Sermon Tone Analysis
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The Way to Pray, Effective Prayers, Prayer for Prayers, Be A Prayer
The Secret to Prayer is No Secret at All
Introduction:
I was in sales for many years.
I started out as a Fuller Brush salesman when I was in High School.
I learned to sell by watching others and trial and error.
There are many things to learn when selling something.
You need to know all about your product to answer any questions the potential customer has for you.
You need to know about your customer, does she need what you’re selling.
There are techniques for every aspect of selling.
There is one aspect that is most important.
It’s easy to understand but for some people it’s hard to do.
It is the reason why many people fail as salespeople.
Do we have any sales people here?
What do you think I’m thinking of?
What do you think is the most important aspect of selling, the one thing that you have to do to succeed in sales?
Take responses
You have to ask for the order.
I have had people try to sell me things over the years who did a great job explaining about their product but who never asked for the order.
If I didn’t want it’s I’d just sigh in relief that I didn’t have to screw up the courage to say no.
Unless you’re dying to by something, you don’t mind if a person doesn’t try to close the sale by asking for the order.
It can be hard for all of us to ask for things.
Let’s say you need help moving.
Is it easy or hard to ask people for help?
It’s hard because you know how much work it is.
People are busy.
We don’t want to inconvenience them.
This is true of many areas where we need help.
I think about the skills people have here at our church.
We have many different areas of expertise.
We have people who have expertise in medicine, electrical work, painting, computers, self-defense training, social work, finance, sewing, taking care of animals, analytics, social media, and gardening.
I could go on.
How easy is it for you to ask for help, say if you have a computer problem or need a wall repaired and painted?
It depends on how well you know the person, doesn’t it?
If any of my sons are around and I need help, I don’t hesitate to ask, even if it’s hard and might inconvenience them.
The same thing is true of good friends, isn’t it?
But if my sons aren’t around or I don’t have a good friend to ask, I may just do the work myself or pay someone to do.
How many of us have heard, after the fact, of someone who paid for help when we were willing to help?
More than once I’ve said, “I wish you would have called me!
I would have helped!”
And we mean it.
For whatever reason the person didn’t ask us.
Transition:
What about asking God for help?
Do you think God wants to help you?
That sounds like a silly question to ask, because if we know God, we know He wants to help us, right?
But it is a legitimate question because we often don’t ask God for help.
There are different reasons for this.
I want to suggest that perhaps the most significant reason ask God for help is that we don’t know God well enough to be comfortable to ask Him for help anytime for anything.
Let’s shift for a moment back to asking people for things.
Your car broke down at 2 am and you need a ride.
You need to move heavy piece of furniture.
A pipe broke and your home is flooded and you need help to clean up a huge mess.
Is there a person in your life who you know you could ask for help with anything?
Do you feel that way about God?
He wants you to feel that way about you and, in fact, He is waiting for you to ask.
Bottom Line: God is waiting for you to ask.
God waits for us to pray and then acts when we pray.
Sometimes God only acts when we pray.
Why doesn’t God do certain things?
He’s waiting for us to pray.
1. God wouldn’t heal without prayer.
Genesis 20:1-18
Genesis 20:1-18 Abraham and Abimelek
James speaks to this.
He also tells us that our words aren’t just a magic spell that causes something to happen.
Our prayer has to be according to God’s will.
Sometimes we’re sick because we’re sick.
Nothing more than living in a world corrupted by sin.
Sometimes we’re sick because we’ve sinned.
God uses sickness as part of His discipline.
If that’s the case, we need to address the sin by confessing it and also ask for his healing.
2. God wouldn’t forgive without prayer.
Job 42:7-16
Job 42:7-16 Job and his three friends
This is a profound statement.
God wouldn’t forgive these people unless Job forgave them and prayed for them.
Forgiveness is important to God.
Matthew 6:12; 1 John 1:9; Ephesians 4:32
Is there someone you need to forgive?
Is there someone you need to seek forgiveness from?
3. God wouldn’t allow rain without prayer.
1 Kings 17:1; 18:1; 18:41-45; James 5:17-18
1 Kings 17:1-18:46 Elijah and Ahab and no rain
In order to fully understand the role of prayer in this miraculous event we need to read James.
4. God won’t act without your prayer.
James 4:2;
1. Pray specifically.
John 14:12-13
2. Pray individually and collectively.
1 Thessalonians 5:17; 25
3. Pray faithfully. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Conclusion
Success: We see God work.
God acts and does what we pray
God changes our prayer.
Helps avoid failure:
We live in frustration because we don’t understand how God work.
Discussion questions:
1. Do you find it hard or easy to ask people for help?
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