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1955. Eight Hinderances to Answered Prayer, Pt. 2

The Daily Platform / Bob Jones University
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January 24, 2025 5:00 pm

1955. Eight Hinderances to Answered Prayer, Pt. 2

The Daily Platform / Bob Jones University

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January 24, 2025 5:00 pm

Dr. Jim Tillotson, President of Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa continues a message from the 2024 BJU Bible Conference. The scripture is from Colossians 4:2.

The post 1955. Eight Hinderances to Answered Prayer, Pt. 2 appeared first on THE DAILY PLATFORM.

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Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from Chapel Services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every day, students are blessed by the preaching and teaching of the Bible from the University Chapel Platform.

The tribal college in Ankeny, Iowa, will be continuing the sermon from yesterday, teaching us about eight hindrances to answered prayer. Today, he'll begin with number five on his list, forgiveness. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. Bitterness is harbored hurt. Students, you're all going to get hurt.

Luke 17, three. Offenses will come. And when we get hurt, we have to decide are we going to forgive or are we going to get bitter?

Are we going to hang on to it? I grew up playing hockey and if you know the game of hockey, you have pads. Every good hockey player knows where the pads are and where they're not. If you're a hockey player, you wear a shin pad.

It covers the front of your lower leg, but there's nothing behind your lower leg. Your shoulder pads only go about here, so if you get poke checked. If you're a dirty player, where are you going to hit people? You'll be slashing them behind the back of the leg and you're going to be poking them in here because there's no pads there. And if you've had enough, there's a thing in hockey called drop the gloves.

That means we're going to go into education situation. I'm going to educate you and then I'm going to spend two minutes in the sin bin. And if this guy has really been irritating you and he then wants to crush you into the boards and he's coming full speed, if you get low enough, you see a guy who's coming full speed at you and he's going to smash you into the boards. And this is a great trick and it's really fun if you've had enough and you see him coming. If you go low enough, you can go low and flip him right over your shoulder.

That feels awesome. But you know what your coach wants? You do know that the goal of hockey is not to go in the sin bin.

The coach never says, guys, let's cover how to get in the penalty box. That's the goal. You know what the goal of hockey is?

Score goals. And when you've had enough, that guy's been just bugging you and irritating you and your coach says, and he's coming at you, you know what your coach wants you to do? He doesn't want you to do this.

He wants you to do this and get out of the way and let him go and then you've got a one man advantage the other way. But too many of us, we want to get even. The Bible says vengeance is mine, I will repay it. God doesn't say it doesn't matter.

God says let me take care of it. And some of you are carrying bitterness and anger from family issues, college issues, roommate issues. And the Bible says if you won't forgive, then God can't forgive you.

And some of you need to let it go. And you know why forgiveness? Forgiveness is a great concept when you have to do it. I hate forgiveness when I have to do it.

And you know why we don't like it? Because it's not fair. Because if it was fair, I wouldn't have to forgive, right? The reason I have to forgive is something happened to me that wasn't right and it wasn't fair. Do you remember this story in Matthew 18 that Peter comes to Jesus and says, Lord, how many times do we have to forgive? Seven times? I mean, he's like, if someone does something against me seven times, is that enough?

And remember what Jesus says? No, 70 times seven. If you're good enough at math, that's 490 times. How many of you think that God's intent with that was for you to keep track? I've been married 33 years. I promise you I've sinned against my wife more than 490 times. And I'm super thankful she didn't come at me at 487. Just so you know, you got three left.

No, the point is after 490 times, it's a habit. And then Jesus says, let me tell you a story. A man owed a king eight countries worth of debt. And he comes to the king and he says, King, be patient with me and I'll pay you all.

The king is probably a king because he's smart enough to know this guy in 10 lifetimes can't pay eight countries worth of debt. But the text says, I forgive you. And he goes out and he finds someone that owes him 400 bucks. I mean, something in his little brain should have gone off because the guy says the exact same thing word for word. Look it up later. I mean, the exact same thing.

