WWUTT 581 Prayers for All People?

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The Apostle Paul opened his letter to Timothy, telling him to teach sound doctrine, preach the gospel of Christ, which leads to godliness.

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And so his next instruction is what that godliness should look like, which begins with prayer when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of 1st Timothy, and today we embark on chapter two.

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So I'm going to go ahead and read through the entire chapter. It's fairly short, just about 15 verses.

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Paul writing to his servant, Timothy says, 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.

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This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

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For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man

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Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

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For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth,

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I am not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

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Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self -control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works.

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Let a woman learn quietly, with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet.

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For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

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Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control.

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A lot of good things in this chapter, a lot of very controversial things as well. And as we've been doing with 1

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Timothy up to this point, we'll take our time getting through them. So in 1 Timothy chapter 2

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Paul says, first of all then I urge. Well first of all, we're in chapter 2 and Paul is saying first of all?

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Well the first thing that he said to Timothy at the start of this letter was to not let anyone teach any different doctrine, but to remain steadfast, true, straightforward in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Hold firm to sound doctrine. Don't let anyone in the church that Paul is sending Timothy to, which was the church in Ephesus.

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Don't let anyone teach anything else other than the sound doctrine of Christ that leads to godliness.

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So that was his instruction throughout the entire first chapter and everything that pertains to that instruction.

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Then we get to chapter 2 and he's saying, okay, now here's what godliness that flows from sound teaching is supposed to look like.

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And these are the instructions that follow. Now he's going to come back several times over the course of this letter to reinforce the importance upon sound doctrine.

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It bookends the letter first of all. So we have it at the very start, teach sound doctrine.

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It's at the close as Paul comes back to it again in chapter 6, teach sound doctrine, and it falls in the middle every once in a while too.

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So he gives the bigger instruction at the start and at the close and in the middle is kind of a smattering of reminders.

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This all comes from the gospel of Christ, godliness that flows from the gospel.

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And what does that godliness look like? First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.

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Basically, Paul's first instruction is this, pray. You must pray and you must pray in every way and everywhere for everyone at all different kinds of prayers.

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The first one that he mentions here is supplication. What is, what's supplication? Well, it's the action of asking or begging for something earnestly, but most important, humbly.

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It's humbly asking of God. Remember in the Lord's prayer that Jesus taught us to pray,

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Matthew chapter 6, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

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So the very first thing we do when we come to the Lord in prayer is we acknowledge his greatness, his holiness.

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We give him praise for who he is, realizing that we are but nothing, but he is a great

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God and yet he loves us as our all loving, benevolent father who wants to do good things for his children.

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So we come before him humbly and acknowledge him as father, holy, great in reverence.

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This is supplication. It is a, it is a manner in our prayers, not necessarily a certain kind of prayer, but every prayer should be a matter of supplication.

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And then he says prayers and we, we know what prayer is. Prayer is talking to God. That's very simply the definition of prayer.

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It's talking to God. God talks to us through the Bible, the pages of scripture, which is his word.

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And we talk to God through our prayers. There is not a conversation that you are going to have that is more deeply intimate or personal than the prayer that you have with God.

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The way that you talk to another person, you are picking and choosing your words wisely. You are maybe trying to put on a certain face with that person.

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Maybe you're lying to that person. You know, there are things that you can withhold from that person. You're only sharing with them certain bits of information.

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You know, everything that we share with another person is very selective, but when it comes to what you say to God, everything that you are not saying is even said to God.

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Your heart is wide open. You are exposing yourself before the one who knows the words before they are even on your tongue.

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He has searched mind and heart. He knows you more fully than you know yourself. There is nothing that you can hide from the

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Lord. Mark Twain. I remember these words from Mark Twain, who was not a Christian, but he did say this.

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I have learned that I cannot pray a lie. You cannot lie to God as though you think you can fool

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God. Maybe you have lied to the Lord before. Oh God, I repent. I will never do this again.

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And then you go do that again. But but you cannot fool God. He knows you and he knows the end from the beginning.

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So you may as well just lay it all out there. As David prays in Psalm 139, before a word is on my tongue, you know it fully, oh

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God, you know my standing up and my sitting down, my going to and my staying. Everything that we are,

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God knows about us. So when you pray, pray humbly and come before him in reverence.

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Seek that his will would be done in your life. Not your will, but his will. That's the next part of the

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Lord's prayer. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus said if we ask, he will give to us anything that we ask.

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If we're asking from a heart that desires the will of God, he will show you his will.

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And so come to the Lord in humility, in awe and in reverence. There's a popular quote,

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I cannot remember who it is that says this, but if you show me a man who is praying,

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I will show you a man who is not sinning. You show me a man who is sinning, I will show you a man who is not praying.

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Prayer keeps us close to the Lord. And when we understand that by talking to God, we're exposed before God, then we realize there's nothing that we can hide.

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It keeps us in check. It keeps us submissive in obedience and righteousness to the

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Lord. That we know he's searching us. He's watching us. And we desire to please our

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God because we love God. We want to do what he has asked of us to do.

