Power of Praying in God's Will.. Part 2

Things we know are God's will to pray for - part 2

So last week we started a 2-week sermon on Things we know are in God's will to pray. We covered praying for someone to be saved, and we talked about praying against temptation. So tonight, we're going to cover a couple more of the things that scripture tells us is always in God's will for us to pray.

As you know this is the last Wednesday night of the year of 2022 and also we are finishing the prayer series tonight, but that does not mean that we have exited the season of prayer, right?

The prayer series is something that God led us, as a church, into in our Tuesday night Bible studies and also our Wednesday night sermons, but the Lord has also had us in a season of prayer and so just because the series of prayer is ending doesn't mean the season is ending.

So, all that being said, we're going to start out tonight with the fact that Jesus Himself tells us to pray for our enemies.

In Matthew 5:43-45

Matthew 5:43–45 CSB

“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

, Jesus begins to talk about people not being their neighbors; He's talking about their enemies. Jewish people, in this day and time, generally looked upon all the uncircumcised as not their neighbors, but also their enemies.

So, all the people surrounding them, who were not Jewish, who were not circumcised, were their enemies, and they did not consider them their neighbors.

So, this is one of the reasons why Jesus’ teaching is so radical, because they had such religiosity, and such arrogance, in the way they lived and thought about being Jewish as the chosen ones of God.

Jesus is now basically humbling them and saying, hey I don't care who is circumcised or uncircumcised… you love them and you pray for them, even if you consider them your enemies.

But this is also good for the context of our lives today. Whoever we consider our enemy, or whoever persecutes us, we need to love them and pray for them.

Jesus is a Jewish rabbi and what He's teaching is radical to these people… not radical as a way we think of it as crazy and in your face, but it's radical in a loving way. All their lives they've heard - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth - love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But here in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is telling them to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you. The ones who are the enemies and who are persecuting are one in the same, so He's telling us to pray for our enemies, and He finishes that statement with… so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He's telling us that children of God and Christian people do not retaliate, and do not hate people who hate them.

We pray for our enemies. We love our enemies and that is what sets us apart as children of our Father in heaven.

And he's telling them that the Father causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, meaning that when we love our enemies we are imitating God, who shows love towards His enemies, by sending rain on the just and the unjust.

Jesus goes on to say, for if you love those who love you what reward have you? We should regard it no virtue if we merely return the love that is given to us. There are so many reasons why more should be expected from Christians than others.

We claim to have something others do not have. We claim to be renewed, repentant, and redeemed by Jesus Christ. We have a power the others do not have. We are able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, and we have a better future than others because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So yes, it is difficult at times to love our neighbors, to pray for our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. Yes, but that's exactly what separates us from the world. This we should regard very, very highly and something we need to do better at.

So, I have several more things that I could have put in this sermon, but I was praying about which ones, because I could only really preach about two within the time limit that I have.

The Lord showed me how praying for our sanctification is a perfect example of how God enables and equips us to pray for our enemies. We cannot pray for our enemies and the ones who persecute us unless we are in an up-to-date 24/7/365 sanctified, set-apart for the work of God relationship with Jesus.

So, it is the will of God for us to be praying for our brothers and sisters, to be seeking sanctification, and for the ones who have already been sanctified, we pray for them to continue to grow in their sanctification.

I want to look at 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Paul is saying I'm thankful for the growth that I'm seeing in you, but he said do this even more, meaning that they needed to abound more and more in their walk with the Lord, and that would please God.

1 Thessalonians 4:1–8 CSB

Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing—do this even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

It means that Christian maturity is never finished on this side of eternity. No matter how far a Christian has come into love and holiness, he or she can still abound more and more. We must understand that the purpose of our walk, and of our manner of living, is to please God, not ourselves. When we have this basic understanding, it becomes a lot easier for us to follow instruction regarding Biblical morality and it makes more sense.

It's not about our pleasures, our wants, our needs. It's about Jesus Christ and what He calls and commands us to do, when He calls and commands us to do it, and how He calls and commands us to do it.

What He calls and commands us to do always leads us to be better people, and it also leads us to bless others, to be a blessing to our enemies, and to be a blessing to the ones who persecute us. It leads to praying for our loved ones, and praying for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, to be more Christ-like, and to be sanctified holy to be set apart specifically for the work of God.

It is God's will for your sanctification. Meaning also that it is God's will for us to pray for our brothers and sisters to be sanctified. In verse 2 Paul says “for you know the commandments that we have given you through the Lord Jesus, these were not suggestions from the pin of Paul. These are commandments from the Lord Jesus and must be received that way.

So, it is God's commandment and God's will for us to be sanctified holy.

I've given you some definitions, but sanctification is Christlikeness. We in the Church of the Nazarene believe, and know it to be true, that sanctification is a definite second work of grace, that it will be a moment in your walk with the Lord, that you step into this next level of commitment. It's like all of a sudden God is everything to you. He's truly number one. You truly despise sin. You're not sinning repetitively like before you were sanctified. Is there still sin, Yes, but it is not nearly in the way it was before you stepped into your sanctification.

You see God is so cool because He tells us to pray for our enemies. He tells us to turn the other cheek. He tells us to pray for the ones who persecute us, and in our flesh, without his Holy Spirit, and without this sanctification, it is impossible for us to do it, but He tells us to do these things -knowing that if we truly surrender to Him, and we truly are sanctified and/or seeking out that sanctification, that He in the form of the Holy Spirit will enable you to do the things that he tells you to do.

Spirit Enablement Illustration

The Spirit enables us to live the way God tells us to live, It enables us to witness. It enables us in every way as a Christian. It's like a car, it has brand new tires, leather seats, great sound system, GPS, has a big engine in it with all the bells and whistles, but without a battery it's dead. The sound system is dead, the GPS won't work, and the engine won't start.

Just like us humans we have a body, we have a soul, but until the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, we're dead! But when we ask Jesus to come into our lives, it's like putting the battery in a car. The battery enables everything to work the way it is designed to work. The battery enables the starter to turn the engine on, the battery enables the sound system and GPS to work. It brings the car to life, just like the Holy Spirit does, it enables us to live in the way God tells us to live, it gives us the words to speak and the boldness to speak them with. See, without the Spirit we are dead people trying to become alive people, but it's impossible… but that Spirit brings life, and it enables everything else in our lives to work properly!