The Mystery of Answered Prayer

This message is one of the Times Square pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771 or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Or Psalms 44 tonight, I want to speak to you on what I entitled the hidden face of God. The hidden face of God with a subtitle that explains it better, the mystery of unanswered prayer.

The hidden face of God which is the mystery of unanswered prayer. And I have a lot of scriptures tonight, some I'll ask you to turn to. Many I will just quote, but Psalms 44 at verse 24.

Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. The hidden face of God, shall we pray? Lord, we thank you tonight.

Oh, how we are blessed. What a privilege it is tonight, Lord, to be in your divine presence. Our hearts are warmed.

Our hearts have been lifted up. Lord, we just feel you've drawn us closer to you during this worship time. And now, Lord, let the word fall upon good soil tonight.

Lord, give us ears to hear. Anoint ears. Anoint thy servant.

Lord, let it penetrate. And Lord, do a work. Accomplish that which you desire to do tonight, Lord.

We come against every opposing force. We come against every contrary force in this place. We rebuke it now, in the name of Jesus, that the word would have free course and freedom.

Hallelujah. Lord, that we'll hide the word in our hearts, that we might not sin against you. Jesus' name, amen.

One of the mysteries of the Christian walk, especially for those who are newer in the Lord, but I suppose for even, even it's a problem to older saints, is the mystery of unanswered prayer. Why is it that there are times when the heavens seem as brass? Why is it that there are times when it doesn't seem that God has heard our prayer and to come to our rescue? Or has heard those petitions that we have presented to him? Now, I want to make it very clear, and I assume that everyone here believes in a prayer answering God. How blessed we were with that song tonight.

Yes, God answers prayer. Let there be no doubt about it. In fact, many non-Christians, even sinners, believe in prayer, expecting God to come to their rescue when they're in real trouble.

Headlines today, I got the headlines today, New York Post, Eastern Airline came into Newark Airport, and an engine blew up, and for 20 minutes, nobody knew what was going to happen. And the quote, big, big letters at the bottom of the headlines, one person on the plane said, I never prayed so hard in my life. Sure, they did.

Probably never pray as hard in the future either, now that they're safe. Reminds me of the fellow who was in this kind of situation, and he got down before God. He said, now God, I haven't bothered you for 30 years.

And if you get me out of this, I won't bother you for another 30 years. It's amazing how some people suddenly believe in prayer. But there's good reason to believe that God answers prayer.

The scriptures invite our petitions, our prayers, our supplications. Let me give you a few scriptures. Psalms 91, 15.

You don't need to turn. It says, he will call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble and will rescue him and honor him.

Ezra 8, 23 says, so we fasted and petitioned our God about this, about this matter, and he answered our prayers. I like Acts 4, 31. It says, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.

Now, we've had that happen time and time again here. After we prayed, many a time, this place has been shaken. Hallelujah.

Especially in our Friday night meetings, but in many meetings. John 15, 7, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Listen, if we took the time tonight to have people stand and give testimony to how God has answered your prayers over the years or of late and we got done hearing them all by the time we finished and we heard that new course again, I want to tell you, there'd be a shout that'd go up from this place tonight of all the prayers that God has answered on our behalf.

Some of them were maybe little things. Some of them were big things. Some of them seemingly impossible.

Let God heard your cry. Some of us prayed one time and God answered. Others of you have prayed for years.

It took years, but then God heard your cry. So let there be no doubt in our minds. God's ear is not deaf that it cannot hear.

His arm is not short that it cannot reach down to save. In fact, I like Isaiah 65, 24. It says that God even outdoes us in regards to our prayer.

He hears us before we call. Before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear.

I've had, we've experienced in our family, we've been around the home and around in prayer, prayed about something, and before we could finish our prayer, he got a phone call and the answer came on the phone call before we could even finish praying the prayer. Before I call, he said, I will answer you. Now, I wish I could keep preaching like that about answered prayer, but this is a message not about answered prayer, about unanswered prayer.

