The Power of Prayer - Removing the Roadblocks to Answered Prayer, Part 1

Roadblocks.

They stop you from getting where you want to go. Now, we usually think about roadblocks on city streets, but did you ever ponder it's possible to have roadblocks in your prayer life too? You see, there are things that get in the way of our prayers getting through and us experiencing God's answers. Today, we're going to talk about the first three roadblocks that keep our prayers from God's ears.

Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

I'm Dave Drewy. And in a minute, Chip continues his series called The Power of Prayer by talking about behaviors that get in the way of God answering our prayers. Now, if you want help identifying and breaking through those barriers, let's listen to Chip's message, Removing the Roadblocks to Answered Prayer. What is an answer today? Why is it that so often times when you pray and when I pray, God doesn't answer?

Okay? Why is it if you listed all the, you know, wrote down every prayer that you really prayed and you meant, and then you somehow could come up on a computer screen, all the ones that really got answered. Why is it so often an awful lot of them don't get answered? Now, I want you to hold that question in the back of your mind, and I want to share a little parable, a modern day metaphor, if you will. And this is about the power of prayer, and I'll let you sort of fill in the pieces as I tell it. But picture number one comes right out of your home. If you're a lady, there's chances you've got the garden hose and you've wrapped the hose around this part of the house, and then you've been around a barrel over here, and you're you're watering the flowers or the grass or something, and you're feeling good. You're just feeling like these flowers are going, boy, this water tastes so good, and you're enjoying it and doing it.

If you're a guy, you may be doing the same thing, or you may be washing the car. And as you're doing this, you know, the water's coming out, and then all of a sudden, when you look at that hose, I mean, there's just nothing. I mean, there's no water. I mean, maybe just a little trickle. And so you do what very intelligent people do. You walk over and you check the faucet thinking maybe one of the kids or the dog or someone turned it off.

And it's on. There's no problem with the power. There's all the water that you need, but then you go back and you look at the hose and there's nothing coming out. Now, as an adult, you know what's going on. But imagine if you were a kid and this is the first time it happens, and you discovered what we all now know is the great principle of the kink in the hose, right?

Isn't it amazing? You can be washing the car and you look and it looks fine, and under the third tire, there can be just one little bend, can't there? One little bend, and the water pressure is almost gone. We're going to talk today a little bit about some kinks and hoses. I call those roadblocks. This morning, we want to talk about removing the roadblocks to answered prayer. You need to hear the spirit of this because some of you have grown up, and I don't know where we got this, but a lot of people, at least in my generation and older, grew up with this view of God. That He's always pointing His finger, that He's got His hands on His hips, and He's just waiting for you to mess up. You know another place that things get clogged are in people's arteries, don't they?

You know those blood clots? I want you to think of God as a supernatural cardiologist who loves you and sees there's a clogging in the artery, and because He cares about your life and He wants the life-giving oxygen and nutrients in that blood to get to your entire body, He comes by and very lovingly, although painfully, may take a scalpel and make a major incision in your heart and open it up and do whatever is necessary to remove that blood clot. See, God is here this morning, not down on anybody.

The fact that you're here says that your heart is tender and open, and you want to hear from God. But when He points out the roadblocks, sometimes it makes us a little uncomfortable. The reason for removing the roadblocks is not to make you and I feel guilty. That's the enemy's job.

It's to restore, to convict, not to condemn. I've written here, roadblocks are anything, notice, known or unknown that hinder our prayers from being answered. And you know, just like in a hose, it doesn't take a big kink sometimes, does it? It doesn't take a big wire.

It just takes a little something that can cut off the power. Roadblock number one, you find in James chapter 4 verse 2, He says, you want something but you don't get it. You kill and covet but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and you fight. Did you notice all those verbs? Kill, covet, quarrel, fight.

They're words of human activity, of energy. There's a desire and there's energy going in to reach the desire and then He explains why this goal is being blocked. You do not have because you do not ask.

Kind of simple, isn't it? Roadblock number one is prayerlessness. We simply fail to ask. God really once longs to give you, to show His evidence and His power and His love but many times the kink in the hose is we don't even ask. And I know some of us grew up, oh, this is too small. I couldn't ask God enough.

What about this? I mean, this is too personal. You know, some of us have grown up thinking that the only prayers God really wants to hear is our major crises.

