Intercessory Prayers of Others as Hope for Attaining Our Desires
Philemon 1:22
(No children's questions in this sermon mss)
Please turn to Philemon. We will be in verse 22 this morning as we wrap up the Philemon teaching series. As you are turning there, I want us to consider, once again, the body of Christ. We know that God makes us into a part of the body in a miracle action by grace through faith. We know that this existence is part of our regeneration. It is what happens when we are conceived again by the Spirit, in the Spirit, with the indwelling Spirit giving us life. As the body, all of us are made for a reason--for Christ. We are also made for each other. In a unique sense, God has designed us in such a way that we need each other; yes, I said, "we need each other." If we ignore most of the New Testament, then we would not think that we need each other; but God says that we do need each other. It is true that God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you." God was comforting Paul in Paul's apostolic suffering. It is also true that in God's grace He created the body of Christ to be sufficient for us as well. It is also true that God made the body through His sufficient grace, as a manifestation of His sufficient grace. The point is that God wants His body to exist and to operate in the fulness if its bodiness and part of that means that the members of the body need each other. A survey of the epistles demonstrate to us that the body is needed for encouraging one another in the Lord. It is needed for the sharing of financial gifts for the ministry. It is needed to express the relationship of love, grace, truth, and interaction that God has with each of the members. In other words, it is needed to express Christ in people, out of people, as their hope of glory. This morning I want us to think about this, because God has gifted each member of the body to fulfill a design, function, and a purpose. The design, function and the purpose I am talking about is to build up one another in our short stay on this planet. I want us to think about this in respect to willingly giving ourselves over to being used by other people in the body. It also has to do with taking the step of using others in the body. The use I am talking about is the good kind of use. It is the kind of use that God wants out of us. Keep this in mind, as we read our verse together. Paul says,
"22 At the same time also prepare me a lodging, because I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you." Philemon 1:22
Please prepare your heart to learn, along with me, from the preaching of God's word. The theme this morning is,
Intercessory Prayers of Others as Hope for Attaining Our Desires
[prayer]
If we were to be thinking according to the flesh, rather than according to the Spirit, we might think it is somehow wrong, oppressive, unfair, or even selfish, to use the body. Of course, it would be wrong, oppressive, unfair, and even selfish to use the body in an ungodly manner; but, it is not wrong, oppressive, unfair, and even selfish for you to use the body when you do so according to how God shows us that He wants us to do so from His word. In fact, it is wisdom, obedience, faith, and a manifestation of the Holy Spirit to do so. The same goes for your fellow members of the body using you too. This morning, I am wanting us to glean some important principles from our text in respect to being used by, and also in using, the body. It has to do, in a sense, with spiritually grabbing people, or I should say, making an appeal to deputize people; or to use softer terms: It has to do with strongly appealing to the other members of the body for the purpose of partnering with you in intercessory prayer for you. It has to do with making your own self available to be grabbed by others to intercede for them in prayer.
/1/
The first principle that I think is important for us to glean from what Paul is showing here about grabbing people for intercessory prayer in being used by the body, and in using the body, is that we absolutely must recognize how immensely huge our God is. His hugeness is important when it comes to answering the prayers of all His people. God demonstrates a level of hugeness that goes beyond what some Christians give God credit for. The reality is that God shows how powerful He is in His sovereignty and foreordination of all things by having everything exist in such a way that He will answer the prayers of the body in concurrence with the specific intercession. Paul says,
"... through your prayers I will be given to you." Philemon 1:22
It is amazing to consider that the God of the universe has ordained everything to be the way it exists and will exist. It does not matter if we understand the depths of how it all works. The fact of the matter is that God is totally sovereign in the determination of the created order. We notice throughout Philemon that Paul shows insight into God's sovereignty in a very profound way. We first get the glimpse when Paul thanked God specifically for the love and faithfulness that Philemon has toward the Lord, and His people,
"4 I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faithfulness which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the set apart ones" Philemon 1:4
Paul thanked God. Why? Because Paul knew that it was God who elected, and saved, Philemon completely as a sovereign miracle work according to God's own good pleasure. This work of God produced the love and faithfulness of Philemon. Then Paul shows respect for God's comprehensive sovereignty and determination,
"15 Because suddenly [Gk. taca], he [Onesimus] was for this reason, separated from you for a moment, that you would have him back forever," Philemon 1:15
Paul recognized that even though lost Onesimus ran away, and his exit was an action of breaking the law of the land, God is completely sovereign in His orchestration of those events of life. So, Paul considered that the "reason" that God did this to be something that God, in election, ordained specifically for the salvation of Onesimus. We get a glimpse here of how amazingly expansive our God truly is. When we consider this, we can think of something the Christian apologist of the Scholastic Period of history said. His name was Anslem, (sometimes known as Anselm of Canterbury). In his famous presentation called the Proslogion (An argument for God's existence that contained an a-priori definition of God), Anselm described God this way:
"That than of which no greater can be conceived."--Anslem
What Anselm meant in his definition of God is that:
God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived, and He exists both in the understanding that such a being exists, and in reality.