What about those times when it seems that God has or is not answering our call? This I refer to as the hidden face of God. And I read to you from the psalmist. He struggled with this question.

He said, wherefore hidest thou thy face and forget us our affliction and our oppression? Psalms 88 and 14 says, Lord, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me? And you see, with this mystery of unanswered prayer comes all of the fears, all of the doubts, and all of the questions as to why, Lord. Why castest thou off my soul? Why are you hiding your face from me? Why me, Lord? Or do I not have the right secret of prayer? I don't have, maybe some people feel, I don't have the right formula. And so it's popular or many people today will run and they'll buy a book somewhere that says, you know, three easy steps, do this.

And many people think, well, I just don't have it down somehow. I just didn't get it right. Or maybe there's something wrong with me, Lord.

Or maybe there's something wrong with you, Lord. David once said, he said, as far as I know, there's nothing wrong with me. Lord, why can't you help me? He said in Psalms 54 and 9, he says, they, my enemies run and prepare themselves against me without my fault.

Without my fault. He said, it is not my fault, Lord. But he said, awake to help me and behold, please awake and help me.

Behold, it's not my fault. But Lord, why aren't you answering? Matthew 8, 24. Remember when Jesus had his disciples, went into the boat with his disciples to go across the Sea of Galilee.

And halfway across a great storm came. And this is what it says, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with a waves, but he was asleep. Now get the picture here.

These disciples were afraid and listen, they were fishermen. They knew the sea and if fishermen are afraid out in the sea, I hate to be on that boat. And here the waves are coming in, their lives were at peril.

And here I can just see them rushing all around trying to save the boat and having to look around and see, look at him, he's asleep. Look at him, he's asleep. Have you ever felt that way? Did you ever feel that the Lord has gone to sleep on you in your time of need? Or that he wasn't answering your phone calls? If so, you may know the discouragement, the despair, the depression even that can come from this.

Look what it says here in Psalms 44. The psalmist said after saying, Lord, why are you hiding your face from me? He said, for my soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto the earth. In John 11, I will have you turn to it later, but not right now.

John 11, after Jesus received word that Lazarus was sick, he went to see him, but it was too late. So everybody thought, Lazarus died before Jesus could get to Bethany and Martha goes out to meet him. Mary goes out to meet him and said, Lord, if you had only been here, this would not have happened.

Now, have you ever said that to the Lord as well? Lord, if you'd been here and you know what, what the scripture does not tell us, I would have loved to know the tone of Martha's voice. Lord, if you had only been here, I can just hear the anxiety. I can just hear the despair.

If you had only been here, my brother would not have died. Maybe there was a little anger, disappointment, hurt or whatever in her voice. And so we all, this is an experience that's common to us all.

And let me share with you four things regarding the hidden face of God as it relates to the mystery of the gospel. of unanswered prayer. First of all, the hidden face of God is the mystery of his silence.

And yet there should be no mystery to God's silence when we understand that some prayers are answered in the negative and that's the reason for his silence. And whenever God is silent, often the reason is because the request is wrong. It may be carnal.

And God must either remain silent or as some examples, I'm going to give you about Jesus who did, who gave an outright refusal. Let me give you a few examples. Jesus was approached one time by a mother about her two sons because you see all of the disciples at first and all of the followers of Jesus believed that he was going to come and set up a new kingdom on this earth and that Jesus was going to be the next president.

And the disciples were going to be a part of the cabinet. And so one of the mothers came along to Jesus and made this request and said when this happens, would you remember my two sons and maybe make one the secretary of state and one vice president or whatever? And then in Mark the ninth chapter, there was another incident that took place on the Mount of Transfiguration And here Peter had the privilege of seeing Moses and Elijah come down in a supernatural appearance And Peter is so blessed. He's so excited about this that he says master.

It's good for us to be here Let's make three tabernacles one for thee one for Moses and one for Elijah And then there's another there's another Situation. It's Luke 9 54 a remarkable request by two disciples When Jesus wanted to go into this certain village of the samaritans and they refused their entrance And these two disciples said bless god They can't do that to us. We've got power.

