“Why are Prayers Not Answered?”

Readings: Psalm 16, Galatians 5:1, 13-25, Habakkuk 2:1-4 Matthew 7:7-12
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on June 26, 2022

Matthew 7:7-8   "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

In the light of such words, why is it our prayers often seem to be unanswered?

You knew somebody who was ill. You prayed fervently that God would heal them. They died. Was your prayer unanswered?

An opening came up in your job. All the pieces fitted together. You were prepared, a promotion was overdue, and it would do you and your family good. You prayed about that position. But they passed you over and brought somebody in from outside. Was your prayer unanswered?

You lost a stone out of your ring. It was a ring that had both actual and sentimental value. You prayed that God would help you find it. You never did. Was your prayer unanswered? Unanswered prayer is one of the challenges that we face as Christians. We believe in prayer. We practice prayer. We don’t always see answered prayers.

Let us start be putting the question in the right perspective. This is not God’s problem. This is our problem. A problem that stems partly from the fact that in asking the question, we show ourselves to have made up our mind what we believe prayer is and how prayer should work.

Surely prayer is not just about asking, but also about listening and talking and meditating and thinking and dreaming and praising. Prayer is not begging favors from a big old Mr. Meanie in the sky!

If God is Sovereign of the Universe, the all-powerful creator and sustainer, it seems fair to conclude that God is under absolutely no obligation to answer our prayers in the way we feel God should.

The Bible, that volume of 66 books that are designed to bring us to faith and to build our expectations in what God can do, gives us some startling examples of prayers that were not answered in the way people had hoped for.

Moses prayed that God would allow him to enter the Promised Land, but he died on top of Mount Nebo. The prophet Habakkuk begins his book with the words, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” (Habakkuk 1:2)

Paul prayed three times for the removal of a thorn in the flesh that was hindering his missionary labors, but as far as we know the problem haunted him for the rest of his life.

Jesus, the Son of God and our Savior, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Father would remove His cup of suffering. But He drank that cup to its bitter depths!

How are we to understand these instances?  Was God simply not listening, taking no notice? Again, we have to question our own assumptions about how God should act. For some reason we expect God to say ‘Yes’ as an answer to whatever we ask.

There are other absolutely reasonable answers. Such as;
•    “Yes, but not in the way that you are thinking of”.
•    “Yes, but not yet”.
•    And of course, “NO” is also a valid response!

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” But you may not receive exactly what you are asking for, (particularly if you are demanding a ‘yes’)… seek and you will find an answer, knock and the door will be opened, but behind it may not be precisely what you expected.

Unanswered prayer, I say again, is our problem, not God’s problem. God always has an answer; our problem is that it’s not the one we asked for. Now there is a biblical rationale to this.

God operates on a different agenda to our agenda. The things we count as all important, things such as money and possessions and status… God tells us these are insignificant… the things we invest with little significance, things such as solid relationships, honoring and respecting all peoples worth and dignity, looking to the needs of others as much as our own… God tells us that these are the big things about life on planet earth.

Listen… here is the answer in a nutshell. “Why are prayers not answered?” Because prayer is not all about asking. It’s about submitting our wills to the will of God. That’s why Moses died on Mount Nebo. That’s why Habakkuk felt God would never come around, that’s why Paul never had the thorn in his flesh removed, that’s why Christ had to struggle and sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane…prayer is about disciplining our lives that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is an attempt to line up our agenda with God’s agenda.

An illustration. Mum and a child are going shopping. So Mum makes up her list of what they need. Food. Drink. Bread. New socks. And so it goes. Maybe even a few treats thrown in. Meanwhile the child has heard they are going shopping and is making up their own list. Bike. Skateboard. Fishing line. Sponge Bob Square pants X-Box game, all the Disney products they have in stock, a dog, a monkey (if they sell monkeys... who wouldn’t want a monkey?)... .so the list grows.

It is obvious which list of items is going to make it to the check out. The child is going to be very disappointed if they expected their list to be fulfilled. Sad thing is, sometimes our prayer lists are more comparable with the shopping list of the child than the mother, more filled with wants than needs, more concerned with what we want than what God wants for our lives.

Now, if mum and child sat down together and made the list, then you know what? The child would know what to ask for! This also applies to prayer. In prayer we are called to line up our agendas with God’s agenda, in order that our service and worship of God may be effective and real and alive!

