Hindered Prayers
1 Peter 3:1-7
I- Introductory Remarks:
A- Prayer is such a privilege, It can provide from the Father.
1- Forgiveness of Sins Strength for the day Wisdom
Healing And Peace that Passeth All Understanding.
In the model prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray for their daily needs, and expect to receive them
& Read
Matthew 7:7-11
2- Jesus Himself lived, in daily
unhindered communion with the Father, so
that He could say to the Father above "I know that Thou hearest me
always" (John 11:42).
B- All the Lords teaching about prayer show that we too can have daily
1- unhindered communication with God, asking and receiving, seeking and finding,
knocking and having God opening to us
. Hear His promise John 16:24
"Hitherto
have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may
be full"
C- In James 4:2 we read "ye have not, because ye ask not,"
1- It is proper to expect our asking
to be followed receiving and that we can live in the joy and comfort of knowing
God hears and answers our prayers. Please read with me 1 John 5:14-15
14Now this is
the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His
will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us, whatever we
ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
2- It is perfectly normal for a child to
ask his father for daily necessities and
get them., And using that figure the Savior
said,
"If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father
which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:11).
D- But the great privilege of prayer is
not available to all.
1- David speaking from experience said it
this way
18If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Psa. 66:18
2- You know.....I deposit my money in the
bank, and as long as my account is in
good condition, every request I make for money is honored by the bank . Then why cannot a child
of God daily draw on the bank of Heaven having his prayers answered as a matter of daily
business? I believe that He can!
3- When a Christian fails to have his
prayer-check cashed, he should regard it as proof that something is wrong that
needs attention at once.
4- When I turn faucet in bathroom or
kitchen, I expect water to pour forth every time. If I
turned the tap and water did not come, I would be surprised, but I would know
that something radically was wrong, and I would immediately set out to find out
why the water did not run. Or a light
switch, I set out to find what is wrong and to remedy it.
5- Just so, every Christian ought to live
in daily communion with God in the joy of answered prayers. And when anything
hinders his prayers the Christian ought immediately to be able to find out what
is wrong and get it remedied.
E- Often we pray for daily needs and necessities, things for which God
tells us to pray for,
1- And yet no answer comes. We often pray
for the conversion of loved ones, pray for one another, pray for help in times
of temptation; all matters which every Christian certainly has a right
to pray. Matters about which God has instructed us to pray and yet
Christians often do not get the answer to their prayers. Why?
2- The answer is that many a good
prayers cannot be answered by a holy God because of sins in the life and
heart of the one who prays.
F- It may be that you have some of your
prayers answered, or we think we do.
1- May I remind you the Lord "sendeth rain on the just and
the unjust" (Matt.
5:45), and is "kind unto the unthankful" (Luke 6:35), God may give us things.... not that He
respects and answers our prayers
2- But because of His infinite love and mercy
which is poured out upon mankind. The God Who gives breath to the murderer,
food to the man who never prays, the God Who gives all the blessings of nature
to a sinning, Christ-rejecting race - that God still loves and cares for His
children even when they live in sin and grieve His heart.
& Read Matthew 5:43-45
3- But whether God hears some of our prayers, or none of them, our prayers are
hindered if we do not live daily in the awareness of His Word. Notice Proverbs 28:9
9He that
turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
G- If I will not listen to God, why
should He listen to me?
1- Often we are painfully conscious that
our prayers are not heard. I once had a man said to me "Preacher,
before you sleep I wish you would pray for me. My prayers never get higher than
my head. God won't hear me."
2- Is this where you are? Oh, how important it is to clear the line of
communication between you and God so He will hear us. Let us
now prayerfully examine the Word of God and search our hearts to see why our
prayers may be hindered, and why God
does not answer to give us what we ask.
II- In Peter's first epistle prayer is addressed three times.
A- What is remarkable about
these three instances is that there is something common to each of them.
1- Let us read them and see
if you can detect the common thread running through each.
I- In the matter of unanswered
prayers, let us notice
& 1 Peter 3:1-4
A- Here is
instruction for the women that your prayers be not hindered
B- Next he addresses the husbands 1 Peter
3:7 hear it.