We've got authority and this is what they said And when the disciples James and John saw this They saw the samaritans refusing them entrance. They said lord Wilt thou that we commend fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elijah? Wow, that's some prayer That's some prayer request now jesus refused such impractical And in one case foolish prayers because the nature of them Listen to me the nature of them was not in accordance with his will or in keeping with the character of god For example prayer is not to be used for personal gain or to advance personal ambition And when you pray that kind of prayer god is silent. He hides his face If petitioned for selfish reasons as in the case of a mother looking out for the material Welfare or the prestige of her two sons wanted to promote flesh Wanted to promote something fleshly and jesus Could not answer or hear that kind of a request and god has to turn his face aside from it Nor will god keep answering prayers in which we seek to perpetuate Spiritual manifestations or signs and wonders If the motive is to build shrines to promote such manifestations As in the case Of peter he wanted to build a moses tower An elijah shrine and a jesus mega temple a mega church You see some christians are obsessed with wanting god to perform signs and wonders And such prayers often reveal an immature weak christian Always needing the sign as some proof or blessing or to bolster their faith when the scripture says we walk by We walk by faith not by sight Now listen signs and wonders are manifestations Given as the initial proof of god's power to new believers And it's a promise to all believers That when the need arises for such manifestations His power is there But once god has demonstrated his power in signs and wonders.

It's time then to move on into spiritual maturity It's time to move on into holiness and the walk of faith Oh, it's not that god does not move again in signs and wonders. He does but he does not do it For us to live on mounts of transfiguration Jesus said an adulterous generation seeks a sign In fact, let me say this to you It is true As the scripture says these signs shall follow them that believe But there's also an accompanying principle that says them that believe shall not or should not seek after signs and wonders And then the third reasons for god's refusal in prayer is when the motive is to harm somebody else As when james and john would think of they wanted to call fire down out of heaven imagine such a prayer Jesus said ye know not what spirit ye are of Certainly it wasn't god's spirit Now again the point Of the examples just cited is that if we are not walking in righteousness Our prayers will reflect it Let me say it again. If we are not walking in righteousness our prayers will reflect it They will not be in accordance with god's will they will be self-centered They will even be foolish and god will have to turn his face from us at that moment Now perhaps god turns his face With a slight smile on his face sometimes like a little boy Who was going to go up to go to sleep go to bed? And he went bouncing into the living room and he said to all his family He said i'm going to bed now i'm going to say my prayers anybody need anything? well, many people look at prayer as a shopping list of Their needs but most often I believe that god turns away not with a smile But he turns away with sadness when he hears prayers reflecting a lack of godly character in the prayer And he has to say my people do not know me.

They do not know me or their prayers would be more sanctified James 4 3 in the niv says when ye ask do not you do not receive because you ask with a wrong motive That ye may spend what you get on your pleasures You know the way I hear some people talk about Faith and prayer it reminds me of putting a stick of dynamite in a kid's hand You see god is too good to give us what we always want lest the thing destroy us And when I get to I'm going to tell you something when I get to heaven i'm going to do two things I'm going to thank the lord for all the prayers that he answered for me And then i'm going to thank him for all the prayers that he didn't answer Because I would be in trouble I'd be in deep trouble if god answered all the prayers that I ever prayed Because I didn't have a righteous heart sometimes. I didn't have a sanctified heart now beware Beware If you refuse to accept the hidden face of god in his silence And if you persist in asking And getting what you want after repeated refusals He may give it to you in order to teach you a lesson The evidence of scripture is clear that when god's people demanded what they wanted What they wanted Sometimes god gave it to them and the answer turned out to be his judgment and his chastisement against them Go with me to numbers the 11th chapter Numbers chapter 11 something very What a scene what a scene that I have I I see before me here What mose has had to contend with numbers chapter 11 beginning at verse 4 and it says on the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting And the children of israel also wept again and said who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in egypt freely And then they remembered the cucumbers and the melons that's fine And the leeks and the onions and the garlic I don't know why they want to remember that but our But our soul is dried away and there is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes Now go down to verse 10 Then moses heard the people weep throughout the families every man in the door of his tent Now get the picture I don't know how many tents there were Let's say there are 5 000 tents. I there could have been five.

