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Spiritual Disciplines-Prayer Part 2 Roadblocks to Answered Prayer
Last week we began to look at the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer.
We noted particularly that prayer is the Next Slide
Prayer is the Conduit to God’s Power, it’s like Plugging into the Power Source.
We specifically talked about prayer being expected, expected by Jesus, that it was a very clear expectation throughout all of the New Testament, and that it was patterned by Jesus.
We talked about prayer being something that is learned, mostly by persistent, disciplined time in prayer but that it can also be learned through praying with others and we closed with the fact that every prayer we as believers pray is answered with either a Yes, a No, or a Not yet.
This morning I’d like to rephrase my last statement slightly.
Let me change it to the following: Next Slide
Every prayer of the believer, that reaches the Ear of the Father, is answered with either a Yes, a No, or a Not yet.
I’m sure your wondering right now, why the change?
Are there prayers God doesn’t answer?
To answer that question, I want you to look at a verse.
Next Slide Psalm 66:18
Since we have looked at this verse together, let me give you some of the historical significance of this Psalm.
Most Biblical scholars believe that this was a Psalm of King Hezekiah written after the events of 2 King 18. King Hezekiah was a good and Godly King, the complete opposite of his father, King Ahaz.
King Ahaz had led the Southern Kingdom of Judah to rebel against God, he closed the Temple doors and had altars built on every corner of Jerusalem.
As a result of Ahaz leading the people of Judah to sin against God, God had delivered them over to their enemies.
In this instance their brothers in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
To save themselves from utter destruction, Ahaz paid the Assyrian kingdom an annual tribute to save them from their enemies.
Several things took place when Ahaz died and his son Hezekiah became the King.
One, within a month King Hezekiah opened the Temple back up and restored worship to God there.
He also destroyed all of the idols and altars his father had built.
Then he lead what remained of the Nation on a time of corporate and individual repentance and a return to worship of the One True God.
Lastly, he stopped paying annual tribute to the Assyrians.
That last thing he did angered King Sennacherib of Assyria.
Before long an Assyrian army of at least 185,000 was surrounding the walled city of Jerusalem.
On their way to Jerusalem, they destroyed 46 fortified cities in Judah, and took over 200,000 into captivity.
Things looked pretty bleak for Jerusalem.
With the army, King Sennacherib also sent a letter mocking King Hezekiah, but more importantly mocking the Almighty God.
Hezekiah sent a messenger to the prophet Isaiah and then he took the letter from King Sennacherib, brought it to the Temple and spread it out before the Lord and began to pray.
Soon he received a message from the prophet Isaiah, let me read to you the last part of that message:
“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord.
34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
Now I want you to picture something for a moment.
Jerusalem was surrounded by an army of at least 185,000, an army known for defeating walled cities.
They were notorious for skilled archers that would pick the enemies off of the wall while they built siege mounds to enable them to climb the walls and enter the cities.
If you stood on the walls of the city, the army spread out in every direction as far as the eye could see.
Yet the very night after King Hezekiah received word from the prophet Isaiah, the angel of the Lord descended on the army of King Sennacherib and killed 185,000.
Biblical historians believe that it was at that point in time that King Hezekiah wrote his praise to God that we read in Psalm 66.
There is no doubt that had King Hezekiah not led the Nation of Judah on corporate and individual revival and a return to worship of God, the angel of the Lord would not have rescued them.
To me, that adds powerful significance to Psalm 66:18;
“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
That brings me back the question I posed earlier; Next Slide
Are there prayers God doesn’t answer?
The answer to the question is Yes, there are prayers that seemingly never reach Ears of the Father.
Next Slide
It is as if there is a road block somewhere between the one praying and the Ears of the Father.
That brings us to the title of this mornings message: Next Slide
I owe a debt of gratitude for Chip Ingram for his outline for this mornings message.
from his recent series The Power of Prayer.
Next Slide
Roadblocks To Answered Prayers.
As we look at these, turn with me in your Bibles to James 4. That is page 1290 in the pew Bibles
The 1st Roadblock I want to look at together this morning is the
Next Slides
1.
The Roadblock of Prayer-less-ness.
We talked about this some last week when we talked about Plugging in to the Power Source.
We also see this is in James 4:2 Next Slide
James 4:2 “You desire and do not have, so you murder.
You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have, becuase you do not ask.”
We spent a good deal of time on this roadblock last week, so let’s move on to Roadblock #2.
Next Slide
2. The Roadblock of Wrong Motives.
We see this highlighted in James 4:3 Next Slide
Most of the time our wrong motives are tied to selfish desires.
Perhaps personal possessions we’d like to have, or a relationship we desire, maybe even hardships on someone who we feel has treated us unfairly or gotten a promotion ahead of us, or made the starting line-up instead of us, of has more friends than us.
I want you to notice something in James 4:2-3 that I think is key, what is the most repeated word in these 2 verses?
Next Slide
Did you notice what I noticed?
The word “you” is repeated 7 times, 8 if you count the word “your” Next Slide
“2You desire and do not have, so you murder.
You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have, because you do not ask.
3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
James 4:2-3
James is not writing to God centered believers here, oh I’m sure there may have been a few here and there, but it appears that most on his reading list were extremely self-centered and their life, and in turn their prayer list reflected a self-centered mentality.
As a result James begins by letting them know they don’t have because they don’t go to God in prayer, and when they do, their motives and prayer list are focused not on the will of God but on the fulfillment of their own selfish desires.
For further evidence of this, go back to verses 1 & 2 of this chapter.
James here addresses quarrels, fights, selfish passions that are at war within you, he addresses selfish desires so intense that murder comes to mind.
By the way, according to John MacArthur, James isn’t necessarily saying that actual murder is taking place.
The word James uses here “in this context, could include murderous hatred, extremely destructive behavior, and even suicide.
When the lusting person cannot achieve his desired goals—whether for reputation, prestige, sexual gratification, money, power, escape through drugs or alcohol, success, possessions, the affections of another person, or whatever—the result is often catastrophic to others and always destructive of oneself.”
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1998).
James (p. 189).
Chicago: Moody Press.
This fits well with what Jesus said in The Sermon on the Mount when He spoke about murder and equated a hateful angry heart to murder.
The point here is this, our desire when we pray should be, that when God answers our prayers His reputation is enhanced.
Let me repeat this, because this is so very important.
Next Slide
Our desire when we pray should be, that when God answers our prayers His reputation is enhanced.
Isn’t this what we see patterned by Jesus Himself as He prayed on the Mount of Olives in Luke 22:42?
Luke 22:42 “saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.’”
With these things in mind, James addresses the Roadblock to Answered prayer,
the of Wrong Motives.
I was talking with one of my kids from back when I was in the Youth Ministry.
His name is Steve Kramer.
Steve and his wife Julie are now missionaries.
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