Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Guest (Male): Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. In general, we pray when we’re in need. Some say we can demand that God heal us of health issues. If that prayer goes unanswered, some abandon God altogether, feeling he shortchanged them. Understanding what God wants to accomplish in us when we pray is the focus of today’s program. Stay with us.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Why doesn't God answer my prayers? That’s the title of Erwin Lutzer’s new book, a book we’d like each of our listeners to have. Here again today to discuss that book is Pastor Lutzer, along with Pastor Larry McCarthy.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: This is Pastor Lutzer. Thank you so much for joining me today. In the studio is Larry McCarthy. He’s one of the pastors here at the Moody Church. He’s responsible for compassion ministries as well as outreach. He and I are having a discussion about a brand-new book entitled Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? and the subtitle is A Biblical Guide to God’s Hidden Purposes.

One of the things that I have discovered is the greatest disappointment that people have with God is when he doesn’t come through the way in which they think he should. If you were with us last time, you know that we talked about those who even think that they have promises where they can demand healing for the body, for example. One of the things that we tried to show is that that is not biblical.

Today, we’re moving on, Larry, and we’re going to be talking about the fact that oftentimes God may answer our prayers but not in the way in which we think he should.

Larry McCarthy: This is really good stuff. I love in chapter three, you use the backdrop, the context there of Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah to make your point here. I just think it’s a wonderful use of that scripture to make this point.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Here’s Abraham, he’s sitting out in the afternoon and three men show up. Now, that’s unusual because these three men were not regular human beings.

Larry McCarthy: I was going to ask you about that. Was that unusual in those days for angels to just show up at people’s houses?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I can’t answer that directly except to say this: that in the Old Testament, oftentimes what you have is what theologians call a pre-incarnate revelation of Jesus Christ. What that means is among these three men, two of them may have just been regular angels, but with them was God.

That becomes clear later on. By the way, it just occurs to me that in the book of Hebrews, it says to be faithful in hospitality, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares, and that’s obviously a reference to Abraham.

Larry McCarthy: So Abraham has a prayer. He has a prayer request.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I have put myself in Abraham's shoes. This is so dramatic that it almost gives me goosebumps because as the story goes on, two of the men leave after they have been well-fed. Apparently, angels are able to eat. Then it says Abraham is now standing toe to toe with God.

God says, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" It became very clear that what God was saying is, "I am going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah." Now, that strikes at Abraham’s heart because Lot's there. He has relatives there. He doesn't want to see the whole city destroyed.

Now you have this dramatic scene. I don’t know whether or not we’re going to be able to re-see certain events when we get to heaven. It might be very interesting just to watch what happened. Abraham begins to speak to God, and he does so reverently.

He begins by saying, "Are there 50 or 45 righteous people in Sodom? If there are that many, you won't destroy the whole city, will you? For will not the judge of all the earth do right?" Well, what does he do after he gets to 45?

Larry McCarthy: The number goes down. 40, 30, 20. By now, he’s trembling and he’s saying, "Oh Lord, oh Lord, please be patient. I have one more request." Abraham's beginning to think Sodom and Gomorrah are so wicked there might not be 20. But what about 10? God says, "Okay, Abraham, if there are 10 righteous, I’ll not destroy the city."

Abraham goes home that night, Larry, and I’m asking you the question. Do you think that Abraham thought that he had spared Sodom and Gomorrah because there were at least 10 righteous according to what he was thinking?

Larry McCarthy: Absolutely. I think he was sitting there in bed with his wife and he was making a list. There's Lot. There's my daughters, that’s three. He’s trying to come up with how many. "Yes, we’ve got at least 10 there."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I mean, there's Lot and his wife. There’s the two daughters, that’s four. They were about to be married to two men, that would be six. Maybe they came from Christian parents. He may have said to Sarah, "Sarah, I just spared Sodom and Gomorrah judgment."

The Bible says that he goes out the next morning and he sees Sodom and Gomorrah burning. What do you think he thought?

Larry McCarthy: He probably thought Lot was gone as well, that he had been destroyed along with his daughters. But there weren't 10 people righteous there found.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: There were not 10. We know really that there were only four and they were not known for their righteousness if we consider what happened afterwards. But there's Lot, his wife, and the two daughters. They are escaping. Lot's wife, of course, turned around and she became a pillar of salt.

By the way, I don’t want to get off on this, but I find this fascinating. Jesus said, "Remember Lot's wife." Why didn't he say remember Abraham's wife or somebody else's wife? It's because it's clear that her body was out of Sodom, but Sodom was not out of her heart. So many lessons learned here.

I’m going to punt the ball to you and ask you: did God answer Abraham's prayer?

Larry McCarthy: Absolutely, but not in the way that he wanted. He wanted the righteous to be spared, and they were, but the city was still destroyed. The city was destroyed, the righteous were spared.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: When he was interceding on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was doing that because he didn’t want Lot to be destroyed. So Lot and his two daughters were not destroyed. The point that I’m emphasizing is that Abraham got the desire of his heart, but it sure didn’t happen the way in which he thought it was going to happen.

That’s one of the lessons that we have to learn about prayer, and we always have to remember there are other lessons, of course, that we can mention. The Bible says that Abraham was a friend of God. I want everyone who is listening to meditate on this for just a few seconds. What a beautiful thing to be known as a friend of God.

Jesus said to his disciples, "I have not called you servants because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends." Larry, doesn’t that bless us today that we are friends of God?

Larry McCarthy: Amen and amen. It really focuses our attention on the primary purpose of prayer. One of the quotes that I underlined in the manuscript was that the primary purpose of prayer is to develop a friendship with God, to have fellowship with him.

The other was when the answer to a request means more to us than God himself, we are missing the primary purpose of prayer. That time with God is the primary purpose of prayer.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Larry, I have to say that’s one of the reasons I wrote this book. Even as I was writing and I was analyzing my own prayer life, and I’ve been walking with God for many years, the thing that I’ve been learning is this: prayer isn't simply asking God to answer our request—do this, do this, do this.

We’re going to be talking about this later on, about the fact that Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane says to them, "Watch and pray for an hour." You’d be surprised at the number of Christians who wouldn't have a clue how to pray for an hour. After all, how long does it take for us to tell God what we think he should do? We can do that in two minutes.

What I want to do is to move on, but before we do, I want to say to all those who are listening, at the end of this broadcast you're going to be given some contact info as to how you can receive a copy of the book entitled Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? The subtitle is A Biblical Guide to God’s Hidden Purposes. I feel very deeply that this is a book that is going to be needed for your young people. It's going to be needed for all those who deconstruct from the Christian faith because, after all, God doesn’t come through for them the way in which they think he should. We think it’s going to be a tremendous blessing to you.

Larry, in a moment we’re going to move on to chapter four, which is the story of the prophet Habakkuk. Fascinating. But before we do, just to add a footnote to what we said about Abraham, isn't that interesting that a few people can have such great influence in society? I’m thinking of the fact that God said if there were 10 righteous in Sodom, he would not have destroyed the city. Now, in this instance, he took Lot and his family out of the city and then destroyed it. But oftentimes we underestimate the power of a few righteous people in a city or in a culture.

Larry McCarthy: Amen. I hope our listeners are encouraged because oftentimes you can just feel like it's just me or there are only a few of us. But a few righteous people, this is a quote from the manuscript, few righteous people have a mighty impact. They preach the gospel, they live godly lives, they pray for the government, they promote education, they help the poor. You say they’re preserving the society from decay. It’s these few who are doing that.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: The world itself has no idea of the impact of Christians and the good that they are able to do in a society.

Guest (Male): This is one of the last days for you to receive the book entitled Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? A Biblical Guide to God’s Hidden Purposes. To receive your copy, here’s what you do: go to offerrtw.com. That’s offerrtw.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-800-215-5001. That’s 1-800-215-5001.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Next time, more of this discussion on the why of unanswered prayer. Plan to join Pastors Erwin Lutzer and Larry McCarthy. Pastor’s new book, Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? will be sent for your gift of any amount. Call 1-800-215-5001. Online, go to offerrtw.com. Running to Win is a ministry of the Moody Church.