Public Praying

I'm just used to being loud with teenagers, so sometimes I think I'm I'm rolling.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you if you didn't get a uh bulletin or a worship guide for your sermon notes, if you don't have the app, you can take the app, you can turn it right to sermon notes, you can click on the sermon notes, and uh we've updated some features on that, and so I wanted to show you.

You jump right in, okay, and you can fill in your notes.

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You can add personal notes now.

So that's a neat new feat feature.

I know Benji's been working with that, so if uh you want to take notes that way, you can do so and follow along.

But, anyways, in 1 Timothy chapter 2, looking at the school of prayer.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Today's sermon title is this Public Prayer is Primary.

In 1 Timothy chapter 2, I was reading something this week about um a transportation issue that came up.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

The London Transit Authority began to amass complaints that their transit was passing by customer after customer.

And so they went to the newspapers to give an explanation of why this continued to happen, why they were passing customers.

And the explanation said this that it is impossible for us to keep on schedule if we stop and pick up every passenger.

I thought about what Stephen Covey is coined for saying.

He said this the main thing is that we keep the main thing, the main thing.

Y'all with me?

And so in 2 Timothy or in 1 Timothy chapter 2, Paul's writing to a young Christian, Timothy, who he would have set up in places where he would start a church, and then Timothy would be a representative for him in cities.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

And it would appear from this that this was a response letter that Timothy was inquiring about, possibly moving on from Ephesus.

And we see that Paul writes to him and he tells this young Timothy in verse 1, look at what it says, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayer, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for men.

He says, first things first, I would say to that transit authority, if you're going to be a busting system, you probably need to somewhere in your purpose statement be able to rely on picking up people, right?

You should be able to do so.

And he says, first things first, Timothy, or the main thing is keeping the main thing, the main thing, or I've entitled my message primary, public prayer is primary for the church.

In order of importance, first is that we pray.

Let us pray.

Father.

Lord, you know that we as a body of people need to be people of prayer.

God, we need this.

It can't just be a time where we rely on individual prayer, scattered prayer.

Lord, prayer not being primary, it being secondary or somewhere down our list.

God, I pray, Lord, that you would show our church, God, how needful it is that we keep first things first.

Lord, that we make prayer primary.

Lord, I pray that you would uh draw our hearts to that thought this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, number one this morning is this the professor, I was trying to kill you on alliteration, Professor Paul's premise of public prayer.

The first is the premise of public prayer.

And in order to understand his premise, you kind of have to go back, and we will, but the public prayer is primary.

That's letter A.

Public prayer is primary for church.

His premise, the background for the letter is that he is explaining to Timothy the life and responsibilities of the church at Ephesus, and that he should remain, and that he should remain to teach them doctrine, sound doctrine, while they proclaim the gospel, he says, but first, how do we know that he says that?

Because the first word in chapter 2 is the word, therefore.

An important word.

Prayer is primary, and what that first word tells us, therefore, is that something preceding it is important for you to know.

Therefore, there is a reason for what I'm getting ready to say.

And in order to find that reason, we got to go back a little bit.

Verse 18 to 20 in chapter 1.

Now you understand in scripture, in these letters, it's a letter, it's broken down in chapters, but it's a continuation of a thought.

And so when it says, therefore, it's the continuation of something from before, in verse 18, it says, This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you, listen to these words, may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected concerning the faith, and have suffered a shipwreck of faith.

And so that word therefore tells us to look back, and Timothy is given three fight statements from it.

He says, one, wage warfare, two, keep faith, and then he says, and a good conscience.

And I like when Paul says things like wage warfare.

I like the way that Paul writes to his audience.

He says in other places, fight the good fight.

He says, stand, and having all done all to stand, stand.

He says things to the Christians like, walk worthy of your calling.

He says things like, beware of the dogs.

He says strong statements, and I like the way that Paul writes.

He says, walk worthy.

He says, wage warfare.

He says, preach the word, be instant.

You see, Paul is mentoring a young Timothy, and you need to understand the background in chapter one.

He's telling there's people in all kinds of places that are trying to get to the ears of your parishioners.

There's people that are lying.

There's people that are deceiving.

There's a lot of spin, a lot of double talk.

There's a lot of slander.

They're trying to get to the ears.

There's a lot of false doctrine.

Sound familiar, church?

There's a lot of spin.

There's a lot of lies.

It's hard to know what is real and what is fake.

And so Paul's saying, no, no, no, no.

You need to stay, Timothy, right there, because your people need to hear the truth.

