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John 14:13-14  THE PROMISE OF ANSWERED PRAYER

Introduction:
	
	In our text last Sunday Jesus informed His disciples
that after He goes away they would carry on the work that He
had been doing.  They would carry on the preaching of the
gospel as He had done.
	In addition to preaching the gospel they would carry on
the work of teaching and preaching and teaching the many
other great truths of God which they had heard Jesus preach
and teach.  There is a lot of Bible truth to be preached and
taught in addition to the gospel.  The gospel message is
just a small part of the Bible.
	The disciples had already been given the spiritual gift
of miracles during the ministry of Jesus and they were told
that they would continue to able to work miracles even after
Jesus is gone.
	Jesus even informed His disciples that they would do
greater works than He had done.  Not that they would be
greater preachers than Jesus or perform greater miracles
than Jesus, but they would win a much greater number of
souls, they would cover a much greater territory and they
would carry on the work for a much greater period of time
than Jesus had done.
	In our text today Jesus promises to answer prayers.

I.  What the promise of Jesus meant to those disciples

	Jesus informed His disciples that they would be able to
go to God the Father in prayer and that they could ask God
to supply whatever they would need in order to carry out the
work that they would be assigned to do.  V. 13, "And
whatsoever ye shall ask in my name..."
	This promise explains the miracles which they would be
able to do.  They would have no power of their own to
perform miracles.  They were to pray to God and God would do
the miracle.  They would not necessarily pray out loud so
that people around them would hear, but they would have to
look to God for the miracle because they had no power of
their own to work miracles.
	It would explain their effectiveness in teaching and
preaching.  They would pray and the power of God would bless
their efforts.  They were to pray to God the Father in the
name of Jesus asking for the miracle to be done and it would
be the power of God which would work the miracle.  They were
to present their prayer to God and depend on God to perform
the miracle.
	This promise also explains how they would have their
material needs supplied.  They were to present their need to
God the Father in prayer.  They were to pray to God the
Father in the name of Jesus Christ and then wait for their
need to be supplied.
	It should be noted that they were to present their
petition to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps we would do well to get an understanding of what it
means to pray in the name of Jesus.  I think you are
familiar with the practice of Christians closing out their
prayers by saying:  "In the name of Jesus Christ we pray."
Or perhaps, "For Jesus's sake we pray."  We all pray using
something similar to that and this is as it should be.  We
should use some such words.

II.  What it means to pray in Jesus' name

	But we should understand this.  Asking in the name of
Jesus should mean that we are asking for Jesus's sake.  When
one makes a purchase and charges it to the company he works
for should mean that he is purchasing this item for the
company's sake he should be making that purchase for the
sake of the company.  He is purchasing it to be used for the
benefit of the company.  He is not purchasing this item for
his own personal use, but for the company.
	So it is with prayer.  The mere saying of the words does
not mean that we are asking our prayer to be granted for
Jesus's sake.  We can say, "These things we ask for Jesus's
sake" and not be asking for His sake at all.  We can be
asking for our own sake.
	We should not understand this scripture to mean that the
disciple of Jesus could ask for just anything out of a
selfish motive and expect God to grant his request.  If the
disciple had thought that was what Jesus was promising them,
I am quite sure they would have prayed for God the Father to
leave Jesus right here on earth with them.  They most
certainly did not want Jesus to leave them and go away.  But
if they had prayed such a prayer they would not have been
asking for Jesus's sake.  They would have been asking for
their own sake.
	Neither did God intend for us to understand this
scripture to mean that we can ask for anything our selfish
heart desires and get it just because we close out our
prayer by saying, "These things we ask in Jesus's name" or
"These things we ask for Jesus's sake." We can ask selfishly
and say, "These things we ask for Jesus's sake" or "In the
name of Jesus we pray" and still not be granted our request.
In James 4:3 we read, "Ye ask, and receive not because ye
ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."  We can
ask for fifty million dollars and say that we are asking for
Jesus's sake when we are really asking for our own sake.  We
would be asking selfishly.  We can ask that kind of prayer
in the name of Jesus and still not receive it because we ask
amiss.  We ask so that we can live in luxury.  We can even
ask for good health and do it out of a selfish motive.  We
can ask for good health just so we can have a more
comfortable and enjoyable life here on earth.  That is
asking for our own sake.
	We can even ask for something and have the right motive
and ask amiss.  For example, the disciples could have asked
God the Father not to allow Jesus to be crucified.  They
certainly did not want Jesus to be crucified.   To ask that
Jesus not be crucified would not have been a selfish prayer.
That prayer would not have been for their own sakes; it
would have truly been asked for Jesus's sake.  It would have
been asked so that Jesus would be spared the terrible
anguish of crucifixion.  It would have been asked for
unselfish motives.  But if they had made such a request,
their prayer would not have been answered because God had
already planned for Jesus go die on the cross so that all
men might have a way of salvation and God had already
predicted that Jesus would be crucified.  .
	In a similar way we could pray and ask God to heal all
sick people in the world.  We could ask Him to stop all
sickness and stop all death in the world and ask this out of
motives that are totally unselfish.  But if we should ask
such a thing that prayer would not be granted because God
has already set the rule that the wages of sin is death.
God is not going to go back on His rule.  He is not going to
stop all sickness because mankind is not going to stop all
sinning.  The wages of sin is death and that is that.
	To pray in Jesus's name implies that we pray with our
will submitted to the will of the Father.  That is the way
Jesus prayed.  He prayed, "Not my will, but thine be done."

