15 looking at verses 30 through 33 today observing the importance of prayer in the advance of the gospel the importance of prayer in the advance of the gospel hope you found that passage in your Bible if you don't have a Bible with you we're gonna put the text on the screen for you So as you can see it, as you listen to me read it. Beginning in verse 30, I appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. That I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. So that by God's will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. What have we just read together? We've read the inerrant, infallible, all sufficient word of God. And I pray today that we hear Paul's heart. and we think about what he was facing and then think about ourselves and the day in which we live. And brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, even near to us, down in Haiti, that we will come to a point where we'll recognize, repent, and then engage in earnest prayer for the saints. Thank you, please be seated. Have you ever considered how important your prayers for God's servants are for the advancement of the gospel? One of the things that must confess that concerns me and concerns every pastor I know who's worth being called a pastor standing to exegete the word is that he would undertake that or that I would undertake that without the prayers, the fervent prayers of the people of God. What I'm doing here is more than an exercise in mental acumen concerning the content of the scripture. It's more than oratory skills. It's more than persuasive speech. It is a frail attempt by a frail creature of dust to take the eternal word of God, set it before the people of God, pray that the Holy Spirit of God will anoint it, will attend it, will apply it, and make it effectual. Otherwise, one of the hymns we grew up singing, all is vain unless the spirit of the Holy One comes down, will be our lot. I will have wasted your time. But if you're not praying for me, there's a sense in which you're wasting my time. Someone asked Spurgeon one time, what is the key? What is the secret to the Tabernacle's success? You know anything about the Metropolitan Tabernacle? When young Spurgeon took over the pastorate of the New Park Street Church. He was, I think, 18. The boy wonder. Crowds gathered. He was a great preacher. He'd cut his teeth on his grandfather's capacity. They asked him, what's the secret? Because New Park Street Church facility was outgrown quickly. So they had to meet in temporary meeting of the Surrey Music Hall, other places like that. And they would fill them up immediately while the tabernacle was being built. When the tabernacle was finished, it held 6,000 people. They immediately filled it. Someone said, what's the key? Here was his answer. My people pray for me. My people pray for me. There was a story told about a couple of young men who went to the tabernacle to hear the mighty Spurgeon one Sunday morning. They were not members there. They went in and a little old, chubby kind of hunched over fellow met them, greeted them, welcomed them. And they said, we came to hear the mighty virgin preach. He said, well, that's good. He said, have you ever toured the place? No, we haven't. He said, can I take you on a brief tour? I want to show you the power plant of the tabernacle. They thought it was kind of eccentric of the old fellow, but they humored him. So he took them down into the basement They approached an area and he turned and went, he opened the door. It was a room full of people earnestly crying out to God to anoint the service that was coming, to attend the preaching of the gospel with power, to save souls, to sanctify things. He closed the door and he looked and he said, that's the power plant of this place. I think sometimes we undermine or at least take an underwhelmed approach to the importance of prayer. The Lord Jesus says on a couple of occasions in teaching that where two or more are gathered in my name, I will be in the midst of them. Where two or three agrees touching anything, it shall be done for them. Teaching us there that prayer is critical. Prayer is important. but the Lord honors even small groups of people who will commit together to pray earnestly. This was a theme of Paul's, by the way, if you just do a cursory reading through the letters of Paul. 1 Thessalonians 5, 25. Brothers, pray for us. 2 Thessalonians 3, 1. Finally, brothers, pray for us. that the word of the Lord might speed ahead and be honored as happened among you. Hebrews 13, 18, pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things. Second Corinthians 1, 11, you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Philippians 1.19, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. Colossians 4.3, at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I'm in prison. Several times, the apostle made the appeal, pray for us. Pray for us. He also, we could go through the passages where he says, I'm praying for you. I'm praying this for you. Great section in Ephesians, the Lord will open the eyes of your heart, your understanding, behold the glories of the mysteries. You see sometimes, and particularly even it could be said when we kind of get used to one another, An unspoken mentality can develop which basically says, oh, he's got this. He's got this. Brothers and sisters, I don't have this. I need your prayers. I hope you prayed for me this morning. I hope you pray for me as I preach. Again, that great old hymn, will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word? Someone