If you would, in your Bibles, please open with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 2. 1 Timothy, chapter 2. And this morning we will be in verses 1 to 8. If you're with us this morning and you do not have a Bible with you, I'd encourage you to have one open, and in the pew back in front of you is a black Bible, and you may use it. And our passage is found on page 991. On page 991. And if you happen to be here today and you do not have a Bible at home and you would like to have one, well, that Bible there in front of you is our gift to you, so please feel free to take it with you. 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 to 8. We began this series in this letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul's letter to Timothy, his first letter to Timothy. We began it two Sundays ago, and our series is entitled, Entrusted, that God's people are entrusted with God's truth for God's glory. And so that is our theme as we walk through this letter, and so two Sundays ago as we were in chapter 1, there in verses 3 to 11, then 18 to 20, we saw Paul telling Timothy to hold the course. Timothy is an elder at the church there in Ephesus, there was false teaching that was going on within the church, by some within the church, and it was having a ripple effect, a negative effect within the life of this church. And so Paul writes to Timothy from the very beginning saying, hold the course, don't let the church be taken off course. And then last Sunday, as we were together, Brendan preached from verses 12 to 17. And that's just the glorious gospel in which the church has been entrusted with, that we have such a gracious God, such a gracious Redeemer, that He saves the chiefest of sinners. And I think that we would all say that that describes us, that we are the chiefest of sinners, and yet our God has saved us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And now we come to verses one to eight. And I'm so thankful, it's just amazing how the Lord just brings things together. I guess we should always be amazed. We know that God in his sovereignty brings things together, but we should always stand in amazement of what our God does. But we've had this Sunday of Mission Sunday on our calendar for some time now. And as I was looking at taking a pause from our time in the letter of Revelation, and then choosing to come here to 1 Timothy, and then beginning to map it out, is that this passage this morning, verses 1 to 8, fell on this Sunday of Mission Sunday. And I say that because the title of today's message is entrusted with evangelistic prayer. entrusted with evangelistic prayer. As Paul is writing to Timothy, we're going to see that there is a focus here that the church gathered. So remember, when we come to this letter of Timothy, when you look there at chapter 3 and verses 14 to 15, Paul is writing to Timothy to say, here is how a church is to be conducted. Here's how people are to conduct themselves, behave themselves within the household of God, which is the church. That doesn't mean, again, the kids shouldn't run in church, that you shouldn't bring drinks in church, things like that. I saw some of y'all bringing drinks in church today. That's okay. That's no, no, no, no, I've just shamed you all that brought them in. Everyone's looking at your neighbor. Did you bring a drink in today? Paul's writing to say, here's how you are to do church together. When you gather as a church, which that's what we're doing right now, in this service right now, we have set aside 1030 to whenever we finish on the first day of the week, we said this is First Baptist Canyon gathered together. And so what are we to do? How are we to conduct ourselves? That's what Paul is writing to Timothy. This letter isn't just for Timothy, it was for the church in Ephesus, and it's for all churches ever since then. And one of the things that Paul says here from the beginning of chapter two is that when the church gathers, she is to pray, and she is to pray evangelistically. And so we're gonna break this passage down into about four or five parts here. I won't give them all to you up front just so you don't get lost here, but I'll make sure that you know what they are as we come to each of the points. But let me read these verses for us, and then we'll go to the Lord in prayer. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1. First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth, I am not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling. Let us pray. Father, we come to you now in this time of our service to continue our worship of you. And God, we do just confess along with the word that you've given to us that you are our rock and our redeemer. And Father, now as we come to your word, we pray that your spirit would lead us in the truth that is found here. call upon your churches to pray, and we are to pray for all things, but God, here we are specifically encouraged to pray evangelistically, to pray for the lost. So God, we pray that by your Spirit that you'd show us this truth and to press this truth upon us. We pray these things in your Son's name. Amen. As we come to these verses here, Paul is saying that a church gathered together, that is corporately together, is to pray evangelistically. So Paul here is talking about church life. Now the Bible talks about all different spheres of life that we live in. The Bible speaks to our personal life. It speaks to our home life. It speaks to our work life. And it also speaks to our church life, instructing us into