2 Timothy 1:14 KJV That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
2 Timothy 1:14 The Message Guard this precious thing placed in your custody by the Holy Spirit who works in us.
2 Timothy 1:14 Murdock Keep thou the good deposit, by the Holy Spirit who dwelleth in us.
2 Timothy 1:14 Amplified Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.
2 Timothy 1:14 ESV By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
2 Timothy 1:14 NASB Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
I. INTRODUCTION—THE WATCHMAN
A. Ezekiel’s View of the Watchman
-The Bible is clear on the importance of the work of the watchman. Perhaps the classic passage on the concept of being a watchman is in the book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 3:17 KJV Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
-The responsibilities, rewards, and the penalties of watchmen are strongly laid out later on in Ezekiel 33. Suffice it to say that it is a crucial position that God puts a great emphasis on. He was a man who needed to be disciplined, responsible, steady, honest, and wise.
-It was a very important priority for the watchman to make sure that his senses were highly sensitive to what was going on around him. The safety of the city was resting on his ability to ferret out any attack that might be lurking beyond the walls.
-From the book of Ezekiel we see the watchman had to warn the people of danger when it came their way. But there was not just the cry of danger that thundered from him, there were also the instructions that came from telling them where the refuge was.
-His cries sounded like this:
• Flee from the wrath to come. . .
• Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. . .
• Save yourselves from this untoward generation. . .
• The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. . .
• No weapon formed against thee will prosper. . .
-Every true watchman always has an element of fear and faith in his cry!
B. The Other Functions of the Watchman
-There are some other words that are used in the Bible in conjunction with this idea of a watchman.
• Protector—Psalm 121:5, 7-8—The watchman serves as a protector.
• Keeper—Genesis 2:15—Adam was seen as a keeper. He was the watchman assigned by God to keep what was given to him, keeping it from the attack of the serpent.
• Doorkeeper/Gatekeeper—The watchmen of old guarded the gates and doors of cities and vineyards. They were responsible for the entrance. It can apply to us as far as our homes, churches, cities, and other places where we come and go.
• Preserver—The watchman also had a responsibility to maintain things. Maintenance ministry is not always bad. There are matters in the church that need to be kept so they are in good working order.
-All of these roles were necessary for the work of the watchman to be well-executed.
II. THE WATCHMAN AS A GUARD
-In this Scripture that we read from 2 Timothy, we find crucial priority of a man who was to be a watchman. He was to be a guard. The word “guard” and “bodyguard” are also ways to express the role of the watchman.
-There are things that have been entrusted to us whether they are our families, our churches, our cities, or spiritual treasures that have to be guarded. There is a high calling that comes to us in this role of guarding and protecting each other and those things which have been passed on to us in spiritual matters.
-We are “bodyguards”—shields who cover one another.
A. A Greek Word Study—PHULASSO
-When Paul was writing to Timothy, he used a word PHULASSO which has a number of connotations to it.
• To guard and keep watch
• To have an eye upon: lest he escape
• To guard a person or thing that he may remain safe
• To keep from violence and to protect
• To keep from being snatched away
• To preserve safely
• To guard from being lost or perishing
• To guard one's self from a thing
-Scattered throughout the New Testament that same word is used twenty-five times in various ways:
• Beware—2 Peter 3:17
• Keep—Acts 12:4; 16:4; 21:25; Romans 2:26; Galatians 6:13; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:12; 1:14; 1 John 5:21; Jude 24
• Keepest—Acts 21:24
• Keeping—Luke 2:8
• Kept—Matt. 19:20; Luke 8:29; 18:21; Acts 7:53; 22:20; 23:35; 28:16
• Observe—1 Tim. 5:21
• Observed—Mark 10:20
• Saved—2 Peter 2:5
• Ware—2 Tim. 4:15
-All of the ways that this word is used is helpful in showing other angles of what takes place when we make a commitment to becoming a guard.
B. Guard Your Heart
Proverbs 4:23 KJV Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
-It is imperative that my heart be guarded against the intruders that long to defile it. The heart in this context is symbolic for the feelings, the will, and even the intellect. If the enemy can get into the soul, he will destroy the mind, the will, and the emotions.
-There are deceptions, lies, and distorted perceptions that actively seek to control us so that we are rendered ineffective for God. I pray that there can be a baptism of discernment to keep us moving in a spiritual direction.
-I am not spending long on this particular point, except to try to reinforce to you the necessity of keeping your heart clean, godly, and holy. These are things that just make us more effective for the Kingdom of God.
C. When Guards Become Intercessors
-Could it be there is another even greater angle to being a guard? If we are to guard, keep watch over, to protect, and keep both people and things safe, then the ministry of the guard can take place only when we become intercessors!
-All of us have heard stories about people being moved by a burden of prayer. When this impulse to pray came on them, they would pray usually without even understanding what the need was.
One woman was moved to pray for her son one morning around 9 A.M. Suddenly it was like a spirit of fear came on her and she immediately started praying for him. She prayed for about 20 minutes or so and the burden lifted. Because of it being the days before we had cell phones, she had to wait until later in the day to find out what had taken place. It just so happened that he was working at a construction site and was speaking to one of the foremen. He thought that it might be good to move from where they were standing. So both men drifted over about 20 feet where they were standing and shortly after they moved, a huge steel beam feel to the concrete where they had been standing. If they had been standing there, both would have been seriously injured or even killed by the beam.
-That is just one story among many about the impact that prayer can have on us if we are just willing to listen to that inner voice of the Spirit.
-In Daniel 10 we find that Daniel received a message from the Lord concerning a great conflict in the heavens. The Hebrew word that is translated as “thing” in the KJV can sometimes be translated as “concern.”
-There are times when the Lord moves us to a place of intercession that there is heaviness or a feeling of a burden placed on you to pray. It can also be accompanied by an anguish of heart or even a wrestling feeling in our spirit.
-But we have to make sure that we are available to God to give ourselves to prayer. Once God starts revealing these kinds of secrets to you, a holy trust is developed. DON’T TAKE THE MATTER LIGHTLY!!!
-If you feel the power of the Spirit moving on you, be obedient and cry out to God on behalf of spiritual leaders, family members, brothers and sisters in the Lord, or for churches. My effectiveness in prayer greatly depends on availability, sensitivity, and obedience.
D. Guards Who Battle Against the Hindrances of Prayer
-God gives us authority in prayer but there are many necessities of life that we allow to hinder what we do with prayer.
• Laziness hinders prayer.
• Unspiritual attitudes hinder prayer.
• Carnal lifestyles hinder prayer.
• Spiritual warfare hinders prayer.
-But in the grand scheme of things, we must pray to be effective in the Kingdom of God.
-Great watching in prayer will require expenditures of time, of strength, and of commitment. The man who will watch in prayer will alternate between watching, wrestling and weeping.
• Guarding in prayer will cost you sleep.
• Guarding in prayer will consume some tears.
• Guarding in prayer will demand that you change.
• Guarding in prayer will leave you in great loneliness (for much is accomplished in private prayer).
• Guarding in prayer will set you apart from the world, from your friends, and from your creature comforts.
-Our generation wants to be eased of pain—God wants to transform that pain. The pain is what compels us to the place of prayer. Instead of allowing the painful situations of life to control us we must let the pain press us into the place of prayer. There is a depth of ministry of prayer that will be found when we are pushed into the place of prayer.
-The problem is not the pain. . . . it is the prayerlessness.
• Some say ‘where are the miracles?’. . . I ask where are the guards.
• Some say ‘where is the power?’ . . . I ask where agony in prayer.
• Some say ‘where are the signs?’ . . . I ask where are the olive presses of sacrifice.
• Some say ‘where is God?’ . . . I answer. . . . . ‘He has been forsaken in the place of prayer.’
E. The Emotions of the Guard Who Is Given to Prayer
-The word “prayer” is found 114 times in the Bible, the word “pray” is found 313 times in the Bible. When you look into the context of the times that these two words are mentioned, one finds that much emotion will be poured out in prayer.
• Crying out in prayer.
• Prayer and fear.
• Prayer and pleading.
• Prayer and commitment.
• Prayer and tears.
• Prayer and desire.
• Prayer and hunger.
• Prayer and vision.
• Prayer and grief.
• Prayer and great cause.
• Prayers of repentance.
• Prayers of worship.
• Prayers for glory.
• Praying for power.
• Praying for understanding.
• Praying for wisdom.
• Praying for guidance.
• Prayer and sacrifice.
• Prayer at night.
• Prayer through the night.
• Prayer and watching.
• Praying with thanksgiving.
• Praying in supplication.
• Prayer in the morning.
• Prayer and sacrifice.
• Praying in unity.
• Continually given to prayer.
• Prayer without ceasing.
• Prayer and demonic opposition.
• Instant in prayer.
• Prayer and fasting.
• Effectual and fervent prayer.
-There are many other situations and concerns that we find in association with prayer and praying in the Word. Paul was quite open when he began to tell us that our prayers would be accompanied at times with some very unreasonable things.
• Tears.
• Afflictions.
• Difficulties.
• Spiritual opposition.
• Human obstacles.
• Hindrances within.
• Distractions without.
• Pain.
• Anguish of heart.
• A mind that would be troubled.
-If we are to be effective in prayer, it probably will be ushered in by an emotion that we may not want to embrace.
III. CONCLUSION—THE PLACE OF VICTORY IN PRAYER
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession—He looks to the thousands of young men and young women in training for the work of ministry and mission, and gazes longingly to see if the Church is teaching them that intercession, power with God must be their care, and in seeking to train the believers of their congregations into those who can “help together” by their prayer, and can “strive with them in their prayers.” As Christ-seeks the lost sheep until He finds it, God seeks intercessors.
• Have all of the great praying men departed from our midst?
• Are all of the great praying men of our generation now gray-headed and stoop-shouldered?
• Are there any young men in ministry that know how to pray?
• Where have all the guards gone to?
-These are challenging but necessary questions.
-Yet the fact remains that there is a victory you can bank your life on because God has prepared it for us!
John 10:10 KJV . . . I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Ephesians 3:20 KJV Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
2 Corinthians 2:14 KJV Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. . .
Romans 8:37 KJV Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Philip Harrelson
October 20, 2012
