First Timothy lesson 9

1 Timothy 2, 1-3. I'll read it. It's all good. It says, First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. So if we think back to last week, we covered questions 1 and 2, and we got a little bit through 3.

So I'll just briefly remind the class about Paul started in verse 1 with that term, exhort. And we saw that this is a priority that's placed on the universal scope of prayer. He's bringing about an importance and a primacy, and he's exhorting Timothy to maintain that importance and to maintain that primacy. And I think that while Chapter 1 stresses the priority of doctrine, Chapter 2 stresses the priority of prayer. So, Chapter 1, doctrine. You gotta know what, right, Timothy? Chapter 2, you gotta pray. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. It's emphasized, right? So we said last week that prayer is not to be treated as an emergency measure, but as a number one priority. And that's a challenge.

It's a challenge for all generations, I'm sure, but as you get into the digital age, it's a lot easier to get into your scroll rather than it is to pray. It's a lot easier to get into social media or to check your emails or check your texts or follow along with the news of the day than it is to calm your heart and pray. It's becoming an increasingly difficult thing to do for people because the focus is shifted from what the Lord is talking about here through Paul to Timothy and on to self, right? As you consume things, as you consume the digital space, as you can...

...to be able to do that. Did someone have something there? It froze up for a second there. Oh. Okay. It's the last 10 seconds. Yeah. You got me now? Yeah. Okay, cool. So I was just saying how in our world today it is very difficult to take the time to calm yourself and to focus on this priority that Paul has given to Timothy, and we too are being exhorted to pray. So we talked about that it's not an emergency measure, but a number one priority.

In question three, we said there are four synonyms for prayer in verse one. What are they and what do they mean? The first one we looked at last week was the word entreaties, and we said that that had to do with personal needs. So we also used the word supplications there, would be another word that we could use. And it gives a prominence or a priority to personal need. What we just spent time praying for had to do a lot with entreaties, right? We made entreaties on behalf of our fellow believers and ourselves in certain cases there.

So that was the first word, and we get to the second one, which is what? I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, and then what? Prayers. You're like, well, what's that? Isn't that the same thing? What do you think, how does prayers differentiate? Why is Paul using different words here? And what does prayers itself differentiate from supplications or entreaties? What do you think?

I think that it has to do with the reverence side of prayer. You know, we're not flippantly throwing up, you know, help do this, help that person do that. There's a reverence and a worshipfulness to us engaging the Lord in this way. And while the word prayer is more of a general term, it does have an emphasis on reverence.

Does that make sense? Can you think of a time where maybe there wasn't a worshipful or a reverence in your prayer? And I think that's an attitude, right? When you're praying, maybe you're praying 1 John 1, 9 for yourself. You know, you're self-focused and your desire is to become clear on the fact that you're a new creation. That's a very personal need.

And it may not start with reverence, but it ends in reverence. It ends in worship. So even in the old man, having been understood and having been convicted of it, you might not be worshipful in that moment because you're in need. But it ends up in reverence, and it ends up in worship.

And even as a believer, we're going to talk about how Romans 8.26 plays into that as well. But we've got entreaties and prayers.

Any questions on those two? It's more the prayer part. It's a focus. Focus is more on God, prayer to God, or the focus is is on Him in reverence, like you said, or who He is, all that. Whereas the supplications are more what I need or what I want, or it's what I'm asking for versus prayer, which is to God, reverence of God, focus on God. you know, who He is. We'll get into thanks, I think, in one of the other ones, but this one is just that the focus is more on God than what I need or what I'm bringing to you or whatever.

That's a really good distinction, I think. And some of the ways that that might play out is you have a need. You're weak in a certain area, or maybe a brother is weak in a certain area, and that's a very personal need. But it's countered with the fact of what God supplies. So you may say, you know, I need help, but yet your grace is sufficient for me. My weakness is a very big part of your strength.

And so, as you know the character of God in your prayer, you have the opportunity to become more worshipful about who He is in light of your need. I think that's kind of in the winning and beating enemy, the sovereignty. And when I'm asking, I'm also realizing the prayer part is he's a sovereign God. He'll answer how he wants, and it's always the best for me. But I'm realizing that he's a sovereign God in prayer.

