October 17, 2024 • 48 mins
We are glad you have joined us on our podcast channel. We have Pastor Rob Urban sermon on Relational Prayer. Hope you enjoy and have a blessed week!
Logan City Christian Church is a vibrant growing church committed to serving and meeting the needs of our community and beyond through the various ministries within. We as a church welcome you to come visit this Sunday and be part of an active, excited team reaching the world one day at a time. Sunday Service | 9:30am Friday Youth Service | 6:30pm Thursday Prayer Meeting | 7pm Address | 13 Watland Street, Springwood Qld 4127 Church Website | www.logancitychristianchurch.com United World Ministries | www.unitedworldministries.com Instagram | @logancitychristianchurch Facebook | @logancitychristianchurch
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Episode Transcript
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Welcome to Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you weekly.
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We pray what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.
Enjoy the message.
Well happy birthday to you Jean for last week.
You didn't know that I knew that but little Birdie told me but happy birthday.
Is anyone else having had a birthday or having a birthday?
Happy birthday to you and may God bless you.
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In fact Manique when was yours?
Two weeks ago?
Last month?
Oh.
We're a real tight family.
We know what's going on.
Praise God.
Shano, it's lovely to see you up there.
You've really blessed me seeing you today and Sammy.
Where's Sammy?
Give me a wave Sammy.
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Yeah good on you mate.
Yeah praise God.
We're really blessed.
Truly blessed.
It's lovely to see Rex and Colette back from the UK.
They released you and let you come back to Down Under.
Praise the Lord Cher bro.
It's good.
You know we have this evening as Chantel mentioned the leadership training equipping.
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It's for people who are already in ministry, people in missions, people in leadership in
churches, people leadership here or maybe if you feel there's a call of God on your
life that you really want to go to the next step or maybe you just want to you know stick
your head in it to see what's going on you're welcome.
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It starts at 5pm and it'll be finished by about 7pm followed up by a little bit of bush
tucker at the end.
I don't know something to eat and a cup of tea.
It'll be great.
I'm a fellowship but what will be shared throughout these six weeks on Sunday evenings is not
what you would generally hear in a church service and I know that you'll be blessed.
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It'll be challenging so if that's you, you are so welcome to come tonight and we'd be
blessed to have you here with us.
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
God is good.
You excited to be in church today?
Praise the Lord.
I want to read from Matthew chapter 6 from verse 5.
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I'm going to bring out something that is very close to my heart as I'm sure it is yours
also and it's to do with prayer.
Last week, well two weeks ago it was on fasting, the platform, the foundation that we lay and
need to be standing on when we're fasting and then last week was prayer and fasting
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and today we're going to speak about prayer.
But just not any kind of prayer.
This is relational prayer, relational prayer and so I'll get into that in just a moment
but I'm going to read from Matthew chapter 6 from verse 5.
And Jesus speaking and He said, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites for they
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love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may
be seen by men.
Surely I say to you they have their reward but you, when you pray, go into your room
and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who was in the secret place and
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your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they
will be heard for their many words.
Therefore do not be like them for your Father knows the things you have need of before you
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ask him.
In this manner therefore pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom
come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
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And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
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But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
I'd like to first identify something here.
Who is Jesus speaking to?
This is vitally important to know who Jesus' congregation is and it is often understood
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that Jesus' congregation, that this goes back to the beginning of chapter 5 where Jesus
begins to teach the Beatitudes.
Now the Beatitudes is not just the ones blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you.
The Beatitudes continue to chapter 7 right in the end when Jesus teaches on building
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your house on the rock.
So it's not just chapter 5 verse 1 through to 10 which are the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes is an entire teaching that Jesus taught that for many or for all it was
the first time that they heard this kind of message.
They'd never heard it before in the history of mankind.
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So there they are, they're seated with Jesus on this mountaintop or on the side of a mountain
and Jesus begins to teach them who are the people.
Can I say that it goes way beyond just the disciples that Jesus was with because in Matthew
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chapter 4 verse 25 it reads here, great multitudes followed him from Galilee and from Decapolis,
that's the 10 cities, the 10 regions, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan.
Chapter 7 and verse 28 it reads here and so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings
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that the people were astonished at his teachings.
So it goes way beyond just Jesus' disciples sitting there hearing something for the first
time.
There is a whole congregation of people from all those regions as I just mentioned from
Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan.
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That is a wide region and so people had travelled far and wide because they finally saw somebody
different, somebody teaching something that was making sense.
So Jesus is teaching them so we need to understand that.
So we get to chapter 6 about prayer.
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Now why would Jesus be teaching people who in today's standard are not born again and
majority of are not Jews and so not in covenant with God, not children of Abraham.
So here are these people that are scattered from so far God had brought them all together.
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People of all different walks and backgrounds, people of different religions, people of different
cultures, they're all sitting there listening to the most amazing preaching that I think
the entire Bible covers.
It is so amazing.
Jesus covers throughout these two chapters every aspect of life, everything that life contains.
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He taught on it and he brought it to a new level, a totally new level.
But then Jesus does something that really when we understand that he himself brings
the people together and he uses this term about praying, he says, your father.
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Now I could only imagine there would be so many people who are not in covenant with God,
not children of Abraham, that only would have wished that if we were born as children of
Abraham we would have had the greater benefit, the privilege to be recognised as children
of God.
But here we are, outcasts, Gentiles, people out of covenant with God.
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But yet on that mountain Jesus is surrounded by people who are out of covenant with God.
And then Jesus says something to them that must have floored them when you read it in
that context that Jesus says to them, let me read here, when he says in verse 5, and
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when you pray, because he's teaching them how to pray, he's teaching them not to pray
in a religious manner and not to pray in a religious format, Jesus is teaching to pray
from a very real heart.
Amen?
And so for they love to stand praying in the synagogues and on the corners and on the streets
that they may be seen by men, as surely I say to you they have their reward, but you.
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Now Jesus when he says but you, he's speaking now directly to the people who are in front
of him who are listening.
He says but you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door, pray
to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward
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you openly.
Verse 8, it says here, therefore do not be like them for your Father knows the things
that you need of before you ask him.
Verse 9, our Father in heaven three times Jesus has brought the same message to these
people who are not by the standard of the religion of the day children of God.
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So why did Jesus do that?
I believe the answer is found within the word Father, because the word Father is Pater and
this is what it means and you'll see when I explain what the word Father means exactly
what Jesus was doing, because Jesus didn't want the people he was teaching, he didn't
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want them to learn a religious kind of prayer format.
He wanted them to know the Father so their prayer is relational with God.
It's not just I do this because it's what I've got to do, it is the hour of prayer,
so now is the hour of prayer and we must pray.
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No, Jesus is saying there's a whole new way coming, a new way of living and this way is
that prayer is going to be in your heart and on your lips all the time.
