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[0:00] Jesus said, And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

[0:14] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. I don't know how many have noticed, but a lot of our liturgy this morning, and in fact a lot of our liturgy every Sunday morning, is directed specifically toward God the Father.

[0:42] For example, right after the offering the priest says, Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father.

[0:53] And in the prayer for the whole state of Christ's church, we end with, grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ's sake. And in the prayer of confession, we say, Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:08] And in the absolution, the priest says, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who of His great mercy. And in the prayer of consecration, the priest again says, All glory be to Thee, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father.

[1:24] All of which is leading up to the Lord's Prayer, where we all pray together, Our Father, who art in heaven. But have you ever asked yourself, Why?

[1:39] Have you ever wondered why so much of our liturgy is specifically directed toward God the Father? Well, in this morning's gospel, Jesus explains, And in that day, you will ask me nothing.

[1:57] Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. And what that means is that in Jesus, we now have direct access to the Father.

[2:16] For this morning, Jesus says that in that day, which is the day of salvation, that period of time, after our Lord's death, resurrection, and ascension, and after the Holy Spirit descended from heaven, and in that day, in that period of time, we will not need to ask Jesus for anything.

[2:41] Because in Christ Jesus, in God's Son, we will simply turn to God as our Father and ask Him directly.

[2:55] Nevertheless, this does not mean that we should forget about Jesus, or forget about the Holy Spirit, or forget about the saints, or forget about the rest of the world.

[3:10] This does not mean that we should all act as if our faith is all a matter of just me and God, my personal relationship with the Father.

[3:22] No. For this morning's gospel, Jesus says, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you.

[3:35] And to pray in Jesus' name is to pray as the Son of God, or as a Son of God, which means that the focus of our prayers will not be on selfish gain, or only on ourselves.

[3:50] Now we can, please hear me, we can, and most certainly, should pray for ourselves, but our prayers should not stop there. For even our Lord prayed for Himself, but He most certainly did not pray just for Himself.

[4:09] He both prayed and lived for the benefit of all, as must we all do. For that is what it means to pray in Jesus' name, to pray as a selfless and sacrificial Son of God.

[4:30] Yeah, when people, when people hear our Lord say something like, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you, what do most people often think?

[4:43] Well, what have you heard all those false prophets on television say? They all say, name it, and claim it. Pray in Jesus' name for a new car and poof, Heaven's Daddy's going to get you that new car.

[5:01] Pray in Jesus' name for a million dollars and poof, a million dollars will one day appear. But that, that is most certainly not what our Lord is talking about in this morning's Gospel.

[5:19] For this morning's Gospel is not so much about all the stuff, all the material wealth we can get, as it is about our identity, as it is about who we now are in Christ Jesus.

[5:36] For now, as baptized children of God in Christ, in God's Son, we now have direct access to the Father.

[5:49] We are no longer just His creation. We are His children by our baptism into Christ. And this would not be possible without Christ.

[6:02] For as our Lord explains in John chapter 14, no one, no one comes to the Father except through me. Therefore, in Jesus Christ, as baptized members of His body, we now go to God our Father directly in His Spirit and through His Son in order to offer our prayers of intercession for not only our benefit, but for the benefit and good of the entire world.

[6:36] and this, this is precisely what we do each and every Sunday. We do not only pray for our benefit or for the benefit of all.

[6:50] In Christ Jesus, we are offering our intercession and our intercession is combining with Him so that we have access to the Father. This is what we do in each and every Sunday, but it is most especially especially what we do today on Rogation Sunday as well as the three Rogation days that follow it.

[7:14] And you're probably wondering, well, what's Rogation? It has nothing to do with hair. The word Rogation comes from the Latin word Regare, which means to ask.

[7:28] For these Rogation days are to be days of intercession, days where, as the baptized children of God in Christ Jesus, we are to go to our Heavenly Father in prayer, asking for God's blessing upon our crops, upon our land, upon all the fruits of the earth, asking for our Heavenly Father to bless the earth for our benefit, but not only for our benefit, but for the good of all, which is important not only for farmers, but for anyone who likes to eat.

[8:04] We go to the Father and we ask for His blessing upon our land because it is He who provides for us. Therefore, to bring this all together, this morning Jesus says, and in that day you will ask me nothing.

[8:22] Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. And behold, that day is now.

[8:36] Behold, the time is today. So let us now pray together the prayer we will be praying for our morning and evening offices for the next three days.

[8:49] Let us now bow our heads and pray together. Heavenly Father, we beseech Thee to pour forth Thy blessings upon this land and to give us a fruitful season, that we, constantly receiving Thy bounty, may evermore give thanks unto Thee and Thy Holy Church.

[9:10]  In Jesus' name, Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen.