Fight with Prayer

In our last two weeks of studying 1 Timothy, we have been establishing some foundation for what is to come.

God has been charging us, through Paul’s words to Timothy, to join in the good fight of the faith.

So far, we have seen that the fight will involve fighting against wrong teaching and ideas and fighting for the truth, keeping the message of the Gospel rooted in our hearts.

Although there have been some practical helps along the way, this morning, we are shifting into a new section of the letter.

So far, it would be easy for us to walk away and think that we are all in this fight on our own.

In fact, that is often how we act in church, isn’t it? We teach a truth from the pulpit or in a classroom or a small group, and then it seems like it is up to you to live it out on your own. We get back together on Sunday and do it again.

That isn’t how God designed it to be, as we will see over the next few weeks.

In fact, as we reach the end of chapter 3, we see that God intends for this group, the church, to be the group that enters the battle together.

You and I need each other to keep us in the fight, which is why God is going to help us see how we need to act as a church and operate as a church. He is going to give us some clear guidelines for the character of leaders in the church, and how we as a church are supposed to respond to various groups of people.

He doesn’t tell us everything we would want to know about how churches should be structured, but we still can draw a great deal of help from these passages.

I hope you will see clearly that you cannot fight the fight on your own. You can only fight for truth within the context of a local expression of the Body of Christ, by joining up with other believers in a local church to grow and fight and defend the truth.

So, how do we actually go about fighting the good fight?

Read with me .

Does that verse surprise you? It surprises me.

If I were coming up with the strategy on how to fight the good fight, push back the darkness, and uphold the truth, I wouldn’t likely start with prayer.

The instruction to pray isn’t just the first item in the list of things we are to do to fight the good fight. Paul assigns it primary importance with the phrase “first of all”.

I would start with teaching and preaching God’s Word, because that is more of where my natural bent is. I love to study, and I love to teach, but this text clearly tells us that the most important thing we can do is pray!

That isn’t God’s agenda, though, is it?

Paul starts off by saying, “First of all...”

The instruction to pray isn’t just the first item in the list of things we are to do to fight the good fight. Paul assigns it primary importance with the phrase “first of all”.

If I were coming up with the strategy, it would start with teaching and preaching God’s Word, because that is more of where my natural bent is. I love to study, and I love to teach, but this text clearly tells us that the most important thing we can do is pray!

So, if you catch nothing else today, I would challenge you fight the good fight this way: pray every way, for everyone, because God desires to save anyone.

We are going to spend the rest of the message unpacking that sentence.

The centrality of prayer makes a lot of sense if we stop long enough to realize what prayer is.

Prayer is acknowledged helplessness. It is me crying out to God and saying, “God, I can’t do this on my own. I can’t fight against false teaching. I can’t keep the Gospel central in my heart, and I can’t bring anyone to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I need you to do what only you can to move on my heart and the hearts of others.”

Notice that Paul stacks up synonyms in verse 1. Although he wasn’t drawing sharp distinctions between the different words he used here, one commentator summed it up this way:

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Timothy, Titus (1) The Objects and Content of Prayer (2:1–2)

the initial prayer term distinguishes the element of insufficiency by the requester, the second highlights devotion by the seeker, and the third underscores the childlike confidence of the petitioner

Look back at the terms again in verse 1 with that in mind:

When I bring a “petition”, I am acknowledging that I need God to do something I can’t.

When I offer a “prayer”, it is an act of worship to the God who hears.

When I make “intercession” for someone, I am acknowledging that I think God is both able to do what I am asking and good enough to do it.

Finally, he says that these are to be offered with “thanksgiving,” showing that we are grateful to God for hearing and answering our petitions, prayers, and intercessions.

Let’s go ahead and go back to verse 1-7.

He gives us four reasons why we are supposed to

With the text in front of us, let’s look at what it means to fight the fight through prayer.

First, we must...

1) Pray every way...

Go back to verse 1.

As I mentioned a minute ago, it seems kinda odd to start with something that feels as passive as prayer.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like something so mystical or unusual should be our main weapon in our fight for the truth in our hearts and against false teachers.

Prayer is incredibly active.

If we stop long enough to realize what prayer is, though, prayer as the primary weapon actually makes a lot of sense.

The centrality of prayer makes a lot of sense if we stop long enough to realize what prayer is.

We know that, at its core, prayer is a conversation between me and God.

However, it is much more than just talking about the weather or the latest game, although you can pray about those things.

