Prayer
1 Timothy 2:1-8
Good morning all of you!
It’s so good to be with you all this morning.
Recently, I was surprised to hear the result of a survey done among the Christian adults about their prayer life. The result shows:
• An average prayer only lasts under five minutes.
• 37% of the people say that they pray only once a day.
• 33% of the people regularly participate in prayer meetings.
• 79% of the people pray for themselves and their own needs.
• ONLY 21% of the people pray for other people.
How is our prayer life? How often do we pray for other people?
Let us see what the word of God says about praying for other people.
Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
Title: Praying for All People
PI: Praying for all men is good and acceptable to God.
TRANSITION:
Why do we pray for all people?
Our text gives us three foundations to pray for all people.
Foundation one is in verses 1-3 in our text. It says; this is good and pleasing in the sight of God.
I. This is good and pleasing in the sight of God (vs.1-3).
Paul begins the verse with the phrase, “first of all” in order to prioritize prayer. We can see four different kinds of prayers mentioned by Paul here. And in the last part of the verse 1, he mentions that the object of all of our prayer should be ‘all men’, especially those who are in authority and high officials. Firstly, we pray for their salvation and secondly, they could lead the country in a better way where all of us will have quiet and peaceful life.
Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
Let us extend our prayer time, praying for other people, especially the kings and those who are in authorities. They need our prayer to rule the nations and to bring peace and quiet life for us to live and serve God. We should pray for all men because it is something that is good and pleasing to God. We should pray for all men because our God is the God of all men. Don’t you like to please God? If you do, let us pray for other people at least few minutes a day because it is good and pleasing to God.
“Prayer should be our first response, not the last resort”.
TRANSITION:
Praying for all men is good and acceptable to God.
Our Text gives us three foundations to pray for all people.
Foundation one says; this is good and pleasing in the sight of God.
Foundation two is in verse 4-6 in our text. It says; there is only one God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
II. There is only one God and Savior, Jesus Christ (vs. 4-6).
Paul mentions the word, “all men” once again here in verse 4 to tell us the desire of God to see all men being saved. Why does God desire all men to be saved? The simple answer is because He loves all men and Christ is the only mediator between God and all of men.
And verse 6 explains about Jesus Christ who died for all men as a ransom of all men’s sin.
One day Hudson Taylor was traveling on a boat from Shanghai to Ningpo. He had been witnessing to a man called Peter onboard. In the course of events, Peter fell out of the ship. A fishing boat was close by, so Taylor asked for their help. But they wouldn’t stop their fishing to look for this drowning man unless Taylor agreed to pay them then they agreed to help. In less than a minute after dragging with the fishing net, they found Peter.
But it was too late; Peter was dead. What a tragic story! How self-centered those fishermen were to be concerned about their own financial gain than about saving his life. But before condemning those fishermen, we need to take the log out of our own eyes. How concerned are we with people around us who are perishing without Jesus Christ? Do we care more about my own comfort and financial gain than we do about people dying without the Savior?
Application
Many times, we get satisfied with our own salvation that we don’t care about the millions of people who are lost without Christ. Let us not forget the fact that people need the Lord. Let us pray for all men because Christ is the only mediator of the whole world. Let us be the channel of blessing to others in sharing what we have received: the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus.
TRANSITION:
Praying for all people is good and acceptable to God. Our text gives us three foundations to pray for all people.
The first foundation says; this is good and pleasing in the sight of God.
The second foundation says; there is only one God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And the third foundation is in verses 7-8. It says; Paul was appointed a herald and an apostle.
III. Paul was appointed a herald and an apostle (vs. 7-8 ).
Paul was appointed to preach the good news to all men, especially the gentiles. He is using his apostolic authority to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people. He is the herald, the preacher, to preach the good news to all people that Christ is the only God and Savior of all men. He is also an apostle, a special messenger to proclaim the good news to all people. He is creating a prayer movement among the believers to pray for all men. In verse 8, Paul talks about lifting up holy hands which was the tradition in Jews culture while praying. But what he is telling here is not just outward but also inward purity in prayer.
Romans 12:6-8 says that we all have different gifts to do certain things for God and His people; prophecy, teaching, giving, serving etc.
What are we doing with our spiritual gifts in order to reach out the people who are lost without Christ? Our simple prayer means a lot for the salvation of many people in the world. Let us pray for all men with the pure hearts and lifting up pure hands that we could please God through our prayers. Let us be a part of this prayer movement that Paul has started in praying for all men.
REVIEW:
Praying for all men is good and acceptable to God. Our text gives us three foundations to pray for all people.
The first foundation says; this is good and pleasing in the sight of God.
The second foundation says; there is only one god and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And the third foundation says; Paul is appointed a herald and an apostle.
CONCLUSION:
The most sincere prayer I have ever prayed was for my mother when she was still alive but was confined in the cancer hospital with Blood Cancer. One day, the doctor came to us and said,” she can’t live more than 14 hours”. When I heard that, I prayed from the bottom of my heart for my mother’s life. There were a lot of people praying for her continuously. God heard the prayers of His people and extended my mother’s life for 2 more years which was impossible according to the doctors. When I saw the power of many people’s prayers in my mother’s life, from that point, I knew how important it is for me to pray for other people.
INVITATION –
Today, there are millions of people who are in desperate need of our prayers like my mother was. Our simple prayer means a lot to them. So, let us all set aside at least 5 minutes every day to pray for all men those who are in desperate need of our prayer. “Praying for all men is good and acceptable to God”.
Let us pray.
