Rick Warren - What The Bible Actually Says About the Power of Prayer

You want God to just make it all happy. Put

a bandaid on it, soothe it, take away the pain.

Not clear up the relationship, not deepen your character, not

change you. We want a quick answer and God wants

to cut out the cancer. Today I want us to

look at why must I keep on praying persistently? And

the reason why I want to deal with this is

because of all of the mysteries about prayer. And there

are a lot of them. There are a lot of

things about prayer I do not understand. I don't always

understand how it works with the sovereignty of God and

the will of man. And when you're praying for other

people and they have a free will, I don't understand

it all. I know that just God said, do it.

And he says it over and over and over 20

times in the New Testament. He says, ask, I want

you to ask. You have not because you ask not. Now,

since our heavenly father loves us, we know that. And

since we know that he wants to answer prayer, he's

commanded us to ask for prayer, he has given us

multiple promises about prayer, and he says, I want to

ask and I want to answer quickly. He's eager to

meet our needs. The question then is, then why do

I have to pray more than one time? Why do

I have to make the same request over and over

to God? If I want what I'm asking for in prayer,

And if God is clearly loving, and as we saw

in the last message, he's never gonna give you something bad,

he's never gonna give you something detrimental, he's never gonna

give you something harmful or unhelpful, but he will always

give you what's good and what's best, he'll never give

you a bad gift. And if God wants to do that,

why do I have to ask multiple times? You know,

Jesus said, we looked at this last week, keep on asking,

keep on seeking, keep on knocking. That's a mystery to

a lot of people. Why can't I just say one

time and then God gives it? And he knows that.

The Bible many times talks about being persistent in prayer.

One example is there on your outline, Colossians chapter four,

verse two. Be persistent in prayer. In other words, keep

on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. Don't just

pray one time about something. Keep on praying, be persistent.

when you pray, that's a good principle to remember there.

I was resting in the Lord, you know. Keep alert

as you pray, always giving thanks to God. Now we've

looked four times at prayer, and every time it adds

give thanks when you're asking. That we ask out of

a grateful heart. Gratitude for the past, we're asking about

the future, but he says always be grateful for what

God has already given you. So why do I have

to ask over and over and over and over and over?

Does God has to be cajoled? Does he have to

be pestered? Does God have to be bothered? Do I

have to wear God down? Do I have to beg

and beg and beg and bribe and plead and cry

and bother until finally just God goes, okay, enough already,

shut up. I'm gonna give it to you. Is that

what kind of God we serve? The answer is absolutely not.

That is not at all the reason God says, I

want you to ask multiple times. It's not for his benefit,

and it's for our benefit. In fact, we're going to

look at two stories today that Jesus told that teach

the exact opposite of that idea, that I have to

wear God down, that I have to keep pestering and

bargaining and bribing, and then finally God just goes, okay,

I give in. You can have this. In fact, Jesus

told two parables that teach the exact opposite thing. Now,

by the way, what is a parable? You've heard this

word parable. A parable is simply a story with a point.

A parable is not just a story. It's a story

with a lesson. It's a story with an insight. It's

a story with a truth that God wants you to get.

And the Bible tells us that Jesus never taught without

using parables. He was the master storyteller. And these stories

still relate to us 2,000 years later because he was

such a master storyteller. And he just would deal with

slices of life. Now, there are two kinds of parables

you need to understand. There are comparing parables and there

are contrasting parables. Let me explain this. In a comparing parable,

Jesus tells a story and he's saying this compares to God.

God is like this. Like the loving father in the

story of the prodigal son. God is like that. And

when Jesus tells a story where he's saying this is

what God is like, that's a comparing parable. But sometimes

he says God is not like this. That's a contrasting parable.

It's a contrasting parable. No way, people of the world

are like this, but God's not like this. The two

stories we're going to look at today, they're very brief,

actually are contrasting. And God is saying, I am not

at all like the people in this story. And he's

getting rid of the idea that you have to beg

and bargain and bribe God to have an answer to prayer.

So let's look at these two stories, and then we'll

kind of unpack them. The first one is in Luke

Luke 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11, and it's the story of a persistent friend.

Look up here on the screen, and here's what this

story's all about. Once, when Jesus had been out praying,

his disciples asked, Lord, teach us to pray. We talked

about this last week. And by the way, when he

said teach us to pray, he taught them what is

now known as the Lord's Prayer. And he taught them

the model prayer. He says, okay, here's how you start it.

Our father, remember we talked about that last week. It

all starts with the right relationship. God is not some

force in the sky. He's not a force, he's your father.

And he's not like any human father who is inconsistent

and uncaring and distant and distracted and sometimes demeaning. This God,

this father is caring. He's consistent. He is competent. He's capable.

