Every Day Conversations
"The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in."
C. S. Lewis
Most people don’t have a clue as to how to do slow down the chaos of life.
Every day is as rushed as a roller coaster on steroids. The idea of a quiet conversation with God is as unreal as communication with aliens from another universe.
This morning I want to help you change that in your life. I’d like to help you begin a new way of living – one that is built on a foundation of everyday conversations with your new best friend and your father God – the author of mankind and creator of all that there is.
We’re going to look this morning at Matthew 6:9. This is the “Lord’s Prayer”. Here is where Jesus taught his closest friends how to have everyday conversations with God.
Unfortunately we’ve made the “Lord’s Prayer” into a formal recitation that is disconnected from our everyday world. That should not be so. Jesus said, Pray like this…” The Lord’s prayer is a model for everyday conversations with God – but most people don’t know much about it…
Take the two men who were talking together. The first challenged the other, “If you are so religious, let’s hear you quote the Lord’s Prayer. I bet you $10.00 you can’t.” The second man responded, “Now I lay me down to sleep…” The first man pulled out his wallet and fished out a ten dollar bill, muttering, “I didn’t think you could do it!”
Let’s learn together today about how we can have an everyday conversation with your friend and father – the creator of the universe, the redeemer of your soul, the champion of the broken hearted, and the ultimate bringer of justice – the Almighty God.
Kinda exciting isn’t it!
Start with Hello
Our Father in heaven, may your name always be kept holy.
Matthew 6:9 New Century Version
It is important to remember who your friend is. He is God. He is not your buddy Bubba! I think there is a line between being in everyday conversation with God and with being a little too casual and familiar.
Some of you remember when JFK was president of the US. Life magazine published photos of his children, John Jr. and Caroline, playing with their toys on the floor of the Oval Office. Those images captured the hearts of the American people like nothing before or since. Why? I think it’s because it bridged a gap between two thoughts: Kennedy was the President of the United States, but he was also a father. He held ultimate political power in the Free World, but playing at his feet were two little kids who called him Daddy. I don’t think your kids would have been allowed to do that. Nor mine. But his kids were. Why? He was their father. He was not only President of the United States; he was also their dad.
In the same way, God is both our Father and the Lord of glory. We can approach Him confidently in prayer because we are His dearly beloved children, but we must never forget that He is also the Sovereign of the universe."
HONOR God – as God
"God cannot be grasped by the mind. If he could be grasped, he would not be God.”
Unknown Author
Honoring God’s Name
Names of God
Each of the many Old Testament names and titles of God shows a different facet of His character and its expression in His will. He is called, for example,
Elohim, “the Creator God”;
El Elyon, “possessor of heaven and earth”;
Jehovah-Jireh, “the Lord will provide”;
Jehovah-Nissi, “the Lord our banner”;
Jehovah-Rapha, “the Lord that healeth”;
Jehovah-Shalom, “the Lord our peace”;
Jehovah-Raah, “the Lord our Shepherd”;
Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “the Lord our righteousness”;
Jehovah-Sabaoth, “the Lord of hosts”;
Jehovah-Shama, “the Lord is present and near”; and
Jehovah-Maqodeshkim, which means “the Lord sanctifieth thee.” All those names speak of God’s attributes. Thus they tell us not only who He is, but also what He is like.
Jesus Himself provides the clearest teaching about what God’s name means: His very name, Jesus Christ, is God’s greatest name, and it encompasses His role as Lord, Savior, and King. As Jesus Christ, God drew to Himself many other names, including: the Bread of Life (John 6:35), the Living Water (John 4:10), the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), the Resurrection (John 11:25), the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), the Branch (Isa. 4:2), the Bright and Morning Star (Rev. 22:16), the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and many more. One Old Testament passage in particular lists several names for Him, each one a designation of His nature: “Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). Jesus’ life was the perfect manifestation of God’s name.
SURRENDER to God’s purpose for your life
May your kingdom come and what you want be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10 New Century Version
God’s Comprehensive Will
28 We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are the people he called, because that was his plan.
Romans 8:28
We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
God’s Comprehensive Will
11 In Christ we were chosen to be God’s people, because from the very beginning God had decided this in keeping with his plan. And he is the One who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants.
Ephesians 1:11
Although God does not will evil, He takes the things that happen in history and in our lives and puts them together for good.
And of course His greatest plan is the salvation of His people: “We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11).
God’s great purpose is for a redeemed people, for a unified church, a body of saints for eternity.
