1 Timothy 2:1-8 Prayer & Responsibility

Jack Terry is introducing a lesson on prayer from the book of 1 Timothy. He mentions that Paul wrote this chapter to Timothy while imprisoned in Rome. He explains the historical context, including Nero's persecution of Christians after the fire of Rome. He emphasizes the importance of prayer and mentions that Paul will discuss four ways to pray. He also talks about the concept of praying without ceasing and gives an example of how he does it in his own life. He mentions that even in difficult times with ungodly leaders, it is better to have some civility and law rather than complete anarchy. Good morning. How are y'all doing today? Everybody okay? Good. Open your copy of Scripture and turn to the second chapter of the book of 1 Timothy. We're going to do 1 Timothy, and then we're going to do Titus, because both of them were written at the same time. And then after we finish Titus, then we'll go back and finish 2 Timothy, because it was written after Titus. And so that's kind of the way it's going to happen. We're in the second chapter, the book of Timothy. Hello, Ed, they can't hear me. We'll get you up in a minute. How's that? Is that better? Can you hear me in the back? Can't hear me in the back. Okay. Is it up? Can you hear me now, Charlotte? Not very well. I don't know. I'm talking as loud as I can talk. So maybe you need to get in the middle where the drops on you from the top. Okay. Everybody okay? All right. All right. Here we go. This is the most unusual lesson, probably that you will have the entire year, because I'm going to cover two verses today. Two. But I'm going to cover 18 others in some other places that you need to know about. So totally, I'll cover around 20 verses today before it's over with. Let me kind of help you understand what's going on in this chapter and why the Apostle Paul wrote this chapter to Timothy. You've got to remember that Paul was released, as Brother Jimmy told us in his introduction, Paul was released from house arrest about the early part of 64. Probably sometime around February, he was released and he and Silas and possibly Dr. Luke made an evangelistic trip that he told us about in the book of Acts that they were going to try to go to Spain and take the gospel to Spain. Now we have no record as to whether they did that. We have no record as to whether the gospel got to Spain. We do know that Spain did receive the gospel, but as many other people, places did, it could have come through some Christians who had been saved in other places and went back home to Spain. But anyway, Paul and Silas and Dr. Luke and Timothy, or if Timothy was with them, left Rome about the early part of 64 and they headed for another missionary journey after Paul was released from house arrest. In 64, July the 14th, Insane Nero set the city of Rome on fire and they had the great fire of Rome on July the 14th, 64 CE, common era, AD CE. And about 14 districts of the entire city of about 25 districts burned. So it was a major fire, nearly burned down the entire city. And because of that, Nero blamed the Christians and the Jews for having burned the city. And it was in the latter part of 64 that Nero began his severe persecution of the Jews, which meant that when the Apostle Paul comes back from his visionary trip to Spain, if in truth they went on that visionary trip to Spain, when he gets back, he is going to be an enemy of the state. And he is going to be the number one person that Nero would like to put not in house arrest this time, but in the dungeon. And so when Paul and Silas and Dr. Luke come back from their journey, Paul is arrested probably about 65, latter part of 65 after Rome had burned and put in dungeon. And it is from dungeon that these letters are coming. In fact, we call these the pastoral epistles because it's written to two of his young pastors, Timothy and Titus, but they actually were coming from the dungeon in the city of Rome. Now, the interesting thing about this is the Apostle Paul wants young Timothy in his ministry in Ephesus to be sure that he includes in his ministry one of the most necessary condiments of our Christian life and to practice it regularly. And that is prayer. In fact, Paul is very sincere about prayer and we're going to do a little bit of study about where did Paul get the information, the Christian information, the Christ-like information on prayer that he was trying now to instruct Timothy. Now, the truth of the matter is we all know that Paul was a magnificent Pharisee. He also was a leader, rabbinical leader in Jerusalem, although born in Tarsus to a Gentile father and a Jewish mother, going to Jerusalem later to study to be a rabbi and to be a later on a Pharisee. It is said in the scripture that when Paul got back to Jerusalem, although all these other young men who were studying for the Judaic ministry as well, they were doing well. Paul had not been there. All of these men had been there. And the scripture says that Paul excelled all of them. Although all of them had been educated in the city of Jerusalem, Paul was educated in Tarsus. Paul had a bear trap mind and he could snap onto something and he can keep it and he could use it and he could bring it back. That's how he became an outstanding Pharisee. You see, ladies and gentlemen, during the time of the Apostle Paul, a Pharisee had to be able to quote any part of the law, Genesis through Deuteronomy. They had