The Ministry of Prayer

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:02
Boy, I enjoyed singing with you and hearing you sing, that is a wonderful thing.
00:12
I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me and turn to the book of 1 Timothy.
00:20
This morning our subject is the ministry of prayer.
00:26
The title on the board says, More Expectations, and that was the title earlier in the week.
00:32
It's funny, I give Pat the information to print in the bulletins several days before Sunday.
00:39
Well, the title really didn't get finished until late last night, as the title usually comes last in the process of putting the sermon together.
00:51
But it goes along the same lines.
00:54
We're continuing talking about the expectations that the church should have for its members.
01:00
A man was coming out of a church and he stopped to greet the pastor, as many of you do every Sunday afternoon.
01:09
You stop by and greet me and shake my hand.
01:12
The pastor grabbed the man and pulled him to the side.
01:16
And he looked him in the eyes and he said, Sir, you need to join the army of the Lord.
01:24
And the man looked kind of confused and he says, But I'm already in the army of the Lord.
01:29
And he said, Well, how come I only see you at Christmas and Easter? And he said, Well, you've got to keep it quiet.
01:35
I'm in the Secret Service.
01:38
Kind of a silly thought to get us started, but the last few weeks we've been talking about what the church should expect from its members.
01:50
And I've noticed that, or I've noted in the messages, that we are in a covenant relationship with one another when we join the local body of believers.
02:04
And in that covenant relationship there are expectations on both sides.
02:11
I've used the example of marriages a couple of times, and those of you who have been here have heard me say that, that whenever two people are joined together in a marriage, there's an expectation on both sides.
02:23
And when you come into the church, there are expectations on both sides.
02:28
The church should have expectations from you, and you should have expectations from the church.
02:33
And that's not wrong.
02:34
That's right.
02:38
It's proper.
02:41
One of the most dangerous things in the world is for someone to go to a church and not have any concern about the doctrine, not have any concern about what they teach, not have any concern about what they believe, not have any concern about anything, and have no expectations at all, because that's a quick way to be led down the road of false teaching and heresy and all kinds of other things.
03:01
But I've noticed something, though.
03:03
When I use the word covenant relationship, that sometimes can confuse people, because we are not, in 2016, accustomed to using the word covenant outside of the church.
03:20
Normally, we hear the word covenant.
03:22
Immediately, our minds go to some form of a religious expression.
03:29
But the word covenant, if we were trying to make a more modern or more, if you were to say, a more colloquial expression, one that would be more natural for people to use, is that when you come into the church and you join the body of believers, you're making a commitment.
03:54
If you want to take the word covenant and make it very simple.
03:57
You know, when God made His covenant with Abraham, He made a commitment to Abraham.
04:02
I'm going to give you the land.
04:04
I'm going to give you children.
04:06
I'm making a commitment to you.
04:07
And guess what? Abraham's covenant was interesting because God made it unilaterally.
04:14
Abraham was the recipient.
04:16
God was the worker in it.
04:18
He said, I'm going to do these things for you.
04:20
But there was still an expectation on Abraham's part that he'd believe in God, be faithful to Him, that he would trust in His promise.
04:25
He'd have to work to get it, but there was an expectation he's going to believe what God said.
04:31
And he did.
04:31
In Genesis 15, it says that Abraham believed God.
04:34
And what happened? It was accounted unto him as righteousness.
04:38
So there was an expectation, not that he would have to work for anything, but there was an expectation on Abraham's part that he was going to believe what God had to say.
04:47
And so we see that God made a commitment to Abraham, and there was an expectation that Abraham would also make a commitment to God.
05:00
I'll never forget, years ago, the lesson that I learned about commitment by watching a Pop Warner football league.
05:14
Now, some of you have children in Pop Warner.
05:16
I enjoy looking at your pictures when some of you post them.
05:19
Yes, I see the Pop Warner pictures.
05:25
And years ago, Cody played football.
05:27
He played for like two years or something.
05:30
And I'll never forget what I watched when I watched Cody play football.
05:35
It was a relatively positive experience.
05:37
We had a few issues here and there, but for the most part, it was a good experience.
05:41
But what I saw was I saw this.
05:44
As soon as we signed up, they said, Okay, to play Pop Warner football, you've got to make a commitment five days a week to practice.
05:54
And then all day on Saturday for the game.
05:58
Because you've got to arrive two hours early, you've got to weigh in, you've got to be there for the game, and then if you're the parent of the week, you've got to bring the snacks, and then you've got to be the one who takes them home.
06:07
I'm digging it, I've been there.
06:10
But my point was the guys coaching this, three o'clock in the afternoon, four o'clock, whatever time the kids got out of school, until dark.
06:20
Every day for five days.
06:24
And then all day on Saturday.
06:25
And they did this for a whole season.
06:30
One of the guys didn't even have a son on the team.
06:34
He just loved football.
06:36
And he loved the game.
06:38
And so he committed three hours a day, every afternoon, and all day on Saturday.
06:46
And I got to thinking, we have groups in the church, we have our American Heritage girls, there's a commitment that goes into leading that, there's a commitment for the leaders to be here, there's commitment in planning for camps, and coming up with badges, and what's going to be the next thing that the girls do.
07:02
There's work that goes into our karate program.
07:05
Me and Nathan and Miss Sharon and others who help with the karate program, we work together to plan out things, and to make sure the kids enjoy themselves, and they have a good time, because we love the kids, and we made a commitment.
07:14
Okay, we're doing this, we've made a commitment, and we want it to be the absolute best it can.
07:19
And with that level of dedication in mind, my thoughts inevitably turned to the church.
07:25
Because this is the primary ministry of my life, the primary duty of my whole life is to minister in the church.
07:32
And I get to thinking, you know, few people, I wrote an article about this a few years ago, if you read the article, you might remember it.
07:38
But few people would be willing to give up multiple hours a day, several days a week, and an entire Saturday every week to the service of their local church.
07:50
Even if it only lasted a season, even if we said it's only two months of the year, but we're going to need you three hours a day, every day of the week, and all day on Saturday, and then, oh, you've got to come Sunday too, because that's when church...
08:06
They would let us know, that's impossible.
08:10
That level of dedication and commitment is impossible for the church.
08:21
But the reality is, we do what we want to do, for the most part.
08:28
If something's important to us, we find a way.
08:30
If something's not, we find a reason not to.
08:33
And if we don't want to do it, we find an excuse.
08:36
I can't because of X, Y, or Z.
08:40
People are so good at justifying their involvement or lack of involvement in whatever.
08:46
The coaches of the Pop Warner team justify their involvement to themselves and to their family.
08:49
They had to miss every dinner, or they had to cook dinner late, or eat dinner late, every night, for two whole months.
08:57
But they mestered up that criteria in their mind, this is what I've got to do.
09:02
But you see, they had made a commitment, and they wanted to fulfill that commitment.
09:07
You might even call it a covenant.
09:10
They came together with those boys, said, I'm going to covenant to do this, and you're going to covenant to do this, I'm expected to be here every day, you're expected to be here every day.
09:17
But you see, the American church has lost the idea of commitment, and given over to the idea of consumerism, when it comes to how we see the church.
09:32
One author describes it as the Disneyfication of the church.
09:39
Christianity lite, a bland and sanitized faith that is about as dramatic as the average shopping mall.
09:45
John MacArthur actually said, he said that people have about the same commitment to the church as they do the mall.
09:52
If there's something interesting, I'll go.
09:58
Another author said this, he said we treat church with a consumer mentality, looking at for the best product, for the best price.
10:05
And what's the best product for the best price? I can do the least and get the most.
10:09
That's what we do when we look for a car, right? I want to pay the least amount of money and get the most amount of options.
10:13
We go look for clothes or something for our kids, I want to get the best clothes I can for the least amount of money.
10:18
So we kind of take that attitude into the church and we find that our church experience, we want one where little is asked and a lot is expected.
10:29
Where little commitment, for a lot of return.
10:36
Sorry about my voice breaking up.
10:41
As I said earlier, there's nothing wrong with coming into the body with expectations, but we need to change our mindset from that of the consumer to that of the investor.
10:56
Because the consumer mentality is, I'm coming in for what I can get out of this.
11:01
I'm coming in for what it does for me and I want to put in as little as possible.
11:06
The investor mentality is, I want to be a part of this and I'm going to put in what is necessary to make it work.
11:13
I'm going to put in what is necessary to see it grow and to flourish.
