Sermon Tone Analysis

1) Why do they need to know it?

– INFORMATION – If they do not know it they will not see the need.

Series Explanation (ME)

Humming bird story

At the back of my house we have these abnormally large windows.

These things are huge, and one of the things that happens when you have huge windows is things run into them.

Balls, mud, dogs etc. Well a few years back we had a several birds run smack into our windows.

We would be doing something and all the sudden you would hear a thump and it turned out a bird had smacked itself into the window.

Some get up and fly off, others, well they don’t make it.

In one of these incidents, I think we were eating, we heard a smaller thump.

I went out to investigate and it turned out that a hummingbird had flown straight into our window.

It was a beautiful green and blue bird that was just laying their and not moving.

So thinking it would be cool to show the kids.

I picked it up and after a few seconds of holding it, it opened its eyes and flew out of my hands.

What is the point of this story?

It’s not to tell you I pick up animals I think are dead, but it is to describe the Christian life a little bit.

Before we come to know Christ Paul tells us we are dead in our sins and trespasses, but once we turn to Him and submit to Him we are made new in Him according to verses like and .

Christ has made us new, He has set us free so that we might serve HIm.

Peter put it this way:

Paul put it this way:

This paradox of the Christian life, being free to serve.

Is often coiled against.

Freedom is something that we believe means we are constrained by nothing, but in all reality in the Christian life to be free means we are alive to love, follow and obey.

What does that mean though, and what does it have to do with animals hitting my window?

The answer comes as we think about story of the hummingbird a little more.

The bird thought it could fly anywhere it wanted, but the reality that clear hard substance said it couldn’t.

It was only when it regained consciousness and flew the opposite direction that it experienced freedom.

Obviously I did not bring this thing back from the dead, but picking it up I was able to experience it be what it was supposed to be up close and personal.

It was a unique experience that I will probably not have again, holding a hummingbird as it regained consciousness and watching it lift off from my hands.

It knew by instinct to have freedom it had to get a way from me, the window and fly as fast as it can another direction.

b) WE (identification)

For those of us who have recieved Christ, Jesus offers us this kind of release as well.

Not release from a giant person or a window, but release to know Him more intimately, to rest in Him and to follow Him.

This release requires two things, first a continual transformation of Character and second an embracing of Jesus design and purpose for us as individual believers as well as a corporate body.

God uses several things to help transform our Character.

While God uses experience, time and people to grow us.

Scripture shows us that practicing Spiritual Disciplines associated with His Word is the primary way He will transform us into Christlikeness.

So over the next three weeks, or my part of the series we are going to focus in on three spiritual disciplines that help us know Christ and to trust Him more.

These three disciplines are not always easy to practice or easy to comprehend, so my goal is that through practice of these three things we will know the release God has for us from the cares of this world and so that we may focus on the things that are on His heart.

Then Dave will wrap up the series with three weeks on gifting.

Let me be up front with you the three disciplines are not always easy to talk about or do.

They require us to be honest with the Lord and to put into practice the hard reality that we and our families are not the center of the universe.

I know that sounds harsh but stick with me.

The fallacies that Jesus will save us and then just leave us alone, or Jesus saves us now we can do what ever we want are two the greatest fallacies that will keep us restrained in this life.

These two things come from a self-centered theology predicated on the idea that because we are being saved we are the most important thing around and because we are given a full life we dictate what that life is.

Jesus never says that.

Think back to or .

Peter and Paul are clear, we are saved to know Him and to also glorify HIm.

This happens when we submit to Him and embrace that release is truly counter to the ideas many of us embraced when we first came to know Christ.

So this week we will focus in on prayer.

Not becuase

Being a slave to God, means being His child and growing to be more like Him. puts it this way

It means having the most fulfilled life possible.

He offers us a life that brings deeper satisfaction, greater peace and more love then we can ever have with out Him.

He brings hope, and we grow in these things when we get one board with Him.

a) ME (orientation)

b) WE (identification)

2) What do they need to know? – MOTIVATION

To do this we are going to look at one of the most famous prayers in the Bible.

So turn in your Bibles or apps to .

Many of us probably knew the Lord’s prayer before we knew the Lord.

Please do not let that cause you to tune out.

This passage gives us some incredible insights in how to approach the throne of God.

So before we jump in lets take a minute to pray and read Jesus’ words.

(Read from Bible)

Through this passage Jesus offers us insight into the nature of the Father, the conditions our hearts need to be in and how we should approach Him.

Jesus releases us by giving us an accurate picture of the Father.

Jesus’ model prayer releases us by teach us how to pray.

Matthew 6:9-15

Through this passage Jesus offers us insight into the nature of the Father, the conditions our hearts need to be in and how we should approach Him.

As we delve into what He says we realize when we listen to His teaching and apply what He points out our prayer lives will grow in depth and our hearts will be released to serve Him more faithfully.

puts it this way:

I recited it before every football game in High School and in many ways did the very thing Jesus was telling us not to do by doing that.

bu

Through this passage Jesus offers us insight into the nature of the Father, the conditions our hearts need to be in and how we should approach Him.

As we delve into what He says we realize when we listen to His teaching and apply what He points out our prayer lives will grow in depth and our hearts will be released to serve Him more faithfully.

puts it this way:

When Jesus passed what we call the Sermon on the Mount, He was not giving us some strong teaching with a few pithy sayings to keep us coming back for more.

He was challenging us to look at life from an eternal perspective.

To understand that when we receive Him our ethic has to change from being bound to this world to being released to freely live a life of Christlike character.

The Sermon was and is revolutionary.

He was showing those who had gathered around Him that to follow Him was not just falling in line with religious tenets that can be thrown off when they get uncomfortable.

To follow Him requires living the way He designs.

So when we He teaches He knows that without Him we will not be able to live up to this.

In a sense the Sermon gives us understanding of what Kingdom life looks like.

D.A. Carson does a great job explaining the already, but not yet sense of the Sermon with this diagram.

DA Carson Diagram

To put it another way; Jesus understands the human heart far better then we can comprehend our own.

He knows these words are not spoken to start a new tradition, but He shares them because He desires us to have a growing satisfaction in the Lord.

To enjoy Him and as a result live with Him as our sole priority in our lives.

So how does Jesus do this in this passage?

First Jesus offers release us by giving us an accurate picture of the Father.

a) GOD (Illumination)

Jesus releases us by giving us an accurate picture of the Father.

Take a look at 5 - 8,

Look at how Jesus starts, “When you pray...”

He does not assume His followers will live lives with out prayer, but that we will pray.

The reason why is that we are in relationship with the Father, He is accessible and we are saved to know “ the One True God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.”

Jesus dies for relationship, He raises for relationship.

This is an essential part of our walk, and if you are anything like me you miss out of this critical aspect of relationship becuase You do not pray like you believe He is there.