[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 24th of October, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church. Our YouTube streaming channel is:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg. Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
Family, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I hold prayer to be very important in our worship life. It is our personal time that we choose to spend with God, and it is precious to Him. We don’t pray to let God know what’s going on in our lives, because He already knows. We pray because it is our way of talking to Him, and listening for His reply. We pray because it reaffirms to ourselves our complete and total dependence on God and His goodness. We pray because we love Him.
Prayer was important to Jesus, too, and He prayed often, even though He was God in the flesh, the Son praying to His Father. Prayer was also very important to the Apostle Paul, who frequently encourages us to pray in his letters. Please listen and follow along to one such time Paul wrote about prayer, this in his 1st letter to his young protégé Timothy. I’ll be reading verses 12 through 17 from chapter 1 and verses 1 through 7 from chapter 2, and all from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…
1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful and appointed me to the ministry. 13 I was previously a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and an insolent man. But I was shown mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord overflowed with the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show all patience, as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. 17 Now to the eternal, immortal, invisible King, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever. Amen.2:1 Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, 2 for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty, 3 for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all. This was the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ and do not lie), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
--1 Timothy 1:12-17, 2:1-7 (MEV)
Let us pray… Father God, thank You for having mercy on us miserable sinners. Only by Your grace and the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus might we be saved if we accept Jesus as Lord. Thank You, Father, for loving us so much. Please help us stay true in our faith. Help us be an example to others of what Your love can do in a life, of how much Jesus means to us all. Help us to seek to serve rather than to be served. And help us to do as You will and not just what we want to do. Please keep us strong in our faith and of one purpose in our service to Christ Jesus. Please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times. And Father, please guard us from Satan and those who do his bidding.
Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this morning. Please hear our prayers and impress upon us the importance of praying for all others. Help us show that much love. This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
William Barclay, in his book, Prodigals and Those Who Love, informs us that "when we pray, we must remember the love of God that wants the best for us, the wisdom of God that knows what is best for us, and the power of God that can accomplish it."
Over 100 years ago, author and clergyman E. M. Bounds noted that, "What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use -- men of prayer, men mighty in prayer." And family, this still holds true today.
Australian evangelist and author Sidlow Baxter reminds us that, "Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons -- but they are helpless against our prayers."
It is said that Martin Luther had a puppy that would sit by the table, looking for a morsel from his master, watching intently with open mouth and motionless eyes. This scene led Luther to remark, "Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope."
This is how we should pray, focused only on God and the things of heaven, with no other thought, wish, or hope than to serve our Lord
While the first part of our scripture reading, from chapter 1, doesn’t directly address praying, I think we can hear Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving to God in it. Paul is thankful to Jesus, for enabling him and strengthening him and appointing him to the ministry. And he is thankful to God, who showed him great mercy, even as he described himself as the worst sinner of all.
Paul notes that he was shown mercy because everything he did before was done in ignorance and unbelief. And family, we have been shown mercy also, for those acts done before we came to know Jesus and the truth. But now that we do know, and now that we have pledged ourselves to Jesus as our Lord, we must be very careful not to return to those earlier sinful ways. We must stay true and faithful, for, like Paul, we received mercy so that we might be seen by others as an example of the patience of Jesus, that all might believe in Him and be saved.
We can only serve as an example of Jesus’ love if we show that love to everyone we encounter in our daily walk upon this earth. And how can we show the love of Jesus other than by doing the same things He did, by helping others in their time of need? Please listen to what Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, in his 1st letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 14 through 18…
14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
--1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 (NKJV)
These are just some of the acts of love and kindness Jesus carried out during His mortal life, and we are certainly capable of performing them, too. We may not be able to cure the lame, but we can comfort the fainthearted. We can’t bring the dead back to life, but we can help out the weak and be patient with others. Rejoicing always and giving thanks in all things should be easy enough for us who have been given so much. And more in line with our topic, Paul also admonishes us to pray without ceasing.
Now that doesn’t mean that we must be in prayer every single second of every minute of every hour of every day, and on and on. It would be great if we could do that, but we do need to take a break every now and then to eat and sleep. No, what Paul means is that we must not stop praying. Even if it seems to be taking forever for something to happen, even if what we are asking for doesn’t occur, even if it seems to us that God isn’t listening, we must not give up and stop praying to Him.
God does listen, and He does answer our prayers, but He does what He knows is best for us, for all of us. I used to hate it in the corporate world when I’d question a management decision only to be told I didn’t see “the big picture”. Well, we don’t! But God does. God knows what is best and He promises to make all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called to His purpose. Just keep praying… keep praying.
And this brings us back to the second part of our scripture reading where Paul exhorts us to pray. He encourages us to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone. For everyone – not just those we love, not just those like us, not just other believers, but for everyone.
A supplication is a humble prayer, a plea. An intersession is similar, but usually a prayer for another person rather than ourselves, such as praying that God intercede in the life of another and help them.
Most interesting of these, perhaps, is a prayer of thanksgiving for others. I believe there are two facets to this. One is in giving God thanks for something good He has done for them, thanking God for them just in case they didn’t stop to do so. And the other aspect is thanking God for them, for something that they have done, for Him placing them in our life. This can be tough, especially if they hate us and wish to do us harm. Yet we need to find something in them, or something in our interactions with them, or something that they have caused, just something to give God thanks for. Just pray for them. Pray for everyone.
Paul gives us a couple valid reasons for why we should pray for all others. For one, it can make life better for us. He specifically cites kings and those in places of authority as being good to pray for. And the reason is obvious. If those folk are well taken care of and happy, then we should be allowed to enjoy a little peace and quiet ourselves. This is indeed a practical reason to pray for them.
But the real meat of the matter is that praying for everyone is good and acceptable behavior in the sight of God, our Savior. God wants everyone to be saved. That’s why He sent His only Son to earth, to be sacrificed on a cross for our sake, for our salvation. Jesus is our only way to God, our only mediator between us and God. And Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all, for everyone.
God wants us to pray. He enjoys it when we spend a little time with Him. And it’s OK to ask Him for help for ourselves and our loved ones. It’s OK to plead with Him to intercede in the lives of those close to us, or for those we’ve been asked to pray for. God expects that. After all, it shows that we love those folks, when we ask Him to help them. But Jesus tells us to love all others, and Paul encourages us to pray for everyone.
We should pray for everyone, those that we love and that love us, and even those that hate us. We should pray for those in positions of authority, and for those who have no authority at all. Pray for our kinfolk, pray for the strangers. Pray for the lost, pray for those who have rejected Jesus, that they might yet come to know Him as Lord and be saved.
Pray for everyone, for it is good and acceptable in God’s sight to do so. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, thank You for listening to our prayers. We don’t always understand why some things happen the way they do, but we know that You only want what is best for us and work things in that way. Thank You, Father, for blessing us with Your great love and mercy. Please help us to be more true and faithful in our prayer life. Sometimes, Father, we get too caught up in the busyness of life and we don’t pause long enough to spend time with You in prayer. Sometimes there are people we just don’t want to pray for, that we don’t want You to help. Please forgive us those times. Help us be humble in our requests. Remind us that You love all of us and want all of us to be saved. Help us see some good in all people, and to show them Your love in all things. Encourage us and strengthen us as we strive to carry on the work of our Lord. Please keep us strong in our spirit, in our faith, and in our service to You and Jesus.
Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…
Lord Jesus, You came to earth as one of us, and offered Yourself for all of us, that we might believe in You and accept You as Lord and receive eternal life with God in heaven. You came that all might be saved, and You show great patience even to us poor sinners. Thank You, Jesus, for loving us all this much. Lord, we ask You to help us be a better example of Your love. Help us show others what it means to believe in You, to accept You as Lord, to carry out Your work. Help others see You in us, in our actions, in our love. Strengthen our will to do what our Father God wills us to do. Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day. And please help us as we try to show Your love to everyone who crosses our path. All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior. Amen.
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