Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1325 ｜ 'God Answers All Prayers' & Other Myths Christians Believe

00:00:00.640 Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. 0.60

00:00:04.080 God answers all of our prayers.

00:00:06.660 Preach the gospel and when necessary, use words.

00:00:09.640 You've probably heard a lot of these phrases before.

00:00:12.240 Maybe you even believe them, but none of them are exactly true.

00:00:17.280 Today we are continuing our most misused series.

00:00:22.060 This time we are talking about popular Christian sounding phrases that are almost true, but

00:00:27.360 not quite, and diving into the truth that the Bible actually shares for us. This episode

00:00:32.600 is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com, use code

00:00:36.200 Allie at checkout. That's goodranchers.com, code Allie.

00:00:48.260 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone has had a wonderful day, a wonderful

00:00:53.400 week so far. If you have not listened to the episode at the end of last week with Ashley

00:00:58.580 Sheets, sharing her testimony that ended up going viral, the post of her husband talking about her

00:01:05.340 past, got so much backlash, even from Christian conservatives. You should go hear Ashley in her

00:01:10.700 own words. Super, super powerful story of God's redemption. Just amazing. Also, just one more

00:01:17.820 thing before we start, and I just don't want to forget to tell you this, that God's eternal plan

00:01:22.080 of redemption is going off without a hitch. It is. It still is. Isn't that incredible? No matter

00:01:26.860 what you have going on in your life, your particular circumstance, no matter what unforeseen

00:01:31.740 situation you are in, it was not unforeseen to God. God is never surprised. He's never taken it

00:01:37.280 back. He's never thrown off. He is never looking down, wondering how in the world did you get

00:01:41.640 yourself into this mess? I did not see this coming. Oh my goodness. I don't know what to do.

00:01:45.620 Let me put some plans together. Let me come down there and clean up the mess. Oh my goodness. Let 0.98

00:01:49.880 to get together with my angels, try to figure out what's going on. That is so not God. God is

00:01:55.560 suspended in the eternal now. He's not limited by space and time like we are. So he sees all of it.

00:02:00.780 He knows all of it. And Romans 8, 28 promises us that all things work together for the good

00:02:06.520 of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. That does not mean that things

00:02:10.960 are going to work out the way that we think that they should, the way that we want them to here in

00:02:17.500 this life, it might mean that healing for you, that restoration for you, that fulfillment for you

00:02:22.960 only comes in heaven, only comes fully at least in eternity. We don't know that we are going to

00:02:29.460 get all of the things that we pray for in this life, but we can trust that God is taking care

00:02:34.720 of us, that he is good, that he does things for our good to make us holier, to make us more

00:02:41.440 dependent upon him, to make us more satisfied in him. And in that we can rejoice. It's actually

00:02:46.900 really freeing when we realize that we deserve no good thing. That if God only gave us his son,

00:02:52.980 Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins, then that would be enough to call God merciful and

00:02:57.800 gracious and good. And everything else is just icing on the cake. And the Lord gives and the

00:03:03.300 Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And we can just thank God for that. And sometimes

00:03:07.100 that's easier said than done. That is absolutely true. But we trust in God's character that Jesus

00:03:12.320 Christ never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, Hebrews 13, 8, and that he

00:03:17.300 is coming back and he will defeat evil once and for all. And one day there won't be any more

00:03:21.520 cancer. There will be no more abortion. There will be no more disappointing news. There will be no

00:03:26.560 more sin. You won't be tempted anymore. There will be no more failure. There will be no more

00:03:31.700 disappointment. There will be no more bad news. There will be no more disagreement.

00:03:36.680 Jesus will rule in perfect peace and we will be with him forever and ever. That's what we have

00:03:42.120 to look forward to. So even when the burden feels really heavy, even when the social media feed

00:03:47.780 feels toxic, even when the news seems really dire, even when there are wars and rumors of wars,

00:03:56.500 there is a God who claims victory. And the day of victory has already been determined,

00:04:01.120 just like the day of your death has already been determined. So we get to live not only in hope,

00:04:05.000 but also completely boldly, knowing that we have a God who is sovereign over it all

00:04:09.720 and promises to take care of us. So I always just want to comfort not only you, but myself with

00:04:15.200 that. It's really important to preach the truth, not only to others in your life, to disciple your

00:04:20.720 kids, yes, to encourage those around you if you're a pastor preaching to your congregation, but also

00:04:26.280 to instruct yourself using God's word, using the truth of his word. We never graduate from that.

00:04:32.760 We never graduate from the gospel. We never graduate from the fundamentals of the faith.

00:04:36.980 God has given us these tools to rest in and to give us comfort and to give us wisdom.

00:04:42.360 And in light of that, I am bringing back a form of an old series that we have done on Relatable called Most Missed, Most Misused, Most Misused.

00:04:55.840 And today it is about three Christian mythical mottos, and I'm going to break them down and 0.97

00:05:03.000 tell you what they mean in popular culture and why they are not true and what God's Word

00:05:11.960 actually says about them.

00:05:13.500 So it's relationship, not religion.

00:05:15.860 That's one.

00:05:16.540 Number two, God answers all prayers.

00:05:18.800 Number three, preach the gospel and when necessary, use words.

00:05:22.520 So I came up with a long, long list of common misused Christian sounding mantras.

