“Perspectives on Prayer - 3”

A poll conducted by LifeWay Research found that many of us are very picky about who we will pray for. For instance, the poll revealed that we typically pray for …

Family and friends 82 percent of the time

Our own problems and difficulties 74 percent of the time

Our enemies 37 percent of the time

Government leaders 12 percent of the time.

Strangely enough, 36 percent of survey participants said they typically pray for financial prosperity, 21 pray to win the lottery, and 13 percent typically pray for their favorite sports team to win.

Today when we pray what will we say? In other words when we pray what is it that we pray for? Do you remember that what we are thankful for betrays what is really in our hearts? Here is something else… Do you know that what we pray for does also betray what is in our hearts? Take a moment and really think about what you pray for. Is it in line with what Christ tells us to pray for? Is it in line with what the Apostle Paul prays for? Taking time to study the prayers of Paul the apostle brings a convicting and sobering reality. Last week we looked at the foundations of our prayers, today we will look at the petitions of our prayers.

A poll conducted by LifeWay Research found that many of us are very picky about who we will pray for. For instance, the poll revealed that we typically pray for …

Family and friends 82 percent of the timeOur own problems and difficulties 74 percent of the timeOur enemies 37 percent of the timeGovernment leaders 12 percent of the time.

Strangely enough, 36 percent of survey participants said they typically pray for financial prosperity, 21 pray to win the lottery, and 13 percent typically pray for their favorite sports team to win.

2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 NLT

So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever.

Worthy Petitions

The Goal of His Prayer

According to Grace

The first thing we will look at is 2 of the petitions of Paul with the foundations of his thanksgiving for love, faith, and perseverance. The second point of exploration will be the 2 ultimates ends for what Paul petitions. Finally, we will see how all of this is founded and dependent on that wonderful thing called grace upon grace.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to become confused with prayer and what it is supposed to do to us, it is the light of the Word of God that will teach us and remind us of what it is to to come to the Lord in supplication and make our requests known to the King of kings on the throne of grace.

I. Worthy Petitions

- What should we be praying for?

A. We looked at what we should have in mind as we pray. Paul says it in this passage. With this in mind. A heart of thanksgiving for faith, love, and perseverance. Thankful for spiritual growth in the people. What are thankful for tells all what it is we really value. So with this in mind we pray … pray what? Paul shows us his worthy petitions. If we are grateful for the most important things, and determined to live with our eternal destiny uppermost in mind, what kinds of things will we pray for?

B. Petition 1. That God will make us worthy of the calling. Before we get too far I should explain a common misunderstanding of this scripture. This does not mean that God will make us good enough for us to be worthy to be saved. Paul definitely does not mean that. Was he not persecuting and killing the church when the Lord called him? He is not praying that God will somehow become worthy to be called by God.

C. Since these Thessalonians are Christians, they have already been called, and now Paul prays that they might live up to that calling. What does this mean? That means these believers must grow in all the things that please God and are in line with His law. Grow in Christ.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 34). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Ephesians 4:1 NLT

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 35). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

D. The grace of God brought to us forgiveness. Did you know that His grace made us “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” By His grace we have been justified by the work of Christ. By His grace we have been given the Spirit of God. And by His grace we have tasted eternal life. Remember Christian we have all received this, but Paul wants us to be worthy of this calling. And remember Christian we were not worthy enough when we received it.

E. Paul wants us to become what we were not, and thats what he is fervently praying for. He prays that Christians might become worthy of what it is to be a Christian and of all that it means to be worthy of the love that brought Jesus to the cross. This is what we would call the doctrine of sanctification.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 35). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

F. But back to the petition. Notice Paul’s praying... it is clear that our chief concern in what we pray for must not be that we might become successful, wealthy, popular, healthy, brilliant, triumphant, happy, or beautiful. Still less does Paul encourage us to pray that all our problems will disappear. Is it not a striking antithesis to how we pray today? Paul does not pray for earthly values, but the values of eternity.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 35). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

G. He prays that since God has graciously called us; now we must live up to that calling. That cannot mean less than that we should become increasingly holy, self-denying, loving, full of integrity, steeped in the knowledge of God and his Word, delighted to trust and obey our heavenly Father.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 35). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

H. When was the last time you prayed this sort of prayer for your family? For your church? For your children? Do we not spend far more energy praying that our children will pass their exams, or get a good job, or be happy, or not stray too far, than we do praying that they may live lives worthy of what it means to be a Christian?

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 35). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I. Have we not experienced this? How are your children doing?

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

J. Its extraordinary just how much emphasis we put into temporal and material success when it comes to our children. But in light of Christianity, do we realize that temporal and earthly success is failure. Sure they are successful in life, dr, lawyer, Athlete, rich, but in the end they are going to hell apart from Christ. Do we have eternity in mind?

K. If all we thought was eternity for our children how would we pray for them? From eternity’s perspective, what should be the primary things for which we should pray for our children, for ourselves, for our fellow believers?