said to Ernie Reisinger one time, said, Brother Ernie, will you pray for the work? His response was keen. He said, Brother, prayer is the work. Prayer is the work. So Paul is addressing something here that is so critical, was so critical for his ministry, is critical for my ministry. It is critical for this ministry. It is critical for any evangelical ministry where we hope to see the power of God attend the preaching of the word. Otherwise, this time together, it's reduced to a lecture. And I never want it to simply be a lecture. I want you to think today will be about two ideas that come out of these four verses. First, Paul's earnest appeal for prayer warriors. There's a reason I use that term. I'll show you in a minute. It's a little more than simply asking for prayer. It's an earnest appeal for prayer warriors. What the church of the Lord Jesus Christ needs today is prayer warriors. In the old times, they would say people who know how to lay hold of the horns of the altar, people who tarry in prayer. Second thing, Paul's earnest appeal to God for peace. Let's look at these two ideas that come out of this passage today. First of all, there's Paul's earnest appeal for prayer warriors. He says in verse 30, I appeal to you, brethren. The word appeal there is an interesting word because when it comes in the New Testament, we typically see it in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. When Jesus taught in John's gospel that the comforter for comforter in the Greek is the is the paraklesis, the parakaleo, it's para alongside a kaleo called alongside of the one the one who will come and assist you strengthen you. Now we know in the teaching of Jesus about the Holy Spirit that he would come in the new birth he would come and regenerate. And in regenerating sinners, he would enable them to repent of their sins, enable them to believe and trust in Jesus Christ. But he was the comforter. That's typically where you see this word. Paul used it here, however, in the form of, please come alongside me. I'm asking you, I'm begging you. I'm hoping and desiring that you will come alongside me. How do we come alongside you, Paul? Here's how you come alongside. That you'll do this, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, immediately pointing out that what he's about to say will be ineffectual unless the power of the Lord Jesus Christ attends it, unless the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, unless the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, unless the purpose and the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ is in it. I appeal to you. by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. The love of the Spirit. There's one of those genitive phrases that we've looked at through the years. Is he saying here, the love that we have for the Spirit or the love that the Spirit has for us? Or perhaps in that, the love that flows to us from the Spirit and thus flows out of us. I think it's that. By the love the Holy Spirit shows to us, births in us, and therefore flows from us. Jesus talking in the gospel saying, out of you will flow rivers of living water. Talking about the Holy Spirit. He said, I appeal to you in the name and the mission of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here's what his appeal is. We read it in the English, to strive together with me in your prayers. The word strive together is a compound word. It is a preposition together. If we looked at it in the English, it would be like S-U-N or S-Y-N. And then a word, agonizomai. You can hear that word, agonizomai, pleading with you. Come alongside me for the mission of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, to agonize with me, agonize on my behalf in prayer, in prayer. It's a word that could be translated wrestle, wrestle with me, not wrestle me, wrestle with me in prayer. I'm facing a real enemy. who hates the truth. So when we gather, a couple of things happening in the spiritual world. One is the enemy of our souls wants me to be dull. He wants me to make truth unappealing. And then he hopes I'll catch the eye of people who are responding that very way, that they seem to be bored. And he uses that to accuse his preachers. He wants me to take this task lightly, not to agonize myself in preparation for it. And I would suggest to you that on a day like today where we've all lost an hour's sleep, that he has a little easier job today than he typically does. just for folk to be kind of blurry eyed, already thinking about how you missed an hour's sleep last night and you're hoping you can make up for it this afternoon, but you know realistically that when daylight savings time comes, it takes weeks typically for the body to adjust. He knows that. And he's hoping that it'll be sleepy saints and bored sinners who'll be sitting here wondering when is that fellow going to finish? Paul says, I need more than pretty prayers. I need more than polite prayers. I need more than pleasant prayers. I need you to wrestle with me. The day is dark. The enemy appears. unless you back up and see the whole picture. He appears to grow stronger. He appears to be gaining the ascendancy in some areas. We all could name people who once were what John Bunyan describes in Pilgrim's Progress, fair flourishing believers. And he's talking about the man in the iron cage. We all know people who were once there. Why are they not there today? Well, it's not a commentary on the gospel, The gospel is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is