Rather than talking about unanswered prayers, let me phrase the question slightly differently; and ask, “How can we take steps to pray about the right things?” I suggest 3 steps;

Pray with Persistence

Be assured, God wants us to pray. Out text makes it clear it is a good thing to ask things of our Father in Heaven. Jesus tells us ASK, SEEK and KNOCK.

ASK: When we ask of God it means we see our need of Him. It means we believe God can meet our needs.

SEEK: This indicates there is some effort involved in our asking. We can pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, but that does not remove from us the responsibility to work for our daily bread. We can pray “Thy Kingdom Come” but we still have to work to bring the values of God’s Kingdom to bear upon the kingdoms of this world.

KNOCK: When you were in school you wouldn’t go and casually knock on your principals’ study door, unless you had something you really needed to talk about. You wouldn’t go in there and say in a random fashion, “Hey dude, did you see the game last night!”

It’s not that God is too busy to hear our prayers, rather that our prayers have to be from the heart. ‘Knocking’ implies persistence in prayer. It doesn’t mean we have to go on and on and on about things to God. It does mean that when we pray, we must be serious about the task. Pray with persistence.

Pray with Patience   

The preacher C.H. Spurgeon said waiting was like a long sea journey that brought back treasure from distant lands. ‘Coasters’ were small boats that carried coal and ordinary things from port to port in the same country, hugging the coastline as they traveled.  But the great treasures came from the larger ships that sailed out of sight on great oceans. The point being… some things are worth waiting for.

Be patient. Prayers are answered in different ways. As we’ve seen “Yes, but not now” “No” or “Well, Yes but nothing like in the way you expected” are all valid answers.  God’s agenda of importance differs from ours. Pray with persistence, pray with patience. And thirdly…

Pray to a Person.

Christian prayer is not asking that the “Force will be with you.” We are not channeling supernatural forces or seeking to be a conduit for some divine stream of consciousness.

We address our prayers to ONE Jesus described as a heavenly Father, a Father who wants only the absolute best for all of His much loved and cherished children.  In prayer we are seeking to meet with God up close and personal.

Why are prayers not answered? Well... it all depends on what you mean by prayer and what you mean by answering. If you are asking; ‘Why doesn’t God give us everything we ever dreamed of and run the world in the way that we think is best’… then the answer is simple. There is a God. And it is not you.  

Prayer is not trying to force God’s arm to do what we want, but an attempt to align our lives with the will of God. In that process the desires of our hearts often need to be refined and redefined. Such a process cannot be determined by ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ answers.

The problem of unanswered prayer is best approached by seeking to deepen our personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The “Who’ of prayer, is a whole lot more important than the “Why?” of prayer.

Trust that when you pray, God knows best!

 It is in that framework that Jesus offers to us these words. "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

The Reverend Adrian J Pratt B.D.

"Does it pay to be good?"

Readings: Psalm 37:1-24, Isaiah 65:1-9, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39.
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, June 19, 2022

Many times, in our lives we are faced with the question "Does it pay to be Good?”

When you first leave home and are no longer under your parents’ authority. When you are confronted with a temptation that seems to hard to handle. When you try and give up a habit that you know is doing you more harm then good. When business is going badly, and an opportunity comes along that look’s rewarding but questionable. When problems in a relationship have appeared and somebody appears on the scene that offers everything your current relationship doesn’t have. When you must make an honest decision that nobody else will ever know about. 

Does it pay to be good?

I read recently of a woman who was mad at her husband for being good. He was a sales manager in a large firm, and they lived well. One of the directors asked him to start pushing a household appliance that had been remade from defective products. He wouldn’t do it. He lost his job. His wife was bitter. She didn’t think that it paid to be good.

It’s not a new question. The ancient Hebrews throughout their history always felt that there should be an equation between conduct and reward. That when you did good you should be rewarded for it. Correspondingly, when you did bad you should be punished.

As they looked around, they started to realize that life’s not like that. Some people served God wholeheartedly and seemed to get nothing but trouble. Others were out and out rogues and prospered. As we look at peoples experience today, we may conclude that nothings changed. Does serving the Lord count for anything? Does it pay to be good?

To seek an answer, I’d like to look at verses from Psalm 37.
The Psalm begins “Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers.”

It starts with a warning. Do not become jealous of people who appear to be doing well but are living immoral lives. Do not emulate them or admire them. Don’t allow envy to cheapen your lifestyle or make you compromise your values. Just because somebody else appears to prosper from doing something you know in your heart is not right, that is not a call to follow their example. The Psalm goes on to say harsh things concerning wicked folk who prosper.

