The Bible Top 40

God Hears All Prayers . . . Right?

Proverbs 28:9

Last week during the worship songs, Carol shared that she had missed some of her regular time with the Lord and that she had felt the adverse affect in her life. Some people might hear a phrase like that and kind of roll their eyes, and say, “Yeah, right, not reading the Bible is going to cause a problem at work, or at home – sure!” Even some people who have been a Christian a long time might tend to dismiss that sort of “cause and effect” relationship between regular time in the Bible and the rest of their day. But there is ample evidence to show that such a relationship does exist.

I mentioned last week that the Bible is not a good luck charm, it is not an amulet that will ward off evil spirits. It is ink on paper held together by glue and cardboard or leather. It is a book like any other – until it is placed in the one location where it belongs, the hearts and minds of God’s people. Then it is unlike any book ever printed. When the Word of God is placed in the heart of people, it becomes “living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.” It is a book that can and does change lives. It is the full revelation of God to man, and spending time in it can have a profound impact on a life.

For the last couple of weeks we have been looking at “The Bible Top 40,” a list of verses that I believe every person should be familiar with.

You may have recognized the first couple. Some of you may have learned them years ago in Sunday School. Psalm 1:1&2: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” And Psalm 119:9&11: “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

These first few verses have been selected to give us the foundation for the rest of the adventure. I want to show WHY it is important to spend time in the Word of God. We have seen in the first passage that there is a blessing, an extreme state of happiness and contentment that is found when our lives are rooted in God and His word that we can find nowhere else. The second passage encouraged us to seek the Lord with all our hearts, so that we can live a pure, holy and fruitful life.

Those verses were familiar to some of us, important to all of us.

I would venture a guess that today’s verse might not have shown up on anyone’s list of the “top 40” of the Bible. In fact, the usual places I go for research and study virtually ignore these words. I have never heard a sermon or even read a study of them. But the words we will contemplate today are very important for us to understand, and should be available to us both for our own spiritual well-being, but also to share with others. The language is pretty strong, and it may even cause a frown to creep across your face as you hear it.

Turn with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 28, and verse 9. In the Bibles around the sanctuary, this passage is found on page 446.

Proverbs 28:9 reads, One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

How many of you had that verse in Sunday School as a kid? How many times have you heard that one as a “good news verse of the day” on the local Christian radio station? No, this is probably not a verse that gets a lot of attention, but there is an important truth for us to grasp here.

It may not be real popular, but it’s not hard to understand. In blunt terms, we are told that if we neglect the ingestion of the Word of God, we are endangering the effectiveness of our prayers. And even more directly, if we make a practice, a lifestyle of rejecting the word of God, then our prayers become “abominable.”

Wow. Think about that for just a minute.

Let me read it to you from a couple of different translations to give you another feel for the message.

Living Bible: God doesn’t listen to the prayers of people who flout the law.

NIV: If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.

NASV: He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayers are an abomination.

You know, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find a translation that sounded comfortable. I suppose I could write my own, the New Inverted Version, and it would read, “God hears every prayer, no matter how wicked the person is who prays it.” The only problem with that is, God didn’t say it!

But isn’t that the way the world wants us to believe? We are told how loving God is, how merciful God is, how gracious God is, how benevolent God is; and He is all those things. Our culture tells us how tolerant God is, how welcoming God is, how universally accepting God is; and He is none of those things. I have a problem. God is not politically correct. It’s His way, or the hell-way! I didn’t write this book, HE DID! And if he says that some prayers are an abomination, despicable, and He’s not going to listen to them, then, guess what? That’s the way it is!

So what is the condition of the person in this verse whose prayers are detestable to God?

I can show you. Ever try to talk to your teen-age child when they don’t want to listen? And they turn up the stereo, put on the head phones, or give you the “talk to the hand, because I’m NOT listening!” routine?

[Video Clip.] Billy Madison “I see your lips moving but I can’t hear you…”

That’s the image we have here. Notice that this is not talking about someone who has never had a chance to hear the word of God, or never had access to it, but the image picture here is of someone who has it, hears it, and “turns a deaf ear to it.” They do all they can to distort the message, to crowd it out through deliberate measures so that they don’t have to hear the truth.

Then comes a little difficulty, a tragedy, or something that they think God owes them, and. “It’s praying time, man!”

“Oh, God, please help me get that great new job!”

“Please let me have a date with the little red-haired girl in my class.”

“Please don’t let mom and dad find out how late I got home last night!”

Or it’s “let’s make a deal” time:

“If you’ll just do this one thing for me, I’ll never ask for another thing again!”

“If you’ll just get me out of this mess, I’ll become a nun, I swear!”

Come on.

But it hits a little closer to home. A nation gets hit hard by an enemy, and suddenly hits its knees expecting God to come to the rescue. Don’t get me wrong, going to our knees is where we need to go, but we need to come with a prayer of confession and genuine repentance, not a list of demands.

Lest you think I’m taking this out of context, or proof-texting by taking one verse of the Bible and misleading you, let me show you just a couple of verses that show this thread of truth through Scripture:

2Chron 7:14 is a verse we have heard a lot lately. In it, God says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.” Did you notice the “if” and “then?” It is a conditional promise. “If the people do this, then I will do that.” I believe that when a nation comes to God and asks for God to hear, and heal, and forgive, without first being humble, and seeking, and repenting, then that prayer falls into the category we are examining today – it is abhorrent.

Psalm 66:18 shows us that this can happen on an individual level, too. In it, the song-writer, possibly David, says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”

Pretty straight forward.

Sometimes I feel like I want to take a specific step in my thoughts with you to insure that the message of God is practical – that is clearly applicable to our every day lives.

I don’t feel like that’s really all that necessary today. The word of God is clear. If we as individuals, if we as a church, if we as a Nation, desire to have our prayers heard, then we need to take heed to this word.

That’s why these first weeks of our series have focused on the Bible. Without a solid commitment to study, meditate, memorize and apply this book, the rest is quite a waste of time.

Our society has been given an opportunity to hear the Word of God in greater variety and frequency than any other generation in the history of humanity, and yet that same society has, in great measure, turned a deaf ear to that Word. And quite frankly, as a result, our prayers are an abomination.

But that can be changed with a supernatural work of God in our hearts. As we allow the author of this book to come in, and humble us, and cleanse us, and as we repent in obedience to Him, we can be sure that He will hear us!

Immediately after David wrote, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear,” he wrote, “But certainly God has heard me, he has attended to the voice of my prayer.” Why? How could he know certainly that God had heard him? Because he was NOT regarding sin in his heart – rather, he had the word in his heart – remember last week’s verse? “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” When we meditate on the word, and hide it in our heart through memorization, then we won’t sin, we won’t turn a deaf ear, and we will be sure that he has heard us.

Does God hear all prayers? I sure want to be certain He hears mine. You, too? This Word is the key.

Father, we come to You in Jesus name. We come to You humbly, seeking You. We confess that we are week, and we need to be strengthened by Your Spirit. Father, forgive us for our sinfulness. Forgive us for our contempt for Your word, that allows us to hear it, but not obey it. Place within us a desire to not only be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. When You speak to us by it, may we be obedient. When You guide us, may we follow enthusiastically. When You convict us, may we be genuinely sorry and repentant.

Thank You for the assurance that you do hear us as we come to You in obedience to Your Word. Thank You for the access You have given us to come “boldly before the throne of grace,” may we never take that privilege for granted, or allow it to be blocked by sin that is harbored in our soul.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus, who gives us forgiveness, and access to You, through the Holy Spirit, Amen.