1 Samuel 12:23 | "Ceasing to Pray" [ Love.Pray.Go. ]
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· 570 viewsSunday, February 26, 2023. 1 Samuel 12:23 | "Ceasing to Pray." Preached to Heritage Bible Chapel in Princeton, MA. This is the second sermon in a church-wide ministry focus series: "Love. Pray. Go."
Notes
Transcript
I. The Reading | 1 Samuel 12:19-25
I. The Reading | 1 Samuel 12:19-25
A reading from 1 Samuel 12:19-25. This is God’s Word:
19 Then all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.”
20 Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.
21 You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile.
22 For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.
24 Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.
25 But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away.”
1 Samuel 12:23 | “Ceasing to Pray”
1 Samuel 12:23 | “Ceasing to Pray”
II. The Exhortation
II. The Exhortation
The exhortation for us today is summed up in one word.
Last Sunday, that word was “LOVE.”
We desire, and God has made us to be, a church who loves one another.
Believers are known by our love for God and neighbor - A love overflowing from God’s own eternal love within Himself, a love that God demonstrated for us through the giving, life, death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus.
We LOVE.
The exhortation for today is similar; summed up with one word:
PRAY.
PRAY.
This is the second word to describe a three-fold ministry focus of: Love. Pray. Go. — Three commands, three gospel-responses to God’s amazing grace.
And God’s Word has a lot to say about this word “Pray.” So I asked Pastor Kevin —
“What is the message that you want our church to hear and then do with this one word?”
He said:
“Prayer holds everything together. It is the connecting point - the center.
God’s house is to be a house of prayer. We want to be known as a people of prayer.
To see people praying in the sanctuary together - not just telling people “I’m praying for you,” but praying right now.
— To be known as a place of prayer and as a PEOPLE WHO PRAY . . . “
With this in mind, I recalled the text before us: 1 Samuel 12, with the request of the people in verse 19, and the response of the prophet in verse 23.
1 Samuel 12:19 (NASB 95)
19 Then all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.”
… and the prophet responds:
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.
Brothers and sisters,
How often is a request made of us, and for us, to pray?
— And do we?
Do we follow through on our promises to pray for one another?
Do we persevere and see that prayer through as if our neighbor’s need were our very own?
OR — Do we cease to pray?
I suggest that praying is not our problem, but persevering in prayer is our problem.
We end. We stop. We abandon.
Samuel says “far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you...”
Samuel viewed it as a sin for him to cease praying for God’s people.
There are several kinds of prayers we may offer to the Lord.
This text clearly reveals a specific kind of prayer, the kind of prayer Samuel commits to pray for God’s people, and the kind of prayer we pray when we pray for others too — it is called Intercessory Prayer.
[ PRAY. ] A church who prays intercedes for one another.
Intercession is praying to God on behalf of, or even in the place of, other people.
Intercession is the prayer language of the Church!
Intercessory prayer is a cord of three strands not quickly torn apart (Ecc. 4:12).
For intercession brings together at least three participants in the act of praying:
ME, GOD, and YOU.
Look with me at verse 23 again. The prophet, Samuel, says to all the people —
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; ...
Three participants — and if God will helps us, I want to communicate three Gospel Provisions as we think about what it means to be a church who prays.
III. The Teaching
III. The Teaching
As for ME :
As for ME :
Listen to the way Samuel begins verse 23 with a strong emphasis on himself and his own commitment:
גַּ֣ם אָנֹכִ֗י
חָלִ֤ילָה לִּי֙
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me …
That word “Moreover” draws attention to this sentence and more particularly to Samuel himself.
Samuel speaks of being personally responsible … for praying (12:23a).
Samuel speaks of being personally responsible … for praying (12:23a).
The people came to him, God’s prophet, with a specific request: “Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we may not die…” (v.19)
This was a request Samuel was personally petitioned and thus, responsible for.
Samuel says “as for me, far be it from me...”
This is another way of revealing how emphatic Samuel was about his responsibility to pray.
To respond to the suggestion that he might cease to pray for them, he uses words like — Never! Far be it! God forbid!
Now, Samuel was a prophet, and prophets did intercede for the people as part of their prophetic office - as duties of their God appointed role.
The apostles likewise, in the New Testament understood the priority of their work to be a devotion to prayer and to the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4).
