Why are prayers not answered
Category: Prayer
Key Passage: Isaiah 1:15
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter number one in God’s Word. And we’re going to do a series on Sunday night. I don’t know how many; it may be just two, it may be more, but just why our prayers are not answered. Why our prayers are not answered.
And this is really just part one. But we’re going to start over in Isaiah. By the way, I was informed from our organ player tonight that it’ll just be John singing. But we’ll see. We’re still working on that a little bit. But anyway, back to the night’s message, you know. But God was so close this morning.
I was teasing with some of the men in basketball. They call that a triple double. And someone saved, someone baptized, and some join the church, John McKenna. And that’s what the Lord does. And the victory, those things, you see that on Sunday morning. But it didn’t happen. The victory didn’t win Sunday morning. It was probably a widow lady somewhere. Nobody ever knows about it, but heaven knows about it.
The spiritual victories come in prayer. Prayer is what it’s at. And the power, that’s where it is, in prayer. You’ve heard it said. You’ve heard some preachers talk about it, and they’re right.
But the apostles had seen Jesus heal the lame, make the blind see, the deaf to hear, and so many things. But they never asked Jesus to do that. They heard him preach the famous message and sermon on the mount. Well, they never asked the teachers how to preach, but they saw him pray. And they said, that’s the key right there. That’s the source of it right there. And they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
And prayer is it. And victories come. You want victories in your marriage? Pray. You want victories in your finances? Prayer. You want victories in your ministry? Prayer. You want victories in influencing people for the Lord? Prayer is it. And that’s the source. God’s giving us a way to plug into heaven, to God’s power, God’s might.
The extension cord, if you will, from heaven down here is called prayer. And it’s a thing of prayer. So we’re just going to take some time on Sunday nights and talk about this thing of prayer: why our prayers are not answered.
By the way, here’s this sad thing. Here’s the sad thing sometimes. We get just in the habit, or we get used to our prayers not being answered. And it becomes the norm. We don’t expect our prayers to be answered. We just kind of going through ritual, doing what we’re supposed to do, but we’re really not expecting God to answer. That’s sad.
If I go to the restroom and I turn those faucets on and water doesn’t come out, something’s wrong. Tammy, did you pay the water bill? I’m teasing, of course. If you go to your car and you put the key in there and you turn that ignition and nothing happens, something’s wrong. And yet we do the same thing in prayer over and over again, and we’re just going through life. If our prayers are not being answered, something’s not right.
And just a couple Sunday nights, the Lord leads, why our prayers are not answered. Isaiah 1, we’ll start there. And verse number 15. Would you stand please, if you’re able, as we read the Word of God together, Isaiah 1 and verse number 15 of God’s Word.
And he says, “When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.” Reminds me of this morning’s message: “Thou shalt not kill.” Not so I won’t hear.
Look over in chapter number 59 of Isaiah, Isaiah 59. Isaiah chapter number 59, in those first two verses. When you find it, would you say amen? Amen. Good deal. Isaiah 59, and verse number one, he says, “Behold.” Now when the Bible says, “Behold,” that’s kind of like, hey, look up, something big is about to happen. That’s what it means. It says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.”
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will—so maybe doesn’t say he cannot, but he says he will not hear. Don’t look it up, but Psalm 56:18: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” That regard has to do with kind of like harboring. If I’m just protecting it, I’m not willing to do anything about it. I ignore it. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
Let’s go, Lord, a word of prayer. You pray as I pray that God would speak to our hearts tonight. Father, Lord, I know, Lord, I won’t do a good job preaching it. Lord, we’re not interested in that. Father, I pray that you’d come. And Lord, I pray in the end result after tonight we’d have a more open prayer line with you.
Father, I do pray that you give some people a vision, Lord, of being prayer warriors and you hearing and you answering because we pray. Father, Lord, just give us a desire for a Christian life like that. Lord, would you use tonight to that end? We’ll brag on you and praise you for what you do. Lord, I’m asking for that. Lord, help me to say what you want said the way you want to say it. We’re asking in Jesus’ name, we pray and believe. Amen.
