Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. How do I talk to God? Talk to me when you're walking down the street. Talk to me when you're brushing your teeth. Talk to me when you come home. Talk to me when you get up. Talk to me when you go to bed.
You know, just talk to Him. You don't have to change the way you speak, in other words. It doesn't have to be long, and it doesn't have to be eloquent. It just has to be sincere.
It has to be honest. Thank you for joining us this week with Carter Conlon on A Call to the Nation. Today, Carter takes us to Matthew chapter 6 with his message titled, How Do I Talk to God? Carter will be the first to admit he struggled with this question. He went a long way around the barn before discovering the secret about this, and he wants you to understand this simple answer also. He promises that it works for him, and it will work for you.
Let's join Carter now to discover more. There's no promise in the scripture that when you come to Christ that you won't go through trials or difficulties, but he promises to walk with you in the waters that will try to drown you, and with you through the fire, and it will not burn you. And every trial that you will have to pass through in life, you will know him as a friend that stays closer than a brother to you, and he will walk with you right through into eternity.
If you give your life to Jesus Christ, he promises that heaven will be your eternal home when you leave this world. And it just puts everything in its right perspective suddenly. You suddenly know that you're in the hands of God, and God has everything under control. I want to just share a brief word with you about how do I talk to God. How do I talk to God? I want to just share some things with you from the Word of God about how to talk to God from the very heart of Jesus Christ himself, how he told us that we should pray, and what should be our attitude of heart when we choose to pray and come to him. If you'll turn in your Bibles or whatever device you have to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6, I'm going to read verses 5 to verse 8. Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 5.
How do I talk to God? Jesus said, and when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. Now, a hypocrite in its original text means an actor, somebody who just is putting on a play, but they're not really sincere in a sense about the part that they're playing.
It's just an act. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you've shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, that means those who live outside of a relationship with God.
For they think they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask him. Now, these four verses don't tell us everything, but they tell us a great deal about how Jesus himself views this sacred interaction, may I call it that, between us and himself. An interaction that he had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when the Scripture says he would come down in the cool of the day, and they would just converse with one another. It wasn't necessarily complicated, at some points the Scripture tells us that he would bring animals to Adam and say to Adam, what shall we call this? And so Adam gave a name to some of these creations of God, and that became a way of conversing. Now, sin entered into the human race, and that ability to communicate with God was lost. There are only maybe a select few in the Old Testament that really had this channel through of, like Moses for example, of talking face to face with God, but it was lost to the greater part of humanity until the cross of Jesus Christ.
When Christ himself destroyed the power of sin and death and the devil, defeated it, made an open display of it, and opened the way again for you and I to come into the presence of God and to speak to him again, to talk to him. You know, I tried for years all of these schemes to pray. Folks, let me tell you something, if there's a book on prayer to read, I've read it. I've read Praying Hyde, I've read all of these books, Reese Howell's Intercessor, and I howled and I tried to get my Hyde praying. I did all of these things, and I burst blood vessels in my eyes because I felt you had to be, I even went out in the snow one day because it was Brainerd who went out in the snow and prayed for the Indians, and the scripture says the snow around him melted, not scripture, but the history says.
And I went out, I just near froze to death, nothing melted around me, except my resolve melted to ever do anything like that again. And after trying all these things to try to get to pray and exhausting myself, I even started the five o'clock club in Canada where you would call each other in the morning and wake each other up and pray. It has to be at five in the morning. Of course, it's not holy if it's not five in the morning. You have to go in your living room and you have to get on your knees, which I did, because if you weren't on your knees, it wasn't holy. Folks, I've been through the crucible, I've been beat up to a pulp by the prayer ministries of America that I used to be part of. And you have to get on your knees because it's not holy if it's not on your knees and not five o'clock in the morning.
Then I would put my face down, I remember it was a green couch, and I'd put my face down between the two cushions right in the center of that couch, and generally I'd wake up at about seven o'clock. However, I was on my knees and I could honestly say, well semi-honestly, say I was on my face before God. Finally, one day after I'd exhausted all of these avenues, the Lord just, you know, when you just finally stop running, God says, can we talk now? He said, Carter, I had a friend called Adam and I loved my friend and I would come down to my friend and I would converse with my friend. And it's what I've longed for as God, I longed for this companionship with this man, and because sin entered into his heart, I lost my friend. So I came to this world as a man, Jesus Christ, and I went to a cross, defeated the power that had defeated him, so that I could talk again to Adam's descendants. He said, Carter, just talk to me. It's an amazing revelation. It shouldn't be, but it is.
