Saturday 2/28/15 Talking to God (4)

Good Afternoon, Father in Heaven: Thanks for letting me talk with You today, and thank You for listening. Yes, Lord, sometimes we talk to people who don't take time to listen to us. Oh, and Lord, please help me listen when You talk to me. Thanks for the sunshine today and thanks for Your Son today and everyday. Lord, please, if I have sinned, forgive me, and help me repent. Please keep watch over this line and all who use it in any way. Protect families and friends, Lord, and be with Your people. Please, Lord, intervene on a membership, Lord, You know what I am talking about. Lord, watch over those who must go out in the weather that is coming in. Lord, please may it blow out to sea, but Your will be done, Lord. Please help me today to get the message together and then to get it dispatched. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters: I pray you are really looking into the Lord's Prayer. I hope to wrap that up today and keep going on talking to God, for there are so many other ways to do that. It is a really beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Looks like we are going to get a tad more snow tomorrow. I just pitched an onion out into the yard, yes, on top of the snow. I want the snow tomorrow to cover my onion so I can call it, are you ready for this? The Onion Snow!! Anyway, if you are in bad weather, please remember that first inch of snow is the slippery inch. Now let me get to the message on Talking to God.

Saturday: February 28, 2015: Talking to God! (Day Four)

Matthew 6:9b - "Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." (KJV)

Today, brothers and sisters, we are going to be looking at and talking about verse thirteen. Let's break it into two parts.

Matthew 13a - "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We are praying and asking our Father in Heaven to NOT lead us into places or things of temptation. Surely I could find enough of those places of temptation on my own, why would I ever think God might lead me there? For that I want to go to James.

James 1:2 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (NIV)

My answer would be, yes, I think there are times that God will lead us into temptation, otherwise, why would we be told to pray asking God not to lead us there? And with my answer from James, we are to consider it PURE JOY when it happens. Then that line goes on to say "but deliver us from evil." We again are praying and asking to be delivered from those places or things of evil. So when we put it together, what might we be really thinking? I am thinking like this, if I am into a place of temptation, be God lead me there or just left me go, I am then asking, Lord, get me out of here,I can't handle it. I know of a man, now home with the Lord, that at one time was hard, not saved, and used some really hard words. This man went to the same restaurant everyday at the same time for breakfast and coffee. He told those jokes, and things that were bad. Then it happened, he fell in love with Jesus, he found Jesus, who was not lost, but this man found Him. He went right back to that same restaurant and sat on that same stool at the counter, told everyone he found the Lord and he did not want to hear all those bad things anymore. From there, he went on to lead others to the Lord. His faith was tested over and over again as he worked with the Lord.

There are many people who could testify that they went back to those places of temptation and worked to get others out. If that has happened to you, please tell me about it and if I can share it with others. God will carry us through, He really will. Now let me finish up with the last part of verse thirteen.

Matthew 6:13b - "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

Here we are just telling our Father in Heaven that we know it is all His. For Yours is the Kingdom, You are the all powerful One. And we want You to have ALL THE GLORY. And  how long will The Kingdom be His? And how long will He have all the power? And how long should He receive the glory? FOREVER! And that I guess is why some people will be praying forever and ever and ever. One way or the other, it goes on FOREVER. And to quote a song, and that's a long, long time.

One word left. It is the word "AMEN." This word is used at the end of a prayer or a statement to express approval. It is a closing and when you add it to anything you are expressing your approval. I have heard people talking about different things when someone else will say "Amen, brother" or something like that. When a pastor is praying in church and you add an "Amen" you are approving of what that pastor just said in his prayer. Sometimes a person leading a prayer will say something like "and all God's people said: Amen."

Now I said that there is something else we need to add to our prayers. Do you know what that might be? No, I am not telling you this now, I want you to think about it and let me know what you think and why. Okay, as we have done all week as we learned this prayer, let's pray it together.

Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings.  Love ya.

Pastor Dan