Secret Weapon - When God Doesn't Answer Prayers

we are continuing into week two of our series called secret weapon and if you can't tell by the graphic the series is about prayer prayer is our secret weapon in the arsenal of a believer but it is often the most neglected tool at our disposal first King 17/8 we are talking this morning about what do I do when God does not answer my prayer what do I do when God does not answer my prayers you come to church and we tell you that God answers prayers and then say if we're just being real there sometimes you pray some prayers and nothing seems to happen well I'm going to talk to you about what do we do when nothing seems to happen and when our prayers seem to go unanswered then the Lord said to Elisha go and live in a village of Zarephath near the city of Sidon I've instructed a widow there to feed you so he went to Zarephath and as he arrived at the gates of the village he saw a widow gathering sticks and he asked her would you please bring me a little water in a cup and as she was going to get it he called to her bring me a bite of bread - but she said I swear by the Lord your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house and I only have a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil at the bottom of the jug I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal and then my son and I will die but Elijah said to her don't be afraid go ahead and do what you've said and make me a little bread first and then use what's left of the meal for yourself and your son and that's all that I want to read right there so I just pray that this text opens up to you and comes alive and we're able to see it as it is I want to paint this picture for you just a little bit clearer alright as we pick up in first team17 there is a severe famine in the land of zeref as the Bible says at the beginning of chapter 17 that it had not rained in years in this region and the situation had become so dire that even Elijah who was living in the wilderness surviving off of a mountain brook the brook itself even dried up the rivers were drying up the Brooks were drying up and the crops and everything in the area were dying there was a severe famine in this land one that wasn't just for a few days not just for a few weeks the Bible gives us an inclination that it had been years since rain had fallen in this land now the Bible here does not tell us that the widow prayed for rain but it kind of doesn't even have to because she's in the middle of a famine and the bible does insinuate very clearly in verse 9 that the widow had been praying the widow for she had been praying for her son she had been praying that the rain would come she had been praying Lord sing naina from heaven sing quail like you did to the Israelites in the wilderness God do whatever you got to do I imagine it was a prayer of desperation as she cried out for God to meet her where she was she was starving and even worse her son was starving verse 9 is a clear indication that this woman was praying to God she was asking God to send rain and then her prayer seems to go unanswered her prayer seems to fall on deaf ears and in the middle of the salmon when people are dying livestock are dying crops are withering as she looks day after day night after night up into the sky to see if precipitation is on its way she's met with disappointment each and every time and this Widow in the middle of her chaos and calamity is crying out a prayer of desperation yet God seems to not hear her her prayers seem to fall on deaf ears and then God sends his prophet Elijah and he shows up in the village and just maybe she's thinking to herself maybe God is going to bring deliverance through this man this prophet Elijah maybe he's going to be the answer to my prayer and what does he do y'all the Bible is hilarious if you don't know Elijah walks in in the middle of this drought everybody's die in famished weak laid over and Elijah walks in these I hey yo what's up hey can you go give me some water give me a cup of water oh and while you're at it give me some bread too do you see this because we read it in our recliner and we're like oh that was nice you know you says for a little water in a piece of bread he's in a famine y'all nobody's got water nobody's got bread and he casually throws in and he's I ain't take some water and some bread with that and this woman once again experiences disappointment another facet of unanswered prayer as she looks at Elijah her heart is broken as she responds to him with her plane and in 1st Kings 17 is a plea of desperation to Elijah she says I swear by the Lord my god I don't even have one piece of bread in my home I don't have anything all that I have left is just a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil and I've already decided that I'm going to use the little bit that I have left for myself in my son and as we eat it that will be our last meal as we prepare to die do you understand what's happening right here this woman's prayers are not answered she was praying for a miracle praying for rain praying for manna from heaven and instead God sends his prophet Elijah and he's just a little bit rude a little bit assuming walking in asking for more and the Bible actually says that even after she said Elijah I don't have anything he said we'll go ahead on and make it for me did you read that he said she says well all I had was a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil and no water and he said all right go ahead on and make that for me first he says me first and then you and your son can have what's left over Jubba when I was reading this I was like Elijah I was you know I was like dude come on bro she's darvany you've been out by the brothers and then he devours all that she had left right in front of her have you ever prayed for something have you ever prayed for a situation and things