Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts 13:22 (KJV) And when he had removed [Saul], he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

David was “a man after God’s own heart” – he was not perfect, but his life was an open book before the Lord.

Since he wrote 73 (nearly half) of the Psalms

Essentially a book about communing with God.

Acts 13:22 (MES) God removed [Saul] from office and put King David in his place, with this commendation: 'I've searched the land and found this David, son of Jesse.

He's a man whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.'

One thing that many people miss in studying the Bible is that it is fundamentally a PRAYER BOOK.

It commands us to pray over 250 time

Speaks of prayer an additional 280 times

Gives repeated examples of great men and women praying

Records many of their prayers, as in the book of Psalms.

Adam and Eve had no Bible, but they did have direct communication and communion with God.

However, through willful disobedience they forfeited this personal relationship and were separated from God’s presence due to their sin.

This breach of fellowship so grieved God that He immediately began to offer a means of access into His presence for anyone who desired to commune with Him.

The Bible is a record of God’s restoring to humanity the relationship that was lost in Eden.

Genesis 4:26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

The first people in the Bible who were called God’s people were not called Christians or Jews.

The first people who ever belonged to God were called “those who call on the name of the Lord.”

The origin and root of everything we are doing today began with people calling on God.

Forget North American Christianity!

Forget the religion you were raised in!

Forget what you’ve learned by hanging around a Pentecostal church!

There’s some meat there, but there’s a lot of bones as well.

This original episode is the benchmark, the plumbline, the pattern for a relationship with God – CALL ON ME AND I WILL ANSWER YOU!

When you don’t know what to do, I’ll tell you what to do!

When you’re ready to throw up your hands, throw them up to Me and call on Me – and I will help you!

That is how religion began 􏰀 and God has never changed!

We all know we are supposed to pray.

But sometimes, one of the most frustrating aspects of prayer is not being able to find the right words to express what dwells deep within your heart.

What can you pray about?

How should you pray about it?

What is really a legitimate prayer?

The reasons we have these questions is that we really don’t understand what prayer is.

We think of it as a religious duty instead of an ongoing, daily relationship which – like every other relationship – includes conversation!

The Bible was given, not just so we could have head knowledge of certain doctrines, but so we could return to a personal relationship with God.

Such a relationship demands communication, and prayer is conversation with God.

The Bible is a textbook on prayer.

It teaches us the need to pray, the nature of prayer, and the rewards of prayer.

But what seems to have been forgotten is that the words of the Bible can also become the very prayer that we need to pray!

PSALMS IS PROBABLY THE BEST PLACE IN THE BIBLE TO LEARN TO “PRAY THE SCRIPTURES”!

Praying the Scriptures invites us to pray and then initiates our prayer.

Prayer is as natural to a person as crying is to a baby.

It is a reflex action of the human spirit; it is often an involuntary reaction that bypasses the mind.

Even sinners react with prayer although it comes out more as a curse because they don’t understand their natural impulses…

It almost requires a conscious action of the will to override this impulse.

Prayer is not manipulation of God, it is relationship with God

We have communion with God, not because we desire it but because He has declared it, not because we produce it but because He has already provided it.

We need only to embrace it, express it and enjoy it.

Praying the Scriptures unlocks intimacy and breaks sluggishness that we sometimes feel in prayer.

Say back to God what God says to you (in His Word).

Complexity wars against prayer; simplicity allows prayer to flow.

Let prayer be an honest expression of your life – you can’t fool God! Prayer is not supposed to sound like a slick sales pitch!

All God ever wanted from us was honesty!

Adam in the garden, “Where are you?” - Be honest with me Adam!

Praying the Scriptures illustrates how to pray and inspires us as we pray.

Note that Hebrew poetry is based on "thought lines" and not rhymes.

In the Psalms:

Sometimes the second line repeats the first in different words

Sometimes the second line contrasts with the first

Sometimes the second line explains and expands the first

Sometimes the second line completes the first

Make sure we are interpreting the Word thought for though…

The Bible scholars see these literary devices as synonymous parallelism, antithetic parallelism, synthetic parallelism, and climactic parallelism.

(That’s helpful, isn’t it?!)

But can you see these techniques for what they really are – they are instructions for prayer!

Sometimes we “repeat” ourselves

Sometimes we “contradict” ourselves

Sometimes we “express” ourselves

Sometimes we just “leave it” with God by faith!

Psalm 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

Psalm 73:1-2 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

Psalm 47:1 O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

THE BOOK OF PSALMS IS THE THESAURUS OF PRAYER!

Praying the Scriptures illuminates our hearts and instructs our words (so they may stay in keeping with God’s will).

Praying the Scriptures gives imagery and intensity to our prayers.

That’s why the Psalms are SONGS – because the overflow of the Word and the Spirit produces singing in the soul!

Praying the Scriptures brings intercession and immortality to our prayers.

Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Acts 10:4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord?

And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.