Sermon Tone Analysis

Praying Biblically Series

Today we begin a new sermon series that will last through the next 2 months, February and March.

9 Weeks.

The title of this series is “Praying Biblically”, and the goal is for all of us to grow in the area of prayer, to have a right understanding of what prayer is, what our attitude should be regarding prayer, how we can be sure our prayers are heard, among other topics.

If you were to get an honest assessment of how Christians view their own prayer lives, you most likely would find that not many would claim they pray enough, and hardly anyone would claim that they pray too much.

But the true assessment for most Christians would be that they are not praying enough, if at all.

Some pray quite well publicly, and have much to say out loud in prayer when others are present, and never pray out loud when they are alone, which may indicate who they are really praying to or for whose ears those prayers are meant.

Many times in groups for prayer, more time is spent talking about the prayer requests than actually praying, which makes one wonder whether it is really a prayer meeting at all, or a gossip circle disguised as a prayer meeting.

Most Christians fall short in some way in regards to prayer, or at the very least, they need to be reminded what their attitude and focus should be when communicating with a holy God, so it is important at times to review our prayer lives, see what scripture can teach us, and learn or relearn what prayer is about.

So this series has very important application for all Christians, and even for non believers who would seek for God to reveal himself to them.

For believers who feel they really don’t know how to pray, you will be given a good starting point.

For those who feel they have a prayer life that is good, you may find some inspiration from God’s Word to strengthen and grow the good prayer life you already enjoy.

We will be looking at private prayer, family prayer, and corporate prayer, or praying in groups, and if you should choose to be an active listener and active participant, I am sure that you can be blessed by an improved prayer life.

During this series, each week’s bulletin will have an insert with some topics or guides for prayer that week, that will reinforce the ideas of the sermon.

I encourage you to keep that handy through the week so that you can refer to it.

We know that learning is greatly enhanced by hearing, reading, taking notes, and reviewing, so for this sermon series, imagine you are back in school, but rather than getting a good grade, your goal is to grow in relationship to the Almighty Creator through and improved prayer life.

The Start of Prayer: Humility

When a person first puts faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, part of what happened was a moment of humility.

For a person to understand their need for salvation, they must realize that they are lost, utterly hopeless, and without any ability whatsoever to save themselves.

What are they being saved from?

God himself.

His wrath towards sin, His holy nature, His righteousness and justice, and the eternal punishment that every person deserves because of their sin.

So a person who finds salvation has had to realize that they are utterly hopeless, under God’s wrath, and in desperate need of a way of salvation.

I came to faith in Christ because I was convinced that the story of the cross was true, but also because I had to come to a full acknowledgment of the truth of who I was and who God is.

I am wretchedly sinful, and under God’s wrath.

I had to realize this.

This is the truth about me.

And the truth about God is that He is holy, righteous, and angry with sin.

Realizing the truth about myself and who I am and God and who He is, is an acknowledgement of my own wretchedness and His holiness.

This moment of realization is a moment of humility, where one stops trying to take the authority of God on one’s self, and chooses to submit to Him, and in that moment of feeling utterly lost and wretched, cries out to God for mercy, through Jesus, and if this was in sincerity, then that person is once and for always saved from God’s wrath, and given adoption as His child, and the promise of eternal life.

This is how our relationship with God as a merciful savior begins, with utter humility.

He responds to this cry for mercy as a father.

And since this attitude of humility marks the beginning of our relationship with Him, our ongoing relationship, to be healthy, must continue in an attitude of humility.

So my premise this morning is that we must, to have the right attitude for prayer, realize our own wretchedness in light of God’s holiness.

Throughout scripture we learn that God responds to humility, he loves a contrite heart, and that, in contrast, he will not listen to prayers that arise from a prideful, self-indulgent attitude.

God does not want us to come to him as our butler, as though our prayers should be all about having him serve us for our comfort, but instead, he wants a relationship with us where he is our heavenly father.

He is the creator God, and even though he loves us like a father, we must not come to him casually, or as if he owes us anything because we have served him.

Background:

Not much background is required for us to understand this parable.

We are told who the parable was given to, some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

And so today, we may not witness the same scene, but we are certainly witnesses of the sentiment, both of the Pharisee and the tax collector, or publican as some translations put it.

We read this and usually think of someone we think may fit one of the characters.

Kent Hughes, in his commentary, said this: But what about us?

We have heard the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector so often that it has become to us like a comfortable old slipper that other people wear.

They wear it to their discomfort, and we enjoy seeing them wearing it!

Actually, this parable paradoxically both fits our feet and pinches them.

Walter Liefeld reminds us that our understanding of Pharisees in this parable is different than would have been for those who first heard Jesus give it.

