Latest / Reformed Thinking / “Ask the Father in My Name”: Prayer, Mediated Access, and Full Joy (John 16:23–24)

Transcript

“Ask the Father in My Name”: Prayer, Mediated Access, and Full Joy (John 16:23–24) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Well, into the deep dive and to our segment Reformed Thinking.
• 0:03
  Today we're going to be standing with the disciples, so to speak.
• 0:08
  We're in the Upper room just moments before the Crisis of the
• 0:11
  Cross. And the atmosphere is just so
• 0:14
  heavy, isn't it? Jesus has told them things that
• 0:16
  have completely, well, shattered their whole reality.
• 0:20
  Yeah, three things. Specifically, he's leaving them.
• 0:23
  They can't follow him where he's going.
• 0:25
  And the one thing they thought was absolutely certain?
• 0:28
  His physical presence that's about to be taken away.
• 0:31
  Right. And they'd staked everything on
• 0:32
  that, on his immediate, visible guidance for every little thing.
• 0:36
  It makes their anxiety completely understandable.
• 0:39
  I mean, if you read through John 16 around verses 17 to 19, you
• 0:43
  can almost hear them whispering. You can.
• 0:45
  They're asking each other, what does he mean by a little while?
• 0:47
  They're trying to solve this puzzle, you know, figure out the
• 0:49
  plot. But the whole script is changing
• 0:51
  right under their feet and they just can't see that his leaving
• 0:55
  isn't some kind of mission failure.
• 0:57
  No, it's actually the necessary step for the mission to be
• 1:00
  completed. Exactly.
• 1:02
  So that's where we're focusing today.
• 1:03
  We need to see Jesus here, not just giving them some comforting
• 1:07
  words, but announcing a huge shift in the history of
• 1:11
  redemption. Yeah, a really seismic shift.
• 1:13
  Our deep dive is on John 16 verses 23 and 24, which speak
• 1:18
  directly to their crisis. And it reveals this transition
• 1:20
  they have to make from, you know, relying on Christ's
• 1:23
  visible physical body to a. Completely revolutionary kind of
• 1:28
  spiritual access. A new way of communion that's
• 1:31
  guaranteed by faith. So what's the core idea we're
• 1:33
  chasing down today? What's the main point?
• 1:36
  We're looking for the connection, the thing that links
• 1:38
  the sorrow of the cross to the joy of the resurrection.
• 1:41
  And what we're saying is that the central idea here is that
• 1:44
  all that confusion, all that anxiety the disciples are
• 1:46
  feeling, it's going to be replaced.
• 1:48
  They're placed by a distinct authorized privilege.
• 1:51
  The privilege of direct access to the father and this new
• 1:54
  access, it's secured and it's channeled entirely through the
• 1:57
  legal authority of the son's name.
• 1:58
  This is what we're calling the new economy of prayer.
• 2:01
  Right. So to really get the scale of
• 2:03
  this promise, we have to try and, you know, inhabit their
• 2:06
  disorientation. We do the whole farewell
• 2:08
  discourse from John 13 all the way through 17.
• 2:11
  It's basically Christ's final will and testament to his
• 2:15
  followers. He knows exactly what's coming.
• 2:17
  Gethsemane, Golgotha. It's all laid out before him.
• 2:20
  But the disciples, they're still stuck thinking in terms of an
• 2:24
  earthly Kingdom. They're just bewildered.
• 2:27
  They're still spiritual infants in a way.
• 2:30
  They're relying on their rabbi to answer every single whittle
• 2:33
  for them to explain every parable in real time.
• 2:36
  Absolutely. Their whole sense of safety,
• 2:38
  their source of wisdom, it's all tied up and being able to
• 2:41
  physically see him and hear his voice.
• 2:43
  Which of course creates more and more questions.
• 2:45
  We see it right there in the text.
• 2:46
  Yeah, they're constantly looking at Jesus and asking, what does
• 2:48
  that mean? Where are you going?
• 2:50
  Who is the Spirit you keep talking about?
• 2:52
  They need that immediate, visible clarification.
• 2:55
  They're relying on what the Greek text calls Eritash.
• 2:58
  Just asking questions. And that feeling of being
• 3:01
  disoriented is exactly what Jesus addresses when he brings
• 3:05
  in that critical phrase in verse 23.
