Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we discussed spending time with God; talking to God throughout our daily lives.

Don’t be afraid to have small talk with Him, don’t be afraid to just tell him how your day is going, don’t be afraid to just let your thoughts dwell on His word.

This week we are going to expand on this by talking about worshipping Him through our prayers.

We should take the time every single day where take the time to worship Him through prayer.

This is a special time we should set aside each day.

For me personally, I usually do this before my bible study time as it gets me in the right mindset to really hear and be open to what God wants to say to me.

Matthew, chapters 5 through 7, is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Chapter five contains the Beatitudes and He continues on by apply the Old Testament Law to the heart.

Here, Jesus expands the scope of the Law for the Jews, because the major failing of the Jews up to this point was that they were taking the Law in a purely physical sense.

But what Jesus wants us to realize is that what the law is really targeting is what’s going on in our hearts.

Because if you fix your heart, the actions will follow.

The major theme of Chapter six is humility, to do all things in humbleness.

Jesus gives us several examples of how we should serve the Lord; not in a prideful manner that seeks to bring glory to ourselves, but in a humble manner that seeks to point to God’s glory.

Then, in chapter seven, Jesus gives us a list of spiritual warnings.

The point is, the whole Sermon on the Mount is about what is going on inside of us, about what the attitude of our heart is and what are motivations are.

So, keep this in mind as we go through our study.Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV) 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

​Matthew 6:9–13 ESV9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

This is passage is widely known as the “Our Father”.

But, what people miss, is that this prayer is not meant to be repeated exactly word for word.

If you sit down and just repeat this prayer, you’re not doing what Jesus is intending for you to do.

It doesn’t take any kind of faith, or belief, or correction of your heart to just sit down and repeat these words.

Verse 9 doesn’t tells us that Jesus said “Pray this”, it tells us that Jesus said “Pray like this”.

We should realize that what Christ is targeting in this prayer is what is going on in our heart as we pray.

Where our hearts should be, where our desires should be when we pray; not just the words that we speak.

Too many people try pray a robot prayer where they copy each of these lines in some form or fashion and make sure that every checkbox is checked.

But that is not what Jesus is saying, what He is trying to do is talk to you about your heart and where your heart should be when you talk to God.

Prayer is a State of Heart

​Matthew 6:9 ESV9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Seek to glorify God in all things (v.

9)The first thing that stands out here is that is says “hallowed be your name”.

What does a name mean?

What does it encompass?

Your name is a short way of telling someone who you are or of telling someone who another person is.

First, it tells who your family is, who belongs to you.

Then, for those who know you, it recalls to them what you do and what qualities you posses.

If I’m talking to Mark and he says something about Jason, subconsciously, my brain is loading up the things that I know about Jason, the qualities that Jason possesses, and the things that Jason does.

A name tells our minds to load up the information we know about a person and to recognize who they are.

So when we say “hallowed be your name”, we aren’t just saying “Praise God”.

What we are saying is that all of what God’s name represents should be glorified.

So, what does God’s name represent?

Well, it represents His holiness, His unlimited power, His wisdom, it represents truth, righteous justice, love, it represents the undeserved mercy that He gives us.

But also, and this is where it gets tough, it represents the discipline that He gives us, His judgement on sin, and His wrath against sinners.

A lot of people leave these last three out because we don’t like to think that God judges us or is wrathful.

But He is.

I hear sometimes from professing Christians “I don’t believe those things, my god is not like that, my god doesn’t judge, my god just loves everyone.”

I want to ask them “Who is your god?

Because God is the Yahweh who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in wrath of their sin, God is the Yahweh who said Jesus is necessary for us to escape his judgement.”

These are facts about God and we should want these facts glorified about God as much as any of them.

Glory to God’s war against evil!

Glory to the fact that we even have the ability to be His children!

It makes me cringe when I hear it, is when Christians are witnessing to unbelievers and they say “We are all God’s children” or they say “I don’t want to be in conflict with this person because, we are all God’s children.”

That is not biblical.

Every human is not a child of God.

God’s children are special, we only have the right to be children of God through Jesus.

If you reject Jesus, you are not a child of God:

​John 8:42 ESV42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.

People will often bring up quotes from Paul’s epistles where he pens a line that can be read as “we are all children of God”.

True, but realize in context who Paul is writing to.

He is not writing to unbelievers, he is writing to the believers in the church.

His purpose is not the same as the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; which were written to spread the Gospel of Jesus and bring unbelievers to repentance.

Paul’s purpose is to further instruct believers AFTER they have come to Christ.

So, his audience are all children of God.

This is why it gets sticky when unbelievers quote Paul’s passages, they consistently get the point wrong; because Paul was writing under the assumption that the Holy Spirit was already in you and helping you to see the truth of the meaning of his words.

So our priority in prayer is to give glory to God and to thank Him for the opportunity to be His children, that is why we are to call Him Father.Therefore, the major point of this line is that we should come into prayer with an attitude of thanking Him for who he is and what He has done for us.Next,

​Matthew 6:10 ESV10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Desire God’s will over your own (v.

10)What we should get out of this verse is that, while it is true that we should lift our desires and needs up to Him.

We should place our trials and tribulations in His hands.

But our hearts should be tempered by God’s will.

Jesus gave us a great example in the Garden of Gethsemane:

​Luke 22:41–42 ESV41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

We should check our hearts for the truth of what we are praying for.

Are we praying out of a selfish desire or out of a desire for God’s will to truly be worked in our lives?

The key in prayer is to always pray for God’s will to be done above our desires, even when His will does not line up with our desires.

It’s not just words, it is a sincere condition of the heart being completely submissive to God.Don’t forget your spiritual needs (v.

11)That brings us to

​Matthew 6:11 ESV11 Give us this day our daily bread,

This is mis-understood often.

Most people think this is where we pray over food and thank God for providing for our physical needs.

But, remember, Jesus’ focus is on our spirit.

He makes this point in

​John 4:7–10 ESV7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

Jesus’ point is that we focus too much on our physical needs and we neglect our need for spiritual providence and communion with God.

We fail to ask God for the important things, eternal blessings.

God wants you to bring your spiritual needs and desires to Him.

That is where His joy is, in fulfilling your spiritual needs for relationship with Him.Be honest with God and yourself about sin (v.

12)The next section is tricky, it is easy and extremely difficult at the same time

​Matthew 6:12 ESV12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

It’s easy for us to ask for forgiveness of our sins.