only got worse have you ever been praying to God for somebody who's sick and they only get sicker because this woman was praying for rain she was praying for more provision more food and all that happened was the man of God came and devoured all that she had left her situation was getting worse before was getting better I don't know about you but there have been times in my life where I prayed for financial blessing and I only got more bills there have been times I prayed for peace and only got more chaos there have been times that I prayed for the sick and watch them die can we be real in church there have been moments in my life or I've prayed prayers they seem to go unanswered and I'm sure if you're being honest with yourself and not super hyper spiritual you can admit that there have been times in your life that you had prayed prayers that have seemed to go unanswered and before they ever got better they got worse it is from those experiences that disappointment rises up from within us it is from those moments where we cried out in desperation and nothing seemed to change that confusion set in and bitterness and maybe even you're in this room today and you are angry with God because he didn't answer your prayer he didn't move when you asked him to move he didn't intervene when you needed him to intervene but can I tell you this morning that this book teaches us that we are not to live based on our experiences but we are called to live by faith in the word of the Living God we walk by faith and not by sight we believe in what we cannot see faith is the evidence of things hoped for we are to believe in the unseen you might be here today and you're saying well I've heard all the scriptures if I just had a mustard seed of faith I could speak to that mountain and it would be removed and cast into the sea you've heard the Scriptures that whatever you ask in my name if you would believe it it shall be given unto you you've heard the verses that say that God will give you the desires of your heart you've heard it and you prayed it and nothing has changed and nothing has happened and disappointment has creeped into your life and now you're in a place where you're beginning to wonder does prayer even work and because of your disappointment your prayers and your petition to heaven has grown silent because you prayed one too many times and nothing seemed to change you might even be wondering this prayer really work does God really hear me is he really listening I'm glad you asked let's continue reading in 1st Kings 17 14 for this is what the Lord the God of Israel says there will always be enough flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time that the Lord sends rain and crops grow again and so she did as Elijah said and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat for many days and there was always enough flour enough olive oil in the container just as the Lord had promised through Elijah if you're taking notes today and even if you're not taking notes I would encourage you to write this down God often answers prayer in unexpected packages God often answers our prayers in unexpected ways we overlook God's answers because we don't recognize them this Widow was praying for rain she was praying from Nana from heaven quail from the wilderness and instead God sends her a hungry prophet who comes and devours everything that she had left God had answered her prayer it just didn't look like it because God's answer to her pray or came in a manner in which she did not expect she was looking for the rain but yet God said Elijah could it be in your life this morning that many of the unanswered prayers in your life really have been answered they just were answered in a way that you didn't expect could it be that God showed up in your life and did something that you did not expect him to do could it be that God's answer to your prayer caught you off guard and you overlooked the miracle that was right in front of you Elijah was the answer to the widow's prayer he was the answer to her desperation she was looking her miracle in the face and had no idea she was looking her miracle in the face and it was annoying her to no end it was devouring what little bit she seemed to have left and could it be that God has answered your decree he has answered your prayer and you just overlooked it because it when it came it didn't look like what you thought it would God didn't send the rain he sent Elijah God did not give this Widow what she wanted but he gave her what she needed look at your neighbor and tell him he didn't give her what she wanted come on now help me free he didn't give her what she wanted but he gave her what she needed God doesn't always give you what you asked for he doesn't always give you what you want but he gives you what you need just in time a good father a good parent knows that they can't give their child every single thing that crazy child asks for it if so they would live a whole diet based on lifesavers and gummy worms and all this other stuff and they'd be dead laid up in the hospital if you give your child everything that they asked for it's not productive and it's not healthy for them our father knows what we need long before we even ask and he doesn't always give us what we want he doesn't always give us what we asked for and often his answer to our prayer comes in unexpected ways I just wonder have you been overlooking the answer to your situation right in front of you because that's what was happening here in first Kings 17 she didn't get her will but she got his she didn't get her will but she got his I'd rather have God's will any day how about you you say that now though I know I say it in the moment she could not see it in the moment she could not understand it in the moment when she was looking at Elisha devoured the rest of her flower in olive oil she could not see that that was the answer