Pray For Me

Romans 15:30–33 ESV

I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

1. We Must Pray for One Another

Appeal is a call to come alongside another, to join them

By the power that belongs to Jesus

By the love we all experience toward one another by the Holy Spirit

Strive with me in prayers

To join someone in a common effort

To fight/contend along with someone

But who are we fighting?

We never trying to rend from God’s unwilling hand some benefit

Romans 8:32 ESV

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

We are only fighting ourselves in prayer

2. Deliver Us From Evil

Persecution should be expected

John 15:18–19 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

We should pray for deliverance, rescue

Matthew 6:13 ESV

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Because we know this is God’s will

A common theme in the Bible — 17 times in the NT

146 times in the Septuagint

God is the rescuer

We might have persecutors right now

We certainly can pray for our own sanctification

3. Let Us Find Favor

4. Fill Us With Joy

Conclusion

Paul was in chains but his life was spared

Paul was never thanked for his gift but later accepted

Paul came to Rome with joy, wrote prison epistles, Philippians