Ron Dunn Podcast - Prayer - Part 2 - Bellevue

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

In this messages we learn how Jesus is building us to continue to pray.

The Gospel of John, chapter 14, and I want to read verses 12, 13, and 14. How many of you were not here in the morning session? Would you raise your hand? Okay, why not? We'll start over here. Well, find somebody that was here this morning and tell them what we talked about, because this morning was the introduction, foundation for what I want to talk to you about this afternoon. In the Gospel of John chapter 14, verses 12, 13, and 14, the Lord Jesus says,

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. What the Father may be glorified in the Son. Jesus made an extraordinary

promise. He promised that we would not only equal His works, but that we would exceed His works. And as I said this morning, I believe that the believing works of verse 13, of verse 12, are to be accomplished by the believing prayer of verses 13 and 14. And what I want to do this afternoon in this session together is to take that 13th verse because it seems to me to say in one concise sentence one of the best descriptions and definitions of prayer that you'll find anywhere in the New Testament. So I want to slice that piece of bread up into about four pieces, and I want us just to examine each one individually. And I think that as we go through

it, we'll see how Jesus is building us in this matter of teaching us to pray. Jesus begins this verse by saying, and whatsoever you shall ask. And I want you to underscore that first word, whatsoever. Whatsoever you shall ask in my name. And we'll call that the measure of our praying, or the scope of our praying. You might ask, what does prayer involve or what can I pray for or how far does prayer reach? Jesus says, whatsoever you shall ask in my name. One of the things that I first noticed about prayer as I began to study it is that when the Lord gives us commands to pray and encourages us to pray, He always uses big language. He always encourages us by using words like whatsoever.

If you glance across the page to chapter 15 and verse 7, He says, if you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Manly Beasley used to recall Jeremiah 33.3. He used to call that God's phone number, J-E-R-3-3-3. And you know what the verse says, Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Now the phrase great and mighty things has the idea of things that cannot be fenced in, things that have no boundary, things that have no limitation.

In other words, God is saying if you call unto me, the scope of prayer is unlimited. You can't fence me in. You just can't fence it in and to say prayer is only restricted to this certain area. Whatever you ask in my name. One of my favorite verses has always been Philippians chapter 4, verse 6, where Paul says, be careful for nothing but in everything, in everything with thanksgiving and prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God. Basically what he's saying is don't worry about anything and pray about everything. And when you get right down to it, that's about the only alternative you and I have.

And I've found and I'm still finding in my life that whatever I don't pray about, I usually end up worrying about. And so I have lived by this little motto, If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about. I remember when I was pastor, a man came into my office, one of my members, and was very concerned. He was having some very difficult business problems. And in the course of our conversation, I said, well, have you prayed about this?

And he looked offended and he said, well, of course not. I haven't prayed about this. He said, that's business. I haven't prayed about this. He said, that's business. I can't pray about that. Unfortunately, that fellow felt like prayer was sort of like some of these automobiles you pass on the highway and they have stencil on the side for official use only. And a lot of people think that prayer is for official use only, official being religious. But everything that is a concern in the heart of man

is a concern in the heart of God. And Jesus says there is no boundary, there is no limit. I have to tell you what I believe is the greatest illustration of this. My wife and I were in a church in Arkansas some years ago. I'd helped this church set up an intercessory prayer ministry, and on their first anniversary, they were having a celebration banquet, and they invited us to come and share with them. And so we were there. And during the course of the banquet, the pastor said, we want to have some testimonies and two or three testimonies

of answered prayer. Now, he said, there are two conditions. Number one, it has to be something recently, something, oh, let's say within the last two weeks. We don't want anybody talking about some prayer that God answered 40 years ago. It has to be something fresh, something recent within the last two weeks. Number two, he said, we want it to be something specific. None of this, well, I prayed that God would bless me

and he blessed me. And so there were two or three people that shared testimonies, but I'll never forget one woman. I don't know if she was a widow or divorced, but she was just she and her teenage son living together. And she stood up and gave this testimony. It happened just a week before. She said, I had been in the kitchen preparing to bake a pie,

