Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning and welcome to Ephesus Baptist Church.

I’m Wayne Sullivan and i’ve been the pastor here for a few great months now!

I want to welcome everyone this morning.

It’s nice to see so many familiar faces.

But, i’d like to especially welcome those of you who are here for the first or second time.

Know that you are surrounded by some pretty amazing people.

This is a community on a mission.

We don’t all share the same story; in fact, we come from many different paths.

But here, we are one people giving our all to love god, love others, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.

I invite you to sign in and let us know you were here.

We have a connect card in the pew in front of you.

Please be sure to include your name, email, and address.

Also, notice your neighbors’ names.

You just might make a friend today.

We have a great prayer team who stand ready to lift you up in prayer.

If you have prayer request, you can leave those on the connect card as well.

As we are all signing in, I want to let you know why we ask this each week.

It’s not so we can bombard you with information.

And it’s definitely not so that we can stop by unannounced and invite ourselves into your living room and test you on your biblical knowledge.

We simply want to provide you with the information you need.

We want to help you decide if this is a place you’d like to become a part of.

So, for those of you new to Ephesus Baptist Church… welcome!

I hope you will find the people sitting next to you are real, and really great.

Thank you for visiting with us today!

Scripture Memory

Opening Scripture Reading

Introduction

How are we doing today?

Are we thankful?

I really hope so, because if you are in union with Christ, you have every reason to be thankful!

Most of us love to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, but who does not get just a little weary from:

All the planning and preparation,

All the shopping and cooking,

All the events and parties,

All the people, our family, our friends, our coworkers,

5.

All the people in need.

Some know they are in need, others don’t.

This one can really weary us if, in addition to all of what I just said, we are seeking to help others during this season: and that is the indifference to Christ, and the lack of hope in the Salvation He offers that is so prevalent in our Culture today.

If you are tired and weary of all of these things this morning, listen carefully, Jesus wants your soul to hear these words this morning:

Last week we began a new sermon series called “Are We Thankful?

We looked at the question, “Are we thankful for being fashioned or made in God’s Image?

We learned that God made every man and woman, every boy and girl in His own Image, after His own likeness.

Even after the Fall, the image still exists and is present on every member of humanity.

We learned that God mounted a rescue mission to save humanity and restore His image.

That mission not only saves you and me, it also enlists us to serve alongside of our Father in completing that mission for others.

God’s desire is that all people will be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

The starting point for us is not in developing strategies, but in prayerful dependence upon God as we labor with him in this great privilege.

That is going to be the theme of our passage this morning as we ask ourselves, “Are we thankful for prayerful dependence?”

Now, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab God’s infallible Holy Word. 1 Timothy, Chapter 2 is where we will get started this morning.

From our passage this morning, I would like to share with you four benefits of living with a prayerful dependence upon God our Savior!

1.Prayerful Dependence Allows Us to Pray for Everyone.

Context:

Chapter one of 1 Timothy is basically an exhortation to confront error and heresy in the church, to take a stand for the Gospel, to defend the Gospel, to guard the Gospel and to proclaim the Gospel.

Paul has just written to Timothy of the wonderful grace of God revealed in Christ who “came into the world to save sinners” (1:15), followed by a remembrance of two men who had professed Christ (1:20), and yet whose faith became “shipwrecked.”

It must have reminded him of the many people who still had not heard of Christ, and also of the dangers inherent in the life of faith.

So what we have here this morning is not just a way to organize the church, but how to be diligent guardians of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before a world desperately in need of the Hope it offers.

Listen to God’s heart pouring out of Paul this morning!

Explanation:

Paul’s says to Timothy, to the church at Ephesus, and by extension to us, pray!

When Paul says, “First of all,” he is stressing not the sequence in an outline, but the overall place of importance prayer plays in the mission of the Church.

Ephesus we are on a mission to share the only message that can heal, that can rescue, that can save.

We are surrounded by people in Nash County who don’t know Christ.

It is an enormous mission.

What do we do?

Where do we start?

Paul say’s we are to start by praying, praying evangelistically.

By developing a prayerful dependence on God that allows us to pray for everyone, for all people!

He tells Timothy, “You want to have influence on people who are destined for an eternal hell around you?

You want to have influence on people all around the world, even kings and rulers in high positions?

You want to have influence?

Pray.

You want your life to count for what God is doing among people all around you? Pray.

Who do we pray for?

Everyone who is still under the wrath of God, every needy sinner—without prejudice towards age, religion, race, nationality, or social position.

They must all receive our prayers without distinction of importance.

Let your prayer life be diverse.

In verse 2, Paul adds the phrase, “for kings and all who are in high positions.”

Now, this is really amazing when you think about it.

Paul was writing this under the reign of Roman emperor Nero.

Nero persecuted Christians vehemently.

He even bound our brothers and sisters, hung them from poles, and set them on fire, so that they functioned as street lights in Rome.

In fact, the reality is there were few, if any, Christian leaders in high positions in Paul’s day.

Christian kings did not really exist.

So, Paul is saying very intentionally to pray for even these leaders.

Why?

Even under Nero’s harsh rule, the Roman Empire provided a useful structure for extending the reach of the Gospel.

Roman roads and trade routes paved the way for the spread of the Gospel.

A prayerfully dependent church, prays for all people, including those we don’t like and those who may want to do us harm, because we have allowed our dependence on God to become greater than our situation.

Prayerful dependence allows us to pray for everyone.

The reach of the gospel is dependent on the prayer’s of God’s people in the local church.

Are we thankful for prayerful dependence?

2.Prayerful Dependence Amends Our Lives.

The purpose of praying specifically for kings and authorities is due to them having a direct bearing on our freedom to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

Paul says,

Paul desired that believers live “peaceful and quiet lives.”

He did not mean that life would be free from all conflict and persecution.

Christianity has spread rapidly even under conditions of severe opposition and persecution.

In 1 Thess 4:11–12 Paul urged the Thessalonian believers to live a quiet life in such a way as to win the respect of unbelievers.

Strife and discord in the church causes outsiders to scoff at our churches in a way that prevents the spread of God’s glorious Gospel.

Paul also refers to the godly conduct of believers with the terms “godliness and holiness.”