Yeah, I would say, too, is it's probably more the sovereignty is really important, but it's also this growing intimacy and relationship you have with the God of the universe, and that it isn't, that you're, yeah, He's sovereign, but you kind of take, begin to, over time, take more and more of what's going on in your life to Him, because He's the best person that you know of now. That one, these other words that we're gonna talk about, that he's listening, he's a God that is a merciful and gracious God, and however he works things out, it's for his glory and your benefit, and he's trustworthy. And all of those attributes that we learn, it's like if you have a problem you can't quite figure out, you don't call up your worst friend, you call your best friend. And so I think that the worship aspect of it is also a, well, who else am I going to go to, kind of thing.

Right. I think you're right. It's not only sovereignty, it's all encompassing all of his attributes. You're recognizing who he is. The focus is on him, not on your need or what you're bringing or what you're In which you're going to get the intercession saying, you know, all of those. The focus is all those attributes. It's all of those. It really is all of them, and different scenarios call for different aspects of God's character, although we can't divide them. That total sum is His glory.

I'm sure that when Paul was in prison, he was recognizing on the fact that God was with him, his omnipresence. That's not something that maybe we think about all the time. However, though they can't be divided, there are certainly scriptures that help ground us in terms of how we might worship him based on the need that we're bringing to him, if that makes sense.

All right, well what's the third one? Petitions. Petitions, or intercessions, right? Right. And so what does that have to do with? What do you think, petitions? Yeah, but what does it mean? I think this is a very interesting one. I learned a little bit about this word in preparing for this study, and I think it's good because it's a hard one for me sometimes, especially when I'm praying for someone that may have wronged me or someone that I may not like specifically. But the idea with these petitions is that there's an intimacy of involvement. And so when I thought about that, I was like, okay, the intimacy involvement of a cause for another, what does that look like?

How does that work? And I'll give you, I'm going to ask that question again, but the verbal form means to fall, to fall in with a person, to draw near so as to converse, converse familiarly, to fall in with a person. I liked that term to fall in with a person, you know, When Pola has a thing, when I have an opportunity to pray for him about that, I'm falling in to Mike's situation in such a way that I can make petition on his behalf before the Lord.

Sorry to pick on you, Pola. I was just using you as an example. We could go each way. It's all good. So how does that work? How does it work to have an involvement with the cause of another? To identify what they're going through. Yeah, what if you don't know what it's like? What if you've never been there before? See, I get nervous with Mike on this one. You know, this is for intercession, that I'm falling in or asking something. It's like, am I taking somebody out of what God has positioned them in? And I'm making intercession. Should I be making intercession for them?

It's kind of a trick, you know. Thoughts with Mike about this, that you're praying for somebody to get them out of this situation when they shouldn't be. God has them there for a purpose. So it's kind of an interesting one then. I was looking at Zodiac, it's a falling in, you know, which you had a falling in with, meeting with, coming together, intercession where addressed to God for one's self or others.

And I think you can still pray for somebody. You know, it's like when I pray, people in the announcements and all that, I'm praying that, you know, it's our request that, you know, Russ gets out of the situations, but it's your will, Father. And it's our request this, but we are fully in line with your will. If you don't take him out of it, we know it's your will. So I think the intercession, we can ask for things, but it's got to be in accordance with God's will.

Being knitted together in love is what's more important. Well, I think that's an interesting perspective, right? Like, we're told to love one another, and as we pray, we're praying out of love. Now, when it comes to intercession, or petitions, as we're using it, I think there's a safeguard here. And that's the good, that's the cool thing.

Sorry, my text is blowing up with stuff that Addie's dealing with here. Let me see if I can turn my focus off one second. Okay, sorry about that. I don't know if you guys are hearing those dings going off. No. Okay, sorry about that. I think there's a safeguard.

So whether or not your love for a person means that you pray for their healing or, that's a bad example, but whether you're praying for them to not have to go through that trial or you're praying for them to go through that trial so that they might know God or so that they might see the hand of God, There's Romans 8.26. There's a safeguard there.

And I want you to look at Romans 8.26 with me. So somebody read that to me. Or to the class.

