Struggling to Kneel

The Apostle Paul lived and taught that our passion for God should impact every aspect of life.

This is an expression that is deeply emotional. Add to that the fact that Paul's word translated serve is the Greek word latrua, which is translated in other passages worship. It combines the idea of working and serving and loving. So Paul is saying in this one brief phrase in effect, my entire life, my entire being, my whole heart is devoted to the honor and glory of God. What does it take to be a godly man in today's world?

It certainly doesn't happen by accident. In fact, godliness requires something most men find difficult, getting on their knees in prayer and humble submission. Today we look at Romans chapter 1 verses 9 and 10. You're going to examine the prayer life of the Apostle Paul. He struggled to kneel in prayer, not because he lacked strength, but because his desire for God's will consumed his heart. In this message, Stephen Davies shows you how Paul's life reveals three key aspects of a godly man's affections, devotion to God, consistent prayer, and planning submitted to the will of God.

Are you willing to struggle to kneel for the sake of Christ? Keep listening as you discover what true godliness looks like and how you can grow in your devotion to the Lord, his people, and his purposes. We have uncovered some truths in Romans chapter 1 related to the affections of a godly man. And I believe it's truth for every believer. This is truth that a woman can pray her husband becomes, but this is also truth a daughter can look for as she grows up, if it is indeed God's will for her to marry.

This is truth every son can become. When Paul wrote to the Christians living in Rome, Italy, at about verse 8 of chapter 1, we're given some rather personal and upfront, very close comments that reveal this man to us. This is the man, by the way, who shocks us with his candor as he wrote to the Corinthians, be ye imitators of me. 1 Corinthians 4, 16. Now in the verses we're about to look at in Romans chapter 1, you discover a little bit about why Paul could say that.

This is a passage that reveals to us what made the Apostle Paul tick. If you wonder what he thought about, what he longed for, what he felt passionate about doing, what drove his affections in life, you'll find them here. And we discover here a model for every man, and by the way, it is a model from a man who is not behind a pulpit, he is not behind a university lectern, he is not addressing some large audience with a carefully developed speech, but a model given to us by a man on his knees, a man in prayer, a man who wrote extensively about prayer in the last few generations as a man named Imbounds.

Many of you perhaps have a little paperback of his. He was a lawyer who served as a chaplain in the Civil War and then as a pastor. He spent the last 17 years of his life in devotion to the Lord, a lot of solitude and prayer and writing.

His writings were ignored for years after his death, and I think they're more powerful today and for our generation than even in his. He wrote these potent words, listen, we are constantly on a strain to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church, but while the church is looking for better methods, God is looking for better men. What the church needs today is not more machinery, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men.

He does not come upon machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, he anoints men, men of prayer. With that in mind, I invite you to join me in the private prayer room of the Apostle Paul and discover with me a fresh defections of a truly godly man. Let's read beginning in verse 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

Now we'll pick it up where we left off. For God, whom I serve in my spirit, in the gospel of his Son or in the preaching of the gospel of his Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests, if perhaps now at last, by the will of God, I may succeed in coming to you. You cannot help but observe as Paul leafs through his prayer list here several things about Paul the man. The first observation I want to make is Paul's godly piety. Piety is a long-forgotten word.

In fact, the word is used of someone who is cold and rather stuffy and hard-faced. But it's a wonderful word. Piety means devoted or devotion. It means sacred allegiance. It means reverence, holy reverence.

A pious man is a man who is devoted to his holy God. Paul wrote in verse 9, for God, whom I serve in my spirit. I believe that Paul's use of the words in my spirit are intended to convey the deepest intensity of his devotion to God. He is in effect saying, I am serving God with my whole being. Or as one translation renders it, I am serving God with my whole heart.

And I think that's correct. This is an expression that is deeply emotional. Add to that the fact that Paul's word translated serve is the Greek word latruo, which is translated in another passage as worship. It combines the idea of devotion and action. It combines the idea of working and serving and loving. So Paul is saying in this one brief phrase, in effect, my entire life, my entire being, my whole heart is devoted to the honor and glory of God.

It's a phrase that has so much meaning. You say, well, you know, Paul's supposed to say that. He's an apostle. God wouldn't let him write this kind of stuff if he didn't say that kind of thing. Apostles are supposed to live like that.

