MK040 Sermons
Unanswered Prayer (Audio)
John, I believe this is about the ninth time that I have rescued you from preaching on Super Bowl Sunday. But it is good to be here and be here with you folks. Diane and I brought our university display along with us and that's been a change since the last time I was here. We were Baptist Bible College and now we're Summit University and so we've got information out there that I brought along with us. I do want to mention Diane directs our women's conference, the Life Conference. Some of you guys have been to that and she's got a great one planned for you this year and she can give you some information on that. But here in the university business nowadays as schooling, higher educations change so much in the last 20 years. There'll be a time when I could say, "Hey listen, if you want to drive to Clark Summit, we can do you a good job on an undergraduate degree that'll be a life changer." A person who knows God's word, knows truth, knows how to put it all together, can go just about any place for God no matter what career God puts them into. Well nowadays I can say that and then say, "Let me add in all of our online things." And so we have out there some good information for you. If you never quite finished that college degree, we can do it on for you from your living room. Finish it off and add on a master of arts, a master of science in counseling, a master of education degree, a couple of doctorates in there too. We'd like you to pray for us because as you saw in the video, as they're walking through those fields of grain, I want you to think about what Jesus said. When His disciples looked around and said, "Oh wow, there's more here than we could do." And Jesus said, "I want you to pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers into His harvest field. This week, right now, you and I are in the middle of God's harvest. And wherever it is, we're going to be tomorrow morning, whether you're going off to work, going off to school or whatever it is, we are in the middle of God's harvest. And God desires to equip us and to use us in ways that will make a difference in the lives of people that He cared enough to send His Son to die for. So at Summit University, I say, every student will gain a biblically saturated education from highly qualified, caring mentors for ministries and careers in honor Jesus Christ. And if before Diane and I take off for, let's see, Philadelphia next, if we can be some help to you in that, we would love to be. We can tell from the half page in your bulletin that we are going to wind up in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. But I need to get you there through this puppy. You know what that puppy is saying to you? A puppy saying, "Please, please give me something to eat. Please pat me. Please pick me up." And if you are a puppy kind of person, then your little heart is aching right now if the desire to do that. If you're more like me though, you'd be thinking, "What can we do with this dog?" Second Corinthians chapter 12 looks into the eyes and says, "No." We're talking this morning about unanswered prayer. And I want you to think as you leave here, "No" teaches us to trust our Father's purposes. No, when God says, "No," it teaches us to trust our Father's purposes. 1 Corinthians, pardon me, 2 Corinthians, divides into two pieces and we're in the second piece of the course. You can guess in chapter 12. But 10, 11, 12, and 13 tell us more about the Apostle Paul personally than we learn anyplace else. And the way it happened was because they hurt him. I mean, he had gone to that city. He would have kind of by accident there and was waiting to catch the next ship and got looking around and began to think, "Man, do these people need Jesus Christ?" There's just some unique social, physical, spiritual need. These people need Christ and he wanted to stay there for a long time paying to plant that church out of his own pocket, working a job, getting the church up. And these were people who were deeply steeped in the same kind of sins that we see around us all day long. And as he brought them to Christ and taught them to grow them and equip them for service, pastors do that, and he brought them along the way, his heart was really knit to them. He spent much longer there than he spent it and he plays elsewhere, he ministered. And then some other guys came along. Some guys who, from what he says in this passage, were more polished speakers than Paul was. Better looking than Paul was. You know, they had it more all together. And these folks that he had sweat blood for began to say, "You know what, Paul? If we get a chance we'll talk to you, but these guys, we like these guys a lot." Well, the section of Corinthians is where he's laying out, "You know, this is who God has made me to be." And this is what my life has been for Christ's sake. Chapter 12 is where he talks about the time when he'd been outside a little city called Listra, modern-day Turkey, and they'd gotten so angry at him preaching the gospel, they'd stoned him with stones until he was dead. He was caught up to heaven and God kept him there for a bit and then sent him back. And he said, "I saw inexpressible things. I'm not even allowed to tell you what I saw." And then, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 7, we'll start to read there, he says, "Therefore in order to keep me from becoming conceited," because you know, you haven't been to heaven yet and come back, "to keep me becoming conceited, I've got a lot to offer you." No, "to keep me from becoming conceited." A thorn. I was given a thorn in my flesh. Now, any of you guys ever pick blackberries or something like that and you get, man, one of those thorns drives into you. It hurts. And for being such a little thing, the hurt doesn't stop right away. I was given, 1 Corinthians 12, 7, a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said, "My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me." And this is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties for when I am weak, then I am strong. I want you to think through this with me. The first thing