Rogate Sunday, May 6, 2018, W.H.

JESUS EMPOWERS PRAYER.

It is common when we must part.  We ask friends and loved ones to keep in touch.  We may not actually be able to touch departed loved ones but we can do almost everything else.  We can hear their voices by phone or Internet.  We can see their faces by smart phone and Internet.  We can text and email and snail mail.

Jesus told them He would ascend to the right hand of the Father.  He would remove His visible presence from this world.  He knew we would feel left behind, alone.  He gave us prayer to keep in touch.  It would be neat if prayer were like other means of communication, if we could click on an app and see Jesus’ face.  We might text and the Savior would text back.  We might wish prayer would let us hear Him or see Him but prayer is more wondrous. 

We talk to God.  He promises to listen.  He promises to answer.  It is His command. This is the wonder of prayer.  Jesus said:

In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.       

We may talk with God anywhere.   We may talk without speaking.  He knows our thoughts and feelings.  If grief or pain keeps us from speaking, He hears our groanings.  He is in us.       

Jesus promised the Father would hear and answer.  God is with us everywhere we go.  We can talk to Jesus and the Father no matter where we are or what we are doing.  He is as close to us as a word of prayer, a thought of prayer, a groan of prayer. God will always answer.  It won’t be by text or email, or voice mail but He will answer. 

A recent survey suggested some of us gave up on prayer thinking God doesn’t hear or answer.  Maybe, we aren’t listening, maybe we can’t hear, but God promised. God will speak to us.  He has chosen a singular method by which to speak to us.  He communicates through His word, the Bible.  He speaks as we gather in worship, as we gather to unite our hearts in prayers and praise.  This time of worship is our time to be live with God.  We speak to Him in prayer.  He speaks to us by means of His unchanging and inerrant word.       

Knowing He would remove His visible presence from this world, by His promises He inspire us to do what God commands: 

Pray without ceasing.  I Thess 5:17

The promise is beyond imagination.  The Father will give us whatever we ask in His name.  The Bible is full of examples.  We have examples of our own.  God hears and answers all our prayers.  God wants to help.  He commands us to pray.  He is more ready to give than we are to ask.  He is quick, eager and powerful to answer.  And He loves us.       

Sometimes God doesn’t give us what we want or what we ask but God always answers.  He may give us something better.  Likely little children given vegetables instead of ice cream, we may not always realize God’s answer is better.  But then, we are all too human.  We almost always think we know better than God.  In stead of doubt, we need to believe Him when He says He answers all our prayers.  We need to obey His commands.

This is what He expects from us.  Jesus empowers prayer but   He expects us to believe Him.  Faith is a part of prayer.  Those who do not believe will not be inclined to pray.  Those who doubt will be inclined to prayer most reluctantly.  Satan would have us doubt especially God’s commands concerning prayers.  Doubt affects the frequency of our prayer.  We wonder why God would want to listen to us.  We might assume God only answers the prayers of righteous.  We might think God to be too busy.  Doubts creep in.

This is why Jesus taught us to pray in His name.  Jesus, the very Son of God endorses or cosigns our prayer.  By ourselves, we are not fit to approach God not even to have a conversation.  But we are not by ourselves.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  As we are by ourselves, we are inclined to pray only selfish prayers.  But we are not by ourselves.  We pray in faith as if we are Jesus.  Our old nature suggests God doesn’t hear. 

Jesus says He hears all our prayers.  He adds His influence, His holiness to our prayers. He didn’t ascend to the Father’s right hand until He finished His work.  By that work He made it possible for us to have access to the Father.  By His sacrificial life, death and resurrection, Jesus removed all the barriers between God and us.  God promises to hear our prayers not because we deserve it but because Jesus deserves it.  God loves us not because we are worthy but because Jesus was worthy for us.  All that which would separate us from the Father was taken from us to the cross where Jesus died. By faith in Jesus God loves us as much as He loves His only begotten Son.  For Jesus’ sake, God is not angry with us in any way.  Nothing stands between us and God, not sin, nor guilt, nor shame, nothing. 

God answers prayer because of Jesus. Given this promise, we can pray often and with confidence.  Alone and lonely in your room, God is there.  Dr. Luther preached:

In all confidence we can approach him and say, Dear God and Father, I know for a certainty that you love me, because I love your Son and my Redeemer, Jesus Christ; it is in such assurance and trust that I now wish to pray to you.  You will hear my prayer and grant my petition, not because I am so holy or righteous but for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Sinners pray together.  That is what congregate means, to gather together.  This is Resurrection Lutheran Congregation.  We congregate.  We gather together to be with God together.       

God is here live.  God responds here.  This makes prayer much more simple.  We talk to God in hymns and in prayers.   And God answers.  Out loud, God speaks.  He said:

Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.  In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.  No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.  I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."

         Jesus has a new way of speaking to those who congregate after His ascension.  He commissions ministers with the command

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.  If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.       

God gives us His servants to speak for us through His work.    Our eyes see a servant.  Our faith hears Jesus.  He said: He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me. This is a prayer aid, this connection between our prayer life and our life in and with God’s word.  Prayer is our part of the conversation.  Hearing, studying, meditating upon God’s word is God’s part.  There He speaks plainly.  The more we listen to God speaking His words and promises, the more we will talk to Him.

God loves us.  He is the power to our prayer.  He listens.  He loves us.  We pray without ceasing.  God answers without ceasing. Amen.  Soli Deo Gloria!