Did you notice he said there the Lord’s hand is not shortened that I cannot save? Last night we had a couple men, about five men gathering over here. We prayed. One of the men said, “Hey, let’s pray somebody gets saved today.” Hey, the Lord’s hand is not short that it cannot save. We didn’t plan on a young man raising his hand, and he’s been in services before, whatnot, and say, “Hey, I want to get saved.” But the Lord’s hand is not short, and people get saved in 2019. You said, “Man, it’s 2019 in America, the gospel is everywhere. Everyone’s heard the gospel.” No, no, the Lord’s hand’s not shortened that it cannot save. He can still save in 2019.
I thought about it years ago. Oh, my goodness, back in the dark ages when my wife and I got married years and years ago—I mean, I’m not saying she’s getting old, you know, but maybe your husband a little bit—but 26 years ago. And we wanted to move into a trailer, a mobile home, and wanted to buy it and so on. But everything’s good about it. But I contacted the man that owned it. And he said, “Well, we’ll put you on the list, but there’s three people in front of you.” I thought, well, man, we’ve got to pray about this thing.
The only problem was, once they said, everybody look up, everybody look up. Put your pens down and everything. Look up. Put it down. There you go. Put it all down. Look up. Put it down.
But they said, I went to night chapel. I was in night college a little bit then. And the preacher got up and this dirty preacher—sorry guy—said this: He said, “We want to have an answer to prayer. He said, ‘How about you praying after midnight for a couple hours?’” I like my sleep. I mean, my family knows Dad likes to sleep, you know, and don’t mess with Dad’s sleep. I like my sleep. And dirty, break your back, slide, rip—I mean, pray after midnight for hours. I can remember right? He said three hours after midnight. And then the guy had the goal to say this: “If you really want an answer to prayer,” he said, “I want you to come up and shake my hand afterwards and say, ‘You’re going to do so.’” Man, I lied. And then there’s other people that did it too, that even makes it worse.
Sure enough, I found myself up there in line shaking his hand. And I mean, you know, in college, I’m not graduated yet, or maybe I had graduated yet, but I was in college and the dorms and whatnot. You don’t get much sleep. But I don’t know. I can’t remember, maybe 3 a.m. or so, I’d set my alarm. And for a night or two, I’d wake up and I’d go pray. It wasn’t because I was a good Christian, just that guy put me on the spot, you know.
And a day or two later, I was at college and going through class, and they had an information desk. And people would call the college sometimes and leave messages. Then they had a speaker system as you’re walking down through the hallway, in between classes, and they’d say, “Someone, so, would you go to the information desk or whatnot?” And I heard my name, “Paul Chisgar, would you go to the information desk?” I thought, well, more demerits. You know, I’m in trouble again, you know. And not only that, but then I had a roommate come by. He said, “Hey, Paul,” he said, “a fellow’s been calling the dorm. We live off-campus dorm. And he’d want you to call him.” I said, “Well, that—what’s his name?” He said, “His name is Jason.” That’s the guy that owned the trailer. I thought, well, he’s probably just wanting to call me and tell me one of the other people, three people in front of us, somebody else bought it. And I said, “No big deal. I’m going to go to class and eat lunch. You got to eat, amen.” And after all that, then I’ll go back to the dorm. I might call then. You didn’t have cell phones back then, you know, back in the dark ages.
And so sure enough, went back to the dorm, and they had pay phones outside the dorm. And there was a note on there. And I said, well, let me call. And sure enough, Jason said, “I don’t know what happened, and all four everyone gone and get the trailer. It’s yours.” I told Tammy, “You got to go to work. Rob a bank or something, get the money and buy the trailer now,” you know. Hey, but prayer. God still answers prayers, folks.
Hey, it doesn’t matter if it’s 2019 or 2029, whenever it is. Hey, his hand is not short that it cannot save. God can still do miracles today. He’s as powerful as he was a thousand years ago. That’s what he’s saying. His hand is not short that it cannot hear. Then he says his ear is not heavy that it cannot hear.
You ever get an ear infection and you just get clogged? And you feel like your head’s got so much snot in there? That’s not funny, just not right. And I mean, anyway, but it’s got so, and you feel like it weighs about a thousand pounds, you know, your head, because it’s got all that in there. You ever have, man, where in the world does all that stuff come from? It just keeps coming and coming. And, you know, Brother Anthony says he’s there, and you can’t hear real good.
And he said it’s not a matter of his hand so shortened that it cannot save. It’s not a matter of his ears so heavy that it cannot hear. And God still hears. Old John Rice, he was a great preacher years ago. He was known for preaching on prayer. He would say statements like this: “Every one of your problems is a prayer problem.”