Can you imagine? 5 000 men standing and I can just hear moses What moses are hearing 5 000 men standing in front of their tent hollering out to moses Where's the beef? Where's the beef? Look at verse 10 And the anger of the lord was greatly Was kindled greatly and moses also was displeased now now listen to moses beef Listen to moses beef verse 11 and moses said unto the lord Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant and wherefore have? I not found favor in thy sight that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me Have I conceived all these people they're not my fault lord, they're they're your fault Have I begotten them that thou shouldest say unto me carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father beareth the Suckling child into the land which thou swears unto their fathers When should I have flesh to give all of this people for they weep unto me saying give me flesh That we may eat I am not able to bear all this people alone because it's too heavy for me In other words moses is saying i've just about had it with these people Look at verse 30 go down to verse 31 And there went forth a wind from the lord and he brought quails from the sea And he let them fall by the camp as it was a day's journey on this side And this was day journey on the other side round about the camp and it was two cubits high Upon the face of the earth. God says you want you want beef? I'll give you beef you want flesh. I'll give you flesh And the people stood up all that day and all that night and all the next day and they gathered the quails He that gathers least gathered 10 Homers, and they spread them all around for themselves round about the camp and when the flesh was yet between look at verse 33 Be careful what you ask for Be careful how you pray And while the flesh was yet between their teeth air It was chewed the wrath of the lord was kindled against the people and the lord smote the people with a very great plague Now listen to me.

I've counseled more than one young lady More than one young man Who persisted And in entering into a relationship persisted into asking god's blessing upon a relationship of an unbeliever Or a young man or young lady that was not really walking in holiness and and prayed and believed and blessed and Thought that it was god's blessing upon they wanted it so bad that god finally gave it to them and they ended up living under a plague and with a plague I've seen churches I've seen ministry. I've seen pastors pursue ministry projects When the signs were all apparent that god wasn't in it And they kept praying and kept believing it was from god and and so they got it And they ended up with a financial noose around their neck Be careful how you pray Go with me to first samuel chapter 8 some of you this is familiar to you, but I just want to Maybe familiar to many of you, but I just want to give you just a little A little thing that leaped out at me first samuel Chapter 8 And I want to tell you america better be troubled better be careful. We keep praying for a christian king And we may get one first samuel chapter 8 verse 6 And the thing displeased samuel when they said give us a king to judge us and samuel prayed unto the lord And the lord said unto samuel hearken hearken Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee for they have not rejected thee But they have rejected me that I shall not reign over them According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of egypt Even unto this day wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods So do they also unto thee now therefore hearken unto their voice How be it yes solemnly unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them And samuel told them all the words of the lord unto the people that ask of him a king and then from verse 11 on He begins to tell them.

All right, you prayed for this you want this now Let me tell you what's going to happen when you get what you want Let me tell you what the manner of the king is And he goes on and he says that he'll turn you into he'll turn your people your daughters into cooks and bakers Your fields and your vineyards. He'll take them from you. He'll take a tenth of your seed and so forth But look at verse 20 Look at verse 11 And he said this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you He will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots To be his horsemen and some will run before the chariots You see they thought and a lot of people Pray certain prayers and they think they're going to end up riding in the chariot And they end up running in front of the chariot You see beware of seeking to be like others You can seek to be like others financially or otherwise And you end up working for a boss or a company or a system or a king Who has you running before his chariot like a slave? Ask for something selfish or carnal or lustful and you may end up running before a chariot When you thought you were going to be riding inside the chariot a slave to the very thing you thought would be the answer to your prayer Be careful how you pray now the hidden face of god at times is a Face of displeasure And this is what i'm saying.

