Who Do You Think You Are Talking To - Pastor Rick

hello Saddleback and welcome to 40 days of prayer if you'll take out your message notes who do you think you're talking to you know one of the things that bugs me kind of one of my pet peeves is people who don't identify themselves when they call me on the telephone you know I'm talking about they just start talking like you're supposed to know them from a million other people and they just start talking and they assume that you know them and until you know who you're talking to you're kind of guarded about what you're gonna say because you're not really sure who it is and and you don't know what to talk about kind of waiting on them to reveal who it is you don't know what tone of voice to use if you don't know who you're talking to you don't know which words are appropriate I mean is it the Pope or the pizza guy a little bit different in tone there you don't know if they want you to help them or there's somebody that you want them to help you when you're talking to somebody and you don't really know them you're at a disadvantage and you don't even know how to dress them properly until you're talking to them correctly and know who they are I always know when I'm in the store somewhere who's really who really knows me and who doesn't because I'll be going down the aisle in the grocery store and some of the hey Pastor Rick that's a friend hello Reverend Warren you talking to me Reverend you use different terms when you have familiarity with people and when you don't know somebody then you tend to talk very formal I think the same thing is true the God that the more you get to know God the more informal you are with him when you don't talk to God very often you tend to be a little stilted in your prayers it's not really a conversation we said last week prayer is to be a ritual now prayer is to be a relationship prayer is to be a conversation not not some kind of you know ritual that you go through now this week during 40 days of prayer we're going to be launching thousands and thousands of small groups and if you're not in a small group you're gonna want to get in one because that's 90 percent of the spiritual growth campaign we've prepared for you and we're gonna start this week the first message and the small groups is on the purpose of prayer but I want to step back from that just a little bit and talk to you about who you're talking to who do you think you're talking to I wrote at the top of your outline your understanding of what God is really like shapes everything else in your life including how you pray your understanding of God and what he's really like shapes everything in your life including how you pray aw Tozer said it like this when it comes in what comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you because it influences every other area of your life particularly your prayers now I told you that during this series we're gonna bust some misconceptions and myths about prayer at about God but if I were to ask you what do you really think of when you think of God what comes up in your mind some people I wrote something down here some people think of the grumpy God he's cranky he's angry he's upset about everything he's the party pooper grumpy God who wants to talk to grumpy god some people think of God as Crouching Tiger God he's just waiting to pounce on you you're that you're the meal and you make one wrong move and dalla pounced on you then there's the flaky father god he's Moody he's fickle changes his mind don't know from day to day with he's gonna hug your slug you it changes the mind all the time flaky father God some people think of God as the cosmic cop God the cosmic cop God is only purpose is just to enforce the rules uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh don't you dare do that some people think of God as the senile toothless old man god it's kind of fun to have around he tells a bunch old stories but really is pretty painless and harmless and couldn't change anything and couldn't keep you from doing whatever you wanted to do on the other hand there's the dictator God always demanding more and more and more and more it's not enough it's not enough and you do that little voice in your head and you think that's God it's not God dictator got some people think of the Santa Claus God he's making a list and checking it twice are you naughty or nice but some people just think of God like Santa Claus or my favorite the play-doh God play-doh God is where you make your own God and you know I'm gonna pick this and this and this and they'll make my own God and then every time you hear anybody say well you know I like to think of God as run from that person because they're just making up an idea what matters is not what you think of God what matters is what God really is and the Bible says this is the day the Lord has made and today we've reversed that this is the Lord the day has made well I like to think of God like this well you might like to think of him but that doesn't make any difference because he's not that until you really know who God is prayers gonna be a duty not a delight until you really know who God is prayer is going to be a drudgery something I have to do I ought to do I should do I feel guilty about doing it means you just don't understand who God really is and so as we kick off our six weeks where we're gonna be in small groups I want to just start with who do you really think you're talking to what is God really like well God has a lot of different attributes the Bible says he's omniscient that means he's all-knowing he knows everything so you couldn't tell him anything in prayer he wouldn't go oh I didn't know that he never saw that one coming God is all-knowing he's omnipotent he's all-powerful didn't do anything God is omnipresent he's everywhere he can be anywhere and everywhere all at the same time God is holy means he's separate he's he's different than us he's not like us in many ways he's holy the Bible says he's just he's kind he's loving he's compassionate the Bible says he's faithful he's loyal there are many many many qualities about God in fact there are names of God in Hebrew in the scripture and each name represents a different aspect of God's