Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] We're in this series about big questions. And I think a lot of times people think that Christianity is just all about answers, but the Bible gives us a lot of room for questions. It actually encourages questions. And God can handle our questions. And so in this series that we're doing a few weeks on, or we're diving into these big questions. And my question today that Pastor Evan asked for me to speak on is, does God actually answer prayer?
[00:00:32] Does God actually answer prayer? A knee jerk reaction if you're a Christ, Wally. We're like, yes, but experience tells us otherwise sometimes, doesn't it? That we experience like God, are you still moving? Like, we feel our prayers are hitting the ceiling and we're like, is he still listening? I mean, we desperately need so many things and we cry out to God and we can get discouraged and we can start to wonder is he's still listening to us. And we can be like, Psalm 13.
[00:01:04] King David wrote this psalm. It can feel like this. Oh Lord, how long will you forget me forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
[00:01:21] Turn and answer me, O Lord, my God, Restore the sparkle to my eye or I will die. It's this cry, like, God, where are you, God? Why are you listening? Have you ever felt that in your relationship with God and your prayers and our tendency, whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, is to kind of think like God is going to do what God is going to do? Regardless of what I think about it, he's sovereign, He's God, I'm not. And he's just. He's already pre decided what's going to happen. And I think we do this. I think we do this in our own lives.
[00:01:56] More and more of our life is predetermined. We already kind of know what we think, what we're gonna do, what we won't do. I see this in parenting all the time. And my wife and I, we already know what our children need. And all of our children are grown now, but we know we are paying attention and we know what they need.
[00:02:13] And we have kind of pre decided what we're going to say yes to and no to. When and if they ask, we're like, ready. Suzanne is going to say yes and I'm going to say no. That's just the way it is.
[00:02:24] Am I Wrong, Spencer? No, I'm not wrong. My boys know who to ask if they want something. But can you imagine, can you imagine if there was nothing that my sons could say that would change my mind?
[00:02:39] Can you imagine that kind of relationship where I've pre decided what they need and what they don't need? And when they come and ask me, I'm like, yeah, no, not gonna do that. And nothing they can say would change my mind. That's not a relationship.
[00:02:53] And there's something we see. But I think this is often how we think about prayer with God. It's like God has already decided. He knows the beginning from the end. And there's nothing that I can say or do that will change his mind. But is that really how the Bible describes prayer?
[00:03:07] And there was a couple of passages in the Old Testament I want to look at that changed my thinking about God answering my prayers. One is in Exodus, chapter 32, and one is in Second Kings, chapter 20. And today I want to help you see that our requests to God really do impact what God does or doesn't do.
[00:03:28] You can change his mind.
[00:03:31] You can help chart the course of a future for you, your family, this world that we live in because of our prayers in Exodus, chapter 32. Look at this. This is a story. The first story is about Moses. Moses is on top of Mount Sinai and he's getting the ten Commandments from God. It's this really cool moment. But down below at the. At the base of the mountain are the children of Israel. And they've decided that it's been. Moses has been gone too long.
[00:03:53] So they decide in their wisdom to build a golden calf and worship it instead of God. Let's just say God's not so happy about it. And he decides on the mountain with Moses, he knows what's going on out the bottom. He tells Moses what's going down at the bottom of the mountain. And he says, moses, I'm through with these people. Let's just finish it and start over. He actually says to Moses, moses, I'm going to start with you again. And we're going to. I'm going to make a new people through you. I mean, it's like this serious moment. And look at how Moses responds. Verse 11. But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. Oh, Lord, he said, why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? Why let the Egyptians say their God rescued them with. With the evil intention of slaughtering them? In the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth. He's like, don't give the Egyptians that.
[00:04:43] And then he goes on, turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of the heaven. He's like, don't forget that. And I will give them all of this land that I've promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever. And then in verse 14, what does God do? He says like, sorry, Moses, I've made up my mind. It's done, it's done. I'm doing it.
[00:05:14] He doesn't do that. It says, so the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he threatened to bring on his people.
[00:05:22] What we see is a human being changing the mind of God through prayer. And then there's a second Old Testament story involves a really good king. There were a lot of really bad kings of Israel in the Old Testament, but there's this one. There's this one good king, his name's Hezekiah, and he was a man of prayer. And he would ask God, and God would intervene, especially when it came to the Assyrians who were trying to capture Israel. And he would pray and God would answer. But then he becomes mortally ill, and the prophet Isaiah comes to him, and he. And he gives him this word, verse one of chapter 20 of Second Kings. About that time, Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, went to visit him, and he gave the king this message. Imagine getting this from God. This is what the Lord says.
