S8E4 - Why Our Prayers Don't Get Answered

does heaven seem like it's being quiet when we appeal to God. Today, we're going to look at Jesus' sermon on the Mount when he says, "When you ask God for good things, He'll give it to you, just like evil men give good things to those who ask them." Hello. Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus podcast. I'm Jeremy Brown. I'm here with Pastor Robin Gallady and as you can tell, I'm not Adam French. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But you are Jeremy Brown, the Jeremy Brown who shared Christ with me in college and in my life storybook. You know, people come up almost every Sunday and they'll say, "Man, I read your story, I read your life, sir." I said, "You read it by Jeremy Brown." I said, "Yeah, there he is right there." So Jeremy Brown is here in the flesh. Adam French is under the weather, so hate it for him because, man, he's been going through just health-wise, but you could pray for him. We got Jeremy to step in and we got Candy back again. Yeah. We did have just an update. If you don't have a church home and you want to connect with us at Long Hollow, you can worship with us, watch online. Our service is at longhollow.com every Sunday. And then we have a YouTube channel, or I have a YouTube channel called @PastorRobigality, which lately we've been diving into revelation and in times and millennial, millennium madness, which has been a hot topic on the internet. I will tell you with everything going on, people do have an opinion about revelation. You ever notice that Vivian? They have an opinion is the key word. Yeah. Okay, Candy, we are going to get into prayer. We're going to continue our journey through prayer. And last week we were talking about ask, seek, and knock. Let's just read it for context again. So I'm going to ask you, start in verse seven, and let's read through verse 11 just for context again. So Matthew seven, starting in verse seven, asking it will be given to you. See, can you refine? Knock in the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be open. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake. If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who asked him? A lot of, a lot there, mouthful here. Now, remember Jesus is coming off of what section seven one? What was the topic, Jeremy, remember this a couple weeks ago? What was the topic of Matthew seven one? Do not what? Judge, yeah, we talked about how we judge all the time. Everybody judge, you judge, you judge this morning, whether you want to listen to this podcast or not, should I listen, should I, I mean, it's a judgment call, right? You judge whether to, you know, say something. You

judge what your kids are wearing for school. You judge their grades if they were good. I mean, we judge all the time, okay? So the, the context is judgment and then he goes into prayer, okay? And then now he goes into what judging how God responds to you, okay? So here is Jesus classic, using exaggeration to make a point. Jesus is going to use something which is a rabbinical hebraic technique. So you're going to stay tuned for that. We're going to talk about that in a moment. But the audience would have been familiar with stones. They would have been familiar with these two concepts, okay? Right away, Jesus says, what son asked for what? Bread, okay? But we'll give him a stone. Now these flat stones, if you look online, you could look this up in Israel in, in the Judean wilderness and in the mountain range. These flat stones, believe it or not, in the heat, humidity, and the shining sun looked like bread. It was like a facade. It was like, uh, it was like an oasis. Oh, found it. Found it. Look, this is set, by the way, almost knocked this new mic over. Now we'll, well, we did ask for new mics last week, but Adam did not put in the order. No, it is the mic stands. The mic stands. I'm blaming on the mic stand two weeks in a row. Because last week, very, you missed it. I knocked the entire coffee over last week. Yeah. And this week, almost knocked it. I grabbed it. You saw a quick that was, but anyway, uh, these mics for those who are watching literally look like Star Trek. I do like that part of it. How do you like the Star Trek Enterprise? Anyway, no, they do. That's all I think about when I look down. Now for Caden, he don't even know, Caden, you know Star Trek. Okay, good. Thank you, Caden. Thank you, Caden. Caden, doesn't this look like Star Trek, the little symbol? Yeah. Caden, I think, Caden's with me. Yeah, Caden's with me. Caden's with me. I'm more of a Monty Python cut now. - I'm gonna cut now. You wanna make a bet? - I'll bet you. - I don't want to bet. No, we don't bet. And Christians don't bet. - I bet. - I ain't betting candy. What is wrong with this girl?

Right here, yeah. It's not a bet. - I didn't say bet for money. I just said I bet. - We're gonna get to that in the Bible. We're gonna teach on that too. But anyway, okay, now I was like, okay. So the flat stones from a distance looks like cakes of bread. They would have been very familiar with fish. Geez, there's another exaggeration. Or eels that look like snakes, okay? So Jesus is doing a comparison here of what looks similar, okay, to them. But he's gonna preach a point. And he's basically talking about hunger and seeking. Not just physical hunger that we use as that. We have some, you gotta hit your butt. You gotta hit your butt and hit your button. Yeah, it's your button. - I had a question. - Okay, go ahead. - They had eels in the sea of Dablic? - They had eels in the Mediterranean, for sure. The great sea, which had been right on the west side. I mean, I don't know if, I don't know all the biological makeup of the Sea of Galilee bin, fact check. Were there eels? Ben, look that up.