personality I'm the one who heals you I'm the one who comforts you I'm the one who guides you these are Hebrew names for God but what really matters is what God is really like and I want us to as we kickoff the small group portion of 40 days of Prayer I want us to look at just one attribute of God and it's this one God is good the goodness of God one of the earliest prayers little kids learn to pray is god is great God is good let us thank him for our food and you you you could do a whole lot worse than that because God is great he's awesome he's powerful he's Almighty he's sovereign God is good and he's near so I want us to look at God's goodness and the implications of what it means to pray because when you fully understand how good God really is you don't want to talk to him and when you fully understand how God how good god is you're gonna understand why prayer is really the most important thing you can do in your life more important than anything else you do when you understand the goodness of God now let's look at this first outline I'm a note or verse on your outline Psalm 100 verse 5 I'm gonna ask you to read it aloud to me and let's read it slowly together okay the Lord is always good he is always loving and kind and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation all right and let's just say the first phrase again and let's just emphasize the word always okay let's say it the Lord is always good Circle that word always God is always good he's never bad God to not be not good he is always always good now you know people often ask me requires their evil in the world that's not a real hard question for me it's that God gave us a free choice and because he doesn't force us to do good he could have he could have made us like puppets but hidden forces good we often make bad decisions and other people make bad decisions and my bad decisions and your bad decisions everybody else's bad decisions bring evil in this world God is not the author of evil evil comes from our free choice to reject God to not love God to disobey God to ignore God it's very easy to tell you where evil came from it came from human free will if we didn't have a free will there would be no evil in the world and it's all there because we choose to disobey God and then some people get hurt and they're you know and innocent people get hurt by other people's choices and things like that to me the real philosophical conundrum is not why is there evil in the world because if you believe in random choice random chance and accidental and and evolutionary survival of the fittest well where's evil it's just whoever wins knocks out everybody else eat or be eaten the dog-eat-dog that's where a lot of evil would come from but the real issue to me is why is there good in the world and there is good in the world even in this past six weeks when we've seen three hurricanes and one earthquake and a shooting in a church and now the largest mass shooting in history in America in Las Vegas and I've been dealing with the pastor's of all those churches in the hurricanes and then tornadoes and the earthquakes and now this week I was counseling all the pastors who were counseling the people in Las Vegas they even made some videos for them where is God and all of that God is in the people who taken care of those people and the hands and the feet and the love in the unity in the prayers in the standing up for people and taking care of people and looking out for others and not just looking out for themselves real issues why is there any good well the only reason there's any good in the universe is because our Creator is good God is a good God you can't spell good without God there is no good without God if God was not God and if there was no God there would be no good it would be all just random chance that if you got shot by a drive-by shooter well it's just too bad it's just an accident just random if God is not good what I'm gonna say is you you have zero reason to pray no reason at all to praise God is not a good God you don't have any reason to pray but because God is a good God and because he is always always good we know for things for implications about the goodness of God if you will actually learn these things and imprint implement them in your life and begin to feel them it's gonna change the whole way you approach prayer so let's look at it four things number one because God is always good I mean there's never a time when he's not good because God is always good God's plans for my life will always be good God doesn't have any bad plans for your life everything he plans for your life is good God has never planned anything bad for your life because God can't plan bad because God is good people office is there anything God can't do of course they're things God can't do God cannot deny himself God cannot violate his character a lot of things God can God cannot lie because he's truth he's true God cannot be bad he cannot be evil because he's good and so what God cannot do is he can't have bad plans for your life because he's a good god he can only make good plans for your life now let's look at this Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11 this is God talking I know what I've planned for you says the Lord I have good plans good plans for you not plans to hurt you my plans will give you a hope and a good future and when you call to me and you pray to me I will listen to you people often leave off the last part of that verse this is a verse not just about the plans of God it's about the prayers to God notice how God's purpose God's plan and God's prayers the prayers that you prayed him all go together do you see the connection with prayer I know what I've planned for you says the Lord I've got good plans my plans searched plans will give you a hope plans will give you a future and when you call to me and pray to me I'm gonna listen to you now what does this passage say well some familiar stuff you're not an accident there's a purpose for your life this verse says that God put a lot of thought into creating you he planned you you're not an accident said it many times they're accidental parents but they're not accidental children your parents may not have planned you but God did and