And he is always with you. He's close. And so

he says, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be

your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on

earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day

our daily bread and forgive us our debts, our trespasses,

as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And

lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the

glory forever. Amen. But after Jesus taught him the Lord's prayer,

he then told them this story. And here's what he says.

But then he said, suppose you went to your neighbor's

house at midnight, hmm, and knocked on his door, double hmm,

and said, an out of town guest has just arrived

at my place, he's hungry, and I've got nothing to

feed him, so I need to borrow three loaves of bread.

Would you do that with your neighbor? Wake him up

at midnight? This is the persistent neighbor. Now, your neighbor

would probably whisper from the inside of his house, don't

bother me. The door's already locked for the night. He's

saying this from the bedroom, maybe out the window. The

door's already locked for the night. We're all in bed.

I can't wake up everybody just to help you. Now,

he says, but even though he would not help you

out of friendship... at that particular moment. If you keep

persistently knocking on his door, he's gonna get up and

he's gonna give you what you need because of your persistence.

All right already. He says you just keep on knocking.

So Jesus says, I tell you this, this is a

parable by contrast. Keep on asking and you'll get it.

Keep on seeking and you'll find. And keep on knocking

and the door will be opened to you. For everyone

who asks, receive, and everyone who seeks will find. And

if you keep on knocking, the door will be opened

to you. Now, just in case we didn't get that message,

he says, I'm not like that guy who's not going

to give it to you out of friendship. He's just

giving it to you to get you out of his hair.

He says, the principle there is you should keep on knocking,

keep on asking, keep on seeking. And Jesus wants you

so badly to understand why you should pray about something

more than once, that he doesn't just give you one story,

he gives us two. And let's look at the second parable.

And in this, he wants to emphasize that you should never, never,

never give up praying for something that you're asking for

until you've got it, all right? Now here's the second story,

and it's in chapter 18 of Luke, and it's the

first eight verses. This is called the story of the

persistent widow. Similar theme. It's one day, this is a

different day, Jesus told his disciples another story to illustrate

that they should always keep on praying and never give up.

Now before we take that verse down, I want you

to notice something. He says you should always keep on

praying and never give up. In your life, you are

always doing one or the other. If you're not praying,

you're giving up. And if you're giving up, if you're

discouraged this weekend, it's because you're not praying. Jesus said

we should always pray and not give up. What is

the opposite of discouragement? Persistent prayer. What is the opposite

of not praying persistently? Discouragement. So you can go through

life either discouraged or diligent. You can be pressured into

feeling bad about it or you can be persistent in praying.

And he says throughout life, you're always doing one or

the other. Anytime you get discouraged, you should ask yourself,

have I stopped praying persistently? That's why you're discouraged. Because

you've gotten your eyes off of God and onto yourself.

On the other hand, if you're praying persistently, it eliminates

discouragement in your life. You're going to pray or you're

going to give up. Now, then he says this. Here's

the story. There once was a big city judge, Jesus says,

who didn't care at all about God or people. But

there was an elderly woman, an elderly widow, who kept

coming to this judge over and over, pleading for the

judge to protect her rights and do something about a

man who had cheated her. I want justice. I have

my rights. She keeps coming back to the judge over

and over. Judge, you've got to help me. He didn't

care less about her, or even God. Now, it says

for a long time, This judge just ignored her pleas.

He couldn't care less about this widow. He has no

interest in her, no interest in helping her get justice

or protect her rights. The judge just ignored her pleas

for help, but eventually he had had enough. So he

thought to himself, you know, even though I don't care

at all about what God or what this woman think,

I'm tired of her pestering me. I'm tired of her

pestering request. So I'm going to see that she gets

justice just to get her to shut up. Just to

get her to be quiet and stop bothering me. Note

the same theme as the other story. Then the Lord said, now,

learn a lesson from this uncaring judge. He says, okay, guys,

get the point here. Even if that corrupt judge Uncaring,

this guy has no compassion at all. He doesn't care

about you or anybody else. Even if that corrupt, uncaring

judge eventually gave in to that woman's request. Won't God,

who loves you deeply, he's saying, this guy's not like me.

Won't God, who loves you deeply, surely give you what

is right if you keep crying out to him day

and night? Jesus tells two stories to teach the exact

same truth. Anytime Jesus tells two stories to teach one truth,

it's that important. Why? You should never give up in

praying for something. Not just go, well, I prayed and

nothing didn't happen, so I just gave up on it. Now,

here's the contrast. He says, God listens to you, God cares,

and God wants to answer even if people don't. Even

if your neighbor doesn't, they think you're being rude, you're

in the middle of the night, or even if some unjust, uncaring,

unsympathetic judge says, forget it, I have no time for you.

He said, God is not like either of them. He listens,

he cares, and the point is this, that God is

eager to answer your prayers. So, why then doesn't God

just answer it the first time I ask? Why does

he want me, and it says over and Keep on asking,

keep on knocking. Why does God want me to be persistent?

