Why My Prayers Aren't Heard Part 2

This is Sam from the Masking Journey Podcast, and our goal with the podcast has helped you to try to find your way in this difficult world. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome back to Truth Network. I'm Will Hardy, and we are back again this week after having such a fantastic week last week, talking about unanswered prayer. And I'm Will Hardy, and we got Roy on the phone. Thanks, Bill.

Praise God, brother. How you doing? I'm doing great. I hope you're doing well today. I am.

Well, you know, last time when we left off, we couldn't finish getting that clip in. So we're going to start with that one today about when we hear people say we're all God's children, so my question comes back to them. Are we really all God's children? And does an unconverted person, God hears their prayers? Do they or don't they? Well, this is what Dr. Jeremiah have to say.

Now, let me be right up front with this. The Bible says that God does not hear and answer the prayers of those who do not belong to his family. Praying is a family exercise.

It belongs to those who are in the family of God. The only prayer that God hears from someone who's not a Christian is, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But even after we become members of the family, we begin to realize that sometimes when we pray, it doesn't seem like our prayers are working. Amen, Roy.

So that question is answered. The only prayer God hears is, Lord, save me, a sinner. You know, I use the example when we were talking about something similar to this in our Christian Fellowship group, and I was talking to the members and I said, you know, you have, you might have 20 kids on the playground playing, and all of the mothers over there may be congregating, talking amongst themselves, and all of a sudden, Little Timmy falls off the monkey bars and skins his knee. And all of a sudden, Little Timmy starts crying. Out of all of the chaos that's going on in that playground, that mother will know the sound of Little Timmy's voice.

You know, and so Little Timmy, even though he's crying, mother knows and hears that cry. See, so when Dr. Jeremiah talks about that family affair, that's what he's referring to. He's saying, look, you got to be in the family in order for God to hear from you. And if you are not part of the family, there are tons and tons of verses, Roy, in the Bible that we just don't even have time to examine, all of them. But we are enemies of God. That's what we are, because we don't know Him.

We're not part of that family. That's right. We shared that scripture last week, right, out of James, when it talks about that, that if you're not with Him, then you are enemies of Him.

That's right. If you're not with me, you're against me. That's what Jesus said, you know, told the disciples. Yeah, I'm sorry, Will, go ahead. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

No, no, you go right ahead, sir. No, so what we're saying is that if a person belongs to the family of God, then God hears that person's prayer, and so He won't answer anyone who's not part of the family except what Dr. Jeremiah said, Lord, help me, I'm a sinner, and I need to be saved. So, what happened... What's kind of cool, Will, is the, I'm sorry, a little bit later, what's kind of cool is that when he talks about the family, and I think he used the word, the family exercise, it's exclusive. Exactly. It's exclusive as a follower of Christ that you have that communication and relationship with the Father. People often say, well, I'm praying for you, and I'll pray for this, and you know that by their own admission that they're not followers of Christ, but yet they'll often say, I'll pray, or I am praying. And it's like, you know, you don't want to get into this conversation, but reality is at some point we have to tell them, look, I appreciate your prayers, but they're falling on deaf ears.

Absolutely. They're falling on deaf ears as we read in Scripture before. And, folks, what we're trying to get to you, and we're all learning and continue to be reminded is that, as we talked about in the last program, don't get yourself in a buffering zone in your communication with God. And that is where it's just sitting there, the prayers are not reaching him because of the various things, the sin in your life, and we won't get probably an opportunity to talk about it, but we'll talk just briefly here to say without compassion in your life. That is, that you're holding grudges against your brothers, or you're not being forgiving to others, and all the things that we know we need to do as followers of Christ. And Will's going to take us down through a couple of other points that Dr. Jeremiah has shared with us on this message.

And I think it's going to be really revealing for all of us. And see, the next one, Roy, is if we have an unstable mind. So if we're believing God for something over here, and God answered our prayer, oh, within hours, or within a few days, and it's like, wow, this prayer thing works. And then when it comes to something over here, and then we pray to God for it, and then all of a sudden we don't see anything, and so we pray some more, and we don't see anything, and we pray some more, and we don't see anything, and then we go, yep, see, this prayer thing don't work. We do it, you know, God answered me over here, but see, we don't come back to ourselves and say, why, is it me, is it something that's going on in my life is the reason why my prayers is hindered. An unstable mind, and of course, that's over there in James chapter one, verses six through eight, he says, if you're going to believe, believe in faith, don't waver.

Don't waver, because when you do waver, it's like you just tossed about, like a wave, you just tossed about, and you have no stability. And see, an unstable mind is another reason, Roy, why God won't answer the prayer. And he says a double-minded man, and that's unstable, he's unstable in all of his ways.

He's not grounded. You know, he's looking for God to bless him over here, and when God does that, then it's like, all right, God, but then over here, he doesn't see it right away like he did before, and it's like, well, there you go. You know, Will, as you were sharing that, and people in their mind, I just, one verse came back to mind, and we've talked about it before, about God not being mocked. And in Galatians 6, 7, it says, do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh from their flesh will reap destruction.

