go back with me to the first verse Psalm 66:18 read it again if I regard iniquity in my heart notice it doesn’t say if I sin the Lord will not hear me it says if I regard iniquity in my heart in other words if I know there is a sin in my life and I’m not doing anything about it a person who regards iniquity is one who holds a particular sin in his heart and he loves it and he makes an alibi for it and he excuses it and he covers it up it is not primarily therefore the fact of sin that keeps us from getting our

prayers unanswered it is the love for it and the excusing of it that pushes God away from us the prayer God wants to hear from us when we have sin in our lives is 1 John 1:9 if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness why why don’t my prayers get answered I’ve had a lot of people ask me that question there once was a pastor who had a 5-year-old daughter and the girl noticed that every time her dad stood behind the pulpit and was getting ready to preach

he would bow his head for a moment before he began to preach and the little girl noticed that he did this every single time so one day after the service the little girl went to her dad and she said dad why do you bow your head right Before You Preach your sermon well honey the preacher said I’m asking the Lord to help me preach A good sermon and the little girl looked up at her father and asked then how come he doesn’t do it unanswered prayer everybody who knows anything about prayer and prays has a little

different take on it and here’s a young lady who’s a teenager here’s what her thoughts are on prayer she said God answers prayer four ways yes no wait a while and you’ve got to be kidding which tells you some of the things she asked for that she didn’t get I remember years ago I read a story about a man who was being pursued by a roaring hungry lion feeling the beast’s hot breath on his neck and knowing his time was short he began to pray as he ran he cried out in desperation oh Lord

please make that lion a Christian within seconds the frightened Man became aware that the lion had stopped the chase when he looked behind him he found the lion kneeling his lips moving in obvious prayer greatly relieved at this turn of events the young man went to join the lion in his meditation and as he approached the king of the jungle when he was near enough he heard the lion praying and bless oh Lord this food which I I’m exceedingly grateful for there’s always something with a little humor in it but let’s be honest

there’s nothing really funny about praying and not feeling like you’re getting answered the problem of unanswered prayer is not something that started with our generation in the Old Testament habach struggled with his unanswered prayer he cried out oh Lord how long shall I cry and you will not hear job struggled with unanswered prayer in job 31:35 we have his words oh that I had one to hear me oh that the almighty would answer me King David struggled with unanswered prayer in Psalm 13 we read his words how long O

Lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me habach job David all Echo the frustrations that many of us have had at one time or another when it seems as if God is not answering our prayers now let me be right up front with this the Bible says that God does not hear and answer the prayers of those who do not belong to his family praying is a family exercise it belongs to those who are in the family of God the only prayer that God hears from someone who’s not a Christian is God be merciful to me a

sinner but even after we become members of the family we begin to realize that sometimes when we pray it doesn’t seem like our prayers are working there are several places in the word of God that simply say that under certain circumstances God will not answer our prayer and this is what I want us to explore in these next few moments I hope we can use this as a sort of checklist if my prayers are not being answered could the reason be found on this list let’s begin sometimes our prayers are not answered because of un prayed

prayers James 4:2 says you have not because you ask not it’s amazing to me how many people people say God doesn’t answer my prayer when I begin to talk with them I find out they have never specifically asked God for the thing they say they have not received God is not going to answer your prayer for some specific thing because you pray at the dinner table you’re to ask him the Bible says ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and it shall be open unto you Matthew chapter 7 the biggest

reason why prayers aren’t answered and this is is probably bigger than all of the other reasons is they’re just not offered we have not because we ask not and then the Bible says that sometimes our prayers are not answered because of unconfessed sin I used to think there was just maybe one verse about this in the Bible but during this particular study I have found out that this is a prevalent truth in the word of God here’s the most famous verse that says that Psalm 6618 if I regard iniquity in my heart

the Lord will not hear or Proverbs 15:29 the Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous or Proverbs 28:9 one who turns away his ear from hearing the law even his prayer is an Abomination or Isaiah 1:15 when you spread out your hands I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Isaiah 59:1 and2 behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear but our iniquities have separated

you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear or 1 Peter 3:12 for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil sometimes as followers of Christ our prayers don’t get answered because we’re harboring unconfessed sin in our lives go back with me to the first verse Psalm 6618 read it again if I regard iniquity in my heart notice it doesn’t say if I sin the Lord will not hear me it says if

