Praying for Yourself 01-21-24

Overview: Pastor Williams discusses the spiritual battle that believers face, emphasizing the importance of prayer as a weapon. He mentions the cultural attack on religious references, such as the change in calendar terminology. He encourages Christians to be prepared for the many spiritual battles ahead by putting on the full armor of God, including prayer. He examines Paul's instructions and requests in Romans 15:22-32, highlighting the need to pray for oneself, including asking for deliverance from enemies. Pastor Williams emphasizes the importance of standing firm in the truth and being unafraid of offending others who might disagree with Biblical teachings. Transcription: Romans chapter 15, beginning in verse 22. By way of confession, I have not done a great job of keeping up with what's been happening in Israel. But I do want to remind us of the reality of the battle that has been raging over there for generations. You see, the claim today is that this battle is over land. Well, that's our land. No, that's our land. No, we want the rights. That's our birthright. That's the claim. But for us who are believers in Christ, for us who look at Scripture and we see the truths found within it, we understand something about this battle that the world does not. That this is not a battle over land. That this is a spiritual battle. That they are attacking the people of God because they are the people of God, not because they live in a certain place of land. This is a physical battle that has spiritual ramifications from it. It is a battle against the things of God. Beloved, we need to realize and recognize that even though we're not in Israel or Egypt or those surrounding areas over there, that here in Six Mile, South Carolina, we are in a spiritual battle. The culture does not like the things of God. The culture, the world, the laws do not want anything to do with the things of God. In fact, I was reminded yesterday of the fact that we have changed some of the lettering on our calendar. When you and I grew up, with the most of us, when we grew up, you had BC and AD. Now you have CE and BCE, which stands for Before Common Era and Common Era. Because they are trying to remove what the original BC and AD stood for, because it's based on the birth of Christ. And so they're trying to remove that. Let's change this. But what they fail to understand is that this calendar that was set up under AD and BC is the most accurate calendar. It's a Gregorian calendar. And it was set up, and it's the most accurate calendar ever to have existed prior to this. And in fact, it's done a great job of keeping up with the seasons and the rotations of the earth and all of that for all these centuries. And so what they're saying is we don't want to change the calendar. We just want to remove any religious things from it. It's an attack on the things of God. Beloved, we have to realize that we are in a spiritual battle. Here's the problem with that. It's for most Christians, we are not dressed for battle. Most Christians, especially here in America, have settled into their padded pews and their comfort lifestyles, their Burger Kings and McDonald's and air conditioners. They've sat back and got comfortable, and we're not even in the fight. Why is the culture winning? Because Christians are not dressed for battle. Now of course, maybe your mind goes to my mind when I think about these things. The full armor of God. The breastplate of righteousness. The shield of faith. The helmet of salvation. The shoes of the gospel of peace. All of those things. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. All of those things. And all of those things are important, and we should be obedient to the Word of God and put on the full armor of God. But beloved, there's one piece of armor. There's one piece of weaponry that if we don't take hold of it, if we don't put it in its proper place, then I believe we are still not fully dressed for battle. Do you know what that weapon is? It's what I believe is our greatest weapon against the wiles of the devil. I believe it's our greatest weapon against the culture, and against the lostness, and against even the battle that we face on a personal battlefield. I think it's our greatest weapon, but I also think it's our most neglected weapon. It's our most wait-to-the-last-minute weapon. Do you know what that weapon is? That weapon is prayer. It's prayer. What does the Bible say about prayer? Well, of course, 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14 says, If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. Jeremiah 29, verse 11 we know, For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans not to harm you, but to prosper you, to give you a hope and a future. But how many of us know Jeremiah 29, verse 12? Then you will call upon Me, and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. Proverbs 15, verse 29, He hears the prayer of the righteous. Romans 12, verse 12, Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. 1 Timothy 2, verse 8, I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And I could go on all morning just quoting Scripture that instructs us on prayer and tells us about the power of prayer and all of that, but that's not why I'm here. I'm here to look into Romans chapter 15 and take some instruction, take some example from Paul on some things that we can pray for. Let's read together Romans 15, verse 22. For this reason, I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now, no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you. At first, I may enjoy your company for a while, but now I go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, for it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Therefore, when I have performed this, I have sealed this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. So he is giving them in those first few verses some instruction. Here's my plan. Here's what I'm doing. Here's my itinerary. And I'm going to come to you. And then in v. 29, he makes a request. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. In v. 30, he says, Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. And so Paul here gives them his itinerary, but then he says something I thought very pointed. In v. 30, he says, Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me. And so I want to encourage you this morning to do this. Pray for yourself. Pray for yourself. Oftentimes, we spend so much time in prayer in this service for others. And we should. I'm not saying that we shouldn't pray for others. I think that we should beg God to do miraculous things in the life of others. Amen? When we hear about surgeries, we should pray for healing. When we hear about hard times, we should pray for blessing. We should pray for provision. We should pray for all of these things for others. But beloved, we cannot neglect ourselves in our prayer life. And I don't mean this. I don't mean, well, God, I just want You to bless me. I want You to give me a new car and a big house, fill my bank account and just make me popular and give me the nicest suit and the nicest shoes and just make me... I'm not talking about that prayer. I'm talking about biblical prayer. Things that matter. Not treasures on earth where rust and moth and destroy and where the thief breaks in and steals them. I'm talking about treasures in heaven. Treasures that are going to matter in the long run. Pray for yourself. And I believe Paul gives us five things for us to pray for. Five things that we can pray for ourselves. And these are found in verses 31 and 32. We should pray for yourself. You should ask for deliverance. He says at the beginning of verse 31, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe. We can ask for deliverance from our enemies. And this goes back to the truth I was sharing before that we are in a spiritual battle. If you are living for Christ, you have enemies. If there is not anyone who isn't your friend, if you're making everybody around you happy, then you're probably not living for Christ the way He has told you to live for Christ. Because here's the reality. There are people around us that do not believe. There are people around us who don't see eye to eye with us. Now I'm not saying we need to be rude and belligerent about it, but that means that me and the world, the lost and dying world, are not going to agree on everything. And I don't know about you, but people this day and age don't like to be told they're wrong. People this day and age don't like people not to agree with them. People this day and age... There's a whole culture built around it. Cancel culture. Oh, they believe that homosexuality is a sin. We can't listen to them. We can't be around them. They're just a bunch of fundamentalists and we don't like them and they cancel it. Again, I'm not saying we need to be belligerent and in their face and judgmental, but we need to take a stand. That's sin. Now here's the great news. There's forgiveness for that. Here's the great news. That your sin is no worse than my sin. And my sin is covered under the blood of a Savior who loved me enough to take Himself to the cross. It was His passion to go to the cross for me and for you, and that forgiveness is available for all people. But we need to pray, God, keep me from my enemies. Don't let me get beat down and burdened and so afraid that I'm going to offend somebody that I don't walk in the truth. Because that's the danger today. The world, the darkness, they don't like the light. And the minute we start walking in the light and we start sharing truth and we start walking according to the will of God, then that's going to stand in direct contrast to the way that some people are living. And they're not going to like it. But that does not. We need to pray, God, help me to stay true to You. Help me to walk the straight and narrow. Help me to make Your Word a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path so that I can see where I'm walking in accordance to Your will. And help me to stay there and not get pushed aside by my enemies. Beloved, there's been great men and women of the faith that have fallen under the pressures of their enemies. We need to pray for deliverance from our enemies. We need to pray for deliverance from our pain. Keep me, deliver me from those in Judea who do not believe. You remember what all Paul has faced, right? Beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, all at the hands of his enemies. So Paul's not saying, hey, just keep them from making fun of me. Keep them from passing up that promotion because I'm a believer. Keep them from... That's not what he's saying. He's saying, keep me from those enemies because there's some real consequences to how they treat me. We have no clue to that level of persecution. We have no clue. Someone looks at us sideways, we get upset. Paul would say, oh, is that all you got? Are you just going to look at me sideways? Well, amen. Paul got to the point, he said, kill me? Okay. To die is gain. Oh, you're not going to kill me? You're just going to throw me in prison? That's fine. To live is Christ. I'm going to sing hymns, convert the jailer, or jail's going to open up. I'm going to take him to his house and his whole house is going to be saved. Hey, come on, bring it. How do we get there? By praying, God, deliver me from my enemies. Deliver me from that pain. Help me to understand how You're working. That's where that mentality comes from. Are you going to throw me in prison? Okay. How many of you would be okay with that? How many of you would be okay if police officers walked through this door right now and said, hey, you're breaking the law, you're going to jail? I just said that homosexuality is a sin. That's hate speech. How many of us would be saying, okay, take me? Because that's what Paul said. Paul went to Rome knowing that he was going to be in prison when he got there. But he felt that's where God was telling him to go. He said, deliver me from the pain of my enemies. There's only one way to be delivered from that pain of enemies. That's understanding the sovereignty of God. How do we understand the sovereignty of God? Pray for deliverance from pain, from enemies, from temptation and sin. Matthew 26, verse 41, Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. We're not free of temptation. We'll never be free of temptation until we go on to the other side of glory. Why do we give in to temptation so much? Let me rephrase that because I don't want to speak for you. Why do I give in to temptation so much? Why do I fail? Someone who loves Jesus and wants and desires to walk in accordance to His Word and His will for my life. Who desires to be a godly husband and a godly father and a godly pastor and a godly community member. Somebody who desires all those things. Why do I give in to temptation so much? Because my Spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. And so how can I fight against that? I might be strong enough for a few moments. I won't even say a few days. That's what I was about to say. For a few moments to dig my heels in and stand tall and say, I'm not going to move. I'm going to be the Peter, right? Hey, they might all leave you, Jesus, but not me. I'm going to die for you. I'm going to be right here. I'm going to dig in. I might last for a few moments. I might be able to say to no temptation for a few moments, but before the rooster crows, I'll step into that temptation. So how do I fight that? I pray for deliverance from it. Keep me from temptation. Deliver me not into temptation. Keep me from the evil one. Ask for deliverance for yourself. Ask for fruitfulness. Look at the end of v. 31. It says, "...and that My service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints." He wants to be fruitful in His ministry. Beloved, if you remember the past couple of weeks, you were challenged to love your neighbor. Then you were challenged that you were preaching a message everywhere you go. What's that message that you are preaching? That you should be preaching the Gospel? And that's a ministry that you have and you alone have, and I don't minister in the same way you minister in that realm. And so, we need to ask for fruitfulness in whatever our ministry is. Sunday school teacher, when's the last time you asked for fruitfulness in your ministry? God, give me wisdom to teach this. God, be with this person in my class or that person in my class, but God, allow this class to draw men and women closer to You. Allow this class to introduce somebody into a saving knowledge of the Gospel. Allow this class to strengthen, to sharpen one another. Help me to be fruitful in this ministry. Father, when's the last time You prayed for Your ministry as a Father? Lord, help me to lead my family in accordance to You. Help me to train up these children in the way that they shall go, so when they're old, they will not depart from it. Lord, help the fruit of this ministry bear fruit in the lives of those that are under my Father ministry. Help my husband's ministry to encourage my wife to be all that she is for the Lord. Help me to be that person. Allow this to bear fruit in their life. The fruitfulness in ministry. John 15 and 16 says, You did not choose me, but I chose You and appointed You that You should go and bear fruit and that Your fruit should remain, that whatever You ask the Father in My name, He may give You. Beloved, when's the last time You asked for Your ministry to be fruitful? Challenging, isn't it? Because every area of your life is a ministry. Your grandparenthood, if that's even a word, is a ministry. Your parenthood is a ministry. Listen, your childhood is a ministry. Children, you can minister to your parents as well. You don't understand sometimes the stresses and the weight that your parents are carrying. I'm going to just give you a very practical way. Just a very practical way for you to minister to your parents and to be fruitful in that ministry. You're not going to like it. I'm going to tell you that. Do your chores without fussing. Somebody sucked the air out of the room. What? Mama, am I right? Husbands, you want to be fruitful in your ministry to your wife? Then pull my toes back on this one. Help with the dishes. Help with the laundry. Help with the house cleaning. Help with the kids. Don't retreat out to your shop every time you get a chance because that's your safe space. I told you I had to pull my toes back on that one, right? I battle it too. Fruitful ministry. Every area of your life is a ministry. Your job is a ministry. Pray for fruitfulness in your ministry. Pray for fruitfulness in understanding. Ephesians 1.18 Paul prays for the Ephesian believers that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe. Lord, I pray that I'm fruitful in my understanding of You and Your Word and Your calling and the hope You give me. Listen, beloved, sometimes I fall short and I fail because I don't fully understand what God's doing in that moment. And it scares me to step out in obedience to Him because, God, where are You