The Hindrances Of Prayer (part 2)

Relates to the sovereignty of God. Prayer is much more than just asking God to receive. It's giving to God, and it's giving to God the praise, honor, and glory that He alone deserves. So that's very critical.

But praise in our prayer life is also important, because when we do come to God in intercession or in petition and supplication with requests, it gives a whole new light to our requests before God. And we saw that as a pattern in the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples.

So we do bring our requests before, and we do pray for others, but only after we've spent time praising Him. And when we see Him in light of who He is, then it gives new perspective towards our requests in intercession towards Him.

It's also important to praise God in our prayer life, because it helps us understand and answer questions such as, We brought up last week, why do we pray if we know that God is sovereign anyway, and He will carry out His plans no matter what?

That'll help us understand that. And we looked at Matthew 6, that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, it was a pattern of prayer that Jesus taught the disciples. When He said in Matthew 6, you should pray then in this manner.

Of course, as I mentioned, all I knew about it as a child was growing up in a Protestant church. We just repeated it as part of the morning worship service. You said the Our Father, week in and week out.

But Jesus taught the disciples this to show them and us a pattern of our prayer life. And how did He begin? He began with praise. The whole first part of the prayer was God-centered, theocentric, Our Father.

So when we come to God, the first thing we say, we have to remember who we are coming to, Our Father. Somebody brought up last week, I think it was Deb that said, you know, God is not the father of everyone, but He is the creator of everyone.

So that should remind us that as we come to God as our Father, this is the privilege that we have as God's children. Prayer is a privilege of a child of God. So Romans 8, for example, the Apostle Paul says that we have been given the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

The Apostle John in his first epistle said, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called what? The children of God. So this is the privilege of a child of God to come into the throne room of grace.

Our Father, and then that part of the prayer then continues in heaven. And we talked about heaven means two things when Jesus says that. It highlights the transcendence of God, that God is other, that God is beyond us, that He is above us.

It's the idea that the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 55, my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways and your thoughts, my thoughts above yours.

It not only highlights His transcendence, it highlights in heaven His sovereignty. Psalm 115 verse 3, for example, our God is where in heaven He does all that He pleases. So as we come to God, we understand who He is.

He is our Father in heaven. He is transcendent above us and beyond us, and He is sovereign. And then the prayer continues, hallowed be your name. Holy is your name. Not that we make God holy, He is holy by nature.

And it says, hallowed be your name. The name of a person was representative of their character. And in the same way, the name of God represents who He is at the inner core of His being. As we mentioned, the holiness of God is the only attribute in the scriptures that is highlighted three times, the thrice holy God of Isaiah 6.

When Isaiah the prophet saw God in His holiness, and he heard the angels saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. So we come to God praising Him first for who He is.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. A quote that I mentioned last week that is helpful in our perspective on prayer, what prayer is really all about, from R .C. Sproul.

He said, quote, we do not come rushing into God's presence arrogantly, assaulting Him with our petty requests, forgetting whom we are addressing. We are to make certain that we have properly exalted the God of creation.

Only after God has been rightly honored, adored, and exalted do the subsequent petitions of God's people assume their proper place, close quote. So we're entering into the throne room by our great high priest Jesus Christ.

So we don't come rushing right away with requests, though we get to that, but we come acknowledging who He is and praising Him for His character. And I gave you some practical ways to do that. For those of you who weren't here, I have some handouts.

Who wasn't here last week and didn't get this handout? So if I can get somebody to help me pass these out. Larry, thank you. These are just praise passages. Just raise your hand if you didn't receive these last week so Larry can get them to you.

These are portions of scripture. It's not exhaustive, but it's about 36 passages, both from the Old and New Testament. They are not all psalms, though psalms is a good place to begin. All the psalms are not praise passages per se.

There's a lot of psalms of lament. But even in those psalms of lament, you see the psalm is sometimes lamenting and then returning to God in praise and worship for God's deliverance. This morning I was in 1 Kings 8.

