Sermon Tone Analysis

Children’s Time: M&M’s Jesus Loves the Little Children (Red, brown, yellow, black, and white)

ILLUSTRATION

There is a story of a Welsh woman who lived in a remote valley in Wales.

She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have electrical power installed in her home.

However, after a couple of months, the electric company noticed she didn’t seem to use very much electricity at all.

Thinking there might be a problem with the hookup, they sent a meter reader out to check on the matter.

The man came to the door and said, "We’ve just checked your meter and it doesn’t seem that you’re using much electricity.

Is there a problem?"

"Oh no" she said.

"We’re quite satisfied.

We turn on the electric lights every night to see how to light our lamps and then we switch them off again."

Why didn’t this woman make more use of her electricity?

She believed in electricity.

She believed the promises of the electric company when they told her about it.

She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have her house wired for it; but she didn’t understand the potential of electricity in her home.

I suspect there are people who use prayer very much the same way.

They believe in prayer.

They know of the promises God has made.

They’ve even read and heard stories about answered prayers; but they do not understand the potential of prayer!

I BELIEVE PRAYER IS OFTEN THE LAST RESOURCE TAPPED!

But Daniel didn’t pray that way…

But Daniel didn’t pray that way…

Many Christians either believe:

God’s gonna do, what God’s gonna do anyway!

So why pray?Others see prayer as the last resort after all other efforts fail!

Prayer is like a “Hail Mary” pass in football.

We throw it up in the air and hope it reaches the desired destination.

But Daniel didn’t pray that way…

DANIEL UNDERSTOOD the power of prayer and the importance of spending time with God!

Remember last week, we saw prayer is a two-way dialogue with God!

It is a conversation with our Father in heaven initiated by either us or Him.

When we read the Book of Daniel, we discover prayer/conversation with God had a priority in his life.

Each day he set aside time to approach God with his concerns and to wait on God’s reply.

— We find him in conversation with God in the privacy of his room seeking wisdom and guidance;

— and again in the stressful moment of being surround by lions Daniel asking for peace and protection.

— He talked to God about forgiving the sins of His people Israel, and returning them to their home.

— And we find Daniel struggling in prayer because he’s troubled by a dream.

Longing for an understanding of the dream, Daniel continually calls out to God for 21 days—and even when he gets no reply, he continues to cry out to God!

21 days days he prayed!

And sometimes we give up if we don’t get an answer in 21 minutes!

I believe Daniel was relentless in his prayer because he was experiencing something unusual.

Daniel was praying but rather than God answering him quickly, he was hearing nothing—yet he persisted.

In we are told:

Jesus taught us we should always pray and not give up!

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused.

But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”

ILLUSTRATION: Let’s find out how old everyone is!

How many of you remember the commentator Paul Harvey?

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.

7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?

Will he keep putting them off?

He told this story: “A three-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother.

Before they entered the grocery store she said to him, ‘Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask!’She put him up in the cart & he sat in the little child’s seat while she wheeled down the aisles.

He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section.

He saw the chocolate chip cookies and he stood up in the seat and said, ‘Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?”

She said, ‘I told you not even to ask.

You’re not going to get any at all.’

So he sat back down.They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie aisle again.

‘Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?’She said, ‘I told you that you can’t have any.

Now sit down and be quiet.’Finally,

they were approaching the checkout lane.

The little boy sensed that this may be his last chance.

So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart and shouted in his loudest voice, ‘In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?’And everyone around them began to laugh.

Some even applauded!

Then the crowd got generous and bought the little boy 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies!’”

Jesus taught us we should always pray and not give up!ILLUSTRATION: Let’s find out how old everyone is!

How many of you remember the commentator Paul Harvey?

He told this story: “A three-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother.

Before they entered the grocery store she said to him, ‘Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask!’She put him up in the cart & he sat in the little child’s seat while she wheeled down the aisles.

He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section.

He saw the chocolate chip cookies and he stood up in the seat and said, ‘Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?”

She said, ‘I told you not even to ask.

You’re not going to get any at all.’

So he sat back down.They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie aisle again.

‘Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?’She said, ‘I told you that you can’t have any.

Now sit down and be quiet.’Finally,

they were approaching the checkout lane.

The little boy sensed that this may be his last chance.

So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart and shouted in his loudest voice, ‘In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?’And everyone around them began to laugh.

Some even applauded!

Then the crowd got generous and bought the little boy 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies!’”

We are told to always to pray and not give up!

But why? WHY should we always pray and not give up?

We are told to always to pray and not give up!

But why?

WHY should we always pray and not give up?

Is God deaf?

Is it hard to get His attention?

Does God expect us to keep bothering Him until He throws up His hands and says, “If I don’t grant their request I’ll never get any rest?"

I don’t think so! IN FACT when Daniel gets an answer 21 days later, he discovers something else was happening!

Look at

Verse 12 “...SINCE THE FIRST DAY that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”

Dan 10:

A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.

He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.”

And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.

Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel.

SINCE THE FIRST DAY that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.