Sermon Tone Analysis

*When heaven is silent*             2 Corinthians 12:7-10 \\ \\ INTRODUCTION \\ We love stories about answered prayer.

We get a thrill hearing accounts of God’s miraculous interventions in people’s lives.

It motivates us to be more diligent about prayer, so we pray.

We’re specific, confident, and bold.

We’re absolutely convinced God will answer.

We feel a level of faith and enthusiasm that we’ve never experienced before.

We ask, seek and knock…but God is silent.

The thing that we wanted does not materialize.

Our zeal is crushed and we wonder what happened.

\\ We ask ourselves and God: “Is it worth it?”

“Did I do something wrong?” “Does God even hear me?” “Does He care?” \\ \\

Many of you who have children have probably seen the movie “The Santa Clause” where Tim Allen, after causing Santa to fall off of his roof and die, becomes the new Santa Claus.

In that movie, Tim’s ex-wife and her new husband both confess that they no longer believe in Santa Claus.

And they tell when it was in their lives that they stopped believing in him and what caused it.

It was when requests that they had made of Santa were denied.

The woman had requested a Mystery Date gamel, and the step-dad had requested a weanie-whistle.

When they didn’t get what they wanted, they responded by simply closing themselves off to the reality of Santa Claus.

\\ Some people respond that way to God when they don’t receive what they ask for.

Cable television mogul Ted Turner, who is now one of the loudest voices criticizing Christianity, said he had a strict Christian upbringing.

He even considered becoming a missionary at one point in his life.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution quoted him as saying that he was saved seven or eight times in his life.

But he said he became disenchanted with Christianity when despite his prayers that she would get well, his sister still died.

\\ God’s “no” is not just limited to those who are living sinful lives.

No matter how spiritual you may be, there are going to be times that God says “No” to your prayers.

It doesn’t matter how much you have sacrificed or endured for the cause of Christ.

Ask Paul.

He had endured a lot.

It doesn’t matter either how much you have accomplished for the cause of Christ.

There will be times that it feels like God has turned a deaf ear to your requests.

Again, Paul is an example of one who had accomplished a great deal for God.

He had started many new churches, written down portions of the Bible, and trained young pastors and missionaries.

But even for him, there were times that heaven was silent.

If it happened to Paul, it will certainly happen to you.

How are you going to respond when it happens in your life?

How are you going to make it through?

I want to give you 6 Christ-honoring responses that you can make a part of your life when you face one of those times when God says “No” to your heart-felt desire.

\\ \\ 1. Treat trials as a gift from God. “given to me” You can treat them as a…

·        Nuisance to be ignored, Punishment to be endured, Problem to be solved, Battle to be waged, Or as a Gift to be accepted; acceptance is the issue; “the point of prayer is to get God’s will accomplished on earth not man’s will accomplished in heaven.”

\\ Gifts bring joy.

James 1:2 – “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing this, that the trying of your faith produces patience.

\\ \\

·        Gifts come from people who love you.

\\ \\

2. Remember what God has already said.

When God doesn’t seem to be saying anything, rest your confidence on what God has already said:

·         “When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.”

Think about some of the surpassing great revelations that God has given to you.

Go back to the book of Psalms.

Listen as the writers struggle with their own questions about unanswered prayer and a God that seems far away.

Listen to them complain over the fact that at the time when they most needed to see God’s face, that His face seemed to be hidden.

And then listen to them find confidence in the promises of God that will never change no matter how our world may be changing all around us. \\ \\ 3. Continue praying to God.

Paul’s prayer was persistent and it was passionate.

·        Paul pleaded with God!

The word that is translated “pleaded” is the same word that is used to describe the way that Jairus asked for the healing of his daughter who was dying (Mk 5:23).

It was how a leper sought cleansing from his leprosy (Mk.

1:40).

And it was how a servant begged his master for mercy over a bill that he owed so that he would not be thrown into prison and separated from his family (Mt 18:29).

·        How would you pray if your child was dying?

How would you pray if your limbs were being destroyed with leprosy?

How would you pray if you were getting ready to be separated from your family that you loved because of a debt that you owed?

 

·        The first response that many people give when God doesn’t come through for them is that they give up on God or they give up on prayer.

And that’s before they ever get to the pleading level.

They may have hinted, suggested, or even asked, but they haven’t pleaded.

It may very well be that God is just waiting until you are flat on your face before Him laying it all on the line, humbling yourself in His eyes before He will give you the answer to your prayer.

“God resists the proud but gives grace unto the humble.”

·        The only reason that Paul quit praying this particular request was because God gave Him an answer.

It just so happened that that answer was “no”.

Paul accepted that answer and continued on with his life.

\\ \\

 

4.

Listen for God’s voice.

“My grace is sufficient”

·        We allow so many things to compete for our attention in our lives.

We are so busy.

There’s no time and no motivation to just sit down and listen.

Sometimes, the only time that we’re willing to listen to what God has to say – the only way that He can get us still long enough to get our attention – is by knocking the breath out of us.

He says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

It may be that we have to be on our faces in sorrow and suffering before we are willing to listen.

God can speak through our tears.

Listen for His voice.

 

5.

Trust in God’s power.

“power is made perfect”

·        Trust in- God’s power, not your own.

\\ \\

·         Paul’s question in the midst of all of this and- his reason for even asking God to take this problem away was because he thought that he could be a more effective servant for God, He could accomplish more for God if God would just heal him.

It would make him more powerful.

\\ \\

·         But I- guess that’s part of the issue.

God wanted Paul to be in a position where he was forced to realize and remember that anything of any substance that was accomplished was because of God’s power not because of Paul’s power.

·        When you have nagging problems that just won’t go away – a pain- that will not subside, a child that will not obey, a co-worker that will not respect you, a loss that you just can’t seem to recover from – and you wonder, “God, is your power strong enough to enable me to handle this?”, he responds with, “My strength is greatest when you are weakest.

I can get you through anything.”

\\  When God chooses not to use His power to alleviate the pain,- trust in God’s power to see you through the pain.

6.

Serve God right where you are.

“I delight in weaknesses”

·      You want God to change your situation, but did you ever think that God has put you in that situation to use you right in the middle of it?

Don’t ask God to change things until you’ve looked for and found how you can minister in or be changed by the circumstance that you face.

God doesn’t do anything without a reason.

·       Joni Earekson- Tada had her life forever changed one day.

She was diving with some friends and misjudged the depth of the water.

She hit her head when she went in and broke her neck.

She was just a teenager.