leading with this? It's like going to the pool for the first time of the year, right? What do you do? Most people, the sane people, don't just jump in. Sane people just go over there and they dip their toe in. Oh, that's a little cool. Okay, I've got to get ready for that. Oh, a little cold. All right, now I'm ready. Then we jump in, right? We've got to get the feel for it. Some of us treat God that way. God, what are You doing? I don't know if I like that. I don't know if I'm ready for that. Pray for understanding. God, what are You doing? How are You working? What are You teaching? What are You showing? Fruitfulness in understanding. Fruitfulness in Your influence. Matthew 5.44 I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Fruitfulness of your influence. Think about that person that maybe you're at odds with right now. Let them come to your mind. Don't get mad at me, okay? But let that person come. Man, we're just not in a good place right now. They did this. They did whatever. Think about that person. Now, I want you to pray that your influence in that person's life will draw them closer to God. Don't pray about how to get even with them. Don't pray destruction and hurt and heartache on them. Pray, God, how can I show them the love of God? I pray that my influence over them will lead them to the forgiveness and the grace and the mercy of God. And we begin to pray for fruitfulness in our ministries and in our influence and in those things. Beloved, it may not change the situation, but it will change us. And we will begin to see those people differently. And when we begin to see them differently, we begin to act towards them differently. And when we begin to act towards them differently, then they'll wonder why. Why are you acting this way? And then you can tell them, I'm acting this way because I'm asking God to allow me to influence you to the Gospel of Him and the grace and the forgiveness that He freely offers. But we need to pray for the fruitfulness in our life. Thirdly, ask for joy. He says in verse 32, He says, that I may come to you with joy. That I come to you with joy. Ask for joy in all circumstances, because beloved, we know that this is not always easy. And so we can't muster it up ourselves. We can't necessarily change our circumstance and find the joy in it. Sometimes we have to ask God, You have to give us that joy. God, You have to work this out. You have to show us. You have to put that joy inside of me. And this is why 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 17 says, Rejoice always. And then it says, Pray without ceasing. And I would offer to you that those two go hand in hand. That if we are going to have joy always, rejoice always, it's only because we pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Pray for joy in all circumstances at all times. Pray without ceasing. This means have an attitude of prayer. When that heartache comes along, prayer shouldn't be our last resort. It shouldn't be wait until the last minute. It shouldn't be let me try everything else and then I'll run here. It boggles my mind. It aggravates me. And when I hear Christian songs say things like, When I was down to nothing, God was up to something. Beloved, I'm not here to tell you God was up to something when you had it all. He didn't wait until you got down to nothing. You just didn't want to see Him until you got down to nothing. You didn't want to run to Him until you got down to nothing. You didn't want to strive for Him until you got down to nothing. You tried everything in yourself and you say, I got this. I can handle it. Oh, yes, I got this. I'm a man. I can handle it. And then all of a sudden, your strength failed. Your understanding failed. Your relationships failed. Your money failed. Your job failed. And you're standing at the end of it saying, I tried everything. Well, now let me try God. When if you would have tried God here, then maybe none of that would have failed. God says give joy in all things at all times. Pray without ceasing. An attitude of prayer. Ask for joy in all circumstances at all times in all that God is, because God is still God. He doesn't change. When you have it all, God is God. When you have nothing, God is God. And everywhere in between, God is God. And listen to this, that same God that is and was and is to come, that same God that is the same yesterday, today, and forever, that same God is calling out to you saying come to Me. I will listen. I will hear you. And I will be there for you. And I will give you exactly what you need in all things. And when we begin to understand all that God is, we begin to experience true joy. I'm going to give a little flash here. When I finish up with Romans next week, we're going to launch into a series on identity. And the first point in that is who is God? Because I firmly believe this. The clearer picture we get of who God is, not just what He has done for us and we should praise that and glorify that and rest in that, but who He is, when we begin to understand that, then we can end our hurts and heartaches and our trials and tribulations, storms and sorrows, then we can say, I have peace that passes all understanding because I know who God is. I can have strength in all situations because I know who God is. I can have comfort in the midst of this heartache because I know who God is. Ask for joy. Fourthly, ask for obedience. Wait a minute, preacher, you should have stopped after joy. Well, beloved, we need to ask for obedience. He says at the end of verse 32, or the middle of verse 32, I may come to you with joy by the will of God. By the will of God. He believes this is the will of God for Him to come this way. He's longed to go to them. For years it said, but I've been hindered. I've not been able to do it. Because it's not been the will of God. But now, by the will of God, I want to come to you. Ask for obedience to do what is right. 