the reason you're alive because he wanted you life he planned you and his plan for your life is good but notice he says when you call to me and pray at me I'll listen to you God's plans for me are revealed and realized through prayer that's why we're gonna do this for the next 40 days because understand God's plan and purpose for your life you've got to be more of a pray or your plans God's plans for your life are realized and they're revealed through prayer now I want to just pause your percent say that God could have created you without a plan I mean it could have if you'd wanted to he could have just made you with no plan for your life think of it just made you know I I'm gonna create all of these people and I create all these people and he could have left it all to chance but he didn't my God made you he first planned you why because he's a good god he's a good god and he has a plan and a purpose for your life so he says I'm good and even my plans for your life are good Psalm 31 verse 19 after on the screen says this God your goodness is so great you've stored up great blessings for those who honor you you do so much for those who come to you for protection blessing them before the watching world God wants to bless your life he wants to bless your life in front of other people what he shows off his goodness your goodness is great you store up blessing that you know by the way when he says he store up that means planning - it's not random it means I store it up God has already stored up the blessings he has for you next year and in five years and in ten years how many ever many years your life God has already stored up the blessings yes for you that's how well he planned your life you can miss some of those blessings by choosing to go different ways but he's already planned the blessings for your life because he's a good god stored up indicates intention and thoughtfulness one of the reasons we're doing 40 days first I want you to experience those blessings in your life so he says God is good and he has good plans for my life but he said wait a minute Rick not everything in my life's good well you're right not everything in your life is good but God didn't promise that God didn't promise that everything in your life would be good he said I have good plans for you big difference if I go out here and I get drunk and I get in an accident and I did and I lose my eyesight that wasn't God's plan that wasn't God's blessing knows my plan there are things that happen in our lives that are not God's plan we live in a broken planet we make bad choices but here's the neat thing God is even greater than your bad choices let me say it again God is even greater than your bad choices and he can bring good even out of your bad choices Romans 8:28 very familiar verse we know that God causes everything everything to work together for the good then say it's all good it says God can cause everything to work together for good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose I've told this illustration before but I'll do it again and I'll do it quick if you're gonna make a cake if you eat the individual ingredients they don't taste good eat flour by itself terrible lard Crisco by itself terrible raw eggs for themselves terrible salt by itself terrible vanilla by itself terrible even sugar by itself terrible but when you work them together I like the batter and sometimes in a recipe you put bitter with sweet and it makes it even taste better sometimes there are bitter things in your life that are there for the flavoring of your life not everything is good in your life God doesn't promise that he doesn't say everything has a happy ending he doesn't say that he says I'm a good god I have a good plan and I could work even the bad stuff and use it for good in your life we know that all those who love God are called according to his purpose now the more you pray the better your gonna know your purpose and the better you know your purpose the more God can use everything for good in your life you say well everything yep even that incident yeah that painful incident that you want to forget that is hurtful and harmful and you have a hard time forgiving the person and maybe you haven't even let him let it go yet or you've forgiven them and it keeps coming back I'm sorry for your hurt as your pastor I don't want you to be hurt I'm sorry for your hurt but when you hold on to hurt you hurt yourself more than if you let it go but even the hurts from the sins of others you remember the story of Joseph Jacob had 12 children 12 sons and the next of the youngest was Joseph and all the other brothers hated Joseph because he was the favorite spoiled kid he got all of his daddy's attention and they were jealous and they didn't like him so one day they decided they would put him in a pit and just let him stay there and they told dad that he had been eaten by a bear and then a traveling you know slave trader came by and they said let's just sell him that we don't want to kill it went on to murder our brother so he sold him into slavery he's taking Egypt and you know the story for the next 40 years of his life it's all downhill he goes to work for a guy named Potiphar and Potiphar's wife thinks Joseph's pretty handsome guy and she tries to seduce him and Joseph does not me man I'm gonna honor my boss I'm not gonna cheat on my boss so she screams and cries rape and he's falsely put in prison he's just gone down down down and during those 40 years she's think of God you don't even know where I am God knew exactly where he was through a series of circumstances he gets raised up to be second in command in Egypt saves that nation from famine saves the whole Middle East from famine and later his brothers have to come to Egypt to get grain and when many years later he gets to confront the brothers who sold him into slavery and they don't recognize him because he's older he says this there on your outline Genesis 50 verse 20 your plan was to hurt me but God turned your evil plan into a good plan to save the lives of many people that's called redemptive suffering sometimes you suffer for the benefit of other people that's what Jesus did for you he suffered for your benefit he didn't suffer for his benefit