Walking in Truth: Notes from Sunday School

These notes and reflective thoughts are first intended for members of our Friends and Family Sunday School class to stay connected with God through studying His Word in the event of absence from actual Sunday School worship time, and second, then for everyone, for the scripture and words below are beneficial for a broader readership. The ideas and flow of the lesson comes out of Life Way's Master Work Series. Please provide comments below to participate in the discussion. Add your own thoughts and reflections.

I must say that one of my deepest passions is to teach THE Word; and each Sunday, God has blessed me with that opportunity. I have been really enjoying our study of John Piper's Desiring God, not only a challenging read, but also intentional about drawing us closer to God. How often do we feel distant from God? Have we lost passion for Him? How often do we love well or love loudly (I love that--just heard that is an upcoming theme for our Baptist Association)? Do we have radical faith? Are we committed to worship, by living a life-style that reflects His heart, and His desires? In short, do we desire Him above all other pleasures? God's Word has brought clarity to these areas of our walk. God has used Piper's work as an instrument to deliver that message.

Our focus yesterday? Prayer, the Power of the Christian Hedonist.

Why do people pray? Rightly, we pray to align our will with His Will; we pray to glorify His name; we pray to worship; we pray to fellowship. We pray to cry to Him our sufferings and hurts; we pray for others and their needs. Wrongly, we pray to ask for things; we pray to say we did; we pray because we believe that is what "good Christians" do; we pray because we feel guilty when we don't.

Our main text on Sunday was John 14:13: And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

and John 16:24: Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

In these two verses, Jesus points to the reasons we ought to pray, really the two primary reasons: To bring glory to the Father and to be given the fullness of joy (that is joy in Him). For these reasons, Christian Hedonists will be devoted to prayer, for he or she operates under two pursuits: The pursuit of God’s glory and the fullness of our joy (that is delight and joy in Him, the great giver of joy and sustainer of joy); and it is God’s desire that He be glorified and that we (his children) experience complete joy--and prayer is the privilege that accomplishes both.

Let's examine John 14:3 a little more closely. If I ask you, as my friend, to do something for me, would you feel complimented or insulted? Why? If you said you wanted to help me but I brushed you off saying that I could do it better, how would you feel? Would I demonstrate your character by asking for or refusing your help? How? It is obvious that if I were in need--let's say paralyzed--and I asked you, my friend, for help I would then demonstrate your character as strong and kind, for I would trust in your strength and kindness to meet my need; I glorify you by needing you and asking for your assistance, for I know that without you I can not do for myself. In this same vein of thinking we are paralyzed--helpless before our Father. Without Christ we are unable to do for ourselves. When we realize our weakness, our need for Him, and seek His face, we are glorifying Him.

Let's take a deeper look shall we? Take the time to read John 15:1-17. What does Jesus call himself? He calls us "friend" (v. 15), in deed a strong friend. As the "vine", he is giver of life, sustainer of all things; we must be connected to that "life", for separated from the vine, we (the branches) dry up, and no long do what we were made to do. So, according verse 5, what were we made to do, that which God intends (commands)? Bear fruit. But notice the last part of verse 5: "a part from me you can do nothing." Christ promises to do for us what we can’t possibly do for ourselves. So, how do we reflect the character of--that is, how do we glorify--Christ? We glorify Him by needing him, by abiding in him, by clinging to him, by trusting in Him, by believing (refer to a previous post about examining our faith) in Him. All we need is Jesus, just Jesus, not Jesus plus anything else, but JESUS. Notice what verse 7 says: We pray! We ask God to do for us through Christ what we can’t do for ourselves--that is bear fruit. Dr. Piper says that "prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy" (161). Psalm 50:15 says, Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me. We call; God delivers; we glorify. At the heart of Christian Hedonism, "God gets the glory; we get the delight" (Piper 163).

Can prayer be self-centered? What about when you hear phrases like, "we get the delight", or when Christ says that "our joy may be made complete"? In the Disciples prayer (Matt. 5:9-13), what did Jesus say for us to pray for in verses 9-10? For God’s Will, for his name to be glorified, for His kingdom to come. That doesn't sound self-centered, in fact just the opposite, very God centered. Even though the focus in verses 11-13 is on our most basic of needs, the prayer is still God-centered, for it is a prayer to bear fruit, to be forgiving (forgive others), patient (give us our daily bread--just what we need), and self controlled (lead us not into temptation) We can see that prayer to bear fruit and do God’s Will is far from self-centered.

But what oftentimes makes up the bulk of our prayers? Prayers motivated by selfish desires. Listen to what James says about wrongly motivated prayers: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? (3-5) Notice that he calls the Jewish believers “adulterous people.” How do believers commit spiritual adultery with our prayers? Selfish desires lead to wrong praying. Dr. Piper offers quite a shocking view of spiritual adultery. Listen to what he says: "So there is a kind of praying that is wrong because it makes a cuckold out of God. We use our Husband's generosity to hire prostitutes for private pleasures . . . . he pictures the church as the wife of God. God has made us for Himself and has given Himself to us for our enjoyment. Therefore it is adultery when we try to be 'friends' with the world. If we seek from the world the pleasures we should seek in God, we are unfaithful to our marriage vows" (165). Instead, we should sing God-centered, faithful prayers like this psalmist. There is no infedelity here:

Psalm 73:25-26

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Psalm 27:4

One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

Dr. Piper says that "we do not glorify God by providing His needs, but by praying that He would provide ours--and trusting Him to answer" (168). Read the following verses:

Psalm 27:14:Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Psalm 37:7: Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;do not fret when men succeed in their ways,when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Psalm 37:34: Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

Proverbs 20:22: Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

Isaiah: 8:17: I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.

