Pastor Henry Wright - Prayers That God Did Not Answer

Adventist Radio London. Inspiration for the song today prayers that God would not answer

a serious sermon. Let's pray, Lord, as we are joined by those

who view us outside these walls, and we welcomed them, and as we

worshiped together in the confines of this church, you have a word for us

to day. Please deliver it in Christ's name, Amen, Mark ten,

Verses twenty eight through thirty one. Now listen to the words the way at

sight of the Bible. Read a passage, and then ask yourself why those

words. That's why I always start listen to the words. Then Peter began

to say unto him, already implied by the phraseology. Then Peter began to

say, which means he said, more than what is found in this past.

Then Peter begin to say, Lo, we have left all and followed

THEE. Now the first question is is this a complaint, a compliment an

affirmation? There's the hint there of some sense of loss. We have left

all and followed THEE. And Jesus answered and said verily confirming. Now in

the words that follow my suspicion, I say, unto you, there is

no man that had left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or

wife. That's a whole lot of leaving or children or lands for my sake,

and the gospels. But he shall receive one hundredfold now in this time

houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands. And then this

little sneaky phrase with persecutions. You see, Dave, if you read the

passage and skip over that loud Amen, Amen. But there's this little twister

in there. He's going to get all this stuff back, but is ador

or with persecutions, which means that what was lost follow the pastor will only

be gained in pain. You gonna get it back, but you gonna suffer

before you get it. Chapter ten of Mark is in the middle of the

Gospel of Mark. And I have taught you over the years that this is

the Gospel of action, the Gospel of movement. And this tenth chapter is

an interesting one. And you never My verses are twenty through thirty one,

but you never. You never take verses out of a chapter and present them

non contextually. The verses only have meaning in the context of the chapter.

Are you with me so far? And leroy? The chapter appears to deal

with losses or potential losses. You've read the chapter, you may have missed

that, so just stay with me. For instance, verses Crosby one through

twelve, there's a discussion there about divorce. Divorce is the loss of a

marriage? Is that not so? In fact, a divorce and the loss

of a marriage can really be more than a loss of a marriage. It

can be a loss of income, a loss of property, the loss of

fulfillment of future plans. The break up of a marriage can result in emotional

losses like loss of a sense of belonging, the loss of companionship, the

loss of connection with the expouses family that divorce has tremendous losses, and maybe

even the loss of regular access to a person's children can come with the loss

of a marriage or you with me, All or any of these can be

devastating losses. So the chapter starts out with the loss of a marriage Verses

thirteen through sixteen. In the chapter deal Frank Baker with the loss of children.

See the disciple is one of the mothers to back off and not bother

Jesus with blessing the children. Remember that, but Jesus recognizing the value of

these little ones and the tragedy of losing one child to this world corrected the

disciples and redirected their priorities. He wanted them to understand that not one child

should be lost due to the lack of spiritual attention. Right, So now

we have the possible loss of a of a of a home, a marriage,

and then the possible loss of children. What's going on in this chapter?

You see, Hank Branch, Here's where I'm headed. I'm not even

beginning to get started. Here's why I'm headed. But here's h I'm headed.

A year generates losses. You never thought, David, you'd end this

year by losing your daddy. Life on planet Earth is laced together with losses.

Lost their job this year, some almost lost their their home this year.

Somebody lost money this year. Come on, y'all, somebody lost a

child this year. And I want you to understand today that we serve a

Christ who understands our losses. But before I'm done today, you'll understand that

what you sometimes call a loss may well be again. Verses seventeen through twenty

six deals with the loss of material possessions. These verses really set the tone

for the verses I want to highlight in today's message. It is the familiar

incident of the rich young ruler remember him. Mark does not describe him that

way, but Luke, who has given to more detailed historian, does say

that he's a ruler Luke eighteen eighteen and that he was very rich Luke eighteen

twenty three. In short, the ruler presents himself as one ready for salvation.

