Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

The story is told of a Russian scientist who was found guilty of a crime against the state.

He was sentenced to a prison in the middle of a desert.

His cell mate was another scientist.

He was determined to escape, and he urged his cell mate to join him, but he refused.

After much planning he did finally escape, but the heat of the desert was unbearable, and the lack of food and water plus in the inability to locate another human being almost drove him mad.

He was forced to return to the prison.

He reported his terrible ordeal to his cell mate, and he responded, "Yes, I know.

I escaped and failed for the same reason."

The scientist was beside himself with frustration and said, "Why in heaven's name didn't you tell me what it was like out there?" His cell mate replied, "I didn't want to be a negative thinker."

For lack of negative thinkers, that is people who will tell it like it is, even when what is is not what we want it to be, there are masses of people who, if they do not die in the desert of despair, survive with weakened faith, and scars on their soul.

The more I study, the more I realize how absolutely vital it is that we listen to our Lord.

He told it like it was, and like it is, and like it shall ever be.

Jesus tells us in all honesty that there is a desert out there.

He warns us of the dangers, and does not shy away from being a negative thinker.

"Be careful," he warns as he opens this chapter.

There are all kinds of ways you can lose out and damage your relationship to God.

The paradox is that all of the areas of danger are good things.

They are things like giving, prayer, and fasting.

You can do all these good things in such a wrong way that they drive you from God rather than draw you near to Him.

This is not a pleasant reality for Jesus to lay on us, but thank God for one who tells us of the dangers, and gives warning so we can avoid them.

Most godly men will not give us such warnings, for they are fearful of being negative thinkers.

Jesus makes it clear that it is the truth that sets us free, and truth covers a lot of territory, and it includes the dark side as well as the light side.

Only the whole truth will make us free.

S. D. Gordon was right when he said, "It is always bad to have the truth hid from our eyes."

This means that if there is a negative side to an issue, it is bad not to think about it and be a negative thinker.

I want to focus on the negative truth Jesus tells us about prayer.

There are many books on prayer that will not tell you what Jesus tells you, because they do not want to be negative thinkers.

They hope by avoiding the negative they will protect you from that side of reality.

But what they do is force you to learn about the negative the hard way, and risk permanent damage to your faith.

Jesus will not do this, and that is why we must listen to Him, and test all others by the light of His Word.

You will have to read far and wide on prayer to find anyone who comes close to Jesus in telling the negative side of prayer.

I see three major reasons why prayer is not answered in the teaching of Jesus in verses 5 through 14.

1.

First is the matter of motivation.

You can pray for the wrong reason, and when you do your prayer never reaches heaven at all.

It is a bird without wings.

2. There is the matter of misconception.

You think that quantity is what impressed God, and so by vain repetition you hope to storm the gates of heaven.

Jesus says forget it, for prayer is not magic, and God is no machine.

3.

There is the matter of missing mutuality.

If you do not have the same spirit as God does in forgiving others, do not expect Him to answer your prayer for forgiveness.

God's love is like electricity; it will not flow in where it cannot flow out.

You can't receive what you will not give.

Jesus promises us that if we refuse to forgive our prayer for forgiveness will not be answered.

So Jesus tells it like it is in the world of prayer, and in so doing He complicates things, and forces us to wrestle with the conditions for answered prayer.

What happens when we do not want to wrestle with such things, and take the short cut of teaching very positively that God answers all prayers?

Such positive teaching may induce faith in those whose life is smooth sailing, but injures faith in those whose voyage is across stormy seas.

The only real question is this: Is it true?

Does God answer all prayers?

Let's look at how this teaching has affected the lives of those who have believed it.

1.

A young girl tore her new geography book just before school ended for the day.

She put it in her desk and went home feeling bad about it.

She remembered her teacher had taught her that God would do anything for her.

So she prayed that He would fix the book so that it was not torn anymore.

She prayed with persistence, and with faith.

She eagerly went to school the next day expecting the book to be as good as new.

It was a great disappointment to find the page was still torn.

Her faith was thrown for a loop, and she struggled with many questions.

Was she a bad girl?

Didn't God like her? Was she rejected by God? How many millions of children go through terrible times of self-rejection because they are taught that God will answer all their prayers?

2. Somerset Maugham in Of Human Bondage has the character Philip praying that his club foot would be healed so he could play sports.

With no doubts in his mind he prays fervently, but in the morning he comes limping to the breakfast table.

Now he is not only defective of body, but damaged in spirit.

3. Mark Twain's greatest objection to Christianity was the teaching of children that God answers all their prayers.

He writes of how Huckleberry Finn had such a teacher, and of how he experimented with prayer.

He once got a line he said, but no hooks, and it warnt any good without hooks.

He prayed 3 or 4 times for the hooks, but couldn't make it work.

Huck said he went into the woods and had a long think about it.

If prayer can get anything, why don't deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?

Why can't the widow get back her silver that was stole?

Why can't Miss Watson the teacher fat up?

He concluded, "No, says I to myself, there ain't nothin to it."

4. R. F. Horton gives this testimony: "I remember as a child putting God to the test.

I placed a bright farthing in a drawer, and then knelt down and prayed for God to transmute it into a half-sovereign.

With trembling eagerness I opened the drawer, and found that the copper was copper still.

That was my dawn of skepticism in prayer."

If pennies could be prayed into dollars, all Christians would be faithful in prayer, and even eager for all night prayer meetings.

This childish dream does not last long, of course, because one is quickly disillusioned about prayer as magic.

This fairy tale level of prayer, however, is still often imposed on children and adults by those who do not want to be negative thinkers.

5.

A study of the Civil War reveals that the South had as many godly leaders as the North, and the prayers for victory were as sincere and fervent as those in the North.

Many godly Christians had their faith shaken when the South lost the war they had bathed in prayer.

God refused to give victory, even to His own, when they fought for a cause which was not His will.

6. Madue Royden tells of the British soldier who came home from World War I, and his family rejoiced as they told him how they had prayed for him, and knew that he would come home.

He protested, "Don't talk like that.

I can't bear it."

He had seem dozens of his comrades killed who were equally prayed for, and some he had watched die while he prayed with passion for them.

Illustrations of unanswered prayer are endless, and you need look no further than your own life, for any body who is into prayer at all has experienced unanswered, as well as answered prayer.

Unanswered prayer is most dangerous when you don't believe it exists, and you twist and turn reality to fit your notion that all prayers are answered.

Like Miss Marshall and her aunt Miss Marsh who prayed for Captain Hedley Vicors to be spared as he fought in the Crimean War.

He was shot and killed, but they refused to believe their prayer was unanswered.

They rationalized and said that we prayed for life for him, and God gave him life forever and ever.

This kind of mind trick may work for some, but the fact is, they prayed he would not die, and not that he would live forever in heaven starting then.

They made the opposite of what they prayed for to be the answer to their prayer.

Those with this gift can, of course, always hold fast to their faith that all prayers are answered.

But if you define answer to mean getting what you asked for, the fact is that many prayers are not answered.

I do not like it anymore than you do, but I prefer to face this reality rather than to pretend that whatever comes is an answer.

With this view there is no distinction between an answer and no answer.

It is popular to say that all prayer is answered either yes, no, or wait.

This is a clever way to include unanswered prayer in answered prayer.

It is saying that since God always has some response to our prayer, even if it is total rejection, it is still an answered prayer.