to the book of Jeremiah chapter 37. Jeremiah chapter 37. Jeremiah chapter 37 of course this is if you're not familiar with this portion of passage Jeremiah is in prison. He's a prophet the king Zedekiah has placed him there and he's moved him around from a prison and from it looks like even a sewer to a courtyard to try and appease I think the Lord but Zedekiah King Zedekiah has done anything but appease or try and follow the Lord as a king. And he comes to the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 37, in verse 3, it says in Zedekiah, the king sent Jehuchal, the son of Shalemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Massiah, the priest the prophet Jeremiah, saying, This is his request to Jeremiah. King Zedekiah has grabbed him out of the sewer where he was in prison, put him in this court. Why? To make this request of him, and really of the Lord. At the end of verse 3 he says, pray now. Pray now unto the Lord our God for us. And if you read the passage, verses 4 and 5, it's because their enemies are surrounding them. They're surrounded and they know only God can get them out of this mess. And he goes to the prophet Jeremiah and he says, pray now to God for us. He realizes the situation is beyond him. He realizes without God, he can have nothing go well. But I want to show you, it takes a year, is what Bible chronologists have determined. If you go to Jeremiah chapter 7, it's actually a year later, even though it's earlier in the prophet. Book here Jeremiah 7. This is the answer to King Zedekiah This is the answer that God gives to Jeremiah upon this request of pray now to God for us Our enemies have surrounded us and literally now it's been a year people are starving other accounts in the Bible talk about them Eating their own children. It's horrible. And this is what the Lord says Jeremiah 7 verse 16. This is his almost eerie or scary reply. He says to Jeremiah, the Lord talking, therefore, pray not thou for this people. Neither lift up cry nor prayer for them. Neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. Now this is the Lord to Jeremiah. Saying look do not pray for him. Do not pray for this people though. They're going through horrible things though all this All the enemies are surrounded and it's certain death Do not pray for them for I will not hear thee Now those are some scary words That the Lord would not hear His people, right? This is not some pagan, these are the children of Israel. And this is His prophet. The Lord is telling Jeremiah, don't pray for them. I will not hear thee. So what has caused God to do this, right? Because we know other parts of the Bible says, pray without ceasing. It says, I would that prayer be made for all the saints. What causes this? I'm going to show you In Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2, what causes this kind of statement? Not just for King Zedekiah, but for any of us who are in type children of the Lord, as Israel was. Because it has to do with God's holy character in dealing with His children. Isaiah 59. And verse 1 through 2 make it clear, he says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. He could easily have saved them. He could easily have wiped out their enemies as he had done in the past. Neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. It's not that he won't hear because he cannot. But verse 2, but your iniquities, iniquities, if you will, is a Bible word that goes beyond sin. A sin is a crime. It's a transgression of the law. Right? We would say in our legal system, a sin would be a count. But if you're held for multiple counts, that's the Bible word for iniquity. Right? Does that make sense? A sin is one. An iniquity, if you will, is a web. It's something that's been done multiple and multiple and multiple times. He says your iniquities have separated between you and your God. and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear." You know, as a pastor, there's many times I want to help people. I know what they need, and I know what could help them because I'm just a man, but the Lord has helped me through it. I know the verses. I can give them the information. but there's things that hinder people from getting help. There's things that hinder them from receiving the instruction, from hearing the Word of God, and they end up never being helped, though I could help them, and I'm just a man, but in the same way, God, He's not saying He's not willing to help them. He's not saying that He could not help them, or He cannot hear their prayers, but He's saying they've been separated, and there's hindrances. to their prayers coming to Him. You know, the theme of our church in the next couple of weeks is certainly prayer, and I have printed out here list after list after list of people's, including mine, prayer requests. And many are seeking the Lord in prayer this week and the next following week. But wouldn't it be sad if The Lord's up in heaven and He desires to give these answers. He desires to go ahead and answer these. But the hindrance is not Him. The hindrance is us. Wouldn't it be scary if for a moment we placed our self in King Zedekiah's shoe and the Lord said, Ashton, I will not hear your prayer because your iniquities have separated and I cannot hear you. And I'm going to go through tonight There's many things that separate us, but I'm going to talk about things that I struggle with. Things that are hindrances to my prayer that are not the Lord, it's me. Because