Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Image - Meal with the Utterbacks

Several years ago Dana and I were having dinner with Dwayne & Nina Utterback at a restaurant.

We have paid for our meal, filled our drinks, and found our seats.

We had been doing a little shopping at an outdoor mall and were hungry but before we dug into our salads & sandwiches we paused, held hands, and prayed together.

Once we finished thanking the Lord for the food and time together we began enjoying our meal.

I had a meatball Panini that was incredible.

A few minutes later a woman that was sitting near us with two other boys, I assume her son and grandson, finished their meal and were leaving the restaurant.

When this gal passed by our table she stopped and said “A family that prays together stays together.”

We agreed and wished her well.

I walked away from the encounter/interaction with two things on the forefront on my mind.

First, people are watching as we live the Christian life.

People notice when we pay.

Secondly, her statement reminded me of the importance of prayer in our lives (biological family & spiritual family).

Need

As we spend the summer looking at various ONE ANOTHER passages in the NT we’re learning how to treat one another as members of God’s family.

We’ve been challenged to love one another, forgive one another, serve one another, comfort one another, and be devoted to one another.

Today we turn our attention to Praying for One Another.

· Funny Kids prayers – Some of the best prayers you’ll every hear come from children.

It’s so great to hear the humility and honesty that comes out when a child talks to God.

I did a quick Google search on kids prayers—I don’t know who wrote them or why they were written down but they are so good!

(Six kids prayers – pics)

Haha!

Our prayers can be humorous and hilarious and yet it’s serious business.

Prayer is a vital aspect of our Christian life.

Oswald Chambers writes that “Prayer is a Holy Occupation.”

Prayer in its simplest form is communicating or conversing with God (talking and listening).

Prayer in some form or fashion has likely been a part of your life in some form or fashion.

· Sanders Quote

I trust the majority (if not all) of the people gathered in this room has practiced some form of prayer—if you said something to God or asked God for something you have engaged in prayer—and our experience with prayer can vary from being formal (reciting them from memory or using a rosary) to more informal (talking with God in a very conversational manner).

Some of you have were taught how to pray (parent, grandparent, or friend).

Some of you learned how to pray on your own.

No matter where you are at this morning in regard to prayer—you might be a prayer warrior who prays multiple times a day, someone who strives to pray at least once a day, or someone who feels completely inadequate in prayer—all of us grow in this area of our walk with God.

How many of you are satisfied with your prayer life?

I suspect that most of us feel “inadequate”—we always feel the need to be more prayerfully dependent upon God—and we look up to the “prayer warriors” of this world.

We can relate to the disciples who kept “falling asleep” after Jesus told them to “stay awake and keep alert in prayer” as He was preparing for HIs suffering and death in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We are in desperate need to be awakened from our prayer-less slumber!

Prayer is an extraordinary privilege for Christians.

We must once again see prayer as one of the most incredible privileges one has in life—that you and I can freely communicate with our Creator—that we can come boldly to the throne of grace through the Son and by the Spirit!

Are you kidding me?

The God of the universe invites me to talk to Him, He listens to my rambling on and on, and He responds for my good and His glory!? Amazing!

Preview

Prayer is a vital privilege and priority for our lives individually and as a family.

We would do well to invest our time in a sermon series dedicated to prayer but today we narrow the focus to “Praying for ONE ANOTHER” as we continue our summer series.

Today we’re going to open up God’s Word to consider “The Call to Pray for ONE ANOTHER” and “The Commitment to Pray for ONE ANOTHER.”

I) THE CALL TO PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER ()

We begin with “The Call to Pray for One Another.”

Take your Bible and turn to James Chapter 5.

If you don’t have a Bible there should be one in the pew rack in front of you—if you don’t own a Bible take that home as our gift to you! .

James (brother of Jesus) is a letter penned to a group of Jewish Christians that had been scattered to various regions.

In we find “The Call to Pray for ONE ANOTHER.

().

The entire section of highlights “The Call to Pray” in the community of faith.

We find several exhortations to pray in various circumstances.

