TEXT: Matthew 26:36-46
TITLE: “What happens when God doesn‘t answer my prayer. . . “
TOPIC: When prayers aren’t answered the way we want them to be!
OCCASION: Burnside Christian Church, January 20th, 2008
PROP.: God does answer all of our prayers. But perhaps He doesn’t answer them the way we want Him to answer them?
INTRODUCTION: What is the focus for the month of January? Based on Acts 2:42, we want to become the church devoted to prayer and be known as the PRAYING CHURCH!
ILLUSTRATION: I want to show you a moving video I saw on ESPN in October. So if the video is cued up, we’ll watch it. (Show video of Charlotte and Emmitt Ray - “Ray of Hope..aired on espn October 2007) The link is found at:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope
Did you catch what she said?
“God answered their prayer, but not mine.“ Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever wondered why it is,
if God is love
If God is all powerful
Then why not answer my prayers?
Then this morning’s sermon is just what you need to hear:
“What happens when God doesn’t answer my prayer?” is the title of today’s
Message
And it comes to us from Matthew 26:36-46
Have you been burned when it comes to your prayer life? You’ve grown skeptical of prayer because God didn’t hear your prayers which were sincere, unselfish, and important?
Well, I want to give you two things to remember if you’ve ever felt like God didn’t answer your prayers:
Let’s turn to our scripture text for today.
Matthew 26:36-46
36Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
40Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. 41"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
42He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."
43When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"
The Garden of Gethsemane:
Think about all of the important events in Biblical history that take place in a garden:
--The human race started in a garden
--Jesus was crucified in a garden
--Jesus was buried in a garden. (John 19:41)
--We are told that Paradise will be a garden
Here we have our Lord suffering his greatest agony in a garden: the Garden of Gethsemane.
Background of the garden:
--What grew in this garden? Olives. Olives grow on trees. Here is a picture of an olive tree growing outside Jerusalem. Olive trees have no rings so it’s hard to determine their age. But they are probably around 2000 years old. This tree probably wasn’t around during the time Jesus prayed in the garden because when Rome took siege of the city of Jerusalem, they cut down all of the olive trees surrounding the city.
--Location? Just outside of Jerusalem’s walls.
--Why choose a garden to pray? This time of prayer is where the sins of the world were heaped upon Jesus. A garden is where sin first came into existence…a garden seems to be the perfect place for sin to come to an end!
But Jesus does not suffer alone. He takes with Him, His closest companions. His friends -- Peter, James and John. He asks them to pray for Him and with Him. (Which by the way, is an excellent lesson!) Jesus’ prayers had one purpose and one purpose alone: for the suffering of the cross of crucifixion to be removed from Him.
Was His prayer answered the way He wanted? No. So if you have ever felt as though God didn’t answer your prayer, you’re in good company. Let’s learn two lessons in regards of prayer….
Lesson #1:
I. God’s will needs to become my will.
A. The example of Christ
1. In our text we’ve chosen this morning, Jesus prays on 3 separate
occasions for God’s will to be done. He was saying, “Father, it would
be nice not to have to suffer on the cross…but may your plans…may
your will be accomplished.”
--Jesus prayed for as much as 4 hours in this garden! Talk about
being persistent in prayers! (yet another good lesson -- be
persistent in your prayers!) And in the end, God’s will was done.
--That’s what Philippians 2:5-8 declare loud and clear. That God’s
will was Christ’s will!
Philippians 2:5-8
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
2. Jesus taught His followers to pray in God’s will. Remember? We looked at the model prayer last week! Matthew 6 says, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
--it only makes sense that since Christ lived God’s will, he would
teach us to pray that we would have courage to follow God’s will
too.
3. Other scriptures teach us to pray in the will of God too!
Psalm 143:10
10 Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.
B. The myths of God’s will (what we’ve been told)
1. Following God will make you comfortable (ask Christ, or Paul)
--was building an ark comfortable?
--was spending time in the fiery furnace comfortable?
--was John’s beheading comfortable?
--was prison comfortable for Paul, Peter and several other of Christ’s followers?
--thinking that God wants you comfortable is a terrible assumption
to make. If this is what you believe, then you will be greatly disappointed!
2. Following God will make you rich…(you’ll be rich, just not necessarily
financially)
--Peter and John said to the lame beggar - “Silver and gold have I
none…but what I do have, I give to you!”
--Jesus even said, the son of man has no place to lay His head.
Look at all of the people in the Bible who were specifically called by God. Would you classify their lifestyles as comfortable and rich?
3. Following God will make you happy (your happiness is secondary on
God’s to do list)
--We are promised JOY…not happiness! (Pick up your cross daily
and follow me does not sound like
happiness to me!)
C. The reality of God’s will
1. God’s will is sometimes PRECARIOUS!
The reason living in God’s will is precarious is because Satan doesn’t want you living in God’s will. Think of all of the people in the Bible who followed God’s will. Satan tried everything in his power to stop God’s will from being accomplished.
Lions,
storms,
Stonings
Prison
2. God’s will is always PERFECT-- (Romans 12:2)
He knows exactly what He’s doing at all times! Even when it would appear as though the end doesn’t add up to what we would expect, God has more in store!
3. God’s will is always PUNCTUAL (in HIS time)
--Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.
(Phil 1:6) “He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it…”
Lesson #2:
II. God’s plans are bigger than my prayers
A. God’s plans are beyond our scope of thinking.
What if God would have answered Jesus’ prayer the way He wanted in the garden?
--Our sins wouldn’t be forgiven
--Prophecy wouldn’t have been fulfilled
What if God would have answered every prayer exactly the way you wanted Him to:
--People would never die!
--It would be nice if each of us could leave this world in a pain-less fashion. If we
could each be taken out of this world like Elijah and Enoch…but the fact is that we have to leave this world (sometimes in a painful or unexpected way) so that we can begin to enjoy the promise of what is waiting!
And the reason God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we would always like for them to be answered is because:
1. It’s because He is all knowing
2. It’s because He is everywhere at all times
3. It’s because He is all powerful!
B. God’s plans are more important than your wants!
Remember Paul’s thorn in the flesh? Paul prayed repeatedly for God to remove his thorn in the flesh, but God didn’t. It wasn’t that Paul’s prayer wasn’t answered or heard. It was that God simply answered no!
This morning’s sermon title is misleading. God answer’s all prayers. Just maybe not the way you’d like Him to. Sometimes God says NO! It’s when God says NO that we must become comfortable in accepting God’s will!!!
ILLUSTRATION: Drop a pencil or pen time and time again while talking . Pause for moment and ask: what do you think will happen when I let go of this pen / pencil? Why did you come to that conclusion? Based on what had happened before. You know God is faithful! You know that God is always there. So when God doesn’t seem to answer prayer, what really has happened is that God didn’t answer the prayer the way YOU wanted it answered.
This is why it is important to keep records of answered prayers in your prayer journal! You must look at all of the prayers God HAS answered to realize that He is indeed, a hearer, and an answerer of prayer.
CONCLUSION: Show conclusion. I want to show you the conclusion to the Ray of Hope story that aired on ESPN.
We may not be as blessed as Emmitt and Charlotte Ray and actually get to see why OUR prayers weren’t answered the way we wanted them to be answered, but just as Charlotte Ray said, “God had a plan.”
I want to remind you of two things concerning your prayer life:
#1 - God’s will serves a purpose.
#2 - God has a plan for you and your life.
Please join us as together, we become, THE PRAYING CHURCH!!!!
