Urgent Prayer for Gospel Fruit
1 Timothy 2:1-6
Jeremy Bell
January 5, 2025
Sermon Recap PDF
- A good question to ask ourselves for personal evaluation at the beginning of the year: “Am I using my time to pursue the Lord?
I. Prayer is a Matter of Urgency
- This is how we don’t make a shipwreck of our faith (1:20).
- It is difficult to maintain urgency in prayer.
- Prayer puts feet to our faith. It expresses our dependence on God.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abide in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me…for apart from Me you can do nothing.” — John 15:4-5
- Prayer is our access to the power of God.
“Only when the church yields itself to this holy work of intercession can it expect the power of Christ to be manifested on its behalf.” — Andrew Murray, Teach Me to Pray
- Prayer is an outward expression of our love for other people.
II. Pray for All Types of People
- God can change the hearts of those in high positions (Prov 21:1).
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord, He turns it wherever He will.” — Proverbs 21:1
- We are to pray for “all people.” This includes people in our own lives. We do well to pray for one another.
- Reminder: pray for the lost, for our “One Life” in 2025.
III. Pray for the Fruitful Spread of the Gospel
- God’s heart is that all people would be saved.
“Election is never introduced [in scripture] in order to contradict the universal offer of the gospel or to provide us with an excuse for opting out of world evangelization. If some are excluded, it is because they exclude themselves by rejecting the gospel offer. As for God, He wants all men to be saved.” — John Stott
- We are to proclaim the gospel (vs.5).
Application:
1. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings
- Consider taking the next step.
- A resolution to pray more is really good.
- Consider making a prayer journal. Consider making church prayer meetings a priority (Sunday morning prayer, men’s prayer, women’s prayer).
2. Intentionally plan time in your schedule to pray
Questions for Discussion/Application:
- Consider taking time to read 1 Timothy 2:1-6 to read out loud. What initial insights or observations of the text do you have?
- Under his first point, Jeremy talked about how it is difficult to remain urgent in prayer (verse 1). What do you think it means to heed this exhortation and remain urgent in prayer? Why do you think we struggle to maintain urgency in prayer? What steps can we take to maintain urgency in prayer?
- Andrew Murray wrote, “Only when the church yields itself to this holy work of intercession can it expect the power of Christ to be manifested on its behalf.” How do you want to grow personally in yielding yourself more fully to this “holy work of intercession” in praying for the mission of our church?
- God calls us to pray for “kings and all who are in high positions.” This strongly implies God wants to answer our prayers for government leaders and those in positions of authority. How can this truth encourage us in our prayer lives?
- “Prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings” are to “be made for all people.” In what ways can we grow in being more faithful to pray for one another in 2025? In what ways can we grow in being more faithful to pray for the lost in 2025? Reminder: Please be thinking about praying through through who your “One Life” will be in 2025.
- How can we strike the balance of aiming to grow in prayer without also pursuing growth in a legalistic manner?
- We’ve talked a lot about prayer this evening. What is one way you want to grow in the area of prayer in 2025?
- Consider taking time to pray, asking God to help us individually, as a Care Group and as a church to grow in this area of prayer.