HINDRANCES TO RECIVING AN ANSWER TO YOUR PRAYERS
Sunday 04/16/2000 am
I want to start by saying this morning that Prayer is the most important thing in our lives today!
We need to look at it this way, Jesus was born into this world totally without Sin in His life, yet He spent most of His time Praying.
You can read countless times in the Bible that Jesus went out to pray.
In fact His disciples if you read in Matthew the 6th chapter ask that He would teach them to Pray.
I think that even they were beginning to see the importance of prayer, and what it could do for you.
All of man receives benefits in Prayer, so therefore the whole man must be given to God in Praying!
Man to receive the benefits of Prayer must be all for God.
There can be none of this double sidedness in our lives and expect to get anywhere in our Prayer lives!
But back to what I was talking about in Jesus life, don’t you feel that if Jesus was born into this world free from Sin, and yet He spent His entire life Praying to the father, then how much more do we that are born in Sin need to make Prayer the largest part of our lives?
Now to get into our text this morning, turn with me first to;
1. James 4:3
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
A selfish purpose in prayer, robs prayer of power. Very many prayers are selfish. These may be prayers for things for which it is perfectly proper to ask for.
Things that are the will of God to give, but the motive of the prayer is entirely wrong, and so the prayer falls powerless to the ground.
The true purpose in prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer.
If we ask any petition merely that we may receive something to use in our own pleasures or in our own gratification in one way or another, we ask amiss and need not expect to receive what we ask.
This explains why many prayers remain unanswered.
For example, many a woman is praying for the conversion of her husband, that he might give his heart to God and be saved!
That certainly is a most proper thing to ask; but many a woman’s motive in asking for the conversion of her husband is entirely improper, it is selfish.
She desires that her husband may be converted because it would be so much more pleasant for her to have a husband that would get up on Sunday morning and take her to church, and talk to her about church.
Or it is so painful to think that her husband might die and be lost forever.
For some such selfish reason as this she desires the conversion of her husband. The prayer is purely selfish.
Why should a woman desire the conversion of her husband?
First, that he should be saved, from a devils hell!
Second, God may be glorified; and that the furtherance of God’s Kingdom here on earth will be given.
God is the reason, He and He alone needs to receive the glory.
Too many times in our prayer life, we ask for things for selfish reasons!
Many people in church’s today will pray for a revival, that certainly is a prayer that is pleasing to God, and in line with His Will!
We need to know first of all and make sure that the underlying reasons behind these prayers are not selfish. A lot of people think that only God can see but we can see too if we look close!
They want a revival to see their church grow, to see more people come but why, to bring glory to God?
No they want to see their membership increased so that they can have power and influence in the community.
A lot of the churches today need to show growing numbers so they can stay in good standing with their headquarters, or like the Nazarenes do they have to pay for there franchise, just like Mc Donalds and Burger King do.
They seem to forget that the real headquarters is in Heaven and God is the boss!
You will find when people start to leave God out or put Him on a back burner so to speak things come to a standstill.
We should pray for a revival because we cannot endure the dishonor of God caused by the worldliness of the church, the sins of unbelievers, and the proud unbelief of the day.
We should pray for a revival so that God may be glorified by the outpouring of His Spirit on the Church of God.
For these reasons first and above all we should pray for a revival.
Many prayers for filling by the Holy Spirit are selfish requests. It certainly is God’s Will to give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him, He has told us so plainly in His word,
Let’s turn to
Luke 11:13
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
But we must see that many prayers for filling by the Holy Spirit are hindered by the selfishness of the motive behind the prayer.
Men and women pray for the Holy Spirit so that they may be happy, saved from the wretchedness of their lives, have power as Christian workers, or for some other self-centered reason.
We should pray for the Holy Spirit in order that God may no longer be dishonored by the low level of our Christian lives and by our ineffective service for Him
We should pray for the Holy Spirit so that God may be glorified in the new beauty that comes into our lives and the new power that comes into our service!
Another thing that we must remember is that God told us in His scripture that we should Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven!
Read Matthew 6:33
God has rules too!
He will answer our prayers, but there are conditions that we must meet first!