and about the time I was getting ready to put the pie in the oven, the phone rang. And it was the high school nurse telling me that my boy had come down with a fever and I should come and pick him up. So she said I calculated how long it would take me to drive to the school and back home and how long my pie needed to bake in the oven and she said I figured I had plenty of time so I went ahead and put the pie in the oven and started it baking. But she said when I got to the school, the nurse was waiting for me at the door and told me that

the boy's fever had gone up considerably and that I really ought to get him to a doctor straight away. So she said, that of course flustered me a little bit, and so I put my boy in the car and I drove just as fast as I dared to the clinic. And after a while, I got in and see the doctor. And he came out and he said, I want you to take your son home and put him in bed and start giving him liquids. And gave him a prescription, gave her a prescription, said, I want you to take this and get it filled right away and start giving him this medicine. So she rushed the boy home, put him to bed, and then drove down to the mall, found the pharmacy in the mall, got the prescription filled, ran back out to the car, and opened the door. Well, no, she didn't open the door.

She tried to open the door. And when she tried to open the door, it was locked. Well, of course, she started looking through her purse, and she couldn't find her car keys anywhere in her purse. And then she looked through the window, and yes, there they were, hanging in the ignition. And she said, Oh, I've locked my keys in my car. So she went back in the mall,

found the telephone and called her boy and finally he answered and she said, son, I've locked my keys in my car. I don't know what to do. And the boy who could barely talk said, mom, get a wire coat hanger. And then the phone went dead. So she said, I started, get a wire coat hanger. And then the phone went dead. So she said, I started looking for a wire coat hanger. You know, it's hard to find wire coat hangers in

malls anymore. They don't use them. They use wooden ones and plastic ones. She said, I like to never found one. But she said, finally, I found one. And said, I was so relieved I found this wire coat hanger. Said, I ran outside, but just as I was about ready to step off the curb, I stopped and I said, I don't know what to do with this coat hanger. And she said, that's when I remembered that my pie was in the oven. And she said, I just began to cry. It was just, I just began to cry. And she said, I stood there for a moment crying. And then she said, I started to pray. And she said, I stood there for a moment crying. And then she said,

I started to pray. And this is what I prayed. Dear Lord, my boy's at home sick. He's got a fever. I've got this medicine that he needs to take. My pie is in the oven. My keys are locked up in the car. I've got this wire coat hanger and I don't know what to do with it." She said, send somebody that knows what to do with this wire coat hanger. Amen. And she said no sooner had she finished praying and this beat up old car pulled up at the curb, and this young man, sort of an unsavory looking young fellow, got out of the car, long stringy hair and kind of dirty clothes, and he came right up to her, of course, because she was standing in the middle of the sidewalk. And she said, as he got up to me, I just pushed that wire coat hanger towards him, and I said, young man, do you know how to get into a locked car with a wire coat hanger?

And he kind of looked at her peculiarly, and he said, where's your car? So she said, I took him out on the parking lot, showed him where the car was. He plucked that hanger out of my hand, took one look at that car. She said, I've never seen anything like it in all my life. He had a couple of twists on it and had that car open just like that. She said, I've never seen anything like it in all my life. Of course, I knew the Lord sent him. He was an answer to prayer.

And she said, I just threw my arms around him. And I said, oh, oh, you're such a good boy. You're such a good boy. You're such a good boy. You must be a Christian. He kind of pushed her back and he said, no ma'am, I'm not a Christian and I'm not a good boy. I just got out of prison yesterday. She said, I threw my arms around him and I said, bless God, he sent me a professional.

Now I'll go ahead and tell you now, because usually to all the carnal people out there who are wondering what happened to the pie it's amazing how many people just missed the blessing of that whole story and they come up and say what happened that pie my wife said it turned out all right. No, it wasn't her pie. She told me what had happened. Whatsoever, whatsoever you shall ask. Anything that is a concern in the heart of man is a concern in the heart of God. Look at the next phrase. Whatsoever you shall ask, in my name. In my name.

