Whatever You Ask He Will Give You
John 16:23-33
March 17, 2020 anno Domini
God, we really need some toilet paper.
Heavenly Father, keep my daughter the nurse from getting sick.
Oh God, we’ve been planning this vacation for a long time, don’t let this virus ruin it.
Lord, if the Vikings get to the Super Bowl please let them win for once and if the Twins make it to playoffs let us beat the Yankees.
Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. That’s what Jesus said. Think about what you asked of your earthly father. You didn’t ask for him to do well on his job so the mortgage was paid and you would have a bed to sleep in and a table to eat at and parent’s to keep you safe and alive. You asked for peanut m&m’s, Legos, Polly Pocket, a motorcycle, or a new cell phone.
Why didn’t you ask your dad for important things? Because, if you had a good dad, he did what God called him to do. He loved you, so you loved him and trusted him to take care of you.
God the Father’s love for you stands behind your prayers. “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” That seems like a simple Bible verse, but it’s packed full of nutritional theology. God’s love is tied to Jesus. God does not love generally or generically. He doesn’t love you like I love a cold beer on a hot summer day after mowing lawn. He doesn’t love you because you give Him pleasure or because you supply something He needs. He loves you in Jesus.
God loves you the way He loved those people in the Old Testament. He loved them by saving them when they rightly deserved to die. Every time you complain, every time I complain (and I get straight A’s in complaining) we are telling God He doesn’t love us. The Israelites had been born of God, redeemed by God, saved from slavery by the Lord, delivered from their enemies, and were heading to the promised land free of charge. God, in love, wrote them into His will and made them His children. But they got bored with God, bored with life, with the same old bread, same old wilderness, same old pastor Moses. They desired slavery instead of freedom, death instead of life, hatred instead of love, they were the proverbial dogs returning to their own vomit. They asked God to get lost, to leave them alone, and He did. Then the fiery serpents came. The people died and they wanted God to deliver them. They desired His love because they knew He loved them. In that wilderness of sin and death God loved them in a peculiar way. Moses crafted a serpent on a pole, a bronze serpent, a fiery red serpent, just like the serpents killing them. God loved them with a sermon from their pastor. Look at that pole and you will live.
That serpent on the pole preached Jesus. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14–15, ESV) This is how God loves you. He forgives you and His forgiveness is Jesus. Jesus, the cure for sin, looks like the curse of sin. He looks just like you because the Son of God is true man. He looks just like you at the cross – because that is what sinners deserve – suffering and death. He is you in that He is carrying all your sin, your complaints, your lies, your lust, your coveting. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for you.
This is how God loves you. You are nothing but dust and ashes because of your sin. A rebel child who wished your father dead so you could squander his money on your pleasures. Go to any cemetery. You’ll find the wages of sin dust, ashes, and poverty. But if you’re in Trinity Cemetery or any other cemetery – even Popple Creek on judgment day you’ll see something you’ll never forget. You will see soldiers rising from the dead with all their limbs and farmers with all their fingers. You’ll see women rising, standing straight without arthritis, and children who died too young rising, and men will rise and they won’t being saying, “What?” because their hearing will be perfect. On that day, because the Father loves us in His Son, because we are forgiven by the death of Christ our joy will be complete.
Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. … Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. Whatever you ask of the Father you ask in the name of Jesus. That isn’t some magic formula for prayer – as if sticking the name of Jesus at the end of every prayer is the PIN number for God’s ATM to dispense your loot. In the name of Jesus is knowing you were dust and ashes before you were brought to life again in baptism. In the name of Jesus is God’s bounteous forgiveness for all your sins. In the name of Jesus is knowing you have nothing which God has not given you because of His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.
The love of the Father in His Son affects our prayers. We don’t ask our Father for things He is against. Don’t ask him not to get caught if you’re committing adultery. Don’t ask him for daily bread and then sit at the table waiting for it to land. Don’t ask him for forgiveness for choosing not to attend church. No teenager would ask their dad, “Can I borrow your truck tonight so my buddies and I can drink a couple of twelve packs of beer on the backroads of Wadena County?” That’s contrary to your dad’s love and will for you.
On the other hand, ask your Father in heaven for anything that’s not contrary to His will. That’s what you did with your earthly dad and your Father in heaven loves you more. He loves you perfectly. Ask Him for your baby to sleep through the night, for your check engine light to go off, for a good parking spot so you don’t have to walk to far, for decent weather on Sunday mornings, for peanut m&m’s (my favorite in case you’re wondering). He will give you a good answer because He is good. He loves you. His answer will fill you with joy. You have His Word on it. in the name of Jesus. Amen.