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2 Samuel chapter 12, you're reading
from verses 15 through 23. The Nathan departed to his house
and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David
and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with
God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night
on the ground. So the elders of his house arose
and went to him to raise him up from the ground, but he would
not. 38. Nor did he eat food with them. 39. Then on the seventh
day it came to pass that the child died. 40. And the servants
of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead.
41. For they said, Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke
to him, and he would not heed our voice. 42. How can we tell
him that the child is dead? He may do some harm. 43. When
David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that
the child was dead. 44. Therefore David said to his
servants, Is the child dead? And they said, he is dead. So
David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself and
changed his clothes. And he went into the house of
the Lord and worshiped. And he went to his own house.
And when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. Then
his servant said to him, what is this that you have done? You
fasted and wept for the child while he was alive. But when
the child died, you arose and ate food. And he said, while
the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can
tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child
may live? But now he is dead. Why should
I fast? Can I bring him back again? I
shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Father God
we thank You for Your Word and I pray as we dig into at least
one of the themes that is in this passage that You would bless
the preaching of Your Word and help us to be encouraged to pursue
after You with our whole heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Today we're going to be looking at David's unanswered prayer. And I think all of us can relate
to him on that issue. We have had times where, if you're
anything like me anyway, that you've had quite a few unanswered
prayers. Even in this last week I've had
several unanswered prayers. And it can get discouraging when
you have lots of unanswered prayers. Now I say discouraging not so
much because we're not getting what we wanted. That might factor
in sometimes but especially because our unbelieving heart has this
tendency to latch on to unanswered prayers and to begin to doubt
God and wonder if God cares for us. And I think most of us have
experienced that even on trivial trivial prayer requests that
we've offered up. I have prayed, Lord, please don't
let me be late for this meeting. It's an important meeting and
this traffic jam has just got to move on. And the Lord has
not answered my prayer. I've prayed that God would open
the eyes of somebody to understand doctrine. And the Lord has not
answered my prayer. This guy seems as dumb as a rock.
You know, he just does not understand the doctrine. It could be a totally different
situation. But many of us have experienced
times where we've said, Lord, this seems like a reasonable
request. It seems like it's to your glory.
We're claiming your scriptures. And God has not answered our
prayers. And my own heart has been tempted
from time to time to doubt God's promises and to really doubt
that God cares about me at all. Now I banish that out of my mind
as soon as it comes, but it does come. And if you're honest with
yourself, I think you've had times in your lives where you've
wondered, does God care at all? I mean, I've had these doubts,
even though God has answered thousands of my prayers, some
in very miraculous ways, but that's what Satan loves to do.
He loves to tempt us. So I want to look this morning
at David's unanswered prayers. Certainly there's a lot of other
themes we could have looked at in this passage. But I want to
see what are we to make out of these things. And just in summary
form let me say for sure we should not question that God loves us. God clearly loved David and He
expresses His love for David's second child by Bathsheba in
verses 24 through 25. We'll look at that on another
Sunday Lord willing. For sure we should not question
whether God is at work in our lives. He was definitely at work
in David's life and Just glance at verse 25. You'll see the prophet
Nathan Sends to David a message, you know indicating God still
cares about David. He's still at work in David's
life For sure, we should not allow these unanswered prayers
to dampen our faith or our enthusiasm for the Lord. And I think David
was a wonderful role model on that point as well. In fact,
when it comes to faith, I think unanswered prayers sometimes
strengthen our faith. They cause us to grow in faith.
John Captain said, Faith is not proven true by answered prayer
but by unanswered prayer that does not make us waver or give
up on God. So this morning I want you to
take heart. If you like David have had unanswered
prayers, verse 20 and 23 and the Psalms that David wrote during
this period of time, show that David continued to worship and
to trust God even when his prayer was not answered. So let's dig
into the text a little bit and we're actually this morning going
to go quite a bit beyond this text because it's so important.
I want to fill in some of the gaps that are not here. I don't
usually do this but let's start first of all with some reasons
why God does not answer our prayers. In this chapter we see at least
two, there's hints of other reasons as well, but at least two reasons
why God did not answer David's prayer. And we're going to read
verses 13 through 14. So David said to Nathan, I have
sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the
Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. And before
I apply these verses, let me just point out that the death
he is talking about is not a capital punishment at the hands of men.
