Sermon Tone Analysis

Open with the Skit Guys video, “The Skinny on Prayer”

OK, we are continuing tonight with our lesson on praying, that we started last Wednesday evening.

This of course, as we read last Wednesday, is coming from the gospels of and .

Now for those of you who were here or may not have been, I want to revisit the opening of this teaching which was given as part of the great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel.

(This being the first of the Five Discourses within the book of Matthew.)

Last week, I mentioned that many of the religious zealots of Jesus’ day and time, loved to stand in the public gatherings and make sure that they were seen and heard praying elaborate prayers, for the accolades and approval of those witnessing their prayers.

To this, Jesus said that we should only seek the attention of our heavenly Father and never for the approval or attention of others.

(Jesus didn’t condemn or forbid public prayers, as in a worship service or a time called for corporate prayer.

He is, however, speaking out against those who have a stronger desire to build up their status with men VS their stronger desire to build up their relationship with God!)

You shouldn’t seek to make sure that your prayers are being heard from the ears of others!

Two boys were spending the night at Grandma's house.

At bedtime, the two boys were saying their prayers when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs: "I PRAY FOR A THOMAS THE TRAIN SET!

I PRAY FOR AN ELECTRIC SCOOTER!

I PRAY FOR A NEW SPIDER-MAN ACTION FIGURE!!!" His older brother leans over and says "Why are you shouting?

God isn't deaf."

The little brother says "NO, BUT GRANDMA IS!!!"

His older brother leans over and says "Why are you shouting?

God isn't deaf."

The little brother says "NO, BUT GRANDMA IS!!!"

Jesus also spoke out against the vein, repetitious prayers, as the pagans did.

The thought behind this was that if you said over and over again, it would invoke the urgency and produce an effect.

The Bible does say, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

A righteous man’s prayer (someone who is morally right and strives to live under God’s precepts), his prayer, is powerful and has great effect; but the babbling and repetitious mantras of a religious hypocrite are vein and completely devoid of any power or authority from the Father.

In Ecclesiastes we read, “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth.

Therefore let your words be few.

For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.

For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.”

There is true power in a humble and sincere prayer to God!

The atomic bomb is a very powerful weapon.

Its great explosive force comes from a sudden release of nuclear energy through fission.

On August 6, 1945 the USA dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,

and three days later on Nagasaki, Japan.

These two atomic bombs dropped over Japan killed around 92,000 people, and brought an end to World War II, now talk about power?

That is great power.

That was great power, but God has more power than that.

In one prayer a hopeless King Hezekiah prayed over Jerusalem’s entrapment, God sent one angel and killed 185,000 of the Assyrian army, overnight!

(THAT IS THE POWER OF PRAYER WHEN ENTRUSTED THROUGH FAITH INTO THE HANDS OF GOD!)

And Jesus, as with public praying, did not condemn or forbid long, or even some repetitious prayers, as long as the petition and the desire was to draw near to the Father and to communicate solely to and with Him.

In the Garden of Gethsemane account, we read,

Your prayers to God are to be just that; TO GOD and FOR GOD!

In fact, when you look at the start of Matthew and chapter 6, you see a recurring statement across several areas, not just our prayer life, but in terms of our giving to the needy and our praying and our fasting.

Jesus said that we were to do these things in secret and private, without the recognition of others and then the Father who sees in the SECRET would REWARD you!

And as I mentioned last Wednesday, one of the greatest rewards of our Heavenly Father, in terms of our prayer life, is that, as Jesus said, He would REWARD us; which means that He must have heard our prayers and recognized them and turned His attention and power towards us in that situation.

God recognizes piety and humility, not impiety and pride!

In saying that, let me stress to you what the Bible says draws the eyes and the ears and attention of the Lord to someone and their prayers.

In David says this,

Why?

Why did God accept David’s prayer?

Well, the Bible tells us that David was a man after God’s own heart.

David’s heart’s desire was to be with and where God wanted Him.

He wanted to please God!

tells us, “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

Are you seeing what it is that draws God towards a person’s prayers?

Someone whose heart is committed to Him

Someone whose strives for being found righteous (that is, in right moral standing before God!)

Someone who humbles themselves and truly seeks the face and favor of God and who has a truly repentant heart!

These things are catalysts that ignite your prayers!

These things are the fuel for the bonfire that you make when you are stranded and need help and you make a fire to draw attention to where you are! GOD SEES THESE THINGS AND RESPONDS TO THEM!

And one more thing that I mentioned last week; when you pray and ask Him for something, (and you must ask Him if you expect to receive from Him; James said, “You do not have, because you do not ask”; and when you ask, you MUST BELIEVE!

And so, with the understanding of what it is that draws the eyes of the Almighty towards us, as well as what can limit our prayers to Him, let us now look at Jesus Christ, Himself, and His prayer life and the examples He gave to us to pattern our prayer lives with the Father after.

Look first at

Can anyone tell me what common thing these verses all disclose about Jesus and His prayer life?

Jesus had a place to go and pray!

He went to specific places, based on where He was at and He prayed there!

How many of you know that it is important that you have A PLACE to go to, so that you and the Father can talk to one another?

We have dedicated places for football game viewing and video game playing (MAN CAVES), dedicated spaces for eating and working, we set aside spaces within our homes just for crafts and hobbies.

(Some of you have a specific room in the house, where you like to go and peak out of the window and watch the neighbors!)

And yet, do you have a place that you go to, (your set aside), your go to spot, where you spend time praying to your heavenly Father?

Many people caught on to this concept after the movie, The War Room came out, and began making closets into prayer rooms.

It can be any place that you set aside to spend time with God.

(That’s the great thing about God; He and He alone is omnipresent and so, wherever you go to, to pray........HE IS ALREADY THERE WAITING ON YOU!)

The place that you pray and set aside for prayer is up to you and really, geographically, it is irrelevant.

More important is that you make it a priority to do so: The Bible shows us people praying in caves, on rooftops, in jails,in homes, in gardens,on mountains and below them, in boats, inside of fish, in the wilderness and even on a deplorable and horrible cross!

The point is, just pray!!!!

And in line with this same concept of having a specific place to pray with His Father at, there comes another highly important point.

In those passages, you see Jesus setting the time aside from His friends and family and the world and going to spend that time with His Father.

God was the priority in Jesus’ life and because of that, Jesus set the time aside to spend with Him!

Can we say the same thing?

Is God and spending QUALITY TIME with Him a PRIORITY in our lives?

I know that whenever life really begins to eat up our free time and we feel the strife coming between us, my wife and I will say, “OK, that’s it; we are setting aside a date night, so that we can spend time together.

Just the two of us!”

That time with my soul mate is crucial and I recognize that.

And if I recognize the necessity of spending time with my soul mate, then how much more should I recognize and set aside the time to spend with the creator of and lover of my soul?

We must make this priority number one in our lives!

(We can set aside time for just about anything and everyone else and yet so many of us give Him the table scraps of our time!)

And we do this without even thinking about the fact that He and He alone is the one who holds our lives and the time that we have, in the palm of His hands!

We worry about disappointing our bosses, because we think that they hold our jobs, our careers in their hands and so we bend over backwards to please them.

Yet, this is not even remotely true.

The only authority that any man/woman has over you, is that which God enabled him/her to have.

Set aside and prioritize your time with God and regard it as crucial and absolutely necessary and all of the other things in life will work according to His will and plan for your life!

Entrust it all to Him!

The steps of a righteous man are ordered, according to the LORD!

What this verse says CANNOT be said of any other person that is involved in your life!

OK? So, we must set aside the time and the place, DAILY (everyone say DAILY), to spend time with our heavenly Father in prayer!

And don’t get hung up on the position, the posture, that you are in when you pray, because neither the Bible, nor Jesus, Himself, taught of one correct way.

(We find Jesus standing, sitting, prostrate in several situation when He was praying to His Father.)

Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer.

As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background.

One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands.