Rick Warren - How to Pray and Actually Hear God Back Part 2

Is it possible that the pain you're going through right

now is because you did not seek God, but you

just went ahead and made a decision without checking in

with him. Highly probable. And now God said, I could

have saved you a lot of effort if you just

sought me. Just have a conversation with you two or

three times a day and I'll go red light danger,

read Will Robinson, that's danger, don't go that direction. Is

it possible, Yes, that pain is because you did not

seek God in the past. You made a bunch of

dumb decisions, and now you're paying the results of it.

Okay, here's the third step.

The third step in prayers that get answered is express

my desires with emotion. Express my desires. When I want

to ask God for something I'm praying about. God, I

need this, whether it's a physical need, a material need,

a spiritual need, and emotional need. Whatever you're asking for God,

in prayer, you express my emotion my desire with emotion.

So many of our prayers are just cut and dried.

We just say these words. We don't even know what

we're talking about. We have these little you know, things

we've memorized. Now I lay me down to sleep, I

pray the Lord my soul to keep you know, And

if I should die before I wake, I pray the

Lord my soul.

To take That means nothing. It's just little thing.

Or you sit down fas it bless this food to

the nourishment of our bodies, the bless the gift and

the giver and it and it's it's not. There's no emotion,

there's no authenticity. It's just things you've learned. God doesn't

care how beautiful your prayer sounds. In fact, God doesn't

even care as much about the words as he cares

as much about the emotions. Have you learned that you

can say the right words and the wrong emotion and

your spouse doesn't get it. Yes, you can say all

the right things, but you didn't what do you mean

by that because of the tone of your voice? And

so he's saying, God is an emotional God. The only

reason you have emotions, the good ones and the bad ones,

is because you're made in God's image. Human beings have

emotions that none of the animals have.

We have a whole.

Pentopy of emotions because God is an emotional god. The

Bible says God gets happy the Bible says God gets sad.

He's sad when he sees a rape, when he sees

a molestation, when he sees a war. God is sad

when he sees what people do to each other out

of selfishness. And the Bible says, God gets angry. That's

why you can get angry. You're made in God's image.

The Bible says, God gets jealous. Why and that's why

you get jealous, because when God sees you giving your

love to something else instead of him that belongs to him,

he gets jealous. The Bible says, God gets frustrated. He

looks down and he sees all of the stuff we're doing.

He goes, I told you not to do that, and

you're doing it anyway. It's gonna mess you up. He

gets frustrated. Now could God change it? Of course, he

could turn us all into puppets. But God's going to

just back out of your life.

Have it your way.

I'm not going to force you to love me. I'm

not going to force you to do the right thing.

So you and I make selfish decisions every day, and

people get hurt. That's why there's sin, that's why there's

evil in the world because God gives us the freedom

to choose. And so God just says, okay, I'll just

back off. Let let you reap the results of your

own own decision. But God says, I'm an emotional God.

Jesus dying on the cross was an emotional scene, highly emotional.

Jesus dying the cross was emotionally agonizing to him.

It was agonizing to.

God the father watching his son die that way, but

doing it for your benefit. It was agonizing with the

people who are watching. It's an emotional thing, and God

is very emotional about you. Do you realize this? God,

just go I love you now. God loves you passionately, emotionally.

God has deep, deep, deep feelings for you. How much

he loves you. If you don't know how much you

llwed you look at the cross. I'm willing to die.

I'm willing to die for you. That's how much God

has emotion for you. And so God says, I want

you when I have such emotion for you, I want

you to talk to me emotionally. Don't just do these

little prayer things where you read a prayer and there's

no emotion in it. Let me ask you, does tone

make a difference when you make a request. Of course

it does, you know. I mean, how about guys, if

you had said to your future spouse on a date,

you go, EX like you to marry me. Please, I

want you to marry me. She go, buddy. If you

can't say it with a little bit more passion than that,

forget it.

That ain't going to happen.