00:05:29.160 And I thought, okay, if I only do one of these per episode, this series is going to last forever.

00:05:35.680 So I'm going to try to knock out two or three per episode.

00:05:38.620 It won't be every single week consecutively.

00:05:40.560 We'll kind of do it here and there just like we have done in the past.

00:05:44.920 Now, these particular phrases you've probably all heard before.

00:05:48.200 Maybe you've even said these before because they sound really good.

00:05:51.920 And in some sense, they sound correct, but each of these phrases actually range from

00:05:57.700 incompletely correct to completely incorrect.

00:06:00.580 And I want to go through each of them today to dig into what the Bible actually says about

00:06:04.340 these ideas and why what scripture actually offers us in exchange for these trite sayings

00:06:10.360 is actually so much better.

00:06:12.540 Words are really powerful, which is why mantras are powerful.

00:06:15.920 They have a way of sticking in people's minds, especially if they rhyme or it's an alliteration.

00:06:20.900 And it's why I have some mantras on my show that we've created over the years.

00:06:25.620 Politics matter because policy matters because people matter.

00:06:28.400 God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch.

00:06:31.180 Raise a respectful ruckus.

00:06:32.480 All kinds of things that we have said over and over again over the years to try to remind

00:06:37.200 us of what is true.

00:06:38.820 And progressives also are really good at this.

00:06:41.800 Love is love.

00:06:43.000 No human is illegal.

00:06:44.620 There is something that sounds really beautiful and even instinctively true in these phrases.

00:06:50.380 but as christian thinkers we don't judge whether something is true based on how something seems or

00:06:56.680 how it sounds or how catchy it is or what our instinct says or how something makes us feel

00:07:01.800 that is true whether a politician is saying it or whether i'm saying it or any other

00:07:06.940 advocate activist podcaster or someone in your life is saying it we judge whether something is

00:07:13.240 true based on reason based on logic and most of all in the truth of god's word because god is the

00:07:18.680 inventor of logic. He is the source of all truth, and he has given us this really clear guide to

00:07:24.380 seeking wisdom through the Bible. Like I said earlier, the format of today's episode is going

00:07:29.960 to be familiar to my OG relatable listeners, because you'll remember that back in the beginning

00:07:34.820 years of the show, we did this series called Most Misused, where we went through some of the most

00:07:40.680 widely known Bible verses that are often misconstrued and misapplied today. We discussed

00:07:45.380 the misapplication. And then we would go more deeply into the text to answer the question,

00:07:50.420 what does this really mean? So for example, Psalm 37, four, delight yourself in the Lord,

00:07:55.300 and he will give you the desires of your heart. That verse is used in popular parlance to mean

00:08:01.760 that if you are a Christian and you want something, you will have it. The idea that the existence of

00:08:07.860 that desire is evidence of God's promise to give it to you. In reality, of course, if we delight

00:08:12.760 in the Lord, He will give to our hearts desires that align with His desires. And in the context

00:08:18.560 of that passage, which we've talked about Psalm 37 a lot on this show, we see that God promises

00:08:23.260 that one day His people will have peace, the peace they desire, the victory they desire.

00:08:28.420 And what we see over and over again is that the true interpretation of Scripture in any passage,

00:08:34.560 but especially these most misused passages, Psalm 37, 4, Philippians 4, 13, Jeremiah 29, 11,

00:08:41.120 And the true interpretation is always much deeper and much better than the popular prosperity

00:08:47.440 gospel interpretation of it.

00:08:48.820 So I loved those verses.

00:08:50.400 I felt like I learned so much through them and was so encouraged.

00:08:54.120 And even though that was several years ago, I haven't brought it back in so long because

00:08:58.460 I felt like we'd gone through all the verses that are misused the most.

00:09:01.560 But I want to now revive the series doing something a little bit different instead of

00:09:06.080 using those verses, using popular phrases that Christians so often hear.

00:09:09.420 and say that I believe are misstated or at least misunderstood and misapplied.

00:09:16.880 And what we say and what we believe matters in Christianity a whole lot.

00:09:20.440 We are saved by our beliefs, specifically the belief in Christ's sacrifice for us.

00:09:24.800 So it's a really big deal.

00:09:26.300 It goes on in our mind and our heart.

00:09:28.040 And based on those beliefs, we are to say what is true,

00:09:31.940 preaching the gospel, making disciples of all nations.

00:09:34.580 So let's do it.

00:09:35.360 Let's get into some of these popular phrases, how they're used, and what is actually true.

00:09:40.900 Before we get into the first one, let me pause, tell you about our first sponsor for the day.

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00:11:05.080 Okay, the first one, Christianity is a relationship.

00:11:09.380 It's not a religion.

00:11:11.040 I hear this phrase a lot.

00:11:12.340 I see it a lot in comments.

00:11:14.000 And I think people mean well,

00:11:16.000 especially when they are evangelizing to people

00:11:18.360 who have maybe come out of legalism or they have no idea what Christianity is and they're confused

00:11:24.960 about some of the rules and the standards. And you'll hear people kind of rush to say, well,

00:11:29.500 you don't need to worry about those. It's not about a religion. It's about a relationship.