To an extent, you can think that prayer is acknowledged helplessness. It is me crying out to God and saying, “God, I can’t do this on my own. I can’t fight against false teaching. I can’t keep the Gospel central in my heart, and I can’t bring anyone to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I need you to do what only you can to move on my heart and the hearts of others.”

It is me seeking God’s presence, power, and wisdom because I know that I desperately need everything him to move if I am going to stand up to the fight.

A right attitude in prayer causes us to surrender our hopes and dreams so that we can come in line with what God wants.

Praying creates an expectation in our hearts so we watch for what only God can do.

That is the primary tool in our arsenal, because without praying, we are going to attempt to fight in our strength.

We aren’t going to be watching for God to move, because we think we have it under control.

We desperately need God’s strength and guidance, and we cannot fight the fight without it.

We need him to give us the words he wants to use to soften the hearts of people who are far from him.

I don’t care how persuasive you are, you cannot make someone alive spiritually. That is something only God can do.

You cannot convict hearts; only God can do that.

You cannot transform lives; only God can do that.

Sometimes, we seem to understand that we can’t do it, and we know we should pray, but it is hard because it doesn’t seem like God answers when we do.

That’s why it makes sense that prayer is so foundational.

Well, is there a specific kind of way to pray in the fight?

What does the Bible say?

Notice that Paul stacks up synonyms in verse 1. Although he wasn’t drawing sharp distinctions between the different words he used here, one commentator summed it up this way:

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Timothy, Titus (1) The Objects and Content of Prayer (2:1–2)

the initial prayer term distinguishes the element of insufficiency by the requester, the second highlights devotion by the seeker, and the third underscores the childlike confidence of the petitioner

Look back at the terms again in verse 1 with that in mind:

When I bring a “petition”, I am acknowledging that I need God to do something I can’t.

Let’s slow down for just a minute and realize something: it is good to ask God for things.

I have been reading a small book called Fervent Prayer by Craig Hazen. He is focusing on this verse:

John 15:7 CSB

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

It is hard for us to believe this verse sometimes. Sometimes we think that God won’t answer because we aren’t good enough. We may not ask because we have seen people abuse this, acting like we can twist God’s arms and make him give us whatever we want. Maybe we don’t ask because we don’t want to bother him.

However, he clearly tells us that we are supposed to bring our petitions before him. We are supposed to ask him to work and move and do what only he can.

We see that in the second word. When I offer a “prayer”, it is an act of worship to the God who hears.

When I make “intercession” for someone, I am acknowledging that I think God is both able to do what I am asking and good enough to do it.

Finally, he says that these are to be offered with “thanksgiving,” showing that we are grateful to God for hearing and answering our petitions, prayers, and intercessions.

When we pray that way, we

So, then, the way we pray in this fight is to make requests based off our insufficiency, out of hearts devoted to God, believing that he will work in the lives of those around us to help them come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. All the while, we are thanking God for hearing us, for responding, for being who he is.

Pray every way possible, then, that God will work so that more people will come to know the truth and trust in Christ.

That brings up the question that the Ephesians had, then: So who are we supposed to pray for?

The second part of our main idea this morning is that we pray every way...

2) Prayer pleases God.

2)For everyone...

Look at the end of verse 1-2.

Let’s start with the first group of people we are supposed to pray for. Who does the Bible mention first? Everyone!

No, that doesn’t mean that you and I need to pray for each of the seven billion people on the planet.

It does mean, however, that you and I need to be praying for all different kinds of people to come to Christ.

That means you pray for white people and black people and brown people. You pray for God to save rich and influential people and poor and wicked people. You pray for the gay couple next door, and you pray for the guy across the street who seems to have everything going for him.

Paul starts with this likely because he is correcting one of the false teachings. It seems as though the false teachers in Ephesus taught that only certain people could be saved, but this pushes back strongly against that.

Listen carefully: we are called to pray for every person of every race, every gender, every sexual orientation, every sinful struggle, every social status, or however you want to draw the lines.

If we are persecuted for following Christ, we are called to pray even for those who actively seeking our harm.

That’s what Paul is getting at by reminding us to pray for kings and all who are in authority.

When he said that, it is likely that Nero was the emperor of Rome. Nero was the crazy one who burned down a large part of Rome and blamed it on the Christians.

Nero had Christians brutally murdered, being fed to dogs, crucified, set on fire, and more.

And yet, Paul commands us to pray even for those who persecute us for following Christ.

Did you see, at the end of verse 2, what we are praying for?

We are praying for everyone, and especially our leaders, to come to know Christ so that we can live out our faith and the Gospel can spread.

Although God can work mightily during times of persecution, he often uses favorable situations to grow his kingdom.

He isn’t saying that our main prayer should be for a nice, easy life. He is praying that as God works favorably to save and shape everyone, including our leaders, that we would be able to live lives without fighting and bickering, honoring Christ in it all.

We see that in another passage where encourages the believers in Thessalonica to...

1 Thessalonians 4:11–12 CSB

to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.

The quiet life wasn’t so that we could retire and be hermits.

The quiet life is so that nothing we say or do adds unnecessary difficulty to someone coming to Christ.

There are lots of reasons why someone may reject the message of Jesus. We don’t want to make it worse!

When Paul tells us in that we are to pray for tranquil and quiet lives, it is that God would keep anything from cropping up that would keep someone from coming to know Jesus.

We are called to pray for everyone.

We will see why in just a minute, but for now, I want to give you a tool to start praying for those God has placed around you, literally.

If you have a bulletin, you will have seen a sheet in there that talks about something called “Bless Every Home”.

This is a service that provides you a way to pray regularly for those who live around you.

It is completely free to you, and the sheet gives you instructions on how to sign up and get started.

When you do, you will tell it how big you want your “neighborhood,” which is how many homes near you that you want to be praying for.

It will then take public record data and email you every weekday morning with a list of people in your neighborhood for you to pray for. It even has a suggested prayer at the bottom if you need help knowing what to pray about. From there, you can click on the button in the email, and it will record your prayers for your neighbors.

If you have a chance to serve them, share Christ with them, or disciple a neighbor, you can record that as well.

The system isn’t perfect, and you may notice some names that are out of date, especially if you live somewhere that has a lot of rental property.

However, this tool is an easy way for you to start praying for the neighbors on your street. They are the ones who will likely be quick to notice your tranquil and quiet life, and why your car is gone every Sunday morning. They are the ones you have the opportunity to know, pray for, serve, and love.

So, we are to pray every way we can for everyone we can.

But why?

I recently had that same thought when I started using Bless Every Home.

It has me praying for people on a dead end street that isn’t really a part of my neighborhood.

I wondered why I was taking the time to pray for those folks, even though I may never meet them, walk near their house, or have an opportunity to serve them.

As I thought through it, God reminded me that my job is to pray for them.

Because, just like what Paul says here, we are praying for everyone around us...

Wh

3) Prayer prepares people for salvation.

3)Because God wants to save anyone.

4) Prayer enables us to accomplish our mission.

Look back at verses 3-4.

Praying for everyone, even powerful people who persecute and neighbors I may never meet, is something that pleases God.

Why? Because he wants to save anyone who will call on the name of the Lord.

I know there are a lot of theological debates about how God saves and who God saves, but here’s what I see in this passage: God desires to save any person who will come to Christ for salvation.

That doesn’t mean that every person will be saved, but it means that the offer of salvation is available to all.

We see John express it this way:

John 1:12–13 CSB

But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

Whether kings or poor, whether white, black, or anything else, anyone who will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.

We are called to pray for everyone, because anyone can be saved.

Again, Paul returns to the central message of the Gospel. Look at verse 5-6...

The rulers and kings of the world won’t be saved by doing good things on their own; they will only be saved by coming to a knowledge of the truth, acknowledging that salvation is found only in Jesus Christ.

We aren’t saved by appealing to a saint or praying through a priest; we are saved by faith and trust in the one mediator between God and humanity: Christ Jesus our Lord.

He gave himself as a ransom for all mankind, taking our sin upon himself, dying in our place, and offering salvation to all those who will believe.

We don’t know who will and won’t be saved.

We don’t have the ability to shape hearts on our own.

We are called to fight the good fight, which means we are called to pray every way, for everyone, because God can save anyone.

Who do you need to pray for today? Is there a person you thought was too far gone to be saved?

What about the false teachers you have heard of? Do you pray for them to come to a genuine knowledge of the truth and be able to use their influence to build up God’s kingdom instead of their own?

How do you pray for our government? Are you praying for our local, state, and national leaders to come to a knowledge of Christ? Are you praying for them to lead and govern so that we can continue to share the Gospel and minister without disruption?

We fight the good fight through prayer, so let’s do that now.