Paul talks about is the emotions of unanswered prayer. The emotions, back there in verse 7, when he says, "To keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me." Emotions, "I don't want Satan's thorn. I don't want Satan's thorn." That's where it starts. I don't want this. And I thought I would use something that wasn't a thorn, just we'd put a needle in there, but any of you guys had an IV or done that kind of thing, and it's just a little bit uncomfortable. And you're happy when they finally take the thing out. I don't want this. So what do you do? Well, of course, you pray. What else would you do? I don't want Satan's thorn. Some of you guys who've been around a little while longer may go back to 1990 when Garth Brooks put out his second album, and I think it may still be the number two most popular song Garth Brooks ever put out. Thank God for unanswered prayer, right? Thank God for unanswered prayer. Remember the story? You know, he's going back to a high school football game, and he's bringing his wife along with him, and he knows back there he's going to see that girl, the one that in high school, he asked God, "Oh, could I have that one? Please, could I have that one?" I went back and, you know, the way the song goes. He sees her, beauties faded over the years, and you know, sees a wonderful wife along with him who's given her life and her love to him, and he says, "Thank God for unanswered prayer. Just cause he doesn't answer, doesn't mean he don't care. Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers, but we don't always get the perspective so clearly because we don't want that thorn." I mean, who does? The thorn was some kind of an irritant, some kind of irritant. A lot of different theories on what it might be. I mean, based on what Paul said in Galatians, some think that he might have some kind of a vision problem, but no one knows. And that's okay because that leaves it broad. The focus is not on the thorn. It's on the fact that Satan sends it and God doesn't take it away. I don't know what you might have carried in here with you this morning, but I'd be really surprised if some of you aren't thinking, "I know what the thorn in the flesh is. It's what I have right now." And he left it general that way because the focus is not the thorn. We're going to find the focus is on something entirely different. Tormented by a messenger from Satan. Read Job one and two sometime. You get the same idea that's right there, but even Satan's attempts to stop you can't keep God from working your life. I don't want Satan's thorn. I'm desperate. I'm desperate. Look there in verse eight. Three times I casually mention to God. Three times across my mind in prayer to say to God, doesn't say that, does it? Has the word plead. Three times I pleaded with God. It's not going to happen, but if I were to reach my pocket and pull out a hundred dollar bill and say to you, "I'm going to give this hundred dollar bill to whichever one of you begs the best." We'd see some acting. We'd see some acting. That's what's behind pleading. Three times I plead with God. It's this desperation thing. It's not just, "Here's my prayer list one, two, three, four, five, six." But Lord, Lord, something has to happen. This has to change. I can't go on like this. Lord, please, the emotions of unanswered prayer. Let's try this one on. How do you feel when someone who should listen to you doesn't? I'm not talking, they don't hear you. I'm saying they're ignoring you. Try this one on. I called Comcast last week. Right. That's what I figured I'd get. Now, I should tell you that my experience in calling Comcast this time was very positive. That was well served and everything taken care of. But the stereotypical, when you call up some help line, you know what's going to happen. The first person you're going to get is going to try not to talk to you. Then they're going to put you on hold of the second person who won't pick up, and you have to call back. It goes on and you say, "I'm paying money for this. I just want some help." When someone who you think should be listening to you, doesn't. That's why unanswered prayer is so hard. We know that God so loved the world that He gave as one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him wouldn't perish, but have everlasting life. We already know God loves us. He's commended His love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We know that to everyone who received Him, He gave the right, the authority to become the children of God. We know that. The word of God says it. It's true. So why isn't He answering my prayers? Well, there's some things that we're meant to learn by unanswered prayer. I'm going to give you four reasons for that from verse nine. But I want you to, we work through these four reasons, think about this verse because two or three thoughts that I want to have go on with you. Let's put the verse up. And in the white letters there, where Paul says, "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. My power is made perfect in weakness." We begin to build out the reasons why our prayers might be unanswered. First of all, it's an education in grace, an education in grace. Now, when I talk about grace, it's such a beautiful word. It means an undeserved favor, an undeserved favor. When someone gives you something, you say, "Well, what have I done for this?" Nothing. Really? Yeah. I just wanted to give it to you. Undeserved favor. That's what grace is. A mercy is the flip side. Mercy is when you don't get what you do deserve. The grace is when you get what you don't deserve. My grace is sufficient for you. Now, if you have heard the word of truth, the gospel, if you've received Jesus Christ as your Savior, you know what God has done for you. You didn't deserve. He's forgiven your sins. He's given you his indwelling spirit. He's given you his word. He's given you his church. He's given you the sure promise of a forever in heaven. He's given you his presence with you all week long. He's given you opportunities to grow in grace and knowledge of him. Sometimes we need to stop and think about what we already have been given, are