Sermon Title: Is Your Prayer Hitting the Bull’s-Eye?
Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
Wesleyan Community Church
Terry, Mississippi
Sunday Morning – May 5, 2002
Scripture Introduction:
If there is an item that many of us may struggle with, I think we all have some difficulty being told how to do something that we are pretty sure that we know how to do. Call it what you will, be it residual carnality or stubborn pride that has yet to be cleansed out of our spiritual being, we suffer from it to a certain degree. I know that God isn’t though with me yet, and I know that there will be several rough edges that will need to be knocked off in the future. Painful – Yes, but we need to remember if we become willing clay in the hands of the Master, the One who knows the ultimate best that we can become, we will truly be a new creation in Christ.
Let us take a close look at this section of Scripture that we are dealing with this morning, Paul is instructing Timothy on the subject of prayer. Now, that would probably not be to unusual, but Timothy is a Pastor. Don’t all pastor’s know about prayer? I guess I should rephrase, that, shouldn’t all pastors know about prayer. I would hope that that is a requirement of all you choose to answer God’s call, but sadly it is not true. To many forget or have discounted the power of prayer, and worse yet, some have perverted the nature of prayer, the reason of prayer, the target of prayer, and find themselves believing that they can manipulate the God who has the power to answer the requests that are laid at His feet.
Even that is not the case here, Timothy as a student of Paul knows the power of prayer, but Paul wants to reinforce the importance in the ministry of this spiritual son of his. Paul is telling Timothy, I know the importance that you place on prayer, but it is still even more important and powerful than you think. Let us open our hearts and minds for the message that the Lord has for us in His Word this morning.
Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
1I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 7Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 8I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
Sermon Introduction:
One of the greatest lessons that we can ever learn is that the honor that we have to bring requests before the Lord was not given to us in order that we may focus on us. We must first of all remember that: The Target of Prayer is Others! Let me begin by sharing this story about the target of prayer:
Praying for People
A hospital chaplain visited a delightful old lady in the hospital. As he approached her bed he noticed that with the index finger of one hand she was touching, one by one, the fingers of the other, with her eyes closed. When the chaplain spoke to her she opened her eyes and said, "Ah, minister, I was just saying my prayers--- the prayers my grandmother taught me many years ago."
The chaplain looked puzzled, so she went on to explain, "I hold my hand like this, my thumb towards me. That reminds me to pray for those nearest to me. Then, there is my pointing finger, so I pray for those who point the way to others---teacher, leaders, parents. The next finger is the biggest so I pray for those in high places. After that comes the weakest finger---look it won’t stand up by itself, so I pray for the sick and the lonely and the afraid. And this little one---well, last of all I pray for myself."
Another interesting aspect that this illustration touches on is that: The Target of Prayer ought to include Our Leadership! Let me step on some toes here for a moment, the next time we choose to complain about the way the government is run, why not spend the time in prayer instead. What would you expect to be the most efficient mode of making a change in the government, sitting around in a group complaining about the lousy job someone is doing, or praying that the Holy Spirit make such an impression on them that the process of conviction not only changes the course of their actions but leads to the salvation of their souls as well.
Simply stated, we have really nothing to loose in this process of praying for the government officials that are entangled in layers and layers of sin. Jesus has already gone to the cross, laid down His life, and secured a victory for everyone who would accept His gift, turn from their ways, and walk with Him to the point where they enter their eternity, an eternity of jubilation in heaven instead of eternal torment in Hell, hell is real and it is waiting for the likes of those walking in deliberate darkness, and I am afraid that there is space reserved for the lukewarm followers of Jesus Christ. The Target of Prayer Has Been Ransomed.
Why is our prayer life so ineffective, because our motives are all wrong, our intent is misguided, and our following of Jesus and our commitment to Jesus is to shallow Victory in prayer comes from heart purity. Get the sin out, or the prayers are not really going out. We are offering tainted prayers to the Lord if we fail to clean up what He tells us to clean up. Once we clean our act up then we had better listen to what God instructs us to do, then we need to hit our knees and hit them hard and long. We need to clean up, listen up and then we can begin to get prayed up.
Let us pause for a moment of prayer!
Point 1: The Target of Prayer is Others
The first thing that we need to realize is that the target of our prayers needs to be others. Before we read the first verse of this second chapter of Paul’s first letter to beloved Timothy, we must bare in mind that all that he writes to Timothy applies equally to each of us as well, pastor or not, we are all in some kind of ministry when we become believers and He wishes that all of us come to a believing faith. Look at this promise that we find in 2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Let us look at the first verse:
1I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
I tell you right now that there is much power in this one single verse, and there is much to be learned. What Paul writes in this section is important to him notice he uses the phrase, “first of all”. Before Paul goes on to anything further, he must begin with what he has to say in this verse. We also need to re-examine the meaning of a few words, that we may simply gloss over in our reading of this Scripture:
Exhort: to exhort means to urge into action, and the word to incite is also used. It almost seems to mean that action is prompted where no action would have taken place on its own. We are talking about prayer here, and Paul is trying to incite the people to pray!