The face of god is hidden Because at times it's a face of displeasure over the condition of the hearts of his people Our prayers can never be right or received if the condition of our heart is not right Go with me to micah Look at micah chapter 3 and verse 4 Go to daniel. Hosea turned right to go to matthew turn left One of these minor one of those minor prophets micah chapter 3 verse 4 It says then shall they cry unto the lord, but he will not hear them I love to hear the leaves rustling. I love to hear the pages rustling good Wait, then shall they cry unto the lord, but he will not hear them He will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in all of their doings Now, you know from other scriptures that the primary reason god does not answer our prayers is because of sin Unconfessed sin secret sin any known sin literally turns the lord's face from us Psalm 66 and 18 don't turn there, but it says if I regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear me This is the end of side one you may now turn the tape over to side two Who then is paul and who is apollos But ministers by whom you believed even as the lord gave to every man.

I have a plant of paulus water, but god gave the increase Clear can it be? Would you go with me to deuteronomy the 31st chapter Oh, I I saw this and I was so struck by this I Was so moved In all of what god was saying here in deuteronomy 31. He asked moses to compose a song To sing to the children of israel to the newer children going up and moses was to compose a song I don't know what the title of it was, but it might have been the hidden face of god Or maybe it was called covenant breakers. I don't know what it was But it was a song to remind them That if they sinned that god was going to turn his face away from them Look at deuteronomy chapter 31 beginning at verse 17 It says then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day And I will forsake them and I will hide my face from them And they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall befall them So that they will say in that day are not these evils come upon us because our god is not among us I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they have wrought In that they are turned unto other gods now therefore Now therefore write ye this song for you and teach it Teach it to the children of israel and put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the children of israel And then you go to psalms 32 Excuse me, deuteronomy 32 and here's the whole song And what basically the song says is this Is that if you follow your gods? If you provoke god to anger that he will turn his face from you And not only will he not hear your prayers But I will have to reject you and you cannot go on into the promised land But I want to warn the next generation coming what happens when you stay in sin.

I turn my face from you Oh What a sad moment what a sad song that's one of the saddest songs that I know in all of the old testament The song of the hidden face of god Isaiah 1 15 says and when you spread forth your hands I will hide my eyes from you When you make many prayers, I will not hear you your hands are full of blood Let me also say this Think not That it's only the top 10 sins that causes god's highest face to hide It's not only the big ones It's not only the breaking of his commandments Look at isaiah 59 and 2 go with me to isaiah 59 and 2 There's two things That I just felt directed to the lord there's so many areas I could touch on but just isaiah 59 and 2 A familiar verse It says but your iniquities have Separated between you and your god and your sins what have hid his face from you That he will not hear But look at verse 3 For your hands are defiled with blood And your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lies And your tongue hath muttered perverseness Now it may seem a little thing to some But unsanctified lips and carnal tongues is often the reason that god can't answer our prayers You may not have a problem with the Top 10 sins if there is such a thing i'm talking about, you know, the the more pronounced ones the more obvious ones But think not that both bitterness and sweetness can roll off of the same tongue and it not go unnoticed God can't hear prayers from a lips that lie in a tongue that speaks falsehood That's what it says when it used that verse right here But your iniquities are separated between you and your god and your sins have hid his face from you They do not hear for your hands are defiled with blood your fingers with your lips have spoken lies God wants a sanctified tongue when we pray and then there's one other one i'm just gonna throw in because My wife asked me to no She pointed it out to me You can you can read it when you go home. It's first peter 3 7 It's for the husband. You don't have to turn there right now, but every husband every wife The bible says husband honor your wife Because if you don't It may hinder your prayers Read it for yourself honor your wife It says lest and if you don't your prayers will be hindered Now regardless, let me go on I'm greatly tempted Lead me not lord Lead me not into i'm tempted to go further, but I won't you whoever that applies.