- They didn't know about an eel or be in comparison to that of a snake. - The day. - Where would they, I'm thinking, would they have been in the Sea of Galilee? - I don't know, I don't know. - But they would have been in the Mediterranean. - Definitely in the Mediterranean. But I don't know about the Sea of Galilee. Oh, look at bin fact check, see? Very nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so who knew, okay. So what, okay, now we know about food in our home, okay? We have one boy that loves to eat. And he's been this way his entire life. In fact, so much so that his nickname growing up, Vivian, I literally used to call him this growing up, Big P. I'm not gonna tell you who it is yet. One of our boys, we called him Big P. P stands stood for pantry. Candy has a pick, I'd love to put on this. Candy has a pick of him. I'm not, it's that our old husband Chattanooga, where we had those wire frames, you know, like the shelves. So yeah, so we had those wire frames in the pantry. We literally, I think it was like three or four. I mean, small, like three or four. Probably candy, candy comes, she's cooking or something comes around.

He is like Spider-Man on like the sixth ledge. And he's trying to get to his apple sauce or whatever it was. - Like if he ever disappeared, just looking at the pantry. - Yeah, yeah. - And obviously you had it up high, trying to know. - Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah. - There were times I had to lock the pantry. - Yeah, we had, no, we had a lock. We bought a lock literally in our home for the pantry. Now, it serves him well now 'cause he's six to 15, you know, as a freshman or as a sophomore, he's 15 years old, size 14 shoe. So it serves him well as he plays football for beach. But writer, man, he loved to eat. He would eat us out, my mom called us, I don't know where this came from, my mom said, "Robert, you used to eat us out of house "and home." I don't know, I only had one house, I don't know where the home came in, but. Okay, imagine though, writer comes three, four years old and he says, "Mom and dad, I'm hungry." We say, "Great, wait here son, I got something for you." And we go to the pantry and instead of getting him bread, we give him what? A flat rock. Flat rock. Well, that's the question. Buddy, I hope you enjoy this.

By the way, you want to bite down softly, that first bite's a doozy. (laughs) As he crunches down and cracks all his teeth, right? Why would you do that? You would never do that. You would never play with your own child, okay? The same thing goes for a snake, okay? You would never have someone ask for, you know, blackened redfish, Lafayette or Lanyat with sauce on the side. And a cream sauce and then you come out on your plate's fill with an eel. Redfish, fine, fine. That's the word obviously, redfish, ponc straight. Okay, hey son, I know you want fish. Here's a snake to keep you busy. No father would ever do that. No parent would ever do that. That wouldn't be just bad. It would be abusive, right? Okay, it'd be a cruel joke. And Jesus reiterates this. Okay, you have to understand how God works 'cause they had a faulty picture of God. They were saying, "Well, I'm asking and don't receive. I'm seeking and not finding." And Jesus says, "No, here's the deal." If you who are evil, I'm talking about all of us in the world, you know, we're filled with evil desires and even the Pharisees were there too.

If you who are evil know how to do good things for your children, how much more does a good heavenly father know how to give things to those who ask? Now, here's the insight you miss. If you don't compare the Bible together with other gospels, where's our Bible? Harmony of the Bible, we gotta get that in here. Sorry, we don't have it. We don't have our harmony of the Bible. We gotta get that back with our CSV harmony of the Bible. We gotta bring that back because here's where it's gonna help us. We kind of got out of it because serving of the Mount County is condensed. But in the harmony of the Bible, you will notice Jesus actually speaks this same section Now, just for clarification, we say this earlier on, but if you're new here, just follow me. Matthew and Luke contain Jesus' sermon on the Mount. Luke calls it, they call it the sermon on the plane in Luke, Jesus' sermon on the Mount. Because remember in Matthew, I mean, Matthew calls it the sermon on Mount, Luke calls it the sermon on the plane. Matthew is trying to prove Jesus is the new Moses. So he condenses the whole message into three chapters, five, six, and seven. Jesus goes up to a mountain like Moses. He sits down, people come to him, they listen, just like Moses, and he teaches the word of God,

the law like Moses. So that's what Matthew's doing. Luke, not so much, 'cause his audience is different. Luke is ready to a Greek audience. They don't know the Old Testament very well. So Luke basically disperses all of the sayings of Jesus throughout the gospel. So you don't have him in one section. And to me another question, we'll ask it again to see if you remember, did Jesus preach this in one particular session of a sermon? Which by the way, I've had this memorized, I've memorized it and forgotten it, and two, almost three versions. I memorized it. And the New King James forgot it, no, NIV and forgot it. ESV had most of it, and tried to do it in the CSV, and it's hard what you do. But when I went to Israel a couple of years ago, Kenny remembers this, I asked her to help me if I messed up. We went to the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus delivered, we believe this, and I quoted it for the group, for memory. At the exact place, or around the same place. And I tell you that to say, it takes about 17 minutes to quote it, okay? That's all the sermon, it's 17 minutes if you just read it straight through. Bless to the poor with the Kenny remembers it. Bless to those who more.