Pastors are certainly no exception, giving themselves to the prayer and instruction through shepherding the people in the ways of Lord.
But this responsibility to pray applies to believers too.
42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The book of Acts preserves some powerful examples of intercession by the church.
As we ask the question, What does it mean for us to be a church who prays — unceasingly?
That answer must include “me.” I must pray. I am responsible for praying.
(Not just “me” as the preacher, but all of us pointing to ourselves and saying “Me.”)
How does the Gospel provide “me” with the privilege of praying?
The Gospel’s Provision is Access.
The Gospel’s Provision is Access.
I can personally pray to God, without any other human mediator, without any other human priest, because Jesus gives me Access to the Father.
Hebrews 4:16 invites me and us —
16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[ … ]
Hebrews 10 says:
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
[ … ]
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all — that we may pray and draw near to God.
— Do we? Do I?
You might say, “Well Pastor Christopher, this sounds very legalistic - you are talking about things I am supposed to be doing. This sounds like law and commandments.
Brothers and sisters, praying is not law. It is a response to grace! If God has purchased us Access to Him, at such a high price, the blood of His Son, how can we with Him NOT pray?
Samuel says emphatically:
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me …
Samuel speaks of being personally responsible … for praying (12:23a).
Samuel speaks of being personally responsible … for praying (12:23a).
The Gospel’s Provision is Access.
The Gospel’s Provision is Access.
As a believer in Jesus, I am personally responsible for praying.
As a believer in Jesus, I am personally responsible for praying.
Do you believe that?
I have a personal responsibility for praying for you.
You have a personal responsibility for praying for me.
We each have a personal responsibility for praying for one another, because of what Jesus has done for us.
That’s the first participant in intercession, “As for ME.”
The second participant in prayers of intercession is God.
As for GOD :
As for GOD :
Samuel goes on to say in verse 23:
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me …
מֵחֲטֹ֣א לַֽיהוָ֔ה
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 … that I should sin against the Lord ...
Samuel speaks of being accountable to the LORD … for praying (12:23b).
Samuel speaks of being accountable to the LORD … for praying (12:23b).
This is an interesting statement. For as far as I can tell, it is an assumed accountability.
I haven’t yet found a verse where God tells Samuel directly that if he ceases to pray for Israel, that He has sinned.
I have not found a commandment that says “Thou shalt not cease praying, OR for you it is sin.”
But Samuel speaks of being accountable to the LORD for praying, and Samuel recognizes that praying for God’s people is such a necessity for them, and such an essential part of their relationship with God and faithfulness to Him, that for him to cease would be for him to sin - against the LORD.
I suggest that the problem for us as a church is not that we are sinning if we cease to pray, but rather that we don’t view prayer-less-ness in the same way Samuel did - as a sin against the Lord.
We don’t regard prayer as essential to our obedience to the faith. And it is!
Samuel said “I’ll pray for you” first — and “I’ll teach you” second.
The apostles in Acts 6:4 named prayer as their first devotion, then the ministry of the word second.
Because without praying God’s people won’t be helped by the teaching, and they won’t be able to receive it or obey it!
Samuel speaks of being accountable to the LORD…for praying, such that for him, ceasing to pray for God’s people is sin.
And we know that sin damages our relationship with God.
Samuel is speaking about prayer in relational terms — in terms of his responsibility in relationship with God.
So how then does the Gospel provide for our prayers of intercession in relationship with God? And the word that helps us is Adoption.
The Gospel’s Provision is Adoption.
The Gospel’s Provision is Adoption.
Samuel told the people:
21 You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile.
22 For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.
The Gospel says it this way:
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
God has not abandoned His people then, nor us now, and God will never forsake us! Because God has made us his own — and in Jesus He has adopted us as sons.
And we can cease praying no more than we can cease calling God our Father.
Jesus says:
Matthew 6:8 (NASB 95)
8 ...your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
The Gospel frees us from any need to petition God with meaningless repetition and many words, for in Jesus we are brought into a relationship with God as our Father, our Father already knows what we need before we ask.
The Scripture says:
8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
May I suggest that with God our Father, to ask Him once in prayer is like asking Him a thousand times, and to ask Him a thousand times is like asking Him once.
Because of our relationship with Him.
Our prayers are not heard because we don’t cease asking them - our prayers are heard and known because our relationship with the Father not cease - because of Jesus.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord...