That's fine. I didn't intend to go any further And I didn't do it just for my wife I did it because it's in the bible honor honor I know listen, I know I I i'll just say this much I know there was a point in my life that I didn't see that I was blind to it The reason that my prayers weren't being answered is that I was not honoring my wife properly And every wife said amen Especially mine Obey your husbands Or your prayers won't be heard Folks, I gotta get serious here Regardless of the sin we have committed as soon as we confess it and lay it down god's face is no longer hidden Hosea 5 15 don't turn there. It says I will go and return to my place till Till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face In their affliction, they will seek me god said I will go to my place.

My my face is hidden from you until You acknowledge you're off your fence and then my face is turned as soon as we acknowledge as soon as we confess And repent and turn from our sin god turns from the place He has gone to hide as it were and he shows us his face of mercy And when sin is dealt with the channel is opened unto god. Hallelujah First peter 3 12 says for the eyes of the lord are over the righteous And his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the lord is against them that do evil Oh what a joy it is to have nothing between We used to sing that hymn nothing between my soul and the savior Nothing between oh what a joy it is to have that taken care of so that you see the smile of god hallelujah His face is not hidden and you can come boldly into his throne of grace Ezekiel 39 29 Neither will I hide my face anymore from them for I have poured my spirit upon the house of israel saith the lord god hallelujah Let me tell you a little story this may not be a big thing to some of you that Have had kinds of lifestyle But I remember when I was about 13 14 years of age I was out playing Touch football on the street one thursday night And my mother came out the door and she said to me she said son. It's time to get ready to go to church And for the first time in my life Never did this before first time in my life.

I turned around and I said to her mother i'm not going She kind of looked surprised and she looked at me and she said son. Well, you know where you belong And she went in the door Didn't say anything else and the reason I didn't want to go is because I wanted to go to a basketball game that night and My parents let me do that except on church night There were priorities And so I went off to the game And all during the game first part of the game over and over it kept going over my mind You know where you belong, you know where you belong, you know where you belong Halftime came I ran out of there. I half ran half walked got back to the church Just as my dad was about to preach and you know, there was a there was like a a siren going off You know like a red light going off screaming inside me And I got there just as my dad started to preach.