There is a great deal to learn about prayer in this section, some deep hearty truths about prayer!

We’re not going to dig into the details of this entire section today.

We’ll save that for a future sermon when we’re preaching through the book of James from beginning to end.

Let’s consider a brief outline/overview of this passage (observations).

· The believer’s call to pray in times of trouble (5:13) – We’re called to pray when we experience “suffering, misfortune, physical pain, and distress.”

· The elder’s call to pray for others in times of sickness (5:14-15) – The elders are called to pray and anoint the sick with oil (ministry of prayer)

· The believer’s call to confess and pray for one another (5:16)

· The power of prayer illustrated by the prophet Elijah (5:16-18) – Why pray?

Prayer is effective!

With that as a backdrop let’s turn our attention to the ONE ANOTHERS in which is the focus of our summer series.

There are two ONE ANOTHERS mentioned here – confessing our sins to one another and praying for one another.

I trust the call to confess your sins to ONE ANOTHER is a bit daunting—I grew up confessing my sins to a priest at confession—and here in the NT we discover that it doesn’t have to be a priest but a fellow believer.

I trust that this might seem too personal, too scary, and too uncomfortable.

These two ONE ANOTHERS (confession and prayer) are connected to the previous instructions for the elder’s ministry in times of sickness (“Therefore”).

The idea that “sin” could cause “sickness” was a dominant mindset in the ancient world (Job’s friends & Jewish thinking).

The NT reveals that sickness is not always caused by sin () – You can’t draw a hard line and say that all sickness is the result of sin, that’s not true.

And yet the NT reveals that sin might be the cause of sickness (, , & ) or even death ().

In this context James hints at the possibility that someone’s sickness might be the result of sin – thus the mention of “forgiveness” (5:13) – and the following exhortation to “confess your sins to one another and prayer for one another (5:14).

Here’s the motivation for these ONE ANOTHERS - Since the Lord can raise up the sick through the elder’s prayerful intercession, providing restoration and forgiveness if the sickness is caused by sin, all the more reason for the Jewish Christians to “confess” their sins to one another and pray for one another so they would be healed physically & spiritually from any sickness caused by unconfessed sin.

The entire section on prayer reveals that “praying for one another” impacts the spiritual and physical health of the family of believers.

And while this call to “Pray for ONE ANOTHER” is directly connected to sickness, certainly this exhortation has broader application to our lives.

· John Stott - If the sick can call the elders to pray, and God has pledged himself to respond

so generously to their prayer, then surely we should be enthusiastic to lay hold of prayer in all

situations in life.

[1]

We don’t have to limit “praying for one another” to times of sickness.

We can certainly heed these exhortations in times of sickness trusting in the Lord’s healing power.

And yet we want to live our this call to “Pray for ONE ANOTHER” in each and every situation of life.

We see a broader application of this call to “Pray for ONE ANOTHER” throughout the NT.

With that as a launching point, let’s consider how we might live this out in our lives as a family.

II) THE COMMITMENT TO PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER

Let’s move from the “Call to Pray for ONE ANOTHER” to the “Commitment to Pray for ONE ANOTHER.”

Throughout the Scriptures we find examples of God’s people being committed (devoted) to prayer.

Devotion to prayer has marked the church throughout history.

The NT calls us to be devoted to prayer in our lives.

· : “The were devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching, and to fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.

· : “Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer.”

· : “Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.”

Today we want to consider the commitment to one specific form of prayer—intercession ().

Intercession is the practice of speaking to God on behalf of someone else.

Intercessory prayer is the act of praying for others and not just yourself.

Sometimes we get consumed with ourselves.

Me, me, me, me, me, me, me!

We must be committed to praying for one another as a family.

We must never neglect the practice of praying for (interceding) one another.

All too often we say “I’ll pray for you” and by the end of the day/week forget.

One of the things that hinders our commitment to praying for one another is we don’t know what to pray for specifically-therefore we have a few ways to keep us informed of pressing prayer needs.

· Weekly Bulletin Insert – specific requests/needs (Ignore…trash…forget)