Please be patient with me and I'll pay you all. Something in his little brain should have been, man, where did I hear that before? Oh yeah, I said that. The text says, but he would not. And he put his hands around his throat and he threw him into prison. And the king's servants came back and said, hey, you know that guy you forgave eight countries worth of debt?

He just chucked a guy in jail for 400 bucks. The king said, bring that guy back in here. Because the king's like, by the way, this isn't all in the text, all right?

So this is my interpretation of this. He's like, I just heard the craziest story. I mean, I know this isn't true, but I just had to ask. I heard that after I forgave you eight countries worth of debt that you threw someone in prison for 400 bucks. I mean, that is not true, is it? The guy's like, yeah. And in the story, Jesus says, take him away.

Students, what's the point? If you're saved this morning, God forgave every sin you've ever done. And he's going to forgive every sin you'll ever do.

That's eight countries worth of debt. And God says when someone sins against you, if you won't forgive them, you're ignoring that you've been forgiven. What a wonderful blessing it is to be forgiven. One of the great benefits of the gospel. I mean, do you know how few people know for sure when they die they're going to wake up in heaven?

I hope everyone in this room knows that, and if you don't, I hope you get that settled by the end of this week. But if you're a Christian this morning, every sin you've ever done, every sin you'll ever do, it's been forgiven. It's under the blood of Christ. And God says because I've forgiven you so much, you need to forgive others.

Bitterness is a sneaky sin, students. It snuck up on me several times in ministry. I was preaching through Hebrews. I made a promise to my wife that I won't purposely be a hypocrite.

I can't possibly do everything that I preach on perfectly, but I promised her that I would not stand in the pulpit, and she would not sit in the audience and know that what I'm preaching on, I'm not willing to work on. I was preaching through the book of Hebrews. I preached through books of the Bible when I was a pastor, and I came to the text, beware of bitterness, the spring of trouble you may be defiled. And I thought, I should get my counseling notes out, and I started going through my counseling notes, questions that tell if you're bitter. When you think of that event, does your heart beat faster and your teeth grind? Or does the peace of God flood your soul? I failed.

When you pray for that person, do you pray that God gets them or that God blesses them? I had imprecatory psalms memorized, you know what I'm talking about? Lord, smite him. I failed. I realized I was bitter. I had a guy in my church that treated my family poorly, just treated me poorly. I had done everything I could to resolve that issue.

He was not willing to let it reconcile. And he would come every Sunday and sit right over here and give me the look of love every Sunday and just glare at me. And I was like, dude, I have to be here. I'm the pastor.

You have options. Why do you come and hate on me every Sunday? And some of the things that he had done to our family just had really irked me. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. I finally broke, but I didn't break nice. On Saturday night, I was either I have to forgive or I can't preach tomorrow.

I'm sitting at my kitchen table. I can remember this like yesterday and I was like, all right, God, I'll forgive him. And then as God just kept working in my heart that night, I was like, OK, God, I'm done.

I came the next morning and he sat in the same spot, gave me the same look of love, but I was good. Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. And when you won't forgive, I didn't put this in the Bible last night, God says, I can't forgive you.

When I've forgiven you eight countries worth of debt and you're going to throw someone in prison, now what he did was wrong. And students, let me just give you this little tip that I think will help you understand if you're bitter or not this morning. And I know I'm supposed to stay in the center, but I'm going to just come out here. I taught my three kids the downhill ski and you get into the mountains and it's amazing. And if you get out skiing in the mountains, you cannot go straight down. You have to slalom back and forth.

It's just too big and too steep. If you know anything about skiing, you ski to the bottom. A chairlift comes down, catches you and takes you up to the top of the mountain. Well, my three kids are with me and my oldest daughter had skied down ahead of me and she'd skied down. Usually there's a large line in the mountains and so she skied down and she's at the back of the line all by herself. And every good dad who knows anything about skiing, at least once in your lifetime, you have to bury your kids in snow.