what we are to do. So again, remember that this letter written by Paul to Timothy is so that a church might know what she is to do when a local church is gathered together in the church service. What are they to do together? And so just as God gives structure to Christian homes, So he gives structure to Christian churches. And that's what Paul says right there in verse 1. He says, first of all, then. And so after exhorting Timothy to hold the course, as we've already seen in chapter 1, Paul now exhorts Timothy to lead the church in prayer. yes, the church is to pray for all things. This isn't to say that we're limited to only this, but Paul here specifically is talking about evangelistic prayer. Look there at verse 4 of chapter 2. So after Paul's just said that the church is to pray for everyone, all people, and then we'll get into the group that he mentions there, but notice in verse 4, It says, who desires, speaking of God, who desires that all people be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth? Well, that verse right there is giving us the key to what Paul is focusing in on. When we pray, when we pray for our governmental leaders, when we pray for those outside the church, how are we to pray for them? We are to pray that the Lord would save them. And so of all the things that a church family is to do when they gather on the Lord's Day, one of the routine elements is to be prayer, and prayer for God to save the lost. And we try to do that here within our own church gatherings. Every month, you've probably noticed, we've set aside the second Sunday of each month that in our time of worshiping God in song, we take just time out and we have a global discipleship update. And Drew or someone from our missions committee or another person will get up and we'll share of global partners that we partner with. And that might be internationally, it could be nationally, but we're saying here's who we are partnering with to take the gospel out to the lost. We're saying, here's ways that you can pray for those that are working in the field, and how you can pray for those who do not yet know Jesus. In our times of pastoral prayer, on the fourth Sunday of each month, during that time, just setting time aside to say, we need to pray. And sometimes those pastoral prayers are just really focused on us corporately, maybe things in the life of our church, in the life of our community. but also times of praying for the lost. Just a couple of Sundays ago when we was praying for those in Afghanistan and our brothers and sisters there for the Lord to protect them, but also for the gospel to be spread there in that country and for people to come to know Jesus. And we do this in our times of corporate prayer when we gather on Sunday evenings and we pick out certain times throughout the year to gather together. We did one just last Sunday and praying for God to save the lost. We don't do this just because we think, hey, this is just a nice thing to do. We do it because this is what God has called us to do. And you see, a church will only be as evangelistic outside the church she is within the church. That is, that a church that pleads for God to save the lost will be a church that goes out and seeks the lost, to take the gospel to them. We want to, in essence, be the answer to our own prayer. So God here, in this letter that he inspired the Apostle Paul to write to this first century church, so God is speaking to us today. And so we come here to verse one, and here we see the elements of evangelistic prayer. What does evangelistic prayer look like? Well, Paul says right there, he says, first of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people." Now notice those four terms there. Paul lists four elements there of evangelistic prayer. Now, these elements here are not given to us as a checklist. So that when we do gather as a church to pray for the lost, that we're saying, okay, have we prayed supplications? Have we prayed prayers? Have we prayed intercessions? Have we prayed Thanksgiving? And check the boxes off. That's not really why I think Paul gives these four elements here. Rather, I think that Paul gives these four elements because they are the heart of evangelistic praying. When a church is gathered together and praying for the lost, these are really just the elements that naturally flow out of that heart of prayer because these four terms, they really don't have a lot of distinction from each other. They're not necessarily separate words saying separate things. They're really four elements that always go together. They have crossover. But there's something that we can learn from each of these words. So just quickly here, I don't intend to go into each of these words in depth, but that word out there, supplications, that's really just a sense of need. That's what that word means. When you pray a prayer of supplication, you recognize a need and then you are pleading to God to meet that need. And so to pray evangelistically, the church needs to sense, it needs to feel the urgency of the gospel going out to the world. Because if a church doesn't sense that, then she's not going to pray. That second word there, prayers, that's really just a sense of reverence. It really just means to go before God and to speak to Him. But just as Jesus taught us in the disciples' prayer when he said, our Father who is in heaven. Well, the beginning of that prayer is to remind us of this God that we're going to. He is a holy God. And he sits on a throne of grace and he hears the prayers of his