00:11:34.940 And what these well-meaning people mean is that they want to push us away or push this person

00:11:40.420 away from legalism and into daily conversation with and pursuit of Jesus. And there is part of

00:11:47.300 that that is really true and really good, as we'll get into. But let me just give you some

00:11:51.320 examples of this kind of being used by some popular teachers. Joyce Meyer tries to make

00:11:57.340 this distinction, thought three. I don't want us just to think about a God way off in the sky

00:12:02.060 somewhere, but he wants to have a personal, intimate relationship with us. The difference

00:12:07.300 in religion and relationship is what I just said. Religion always looks for God somewhere and tries

00:12:14.840 to get to God through works and effort and some certain kind of behavior.

00:12:22.120 So she is correct there that Christianity is about relationship, but I would greatly

00:12:28.400 contend with her definition of religion, which we'll get into in just a second.

00:12:32.640 And then Johnny Chang, he's host of the Unlearned Wisdom podcast.

00:12:36.220 He claims that there is a relationship to be had with Christ, but not a religion.

00:12:41.120 It's up for.

00:12:41.920 If you listen to me, you can figure out what I am.

00:12:44.020 I am a follower of Jesus and that's it

00:12:46.500 I'm not a Christian, I'm not Catholic, I'm not Coptic 0.88

00:12:48.980 I'm not Church of Assyria, Council of Nicaea, Nicaea

00:12:52.740 I'm not none of that

00:12:53.920 I am a follower of Jesus Christ

00:12:55.620 Because under Christianity it's repulsive to people 1.00

00:12:58.380 We're not all that

00:12:59.300 You know who we are?

00:13:00.300 We are followers of Jesus who came to abolish and destroy all religions 1.00

00:13:04.840 Sheesh, and unite everybody

00:13:06.340 Under grace, under righteousness, under love

00:13:08.940 Jesus is a relationship, not a religion

00:13:11.000 okay so abolish all religion i've heard that before people who say this say that that's what

00:13:17.600 that's what followers of jesus do it's the abolition of all religion it's something totally

00:13:22.620 radically different than religion so first let me talk about what is true in these statements

00:13:27.800 on the one hand the underlying intent behind the phrase has truth to it what distinguishes

00:13:34.680 christianity from every other religion is that it does not teach us how to get to god

00:13:40.240 Judaism says, follow this list of rules and regulations and you can be right with God.

00:13:44.580 Islam has their list of rules. 0.67

00:13:46.380 Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, they all have things that you must do to climb your way 0.99

00:13:51.580 up the mountaintop to God or to the divine.

00:13:54.880 Christianity and Christianity alone stands apart because Christianity says you can't 0.99

00:14:00.740 get to God.

00:14:01.700 You actually cannot climb up the mountain.

00:14:04.440 You cannot follow the rules.

00:14:06.300 You are spiritually dead.

00:14:07.960 Dead people cannot clean themselves up.

00:14:10.460 They can't take a single step in the right direction.

00:14:13.240 You have to be given a gift of faith that revives you, that makes you spiritually alive

00:14:18.540 and right with God.

00:14:20.080 And this is given to you by grace, which by definition cannot be earned.

00:14:24.080 All of that is explained perfectly in Ephesians 2, 1 through 10.

00:14:28.360 And through this salvation, we are not only followers of Jesus.

00:14:31.380 We are his brothers and sisters.

00:14:32.780 We have a relationship.

00:14:34.220 We are his co-heirs.

00:14:35.620 That's Romans 8, 17.

00:14:36.700 We are God's children.

00:14:38.680 That's a relationship.

00:14:39.820 First John 3.1.

00:14:41.640 We can approach God's throne with confidence as his children and as co-heirs with Christ.

00:14:46.660 That's Hebrews 4.16.

00:14:48.280 A lot of religions hope to have a relationship with God in the afterlife if they've checked 1.00

00:14:53.440 all of the boxes here on earth.

00:14:55.380 But Christianity doesn't say that.

00:14:57.780 Christianity says that you can have a relationship with God right now, no matter what you've

00:15:02.080 done or who you are by grace through faith in Jesus.

00:15:05.300 Okay, so yes, Christianity is a relationship, but Christianity is also a religion.

00:15:14.100 If you look at the roots of the word religion, you can go all the way back to the ancient use

00:15:19.200 of the Latin word, which is religere. And I'm not up on my Latin pronunciation, so I apologize,

00:15:25.080 but religere means to go through again, especially in thought or in word.

00:15:31.000 I love this connection because it implies a routine, a habit, a discipline of repetition

00:15:38.960 that turns an isolated belief into a pattern of thought that dictates a person's life.

00:15:44.040 Then there is this other ancient Latin word, and that's religare, very similar, but a little

00:15:50.640 bit different, spelled differently, which means to bind again or to tie back.

00:15:55.260 And I also love this.

00:15:56.900 I love to bind again.

00:15:58.600 So to tie yourself repetitively to the same stake in the ground.

00:16:02.440 You'll notice the shared prefix in these words, which is re, R-E.

00:16:06.820 It's the prefix that we see in repeat, rehearse, rebound, redo.

00:16:11.900 Re means exactly what you probably already know it means.

00:16:14.920 It means to do it again, to repeat.

00:16:17.360 These roots paint a picture, for me at least, this is what comes to mind, of fastening a

00:16:23.680 boat to a dock.

00:16:24.480 And this is not a perfect analogy.