Do any of you remember when you were little and

somebody was tickling you, and it was fun at the start,

and then it got too much, okay, And.

When you wanted to stop taking you go please stop, no,

please stop tiggling me. I can't handle it anymore.

And you are passionate of passion intensity shows house up

much something matters to you now If you ask God

about something, God, I really like this, but you're not

passionate about it.

God goes, w how.

Do I know it's just a if you only pray

about it once, you're not willing to pray about it

more than once, and you never talk to God about God, I.

Really need this.

I gotta have this. You know I've got to have it.

Then God goes, what is this a wish or a whim?

Or is it really a true? Desire, and so the

Bible says this. Here's the third thing Daniel did.

Verse three.

Second part of it, he says, I began pleading with

God earnestly in prayer circle. The word pleading, God listens

to pleading. Makes me think about a story I heard

a while back, where as a kid, a young kid

who at Christmas time he wanted a Star Wars watch

and it was really cool watch. I had Yoda on it,

and he just and so he was bugging his parents, Mom,

I want this Star Wars watch for Christmas, Dad, I

want this Star Wars watch for Christmas.

He just keeps on and on.

And on, every conversation, every meal he's mentioning the Star

Wars watch, and finally his dad goes, Johnny, we got it.

If you mentioned this one more time, you're not gonna

get the watch.

Smart kid backs off, doesn't doesn't do anything.

About a week later, they're having the whole family sitting

at dinner and the dad says, hey, you know what,

it's good for us to talk about the Bible. So

everybody just share your your favorite Bible verse, anything or

Bible verse that you know you could say. And so

one of the kids goes John three sixteen, because everybody

knows that one for God still love the world. And

the teenager goes John eleven thirty five. Jesus wept, shortest

verse in the Bible. Anybody can memorize that two words,

Jesus wept. So okay, John John love their right.

Jesus wept. That's his verse.

So they go around the room and they come to Johnny,

and Johnny goes So they said, Johnny, what's your favorite verse?

He said, well, my favorite verse would be Mark thirteen

thirty seven, where Jesus said, I told you once and

I sand you again. Watch look at this verse in

the message paraphrase, Daniels nine three says, I poured out

my heart to God, bearing my soul to God.

Have you ever done that?

Have you ever poured out your heart to God? Have

you ever bared your soul to God? This is not

wimpy week praying. This is got cease praying. This is

gut wrenching praying. I'm pouring out my soul to God.

God.

I gotta have your help in this business. I gotta

have your help in this marriage. I've got to God.

I am telling you, I'm pouring out my heart I am.

I am being authentic. I'm baring my soul. It's kind

of like Jacob wrestling with the Angel. I'm not gonna

let go until you bless me God. Now, when was

the last time you ever prayed like that, pouring out

your soul to God emotionally?

I can tell you.

You may have forgotten, but I can tell you the

last time you prayed like that, As your pastor friend,

spiritual coach, the last time you prayed like that.

Is when you were in deep, deep pain.

Because we don't pour out our hearts to God like

that when we're things are going great and we're skipping.

The hills of Jerusalem picking flowers and.

Talking about peace, love and Bobby Sherman, you know, just

to have a happy day, smiling faith. No, you pour

out your God when you are in deep pain? Is

that the only time you pour out your heart to

God when you're in deep pain?

Can you do it any other time?

This is called praying with emotion, called quote crying out

to God. Someday you may want to do a study

of this in the Bible, about all the times God

talks about quote crying out to God. There are many

many Euss samples of people of all sorts who cried

out to God and God heard their prayer. There are

many many promises in the Bible about crying out. God

does not listen to just complaints. He listens to crying

out in emotion to God, saying God, I really need

your help. Now, it says Daniel, he said he was pleading.

He's crying out. What is he pleading? What is Daniel

pleading with God about? He's going God, I want to

go back home. I'm an old man. I'm eighty five

years old. I spent my entire life serving pagan kings.