We've already seen that there was no possibility of bringing
capital punishment against David because there were not two witnesses
who were unimplicated in the same a crime who could cast the
first stone. Okay, and that was something
as just limitations that God put upon sinful governments as
some of the checks and balances he put in place. It's one of
the reasons why Cain could not be put to death. Now God could
have put him to death and we're gonna look at that in a bit,
but Cain did not have witnesses who could have done that. Even
with Achan who confessed his sin, Joshua still did not put
him to death until he sent people to investigate to see whether
that is true. I mean, you've probably known
of people historically who are suicidal and have confessed to
things that they have not done. And so one of the checks and
balances in the scripture is that there has to be two witnesses
who are unimplicated in the crime and they have to cast the first
stone. So David was not in danger of
capital punishment. So what death was David in danger
of receiving? Well, I'm convinced that he was
talking about the disease and the death that God brings to
believers when they are in rebellion against His Word. And there are
a lot of scriptures that talk about that. You're probably the
most familiar with 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul says that there
were many people in Corinth who were weak who had sickness and
some who had even died because they had taken the Lord's table
while they were in rebellion against sin. A lot of people
in America just think, that's back in those days. God doesn't
do that anymore. God is nothing but love. And
I am convinced that there are many diseases that are in the
church of Jesus Christ that are a direct result of unrepented
sin. And I've told you stories of
miraculous deaths that God has brought. 1 John 5, 16 through
17 speaks of sins that can result in a believer's physical death.
So I believe David was in danger of imminent providential death,
death at God's hands because he had not yet repented. So even
though he got off the hook of capital punishment, he was not
until he repented off the hook of providential death. But in
verse 13, God promises to lessen David's discipline. He says he
would not die. But God did not completely remove
all of the discipline. When we read Psalm 38 last week,
we saw that David had excruciating pain from a venereal disease
that he had contracted. And the baby may have died from
the same disease. We aren't told what disease the
baby had. So part of the discipline was
the disease and part of the discipline was the baby's death. Now we're
going to be seeing in a moment it was perfectly appropriate
for David to be pleading for mercy, pleading for God to lessen
this discipline. But the fact that the baby died
indicates that it was God's decision not to do so. 14. However, because by this deed
you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.
And I think we looked at that sufficiently last week. But it illustrates that discipline
can be one of the reasons for unanswered prayer. And people
think, that didn't really make sense. Why would God forgive
if He's going to discipline somebody? Surely forgiveness means you're
going to remove the discipline. Just think of discipline as discipleship.
It's a part of God's training in our lives. And in English,
the root for both words is really the same. But repentance often
lowers the amount of discipline for our children but does not
necessarily remove discipline completely. Let me read you a
scripture along those lines. Psalm 99 verse 8 says, You answered
them, O Lord our God. You were to them God who forgives,
though you took vengeance on their deeds. So God forgave but
he brought discipline. The two can go hand in hand.
Now verse 14 also highlights a second reason for unanswered
prayer. And in this case, it was for the sake of others so
that they would not blaspheme. We looked at that last week and
we saw that God did not want David to get away without any
consequences for his sins. And people think, oh, God just
sweeps in under the carpet. There's no problems if you sin.
In fact, I'll ask for forgiveness before I sin, just to make it
more convenient. Now, God doesn't want us thinking like that at
all. And we saw last week that Psalm 38 describes the horrible,
horrible disease in gory detail. But let me quickly give a bunch
of other reasons why we could have unanswered prayers. And
these other scriptures show us not because God doesn't care
about us. In fact, it's precisely because he loves us, uh, that
he, that he does this first one. Psalm 68, 66 verse 18 says, if
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. major
ongoing sin that is unrepentant of will close off an individual,
a family, a church, and even a nation from having their prayers
answered. And if you look in 1 Samuel chapter
8 sometime, you'll see that there's a verse in there that says, When
a nation becomes rebellious, does not repent of its sins,
God brings tyrants and bad rules and bad policies into place.
And even when the people cry out to God and say, could you
please remove this from me? God's not going to answer their
prayers. And I really think America is in this state. We sing all
over this nation, God bless America. And that hymn, that song, right?
But I think we need to be accompanying that with with prayers of repentance
on behalf of our nation. Because apart from that, that
former prayer will not be answered. Another reason is if prayer is
impossible to answer in the positive. If you've already conceived a
baby girl, it's not going to do any good to be praying for
a baby boy, right? The the baby's gonna be what
it's gonna be. You're not gonna change anything
once that's already happened. And by the way, just as a side
note, I would strongly encourage you to be praying for your children
long before they are conceived. Pray for their health and their
salvation and God's ministry in their lives. We prayed for
our children before they were conceived, while they're being
conceived, after they're conceived. I mean, we need God's blessing
in our lives in that regard. But there are many prayers that
are just not possible for God to answer because they're contrary
to His design for creation. Sir Eric Roll told about a youngster
that was fervently praying that God would make Tokyo the capital
of France. And he thought, man, that's rather
odd. But it turns out that he had missed that question on his
geography exam. And can you imagine the trouble
we'd be in? The topsy-turvy world we would
have if God answered yes to all of our whimsical prayer requests. A third reason for unanswered
prayer is that God foresees problems that might come by saying yes. Now we don't know if that was
the case with this baby, whether things would have turned out
really bad if God had spared that baby's life. But we do know that there are
a lot of scriptures that indicate God sometimes gives a no. He
gives a request denied because it would otherwise be harmful.
