Into the War Room - Part 2 - The Mystery of Answered Prayer

all right so let's get started as I mentioned in the blog post today and yesterday and the day before is this past Sunday we had an unfortunate situation where the recording of the well didn't happen we had all kinds of technical difficulties and for some reason it didn't record now that at first we thought that was kind of a bad thing but the positive thing that came from it is it opened up the door for me to try this thing which I've you know I've wanted to try this whole scoping thing for a while so it opened up the door for me to give that a try so what I'm going to talk about is what I spoke about on Sunday and what I blogged about this morning which is where the seer is talking about prayer but what we're talking about specifically this particular week is what happens when our prayers don't get answered and more importantly whose fault is it because if we're honest most of the time when we pray for something and we don't get our requests granted by God we usually blame God we say things like well it's not God's will or you know God just wants me to suffer or you know it's not God's plan for my life and we we have all of these these ways to blame God for not getting our prayers answered well it's easy to blame God for not getting your prayers answered he's the easy target because he doesn't say anything but here's what I want to say to you is that sometimes the responsibility isn't God's sometimes the responsibility is yours and and for sure there are times where it isn't God's will okay and I don't want to I don't want to downplay that or or or make that make light of that sometimes it is not God's will for you to get whatever it is that you're asking for but sometimes it is God's will and sometimes for sure it's not part of God's plan but sometimes it is 100% God's plan but the problem isn't on God's end it's on our end so what I want to talk about today as I wrote about in the blog this morning it's four factors alright four factors that contribute to us getting a yes to God from God in prayer now I I don't I want to be clear and say I'm not talking about formula his prayers not a formula so I'm not saying if you do a B C and D then whatever you ask for God will give you because as I said in the beginning is that sometimes it isn't God's will and no matter what you do something is against the will of God no matter how much you you you beg for it and plead for it okay God is not going to give you something that is against you know his desire for you or his plan for you that example I don't think I was remember when we were kids and not even when we were kids all the time in Christmas season remember the movie A Christmas Story all right with that that little boy okay and that little boy just wanted one thing for Christmas all right one thing for Christian who remembers type it in there what a little boy longed for Christmas in the Christmas story first one to give it gets a shout-out here on my scope a little boy is the story moving that comes up a red flyer not exactly a red flag close you got one of the words right the word red is right it was a red Christian shoes no some Christian shoes it's not a Christian a BB gun very good a Red Rider BB gun okay is it was a rifle very good Red Rider BB gun I'm sorry the screen is just so small I cannot see your names but congratulations whoever said Red Rider BB gun in the movie this boy wanted a Red Rider BB gun I need a Red Rider BB gun and he wanted his gun so badly and every time he would ask for his dad would say to him you can't have a BB gun because you will shoot your eye out and and and in that same way no matter what the boy would do okay he could never get his dad to give him that gift because his dad was just against him having that gift now eventually got enough money and got it himself but that's a different story my point is here with prayers the same thing some things are not the will of God God will not give us no matter regardless of these four factors but some things are the will of God and many times it's not God who is stopping us from getting our prayers answered it's us who are stopping us from getting our prayers answered and that's what I want to address today we're going to look at four factors and put them on my blog I'll go in more detail here obviously four factors that contribute to you getting your prayers answered all right number one factor is our relationships all right are over our relationships make a difference and they matter to God when it comes to him answering our prayers I have two children all right and in my household as well and as I'm sure the households of every parent who's out there you have rules for your children okay chores they have to do or obligations they have to get their homework done that to keep it a room clean whatever it may be so my house kids come home usually around 3:45 4 o'clock and from 4:00 to 5:00 is like our homework time and then from 5:00 to 6:00 is like our playtime whether it's basketball or soccer or whatever like they have to play nothing electronic something play and then from 6:00 to 7:00 is dinner and miscellaneous meaning that one once we start eating dinner ok once they finish they can do whatever they want so they can watch TV if they want you know my son is into fantasy football these days it's all over the fantasy football so he can check his fantasy team and make trades and do whatever is that he wants they can play video games whatever they want from 6:00 to 7:00 as long as they did homework and 4:00 to 5:00 and and and they had their play time from 6 to 7 or 5 to 6 then they can do what they want but let's say my children come to me okay and during that play time they got into a fight alright they start fighting and pushing and shoving and screaming and cursing and everything like that and then they come to me and I get upset ok because the kids you know nothing gets a parent more angry than when their kids fight so the kids fight and then they come to me and say ok dad I finished my dinner can i play video games and I say no you can't play video games they say well I did my chores and they say I did my homework say well you know I did everything that I was supposed to do today ok that may be true you may have done all your chores but you fought with your sister