A small Oklahoma town had two churches and one distillery. Members of both churches complained that the distillery was giving the community a bad image. And to make matters worse, the owner of the distillery was an out-spoken atheist. He didn’t believe in God one bit. The church people tried unsuccessfully for years to shut down the distillery. So finally they decided to hold a joint Saturday night prayer meeting. They were going to ask God to intervene and settle the matter. The church folks gathered on Saturday night and there was a horrible thunderstorm raging outside and to the delight of the church members, lightening hit the distillery and it burned to the ground. The next morning the sermons in both churches were on the power of prayer. The insurance adjusters notified the distillery owner that they were not going to pay for the damages because the fire was an act of God and that was an exclusion in the policy. The distillery owner was furious and sued both churches claiming that they had conspired with God to destroy his business. But the churches denied that they had anything to do with the cause of the fire. The presiding judge opened the trial with theses words: “I find one thing in this cause most perplexing-we have a situation here where the plaintiff, an atheist, is professing his belief in the power of prayer, and the defendants, all faithful church members, are denying that very same power.”
Last week, Pastor Connie Rench talked a little bit about the older brother in the Prodigal Son story. This morning I want to focus on him and key in on a part of the story that is seldom talked about but is an important point in the story.
Before I begin, I want to ask you what ‘prodigal’ means? Now, before I tell you, I want you to know that I didn’t have the right meaning in my head either. ‘Prodigal’ means to spend money wantonly. It means to be excessively wasteful with your finances. I always thought that it meant someone that had gone astray and had returned to the fold, but that wasn’t right at all.
Let me first tell you that I do not believe in the ‘prosperity Gospel’ that many televangelists teach. I believe that the ones that truly prosper from their teachings are them. However, this sermon is going to be the closest I will ever get to that type of teaching.
Now, I think that this story is one of the greatest stories of reconciliation and redemption that has ever been told. However, we are going to focus on that older brother. He was the diligent, faithful one. We find this story in Luke 15: 25-31
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’”
I believe that the last part of this passage is one of the most under-used parts of scripture. Because of its implications for evangelism and restoration, we always focus on that foolish brother that misspent his entire inheritance. I want us, instead to focus on the father’s reply to the older brother. I can actually hear the father’s voice when he tells the son: “oh son, everything that I have is yours.”
You see, the older brother, let’s call him Ted so that I don’t have to keep calling him the older brother. Ted had not grasped the fact that everything that his father owned was already his. So the first thing that I would like to tell you is:
1. Everything your Father owns in already yours
I believe that one of the things that most of us tend to do is to forget who our Father is. If we do not consistently remember that God is our Father and that He owns everything He created, we are doomed to live below our means.
Your first thought might be, ‘but Pastor, that sounds an awful lot like prosperity Gospel.’ Here’s the difference. Just because the Father owns it, doesn’t mean that you will receive it until the time is right. Think of it like this: Stevie might ask me for the keys to the car so that he could go to the store. He might ask, but should I give them to him? Of course not! He’s too young to drive. He could hurt someone else and we would both get arrested. In Matthew 7:11, Jesus tells us:
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
If you gave your kids everything they asked for, they might end up with their own reality shows so that people can watch them implode, live and unedited. They might end up living like the Osbournes, and I don’t think any godly parent wants that for their kids.
The end result of getting everything you want is exemplified by the first part of the Prodigal Son story. Part of giving good gifts is giving gifts that are appropriate.
I’ve got news for you guys: in most cases, giving your wife a toaster for your anniversary is a sure-fire way to sleep on the couch for the next couple of nights. It’s inappropriate, unless that is what she specifically asked for. I’m also going to help you younger guys out a little. Giving your wife that big-screen TV you’ve been wanting on your anniversary is also likely to put you in hot water.
So, with that caveat in mind, let’s look at an important aspect of receiving God’s blessings and gifts. Tied into the fact that we tend to live below our means because we forget who our Father is, is the fact that:
2. You don’t have, because you don’t ask
In the first part of James 4, James is talking about quarreling among believers in the church. In verse 2, he tells them “…you do not have because you do not ask God.” We don’t just forget who our Father is, but we neglect to ask Him for the things that we want or even need.