• 3:07
  In that day. In that day, and you mentioned
• 3:10
  this before, this is not just some vague date on a future
• 3:13
  calendar. No, it's a crucial marker for
• 3:15
  understanding redemptive history.
• 3:17
  It is. It's a very precise stamp.
• 3:19
  It marks the start of the New Covenant era.
• 3:21
  An era that's established by his death and resurrection, right?
• 3:25
  And then secured by his ascension.
• 3:26
  And then applied to his people by the gift of the Holy Spirit
• 3:29
  at Pentecost. It's the big shift from his time
• 3:33
  of physical presence and humiliation to his time of being
• 3:37
  enthroned. And from that throne he
• 3:40
  distributes all the benefits of what he accomplished.
• 3:42
  That's it. This contrast between the old
• 3:45
  and the new systems of access is so important here.
• 3:47
  If we look back at the old economy, you know, access to God
• 3:50
  was, well, it was severely limited.
• 3:52
  Oh, absolutely. It was characterized by this
• 3:54
  immense distance by shadows and just a constant awareness of
• 3:58
  human weakness and frankly, fear.
• 4:01
  Just think about the physical reality of it, the whole
• 4:03
  Levitical system, as glorious as it was in foreshadowing, Christ
• 4:08
  it. Was designed to keep people out.
• 4:09
  Yes, access was mediated through this huge, complex system.
• 4:14
  Priests, rituals, animal sacrifices, the entire landscape
• 4:18
  was a visual reminder of separation.
• 4:21
  And the most tangible symbol of that separation had to be the
• 4:24
  temple veil. A thick physical barrier
• 4:26
  separating the common space from the Holy of Holies.
• 4:29
  The average? Person didn't just approach God,
• 4:31
  they couldn't. They approach the priest who
• 4:34
  then approached the altar. It represented A fundamental
• 4:37
  distance. And that system defined the old
• 4:39
  economy, restricted access dependent on human and
• 4:42
  sacrificial mediation. But the new economy, the one
• 4:45
  Jesus is introducing here, it's defined by the tearing of that
• 4:48
  very veil at the moment he died. His death and resurrection
• 4:52
  establish a new and superior reality.
• 4:55
  A reality where we, the community of believers, are now
• 4:58
  constituted as a royal priesthood.
• 5:00
  The Apostle Peter confirms it. Those old boundaries are just
• 5:02
  gone. The privilege now is direct
• 5:04
  access, authorized access. It's no longer reliant on that
• 5:07
  old system of types and shadows. It's based on the substance, on
• 5:11
  Christ Himself. So when Jesus says in that day,
• 5:14
  he's proclaiming that the old, distanced way of approaching God
• 5:18
  is over, it's superseded by a relational access that's
• 5:22
  grounded only in his finished work.
• 5:24
  OK, so the practical result of this new access is tied directly
• 5:28
  to the promise of joy. Just before our verses in 16.22,
• 5:32
  Jesus talks about their sorrow turning into gladness.
• 5:35
  A joy that no one will take from you.
• 5:38
  An invincible joy. So how do they sustain that
• 5:41
  invincible joy? That's the key question, isn't
• 5:43
  it? It is the crucial question this
• 5:45
  passage answers When the disciples are weak, when they're
• 5:47
  scattered, when they're facing persecution, and that you know
• 5:50
  that nostalgia for Christ's visible presence starts to creep
• 5:54
  in. How do they hang on to the joy
• 5:55
  of the resurrection? The answer is by the practical
• 5:58
  exercise of the access he purchased for them.
• 6:01
  The new economy of prayer. So the access creates the joy,
• 6:04
  and the practice of prayer is what sustains it.
• 6:07
  Exactly. It means our joy isn't based on
• 6:09
  our shifting circumstances, but on the solid certainty that we
• 6:12
  have a living connection to the Father, a connection sanctioned
• 6:15
  by the Son. OK, let's let's get into the
• 6:17
  actual words of the text, because the language Jesus uses
• 6:19
  here is so incredibly precise. It really is.
• 6:22
  He starts verse 23 with a kind of sovereign decree.
• 6:26
  It's not a suggestion, it's a statement of divine fact.
• 6:29
  Most assuredly, I say to you. The Amen, Amen.
• 6:33
  The Gohiman. That double Amen is a signature
• 6:36
  marker in John's Gospel. It's like a divine highlighter.
• 6:39
  It is. It signals that what's about to
• 6:42
  be said is of supreme theological weight.