2 Corinthians 10.5 Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Ask for obedience to do what is right. Because beloved, our wicked hearts will not be drawn to that on its own. We are drawn away from God when we left to the lust of our own flesh. That's what Scripture says. So pray to do what is right. Pray to experience victory. As we do what is right, as we press in to our relationship with God, as we look for that joy, then we will experience victory. 1 John 5.4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. How do I overcome temptation? Be born of God. How do I overcome the sin in my life? Be born of God. How do I overcome the hurts and heartaches of this life? I am born of God. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Think about that. How do we overcome this culture that is invading Six Mile? Our faith. Beloved, our faith cannot be confined to the four walls of this sanctuary. It has to be taken out into the culture. Ask for obedience to do what is right, to experience victory, to experience God. Psalm 145.18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him. To all who call upon Him in truth. If you want to experience God, ask God for obedience to His will. Lastly, ask for refreshing. Very end of verse 32, And may be refreshed together with you. Beloved, I don't know about you. Sundays are long days for me. I get up early after usually staying up late on Saturday night. I get up early. Spend some time in prayer. Review my sermon. Come in here and I pour out all of my energy and all of my heart to you on this Sunday morning. And I often walk down from this pulpit exhausted. I'm tired. I literally want you to know that I pour out my heart. This is not something that I take lightly. I pour it out to you. It's oftentimes that ministry is exhausting. It's tiresome. Beloved, we need refreshing. This is what Matthew 11, 28-30 is all about when He says, Come to Me, all you who are laboring and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Beloved, we need to ask for refreshing from the Word. Paul here is traveling. He's setting up churches. He's strengthening churches. He's taking up offerings and delivering to mothers. He's doing the work of God. And he says, I need some time. I need to come to You that I might be refreshed with You. Beloved, that's what this morning is all about. It's gathering together with brothers and sisters in Christ to meet the holy God who loves us and saved us from our sin to gain refreshing for the week to come. Pray for that refreshing from the work that is before us. Pray for refreshing from the burden, the great responsibility of sharing the Gospel. I'm not ignorant to what this all means. And if you are spiritually aware of those people that are around you, then their lostness weighs on you. If you have loved ones, family members, parents, children, neighbors that you know are not in the faith that have not acknowledged Christ, then if you care for them at all, that weighs on you. Come to Me and I'll give you rest. Cry out to Him and be honest. God, I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I need refreshing. Ask for refreshing from the expectation. There's certain ways that we're expected to live as Christians, isn't there? There's certain things that we're expected to do and not do. Certain rules we're expected to follow. I don't know about you, but sometimes rules can get tiresome, can't they? I mean, these kids, they love rules. That's why they go to school and they're perfect. They don't ever get in trouble. They follow every rule to the letter. I saw that aisle roll. I'm going to step over here and let you all handle that. No, trust me, I know. I got, right? No. Sometimes you just get tired of the rules. Culture says rules are made to be broken, right? By the way, what happens when your worker breaks your rules? You just turn a blind eye. Oh, you're fine. Don't worry about it. Absolutely not. Rules can get burdensome. Expectations of how we're to live as Christians. Expectations of your pastor weigh on me. They make me tired. There's some days I wake up and think, not today. Not today. It's in those moments that I have to say, God, I need refreshing. I need strength. Because God's calling on our life never stops. God's calling us. You are always his child. You are always his hands, his feet, and his mouth. But if you're tired, pray for refreshing. His word says, come unto me. I will give you rest. That rest is found in him, not the spa, not the lake, not the beach, not the mountains. You might find relaxation. You might find a little escape, but you won't find rest for your souls. The minute you come back, still there. Refreshing for your souls comes from God alone. Beloved, pray for it. I know where I am personally. And as I look at that list of things that Paul prayed for in that moment, I find myself on that list. Things that I need to pray for. One of my prayers has been, has become, help my ministry be fruitful. I want to see the fruit of the ministry that God has placed me here for. Lord, give me rest. Lord, help me to be the man, the husband, that You've called me to be. Where are you this morning? What is there in your life that you need to pray for yourself for? Deliverance, fruitfulness, joy, obedience, or refreshing. You come this morning, and you pray and ask God to give those to you. This altar's open. As always, I'll be down front. Love to pray with you, pray for you. So let's stand together. You come and pray as the Lord leads.