Jesus was preparing a people for the kingdom of God being established here on earth and
so what does Father actually mean?
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It means here when Jesus is saying your Father, it means the one who imparts life and is committed
to it.
He brings bringing into being to pass on the potential for likeness.
In other words, Jesus is saying to them your Father in heaven, his entire plan is for you
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to be just like him.
Come on, think about this church.
This is an incredible thing that Jesus is teaching.
It is used of our heavenly Father.
As I said, he imparts life from physical birth to the gift of eternal life through the second
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birth.
We know this, which is called the regeneration or being born again.
Through ongoing sanctification, now this is what I'm reading is straight from the concordance.
Through ongoing sanctification, the believer more and more resembles their heavenly Father.
So what is the mission here?
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The mission here is for every person that Jesus is speaking to through relational prayer
to become more like their heavenly Father.
Now if that was not possible, Jesus would not be teaching it.
I want to encourage you today that prayer, relational prayer brings us so close to God
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that when we are close with him and fellowship with him in prayer, relationally in prayer,
that the more you hang around God, if I can say, the more you begin, we begin to think
like God, the more we begin to act like God, the more we begin to speak like God and respond
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like how God would respond.
And it all is a result of relational prayer, not religious prayer.
And so Jesus, it's just an amazing setting how he is sitting there with people again
from all walks of life and he's just saying, your Father, the one that wants you to be
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exactly like him.
And they must have been thinking, how could this ever, ever be possible?
It goes on to say that each time in prayer, they receive faith from him and obey it, which
results in their unique glorification.
Glorification church is when we are taken home to glory, when we draw our last breath
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or when Jesus comes, whichever comes first.
But it goes on to say, and this is the one that I want to bring out, that the main highlight
of this word, Father, is one in intimate connection and relationship.
Jesus is teaching the people, God the Father, even though you may not have known a lot about
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him or anything at all, let me tell you who he is.
He is the one that he wants intimate connection and relationship with you.
Now, in today's standards, he'd be saying, even though you're not saved, even though
you're not a child of God, God is still in pursuit after you.
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God still loves you.
God has provided every way possible, made every way possible for every person on this
planet to be in right standing with God through Jesus Christ.
So here they are, these people, they're hearing this for the first time, our Father, our Father.
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Could you imagine what they would have been thinking?
It actually relates to the Heavenly Father as creator.
So if we could think about that for a moment today, can you imagine that Jesus is teaching
us to have relational prayer with God, who just so happens to be the creator of this
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universe?
That God obviously is greater than his creation.
And we see, you know, on the news, they've discovered another black hole in the galaxies,
in the universe.
And they're questioning, what is beyond this black hole?
If you enter into this black hole, will they enter into another galaxy or not?
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Mankind just doesn't know.
God's creation is big.
And we see the majesty of the universe, the stars and the planets and everything orbits
and everything is kept in its perfect timing.
The axis of the earth is perfect.
And how did that just happen?
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It didn't.
There's a creator.
And God creator is amazing that he created this earth so perfect.
Man's doing his best to destroy it, but God created it so perfect.
And this world was created so perfectly for you and for me.
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In God, how he measured the distance from, as it speaks about in the Psalms, from earth
to the moon to know exactly the right distance for the gravity pull and, you know, the tides
that we have today, it's all to do with the moon.
And God had orchestrated all of this.
And as the psalmist actually says, he said, how is it that it rains and yet the oceans
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are not overflowing because God has this whole system so finely created that no person, no
man and no AI could have ever engineered this.
That God is creator and there's nothing for him that is too hard to do.
That God knows everything.
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That God is in total control of every single aspect in this world.
Whether we realize it or not, he's controlling it.
And so Jesus is saying, this is the person.
Could you imagine the day when we go home to be with the Lord?
That we're going to stand in heaven and experience the glory of God, to experience what the Bible
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teaches us about heaven.
That worship just doesn't cease and the beauty of heaven, the glory in heaven, that one day
each and every one of us are going to experience this.
But God created it.
In his infinite wisdom, he created this world and he created a human being, Adam first and
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then Eve.
And God intended that Adam and Eve procreate and from there become like heaven here on
earth.
As we know that Master Gus mentioned about how the devil got in and sin messed all that
up, Jesus came and fixed it up.
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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So when we look at the rest of the Lord's Prayer as some of us call it the Lord's Prayer,
I particularly don't.
I call it the prayer that Jesus taught.
It's as simple as that.
So Jesus taught where to pray, how to pray and what to pray.
You know the secret place that Jesus speaks about, I believe in the Spirit is that same
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place in Psalm 91 verse 1, that he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
This church is what is called relational prayer.
It's not religious prayer.
And here is the thing that we don't just come to God in prayer when we need something or
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if we're sick as I better pray so I can get well.
Or we pray because something's not working in life or in family, I better start praying.
What God is wanting from us, from each and every one of us is a relational prayer life.
Can you imagine that if we never ever spoke to God only when we needed something, how
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strong would that relationship be?
It would be like a marriage with Chantel and I.
Could you imagine that I only came home because I needed dinner and I was never seen since.
And I come back again when I'm hungry, oh darling I need something.
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Can you make me dinner?
I'm going out fishing with my buddies.
Now I'm going out hunting with some other guys and can you pack me something?
The only contact that we have is when I have a need.
How long do you think that relationship is going to last?
Do you think that that relationship, that marriage relationship is going to be strengthened
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like that?
No it's not.
So what strengthens a friendship?
What strengthens a relationship?
You know what strengthens a relationship?
A marriage or our relationship with God?
You know what it is?
Is fellowship.
Our fellowship with God.
Our fellowship with our spouse.
That's what strengthens it.
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I know some guys say, oh my fellowship with my wife actually destroys our relationship.
Well it might be time to change, praise the Lord.
But fellowship does enhance relationship.
Now when we look at relational prayer, relational prayer is that we come to God not because
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we just need something.
I'm coming to God.
We're coming to God because not as a need but I just want to spend time with God.
When is the last time that we've had a prayer that's God checking in to see how you're doing
sort of thing?
Things are okay here but I just come because I want to spend time with you.
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I've just come because I just love being in your presence.
That's prayer.
Talking with God, being with God and see this builds and enhances a relationship.
And let me tell you that when a time does come when we are in need, we know that way
very well.
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There's a well-worn path from our place, from our heart to the heart of God because we've
traveled it every day for so long because of our relationship with God.
My prayer has been, our prayer has been relational.
That I'm not coming to God like he's a Santa Claus because I need something.
I'm coming to God because he is my heavenly Father.
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And I know that I feel safe with him.
We feel safe with him.
We're comforted that everything will be alright but we need to maintain that right fellowship
with God.
Fellowshiping with God is everything.
I remember the first time that I truly can say that I encountered the presence of God.
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My first pastor was encouraging me to become a spirit man.
