Bible Study - Neighbor (3) - Pray for Your Neighbor - 1 Timothy 2:1-8 - August 7, 2022

 

Bible Study – Neighbor (3) – Pray for Your Neighbor – August 7, 2022

This is lesson three (3) in our series entitled, “How to Love Your Neighbor.”

Our focus scripture in 1 Timothy 2:1-8.

Love your neighbors by taking their needs to GOD in prayers.

The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to friend and young Pastor Timothy. What Paul wrote is applicable to all pastors, church leaders, teachers and Christians.

Who is our neighbor? In the parable JESUS gave us about the good Samaritan, JESUS makes it clear that anyone in need physically, emotionally, spiritually is our neighbor.

When we think of our neighbor usually, we think of next door, or in our neighborhood, visiting them, taking them some food, offering transportation, asking them to go to church with us and the list goes on. But our neighbor is our fellow human. The Apostle Paul was instructing Pastor Timothy about the power of prayer. We can pray for all people regardless of where live, their religious belief or church affiliation.

Praying for others removes barriers and helps those praying to see or understand the perspective of the person or the circumstances he or she is praying. Often prayer opens the eyes of those who pray to empathize with the person or circumstances for which they are praying. 

When we understand the needs of others, it opens the door to how we can use our Spiritual Gifts to minister to that person or situation. All Spirit-born people are gifted to serve using their Spiritual Gift or Gifts.

As we pray and seek how we are to minister to a person in need or their situation, GOD reveals and leads us to pray in a certain way. HE may lead us to fast and pray.

We read in Matthew 17:18-21:

¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

²⁰ So Jesus said to them, “Because of your ^[e]unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. ^21 [f]However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

When we pray, we need to ask GOD what we need to do to prepare to pray for someone or something. In Matthew 17, we learn that prayer and fasting were needed for JESUS’ disciples to deliver the young boy of his demon.

This opens up another level of teaching. When we encounter the spirit world, we need to not only fast and pray but to have other Spirit-born people to come with us and others praying along with us. But that is a subject for another time.

Let’s explore prayer!

Let’s read 1 Timothy 2:1-4:

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ² for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. ³ This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Paul begins with, “first of all,” “I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.

Prayer is a noun. Pray is a verb or the action of praying. Paul lists four (4) actions:

-         Petitions – Petitions are prayers based upon deep spiritual needs for ourselves, others, ruling authorities, etc. Such prayers are based upon deep burdens for ourselves, family members, friends, people we hear about or see in everyday life, governments, people with authority over us and the list goes on.

 

-         Prayers – The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:18:

Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and      stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

 

Christians are to pray as they walk along life’s path. When you pass a school pray for the teachers, principal, students. When you hear a siren pray for those responding to something, police, firemen, ambulance, etc.  When you watch TV, pray as you hear the news e.g., bad weather, joyful things, wars, rumors of wars, sickness, finances, accidents, good stories or bad, etc.

 

-         Intercessions – Intercessory prayer is where those who are Spirit-born intercede in behalf of others. GOD calls those who know the truth to utter the prayers needed to be spoken. It is a high calling to intercede for others – salvation, substance abuse, sick, living in sin, financial situations, marriage issues, death of children, loved ones, etc. Romans 8:26-27: ²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us^[j] with inexpressible groanings. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

 

-         Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving is being thankful to GOD for HIS many blessings. In Ephesians 5:20: ²⁰ giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This relates to Spiritual maturity and trust. GOD is in control and is sovereign. There are so many things we need to thank GOD for e.g., health, friends, family, salvation, comfort, guidance, peace and the list goes on.

 

-         Praise is closely related to thanksgiving. These prayers are to be made for everyone and especially for those who have authority over us e.g., singing, worshiping, acknowledging HIS sovereignty, HIS love, salvation, governments, those in governments, workplace, home, school, church and the list goes on.

Why? So, we, as Spirit-born people can live and function in an environment manifesting JESUS among others who may not know JESUS. May the peace of JESUS flow freely from us to others.