the transforming work of God by the Holy Spirit. So it's not a referendum on the gospel, but it is a commentary. The enemy of our souls will take anything he can to give you a religious experience that will substitute for the gospel transformation. If God continues to lead where he is when we finish Romans, we're gonna head into Hebrews. And Hebrews is a long sermon in written form, challenging the Christians in Jerusalem, don't go back to Judaism. Remember Jesus Christ. He is superior to everything you left I may be preaching to someone here today who's disappointed. You're disappointed in what your life has been as a believer. So you're disappointed in God. Perhaps you're disappointed in Christians, other Christians. Perhaps you're disappointed in this church. Perhaps you're disappointed in me. The word is don't give up on Jesus Christ. He can be trusted. He is an anchor for the soul. cling to him tenaciously. Paul says, agonize with me in your prayers as you pray to God on my behalf. Interesting observation here. He cites Jesus, the Spirit, and the Father. Paul is intentionally Trinitarian when he's talking about the mission and the ministry God's given him in the gospel. And it encourages him to know that the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, labor with him to accomplish the mission and the ministry God has given. And he gives us three reasons why he's asking him to do this here. First of all, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea. He knows, he's known it since he overcame, recovered from his Damascus experience. where he was encountered by the living resurrected Christ and commissioned to take the gospel to the Gentiles, he's known. He knew that event seriously disappointed those who had sent him on that mission. The Jewish leader, his teacher Gamaliel, his peers, fellow Pharisees, He was a traitor in their eyes. At this point in his writing, he has been for years. When you get to the point in Acts where Agabus comes to him as a prophet, we talked about it last week, he takes Paul's belt, binds his hands and his feet, his own hands and feet with Paul's belt and says, this is how you're going. You're gonna go bound to Jerusalem. Penagibus tells him that Paul has these grand designs of going to Jerusalem to take the collection to the saints there and after that hopefully head to Rome. The people plead with him, remember they said, Paul don't go. He said, don't tempt me. I've got to go. I'm not only going to go, I'll go bound, I'll die if need to because I'm going to Rome. We said last week, still the irony this week, he will go to Rome. Not at all like he thought he would. He would go as a prisoner of the Jews. He said, I want to be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea. He's finally called them that. If you read Romans 9, I have unceasing anguish in my heart for my brethren. Well, they have a zeal for God, but it's not according to knowledge. He's now made the plainest statement about the status of his fellow Jewish kinsmen. They are unbelievers. They do not believe in the true and living God. Well, what do you think that is to Jewish Pharisees? Blasphemy, more blasphemy. He says, pray for me. I want to be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea. And secondly, I want my service. The word here is the word diakonia. You hear deacon in that. It is the word to serve. I want my service for Jerusalem to be acceptable. Listen to what he's dealing with here. He knows his ministry to the Gentiles. He knows that going around planting churches in Gentile lands where pagans, are coming to faith in Christ, not having to become Jews first. He knows that in Jerusalem, that is scandalous for some, very scandalous. He knows that even among Christians, and you're going to see this when we get into Hebrews, even among Christians, they are still struggling with biases. They still have not been able to formally and functionally extract themselves from Judaism. and they're trying to make both work. And so for some, there's the possibility that to come to Jerusalem with a collection he's raised from churches all over, Achaia, Macedonia, that it could be despised. It could be rejected. There could be an attitude that says, we don't want shekels from filthy Gentiles. We need assistance, but we don't need their help. One of his prayers is that his collection that he's taking, his service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, that they may receive it, that they may rejoice, that the circle will be completed, that the gospel which was birthed and inaugurated in Jerusalem at Pentecost Touched thousands of lives from people who had come from all over the known world at Pentecost. Now going out of Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. That those who are benefiting have benefited from the saving message of the gospel. Would now benefit those from which it came. the saints in Jerusalem who from the time Pentecost unfolded have lived for decades by now with very serious financial challenges. A burgeoning church. Imagine if you will being in Haiti right now and the gospel explodes. Thousands come to faith in Christ. That's what happened on Pentecost. And a few days later, thousands more. And you care about your Haitian countrymen, but you care about this new addition to the Christian family in Haiti ever so much more. And there is your dilemma. Days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months, and months turn into years, and there is no financial