Living Together in Community

0 (1s): Good morning. Welcome to the 11 o'clock service at harvest church. Thank you all for joining us wherever you're joining us from whether it's online or here on campus, somewhere in the sanctuary in the loft outside. We're just glad you're here and invite you to join us in worship. Please stand, dear God, we invite you here this morning. We laid down whatever we brought in God. We just become aware of you place our lives for the cross this morning. And we just lift you up as Lord of our lives. 1 (1m 7s): My enemy, the unbelief way with clues. 1 (6m 37s): You have the space between where I used to be. I would never be next to me. 1 (6m 54s): between B thank you that you stand with us in the hardest of times, 2 (11m 56s): Midst of the fire. You don't leave us. You stand right beside us. I love how you showed us in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Bendigo. Having the, you were sent into the fire. You protected them. You covered them. It says not a single hair was singed. Not only that. When others looked into the fire, they saw fourth one standing with them, the King of glory. Thank you. That that's the example. You give us that you're that kind of savior, who, who doesn't shout from the outside of the furnace, but it's right next to us within it. And so I just pray for anyone this morning that feels in the midst of that furnace in the midst of dark, scary times, Lord, that you would remind them if you're nearby. 2 (12m 41s): Yes, you are. As close as our breath. We have nothing to fear the Lord on our side, cover us. You shield us. We were under the protection of the shadow of your wings. You would just bring your protections morning. It's your angels and camp around us strengthened that you've given us to push back the darkness, your light, your love, your truth. 2 (13m 29s): We thank you for your presence here in this place. In our hearts, in our church, in our city, in our 1 (15m 5s): 2 (21m 6s): Anyone this morning, this morning, that's choking back. It's just hard. Sometimes she would remind us that your yoke is easy and your burden is you carry us always. When the enemy tries to slap on all this stuff that we have to carry, that's just not the truth. 2 (21m 47s): So would you free us just to walk in the joy of our salvation today and just the freedom that comes in knowing you and following your word and trusting in your promises. You're only stateful we can depend on. You just encourage you to maybe take a deep breath, just strength, freedom, and key. So the Lord this morning, the enemy tries so hard to spring, heaviness and worry and doubt and anxiety and stress at every corner. 2 (22m 29s): Lord just wants to say, I've got you, son and daughter. I see you. You're never out of my sight. I see you. I see how hard you're trying. I see everything you're walking through. I've heard every prayer in the night. I've heard every deep pride in your heart. You haven't even spoken. I know your, every thought you know is so intimately. You know us better than we know ourselves. 2 (23m 10s): I pray Lord that you would help us to see ourselves through your eyes as sons and daughters that are completely Holy without sailing that were covered by a loving father. We take a deep breath. Thank you for the breath in our lungs and for the praise on our lips. And even for the tears Lord, even for the brokenness, because it reminds us how much we need you. We can't walk through this life on a real person for another hour, whereas presence is just so this morning, we're just going to keep soaking. 2 (24m 8s): As we dive into his word this morning, as we hear from me, digest more of his character as he makes us more and more like him as we spend time in his presence. Amen. Well, let's just spread some of that worship love around to one another. Just past the peace of the Lord to someone around you. You say hello to a neighbor. We're going to come back in just a few minutes with some announcements around here for pastor Ron today. 2 (24m 34s): all right. Good morning. Harvest church. Good morning. 3 (24m 58s): Hey, so good to see. Y'all so glad to see you here. So glad to see some faces I haven't seen in a while. That's amazing. Hey, welcome. If you're joining us online, glad to have you join by tuning in and Hey, happy Sunday after Sunday. Hello. My name is Jeremy. I F sometimes I forget to put that out. My name's Jeremy, I'm the youth and family pastor here, and I'm bringing the announcements this morning. Hey, we've got a few announcements. The top priority is Easter is coming. You decided about Easter. Awesome. What, what a flop of Easter last year. So this Easter, it's going to be awesome. 3 (25m 38s): April 4th, we are having one service and that's in the upper parking lot. We're going to be setting up a stage up there. We've got speakers. We've got the full, the full shebang is happening up in the upper parking lot. So at 10:00 AM, it's going to be a family style service. And that means the there's no kids programs, separate it's kids are in the service. There's gonna be a time of worship, baptism a message that afterwards there's going to be Easter egg hunt. So what we need is everybody to bring Easter eggs that are, have already been pre-filled. Don't bring any Easter eggs that are empty. We need pre-filled Easter eggs so that we can hide those out the property. And it's just a fun event for the kids afterwards. 3 (26m 19s): And Hey, because we're doing baptisms. If you want to be baptized, sign up for that in the, in the, either in the info station, online on that, on our app, but we're going to have having a baptism during the worship service, there's going to be a class two weeks from now. There'll be on the 21st, the first service. So there'll be a class for the back of those who are getting baptized. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a sweet time. Next. We have the good yarn club for all the yarders out there. Do we have any yarders in the, in the room? We got a yard. Okay. Whew. We've got a yard in another room, so there's good. You are in club. They meet once a month. And this month gathering is Saturday, March 13th, from five to 7:00 PM. 3 (27m 3s): And that's in room five. Sign up on the connect link to get connected with them. Next is the men's community gathering. That is, I believe this is the first time in almost a year, right? It's been awhile. So that is the men from all over the central coast. We join each other for this powerful monthly event. It's March 15th at 6:00 PM at the thousand Hills ranch, free dinner, worship testimonies. And they are asking to bring a friend, no signup necessary, just come as you are. Correct. Okay. And last announcement is the college and young professionals scavenger hunt. That will be Saturday, March 20th, from four to 7:00 PM. 3 (27m 44s): And I was told it's a fun night complete with street tacos and not friendly. I was still the friendliest on my sheet. They told me it crossed that it's not friendly. It's a gnarly, brutal competition. So come prepared for a gnarly, brutal competition. No, it will be fun. Street tacos. That's between the ages of eight, 18 and 40. And the cost is $10 and sign up ahead of time. So they know how many to expect. And with that, that's all I got. So pastor Ron, come bring us the word. 4 (28m 21s): No, my fan club for first service was much larger than that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All three of you. So Steven Jolene are away. It's their anniversary. So they took some time off. So, you know, it's always a good thing as a married couple to get away and enjoy one another. Right? Keep the love alive. You can talk to them about it when they get back. Right. So before I begin, when I pray for someone, so many of, you know, Danny and Lena Solomon, they've been attending here for a number of years. Danny had a heart attack yesterday morning and very serious. 4 (29m 5s): So he was at French hospital this morning. And then, so I was speaking with Lena about what's going on with Danny. So he's been transported to Stanford and he's having open heart surgery. Maybe right now he's got a heart attack, caused some damage to his heart. They're having to go in and make some repairs. It was, it was really questionable whether he was going to even make it through the night. So he's, he's, he's there now. So let's pray for Ganni. Well, we just want to lift up Danny to you, our brother in Christ, Lord. We love him. We desire. And we ask, we pray that he would have many more days, more months, many more years upon this earth. 4 (29m 45s): Lord, we pray life. We pray life for Danny Lowe. We pray that you would give the surgeons great skill as they work on him. And just that amazing ability that you've given them to, to care for someone in Danny's situation and to, and to be able to repair his heart. And so Lord, we pray that that the surgery would be successful. We pray that Danny would quickly recover that even while he's going through all this. And he's sedated that he would just sense your presence in his mind, as hard as spirit, his soul, that he would be at such peace and, and comforted by you and for Lena as well. I know she's very worried about her husband that you'd comfort her. As in addition to Danny Lord. 4 (30m 27s): Ultimately, we thank you that Danny is, he is yours. He's hidden in Christ. He belongs to you, his body's a temple of your spirit. And so Lord have your way with him. We pray. We just lift him up to you as his friends and family of God in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Some of you may recognize the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So I'm a little bit about him. He lived in, he was pastoring a church in Germany in the thirties during the time that Adolph Hitler came to power. And the third Reich began to gain momentum and in Germany and later in greater part of Europe. So he was pastoring a church, as I said in Germany. 4 (31m 8s): And what, what Hitler did initially is he gathered the pastors together because he knew they had influence over people in the country of Germany. And he, he tried to convince the pastors of Germany to come on board with him. That what he was trying to accomplish was essentially God was leading him to do this. So Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one who did not buy into Hitler's plans for Germany and for Europe. So he essentially became an enemy of the state. He was imprisoned at one point, in fact, so I want to a quote from him a little bit. And the reason I want to quote from him is when you take somebody who's really been in adversity and experienced the life of the church in a very difficult time, it brings out certain things that oftentimes we don't experience because life's pretty easy for us. 4 (32m 4s): I mean, there's things we go through all that was kind of difficult or, you know, feeling maybe a little persecuted here and there, but for the most part, you know, for the church in America, life's pretty easy. So the book that I want to quote from it's called life together together, meaning the family of God, life together, a discussion of Christian fellowship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So I want to quote, it says in the gray Dawn of an April day in 1945 in the concentration camp at floss Lindbergh shortly before, it was liberated by the allied forces, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by special order of Heinrich Himmler. 4 (32m 44s): So because of the time in which he lived did, you're gone off. Her has a unique perspective about the life of the church, the community of believers that he was leading. And so he's written some things for us to, to learn from hopefully. So just a few excerpts from his book. There's a chapter in it is called community. And that's what we do when we gather together, we are Christian community that meet here at harvest church. But honestly we meet all over the central coast. We meet all over the world. We have brothers and sisters in Christ, all over planet earth, which is a wonderful thing. He says this, it is by the grace of God, that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's word and sacrament the physical presence of other Christians as a source of income, parable, joy, and strength to the believer. 4 (33m 39s): This is easily disregarded and trodden underfoot by those who have the gift every day. It is by grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ only in Jesus Christ. Are we one only through him, are we bound together? So we live in an interesting time in the church in America, in that I think we're experiencing some division in the Christian community. Like I've never seen before in my lifetime. 4 (34m 21s): And a lot of that division is due to opinions about, you know, politics, politics, and candidates, and how to deal with COVID and kind of peripheral things. So what we're going to look at this morning is Paul is going to be speaking to Timothy. So Timothy, we're going to learn here. He's a young man. He is put in a position of leadership at a church that Paul planted, which we're going to talk about in a minute. So he's helping Timothy to, to navigate some of the things that they were experiencing in Paul's day. And I believe it would speak to us as well, how to navigate what's going on in the body of Christ right now and how we can be instruments of unity rather than of division. 4 (35m 7s): So if you want to title for today's message, the title is this living together in community. So I'm going to be looking at first Timothy chapter two. So pastor Steve has begun having us go through this letter. So when we talk about, you know, various books of the Bible, when we talk about the book of first Timothy, sometimes it's called an epistle, but basically what it is, it's a letter. So Paul wrote this letter, he penned it himself and he sent it to Timothy because Timothy was, was needing some leading this particular church. So a little bit of background, Paul planted this church, it's the church in the city of Ephesus. And he spent about three and a half years, years. 4 (35m 48s): They're planting the church, helping it grow appointing leadership at the church. So he was there in this particular church at Ephesus, just about, I think, longer than any other church that he planted. But after this period of time, time, he's ready to move on. So he's moved on now and he's left this young man behind to lead the church in Ephesus, young Timothy. And so he's now responsible to lead this gathering of believers. However, there's, there's a few problems that Timothy is having to deal with. Number one is he was a young, Oh man. So his youth apparently was a bit of a hindrance. Also. He was inexperienced and he needs, he needs help, which is why Paul wrote this letter to him to give him some help in leading this community of believers. 4 (36m 36s): So in this letter, Paul he's, he's going to give Timothy some guidance on, on how to lead the church on a few different levels. One is on a personal level. In other words, Timothy, this is the way you lead in your personal life and how it affects the church community. He's also going to talk about how to select other leaders to help him lead this church in Ephesus. And then he's also going to talk about the worship gathering. So this is when, when believers come together, we have church and he's talking to Timothy A. Little bit about how to, how to do that, how to do church. So first of all, Timothy, he says to him, you really to lead by example, what does he mean by that? 4 (37m 17s): So if you go to the end of first Timothy, and I've got all the scriptures that we're going to be looking at, they're going to be up on the screen. You can turn there if you want to. But the first one, I'm going to look at us in first Timothy chapter four, verse 12. And he says this to Timothy. He says, first of all, Timothy, don't let anyone think less. Yes, have you, because you're young instead be an example, be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live in your love in your faith and in your purity. And until I get there, focus on reading the scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers and teaching them. So Timothy's personal life is very important. 4 (37m 59s): As far as his leadership in Ephesus with the believers there. Anyways, I can identify with Timothy mainly because, well, let me give you a little bit of background. First of all, DJ and I, we met and got married in 1980. And so after we got married, it was the years, 1981. And so we did not come from a Christian background, Christian family, any of that. And yet we both, both EG and I came to know the Lord and accept Christ as our savior in 1981 together, which has been an amazing journey because we got, we've got to grow together, figure out this Christian life together couple. 4 (38m 43s): So at the, at this point in time, so fast forward it's, it's, we're living in Avalon beach and we have a business there and you know, I mean kids yet. And the year now it's 1983. So we've been a believers for a couple of years, met a guy who was really good Bible teacher. And so we decided, well, let's have a home fellowship. You know, let's have a Bible study in our house. So we began to do that there in Avalon. And it, it just kind of began to grow and grow until we needed a bigger place to meet. And so in 1984, we moved to the community center and Avalon began to have people show up and sort of by, I think God's design. It was made available. That space was made available to meet beginning, meet on Sunday mornings. 4 (39m 24s): So mind you, we had no idea what we're doing. I think oftentimes God used are being a little naive or even a little ignorant sometimes to his advantage, which is a good thing. Cause as, as we look back sometimes to go, I never would've done that. If I knew what I was getting into, you ever been there. So 1984, we actually planted this church in Avalon and just sort of by default, the fellow, it was leading. The Bible study became the pastor and from my position has helped or I became the assistant pastor and I, and again, we're just kind of learning as we go. So back to, you know, I can really relate to Timothy because if fast forward now the year is 1992 and the pastor at the time he left suddenly. 4 (40m 10s): And because I was sort of like next in line, they, the leaders in congregations as well. Why don't you, why don't you pass through the church? I'm like, I have no desire to pastor church. I've got I'm on a completely different career track. And, and so, but I left a little window open and I said, Lord, if you want to change my heart and change desire, I'm, I'm willing. And so, so over the course of many months, and then in one sleepless night, I really feel God changed my heart and gave me the desire to begin to lead this congregation in Avalon. And I'm like, Timothy, I don't know anything about anything. You know, I'm fairly new to the Bible and, and I'm in this position. 