On Your Mark, Get Set ... Pray!

Is your prayer life something that's relegated to a portion of your day? Or is prayer your constant companion? You don't limit this kind of obsession to a prayer meeting at church from 6.30 to 7.30. You don't restrict this kind of urgency to the bulletin or the prayer sheet.

This is entering the contest of life. And every time you hear the words as it were from the gamekeeper saying, on your mark, get set, you say, wait, I need people praying for me. Happy New Year and welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davey is the president of Wisdom International and your Bible teacher for this daily program. Today, Stephen returns to the Book of Romans to bring the final message in the series he called Holy Obsession. What you're going to see is that your obsession for God needs to include an obsession for prayer.

You're going to learn some important principles about your prayer life today in the lesson Stephen called, On Your Mark, Get Set, Pray. Open your Bible to Romans 15 as we get started with today's message. Beginning with verse 14 of Romans chapter 15, we have already discovered Paul's obsession with godly living. We have discovered his obsession with the glory of God. His fixation on the grace of God, his passion for the global cause of God. And now here, as we reach the end of the chapter, we discover Paul's obsession for praying to God.

An obsession for intercession. Look at verse 30. Now, I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. If anything, you get the idea that Paul does not view himself as a lone ranger. He doesn't view himself as outside the body of Christ, but a part of the body. And he is asking the body of Christ for help. I mentioned in our last session that this is, in effect, a missionary letter asking for support. Earlier in verse 24, he is asking for help.

The word literally means financial help, help with food. So he's very practically asking for help. And now he moves on. Beyond that, he is now, as in any good missionary letter, going to ask for prayer. But he doesn't just ask for prayer. His words are packed with emotion and intensity. I urge you, brethren, from Parkalow, I beg you, I exhort you, I plead with you.

Donald Gray Barnhouse said, this particular word is packed with the urgency of an SOS. It is it is terribly important that you pray for me. Now, he goes on to say, if you think it's just on my account, remember, ultimately it is for our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. In other words, Paul is asking for prayer. But he's also reminding the believers that true prayer ultimately seeks the glory of Jesus Christ and the unifying call of the Holy Spirit on the body. Paul wants people to join him who want to see Jesus Christ honored and the spirit of God demonstrated through the love of the spirit in the body of Christ. I urge you, I summon you, I beg you. Same word he uses in Chapter 12, verse one, where he says, I urge you, same word.

Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you what? That you present your body as a living sacrifice to God. How important is it for the believer to give his body to God?

It's really not an option, is it? Paul now employs the same verb here, he says, as if he says here, it isn't an option for this either. Just as you must give your body to God, you must pray for me. Pray that Christ will be honored. Pray that the spirit of God will unify the body.

Paul goes on even further in verse 30 to say, strive together with me, labor together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. Some of you men are young enough to have been in the delivery room with your wives. The older guys, you were never allowed in.

Younger guys bring in their video camera, set the whole thing up as if somebody would want to see it later. But you get all of it on film and I remember being in the delivery room with Marsha when we were about to have our fourth child. And I say we generously.

If it were up to men to have babies, the world would have none, not one ever, never. Right, men? Be honest. In that delivery room on that Halloween night, I'll never forget the intensity of my wife's pain as she gripped my arm and looked up to me with her blue eyes filled with a mixture of agony and pain and fear. And she said, help me.

Never forgot that. I never felt more helpless in all of my life in the face of her agony. That's the intensity of this word.

Strive with me. Enter into my sunagonizomai gives us our word agony. Enter into my agony with me.

Will you help me? Literally agonize with me. It's the only time this compound word is found in the entire New Testament. Other derivatives are found to give you an idea of the intensity of the agony. It's a word used in Paul's day for the athlete is struggling in the contest. Paul uses it when he writes to Timothy, I have fought a good fight.

Literally, I have agonized a good agony. This is the same word used of Jesus Christ as he prayed in the garden and Luke records and being in agony. He prayed fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Paul is not asking the believers in Rome, would you put me on your prayer list?

And when you get together at your prayer meeting, would you say, oh, God, would you bless Paul? You don't limit this kind of obsession to a prayer meeting, a church from six thirty to seven thirty. You don't restrict this kind of urgency to the bulletin or the prayer list or the online prayer sheet. This is spiritual labor.

