"A Leap of Faith: Does God Hear and Answer Our Prayers?
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
— This week our “Leap of Faith topic is a question… Does God Hear and Answer our Prayers?
— We are continuing in our series… “A Leap of Faith: Navigating the Shadows of Doubt,” this week and for the next several weeks.
— Let’s Pray…
—God we come to you this morning, thank you for meeting our needs, and wants this past week.
— Jesus we come to you again, we confess our personal doubts about who you are and what you did, your dominion and control. We confess our unbelief!
— Lord God use Holy Spirit to convict us and show us where we have misstepped, where we have sinned, and where we need to ask forgiveness from others and from God.
— Lord God be with this as we continue to explore our relationship with you
— In your name we pray AMEN!!!
— Last week we worked through three points concerning the “Reality of Doubt”
— But first a quote from Sir Francis Bacon, “If mankind will begin with certainties, he shall end with doubts, but if they will be content to begin with doubts they shall end in certainties. –Francis Bacon from The Advancement of Learning.
—————————-
— Here are those three applications that we covered last week…
- “Doubt” is part of the human experience. Doubt does NOT have to define our relationship with God. We can live beyond “DOUBT.”
- Regardless of the source of doubt; We must fight the distraction that is pulling us away from God.
- Faith is a “doubt-killer.” Thank God, often and regularly for His patience with you!
— This week I want to look at a common “doubt” that many question…
Does God Hear and Answer Our Prayers?
Does God Hear and Answer Our Prayers?
— It’s question that we all have had, wondered about, cried and shouted about.
Principle #1 - God Promises to Hear Our Prayers:
— God does indeed hear and answer our prayers.
— The problem is that we don’t want to wait, and wait, and wait. We only want to hear, “Yes, Jeff, here is your answer now go and do it. We NEVER want to hear from God, “No”
— WE want it now… Rarely in my prayer do I say “Lord, take as much time as you have to address my need, and my want.”
— You see the Lord is eternal, He lives a “timeless” life
— So He will always win in the “timeless.”
— We do have some assurances that scripture has given us, in both the Old and New Testaments.
— Listen to Psalm 34.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
— There are those among us, maybe even you, who look at the God of the Old Testament
— And see judgement, anger, condemnation, killing.
— But God also hears a cry for help. “LORD GOD HELP US!”
— Now this could be a “foxhole” situation… bullets flying past, car about to go over and embankment, or slipping across an ice covered road into a ditch and into a very hard wall of rock.
— Note the promise at the end of the verse
Psalm 34:17 (ESV)
17b the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
— He promised the Jews and promises us that he will hear and deliver us out of our troubles.
— Do we know..? Can we catalog the number of times that He has delivered us from “troubles?” No we cannot!
— Let’s look two verses in the New Testament
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
— Now here in the New Testament God is addressing us through John, the Apostle
— If we ask Him ANYTHING, ANYTHING, he will give it to us… RIGHT?
— NO!!!… that’s not even close… but that is how we want it!
— Verse 14 says, that we may ask and if it is will… He hears us!
— And now Vs. 15
15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
— If he accepts or hears AND, AND it is in accordance of his will, we can know that we will realize the requests that we have asked of him.
— No notice is given that EVERYTHING will be answered, or how it will be answered or when it will be answered.
— But WE can be assured that he has indeed heard the need.
Application #1: God NEEDS to hear from us! He WANTS to hear from us! Prayers can be short or long… He knows the situation and will answer you.
— We’ve heard from His Word, we’ve all had prayers answered and sometimes not answered at all.
— Here is the next principle and application
Principle #2 - God Responds in His Timing and Wisdom:
— Acknowledge that God's answers may not always align with our expectations or desires, but they are always according to His perfect will.
— God’s timing is His alone. He is timeless
— God created time for us.
— To mark our days, our seasons and our lives
— Listen to Isaiah 55
Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
— You see God knows the big picture…
— He knows what we really need…
— We can argue with him, but His thoughts are not our thoughts
— You see we think we have the “Big Picture” but our “experience” is less than one billionth, trillionth of what God has seen.
— Sometimes as we look back we see how God had it right.
— The writer/singer Garth Books get’s it right when he says …
“Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.. Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs…And just because He doesn't answer, doesn't mean He don't care
'Cause some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” - Garth Brooks
— James 1:6-7 teaches about the importance of faith and patience in prayer:
James 1:6–7 (ESV)
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
— These two verses are rather “double-edged.” They cut both ways. There is an explicit warning
— Vs. 6 Present your request, your need, your want, your desire to Him.
— Not doubting, but with confidence, that he hears and will respond.
— Don’t be tossed and turned like on the sea. Who is that person?
— That’s the person who “doubts” that God cares; that God hears; or that God even has the power to make your request happen
— That is the person thrown around the sea… WE ALL KNOW PEOPLE LIKE THIS… RIGHT?
— The Book of James, written in the late 1st century, to Christians.
— So it can get very practical; but very pointed in its discussion AT TIMES
— I wanted preface that before talking about V.7
— “For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything…”
— Without FAITH, without asking in FAITH, without believing in FAITH that according to his will we are given everything we need — that person will not receive ANYTHING from the Lord.
— Faith is the place to start, it’s a place to continue, it a place to end our lives… IN FAITH!
Application #2 - Be patient and know He is God. He knows our needs, wants and our desires. He will respond. Accept His answer
Principle #3 - God Answers According to His Love for Us:
— So there is some pretty tough stuff that we have dealt with today
— But you know about God’s love for us…
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
— He is CRAZY in love with us.
— He wanted us so much that he gave us choice… To follow, to have faith or to not follow or have faith
— There is a reality… Following Jesus, leads to eternal life / Not following Jesus leads to eternal death. [period]
— God deep love for us and His desire is to bless us through our prayers.
— Teaching us that we can bless others needing a relationship with God.
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
— Scripture here sets up two different outcomes.
— For those who are evil and not following and those who are following Him.
— Evil, unjustified people still get good things from God… Why?
— Well… now that’s a tough question
— Here is my answer… God will use any and all means to reach people.
— He wants everyone to have an opportunity to accept the Lord’s leadership in their lives.
— He will give “good gifts” to those who are evil to give them opportunity to accept Jesus and live eternal life in Heaven.
— The last portion of that verse is for believers, followers of Christ
Matthew 7:11 (ESV)
11b how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
— Listen… those of us who are believers, God is anxious to give us good gifts.
— God will hear you and answer you!
Application #3 - Know God, Know Answered Prayer!
— Let’s review our applications for today as we wind down.
Application #1: God NEEDS to hear from us! He WANTS to hear from us! Prayers can be short or long… He knows the situation and will answer you.
—
Application #2 - Be patient and know He is God. He knows our needs, wants and our desires. He will respond. Accept His answer
—
Application #3 - Know God, Know Answered Prayer… No God, No Answered Prayer
—
Let’s Pray
— Thank you God for this message today
— Lord we ask that you bear with us in our “unfaithfulness” and unbelief
— We do want to hear from you, we confess at times we are impatient and want answers on our timeline… while your is timeless
— Lord God be patient with us, help us to recognize how much you love us.
— Amen