5 Reasons God is Not Answering Your Prayers | Investigating Jesus | Pastor Josh Howerton

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now, enjoy this Bible teaching. All right, well, good morning, Lake Point family. If you guys got your Bibles, let's head over to Luke chapter 11. That's going to be today, Luke 11. Why turn in there? Hey, man, I just want to say something about last week. Honestly, after last week as a pastor, I just want to take a second and say I'm really proud of you. I'm really proud of our church. The reason I say that is last week of you here, we started this series called Investigating Jesus. We're going to go all the way up to Easter. Actually, I won't do that. What I did last week is we answered the question, what did Jesus say about marriage, divorce, and remarriage? And honestly, it was a tough message, you know, depending on where somebody came from, what they've experienced. And a while ago, man, that's a sermon that I would have felt like, you know, kind of how I felt walking into it. It was like, all right, man, you know, I got to do my job and tell them what the word says and put on your hard hat and strap up. And, you know, it's going to be a long week. But honestly, um the way that you guys responded It was just like a universal like thank you for telling us what the word of god says And honestly, man, I just want to say like i'm i'm proud like i'm just really proud of our church because Honestly, you guys just love the word of god and we want to be a church. It's all in on the word of god. So Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the way that you love god's word. It makes my job a whole lot more fun Thank you. Okay, I also want to do this Um, last week at the end of that message, um, we invited anybody that was coming under conviction from the spirit that they needed to obey God and honor God and marry somebody that they were already acting married to, but hadn't obeyed God in that deal. And, uh, within 24 hours of that message last week, over 60 couples had already signed up to obey God and get married. Hey man, let's do it real quick. Let's do this because some of those people are sitting around you. Let's do it all at the same time. Can we show them how proud we are of the decision they're making. Come on, man. Let's go. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, good job. Good job. So we're going to have a big old mass wedding here at Lake Point in a couple of weeks. It's going to be awesome, man. It's going to be great. All right. Here's who are. We're in Luke 11 today. Let me lead into the message. I'm doing this a bit of a heavier one in some spots. Going to end up, but a little heavier. Let me live to it like this. So I'm a preacher. I like a preacher story. Once there was a preacher who he had a five-year-old daughter and every time he would get ready to preach, his daughter noticed that he would bow his head right before he was getting ready to preach. And eventually his five-year-old daughter just worked up the courage to ask him like, hey dad, why do you always bow your head right before you begin to preach? And he said, well, honey, I'm asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon. And after a long pause and thinking, his five-year-old finally said, well, then why doesn't he ever do it? Okay. Now let me just say, I feel that deep in my bones. Like deep in my bones, I feel that. But, Gearshift, some of you, you have been praying for something in your life for years and years and years. And you're asking the question that that girl asked. Why did he ever do it? Today, I want to answer the question, if Jesus is real, why didn't he answer my prayer? From Luke chapter 11. Now, let me just begin with a conviction that you need to know if you're new here that we got at this church. We here, we believe in the power of prayer. We are all in on prayer. We're in, man. We're in. So I just want you to know this. Like, I have heard, you're never going to convince me that God does not hear the prayers of his kids. I have personally seen with my own eyes, God heal somebody of near total deafness right in front of me. I have seen people with stage four terminal cancer get prayed over and then them walk in and the doctor has no explanation because the cancer is gone. I have been in this room where people who have labored under slavery to addiction for years and decades, They come in and in one prayer meeting, they move heaven as people pray over them and they're freed and it just breaks. And they go out in the words of the scriptures like a lamb let loose from its stall, just skipping in freedom. I've seen it. I have seen God give people legitimate like Acts 2, legit New Testament, prophetic, like visions and dreams where they knew something or saw something that did come to pass. that there is no way anyone anywhere could have guessed. So let me just say this. I believe in the power of prayer and I know my God hears. That's, now that said, would you do this? Because the rest of the sermon is gonna feel a little different. I wanna start out with a public testimony. If you've ever seen the power of prayer in your life or in somebody's life around you, would you just raise your hand real quick? Okay, look around at that. Look around at that. listen, our God hears the prayers of his kids. Okay. Prayer is powerful, but prayer can also be really confusing. Um, especially when you contrast the answered prayers in the Bible with some of the unanswered prayers that you've seen in your life. I've heard it said like this, like for instance, um, in Exodus 14, I'm going to give an example. Moses is standing in front of the Red Sea and he's got Pharaoh behind him coming up as an enemy on all the people of Israel and he lifts his staff in the air as a prayer for God to make a way where there is no way and in Exodus 14 God hears his prayer and the same God who in a little while is going to walk on top of an ocean he cracks one in half and it splits that sea in two and the children of Israel walk through as on dry ground and they see that their God was a way maker because he answered a prayer. He answered it. And I have stood out in that lobby with people who are in this service right now. And I've been praying with you, some