We will know that we have met some of those conditions when we begin to change the way of our old life and turn it in for a new one!
The way we live, the way we talk, the way that we act, the things that we do, etc, etc, etc, when we change those then we will begin to see the difference of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
2. Isaiah 59:1-2
Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Sin in your heart will put a dead stop to you receiving an answer to what you are praying for.
No matter how you look at it, sin in your heart will snap the power line between you and God.
Sin will not be tolerated at all,
Let’s look at the 139th Psalm 23 and 24 verses and we will see again another way to pray!
David is saying that he has searched his self and he can see no wicked ways in his self! But he also knows that God can see a whole lot better than he can see!
That is why David is asking God to search him, David wants to know that he is ok with God! He wants to know that his prayers are being heard, he wants to know that he is doing something that is productive.
This is a beautiful prayer, an impressive prayer to end the day with.
It is also a great way to admonish us at the start of the day!
We need to make sure that we are not too high and mighty, that we are not too vain!
We need to admonish ourselves of the selfishness that we may have.
Get rid of the worldliness in us!
I call on you to be cautious in using this prayer!
It is easy to mock God by asking Him to search you while you have made but little effort to search yourselves and perhaps still less to act upon the result of the scrutiny.
Allow me to read you this poem by John Byrom
Think and be careful what thou art within
For there is sin in the desire of sin
Think and be thankful, in a different case
For there is grace, in the desire of grace.
Psalm 66:18
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
( Tell about how God felt about sin when Jesus was hanging on the cross )
As long as we hold onto sin or have any controversy with God, we cannot expect Him to heed our prayers,
If there is anything that is constantly coming up in your moments with God, then that is the thing that is hindering prayer in your life!
You need to put that thing away, what ever it is stop doing it, or stop staying it, or what ever it takes.
Confess it, openly to God and ask His forgivness and mean it!
3. Ezekiel 14:3
3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Idols in the heart of man will cause God to refuse to listen to their prayers.
What is an idol?
An idol is anything that takes the place of God, anything that is the supreme object of our affection.
God alone has the right to take first place in our hearts.
There can be many things that can be called Idols!
As I have said before!
Cars, Trucks, People, Television, Computers, all sorts of things!
Anything that comes between you and God
Or I might say before God!
If we really desire power in prayer, we must answer the question, is God absolutely first in my life!
If not the prevailing prayer is impossible!
God has to be first in our lives!
4. Proverbs 21:13
13 Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
There is perhaps no greater hindrance to prayer than stinginess, the lack of liberality toward the poor and towards God’s work. It is the one who gives generously to others who receives generously from God. Give and it shall be given unto you.
I am sure that there are a lot of things that we could say here!
Tithing to God could be another thing that He was talking about.
Luke 6:38
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
The generous man is the mighty man of prayer!
The stingy man is the powerless man of prayer!
( talk about being a good steward with your money )
1 John 3:22
22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
1 John 3:17-18
17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
It is only then that we have confidence toward God in prayer!
5. Mark 11:25
25 And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
You have got to forgive others if you ever expect for God to forgive you of your sins.
You can’t go walking around with a pious attitude towards others and even think that God will answer yours prayers.
It will not happen. We all have to forgive anyone that we feel has wronged us at anytime.
( There’s more to be said, tell of your experiences )
We cannot expect to receive when we have ill feelings toward our fellow man.
When you do, you close the ear of God against your prayers.
6. 1 Peter 3:7
7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
We are told here that a wrong relationship between husband and wife will cause us to go nowhere in our Christian experience.
Many men make great claims of holiness and are very active in Christian work but show little consideration in the treatment of there wives.
The same thing go’s for women!
7. James 1:5-7
5.If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
Prayers are hindered by unbelief.
God demands that we shall believe His Word absolutely.
To question the Word of God makes a liar.
1 John 5:10
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
Many of us do that when we plead His promises.
Is it any wonder that our prayers are not answered?
How many prayers are hindered by our unbelief?
We go to God and ask Him for something that is positively promised in His word and then we only half expect to get it.
Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord!
Do you see this morning that these are the reasons that a lot of us don’t get answers to our prayers and then we get discouraged and blame God, when God is not the problem at all!
We are the problem!
