Sermon Tone Analysis

Spiritual Disciplines:Prayer For The Purpose Of Godliness-Part 1

Prayer For The Purpose Of Godliness-Part 1

Spiritual Disciplines:Prayer For The Purpose Of Godliness-Part 1

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In last weeks I stated that “I believe that the Spiritual Discipline of our time in God’s Word, is the key that unlocks all of the other disciplines.”

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“The Spiritual Discipline of our time in God’s Word, is the key that unlocks all of the other disciplines.”

Since we are looking at the Spiritual Disciplines and how important they are to our spiritual health and well being, I wanted to start of this morning letting you all see what Pam and I do by way of Physical Disciplines for the purpose of staying fit and maintaining our physical health and well being.

A few years ago we purchased several different aerobic exercise DVD’s that we....well mostly Pam…work out to.

Let me play part of one this morning and then I will tie this together as a lead in to the Spiritual Disciplines.

Have a TV and DVD set up with the unplugged cords clearly visible on the floor below.

Try to turn on the TV and DVD with the remote-checking the batteries when it doesn’t work, then by pushing a button on the TV and DVD.

Set it up for someone to quietly walk up and plug the TV and DVD in, take the remote and turn it on then go back and sit down.

For far too many of us, we attempt to live out our Spiritual lives in the same way I attempted my workout this morning.

We have absolutely everything we need at our disposal to live a growing, passionate relationship to Jesus Christ, but we neglect to Plug in to the Power Source.

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Plug in to the Power Source

This morning we move from the Spiritual Discipline of our Time in God’s Word, to what I believe is the 2nd most important Spiritual Discipline the Discipline of Prayer.

It is through our time in prayer that we Plug in to the Power Source, Slide 6 because Prayer is the conduit to God’s Power.

Slide 7&8

This morning we move from the Spiritual Discipline of our Time in God’s Word, to what I believe is the 2nd most important Spiritual Discipline the Discipline of Prayer.

Prayer is the conduit to God’s Power

How many of you have been to New Mexico?

Donald Whitney, in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life writes;

“The largest radio receiver on earth is in New Mexico.

Pilots call it “the mushroom patch.”

Its real name is the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array.

Slide 9

The “VLA” is a series of twenty-seven huge satellite disks on thirty-eight miles of railways.

Together the dishes mimic a single telescope the size of Washington, DC.

Astronomers come from all over the world to analyze the optical images of the heavens composed by the VLA from the radio signals it receives from space.

Why is such a giant apparatus needed?

Because the radio waves, often emitted from sources millions of light-years away, are very faint.

The total energy of all radio waves ever recorded barely equals the force of a single snowflake hitting the ground.

What great lengths people will go to in search of a faint message from space even as God has spoken so clearly through His Son and His Word! Straining through the eyes of telescopes and the electronic ears of the VLA, they search the infinite darkness for a possible word from somewhere in the universe.

And all the while, “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” ().

But God not only has spoken clearly and powerfully to us through Christ and the Scriptures, He also has a Very Large Ear continuously open to us.Slide 10 He will hear every prayer of His children, even when our prayers are weaker than a snowflake.

He will hear every prayer of His children, even when our prayers are weaker than a snowflake.

That’s why, of all the Spiritual Disciplines, prayer is second only to the intake of God’s Word in importance.”

Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (pp.

79-80).

NavPress.

Kindle Edition.

Despite the incredible importance of prayer, the vast majority of professing Christians spend very little time in sustained prayer.

Oh we may offer a quick sentence prayer a few times throughout the day, thank the Lord for the food, pray for the light to turn green because we are running late, but we rarely spend more than a few minutes—if that—alone in conversation with God.

Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p.

79).

NavPress.

Kindle Edition.

Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p.

79).

NavPress.

Kindle Edition.

Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (pp.

79-80).

NavPress.

Kindle Edition.

The next couple weeks we are going to look at the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer more closely that most of you have had the opportunity to in the past.

I believe that two of the things that keep believers from prayer is an insufficient understanding of what prayer is as well as not fully knowing how to pray.

Hopefully we can really address those things in the next couple weeks.

To start with we need to Understand that Slide 11&12

Prayer is Expected

I wonder if there aren’t times we either forget, or just don’t think about that truth?

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus as our Savior, we enter into a relationship, and just like all the other relationships we have in life, we cultivate those relationships through time with each other, through conversations.

The fact of the matter is, prayer is our time of conversation with God.

Pam lived in the country of Chile for close to 5 months in 1993.

While she was there I was back in Nebraska working as a Youth Pastor.

Our relationship was so important to us that we talked on the phone almost every day for that entire 5 months.

Our average phone bill was between $500-$600 per month.

But we both understood the incredible importance of daily conversations, I gotta tell you, it was worth every penny.

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Is our relationship with the Creator of the Universe any less important than our relationships with those whom He created?

So let’s not forget that Prayer is expected.

The next thing we need to understand is that

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Jesus Expects Us to Pray

Jesus Expects Us to Pray

Jesus Expects Us to Pray

Prayer is Expected:Jesus Expects Us to Pray

Jesus Expects Us to Pray

As a part of that relationship we are now experiencing as followers of Christ, Jesus Himself expects us to pray.

Turn with me in your Bibles to and let’s look at the 2nd part of the Sermon on the Mount

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Matthew 6:

Prayer is Expected: “And when you pray...”

6:6 “But when you pray...”

6:7 “And when you pray..”

6:9 “Pray then like this...”

Jesus continues His expectation of our commitment to prayer in Luke where He says: Next slide

Luke 11:9

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Prayer is Expected: “And I tell you, ask…; seek…; knock....”

Then later in we read: Next slide

Luke 18:1

In all of these passages Jesus never uses the word “if” when speaking about prayer, His message is very clear, His followers are expected to pray.

In addition to Jesus expectation that we pray, it is clear throughout the rest of the New Testament that we are expected to pray: Next slide

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God’s Word Makes It Clear

God’s Word Makes It Clear

Prayer is Expected: God’s Word Makes It Clear

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The Greek word Paul uses for “Continue steadfastly” means “to persevere in some activity or cause to the point of devotion, to persist obstinately in, to hold fast to, endure in, stand perpetually ready, persevere in”.

The Greek word for “being watchful” means to “be on the alert, be awake, be vigilant”

The picture here is of an individual with an unswerving devotion, one that will not be swayed and that devotion is to prayer.