And you can think of the picture in your outline of the baby reaching
for that you know, electrical outlet. And the parents say,
No, don't touch. Or a baby's touching a hot stove
or wanting to touch a hot stove. And that baby just thinks, You're
such a killjoy. You parents don't understand.
You're just taking away all fun from my life. And it's really
that difference between a young toddler's understanding and your
understanding that a child needs to grow into before he's going
to understand, Wow, that no was a blessing. Thank you so much,
parents, for telling me no. And the difference between our
understanding and God's understanding is far, far greater. And we just
need to by faith say, okay, Lord, I don't understand it, but I
know your no is a great blessing in my life. He has his reasons
for doing it. In his wonderful book on prayer,
B.M. Palmer told the story of a woman
who had spent the entire summer away from her children. and she
was extremely anxious to get back home. But when she went
to get onto the ship, They must have overbooked or something
because all of the rooms were sold out and she couldn't get
on there. And she wept bitterly because she knew it was going
to be another two weeks before any room on any ship would be
opened up. But sometime later when she discovered
that the ship she would have been on sunk, all of a sudden
she realized, what a blessing. Thank you, Lord, for not answering
my prayer to be able to get onto that boat. A loving God is in
control and David knew that. A fourth reason for unanswered
prayer is that God foresees blessings that will result by not giving
us our request. Elijah begged God, please God
let me die. I'm ready to die. And God refused
that request because he had something special in mind and spectacular
in mind for Elijah's life. Moses begged God, please let
somebody else lead Israel out of Egypt. I don't want to do
it. He came up with all kinds of excuses and he's begging God,
please, I don't want to lead Israel. God would not answer
Moses' request in the positive because he had spectacular things
in mind for Moses and unbelievable blessings flowed because of God's
no. No, I'm not going to give you
what you have asked for. If David could have seen the
joy in this baby's eyes in paradise after it had gone through that
painful sickness, he would have recognized, okay, yes, there
is a sense in which God had something far, far better for this baby.
David had prayed for healing. God gave that baby permanent
healing. Let me tell you a story I got
from a local town newspaper in Georgia. Tom Benefield told a
story about his grandpa on his mother's side. He was a carpenter
back during the Great Depression. And he was struggling to make
a go of things. But he loved the Lord and he
sought to serve and minister to poor people in America. But
they also had this program where they were helping an orphanage
in China. And the church had gotten together
this huge long list of things that they were going to send
to the orphanage because it was in desperate need. And as a part
of his work, he was assigned the task of building these shipping
crates out of wood. And after he'd gotten everything
packed, crated up, sealed, and sent off, he walked back to his
car and went to pull the glasses out so that he could drive home,
and his glasses were not in his pocket. And he looked all over
the place. He couldn't find them. He knew
he had put his glasses on that morning to come because he couldn't
really drive without him. So he retraced his steps. He's
looking everywhere and praying to the Lord, Lord, please help
me find my glasses. So then he's replaying in his
mind, what did I go through? And as he's replaying in his
mind, it suddenly dawns on him when he leaned over, The the
crates when he was packing them it probably slipped out of his
pockets and ended up in a crate somewhere. So he had just bought
those for 20 bucks that morning. Back in the Great Depression,
20 bucks was a lot of money. And he was just sick about this
because he didn't have a lot of discretionary money. So with
a sickening feeling in his stomach, he realized, OK, those glasses
are headed off to China. God had not answered his prayer
to help him find his glasses. He started complaining bitterly
to the Lord. Lord, it's not fair. I've been very faithful in giving
of my time and money to Your work and now this. But it was
too late. Several months later the director
of the orphanage was on furlough in America and he was visiting
the various supporting churches. And when he came to Tom's grandpa's
church, the missionary began by thanking the people for their
faithfulness and supporting the orphanage. And let me read you
the next part of his report to the congregation, as told by
Tom. But most of all, I must thank
you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the communists
had swept through the orphanage, destroying everything. Including
my glasses. I was desperate even if I had
money there was simply no way of replacing those glasses Along
with not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every
day So my co-workers and I were much in prayer about this then
your crates arrived when my staff removed the covers They found
a pair of glasses They found a pair of glasses
lying on top. Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though
they had been custom made just for me. I want to thank you for
being a part of that. The people listened, happy for
the miraculous glasses, but the missionary surely must have confused