Verse 2 “They will soon fade like the grass”
Verse 9 “The wicked shall be cut off” (cut off that is from God’s love)
Verse 10 “Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there.”
Most cutting of all…
Verse 13 “The LORD laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming.”

Every action we take produces results. Decisions towards unrighteousness or wickedness in this life do not take place in a vacuum. Life has eternal consequences. What goes around comes around, if not in this life, then for sure in the next.

Presbyterians believe in salvation by faith, not by comparison. We believe that saying to God, “Hey, I was just going along with the crowd”… is not a good reason for God to pat us on the back and say, “Good job!”  

We believe that God’s Word teaches that we are not to mould our lives according to any pattern of twenty first century morality but by dwelling in God’s love. We believe that whatever we welcome into our lives in the immediate future not only effects the way we live tomorrow but also the welcome we should expect in eternity.

Consider Psalm 37, verses 14 and 15 “The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to kill those who walk uprightly; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.”

These verses are like the words of Jesus to Peter at the time of His arrest, “Those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword”

We are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking “Does it pay to be Good?” we should ask, “Does it pay to invest our lives in half-truths, deceit, violence, immorality, or prejudice?” Sometimes the short time answer may be, “Well it got me what I wanted!” but always the long-term repercussions outweigh any temporary benefit.

When we want to take money out of the bank, we must draw that money from funds that we have invested. Money lending agencies encourage us to take out money we don’t yet have so as they can profit from the interest we will return to them, but eventually we have to pay it all back.

Consider good actions and bad actions as a form of collateral. Bad actions contribute to a pool of negativity. Good actions reinforce our relationship with God. We can only draw strength from what we have invested in. If our actions create a pool of negativity, then we are going to be lost when trouble comes. If we have invested positively in other people’s lives, then when trouble comes, we have the strength of God to draw upon.

Verses 18, 19 and 24 illustrate this well.
“The LORD knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will abide forever; they are not put to shame in evil times, in the days of famine they have abundance.”

Verse 24: “Though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the LORD holds us by the hand”.

In the work God has called me to do I have had the opportunity to observe people from diverse backgrounds in many different circumstances. I have observed one undeniable fact... it is those who have a mature and longstanding Christian faith that are stand the firmest when the tough times come along. There is no guarantee in Christianity against trouble, but there is a guarantee against defeat.

In times of illness, bereavement, or tragedy, it is those who know themselves children of God, not because of any merit of their own, but because of Christ’s death and resurrection… it is those who have invested their lives in seeking to do things God’s way,  who stand firm. They know, from accumulated experience, that God will not abandon them. Yes, they may fall, but they know God is able to pick them up again. Paul, a man well acquainted with setbacks and troubles, wrote to a Roman Church struggling with persecution;

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 8:35-39)

It is those who grow in the knowledge and love of God who gain an understanding that those who cut moral corners never find. ‘Good actions’ build resources into our lives that can hold us when the storms come along. Good actions do not earn for us our salvation. We are saved by grace alone through faith. Good actions, and by good actions I mean actions that are a response and reflection of the goodness of God, reinforce our relationship with God.

Verse 3 through 7 of Psalm 37 outline three principles that can guide people who desire to do good things.

The first principle is found in verse 3 “Trust in the Lord”
That’s the place to begin doing good. Trust that in God’s hand your life will come to no harm. That it will be fruitful and grow. That God only wants the best for you. That God’s love is the love of a perfect parent. Good actions grow out of a good relationship with God.

The second principle is found in verse 4 “Take delight in the Lord”
Some modern translations have, “Seek your happiness in the Lord.” Not everybody associates delight with God. They think of God - and words like service or holiness or wrath or judgment come to mind. They look for happiness elsewhere, in material things, in films or books, food or drink. 

The verse continues, “Take delight in the LORD, and God will give you the desires of your heart.” Until our hearts find their true home in God, they will always be restless. Until our hearts find their center in Christ, we will always be off-center. Until we find the joy of the Holy Spirit, we will always be seeking happiness in other places.

A third principle is verse 5 “Commit your way to the Lord”
Wholehearted, unreserved commitment to God results in God’s will being done in our lives and through our lives transforms the world. We may not see immediate results… verse 7 counsels us… “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently” for God to act.

You may sometimes feel that by holding to God’s standards you are missing out on the things of this world. No matter. The things of this world are temporary and passing. Tempting, yes, but fulfilling, no. We must wait on God, relying on God’s timing. To wait on the Lord is to declare our dependence on God for all we need in life.

