July 6, 2008 Sermon Notes

Pastor Mike Fackler – July 6, 2008
“Can You Hear Me Now?”
(How to Talk to God)
U Picked It series, part one

Pray with our eyes on God, not the difficulties. -- Oswald Chambers

How do I talk to God?

• Humble yourself and stop trying to manipulate God with your words.
  “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” -- Matthew 6:7-8
• Humble yourself and give God all praise and glory for all things in your life.
  “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.’” -- Matthew 6:9
• Humble yourself and seek His will.
  “‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.’” -- Matthew 6:10-11
• Humble yourself and forgive others as Christ forgave you.
  “‘Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’” -- Matthew 6:12
  “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” -- Matthew 6:14-15
• Humble yourself and realize only through Jesus can you overcome evil.
  “‘And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” -- Matthew 6:13

Big Picture! Main Point!

• When you humble yourself and make God’s will your prayer, you’re talking to God.
  “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” -- Matthew 6:33-34

God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. -- Mother Teresa

 

 

A morning thought…

Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth-century Christian writer said this about prayer:

Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; take to Him your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.

If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subject of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.