And he said a spirit man is a person that is in awareness of the spiritual realm and
an awareness of God and that you're receptive and you're flowing in that realm.
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And he was teaching me for months and months and months.
And I would do what he says and nothing would seem to ever happen.
Nothing.
So I went back to him and I said, you know what you're talking about, I understand it
but I'm not experiencing it.
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And I began to think that God wasn't interested in me getting that close to him.
So one day he said to me, he said, Rob, I think where the problem is you're trying too
hard.
Just start fellowshiping with God.
Just go there and just talk with God as if you would talk to your friend.
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So I did.
And the first night I was in my room, the lights were out and I bet you I have to turn
lights off.
I am so easily distracted.
You know, if there's no lights, I can't see anything, it cuts distraction down so much.
So what happened, what I'm about to explain to you changed my life because we need to
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know that God is real.
When we get saved, we need to have that encounter.
We need to have that encounter with the living God, the one who created the heavens and the
earth and the seas and all that is within.
And without experiencing God, Christianity can become so dry, it can become so religious.
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You see, Jesus is alive.
He's not dead.
He's alive and alive forevermore.
And so I started on this journey wanting to experience it's one thing to know about God,
and yet it's quite a different thing to experience God.
And God is not hiding from us.
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He wants us to experience Him, Him, His person, who He is.
And what happened to me this particular night, nothing could have ever prepared me for it.
Now I know what I'm about to share.
Some of us have experienced and some of us are wanting to experience and some may think,
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I don't know if that's real or not.
Whatever your position, I want to share this with you because it turned my prayer life
around.
My service to God changed.
The way that I viewed everything in life changed.
This one particular night, it was after about three or four nights just waiting on God and
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talking with God, all of the sudden this incredible presence just came in to this room.
It was amazing.
And I thought, this is it.
I've got it.
I've experienced it.
But it didn't stop there.
And as I began to pray just saying, thank you Father, I'm now finally experiencing the
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reality of God, who you are as a person.
And all of the sudden, a supernatural light appeared in my room.
And part of me wanted to run for the door.
It was so confronting because there's no natural explanation for what just happened.
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Nothing could explain it in the natural.
And God is light.
There is no darkness in Him at all.
And in this light was this presence and this encounter that I had left me wanting more
and more and more and more.
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I went back to my pastor and I told him what had happened.
And he's just looking at me, not saying a word.
And I thought, he doesn't believe me.
And then I began to see a tear in his eye.
And he said to me, he said, Rob, this is the first day of real Christian living for you.
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I want to encourage each and every one of us today, especially in the hour that we're
living in, that the darkness is getting darker.
But there is a living God who is alive, powerful.
He knows you.
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He knows everything about us.
Well, He created us.
He wants you to encounter Him.
And when we encounter God in this way, let me tell you, the doubt and unbelief has to
take a backseat.
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It energizes something in our spirit man.
It certainly did in me, that it opened the door for another dimension of our Christian,
my Christian walk with God.
And from that time on, my prayer life totally, totally changed.
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No longer was I in prayer thinking that God, you're out there somewhere in the universe.
You're there somewhere and maybe you're going to hear me.
Maybe you're not.
But if you do, this is my prayer.
I haven't had that mindset for nearly 30 years.
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That when we enter into relational prayer, that we have acknowledged that God is our
Father, He's our Creator, that He is powerful, alive, and that there is nothing too hard
for Him to do.
And when we turn our hearts to prayer before Almighty God, we have this assurance knowing
that what we pray that He hears us.
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Folks, that is relational prayer.
We're praying out of our relationship with God.
We have direct access to God in prayer.
I'd love to encourage you some more.
Seeing God in a living way is what I think the Christian church needs today like never,
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ever before.
To experience the living Christ.
I was at a prayer meeting.
We were at a prayer meeting, actually it was last Thursday night.
We had something very unusual happen, which is good, because God is not the usual.
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And this particular night, last Thursday night, there was a change in the presence of God.
And not that there was anything wrong with what was happening before, God just shifted
it up another level or two.
And then we prayed for somebody, but in that time of prayer, I had an open vision of some
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things that God wanted to show me.
And it relates to the future of the Christian church before the Lord's return.
Now, I'm not going to share anything about that today because I'm still processing it
myself.
The things that I saw that really confounded me and concerned me greatly.
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But one thing I will share in that was simply this.
That scripture that Jesus said, some in that day will say, Lord, we prophesied in your
name.
Lord, we cast out demons in your name.
And Lord, we did all these wonderful miracles in your name.
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And Jesus turned around and said to them, I don't know you.
It was such an awakening moment in my spirit is that, Lord, am I one of these people?
Because you can't help but begin questioning yourself.
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It was so confronting.
But the Lord was showing me yet again and continued throughout the rest of the week
till I'm right now standing here with you that the importance of relational prayer.
And if we stay in right relationship with God and in prayer with God and that fellowship
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with God, we will not be one of those that he says, depart from me.
I don't know you.
Because these people were using their gifts and their callings and the name of Jesus and
other things, obviously, to do the work of God independent from God.
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And after we've experienced a personal encounter with God, like I explained before, some of
you have shared yours, incredible, similar.
God wants to be experienced.
He doesn't want to be a person that we just place him behind a throne in heaven that we
can't reach him.
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You know, God is in your hearts through Christ Jesus.
That God walks with us daily.
That God is part of our life.
He's part of our new spiritual DNA, if you like.
Remember, Father, that we resemble him more and more as we continue in our walk with God.
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God wants us to know him.
Relational prayer has everything to do with knowing God through Christ Jesus more and
more and more and more.
Amen.
I'll never forget a time that we were, I was in Uganda and we had a prayer meeting before
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the last meeting of a youth crusade.
And in this building, it was small.
It was probably the size of a small house.
And it was all open.
We were in there believing God for a massive breakthrough on the last night of this crusade.
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We were all tired because we had five days, already done five days, of about seven sessions
a day and some meetings finishing midnight or later.
So the human body tends to let you know that it's human.
That it needs to sleep.
That it needs a rest.
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And we were feeling there was talk about closing the last meeting because we're so tired, but
it was the most important meeting.
So these pastors said, we're going to come together, we're going to pray and seek God's
counsel what to do.
In the middle of this prayer meeting, one small African man, he was no bigger than this.
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Well, he might have been.
He seemed small.
He just stood there and he just prayed something like this, Oh Father, have your way.
Just have your way.
And all of a sudden, there was like a gentle breeze just blew in this building that was
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closed off.
This gentle breeze just blew.
And in this breeze, there was a presence, a presence of God.
And as this breeze blew, I would say through us, because it didn't feel like it was blowing
around us, we felt so energized.
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So so energized.
And after that breeze, there was a supernatural mist that appeared in that meeting.