Romans 8.26.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with grown-ins, too deep for words. So how would that be a safeguard based on our motivations in prayer? I think it's the aspect of prayer where like Courtney was talking about, what you really want is God's will for the circumstances that you're praying about. And the Spirit of God is the one that will let you know. I mean, a growing believer is pretty aware of how much God uses trials and suffering for spiritual growth. and how much she uses understanding God's word for spiritual growth and all the things that go into it. And sometimes when we go before the Lord with a petition for someone, we're not really sure how we should pray. Sometimes it's, that's why Courtney and Nick, But I think that when you have that attitude about it, you only want to pray the way he would have you. And even if it's not something that's beneficial to the person you're praying about, at least now it's not, eventually it will be, you still go ahead with it. because the spirit helps in that weakness.

That's right. Besides what we read, I think the next verse is almost more astounding to me. And he, God, who searches the hearts, knows what the mind of the spirit is. That's mind-boggling, that God is searching the mind of the spirit who is indwelled in us. So, I mean, the intimacy part of the Spirit knowing us and what's best for us and all that, you know, is God seeks the mind of the Spirit who indwells us, and he's the one interpreting our prayers.

But then, you know, and what I say is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. That's, you know, it's always according to the will of God that, you know, it's also, I think, the other verses about, you know, bring your prayer and supplications and God will guard your heart. It's not going to answer the way you want, but it's going to guard your heart. I mean, it'll answer in accordance with His will, but it'll guard your heart in that. So I think there are lots of, if you say, guardrails to prayer, in that the Holy Spirit intercedes, and God is actually searching the mind of the indwelling Spirit for us, and then He's going to act according to His will.

Imagine what a privilege it is for us as believers. that definition of that word, to fall in with a person or to draw near so as to converse familiarly. You get to draw near and fall in with the God of the universe and the Holy Spirit so we can discuss this issue, pray about this issue from a family standpoint.

Father, what do you really want here? And that's how I want to pray. But we often say the terms, our desire would be, but ultimately, Lord, it's your will. And I think that that is the right attitude, right? We do have a desire for a person. Our desire might be wrong.

But it doesn't mean that when we pray that way for healing, for those types of things, or for change, or for a removal of a thorn, or whatever that might be, our desire could not be in line with the will of God, and that's where the Spirit comes in and intercedes on our behalf. But there's another safeguard.

I want you to look at Hebrews 7.25, and I'll read it for us, but maybe take note of it.

Hebrews 7.25. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives, he being Lord, he ever lives to make intercession for them. So, there's another thing that's going on here too.

The Lord is ever interceding for us. So the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf Essentially correcting our prayers to the father and yet the son is Interceding on our behalf That's that same word petition intercession So there's a couple safeguards that are going on in you know, while we pray with our limited knowledge as humans for what ultimately should happen or could happen, right? It's pretty cool. Yeah, it is cool when you figure out what God's up to. I mean, it's just a simple understanding that He intends to conform us to the image of Christ. And my self-centered approach to that is, I'm going to get a lot holier.

And he says, no, that's not what I mean. There's this little thing called the cross in the middle of your life. And you're going to learn through, you know, it's like he told Anna and I to tell Paul, I'll tell him what things he's going to have to suffer for my namesake. And we begin to change our mind about suffering, that it's a benefit rather than a curse. But it doesn't mean you say, oh good, I'm so glad you're suffering. That's not it. It's the purpose that's going on that you're intimately aware of because you have fallen in and he has fallen in with God's will about the thing. I love it.

Yeah, that's exactly where I think that that verse in these three aspects of prayer that we've talked about ultimately result in the last one. And what is that last one? What's the last word there that has to do with prayer in verse one? Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, right? So that's where you end up. You end up with Thanksgiving. So what is Thanksgiving?

That's maybe seemingly a simple question, but how does that apply to your prayer life? Appreciation for what? For God, obviously, but what else? I think it has to do with the privilege to approach the Lord in prayer at all, right? Thank you that we can even come to you, that the veil has been torn, that we have access to the God of the universe to make these entreaties, these prayers, these petitions. You've made that possible, and how thankful is a heart that can come to the Lord in that way. Certainly, you can't do that in every relationship with whatever religion that you might have ever been engaged with.

It's not personal in this way. I think that what's interesting about these four words, entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings, they form a circle. And I really like what you had in your notes, Mike, about this, because it says they form a circle. They begin by asking something from God, and end by offering something to God. It's pretty cool. There's a pretty solid doctrine on prayer right here, in terms of how it works and what Paul was asking Timothy to think through and to teach to others.

So we'll go to question four. Can we pray too narrowly? We're going to move on to a separate subject here, or the next subject. Can we pray too narrowly? Certainly we can. But should we? I'll only pray for that group, not this group. We'll only pray for the First Tim class, but don't worry about the Philippians class. I'm joking, obviously. But let me reverse the question. Can we ever pray too widely? No. No. Because at the end of that verse, what does it say? Giving thanks be made for, on behalf of, how many men? Yeah. This goes back to one of the thoughts I always have about people praying. That we try to put constraints on prayer.

There should be no constraints on prayer. You know, whether it's an arrow prayer, You know, when we're talking about only an emergency or praying like this, I don't think there's any guardrails on our prayer. Because with one, just what you said, we have the Holy Spirit that intercedes for us. We have all these things. So I think we can pray for anything, even if it's, quote, stupid. Because the Holy Spirit will intercede for us and make it clear what we should be praying for or But I don't think there could be any constraints, like they're too narrow, too wide, too whatever. I think we have the ability to come to our Father anytime, anyplace, anywhere, and ask for anything. And He'll make it clear what His will is in it. But I think any constraints on it limits our relationship or intimacy with the Lord. Yeah, because if it was narrow and you could only approach him in certain ways, or for only certain men, then you wouldn't be completely dependent upon him for all things.

Right? And any prayer, whether it be a shot up to the Lord on, oh, this thing, I don't know how to pray right now, but I need you. Sometimes that's just what it is. Or sometimes you sit down and you pray through all the things and you have, you know, a long lengthy list of things that you're working through.

They all are dependence upon God. Right? They all result in a dependence upon God. But one thing that we can say is that all men are included in this exhortation that Paul gave to Timothy. All men. And that's hard because there's a lot of men on the news that I don't relate with. You know? But no one is excluded. And I think that if you're approaching this from the old man, you're going to limit it. You're going to limit it real quick. But the new nature sees things differently.

And we see it through the lens of what this call to prayer that Paul gave Timothy, that all men are to be included in our prayers. The answer to the question number four, can we pray too narrowly? No. But scope does not matter. The Lord is still at work regardless of the narrow or the wideness of how each of us might pray. So verse two, this gets us pretty big, right? This increases our scope.

For kings, and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. So, question number five. Are we to pray for our country or for the people who are ruling our country? What about other countries? Because kings is plural. What's that? I can't make it out, I'm sorry. You're saying pray for Putin, or the Hoodies, or all the people attacking him.

Yeah, I mean, it's the real question, right? They're not on our prayer list very often, at least not mine. But is that the right thing? Is that the right attitude? Not necessarily. But certainly, you've been placed under an authority, and that's your priority, to pray for the authority that you're under. So kings and those in authority would represent the class of men most likely to be hated. It's interesting. Most likely to be hated. And I'll let Mike talk about the word authority, because he pronounces the Greek word very well. Hupo-rochi. Hupo-rochi? Yeah. It means to hold above. And you often use the term load-bearing capability. Oh. Hupo-mone. Yeah. Which is a relationship to that word. Yeah. Well, it's interesting.

After going through the previous questions, so if I pray for Putin and my support. Do I pray that he fails? Do I pray that he loses? It's a good thing we've got Romans 8-26 because he'll decide. Yeah. Or if I'm Ethel, I pray for the only Cincinnati teams. Yeah, right. Everybody who they're playing against, he plays against them. Yeah. I think this goes back to You can pray without guardrails. You can pray that Putin fails. You can pray that the Houthis, you know, sink, sink, you know, and sink in their ships or whatever. You can pray any of those things.

God will still answer. You know, if he wants, if he can succeed, he will. You know, that's why, you know, in our elections, you know, obviously, it's not built about The one ticket that we have coming up. But if that's God's will and they become president and vice president, then it's His will. And I'm not going to thwart it, you know.

And I accept it by these things that we're even supposed to pray for them. Even if I don't want to. You know, I've been in Romans 9, 10, and 11 a lot about God. over the centuries did with Israel, and how he would let them go into captivity, and he would use Pharaoh, and how he used all these people.

And I can imagine if I was a Jew, and here comes Nebuchadnezzar and his boys, and they're going to take us into captivity, I'm praying really hard that Nebuchadnezzar has an answer. But that wasn't God's will. And it was because They did not live up to what God said, hey, you're my people. A 70-year captivity was to make up for all the jubilee years that they didn't observe. Yeah. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king.

Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king. Give us a king.

Give us a So sometimes, like when you look at the world system, and the world is against God, there is no question about that. And so you recognize that he's sovereign, but he's gracious, but he's nobody to be messed with either. So, you know, you do a quick survey of the godlessness of not only the world, but our country now. Well, what do you expect? Well, number six says, what is the most, question six, what is the most effective way believers participate in politics?

We're going to kind of wrap this one up for the class today. And this class will probably take me four weeks, so a couple more weeks after this one. There's just a lot of depth here. Maybe we'll get it wrapped up next week. But question six, what's the most effective way believers participate in politics? Is it your vote? Certainly it matters, but is it the most important aspect of how we participate in politics? I think verse 2 has something to say about that.

Yeah, to pray for our leaders. That, I think, is all part of this. And I go back to Romans 13, where you put them all in place. He's the one who does it. So we should pray for him. And whether we get a bad lot or a good lot, he's the one who actually put them in. And so we still pray for him.

You know, pray that God would work in their hearts to change, you know, if they're totally into abortion or whatever, or, you know, something that's contrary to what we believe. Obviously, we pray that they would change, have a change of heart. But it's, again, just the understanding that God put him in there, and we have to pray for him. Is that sovereignty aspect that you mentioned? Yes.

Look at Romans 9.17, where the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this reason I've raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and my name might be declared on all the earth. Well, if you're a Jew enslaved, you're not too happy about Pharaoh.

Yeah, God is demonstrating some things through him. And it doesn't mean that God saved Pharaoh or anything. What God did was he made him Pharaoh. And he did it for a purpose, his purpose, which has been interesting. I think there were any Jews in the million or so that were in Egypt that were praying, oh, we're glad to have Pharaoh because God's going to be able to show us You know, his name and his power. We only got to do that going in with Moses. Moses, yep. You know, another aspect of this that I think is got to be where we are. And I know David Davis had given a talk on this a little bit in politics and things.

There's an aspect of when this was happening, those people didn't get to vote. But God has put us in a country now where we can vote. Is that different? How we participate in politics. And that he had places and a time and place where we can vote. And that's different than those who were under peril. They didn't get to vote. We want out of this. Can we, you know, move into a better location?

Can we treat us a little better? Can you, you know, so I think there are some aspects that, that we have to take, you know, contempt for relentlessly or whatever, that, you know, God has placed us in a place where we can vote, so we should vote. You know, that's your will or your, what the Lord puts on your heart. But I think that's one aspect that he's allowed us here in the United States. to participate in politics.

It's a privilege. It's a privilege. Yeah, it is a privilege. But it's different when we take a look at some of these things from, you know, Pharaoh and the time when Paul and the Romans were running amok, you know. We're a little bit different in that we have the ability to place us in a place where we can, you know, change.

What's interesting about Christians is that they don't vote very much. And I think we'll have to talk about that. That's not what God would do. God has places on the planet where we can vote. We should. Yes, we should. If we can affect change in a governmental system, then we should for Him. Even though we know sovereignly He is in control. I love this quote from Macaulay. He says, here's a primary way in which a believer may effectively participate in politics. Our vote is important. Yes, check. Our vote is important.

But our prayers are more important because they can bypass the ballot box and enter the throne room of God. Love that quote. And we'll close there for this morning. Father, how we thank you for the privilege of prayer. And we know that is of utmost importance. And we're thankful that you have allowed us to not only pray personally about our needs, but that we can do that. reverence and worship and that we can fall into the case of others and what they're dealing with and ultimately Lord we can give Thanksgiving for that and so we do thank you for your love for us and that you are making intercession on our behalf and your Holy Spirit is correcting the things that we may be motivated in the wrong way, but yet we can still pray narrow and wide for all men. And so we just pray that we would be conscious of that privilege that you've given to us. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.