Pastoral Epistles Pt.3

This morning we're going to be continuing our sermon series on looking at the Pastoral Epistles. Throughout this series, we've looked at several things in depth. We started by looking at grace. We had to lay the foundation of what we were going to talk about. And we started by looking at God's grace. We looked at mercy. And last week we looked at the teachers, the leadership of the church, the elders and deacons. And at the end, last week, we also talked about some false doctrine, the dangers of false doctrine, the things that we can encounter from time to time.

Throughout our study of first and Second Timothy and also the book of Titus, a lot of things have come into play, and there's one more topic that I want to talk about that is very special here. Is actually mentioned multiple times in these books. The topic is prayer. I know a lot of times we may talk about prayer a ton. You can't talk about prayer too much. You can't pray too much. I've even heard people say, well you all pray too much in your church service. That's not possible. That's not possible at all. Prayer is extremely important. We have to be in communication with God no matter what. It's not something that we should be doing every now and then. Prayer is something that should be a habit in our lives. It should be something that we are doing every single day.

Last week we talked about prayer a little bit with some verses from James. And what we're going to look at some continuation on that a little bit today as well. We looked at James 5 some verses through 15. Well, today here in just a little bit, we'll look at verses 16 through 20. We'll see a little bit more of what James says about prayer. But one thing that's obvious throughout all of Paul's books is he wants us to pray. He wants us to pray all of the time.

Let's start this morning, but look at First Timothy chapter 2 verses one through 8. It says, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers and petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life and all goodness and dignity. This is good, and. Acceptable in the sight of our God and Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men. And the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony. Given at the proper time for this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling the truth and I'm not lying. That as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth, therefore I want all men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.”

So several things that Paul is mentioning here. First of all, he wants us all to pray and to pray for everyone. Now, I don't think any of us could possibly say that we have run out of things to pray for. In our world today, in our society today, in our Nation Today, there's all kinds of things that we can pray for every single day. In our church here today, we have prior lists in the. Back we have a prayer box in the back as well, full of names. We don't have to know the need. We don't have to even know the name to pray for them. God knows the need. God knows the name. He knows them personally. We need to pray.

Now I've said this many times before, but it's true. The people whose names are in that prayer box and on that prayer list are there because either they did or someone else close to them that knew them had the faith. That God could answer the prayer. They had the faith to ask someone to pray for them. They had the faith for them to put the name in that box, for them to have someone put the name on the prayer list. You see, they had faith that prayer works. They also had faith that this church would pray.

Now I'm going to ask you, what do we want our church known for? You know, we talked about this when we talked about discipleship. Do we want our church known for a Church of Prayer? Do we want our church now in the community, a church that is a Church of service? What do we want our church known for? I've had people in the community come up and ask me. You might find out I'm the preacher here at New Hope. They asked me and they they tell me. Your church praise. That's good to hear. It's true. It's what we should be known in the community for. A church that prays. A church that when they pray, God answers.

Paul was telling us that we need to not only pray for everyone, but we need to pray for all people. And when I say everyone. When I say all people, that means everybody is is all inclusive. Sometimes we may not like someone, Sometimes we may not like their policies. Probably afford them anyway. It's OK to pray for somebody we don't necessarily like. You know, that's what we should be doing. It's OK to pray for somebody that we don't really like their policies. Whether that's somebody local, whether that's our neighbor, whether that is a politician, no matter what it is, it's OK to pray for them. That's what we're supposed to do. I love this quote from a man named DA Carson, he wrote. All of us would be wiser if we would resolve to never put people down except on our prayer lists.

Well, wouldn't that be better off if we would all do that? If we would all stop bashing each other, If we would all stop putting each other down? The only time we put someone down is. When we rattle their name down to the brain. How many of us could do better job at that? I'm sure all of us could.

The next thing I want to mention here real quick, God wants us all to be saved. Verse four said plainly, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? That's plain. It's simple. We need to pray for the lost. When's the last time we did that? When's the last time we prayed for somebody who doesn't know Christ? This is something we need to do every single day because folks, I've told you this time and time again, we don't know when our time will run out. We don't know when our time will be over. Pray. Daily.

And I told you he's going to look in the Book of James chapter 5 again real quick, but let's look at verses 16 through 20. Now last week we talked about verses 1314 and 15 where he talked about calling on the elders to pray. If anyone is sick, if anyone is suffering, call on the elders to pray. Let's see what James continues with here. Verses 16 through 20 it says, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, the earth produced its fruit. My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a Sinner from the air of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Did you see last week I talked about calling on the elders and having them pray for you? This week we're talking about everybody, every single person. Pray for one another. Verse 16 conveys your sins. Pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. How often are we praying? How often are we thanking God? How often are we praying for those who are lost? How often are we praying for our enemies?