4 (40m 52s): So I would deeply glean from Paul's letters to Timothy. And I w I, you know, because I'm trying to navigate this. And so we were, we were there at that church in Alberta one years. And, and honestly, I know some of you are here today. Part of that gathering back then it was very sweet time. I is just great fond, fond memories of those years together at that church in album beach. And so my, my Bible school training came at the business department at Cal poly. I mean, that's, in other words, I had none, but God was so faithful. You know, when we, when we need something and we ask God for, it might be he's faithful to give us the wisdom to accomplish whatever ever it is. 4 (41m 38s): He's, he's accomplishing in our life. So always be assured of that. So back to our scripture now in, in first Timothy chapter two, it's instructions here about worship gatherings, but he's got to focus in on. The main thing is going to focus on here is prayer and how essential prayer is to the life of the church. And so look at me with me at first Timothy chapter two, verse one, it says, I exhort, first of all, that supplications prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men that died is all people. It's not gender specific there. So he says, first of all, Timothy, this is super important. He says, I want to exhort you in this. 4 (42m 20s): I want to, this is urgent. What you, what I'm telling you, hear it. And in a moment, he's going to tell us why it's so important. So what he brings out here is there's actually four areas or nuances about prayer. He mentioned supplication, prayer, intercession, and giving. Thanks. I mentioned this because they're actually different. If you look at the Greek words they're used there each one's just a little but different. And I want to see why. So that word supplication, first of all, we talk about prayer. All we're talking about is conversation and with God, that's all it is. I'm sure those of you that have been around the church for awhile. There's, there's no right or wrong way to pray. 4 (43m 3s): You don't have to pray in King James. You know, you don't have to pray new living translation. You don't, you, you just converse with God. And what we realized, what we come to realize here, we have this open, direct dialogue with the creator of the heavens and the earth, God almighty. And he wants to hear from you. He wants to hear from him. So he says, you know, I exhort, first of all, and he named supplication prayer in her session giving and thanks. So supplication, what does that mean? It is literally it's asking for something specifically directly to God. I'm asking God specifically for this. It also means seeking after God about something very specific. 4 (43m 46s): So there's a seeking aspect. There's an asking aspect of it, which reminds me of this verse. So this is Jesus is, is talking in Luke chapter 11, seven, verse nine. Is this what he says? He's talking about prayer. So I say to you ask, and it will be given to you seek. And you're going to find, you says, knock, knock, knock on the father's door. And it's going to be open to you for everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds him who knocks it will be opened. So that supplication is it's this asking this, seeking this knocking. But then he uses Paul uses the other word prayer. 4 (44m 28s): And this literally prayers that are, that are addressed directly to God. And it also has a different little nuance to it. It means a place it's talking about a place case that set apart for, for prayer. Now in the Jewish tradition, the Jewish community in a certain city, if they had at least 10 Jewish men, they would typically have a synagogue in that community. But when they would lack 10 Jewish men, they would lack a synagogue. They were tradition was they would go and they would gather by the river. So that river would be a place that was set apart for prayer. So we see this in acts chapter 16, Paul is in the city of Philippi. 4 (45m 8s): He just got there in acts chapter 16, verse 13. It says on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the Riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. So this was a women's prayer group. Where did they gather by the river? And so we see, this is the kind of prayer Paul is talking about it. Literally. It's not only prayer. That's addressed directly to God, but often in fact, we think about gathering at church. We're talking about specific place space for prayer. The church gathering is a place set apart for prayer among other things as well. 4 (45m 53s): So the, the third word, Paul mentions intercession, which is literally, it's a petition that we're making. It's a petition that we're asking God specifically for petitions made directly to God. So again, intercession, one of the great examples of this is you remember when Moses was leading the people of Israel into the promised land and, and he sends 12 spies into Canaan to come back and, you know, let them know how, how well it's going to go for them. Now, if you know the story, 10 men came back and said, you know what? This is not possible. The people that live in Canaan, they're too big, too strong too. 4 (46m 33s): Over-powering it's not going to happen. And of course to said, yeah, we can do it. Okay. So God got super angry with the Israelites because those 10 bad reports affected the whole, the whole group of Israelites, the Jewish people they're like, forget it. Let's go back to Egypt. We can't do this. And so what happens? Well, God basically tells Moses, get out of the way I'm gonna, I'm going take these people out. So what does Moses do? He intercedes see, he petitions God for them. So that the cool story numbers chapter. Yeah, this is, this is the prayer of Moses. Pardon? The iniquity of this people. I pray according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now. 4 (47m 21s): So here's how God responds to