It's an amazing revelation. Just talk to me. You don't have to speak a hundred miles an hour. You don't have to use King James English.
The posture doesn't matter. You can talk to me when you're walking down the street. Talk to me when you're brushing your teeth. Talk to me when you're having a coffee in the morning. Talk to me when you're walking along the way to wherever you're going. Talk to me when you come home. Talk to me when you get up.
Talk to me when you go to bed. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul, when I first read the verse where Paul said, pray without ceasing. I remember I blurted out, how in heaven's name do you do that? Well, you just, you get into a habit of talking with the one who not only redeemed you, but now resides inside of you. God's not often the cosmos, so that you have to shout at him to get through to him. He actually indwells your physical human body in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God dwelling inside these earths, and so he goes with you wherever you go. So you don't have to shout.
And when you do talk to him, give him time to speak to you too as well. Now, he tells us in our conversations that he asks that we be sincere when you pray. Don't be like the actors or the hypocrites. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they might be seen by men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have the reward. Years ago in New York City, we used to have open prayer on Tuesday night. I don't know if anybody here remembers that. But we had an open microphone in the front of the church, and anybody was welcome to come down and pray. And I remember one night, this older gentleman came down, and he took the microphone, and he prayed almost like a poet.
It was very poetic, and it was eloquent, and it was actually quite good in a sense as far as the English language went. I remember David Wilkerson leaning over to me, and he goes, the old phony. And it turned out he was an old phony. His prayer was, he wasn't talking to God. He was wanting the people in the sanctuary to esteem his spirituality.
Have you ever been in a place, in a prayer meeting, and somebody starts praying, and it's not really a prayer? It's their latest sermonette that they want to get out. They want everybody in the room to hear it. But they're really not talking to God.
They're talking for this, it's a duplicitous reason. And he said, when you stand or when you go into your secret place, just be sincere. Just talk to me. Don't give a sermon. If you're in a public meeting and you're asked to pray, don't give a sermon to the congregation. Talk to God. It's an audience of one that we go before, and we're not there to utter prayers to impress the people around. And that's what Jesus was saying. When you utter your prayers in the synagogue, don't do it so that other people can esteem you to be spiritual.
Just talk to him. You don't have to change the way you speak, in other words. And it doesn't have to be long, and it doesn't have to be eloquent. It just has to be sincere.
It has to be honest. I love the scripture in Luke chapter 18, where Jesus said, Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself thus.
I love that. He stood and prayed with himself. In other words, God is not listening to him. Now, why is it in the Bible? If you ever called a place and you don't get a person when you call, but you get a recording, and before you record it says, This conversation will be recorded for quality purposes in education and instructional purposes and stuff like that.
Quality control and instruction. Well, that's why this prayer is actually recorded in the Bible. God wasn't listening to it.
There was nobody there. But it was recorded for quality control and for instruction. That's how it got in the Bible. It's not that it was ever accepted by God.
He stood and prayed with himself. Oh God, I thank you. I'm not like other men. Extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, these are the words of Jesus, this man, the tax collector, went down to his house justified or in right relationship with God.
Or we could say answered rather than the other. For everyone exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So when you pray, just be sincere. Just be sincere. Don't fake it.
God knows already. Don't tell him how wonderful the day is when you're really bummed. And it's been a hard day and you're going through stuff you don't understand. Be sincere. Just be honest with God when you pray. And then in verse six, he says, when you pray, go into your room. And when you've shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who's in secret will reward you openly. Let your prayer be also personal.
Let it be private. Luke chapter 12 and verse 32, Jesus said, don't be afraid, little flock. It's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So be sincere and let it be personal between you and God.