00:16:26.280 just this particular word but like the boat is on choppy waters it's tied to a secure post

00:16:33.100 every day the knot must be tightened it must be rebound uh tweaked tied over and over again to

00:16:40.520 the same post christianity is the practice christian religion is the practice of rebinding

00:16:47.780 ourselves to the things of god i would not say rebinding ourselves to god because god binds

00:16:54.000 himself to us because God holds us, not the other way around. Our salvation is entirely dependent

00:17:00.360 upon him, and we do not have the power to wrest ourselves out of his grasp once we are saved.

00:17:05.520 But rebinding ourselves through grace-filled effort, Holy Spirit-inspired effort to his wisdom,

00:17:13.160 his ways, the good things of the Christian life. James writes this,

00:17:16.960 if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart,

00:17:21.460 this person's religion is worthless religion that is pure and undefiled before god the father is 1.00

00:17:27.420 this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from

00:17:33.640 the world james 1 26 through 27 so james does not use religion as a pejorative term and this

00:17:40.840 makes it clear that scripture does not preach that our christian faith is not a religion rather

00:17:46.560 it's the one true religion religion and relationship in christianity are not pitted against each other

00:17:52.880 it is the one faith where our religion is actually fueled by our relationship and i've got more on

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00:19:07.480 that echoes in eternity. Go to sevenweekscoffee.com. Use code Allie. Save 10% off your

00:19:13.500 first order. That's sevenweekscoffee.com, code Allie. Other faiths will say that a relationship

00:19:24.620 with the divine is dependent upon our religious success. But Christianity says that your religious

00:19:31.160 success is dependent upon a relationship with Christ, which you can't take any credit for.

00:19:36.180 And there's another point that I think is missed with this whole, it's a relationship,

00:19:40.720 not religion mentality.

00:19:43.000 And that is that everyone in the whole world already has a relationship with God.

00:19:47.640 The one true God.

00:19:49.320 Through Jesus, we are not just being offered a relationship with God.

00:19:54.420 We are being offered a friendly relationship with God, a loving one.

00:19:59.540 Previously, our relationship with God was hostile.

00:20:02.480 We were his enemies.

00:20:03.780 Romans 5.10 says,

00:20:05.420 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more,

00:20:11.020 now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

00:20:15.760 How incredible is that?

00:20:16.760 So the problem was not that we did not have a relationship with God,

00:20:19.460 it's that we had a hostile relationship with God.

00:20:21.780 And Jesus came to change that.

00:20:24.260 Reconcile, that word that we just read in that Romans passage, means to restore a union.

00:20:28.840 There's that prefix, re-again.

00:20:30.580 And you notice that a lot in Christianity, reconcile, renew, reborn, resurrect, redeem.

00:20:38.280 And you might ask, if you want to notice that pattern, like, what is with that?

00:20:42.240 And how does it make sense?

00:20:43.780 How can we do these things again if spiritually we've never done them before or we've never

00:20:50.020 had them?

00:20:50.600 How can a person restore a reunion to God that they've never had?

00:20:56.000 Well, at one point, mankind was united with God.

00:20:59.920 One day, very long time ago, man walked with God in the garden in the cool of the day,

00:21:05.900 naked and unashamed, under only one condition, that they would not eat of the tree of the

00:21:11.820 knowledge of good and evil. Then deceit from the snake, temptation, sin, compromise,

00:21:18.440 mistrust of the creator, and the desire for power and glory. Then shame, uncovering,

00:21:24.400 the curse pain death so god sent jesus to restore that relationship so we could once again walk in

00:21:34.160 fellowship with him so we could once again no longer be shackled by the burden of sin that we

00:21:41.880 could once again be free that we could once again enjoy relationship reconciliation confidence in

00:21:51.260 our friendship with God. And so that's the reason that you see that language of renew and redeem,

00:21:58.820 because at one point, all things were right between God and man. And God loves us so much

00:22:05.000 that he wants to bring us back there, that we get a taste of that in this life. But one day,

00:22:10.560 we're going to experience it fully. Yes, when we die and go to heaven, but also when Jesus comes

00:22:16.160 back, there's going to be a new heaven and there's going to be a new earth and nothing will be touched

00:22:21.640 or harmed by sin ever again. So we are renewed. We are reborn in Christ. And that is the good

00:22:31.760 news. That is not only what the relationship with Christ offers, that is the religion of

00:22:36.720 Christianity. And that is what the religion of Christianity is tied to. Not a desire to earn

00:22:43.740 our way to God or to reach up to God or climb up to the mountaintop, but a repetition of devotion

00:22:52.080 to God, rebinding to the things of God because of that relationship that was given to us through

00:23:00.680 Christ with God that we have now been reconciled to. Theologians throughout history have been

00:23:06.420 talking about this. This is not a new discussion. There was a Scottish theologian. He lived in the

00:23:11.980 17th century, and his name was Andrew Gray. And I loved this quote by him. A true believer looks

00:23:17.660 on religion, not as a burden, which he must be forced to endure, but a privilege, which is his

00:23:22.640 happiness to enjoy. Jonathan Edwards, he was an 18th century key figure in the great awakening,

00:23:30.220 the reformed tradition. You've probably heard sinner in the hands of an angry God. That was a 1.00

00:23:34.200 famous, very famous sermon that he preached at the time. But he also talked about this. He said,

00:23:39.100 the religion of heaven, the religion of heaven consists very much in affection.