Well, let me tell you, the conversation had changed from, are we going to have that meeting
to we can't wait to get into that meeting.
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It just transformed us.
So what am I saying?
I'm saying this, that God's presence, when we position ourselves to be touched by God
and his presence, it makes a big difference in our life.
Then as we began to pray in that atmosphere, in that relational atmosphere with God, the
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heavens opened up.
It was, it was something else.
So let me tell you, the next day we had the crusade meetings, my Lord, I will never forget
what I experienced and saw those next meetings.
The amount of salvation was awesome.
The amount of deliverances were just something that you would not imagine.
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The people that came to be filled with the Holy Ghost were in the hundreds, and yet no
one got to pray for them.
Just at one time, you saw that miscome back, and as it went over all of these people, they
were simultaneously speaking in tongues, falling on the ground, weeping and crying out for
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mercy.
It was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever, ever had in God.
You see, God is real.
Sometimes we can be so focused on the mountain or on the problem of what we are facing, and
it can be a very real thing.
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Some of us are believing God for such breakthrough that in the natural we know it is not possible.
But we're holding onto God because his word says that all things are possible to them
who believe, that with God all things are possible.
So just for one moment, just grab hold of and bring it before your remembrance right
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now what you're believing God for.
A breakthrough.
What is it?
What is it?
What is that thing now that you're believing for?
Now let me ask another question.
Has it discouraged you at times thinking it'll never happen?
I'm sure the answer would be yes.
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And has there ever been a time when we think about it, we go, it's too hard, I'm probably
just better investing into something else.
I want to let you know something.
Take that problem, take that burden, take that obstacle with you into a room when Jesus
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said go into that secret place and take it with you.
Now you can't physically grab it.
I'm using this metaphorically.
Take it with you in that room with the awareness that there is nothing impossible for my God
to do.
There's nothing impossible for your God to do.
There's nothing impossible.
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He can do it.
So what we do is, God, I'm coming to you and I'm going to come every night however long
it takes till I see that breakthrough.
But I'm going to be focusing on the alive, living God that you, your great mercy and
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your greatness that's been given to me so freely in Christ Jesus that I can stand before
a holy God because of Jesus.
So then bring your request, whatever your mountain has been, whatever you're believing
God for, bring it and present it before God relationally.
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Bring it before Him knowing that you have every right to be there before a holy God
and you have every right to make your request be made known to Him.
You have every right.
It's relational.
And keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it.
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And I'll tell you what will happen.
I guarantee this will happen as at some point during this duration of you keep going in,
keep going in and keep going in and keep presenting it to God.
At one point something is going to change.
At one point God is going to move so dramatically in that prayer meeting that you're having
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with God in that secret place that God begins to give wisdom, He begins to give strategies,
that God begins to move, that we experience God in this really incredible way that when
we walk out we could be like Moses that I have been in the presence of God.
We don't say that with pride.
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We say that as a matter of fact.
We are in a covenant with God through Jesus Christ that we have been told to come boldly
to the throne of grace.
Don't come timidly.
Don't come because oh I don't know if God will really even want me there.
He wants you there.
God wants you there.
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Jesus paid the price.
He opened the door for you, just you and God to be alone and to present your case to Him
whatever it may be and just really pour out your heart to God.
Can I share with you as I close this morning, that's my first one by the way.
I thought I'd beat you to it Keith.
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You know traditionally what we can do as Christians, come boldly to the throne of grace that it's
there that I believe is how you find help and grace and mercy in a time of need.
But it says to come boldly, it doesn't say to come timidly or sheepishly.
So if you can use this imagery that our problem is like a backpack.
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We're carrying this problem in a backpack all the time right?
And we feel the weight of it.
We feel the burden of it.
And we're always aware and conscious of this backpack.
And so I'm going to go as a good Christian into prayer.
I'm going to go and attempt to go into the presence of God.
And as we attempt to go in, we take the backpack off, we put it down outside, we go inside.
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Oh God, how wonderful you are.
How glorious you are.
And even use a bit of old King James English if you like.
Oh, thou art the greatest.
You know, and have a religious experience with God.
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We go, I've done my duty and I did mention it to God.
It's got a bit of a problem with, you know, whatever.
And if you can do something, it would really be good.
Okay, bye.
Close the door, pick up the backpack, put it back on and start doing life again.
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You know what God wants?
Relationally, with that backpack, with all our problems and burdens and sins, take that
backpack and say, no, you're staying on.
I'm taking you into the presence of God.
That's what it means to come boldly, to come boldly, unashamedly knowing that you have
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the right to be there regardless of what situation or position you might be in, physically,
morally, spiritually, whatever.
Jesus makes it clear in His teaching as well.
Come, come.
He gave an invitation.
So we come with this baggage, undo it in the presence of God.
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You're getting the picture here?
Unzip it, shake it all out before God and begin to talk with God and just, you know,
God already knows.
But do it just, you know, we're communicating, we're praying, we're in relationship with
God and we're talking, we're bringing real issues to a real living God.
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So we're bringing it to Him and then we have that moment with God.
One thing we don't do, we don't pack it all back in the bag and then put it on saying,
that was awesome, Lord, and then go home with it.
Leave it there.
You've heard it said many times, leave it at the foot of the cross.
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Leave it.
Don't take it with you.
Cast all your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you.
Casting it.
I remember one day I had a brand new lure that cost, block your ears, darling.
It was about $40 and they guarantee you it'll catch whatever.
It's a big lie.
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It's not true.
Don't believe anything they say about that.
And I rigged it up and I wanted to cast it really far and I went, and I looked and the
strings all loose and it's going.
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There goes $40.
What I want to emphasize the point of this is I cast it with everything that I had so
much that I don't think it would have been the knot.
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Come on, no fisherman admits that they're not failed.
Is that right, fisherman?
How many fishermen do we have here today?
How many people that like fishing here today?
How many people that don't like fishing here today?
You're in the wrong church.
Honestly, you made a big mistake coming here today.
When we cast our burden onto the Lord, it's everything you've got to...
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And hopefully the line will snap and you don't retrieve it back.
Because sometimes we can cast our burden to the Lord and think, I wonder how it's going
so we wind it in to check.
Oh, it's still there.
Cast it out again, wind it back in, it's still there.
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Cast it, cut the line, pack up your stuff and go home.
Leave it.
Don't take it back home with you.
Don't take it out of the throne of grace.
Leave it there.
Relationally, we're allowed to be there, God wants us to be there.
Oh, church, there's so much in this that I just really want you to take this home, that
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God is alive.
He's real and He wants you to experience Him.
He wants you to encounter Him.
God's not mad at you per se.
You might think, well, I don't think I should go do that because God will probably strike
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me dead.
Can I say that someone took that punishment for you so that you could be with God and
His name is Jesus?
Maybe you're here today that you struggle with guilt and shame and as a Christian or
maybe not even being a Christian.