You can go through it and make 17 minutes, maybe 20 at the most. Okay, here's a question. Did Jesus deliver that 20-minute sermon in its entirety? Or did he speak it throughout his ministry and Matthew, which is not a bad thing, decides to collect it and put it in one place. You don't have to turn the page as much. What do you think, Jeremy? If you would have to take a guess. - If I had to say a guess, I would say it was all in one. - Okay. All in one and then Luke dispersed it, or divvied it up. - It was a good writer saying divvied it. - That's a good point, that's a good point. Vivian, what you're gonna say, one time or dispersed? - I think dispersed. - Ooh. I like Vivian, she bucked in the system, dispersed. Ben, what you gonna go with? - You know with the sea, all the above. - Ben, you think like a Hebrew now. Caden, what do you think? Dispersed are all at once. No right or wrong answer in the Jewish culture, it's normally a both and, but keep going. - I think I'm gonna go with Vivian's answer. - Ooh, dispersed, okay. Vivian's always good to go with it. We missed her last week, Vivian was going the last week,

but Candy, what are you gonna say? Dispersed are all in one. - I was gonna say both, A and B. - A and B, actually I think it's both. I think it's both, I think you're both right. - You were both right, you were both right. - Yeah, well Ben knows, Ben knows. It's on the one hand and on the other hand. So, I think Jesus said these lines a hundred times. Okay, it's kinda like your kids. How many times have you told Brett, I know Brett's the model kid, but let's just say that one time Kelly has to get on to Brett at home. How many times have you had to tell your children the same thing over and over and over? Vivian, you ever had to do that with yours? - Oh really, okay, not Payton, but constantly. Gabe, I know he's a good kid, but every now and then you gotta say Gabe, listen. Are you listening to me, do this again? Okay, so you're trying to teach these truths. It takes a while, Jesus is teaching this over and over. So, it's a both hand. However, when you're comparing these two, it's important because sometimes Jesus will change up the wording to give us another perspective. The rabbis call this gazing out of diamond. They said the rabbis would look at the Old Testament and say it was like a diamond that was multifaceted.

This is what the word of God is. This is why, by the way, if you're listening from Long Hollow and you're reading along with us in scripture, we just finished first Samuel. We're into second Samuel now. And one of the things we realized about the Old Testament is we didn't realize it was a Jerry Springer show. I mean, this thing is bonkers. I don't know, for those who remember Jerry Springer's. I mean, this thing is wild, wild. And what we're realizing is, I don't know why I said that. But what we're realizing is, as we read the word of God, it comes alive. We read, you've read this Bible your whole life, candy too. It's like, how am I seeing things new when I'm reading the same text? Again, here's why. The rabbis say the Bible is like a diamond. When you turn the diamond, the different light hits the diamond and it creates different prisms and hues and colors. And that's how the word, you just keep turning and turning. Turn that same scripture over and over and over. Okay, Jesus is gonna say in Luke, Candy. Jesus is gonna say, let me find it. I don't have it. "If you give..." Chapter 11, I'm gonna get it for you right here.

Go to Luke, Luke 11. Is it Luke 11? - I thought that's what you just said. - Oh. - I think it is. Would it be a Luke 11 like five-ish? - Luke, no, Luke 631, or Luke 11.5? Okay, you got it? - Well, it says, right here. - Okay. - Okay, yeah, read that. There it is. She got it. Look at her. Wow, better than me. Luke, I should've come. I got the words, but I don't have the refer. Go ahead. Go ahead, sorry. I don't, never doubt you, man. Go ahead. All right, here we go. Read the same thing. No, I want you to notice. We're gonna play the game. What's different here? - Do you want me to read the whole? - Just know, just read after what person asked for, and then read what Jesus says. - Okay.

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? - Ooh. So you see a couple of differences. Scorpion, that's interesting. But the second one is, how much more will the father give the what? The Holy Spirit. Now, what's the difference between Matthew? What do you say, Matthew, remember? How much more will the father give good gifts? Okay, now that's the little insight there. Now, before I tell you what's going on here, I need to tell you what the argument is, 'cause you're hanging on. Jesus uses, you could write this down, a call the calmer. That's what's called Hebrew, call the calmer argument, okay? That's the Hebrew terminology. It's basically in English, a light to heavy argument, light to heavy, okay? We see this all through scripture. And here's how it works. God does this in the Old Testament. I'm gonna give you a couple. Exodus chapter six, verse 12. Behold, the children of Israel have not listened to me.

How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? So it's light to heavy. If the people are listening, how will the rule listen? Second Samuel 12, 18. Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke unto him and he hardened, hearkened not unto our voice. How then shall we tell him that the child is dead? So he didn't listen to us with small things. How is he gonna listen to us with big things? This is Jesus' plan here. So Jesus uses this argument to say, we're gonna go from small to big. We're gonna go from light to heavy. We're gonna go from insignificant to greater. If lost people who are evil do good things for their children, the answer is what? Yes, how much more would God do for his children? Okay, now don't misunderstand what Jesus is saying. This is not saying that everything we ask for, God gives car block. 'Cause anybody who's been a Christian for any time knows that's not always the case, okay? But what he's saying is, God will always give you good things. And then Luke says, God will always give those who ask the what? - The Holy Spirit. - The Holy Spirit. Now before we talk about this, let me tell you the problem here. The problem is not God not answering what we ask for. What is the problem for most Christians listening now,

including us at times, is that we're not what? We're not even asking, okay? We live our lives in such a way where we never inquire of the Lord until the shoe has dropped or the ship is sinking, the Titanic's going down, everything has fallen apart. Then we're like, "Oh God, please help." And guys, I haven't been waiting. So here's the thing you gotta understand about Samuel. We just talked about Samuel 'cause we're living in it. David and Samuel are basically a tale of two kings. That's what the whole book's about. - Tale of two men. Oh, wow, you got that from me? Oh, wow, okay, good. - The whole week. - Spirit, if you ask. Yes, Candy got to speak to the students list now. But here's the point, okay. It's a case study in two men and at the root of the two men is, here's the kicker. Are you ready for this, Vivian? You're gonna love this. At the root is this, what's the difference between Saul's kingship and David's kingdom? David's kingship. There's a lot of differences, one major difference. David is a man, or Saul is a man, or let me tell you what, David is a man who is out to please God.

