Why Won't God Answer My Prayer?

So my family at all of our campuses, we just take a moment to celebrate what God is doing among our church and in our family members, family ministry specifically, the more than 80 that have professed faith in Christ this summer of our high school, middle school students, and continuing to grow.

Celebrating some of the baptisms this weekend at different ones of the ones of the campuses. We also want to take a moment and just a very heavy heart, grieve and pray for what's going on over in Central Asia, specifically Afghanistan. I know that as you've been paying attention to the news, you realize that what is going on over there is an unmitigated disaster. And we grieve what is happening to men and women and boys and girls made in the image of God who are no different than us. But we also know that there is a very small fledgling church there in Afghanistan. There is a small group of followers of Jesus that already in normal circumstances are fighting for survival and fighting against persecution.

And now with the Taliban taking over, are literally fighting for their lives. I've heard some of the most encouraging stories over the last week or so of believers there that are continuing to stand strong for the gospel in the midst of a dark place. You might know that we have people from the Summit Church that are in that region all around and countries all around Afghanistan who are right now ministering to some of the refugees and are seeking ways to be able to be a support and encouragement to what is happening. So I just wanted us to take a moment and to pray together for that. Pray for peace, but also for those that are seeking to minister to those that are there. So would you just right now, would you bow your heads again? And if you would, even if you're at home, if you would open up your hands, just in a posture of desperation and dependence, just right there in your lap, just open up your hands and let's join with brothers and sisters in Christ.

To one of them, it's like it's happening to you. And God, we are grieving for men and women who have trusted you as Savior and are now with no home and fearing for how they can survive, who are scared for their children. God, we are praying that you might bring peace.

People to a hope that is in Jesus Christ that is stronger than the grave. Lord Jesus, we are praying that what our enemy means for evil that you would overrule for good. The last thing, Lord Jesus, that you said to us before you left is you said all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And that means Jesus that you are Lord over the Taliban.

They do not call the shots. Why do the nation's rage? God, you are the one that is in charge and you have said that you are going to gather people from every tribe and tongue and nation. So Lord, we're asking that you cause what the enemy means for evil to turn it for good. We're asking God that you call men and women to you.

We're asking that you arrest the killing and stealing destructive powers of Satan and you turn this into an opportunity for life. God, strengthen the church, protect it there. God, strengthen summit members. God, strengthen those who are in the countries surrounding. God, give them words and give them comfort as they speak into this moment. We pray in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name and if your heart is united with these over there, would you say amen? Amen.

Amen. Well, Genesis 32, if you have your Bible this weekend, if you'd open it to Genesis 32 and Ruth Bell Graham's book, Prodigals and Those Who Loved Them. By the way, some of you asked last weekend about the book that I referenced.

I'll put it here on the screen. It's called Prayers for Your Children. It's by a local pastor named James Banks. I've got a few other books I'll be referencing today.

Instead of blowing me up on social media about what the names of these books were, not that I don't love to hear from you, I love to hear from you, but for your sake, we'll put them all out on summit social media right after service. So you can check there, particularly for you parents. Let me also suggest, in addition to the one I mentioned last week, Prayers for Your Children, a similar book called Prayers for Prodigals. Both of them are 90 days of prayer that you can pray for your kids. Prayers for Prodigals is particularly for them in their teenage years.

Even if you're like, well, my teenage son or daughter doesn't happen to be a prodigal, I promise you they're flirting with it. So that book is a great one just to pray scripture over your kids. It's been a great help to Veronica and me during these years.

Then there's one I'll put out there called Come Back Barbara. It's by a pastor named Jack Miller, who is one of the godliest pastors that I've ever read, who himself and his family had a prodigal daughter. He writes about how God overcomes your mistakes and deficiencies as parents and how he works in your life in the process, sometimes showing you that you are every bit the prodigal that your kid, the kid that you're praying for is. Of course, there's my new book, Just Ask, which just came out and is available at any of our campuses. If any of you are interested in any of those books, you can check out on our social media channels later for some things I would commend to you. Well, again, in her book, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, Ruth Bell Graham, Billy Graham's wife, tells the story of waking up in the middle of the night, worried for one of her children.

I don't know if you know this, but Billy and Ruth Graham, who arguably were two of the most significant Christians of the 20th century, had prodigals in their family, most notoriously, their oldest son, Franklin, who for many years ran from God hard. She says, She said it came into my mind like an electric shock. Instantly, I was wide awake.

I knew there would be no more sleep for me for the rest of the night. So I lay there and I prayed for the one who was trying hard to run from God. She says, Start studying the promises.

That might be our theme for this morning. Quit studying the problems and start studying the promises because that's where true tenacity in prayer is inspired. The Bible, I have told you, is a book of more than 3,000 different promises.

An effective prayer begins with unearthing each of these promises one by one and praying them back to God. We say you should not merely read the Bible. Read your way through the Bible.