of you with tears and faith for your prodigal children by name for seven years right out there. And for you, it seems like the more you pray, the worse they get. and God has not answered your prayer and not only has your child not come back to faith, they're still in and out of rehab and you haven't seen them in years and God has not answered that prayer yet. And in one of my favorite stories in 1 Kings 18, we're coming back to it at the end of the sermon, Elijah's standing there in front of 450 prophets of Baal who are threatening to take his life and he prays for God to pour out fire from heaven And God does inject it into my veins. And God consumes 450 wicked prophets of Baal right there in response to Elijah's prayer miraculously. And he answers the prayer. And two months after Jan and I first got married, we started praying for God to, in the words of the book of Genesis, for God to open my wife's womb. and we prayed for eight years and we prayed and we fasted and we prayed with faith and he never answered the prayer and in mark chapter five it's one of my favorite uh stories of the bible jesus comes up on this guy named jairus his daughters just died little toddler daughter and he's like jesus will you please help her and jesus walks into this little girl's room where her dead body lays and he kneels by the bedside of a dead toddler. In an Aramaic, he just whispers these two little Aramaic words, talithakum. They were the same words that a dad would whisper in his daughter's ear to wake her up from a nap. And he just said, little girl, arise. It's time to get up. And he stretches out his hand and he pulls her up and she starts breathing again. And God answered the request of his son. And earlier this year, one of the granddaughters, 24 years old of one of our staff members her name was riley she was in hospice care dying of childhood cancer and my rooted group we prayed and prayed and prayed for riley we made her the prayer focus of the howerton family we prayed for god to heal her and god didn't heal her and she went to heaven and she's hugging jesus right now and she's great but she left behind grandparents and parents who They have to wait until they die and go to heaven too before they get to see their granddaughter or their daughter again. And God didn't answer that prayer. And, last one, Daniel chapter 6, one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Daniel gets thrown in the lion's den. He's getting ready to be eaten by lions and he prays. And when he prays, God puts the lions on Ozempic. It's amazing. They just immediately take away all of their... They fast for an entire night. and Daniel is spared because God heard his prayer. And true story, when I was a middle school pastor, one of the middle school boys put a puppy in his backpack and brought the puppy in the backpack to youth group and asked me to pray over his new puppy. And true story, that puppy got hit by a car that night and died, true story. And the family never asked me to pray for anything ever again. Ever. God did not hear my prayer. And some of you, you've been praying for something. Whatever that thing is, this sermon's gonna be hit different. Whatever that thing is that like you prayed for the most and it didn't happen, I want you to get that in your head right now. And the longer you pray, you start wondering like, man, God, like am I doing something wrong? Am I not having enough faith? or like are you mad at me? Or you start going like mad, like are you not even there? And what I want to do in the next few minutes is answer the question, if Jesus is real, why didn't he answer my prayer? Now would you do this? If you're new here, we love the word of God. Would you please at all of our campuses stand with me out of reverence for the reading of the word of God. And this is in Luke chapter 11. Jesus' pinnacle teaching on prayer. It says this, One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. Interesting, they never asked Jesus, teach us to preach. They never say, Jesus, teach us to heal, teach us to cast out demons. The only thing they say is, hey, we really want to pray like you. Teach us to pray. Just as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you pray, say, and this is the Luke version of the Lord's Prayer. They say now I want you to say this bolded word out loud together at the same time on the count of three One two three Father that's the most important word of the whole thing Father hallowed be your name Your kingdom come Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins For we also forgive everyone who sins against us And lead us not into temptation And all God's people said Amen you can have a seat Now let me just begin and we're going to move pretty quick Let me just begin here sometimes familiarity breeds contempt and sometimes familiarity actually breeds unfamiliarity, especially when it comes to the Bible. There's a word that Jesus starts here that when his listeners, first century Jewish people would have heard it, they would have been like pearl clutch. But when we hear it, we don't think anything about it. And it's that word father. And the reason this is so significant. Now, if you're a Bible nerd, Hank, what I'm going to do right here for our Bible nerds is what I getting ready to talk about for a second is what called Old Covenant and New Covenant Discontinuity Old Covenant and New Covenant Discontinuity Now let me explain this for our Bible nerds What the Bible teaches is that God has chosen to relate to his people through a series of what are called covenants. The word covenant just means it can mean covenant, contract, or agreement. When you read in your Bible the New Testament and the Old Testament, the word testament is a synonym for covenant. And what that is, is when God establishes a covenant with his people, It's him setting the terms by which he's going to relate to people So in the same way that when you enter into like a contract with netflix or t-mobile You're entering into a contract that sets the terms of your relationship. If you do this i'll do this If you do that i'm gonna do that. That's a contract when god establishes a covenant It's like a contract but infused with relationship and love and throughout the bible What god does is