God Changes His Mind in Response to Our Prayers 02/19/2017

Summary: ANNOUNCEMENTS: Worship Night this Friday @ 7pm, Feb 24th. Easter Egg Candy- donations in mission box, coming up quickly Please purchase items similar to… Miniature candy bars Starburst Hersey kisses Mini tootsie rolls Small wrapped mint or butterscotch candies. Small pieces of wrapped gum Please do NOT purchase Smarties, Suckers, Licorice. Large candy bars, or Un-wrapped candies LT Meeting after worship- Alpha, Worship Night Speakers PRAYER CAN CHANGE THE MIND OF GOD SO PRAY LIKE LIVES DEPEND ON IT Unchangeableness/IMMUTABILITY. God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, Yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations. We often hear talk about man’s free will but this morning I want to draw your attention to God’s free will. Genesis 6:5-6 NLT 5 The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. 1 Samuel 15:10-11 NLT 10 Then the LORD said to Samuel, 11 "I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command." Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the LORD all night. We will say more about God changing his mind later but for now we can either look at these passages and be confused or we can see them as an opening to change God’s mind and see Him work in our lives and in the lives of those around us. 1 John 5:14-15 NLT 14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. So this morning I want to motivate you to pray by showing you that the prayer of the righteous can move God to work in our world. Exodus 32:9-14 NLT 9 Then the LORD said, "I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. 10 Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation." 11 But Moses tried to pacify the LORD his God. "O LORD!" he said. "Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? 12 Why let the Egyptians say, 'Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth'? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people! 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.'" 14 So the LORD changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people. This passage God’s responsiveness to a righteous person’s prayer prayed not for selfish reasons but out of a desire to see God’s will accomplished. So what can we do? Live righteously, and pray earnestly!!! Proverbs 15:8 NLT 8 The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but he delights in the prayers of the upright. Proverbs 15:29 NLT 29 The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous. Psalm 145:18 The LORD is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. Psalm 145:19 He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. Psalm 34:15 The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help. Psalm 34:17 The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. Psalm 4:3 You can be sure of this: The LORD set apart the godly for himself. The LORD will answer when I call to him. Psalm 34:16 But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil; he will erase their memory from the earth. Psalm 66:18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Proverbs 1:28 "When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. Isaiah 59:2 It's your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. James 5:16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 1Peter 3:12 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil." Here is yet another example of the Lord changing His mind in response to the prayer of the righteous: Amos 7:1-6 NLT The Sovereign LORD showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land. This was after the king's share had been harvested from the fields and as the main crop was coming up. 2 In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small." 3 So the LORD relented from this plan. "I will not do it," he said. 4 Then the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land. 5 Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small." 6 Then the LORD relented from this plan, too. "I will not do that either," said the Sovereign LORD. Jonah 3:4 NLT 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: "Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” Jonah 3:9-10 NLT 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us." 10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. Isaiah 38:1-6 NLT About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: "This is what the LORD says: 'Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.'" 2 When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 "Remember, O LORD, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you." Then he broke down and wept bitterly. 4 Then this message came to Isaiah from the LORD: 5 "Go back to Hezekiah and tell him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life, 6 and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city. These instances should all be understood as true expressions of God’s present attitude or intention with respect to the situation as it exists at that moment. If the situation changes, then of course God’s attitude or expression of intention will also change. This is just saying that God responds differently to different situations. The situations with Hezekiah and with the intercession of Moses are similar: God had said that he would send judgment, and that was a true declaration, provided that the situation remained the same. But then the situation changed: someone started to pray earnestly (Moses in one case and Hezekiah in the other). Here prayer itself was part of the new situation and was in fact what changed the situation. God responded to that changed situation by answering the prayer and withholding judgment. In the cases of God being sorry that he had made man, or that he had made Saul king, these too can be understood as expressions of God’s present displeasure toward the sinfulness of man. In neither case is the language strong enough to require us to think that if God could start again and act differently, he would in fact not create man or not make Saul king. It can instead imply that God’s previous action led to events that, in the short term, caused him sorrow, but that nonetheless in the long term would ultimately achieve his good purposes. This is somewhat analogous to a human father who allows his child to embark on a course he knows will bring much sorrow, both to the parent and to the child, but who allows it nonetheless, because he knows that greater long-term good will come from it. Luke 18:1-7 NLT One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 "There was a judge in a certain city," he said, "who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, 'Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.' 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, 'I don't fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!'" 6 Then the Lord said, "Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? If we were really convinced that prayer changes the way God acts, and that God does bring about remarkable changes in the world in response to prayer, as Scripture repeatedly teaches that he does, then we would pray much more than we do. If we pray little, it is probably because we do not really believe that prayer accomplishes much at all. In the following text please remember that the church is now God’s temple: 2 Chronicles 7:14-16 NLT 14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 15 My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. 16 For I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be holy-- a place where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart. Fathers, are you praying for your family? Mothers, are you praying for your children? Does God’s wrath abide on people you love? Do you really want God to work in our city? Do we really want to see people saved? Then change God’s mind, and pray like people’s lives depended on it.

God Changes His Mind in Response to Our Prayers 02/19/2017

Directory

Click for all Categories