What a joy it is to go into the presence of GOD to praise HIM and utter our prayers. HE is available 24/7. HE listens and takes action according to HIS will and purpose for our lives. However, we need to know there are things that can hinder our prayers such as:

1 Peter 3:7: ⁷ Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Psalm 66:18: If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened.

There are other verses of scripture that tell us what hinders our prayers, such as anger. Scripture reveals for us not to make our offering until we have resolved our anger issues with another person.

What should we do? Before we pray, we need to ask GOD as recorded in Psalm 139:23-24:
²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
²⁴ And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

Since sin can be a barrier ---

1 John 1:8-10:

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

As an example, when Spirit-born people celebrate the LORD’S Supper, that is an excellent time for us to ask GOD to search our hearts for unconfessed sin and to confess any HE reveals. Why? When we celebrate the LORD’S Supper, we are asking JESUS to join us as we celebrate what HE has done for us. HE took away all of our sins in order for us to have eternal life and become GOD’S Child.

I am not saying for us to wait until we celebrate the LORD’S Supper before we ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts. We need to be cognizant of our need for GOD to search us and reveal to us anything that we need to deal with before we can pray effectively for issues in our lives and in the lives of others. What is the solid rock upon which we build our relationship with GOD? ------

Let’s read 1 Timothy 2:5-6: (Foundational)

⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

A person’s relationship with GOD is through one mediator JESUS. JESUS paid the ultimate price to redeem every person who places his or her faith in HIM from eternal death to eternal life. JESUS willingly came to earth from HIS home in Heaven (John 17:4-5) to live a sinless life so HE would be the perfect, acceptable sacrifice to GOD for all sin. HE came to earth at the proper time. What does this mean for all Spirit-born people besides eternal life and being Spiritually born into GOD’S Family?

We read in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21:

²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

²¹ For He (GOD) made Him who knew no sin (JESUS) to be sin for us, that we (Spirit-born people) might become the righteousness of God in Him.

There is NO other way to have an eternal, redemptive relationship with GOD, except by accepting JESUS as one’s Savior. JESUS is the only acceptable perfect sacrifice to remove the sin barrier and we who are Spirit-born know and experience this truth. JESUS is the light of the world and we who have that light are compelled to share it with others.

Let’s read 1 Timothy 2:7-8: (Paul knew the light)

⁷ For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth;^[a] I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Instructions to Men and Women

⁸ Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. 

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that he was appointed an apostle. What made him an apostle? Paul saw JESUS personally on the road to Damascus and was called by JESUS to salvation and later to minister to the Gentiles. Paul also spent three years in the desert of Arabia, not conferring with flesh and blood, as revealed in Galatians 1:13-20:

¹³ For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

¹⁵ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, ¹⁶ to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see ^[c]Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)

Paul knew the Old Testament scriptures thoroughly. Of course, the New Testament was being written. At Paul’s conversion, he was filled by the Holy Spirit. GOD was helping Paul to see the truth as revealed in the scripture and his experience with JESUS on the road to Damascus. A disciple of JESUS, Ananias, was called by GOD to go to Paul. Let’s read Acts 9:17-19: - ¹⁷ And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord ^[d]Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.

¹⁹ So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

Back to our scripture in 1 Timothy 2:8:

Paul urged men and women to lift up Holy hands in love to GOD in an act of love and unity. With the palms of their hands open and lifted to show they are empty handed and are open to receive from GOD that which will equip them to serve. Are we who know the truth ready to share it?

Blessings!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proverbs 6:23-29:

²³ For a command is a lamp, teaching is a light,
and corrective discipline is the way to life.
²⁴ They will protect you from an evil woman,^[e]
from the flattering tongue of a wayward woman.
²⁵ Don’t lust in your heart for her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.
²⁶ For a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,^[f]
but the wife of another man^[g] goes after a precious life.
²⁷ Can a man embrace fire
and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Can a man walk on burning coals
without scorching his feet?
²⁹ So it is with the one who sleeps with
another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.