My message this morning is titled striving together in prayer. It's not going to be a message directly about prayer, but we will finish up on that subject. And I hope you'll see why I want to stress that at the beginning here. So I'm going to read Romans chapter 15 and from verse 21, but as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see, and they that have not heard shall understand. For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. But now, having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you for I trust to see you in my journey and to be brought on my way there by you. If first, I'd be somewhat filled with your company. But now I go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, for it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints who are at Jerusalem. It has pleased them verily, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. When therefore I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain, and I am sure that when I come to you I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted by the saints. that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God and may with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. And may he indeed be with us. Let's pray. We pray you open our eyes, dear Lord, and show us wonderful things from out of your word. And we thank you for giving us your word, the living word that penetrates into our very souls and divides asunder between the soul and the spirit. And Lord, may it do that work today. And may we cherish and value your word, dear Lord. because it gives us wisdom to live in this life. Thank you that it is eternal and that it will endure forever because it is your word. So Lord, lead us now. And again, I pray that you would fill me and lead me. And indeed, Lord, I pray that Christ will be lifted up before us all and that we would all look to him. And so may Christ increase and may I decrease. I pray in Jesus precious name. Amen. We've been noticing a few things about the Apostle Paul. Just let me quickly recap some of the things that stand out about this man, a great man. He was, first of all, a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember I mentioned recently that he probably never overcame the fact that he received grace, that the he persecuted, met him on the road to Damascus and saved him. And it became a powerful motivator for the Apostle Paul in his ministry. We too love the Lord Jesus and we must remember that. We love him because he first loved us, but what a wonderful privilege to love the God of the universe because we know him. Secondly, we know that the Apostle Paul was a great and deep theologian, and we see that from his writings, and certainly I trust we've seen that in the Book of Romans. We know too that Paul was a powerful preacher. whether he was preaching in synagogues or to the philosophers in Rome, to believers or to Gentiles in the marketplace, we know that he was able to bring the gospel powerfully to people. We also admire him for being a great pioneer missionary, to go into lands that were unknown. And when you think about the fact that he did it 2,000 years ago, when travel was a challenge to say the least, and yet he didn't hesitate, and as we'll see, that was what was motivating his desire to come to Rome, among other things, that he might then go and use that as a springboard, as it were, to go to Spain. But I want to highlight one quality of the Apostle Paul that I think is very, very important, and that is that he had a pastor's heart. His role and certainly his position as an apostle was never one that he abused or used to lord it over people. In fact, he often had to defend his apostleship because there were people that opposed the Apostle Paul, and so often he would defend himself, but the fact that he was an apostle did not override the fact that he had a pastor's heart. We know that Paul's great concern was that people love the Lord Jesus Christ and that they then love each other and he was certainly a peacemaker. And while we see this concern for people to know the Lord, to love the Lord, and to love each other, there is one place that I want us to turn to, to look at this as an example. And I'll invite you to turn to Colossians 2. And I want to take the time to read the first eight verses, because I want you to understand that Paul had never been to the city of Colossae. But he met people who were from there who had become believers and told Paul of the church. And Paul's burden was to help these people, particularly in overcoming the dangers of being seduced by a worldly philosophy. And so in chapter two, verse one, he says, for I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you. So he loved these people and he was concerned for them. He says, the conflict that I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as I have not seen, sorry, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, there it is, in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the Spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as you have been taught abounding with thanksgiving. And he does this because he's concerned that they may lose sight of that. To love the Lord, to love each other, to grow strong in their faith. And this isn't, I haven't taken you away from the theme of what we're looking at, because you remember in Romans 15, Paul is finishing off the passage or the teaching about our practical outliving of our Christian life, and love is an important issue with the Apostle Paul, and he manifests that because he wants to say to the Romans, I want to come and spend time with you. And I want you to be able to manifest your love for the Lord by helping me and we'll explore that. So I wanted you to see that here in a church that he has not visited, in people that he doesn't know personally, yet he has a love for them and a concern for them and a burden for them. And he takes the time to write to them. And so the reason is because in verse 8, he says, Beware, lest any man spore you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. We can never get tired of being brought back to keeping