in God's provision in the moment you can't see the true picture of what God is painting in your life and if you're in the middle of a predicament this morning I want you to just lean not on your own understanding and rejoice in the fact that what you see right now is not the finished product and in the moment right now that you're in you may not see the full scope of God's plan beginning to end but I will rejoice and know that he is the god who sees my end from my beginning and what kind of God if a child would ask for a fish that he would give them a snake if an earthly father can provide for his children how much more can our Heavenly Father provide for all of us and if you're thankful you are a blessing like you mean it we love you Jesus in the heat of the moment in the middle of the famine this Widow could not recognize the answer to her prayer but looking back hindsight is twenty-twenty years removed from the famine she could look back and say and point to that moment and say surely not deliver draw nigh to me surely my deliverance was at hand when we're in the moment we can't see God's hand of provision but when we look back we can't help but see it was God who met me there it was God who carried me and brought me through you might be in this room this morning and you've lost the grandparent a grandma parent even and you think that your your prayers weren't answered you prayed for their healing you pray that they would raise up and yet they died God's answer came in a package that you didn't expect it was God who carried you and strengthen you through that storm it was God who used every moment of that situation to reshape and mold the way in which you view life in eternity it was God who provided an absolute and eternal healing once and for all for that person to where they'll never taste death again you cannot just preached you for a minute we think that God's prerogative his number-one priority is healing in the body well if God doesn't heal then he's not answering he's not listening can I just flip this in for you real fast God is so much more concerned about your soul than he is about your healing he's so much more concerned about your salvation your eternal destination than he is about the ailment that you're facing right now and I'm not trying to downplay the fact that God can heal because I've seen him do it I believe it all with all my heart but I'm telling you today that he is more concerned about your soul he's more concerned about your salvation than he is about your body being made Oh can I just say you I was real deep it's real deep you ready because even if God heals your body it's still going to die anyway it's still going back to the dust anyway but if he saves your soul it is something that is eternal that even the grave can't touch the grave can't stop or old salvation is the greatest miracle of all not healing in the body and sometimes when a person's life is on the line sometimes that the healing that God provides sometimes he raises them up I've seen him do it I've been I listen I've been by many hospital bed sides many I promise you and I prayed for people that were on their last leg that it looked like death was all but there and I've seen God raising up I've seen God pick them up breathe vitality and health and life back into their body and I've seen them go on to live many many more years blessed on earth seen it but I've also prayed for people who have died in past delay I prayed for their healing but it seemed to be an unanswered prayer but the truth is is that they're more whole than I'll ever be and they'll never taste death again because they are in the presence of God Almighty in Revelation 21 says that when you are absent from the body present with the Lord that he shall wipe every tear away from your eyes there will be no more sorrow no more pain no more disease in his presence Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has made all things beautiful in his time all things beautiful the time that you spend in prayer for that person is never wasted time spent in prayer is never wasted if you have your Bible turn with me to Isaiah 55 verse 8 Isaiah 55 verse 8 my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts says the Lord and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine for just as the heavens are higher than the earth so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and they remain on the ground to water the earth they cause the grain to grow producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry it is the same with my word I send it out and it always produces fruit they will accomplish all that I wanted to and it will prosper wherever I send it God says my ways are higher than your ways my thoughts are higher than your thoughts so much higher as the heavens are above the earth so are my thoughts higher and my ways greater than yours God is sovereign and we must make a decision to trust him even in the unanswered seasons of our life even in the unanswered prayers we must make a conscious decision that I trust in your sovereignty I trust in your goodness and I will follow you anyway I'm talking to you this morning about the God who breathed life into you this God dwells in eternity he is not fun I he is not limited by time he can see your end from the beginning he knows what is best for you even when you don't know what's right for your own life he can see it his word tells us that he works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose in other words even when you can't see it he's working for your good tell your neighbor with a little attitude he's working for your good law attitude on it he's working for your good and his word tells us to lean not on our own understanding can I just talk to you for a minute I have met so many people who when God does not answer their prayer they get this attitude in this disposition with God on