III.  The blessed privilege of prayer

	But Jesus did leave those disciples an extremely great
promise in our text.  It left them the privilege of calling
upon God to empower them to preach the word of God.  It left
them the privilege of calling upon God of calling upon God
to empower them to do the miracles Jesus had called upon
them to do.  It left them the privilege of calling upon God
to supply them the material things they needed for doing the
work of God.  It left them the privilege of calling upon God
to give them the physical health and strength they needed to
carry on His work.  It left them the privilege of calling
upon God for help in overcoming the problems of life which
the would meet as they tried to carry on the work of God.
	It even left them the privilege of asking God for some
things which they did not necessarily need.  God loves His
children and God is anxious to give His children more than
the bare necessities of life.  He wants them to ask Him for
good things.  There is many a time a child of God does not
have simply because he does not ask.  In the latter part of
James 4:2 we read, "...ye have not because ye ask not."

IV.  The chain of responsibility in prayer

	(V. 13), "...that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son."  I want you to take note of the
different responsibilities in this text.  The Christian is
responsible for making his request known to God the Father.
He is to pray to God the Father and ask for what he needs
and what he desires.  It is not the Father's responsibility
to give everything we need before we ask, even though He
knows what we need before we ask.  God wants us to
demonstrate that we know that our blessings come from Him by
asking Him.
	It is then up to God the Father to decide whether this
request should be granted or denied.  There should be no
doubt that God the Father does deny some requests.  He does
deny some requests even though the special words are used,
"In Jesus's name I pray."  I have already cited you to
Biblical proof that some who pray do not get what they ask
for --- not because they did not say the right words --- but
because they ask amiss.  They can say the right words, but
if they ask amiss, their request is denied.
	Furthermore, I think that all of us can remember praying
for some things that we have never received and probably
never will receive.  While some requests may not be denied
--- only delayed --- it is reasonable to think that a large
number of the things have we asked for and have not received
have simply been denied.
	So the Christian is called upon to pray and ask God the
Father to grant his request.  Then it is up to God the
Father to decide whether or not the prayer is to be granted.
If the request is to be granted, we would quite naturally
expect God the Father to be the One to give us what we ask
for.  And there is a sense in which this is true.  James
1:17 says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning."  Since it is God
the Father who makes the decision, it is in this sense that
every good gift to all mankind is from God the Father.
	But I want you to note that in our text Jesus Christ,
the Son of God is the One who actually brings to us the
answer to our prayer.  Note in verse 13 Jesus said, "And
whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that shall I do..."  He
said the same thing in verse 14.  V. 14, "If ye shall ask
any thing in my name, I will do it."  In verse 14, the Greek
language, in which the New Testament was originally written,
places emphasis upon the pronoun "I." Jesus said, "I will do
it."
	This is in keeping with the way God does business in all
things.  God the Father makes the decisions and makes the
plans, God the Son brings the plan to pass.  The God the
Holy Spirit oversees the project after it is put into
operation.  This was God's plan in the creation of the
world.  God the Father planned it.  Jesus was the One who
produced it.  The Holy Spirit was the One who then would
oversee it.
	This was true in the plan of salvation.  God the Father
planned it.  Jesus Christ the Son, provided it.  God, the
Holy Spirit oversees and leads the saved.
	This was true with the New Testament church system of
worship.  God the Father made the decision to have a new
system of worship to replace the old law system.  God the
Son organized the first New Testament church and, thus,
founded the church system.  Yet it is the Holy Spirit who
was left here upon earth to oversee the churches after Jesus
went away back to heaven.  So it is Jesus who actually takes
action to grant our prayers which God the Father has
approved.

V.  What I seek to accomplish in this message

	I have tried, by the help of God, to help you to
understand what this passage of Scripture is all about and I
have tried to help you to avoid jumping to the wrong
conclusion on some things.
	I have tried also, to seek to keep you to understand why
it is that some of your prayers have not been granted and
why some never will be granted.
	I have tried to help you to understand why some of your
prayers which are acceptable in the sight of God may yet be
answered even though they have been long delayed.  .  It is
simply in the will of God to delay granting some of your
requests.
	What I would like to do now is to challenge you enter
into your prayer life with new zeal.  What a blessed
privilege it to pray unto God and to present your requests
to Him.  You may never get to talk to the mayor of Henderson
or Overton to make your requests be made known about your
needs and desires.  You may never be able to talk to the
governor of Texas or the president of the United States
about how the government can better serve you.  But you can
talk personally to the God of heaven and you can do so any
time you choose.  You have easy access to God the Father.
	Prayer is not some wistful scheme dreamed up to
encourage Christians and to make them feel better.  It is an
open channel to the very throne of God to get help from the
highest power in the universe.  Prayer is not a
communication with some distant cold stony heart which could
care less about what you are going through here on earth.
Prayer is a personal appearance before the tenderest, most
compassionate heart in all the world.  It is an appeal to
One who so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten
Son to die on the cross of Calvary that we might be saved.
	Prayer is not vain fruitless effort.  It is not time and
energy wasted.  It is not words thrown to the wind.  Prayer
is a personal message from your heart to the heart of God
the Father, who sits upon the throne in heaven.  So I
encourage you to pray.  I encourage you to renew your prayer
life with great zeal.  I challenge you to engage in prayer
more frequently and more earnestly than you ever have
before.
	But I counsel you to pray with wisdom.  Do not displease
God the Father by bringing greedy selfish prayers to Him.
He will non for not granting it.
Remember that God loves you and He would not refuse your
request if there was not good reason to do so.  Trust Him.
	I counsel you to pray about little things.  Please do
not think that you will bother God by asking His help with
small things.  If it is a problem to you, It is a matter of
concern to God.
	I counsel you also to pray about big things.  Nothing is
too big for God to handle.  Please do not neglect to pray
about what is bothering you because you feel that nothing
can be done about it.  Talk to God about it and let Him
decide what, if anything, is to be done.  Leave it in the
hands of God.
	There are three special things I am going to ask of you.
If you are unsure of where you will spend your eternity I am
going to ask that you talk to God about that right now.  .
If fact, you can talk directly to Jesus and ask Him to have
mercy upon you and to save your soul.
	If you are saved, then I am going to ask you to talk to
God about your service to Him.  Talk to Him about it right
now and ask God to lead you and guide you and to make you a
useful servant to Him in His work.
	If you are in need of a church home, then I am going to
ask you to ask God to lead you and guide you and help you to
make the right decision where to place your membership.

Conclusion:

	We are going to have an invitation hymn at this time.  I
am quite confident that God is going to lay it on somebody's
heart to come forward in this invitation and trust Jesus for
salvation.  I am also sure that He will lay it on some
Christian's heart to make some move that would bring you
closer to the will of God in your life.
	Will you come?