[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: All right, I want to start off tonight with doing an exercise.
We're going to stand up and do jumping jacks. No, just kidding.
I do want us want you to do something, though.
Take a few seconds and bring to mind a time in your life when you prayed what you considered a very important prayer.
Maybe it was because of a huge need that you had or someone that you love had.
Maybe it was a prayer of desperation or a prayer for guidance in some big decision that you had to make.
Take just a moment and think about one particular prayer that was very important to you, okay?
Now, as you are thinking about that particular prayer, think about how God answered that prayer, okay?
And then I'd also like you to think about how God answered that prayer.
Affect your relationship with him.
Or did it. If it did, how did it affect your relationship with Him? How he answered that prayer?
Maybe you think he didn't answer that prayer.
How did that affect your relationship with Him?
Keep those things in your mind as we speak. Study tonight when it seems that God doesn't answer our prayer.
We're going to look at three scripture narratives tonight. And I want you to turn in your Bibles or on your devices.
And I'm not going to put all of the passages on the screen because I want you to look at your own Bible.
I want you to see for yourself what your Bible has to say about these things. It's one thing for me to sit up here and say what the Bible says. It's another thing for you to see for yourself.
Because you know what? I could be wrong.
I'm a human being. So you need to look at that for yourself. The very first one is about King David. And we're going to look at Second Samuel, chapters 11 and 12.
Okay?
Now remember the background of this. In chapter 11, David has his encounter With Bathsheba. Now, David is supposed to be out with his army because they are battling in the spring of the year, the Ammonites. But he's not out there. He's not where he's supposed to be. He's at home.
And my daddy used to tell me when I got in trouble it was probably because I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. And that's what happened with David. Remember the story? He sees Bathsheba, he brings her to him. She's a married woman, and he has sexual relations with her. And she conceives, gets pregnant.
When he finds out that she is expecting his child, he tries to bring her husband home so that he thinks it's his. But he wouldn't come and do what David wanted him to do. So David sent him to the front line of the battle where Uriah was killed.
And then we find in chapter 11, verses 26 and 27, when the wife of Uriah, that's Bathsheba, heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband.
And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son. Now, look at this sentence. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Of course it did. Okay.
Now, in chapter 12, we find that God sends the prophet Nathan to David. Nathan confronts David with his sin.
David admits his sin. And I want you to notice verses 13 and 14 of chapter 12.
So David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die.
Isn't that interesting?
Did he deserve to die because he sinned?
You see, sin forfeits our life.
We're not going to talk about that, though.
However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also who is born to you shall surely die.
And Nathan departed from the house now.
And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and it became ill.
David therefore, pleaded with the Lord, with God, for the child.
Now, I want you to notice that he pleaded.
The word pleaded there is from a Hebrew word that means to beg, to plead, to request earnestly.
It's intense intercession.
It's striving to secure something. Is that word familiar to you? From last week? Remember, Andrew talked about us striving in prayer. That's exactly what David was doing. He was striving in prayer for the life of his Child and then notice also. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
So the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
And on the seventh day, it came to pass that the child died. Now, I want you to notice, David prayed by earnestly and pleaded with God for a whole week.
Remember last week Andrew said, have you ever spent an hour in prayer? Have you ever spent two hours in prayer? Here is David spending a whole week pleading with God to save the life of his son.
But the child died.
And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm.
When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore, David said to his servants, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead.
David was begging for God to spare the life of his little baby boy.
Now David is not just asking for a favor. He is actively seeking out the face of God, the sovereign God, whom he had profoundly offended.
And he begs and he pleads, hoping for a reversal of judgment.
Notice that his pleas are accompanied by immediate fasting and falling on his face, prostrate on the ground for a whole week.
Now, the Jewish custom was that all of these things combined showed that he was completely stripping himself of his kingly pride to beg for God's mercy.
But what does God do?
He chooses not to give David what he asks for, what he intensely begs for.
Hold onto your questions. We'll come back in a little while.
Now turn to Second Corinthians, chapter 12. In the New Testament, beginning in the first few verses of chapter 12, the apostle Paul is talking about his visions that God had given to him, the revelations that God had blessed him with. Of course, we know that Paul wrote Scripture. God revealed to him what he wanted said.
He said, I could boast. I could really be proud of all of that. I could brag.
And then he goes on, if you'll notice, verses three through six. He talks about a man who was caught up to the third heaven, which to the Jews was where the throne of God was, and given a glimpse of what's there.