their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses
on their list of items to be sent overseas. But sitting quietly
in the back, But sitting quietly in the back
with tears streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized
the master carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way. And
you know what? If you could see the future the
way God can see the future, I bet there's all kinds of unanswered
prayers that you have offered up where you'd say, Yes, Lord,
I agree. I'm rejoicing that you have not
answered that prayer as I wanted you to answer it. And David actually
did that in verse 20. 2 Samuel 12 verse 20. So David arose from the ground,
washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes. And
he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. And what's
remarkable about that is David worshiped even though he did
not yet know what God's plan for the future was in terms of
his unanswered prayer. By faith, and it takes faith
to do that, by faith, he got up, he cleaned himself up, he
put on a new pair of clothes, he went to worship and adore
the God who controls all things and who loved him. Now another
reason for God's no answers is that a yes may really not be
in our own best interests. Maybe you've asked for more money
or you've asked for a better position at your job or some
other thing and God knows if he gives that to you it's going
to be a stumbling block. It's not going to be in your
own best interest. Maybe there's dangers that are
associated with the answer to that. Before my mother got married,
she was traveling home from missionary medical school to Detroit to
spend Christmas with her parents. And at the connection, they were
waiting on the plane, waiting, waiting. Finally, they made everybody
disboard from the plane because of icing on the wings. So she
traded her ticket in quickly to get a train ride. And as she's leaving, she's hearing
that they've fixed the icing issue and everybody got back
on board and she figured, well, I'm just going to go ahead and
continue on with the train. Well, at exactly the same time,
My dad who had no eyes for my mom at that point in his life
was back at the missionary medical training school and he suddenly
had God so impressed upon his soul that he needed to pray for
the safety of this woman that he got on his knees And
he just intensely prayed. He said, I don't know what the
danger is, Lord, but I pray that you would give this woman safety.
And he continued to pray until God gave him a release. and felt that his prayer
was answered. Well, it was later discovered
that this plane got iced up as it was taking off. It crashed
and everybody died. And so there was a situation
where if God had said yes to my mother's desires, she'd be
dead. I wouldn't be here. And it made
my dad, just as a side note, realize, wow, if God wants me
praying protection for this woman, maybe he's got something in mind
for me. Maybe he wants me to marry her. And he did, of course.
And so he had other purposes there as well. But God has His
purposes for our unanswered prayers. When Amy Carmichael was a child,
she used to pray fervently, Lord, give me blue eyes. And God never answered her prayers. She retained her brown eyes.
And later when she was in India, she just realized those brown
eyes were perfectly crafted by God because it helped me to blend
in with the population in India And they would have been intimidated
by the blue eyes. He would have looked so different.
But God knows what he was doing. Garth Brooks in a song, Unanswered
Prayers. where he calls pleading with
God, pleading with God, Lord please help me to marry, you
know, is his sweetheart in high school. And God did not answer
that prayer and looking back on that years later he realized
what a horrible, horrible choice that would have been. It would
not have been a life partner that he needed. And so when a
loving God says no to David, David gets up, he washes himself,
he worships, he trusts the God who loves him. Sixth, there are
times when saying yes to our prayers would be very bad for
other people. There was a father who realized
that his daughter was stringing along three fellows. And for
their sakes, he had to say no to her desires. He did not want
her hurting these young men's hearts. And here's what clued
him in to her insensitivity to the fact she was stringing them
along. He found this note pinned on the bulletin board beside
the family phone. Daddy, I'm going to wash my hair. If Tom calls, tell him to call
at 8. If Herb calls and Tom doesn't, tell Herb to call at 8, but if
they both call, tell Herb to call at 8.15 or 8.30. If Timmy
calls and Tom and Herb don't, tell Timmy to call at 8, but
if they both call, Tom and Herb, Or one calls, tell Timmy to call
at 830 or 840, Tina. And I sometimes wonder, do our
prayers sound as confusing and mixed up to God, you know? We want to have our cake and
eat it too. So if it's not in the best interest
of others, God will sometimes say, no, we are not praying according
to God's will. Seventh, we may simply not need
what we are asking for. We just don't need it. A father
wrote back to his son in college and said, I'm enclosing $10 as
you requested in your letter. Incidentally, $10 is spelled
with one zero, not two. God sometimes does that with
us, doesn't he? He gives us our request, but
not really the way we prayed it. He gives us what we need,
not necessarily what we desire. And here's what Philippians says.