and fighting and lack of love with the people who are around you that trumps any obedience that you did before that so you can't come to God same thing when we come to God and we say God ok well I went to church and God I I did my morning prayers from God I read my Bible and God gave money in the money box and God I did I did I did I did okay but you're mean to your sister out in the street you are not you're holding a grudge and not forgiving your brother and you are disrespectful towards your parents so our relationships make a difference as they do in our relationship with our parents like as me with my children I factor in the love between the children when granting their requests God in heaven no doubt does the same and if we are not loving one another all right we are not loving one another then God will not grant our requests no matter how much we pray and beg and plead then simply no father okay if you come to me all right and then you knock my kid over and say boom and push him down in the street and then come to me and say father Anthony can you come bless my house that's not how it works all right if you are not gentle and kind and loving with my children then there's no way you can come to me you have no grand ground to stand on when making a request to me all right that's why would jesus said to the Pharisees in the New Testament he said I desire mercy not sacrifice you all make sacrifices and you think that you'll be heard because you made the right offerings and sacrifices but you use no mercy between you and your and your fellow brother that's the first thing okay is that's the first thing someone's asking your questions that mean we have to be perfect with everyone we'll get our prayers answered no it doesn't mean we have to be perfect and and as I said in the beginning okay in case those who weren't here I'm not giving you a formula to get a yes in prayer but what I'm telling you is the factors that matter when God is considering and hearing our prayers so no I'm not saying that we have to be perfect we all make mistakes but what I'm saying is when God looks you present to God this request god I want this then the first thing God will look at is look at your relationships and if you come to him and say God I need an a on this test and god I need a promotion in this job and God I need a solution to this problem okay you're begging and you're pleading to him and he looks at your relationships and you aren't forgiving and loving and being kind being gentle your relationships matter when it comes to getting your prayers answered okay that's number one number two not only our relationships matter but our motives matter our motives matter Epistle of st. James New Testament chapter four verse three James says it simply he says you ask and do not receive why because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures you ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures set another way what James is trying to tell us right here is that the why is just as important as the what so not just what you're asking makes a difference to God but why you're asking it so when God hears our requests let's say for example you're up there okay you're in your prayer room and you're praying for a new house God give me a new house this house you know is no good anymore I need a new house you can try to convince yourself that that new house is for the glory of God but God sees the truth and many times you're not praying because you want a house for the glory of God you're praying because you just are greedy and you just want a bigger house and I'm saying that to people who pray for a new house one his motivation is greed and one whose motivation is for the glory of God is gonna be different for another example you may be praying for a promotion and saying God give me this promotion God give me this promotion and you convince yourself that you're doing it for the sake of your family and to put them in a better position in your kids college fund but God sees that the true motivation is actually your ego and it's your product and that makes a difference when it comes to God answering prayers I know someone who prayed very hard for his female co-worker to be converted to Christianity and to come to church he kept a to invited her church she didn't come and the true motive as as great as if prayers that seemed that she would come to church and that she would become a Christian his true motive was he wanted to date her okay and he he basically wanted to marry the girl and proposed to her but he couldn't he knew he couldn't unless you would come to church his parents wouldn't accept it so again I'm not saying those prayers are bad but what I am saying is what the Book of Proverbs says chapter 16 verse 2 which says all the person's ways seemed pure to them but motives are weighed by the Lord again proverbs 16 - all the persons ways seemed pure to them but motives are weighed by the Lord how do we tell our motives I can't give you a black or white test okay say you know a B or C and this will tell your motives but I can say is we need to be honest and evaluate ourselves honestly and check our motives because God sees those motives okay that was number two I'm gonna speed things along right here because I'm going a little bit slower than I expect some I pick things up right here number three our lifestyle matters our lifestyle matters to God okay someone asked a question right there is it wrong to pray for something you want not something that you need it's not wrong it depends on the motive okay and I'm just gonna say that real quickly right now and then maybe I'll come back to that okay my goal is to finish up in the next five minutes and then take some questions so let me kind of finish the records I know some people are at work and need to finish their lunch number three our lifestyle matters our lifestyle matters and this is the one where most people if you want to be angry at me or disagree with something I'm going to say listen closely because this is this is your section what I said this past Sunday or in I wrote this on the blog post this morning is that if you want your Sunday morning prayers to be answered maybe you need to examine how you're spending your Saturday nights and maybe some of the reason why our prayers are not being answered is because