relief in sight. The government won't help, because the Romans think you're atheists. The church won't help, because the Jews think you're blasphemers. But the need is still there. That's what Paul is dealing with. He made one of the the core planks of his mission and ministry. Anywhere he went to preach and a church was established, he would tell them in sort of a history lesson, the gospel came out of Jerusalem. You should be thankful that the Lord brought the gospel to you in these lands. But things are tight in Jerusalem. Tell them the story about what God did. And we have received the gospel. We owe them, as he said in the passage last week. Indeed, they owe it to them. He takes up the collection, knowing that there was the risk that his service for Jerusalem might not be acceptable for the saints when he got it back to them. And then a third reason he asked for their wrestling prayer so that by God's will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company." What's he got in mind here? He says, I want to be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea. When I head back to Jerusalem, I know they have plans to arrest me. And if they get to arrest me, I know they would like to figure out a way to execute me. Help me to dodge that. And then this collection I'm taking, I want that to be successful. I want that to bind hearts and minds of brothers and sisters in Christ from various ethnicities to show the reconciling power of the gospel. Then I want that to unfold in such a way, protection from the unbelievers or joyous reception among the Jewish Christians. And they will send me on my way. to see you, that when I come, I want it to come with grief and regret, but I can come with joy and tell you the powerful good news of how the gospel has been shown to be the most powerful force in the world. The Gentiles, who would be considered dogs by the Jews, took up a love offering to the Jewish Christians, and they received it gladly. Brother to brother, sister to sister. That's what he's saying pray for. We need to learn to pray like that. I have to repent of pretty praying. I know how to form the words. I know how to weave together theologically, language. Paul's asking for more than that here. And we should ask for more than that from one another. I think we all carry a burden in our hearts for Haiti. I need to repent. for letting it just be one of the things on my list of things I pray for. I was reflecting upon this. Even hearing Brother Norman give their latest report. Another pastor murdered. You have to get the sense that with that happening in the churches, And these churches is a part of the Haiti collective. We don't know what's happening in other churches. Pastors being slaughtered. You have to get the sense that everything is closing in on Pastor Joseph. I cannot continue with business as usual in that matter. I must, you must. Soon I go nidsumai. Wrestle in prayer that the evil one will be held off from our brother. Wrestle in prayer that some solution may be found. I told Brother Norman, if we had a righteous government, I would hope that a righteous government would see the need just off of our coast and send in resources to stop it, to mitigate it. But we don't have that. We need to see the lenses that the tragedy of Haiti is part of the judgment of God upon this nation. And repent. Repent. We can look closer to home. The legislative session is still going. And our bill to abolish abortion is dead once again. These legislators won't kill abortion. They won't lift a finger to stop abortion. But they gladly let a bill to abolish abortion languish and die for the session. We will not see that stop with pretty prayers. We must wrestle with the spirit of Beelzebub that controls our legislature. Pray earnestly that the Lord will bring a halt to it. But there's good news. You've been earnestly praying. I know you have. My pastor friend, Ethan Hester, talked to me Monday. He was headed into a deacon's meeting that evening where he fully expected the chairman of the deacons and those who were aligned with the chairman to press upon Ethan and call him out. Have you found legal counsel to settle this issue of confusion in our constitution? Because we have our counsel and we believe that you ought to vacate the office of pastor. Now, he was fully expecting that to be the discussion at the meeting. You've been praying though. He got there, the chairman of deacons who does not communicate with him at all announced to the deacon body three of the antagonistic deacons had submitted their letters of resignation, no longer part of the deacon body. Immediately, immediately the numbers went From six deacons opposed to him, and four for him, to four for him, and three opposed to him. He was encouraged. He told me later, he said, Monday afternoon was a dark afternoon of the soul for me. And the Lord delivered. And then we prayed Wednesday night in our prayer time for him, gave an update of that. Thursday morning, he got another communique. The chairman of Deacons, who was at the meeting Monday night, had submitted his resignation. Now they face filling up those vacancies. He said, if the Lord blesses our efforts, Bill, the way our process is set up to do that, we could easily end up with six deacons supporting the Reformation here and three opposed. Brothers and sisters, you've prayed. The actual fervent prayers of righteous people avail much. So I want you to hear, I'm not saying to you today, we're not praying. I'm simply saying, let us learn to focus