our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we come back to chapter 15, of Romans, we see that he wanted to spend time with the Christians in Rome to both encourage them and be encouraged by them. He hasn't ever been to Rome. We will see in chapter 16 that he did know some Christians in Rome, but he wanted to come and see the church and encourage them. And that's why he says in verse 29, I'm sure that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." Because he believed that he would be able to come and minister the gospel among them, and that they would also see fruit. To that end, he wants them to partner with him in the gospel. And we see that in verse 24 of chapter 15. Whenever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you, for I trust to see you in my journey and to be brought on my way there by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company." So he wanted them to participate. And what does that mean? That he wants them to pay his expenses? He wants them to share in the blessings of being a partner in the gospel. And even though We're just about at the end of this wonderful letter. I want you to notice that Paul mentions the gospel several times in this last section, which highlights the importance that Paul has. He went straight to the gospel in chapter 1. It's the gospel of God. He tells us further on in chapter 1 that he believes that it is the power of God, that is the gospel, unto salvation. He calls it verisly the gospel of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. He calls it my gospel, and we'll see that, because it was central to his ministry. ministry. Let me reinforce that. The gospel must be central to our ministry, and we looked at that last week. But I want to remind you, I want you to notice and be aware of the mentions that he does of the gospel. In verse 16, he says that he was called to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God. In verse 19, he says that he has fully preached the gospel of Christ. In the next verse, verse 20, he says, so have I strived. The word there, strived, means that he has made it his ambition. This is his goal. This is his desire. And he made it his ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, but where Christ has not been named. And that's why he was motivated to go into different places. Go over with me to verse 29, still in chapter 15. And now I've just read it before. He says that he's sure that when he comes to Rome, it's going to be in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And the last mention of the gospel is in verse 25 of chapter 16, where he says to them now, to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel. That's not arrogance on the part of the Apostle Paul calling the gospel his gospel. He's simply saying, I want you to understand that everything that I have said to you in what we call the 16 chapters is saying is, this is what I believe. My gospel is what I believe. So you can test it, you can check it, you can compare it. Because what I have taught you lines up 100% with the gospel of God, which is manifested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the good news. And I am a called servant who's called to proclaim the good news. This is why I want to reinforce this morning about the importance of the gospel. And we're going to see your involvement in the work of the gospel through, I trust, through Preston's Baptist Church. So in coming to Rome, there was a purpose because he wanted to go to Spain. And I want to bring out that Paul's horizon was a very broad one and a far reaching one. You know, if you stand on the beach, and you all have, and you look out over the water to the horizon, because you are literally at sea level, you may only be able to see two to three nautical miles. But if you take the time to climb up to the headland, which, generally speaking, there is a headland, and you climb up to it, because of your higher elevation, you'll be able to see perhaps five or six nautical miles. And you'll be able to see things up the coast and down the coast and things out there that you could not see down at sea level. Let me ask you this question. How wide are your horizons? Are your horizons just Preston's as a suburb where generally speaking, when things were normal because of the lockdown, we haven't been able to meet, but is Preston's a suburb where you basically just go on a Sunday morning to go to church? Or is Preston's a horizon that provokes you to see even beyond that? So that you, metaphorically speaking, you have your Spain's. You see, because if Preston Baptist Church is just somewhere that is a location for you to go to church on a Sunday, your horizons are very narrow and very restricted. Do you look at the people in the church as instruments of God to open ways that perhaps would then open more doors to see the work grow? Do you see people in the church as those that will be there week in, week out? Or do you see them as potential servants of the Lord Jesus Christ who go out? Do you see your work limited to getting a building in Preston? Praise God for that. Or do you see it as a means whereby the work grows? Because you see, what we are dealing with is the salvation of souls. And that is why the Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples and us to go into all the world. And we are grateful for men and women whose horizons were not limited. Think of William Carey. He was a cobbler. He made and repaired shoes. In 18th century, that is the 1700s England, in some little house, in a little village, yet he made a globe, a world map, from the offcuts of leather, and he would pray over that, and he would pray particularly over India. Think of men and women who've gone to far lands. Think of Gladys Alewood. If you've never read her or of her, do yourself a favour and read her wonderful story. This very diminutive, very small English woman who went all the way from England to China, overland by train through Russia and ministered in that country in such a powerful, powerful way. And there are many, many others whose vision was not limited, whose horizons were broad. And I trust that your horizons, let me provoke you to think about that, that your horizons would be very wide and that you would be motivated to do this wonderful work. I want you to see that Paul was not limited. And I want you to understand why his horizons were not limited. You know why? Because he had an assurance that his work would be effective. Look with me in verse 21. Read with me slowly. And we're going to go to the Old Testament because this is a quote from the Old Testament. He says, well, let's read verse 20. Yea, so have I strived or made of my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation, but, as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of they shall see, and they that have not heard shall understand." So there is great encouragement in that verse for us, because there are many people who the word of God has not been spoken to. But the time will come that they will hear the gospel and they shall see. And there are those that have not heard. but it says that they shall understand. So obviously we're not talking about a literal hearing and a literal seeing, but of the work of the Spirit of God, opening the eyes of the understanding of people who hear the gospel and are saved. We have to do this work by faith. Let me remind you, before we go to the Old Testament, let me remind you of when the Lord Jesus spoke with that woman, the Samaritan woman. And then she went into the village. And in the meantime, his disciples came back to him. And they had gone into the village to buy some food. But the Lord Jesus said, I have food to eat that you don't know of. And they didn't understand what he was teaching. And at one point, this is very important because he says to them, look up. Lift up your eyes, the King James Version says, and see, because the fields are white to harvest. And I, along with many others, believe that what the Lord was doing was pointing His disciples to look and to see the villagers coming out of that village, having heard from the Samaritan woman who said to the men there, come and see a man who told me everything about me. Could this be the Messiah? And on the basis of that witness, the villagers, they came out and the Lord says, this is the harvest. Lift up your eyes. Christians, lift up your eyes from this world and the things that drag us down from looking up to heaven and looking around this world. No, no, no. Keep your eyes lifted up to the Lord. There is a harvest. This is what we've been called to do and we have to trust Him. Don't think that because we've tried this, we've tried that, we've ministered here, we've witnessed there and nothing seems to be happening. We can't allow ourselves to think that way. Keep your horizons wide and broad and far and trust God and see God doing wonderful work because the harvest is white. People will come to know the Lord. Why? Because we have a guarantee that there are those that haven't heard the gospel and they will hear it and believe it and they will live it out. And then they will become evangelists. They will become witnesses. And this is how we will do this wonderful work that we've been called to do. You have an assurance. I trust that this lifts you up from just doing church to realizing the power of the position that you have in Christ as a member of the body of Christ, fitted to do his work and that he works through you. That's the wonderful thing. All right. Now I want you to turn to Isaiah. and the passage that Paul quotes from. Isaiah 52, and we're going to read from verses 13 to 15, but I want to point out to you what is obvious. It goes into chapter 53, and what is chapter 53 of Isaiah? That powerful, powerful passage prophesying the vicarious suffering of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just say quickly here that Jews, even to this day, avoid this passage in their scriptures because they can't handle a Messiah who suffers. It just doesn't sit with them. We could say it doesn't fit their theology. But I want us to see that when Paul quotes what he does in verse 21 of chapter Romans 15, he's quoting from this passage in the context. Remember, there were no chapter divisions when this was first given. And so in chapter 52, verse 13, he says, Behold, my servant, who is the servant? The Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high, as many were astounded at you. His visage was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. And it's a reference to the bleating that the Lord suffered. at the hands of the high priest and his servants and the mistreatment at the hands of the Romans, that his face was not human, such was the beating that he had. But listen, let me remind you that his physical beating, as terrible and as sad and horrible as it is, because, you know, whenever I read in the Gospels that at that point when he was being interrogated and they spat upon him, I get a shiver. I get a shiver that runs down my spine that people did that to the Lord. And it says in verse 14 that people would be astounded to see him because his visage was so marred more than any man. But what was the purpose of that? Verse 15, so shall he sprinkle many nations. So because of his suffering, many will benefit. The king shall shut their mouths at him. In other words, there would be no other authority other than the authority of the Lord Jesus and His Word. And it says that, "...for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider." And that's the verse that the Apostle Paul quotes in Romans 15.21. And what does it all refer to? Well, that's why we go into the next chapter. And what we read in chapter 53, in the first three verses, we read that it was a suffering saviour. And then from verses four to nine, we see that that suffering was indeed a vicarious suffering. In other words, he suffered on our behalf in our place. And then from verses 10 to 12, we see that his suffering was a victorious suffering because he overcame death and in it he accomplished the salvation of you and me and of all who believe. And that is why on the basis of chapter 52 verses 13 to 15 and then in of chapter 53 the vicarious suffering of the Messiah our Lord Jesus Christ on that basis we have