to be able to quote any part of the law anytime they were asked on the spot. Now you can imagine having in their mind all five of those books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and to be able on the spot to say, tell me what Deuteronomy says and they could tell you. Now that's the kind of mind these Pharisees had. Paul excelled all of them. Now the truth of the matter is, Paul, in his desire to develop this kind of mindset, had to do it under the aegis of an insane despot emperor by the name of Nero. And Paul will later on say to us, and I will say it early to you and repeat it later, it's better to have a despot leader, even ungodly despot leader, where still in the nation there is some kind of civility and some kind of law going, some kind of law, maybe not the kind of law we would like to have, but if there is a leader, even though he may be a despot, there are those around him in the civil law that are going to see to it that the nation is cared for well, even though the leader may be a despot. And Paul says you must pray for these despots, you must pray for these leaders, and that's going to be one of the major emphasis that he's going to say to young Timothy. Now what's going on is, even though a nation may have an ungodly leader, it is better to have an ungodly leader who has a little bit of civility and a nation that has a little bit of law, than it is to have total anarchy. Now anarchy is where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. You don't want anarchy. In fact, that's what happened in the book of Judges, when everyone in the book of Judges did that which was right in his own eyes. That's anarchy folks, and you don't want to live in an anarchy. It's better to live under the leadership of an ungodly despot who at least can take care, a little care of your nation, than it is to live in anarchy. And Paul's going to say that to Timothy. Now in this passage, Paul is going to introduce to Timothy four ways to pray. And he's going to tell Timothy, Timothy this needs to become a major part of your daily existence. And he's going to say to him that you need to begin to learn how to do these prayer practices. You need to do them regularly, and you need to do them on a daily basis, and you need to be in the presence of eternal God at all times. You need to, as he said in 1 Thessalonians 5 17, pray without ceasing. Now the interesting thing about that statement is, we do that unconsciously. You see, amen is not a period. When we're praying, and we come to the end of it, all of us do it right. As we come to the end of the prayer, we say amen. That actually means, so may it be. In other words, when I just finished praying, Lord let that be, so let it be. Let it be, or mote it be. It doesn't mean stop. It doesn't mean cut off conversation. It doesn't mean I'm not going to talk to you some more. It means that I'm going to have what the writer of the Psalms call Selah. If you read through the Psalms, all of these are songs. If you read through the Psalms, every now and then you'll run into the word Selah. That word is a musical term that means to pause and consider. Actually, that's what the word amen means. It means to pause, consider what you just talked with God about, and to remember that you're going to continue in prayer with him unceasingly. I got in my car for seminary last Monday after a meeting, about one o'clock in the afternoon. I got in my car, and just as I sat out of my car, a beautiful little squirrel came running in front of me, jaws full of acorns. I mean, I don't think the little guy could have carried another acorn. I mean, his jaws looked like he had to munch. And up a tree he went, and into a hole he went. What he had done, he was out foraging for food, picking up food. I also looked across, and there were some of those big old black crows. You might call them ravens, but they're crows. And those crows were picking all over the ground. What they were doing, they were picking up on food that seminary students had dropped on the ground while they were eating their lunches out on the ground. And as I was sitting there, without even thinking, I said, Dear Lord, thank you for feeding the animals. Now you see, that's praying without ceasing. You don't have to say, Dear Lord, I want to talk to you about something. No, I just said, Dear Lord, thank you for feeding the animals. Thank you for feeding the squirrels. Thank you for letting the little guy have his little chumps full of acorns. Thank you for letting the students drop some Cheetos, or potato chips, on the ground. And thank you for letting those ravens run over there and pick them up and eat them. Thank you, God. And then I was reminded of the scripture. The scripture says, He's going to feed all of the animals. He's going to feed, in fact, in Psalms 147, it says, Not only is he going to feed the beasts, all of the little animals that run on the ground, but he's also going to feed the birds. And then in the book of Matthew, he says, Oh, you humans of little faith, if I can feed the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, don't you think I can feed you? Oh, you of such little faith. And I just haven't, it's what we do. I mean, we're driving along and all of a sudden we nearly have an accident, or something zooms, and someone cuts us off and zooms in front of us. And all of a sudden we say, Oh, dear Lord, thank you for not letting him hit me. Do you realize what