MCC Podcasts
Working It Out - Thoughts on Prayer
Well, here we are. It feels like I should be able to say that we are in the middle of this series on First Timothy, but we're in chapter two. That's good thing. Hooray. We got through chapter one. We're in chapter two. I think that it's interesting the way that we're doing this. We could probably still be talking about First Timothy come advent. I don't know. Look out. First Timothy at Christmas. I think before we get started in anything else today, I would just love to read our passage so we can kind of orient and focus and know where we are. So if you will stand for the reading of the word, we're starting in First Timothy 2.1. I urge then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God our Savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is only one God and one mediator who can reconcile God in humanity, the man Christ Jesus, he gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. And I, that's Paul speaking, have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I'm not exaggerating, just telling the truth. In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy, and I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do, let a woman learn in a quiet and submissive fashion. I do not permit her to teach with the intent to dominate a man. She must be quiet and gentle in her demeanor. This is the word of the Lord, and you can be seated. Okay, now for some of you hearing that passage, this is the experience that you just had right here. And not only did that elephant come through that front door, but it walked all the way up and stood right here beside me. Sort of like the bunny in Harvey, but it's definitely the elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room, let's name it, is that this passage is often used in a discussion and a debate and a controversy over women in ministry leadership. So there's our elephant in the room. Let's face it, there are a few passages in the New Testament that are more difficult than this one, than this last section here. And so it makes sense that we would all be aware that there's that elephant that's come in the room. But well, I don't want to disappoint you, but the truth is we are not going to talk about women in ministry leadership this morning. Sorry. I did, I heard an awe over here. But if you feel, you know, like Adrienne does, I want to hear about that. You are in luck because we are going to deal with that very topic in a few weeks, Pastor Art's going to preach it, and we are going to devote our focus and our worship to what God has for us in that particular arena. So just so you know, in the interest of a strictly no elephants policy, we're going to ask the elephant to go sit down and show up a little bit. And so that we can help Art prepare for his sermon, I'm going to ask that if you have questions or concerns or confusion about women in ministry leadership, here's what you do. You send your questions to art@merincovinate.org and you put in the subject line women in ministry so that he will know that you're helping him with his sermon. You know, Jeff said to me after first gathering, he said, I think we should tell them we're pretty serious about that. So we're serious about that because it is an important topic. I'm making fun of it a little bit because it's a little awkward with me up here today, but it's a serious topic that we need to discuss. So if you have questions, that's where they go. Got it? Four weeks. Four weeks. Four weeks. Don't miss it. All right. Thank you. Here's the other reason we're not going to talk about women in ministry leadership today. The other reason is that's not what this passage is really about. So while there are other places in scripture that that's discussed and discussed sometimes with a little confusion and sometimes a little more clearly, that's not what this is about. So let me set this whole passage from the very beginning of what we read to the end of what we read in context in this letter to Timothy that we've been reading. First of all, Paul starts this letter to Timothy, his mentee, his son in the faith, warning about the dangers of allowing false doctrine to come into the church. He's very, very concerned that Timothy is struggling with this, that the congregation is struggling with this. And so he's got some pretty strong mourning about that. And then he reminds Timothy of God's love and mercy. And he kind of illustrates this by referring to his own Paul salvation. Here he was Saul, this man who deliberately went out and persecuted Christ followers, allowed them to be killed, sought them out to be killed, and now, by the grace of God, he's not only one of them, but he is the biggest fan of Jesus ever. So he reminds Timothy of this. And then last week, Geoff talked about the passage that comes in the middle of this group of verses that we read today about the truth of the gospel and how important that is and how without God, without Jesus, our lives are shipwrecked. They are broken on the rocks, but Jesus is our rescuer. And he's come and he's taken us from that shipwreck and brought us safely to dry land. And he continues to be our rescuer in our lives. So this truth of who Jesus is and what he's done and making sure that we do know the truth and not fall victim to false doctrines, this is all what's come before the passages that I just read for you. And we see here that these passages, he starts the beginning about prayers and petitions and