One Prayer That Will Never Be Answered

INTRODUCTION

Renewed Faith

Prayer for June

Last week: What Prayer Will and Will Not Do

Not to demonstrate that prayer is not effective

After a tragedy - don’t want to hear “pray for the suffering”

Most powerful tool a Christian has

Today: One Prayer That Will Never Be Answered

1 Timothy 1:14–15 ESV

and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Note Paul’s recognition of himself

THERE IS AT LEAST ONE PRAYER THAT WILL NEVER BE ANSWERED, AND THAT IS THE PRAYER TO BE SOMEBODY ELSE.

Grass must be greener somewhere else, it’s tempting for some to think life would be easier if we were somebody else.

And while we know it’s impossible to change places with any other person who has actually lived, we do seem to hope for something that is not really much different:

we hope that God might transform us in such a way that our past is erased, our personal circumstances are altered, and we are given a life-situation in which it will be much easier to serve God faithfully.

How many of us at some point in our Christian life lament over things we’ve done in the past?

How many do people who feel they are too sinful to be accepted by God?

God Can Do Wonders For Our Past

but He cannot make our past anything other than what it is.

He can do things in the present that are greater than anything that has happened in our past,

but He having done so, THE PAST IS STILL THE PAST.

You are a unique set of problems and possibilities

The sooner we give up the false hope becoming someone else, the sooner we can get busy cooperating with God’s plan for us.

Titus 3:5 ESV

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

What did Joseph say to his brothers

Psalm 51:10 ESV

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Romans 6:17–18 ESV

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Romans 6:20–21 ESV

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Whoever we are, we have scars and we have limitations.

It is impossible for it to be otherwise.

God is not the God of imaginary beings,

but the God of real people in all their flawed variety.

Closing

To get out of the unhealthy sin cycle you are currently experiencing

You Must Realize How Just Not Enough You Really Are

You do it at the expense of the only thing that matters 1 second after you die – your relationship with God.