And one time as he got older, he was at a ladies’ meeting. And he said, “All right,” he said, “all right, how many ladies need a healing in your life?” And ladies were standing up all over, and they needed God to do something for them. He just believed in prayer. And he said, “I’m going to pray for it.” And old John Rice was old; I believe he was in a wheelchair at that time. And all these ladies are standing all over. And he got up to pray. And as a man of God, been walking with God for years and years and years. And he got up to pray. But in between all that, he kind of got a little confused. I mean, he’s like me; I don’t have Alzheimer’s. He got part timers, you know. And he got up when he went to pray. He got in his…
He would sometimes ask ladies if they want to have a child, and he would pray for them, and he began to think that’s what he was praying about. So ladies are standing up all over the congregation, praying for healing, and John Rice starts to pray for them to have babies. And it’s talking about a man of God who gets his prayers answered. Boy, you could hear ladies starting to groan. Oh, ladies were sitting down, dropping like flies. “Don’t pray for me to have a baby!” True story.
But old John Rice was out preaching one time. And, of course, he was the editor. He founded The Sword of the Lord. And he had prayed, “God, give me 20 subscriptions at a meeting he was at.” And had people raise their hand, and he gave subscriptions. They were to turn them in that night, whatnot. And he went back to the motel room, and he counted it up. There was only 18.
Man, he had prayed about it. He felt like God had answered him, and God’s going to give him what he prayed for. So the next morning, you just told by the man, if he believed in prayer, next morning, he went up, and he said, “All right, which one of you—there’s two of you—you forgot to turn your subscription in last night.” Sure enough, two preachers seriously raised their head, “Yeah.” And God gave him the 20. That’s what prayer ought to be. His ear’s not heavy that it cannot hear.
Y’all, when you pray, God’s listening in heaven. God’s going to do something. And I believe that. It ought to be that sincere with you.
It’s a wonderful thing for me. I think the first time in my life as a boy, I realized, “Hey, there’s a God in heaven. He hears my prayers.” Our family had an old car, and Dad had basically taken two cars and put a good car together out of it, you know, and sold the one. And our only problem was we only had three good tires on that car. Cars just don’t run good with three good tires, you know. And they had the family had us pray for a tire.
And no credit to me, mom and dad, they forced us to pray. Can you believe that, you know? And they taught us to pray for this tire. And sure enough, we’ve been praying for this tire. And a little while later, a day or two later, me and Jamie McCauley, my friend, we were walking down the railroad tracks, and we were pop bottle hunting.
How many ever been pop bottle hunting in your day and time? Yeah, all of us old-timers, you’re dating yourself there, you know. And back in the day, you got money for pop bottles, and you can turn them in some states—Michigan and whatnot—and still do it, you know, California, whatnot. And anyway, sure enough, we’re walking down the railroad track looking for pop bottles, and we’re walking down. There’s a ditch over here on the right side, and we’ll walk by. And I said, “Hey, Jamie, hold up here, something down there in the ditch.” And he said, “Oh, whatever,” you know, that type thing.
Sure enough, went down in the ditch. It was a brand new tire. I mean, you know, on tires, they had the little labels still. Had the paper on there still. And we, just, just a boy, we grabbed that tire, rolled it home. We weren’t big enough to carry it, you know, rolled it home. Said, “Hey, Dad, look at this tire.” And here’s an amazing thing—well, two amazing things. First of all, Dad said, “Boy, you’ve been stealing tires.”
And the second thing, out of all the different sized tires, it was just the exact one we needed. Boy’s a boy in my heart, I realized God hears prayers. Hey, you can actually get things from God in prayer. And that’s what he’s saying. Hey, his hand’s not shortened that it cannot save. He can reach from heaven into your life. And his ear’s not heavy that it cannot hear. He’s able to hear today.
It’s not the problem, God. Not lacking in power. But notice what he says, verse number two right there. Verse number two: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.”
And here’s the sad part. We get used to living our Christian lives where we’re just going through the motions. We’re doing all this dated stuff tonight. I mean, all the old fogy stuff today. Remember back in the day in front of the grocery stores, they had that horse? You remember that? You put the quarter in there, whatever, to get around? How many remember seeing a horse out in front of there? Yeah, come on now, yeah.
