Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning Church.

Today we will be continuing on in our study of Jesus Sermon on the Mount.

Last week, if you will remember, we looked at Jesus teaching on our judging of others.

And today, we are going to be looking at His teaching on The Simplicity of Supplication.

If you will notice here, Jesus is teaching His listeners about their relationship to others.

In Chapter’s 5 & 6 He dealt a lot with our relationship to God and how to pray, how to worship, how to serve and also He dealt with us and our focus on God and our relying on God.

Here in Chapter 7, He starts with our relationship towards others and how that we ought not to judge and then it’s almost as if He takes a break here and gets back into prayer but when you read this section in context down through and including Verse 12, I feel like there’s a deeper meaning here that also deals with our relationship towards others that He is trying to get across.

So, with no further ado, if you have your Bibles with you this morning and turned to Matthew Chapter 7 Verse 7, would you say, Amen.

The Priority of Prayer

Now, there are 5 points this morning I want us to look at and I promise I will get through them as quickly as possible but the last thing I want to do is fly through it and miss something important.

I want to begin this morning with a simple overview of the Priority of Prayer.

What is The Priority of Prayer?

What is the goal when we go to God in prayer?

Why do we pray?

As I began to think of this, many different things came to mind but ultimately they all boil down to a very simple concept...

When we go to God in prayer it’s ultimately to seek out the will of God for our lives and then to show us how to live out His will for our lives.

Now, you may say, “Preacher when I go to God in prayer it’s because I have a need that only He can fix and so I take my petition to Him.”

And I’d say to you that you are correct in the fact that He’s the only one who can fix any problem you run into but the reality is, whether or not our request is answered or not is according to whether or not our request is according to God’s will.

Let me give you some verses to help us here.

Paul told the Romans in Chapter 28 Verses 26-27...

You see, what the Bible is saying here is that when we go to God in prayer, we don’t even know what we need to ask for but because the Spirit resides within us and because God knows our hearts, the Spirit of God makes intercession on behalf of the Saints of God according to the will of God.

Flip back with me real quickly to Matthew 6:7-8.

You see dear friend, God knows what we need before we even ask Him and as someone has well said, “He wants for us what we’d want for ourselves if we were smart enough to ask for it.”

But at the end of the day, God has a plan that is far above and beyond anything we could ever imagine and He knows exactly what needs to take place in every situation throughout all eternity in order for His plan to be accomplished.

So, when we go to God in prayer, ultimately it is to seek out the will of God for our lives and then to show us how to get His will accomplished in our lives.

That is The Priority of Prayer.

Now, I want to move on to The Process of Prayer.

The Process of Prayer — (Vs.

7-8)

Now, we spent a whole lot of time on what our prayers should entail, but Jesus gives us here in these first two verses a very simple process for prayer.

And when I show you how simple it is you may be amazed.

Look at Verses 7-8 with me.

Jesus says to His listeners here, the first step in praying is simply asking!

“Ask, and it shall be given you;”

How many blessings, how many answers, are still sitting in the storehouse of God because they have simply not been asked for!

Jesus says if you want something from God the first step in getting it is simply asking for it!

Adrian Rogers said.

“Do you know the greatest problem in prayer is not in unanswered prayer, it is unasked prayer.”

The problem with many believers today is that we simply don’t take the petitions of our heart to God in prayer.

We want to try and fix it on our own or get it on our own instead of asking God to provide it for us.

How important is it that we ASK God for the desires of our heart you ask?

Important enough that even in His process of telling us how to obtain what we want that He created an acronym for ASK.

Look again with me if you will.

Jesus said first we must ASK.

Secondly, we must SEEK.

Thirdly, we must KNOCK.

Now, take the first letter in each one of those words and put them together and tell me what you get?

You get the word…ASK!

Listen friend, you can’t blame God for not having what you want if you never ask Him for it to begin with!

The Simplicity of Supplication starts with ASKING!

Now, this word ASK used here, is the Greek word (aiteo) and it means to beg, to plead, to desire something.

But it also has a deeper meaning.

Vine’s Dictionary says it more frequently suggests the attitude of a suppliant, the petition of one who is lesser in position than he to whom the petition is made.

The attitude behind the word is humility.

It’s speaking of when we take the desires of our heart and bring them “humbly” to the throne of God and kneel in prayer begging, pleading for God to intervene in our situation.

It’s understanding that there is someone much greater than we are who can actually change the outcome of the situation we’re in.

But the key is that in order for our desires to be met, we must first kick start those petitions by simply asking.

And Jesus says if we ask it shall be given us!

Now, I know without a shadow of a doubt there are some people sitting here at this very moment saying…“well I’ve asked God for this or for that and He didn’t give it to me so this is wrong.”

No, dear friend, that doesn’t mean God’s word is wrong, it simply means your understanding of God’s word is wrong.

God doesn’t say He’s always going to give us everything we want.

When you read the Bible in it’s entirety what you will find is that there are a few reasons as to why you may not get your prayers answered.

First off, in the Book of James 4:2b Jesus says, “you have not because you ask not.”

This goes back to what we were talking about a second ago.

When was the last time you simply got on your knees and poured out your requests to God?

When was the last time you asked God for something in sincerity?

It starts with asking.

But then the Bible goes on to say there in Verse 3 of James 4…You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.

Basically, you’re asking for the wrong reasons.

You’re asking for something outside the will of God due to a fleshly lust or desire.

This word “amiss” means evil, badly, wrongly, incorrectly.

It can sometimes have a meaning of harm or injury, in a sense it can mean something grievous.

Listen, so many times God doesn’t answer our prayer because He knows better than we do, the thing we’re asking for can one day lead to something bad for us and therefore He’s simply trying to protect us and yet here we are…“God why did you not let me have that or allow this or that to happen?”

We want to complain instead of simply saying…“God not my will but thine be done!”

Now, for those who think that God is just mean or that He doesn’t hear you because He didn’t answer your prayer let me give you a quick reminder about something.

Look with me if you will in...

Jesus the one and only Son of God Himself asked the Father that if it be His will that this cup would pass from Him.

Now, someone tell me…did God the Father give Jesus what He asked for?

The answer is no.

But notice what Jesus said there… “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will.”

Not my will be done Father but thine will be done.

Now if the Father wouldn’t even answer the request of His own Son because it wasn’t His will, who are we to moan and groan and complain when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want them to be answered?

At the end of the day, if a prayer of ours doesn’t get answered it’s because...

We asked for something in the wrong manner.

We asked for something outside the will of God.

It’s simply not in God’s timing yet.

A lot of times we ask for something and it doesn’t happen right then but later on down the road it comes to pass.

It simply wasn’t in God’s timing.

But the first step in the process is to simply ASK!

Next, and I’ve got to hurry here, Jesus says to seek.

First ask, Second seek.

The word implies serious effort as in the sense of coveting something earnestly or striving after it.

How many times do we simply offer up half hearted prayers without putting deep thought or contrition into them?

With all of our heart!

If we want God to answer a prayer of ours, we need to take it to Him with all of our heart!

We need to seek and search for His will in that situation.

We need to ask for discernment on whatever it is we’re praying about.

We must ASK, then we must SEEK!

And thirdly, Jesus says here, we must KNOCK.

Now, do you knock on an open door?