Stand and lift up your bible and repeat after me.
This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what it says I can do.
I am going to learn how to be what it says I can be.
Today I will learn more of the word of God.
The indestructible, never ending, living word Of God.
I will never be the same.
I will never be the same.
In Jesus Name
When God Says, “No”
In your bible turn to James chapter 4 and when you've found it say, “Amen”.
Prayer is the Christian's greatest privilege and it is so often our greatest failure. Now there's no substitute for prayer. You cannot email, text or Facebook it.
You can substitute many things in life, but there's no substitute for prayer--not energy, not enthusiasm, not intellect, not intent. We all need to learn how to pray better.
James talks to us today about some prayer problems.
Let’s turn if you will to chapter 4: " Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
Now let me just stop right here before we read the rest of this and say that there are two major problems that James mentions in these few verses that we're going to read, the first four verses.
Two major problems concerning prayer. More than that, but two major ones and I want you to see if you can spot them while I read. " Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
Now, what are the two great problems that James mentions in that passage of scripture? First of all, there is the problem of unasked prayer. Sometimes we just don't pray. "You do not have." Why? "Because you do not ask." God wants to load you with benefits, God wants to bless you, God has invited you, "Call upon me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things," James says you don't have because you don't ask. There is the problem of unoffered prayer.
But there's another problem here and that's the problem of unanswered prayer. It is that people ask, but he says, "You ask and do not receive." So, which is the greater problem? Well, either one of them causes our prayers not to be answered. You see, God responds to our prayers in about four basic ways, and all of this is by way of introduction. Sometimes the answer to prayer may be direct, God just says, “Yes.”
We ask God for something and God just says, “All right, you got it, here it is,” and God gives us exactly, precisely, immediately what we ask.
I love to pray that way, I love just to say, “Lord, I need so and so” and he says, “All right, David, here it is.
And I think we've all seen that kind of an answer to prayer, I mean beyond coincidence, we say, “Yes, this is my God, He said, okay..”
So, first of all the answer may be direct and God says yes.
Sometimes the answer may be different and God says better.
And then He says, “No.”
Now if God doesn't give you what you ask, he may give you something far better than you ask, and so the answer may not be direct, it may be different. You ask for one thing and God gives you something else. For the Bible says, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us."
And so sometimes the Holy Spirit says, David is asking this, Father, but this is what he needs and give him not what he asks, but give him something better than he asks. "And He is able to do exceedingly above all that we can ask or think," that's what the Bible says.
And so we need to thank God sometimes that the answer is direct, sometimes the answer is different, and then sometimes the answer is delayed, isn't that true?
I mean, the Bible says, "Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you." The Bible says, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you," that's in Matthew 7
I believe that we need to keep on asking, keep on knocking, keep on seeking, keep on keeping on, because the Bible says, "Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you." With God the timing is more important than time and so the Bible says, "You have need of patience that you may be perfect." That doesn't mean without any flaw, it means mature, and so if you want to be mature, sometimes God makes you wait. It's like sometime a child waiting for Christmas, and then Christmas may be all the better.
Now sometimes the answer is direct, God says yes.
Sometimes the answer is different and God says better.
Sometimes the answer is delayed and God says, Wait.
But sometimes the answer is no. The prayer is denied. It, it's not direct, it is not different, it is not delayed, it is denied. God says no. "We ask and receive not," that's what James says.
Now why would God say no to prayer? Well that's what we want to think about today and what I have to say to you is not necessarily new. I'm not saying anything that has not been said before at one time or another. I'm not here to create truth. I'm here to reinforce truth and to remind us of things that you and I need to be reminded on and on and on in our lives.
Sometimes prayers are not answered. Well, if we pray and the prayer is not answered, would we say that the promises of God are wrong? Would we say that God is not a prayer-answering God? Well I want to ask you a question. If you went into your house this afternoon and turned the light switch and the lights did not come on, would you say electricity has failed? Would you say there must be some problem? Would you say, did I pay the bill? Go out and check the box, see what has happened. You would not say that electricity has failed, you would say there is something wrong because we have turned the light switch and the lights did not come on.
Now we need to ask ourselves this question. Did God say, “No?”
Because He knows what is best for us as part on His plan in life.
You say, Well David, can't I ask God for what I need? Of course. You can ask God for personal needs, but you cannot ask God for selfish needs. You know, some people take a verse like this one, Psalm 37 and verse 4, it says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart."
You say, oh, man, that's wonderful, I'll have a new BMW and a house on the beach. I'm gonna buy them. I'll just have the desire of my heart.
I met a man at a large church a long time ago when I was sharing a message there. I sat next to him before I stepped up to the pulpit and shared the message. Before I went up, I noticed he had a great looking suit and shoes on. He also had a Rolex watch and a couple of rings including one on his little finger which had a large diamond. He listened to the message and the testimony that I shared and was crying a little bit when it was finished.
After the service when most of the people had left, I went out to the parking lot and the man was waiting for me. I said, “hello” and he stopped me and that he wanted what I had. I asked what he meant and He explained to me that he had a great job as president of a large company, a nice house in the area and a house on the beach. A beautiful wife, three kids and even a nice boat that he and his family traveled on vacations with. I asked what he needed most. He said he realized he needed to a personal relationship with Jesus and he and I prayed together right then and there and he now had what had what he needed.,
Listen what God is saying. "Delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desire of your heart." Do you know what determines your desires? Your delights. You desire what you delight in. Now, he doesn't say if you delight in the things of this world God will give them to you. No, you delight yourself in the Lord and you will have the desire of your heart.
You know sometimes people think, well, the promises of God have failed, and the promises of God have not failed. These people are just selfish in their prayers. For example, I quoted Matthew 7:7, where Jesus said, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." And a person says, Well I've asked, I didn't get; I sought, I didn't get; I knocked, it wasn't opened unto me.
Hmm, we come with a laundry list, a shopping list of things we want. Over here, have we sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? And, are we delighting in the Lord? No, absolutely not. We have our, the lust of our flesh, our carnal desires, we think of God as some sort of a glorified bellhop, to give us whatever our carnal natures want, and then we wonder why our prayers are not answered. No, friend, we are to pray in the will of God.
There are several instances in the Bible where people came to Jesus when he was here on earth and they asked him for things and the answer was no. Put these down in your margin: Luke 12, verses 13 through 15: "And one of the men said to him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divides the inheritance with me." Now evidently the father had died and they were trying to adjudicate the will and one brother was not dividing with the other brother. "And he said to him," Jesus said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto him, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for man's life consist not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." Here was a man who came to Jesus with a prayer. He said, Jesus, you step in, you judge this matter. I want you to be the executor of this estate. Jesus said, That's not my job. Who made me a judge or a divider among you? Then Jesus said, “You've got a covetous spirit.” A lot of times we pray with a covetous spirit and we wonder why our prayers are not answered.
Sometimes we think that we're all right because we're not lying, stealing, cheating, committing adultery. You know what the great sin is in America today? We need to accept that God does say, “No.” We also need to get closer to Him and see what He has for our lives that are yesses.
Lets go to the Lord in prayer, Amen.
