Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning Church!

Announcements:

The last week of July will be our VBS.

Our theme this year is Zoomerang!

We want to thank those who donated school supplies.

We have counted all of the supplies that have been brought in and there is an updated list in the foyer.

We also need boxes to build up the scene for VBS.

All different sizes.

There is a VBS volunteer sign-up sheet in the foyer.

Please be getting your names down as to where you want to serve this year!!!

We truly need all the help we can get.

VBS shirts are in.

We will plan on handing out the shirts on July 17th.

If you know that you will not be here on that day, all you have to do see Keshia, and she will be sure to get your shirts to you at some other time.

We were able to get the shirts at a great price this year.

They were only $6.00.

If you would like to donate towards the cost of the shirts, you can bring that money to Mrs. Gail, or Keshia, and they be sure to account for it.

Praise Reports:

I want to thank God for the huge steps that have been made within the Supreme Court over the past couple of weeks.

Prayer Requests:

Supreme Court

Safety during our vacation.

Tithes

Children’s Church

Doxology:

This is my Bible.

It is God’s Holy Word.

It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart that I might not sin against God! Amen!!!

Open Bibles To: Luke 11:1

Last week, we started a new topic within our journey of our series “Building T.E.M.P.O.”.

That new topic is prayer, and we began our journey by speaking on “The Importance of Prayer”.

We are going to continue that journey today as we speak on, “The Intricacies of Prayer”.

As I began to study on this topic of prayer, I wanted to do it justice.

I sat down, pulled up a blank screen on the computer, and simply started to type in as many questions that I could think of regarding prayer.

I want to share a few of those with you today, in hopes that at least one or two might peak your interest for the upcoming weeks:

What is prayer and why should I do it?

How do I pray biblically effectual prayers?

Is there a model of prayer that we should follow?

What is the significance of the Lord’s prayer?

Who do I pray too, and what are the roles of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in prayer?

Should I say “In Jesus name”, every single time I pray?

Should there be a time of preparation before I pray, and what should that look like?

Does God hear the prayers of those who are not saved?

What are the roadblocks, or hindrances, to a healthy prayer life, and how do I get passed them?

How do I know if I am praying in the will of God?

Now I don’t know about you, but some of those questions, or most of them if I am being honest, are questions that peaked my interest, and hopefully yours as well!!!

My hope and prayer is that as we journey through this series on prayer, we will all come into a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father through biblical prayer that is in the will of God!!!

The aim of the message today, is to show you the roles of each member of the trinitarian Godhead within our prayer life.

After we are done today, we should know who to pray to and who to pray through.

Amen!!

Context

I wanted to start with this verse today, because it sets the precedence that we must have in our approach to God, if we are to become faithful prayer warriors.

Notice the verse once again: “Lord, teach us to pray...”.

I find it absolutely fascinating that the disciples never asked Jesus how to walk on water or calm the storms, but they did ask Him how to pray.

I want you to imagine for just a moment, the importance of that statement.

When considering all of the miraculous things that Christ accomplished while on this Earth, I would venture to say that prayer probably would have not made the top ten on most of our lists.

All be it, their was something particular about Jesus’ prayer life that intrigued the disciples to the point to where they had to ask, “Jesus, can You teach us to pray like you?”

I shared some of these verses last week, but for the sake of context, I am going to share them once again.

Listen to these verses and how they describe Jesus’ prayer life:

I wonder if it was the fact that Jesus would sacrifice sleep in order to pray?

I wonder if it was the amount of time Jesus spent in prayer?

I wonder if it was the priority that Jesus gave to His time in prayer?

I wonder if they saw His perfect obedience unto God and somehow correlated that with His prayer life?

For some untold reason, the disciples were so captivated by the prayer life of Jesus, they had to know more.

Content

If you are like most Christians, including myself, at some point in your walk with God, you have had some questions regarding prayer.

You have wondered how to do it, when to do it, and who to address it too.

If you can relate to that, can you say amen?

See, if you have some of those questions here this morning, you are not alone!!!

We are to Pray Unto God

The first thing we want to unpack this morning, is the question of “Who do we pray to?”

When taking all of these verses into consideration, and so many more like them, it can be confusing to know who to address when praying, and who to ask for what.

“Go into your room and shut the door”

We must come into the presence of God.

We must separate ourselves from everything else.

“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.”

Shopping list prayers are vain repetition

Our prayers are to be precise, not vague.

Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite and vivid consciousness that we are talking to God, and should believe that He is listening to our petition and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him.

This is only possible by the Holy Spirit’s power, so we should look to the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the presence of God, and should not be hasty in words until He has actually brought us there.

We are to pray in the leadership of the Spirit

“For we do not know what we should pray for”

When we come into God’s presence we should recognize “our infirmity,” our ignorance of what we should pray for or how we should pray for it, and in the consciousness of our utter inability to pray aright we should look up to the Holy Spirit, casting ourselves utterly upon Him to direct our prayers, to lead out our desires and to guide our utterance of them.

Nothing can be more foolish in prayer than to rush heedlessly into God’s presence, and ask the first thing that comes into our mind, or that some thoughtless friend has asked us to pray for.

When we first come into God’s presence we should be silent before Him.

We should look up to Him to send His Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray.

We must wait for the Holy Spirit, and surrender ourselves to the Spirit, then we shall pray aright.

“The Spirit makes intercession for us”

We must use words to pray but as we have seen, it is not so much about the amount of words used, not their eloquence, as it is the position of our hearts before Almighty God.

“With groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Prevailing prayer in the presence of God is the prayer into which we put our whole soul, stretching out before God with intensity and agonizing before Him.

We cannot rush into God’s presence, recite a string of requests, say its all in Jesus name, jump up, run out, and call it prayer.

This is not the example of prayer we have from scripture.

Matter of fact, the Word of God tells us this is not praying at all.

True prayer is an unhurried time with God.

We must allow the Holy Spirit enough time to reach into the depths of our souls, prepare our hearts and minds to come into the presence of God, and teach us what to pray for and how to pray for it.

We are to Pray in the Name of Jesus

There is truly something special about praying in the name of Jesus.

All power and authority in heaven and earth have been given unto Him, so to pray in His name, is to pray with authority.

But what exactly does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus?