Reasons Why God Doesn't Answer Prayers - Part 2

0:05 I am finishing up this part that I've been doing for just the third week on why God doesn't answer prayer. I talked about how do we get God to answer prayer and then I talked about why God doesn't answer prayer. What causes God to not answer your prayers? and this is my final point on this. I talked last week about God doesn't answer your prayer when you break your vows, when you have marital strife, when you have secret sin, when you're proud. Pride. Pride causes God and when you have selfish motives, lustful motives, when it's all about you. Go ahead, look at your neighbor and say, life ain't about you. Let me give you these last, the last five points today of why God doesn't answer prayer.

1:11 Number six is because you want to be rich. the desire to be rich. God has an attitude about that. By the way, let me say this real quick. I'm teaching you these things, sharing these things. This is the Scriptures. These are things that the Scriptures teach us. And God gave us Scripture to be able to help us understand His ways and His Word. And we want everybody to understand how God thinks. And He says right here in Proverbs 28, verse 22, Chapter 28 of Proverbs 22, it says this. A man with an evil eye hastens after riches and does not consider that poverty will come upon him. Boy, that's a powerful verse. I don't know if you got it in your head. While the culture teaches you to chase after riches, God wants us to know riches do not solve your problems.

2:11 And it is not the heart of God for us to chase after stuff. A lot of people have chased after stuff and found out that once they got it, it didn't satisfy them. It didn't fulfill them. I don't know where y'all are, but rather than, there's things that money can't buy for you, riches can't buy for you. Money can't buy you the ability to sleep at night. I feel tension in the room. I got a kickback in my spirit that somebody say, well, I would like to see if having money would let me be able to sleep at night. I'm telling you ahead of time. there's a difference between having peace, having joy, having the presence of God in your life, and having money.

3:02 Some of y'all got a nice car, but you ain't got no place to go. Y'all understand what I'm saying. You're not going anywhere. You're wearing nice clothes, but your countenance looks horrible because you're unhappy, you're sad, you're depressed, you're frustrated. Riches will not satisfy that. Don't chase after riches. Go ahead, tell your neighbor, don't chase after money.

3:31 That's what the Scripture is telling us. Don't chase after. But yet the culture tells us that that's what you should do. But I'm trying to tell you the opposite of that. Stop chasing money. Chase God. Chase after God. Chase after the Lord. We used to sing a song, I'm chasing after you. I'm chasing. Chase after God. Chase after his ways. His word, his truth. Let me save you the drama and the pain and the agony of thinking money is going to satisfy you.

4:29 And so the scripture tells us that when you hasten after riches, you don't consider that what you will find is poverty. Poverty, poor. Poverty, nothing. Lack of what you need in life. So God doesn't respond to that. Here's number seven.

4:49 Unbelief. When you don't believe God, Matthew chapter 13, verse 58. Matthew 13, 58. Now, he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. In chapter 13 of Matthew, verse 58, the scripture tells us Jesus went to cities and he could not do miracles there because the people did not believe. And there's some things that God can't do in your life because you don't believe. When you believe God, anything is possible in your life. When you believe God, when you put your confidence, when you, he that comes to God must first believe. Hebrew says this. When you believe God, you must first believe that he is and that he is a rewarder to them who diligently seek after him. God wants us to believe God.

5:47 Believe God. Believe God. Believe he's a way maker. Believe he'll answer your prayer. Believe he's a healer. Believe he's a deliverer. Believe that, and I don't know where y'all are, but I look back over my life, and what I know about God is the history of my experiences, the history of my journey tells me we serve a God, I serve a God who is available and able to do whatever we ask and believe him to do. That's such an important thing. You got to believe God. As a matter of fact, what I learned about God is as you're growing in the Lord, as you're walking with the Lord, he gives you experiences just to build your faith for the next thing you're going to believe for him to do. And I look back up my life and I have enough experience. I've had enough challenges. I've seen God do enough stuff for me that I can believe him to do whatever is in front of me. Whatever challenges I believe, I believe he works it out. And that's why God allowed you to go through some things in life so you can build your faith to know that he works, he will work it out. So unbelief is clearly one of those things that will hinder God from working on your behalf. Here's number eight. Y'all not going to like this one. Unforgiveness. Unforgiveness. Matthew chapter six, verses 14 and 15. Unforgiveness. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Wow. You probably didn't know that this attitude that you got against somebody who did something wrong to you is prohibiting God from working on your behalf. Now, I don't know where y'all are, but here's where I am in my life. I'm not going to let my anger, my frustration, my unforgiveness with another person hinder me from getting what God has in my life.

7:54 Amen. I hate to tell you this, but you ain't worth me missing out on what God has for me. Go ahead, tell your neighbor, they ain't worth me losing out. They ain't worth it missing miracles. I'm not going to let what they did cause God not to reward me, for God not to respond to me, for God not to answer my prayer. I refuse to let another person hinder my walk with God.

8:27 Do y'all get that? Does anybody get that? Does anybody know how powerful that is? That's true. You're harboring anger. You're harboring unforgiveness against somebody, and you don't even realize why you're mad with them, why you don't forgive them, why you're angry with them, while you got an attitude toward them, it's messing up your walk with God and they are not worth it.

8:51 You're not worth it. You're not worth it. You're not worth it. Me missing what God has for me. I want everything that God has for me and I'm not going to let you cause me to miss it. Number nine, repaying evil for good. this kind of goes with number eight repaying evil for good repaying evil for good Proverbs 17 13 whoever rewards evil for good evil will not depart from his house when you do bad to somebody who has done good the Bible says evil will stay in your house you wonder why you can't get out of the hole why you can't get out of debt while your circumstances can't get switched around, evil stays in your house because you have rewarded evil to somebody who did good.

9:47 God has his eyes on your attitude and your posture toward and your heart toward somebody and what you do to somebody and the scripture is crystal clear that God will, you will reap the consequences of that and evil will stay in your house. It's not worth it. This too is not worth it. It's important, it's critical, and it's essential. Here's number 10. when you turn your heart away from hearing the word when you stop listening to the word hearing the word, honoring the word then God will not hear you look at, this is Proverbs, I got two verses on this Proverbs 28 verse 9 Proverbs 28 9 one who turns away his ear from hearing the law even his prayer is an abomination you know what God said you don't want to hear my word I don't want to hear your prayers I don't want to pay attention to your word.

10:53 I don't want to apply it. I don't want to read it. I don't want to give consideration to it. God says, when that's your attitude toward my word, God says, my attitude toward your prayer, your prayer will be an abomination. Yeah, God's telling you right off the bat. The scripture's telling us God's attitude and posture about things. And it's critical that you stay in the word. Look at you in there. You need to get in the word. And you can tell them this. You can start by bringing the Bible to church with you when you come. Go ahead. Tell them. You can start by reading the word every day. You can start by paying attention to the pastor when he's teaching you the word every Sunday. There's so much tension in here today. Listen to the word of God. It's very true.

11:44 It's true. It's powerful. It's beneficial to us. Let me read 1 John chapter 3 verse 22. 1 John chapter 3 verse 22. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. I need to explain this verse to you. And whatever we ask, we receive from him. Whatever we ask God, we can get it from him. Why? Because we keep his commandments. Let me tell you what's significant about that. There's two key words here. The first key word is keep. Somebody say keep. Say it again. We keep. The word keep means guard, protect. And here's what the scripture says. When you get the word, you want God to answer your prayer. He will honor your word.

12:36 He will honor your prayer when you guard the word that you receive, when you protect the commandment that you receive. Now, this is true because what the devil wants to do, before y'all, when the service is over, y'all leave, before you get home, something's going to happen to try to take that word out of your heart, get you to ignore it, get you not to pay attention to it, get you upset and get you mad and forget about the Word. But the Scripture is saying when you guard it, when you protect it, you don't let the enemy steal it from you. And the enemy is going to try to steal it from you. And so you have to guard it. You have to put protection around it. Somebody say, how do you do that? First of all, I believe the way I guard the Word, the way I protect it is I write it down. What I remember, what I write down, I remember. That's why I take notes. I don't care where I am, no matter what service I'm in. I'm taking notes.

13:30 I'm writing it down so I can review it and read it. I'm not going to let the enemy take it out of my heart. I guard it by keeping it. And then the scripture says, keep his commandments. And the commandment, here's what the word commandment means. A prescription. Okay, y'all missed it. That went right over y'all head. Let me roll it around, roll it back and give it to you. The Scriptures is a prescription for your dilemmas in your life.