The main point that I want to bring out is that Anslem starts with the definition that expresses the hugeness of God. He is the great being of which nothing greater can be conceived. In fact, He is the great being of which nothing greater is. Of course, we have God's revelation to help us understand presuppositionally, to the point that we can understand by the Spirit, that God is great; but we only understand what this means to the point that we can refer to His revelation to help us. Why? Because God is just way to great to fully comprehend in all the infinite details of what that actually means. Contemplating the hugeness and comprehensiveness of the sovereignty of God in His determination is just as amazing. It is just as amazing to think these things about God in respect to another area. Think about how amazing it is that God created everything to work in such a way as to have a relationship with His people in which He answers the prayers of each of His people. When it comes to God's sovereign determination of all things, and the fact that God answers our prayers in the flow of events of time in respect to us actually praying the prayer, this demonstrates more of how huge God is in His creative genius. God's hugeness is a fact that you need to embrace very quickly in your relationship with the Lord. One of the primary reasons is that God wants you to know that, in His hugeness, He has designed this prayer relationship with you as a privilege to be practiced, fully expecting that He not only hears you, but actually will answer your prayers according to the way you ask. I did not say that God always answers you with the exact answer you want. I said what the Bible indicates. God will answer our prayers. This means that you absolutely must not consider certain requests to be too small for God to be interested in answering according to your desires. It also means that you must not consider certain requests to be too big, or complex, for God to be interested in answering them according to your desires. This leads to the second principle.
/2/
The second principle has to do with recognizing that it is good to have desires that are godly. You start with the godly desire, even though you don't know what God's will is concerning the desire; and at the same time, you recognize that it is good to pray to God to attain the desire as a miraculous provision from Him. Paul says,
"I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you." Philemon 1:22
Let me restate this second principle again:
It is where you have a godly desire. In other words you know it is not a sinful desire, and you have discerned this to be the case to the best of your ability by checking it with God's word. But, you do not know what God's will is concerning the provision of the desire. With all of this in mind, you must recognize that it is good to pray to God to attain the desire as a miraculous provision. This is the principle.
Paul has a desire. To the best of Paul's ability, Paul thinks it is a godly desire. Paul wants to get out of prison. At the same time, Paul knows that God can use, and is using, Paul's imprisonment for His glory. Paul knows that God, in His hugeness, has providential reasons going on, according to His sovereign hand, for Paul to be in prison. You should think that same way about your own situation. You know that God has a providential reason going on, according to His sovereign hand, for whatever it is you are going through. Nevertheless, we see the principle. Notice that Paul still prays for release. Paul does this even while being blessed to have been given special insights concerning what God is doing, even in the midst of imprisonment. This insight is why Paul wrote to the Philippian church while in prison,
"12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances [in prison] have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brothers, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear." Philippians 1:12-14
Paul recognized God's sovereign hand in his imprisonment. He was thankful for the progress of the gospel that God brought about in it all. We would think that Paul would be content, right? But then notice what Paul says next,
"19 I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, ..." Philippians 1:19-20
The deliverance that Paul is thinking about is the fact that he will be set free from the imprisonment. Paul understood that the greater progress of the gospel is good. Paul also understood deliverance to be good. He understood that it is godly to go on and minister on the outside; yet at the same time Paul was realizing that he was being used, by our sovereign Lord, on the inside. With this in mind, Paul recognized the principle of the theme of this sermon: Intercessory prayers of others as hope for attaining our desires. In the case of the Philippians, Paul knew that the Philippian Christians were praying for his deliverance. But Paul also knew the answer by divine revelation,
"19 I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, ..." Philippians 1:19-20
He even restates his assurance in 2:24,
"24 and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly." Philippians 2:24
True to Paul's prophetic insight into what the future held, Paul was eventually set free before being arrested and imprisoned again a final time (See footnote 1 at bottom). The point is that Paul had a godly desire to be delivered out of the imprisonment. The Philippians were part of the godly desire in interceding for Paul in making requests for Paul. They willingly allowed themselves to be grabbed for prayer. In fact, they personally set aside the time to be used by the Spirit to spend in this prayer that was so necessary. The reason why this principle is so important is because the Father cares about your desires. He has put His Holy Spirit in you. Because of this, God sees you as the special child that you are. This means that you are never a bother to God. None of us are bothering God when we pray. What are we being? You are being obedient, wise, and fruitful when you pray. We are saved as temples of the Holy Spirit; so because of this, we pray in the Spirit. Your heavenly Father cares for your desires. Sometimes it may appear as if God already has the matter settled. It looks like He isn't going to do anything else about it. Even though it may seem like God has already done what He is going to do, the principle is that God is really interested in what you want to do. So, unless God has specifically told you that He is not going to answer your prayer with your godly, non-sinful, (seemingly wise) desire, then you would be presuming upon God to think that He is not beforehand. God does not want you doing that. Instead, we should be praying; but we should go one step further and grab others to pray about it too. This goes for all areas of prayer, like for example in business situations. Certainly God has given us brains, and bodies. He expects us to operate in this world according to the creation that exists for doing so. This means that he has made us to work to get things done. He wants us to work honestly, work hard, and work wisely. But God also miraculously intervenes, when He so desires, according to your prayer. Never think that God has no interest in the pockets of life that we call commerce, or business, or our jobs. Of course He has interest in those things. Those areas of need, desire, and goals, are no different than all other pockets of life His sovereign hand has us abiding in. We are there to glorify God, and at the same time, we are there to work to provide. In answering our prayers, God is glorified, and God provides. Maybe you have prayed for a business deal to go a certain way, and then it does. Or for a particular job, and there was provision. But now you wish that things would go another way. God does not want you to think that since you already prayed before, and you seemingly got one answer, that you can not pray again for something else. We can pray again, fully expecting that God sees all our godly prayers as a legitimate prayers, and we can pray as many prayers as we desire, fully expecting that God will answer accordingly. It is for every pocket of life. It is for family life. It is for school, for travel, for relationships, for government--for everything. It is for ministry. Paul the apostle prayed for wide doors to be opened for ministry. When Paul was imprisoned, Paul found that the advancement of the gospel was ordained by God to occur there in jail. But what did Paul decide to do? Paul prayed that he would be released. Praying for healing is this way too. According to the Scriptural record, miraculous healing is not something that God always does as an answer to us. Yet, God does heal, and He heals in respect to our prayers. To the best of our ability, we can determine that it is a godly desire to pray for healing. So we should ask God, recognizing that it is good. There are exceptions, but the word of God explains what they are. John tells us
"16 If anyone sees his brother committing sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death." 1 John 5:16-17
In the context, John is saying that God does not "hear" (1 John 5:14-15) certain kinds of prayers, especially those that have to do with God healing someone who "must" die (Note: death row for sinning, getting injured in a sin, etc. . Nobody today knows with surety what John means concerning what must lead the "brother" to death. See chapter in Pastor Kinchen's book, Biblically Defending Salvation, on this passage). But because God is concerned with our desires, He will give life to those kinds of people who do not commit sin that must lead to death. John is not saying that God gives life to everyone prayed for. John is describing the cases that God will bless with this kind of an answer. It is a prayer according to a godly desire. We see the same kind of thing with Paul's thorn in the flesh. There is an exception there. After praying three times for God to remove it, God revealed to Paul that He wasn't going to grant that desire. God's answer, instead, was that His grace was sufficient for Paul. But since we do not always know what God's desire is on the matter, we should intercede for one another, and pray for Christians to get healed. The point is that you have all kinds of godly desires. Think about it. They occur, perhaps hundreds--even thousands of times per day; and though you don't know what God's will is concerning the desire, be recognizing that it is good to pray to God to attain the desire as a miraculous provision from Him.