Isaiah 26:8: Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.

What then is the predominant role and attitude of the believer in prayer? To be still and wait. The psalmists declares in Psalm 33:20-22, that he will hope in the Lord, for He is hope and protection, that in Him we find joy and delight, and because of that, we trust. Dr. Piper renders it this way: To wait "means to pause and soberly consider our own inadequacy and the Lord's all-sufficiency and to seek counsel and help from our Lord" (170). But, why would we rather work than wait? First, waiting does not produce immediate results. We have a tendency to work harder because we can see the immediate fruit of our effort, all the while pushing us to burn out, or work for the sake of work--to say that we have one more thing checked off our "list." or by working, we run so far out ahead of God, that he is distant blip on the GPS of our hearts.

Read the words of David in Psalm 40:1-3:

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

Notice how praying and then waiting for God to answer resulted in glory for God and joy for David. God works for those who wait on Him (Isaiah 64:4). According to Dr. Piper, "God aims to exalt Himself by working for those who wait for Him. Prayer is the essential activity of waiting for God--acknowledging our helplessness and His power, calling upon Him for help, seeking His counsel . . . . Prayer is the antidote for the disease of self-confidence . . . .God is not looking for people to work for Him [and we often have that attitude about "working for Him], so much as He is looking for people who will let Him work for them" (170-171). As one of our class members said (and this Rocks), "Let go, to let God." Simple and profound wisdom.

Now to John 16:24. Let me offer Christ's words again: Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Question: If the aim of prayer is to glorify God and give fullness of joy as we delight in Him, then why is there so much prayerlessness? What does prayerlessness signify? Lack of passion, lost delight, overwhelming burden, weary souls, seeing praying as a "thing" to do. There are countless of reasons, I am sure. Dr. Piper offers this insight: "There is a direct correlation between not knowing Jesus well and not asking much from Him" (162). Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water (John 4:10). Dr. Piper continues, "a failure in our prayer life is generally a failure to know Jesus. A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he doesn't know that Clark Kent is on board" (162). If we knew, we would ask.

I was never a math wiz in school, but let me give you two equations; and these two equations I get: Prayerlessness = Joylessness; Prayerfulness = Joyfulness. Why are these equations true? John 16:20-22 gives answer: I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. Here are two more: Separation from Jesus = Sadness, lostness, confusion, emptiness; then as verse 22 states, Fellowship with Jesus = Joy.

Listen to Jonathan Edwards, a soldier of faith, as he discusses the height and intensity of this fellowship with Christ: "I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break . . . .I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and conversation with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in ejaculatory prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent" (quoted in Piper 176).

1 John 1:3-4 reads: We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. Prayer makes our joy complete. Why? Because we get to enjoy His presence. We get to communicate with the Father who knew us even in my mother's womb. Prayer is about Him, all of Him (His grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, judgment, justice, sovereignty, truth, wisdom, counsel, protection). No Christian can have fullness of joy without a vital fellowship with Christ; otherwise, Christianity becomes a joyless burden. I pray that my walk with Christ never becomes a joyless burden.

Let's go back and explore John 15 again. This time, focus on verses 7-8 and 16: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. . . .You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Look at what Christ says that we need in answer to our prayers to fill our joy. We need to bear fruit. We have made reference to that a couple of times, so what fruit are we to bear? We know one is joy. Dr Piper says that "prayer is the fountain of joy [John 15:11) because it is the source of power of love" (176). Read closely John 15:12-17. So, in addition to joy, what other fruit are we commanded to bear? It is all about love. Prayer empowers us to be on a mission of love. But we have to be on the right frequency, with the right transmitter. Listen to how Dr. Piper explains this metaphor: "It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called in the troops, gave them a crucial mission (go bear fruit), handed each one of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general’s headquarters, and said, “Comrades, the general has a mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give tactical advice and to send in air cover when you need it(177). He ends with this question: "Could it be that many or our problems with prayer and much of our weakness in prayer come from the fact that we are not on active duty, and yet we still try to use the transmitter? (177). He then offers this truth: "If the pump of love runs dry, it is because the pipe of prayer isn’t deep enough." I pray that I am on active duty and have not gone awol, and that my pump never runs dry and that I keep on digging.

Martin Luther once said, "If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith." Here is another poignant statement by the reformer, Luther: When Luther's puppy happened to be at the table, he looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes; he (Martin Luther) said, "Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish or hope." Where are out thoughts? What is the object or our attention? What pleasures do we delight in? God is our only thought, wish, and hope. We should pray not because we have to, but because we want to. Do you know what causes that attitude? Being tyrannized by the press of busy days--let’s commit to rethink our priorities.