11:18
As we've talked about over the last few weeks, and I'm getting to the part about prayer, I promise, the last few weeks we've been talking about this idea of commitment and covenant in the body and I just want to make sure I'm getting it across to you all that you understand my heart on this and the heart of the Scripture because Jesus does not call us to a consumer mindset.
11:42
Jesus calls us to a discipleship mindset which is radically different.
11:49
The consumer looks for somebody else to carry his cross.
11:52
Jesus says, pick up your cross and follow me.
11:55
See, it's different.
11:57
We come into the church and Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me.
12:06
Now we've already addressed four expectations that the church should have from you.
12:10
And most of you today all here are members of Sovereign Grace.
12:15
Some of you aren't and we welcome always our guests and we're glad to have you.
12:19
But for those of you who have been here and you've been hearing us, you've heard this already.
12:23
But very quickly, let me just remind you.
12:25
What is expected of you as a member here or if you're thinking of becoming a member here or if you're visiting with us and you want to know what a church should expect from you? One is participation in worship.
12:34
We expect you to be here in worshipping with us.
12:37
It's the body of Christ worshipping together, singing and praising and praying and learning together.
12:42
This is part of it.
12:45
Participation in fellowship.
12:46
You should know one another enough to be able to have a relationship with one another.
12:50
Now not everybody's going to have a relationship with everyone especially in a group this size.
12:54
But do we have relationships with one another that are growing? Are we seeking to grow our relationships with one another? Participation in ministry.
13:01
Are we loving one another and ministering to one another? Not only in our needs but also in those things that are necessary for growth as believers.
13:11
Participation according to your giftedness.
13:13
I spent all of the last sermon talking about your giftedness and how each one of us should be using our gifts as God has gifted us in ministry because if you're a hand, we need hands.
13:24
If you're a foot, we need foot.
13:25
If you're a knee, we need knees.
13:27
If you're the funny bone, we need the funny bone.
13:28
That's fine.
13:29
Whatever you are.
13:31
Yeah, you can be the funny bone.
13:32
That's fine.
13:33
Whatever you are, God needs you and he's put you here.
13:35
When I say God needs you, I don't mean that in the sense that God has a need.
13:38
Let me reiterate.
13:40
God has put you here because you're needed here.
13:43
We need you.
13:46
Well today we're going to move on to another expectation.
13:48
This is the expectation of prayerfulness.
13:51
The investment of prayerfulness because I got to say of all the things that are expected of believers and the one that should be the easiest as far as what you're physically doing, prayer is the least practiced.
14:21
I know people who would rather spend five hours working in the kitchen than spending one hour on their knees in prayer because they find it easier to be busy than to be still before God.
14:37
Maybe that's you.
14:40
And it is easier to be busy with the work of ministry than it is to be still before God.
14:46
I can say that from my own experience.
14:48
So this is one of those times where I'm going to say, here's the thing.
14:52
Every one of you has a spiritual gift you need to be using in the church but there's nowhere in the scripture that I know of and I'm willing to be corrected but I don't know if there's anywhere that prayer is called a spiritual gift.
15:05
Huh? Yeah, it's a command.
15:07
That's right.
15:07
It's something everyone's commanded to do.
15:09
It's not a gift.
15:11
There are people who are, I think, gifted orators who pray publicly with a certain ability to lead people in prayer but that's not what I'm talking about.
15:25
I'm talking about each of you having a call from God as believers, as members of sovereign grace, to be praying members of the church.
15:35
So with that in mind, let's turn to 1 Timothy 2.
15:38
Let's go to verse 1.
15:40
And we're going to read verses 1-6.
15:45
Let's stand for the Word of God to give it its honor and reverence.
15:49
I know we're well into the sermon now but we do want to give honor and reverence to God's Word.
15:53
And this will be the focus text of the morning.
15:59
First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
16:17
This is good and is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
16:26
For there is one God and there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
16:38
Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
16:40
I thank You for the truth of Your Word.
16:43
I pray, Father, that You would keep me from error as I seek to expound the truth of this Word.
16:49
And I pray for the sake of Your people that You would keep me from saying anything that would be incorrect, that You would open their hearts to understand it and to believe it, and that Your Holy Spirit would be the Teacher.
17:00
I pray, Lord, as we go through the Word today, I pray that as we challenge and are challenged from Your Word about our own prayerfulness, that we will be honest and be willing to repent where repentance is needed.
17:15
I pray, Lord, not to be a hypocrite today.
17:20
For I myself, Lord, have in many ways failed.