Three principles:-
•    Trust in God
•    Delight in God
•    Commit yourself to God.

Does it pay to be good? It’s a question we ask every day in numerous ways. The Psalmist points us towards an answer.

I’ll be honest, there have been times when I have doubted, when I’ve contemplated how, if my life had taken a different path,  I could have earned higher wages, had less responsibility, had more influence, gained more ‘stuff.’ I have questioned whether it pays to be good, whether wholehearted commitment to Jesus Christ pays off in this world.

But times of doubt have been outnumbered by times of blessing. I have discovered things about the love of God and the provision of God that have left me awestruck. I have a wonderful inheritance as part of the family of God. I have a life with an eternal perspective that goes far beyond anything this world can offer.

Following Christ pays great dividends, particularly when times of struggle and trial come our way. Does it pay to be good? There’s only one way to find out. Do it. Try it. Stick with it. Hold to it. Do the kind of good that reflects the goodness of God. Do the kind of good that brings glory to God and makes others feel they are also God’s children.

To God be all praise for His great goodness revealed in Jesus Christ through the action of His Holy Spirit in our midst, Amen.

 The Reverend  Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

June 5 "Tune in and Turn on" ( PENTECOST )

 

PENTECOST 2022 - COMMUNION
Readings: Psalm 104:24-34, Ezekial 37:1-14, John 15:26-27, 16:4-15, Acts 2:1-21
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, June 5, 2022

Sometimes, when a storm hits...
the power goes out.
It can be a little annoying.
 For some folks it can be really annoying.
because the power can be out for days!

Today, Pentecost Sunday, celebrates the day the power came back on. Not electric power but the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples had seen Jesus crucified. They had seen Him alive again. He had taught them and made promises to them.

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." (John14:18)
"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper,
that He may be with you forever" (John 14:16).

Christ ascended to be with the Father and instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for a promise to be fulfilled, for the Helper to come. On the day of Pentecost, as we read in Acts Chapter 2, the personal presence of God, came upon them in a new and powerful way. As they tuned in to God, so they became turned on to the power that was God equipping them with to take His message into all the world.

So, my message for this Pentecost morning is ... “Tune in and Turn on.”

1. Tune in to Jesus and be turned on to following Him.

The church that was born in Jerusalem was a mixture of the many different strains of Christianity that would emerge from it. It was charismatic and evangelistic. It practiced both a social gospel and preached a gospel of personal salvation. They worshiped. They studied. They prayed. They served. They shared.

They were activists, working for the rights of the widows and orphans. They were reformers, working to bring social change. They were preachers and teachers and healers. They were carers and communicators. They were worshipers and servers. They were works in progress seeking to transform each other’s lives.

They were Catholics. They believed in one universal church. They were Orthodox. They defined orthodox belief. They were Methodists. They methodically ordered their life together. Baptists, in the sense that they called people to evidence their commitment to Jesus Christ through public baptism. They were Pentecostals. They believed in the supernatural power of God to work signs and wonders. And of course, they were also Presbyterians, for everything was done with decency and in order.

Over and above everything else, the disciples were people who were tuned into God to such a degree that their lives turned on Jesus’ teachings. One of Jesus invitations was "Follow me." They treated that invitation with the utmost seriousness.

They left their homes, as He did, took on voluntary poverty, as He did, taught in villages and cities, as He did, and tried to heal the sick and cast out demons as He had done. They were not always successful. They were at times amazed and shocked by the things Jesus taught and did. At times they were afraid of where following Him might lead them.

We can tune in to Jesus. Following Him we will encounter the unexpected, the surprising and the shocking. We cannot follow and stay the same. He will ask much of us, in fact everything. That is because He gave everything for us. Tune in to Jesus, who tells us that life is a matter of the heart. A heart in tune with His Fathers will, a life empowered by His Spirit will change not just our self but those whom we share our life with.

2. Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving each other.

Jesus only ever gave one commandment. "Love one another as I have loved you."  We are called to love people of flesh and blood, not abstract theological concepts, or distant ideals. "By this shall all men know you are my disciples" says Jesus, "If you have love one for another".

The community where that love is to be expressed is within the church, and for many of us here that means this church and this body of people we are seated with today. Remember that old disco hit... "We are Family, Brothers, Sisters, together are we..." (or something like that). That's our calling. To be concerned with each other, to be like a family, a community. That's how it went at Pentecost.

