220911 praying for the persecuted
Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians • Sermon • Submitted
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Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessaloniki
Sunday September 11, 2022
The Model Prayer for the Persecuted
When John the Baptist’s disciples came to him with the complaint that more people were coming to Jesus and were being Baptized by the disciples of Jesus, John explained…
John 3:30–31 (NASB95) — 30 “He must increase, but I must decrease. 31 “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
When everything else is stripped from our lives, our property, our freedoms, and our dignity as human beings living in the world. When we are freed from ourselves and who we are, then maybe we can then see the highest aspiration in our lives is that…
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Among the smoke and confusion in the battle, amidst of the heart aches, pain and suffering, disasters and persecutions, is the highest goal for our lives which is to glorify the King. There is no greater cause. There is nothing greater than our waking up each morning and going about our day to hold up the name of the Lord.
It comes with maturing in the faith. It comes from proper orientation to the person of the spirit who we walk by means of, who mentors us, teaching us all things, recalling to mind things we forgotten. The filling of the Spirit along with the word of God sanctifying our hearts and minds.
James 5:16 (NASB95) — 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous can accomplish much.
Paul ends the thought in His second letter to the Thessalonians in this first Chapter with the encouragement word that He, the man of God, is on the sidelines out of their presence, talking to God on their behalf, that they are deemed worthy of the battle and the victory that lies ahead.
Opening Hymn, The deep deep love of Jesus
Prayer
2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 (NASB95) — 11 To this and end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:11 (NASB95) — 11 To this end also we pray for you always
proseuchomai
33.178; προσεύχομαι; to speak to or to make requests of God—‘to pray, to speak to God, to ask God for, prayer.’[1]
We usually seek God’s intervention in regard to one’s suffering, praying for relief from the suffering. How often do we pray that one might suffer well and to the Glory of God?
Yes, pray for health. Yes, we pray in regard to life’s challenges.
But what if God’s purpose and plan is for that which is upon a brother or sister is for a higher cause in fulling one’s call. What if one’s call is to face financial ruin, breakdown of health, a loss of property and even the treat of death.
If that is what one has been called by God to go through, and to God’s Glory that he must go through it, then the prayers in regard to immediate relief will not be so immediately answered, if at all.
We must consider that the suffering that the one is encountering is for divine purpose and to ultimately to God’s Glory, especially the faithful who are worthy to be tried and tested.
There is a strategy to prayer and when we pray in agreement with God’s plan for the suffering, it is then that we are partnering with our bothers in sisters in the fight along with Jesus who is in Heaven making intercessory prayer.
There are the faithful warriors in Christ who are charging the gun positions, leading the charge. Those that are lifting up the banner of our Lord rallying and inspiring others to take up the cause and to charge.
It is those that Satan levels his fire at. It is those who taking on the fiery darts of the evil one. They are being called off the bench into the game to bring glory to God.
While we ourselves are not yet called to the battle as it is that Paul Silvanus and Timothy are not presently in Thessaloniki, feeling the same heat of battle (at least not in that geographical area), they are in prayer for those who are on those lines.
IN Paul’s letter to Colossae, we find an outline to how we pray for those in persecution.
Colossians 1:9–12 (NASB95) — 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
Paul’s prayer for the church is Colossae may be the model prayer that we can use when praying for those who are in the heat of battle being tested for their faith because they have been deemed worthy.
1. That God would give wisdom in the time of battle
that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
In the heat of battle, it is the emotions leading to irrational thinking that seek to dominate over a sound mind.
It was paul who advised Timothy that God did not give us a lifestyle of fear but of a sound mind.
It is that sound mind that recalls God’s word to the battleline with proper discernment to make the right decisions under pressure
2. Keeping the Course
10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
Peripateo
41.11 περιπατέωb; to live or behave in a customary manner, with possible focus upon continuity of action—‘to live, to behave, to go about doing.’[2]
In such a matter one does not react to outward circumstances that seek to knock one off balance and off course, but one responds to God’s word inculcated within the heart of the believer.
Satan’s aim is to draw you out beyond the boundaries of a relationship with the Lord which is our Yahweh Nessi.
Job’s wife asks Job
Are your still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!
That is exactly what the evil one is wanting the believer to do is to curse God.
