40 Days of Prayer: Week 3 - Who are you talking to?
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Granny Priddy could never remember our names. Never understsood that. It would have frustrated me, if I wasn’t absolutely sure she knew me. What you call me tells me how you know me....and what you might be expecting from me.
Reverend…you don’t know me really....or you might be just a little cantankerous and old school.
preacher…Church…I have spoken to you but not with you
Pastor G…Mission trip…we experienced God work through us
coach…We shared some difficult but memorable times
Guru…i look for HS friends
Mr Priddy…I look for my dad
Gary Wayne…I look for family
What you call me doesn’t change me, but it does affect how you approach me or what you may ask of me, or what you expect from me.
Last week we talked abou thaving a healthy view of prayer so that we would have a healthy prayer life.
I hope yo ubegan to build this prayer life this week. I tried to remember ot send out text messages daily to help you…but one thing you can do is set an alarm to pray the lords prayer at noon. Add to it, but that’s an easy step.
If i’m going to be honest with yall…and I feel like lying to you would be wrong.
I want a powerful prayer life. I am like most men I believe. Quiet, meditative prayers are tough. As I have thought about it over the years, I don’t want a mild mannered prayer life. I want one that wrecks the plans of satan. I want a prayer life that is focused on things that are far bigger than what I can do.
Because frankly, I’ve got some things that need big prayer.
Now I know some of you ladies may want to develop an intimate prayer life…and that’s good; but for me as a father, as a husband, I want to share in God’s power.
That’s who I believe God is.
Who does your life say God is?
The Grumpy God - Cranky, Angry, & Upset about everything…hopeless
Trinitarian Tiger God – just waiting to pounce on you!…anxious
Flaky Father God – moody & changes his mind about you continually...unsure
Cosmic Cop God – whose only purpose it to enforce the rules…legalistic
Divine Dictator God – always demanding more. & more…exhausted
Santa Claus God – making a list & checking - naughty or nice…comparing
Play Dough God – make him into any form you want,,,
The child’s prayer: “God is great, God is good” HE IS!
God is Good: Creation displays it!
God is Good: Creation displays it!
Genesis 1:1–25: Each part of creation speaks of His goodness
Creation’s beauty is good
Only humanity fell into sin
God is Good: His promises declare it
God is Good: His promises declare it
The bible is full of the promises of God.
He will fight for you
HE gives you strength when you are tired
He will break the chains of the oppressed
He will give us wisdom
He will keep satan from taking over us
56 “Praise the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses.
Creation displays and his word declares God’s goodness…and the cross demonstrates it,
God is Good: The cross demonstrates it
God is Good: The cross demonstrates it
The greatest evidence of His goodness
John 15:13…no greater love
Luke 23:34...Father forgive them
The crucified and risen Christ shows God’s goodness
God is Good: Faith decides it
God is Good: Faith decides it
We can know all these things…You can know all about God…and still not know his goodness.
In order for our prayer to have power, in order to be passionate about prayer, if we want to have conviction in our prayer life, then we must know God.
“That doesn’t make sense”....how can I fully know God without knowing God.
In our Followers Made group, we are reading Prodigal God and the author quotes Jonathan Edwards, protestant reformed pastor from early 18th century who wrote:
There is a difference between believing that God is holy and gracious, and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness.
God is fully known through faith. When we act on teh faith he gives us, we experience his power, his passion, his conviction…and through faith they become ours.
Our faith is not in vain.
Going to meet Sandy who lost her husband Zap this week. Zap had struggled his whole life with depression. They have 3 daughters, let us keep them in our prayers please.
Anyway, when I went to visit her, just say hello and that we would be praying for and with her, I was struck by how important names were. Here I was in the middle of the prayer and I couldn’t remember her name....she couldn’t remember mine either. It was sort of a funny moment as we prayed.
As I was praying, I’m thinking…I don’t know her. I can’t imagine what she is going through. Then I remembered, God I do know you…and I know you are good.
Knowing God, we know his goodness...
Knowing God, we know his goodness...
Characteristics of God: Omniscient...Omnipotent...Just... Loving... Kind...Unchanging...Holy…Today we are looking at God’s goodness.
11 If your children ask for a fish, which of you would give them a snake instead? 12 Or, if your children ask for an egg, would you give them a scorpion? 13 Even though you are bad, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Knowing we are talking to a GOOD GOOD FATHER, we can then pray with power, conviction, and passion.
Powerful prayer life comes out of knowing
We pray KNOWING:
God’s plans for your life are good
God’s plans for your life are good
19 How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.
“stored up” indicates intention and thoughtfulness
I want you to experience those blessings - why 40 DOP
“BUT - not everything in my life is good!”
God did not promise that!
Broken planet... We make bad choices
But God is greater than your choices!
3 And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,
On earth, God is more interested in your character-comfort
God will always be good to you
God will always be good to you
Because God knows our life, we’re bold & confident in prayer
Even when the answer isn’t yes.
God’s answer to prayer is based on what’s good for me, not what I deserve.
15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
providing what I need, not always what I want
If we all got what we deserved none of us would be here
What do I deserve? For my sin? I get forgiveness
22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.
even when he says no
We have no idea of the implications of what we are asking for
The thing we have been praying for…we don’t see an answer
WE are tempted to stop praying…but that’s where knowing GOd produces conviction in our prayers.
Because I am convinced not that he will say yes…but that he is good.
THE TEST:
Can we pray like Job..you give and take away, still my heart will choose to stay
nor what I always deserve
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
EVERYTHING GOD DOES IS FOR YOUR GOOD!
God will put your good ahead of his own
God will put your good ahead of his own
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Can we ask for seemingly impossible things?
YES…because we know
32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?
He gave us new life…anything else we might need is really small.
This is just the beginning
This is just the beginning
God invites us into a relationship that is for eternity.
He doesn’t temporarily care about me…no scripture promises that “goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life until I move into the house of God for eternity?
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, 17 comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
When we know who we are talking to, we know what to ask…we know how to ask of it...
Until you are absolutely convinced that God is always good to you, your prayer will be powerless, passionless, and pointless
What do you want to see God do in your life in the next 40 Days?
What breakthrough are you desperate for?
What healing do you long to experience?
What obstacle are you longing to overcome?
WRITE IT DOWN.
CLOSE:
Satan is not afraid of our plans.
Satan is not afraid of our programs
But he is afraid of our prayers
Because anytime God wants to do something great in your life, in your family, in your church, in your career, or in our nation he begins by moving you to pray.
Our nation needs spiritual reawakening, a renewal, a spiritual revival. It won’t happen through politics or petitions - Things happen when a group of people commit to pray together!