[00:06:11] Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die.
[00:06:15] You will not recover from this illness. Now, if you and I get this word in today's today, we'd be like. I'd be like, suzanne, I got good news and bad news.
[00:06:26] God said, my life will be done. We do have insurance. We do have life insurance. You'll be fine. I mean, we don't think that there's another option.
[00:06:38] God said it.
[00:06:40] It's so right.
[00:06:42] God said it.
[00:06:44] So there's nothing I can do about it. It's just the way life is.
[00:06:47] It's just. This is the lot that I've been given. This is the kind of things that we do. I've done it.
[00:06:53] But look at. When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord. Remember, O Lord, how I have always been through, faithful to you and served you single mindedly, always doing what pleases you. Then he broke down and he wept bitterly. And Isaiah, he tells him this word, right? Isaiah tells him this word and he's like, I don't know what else to say. So he's leaving. And Isaiah hasn't even left the middle courtyard when this message came to him from the Lord. Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Tell him this is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David says. I have heard your prayer.
[00:07:29] I've heard you and I've seen your tears. I will heal you. In three days from now, you will get out of bed and go to the temple of the Lord. I will add 15 years to your life and I will rescue you in the city from the King of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own honor and for the sake of my servant David. The point of this is that God hears and responds.
[00:07:51] Dallas Willard, great philosopher, Dallas Willard. He wrote a book called the Divine Conspiracy. I recommend it is a must read if you're interested in just this relationship with God thing. Dallas Willard, this is what he says in the Divine Conspiracy. God's response to our prayers is not a charade.
[00:08:11] He does not pretend he is answering us. Our requests really do make a difference in what God does or does not do.
[00:08:20] Listen. God listens to us.
[00:08:23] He listens to the cries of our hearts. And he can be prevailed upon to change his mind, to change the outcome.
[00:08:33] Maybe he doesn't do it every time. We'll talk a little bit about that.
[00:08:36] But what if this is the time? What if this is the moment Jesus would, would kind of take these ideas and expound on them. In Luke chapter 11, in verse 5, it says then teaching them more about prayer. Jesus is teaching them more about prayer. He used this story. And I want you to put yourself either in one of these two places. There's a friend that's coming to another friend's house and in the middle of the night. Suppose you went to a friend's house at midnight wanting to borrow three loaves of bread.
[00:09:04] You say to him, a friend of mine has just arrived for a visit and I have nothing for him to eat.
[00:09:10] And this friend, suppose he calls out from his bedroom, can't this wait until tomorrow? I mean, right, that's what we would say. But why are you bothering me? Don't bother me. The door's locked for the night. My family and I are all in bed. I can't help you either. The guy in need, he's desperate Obviously, he wouldn't be coming in the middle of the night if he wasn't.
[00:09:33] And this friend is like, he's already in bed, it's inconvenient.
[00:09:37] And this. And then this is what Jesus says. This is teaching about prayer. But I tell you this, though, he won't do it. Get out of bed for friendship's sake. If you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.
[00:09:56] I mean, he should have done it for friendship's sake. Yeah, we can all agree on that. But even if he doesn't, he will eventually get up because his wife tells him to. Your friend is knocking at the door and he's not stopping. Go get, go give him bread. This shameless persistence. And Jesus goes on. And so I tell you again, this is all about prayer. Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, everyone who not who seeks, finds. And everyone who knocks the door will be open.
[00:10:34] Jesus goes on another analogy. Your father, you, you, fathers. If your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
[00:10:55] Now, those of you that are paying attention, notice that he doesn't say that he's going to give you the fish or the egg necessarily.
[00:11:04] You might get something else more important.
[00:11:09] And this is where this tension lies. There's nothing, because I think we like to think that if I'm preaching a message on prayer, I'm just going to tell you, if you pray, that's the silver bullet. That's all you need to do. I was taught when I was growing up in church that if I just said four words that @ the end of every prayer they would be answered.
[00:11:28] God has to. He can't help himself.
[00:11:31] So every prayer, if I ended it within the name of Jesus, that's five words. Is that five words? I can't count. Anyway, in the name of Jesus, every prayer would be answered. Well, that's not true.
[00:11:42] At least it's not answered the way I want it to be. It's not answered the prayer that I prayed. Maybe something else. Maybe something else happened.
