Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church

My dear friends in Christ,

Cell phones, Blackberries, e-mail, and computers are supposed to make communication easier, aren't they? Have you ever felt like the guy in the video? You've probably said this: "Can't I talk to a real person?" How are we supposed to get any answers if no one is there to hear our call.

That's where the third in our series of urban myths comes in. Sometimes we feel the same way when we try to talk with God. Why should I pray if God doesn't answer all my prayers? Let's dig into God's Word together this morning and see how God answers our question.

God made us to talk. We talk to our parents, or our brothers and sisters. We talk with friends. We talk with the person in front of us at the check-out counter. We talk with the person who delivers the mail. We like to talk. Are we supposed to talk to God?

Look at this verse. "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me" (Psalm 50:15). What does God tell us to do? Call on him. Pray!

Here's the next verse. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). What does God tell us to do? Ask, seek, and knock. He wants us to pray with confidence.

Why should I pray if God doesn’t answer my prayers? The first part of the answer is: Because God tells us to pray. He wants us to talk to him. We don't need to pick up a phone or worry about how many minutes we have left on our plan. We don't have to type in text messages and send them. God wants us to talk with him. It's more than wanting us to call. He commands it! Pray!

God wants prayer to be more than a 30 second conversation every once in a while. He wants us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. When it doesn't seem like he's answering, he wants us to keep after him, keep hounding him until he answers.

Every day, we need the right word or the right name to get something we need. If we want to pick up e-mail, we need to type in the password. If we're ordering a book from Amazon, we can enter a code to get a special offer. A friend sends us to a business owner and says, "Just tell him I sent you. He'll set you up with everything you need at a great price!"

Is there a "secret password" that gets us in God's good graces and opens his ears a little wider? Is there some special code or name we can use so he hears and answers?

Listen to what Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name" (John 16:23). What will the Father give us? Whatever we ask. How do we ask? In Jesus' name. "Jesus" is the name we need to use in our prayers. It's the name above all names. It is the name that perks up our heavenly Father's ears.

Why would God listen to us when we pray in Jesus' name? The answer is here in 1 Timothy 2:5-6. "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men" (1 Timothy 2:5-6). We really can't come to God in prayer, not on our own. We haven't done anything to earn God's attention. Our sins have separated us from him. God should refuse to hear all our prayers. That's where Jesus came in. He took our place. He gave himself as a ransom and paid the price for the entire world. He paid for all our sins.

Jesus' death and resurrection gives him a unique position before the Father. Jesus acts as our mediator. When we pray in Jesus' name, trusting in everything he did to save us, he brings our requests to the Father. He says, "Father, I love them. I died for them and made them clean. Listen to their prayer!"

Jesus' name is not a magic code word that guarantees whenever we say, "in Jesus' name," we will get whatever we want. Praying "in Jesus' name" simply means that we believe Jesus is our Savior, and for his sake the Father listens to us.

How many people here went shopping over the past week? When you go shopping what do you take along? A shopping list is important because as we walk down the aisles crammed with all kinds of yummy treats—chips and snacks and cookies and chocolate—we need to remember what we came for in the first place.

Listen to what John says in his first letter: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" (1 John 5:14). What confidence do we have? If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

What is God's will? What does he want? What's on his daily shopping list? The Bible gives us the answer. 1 Timothy 2:4 says, "God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). He wants everyone to know and believe in Jesus so that they can be saved. He wants everyone to be in heaven with him.

The hard part is figuring out what God wants in our lives. We pray for all kinds of things. How can we know what God wants?

Jesus went through that struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what the Scriptures had said about the Christ's suffering and death. He saw the path to Calvary laid out clearly. In the middle of his struggle, he turned to his Father in prayer. "Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 'Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will'" (Mark 14:35-36). Jesus knew that his Father would do what was best. He asked for strength to do what his Father wanted him to do.

That's the same thing Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Prayer isn't about what we want. We prepare ourselves to receive what God wants to give. The only way for us to pray, "Your will be done," is to go back to the Word and learn more about God's will. The better we know and believe what God wants for us in his Word, the better we will be at praying and submitting to the Father's will.

That brings us back to our urban myth. We've heard the reasons why we should pray. God commands us to pray, and helps us see how we can communicate with him. We still haven't answered the last part—does God really answer all my prayers?

Listen to God's answer: "This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’" (Jeremiah 33:2-3). When we call to him, what will he do? He will answer us!

There's the answer to our urban myth. Why should we pray if God doesn't answer all my prayers? He does answer. He answers every single prayer we bring.

We don't always like God's answers. Do you recognize the name Todd Beamer? Todd was aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11^th, 2001. Hijackers took control of the plane. Some of the passengers, including Todd, had found out via their cell phones what had happened at the World Trade Center and also at the Pentagon. They began to formulate a plan. Todd tried to call his wife, but ended up getting an operator. He told the woman that the passengers were going to try to jump the hijackers. "Are you sure that's what you want to do, Todd?" the operator asked. “It’s what we have to do,” he answered. He asked her to pray with him. He began to recite the Lord's Prayer, and she joined him: "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." "Jesus, help me," Beamer said. He recited the 23rd Psalm. Then the operator heard him say: "Are you guys ready? Let’s roll."

What happened? Todd prayed the Lord's Prayer. The 7th petition is a direct request for help—"Deliver us from evil!" He called on Jesus to help. He even turned to the Word—Psalm 23—for strength. Flight 93 crashed, and all the passengers on board lost their lives. What good did Todd's prayer do? God didn't answer.

Or did he? One of my Seminary professors said, "God always gives us what we ask for, or he gives us something better." God answered Todd Beamer's prayer. He stopped the hijackers' plan and delivered our nation from another great evil. He took Todd Beamer and the other believers on that flight to heaven. It may not be the answer that Todd was looking for. It may not be the answer that made his wife and children happy, but it was the best answer!

Can we trust that God will always give us what's best? We take our prayers to the Lord's throne every day. We ask for warm weather and sunshine. God has given us some, but maybe not as much as we'd like. We ask him to guide our children as they grow and mature, so that they make good decisions, but they don't always choose wisely. We ask for healing for our loved ones who struggle with illnesses, some of them life-threatening, but there's no miracle cure. When the Lord doesn't immediately do what we've asked, we question his answers and we think, "Why should I pray if he's not going to answer?"

The problem isn't with God and his answers. The problem is with us—sinful human beings. Just like the child who asks for a candy bar and receives a carrot stick, we don't always like what our Father chooses for us. We need forgiveness for our lack of satisfaction with God's answers. We need the strength to accept God's answer. We need the peace that Jesus brings once we hear the answer. We need the Spirit's help to trust that our heavenly Father will always make the best choices for our lives here on earth, and more importantly, so that you and I end up safely in heaven.

The writer to the Hebrews gives us this encouragement: "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Our heavenly Father has already given us the greatest gift—the gift of his Son, Jesus. He won't withhold any good thing from us. He will give us what we need! He provided water from a rock for the Israelites. He gave Gideon a fleece soaked with dew when the ground was dry. He sent fire from heaven to Elijah, and then provided water for the parched land. He answered Jesus in his greatest need, sending an angel to strengthen him. He will hear us. He will answer. Bring all your questions, your fears, your doubts, and your requests. Nothing is too big, and nothing is too small. Ask, seek, and knock. It will be given to you. You will find it. The door will be opened. Just believe, and trust that your Father in heaven will give you what's best! Amen.