that him I'm angry with God I'm not talking to God I don't understand them on earth just FYI God does not owe you explanation he doesn't owe me an explanation for why he does what he does he is sovereign he is the creator the giver of life he is the one who gives and the one who takes away he holds all creation together then he does not owe me an explanation for why he did or didn't do something the Apostle Paul said in first Corinthians 13:12 that we see through a glass darkly in other words from our perspective our finite perspective on earth we do not we are not programmed to think eternally from our perspective we can only see so far and even our perception of eternity is skewed when we look at a situation when we look at somebody that we need to be healed or we look at a chaotic situation we do not fully see as he sees his thoughts are higher than our thoughts his ways are higher than our ways and he knows what is best for us even when we don't know what's right for ourselves I'm so and I'm just going to be honest with you there I went through a stretch of my life a stretch of my even in the pastorate where I really tried to logically wrap my mind around every answer to prayer or every unanswered prayer I tried to reason my way through it well you know God probably did this because you know he it makes sense because he's just and that over there and this we have got to stop trying to fit God into our finite reasoning and understanding we've got to stop saying well I know he did this or that stop making excuses and let God be God let him be gone and trust him anyway trust him when you feel good and trust in when you feel like giving up trust him when you want to rejoice and trust him when you feel like dying trust him in the good days and trust him in the bed he is sovereign we see things through a glass darkly but he sees them as they are and the truth is is that unanswered prayers create resilient faith within us I must say that again unanswered prayers create resilient faith within us John 20 29th is blessed are those who believe who have not seen I want to talk to you real quick about the Apostle Paul the great apostle who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament he took the gospel into Europe into Rome into the world one of the greatest men greatest apostles who carried the banner of Christianity into the Western world the Bible says something about him that might catch you by surprise it says that as we think about the Apostle Paul and his stature in his position and his authority we imagine somebody who is who is immaculate somebody who's perfect somebody who's got it all together but the Bible actually tells us that the Apostle Paul had a thorn in his flesh and there is a creative poetic way of saying Paul had a real struggle in his life and the Bible is profoundly clear throughout the book of Romans that the Apostle Paul prayed for deliverance from that thorn read Romans 7 read Romans 8 Paul says the very thing that I want to do I don't do and the very thing I hate doing I go head-on and do it because there is a struggle within me and Paul petitions God revenue doesn't read it Paul petitions God to free him from the struggle to free him from this thorn of his flesh and Paul's prayer seemed to go unanswered but God's response to Paul was my grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect in your weakness in other words your unanswered prayer Paul the capacity to create a resilience inside of you like nothing else ever could see if I'll just go ahead and answer your prayer as you expected as you wanted on your timetable yes that will give you faith but then the next time you pray and it doesn't happen your faith could slip away they takes a whole nother level of tenacity a whole nother level of faith a whole nother level of radical believing to trust in God even when you don't see his answer resilient face is burst out of unanswered prayers gel was a master David was a master at it David said it was good for me that I was afflicted job said though you slay me yet I will bless you these men understood that the unanswered prayers of their life created a tenacity a resilience within them that equipped them to finish the work that Jesus started and could it be that the unanswered prayers in your life really God is using those moments to create a tenacity and resilience inside of you that is unshakable unmovable because if you can call him faithful when your bank account runs out if you can call him blessed when your loved ones die if you can still find a way to worship Him and rejoice from the middle of your unanswered prayer then you can bless him through anything and if you're thankful you ought to give him praise like you mean it unanswered prayer creates resilient faith in us I don't know about you but I've learned to thank God for the unanswered prayers of my life sometimes I've asked for some really stupid things and I'm glad he didn't answer it when I asked him you remember that middle school boy friend y'all were praying to Mary you saw him ten years ladies they thank you Jesus I'll say you'll learn to thank God for the unanswered prayers of your life you will learn to thank God because the truth is is that there is an answer to every unanswered prayer you just have to look back at the situation again there is an answer in every unanswered prayer you just might have overlooked it there have been times in my life that I prayed for financial blessing to get money your slow it wasn't churchy so caught you off guard there were times that I prayed for financial increase there you like that better and and all I got and I was expecting I was expecting like a check in the mail like a random check just like manna from heaven dropped in or I was expecting like a glorious tax refund you know and instead all I got was more difficult work harder work and more opportunities to do some work