The Christian Counter
![Text Box: weekly sermon
9-9-07
Dear God
Last week we talked about how important it is to read the Bible and what it means to our relationship with God. This week we are going to talk about praying and just what that means to that same relationship. Pray to God daily as your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, put all your care on Him, He cares for you. Just as it says in 1 Peter 5:7, "Casting all your care upon Him: for He careth for you."
We can start out by looking out John 16:23-26, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you, (24)Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (25)These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. (26)At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you."
Lets break those verses down a little, so we can understand what we are being told. In verse 23 it says "in that day", meaning that in the day that Jesus died on the cross for us and went back to His Father, we would be asking Him nothing, BUT we would ask the Father in Jesus name. We could ask Jesus Himself for what we needed when He was here, but once He left this earth to return to His Father, we were unable to ask Him, so we had to ask the Father in His name. In that same verse it says, verily, meaning truly, whatever you ask for in His name He will give you, as long as it falls in the promises made by the Father. Now the best part, is that when we ask, we ask in His name, meaning we are giving Jesus power of attorney over us. The power to go directly to the source, God, and ask the Father for us. A power of attorney means, we give Jesus the legal and written authority to transact business for us, to act as our agent, to represent us in all our business. Our business, that we are talking about here, is of course the act of prayer. All believers have full, legal, redemptive, gospel, blood bought, promised, and family rights to use the name of Jesus in several things. The things we have these promises on are, salvation (Matthew 1:21, Acts 4:12), baptism (Matthew 28:19, Acts 8:16), fellowship (Matthew 18:5, Luke 9:48), worship (Matthew 18:20, 1 Corinthians 1:10), good deeds (Mark 9:41), combat (Mark 16:17, Luke 10:17), preaching (Luke 24:47, Acts 8:12), healing (Mark 16:18, Acts 3:6,16, James 5:14-16), judgment (1 Corinthians 5:1-5, Acts 13:6-11, 2 Thessalonians 3:6), prayer (John 14:13-15, 15:16, 16:23-26), praise (Ephesians 5:20, Hebrews 13:15), all things (Colossians 3:17), receiving the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13, 24:49, John 7:37-39, 14:26, Acts 1:4-8), and doing the works of Christ (Mark 16:17-20, John 14:12-15). All the verses I put behind the promises from God, are where you can find, in the Bible, proof of that promise. You must understand one thing, this is by faith. If you pray, believing by faith, that you will receive, then you will receive. If you know the story of the woman that had a blood disease for 12 years, she thought in her mind, or had a prayer, that said, if I can just touch the hem of His garment, and just because of her powerful faith, she was healed. As soon as she touched the hem of His garment, Jesus turned, and said who touched me, and he was in a crowd of many people all pushing to get a chance to be near Jesus. How did He know that she had touched Him? He felt her pull the power of healing from Him through her faith and her prayer.
This past week I was talking with a friend concerning a health issue in her family. Her mother is going to the doctor to have tests done to find out some things and hopefully through the grace of God, she will find out things that she wants to hear. But anyway, during this conversation I asked her if she had talked to God about it, and she told me that she had. I asked her, why are you trying to do something about it then? If you hire me to do a job for you, then you put the paperwork in my box to perform the job, but then you keep taking the paperwork back before I can have a chance to take care of the project for you, then it means you want to do the job yourself. Same would be true here, when you pray, you are asking God to handle an issue for you, but then you start trying to do things yourself to make sure the issue gets handled. What do you expect God to do about it? You are not giving Him a chance to do what He needs to do to handle your prayer. Just think about what we are doing for one minute. We have an issue with, health, finance, love, or whatever, and we take it in prayer to the one that spoke everything we see into existence. He created the entire world in 6 days, we are talking about the whole planet and all you see on it, mountains, oceans, birds, fish, animals, plant life, stars, everything. He grabbed a patch of dirt, spit on it, breathed on it, and it came to life, and He called it man. With all of this in mind, how could we really have any doubt that He could not handle our simple request.
The Bible tells us exactly how we are to pray. In Matthew 6:5-13, if you want to turn there you can follow along, I will just paraphrase, it states that we should not pray loudly so folks feel pity on us, we should not use repetition hoping that He hears us, because He already knows what it is we need before we ever ask for it. So when we pray, we should pray as in Matthew 6:9-13, "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. (10)Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven. (11)Give us this day our daily bread. (12)And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (13)And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." We should always want, first, that the will of God be the most important. Just as Jesus said, He was sent here to do His Father's will, so should we be the same if we are to emulate Jesus. Give us nourishment, spiritual and physical, forgive our sins and let us forgive others, and deliver us from evil. Look in Matthew 6:26, "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? " All this is saying is that we are better than the fowl, and if our Father in Heaven takes care of them the way He does, then how much better would He take care of us. And if you look also in Matthew 6:28-33, and I will quote this because I think it is very important to the way we think, pray, and live. "(28)And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: (29)And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (30)Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, [shall he] not much more [clothe] you, O ye of little faith? (31)Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (32)(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. (33)But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." See here, God KNOWS that you need clothes, food, shelter, and such, so He will already take care of these things. Pray to Him for things not mentioned here, and give thanks for everything. Remember, He takes care of the lilies and the birds as it states here, and He just created them, He is our Father. This means you and I are a son/daughter of God. Notice I said A son of God, not THE Son of God.
It says here how beautiful the lilies are clothed and they do not worry where or how it is going to happen, they just know it is going to happen. The problem is that with most people, they do not KNOW, they want to think all is going to be ok, but they truly do NOT allow God to take control. If we will just give God total, and I mean TOTAL control of our life He will give you more than you could ever imagine. Just as it states in Matthew 7:7, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:"
By keeping our minds on what was our original task here, seeking the kingdom of God, then ask, and seek, and knock, then the blessings of Heaven will be poured out upon us in so much that it will be, as it says in the Bible, pressed down, shaken, and overflowing. Jesus told us in Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Being gathered together in His name, means we are in prayer, we are speaking in His name. If He is in the midst of us then He hears our prayers, and God answers prayers.
As you can see, we might not have even known about this unless we read our Bible, we can't gather together 2 or 3 if we are not in a good church home, and we can NOT receive the blessings of Heaven unless, we pray. Can you see now, how these past few weeks are starting to come together? All these things I have been talking about for the past few weeks are really starting to show how we are to live as Christians. How we are to act and live to be included in the master plan of our Father. And there is no set way to pray. I mean we can pray however we want. Prayer is just a form of communication with God. You don't have to start quoting what you would think as a King James prayer, with all those thee's and thou's. God wants to be your friend, if you consider Him as your friend, then you can hold your prayer as a simple talk. I just say, hey buddy, and continue with what I am praying about. Also remember, prayer is NOT for just "dear God, I need this or that" it is also for praise and worship. Thank God for what you have, praise Him for what He has done, and worship Him. Now you know the true relationship with the most wonderful, Father, Creator, and Friend.
If you do not know, and you would like to know that relationship with God, then just say a very simple prayer with me. Dear God, thank you for all, praise you for what you have done for me, forgive me of my sins, and be my saviour. Amen. If you just said this simple prayer with me, we believe you have received the greatest gift you could ask for, the gift of salvation. If you have received this salvation, then please let us know so we can rejoice with you, and send you a few things to help you get started on your new walk in your Christian life.
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Stone](sermon9907_files/image001.gif)