getting, and will receive from God because it's all undeserved. My grace is sufficient for you. Yeah, but I want one more thing. No. No, my grace is sufficient for you. So unanswered prayers are in education and grace. Let's look at that verse again. When he says there that my grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in weakness. Secondly, unanswered prayer can help us to experience sufficiency. It's experience of sufficiency. If we have anyone here who's afraid of being on boats because you're not real good in the water, is that enough life preservers for you? So yes, that's sufficient. That's more than sufficient. That's plenty. I got that. Experiencing sufficiency from God. The how God will answer our prayers, that's under his control. The when God's going to answer our prayers, also under his control. This, this is enough. I would venture that some of you guys would be able to list off for me what Paul talks about as the fruit of the spirit. What the spirit does in someone who's born again in Christ, the fruit of the spirit is love, right? Love and what's the next one? Joy, okay? Love and joy and peace. And there's six more. Okay. Love, joy, peace, and self-sufficiency. No, no, no, no, that's not in the list. You're right. Self-sufficiency is not a fruit of the spirit. It's my problem. Self-sufficiency, you know, thinking that I really can pull this thing off because when we become dependent on God, that's when we start experiencing some real power. In fact, I really think that most of life is a lesson designed to drive us to God. Most of life is designed to help us to want him more and to be able to go under what he has us going under. So it's an experience of sufficiency. The verse again, he said this, my grace is sufficient for my power is made perfect in weakness. Third thing, third reason for unanswered prayer. God's power is at work. God's power is at work. That looks on the outside. God looks in the heart. One of the reasons that I love being involved with Summit University and pray for our students is because I want there to be something more as a result of this than just a university education. A couple weeks ago, I had the party that presidents sometimes have when they become presidents for a year called inauguration. And I decided instead of splashing out to big party that what I wanted to do was raise scholarships. And so I contacted our trustees and was able to raise money for 14 $1,000 scholarships. Gave them out on the inauguration day when our trustees were there. The deal was this. They went out to students not just for the financial need, not from a good family, but students who were taking what they were learning at Summit University and building that into their lives while they were in school. I got some amazing essays back. I said 750 to 1,000 words. It's a bucket word. Write this thing up. Let me see what it is. I got some amazing things back because I don't want kids who graduate from university with a good degree who've done some community service and life goes on. I want people right now who are saying how could I make a difference now while we're mentoring them to do something greater. I can give you 14 examples right now. But the student we have was a sophomore who spent some time on a high school missionary trip down to Haiti, a very poor country, and did more than just take a trip. He started to figure out what's involved with the poverty down there and learned that most Haitians spend 50%, 50% of their disposable income trying to buy the kerosene to fuel they need to cook their food 50%. I wonder about college sophomore here who gets online, does the research to find out there are stoves out there that in a sunny climate will capture the light of the sun and start the fires, get them hot enough, so you don't have to spend half of your income on starting your fire so you can then invest that money into building your own business. He's working with churches to make churches self sufficient down there to pay their pastor's salaries and to get into other businesses where they can grow on Christ. I mean that's the kind of stuff I want. I don't want something that you'd say anybody could do that and that's what I don't want for you either. I don't want people saying, "Cocallical community chapel, nice people," and stop there. Good church and stop there. I want them saying a group of people who are making an eternal difference in their area because some things happen and it can't be attributed to good leadership, great music, a nice facility. There's something happening that can't be attributed just to what anybody could do. God is doing something there and the way that may well come is when you and I are at the end of our sufficiency. God's power is at work. The fourth thing. My power is made perfect in weakness. It's protection from our own weakness. Protection from our own weakness. Our weakness is pride. That little eye in the middle of pride tells the whole story. Our weakness is pride. God gives more grace. Lord, I'm pretty smart. I've read the Bible. I know what I want. You have a responsibility since I am praying in faith to give me what I want because I know what I need. Well, no, I don't. No, I don't. The eye is the problem. And sometimes when I know what I need and I'm pretty sure about I'm wrong. You've been up to Clark Summit, if you have you, there's a hotel down on the main strip called Nichols Village. And I worked there back in the days when I was in seminary and the nickels owned it. I was the evening desk manager. And we had an array of telephone numbers that were kind of hidden behind our main number. And you can see them light up. And they're all different telephone numbers, you know, different than our age now. And one of them, the one over here on this side, all the way on the left, happened to be one digit different than the number of pizza hut just up the road. So when so when this one would light up, I would know somebody's made a mistake, I'd pick it up Nichols Village. And they said, I'd like to order up Nichols Village. I say, yeah, wrong number. And I'd give them the proper digit. Well, one night a woman