the lifestyle that we live is not a righteous lifestyle and is not one that's pleasing to God now you say hey wait a minute that sounds kind of legalistic and that sounds kind of like you know like Pharisees kind of a thing well let me give you a verse from the Bible as well as a real-life example to make it clear proverbs 15 29 the lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayers of the righteous the Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayers of the righteous I understand this mixed none of us feel uncomfortable let me tell you this you walk out on the street today you're walking down the street you see two homeless people who are both begging for money and the two homeless people look the same both asking the same thing and you got $10 $10 bill you can only give it to one of them one of them you know is a hard worker and he was working two jobs until he got sick and he's trying to get help so he can get a job so he can help his wife and his kids put food on the table for them he's a hard-working guy he lost everything due to circumstances out of his control that's option number one second guy is a lazy guy who you know had several job offers but he chose not to accept any of them because they were below his standard but he felt for himself okay and he squandered the money that he had and any money that he gets his puppies gonna go spend it on alcohol to get drunk you got $10 you got these two options who are gonna give the money to are you gonna think about it for a long is it a tough decision every one of us to do the same thing we would invest our limited resources in the person who we felt was gonna make the best use of them okay so their lifestyle that's not saying I love one more than the other but what it is saying is that I'm going to invest in the one that's going to make the best use of it so you say I want God to give me whatever okay you say I'm single I want God to give me a wife I say okay well there is ladies all around you right now yours Christian sisters and do you treat them with respect you treat them with dignity you treat them with honor or you just wait for God to give you something even though you have not been very righteous and what he has given you and the friendships that he has given you you say I want God to give me more money okay well the little that he has given you have you been faithful in that and have you been generous with that or you think it's all your own bottom line is if we reward righteousness okay when it comes to giving away our money why do we think that God is any different all right the sentence that I said on Sunday that may have you know took some people a little bit back I said the bottom line is if we want our prayers answered on Sunday mornings that we've got to stop getting drunk on Saturday nights but you can go out and get drunk on a Saturday night and then expect God to answer your prayers on a Sunday morning that's not how it works your lifestyle matters your lifestyle matters all right last but not least okay the fourth factor all right then I'll wrap it up right here is our faith okay our faith matters and this one man I get I do a whole five week series just on this one okay and I'm just gonna mention this right here because I know this one can be misconstrued a little bit all right when I say that you need faith to get your prayers answered some people go to the extreme like there's two extremes here one extreme is whatever you pray as long as you believe God will give it to you whatever you believe God will give it to whatever you believe God will give it to you not I don't believe that personally because as I said is that I can believe with all my heart soul mind and strength that I should be playing in the NFL and I should be quarterback of the Washington Redskins no matter how much I believe it didn't gonna happen all right no matter how much faith that I have so some things are simply outside of God's will and some things are outside of God's plan and it's not a matter of just believe and believe who believe and get what it is that you want because the same people who say that when you tell them well I believe in prayed and didn't get it they'll say okay well you didn't really believe so I mean it's it's an easy argument to make on the other end but the other extreme one extreme is believe whatever you want believe you get whatever you want the other extreme is that faith has nothing to do with our prayers and God just does whatever it is that he wants and you know God's will and you know basically we're just kind of moving along passively through life and I don't believe that either I believe that that our faith does make a difference and as I said all right there are some things that are outside the will of God all right and and for those things I'm actually gonna have the entire entire session okay the last message in this series week five is all about this when we have done everything in our power we pray that we got our relationships and our motives and our lifestyle and our faith we got everything in order and we still gotta know okay what do we do them now that's a whole nother topic like I said that's week five for those who are following along the series but what I want to say right now is let's not jump to conclusion that it's against God's will let's not jump to the let's not jump to the point to say you know what this thing that we're praying for God just doesn't want it let's examine our motives make sure they're pure let's make sure that our relationships that we're walking in love let's make sure that our lifestyle okay is one of integrity and we're not just asking God on Sunday morning but our lifestyle on Friday and Saturday and Monday and Tuesday matches what we're asking in our prayer and let's make sure that we believe all right and we put our faith in God that our God can do the impossible in the things which are impossible with men are possible with God but we know as it says in James chapter one that the man who does not believe let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord that's James 1:6 and Saturday okay bottom line okay as I wrap up right here bottom line is that God don't make God out to be a mean person okay he doesn't don't make God out to be cheap don't make gotta be someone who just wants to make your life miserable