Sermon Tone Analysis

“How’s your prayer life?”

You don’t need to answer out loud, but it is something we should take seriously.

It is a measure of our relationship with God.

Please don’t be put off by the question, and don’t feel judged.

There might be some here might be saying, “It’s amazing!” and by their face we can see they’re getting all excited and beaming, and yet there is not one of us here that can’t be better at praying.

And how do we do that?

The three P’s.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

And so then comes the second question, “How often do you practice prayer?”

Or more simply, “How often do you pray?”

And so to learn to pray, we’re going to go to the master of prayer, our Lord Himself.

This morning as we again look at our passage, I want us to back up and put it in a bit larger of context.

So we’re going to back up to vs. 5 in Matthew 6 and begin from there.

Remember this is coming from Jesus’ sermon on the mount as recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7.

Let’s read it together.

There is so much in this passage.

Our focus though is the Lord’s Prayer its self, that would be verses 9-13.

It’s a prayer we all know so well and Jesus says it is a model of the way we should pray.

Today, we’re focusing on one particular phrase within the prayer:

This is the shortest verse within the prayer, though we know Jesus didn’t assign the verse numbers.

I believe the reason it is set apart is significant.

There is so much within this little verse.

If you’ve been here for the past couple of weeks you know that this prayer’s primary focus is upon God, not us - which is how all prayer should be.

Each verse within this prayer gives us an insight into the person Jesus knew as Father, God Himself.

Let’s take a deeper look at this verse.

GIVE

GIVE - the first word in this verse reminds us that God is a giving God.

God is our provider.

God knows how to give us good gifts.

Later on in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says,

God is a giving God.

God does not need anything from us, God is the giver.

The next word also brings us to a new understanding of our prayers.

US - Jesus invites us to pray with a community mind set.

It’s not just for me, it’s for you and me.

How do we pray for our world, our country, our community, our friends, our family, and then what are our needs.

In Bruce Almighty you might remember the scene where God gives Bruce the ability to answer prayers.

He simply answers, “YES” to all the prayers and riots break out.

One lottery winner is upset because though he won, he only won $17 after all the winners declared.

If we are community minded it changes our prayers from focusing solely upon ourselves and it prevents us from praying for our benefit that is to the detriment of others.

THIS DAY

This day - Of the many things this offers to us is that prayer is to be a daily practice.

Jesus does not tell us to pray, “Tomorrow, give me tomorrow’s bread.”

That is implied, but Jesus wants us to be present in this day.

To pray for today’s needs.

Later in this chapter at vs. 34 Jesus says,

Whenever I hear that I think of those listening and imagine them nodding and perhaps sighing under their breath, “Phew, you got THAT right.”

How often are we focused on the future so much that we miss the present?

We keep our cell phone on in the event that someone might call even though we have voice mail.

It’s not any better for us when we go the other direction.

We call people and when we get their voice mail we don’t leave a message - because though we want to talk about the something coming up in the future, we don’t want them to hear what we said in the past.

It makes no sense.

This gives everything in our lives this sense of urgency, “I have to do it now!”

In talking with people in crisis so often they are fixated on steps that are so far down the road they are missing out on what is happening right in front of them.

Often they are missing out on good things that are going on around them that if they paid attention the very thing they fear in the future would never happen.

Jesus invites us to stay in this day, in the present.

He continues with the communal idea using OUR in reference to OUR DAILY BREAD.

Bread in Jesus time and in ours was a staple.

It was the basic that everything else was built upon.

Though bread varies from culture to culture it still represents that staple, that most basic of food forms.

In speaking of it as daily bread it no doubt reminds those hearing Him of the Exodus.

You may remember while the Israelites were wandering in the desert they complained to Moses that they would starve.

And God provided:

Every day they were able to gather the portion that the Lord had for them.

No more, no less.

If the Israelites tried to gather more than what was provided for that day it would spoil and be eaten by worms.

Think about that.

How often do we want it all now.

That’s our culture, that’s the proliferation of credit cards.

I want to buy now and pay later.

We have refrigeration and preservatives so we buy lots of food and store it.

We love jumbo sizes, and Costco - does anyone really need a gallon jar of mayonnaise?

I’m thankful that each day is a new day with God.

I’ve made so many mistakes in my past, I’m sure many of you feel the same way.

We can remember Lamentations 3:22-23

If you’re like most people, and I know I am -

you worry about things in the future.

This prayer invites us to be in the present.

If you’re like most people, and like me, often pray about all your own needs: This prayer invites us to pray about our community.

IF you’re like most people, and like me, and more often than not start with your needs: This prayer invites us to focus upon God, to give God glory, to refer to God as Father, Christ as brother, and pray for God’s will to be done understanding that it is ultimately what is best for us as God’s children.

But it’s more than that, the Lord’s prayer doesn’t simply point out to us how we should pray in the brief time we take in formal prayer - it is a guide as to how we might live our lives as well.

Paul tells us to pray at all times.

Keith Green once sang, “Make my life a prayer to you.”

Our lives can be focused upon God when our prayer lives are active.

Our lives can be glorifying God’s name and looking for God’s will to be done, when our prayer lives are active.

Our lives can be living in the present, recognizing our daily need for God when our prayer lives are active.