How to Pray Week 4

Using the acronym CHAT, this message is on Week 4: Thank God

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Thank God

About 8 years ago, I decided it was time to drop some weight. I was the heaviest I had ever been and knew something had to change.
I was coaching football, so decided to do the same workout the players did.
Problem is I was much older than them, and my body wasn’t used to that routine.
After knee surgery, therapy. WHY? B/c its something we don’t naturally do but need to do when something is injured to get it back where it needs to be.
Our prayer life is like that too! We need to do some therapy in our prayer life to get us back to where we need to be with God!
I call it Thank Therapy.
So if you have your bible with you, open to the NT to Philippians 4 as we look at the 4th step in HOW TO PRAY which is to simply Thank God for the things we’ve been given!
CONFESS…HONOR…ASK…THANK
To illustrate how wrong we get this, I thought I’d show you a fun video dealing with kids and thankfulness…check this out!

Truth is, we act like that sometimes don’t we?
Maybe not always on the outside, but boy on the inside we’re letting someone have it when we’re not thankful for something.
Listen church…I’M NOT WRONG! LOL

Philippians 4:4-9 TATOO PICTURE
Trials, just like we’re experiencing today with COVID 19 can twist up our spirits.
Thank You Therapy when we pray is how we prevent it.
Paul is saying if we practice Thank-You Therapy, Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
The word GUARD, literally meant protection provided by an army.
How would you like to have your own army of body guards?
God’s peace will guard your HEART and MIND from ALL attacks!

This should be a no brainer…you would think. But stress does something to us doesn’t it?
Look at what Paul says in v. 4-5.
Stress can make us CRAZY!
How many memes have you seen right now of people just being plum crazy? Me too!
And when we can’t find T.P. at the store or can’t order take out from our favorite Chinese restaurant b/c they closed shop during this pandemic, it can make you not very joyful and sometime make you not very kind to people around you!
Paul is reminding us who we are in Christ and our actions should represent that!
We should show Grace to people! But it’s something we have to work on.

So we need to be kind, full of JOY first of all. Second…

I get it, that’s like saying don’t think of Joe Exotics mullet for the next minute. Now it’s all you’re gonna think about, right?
Paul is being impossible. Right? Wrong!
Difference is God’s word isn’t going to ask us to do the impossible.
It’ll never say, “don’t breathe”.
See, we don’t “GOT” to be anxious or fearful.
Each week we’ve looked at the life of someone from the O.T. to connect the dots.
Today I want to look at the life of Joshua.
Joshua, taking over Moses lead.
God says to him in Joshua 1, “Be strong and courageous…I have commanded you…Do not be terrified, Do not be discouraged, The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go…Only be strong and courageous.”
He’s saying, “I’ve got your back…stop worrying!!!”
We’re in that place right now. Let today’s word from God for you say, “I’ve got your back…Don’t worry about anything (Phil 4:6)

So that’s great to hear, but how does he expect us to do this…

To stop worrying, we must start praying!
Rule of thumb…if it’s big enough to worry about, its big enough to pray about.
Great especially if you’re a new Christ follower: Paul in Romans 6:13 “Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.”
You stop bad habits by replacing them with good habits.
Want your body to stop sinning (eyes, hands, thoughts, etc)…then give it something good to do with itself.
When you pray about EVERYTHING, fears included…it SHUTS THEM OUT!
Like we talked about week 1 (Confession), sometimes we just need to be aware of our sin.
Yes, WORRY IS SIN!

FINALLY:

We may ask the same question again, How do we do this?
It’s easy to say but how do we do that practically?
Look at v.6 again (WITH THANKSGIVING!!!)
Do you see that? We make this happen by taking verse 6 seriously.
We don’t just pray from habit, we pray from our desire to draw closer to God. When we pray like that, we pray through the things Paul lists here in verse 6!
When was the last time you were simply thankful for the food in your cabinets? What about the people God’s placed in your life? What about technology. What would happen if this pandemic would have his 15 years ago? You would not be watching this live online right now, that’s for certain!
So be thankful. As you pray, THANK God for the things in your life!

As we close, look at verse 9 with me and lets make some much needed application!
DRIED OUT DEER ROAST…didn’t follow the directions, left something out…the water! Dry and no flavor!
Have to follow the recipe when praying.
We typically don’t add too much, but just like I did, we leave stuff out.
We cannot leave out THANKFULNESS as Phil 4:6 teaches us to add.
We’ll find ourselves dry, choking on our own concerns.
HAVE TO PRACTICE THANK-YOU THERAPY!!!

When we focus on ALL we’re thankful for, fear flee’s!!!

PRAY

Time for giving Thanks!