Finding Faith In God
Notes
Transcript
Finding Faith In God
Finding Faith In God
Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.
“Therefore, you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction:
The First Step of Faith
Hallowing God
Trusting God
Prioritizing God
The First Step of Faith
The First Step of Faith
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But to all who did receive Him,
He gave them the right to be children of God,
to those who believe in His name,
who were born,
not of blood,
or of the will of the flesh,
or of the will of man,
but of God.
Hallowing God
Hallowing God
“Therefore, you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
ἁγιασθήτω
ἁγιάζω
hagiazō
hag-ee-ad'-zo
From G40; to make holy, that is, (ceremonially) purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate:—hallow, be holy, sanctify.
To Hallow God is to place Him above everything else.
Exodus 20:5 (HCSB)
...I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God...
Exodus 20:7 (HCSB)
Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God...
One of the first mistakes we make in this life is we believe that God exists to bring us pleasure and the provide for our needs and desires. We are dearly mistaken. God does not exist for us, but we exist to bring glory to God.
God did not create us for our pleasure. God created us for His pleasure and to bring glory to Him.
Man’s first sin was to attempt to elevated himself to be “like” God…
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan tempted man with becoming like God, and man has thought he was the center of the universe from that time forward.
It will only be when we learn to elevate God to the position He deserves in our lives and realize that He is Holy and deserving of our complete devotion, complete surrender, complete submission of everything we are and everything we have to the ownership of God, will we experience the grace of God in our daily lives as He intends us to experience it.
When we realize that every part of our lives, all of our abilities, all our talents, all our gifts, all our intellect, all our strength, all our possessions belong to God and are to be committed to bringing God glory, then and only then will we be fulfilling our created purpose.
This is what it means to Hallow God.
When we work, are we doing it to glorify God or glorify ourselves?
When we serve, are we doing it to glorify God or bring glory to ourselves?
When we come to church, are we worshipping for what we will receive, or are we laying aside all our personal inhibitions and worshipping God with all that we are?
Matthew 6:9 (HCSB)
“...Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
Trusting God
Trusting God
Matthew 6:8 (HCSB)
...your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.
Once we have come to the conclusion that God is not here for us, but we are here for God, this next step becomes much easier to understand.
If we understand that God created us to bring Him glory, then we know our purpose, our goal in life is not for personal gain, health, prosperity.
Our goal is to bring God glory. When this is our goal, our understanding of need changes. When we understand that our “needs” are tied to bringing God glory, we become less concerned with our personal comfort, but we seek God’s sustenance in order to be strong witnesses in the midst of whatever our status in this life may be.
Rather than praying for personal provision, God knows what our needs are, we pray for the abilities we need to bring God glory.
The martyrs of old often cried out as they died thanking God for the privilege of dying in order to be a testimony to God. 40 Soldiers…
Prioritizing God
Prioritizing God
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus first asks us to remember God’s proper place in our lives.
Next, He assures us that we may trust Him without questions.
Once we have these two facets of our relationship with God in place, this last is the natural outcome…
Our focus of life becomes seeking the expansion of God’s glory throughout the world.
This is the focus of this part of the prayer. Christ is calling us to seek as a priority of our prayer the expansion of God’s kingdom and thereby the expansion of His glory!
We are called on to make a focus of our prayers the completion of God’s will on earth just as it is in Heaven.
The focus of our prayers should and naturally will be the focus of our lives if our prayers are sincere.
This is the motivations, and power behind all successful missions endeavors.
The primary purpose of the Christian, the primary purpose of the church is to bring honor and glory to God. We do this by bringing others into worshipful fellowship with God. Here are signs that we are seeking to Hallow God, we trust God, and we are prioritizing God and His will on earth…
Conclusion
Conclusion
We worship God without inhibition
We return to God whatever is need to expand His Kingdom
We place serving and worshiping God as a priority over all other demands on our lives