he establishes these covenants and watch this is important when God establishes the old covenant and the new covenant, there are some ways where those covenants are the same. He relates to us the same. And there's some ways in those covenants he related or relates to us differently. So for instance, in the old covenant, the law was external to people and it was written on tablets of stone. In the new covenant, New Testament, the Holy Spirit of God indwells every Christian and writes God's law on the tablets of our hearts by our consciences and the indwelling power of the Spirit. In the old covenant, God's people were a specific nation state, the nation of Israel. In the new covenant, God's people are scattered among every tribe, tongue, nation, language in the world. In the old covenant, this is for our theology nerds here, in the old covenant, the Holy Spirit would rest on one or two people at one time and it would be temporary and then the Spirit would leave. In the new covenant, it's different. the Holy Spirit now indwells everybody, every Christian everywhere and is empowering us to do everything for the kingdom of God. That's different. Now, here's the big idea when it comes to prayer. Old covenant, new covenant, discontinuity. Jesus, when he goes, how am I going to teach you to pray? He goes, here's how I want you to pray. Pray, and then he changes everything. He says, pray, and in Aramaic what it literally says is probably better translated. Pray like this. Pray, Dad. Pray, Dad. Now, here's why it's a big deal. The other way that there was Old Covenant, New Covenant discontinuity is in the Old Covenant, it changed the way that people related to God and who had access to God. So in the Old Covenant, not anybody could just walk into God's presence. It was mediated. The priests would mediate on behalf of the people. They would bring the prayers of the people to God and they would mediate. And then also, how close you could get to the presence of God depended on who you were. Now, let's go one layer deeper and Bible nerd out even more for just a second. So what Jesus is doing when he says father is he's acknowledging the reality that kids have access to their parents that nobody else gets. So, for instance, I've got a six year old son named Hudson. Two years ago, he was going through this little phase where when I would be preaching somewhere or going on a work trip, he would wake up like every night and sneak into mom's, you know, into mom's bed and knock on the door and he wants to leave mom. So I was trying to break him of it. And I was like, hey, but before I went out one time, I was like, hey, bud, I'm getting ready to go on a work trip. Here's the deal, man. I'm going to be gone for two nights. And I told him two things. Like, number one, you're the man of the house. And what that means is if there's any bad guys, you've got to fight them. That's what I just, I'm kind of joking, but that's what I said. I was like, you've got to fight them. Okay. And then number two, I said, here's the other thing, is the man of the house, you've got to be able to sleep in your own bed, bud. Okay. So that's what you've got to do. Well, Jana texted me at 10 p.m. the first night I was gone, and Hudson had sneaked out of his bed, and she heard a little knock on the door, and his little face peered through the little crack. And Hudson said, the man of the house is scared. Can I sleep with you? That's what he said. Now, when he did that, what Mommy did is she said, sir, come on in. Now, I want to point this out. If any of you snuck into my house and then snuck into my bedroom at 10 p.m., what you would be getting is two in the chest, one in the face. That's what you'd be getting. That's a joke. Somebody's applauding that. That's amazing. I do have a gun safe next to my bed. I want to say that. So it'd be different. But if my son does it, it's different. Why? Because children have access to their parents nobody else gets. Jesus is saying that's how we pray. Now, let's go one layer deeper. In the old covenant, how close you could get to God depended on who you were. So if we were to all hop in a plane and go to Israel, stand on the Temple Mount, you all should go at some point in your life. What you would notice about the way the temple used to be constructed is it was constructed in a series of concentric courts. And how close you could get to the presence of God depended on who you were. So for instance, on the very outside of the court, the outside of the temple was called the Gentile court. And if you were a non-Jewish person, that's as close as you could ever get to God. So as Gentile people, beggars, sick people, people who are ceremonially unclean, that's all they could do. Now one step further in, there was a place called the outer court. Some people called it the court of women. And if you were a Jewish woman, that's as close as you could ever get to the presence of God, was the outer court. Now inside the outer court was something called the inner court. And if you were a male Israelite that wasn't a priest, that's as far as you could go close to the presence of God. So it was all dudes. Everybody was in silence people on their knees praying kind of a holy place that kind of thing the inner court That's as far as you could go now Between the inner court and the next place called the holy place. There was a sign I've showed it before in services on the podcast There was a sign that said that if you went any farther and you weren't qualified to go any farther That it could mean death for you And the next place from the inner court if you went a little farther it was a place called the holy place. And there was only a handful of people in all of Israel who could go into the holy place. These were the priests from the tribe of Levi. And when you stepped into the holy place, you would have seen some things that were symbolic and they pointed forward to new covenant realities. So you would have seen like a seven pronged candlestick and it represented the Holy Spirit that was going to come. You would have seen a table of showbread. Jesus said, man does not live on every word on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. It was representing the Bible, the New Testament that was going