not give you things God is a loving father and I'm telling me as a father man I love to give my kids things I love to to reward them when they when they follow the they follow what I ask them to do I love to reward them when they're loving each other and and and they're behaving as I want but I love to reward them and give them things and God is not any different so stop saying that it's just God's will that I don't get this it may not be God's will okay let me be very clear with that and yeah someone's saying sometimes God does like to teach lessons but sometimes it is God's will and we are the ones for the bottleneck not God okay leave you with a verse Matthew 7:11 if you then being evil know how to give good things to your children how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask okay okay whatever questions that you got go ahead and fire them up on that screen they will just go a rapid repeat right here and go as quickly as we can I'll try to answer whatever questions that you got about about what I said okay and forgive me for those who flashed up questions before I didn't get a chance to get to them all this scope thing man they pop up kind of quick and then they fade away I you see what I see okay they just pop up and go away so any questions that you got anything that you want to say are you having fun yeah absolutely and having fun why would I not be having fun it's a beautiful sunny day here with a Redskins one on Sunday like we're we're in good shape right here everything is good right there's nothing I can let them that I can complain about okay my life on motivation the example of the guy wanting the girl to go to church what was wrong with him well again it's good that he wants her to go to church but is the motivation just that that he gets to date her all right there's the motivation that she would come to know the Lord and the way that you would kind of test this well is he praying for his other co-workers to come to church in the same way does he care about inviting other people to church or only the attractive people he wants to invite them to church see what I'm saying for lifestyle if I'm doing my best but it's still hard to stop the sin is it still good enough yeah I don't want it again this is not a legalistic kind of a thing okay so absolutely I'm not I'm not the judge but whether you're doing good enough or not but I'll say is this is the God does not expect us to be perfect but it does expect us to strive for perfection so if you're striving and you're fighting the good fight man keep on fighting and God will fight for you okay you don't need to be perfect but you do need to give it your best shot okay any other questions out there from anyone if someone then does good things just to get their prayers answered wouldn't that be wrong selfish absolutely and that goes to the motives question okay that would be someone with maybe the wrong motives he is okay I'm gonna put money in the money box we do that fled bribed God okay God here's my donation now I'm expecting their promotion to come are expecting the winning lottery or something like that yeah absolutely that that goes to the motivation okay I'm sorry two questions popped up there and I did not I had a struggle to talk and read at the same time you guys got to forgive me okay there's two other questions that I didn't see them I wish one thing about this periscope I don't know why they don't store the questions tough question but how can we know when it's not his will all right I'm gonna answer that real quick start by assuming that it is his will and get those four factors in order and then after you've gotten those four factors in order if it's still isn't answering then we'll jump too it's not God's will but don't start off with it's not God's will okay start off with that Holy Spirit is leading me and guiding me and wants me to request this thing because God wants to give it to me and then if I don't then then jump to God's will okay I got three minutes left how long should I pray for something until when when should I stop asking I don't have an answer that I don't have an answer to that that that's the kind of thing that I don't think there is an answer I don't think anyone can tell you you know you pray for six months or pray for three months you pray as long as something is on your heart and then at some point in time God may say enough okay stop praying but until then I can't tell you to stop praying and we know so many examples of people who prayed for things for years all right and sometimes because you know why because sometimes God doesn't say no God says not yet all right God says not yet so I can't give you an answer that most of my prayers to bring my brother back to God they're way too far and because of my dad's fault I mean who is there someone that's too far for God to reach like is there a place on this earth that God's hand can't reach that point don't give up okay don't give up all right because you never know we happy and we got so many examples of God answering people's prayers after years and years and years and years and I would never tell anyone to give up that prayer okay and you'll become a better person when you pray too even if God doesn't give you exactly what you want okay we got two minutes two minutes thank you for all those hearts that are popping up I appreciate it I appreciate those hearts any final thoughts or questions for me one minute to go okay well if not thank you all very much for tuning in to my first show that I was exciting that was exciting this is an awesome venue thank you I appreciate y'all tuning in very much especially the twelve million people of the 2:30 a.m. or wherever it is that you are will I be scoping again this was kind of a demo I think it went pretty good and we'll kind of see how it goes I think I might but who knows yeah I will I will be I don't know how regular I love you thank you very much I love you back can't read your name but thank you appreciate y'all tuning in have a great day I love you all god bless you I'm praying for y'all and hail to the Redskins all right take care bye

Channel: STSA Church

Views: 24,265

Rating: 4.7731957 out of 5

Keywords: #WarRoom #Prayer #God #Periscope #Scope

Id: muAXgkv1d94

Length: 24min 34sec (1474 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 19 2016