Who do you pray for? What grabs your heart in prayer?
• Is there a social concern that you’re passionate about?
• A ministry direction you’re faithful & fervent in supporting?
• Do friends fill up your prayer list? Have a few enemies on it?
• Ever pray for governmental leaders? The military in Iraq?
• Are you faithfully praying for the needs in your home, in your family, in your church, in your city, your nation, your world?
THE WORLD? I can barely handle my home, let alone my world!
• But see the Lord has already given you the world as your mission field… God loves the people on this planet, in every nation, every country, every language!
Rev. 5.9 And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
Oh Lord give us a heart for the lost… in every neighborhood, every city, every country! Get us in the game of evangelism!
NOW How about your enemies? Do you pray for them?
• Those that hurt you, continue to defame you, drawing you down, taking you out?
• Pray? I’m supposed to pray for my enemies? I want to destroy them, and hurt them back!
• Oh Yes, I pray for them alright. I go through the psalms and pray like David!!!
Psalm 10.15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
Psalm 58.6 Break their teeth in their mouth, O God! Break out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
PRAYER… our opportunity to talk with the Creator.
• His opportunity to meet us, answer us, inspire us with His heart and His will for those around us.
SO IT SHOULDN’T surprise us to find prayer in this letter written to the young pastor Timothy.
Remember, the aged & seasoned Paul has taken quill in hand to write to his young protégé Timothy…
• This is how the church looks Tim, the goals & guidelines.
• The roles & responsibilities, even the toils & snares.
ANYBODY desiring to serve the Lord would do good to invest their time in the study of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus regularly.
• As we read in CH1, teach Sound Doctrine Timothy and don’t allow anyone to come in with lies and falsehoods.
• Teach, and model, and extend grace through the ministry.
• Point them to Jesus, Love them in their faults & failures Timothy. Don’t give up on anyone… they CAN be changed.
NOTE: Our study a few weeks ago on grace is so foundational to the ministry here. Pick it up if you weren’t here.
Now we come to prayer… the devotional life of the church.
• In the first part of this chapter there is the prayer life, the practice of worship in the church.
• And Paul ends CH2 with the place of women in the church.
I. (2:1-8) Amazing Prayer
1. (1-4) An Exhortation to Pray
a. First of all… Paul says. First of all.
b. This is foundational Timothy. This is fundamental.
c. Don’t skip over this… it’s essential, vital, critical!
d. Be a church that prays. Praying always for ALL men.
Don’t be known for your building… or your outreach, or your social concerns, or your budget, or the size of your growth…
• BE KNOWN FOR YOUR PRAYER that fuels the ministry there!
• And not just prayer inwardly, but your prayer of ALL MEN!
• IN OTHER WORDS… you guys first & foremost are to be a people who pray without ceasing.
And as Paul lists here, there are different kinds of prayer.
• Supplication: requests. We get the idea of continually seeking, asking, knocking, requesting from the Lord.
• Prayers: Idea here isn’t just praying, but EARNESTLY praying.
• Intercessions: to ask, stand in the gap, run ahead and meet
• Giving of thanks: Oh Lord thank you for hearing and being there!
These prayers are to be continually made for who? ALL MEN.
V2 – kings, all who are in authority… Democrats? Yes. Arnold? Yes.
• If you were in New York… Hillary? Yes!
• People that maybe you say I’m not sure they are on my side, or on my level of life, or even those that come against me.
• We are to be people who pray and trust God for the outcome!
CONSIDER WHO WAS ON THE THRONE OF ROME at this time… Nero!
• One of the most violent, anti-Christian men in history
• Paul was praying for Nero, for his salvation, heart change.
• And so a church is praying for those in authority.
• They are ONLY THERE by the predetermined counsel of God.
Paul says in v3… this is good. It’s good.
• Good for what? Well our lives. That we can live peaceably & quietly. So we’re not all worked up and exhausted.
• That our lives would be godly & reverent of God.
• A praying man, a praying woman… it’s good. What’s not good about prayer? You might be changed! Good.
• They might be changed. Good!
• Either way, we are cooperating with God in the ministry here on earth and it’s good to be in continual prayer.