00:23:44.520 There is doubtless true religion in heaven and true religion in its utmost purity and perfection.

00:23:50.260 True religion lies very much in the affections. Without holy affection, there is no true religion.

00:23:56.000 So religion, he's saying, is not really just about what you do. It is about whom you love.

00:24:01.960 True faith involves both the relational knowledge of God and also obedient religious devoted

00:24:07.760 practice that flows from that relationship. The New Testament, um, describes, uh, religion or

00:24:15.700 obedience to God positively when describing what God pleasing expressions of faith and love look

00:24:23.340 like. If you look at first John two, three through six, and by this, we know that we have come to

00:24:28.380 know him. If we keep his commandments, whoever says I know him, but does not keep his commandments

00:24:33.940 is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is

00:24:40.000 perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk

00:24:45.160 in the same way in which he walked, which gosh, we can only do that with the power of the Holy

00:24:49.960 Spirit because Jesus is perfect and none of us is perfect. All of us are going to fall and fail

00:24:55.020 in sin. And that is why we need the grace of God to keep us going. But that love of God and

00:24:59.920 relationship that we have with him is what motivates us to do that. Knowing God relationally,

00:25:06.040 we read in scripture, is actually evidenced by our religion, by keeping commandments, by binding

00:25:11.880 ourselves to him through grace-filled effort. Claiming a relationship with God without obedience

00:25:18.260 actually makes one a liar. That's not my word. That's God's word. I also just want to note here

00:25:25.140 as we close out this first one,

00:25:26.840 that obedience does not equal legalism, okay?

00:25:30.420 Holiness does not equal legalism. 0.93

00:25:32.680 So often Christians who emphasize the importance 1.00

00:25:35.120 of repentance or routine devotions to God

00:25:37.700 or church attendance are accused of legalism.

00:25:40.420 That's not legalism.

00:25:41.560 Legalism is being a stickler

00:25:42.800 about following the letter of the law,

00:25:44.740 but not understanding or following the spirit of the law.

00:25:48.420 And that's what the Pharisees did.

00:25:49.740 They were legal scholars.

00:25:50.920 They obeyed the law and then some,

00:25:52.880 That's what Saul, before he became Paul did, added all kinds of stipulations to the law

00:25:59.060 that the average Hebrew couldn't follow so that they could elevate themselves as especially

00:26:03.280 righteous-seeming, and they ignored the spirit of the law, which was to love God, honor him,

00:26:07.840 and care for his people.

00:26:09.060 Matthew 12, 9 through 11 is a good example of this.

00:26:12.120 Jesus went on from there and entered their synagogue, and a man was there with a withered

00:26:15.660 hand.

00:26:16.380 And they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him?

00:26:21.200 He said to them, which one of you who has sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,

00:26:26.740 will not take hold of it and lift it out?

00:26:29.440 And then in Mark 2, Jesus explains the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

00:26:34.900 Sabbath to the Pharisees had just become about following another rule,

00:26:38.660 not about rest and devotion to God and compassion for other people.

00:26:43.280 So religion and Christianity and conclusion is good. 0.59

00:26:47.580 It's about love-fueled obedience to God.

00:26:49.760 It is necessary.

00:26:51.200 And importantly, and distinctly, it is built upon the relationship that we have in Christ.

00:26:58.580 All right, let's go to number two, which is God answers all of our prayers.

00:27:03.600 The answer might just be no.

00:27:06.540 But first, let me pause.

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00:28:18.980 Legacybox.com slash Allie. God answers all of our prayers. The answer just might be,

00:28:31.280 no, we're told this a lot that, you know, I actually posted something the other day about

00:28:35.320 God not answering a particular prayer. And I got a lot of well-meaning messages from people saying

00:28:39.000 God answers every prayer. It's just that he might not always be saying yes. He might be saying no

00:28:44.220 or wait, but there is always an answer from God. Rick Warren is, or was, I can't remember if he

00:28:50.600 retired, but a pastor of Saddleback Church. He wrote Purpose Driven Life, so very prominent

00:28:55.880 person. And he said this, top five. God never leaves a prayer unanswered. Every prayer is

00:29:02.320 answered. It's not every prayer God says yes to. And there are many, many reasons for that.

00:29:09.900 There are a lot of examples in the Bible where God says no to great men and women of faith.

00:29:16.180 Prayers that were prayed by Abraham, God says no. Moses, no. Daniel, no. Job, Jonah, no. Elijah,

00:29:25.820 no. Peter, Paul, God said no to Jesus. Yes, even God's son, there are prayers that were

00:29:33.080 quote unanswered, meaning they weren't answered the way Jesus asked.

00:29:38.160 It is true that God says no. It is not true that God answers every prayer. The late pastor,

00:29:44.680 John MacArthur, talked about this a lot. He addressed this at length in his sermon. This

00:29:49.600 is from Grace to You. This has all of his past sermons and a lot of resources in connection

00:29:54.720 with John MacArthur, but he noted that there are many biblical reasons why God may not answer a

00:30:01.640 prayer. The Bible says that God does not answer the prayers of a few kinds of people. One, those

00:30:07.620 who have personal and selfish motives. We read this in James 4, 3, you ask and do not receive

00:30:14.760 because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Number two, he says, those who remain

00:30:21.800 and sin and will not heed God's law. This is John 9 31. We know that God does not listen to sinners,

00:30:29.460 but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Also Proverbs 28 9. If

00:30:36.220 one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. There's also those

00:30:43.560 who suffer or sorry, those who offer unworthy service to God. This is Malachi 1 8 through 9.