You should pray your way through the Bible. Well, today I want to talk about wrestling with God in prayer and refusing to give up. We are going to use one of my favorite Old Testament stories, and that is the story of Jacob wrestling with God, recorded in Genesis 32. As we turn there, let me just point out to you before we get to Genesis 32 that one of the most predominant themes in Jesus' teaching on prayer was the need to persist, to cling to the promises, to wrestle with God, and to refuse to give up. It was so central that Luke summarized one of Jesus' parables this way, and I'm pointing this out before Genesis 32 because I don't want you to write off Genesis 32 today as just some weird Old Testament story that was kind of bizarre and is just sort of a one-off. This was a dominant theme in Jesus' teaching. Here's how Luke summarized one of Jesus' parables. He told them this parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. This is what he was trying to teach him.

You've got to pray and not give up. To illustrate this, he tells a story about a widow who needs a judge to give her justice, but the judge ignores her because she doesn't have enough money to hire a lawyer, and he's kind of a jerk who doesn't really care about doing the right thing just because it's the right thing. And so Jesus says, this woman, because she cannot get justice, camps outside of the judge's house, and every time this judge goes anywhere, to work, to the grocery store, to the gym, she pesters him about her need.

Watch this. Jesus says, for a while, this judge was unwilling, but later he said to himself, even though I don't fear God or respect people, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, she won't leave me alone, I'll give her justice so that she doesn't wear me out by her persistent coming. And then Jesus says, quite unbelievably, this is how you should pray to God. Now, his point, of course, is not to compare God to an unjust judge.

His point is to contrast him with one. And he is saying if even an unjust judge will respond to persistence, how much more will your heavenly father? See, in contrast to this poor widow, you and I have a heavenly father who loves to hear from us. He's not an unjust judge who cares neither for God or for us. He is so in touch with us, in fact, that he knows when a hair falls from our heads and values us so much that he sent his son to die for us.

But some blessings, even in that kind of relationship, Jesus says, some blessings he grants only through persistence and asking. Today, we're going to look at one of the clearest pictures of that in the whole Bible. It is the story of Jacob wrestling with God. By the way, I've always heard that everything that you really need to know about God can be found in the book of Genesis. Every core doctrine, every beautiful truth, every essential Christian practice, it's all in the book of Genesis, and the rest of the Bible just basically expands on the themes that get introduced in this first book. That is certainly true of what we're going to look at today. Prayer is a major, major theme in the book of Genesis. It appears in the most dramatic of ways again and again. We saw it last week when we looked at Genesis 18 and 19 about Abraham and Lot.

Don't miss the significance of this. In the very first book of the Bible, the book is going to lay out the foundation for all of the rest of the books and everything else that's taught. God establishes the primacy and the agency of prayer and how he does his work on earth. Genesis 32, Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, is in quite a pickle in Genesis 32. His brother Esau is about to kill him, and this is the culmination of a 30-year grudge. Let me explain for a moment how he got there.

I'll have to back up a few chapters, start in chapter 27, and let me walk you up to Genesis 32. Here's how he got there. Jacob had been a jerk for most of his life.

That's how he got there. Most significantly, he cheated his twin brother Esau out of the birthright. The birthright in those days was the right to officially carry on the family name.

It usually came with upwards of two-thirds of the father's wealth, and it always went to the oldest son. Esau and Jacob were twins, but Esau was older by a couple of minutes. Here's how it went down, how Jacob got the birthright. Esau and Jacob, though they were twins, were very, very different.

Esau was tough. He was macho. He was the man's man kind of guy. The text tells us that he was hairy, and he liked to hunt. Today, he would be the kind of guy probably who loves football, drives a Ford Raptor, and has hair poking out the top of his shirt. The text tells us that Jacob, by contrast, had smooth skin, and he liked to cook, which meant he was more of an indoorsy kind of guy.

Today, he'd probably be the kind of guy who watches The Bachelor, drives a Mini Cooper, and has a Pinterest account. All right, so you got the contrast. Well, one day when they were teenagers, Esau comes in from hunting, and he's powerful hungry. Jacob had just finished brewing up a pot of stew, and so Esau asked him if he could have a bowl of stew.

Jacob, who is very crafty, sensing a moment of opportunity, says, sure, I'll trade you something for it. Esau said, like what? Jacob says, how about your birthright, which is an insane ask. But Esau, being a teenager and thinking impulsively, as teenagers are prone to do, not having a well-developed frontal cortex and all, and being hangry on top of that, said, well, sure, I mean, what good is my birthright if I die of hunger right now?

It's not going to do me any good then. So they shook on it, and Jacob says, no takebacks, and Esau effectively relinquishes his birthright. Well, a few years pass by, and their dad, Isaac, is about to die. And so Isaac, who probably did not know anything about this deal and would have ignored it as a stupid teenager thing if he had known, wants to formally confer the blessing onto Esau. So we ask Esau to go out and hunt him up some venison and bring it back and prepare it so they can eat together, and he can formally confer the blessing of the birthright onto him. And so Esau leaves to go hunt.

