by Gary Goodell
Charles Spurgeon once preached a sermon called "Robinson Crusoe's Text." He began the message with this story approach:
 "Robinson Crusoe has been shipwrecked. He is left on the desert island all alone. His case is a very pitiable one. He goes to his bed, and he is smitten with a fever. This fever lasts him a long time, and he has no one to wait upon him, none even to bring him a drink of cold water. He is ready to perish. He has been accustomed to sin, and had all the vices of a sailor; but his hard case brought him to think. He opens a Bible which he finds in his chest, and he lights upon this passage, "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." That night he prayed for the first time in his life, and ever after there was in him a hope in God, which marked the birth of the heavenly life."
Robinson Crusoe's text was Psalm 50:15. It is God's way of getting glory for Himself. "Pray to me! I will deliver you! And the result will be, you will glorify me!"
DELIVERANCE AND GLORY
Spurgeon's explanation is penetrating. "God and praying man take shares. First, here is your share, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble." Secondly, here is God's share, "I will deliver thee." Again, you take your share, "for you shall be delivered." And then again it is the Lord's turn, "Thou shalt glorify me."
Here is the compact, a covenant that God enters into with you who pray to Him, and who He helps. He says, "You shall have a deliverance, but I must have glory." Here is a delightful partnership: we obtain that which we greatly need, and all that God gets is the glory which is due His name."
Here is the great discovery. We do not glorify God by going off on our own and bearing under out stuff in self-imposed exile and martyrdom. We do not glorify God by providing His needs, but by praying that He would provide ours, and trusting Him to answer.
HONORING BY ASKING
OK! You are physically paralyzed and can do nothing for yourself but talk. And suppose a strong a reliable friend promised to live with you and to do whatever you needed done. How could you honor your friend if a stranger came to see you? Would you honor his generosity by trying to get out of bed and carry him?
No, you would say, "Friend, please come lift me up, and would you put a pillow behind me so I can look at my guest? And would you please put my glasses on me?" And so your visitor would learn from your requests that you are helpless and that you friend is strong and kind. You honor your friend by needing him and asking him and counting on him.
FRUITING THROUGH HIM
In John 15:5, Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing." So we really are paralyzed, without Christ incapable of any good. Or as Paul says in Romans 7:18, "There dwells in me, that is in my flesh, no good thing." Yet, according to John 15, God has intended all along to do something good through you, namely to bear fruit.
So as our strong, generous and reliable friend, Jesus says, who calls us friends, "I call you friends," (John 15:15). So, He promises to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. How do we glorify Christ? The answer is in verse 7, "if you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."
We pray, we ask God to do for us through Christ what we cannot do ourselves, bear fruit. And verse 8 gives the result, "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be disciples."
THE ART OF ASKING
This all works as we learn the art of asking. How is God glorified? Simple, when we ask. Prayer is our open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need.
Here is the tough part. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy.
One of my favorite stories is Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. The woman enters into the story by saying, "How is it that you a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her. If you knew the gift of God, and who it is says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water," John 4:9, 10.
If you were a sailor, severely afflicted with scurvy, and a generous man came aboard ship with his pockets bulging with Vitamin C and asked you for one orange slice, you might give it to him. But if you knew he was generous and that he carried all you needed to be well, you would turn the tables and ask him for help.
1. Jesus says to the woman, "If you knew the gift of God, and who I am, you would ask of Me, you would pray to me!" There is a direct correlation between knowing or not knowing Jesus well and asking or not asking from Him. A failure in our asking is generally a failure in our knowing of Jesus. "If you knew who you were talking to, you would ask Me."
2. Not asking is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he doesn't know Clark Kent is on board.
3. Not asking is like having your room wallpapered with Newman Marcus gift certificates but always shopping at Big Lots.
WHAT WILL KEEP US FROM ASKING?
Many have finally reached such a point in today's crisis, that they are now forced to ask. Others still have difficulty in crying out to God for help. What will keep us Western Christians from asking for help? Our job security, our savings, our lines of credit, our 401ks, our equity, our degrees, our diplomas, our success, or simply the self-sufficiency, and the self-dependence, and the pride that keeps our hearts empty and our mouths closed?
Christians who spend time in prayer, asking God for His help see that God is a great Giver and that Christ is wise and merciful and powerful beyond measure. Prayer glorifies Christ and honors His Father. We end up becoming who God intends us to be when we learn to allow our needs to drive us to our Father, to be dependent sons and daughters, and to ask.
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Session 2 Seven Signs in John.mp3
Session 2 Seven Signs in John.ppt