Most of us—Bella says, “My goodness, these are some old people around here,” you know. Much old fogies, you know. But sure enough, and, man, you get on there and you put that quarter in there, you know, and it goes through the motions. But, you know, you get off in the same place you were when you got on. And if we’re not careful, we’ll be that same way in our prayer life.
Well, I said my prayers. I have my prayer time, but we’re not gaining any ground. And God says here because of the sin in our life, having iniquity, a sinner heart. And God said, “No, I’m not going to hear you.” And yet we go on through our Christian life just playing Christian and playing church and playing having a prayer life.
Well, if I’m going to get real in prayer, if I’m going to expect God to answer prayer, I’ve got to be willing to get right. I mentioned this morning, but I felt like I’ve not been as close to the Lord as I ought to be in the last month or so and been so busy, whatnot. And boy, I’ve been trying to draw nigh unto God. And I, Thursday afternoon, took some extra time, went to an old prayer spot, and it seemed like the Lord reminded me of James chapter number four, verse of prayer. Would you look that up? James 4:8.
And boy, there’s been the verse that’s been on my mind and my heart this week: James 4:8. James chapter four, look at verse number eight. I want to get back to having answers to prayers. I want to get back to being close to God. I want to get back to God’s power and his blessing and his moving and his joy. Well, I’ve been praying, “God, have me get back close to you.” Here’s been the verse for me: James 4:8, “Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you.”
Here’s a good thing about that. Let’s see here. Let’s see here. Oh, DeAsia, can I use you for a second? Come on up here, DeAsia. Come on up, DeAsia. Come on up, DeAsia. Come on, girl. And DeAsia is going to be me and you and the rest of us. All right. DeAsia, don’t you just stand over there if you would, right there facing me.
And I’m going to play the Lord. I know I’m a sorry excuse for the Lord, but DeAsia, would you take a step towards me? You just stop right there. Good deal. You see how far? I don’t know. What do y’all think? She got about a foot? I mean, I’m not tall, but at least I’m right now taller than DeAsia. She’s probably going to be taller than me one day. We’ll see. I don’t know. But here’s the good thing: “Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you.”
Well, I don’t know, maybe two foot. DeAsia would just take another step to him. She may have about a foot or so. Hey, here’s what I’m getting at: God, when he draws nigh, he can gain a whole lot more territory. You draw nigh to him, he’ll draw nigh to you. It’s a wonderful promise. That’s a great promise. I’m so glad that when I take a step, he takes a step; his steps are a whole lot bigger. Our steps are so puny, honestly. But he’s gracious, and he sees our efforts. This is all drawn nigh to you. Thank you, DeAsia. I appreciate your help right there. Didn’t she do a good job? Let’s give her a hand. She did a good job.
Now look at the verse. Look at the verse. “Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you.” That’s not all the verse, so look at the rest of it: “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.” Well, I’ll be honest with you, I was just along with the Lord Thursday afternoon. I said, and the Lord brought that verse to my mind, and God—God was so merciful, such a blessing to me. God said, “I’ll draw nigh unto you.” And he said, “No, you need to clean your hands up.” I said, “Lord, is there anything in my hands? Some sins I need to get right with you?” And God brought something to my mind, to be honest with it. I’m not going to tell you what it is. Probably worse than you think. No, I’m joking with you.
And then he says, “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; purify your hearts, ye double-minded.” It’s amazing. When your heart’s not pure, you get double-minded. Boy, all week long, sometimes it’s a little bit easier, more tangible, to cleanse your hands—something you can touch, your sins—but then purify your hearts. Well, I’ve been trying to ask God—I’m not an ought, but I’ve been trying to ask, “Lord, you purify my heart.” Blessing I: “The pure in heart,” but they shall seek God. And the Lord spoke to me. One thing he said: “Hey, you want a pure heart? Don’t let any junk come in your heart. What you’ve been listening to, but what you’ve been reading, what you’ve been watching—what are you allowing in your heart?” And then you ask God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”
Now here’s what I’m getting at. Hey, if I want to have a true, sincere prayer life where I’m getting answers to prayer in my life, if I’m not willing to clean my hands up and get my heart right, I’m playing games in this matter of prayer. So preacher, I would love my prayers to get answered. All right, let me look at your phone. Let me see what’s on your phone. Hey, let me look in your refrigerator. See what’s in your refrigerator. Let me find out what you have on your radio dial. You really want prayers answered? What do you have on the radio dial? What do you have? What do you have in your clothes that nobody else knows about? What’s on all your different social media and all these? What do you have? If I’m going to have my prayers answered, I think I can have all that in hiding? I’m kidding myself. Not just my hands, but my heart.
