HOW GOD SPEAKS TO US
"LOGOS and "RHEMA"
PART ONE...
Most men do not want greeting cards ladies mainly because you give us cards with these long passages written on them. It’s like homework. But you are standing there, waiting for our heartfelt reaction, so we pretend to read and finally give the head nod. Oh yeah. However, what we are really doing is silently going one Mississippi, two Mississippi.
Sometimes we connect. Sometimes we don’t. One of the ways that I try to connect with people is through humor. Obviously, it doesn’t always happen. A few months ago I told what, according to this British scientific organization was the funniest joke in the world. And after church, several of you came up to me and said, it wasn’t really all that funny. And then you asked me what I had ever said that had gotten the biggest laugh? This is an easy one. Last year, Larry & Claudia gave me a surprise 50th birthday party. And at this party was a dollar tree. Do you know what that is? People just stick dollar bills to it and when I counted it all up later that night I had a roll of about 80 one dollar bills. So the next day, I went to the mall to buy me something and when I pulled out this huge roll of dollar bills, the clerked said, you must work in a restaurant as a server. I said, no, I am an exotic dancer. I thought they would hurt themselves in Penny’s from laughing so hard. By the way, I wasn’t the first person to use that line, but I bet I got the biggest response. Sometimes we connect. Sometimes we don’t. Now 91% of you out there are trying to connect with someone. And it’s Not your spouse, friend, parrot, or computer. But you are trying to connect with God. An article in Tuesday’s USA Today called A Closer Look At Prayer looked at a Baylor study that found that 91% of Americans believe in God and 83% of us pray…the question is. Everyone prays (the study found that even among those who don’t believe in God, one out of three atheists have prayed). Everyone prays. Is someone listening? And that is the question we are going to look at over the next several weeks.
Jesus made an incredible promise in John 15:7 about being connected to Him. “If you stay joined to Me [connected] and My words remain in you, you may ask any request you like and it will be granted.” That is an incredible verse. That is like a blank check, like God giving you unlimited credit.
But how do you do that first part? How do you stay joined to God? How do you stay connected?
All over the world people want to get connected to God. in the Orient People use rituals and all kinds of lights and incense, putting their body in certain movements, they sell gongs. So you can wake up God.” When you have a prayer you had to get God’s attention (God’s a busy guy) you had to beat the gong to get God’s attention. It’s kind of like the dial tone and then you can get connected to God.
In Matthew 6:7-8 in The Message paraphrase He says, “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. (In other words, like treating God like a genie.) Don’t fall for that nonsense.” That was said over 2000 years ago and it’s still relevant today because there are many books, magazines, seminars, self-help books that teach you if you just pray a certain way or you chant a certain thing or you do so many of these rituals, you’ll get on God’s good side and you’ll get whatever you want from God.
I saw in a super market tabloid: “Bible prayers to flush out body fat.” Now, this is worth reading! I didn’t buy it, my wife did. I would never buy these kind of magazines! It said, “You can lose 10, 20, 30 pounds or more with Bible prayers that are guaranteed to flush out body fat… for eternity!” Not just one time but for eternity. It talks about that you can rest assured that the flab you lose will stay lost. You don’t have to eat any special diet. You can eat anything you want. Exercise? No! All you have to do is pray these special prayers. On Monday you pray, “Man does not live by bread alone.” On Tuesday you pray “I am the bread of life.”
There’s a different prayer for each day.
When I saw that I thought that’s what Jesus was talking about when He said “They’re full of programs and formulas and advise, peddling techniques of getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense.”
I have a book called “Praying The Promises Of God.” It pretty much says, pray this promise and it will happen? And to be honest with you, this is how I was brought up how to pray.
I was reading about a man who was a diabetic and he read the verse, "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." John 14:14. So he said, "God, I'm going to ask that You cure me of diabetes," and he threw away his insulin and three days later he died. What happened? God promised. Why didn't it work?
The fact of the matter is there's a misconception people have about the promises of God. It's this: You cannot automatically claim a promise that's been given to somebody else in the Bible unless the Holy Spirit gives it to you. Now next week we will look at the difference between a general word from God and a specific word of God to you...
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