you're doing? You are praying without ceasing. I don't hear any amens, because amen's not a period. Amen's a pause. And so Paul is wanting to help young Timothy to come to an understanding of this. Now you've got to remember, Paul was brought out of Judaism. He was brought out of Pharisee-ism. He knew all of the prayers of the Jewish faith. And most of those prayers had been written in books. The Jewish faith has multiple prayer books that they read every Sabbath. And these prayers are read all during the week. These prayers are read by Jewish people. Paul probably knew all of those prayers in the prayer books, and he had probably practiced them because he was a Pharisee, a Pharisee with letters to go to the church in Damascus, and to kill all the Christians. And he was out there to do it when he was saved. Now in the ninth chapter of the book of Acts, sometime when you have time to go there, go to the ninth chapter of the book of Acts, and look at verse 23 and following, and I'm going to go there because I want to call your attention to something. In the ninth chapter of the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul is journeying to Damascus, and on the way he has an experience. And that experience is when Jesus Christ appears to him. He is knocked at his feet by a bright light, and he makes a profession of faith. He says to the bright light that he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He says to that bright light, he says, Lord, what would you have me do? Ladies and gentlemen, that's what you said when Christ came into your heart as your Redeemer. He said the same thing. Lord, what would you have me to do? Later on in the same instance, Paul said it again. Lord, where do I go? And God gave him information where he should go. He was saved on the road to Damascus, and had to go to the house of Ananias. And Ananias, as you know, helped him drop scales from his eyes, and then began to instruct him. And the Apostle Paul then wanted to go to Jerusalem, and the 23rd verse of the 9th chapter of the book of Acts starts talking about that. It says, Now after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill Paul. But their plot became known to Paul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and led him down through the wall in a large basket. And when Saul, Paul, had come to Jerusalem, oh, now Paul has left Damascus, and he's back in Jerusalem. Now he is no longer with all kinds of venom, and trying to get to the church. Now he is part of the church. He comes back to Jerusalem, and he tried to join the group of disciples, but they were afraid of him, because they didn't know who he really was. But Barnabas, now watch the consoler, Barnabas, who became his missionary buddy, and later on went on the first missionary journey with him. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the Apostles, and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that had spoken to him, and how he had preached of only in Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them in Jerusalem, coming in and going out. Now, I just believe that that's where he learned what Jesus had taught about prayer. Well, you see, ladies and gentlemen, the Gospels were not written until the 70s. In fact, they were written about C.E. 70. Paul died in either late 67 or early 68. He was beheaded on the Appian Road outside the city of Rome. So Paul's gone. Paul never had an opportunity to look at any of the written Gospels, although I'm sure in his ministry he probably saw bits and pieces of them. And I'm sure he talked to any of these Apostles, and it says that he was coming and going with the Apostles in Jerusalem, and he was constantly in conversation with them, and he was constantly talking to them about, tell me what Jesus did. Tell me what Jesus said. Tell me what Jesus told me. Tell me what Jesus required us to do. Tell me what Jesus said I needed to know, and tell me what Jesus wants me to do. And one of those things that Paul said, tell me how Jesus taught you to pray. Now, I'm sure that the Apostle in Jerusalem, with these Apostles and the disciples, I'm sure that he constantly was in their face, asking them, tell me everything about Jesus that you can remember. I want to know everything about my Lord and Savior. And so the Apostle Paul learned a great deal from Barnabas, but he also learned a great deal from the Apostles. And if you remember, it's not long after that, that he and Barnabas went on a missionary journey from Antioch. In fact, a lot of part of this chapter 9 says that he and Barnabas went to Antioch. And you remember, it was the church at Antioch that sent them on the first missionary journey up to Galatia, and they went up to Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, the three cities of Galatia, all the way. There was a young man who lived up there. Brother Jimmy told us his name. His name was Timothy. You see, that particular part of the world was actually a settlement of German people. Galatia. The Gauls lived up there. It was a German settlement up in Galatia. In fact, some church historians tell us that the Apostle Paul could have been a tall, blue-eyed, light-skinned, blonde-headed kid. German. He could have had that German look about him. He may have looked like Billy Graham. Light-skinned, tall, blonde-haired, Billy Graham. Here's Paul. He came from Galatia. We all know his father was Gentile. His mother was Jew. And so here's