14:00 That's what the Scriptures are. It's a remedy. It gives you answers. And God says, I want you to guard it. I give it to you and I want you to protect it and I want you to guard it. I don't want you to let anybody to steal it from you. And so I'm telling you today how important it is for you to guard the Word, for you to keep it in your life, keep it in your heart, keep it in your mind, and don't let the enemy steal it from you. and the scripture is crystal clear and God will do these things for you when you guard and protect it and apply it to your life. Whatever you do, apply it to your life. Whatever you do, apply it. Be a doer of the word. Amen. Y'all like to do stuff when people can see you but God says, I'm seeing you when can't nobody see you.

14:45 Now, I went through these 10 reasons why your prayers are not being answered. and y'all are just so down and sad. Just the attitude, nobody danced, nobody shouted. Not a dollar was bought up in here, not even a quarter or a dime, nothing.

15:11 So God said, Pastor, tell them that I will answer your prayer. I got three verses for you that God wants us to know his attitude that he wants to answer your prayers. Here's a verse I want you to jot down and remember. Jeremiah 33.3. If y'all remember no other word, remember this scripture right here. Jeremiah 33.3. This is a powerful word right here. This is important. Leave that up there for just a second. Let me let them write it down first. Then I want them to be able to, yeah, write those down. Jeremiah 33.3, Psalm 91.15, Jeremiah 29.12. Jot them down, then I'm going to come back, and I'm going to read these verses right quick. Amen. 33.3. If you just remember 33.3, you'd be doing good. That's one of those verses that should be a cornerstone verse in your life.

16:07 Psalm 91.15 and Jeremiah 29.12. Here's what Jeremiah 33.3 says. Call to me, God talking, and I will answer you. I like this. and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. Y'all missed a great shout right there. Here's what I'm praising God for. I'm saying that I know that when we call to the God that we love, the God that we serve, when we call on his name, and I believe that there's some people who know that this is true. When you call on him, he will answer you. And I like this. He says, I'm going to show you great and mighty things which you don't know, which you haven't experienced. that you anticipate, that you didn't know could happen. God says, I'm going to show you how strong, how mighty, how much of a miracle-working God I am. God says, I'm going to show you I'm a waymaker, I'm a bridge builder, I'm a deliverer, I'm a healer.

17:02 Call to me, he says, and I'm going to show you, I will answer you and show you tremendous things. Do I have anybody in this building today that can testify that they look back over their life And they say, I consider and I've seen, I've seen God do great and mighty works. Hallelujah. I love that verse right there. Psalm 91 15 says, he shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him. I like this right here in trouble. I will deliver and honor him. I like that verse too. God says, call on me, I'll answer you, and I will be with him in trouble. Anybody here ever been in trouble? Do you know what it's like to be in trouble?

18:02 In trouble is when you don't know what to do. You don't know how to fix it. You don't know how to change the circumstances. It's beyond your ability. It's beyond your explanation. It's beyond your resources. It's beyond you knowing what to do. God said, when you get in trouble, I am the one capable of answering your prayer. Somebody ought to give them a shout. Tell God I thank you that you are a way maker in trouble. When I'm in trouble, he'll answer me. Amen. And I will deliver him and honor him. Here's my last verse. I'll be finished. Jeremiah 29, 19. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Wow. Y'all missed the great, y'all missing all of this great word right here.

18:56 God has given us his attitude that he wants and will answer our prayers. He will bring deliverance. And I like the verse, I like Jeremiah 33 when he says, I will show you great and mighty things. God wants, that's the heart and the attitude of the Lord. So I said, well, I've been praying and talking to God and he ain't answering me. it might be because you ain't one of his children.

19:28 It might be that you are religious but don't have a relationship. You might not be saved. Being religious is not the same as being saved. When you have a relationship with God, you walk with him every day. You talk with him. He communes with you. You pray and he answers you. You know what I discovered? You know how I tell you how I know I have a relationship with God. I know I have a relationship with God because he responds to my prayers. Matter of fact, I see the God that I'm serving. He's a God that has answered even before I asked.

20:30 I've been saying that for a couple weeks now. I think about something and he responds to it. I wonder about things. I wonder about so and so. And I know he's real and alive because he'll have somebody give me the answer and I didn't even ask him the question. He'll work it out. He orchestrates the affairs of my life. He opens up doors. He wakes, he makes a way. He shows me that he loves me, that he cares about me. He responds to give me what I need. He takes me.