the petition. The intercession of Moses, God says this, okay. I'll pardon them. According your word. In other words, God's basically responding to Moses intercession for them. He's saying, okay, I heard you all right. I won't, I won't do what I intend to do. I will spare them. So I just appointed the, the, the impact, the authority that we have with God, as we supplications towards him, prayer towards him, intercession towards him. And the last thing I want to look at just real quickly is the word. Thanks. Paul mentions that here. It's just this gratefulness, this, the gratitude, this attitude of gratefulness to God. 4 (48m 3s): Now, when we pray, be sure of this. Things may not change for us. Our circumstances may not look any different, but we, we petition God, we seek him. We, we ask of him specific things. And then we're just have an attitude of being thankful, just thankfulness, because God's on the move. God is working all things together for good to those who love him. So, so it's, it's gonna bring about positive, powerful results as we pray to God. So with that, Paul said to the believers at Philippi said this in Philippians four, six, he said, so don't be anxious for anything, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. 4 (48m 47s): And then he uses this word with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So I want to put all those words together, just quickly ask God directly, address God directly, petition God directly, thank God directly and be specific as we pray. And he's going to show us what it means to be specific, because as he gets into this with Timothy, he's going to say, by the way, I want you to pray for these people. And I want you to pray for them for this reason. So this idea of going to God directly is, is super important because why? Well, because in Paul's day there was this idea that you needed to go through another person to get to God, maybe through a man, maybe through a priest, but God's saying, no, you can go directly to God. 4 (49m 41s): So also, so in our day there is this idea that we should pray God through someone else. Again, maybe through an old Testament Saint, or I dare even say, even through the Virgin, Mary, I know it might be shocking. You don't need to pray through the Virgin Mary or anybody else. For that matter. You can pray directly to God as a believer in Jesus Christ. You can do that. And he, he will grant you access gladly and listen to your prayer gladly. So verse two, we're going to jump into first time of the two. I'm going to kind of bring both those verses together. Again, I exhort, first of all, that supplications prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks. 4 (50m 23s): Be made for men, for Kings and for who are in authority. And here's why, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. So now he's getting specific, okay. Here's who I want you to pray for him. What does he mention? He mentioned Kings and all who are in authority. And so what's the result of that going to be? Well, he says so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. I like that. I mean, what do you guys think? Does that mean we're going to have a life of no problems, no trials. It's you know, we're just, we're just going to have a quiet 5 (51m 1s): Peaceable life. Maybe not. 4 (51m 5s): We're going to look at this. It does sound great though. Doesn't it? It sounds awesome. Who doesn't want to lead a quiet and peaceable life? So I think we all know that the apostle Paul, he was a man of prayer. So he practiced the same things that is encouraging Timothy to do here. So I have a question for you this morning was Paul's life peaceful, 5 (51m 27s): Quiet. No it wasn't. 4 (51m 33s): But, but so on the outside Paul's life wasn't peaceful and it wasn't quiet, but on the inside, yes, Paul discovered this secret place of rage. 5 (51m 46s): I asked when he was in the midst of trials, 4 (51m 50s): The truth is Paul spent much of his ministry years inside the local jail of the town that he was, 5 (51m 56s): Was planning a church in or in a Roman prison. He was in a Roman prison on more than one occasion. 4 (52m 3s): And yet this is what he said about the things that he went through. So Paul's talking about his own experiences now. And in Philippians chapter four, beginning with verse 11, he says, he says, I've learned, I've learned in whatever 5 (52m 17s): I am to be content. I know how to be a based, and I know how to abound everywhere. 4 (52m 26s): And in all things, I have learned 5 (52m 29s): Both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 4 (52m 40s): It doesn't. So the circumstances don't matter. 5 (52m 44s): God 4 (52m 44s): Desires to bring into our lives. A measure of contentment and peace and quiet on the interior. The no matter what our circumstances are 5 (52m 53s): Outside, it it's fine. 4 (52m 57s): So Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, by the way, the year he wrote this letter to Timothy, it was 64, a D. So who do you suppose was a Roman emperor at the time that Paul was encouraging Timothy to pray this way? Well, his name was emperor Nero. So Nero ruled the Roman empire from 54, 82 68, 5 (53m 20s): A D so general persecution of Christians in the Roman empire began under emperor Nero's leadership. So even while Paul is encouraging Timothy to pray for the, for Kings and those in authority to have a peaceful and quiet life Niro is he's stirring things up against the Christians. One commentary says this after the great fire of Rome in 80 64 rumors swirled that the emperor himself was responsible. Instead Nero blamed the Christians, according to the Roman historian, Tacitus Nero had the Christians covered in wild beast skins and torn to death by dogs. 5 (54m 6s): So why is it so important to pray for Kings and for those in authority? Well, again, Paul tells us so that we can lead peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity, dignity. So, so we pray we're called to pray for our leaders. And then we trust God for the results. We trust the results to God answer our prayer in his timing. So it took a long time, but eventually Christianity was embraced in the entire Roman empire. So we're called to, to pray. As we gather, as we commune as believers, we pray directly to God, but then we just leave the results to him. 5 (54m 49s): Our circumstances may not look any different. In fact, they may get worse, but we keep praying. So we pray. And then we trust the results to God to answer our prayer and his timing. We pray. And then we leave the results to him. So in the meantime, what's happening as we pray, God is growing us up. God is, is he's maturing us on the inside. So that in all things, no matter what happens on the outside, like Paul, we are content and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Do you believe that I know many of you have experienced that where literally the world can look like it's falling apart around us. 5 (55m 29s): And we have this, this inexplicable sense of God's peace. So that like Paul said, you know, be anxious for nothing. It's like, why am I not stressed about this? Why am I not overwhelmed by this circumstance that I'm in? Because God has given you his peace to be content in the midst of that storm of life. So Paul continues in this letter to Timothy first Timothy chapter two, verse three, he says concerning prayer for leaders. Those in authority, he says for this is good. And it's acceptable in the sight of God, our savior. Why? 5 (56m 9s): Because he desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. You see, that's the end game. Why do we pray for leaders and those in authority because God desires that they would be saved, that they would come to know the truth. So the reason this pleases God, again, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God. The reason this pleases God, the reason we pray for rulers and those in authority in this way is because God's desire is that everyone that we're praying for will be saved and will eventually come to know the truth about God and all that he has done for them through his son, Jesus Christ. 5 (56m 52s): So the insight, the insight is this, the end game is this. Our prayers for these people are very effective. Don't don't ever dismiss that our prayers for people in this case, Kings and those in authority are very effective. What did they do? They help to open the door to their heart so that God can reach them. So he's saying, here's what I want you to specifically pray for them, that they might have their heart open to accept and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. Some years ago, I read a book it's called revolution in world missions that is written by KPO Hannan. 5 (57m 33s): So KPI Hannah grew up in India and he came to know Christ as his Lord and savior. And he had moved to America and was married and living here, but he founded a ministry. The ministry is called gospel for Asia. He just had this great burden for his people, the people of India to come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior. So he planted this ministry gospel for Asia and what it was, it was in various parts of the country. There were Bible training centers established. There were churches that were planted and evangelists were literally going out into the various places in India. And so there's, these were men and women that were be being trained to take the gospel into the nation of India. 5 (58m 19s): Some years ago, I had a privilege of going with gospel Asia, a gospel for Asia to India. And I got to teach at a few of these training centers there. And it was just an amazing thing at that time. The Christian population in India was about 2% maybe, but God was doing some amazing things through the lives of these men and women who are coming out of these training centers and going and taking the gospel into, into the villages there. And by the way, that that region of the world is commonly called the 10 40 window, because it was one of the most unreached areas with the gospel in the entire world. So I mentioned this because back to the, the, the, the power of prayer. 5 (59m 1s): So KP heard about this woman here in America, who was a prayer warrior. And he, he wanted to talk to her because she was specifically praying for the ministry of gospel at, for Asia and India. So he visits this woman here in America. He comes and find out that she's an elder gala. She's bedridden, can't even get out of bed. She has to have people come and care for her, 6 (59m 25s): But on her wall in her room 5 (59m 28s): Is a world map. And God was just impressing her. I want you to pray. I want you to pray for these people. I want you to pray for this community. I want you to lift up this nation. And what she would have people do is they would take map pens and they would put them on the map in the areas where she felt God was, was asking her to pray for these people. So KP is talking to her and, and, and getting to know her, but what he came to realize, as he looked at this at this world map is when he looked at the nation of India and the cluster of map pins on that map, where God was impressing her to pray for. He realized that they were having the greatest measure of success evangelizing and sharing the gospel in those communities where this woman was praying for. 5 (1h 0m 14s): So here she is, she's bedridden. He has to have other people come and help her. And yet her prayers are so effective that they're impacting for eternity, the lives of the people in India. On the other side of the world. Here's what James says about prayer. He says in James five 16, the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. I want to read that again. The earnest prayer of a righteous person. Now you may be thinking well, I'm, I'm not a righteous person. Yes you are. 5 (1h 0m 55s): When you place your faith and trust in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, his shed blood made you righteous. You are the righteousness of God in Christ. So the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. We have a direct, direct access to the creator of the heavens and the earth. He desires it with people would come to know and accept and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior because God is all about saving people. He wants heaven to be full of crazy people like us. 5 (1h 1m 37s): Paul is exhorting us to pray specifically for again, our King. So what does that have to do with us? Who's our King. Well, I guess you'd say maybe our president pray for our president. Pray for our national leaders, pray for our state government, our local government, those who are in positions of authority over us. He's saying pray for them specifically by name, asking God to open up their heart to him, pray specifically that they might come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. Now, as I mentioned earlier, there's a great division in the church right now. And again, it's usually over politics and candidates and all of that. 5 (1h 2m 17s): I w I would exhort us to do this. Don't be critical of any of our leaders, whether you agree with them politically or not pray for them specifically by name asking God that there would be an openness in their heart, to the gospel. That's going to bring about unity in the church and the body of Christ. So I get, I get me. I get super excited when I see something very specific in the Bible that pleases God, God. So this is, this is, Paul says, this is pleasing to God. I know we all, we all want to, to please him praying like this is for these people in this way. It pleases God, and God is pleased with us. 5 (1h 2m 58s): When we do this, I have a question for you this morning. If we pray in the way Paul tells us to pray. And if we pray for the people that Paul tells us to pray for again, back to the question, does that mean we will always have a peaceful and quiet life? The answer is no things may get completely crazy, but we continue to pray. So we're not, we're not praying. God give us a great government. We're not praying. God may, you know, make life easy for us. We're saying, Lord, I know these people need to know you. They need your salvation. I want the kingdom of heaven filled with people like this. 5 (1h 3m 40s): I may despise their politics, but Lord, I want you to fill heaven with people blank. This. So Paul, again, did he have a peaceful and quiet life? The answer is no. He spent a lot of time in jail. I spent a lot of time in, in, you know, Roman prisons. Was he effective in his ministry? Absolutely. In fact, when he was talking about his ministry, part of the effectiveness he's talking about is when he was in prison. So in Philippians chapter one, this is what he says beginning with verse 12. He says, he says, I want you to know something. I want you to know my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here in prison has actually helped to spread the good news for everyone here, including the whole palace guard knows that I'm in chains because of Christ. 5 (1h 4m 27s): And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. So th the irony is Paul's in prison. Oh, that's a bad thing, but the believers are more bold than ever. So may we be more bold than ever as we experience the trials that are before us? And again, Paul talks about this a little more in Philippians chapter four, verse 22, he says, all the saints greet you. So he's closing out this letter now, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. In other words, emperor Nero's household, there's one commentary, but written by a guy named Clark. 5 (1h 5m 11s): It says this special greeting is evidence that Paul was still used by God during his Roman imprisonment. When the gospel extended, even into the household of Nero, Nero was at this time, emperor of Rome, a more worthless, cruel, and diabolic wretch, never disgraced the name or form of man yet in his family, there were Christians. But whether this relates to the members of the Imperial family, or to guards or core TA's or to servants, we cannot tell God's on the move, even in the prison, even when you know, rulers are not great rulers. 5 (1h 5m 56s): So remember I told you a moment ago, Paul is encouraging us to go, go to directly, to, to God. You have access to the father, go directly to him in prayer and not pray through another person. But then Paul adds something here. It's a little bit of a twist, and it's in first Timothy chapter two, five through seven. He says, he says, this for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am speaking the truth in Christ, not lying. 5 (1h 6m 36s): A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. So Paul is saying, we pray directly to God, the father, but we have a mediator. We have to have a mediator. Now, what does a mediator? A mediator is, is simply one who intervenes in order to restore peace and friendship. So mediator comes to my mind. We've got two parties that are, that are against each other. They have no agreement. A mediator brings them together to restore peace and friendship. A mediator is one who steps in to ratify an agreement, a covenant. 5 (1h 7m 18s): We need a mediator. So, so again, now we begin to see how the gospel comes to play in all of this, because we were born into this world with a sinful nature. You have a DNA that's literally been corrupted. And we were born in this world under a curse, and we've inherited this. We are by nature. Get this. We are by nature, actually, enemies of God without Christ. But God's desire is that we would be reconciled to him. It's God's desire to have relationship with his people. How, how does he arrange that? 5 (1h 7m 58s): Which is why God sent his only son into the world to save us, to save sinners, to mediate, to bring together two parties that were at odds. So I want to unpack this just a little bit in a moment. So back to this first, when it comes to praying directly to God, as it turns out, we actually do need a mediator, but not a man. Not any man. We need someone to intercede for us to intercede on our behalf. And the Bible teaches us. There's only one person, one man who can intercede half. His name is Jesus. Romans chapter eight, verse 34. It is Christ who died. And furthermore has also risen who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 5 (1h 8m 47s): So here's, here's how it works. We pray directly to God, the father through the son in the Holy spirit. So that's where we kind of see that father, son and Holy spirit coming together. We pray directly to the father, through the son in the Holy spirit. So on one occasion, Jesus sort of bring this to us in John chapter 16, verse 23, he says this, he says in prayer, he says, whatever you ask the father in my name, he will give you what a privilege, whatever we ask the father through the son, he says, he's gonna, he's gonna give that to you. 5 (1h 9m 34s): So I want to try to summarize this, bring it to a conclusion. So God's desire is that all people would be saved and all people would come to the knowledge of the truth. So in this case, the specialty's talking about those who are in positions of authority are part, our responsibility is to pray for them. So can we covenant together as a community of believers, you know, to, to pray for our national leaders, the president and Congress, and then of course, governors and all the leaders by name with an attitude of love for them asking God to open up their heart. 5 (1h 10m 18s): So they might come to know and accept Jesus as their Lord and savior. So someone I've been listening to recently online, somebody introduced me to him recently, his name is JD for ag. So JD for ag, it's a Palestinian believers. He pastors a church in Kaneohe, Hawaii. And you know, so I've been watching him recently. So he's very deliberate. And every time he's ending a message, he wants the gospel to be made super clear. And so he closes with, I want to put a graphic up there right now. So it's the ABC graphic. So ABC, I borrowed this from J for ag. 5 (1h 10m 58s): And as, as we look at this, I want to just say, listen, if you're a Christian already, and you've heard the gospel, maybe so many times don't tune me out. But what I want you to do is I want you to pray right now for those who don't know, the Lord may be here at harvest church or those who are listening online, because oftentimes what I've found it is people. Maybe they just never really come, come to understand the gospel, or they've heard bits and pieces of it, but they'd never actually responded to the clear message of the gospel. So what is the gospel that which gives each one, a life to a person? Well, a admit that you're a sinner be believe Jesus died for your sins and see call upon the name of the Lord. So I'm going to look at a few verses as we close. 5 (1h 11m 40s): So believers just beginning, pray that God would bring salvation right now to those whose hearts are open towards him. So Hey, admitted your center from the Bible's perspective, guests, how many righteous people are born? Planet earth zero, zero. Okay. In fact, Paul says in Romans three 10 is as it re there there's none righteous. No, not one. You're going to see an old Testament, new Testament backwards. Nobody's righteous, righteous, meaning nobody can approach God on their own behalf. Romans three 23. 5 (1h 12m 21s): In fact, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The believe Jesus died for your sins, Romans five, five, eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us. And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's why it's called good news. The gospel good news. Romans six 23, three for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus. Our Lord, the gospel is a message about a gift. You don't work for a gift. You just receive a gift. 5 (1h 13m 1s): If something God has done for us provided for us through his son. And lastly, call upon the name of the Lord, Ephesians two, eight and nine for by grace. You've been saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God is not of works. Lest anyone should boast. So there's this tendency in the human heart to want to work, to be good enough to be acceptable to God. The scripture is clear. You can't work for this. You have to just receive it and thank God for it. And finally, Romans 10, nine, and 13, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus. And if you believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be. 5 (1h 13m 50s): So that confession part, it's something that each person needs to do individually. I can't do it for you. You can't, you know, belong to a club or a group of spiritual people to have it done for you. You have to come to God on your, on, on his terms and you confess. Yes, I believe I know. I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I need forgiveness. So I believe you sent your son To die in my place. 5 (1h 14m 39s): So I confess God that Jesus is my Lord. I desire that he would be my savior. So I invite you to give me rent to me the gift of life that you've provided. I remember when I gave my life to Christ and something supernatural happens when we do that, you can't explain it. It can't be intellectually figured out. God sent his son to die for you and for me. And if you will make that confession of faith, I promise you that God will hear that prayer and something supernatural will happen. 5 (1h 15m 26s): God will show you. He will prove to you that he is alive and that now he's living in you and that your body has now become the temple of the Holy spirit that you were spiritually dead. And now you're a made spiritually alive in Christ. So to those gathered here online, as we worship, as we close in worship, let's all stand. If you have not yet done that and prayed and invited Jesus and confessed him to be your Lord and savior. Now, now is your opportunity to pray while we're worshiping, just pray and invite him into your life to be your Lord and savior. 2 (1h 16m 19s): , 1 (1h 17m 25s): 2 (1h 21m 39s): Bring it all the stores around me let Bray day, because seed is the rage means every way. 1 (1h 22m 5s): Geez, she's she is the cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese. 1 (1h 23m 34s): geez, geez, that the shadows kids 0 (1h 26m 4s): Thank you God for thank you for gracing us with your presence this morning. I just ask you to just work inside of each one of us this morning as we leave. And just as we're, as we're contemplating the gospel, just, just maybe re revisiting your truths and just, just taking a greater hold on those things and making them sit in our hearts. God, and just thank you so much, father for your grace and your love. 0 (1h 26m 48s): If you're here this morning and you need someone to pray with, we have people up front and you can just, just come on down, don't be shy and someone will be here to pray. Pray with you. Thank you for joining us, everybody. And we'll see you next week. 2 (1h 27m 12s): .