This is entering the contest of life. And every time you hear the words as it were from the gamekeeper saying on your mark, get set. You say, wait, I need people praying for me.

Will you help me as I start this race? This particular part of it. This is the kind of obsession for intercession that Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Thessalonian believers, when he said, pray without what? Pray without ceasing, pray without stopping. This is an attitude of an ongoing conversation with God. You know, you cannot run the race.

You cannot stay on the track. We need prayer for the glory of Christ and the work of the Spirit. R.A. Torrey once wrote out 10 reasons why you should pray like this more than 100 years ago. He said, number one, because there is a devil, because prayer is the God appointed means of resisting him.

I'm going to read these too fast for you to write them down. Number two, because prayer is God's way for us to obtain what we need from him. Number three, because the apostles considered prayer to be the priority business of their lives. Number four, because prayer occupied a prominent place and played a very important part in the earthly life of our Lord. And beyond that, number five, because prayer is the present ministry of our Lord since he is now interceding for us. And how passionate do you hope he is praying for you? Would we be happy knowing that Christ is praying for us? Sort of like, well, bless him down there.

OK, here I am in that part of the list. Bless Stephen and Cindy and John and Susan and whatever. Because prayer is the means God has appointed for our receiving mercy from him. Seven, because prayer is the means of obtaining the fullness of God's joy. Eight, because prayer with thanksgiving is the means of obtaining freedom from anxiety. Number nine, because prayer is the means by which we are to keep watchful and alert. Number ten, because prayer is used by God to promote our spiritual growth, bring power into our work, lead others to faith in Christ and bring all other blessings to Christ's church.

And number ten, he just sort of dumps the rest of it in there. After reading a list like that, the question is not should we pray, but how can we afford not to? I wonder if Ruben Torre was passionate about prayer because of his own story. Perhaps he never forgot that one night as a Yale student, overwhelmed with grief and guilt over his sinful lifestyle, he decided to take his own life.

That night in 1875, he stumbled across his dormitory room to a washbasin looking for a razor so he could cut his wrists. In such guilt and anguish over the rebellious life he was living, having rejected the gospel of his mother and father. He couldn't find his razor, but suddenly became overwhelmed with conviction to pray. Unknown to him, his mother at that very same hour at night was compelled inwardly to get on her knees and begin praying afresh for the salvation of her son. And at that hour, they would discover later it was that hour Ruben knelt by his bed and gave his life to the Savior. R.A. Torre went on to become the president of Moody Bible Institute and later the dean of Biola. Significantly used by God, he would remain passionate about prayer his entire life.

You can only imagine why. Now, as any good missionary letter will model, Paul isn't satisfied with saying, pray for me. He will give three very specific requests. The first one appears in verse 31. Each of these appear with the word that, at least in my translation, that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea. You can write or summarize that one prayer request with one word and maybe write it in the margin of your text as I have. It is the one word safety. Pray for my safety.

Nothing wrong with that. Paul was enemy number one of the Jewish people. His face was plastered on bulletin boards in every post office in Jerusalem. I would imagine the Jews in Jerusalem have already killed Stephen in the open after having heard him preach only one sermon. They had thrown Peter into prison hoping to kill him, too.

And he was miraculously released by an angel. The blood of the Christian had already stained the soil in Jerusalem and around it and throughout the region. Paul, now the former prosecutor of Christianity, the now having by his conversion become the famous preacher of Christianity, has infuriated the entire nation by his betrayal of them. His supposed betrayal of the law and the temple and the doctrines that he would teach of this new thing called the church. Paul knew full well he was headed for trouble.

He was literally walking into a tornado and he knew it. And so he says here, agonize with me, strive together, labor in prayer for me that I may be delivered from the unbelieving Jewish people. When I arrive in Jerusalem, the evidence of the Jews hatred for Paul was seen and what happened not long after he arrived. For the sake of time, let me just read from Luke's account in Acts 21.

And Paul is, by the way, indeed recognized soon after he arrives. He's on his way to the temple and his enemies see him and stir up the people shouting. And I'm quoting now Luke's words, men of Israel, come to our aid. This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the law and this place, the temple. And besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. And all the city was aroused and the people rushed together and taking hold of Paul, they dragged him out of the temple and began to beat him.