he didn't having to suffer for but God says all things can work together for good and if God is a good god it doesn't mean everything in my life is good it's not but God says even the bad stuff in my life God says I will use it for good and the more you trust the goodness of God the happier you're gonna be so Romans 5 verse 3 says this so we can rejoice we can rejoice when we run into problems and trials huh that sounds kind of masochistic we could rejoice when you run into problems and trials why for we know they are what good for us good good father and they help us learn patient endurance on earth God is much more interested in your character than he is your comfort and if God's going to teach you to be like Christ one of these is going to teach his patience how do you have to learn patience waiting what's God's number one tool to teach you patience post office lines doctor visits I remember one time I was going through some really bad trials and I said Lord I really need patience I need patience God instead of the problems getting better they got worse I said lord I really need patience come on I need help give me patience and they got worse I don't get pretty god I really need patience they got any worse finally I realized after about six months I'm a lot more patient than when I started how do you learn patience having to wait how do you learn love being around unlovely people how you learn joy in the middle of grief how do you learn self-control when you're tempted did not have it God puts you the exact opposite situations to teach you the qualities that he wants to grow in your life everything God does in my life he does for my good would you write that down everything God does in my life he does for good there there's no it's not a punishment God if you have trusted Christ for your salvation God does not punish you why because all your sins were paid for on the cross why would God make you pay for sins that Jesus paid for God would not punish you when he's already punished Christ Jesus took the punishment for everything I'm going to do wrong including stuff haven't done yet that's wrong everything God does in my life he does for my good now if you get that down then it's gonna be one of the four pillars or five pillars of being able to pray to God that I know that God's plan for my life it might not always be fun but it will always be good God is incapable of doing bad in your life it's always for your good so God says my plan for your life will always be good number two the second thing we know is it because God is always good God always gives me what I need not what I deserve because God is a good God whatever comes into my life is what I need it's not what I deserved if we all got what we deserved none of us would be here because I don't deserve anything it's all a gift you didn't earn the air you breathe you didn't earn the water you drink you didn't earn your brain everything you have your hands your eyes your feet your mouth your nose your toes it's all given you everything is a gift from God from Heavenly Father above and if we all got what we deserved we wouldn't be here now here's what the Bible says Psalm 103 verse 1012 he has not treated us as we deserve for our sins or paid us back for our wrongs in His goodness he's saying he has taken our sins away and removed them as far as the East is from the West you know I says he's from the West because they don't end he gotta said north to south there's the North Pole and South Pole they actually end but east and west that they don't end he says I've separated you from your sins so they're never coming back God gives me what I need not what I deserve you know when King David in the Bible committed adultery and then tried to cover it up with the murder did he deserve mercy no no he did not deserve mercy but David knew God is a good god he's a good God and so he prays this next verse Psalm 51 wanted to God in your goodness have mercy on me wash me wash away all my guilt and make me clean again from my sin cleanse me now I want you to notice this is really important I want you to get this God forgives you not because you're good but because he is here that God forgives you not because you're good because you couldn't be good enough to get all your sins forgiven neither could I it's not like there's a scale you've got good and bad works like this God forgives you because he's good and David when he's committed murder and adultery that's a couple big ones right there he comes to God and in confidence says God I know you're a good God God in your goodness I'm asking you have mercy on me now because they deserve it I don't now because I'm I'm good I'm not but in your goodness have mercy on me but here's the interesting thing when we blow it when we make mistakes when we sin when we fall when we fail God does more than just forgive oh yeah he does a whole lot more than just forgive he welcomes us back now that's the exact opposite of what people do when you blow it when you sin when you ever failure God when you sin he doesn't reject you he receives you why because he is a good god I'm not always that good you aren't either God does not reject you he receives you even when you've made the mistakes when you've sinned when you've blown it because it's based on who he is not who you are no let me just be honest with you as a pastor I happen to know some things about you and one of the things I know about you it's one of your greatest fears is the fear of rejection in fact you will do almost anything in life to avoid it you will not allow yourself in certain situations where you look dumb because you don't want to be rejected I'm not going there cuz I don't look that cool I can't dance like that I can't do that I can't do this and so you you actually order your life in many ways to avoid the fear of rejection there used to be a book out called why am i afraid to tell you who I am and the answer that question is I'm afraid to tell you who I really am because if I told you who I really am and you don't like it I'm up a creek without a paddle cuz tough luck I'm all I've got so we go around living most of our lives with masks because we fear rejection and we do everything we can to avoid it that's why you try