Number one, because it keeps my attention focused on God.

When you pray about something over and over and over,

where is your attention? It's focused on God. Now I've

told you this many times, that attention is the greatest

gift you can give somebody. Guys, the greatest gift, if

you're married, the greatest gift you can give your wife

is your attention. The greatest gift you can give your

kids is your attention, why? Because your attention is your time,

and your time is your life. You're never gonna get

that back. You can always give people money, but you

can always get more money, but you can't always get

more time back. You've got the same amount of time

as everybody else, 168 hours a week. And when you

give your attention to somebody, when you look someone in

the eye, you're saying, you matter to me, you're valuable,

you're worth part of my life. It's the highest gift

you can give. People crave attention. God wants your attention.

You know, the Bible says God is constantly thinking about you.

How about if you thought about somebody all the time

and they never thought about you? Well, that probably was

true when you were in junior high school. Because there's

somebody you thought about all the time and they were

totally oblivious to you. And you know how painful that

was that they did not even notice you when all

you could do was think about them because you were

in love in your mind with that person. God says,

I want your attention. And so when you pray about

something over and over and over, you give God your attention.

God loves to have your attention because he's always thinking

about you. One of the reasons God loved King David

In the Old Testament of the Bible, it's because David

gave God his attention all the time. Look at these

two verses. Psalm 25, 15, David says, my eyes are

continually looking to the Lord. That's another word for being persistent.

I'm continually looking to the Lord for help. And he

alone can rescue me from all the traps. It's supposed

to be plural, all the traps. You know what? You're

going to have a lot of traps in your life

this next week. He's the only one who knows them

in advance. Have you ever gone up a mountain road,

and you're behind a truck, and they're slow, and you'd

like to pass them, but you can't see around the curve?

And how great it would be if you could call

in a, like a helicopter, and they could say, yeah,

it's clear around the corner, because they could see what

you can't see. God can see what you can't see.

He can see the traps. You're going to have this

next week, this next month, and this next year. He says,

focus on me. Continually. And I'll show you how to

be rescued from all of the traps. Psalm 105 verse four,

look to the Lord for his strength. Seek his face,

how often? Yeah, constantly, circle that. So it keeps my

attention focused on God. God wants you to keep asking

because it keeps your attention focused on him. Question, do

you talk to God more when you need something? Of

course you do. If you never needed anything, would you

talk to God as often? No. When do you talk

to God the most? When you're in deep pain. So

it keeps me focused on God continually. There's a second reason.

And it's because having to wait teaches me about myself.

Having to wait teaches me about myself. You're going to

learn something. This is going to be a mind opening

message for some of you. Because you learn not just

about God, you learn about yourself when you don't get

everything you want instantly. When you pray and God says, well,

let's just see about how long it's going to take

before that prayer gets answered. Some prayers are answered immediately,

but some take times, weeks, months. Two of the most

important prayers I've ever prayed, one of them took 13

years and one of them took almost 25 years, but

God answered it. And they were the most important prayers

in my life at that time. Why did it take

so long? Because while I was working on the prayer,

God was working on me. And there are a number

of tests that happen when you pray about something over

and over and over that reveal more about you. Notice

this verse, Zechariah says in Zechariah 13, verse nine, God says,

I will test and purify them, that's you and me,

I'll test and purify them as silver is purified by fire.

Never wonder when you're going through the fire, why you're

going through it? It's for testing and for purification. I

will test them as gold is tested. How do you

test gold? You put it in a big vat and

you heat it up until it gets so hot that

all the impurities are burned off. And how do you

know when gold and silver's pure? Because a silversmith can

see his reflection in it. And God can see his

reflection in you when all the impurities have burned out

of your life. You've been through the fire. He says, then,

after I've tested them, after I've purified them, then, They

will be, they will pray to me, and I will answer.

Notice that the prayer's answer comes after the test. Does

that sound vaguely familiar? We spent 10 weeks on Daniel,

looking at 10 tests of Daniel, and I said before

every blessing, there is a testing. And God tests you

with stress before he trusts you with success. That principle

of Daniel's life is one of the principles of persistent prayer.

God is going to test you before he blesses you.

And he says, I'm going to test you. And in

this test, you're going to learn a lot about yourself.

If you give up praying, you're never going to learn

these lessons. You say, well, what do I learn? What

do I specifically learn about myself when I have to

pray specifically and persistently? Well, let me just mention four areas.

Four areas that God wants me to grow, wants you

to grow. Write these down. The first would be this.

Praying persistently tests my desires. Praying persistently tests my desires.

