Pastor Joe concluded the Hearing God portion of the Striving for Holiness series by bringing together the themes of the previous two messages.
We have considered how God speaks through His Word. We have considered the importance of becoming still, withdrawing from the noise around us, and making room for communion with God.
This week, Pastor Joe turned to something closely connected with both:
Hearing God through prayer.
Prayer is one of the most familiar practices of the Christian life. But it is possible to pray regularly without ever slowing down to consider what prayer really is.
Is prayer simply telling God what we need?
Is it presenting our requests, saying “Amen,” and moving on with our day?
Or is prayer meant to be something more?
Jesus said:
“But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
— Matthew 6:6
The Purpose of Prayer
Pastor Joe began with a simple definition:
Prayer is sincere communion with God, not a show for others to hear.
Jesus warned His disciples not to pray like the hypocrites who loved to be seen praying publicly.
Their concern was not communion with God, but recognition from people.
Jesus instead directed His followers toward the private place—away from the audience, away from the performance, and alone with the Father.
Prayer certainly has a place in the gathered church. But whether our prayer is public or private, its true audience is God.
And Jesus’ words assume something else:
His followers will pray.
He did not say if you pray.
He said, “When you pray.”
Your Father Wants His Children to Spend Time With Him
Prayer is more than a Christian obligation.
It is time spent with our Father.
Pastor Joe used the relationship between a parent and child to illustrate this truth. A loving parent does not merely tolerate hearing from his children. He wants to hear from them because they are his children.
In an infinitely greater way, our heavenly Father desires communion with His children.
That changes how we think about prayer.
We are not trying to persuade a distant God to pay attention to us. We are coming to the Father who already knows us, loves us, and knows what we need.
Jesus said:
“Your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.”
Schedule Time Alone With God
If communion with God matters, we must intentionally make room for it.
Psalm 5:3 says:
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you and watch expectantly.”
Pastor Joe was careful not to turn “in the morning” into a rule requiring everyone to pray at a particular hour.
The larger point is intentionality.
Jesus Himself demonstrated this pattern. Luke tells us that He often withdrew to deserted places to pray. Matthew records Him dismissing the crowds, going up on a mountain by Himself, and remaining there alone in prayer.
Prayer should not simply become another item on a list that we rush through so we can move on to everything else.
God our Father wants us to spend time with Him.
Talk With God, Not Just to God
Jesus also warned against thinking that prayer becomes effective simply because we use many words.
Pastor Joe explained:
Prayer should not be a series of homilies strung together and directed toward God, but a sincere conversation with God from the heart.
Psalm 62:8 says:
“Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge.”
Sometimes prayers from the heart are eloquent.
Sometimes they are not.
Sometimes the most sincere prayer we can offer is simply:
“Lord, help.”
God is not impressed by religious vocabulary. He invites His children to pour out their hearts before Him.
Pause and Listen
This became one of the central connections between this sermon and the previous message on silence and solitude.
Too often, Pastor Joe explained, we practice only one side of prayer.
We praise God.
We thank Him.
We present our needs.
We intercede for others.
We say “Amen.”
And then we immediately get up and leave.
But if prayer is communion with God, there should also be room to pause and listen.
Pastor Joe pointed to the word Selah, found throughout the Psalms, as an invitation to stop and reflect.
Pause.
Consider what has been said.
Consider who God is.
Consider what you have just prayed.
That does not mean we should expect to hear something every time we pray.
Pastor Joe was explicit about that:
“I won’t tell you that every time you pray, God will speak to you.”
Sometimes we pray, wait, and hear only silence.
But silence does not mean God has failed to hear us.
And there may also be times when, as we pray and listen, God impresses an answer upon our hearts.
The point is not to manufacture an experience.
The point is to stop rushing away.
Talk with God, not merely to God. Pray—and then make room to listen.
Pray in Faith
Pastor Joe then turned to another essential element of prayer:
We must pray in faith.
Faith becomes particularly difficult when the need before us seems impossible.
When someone is desperately ill, when a family faces a crisis, or when circumstances are beyond anything we can change, we need faith in the God who can do what we cannot.
