Sermon Tone Analysis

When We Pray

Recap The last couple weeks:

Two weeks ago we started this series, where we opened up with not letting our righteousness being shown to the other people.

And last week we talked about giving, and what is our true intentions when we give.

The reality of both those messages were it comes down to our heart.

What is the desires of our heart.

If we are not seeking after God with our actions, if we are not trying to point people to Christ, we are doing it out of selfish ambitions.

This will not be tolerated but our creator, who loves us so greatly and has called us to humbly seek His face.

To know him personally and desire to make his name known.

That has been the last two week and I am really excited to talk about prayer this week and next week as we finish this series up we will be looking at fasting.

Tonight we are looking at prayer.

If you are new, and not just new to the Christianity but new to a church setting and you may be aware of what prayer is, I am so glad you are here tonight.

Prayer is very simply communicate to God.

Through prayer this is how we communicate to God.

We just talk, we open our mouths, some may fold their hands, others may just leave them at their side.

Some many close their eyes, while others may have them open.

Some may stand, while others may kneel, or even lay face down.

No matter the posture we need to acknowledge that prayer is vital for our relationship with Christ.

It would be as if we had a best friend that we never talked to.

How long would that person really be our best friend?

Probably not to long right.

Of course we have have friends that we have that we can pick up a conversation with them no matter how long we have been apart.

But mostly everyone in here knows that you may have that kind of relationship because of how much time and energy you poured into the beginning of it.

You probably hung out a lot, talked a ton, spent a lot of time together and depending on what separated you, moving away, different jobs, going to a different school whatever, it may be that relationship was great.

But we all know what is looks like when you have a best friend that is currently in your life, where if you go a day without talking you worry that they are mad at you.

You fear they moved on from you.

You need to hear from them, you need to spend time with them, you desire to be in the same company as them.

And when this cannot happen our minds run wild, with thoughts that they hate me, they don’t like me, they found a new friend, and yes they clearly are mad at me.

If we feel this way, how much do you think God feels when we do not communicate with him?

I haven’t heard from them in awhile.

We don’t talk like we use too

I miss having a conversation with you

Have you moved on to something else?

Is there someone or something else that is taking your time from me?

I miss you

I’m not going anywhere, I am here when you are ready to talk.

So maybe this is where you are, maybe prayer isn’t consistent nor is it valued by you.

I can say convidently that God values prayer.

To Jesus Prayer is normal.

Prayer is normal (5)

Jesus keeps coming back to this over and over again.

It is not a matter of if but when.

Prayer was normal to the people before Jesus, while Jesus was on earth and it is normal now as well.

Prayer is a standard, its not abnormal, its regular, it’s natural.

conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

Prayer is standard.

Jesus is giving almost the same instruction that he gave about giving right here when speaking about praying.

serving to establish a standard.

He is saying look when you pray, do not be like those hypocrites.

Those people, these hypocrites they are praying to be noticed by others.

They are practicing their righteousness in front of others, which is what Jesus was warning about in verse 1 and 2.

Same as last week, Jesus was not discouraging them from not giving, same as he is not tell them to not pray.

Praying in the public is very appropriate when it is practiced with the right motives.

Pray was very common here, and people would stand to pray,

But public orations should represent the overflow of a vibrant personal prayer life.

What is more, prayer ought not to be used to gain plaudits, summarize a sermon, or communicate information to an audience but should reflect genuine conversation with God.

Jesus again says, look those people the hypocrites, the ones who are practicing their righteousness they have their reward, and it is nothing.

ZERO— They get nothing.

It may look like they have a reward now, but soon those people will know that they missed it.

Our reward is not here on this earth, those who are like the hypocrites, and we have people like that right now this earth.

We have people who use the bible, they use Jesus to make themselves look great, I promise you those people will have no reward when they meet Jesus face to face.

When you pray or talk to God what is your intention?

How do you go to Him, I mean maybe this isn’t even a struggle for you.

I think if we can be real, most of struggle with not praying out loud at all, right?

That asking for a volunteer to pray is more stressful to you then deciding on what you want you want to do when you grow up, what college you will attend, and who you are going to marry, and how many kids you will have, and if you should or should not get a puppy.

Yeah for some praying in public is terrifying.

For some it can be stressful, if we can be honest, and you don’t have to agree with me, but i know that when i am stressed about praying out loud in public, it was 98% of time because i wasn’t praying in private.

It is hard to do something out loud in public, that you are not doing on the regular.

I promise that if you make this a normal part of your life you will see that praying in public is nothing to be stress about because you are just talking to God, and because it is normal, it is simple to do.

I hope that we can make this normal in our lives.

I hope that prayer time is real and consistent in your life.

And when it is normal in your life, seek to pray at times in the secret.

Prayer is secluded.

Prayer is secluded (6-8)

Matthew 6

Go into a room and shut the door and pray in seclusion.

Secluded means:

sheltered or screened from general activity, view, etc.:

withdrawn from or involving little human or social activity:

I really like that term social activity, it means leave your phone outside that room, it is literally just you and God talking.

This was nothing new that Jesus was talking about here as well.

When you read the Old Testament you see people who God used consistently seeking God in quite places.

For Jacob it was at Bethel— Where he wrestled with God.

Moses did this with the burning bush, when he went up to Mt Sinai.

For Elijah it was Mount Carmel

For Jonah it was the belly of the whale.

For Jesus himself, he commonly sought seclusion.

Most famously when Jesus left behind his inner three disciples and prayed alone at the base of the mount of olives in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He did this as the hours drew near for him to be handed over and go to the cross.

I want to tell you about this book i recently just finished listening to, thats right i listened to a book.

Its called Whisper by Mark Batterson.

Its a pretty good book on prayer.

In this book Batterson talks about finding whisper spots.

He calls this whisper spots because of how God answered Elijah in

I am not going to read the passage, but I will just give you a brief overview.

Elijah is fleeing people who want to kill him, and he has found safety in at Mount Carmel in this cave.

While he is in this cave, God shows up to him.

First God sends wind so powerful that it breaks rocks, and then an earthquake, and then a fire and all three of this God sent he was not in them.

Meaning that even though God sent them, that wasn’t how he communicated with Elijah.

But after the fire had come and gone, God came to Elijah in a whisper.