no amens on that it's you like I like the mail better um but what I'm trying to say to you is that God really did answer my prayer it seems like an unanswered prayer because I was looking at it and I was like well I don't know just so if you don't know I also have a real estate license this isn't a commercial but I'm saying that in in real it really is it but what I'm trying to say y'all don't act don't give me that now listen doesn't lose you on that seriously collectively like y'all did y'all really didn't know that y'all know that don't look and go you somebody else they got a good realtor Catelyn coffees in here we got other Realtors use them see there we go you're welcome see I'll get I'll sell that you know do unto others as you would have them doing you know but what y'all lost you I'm never talking about real estate again in this church I'm Nestor what I'm trying to say to you what I'm trying with the words that are trying to come out of my mouth is that I was asking God for financial opportunity for blessing and what he did is give me more work lots of it and some of it seemed to be frustrating I want to bounce my head off the ground and God had really answered my prayer he just came in a way that I didn't expect it and you might have the provision to your prayer right in front of you you just don't like what you see you've been praying for financial opportunities and blessings and you got some hard ugly nasty work that nobody else wants to do sitting right in front of your face and where you pick it up you see because we ask God for more and he'll answer but it just might calming and unexpected package get off this stuff you've been you've been praying for a life some of y'all been praying for a life some of y'all been praying for a husband and all God seems to answer with it's prolonged singleness prolong in your idle time and you're like well this is an unanswered prayer but God is shaping you into the husband that you were meant to be God is shaping you into a life before he comes along see you don't become a life and you don't become a husband when the ring gets put on the finger and you've seen it in altar that a ring doesn't make you a wife a ring doesn't make you a husband and Sarah trust me I've done way too many weddings to just go ahead and let you know that that the ceremony doesn't make you a life the ceremony doesn't make you a husband God shapes you into that in the preliminary running up to it you're like why am i single because he's not done with you yet he's preparing you shaping you molding you you said well God's not answering my prayer oh yes he is it just came in a way you didn't like there's an answer to every unanswered prayer you just got to see it some of y'all prayed for patience lord help me with my patience don't do that by the way because God will he will chance they will give you many opportunities to be tested sitting on 485 the Beltway sitting at the drive-through waiting people honking at you don't ask God for patience he'll test you the thing is we think God's not answering but the truth is he's answering in unexpected ways we can't overlook it as the gain comes back to help me close so I can remember that I'm stop talking I believe this morning that God has answered your unanswered prayer now one I want to show you one more thing back in 1st Kings 17 look back with me first King 17 the widow prayed for rain she prayed for manna she prayed for the famine to end but instead God sent her a hungry prophet who devoured all that she had remaining and although it wasn't what she prayed for it was exactly what she needed in that moment of her life because if you keep reading into verse 17 the Bible says that while Elijah was still in this woman's house her son that she loves so dearly became ill and died and even Elijah God's man cried out to God and he said why would you allow this son of hers to die after all she's been so hospitable to me she's helped me and now her son is died and the Bible says that Elijah picked up that that little boy and he stretched out over top of him and he prayed that God would revive him and after the third time that dead son came back to life and all the while that widow had been praying for some grain all the while that widow had been praying for some rain to fall had been praying for one thing that was miniscule that seem monumental in the moment but really God's answer was for more than just a famine his answer was for her household for her son for her child that he would be resurrected and sometimes what you're praying for really isn't what you're praying for and what you're asking God to do in your life he might answer in a totally different way because these three steps ahead of you and he knows what you need even before you know it if God had answered this woman's prayer in the conventional generic way Colette seems a little bit of rain that son would have died it had a funeral and that would have been all she wrote but I thank God that he didn't answer this woman in the way she asked I thank God that he didn't answer this woman in the conventional traditional way instead he does the unthinkable he does the unexpected because he knows what we need even before we asked and I want to tell you this morning that your God knows what you need even before you ask he knows what's around the corner before you can even comprehend it you serve a good good father who is perfect and majestic in all of his ways why don't you stand to your feet with me all over this place father we love you and we worship you and we bless your mighty name we

Channel: Vizion Church

Views: 36,587

Rating: 4.709497 out of 5

Keywords: Unanswered Prayer, Tyson Coughlin, Vizion Church, Vision Church, Why God Doesn't Answer Prayer, What to do when God doesn't answer prayers

Id: rKQKYfETFlE

Length: 35min 39sec (2139 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 13 2017