Now Isaac, by this point, is old. He can barely see or hear anymore, so Jacob thinks, here's my chance. Now one thing I forgot to tell you, Esau was Isaac's favorite of the twins, and Jacob was his mama Rebecca's favorite.

So Jacob runs and gets his mama Rebecca's help while Esau is away hunting. And she says, Genesis 27, verse 8, now my son, listen to me and do exactly what I tell you. Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father, the kind he loves. I'll make it just the way he likes it.

Then take him to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. Then Rebecca, verse 15, took the best clothes of her older son Esau. She went to his closet, got some of his favorite outfits, and had her younger son Jacob put them on. Then, verse 16, she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck.

Now to be honest, I'm not sure what that says about Esau, that to look and smell like him, you would tie pieces of a dead goat to your neck and arms. But at any rate, verse 17, she then hands the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob. Jacob takes it back into Isaac, disguises his voice, talks really deeply, and presents himself as Esau.

Well somehow, miracle of miracles, they pull it off. And Isaac mistakenly confers the blessing onto Jacob. And in those days, once a blessing of the birthright had been formally bestowed, you couldn't take it back. So when Esau gets home and he finds out Jacob has heisted him, he vows to kill Jacob. Well, Jacob is scared of Esau anyway, and so he flees, and he is gone for 30 years.

Now, Jacob turns out to be pretty resourceful, and through a combination of hard work and a lot more trickery, he becomes really, really wealthy. His name, Jacob, by the way, literally means in Hebrew, Grasper. And the reason he got that name was because when he and his brother were coming out of Rebekah's womb, Esau, like I told you, came out first. But it says that when Esau came out first, Jacob's little hand came out right after Esau left the womb and grabbed ahold of his heel as if to say, oh no, get back in here, I wanted to come out first.

So his parents called him Grasper. But the name Jacob can also mean deceiver. And so those two words, Grasper and deceiver, pretty well sum up Jacob's life.

And if your name is Jacob this morning, I sincerely apologize for bringing that out right now. But at any rate, somewhere during those 30 years that he's gone, God begins to work in Jacob's life. And in chapter 31, God appears to Jacob, 31 verse 3, and says, go back to the land of your ancestors and your family, and I will be with you. Now, to make a long story really short, Jacob gets right with God, and so he obeys. And so he starts this long journey home. But as Jacob is getting close to his birthplace, a place, remember, that he hadn't been for over 30 years, he starts to wonder, he starts to wonder what Esau is going to say. Is Esau still met?

Maybe he's forgotten about the whole thing. And suddenly he gets word that Esau has come out to greet him with 400 armed men. Which is not the kind of group that you bring for a welcome party.

It's the kind of group that you bring for a massacre. And so clearly Jacob understands Esau has not forgotten, and so Jacob plunges into despair. And so he prays, Genesis 32 verse 9, O God, O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good. By the way, you hear what he's doing? You see it?

I hope I've taught you to recognize this. You see what he's doing? He's holding God's words back up in front of God. God, you said, you said, you said, return to your homeland and I will do you good. Verse 10, I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, from the hand of Esau, just in case you forgot who my brother was. For I fear him that he may come and attack me. Verse 12, but you said, you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

You see the second time? He's holding God's word back up in front of him. He's saying, God, you promised you said this. Jacob keeps praying to God like this all through the night. Sometime in the middle of the night, verse 24, a man, notice the capitalization by the way, a man came and wrestled with Jacob until dawn. When the man saw that he could not win the match with Jacob, he touched Jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.

God's signature finishing move is the hip flick. Do you know how painful that would have been? How many of you have had a finger pulled out of joint or a shoulder pulled out of joint? Raise your hand if that's ever happened to you. I've never had it happen.

I don't want it to happen because people that have had that happen say it's unbelievably painful. And the largest joint in your body is your hip and this guy just touches it with his finger and knocks it out of the joint. So the question you're supposed to ask is, if this strange man has that kind of power, how in the world did he lose the wrestling match to Jacob, right?

Verse 26, and the man said, let me go, for it is dawn. Again, this guy is so powerful, he can just touch Jacob's hip and knock it out of the socket, but he's pinned and he has to ask permission to leave? What in the world is going on here? But Jacob panted. I will not let you go unless you bless me.

You all imagine how much pain Jacob is in. His hip is out of socket, but he won't let go. I won't let you go. I've got no other alternatives.

I'm desperate. I won't let you go until you bless me. Verse 27, my favorite part of this whole story. What is your name? The man asked. He replied, Jacob.

Okay, a little sidebar. How do you wrestle with somebody all night long and not even know their name? Was this heavenly man just out looking for a random fight when he comes across Jacob?

He says, hey, pretty boy, you'll do. And so they beat each other up all night and I was like, hey, who are you anyway? Is that really what's going on?