My God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. All of our need, not necessarily
all of our desires. Now God has many, many times
given me more, far more than I have asked for. So this is
not an infallible reason, but it is a reason that God sometimes
gives. Eighth, God may have something
better in store for us. Mary and Martha asked Jesus to
heal Lazarus, and they were bitterly disappointed when he failed to
do so. But after Jesus raised Lazarus
from the dead, they could see that his answer was far better,
far more glorious than what they had asked for, and they certainly
were not going to complain about it. A ninth reason for unanswered
prayers is that our prayers may be at cross purposes to other
people's prayers. I mean, think about it. If people
on both sides of a war are praying that their side will win, you
know, he's only going to be able to answer one side's prayers.
You know, same goes if I'm praying that one team will win and Scott
Polsky's praying that a different team will win, you know, only
one of us can have that prayer answered, right? Probably Scott's
gonna get his prayer answered because he's much more interested
in the game than I am, but... Okay, the... 10th one, praying
for things already finished. David at least knew this much
and he quit praying the moment God's providence made it very
clear what his answer was going to be. There's no point, as I
mentioned earlier, in praying for a baby boy if your wife is
already pregnant. It's going to be what it's going
to be. The 11th reason is illustrated in the man born blind. In John
9 verse 3 Jesus said, How many times had His parents and His
brothers and sisters and He Himself prayed for healing? Lord, You could heal me. Please
bring Your healing. And yet God had left all those
prayer requests unanswered until Jesus prayed and He answered
Jesus' prayer. Was it because they didn't know
how to pray? They never have any answered prayers? No, that's
not the reason at all. The reason God did not answer
their previous request for healing was that a no brought more glory
to Jesus. And I think that's exactly what
the situation was with Johnny Erickson Tada. God's no to prayers
for healing resulted in incredible glory being brought to God through
her books and through her ministry which is called Johnny and Friends.
And so I think that's a very important reason. And it's actually
a good example for number 12 as well because God's no opened
up a lifetime of challenge and opportunity for her. God's no
to Moses opened up 40 years of adventure and digging deeper
into getting to know God. 13 is that there are times God
won't answer our prayers because He wants us to fill the need
ourselves. 1 John 3 basically says in effect,
hey, don't pawn off your responsibilities on somebody else when I've given
you the finances and I've brought the poor person to you. Here's
what he says. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his
brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does
the love of God abide in him? James 2.16 says that when your
prayer is be filled, be clothed, be warmed, and you don't do anything
about it, it's a useless prayer when it's in your power to be
able to do so. And many of our prayers are prayers
we could easily answer ourselves. We pray that politicians would
change And we never do anything about it. We never write letters.
We never contact them. And it's so easy to be involved
in that way. Just talk to Sarah, you know,
with Write Your National, Write Your Congressman campaign. There's ways in which we can
be a part of the answer. We pray that a missionary would
have funds and we don't give to him. Spurgeon tells the story
of how he met with his large board and was going to have them
pray for a really pressing need that had come up. And just before
they prayed, he said, wait a minute, before you begin this prayer
meeting, there's something I'd like to do. He took out a sheet
of paper and wrote CH Spurgeon gives 50 pounds and he passed
it around for the others to fill in just to see what amount of
money they could fill in. By the time the paper came back
around to him, they had a praise meeting instead of a prayer meeting
because the fund had completely been met just by the commitments
from the people on that board. And the Lord has many times stopped
me from praying and just convicted me, Phil, you just go do it.
It's in your power to do it. So don't be like spiritual congressmen
who always want to solve people's problems with other people's
money and other people's efforts. God has good reason to say no
to such a prayer. Number 14, I think should be
obvious. James 4 verse 3 says, you ask and do not receive because
you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures or your
lusts. And so if your request is sinful,
your motives are sinful, obviously God's not interested in answering.
Or sixth, it may be bad timing. David wanted so badly to build
a temple for God and God says no David It's going to be your
son Solomon who's going to build this house for me and he gave
his reasons When Lazarus got sick the sisters sent to Jesus
and said you got to get here. It's urgent you got to get here
right away and Jesus didn't come quickly and He waited and He
let Lazarus die because timing was essential for the glory of
God. The last reason given in your outlines is that a yes answer
may not be possible in God's plans. Now, obviously, in the
abstract, Scripture says all things are possible for God.
But if you read that verse in context, he's indicating all
things are possible that are consistent with God's nature
and consistent with God's plan. Scripture says God cannot deny
himself, so he's never going to go against his plan. And it
says God is impossible for God to lie. It's impossible for him
to sin. So nothing can go against his
nature. And so Jesus prays, O my Father, if it is possible, let
this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.