Jesus challenges him, and then he declares himself a faithful listen to me

commandment keeper. But he's challenged by the creator for more to give up what

really makes the rich man tick to to give up where his heart is.

In verse twenty two, the ruler shows that his commandment keeping before he says,

I have kept all the commandments from my youth up and Jesus brushes it

aside as if commandment keeping means nothing one thing thou lackest Jesus seemed to be

saying. He seems to be saying that until you have lost all see,

losses may not be the worst thing that can happen to you. Losses may

only be preparation for games or shoot somebody. Maybe what you're bleeding about and

crying about it that you're calling a loss. Was Josh, Lord, help

me a step ins tone this thing I've done from my youth up. Christ

said, not enough, not impressed, one thing down. Lackis until your

bank account is blank and your cupboard has no food and you have no friends.

Until you've lost all, You've not lost enough. Because until I strip

you, I can't save you. So jesus incisive piercing question reveals that the

commandment keeping of the ruler was religion, not conversion. He was sad at

that saying and went away grieved for he had great possessions. Or in the

spirit of this sermon, he hadn't lost enough yet there were things he was

not willing to use. Now I gotta ask you a question, because this

sermon is not entertainment. See, if there's anything on your list of things

that you're not willing to lose for Christ, then that thing is not a

gain. It's already a loss. For d what shall it profit a man

to gain the whole world and lose his soul? So it seems to me

damon that. So in this sermon, Pastor has to redefine losses and reconstruct

gains Verses twenty two through twenty six, Christ makes application, but the disciples

are absolutely speechless. In fact, I enjoy the words of the kjav speaking

about the reaction of the disciples to Christ's comment, says they were astonished out

of measure. And then the disciples raise a question based on their measurement,

on their measurement of what is worthy to be lost or gained, They said,

who then can be saved? See if a brother's keeping all the commandments

from his youth up and he's driving a rolls Royce and lives, and he

can't make it in See, they have a worldly assessment of games and an

unholy understanding of losses. And so they're saying, if he can't be saved,

who can be? In verse twenty seven, Christ responding makes an interesting

statement that is the transition between the previous incident involving the ruler and what follows,

And Christ lays down a principle that is the essence of God's omnipotence.

With men, it is impossible, but not with God. For with God

all things are possible. See now understand the context of the statement. He's

really saying, when you ain't got nothing, I can make that something.

But when you got something that may turn out to be nothing. He's introducing

new math, salvation math. Think that he you think, because he's got

all this stuff and has been obedient, it appears that surely he should be

saved. But Christ is saying, as long as there's anything in you that

you hold back from me that's in your way, So what you think is

possible to save can't be. And what you think is impossible to save,

I will say, somebody's gonna get with me in this sermon before I get

done. I'm sure of it. Next comes verses twenty eight to thirty one.

They're the verses I'm focusing on today, but I'll return to those.

Let's look now, Verses thirty two to thirty four, mark ten and verses

thirty two to thirty four takes on a twist. Now and they were in

the way going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them, and they

were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Watch it now,

And he took again the twelve and begin to tell them what things should happen

unto him, saying read with me verse thirty three. Behold, I need

everybody reading. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the son of

Man shall be delivered unto the chief priest and unto the stribes, and they

shall condemn him to and shall deliver him to the gentiles. And they shall

mock him, and they shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him,

and shall kill him. In these verses, Jesus presents the ultimate human loss.

See first Malveln, we got the loss of the marriage, then the

possible loss of cheer, and then this brother who's gotta lose all his stuff,

now the loss of life. What is going on in this chapter?

Notice all these losses are vital. Jesus is now saying, watch me,

until you're ready to lay down your life. You still haven't lost enough.

You see, for Christianity, it's not about inconveniences. Christianity is about ultimate

sacrifice. You brother, he says to the disciples, are worried about some

guy who won't give up his stuff. Watch me. I got all the

stuff, but I'm gonna lay down my life that you might be saved.

