Sermon Tone Analysis

Illustration-

A man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals.

Then he would ask the blessing.

One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, “Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?”

“Why, of course,” he replied.

“He hears us every time we pray.”

We are to be a praying people.

She paused on this a moment, and asked, “Does He hear everything we say the rest of the time?”

“Yes, dear, every word,” he replied,

This encouraged the Father that he had inspired his daughter to be curious about spiritual matters.

However, his pride was quickly turned to humility at his daughter’s next question.

“Then Daddy, which one does God believe?”

This little story speaks to both our lives and our prayer.

This passage does as well.

In this passage of Scripture,

We are going to find three things that We must be.

We must be a praying people.

We must be a godly people

We must be an evangelistic people.

We are to be a praying people.

First of all.

At first glance, we may misread what Paul is saying here.

Paul is not beginning the argument here.

He has said a lot already in the letter.

This is not the first thing he has said.

First of all here means “Of primary importance”

In other words, before anything else, be sure to do this.

And then he is going to encourage Timothy to pray and to lead the church in prayer.

And just in these first three words, I’m convicted.

Paul says to Timothy that the most important thing he can do, is to pray.

How often do I/ do we get this backwards?

Prayer is the last resort rather than the starting point.

In fact, if you were to ask for prayer, people would automatically assume that something is wrong with you or your family.

(For example: Post “please pray for me and my family,” and the majority of people are going to say something, maybe even text you, are you ok? Everything ok?

I saw you asked for prayer.

Prayer for us has become more of cry for help rather than what it should be.

For the Christian prayer should be as natural as breathing.

Its just what we do.

Spurgeon said…

“Prayer is a creature’s strength, his very breath and being.”

I read this quote about 6 months ago, and I began to ask myself:

I

In the last year, I was convicted of this.

As a young pastor, I came here at 25 years old.

I felt like the best thing I could do for the church was to take every opportunity and time to teach.

So… on Wednesday Nights at 7, we had what we call Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, but on those Wednesday Nights, we were praying at the beginning for about 3-5 minutes and then I was teaching or preaching for the next 30-35 minutes, and that was what I would call our prayer meeting.

Now, don’t hear me wrongly.

I am not saying that Bible Study is bad or that teaching or preaching is bad.

I am saying that the absence of prayer in the church will leave us anemic, powerless.

A lack of prayer reveals a prideful reliance upon our ownstrength rather than God’s.

I apologized to those who came to that Wednesday Night Service about six months ago, and we began to make Wednesday Night about prayer.

So on any Wednesday Night, what we will be doing is praying.

Forgive me

I encourage you to be here.

I encourage you to be actively praying in your own walk with Christ during the week.

Make it a priority.

Prayer is to be first of all.

He mentions 4 types of prayer here:

Entreaties

Prayers

Petitions

Thanksgiving

3 of the four words here can be translated as prayers.

But they are different types of prayers.

1. Entreaties-These are urgent requests.

We are essentially saying, “God, please help us.”

These are prayers that we pray when we need God to act now.

Its in these moments we truly come to realize our inability and futility as human beings.

We are fully reliant upon God.

The next term

2. Prayers- the general term for all prayers.

Any kind of prayer offered up to God. it is important to note that all these words our plural.

It tells us that many people should be praying.

3. Petitions- interceding prayer.

This is praying for others.

Paul encourages this.

He encourages prayer for others.

Thanksgiving- Prayers of gratitude.

Thanking God for all that He has done.

4. Thanksgiving- Prayers of gratitude.

Thanking God for all that He has done.

I’m convinced we lack thanksgiving in our prayer because we are convinced we are the reason for the good that has happened to us.

A lack of prayer reveals self reliance.

A lack of prayer reveals pride.

Paul is calling Timothy and the church to pray and to pray specifically.

These prayers are to be prayed on behalf of all men, and there is a reason for the prayer.

We pray on behalf of all men.

We pray for salvation.

Are we faithful to do this?

Am I faithful to do this?

Do we pray for people to be saved?

Are we asking other to pray for our lost family members?

A follow up question if we aren’t: Do we believe in the doctrine of hell?

Do we believe that there is an eternal place of conscious torment where people will be forever if they don’t believe?

Paul urges- he pleads- Timothy, pray.

Church, pray.

Pray for all men to be saved.

We preach the Gospel to all and we pray for all.

He goes to mention specifically those who are in authority.

Paul saying here that we should pray for those in authority so that our lives are not made miserable by anti-Christ and anti-Bible leaders.