/3/
This leads to the third principle: God wants us to utilize one another, as members of the body, to intercede for us to attain our desires from Him. This is the theme of this sermon;
"I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you." Philemon 1:22
This is a principle that is demonstrated all throughout the Scriptures. We see it here where Paul trusts that he will be delivered through Philemon's prayers. We saw it where Paul said that he knew his deliverance would occur through the prayers of the Philippians. Paul urged the Thessalonians to pray for him in 1 Thessalonians 5:25. In Romans, Paul is direct about urging body involvement,
"30 Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me," Romans 15:30
And to the Corinthians, Paul grabs them by telling them what they "must" do,
"11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many." 2 Corinthians 1:11
All of us have our goals and ambitions in life, and because they are our personal goals, we can easily be tempted to keep them to ourselves. But, the Spirit has demonstrated to us, though His word, that He wants us to share our goals and ambitions with the body specifically so that they will intercede for us. A lot of reasons can be given for why we don't do this; or at least why we do not do this more often; but the main ones are
a) pride
b) failure to see the principle
c) not recognizing the proper function of the body
Pride is the big one. What happens is that someone may have a desire, but they are so self-conscious that they don't want others to know what the desire is. Maybe they don't want to be seen as needy, or weak. It is wrong to fail to see that all of us in the body are needy, and weak, but this is what they are thinking. Maybe they don't want others to think that they are not doing what they can in life to accomplish their goals. Maybe, they think their desires will be considered silly. It could be that you think some of these things too. If this is the case, then we need to ask ourselves a question,
"Do I want the blessing of answers of provision for my desires that come because of God's principle He has laid out in the Scriptures of intercessory prayer from others?"
If you want it, then you are going to have to die to pride and practice it. You are going to have to grab others to pray for you. Not recognizing the biblical principle will also keep you from doing this. God wants us to see this Scriptural principle of seeking the intercession of others to seek God on our behalf and then die to any excuses that we have for not practicing it; and then what?--do it. Then there is just plain failure to recognize the proper function of the body. Failure to recognize God's design for the body for us to share our goals and ambitions so that they will intercede for us is a huge problem. To get body-life correct (the way God wants you to get it) you must start with embracing the full counsel of God. If you begin down the unbiblical road of trying to be a maverick Christian in the New Covenant, then you are instrumental in bringing the negative consequences upon yourself, though you think you are adequately serving the Lord.
Why do I say this?
Because the body and its relationship to one another has a proper role, function, and purpose, that God has predesigned and defined. Whenever a so-called loner for the Lord, or anyone, thinks they are supposed to go solo for the Spirit, and abides in their aberrant hybrid Christianity, they are diminishing what God thinks is important through the dirty lens of what they think should be important aside from the "full" counsel of God in comprehensive biblical revelation. If you are not involved with the body as the functional family of God that the Lord designed it to be, submitted to pastors, and committed to real people in a real local church group, then you diminish the blessing of intercession for both yourself, but further, for others too. You cut yourself off from the prayer ministry that God has ordained for all the members of the body.
/4/
The fourth principle is that we should not assume that God will give us the prayer desires as if He has promised to, or that He must. But instead, we should,
A) Hope that He will give us the desire,
and in the hope, we should
B) prepare for the hoped for outcome so that we will not be taken by surprise concerning the fact that our prayers may be answered according to our request. Paul says,
"22 ... prepare me a lodging, because I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you."
Unlike false doctrinal theories that try to convince people that they can manipulate reality with positive confessions, or that we can go to God's word and claim all kinds of promises like they are supposed to be the guarantee texts to insure that we get what we want, we should not assume that we will get what we want just because we want it. Faith is not a substance that flows out of us to make things happen. God is not a servant-boy who must obey your request. One reason why I bring this up is because there are many reasons for not getting exactly what you want, and it doesn't have anything to do with whether you had enough faith to make it happen or not. There a lot of folks in the modern corruption of Christianity who have bought into weird prayer method teachings. They start practicing all kinds of prayer formulas, and they try to muster up more faith, or they take a stand on numerous scriptures to assure they will get what they want; and then something happens that doesn't fit into the formula.
What is it?
Their prayers aren't answered the way they want.
They don't get the consistent desires that all the weird teachings claim they should be getting. In the past, they may be able to point to an event in life that seems to bolster the teachings. But, the usual thing that happens is that they don't get what they want. Now, there is nothing wrong with not getting what you want. This is one way that God, in His sovereignty, answers your prayers. God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, but God's riches in glory for our needs, are not there to be supplied to our wants if our wants are not what God thinks we "need." But, when these folks don't get what they want, they immediately start to think that they didn't have enough faith to manipulate things, which, in reality means what?
