Sermon Tone Analysis

*Jn 15; Luke 11*

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If I told you that you were going to have the opportunity to talk with Jesus Christ for fifteen minutes this afternoon and you could make one request of Him, what would your request be?

If you could ask Him anything, would you ask for protection?  a new job?

money?

What would you ask for?

The disciples got this opportunity at one point.

Luke 11 tells us they came to Jesus one day and they had a request.

"Lord, teach us to pray."

Why, of all the things they could have asked Jesus, why did they ask that question?

I think it was because they saw the results of prayer in His life.

They saw Him pray and they saw what happened.

It's interesting that the disciples watched Jesus preach the greatest sermons ever, they watched Him do miracles, heal the sick, raise the dead and all kinds of things, but never once did they say, "Lord, teach us to preach" or "Lord, teach us to do miracles" or "Lord, teach us to raise the dead".

Instead they said, "Teach us how to pray."

They saw that was the life support system of Jesus Christ.

They recognized that was the key to His life.

There is nothing more vital to your Christian life than prayer.

The average Christian knows more about Ann Landers than they do about prayer.

There are a lot of faulty misconceptions about prayer, a lot of ignorance about how prayer works and why we pray and when to pray.

Some people think prayer is a magic wand.

We kind of wave it at something -- it's a superstitious approach -- and you get what you want.

God is kind of like a genie that you rub the vase and God comes out and you pray the request -- "My wish is your command!"

Some people think prayer is a first aide kit.

For them, prayer is an act of desperation.

Sign for fire extinguisher:  "Use only in emergency."

For a lot of people, prayer is like that:  Use only in emergency.

It is a last resort.

When things finally fall apart, then you pray.

Like the deacon who came to his pastor one day.

The pastor said, "I guess all we can do is pray," and the deacon said, "Has it come to that?"

For us, prayer is like the last thing.

You do everything you can and then you pray.

For some people, prayer is a tug of war.

A religious con game that you play with God where you try to convince God to do something nice for you.

The idea is you have to beg and plead and God is some cold hearted monarch sitting a million miles out in outer space and you have to urge and beg and plead to convince Him that He ought to do something good for you.

It's like a sales pitch.

You keep pestering God until finally God gets so irritated that He finally says, "Ok, I'll give it to you!" and He gives in.

It's like conning God into giving you what you want and, if you pray hard enough, eventually He gives in, reluctantly.

Jesus told a parable to illustrate the exact opposite.

The worst idea or the worst misconception about prayer is, for many people, prayer is simply a religious duty.

The basic motivation behind it is guilt.

I know I should pray more, I ought to pray, it's something I ought to do.

It becomes a duty.

You have a sense of obligation that if you don't pray you'll be on God's Bad List.

As a result, you go through a meaningless ritual that becomes a rut.

You learn memorized phrases and you get caught in religious cliches and say the same thing over and over.

It's totally meaningless to you but you know you ought to do it.

When you think of prayer you think of one word -- boring!

You think, "Why do I have to pray?"

It becomes something you endure rather than something you enjoy.

If prayer is a duty for you, you have missed the total point of prayer.

You don't understand prayer in the slightest, if you think it's a duty.

It's no wonder you can't get motivated if you're going around saying, "I should pray, I must pray, I have to pray."

One of the most frustrating things in the Christian life is doing the things you know your suppose to do.

Like praying.

You know your suppose to and yet it is often so difficult to do.

\\ I.  *PRAYER IS AN ACT OF DEVOTION*.

Jn 15:1-4

\\ Psa 86:11 (GN)  “Teach me, Lord, what you want me to do, and I will obey you faithfully, *teach me to serve you with complete devotion*.”

\\ Acts 2:42ff  */They devoted themselves/* to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

\\ */Illustration:/*  In France, there once lived a poor, blind girl who obtained the Gospel of Mark in raised letters and learned to read it by the tips of her fingers.

By constant reading, these became callous, and her sense of touch diminished until she could not distinguish the characters.

One day, she cut the skin from the ends of her fingers to increase their sensibility, only to destroy it.

She felt that she must now give up her beloved Book, and weeping, pressed it to her lips, saying “Farewell, farewell, sweet word of my Heavenly Father!”

To her surprise, her lips, more delicate than her fingers, discerned the form of the letters.

All night she perused with her lips the Word of God and overflowed with joy at this new acquisition.

\\ Ro 12:11 (GN) “Work hard and do not be lazy.

*Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion*.

12Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times.

13Share your belongings with your needy fellow-Christians, and open your homes to strangers.”

\\ */Illustration:/*  “We will not accept into membership anyone with any reservations whatsoever,” declared Lenin, the founder of Russian communism.

“We will not accept into our membership anyone unless he is an active, disciplined, working member in one of our organizations.”

\\ 2 Chron 31:20 (GN) “Throughout all Judah, King Hezekiah did what was right and what was pleasing to the Lord his God.

21He was successful, because everything he did for the Temple or in observance of the Law, he did in a spirit of *complete loyalty and devotion* to his God.”

\\ */Illustration:/*  *Consecration Of Jonathan Edwards  *I claim no right to myself—no right to this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me; neither do I have any right to this body or its members—no right to this tongue, to these hands, feet, ears, or eyes.

I have given myself clear away and not retained anything of my own.

I have been to God this morning and told Him I have given myself wholly to Him.

I have given every power, so that for the future I claim no right to myself in any respect.

I have expressly promised Him, for by His grace I will not fail.

I take Him as my whole portion and felicity, looking upon nothing else as any part of my happiness.

His law is the constant rule of my obedience.

I will fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil to the end of my life.

I will adhere to the faith of the Gospel, however hazardous and difficult the profession and practice of it may be.

I receive the blessed Spirit as my Teacher, Sanctifier, and only Comforter, and cherish all admonitions to enlighten, purify, confirm, comfort, and assist me.

This I have done.

I pray God, for the sake of others, to look upon this as a self-dedication, and receive me as His own.

Henceforth, I am not to act in any respect as my own.

I shall act as my own if I ever make use of any of my powers to do anything that is not to the glory of God, or to fail to make the glorifying of Him my whole and entire business.

If I murmur in the least at afflictions; if I am in any way uncharitable; if I revenge my own case; if I do anything purely to please myself, or omit anything because it is a great denial; if I trust to myself; if I take any praise for any good which Christ does by me; or if I am in any way proud, I shall act as my own and not God’s.

I purpose to be absolutely His. 

\\ II.

*PRAY IS AN ACT OF SUPPLICATION.*

Jn 15:5-8

\\ Philippians 4:6, it says, "Don't worry about anything but in everything, with your *prayers and your supplications*, make your requests known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

\\ C.H. Spurgeon, a great pastor in London, England, once said this, "God never shuts His storehouses until you shut your mouth."

You have to ask.

Prayer is an act of supplication.

\\ */Illustration:/* True story about a high school student who had just become a Christian.

He was learning all these words about God.

Big theological words.

God is omnipresent -- that means God is present everywhere.