What IS a Christian? - A Christian has a relationship with God

Introduction

Pastor Keenan

Next Gen

Summary of last 4 weeks

Summary of tonight

Ask for input tonight

pray

read

1 John 5:14 CSB

14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

A Christian’s prayers are heard and answered when they’re in God’s will

Q: Who in here has a hard time because they feel like God doesn’t hear their prayers much?

SS: I was in the same boat for a long time. Especially during my high school years. But even if you didn’t raise your hand, I’ve yet to find a Christian who hasn’t doubted that God wasn’t listening to their prayers.

Tonight as we go through these four verses and learn to apply what John is saying here, you will go home and know how to have more confidence in knowing God’s hearing you.

Q: What are some of the most common things that you ask your parents for?

Q: What are some of the most common things you ask God for?

SS: When I think about when I would ask my parents for games, to spend the night at my friends house, or to play a sport and I was told no usually my parents had a reason why they wouldn’t allow it.

For games, maybe my parents didn’t have enough money, that if they spent money on a game for me that they would be in debt and we wouldn’t be able to afford enough for groceries, or maybe that game had stuff in it that wasn’t good for me at the time.

As for sports and hanging out with friends, my parents would say no if my grades were falling and they wanted me to make sure that I was staying disciplined and setting myself up for success.

Or the friends I wanted to hang out with were starting to watch stuff on their phones, and would introduce me to things I shouldn’t be. And my parents wanted to protect me from what was happening at my friends houses.

When I would have homework, if it was really hard, I would sometimes ask my parents to do my homework for me and they wouldn’t because they wanted me to work through the problems so I could learn how to problem solve which would help me later in life.

Obviously I can stand here and tell you now after getting to know my parents more and as I’ve gotten more mature why they would say no to the things I would ask for.

But in the time all I knew is that I wanted these things and I thought that they would be good for me. But my parents had more wisdom than me and more discernment than I did. They knew what was actually good for me even though my feelings were telling me otherwise.

But in those moments I didn’t care about why they said no to the things I wanted.

In the same way when we pray to God we tend to ask Him for a lot of things that we want.

A lot of the prayer requests that I think about are to do good in a sports game or meet, to do well on a test, that a girl/boy would like us back, for someone’s grandmas’s dog to get better…

You may be thinking well what’s wrong with all of those prayers?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with asking God for these things, but how much are they in God’s will for us and for the world?

God’s will for Christians, is to love God by following His commands and love others.

God’s will for Christians is to be sharing the Gospel, to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them Jesus’ teaching.

God’s will is that He desires all people to come to know Him as Lord and Savior.

God wants us to rely on Him so I’m not saying to not ask God for things, but what I am saying is how much of what we ask God for is selfish?

I’m going to step on some toes here, but here me out. When we ask God for us to have a good game or practice, or any of the things I mentioned before, where is God’s will for us in any of that? Unless you’re a Tim Tebow or a Brock Purdy who does everything they can to take every opportunity to share the Gospel by being in the spotlight, how is you hitting a top time in your track meet, or gettin an all time high point game aligning with God’s will? When you ask God to help you get an A on a test, if you haven’t done the work to study then why would God honor laziness? When we really want a girl or a guy to like us back or a relationship to go well but God’s not been in the relationship or they’re not a Christian and you are, why would God bless and honor a potential relationship that would or IS pulling you away from being close to Him and living your life for Him?

So if your prayers consist primarily about things that don’t have God’s will in consideration I want to ask one more question,

How well do you know God and His will?

We often are good at talking to God and asking Him for things we want and need. But we have a really hard time listening to what He has said. A real relationship requires for both of the people in the relationship to speak and listen to the other person.

It’s no different in our relationship with God.

If you feel like your prayers aren’t heard by God, and the kinds of prayers that I’ve talked about tonight are primarily what you pray, or you just have a hard time knowing what to pray about. I want you to know God’s will and I want you to know God for yourself. Not just from me telling you who He is. But to have a real relationship with Him.