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And so we'll live righteously. We'll come and we will talk to him because we want to be with God.

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We have nothing to be ashamed of. Or when we have sinned, we know that we need to be made right and God will make us right.

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And so we come before him and ask in earnestness and in sincerity. And when

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I say in sincerity, I mean that when you come to God and you apologize to him, your apology means,

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Lord, I know I did something wrong and I never want to do this again. So please cleanse me and return me to you and hold me fast so I'll never stumble in this sin again.

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It comes from a sincere heart that wants to be far from sin and close to God. Not a heart that thinks that you can do whatever you want and God's grace will just cover it over.

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Because as Paul explains in Romans six, that cheap grace is not really grace.

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And you may not actually be saved if you think that you can just sin all you want.

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And hey, I can just come and ask God's forgiveness and he'll just cover it over again. In that case, you are still enslaved to your sin.

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You're not a slave to the righteousness of God. But as we continue to traverse this world in our flesh, we are going to get dirty.

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And in those occasions when we sin against God, we come before him knowing that nothing can be hidden from him.

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So you may as well come and humbly get on your face and ask for God's forgiveness and his mercy and he will give it to you.

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He is faithful and just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And so it is knowing that we cannot hide from God.

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There is nothing that we can keep from God. It is knowing that he is righteous and we are not. These are the things that should be driving us to him all the more and opening our hearts up to him that every bit of us would be made more and more into the image of Christ.

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There's nothing that we're trying to keep for ourselves. There's no little, you know, pet sins that we love that we want to have on our own.

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We cannot give to God. But everything, all of us, we are pouring out before the Lord, desiring to be cleansed, desiring to live in righteousness, desiring his love, and that we would also love him in return by being obedient to his word.

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I urge, Paul says, that supplications, so we're talking about a humble submission to the

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Lord, prayers, talking with God and talking honestly before the

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Lord as well, and intercessions. That's the next the next word that Paul uses. So basically, again, he's saying all kinds of prayers need to be lifted up before God.

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Intercession is intervening on behalf of another. So you are praying for someone else, not just praying for someone else in the sense of God do this to them or for them or or whatever.

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But somebody else has a need. Somebody else has a desire. Someone is sick. Someone is wounded.

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Someone is hurt. Someone is struggling and you are praying for them on their behalf.

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Lord, show yourself to this person. Relieve this person. Give them some relief.

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Remind them of your peace. Let them be reminded by your spirit that they are loved.

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Deliver them from this. May they not stumble into temptation.

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I mean, in whatever way that you can pray for this person, that God would intervene in their lives and rescue them by his power.

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That's what you're praying for on their behalf. So this is intercession that we would even pray for one another.

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And this the very action of doing this. Is selfless.

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It keeps us in a selfless attitude toward one another, whether they are brothers and sisters in Christ or even those who are unbelievers, because you would pray for an unbeliever that God would intervene in their present course, that they would turn from sin and then have a changed heart to pursue the righteousness of God.

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Don't you pray that for somebody else? You pray that for family members? Have you ever just kind of thrown up your hands and were like, well,

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I don't care about that person anymore. They're kind of off on their own way. And what are my prayers going to change?

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Well, if that has been your attitude, you must humble yourself because you are basically saying God can't change that heart.

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And what good is it for me to pray for that person if I don't think that God can change their heart anymore?

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No prayer on behalf of another person is a selfless act. You are taking time away from whatever you would be doing for yourself, even if it's just meditating on your own thoughts.

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And instead, you are coming before the Lord in this humble expression once again and lifting up somebody else that you would be taking this time that you are in communion with God through prayer to lift up somebody else's needs to him.

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It keeps your attitude of mind and heart in humility and selflessness toward other people.

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And God does that transformation in you. So don't hear me saying that, well, you need to pray for that other person because it's an act of meditation that disciplines your mind to be selfless toward other people.

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That's not really the point. The point is not to make you more selfless, because if that was the point, then it's all about you.

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And if it's all about you, it's not selfless anymore. It's selfish, right? This is all an obedience to God.

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It's giving glory to God. But you are coming before the Lord. And in doing so, this is an act of selflessness that you would pray on behalf of another person you've been commanded to.

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That's what Paul is saying right here. I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people.

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There's another word in there to thanksgivings be made for all people.

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You must be thankful for them as well. You must be thankful for your current situation. Everything that the

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Lord has given to you, even if it is difficult. Not to say, God, thank you for this horrible thing that I am going through, because when it comes down to it, the terrible thing that you are enduring might be because of this fallen world.

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So there's not a reason to be thankful for the fallenness of this world, but rather you are going through this situation to be reminded that God is with you and he will deliver you from it.

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That's what you can be thankful for. So in every situation, everything that you are in, you are thankful to God.

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That is your attitude of heart. When you come before the Lord, let it be in thanksgiving. As we had just recently studied through 1st and 2nd

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Thessalonians, it's in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5, where Paul says, be thankful in all circumstances, for this is

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God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And Paul says also to the Philippians, Philippians 4 .4,

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rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. So emphatic.

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Paul is on this point that we should rejoice in all circumstances that he says it twice.

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And joy is something that our circumstances cannot rob us of. When you talk about happiness, well, you can be happy for a little while and then something happens, some situation that you didn't foresee taking place, or somebody even says a word to you that just snatches your happiness away.

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But joy is not like that. It is not conditional on your circumstances. Happiness is cheap, joy is rich.

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If you are rejoicing in Christ in all circumstances, then no one can take that from you.

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And it is a joy that will continue to grow in your heart, even as you get closer to leaving this world and joining the

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Lord in glory, it just makes you rejoice all the more in hopefulness for that day. And joy is what you will be living in for all eternity when you go to be in the presence of our

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God. So an attitude of heart as Christians walking as strangers in this world, knowing that this world is not our home, but we will be delivered from it and into God's imperishable, glorious kingdom forever.

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This stirs up in our hearts a very attitude of thankfulness. So we have supplications, we have prayers, we have intercessions, we have thanksgivings.

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And remember that thanksgivings are made for all people. So these thanksgivings that we are lifting up are for someone else.

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You are thankful for another person. You are even thankful for the unbeliever in your life that God has given you this opportunity to share the gospel with them, that they hopefully will turn from that sin.

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They have had this chance to hear the gospel because of your witness, your testimony to them, that they might turn from sin and rejoice in Christ for salvation.

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You have thanksgivings for your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Those who encourage you, those who even admonish you, who correct you because you are walking in sinfulness or you are straying from righteousness and because of their correction with good will, which is what admonishing means, then you are growing all the more in Christ.

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You are thankful for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Tragically, whenever I've watched a person walk away from a good church, a good doctrinally sound church, what

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I see in that person is an ungrateful attitude for the brothers and sisters that they worshipped with.

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If they were thankful for the church family that they had, they would not walk away from that church.

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Thankfulness will even keep you faithful to the church body where God has placed you to grow with them in your learning and understanding of the word.

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And again, this keeps you humble too, not having an attitude of, I'm better than all these people. I know better than them. They should be consulting me for an understanding of the scriptures.

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But rather, when you are thankful for them, it is not an attitude of placing yourself over them, but in humble submission to one another out of reverence for Christ, which is an instruction that Paul gave in Ephesians chapter five, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

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So again, let's summarize this as we come to the end of the lesson. First Timothy 2 .1,

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Paul says, first of all, then I urge, first of all, as a matter of godliness that is pouring forth from a life that is holding fast to sound doctrine in the teaching of the gospel, here is what

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I urge. That supplications, which is asking for something earnestly or humbly of God, that prayers simply talking to God and talking honestly with the

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Lord, since he knows your mind and heart, that intercessions praying on behalf of another person and thanksgivings being thankful and praising

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God for the people that are in your life, that these things be made for all people.

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Now I've talked about how supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings are things that you should be doing. But remember, all of this is said in the context of being made for all people.

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And that's, first of all, as an exercise of godliness that you are praying in thankfulness for all people.

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Tomorrow we're going to talk about that word all. That's what we're going to get to next. Let's do a little bit of prayer at the close of this together.

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Our Lord God, we praise you and thank you for your goodness, for your holiness, and your greatness.

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We are but nothing. Who are we to come before God and ask anything of you?

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But you have said to us that if we ask of anything in the name of Christ, it will be given to us with hearts that seek after the will of God.

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And so that's what we ask for, Lord, a heart that desires that your will be done. Not our will, but your will on earth as it is in heaven.

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And we pray for those who are around us, our brothers and sisters in Christ, that we might be a benefit to them.

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We would recognize their needs and their longings and their struggles, that we might be able to pray for them to you, lifting them up in prayer, considering their needs even ahead of our own.

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We pray for those around us who are unbelievers. We would recognize their need for the gospel and that you would give us wise words that we could speak to them and into their present situation in a way that the

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Holy Spirit would make that way into their heart, breaking through a heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh.

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So they might hear with changed ears and understand this message of the gospel that they need to hear, that Christ came to save sinners, dying on the cross, rising again from the grave so that by his sacrifice and resurrection, we might have eternal life to all who believe.

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Keep us diligent in prayer that we would want to come before you, not trying to run away from you as Jonah did, but coming before you as our

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Lord Savior did himself, even in the garden of Gethsemane, saying, Lord, if it be your will, make this cup pass from me.

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Not my will be done, but your will be done. So even in our most difficult of circumstances, we come humbly to you and ask that your will be done in our lives.

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We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of several short books on the essential doctrines of the Christian faith.

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Topics include the deity of Christ, original sin, resurrection, Christ's incarnation, and many more.

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Find these books in our bookstore when you visit www .utt .com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in God's Word when we understand the text.