And you'll see a lot of times as... Turn there with me for a moment just to give you as an example. Thanks, Larry. So the point of these portions of scripture is to use them as a springboard to help you praise God in your prayer life.

Telling God how great he is, how glorious he is, how good he is. It's not so much to do a Bible study or your Bible reading as it were. You're reading the Bible and as you're reading, the characteristics of the Lord that you see there, his attributes, you worship him for what you see.

So I was in 1 Kings 8. This is a prayer of the dedication of the temple by King Solomon. And a lot of times you'll see as you're reading through these portions of scripture, these praise passages, they're just...

I mean, they're just so rich with theology in terms of who the character of God is. So you'll see a lot of times themes that are traced. Themes particularly, of course, as it relates to the character and attributes of God.

So as I was reading and praising God this morning through 1 Kings 8, for example, it begins in verse 15. One of the themes or characteristics or attributes of God that I saw highlighted was that he is a faithful God to keep his promises.

Solomon just kept saying it over and over again. Of course, it was in light of the fact that God had promised to David that somebody, his son specifically, would build a house for him. So he says in 1 Kings 8, verse 15, and he said,.

Then in verse 20,. You have kept with your servant David, my father, what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. And then he goes through this whole chapter and reaches a crescendo in verse 56.

And watch this. So as you read that, you just exalt God for his faithfulness to keep his promises, for being a covenant-keeping God. And it turns your attention towards him. The other thing that was consistent throughout this portion of Scripture was he talked a lot about the sin of the people of Israel.

And one of the things that Solomon highlighted was that sin was against God, obviously, but he repeated it constantly. Verse 33, Verse 35, Verse 46, Verse 50,. And forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions that they have committed against you.

And it reminded me, this is Solomon praying this prayer of blessing, the son of David, who said himself King David in Psalm 51, verse 4, I've sinned first and foremost against you. So it motivates me to praise God in that instance for his holiness because sin is first and foremost always against God.

So what I do, you can read the whole portion of Scripture in the passages that I gave you, or I read a few verses and once I get to something that highlights the character of God, I pause and then I praise God right there and then.

And then I continue reading. And there's a lot of passages that I gave you there. You can work through them from the Old Testament and some from the New Testament also. Great portions of Scripture. Another way you can focus your prayer life in praising God is to pull out a hymnal or you could pull out a chorus book that's a decent chorus book.

Not one of those 7 -11 songs. Seven words repeated 11 times. But you're, let's say you open, you're not necessarily singing. You can sing if you want. There's nobody around so it won't matter if you don't have a great voice.

But I read through the verse, The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the Word. So you start praising God that Jesus Christ is the only foundation of the church.

That the church is his new creation, 2 Corinthians 5 .17. You get to the second verse, elect from every nation. And you pause and say, God I praise you because you chose me before the foundation of the world.

So you praise God for what you're reading there. Same idea as you're going through the portions of Scripture. So praise is very significant and important in our prayer life. Today I want us to discuss hindrances to prayer.

I have seven hindrances we're going to look at from the Scripture. So let's get into it. Let's turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. And if somebody can read verse 7. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 7.

Thank you. You see the ending? Purpose clause. So that, why is the command for the husbands to do this? Okay ladies you can leave the room for a moment and I'll call you back now. Why? So that nothing will hinder your what?

Your prayers. Thus our title for today, hindrances to prayer. Husbands live with your wives in an understanding way. The Greek is, which literally means according to knowledge. According to knowledge.

And as Pastor Mike has highlighted for those of you who are in the IBS class in the evenings. It's getting to know your wife for who she is. According to knowledge. Live with your wives according to knowledge.

Says in an understanding way. Well you can't live with her in an understanding way if you don't know her. Getting to know her. And of course it says here as a weaker vessel. Not weaker in terms of spirituality.

In terms of their walk with God. But God has wired us different men and women. He's created us different. So understanding that is important. It's important. It's not to say that women are not strong Christian.