to be revealed that would feed the souls of Christians. You would have seen incense rising in the holy place, representing the worship that we offer every week. That's incense rising to heaven, all those things. But if you were a priest, that's really as far as you could go unless you were one dude on one day of year. There was one place a little farther in from the holy place called the most holy place, or it was called the Holy of Holies. And separating the holy place from the most holy place was a veil woven as thick as a man's hand. The reason for this was inside of the most holy place, if you ever pulled aside that curtain, only one dude ever got to do it, he only got to do it one day a year. If you pulled aside that curtain, you stepped in, what you would have seen is the Ark of the Covenant. Inside of the Ark of the Covenant were three things. It was the rod of Aaron, the tablets of the 10 commandments and a jar of manna from the Old Testament. And then on top of that Ark of the Covenant, you would have seen two massive golden cherubim. And in between their wings that pointed towards each other, that was where under the Old Covenant, the presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God chose to dwell right there. And only one dude on one day of the year, the high priest on the Day of Atonement, he could go into that room. He was the only guy and he could only do it after going through a whole day of ceremonial washing and offering sacrifices and confessing sins. And even then, God had said, if somebody comes into my presence unworthy, no man can see my face and live. And so there are literally Jewish traditions that they would tie a scarlet thread or rope around that dude's ankle on the day of atonement. Lest he went into that place with unconfessed sin in the presence of God, God struck him down and he died. So only one guy on one day of the year could walk into God's presence. And then when he got in, what he would do is he would watch this. He would mediate the prayers from the people to the presence of God. They couldn't come into the presence of God, but that one high priest could. So he would bring all the prayers of the people in and he would mediate on behalf of the people. That was only one guy. Now, I want you to do a thought experiment with me really quick. Imagine this can be tough for some of you like me. Imagine you're a gentile woman just for a second. Okay Imagine a gentile woman you're walking up the temple And all of a sudden when you're walking up some guy you've never met before he takes you by the hand as a guide And he says come with me And you're like all right And he just starts walking you toward the temple now first He walks you to the gentile court. You're like, well, this is awesome, man I was wondering what's in here. This is kind of cool. I'm allowed to be in here. This is great But then he keeps walking a little farther and he walks you towards the outer court and you're like whoa I'm, not allowed to go in there That's only for Jewish people. And here's what he says. He says, it's okay. You're with me. And he just takes you by the hand and he walks you to the outer court. And you're looking around and you're like, it's amazing. I never thought I'd get to go in here. Then he grabs your hand again and he starts walking you towards the inner court. You're like, whoa, whoa, I can't go in there. There's literally a sign right there that says, if I go in and I'm not allowed, I could be killed. I don't want a death penalty. And he just says, it's okay. You're with me. And he walks you into the inner court. And you're walking around and you're going, oh my gosh. this is as close I've ever been to the presence of God and you're taking it in and all of a sudden he grabs your hand again and he starts walking you towards the holy place where only priests can go and you're like oh no no no this is enough this is enough no mas no mas I can't go anywhere I'm not a priest I'm not a dude I can't do this and what he says is you're freaking out and he says hey it's okay you're with me and then he walks you in and with wide eyes you're seeing the candlestick and the showbread and the incense and you can't believe you're this close to the presence of God and then one last time he takes your hand and to your sheer terror he starts walking you towards that veil as thick as your hand and he reaches out to pull it aside and you shriek in horror stop no man can see his face and live I can't go in there and he looks at you one last time and he says it's okay you're with me and then you walk into the holy of holies and you look up right between the wings of the cherubim and you see the presence, you see the face of God, and then like your mind blows because you see the face of the father and then you look over at your guide and you see the family resemblance. And you're like, that's the father and that's the son. Boom, boom, mind blown. And all of a sudden you realize that the reason that you were allowed to walk right into the presence of God is because you are with the son. Now listen, Hebrews chapter 10 says this, man. Hebrews 10 says this, it says, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place, how? By the blood of Jesus Christ, by a new and living way open for us through the curtain, that is his body. Let us, this is prayer, draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings. Jesus is going, you can walk right up to him who used to only be one guy could ever do it. Why? Because I've made a new and living way. Now you can just walk right in that access was purchased. This is why prayer should be a first Response not a last resort because our father wants to hear from us and we can talk to him as kids That Is prayer and the deeper you get that in your spirit the better you become as a praying man or woman of god now Let me answer the question. Let me finish the sermon like this. Let me answer the question Why? Okay, if that's true, josh, why isn't god answering my prayer? Now here's how i'm gonna finish the sermon i'm gonna rifle through these really fast There are actually five There's actually more than this. I didn't have time to get them in the sermon. There's more in the podcast There's five specific reasons the bible says god might