He is a man after God's own heart. We hear this over and over, i.e. which means to be after the heart, if I wanna be after the heart of Candy, if Vivian pursues the heart of Kelvin, if you pursue the heart of Kelly, that means before you can pursue their heart, you have to what? Know their heart. In order for David to be a man after God's own heart, he had to inquire of the Lord. He had to sit and listen to the Lord. He had to appeal to the Lord. He wasn't after God's own heart. He was after the heart of men. He wanted to please people. And we see this all through his life. Remember, the first time in 15, when Saul messes up, and God says, kill the Amalekites. And Saul said, I will spare one or two. And then we'll keep the animals. And Samuel comes to him and says, look, you didn't do what God said. You kept the-- what does that sound? The sheep are here, and he's like, whoa, she's been quying. Somebody said that sheep. And he's like, oh, the-- oh, what had happened was? He was like, oh, these sheep here, they're for the Lord. And then Saul gets convicted. And he says, the problem is-- watch this-- I didn't obey God because I listened to the people.

I was fearful of the people. Saul lived his life looking to everyone but God. He looked at the people that were around him. He looked at the Philistine camp, closing in on him. He was never focused on God. He was always focused on the circumstances for him. Well, yeah, and you could say it this way. He never sought the Lord for a word, OK? Even at the end, when his life's falling apart and Saul-- Samuel's gone, Samuel dies for Samuel 28, what does he do? Instead of appealing to God by repenting, that's what he should have done, what does he do? He wants to summon a man from the dead and inquire of a man, not God. So that is his life story, by the way. He just continually see-- OK. So the point is, the problem for many of us, we operate the same way. We want to seek every other source but the Lord in our own life. And what happens is, we wonder-- and God's like, hey, listen, I got it, OK? I got a better plan for you. I can see the future like you can't see it. Well, and I would say too, I think sometimes people inquire of the Lord. Like let's say we're using Saul's example. Before he goes to the witch of indoor, he inquires of the Lord, but he doesn't get an answer, OK?

And we know that he doesn't get an answer because there's sin in his life, right? He goes to his pattern to his life of sin, he doesn't repent, and therefore he gets no answer. And so then he's like, well, I'm going to go to something else to try to get an answer. And I think sometimes we can inquire of the Lord and we feel like we don't get an answer. Maybe that's because there's sin in our life. And then maybe we give up, or we quit asking. And I was thinking last night, Rigg came across our-- he was on my email. And the email had to come by. Oh boy, here we go, Vivianna. And he happens to see all the other-- Oh, my gosh. And there was one that says Robbie, and he gets on it. Well, in this folder is all the emails that Robbie sent to me, like when we were first married or when we were dating. So I saved all those because back then, you didn't text like you do today as well. Oh, yes. Everything was an email. And so he was like, ooh, I want to read this. And I said, honey, I have no idea what this say. Like, maybe I should preface the curse. Oh, he was getting a kick. When I left D Group dying, when I left D Group to call home just to see how the time went.

Give me the phone. Give me the phone. We'll talk to Dad. I was like, what do you got? Dad, do you remember this? No, I do not. That was 23 years ago, 24 years ago, son. I was starting to read him. And I'm like, this doesn't even sound like Robbie. He never talks to me like-- He used to be hopeless, romantic, hopeless, romantic. Let me read it. Let me read it out loud. Babe, I can't imagine another life. I love my love. Oh, gosh. I'm so thankful to get your money. And you just went on and on. And I was just thinking, this is so funny. Like, we've known each other. Don't imagine life without you. It's such a-- it's so interesting. Can man imagine a world that you're not in it. You know what I mean? That kind of stuff. I was thinking, I'm going to know who that is. I don't think I wrote that. And here's the right thing. You couldn't blame it on-- You could-- it did work.

No, it did work. I'd say, listen, I'm a fisherman. Once I catch the fish, I don't need a fish. I mean, there's no sense throwing a line out anymore now. I already caught the fish, you know? Yeah, I got that hook set. It all goes out the window. And I'm like, we never community like that anymore. I mean, who needs to? But thinking about that, think about your relationship with the Lord. Like, you used to inquire with the Lord, or you talked to the Lord a certain way. And then, years and years go by. And you just give it up. Or you quit asking. Or you inquire someone else. Like, it changes. And we have to be reminded-- We do that with the Lord, yeah. We did, in the beginning, why are we not doing that in the day? I want to say, too. And I'd said earlier today, that I had been wrecked through reading through first Samuel. Rob, you had preached a while back on how that we'd love an underdog story. And so in other words, with David and Goliath. Yeah. That's why he's kind of thinking with picture that word. You know, David, you said, actually, that's not it.