You got envy, jealousy in there? You got a little bitterness in there? You got lust in there? You got worldliness in there? What’s going on in your heart? If I’m not willing to let God Almighty get a hold of my heart, by the way, by the way, if I have a critical tongue, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The Bible talks about her tongue seasoned, always seasoned with grace. And my tongue’s just sharp and I’m always cutting everybody, and I think I can just go to God in prayer and have my prayers answered? I’m playing games. I’m riding an electrical horse. Now I can get off of one spot and get off of the same spot.
If I’m going to get serious about God, “Lord, I want you to hear, and I want to go to you in prayer and believe you’re hearing and you believe you’re going to do something,” I’ve got to be willing to get my hands right, my heart right with God. He’s saying if I can live as worldly and however I want to, and God will hear all my prayers, he loves you friend, he’ll forgive you. But you’re kidding yourself if you think you’re going to have a God that answers all your prayers. Pardon me, draw nigh unto God. He draws nigh to me. God says, “You need to get your hands right. Need to get your heart right.”
Oh, friend, this thing of the heart. You see, your heart, if you’re not careful, it’s deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. And you got God’s Spirit to talk to you about your heart. It was all about you, you, you, my selfishness and me, me, me. Old friend, listen, God’s going to say, “No, no, your heart’s not right.” Got to get my heart right.
John Rice, I mentioned him a lot tonight, but John Rice was preaching one time about prayer. And a lady came to him and said, “Brother Rice, God doesn’t answer my prayers.” And John Rice said, “Well, have you ever tried?” And she said, “Yes, I try. I talk.” And he said, “What does the Lord say?” And she said, “Every time I go to him, he always says, ‘$800.’”
And John Rice said, “What do you mean?” She said, “I’m just telling you, every time I go to Him in prayer, he always says, ‘What about the $800?’” And John Rice says, “Well, what about the $800?” If I remember the story right, she started crying. Years before, I don’t believe her husband had left, she had children to raise, no money. And they were buying a house, had a house, and she decided they had good insurance on the house. And she secretly burned the house. And insurance—back in that day, $800 was a lot of money. The insurance gave her $800 for the house. She said, “All these years, every time I go to God and I get sincere in prayer, and I want God to do something for me, every time I do it, God always says, ‘$800.’” John Rice said, “God’s not going to talk to you, and not going to listen until you get the $800.” Oh, friend, I’m just riding an electrical horse. I’m not willing to get it right.
Hey, tonight be a good night for us as a church family. Be a great night for us to get clean. I’m talking about we can go to God in prayer and we believe God’s listening. We believe God hears. We believe God will do something because we’ve been willing to cleanse our hands and get our hearts purified in prayer.
Our heart—I mentioned already—our hearts can be so tricky. So what do you do? Look over in Psalms chapter 139, as far as getting a heart right. How do you get your heart right? I’m amazed at my heart; it’s so prone to wander. What do you do about your heart? Satan can plant things in your heart, you know that. Why, Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Acts 5:3. Why do you keep your heart right? Faults coming in your heart. And what do I do about my heart? We’ll look over in Psalms 139. We’ll find out how David—not perfect, but a good godly man used by God—had to do it.
Psalm 139. Look in verse number 23. Psalm 139, verse number 23 right there. God there, speaking through David, and how David, just prayer life a little bit, he said, “Search me, O God, and know my—what’s the next word?—heart. Try me, O God, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Hey, when’s the last time you let the Spirit of God search you?
When’s the last time you let the Spirit of God just kind of go through your life and through your heart, through your feelings, your thoughts? When’s the last time you said, “Holy Spirit, I need some cleansing. Would you just come through and clean on me?” When’s the last time, Holy Spirit, would you come through and clean on me? When’s the last time, Holy Spirit, would you come search me?
