Sermon Tone Analysis

We come together again today, asking the question – What on earth are we here for?

And so if you would turn with me to a few different passages we will see the answer to the question before us with great clarity.

First turn with me to

Prayer

5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9“This, then, is how you should pray:

“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, a

but deliver us from the evil one.

b ’

Now turn with me to *note 13 and 14 – the narrow way is how we can come to a Holy God – name of Jesus and illus.

Ask, Seek, Knock

7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

9“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

13“Enter through the narrow gate.

For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Now turn with me to

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

2He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

3And 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, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”

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

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

Will he keep putting them off?

8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

And finally – turn with me to .

1Answer me when I call to you,

my righteous God.

Give me relief from my distress;

have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

2How long will you people turn my glory into shame?

How long will you love delusions and seek false gods b c

3Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself;

the Lord hears when I call to him.

4Tremble and d do not sin;

when you are on your beds,

search your hearts and be silent.

5Offer the sacrifices of the righteous

and trust in the Lord.

6Many, Lord, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?”

Let the light of your face shine on us.

7Fill my heart with joy

when their grain and new wine abound.

8In peace I will lie down and sleep,

for you alone, Lord,

make me dwell in safety.

WE are here, on this earth, to be a people who are in prayer.

So let me just hit a few points from the passages we just read and then I will move to the place that is the burden for my heart as I considered this message for today.

In we learn WHY WE NEED TO PRAY that God knows what we need before we ask.

God is all knowing and in the Greek that means God really knows what you need – because He knows everything.

In we learn how to pray.

Here is what we know as “the Lords Prayer” as it is delivered in versus 9-13.

Join with me –

HAVE ALL SAY LORDS PRAYER IN UNISON.

Excellent – now we will get into this some other time – but I want to make mention that there are many who do not call this the Lord’s prayer – rather they call this the Disciples prayer and the Lord’s Prayer is find in John chapter 17.

And I tend to agree with them.

At any rate – we have here what Jesus models for us as a prayer and it is in a few parts that I want to touch on briefly so that you get the meaning of what Jesus is teaching here.

First – “Our Father in Heaven – Hallowed be Your name.”

In other words – call upon the Lord of heaven and earth as a Father – not some distant unknown.

This is a relationship – not a religion.

In the English language this would be stated as:

“Dear Daddy – I know you are Holy and above all things.

But you are my Daddy.”

Next, we see the words – Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done.

On earth as it is in Heaven.

This is seeking God to come – not in the sense that He is not here – but in the sense that we seek Him to come more continually until He is here and His work is fully completed – as we have seen in previous messages – we are still not yet what we will fully be at the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Next we ask for our daily bread.

This is a work of faith asking God to provide what we need for this day.

We are always at risk of getting lazy and faithless if we have a stock pile – so we aren’t asking for the delivery of a multimillion-dollar lottery – but asking Him to meet any need we have for the moment in which we live, and trusting He will care for us.

And then we see that we are to trust the Lord to give us the power and the grace to be forgiving.

That God would keep before us - what He has done on our behalf - so that we may do the same for others.

– forgive as Christ forgave.

And finally, we see in verse 13 that we should be seeking Gods protection from the temptation or the testing that will come.

It is when we are weak that we see the greatest need for His strength.

So that is the prayer in a nut shell.

It is so much more than a bunch of words to memorize and recite – it is better to think of it as a framework that models how we are to pray – because this ALWAYS will put God in His proper place before we start down our Christmasy wish lists.

Now we look quickly at Matthew chapter 7.

This shows us what prayer is.