Now look at the list that Paul brings to the attention of Timothy, supplication, prayer, intercession, and the giving of thanks. When we look up the meaning of these words and phrases what do we find, we find that we ask for something humbly – that is the definition of supplication, a humble request before God – that is the definition of prayer, then we are to go into mediation on the behalf of someone else – that is the meaning of intercession, and then we are to give thanks, and this we are to do on behalf of others, in other words, we are to pray, pray, and then pray for others and then if they are grateful or unable to give thanks for what was petitioned on their behalf, we are to be thankful for them. Never in this segment are we told that we should pray for ourselves, not that we shouldn’t, but Paul makes the fact well known to his beloved Timothy that the target of prayers are others, even those that are thankless for what is being done on their behalf!
Point 2: The Target of Prayer is Our Leadership
The next focus of what the target of our prayers need be is that we should target our leaders as well. Let us read verses 2 and three:
2For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; 4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Why do you suppose that Paul mentions those in authority as a target of our prayers when in the first verse, he tells us to pray for all men? We have two possibilities for this, the first being that our leaders are not human, which at times their actions may give leanings in that direction, or that we may fail to include them in our prayers, and I mean earnest prayers. Now, I mentioned this earlier, that if we spent the same amount of time on our knees for the leaders of our nation then we did in complaining about them, a difference would be made. Now Paul goes on to tell Timothy, that this type of prayer is not only acceptable in God’s eyes, but it is considered good, and the meaning and definition of the word good here is the same that is used to describe how God felt about His creation, it is good. God looking at His untarnished creation, unspoiled by the sins in the garden, and the way that He looks upon men seeking the best for others, regardless of where they are, where they were from, or what they have done, looking only into the future for what they could become. That is good. The power of prayer when we point it at those that are lost, and look toward the future for what they could become. That is good.
Oh woe to us, if we look at the lost and say that they are beyond salvation, which must have been a problem and a reason for this next verses to follow the request for prayer for the leaders: 4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. There is no single human being that is ever beyond the saving power of our Almighty God, and let us never pass judgment on any.
Point 3: The Target of Prayer Has Been Ransomed
The power of our prayers is propelled by the power of One who has already paid the price. Jesus willingly went to that cross, and He willingly laid down His life for us. Let us read verses 5 and 6:
5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
There is one God, a loving God, but a God who loves us so much that He disciplines us as well, He allows us to face the earthly consequences of our sins in an effort to make us grow in our knowledge of Him. There is only one way to heaven, and that is Jesus Christ. For all those that say that we should ease up on our Muslim brothers, they have the same God, I beg to differ, they may be earnest in their beliefs, but there will be many earnest people who will find themselves in an unpleasant eternity. If we allow equality of beliefs, then we condemn the lost to an eternity in Hell, and I believe that we put ourselves in eternal jeopardy as well. No other name but Jesus will open the gates of heaven.
Point 4: The Target of Prayer comes From Purity
Paul then states the authority that was given to Him by our Lord Jesus Christ to speak for Him, and Paul proclaims “Thus Saith the Lord!”
7Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 8I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
We are to pray everywhere. No matter where we find ourselves, we are to pray and another way to look at this is that we are to pray everywhere we are to go. We are to pray without ceasing. Paul wrote to the young church in Thessalonica, 1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing. We look back to the book of Acts, Ac 12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. The result of that unceasing prayer was the miraculous release of Peter. It is that unrelenting prayer that follows along with God’s will that brings about results. It is the endless prayers of a mother on her knees in intercession for her lost children that bring them to repentance, and it is the unceasing prayers of a church for its ministry to the community that brings about revival.
Paul adds some requirements to the prayers, the men must hold up holy hands, in the early church they stood with hands outstretched as they sought the Lord, the hands that were outstretched could not be smudged from the wickedness of the world. There could be no wrath eating away at the heart of those sending their petitions to the heavens, and they had to have the faith, that the God of the universe would hear and answer and the arrow of their prayers would strike dead center of the bulls eye of the target. Jesus never fails.
Conclusion:
Oh how often do we see the sum total of people’s prayer life as give me this and give me that and the only time we hear a word of testimony is when the object of the petitions eludes them, and in their selfish, prideful arrogance, they wonder why God failed them again. If each of us here prayed only for ourselves, then each would have but a single prayer on their behalf uttered for God to hear, but if we all pray for each other, then their would be a multitude of prayers uttered for a multitude of people and the concert of petition would be deafening and oh so powerful, what might we accomplish if we prayed for a great revival to begin in each and every one of our hearts, I believe that God would answer such a mass request.
Let us add to that list our nations leaders and the leaders of the world around us as well, let us pray for the salvation of those that are mislead by the false teachings that the liberals among us call alternate roads to heaven, let that be a target of our prayers as well.
Jesus died, not looking back at what was done, but looking forward at what is to become. Jesus’ death has nothing to do with the life that have left, or the life that some might yet need to leave, but Jesus endured that most painful of deaths upon the cross, always looking forward, but never to the past. He tells the woman like He tells us, I don’t condemn you either, go and sin no more. Not a look at the past that was but a future of hope that lies ahead.
Perhaps we have lost the awe for God that we once had. God is so holy that no human could gaze upon the fullness of His holiness and live. Perhaps we should look at what we have yet to surrender, and surrender so that our hands be cleansed when we raise them to Him in prayer. Let us lift holy hands, let us seek God without any wrath to hold us down, and let us look to the answer of our prayers in the faith that He has called us to have.
