Listening to Jesus (3)

In the last few weeks, maybe months at this point we talked about God having a voice. And God spoke to Samuel and Moses in the Old Testament. We said that God talks to all of us through the Bible as well right? And we should try our hardest to listen to God’s voice. Well last week we learned one of the things God ask us to do. God tells us to love our enemies and to never take revenge or get back at people who hurt me, or are mean to me. God talks to us through the Bible and when we hear His voice we have the opportunity to say:

“Yes Jesus, I will listen”.

We said that everything we find in the Bible is put into one Bible verse.

Luke 10:27 NIV

27 He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

So whenever Jesus ask us to do something, it’s going to point to either one of these things, or both. Whenever Jesus tells us to do something, it will help us to love God or to love others.

Last week Jesus shows us some ways in which we can love our neighbor, this week Jesus shows us how to we can show God that we love Him.

Matthew 6:5–15 NIV

5 “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 others. Truly I tell you, 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, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And 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.’ 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

When Jesus begins he says: “but when you pray.” why? because he’s talking to His sheep. And as His sheep, we pray. One of the most important things we can do is pray because praying is the way we talk to God. You know, we love talking to people. I know y’all do. you talk to me all the time. But we really like talking to people that care about us, and appreciate us, and people who are our friends. Who is your best friend? Could you imagine not talking to them for a day? how about a week? how about a month? or what about a whole year? how different would it be if you run into your friend that you haven’t spoken to in a year? would their life be different? would the way they dress be different now? would they look different? would you be afraid they had forgotten about you?

God wants you to talk to Him because He loves you. If we love God, we show God love Him by praying. Jesus goes on to share with us that there is a way we are not supposed to pray. There were these people in the Bible times that would pray like it was a show. They would stand on the street and pray super loud so other people could hear them, and other would pray and try to embarrass people when they prayed. Jesus tells us to pray how?

Matthew 6:6 NIV

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.

Spend 1 on 1 time with God. Church is great, reading the Bible together as a group is great. Never stop doing those things, but you know what else is important? having a personal relationship with Jesus. how do I know that God wants a personal relationship with me? Because verse 6 says: pray to your father in private. God wants to have a personal relationship with you. He wants to spend time with you. Think of it this way, God made the entire universe, and that guy wants to hang out with you. He wants to know how your day went, he wants to know how school is going, he wants to know if someone made you upset, he wants to know how your family situation is going, God wants to share in your pain and in the joy you are going through.

I love prayer request, prayer request are what we bring to God as a way of asking Him for stuff. We come to pray and we ask for prayer request and our request are always: “I want God to give me this” and that’s not a bad thing, but sometimes it makes people believe that God is like a genie in a lamp. If I rub my hands together He will grant my three wishes, but God does not work that way. If you have prayer request give them to God, but don’t just stop there, tell him how you’re feeling. So I ask people to pray here at church all the time, and one of the biggest responses I get is: I don’t know how.

So here is what we are going to do today, we are going to write down and practice praying. When we pray I have a really easy way for us to remember how to pray, and then we are going to practice doing it on our own.

practice the prayer picture

What is praying?

Talking to God.

What does the A stand for in our Payer Picture?

Ask

What does the C stand for in our Prayer picture?

Confess

What does the T stand for in our Payer Picture?

Thanks