Sermon Tone Analysis

What the Church Needs Now

What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.

The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men.

He does not come on machinery, but on men.

He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.

If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last place the remainder of the day.

PRAY WITH ME PLEASE.

ASK GOD TO FILL ME WITH HIS GLORY AND TO GIVE YOU SPIRITUAL EYES AND EARS TO SEE AND HEAR.

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Have you ever heard someone say very casually, “I talk to the ‘Big Man Upstairs’ quite often”, and did it cause you to cringe like it does me?

What makes that statement even more cringe worthy is when someone who is a long time Christian says it so easily.

Have you ever heard someone say very casually, “I talk to the ‘Big Man Upstairs’ quite often”, and did it cause you to cringe like it does me?

What makes that statement even more cringe worthy is when someone who is a long time Christian says it so easily.

Without a proper Biblical understanding of prayer, a believer will fall on one of the two extremes.

He/she will either take this cavalier, reckless, and irreverent approach in talking with God.

Someone with this mindset must recognize the sinfulness in this thought process towards prayer.

The first 8 verses of addresses this type of prayer attitude.

that we will read in moment, addresses the opposite extreme in prayer attitudes.

In the second church I pastored I dealt with the 2nd attitude.

I preached a sermon on the passage at the end of , where he called upon all of God’s people to recommit their lives to the Lord by signing their names upon a binding agreement, and at the invitation time I asked the church members to come forward and symbolically do the same.

The following Monday, a man spent most of the day in my office telling me how wrong I was because I had called the people to sin in public.

His basis was on the passage where Jesus tells us to go into our closet and pray in private.

Some Christians will follow this thought that prayer to God is something that has to be rigid and ritualistic.

They follow a cautious and calculated approach to praying.

Christians who pray this way focus legalistically on the very private nature of prayer, and see God as some cosmological dictator whom you have to timidly come into His presence.

Other Christians will follow the extreme that prayer to God is something that has to be rigid and ritualistic.

They follow a cautious and calculated approach to praying.

Christians who pray this way focus legalistically on the very private nature of prayer, and see God as some cosmological dictator whom you have to timidly come into His presence.

We find here in Luke that

Jesus teaches us here in these verses, that even though God is a Holy God we must hold up in high respect as a subject does his King , He is also a Loving God who we can come close to as a son does his father.

I really like how one devotional writer commented on the subject: “To the believer, God is not the “big man upstairs,” or an angry judge, or a mean ogre.

Nor is he someone you must appease.

No, he is your heavenly Father.

And you know him as such because you have been born of God and God has sent His Spirit into your heart.

So, when you pray, you cry out “Abba” Father.

And crying out to God as your Father changes everything about prayer.

It makes prayer personal.

What was once maybe nothing more than a religious ritual to you or something you did to be noticed by others is now an intimate conversation with your Father – a conversation anchored by the truth that God “rewards those who earnestly seek him” ().”

It makes prayer personal.

What was once maybe nothing more than a religious ritual to you or something you did to be noticed by others is now an intimate conversation with your Father – a conversation anchored by the truth that God “rewards those who earnestly seek him” ().”

When you seek to be a praying disciple, take the balanced approach we find here in and God responds to you with 4 promises.

There is:

When you take the balanced approach as praying disciples God responds with 4 promises.

There is:

Promise of Simplicity

Prayer is made out to be a complicated ordeal when it really doesn’t have to be.

I explained to a new Christian just this past week about prayer in this manner.

When you pray, let it be going to God the Father like your sons come to you.

When they are concerned, scared, worried, have questions, whatever, they do not hesitate to come and just start talking.

Let that be exactly how you come to God.

The faith of a child kind of praying.

The same Greek word translated here “ask” is the same word used by Jesus to ask something from His Father.

Prayer does not depend on the language we use but on the attitude of our heart.

This kind of heart attitude in prayer means coming to the Lord as beggar goes to a generous person.

Do not demand anything from God. Simply go trustingly to Him, asking the Father to care for your needs as a Father would his children.

John

Unfortunately, a lot of believers are confused about how prayer works.

Maybe you can identify with this person’s question…

“I don't get why when people pray for something and get it, they think it was because of their faith.

And if they don’t get what they prayed for, they think they don't have enough faith!”

This may be the most common misconception about prayer – that if you have enough faith, you’ll get anything you ask for from God.

Another mistake is thinking that since God already knows what you need, prayer is unnecessary.

Clearly, there’s a lot of confusion surrounding prayer.

But if you truly want to be free from anxiety, you need to know how prayer really works!

It’s not a magic bullet or an instant fix.

It’s an anchor.

Prayer is a conversation with God, one in which you recognize that God is bigger than all your problems.

That is why we can count on the next promise.

Promise of Surety

Jesus makes this kind of promise when He says that asking means receiving, seeking means finding, and knocking means entering.

The one who trust God for his/her needs is promised the faithfulness of God in giving what is requested.

Jesus tells his followers to ask, to seek and to knock.

He assures them that in each case there will be the appropriate response.

All three verbs are continuous: Jesus is not speaking of single activities, but of those that persist.

He is speaking of an attitude similar to that taught by the parable.

The repetition in verse 10 underlines the certainty of the response.

People ought not to think of God as unwilling to give: he is always ready to give good gifts to his people.

God is like 7-11 used to be

God is like 7-11 used to be

With all three commands in this verse, Jesus encourages His followers to anticipate God’s generosity and kindness.

You also know your Father cares for you.

He is interested and concerned and already has his ear in your direction.

You don’t have to beg and plead to get him to pay attention.

That’s what the pagans do.

But you don’t pray like the pagans do, because you know that he “knows what you need before you ask him.”

You also know your Father cares for you.

He is interested and concerned and already has his ear in your direction.

You don’t have to beg and plead to get him to pay attention.

That’s what the pagans do.

But you don’t pray like the pagans do, because you know that he “knows what you need before you ask him.”

Read , and ,

The deepest cry of your heart is to know God hears you when you pray.

And you want assurance that you will receive what you ask for.

“And if we know that he hears… we know that we have…” ()

are part of a longer passage where John explains a list of things "we know" as the result of having this testimony in our hearts: "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." ()

But notice how John wrote verse 15.

He didn't say you eventually will receive what you asked of God, but rather that you already have received what you asked of God.

Where does this come from?

Verse 14 explains it.

First, as a result of knowing that you have eternal life (Verse 13), you have confidence to approach God.