Oh, now here's a new phrase. This is something new. Several times in these three chapters, the upper room discourse chapters of 14, 15, and 16, Jesus uses that phrase, in my name. He says, hitherto have you asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive. And he goes on to indicate that it is the Father who answers in the name of Jesus. So when Jesus says, ask in my name, we know that he is beginning to lead these disciples into a new dimension of prayer. This is something that's never happened before. Nobody's ever prayed in the name of Jesus before. Suddenly prayer is going to change,

and they're being introduced to a new dimension of prayer. Whatsoever you shall ask in my name. I like to think of that as the means by which we pray. By what means do I come into the presence of God? By what right do I have to ask the Father? He says, you come and ask in my name. Now, what does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? Well, I know what it means to pray in the name of Jesus, theologically. But you know, you can know some things theologically and I don't know,

still not know them. You know what I'm talking about? You know, I know what it means to pray in the name of Jesus, you know, that you come on Jesus' merit and by what Jesus Christ has done

and I know all the theological reasons and I know what it means to pray in the name of Jesus, but I don't know. I just, I had to get a handle on some of those things, and I, when I was studying this, I said, dear Lord, show me, what does it, what does it really mean to pray in the name of Jesus? Two things happened in which God helped me to see. The first thing was this. Back in those days, when I was still a pastor, my special prayer time was always at midnight. Had a green velvet chair in the living room

that became my throne. And around midnight, everybody else was in bed and asleep, and you don't get many phone calls and doorbells ringing. It's a good time. It was a good time. I'm a late-night person anyway, and so midnight was my special time to pray. And I never forget that one night it came to my prayer time. And the moment I hit my knees, I remember to this day what I said. And here, it had been one of those days, preachers, you know, where you don't get to do anything

spiritual. I mean, you're stuck in the office answering letters, working on the calendar, you know, doing stuff like that. And I had not spent any time in the Word. I may have prayed, you know, over my lunch or something, but hadn't done much praying and hadn't gone out to see anybody. I hadn't done anything spiritual, as a matter of fact. And the first words I said to God when I got on my knees were these. I said, Dear Lord, I know I don't have a right to ask you for anything tonight. Have you ever felt that way? I felt that way.

Oh, dear Lord, I know I don't have a right to ask you for anything tonight. And the Lord seemed to say to me, well son, what if the day had been different? What if you had spent four hours on your knees in prayer this morning, and four hours studying My Word? What if you had gone out and led ten people to Christ? Would you feel more like praying then than you do now? I said, I sure would, Lord. I wouldn't back up then, man. Boy, I'd come boldly. And the Lord said, Son, if you had spent eight hours on your knees in prayer, and you had spent eight hours studying the Word of God, and if you

had led a hundred people to Christ, you wouldn't have any more right to ask me for something than you do right now at this moment. And as I knelt there, I realized that the floor of the throne room is not sprinkled with the sweat of my activity, but with the blood of His sacrifice. I may not have been holy today, but Jesus is. I may not be faithful, but Jesus is. You know what I did? I thought to myself, I'm on to something here. And I started praying, Pastor, in my own name. I did. I said, Dear Lord, I'm a Christian. I've been a Christian since I was nine years old.

I'm a preacher. I've been preaching since I was 15. Giving my life to you. I go to church every Sunday. I don't drink. I don't dance. I don't smoke. I don't carouse around.

I'm a good husband. I'm a good father. And Lord, I want you church every Sunday. I don't drink. I don't dance. I don't smoke. I don't carouse around. I'm a good husband. I'm a good father. And Lord, I want you to hear me. And I literally began to pray in my name. And I never felt so desolate in all my life. And I beat a hasty retreat back to Jesus. I pray in His name on the basis of what He has done. But there was something else that happened.