No, of course that's not what's going on. He already knows Jacob's name. He just wants Jacob to say his name. Say your name. My name is Jacob.

It means liar and deceiver. Verse 28, your name will no longer be Jacob. The man told him, it is now Israel. Which means literally you have wrestled with God and prevailed because, he says, you have struggled with God and men and have won. Verse 29, and what is your name? Jacob asked him.

Why do you ask? The man replied. Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you just snapped my hip socket out of joint and changed my birth name to a different one. And it would be helpful if when I'm telling this story later, I could at least tell people who you were.

That's why. Verse 29, the man never answers. But the man blessed Jacob there. In the next few verses, Jacob is going to go on to meet Esau and God changes Esau's heart when Esau sees his brother.

Instead of killing him, his heart melts and he lays down his weapons and he runs to embrace him and they stand there weeping in each other's arms for a long time. Jacob goes on from this moment not only to be reconciled to his brother but also to father the Jewish nation. Jacob's 12 sons are going to become the 12 tribes of Israel and from one of those tribes, the tribe of Judah, Jesus himself would be born.

Now, so many questions. First, who is this strange man that's wrestling with Jacob? Many commentators say it was an angel. Yes, I guess there's some to that theory.

I don't know why he'd have to leave at dawn. He's not a vampire so I'm not really sure what that all means. But most theologians believe it is God himself because of what Jacob says in verse 30. Jacob named the place Peniel.

Peniel, which means face of God. For he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared. So Jacob seems to think that it's God taking a human body. So then the question becomes, if Jacob is wrestling with God, how does God not win? Again, the guy is clearly strong enough that he can whip Jacob whenever he wants. He can, with the flick of his finger, knock Jacob's hip socket out of joint. Yet he lets himself be pinned by Jacob. And what you see is that God is teaching you something important about prevailing with God in prayer. And that is that many of the blessings of God are released into our lives only through persistent, unrelenting prayer. He wants you to pin him, so to speak.

But see, that raises another question. God had clearly promised those blessings to Jacob. Jacob quotes him twice. God had told Jacob, go back home and I'll bless you. So why does Jacob have to wrestle all night with God to obtain the blessing?

Write this down. Many of the blessings of God are released into our lives only through persistent, unrelenting wrestling prayer. Yes, God had promised this blessing to Jacob, yet Jacob had to wrestle all night with God to get it.

And only after a full night of wrestling does God let you pin him and obtain the blessing. Y'all, as a pastor, I will tell you, I find that people don't have a problem with praying. Almost every Christian I know prays. The problem is when they don't see a lot of immediate answers for the things they're praying for, and so they give up, assuming that prayer doesn't work. The problem is not a prayer problem, it is a persistence problem, and this text addresses that. Do y'all remember Martin Luther's definition of prayer that I gave you a few weeks ago? Effective prayer means catching God in his words, Luther said.

Well, this story's gonna add another layer to that, another dimension. Sometimes you wrestle with God for a long time to get those blessings. Now, please be clear, and don't be confused. I'm not talking here about salvation. I'm not talking about forgiveness. I'm not talking about the filling of the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about wisdom. Scripture promises that God will give you those blessings the first time you ask for them, right? What we're talking about is the outpouring, the in-breaking of God's goodness into some area of your life, a broken relationship, a career choice, a ministry opportunity.

That's what we're talking about. Now, you hear that and you ask, you say, well, I don't get why. Why does God do it that way? And I always turn here to the words of Martin Luther. In fact, I quoted them a few weeks ago to you, who compares it to the father who has something in his hand that his kid wants, but he won't let it go at first to test the child's resolve, to see how badly his kid wants it.

And so the father resists, the kid's trying to pull it out of his hand, and he's resisting to test his kid's strength and to test the kid's resolve to get it. And God does that with us when we pray, Luther says. He holds the blessing in his hand as we wrestle with him, and he asks, how desperate are you for this? Do you really believe that I'm the only one who can give it? How quickly are you gonna give up on me? Do you really believe that I'm good?

Do you really trust me? By the way, a few weeks ago, I asked you, I was like, why does God sometimes make us persist in asking and not just give us what we ask for the first time we ask it? And I kind of paused a minute for dramatic effect, and I was like, I don't know.

And you laughed, and that's partially true. I don't know all the specific reasons in each situation that God delays, but I do know, y'all, I do know. I do know based on stories like Jacob's. I do know what his purpose is for us in the waiting.

And I know that because scripture tells us he does so to purify and to perfect our faith. He is saying, do you really trust me? Do you really believe that I'm good? Do you really believe that I'm the only one who can give this, or are you already hatching a plan B in your head in case I'm not really good and don't come through? And if I delay, are you gonna just give up and you assume that I don't care or even that I don't exist? You see, our belief in the goodness of God is measured by how long we will persist in prayer when the answer does not come.

That's your measure of the belief, your belief in the goodness of God. How long will you persist in prayer when the answer doesn't come? Write this down, real prayer. Real prayer, the kind that comes from your soul. The kind that Jacob prayed. The kind that just comes up as a groan that always leaves you with a wound.