00:30:50.800 very interesting. When you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you

00:30:56.880 offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he

00:31:02.220 accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God that he

00:31:07.420 may be gracious to us with such a gift from your hand. Will he show favor to any of you,

00:31:12.560 says the Lord of hosts. And so obviously we're not ancient Israel. We're not offering animal

00:31:17.260 sacrifices to try to please God. This is just another example of God saying, no, I don't even

00:31:22.580 hear the prayers of certain kinds of people. Another category, those who reject God's call

00:31:27.860 or have no faith. This is James 1, 6 through 7, but let him ask in faith with no doubting.

00:31:34.460 For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that

00:31:37.780 person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. Those who are violent,

00:31:43.520 Isaiah 1 15. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make

00:31:48.940 many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Those who are self-righteous,

00:31:55.780 the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus. This is according to Luke 18 11 through 14.

00:32:01.820 God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like

00:32:06.320 this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get, but the tax collector

00:32:11.840 standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breath saying,

00:32:15.600 God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, Jesus says, this man went down to his house

00:32:20.140 justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who

00:32:25.900 humbles himself will be exalted. So John MacArthur says, this is an example of an acceptable prayer

00:32:32.900 to God versus an unacceptable one. And then the last category he says is those who mistreat God's

00:32:37.840 people. Micah 3, 2 and 4. You who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my

00:32:43.660 people and their flesh from off their bones, they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them.

00:32:48.420 He will hide his face from them at that time because they have made their deeds evil.

00:32:54.080 There are several other passages that we could go through that indicate that God sometimes does

00:32:58.540 not hear or does not respond at all to certain prayers due to a person's heart condition,

00:33:03.360 motives or relationship with him. There's Isaiah 59, 1 through 2, Isaiah 1, 15, Psalm 66, 18.

00:33:14.580 Psalm 66, 18 says, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

00:33:20.420 So it's not only that the Lord doesn't always answer, it's that sometimes he does not listen

00:33:25.280 to prayers. Now, the believer has been sanctified. The believer has been justified. The believer has

00:33:32.900 been made perfect. We are coming to the Lord in total confidence because of our relationship with

00:33:40.160 Christ. Are there prayers that are not heard by God by the Christian? I think that's a really good

00:33:47.560 theological question. I simply don't know for sure that the answer is always that God is

00:33:56.680 responding to every single prayer that a Christian has. I'm not sure about that, but we do know for 1.00

00:34:04.280 sure that for the non-believer, it is not true that God hears and answers every prayer. God can

00:34:10.660 hear and answer the prayers of non-believers, but he doesn't have to. And there are various

00:34:15.440 categories in scripture where God clearly is not going to hear a certain kind of prayer.

00:34:20.140 John Calvin talks about this.

00:34:21.720 He's a 16th century Reformed theologian.

00:34:25.940 He says this,

00:34:26.720 One of the requisites of legitimate prayer is repentance, hence the common declaration

00:34:31.960 of scripture, that God does not listen to the wicked, that their prayers as well as

00:34:36.260 their sacrifices are an abomination to him.

00:34:38.700 In Isaiah, he thus threatens, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.

00:34:42.500 Your hands are full of blood.

00:34:45.600 And so he is saying, you got to repent.

00:34:48.320 You got to be right with the Lord before the Lord hears you.

00:34:51.440 Charles Spurgeon, 19th century theologian, in his sermon, True and Not True, he's talking

00:34:56.480 about John 9, 31.

00:34:58.800 He says, it is true that God heareth not sinners.

00:35:02.580 That is to say, he will hear none of us, no sinner among us, and who among us is not 0.52

00:35:06.960 a sinner if we come to him in a wrong way or with a wrong spirit.

00:35:10.780 God does not hear the prayers of those who love their sins that are unwilling to give

00:35:14.360 them up.

00:35:14.740 Okay.

00:35:14.880 So you could argue here that he's actually talking about Christians, Christians who are

00:35:19.580 not in a state of perpetual unrepentant sin, but in that moment are storing up sins and

00:35:26.180 idolatry in their heart and have not repented of those sins that are holding on to them.

00:35:32.480 He is saying that it is possible that God is not even listening to those prayers of

00:35:36.980 those who call themselves believers.

00:35:39.020 I think we can generally just say, though, that it is obvious from Scripture that God

00:35:44.180 is not answering every single prayer. And so it's just not true. I think the better answer for people

00:35:50.960 is that God is sovereign. God chooses to answer how and when he wants to, and God is good,

00:35:57.480 whatever he chooses. It's not that he cannot hear all prayers, but he decides which prayers to

00:36:03.940 listen to and which prayers to answer to through very clear principles that we see in the Bible.

