He Loves Conversation!
Sunday Evening English Worship
October 6, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: John 15:15 and others
Introduction: I would love to talk to you tonight about - well ... talking! We're continuing our look at many of the different aspects of God. And the aspect of God that I'd like to focus on tonight is that God is a “conversational” God. He loves to talk! And since He made us in His image, we also very much enjoy conversation with the people around us.
Now these days, communication is getting better, smoother and faster. And thanks to the Internet, computers and smart phones, we are communicating with each other in more convenient and easier ways than we ever did before. In fact, my mother-in-law, who said she would never get a smartphone, actually upgraded from a flip phone to a smartphone just recently! And now she's using that new phone a lot everyday!
For us as Christians, we don't have to worry about having a phone to talk to God. We can do it anytime and any where! And to be honest, God wants so much to spend time with us that He has invited us to come and live with Him for all of eternity! Are we talking about a lot of chances to enjoy conversation with our Creator and Best Friend?!
1. God Loves to Talk for Us - Romans 8:26-27 (CEV)
Tonight, I want to look at 3 different parts of conversation that God loves and how they might impact us everyday. I'll be linking each of these with some Bible passages that I really love. And our 1st point tonight is God Loves to Talk for Us. And the Bible passage for this is found in Romans 8:26-27.
"26 In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words. 27 All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people."
And so, the 1st picture we see of God's conversation is among Himself! Now, that sounds a bit strange. If we are talking to ourselves, then many people around might look at us as if we were crazy! But that's what's happening when the Spirit prays for us. Who is He talking to? Well, my guess is that He's talking to the other 2 members of God, that is, the Father and the Son! And the book of Hebrews 7 also tells us that Jesus prays for us! So, God is talking to Himself always about you and I. It's hard to believe, but that's what God's Word tells us!
*Do we love to talk for Him? - Psalm 96:2-3 (NLT)
Now, let's toss up a question about this. If God loves to talk about us, then... do we love to talk about Him? And the Bible tells us more about that in Psalm 96:2-3.
"2 Sing to the LORD; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. 3 Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does."
God is so glorious and loves us so much, we should want to tell others about Him! Sing about Him. Everyday tell about the good news. We would want to tell everyone about how amazing our God is! Sounds like Jesus' last words here on earth... Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations!
2. God Loves to Talk to Us - John 15:15 (GNT)
And not only does God love to talk about us with Himself, but He want so much to talk TO us. And that brings us to our next Bible passage, John 15:15. Let's take a look at that.
"I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father."
Now, at the beginning of my message, I said that the Lord is our Creator and our Best Friend. And the more we read the Bible, we see how true that really is. This isn’t wishful thinking on my part, like I want God to be my best friend, so I try to think about Him like that. But Jesus says in His own words that when He looks at us, He sees his friends! We love spending time with our friends. And so does He! We love talking with our friends. And so does He!
*Do we love to talk to Him? - Philippians 4:6 (NIrV)
Now, the question we can ask at this point is “What about us? Do we love talking to Him?” And of course, this is a personal question, so you have to think about this and answer it yourself. But let me share another passage of scripture with you that maybe will help you think through this question. The Bible passage is taken from the book of Philippians 4:6.
"Don’t worry about anything. No matter what happens, tell God about everything. Ask and pray, and give thanks to him."
The passage starts out with a normal phrase that we hear often in the Bible about not worrying. But the next part is what I really like. In all the other versions of the Bible it will say Pray without ceasing, but the NIrV version is quite different and so simple. No matter what happens, tell God about everything! Isn’t that amazing?! This is so easy to understand! God wants so very much for us to talk to Him about all things in our lives, from the time we wake up in the morning all the way to the end of the day.
3. God Loves to Listen to Us - 1 John 5:14-15 (CEV)
So, our time is moving quickly and I’d like to move onto our last point for this evening’s study. When it comes to conversation, there’s an English expression that’s been around for a while, “God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we will listen twice as much as we talk!“ And being a good listener is an important part of conversation. Let’s look at our next passage of scripture, 1 John 5:14-15.
"14 We are certain God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. 15 And if we know God listens when we pray, we are sure our prayers have already been answered."