He wants us to Have thoughts and make decisions contrary to correct responses to God’s commands. Going into the fray of battle we must keep to the protocol of battle, keeping our armor on and never lowering our banner.
3. God focus with the strategic goal in mind,
, to please Him in all
WE are praying that in every circumstance, every though,t decision and action will be acceptable to God.
Job says that “though he slay me, I will continue to trust in him.”
What is our strategic Goal?
To do God’s will to God’s divine pleasure.
What is the antithesis?
To function outside of God’s will to Satan’s evil pleasure.
4. That There will be a positive result in order that our suffering will have impact.
bearing fruit in every good work
Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was wrongly accused, served the Lord well in an Egyptian Jail as he ministered to others adhering to the work assigned to him by the Lord.
The holding the banner high and taking the bullets is our task. It is the lord who brings the results. The impact of our lives even our death will have lasting results that may extend to those in generations to come. There is divine production that has lasting impact inspiring others to lift up the banner and charge the hill.
5. Prayer for greater knowledge of God.
increasing in the knowledge of God;
IN favorable conditions it may be easy for one to receive God’s word and grow in it. It is much more difficult in the time of suffering. Praying for strength and a sound mind to receive God’s word for growth in the spiritual life is vital.
A brethren may be hurting physically. I pray that he or she will have the strength and the concentration to study. One may be in prison. I’m praying that there is the availability of discipleship, to hear the word of God, in isolation that the spirit will speak to his heart.
6. Strengthening of the faith
Colossians 1:11 (NASB95) — 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might,
I often considered the torture that I might lie ahead in my life. And I shudder. Just as Peter did that caused him to deny Christ three times. Peter was operating on his own strength when he told the Lord that he would never fall away. His own strength proved that it wasn’t enough.
But Peter learned and in the end he dies a heroes death, bold and courageous.
Our self-reliance and self-determination will not be enough to see us through. There is always a limit to where the energy of the flesh will take us. Therefore, we pray for God’s strength to see us and our loved one’s through.
Even our Lord prior to his arrest was being strengthened for the trial ahead by the ministering angels. (Luke 22:43)
7. ὑπομονή endurance
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capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances—‘endurance, being able to endure.
It is the ability to take one grueling step after another until the objective is reached. Every step the body and carnal mind is saying quit and all of this will be over, but that spiritual endurance allows one to refuse those voices that says to retreat.
8. Patience
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a state of emotional calm in the face of provocation or misfortune and without complaint or irritation—‘patience.[3]
It is a state of waiting on the Lord through adversity.
Galatians 6:9 (NASB95) — 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Isaiah 40:31 (NASB95) — 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
And what do we wait for? A relief and escape from our circumstances?
We wait for the Lord to accomplish his will through us. If our goal is simply to escape, other doors might be open to us that is not in God’s plan at all. But we wait upon the Lord.
Psalm 62:5–7 (NASB95) — 5 My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. 6 He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken. 7 On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
9. Not grudgingly
Joyously giving thanks to the father who has qualified us
As it was that Jesus suffered in the light of the future result of that suffering.
Hebrews 12:2–3 (NASB95) — 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
James 1:2–3 (NASB95) — 2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
The Crown does not come without being qualified for it. While Salvation is a free gift from God it is the proving of the faith which comes to the believer which qualifies for him rulership functions in eternity.
The one who at the end of his life in relative ease, having all the good things that life can give may die with smile on his face but when it comes to the eternal inheritance the crowns and rulership functions may find himself with nothing.
Why?
Because he never sought the priorities of the spiritual life in order to mature in the faith to the point where God would reward him with the opportunity to have his faith proved.
1 Peter 1:7 (NASB95) — 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Shall we all along with Paul who himself had been through the gauntlet of suffering for the faith say…
2 Timothy 4:7–8 (NASB95) — 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
We might be on the bench. WE are faithful in training and showing up for practice, even working out on our own, but still on the bench. But what do we do when we are on the bench? We are praying for those on the field. If we are faithful, it will one day be our turn and we are going to need the prayers of others who are on the side.
Remember, through it all it is to God’s Glory
Yahweh Nissi
Closing Hymn Victory in Jesus
Closing prayer
[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 408). United Bible Societies.
[2]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 504). United Bible Societies.
[3]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 306). United Bible Societies.