Can you imagine the scene, this riot that breaks out? Paul will be nearly beaten to death by this mob who want to pay him back for betraying the nation. Defending this condemned criminal they killed, Jesus. And they would have killed him had the Roman soldiers not delivered or rescued him from the mob. So Paul's first prayer request for safety was answered, but not in the way he expected. Probably not the way the Roman believers had prayed. We would expect God to answer our prayers for safety to mean you don't get nearly beaten to death.

Paul was delivered only after having been beaten. I don't think we'd consider that a prayer answered, would we? Would we come back to church and say, praise God, he answered my prayer and he can't see through either eye?

I doubt it. Safety for us usually doesn't involve a near-death beating at the hand of a bloodthirsty mob. God did have Paul's protection in mind, protection by means of Roman soldiers. He would be safely stored behind bars. As I have thought this week about the repeated assassination attempts on Paul's life, I don't have any doubt now that he would have never survived had he remained in the care of the church. It would take the Roman Empire to defend his life.

And from this moment forward, Roman soldiers will be assigned to guard him for the rest of his life. The first prayer request was answered, but in a very unusual manner. Maybe that's exactly what God is doing in your life as well. Maybe he's answering your prayers, but it isn't in a way you would have chosen or even thought of.

You would have never scripted it to be quite like he's doing it in your life. But after time and growth and insight, maybe through tears and travail, you are beginning to understand. Maybe you've just begun to know what this kind of agonizing prayer is really like. Maybe you are just now beginning to learn how to pray. The second prayer request is equally, if not more significant to the cause of Christ and the love of the Holy Spirit. Notice the middle part of verse 31. And that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints. The first prayer was for safety.

This prayer is for service. You need to remember that the relationship between the Jew and the Gentile was abominable in Paul's day. Throughout the ministry, even in the church, there were Jews who never came around. They argued with Paul. They debated with Paul that Gentiles need to become Jewish if they are to enter the church. Created all sorts of conflict. So Paul had, if you can imagine this storm he's about to enter. On one hand, Jews who want to kill him.

Jews who are cool to him, who don't like him, who don't appreciate him. And he's walking right in the middle of it with this gift, this offering. And he's hoping to heal some of the rift. He's hoping it will encourage the unity of the body in the love of the Spirit.

Money given by Gentiles he's now going to give to Jews. So much of the challenge is lost, but the questions would be asked. Would the Jews be offended? They could be. Have you ever tried to help someone and offer them help and they've been slightly offended with, I don't need your help. Would the Jews view it as the Gentiles acting in a superior way?

A condescending way, here let us help you. Would they think that the Gentiles were just trying to buy their affection and buy their way out of the rift? All these were possibilities.

Because of time and distance we don't understand how deeply the rift was. But imagine for a moment if you would what it must have been like. Imagine how they were raised. There would be inscriptions.

Some of them have survived to this day. One of them discovered in 1871, I've seen a picture of it, translated it says, No Gentile is to enter within the wall and this embankment around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which will follow. The signs were clear, Gentile trespassers will be killed. Now you can understand why a Jewish man got up and every morning in his Orthodox prayers, he prayed among other things, I thank God that I was not born a Gentile. And suddenly by means of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a Jewish man comes to faith in Christ and he discovers that in the sanctuary with him is a Gentile. That the ground at the foot of the cross and into the church is level. There are no 19 steps in the church.

In fact there are no concentric circles. Everyone, male, female, Jew, Gentile, slave or free, all have equal access to God. This is the church. But it was all so new and for the Jew, all so humbling. So would they accept Paul's gift of money from Gentiles. That's why Paul asked.

This is urgent. You've got to pray with me that the saints in Jerusalem will receive the gifts of their Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ. Well, good news, this prayer request was answered exactly as they hoped.

Luke recorded the event. When we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. Praise God for that.

And he goes on to say, and after Paul had greeted them, he immediately began to relate one by one the things which God was doing among the Gentiles. And I'm thinking, don't press your luck, man. Stop. Just give them the money. No, I'm going to tell them what God is doing among the Gentiles.

Every event. Why? They need to hear it.

They need to grow to stretch, develop. And Luke reports that their response to Paul was and when they heard the news of what God was doing among the Gentiles, they began to glorify God. Amen. Amen.

His service to the saints was acceptable. There's one more prayer request. Verse thirty two. He says, so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. The first request dealt with safety.

