These are the sermon notes from my sermon this past Sunday 11/7/2010 on 1st Timothy 1:18-2:7. During this sermon I established what will likely become a longstanding tradition in our church: me repenting of my sin before the church while preaching.

I am not a prayerful man. This is not to say that I do not pray, but I would certainly not consider myself a prayerful person. I pray with my wife and girls individually and corporately every day, yet my intentionality and frequency apart from these instances is severely lacking.

Unfortunately what has happened is that my weakness has been magnified in my infant church. Therefore, as a church Paradox is not a prayerful church. When I look at the example of the church in the book of Acts I see that they were an extremely prayerful church and that through their prayers the Holy Spirit worked in and through them incredibly. I desire this for our church, and it must begin with prayer. Why?

First Things First in The Charge:

Paul in his letter to Timothy begins by refuting false teaching 1st Timothy 1:1-11 and then he moves into highlighting his own story and the fact that he is a sinner, yet God chose to save him. After this he charges Timothy with the task to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” in 1:19. To wage this fight Paul tells Timothy to begin with prayer

First of all then, I urge you that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for  all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 1 Timothy 2:1-2.

Paul tells Timothy to begin with prayer. And  so it must begin with us. If we are going to do anything in the U-District we must begin with prayer. There are many people praying for us as a church and we need to join them. Therefore, I repent of my lack of prayer, and will guide our church into a season of intercession and concerted prayer.

Prayer and Our Ability to Live Peacefully:

What  is very interesting about this passage is that Paul links our  praying for others, especially those who are in authority over us, to a peaceful, godly, dignified life.

It is important for us  to pray for  those in authority over us.

Even we don’t like them, agree with them or are frustrated by them. This is incredibly pertinent for us following this election season as some of the people we voted for are now in office and others we were against are now in office. Pray for them. Pray for government officials, the President, our Senators, our  Governor, your boss and your  Pastor.

What happens when we begin to lovingly pray for someone else is our attitude begins to change toward that person through the Holy Spirit’s work in our heart. Often our anger will fade when we pray for our enemies and we will begin to see them through the “eyes” of God.

What is Prayer?

Prayer is impassioned communication between us and God through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. In helping to define what prayer is, it is prudent to define what prayer is not:

1. Prayer is not Genie-ism. Prayer that is “Genie-ism” says that whatever you pray for you will get. God is the  Genie and prayer is effectively rubbing the lamp. So to get what we want we pray and He must answer.
2. Prayer is not Pagan Mantra-ism. Pagan mantra-ism is simply repeating the same thing over and over without any meaning to it. For Christians this often happens around meal-time prayers or times when they pray for the same thing. I’m not saying that praying for the same thing all the time is bad, we just need to be cautious about how we are praying. Is there really any meaning to it or are we just saying the same thing over and over like a Pagan Mantra?
3. Prayer is not a show. We aren’t praying to make a show out of it. The object of prayer is not us, it is all about God. This means that we often pray in private, sometimes secret places where it’s just and God. This does not mean we don’t pray corporately in front of large groups, it just  means we must keep God as the object of our prayers and not ourselves.
4. Prayer is not Mysticism. We pray to an ACTIVE  and LIVING God who not only hears us, but answers us. Mysticism often time prays generally, to a general ‘god’, for general  things. Our prayers  should be given in faith that our active, living, loving God and King will hear His children cry out to Him!

Four things that prayer is:

1. Adoration. We begin with our adoration for God. He is worthy of all worship and praise and is our Savior, God and King. We ADORE Him! You could not list all the good things God has done for you! We pray to God showing Him our adoration and  love.
2. Supplication. This is asking  God to supply needs for us and others. The Scriptures tell us to ask for what we need (Matthew 7:11) and God will answer us. What do you need supplied? What needs do you have? What do others need around you? Your  God wants to supply these things to you and He wants to do it through answering your prayers.
3. Intercession. This is interceding before God on others behalf. We should ask God to help those who need help (those who are in pain, suffering, persecution and more). We should ask God to save people! He wants to save them (1st Timothy 2:4) and we know that  Jesus is  our mediator by taking our sins (1st Timothy 2:5) so therefore, we should ask Him to save people! Who do you desire to see saved by Jesus. Pray that Jesus would change their heart.
4. Thanksgiving. We thank God for His grace through Jesus that we are made friends of God when our will made us enemies of God. We thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit residing in us. We thank God for the innumerable gifts He’s given us. We THANK Him!