17:27
And I pray, Lord, to speak as a dying man to dying men.
17:32
Lord, not to exalt myself in any way.
17:36
In Jesus' name, amen.
17:44
As I was thinking about this message this week and I was preparing it, I've got a few more things, a few more expectations we're going to look at in the weeks to come.
17:54
And I was talking to Mike.
17:57
I always let y'all guess which one.
17:58
I was talking to Mr.
18:00
Collier this week about today's message.
18:02
And I said, well, maybe I could do a couple of them in one sermon.
18:08
But the more I got to thinking about the subject of prayer, the more I said, you know, this could be its own focus.
18:15
And I'm not in a hurry.
18:16
I don't know if you're in a hurry to get through this session or this series of lessons, but there's no reason why we can't stop and deal with this and deal with the next thing because next is giving.
18:28
Financially.
18:30
Yeah, so pray for next week.
18:34
So I just don't want to rush.
18:37
And when I think about this particular issue, I think about prayer and I think about where I fail.
18:44
And I don't like to preach on me or my own testimony or anything like that.
18:49
You're not here to hear about me.
18:51
But I will admit and give my my own words of failure in front of you.
19:01
Over the years where I found the most difficulty is being quiet and alone because it's not my nature to be quiet and alone.
19:10
It's my nature to be with people and to be talking or to be reading or to be listening to something and to find the stillness of the soul has been a pursuit that has eluded me in many ways.
19:26
So as I preach today, I want you to know I preach to you as a man who speaks not from a place of some ivory tower looking down upon you and saying this is what you need to do because this is what I do.
19:36
I'm saying this is what we all need to do and I'm the first to say I have many failures and I want to do better.
19:45
So I ask your prayer for me.
19:48
As I pray for you that we would all do better because ultimately what we're going to learn about today is the simple thesis of the message is that we ought not be prayerless in our walk with Christ.
20:02
We ought not be prayerless in our walk with Christ.
20:06
It is the most powerful tool of ministry and I will say this, the times that I have seen God work most powerfully in my ministry are the times when I was broken on my knees before Him, when I was weeping tears and they were running down my face and I was saying, God you must because I can't.
20:26
That's when I've seen God work the most powerfully.
20:30
So I can say to at least an experiential part of it, I've seen God do things, miraculous things.
20:37
I've seen God move people's hearts that seemed so firmly entrenched, nailed down.
20:45
I've seen God pull nails out and loose things that I never would have imagined.
20:52
And again, my experience isn't the testimony of truth, but it is for me a wonderful thing that helps me confirm what the Bible says is true about God's Word is that God uses prayer.
21:04
He uses the prayers of His people as a means to bring about His will.
21:11
And that's why whenever we pray, we say God nevertheless, no matter what I ask, nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done.
21:22
So we come to 1 Timothy 2 and we find the Apostle Paul urging us to pray.
21:33
Well, he's urging Timothy, but in urging Timothy, he's urging us because ultimately 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are what we call the pastoral epistles.
21:43
And what that means is that Paul, who is the mentor of Timothy and Titus, is writing to these men about their pastoral ministry and he's giving them the things that they ought to know as a wise mentor would give to those under him and to lead them and direct them and to guide them and to love them and to nurture them.
22:04
And he says, listen, I first of all urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people.
22:20
It's interesting because one might say a supplication, a prayer, an intercession and a thanksgiving are all the same because they're all different types of prayer so they're all prayers.
22:31
But in a sense, they're not all the same because each one of these is a different way.
22:38
Oftentimes, I think that we think that the only type of prayer there is is the prayer where we go and ask God for stuff.
22:50
When was the last time you prayed simply to thank God for what you already have? When was the last time you prayed simply to be in the presence of God? You know, we talk about Hebrews tells us to enter the throne room boldly, right? Could you imagine just being in the throne room of God, sitting in His presence? What do you think it would be like? Well, I'll tell you what it's like.
23:26
It's frightening because Isaiah was there.
23:30
In Isaiah chapter 6, I saw the Lord seated upon His throne and the train of His robe filled the temple.
23:37
And I said, hey God, how are you doing? No.
23:40
I said, Lord, look at me and how good I am.
23:44
No.
23:44
What did He say? The most righteous man in Israel.
23:46
What did He say? Woe is me, for I am undone and I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.
23:56
And I've seen the Lord.