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I want to let you know today that Jesus is your answer.
There is no other answer.
It's only Him, it's Jesus.
And if you truly want to receive Christ, the forgiveness of sin, you're in the right place,
whether you're a fisherman or not, but you'd be in the right place.
Thank you for joining us.
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We pray God's richest blessing on your life.
If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.
See you next week.
Welcome to Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you weekly.
(00:07):
We pray what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.
Enjoy the message.
Well happy birthday to you Jean for last week.
You didn't know that I knew that but little Birdie told me but happy birthday.
Is anyone else having had a birthday or having a birthday?
Happy birthday to you and may God bless you.
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In fact Manique when was yours?
Two weeks ago?
Last month?
Oh.
We're a real tight family.
We know what's going on.
Praise God.
Shano, it's lovely to see you up there.
You've really blessed me seeing you today and Sammy.
Where's Sammy?
Give me a wave Sammy.
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Yeah good on you mate.
Yeah praise God.
We're really blessed.
Truly blessed.
It's lovely to see Rex and Colette back from the UK.
They released you and let you come back to Down Under.
Praise the Lord Cher bro.
It's good.
You know we have this evening as Chantel mentioned the leadership training equipping.
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It's for people who are already in ministry, people in missions, people in leadership in
churches, people leadership here or maybe if you feel there's a call of God on your
life that you really want to go to the next step or maybe you just want to you know stick
your head in it to see what's going on you're welcome.
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It starts at 5pm and it'll be finished by about 7pm followed up by a little bit of bush
tucker at the end.
I don't know something to eat and a cup of tea.
It'll be great.
I'm a fellowship but what will be shared throughout these six weeks on Sunday evenings is not
what you would generally hear in a church service and I know that you'll be blessed.
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It'll be challenging so if that's you, you are so welcome to come tonight and we'd be
blessed to have you here with us.
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
God is good.
You excited to be in church today?
Praise the Lord.
I want to read from Matthew chapter 6 from verse 5.
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I'm going to bring out something that is very close to my heart as I'm sure it is yours
also and it's to do with prayer.
Last week, well two weeks ago it was on fasting, the platform, the foundation that we lay and
need to be standing on when we're fasting and then last week was prayer and fasting
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and today we're going to speak about prayer.
But just not any kind of prayer.
This is relational prayer, relational prayer and so I'll get into that in just a moment
but I'm going to read from Matthew chapter 6 from verse 5.
And Jesus speaking and He said, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites for they
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love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may
be seen by men.
Surely I say to you they have their reward but you, when you pray, go into your room
and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who was in the secret place and
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your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they
will be heard for their many words.
Therefore do not be like them for your Father knows the things you have need of before you
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ask him.
In this manner therefore pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom
come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
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And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
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But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
I'd like to first identify something here.
Who is Jesus speaking to?
This is vitally important to know who Jesus' congregation is and it is often understood
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that Jesus' congregation, that this goes back to the beginning of chapter 5 where Jesus
begins to teach the Beatitudes.
Now the Beatitudes is not just the ones blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you.
The Beatitudes continue to chapter 7 right in the end when Jesus teaches on building
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your house on the rock.
So it's not just chapter 5 verse 1 through to 10 which are the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes is an entire teaching that Jesus taught that for many or for all it was
the first time that they heard this kind of message.
They'd never heard it before in the history of mankind.
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So there they are, they're seated with Jesus on this mountaintop or on the side of a mountain
and Jesus begins to teach them who are the people.
Can I say that it goes way beyond just the disciples that Jesus was with because in Matthew
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chapter 4 verse 25 it reads here, great multitudes followed him from Galilee and from Decapolis,
that's the 10 cities, the 10 regions, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan.
Chapter 7 and verse 28 it reads here and so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings
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that the people were astonished at his teachings.
So it goes way beyond just Jesus' disciples sitting there hearing something for the first
time.
There is a whole congregation of people from all those regions as I just mentioned from
Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan.
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That is a wide region and so people had travelled far and wide because they finally saw somebody
different, somebody teaching something that was making sense.
So Jesus is teaching them so we need to understand that.
So we get to chapter 6 about prayer.
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Now why would Jesus be teaching people who in today's standard are not born again and
majority of are not Jews and so not in covenant with God, not children of Abraham.
So here are these people that are scattered from so far God had brought them all together.
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People of all different walks and backgrounds, people of different religions, people of different
cultures, they're all sitting there listening to the most amazing preaching that I think
the entire Bible covers.
It is so amazing.
Jesus covers throughout these two chapters every aspect of life, everything that life contains.
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He taught on it and he brought it to a new level, a totally new level.
But then Jesus does something that really when we understand that he himself brings
the people together and he uses this term about praying, he says, your father.
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Now I could only imagine there would be so many people who are not in covenant with God,
not children of Abraham, that only would have wished that if we were born as children of
Abraham we would have had the greater benefit, the privilege to be recognised as children
of God.
But here we are, outcasts, Gentiles, people out of covenant with God.
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But yet on that mountain Jesus is surrounded by people who are out of covenant with God.
And then Jesus says something to them that must have floored them when you read it in
that context that Jesus says to them, let me read here, when he says in verse 5, and
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when you pray, because he's teaching them how to pray, he's teaching them not to pray
in a religious manner and not to pray in a religious format, Jesus is teaching to pray
from a very real heart.
Amen?
And so for they love to stand praying in the synagogues and on the corners and on the streets
that they may be seen by men, as surely I say to you they have their reward, but you.
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Now Jesus when he says but you, he's speaking now directly to the people who are in front
of him who are listening.
He says but you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door, pray
to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward
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you openly.
Verse 8, it says here, therefore do not be like them for your Father knows the things
that you need of before you ask him.
Verse 9, our Father in heaven three times Jesus has brought the same message to these
people who are not by the standard of the religion of the day children of God.
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So why did Jesus do that?
I believe the answer is found within the word Father, because the word Father is Pater and
this is what it means and you'll see when I explain what the word Father means exactly
what Jesus was doing, because Jesus didn't want the people he was teaching, he didn't
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want them to learn a religious kind of prayer format.
He wanted them to know the Father so their prayer is relational with God.
It's not just I do this because it's what I've got to do, it is the hour of prayer,
so now is the hour of prayer and we must pray.
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No, Jesus is saying there's a whole new way coming, a new way of living and this way is
that prayer is going to be in your heart and on your lips all the time.
Jesus was preparing a people for the kingdom of God being established here on earth and
so what does Father actually mean?
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It means here when Jesus is saying your Father, it means the one who imparts life and is committed
to it.
He brings bringing into being to pass on the potential for likeness.
In other words, Jesus is saying to them your Father in heaven, his entire plan is for you
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to be just like him.
Come on, think about this church.