now Timothy, and he's up there, and he will meet him on this missionary journey. Later on, on the second missionary journey, he will pick Timothy up and take him with him, and Timothy becomes his son in the ministry. This is all that's happening. Now, it's interesting that Paul understood the majestic powers of personal and corporate prayer. He understood it from Judaism. He understood how it was vitally important to pray personally, by yourself, with yourself, but he also understood that it was necessary to have corporate prayer with others. That's why they go to the wall every opportunity they have. They go there with their prayer books and with all of the condiments of Judaism, their phylacteries, and their shawls, their visits, and all of it, and they go there, and that's where they go to pray. The Jewish people did a lot of praying, and they do a lot of praying, although most of it is written prayers that have been written by rabbis over the centuries. Now, Paul had that, and now he's coming to develop what Jesus Christ had taught the disciples that he never heard, but now they're filling him in on all of this. Would you believe that in the Gospels, there are more than 35 passages of scripture that talk about how Jesus taught the disciples to pray? More than 35 passages. I'm going to give you 14 of them, because I want us to look at them, because I want us to look at them because this is what Paul heard from these apostles and disciples. These are the passages that they remind him, and I put them in small print because I needed more room. I would have had about eight pages if I put them in the regular print, so I dropped them down in the small print, but I want to talk with you about them, because you see, all of these passages are passages where Jesus said, what you need to do is pray. Pause. When we get to verse 1 of chapter 2, the Apostle Paul is going to introduce us to four ways to pray. He's going to introduce us to supplication, to prayer, to intercession, and to thanksgiving. He's going to introduce you to four ways to pray. Now, the interesting thing about that is, this is the only place in the entire New Testament where Paul is instructing the churches to pray, where Paul uses four ways to pray, and he uses four because of Timothy. I'll show you in a few moments, if you don't get there before I get there, what I'm talking about, because he wants Timothy to understand something. You see, the word intercession and the word supplication are brother and sister. In fact, they are two of the same meanings. However, supplication is a lower form than is intercession. Paul is going to tell young Timothy, Timothy, you need to supplicate, you need to pray, you need to intercede, and you need to give thanks. You'll see in a few moments why he puts it. Now, if you go to the other places where he teaches this, in the book of Timothy, in chapter 5, he's going to say, now when you pray, you pray with supplications, and with prayers, and with thanksgiving. Hello, where's intercession? Over in the book of Corinthians, he's going to say, now when you pray, you're going to pray with supplication, and with prayers, and with thanksgiving. Where's intercession? In all the other places in the New Testament where Paul teaches the churches to pray, he only gives them three. But here he gives them four. And the fourth one is for Timothy. And he's going to show Timothy something that he needs to do. And it all revolves around the fact, it is better to pray for a desperate leader than it is to live in anarchy. Now folks, I have a hard time praying for Kabbalah. I just want you to know that. I have a hard time praying. But the scripture says I must pray for her. Perhaps if we all pray for her, maybe she'll get saved. Maybe Biden will get his old wife together and get out of Catholicism and get into evangelicalism, maybe he'll get saved. It's hard for me to pray for Job. But I have to. Because the Lord Jesus, through the Apostle Paul, said you must pray for the leaders over you. Even though they're desperate, it's better to be desperate than to be in anarchy. Think about it. It's better to be able to live in some kind of peace than it is to live in all kinds of terribleness at all at the same time. And so, the Apostle Paul now is talking to these disciples and he's asking them, how did Jesus teach you to pray? Now I want you to look with me in Jesus teaching about how to pray. These are from the Gospels. And in Matthew 5, 44, 45, he says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Now you remember, Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is the Sermon on the Mount. That's where the Beatitudes are. That's where all these teachings are. And you'll find that many of these teachings come out of 5, 6, and 7 of the book of Matthew, where Jesus was teaching his disciples. He also said in Matthew 5, 5, 6, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrite, for they love to stand and pray so people can see them. And I tell you, they have their reward. Don't be like the hypocrites. Don't be like the ungodly people who love to stand in the place and show people how great they are. Because people say, ooh, aren't they wonderful, they have their reward. Or he said in Matthew 6, 7, 8, when you pray, do not heap up empty praises. Don't just pray and pray and pray and pray with empty praises. Don't just heap up empty praises, as the Gentiles do, thinking that they are heard for their many words. Your Father knows what you need. Ask him. Don't give long prayers. Now ladies and gentlemen, a prayer does not have to be eternal to be immortal. Okay? Now I'm going to tell you a cute little story. We had an adult senior pastor in North Ridge Hills years ago, whose name was what, Barbara? Brother who? Do you remember? I knew you wouldn't remember either. Okay, I don't know. Anyway, we had a senior pastor, he was a former pastor, he was our senior adult. Tom Stewart, yeah. Every Sunday morning, Brother Tom had the invocation. Brother Tom was known for his much praying. Much praying. Okay? In fact, sometimes it took him four to six minutes to get the invocation finished. Seven of our boys that Doug ran with, his buddy buddies, all sat up in the balcony. And when Brother Tom stood up to give the invocation, all seven of these boys put down on a piece of paper a number. Two minutes, 34 seconds. Four minutes, 22 seconds. Six minutes, 41 seconds. And all of them wrote down with their name these numbers and then they all put a quarter on the balcony rail. Barbara and I didn't know about it. We didn't know they were doing this. And they would listen to Brother Tom and they would time him and whoever got closest got all the quarters. That's what I'm talking about. That's what Jesus is talking about. Don't pray with all of the words and keep on praying and keep on praying to where you absolutely wear all the people down. You're not going to be blessed for much talking. Isn't it interesting that following that passage in Matthew 6, 9-14, Jesus introduces the model prayer. Oh yeah, you call it the Lord's Prayer. Okay. It is the Lord's Prayer. He prayed it. But actually the Lord's Prayer is in John 17, if you want to read the Lord's Prayer. This is the model prayer. Interesting about the model prayer. Say it with me. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Fifty-six words. Think about that. How immortal is the model prayer? Fifty-six words. I want you to turn with me to the book of 1 Kings for just a minute. And in the book of 1 Kings in chapter 18, Elijah is taking on the prophets of Baal under the leadership of that most beautiful woman, Jezebel. And they're up on Mount Carmel. And all morning long, Elijah has let her prophets do all this stuff with this big altar up there with all this meat on the altar. And they just yell and scream and cut themselves as they scream and holler as they sing. And for about four hours in the morning, they do all kinds of gyrations, to which Elijah is sitting back there and he's saying something like this, why don't you yell a little louder? Maybe your God is asleep. Or why don't you yell a little louder? Maybe he's on vacation. What's wrong with your God? He's not answering. And so Elijah really cajoles on them. And finally, when he gets to the place where he says, he said, okay, now, I want to fill this altar up with meat. And I want you to bring water. I want you to totally saturate this altar. And verses 34 through 35, talk about saturating the altar in 18. And then in verse 36, Elijah prays 36, 18, chapter 18, first Kings, verse 36. And in 36, and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah, the prophet came near and he prayed, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. And, and I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, oh Lord, hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. And the fire fell. 64 words. See what Jesus is talking about. That prayer does not have to be eternal to be moral. And Jesus also said in Matthew 7, 7, ask, seek, knock, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be open to you for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and whoever knocks to him is open. Do you not understand that people, parents, fathers give their children good gifts? If a child asks his father, this is Jesus talking 7, Matthew 7, if a child asks his father for a bread, does he give him a rock that looks like a piece of bread? Or if he asks him for a fish, does he give him a snake? Oh, you of little faith. If you know how to give your children good gifts, how much more does the father want to give those who love him? Jesus also said in Matthew 15, these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is, heart is far from me. They worship in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules. Matthew 18, 19, 20. I love this one. If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, now look, there's no qualification here. There's not maybe it'll happen. There's no, it could. Look what it says. If two of you agree on anything on earth about anything, ask and it will be done of my father. No questions asked. It will be done of my father, friend heaven. If two are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. Guess who's here? He said it right here. If two or three of you are gathered in my name, I'm there. Now, Paul's picking up all this. And finally he says in Mark 13, 33, be on guard, keep awake. You don't know when the time will come. Maybe today, maybe today. Or he says in Luke 10, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest that he might send laborers into the harvest. And then he goes on. You can read the rest of these. These are all the prayers that Paul said to these disciples in Jerusalem. Tell me what Jesus taught you. Tell me what he said. I want you to tell me so that I can begin to develop a prayer ministry of my own, not as a Pharisee, nor as a Judaic individual. I want to have a Christian prayer ministry. And they told him and Paul began to develop his prayer ministry into which he came out with four methods to pray. He said, when you pray in verse one, chapter two, therefore, now the therefore is what went on in chapter one that brother Jimmy let us in last week. He said, therefore, since all of these things that I've said before, especially verse 17 of chapter one, now to the King, eternally mortal, invisible to the God who alone is wise, the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Paul, that's a great statement of Thanksgiving. Paul's praying there. He's just out in the middle of the Lord. I got this guy who's eternally mortal. I mean, he just started praying right in the middle of his teaching, started praying. You do the same thing. You do a lot of praying that isn't ceasing. So Paul said to him, therefore, I exhort you, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings. What? That's why Paul doesn't give it the fourth one to the other places where he teaches the churches about prayer. What did I tell you? Paul said it is better to pray for a despot than to live in anarchy. Ladies and gentlemen, it's better to pray for our leadership than to live in anarchy. And the Apostle Paul is getting ready. Now you know why he uses the fourth one here. He's getting ready to let Timothy know he needs to pray for the leadership of authority that God has put over him. So he introduces the second part of supplication, which is a higher part than supplication. There are two meanings to supplication. One is praying for man to man like we do. Oftentimes in supplication, don't we come and say, would you pray for me, Carol Ann? Here's what I need. I need for you to pray for me. And we start naming all these things. That's supplication. I want you to intercede for me, is what you're asking him. I want you to supplicate for me. And the words are so closely related. They mean basically the same thing, but the people for whom you're praying are different. And I'm glad he used this with Timothy because at this point in our, quite frankly, democratic life going on, we need to pray for the Kings and we need to pray desperately for the Kings. And so in supplication, this word means an earnest request and implies a sense of indigence, helplessness, and need. It contains a request for daily food. Look at the Lord's prayer. It contains a request for daily food. Give us this day our daily bread. Now, in the affluent society in which we live, we don't need to pray that often, but we do because all around us are people who are starving to death. I cannot believe how many children are starving. In a world of affluence like we have, we have children all around us who are starving and we are sitting around and not praying for them, praying for them. We need to pray. Give them a daily food. And so that's part. But now there's going to be another part of this supplication that's going to be called intercession. We'll talk about it later. And the reason he gives it is because he wants Timothy to get ready to start praying for the Kings. And in supplication, it's all these kinds of things when you ask for specific needs to be fulfilled by God. And we do it all the time. We say, Sam, would you pray with me? And would you please pray for my son who's not well? And I want you to do that supplication, folks. Anytime man to man, friend to friend, Christian to Christian, Christian to un-Christian, asking prayer, we do supplication. It is praying for a friend with a need. Paul said, you need to do that a lot. You need to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus did. Jesus prayed for them every day. He prayed that if they had a need, it would be filled. He prayed for them to be saved. We need to pray for them to be saved. And then the Apostle Paul says to them, not only do you need to pray in supplication, now this one, stay with me. This one, he said, and prayers. Wait a minute. Prayers? I thought that was supplication. It is. But the word for supplication is an interesting word in the original. It means praying for a friend to a friend. Praying one for the other. Now we come to a different word. When he says prayers, he uses the word prosuche. That's an interesting little word in the Greek. In fact, he says, you know, this kind of sounds like supplication. But it's not. But it sounds like you're praying for man to man. Well, you are. But is there something deeper here in this word prayers than in the word supplication or the word thanksgiving or the word intercession? Is there something different? Yes, it is. You see, the first meaning is of this word prayer is just on the surface. We do prayers. Everybody does prayers. But it's not this word. It's not this kind of praying. This kind of praying is when you purposefully do something with yourself and with the eternal God that is unusual. That's why I skipped Matthew 6.6 in the list of the litany that I gave you. And I skipped it because I want to read it to you here. Matthew 6.6 Jesus said, But when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in a secret place, and your Father who is in secret will reward you openly. This is what we call closet praying. It's only me and God. It's only you and God. And it needs to become part of our prayer life. I don't know if you have a closet. I don't know if you have a time when you go to God alone. And it's only you and God when you're alone. And that is the one that's called prayer. It's to you and to me and to God alone. And he says to Timothy, Timothy, I want you to know, you will need to spend time in your secret place. A great Christian theologian said, if you have never been in your secret place, then you have never really prayed. Let that ruminate a bit. And then he goes on with this word intercession. Now, this is the fourth one that he doesn't add to the others. There's going to be a last one. It's going to be Thanksgiving. But this is not an intercession. This one he's doing for Timothy to get Timothy to fulfill verse two. And verse two says, for kings and all who are in authority. Timothy knew what Nero was doing. Nero was an insane, desperate emperor. Timothy understood where Nero was. Timothy was in emphasis. He understood the emperors. He understood anarchy. He understood deficit. He understood what they were. He said, Timothy, you need to pray for kings. And if you do pray for kings, then anarchy will not come. Look what he says will be the result that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence. That's the kind of lives we are able to lead when we're not in anarchy. Even if you have a leader that you don't care about and you really don't want to pray for him. The Lord God says, pray for him anyway. Pray that he will keep civility in order that as a Christian, you may lead a peaceful and a gentle life. So he says to him, he says, listen, you want to understand what this is all about? He says, it's like in 1 John 2, 28, when we shall appear at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, you see, Timothy, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, we're going to have to meet him face to face. He's our king. You're going to be talking to the king. So, Timothy, you need to learn how to pray for the king in order that when the king comes, you can meet him and you can work with the king. And so all of this passage, all of this intercession is put into this particular prayer life of the apostle Paul, praying only for the leadership of your nation. And God says, we must pray for our leaders. Whether you like them or not, whether they're yours or not, whether you care about what they do, whether they're good or bad or indifferent, you need to pray because they keep you in a peaceful life. You haven't had your guns taken yet. You haven't had your home invaded yet. You haven't had your telephone censored. You haven't had your taxes raised to where it's an ungodly amount. You do and I do have a peaceful life. We should pray to God, thanking him that we can pray for our king. We can pray for our president. We can pray for the leaders. We can pray for those who are in authority. And finally, he says, but you also must do thanksgiving. And this one is an interesting word. It's Eucharist. Eucharist in Greek. Now, I'm going to tell you something as I close. It means to be just overflowing with gratitude and thankfulness. It means to just give God all God. Just say, give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Lord, your God. Give thanks because he gave you Jesus Christ, the Lord. That's what it means. He says we ought to be thankful every day. I was sitting there in my car and I saw a little squirrel with his jaws all popped. I said, dear God, thank you for the squirrel. I didn't have to pray for that squirrel. But what I saw happen, just fill me with love for God's ability to give that squirrel something to eat. And I knew I was going home and that Barbara was already making me a sandwich. And when I got home, I was going to fill my jaws also. I was thankful. Give thanks with a grateful heart. And so he said, look, you've got to do this and you've got to give thanks with a grateful heart. It's the word Eucharist. Kind of interesting about that word. You're not Catholic. And I would take a minute to help you understand. I was. In the Catholic mass, there are several things that are of utmost importance. One thing is on Saturday, you must go to confession. It happens every Saturday. The Holy Roman Catholic Church people go to confession every Saturday. There's a major purpose for doing it on Saturday. The major purpose for doing confession on Saturday in the Holy Roman Catholic Church is if you do not go to confession on Saturday, you cannot take communion on Sunday. OK, put that down. Confession is tantamount to communion. So if you go to confession on Saturday, you are qualified to take communion on Sunday. And communion is a process of giving thanks to God as he in the Holy Roman Catholic Church puts it into our mouth, his blood and his body. They give thanks, Eucharistas, every Sunday for the blood and the body of Jesus Christ. It's called Eucharistas. And there's a beautiful piece of, I guess it's a statue of sorts, that they have in a big box on the altar. And that box is called the chamber of the Eucharist. And at the period of the mass toward the end, just before, because communion is the last thing they do. And just before the end, the priest will take the box off of this beautiful piece of art. And it is a gorgeous piece of something. I've seen them that have just a starburst of gold and silver and stones coming out in this magnificent. You would love to put it in your house. You'd love to put it on your table. It's gorgeous. And the priest will take it and he does what is called elevating the host and he will elevate the Eucharist. And when he does, everybody stands up and praises God and the bells ring and everybody's happy. They're giving thanks unto God because they're getting ready to have his body and his blood. It's the part of thanksgiving. It's called the Eucharist. And following the Eucharist, the priest will come down. Now they don't have the little glass and the little wafer. They have one wafer. They put both into one. I mean, you know, maybe they got up to date too. And now they come to the front and they come and the people come who have been to communion. They are qualified to give thanks to God for his blood and his body. And they come to the priest and he puts the wafer on their tongue. And here's what they say. Praise God in his eternal kingdom forever. Brother Jimmy, why is it that the Methodist Church has communion every Sunday? Why is it that the Church of Christ has communion every Sunday? Why is it that the Catholic Church has communion every Sunday? Why is it that the Episcopal Church has communion every Sunday? And why is it that the Presbyterian Church and the Churches of Christ and the Disciples Church and the Disciples Church have communion every Sunday? Think about that. It's a way every Sunday to give ultimate thanks to God because it's his blood and it's his body. Barbara and I visit White Chapel quite a bit because Doug sings there on occasion. And every Sunday at the end of the service one of the pastors will step to the front and he will say, on the way out our ministers have a wafer and a small cup of grape juice and we would encourage you to join us in communion. Wow. Could it be we're missing something? Oh, I know it's a hassle to get all those little glasses together. It's a hassle to get all that little stuff together. But now do you know they put one in one time? They put the wafer on one end and the one on the other? I mean, how big a deal is that? I am not really trying to get us to do that but I'm simply saying it's the kind of Thanksgiving opportunity that we should be doing somewhere. That we should be doing somewhere. And so the apostle says now, Timothy, the reason I told you about intercession is you're going to have to pray for Nero. You may not like Nero. In fact he says in here, you need to pray for kings and all who are in authority over you. You need to do that because if you don't do that it's going to be an uprising and it's going to turn into anarchy. It's going to be the period of judges. You don't want anarchy, Timothy. We don't want anarchy. We've been there. We want an opportunity because of our praying to lead a peaceful and a quiet life. So, Timothy, pray for those who are in authority over you. Dear Sunday school class, pray for Trump. I don't care whether you like him or not. He is chosen by God to run for president. We need to pray for him. Kamala, she eats so many word salads I can't follow her. I mean, she gets on to something and she repeats it 25 times in 10 minutes. She repeated that word, what did she pick up the other day? Not sentences. What was that big word she picked up and then go in circles? She said it 25 times. I mean, you know, she drives me batty. Holistic. She just drove us nuts with holistic. But, God says, pray for her. She could be your president. So, the apostle in this chapter does two things. First, he teaches Timothy how to pray. Next week, he teaches Timothy how to worship. The rest of this chapter is a dissertation on worship. And he's going to talk about men worshiping and he's going to talk about women worshiping. And he gets a little dicey when he gets on to the women. And so, next week we will look at the second part of this chapter. The first part having been on prayer and the second on worship. May I ask a question? Have you learned anything about prayer today? Sometimes, we just think that prayer is just saying, dear God, thank you. And it is, but it's more than that. You heard about the little boy who was trying to pray at home? And you know that little prayer that played, God is good, God is great. God is good, God is good. This little boy who lived in Texas, he said, God is good, God is great, clear across the Lone Star State. Another little boy had just been saved. He was about 12. He lived in Hoboken, New York. Came to Sunday school after he was saved. And the teacher said, he said to the teacher, may I pray today? I just got saved. I want to pray. The teacher said, sure, you can pray. He bowed his head. He said, our father who art in Hoboken. And everybody did what you just did. They laughed. And after they finished laughing, the teacher looked at them and they said, boys, Johnny's just showing us. But let me tell you something. God does live in Hoboken. And God does know Jimmy's name. Our father who art in Hoboken, how do you know my name? So as a class, don't just practice one. Remember the secret place and remember the kings. It's for us to pray. Heavenly Father, it's not a lot of talking. It's not a lot of words. It is a lot of heart. And dear God, thank you for teaching us to pray. And thank you for teaching us ways that we can be effective members of the kingdom in order that we might bring forth a pure, peaceful, joyful life, even in the midst of the desperate. Dear God, dear God, thank you for Jesus Christ. May we give thanks and glory to him. May we love him and praise him and glorify him throughout the ages, world without end. Amen. See you next Sunday.