• 6:45
  It's something that fundamentally changes the
• 6:46
  mechanics of our relationship with God.
• 6:48
  It's a declaration of law. And right after that solemn
• 6:51
  declaration, we hit the essential insight.
• 6:54
  Jesus starts by saying, In that day you will ask me nothing.
• 6:58
  And this is where we have to look really closely at the Greek
• 7:00
  verbs, not to get bogged down and jargon, but to understand
• 7:02
  the huge shift in the relationship.
• 7:04
  Right, so the verb Jesus uses for ask in that first part is
• 7:07
  eruta. Eruta.
• 7:08
  And as we touched on, that word refers specifically to asking
• 7:12
  questions, seeking information, asking for clarification.
• 7:16
  It describes their current state perfectly.
• 7:18
  They're constantly interrogating him, trying to understand the
• 7:21
  riddles, needing him there in person to explain things.
• 7:24
  So Jesus is promising that this frantic, confused state of, you
• 7:30
  know, spiritual infancy is going to end.
• 7:32
  The constant need for clarification based on sight is
• 7:35
  going to stop. Because the spirit of truth will
• 7:38
  arrive just as He promised, to guide them into all truth.
• 7:42
  Their spiritual questions will be answered by the indwelling
• 7:45
  helper, not by the external rabbi.
• 7:47
  So the end of Arutash is like their spiritual graduation
• 7:50
  ceremony. That's a great way to put it.
• 7:52
  They move from relying on the external visual guidance of the
• 7:55
  rabbi to the internal spiritual guidance of the Paraclete.
• 7:57
  But then immediately Jesus pivots.
• 7:59
  He moves to the new superior dynamic in the second-half of
• 8:03
  verse 23. Whatever, you ask the father in
• 8:05
  my name and he switches the verb completely.
• 8:07
  He switches to Itash. He does, and this distinction is
• 8:10
  so important for the listener to grasp a touch unlike the
• 8:13
  informational asking of Urtash describes a formal petition, a
• 8:17
  request. So it implies something
• 8:19
  different, a request made by someone who is dependent and
• 8:23
  inferior to a superior who has the authority to grant it.
• 8:27
  Exactly. It conveys need and humility and
• 8:30
  trust. So the whole tenor of their
• 8:33
  interaction with God just completely changes.
• 8:36
  Completely, they move from this confused observation and
• 8:40
  interrogation questions for clarification to empowered
• 8:44
  humble petition request for provision.
• 8:47
  They lose the physical presence of Christ.
• 8:49
  But they gain his mediatorial presence, which is infinitely
• 8:52
  better for sustaining their joy in the long run.
• 8:54
  And this empowered petition, it's backed by a guarantee.
• 8:58
  The way he structures the statement, there's no ambiguity
• 9:00
  about the outcome. None.
• 9:02
  When he says whatever you ask, he will give.
• 9:05
  He's creating this binding relationship between the action
• 9:07
  and the result. This isn't a maybe, it's a fall
• 9:10
  at certainty as long as the condition is met.
• 9:12
  And that condition, the legal ground for the whole thing, is
• 9:14
  that phrase in my name. That modifies the whole action
• 9:17
  of asking. It tells us why the Father is
• 9:19
  bound to give. It's not because the inherent
• 9:21
  worthiness of the person asking. It's because of the authority of
• 9:24
  the one being represented. It's like presenting A sealed
• 9:27
  legal document in a courtroom. The father looks past the one
• 9:30
  making the request and sees the legal declaration, the merit and
• 9:34
  the righteousness of his own son.
• 9:36
  And. Then when we get to verse 24,
• 9:38
  Jesus basically defines the Christian life in action.
• 9:41
  Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.
• 9:45
  And that command ask. It's not a call for a one time
• 9:49
  crisis prayer. No, the grammar there implies
• 9:52
  continuous action, doesn't it? It does.
• 9:54
  It's a demand for a continuous, habitual lifestyle of
• 9:57
  dependence. Keep on asking.
• 9:59
  The expectation is that the believer lives in this constant
• 10:02
  posture of dependence. We're called to live, not just
• 10:05
  able to pray, but actually praying.
• 10:07
  And the ultimate purpose for all this continuous asking is right
• 10:09
  there in the final clause that your joy may be full.
• 10:12
  And this isn't just about fleeting happiness or, you know,
• 10:15
  a temporary mood boost. Not at all.
