The Seven Habits of a Godly Life – Dr. Charles Stanley

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if you’re gonna walk in the ways of God

the first thing we have to do is to

learn to listen to it so I would ask you

would you say that you know how to

listen to God that you know when he’s

speaking to you when you pray you’re

quiet and asking to God for something or

about something that you know how to

listen to him if you know how to hear

him

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four decades ago we started in touch

ministries to lead people worldwide into

a growing relationship with Jesus Christ

throughout the years we’ve seen God’s

greatness his love and his blessings in

such awesome ways that we just want

everyone to know him so let’s open God’s

Word and seek Him together next on

InTouch walking in the fever of God part

1 the Bible says then the Lord saw that

the wickedness of man was great on the

earth and that every intent and thought

of his heart was only evil continually

the Lord was sorry that he had made man

on the earth and he was grieved in his

heart the Lord said I will blot out man

whom I have created from the face of the

earth from man to animals to creeping

things the birds of the sky for I am

sorry that I have made them but Noah

found favor in the eyes of the Lord and

that’s what I want to talk about in this

message and that is walking in the favor

of God and this is the first of three

messages on this title walking in the

favor of God and when I think about that

I think but first of all what do we mean

by the favor of God we mean first of all

of God’s approval and his acceptance of

us and his support his provision His

divine energy his joy all of it and all

of these are expressions of the failure

of a God so ask yourself the question do

you feel like you’re walking in the

favor of God do you sense his presence

and power in your life do you see

evidence that God is guiding what you

say what you do where you look are all

of these evidence in the favor of God

the scripture says that Noah found favor

in the eyes of the Lord and also you

know remember that Mary the mother of

Jesus also found favor

before the Lord and the truth is it

should be every one of us should have

the desire to find favor with God in our

life and so I would ask you do you feel

like you have God’s favor do you sense

God’s presence and favor goodness and

kindness and love and joy and

forgiveness and his presence and power

and enablement in your life or do you

feel like he just thought out there

alone working your way through life and

open things will get better he said he

found favor in the eyes of the Lord that

is he sense God’s presence in his life

in a very special way and when you would

say the Holy Spirit came into your life

to see you as a child of God and the

process of doing so I am certain that he

intended for every one of us to sense

his favor to feel his favorite to

experience his favorite to know that the

love of God had been poured out upon us

to save us from our sin so then I’ll ask

you simply this there’s your lifestyle

and the habits that you live at every

day indicate the people around you that

you have the favor of God is there

anything in your life that comes would

cause people to think well maybe they’re

a Christian maybe they’re not do you

have the favor of God is the favor of

God evident by the lifestyle you live

and so when I think about that I think

about three things that’s evident by our

conversation by our character by our

conduct all three of those which we live

on every day in front of everybody they

indicate whether we have the favor of

God or if we’re not or if God has

favored us in our salvation and the

fullness of the holy spirit is he’

evident by the life that we live and so

I ask you do you worry about things that

you fret over them do you wonder where

God is do you sense his presence do you

know that he’s answering your prayer do

you know he’s in your life and your

conversation conduct and the way you

live it all out what is one of the

evidence

of the favor of God in your life the

first indication is simply this that

you’re listening to him that you’re

listening to God that you’ve learned how

to listen to God until you learn how to

listen to God in your life you’ll never

have this favor because you’ll be living

outside of his will justifying what

you’re doing declaring everything is

alright and that you’re a Christian but

it takes more than that so when I think

about that learning to live in his favor

these verses are very important turn if

you will to psalm 32 verse 8 and 9 psalm

32 verse 8 and 9 listen to what he says

i will instruct you and teach you in the

way which you should go so I’ve got to

be listening

I will counsel with you with my eye upon

you do not be as the horse or as the

mule which have no understanding whose

trappings include bit and bridle to hold

them in check how otherwise they’ll not

come to you so if we’re going to be

listeners listen I will instruct you and

teach you in the way which you should go

in order for me to know the will of God

and the way of God the first lesson is

I’ve got to learn to listen to it how do

you listen to God have you thought about

that in your own life do you listen to

him when you get on the parade do you

take time to listen or do you do all the

talking

this is why the Holy Spirit came into

our life the moment we were saved to be

an internal guide and director he’s the

one who points us in the right direction

he’s the one who gives us awareness of

what’s happening he’s the one who shows

us on the other side of the question

that you and I couldn’t figure out

without his a good counsel so learning

to listen to God is the basic lesson of

being a godly person so in order to

listen to God we must learn how to

identify his voice so let me ask you a

question you don’t raise your hand

that’s right

now think about this soberly and

seriously if you had to answer this to

God do you know how to listen to God do

you know

are you aware when God is trying to

speak to you do you know in your heart

when you may say well my conscience said

this on my conscience said that do you

think about the fact that the Holy

Spirit is speaking to you he’s trying to

say something to you sometimes it won’t

make any sense to you at all but that’s

not the issue of the issue is that he is

omniscient omnipresent omnipotent he

knows exactly what we need when we need

it

and how we need it and he knows how to

say it to us in a way that we can

understand it all of us every single day

should want to listen to God from the

moment we wake up to the time we lose

consciousness going to sleep at night so

you know the list of the god we got to

learn how

first of all god’s voice will be

consistent with Scripture the one thing

that you always have to remember God is

not going to tell you something that is

a violation of the word of God never I

might not understand it but he’ll never

ask is that violate the Word of God so

it’s going to be consistent with

Scripture and secondly oftentimes it’s

going to be in conflict with human

reason somebody says well this is the

reasonable thing to do if you obey God

it will not always be the reasonable

thing to do if you listen to God it

won’t be sometimes the reasonable thing

to do because he knows past present

future as you build his talents skills

and he knows his will for your life a

third thing is it’s going to clash with

fleshly desires sinful desires that crop

up in a person’s life we all have to be

sensitive to that and listening to God

what you hear is going to clash there’ll

be conflict you’ll sense the conflict

this is what happens when you attempted

in some particular area of life you you

feel this conflict on the inside that’s

the spirit versus the flesh trying to

give you direction for what to do

oftentimes it

challenge your faith when you listen to

him you listen to what God is trying to

say to you it’ll challenge your faith to

do what you probably don’t think you’re

capable of doing

sometimes it calls for courage in your

life and that is a God are you sure you

want me to do this yes because listen

when God gives the command he also

accompanies that command with his power

strength energy know-how in order to

help you to be able to do what he called

you to do so so when somebody says well

I know God’s calling me to do this and

so but I don’t think I can remember this

God does not call you without giving

whatever is necessary to help you and

they enable you to do it

he speaks quietly every time somebody

says well I never heard God speak well

you expect him to shout he’s not gonna

shout because he has the Holy Spirit

living inside of you and the Spirit of

God the Holy Spirit God the Father God

son all three persons of the Trinity

they whispered to us quietly this is my

will this is the way walk ye in it one

thing about it he speaks very clearly I

can’t ever remember God saying figure

this out he always speaks clearly

somebody says well God’s never spoken to

me yes he has you may not have been

listening it may be a shock to you that

he spoke to you he may have spoken to

you in a way that you didn’t expect you

didn’t anticipate but to say that you’ve

been saved by the grace of God and God

didn’t speak to you surely he did that’s

the reason you got saved he convicted

you of your sin somebody was preaching

or you read something and you felt

convicted of your sin that was the

Spirit of God speaking to your heart he

told you that you needed to be saying

that the Spirit of God yielded your life

to Christ

that’s the Spirit of God God doesn’t

stop talking to you when you’re saved

that’s the beginning of the voice of God

in your life to not only bring you to

conviction and salvation but to bring

you to live a daily life of obedience

and surrender to him

he speaks personally watch this God will

never say you all he speaks to you and

the human to you and to me never you all

he may say to all of us as a fellowship

I want you to do lessons so but he’s

speaking to each of us individually

that’s our God’s awesome personal loving

individual care for you then he loves

you enough to speak to you about your

situation it may be about your marriage

about your children about somebody

you’re going to marry or your finances

or whatever it might be

watch this carefully God speaks clearly

and individually to us about every

single concern that we have all things

that we’re not concerned about that we

ought to be concerned about convictions

of sin he’s always speaking for example

have you not said your children listen

to me

have you ever said to them if you don’t

listen to me how are you gonna listen to

and they have an answer if you don’t

listen to God who are you listening to

you listen to somebody who doesn’t

really know you there are lots of people

who know you who won’t tell you how to

live your life and what you should do

what you shouldn’t do and and they can

influence you in different ways but that

here’s the important thing God who

created you who in 12 you were the holy

spirit the moments you were saved he is

the one whom we are to listen to above

everybody else in the world no matter

who they are

he’s the only one who is infinite in his

wisdom he’s the only one who knows

everything about you he knows your

potential he knows his will his purpose

his plan he knows who best suits you in

his way you ought to live with Charlotte

Drive he knows everything about us

we should consult him about everything

in life name me one thing you should not

ask God about so ask yourself this

question would you say that you’re a

listener among God’s children would you

say count man there’s a listener to God

I pray to Him and listen I listen to

messages I listen to the voice of those

speaking the truth

I listen to the words in the songs I’m

listening to God it is a sacred duty and

an absolute essential in our

relationship to God to listen to him so

how does God get our attention well he

gets our attention

different ways and probably if we had

you just stand and say well here’s the

way God gets my attention be different

different people’s lives one of the ways

he hits our attention is to feel

Restless you can’t quite put your finger

on it but you have this Restless feeling

inside you don’t know what’s happening

you look around you can’t put your

finger on it it’s not that somebody’s

wronged you owe that you’ve made some

bad mistake on that you’ve sinned

against God in some awesome way but you

have a restlessness and think about this

think about how busy you are from the

time you wake up you start thinking

about what you’re gonna do in your plans

and so for the things that you were in

fret about and so God has to get in on

all of that and so the way he begins to

get our attention is make us Restless so

you think about all these things and

none of them seem to be the issue and

finally what does he do he it’s like he

just pulls the sheet by sheet by sheet

by sheet by sheet off of our mind and

our thinking and we get into this

Restless mini what God’s trying to say

something to me and that doesn’t come

automatically that comes by experience

and so you get on the pray and you don’t

feel like you’re getting through oh you

kneel the pray and you think well God

what are you trying to say to me and

sometimes he has to get as very restless

about our life in order to drive us to

finally say well God you must be saying

something to me because watch this it’s

natural and normal for us to look at the

first thing that we think could be the

issue and think well god you must be

saying this or not even include God in

it this must be happening my kids this

my husband is my wife there’s our

relationship on and on we go the things

that have about our death and so God

gets us restless enough to get us quiet

enough to say well Lord what are you

trying to say to me and so it’s very

important that he get our attention

sometime it’s a message from somebody

else sometimes God may say something to

you through someone else because he God

has spoken to them about you because he

cares about you watch this God isn’t

he’s not tattling on you that’s not the

issue God wants to get your attention

and sometimes somebody else has to be

the avenue through which God speaks so I

learned long time ago and somebody says

well here’s what God told me to tell you

I have two thoughts first of all who is

this what kind of life are they living

before they start telling me what God’s

saying because sometime I’ve heard the

most bizarre things that God absolutely

could not would not should not can’t say

and then sometimes somebody say

something I think what God yeah yeah I

needed to hear that thank you very much

so we have to be careful that the

messages that we receive from somebody

else and likewise be careful the message

you give somebody else if you tell

somebody else well here’s what God told

me to tell you you better be sure about

what you’re saying now you mislead

somebody and then before you say that

you need to ask the Lord that Lord is

this right in my life before when I saw

giving someone else Direction Lord is

this right in my life so we have to be

careful about a message we give to

somebody else and so one of the ways he

gets our attention is to bless us and

what is that usually did we usually say

well Lord I sure didn’t expect this I

don’t deserve this thank you very much

we can’t thank him enough that would be

our choice way of God getting your

attention but it’s not his usual way

because usually yes they get to

something deeper than that but that is

one way he gets our attention to remind

us how good he is do you ever think

about how good god is to you one of the

ways God gets the attention is when we

stop to think how good you are to meet

God then of course his unanswered prayer

will get our attention now is that bad

no it’s not bad because I can think

about some times in my life when God was

making a major change and direction in

my life that came to me first of all as

a little sense of restlessness I didn’t

know what was going on and I would pray

and

and when I got there praying I was just

as dissatisfied as when I started and

that they went by a week went by and the

month went by and two or three months

went by and I’m still talking to God

about the same thing of which I do not

have any idea what it’s about

and so God knows how to get our

attention and he knows how to get us

intense and when I think about a few

times I’ve made big moves in my life

have usually been times when I’ve been

through a season of asking and searching

and seeking and usually those times of

introspection looking in my life to be

sure everything is right between God and

myself and is there anything I can

correct a change or whatever and so

unanswered prayer is one of his methods

of getting our attention till he gets to

the root of the issue until we are able

and willing to say okay god I want to do

it

whence when they came to me to talk to

me about coming to Atlanta said no I

have no interest in coming to Atlanta

Georgia never had been to Atlanta but

one time were flying over and and just

looking a little bit of a skyline which

was not very big at that time I said no

week after week after week and they come

to see me I said no no no one night you

got on the pray and before I got up from

praying I knew that I had to be obedient

to God against my will against my wishes

against everything in me and my wife

would have told you I complained the

whole way to Atlanta I didn’t want to

come I found I had to say yes Lord I’ll

come sometimes he gets that tension by

disappointments everything is just going

on fine and we have a big disappointment

in life

and so we think well what did I do

how could I could I avoid in this

disappointment sometimes that’s the way

God gets our attention so when we get

disappointed what do we do we back off

it’s okay God what are you trying to say

to me and then sometimes as failure

failure gets her attention all failure

not bad if failure in any given area of

your life gets your attention gets you

on your knees before God once that

happens it’s not all bad because failure

what does it do it drives us to God

sometimes it’s financial problems that

oftentimes gets people’s attention

especially if they could lose their

house especially if for example they

could lose their job lose their

opportunities and so people instead of

turning to God they go borrow some money

and so instead of listening to God

obeying God they try to avoid this

uneasy feeling and that uneasy feeling

is God’s goodness it’s God’s grace

getting the person to realize maybe you

made the wrong decision maybe you aren’t

listening and God can correct any

decision we make if our hearts are

genuinely committed to him and since

they’re in the process sometimes is

sickness sickness or injury gets our

attention and I’ve met people down

through the years who said you know I

was heading in the wrong direction God’s

laid me out Here I am and here I have

been and I can remember the last time I

fell and was laid out full of awhile and

I thought well what’s what’s going on it

took me about six weeks of praying and

listening the other but when he got my

attention

I said yes Lord thank you thank you

thank you if this is what it took to

stop me if this is what it took to get

my attention I want to thank you thank

you thank you for it so sometimes that’s

what he uses so to walk in the favor of

God whatever it takes

it’s worth it when the scripture says

that amidst all the sin and wickedness

in the world that Noah found favor in

the eyes of God look what God did with

him when he found favor in him so ask

yourself this question

am i walking in the favor of God in my

life be honest

am i walking according to my pattern or

what I want am i walking in his favor is

that the witness of the Spirit to my

spirit that God and I on the same track

we on the same timetable we want the

same things how do I desire the same

objectives in my life others are the

same goals in my life is God wants am i

walking in his spirit by his spirit do I

want the same things that God wants for

my life are my desires the desires of

God ask yourself the question is just

what God wants sometimes watch this God

will want more for you than you want for

yourself sometimes you’ll want something

better for you you will say I don’t

deserve it that’s not what God says

sometimes you think well I couldn’t

could never deserve it that may be

exactly what God wants watch this

God is not a taskmaster God is an

awesome wonderful exciting beloved

Heavenly Father who wants the best for

us in every area of our life he wants us

to do what he wants us to walk in his

favor but to walk in his favor I must

learn to listen to him that’s the first

step what does that mean that means I

want to walk with his approval I want to

walk with his acceptance his support his

provision his divine energy and his joy

learning to listen to God is lesson

number one amen

father we thank you for loving us thank

you for reminding us that as we want to

teach our children very early in life to

listen to us when we are saved

first lesson listened to you I pray for

people seated here this morning who are

not listening they’re making up their

own mind I pray that you’ll bring great

conviction upon them which will be an

act of love on your part to stop them

dead in their tracks this morning from

heading in that relationship we should

not be bind that which they should not

do going there living that doing this

doing that without asking for your

direction and guidance I pray that

you’ll stop them dead in their tracks to

remind them that you are willing to give

clear direction with that direction

comes your blessing and I pray the Holy

Spirit will speak to somebody here that

today who has never trusted Jesus as

their Savior they’ve been living on

their own doing pretty good they think

but what they don’t know is what’s

coming

I pray that they’ll be willing to stop

right now ask you to forgive them of

their sin repent of their sin right

where they sit the Lord be willing to be

honest for themselves and acknowledge

that you’ve been trying to speak to them

for a long time and they’ve been

ignoring you but today they’re listening

they’re surrendering their life to you I

pray the Spirit of God will be heavy

heavy heavy heavy God on everyone every

heart that’s living in sin living in

disobedience have plans to send plans to

disobey you make them so heavy they’re

God they have to repent right here and

now sitting right where they are in

order to get right with you before they

walk out of this service today

thank you for your awesome love for us

Lord God we surrender ourselves to you

today and we praise you for your

forgiveness your loving your goodness to

us in Jesus name

amen

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