Sometimes we're the people standing off on the hill. Yeah, scared from business. So I was thinking of myself, and that way, that through reading, the Lord even reveals some things to me with Saul, just that you're more like him. You're always seeking sometimes, me through Saul or through a book. Or rather than just getting in the word. And so I was even, you know, wrecked through that. And when it was like, man, I'm not even the people in the hill over there. I'm actually, you know, solved because a lot of times I go about things the wrong way or even the prideful side of things. You know, I think that I know better or I can do this. And, you know, even like what you just said with a assault, he was rather than just go and repent, he's trying to go through a medium. He's trying to go through somewhere else to get an answer other than through Christ. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. Okay, so you brought up a cool point. And that's funny how Samuel parallels with this text. We didn't plan it, but the problem between David and Saul. Here's the big problem between David and Saul, not just who they sought. But the question, it's, it's, it's an issue of time. That's really at the core, I think, as I was studying for this message and studying the text or the book this week with my D groups, I get to do it three times at three groups that meet within 24 hours, literally 24 hours at three groups. So I get to hear the same thing over.

You know, you know, the Bible's an oral book. So when people talk about you hear things, you don't get, but here's the thing the Lord showed me. This is really an issue of time because David was a man. As you read through first, Samuel, and if you read along with the F26, you know, how many times have we read, even at the end in chapter 31, or even second Samuel one, when Saul keeps pursuing David and David has opportunity and we're like, dude, get, get it over with, dude, take this joker out. Why are you letting him linger, cut off the, cut off his foot and his garment, you know, and take him out. And then when he even dies, Dave was like, Oh man, you shouldn't have done. It's like David, what is wrong with you? And here's the thing. David was a man who was content where he was and he waited on the Lord. How many times did God answer with silence? But David waited, okay, Saul was a man when he didn't get an answer. He was going to make it happen. So I was going to make it happen. I'm going to go find somebody. I'm going to go seek somebody. I'm going to do something. And that's why I think Saul lived with without being diagnosed. Seems like he has a bipolar disorder, right? I mean, this is a man who's high and low all the time. Well, guess why? You could take this to the bank. You probably deal with highs and lows rapidly because you're not seeking the Lord. Think of where you're getting your input from. Is it from people? Is it from your friends?

Is it from AI? Is it from the news? Is it from YouTube? Whatever, you know, Twitter. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's what the tech says. So here's the thing, the question we're going to ask, ask an answer is this. So what do you do? Cause you're listening. I've prayed to the Lord. I have sought the Lord and I have got nothing from God. I got nothing from God. Okay. What do I do then? Okay. What do I do then? How do you seek the Lord in your life and figure out, okay, how do we respond when God doesn't answer or somebody asked me in D group, what do you do when you pray? Okay. So here's what I tell people. How do you pray? Number one is the number one barrier between a person, uh, between an, uh, an offered prayer without an answer prayer. Not all the time, but sometimes is unconfessed sin in your life. Okay. As a Christian, listen to me, you are filled with the spirit. You're sealed with the promised Holy spirit at salvation. You cannot be separated from the love of Christ and our height and our depth

and things, president of the things, future and angels of demon. They're anything else. However, you can be out of fellowship with the Lord, intimacy with the Lord by quenching the spirit or grieving the spirit. You may not, God may not leave you, but it feels like it. And how is that because of sin, unconfessed sin. So take a laundry list of your, you know, you take a sin list and start confessing repenting of sin. That's the first thing. Okay. The second thing is this though, what do you do when you seek the Lord and it doesn't seem like God's answering. So here's what I do. Here's a practical way. Let's say I'm trying to decide if I'm you, do I take a new job? Do I transition, move to a new place? Let's see. Some of you trying to decide, do I, do I put my child in a new school? Do I date this new person? Do I enroll in this college? Whatever it is, you can put anything you want. Okay. It all works the same way. Okay. Or Robbie, give you a, for instance, years ago, they called me and said, would you, would you run for president of the Southern Baptist Convention? This is a real world illustration. Just give it to you an example, just follow me. Would you pray about this? Okay.

Now it happened when I was during the revival, which was kind of crazy this season. And the guy said, Hey, I want, you know, we prayed about it as a group. We want you to consider running that year. I came here a year ago. It was around 21 or something. It was when Nashville 21 to 22. And they said, would you pray about it, pray about a little while. I told them, I wouldn't be a prideful. I said, listen, I'll, this was Friday. He said, "No, no, I want you to pray awhile." And I say, "No, no, no." And here's the thing, I'm not being prevalent. You should always, as a Christian, have your electrical cord connected to the spiritual outlet of heaven, always. You need to be that fridge that's just humming in the background because you're connected to the power source, okay? Meaning, I don't need, give me five weeks to pray. Bro, heaven ain't shut up. I mean, obviously, if you have cinema life, but heaven's open and asking, you know? And God wants to answer wisdom. Here's another thing. If you seek the Lord, this is a promise from God. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all or ungrudgingly without finding fault. Okay, what does that mean?