• 10:17
  Jesus is talking about a joy that has been brought to a state
• 10:20
  of completion, a joy that's secure and lasting.
• 10:23
  So prayer, then, is the specific ordained way that the believer
• 10:28
  continually accesses and sustains this finished, secure
• 10:32
  joy. A joy grounded in the certainty
• 10:35
  of Christ's mediation and the Father's absolute willingness to
• 10:38
  give. OK, we have to move to the
• 10:40
  theological heart of this now. What does it actually mean to
• 10:43
  approach the father in my name? Because, as we've said, that
• 10:47
  phrase is so often treated like a like a verbal charm or
• 10:50
  something. Yeah, a magical formula you tack
• 10:52
  onto the end of a wish list. It's so much more serious than
• 10:54
  that. It is a declaration of legal
• 10:56
  standing, OK? It's a statement of Christ's
• 10:58
  soul mediatorship, and it's a direct reliance on the legal
• 11:01
  declaration of our innocence before God.
• 11:03
  This is really the core of the Reformed understanding of this
• 11:06
  We have no natural standing, no inherent right to approach a
• 11:10
  holy God. None.
• 11:12
  When we're separated from Christ, our best efforts, our
• 11:14
  own supposed righteousness, are, as Isaiah said, like filthy
• 11:18
  rags. So to approach the Father in
• 11:20
  Jesus name is to plead Christ's active obedience, His perfect
• 11:25
  life of keeping the law. And his passive obedience, his
• 11:29
  substitutionary death on the cross, We plead those things as
• 11:32
  the only ground for our petition.
• 11:34
  So we're not saying look at me, look at my good works.
• 11:37
  We're saying look at him, look at his perfect record.
• 11:40
  That's it exactly. We're essentially presenting a
• 11:42
  check that's been signed by the King of Kings.
• 11:45
  And the father honors the request because the value isn't
• 11:48
  in us, the ones presenting it. The value is entirely in the
• 11:53
  signatory, in the immense merit of the son.
• 11:56
  This Trinitarian structure of prayer is affirmed all through
• 11:59
  historic Orthodox standards. Prayer is given to the Father
• 12:03
  through the merit of the Son and by the enabling of the Spirit.
• 12:06
  And that framework acts as a kind of guardrail against
• 12:08
  spiritual error. It does because if the name of
• 12:11
  Jesus is sufficient to guarantee direct access and certain
• 12:14
  reception from the Almighty. Then searching for any other
• 12:17
  mediators, Saints, angels, any human intermediary is completely
• 12:22
  unnecessary. It's more than unnecessary, it
• 12:24
  actually diminishes the office of Christ.
• 12:26
  It's like saying that the blood of Christ and his high Priestly
• 12:29
  work, well, they weren't quite enough.
• 12:31
  Right. This explicitly directs prayer
• 12:33
  straight to the Father, using His name as the authorization.
• 12:37
  When we get that Christ is the only necessary high priest, we
• 12:40
  see that trying to bypass him to appeal to a servant is really an
• 12:44
  affront to the magnitude of his office.
• 12:46
  The great Puritan John Owen, he described asking in Christ's
• 12:51
  name as a legal act. He said it's not about feeling
• 12:54
  spiritually warm and fuzzy, it's about showing your
• 12:56
  authorization. Owen said that Christ takes the
• 12:59
  duties of his people and gathers out all the weeds from their
• 13:03
  duties and makes them acceptable to God.
• 13:05
  So we rely on his perfect worthiness, never on our own.
• 13:08
  Exactly. And what's more, Christ
• 13:10
  mediation dramatically changes the character of our
• 13:13
  relationship with God. It moves us from a purely
• 13:16
  judicial relationship, you know, judge and criminal, to a
• 13:19
  familial 1. Father and child, Jesus makes
• 13:21
  this so clear in John 16.27 when he says For the Father himself
• 13:26
  loves you because you have loved me.
• 13:27
  And that speaks directly to the doctrine of God as Father.
• 13:30
  When we come in Jesus name, we are approaching ABBA Father.
• 13:33
  We are dealing with a reluctant tyrant who has to be coerced or
• 13:36
  bribed into helping us. No, we're approaching a loving
• 13:40
  Father who delights to give good gifts to his children because
• 13:43
  we're in union with the Son whom he loves perfectly.