And he he who saves his life, will lose it. But he that

loses his life for my sake shall save it Luke nine twenty four. It's

a revolutionary concept going on here in this chapter. So what do we have

so far? Loss of marriage, loss of children, loss of material security,

loss of life, and the picture continues verses thirty five through forty five.

I love this chapter. It deals with the loss of status. You

see in verses thirty five to forty one, two of the disciples come to

Jesus. Now this is after the rich young ruler. This is after Jesus

says I'm gonna lay down my life. Then two of these church members come

to Jesus with their mama. Now, Cathy, the chapters is about giving

up, and they show up with an agenda. Christ, we've had a

committee meeting and we know that soon you'll be in charge of everything. You're

gonna need help. And being Hebrew and our thinking, we know there's only

two main seats, one on the right, one on the left. We

got them covered. Jesus now, seeing they've not understood he just talked about

giving up his life. Are you listening to me? For you see they're

prayers. Christ could not answer because you're not listening to him. He said,

I'm about to go die. Well, why you're on your way and

arranged the seating when you come up because he taught him, I'm resurrected,

could be arranged the seating, and Jesus may secure to them that any kind

of status or position in life that is not motivated by service is unacceptable.

See, maybe that's why you did not get the promotion you prayed for this

year, because God knows that you got a status problem. Maybe that's why

you didn't get that house because moving out of the neighborhood you're in where you're

humble, to the neighborhood you were gonna be where you become obnoxious. And

since I'm not a god of status, because being equal with God, in

fact, finding it not robbery to be equal with God, made myself of

no reputation, So I'm not concerning Jesus says about your promotion. I don't

care what neighborhood you live in, because that's a gain that could be a

loss. So I'm gonna make that gain a loss so that you can have

gain or shoot. And then the chapter ends. I'm just doing an analysis

of the chapter. Haven't gotten to my sermon yet, brother, just breaking

down the chapter and then in verses for forty six to fifty two. The

last verses of the chapter you find the famous incident of blind Bartimaeus. Remember

him. These verses deal with the possible loss of physical wholeness, health,

and all that such limitations can infer, such as mobility, independence, acceptance,

even financial security. Now look at this chapter. Loss of marriage,

loss of children, loss of possible financial security, rich young ruler, loss

of life, loss of status, loss of physical wholeness. Can you think

of anything important not in that chapter? Six losses? Well, I'm a

seventh day administ there's a seventh loss in the chapter. I just think in

sevens and that's in my key verses. Let's talk a bit. When you

look at the when you look at the list of Mark ten, don't you

see things that you prayed about this year? So say some of you prayed

about your marriages, didn't you? Yeah, servant prayers we we we we

pray that our our marriages will survive and and and even when things seem to

be getting worse after each prayer. Uh. We we pray for our children

to be saved, and for Jesus to touch them. And even as we

see frightening things coming up in them that are us in them, we pray

for material soundness are our mortgage to be paid, uh for foreclosure not to

take place, for the car not to be repossessed, and even down to

the last moment before they come and drive off with it. We pray,

We pray for our lives to be spared, particularly in the light of devastating

disease or or or as we travel. We we we simply go to work

each day and pray that will come home safely. We pray for the for

the lives of those we love, and and keep on praying to the phone

rings from the hospital and they have breathed their last breath, heart wrenching news

of irreplaceable loss. Oh yes, we pray for maintenance of our standing in

life. And we pray for physical wholeness and health and and and we don't

want to be demoted on the job. We do not want to face the

loss of a face with others. We don't want to hear that the cancer

is back in the and that the cataracts have started forming on our eyes,

or that the child is autistic and stricken with asthma. We pray, and

we pray that these losses don't come. And the prayers seem to bounce off

the ceiling and come back. Maybe what you consider loss is God's first step

towards your game. You better listen to me. Today we cry, and

God understands our tears, and we bemoaning. God understands our bemoaning. But

brothers, sisters. His agenda's higher than our agenda. His goals are higher

than our goals, higher then the human mind can reach his. God's idea

for his people and things that we lose in this there's nothing that you lose.