Well, I would love to agree with you. And if I did, we could all be off the hook, couldn't we? Except for that troubling verse where Paul said, be thou imitators of me. A verse I referenced earlier because I knew I'd need to get to it here so that we all didn't hide and say, well, that's just for Paul. No, we are to live and walk like how he lives and walks.

And we start by being devoted to God with an undivided entire heart. That's what we call godly living. Godly living is not a sport. It's work. It's hard work. It isn't something you do if you're sort of cotton to the idea or if you're naturally good at it.

It isn't something that you try to do if you have a little spare time. I think I'll try a little bit today to live a godly life. No, it's work. It is life itself devoted entirely to God. Paul told Timothy in First Timothy 4-7, Timothy, train yourself to be godly. An interesting phrase. Train yourself to be godly.

The word train is the word gumnadze from which we get our word gumnadzeum or gymnasium. He is in effect saying, Timothy, go into the gymnasium of the spiritual life and work out in the word, work out in prayer. And if you're not breaking out as it were into a spiritual sweat, you're not trying hard enough.

Train yourself in order to be godly. I've heard people say, well, you know, I don't read the Bible because it's hard to understand. Or I don't pray like I ought to because that's just never come easy to me. Or I don't memorize scripture because that just takes forever. They have misunderstood that successful godly Christian living requires spiritual sweat.

One man by the name of J. Sidlow Baxter pastored in the early 1900s. At one point, while he was in the ministry, he took stock of his own life and knew he didn't pray. He struggled with that. And he had the thought that came to his mind, well, maybe he just wasn't that sort of man. And that so convicted him because he knew the truth of scripture that he began to develop in his own heart and life this training in prayer. God would use him significantly in many lives. But he developed sort of this parable that he would share with people about how to train yourself in godliness as it relates to prayer.

Let me read you this. He writes, as he sort of realized, let me back up a little bit more by saying, as he looked at his life, he knew there was a part of him that wanted to pray, and that was his intellect and his will. And there was a part of him that didn't want to pray, and that was his emotion.

So here's what he developed. He says, as never before my will and I stood face to face. And I asked my will the straight question. Will, are you ready for an hour of prayer?

Will answered, here I am, and I'm quite ready if you are. So Will and I linked arms and turned to go for a time of prayer. At once, all the emotions began pulling the other way and protesting.

We are not coming. I saw Will stagger just a bit. So I asked, can you stick it out?

And he replied, yes, if you can. So Will went and we got down to prayer, dragging those wriggling, rambunctious emotions with us. It was a struggle all the way through. At one point, when Will and I were in the middle of earnest intercession, I suddenly found one of those traitorous emotions had snared my imagination and had run off to the golf course.

And it was all I could do to drag that wicked rascal back. A bit later, I found another of the emotions had sneaked away with some off-guarded thoughts. The end of my time, if you had asked me, did you have a good time in prayer? I would have had to have replied, no, it has been a wearying wrestle with contrary emotions and a truant imagination from beginning to end.

That battle continued for some time. If you asked me, have you had a good time in your daily praying, I would have confessed. No, at times it has seemed as though the heavens were brass and God too distant to hear and the Lord Jesus strangely aloof and prayer accomplishing nothing.

Yet something was happening. For one thing, Will and I were slowly teaching emotion that we were completely independent of them. Also, one morning, just when Will and I were going for another time of prayer, I overheard one of the emotions whisper to the other one, come on, you guys, it's no use wasting any more time resisting.

They're going to go just the same. And that morning, for the first time, even though the emotions were still at times suddenly uncooperative, they were at least quiet. Some time later, what do you think happened? Well, during one of our prayer times, when Will and I were no more thinking of emotions than that of the man on the moon, one of the most vigorous of the emotions unexpectedly sprang up and shouted hallelujah, at which all the other emotions said amen. And for the first time, my whole being, intellect, will, and emotions was united in one coordinated prayer operation.

Isn't that good? It's good because you find yourself here as well, don't you? He is speaking our language, training, labor, work, effort. Ladies and gentlemen, a godly life is not a coincidence. A godly man's affection for godly living compels him to persevere in lifelong devotion, to wrestle with emotion, to bring it under the subjection of the will driven by the word, to intensely battle the flesh, to struggle against the philosophy of the world system, to pursue purity in and through every fabric of his being, until body and soul and spirit, mind and elect and emotion are at some times in life wonderfully united in devotion to this true and living Christ and his church. In other words, a holy man doesn't just happen. Would you kneel and struggle and beg God to make you a holy man?