intercession. This whole section is about prayer and it's about authentic prayer. You know, he started with false doctrine, what's true, what's false. Now we're talking about authentic prayer, honest prayer, as opposed to something that might be false. So we're going to talk about authentic prayer today. And the first thing that we need to remember is this very thing that authentic prayer is sourced in the truth of the good news. Paul put that passage about the good news, about this word, about Jesus that he has been called by God to spread throughout the world. We put it in the middle here because it's the anchor point for everything else that happens. If we don't have the good news, we don't understand what authentic prayer is even about. And especially in this context that Paul is talking about, authentic communal prayer. I think it was so sweet, as Jeff would say, this time of prayer that we had earlier today as a community, as a body. And it was so wonderful to hear people's prayers from this heart of love. And I want to say respect, but that almost sounds like a strange word to use for God. But it is this heart of love and thankfulness and awareness that Jesus is our king, what he's done for us and what changes that's made in our life. And so you heard those prayers coming forth from us as a body, just so sweet. And that's what Paul is talking about here. And he even kind of expands it all into all of worship. Look at this quote. This is from Dr. John Phalan, who's at North Park Theological Seminary. He was the president and dean, and now he's the senior professor of theological studies. He says, "The mission of the Triune God is to draw human beings into the eternal life shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." See that? This is his communal life experience that the Godhead shares. Worship is the most basic action for creatures, us, the created ones. And the most meaningful action of followers of Jesus, the whole life of a Christian is formed by an encounter with God within the worshiping community. And that's what I hope you've been experiencing here so far today through our singing, through our prayer, even through our body life discussion where we talk about, you know, we need to clear the chairs for VBS. We need to clear the chairs to make room for VBS so our children can have this kind of an experience this week. That's what it's all about. So that's where authentic prayer is sourced. Secondly, authentic prayer reflects the truth of our becoming more like Christ. See, it's not just that it's sourced in this abstract, separate knowledge of who God is, but it's sourced in our relationship with Him, our knowledge of the truth through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. First of all, in our desire to care for our fellow human beings, this is what Paul wants the congregation and the Ephesus and wants us to experience, is to want to care for every human being. He says he wants prayers and petitions in intercession for everyone. He doesn't clarify that by saying just the people in your church, just your brothers and sisters in Christ, just the brothers and sisters in Christ that agree with you and that you like. He doesn't say any of that. He says for everyone, for all the people of the world, for all the leaders of the world. This is who we're supposed to be praying for and caring about through our prayers. Look at this quote from John Calvin. He says, "Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God." And notice that he doesn't say that's not appropriate. It's totally appropriate to come to God with our own needs and burdens. But it also, because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own, to make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them. And in the interests of the elephant in the room, when John Calvin was saying this, he meant that to men as mankind, all of us pray for men, pray for women, we're all in there. Look at that. We are so bound up in love. That's our becoming like Christ to love our fellow human beings so much that we almost can't not pray for them. For God, so love the world, that's how we are to love the world. So that's the first part of authentic prayer is to desire and to yearn, to care for our fellow human beings through our prayer. Secondly, we're to be in unity with our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. This is a part of what being able to pray authentically entails. This kind of gets into that second half of the passage. So we see Paul say, I want men to raise holy hands in prayer without anger or disputing. Holy hands, hands that have been redeemed by God, this prayer is sourced in this knowledge and living out of the life that God has given us through Jesus. And he talks about this idea of anger and disputing. Now, I'm sure that none of you have done this, but I will confess that I probably have. Have you ever been in a situation where somebody begins to pray out loud in a group and you feel like they're really not talking to God, but they're talking to the guy three over, instructing him, correcting him, admonishing. That's not authentic prayer. That's something else. That's handling anger or dispute or disagreement under the title of prayer and policy. It is not appropriate to use prayer that way and it is not appropriate actually to pray together as a community when you have something against each other when you're in disagreement. He talks about that again when he talks about communion. He or to be reconciled to each other as the body of Christ. Authentic prayer comes from that communal heart to focus on God, to see his will done. It's not about arguing, disputing, disagreeing. He then goes on and he talks about the women. I want the women to dress modestly and I don't want them to teach men, right? In other words, Paul's saying, do not use your time and worship. Your A has a chance to be noticed, to be given attention, to become the central figure of the experience. I want you to know that I'm not saying that women shouldn't dress nice in church. Although I will say that I didn't wear pearls, the only gold I have on is my wedding ring and I didn't break my hair today. But seriously, this is about dressing so that people will notice you. And women, it's not true for all of us and it is also true for some men, but generally we tend to compete with each other for place by the way that we look. So we look at whose shoes are the best and think, oh, next week I'm wearing my such and such shoes because they're better than hers. And oh, I have a better outfit, oh, I just got my hair done. And we lose the fact that this is not about us. We lose the fact that it's about God and that our value is sourced in who he is and what he's done for us, not in how well we did our hair this morning. So please understand, we're not saying that God doesn't want you to dress nicely. What we're saying is, don't make that the reason that you're coming to church and wearing your clothes, don't make that be what this is all about. Secondly, well, let me tell you a little bit about women in worship in general in this time period. There are two sides that come into bear for women in this church in Ephesus. First of all, Jewish women who've converted came from a background where when they went to worship in the temple, the women could not worship with the men. They had their own separate section off in the back and trust me, they were expected to be quiet. They weren't allowed to mingle. They weren't allowed to have any kind of verbal participation in the service. So these women for the first time are experiencing a time of communal corporate worship with their husbands, with their sons, with their brothers. They have no idea what that's supposed to look like. They have no experience with that. On the other hand, we have women who are converting from pagan worship. And one of the biggest temples that was in Ephesus was the temple of Artemis. Artemis was a female deity. A lot about her was involved in wisdom. And most followers of Artemis believed that women were superior to men and that they needed to take charge and they needed to take their place and put men in theirs. So these women came into a church where they were used to being very vocal, where they were used to feeling superior and letting everybody know. We have these women who are trying to find their place in the congregation, in the life of the body. What does it look like here? And some of them were enjoying the fact that they were no longer in the Jewish temple and could speak out loud and tell people what they thought. And some of them were bringing in their ideas from pagan worship and they were talking. And so women were making their opinions, their teachings, their experiences known very loudly and verbally, whether they were right or not. And so we get this picture of men who are praying loudly but arguing with each other and in disagreement. Women who are shouting, maybe even shouting down the man who's preaching, Timothy, it sounds to me like the worship and Ephesus was chaotic, loud, absolutely crazy. And Paul's saying this is not what's intended for worship. So we need to think about Christians praying in unity. We need to think of ourselves in unity, not trying to be the best, not trying to make our way the way that everybody else, it's not about us, it's not about our winning the argument. It's about as a community, our prayer being sourced in this truth of who God is and what He's done for us and what He wants for the world. So unity as a body. Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, if we can't get that right here inside of this place, it's not ever going to happen out there. Thirdly, this means we need to value and focus on what God values and to pray for it to become reality. See, we want to care for our fellow human beings and we need to be in unity with each other here in prayer, here in worship, but that's not where it stops. We need to take that out into the world and pray for God's will, His peace, His Godly and holy life that He wants to provide to come to everybody, that they all may come to knowledge of Christ and that the kingdom becomes more and more a part of the world. All right, next, because it follows right on the heels of this authentic prayer manifests, it makes real, peaceful, holy and Godly lives through salvation in Christ. First of all, in our families, you know, in the passage about men and women, in those last few verses, those words, man, woman, can also be translated husband and wife. So we're talking about this unity and peace and holiness that needs to come into the family, into the marriage and into our lives with our children. Authentic prayer helps manifest, it brings this about in our family life, it also manifests clearly in our churches, we've already talked about that, we've talked about how we need to be respectful and reconciled with each other. Remember, we're talking about authentic prayer here, authentic prayer, sourced in relationships that are healthy and not conflicted or destructive. And lastly, because we can do it in here, because it happens in here and we work so hard to source that and to remember who our God is, who we belong to, whose body we are, then it will manifest in our broader culture. It's why we're to pray for others, it's why we're to pray for our kings and leaders that the world may live peaceful, godly, holy lives. Next, authentic prayer is a choice. We see that Paul is calling people to pray authentically, he's calling them in and women of the body to pray authentically. So right there, we can see that we get to choose what we do, but it's also something that Jesus thought was of pretty serious significance. Look at Matthew 6, in Matthew 6 1, Jesus says, "Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness," and he's talking about prayer as well as some other things, but right now, let's focus on prayer, "In front of others to be seen by them, if you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven." And then he says a little bit later on in verse 6, "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full." In other words, don't stand and pray so that people can see you and see how great you pray, or how great your clothes are, or how well you're able to argue that. That's not authentic prayer, that's just talking really loud. We call it prayer, but that's not authentic prayer, and Jesus says, "This is not it." Look at what he says in Luke, "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. And Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, people with picky clothes." Or even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Prayer is not about putting yourself first. Authentic prayer is about putting God first, and it is a choice we get to make. Next, authentic prayer and the holy life it manifests is a choice that pleases God. You know, when we were in prayer together, we talked, just talked about, and led us in this idea that we need to proclaim our love for God. We love Him. We love what He's doing in our lives. We love being in relationship with Him, and so pleasing Him is a part of that, to be able to please God, and to work in partnership with Him, to manifest the Kingdom is important. It's essential. I'm going to go through some scriptures really fast, and I want to show you. These are all scriptures that Paul, where Paul is saying this and talking about living a life sourced in this kind of authentic prayer that pleases God. So we have, first of all, we've already read 1 Timothy 2. This is good. Oops. That was too fast. That was too fast. That was too fast. They really have a lot of faith on me back in the booth, or they're trying to hurry me up because they want to get to lunch. I'm not sure. This is good, meaning praying, all this praying that he's asked us to do. It pleases God our Savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Next, we continually pray to God to fill you with the knowledge of His will so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. Wearing fruit, but also growing in the knowledge of God, which is what he talked about. That's what God wants. He wants everybody to not have knowledge of Him. Next, whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Live sourced in this idea of who God is and what He wants that we are expressing through prayer. And it says, "Then I will know you stand firm in the One Spirit." Unity. Unity thing again, we as the body need to be united in Christ. Next, from 2 Thessalonians, we keep on praying for you and you notice this cycle. We pray for you so that you will pray, this is how it works. We keep on praying for you, asking God to enable you to live a life worthy of His call so that you can do all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Prayer first works second. Next. And this is His letter to the Ephesian Church. "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling, be humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love." We see that's where authentic prayer comes in, right? He's already told us. This is how you should be praying. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. This is the kind of life that Paul is saying, "This is what I want. Not just this is what I'm telling you to do. This is what I want for you as the body of Christ, as this congregation that Timothy is leading in Ephesus. This is what I want." I'm going to ask the band to come up. There's one more slide I want you to see. Oswald Chambers said this. He said, "Prayer does not fit us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work." All of these other things, these lives of peace and godliness and holiness, come out of this life of authentic prayer. We're going to sing one more song and worship through it. I'm going to ask you to ask God, actually, let's pray this together. I want to ask God to speak to each of our hearts about our prayer life, about our authentic prayer life. If there are places he wants to call our attention to. So will you stand in ready to worship and pray with me? Lord God, as we consider authentic prayer and as we strive to please you, will you speak to each heart? Will you call to our attention where you are pleased with us and where perhaps we have more growing to do as we sing, we love you Lord and we want to be authentic in our prayer and in our worship. Instruct us, lead us, and guide us as we sing, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]