God can't give back if he desires. So what you call a loss

is not a loss. What you call a game may not be a game.

What he took away he took away that he might take you with him.

Except Paul got it. He said, I'll be content with whatever stake

God leaves me in. We've come to the final day, We've come to

the end of time, and so God is measuring things differently, and so

people that he's gonna save will first live in case, people is gonna save

will first be down to bread and water. Folks he's gonna save are gonna

lose before they gain. And Peter's standing there, he's seen a man that

he thought was all right, that that that that measured up, and and

Jesus is all but said to him, there's no way he can make it

in. He said, I've observed the law from my youth thought and and

and Jesus says, one thing thou lackest. And Peter's asking, what does

it take? How many losses do I have to endure? How many things

am I praying for that you will not provide? Tell me God, why

it's not working out? You see, if God presented you with a list

of the required losses, you'd argue with him for the rest of the day.

He ain't discussing that with you. He's just taking it away here,

you're pastor. He knows how we think we'd spend the rest of the day

rationalizing why that relationship should not end. Don't get quiet now. And God

says, I'm not discussing it. I'm in the lost and found business,

and lost comes first, found comes next. All right, first you lose,

then you get found. Come on, somebody, So what's the issue

for today? Maybe you need a new definition for loss? See Peter says,

we've left all that sounds so pious, giving up all the big word,

isn't it for thee? Can you expect the church to say Amen,

Brother, Yes, Sir knows what's really going on. He knows that they

are still following him out of their own agenda Verses two thirty two thirty five.

He lets them know what all is. All is your very life.

All is whatever it takes to make it in all this and just some stuff

or financial donation to the cause, or a meal for the homeless, or

a toy for somebody who's unfortunate at Christmas. All is more than even spending

the night at some six person's house and fixing them breakfast in the morning.

See this, this is our this is our all list. I'm in a

ministry, given up all. I'm in sabast who every Sabbath morning right on

time Moon. I've given up all. I return my tithe faithfully. Oh

you got ninety percent left, all given up all even at offering when you

put it together the Lord, I'm giving almost twenty two percent of my income

to the Lord. All Lord, just smiling, He knows we have no

idea what all is. Just a word sounds good, makes for good testimony

in prayer meeting. All No, all, okay, you want to go.

All all is all? He said, blessed are ye, when men

shall revole you and persecute you for righteousness sake. You see a lot of

things in requests and our prayers that are for decent things our purposes are not

necessarily necessary. I'll read that sentence again, because I worked on it.

I rewrote it four times. Here it goes. You see a lot of

things and requests in our prayers that are for decent things or purposes are not

necessarily necessary. See for instance, I pray to get a new house.

Nothing is wrong with a request at face value. But God's answer might be

a nice house to rent he has still provided shelter, or his answer may

be a shelter. See I may pray to be healed of disease. There

is absolutely nothing wrong with that request. But if my trust in his goodness

is attached to whether he answers that prayer, then his answer may be to

allow the illness that I may come to accept the fact that he is good,

whether he answers the prayer or not. God's measure of what is a

loss or a gain is his measure for us to accept, not our measurement

to impose on God. And so when Peter raises his outcry. Christ answers

Mark ten, and man, this thing is really something, Mark ten.

Jesus says, okay, there is no man left that hath left house or

brethren or sisters, or father or mother or wife, or children or lands.

For my sake and the gospels. It builds, It builds you getting

yourself ready? Okay, okay, okay, But he shall receive a one

hundredfold Wow. Now in this time, houses not just house. See notice

in verse twenty nine, it's house. In verse thirty, it's houses.

I wish I would read the Bible house houses, see a hundred folks.

Who's got to be plural? He started with a house, not houses.

Lord, have mercy, brethren and sisters and mother. I see all those

words a singer singular in verse twenty nine. Now that folks everywhere and lands.