If you would, then you can be prepared at times during that battle to say things to friends and others, uncommon words like, I am totally devoted to God with my whole heart. The second thing we observe about Paul in verse 9 is his godly praying. Piety leads to prayer. Godly living leads to godly praying and involves simultaneously godly praying. And I say godly praying purposefully here because it's possible to pray in an ungodly way.

It's possible to be on your knees and be absolutely totally selfish. It's possible to be on your knees and in rebellion to the Spirit of God. In fact, James 4 tells us about people who prayed in an ungodly way. He said those believers were asking God for things, they were asking God for things that they might selfishly spend on their own lusts. He writes, you ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

But notice how Paul prayed, last part of verse 9. For God is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of myself. And do I ever have problems? Just recently I learned there was a plot to kill me, and there was. I already have had enough trouble with the law.

In fact, I still have bruises from my last beating. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't get on my knees and ask God to help me. And I want all of you in Rome to begin praying for me.

And we'd think, well, that's normal, but I misread it, didn't I? God is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you. Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers, for this reason I get on my knees before the Father. Oh, Paul, why do you get on your knees before the Father? That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit and the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know about you, but most of the time when I get on my knees, I pray that God will do this for me.

Paul goes to his knees and prays that God will do this for somebody else. He wrote to the Philippians, for God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and in all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

That first phrase, I know I'm reading it quickly, I long for you all with the affection of Christ and I pray for you. In other words, the affection of a godly man for Jesus Christ produces in him a compelling longing, a desire to engage in godly selfless prayer, not for his little life and his little job and his little car and his little house, but for the world. He sees somebody other than himself. The affections of a godly man are revealed in that he doesn't just live for himself. He doesn't just think about himself. He doesn't just spend money on himself. He doesn't just talk about himself. He doesn't just pray for himself. He doesn't just serve himself. You say, well that's not me.

I don't do that. May I be bold enough to add the words and his family. A godly man who has affections for Christ doesn't just live for himself and his family. He doesn't just think about himself and his family. He doesn't just talk about himself and his family. He doesn't just spend money on himself and his family. He doesn't just pray for himself and his family. He doesn't just serve himself and his family. The height of self-centeredness could be that kind of man. James wrote that the purest and most unpolluted form of religion was doing something for people that aren't even related to you, orphans and widows.

People who in effect cannot repay you. So giving and praying for and caring for somebody outside your natural inclination, your familial sphere of natural prayer and concern is at times the best gauge of your true godliness. Has it occurred to you here that Paul in Romans 1 is concerned for and longing for and affectionate for and consistently praying for people he's never met? How unceasingly, verse 9, I make mention of you always in my prayers making requests.

What is Paul requesting? If perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. We've discovered his piety and his praying and now his godly planning.

I love his transparency here. This is a wonderful way to pray. If perhaps now at last by the will of God, that is godly praying and that is godly planning and that is godly piety. I couldn't help but think here as I study this, the prayer the Lord taught his disciples to model after, not necessarily to repeat but to model after. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words we're not asking that our will be done up there, we're asking that his will be done down here. And any true praying has the thought and the context of thy will be done.

Anything else is selfishness and pride. Paul says I have been longing and praying. I want so badly to come to Rome but I'm only gonna come if it's the will of God.

My friend can I ask you this? What is it about your life that demands divine direction before you take the next step? To put it another way what is it in your life that you're doing that God's pleasure would have you not do?

What is it that you should add to your life that would please God if you did? This is praying in the will of God. Paul's life was ordered by the will of God and his plans were bathed in prayer. His life in effect was ruled with submission to his sovereign Lord if perhaps now at last by the will of God.

You get the idea that Paul longed to do this but he waited in prayer until God would show the way. Martin Luther, the church reformer and spiritual mentor of many in the early 1500s often had students at his table during meals and on one occasion as they were eating Luther had a little puppy and the puppy was sitting right next to his seat looking up at him watching his every move as he ate. You know how dogs do that? Pleading, their eyes not blinking, their mouths open, tongues hanging out. Luther mentioned to the people sitting around his table he commented this he said oh if I could only pray the way this dog is watching me. All his thoughts are concentrated on this piece of food. He has no other thought. He has no other wish.

