A Call to Prayer

Ethan Sayler

Lennox Ebenezer Presbyterian Church

1 Timothy • Sermon • Submitted 9 months ago • Presented 9 months ago

1 Timothy 2:1–7

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1 Timothy 2:1-7

Are you a person of prayer?

How do you respond to crisis, to blessing… Praise and prayer, or fear and finally!

Watching the news - Anxious, news junkie - or turn and pretend nothing is happening - or do you pray

Paul’s first charge - Pray!

The Meaning of Prayer

Defining prayer

Not New Apostolic Reformation - “Declaring and Decreeing”

God is waiting for you to pray so he can act, and you have the power of God to speak your reality, your desire, into being, by declaring it in prayer. Prayer isn’t so much asking, but storming the gates of heaven and telling God what he must do -

“Praying “if it be your will” is weak and cowardly” Prayer is…

Westminster Larger Catechism # 178

What is prayer? Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of his Spirit; with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

1 Timothy 2:1 - How Paul describes prayer?

Supplication - making requests for specific needs

Prayer - bringing our needs before God

Intercession - appealing on behalf of others

Thanksgiving - praising God for his provision

This isn’t meant to define specific types of prayer, or to designate which types of prayers should be prayed, but to show the posture/attitude of prayer. To pray is to come humbly, seeking God’s provision for our daily needs, and for the needs of others, with thanksgiving in all things.

Prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or bending his will to ours, but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to his.

John Stott

What Prayer Does

Prayer puts us in right relation with God

His is God, the provider, the source of everything we need and desire. Prayer reminds us that we depend upon Him. As we look to God in prayer, we are worshiping, honoring, and giving Him all the glory.

The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer.

R. A. Torrey

Prayer puts us in right relation with one another

We are all beggars, coming to one God, through one Lord and mediator, Jesus Christ…

Whatever differences we have, they are to be laid aside when we go before the Lord in prayer

The Ministry of Prayer

What should our prayers look like?

We are to pray for All People

For all people:

For those you know and love, for the fellowship of believers, for missionaries and minsters…

Even for those you disagree with, those that have frustrated or disappointed you…

“No one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.” John Chrysostom

Prayer replaces hostility with compassion.

For Kings and those in authority

Calvin - not only to pray for those who are already worthy, but we must pray to God that he may make bad men good.

“Christians who do not pray for their political leaders tend to be… cynical about their political opponents and rejoice when they fall into disgrace.” (Ryken)

What do we pray for?

Pray that we might lead peaceful and quiet lives.

Peaceful and Quiet

Paul knew what could come in Ephesus. Acts 19 - Paul had been there 2 years, there was a riot there, but city clerk intervened, dispersing the crowd.

Paul wasn’t saying we are to pray for for an undisturbed life where we can mind our own business, but for the government to keep the peace, ensuring liberty, so that we might preach faithfully.

Essential Church movie: Grace Church, John MacArthur, resisting the efforts of the California gov’t. to shut down all churches during COVID, meanwhile praying for those in leadership.

Je. 29:7 “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.”

Godly and Dignified

Godly - reverential, god-centered living

Dignified - ethical, neighborly living

To love the Lord, and to love our neighbor

We are to pray for the lost

“It is God’s desire that all might be saved, coming to the knowledge of the truth”

What “all” means…

Not Universalism - that all will be saved - or Arminianism - that God wills all to be saved, but its up to us if we will believe, as if our will could out-determine God’s sovereign will.

All: Some in Paul’s day would have imposed limits on who should, and who should not, be prayed for, who can, and who cannot be saved.

All here means all kinds - Jew, Gentile, Slave and Free, Men and Women, Rich and Poor. There is no distinction, we are to pray for all.

The gospel is extended to all - so that from every tribe and tongue, every nation and people, God would call men and women to him, that they would come to saving faith in Christ

The gospel revisited: There is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave his life as a ransom for all…

Matthew 20:28 “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

Christ Jesus paid the ransom, to set us free from sin and wrath, He is the only mediator between God and man.

We pray for the lost, that they may come to faith and salvation

When we pray that the Lost would come to a saving knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, when we work to share the gospel, we are engaging in that which is at the very heart of God.

The Motivation for Prayer

The struggle to pray?

Going back through old journals - from when I started in ministry 22 years ago - my struggle to be consistent in prayer…

What motivates our prayer

we pray because prayer is good

Prayer is praiseworthy… It is worshipful; Prayer reminds us that God is God and we are not; Prayer allows us to cast our cares upon God who cares for us; Prayer puts orients our lives godward; Prayer is a virtuous work on behalf of others

We pray because prayer pleases God

Charles Spurgeon - “It is very pleasing to a father, as you who are parents can testify, to see his child in full sympathy with him, and anxious to help him in his work. Though he can do but little, and that little feebly and faultily, yet his eagerness to work with his father, and for his father, gives his father joy. Even thus does our heavenly Father take pleasure in us, and in our desires for his glory... Our desires that souls may be saved, and that the church may prosper, are so much in accordance with the mind of God that they must be a sweet savour unto him. Therefore, brethren, let us pray on as long as breath remains. If prayer pleases God, it should always please us.”

We pray because Christ is our Mediator

Christ is our mediator between us and God - that is he is interceding, supplicating for us

Heb 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”