Then that next phrase is it? There? You see it? With

persecutions? Now what's going on here, Wendy. God says, first of

all, I'm gonna strip you down. Then I'm gonna start giving back to

you butt. Each thing you receive will be a test. See with persecutions

the Greek world there is for tests. I'm gone and give. I'll give

it to you, but it's gonna be a test, because see God knows

the poisonous in sindery, in insidious, ignominious come on pastor in ignominious temptation

of stings. So ill, Yeah, I may save the relationship, but

it's gonna test you. I may save your marriage, but it's gonna test

you. I'll give you back what you think you're lost. But with person

cutions with testing, because what we do listen to this preacher, we get

attached to the stuff he gives and forget about the giver. God is insulted

by this kind of foolishness. He says, I know what a gain is.

A gain is anything that I take that saves your soul. And I

know what a loss is. A loss is in a gain you think you

got that's keeping you from going to heaven. So your gains are my losses,

and your losses are my gains. The subject is prayers, Wendy,

that God did not answer in two thousand and eight. And I need this

fine young couple there to understand that God was being very kind to you when

he didn't answer some of those prayers. Our plans are not always God's plans.

He may see that it is best for us and for his cause to

refuse our very best intentions. In other words, he's saying, you may

have good intentions, you know it is not wrong to pray for a car.

Next statement, start again, start again. If he sees the best

not to grant their desires, he will counter balance the refusal by giving them

tokens of his love and entrusting to them another service. In other words,

I'll say no, I will counter balance it. Now. I don't know

about you, but at sixty six, having fought with cancer all this year,

the only counterbalance I'm concerned about is anything that's going to get me in

the kingdom Eskeep reading, keep reading, in his everybody, in his loving

care and interest for us. Often, he who understands us better then we

understand ourselves, refuse us to permit us selfishly to seek the gratification of our

own ambition. Our plans fail, that God's plans for us may succeed.

Our loss is his gain, and his gain is your gain. Let's keep

going. Now, the umbling statement, Remember, Peter, we have left

all and I can see in my mind as ever preaches imagination, that as

he said that all the pastors kind of rolls upon their toes. He's speaking

for all of them. CJ. We have left all. Some even had

tears in their eyes. Let's read this next statement. You ready, we

are never called upon to make a real sacrifice for God. Many things he

asked us to yield to him. But in doing this we are giving up

that which just hinders us. In they would weigh even when we called upon

to surrender those things which in themselves are good. We may be sure that

God is thus working out for us. Final part of the statement, in

the future life, Come on, in the future life, the mysteries that

here have annoyed and disappointed us will be made plain, and we'll be franks.

Some of y'all will never get married. You're never going to get a

degree, some of you will never ever get that house, and some of

you will never in your life drive a brand new car. But you will

walk in through one of the gates into the city. And So, what's

that seventh thing you must lose? It's right there in those key verses twenty

eight to thirty one. It's a loss. It's a loss of an earthly

measurement of what is valuable. That's the thing you have to lose before you

can be trusted with any gains. There is a verse in the Bible we

love to quote Jeremiah twenty nine and verse eleven, My thoughts toward you are

not evil but good. What some of us fail to notice is that those

verses are written to a bunch of captives, Sandy. The people who receive

those words my thoughts towards you are good, not evil, are people who

are captives in Babylon. They're not free, they are prisoners. My thoughts

toward you prisoners, are not evil but good. And then he follows in

the next verses and it becomes it becomes crazy. While you're in Babylon,

he says, if you seek me, you will find me, if you

seek me with all your heart. What's he saying while you're going through your

captivity, your Babylon, your losses. If you seek me, I'll start

producing games. My appeal today is that you make peace with God. I

don't know what your heartache is today. I don't know what you're prayed for

that didn't happen. I don't know what you want that God will not give.

I'm asking you to give in I'm trying to tell you, lady and

gentlemen, change your math. Your losses are games. If God is in

it, you haven't lost a thing. If he isn't, you're lost anyhow.

Adventist Radio, London inspiration for the song