The Global Power of Local Prayer

Good morning, Harmony!

Last week as we began going through the book of 1 Timothy, we started off with chapter 1 and Paul drove home the necessity to guard the gospel, to celebrate the gospel, and to fight for the gospel. We were able to see Paul instruct Timothy, as well as all believers past, present, and future, to live our lives centered, or focused, on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today, Paul begins to give instruction more on what that should look like in the life of the believer.

And I am going to give a disclaimer right now, you may not like this weeks message.

And I say that because this week has been a challenge for me.

At the beginning of the year I looked forward to this series in 1 Timothy, I was excited about it - And I was really excited last week.

This week and looking forward to next week though, it’s a little bit more challenging.

But I don’t just preach what is comfortable, and that includes what is comfortable for me.

And today’s message, the very first thing that Paul tells us to do, he says look, keep your focus centered on the gospel, and the first thing you need to do is this.

And what amazes me today is that it doesn’t start off with something challenging. We aren’t traveling to somewhere to make some pilgrimage, we don’t have to shave our heads, trust me I wouldn’t unless it was already going, we don’t have to give a ton of money away to anyone as an act of piety. No, today, as Paul is instructing Timothy and believers all over, today Paul says we must begin in prayer.

Our main point for today as we begin chapter 2 of 1 Timothy is that:

Main Point: We must pray for and proclaim the gospel to all people because God desires their salvation.

We must pray for and proclaim the gospel to all people because God desires their salvation.

Now how hard is prayer?

Some would say that prayer is the easiest thing to do. After all, it is just talking to God, it requires no physical sacrifice. It requires no labor or effort from you at all.

But what about when its praying for the things or the people that you don’t like?

I watched a movie this past week, I’ve seen it several times, it’s a Christian film, called the Grace Card.

It takes place in Memphis, and you have these two police officers, one a pastor and an officer, the other a man struggling with keeping it all together because of an incident that occurred years before, where his son was tragically killed by a criminal running from the police.

Now there’s something that you need to understand about Memphis, and that something is that it is a racially charged place. The criminal was an African American, who killed the son of a white family, and the pastor-cop is an African American.

And so there is some tension. At one point in the movie the pastor-cop goes to his grandfather, a retired pastor, and during the exchange the grandfather has him grab a Bible off of the shelf, opens it up, and hands him a piece of paper, a note written from his great-grandfather, a slave in the mid 1800’s, to the slave owner who had to set them free.

And this letter said this - "I hereby promise to pray for you every day, ask your forgiveness, grant you the same and be your friend always.”

I won’t ruin the movie for you should you decide to watch it, but the premise of the movie is that we need to pray for those that we may not like, seek their forgiveness, grant them forgiveness, and treat them as a friend always.

Today we are just talking about that prayer part, and some of y’all probably aren’t going to like what Paul has to say here.

We begin reading in chapter 2, and Paul tells us to pray. Beginning in chapter 2, verse 1:

1 Timothy 2:1–8 CSB

1 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.

Let’s begin in prayer.

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As you can see, the prayer that Paul is talking about, it can be challenging. Paul says live lives that demonstrate that the gospel is the central point in your lives, and then he gets into it with prayer, and he gives us three reasons or three aspects to prayer for us today in the local church.

The first thing Paul provides us with is:

1. The initial CALL to prayer, vv. 1-2.

Paul says first of all - and it’s not first of all like that confrontational first of all you hear when you are in an argument with your spouse, Paul is just saying that this is of first importance. This is the very first thing that you should do, before anything else, and that is pray.

And Paul lists four characteristics of prayer, things to pray for - petitions, that’s our desires and our needs, prayers, or general talking with God, intercession, asking God to protect, and thanksgiving, being thankful for what you have - and then he says to do that for everyone.

Now, remember, this was a letter that was written, as chapter 1 tells us, to remind us to stay focused on the centrality of the gospel, to have Christ as the purpose in our lives.

Remember last week we said we must guard the gospel and celebrate the gospel and fight for the gospel - and now Paul is saying that the very first thing that we should make of our utmost importance is praying for everyone.

Now here is one of those words that we have to be careful with. That word everyone.

Because in theory, praying for everyone is easy. Paul isn’t saying pray for all those people that make it easy to pray for though.

Here Paul is saying all kinds of everyone. Those that are different from you. Those that are the same as you. Those in difficult situations, those that are in despair because of their leaders, and we look at this list of everyone so far and we think, yeah, that’s easy to do.

But Paul doesn’t say everyone that it is easy to pray for. He says pray for everyone. And this is that part that some aren’t going to like.

He drives it home more in verse 2, he says for kings and all those in authority over you. He says Timmy, you pray for those that are causing your affliction, those that are causing your pain.

And that becomes a lot more challenging.