It's not true at all. He longs to answer. He wants to answer down to the minutest details of your life. God wants to take the little kinks out of the hose and block number one is often we don't have simply because we don't ask. Roadblock number two comes right out of this passage.

It's verse 3. Some people's problem isn't that they don't ask. It's they do ask but you're going to find that they ask for the wrong reason. Verse 3 of James chapter 4 says, When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives. The King James, if you have it, says amiss.

The word means with an evil desire that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. In fact, roadblock number two is wrong motives. We ask selfishly. I've learned we can actually pray for the will of God, pray something like we've talked about, aligned with God's Word and it can really be even His will and we can pray for God's will and pray for the wrong motives and for the wrong reason and God will say no. The most vivid example is a bit embarrassing but it just so makes the point. I never say this now because I was so selfish and so self-oriented back then but I was naive and unsophisticated and so I just let it show and now I'm still very selfish but I'm very sophisticated and I know all the words to cover it up that make me sound spiritual. A lot like a lot of you. I went from my dorm room wall to the glory of God.

I spelled out the letters of masking tape. So when you came in my room, boy, you knew where this guy stood. And then I got on my knees every night and I said, oh God, my dream was to play college basketball and you've let me come here and Lord, I don't want to be a starter. I know I'm only a freshman but I don't want to be a starter. I want to be a star. And I want to score 25 points a game. And then I had this picture. And when the wheeling register interviews me for this sports page and says, well how in the world as a young freshman did you come here and average 25 points a game? I'm gonna say, to God be the glory.

You can kind of see through this one, can't you? I prayed that prayer for about three and a half years. Two hamstring pulls, a pulled quad, a stress fracture, five different coaches, a drug bust on the team, I was tackled in practice once, a guy who was on some illicit drugs. My college career, I spent hours upon hours on the bench. Never scored 25 points. And about the last third of my senior year, I remember getting very real and very honest with God and saying, God, I love this game.

If I never ever get to play this game again, it's yours. If he gave me the desires of my heart, he would have such an egomaniac on his hands, he could never use me for anything. And he just allowed adversity, adversity, adversity, adversity. Instead of giving me my dream, what he started doing was building my character and my dependency. And by the last third of my senior year, God began to open some doors and after a very unsuccessful, frustrating, quote, college career, I got a note in mail from a person I'd never heard of in my life that ended me up playing with a basketball team that traveled all over South America. And when I got on the team, I was shocked because the other guys were from UCLA and USC and Oregon, New Mexico State, and they were, you know, 7-1 and 6-11 and 6-10. I'm thinking, what am I doing on this team?

And I did the same thing the next summer and then the following winter all throughout the Orient, the Philippines. See, God longs to give you the desires of your heart. I got to play against Olympic teams all over the world and share Christ. But until the motives got right, God was not going to allow me to have the desires of my heart. You know, think about what you're praying application time. What are you praying for? I mean, even good things like that your mate will grow closer to Christ. Why are you praying it?

Even good things like that your kids will do well and that business will go well and finances will and you'll have an impact. Why are you praying it? Because, see, this isn't the first time I've dealt with this and it's not the last.

Probably you not either. In John 14, Jesus teaches us how to pray with the right motives. John 14 13, Jesus prays and He says, I will do whatever you ask in My name and then get this, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

Jesus' motivation in prayer was not self-fulfillment, a better self-image, a happier life, a bigger home, a nicer business, and a connected family. It was the glory of God. If you get any of those things, God bless you.

Don't think what a neat person I am, but they'll see who you really are. Your greatness and your power and your love and your mercy. If that's your motive, you're on praying ground. But you can pray a lot of biblical things and honestly praying for selfish reasons and you can have a kink in your hose. The greatest example in Scripture to me is Moses. Exodus 32 through 34. You ought to read it sometimes. It's a great.

And Moses is, you know, taking these people out of Egypt and they are rebellious, stiff-necked, and I mean, they have just pushed God to the limit and God says, Moses, step aside. I'm starting over. I'm going to clean this place out. I'm sick of these people. I'll start a new nation just with you.