L. Second. God will fulfill our desire for goodness and deed prompted by faith. In other words, he prays that the Lord will empower us in our good faith prompted desires. He is assuming transformation.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 37). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

M. What Paul presupposes is that God’s people have been so transformed through their conversion to Jesus Christ and his gospel that they now develop new desires, desires for goodness and deeds prompted by faith, decidedly Christian plans, Christian goals. We will desire things we did not desire before.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 37). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

N. And it gets better. Now if we assume that Christians develop such wholesome and spiritually minded purposes, Paul now prays that God himself may take these purposes and bring them to fulfillment. And contrary to popular opinion… The truth is that unless God works in us and through us, unless God empowers these good purposes of ours, they will not become any enduring spiritual fruit; they will not display any life-transforming, people-changing power.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 37). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Psalm 127:1 NLT

Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.

O.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 38). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

M. So Paul constantly prays that God will make us all worthy of His calling and that God will bring to fulfillment our desires for goodness and deeds prompted by faith. What is it that we constantly pray for?

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 38). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 38). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

II. The Goal of His Prayer

- The Goal is Glory.

2 Thessalonians 1:12 ESV

so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians

A. The first goal of these prayers is so that Christ will be glorified in them. Paul’s concern that Christians might be counted worthy of their calling, and his deep desire that God might fulfill their good, faith-prompted purposes, is not the ultimate end. They are valued ends, things deeply to be desired, things to be prayed for for sure. Yet they are only what is called proximate ends; the ultimate end is that the Lord Jesus be glorified in consequence of such growing maturity and fruitfulness on the part of believers. The Christian’s whole desire, at its best and highest, is that Jesus Christ be praised.

B. What an awful thing when a Christian seeks to win glory and benefit for ourselves instead of for Christ. Our pilgrimage as Christians need not be very far advanced before we recognize that even our best service, motivated by the highest zeal, is regularly laced with large doses of vulgar self-interest. We learn that these sins, too, we must confess and seek to overcome. Paul recognizes the problem, and articulates the proper goal in his prayer: “We pray this,” he writes, not that you may be thought remarkable Christians, or so that you may gain a reputation for perseverance and spirituality and power throughout the Roman Empire, but “so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you.”

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 39). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

C. But Paul’s second goal… that we would be glorified in Christ. Our glorification in Christ is a wonderful thing. One day we will be made perfect. No taint no spot. All sinning has been taken away. One day we will all enjoy the same resurrected bodies like Jesus has. One day we will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth. One day we will stand in the presense of the King of kings in all of His glory and perfection. But even now its happening...

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (pp. 39-40). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

D. Thus the final transformation, as wonderful as it is, is prefaced by a whole series of transformations, as we become increasingly conformed to the likeness of Christ, in anticipation of the climactic glorification at the end. And this does not take anything away from Christ.

E. When we are glorified in Christ, Christ is glorified. He receives the praise that is his due, as we are glorified, as we are conformed to his likeness. On the last day, Jesus Christ will be glorified in us on account of what we have become by his grace, and we will be glorified in him on account of what he has done for us.

F. He wants Christians to be glorified, not only at the end, in line with God’s promises of final vindication, but now, as they prepare for the end and are progressively transformed “from glory to glory” in anticipation of all that will be. This, then, is the twofold goal of Paul’s prayer: that Christ might be glorified in us, and we in him. So I must ask you, as I ask myself: When was the last time you prayed with this twofold goal clearly before your eyes, as your obsession, your ultimate concern?

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 40). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 40). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 41). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

III. According to Grace

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 41). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 41). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

- From glory to glory with grace upon grace.

A. When it comes to prayer we should always be reminded of the grace of God. We are saved by grace. We are sanctified by grace. We are glorified form glory to glory by grace.

B. True, what he is asking God to accomplish—that he might count these Christians worthy of his calling, and so strengthen them by his power that their good, faith-prompted purposes will be brought to fruition—also sets forth goals for the Christians themselves to pursue. But that he asks God to perform these things shows that he is deeply aware that God’s grace must be at work if these petitions are to be answered at all.

C. We become fruitful by grace; we persevere by grace; we mature by grace; by grace we grow to love one another the more, and by grace we cherish holiness and a deepening knowledge of God. Therefore Paul reminds his readers at the end of his prayer that everything he has asked for is available only on the basis of grace.

D. And because everything is founded upon grace upon grace. That’s what makes the gospel vitally important to us. We must always be motivated and directed by the gospel. That is the power of God for salvation.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 42). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

E. Jesus died for for our sins according to the scriptures … the saying is trust worthy...

1 Peter 1:3–5 NLT

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

1 Peter

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 42). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

F. What amazing grace it is when he promises… All who call upon the name of the Lord… If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord...

G. It is the power of prayer it is the necessity of prayer and it is the grace of God that will bring it all together. For his glory and our transformation from glory to glory.