[00:11:49] So it's like this. It's like, we think that prayer is like this genie in a bottle. If I Just rub it the right way, say the right words, then I get what I want.
[00:11:59] Maybe we don't fully understand why some prayers are answered and some prayers are not. I don't understand.
[00:12:09] And that lies the tension. Right? It's like we simply can't understand God's perspective on everything.
[00:12:15] And he allows us listen, he allows us to question and doubt. Just like Pastor Evan talked about last week, he gives us space for that.
[00:12:23] So I'm not gonna tell you that everything you ask for, you're going to get if you ask for it the right way.
[00:12:31] But what I do know for certain is if I don't ask, I don't receive.
[00:12:39] You have not, Jesus said, because you ask not.
[00:12:45] There's something about the asking that is so important, the persistence in prayer that keep coming back, knocking on the door, not leaving until God responds. There's something in that, that maybe it has something more to do than just what we're asking for.
[00:13:06] We all know God can do what God wants to do. I mean, I'm just like God's God, and I'm not. He can do what he wants to do, and yet he hears the cry of his people and it moves him.
[00:13:19] This is what we see in these two Old Testament stories. It moves him.
[00:13:24] The cries of my children move me.
[00:13:27] If I ever get to a point where the cries of my children stop moving me, something's wrong with me, something's wrong with my heart, they move me. But I may not still give them everything they ask for.
[00:13:39] Right?
[00:13:41] Right. I mean, one of my sons is here. Somebody agree with me. Right. I'm not going to give them everything they ask for because I know something maybe they don't know, or I see something they don't see.
[00:13:53] There's. There's a multitude of reasons. I may not just give them whatever they ask for, but I never want them to stop asking, seeking, knocking. Because there's something that happens in the asking and the seeking that draws us closer to one another.
[00:14:12] See, there's. When we ask for something of God or from another human being, there's a vulnerability in that, isn't there?
[00:14:19] There's a place of dependence, like I'm acknowledging that I need help. I need something outside of myself. I need someone outside of myself. There's this vulnerability. There's an intimacy that emerges in the asking. That's why I think the author of Hebrews writes, let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
[00:14:49] I don't remember who said this. It was in the notes. Evan Pastor Evan gave me just like a one page, some ideas for this message. I mean, he didn't write the message for me. I just want to be clear. I mean, but he did help me a lot. And so he wrote. And this was in there. I don't know where he got it from, but it says this. God answers prayer, but not always how or when we expect.
[00:15:09] Sometimes he gives us what we ask for, sometimes he gives us something deeper.
[00:15:16] Always he gives us himself, always.
[00:15:24] Timothy Keller said that God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything God knows.
[00:15:33] And that's why we keep praying, because the very act of prayer brings us closer to our Father in heaven. Prayer invites God's presence, which is ultimately what I have found. We desperately need.
[00:15:49] I mean, I need provision.
[00:15:51] I need, I need him to protect me and my family. I need him to, to provide for my needs. I need him to work on behalf of the marginalized. I need him to move in the Middle East. I need him to do a lot of things. And I'm going to keep praying for God to move on my behalf, on the behalf of others. I'm going to keep praying no matter what. But I also know that it's in the praying that I find myself drawing closer to him, where I get to know his heart and what he's like. The levites, there were 12 tribes of Israel and the Levites were one of the 12. And when God gave them the land of Israel, they went in and God gave the eleven of the tribes a portion of the land. But the Levites did not get any portion of the land. They did not get anything but what they did get. And this is what it says. Their portion was God's presence. And if you're a Levi, you might be thinking, well, bummer for them, you know, I mean, I like something practical, you know, but they got, but they got the better gift.
[00:16:54] They got to spend the rest of their lives worshiping, facilitating the presence of God happening in the rest of the, of the life of the Israelites and now present day Levites, that's what the church is.
[00:17:07] Our portion is God's presence.
[00:17:11] Intimacy with God is the source of our power in prayer. It works humility into us. It creates dependency upon the Holy Spirit. It gives us courage to face the trials that come. It gives us perseverance. This prayer presence through prayer works all of these things out in our hearts.
[00:17:29] It enables us to genuinely pray Jesus, not my will, but your will be done in me and on earth as it is in heaven. In John 15, Jesus taught that those who remain in him, and he and them, will produce much fruit. And he says, from apart from me, you can do nothing.
[00:17:49] How many. Any dog owners in the house?
[00:17:52] How many dog owners? How many cat owners?