Absolutely not. I know for example my wife, she's been through a lot in her life. And God has used that to fortify her character. So she can handle a lot of difficult situations. Which later on have come up in her life and in our lives.

And she is very strong. I remember a funny story when she was giving birth to our first one. And she decided and I told her I would support her in whatever. She decided to do that. She would give birth naturally to all three kids.

I said I'm with you all the way. So the first one we're in the hospital. And everything's done natural. No epidural. So the nurses and her doctor were just amazed. They knew we were going to do this. But some of the nurses had forgotten or whatever in the midst of everything.

And they couldn't believe with the length of her birth pangs. And also the extremities of it because she was induced. They were surprised that she had not an epidural to help her out. And they said how is this possible?

We can't understand this. So of course I come into the conversation. I said this is very simple the answer to this. I said she's a strong Greek woman. So this is not to say that wives are weak or anything like that.

But they are different. When for example a husband says something to his wife kind of jokingly. I was just a joke. You know the husband thinks the impact of that is like this. To the wife the impact is like this.

So living with our wives in an understanding way. Knowing our wives how they are is important because it can affect and hinder our prayer life. As husbands we need to be gentle with them. We need to be compassionate towards them.

So that's a very important aspect of hindering our prayer life. According to knowledge. Okay the second hindrance to our prayer life. Let's turn for that to Mark chapter 11. The second hindrance is doubt.

And we'll look at a couple of passages on this and help us understand what it means to pray in faith. Mark chapter 11 verses 21 to 24. Will I saw you had your hand up early. You want to read that part?

Mark 11. I don't want to bypass you. I saw you had your hand raised. Mark 11 those four verses 21 to 24. Thank you. There you go. And who said the Bible is not charismatic? And whatever you ask just believe.

You'll have it. The abuse of verses like that is almost ridiculously funny. That if people in the charismatic realm and these false teachers and prophets. Who tell them that you don't have what you don't have because it's upon you.

You're not believing. This is in light of course the context of the fig tree. When Jesus spoke to the fig tree and it withered. But I want you to notice we read. I mean the the the hindrance there is in verse 24 as it relates to prayer.

Therefore I tell you whatever you ask in prayer believe. So to not believe is to doubt that you have received it and it will be yours. But notice the context in verse 22. Jesus answered them have faith in whom?

In God. So it's faith is always not how much faith you have. But who is the object of your faith? And Christ is highlighting here that have faith in God. That's the important thing. The object of our faith has to be in God as we pray.

Let's highlight some other verses that will help us and expand our understanding. Turn to James chapter 1. James chapter 1 verses 5 through 7. About what it means to ask in faith as we pray and not to doubt.

James 1 5 through 7. Larry go ahead. Thank you. Through 7. Yes. Thank you. And he continues in verse 8. He is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. So James describes here the two contrasting ways that we ask.

God is a God who gives generously. Every good and perfect gift is from above as he highlights later in the chapter verse 18. Specifically relating to the context of salvation and more beyond that. But here he says let him ask in faith with no doubting.

So to not ask in faith is to doubt God. Now the classic passage of course chapter on faith is Hebrews 11. But we're not going to go there. I want us to go to something else again to help us understand more about asking in faith.

And a great example of this is found in Romans chapter 4. So turn to Romans chapter 4. And as you turn there of course Hebrews 11 describes a lot what faith is. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.

The conviction of things not seen right. It's a hall of faith chapter. He who comes to God must believe that he is. But here is a great illustration of what in the person of Abraham of what the Bible means when it talks about faith.

Romans chapter 4 verses 18 through 21. Go ahead Gary. Thank you. Thank you. Of course this is in the context of Romans chapters 4 and 5 justification by faith alone. And it goes back to the Old Testament.

Paul does to use Abraham as a prime example. And specifically the promise that he's talking about here is the promise that he would bear a child in his old age. Question in verse 21. What was Abraham fully convinced of?

Verse 21. What was he fully convinced of that? What does the text say? That God would be able to keep his promises consistent with what I was reading this morning in first Kings chapter 8. That God is a God who keeps his promises.