7Likewise,
ye husbands, dwell with them
according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel,
and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not
hindered
1- So he speaks
first of sins that a wife may be guilty of that hurts her prayers, that he discusses in detail, and then speaks of the sins of a husband who
does not take his proper, God-appointed place in relation to the wife. He warns
both husband and wife that they are to obey God in this matter, "that your prayers be not hindered."
II- Next Peter speaks to all us
not just to husbands
1 Peter 3:8-9
8Finally,
all of you be of one
mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; 9not
returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing,
knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
A- It's a quote from Psalm
34 to support these admonitions
10For He who would love life and
see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking
deceit. 11Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek
peace and pursue it. 12For 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.
1- Notice verse 12, the for states the reason why we should live in
a certain way (10-11) an the reason agrees with the argument present in 1 Peter 3:7 namely prayers are hindered.
2- God has His ears open to
the prayers of those whose pursue peace and whose lips are pure and who don't
use guile (deceit). Verse 12: "For
the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their
prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
3- God listens to the prayers
of those who live like this: keep the tongue from evil, refrain from guile,
seek peace, do righteousness.
III- Third and finally in 1 Peter 4:7 he states
7But the end
of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober (of sound mind) , and watch (sober)
unto (for the purpose of) prayer.
A- There are things we must
do so that our prayers will be helped and not hindered:
1- Two things: first, be of
sound judgment for the sake of your prayers; second, be sober for the sake of
your prayers. In other words, there is a way to think and live that will hinder
your prayers and there is a way to think and live that will help your prayers.
B- Now what is the unusual common
thread running through these 3 references to prayer?
1- Peter's point in every one of these texts is
that it's true the other way around: God has appointed a way for us to live
which will help us pray. There are ways to live that hinder prayers and there
is a way to live that helps prayer.
2- We husbands and wives must
live with one another in a certain way. Here's the way one commentary stated it:
So concerned is God that Christian husbands and
wives live in an understanding and loving way, that he "interrupts" His
relationship with them when they are not doing so.
No Christian
should presume to think that any spiritual good will be accomplished by their life
without an effective ministry of prayer. And no husband or wife may expect an
effective prayer life unless he or she lives
with the other "in an understanding way, bestowing honor" as God
directs.
To take the time to develop and maintain a
good marriage is God's will; it is serving God; it is a spiritual activity
pleasing in his sight.
IV- So there is a Biblical doctrine -- a Biblical truth
1- That we can now state with
great confidence from these texts: Christians must endeavor to live in a way
that does not hinder their prayers. It
has three parts:
1st - it implies that prayers can be hindered. Our
prayer life can be blocked.
2nd - What blocks prayer is
often our lives -- the way we live, the way we relate to wives or husbands or
kids or parents or colleagues or neighbors.
3rd- Opening the way of
prayer to God involves a conscious endeavor, living in sound judgment and being
sober. In each of these texts Peter is
telling us to resolve to do something so that our prayers will not be hindered.
V- Now for an unbeliever who has never known a peaceful, personal, walk
with God,
A- This would not be so
unusual.
1- But for a person who has
known God and loved him, and tasted the sweetness of peace and fellowship, knowing
the sense of being right with God,
nothing is more terrifying than feeling that God does not seem to be there
anymore.
B- Let
us close with a wonderful passage on prayer & Philippians 4:4-7
1- So Peter tells us:
endeavor to live in a way that does not hinder your prayers. Each of us should resolve this morning, you
will take His teaching seriously and seek to do whatever you need to do to unclog
your prayer line and set it free. It may
be that changes need to be made at home. Nothing is more important than
unclogging the streams of prayer and power that are clogged at home.
2- It may be that changes
need to be made in the wider circle of relationships where there is bitterness
or guile. Or it may be that there are
simple awakenings that need to happen concerning the pattern of prayer in your
life.
3- When Peter says in 4:7,
"Be of sound judgment and sober
spirit for the sake of prayers," he means that there are disciplines
of the mind and the spirit which can preserve unhindered prayer in your life. A
sound mind. Sober spirit.
C- Jesus does not kiss a
drunken wife.
1- What do I mean? I mean
that when the bride of Christ, the church, is drunkened with the cares of this
world and the deceitfulness of riches things that make us unfruitful, she may turn to him for a brief kiss of
prayer, but her breath smells worldliness that He turns his face a way.
"Be sober for the sake of your prayers,"