[00:17:54] I'm sorry about the cat owners, but that's okay. We. We love you, we love you, we pray for you.
[00:18:01] My dog has no problem asking for what he wants. None at all. I remember we had him for about a year. His name's Bilbo. He's a little English cocker spaniel. We took him over to the coast. We found a place that had a patio so we could have him with us for dinner. And I'm eating my food, and this dog, man, he just.
[00:18:19] He doesn't know. He doesn't know what no means. I'm like, no, I'm not going to share him. The food especially. He was a year old. I'm like, I'm not. If I start now, he will never stop. And he was asking. I mean, just begging. Just big brown eyes looking at me like, look how cute I am.
[00:18:35] And I'm really hungry, you know. I was like, no, I'm not going to do it because I can't open that door. So I resisted the entire meal. I didn't give him one scrap from my plate. I was so proud of myself. And then I'm eating dessert. I'm having a little ice cream, and he just isn't. He's just so persistent.
[00:18:52] I'm having the spoon. I'm digging the spoon. Big ice cream. He's just looking at me like, dad, come on.
[00:18:58] And so I dip my spoon in and I let him have some.
[00:19:02] And then I kept finishing that ice cream with that same spoon. I don't know why. I don't know why. It's just a confessional. It's really awful.
[00:19:10] It's really awful. But he is so persistent.
[00:19:16] And he doesn't stop until my food is gone or until I give him something.
[00:19:22] And I just.
[00:19:24] I don't want to compare us to dogs, but I'm just. There's this sense of, like, this persistence that we. We've lost. We've lost this.
[00:19:33] You know, we'll pray. We'll pray once. And if it doesn't happen, I guess it's not God's will.
[00:19:40] I mean.
[00:19:42] I mean, I want to know what God's will is. That's why I keep coming to him in prayer, because I want to get to know him more and more. But if I don't know God's will, I have a plan.
[00:19:51] I want some things. I need some things. You do too. Our world needs some things. Why don't we keep going to him in prayer, asking for God to move on our behalf?
[00:20:05] Because he hears our cries and we can change his mind.
[00:20:13] Two other thoughts about prayer. God answering prayers. In Mark 11, Jesus said, But when you are praying first, forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too. Dallas Willard would write that there are a few one way streets in the kingdom. You see, we're not just recipients of God's grace.
[00:20:32] We're not just on the receiving end of God's answered prayers. We are also contributors. We not only move God to act, but we act on his behalf to answer other people's prayers.
[00:20:46] Forgive those, forgive others as God has forgiven us. There's something about this, that we actually step into the gap for people that need God's grace, that we can be the response to their prayers, that we, we can see their requests and we can respond to their requests by God's grace and be their answer to the prayers that they're praying.
[00:21:12] That's why Jesus, I think, taught us to pray communally. Our Father in heaven, give us this day our daily bread. Not just give me, give us, you know, forgive us as we forgive those who have wronged us, keep us out of temptation. I mean, there's a sense of community that we're part of this. The prayers that we pray are not just to God, but to one another.
[00:21:35] And this is the beauty of asking and receiving. It's the reason I'm trying to get better at asking not only God for what I need, but asking those close to me. Anybody else have a hard time asking others for what, what you might need.
[00:21:50] I've always had that. I mean, I don't know, it might be pride, I don't know, it's just. I just don't want to bug. I just want to bother people. I don't want to be a burden on people. I don't want to.
[00:22:01] But I've experienced enough life to know that there's a moment in all of our lives where we're going. We can't do it on our own. And we might just need to not only ask God, but ask other people in our life for help.
[00:22:12] And it's a vulnerable place. I think it's one of the reasons why some of us try to avoid those who are apt to ask us for things, you know, you know what I'm talking about. It's like, because there's. Because we feel the power of the request.
[00:22:27] We see and feel the fragility of others in their.
[00:22:31] In their spaces. And we're like, we know God's heart is to hear the cries of his people, and we know he's probably going to ask us to help.
[00:22:43] But that's the beauty of this.
[00:22:45] That's where intimacy lies. That's where connection comes, is when we. When we not only live in this place of vulnerability with God, but with others as well.
[00:22:56] Do unto others as you would have others, including God, do unto you. The power of prayer begins with us asking God to forgive us as we forgive others. And the last thought. And Steve can come back up and start to play as we lead toward communion.