That he was able to do what he had promised. That is why continuing verse 22 faith was counted to him as righteousness. That's imputation there. So he believed that what God had promised he would do because it's in the character and nature of God to keep his promises.

So when God has not promised specifically in the Bible anything but we're praying for something. Of course Abraham's faith was counted was based upon the word of God the promise of God that God specifically gave him.

Of course and we can have faith in God and trust him to keep his promises in the scripture specifically that he's given us. But if we're praying about something specifically a difficult situation in our marriage on a lost family member who we want to see them come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever it might be to pray in faith and not to doubt is to say basically to God. I know that you are able to do this. Now whether God does it or not in his sovereignty. It's the idea of Daniel's friends.

What did they say in the fiery furnace? We know that God is able to deliver us. But if he's doesn't. If in his sovereign will he decides not to we will not bow down. We will not worship another. So to pray in faith is not a charismatic legalistic thing where you feel guilty and say all you know my faith wasn't strong enough.

That's why this didn't come to pass what I've been praying about. God can answer and say his God always answers the prayers of his children as long as we're not along these things to hinder our prayer life.

And to not doubt means to pray in faith to say Lord I know you're able to do it. But as we will look at later all these things work together but not my will but yours be done as it were. We'll discuss it a little bit more about praying in the will of God.

So God I know that you're able to do this. I'm trusting you to do this. So it's praying that but also praying Lord help me whatever you decide to answer in this particular situation. Whether it's not now or or yes or no or Ephesians 3 20 he is able to do above and beyond what we ask or think.

Praise God for any of his answers. And that's what it means to ask in faith. That can be a hindrance if we're doubting God. Okay comments or questions as far husband's understanding living your wives according to knowledge and praying in faith.

Trust in God for how he answers. Okay here's another big one. Another hindrance to prayer besides not living with your wife in an understanding way and besides doubting. Third withholding forgiveness.

Mark 11. Now notice in a lot of these with our prayer life is we're praying to whom? To our father who is in heaven. Okay we think of the vertical. But notice in Scripture as we're beginning to see over and over again that the our horizontal relationships here on Earth are affect our vertical with God.

Husbands if you're not treating your wives properly your prayers are going to be hindered. And as we see here if you're withholding forgiveness from somebody go back to Mark 11 where we were earlier that will read from Mark 11 21 to 24.

But that passage continues. So Christ gives a couple of conditions as it were or hindrances to prayer. Mark 11. Let's read the next verse verse 25 if somebody can read that Mark 11 25. Go ahead Russ. Thank you.

Thank you. So when you stand praying to whom to your father in heaven, what does he say to do? Forgive. You're praying to God, but pause. What about those on a horizontal relationship forgive last week?

We looked at Matthew 6 don't don't have to turn there. But if you if you study that Matthew 6, we looked at the first part how we are to praise and worship God as the focus initially of our prayer lives.

But at the end when Jesus teaches a prayer, it's interesting to note that he only makes commentary about one thing in the prayer that he taught. And his only commentary on the own his own prayer that he taught the disciples was about forgiveness our father word in heaven.

Hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done as on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Then he says about forgiveness for whoever does not forgive his brother. Neither will your father in heaven forgive you because forgiven people. Forgive people. Forgiven people forgive people and Christ makes a connection in our prayer life to withholding forgiveness.

Now that is not to say if somebody has hurt you deeply. There's a difference in attitude. The one thing to say, you know, there is absolutely no way I will ever grant forgiveness to this person. You don't know how deeply they hurt me is unforgivable what they did versus.

I'm really having a hard time forgiving them, but I know because of God's grace in my life who's forgiven me much. I really want to forgive them Lord help me to grant forgiveness. It's not that we don't struggle necessarily with it, but to hearts desire to grant forgiveness when we know how much God has forgiven us.

So Christ is saying in Mac Mark 11. It affects our prayer life when we withhold forgiveness from those on a horizontal level as it were. Okay fourth hindrance to prayer any comments or questions on that on forgiveness as it relates to our prayer life.

