Rick Warren - Talking to Your Heavenly Father - Part Two

Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

We are so glad that you found us today. I've

got a question for you. Are you feeling stuck like

maybe you've hit a wall and just nothing's moving forward. Well,

you're not alone and you're not without hope. You know,

the Bible is full of people who faced impossible situations

like Mary, Noah, Job, even the apostle Paul, and they

all experienced one thing that changed everything, a breakthrough from God.

So today Pastor Rick continues his series called Seeking God

for a Breakthrough. Rick's going to walk us through biblical

accounts of faith, prayer, and perseverance, reminding us that God

still moves in powerful ways whether you're in a season

of waiting or searching for hope.

This series offers.

Encouragement and biblical truth to help you keep going and.

Get the breakthrough you need. So let's get started.

Here's Rick with the final part of a message called

talking to Your Heavenly Father.

Now he says, they're asked and it will be given.

Seeking you fine knock and the will be open. Sounds

like I'm just asked for anything. The answer is you

can ask for anything. It doesn't mean God's going to

give it. God always answers every prayer, always, but he

doesn't always say yes. In fact, in a future message,

I'm going to tell you the four different ways next week,

the four different ways that God answers prayers, and I'm going.

To show you the conditions for answered prayer.

But he says, you can always ask, but there are

some obvious qualifications. In other words, God has some things

he wants you to understand about prayer. And that leads

us to the second reason that I can always pray

with confidence, and it's this.

Write this down.

God will will never give me anything that's unhelpful. Now,

this is going to help you build confidence because you

don't often know what to pray. He said, I don't

know if this is good for me or not. God

will never give me anything that's unhelpful. He will not

give you everything you want, because not everything you want

would be helpful. And in verse nine, he says, if

your child remember this a father daughter father son relationship.

If your child asked you for some bread to eat,

would any of you fathers give her a stone? And

said the obvious is of course not. Of course, God

would not do that to you, and you wouldn't do

it to your child. If your child came in said Mommy,

I'm hungry, you would say, oh, here, have a stone,

eat a rock. By the way, this is humor in

the Bible, you guys, it's okay to laugh at this.

This is Hebrew humor, humor by exaggeration. Jesus has several

laughlines in the Sermon on the Mount, and this is

one of them.

He's going, it's ridiculous to think.

That a mother or father if they came and asked

you for some food, you said, oh, here, bite a rock.

No, he wouldn't do that.

Now, if you ask God for something good, he's saying here,

God is never going to give you something bad.

He's never gonna give you something bad.

If you ask for something worthwhile I want some bread,

He's not going to give you something worthless. He will

never give you anything worthless. By the way, the opposite

is true of this too. If you ask for something good,

God will never never give you anything bad for your life.

But the opposite is also true. If you ask for

something bad, God's not going to give you that either.

Why Because God is a good, loving God, He knows

what you need better than you do. He knows what

will make you happy more than you do. He knows

your life more than you do. He understands what makes

you tick, what will make you fulfilled, what will give

your life meaning significance, more than you do. So both

are true. You ask for good, he's not going to

give you bad. And if you ask for bad, he's.

Not gonna give you bad. Because he is a loving God.

He'll never give me anything that is unhelpful. Now why

is that good news to you? It means I don't

have to censure my prayers. A lot of times we

feel incompetent or unconfident about prayer because, go, I don't

know if I should really be praying for this. I'm saying, God,

I'd really like to marry that person, but what if

they're the wrong person. Or God, I'd really like to

have that job, but what if it was the wrong

job for me? God says, it doesn't matter what you pray,

because I'm the one who's going to decide if it's

good or not. Not You, you don't have to know

figure out if the prayer is a good win or not.

Just ask. You can ask for anything. You can even

ask for bad stuff. It's okay because as a child,

a child might say, hey, Daddy, could I drink this

a bottle of colorox?

No? Okay, daddy, can im four years old? Can I

have the keys of the cart? No?