And if you come down super fast and go sideways like this, you will shoot a fantail of snow. And at this moment in my little dad brain, it went, this is my chance. And so she was not paying attention. She did not see me coming. I came from the top.

I did not slalom. I went straight down. I was in the tuck position. I'm going so fast, tears are streaming out of my eyes like this. And the whole time in my brain, it's like, this is awesome. I came down at Mach 3. I went sideways. I am burying her.

I mean, an avalanche of snow. I mean, it's just piling up around her and I'm like, this is awesome. And she's like, dad! And I realize at this moment that I'm going to kill my oldest daughter.

I am doing Mach 3 sideways. I'm going to take her right out. I have two options, kill her or go in the woods. I went in the woods and crashed. I broke my wrist. Night came out.

I didn't say anything. We skied the rest of the day. I got in the room with my wife that night. As soon as the door was closed, it was just her and I. I'm like, oh my word, this hurts! And we were skiing in Montana. Our vacation was in Montana. And she's like, well, why don't we go to the hospital? I said, I'm not paying American prices for that. She said, well, why don't we go back to Canada? I said, I don't want to spoil our vacation because I was an idiot. So for three days, I toughed it out. Have you ever been on vacation with your kids? You wake up in the morning and the kid's like, hey dad, let's go do this. Oh yeah, let's go do that.

And every night when it's just my wife and I'm like, oh my word, this hurts! We crossed back into Canada. We did not go home first. We went right to the emergency room. They x-rayed my wrist. They said, sir, you've broken your wrist. Like, no kidding, doc. I know that. I said, well, we're going to cast it. And when it heals, it's going to be stronger in that spot than it was before. And it's true. I can do everything with this wrist.

Weather change doesn't bother me at all. Have a little tiny scar. And I want to challenge you students. You know how you can tell if you've forgiven? Is it a wound or is it a scar? If it hurts like fire today, you haven't forgiven yet. But when you can remember without the pain, you've forgiven. And God says, if you won't do that, I can't forgive you. And some of you, you think about it, your heart starts beating faster, your teeth grind, and you need to let it go. Because it's hindering your prayer life. You say, well, it's not fair.

Of course it's not. If it was fair, you wouldn't have to forgive. You're forgiving something that wasn't fair. And God says, let me take care of it. Forgiveness, forgive and forget, only God does that. Praise God. Tells us that multiple times in the Old Testament. Your sins are to be remembered no more, buried in the depths of the sea.

There was no sonar, there was no radar when that was written. Something went over the ship, it was gone forever. God's the only one who can forget. It doesn't mean you didn't forgive because you remember. You haven't forgiven if you remember and it still hurts like fire.

But when it heals, I still remember a day I was an idiot, but it doesn't hurt anymore. Have you forgiven this morning? Number six, a poor marriage relationship. 1 Peter 3.

I'll just go quickly in our last few and we'll be done. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 7. The Bible says, likewise, you husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs to give the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered. Success in marriage is more than finding the right person, it's being the right person. I tell our students, always beware if you're dating Mr. Wright, especially if his first name is always. And a husband is to be an expert on his wife.

It's fascinating as I travel, I ask this question as I'm in marriage counseling. If someone was to break into your home and they were going to hurt you or your wife or your family, most men would say it's that guy or me, I'm taking him out. Most men would say I would lay down my life for my family as it should be. I'm a hunter, I have weapons in our bedroom, I have home court advantage. Someone breaks into my house, they just made a huge mistake. But you know, in all, I've been married 33 years, that has never happened. Not one time has someone broken into my home and tried to kill my family.

But if they ever do, I'm going to lay my life down. And then my wife says, hey, can you take out the trash right now? How are you going to keep the game is on?

Isn't it weird that I'm willing to make the ultimate sacrifice I'll probably never have to make, but I won't make the daily sacrifices I need to make? My wife comes to me and says, hey, the light bulb burned out in the refrigerator. And I tell her, hey, I'll take care of that. And she learns braille before I put a new light bulb in there, you know what I'm talking about? She can reach in the dark and find anything in there. And then she says, hey, are you going to change the light?

