How to have a good relationship with God

HOW TO HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Pastor Steve Trimble ~ March 21, 2010

Text: Luke 18: 9-14

I. HE KNEW HE DIDN’T HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD “the tax collector stood at a distance.” (13)

Eph 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”

II. HE FELT ASHAMED “He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

2 Cor. 7:8-11

III. HE KNEW HE NEEDED GOD’S MERCY “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”


Eph 2:4-5

1 Peter 1:3-4

IV. HE KNEW THAT HE WAS A SINNER! “God be merciful to me a sinner.”


Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”


James 4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

V. HE KNEW WHERE TO GET MERCY. “God”

John 3:16-17

VI. HE WENT HOME WITH A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."


2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

CONCLUSION: Today take an honest look at yourself and then cry out for God’s mercy.