This is an incredible thing that Jesus is teaching.
It is used of our heavenly Father.
As I said, he imparts life from physical birth to the gift of eternal life through the second
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birth.
We know this, which is called the regeneration or being born again.
Through ongoing sanctification, now this is what I'm reading is straight from the concordance.
Through ongoing sanctification, the believer more and more resembles their heavenly Father.
So what is the mission here?
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The mission here is for every person that Jesus is speaking to through relational prayer
to become more like their heavenly Father.
Now if that was not possible, Jesus would not be teaching it.
I want to encourage you today that prayer, relational prayer brings us so close to God
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that when we are close with him and fellowship with him in prayer, relationally in prayer,
that the more you hang around God, if I can say, the more you begin, we begin to think
like God, the more we begin to act like God, the more we begin to speak like God and respond
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like how God would respond.
And it all is a result of relational prayer, not religious prayer.
And so Jesus, it's just an amazing setting how he is sitting there with people again
from all walks of life and he's just saying, your Father, the one that wants you to be
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exactly like him.
And they must have been thinking, how could this ever, ever be possible?
It goes on to say that each time in prayer, they receive faith from him and obey it, which
results in their unique glorification.
Glorification church is when we are taken home to glory, when we draw our last breath
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or when Jesus comes, whichever comes first.
But it goes on to say, and this is the one that I want to bring out, that the main highlight
of this word, Father, is one in intimate connection and relationship.
Jesus is teaching the people, God the Father, even though you may not have known a lot about
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him or anything at all, let me tell you who he is.
He is the one that he wants intimate connection and relationship with you.
Now, in today's standards, he'd be saying, even though you're not saved, even though
you're not a child of God, God is still in pursuit after you.
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God still loves you.
God has provided every way possible, made every way possible for every person on this
planet to be in right standing with God through Jesus Christ.
So here they are, these people, they're hearing this for the first time, our Father, our Father.
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Could you imagine what they would have been thinking?
It actually relates to the Heavenly Father as creator.
So if we could think about that for a moment today, can you imagine that Jesus is teaching
us to have relational prayer with God, who just so happens to be the creator of this
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universe?
That God obviously is greater than his creation.
And we see, you know, on the news, they've discovered another black hole in the galaxies,
in the universe.
And they're questioning, what is beyond this black hole?
If you enter into this black hole, will they enter into another galaxy or not?
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Mankind just doesn't know.
God's creation is big.
And we see the majesty of the universe, the stars and the planets and everything orbits
and everything is kept in its perfect timing.
The axis of the earth is perfect.
And how did that just happen?
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It didn't.
There's a creator.
And God creator is amazing that he created this earth so perfect.
Man's doing his best to destroy it, but God created it so perfect.
And this world was created so perfectly for you and for me.
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In God, how he measured the distance from, as it speaks about in the Psalms, from earth
to the moon to know exactly the right distance for the gravity pull and, you know, the tides
that we have today, it's all to do with the moon.
And God had orchestrated all of this.
And as the psalmist actually says, he said, how is it that it rains and yet the oceans
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are not overflowing because God has this whole system so finely created that no person, no
man and no AI could have ever engineered this.
That God is creator and there's nothing for him that is too hard to do.
That God knows everything.
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That God is in total control of every single aspect in this world.
Whether we realize it or not, he's controlling it.
And so Jesus is saying, this is the person.
Could you imagine the day when we go home to be with the Lord?
That we're going to stand in heaven and experience the glory of God, to experience what the Bible
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teaches us about heaven.
That worship just doesn't cease and the beauty of heaven, the glory in heaven, that one day
each and every one of us are going to experience this.
But God created it.
In his infinite wisdom, he created this world and he created a human being, Adam first and
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then Eve.
And God intended that Adam and Eve procreate and from there become like heaven here on
earth.
As we know that Master Gus mentioned about how the devil got in and sin messed all that
up, Jesus came and fixed it up.
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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So when we look at the rest of the Lord's Prayer as some of us call it the Lord's Prayer,
I particularly don't.
I call it the prayer that Jesus taught.
It's as simple as that.
So Jesus taught where to pray, how to pray and what to pray.
You know the secret place that Jesus speaks about, I believe in the Spirit is that same
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place in Psalm 91 verse 1, that he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
This church is what is called relational prayer.
It's not religious prayer.
And here is the thing that we don't just come to God in prayer when we need something or
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if we're sick as I better pray so I can get well.
Or we pray because something's not working in life or in family, I better start praying.
What God is wanting from us, from each and every one of us is a relational prayer life.
Can you imagine that if we never ever spoke to God only when we needed something, how
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strong would that relationship be?
It would be like a marriage with Chantel and I.
Could you imagine that I only came home because I needed dinner and I was never seen since.
And I come back again when I'm hungry, oh darling I need something.
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Can you make me dinner?
I'm going out fishing with my buddies.
Now I'm going out hunting with some other guys and can you pack me something?
The only contact that we have is when I have a need.
How long do you think that relationship is going to last?
Do you think that that relationship, that marriage relationship is going to be strengthened
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like that?
No it's not.
So what strengthens a friendship?
What strengthens a relationship?
You know what strengthens a relationship?
A marriage or our relationship with God?
You know what it is?
Is fellowship.
Our fellowship with God.
Our fellowship with our spouse.
That's what strengthens it.
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I know some guys say, oh my fellowship with my wife actually destroys our relationship.
Well it might be time to change, praise the Lord.
But fellowship does enhance relationship.
Now when we look at relational prayer, relational prayer is that we come to God not because
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we just need something.
I'm coming to God.
We're coming to God because not as a need but I just want to spend time with God.
When is the last time that we've had a prayer that's God checking in to see how you're doing
sort of thing?
Things are okay here but I just come because I want to spend time with you.
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I've just come because I just love being in your presence.
That's prayer.
Talking with God, being with God and see this builds and enhances a relationship.
And let me tell you that when a time does come when we are in need, we know that way
very well.
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There's a well-worn path from our place, from our heart to the heart of God because we've
traveled it every day for so long because of our relationship with God.
My prayer has been, our prayer has been relational.
That I'm not coming to God like he's a Santa Claus because I need something.
I'm coming to God because he is my heavenly Father.
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And I know that I feel safe with him.
We feel safe with him.
We're comforted that everything will be alright but we need to maintain that right fellowship
with God.
Fellowshiping with God is everything.
I remember the first time that I truly can say that I encountered the presence of God.
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My first pastor was encouraging me to become a spirit man.
And he said a spirit man is a person that is in awareness of the spiritual realm and
an awareness of God and that you're receptive and you're flowing in that realm.
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And he was teaching me for months and months and months.
And I would do what he says and nothing would seem to ever happen.
Nothing.
So I went back to him and I said, you know what you're talking about, I understand it
but I'm not experiencing it.