2. (4) God desires all men to be saved.
a. Now, after Paul tells us to be prayerful people, telling God about men… supplicating, interceding, thanking, praying.
b. He now says, be a church who tells men about God.
c. It’s God’s desire, He wants men to be saved!
d. That’s his heart, to see men’s hearts changed… saved!
Ezek 33.11 "Say to them: ’As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ’I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
BUT WHAT’S BEING SAID OUT THERE TODAY…???
• God’s out to get you! He’s ready to pounce you in judgment!
• OR God’s out to get your money.
• OR God wants to guilt you and shame you into order.
• But that’s not the heart of God. That’s not from Him.
• His desire is that none should perish.
2 Peter 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
3. (5-6) One Mediator Given…
a. In our prayers, we are praying to ONE GOD.
b. And we have access to Him because one Mediator.
c. Not Mary, or saints, or St. John, or St. Christopher.
d. Not any preacher, not a pastor, not a church… but Jesus.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
• And now here, the Holy Spirit is saying Jesus is THE mediator.
NOTE: And it’s here that you can see why our ministry is built upon point you, pointing anyone and everyone to Jesus Christ.
NOTE: Our society isn’t the only one inventing religions and ways to God. It dates back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis.
• There is this tidal wave of relativism rushing across the globe.
• So you’ll hear things like, “well that’s good for you, but I believe this and I’m glad Jesus is for you but I think he’s this.” NO!
• And so in our nation we see the reality of what Amos spoke about relating to the nation of Israel. TURN THERE
Amos 8.11-12 "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, But shall not find it.
SO Timothy… there is ONE GOD & ONE MEDIATOR between God and men… you tell them. It’s Jesus! No one else takes His place.
This is good news guys. This is great news. We have a Mediator!
• Job struggled. He wrestled with trials that had come upon him
• He had just lost everything & everyone dear to him, except his wife and yet his wife wasn’t much of an encouragement.
• Hey Job, just curse God and DIE! Thanks honey.
• His friends come along and blame him and condemn him.
• In his struggle we hear the cry of his heart!
Job 9.31-33 Yet You will plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes will abhor me. 32 "For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. 33 Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.
• Oh we have a mediator today that we can run to, cry to, reach out and rest in. WHO v6…
4. (6-7) Gave Himself a ransom.
a. Oh… we were held hostage by sin & death.
b. They swallowed us whole and were destroying our lives!
c. But Jesus paid the price with His own blood, he bought us back… purchased us and released us!
d. And v7… he appointed us. For Paul he was a preacher, an apostle, a minister of the gospel.
FOR US… there are those specific giftings… but also the general ones. He redeemed us to live for Him, to share His love, to bless others, to serve Him, so evangelize, to reconcile, to comfort.
5. (8) So lift up your hands!
a. This is it Timothy… be a church of prayer
b. There should be prayer and thanksgiving.
c. We want people everywhere not clenching their fists in anger, but raising their hands in prayer.
d. Holy hands… hands washed in the blood of Jesus set apart to do great things in His name.
NOTE: There is so much we do in prayer that responds to His great love for us… lifting of hands, falling on our faces, kneeling, standing.
• You know one thing you’ll never find in the Scriptures?
• The folding of the hands and the closing of the eyes.
• Now we know why the Sunday School uses them! So that little Johnny won’t pull little Sally’s pig tails…
• But there is great freedom in your prayer life as the Lord leads you into His presence to commune & communicate!
II. (2:9-15) Amazing Women
1. (9) Modest Apparel.
a. So Paul turns a corner here just a little addressing the women in the church.
b. Yes there’s to be prayer, giving of thanks, lifting of holy hands… and there is the need for modest apparel.
c. Propriety & moderation…
NOW Paul didn’t tell the women to raise their hands. Why?
• Well I’ve found that women have no problem in the lifting of their hands or in engaging in deep prolonged worship of God.
• It’s the men that usually struggle with that.
• I’M NOT LIFTING MY HANDS, ESPECIALLY IN CHURCH.
• I’M NOT MOVING THESE ARMS PERIOD!
• Except when at the last second of the game and the score is tied and the kick is up and IT’S GOOD! WAVE THE ARMS!!!!
• Guys it’s ok, it’s great, to raise the arms in worship, seeking to surrender yourself to the last minute workings of God!
SO THERE IS NO DIRECTION TO THE WOMEN in raising the hands.
• Not because they shouldn’t, or couldn’t, but because it comes very naturally.
• BUT he does say, here’s what you’re to do women…
• Adorn yourself in modest apparel. Be careful with what you wear and how you carry yourself in the church.
• Why? Why would you have to care what you wear?
• Stumble a brother. Focus on outward rather than your heart.
Now the opposite here is not being taught either…
• That you shouldn’t care what’s on the outside and that the lowlier you look… no make-up, no nothing, well the more holier you become.
• Not it’s simply an admonition to modesty & propriety.
NOTE: It’s not enough to say I don’t brush my teeth, I don’t take a shower, don’t need no make-up because God sees the heart…
• Well God does see the heart, but we need to sit next to you!
So in v10… what is proper for women professing godliness.
• What does the Holy Spirit say in your heart on how one presents herself. Modest or immodest? Suggestive or Sensible.
NOW v11-15 have caused some of the most serious controversy between men and women in the church than really any other passage of Scripture besides Ephesians 5.22
Eph. 5.22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
• SO LET’S JUST SKIP AHEAD to CHAPTER 3 shall we… NO.
• We’re not going to let the world, and our society taint what God is working through His Church.
• There is nothing in this passage that is degrading to women, putting women down, or hurting women.
• It’s simply defining roles & responsibilities.
So Paul says, Timothy, here’s my word, I don not allow women to teach, in teaching over men, as a Senior Pastor.
• It doesn’t mean that women can’t teach at all. Look at Titus:
Titus 2.3-5 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things-- 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
• And we know that it was Timothy’s mom & grandmother that taught him the Scriptures.
2 Timothy 1.5 when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.
BUT Timothy, women are not to be teaching over men in relation to doctrine & theology in the church.
• Doctrine, the place of authority. But rather to learn.
NOW does this mean that a woman can never teach a man? NO
• Because then we have to draw these lines and figure out when does a boy become a man, etc.
• When Marie, my wife has a word for me, from her devotions, or her prayer time… I don’t say, NO, THOU CANT’EST TEACH ME, THOU ART A WOMAN.
• No I receive it, test it, and walk in wisdom with the Lord.
• And there are women in our fellowship with responsibility over men, like in the children’s ministry, but it’s very clear that they are under the pastor’s, under my authority.
• It’s not an issue of can they or can’t they do it better!
• It’s only an issue of authority structure in the church.
AND SO MANY a man has come to here to this passage and used it as a club to beat down women!
• But lest you think the Bible is chauvinistic or that Paul is…
• Pull out an atlas and notice where the Bible has had its greatest impact and notice the role of women in that society.
• The Bible elevates women, and frees them, and removes them from that place of subjugation!
• Am I saying that in our nation we are where we should be in this issue? NO WAY. But sin taints everything!
• And so Paul refers back to Genesis in showing the order and reasoning behind this structure.
• Then in v15, what’s that all about!?! There are so many positions on this that it would take weeks to sort them out.
But what I see is a reference to the simple fact that there is a great sense of fulfillment in the God give role of a woman giving birth and raising children in the ways of the Lord.
• This is not a slight to you single ladies or those of you struggling with infertility… it’s simply speaking to the women raising kids.
• Moms change the world! You’re raising the next generation.
• Why is purity & holiness & godliness so important in the moms… and in the dads? Because in your home is the next wave of the church!
WOMEN: You are important. A survey of the Scriptures shows how powerful the ministry of women was, is, and can be!
• Miriam (Worship Leader) – Exodus 15:20
• Deborah (National Leader – Judge) Judges 4:4
• Huldah (Prophetess) – 2 Chronicles 34:22
• Anna (Prophetess) Luke 2:36
• Priscilla (Bible Teacher) – Acts 18:26
• Pheobe (Deaconness) – Romans 16:1
• Many Women (Served with Jesus) – Luke 24:39, John 11
NOTE: THE BOTTOM LINE is that we need each other.
• We need men in the church, men who lead, and the women in the church who will support that leadership and do everything they can to do what God has called them to do.
• Lord what I can do to use my gifting & talents and be used mightily of you in these last days!
• Let’s turn to