I told you I was going to do it. That's great, that was three months ago, honey, thanks. Guys, you've got to be an expert on your wife. There's no verse like this to women because most women don't need it. Within one year, they know everything about their man. But man, you've got to be an expert if you get married. You've got to be an expert on your wife. Dr. McLaughlin said this, God will be as insensitive to a husband's needs uttered in his prayers as a husband is insensitive to the needs of his wife whispered in his ears. The size of an injured wife come between God and the husband.

Again, why pornography is so damaging. For the married men in the room, could you go home tonight and look your wife in the eye and say, do you feel loved by me? And it's Valentine's Day, right? I did a lot of marriage counseling. You know how when the wife comes in and says I don't feel loved, you know what every guy says? Well, I love her. Well, that's wonderful, sir. How do you show that? I provide for her.

Well, that's great. She could do that on her own. She wanted a relationship. She thought you were going to be like Valentine's Day all the time. If you only date your wife after you're married three times a year, her birthday, your anniversary, and Valentine's Day, you need to be more romantic. And I would just encourage you, the Bible says if you don't dwell with your wife according to knowledge and give honor to her as a weaker vessel, your prayers will be hindered. I wonder how many husbands have hindered prayer life because they're not treating their wife like they should. Firstly, when God says there's two ways to love a wife in Ephesians, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Secondly, love your wife like you love who? Like you love yourself.

Was God lowering the bar or raising the bar? I think God's saying you're really good at loving you. If you could just love your wife like you love you, it'd be amazing. And guys, could you ask her tonight? No one around, just the two of you. And if you look her in the eye and say do you feel loved and she doesn't say anything or she tears up, you got a problem. Not only do you have a problem in your marriage, but you have a problem in your prayer life. And of all days on Valentine's Day, should you be able to look at your wife and say do you feel loved by me? Do you know I love you?

And could she immediately look you right back in the eye and say, oh yeah, I know you love me. If not, your prayer life is hindered. Vain or unthinking repetition, number seven. Go over to Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six, Jesus speaking in verse seven. But when you pray, use not vain repetition as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not you therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. We get on the Catholics for the rosary, if you understand the rosary, it's a beads and you count how many Hail Marys and how many Our Fathers you have to say.

We go, oh that's terrible. But how many of us do the same thing, especially if your prayer life is just to eat your food on a Wednesday night. How many times you say, God bless this food in my body. Do you even know what that means anymore?

I love it. One Christian comedian said, you know, God I don't know how you're going to do it, but turn this Cheeto into a carrot stick on the way down. That's what I mean by bless this food, or bless the hands that prepared it.

Why just the hands? Or how many times have we said, God be with so and so. You do realize you don't have to pray that, right? God already is with so and so. And we just, you know, little kids, now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, I should die before I wake up.

We don't want repetitious prayers. Again, I grew up in northern Minnesota, and in northern Minnesota we didn't have mountains. We had small hills, but they'd turn them into ski hills, and they'd make snow. If you understand the system in skiing, there's green, very easy, blue, intermediate, black diamond, somewhat dangerous, double black diamond, you might meet the Lord today. And when I was in high school, I wanted to ski what?

I want double black diamond, right? And so I went off of a hill that actually curved under like this, and there were hills on the hill called moguls. And if you understand how that works, as you ski down and come down, you got a cut in between, which works if there's snow. But because they had made snow and it had melted, there wasn't one flake, and I'm in the lead, I go off the hill, I come down, I go to make my first cut, there's no snow, and I launch. I'm on a hill this steep, I'm launching, I mean, I landed, jumped, landed, jumped, on my third jump, I'm so high, people look small, you know what I'm talking about? And I wiped, I crashed, parts went everywhere. I started walking down the hill and my friend's like, hey, you know, what are you doing?

