Sermon Tone Analysis

One of the great truths that is evident throughout the Scriptures is that God speaks to His people.

He speaks in order to reveal His Character, His Ways, and His Purposes for your life.

God speaks.

The question among the Hebrews, however, is: /"We are speaking, but is God listening?"/

Chapter 59 is still part of God’s response to the false worship of His people in chapter 58.

In Isa.

58:3 the people have asked the question: /“‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’”

In other words, they are asking, “God.

Why are you not paying attention to us?”/

Our Lord Jesus is quoted by the apostle John as saying, /"He who belongs to God hears what God says."/

If the Christian does not know when God is speaking, he or she is in trouble at the heart of his or her Christian life.

In the case of the Hebrews it wasn’t because they couldn’t hear the voice of God, but because God was not on speaking terms with them.

The Prophet Isaiah writes, But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

When God does speak, and when we hear Him speak, He always uses the Holy Spirit to reveal to us one of three things.

The Spirit will either reveal something about God's character, God's ways or God's purpose.

We cannot discover anything about God through our own initiative.

If the Spirit does not reveal truth to us we simply cannot know it.

We know from the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit uses a variety of means to reveal God's truth to us.

* God also uses prayer to speak to us.

Prayer is not merely a religious activity.

Prayer is living in relationship and fellowship with God.

* God will also speak to us through the circumstances—both good and bad—of our lives.

In the lives of many Biblical characters we see that God used what was happening around an individual to either reveal or confirm His purpose or will to them.

* God will even use the Body of Christ—His church—to speak to us.

He will often use other believers to speak to us and He uses us to speak to the Body to reveal His will for the congregation.

* Obviously God use Scripture to speak to us.

The Bible is God's Word.

To read the Bible is to hear the voice of God speaking.

In this case, God uses the prophetic voice of Isaiah to reveal why the prayers of the people go unanswered.

God speaks: Are we listening?

If God so desperately wants to speak to us, why do we so frequently not hear Him?

The answer to that question is the focus of tonight's message.

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I. GOD'S RESPONSES TO PRAYER

#. first of all, we need to understand that God does not always answer us in the way that we would like

#. you've heard me say on several occasions that God has a number of answers to our prayers

#. yes

#. no

#.

wait (Zacharias and Elisabeth)

#. as God considers our petitions, He must thoughtfully weight the ramifications of the prayer that we are making

#.

throughout the Bible we see examples where God communicated a positive response to a person's requests

#. we also have examples throughout the Bible where God responds to a believer's petitions, but not in the way the petitioner hoped!

#. if God answered every prayer or petition with a "yes", some of us would become monsters of egocentricity

#. sometimes our prayers have implications for other people that are not healthy and wholesome

* ILLUS.

Most of you are familiar, at least in part, with the story of King Midas.

King Midas was a very kind man who ruled his kingdom fairly, but he was not one to think very deeply about what he said.

One day, while walking in his garden, he saw the elderly satyr Silenus asleep among the flowers of the King's private garden.

Midas recognized him and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus entertained Midas and his friends with stories and songs.

When the god Dionysus heard about Midas' compassion, he rewarded the King by granting him one wish.

The king thought for only a moment and then said, "/ wish for everything I touch to turn to gold."

And so it was.

Midas rejoiced in his new ability, which he hastened to put to the test.

He touched an oak twig and a stone; both turned to gold.

Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table.

Swelled at first with pride when he found he could transform everything he touched to gold; but when he beheld his food grow rigid and his drink harden into golden ice then he understood that this lust for gold was a curse.

His water, his bed, his clothes, his friends, and eventually the whole palace was gold.

When the king accidently touched his daughter, she too, turned hard and fast to gold.

King Midas saw that soon his whole kingdom would turn to gold unless he did something right away.

He asked Dionysus to turn everything back to the way it had been and take back his golden touch.

Because the king was ashamed and very repentant, Dionysus took pity on him and granted his request.

Instantly, King Midas was poorer than he had been, but richer, he felt, in the things that really count.

#. the moral of the story, or course, is be careful what you wish for

#. unlike the Greek god Dionysus, God Jehovah knows that our prayers have implications for other people that may not be healthy and wholesome for the progress of God's Kingdom

#. all of God's actions are holy, wise, and loving

#. as such, He will not grant anything that might endanger our growth or the growth of others

#. the result is that we sometimes experience disappointments in our requests of God and God answers them with a "no"

#. there's a second reason why God may not answer our petitions in the way we desire

#.

God is accomplishing a sanctifying work in our life

* ILLUS.

The Apostle Paul had some kind of affliction that he desperately sought relief from.

There has been any number of suggestions over the melania as to the nature of the Apostle's "thorn in the flesh", but we simply do not know what it was.

We know from Paul's own testimony that on three occasions, the Apostle "implored the Lord" to remove it.

The petition was not granted, not because of sin in his life, nor because he had mis-heard or not heard God speak.

The thorn was actually given to him "lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations."

#. without the thorn, the greatness of Paul's Christian character might not had developed

#. with the thorn, God glorified Himself through Paul's achievements in spite of his weaknesses

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II.

SINS THAT HINDER GOD HEARING OUR PRAYERS

#. when we do not hear God's voice it is not because God has become disinterested in our lives

#. when we do not hear God’s voice, it is not because God is hard of hearing

* /“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”/ (Isaiah 59:1, NIV84)

#. when we do not hear God's voice it is because we have become disinterested in God

#. when that happens we cannot be blessed by God

* /"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear."/

(Isaiah 59:1-2, ESV)

#. any sin is serious and hinders hearing God, but the Bible mentions six sins specifically related to unanswered prayer

!! A. SIX ROADBLOCKS TO ANSWERED PRAYER

#.

ANGER is the first roadblock to answered prayer

* /“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lining holy hands without anger or quarreling;"/ (1 Timothy 2:8, ESV)

#. the anger of God is not like the anger we experience

#.

God's anger is always holy, and an unchanging part of His nature

#.

God is eternally angry at sin, unrighteousness and injustice

#. but in His anger He is never malicious

#.

God never "gets mad" and loses control of Himself

#. but our anger is usually unholy and unrighteous

#. it is usually sudden and vindictive

#. when we become angry we often lose control of our emotions and our actions

#. we hold grudges and seek retribution over and above those actions perpetrated upon us which caused the anger

#. sometimes our anger causes our hands to become stained with blood