to cover up the bad parts of your life and when you're doing social media it's just the highlights real all the nice neat stuff not all the bad stuff in your life because you're afraid people reject you but God will never reject you why he's a good god and when you have that promise I will never leave you I will never forsake you I will never reject you he says that about nine times in Scripture then there's no fear in that relationship now I can talk to God about anything on my heart if I fear that I could say something in prayer that God it might cause God to reject me I'm a little reticent to pray I'm certainly not gonna pray about stuff I'm thinking about because maybe it's not right maybe it's improper maybe I shouldn't say that to God Todd says have no fear I'm there and you can say anything you want to say because God is good he doesn't just forgive you he welcomes you back he receives you he doesn't reject you Psalm 27 verses 10 to 13 even if my mother and father abandoned me the Lord will hold me close can you see the tenderness in that verse everybody wants to be held close I've never met anybody who didn't want to actually be held close even if my father and mother abandoned me they reject me say you're worthless you're never gonna back to anything the Lord will hold me close David says my enemies are waiting for me to fall they've seen my mistake they know I'm gonna mess up and yet I remain confident that I'll see the goodness the goodness of the Lord while I'm living here in the world God is the god of second chances and because God is good and gracious we are bold and confident in our prayers I could come to God talking about anything any time of day and be confident that he's not gonna you know rap my knuckles or slap my hand and say what are you even talking about that for no God will not reject you he will not abandon you you can't make God stop loving you how many times I've told you that you can try but you will fail if you make it as a goal of your life to make God stop loving you can't do it cuz his love isn't based on what you do God's plan for my life will always be good and God always gives me what I need not what I deserve because he is good the last verse there Hebrews 4 verse 15 and 16 Jesus understands our weaknesses why for he faced all the same temptations we do you know he came to earth lived human life he faced all the same temptations we do yet he did not sin so let us come boldly with confidence to the throne of our gracious God he's good and we will receive His mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it then you always get into trouble when you start doubting the goodness of God when you think God isn't good you take matters into your own hands God says my plan for your life is good and I'm always gonna give you what you need not what you deserve and I'm always gonna give you good not bad but here's the third thing these are building up on each other the third one is that God this is amazing the third reason that we can pray is because God is always good God puts my good above his own good that that just sounds like heresy but that's what the entire Bible teaches that God puts my good above his own good this friends is the heart of the gospel the king sacrifices his life for the peasants does that I know the Bible is not a fairy tale because in the fairy tale everybody dies to save the king protect the King at all costs and all the PN's and all the peasants and all the soldiers are dying to save the king only in the bible does the King die for everybody else he puts our good ahead of his own that's the heart of the gospel is the ultimate expression of love the Shepherd dies for the Sheep would you die for a bunch of sheep not on your life there's not a person in the sound of my voice who would die for flock sheep Jesus says this in John 10 I am The Good Shepherd remember the goodness of God I'm the good not the bad I'm The Good Shepherd and I know my own sheep and they know me and I will sacrifice my life for my sheep that is the ultimate expression of goodness really I'll sacrifice my life for the Sheep here on the screen John 15:13 the greatest love you can have is to give your life for others and that is this essence of our faith that Christ died for us the cross when you look at the cross the cross is the ultimate expression of God's goodness I love you so much it hurts no one else has ever offered to pay for your sins and nobody ever will and nobody's good enough to pay for him but Jesus Christ that I will why because God is always good he puts my good above his own and when I come to him he expects me to do that with others he said I'll give you an example now you ought to lay down your life for your brother's said you ought to put other people's needs ahead of your own I modeled it Jesus never asked you to do something he hadn't already done he put your good ahead of his own you didn't die on that cross he did you didn't go through all the torture he did you didn't suffer bleed he did what the goodness of God the greatest love you can have is to give your life for others but here's the neat thing just like Jesus doesn't just forgive you he welcomes you back there's more to it than just forgiveness when he puts your good head of his own he didn't just die for you he imputed his goodness into you he gave you his goodness so what do you talk about look at these next verses 2nd Corinthians 5:21 God took the sinless Christ the ultimate goodness and poured into him all our sins he took all the guilt took the guilt for every rape every molestation every murder every tax cheated on every lie he took every sin on him God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sin then in exchange he poured God's goodness into us are you kidding me what a god this is the only way friends I'm getting heaven the only way you're getting heaven is God pours His goodness into us that's the ticket I can't be good enough on my own he imputed he poured in he gave his goodness to me he didn't just take away my badness he gave me his goodness took the sinless Christ poured into him our sins then in exchange this is the great exchange he poured God's goodness into us friends that's what being a Christian is all about recognize