23:59
I'm undone.
24:01
That's what He said.
24:04
Have you been there with God? Have you spent time alone with God? Not to ask Him for anything? Not even to tell Him anything? But just to commune with Him? I think that's why Paul gives us several things.
24:30
I urge that supplication, to supplicate, to ask for prayers, which he separates out.
24:39
And I would honestly, I think the prayer, and I'm willing to be corrected again, but I think the prayer here is our communion with God because He then says intercessions and He separates intercessions.
24:52
What is intercessions? Intercessions is when I go on your behalf.
24:58
And we're going to talk more about that in a minute, but that's what intercession is.
25:01
You see, I'm going to ask God for things, and I'm going to be in His presence, but I'm also going to go on your behalf too.
25:09
Oftentimes we do that.
25:10
We say, hey, pray for me.
25:12
Anybody ever said that to you? Yeah, sure.
25:15
Somebody come up to you, Mike, and say, pray for me.
25:17
Chris, same thing.
25:18
They say, hey, would you pray for me on this? Man, Facebook's become really popular for that.
25:23
People put up, you know, my child is sick, and everybody says praying, you know.
25:29
Or they put the little hand picture up to let them know you're praying.
25:34
And that's intercession.
25:36
It's what it's supposed to be anyway.
25:37
It's supposed to be to intercede.
25:40
It means to go on behalf of someone else.
25:44
There's a cartoon that struck me funny years ago.
25:48
Somebody put up, and it was one of those little one snapshot cartoons where you've got two guys walking towards each other in a church building, and the guy has that little thought bubble, you know, the thought bubble in a cartoon where nobody else can see what he's saying, but he knows what he's saying.
26:02
And he says, oh, no, here comes Brother Bill.
26:04
I was supposed to be praying for him.
26:05
I better say a quick prayer.
26:06
And he says, dear Lord, please bless Brother Bill.
26:08
And then the next words out of his mouth, hey, Bill, been praying for you.
26:20
But Paul urges this of us.
26:23
He urges us to make supplication.
26:26
He urges us to pray, to be in God's presence.
26:32
He urges us to intercede, to love others, and to pray on their behalf.
26:37
Do you have unbelieving relatives? Everybody do this because you all do.
26:42
You have unbelieving relatives.
26:44
Do you pray on their behalf because you know they're not praying? Maybe some of them are caught up in other religions, and their prayers are falling not upon Christ and the ears of God, but their prayers are falling into dead air.
27:00
Let me tell you something, when that Muslim prays five times a day, that prayer is not a prayer that God hears as a prayer.
27:08
You want to say, well, I argue with that.
27:10
Well, let me show you how I can just show you.
27:11
If you go down to verse 5, there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
27:21
Let me tell you something, if you're praying through anyone but Jesus, that's not how to get to God.
27:26
And so, ultimately, five times a day, I don't care which direction you point.
27:30
You can stand on your head and point towards the moon, and guess what? It ain't making it to God if it ain't through Jesus.
27:36
I'm not trying to be ugly, and I'm not trying to be divisive, but the reality is if you have a friend who is praying to Buddha or a friend who is praying to the God of Muhammad or you have a friend who is praying prayers that was taught by Joseph Smith or by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, you need to be praying on their behalf because their prayers aren't making it.
28:04
That's another thing that kind of scares me about Facebook, and I'm not here to talk about social media all day, but I will mention this.
28:08
A lot of times people will put up that pray for me, and they'll have all these people of all these different religions who are all praying for you.
28:16
That's why you rarely see that from us.
28:23
And not being ugly, I just prefer not.
28:26
I prefer a prayer to Allah and not go up for me.
28:33
You say, well, that person is sincere.
28:35
You can be sincerely wrong.
28:37
Jim Jones was sincerely wrong, and he took thousands of people with him.
28:43
The Haley Bopp comet people that dressed up in their track suits, put the purple robes over them, and wore their white Nikes, and they found them all dead in that bunker in California.
28:52
They were sincere.
28:53
They were sincere folks, and they were wrong.
28:58
Sincerity is not the test of truth.
29:04
It's just not.
29:07
When we pray, and we should pray, Paul urges us to pray.
29:14
This text mentions two things that I really want to focus on and the point of how we ought to pray.
29:20
One, he says you should pray for, this is verse 2, kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
29:31
Now why is that there? It's easy to pray for one another in one sense because I love you and hopefully you love me.