How do we pray in accord with God’s comprehensive will? By joining in, affirming and awaiting the accomplishment of His divine plans.
God’s Compassionate Will
Pray for rulers and for all who have authority so that we can have quiet and peaceful lives full of worship and respect for God.
This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to know the truth.
1 Timothy 2:2-4
This aspect of God’s will refers to His heart’s desire, which is within the scope of His comprehensive will and completely consistent with it, although it is more specific and focused. Unlike God’s comprehensive will, however, His desires are not always fulfilled.
In fact, our present age attests that Satan’s desires are realized more often than God’s.
God, our Savior, “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).
God’s Commanding Will
So the Lord knows how to save those who serve him when troubles come. He will hold evil people and punish them, while waiting for the Judgment Day,
2 Peter 2:9
His will – will be done! We need not fear that those who do evil will escape justice. There will be a day when all men stand before God. There will be a day!
It is wise to be obedient and to submit ourselves to his purposes for our lives
SURRENDER to God’s purpose for your life
May your kingdom come and what you want be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10 New Century Version
When we pray “May your kingdom come,” we pray for the kingdom comes to earth in three ways:
Evangelistically
as we reach help more people become followers of Jesus
Spiritually
as we help those followers to live according to righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit
Expectantly
as we anticipate the second coming of Christ when He establishes his Heavenly Kingdom for eternity
I see a parallel between those three elements and the three aspects of God’s will we just looked at. God’s comprehensive will embraces the ultimate end of man’s dominion on earth and the return of Christ to set up an eternal kingdom. His compassionate will embraces the conversion of unbelievers. And His commanding will demands commitment from His people.
"Lord, what Thou wilt, where Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt."
Richard Baxter, Puritan writer
In the old Puritan manner of speaking he was saying, "Lord, whatever you want, wherever you want it, and whenever you want it, that’s what I want."
SURRENDER to God’s purpose for your life
He lifted me out of the pit of destruction, out of the sticky mud.
He stood me on a rock and made my feet steady.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
Many people will see this and worship him. Then they will trust the LORD.
Psalms 40:2-3
The Potter
Author Philip Keller, while visiting in Pakistan, read Jeremiah 18:2, which says, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I shall announce My words to you.” So he and a missionary went to a potter’s house in that city. In his book, A Layman Looks at the Lord’s Prayer [Chicago: Moody, 1976, 1985], 92–97), he writes,
In sincerity and earnestness I asked the old master craftsman to show me every step in the creation of a masterpiece. . . . On his shelves were gleaming goblets, lovely vases, and exquisite bowls of breathtaking beauty.
Then, crooking a bony finger toward me, he led the way to a small, dark, closed shed at the back of his shop. When he opened its rickety door, a repulsive, overpowering stench of decaying matter engulfed me. For a moment I stepped back from the edge of the gaping dark pit in the floor of the shed. “This is where the work begins!” he said, kneeling down beside the black, nauseating hole. With his long, thin arm, he reached down into the darkness. His slim, skilled fingers felt around amid the lumpy clay, searching for a fragment of material exactly suited to his task.
“I add special kinds of grass to the mud,” he remarked. “As it rots and decays, its organic content increases the colloidal quality of the clay. Then it sticks together better.” Finally his knowing hands brought up a lump of dark mud from the horrible pit where the clay had been tramped and mixed for hours by his hard, bony feet.
With tremendous impact the first verses from Psalm 40 came to my heart. In a new and suddenly illuminating way I saw what the psalmist meant when he wrote long ago, “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay.” As carefully as the potter selected his clay, so God used special care in choosing me. . . .
“Father, Thy will be done in earth [in clay], in me, as it is done in heaven.” (Used by permission.)
ASK for God’s provision
Give us the food we need for each day.
Matthew 6:11 New Century Version
The doll
Dr. Helen Roseveare, missionary to Zaire, told the following story. "A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister. One of the girls responded, ’Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won’t feel so lonely.’
That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle! Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, ’If God sent that, I’m sure He also sent a doll!’ And she was right! The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child’s sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies’ group to include both of those specific articles."
Tell God what you need and want
There are two extremes to avoid in making a list—being too general or too specific. We can take a cue from the Lord’s Prayer. Your specific requests need not be detailed. Tell God what you want. Don’t say it repeatedly. Don’t elaborate. Just tell him. Pray for one entry on your list, then move on to the next. Jesus cautions against praying like the pagans who think they will be heard because of their many words (Mt 6:7–8). God knows what we need before we even ask. Our prayers are to seek his help, not to inform him or manipulate him.