And what that means is I ask the question, what

do I really want? When you start praying, and many

of you are praying for a breakthrough, you're going to

find that actually your prayer changes. It evolves, it grows,

it develops, because you're going to say, well, that's not

really what I want. What I really want is this

or that. And praying persistently tests my desires, what I

really want. Now, everybody has desires. The reason you have

desires is because God put them in you. Now, a

desire can be misused, it can be abused, it can

be perverted. The desire for a sexual relationship, that's a

normal human desire. Can it be abused, perverted, misused? Of

course it can. All of God's gifts are good, but

they can be misused. Fire is good in the fireplace,

but fire in the wrong place will burn a house down.

Water is good in a bathtub, but water in a flood,

too much of it can drown you. Any of God's

gifts can be perverted, misused, and abused by Satan. The

reason why God has certain parameters for sex is not

because it's dirty, it's not, it's holy. In fact, sex

is more important than you think. I'll do a whole

message on that some other time. But here's the point.

I just piqued your interest on that one. There are

good desires in your life and there are bad desires

in your life. There are appropriate desires in your life

and there are inappropriate desires in your life. There are

helpful desires in your life and there are harmful desires

in your life. There are righteous desires in your life.

There are unrighteous desires in your life. There are constructive

desires in your life and there are destructive desires. When

you pray persistently, those start to filter out. And you

begin to realize this is a good desire or this

is not a good desire. Persistent praying shows the difference

between a whim and a deep desire. If you ask

God for something and you only ask about it one time,

that's not a deep desire. It's just a whim. And

God is not in the business of fulfilling every whim

you've got. God is in the business, as your heavenly father,

of taking care of your deepest desires. God doesn't give

you every little whim. You might watch something on a

shopping channel, go, I really like that, and three minutes later,

you've already forgotten it. It's a whim. If you're not

willing to pray about something more than once, it's not

a deep desire, it's just a whim. And God doesn't

promise to meet all your whims. It's Christmas time. When

my kids were little and they used to come to me,

I'd take them to the mall and we'd go through

stores and they'd say a hundred things that they wanted.

I like that, daddy, I like that, daddy, all that.

Can I get this, dad? How about that, daddy? A

hundred different things. And I know most of them are

just whims. But when they go, daddy, I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, daddy,

I really, really, really want this. Now I know, we're

not talking about a whim. We're talking about a deep desire.

But they had to say 18 reallys to convince me.

And sometimes when you've got a prayer, God goes, are

you just asking for that? You want to get married,

you want a husband, you want a wife, how serious

are you willing to pray about it every day? Are

you willing, would you like a job? Would you, whatever

you want to, are you willing to pray about it

three times a day like we're doing right now and

bring it before God? It kind of sifts out, nah,

that's not that important to me. So the first thing

that praying persistently does is it tests my desires. By

the way, have you ever wondered where your deepest desires

come from? They come from God. They come from God.

They're part of your God-given shape. There's some things that

attract your interest, some things you couldn't care less about.

Some things really turn you on. Some things bore you

to tears. Some things really wind your crank. Some things

just give a big yawn. And all of us have

different desires, different needs, different interests. That's part of your

God-given shape. They came from God. And God put that

desire in you, and then he wants you to ask,

and then he wants to provide for it. That builds

the relationship. That builds the connection. When you have a need,

and then you recognize that need, and then you verbalize

that need to God, and then God meets that need,

what's the end result of that? You trust God more.

And every time you get an answer to prayer, you

trust God more. That's why God wants you to pray.

That's why God wants you to ask and keep on asking.

But he says, I want first to know what you

really want in your heart. Praying tests my desires. Did

you know that God wants to give you your deepest desires?

He does. He just wants to make sure that he's

in the first place, that he's your first desire, and

then everything else is second. There is almost nothing that

God won't do for the woman or the man who

puts God first in every area of their life. Almost nothing.

Look at this next verse. It's an amazing verse. Psalm

37 verse four, great promise. Take delight in the Lord,

that's a desire thing, and he will give you, read

it with me, the desires of your heart. Holy moly.

You need to write that one on a card and

put it on your visor or on your or on

your mirror in your bathroom. Delight yourself in the Lord.

Take delight in the Lord and he will give you

the desires of your heart. God is not stingy. He's

waiting on you. Delight yourself in the Lord. Pay attention

to God. And when I pay attention to God, it

tests my desires. What do I really want? Here's the

second thing it tests. Number two, praying persistently tests my priorities.

It tests my priorities. And when I have to pray

for something more than once, it's not like I'm convincing

God to do it. He already is waiting to give it.

He just wants to know what's really important to me.

That's the question. What's most important in my life? And

so when you pray about something, it tends to clarify

what's important to you. If you don't pray about it,

it's obviously not important. If you do pray about it,

it obviously is important. Now, if it's not worth praying

about repeatedly, then it isn't a priority. By the way,

do you know how to know what's important to you?

What's really important to you? You want to, how do I,

I don't know what's important to me. I'll tell you what,

you know what's important to you? What you worry about most.