I think it's really most of the time what hinders our prayer. Because the Lord, He's able, but sometimes we separate ourselves. And we're going to go over five hindrances to prayer. We saw why God's holy character, He cannot give them what He desires to because of their iniquities. And we're going to look at five hindrances to prayer tonight because, you know, we take our prayer seriously, amen? And we don't want to invest all this time into prayer and invest and then just to come short because we didn't take inventory of a hindrance. There's many of you here that are mechanically inclined, right? Yet you still will oftentimes take your vehicle to get checked up. It's not anything you probably couldn't fix yourself. A lot of times they just check the oil, right? They check the brake fluid. They check the tire pressure. They check the brakes. And it's not that you don't know about all these systems, but you take it to them so they can do an annual checkup because you don't want anything to go majorly wrong. And similarly, we go to the doctor, don't we? And it's not that we don't know enough about health to keep ourselves healthy, but we do an annual physical or an annual exam, why? So the doctor can do a diagnostic and see if there's any specific areas maybe we just overlooked. Or maybe we have just forgotten to take care of or neglected. Why? Because you don't want it to progress. And the hindrances I'm going to go over with you tonight, they're not these major truths that have been hidden. A lot of times they're common knowledge. But unfortunately, in prayer, these hindrances, even though we know of them, can often be why we don't have our prayers answered. So we're going to look at that tonight. if we will go to Lord with me in prayer first. Lord, we come to you. God, we want to hear from you. We desire that if there is anything in my heart, in our hearts, that is hindering our prayers, Lord, we want to be open and we want to be transparent. And God, we're asking you as the great physician, Lord, to come in and look around our hearts and look around our heads and see, Lord, is there something there that we need to remove that's a hindrance to having our prayers answered because Lord, I know these people. Lord, and You know these people and they desire to have their prayers answered. So God, we ask You not just to sound good or anything, we ask You sincerely, Lord, would You talk to us tonight and reveal to us if there's any hindrances to our prayers. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. The first hindrance to prayer is found in James 4, and many of them are in the book of James chapter 4. Again, this is not comprehensive or complete, but I'm going to go over the five main hindrances to prayer for the Christian. James chapter 4 starts in verse 1, from whence come wars and fighting among you. Notice he's not writing to the world here. Who is he writing to? He's writing to the apostolic church, the church that Peter led 2,000 in one day to Christ, the church that is willing to be persecuted for Christ and crucified upside down for Christ. He's writing to us. A lot of times I read this verse and I think, oh yeah, man, those pagans, Gentiles killing Gentiles, man, it's full of history. But no, it's the church he's writing to. Come they not hence even of your lusts that warn your members? And this is the first hindrance in verse two, it says, you lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and war, and then this is it. You have not, because what? You ask not. The first hindrance to prayer is not asking. A lot of times, What we want we don't really need and what we need we don't want If you're a father or mother here, you can say amen to that because your child do they ever want a spanking? Amen, no. All right. Did we ever when we were growing up? No, but is it what we needed? Absolutely There's sometimes we don't have because we simply don't ask and it's pitiful for the Christian and There was a pastor, and he had a member in his congregation who had a huge orange orchard in Florida. And I don't know about you, but when I get orange juice, I want to get that Florida-made orange juice. Amen. There's something about it. And he had all this member give him just bags of oranges. And he had so many, he had to give some away. Him and his wife couldn't eat all these oranges that they got. And so they were just sitting in his house. And he told this story about how this boy snuck in his backyard. And in his backyard, he had one of those little ornamental orange bushes or shrubs. It's not real oranges. Have you ever seen those little really sour ones full of seeds, really nasty? And it's just like for a decorative tree. It was not for eating. And the boy proceeded to trespass into his backyard, steal some of those ornamental oranges, which if you've ever tasted them, are horrible, amen? And ate those when he would have willingly given the child bags of oranges if the child had just knocked on his door and said, hey sir, do you have some food? Do you have some oranges? He had him to give. but the kid wanted to figure out his own way. And the truth in that is that a lot of times, as Christians, we know we can ask for something, a job, or help in our marriage, or help in our ministry, or help for someone, but what we do is we go about to establish our own way, our own righteousness, and so often, we're left with these disgusting oranges in our life, and we think, man, where did I get