it's all because of God's goodness all because of his grace Romans 4:25 Jesus died for our sins and rose again to make us right with God we got that part filling us with God's what goodness do you realize that if you're to die you know the Lord right now and you die and you go to heaven and you say now Lord about that sin I did yesterday you go what sin it's already been paid for on the cross so I've even wiped out washed away as far as East as West the Bible says he takes your sin and puts them in the deepest part of the ocean and he puts up a no-fishing sign don't try to drag him back out but God is forgiving you need to forgive well God has let go of because of his goodness you need to let go of he didn't just die for our sins he fills us with His goodness this is amazing he said but Rick what in the world does this have to do with prayer let has everything to do with prayer if you don't get this prayer is just gonna be a rote ritual to you you don't understand it's all based on God's goodness look at the next verse Romans 8:32 since God did not spare even his own son but gave Christ up for so that's putting my good above his own he gave his own son since God did not even spare his own son in putting my good above his own but gave us Christ up for us all second part won't he now also give us everything else we need do you follow the logic of this when Jesus Christ died on the cross he solved your biggest problem salvation forgiveness a home in heaven any other thing you ask him in prayer is small potatoes compared to that there's no problem too big for God there's nothing you can't talk to God about nothing too small and nothing too big because he says if God loved you enough to send Jesus to die for you doesn't he love you enough to help you with your bills or that conflict or that health problem won't he now also give us what else we need this is the goodness of God now we come to the fourth and this is the hard one this is the one that sticks in your throat because God is good his plan for my life will always be good because God is good he always gives me what I need not what I deserve because God is good he puts my good above his own good Jesus proved it dying on the cross God so much wanted you in his family he let his own son die for you that's the ultimate example of God's goodness number four this was harder because God is always good he does not say yes to every request we don't like this one but because God is good he does not say yes to every request you know we talked through a little bit about this last week no loving parent gives a child everything they asked for if a child everything they asked for the parents would be just a vending machine that child would be spoiled to death God as an interested in spoiling you no parent who loves a child would dare give a child everything they asked for and then I told you last week that God always answers prayer just not the way you want it there's no such thing as an unanswered prayer every prayers answered no as an answer knows an answer every prayer is answered by God just not the way you want and I said there are four ways God answered prayer facetiously yes no wait and you got to be kidding me but let me give you another way I want you to write these words down because God will always answer one of these ways when the request is wrong God says no write that down no is an answer and just as a parent tells a child when they love that child no they know what's good for that child no they know what's best for that child know when that when the request is not right God says no and he always says no not out of anger hatred or disgust he's always says it out of his goodness no that's not what you need when the request is wrong God says no when the timing is wrong God says I want to give it to you but not yet and remember there's a difference we know one not yet a delay is not a denial a lot of time this is what is the mark of maturity little kids don't know the difference we know not yet if you delay it they think well I don't get it a delay is not a denial but when the timing is not right God says slow he says slow when God says wrong request know when the timing is not right God says slow yep I'm gonna give it to you just not yet you're you are the situation isn't right and if the timing isn't right so slow when you're not right you know I want to give this to you but you're not ready to handle it God says grow grow and that's an answer to prayer and sometimes God says I have your intention of giving you this request but you got to grow up first because you can't handle it it's like giving a five-year-old a new car they couldn't handle that or asking a two-year-old to carry your luggage to the to the airport they can't handle that sometimes God says no requests is wrong sometimes God says slow the timings wrong sometimes God says grow I want you to change I'm much more interested in your character than answering this prayer request but when it all lines up right request right time you're ready for it God says go God says go every prayer in your life for the rest of your life will be answered one of those four ways No grow and go and why does God do that why does he not say yes to every quest because he is a good god Luke chapter 11 verse 11 and 13 Jesus says this if your file if your children ask you for a fish to eat would you give them a snake instead earth they ask for an egg you know can I some scrambled eggs would you give them a scorpion of course not so if you as sinful people sinful parents know how to do it give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father who is a good good father give the holy spirit to those who ask him now the whole point of that Jesus by the way that's funny that's humor we don't understand the humor of the Bible because Hebrew humor is humor by exaggeration when Jesus says things like hey why don't you get the telephone pole out of your I've where you get the speck of dust out of your neighbors that was hilarious ly funny to the people there oh you're killing me Jesus that's hilarious get the telephone pole out of my eye where you get the speck of dust out of your right that's a gutbuster your Lord that's you're killing me Jesus and yeah hey well how about