Amazing because you know, we might not say it but in practice we or in our thoughts the way we look at things. We tend to compartmentalize things and this is a great thing as we look at prayer from a biblical perspective.

We compartmentalize things. Okay, we have our it's almost like American apple pie. We have this part piece of the pie over here and we have our work life our family life our home life our church life our prayer life, which is almost we think unrelated to everything else.

But as we're seeing it is related to everything else. It affects the way we treat our wives the way we withhold forgiveness from others in terms of praying to our father in heaven. Okay, the fourth hindrance which kind of encompasses some of the ones earlier.

Let's turn for this one to we're going to look at a couple of passages one in the Old Testament Psalm 66 verse 18. I call this the hindrance of sin or disobedience as you'll see from both the old in the New Testament Psalm 66 verse 18.

Carmen. Go ahead. Thank you. So when will the not the Lord not here based on that verse if what if we cherish? Okay, if sin in our in our heart, okay. New Testament the Apostle John 1st John chapter 3 verses 21 to 23.

Now, as you know as we turn in there John the Apostle is first epistle his main authorial intent. He had a few actually did right to expose some false teachers and false teachings narcissism being one of them, But his primary thrust in terms of his purpose of the thorough intent as we're turning to chapter 3 is chapter 5 verse 13.

I write these things to you who believe so that you may know that you have eternal life. So he's writing about assurance how we can be confident of our eternal life in Christ. And so he uses these kind of terminal this kind of terminology even here in this passage 1st John 3.

Let's go from verse 21 to 23 1st John 3 21 to 23. Thanks, Eric. Thank you. So he uses the term confidence. It's a term of assurance. So based upon this these verses, what is John saying? Why can we be confident that when we ask God in prayer we will receive what's that confidence based upon as this text highlights?

Okay, whether or not our heart condemns us in and how do we know? Our heart is not condemning us. Gary keep his commandments. Yeah, so one flows from the other. We know we have confidence. We know our heart doesn't condemn us.

Whatever we ask because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing in this site. Well, we always going to keep his commandments. No, of course can context 1st John chapter 1 if we what confess our sins.

This is Psalm 66 18 again. If I cherish in my heart, so it's not that we don't sin. But as a Holy Spirit reveals and convicts us for sin, we readily confess our sin to him and he is faithful and righteous and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteous.

So it's not the perfection of our lives as we've heard. It is the direction of our lives that we live a life consistent with his commandments and I love just turn briefly there because so important as it relates to this hindrance or condition for a prayer life.

1st John chapter 5, I mean, obeying the commands of God is a consistent theme throughout the book of 1st. John is also something that is a condition for prayer verse 3 for this is the love of God chapter 5 that we keep his commandments and I love this part.

His commandments are not what? Burdensome. If you love me, Jesus said. You will keep my commandments. I we do not because really. This is such a drag. I have to keep these rules and laws out of a love for the Lord Jesus Christ and in light of what he's done.

I do not because I have to because I want to and that is the motivation and also as it relates to my prayer life as I ask of God. I have the confidence that he will answer because I live a life that is pleasing to him.

Well, since we're in 1st John, let's stay there chapter 5. This is our next hindrance. So for hindrances so far not living with my wife in an understanding way according to knowledge second hindrance doubting not asking in faith that God is able to do it.

And I praise God no matter what he answers me withholding forgiveness is a third hindrance to prayer sin disobedience is a fourth. And here's another one not praying according to the will of God. We're in chapter 5 of 1st John for this one.

And let's read verses 14 to 15 and you'll see the same language here that John uses a language of assurance and confidence would like to read that Mark. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you. This is right after his purpose statement of verse 13.

And again, he uses the word confidence. We know that we have what we ask when we ask how according to his will goes back to our pattern that we established last week from Matthew 6 your will be done. On Earth as it is in heaven.