If you can come here every sunday and listen to me yap about God to you, then you should hear His words from Himself.

So if you want to see your prayers answered more often and have your prayers align with God’s will you need to know God and His will better.

The number one way to do that is to read the Bible for yourself and you can do that by getting a Bible reading plan.

I have Bible reading plans up here that you can take for yourself and as you go through it you can read the whole new testament in 6 months.

My charge for you all is to be in the Bible plan 5 days a week.

As you get to know God and His will more, pray more about things that line up in His will.

These things can be

For God to help you to be better/confident talking to people so that you can reach people with the Gospel better, or ministering to them better.

It can be for God to lay people on your mind to share the Gospel with.

Or for Him to point people out on your sports team to share the Gospel with.

Or people you work with.

Not just invite them to church.

Asking Him to give you opportunities to share the Gospel and to make it clear to you so you don’t miss it.

To give you boldness and the mental and emotional strength to share with others.

To reveal the things in your heart that God doesn’t like and to show you how to turn away from those things.

For God to bring Scripture to your mind when you’re in a situation to know how you’re supposed to act or talk.

There’s an infinite amount of examples I could give but these are just some that when i started to know God deeper and His will more, that I was praying.

And God has answered all of these things time and time again.

It’s good to ask God for help for ourselves to know and do God’s will and work, but as we’re learning tonight, being a Christian isn’t about what we get from God

1 John 5:16–17 CSB

16 If anyone sees a fellow believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sin that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.

So here’s your second point, christians pray for each other when they’re in sin

In these two verses, John is saying that if a Christian see’s another Christian in a sin that they should ask God to restore them. But some sin God judges quickly and takes someone.

Q: When was there a time where either you or someone else was in a situation that seemed impossible to get past until someone came along and helped?

Q: What is a time where you saw someone get into a bad situation that you laughed at?

Q: Now think about a time where you saw someone put themselves in a bad situation and instead of doing something about it you watched them struggle and judge them.

SS: God calls us to have self control and we’ve talked about how God has given us the power to overcome the world and sin because Jesus has. Sometimes though we can get trapped by sin.

John here is calling for Christians to pray for other Christians who are stuck in sin. This means to intercede for someone.

If we aren’t careful we can look at someone stuck in sin and is a Christian who feels convicted and think a few things

Wow I’m glad I’m not that bad

Eh they’ll be fine, I don’t get why they’re having that hard of a time with that.

He or she must not be saved if they’re stuck in sin

Their sin is really making me look bad, I wish they would just get over it.

If you have a strong sense of right and wrong or you often project or deflect when you have sin problems of your own, you might be more prone to these thoughts.

When we tend to give into these thoughts it’s harmful to the way that we view other Christians and our church family.

Why it’s harmful is that if these thoughts go unchecked it can lead to a lot of pride which is sin itself,

and it can cause us to stop being real with each other if we are stuck in sin.

I have a brother who claims to be a Christian and he’s been stuck in some pretty rough sin for the last 5 years or so. And because I have a tendency to have a strong sense of right and wrong and I’ve been through what he’s struggling with, I tend to think about him and want to be frustrated that he won’t get out of it.

But when lately when I think about him and want to get frustrated I have been making an effort to pray for him and for God to restore him and pull and guide him out of his sin.

Because no matter how frustrated I get or how much my parents nag him, that’s something he’s going to have to choose to let God restore him.

if you’re here tonight and you struggle with these thoughts I want to challenge you this week to take John’s words and act on it.

When you see someone who is stuck in sin, or you think about someone who has been stuck in a sin, instead of getting frustrated, or judging them, or talking about them behind their back, pray for them.

Ask God to restore them and pull them away from their sin.

And walk alongside them and allow them to be honest about their sin struggle they’re stuck in.

Because as you pray for them you might be an answer to your own prayer for that person and get to see first hand God using you to restore that person.