In fact, that's the sign that you've started to pray that way. A wound like Jacob received. A wound where God drives you to the end of yourself, where you've exhausted all your abilities and you've lost any confidence that you can do anything and you're looking out saying, God, there's 400 armed men. I got no answer for that. I got nowhere to run. I got nowhere to turn. My only hope is you.

And from that point onward, you're gonna walk for the rest of your life with a limp. Have you been there? Maybe you're there right now. You feel desperate about something. Something you wanna change. Some change you wanna see in your life. Some change you need to see in somebody else's life.

Some change in the situation and you despair. And at some point, you have found yourself screaming at God by yourself in your car and maybe at home when nobody else is there or out on the wall and you're screaming at God, I can't do this, I don't have anything else. You're the only one. You're the only one who can do this. You're the only one who can give this blessing. And I won't let you go because I got no other alternatives. I won't let you go until you bless me because I know you're good and I got nowhere else to turn. And I promise you, from that point onward, you're gonna spend the rest of your life walking with a limp, reminding you of when God brought you to that point of despair and you clung to him because you had no other alternative. It is usually, Spurgeon said, Charles Spurgeon said, it is usually when you have no words and you can only groan in prayer. That's when you've really started to pray and you've offered your best prayer, your best prayer. This is what the Bible teaches us effective prayer looks like.

We press through what looks like God's unwillingness to lay hold of his promises. And again, friend, don't just think this is a one-off teaching from the book of Genesis, like I'm just taking some story and getting creative and capitalize on it and say, oh, this is a metaphor for prayer. Yo, I could use example after example after example from the life of Jesus. I've already shown you how he taught this principle of persistence in some of his parables. But you're gonna see the same pattern play out again and again in how he bestows his miracles, right?

I mean, to give you one, Mark 7, Syrophoenician woman, a Gentile, comes to Jesus to get healing for a daughter. And Jesus responds with what is, without question, the rudest thing in the Bible. What's he say, woman? It is not right to take the bread intended for children and to give it to dogs. He called the woman a dog. I've heard commentators say, well, you know, the word he used actually means a little dog like puppy. Yeah, but it still means dog. Right?

And in no culture at any time has it ever been flattering to call a woman a dog. What's he doing? What's he doing? He's resisting her. What does she do? She comes back. She presses back. She says, I'll see your arm move and I'm gonna put the figure four on you. Yeah, Lord.

But in a rich man's house there's so much food on the table that some of it tumbles off and even little dogs get to eat. That's her version of wrestling. Hey, Jesus, you're acting like you're trying to get away, but I won't let you go until you bless me because my daughter's got no alternative. What happens? Jesus stops. He says, wow. I've never seen faith like that anywhere in Israel. By the way, don't miss the use of the word Israel. That was the kind of faith Israel showed. And he's looking at this group of people saying, all these people that are essentially in church, he says, none of y'all pray that way. I haven't seen faith like that, but this woman knows that Iowa looks like resistance.

It's not actually resistance. And he gives her the blessing. Think of it like this. Instead of doing what Jesus originally said he would do, Jesus did what the woman believed he could and would do. Jim Cymbala, who's pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, wrote one, maybe one of the best books on prayer I've ever read called Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. He said, the great battle of our spiritual lives is will you believe. It's not will you try harder. It's not can you make yourself worthy. It is squarely a matter of believing that God will do what only God can do. And then you pray and you pray and you wrestle and don't give up until God gives the blessing. I know I'm talking to a lot of people this weekend who are waiting on God to answer some prayer and you're sitting here thinking, I don't know why.

It seems like a good thing. I don't feel like I'm asking selfishly. Why hasn't God answered my prayer?

It's a fair question. For some of you, it's led you to doubt, quite honestly, God's goodness or to wonder if he even exists. So I want to end this message by giving you four reasons. Glean from this story for why God may not be answering your prayer or why at least you feel like he's not answering your prayer. I want you to consider these, okay.

They won't all apply to you, but maybe one or two of them will. Number one, number one reason you may not sense him answering your prayer like you think he should be answering. Number one, maybe you're not yet pursuing his will. Hear me out. It is significant that this wrestling match does not happen until Jacob had stopped his life of swindling and was on his way back to the promised land.

Right? God will not pour blessing into your life when you are living in open rebellion to him. How do I know that? Because the psalmist says very plainly, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Peter says to husbands that if you husbands are mistreating your wives, if you're not respecting them, if you're not honoring them, if you're not putting their needs and wants before your own, then your prayers, 1 Peter 3.7, are gonna be hindered. And for some of you men, that's why God has not answered a prayer since you got married.

All the wives are like, mm-hmm, that's right, amen, okay. Multiple other places where Jesus says open sin cuts us off from the blessing of God. Listen, if you have not surrendered yourself to the lordship of Jesus this morning, God puts himself under no obligation to hear your prayers. You're not his child. And so none, none of the promises of prayer are yours. I don't say that to be mean.

In fact, the opposite of mean. You can become God's child right now, today, just by repenting of your sin and receiving this free offer to forgive and save you. He offers that to you. But see, the point is, until you do that, none of these promises of prayer are yours. Now maybe, maybe you've done that. You're like, well, I'm a Christian, I've received Christ. But maybe still, right now this weekend, you're living with some kind of unconfessed, willful sin. Again, if I regard iniquity in my heart, in other words, if there's something that God has told me I shouldn't be doing, but I'm kinda doing it anyway, thinking it won't be that big of a deal, the Lord will not hear me. Your sin has placed a block between you and God that scripture says may keep your prayer from being answered. Is that true in your life this morning?

Is the Holy Spirit putting his finger on something in your life right now? If so, then you need to stop praying and start repenting. Now, I wanna give one caveat here, because specifically, in the case of children who have walked away from God, many parents assume that it's some sin in their lives that made their child wonder.

I talk to parents like this all the time. The author of Prayers for Prodigals says this. He said, you know, when we parents are not getting an answer to our prayers to bring our prodigal children back, we look for somebody to blame, right?

A lot of times we'll turn to somebody else, it's this person's fault, these friends' fault. He said, but we don't look very far. More than one parent of a prodigal son or daughter has found themselves looking in the mirror and asking, is God punishing me through my child for something I did in the past? The author says emphatically, no. We know that because Ezekiel 18 says clearly that in the new covenant, God will not punish the children for the sins of the father. The author says a better explanation for what's happening would be more John 9, when the disciples encounter a man who's been born blind from birth and they ask Jesus if he's blind because of his sin or his parents' sin. And Jesus says very simply, verse three, neither this man nor his parents sinned. This came about so that God's works might be displayed in him. In other words, this happened not because God is punishing somebody for some sin, but he's created a situation where he gets to show off his power and grace.

So in other words, parents, hear me. It's not your fault. The father in Jesus' story of the prodigal son had not done anything wrong, per se. There is nothing in Jesus' story that indicates that this young prodigal son left because of failures in the father or deficiencies in his parenting.

You can't blame yourself. They get to make their own decisions. God created, after all, he created only two humans directly, Adam and Eve, and both of them rebelled. And it's not because God was a deficient father.

They are not being punished for your failures. God has just created a situation where you gotta press into his grace. He's created a situation where you got nothing left to do except grab hold of God and say, I can't let you go until you bless me.

The wrong thing to do in the situation of a prodigal is to blame yourself. The right thing to do is pray that God's great works would be displayed in him or her. But to return to the main point, if you're not experiencing an answer to prayer, you should at least ask, am I pursuing God's will in all the ways that I know how? Right now, this morning, are you doing everything you know God told you to do? Any past sins, Jesus' blood is covered so he's not paying you back for those. But right now, are you following his will?

And once you're satisfied that you are, well then you can proceed to number two. Number two, maybe he has a better plan. Maybe he's got a better plan. We have to at least acknowledge that with our limited knowledge, we can't know everything, and sometimes God overrules us in love. Every parent understands this.

Sometimes I overrule my kids' request of me, not despite my lack of love for them, but because of my love for them. Right now, I've got to get something for my 16-year-old to drive. Naturally, she wants a self-driving Tesla. Instead, I got her a Honda Accord with a stick shift. Now, she's like, Dad, why am I having to learn to drive a stick? This is so hard. And I say, I know, I know. But A, I think this is actually a valuable skill for you to have.

B, this will help remove the temptation to have the phone in your hand when you drive. I'm giving her something different because I have a better plan and I think my plan is better. Now, I'm not saying that I'm infinitely wise.

Maybe time will tell my decision wasn't the right one. But I can tell you the wisdom of our Heavenly Father is always better. So Jesus teaches us to begin every single prayer we pray by saying, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. No less than the apostle Paul was told by God in answer to a persistent prayer. God says to Paul, hey, Paul, stop praying that.

I'm not gonna remove this thorn from your flesh like you're asking because I've got a better plan. And my grace is gonna be sufficient for you in this affliction, so I know this is what you want, but I got a better plan. Quite often, God is up to something better in our lives that we just can't see yet. We love around here the way Tim Keller summarizes it. Look, God will either give us what we ask for in prayer or He will give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything that He knows. God will either give you what you're asking for.

He's like, but I actually knew. If you knew what I knew, this is what you'd ask for. Let me give you one biblical example really quickly and there are hundreds I could pull from. But this is a new one for me, so let me share it with you. You remember the story in Luke 1 where Zechariah is in the temple and suddenly Gabriel the angel appears to him and tells him he's gonna have a son, John the Baptist, who's gonna announce the coming of the Messiah.