• 13:46
  And this is the fundamental bedrock of that promised
• 13:48
  fullness of joy. Our standing is secure not
• 13:51
  because of our effort, but because of our adoption.
• 13:54
  We are not approaching God as uncertain servants.
• 13:56
  We are approaching as children, confident in the Father's love.
• 14:00
  The new economy of prayer is just the continuous practical
• 14:04
  exercise of our identity as adopted sons and daughters.
• 14:08
  OK, because this promise is so immense, whatever you ask, he
• 14:11
  will give. It's really essential that we
• 14:14
  define the boundaries. It is a failure to understand
• 14:17
  the constraints of in my name, and that your joy may be full
• 14:21
  leads to distortions very quickly.
• 14:23
  So let's address the first one, which is probably the most
• 14:26
  pervasive misreading today, the transactional view.
• 14:29
  The one often associated with the prosperity gospel.
• 14:32
  Right. This distortion grabs that word
• 14:34
  whatever and insists it means an absolute grant for any material
• 14:38
  desire you can think of. It turns God into a cosmic
• 14:41
  vending machine or genie who just fulfills wishes.
• 14:44
  The error here is leaving out the most essential qualifier in
• 14:48
  my name. The prosperity view tends to
• 14:51
  treat the name of Jesus like a magical pag you put on the end
• 14:53
  of a prayer, rather than seeing it as an act of constraint on
• 14:57
  the prayer itself. But to pray in Jesus's name
• 15:00
  requires the petition itself to align with Christ's character,
• 15:03
  with his will, and with his redemptive purposes for the
• 15:06
  world. And Scripture corrects this view
• 15:08
  explicitly in other places. James 4.3 gives a really sharp
• 15:12
  warning about it. You ask and do not receive
• 15:15
  because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures.
• 15:18
  It's very clear the Father's giving is never intended for the
• 15:21
  selfish gratification of our lusts.
• 15:23
  It's for the advancement of His Kingdom and for our
• 15:25
  sanctification which leads to genuine, lasting joy in Him.
• 15:29
  So if I pray for wisdom to manage my money well so I can
• 15:33
  give more generously to gospel work, that seems aligned with
• 15:36
  Christ's mission. Arguably yes.
• 15:38
  But if I pray for a guaranteed lottery wins so I can buy a new
• 15:40
  vacation home that's pretty clearly outside the boundary of
• 15:43
  his name. Exactly.
• 15:45
  We have to check our desires against his mission.
• 15:47
  We're asking as authorized agents of the king, not as
• 15:51
  independent consumers. OK, a second related error is a
• 15:55
  kind of functional deism or perilous fatalism.
• 15:59
  Right. This is the error that suggests
• 16:01
  God's sovereignty is so absolute and His plan is so fixed that
• 16:05
  our petitions are basically irrelevant.
• 16:07
  So prayer just becomes a psychological technique to make
• 16:09
  us feel better, but it doesn't actually do anything.
• 16:11
  And this is where we have to hold the command and the promise
• 16:14
  in perfect tension. Jesus commands ask and he
• 16:18
  promises you will receive. That just banishes the
• 16:21
  fatalistic mindset. If God has commanded us to pray,
• 16:24
  then prayer must be an essential, consequential means
• 16:27
  of carrying out His ordained ends.
• 16:30
  His sovereignty is the strongest reason to pray, not the weakest.
• 16:33
  If we know the Father controls everything, then when we pray
• 16:36
  according to His will, we could have confidence that our
• 16:38
  petition is lining up with the one who governs the universe.
• 16:41
  Our asking is woven into His execution of His eternal
• 16:44
  purpose. It is we also have to correct
• 16:46
  the reduction of prayer to, well, mere psychological
• 16:50
  technique. This is the error that sees
• 16:52
  prayer as auto suggestion or visualization, a formula
• 16:56
  designed to change us but not to change circumstances through
• 16:59
  divine action. But again, Jesus asserts the
• 17:02
  objective reality of the answer he will give you.
• 17:06
  This isn't just an internal process, it's an external
• 17:08
  transaction that happens in the heavenly court.
• 17:11
  We're asking a real Father through a real mediator for real
• 17:16
  consequential things. They can't reduce it to inward
• 17:18
  centering or self help. It's communion and petition.
• 17:21
  And finally, we should just revisit the error of seeking
• 17:24
  mediation through additional intercessors.
