Sermon Tone Analysis

Researcher Christian Smith's book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers which was in (2005), concludes that many young American adults have a faith characterized by "moralistic, therapeutic deism."

According to this view of God, if we live good lives and if we're kind to others, then God will provide "therapeutic benefits" to us like self-esteem and happiness.

Other than that, God is not involved much in our world.

This view of God has a profound effect on prayer.

Smith found that American teens personally prayed frequently; 40 percent prayed daily or more, and only 15 percent said they never prayed.

However, their motivation for prayer largely focused on meeting their own needs.

Some of the teens interviewed said: "If I ever have a problem, I go pray."

"It helps me deal with problems… it calms me down for the most part."

"Praying just makes me feel more secure, like there's something there helping me out."

"I would say prayer is an essential part of my success."

But Smith also found that many young Americans' prayers lacked any sense of repentance or adoration.

Smith writes, "This is not a religion of repentance from sin." Again, Smith concludes that this "distant God" is "not demanding … because his job is to solve problems and make people feel good.

There is nothing here to evoke wonder and admiration."

Well how about prayer today?

When prayer is mentioned, how are we responding right now? Well some might say, I need to start praying.

I need to pray more.

I’m not praying enough.

I don’t know why we pray.

It does not work.

It wont make a difference.

It does not change anything.

Its great.

All is well.

I am constantly in prayer.

Well no matter where you are on this prayer response spectrum, our passage today David’s prayer has some helpful insights for us.

We must come to realize that how we pray is as important as that we pray.

King David was in awe.

He desired to do something to bless the Lord, but it was the Lord who desired to bless David.

We witnessed one of the most important passages of Scripture that sets an important foundation for the coming of Christ.

The Lord promised the eternality of David’s throne and of his descendant who was coming to bless the world.

David marveled at the blessing and promise of the Lord and was obviously overwhelmed.

He was somewhat speechless.

And who wouldn’t be?

Awestruck he sat before the Lord in humility and prayed… this is what he prayed.

2 Samuel 7:18-29

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

The first P we will explore is praise.

We see how this is an important piece in our communication with the Father as it keeps us from what I call drive-by prayers.

The second P we will look at is the obvious Petition where we make our requests known to the Father.

Finally, we will see how when we pray we must be confident that the Lord desires to bless His people.

That our Father has our best interest in mind and is willing to give His all for His people even His Son all the way to the cross.

- Though our culture and sin cause us to take our opportunity to pray to the living God for granted, it is the grace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that will ignite a fervor for prayer like never before as we come to the Father in praise and then a petition according to His promise receiving redemption, retention, and a reward as His people.

I. Praise

- Is it not natural for the first words out of our mouths when we address the Lord to be praise and worship?

A. In David’s prayer, we first see a moment of praise and then we see a petition based on a promise to all of His people.

Praise and then a Petition from His People.

Remember to praise, remember petition in accordance to His will and remember you are His.

First of all, as we saw in the illustration, praise is an important element of prayer is missing from many of the prayers today.

We just seem to throw up the petition without giving the Lord the praise and worship that He deserves.

Drive by-prayers.

B. The only time we ever talk to our Dad’s is to ask for something.

No “Hi Dad, you are such a good Dad, thank you for being such a good dad.

Hope you are having a good day and I pray that you will be encouraged and strengthened.

And then, hey dad can I have some money?”

David shows us praise before his petition.

C.

Here is what we see that is vital that we need to pray that the Lord will give us… David cannot fathom the depths of the grace of God, and in breathless wonder he tries to express the marvels of God’s blessing in words.

D. David recognizes God’s Sovereign choice.

Why in the world would your plan center around me? Who am I. David recognized who he was before the Lord.

He is saying that he is not even worth taking notice of by the Lord.

Who are we that He would have anything to do with us and actually have us to be a part of His plan?

That he would keep us and protect us?

He does not need us… he is beyond us all, more than we could imagine.

Our Father who is in heaven.

We here must recognize our place before God.

And this is why we worship and praise Him.

Before we go to the Lord, ask yourself who do you think you are?

Then we realize that we need to come in praise.

I wonder with other pagan religions if their false god is shown more reverence?

E.

He sees God’s preserving hand… He keeps him safe despite all of the opposition, danger, death, exile, starvation, and as huge as it is to me, it is but a little thing to you because of your greatness and immensity…He is treated as Holy, Consecrated and shown real respect and reverence… Hallowed be your name!!

And now you desire to continue to give more and more grace?

He saved him and now he is going to bless him with and eternal reward and an eternal kingdom.

He saved us and gives us an eternal reward.

Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Which is the same reward that God gave to David here.

Thy Kingdom Come Lord!!!

F. David praises Him because in v.19 the blessing is also for all mankind.

The covenants of God were to be a blessing that would extend to the entire world.

The world was going to be blessed by Abraham and now David.

The World will be blessed by the will and plan of the Lord.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

G. Now the Lord is praised for his wonderful sovereign grace.

David now sees it.

And understands the wonder of the plan of God.

He sees it, knows it, hears it and stands in awe.

The plan unfolded and now he recognized the greatness of the plan and purposes of God.

Thy Will be Done!

H. Understanding His will and plan brought tremendous encouragement and astonishment to David.

As he witnessed His power, David stood in utter bewilderment.

As he heard the promises of God, David was led to the unveiled glory of God and the faith that there is no one like Him.

On earth as it is in heaven!

I. Now how are we supposed to come to see, hear and understand the plan of God if we do not know the Scriptures?

Do you see how the Lord’s plan is now unfolding before our very eyes as we have gone through these books?

We hear every Sunday the promises of God and its fulfillment in Christ and His gospel.

Are we hungry to learn the Scriptures?

Do we want to understand?

Doing all that we can?

J. Church I hope that you are.

I hope that you are searching the Scriptures to learn and understand it better.