the authority to proclaim the gospel and that's why Isaiah in chapter 55 and verse 1 says this ho everyone that thirsts come to the waters And he that has no money, come, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. In other words, come because you're invited and salvation is the gift from God because Christ has paid that price. So the assurance that we have, Christian, is that people will hear, people will see, people will understand, and people will believe. Who are they? God knows. It's your calling to witness the gospel. So we too can have that assurance. And just let me encourage you, let me ask you again, how wide are your horizons? So, in finishing this portion, because in chapter 16, and Lord willing we'll look at this next week, he focuses on greeting everybody and thanking them for what they have done. So he's finishing off this practical aspect of our ministry. Having learned the doctrine, this is how we live it out from chapter 12 to now. And I want us to notice that Paul gives us a guideline for our ministry. We have the assurance that people will hear, and be saved because of what the Messiah has done. But a guideline that we have in this section, if you like, the motivation for our service is in verse 30, where Paul says, now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. That's what I want you to focus on. For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. When we do something for the sake of others, it generally involves sacrifice on our part. Someone may say, please do this for me. And interestingly, as I thought about it, yesterday when our family was over, And there was a conversation soon after we finished eating and we started talking about what is called the WOKE, W-O-K-E, the WOKE movement. It's a very secular, very left wing type of a movement that seeks to blame everybody for racism against coloured people. It's not a very forgiving movement because it wants to judge anyone that's not coloured and blames people who are white for every kind, even Me, even though I may not be guilty of racism because I'm white, the woke movement says that you are guilty and you must repent of racism simply because of what white people have done. Of course, we could mount many arguments against that, but it was interesting because I'm actually reading a book on that. It's called Christianity and Wokeness because the woke attitude is actually creeping into the church. And that's a danger. This might be the first time you've ever heard of it. But what happened was I was excited about this conversation and I wanted to join in. And I came inside. I got my book because I was going to read a couple of quotes from it. But in the process of me coming inside, getting the book and coming out, I was waylaid by my grandchildren and they wanted me to go and be with them and play with them in the swim pool and so on. Now, I could have said no, I have much more important things to do because I'm carrying on an adult conversation about a very important subject and I'm actually reading about it so I can't play with you. But in effect, they were saying, please, for our sakes, come and play with us. Now that's a minor illustration. It's something that's small, but what I had to do was that I had to do it for their sakes. And of course, I gave up what I wanted to do in order to satisfy my grandchildren's requests. When we do the work of the ministry, we're not doing it for ourselves. We're doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And by application, let me share this with you. The church is a community which receives each other for the sake of Jesus Christ. We don't receive each other because of who we are, of our qualifications, of how much money we've got, of our position, of our authority, whether we get on with each other. We receive each other because of the sake of Jesus Christ. Secondly, the church is a community which works together to spread the good news of what Jesus has done. So we're doing it in obedience to Jesus' command. So we're doing it for his sake. Third, the church is a community who helps each other because Christ has helped us. And we see that particularly in this chapter when Paul says in verse 25, But now go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, because it has pleased them of Macedonia and Archaea to make a certain contribution for the poor saints who are at Jerusalem." Notice Greek Christians giving money to help Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, and that would have had an effect on the Christians in Rome, seeing that Paul had to deal with the issue of Gentile believers and Jewish believers. And the reason why they are willing, these people from Macedonia and Archaea, which basically takes up the whole area of modern day Greece, north and south, The reason is because in verse 27 it says, it has pleased them verily and their debtors they are. In other words, they have an obligation because if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual gifts or things, that is the Jews, then their duty is also to minister to them in carnal things. So as Christ ministered the gospel through Jews, because the first Christians were Jews, And so salvation came to the Gentiles. So it's a good thing that they also help each other. So the church is a community that helps each other because Christ has helped us. And finally, The church is a community who strive together in prayer. And in verse 30, Paul says, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and he says, I want to highlight this too, for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. I want you to know that's not the first time Paul asks for prayer to be exercised on his behalf. Think about that. The great apostle Paul, with all assurance, Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, the power of God to save, but the power of God to keep him safe, he always asks for prayer. And oftentimes his request is in regards to being able to preach the gospel. And for example, in Ephesians, he says, pray for me that I may speak the word boldly. So he says to us the importance of striving together in prayer. Let me say this to