Worry tells you what's important in your life. If you

worry about it, it's important. If you don't worry about it,

it's not that important to you because you've given it

up to God, you've trusted him for it, or it's

not even that important to you. Worry tells you what's

important to you. But every time you're worried, you're acting

like an atheist. Worry is practical atheism. I've said that

many times. It's acting like you don't have a Heavenly

Father who has promised multiple times in this book, I

will take care of every one of your needs. When

you worry, you're acting like, I don't have a God,

and I don't have a God who loves me, and

I don't have a God who's promised to take care

of all my needs, so if it's to be, it's

up to me. I've got to take care of it myself.

I've got to worry about it. Worry is an ineffective

way of trying to control. Worrying about the past won't

change the past. Worrying about the future won't change the future.

Worry just messes up today. It's stewing without doing. It's

a waste of time. If it's worth worrying about, it's

worth praying about. And if you prayed about everything you

worried about, you'd have a lot less to worry about.

Worry all you want and it won't change anything. Pray

about all you want, that will change everything. So every

time you start to worry, you should stop and turn

the worry into a prayer. Does that make sense? Every

time you start to worry about anything, you stop and

you turn that worry into a prayer. Worry without worry.

Just worrying is, as I said, acting like you're an unbeliever.

In fact, Jesus gets right to the point in the

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, verse 32 and 33.

Matthew 6:32

He says, why? Why be like unbelievers who worry about everything?

Because they don't have any God, any Heavenly Father who

loves them or take care of them. Why worry? Why

be like an unbeliever who worry about everything? Your Heavenly

Father already knows everything. Circle that, already knows all your needs.

You're not convincing God. You're not even notifying God when

you have a need in prayer. Your Father, Heavenly Father,

already knows your needs. And he'll give you all you

need if your first concern is to live for his kingdom.

First concern, what is that? That's called a priority. Praying

persistently tests my priorities. Now, when your priorities are ripe, listen. Listen.

When your priorities are right, God's answer is yes. It's yes.

And when my priorities are not right, God might have

another answer. And there are multiple ones he can have

for that. I'll share them with you in a minute.

But when your priority's right, God says, you know, he

already knows your concern. He'll give you all you need

if your first concern is to live for his kingdom.

So really, you know, you say, well, I'm waiting on

God to answer this prayer. Are you waiting on God

or is God waiting on you? Maybe he wants to

test his desire. And maybe he wants to test your priorities.

What's really important to me? Look at this next verse,

Psalm 84, verse 11. This is an amazing promise. No

Psalms 84:11

good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do

what is right. Wow. God says, you know what, your

priorities are right, you're living for me, your attention is

with me, you're staying connected to me, my kingdom is

your number one priority, guess what? Anything you ask. No

good thing will I withhold from those who walk uprightly.

That's why I said earlier, there is nothing, almost nothing

God will not give the man who's totally committed to

Jesus Christ. There's almost nothing God will not give to

the woman who's totally committed to Jesus Christ. He says,

no good thing will the Lord withhold from those who

do what is right. So that leads me to ask

the question, what's out of order in my life? Are

your priorities out of whack right now? Is right now

your job taking number one? Is right now, you know,

television taking number one? Are your priorities out of order?

Are you spending more time on social media than in

the word of God? That's called out of order priority, right?

He says, no good thing will God withhold from those

who do what is right. Here's the third test. What

it shows me about myself. Persistent praying tests my maturity.

This is a big one. When God doesn't give something

to you immediately, he is testing your maturity. He's testing

your character. He's testing your responsibility. He's testing whether you've

grown up or not. It's a gut check. God is,

and I told you last week, God is not a

vending machine. He's not a genie. Just pop in the

prayer like a coin and you instantly get it. He

wants to reveal your character. He wants you to show

you the areas where you need to grow. Persistent praying.

When I ask for something over and over and over,

it actually shows my maturity rather than my immaturity. So

what do you mean by that? If you tell a

toddler you can have it in a little while, do

they get that? No. If you tell a toddler not yet, okay,

in a little while, if you tell a toddler you

can have it later, they typically will throw a temper tantrum. Why?

That's called immaturity. Why? Toddlers don't know how to wait.

Immature humans don't know how to wait. Immature humans want

it now and I want it yesterday and I want

it even though I can't afford it and I'll put

it on a credit card and I'll buy things I

don't need with money I don't have. And then I'll

be in debt. And I'll be in debt for a long,

long time. Why? The number one cause of most of

your problems in life is the inability to delay gratification.

You don't know how to wait. We're in a society

that says I gotta have it and I gotta have

it now, even if I can't afford it, I'll put

it on credit, et cetera, et cetera. Praying persistently tests

my maturity, why? Because toddlers don't know how to wait.

They don't know the difference between no and not yet.