I sat down on the back seat and when I sat down I went And the red light went off And the green light went on And Nothing between my soul and the savior, you know That may not be a big thing to some of you live the kind of lifestyle you did But I want to tell you I learned a lesson because if I hadn't obeyed then who knows where my life would have went But I knew That I wouldn't be right and couldn't face god Unless I took care of that which was in my life Now, let me go on quickly thirdly the hidden face of god need only be hidden for a moment listen to Isaiah 54 7 and 8 for for a small moment I have forsaken them but with great mercy will I gather them in a little wrath I hid my face from them for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on them sayeth the Lord thy Redeemer now please listen carefully I've already established that sin can turn God's face away from us first of all momentarily and then if we don't acknowledge it it'll be turned away from us permanently but I believe there's another kind of momentary turning away of God's face and you know what it's for it's for Christians who are walking with the Lord but he turns his face away from some request in order to perfect and to change and to accomplish his will in us you see often God wants to answer our prayers but he cannot until we're ready to receive the answer and this requires a growth and a period of being changed into his likeness because listen to me God is too good to give you the right thing at the wrong time let me say it again God is too good to give you the right thing at the wrong time Psalm 33 5 says my times our ways are in your hand and I believe that God withholds certain things until our ways please him and until our character matches the blessing or the request or the petition that we're putting before him and that means that God's denials are not all God's delays are not always his denials he must wait for our growth and holiness to match our request and believe me my friend I want to tell you what's going to happen you that have been coming here and you that are in these classes and God's been working things in your life I want to tell you you're going to start seeing some answers to your prayers but also your prayers are going to start changing now another reason for these denials is that God these denials are a testing of our faith and we are often brought to the end of ourselves even to the very edge of what we think is disaster before God answers our prayers to drain us of self-confidence so that we can see life coming coming out of seemingly death go with me now to John chapter 6 John chapter 6 excuse me John chapter 11 I'm sorry this is a story of Lazarus verse 6 11 6 it says now Jesus verse 5 now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus when he heard therefore that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was but after that he said unto his disciples let us go unto Judea again now again I said it before imagine the anxiety of Mary and Martha when Jesus you see if Jesus had no home but if he had one place that was you could say that he felt comfortable at it was at Bethany and it was in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus I believe they kept a little prophets chamber there for him and that's a place where he felt loved he felt refreshed and and they loved him and he loved them and therefore when Lazarus was sick they immediately sent word and Jesus delayed two days and that's when Mary and Martha said Lord if you had been here the reason they said if you had been here they knew that he had the word two days prior and they knew that he had died in the intervening day so they said if you had only come when we asked you when we prayed but look at verse 15 Jesus says to disciples and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there now can you imagine if you came to one of our pastors and you said my goodness we we had such a problem today we had such trouble in our in our home or in our situation and one of us said well I'm sure glad I wasn't there now Jesus said more than that but I believe that's all the disciples heard they must have thought how cold he is he said I'm sure glad I wasn't there that's what he said to the disciples and I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that ye may believe nevertheless let us go unto him hallelujah now Jesus seems slow at times but I want to tell you he always arrives on time hallelujah and his intent is when he delays is that you might believe and out of death and out of despair will come resurrection and the reason he withholds that he's more interested in your growth he's more interested in your reaction he's more interested in your attitude he's more interested in what goes on in your heart than even giving you the answer that you seek hallelujah that's his priority in your life nevertheless let us go on to hear me eventually he said thank God he eventually says let's go and I'll just take care of it but now they're ready now they're ready now finally I want to close one more thing the hidden face of God represents God acting in his sovereign will towards his children let me read to you a second Chronicles you don't need to turn to that to it but it's second Chronicles 20 and 6 Jehoshaphat prayed he said O Lord God art thou not God in heaven and rulest thou not over all the kingdom of the heathen kingdoms of the heathen and in thy hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee Proverbs 21 and 1 says the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases now please listen to me because I believe that this is a very very important point the sovereignty of God can be defined as God's total power over all creation to the extent that he is neither limited or held accountable to anything or to anyone 1st Peter 322 referring to Christ says who has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him now one of the reasons one of the reasons today that many Christians are confused in this matter of faith and a prayer is that there is a teaching in the land that makes God our servant who we command at our will resulting in a total disregard for the sovereign will of God this teaching on prayer and faith and confession strips away the sovereignty of God and its logical outcome is that prayer and the scriptures become buttons to manipulate to get our own will and so today it's not my will Lord be done or not thy will be done but it's my will be done and this reduces the scriptures to more no more than a formula or an equation or contract to which God is obligated you know what I call it I call it slot machine gospel you slide in a token of faith and if your three favorite scriptures all line up you hit the jackpot now the reason that God's face seems hidden at times is simply because he must give attention he gives more attention to his will for us than our own will for ourselves and God's will is that our prayers be centered be Christ-centered not self-centered and if you want the face of God turn towards you then first get your face towards Christ and if the scriptures condemn a thing we must accept that judgment and conform to it no matter how we may feel at the moment about it to want a thing or feel we want it and then turn from it because we see that is contrary to the will of God is to win a battle on a field that's greater than any military field anywhere to bring our desires to the cross and allow them to be nailed there with Christ is to have the hidden face of God turn and shine at us in sheer delight and say Lord put your desires in me you see at the root of all true spiritual growth is a set of right and sanctified desires and the whole Bible teaches that we can have whatever we want if we want it bad enough if the desire is in accordance to the will of God but I want to tell you when you start walking in holiness and righteousness you know what happens your want list begins to come way down and all you want to do is to please him and walk in his will and delight yourself in the Lord because he will put his desires in you so that they're not really your desires but they're his desires and how can you go wrong in prayer in that in that in that regard hallelujah hallelujah praise the Lord praise the Lord well I'm finished let's pray praise the Lord