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And I began to think that God wasn't interested in me getting that close to him.
So one day he said to me, he said, Rob, I think where the problem is you're trying too
hard.
Just start fellowshiping with God.
Just go there and just talk with God as if you would talk to your friend.
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So I did.
And the first night I was in my room, the lights were out and I bet you I have to turn
lights off.
I am so easily distracted.
You know, if there's no lights, I can't see anything, it cuts distraction down so much.
So what happened, what I'm about to explain to you changed my life because we need to
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know that God is real.
When we get saved, we need to have that encounter.
We need to have that encounter with the living God, the one who created the heavens and the
earth and the seas and all that is within.
And without experiencing God, Christianity can become so dry, it can become so religious.
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You see, Jesus is alive.
He's not dead.
He's alive and alive forevermore.
And so I started on this journey wanting to experience it's one thing to know about God,
and yet it's quite a different thing to experience God.
And God is not hiding from us.
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He wants us to experience Him, Him, His person, who He is.
And what happened to me this particular night, nothing could have ever prepared me for it.
Now I know what I'm about to share.
Some of us have experienced and some of us are wanting to experience and some may think,
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I don't know if that's real or not.
Whatever your position, I want to share this with you because it turned my prayer life
around.
My service to God changed.
The way that I viewed everything in life changed.
This one particular night, it was after about three or four nights just waiting on God and
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talking with God, all of the sudden this incredible presence just came in to this room.
It was amazing.
And I thought, this is it.
I've got it.
I've experienced it.
But it didn't stop there.
And as I began to pray just saying, thank you Father, I'm now finally experiencing the
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reality of God, who you are as a person.
And all of the sudden, a supernatural light appeared in my room.
And part of me wanted to run for the door.
It was so confronting because there's no natural explanation for what just happened.
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Nothing could explain it in the natural.
And God is light.
There is no darkness in Him at all.
And in this light was this presence and this encounter that I had left me wanting more
and more and more and more.
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I went back to my pastor and I told him what had happened.
And he's just looking at me, not saying a word.
And I thought, he doesn't believe me.
And then I began to see a tear in his eye.
And he said to me, he said, Rob, this is the first day of real Christian living for you.
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I want to encourage each and every one of us today, especially in the hour that we're
living in, that the darkness is getting darker.
But there is a living God who is alive, powerful.
He knows you.
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He knows everything about us.
Well, He created us.
He wants you to encounter Him.
And when we encounter God in this way, let me tell you, the doubt and unbelief has to
take a backseat.
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It energizes something in our spirit man.
It certainly did in me, that it opened the door for another dimension of our Christian,
my Christian walk with God.
And from that time on, my prayer life totally, totally changed.
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No longer was I in prayer thinking that God, you're out there somewhere in the universe.
You're there somewhere and maybe you're going to hear me.
Maybe you're not.
But if you do, this is my prayer.
I haven't had that mindset for nearly 30 years.
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That when we enter into relational prayer, that we have acknowledged that God is our
Father, He's our Creator, that He is powerful, alive, and that there is nothing too hard
for Him to do.
And when we turn our hearts to prayer before Almighty God, we have this assurance knowing
that what we pray that He hears us.
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Folks, that is relational prayer.
We're praying out of our relationship with God.
We have direct access to God in prayer.
I'd love to encourage you some more.
Seeing God in a living way is what I think the Christian church needs today like never,
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ever before.
To experience the living Christ.
I was at a prayer meeting.
We were at a prayer meeting, actually it was last Thursday night.
We had something very unusual happen, which is good, because God is not the usual.
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And this particular night, last Thursday night, there was a change in the presence of God.
And not that there was anything wrong with what was happening before, God just shifted
it up another level or two.
And then we prayed for somebody, but in that time of prayer, I had an open vision of some
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things that God wanted to show me.
And it relates to the future of the Christian church before the Lord's return.
Now, I'm not going to share anything about that today because I'm still processing it
myself.
The things that I saw that really confounded me and concerned me greatly.
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But one thing I will share in that was simply this.
That scripture that Jesus said, some in that day will say, Lord, we prophesied in your
name.
Lord, we cast out demons in your name.
And Lord, we did all these wonderful miracles in your name.
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And Jesus turned around and said to them, I don't know you.
It was such an awakening moment in my spirit is that, Lord, am I one of these people?
Because you can't help but begin questioning yourself.
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It was so confronting.
But the Lord was showing me yet again and continued throughout the rest of the week
till I'm right now standing here with you that the importance of relational prayer.
And if we stay in right relationship with God and in prayer with God and that fellowship
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with God, we will not be one of those that he says, depart from me.
I don't know you.
Because these people were using their gifts and their callings and the name of Jesus and
other things, obviously, to do the work of God independent from God.
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And after we've experienced a personal encounter with God, like I explained before, some of
you have shared yours, incredible, similar.
God wants to be experienced.
He doesn't want to be a person that we just place him behind a throne in heaven that we
can't reach him.
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You know, God is in your hearts through Christ Jesus.
That God walks with us daily.
That God is part of our life.
He's part of our new spiritual DNA, if you like.
Remember, Father, that we resemble him more and more as we continue in our walk with God.
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God wants us to know him.
Relational prayer has everything to do with knowing God through Christ Jesus more and
more and more and more.
Amen.
I'll never forget a time that we were, I was in Uganda and we had a prayer meeting before
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the last meeting of a youth crusade.
And in this building, it was small.
It was probably the size of a small house.
And it was all open.
We were in there believing God for a massive breakthrough on the last night of this crusade.
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We were all tired because we had five days, already done five days, of about seven sessions
a day and some meetings finishing midnight or later.
So the human body tends to let you know that it's human.
That it needs to sleep.
That it needs a rest.
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And we were feeling there was talk about closing the last meeting because we're so tired, but
it was the most important meeting.
So these pastors said, we're going to come together, we're going to pray and seek God's
counsel what to do.
In the middle of this prayer meeting, one small African man, he was no bigger than this.
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Well, he might have been.
He seemed small.
He just stood there and he just prayed something like this, Oh Father, have your way.
Just have your way.
And all of a sudden, there was like a gentle breeze just blew in this building that was
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closed off.
This gentle breeze just blew.
And in this breeze, there was a presence, a presence of God.
And as this breeze blew, I would say through us, because it didn't feel like it was blowing
around us, we felt so energized.
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So so energized.
And after that breeze, there was a supernatural mist that appeared in that meeting.
Well, let me tell you, the conversation had changed from, are we going to have that meeting
to we can't wait to get into that meeting.
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It just transformed us.
So what am I saying?
I'm saying this, that God's presence, when we position ourselves to be touched by God
and his presence, it makes a big difference in our life.
Then as we began to pray in that atmosphere, in that relational atmosphere with God, the
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heavens opened up.
It was, it was something else.