this orange from? And it goes back to, you have not because you ask not. You have not because you ask not. It is a hindrance to prayer. You know, there's no such thing as name it and claim it. I don't know if you've heard that, but there is such a thing as believe it and receive it. And that's in Philippians 4.19, the Bible says, but God shall supply all your needs. Not your wants, amen, but all your needs. Through Christ Jesus. You know, a lot of times what we do is we don't depend on the Lord. We don't ask the Lord when it comes to our financial needs. We go to MasterCard or Visa. Right? And it's not just an individual, it's our whole nation, right? And we borrow and we enslave our future children to the debt. Brother Josh said it the other night, he says about Mexico recently, they've been having all these riots because they subsidized gas for so long and they cut the subsidy so gas prices hiked up. I don't know if you've heard that. but they're rioting and looting. And I was talking to Josh, who's a financial advisor for CPS, or analyst, I'm sorry, and he's like, yeah, they just borrowed on borrowed dreams. It's not even real money, they're just indebting their nation. But the same thing is true of the Christian. A lot of times, maybe it's not just money, but instead of saying, Lord, I have this need, We just say, you know what? I can take care of this. Whip out the MasterCard. Or I can take care of this. I know what I'm doing. I'll find me a good person to put in the ministry. I'll find a good person to hire. And instead of going to the Lord and saying, Lord, I need your wisdom. I need your help. I'm asking you to give me this need. We try and take care of it in our own time. Amen? And a lot of times, those are the biggest mistakes in our life, aren't they? If we're honest with ourselves. I know, personally, I can look back at things that took me away from the Lord for years, and you know why they were? I didn't want to wait for the Lord's answer. I got frustrated, so I stopped asking, have you ever been there? Maybe you've been diligent in prayer, and you've been praying for a long time, and you spend seasons in prayer, but you know what? You get frustrated about the timings. kind of stop asking, have you ever been there? You were diligent, but how are you now? Why? Because you've been frustrated and it didn't answer in the time you thought? So you have not because you stopped asking. It's sad to think the blessings the Lord has for us, but he's not able to answer because we simply don't ask There was a preacher and he was preaching about blind Bartimaeus to a little boy And of course, we know the story Jesus came and healed blind Bartimaeus and because he said, you know thou son Jesus thou son of David have mercy on me and he said what would you have me to do right and he answered that I might see and So the preacher asked this boy, he said, what would you have Jesus do if you were blind, Barnabas? And the boy said, oh, I would have a little dog. And he said, what? Why would you want a little dog? And the boy said, well, that's easy. The little dog could lead me around while I was blind. And you say, how foolish, but the sad truth is, there's so many times where God wants to give us sight, if you will, when we're blind. But we're willing to settle for the little dog. We're willing to settle for not really God's best, why? Because we don't want to ask for vision, that'd be too much. We don't want to ask for what we truly need so we settle for what we can get along with. Whether it's in our personal Christian walk, our ministry, our marriage, our work, we just kind of settle. Because let's be honest, prayer is work, amen? And the flesh hates it, amen? The flesh does not like to pray. It shows that I am weak, you are strong, I can do nothing, you can do everything. And we're not naturally built like that, amen? We want to get things done, but we have to stop and we have to be willing to ask. Because one of the hindrances to a prayer is not asking. Here in James, look at verse 3. It says, ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your own lusts. Going back to Israel and King Zedekiah for a moment, you know why in Isaiah 59 1-2 it says, my arm can save, but it won't save. My ear can hear, but it won't hear. Because you've separated. You realize he had already given Zedekiah many chances. He had already given Zedekiah deliverance from enemies in the past. And what did Zedekiah do? He went right back to his idolatry. He went right back to not worshiping the Lord and worshiping Baal. And you know what the Lord wants to do sometimes? He wants to answer our prayers, but He knows if we do, we're just going to go back to our own lusts. We don't really want it for God's glory. Like Zedekiah, maybe he would have delivered him that day, and history would have been changed forever instead of a Babylonian captivity. But he didn't. You know why? Because Zedekiah would not have said, God, You did this. Lord, I praise You. Lord, I'm sorry. No. He just wanted to go back to his own lusts. And a lot of times, you know what a hindrance to prayer is? It's selfishness. Hindrance to prayer, you have not because he's not asking, but also selfishness. There was this boy and he prayed with his mom one day, Lord, help me find my marble. Right? And the mom kind of looked over and was like, oh brother, right? But the next day the mom wanted to ask her son if he had found that marble. She was a little bit hesitant