not be answering your prayer And with that whatever that thing is in your life you've been praying for and hadn't happened With that in your mind. I want you to ask the holy spirit silently in your seat God if there any one of these that applies to me I need you to show me And just ask him to speak to you Here we go five reasons God might not be answering your prayer Number one God might not be answering your prayer the Bible says because of broken relationships I didn't realize how big a theme this is in the Bible until I got into my Bible study and sermon prep this week. This is everywhere. Here's a couple examples. Mark 11. Jesus says, and whenever you stand praying, forgive. if you have anything against anyone so that your father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses. It just seems like Jesus is saying, hey man, if these relationships aren't good, it somehow affects this relationship. I'll give another one, Proverbs 21, 13. Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard. In other words, you can't ignore the pain of people made in God's image and then go ask things of God, God goes, that actually affects this whole thing. And then last one. Now this is only for the husband. So ladies, this is a secret. You're not allowed to listen. This is in first Peter three. It's now it applies both ways, but it's addressed to husbands. It says, husbands in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner. When it says weaker partner, it's not saying that women are less than men. It's just saying like, if a husband gets in an arm wrestling match with his wife, he ought to win. And if you wouldn't, then there's other churches in Dallas for you and you can find one. That's great. That's a joke. That's obviously a joke. That's a joke. That's a joke. Kind of. It says, as heirs with you, the gracious gift of life, watch this, so that nothing may hinder your prayers. In other words, what God is saying, here's what he's doing. He's going, hey man, how do you, how do you think you're going to mistreat one of my daughters and then ask me for stuff? Are you crazy? This is what he's saying. He's going, hey man, I entrusted one of my daughters. Like I've got two daughters. If you're hurting one of my daughters and asking for stuff from me, I'm a, I'm a, hey, that's how that triangle might work. Okay. That's, that's also a joke. But, but so, so what God's saying, husbands, this ought to land on us. Actually all spouses ought to land on us. What God's saying is, man, like if your wife is like, man, my husband took a Myers-Briggs and his personality came back J-E-R-K. God's like, hey man, I got nothing. I got nothing, man. Fix that and then come talk to me. So number one, God might not be answering your prayers because of broken relationships. Number two, God might not be answering your prayers because of unconfessed sin. Now, let me just say something we probably don't say enough in the modern American church. Just listen to me. Hey guys, sin matters. Sin matters. Sin does not affect the category of our relationship with God But it definitely affects the quality of our relationship with God Psalm 66 18 says this If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened, David says Now, I do want to point this out Notice it doesn't say if I sin Heads up, welcome to team Jesus All of us are going to sin You're going to sin Welcome to team sinner You're on that team So all of us are going to sin It says, if I cherished sin in my heart. What it means to cherish a sin is when you hold a sin in your life. It's when you start to protect that sin in your life. You love it. You start making alibis for it. You start doing this. You start rationalizing it. To rationalize, it means to tell yourself, rationalize. It's actually not that big of a deal. You know, my situation's different. Those verses, they don't really mean what it seems like they mean You know, there's loopholes here and there This is what it means to cherish sin You know that you're cherishing sin When the energy that you should be using To repent of your sin and get freedom from your sin And confess your sin to other brothers and sisters that love you and love Jesus Instead of using your energy to do that You're using your energy to conceal it To hide it To make sure that nobody else finds out about it So that you continue it in it. That's what it means to cherish sin. So it's not talking about the fact of sin. It's talking about the love for sin and the excusing of sin in our lives that if we continue in it, God says that might be a reason God's not answering your prayer. Number three, God might not be answering your prayer because of wrong motives. Wrong motives. Okay. Now you would never do this. All of you are holier than this. Okay. But sometimes it can feel like when you're listening to people and kind of reading between the lines, it can sometimes seem like if you heard their secret prayers, really their prayers kind of would go something like this. God, help me get really rich and have a huge house and a hot wife and to lose weight and gain muscle and be so stunning that everywhere I go, everybody wants to look at me. And Lord, I'm praying for the death, destruction, and ruination of all my enemies in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. Now, before I read this verse where God addresses this? It's not my notes, but it is my heart. Can I just say something to you? When people, actually, let me say it and explain it. Hey guys, God does not exist to serve us. We exist to serve him. Like, listen, Jesus died for you. Jesus died for you. It's just not all about you. And really, if you're new to the faith and like you're kicking the towers on Christianity, when most people first come to God, they come to God for what they can get from him. I'm like, hey, God, get me out of debt and heal my marriage and heal this physical issue I got and help me get out of my addiction. God, would you help me? But then the longer you walk with Jesus, if you become like an actual disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to make you a promise. There's going to come a moment in your discipleship where you have an internal Copernican revolution. And you begin to realize like, oh, like God doesn't exist for