The second with service. This one with his own spirit in a rather tender and open way. He says, listen, I just I got to get recharged.

I want to come and have the batteries of joy just sort of reinfused. And I want to come to you and and rest. One author said that Paul is desperately wanting to drop anchor in the quiet haven of the assembly in Rome and rest. He had left Ephesus in an uproar. He had conflicted with Corinth over their immaturity and sin.

He had written sharp words to the Galatian church leaders. He just wanted to rest. He wanted to spend time refreshing his spirit. And he wanted to recharge his batteries with joy. He writes, this was the longing of his soul.

But we know, don't we? Paul will be arrested in Jerusalem and wait several years before arriving in Rome, as we said, not as a pioneer, but as a prisoner. How did the church in Rome receive him? Were they a haven for him?

Well, I wish I could tell you a different story. We know that when he first arrived in Rome, only a few believers came to represent the church and only a few stepped forward at first and only at first. They were afraid of his chains. They were afraid of the Romans. They were afraid of persecution. I'm not sure I would have acted any differently.

Do you? And so in his final letter to Timothy, before he will be martyred, Paul wrote of the Roman believers, fear and timidity. Listen, as he writes, Timothy, you are aware that everyone here turned away from me, but may the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus. For he often refreshed me.

Recognize that word? He was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me eagerly and found me. May the Lord grant him mercy. So, Paul was refreshed after all, but not like he prayed.

It wasn't the haven of the assembly. It was the haven of one family who dared his own safety and came to Paul. But does that mean that Paul lacked joy?

No, that prayer request was answered too. It would be in Rome while under house arrest that Paul would write his little letter to Philippian believers. And it is a letter drenched with joy. 16 times in that letter, he uses the word joy. So, Paul had discovered God's will was different from his prayer requests, didn't he?

Just like yours and mine. But he was willing to allow God's spirit to change his spirit so that even in the face of dramatic reversals, Paul indeed came to Rome and he discovered joy. He writes in verse 31, a rather common Jewish benediction, but significant. Now the God of peace be with you all, amen. It is the God of peace that will meld your hearts together as Jew and Gentile. It is the God of peace who will make us one.

May the God of peace be with you all. Let me draw three truths from the scene. Number one, spiritual maturity does not automatically erase the pain of an unsettled heart. It does not automatically erase the pain of an unsettled heart. Paul was facing danger and battle and hatred and prejudice and conflict and possibly death with such unsettled feelings.

It wasn't, you know, chin up, no sweat, I can take it. It was, would you please pray with me and for me? Secondly, a disciplined prayer life does not automatically erase the potential of unanswered prayer. In other words, intimacy with God does not alleviate times of wondering and confusion and maybe even discouragement. And maybe you think that the confusion will go away and the discouraging times will go away if I just spend more time in prayer. What will happen is God will change us. He may never change our circumstances and you can't figure out why. E. Stanley Jones wrote, as our wills and minds need to be changed about this entire arena of going to our sovereign God in prayer, he writes, prayer is simply surrender to God.

If I were in a boat and I wanted to come to shore and I took out my boat hook and rope and I threw that boat hook from the boat and I caught hold of the shore and I pulled, do I pull the shore to me or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer, he wrote, is not pulling God to my will but the aligning of my will to whatever God wants. One more. Number three, a commitment to serve Christ does not automatically erase the possibility of an uncertain future. As the apostle Paul was about to set sail for Jerusalem in a rather touching scene, he bade farewell to the elders of the Ephesian church.

And in his comments to them, he made this remarkable statement. Even though he knew it was going to be difficult and there would be suffering, he said this, I am on my way to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there. We can say it too.

I'm just following God. We better pray before, during and after the race so that we can say the God of peace will be with us. The old poem reads peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown.

Jesus Christ we know and he is on the throne. With that reminder we bring this lesson as well as our current series to a close. This is Wisdom for the Heart and Stephen Davey has been working through a series entitled Holy Obsession from the book of Romans. If you missed any of the messages in this series, we've posted them to our website. If you go to that website and search for the series Holy Obsession, you'll be able to listen to each message or read the manuscript. Today's the last day for us to offer a special discounted price on Stephen's book entitled Holy Obsession. Our office is closed today so you'll have to visit our website to take advantage of this offer. It's wisdomonline.org. Join us next time for more Wisdom for the Hearts. Thank you.