At that time, my brother and his wife and daughter lived in Greenwood, Arkansas. And so one time we went down there to visit him. At that time, we had three children and my brother had one. And the Sebastian County Fair was going on at that time. So we decided to take the kids out to the Sebastian County Fair was going on at that time. So we decided to take the kids out to the Sebastian County Fair. Well, we weren't there very long until it was obvious our children weren't interested in the blue-ribbon pigs or the prized cows. They wanted to go over to ride the stuff over to Carnival.

So we abandoned the more cultural aspects of the Greenwood County Fair and went over to the Carnival. Now, all the rides were 10 cents apiece. And so what we did, we bought a big roll of those red 10 cent tickets, you see. And I was custodian of those tickets. And we had this organized. It was really smoothly run operation. I would stand at the entrance of every ride. And as the kids came by, I'd tear off a ticket and give it to them. See, you learn things like that when you go to seminary, administrative. And I remember standing at the entrance of the Tilt-A-Whirl.

There I was with my roll of red 10-cent tickets. And so Rebecca, my brother's daughter, comes by, and I tear off a ticket and give it to her. And then Kimberly, our daughter, comes by holding out her hand for a ticket. I tear off a ticket and give it to her. And then Kimberly, our daughter, comes by holding out her hand for a ticket. I tear off a ticket and give it to her. And then Ronnie, my son, oldest son, comes by holding out his hand for a ticket and I tear off a ticket and give it to him. Then comes Stephen, who at that time is about eight years old, comes by holding out his hand for a ticket.

I tear off a ticket and give it to him. Now, right behind Stephen comes a little boy I have never seen in my life, holding out his hand for a ticket. Do you know what I did? No, I didn't give him a ticket. Those things cost 10 cents a piece. I just ignored him. And you know what? He just stood there. Well, the line began to sort of back up and people want to know what's holding things up up there. Well, Stephen turned around, came back and he said, Dad, this is my friend. We hadn't been there ten minutes. He said, Dad, this is my friend. I told him you'd give him a ticket. You know what I did? I tore off a ticket and gave it to that little boy. Not because I wanted to.

Not because that little boy deserved it. But I'm not about to make a liar out of my son. Now that little boy didn't know it, but he was asking for a ticket in Stephen's name. And I gave him a ticket in Stephen's name. And standing there by the tilt-a-whirl, I said, Dear God, I think I see it. That's what it is. It's coming to you, Father, and saying,

Dear Father, your son, Jesus, told me you'd give me a ticket if I asked. That's praying in the name of Jesus. Number three. Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I like this, that will I do. You can call that the might of our praying. That will I do. That's amazing. Do you mean to tell me, preacher, that if I pray and ask that Jesus will do something? That's exactly what he's saying. Now listen very carefully to this statement because I think it is one of the most important statements concerning prayer. There are some things that God will do if you ask Him to that He will not do if you don't ask Him. I was studying the Gospels about divine healing some time ago and I came across a very interesting thing. I discovered that with only about two, maybe three exceptions,

Jesus never healed anybody until they asked Him to. And half the time they had chased Him down. Our Lord rarely ever took the initiative. For instance, do you remember blind Bartimaeus? Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, and he begins to cry out, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And, well, he's crying so loud, the people say, you're making a commotion, hush up. But he just cries louder and louder, and suddenly the Bible says, Jesus stopped, and he said, bring him to me. And they brought

Bartimaeus to him, and Jesus asked a ridiculous question. He said, what do you want me to do for you? What do you mean, what do you want me to do for you? What do you think? He wants his sight. Anybody knows that? And Jesus said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. I'll tell you something.

If Bartimaeus hadn't cried out and cried out and cried out, Jesus of Nazareth would have passed on by and he'd have died a blind man. There are some things God will do for you if you ask him to that he will not otherwise do. Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus and said, Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter is sick.