Do you? When God doesn't give you a prayer instantly,

do you just grab your blanket and your ball and

go to the corner? I'm going to go pout because

God hasn't given me. I've been praying for that for

weeks or months or maybe even years. Don't you think

your Heavenly Father knows what you need more than you do?

Knows when you need it, knows why you need it,

knows the best way to need it, is working behind

the scenes. While you're whining, God has been working. And

while you're waiting, God is working on the answer. Sometimes

he has to get certain things into place. I prayed

for 13 years for land for this church. And in

about 12 of those years, the piece of land that

we sit on in the Lake Forest campus wasn't even around,

wasn't even available, wasn't even charted. There was no Rancho

Santa Margarita City. There was no Foothill Ranch City. There

was no Lake Forest in this area. The roads weren't

even in. It was just cow pasture. It wasn't even available.

But before God even put in my mind to come

and start Saddleback, he already knew where the first campus

would be. It was just a matter of time. The

dominoes were falling over. And so patience is a mark

of maturity. And when it comes to prayer, if God

doesn't give it to you immediately, do you just give

up and say, well, I'm not going to pray about

that anymore because he didn't give it to me in

a month or a year or whatever. I'm going to

just give up on it. Maturity means you know the

difference between a delay and a denial. A delay is

not a denial. Now, a baby doesn't understand that. No

and not yet mean the same thing. But when you

grow up, maturity means I learn the difference between a

delay and a denial. God hasn't said no to your request,

but it's going to come in his timing. Now, let

me just say this. God wants to meet your deepest needs,

physical needs. Spiritual, emotional, financial, relational, all your deepest needs.

And he's promised to meet those needs. But he's far

more interested in your character development. You've heard me say

many times, God's more interested in your character than your comfort.

Because you're not taking all your clothes and china and

cash to heaven. You are taking your character. In heaven,

there will be no problems. This is the get ready stage.

You shouldn't expect things to be perfect on this earth.

Everything is broken on this planet. God wants to meet

your needs, but he's more interested in growing you to

become more like Christ. And one of the characteristics of

Christ is patience. The Bible says patience is a fruit

of the Spirit. And how do you learn patience? Waiting.

Department of Motor Vehicles. Sitting in a traffic jam, waiting

in a doctor's office, in the waiting rooms of life.

And you also learn patience by praying persistently even when

you don't see any results. God is testing your character.

He's testing your heart. He's testing your maturity. He's testing

your patience and all these different things. Those of you

who are moms, do you remember how you felt the

first time you let your first child cry themselves to sleep.

I'm such a bad mom right now. And you could

hear that baby in the other room crying, and previously,

every time they cried, you were there instantly. You were

there instantly. And eventually you learn, you can't be there

instantly every time they cry. And the first time you

as a mother, or as a parent, as a dad,

and you let that baby Cry itself to sleep. Question,

was that important to that baby's development? Hello? If you

think somebody's going to come wipe your nose every time

you have a problem in life, you're going to be

severely disappointed with life. Everybody owes me everything because I'm

the center of attention. It's all about me. No, of course.

Let me ask you another question. Those are your parents.

Do you remember the first time you thought your child

was old enough and responsible enough to leave them alone

at home while you went out? And how nervous you

were the first time you did that. And you left

them alone, you bad parent you. And you bad, bad parent,

you left them alone. You thought, I think they're old

enough To be left alone. I think their maturity is

at a level. They're not going to tear the house up.

They're responsible. They're not going to do something stupid. And

so I think they're responsible enough to leave them alone. Question,

was that incident, no matter how painful it was to you,

important to their development and maturity? Of course it was.

Of course it was. Okay, I want you to get this.

When God thinks you're mature enough, he's gonna let you

go through a period where you feel alone. And you

don't feel his presence. And the question is, am I

gonna depend on my feelings or am I gonna depend

on God? It's part of your development, your spiritual growth,

your building muscle. God doesn't want you being living by

your moods, he wants you being living by your commitments

and by your trust in his word. And when God

thinks you're mature enough, he's going to leave you alone

for a while. And it's a character test. Some of

you are in it right now. Congratulations. I haven't felt

God in a long time. I just feel like it's

a brass ceiling there. I'm not getting, my prayers are

bouncing off. And when God leaves you alone, he's actually

testing a couple things. Will you do the right thing

without supervision? like you had to test your child? Will

you keep praying when the answer isn't immediate, isn't quick,

isn't instant, isn't immediate and all of a sudden there?

Will you throw a temper tantrum and say God you're

not fair and God you made all these promises and

you're not keeping them? Let me show you an example

of this. Second Chronicles chapter 32 verse 31. God left Hezekiah,

2 Chronicles 32:31

he was a king, A very good king. God left

Hezekiah on his own for a while, whoa, to see

what he would do. God wanted to test his heart.

And before God answers your prayer for a breakthrough, he's

gonna test your heart. I'm telling you this as your friend.

God is gonna test your heart before the breakthrough happens.