And what's interesting is Paul is saying it as though it's someone else. But most of the commentators and scholars, and so do I think he was talking about himself, because in the Context, he's saying, think about my revelations. Think about the visions that I've had. I even got a glimpse of heaven, and I could boast about that. But then look what he says in verse seven.
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
He says God had given him a thorn in the flesh. Now we don't know what that thorn in the flesh is. Some commentators think that it might have been his eyesight. Because in Galatians 4:15, he tells the Galatian brethren, there, if you could, you would have plucked your eyes out to give them to me. But we really don't know what that was.
But notice, he said he pleaded with the Lord to remove that thorn in the flesh.
Now, the Greek word for pleaded there is parakaleo, which means to plead, to beg, to beseech, which is very similar to what we found that the word was that David did.
Surely, since I'm doing the work of God, since I need all of the help that I can get doing God's work, surely if I plead with him, he will take this thorn in the flesh away.
But again, God did not choose to give Paul what he asked for.
Again, hold your questions and we'll come back.
Now go to Matthew chapter 26.
This is God's own Son, Jesus.
Matthew 26.
Starting in about verse 36.
They had just finished the time in the upper room.
They had had. Jesus had instituted the Lord's Supper. And they go out to the Mount of Olives, to the garden of Gethsemane. Notice beginning in verse 36.
Then Jesus came with them, that is, the disciples, to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to the disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. And he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.
Stay here and watch with me.
And he went a little further and he fell on his face. And he prayed, saying, o my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
And then he does this two more times. If you look at verse 44, now I want you to notice the shape that Jesus is in. He's on his face and he is pleading with his Father. Let this cup pass from me.
The Hebrews writer in chapter five, hold your finger here at Matthew 26 and go to Hebrews chapter five, right quick. And notice what the Hebrews writer says there, beginning in verse 7, about Jesus situation on this occasion. In speaking of Jesus, he says, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, not only was he just praying, he was crying. And Luke says that he was sweating so profusely in this prayer that the drops of sweat were coming off of him like thick drops of blood.
Now, the point I want us to get from the stories of these three people that God loved dearly.
He does not always answer our prayers in the way that we ask.
Do you remember when I told the three prayer stories several weeks ago?
I shared the struggles that I've had from the fact that God did not choose to answer my prayers and the prayers of literally thousands all over the world in the way that I had asked.
And that is to let my wife and my son live, to heal them.
And from the response that I received from my story from some of you and also some people that had listen to the class online that got in touch with me.
It's very important that a lot of you, a lot of us struggle with understanding God's choices of how he answers some of our prayers, not in the way sometimes that we ask.
And you see, I knew that that would be the case because I knew from my experiences with many people that I was not the only one.
That's the reason I was willing to share my struggles with you, because I know some of you have some of the same struggles.
How many of you have had some of those same questions? Why did God not answer my prayers in the way that I ask?
I earnestly prayed.
I know I'm not alone.
So to explore this and maybe to learn how not to feel hard towards God or be angry with him, if we don't get what we prayed for, we need to understand how God answers prayers.
Now, here's a question.
If we don't get what we ask for or in the way that we ask, has God not answered?
No is an answer.
Okay, hold that thought.
Okay.
You see, there cannot be any unanswered prayers from believers.
So, Beth, I agree with you.
Now, there may be unprayed prayers, but never unanswered prayers.
So how does God answer prayer?
If we can get a grasp of this, our feelings towards God and our belief in what he has said about prayer may be a little more understandable, maybe a lot more understandable.
Now, what we are about to look at. You probably have heard before, maybe to the point that it's become kind of bookish.
But I want us to take kind of a fresh approach to this tonight. Maybe a little less academic, maybe a little more heart approach to it, if you will.
First of all, often, in fact, very often, God says yes to our prayers.
And I'm thankful for that. Because if he never said yes, we wouldn't pray, would we?
Like a loving father, God wants to give us our desires, so he may grant our request. You remember we studied about Hannah. When Hannah prayed for a child, God granted her that request. And it was a beautiful story.
We also talked about Elijah. When Elijah prayed that it wouldn't rain so that he could have some kind of influence on King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, God granted that. And then when he prayed for it to reign, he granted that. Then you remember when he had the situation, or with the contest with the prophets of baal, God answered his prayers there.
There's another interesting story. King Hezekiah had sinned. King of Judah had sinned. And God sent a prophet to him and said, you're going to die and not live.