He said, if it is possible. I am sure if there was any way
that we could have been saved without Jesus having to go to
the cross, the Father would have fulfilled that request. And you can think of many examples
where God has to deny someone's prayer as being impossible. You
know, there's two men who are praying that they will be able
to marry Sally. Well, God's only going to be
able to... maybe none, neither of them. But it could be a perfectly
appropriate, a perfectly godly prayer And yet only one of those
men's prayers can be answered. And so keep in mind that within
God's will there are good prayers that cannot be answered. But
always God has His reasons. It isn't arbitrary. His plan
is perfect. So hopefully just going through
those reasons has sparked a little bit of encouragement in you that
God's not arbitrary, you know, and He's always got reasons that
are for your good and for His glory when your prayers are answered. But while it's nice to know that
He has His reasons for saying no, it's also helpful to know
how He says no. And actually, maybe it's not
even a no. Maybe it's a wait. God wants you to persevere in
prayer, and He's just having you to wait. But I want to give
you five ways in which God says no, so that you'll be able to
recognize them. The first way God does it is
by making a yes providentially impossible. And that was certainly
the case with David here. Once the child had died, there
was no point in continuing to pray. Now, obviously, it's not
an absolute principle because there have been people in history
who have been raised from the dead. But I think generally speaking,
you realize, OK, providentially, God is no longer... There's no
point in praying because God has answered no very specifically
here. It won't do much good to keep
praying that a different congressman will win the election after somebody
else has gotten into office. Maybe you could change your prayer
and say, eh, shorten his term, Lord. You could do something
like that, maybe. But he's already elected. If
you've been praying that so-and-so will marry you and they marry
somebody else, okay, it's a pretty clear answer. So providence,
that's the first way. Another way God says no is through
the Bible. And you might think that this
was the situation with David here because Nathan was a prophet.
He's bringing inspired words from God that this baby will
surely die. And I'll deal with that in a
little bit because judgments are different. They're always
conditional, prophecies of judgment. We'll get to that in a bit. But
I'm talking about something clearly laid out as a moral principle
in the Bible. Let's take divorce as an example. A woman divorces
a man and it's a sinful divorce, not a biblical one, and he is
praying, Lord, bring her to repentance and please restore our marriage.
That is a perfectly appropriate prayer to make. Even after a
divorce has happened, there is no problem with getting remarried
to that person again. But once that woman marries another
man, even if that second man dies, She cannot come back to
the first husband. And you'll find that in Deuteronomy
24, 1-4. You'll find it in Jeremiah 3,
verses 1-2. God says it's an abomination.
The whole land is cursed when that kind of thing happens. And
by the way, it's one of the areas that I totally, totally, totally
disagree with Bill Gothard on, at least in his earlier writings.
I don't know if he's changed his mind recently, but he mandates
that people divorce the second spouse and come back to the first.
And the Bible says, no, you cannot do that. Now of course there
are a lot of times when a no is a no right from the beginning.
Some of the things that pastors pray for in this city should
be obvious to them. They should not be praying for.
God's already given a no. I've heard pastors in this city
pray for more not welfare. What's it called
where you get grants from the government and stuff? In fact,
one pastor was praying that his church would get a grant from
the government. I was just blown away. It's just
very frustrating to me when I see stuff like that. But if you see
pastors who are praying when God's already said don't pray
about that, you know there is probably a lot of Christians
who are praying just because they're ignorant of the scriptures. And So somebody prays, Lord,
please bless the preaching of this lady. And God says, No,
this lady should not be preaching. I'm not going to bless that preaching.
Or they say, Well, I know my son is in rebellion, but Lord,
please bless him anyway. And God says, No, I've already
said in my word, I'm not going to bless that kind of prayer.
So we need to fill our minds with the Word of God so that
we can understand before we even start praying, okay, that's not
even an appropriate prayer to be making. We need to know God's
no's ahead of time. Another way that God says no
is through guidance. God showed Paul to stop praying. He didn't want him praying anymore,
that prayer request. I think an interesting example
of this though is in the last verses of the book of 1 John
where John tells us that there is sin not leading to death and
there is sin that leads to death. And he says, if a brother commits
a sin that is leading to death, I don't want you praying for
him anymore. Don't even pray that he'll be healed. Stop praying
for him." You wonder, well, how do I know if a brother is sinning
a sin unto death? How do I know I shouldn't stop
praying for anything? And I would say that it's through guidance,
God's guidance. I've had times where God has
made it crystal, crystal clear that I need to stop praying a
given prayer request and I quit. I quit praying about that. So
guidance can be a factor. Another way in which God says
no is by removing the desire from our hearts as we mature. What was once a compellingly
urgent desire in our hearts is suddenly unimportant to us. And
I've seen God do this over and over again in people's lives.