And he wants to know, are you ready to handle

the blessing? We talked about that with Daniel. Before every

blessing is a testing. Do you know that God once

did this for an entire nation? It's called the nation

of Israel. He had a blessing for them called the

promised land, but before he let them go into the

promised land, he wanted to test them if they were

mature enough, they were ready enough, they were responsible enough,

they were committed enough to handle the blessing of the

promised land. And so he kept them out in the desert,

in the wilderness. They could have gone from Egypt to

Israel in a matter of weeks or months. And it

took them 40 years. What were they doing? Walking around

the desert for 40 years. It's just not that long.

You can get across that in several months. Certainly shouldn't

have taken a year. And it took them 40 years. Well,

they're getting tested. Now here's the cool thing about God.

When God tests you, he wants you to succeed. And

because he wants you to succeed, he'll let you retake

the test. And in 40 years, God gave him seven

different attempts. Like you can retry for the bar exam.

You can test again. And God wants you to keep

retaking the test until you pass it. Now here's what

the Bible says, Deuteronomy 8 verse 2. The Lord led

Deuteronomy 8:2

you through the wilderness for 40 years. Wow. Humbling and

testing you. Circle testing. Humbling and testing you to prove

your character. Remember I said when God is delaying an answer,

he's testing your desires, he's testing your priorities, and he's

testing your maturity. He wants to prove your character and

to find out whether or not you would really obey

his commands. Now let's just get real honest here. When

you're in pain, when I'm in pain, and we cry

out to God, either emotional pain or physical pain, or

even when you're not in pain, you're just uncomfortable or

you're bored. And when things aren't right in your life,

what we want is we want God to remove the symptom,

the painful symptom, when God wants to remove the cause.

That takes a little bit more time. Let me say

that again. When things are not going good in your life,

you want God to just make it all happy. Put

a bandaid on it, soothe it, take away the pain.

Not clear up the relationship, not deepen your character, not

change you. We want God to change the symptoms, change

the circumstance, not change our character. We want a quick

answer and God wants to cut out the cancer. We

want to feel the ease in our prayer. God wants

us to heal the disease. The thing that's causing that

problem in your relationship. That's causing that problem in your marriage.

It's causing that problem in your finances. We want God

to just get us out of debt. God says, how

about if we work on what caused you to get

in it in the first place? Because if we get

you out of debt and we don't work on the cause,

you'll be back there in another year. We want to

feel the ease. God wants to heal the disease. It's

a whole different level. So here's the big question. When

I'm praying for God to do a breakthrough in my life,

I want to get married. I want to get a job.

I want to see my dream come true. And God

wants all these things. If they're a desire that he's

put in your life and all these things are being met,

God wants these things to be true in your life too.

But the first question you have to ask yourself, am

I willing to let God change me instead of changing

the circumstance? Hmm, that's a whole different issue. Am I

willing to let God change me instead of God changing

the circumstance that I don't like? This is, friend, what's

called the point of surrender. And the point of surrender

happens in every breakthrough prayer before the breakthrough happens. And

if you don't get through this point, you're not going

to get to the breakthrough. Am I willing to let

God change me and my attitude and my heart and

my character and grow me up and change me and

make me more like Christ? Why in the world am

I praying for this promotion or whatever else? This is

the point of surrender. Look up here on the screen.

Romans 6.13 says this. Give yourself completely to God. to

be used in the hands of God for his good purposes.

Give yourself completely to God to be used in the

hands of God for his purposes. That's the point of surrender.

That's the point where you go, God, this is what

I want, but really more than anything else, I want

to be in the center of your will. You are

in the place of God's anointing, God's blessing, God's power,

God's grace, and you will see things that you never

thought imagined. God is testing your desire. Do I really

want this? He's testing your priorities. What's really most important

in my life? He's testing your maturity. Do I know

the difference between no and not yet, between delay and denial?

Am I growing in character? Am I saying, God, I'm

surrendering to you before the breakthrough prayer? Finally, do you

know what else this does? When you're waiting, when you

keep praying and praying and the answer hasn't come and

you keep praying and praying and the answer hasn't come,

this is a test. It is testing, persistent praying, test

my faith. And that's the most precious thing of all,

your faith. And the real issue, the question here is,

do I trust my feelings or my Father? I know

what God has said. I hear you, I'm gonna meet

your need. I will meet your need, the answer's on

its way. Do I trust my feelings or do I

trust my Father? It is a mistake to trust your feelings. Now,

in our last message, I said God will never give you,

your Heavenly Father will never give you anything unhelpful or harmful.

He'll never give you anything detrimental or deadly. He'll only

give you what is good. God made you. He knows

you better than you know you. He knows what will

make you happy more than you do. He knows what

you need more than you do. Why don't you trust

your father? The one who made you. You wouldn't take

the next breath if it weren't for him. And God

knows what's going to make you happy. Now you know,

I mean, if you've been at Saddleback, you know what

God has said about this and about purpose. This next

verse is one of our most familiar verses, Jeremiah 29 11.