And that is the heart of a true believer. We ultimately want the will of God to be done. And so as we come to God in our prayer life as we come to him as we'll discuss next week more in terms of intercession.

And we say Lord this is situation or this difficulty. I'm going through or my loved one is going through whatever it is. Lord I bring it before you to the throne of grace. Help me to respond to the answer you give me accordingly.

But also I want to know that it is according to your will and I submit to whatever your will is in this situation. We pray according to the will of God not what we want but what he wants for our lives.

And as a father he always wants what's best for his children. All right. Two more hindrances to prayer. Let's turn to James for this next one. James chapter 4 in verse 3. James chapter 4 in verse 3. So why don't we receive in prayer what we ask based upon this verse?

Because why? We ask wrongly for the purpose of spending it on our passions. I call it wrong motives. You're asking with impure motives. God knows our hearts. I was reading about that this morning again in 1 Kings 8 where it says you, you only know the hearts of all mankind.

It reminded me of Jesus in John chapter 2 where he didn't entrust himself to mankind because he knew what was in the heart of man. It brought back memory of Jesus in Mark chapter 2 when he healed the paralytic and the scribes and Pharisees were not talking out loud.

They were thinking within their hearts. Who is this man that he does such a thing? And Jesus knew their hearts and exposed them for who they are. So this is an issue of the heart. We're asking but our heart is asking with impure motives for selfish reasons.

And James is saying do not receive what you've asked because you're asking wrongly, selfishly. It's contrary to what we said earlier. It's not praying according to his will, what he wants, what our father in heaven wants.

It's what I want. And you know you can be honest in prayer to God and say to God because as you read through the Psalms, a lot of the Psalms describe prayer as what? Calling out to God. Pouring your soul before God.

Psalm 142 and telling him Lord this is what I would desire but this should remind you of the garden. Lord if it's possible, take this cup away from me. But it doesn't end there. But not my will be done but yours be done.

So not doing it for selfish motives. Okay and one more. Luke 18. Another hindrance to prayer as we ask of God. Luke chapter 18 verses 1 to 5. And after we do this I'll close with some practical suggestions.

Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 5. Thank you. He explains here, Luke does, why Jesus told this parable from the outset. To always pray and not lose heart. Anybody ever here ever lose heart in praying?

So I have it written down the hindrance to prayer is giving up, not persevering in prayer. You hear these stories of the great saints of old in church history about, I mean their prayer life is just astounding.

And how they prayed consistently and perseveringly about things in their lives and about people in their lives. And Christ tells us here that we are to, and he gives this parable for that purpose, that we are to persevere in prayer.

But again it all relates together. I persevere in prayer about somebody, a lost family member I've been praying for years and they're more antagonistic now to the gospel than they ever were. But I pray according to the will of God.

And I pray not doubting, asking by faith and then praising God for whatever he answers in that particular situation. But I persevere in prayer. I always persevere in prayer. And again, all this asking God whether it's asking according to his will, asking in faith, making sure I'm not withholding forgiveness.

All of this remember is in light of who God is. So as I'm praying about the salvation of one of my lost family members, I praise God and say, Lord, I know that you are a gracious God. You are a God who is ready to forgive for anyone who turns to you and calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we pray. We pray for this person's eyes, spiritual eyes to be opened. We pray for the Holy Spirit to do a work of a miracle of rebirth and regeneration. So we consistently pray for that. And if we don't see the answer in prayer in this life, we might later on in the life after.

But the point is the Lord wants to teach us here that we are to persevere and not give up in praying. Because not only are we asking God for things, requests according to his will and not doubting in faith, but by praying, we're telling God in practice, I depend upon you.

Not only is my salvation, my initial justification completely dependent upon you, but my continued growth and maturity as a Christian in sanctification is dependent upon you. So if God were to ask you and me, are you dependent upon me for everything?

Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. We would say yes. Well, prayerlessness is saying to God, I don't need you. I can go on my own. So the Lord wants us to persevere in our prayer life. There are some basic hindrances to prayer that we need to be mindful of as we come to God in prayer.