Our need for daily bread may be expressed as balancing our bank account or seeking a raise. Forgiveness of sins may mean seeking forgiveness for harboring anger toward your spouse or friend. Deliverance from temptation may require keeping a chaste attitude toward someone at work or not fudging on the expense account.
EXAMINE your personal relationships
Forgive us for our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.
Matthew 6:12 New Century Version
Sin dominates the mind.
Romans 1:21 indicates that men have a reprobate mind given over to evil and lust.
Sin dominates the will.
According to Jeremiah 44:15–17, men desire to do evil because their will is controlled by sin.
Sin dominates the emotions and the affections.
The natural man does not want his sin cured because he loves darkness rather than light (John 3:19).
Sin brings men under the control of Satan.
Ephesians 2:2 teaches that men are guided by “the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”
Sin brings people under divine wrath.
According to Ephesians 2:3, unsaved people are “children of wrath.”
Sin subjects men to misery.
Job said, “Man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). “ ‘There is no peace for the wicked,’ says the Lord” (Isa. 48:22).
EXAMINE your personal relationships
Forgiven
“I could dismiss half my patients tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness”
Head of large British Mental Institution quoted by John R.W. Stott
There is an unusual epitaph on a large headstone in a cemetery outside of New York City. The name of the person in the grave is not on the headstone. There is no mention of when the person was born or when he died. Nor does it indicate anything about the person’s being a beloved mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, or daughter. Just one word stretches across the headstone: Forgiven. Clearly the most significant fact of this individual’s life was the peace he or she knew as a result of God’s forgiveness.
SEEK God’s protection & strength
From the Natural World
We live in a fallen world that continually bombards us with the reality of sin and its consequences. We can see it first in the natural world. Volcanoes, earthquakes, fires, floods, pestilences, and accidents are increasing with alarming regularity, threatening the survival of mankind.
From the Intellectual World
The intellectual world in particular assaults our faith. Man is constantly seeking the truth, but is unable to find it. His judgments are partial and unfair. His tampering with relative thinking leads to inevitable destruction. Man is propelled by his own self-bias. Logic is ruled by pride, intellects are ruled by lust, and material gain makes liars out of men. Human opinions are on a continual collision course with each other. He has erected fortresses of ideology that are set against truth and God.
From the Emotional World
Grief and anxiety characterize the emotional world of man. His inability to control destructive attitudes devastates his spirit, and his soul is chafed by his conflicts with others. Envy stings him, hate embitters him, and greed eats away at him like a canker. His affections are misplaced, his love is trampled, and his confidence is betrayed. Rich people step on the poor, and the poor seek to dethrone the rich. Prisons, hospitals, and mental institutions mark the moral and emotional upheaval of man.
From the Spiritual World:
But without doubt the darkest part of man’s world is his spiritual life. He is out of harmony with God. The machinery of man’s moral nature is visibly out of gear. He is running out of sync with God’s divine plan. Evil tendencies dominate man from his tainted, fallen ancestry.
SEEK God’s protection & strength
Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 4:1
Matthew 4:1 says Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Life is a series of trials.
Each trial is a TEST or a TEMPTATION – your choice!
While God won’t tempt us to sin, He will bring things into our lives that become tests for us. When you pass a certain magazine, book, movie theater, or a certain program on your television, that can be a test to reveal your spiritual strength. If you fail, it will turn into a temptation that incites your lust and draws you into sin.
If you’re terminated from your job, that may be a test. How are you going to handle it? If you take it joyously and commit your situation to the Lord, you will pass the test. But Satan will tempt you to complain and perhaps to do all you can to ruin your boss’ reputation.
To God it was a test to prove Christ’s virtue; for Satan it was a temptation to destroy His virtue. Job said, “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (23:10). ‘
He approached his trial the right way. Peter said, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
What have we learned from the Lord’s Prayer?
Start talking to God – Everyday Conversations!
All that we need is available to us.
First we are to give God His rightful place. Then we can bring our needs to Him, and He will meet them through His limitless, eternal supply
Five Finger Reminder of your Every Day Conversation with God
Thumb
Those who are closest to you
First Finger
Those who point the way
Tall Finger
Those who stand and lead
Ring Finger
Those who are weak and weary
Little Finger
For yourself as a servant and follower of Jesus