Well, what did Jesus do? Well, first of all, he just flat out ignored her. And she said again, Lord, have mercy on my daughter. My daughter is sick. and then he insulted her he said it's not right for me to take food that was meant for the children and give it to dogs

calling her a dog because she's a Gentile she said that's right Lord but even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the master's table and Jesus said I like that and he healed her the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And Jesus said, I like that. And he healed her.

But he would never have done it if that woman had not persisted in it. James says, you have not, why? Because you ask not. I hear people say, well, you know, if it's God's will, it'll happen. Well, folks, there are a lot of things happening that are not God's will. Sometimes you say, well, if God wants me to have this, you know, it'll happen. I don't believe that. I think there are a lot of things God wants us to have that we don't have because we don't ask. Now, I know, I know that there are some things that are predetermined.

I mean, no matter what you and I do, they're going to happen anyway. I know that. But you and I don't know which ones they are. So you just shoot down every hole. If the devil's down there, you'll get him. But I know this much. I know this much. I sure would hate to someday stand in the presence of the Lord and say, son, you remember that situation, that trial, that heartache you went through? Yeah, oh Lord, I remember that. He said, you know, you didn't have to go through that.

He said, I was waiting, but I never heard from you. There are some things God will do for you, friends, if you ask him to that he will not otherwise do. And Jesus says, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. I will do it. Well, one last word. That the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Let's call that the motive of our praying. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. Now, when it comes to this matter of prayer, the name of the game is God's glory. The only thing that Jesus wants is for His Father to be glorified. The thing that the Father wants is for His Son to be glorified. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Jesus. You can't get them interested in anything else. Father's motive for answering. What is the Father's motive for answering? That He may be glorified in the Son. Now, if my motive for asking is the same as his for answering, we're in business, right?

If I can come to the place where I can say my motive for asking this is the same as God's motive for answering it, then we are on praying ground. Why does God delight in using prayer? I think it's because nothing glorifies Him any more than that. You see, we Baptists, especially we Baptists, we, I've been to enough conventions, you know, we have a very neat way of giving God the glory while we take all the credit. Have you ever noticed that? You know, we'll spend about thirty minutes talking about what our great Baptists have done.

And in the end we said, to God be the glory. I think the reason God delights in answering prayer is because when that happens, He not only gets the glory, He gets the credit. When I was pastor at MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church, we were learning about prayer. At that time, at this particular time, I was preaching a series of messages on intercession. Our youth choir was invited to go to Salt Lake City and sing in a citywide evangelistic crusade. Dr. C.E.

Autry, who was head of evangelism back in those days, was preaching, and they had invited our youth choir to go to Salt Lake City. They would sing each night in the crusade. During the daytime, they would go out and sing in malls and witness and pass out tracts and such as this. And so they said, okay, we'll go. Only problem, it was going to cost $4,000. And we didn't have $4,000. Our church is not a wealthy church. It

wasn't in the budget. And man, we didn't have $4,000. But what are you going to do? Well, I don't know how this came about. It must have been the music director. No, it must have been music man who thought of this. I can't believe that I would think of it. But anyway, in some sublime moment of unconsciousness I said, let's have a pancake supper. We were meeting in a gymnasium at that time. And there are a lot of things you can do in a gymnasium you can't do in a sanctuary. One of them is have pancake suppers. Now folks, I was brought up to know better than this. I don't know why. I just thought, well, you know, we need the money, and we'll have a pancake supper. And everybody seemed to think that was a good idea. And so we set aside a Saturday, and we had a pancake supper.

And so I drove up to church on Saturday morning. Now, our church sits right next to a Whataburger. And our marquee on our church said, What a church. What a pancake. And so I drove up to the church, and there were our teenagers. There were our teenagers standing out in the middle of MacArthur Boulevard with these stupid-looking chef's hats on, waving down cars, flagging down cars, trying to get people to

stop and go in and help God out of a tight by eating some pancakes. And the minute I saw that, I thought, oh no, what have we done? And so I drove on the parking lot and I parked and I got out and I went into the foyer and there were our deacons, men full of faith in the Holy Ghost, wearing these stupid looking chef's hats that Whataburger had given them and they were there on Saturday morning cooking Aunt Jemima pancakes

and I stood there and I looked into the sanctuary of the Lord and the tables were set up and there were a few people sitting around eating pancakes who didn't particularly want to eat pancakes but they're glad to help God out of a tight spot. And I went away and the Lord just whipped me all over the place. I mean, He just whipped me all over the place.

