Talking With God Series

Talking With God

Established Series- Week 3:

August 8th, 2021

Scripture: Matthew Chapter 6:5-13

Entering our third week of a series called Established - how to be rooted and established in the love of God.

The first week we talked about knowing God.

Last week, we talked about how to hear God, and today I want to talk to you about talking with God.

That means prayer.

Prayer is an interesting topic in the church, because most people have the wrong idea about it, it’s considered to be an exercise as interesting as doing the dishes, and it’s also the thing the enemy will do anything he can to keep you from doing.

This truth may shock some people-

Satan would rather have you attend church without missing a single service or time to serve then he would have you develop a prayer life with God.

You might think that sounds insane- but think about it.

Over 80% of what most people do in church is relatively passive and led by someone else, whereas prayer is taking an active role in your spiritual life with God and developing a close intimacy with HIM.

Satan will move mountains to avoid that. There is NOTHING that frightens the legions of hell more than a praying person.

That is why the enemy will throw every temptation to be lazy, every sin to entice, and every condemnation he can think of to keep you off of your knees and living in defeat.

A prayerless person is a defeated person, and all of those things we love in life- hobbies, sports, hunting/fishing, TV/Movies, ect are just a spiritual anesthetic and sedative to dull the pain of what your spirit is crying out for- a close and intimate relationship with the God who made you.

There is a huge industry of self help in our culture trying to tell us what the meaning of life is.

Let me give it to you for free-The meaning of your life is to know and walk with God.

So why are we intimidated by prayer. Why?

Because we have a misunderstanding of what it is,

what God expects, and how it works.

So today we will review the principles of prayer.

Jesus gave us these principles in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter 6:

Matt 6:5-135 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 "This, then, is how you should pray:

"'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. '

Prayer- God will lead us into a deeper life with HIM through prayer

The Sermon on the Mount is considered to be the most important sermon ever preached and sets the basic theology of New Testament belief and practice.

It’s so important to center our faith life right here, because the Sermon on the Mount takes us from the external obedience found in following the law to the inner transformation required to please God.

It should be read at least once or twice a month to keep us grounded in what God wants to see in our inner lives.

Back to our subject for this morning-Jesus gives very specific instruction about this thing we call prayer.

I want to give you three big thoughts about prayer, and we need to take these three points in their totality and not just things to check off a list.

Point number one.

When you pray, focus on being with the Father. Notice the word “with” again. It's about being with God.

When the Bible talks about prayer in the New Testament, it's not talking about a religious transaction or a religious duty.

It's being involved in a loving relationship.

If Jesus wanted just a religious transaction, HE would have said, “This is WHAT you should pray” He didn’t say that.

Jesus said, this is HOW you should prayer. In other words, the LORD’s Prayer is a model or template showing us the important parts of our prayer life, not the exact words to use.