And this is big for those who are listening and saying, "But you don't understand what I did." I know that, but God promised wisdom regardless. But you don't understand the sin I'm struggling with. It doesn't matter. If you ask for wisdom, take it to the bank. God, that's a promise. You will, and God will give it generously, not sparingly, not just give you a little bit. Guys, like, hey, open your mouth. I'm gonna hit you with a water hose. Here it comes. You know, that kind of generosity. So you could take to the bank. If you're asking for wisdom from God on a situation and you're walking with God, he will answer you. Now, how does he answer you, okay? Because in this case, the convention, I prayed and the Lord did not give me a piece about it. Here's another way. You don't have a piece about it. Don't move. Like the decisions in our life where we have made, where we were uneasy, but we felt pressured or pushed. Like, oh, we ought to do this because you always look back. You're like, man, I probably shouldn't have made that decision, whatever. Now, God can still use it if you make the wrong decision. He can work all things for good. However, you know, he could do it every once.

But the point is that's, so what I do is I wait. Now, if I don't have a piece about it, so I responded to these people and I just said, hey, not interested. Thanks for asking. I'm honored. What are you talking? No, not interested. The main reason was I prayed and God began to show me in my mind, okay, what are all the negatives versus positives? And the negatives were I'd be taken away from the revival at Long Hollow. I would neglect the church and pastor in Long Hollow. And the main one was, God showed me, you being, quote, president or anything, you can put anything you want. You're not ready to handle internally the public pressure with your own personal pride. The revival right now is built or is perpetuated by you seeking humility, by you continually taking yourself off the stage. Not that you would seek the stage, but you're gonna be thrusted on a stage. And, Robbie, you know you're the propensity of your own heart. And I know my struggle is pride in taking credit, you know? And so I thought, you know what? That's the last thing I need to do. Yes, you're exactly right. But we had also one of the main reasons that you didn't mention that,

because we had talked about this beforehand. Oh, yeah, true, with the kids too, yeah. I was like, it's a big one. No way we wanna do this. The Lord would have to literally shout to us through a megaphone that this was the right choice, because the kids, the boys were smaller, you know, not small, but they were still younger and-- Early teens and even before, yeah. We're trying to approach life and ministry with a long view, not a momentary view, you know? You know, it's like the Lord will give opportunity if we're supposed to have something later down the line without having to sacrifice, 'cause, you know, the church in and of itself, and ministry, daily ministry, is already so overwhelming and takes away from the family. Do you see what I'm saying? So it's like, why would we add something else? And that season just didn't seem like it would be logical for us, and so we almost kind of knew before they even asked, like if we were to be approached, or he would be approached in the coming years, we didn't even feel like we would consider it until the boys were gone, or whatever, yeah. And because that's overwhelming, that the whole entire, to lead back, you know? But anyway, that would be, the Lord can also give you wisdom before you even have the opportunity.

The question is, will you choose to change what you think the Lord's told you in that moment? Because the pride, yeah, the pride gets in the way, and the flesh gets in the way. Here's the thing too, yeah. And not that that's a bad thing, but again, here's another thing too, she's got a great point. We learned right before that two things, two lines I'm gonna give you, and I said one in the sermon last week, but we learned what you say yes to, this is not a line, this is a precursor. Every yes you say in life is normally 10 no's. Remember this, every yes I say to anybody. If I say yes, I'm gonna go speak in an event. I have to say no to my church. I have to say no to my wife. I have to say no to my kids. I have to say no to the extracurricular activities. I have to say no to my routine. I have to say no to sleeping in my own bed, by the way, which is a big one. I have to say no to my work, I'll play whatever. This 10 at least no's, okay? So here's the two lines I want you to get in life. Nobody, or sometimes God puts an open door, said this on it. God puts an open door in front of you sometimes to see, not if you'll walk through it, but to see if you'll walk past it, okay? And let me unpack that.

'Cause some people say, well, how do I know the difference? You gotta be appealing to the Lord. You gotta be asking God to know, seek and you'll find. God will give you a good answer, a good gift if you ask Him. - And I think what you're saying about putting yourself in that position, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I do it all the time. Some guy wrote us a letter a while back and said, why do you interrupt Candy somebody, he's in prison. - Dude, I don't interrupt him actually. - No, thank you, he's taken up for Candy. - But what I'm saying is, you said, talked about keeping plugged into the refrigerator, like the humming, what you're saying is, we should be living in intimacy with Christ all the time. Therefore, we are sensitive when-- - Ooh, let's go, yeah, sensitive to the spirit, yeah. - And so, which is what we strive for in how we teach our discipleship groups, like we're creating an environment where we retain intimacy with Jesus Christ, so that when we do have those types of things that come up, we're praying about peace or wisdom or opportunity, we're not having to go plug back in. We've been plugged in, you know. - Right. - Like you said, there's some sort of sin in our life. We should have an immediate check in the spirit, an immediate bit one way or the other, and then we may need to pray like,

Lord, is this really what you're telling me, you know? - Yeah. - And take some of that time, but we should almost instinctively have some sort of feeling that is coming from our relationship with the Lord. You see what I'm saying? And then we pursue or don't pursue. - Well, the great thing too of that is, as well as you know more immediately that something's there, like what you're saying, Kaniy, I think it's what, Proverbs 66, 18, if I regard an equity in my heart, the Lord won't hear me. - Mm, that's good. - So something is there, you're immediately, your prayers are starting to bounce off the ceiling. - Yeah. - They're just making it pass there. - You'll know quicker to be able to get in and correct something if you're plugging in like what you said wrong. If that, you know. - Yeah. - So the question is, how do you know to walk through an open door or not? How do you know to open a closed door or not? Okay, that's the two questions. And the answer is, you gotta appeal to someone who has a different vantage point and perspective than you do. The second line I'm gonna give you the answer and it will be done. Second line is this, and this one's helped me too. Somebody needs to hear this. Nobody ever asked you to do something for your benefit.