I've done good. I stayed true, kept my integrity in

a pagan world. I didn't deny my faith, and I

kept getting promoted. I'm pretty influential guy in the whole

kingdom here. But God, I want to go back home.

I really I'm going to go. I'm going to die

in my home country now. Jeremiah, the other guy at

the same time, had predicted that after seventy years, Babylon

would fall, and that then the people of God in

Babylon would start praying and pleading God let us go

back home. Here's what it says, Jeremiah chapter fifty. This

was his prediction. He says, then my people will join

together in tears. That's emotional praying. They'll join together in

tears to seek the Lord. And they will ask the

way to Jerusalem. What because it had been seventy years,

they didn't even know how to get back home. They

will ask the way to Jerusalem, and then we'll start

back home again. That is one of the most beautiful

phrases of hope in the Bible. They will start back

home again. America needs to do that and needs to

start back home again, and other nations need to do that.

They need to start back home again. You may need

to do this personally. I need to start back home again.

And maybe you've been so far away from God for

so long you don't even know how to get back

to Jerusalem.

I don't even know how to get back.

I've been so disconnected, disc combobulated and apart from God.

I don't even know.

And so what do you do?

You plead, you pour out your heart. You joined together

in tears. When does God answer that kind of prayer?

When God's people join together in tears. I know many

of you use the daily Hope devotionals as part of

your regular Bible study. And so I want to share

some exciting news. We've put three hundred and sixty five

of the best devotionals into a brand new book that

we're calling the Daily Hope Devotional Purpose, Peace and Promise

for every Day. This devotional book is designed with clear,

practical biblical teaching to help you make knowing God your

numberumber one priority. I believe it will help you stay

focused on God throughout the day as He provides you

with real purpose, lasting peace, and his unfailing promises. Imagine

starting every day like that. This book is a great

way to share the hope you have in Jesus with

your friends, coworkers, and relatives.

I hope you'll get a copy for everyone you know.

Be sure and request your copy when you partner with

Daily Hope to take the word of God to a

hurting world.

Okay, here's the fourth thing. Here's the fourthie. There's six keys.

Number four. I need to demonstrate my seriousness. When you're

praying about something, you need to signal to God that

you mean business about this, that it's not just a

little whim, it's not just a casual thought. But you're

really serious about this. You want to let God see

how important whatever you're praying about is to you. Now. Daniel,

in the next part of this verse, mentions three ways

he shows he signals his seriousness to God. Two of

them were cultural customs, which we don't do in America

or anywhere I think today. But one of them is

a spiritual discipline that had been going on for centuries

and thousands of years, and people still do it today.

Here's what he says in verse three, the third part

of the verse. He said, I started fasting, which means

he's going without food. That's a spiritual discipline. He said,

I started fasting and went without food, and to show

my sadness, to demonstrate my seriousness, I put on rough

clothes and sat in ashes. Now nobody does this today.

This is called sackcloth and ashes, and it was done

for hundreds and hundreds of years in the Middle East

and in the Orient. I don't know that anybody does

this today. Jesus said, there are some miracles that happen

only by prayer and fasting, not by prayer alone. Why,

because it says God, I'm super serious about this. I'm

super serious enough to go without food that's how discipline

and serious I am about this prayer request. Moses fasted

before he received the Ten Commandments. The Israelite fasted from

before they went into many, many major battles. Daniel fasted

in order to receive guidance from God. Neamiah fasted before

he began a major building project. You should too, business guy.

Jesus fasted and victory over temptation. The very first Christians

fasted during decision making times in their life. We'll I'll

teach a whole lot more about this, but this is

the point of simply saying, I demonstrate my seriousness.

Okay. Number five.

The fifth thing, Thank God for his love and promises.

Thank God for his love and promises. The Bible says,

when you ask, ask with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not a holiday.

If you're a believer, it's the attitude of your entire life.

You are to live with the attitude of gratitude. And

the fifth thing Daniel does in his prayer is he

reminds himself of how good God is, how gracious God is,

and how grateful he is to God. Daniel ninety four.