people. So to pray evangelistically, the church needs to sense, she needs to feel really the holy presence of God, that she's not just uttering words in an open room that go really no higher than the ceiling above her, but that God is present with her, hearing the prayers that she is bringing to Him. The third word there, intercessions. That's a sense of compassion. A sense of compassion is to know the states and the feelings, the emotions of another person. And so to pray evangelistically, the church needs to sense, she needs to feel the lost condition of those in the world. To know that without Christ, Those who die this day in our town of Canyon, in the town of Provo, in the United States, in Afghanistan, in whatever country someone may live, that when they die without Christ, they face nothing but eternal torment and judgment. The church needs to sense this, and it comes out in her praying. But then that fourth word, thanksgivings, that's a sense of gratitude. The word thanksgiving means just that. It means to give thanks, to express gratitude. And so to pray evangelistically, the church needs to sense gratitude for how God will answer their prayer. Now that doesn't mean that as we are praying for the lost to be saved, it could be someone that you know very well, a family member, a friend, it could be a total stranger to you, someone that you're just praying for halfway around this world. It doesn't mean that we're giving God thanks because he's actually going to do that, that that person is actually going to be saved. That is our hope, that is our desire, and we'll say that's the heart of God too, but this Thanksgiving isn't that God's gonna give us what we ask for. No, this prayer of thanksgiving, it means that this church recognizes, God, you are a sovereign God, and you do all things that are good. So however it is that you answer this prayer, God, we give you thanks for what you will do. That's the elements here of evangelistic prayer. But the notice there in the second half of verse one going into verse two, here we see the focus of evangelistic prayer. Who are we to pray for? Well, Paul says right there in verse one in that second half, he says, be made for all people. So generally, what Paul is saying is that we are to pray for the lost in the world. Now, I do not mean that we as a church are to pray for every single person in the world who is lost. I mean, one, we just don't know all their names, do we? Secondly, even if we had that list, oh, that would be like the longest church service ever. We could never get through such a list. And so when Paul's saying, pray for all people, he's not saying pray for each individual person. So how are we to pray for the lost? Who are we to pray for then? Well, we can pray for people by name, people that we know personally. And so I would encourage you to, if you are praying for someone in your life, it could be in your home life, it could be in your school life, it could be in your work life, someone that you know by name who does not know Christ, share that with those in your church. When we gather together, especially in times like corporate prayer, where we are praying for the loss, bring that person's name up, let others in your church join with you in praying for that person by name. Because we all know someone who doesn't know Christ. But we can also pray for those in the world by region, by regions in the world. That is that we pray for a place in the world where there are under-reached people groups, or unreached people groups. Again, I just use that as an example, because it's in front of us in the news with Afghanistan. There are brothers and sisters in Christ in Afghanistan, people who have heard the gospel, people whom God has redeemed through His Son, through faith in Jesus Christ. But how few they are. The gospel is not yet permeated through that country. So we can pray and lift up that country to God. We don't know the people in there, we don't know them by name, but we can put our minds upon that region. We don't need to go halfway around the world, as you've been hearing, as we have partnered with First Baptist Provo to join with them in the work that they are doing in Provo to make the gospel known. Oh, just how few Christians there are in that area. It rivals the numbers of remote places in the world. So we don't have to know their names. Because God knows them. And He's called upon us to pray for them. But then notice, not just in a general way are we to pray, but there in verse 2, Specifically, he says, for kings and for all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Here, specifically, Paul is saying, pray for your governments. Now, that might seem like kind of an odd shift there to bring this in. But Paul may specifically mention the government back in the first century, the Roman government. Because in the Ephesian church, there may have been some in this false teaching that was going around, maybe saying, hey, God's not gonna save people like that. And people like that, who are they? Well, to be in the Roman government meant that you really were, in the truest sense, a pagan. Now, we can kind of throw that word around loosely towards all politicians, right? They're all pagans, but very specifically, To be in the Roman government meant that you participated in the worship of the emperor who was Nero, believed to be Nero at the time that Paul writes this, and Nero was not a friend of the church, not a friend of the Christians. He would soon, after the writing of this letter, bring great