How To Always Get A Yes From God

Intercessory Prayer

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Last week we learned the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16) for as we draw nearer (4:8) and approach God’s throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) we as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2), His children (John 1:12) not only receive forgiveness (1 John 1:9) but also invite our Father to plant furrows of righteousness in our hearts! We also learned to keep our prayers from being a product of selfish ambition or vain conceit and to fulfill God’s command to love one another we are called to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of requests” (Ephesians 1:16) for believers, for our rulers and yes even our enemies (Romans 13:1-5; Matthew 5:43-48)! The following sermon is going to further define intercessory prayer by examining its boundaries and effectiveness. For example, when Jesus said, “you ask me anything in My name and I will do it” (John 14:13) how can this be so for if one takes this verse literally then would not our will be supreme and God’s sovereignty a mere puppet of our whims and imaginations? And since God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) how could He remain holy when following the ways of His redeemed (Ephesians 1:7) but still unrighteous children (Romans 3:9-18)? On the other hand, if all our “days are written in His book before one came to be” (Psalms 139:16) then would not prayer be an exercise in futility for nothing we do or say would ever alter what a sovereign God has predetermined? The first two parts of this sermon are going to give examples of both when intercessory prayer was denied and when it was granted. The third part is going to suggest that the key to God maintaining His sovereignty and yet still granting our requests is to be found in praying in His will that can have more than one direction! The final part of the sermon is going to expound on why it is so crucial that we obey God and pray for one another.

Examples of Intercessory Prayer that was Denied

One of the best examples of intercessory prayer requests being denied can be found in the book of Jeremiah. At the young age of 12 or 13 Jeremiah is called to become a prophet of the most high God. While the first five years of his ministry “may have been instrumental in the great revival of 622 under king Josiah,” Jeremiah’s prophetic message of repentance under later kings Jehoiakim and Zedekia resulted in him being heavily persecuted! The complaint God had against His people was that they had “gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and committed adultery” (3:6). They were unfaithful (3:11) and harbored so many wicked thoughts (4:14) that they had became “so skilled in doing evil that they forgot how to do good” (4:22). Instead of listening to the prophet’s pleas that Judah “circumcise their hearts” (4:4) lest God turn His fierce anger upon them and turn their “fruitful land into a desert” (4:26), not a single person could be found “who dealt honestly and sought the truth” (5:1). Despite intercessory prayer on behalf of the people being one of the primary roles of a prophet, God was so angry with His people that He told Jeremiah “do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with Me, for I will not listen to you” (7:16). Even when Jeremiah prayed and cited God’s justice as the reason He should punish the evil people of Anathoth who were plotting to kill him a righteous prophet (11:21) God not only refused to grant his intercessory request but also told Jeremiah that his future situation would be even worse than his current one (12:5)! What we learn from Jeremiah is once God decides to act decisively in history no one may question or change His sovereign right and divine authority to rule all things seen and unseen (Colossians 1:16)!

There are many instances in the Bible when God said NO to a prayer request. For example, when Samuel was told that God “regretted making Saul king” of Israel (1 Samuel 15:10) despite “crying out to the Lord all night” (15:11) God told him to “stop mourning for Saul, fill his horn with oil” (16:1) and anoint David as king. Despite Jonah fleeing from the Lord and then later praying that he would die because God showed compassion and mercy on the evil inhabitants of Nineveh, God did not grant him his wish (Jonah 1-4). Though king David “pleaded with God,” “fasted and spent seven nights lying in a sackcloth on the ground” his request that God would forgo His punishment and spare the life of his son with Bethsaida was denied (2 Samuel 12:13-20). When Balak asked Balaam to ask God to curse Israel God not only said NO but instead gave a blessing to His people (Numbers 22-24)! When Elijah who was afraid of Jezebel’s wrath sat under a juniper tree and asked God to “take his life” he was told NO for God had something better in mind, the calling of Elisha of him to go to heaven without tasting death (1 Kings 19, 2 Kings 2)! When Apostle Paul prayed three times that God would remove the “messenger of Satan” or “thorn” God’s response was an empathetic NO, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). When the rich man in hell interceded on behalf of his family by asking God to send Lazarus to warn them so that “they might not also come to this place of torment” God’s response was NO, “if they did not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:19-31)! While the reasons for receiving a NO can be due to cherishing sin in one’s heart (Psalms 66:18), a lack of faith (Matthew 13:58), asking with the wrong motives (James 4:1-3), or our request is not good for us (James 1:17); more likely we receive a NO due to making a request that does not align with the will of God (1 John 5:14).