• 17:26
  The superstitious view. We talked about the sufficiency
• 17:29
  of Christ, but it really bears repeating.
• 17:31
  To seek an audience with the Father through anyone other than
• 17:34
  the Son is to completely misunderstand the very access
• 17:37
  that John 16.23 establishes. Jesus provided direct access.
• 17:42
  He is the only ladder between Heaven and earth to rely on any
• 17:45
  other intermediary, no matter how Revere they might be.
• 17:48
  It suggests that Christ's mediation is somehow deficient,
• 17:52
  or that his love is conditional and needs to be softened by
• 17:54
  someone else. Which is directly contrary to
• 17:57
  the Father's own stated love for us right here in the text.
• 18:00
  So the text itself is a guardrail.
• 18:01
  It steers us away from spiritual consumerism on one side and
• 18:05
  theological apathy on the other. And.
• 18:06
  It forces us into humble Christ centered dependence.
• 18:11
  So we've established the the exegetical truth and the
• 18:15
  theological framework. But now comes the hardest part.
• 18:18
  Pressing this truth into the reality of our lives?
• 18:20
  Yes. The command in John 16.24, ask
• 18:24
  and you will receive. It serves as a kind of divine
• 18:27
  diagnostic tool. And when we look at the modern
• 18:30
  community of believers, we often find ourselves wrestling with
• 18:33
  what's been called the sin of prayerlessness.
• 18:35
  And this isn't just a time management issue, is it?
• 18:38
  Or a failure to schedule 5 minutes in the morning?
• 18:40
  It's a profound theological failure.
• 18:42
  How so? Well, to possess the key, the
• 18:45
  name of Christ, which unlocks the entire treasury of heaven,
• 18:49
  and then to refuse to use it, that's an act of functional
• 18:52
  pride. It means we're living like
• 18:53
  practical orphans, like we believe we have to sustain
• 18:56
  ourselves entirely by our own resources and our own cunning.
• 18:59
  That is the idol we battle, self-sufficiency.
• 19:02
  We live in a culture that worships the self-made man and
• 19:05
  that ethos, it just infects the church.
• 19:08
  So we spent hours planning and strategizing and worrying and
• 19:13
  working, often substituting all that human effort for humble
• 19:16
  petition. And you see the correlation
• 19:18
  everywhere. Anxiety levels among those who
• 19:21
  profess faith are often indistinguishable from the
• 19:23
  world's. And at the same time, the
• 19:26
  frequency of deep petitionary prayer is often very shallow.
• 19:30
  We're carrying burdens we were never designed to carry.
• 19:32
  Because our pride stops us from casting them upon the Father who
• 19:36
  welcomes us in his son's name. Jesus commands Hu tight keep on
• 19:39
  asking because he is actively seeking our dependence.
• 19:42
  Every moment we spend worrying is a moment we spend trusting
• 19:45
  our own limited strength instead of the infinite merit of the
• 19:48
  Son. So the call here is to repent.
• 19:50
  To repent of the pride that says I can handle this, and to
• 19:54
  embrace the humility found in Christ's own words.
• 19:57
  Apart from him, I can do nothing.
• 19:59
  And consider the purpose of the command itself.
• 20:02
  The instruction to ask is not some crushing legal requirement.
• 20:06
  It's a gracious directive intended to lead us to the
• 20:08
  source of life. Obedience to this command
• 20:11
  actively challenges our pride. It does.
• 20:14
  You cannot maintain an arrogant posture while you are humbly
• 20:17
  begging for your daily needs. Prayer is the very posture of a
• 20:21
  beggar who knows exactly where the bread is stored.
• 20:23
  And the goal of this continuous, humble dependence is full joy.
• 20:27
  Full joy. The ultimate purpose of answered
• 20:30
  prayer is not just acquiring material things from God, it's
• 20:34
  receiving God Himself experiencing deeper communion.
• 20:37
  Answered prayer is the most tangible personal validation of
• 20:40
  our adoption. It is when the Father answers a
• 20:43
  request offered in Jesus name, the Holy Spirit bears witness
• 20:46
  with our Spirit that we are indeed His children.
• 20:49
  We experience this visceral thrill of union with Christ,
• 20:52
  realizing that the Father loves us with the same perfect
• 20:54
  affection He gives to His Son. So a believer who doesn't pray
• 20:57
  continuously will inevitably experience a joy that's, well,
• 21:01
  dry and incomplete. Because their faith remains
• 21:03
  theoretical, but the one who continuously taxes the resources
• 21:08
  of heaven finds their joy overflowing.