persecution upon the church in Rome. But you had to worship Nero, the Caesar, the emperor, as a god. You would go to the local temples, like even in Ephesus. There was a temple to Roman gods and goddesses, and you were expected to go there because that showed your patriotism, that showed your nationalism. So there may have been some in the Ephesian church saying, God's not going to save people like that. No, he's going to save good people like us. But here Paul is saying, he's saying that we are to pray for our government officials. And how are we to pray for them? Now, there's a lot of ways we can pray for our government, from our president on down to the mayor of the smallest town. But specifically what Paul is saying here, pray for their salvation. Because what do they need most? Certainly they need wisdom in the office that they've been called to. but they need Jesus first and foremost. And so pray for them to be saved. So when we pray for our government, yes, there's a lot of ways that we should pray for them, but if we are not pleading to God for their salvation, oh, we are praying too little for them. But the notice there in the second half of verse two, this is the result of evangelistic prayer. the result of it. There in the second half of verse 2, Paul says that, so pray, pray for all people, pray especially for kings and all those who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Now, let me just tell you, for a long time, I always thought that that statement there, that begins with the word that, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, I always thought that that was the purpose of our praying. God, I'm praying for the lost in the world. I'm praying for the salvation of our government leaders so that I can have a peaceful life, so that our church can have a peaceful existence. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. But that really hasn't been the situation in which the church has existed over these 2,000 years, has it? I mean, for us in the United States, we have really, it's really an anomaly for us to have had over these, over 200 years now, 200, I'm trying to do math in my head, 250 years coming up on it, right? 56, coming up on it, 246 years. Someone else can correct me on that. that we have had a peaceful existence here in our nation, and we praise God for that. But that's not the purpose for our praying. No, that word there, that, that's saying this is the result of praying. When you pray, when you're praying for all people, for them to be saved, when you are pleading specifically for your government leaders, What's going to be the result as you step out of that time of prayer? Well, the result of it is going to be a peaceful and quiet life, that you'll be godly and dignified in every way. You see, prayer will change us. I love what Samuel Rutherford said, a man who lived back in the 1600s, he said, I've been helped by praying for others, for by making an errand to God for them, I have gotten something for myself. Isn't that what God does for us? We come to him with a heart of prayer, to pray evangelistically, And when we step away out of that time of prayer, how God, just by His Spirit, has worked within our soul. So what's the result of this evangelistic prayer? Well, two things. First, a result of evangelistic praying is that animosity towards the lost is removed. I believe that's what is meant there by a peaceful and quiet life. You see, it's one thing to pray for kindly lost souls who are ignorant of the gospel, isn't it? When you think about maybe someone on your block, just a very nice person, very kind, but they don't know Jesus. And they're nice to you, maybe they bring you an apple pie or help you mow your lawn, I don't know, but nice person. And you're like, I'm gonna pray for them. I'm gonna pray for him or her, that they would come to know Jesus. But it's another thing to pray for the cruel lost soul who opposes the gospel, who persecutes Christians. Think about it, for those, again, just to use it in Afghanistan, brothers and sisters in Christ, as the Taliban, as these Muslims are now on the march there in the country, seeking out in some places these churches, wanting to torture them, to beat them, to persecute them, possibly kill them. What's it like to pray for that person? To pray for the one who would want to put you to death? to take your stuff, to harm your family. I can certainly understand, I've never been in that situation, but I can certainly understand if there's a little bit of animosity towards him or her that would try to do that. But when you go to the Lord in prayer and you pray for your enemy, you say, God, my enemy is seeking my life, you know that. But God, he or she needs Jesus. Save him, save her. But when you walk out of a prayer like that, you don't have animosity anymore. You have the love that Jesus called us to, to love our enemies. But a second result of evangelistic prayer is that our attitude and therefore our actions are changed. I believe that that's what is meant there by that we'd be godly and dignified in every way. That word there, godly, really does mean our attitude, that we have an attitude that looks to the Lord, that seeks to honor the Lord in all that we do. That has to be our attitude in all things. In fact, that word right there in verse two, when it says that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, that word, that we may lead, that's a word that just talks about daily behavior, daily living, that we would wake up each day with an attitude that says, God, I want to glorify you in all that I do. And how can we foster that attitude? It's through prayer. Certainly it happens just during the week when we are on our knees before the Lord and on our own private closet of prayer. But certainly when we gather as a church and we're calling out to God, well, it changes our attitude. And that word there, dignified, it just means actions that we would do things that are right and good and honorable, pleasing to the Lord. So when we pray, when we pray evangelistically, we have a concern for how our lives look to the lost. Because when we go out and share the gospel, when we go out and share Jesus with those who don't know Jesus, we must do that. We must do it verbally. They must hear the gospel. But we want them to see the gospel. We want them to hear the gospel with the backdrop of our lives that honor Christ. So as Paul wrote to the Philippian church, he said, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. This is what evangelistic prayer does for us. But now notice, next, the reasons for evangelistic prayer. And this is really verses three to seven. I know you're thinking that we're just gonna go this slow through every one of these verses. We certainly could, there's a lot here. But the reasons for evangelistic prayer, why are we to pray evangelistically? Two main reasons here. The first is found there in verse three, and it's this, is that evangelistic praying is God's will for his people. Notice right there in verse three. It says, this is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior. It's right, it's good. In the presence of our God, this is what He wants His people doing when they gather on Sunday mornings, calling out to Him in prayer. Again, we would offer up all types of prayer to the Lord, but it is to include evangelistic praying. You see, when a church gathers on the Lord's Day, as we are doing now, we gather as those who have been redeemed by Christ. And so it is fitting that we should pray for God to save more people and to fill His churches. After last Sunday's message by Brendan, how many hymns did you quote to us in that sermon? Huh? Oh, two? I thought it was a little bit more than that. Well, in that vein, I don't have a plastic cup for an illustration this morning, but let me read a portion of a hymn here today. We've used it before, not much, so you might not be familiar with it, but it is written by Isaac Watts, a well-known hymn writer. I love the title of it, How Sweet and Awful is the place. So recall back several weeks ago, when we was in the letter of Revelation, I used the word awful. That word, it doesn't mean yucky or nasty. It means awesome. It means a sense of awe and wonder. So how sweet and awful is the place? And Isaac Watts is really just reflecting upon a church gathered together. Listen to a few of these stanzas. And so putting words now on the members that are gathered at this local church, he says, why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? Isaac Watts is reflecting upon that parable that Jesus gave of the man that was throwing this great banquet, and many were invited, but they always gave excuses. No, I can't come because of this or that. And so then the master of this banquet sent his servants out and said, just go gather people off the streets, grab the poorest of the poor, bring them into my house. And it's a sign, a symbol of salvation. So Isaac Watts says, why were we made to hear the voice of our shepherd, to be brought within Christ, to be brought within salvation, to be brought within the church? But then listen to these next two stanzas. This is the prayer of the church to God. Pity the nations, O our God. Constrain the earth to come. Send thy victorious word abroad and bring the strangers home. That's an evangelistic prayer saying, God, send the gospel out. Save the lost and then listen to the last stanza. We long to see thy churches full, that all the chosen race may with one voice and heart and soul sing thy redeeming grace." This should be the heart of a church when she gathers together, to be humbled before God. God, why did you save me? I'm the chief of sinners. Paul only thought he was, but I far outrank him when it comes to sin. God, you saved me, you brought me to yourself. So God, now send out this gospel more into our town, into our worlds, and fill your churches so that with one voice we would praise your sovereign grace. Oh, this is God's will for His church. But then notice the second reason why we are to pray evangelistically. It's found there in verse four. It is God's desire that people be saved. Notice there in verse four, it says, who, talking about God, referring to God, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, this verse doesn't mean that everyone is going to be saved. There are really two ways to think about God's will and God's desires. God's will, God's decree is always going to happen. What He decrees is going to take place. No one can stop it. It says in Isaiah 46, verse 10, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. What God decrees happens. But what God desires will not always happen. God desires for all men and women to live rightly. but we know that not all people do. But it is God's desire that men and women be saved. Just reflect upon that for a moment. Here is this holy God who will stand as the judge or sit as the judge of all people at the end of time. And for all those who are without Christ, They will not be permitted to enter into the kingdom of Christ, but they will be delivered and placed into the eternal lake of fire to face torment and judgment for eternity. Does God take pleasure in that? It's not his pleasure. No, God desires that all be saved. And so when we come to God and praying evangelistically, we're not trying to convince God. His heart is already for the people. So we come to Him and we lift up the lost to Him. And right there in verses five and six, after Paul's just said that he desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, well, what is that truth? Well, it's verses five and six. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. This is the truth that people must believe to be saved. Begins there saying that there is only one God. Why is there something instead of nothing? It's because there is one God. who has created all things. And this is a holy God who brought men and women into existence. And these men and women, they are born under the guilt and curse and stain of sin because of our parents, Adam and Eve. And so we need a mediator, someone to go between us and God, because God is holy, and if you want to be with God forever, you must be holy, not mostly holy, not kinda holy, not a little bit holy, but perfectly holy. And none of us can come before God because we're not. And so this is why God sent His Son, Jesus, to give His life. a ransom. What that word ransom means is it means a payment, a payment for liberty, a payment for freedom, because all men and women are born under the slavery of sin, we've been sold in to sin. And Jesus came as the perfect man, living a perfect life because He is holy, He is the Son of God, He went to the cross to die, not because He had sinned, but because our sin is laid upon Him, and He paid the price to His Father for us. Now Jesus, He has been raised from the dead, and He has ascended at the right hand of the Father. And He is the only way to come to Him. As Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. My question to you this morning is, have you come to God through His Son, Jesus? If you're trying to go any other route, if you're trying to go through any other door, it will only lead to destruction. It is only Christ who is the door. Christ is the one who will bring you to the Father. Would you come to Jesus? Would you recognize that you are a sinner, a man, a woman, that you are a sinner, that you cannot save yourself, but Christ saves, and He is desirous to save. You might think to yourself, He doesn't want me. Oh no, he died for sinners like you. Come to him this day. Paul says there in verse 7, he says, this is the gospel that I've been called to proclaim. This is the testimony that I bear. He was appointed a preacher and an apostle. That is, he is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying, there may have been some in the Ephesian church who thought, well, is Paul really called to give the gospel to dirty Gentiles, to those outsiders? And Paul's saying, yes, this is what God has called me to do. But notice lastly in verse eight, and I end with this, this is unity in evangelistic prayer. Paul here says, I desire then, so after talking about evangelistic prayer, he says, I desire then that in every place the men, this is the men of the church, should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling. Let me just say here from the beginning, Paul is not saying that men are to be the only ones who pray in church. You read through the letter of 1 Corinthians and it sees Paul is writing about women who are praying in the gathered church service. So this isn't saying only men pray. But I believe Paul is calling upon the men in this church because they are to be an example to the church in prayer. And maybe some of these men, they have been neglecting this in the church. They've been neglecting prayer, not necessarily evangelistic prayers, but just all prayers. They're not setting the right example for their families and for those in the church. So Paul says, I want the men to lift up holy hands. And what that means is, yeah, you can certainly lift up your hands. And it was the custom of Jews, especially in the first century. And before that, when they prayed, they would stand, they wouldn't kneel necessarily, they wouldn't bow their heads. They would look to heaven and they would raise their hands as an act of saying, I'm calling out to the God in heaven. And to lift up holy hands means that you're coming to God with a pure heart. Paul says they are to do this without anger or quarreling. That is, these men are to be unified together. Divisions that come within the church, schisms that will try to make their way and fracture a church. One of the things that gets harmed within the church when these schisms come is that the church is no longer focused evangelistically. She has to turn her attention within. instead of without. So Paul says, men, be unified in this prayer. Let your heart, going back to verse one, let your heart be tugged by this prayer for evangelism. Let your heart break for the lost. Be an example to your church. So how do we do this? Let me wrap up this morning here. How do we pray evangelistically? Two things. First of all, for the lost. Here's how we can pray. For open ears to hear the gospel. When you're praying for that family member who doesn't know Christ, or you're praying for that stranger halfway around the world who doesn't know Christ, their ears need to be open to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ because of their sin, they are enslaved to their sin, they love their sin, they love the darkness, they hate the light, and so their ears need to be open to hear. So we pray, God, by your Spirit, open their ears that they would want to hear when a brother or sister takes the gospel to him or her. Open their ears, God, to hear it. Secondly, we can pray that they would have an open mind, an open mind to understand the gospel, that as they are hearing it and it's entering into their mind, that they would listen to it and meditate upon it. But it's not just an intellectual act that's going on. We are praying, God, by your Spirit, give them understanding of the gospel. And then thirdly, we're to pray for an open heart to believe the gospel. God would open their heart to believe as he did for Lydia when you read there in Acts, I believe it's chapter 17. It says, the Lord opened her heart to believe. This is how we're to pray for the lost. But secondly, I want to say how we can pray for the saved. That is those who will take the gospel. How can we as a church pray for them? Three quick things. First of all, to have open eyes to see the lost. It's easy when you go, but it's good, like when you go on short-term mission trips. I was just in Provo a couple of weeks ago, and just walking around there, I mean, you just, you do sense just how different it is. I mean, there are no churches in the area. There's only the false gospel of Mormonism that has pervaded that land. As you talk to people, You just begin to see the lostness in that area, but then you come home to Canyon. You think, oh, Canyon, Baptist church, Baptist church, Baptist church, Methodist church, non-denominational church. Ah, back in the land of Christians. And praise God that there are Christians, many Christians in our town. But brothers and sisters in Christ, I think that there are more lost in our own city limits than what we are aware of. we need our eyes opened. But then secondly, we need to pray that we would have an open mouth to engage the lost. It's one thing to know of someone who is lost, but we aren't just to know who they are, we have to go to them and to present the gospel to him or to her. And so we need the Lord to open our mouth to speak, that we would have boldness to speak. that we'd have clarity of the gospel. But then lastly, how do we pray for the saved evangelistically? It's that we would have open doors to be sent to the lost. That we would say, God, I'm yours. As Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter six, Here I am. And what did he say? Send me. Now that doesn't always mean that you're gonna be sent to the ends of the world. It doesn't mean that you're gonna be sent outside of your own city limits. But God does call some to be sent. He has raised them up in the church. He has prepared him or her to accomplish his purpose. And as a church, how good it is to be able to send people out. I give Russ a hard time for taking Brendan from us. I tell him, hands off everyone else, but how gracious of that is, how gracious am I, right? But it is good. Brendan, Julie, their family will be missed. but how good it is to see God answering prayers. As we've been partnering with First Baptist Provo, praying, God, let us join in in whatever way to join in with our sister church. Let us join in with her and to take the gospel out with them. We've been able to do that in many different ways. But through our praying, God in his will has led us to this moment. So I'd like to ask if Brendan would join me up here. Let's go to the Lord one more time. Father, we do just join in on the prayers that have been offered here in this pulpit. God, the prayers have been lifted up from the pews. And God, I'm just reminded of when Paul met with the elders from the church at Ephesus on his way back to Jerusalem. He knew that he would never see them again because of where you were leading him. And God, it says that they, upon the conclusion of talking with them, that they wept together. And God, that's just a sign of love, of a bond, of friendship. And so God, I thank you that there is just one sense of sorrow here. But God, how good it is to see your hand at work. As my brother Russ has said, he's able just to look back and just see, God, how you have worked in the last two, two years, three years, five years. And God to bring First Baptist Provo to this point of calling Brendan as a pastor, as an elder there at their church. So God, thank you that we do get to send out a brother and sister in Christ. God, we know that you will use them, but God, keep your hand upon them, that their light for Christ would be joined with the lights of the other believers there in Provo, and that the gospel of Christ would continue to be proclaimed more and more. God, bring an awakening to that town, bring an awakening to that county, that the false teaching that has permeated that place for far too long, Oh God, take back that darkness, peel back that curtain. And God, let the light of Christ enter in. And God, fill your churches. Fill your churches with those who will lift up their voice to you and sing of just how your grace saved them, saved them out of a false teaching, saved them out of their sin. So Father, do this. Use First Baptist Provo, continue to use her in her over now 50 years of ministry, 60 years of ministry. Strengthen her, God. And God, I pray for our partnership between us as First Baptist Canyon and First Baptist Provo. God, only strengthen that tie that we have together so that we would labor shoulder to shoulder. for the gospel of our wonderful and kind and merciful Savior. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.