It's always for theirs. Always. Now think about this, that's a deep one. And I needed this years ago. When I came along, how was this crazy? I kept, you know the story for me with our church. I came here the first couple years really challenging. Our church was grieving the loss of their pastor and I was new and I wasn't like him. And, you know, a lot of ways don't, somebody said the only thing you and Brother David had in common was your height. I don't know if that's compliment or not, but I'll take that one, you know? I don't know what she meant. But anyway, maybe she told me all the same height and that's about it. But, so the church was not angry. They were just grieving, right? So the first year, and when I came here, I had pretty robust speaking ministry where I was traveling and I was trying to get the, I mean, I had like, I needed shared discipleship and, you know, continue to get that out to the world. And so the first year I was here, this is crazy to think about. I spoke outside of Long Hollow, 25 events in a year. On top of the four services I was preaching on Sunday morning, two, then morning, two, team PM, can I get a shout out? Remember that?

No, no, or no me because that was tough. Preaching four services on Sunday, leading a larger church, larger staff, and basically every other week I'm packing up and I'm traveling and preaching and coming back. And the reason I did it, I think back is I'd go on the road and people who didn't know me would hear me preach and say, oh man, that was an amazing sermon. Golly, really impacted my life. And then I come back to Long Hollow after being gone and the people would say, what are you still doing here? Joking, but not joking. You know, it's like, what are you, I'm the pastor. Okay. So I was not getting accepted and I'm, you know, people please are in approval see you. So I wasn't getting in here. So I was just feeding this route. And I was literally almost burning out. And a guy came to me and it said this line to me. He said, listen, you have to remember, nobody asks you to do anything ever for your benefit always for the benefit of them. Now, I'm not saying you don't benefit. Like granted, I like to go speak on the road. But they're asking you to do their event to help them. They're asking you to lead their speaking thing for them. They're asking you to speak to their women for them, not for you. My granted they'll pay you whatever.

But at the end of the day, money means nothing when you're saying not only saying. So here's the thing, how do you know what to do? That's the million dollar question, okay? You have to appeal to someone who has a higher vantage point. And here's the illustration I heard years ago. There was a story of, we live in, I was raised in New Orleans, Jeremy and Kenny from Louisiana where we used to have parades. Mardi Gras was a big thing. And by the way, Mardi Gras is not, They do? Yeah, that was great. That was great. That was great. That was great. Yeah, but they have like, metery parades, which people say, we all worshiping. We didn't think that way. At least I didn't think though. So yes, I get, I think like there is bad to it. I get it. The same people mad at this. The same people mad about Eastern Christmas. But anyway, I'm not celebrating Christmas and worshiping a Christmas trip. But anyway, that's on you. When people push back on me like that, I always had a guy Sunday. He said, why are we doing this? And I said, you ever, I'm not going to say it, but, but I said, it was somebody pushed back on like, why are you showing me Christmas?

That Easter is pagan. And I said, I get that. Let me ask you a question. You drink Starbucks? Because you know, they sport LGBTQ. I do too, but I don't, you know, do you ever go to. I do. Yeah, yeah, that's funny. Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Do you ever chop a target? Do you ever get a wall? I mean, every one of these places, you have to literally live in a bubble. But anyway, so don't get me. So don't email me if you do email. Caden at long enough, right? I've laid no, but here's what I would say. You have to appeal. So how do you know what to do? So what we do is you have to appeal to someone has a different perspective. OK, so the part. So the parade is this little boy goes out and before the parade starts, because in New Orleans, the parades, Louisiana parades would come in neighborhood sometimes and around streets in front of people's homes. And so the little boy was excited and he said, Dad, I cannot wait. I want to go see the monkeys, the monkeys in the parade. I cannot wait to go see them. He said, Dad, I'm really excited. That's a great, great. And all of a sudden, the parade gets started and he hears it. Well, the dad's still getting dressed and the family's not ready.

And so they say, Hey, you go out to the parade. We'll be there in a minute. So young boy goes out. He's all excited about 10 minutes later before the dad could even come out. The boy comes in crying. He's like, Dad, his parade stinks. Ain't no nothing good. He said, what are you talking about? This praise is not what I thought it was. He's like, why? He said, there's no monkeys. He said, they ain't other than marching bands and drums and flutes and clarinet. And I said, no, no, hold on. So let's go back out. And he goes back out with the sun. He says, son, you got to wait. He said, you're only seeing what's right in front of you. He said, there's a, there's a two mile long parade. And not only are you going to see monkeys, you're going to see lions and tigers and bears and elephants. Here's the reality. If we judge our life by what's happening in the moment, we can be discouraged. And we're trying to make the best decisions we can in real time, which is the best we got. But if I knew there was someone flying a drone from heaven who saw all the parade simultaneously at the same time and in succession or in sequence, when you want to appeal to him for help, that's what prayer is for him. Listen to me. So number one is if you don't, the problem is not you're asking too much. Sadly, if you're here, most of us, I'm not asking at all.

