Sermon Tone Analysis
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If you were here last week you’ll remember we saw the importance of spending time at the feet of Jesus.
To make time for him.
How have you been going at that?
Of course, it should be no surprise that having encouraged us to spend time with Jesus, Luke should move next to prayer as he does in our reading today.
Instructing us on how to be people of prayer.
But before we dive in I want you to take a moment and think about...
Awkward moments
Whether you’ve ever had one of those awkward moments where you meet someone and you don’t know what to do or say?
And so you just say or do the worst possible thing?
Mr Bean meeting the queen.
He lines up and practices all he needs to do.
Then he realises that when you meet the queen you need to be in tip top shape.
He hasn’t polished his shoes, or dealt with his bad breath or got a pocket hankerchief!
He gets himself all sorted just in the nick of time but is so nervous that as he bows he headbuts the queen and knocks her out.
Mr Bean is right to want to get himself in good order before meeting the Queen.
She’s a pretty important lady!
And of course, when it comes to approaching God, perhaps there are some things we need to consider?
The disciples are right to ask Jesus for some tips!
And in doing so we can see we learn a few things about prayer:
Prayer is important!
Note: Jesus is at prayer
Luke 11:1- “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place...”
Jesus was constantly at prayer.
His disciples have noticed this so they ask for some help on how they ought to pray!
Luke 11:1 - “WHen he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray...”
And Jesus responds by teaching them, What to say, and how to say it.
(Content and attitude).
What to say - Content (Luke 11:1-4)
The disciples want to know how to pray.
Not only that.
But they want a prayer that will shape them as Jesus’ followers.
Just like John the Baptist taught his followers to pray, so the disciples want Jesus to teach them.
So he does.
And first he teaches them the content, or what it is they should pray:
This is what you should say when you pray (v2)
I think there are five aspects here:
Intimacy with respect
Mission
Provision
Forgiveness
Protection
Intimacy with respect
Father, hallowed be your name (2)
Jesus invites them into this beautiful communication with a loving Father.
God is not distant in prayer.
But He is close.
We speak to him like a child to her dad.
This is one of the beautiful things about God.
In India I had the chance to go to a few different Hindu ceremonies as a tourist.
I have a very vivid memory of one particular service.
It was very loud.
Loads of banging on drums and shouting.
I asked our guide what was going on.
He said they are waking up the God so he will hear them and hopefully answer them.
Not only do the Hindu God’s need waking up, they need food.
And you make deals with them.
If you give me what I want need, I promise to go on a really long walk to a temple.
So we’d occasionlly drive past people who were walking along the road and every 10 steps would lie down and roll on the ground because they’d made a deal with their God.
We don’t serve a God like that.
We serve a loving Father who is holy and whom we must respect, he is the creator of the world.
But who comes near to us.
These opening words of the prayer remind us of God’s intimacy (his closeness to us) “Father”... and his transcendence (his distance and difference from us) “hallowed be your name”.
Mission
Your kingdom come (2)
We pray first for God’s mission to be done on earth.
Jesus brings the kingdom.
The rule and reign of God to bear on the earth.
We start our prayer with prayer for God’s kingdom to come and to grow and expand because this is what we’re called to as disciples.
To join with God in his kingdom mission.
So often we pray for ourselves first.
But Jesus reminds us that our first priorities should be his kingdom.
If we are people who sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary back in CH 10, then we will be people who are all about the kingdom!
Provision
Give us each day our daily bread (3)
After we pray for the kingdom.
We pray for God’s provision of our needs.
Not more or less.
Just enough for today.
We’ve seen God’s provision for our church.
I’ve seen God’s provision on the mission field in Cambodia.
Abraham is constantly in need of money.
And he is constantly provided with it!
I’ve seen God provide in my own life.
When I was a full-time theological student and we lived off Ellisa’s wage and spent more than half her salary on rent, it was stressful!
But God provided!
God will provide for us so we don’t need to worry.
We can focus instead on the mission he is calling us to.
Forgivenss
Forgive us (4)
Our greatest need is in fact forgiveness.
Jesus teaches us to pray for forgiveness to remind us that we are not perfect.
And he teaches us to pray so that we will remember to extend the same grace of God to others in forgiving them too.
This is the ethic of God’s people.
In relationship with the God of the world, On mission, trusting God’s provision and humbly admitting to God and each other our need for forgivenss as we inevitably get it wrong!
Protection
Lead us not into temptation (4)
Finally there is a prayer for protection from the devil.
Protect us from temptation.
From getting distracted from our Father’s glory and mission.
From failing to trust and failing to forgive.
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