Samuel speaks of being accountable to the LORD … for praying (12:23b).
Samuel speaks of being accountable to the LORD … for praying (12:23b).
Samuel is known as a great man of prayer, but He would rather that we see the great God of prayer!
Samuel’s responsibility for praying is bound to Samuel’s relationship with God. And the same is true for us.
The Gospel’s Provision is Adoption.
The Gospel’s Provision is Adoption.
Through the person and work of Jesus we are brought into an unceasing, eternal relationship with God as sons — and He as Father.
And as our Father He knows our needs — and searches our hearts by the Spirit who intercedes for the saints.
As a child of God, my Heavenly Father expects me to pray.
As a child of God, my Heavenly Father expects me to pray.
Do you believe this?
Again - this is not law. This is relationship! This is a response to the gospel of the grace of God who is working all things for our good as His children.
As for ME:
The Gospel’s Provision is Access.
As a believer in Jesus, I am personally responsible for praying.
As a believer in Jesus, I am personally responsible for praying.
As for GOD:
The Gospel’s Provision is Adoption.
As a child of God, my Heavenly Father expects me to pray.
As a child of God, my Heavenly Father expects me to pray.
…because of our relationship.
And now the last participant in the work of intercessory prayer:
As for YOU :
As for YOU :
That is, the other person.
Samuel says:
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me …
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 … that I should sin against the Lord ...
מֵחֲדֹ֖ל
לְהִתְפַּלֵּ֣ל בַּעַדְכֶ֑ם
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 ... by ceasing to pray for you;
This is the point of intercessory prayer — to meet the needs of the community.
Samuel speaks of the community’s need … for praying.
Samuel speaks of the community’s need … for praying.
Such that he describes their need as one that is unceasing...
This is not a “one and done” prayer, but one that exists in ongoing relationship with their God.
The “you” referred to in this case is given to us in v.19.
1 Samuel 12:19 (NASB 95)
19 Then all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.”
Samuel is interceding for “all the people.”
And Samuel’s prayer for them is linked to his instruction to them.
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.
The community needs God’s help to obey His Word. Without prayer, without God, the people would not fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all their hearts.
Brothers and sisters -
The same is true for us, the Church.
We not only must pray for one another, but we also must pray for all the church.
We can become so narrowly focused in our prayers that we miss the bigger picture.
My daughter, Addison taught me this. Each night in our family prayers before bed, she prays to God: “Please bless the Church.”
What a simple and yet appropriate prayer for all the people!
We all need God’s help.
And for this reason,
The Gospel’s Provision is Assistance.
The Gospel’s Provision is Assistance.
This too, is the work of the Holy Spirit among us.
The Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, and also helps us bear the burdens of one another, which certainly involves prayer.
1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
One of the ways we bear one another’s burdens, is by interceding for one another in prayer to our Father — and this is done as a spiritual people.
The Bible describes the work of the Holy Spirit as our Helper. Our Advocate.
And just as all the people of Israel requested and needed the prayers of Samuel to persevere in faithfulness to the Lord, so do we!
As a partaker of the Holy Spirit, the saints persevere through my praying.
As a partaker of the Holy Spirit, the saints persevere through my praying.
After encouraging the church to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, and to put on the full armor of God — Ephesians goes on to say —
18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
Samuel says:
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me …
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 … that I should sin against the Lord ...
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 ... by ceasing to pray for you;
1 Samuel 12:23 (NASB 95)
23 … but I will instruct you in the good and right way.
As for ME:
The Gospel’s Provision is Access.
This is the work of Jesus by His life, death on the cross for sins, burial and resurrection to life again.
As a believer in Jesus, I am personally responsible for praying.
As a believer in Jesus, I am personally responsible for praying.
As for GOD:
The Gospel’s Provision is Adoption.
This is our relationship with the Father through the Son.
As a child of God, my Heavenly Father expects me to pray.
As a child of God, my Heavenly Father expects me to pray.
As for YOU:
The Gospel’s Provision is Assistance.
This is the work of the Spirit, helping us in the way.
As a partaker of the Holy Spirit, the saints persevere through my praying.
As a partaker of the Holy Spirit, the saints persevere through my praying.
[ PRAY. ] A church who prays intercedes for one another.
May God help us Pray.