They didn't have enough faith to manipulate God (which makes sense because God can not be manipulated).
Or, they think that they didn't pray the prayer of some Old Testament figure in the right way, (like the prayer of Jabez) or do the ritual enough times. What happened is that they assumed that God would give them the prayer desire based upon a false doctrinal idea. The proper thing to do, which is what Paul did, and is what you and I need to do, is "hope" that God will supply the godly desire. There is nothing wrong with hope. Hope is not saying that it must happen just because we think we have ordained it to be according to our own words. Hope is the real faith issue in prayer. You have faith that God hears you. You have faith that God answers prayer. You have faith that God will answer you with His answer. Now, in true (Spirit led) hope, we wait for God to answer. In true hope, we look for Him to answer with our desire to be fulfilled. But God wants us to do this knowing that He will answer with the best answer, the wisest answer, and the most loving answer of all. Then in the proper hope, we can prepare for the hoped for outcome.
Why?
So that you will not be taken by surprise concerning the fact that your prayers may be answered according to your request. This is why Paul tells Philemon to prepare a lodging ahead of time. Paul doesn't want Philemon to be taken by surprise if God releases Paul and Paul shows up at his doorstep. In the same way that we should never doubt that God answers prayers, whether it be with a yes, no, maybe, wait, or an alternate provision, we should never be surprised when God answers. I have seen Christians become so amazed that God answers certain prayer requests, that instead of glorifying God in giving thanks for His provision and honor, they go around telling people like they are surprised that anything actually happened. They act as if this was supposed to be something that proved to them that God really does exist. We don't pray to God as a reason for proving that He exists. We pray to Him knowing that He exists and knowing He answers which means that He also answers by giving our desires. God does not want us to go around conveying the attitude:
"Wow, God really answers prayer after all. Can you believe it?"
Paul demonstrates the balance here when he says for Philemon to prepare Paul a lodging, because Paul hopes that through Philemon's prayers Paul will be given to him. Let's all demonstrate the balance too.
Let's review the principles. The first one is that we absolutely must recognize how immensely huge our God is. It is because of God's hugeness that we can trust in intercessory prayers of others as hope for attaining our desires. We must remember the second principle: It is good to have desires that are godly. Knowing this, we proceed as if it is good to pray to God to attain the desire as a miraculous provision from Him. The third principle is just as important. Without it, we won't practice the principle. God wants us to utilize one another, as members of the body, to intercede for us to attain our desires from Him. Finally, let's make it our ambition to abide in the fourth principle. We must not assume that God will give us every prayer desire as if He has promised to do so, or that He must. Instead, what we need to do is hope that He will give us the desire. Then as we are hoping, we do not assume, but we prepare for the hoped for outcome. It is so that we will not be taken by surprise concerning the fact that our prayers may be answered according to our request. This is the last sermon in the Philemon series. I hope it has edified you. I hope that it has motivated you to trust God in prayer by using the rest of the body for intercession.
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Acts ends with Paul still in prison in this first imprisonment. But in God's sovereign deliverance that Paul knew was coming, more fruitful ministry was ordained for Paul to accomplish. This final leg of Paul's ministry continued on where Acts leaves off. We find details of Paul's activity, after being released, in his last epistles of Titus, 1 Timothy, and 2 Timothy. Paul went on to preach in Crete according to Titus 1:5. Paul left Titus in Crete. He left Timothy in Ephesus. Paul wrote 1 Timothy from Macedonia after he was freed. It is also possible that Paul wrote Titus from Macedonia. Ultimately, Paul was arrested a final time. That is when he wrote his last epistle from Rome, which was 2 Timothy. Eusibius, the church historian who lived in the two hundreds and three hundreds, wrote about this in his Ecclesiastical History. Eusibius said,
"Paul is said, after having defended himself, [in respect to Paul's first imprisonment as recorded in Acts] to have set forth again upon the ministry of preaching, [which occurred later after Acts was written by Luke] and to have entered the city [Rome] a second time, and to have ended his life by martyrdom. Whilst then a prisoner, he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, in which he both mentions his first defense, and his impending death." Eusibius, Ecclesiastical History, 2:22 326 AD