For I know, God says, the plans I have for you,

says the Lord. They're plans for good and not for evil.

Plans to give you a future and a hope. You're

going to trust your feelings, you're going to trust your Father.

He says, I have these plans. But you know what

happens with plans? you have to wait on God's timing.

Not all plans happen overnight. In fact, the bigger God

wants to do something in your life, the longer the

runway it takes to get it off the ground. When

God wants to do something really big, a big breakthrough

in your life, it doesn't happen boom like this. It

happens when you're going down the runway and you're praying

and you're trusting and you're growing in priorities and maturity

and desires and in faith. And God says, I'm going

to do it, but you got to do it in

my timing. Galatians 6, 9. Let us not get tired

of doing what is right. For at the right time,

circle that phrase, at the right time, at the proper time,

God's timing is perfect. He's never early. He's never late.

At the right time, we will, not might, we will

reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged

and give up. your faith is more desirable and more

important and more precious than anything God could possibly give you.

Now knowing this, that God wants you to keep praying,

not because you're trying to wear him down. You don't

have to convince God of your desires. He's already said,

delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you

the desires of your heart. He's already said, no good

thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. He's

already said, ask anything in my name and it shall

be done. He's already said, you have not because you

ask not. He's already said, I could give you 100 scriptures.

You're not trying to convince God when you keep praying

for it. But in that persistence, God is changing you.

He's changing your desires. He's purifying your desires. He's testing

your character. He's building your faith. He's strengthening your life.

He's doing all of these things for good in your life.

So let me end with how God answers prayers. Four things.

I don't have to explain this. It's self-explanatory. Four ways

God answers prayers. I told you last week, God always

answers prayer. There is no such thing as unanswered prayer.

He doesn't always answer the way you like. But God

always answers prayer. And he always answers prayers one of

four ways. Here's what they go. Number one, when my

request is not right, God says no. Because God's not

gonna give you something that's harmful for you, bad for you,

is destructive, We've already said that. He'll only give you

what's good, good for you. God will not give you

something that's bad for you. When my request is not right,

God says no. That's an answer. Number two, when I'm

not right, God says grow. Now he's saying, yep, I

want to give this to you, but you're not ready

to stay at home by yourself yet. You're not ready

to handle the responsibility. I have a blessing that's so big,

it would blow your mind and your character couldn't handle it.

And when your professional life outpaces your personal life, that's

called stress. And so God says, when you're not right,

God says, grow. We got a little growing here to

do in character and in development and in surrender. Number three,

when the timing's not right, God says, slow down. He says, slow.

It's coming, but it's not here yet. And in Habakkuk,

he says, do not be discouraged if the vision isn't

fulfilled overnight. Surely it will happen. It will not be

overdue a single day. God says, it's coming. It's slow.

We're going to take this slow until you're ready to

handle it. Pacing growth. I could give you a big

testimony about that one, but I don't have time for it.

Number four, but when my request and the timing and

my character, they're all lined up right, God says, go.

Those are the four ways God always answers prayer. Know, know,

he says sometimes. Grow, he says sometimes. Slow, and then

he says, go. Go. So this is the reason we

do what Ephesians 6.18 says, last verse. Pray at all times,

pray at all times and on every occasion in the

power of the Holy Spirit. Always stay alert and be

persistent in your prayers. Not because you're trying to convince God.

but because of these other reasons. Be persistent in your

prayers for all Christians everywhere. I want you to circle

all of those all words, okay? Pray all times, circle all.

On every occasion, circle every. Always stay alert, circle always.

Be persistent in your prayers for all Christians. You need

to be praying for other people. God healed Job when

he prayed for his friends. Everywhere. Now, what is not

included in that verse? Nothing. That's why Paul says, pray

without ceasing. Not three times a day. All the time.

Let's bow our heads. This could be a breakthrough moment

for you. As I pray this hymn again, will you

make it your prayer? Say, Lord, take my life and

let it be consecrated Lord to thee say take my

moments and my days.

Let them flow in endless praise.

And say God take my voice and let me sing

always only for my king take my lips and let

them be filled with messages from thee Say, God, take

my hands and let them move at the impulse of

your love. And take my intellect and use every thought

as you would choose. Say, God, take my will and

make it thine. It shall no longer be mine. Take

my heart. It is your own.

And it shall be your royal throne Say, Father who

loves me in heaven, take my love, my Lord, I pour.

At your feet, it's treasure store.

Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee.

Ever only all for thee. Help me to never give.

Up in the prayers you put in my heart, but

to keep praying until you say no or grow or

slow or go. I pray this in Jesus' name. And

everybody said, Amen.