I Reg iniquity in my heart in other words if I know there is a sin in my life and I’m not doing anything about it a person who regards iniquity as one who holds a particular sin in his heart and he loves it and he makes an alibi for it and he excuses it and he covers it up it is not primarily therefore the fact of sin that keeps us from getting our prayers unanswered it is the love for it and the excusing of it that pushes God away from us sometimes our prayers are not answered because of un prayed prayers and

unconfessed sin and sometimes our prayers are not answered because of unbelieving Minds it says in James chapter 1 let him ask in faith with no doubting for He Who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind for let not that man suppose he will receive anything from the Lord he is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways what does it mean to be double-minded it means to trust God and then not to trust him to trust him over here not to trust him over here to believe him here to not believe him here

someone has written this in a little free verse it goes like this as children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend I brought my Broken Dreams to God because he was my friend but instead of leaving him in peace to work alone I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own At Last I snatched them back and cried how could you be so slow my child he said what could I do you would never let them go to be double-minded is not to let the request go not to be able to give them up completely to God to give them to God

and take them back sometimes our prayers aren’t answered because we pray them and then we take them back and we try to work out the solution ourself instead of trusting God and then number four sometimes our prayers are not answered because of unrighteous motives James 4:3 says you ask and you do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures now let’s just be honest about this men and women God is not the big Genie In The Sky he is not the sugar daddy just waiting for you to come and tell him all

of the fluffy little wonderful things you would like maybe we do that when we’re little kids but grownups need to know better than that God is not there in heaven just waiting for you to Ping him so he can give you everything you ever dreamed of no matter what you’ve heard on television or on radio for John 5:14 says this is the confidence that we have in God that if we ask anything according to his will he will hear us Matthew 69 And1 says Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done psalm 37:4 says delight yourself in the

Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart we must remember that God’s ultimate concern is not with our team winning the ball game but in himself being glorified in the process his ultimate concern is not that we all have perfect health but that we lift every ounce of our health up to his honor and Glory his ultimate concern is not that we have a high-paying job but that we praise him and are thankful for what he provides his ultimate concern is that we are consumed with his glory in whatever state we are in and I believe

that God Delights in giving even the smallest of things to his children but we must weigh the motives of our hearts against the substance of our requests we must ask is my desire in this to see God glorified in my life or am I just wanting this so that it’s for me God plainly says that some people do not get what they ask for because they ask for the wrong reason you probably have read this it’s on many cards that I’ve seen in the greeting card stores but it Bears listening to right now it goes like

this I asked for strength that I might achieve he made me weak that I might obey I asked for health that I might do greater things I was given Grace that I might do better things I asked for riches that I might be happy I was given poverty that I might be wise I asked for power that I might have the praise of men I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God I asked for all things that I might enjoy life I was given life that I might enjoy all things I reive nothing that I asked for but all that I hope for my prayer was

answered sometimes we don’t pray right listen to me now sometimes we pray thy will be changed not thy will be done did you ever pray that prayer maybe not in those words but Lord can we talk talk about this once more thy will be changed someone said when you pray do you give instructions or do you report for Duty sometimes number five our prayers are not answered because of unresolved conflicts the Bible says in Mark chapter 11 when you stand praying if you have anything against anyone forgive him that your father in Heaven may also forgive

you your trespasses but if you do not forgive neither will your father in Heaven forgive your trespasses again in Matthew Chapter 5 it says therefore if you bring your gift to The Altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there before the Altar and go your way be reconciled to your brother and come and offer your gift the Bible says if you are harboring resentment or unforgiveness or anger in your heart toward another brother or sister it may not shut down your prayer

life it just says it will hinder it it’ll get in the way it’s almost like you’re coming to the Lord with your prayer and you hear him in the back of your mind saying to you have you taken care of that yet and it takes the edge off of it nothing is so important is maintaining the right relationships that you have with others and then number six tells us that our prayers are not answered because of uncompassionate Hearts Proverbs 21:13 says whoever shuts his ears to The Cry of the poor will also cry himself and

not be heard wow this is not about trying to feed the world’s hungry although we ought to be concerned about that this prayer barrier is about failing to have compassion for those we know who are in need the Bible says when you Harbor an uncompassionate Spirit when you don’t ask God to make you sensitive to people you can help then it will be hard for you to have the relationship in prayer that you desire and then finally the last one and I have to tell you this is for men only all you women can’t listen to

this I’m fooling with you a little bit because you all need to listen to it but I’ll never forget when I first understood this and I read the verse and I read it and I thought is that really true and I read it again and every time I’ve read it I’ve come back with this and so I’m going to read this verse to you and you see if you have the same response I do 1 Peter 3:7 husband likewise dwell with them your wives with understanding giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being

hirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered wow men what that says to us if we’re Christian husbands and we have a Christian wife our relationship with our wife can often be the reason why God isn’t listening carefully to our prayers this passage of scripture says that men that are not having the right kind of relationship with their wives can at the very least find their prayers hindered it makes it hard to pray for your wife when you haven’t been loving her and meeting her needs and living

with her according to the teaching of the word of God according to knowledge on the other hand just think of the potential that is wrapped up in the two of you pray together for something because the Bible says that if two of you agree on Earth concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by the father when you pray with your wife men you open up an incredible potential before God I know that for most of us who are a personalities I confess praying with your wife may be a difficult thing but praying with your

wife is an important thing the Bible says if you don’t cherish and honor the woman in your life who is your wife if you don’t try to serve her if your relationship with her is not right it will affect the way you pray and what happens when you pray so there you have it un prayed prayers unconfessed confess sin unbelieving Minds unrighteous motives unresolved conflicts uncompassionate hearts and unresponsive husbands I want to give you one final little Paradigm that wraps all of this up in four statements this is what this is all

about I’ve written this down in the front of my Bible and here’s what it says when you pray if the request is wrong God says no how many of you know no is an answer we try to teach our kids that but we don’t like it when it comes back to us yes is the answer we want but no is an answer and I am so thankful for the times over my life as I look back over my shoulder when I have prayed for something and God has said no I didn’t like it at the time but oh do I see it now so if the request is wrong God will

just say no and you’ll get it if the time timing is wrong God will say slow how many of you know God isn’t on our schedule God doesn’t work off of our calendar app God doesn’t work off of our time schedule God works totally off of his time schedule and when we ask for something he’s not obligated to give it to us by next Thursday so sometimes we ask God for something and it’s a good request and it’s a legitimate request but the timing for the reception of it is just not right sometimes we ask God for something and

if the request is wrong he says no and if the timing’s wrong he says slow and sometimes and this has been the bulk of the message today we ask God for something and we are wrong something’s going on in our life that needs to be fixed and when that happens God says grow grow up get it right and the good news is that if the request is right and the timing is right and you are right God says go I want you to know that God answers prayer he’s answered a lot of prayers for me continues to answer them for me

every day but I’m like you I know I can do better with this prayer thing and I’m sure when we get done with our lives and we look over our shoulders and somebody says if you could do something better what would you do somebody asked Billy Graham that question and he said if I could do anything better I would pray more I would have prayed more in my life all of us feel that you know someone said if you want to empty an auditorium announce that you’re going to preach on prayer because nobody will come because

everybody has a bit of a sense of guilt in our hearts that we don’t pray as we ought can I get a witness kind of somber but it’s a good witness so you know what this is not to make us feel guilty about prayer this is to help us find out how we can be more effective in praying I got some things in my life right now that I really need God for how about you I want to make sure that I don’t have anything in the way of God being able to hear my prayer and answer it I hope you feel the same way a lady came up to me she said I’ve

been praying for my father and he’s getting close to the end of his life and God doesn’t seem to be hearing and I told her Howard henricks who was a good friend of mine once told me that he prayed for his father for every single day for 72 years and at the very end of his life life before he died he became a Christian all I can say to you is if you’re praying and it seems like God isn’t answering remember God’s not on your time schedule and so you’re to pray continually Faithfully every day no

matter what don’t give up don’t quit keep praying he loves you he cares about you he wants you to get your prayers answered and let’s make sure we understand that the one reason most of us don’t get them answered is just cuz we don’t ask them we have not because we ask not and now with one last word for today’s program here is Dr Jeremiah if you are like me you’ve had this experience you pray for something and God doesn’t seem to answer your request and then much later you understand

why it is only then you realize that God knew better than you did God is a wise father who knows what is best for his children the key to being able to trust God is knowing that you are his child so if you have questions about your relationship with God I hope you’ll allow me to send you two free resources that can help one is our booklet called your greatest turning point and the other is our monthly devotional magazine turning points in them you’ll find biblical answers to living as a child of God we will gladly send them both to you

free of charge if you will contact us here at turning point today next time on turning point so he says to them there is a sin which you are on the verge of committing and be careful now you’re on the verge of committing this sin that if you committed there is no forgiveness available join us next time for Dr Jeremiah’s message is there a sin God cannot forgive here on turning point [Music]