Full Life and Prayer pt. 1

What if the reason your prayers feel unanswered has nothing to do with how hard you pray — and everything to do with who you think you're talking to? In the first sermon of a new series on Full Life and Prayer, Pastor Josh tackles head-on the prayers that will never be answered, and why the starting point of all prayer is simpler and more radical than we think.

Do All Prayers Get Answered?

Pastor Josh opened with disarming honesty. Does he, as a pastor, have trouble with prayer? Absolutely. There are times God answers clearly — finances showing up from unexpected places, provision arriving in supernatural ways. But there are also seasons where God feels silent, distant, even cruel.

"There are times I pray to God and God answers, but there are times I pray and God being so silent, so cruel and so distanced. And that made me to feel maybe God is not there at all."

He acknowledged that some people walk away from faith entirely over this. The logic seems airtight: I prayed, God didn't answer, therefore God doesn't exist. But Pastor Josh pushed back. Do prayers get answered? Yes. Do all prayers get answered? No — not in the way we want. But yes, in the way God wants.

He shared the example of praying for a specific type of wife when he was younger — even making a list of ten qualities. God gave him the exact opposite. And he thanks God every day for not listening to that prayer.

Three Prayers That Will Never Be Answered

Working through Matthew 6:1-18, Pastor Josh identified three categories of prayer that are destined to fail — not because God isn't listening, but because of what's happening in the heart of the one praying.

1. The Hypocrite's Prayer — Forgetting God Sees in Secret

Jesus warns against practicing righteousness before people to be seen by them. The same applies to prayer. When prayer becomes performance — done for an audience rather than for God — it's already received its reward: human approval. And that's all it gets.

Pastor Josh was candid about his own temptation here. Sometimes he feels the pull to raise his hands during worship so people at the back think he's holy, or to preach with dramatic intensity so people believe he's genuine.

"Only person knows that whether I'm doing it before you or before God is God himself."

The antidote? Go into your room, shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret. The place of prayer should be the most private, intimate space — where you have nothing to hide and nothing to prove.

2. The Gentile's Prayer — Trying to Control God Through Words

Jesus says not to heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles, who think they'll be heard for their many words. Pastor Josh explained that this isn't about the length of prayer — it's about the belief that our words have magical power to manipulate God. Say the right phrase, use the right formula, and God has to respond.

To drive the point home, he shared John Piper's experiment with AI. Piper asked ChatGPT to compose a 30-second prayer in the theology of Don Carson. Three seconds later, it produced a beautiful, theologically rich prayer about sovereign grace and redemption.

But is that real prayer? No. It has words, articulation, even correct theology. But there's no heart behind it — no relationship, no vulnerability, no need.

"Sometimes we don't want God. We want AI — someone who is better than us, smarter than us, stronger than us, and can come up with the answer in one button click."

He observed that some people pray fervently every morning and every night, attend every prayer meeting — but twenty years later, their character hasn't changed at all. Why? Because their prayer is like talking to a machine: input the right words, expect the right output. That's not prayer. That's a transaction.

3. The Selfish Prayer — Praying With Wrong Motives

Drawing from James 4:3 — "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" — Pastor Josh addressed prayers that put ourselves at the center. This isn't about whether you can pray for earthly things (Jesus himself taught us to pray for daily bread). It's about praying with a me-first heart that wants God to rearrange everything around our comfort.

He was careful not to treat this lightly. People praying for children who don't come. Singles praying for a partner. Parents praying for better provision. These are real needs that cause real pain when they go unanswered.

"Some of you guys struggling with the prayer, all this unanswered prayer... you are feeling the pain and the loneliness and struggle in your life because of the unanswered prayer. We do not take this lightly."

God Is Not a Credit Card Company

One of the most memorable moments in the sermon was Pastor Josh's credit card analogy. A credit card gives you purchasing power — it seems like it's granting your every wish. But behind the scenes, the whole system is built on your failure. They profit from interest when you can't pay back. They get richer from your debt.

God works the opposite way. When God says no to a prayer, it's not to exploit you — it's because granting that wish would cost you something you can't see yet. Like a father who won't let his son skip school, even though it feels cruel in the moment.

"God says: I'm gonna answer your prayer according to my purpose, my good will — not your purpose. Because you are not good enough to understand the deep heart from me, for you."

He compared this to his own fatherhood. At 57, with decades of experience, he can sometimes see where his children's fears and choices will lead them. He can't always let them have what they want. And he admitted freely that he's failed at it many times — not hearing his daughter's tears, trying to make his son into a copy of himself.

But God as Father has none of those imperfections. His intention and his ability are both perfect.

Our Father in Heaven — Where Prayer Actually Begins

After laying out the prayers that fail, Pastor Josh turned to the Lord's Prayer — specifically the opening words: "Our Father in heaven."

This, he said, is the foundation that everything else rests on. If you don't start here, your prayer life won't move forward. You'll stay grumpy, guilty, or feeling perpetually deficient before God.

He used a beautifully simple illustration. When a child wants dinner, they don't compose a formal speech: "Dear Heavenly Mother, you brought me into this world, you went to the grocery store five times this week, therefore you must love me, so can you please give me dinner?" No. They just say, "Mom, I'm hungry." Sometimes they don't even say it — mom just knows.

"The place where the children are so confident: number one, mom exists. Mom is there. Number two, you can be real. You can just come — Mom, I'm hungry."

That's what prayer is supposed to look like. Not performance. Not formula. Just a child speaking to a Father who already knows, already cares, and is already working things out for their full life.

Challenge: Start With Honesty

Pastor Josh closed with a challenge that was refreshingly raw. He didn't ask people to pray more or try harder. He asked them to pray honestly.

What's your deepest heart's desire? Bring it before God — not with elaborate words, but with your real self. If you're struggling to believe God is even there, pray that. If you can't articulate the pain, that's okay — God knows the language of the heart that goes beyond words.

"If you are having hard time to believe in this, why don't you pray first? Pray like: God, why can't I believe in this? Have a genuine conversation with God."

This is the first sermon in a multi-week series on Full Life and Prayer. In the weeks ahead, Pastor Josh will walk through each line of the Lord's Prayer and unpack what Jesus is frameworking for our prayer lives. But it all starts here: knowing that the God you're praying to is your Father, that he sees you in secret, and that his will for you is a full life in Christ.

"Pray, my friend. Pray like someone who really believed that this Father knows my heart. And say: God, not my will, but your will be done — because you are my Father."