Get your stuff on. I'm like, did I wipe out or what? Oh, Jim, crazy wipe out. Got my stuff on, skied to the bottom of the hill, did I wipe out or what? Oh, Jim, crazy wipe out. Halfway up the ski lift, did I wipe out or what? Oh, Jim, crazy wipe out. Got to the top of the ski lift, did I wipe out or what?

Let's go see ski patrol. Something's wrong. I had a second degree concussion. I couldn't remember how old I was, I was dating a girl, it was Valentine's, I'd bought her stuff, I thought it was stuff she gave me, so I'm opening up the stuff I gave her.

If you've ever been in a youth group, you know they let that happen. They thought it was great. I was out of my mind.

I went to the hospital two days before I could remember anything. You know what, everyone knows when you say the same thing and the same tone of voice over and over and over again, everyone knows something's wrong. You know what a lot of people call it? Prayer. We say the same thing over and over and God says don't use vain repetition. When you go to lunch today, will you think about what you're going to say? Are you just saying words like you always do? Why even do it? If you're not going to think before you eat your food, then why even say it? I mean, Jesus says according to this text, don't use vain repetition as the heathen do.

They think just because they're saying words, it counts for something. When you go to lunch today and you just throw things out because that's what you always throw out, God says it doesn't even count. You're not talking to me. You know when I first got married, I took my wife out on a date early in our marriage and I didn't know where I was.

I was not locked in. And she said that terrible statement. What did I just say? And when I was newly married, I guessed.

That is not a good idea, guys. If she says, what did I just say? She already knows you weren't paying attention. And she's not sitting there going, man, this is so great. He's like a million miles away. I'm so blessed just to be with his presence. Because that's kind of what I was thinking was going on, right?

Not really. And when you're praying and you're not thinking, God is not impressed in your prayer life of sin. Lastly, James 1 verses 5 to 8. We must have faith. James 1 verses 5 to 8. If any of you like wisdom, let him ask God that giveth all men liberally and it braith not and shall be given him.

But let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith it is what? Impossible to please him. You must believe that he is and that he's a reward of those that diligently seek him. Do you believe God answers prayer this morning? Maybe you prayed for something that really mattered to you and it never happened. And you got super discouraged and you just quit praying. Students, if you pray long enough, you're going to find out that God doesn't always say yes.

But students, let me promise you, God doesn't always say no. And if you're here this morning and you say, I just quit praying because I really wanted that to happen and it didn't happen. By the way, some of you are going to live long enough to look back and say, God thank you for not answering that prayer. And the rest of you will say that the day you enter heaven. Because if God said no, there was a good reason. And God comes to us and says, but do you believe? Do you pray in faith? I don't know if God spoke to your heart this morning and said I'm not having my devotions. I'm not praying. I've turned my ear away from hearing the law. I'm bitter.

I use vain repetition all the time. I don't know if God spoke to your heart. But I want to challenge you as we started when Paul said pray for us. Missionaries are counting on you to pray for them. There's people on this campus that have said, would you pray for me? Your prayers are not going to be as powerful as they could be if they're hindered in these ways. Wouldn't it be great though to take care of these things and that you are that effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person that availeth much. There are a lot of people who need us to be men and women of prayer. You're not all going to go into full-time ministry, but you should all care about the ministry. And every person in this room should be a man and woman of prayer. And I do believe that the advance of the gospel is helped and we are the people of prayer that we should be. Power is always there.

Don't dim it. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for these students.

Thank you for their great attention. I pray you bless our conference. Be with the other speakers who will be preaching throughout this week. But God, burden our hearts to be men and women of prayer. God, the next time we have a missionary who asks us to pray for them. The next time we have a roommate that asks us to pray for them.

The next time we have a personal burden that's crushing our heart. God, may we have a powerful prayer life. May we be the men and women of prayer that you've called us to be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to the conclusion of a Bob Jones University Bible Conference Sermon by Dr. Jim Tillotson of Ankeny, Iowa. Thanks for listening and join us next time as we'll hear more sermons from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-24 18:50:55 / 2025-01-24 19:02:02 / 11

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