Yo, I saw something in that story the other day I've literally never seen before and I couldn't believe I'd never seen it. When the angel first appears to Zechariah, do you know the first thing he says? Luke 1, 13. Don't be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. What prayer? Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will name his name John. A prayer to get pregnant. The first thing the angel says is, hey, I'm here because God heard your prayer.

Here's the thing. How long ago had Zechariah stop praying that prayer? I ask because the text says that Zechariah and Elizabeth were, in Hebrew, very old. Not just old, very old. Ancient, as in so old that an all-nighter for Zechariah meant not getting up to go to the bathroom, right? Or so old that if you said something to Zechariah about getting lucky, he just assumed you meant finding a good parking spot at the grocery store. That kind of old.

You follow me? Like late 70s, early 80s, kind of old is what commentators say. I can see Zechariah and Elizabeth praying to get pregnant into their 40s. Maybe they were even bold and audacious enough to ask God for that gift into their 50s. Maybe.

Now she's in her mid to late 70s. That's a prayer they have long ago. Stop praying. They just assumed that God had said no or that he wasn't listening. But the first thing the angel says when he shows up, the first thing is, no, no, no, God heard you.

He's had a better plan. One you had to wait for. And one you couldn't have comprehended had he tried to explain it to you. Friend, what if, what if, what if when we get to heaven we see there was something like this for every supposed unanswered prayer in our lives? Again, Ruth Bell Graham, when I am dealing with an all-powerful, all-knowing God, I as a mere mortal must offer my petitions not only with persistence but also with patience. Someday I'll know why. Number three. Number three, maybe you're approaching God without confidence in his goodness.

Let me tell you why I share this one. James 1.5, Jesus' half-brother James says, now look, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God. And hey, good news, God will give generously.

Oh, he just poured out. And ungrudgingly, my favorite word in the verse, ungrudgingly means he doesn't do it while pointing a finger at you, criticizing you for being so dumb to get yourself in a situation where you needed that wisdom. He's not bringing up your past sins. He's already forgiven those in Jesus. It's not gonna be any condemnation. Just ask, and your heavenly Father will give it to you.

Watch, what's this? But let him ask in faith, without doubting, for the doubter is like the surging sea driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways. In other words, you come to God, you need wisdom, you gotta believe that he's good and that he will provide it.

You have to be certain of his goodness and his willingness. This is not name it, claim it theology all. Name it, claim it theology is when you believe you know better than God what you need and he's obligated to give it to you. And God's like a pinata in faith and prayer like a whacking stick and if you whack God hard enough, then he's just gonna give you whatever candy you're asking for. That's not what James is talking about. James is talking about approaching God with certainty about his character.

Certainty about his promise of goodness. Jesus, I know you're good, I know it. Man, I know you're listening. You're just like I see you in the gospels. You're just as attentive. You're just as moved with compassion. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You know when a hair falls out of my head. You know every thought before I have it. You have intended good for me. I'm coming with that confidence. I believe James' promise about asking for wisdom would apply to anything we ask for because he says you will receive anything from God, right? He's talking about more than just wisdom. Anything you ask God for, you gotta be certain of the goodness and character of Jesus or like James said, you're not gonna receive anything from him.

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. So let us say as we pray, Jesus, I know you're good. I know it.

I know you're listening and I know you're able to help. Just like I see you in the gospels. Remember, the great battle of our spiritual lives is will you believe? Not will you try harder or be worthy, but will you believe?

Which leaves me the last one, number four. Maybe you've not yet prayed long enough. Maybe you've not yet prayed long enough.

Maybe there's a little bit more of the night of wrestling ahead. Don't give up, friend. Don't give up. Hold on to that heavenly man. Hold on and say with Jacob, I am not gonna let you go because I got no other alternatives and I can't let you go until you bless me.

Remember, Martin Luther's definition of effective prayer, effective prayer, catching Christ in his words and then wrestling with him until he fulfills it. Hold on to God. Hold on to him. Cling to him in desperation through the darkest hour of the night saying, God, why aren't you doing this yet? God, you promised, Lord. You promised good to me.

My hope in you is secure. You said surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. You said that I'll see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. You said that the children of the righteous will be blessed. You said that you would use me as a blessing and not a curse. You said you would use me to point other people to your goodness. God, I'm believing what you said. God, I'm not letting you go because you're the only one who can fulfill this. Listen to me, friend. Listen, God feeling distant from you is just an illusion.

It's just an illusion. He is testing your faith in his goodness. He's seeing if you're gonna give up on him.

He's seeing if you're gonna turn away from him to something else or maybe just conclude he doesn't exist. And listen, he's giving you a wound. He's giving you a wound at the place of your brazen, foolish self-confidence. But be honest, that foolish self-confidence, that independent streak, is what caused you to wander into a life of grasping and deceiving. And through this time of waiting on him in desperation, he's gonna create in you a limp, a limp where you learn to lean on his strength and not yours anymore. And for the rest of your life, I promise you, you're gonna look back and say that's the most blessed wound that I've ever received.