[00:23:14] Answered prayer, and this is important. Answered prayer almost always comes after a season of waiting, persevering, patience. This is the one I don't like the. I like the Hezekiah one. You know that while he's praying, God answers that prayer, right? Then, you know, and God heals him for another 15 years. He still dies, FYI, just so you know. Right? But he gives him another. He gives him a little bit longer life. But there's this. But I like the immediate answers to prayer. And that happens. Still happens.
[00:23:45] But more often than not, it's.
[00:23:48] And I don't know why, it's the patience in prayer.
[00:23:53] It's the waiting in God's presence that does something. It does something.
[00:23:59] And some of you know our story. And after our oldest son, Chase, he died nine years ago in a car accident, my wife and I. You don't know this. I never shared this, but my wife and I, after he died, we stopped praying for a season.
[00:24:14] It wasn't because we were mad at him. I mean, we're. There were moments I was mad at God, but it wasn't because I was mad at God. We stopped praying because we were just like, I don't think it works.
[00:24:23] You know, I'm not sure he.
[00:24:27] He's listening.
[00:24:29] And whatever's going to happen is going to happen. I mean, I trust God. He's got this world in his hands. I believe that.
[00:24:36] And so I just. I just put it. Put my life in his hands. And I'm like, God, whatever you're going to do, you're going to do.
[00:24:42] And so we stopped praying for a little bit. And then 18 months after Chase died, my wife and I were in Mexico visiting one of our missionaries, and we Got a phone call late at night and Suzanne's sister's 21 year old son Adam had just been tragically killed as well.
[00:25:01] And I remember walking through the airport, trying to get home and was walking through and this is really busy, busy morning and we're trying to get tickets and this young guy cuts right in front of me. He wasn't on purpose, it was a busy airport, but he just like I had to, like it was abrupt, you know, and so I had to go. And he stepped right in front of me. We're going in the same direction. In the back of his shirt, it just said these three words, trust in fate.
[00:25:30] And it was almost like it was mocking my decision to stop praying.
[00:25:37] Whatever's going to happen is going to happen.
[00:25:40] And I remember it really bugged me that I had fallen into this trap that for whatever reason, I just stopped believing God still works because of my prayers.
[00:25:54] I just, I just, I just gave up that I could change God's mind, that I could move him on behalf of me and my family.
[00:26:05] So my wife and I, we started praying.
[00:26:10] We started praying that, we started praying that joy and happiness would come back into our family.
[00:26:24] We prayed that prayer. We prayed that prayer, you guys, for nine years.
[00:26:32] That God would restore the joy in our family's life. And he restored the joy in Suzanne and me long before then.
[00:26:42] But six weeks ago, my 21 year old son Spencer got married to the, to the middle school of his, of his life. I mean, they've been together for a while, you guys, I.
[00:26:55] It was one of those moments. Have you ever had a moment in your life where you just don't want it to end? It's so beautiful. It is so filled with joy and laughter and goodness and just like, like it's just. You could breathe again. It was just like it was just this moment. It was the, it was an answer to the prayer that my wife and I had been praying for nine years and listen, I don't know what the future holds. I don't know what tomorrow might bring. But I know that our prayers matter.
[00:27:22] I know that God listens and he hears the cry of his people and he will move on our behalf if we would just seek and knock and not stop until we get an answer. Like Jacob wrestling with God. I'm not letting you go, God, until you bless me. Willard says sometimes we have to wait for God to do as we ask because the answer involves changes in other people or even ourselves. And that kind of change always takes time. Have you ever thought about that? That the answer to the prayers. There's things going on that we don't see, that we don't understand, changes that God wants to put make in us or in other people that just simply can't answer our prayers until those things take place. What about the story of Daniel? I can't get into it on time, but it's like. Like Daniel's praying for God to move and is. And he's waiting and he's waiting and his waiting is getting worse, and it's getting worse. And finally an angel of the Lord shows up to Daniel in a dream. And Daniel is like, where were you?
[00:28:21] And the angel says, we've been trying to answer your prayer. We've been trying to get to you, but there was a war in the heavenlies.
[00:28:29] There's something cosmic going on. Daniel, you don't see.
[00:28:33] I mean, we don't know all of these things, right? There's. There's things taking place entirely outside of human affairs. There's always something bigger going on. But I want to encourage you to keep praying like that, friend. Asking for bread be annoying. And I've decided I'm going to keep asking and knocking until I get an answer.
[00:28:59] And by the way, if I don't like the answer, I might come back and knock again.
[00:29:04] I'm going to be persistent even if I don't see, even if I don't understand.
[00:29:10] What else can we do?