• 21:11
  This is why we are charged to ask.
• 21:13
  It's the pipeline to sustain spiritual gladness.
• 21:16
  OK, so practically, how do we begin to train ourselves to pray
• 21:20
  in my name? It starts with making a
• 21:23
  conscious choice, a choice to approach the Father entirely on
• 21:27
  Christ's merit, regardless of how spiritual or emotionally
• 21:30
  warm we feel at that moment. So we're resting on his finished
• 21:34
  sacrifice, not our own fickle feelings.
• 21:36
  Exactly, and we have to discipline ourselves to shape
• 21:38
  our requests according to the priorities of Christ.
• 21:40
  So a request offered genuinely in His name should mirror the
• 21:44
  request Christ would desire. Things like requests for greater
• 21:47
  holiness, for wisdom and leadership, for the advance of
• 21:49
  the gospel in our communities, and for the strength to endure
• 21:52
  trials. And even when we pray for daily
• 21:55
  necessary things, Our Daily Bread provision for our family,
• 21:57
  success in our work. Those should be offered through
• 22:00
  the lens of being disciples who are seeking God's Kingdom first.
• 22:04
  Our prayer for a job is a prayer for a platform for gospel
• 22:07
  influence. Our prayer for health is a
• 22:10
  prayer for the strength to spend our lives serving Him.
• 22:13
  Finally, we have to confront the reality of prayers that appear
• 22:16
  to be, well, unanswered. Yes, Jesus promised the Father
• 22:20
  will give, but we must remember that His giving is always wise
• 22:25
  and relational. It's not mechanical or
• 22:27
  instantaneous. And this is where
• 22:28
  disillusionment often sets in, right?
• 22:30
  People assume prayer works like a simple equation.
• 22:33
  I request XI receive X. Right.
• 22:36
  But John 16 dismisses that transactional view.
• 22:39
  When God answers no or wait, He is acting as a perfect, loving
• 22:42
  Father who is prioritizing our character over our comfort.
• 22:46
  And the Father's ultimate goal is our sanctification,
• 22:49
  conforming us to the image of his Son.
• 22:51
  So if we ask for a trial to be removed, and the Father instead
• 22:54
  gives us endurance and courage and deeper faith through that
• 22:57
  trial, that is a gift far superior and far more aligned
• 23:00
  with the purposes of Christ's name.
• 23:02
  The Father's giving is always consistent with His Holiness and
• 23:05
  His long term goal for our maturity.
• 23:07
  So when we face disappointment, we're forced back to those
• 23:10
  guardrails we talked about. Was I asking as an adopted child
• 23:14
  seeking the Father's glory, or as a consumer demanding my own
• 23:18
  immediate ease? When prayer doesn't function
• 23:21
  like a vending machine, we're trained out of self sovereignty.
• 23:23
  And into profound, humble dependence.
• 23:26
  The joy that is completed and full is not the joy that comes
• 23:30
  from our circumstances evaporating.
• 23:31
  It's the joy that comes from the Father proving faithful and
• 23:34
  loving within those very circumstances.
• 23:37
  We have to trust that every answer, whether it's yes, no or
• 23:41
  wait, is precisely what is truly good for the adopted child.
• 23:44
  So we leave the upper room understanding that the access
• 23:47
  promised in John 16.2324 was not given cheaply.
• 23:51
  It was purchased and authorized by the Crimson Signature of the
• 23:54
  Cross. We are not orphans.
• 23:56
  We are authorized petitioners. That sacrifice means we have
• 23:59
  direct, constant access to the Sovereign Father through the
• 24:03
  perfect mediation of the Son. We've been given the key to
• 24:06
  heaven's treasury. So our final charge to you is
• 24:08
  this do not live as if you are prayerless.
• 24:11
  Live as those who have access. Pray as those who have a
• 24:13
  mediator and expect the Father to give what is truly good for
• 24:17
  your soul and His Kingdom. The world says joy comes from
• 24:20
  control. Christ says joy is completed by
• 24:22
  communion and dependence. So what step will you take this
• 24:26
  week to trade your anxiety, that deep reliance on self strategy,
• 24:29
  for simple, humble intercession resting entirely on the merit of
• 24:32
  the Sun?