00:36:09.260 All right, let's get to number three, share the gospel when necessary, use words. Let me pause,

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00:37:37.340 Share the gospel when necessary. Use words. I've heard this. I've heard this on my very show of

00:37:44.840 people saying, you know, we preach the gospel by just how we treat people and really preaching at

00:37:52.680 people and trying to push religion down their throats is not something that's going to be

00:37:56.960 convincing. And here's an example of a podcast host. It's a life coach, Martha Back, on the

00:38:05.500 podcast called Bewildered, Sot6. The way you continue to live may turn out to inspire other

00:38:13.760 people. Inspiration is something we do by living, not by talking. There's a quote, I have to look

00:38:19.840 up who said it. I feel like it was like St. Francis or someone like that, who said, everywhere

00:38:26.060 you go preach the gospel only if absolutely necessary use words okay bewildered indeed

00:38:34.380 it is true that your life serves it as an inspiration it is true that what we do absolutely

00:38:41.100 matters and how we live our life is a testimony to what we believe 100 and having a misalignment

00:38:48.180 a lack of integration that means a lack of integrity between what we say and what we do

00:38:54.280 how we are in private and how we are in public, that can absolutely ruin your testimony. By the

00:39:00.660 way, this woman is correct. It is, well, it's attributed. I shouldn't say that she's correct. 1.00

00:39:06.660 It's misattributed to St. Francis of Assisi. She's correct that this is what people say,

00:39:11.160 or this is how they got this quote. But it's actually not from Francis. The closest thing

00:39:17.540 that he said to this was from his rule of 1221 chapter 12 on how the franciscans should practice

00:39:26.500 their preaching no brother should preach contrary to the form and regulations of the holy church

00:39:31.520 nor unless he has been permitted by his minister all the friars should preach by their deeds okay

00:39:36.760 well i that is not really similar to what people say that he said so we don't really know where

00:39:42.120 this quote comes from, but I really understand why people like it because it lets us off the hook

00:39:48.140 because talking about the gospel and sharing things verbally is awkward in an in-person

00:39:54.220 conversation with someone who disagrees with you. Smiling at the grocery store clerk is not awkward.

00:40:00.020 Asking about someone's day, helping someone out is hard. Like, don't get me wrong. The sacrifice

00:40:05.100 of your time and your energy, your convenience to help someone in need, like it is difficult

00:40:11.320 However, anyone can do that.

00:40:14.600 We are called to preach the gospel with our words.

00:40:19.400 If anyone could have preached the gospel only using deeds, it would have been Jesus.

00:40:26.100 Because Jesus perfectly lived out the gospel in his actions.

00:40:30.000 And yet he didn't just do the deeds.

00:40:32.540 He did, but he constantly preached the gospel using his words.

00:40:37.220 Scripture repeatedly stresses the importance of speaking the gospel.

00:40:40.860 it is a word-based faith. Christ tells his disciples, go into all the world and proclaim

00:40:46.680 the gospel to the whole creation, Mark 16, 15. In his letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes the

00:40:52.360 need for speaking the gospel, asking, how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

00:40:57.640 And how are they to hear without someone preaching? That's Romans 10. And he explains,

00:41:01.880 so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, Romans 10, 17.

00:41:08.560 Paul also writes to Timothy,

00:41:09.880 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,

00:41:13.020 who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom,

00:41:17.060 preach the word, be ready in season and out of season,

00:41:20.040 reprove, rebuke, exhort all things you do with your words,

00:41:24.720 with complete patience and teaching.

00:41:26.740 Second Timothy four, one through two.

00:41:28.580 The Bible obviously strongly affirms that our actions, our love,

00:41:32.540 our holy living must back up our message and that hypocrisy undermines it.

00:41:37.020 and it also repeatedly emphasizes the gospel itself must be verbally proclaimed it must be

00:41:42.600 preached it must be taught it must be declared with words saving faith comes through hearing

00:41:47.500 the message about christ not through silent example alone and this is actually what distinguishes

00:41:52.300 christianity um distinguishes christianity from other faiths i mean buddhism puts a high premium

00:42:00.280 on silence. There is transcendental meditation that urges you to empty your mind. But Christians 1.00

00:42:07.720 aren't called to that kind of meditation. We are called to the meditation that fills your mind with

00:42:12.240 God's word. We are to meditate on God's law. We meditate on Christ's character, on who God is. We

00:42:18.780 fill our mind with good things, actually knowing that idleness and emptying of our mind makes us

00:42:23.660 vulnerable to temptation. It makes us vulnerable to lies. And so that's one problem, one of the

00:42:30.300 few problems that I have with practices like yoga and New Age meditation. In the West, we have this

00:42:37.820 sense of Western guilt that everything Western is bad, all Western medicine is bad, all Western 0.89

00:42:42.700 ways of doing things, all Western ways of reading the Bible. And we, for some reason, have this

00:42:49.160 sacred view of the East as if all Eastern things are good and right and better. And I think that 0.98

00:42:56.720 has also melded with the self-help industry in the United States to create this self-help

00:43:02.400 new age, weird therapy culture thing. I mean, that's what my first book was about.

00:43:08.940 You're not enough and that's okay because of how this message I think targets Christian

00:43:15.380 women. And part of that is this idea that if we live this pacifist, friendly life, 0.92

00:43:22.800 this humanitarian life, then that is good enough to show people who Jesus is.