He has no other hope. What a wonderful analogy of the godly man who waits upon his true and living God. We see Paul as that man who kneels and prays and waits. You know if we longed for something, if we went to God for something good and godly, if we prayed we'd wait for a week or maybe two and then assume we were to do it. But he is longing and praying and waiting. He's resting his head on his pillow and he's praying and he's longing and he's waiting and he's waiting. He's walking through life and he's longing and he's praying and he's waiting.

If perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. What a wonderful mentor and model of piety of praying and planning Paul was. I want to close by reading a few pages of this book that has been very fascinating to me of men who have been mentored by their fathers and helped along spiritually. This is written by a man that I'm sure you're familiar with.

He is Senator John Ashcroft, a man who I believe displayed great character in withdrawing from the race a few weeks ago. A committed believer, listen as he writes, the picture of my father that I am about to share with you was taken in the autumn of his life, late autumn. The changing colors of autumn's leaves just before they fall are a highlight of the season. Much like a mighty tree, my dad's true colors were the most vivid at the end of his life. It was one experience I'll never forget. The night before I was sworn into the Senate in 1995, my father gathered a small group of close friends and family for dinner. Seeing a piano in the corner of the room, my father said, John, why don't you play the piano and we'll sing.

Okay, dad, you name it, I'll play it. Let's sing We Are Standing on Holy Ground. It was one of his favorites. After the song, I eased away from the piano keys and thinking out loud, I said, you know, we're standing here having a good time, but I really wish we were in a dedication service. My lifelong friend, Dick Falth, spoke up. Well, we can do something about that, John. So at his suggestion, we gathered the next morning at a house not far from the Capitol, a home maintained by a group of friends for the express purpose of bringing members of Congress together for spiritual enrichment.

We began by chatting informally, then sang a hymn or two. At the time, I didn't know just how weak my father was. He had been losing weight through the months of November and December and had told an acquaintance of his, I am hanging on by a thread, but I'm going to see John sworn into the Senate. As we talked, the earnestness of my father's voice suddenly commanded everyone's attention. John, dad said, please listen carefully. My children and I fixed our eyes on him. My brother moved to the edge of his seat.

Dick Falth and the other friends leaned in. The spirit of Washington is arrogance, my dad said, and the spirit of Christ is humility. Put on the spirit of Christ.

Nothing of lasting value has ever been accomplished in arrogance. Suddenly the room went quiet. There was no chit chat, no lighthearted banter, no whispering. It was a profound moment. After a while, I asked for prayer and I knelt in front of the sofa where my father was seated. Everyone gathered around me to place a hand on my head or shoulder. Everyone was standing when I noticed my father lunging and swinging his arms as he tried to lift himself out of that overstuffed sofa.

With a damaged heart operating at less than one-third capacity, he was expending every bit of energy he had and wasn't making much progress. I felt terrible. Knowing he didn't have the strength, I said, dad, you don't have to struggle to stand and pray over me with these friends. John, my father answered, I'm not struggling to stand. I'm struggling to kneel. Some statements are so profound they take a while to sink in.

Others hit you with the force of an explosion. Those words took me back to early mornings as a child when I joined him on my knees and prayed that we would do noble things. Now he was taking me there again.

On the night after my swearing in ceremony as a senator, my wife and I were awakened by my friend Dick Foth who told me of my father's death. And he told me this, yesterday your father pulled me aside and said, Dick, I want you to assure me that when John gets to his assigned offices, you will have prayer with him inviting the presence of God into those rooms. I looked at your father and said, we'll do just that. And as a matter of fact, we'll call you up in Springfield and put you on the speakerphone and you can join us for the prayer. Your father grabbed me by the arm and said, no, you don't understand.

I won't be in Springfield. He seemed to know what was coming, John. My dad had little energy left those last days of his life and he chose to spend a passing on to me his deepest faith. His heart had made one final and valiant effort and then he was gone.

Goodbye, dad. Thanks for the lessons and thanks for struggling to kneel. I am still struggling to learn. That was Stephen Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's message is called Struggling to Kneel. If you'd like to learn more about this and explore our other resources, I encourage you to visit our website at wisdomonline.org. There you can access Stephen's entire Bible teaching library. That includes every broadcast and hundreds of sermons from over four decades of teaching. One of the key features of our site is the daily broadcast. We post each day's lesson right on the homepage. So if you ever miss a broadcast, you can easily catch up.

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