When I was in college, I always came home to lead worship for my dad’s church. One of the elderly couples in the church told me that they were taking their niece to Hawaii to celebrate her getting a 4.0 average in her first year of college. Without even thinking, I blurted out that she wouldn’t want to do the same things that they would because she was young. She would need a chaperone. I was, of course, just being a dork. But they called me the next day and asked if I would like to go with them and that they would pay my entire way. Wow! I spent a week in Hawaii simply because I didn’t have a filter. This was one of the few times that that didn’t have a negative consequence. If I hadn’t asked, I wouldn’t have received.
It is important to ask God for things. They may seem like great things that are impossible, like the healing of a loved one. Or they may seem like trivial things.
One of Paula’s friends was taking a trip with her husband in their brand new car. They were in the Big Sur area and the car had a computer problem and shut completely down. They were in an area where they couldn’t get a cell signal. Now her friend immediately prayed for God to intervene. Right after she had prayed, a man drove by and gave them a ride, completely out of his way, to a service station where they could have the car towed. The nice man also drove them back to their car and shortly thereafter a service man arrived, did a couple of adjustments under the hood and the car started. “See what happens when you pray”, he said to them as he got in his truck and drove off. She hadn’t mentioned prayer, asked her husband if he told the man they had prayed, but he had not. “Oh he must have seen our Calvary Chapel bumper sticker”, but no, that was on the old car, not on this brand new car… So how did he know that we prayed, they wondered as they continued on their vacation.
“Yes, Pastor, but I ask for things all the time and God doesn’t answer them.” First of all, I think that it is important to note that many times God does answer, but we don’t like to hear the word “NO.” The next verse in the passage of James that I was quoting from says: “when you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…”
So we can and should ask for things, but we should ask with the right motives. But how do we know what the right motives are? It is imperative, when looking for Biblical understanding that you compare verses to other verses that are saying the same things so that you can have a more complete understanding of the things that you are researching. There are many places where the NT says to ask anything, in Jesus’ name, and it will be given you. But how do those verses compare to other verses that talk about answered prayer?
In the 15th chapter of John, Jesus is talking about the importance of remaining “in Him.” In other words, it is crucial that we are living out the relationship with Christ that we are meant to have. Then Jesus tells us (John 15:7):
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
If our relationship with Jesus is what it is supposed to be, the things we ask for will be in compliance with His will and His way. Our motives will be right because we are living out the life of holiness. So my next point is
3. Live Out Holiness
I remember, a few days after 9/11, that Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, was asked how a loving God would allow that event to happen. She replied that God hated what happened as much as we do, but that America has been shaking its fist at God for years. We have pushed Him out of our schools, our government, our businesses, and our marketplaces. God simply removed His hand of protection because America has asked Him to.
In many ways, we are just as guilty in our personal lives as America has been. We neglect God at every turn. We show up on Sundays but forget Him the rest of the week. In our story, as Pastor Connie pointed out, Ted had a bad attitude. He was doing what he was supposed to, but he also obviously had a bad attitude about it. God’s knows if you are being obedient and He knows your heart. Don’t expect that you’ll get everything you ask for when you’re not living “in Christ.”
Finally, I want to tell you that:
4. Sometimes, the answer in no
What you’re asking for may seem like it would be the best thing for you or the one you’re praying for. You may be earnestly asking with the right motives. You may even be living out a holy life and your relationship with Christ might be exactly what it should be. But the answer could still be no.
The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Even Paul, who gave everything up for His Lord, was told no by His Heavenly Father. Whatever Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was, God’s answer to his pleas was no. Paul believed that it was to keep him humble that God required him to put up with whatever it was.
We may not know why God says no. But we must trust that He knows what is best for us. The prophet Isaiah said something that I believe is imperative for us to remember when God says no (Isaiah 55:8-9):
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I believe that someday, we will understand why things were the way that they were in our lives, but for now, I will trust in the God of my Salvation.
So, remember these four things:
1. Everything your Father owns is already yours
2. You don’t have, because you don’t ask
3. Live Out Holiness
4. Sometimes, the answer in no
(Prayer)
*All scriptures in NIV unless otherwise stated.