Now here's a great example of this. In Luke chapter 15, the prodigal son, we know the story. Most of us know it's a young man who just took his inheritance, went far away from the heart and the home of his father and really brought disgrace to the family name. Spent everything he had on himself and was living in a way he shouldn't live. And ended up actually feeding pigs. And as a Jewish boy, that's probably the worst thing you could ever do because pigs were considered in every way unclean to the Jewish culture. And then one day he got up and decided to come home and a prayer came into his heart.
Remember Jesus, he said in this verse of scripture in Matthew, he said, your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And so this boy formulated a prayer in his heart and it's, Father, I've sinned. I've sinned against heaven and against you and I'm not worthy to be called your son anymore.
So if you'll have me, just make me as one of your hired servants. Now as he's coming down the road, the scripture says his father ran to meet him. His father ran and embraced him. His father fell on his neck and kissed him. So this prayer, you've got to picture the scene with me. The father is embracing the son and they are cheek to cheek, lips to ear.
May I put it that way? And this prayer is not for the entourage who followed the father. It's a personal prayer.
It's a private prayer between him and his father. And he just, I can see him whispering it in his father's ear. Father, I'm not worthy to be called your son anymore. I've disgraced you and I've disgraced the family.
But if you will take me back and make me as one of your hired servants. Now I don't think anybody else heard this prayer. It was a personal prayer between this boy and his father because they're locked and embraced.
The father is hugging this son. He's so glad to have him home and the son is not, as we said in the beginning, he's not uttering this prayer for the sake of the entourage that ran down the road with the father. And so he prays in secret, in a sense, to his father. But the father rewards him openly.
And how shocked he must have been when we are sincere, when we go to God and we're just gut honest with God. You made the mess in your own life. You can't blame your father. You can't blame your mother. Don't blame your uncle. Don't blame your aunt. Don't blame anybody else. You are the one who got addicted. You are the one who fell into depression.
You stole from your business and your company. It's nobody else's fault but yours. You get up and you come back and you find yourself in the embrace of God. It's hard to explain it, but you're finding that somehow you feel the embrace of God coming around you. And all you can do is whisper your prayer.
You can't shout it out the window and nobody wants to hear it anyway. And you're just saying, Father, I've sinned against you and against heaven. I've made a mess of my life. You gave me life for a divine reason. You had a purpose and plan for my life, but I left your calling for my life. I left your house and I went out and I did it my way. And I made a mess of everything and I stink like a pig.
And here I am. And you're whispering it into the ear of God. And then suddenly, how surprised this boy must have been when the father claps his hands and says, bring out the best robe and put it on him.
You see, you pray in secret and your father will reward you openly. And so you can hear the collective gasp of all the servants that have come running. This man is a wealthy man. He hasn't come running down the road alone.
There's an entourage with him. And as he gives the command, bring the best robe and put it on my son, you can hear the collective gasp from the people. Because this boy, he has prayed in secret, but now he's being rewarded openly. I tell you, when you go honestly before God, one of the best prayers I've ever prayed, and I still pray it today, I've prayed it my whole life, it's a really eloquent prayer. Jesus, help me.
I've prayed it since the day I got saved. Matter of fact, if you change the intonations, you can pray it nine different ways. Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me. You can change, depending on your mood, you can change the intonation of the prayer. And God answers it every time.
I can't tell you how many times I prayed that prayer in desperation. I used to jog. I used to be a runner, believe it or not.
If you close your eyes, it makes it easier to believe it. But I used to be physically fit. I used to be a runner. And when I would run, the whole run, I would say, Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me.
I got a rhythm in it. Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me.
All the way. And he helped me. He answered my prayer. I prayed in secret.
There was nobody there. Nobody on the roads, the country roads I used to run on. But he heard me. He heard my prayer and he rewarded me openly. And he helped me. Gave me abilities that I don't naturally have.
Gave me opportunities that could never, never come my way. Gave me resources that could only come from heaven. He clapped his hands and said, bring the best robe and covered the failure of his son. Praise be to God. And not only that, he calls for the ring and it gives him the empowerment of heaven. The empowerment of the Father's house is restored to him.
That ring had a signet and it carried the weight of the Father's authority. Behold, I give you power, I give you power to tread on serpents and squares. I give you power to stand against your addictions and your depressions and your trials and troubles. Where the devils come into your home is trying to steal your children. Jesus said, you pray in secret.