It’s a wonderful thing when the Spirit of God, when we allow him to do that, he’s very capable. By the way, we all need that because we’ve all got that sinful Adamic heart came from Adam. Boy, you’ve got to, and I’ve got to. You said, preacher, I don’t know what my sins are. I like that. You’ve heard me tell it before. D.L. Moody was meeting some men in prayer, men’s prayer meeting. And he said, “We need to get ripe, need to get clean.” And one man said, “Well,” and he said, “we need to confess.” One man said, “I don’t know what to confess. I don’t know what to confess. I don’t know.” And D.L. Moody said, “Won’t you just guess?” D.L. Moody says, “It’s amazing, every time he’s right.”
He just left the Spirit of God. What’s that thing in your mind right now? What’s coming to your mind? Maybe a thing in your life that’s coming to your mind. Yeah, that’s the thing. He’ll guide us into all truth. What’s that thing? The Spirit of God said, “Hey, if you really want to get clean, this right here—got to get it right.” What’s that thing in your heart? That bad thought towards that person? Hey, let the Holy Spirit…
Boy, if I’m going to stay right with God, I’ve got to say, “Lord, search me.” That last part, “Lead me in the way everlasting,” because I’m prone to wander. Now I’ve got to have the Lord. Can I remind you, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy.” Wonderful promise. It’s your prayers answered.
What’s wonderful when you get right with God? That’s a wonderful thing. I’ve told you this story when I was in, oh, maybe seventh grade, the neighborhood thing that was going through the neighborhood was shoplifting. And I’m ashamed to admit it, but I got caught up in a little bit. I never—I just, just maybe some candy here and there. A little convenience store, maybe it was a 7-Eleven back in the day in Florida, and we’d go in there and maybe just a piece of candy or two, but I participated.
One of those kids got caught. They got caught for stealing a shoestring. And yeah, sure enough, but they had to do community time. I thought, “I’m not doing that anymore. Uh-uh.” Now, I quit, praise the Lord. Well, that’s about it. I mean, I just got scared a little bit, you know. There’s a good scared.
And here’s about five years later. I’m about to go off to Bible College. And I prayed, “Lord, I sure would if you had blessed me. If I’m going to go to the Bible College and be a preacher, I want you to use me.” Now, I got sincere prayer for a while there. God brought that thing from five years before. I’m not saying everything in your life, I’m just saying for me.
So we lived a couple towns over. I rode over that town, Dundee, Florida. Looked up that convenience store. I watched. I made sure everybody was going to wait for everybody to leave the convenience store. Man, I don’t want anybody around, you know. Everybody left. And I went to the lady at the cash register. And I said, “Ma’am, I was a boy, a teenager. I stole from this store right here. And I’m coming back, and I want to give you some money. I don’t know, $20 bill or something, but I didn’t steal that much, but remember that sevenfold over in Proverbs, whatnot. And I said, I’d like to pay the store for them.”
And she said, “Well, how do you know I’m not going to put it in my pocket? I don’t know that. I just want to make sure I’m right. That’s when you and them.” She said, “That’s five years ago, whatever it is.” She said, “It doesn’t matter now. What matters to me is I said, ‘I’m going to be a preacher. Now I’m going to go out to Bible College. I’d like to have God’s blessing. I like to be right.’” She said, “Well, this is the craziest thing in the world.” She said, “What are the thing I’m going to do that?” I said, “I don’t know. I just want to get right.” I don’t know. She may have put it in her pocket. But I tell you what, when I left that store, I felt mighty good.
I left that store and I felt like God’s hearing me now. And I felt like the prayer line between me and heaven was opened up and God was pleased with my little bit of effort. I don’t know. Good chance she did put it in her pocket. That’s when her and whoever. Praise the Lord, I was right with God. Hey, it’s worth it. Get your hands clean. Get your heart right. It’s always worth it.
A former pastor, his daughter was in the hospital dying, as far as he knew. He was praying. God brought up an old—years before—a deacon he had gotten a fuss with. He had moved and pastoring a different church. He said, “Lord, I’ll get that thing right.” Tried to get on the phone at the hospital and call, get that thing right. He got it right, and his daughter is still living. Yeah.
You know, they say coon hunting. How many of you ever been coon hunting out there? Brother Marlin, look at that. That’s a fair view. I mean, been coon hunting, you know. And they say those coons are very curious animals. And I’ve been coon trapping. I’ve never out back here. We’ve trapped a lot of coons before, you know, crawling in our trailer over here, you know, in the insulation. Anyway.