No, I don't know about you, but I'd say, sounds good idea to me. Great, let's get rid of them and let's, you know. And you know what Moses said? Lord, Lord, what about your name? What are the Egyptians going to say? The Egyptians are going to say that God had enough power to take them out of Egypt, but the God of the universe didn't have enough power to lead them through the wilderness? Oh, no.

No. And Moses literally stands in the gap before God. He says, for your name's sake, for your reputation's sake, for your glory and reputation among all.

He said, if you're going to blot them out, you need to know I'm going to step right in with them and you blot me out too. Unselfish. God's glory. He coveted Christ's reputation. That's what God wants for us. Roadblock number three is sin in the heart or the life. The context of this passage, Isaiah 59 verses one through three, is that the nation of Israel was very religious. Very religious.

Going to the temple, doing all the right stuff, offering the sacrifices, but they weren't getting the answers to their prayers. And so they come to Isaiah and they say, you know, you know, maybe God's kind of winding down. You know, maybe he's tired. Maybe he's having a bad day. Maybe he's just not up to the job anymore. Because we pray and it's obvious that we're good and righteous people, but he just can't come through.

You know, maybe he's just, you know, maybe he just doesn't have what it takes anymore. And so Isaiah responds to that in verse one of Isaiah 59. You can almost hear Isaiah saying, hey, look, Buster, there's a problem here, but it ain't with God.

Trust me. His arm is strong to do whatever. His ears aren't hearing your prayers. It's not because he has a hearing problem. And in verse two he says, you want to know what the problem is? He says, but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.

And then he didn't leave it vague. Verse three, he gives him four examples. He says, for your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt, your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. The Scriptures teach that when there is sin in my life, when there's sin in my heart, this isn't reference to, you know, having a few ups and downs and struggles and failing here and there. I mean, we all have that. We're talking about God revealing this is wrong in your heart and your life and you say, tough.

I'm not changing this one. It's him showing you that you're selfish or there's an attitude toward another person or an unforgiving spirit or a moral issue and you say, I'm not changing. In fact, the principle here is in verse 18 of Psalm 66. It says, if I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. You might ask, why?

Why? You know, God's first and primary goal in your life on this whole planet is not to make you happy or successful or have a connected family or boost your self-esteem. His primary purpose on your journey through this planet is to make you like his son.

Period. As a byproduct of your relationship with him, your self-esteem will grow. They will be blessing you, have joy.

That's incredible. But his number one agenda for your life is to make you just like Jesus. Loving, holy, pure, compassionate, honest, a man or woman, of integrity. And so when you have an issue in your life that's unresolved and you pray for these things, God doesn't answer because what he wants to allow is some frustration to occur so that as you pray, your prayers will shift from the outward focus to asking the question, first, is this God's will? And then you check the scripture and say, yes. To where you and I would start asking, Lord, is there a kink in my hose anywhere?

Is there a short in the wire? Is there something you want to do in my life that I'm unaware of? For the first time we spoke to him, and as his children, we are given free access. Anytime. Anywhere.

But how does that actually work? In this series, you'll discover the steps to developing a dynamic prayer life, how to remove common roadblocks to answered prayer, and what it means to pray with confidence. For a limited time, the resources for and the MP3s are always free. For additional ordering and pricing details, visit livingontheedge.org or give us a call at 888-333-6003. Atlas Nurse taps special offers. Well Chip, you ended today's message urging believers to become more like Jesus and stop focusing on success or what makes us feel good. You know, unfortunately, many Christian organizations need to hear this lesson too. So often we hear stories of ministries using funds they receive in ways that weren't intended. How do we communicate with our listeners about what we do and where their gifts go? Well Dave, unfortunately, that is a reality.

I mean, from New Testament times for the last 2,000 years, there's always been people in the name of Jesus that basically use and abuse people, touch on their heartstrings, and the money doesn't go where they say it's gonna go. And so we wanna be transparent. We don't do an annual report. We actually do two reports a year.

And we ask people for very specific things and then we give a very specific report about this is what you gave, this is what we did, these were the results. And what I wanna remind you, as many of you read that report and that you gave to Living on the Edge, especially in the last six months, you're gonna see numbers that are astounding. I mean, they're humbling and astounding to us, but it's not what I did.

It's not what Living on the Edge did. It's what we did together. I mean, we responded globally and we responded directly in America and you're gonna see these astronomical responses in the midst of the COVID-19 and that is what we got to do together.