me in my comfort and my glory. I actually exist to pour out my life as a drink offering to him For his glory and his purposes This is why in jesus model prayer we just read. Did you remember the first two things he prayed? The first thing jesus prayed was father Hallowed be your name It's not about me man. It's all about you and I want your name lifted up and then the second thing he praises Your kingdom come Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven and the second you have this moment in your life as a disciple where you realize it's not about God serving me it's about me serving God two things will happen in your life number one that's the moment you become dangerous for the kingdom of God on the battlefield of earth the second thing is all of your prayers begin to change because now the thing that you're praying for the most is like man God it's about you and your purposes and your glory filling the earth as waters cover the sea Now, let me read the verse. God might not be answering your prayers because you're praying with wrong motives. James 4.3. When you ask, you do not receive. Well, why? That's what we're asking. Because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Number five, second to last one. And this is cheating. fifth reason God or fourth reason God might not be answering your prayer is he actually is just not in the way that you think he is and how many of us understand this you're going to need this in your spirit how many of you understand that as far as the heavens are above the earth so are his ways higher than our ways and so are his thoughts higher than our thoughts and so I'm going to give you a quick heads up if you're new to the faith your whole life, if God's the size of the Pacific Ocean and your mind's the size of a Coke can you better buckle up, there's going to be some things that don't fit okay, so here's my example of this one of my favorite books of the Bible is Job it's long but it's good and if you don't know the book it's actually really interesting it starts out with Satan approaching God and being like, hey, everybody says that dude Job is like super holy and Satan's like, no he's not He just acts that way because he always gets everything good in life And if you take away some of that stuff, he's going to curse you and die And so god's like well fine. Well, then i'm gonna give you permission to to test him and god This is actually hilarious god tells satan he can take away a bunch of stuff from job And satan goes and he takes away everything except job's wife. She must have been a real piece of work Apparently satan was like i'm gonna leave her because she's a curse in and of herself That's he just leave i just in the bible It's everything but her. And she's there. And so he does this. And then for 38 chapters, Job is praying and he's asking questions like, why, God? Why? Give me back my kids. Give me back all this stuff. Lord, would you please heal me? Would you please save me? Would you please protect me? And for 38 chapters, God never answers Job's prayer. And then in chapter 38, guess what happens? God shows up himself and Job's shaking his fist at heaven going, I got a lot of questions. Heads up. I'm going to say this to you. Every now and then somebody would be like, hey man, when I die and get to heaven, I'm going to have some questions for God. Can I tell you something? Actually, when you get to heaven, what's going to happen? You see God, you're going to fall on your face and hope you don't die. And number two, what's going to happen is the questions are not going to be going from you to God. The questions are going to be going from God to you because he's the judge and you're not. So Job's going, hey God, I got a lot of questions for you. Where were you? All this stuff. And then God, while Job's doing his thing, God shows up and goes, you remember what he says? He says, who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Who even are you? And essentially he goes, Job, why don't you, I'm paraphrasing, this is the Josh version. He goes, Job, why don't you sit down and shut up for a second. And let me ask you some questions. Where were you when I made the world, Job? Where were you when I pulled the Himalayas out of the ground? Where were you when I scooped the Pacific Ocean with my left hand? Where were you when I twisted the double helix and I put a language inside of every cell of your body? That's more complex than anything any computer programmer's ever gonna mess with where were you job? And he's essentially saying to job what he's saying is he's going hey man, you can't even lick your own elbow How are you gonna ask me? How are you gonna ask me where I and what he's saying is job if you can't understand the natural world How you think you're gonna understand the supernatural world and notice this? Job does not get an answer to all his prayers, but he gets the presence of God. And that is the answer to Job's prayers. Sometimes God is answering your prayers. It's not the way you think. Let me make this really personal. So I mentioned this at the beginning of the sermon. I'm going to show you something. Don't put it up yet. I'm going to show you something. This year when I was going through my Bible reading plan, I've been using the same Bible for 18 years now. So I got all these prayers written in here. That's why I can't give it up. And what I'll do before I show you this, I want to explain how it works. Sometimes I'll be reading a verse, and while I'm reading it, it's like there's some heat on it. And whenever that happens, I just assume the Spirit wants me to internalize it. And so I'll just real quick turn that verse into a prayer. And I hadn't noticed this in years, but when I was reading the first half of Genesis, I noticed the ink fading on a prayer that I had written in my Bible in 2013. And I'm going to show it to you. This is, I want you to look down. This is when Isaac is praying for his wife, Rebecca, because she was barren. And he was praying for her to have a baby. In verse 21, it says, and Isaac prayed, you can see it's underlined down there, ink's fading. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer. now apparently keep that up there apparently when I read that there was some heat on it I don't remember this because if you follow my little fading ink terrible hand line up there I just noted in my bible prayed this for my wife Jana and then I dated it January 7th 2013 I take that down now apparently that day God had given me a sense of something and listen I'm telling y'all That was eight years after Jan and I had gotten married. And we had spent eight years praying and fasting. And I'm telling you, man, we prayed with faith. We believed a miracle was going to happen. And if you were asking me today like hey Josh why didn God answer your prayer Honestly my answer is I don know I still don know why But I do know this Every time I'm standing out in that lobby, and there's a family that explains to me that they chose to adopt, and they gave another child a home who wouldn't have had one, because they were inspired by our story. Or every time I walk home from work, and I walk in the door, and my three adopted children run to the door and say, Dad's home. I don't know why God didn't answer that prayer, but every time that happens, I think, I'm glad he didn't. I'm glad he didn't. I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm glad he didn't. In the words of the great theologian Garth Brooks, sometimes some of God's best gifts are unanswered prayers. where he answers it just in a way he didn't think. Now let me finish the sermon like this. The last reason, this is the most important thing I'll say all day, just lean in. Last reason God might not be answering your prayer is because he wants you to go again. So what Jesus does right after the Lord's Prayer is he tells, it's a funny little parable, he tells a parable about an annoyed dad. And there's a dad that's got a bunch of kids and they're sleeping and it's midnight and then they have an annoying neighbor that didn't do a good job with their to-do list and the neighbor comes over and they're knocking on the door at midnight going, we need some flour, we need some sugar, we need company, help us out. And the dad's like, go away. It's midnight. This is super annoying. And they keep on knocking on the door. And eventually in the parable, Jesus says the dad, because of the other guys, it says reckless impudence. The dad's finally like, fine, just to get you to shut up, I'm going to come to the door and give you what you want. And then when Jesus tells that parable, listen real close for you, Bible nerds, Jesus is not comparing our heavenly father to the dad in the story. He's contrasting our heavenly father to the dad in the story. And he's saying, hey man, if even an evil, impatient, annoyed dad will give you what you want if you keep asking, he's going, how much more your heavenly father if you just keep on asking? In fact, for you Bible nerds, when he says, let me read it, verse nine, he says, so I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be open. Now, for you Bible nerds, the verbs here are the present second person active imperative. What that means is Jesus is saying, ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. And the example the Bible gives us is the example of Elijah. I'm going to read it to you. This is James. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He put on his pants one leg at a time, just like you. There was nothing special about him. He was just a praying man. And he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on earth. Then he prayed. And I want everybody to say that all caps word out loud together at the same time on the count of three. One, two, three. He prayed again. He prayed again. And heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. Now, Lord, help me preach this. I saw somebody illustrate it like this one time. It's super helpful. So what's happening here is in 1 Kings 18, there's a wicked king named Ahab that's trying to kill Elijah. And there's a drought in Israel. It's been a drought for three years. But God had, watch this, he had promised Elijah the drought would end. And Elijah's waiting for the payoff of the promise. And Elijah's praying. Now, they're right in front of this mountain. It's called Mount Carmel. If you ever go to Israel with me, we'll go up there. It's awesome. He's there with his servant Gehazi is the dude's name. And what he tells Gehazi is he's like, hey, man, I want you to run up the top of that mountain and go look to the east and tell me what you see. And Gehazi's like, you for real? And Elijah's like, yeah, I want you to go. And so Gehazi's like, all right. And I'm going to do it. He just starts going. Gehazi just started running up this mountain. Okay, this is real weird. I don't know why I've got to do this. God already gave this promise that he was going to give us rain. I'm waiting for the payoff for the promise. We've been praying for this thing. It's not happening. I don't know why this is happening. Oh, man, I'm going to get my cardio today. That's what I'm going to get. So he does this. Gazi gets up there, and he looks to the east, and he looks out there, and he goes, I don't see nothing. Okay, so he goes back. Okay, let me keep going right here and do this thing. Man, this is bad news. I don't want to give Elijah bad news. just two chapters earlier, he killed 450 prophets when they gave him bad news. Now I've got to give him bad news. This is going to be bad news for me. Let me get up here and tell him what's going on. I promise I'm waiting for the payoff. We're still praying. Nothing's happening. So he gets back up, and he gets in front of Elijah, and Elijah goes, what did you see? And he goes, I didn't see nothing. And Elijah says, go again. And he's like, okay, here we go. I'm going to go again. So he goes the second time. he starts running he's like okay here we go gotta go up this mountain again we're gonna rocky to this thing let's rocky to this thing actually let's we're gonna rocky for it rocky for us better actually ended the whole cold war and then let's do this and then he's like okay promise and pay off and promise get up here and gets up top again he looks out and he's like dang i don't see nothing so he's all right let me go back okay here we go let's do this i don't understand god gave us a promise, waiting for the payoff of the promise, and we keep praying, and nothing's happening. Oh, man, I've