Sermon Central
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Calling Home - Prayer
Contributed by Jeff Strite on Apr 7, 2008 (message contributor)
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1. Calling God
Contributed on Apr 7, 2008
Uses a cell phone to illustrate the basics of effective prayer. Addresses the tendency of people to rely on repetition and ritual to get God’s attention.
OPEN: (a deep voiced man was positioned in a side room with microphone and monitor. This opening illustration goes on for a couple of pages but worked well to set up the rest of the sermon) "Our Father who art in heaven..." "YES?" (look up and around suspiciously then bow and say) "Our ...read more
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2. Waiting For An Important Call
Contributed on Apr 14, 2008
One of the most frustrating things about prayer is that we seem to be doing all the talking. How do I "hear" God’s answers if He’s not "answering" me?
OPEN: The father of a teenage daughter was concerned with the amount of time she spent on the telephone; not so much for the time she wasted (he had given up on that long ago), but because nobody else could use the phone. So, as a happy solution, he had a telephone installed for her with her ...read more
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3. Unanswered Prayers Part 1 - The Dead Zone
Contributed on Apr 21, 2008
Sin can create a "dead zone" where our calls to God will not be answered. Find out what they are, and how we can move out of the zone of unanswerable prayer.
OPEN: About 3 years ago Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had an idea! He was eager to get in touch with the people of his country so he gave out his personal cell phone number during a speech and urged Indonesian people to contact him directly with any complaints about the government’s ...read more
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4. Bad Reception - Unanswered Prayer #2
Contributed on Apr 28, 2008
"Wrong doing" (sin) can block our prayers... but so can "wrong thinking". What kinds of attitudes could undermine our prayer time and create "bad reception" between us and God?
OPEN: Charlie Brown. Lucy. Schroeder. Snoopy. Where do we know those characters from? (The cartoon series: Peanuts) And who was the artist who created “Peanuts”? (Charles Shultz) Charles Shultz was something of a theologian. He tried to communicate his view of God through his cartoons. And he ...read more