for you because by this he is glorified that you bear much fruit and prove to be his disciples

you can experience blessing and power in your prayer life when you understand the full scope of God's teaching about this vital spiritual discipline for audio copy of today's message be sure to call right and ask for the open invitation now this entire series of messages titled life on the vine is available as a complete set for gift of twenty five dollars we believe this will be a wonderful resource whether you're a new believer or someone who's followed the Lord for many years and it's one more way that you can help support this radio ministry as we reach out to the world with a gospel each and every week I'm going to title of this series is called life on the vine and we be glad to send you the complete set on cd for gift of twenty five dollars you can write to a set faith for living 554 McCauley Avenue Chattanooga Tennessee 37402 or call four two three six four eight seven nine one four that's four two three six four eight seven nine one four you can also hear today's teaching on our website at faithforliving.net and this program is also available for downloading onto your iPod through iTunes.com Faith for living with Mike Milton is an outreach ministry of first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga with a passion for God's word a heart for God's world and a commitment to God's grace our mission is to gather and grow strong disciples of Christ to be sent forth to make new disciples your generous gift sent to faith for living would be a great encouragement and would help us to get the broadcast out to more people you're invited to send your gift of support to faith for living 554 McCauley Avenue Chattanooga Tennessee 37402 now until next time on behalf of Mike Milton and first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga may you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ with a living faith and a faith for living i'm Dan Parker and this has been a presentation of first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga