“Is Prayer Worth My Time?” (Matt 21:21-22 (Mark 11:24-25); Matt 7:7-8 (Lk 11:9-13); Matt 18:19; Jn 14:13-14; Jn 15:7, 16; Jn 16:23-24)| 1/26/20
Matt 21:21-22 (Mark 11:24-25); Matt 7:7-8 (Lk 11:9-13); Matt 18:19; Jn 14:13-14; Jn 15:7, 16; Jn 16:23-24; | 1/26/20 | Thad Yessa
This morning we continue our series “Tough Texts” Tackling the Toughest Topics in the Bible. This morning we are looking at the question, “ Is Prayer Worth My Time?
When asked on a forum atheist Trevor Carter states this about prayer.
It makes no sense at all to me.
Let's examine what the Bible in regards to prayer. Jesus' disciples ask him how to pray. He tells them the "Lord's Prayer." You know, "give us this day our daily bread..." and all that good stuff. By observation alone you don't need to pray for food, because most of us get food, including us atheists. There are a few unfortunate people on this planet that go hungry. The prayer also states, "thy will be done". According to the Bible god has it all planned out already, so asking him for his will to be done seems redundant. Let's take this a step further. I see Christians praying over their dinner a lot. They ask god to bless their food. What is that supposed to do? Is the food upgraded by god to be more nutritious? We could put this to the test. Let's have a group of believers eat high fat foods for a month straight, all the while praying before every meal - asking god to bless their food. Then at the end of that month will check their cholesterol. My guess is they are going to be in trouble with the doctor.
The most annoying thing about prayer is when I hear someone say, "I'll pray for you." I think most of the time when they say they'll pray for someone they're really saying, there's nothing I can do or I'm unwilling to do anything myself so let's see if god will do it. I don't understand how anyone could find those words comforting. Based on what I've seen with prayer you have about a 50/50 chance of it getting answered. In other words, it's a matter of chance, not a matter of god's will.
This morning we need to ask the question, “Is Prayer Worthy My Time“ or is the organized religion just a scam for weak minded people. One of the most common reasons for such skepticism about Christianity finds itself in one of the key disciplines of the Christian faith but one that only leads to disappointment in unanswered prayers. Meaning prayers prayed but not answered.
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Some, even in this room might feel that if God is real He must be playing hard to get, I mean after all we are told in
Psalm 145:18 The LORD is near to all them that call on him, to all that call on him in truth.
Proverbs 15:29
The LORD is far from the wicked: but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
Matthew 21:22
And all things, whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.
So if I follow the formula: prayer and am not wicked, I believe in God, I should according to the Bible receive what I asked for.
Pray + Not wicked + Believe in God = Answered Prayers
I have heard and I am sure most of you have heard these other verses that have even less requirements
Matt 7:7-8 - “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Matt 18:19 - 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
Jn 14:13-14 - 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me[a] anything in my name, I will do it.
Jn 16:23-24 - In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Then we pray and we don’t see answers to our prayers. We’re left asking, what’s the problem? And we conclude that either our faith is so pitifully small that God essentially ignores them, or that there must be so many complicating factors inhibiting his answer that we end up as prayer agnostics. Either way, the net effect is we’re discouraged from praying much. Matthew 21:22 - And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” must be for Christians with heroic faith.
I am also positive that you like myself have prayed and not received what we asked for. When I was four years old until I was six during our Sunday School prayer time the teacher asked if we had any prayer requests, and I had the same exact one for two years, “That I would get a dog.” For two years! My SS teacher eventually got so “annoyed” that she went up to my parents and said, “would you just get him a dog! PLEASE!” We could take time and go around the room asking what hasn’t God answered:
“God would you would you help me pass this test I didn’t study for.”
“God would you help me to find a good husband.”
“God would you cure my wife from cancer.”
“God would you allow us to have another child.”
“God would you somehow give me money to pay the bills this month.”
I mean if prayer really worked all the time wouldn’t we know about it? Think about it, if every time we prayed and God answered, there wouldn’t need to ever be a sermon instructing us to prayer. I search on one sermon archive website and found 50,914. Seriously, imagine with me if I prayed this morning that God would give our West Hills the money needed to pay off the rest of the mortgage and Monday morning a check was dropped off with the right amount for the mortgage, do you think I would tell everyone? Or what if you cried out to God after a report from the doctor that they discovered an unknown mass and the next week you went for a followup procedure and the mass was gone! Is that something you would keep to yourself?
This may seem like the exact opposite of what you were expecting this morning, you came to receive hope, but I am not painting a very hopeful picture. We need to ask these hard questions because having a good theology only really matters when we have to put into practice. We can say we believe that prayer is important, but what happens when our prayers don’t get answered. We need to put the Bible to the test, please turn in your Bibles to:
Stand as you are able
Isaiah 59:1-4 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2
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.
3
For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.
4
No one enters suit justly;
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
This is the Word of the Lord
PRAY
We need to examine three lists this morning:
Prayers of the Sinful that Go Unanswered
The Bible makes it very clear that prayers go unanswered because of blatant, unrepentant sin. My guess is that this doesn’t come as a great surprise to you. The majority of the teaching in the Bible of unanswered prayers backs up that unrepentant sin affects our prayers.
Psalm 66:18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Proverbs 28:9 If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.
John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
Proverbs 15:29 The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
1 Peter 3:12 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.
Why is this the case? Because prayer is a relational activity.
(Matthew 7:7–11)
Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will give him a serpent? 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! (Matthew 7:7–11)
Becoming a Christian means being adopted into the family of God, so that all our praying is the talk of a child to his father. "I love you, daddy." "Thank you, daddy." "Daddy, I need help."
Understanding the relational component of our relationship with God can bring out certain observations: If a child has certain bad attitudes and misbehaves, a good father will not give him everything he asks for. If Reagan, ,my two year old, hits her sister, which she knows is wrong I do not give her a treat. Accordingly, the Bible teaches that in order for our prayers to be answered, we must do our Father's will. Jesus said in John 15:7, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you." A child who disregards his father's words (Jesus' words are the Father's words) is not fit to have his requests granted. We would not approve a father's behavior who did everything a rebellious child wished. Not just because the child doesn't deserve it, but because it would be bad for the child and a dishonor to the father's word. It is not a good thing to confirm a child in her waywardness by giving her whatever she asks. No, if my words abide in you, son, then ask what you will and I'll do it.
If we are unloving, irritable, holding a grudge, impatient, unkind, boastful, jealous, resentful we should not think that God is likely to answer our prayers. His will for us is that we love one another; therefore, he will be slow to prosper our cause when our attitudes are unloving.
If prayers go unanswered, one question we need to ask ourselves is, “Is there unrepentant/blatant sin in my life?” There is great hope even if this is the reason for our unanswered prayers. For God like a good father loves His children unconditionally. He opens his arms to the wayward child. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We need to look at another list of unanswered prayer.
The prayers of the righteous that go unanswered
2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
12 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,[a] a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul is teaching us How to Respond when prayers are not answered. Paul expresses in the verses right before this that he had seen visions and was caught up in the third heaven, but despite all of those things he received this, “Thorn in the flesh.” Many have ventured guesses as to what this thorn was, but I honestly don’t think it matters. It was serious enough that Paul in verse 8 that it would be removed three time! Paul, the guy we look who wrote much of our New Testament, Paul the one who spent is life planting churches and guiding the earlier churches. A man that we could say was in a great relationship with God, didn’t have his prayer answered. This isn’t the only time we might be surprised by someone not having their prayers answered.
So here we have an example of someone whom we should think according to verses like Mark 11:24 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. should have had his prayer answered, but wasn’t.
Why was Paul’s prayer unanswered? Why didn’t Paul’s prayer work?
Sin? Disobedients? His life wasn’t characterized by unrepentant sin. But no God gives an answer, “My grace is sufficient.” Meaning God was saying to Paul and those he was ministering to would know God better through Paul’s weakness. That may seem strange that Paul would know God better through an unanswered prayer, let alone an unanswered prayer that caused him some apparent agony that he begged or pleaded with God three times.
Paul’s response was not to get mad at God, not to doubt God, but trust that God knows best. Paul is showing that prayer is a relational interaction, not merely a service transaction.
“The popular belief about prayer, reduces God to a servant, OUR servant, doing our bidding, granting our desires.” No; prayer is a coming to God, telling Him my needs, and leaving Him to deal with it as He sees fit. This makes my will subject to His. Not the other way around! “
A.W. Pink
Faith, which is how we are supposed to pray with, is not divine currency that we pay God in order to receive whatever we ask in prayer. Faith is a relational response to trust in what God promises us. Faith says to God, “I trust what you say so much that I will live by what you say.”
Paul received here better than what he even asked, God’s grace! “Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.”(John Stott) God is saying that is grace is sufficient enough for Paul to be able to continue on despite that thorn in the flesh. If we are submitted to God’s hand, even our unfulfilled desires can be fruitful because our unfulfilled desires can be the very thing that draws us closer to God. The reason that Paul could boast in weakness, trials, hardships is because Paul had taken it to God and God had a purpose to make himself known. Paul’s request wasn’t answered, not because of blatant sin in his life, but because of the sovereign will of God. The same sovereign God who allowed Job to suffer, the same sovereign God who asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son. The same sovereign God who gave his only Son for those, who hated him. This is the God who called Paul to bear his thorn and endure his torments.
Your unanswered Prayers
The last list of prayers we will consider is yours and mine. I don’t have a list of yours, I have a list of mine. I am sure you have your own, maybe not a physical written list but you know the prayers that weren’t answered. There have been times in my own life where Nikki and I have prayed and prayed and prayed the same exact thing for a long period of time. I even remember thinking to myself, what is even the point. The only biblical advice that friends could give to me is to keep praying. I mean, what is it that we are supposed to trust in those times? Was I to trust that this certain circumstance would eventually just come to an end? No, I was to trust in God.
Application:
Through prayer we get to know our God. That is why some of the prayers we read in the Bible give praise to God for who He is and what He has done. Prayers of Adoration ,articulating the truths that we know about God, those prayers always work. Prayers of Thanksgiving, those always work. Prayers of Confession those always work. We recognize our own sinfulness before a great and Holy God and we remember 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Even in our Prayers of Petitions work, those when we are asking things for ourselves or for others. Sometimes we don’t even know how to prayer, but God can pick sense out of confused prayer - Richard Sibbes
You may object and ask, “Because God is sovereign, does this mean that our prayers our pointless and useless that He is just going to make His will happen anyway?” no just like with evangelism, the preaching/sharing of the gospel of Jesus, God has not only determined the ends, but also the means.
Hannah’s prayer a child 1 Samuel 1
The church’s prayer for Peter release from jail Acts 12
Prayer may not change the situation, but it may change one’s self. Is that what we are after in prayer? I mean did Paul’s prayer work? The thorn wasn’t removed, the torment didn’t end, but Paul knew the living God better.
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
What is it we really want in our prayers? What do we want truthfully, not the answer you would give in church, but deep down at the core of your prayer what is it that you want? The answer to that will let you know if your prayers are really working.
How should we Prayer:
We should pray in REMEMBRANCE
You are a better historian than detective
Your hindsight works much better than your insight.
Illustration about prayer: surprise party
God is throwing a surprise party where everything makes sense
The absolute sovereignty of God over every detail of our lives, is the hope and foundation for our prayers.
We should pray in CONFIDENCE
Matthew 21: 20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
“Christ wants His people to pray confidently in God’s power that they pray for marvelous things to happen, and He promises that when they pray in this way, marvelous things will happen. What Jesus taught about prayer here must be understood in light of everything that he taught about prayer. He was not saying that if we ask anything believing in His name, it will happen. But He was encouraging His people to run from indolence, to be bold, to be daring, to attempt those things that few people ever dream.” - R.C. Sproul
We should pray in REVERENCE
All that God does is for His glory first and for our benefit second. We pray because God commands us to pray, because it glorifies Him, and because it benefits us.
What is the ultimate purpose of prayer? What was it for Paul? What is it for any true follower of Christ? It is ultimately to know God and to make God known. In true prayer we begin to understand who God is and who we are. What it is we are to called to do and to be, and we learn what God is actually about. Prayer is not some heavenly vending machine, prayer is close fellowship with God. “Prayer is an especially vital and precious means God has provided us to pursue our joy in Him.” - Jon Bloom Our prayers of asking God for things are meant to spring from our relationship with God, not to be the relationship with God. If we only view prayer as a time for asking things of God we are missing out on what our relationship is supposed to be.
Looking back at 2 Corinthians - 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul is moved from pleading in verse 8 to ”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses” This doesn’t mean he came to see his thorn as not a thorn, or not as a trial. No. not at all! But he came to see that torment in a larger picture. That Paul’s prayer to change the thorn changed what Paul actually prayed, and that prayer was answered. We shouldn’t be praying for our own will, but we should be praying for the will that God has for us. The chief of our wishes should be to be in harmony with the will of God.
So is prayer worth our time, YES!