Whoever sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life. So if we think about that, if we're praying to God only in times of crisis, but yet we're living differently, you're basically mocking God, right? You're basically saying, okay, I hear you, God, but I'm going to control these areas of my life, but in Christ's time, I'm going to come to you. Well, in a sense, you're mocking God, because you're not following God's law, you're not following God's guidance and direction, and then you're expecting him to answer your prayers. And you know that he's not going to answer, he's not going to hear your prayers, so what are you doing? Knowing all these things and you go at it anyway, you're essentially mocking God. Exactly. And we see that, I think, through TV programs, Roy.

Oh, boy. We see people mocking God, we see, you know, things happening on the TV screen, and it's like this mockery, and God is watching, because his eyes is everywhere. Now, this next one, Roy, I think it can hit home with everybody, because the two I think that resonate with the most people is the one that we talked about, sin that's unconfessed, and then this one that we're about to talk about now, which is motives that are impure, or unrighteous motives. And he talked about this, and we even, in our congregation, we studied this piece of passage in detail, but it's over in Acts chapter 8, verses 19 through 24, and it talked about Simon the sorcerer, and how he went about bewitching the people of the Sumerian region. And while he was doing this, he saw Philip, and how people were flocking to him, and then all of a sudden, he saw when the disciples laid their hands on people that they received the Holy Spirit. And so he said, wow, I gotta have this power, because, you know, so he was power hungry.

If I get this power, then boy, I'll have people flocking after me, just like they're flocking after Philip. So again, his motive was impure. So then, God blessed through one of the apostles to say, you better repent of this thing. Repent of thy wickedness, and pray God, I perhaps that the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, for I perceive that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. So the apostle was saying, you're so deep and consumed with your sin that you can't see the work that God is doing through us so that God can get the glory, not us, whereas Simon, see, he wanted to get the glory himself.

Well, you know what was really sweet right there, Will, what happened next is that it appears that Simon came full circle, right? He said, pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me. So I think he recognized, at least it indicates potentially, he recognized that he was sinning in that respect and was asking them to pray on his behalf that nothing would happen to him, right? Yes, and you know, when I look at that, I ask myself the question, Simon, why you couldn't pray for yourself? Did you recognize, based on what the apostles told you, that you were indeed looking at things with the wrong motive? This is why God would not answer you, and so you needed someone to pray for you because he was so deep in sin. And I think you're right, Will, he may have been headed in that direction, but whether or not he achieved it, we don't know. Because I think the verse after that, the two apostles, they just kind of went on their way. You know, it didn't say that they prayed for them or anything like that. So we're coming up on another break, Roy, but this is so good that, you know, when folks listen and they wonder within themselves, God, why is my prayers not being answered? And we're giving you some reasons. We got Dr. Jeremiah with the message, and so we're coming back after the break. More of this yum-yum good stuff. There's Christian Church in Kernersville, 1130 North Main Street in Kernersville. They have a hard start at 7 o'clock and a hard stop at 8 o'clock.

First-time visitors eat for free. Join your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Oh, yes, we are back with Man Talk, and we're talking about when you pray, and listener, you know, you know, don't just admit it. Go ahead and admit it that when I get down on my knees and I pray to God for something and you have in the back of your mind, Lord, I don't hear an answer.

I don't see any results. That could be because of some of the things we're talking about on this show and last show, so if you missed last week's show, go back to Man Talk podcast and make sure you get the right one, because there's a bunch of Man Talks out there that are not biblical. They're definitely not holy, that's for sure. So make sure you go to the right one and listen to the podcast because it's a wealth of information, and I think it pulls us away from attempting to look at things from the perspective of the world. And before we get into this next one, Roy, I want to play this next clip from David Jeremiah, and I'm not even going to set this one up.

I'm just going to let you listen to it because I think it speaks for itself. James 4 verse 3 says, you ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Now let's just be honest about this, men and women, God is not the big genie in the sky. He is not the sugar daddy just waiting for you to come and tell him all of the fluffy little wonderful things you would like.

Maybe we do that when we're little kids, but grownups need to know better than that. God is not there in heaven just waiting for you to ping him so he can give you everything you ever dreamed of no matter what you've heard on television or on radio. See, and that's the problem, like we talked about before, Roy. Our problem is we want to try God to see materially if we could get from him what we ask of him, but we're going at it the wrong way. And of course, that's an unrighteous motive, you know, because just like we talked about, that's an unrighteous motive, even though he was speaking about prayers being amiss, your prayers are not answered because we are asking with the wrong mind and we're asking with the wrong heart. Yeah, and I was looking at that verse right now, some of the narrative in the study Bible behind 4-4 there, it says, You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God, which we've used before. But the narrative around this, and I've never quite looked at it like this, but it says those who are spiritually unfaithful, who love the world rather than God, for spiritual adultery. So that's what it's referring to, spiritual adultery, and I've never really looked at it like that, to be quite honest. And that's basically adultery being what? Unfaithfulness to your loved one, right? Amen. To the one you love, to the one you have union with, and the holiest of unions is with our Father, and if we put worldly things ahead of that, then we basically have committed adultery to that relationship.

