Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            One day I was walking in the mall and saw someone I knew.

We walked towards each other and as we came near we made eye contact and I said hello and he responded, “Hi, How are you doing?”

I was about to tell him but he just kept right on walking.

He asked me a question, but did not stay around to hear the answer.

I would have been surprised, but I have probably used the phrase, “how are you doing?” in the same way.

We ask, but we don’t stay around to hear the answer.

Is that what our prayer life is like?

Frank C. Laubach says, “The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says "Amen" and runs away before God has a chance to reply.

Listening to God is far more important than giving him your ideas.”

At the ministerial retreat which we had last November, we invited a speaker to speak to us on prayer.

The messages which I have shared with you these last three weeks come out of the material on prayer that we learned there.

He spoke on prayer, but he also spoke on listening to God and this morning, we will consider this matter of listening to God.

!

I.

Is prayer a one way street?

When our kids were younger, they would sometimes ask me to come outside and play catch with them.

I might have sent them outside to play by themselves until I was finished doing whatever I was doing.

When I came out, they might have been playing catch by themselves or sitting there waiting for me.

You see, it isn’t much fun to play catch by yourself.

You throw the ball and there is no one to throw I back.

That wouldn’t be called “catch,” it would be called “throw.”

Have you ever had conversations like that?

You ask a question and you get a one word answer.

You make a statement and the other person listens, but makes no reply.

A conversation that is a one way street is very frustrating.

Have you ever thought that your conversation with God is a one way street?

You pray and do all the talking and God never seems to respond.

There are many times when I have felt that prayer is a one way street and it is God’s fault, because he doesn’t talk to me.

Such thinking makes me think that he doesn’t want to speak to me or can’t speak to me.

Have you ever felt that way?

When we go to the Bible, we learn that such thinking is wrong.

We learn that God is very interested in communicating with us.

!! A. God Cares About Our Life

            First of all, we learn that God cares about the details of our life.

Here is what Jesus said in Matthew 10:29-31, “For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s consent.

As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted.

So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!”

Reading this verse, it seems to me that if I pull this hair from my head, God has just subtracted it from the ones that are there.

If God cares about that tiny insignificant detail, how can we doubt that he also cares enough about us to respond to our prayers?

!! B. His Promise Is To Guide Us

            Furthermore, God’s Word has also told us that we will receive guidance from God.

One well known verse is Proverbs 3:5,6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Never rely on what you think you know.

Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.”

!! C. His Word Guides Us

            If you get caught for speeding and try the excuse, “I didn’t see a sign,” you know that it won’t get you very far.

The signs are posted and it is up to us to pay attention to them.

If we say that God is not speaking to us, but we never read His word, it is just about the same thing.

His words are out there for us to examine and read and God speaks to us through them.

II Timothy 3:16, 17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

I am not going to say much about listening to God speak through His word today, but it is so absolutely basic and foundational to hearing God speak that I must at least say that if you are not spending time daily in His word, you will have a hard time hearing him speak in any other way.

!! D. His Spirit Guides Us

            Furthermore, God’s communication does not stop there.

As Christians we have the amazing privilege of having God living right inside of us through His Holy Spirit.

Jesus promised the disciples in John 16:13, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

!! E.

He Invites Us To Ask And Answers

            God cares about the details of our life, he promises to speak to us, he does speak to us through His word and promises to guide us by His Spirit.

Above all of that, God invites us to seek Him and his wisdom and promises to answer us and to speak to us about what we need to know.

In fall we studied James and you may remember the verse we looked at in James 1:5 which says, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

From all of these verses and ideas it is quite clear that God speaks to us.

Our prayers, our communication with God is not a one way street.

God is not silent, He does care.

If this is true, then when we feel that prayer is a one way communication, where is the problem?

François Fénelon writes, “God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our passions within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him.”

!

II.

Why do we need to listen to God?

            We are like the fellow who met me in the mall.

We ask God a question, but we don’t stay around long enough to hear the answer.

We are not listening!

As we contemplate prayer, there are compelling reasons why we need to take the time to listen to God.

!! A. God prompts us to prayer

            In the messages on prayer which I have already preached, we have learned that God has chosen to act in response to the prayers of his people.

Since that is true, it is evident that our prayers are important.

God desires our prayers in order to accomplish His work.

If our prayers matter and if God has a plan for this world, does it not make sense that he will prompt us to pray?

In fact, last week, I said this very thing that we will be moved to prayer by God, as God prompts us to pray.

But what happens if we are not listening?

What happens if we never take time to hear what God might want to us to pray about?

It is important that we listen to God in order to determine how he wants us to pray.

!! B. Wrestling in prayer

            A while ago, someone spoke to me about what they should pray for.

They were in a situation of illness and they did not know if they should pray for healing, for partial healing so some of the more difficult symptoms would be removed or simply to pray for strength to bear what was coming.

I have had this discussion many times.

The answer I gave was that we need to be bold in asking God for what our heart desires.

I think that in our prayers, we need to ask boldly.

Two weeks ago we learned that we have an invitation to pray and that invitation allows us to “come boldly to the throne of grace.”

But that is only part of the answer.

The other part of the answer is that as we pray boldly, we also need to listen to what God is saying to us.

As we listen to God, he will communicate with us as to how we should pray more accurately in a situation so that through a process of praying and listening, our prayers will come to be according to His will.

Prayer is a dialogue.

We ask God, he speaks to us and then we speak to him again.

A wonderful illustration of such prayer as a dialogue occurs in Habakkuk.

The book begins with Habakkuk’s complaint.

In verses 1-4, Habakkuk has been prompted to prayer by the evil he sees in the nation around him.

His prayer has to do with the people of God.

His nation is filled with violence and injustice.

Habakkuk has seen this among his own people and is wondering why God is doing nothing about it.

In verses 5-11, we have God’s answer.

God tells Habakkuk that he is going to bring the Babylonians to destroy his nation.