more on the things we see. Paul says, wrestle with me in prayer. Let us wrestle with one another on these matters of prayer. Let us earnestly cry out to God. Father, do what has to be done in us first to see abortion abolished in this state and then do whatever has to be done in the hearts and lives of legislators. We have prayed for Ethan, dear God, either change the hearts of those men or remove them. And he's done just that. And he can do that in Oklahoma City. Dear God, change the hearts of the legislators or remove them. By any means. Dear God, send a solution to Haiti. We don't see one. The nations will not step forward and we're a church. We're not an army. We cannot go down and fix Haiti. What needs to be fixed militarily? Dear God, do something, please. Rescue the orphans. Provide food for the orphans. provide protection for the pastors of those churches and the churches themselves. The Haitians love to worship. Can you imagine what must be happening for the church in Dijon to stay locked down in their homes? They would crawl to the church building if they could to worship. It's an appeal for warfare praying. Are you a spiritual warrior? Will you be a spiritual warrior? Will you say, God, being my helper, I will give my life to intercessory prayer in an earnest way. I want to be that. I want you to be that. I want you to have the same success and victory in your prayers that we've seen at Pleasant Gardens. Baptist Church they've got a ways to go but my goodness the Lord has done something remarkable. Second thing he does is he appeals to the peace of God. I've got to I've got to wrap this up. May the God of peace be with you all. If you trace that through if you have a lexicon or a way to run that scriptures peace and God used together Paul uses this picture in every one of his letters. May the God of peace. Well, first of all, make sure that we are at peace with God, that we've made peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And if we have, then that means we have peace with one another. Ethan has had deacons tell him, no, it's too far gone for you and me to reconcile. My brothers and sisters, the gospel is the message of reconciliation. Anyone who tells you it's too far gone doesn't know or believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have another gospel. I'll pray. Make sure we have peace with God. Make sure we have peace with one another. We're praying for one another, encouraging one another, blessing one another. May it be with you all. That's a benediction. He says, pray for me. Let me tell you what I'm praying for you. I'm praying you may know the peace of God. I pray that for you. I pray in your own life, your spiritual life, you'll know the peace of God. I pray that in your relations, your family life, your life in the community, your life in the church, you'll know the peace of God. How can we not have peace with one another if we each have peace with God? It's a walking contradiction not to have that. And by the way, I thank God that this season in the life of this church, there is a sweet gospel piece, that the aroma of Christ saturates this. He makes an appeal, two appeals. They're my appeals to you. I hope you receive them. I hope the Lord will have dealings with you. This is not a guilt thing, this is a power thing. That the gospel will take on a form of power in your life, in your prayers, in your ministry, in your mission, in this church's mission to follow Christ, to love God, to love others, and to serve the world. That a power from God will come upon us in a way that we've not seen. Because we say, we're gonna come alongside you. We're gonna wrestle in prayer. J.C. Ryle asked the question in his little book, A Call to Prayer. He said, I wanna ask you something. Do you pray? He said, I'm not asking you, do you say your prayers? I'm asking you, do you pray? I think that's what Paul's talking about here. I don't need you to say your prayers on behalf of the ministry. I need you to pray. You pray earnestly. And as you do, my prayer is that you will know and experience the God of peace in your life, in your relationships. As the days grow darker, the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ which passes understanding will consume you. He's an anchor to our souls. Do you have that anchor? The seas are getting rough, rougher all the time. Do you have that anchor? I pray that you do. Let's bow in prayer. Dear Holy Father, you're the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we hear what Paul is saying, and for me, Lord, it pierces my heart. Help me to engage in warfare, praying on behalf of the unborn in this state, on behalf of the legislature that could do something about it if they would. Help me to engage in warfare, praying on behalf of my brothers and sisters in Christ in Haiti and those precious little orphans. Oh, God, move upon us. Bend us. Break us. Use us to bring about your solutions to these matters. Forgive us when we sit back. Forgive us when we tend to be complacent. Deliver us from that. And make of this congregation a body of prayer warriors, we pray. We thank you for what you're doing at Pleasant Gardens in Marion, North Carolina. Oh God, show your power in that way in these other matters we've talked about. In our hearts, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand and sing. I pray that you know this anchor we're going to sing about. And if somehow you've drifted away from him, I pray that today you'll connect back with him. He is an anchor for our souls.