Or imagine you are sitting at your computer trying to do your homework for Mr. Steve's discipleship class. But every time you try to connect you get a message saying the server is down or that the computer can't open the page that you need. Have you had something like this happen? The problem...the server doesn't work. The result...no communication.

When your cellular phone battery dies or your computer server is not working then it's useless to try to use them to communicate. You will not be able to communicate until you put in a new battery in your cellular phone or connect to a different server. Communication is broken until you fix the problem.

1. WHY ARE OUR PRAYERS NOT ANSWERED?
Our prayer life is a lot like this. Many times we feel like our prayers are not answered. There's no communication between us and God. But the problem is not dead batteries and it's not a bad server. The problem is called sin. Sin is the biggest reason why our prayers are not answered. John Bunyan, in his book, Pilgrim's Progress, said this: "Prayer will make you stop sinning but sin will make you stop praying!"

Our verse for today is Psalm 66:18

Psalm 66:18

"If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened."

Sin keeps God from listening to our prayers. What does that word "cherished" mean?

A. "To Cherish" 1st Definition. First, it means to hold tight to. You can picture it like this. Many of you know my daughter Claire. She's very funny and soft and I love to pick her up and play with her. I hold her close. That's the meaning of the word "cherish". However, this verse is not talking about a cute little baby. It's talking about cherishing sin. Holding sin closely, picking it up and playing with it; loving it. The verse says, "if I cherish sin in my heart the Lord will not listen to me when I pray. I pick up my cellular phone and the batteries dead. It's the same thing.

B. "To Cherish" 2nd Definition. The second meaning of the word cherish is to tolerate, or to accept, or to live with. It's like a piece of furniture in your living room, like a couch or a sofa. You know it's there. You can see it. You live with it every day. It doesn's bother you or make you feel guilty or anything. You've just learned to accept it.

That's the meaning of the word "To cherish". To hold something closely or to tolerate or accept something. Many Christians today have learned to cherish sin in their lives; to keep it close to them and to live with it. And the result is that our prayers are not answered.

A huge storm went through Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming state in America one time. The storm knocked over a huge tree that was over 300 feet tall. It was a gigantic tree. When scientists took a closer look at the tree the found that the storm was not the only reason why this huge tree had fallen. Looking closely, they found thousands of tiny, little insects had eaten away the heart of this tree. The inside of the tree was rotten. One scientist said this, "The weakness of that tree was not from the storm. It's weakness started when that first insect started living inside the tree."

We are that huge tree, folks. And if we allow sin enter into our heart we will become rotten. We will fall. Maybe not now or next week or next year. But if we continue to cherish sin in our hearts God will not listen to our prayers and one day we will fall like that tree in Yellowstone National Park.