And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, the scripture says, repented and prayed. And God granted his prayer and gave him 15 more years to live.
When God says yes to our request, what does that do for your faith?
When God grants your prayers, your requests, how does that affect your faith?
When God answers your prayer the way you ask, what does it do for your faith?
Okay. It helps us to be able to accept no when he does say no, because we do trust that he knows what is best. Okay.
Okay.
But we need to realize that God's yes answer may be in ways that we do not expect or. Or sometimes even that we don't want.
In giving us what we ask for, our lives can be uprooted.
I remember when I was preaching in Dalton, Georgia.
Sandra and I continually, through my ministry, had prayed for God to use us according to his will. And we weren't really thinking about leaving the ministry. And what caused us. Caused me to leave the ministry was very painful.
And the result is that I'm not preaching now.
But though I'm not preaching anymore, God knew what was in our future.
Okay.
And he provided for us what he knew was best. He brought us to be with family. Thank you, Sonny and Shannon and this wonderful church family here at Madison. Thank you.
He knew what we needed because he knew that the most difficult time in our lives was ahead.
And he provided you for us because he knows what's best.
So sometimes God does provide in ways that we may not anticipate.
What if you are an impatient person and you pray for patience and God sends you some really difficult trials in your life or some difficult people in your life to teach you patience?
Did God answer your prayer?
Okay. May not been in the way you wanted. My wife Sandra used to say she prayed for patience. And every time she did, she got pregnant with another baby. She. So she quit praying for patience.
So be careful how you pray, but walk the walk of faith.
And that walk infers that we have to be prepared for the unexpected from God. When God is invited into our lives, all sorts of things can happen.
I'd like for you to think for just a moment of some examples of when God has said yes to you and hold on to that thought.
Okay? Number two, sometimes God answers no. As we've already said now, a no answer is usually viewed as a non answer.
We ask God for something, we. We didn't get it. So we say God didn't answer our prayer.
But is no an answer?
Sure it is.
One of your kids wants a whole pack of M and Ms. Just before suppertime and you say you're a good parent. If you say no, is that an answer? Of course it is. Okay. Or one of your teenagers wants to go out with someone that you know they don't need to be with, it's not a good influence, and you say no. Is that an answer?
Well, of course it is.
Why would God say no to something that we think we really need or want?
Why would he say no?
Okay.
Sometimes no is the best answer. Okay.
What is best for us.
And God knows that God is God and we are not. That's where we put our faith and our trust in him to do what he knows is best.
Even though we don't think that that is what is best, or we want something different.
And whether we like his answer or not, if we're his children, he is going to do what is best for us.
And so we put our faith and our trust in him to do what he knows is best and that what is best may be something different.
Most of us have lived long enough to thank God for saying no to some of our prayers.
Some of you, a lot of you in here aren't old enough to remember this, but some of us are. You remember Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers? It was number one on the country charts in January of 1991.
I know that's a long time ago. But the idea of this song was he and his wife of several years go back to a football game and he sees an old girlfriend there that he had in high school. And he had prayed to God over and over he wanted this girl to be his wife. And God didn't see fit to give him that girl.
Now he sees her and she is not what he wanted.
What he has now is really what he needed. But he says thank God for unanswered prayers.
What he really should have said was what?
Thank God for a no answer. Cause God did answer.
It was just no.
Okay, God told his own son three times no in Gethsemane.
And what did Jesus get out of his prayer?
He got the cross.
And that was what was best for all of mankind forever. That's what was best for you and me was for God to tell his own son no.
And of course Jesus knew that, and we'll talk some more about that in just a moment.
But what did he say at the end of his prayer for deliverance nevertheless? Not my, not what I will, but as you will.
He was willing to put himself under the will of God because his Father knew what was best and he trusted his Father's will.
Alright, look what the rest of that passage in Hebrews says. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, including the resurrection.
Now God even comforted Jesus in saying and not granting that the cup passed from him.
Because Luke 22 and verse 43 says that God sent an angel to him from heaven to strengthen him.
You see, I can attest to the fact that he does the same for us.
He is the God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our troubles. Second Corinthians 1, verses 3 and 4.
And then we think about Paul. God told Paul no three times about his thorn in the flesh. But what did God say to him instead? 2nd Corinthians 12, verses 8 and 9.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. In other words, Paul, this thorn in the flesh is not going to be a bad thing for you.
For my strength is made known in your weakness. Therefore most gladly I will suffer, he says, or rather boast. And in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. When we are Weak. Where do we go for help?