When our desires become conformed to God's desires, then our prayers
are more and more being conformed to the Holy Spirit's prayers
as He is interceding within us. And sanctification frequently
takes care of that question why. Another way in which God says
no is that He gives us our heart's desire in a totally different
way than we had anticipated. I don't think any one of you
would complain if you had been praying for a red $2,000 Chevy
Caprice and God gives you, you know, a newer
$10,000 blue Honda or something like that. It's got 80,000 less
miles. And He just gives it to you.
I mean, that's way above beyond what I've asked for, okay? So
that would be a no that you say, okay, great. That's awesome,
Lord. I'll take this Honda over that Chevy Caprice. But let me
end quickly with three more lessons. And the first is, don't be fatalistic. You might think that verse 14
is as clear a no as you could get. After all, doesn't Nathan
say, the child also who is born to you shall surely die? Wasn't
David living in rebellion to God's declaration by fasting
and praying for seven days? And I don't think so. God didn't
command him not to pray. Now, if God had said, and I don't
even want you praying about it, then yes, he would have been
in disobedience to God. But I think David was actually
being a role model for us both in this passage and in the Psalms
that he wrote during this period. He was a model of how to avoid
fatalism. He was being as aggressive in
his prayers as God was allowing him to be. And let me explain
a little bit on this. I have met Christians who no
longer pray that God would turn America around because they say
it's too late on the slippery slope downhill in Romans chapter
1. They believe God has said no
before they even start praying. But I want you to notice, and
let's quickly read through verses 15 through 17. Then Nathan departed
to his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore
to David, and it became very ill. David therefore pleaded
with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all
night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose
and went to him to raise him from the ground, but he would
not, nor did he eat food with them. Why did David pray so earnestly
for this child? Hadn't God already made his no
quite clear? Wasn't this just a waste of energy?
Well, think about Nineveh. Jonah was sent to Nineveh with
an inspired message, you're going to be destroyed in 40 days. And
God did not destroy Nineveh. Some people say, wow, is that
a failed prophecy? Is God's word not inerrant? No. What the situation is, is
that all prophecies of judgments are conditional. And Jonah understood
this. That's why he didn't want to
go to Nineveh. He knew this is God's general
pattern, that He'll bring a judgment, and as soon as people repent,
He will back away from that judgment. And he wanted Nineveh destroyed. That's why he didn't want to
go there. He knew this is the general way that God works. Here's
a scripture you can write down. Jeremiah 18 says that all God's
prophecy prophecies of judgment are conditional. He says the
instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck
up to pull down and to destroy it. If that nation against whom
I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster
that I thought to bring upon it. So David knows it's never
wrong to pray for mercy. He knows the child is not dead
yet, so he perseveres in prayer. And I think we can take our cue
from David and not be fatalistic. As long as you can claim the
scriptures as the basis for your prayer, keep praying till a yes
either becomes impossible Or God through guidance clearly
leads you to stop praying. Now the next lesson is that once
it becomes impossible have an attitude of submission to God
like David did. Verses 18 through 23 show David's
ability to turn it all over to God once the final decision has
been made and to not grow bitter. And we've got to learn how to
relinquish our heart's desires and not stubbornly hold on to
them when God says that's the final answer. No. beginning to
read at verse 18. Then on the seventh day it came
to pass that the child died, and the servants of David were
afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, indeed,
while the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he would
not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead?
He may do some harm. When David saw that his servants
were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore
David said to his servants, Is the child dead? And they said,
He is dead. So David arose from the ground,
washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes. And
he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. David had
such a confidence that God's knows are always the best that
he was able to worship and adore God in faith even though his
heart was still hurting. You think he felt like worshipping?
I doubt it. I doubt it very much. I doubt
that he felt like worshipping but by faith he did what was
right. He took the actions of faith
against all feelings. Then he went to his own house
and when he requested they set food before him and he ate. Then
his servant said to him, What is this that you have done? You
fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when
the child died, you arose and ate food. So he said, While the
child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can
tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child
may live? But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring
him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall
not return to me. So here's the question. Are you
able to relinquish your desires and say, Lord, I give them as
a gift to you. I'm no longer going to hold this in my heart
now that you have said no. And some people say, I can't
do that. It would be hypocritical. I don't feel like doing that.