29:43
I don't ever want to presume on that.
29:45
But we love one another in Christ.
29:47
So when you come to me and say my child is sick and I want you to pray that my child will be well or that God's will will be done in my child's life, okay, we'll get down on our knees and we'll pray right now.
29:58
But when you come to me and say, hey, I want you to pray for Obama, that might be a little tougher because he angers a lot of you and sometimes me too.
30:09
And you've got to think about who was king at the time that Paul's writing this to Timothy.
30:15
Based on the potential time, I mean, it could have even been Nero himself.
30:20
An evil man.
30:20
You think what we got is bad and what we got is pretty bad.
30:25
But you think what we got is bad? You got a guy who would take Christians and pour pitch over them and light them on fire to light his garden.
30:34
That was how he fancied his self was to torture people for fun.
30:42
If you were unwilling to say Kaiser Koreas, Kaiser Koreas is Caesar's Lord.
30:51
If you're unwilling to say Kaiser Koreas and to take a pinch of incense and drop it in the censer as an homage worship to Caesar, you were worthy to be killed.
31:09
And what was the Christian response to Kaiser Koreas? Yeshua Koreas.
31:17
Jesus.
31:17
Jesus.
31:18
Yeshua Koreas.
31:19
Jesus is Lord.
31:23
Guess what? Jesus is Lord.
31:24
Gotcha.
31:27
Free trip to glory.
31:35
And yet, Paul says pray.
31:40
Pray for kings.
31:42
And pray for those in authority.
31:44
Why? And he tells us why.
31:46
That we may lead a peaceful life.
31:49
Pray that they would just leave us alone and let us worship Christ.
31:56
Pray that they would not come and bring their torture upon us.
32:00
But why not also pray that God would convert their souls? Because I think that's really the real issue.
32:06
Because when I pray for Obama, you know what I don't pray for? I don't pray for his success as a president.
32:12
I don't care about that.
32:14
I pray that God would convert his soul.
32:17
When I pray for my senators, when I pray for my judges, when I pray for whoever's in any position of authority, God change their heart and save their soul.
32:27
And you know what kind of goes with that? They're probably going to lose their job.
32:31
If a radical conversion comes in today's society, they probably won't get to stay.
32:37
But I don't care if they get to stay.
32:38
God save them.
32:41
You know, God saved the people of Nineveh, and the Bible tells us, from the top down.
32:49
Kings and all the leaders were converted in a day? What a miracle that would be.
33:00
Why do I think this is here? Paul is urging us to pray.
33:06
He's urging us to supplicate.
33:08
He's urging us to pray.
33:10
He's urging us to intercede.
33:11
And he's urging us to give thanksgivings made for all people and for kings.
33:20
Because it's easy to do it for one another.
33:23
It's hard to do it for those who oppose us.
33:26
It's hard to pray for those who don't like us.
33:30
It's hard to pray for our enemies.
33:32
But didn't Jesus say that? Bless your enemies.
33:36
Bless and do not curse them.
33:38
And to pray for those who persecute you.
33:42
See, Paul's not saying anything strange or foreign to what Jesus has already commanded us.
33:47
He's telling us the same thing.
33:48
Pray! Pray for those even who hate you.
33:56
Sometimes you might hear me pray this.
33:59
I'll pray that God will shut the mouth of the heretic.
34:01
You know why I pray that prayer? Sometimes I'll even use the Old Testament language.
34:08
God, break the teeth of he who speaks against you.
34:10
You know, break their teeth.
34:12
You know why we say that? It's not to seem brash and masculine and God, just break their teeth.
34:20
Because it's better to have a mouth full of broken teeth that can't speak than to speak a word against God and increase their judgment.
34:29
We do not want these people to go to hell.
34:31
I don't want Benny Hinn to go to hell.
34:34
I want Benny Hinn to repent.
34:40
I don't want him to speak his false gospel.
34:44
Because one, he hurts people and two, he's hurting himself.
34:51
So I pray, God, save him.
34:54
And if it takes closing his mouth with wires, do it! In verse 3, Paul says this.
35:11
He says, this is good and it is pleasing.
35:16
In the sight of God our Savior.
35:23
It's interesting when you see the word God our Savior.
35:28
Because often times we think of Jesus our Savior.