We go to God.
Who do we go to to lean on?
We go to God.
We either go to him or we go away from him.
The choice is ours.
When David saw that no was the answer, what did he do?
Hope you can read this. David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate.
Then his servant said to him, what is that that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child when he was alive. But when the child died, you arose and ate food. This was so different from what everybody else would do. They would mourn for weeks.
And he said, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?
I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
David went on with his life. He accepted God's answer.
You see, we pray in terms of what we think we need, and God answers in terms of what he knows that we need.
So what do we pray?
God, here's what I want. Here's what I think I need.
Nevertheless, what not my will but thine be done.
Again, think of some examples of when God said no to you.
Now, sometimes God says, wait.
There's an interesting story in Luke, chapter one, of Zacharias and Elizabeth. You remember that story? For years they had prayed for a child. But apparently they prayed in bitterness. Or at least Zacharias did. Because when the time was right, when God's time was right, the angel came to them and promised a son. But if you remember, Zacharias wasn't thrilled. Why wasn't he thrilled?
Because he wanted a child 20 years earlier.
We think we know what we need for right now, but God's time may be different.
What if Zacharias and Elizabeth had not been willing to wait on the Lord when John did come?
What a son he was.
God's plan was for him to prepare the way for the Messiah, for Jesus. What if he had been born years earlier?
The time was not right.
God knew what the time was. In Jeremiah 42, the Babylonians are on their way to take the city of Jerusalem. And those left in the city asked Jeremiah to pray to the Lord for what they should do.
Do you think they probably wanted an answer right away? I mean, the Babylonians but God waited 10 days to give them an answer.
Think of some examples of when God said wait.
By the way, how did you know it was wait and not know?
Sometimes God will substitute.
He sends something different from what we ask, and it may be even better than what we asked for, though it may be different.
Remember, Mary and Martha sent for Jesus to come and heal Lazarus when he was sick. John chapter 11 Jesus waited four days before he came.
But when he did come, what?
He gave them something much better. He raised Lazarus from the dead so that those sisters and those who were there could see that Jesus was the resurrection and the life.
The greatest resurrection teaching that Jesus could give was to a grieving woman who had lost her brother.
And I know that I'm looking forward to the resurrection.
How many people have been comforted by those words since then?
When parents cannot give their children what they want, they sometimes substitute something better, like the Garth Brooks song, the wife God gave him was better than the one he asked for.
This is attributed to a Confederate soldier in the Civil War who supposedly was found dead on the battlefield, and this was a scribble note in his pocket I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for help that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God.
I was given life.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my prayers were answered. I am among all men most richly blessed.
Think of some examples of when what you got was better than what you asked for.
Was it a better physical blessing or was it something very different?
Maybe a spiritual blessing, an emotional blessing?
In fact, here's what I'd like to challenge you to this week.
Probably don't have time to read through all of this. If you want to take a picture of the screen, I will also try to post it on our Madison Members Facebook page. And when the class is over, I'll put the slide back up so you can get it if you want to.
Here's what I'd like for you to do this week, and hopefully all of us continue to do. Bring to mind some examples of when God said yes to some of your prayers and when you do, thank him for it.
Bring some examples to mind of when God said no.
And if you may have learned why. Now thank him for that. And if you don't know why yet, ask him to help you accept his will and to trust Him.
Think of some examples when God might have said wait. And if you have learned why, to that, thank Him. Or if you're still waiting, asking for the patience to continue until you have a yes or a no answer, or when God might have substituted something maybe even better and more beneficial, thank him for that.
You see, the greatest wonder in answered prayer may not be the blessings.
It may be seeing God in action in our lives.
And to know that God works in our lives is awesome.
To pray is to change, to be open to God and what he wants to do with us.
But if you don't get an answer to our prayers, we can't see the yes, no, or wait, have you ever thought about the fact that maybe we couldn't handle the answer?
Sometimes God knows that what we need is not explanations.
What we need is Him.
And so you know what? I'm trying really hard to stop asking for an explanation real quickly.
I know not by what methods rare, but this I know God answers prayer.
I know that he has given his word, which tells me prayer is always heard and will be answered soon or late.
And so I pray and calmly wait.
I know not if the blessing sought will come in just the guise I thought.
I leave my prayer to him alone, whose will is wiser than my own, assured that he will grant my quest or send some answer far more blessed. And how is that for timing?
Thank you for being here. Thank you for your attention and your participation. Hope it's been helpful.
