Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

****Do the Clipboard****

Alright everyone, we are back tonight in what many of you know as our “usual” format.

That is, we are back to the way that we do things throughout the school year.

That means tonight we had a time of worship, right now we are going to have what I call a “full message”…that essentially means that we will actually be looking at a specific text together and working through it together, rather than just a topical devotion…a “usual” format also means that after this we are going to have a large community event.

Tonight, because of the weather and what not…we decided to have an ice cream sundae bar, some board/card games, and a spoons tourney with a few prizes, including an $80 gift card to CRUMBL.

Now, that’s all to come but let’s focus on what we are doing right now.

If you’ve been with, we have been going through spiritual disciplines.

The last several weeks have been disciplines that relate to God’s word.

Reading it.

Meditating it.

Memorizing it.

We put all of these spiritual disciplines into the category of “Hearing God’s Voice.”

But now, we move in to a list of spiritual disciplines that are about “Having God’s Ear.”…having…God’s…ear.

In other words…we are going to be talking about prayer…and tonight’s message, will hopefully give you some footing as to how to go about tackling prayer in your own life.

Now…I’m going to admit to you…I’ve never preached a message on prayer.

And here’s why....because I’m not fantastic at it.

I’m not great at it.

I would say I’m not even close to good at it.

But…I want to be better.

And I’m going to guess that you do too.

So, as we dive in tonight…I want you to hear this.

Receive this message as from a man who has not achieved something and is looking back to shout down the orders and how to achieve it to....rather, receive this message as from a man who is seeking to be better at prayer, and is looking in God’s word as to how to do that.

And that’s what we are going to do together, tonight.

Look in God’s word, to understand prayer better, and understand the postures of prayer…or as I’m calling them tonight…the 5 hearts of prayer.

That’s the message tonight.

The 5 Hearts of Prayer.

So, if you have your bibles, go ahead and open up to Matthew, chapter 6.

We are going to be looking at the most famous prayer in the world…the Lord’s prayer.

How many of you have memorized this, or recited it in church or at home before?

Most of you, and for good reason.

Because, it’s a prayer that Jesus told his disciples to pray.

So, if we are going to be looking at ways to pray better and how to grow in our discipline in prayer, this is a good place to start.

Now, if you were with us this past school year, you’ll remember that Pastor Garth actually came on St. Patty’s day and preached an awesome message on prayer.

And…he actually preached it about the verses leading up to the Lord’s prayer.

I want to encourage you, to go back and listen to that message…because it’s really good, and it’s the perfect intro to this message right here.

And actually, there’s an easy way for you to go back and listen to it…we are going to have it uploaded to our podcast, tomorrow morning, for you to listen to and reflect on as we continue to focus on prayer.

If you don’t follow our podcast, you can do so on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify…just look up Centered.

Committed.

Confident.

If you need help tonight let me know and I can help you find it.

But as we dive into this message, let me just succinctly sum up his points.

In that message, titled “Pray Like Jesus”, pastor Garth breaks down verses 5-8, which is Jesus explaining how the majority of our praying should be done.

And here’s what those passages say...

If you’re gonna pray.

Pray secretly.

Pray simply.

and Pray sincerely.

Pray secretly as in don’t make a big show about it.

Don’t draw attention to yourself.

Don’t do it for others.

Pray simply as in, don’t put a lot of stock in the words themselves, but rather focus on the heart.

Powerful words don’t create a more powerful prayer.

and Pray sincerely, as in come to God in sincerity.

Be like a child who comes to him, be honest in your feelings and thoughts towards him.

Get to the heart of you and the heart of the matter.

Now, that’s a really quick summary of his message, check it out on the podcast…but I wanted to cover it because it’s important to our understanding of the next chunk of this passage....the Lord’s prayer.

Right after saying these things, you can look in the text there…right after saying these things…Jesus then instructs his disciples what to say.

Let’s look at it together.

Which…if you really think about it…seems sort of odd right?

I mean, he literally just told the disciples that praying isn’t about the words we use, that it’s not about saying specific things in front of others, and that we should do it in sincerity.

Which, in today’s culture…things that are chanted and often done without sincerity, would you agree with that?

How often do we recite something without it impacting our heart…like when we use to recite the pledge of allegiance, or we sing a song for the 30th time at church, or we recite something like the Lord’s prayer, or a creed, or we sing “thank you Lord” at the end of communion...

How many times have you done something like that, and not been sincere?

I’m sure more times than you care to admit.

So…why then, does Jesus give his disciples these words to say?

1) Some preachers would that the Lord’s prayer is given as a guidepost for the order that we should pray.

Meaning, first we start with adoration, then his will, then our needs.

To that I say…maybe.

And certainly that’s not bad.

In fact, to have a structure to our prayers can be quite helpful.

And I don’t think Jesus would be opposed to us following after him in praying praise, and then his will to be done, and then to ask our needs.

In fact, let’s be honest, if we even did that…it would be more than what most of us are doing in our prayers now.

So, that’s an option…and a good one.

And maybe even a right one.

2) A second option…is that Jesus wants us to say these exact words.

Because, these exact words are good things to pray for.

To that I say…also maybe.

But, not as much as a maybe as the first one…because Jesus says “pray LIKE this”.

Not “Pray This”.

And also, the past several verses seem to show us that the idea of power in specific words is wrong, and not the intention of prayer.

BUT…I say maybe, because certainly including this in our prayers can not be bad, if we say it with sincerity....and, let’s be honest again.

Saying the Lord’s prayer daily is still more than many of us are doing right now in our prayer.

So, this is an option, not as strong of one…but it is an option.

But tonight, I’d like to propose to you a third option.

An option that incorporates the previous verses, and all that Pastor Garth preached about…an option that incorporates all of the Lord’s prayer…and an option that is certainly a biblical option.

I’d like to propose to you tonight, that the Lord’s prayer is about the hearts of prayer…or postures of prayer that we should take.

I’d like to propose to you that when Jesus says “Pray LIKE this”…he literally means “pray in this type of fashion, with these types of passions, and these things on your mind.”

And so tonight, I want to share with you the 5 Hearts of Prayer that I believe are found in the Lord’s prayer....5 Hearts that serve as a call for us to have them when we pray.

5 hearts that we can look at, and check the health of our prayers and our prayer life.

So, with that really long intro out of the way…let’s actually get into them yeah?

Here’s the first one we see.

If you want to pray like Jesus told us to pray...

Pray with a worshipful heart.

Look back at at the first verse.

Hallowed means to be made holy.

So Jesus is literally telling his disciples, that when they pray…they should pray with a heart that wants to bring worship to their God.

They should pray with a heart that wants to glorify him.

They should pray with a heart that literally wants to hallow his name.

I love that this is the first heart in this prayer…because right away it should give us a reality check.