because she didn't want him to You know, oh, God didn't answer. You know, doubt the Lord, but she said, son, did you find that marble? And he said, mom, I did not find that marble. The Lord told me I didn't need the marble. And we laugh at a silly childlike story like that, but the simple truth is true, that so often, you know what we're praying for is just about what is good for us, and we don't stop to think, Lord, is this something I even should be praying? There's been so many times in my own prayers where I'm just asking, Lord, give me this, and do this for me, and bring this in, and I never stop to say, Lord, thank you. God, you've been good to me. Lord, you're holy. God, you're awesome. I'm just all, Lord, bring this and do this and have this. Right? And instead of saying, Lord, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, I say, Lord, my kingdom come, my will be done. Selfishness. Selfishness. Not only is it hindrance to prayer not asking, but selfishness. Selfishness. Billy Sunday said, we need to pull some of the groans out of our prayers and shove in a few hallelujahs. Amen. It shouldn't all be Lord. Give me it sometimes. It's good. I still do once in a while, but I used to very consistently, every day during the week, one day I would not have any prayer requests that I would pray for. And the whole day, I would just pray and thank God. And I know that sounds simple, but you couldn't explain how that day seemed to be the best day of my week. Where I was just thanking God it did something for my spirit. Where I took one day and I would start, you know, because I know none of you are like this, but me and my unholiness, sometimes I get habitual in praying. And I go to prayer, and I'm already saying the prayer request that I prayed for a hundred times without even thinking of it. I know none of you do that, but I fall into that. And on that day, I would have to stop myself and I would say, no, I'm not asking anything for the Lord today. Lord, this is your day for me just thanking you for what you've done. Selfishness is a huge hindrance to prayer. Not only asking, but selfishness. Look at James 1. Just a couple chapters to the left. Not asking. Selfishness. James 1 and verse 5 of course. Famous verse. Famous verse. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally, freely, all the time. There was a servant of the Queen in England and one time he was always begging her for stuff and she said, you know, Sir John, when are you going to stop begging? And he said, when the Queen stops giving. Right? But the truth is the Lord never stops giving. He giveth to all men liberally and embraitheth not. But skip down to verse... 6 here, the next verse, it says, 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. Wait, what? We just read that he gives liberty, now it says don't expect anything? Why? Verse 8, A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Another hindrance to prayer is double-mindedness. Right? Double-mindedness causes us to love the things of the world, but we also love the Lord. We don't have so much time for prayer because we're being amused, right? We're entertained so much of the day that when it comes to time with prayer, asking the Lord for prayer, Is this they don't go they don't mix james 4 8 says draw an eye to god And he will draw an eye to you cleanse your hands, right? A lot of times we're so double-minded. We're so busy Uh working and doing these things which are you know in our eyes vastly more important than prayer. Have you ever been there? I have Oh lord, I got to do this this this this this today, so I don't have time to pray with you today lord hindrance to prayer, double-mindedness. We spend more time focusing on our favorite TV show or focusing on things that really don't amount eternal, and yet we then expect God to answer our prayers when we not draw nines to Him. You know, when I was in boot camp, and many of you can relate who've been in similar situations, they want to break your will. Amen, Brother Felipe. Amen, Brother James and many of you others. They want to get you to not even think, not even question, you do what they tell you. Right? I remember one time in the spirit of breaking people, they got our whole platoon, and this was after a month of being in training, we hadn't talked to anyone in the outside world, we didn't know what was going on, right? And they had us march 45 minutes to the place where we were gonna get our phone call. Man, you know, talking to your girlfriend or talking to your family, everyone was revved up, right? And the whole 45 minutes, I'm not thinking about military. You know what I'm thinking about? I'm thinking about phone call. And then we get to the place, the building where the phone call is, and they made up something that was not true, that we did wrong, and so guess what? We had to march all the way back. No phone call. And oh man, I was steaming mad. I was so angry and upset that whole 45 minutes, marching back. And I knew they did it on purpose. But you know what? After that point, I said, you know what? I don't care. Whatever they do to me, in my mind, I know it sounds silly. I was like, they can do whatever they want. But you know what they did? They broke me that day. Different guys break different ways. I saw guys do hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of push-ups because they break physically. Me, it was a mental breakdown. What are they talking about? They're talking about being single-minded because they understand that when you're in the military and you're on a mission, you don't have time to really think about home. You don't really have time to be thinking about what's going on in the world. You have only time to hear what that sergeant tells you. And what that sergeant tells you, you cannot question, you cannot doubt, you cannot be entertaining other thoughts. You have to be single-minded. or your own survival and for your buddies next to you, single-minded. But you know what the truth is? It's the same thing spiritually. You know, our hearts only have so much room, amen? Our heads have only so much room, our days have only so much time, and we fill it and fill it and fill it, and we say, well, Lord, we just don't have time for you. But that's the exact opposite of who he wants to answer for. He wants to answer people who said, Lord, you're first. Lord, I love them, and I care for them, and I desire to do well at my job, and I have these responsibilities You've given me, but Lord, You're number one. Not these. Not anyone else. You know, a lot of times we too, we feel like, well, I have to put them over the Lord because otherwise that relationship will suffer. We might not say that, but have you ever been there? Right? But the truth is, you put God in front of that relationship, and it'll flourish that relationship. We have things so backwards, why? Because we get double-minded, we get full of the cares of this world. And that's natural, and the Lord even said that through Paul. He said, look, as soon as you get married, you're gonna start caring for the things of the world, how you may please your husband. It's a fact of life, but what the Lord is saying is the person he wants to answer prayer for keeps the Lord number one. is single-minded. Does not question. When Jesus was here, He always did the will of His Father. He never questioned it. Why? Because He never entertained any other thoughts. Single-minded. So, hindrances to prayer. Not asking. Selfishness. Double-mindedness. And then I want you to go to two places really quick. Matthew 11 and 1 Peter 3. Matthew 11 and 1 Peter 3. I'll let you get there with your two hands. Matthew 11, 1 Peter 3. In James, 1 Peter is just a little bit to the right. 1 Peter 3, Matthew 11, not asking, selfishness, double-mindedness, and now an unforgiving spirit. Matthew 11, verse 25, famous verses, At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Sorry, I'm in Mark 11. I apologize about that. My T's and R's get messed up sometimes. Dyslexia. Mark chapter 11. I apologize about that. It's okay if you're not there. I'll read it to you. Mark 11, 25. And when you stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. And then 1 Peter 3, and this is very important for married couples, 1 Peter 3, this is a hindrance to prayer. 1 Peter 3, verse 7, Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them, your wife, according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and being heirs together of the grace of life. Why? That your prayers be not hindered. Your prayers be not hindered. You know, we're not forgiven at Mark 11 as far as our sins, but as far as our fellowship with the Lord. You understand the Lord doesn't want to fellowship with us when we have an unforgiving spirit. In the olden days, there would be guys that would come up at the end of every service, at the end of every sermon, and they would call them exhorters. And they would get up in the pulpit, and you know what they would do? They would exhort the people. And a lot of times they didn't just exhort for an altar call, or exhort for repentance, or exhort for salvation, but they would exhort for a biblical world called reconciliation. And they would exhort people in the pews who were at odds with each other, who had been offended by one another, who were against one another to go to that person. You know, the Bible says before you bring your sacrifice, if you have odd against any man, go and make sure that person... The Lord wants you to get right with your fellow Christian brother and sister more than He wants to have you give money in the plate. That's how serious the Lord takes this. This reconciliation. And you might think, well, I have no grudges, right? 1 Peter 3, you know, correct attitude for husband and wife not to hold grudges. Why would we hold grudges against our wife or husband? Yet we do, amen? Oh, he didn't make the bed for me this morning. Man, she didn't have dinner the way I like it. Right, Malachi? Isn't that what you always tell me? But, a lot of times, you know, we're creatures, As humans, we often get hurt by those who are close to us. It's just how it is. And the Bible knows that, and that's why it says not to have a grudge against one another. You know, I was praying, and I was thinking, Lord, do I have an unforgiving spirit? Is there someone I have a grudge with? And the Lord took me to a couple days ago where I was talking to someone, and out came an evil report against someone. And the Lord said, what you said about them was true. They did do that evil. But where I was not honored is you didn't say, but I've forgiven them. And when I'm going around and spreading an evil report, the Lord's not in that. Now, yeah, there is time, like Paul, to defend his ministry, and yes, there is a time to warn the simple and warn the sheep of wolves in sheep's clothing. I'm not going against that. But what I'm talking about was a guy who had personally attacked me, and I was complaining about him to someone else. And what I should have said was, you know, he did this, this, and this, but I've forgiven him by the grace of God. I should have said that, and the Lord smote me today. And I don't know about you, but has there been someone you've been talking about Maybe in the evil report, maybe it's true. You know, I know many Christians and they do an excellent job. You know, they, not in a bad way, amen, although there's those too, but they don't mention a lot of the hurt that someone's caused them. They just mention, oh yeah, we had to separate ways, or you know, it was an unfortunate, when really the truth is, they were put on the cross by Judas. But they don't mention any of it. Why? Because they don't want that to hinder their prayers, amen? They don't want a grudge or an unforgiving spirit, though it was a Judas, though they'd betrayed them, to get in between their walk with Christ. Because it can, brethren. It can. I've seen men used of the Lord in mighty ways in my own life. Amazing Christians. They were betrayed, and it was no fault of their own. But that betrayal became everything in their heart. Everything in their mind. And you know what it did? It destroyed their testimony for Christ. Why? It hindered their growth. Because all they could be consumed in was that betrayal. That's why the powers in forgiveness, before Stephen saw the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God, he said, Father, forgive them. Though Jesus was on the cross, Crucified. Separated from His God. He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's power. Because He didn't want any hindrances. Any hindrances. Now, Jesus will return with vengeance with His angels, but at that time, forgiveness. An unforgiving spirit. We looked at Asking not is a hindrance to prayer. Selfishness is a hindrance to prayer. Double-mindedness is a hindrance to prayer. An unforgiving spirit is a hindrance to prayer. And I want to turn lastly to the book of 1 John 3, and I'll show you lastly. The last main hindrance to prayer. 1 John 3 and verse 22. 1 John 3, verse 22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him. Answered prayer because we keep his commandments and do those things that are what? Pleasing in his sight the last thing as a hindrance to prayer is things that are unpleasing in his sight Unpleasing in his sight, you know a lot of times the Bible says in the book of Psalms He'll not hear us if we regard iniquity regard iniquity. That's not the sin where you you know Kind of enter it in and you know, it was wrong, but you did it but you're done with it regard iniquity is talking about a sin that you do often and You know it's wrong, but when it comes down to whether you want this prayer answered or whether you want this sin that we enjoy, we choose the sin. That's the regard of iniquity. We choose that. We choose that over, if we're honest, an answer to prayer. You know, there's not a failure in life except often it's a prayer failure. And there's not a sin in our life that proper prayer would not have avoided. What's hindering your prayers tonight? Maybe it's an unforgiving spirit. Right? Or a grudge you have. You know, there was a French king, King Louis XII, and when he came to power, many of his enemies Were in fear because they had spoken out against him they'd railed against him and now he took the throne And they got wind of a list that he had made where he had all his enemies and everyone that had been opposed to him. And there was a black cross next to each name and news spread like wildfire about this list. And people were fleeing Paris and they left to the country. Why? Because they knew the king was in power now and they had made enemies with him. But then the news came out after they had moved that the list was not a vengeance list, but a list of pardon. And the black cross next to each name was not to take vengeance, but it was a symbol that the king himself had been forgiven at the cross and wanted to extend his forgiveness. You know, that king understood the principle that, hey, I better get my accounts cleared Because there's no one worth having a grudge or an unforgiving spirit against that's worth hindering my prayers to the Lord. Maybe it's you have not because you ask not. You've been frustrated and you haven't been praying as you used to. Why? Because either you've gotten busy or you've just gotten frustrated. Maybe it's selfishness, double-mindedness, or displeasing things. You know, we spend a lot of time investing in prayer, investing in our lists. It would be a shame to get to the judgment seat of Christ and the Lord say, look, you see these? There's a hundred more I wanted to give you, but for these hindrances. Let's pray. Lord, we pray, God, that if, Lord, as we heard Your Word, we just do inventory tonight. Just take some time. And Lord, we ask that you'd point out in our heart if there's any, Lord, apathy in not asking, or if there's any selfish prayer requests we've had, or just our desire for the prayer requests is so we can get uplifted, we can be worshipped rather than you and your glory. Lord, we also want to see, Lord, is there something in us, Lord, that is double-minded? Is there something in us, Lord, that God is unpleasing to you? And lastly, is there anything that's where we haven't forgiven others, Lord, because we don't want these hindrances? In Jesus' name, Lord, just show us this evening, we pray.