it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than a wealthy man to get into heaven oh god you're telling me a cab while going through an eye of a needle it is it was a humor by exaggeration and we don't get it today would say now the Greek word for camel is you know and we miss it and when Jesus saying no dad's gonna give us kid a scorpion for breakfast I'm sure the the this is humor in that day you don't get it okay but I just had to tell you that okay the point of the story is not that Jesus used humor because he used it all there are a lot of laugh lines in the Sermon on the Mount if you know the humor but the point is the God will never give you anything hurtful or anything that's bad for you one day James and John - the disciples they were called the sons of thunder buh energies because they both had tempers and they really had an ego problem and they wanted to be like number one and number two the right hand guys to Jesus and so they got their mom involved and one day Jesus mother comes to Jesus I mean that Jesus John and and James mother comes to Jesus said uh hey Lord when you get to your kingdom up in heaven would it be okay if my boys sat on either side of you Matthew 20 verse 22 jesus replied you don't realize what you're asking for I'm sure that there are many times Jesus would want to say that to you on some of your requests you just don't realize what you're asking for that's why I'm saying no or slow or go or grow because you've got a limited perspective you don't see the whole picture now let's just admit it it's easy to believe in the goodness of God when things are going good there's no problem oh I believe in the goodness of God God's busted me I got a promotion I just got married we you know we got a new house and you know I got out of debt and yeah when things are going good it's very easy to believe in the goodness of God the test is do you believe in the goodness of God when everything's bad in your life you're not getting the answers to prayer when things are not working out the way you want them to work out when things are going the wrong way and you get bad news and you get fired you get sick I mean starts to split up do you believe in the goodness of God then God hasn't changed the test of your faith and the Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God is do you trust the goodness of God when it doesn't look good or is God only a good God and he said you're a good good father and God is so good and we sing those songs of praise only when things are going good in our lives the test of your faith is not how high you jump in church during a price on its how straight you walk when you're going through the valley of the shadow of death do you believe in the goodness of God when things aren't going right did I believe the goodness of God when I was trying to write Purpose Driven Life and right in the middle of that the government sued me it was a big case went to court actually he eventually went to Congress and Congress passed the Warren bill and I won but it took a lot of time was God good in that time yes he was good was it a distraction absolutely was a spiritual warfare while I was trying to write that book and all this comes out of blue yes okay got it breast cancer the month we launched the peace plan it's got a good God yes when I prayed for healing over and over and over and she wasn't miraculously healed but she went through the months and months of chemo and radiation and I'm holding the pan while she throws up and I'm wondering is my wife gonna live is God good then yes when the two prayers that I've prayed for over 45 years everyday have yet to be answered is God still a good God yeah when your youngest son loses a battle with the middle of illness and takes his own life it's got a good God yes yes yes you've got to get to the point where like job you can lose it all and you say you give and take away you give and take away but my heart will choose to say blessed be the name of the Lord that is a choice to believe in the goodness of God when everything else looks bad you say in faith my heart will choose to save now let's just get real real about this prayer thing you know for certain that many if not most your prayers you don't see any answer to and that's why you go I don't even know if I want to waste any time on this because it doesn't always seem to work you know on Wednesday of this week I got a terrible stomach pain that lasted several hours and it was really painful I don't know if I got food poisoning or what but I am i literally was bowled over and laying down and i was crying out to God and asked him to take away my pain you know what happened he didn't take it away surprise surprise I'm sure that's never happened to you but I have some prayers that aren't answered the way I like them and so I was in pain for several more hours before it subsided now I prayed and I cried out to God God take this pain away and he didn't take it away at least four hours did go away eventually what did that tell me about prayer are you listening did it tell me that prayer doesn't work no I've seen too many worked they tell me that God isn't good no I know that is good even when things don't look good did it tell me that I should give up on prayer cos I don't get my way every time no dad I don't get everything that I asked for no I said last week God is not a vending machine he's not a genie she's not a magic wand prayer is not a painkiller to keep you pain-free in this life it will not remove all the pain in your life nowhere in the Bible has God promised you a pain-free life nowhere if you have a pain-free life you'd be a brat you'd never grow up and anybody else had pain you would be totally unsympathetic like well get a life it's like why I only hire people who've learned through deep pain on our staff because people never meant through the painter hypocrites of Pharisees and they they're not sympathetic to the pains of people out I want somebody's been broken by real pain nowhere in the Bible's God promised pain-free life and no where as God said that he'll make every moment of your life easy it just doesn't say that in the Bible this is not heaven friends we shouldn't expect heaven on earth in heaven no sorrow no suffering no sadness no sickness not it's gonna be perfect there but this is not heaven that's why we pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven everything on earth is broken every relationship is broken your body broken your mind is broken the economy's broken the weather's broken everything is broken by sin so we shouldn't expect it to be perfect here it's just not gonna be that way Donna's never said you're gonna have a pain-free life so I had to give up praying no my job is just keep praying trusting God to the answer because I know he's a good god I know that for sure I don't know he can see things that I can't see and I know that he's a good good father even when I'm in pain if a doctor does surgery on you and he saves your life it's a life-saving surgery but it hurt a lot in the surgery and the recovery causes you pain do you say that doctors a bad doctor no no they saved your life there will be times that you have problems in your life that actually saved you from bigger problems when God didn't immediately end my pain I just sensed him saying my grace is enough for you your big boy you can handle this you don't need every moment of your life to be pain-free because you know what almost everything I've learned I've learned through pain you don't learn anything from success you learn almost nothing from pleasure most of the stuff you've learned in life you've learned the hard way through pain God is a good good father and he's much more interested in you he's more interested in your character than he is your comfort and everything God does is for your good and if you never had any pain and ever any difficulty how strong and mature would you be if I never had a problem I'd never know that God could solve them he's a good good father fine because God is always good he invites us to live with him forever not what's the show is goodness to you not just while you're here on earth but for all of eternity hello God says I want to show my goodness for eons and trillions and zillions and quadrillions of years God doesn't want to just show you goodness for sixty eighty a hundred years I want to show it to you for all of eternity never-ending goodness second Thessalonians two our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father who loves us has given us by His grace and everlasting encouragement that means it's not gonna stop and everlasting encourage tell about heaven and a good there's that word a good hope that will last forever may this encourage your heart and give you strength for every good thing you do and say last year we went through Psalm 23 and you know how it ends verse 6 surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and then I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever goodness is going to follow you every day of your life and then you're going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever and you're gonna have goodness for all of eternity now friends until you're absolutely convinced that God is always always always good to you your prayer is gonna be powerless passionless and pointless because you don't know if he's gonna hug your slub you he's gonna be Moody have a bad hair day but if you are convinced that God will always be good to you in these five ways then you have power and you have passion and you have purpose and you're praying so let me ask you real quickly what do you want to see God do in your life the next 40 days do not waste what we're about to go through I will tell you this Satan is not afraid of your plans Satan is not afraid of your schemes Satan is not afraid of your programs but Satan is deathly afraid of your prayers it scares him spitless particularly when a group of people decide to start praying together because you study history anytime God starts moving and any time God wants to do something great in your life or in your family or in your church or in your career or in our community or in our nation he begins by moving you to pray because everything God does in and through and foreign to your life he does in the conversation you have not because you ask not looking on the past six weeks our nation desperate needs a spiritual reawakening it needs a renewal it needs a revival but it's not gonna happen through politics it's not gonna happen to petitions it's not gonna happen to any other way it happens to prayer things happen when a group of people began to pray together and I want to invite you to join me and I've got a couple verses we close with here and I want you to pray these verses this week here the two verses Lord keep me from paying attention to what's worthless you might right up next to that table TV or some of the social media Lord keep me from paying attention to what's worthless instead let me live by your word I want to obey your principles please renew my life with your what with your goodness and look at the last verse lamentations 5:21 bring us back to you God we're ready to come back give us a fresh start and here are the three things I want to ask you to pray I'm gonna pray them every day this week I'm gonna ask you to pray them every day this week three things Lord revived my heart revived my small group revived our church family this week you're gonna learn the four purpose as a prayer in your small group if you haven't got in the group it's not too late and get this material let's bow our heads for prayer you're a good good father even when things don't look good you're good even when we're not good you're good even when the world looks bad you're good thank you for the consistency of your goodness that it never wavers that you do not reject us but instead you receive us the Lord may we build our prayer lives on these five truths because you are so good we want to talk to you we want to know you we want to be close to you and I ask Lord that you bring revival and by heart I ask you bring revival in my small group I've asked you to bring revival in our church only changed people can change the world and I humbly ask this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Saddleback Church Hong Kong

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Length: 64min 42sec (3882 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2017