got to give Elijah this bad news. I don't want to be one of those slaughtered prophets. Okay, here we go. Okay, here we go. He gets back up, and Elijah's like, what'd you see? And he goes, I ain't see nothing. And Elijah says, go again. Now listen, I'm not going again. and he keeps going and so Elijah goes what'd you see third time what'd you see nothing go again fourth time what'd you see nothing go again fifth time what'd you see nothing go again sixth time what'd you see I didn't see nothing go again and then a seventh time Elijah looks at him And he goes, hey, man, we've been waiting for the payoff of the promise, and we've been praying. You haven't seen it yet? Hey, go again. Actually, I am going to go again. So one last time, Gehazi starts running. He's like, oh, man, this is so stupid. We've been doing this stupid same thing seven times. These prophets, they always act like they know what they're talking about. They're stinking preachers. And they're doing this thing. I'm glad I wore my lightweight hoodie for 11 o'clock cardio. And he's doing this. He gets back up, and the seventh time he gets up, he looks to the east and he goes, I see something. But it's small. I see a cloud the size of a man's hand. He goes, oh, buddy, I got something to say. I got something to say. Maybe I won't get killed. This is great. Let me keep going. Here we go. All right. Promise. Pay off. prayer. Let's see. But that's not what God said would happen. We're waiting for a whole downpour. That's just a little cloud. I wonder what Elijah's going to say. Hope he's in a good mood. Here we go. Elijah goes, hey man, what'd you see? And guys, he says, I saw something, but it was small. I saw a cloud the size of a man's hand. And then Elijah says, go tell that wicked King Ahab to gird up all his chariots because a downpour is coming. Now listen, listen, listen, listen. What that servant didn't understand, listen, is that between God's promise and God's payoff, there's always a process. And that process is prayer. Now listen, that process is where God isn't changing anything around you. He's changing you. he's transforming you from somebody who just wants something from the father's hand to somebody who will learn to seek his face and listen what he's doing is this the process of prayer is where god's not working around you he's working in you and watch this he's preparing you for what he's prepared for you and that process is prayer elijah prayed again and here's what some of you have done. Listen to me. What you do is some of you, you've prayed for a little bit and you're like, I don't see nothing. Listen to me. Go again. Go again. Maybe you prayed for weeks or months for something, maybe even decades. And you're like, I don't see anything. Listen, go again. Go again. Go again. Go again, man. Because listen, here's what's going to happen. What will happen is someday what's going to happen is you'll keep praying and asking seeking and knocking and you're like man i don't see nothing but someday you're gonna see something and it's gonna be small you're gonna see something in your life after maybe years or decades of prayer it's gonna be small but listen to me like the cloud the size of a man's hand it's gonna be small but listen something small can become something significant when god blows on it with a wind of his spirit and something significant can turn into an entire storm when god begins to do that. And listen, some of you, here's where you're at, man. Is you've been going to region or AA for like two or three weeks or months and you're praying to get freedom from that addiction. And you go, man, I don't see nothing. Okay. Listen, go again, go again, man, go again. And you keep going and you keep asking and you keep seeking and you keep knocking. Some of you mamas, man, what you've been doing is listen, you've been changed in those diapers. You've been praying those prayers. You've been praying for that prodigal child that's been gone for decades. And you're like, I don't see anything. Listen to me, man. Go again. Go again. Because in the power of God, as we keep asking, seeking, and knocking, what's small can become significant because God will watch and he will eventually, because of your persistence in prayer, he'll start to bring something there and blow on it. Keep asking, seeking, and knocking. And God will surely hear your prayers because he's a good dad who gives good gifts to his kids. Go again. Go again, man. Okay. Now listen, here's what I want to do. What I want to do is whatever that thing is in your life that's like, that's the thing that I prayed for and God didn't do it. Would you get that in your head? And I want to, I want to pray for us at all of our campuses. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes. And heavenly father, Lord, we thank you for being a good dad that loves to give good gifts to his kids. Father, what I pray that you would be doing in all these people right now is number one, father, would you be using the process to transform these people? Would you make us men and women of God who like your word says are steadfast in prayer, who are immovable, unshakable. Father, make us men and women of God who like, man, listen, I'm telling you, I've got this in my life. Make us people who we have already decided, if I got to pray for that thing for five decades and use my dying breath to pray for that thing, I'm going to pour out my life in prayer for that, trusting that my Father will eventually hear me. Make us men and women of God who seek your face and not just your hand. Father I ask for all of our people that whatever those things are we know that you love to give good gifts And so I do I ask that you would begin answering these prayers I ask for things that have been prayed for for weeks months years decades that there would be breakthroughs that begin to happen Like right now at this exact moment things are beginning Will begin to shift in people's lives because they have prayed with faith to their father who loves them And jesus I ask you to stretch out your hand in a way that is non-ignorable on behalf of your kids I pray those things with faith in the glorified risen name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said with great faith. Amen.