He said:

The modern reader will probably not feel the impact of this story to the extent a first-century reader would.

We already think of the Pharisees as hypocrites and the tax collectors as those who received the grace of God.

Jesus’ original hearers would have thought, on the contrary, that it was the pious Pharisee who deserved acceptance by God.

So here is the context in which we find this passage.

Jesus is speaking to people who trusted in their own righteousness and gives both a negative and positive example of how one ought to approach God.

The Prayer that Saves

Before I read the passage, I said that the salvation prayer, the one that saves, is grounded in an attitude of humility, and this attitude must attend our prayers, no matter how long we have been in the process of being saved.

The same prayer that saves from hell, is the prayer that saves us from despair, from temptation, from losing control of our anger, it is the prayer that saves us from covetousness and pride, and that is a prayer, that, though the words may differ, has this sentiment, “Have mercy on me, a sinner”.

And why is this so important?

Well, think of it as remembering where you came from if that helps.

A man that went to my high school is now a very famous actor, has made who knows how many millions, is world famous, married a superstar singer, and one of the great virtues people from my hometown see in him is that he still comes home from time to time.

People will excitedly post on Facebook that they saw him at the YMCA or at a restaurant.

In fact, he has invested in his hometown, and when Minot was flooded some years ago, he organized a benefit concert, and got many of his celebrity friends to give relief money.

Now, I don’t know him personally, though others in my family know him, my sister was in his class.

Whatever else his life is about, the locals appreciate that he hasn’t forgotten where he came from.

This is seen as a great virtue.

For the Christian, it is also important that we remember where we came from.

If we forget what a wretch we were (and are), we begin to imagine ourselves as virtuous, and we may even drift into an attitude marked by a self-reliance that brings us to a place of thinking we deserved salvation, and we were not chosen for it, but rather somehow merited it.

Yes, I believe our attitude in prayer should be humility grounded in our own sense of wretchedness and an understanding of God’s holiness.

And yet, today, many Christians would shake their head at this concept, and they would say, “No, we must have victorious thoughts”.

We are justified by faith.

The sinful man is not who we are anymore, we shouldn't be looking back on the past at what we were but instead we should live in victory now.

They would say, “why should we wallow in our sinfulness, when we now have Christ?”.

This would be a fundamental misunderstanding of what I am saying here.

Yes, we should live with victory over sin, we should look with great hope on our future in Christ, but what I am talking about is not a return to sorrow and despair, but instead I believe that in crying out to God, even though we know we are saved, “Be merciful to me, a sinner”, that is the proper beginning for us to begin our communion with God in prayer, for this he loves.

For a Christian, who is saved by God’s grace, to cry out to him for mercy is not a denial of their salvation, it is not making little of the cross, but rather it is an acknowledgement that we need his mercy anew all the time, and thanks be to God, his mercies are new every morning!

Now, if one were to fake humility, and mourn with sackcloth and ashes while making no strides in maturing their faith, that would be different, but a mark of maturity in Christ is that the more one has matured, the more they realize how much they fall short, and that does not ultimately result in despair, but instead in great rejoicing, because the grace of God becomes so much more valuable to the one who can understand what the cost of their salvation was!

And so, as Christ said, the one who has been forgiven much, loves much.

God show me how much I have been forgiven so that I may love you even more!

The two examples Jesus gives in the parable are the Pharisee, who is about self elevation, and the tax collector, who is about self evaluation.

Let’s look a little closer at these two individuals:

Self Elevation

First, the Pharisee.

We love to looks at what the gospel says about the Pharisees, because we think we are better than them.

Isn't that ironic?

Yet, as I said before, the ones who heard this parable saw the Pharisees as the devout, the ones who went all out to prove their allegiance for God.

They had every outward appearance of holiness, and to be a Pharisee was not considered a bad thing.

That is because the world looks at the outward appearance.

John Bunyan wrote a long discourse on the Pharisee and the Publican, and among many gems in that discourse is this:

Thus diverse were they in their appearances; the Pharisee, very good; the Publican, very bad.

But as to the law of God, which looked upon them with reference to the state of their spirits, and the nature of their actions, by that they were both found sinners; the Publican an open outside one, and the Pharisee a filthy inside one.

Do you see? Jesus was pointing out that dependence on outward appearances can be very dangerous.

And so we see many times in scripture, as well as in world history, as well as in our own witness of life around us, that when we rely on appearances alone, we may be fooled.

The cover is not the book, so open it up and take a look, because under the cover you may discover that the king may be a crook.

Psalm 5:9–10 (ESV)

9 For there is no truth in their mouth;

their inmost self is destruction;

their throat is an open grave;

they flatter with their tongue.

10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;

let them fall by their own counsels;

because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,