I'll reward you openly. I'll give you power over these things that have tried to destroy your house and destroy your life. And then he put shoes on his feet and how incredulous it must have been to be, usually to come into the presence of God per se, you had to take your shoes off your feet. Because most people who come into the presence of God generally come in with ideas and strategies and skills. And that's why he told Moses and Joshua, take off your shoes. I don't want your strength to win this battle. And I don't need your strategies and I don't want your ideas.
I'm going to do this for you. But this boy was broken now. This boy was honest before his father. So the command to give him shoes was almost the opposite. He's ready now to represent my kingdom. You know, I've often said it.
I've said it many times in this book. What do you think, pastor, on that young man's message when he went out from his father's house? Seven steps to this?
Thirteen steps to that? No, you got to meet my dad. You got to meet my father. Man, oh man, you got to come to my father's house.
Everybody is welcome there and everybody gets fed there. And when you come home, they bring out the band. They bring out the band and they start singing. I don't know what they sang. Maybe it's, oh glory, glory, hallelujah, since I laid my burdens down.
I don't know what the song was, but the father brings him home. And because he's prayed in secret, he rewards him openly. Praise be to God. And lastly, pray trusting. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do. They think they will be heard for their many words. I've often found that a lack of faith in prayer often has many words attached to it. The less a person believes, the more words they have to use to try to convince themselves that God will answer their prayer.
God does not have to be persuaded to bless you. Your father knows you have need of certain things before you even ask him. He knows what you need.
It's amazing. And you just come and say it. Not only is my prayer sincere, not only is it personal and just to you, God, but I trust you. I trust you. I trust that what you say in your word to me is truth. I trust that when I pray believing, I will receive. I trust that my enemies will not triumph over me. I trust that you're the God who restores things that I have lost, perhaps through my own ignorance or the way I've lived my life. I trust that you will receive me and forgive me. I trust, oh God, that I can have a new future, a new life, a new heart, a new mind, and a new hope. And that's what talking to God is all about.
And you're thinking out there, like, how does this apply to me? God loves you. God loves you, the Bible says, with an everlasting love. He says he engraved your name on the palm of his hands. When he went to the cross, your name was on the point of those nails that went through his hands. He said a nursing mother could forget her child, but I can never forget you. He loved you, the Bible says, before you were formed in your mother's womb, he knew you. And he loved you.
And I think, honestly, that sometimes why God hasn't judged this world already is because he's waiting for you. Come home. One more son, one more daughter, one more person out there that has the courage to say, God, I need to talk to you. And I need to know what it is that you're saying to me, and I need to come home. I'll tell you how to get home.
Admit that you can't get there by yourself. You need the mercy of God to get home to heaven. Admit that you can't save yourself, which is why God came to this earth as a man and went to a cross 2,000 years ago and paid the price for the things that you have done that have offended God, which the Bible calls that sin.
It means it's disobedience to what God says your life should be, how you should live, how you should think, how you should speak. And that sin separated you from God, but God sent his son, and on his son he laid your sin on that cross. It's the same as when the Father embraced that son on the road.
He took the smell of the field upon himself. When you came to the cross, the Son of God took the smell of your failing and your sin upon himself and offered you a covering and freedom and forgiveness. Believe that he took your place, and believe it because he loves you, not because he felt just obligated to clean up a mess.
He did it because he loves you. The Bible says God so loved the world, put your name in there. I don't know what your name is out there tonight, but put your name in there.
You in India, China, Russia, wherever you are, Canada, United States, the UK, put your name in there. God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son that if you believe in him, you will not perish. That means be separated from God for eternity, but have everlasting life, which means with God. And you confess him with your mouth. Jesus, if you want me that bad, I'm yours. I give you my life. If you want my mess, you can have it. If you want to change my life, you can change it.
If you want to call me to be something other than what I am, you can call me. Pray this simple prayer with me right now, right from your heart. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Thank you for giving your life for me. I give my life to you. I open my heart to your offer of forgiveness and your desire to talk with me again. I do confess you, Jesus Christ, as my Lord and my God for the rest of my days. As you help me, I will walk with you, and I will be the person you desire me to be. Amen.