Before God uses a man greatly, you'll always hurt him very deeply because he's got to create that wound where you lean on him and you teach other people that salvation is not found. My goodness, my abilities is not found in my parenting. It's not found in my persuasion.

I don't know. My hope is in his goodness and my limp is gonna show you that. Let me tell you about my place of brokenness.

Let me tell you what God did in it. So see, press on, my friends. Press on because some answers are only given after a night of painful wrestling. Don't give up.

Don't give up after all. After all, you're praying to the God who went through the darkness of Gethsemane and through the torture of Golgotha for you. I can assure you he's listening. If he didn't turn his back on you when sin was crushing the life out of him, he's not gonna close his ear to you now that you are his child. You feel like he doesn't care about your broken marriage? You feel like he doesn't care about your unsaved husband? You feel like he doesn't care about your wayward child? He doesn't care about your lost friends or your broken body? He cares.

The distance is just an illusion. Keep praying. Keep praying. And if you push with persistence and you get past the resistance, what you'll find is not indifference.

What you'll find is intimacy. Y'all, here's a story I tell and just ask. So the 19th century evangelist and orphanage founder George Mueller. George Mueller committed to pray every day for five young men to be saved, five teenagers, two of which were one of his best friend's high school sons. He prayed for 18 months before the first one of those five came to Christ, which is a long time.

Think about it. Every day pray, and that's 540 days. Every day for over 500 days, you pray the exact same thing without seeing an answer. Prayed for 18 months. The first young man got saved. When he got saved, George Mueller wrote in his journal that he praised God for that one. He said, but there's four more left, so I'm gonna keep praying. He prayed every day for another five years. The second one came to Christ. He said, I kept praying another six years.

The third one came to Christ. He kept praying every day for 36 years. Mueller was now a very old man, right, and he wrote in his journal right before he died of all the great ways God had answered prayers, but he said there's two still that are unconverted of these five young men, and I will not stop praying until my dying breath. I will pray for them every day. He said, I continue to hope in God, and I pray on. And then he died. Just a couple of years after his death, though, those final two, the sons of his friend, both came to faith in Christ. George Mueller had prayed daily for those two young men for almost 45 years. Friend, don't give up.

Jesus told these parables so that you would always pray and never lose heart. I have a sense that we have some people here this morning that you're about to give up. Don't stop. Don't give up.

Don't ever give up. I think there's some people this weekend that this is right where you are. So here's how we're gonna end our service. I'm gonna invite up some of our prayer counselors at every campus. If you're at home, you can do this. One of the things we love about being together is we can do things like this, but you can just put what you need to pray for there in the chat, but I'm gonna ask for prayer counselors will come up right now at all campuses.

I'm gonna give three specific categories. There are some of you that you need a physical healing or somebody in your life needs a physical healing. Maybe it's not you.

Maybe it's somebody who's not here. I'm gonna invite you to come up in a minute and take the hand of one of these. Yeah, it's a bold move, but you need to pray a bold prayer. If Jacob's gonna pray all night, you can come up and take the hand of one of these people and say, I want to pray for a miracle. We're not a name-claiming church that believes if you shout it loud enough that God's gonna just give it because you said it. We always say your will be done, but we also believe that God heals and we believe that there's a lot of miracles that stay on the sideline because they were never asked for and so if it's a physical healing, I want you to come in a moment. Category number two, a financial provision or some kind of job situation.

Again, maybe it's not for you. Maybe it's for somebody just close to you in your life, in your family or a friend. You just want to come and say, God, you promised that you, the children of the righteous would never go hungry and I'm praying for that right now. Category number three, you're really burdened over somebody who needs Jesus.

A prodigal son, a prodigal daughter, a friend, a parent, or maybe it's a broken relationship and we just need to see a miracle. We're gonna pray in this very hour that the angels of God would do what they can do in response to God's direction. Now, maybe you got something else that's on your heart that you're like, oh, that didn't quite fit neatly in one of those three categories. Fine. If it's heavy in your heart, come. I'm not gonna ask everybody to come around the altar like we did last week. You're welcome to do that, certainly, but I'm gonna ask everybody to pray, but I'm gonna say there's some of you that right now there's a bold prayer you need to pray and you know exactly because it's heavy in your heart and so the moment I stand you up, I'm gonna ask you to come, take the hand of one of these and we're just gonna pray for a few moments here before our worship teams come and lead us, okay? I don't want you to hesitate or delay.

This is a house of prayer. I want you to bring this burden here. Bring your burden here and lay it at the feet of Jesus. Stand to your feet if you would at all of our campuses. Stand to your feet right now.

Right now, don't wait, just step out. Come and take the hand of one of these and those three categories are something else and let's just pray. Let's present these burdens to God. Our worship teams are coming. As our worship teams come, just make your way forward and let's get this at the throne of Jesus and let's pray together and let's see God do some miraculous, amazing things. You come as our worship teams come. Let's pray.