But they say that sometimes you can just take an old log out in the middle of the woods, it’s falling down, take a knife or something, drill a good hole in there, put a good hole in there. And then put something shiny in there. Put your nice, brand new penny in there or something. And then drive some nails, kind of drive those nails in there slanted where they’re coming out in the hole a little bit. Make the hole small enough.
And that old raccoon, he’ll reach—he’s curious—and he’ll reach down in there to get that penny, whatever they shine. And they say that old raccoon, you don’t make it small enough where he boils his head up, he can’t get it out because of his nails. He can’t get his paw out. Now, if he’d let go of that penny or whatever it may be, he’d get his hand out. He won’t let go. He’ll grab a hold of that—just a penny. They won’t let go. Can’t get his paw out. A whole lot of Christians are hanging on to just pennies. I mean, just really, in the light of eternity, they don’t amount to anything. A bunch of pride in our heart and selfishness, wanting worldly things, yet won’t let go. Friend, I guarantee you, letting go of your sin would be well worth it when God starts answering your prayers. Sometimes you get in life and death situations. You want someone that’s dying to get saved or whatever it may be, and you get sincere enough and say, “I’m willing to let go of that sin,” and the prayer lines of heaven open up.
Or a Tory used to give this prescription for revival. I read it to you. He said, “I can give a prescription that will bring revival—revival to any church or community or any city on earth. First, let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God. If this is not done, the rest will come to nothing. Second, let them bind themselves together to pray for revival until God opens the windows of heaven and comes down. Third, let them put themselves at the disposal of God for his use as he sees fit in winning others to Christ. That is all. I have given this prescription around the world, and in no instance has it failed. It cannot.”
Hey, his hand’s not shortened that it cannot save. His ears—it’s not heavy that it cannot hear—but our iniquities, our sins. Well worth of getting thoroughly right with God. Let’s bow our heads, if you would, please. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed.
Let’s just as a church family, let’s do our best to get thoroughly right tonight. Let’s just say, “Hey, Lord, would you search me, O God? Won’t you know my heart? Try me, O God, and know my thoughts.” Would you do that? I don’t preach this because maybe any certain sin in one of his life. I preach this because we need God when he answers to prayer, when God’s moving.
You hear tonight, you say, “Preacher, I’d be willing just to go to God. Say, ‘God, would you search me?’ God, would you go through my life? Would you speak to me if I have some things that are hindering my prayer life? Maybe not right with your mate. First Peter 3 talks about that.”
I’m a preacher. I’m willing to let the Spirit of God go through my life. I’m going to ask God to search me tonight. If you’re willing to do that, preacher, I’m willing to go there tonight with the Lord. Let the Lord search me. That’s you tonight. You slip your hand in that, preacher. I’m willing to do that. I’m willing to do that. God bless you. God bless you. I’m going to let God search me. I’m going to ask the Lord, “Search me.” I’m going to ask the Lord to search me. I’m asking God, would you just search me? I see that.
Anybody else? I’m going to ask the Lord to search me, O God. Let me know if there are some things in my life I need to get right. So I’m answering this prayer. I’m willing to go to God and go to God and I’m willing to go to God and I’m willing to go to God and let God search me. I see that. I see that. Willing to go to God. God, search me. Would there be one more maybe? I’ll go to God and ask God to search me. Good. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.
I’m going to do this. We’ll not sing a certain song tonight. We’re going to pray, and we’re going to just have our organist and our piano play. Would you go to the Lord? Ask him to search you. Let’s get thoroughly right with God. I’m not saying anything, but I’m talking about me. I’ve been here this week, and I’m still there. I want God to purify my heart. It’s amazing. He seems like God to purify it, and I turn around and something else is in there. Oh, let’s just go, Lord. Lord, would you work in my heart? Cleanse my hands tonight? Would you stand? We’ll have what a prayer. Would you come just ask you to search you tonight?
Father, thank you for your patience. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you, Lord. No one’s ever came to you in sincere repentance and wanting to get right and willing to get right, and you’ve turned away. Thank you. You’re ready to forgive. Plenty sin, mercy to all that call upon you. Meet with us tonight. Cleanse us tonight. Father, I pray you to hear. We know you will. You’re capable. Well, thank you, Lord, for what you do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Original File: Why are Prayers not Answered - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunda PM 63019