And as you can easily guess, the Bible tells us again and again that God listens to all of our prayers. And John shares a really special promise with us in this Bible passage. And I have the keywords underlined that I think John is trying to drive home to us. We can know for sure that the Lord hears everything we say to Him and as we pray and it pleases Him, then we can know that He has already sent the answer to our prayers!
*Do we love to listen to Him? - Psalm 119:97 (GWT)
So, our last question that we’re going to ask this Bible passage is, Do we love to listen to Him? How God speaks to us most often is through His Word. The more time we spend reading his word, the more we can hear his part of the conversation. And that’s what our Bible verse for this question tells us. Let’s take a look at Psalm 119:97.
"Oh, how I love your teachings! They are in my thoughts all day long."
We are not sure who wrote Psalm 119, but this person was truly in love with God's Word. He said that he loved God‘s teachings and he also said that they were in his thoughts all day long! Now of course, you and I don’t have the freedom or the time to only be concentrating on God’s Word all day long. We have many other tasks that we need to do. But as we're going through our day, we can let the Holy Spirit remind us of God‘s presence and His Word and we can enjoy repeating back to God verses of the Bible that we have memorized. And we can also enjoy praying to Him many, many times during the day. I think that’s what this writer had in mind.
Conclusion: Revelation 3:20 (NLT)
So, we come to the end of our study this evening with one final passage that I've shared with you before, Revelation 3:20.
"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends."
Here is Jesus telling each of us personally that if we hear Him knocking at the door of our hearts, He wants so much to come in and spend great time together as friends! That means we have to be listening for His coming. Let's keep our ears open for His knock at the door. Let's keep reading His Word everyday as much as we can. And when we do that, He will definitely fill our hearts with His Spirit, touch us with His deep love and spend great time with us as His friends!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading one of our Bible passages together.
1 John 5:14-15
We are certain God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. And if we know God listens when we pray, we are sure our prayers have already been answered.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Our Lord, our Creator and our Friend, thank you so very much for our time of worship and study together tonight. It's always a joy to get together with brothers and sisters and fellowship together. We are happy that You hear all of our prayers. We want to please You by talking to You about everything in our lives. We know that you will always give us everything we need. Keep us safe as we go from this place and bless us to come back again soon to fellowship and worship together. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.
October 6, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: John 15:15 and others
Introduction: I would love to talk to you tonight about - well ... talking! We're continuing our look at many of the different aspects of God. And the aspect of God that I'd like to focus on tonight is that God is a “conversational” God. He loves to talk! And since He made us in His image, we also very much enjoy conversation with the people around us.
Now these days, communication is getting better, smoother and faster. And thanks to the Internet, computers and smart phones, we are communicating with each other in more convenient and easier ways than we ever did before. In fact, my mother-in-law, who said she would never get a smartphone, actually upgraded from a flip phone to a smartphone just recently! And now she's using that new phone a lot everyday!
For us as Christians, we don't have to worry about having a phone to talk to God. We can do it anytime and any where! And to be honest, God wants so much to spend time with us that He has invited us to come and live with Him for all of eternity! Are we talking about a lot of chances to enjoy conversation with our Creator and Best Friend?!
1. God Loves to Talk for Us - Romans 8:26-27 (CEV)
Tonight, I want to look at 3 different parts of conversation that God loves and how they might impact us everyday. I'll be linking each of these with some Bible passages that I really love. And our 1st point tonight is God Loves to Talk for Us. And the Bible passage for this is found in Romans 8:26-27.
"26 In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words. 27 All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people."
And so, the 1st picture we see of God's conversation is among Himself! Now, that sounds a bit strange. If we are talking to ourselves, then many people around might look at us as if we were crazy! But that's what's happening when the Spirit prays for us. Who is He talking to? Well, my guess is that He's talking to the other 2 members of God, that is, the Father and the Son! And the book of Hebrews 7 also tells us that Jesus prays for us! So, God is talking to Himself always about you and I. It's hard to believe, but that's what God's Word tells us!
*Do we love to talk for Him? - Psalm 96:2-3 (NLT)
Now, let's toss up a question about this. If God loves to talk about us, then... do we love to talk about Him? And the Bible tells us more about that in Psalm 96:2-3.
"2 Sing to the LORD; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. 3 Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does."