So the first thing you need to do is this. Start training yourself that when you seek wisdom for anything, the little things, big things, start with something little. Should I take this parking spot on? Okay, that may be too much, but I do that sometimes. I pray, Lord, give me this front row parking spot and then right in the front. Are you know, I wasn't going to drive around and around trying to get up. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I do that. I did it. You don't, you don't come on. I pray for everything and pray about all things about it. But anyway, but, but no, but start little. I mean, that could be one, but yeah, but, but pray about little things. Okay. Number two is examine the sin in your life because, because most of the time, James and James, one, when he talks about God, not hearing, uh, it's because, uh, we're disconnected because of sin, because we have sin in our life. It's as if the Lord, you know, heaven showed up because we have sent our life on confess sin. And then thirdly, sometimes no is yes. Sometimes no is an answer. And here's what I mean. The great philosopher Garth Brooks said it best. Some of God's greatest gifts are on answered prayers. Yeah, I got to miss it on that. Uh, okay. Here's the thing. Think about times in your life when you prayed fervently and God didn't answer

the way we wanted. And at the time you're like, man, I don't want to say, I want to get this job. I didn't date this girl or whatever, or, you know, whatever. And you look back, you're like, thank God, he knew best, thank God. Vivian, you know what I'm talking about? Thank God, Ben, you know what I'm talking about. Think we all do. Yeah. So, so anyway, at the end of the day, it's trust. And back to David and Saul, David was a man who trusted God. And that's why I sought the heart of God. Cause he knew the heart of God was better than his mind. Saul was a man who thought he knew better than God, like the, like the first couple in the garden. Did God really say, no, he didn't say, let's, let's keep a couple sheep. He was a man. So it's basically, are you going to listen to the serpent? Are you going to listen to the Savior in his word? And I think that's what it comes down to. And whatever he says, God, I trust, I follow you. - Look, I think something I'll look right there, bro. - Need to start praying. And don't be paralyzed by prayer, like I said earlier. I don't have to pray six, eight weeks for something. I mean, I pray and then I walk. And then here's the cool thing, my God. God is not only a big enough God to open a door, God can shut a door. I gotta be okay to divert the plan.

I'll divert my walk. Okay, that's a shut door. Don't keep opening the door, they got shut. There's a big problem with that, so. - Wow, thank you for that. - Tell them about the new book. Wait here, it's coming out. Speaking of hearing from God. Same shameless plug, but no. No, we're excited about this book 'cause it's about our church. Jeremy, you got to read this book twice, by the way. He read it once and then he heard it, audio. You, Viv. - And I wanna say that too. I've read previous books, and I just wanna say, this has got to be the style of writing in it. It's different than the previous books and the way you went about writing this. And it was a thing of we would finish a chapter. I think Vivian, I think Rob, you even alluded to this. All of us would be crying. And some of us were here, some of us weren't, and the ones that weren't here, they were like, "Why are you crying?" "You wouldn't hear it." It's like, "Yeah, but now we've got to read it." - Yes. - Yeah, it's a life we lived in. - Mm-hmm.

- It was just a phenomenal end to the point of we went through and read it once, and then listened to me 'cause you went back into the audio book. - Emotional again, emotional again. And again, I took my own horn because obviously it was the Lord download all this stuff, and I took no, this was the easiest book to compile the hardest book to write, 'cause it wasn't for lack of information. I had two journals filled to the brim with what God was speaking through every part of the revival and all the lessons and 70-something pages, single speeds on a notes app on my phone, and then a sermon series through the year. I mean, so we had a lot of information, so I had all the research done, but working with an editor at B&H to compile it, I just, it basically runs through the revival in real time and gives you the lesson, seven basic principles, seven disciplines. I incorporate in my life to end, still do it today, and I think, and it's not like do these seven things you'll hear from God, it's these are guardrails that you can apply through seasons of your, this is ammunition for your spiritual gun so that you can fire it at will and when you need it. And so anyway, hopefully you enjoy the book, September 22nd, you may be out by the time you hear this,

but you can pre-order it right now, and if you pre-order it, you get the audio book free for three months, and I read it. And many of the times, as you said, I got a motion. Now, the cool thing about Candy is, Candy has read the book, let's see, Candy, what'd you think about the book, by the way? How'd you enjoy it? Can you hear me right at twice, Vivian read it twice? - I have not read the book. - What? - Let me ask you a question. - Don't. - Have you ever read anything I have written? I can't even get you to listen to me when I say my verses to you. - I wrote, I wrote both of your books, what are you talking about? I wrote both of your books. - Oh Lord. - You have lost your book. - Okay, we got it. And thank you for joining us, that's a joke, that's a joke. I did, whoa. - Thank you both for joining us. (laughing) - I didn't write any of your books yet. I did not play it, she's a great writer, great writer. - Don't forget to click like or subscribe. - Yes.

- But we wanna thank you for joining us. - And share the podcast. - And we wanna just reach out and just say, how does he end this? Thank you for listening to the book on the podcast. We don't like that. - Yeah, that's fine. - You know what, we wanna thank you for listening to the God and Jesus podcast, until the next time. - See you then. - All right. Bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]