And God knows what you don't know. So he says,

just don't worry about whether your crest request is a

good one or a bad one. You don't have to

worry about that. Just ask whatever you want. I'll figure

it out. It's on me, it's my burden. I will

never give you something that is unhelpful. God will sort

it out. That's a great stress reliever in prayer. Now,

the third reason he says we can pray with confidence,

He says, First, God promises to answer if I keep asking. Second,

God will never give me anything that's unhelpful.

That's confidence.

And the third reason I can always pray with confidence

is God will never give me anything that could harm me.

Now he's taking it a deeper step. Not just something

that's unhelpful, but God says, I would never give you

anything that would harm you or hurt you. As I said,

if I profray, you know, can I drink this poison?

No?

A parent say no, No, you can't. In verse ten,

he says, if your child asked for some fish, Hey, dad,

can I have some fish sticks? Can I get them

a McDonald's fish sandwich? Would you put a snake on

their plate? That's humor, that's exaggeration there, and no parent,

no loving parent, would do that. What's he saying here?

A snake's a little different than the rock. A snake

can be dangerous. In fact, sometimes a snake could be deadly.

Sometimes you might ask for something that's actually dangerous in

your life, or you might ask for something that would

actually be deadly and incredibly destructive in your life.

God say it doesn't matter. Just go ahead and.

Ask, because I will never give you anything that's deadly

or destructive. All figure it out, all sorted out, all

sorted out. You don't have to worry. I will take

care of it. I'm never gonna give you anything that

hurt you. That gives me confidence, Well, I don't know

should I pray for this or not? I don't know

if this is the right thing. God just says, go

ahead and ask. I'll figure it out. You don't have

to you can be confident. And here's the fourth reason

we can always pray with confidence, will only give me

what's best for me.

He says that.

In the next verse, God will only give me what's

best for me. That gives me a lot of confidence

when I pray, And in verse eleven, he says this, Now,

since even you, as a sinful, imperfect parent, know how

to give good gifts to your children, how much more

does your perfect, good and perfect father in Heaven give

only gifts that are good, circle that only gifts that

are good to those who ask him. Now, this gives

me a lot of confidence in praying too. In the

first place, you need to understand God is not a

slot machine.

Or you put in the.

Prayer and you pull the lever and you get whatever

the slot machine gives you. A slot machine give you

can give you bats or a vending machine even is better. Illustration,

You put money in a vending machine, pull the lever,

and you're gonna get stuff that has carcinogens in it

and stuff.

That can harm you. God is not a vending machine.

In fact, I've noticed that in vending machines it never

vending machines never have the best stuff. God will only

give you the best If you've ever had a donut

in a vending machine, it's not nearly as good as

another kind of donut.

Or if you've.

Ever had a sandwich in a vending machine, is it

the best sandwich you've ever had? No, God is not

a vending machine. He will only give you what's best

for you.

He says that.

And by the way, God is not your genie. Some

people treat prayer like the Aladdin's lamp, and you know,

you rub the Aladdin's lamp, the genie comes out, and

God says, your wish is my command.

No, you don't.

God doesn't serve you, You serve him. God is not

your butler. God is not your genie. God is not

your vending machine. God is not your servant. You are

God's servant. He said, Well, then why should I even ask?

Because he is your father. He's not your vending machine,

but he is your father, and he loves you more

than you even love yourself. And God says, I am

your loving, heavenly father, and I'm waiting to answer your prayers,

and I'm wanting to answer your prayers. So why are

you all nervous about praying? He's just your father in heaven.

You don't have to say fancy words. Yet God, I

need this. That's a good enough prayer. God will sort

it all out, and I will.

Never give you.

He says, what's not best for you now? God wants

you to have a breakthrough. That's why we're doing this

thirty four thirty forty days of breakthrough in praying three

times today. God wants to give a breakthrough in your life,

but he says you have not because you ask not.

I wish I could read this stack just from the

first few days of our time together as a family.

I'll just read you one because they're so inspiring. This

one here, this one on top, is about a financial breakthrough.

It's from Tom and Eleanor and it says this. You're

Pastor Rick, my wife and I are participating in thirty

four days of seeking God for breakthrough along with the

rest of our church family and using the ten fingers

of praying. Remember we talked about this what to pray

and how to pray and who to pray for.

I made a list a.

Sheet to remind me of how each of my fingers

could represent ten topics to pray for in each of

my five minute prayer times.

It's been very helpful each day, and.

Your explanation of how our two smallest fingers I remember

talked about praying for yourself last and praying for material blessings.

It's okay to pray for material blessings. They're just not

the most important. It's the smallest thing.

He says.

I learned that our two smallest fingers could represent my

needs and material blessings. That made me bold in seeking

God's guidance and in blessing each day God's blessing each

day before I began my work. And here's his story.

On Monday, this last Monday, this past week, I went

to the Charles Schwab office to request that my rollover

from our account would be given to Saddleback Church. Said,

my wife and I wanted to give it three different ways. First,

we wanted to use this money to give God our

tithe on this year's income. Then we wanted to give

God a second installment of our Daring Faith pledge from

last year. And then third we gave our end of

the year offering, thanksgiving offering and thanksgiving to God and

as our Christmas gift gift to Jesus. And he says

two days later, that's Wednesday, this last week. Two days later,

on Wednesday morning, in my seeking God for a breakthrough

prayer time, I asked God to show me if he

approved of how I was investing our money to build

the retirement nest egg and also to be able to

give more to support all that's good that we do

at Saddleback. Well after my morning prayer time, I opened

up my computer and I discovered that my investment gains

were nearly double the amount that we had given to

God on Monday.

I was so touched by this that I was brought

to tears.

So I called my wife in and I showed her

the breakthrough that God had done, and we both wept together.

Feeling so blessed by God's grace and breakthrough. In gratitude,

we decided that I should go back to Schwab and

give even more to God than.

We had just two days earlier.

Then he says, another breakthrough miracle happened when I got home.

In just those few minutes, I checked my investments, and

I was astounded. In that short time that I had

been gone, those investments had increased nearly three times more.

Friends.

That's called the breakthrough. He couldn't have, no way, could

he be figured that out. He had no control over this.

God just said, oh, I see what you're doing. I'm

gonna you can't outgive me. You cann out give me.

We're going to play this game. And God did something.

When you have a breakthrough, you know it because you

know I didn't do this.

God had to do it.

Now, Pastor Rick, you always say you can't outgive God,

and it's true. So thank you for teaching us how

to build the breakthrough habits of starting our day with God,

with Bible reading and talking to God, by putting God first,

by giving and faith, by trusting God's timing. Our first

breakthrough in our home was financial, and God replenished in

a single day what had been depleted over several years.

That's a breakthrough. God replenished in a single day. This week,

he said, all that we had lost over the last

several years, that's a breakthrough. Friends, He said, Now only

God knows what other kinds of breakthroughs he has in

store for us, because there's many kinds, and for our

church family. But every time this week that I've thought

about what God did on one day when we had

trusted him just two days earlier, tears have come to

my eyes again. We're filled with great gratitude and a

deeper love for God and our church. And we're continuing

to pray now for everybody else in our saddleback family

who's asking for some kind of breakthrough. So this guy

and his wife are praying for you, and I'm going

to teach you in this thing how to pray for

each other. Now, have you noticed that these first four

things why you can be confident in prayer? None of

them have to do with you. When he says, God says,

I'll answer you. Just keep asking. Okay, all I got

to disaster. There's no big deal about that. God will

never give me something that is unhelpful. God will never

give me something that is harmful. And God will always

only give me the best. None of those have to

do with me. So why am I worried about my prayer?

I I do as a little child and just ask God.

I need this.

If it's a good quest, I'll get it. If it's

another quest, I'll get it in a different ways. If

it's a bad request, God is not gonna give it

because he's good and loving and kind.

We'll talk about that more next week. Now there's one more.

Reason that I can always pray with confidence, and it's this,

God wants me to give to others what I want

to get. God wants me to give to others what

I want to get myself. Now, this is the golden rule.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And many people know that golden rule, but they don't

realize it's actually connected to prayer Verse twelve. So in

every situation, always due to others what you would want

them to do for you. This sums up all the

commands and all the teachings in the Bible. Now what

that doesn't sound it has anything to do with prayer.

But why have you ever been asked by somebody would

you pray for me?

Probably? And you go, okay, they asked me to pray

for them? What do I pray? I have no idea

what to pray.

When somebody comes up to me and I get asked

aldon On pastor Rick, will you pray for me? I'm

going I don't know what to pray for them. What

do you pray for somebody when they ask you to

pray for them?

Here's what you do. You pray whatever you would like

people to pray for you. That's it. That's it.

Would you like to have safety and security and success

in your life? Yes, then pray for safety and security

and success in other people's life. Would you like the

financial blessing of God in your life? Yes, then pray

for the financial blessing of God on other people's life.

Would you like to have a healthy body, Yes, then

pray for the healthy body of other people. Would you

like to have a better use of your time? Yes,

then pray for other people to use their time in

the best way. Whatever you want God to do for you,

he says, I want you to do it to other people.

And God says, the way I treat you as my

loving child, I'm your heavenly father, That's the way I

expect you to treat everybody else. God wants you to

treat other people the way He treats you. And when

you pray for other people, what do you pray? You

pray what you'd like to have prayed for you. Then

you know instantly what to pray for people. What would

I like to have in that situation? Guy says to you,

my wife just walked out on me. What would you

want people to pray for? You will you pray that

for others.

See how simple this is. And God wants you to.

Treat others the way he treats you when you pray. Now,

why is this important? Because God doesn't want you to

be selfish. I told you that. In the Book of Job.

It's in chapter forty two, verse ten. In fact, it's

up here on the screen. It says this, After Job

prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact,

the Lord gave him twice as much as before.

Remember the story of Job.

He was the wealthiest man in the world, and one

day he literally lost it all. All of his children

were killed, his business collapsed, his crops were burned, he

lost his home, he lost his health, he got a

terrible disease, and he was miserable. And at the end

of that book, it doesn't say when Job prayed for himself,

God heard it. It says when Job began to pray

for his friends, God said, oh, okay, you're ready now.

God is looking for you to be unselfish. The more

selfish you are, the more God's going to say, well,

you got a little more grown up to do. But

when you begin to pray for other people's breakthrough. Guess

what's going to happen in your.

Life, your breakthrough. Let's bow our heads.

Would you say, God, I'm sorry that I've been nervous

about prayer. I've been confused. I've had doubts about it.

I haven't understood it, so I didn't even know how

to pray. But I thank you Jesus for these five

things that you promise to answer if I just keep.

Asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.

Thank you that, no matter what my relationship is to you,

whether I'm close or distant, or there's a even a barrier, you.

Want me to ask and seek and knock.

Thank you God that you're never going to give me

something that's unhelpful. You're never going to give me something

that's harmful. You're never going to answer a request that's

a wrong request that's not going to make me what

I really want in life. Thank you that you'll only

give me what's best for me, so I can relax

and I don't have to worry about is this is

an okay request?

That I can literally.

Ask for anything and you'll do the sorting out. Lord,

that's such a great relief. Attention reliever, Lord, I ask

you to help me to give away what I want

to receive. Help me to give away what I want

to receive, so that you may teach me not just

your blessings, but to teach me to be more like

Jesus Christ. If you've never invited Jesus into your life,

say Jesus Christ, come into you my life.

Make yourself real to me. I want to get to

know you.

I want to learn to trust you and love you,

and I want to learn to talk to you all

the time. And I humbly ask this my Father in Heaven,

in Jesus' name, Amen, did.

You just accept Christ? Well? Congratulations.

If you'll email me Rickapastorrick dot com, just let me

know that you prayed that prayer. You open your life

to Christ, and guess what We'll pray for you and

we'll send some free materials to help you grow on

your spiritual journey.

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