"I don't have to be involved with a church to be a Christian" some will tell me. "I've made a decision for Jesus Christ... that's it, I'm saved."  Yes, it is important to decide to be a follower, and to realize in a personal way what Jesus has done for us, but that's not where it ends! The gospel is not about individuals being saved... it's about people together working out what it means to be a salvation community.

It's easy to say "I love you" to a vacuum. (That's an empty space... not a vacuum cleaner! If you go around saying "I love you" to vacuum cleaners they will probably lock you up). It's easy to say "I love you" to something faceless and nameless.

It's not so easy to love those whom you don't always see eye to eye with, or those who have different views of life and standards for living by… but that is our calling. To be a diverse group of people, who through the love of God, see each other as those for whom Jesus died and love each other with the love His Holy Spirit puts in our hearts.

Be tuned in to all that the church here is trying to do. The worship services, next week’s Youth service, the Sunday School, the music, the Service opportunities, Food Pantry, Thrift Shop, Child Care center, Martha’s Haven, the way we try and make our facilities available to different groups in the community like AA, the concerts and musical performances, Craft and chat… and strengthen yourself for all this activity at Wednesday yoga… get excited about these things,  commit yourselves to these things... they are the tangible, physical ways we fulfill the command of Jesus to love one another as He has loved us.

Kinmel Bay Presbyterian Church, is a Welsh Presbyterian congregation that I occasionally used to preach at. My good friend from the UK, Andy Smith shared evangelist J. John’s thoughts, that appeared on their Facebook Page.

"Have you ever stopped to wonder why people who are not yet Christians come to church? I once read some fascinating statistics:
- 1% come because they were visited by Christians.
- 2% come because of the church program - they’ve come along to a holiday club, a senior citizens’ lunch, toddler group, and so on.
- 3% come because of bereavement.
- 3% come because of Sunday School.
- 6% walk through the door because they see some publicity.
- 8% come because of some personal contact they’ve had with the minister or church staff.
- 77% come because friends or relatives invited them.
This is one statistic worth stopping to think about.”

Get excited about your faith community. Tell your friends, bring them along so they can be a part of it. Turn yourself on to the nitty gritty of church life. Don't listen to the unscriptural, unhistorical, illogical voice that will tell you... "You don't have to go to church to be a Christian."  Fact is… there is not one scripture in the whole Bible that gives one single indication that you can be a Christian without involving yourself in the lives of other Christians... that you can follow Jesus as a lone ranger.

Of course, there are times when health or schedule or work or other unavoidable things makes it impossible to come to church. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that to be faithful to God, the scriptures insist you be faithful in loving your brothers and sisters in Christ. And the place that should be happening is within a local congregation. Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving one another.

The Christian life is not an easy option. In fact, in our own strength, it's an impossibility. That's why we need to…

3. Tune in to the Holy Spirit and be turned on to possibility.

The disciples had to wait for a baptism of the Holy Spirit before they could get on with the business God was calling them to. It is no different for us present day disciples. We to have to wait on God to be powered up for service. We need regularly to recharge our spiritual batteries through worship, study, and prayer and service. We need to ask God to turn the power on.

Think about the way God works in our lives through the Holy Spirit.

"God has poured out His love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit." When we accept the call of Jesus Christ to be His followers, He doesn't just leave us to it. As He promised His disciples, He comes to us, in a new way... as the Holy Spirit, to equip us for the task. Until He comes, we are a barren tree. But when He comes, He works in our lives to produce good things. "The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control".

A hymn we sometimes sing has the line ; "Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful truths in your word." It was the theologian John Calvin who spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit being like a pair of spectacles, interpreting to our hearts the written word of God so that it becomes the Living Word of our lives. The Spirit tunes us in, so we can turn our lives on, to serving God.

After all, what is there more positive than the scriptures testimony regarding Jesus Christ. A death that was turned into a resurrection, a defeat turned into a victory, a hopeless situation becoming a cause for rejoicing, a powerless group of disciples in an upper room, by the Holy Spirit, becoming fearless pro-claimers of a gospel that has changed... is changing... and will change the world.

Tune in.
Turn on.
Tune in to Jesus and be turned on to following Him.
Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving your Christian family.
Tune in to the Holy Spirit and be turned on to possibility.

And there is no better place to seek to be empowered than around a table laid with bread and wine. What a privilege to be able to seek God as we are reminded of the lengths Jesus Christ, our Savior went, to seek out our lives. On this Pentecost Sunday, may the power come back on in our lives and the life of this church of God! 

AMEN!

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.