calls up, I want to order a pizza, please. And I said, I'm sorry. The number for pizza hut is, and I gave you the other number. And then 15 seconds later, the light comes on again. Nichols Village, like to order pizza, ma'am, I'm sorry, the number for pizza hut is 15 seconds later. Believe it or not, six times, angrier each time. Because she was down on the phone and she knows what she was dialing. And this was pizza hut. So time number six, I picked up a phone with Nichols Village. I want to order pizza, I said, what would you like? Wrote it down. I figured she could be angry at the guy at Pizza Hut next when his pizza, her pizza wasn't ready when she went to get it. And of course, her hotel room wouldn't have been ready either. Sometimes, sometimes you better take no for an answer. Because we are weak. God's power is made perfect in our weakness. Sometimes we better take no for an answer. So how do we respond? What do we do? What's the proper responses we ought to give for unanswered prayer? Let's keep on reading the text. Second half of verse nine. Paul says, pardon me, God says, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul responds, therefore, I will boast more gladly about my weaknesses. I accept your grace, Father. I'm going to take what you're giving me. I accept your grace, Father. You know, there's a passage in the Sermon on the Mount. And that sermon, I think, is the one Jesus preached over and over and over again. You know, there weren't podcasts then. You kept preaching that message in village after village. Such great truth in there. And he would tell them when you come to your Heavenly Father, ask, seek, knock for what you ask, go get what you seek, you'll find when you knock the door will be opened. And that sounds like one of those, you know, you know, knocking till your knuckles get bloody until finally somebody opens the door and get what you ask for it. But in the context, doesn't say that. It talks about how our Father is a better Father than I ever was will ever have, who only gives His children what's good. Our Father only gives His children what's good. And there have been times when I have been absolutely positively sure and dead wrong. And eventually I now recognize He's giving me what's good. Now I'm seeking the right thing. I accept your grace, Father. Strengthen my weakness, Father. Strengthen my weakness. Only as my weaknesses are exposed. Can God strengthen me? One of my bosses once at the college years ago said, Jim, that was a mistake. You shouldn't do that. And I said to him, it's a cost containment measure. I said, because if I were a perfect employee, you couldn't afford me. You should be thankful I make mistakes. It keeps costs down. You know, it's only as we expose the weaknesses that God can strengthen them. I would hate to think that this is as good as it gets. Really. I'd hate to think this is as good as it gets. Strengthen my weaknesses, Father. Our third response. I'll boast about my weaknesses that Christ's power may rest on me. Help me to grow, Father. Help me to grow. You notice the change in tone? Three times I pleaded. And now, therefore, I will boast about my weaknesses. So Christ's power may rest on me. So Christ's sake, verse 10, I delight in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, difficulties. I delight in them. Help me to grow. He's growing. He's seeing reality through a biblical focus. And the fourth response, give me your perspective, oh, Father, give me your perspective. I need to be what God plans for me to be. This week, I talked to one of our staff members who is going through a difficult time. Great God does a key role for us, well-educated for that role, but told me a little over a year ago when I caught him one morning and he was looking a little bleary-eyed and said, "You okay?" He says, "Yeah. Well, you might as well know. I spent last night in the emergency room." And I said, "Oh, no." He said, "No, no, no. I spent it." He said, "I went there because I wanted to be there. I spent the last night following the emergency room doctors around, shadowing them." He said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah. I think I'd like to be a doctor. You going to fire me?" I said, "Well, no." I said, "Well, I want God's will for you too." And so he began to explore this and get more and more excited. He's preparing for the examination. You got to take to get in a medical school and like that. And as a young married guy, young family, and a medical issue arose in the family that meant that it really wouldn't be a good thing for dad to be as wrapped up for seven years as medical school was going to make him wrapped up. We were talking about something else on Friday and at the end of the conversation, I said, "So, what about the medicine thing?" And he says, "You haven't heard." I said, "No. I'm not going to do it. Really, tell me about it." And he told me the story that I just told you. And I said, "How are you processing that?" And I see he started to tear up. He said, "Jim, I'm really struggling. I'm so angry with God." I mean, this was his dream and he's got the brains for it. He could do it. He was his dream. And I could have said to him, "Listen, I'm 30 years older than you are. There's going to come a time you're going to look around at this and it's going to be just fine." But I thought that might be a little bit hollow. And so I said, "Well, I'm going to pray for you and figure out what we can do to make this thing work out for you along the way." As you're following and chasing after God in this, because what he needs and what he knows he needs, he's not unspiritual or stupid. What he knows he needs is God's perspective. He just doesn't have it yet. Give me your perspective, Lord. See, no teaches us to trust our Father's purpose. But you know as well as I do that word teach means somebody's giving a lesson and somebody else is learning. And you and I are in the learner's seat in this. We've got to walk our way through here. We've got a song that we're going to play for you and you can watch it because it's going to pull all this together before we sing our last song together.