And I got up before my church Sunday night and I said, as long as I'm your pastor, we will never do anything like this again. Now, let me say just real quick, I'm not saying it's wrong to do that. If you believe God is leading you to have a pancake supper or sell peanut brittle or anything else, you go right ahead and do it. I always like to put this disclaimer in because I was telling this story one night when I got to this part, everything got real quiet. And the youth director sitting on the front row began to slide down into the seat. Well, they had a pancake supper going on the next Saturday is what happened. So I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying this is how God was

dealing with us at this moment. This is how God was dealing with us this morning. I stood up before my church and I said, people, I was so humiliated. I was so embarrassed. What an embarrassment it is. Our God who owns all the cattle on a thousand hills and silver and gold. We're out there hawking pancakes

so we can get our kids to go to Salt Lake City. You know, I just believe that where God guides, He provides. And I said, we're not going to raise any more money. We raised $2,000, by the way, selling pancakes. I said, we're going to get the rest of the money just by prayer and faith. Somebody said, but what if we don't get the money? I said, we won't go. We won't go.

Just that simple. Sometimes that's how God leads you, by holding back funds. We won't go. I've always had a little problem anyway spending thousands of dollars to send kids clear across the country to do something there they're not doing at home in the first place it takes more than a bus ride make a missionary out of

somebody but anyway But anyway, I said to the church, I said, we're just going to do this by prayer and faith. I knew God was trying to teach us something. I knew God was trying to teach me something. Somebody said, but it's good for our young people to go out and work like this. It's good for them to learn how to go out and meet people and sell and do things. I said, that is good. That is good. Let the 4-H teach them to do that.

Let the school teach them to do that. Let the church teach them how to pray and believe God. Nobody else is going to do that but us, so let's do that. So I said, we're just going to pray. We're just going to trust God. And of course, then I got scared because I'd made this big deal before the people. And so on Thursday

afternoon, I was in my study praying. And I knew God was trying to say something to me. I knew God was trying to say something to that church. God was trying to say, let me show you what I can do. Let me just show you what I can do. And so I prayed and I said, dear Lord, I'm asking you to send one person with that $2,000. And I knew he was going

to do it because I knew I was praying in the Spirit. Got up off my knees trying to figure out who it was going to be. I couldn't think of anybody. I got home about 6 o'clock. Phone rang. And there was a girl on the phone phone I'd married him not too long ago she said brother done before I got married I was in a car wreck and she

said the insurance company settled up with me for $3,000 she said I still have two thousand dollars in the bank and while I was at work today the Lord seemed to say to me that I ought to give that $2,000 to the youth tour. But she said, I can't do that without talking to my husband. And he came in just a moment ago. And before I had a chance to mention it to him, he said, you know, while I was at work today, Lord impressed me that we ought to give that $2,000 to that youth tour." And so she said, we want to give that $2,000. Well we raised $2,000 by selling pancakes.

And when I raised $2,000 selling pancakes, I thanked the teenagers for standing out in the middle of the street flagging down cars. I thanked Whataburger for giving us the stupid-looking chef's hats. I thanked the deacons for giving up their Saturdays to cook those pancakes. I thanked the grocery store for giving us a discount on Aunt Jemima and log cabin maple syrup, and then I worried that I'd forgotten to thank somebody. When we raise $2,000 by prayer, we just thank the Lord, and He was glorified. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do. Because there's not anything else that glorifies me like that.

Lord, teach us to pray. And pour out upon us a spirit of prayer and supplication. In Jesus' name, amen.