What an analogy. Absolutely, Roy. That's beautiful. You know, because again, all of what we possess as born-again believers, it's because of God. And I think once we recognize everything we have, everything we know, every possession that we ever owned, it's all belonged to us, and it's given to us for His glory. Amen. So I want to play this last clip, and I want to get this one in before the show ends, when you hear folks say, I'm looking for God to say yes, and any other thing is unacceptable.

Well, listen to this last clip. When you pray, if the request is wrong, God says no. How many of you know no is an answer? We try to teach our kids that, but we don't like it when it comes back to us. Yes is the answer we want, but no is an answer, and I am so thankful for the times over my life as I look back over my shoulder when I have prayed for something, and God has said no.

I didn't like it at the time, but oh, do I see it now. And see, the reason why, Roy, is because God knows that if He gave it to us at the time, He knew what we would do to it or with it. So we didn't get it at the time we prayed is because we might simply not be ready to receive it. Right.

That's an excellent wheel. We might not be ready to receive it, and if we may be ready, maybe it's not His timing for us to have it, and He's just maturing us out just a little bit further. Exactly. And I think that's what sometimes we need to remind ourselves. Back to what we mentioned in the first show last week was that His ways are not our ways. His time is not our time.

And sometimes that's awfully hard, or most times for us, especially like we talked about in this culture, very, very hard for us to accept in this immediate gratification society that we live in here in the U.S. And Roy, what about brotherly conflict? We know we have brotherly conflict going on in the church all the time, and of course, He again gave us some verses, Mark 11, verses 25 and 26. Do you have that in front of you?

Give me about two seconds here. Mark 11? Yes, verses 25 and 26. I'll be right there with you, Mark 11, verses 25 and 26. And you know, prayer, I think when we look at it in terms of if we got conflict with someone, any type of conflict, that will hinder, again, your communication and prayer with God. So, you know, prayers that you don't pray, unconfessed sin, an unstable mind, a motive that's unrighteous, and now we're talking about this conflict or brotherly conflict. So if you have that within, you know, within the church, within your household, that will hinder your prayers. So you go to God, and based on Mark 11, you got it now? I do. Okay, well, let's read that for the listeners.

Mark 11, 25, and when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. And this particular version will get 26 footnoted. I don't know.

Let me grab a different version if I can here. So basically, Roy, though, what that's saying is it's like you go to your sink or your tub or your shower, and all of a sudden you got this standing water in it. You're showering, and the water is draining very, very slow. Well, it's plugged up.

It could be plugged up with anything. So the water can't get through because it's plugged. And see, the same way your prayers get hindered is because that plug, just like it's in your drain, it's because you have a conflict with a brother that you have not resolved.

That could be an issue on why your prayers are not being answered. Yeah, and verse 26 is, but if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. So see, forgiveness is the drain opener, if you will. Like you run that thing. The plumbers call it a snake.

You run that thing down the drain, and boy, he pushes through, he pushes through, he pushes through, and then he cranks it with the handle because he's trying to get that drain open. And see, forgiveness is that way of getting things back to God and your prayers not being hindered. Oh, it's such a blessing. I think we may be able to get this last one in here, Roy, and that's if you have an uncompassionate heart.

So if you are not looking at people, you're looking down at people. That's a way to keep your prayers from being hindered also. Because what it does is, if Jesus had compassion for us in that he's listening to our prayers, if we are part of his family, and if we have confessed our sins, and if we don't have brotherly conflict, and if we pray to God like we're supposed to be praying, and if we have a mind that is open to him so that we can receive the word of God. Not only just speak the word back, but be open to receiving. We got a couple more minutes here, Roy.

You want to inject something? Yeah, well, I want to give a verse, a scripture reference that he used right along with that. Proverbs 21, 13 says, So this is what it's telling us there. And by compassion, it means compassion in this particular sense. And that you have compassion on those less fortunate that you love like Jesus loved. Amen. And you know, when we give, Roy, to those who are less fortunate than us, how we give is just important as what we give.

Yes. Because, see, again, it goes back to that motive. If my motive is impure on why I'm giving, in other words, hey, get about 50, 60 people gathered around, okay, we got Joe here, and you know, Joe needs something, and I'm going to give $500 because Joe is in need.

Everybody get the cameras rolling, you know, let me give this check here to Joe. See, so if your motive is for you to see, others to see what you're doing, then again, that motive is impure. And you received your blessing in that moment.

It's basically, the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing, right? Amen. When you do that for everyone else's view, God knows exactly why you're doing it, and you have received all you're going to receive because of that. Amen. Well, we got the music playing, and listeners, if you're enjoying our new intro and outro, let us know. Send us a word via email or, you know, text, however you want to get it to us, because we are here wanting to give the gospel back to you so you can continue to grow. Amen.

Any last words, Roy? Just thank you for joining us. God bless, Will.

So glad to be paired up with you, brother. Amen. So we will see you all next time when we have another topic of interest. I want you all to go out there now and you think, think about why your prayers is not being answered. We gave you some good points today. Dr. Jeremiah, praise God. We thank God for him. And so we want to say to you, if you love the Lord, do what he says.

Don't compromise. Amen. We'll see you next time. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with a desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches, and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk.