Sermon Tone Analysis

4th Element: Scripture Praying

Have you ever been writing a letter or an email and realized you didn’t know how to spell a word correctly, so instead of trying to figure it out you just changed the word?

Have you

I for one have become dependent on spellchecker for the diversity of my vocabulary, otherwise my emails would look a lot like a 2nd grader.

The words we use matter don’t they?

And I think we are keenly aware of this when we go to pray.

For those who are not seasoned in prayer, the question I hear a lot is “What am I supposed to pray about?”

It isn’ that they don’t want to pray, they just don’t know what to say and where to start.

What to focus on and what to not.

For those seasoned in prayer you might be asking “How do I make my prayer time less boring?”

Yes I used the “B-Word”

The reality is that our prays tend to be boring because we pray for the same things, in the same way most of the time.

Persistence in prayer is important, but prayer can be come mechanical when we prayer the same way for the same things.

How do we learn how to pray and/or learn how to pray more passionately and effectively?

Through the Word of God!

One of the most

God spent thousands of years writing a book that we as His people can simply pick up and read.

Why is this significant for prayer?

Well if you want to know what someone enjoys talking about, what they find most important in their life, then you should listen to what they talk about the most.

God spent thousands of years writing a book that we as His people can simply pick up and read.

Why is this significant for prayer?

If you want to know what someone enjoys talking about, what they find most important in their life, then you should listen to what they talk about the most.

1 John

Where does our confidence in prayer come from?

Through our knowledge of God

Through knowledge of God Will

Also through knowles

The mind of God is open to us in the book He has written FOR US.

The Bible and prayer are interdependent; we can’t understand what to pray for, or even how to pray without the bible.

Nor will reading the bible be as effective and formative in our lives without prayer being a regular part of our faith lives.

Eastman says “Our prayer time, no matter how intense, is never truly complete without the divine nourishment available only from God’s Word.

Indeed, the Word of God is the Christian’s true prayer book.

It is our guide and foundation for all effective praying.

To neglect God’s Word is to neglect God’s power.”

If you want to know how to pray and what to pray for, start by picking up the Bible and soaking in the Words of God Himself.

Let them shape your words as they shape your heart.

Allowing GOD’S WORD to become YOUR WORDS

One of the most effective ways to let the Word of God shape your prayers is to literally pray the Word of God.

One of the most effective ways to let the Word of God shape your prayers is to literally pray the Word of God.

John Piper says ““Virtually all of the Bible leads us to praise God, thank God, cry to God, and confess to God.”

So using the Word of God to guide our prayer is both a helpful method for learning how to pray and a powerful way to let the Word of God speak for us.

John Piper says ““Virtually all of the Bible leads us to praise God, thank God, cry to God, and confess to God.”

So using the Word of God to guide our prayer is both a helpful method for learning how to pray and a powerful way to let the Word of God speak for us.

Hebrews

Putting it into practice:

A shepherd is the protector and provider for a sheep herd.

They rely on the shepherd to live and to thrive.

Spend time thanking God for providing for you in all the ways He does.

Thank Him for His intentional, sacrificial, grace-motivated love.

Acknowledge how God guides you into good places and to good things when you listen to Him.

Think of the people in your life who do not follow the God’s leadership.

Pray that they would

God help me to find your word and you ways delightful and realize that they lead to joy.

Help me find more delight and joy in your word and your ways than I do in the ways of this world.

Help me discern truth from lies.

Give me a desire to read your Word and help me to understand what it is saying so that I might follow it.

ps 1

God allow you word to strengthen my faith and my obedience to you.

Help me to grow deep, hearty roots of faith that lead to fruitfulness in life.

May the roots of your word grow deep to keep me through hard times and times of temptation.

I know people like this Lord, and I was one of them at one point God.

Break my heart for the wicked, but don’t let me become envious of the illusion of freedom they have when I know truth of their hopelessness.

Watch over me, watch over my family, watch over our church

Protect us from falsehood and keep us from temptation.

Give us

3 Steps for Scripture Srayer.

1) Read a passage or chapter from the Bible.

Any passage of scripture can be used to guide our prayers, but I have found starting with a Psalm is easier, since many of the Psalms are prayers.

2) Slowly read the passage, listening for a verse that “impresses a particular truth upon your heart.”

Then meditate on that truth and ask yourself these questions

a.

Does this verse prompt me to pray for something specific?

b.

How can this passage be directly applied to my petition?

c.

Is it possible to use some of the words of this scripture, verbatim, as I pray?

3) Finally, form a personal prayer “enriched” by that promise from God.

5th Element: Watching

I have a one-tracked mind.

I cannot listen to music with word and read at the same time.

I can’t talk on the phone and watch a TV show without either tuning out the person I am talking to or totally missing out on the plot line of the show I am watching.

Prayer is not much different.

The moment I stop what I am doing to spend time speaking to God or listening for Him to speak to me, every possible thought that could will enter my mind and I will inevitably wander off into utter distraction from the purpose of my praying.

Jesus diagnosed our problem

It isn’t necessarily that we are not willing, most of us would admit that we want to have an active and vibrant prayer life

But we have weak flesh and our minds and bodies are often against us as we seek to pray.

Jesus also gives us a prescription for our problem: “WATCH”

Literally means to “stay alert” “don’t fall asleep” “be watchful”.

Col

Paul has a similar encouragement in Colossians

As we are steadfastly (not stopping/continuing) praying, we should be alert and thankful.

He is saying we should have a “Constant spiritual alertness” as opposed to being “careless and mechanicalness” in our prayers.

Though Paul is talking generally about our prayers, this time of “Watching” is a time of focused, intentional Spiritual alertness.

A time of Spiritual Alertness

Two Particular Areas of Alertness:

Eastman, rightfully, makes the case that this should be a specific part of our prayer time.

1) Be alert to the Spiritual forces around us.

eph 6

Though we should be alert during our entire prayer time, a specific time spend watching and praying attention is a practice that will benefit our prayer time as a whole.

Spiritual