They need to be taught the truth.

And he says, because you need to wage this warfare, so fight.

And he says, if you don't.

He says, if you begin to slip away in verse 19, it begins to make a shipwreck of faith.

Not doing what we say we believe.

Choice after choice, sin after sin, causes our conscience to then be seared, and it causes a shipwreck of our faith.

Water submerges.

We begin to get in neck deep.

Drowning.

In a world of noise.

Church, have you ever felt like life just had you drowning?

You were coming up for air on Monday?

And you just felt like it just kept coming.

Another fight, another battle, another trial, another struggle, and you just barely got up for Sunday for air.

And he says you've got to wage warfare because if you make these wrong choices, if you listen to these lies, it can be a shipwreck of our faith.

It'll begin to bore holes into the ship, and water will begin to submerge into our faith, causing us to drown.

It reminded me of a scene, Ian, I think he got a video there, from a movie I saw right before I moved here.

And I just wanted to share this with you as a community gathered together and the world was trying to drown out the noise of the truth.

Watch this scene.

Really?

Two schools from Birmingham made public prayer more important than private issue.

They came together on public prayer, and what it did was spark a revival called the Jesus Revolution that would go on and thousands would become saved and come to the knowledge of Jesus because prayer became primary.

Prayer became primary.

And even though you've seen that picture where the world tries to drown the noise or pull the plug or suffocate with lies, when we pray, God is still at work.

And so prayer is primary.

That first word there therefore tells us that we must wage warfare because letter B, public prayer is preparatory for conflict.

It's preparatory.

How can a church member love another church member unless we pray?

How can we love a ministry in our church unless we pray for it?

Wives, how can you love your husband unless you're praying for them?

Husbands, how do you love your wives unless you're praying for them?

Parents, how in the world do you love those children?

Unless you're praying for them and lifting them before the Father.

How on earth can the Bible say for us to love an enemy unless we're praying for them?

And so prayer is preparatory for conflict.

It's coming.

Conflict is coming, and I want to show you if you'll turn over to James chapter 4 for just a second.

James 4 · chapter mention

Keep your place there in 1 Timothy.

Conflict is inevitable.

It's coming.

And look at what it says in James 4 about conflict.

It says this, James 4, 1 and 2.

Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

You lust and do not have.

You murder and covet and you cannot obtain.

You fight and war, yet you do not have, because you do not ask.

And so it's telling us here in this passage the root of strife.

It says, Wars and strife come from within you.

It comes from a selfish place.

It says, Does it not come from your own desires?

Most strife comes from this phrase.

I want my way.

Say this with me.

I want my way.

I want my way.

Strife, it says, we are sin and self-riddled, full of conflict.

It says we fight and we war and we lust and we cannot obtain what we lust for, and we fight for things and we strive for our way, and we have to fight, and we fuss for our way, and we want, and our pride says, I want my way, and we can't have.

Therefore, to be prepared.

He says to pray.

Alright.

We have to roll on.

So we've done the first word.

Therefore, let's move.

The second point this morning is this the professor's patterns of public prayer.

And look at letter A.

It's this how to pray.

We're going to read the rest of verse 1.

And we're going to look at verse A.

It says, Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Now I want you to see verse 8 for a second.

I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

And so we see the pattern of prayer is this, a how-to for prayer.

And he says four different things, a how-to for prayer.

And the first thing he says is supplications.

He says, we must supplicate to the Lord.

In Robert Henderson's book, Operating in the Courts of Heaven, he says this heaven, I am convinced, is filled with petitions, accusations, arguments, and evidences presented through prayer.

He says, heaven is like this vast courtroom that we go to God and these means for prayer.

In Philippians 4, 6, we're told of a verse that uses this word supplication.

He says, Be anxious for nothing, but with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.

He says, Don't worry in anything, but supplicate.

Bring our supplication to God.

We're shown in scripture that in Hebrews it says that when we come, we come boldly to a throne of grace, to a picture of this courtroom scene.

In Revelation 12, it says that Satan is that old accuser.

He's accusing.

And it says that Jesus in Timothy here is our mediator.

That Greek word is mesetes, and it means just the guarantor of all terms in a covenant.

The problem of the church is often prayer is not primary, and then we don't have supplication in the halls of heaven.

It's kind of like this.

Ian, will you put that picture up that I have next?

It's kind of like this.

Y'all ever heard the term the cart before the horse?

It's sort of like this picture.

Heather will send me to the grocery store before somebody's coming over.

And I'm ready.

I'm like, yes, I'm ready to do something.

I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to get away from the kids, trying to help them clean.

I'm ready to go.

And I'm ready to get you what you need, baby.

Just tell me what I need to do.

And she'll say something like four things, and she'll say, Now, do you got that?

Or do I need to text you?

And like the man in me, sometimes a lot of times I've learned, I'm like, just text it to me.

But every now and then it'll creep back in me.

I'm like, no, I can remember four things.

Do you think me an imbecile?

Of course I can remember four things.

And so I'm like, I got this.

So I get to the store and I see somebody I know.

And I'm over here and I'm looking at this, and I always buy extra things that I don't need.

But then I'm going, I'm going, and I get distracted.

And before I know it, I'm back in the car.

I get home, and Heather's like, um, where's the buttermilk?

And I'm like, no, no, the buttermilk, oh.

And I'm like, I'll go back out, I'll go back out.

And she's like, no.

And then what I have is this.

Because I got the cart before the horse, now I have created conflict in my home because in the halls of communication, I didn't have anything turned on.

I have now a conflict because I got the cart before the horse.

I didn't want to engage in a communication where I was listening.

You see, and oftentimes we're ready to go and we say, oh, God send me, let me do, let me go.

And we're not supplicating in the courts of heaven where God can change an outcome before we ever get started.

And so we're missing this supplication.

In Ephesians 6, 18, after Paul goes through the armor of God, it's interesting.

He goes through all the armor, all the pieces, the breastplate, the helmet, the she, all of the pieces.

And at the end of that, in verse 18, he says something else.

He says, praying always, with all perseverance and supplication.

Supplication.

And so he's giving us this picture that what we're doing in the hallways of heaven, before a matter ever happens, it affects a situation.

It's our armor, it's a weapon that we're given.

William Cowper said this Satan trembles when he sees the weakest of saints upon his knees.

Supplication is vital to our prayers.

And so Paul tells us that we should supplicate.

We should come before a judge.

We should come into the courts of heaven, supplicating our request, giving our request, giving an argument, giving an evidence.

Lord, this is necessary, this is needed, and we plead as in a courtroom.

Well, the second thing he says is intercessions.

The Greek word for this is a hard word to say, but it's Hupertu Chano, Hoopertuchano, and it has this idea of bending over on someone's behalf.

I read this story this week, and you you can't make this stuff up.

But my wife, um she still has a longing and love in her heart for Leonardo DiCaprio, who who did not actually go down on the Titanic.

And so every now and then when I'm around Heather, I try to grab her hand and say things like, never let go, Heather.

I say, This house was a sinking ship before you got home.

So glad you're here.

And and so I was reading and I couldn't believe, I'm like, you can't make this up.

So I'm reading this story, and it says that Leonardo DiCaprio and a group of his buddies were on a vacation, and they go off to some, I don't know, exotic island, and they the boat captain hears that somebody had fallen overboard on a cruise ship.

And so him and his boat captain and some people go riding off, you know, in the ocean, and they bend down and they get the man.

He had been waiting in water.

This article says over 10 hours.

Like, I'm dead after 10.

That ain't, I'm just dead, okay?

Maybe 10 minutes.

But anyway, they reach down and they save the man's life.

I'm like, you just this you can't make that.

Now I love him too.

But Heather loves him.

And so it's this picture of him bending down and reaching out to someone when you pray on someone else's behalf.

That's what an intercession is.

And Revelation says this that the prayers of the saints are incense unto the Lord.

Think about that.

In the courtrooms of heaven, you have an opportunity to change the air waves to our Lord.

He says it's like incense, it's an aroma, fragrant.

God loves it for his saints to offer intercession for other people.

He loves it when you pray for somebody, he loves it when you offer, you intercede on somebody else's behalf.

It's like I come home sometime, and Heather cooks often with bacon.

Rights bacon, by the way.

Because it's the right bacon.

And so that's right.

It is, it's good.

And when I walk in, I'm like, oh my, oh, y'all with me.

Are there some men in the crowd?

Can I get an amen?

Somebody like bacon.

So I walk up, I'm like, oh, what do we have?

And it doesn't really matter.

There's bacon in it, so it's got to be good.

And so immediately I'm smelling the air.

I'm like, oh, I can't eat like I could have just ate, but now I can't wait to eat because the air is different.

Can you imagine that in the halls of heaven you can do something for the King of Kings?

He created all things, the vastness of this universe, the beauty and majesty of all creation, and your words on someone else's behalf make God go, oh my kids are praying.

Smelling good in here.

Oh they're praying again.

Man, I don't know about you, but that does something for me.

That little me that is so insignificant that doesn't matter before the creator.

Creator of all things can do something for him.

He goes, the aroma in heaven can be changed because of your prayers.

Now Jesus was the example.

In Hebrews chapter 5, verse 7, it says, While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and supplication with a loud cry and with many tears.

Hebrews 5:7

Jesus was our example of this on earth.

He intercessed.

And so, church, I have to ask you who is on your list?

Who are you pleading on their behalf?

Who are you praying for daily?

Who are you offering incense unto God on their behalf?

Listen, that family member that is wayward.

How is it going to change if we don't pray?

How is that lost person in your family going to come to Christ?

Now God can save anybody.

I'm not limiting God's sovereignty, but what I'm saying, your prayer has some sort of effect.

I don't understand it.

I don't know why, but our prayer has an effect on our God.

So we pray, we intercess.

Then it says prayers, and I'm not going to labor on that point.

It's talking about all types of prayers, all types of opportunities for prayers.

But the next thing it says is thanksgivings.

And this is about a prayer attitude.

And every almost all types of scripture you see that it talks about prayer, it mentions thanksgiving.

There's a couple of uh prayer across X.

I don't know.

This may be practical for some, maybe really old for some.

But if you're thinking about how do I pattern my prayer time, um, every one of these that I've found and that I've known through my life have thanksgiving.

There's the Acts prayer pattern, A-C-T-S, like the book of Acts.

And that is acknowledgement, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

And so maybe you're looking for a practical way to go to God in prayer.

That may help you.

Or there's the pattern, pray, praise, repent, ask, and yield.

That letter P, praise.

We're thankful, we're thanking God.

Or the heart pattern, which is honor, examine, ask, request, thanks.

And so we see these patterns, and they all include this thanksgiving.

Now, this is man-made, this isn't what you see in the Bible.

But what I'm saying is often in patterns where we illustrate how we get to God and to the heart of God, we come with a heart of thanksgiving.

Philippians 4, 6, which I read a moment ago, says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication.

And it doesn't stop there.

It says prayer, supplication.

With thanksgiving, we bring our request to God.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 through 80 is some of the shortest verses in the Bible, but it says this.

First it says, rejoice evermore.

Then it says, pray without ceasing, and in every circumstance give thanks.

So prayer and thanks are married.

It's something that comes together, it's a package deal.

And so we pray with thanksgiving.

It's about an attitude of prayer.

Church, do you have something to praise God about?

Let me tell you something, husbands.

Let's just help each other today.

If you have something to speak about to your wife, and it includes thankfulness, that's a good thing to talk about.

That's always a good thing.

That's almost always received.

I've never been to heaven, but like, you know, I'm so thankful.

Oh, I'm so sick of your thankfulness.

Can you just like be rude?

Never had that happen, right?

Like if I'm thankful, you know, that's well received.

And so we go to God in this attitude of thanksgiving.

Children, are you listening?

Man, being thankful makes a difference on that parent that loves you.

They're already looking for an excuse to love you, they're looking for excuses to do well for you.

But when you're thankful and grateful, all of a sudden, look, I'm not saying that's the keys to the wallet, but I'm saying it's the keys to something.

Get to that heartbeat.

Oh, you should have seen my little.

They said thank you, and I didn't even have to ask, right?

When they get to that phase, because you're always like, say thank you, and you're like, thanks.

Like, man, that meant a lot, right?

And so it gets to the heart of things.

It's about an attitude, but then it said in verse 8, it went in more depth about that attitude.

It says, Lifting holy hands without wrath and doubting.

Benson's commentary says it this way.

When we pray, we cannot pray with unholy actions, anger, or a lack of faith, because these are the three great hindrances to God's hearing of our petitions.

It's like this, when you're growing up, did you I'm sure most of you heard this.

Raise your hand if you did.

Before you ate supper, did somebody say, now go wash your hands?

Right?

Go wash your hands.

Before you partake of supper, go take care of your cleanliness.

It's about a, it's, it's about a cleaning, it's about coming in the right way.

And so you were told, go wash your hands.

And before you went to bed, somebody said, Go brush your teeth.

Right?

Y'all hear that?

Okay, I hope so.

If you didn't hear that, you okay, you may have some big dentist bills.

I don't know.

And so he says that you should wash, that we should come to God with holy hands.

That means this.

Let's, in practicality, you shouldn't be publicly praying if you have unconfessed sin.

There's no reason for you on behalf of a body or a community or two or three gathered together to be praying publicly if you have unconfessed sin.

First, get your sin right.

We see another picture of it where God says a man came to an altar and he says, Go get your thing right before you present your gift.

Don't come and worship me before a crowd of people, but you have anger in your heart towards another church member.

Y'all with me?

Does this make sense to you?

He says, Don't come in unconfessed sin.

Don't come in a public way while you got private matters to deal with.

He says, confess your sins.

Get it right so that you can come in purity.

And it honors God and it and it gives you a way of presenting it peacefully.

And he says, Don't come in unconfessed sin.

Secondly, he says, holy hands, but without wrath.

Not just unconfessed sin, but not with unresolved anger.

Okay?

Don't come to God in public prayer with anger burning in your heart.

We come to God with things resolved.

And then the last thing, and I think probably the most important of these, he says, but or don't believe God can't do what you're about to ask.

He says, without doubt.

He says, don't come to God in a prayer attitude believing that he's not going to do what you're asking, because that is a colossal waste of time.

If you're coming to a God that is so small that the request in your life cannot happen, it's a waste of his time and yours.

So he says, don't come in doubt.

Come like Paul said in a different place where he said, He can do exceedingly, abundantly above all I can ask for or think.

Come in that type of attitude, come believing without doubt, because then when we bow, we come in belief of who our God really is.

It's a position of who he is, not about our feelings.

And we know there's a scripture that says, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.

And that's okay.

Let's pray that way.

Help me, Lord, but don't start doubting in your God.

He says, it's about this attitude of prayer.

So that's kind of the how, but what about the who do we pray for?

Let's go on.

It says this.

For kings.

Well, first it says at the end of verse 1 that be made for all men.

Then it says, For kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in godliness, in reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior.

And so we see the who of prayer.

That's letter B, pattern two, who to pray for.

And it says, first of all, all men.

God wants you to pray for all men.

And I don't want you to get this kind of twisted up thinking that it means, well, I should wake up, get on my knees, and say, now, Lord, bless all of the citizens of the world today.

He's not trying to get you to have this public, broad pray for all men.

What it's talking about is pray for all men that are in your circle.

Pray for all men and not an impractical, impersonal Lord, just bless them all.

Bless people today, Lord.

When it says all men, what it's talking about is specific within your circle.

You bring intercessions for all people that have a prayer need within your circle.

And start, I don't know what it'll help you, a prayer journal, start a prayer email, start something where you're looking at the needs of others.

And here's what often happens: we we have good intention, and someone says, Man, can you pray for this?

Sure, sure, sure.

But do we pray for it?

And so start keeping a list, use a prayer app, use a means to continue to lift people in your circle and press what says, Pray.

It is good for you to pray for all men.

But then it gets real, real specific, and we need to hit this especially right now, in this time that we're in.

He says, kings and authority.

It's important that you understand priority and public prayer for kings and those in authority, people in leadership.

Now, I wouldn't have you believe that God in heaven believes that the salvation of a king or someone in authority is more important than any person's salvation.

I don't believe that.

God wants these people to be saved, but the welfare of many depends on the king.

Y'all with me?

Y'all understand what I'm saying?

So when we pray for someone in authority in leadership, we're praying for somebody who has authority over many.

And so the welfare of the economy, the welfare of a city, the welfare of a people group has a lot to do with who's in charge.

And so we should pray.

And this scripture's main focus that we pray about people's salvation, but we should pray about their leadership.

We should be praying for our president, for our vice president, for the speaker of the house.

We should be praying for people that are nominated, people that are running.

We should be praying.

And often what I see when I open up my phone is I look through something, and there's a whole lot of hatred spewed on these devices about people.

And I don't see a whole lot of people going, I prayed today for the speaker.

I prayed today for the vice president.

I've been praying today.

Will you pray with me?

There's some.

There are some, but I see a whole lot of people in mockery and hatred and jealousy and strife.

And what scripture tells us, the Christian body to do, is that we pray.

And we need to not only pray, but respect the position.

Romans 13 says we're subject to authority.

How many of you tell your children something like this?

When you speak to an adult, you speak with respect.

You say, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, no, sir, no ma'am.

Right?

This is what we're taught.

We rarely say, Well, let me look into that adult's sinful past before I tell you how to speak to them.

Let me dig into how good or bad of a person they've been or how they've treated this or that, and then I'll tell you how you, child, can speak to them.

When you respond to a teacher, if they're a bad person, you can cuss them.

I hadn't heard that.

You say, You're speaking to an adult.

You be respectful.

Blanket statement.

That's an adult, respect.

And so scripture says that we respect those in authority.

We respect the position of authority.

Okay?

Blanket.

Right?

It says God says, obey those who have the rule over you and pray.

Now, I'm not saying that I agree with every position of leadership, and some people with sinful leading.

I'll tell you what it says in Ecclesiastes.

If you want to take a minute to turn there, I think you need to see this.

Ecclesiastes chapter 8.

Ecclesiastes 8 · chapter mention

Keep your place in 1 Timothy chapter 8, verses 2 through 5.

This is with Solomon, the wisest man to have lived other than Jesus.

He says this.

I say, verse 2, you keep the king's commandment for the sake of your oath to God.

Do not be hasty to go from his presence.

Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does what he pleases.

Where the word of a king is, there is power, and who may say to him, What are you doing?

He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful, and a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment.

He said, If you want to be discerning these things, okay, number one, obey the law, right?

You don't get in your car and ride down the road and drive 95 miles an hour in a 55 and say, I want to do what I want, I don't like the king's law.

You obey the law, okay?

You obey the law of the land.

Secondly, it says, do not be a deserter.

Don't just leave.

Okay, don't leave, don't take off, don't leave your allegiances.

And then it says something important that I think we need to see.

Don't stand for evil.

Only, church, when your king declares law that is evil and goes against God's overarching law, do you disobey your king?

When your king's law causes you to be disobedient to God, causes you to do evil in the sight of God, then we have an overarching law as a Christian, his word.

And we then do what his word says.

You disagree, fine, you can disagree.

Disobey only when God's law is coming into play, when we're going to do evil against his law.

But what we always do, regardless of views, regardless of what's happening, we always pray.

We always pray.

And so I would suggest on your list that you start putting the people in authority.

You put our mares, you put our counsel, you put these people on your prayer list.

Because what it says is that it's a fragrance to God, and God impacts them, and the scripture says that the heart of the king is in the hand of God.

So what can a king do unless God allows it to happen?

And so we pray for those in authority.

That gives us a view of how and who.

Number three, is this the why?

Professor's purpose of public prayer.

This is the purpose.

Why would you, as a Christian, be inclined to pray in community?

Is the question.

Why would I want to get together and pray publicly in community?

And I I read this statement this week and it kind of struck me.

It said, you can tell how popular a church is by how many people are there Sunday morning.

You can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.

Spurgeon said prayer meetings are the engine that drives the church.

Public prayer are prayer meetings, our priority.

Letter A under the purpose of public prayer is this public prayer brings private peace.

It says at the end of verse 2 there that pray for all those kings who are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

And so when we pray in public with a holy heart, what it says is we will have private peace.

Praying eliminates hatred in your heart.

It is really hard to pray for somebody and just keep on hating them.

Lord, be with them, bless them, love them, encourage their family.

Oh, I hate them, Lord.

That's real hard to keep.

It's like I always tell the students when we arrive at camp, okay.

Sometimes we have a first night, like, you know, and we have a hug, okay?

Hug somebody.

And my point in that is it's real hard to hug somebody and not smile, right?

Unless you're crying, right?

But try it.

Try to hug somebody.

You know, it may be some of you stiff people who don't like hugs, okay.

I understand there's people like that.

But most of the time, if you hug somebody, smile, something comes out.

And so when we pray for somebody, it is real hard to continue having hatred in our heart.

When the scripture says, love those who persecute you, I believe it's vital that we pray for them.

It gives us peace, it eliminates hatred in our heart.

Again, I was talking about prayer being a weapon of warfare.

It's a weapon against the enemy.

And I thought about this.

Um, Ian, would you show that picture?

We had an enemy show up in our house.

Just recently.

This showed up in the house, and I looked over, and the kids kind of looked.

It was right in the kitchen, and they looked up, and and uh Heather was like, Is that real?

And we're looking, and I'm like, I'm trying to figure out in my mind, is that real?

And I'm like, Yeah, I think it's real.

I'm like looking at the boys, I'm like, did one of them play a joke?

I've never seen this fake snake.

And so I get over there, I see this snake, and I start to assess the situation.

And let me tell you what I did not do.

I saw an enemy.

I saw an intruder, somebody who got in and started messing with the plans of my household, started turning things into turmoil quickly.

I tell you what, I did not do with that enemy.

I did not approach the enemy without a weapon.

I didn't go up to that enemy and say, hmm, looks like a nice, pretty little snake.

You want to go for a walk?

No! I looked for a weapon, I started assessing how am I gonna get to this thing?

And I know some of you like you should have gotten something and got it out of there and let it live.

You're crazy.

This thing came in my territory and tried to infect my home and was about to bite somebody.

Maybe it didn't look like that, but I know what it was thinking.

And so I got her, and yeah, I didn't bring my weapon, but it was a blue Nike shoe.

Okay.

If y'all want to know how to take care of it, blue Nike shoe.

So I'm going, and here's my thinking.

If I go over and step, I'm gonna lose my line of sight, right?

The enemy's there, it's gonna bite me.

I knew it.

I just it'd be on my leg.

I'd be okay.

This is this is what I thought in a half of a minute.

Okay, I get around the corner, I get my weapon, and I approach the enemy.

Let me tell you what happened.

Okay.

When I came with a weapon, okay, I took care of the enemy easily.

Okay, I mean, I don't want to boast, but you know.

There's no match.

Okay, I'm just gonna tell you.

Not even a bite, nothing.

Okay, nothing, nothing.

It didn't squirm, nothing.

Okay, no match for 190 pounds of solid mass with blue shoe.

And so when I disposed of it, let me tell you what happened.

And then I found some other choice weapons in the house because my wife then made me search the entirety of the house, corner to corner, edge to edge, every place.

I was in attics, I was in the garage, I was in every place, and what eventually happened over time, I think it's happened, is that eventually what was turmoil is now peace.

It's now peace.

But I came with a weapon.

I want you to understand something.

You're going to have the enemy come in, he's gonna sneak in, he's gonna find you when you're tired, when you're weak, and he's going to come.

And how you respond to that is gonna make a difference on your peace.

Scripture says, come with a weapon of prayer.

We pray.

We pray against the enemy, we we pray against hatred, we pray against turmoil, and then what happens in our heart eventually, when the storm settles, when the enemy seems to be out of your hair, and peace comes back into our heart.

You see, I read this in an article, and it wasn't a Christian article, but this was an article, I think it was by Newsweek, and it said prayer does the following things for people.

I couldn't believe what it said.

Prayer it says decreases selfishness.

This isn't a Christian.

It says prayer decreases selfishness, decreases stress to pray, helps to maintain a positive attitude, it says helps us to be humble.

This is this is a public publication.

It says prayer helps us to forgive others.

It says prayer helps us to have hope when we've been saddened.

It says prayer helps us to have a sound mind.

And then it said prayer helps us to recover from hardships.

Now look, they had a broad scope of what they believed you could pray to.

But they believed that prayer did all those things.

So when those things happen, when we decrease selfishness, when we decrease stress, when we're thinking positively, when we're able to forgive, when we got a sound mind, when we recover from hardship, what do we have?

We have people.

Peace! Church, we have peace, and that's what God promised.

That we through prayer would have peace.

Not only peace, but verse 3 and 4, it says this public prayer pleases God.

He says, For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior.

And so we see that public prayer is pleasing to God.

It's good and acceptable.

God desires through this passage, his overarching point is this that God desires all men to be saved, and he wants us to be praying for the salvation of men.

And so Professor Paul hits this doctrine, a deep doctrine, but he says, God's desire, in case you're wondering, some people will come conflict on this.

And you hear stuff like that, or how did God just pre-choose a few people?

Listen, I want you to see what scripture says.

God wants all men to be saved.

God desires, verse 4, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.

So if you think that God doesn't desire all men to be saved, Paul would say to you, that's incorrect doctrine.

That's what these other guys are teaching in chapter 1.

God wants all men to be saved.

And so he says, your prayer, your public prayer for men pleases God.

So my question for you about this is this.

I want you to think on this, and we're about to wrap up.

When is the last time in community that you prayed?

Two or more gathered together in his presence.

When is the last time in church community you prayed?

When is the last time we've been banded together, arm in arm, in prayer?

We've been given to prayer.

You see, verses five through seven says this public prayer professes our faith.

Let me read it to you.

For there is one God and one mediary between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle.

I'm speaking the truth in Christ and not lying.

And so public prayer is a profession of our faith.

Listen, the world professes what it believes.

It says, eat, drink, be merry, rinse, repeat.

Eat, drink, be merry, rinse, repeat.

Buy, sell, be merry, rinse, repeat.

We don't have a profession of faith in our world.

What we have is a profession of filth.

Scripture says that the love of money is the root of evil.

And then it says, life does not consist in the abundance of things.

But what the world wants, now listen to this.

The world wants power so it can have more possessions, so they can have more pleasure because they lack purpose, because there's no prayer, because there's no profession of faith.

I'm gonna say that one more time for you.

That's a lot.

The world wants power so it can have more possessions, so they'll have more pleasure because they lack purpose, because there's no prayer, and there's no praying because they have no profession of faith.

The world has its profession.

But this is what Paul says.

Paul says, we have a world that needs a profession of faith.

And he says, This is why I'm even preaching.

That's what he says there.

He says, This is why I'm called, this is why I've been appointed, this is why I'm a preacher, a herald, a voice.

And we look at scripture and it says this, that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

It says, How shall they hear unless there be a preacher?

How, church, is your family going to hear the gospel if you don't share it?

How are your co-workers going to hear the gospel if you don't share it?

How are your friends, your cousins, how are people going to hear the gospel if we don't share it?

Listen.

I was thinking about this this week.

Okay, on my both my ordination, okay, this is my ordination to the gospel ministry.

This is what it says.

I'm ordained, set apart to the work of the gospel ministry.

Okay, I've been working with youth most of my ministry, with teenagers.

Okay.

On my license, it says this is to certify that I have been given evidence that God has called me into the gospel ministry.

Dave, Joe, Benji, our call as a pastor is to the gospel ministry.

It's so that the gospel would be furthered.

And that's what Paul is saying here.

You use your giftedness, however, you're gifted, and I've had the opportunity to work with students, and somehow, even though I think I've aged, I'm still with students 15 years, but my giftedness, okay, if you play an instrument, great, use your gift.

If you can sing, if you can play, if you can preach, if you can teach, if you can go kick a soccer ball.

Here's the point at your work.

If you can plumb, if you can construct, if you can build, if you can drive a truck, the whole point is the gospel ministry.

That's why we've been saved to be a voice for the gospel ministry.

So we use what we do so that others would one day go to heaven as we proclaim to go.

It's for the gospel ministry.

It's not so that so I can be the best with students.

It's not so that Benji or some other worship person can get up and say, Man, we had an amazing band.

We had an amazing worship experience.

That is awesome.

But the point is the gospel.

The point of what you do in your vocation, in your circle, where you're, that was like a square, in your circle, is for the gospel ministry so that others would have a profession of faith.

So he says, pray so that they will have a profession of faith.

Pray that others will have a profession of faith.

There's a few times in the Bible when the church gathered together.

There's a lot of times, but there's a few times that stick out to me, where a group of believers got together in prayer and it impacted the world.

Remember in Acts when Peter was in jail?

Peter was in jail, and the church gathered in the house and they began to pray and plead unto God for Peter, and that God would do something, change his situation, his circumstances.

And they're praying, and while they're praying, an angel comes to Peter, and the angel says, Get up.

He's between between two people.

He says, Get up, get dressed, get out, and he's running out, and he gets to the door, and he knocks on the door of the prayer meeting, and the girl that answers the door goes, I can't believe it.

She runs back in, leaves him inside, and he says, Peter's here, and they're like, Be quiet.

You know, they can't believe it.

They've been praying for that thing.

And because the church prayed, something happened.

When the church gets together and prays, it changes the atmosphere of prayer.

He was about to be set on trial before Herod, which could have changed the way that we look at the Bible or the things that we know, but Peter rised up and the church prayed and it changed the situation.

Paul and Silas, too, of the church, were in jail and they began to pray.

They're praising God and they were praying to God.

And all of a sudden, God sent an earthquake in their situation.

Have you ever had a situation?

You're like, I have no idea how this happened.

We were in a bond, we were stressed, it was a mess, and all of a sudden, God came in.

You had that in your life?

This is like this, and God sent an earthquake, and God sent you a check, and God sent you a blessing, and God sent you a person, he sent you a friend, or he sent you that wife, or that husband, or he sent you something, and God changed your situation.

Well, it happens through prayer.

Joshua and the children of Israel began circling Jericho, and they were crying out to the Lord.

They're praying out to the Lord.

And it was their prayer and their cry out to the Lord that changed their situation.

Church, we need to pray.

May we keep the main thing, the main thing, and may the articles never be printed of us to say that church had no time to pray.

May it never say they were a shipwreck of faith.

Conscience seared because they didn't have time to pray.

Would you bow?