God is so glorious and loves us so much, we should want to tell others about Him! Sing about Him. Everyday tell about the good news. We would want to tell everyone about how amazing our God is! Sounds like Jesus' last words here on earth... Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations!
2. God Loves to Talk to Us - John 15:15 (GNT)
And not only does God love to talk about us with Himself, but He want so much to talk TO us. And that brings us to our next Bible passage, John 15:15. Let's take a look at that.
"I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father."
Now, at the beginning of my message, I said that the Lord is our Creator and our Best Friend. And the more we read the Bible, we see how true that really is. This isn’t wishful thinking on my part, like I want God to be my best friend, so I try to think about Him like that. But Jesus says in His own words that when He looks at us, He sees his friends! We love spending time with our friends. And so does He! We love talking with our friends. And so does He!
*Do we love to talk to Him? - Philippians 4:6 (NIrV)
Now, the question we can ask at this point is “What about us? Do we love talking to Him?” And of course, this is a personal question, so you have to think about this and answer it yourself. But let me share another passage of scripture with you that maybe will help you think through this question. The Bible passage is taken from the book of Philippians 4:6.
"Don’t worry about anything. No matter what happens, tell God about everything. Ask and pray, and give thanks to him."
The passage starts out with a normal phrase that we hear often in the Bible about not worrying. But the next part is what I really like. In all the other versions of the Bible it will say Pray without ceasing, but the NIrV version is quite different and so simple. No matter what happens, tell God about everything! Isn’t that amazing?! This is so easy to understand! God wants so very much for us to talk to Him about all things in our lives, from the time we wake up in the morning all the way to the end of the day.
3. God Loves to Listen to Us - 1 John 5:14-15 (CEV)
So, our time is moving quickly and I’d like to move onto our last point for this evening’s study. When it comes to conversation, there’s an English expression that’s been around for a while, “God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we will listen twice as much as we talk!“ And being a good listener is an important part of conversation. Let’s look at our next passage of scripture, 1 John 5:14-15.
"14 We are certain God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. 15 And if we know God listens when we pray, we are sure our prayers have already been answered."
And as you can easily guess, the Bible tells us again and again that God listens to all of our prayers. And John shares a really special promise with us in this Bible passage. And I have the keywords underlined that I think John is trying to drive home to us. We can know for sure that the Lord hears everything we say to Him and as we pray and it pleases Him, then we can know that He has already sent the answer to our prayers!
*Do we love to listen to Him? - Psalm 119:97 (GWT)
So, our last question that we’re going to ask this Bible passage is, Do we love to listen to Him? How God speaks to us most often is through His Word. The more time we spend reading his word, the more we can hear his part of the conversation. And that’s what our Bible verse for this question tells us. Let’s take a look at Psalm 119:97.
"Oh, how I love your teachings! They are in my thoughts all day long."
We are not sure who wrote Psalm 119, but this person was truly in love with God's Word. He said that he loved God‘s teachings and he also said that they were in his thoughts all day long! Now of course, you and I don’t have the freedom or the time to only be concentrating on God’s Word all day long. We have many other tasks that we need to do. But as we're going through our day, we can let the Holy Spirit remind us of God‘s presence and His Word and we can enjoy repeating back to God verses of the Bible that we have memorized. And we can also enjoy praying to Him many, many times during the day. I think that’s what this writer had in mind.
Conclusion: Revelation 3:20 (NLT)
So, we come to the end of our study this evening with one final passage that I've shared with you before, Revelation 3:20.
"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends."
Here is Jesus telling each of us personally that if we hear Him knocking at the door of our hearts, He wants so much to come in and spend great time together as friends! That means we have to be listening for His coming. Let's keep our ears open for His knock at the door. Let's keep reading His Word everyday as much as we can. And when we do that, He will definitely fill our hearts with His Spirit, touch us with His deep love and spend great time with us as His friends!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading one of our Bible passages together.
1 John 5:14-15
We are certain God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. And if we know God listens when we pray, we are sure our prayers have already been answered.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Our Lord, our Creator and our Friend, thank you so very much for our time of worship and study together tonight. It's always a joy to get together with brothers and sisters and fellowship together. We are happy that You hear all of our prayers. We want to please You by talking to You about everything in our lives. We know that you will always give us everything we need. Keep us safe as we go from this place and bless us to come back again soon to fellowship and worship together. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.