How often are we praying in the storm when things are going bad? And most of the time, that's natural. That's when we turn to God the most. Sometimes we need a reminder. We can praise God in the storm. We can pray in the storm. Want to look at a very tough storm that Paul and Silas went through? Acts chapter 1622 through 30. It says, “The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off of them, and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely, and he, having received such a command through them, into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke, he saw the prison doors opened, and he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice. Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And he called for the lights and rushed in. Trembling with fear. He fell down before Paul and silence. And after he brought them out, he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Did you notice what happened here? They praised God in the storm. They prayed through the storm. How many times have we been in a similar situation now? Maybe we wasn't in the 1st century prison. I understand that. But how many times have we went through a very challenging time? How many times have we went through probably the hardest time in our lives? Did we turn to God or did we turn away? You see, Paul isn't just suggesting that we pray. He isn't saying that we need to pray, and they're not doing it himself. He lived the life of prayer. He lived the life of service. He lived the life that he is telling us to live. We need to realize that. It's not just a suggestion, he's telling us to follow his example.

Because just in this story, here in Acts chapter 16, they beat him with rods. They threw them into prison. After they had been beaten, after they had been thrown into prison, after all that they had been through, they were praying, they were singing songs of praise to God. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do that same thing today? Wouldn't it be nice if our faith was that strong? That no matter what, we were OK. No matter what was happening, we were good because we were serving God. We were preaching His Word. We were telling people about Christ.

Right about that time, an earthquake opened the prison. And it's obvious that this was a scenario that frightened the guard because he took out his sword and he was going to kill himself because he thought that all these prisoners he was in charge of had got loose. He thought they'd all escaped. Then Paul told him, Hold up a minute. Wait, we're all here. Then the guard asked him what must I do to be saved?

Now, a lot of times we just stop there. Let's look at verses 31 through 34. It says, “They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him, together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of midnight and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and his house. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.”

Now like I said, a lot of times we stop at verse 30. We stopped there and we say ohh it was great. The jailer wanted to know how to be saved. He was probably saved. Well if you look at those other 4 verses, it gets better than that. Not only him, but him and his entire household. Do you see what happens when God is involved? When God is involved, things change. When God is involved, things happen. This is just one example, there's all kinds of examples of this in Scripture.

Let's move back to the Book of Second Timothy chapter one for a second look at verses 3 through 7. It says, “I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did. Because I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day, longing to see you even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you which dwell in your grandmother Lois and your father Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through laying on of my hands for God. Has not given us a spirit of timidity. The power, love and discipline.”

I don't know if you caught this or not, but verse three, the first verse that we looked at there, Paul. Say he's praying for Timothy both night and day. He's sharing with Timothy some things that come to his mind, some things that he wanted to share with him because he would know his grandmother, his mother. This intimate conversation, if you will, this intimate letter. To Timothy. One thing that is always wonderful when I'm reading these verses. Paul wants Timothy to remember the gift of God. Verse 6 says For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God.

That's what we need to do today. We need to remember the gift of God. Sometimes we get complacent and we forget about it. Sometimes we get complacent and we don't want to hear what God has done for us. We don't want to hear everything that He has done. We don't want to hear about His gift. Don't forget the gift of God. Don't forget the gift of salvation, the opportunity that He has given us to be saved. Don't forget our faith. When we get down and we get out, remember our faith. Remember grace, remember mercy, Remember love.

Remember the situation Paul was in when he wrote this? He wrote this letter while he was in prison in Rome. The most biblical scholars and historians of the time, they believed he was probably in a dark dungeon. This was when the emperor Nero had begun major persecution of Christians, somewhere around AD 64. By our standard. Not really any standard. Paul was going through a hard season, a hard time. I'm sure he knew what the end would be as well. I'm sure he speculated what the end was going to be for him. But he wrote this letter to Timothy. And even during that tough time, even during that time in prison. Paul said I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day. But we need to pray often. No matter what, pray often.

We can't talk about prayer that looking at Matthew 6 verses 9 through 15. Probably familiar with this. You were like me. We learned this in Bible school when I was a child. The Lord's Prayer. He taught us how to pray. A lot of times we put this off and we teach our children, but we don't ever think about it ourselves. Folks, this Lord's Prayer doesn't apply just to children. Applies to all of us as well. Let's look at these verses.

It says, “pray then in this way. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day Our Daily Bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. Lead us nodded to temptation, but deliver us from evil. Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. Or if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Those are some tough verses there, if we give them the justice that it deserves. Not only the Lord's Prayer teaching us how to pray, but those two verses after. If you forgive others, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you don't, your father will not forgive you. Now folks, I don't know about you, but that's black and white. What are we going to do? Are we going to forgive others? Are we going to pray for them? Are we going to be there for them? Are we going to serve God? We not.

Just want to recap just a few things that we talked about this morning. We talked about prayer in every step and every aspect of prayer. Remember to pray for everyone, even the people we don't agree with, even the people that we probably don't like. Remember we're told to love them. We're told to help them. We're told in the scripture to pray for them. Do we do it? Pray for those that are lost. Pray for everybody. The second thing that we talked about was to pray through the storm. And we all know that the storms of life will come. We all know that there will be tough seasons in life. In Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 says there's a season for everything. Pray through the storm and pray through those seasons. And pray often. I can't stress enough. Pray all the time, Pray often.