Now this letter is to Timothy, who is in Ephesus, and just to point out a fact in the mix of this, when this letter was written, the emperor Nero would have been in charge, and Nero probably has one of the bloodiest track records when it comes to persecuting Christians.

And if I were Timothy I would have probably been thinking, you want me to pray for that?

That murderer, who has killed so many of my church family? That evil, destructive, demonic man who killed his own mother and used a fire that devastated Rome to further persecute Christians? You want me to pray for him?

The simple answer was yes, because when you finish out verse 2 it says, “so that we may leada tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

You know, that was almost a couple of thousand years ago, how are we doing today at praying for our leaders and those who have authority over us?

How are you doing at praying for your boss at work? Maybe you like your boss, and that’s easy, but maybe you don’t like your boss, and your prayers for them are to be fired or to choke on a grape or something.

That isn’t the type of prayers Paul is telling us to have.

Many Christians have an image today that we support a particular candidate or a specific type of candidate.

Before anyone accuses me of being political here, I’m not picking sides. I’m not telling you how to vote, who to vote for, or even why to vote.

We’ll pray at election time for our candidate to be the new leader, and then when we don’t get that leader, many of us will pray for an intervention or something to happen to that leader to remove them from office.

And this week, from looking at the news and some of the comments on Facebook and twitter, it appears that you may be close to getting your wish.

And I say wish because what you are praying for is not what Paul tells Timothy to pray for. That isn’t the type of prayer that Paul is talking about here. Paul is talking about a very different kind of prayer than we lately have been praying for our leaders.

What if instead of praying for our boss to be fired we prayed for them to know Christ?

What if instead of praying against the president or having FJB stickers we actually prayed for him to know Christ and to make wise decisions? What if instead of praying for his removal from office we prayed for his health? And this goes for every president, not just the one in office – what if we prayed for our president, like we used to, rather that just praying for the things we wanted?

Believe me, I’m not a fan of our president or the rest of our leaders, but Paul isn’t asking us to be their fans or even to agree with them - Paul simply tells us to pray for them. He’s actually telling us to pray for their well-being, pray for their petitions, pray for them to know God, pray for their safety and be thankful for God’s divine hand that has placed them in authority at this time.

Paul is taking that concept that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 5:44 to love your enemies and pray for them and he’s passing that on to Timothy.

And it’s not going to be easy. I’m not going to pretend that it is. I struggle with this, I’m sure Paul struggled with this, and Timothy struggled with this as Christians are being imprisoned, tortured, and killed all around them.

And I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, these prayers for all kinds of people, they aren’t necessarily going to stop the persecution, or the judgement that comes from the world on Christians.

This prayer that Paul is writing to Timothy about is one where we can find peace in the middle of the storm. When Paul says we do this so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives, he isn’t saying so that we can be doormats. He’s saying this so that in the middle of all of this turmoil, when things aren’t going my way or when things are crashing down all around us, we can have peace despite the persecution, despite the people or the problems that we face.

He’s saying that if you want to have true peace and true joy in life you’ve got to be gospel centered, you’ve got to know Jesus and know His peace that is able to give you everything you need in that situation.

And then you have to take that gospel-centeredness seriously, because when Jesus is first in your life you are able to look past the conflict, past the storm, past the addictions, past the world’s claims and see just what it means to have the peace that surpasses all understanding.

And then, even though it doesn’t make sense to us or to anyone around us, we are able to bow before a holy God and pray for those that hurt us, torment us, and persecute us.

If Paul had just stopped after verse 2, we would have a reason, or an end result to that prayer for our lives. Pray for all kinds of people, to include those that you hate or fail to love, so that you can have a peaceful life, a quiet and tranquil life.

But Paul doesn’t stop there for prayer, because next he gives us:

2. The holy MOTIVATION to prayer, vv. 3-6.

Paul says this praying for you leaders and your kings and all kinds of people, this is good and pleasing to God.

Its good and pleasing to God not because God wants to make everyone happy like some wish granter or some magic genie there to grant everyone’s wish, its good and pleasing because why church?

Because God wants everyone to be saved and to know the truth.

God loves you. God loves your enemies. God loves our president, every member of congress, even the ones we don’t agree with or who are enacting anti-Christian ethics and laws into our nation. God loves everyone, and His desire is for you and all of them to know Him and to want to be with Him. That would change your life and their lives. But He’s not going to force anyone to love Him.

Is life better when we trust Him and love Him? Yes, because not only is He the Creator and Sustainer of this vast universe, not only does He provide for my every need, not only does He give me grace and mercy even though I don’t deserve it, He also gives me hope when things are tough and the world is weighing down on us.

Would life be better if everyone in our lives trusted and loved Him? Maybe? I don’t know. But I can tell you that the motivation to pray for everyone doesn’t come from pleasing ourselves. It comes from a desire to please Him and to be obedient to His call to prayer. God wants everyone to know Him and His saving grace, He wants everyone to know the truth.

That’s His desire. He knows there are still going to be those that reject Him and choose to remain in their sin. Knowing that does not mean that we get to inflict our own will for who does and does not need to hear the gospel of Christ.

Last week I talked a lot about how we can’t be good enough or clean ourselves up enough or expect others to clean themselves up to receive the gospel or the Good News of Christ.

And if we’re honest, many of us could think of some people that we feel don’t deserve God’s saving grace.

And that is where that knowledge of the truth part comes in.

Paul says God wants everyone to be saved and for them to come to the knowledge of the truth.

What is that truth?

The truth is that none of us deserve it either! That’s the point - no one deserves His grace.

It may be hard to think about it, but you would still lack righteousness apart from Christ!

To push that home Paul here repeats the same concept that he did last week in verse 15 of chapter 1, where he said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.

Paul says here in verses 5 and 6 that the knowledge of the truth is this:

1 Timothy 2:5–6 CSB

5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

There is one God - there is only one holy and just God, and our sin separates us from Him. There is only one mediator, Jesus Christ, who was both God and man and could be the perfect Mediator. He was God in the flesh, walking among us, to experience and know of our weaknesses, that’s Hebrews 4:15:

Hebrews 4:14–15 CSB

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

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We have one God that must be Holy and Just, and we have one Mediator who in order to grant us a pardon from death gave Himself to redeem or pay the ransom for every person.

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God gives us our motivation to pray for every person, of every race, of every class, of every generation, of every background, of every kind, because He loves them and wants them to know the truth - Paul marries John 14:6 where Jesus says “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me” with the message of John 3:16 and says that God’s desire for every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth is for them to be saved from their own destruction.

God’s desire is that all, everyone, would know Him and would choose to be saved and walk in the truth that Christ came into the world to save sinners.

First of all, we need to be praying for them, and we need to be doing that because God’s desire is that everyone would be saved and know the truth of the Gospel of Christ.

When we heed the call to pray for everyone and we have the right motivation, that holy motivation, only then are we able to see:

3. The purposeful OUTCOMES to prayer, v. 7.

Now when we read verse 7, Paul is speaking about himself - he says:

1 Timothy 2:7 CSB

7 For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Now even though Paul is speaking about himself, and his own unique role in the gospel, much of this applies to each and every believer in Christ.

First Paul says for this he was appointed a herald or an announcer of the faith. That “for this” is talking about the gospel of Christ, so its “for this gospel I was appointed an announcer, or a messenger.”

And when we read the Bible and when we read just 1 Timothy it points us as believers to keep the Gospel as our focus and that gospel has appointed us as announcers and teachers in faith and in truth.

Paul is reminding us here that we are all responsible for announcing to people, who are distraught and broken and dying in their sin, that there is a Savior. Telling them that Christ has defeated death. Telling them that through Jesus they can be saved and made whole, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

Then once they have trusted in Jesus you are to teach them of the disciplines of Christianity - how to obey and follow Christ completely and to trust the Holy Spirit to guide and direct them in the newness of life with Christ.

Pastor Jeremy, all of that sounds kind of daunting, and I’m kind of a shy or introverted person.

Well, then let me just suggest that you start right where Paul is telling Timothy to start.

Paul is making this statement at the end of talking about prayer, this “first of all,” because he knows that it’s going to be hard to confront people and tell them about the gospel if you haven’t done it.

And so, Paul is saying that of primary importance is that you pray for everyone, making petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for them so that you may live a tranquil and quiet life, and in doing so, you’re going to notice that something happens.

You see, when we pray for people, especially those we have a problem with, that leads us to change and to reflect Him more. When we reflect Him more, we glorify Christ because it is Him and the Holy Spirit working in our lives and changing us‌

And when we do that, we tend to draw people to the gospel, because the Holy Spirit is leading us, and we are changed, and they see that. Not only that, when you are praying for them, it tends to soften their hearts, and the Holy Spirit, which is overflowing from you, is now beginning to work in their lives.

Does that mean that every wall will crumble at the first sight of your praying for them? No. Some might though. But most are going to take time.

Does that mean that every one of them is going to come to faith in Christ? No. God has no illusion that some are going to reject Him.

But Paul doesn’t start with telling us to look and choose the people that might come to Christ. He tells us to pray for everyone, with the motivation that God desires for all to know Him and to be saved, and to fulfill our purposeful outcomes of spreading the gospel like a fishing net rather than like a fishing line.

Paul opens with “first of all” and closes with “therefore.”

1 Timothy 2:8 CSB

8 Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.

We must pray for and proclaim the gospel to all people because God desires their salvation. That is lifting holy hands up to our God, seeking their salvation and intervention, for the purpose of glorifying our God.

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Would you stand and pray for that with me right now?

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Give us Clean Hands