But faith also remembers something else.
What is new to us is not new to God.
Before we ever bring the need to Him, our Father already knows.
Jesus said:
“Your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.”
Pastor Joe then explained several foundations that allow us to pray in faith.
We Can Pray in Faith When We Know Him
Trust grows through relationship.
Pastor Joe compared it to recognizing the voice of someone we know deeply. A child can recognize a parent’s voice even among many other voices because that voice is familiar.
In the same way, knowing God shapes our ability to recognize His voice.
Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.”
— John 10:27
Pastor Joe summarized it this way:
“Praying in faith and hearing God comes from our relationship with God. We know His voice because we know Him.”
This also connects the entire three-part series.
We learn God’s character through His Word.
We make room for communion with Him through silence and solitude.
And through prayer, we speak with the God we have come to know.
We Can Pray in Faith When We Know His Word
Knowing Scripture also teaches us how to pray.
Pastor Joe encouraged the church to pray the Word of God.
He used James 1:5 as an example:
“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.”
When we know what God has said, we can bring His promises before Him in prayer.
Rather than depending entirely upon our feelings, we can pray from the truth God has already revealed.
This brings prayer back to where the series began:
the Word of God.
Prayer Aligns Us With God’s Will
Prayer is not a means of persuading God to conform to our desires.
As Pastor Joe put it:
“Prayer is not to align God with our will. Prayer is to align us with God’s will.”
James warns that it is possible to ask and not receive because we ask with wrong motives.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray differently:
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
That does not mean we cannot bring our desires to God. Scripture invites us to pour out our hearts before Him.
But as we grow in our relationship with God, our desires should increasingly become shaped by His kingdom, His righteousness, and His will.
Prayer does not merely change circumstances.
Prayer changes the one who prays.
Believe That God Will Answer
Faith also means believing that God hears and answers prayer.
But an answer does not always mean receiving exactly what we requested.
Pastor Joe reminded the church of the familiar truth that God’s answer may be:
Yes.
Wait.
Or something other than what we wanted.
The important thing is to trust that our heavenly Father knows better than we do.
Jeremiah 33:3 says:
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.”
Pastor Joe emphasized those words:
“I will answer you.”
So pray.
Pause.
Listen.
Wait.
Watch for what God does.
And then be willing to accept His answer.
Ask, Seek, Knock
Jesus gave His followers an extraordinary invitation:
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
— Matthew 7:7
And then:
“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
— Matthew 7:8
Pastor Joe asked:
“Who but God can make that promise?”
The Christian life is not meant to be lived apart from communion with God.
We are invited to come.
We are invited to ask.
We are invited to seek.
We are invited to knock.
And we are invited to trust our Father with the answer.
Hearing God: The Word, the Silence, and Prayer
As this portion of the Striving for Holiness series came to a close, Pastor Joe brought the three messages together.
God speaks through His Word.
We need to know His Word and His character so that we have a standard by which to recognize what is truly from Him.
We need silence and solitude.
In a world filled with noise and distraction, we need intentional places where we can become still before God.
And we need prayer.
Not prayer as performance.
Not prayer as empty repetition.
Not prayer as an attempt to persuade God to give us everything we want.
But prayer as sincere communion between a child and the heavenly Father.
Speak to Him.
Pour out your heart.
Pray His Word.
Pause and listen.
Ask in faith.
Seek His will.
And trust His answer.
Pastor Joe summarized the challenge near the end of the message:
“We must learn to hear God. We must learn to not pray presumptive prayers. We must learn to listen when we pray. We must learn to set aside time specifically to pray, and we must believe when we pray, God hears us and God will answer.”
He will answer in His time.
He will answer according to His wisdom.
And even when the answer is different from what we expected—or when we do not sense His presence as strongly as we have at other times—we can trust that our Father still hears us.
So the challenge from this week’s message is simple:
Pray. Pause. Listen. Trust.
And through the Word, the silence, and prayer, may we grow in communion with the God who knows His children and invites us to know Him.
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