Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTN:

Can you think of the most desperate prayer you’ve ever prayed?

I’m not sure when mine was, but I sure know when it should have been.

It happened in Vera Cruz, Mx.

Tony, Doug and I were there visiting churches and decided to take a taxi from the bus station to the hotel.

I think this guy must have seen us coming, but we all piled into his little Nissan Sentra or whatever it was.

There were three of us in the back seat and one of us in the front.

I was sitting in the middle with no door to lean on and this guy takes off.

He was possessed!

I don’t know where the fire was, but this guy drove like he was Barney Fife chasing a crook through downtown Mayberry.

He was flying in the middle of heavy traffic, only he didn’t slow down.

He would see the lane blocked and never took his foot off the accelerator.

Sitting in the middle, I was thrown all over that car.

I don’t remember if I was praying, but I should have been.

Which reminds me of the story I heard of this minister dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates.Ahead of him is a guy dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.

Saint Peter says to this guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?"

The guy replies, "I'm Joe Cohen, taxi driver, of Noo Yawk City."

Saint Peter consults his list.

He smiles and says to the taxi driver, "Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

The taxi driver goes into Heaven with his robe and staff, and it's the minister's turn.

He thought to himself, “If this taxi driver gets a golden staff and a silken robe, I can’t wait to see what I’ll get.”

So he stands erect and booms out, "I am Joseph Snow, pastor of Saint Mary's for the last 43 years."

Saint Peter consults his list.

He says to the minister, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

"Just a minute!" says the minister.

"That man was a taxi driver, and he gets a silken robe and golden staff.

I’m a pastor.

Served the Lord all my life and all I get is a silken robe and a golden staff?

How can this be?"

"Well, you have to understand, Joseph,”said Peter, “Up here, you receive your reward based on your results, While you preached, people slept.

When he drove, people prayed."

Which leads me to this question: Taken any taxi rides lately?

Had any desperate prayers in your life of late?

I’ll tell you something about desperate prayers: They go a lot better if they follow a life of prayer that knows the one to you pray!

And, yet, even among people who attend church and would likely call themselves Christians, only about 1 out of 3 pray daily and another 1out of 3 seldom or never pray.

NEED

Why is this?

Why is it that the very people who claim to know Christ spend so little time talking to Him?

More specifically, Why is it that you and I often neglect prayer?

We know we need to do it, but we don’t.

Why?

Well, in some cases, we are blocked by INTEREST.

What I mean is we lack interest in prayer.

If we were to just get honest with ourselves, we’d have to admit that we find prayer boring.

One blogger wrote:

Sometimes prayer is BORING.

Isn’t that scandalous to admit?

I mean no disrespect to the Lord.

He is not boring – not at all.

But sometimes I am bored at the thought of talking to Him.

Isn’t that crazy?

The God of the universe (or multiverse, depending upon whose teaching you follow), the God who created the rings around Saturn, who made the tree outside my office window, who gave me four, healthy beautiful children, an amazing marriage, who parted the water for the Isrealites to walk through on dry ground, that God – that’s who I am too bored to approach.

Hmmm, clearly something is wrong with me.

And knowing that changes nothing.

I should be excited at the very thought of approaching my Creator, the lover of my soul, the great I AM.

But sometimes I would rather sleep in or watch TV.

Have you been there?

You know you need to pray but you lack interest.

In other cases, we are blocked by IDOLATRY.

We are so focused on ourselves and our own interests that we can’t really pray and get through to God.

We may take stabs at it, from time to time, but our feeble efforts are akin to us inviting the Almighty to join us in the worship of . . .

well, US.

No wonder it seems like no one is listening.

Christ never joins the idol temple of self-worship and personal appeasement.

So we go on prayerless and empty.

We are blocked by idolatry and we are blocked by interest.

But we are also blocked by IGNORANCE.

We struggle with prayer because of our approach to prayer.

BACKGROUND

I’m so glad that Jesus has not left us to fend for ourselves in this spiritual battle of prayer.

He has taught us how to “PRAY TO WIN.”

He thought it was so important to talk about the prayer battle that, when He was giving His disciples His magna carta on His coming kingdom, He thought it necessary not only to teach them the lesson of prayer, but also to teach them the logistics of prayer.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to examine the Lord’s prayer and seek to understand what Jesus wanted us to learn from Him about how we are to approach God.. We start today in Matthew 6:5-8.

5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.

For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

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

For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

8 “Therefore do not be like them.

For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

Jesus begins here by admitting to His followers that there are some things that tend to keep us from “praying through.”

There are some hindrances to effective prayer.

So just how can you and I pray effectively?

Well, first, we can:

DIV 1: OVERCOME THE OBSTACLES TO PRAYER

EXP

Jesus mentions two particular groups of people in this paragraph.

These two groups reveal to us the two obstacles to effective prayer.

The first group is the “hypocrites” and they demonstrate how the wrong motivation hinders our praying.

Now, by “hypocrite” Jesus meant those religious people who said one thing and did another.

The prime example of this would be the pharisees, who loved to have attention, and made a show of their religious activity.

Jesus warns the disciples about this first group, when He says: And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.

For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

If you want to understand what Jesus is talking about here, think of those Muslims you may know or at least know about.

If they are at all devout in their faith, they pray three times a day.

To do that, they take out their mat, get down on it, and bow towards Mecca.

Jews of Jesus day would do much the same thing.

Two times per day, the pious Jew would stop what they were doing and pray.