Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Good morning GracePointe.

I am looking forward to diving into God’s Word with you today.

We are going to be in Matthew, chapter 6 beginning in verse 5 today.

As you go there, I want to say thank you to our church family for helping make a wonderful event happen last night.

Trunk or Treat 2022 was a smashing success.

People visiting saw warmth, grace, and love on every volunteer that was helping make the evening special.

Families and kiddos connecting GracePointe to a place where they felt safe and loved.

Thank you for your generosity in money, time, and talents.

Thank you for being the church!

I also want to remind you that we have a church family meeting around church finances this coming Sunday, November 6 right here in the worship center after our 2nd service ends…around 12:30.

If you are interested to see where we are financially and how we can come together to help finish the year strong, we would love to have you join us next week.

Thank you for considering GracePointe your spiritual family and together, and thank you for praying.

Prayer.

I can’t tell you how many times i have heard that phrase.

Let us pray.

As a young kid, I would be at church.

Someone would talk.

Then they would say the words that would cause all the heads to drop down like a magic trick....let us pray.

To begin today, we must acknowledge that prayer is both wondrous and mysterious.

Why do I say wondrous?

Well…we all have stories of miracles.

Praying for God to intervene in our lives and he does.

You probably all have a story.

Here is one story.

I think of Sully grandson to Steve and Tami Stephens, born at 1 lb.

all kinds of issues there at the beginning.

Our church and other churches gathered together.

We called on the name of the Lord..to heal this little guy.

To heal, develop, and protect him from all the complications.

And He did! Sully is now in 3rd grade and thriving!

Loving legos and fending off his younger brother.

That story and many others are amazing and yet.....we are conflicted inside.

Half of ourselves is amazed with the wonder that is that God listens.

That God hears and God responds.

Amazing.

The other half of us…is skeptical because there are other stories.

Stories of surgeries, sickness, loss.

Prayers were lifted and yet....nothing.

It is a mystery....

This is deeply connected to you and it is mysterious in ways that are both amazing and difficult to process.

We need to remember that prayer is wonderful and mysterious.

But what is it?

WHAT IS PRAYER

Prayer is communicating with God.

More importantly, it is access to God.

Prayer is based on a relationship to God, so the essence of prayer is simply talking with God based on that access to Him.

Access to someone changes everything.

I was thinking about relationships in my life that changed with more access.

First one that comes to mind is being at the hospital as my wife Jen gave birth to Benjamin.

Our first child.

We are petrified.

Ok…I am petrified.

We are there a few days at the hospital and the nurse comes in to tell you that ....ok it looks like you will get to take Benjamin home today.

Not sure what your reaction was if you have had kids in that situation, but my internal reaction was.

Um....no.

You need to keep us here.

I don’t know what I am doing.

That little guy is a stranger still to me.

I have a deep, instinctual affinity, i think its love… for him and we need to keep him alive....I don’t trust myself to do that.

haha

Fast forward just a little bit, and because you have access to your child....your relationship is much much different.

You are doing things you never thought you would be doing.

Your are not just doing them..you are good at them.

They get sick in the car, and how many of you parents put your hands right out there to catch it.

When you first started taking care of them, you wouldn’t know what to do but now you jump right in there to help.

Access changes us.

This is true of every relationship including our relationship with God.

Prayer is a big part of that access as well as God’s Word.

At any time, you can commune with God.

Seconds, to longer times.

I have unfortunately had situations where I have prayed through the night.

Sleep wouldn’t come.

I needed to cry out to God.

Prayer is conscious, personal communication with the God of the universe.

First mention of it in Scripture

First time we see it in Scripture is Genesis 4:26

The people called on the name of the Lord.

The word here for call points to invoke a person, to call a person by name.

So the people began to invoke God, to call out to God by name.

The name of Enosh, means frail, mortal man.

Not the best way to set up someone for success.

What does your child’s name mean?

Imagine some folks married and deciding to have a baby…going through the names.

We named her lilith which means night monster.

Haha that is true…look it up.

As mankind realized how vulnerable they were, they called on the name of God in the first mention of what we might think of as prayer.

We see David coming to the Lord in prayer in Ps 25.

We see Moses praying the characteristics of God, the desperate prayer of Jonah, we see Solomon interceding for all the nations, not just his own… through out God’s word we see how prayer is something vitally important to the life of a follower of God.

Jump ahead to the time where Jesus is saying the words here found in Matthew chapter 6.

Historical Context of Prayer

Jews in Jesus’ day were expected to pray three times a day –three times a day they were to offer prescribed prayers they’d learned by memory.

For example, there was the ShEEMAH – the most fundamental prayer of all Jews – “The Lord our God is one God, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all Thy heart, mind and soul.”

This and others were recited 3 times a day.

If you are already praying three times a day minimum....do you need more guidance on your prayer life?

But Jesus points out that framework of the prayer is greater than the amount of times.

Today we will see that Jesus is reminding us what it looks like to be a member of the revolutionary kingdom.

To be simply different as we have access to God.

MOTIVES FOR PRAYER

Matthew 6:5-6 , Christ begins by reminding us to not pray outlandish like the hypocrites to be seen by others.