you. The work of the gospel is a spiritual work. It is carried out in a spiritual realm. He says to the Corinthians in his second letter that the weapons of our warfare are not carnals, not guns or bows and arrows and spears and so on, but spiritual. be able to pull down strongholds. So we serve in a spiritual realm. However, and almost paradoxically, at the same time, we realise that we need physical resources. without which we would not be able to conduct our ministries. And I've often said, and I often struggle with this, but the reality is that a church that doesn't have resources, money or whatever other resources, is limited in the scope of its ministry. Think about that. The church that is limited in its resources, in its physical resources, is limited in the scope of its own ministry. So how do we compensate for that? Well, we pray and we pray for Jesus' sake. Lord, have you called us to this work? Yes. Lord, what abilities have I have? You must give me those abilities. Lord, we desire to do this. We don't have money. Lord, help us. Please provide for us. But be careful. that you don't just expect to rely on the sovereignty of God, who owns the cattle and a thousand mules, and so on, to dump a million dollars on your lap. Do you have resources that you can give to the Lord? Look at the example of the early church in Acts, how they sold land and brought the money and gave it to the work of the Lord, gave it to the apostles. They did not hold back. So we can trust the Lord and we can pray because we're praying for Jesus' sake. We're doing this work for him. And I want you to notice one more example. If you want to go back to the book of Colossians, and this time chapter four, and we'll see what it means to strive together in prayer. Colossians chapter four and verse 12. And we'll close with this. So there Paul says, Epaphras, who is one of you. In other words, Epaphras was from the city of Colossae. A servant of Christ greets you. And that is this, always laboring fervently for you in prayers. So obviously Epaphus was with the Apostle Paul. And so he's thinking of his brothers and sisters back in the city of Colossae. And he labors for them, how? in prayers, upholding them, protecting them. You can imagine seeing the theme of Colossians is Paul presenting Christ and his sufficiency, his glory, his beauty, and everything, and that indeed the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. He is God come in the flesh. And so you can imagine Epaphras being concerned that these philosophies that contradict the gospel were coming in and were threatening his beloved brethren. And so what could he do, hundreds of miles away? Well, he could do the best thing, and that is, of course, pray for them. I want you to notice that Paul uses a very important word. He says, always laboring fervently. The word for laboring is the Greek word Agonizomai. Think about it. Agonizomai. I'm not trying to boast my Greek knowledge because I don't have it, but it's where we get our Australian or English word agony. Agonizomai. Agony. And it didn't mean that he was in pain. It is a word that describes this, to fight, to labor, to strive, to wrestle, to be fervent. Let me ask you this. Are your prayers simply a casual experience? Do you strive? Do you labour? Do you fight? Do you work hard at your prayers? I think we all understand oftentimes we need to just, as it were, metaphorically just take hold of our mind. and say, concentrate, think hard, stop thinking about the things that distract you. You don't know what to pray. Be quiet. Just wait on God. Start by thanking Him. And then as the Spirit leads you, you're able to remember and you pray. And you're able to come to the point where you're not praying for your needs. Give me this or I need that. But you praise and worship him. And then God starts to expand your horizons. And you pray with understanding. And you may struggle. Imagine your struggle when the Lord brings to your mind, against your will almost, he brings to your mind someone that you've got a problem with. Someone who's struggling and you think, you know what? It's his fault. He didn't listen. He made his bed. He's lying in it. It's his problem. How many times do you pull someone out of the fire? And the Lord says, pray for him. Because you can't just say, Lord, bless so and so moving on. The Lord burdens you. You pray for him. How are you going to help him? You pray for the lost. How are you going to see the work advance? See, prayer is a very important part. And it would be it would be folly of me to think you do not need to know how to pray, that I don't need to preach about prayer, that, you know, you're Christians, you know. Well, do you? Do you know to pray? Do you know how to pray? Have you come to this service this morning from, as the old days, people in the old days would say, from your prayer closet? Or is prayer something that is a casual experience for you? It certainly wasn't with the Apostle Paul. My deep desire is that you will have confidence to pray with great faith and that God will bless you. that in believing you may be able to expand your horizons. God is not limited. Why should you be? May God bless us. Amen. Let's close in prayer. We are humbled, dear Lord, that we come before God, who is powerful, and yet we are often weak. We are humbled because we come to a God who says, call unto me, And I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not. We are humbled because we come to the God who says, if my people who are called by my name shall pray. Yes, we know that was spoken by you to Solomon in regards to the temple. But Lord, we know that that applies to us. We come to you, Lord, and thank you for your compassion, your forgiveness, your mercy, and pray you'll forgive us for our lack of faith, our lack of assurance. And we thank you for this word reminding us in season, may we be strengthened to pray with all faith, and may you, Lord, expand our horizons. Lord, you are the one who's able to do way above what we can possibly think or imagine. So help us, Lord, and to focus on the gospel for Jesus' sake. And we pray these things in his name. Amen.