I can't go against my feeling. Yes, you can. Christian life
is not primarily about feelings. It's primarily about obedience,
the obedience of faith. And if you just think of it this
way with this illustration, Think of your life like a train where
the engine is your mind and your spirit and the coal car where
you're shoveling in the coal to keep that engine going is
your will and the caboose is the feelings. If the first two
on that train are headed in the right direction, eventually your
feelings are going to come into line. And what I just encourage
you to do is buy faith, submit to God, worship Him and adore
Him. Do it even if you do not feel
like it and you will find your feelings miraculously changing. You will find healing start to
develop when you do that. The last lesson that I draw from
this whole subject is that we need to learn to be led by the
Spirit in our prayer life. And I should point out that God
is gracious. Even when we are praying dumb
prayers, you know, even when we're praying wrongly, the Spirit
of God still is interceding from within us, perfecting our prayers
and saying, I know his needs. I know his heart's desires. I
know his struggles. And so I'm going to pray to the
Father what really needs to be prayed. And it's really so cool.
Let me read from Romans 8. Paul said, likewise the spirit
also helps in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should
pray for as we ought. So he's admitting even for himself
that there are times we simply do not pray right. But that's
an opportunity to trust the spirit to lead and I think that's what's
going on when he calls us in the scripture to pray in the
spirit. Anyway he goes on in Romans 8, but the spirit himself
makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit
is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. And we know that all things work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are the called according
to His purpose. So even during those prayers
where we're asking something out of God's will, the Spirit
knows our hearts, our needs, and He intercedes to the Father
from within us in ways that will be working together for our good
and for His glory. And here's the point. If you
do not offer up the prayers because you're afraid, hey, I might be
praying contrary to God's will, then there is no opportunity
for the Spirit to be interceding through our prayers and perfecting
our prayers. It's much better to risk praying
wrongly and to have the Spirit aiding you in your prayers than
to have no prayers whatsoever. So to me 2 Samuel 12 is just
a marvelous, it's a rich passage on the meaning and the method
of prayer. And by the way, prayer is the
major theme this whole year. You're probably going to get
more sermons on prayer before the year is out, maybe even a
conference on prayer. But we really want in every way
we can to stir this congregation up to prayer. But let me end
by just reading two quotes. The first is from C.J. Mahaney's
comments on Mark 10. He said, I want to celebrate
unanswered prayer. I want to thank God for all the
prayers I have prayed sinfully motivated that the Savior hasn't
answered. I want to thank God that He is
sovereign, not sentimental. I want to thank God for all the
times when I have approached the Savior demanding that He
do for me whatever I ask, that the Savior's response was not
simply, you don't know what you're asking, but that He withheld
an answer to that prayer. I am grateful to God for unanswered
prayers. The second quote is a poem written
by a Confederate soldier. He titled it, The Blessing of
Unanswered Prayer. I asked God for strength that
I might achieve. I was made weak that I might
learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might
do greater things. I was given infirmity, that I
might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might
be happy. I was given poverty, that I might
be wise. I asked for power, that I might
have the praise of men. I was given, excuse me, I asked
for power, that I might have the praise of men. I was given
weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all
things, that I might enjoy life. I was given life, that I might
enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for,
but got everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my
unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all people most richly
blessed." And basically he is saying there is a sense in which
even our unanswered prayers are answered. And they are answered
well. They are answered very well by a loving God. who cares
about us, knows about us, and is working all things together
for our good. He's not just ignoring you. And how we respond to those
situations will impact whether we're moving forward spiritually
or whether we're moving backwards. So if you have been discouraged
by unanswered prayers, I urge you to do like David did. Wash
yourself Get up, go on and worship. Adore the God who loves you and
cares for you. Let's pray. Father God, we thank
you for the example of David, even in his weaknesses and in
his sins and how he dealt with those sins. He is an example
to us. And I pray, Father, that you would help us week by week
to grow in our ability to press deeper into you. Even unanswered
prayers, may we find them a great privilege to have been able to
offer them up knowing that your Holy Spirit is working within
us giving exactly the prayers that are needed on our behalf.
And so may we, with that reminder, never cease from praying, obeying
Paul's admonition to pray without ceasing. Bless this, your congregation,
we pray in Christ's name. Amen.
Unanswered Prayers
Series Life of David
It can be very discouraging when many of our prayers seem to go unanswered. Our unbelieving hearts easily latch onto these unanswered prayers as reasons to doubt God. This sermon shows the blessings of unanswered prayers.
| Sermon ID | 9953161844160 |
| Duration | 53:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 2 Samuel 12:15-23 |
| Language | English |
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