So let me tell you, the next day we had the crusade meetings, my Lord, I will never forget
what I experienced and saw those next meetings.
The amount of salvation was awesome.
The amount of deliverances were just something that you would not imagine.
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The people that came to be filled with the Holy Ghost were in the hundreds, and yet no
one got to pray for them.
Just at one time, you saw that miscome back, and as it went over all of these people, they
were simultaneously speaking in tongues, falling on the ground, weeping and crying out for
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mercy.
It was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever, ever had in God.
You see, God is real.
Sometimes we can be so focused on the mountain or on the problem of what we are facing, and
it can be a very real thing.
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Some of us are believing God for such breakthrough that in the natural we know it is not possible.
But we're holding onto God because his word says that all things are possible to them
who believe, that with God all things are possible.
So just for one moment, just grab hold of and bring it before your remembrance right
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now what you're believing God for.
A breakthrough.
What is it?
What is it?
What is that thing now that you're believing for?
Now let me ask another question.
Has it discouraged you at times thinking it'll never happen?
I'm sure the answer would be yes.
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And has there ever been a time when we think about it, we go, it's too hard, I'm probably
just better investing into something else.
I want to let you know something.
Take that problem, take that burden, take that obstacle with you into a room when Jesus
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said go into that secret place and take it with you.
Now you can't physically grab it.
I'm using this metaphorically.
Take it with you in that room with the awareness that there is nothing impossible for my God
to do.
There's nothing impossible for your God to do.
There's nothing impossible.
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He can do it.
So what we do is, God, I'm coming to you and I'm going to come every night however long
it takes till I see that breakthrough.
But I'm going to be focusing on the alive, living God that you, your great mercy and
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your greatness that's been given to me so freely in Christ Jesus that I can stand before
a holy God because of Jesus.
So then bring your request, whatever your mountain has been, whatever you're believing
God for, bring it and present it before God relationally.
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Bring it before Him knowing that you have every right to be there before a holy God
and you have every right to make your request be made known to Him.
You have every right.
It's relational.
And keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it.
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And I'll tell you what will happen.
I guarantee this will happen as at some point during this duration of you keep going in,
keep going in and keep going in and keep presenting it to God.
At one point something is going to change.
At one point God is going to move so dramatically in that prayer meeting that you're having
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with God in that secret place that God begins to give wisdom, He begins to give strategies,
that God begins to move, that we experience God in this really incredible way that when
we walk out we could be like Moses that I have been in the presence of God.
We don't say that with pride.
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We say that as a matter of fact.
We are in a covenant with God through Jesus Christ that we have been told to come boldly
to the throne of grace.
Don't come timidly.
Don't come because oh I don't know if God will really even want me there.
He wants you there.
God wants you there.
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Jesus paid the price.
He opened the door for you, just you and God to be alone and to present your case to Him
whatever it may be and just really pour out your heart to God.
Can I share with you as I close this morning, that's my first one by the way.
I thought I'd beat you to it Keith.
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You know traditionally what we can do as Christians, come boldly to the throne of grace that it's
there that I believe is how you find help and grace and mercy in a time of need.
But it says to come boldly, it doesn't say to come timidly or sheepishly.
So if you can use this imagery that our problem is like a backpack.
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We're carrying this problem in a backpack all the time right?
And we feel the weight of it.
We feel the burden of it.
And we're always aware and conscious of this backpack.
And so I'm going to go as a good Christian into prayer.
I'm going to go and attempt to go into the presence of God.
And as we attempt to go in, we take the backpack off, we put it down outside, we go inside.
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Oh God, how wonderful you are.
How glorious you are.
And even use a bit of old King James English if you like.
Oh, thou art the greatest.
You know, and have a religious experience with God.
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We go, I've done my duty and I did mention it to God.
It's got a bit of a problem with, you know, whatever.
And if you can do something, it would really be good.
Okay, bye.
Close the door, pick up the backpack, put it back on and start doing life again.
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You know what God wants?
Relationally, with that backpack, with all our problems and burdens and sins, take that
backpack and say, no, you're staying on.
I'm taking you into the presence of God.
That's what it means to come boldly, to come boldly, unashamedly knowing that you have
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the right to be there regardless of what situation or position you might be in, physically,
morally, spiritually, whatever.
Jesus makes it clear in His teaching as well.
Come, come.
He gave an invitation.
So we come with this baggage, undo it in the presence of God.
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You're getting the picture here?
Unzip it, shake it all out before God and begin to talk with God and just, you know,
God already knows.
But do it just, you know, we're communicating, we're praying, we're in relationship with
God and we're talking, we're bringing real issues to a real living God.
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So we're bringing it to Him and then we have that moment with God.
One thing we don't do, we don't pack it all back in the bag and then put it on saying,
that was awesome, Lord, and then go home with it.
Leave it there.
You've heard it said many times, leave it at the foot of the cross.
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Leave it.
Don't take it with you.
Cast all your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you.
Casting it.
I remember one day I had a brand new lure that cost, block your ears, darling.
It was about $40 and they guarantee you it'll catch whatever.
It's a big lie.
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It's not true.
Don't believe anything they say about that.
And I rigged it up and I wanted to cast it really far and I went, and I looked and the
strings all loose and it's going.
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There goes $40.
What I want to emphasize the point of this is I cast it with everything that I had so
much that I don't think it would have been the knot.
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Come on, no fisherman admits that they're not failed.
Is that right, fisherman?
How many fishermen do we have here today?
How many people that like fishing here today?
How many people that don't like fishing here today?
You're in the wrong church.
Honestly, you made a big mistake coming here today.
When we cast our burden onto the Lord, it's everything you've got to...
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And hopefully the line will snap and you don't retrieve it back.
Because sometimes we can cast our burden to the Lord and think, I wonder how it's going
so we wind it in to check.
Oh, it's still there.
Cast it out again, wind it back in, it's still there.
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Cast it, cut the line, pack up your stuff and go home.
Leave it.
Don't take it back home with you.
Don't take it out of the throne of grace.
Leave it there.
Relationally, we're allowed to be there, God wants us to be there.
Oh, church, there's so much in this that I just really want you to take this home, that
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God is alive.
He's real and He wants you to experience Him.
He wants you to encounter Him.
God's not mad at you per se.
You might think, well, I don't think I should go do that because God will probably strike
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me dead.
Can I say that someone took that punishment for you so that you could be with God and
His name is Jesus?
Maybe you're here today that you struggle with guilt and shame and as a Christian or
maybe not even being a Christian.
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I want to let you know today that Jesus is your answer.
There is no other answer.
It's only Him, it's Jesus.
And if you truly want to receive Christ, the forgiveness of sin, you're in the right place,
whether you're a fisherman or not, but you'd be in the right place.
Thank you for joining us.
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We pray God's richest blessing on your life.
If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.
See you next week.
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