Then I prayed to the Lord, and I said, Lord,

you are great you are an awesome God. You always

fulfill your promises. You keep your word, you say it,

you keep your word. You always fulfill your promises of

constant love. And I'm flaky, you're not. I'm unfaithful to you,

but you're not unfaithful to me. You keep your promises

of concile love to those who love you, and keep

your commands down in Verse ninety says, and even though

we have rebelled against you, you Lord are merciful and forgiving. You.

Just tell God, God, I'm grateful that you're God, and

I'm not God. I'm grateful that you're loving, You're forgiving

your good You're merciful, and so you thank God for

his love and his promises. And then number six, the

sixth thing do you do? Is you humbly confess? I

humbly confess my sins. Confess just means to admit, that's

all it means. The word confessed in Greek is the

word homo lookgeo homo meaning same homosexual, Homo sapien homogenized

milk means same homo look geo means to speak the same.

To confess means I just agree. You're right God. That's wrong.

I agree with you. Got I was wrong, you were right.

And that's what confession is. And so God responds to humility.

When I'm prideful, God didn't hear my prayers. Man, God,

prideful prayers. God resists the proud, the Bible says, but

gives grace to the humble.

But when I go God, I really blew it. In fact, I've.

Been blown it for a long time. And let me

tell you it's specifically how I'm blowing it. Daniel gets

very very specific in confessing. I just wrote some of

the verses. I'm just going to read them to you

and not even comment. And I want you to circle

the verbs which are the sins. Okay, He says, we've

sinned none wrong. Then he says, we've rebelled against you.

That's one rebelled circle that we've rebelled against you. He says,

we've ignored your commands, circle ignored. He says, we've rejected

your laws. We made up our own morality. We've rejected

your laws. He says, we have refused to listen to

your servants. The prophets refused who spoke the message to

our kings and our leaders and our parents and everybody

else in our nation. He says, this is very specific.

We're all at faultier every generation. It's not like one

generation in America. Every generation's got part of the blame.

And then in verse seven and eight, he says this,

we've brought disgrace and shame on ourselves as a nation

because we've been unfaithful to you. You know what, God,

We've committed spiritual adultery. We gave our love to somebody

else when we're supposed to give our love to you.

We've been unfaithful to you.

And he said, this is true of all of us,

including our kings, our leaders, and our parents. He said,

we next verse verse ten, we paid no attention to

you when you told us how to live. You told

us what's right and wrong, what's morally good, what's not.

So this clear teaching came through your promise verse thirteen,

but we kept on sinning. We never gave you a

second thought. We were oblivious to you the clear warnings.

So God, he says that you had no choice but

to let disaster loose in our nation on us, since

we persistently and defiantly ignored you. And then he sums

it all up in verse sixteen, and he says, and

now all the other nations, mock us. Does any of

this sound vaguely familiar to you? I just read you

a laundry list of America. I just read you the

last fifty years of America right there. Now, Daniel knows

we don't deserve God's blessing, but he casts himself on

the grace of God. He goes, God, we could never

earn this, we could never deserve this. We don't deserve

to get back to home, get back to you. We

don't deserve your blessing. But I'm going to cast myself

on your mercy. And in the next verse he says this,

Oh God, Oh God, listen to me. Hear my request.

We don't ask because we deserve out We don't. We

don't ask because we deserve, but because you are so merciful.

You are a You're a good, good father, and you

are merciful.

How does God respond to this kind of prayer, the

six things that we just taught you. Well, in verse twenty,

here's how God responds. Daniel says, well, I kept on praying.

Let me stop right there circle the phrase kept on.

Daniel didn't pray this prayer one time. He's prying it

over and over and over and over. God, I need

your help. He's praying this over and over.

He said. I kept on praying.

If you don't you pray about something one time, you

don't care about it, he says. While I kept on

praying and confessing my sins and confessing the sins of

my people and pleading with the Lord. He's emotional in this.

Suddenly the angel Gabriel appeared in my vision. Now you

guys know who Gabriel is. There are three arch angels.

There was Lucifer, he fell, he became Satan. There's Michael,

and there's Gabriel. Gabriel's the guy who shows up at Christmas.

Hello.

So I actually know the names of these guys. And

this is so important that God sends the angel Gabriel

in a vision to Daniel, and he says, suddenly, while

I'm doing all this praying, the Angel Gabriel peared in

my vision and said this, Daniel, I've been sent, obviously

by God. I've been sent to help you understand God's plan. Now,

the moment you began praying, the answer was given, and

I'm here to tell it to you. For God loves

you very much. Now, God doesn't have to send Gabriel

to me, and he doesn't have to send Gabriel to

you because we have the second half of the Bible

that was written that tells us all about Jesus, and

so I can tell you right now what God will.

Say to you. I love you very very very very

very very much. I feel very very deeply have deep

feelings for you.

God says, I saw you born, I saw you grow,

I saw it hurts, I saw the happy times sat

I've seen everything in your life. And I have a

plan for your life, and I have a timetable for

your life. And when you start praying, I heard that prayer,

and I want to help you understand my plan for

your life because I love you very very much. Now

you say, well, wait a minute, Rick, this is God

talking to Daniel.

I'm not Daniel. No, You're not neither am I. But

I know this prayer will work for you.

And the reason I know it will work for you

is because the exact same formula is given in another

part of the Bible to anybody.

It's to all of God's people.

It's called Second Chronicle seven fourteen, one of the most

famous promises in the entire Bible. Now, before I read

this promise, I want you to understand it's one of

the most misused, misquoted versus in the Bible. I've actually

heard politicians quote this verse as a promise to America.

It is not a promise to America. It is not

a promise to any nation. It is a promise to

God's people. And God's people are in every nation. So

this is not a promise for America. This is a

promise for you and me and believers anywhere else in

any other nation of the world. And it is for us,

it's not for everybody. Second Chronicle seven fourteen, God says,

I got four conditions. If you'll do these four things,

I'll do three things. If my people, if my people

who are called by my name, are you called my name?

Are you called a Christian? That's being called by the

name of Christ. So if you're a Christian, you call

yourself a Christian. If my people who are called by

my name, and here are the four things, will humble

themselves that's confession, and pray that's pleading, and seek my

face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will

hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and I

will heal their land. All of the elements of Daniel's

prayer are in that promise. We're gonna claim that promise.

Anybody with me, anybody with me? Okay, okay. God says

that I don't know what you need. Healing and healing

in your mind, healing in your heart, healing in your body,

healing in your business, healing in your finances, healing in

your relationships, healing of your fears. Your business needs healing,

your family needs healing, your marriage needs healing, your nation

needs healing.

If my people.

Who are called by my name, God says, will humble themselves,

I blew it, Lord, I just blew it and pray.

I'm pleading God. I did not seek you, and I

made a bunch of dumb decisions, and now I'm paying

for it. We'll humble themselves and pray and seek my face.

You got my attention. God, I'm looking at you, and

turn from their ways, They're wicked ways. Then I will

hear from heaven. I will forgive their sins, and I

will heal their land.

Period done. That's it.

I know many of you use the Daily Hope devotionals

as part of your regular Bible study, and so I

want to share some exciting news. We've put three hundred

and sixty five of the best devotionals into a brand

new book that we're calling the Daily Hope Devotional Purpose, Peace,

and Promise for every Day. This devotional book is designed

with clear, practical biblical teaching to help you make knowing

God your number one priority. I believe it will help

you stay focused on God throughout the day as He

provides you with real purpose, lasting peace, and his unfailing promises.

Imagine starting every day like that. This book is a

great way to share the hope you have in Jesus

with your friends, coworkers, and relatives. I hope you'll get

a copy for everyone you know.

Be sure and request your copy when you partner with

Daily Hope to take the word of God to a

hurting world.