That's how the body works. And so right now, if you happen to be one of those people thinking, you know, this teaching seems to be helpful and I had no idea about what they're doing globally and resources they make, I'd really like to check Living on the Edge out before I make a decision to give. Let me encourage you to go to livingontheedge.org, one long word, livingontheedge.org slash ministry update.

And I think you'll see exactly what we do, what our goals were, the numbers are there. We want you to know what we do and why we do it. And then I would ask you to pray. And I don't know what God wants you to do, but I would ask you to read that and then say, Lord, do you want me to be a part of this ministry? And then sit quietly and listen for his voice. And then whatever he tells you to do, you do that. And if you do that, what I know, we'll have all that we need to do all God wants us to do. Thanks for taking that kind of time and being wise about the money that God has entrusted to you.

That's called being a good steward. Thanks, Chip. If God's been ministering to you through Living on the Edge and you want to get in on supporting the ministry, now would be the perfect time to join the team. Every gift will be doubled thanks to the generosity of a group of ministry partners. To send a gift, you can either call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go online to livingontheedge.org.

App listeners just tap donate. Thanks in advance for asking God what he would have you do and then partnering with us however he leads. Well now, here's Chip with his final thoughts about today's message. As we close today's program, I want you to know that if you're feeling overwhelmingly guilty, welcome to sort of the NFL of the Christian life. I don't know that there's any topic that when we really dig down deep into it that we don't feel more guilty and more inadequate than in the area of prayer. And I think sometimes we have some real misguided thinking about prayer, thinking that the longer you pray, the better you pray. And yet, I think if we're honest, all of us struggle in this area because it is a challenge.

It is a battleground. I mean, the enemy doesn't want us to pray. So let's get to the solution side. We know that number one, the reason we don't get answers or a roadblock is prayerlessness. We just don't pray. But what if it wasn't about trying harder? What if it was a warped view of God? I wanna say to you, I think the biggest breakthrough in my life in prayer was not me trying harder, setting a clock, I'm gonna pray longer, harder.

Somehow I'm really gonna do it this time. But it has been to see God as my Father, to see that He's approachable, to see that He loves me, to believe that He's not down on me, to just literally study the attributes and the characteristics of God. And the book and the series that we have here at Living on the Edge called The Real God is probably the journey that's helped me pray more than anything else. Because what I realize, it's just keeping in company with God. And yes, I have seasons of prayer in the morning, but I talk with Him all day. And that's what He wants for you.

He's not down on you. The second is praying with selfish or wrong motives. And I think here we have some misconceptions about what the whole purpose of prayer is. And so I think you pray with the wrong motives when you fail to see that the goal of prayer is for God's will to get accomplished, for God's name to be glorified. Now, we all struggle with that. And we're gonna struggle with that until the day we die. But I think when you can be open and honest and you're at a roadblock and you're praying and you're praying and something, there's not an answer, ask yourself. You, right now, listening to my voice, ask yourself, is my motive for me or is my motive really for God? Do I want this relationship to work out?

Do I want her to like me? Do I want this new job? Do I want my son to get into this school or make the traveling team or be first team or get the house remodeled? Is this really about honoring God or is this unconscious, oh God, you're the genie in the bottle, you're supposed to make my life work out? That's a hard one to face, but it's transformational when you do. And then third, is there sin in your life? And I think that's pretty self-explanatory, but I will end with this because we're gonna develop this more in our next broadcast. Sin is deceitful.

This is the kind of thing that when I'm not living the way I know I should, it just makes me not wanna get around God because I know the white hot light is going to expose my darkness and that's uncomfortable. You know, if you haven't downloaded the message notes, let me encourage you to do that. We wanna help you learn to really pray. You'll find the message notes Chip just mentioned in a couple of places. Go to livingontheedge.org and click the broadcasts tab.

App listeners tap fill in notes. Just before we close, I wanna give you a quick reminder about our mid-year match. If you're benefiting from the ministry of Living on the Edge, but aren't yet helping us get Chip's teaching out to others, there's never been a better time because between now and July 6th, every gift we receive will be matched dollar for dollar. If today's your day to join the team, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003. And let me thank you in advance for your generosity. Well, I hope you'll be with us again next time. And until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.