00:43:28.800 But Jesus, right before he ascends to heaven, he says, go therefore and make disciples of all

00:43:35.020 nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit. And how are we

00:43:42.400 to do that. We are to do that preaching the gospel, teaching them, teaching them to observe

00:43:48.900 all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

00:43:57.220 I always love this aspect of Jesus. And I love to remind people of the logos, the logos,

00:44:05.100 the Greek word for logic, rationale, word. That is how Jesus is referred to in John 1.

00:44:13.200 And that logos, that word that indicates reason and the ability to have a reasoning capacity

00:44:19.520 was almost sacred in the ancient pagan world. And then Christianity came and turned it completely 0.99

00:44:25.720 on its head, offering something deeper and better. Let me pause. I'll tell you more about that in just

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00:46:12.180 the episode, I just want to remind you to subscribe to Blaze TV. Blaze TV keeps these

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00:46:41.120 you'll probably heard me talk about this before but if you read the book when children became

00:46:52.680 people by owen backey he talks about the ancient greeks and romans having this idea of the logos

00:46:59.720 really signifying a person's full worth and only the adult free male had the logos had the ability

00:47:07.540 to rationalize, and everyone else was seen on a lower level because they didn't have the fullness

00:47:12.240 of the logos. And so all kinds of exploitation of different kinds of people was justified,

00:47:16.960 including the sexualization, the objectification of children, including abortion and infanticide,

00:47:21.560 all because children were not seen as having the fullness of the logos. Obviously, that changed

00:47:26.240 over time. Western civilization was forged, and within Western civilization was this idea that

00:47:31.620 every single person had rights. Every single person had rights just because they were human

00:47:36.500 beings. And actually, women and children and elderly, these categories that had been denigrated

00:47:42.040 previously, were seen as even more special and worthy of our protection. And so you had orphanages,

00:47:50.240 you had homeless shelters, you had entities that were dedicated to caring for those groups of

00:47:55.220 people that previously were seen as less than because they didn't have the logos. All of this

00:48:00.240 is because of Christians, because Christians came on the scene 2,000 years ago following this man

00:48:05.580 that they called God, called Jesus of Nazareth, who called himself the way, the truth, and the

00:48:10.400 life, and bizarrely, so unlike the Greek and Roman gods, at the time, he came to earth not as a

00:48:16.460 warrior, but as a baby, actually as an embryo, and was heralded by the kicks of a newborn John

00:48:21.920 the Baptist, was worshipped by the angels as a newborn, against the protestation of his disciples

00:48:26.880 said, let the little children come to me, for such as these belong the kingdom of heaven. This Jesus,

00:48:33.080 who came to earth just as a fertilized egg, who grew into a newborn baby that was birthed by the

00:48:40.920 Virgin Mary. This Jesus changed how the world saw children, changed how the world saw people and 0.98

00:48:46.180 his followers everywhere they went. They preached the gospel with their words. And they also said

00:48:51.260 the child sacrifice will end here. The exploitation of people, the oppression of the poor will end

00:48:56.980 here. And we are going to step up and do something about it. They were killed for it

00:49:00.620 and they were persecuted for it they were tortured for it they were fed to lions for it but over time

00:49:07.200 with the power of the holy spirit because the gates of hell will never prevail against the church

00:49:11.860 christians who followed this jesus changed how the world saw children and the beautiful thing 0.99

00:49:18.220 about this that just turned the scholarly justification for oppression and objectification

00:49:23.200 on its head this justification of well they don't have the logos who came to earth to dispel that

00:49:29.780 myth. The Logos. The capital L Logos. John 1 in the beginning was the Word. Christianity is based 0.95

00:49:38.700 on the Word. It is not based on our silence and hoping that people pick up on the fact that we're

00:49:45.020 polite and so we must know Jesus. Guess what? There are a lot of people who do not know Jesus

00:49:50.020 who are polite, who smile at the grocery store clerk. There are not people who will preach this

00:49:57.420 crazy sounding message to the world that this guy who is fully God lived a perfect life and died a

00:50:05.180 crucifixion, a death on our behalf and rose again three days later and is one day coming back,

00:50:10.080 not as a baby, but as a warrior. And he's going to make all things right. I mean, that's a crazy

00:50:14.400 message to the world to tell the world who believes that they are good inside, that they

00:50:19.360 are perfect the way they are, that they are enough, that you are actually dead in your sin and you

00:50:23.500 need a savior. If you don't preach that without shame, then there is a question about what we

00:50:31.900 really believe. Yes, actions matter, but actions are not the same thing as preaching the gospel.

00:50:38.460 Martin Luther, he is the central figure of the Protestant Reformation. Of course, most of you

00:50:43.080 know that. He stressed that the gospel must be actively proclaimed with the mouth as the means

00:50:47.560 God uses to create faith and save sinners. He said, where Christ is not preached, there is no

00:50:52.220 holy spirit to create call and gather the christian church that's from his large catechism 15 29 and

00:50:59.400 we read that again in scripture that in order to be believed it must be heard that's romans 10 and

00:51:07.100 in order to be heard it must be preached so we use our words all right that covers it the most

00:51:15.280 misused phrases we will have lots more to come and we'll be back here on wednesday

00:51:22.220 We'll be right back.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 30, 2026

Ep 1325 ｜ 'God Answers All Prayers' & Other Myths Christians Believe

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