Sermon Tone Analysis

Focus - Focused Faith in a Blurred World

/Why don’t you always answer our prayers?/

*Announce Katie Wolford*

How many of you watched the National Championship Game between Duke and Butler last Monday Night?

I confess to you that I did not watch all of it.

It suddenly dawned on me that the game was on and so I start watching with about seven minutes left.

Wasn’t that an amazing game?

As in allot of games it came down to the very last second.

*Let’s watch the final 3.6 seconds one more time.

(Gordon Hayward Desperation 3*[i]*)*

Now here’s what I was expecting!

I first thought the ball was going to go in.

But what I was expecting was Jim Nantz to say something like… */“Will Gordon Hayward’s prayer be answered?

NO! / *I’m curious?

Is there such a thing as unanswered prayer?

Have you ever prayed a prayer that you thought just clanged off the back of the rim?

Richard Mouw, in Philip Yancey’s book, Prayer, tells a story about a tourist who observes a devout Jewish man praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

The Jew rocks back in forth with closed eyes, beating his chest, sometimes raising his hands.

When he finishes, the tourist asks, “What do you pray for?”

The Jew responds, /“I pray for righteousness.

I pray for the health of my family.

I pray for peace in the world, especially in Jerusalem.”/

The tourist asks, “Are these prayers effective?”

And the Jew responds, “It’s like talking to a wall.”[ii]

Is that a fit description of most people’s prayer life?  /When I talk to God I don’t seem to get through./

I find that when my prayers are dry or lifeless – it has more to do with me than with God!  *Last week we began a new series called Focus - Focused faith in a blurred world.*

We surveyed the teenagers of this church asking them their questions about God.

Last week the question was, “Jesus, what was it like to die?”

This morning the question is /“/*/Why don’t you always answer our prayers?”

/*Well, my first response to that question is whose to say that he doesn’t?

Jesus taught us that there’s usually a question behind the question.

Maybe the better question to ask is “/Why don’t you always answer our prayers the way I want?”/

The truth is – God does answer prayer.

Elijah prayed over a dead child and the kid came back to life.

Elijah prayed that it would not rain and it did not rain for 3½ years.

Joshua prayed and the son stood still.

Hannah prayed for a child and God gave her six – her first being Samuel the prophet.

Daniel prayed and God shut the mouths of hungry lions.

Jesus prayed over Lazarus and Lazarus came back to life.[iii]

*The truth is God does answer prayer.

And sometimes his answer is YES.*  *Turn in your Bibles today to 2 Kings 20!*  *Who needs a Bible today?*

Does anyone here like history?

I like history and the Bible is full of history – actually the events of the Bible make history.

Let me show you.

*Find verse 1 in 2 Kings 20.*  *(In those days Hezekiah)*  Hezekiah was the 13th king of Judah.[iv]

You can put this in ink – the date here is 701 BC.  Historical records confirm that in 701 BC the Assyrians will invade Judah, but fail to conquer the city.

The reason they fail is because of King Hezekiah’s trust in God.

But before the Assyrians invade – the King faces a huge personal problem.

*Go back to verse 1.*  What do you do in the face of bad news?

Nobody likes bad news.

Do you reach for a bottle?

Pop some pills?

Do you clam up?  Become fearful?

Do you call up a friend?

*Look at what Hezekiah does?* * (Vs 2)*  Hezekiah prayed.

Now what did he pray?

/Man, that’s a good prayer/.

Hezekiah does a wonderful thing here.

He gives us one reason why God answers YES sometimes and NO other times.

The Bible makes it clear there are conditions for our prayers to be effective.

*This condition is called “walking with God or abiding in Christ.”*

This is what Jesus said in John 15:7:  /“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”/

The question is – are we abiding?

Is there any fellowship?

Gene Barron said, /“If our prayers are to be effective… We must be living in Him, and His words must be living in us.”*[v]*/

God’s word says I do not have to be a slave to an angry, bitter heart.

If you come here on Sunday and put on a smile only to wear a frown when you get home – don’t expect God to say yes to you very often.

As a matter of fact if you have unconfessed sin lurking in your heart the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 66:18 that God won’t even listen to your prayers!

But God did listen to Hezekiah’s prayer.

*Go back to verse 4.  (Read 4-7)*  God gives Hezekiah 15 more years.

15 more years to do what?

Party?

To travel around the world collecting rare species of butterflies?

To figure out global warming?

NO – to serve God’s purposes!

Did any of you see the movie Bruce Almighty staring Jim Carrey?

Carrey plays Bruce Nolan, a TV news anchor wanna be and a typical complainer of life.

God is tired of his constant complaining so he gives Bruce his power.

Remember folks, this is a movie.

One part that I especially liked was when people started praying to God – to Bruce.

He kept hearing all these voices crying out to him – after all, he’s God.

Carey can’t handle the “noise” anymore so he makes all prayers come to him in the form of email.

After he receives millions of requests he decides to say YES to all the prayer requests – only to find that YES sometimes (depending on the circumstances) is the worse possible answer you can receive.

Let’s go back to our question.

*Why doesn’t God answer our prayers?

He does and sometimes the answer is NO!  Turn now to Luke 22:39.

*Nearly* *725 years have passed.

Jesus is about to die on the cross.

Jesus finds himself doing again what he did quite often – praying!  *(Read 39-42a)* 

Jesus makes a request of God, his father.

/“Dad, please take this cup from me.”/  Cup in the Old testament often referred to God’s wrath.

“Dad, spare me from your wrath!”  Isn’t that request reasonable?  /“I don’t want to die.

I especially do not want to suffer before I die!”  /*And God’s answer to his son’s request was NO!*  Oh I despised hearing NO as a child.

And I’m not too crazy about hearing NO as an adult.

Jesus made a prayer request to his father.

We send up prayer requests to God all the time.

/“God, I want a bigger house, a better car, and a nicer husband.

God.

I’m overweight – just make the pounds fall right off me.”/  *Sometimes are prayers are self serving, materialistic and immature and GOD says NO!*   Claudia Minden Weisz put in this way, /“I asked God to take away my pride and he said NO!  He said it’s not for him to take way but for me to give up!

I asked God to give me patience and he said NO!  He said patience is a byproduct of perseverance.