35:31
But there are times when the Bible describes God as our Savior.
35:34
And God is our Savior through Christ.
35:37
Because God is also the Judge.
35:40
But God the Judge, God the Father, sent His Son that whosoever believes on Him will not perish but will have everlasting life.
35:47
So God provides the sacrifice that He demands.
35:51
God is the Savior because He provided what He needed.
35:56
To justly provide salvation for His people, God had to punish sin.
36:03
So Jesus comes willingly to receive the punishment that we deserve and now, having received that punishment, God can forgive us and welcome us into His family as adopted children through Jesus Christ and we become recipients of God's salvation.
36:22
Because God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten Son that everyone who believes in Him will never perish but have everlasting life.
36:35
God is our Savior.
36:38
And then verse 4 is one that often bothers Calvinists.
36:42
So I want to make sure that I clarify it in case there is any doubt.
36:46
And by the way, I've totally gone off notes at this point.
36:49
We might make it back, we might not, but the Lord is sovereign.
36:53
But oftentimes this issue...
36:57
Because we understand that the Bible teaches that it is God's will to save and it's God's desire to save those whom He wills.
37:08
And not everyone will be saved.
37:10
Do you understand that there are people that are going to hell? Do you understand that the majority of people are going to hell? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about the fact that when you drive down the road, the majority of people you see, the majority of people you pass...
37:26
I went to Walmart yesterday.
37:29
Never a fun trip.
37:31
It's a jungle in there.
37:34
But you know, you pass by people and so many of them are lost with no concern about their lost condition.
37:43
It's like they're digging the hole to hell themselves.
37:46
They're just ready to go.
37:48
And that's the world we live in.
37:53
And yet God chose it to be so.
37:56
God has the ability to save every single person if He so chose.
38:03
The people who tell me, they say, well, God can't save people.
38:05
No, you have the wrong God.
38:10
God makes a choice to exercise His justice and His mercy at the same time.
38:16
And the Bible says, I will have mercy on whom I will and I will harden whom I will.
38:20
Romans chapter 9, go read it.
38:25
So people say, now wait a minute.
38:29
Doesn't God want everyone to be saved? Well, in this passage, it says He desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
38:39
But I do want to make a clear, very clear indication that the word all here is modified by the preceding passage which talks about types of people.
38:50
Because you'll notice it says in verse 2, for kings and all who are in high positions, He's referring to different types of people, right? Is a king a different type of person than a servant? And people in different positions of authority are different types of people.
39:09
So when we come to the word all, we must understand that in this particular instance, the word means all types of people or all kinds of people.
39:20
And God does desire that all kinds of people will be saved.
39:23
This is why when we go to Revelation, it says very clearly that God has chosen to save people from every what? Tribe, every tongue, and every nation.
39:35
Guess what? When you get to heaven, there's going to be people that are there from Africa.
39:38
There's going to be people that are there from Europe.
39:40
There's going to be people that are there from China.
39:41
There's going to be people that are there from the Arctic.
39:43
There's going to be people there from every tribe, tongue, and nation because that is God's will.
39:47
But it is not God's choice to save every single individual.
39:55
That is not what God has chosen.
39:59
You might say, well, I don't like to hear that.
40:01
I want to think that God has chosen everyone to be saved.
40:04
Well, there is something called universalism.
40:08
Universalism believes that everyone will be saved.
40:13
But guess who wasn't a universalist? Jesus.
40:20
Because if he was a universalist, then he lied when he talked about hell.
40:28
You know who talked the most about hell in the Bible? Jesus.
40:32
By far, the most vivid descriptions of hell are given by Jesus Christ.
40:42
So I would say this.
40:46
When we see the word all, we need to always take it in context.
40:50
Anytime you see the word all, understand that every time the word all comes in, there's always a context.
40:55
For instance, there are people who say, the love of money is the root of all evil.
41:01
And they quote the Scripture, right? Do you know what modern translations translate that as? The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
41:12
You know why they translate it that way? Because the love of money is not the root of rape.
41:19
The love of money is not the root of child abuse.
41:22
The love of money is not the root of all kinds of violence.
41:29
When the text says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, what it's saying is all kinds of evil comes out of the love of money.
41:36
But not every single evil act is an act of greed.
41:40
Not for money, anyway.
41:44
You see, the word pas in the Greek, and now I'm going to take, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but the word pas in Greek, which means all, is always fit within a context.
41:55
And the context of all in this passage is all kinds.
42:01
So, we go back and read it.
42:03
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all kinds of people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
42:10
That's simple.
42:12
It doesn't change anything in regard to the underlying Greek.
42:16
It simply expresses more of what it's saying.
42:18
And I think it's fair to the text.
42:22
Because God does have a desire to see every different type of person come to Him.
42:27
Now, if you want to argue and say, no, I think God desires every person to be saved.
42:32
Every single person to be saved.
42:38
I want you to consider this, and boy, did I go off topic.
42:42
But let me, the Lord is sovereign, so I'm going to trust Him with this.
42:46
Let me say this.
42:54
Will God be eternally disappointed? Think about it.
43:17
If it is God's will to save every man, and yet not every man is saved, God will enter into eternity disappointed.
43:36
A lot of people don't want to go there with me.
43:38
Don't even want to talk about it.
43:41
So I apologize if I've gone too far on a sort of a take a right turn.
43:47
But I do want to return to the text for a moment.
43:51
Because at verse 4, we talk about the desire of all people.
43:55
But at verse 5, He says, For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
44:01
I talked about this earlier.
44:02
Christ is the mediator.
44:04
If anyone is going to be saved, whether you believe or how you believe God wills that someone is saved, you have to understand this.
44:16
No one, nowhere, no how is going to be saved apart from Jesus Christ.
44:30
God didn't send a mediator to every continent.
44:33
And He did not send a mediator to every tribe.
44:37
He sent one mediator between God and man.
44:44
And He tells us what? Go and make disciples of who? All nations.
44:56
You see that whole thing about all the tribes? That's what we're supposed to be doing.
45:01
We're supposed to be going out to those tribes and telling them about that one mediator.
45:12
To the subject of prayer I want to say this.
45:19
God has called us through this passage to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for all people.
45:27
All kinds of people.
45:31
And we can say that that includes the people in the church, and that includes the people outside of the church, and that includes people in authority, and that includes people in government, and that includes politicians, and that includes lawyers, and that includes doctors, and that includes police officers, and that includes firemen, and that includes people of all different professions.
45:53
When we see these people we pray for these people.
45:55
We pray that God would save them.
46:06
And I would ask you, if you're a member here, or if you're not, how is your personal prayer life? We pray as a church every Sunday.
46:28
We have a special time of intercessory prayer.
46:31
We have our prayer for the message.
46:33
We have our prayer for our offering and for our communion.
46:35
We pray several times throughout the worship service.
46:38
But is this the only time you pray? Do you pray on Sunday morning and that's it? Maybe you pray once before a meal.
46:52
But are you alone with God? I want to finish with a quote from Charles Spurgeon.
47:04
It's in regard to prayer.
47:05
He said this, a prayerless church member is a hindrance.
47:16
He is in the body like a rotting bone or a decaying tooth.
47:23
Before long, since he does not contribute to the benefit of his brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow to them.
47:31
Neglect of private prayer is the locus which devours the strength of the church.
47:43
Are we a praying people? Are we giving over to the ministry of prayer? My admonition for you all this morning is that you understand what prayer does in your own life.
47:59
I wish I had more time.
48:01
Time has come and gone so quickly.
48:03
I wish I had more time to elaborate on it.
48:08
But my call to you is don't forsake this blessed gift on behalf of the church, on behalf of yourself.
48:12
If you're a member here, we expect you to spend time with God in prayer.
48:18
On behalf of the church, on behalf of the hurting, on behalf of your own growth, we desire it.
48:26
A prayerless church is a dead church indeed.
48:31
So let's pray.
48:34
Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
48:45
I thank You for the truth of the Word, Father.
48:50
I pray that I've been faithful to it.
48:56
I pray that we understand, Lord, that You've called us to pray for all kinds of men in all kinds of places.
49:04
That we're to pray for our families, that we're to pray for the church, we're to pray for our leaders, we're to pray for the government, and that we're to pray for those who have put an authority over us.
49:16
Primarily, Lord, we're to pray that they would turn to You.
49:22
I pray forgiveness, Father, for where I have erred.
49:28
I pray for clarity where I've spoken truth.
49:34
And I pray that You'd move on our hearts to be more concerned about the business of prayer, the ministry of prayer in the life of the church.
49:48
In Jesus' name, amen.