Sermon Central
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God Hears Series
Contributed by Rick Stacy on Jul 9, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: 2 of 5 messages on God Senses. This message deals with understanding the will of God and how God hears our prayers.
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint;
O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in anguish.
How long, O LORD, how long?
4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5 No one remembers you when he is dead.
Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed;
they will turn back in sudden disgrace.
God Hears
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Sometimes when we are talking to God it feels a little like shouting into the wind at a person on the other side of a lake – it takes a whole lot of energy and nothing happens. No matter how hard you yell – the person on the other side just goes on doing what they are doing and never even look up. It’s not that they turn down your request – they don’t even hear you.
We’re going to talk about what it takes to get God to hear us this morning.
John says that our confidence in approaching God comes from knowing that God only gives us what is in His will for us.
This being true – it is very important that you and I learn what God’s will for our lives.
So what is God’s will? There are two myths concerning God’s will we need to explode today.
First, many people think that God’s will for their life is super specific. They believe that God has a plan for their life that encompasses every detail including where they go to school, what they do on a specific day, and what car they drive.
They wonder if God wants them to purchase a Chevy or a Ford. Are they supposed to go to Penny’s or Sears. Should they shop at Meijers or Krogers. Walmart or Sam’s – no wait, I don’t think that matters much!
A lot of people really think that God has every footstep laid out on graph paper and that he wants to guide you into each step along the way. If that’s your idea of God’s will for your life – I’m going to rock your world this morning.
The second myth is that discovering God’s will requires a life long crusade of earnest searching. They see God’s will as a something that only the most dedicated monk can find. God’s will becomes a sort of “Holy Grail” that is hidden away in some cave somewhere and is guarded by either the Knights Templar or maybe the Cosa Nostra.
If you think of God’s will is being hard to discover for your life – hard enough that you’ve given up the search – I’m going to do my best to bring the will of God out of the hidden places and put it in the center of your living room coffee table.
The will of God is simply not that hard to figure out. And that is a good thing for John tells us that God’s hearing of our prayers, hopes, dreams, praises, and cries depends on our understanding of his will!
Do I have good news for you today! God’s will is not hard to find if you are looking at his word. When you go to his word you’ll find out that his will is pretty straightforward. I used my trusty Bible Study software and came up with 60 references to God’s will for our life.
After you filter out the ones that talk about God’s will without being all that specific about what it is we are left with five very concrete teachings that tell us with absolute clarity what God’s will is for your life…
Are you ready? Are you ready to know God’s will for you life?
We’re going to go pretty fast so hang on…
Here we Go…
It is God’s Will that you be Saved
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
It is God’s will that you are saved. God wants to make a way for you to come home and to have fellowship with him for all of time and eternity. If there is one thing that is absolutely God’s will for your life it is that he wants you to follow Jesus, God’s Son, whom the father sent to show you the way back to him.
