Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAY

Today we are beginning a series called Our Prayer Book.

I John 1

Today we are beginning a series called Our Prayer Book.

Looking at prayer through the lens and the parameters of scripture.

Now I want to show you an image that may frighten some of you.

So I want you to prepare.

Pic#1

Now the moment I say “prayer”......the room if full of different ideas.

Some of you depending on you upbringing maybe had no association with prayer, maybe you were part of a religion that prayed, but it was different than how we pray here at TC.

Maybe you’ve had

You’ve done the horrific circle prayer.

And even if you think you’ve got it, you aren’t even listening to any of the other prayers.

Because while you’re saying “yes Lord,” “hmm, hmm,” even “Amen, yes Jesus” that is all smoke and mirrors, because what is really going on is you aren’t even listening to the other prayers going on is that you are preparing for your turn.

When people will realize that you are no chump!!

So in your head you are going...... “Holy and all perfect Father…I need a scripture...

Holy and perfect father, your Word tells us that you are love and you are a God of mercy, and ........and

I need a metaphor, “Like a rock you are a solid ground to stand on in troubled times”

You are ready doesn’t mater that that was not a metaphor but a simili you are ready for your turn........

Then this happens....

The girl before, she starts praying, and it’s like she crawled into your mind and stole all your ideas…NOW WHAT!!!!????

shark circling and you are just waiting for your turn.

So prayer can not only feel foreign, it can be a stresser, not only publicly but even in our private lives, how do we approach the God of Scripture in prayer.

Ill.

cars in the parking lot??

Question:

Take one or two minutes with those around you to talk about why you find prayer difficult.

Why is prayer difficult?

Notice my assumption!!??

If you are one of us who is completely untouched by the fall of humanity; um lie or get out!! Let’ be honest with each other.

If you are not even a Christian, this is new, maybe you are staunch atheist and you thought this was some theatre production this morning, your safe here, we are so glad you are here....you can be upfront.....

You might just say.....”I am not convinced anyone is listening!!!”

Take a few minutes with those around you.

1 or 2 minutes

Alright, What have we come up with?

lack of focus

lack of time (too busy)

difficulty

boredom

don’t need it

too bitter

too ashamed

I don’t know how

I don’t buy it

I don’t buy it

English minister and author Martin Lloyd Jones once wrote…that he had never written on prayer because of a sense of personal inadequacy in this area.

I confess the same thing!!

I cannot and do not pretend to be a prayer giant, I’m hardly a prayer.....squirrel.

Bt the bottom line is prayer is important, and the reason we know that it is important to who we are as humans (not just Christians) is that our spirit is inclined to call out in prayer.

It is a human condition to call out beyond.

Even skeptics or nonreligious are shocked to find themselves praying despite not even formally believing in God.

Herbert gives us his explanation for that phenomenon.

The Hebrew word for “Spirit” and “breath” is the same, and so, Herbert says, there is something in us from God that knows we are not alone in the universe, and that we were not meant to go it alone.

Prayer is a natural human instinct.

I. Who Prays?

This is evident around the world and in every culture.

In the great monotheistic religions of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, prayer is at the very heart of what it means to believe.

Muslims are called to pray five times a day, while Jews have traditionally prayed three times a day.

Each branch of the Christian church is saturated with various traditions of common prayer, private prayer, and pastoral prayer.

And this is what is interesting......

Keller, Timothy.

Prayer (p.

35).

Penguin Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Studies in the psychology of religion say...

Even deliberately nonreligious people pray at times.

Studies have shown that in secularized countries, prayer continues to be practiced not only by those who have no religious preference but even by many of those who do not believe in God.

One 2004 study found that nearly 30 percent of atheists admitted they prayed “sometimes,” and another found that 17 percent of nonbelievers in God pray “regularly”.

The frequency of prayer increases with age, even among those who do not return to church or identify with any institutional faith.

Italian scholar Giuseppe Giordan summarized: “In virtually all studies of the sociology of religious behaviour it is clearly apparent that a very high percentage of people declare they pray every day—and many say even many times a day.”

Efforts to find cultures, even very remote and isolated ones, without some form of religion and prayer have failed.

All cultures and involving the overwhelming majority of people at some point in their lives.

Efforts to find cultures, even very remote and isolated ones, without some form of religion and prayer have failed.

There has always been some form of attempt to “communicate between human and divine realms.”

All cultures have some attempt to “communicate between human and divine realms.”

But not all prayers are the same.

II.

What is Christian Prayer?

The Christian view of prayer is that it is a response to the knowledge of God.

Not ultimately an attempt to attain divinity, not an attempt to gain acceptance, not a grasping for a divinity that we do not know is there.

The psalms are not a blind reach they are a response to a God who has already spoken.

Now some people have said that they hear God speaking to them, audibly.

I have never had that kind of experience.

But that doesn’t mean God has not spoken to me;

in fact he spoke first!!

No Christian prayer is first contact.

In the Bible, God’s living Word, we can hear God speaking to us and we respond in prayer.

gospel.

In the Bible, God’s living Word, we can hear God speaking to us and we respond in prayer, though we should not call this simply a “response.”

Through the Word and Spirit, prayer becomes answering God—a full conversation.

Hebrews 1:

All prayer is responding to God.

In all cases God is the initiator—“hearing” always precedes asking.

God comes to us first.

Ill.

I learned along time ago, that communication that works is not the kind where I am forming my rebuttal while my wife is speaking!!

A dialogue in theatre between two actors that are so concerned about their next line they pay no attention to the person they are dialoguing with and the tone and delivery of the the lines is awkward and feels out of place.

Job learned how to pray well, and informed and with a clearer idea of his situation after thy listened to God.

He finally prays a mighty prayer of repentance and adoration ().

Which by the way is also how I’ve learned to respond to my wife when we have a disagreement… “I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”