Thanksgiving
was approaching, and a family had received a Thanksgiving card with a painting
of a Pilgrim family on their way to church.
Grandma
showed the card to her small grandchildren and observed, “The Pilgrim children
liked to go to church with their mothers and fathers.”
“Oh
yeah?” her young grandson replied, “So why is their dad carrying that rifle?”
Today
we are celebrating the Canadian Thanksgiving. It is a time when we pause to
celebrate and give thanks to God for everything he has given us, and the best
way to give thanks to God is to pray. Giving thanks is one of three types of
prayer, the other two being supplication and intercessions (which means
speaking to God on behalf of someone else). Regardless of the type of prayer we
use, we must remember that prayer is not just for our sakes or needs.
Supplications
are petitions for certain definite needs. They are humble requests made because
of certain situations which God alone can help. When our supplications are
granted, we need to give thanks. When we take our concerns to God, God speaks
to us through the Holy Spirit.
In
the reading we heard from 1 Timothy 2:1-7, Paul tells us to pray for those in
authority. Here in Canada this is appropriate right now because we are in the
middle of a federal election campaign. Complaining about people in authority is
easy, but God also tells us to pray for them. These prayers should include
requests for the peaceable and wise rule and prayers for their salvation. Such
prayers acknowledge that all authority is ultimately God’s authority and that
God is the ultimate King.
We
are also to pray for salvation for lost souls. This puts us at odds with Paul.
He argues that although God wants everyone to be saved, that does not mean that
God will save everyone. People must either accept the Gospel or reject it. Believers
should still pray for everyone, even those who seen unreachable. If we think
that some people do not deserve the gift of salvation, then we are not as
all-loving as God is. Scripture clearly states that God wants everyone to be
saved and know the truth of salvation. There are no exceptions. No one is
beyond God’s saving love.
Salvation
is available because of the one person who was both man and God and who could
represent humanity and reconcile humanity to God. That person is Jesus. Jesus
served as a mediator between these two otherwise irreconcilable parties. Jesus
is the only way to God.
The
cross is the site of the most important transaction in history. Jesus served as
a ransom to redeem humanity from slavery. The image is that of a slave market,
with human beings as the slaves of sin. The price paid to free them was Jesus’
own death. Jesus substituted his own innocent life for our lives as slaves to
sin and dying the death we all deserve and sparing us from the judgment we
deserve.
False
teachers were probably saying that salvation was restricted to the Jews,
prompting Paul to write that Jesus gave himself for the sake of everyone and
that God appointed him to teach the Gentiles.
Paul’s calling has authority because God gave it to him and because he
was faithful to it. Godly obedience makes a Christian’s testimony believable so
that unbelievers may hear it and receive it.
We
have many gifts from God to be thankful for. These gifts range from the
universal offer of the Gospel and salvation to everyone to God’s love for
everyone to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for everyone to a church that is
for everyone. The last one is hard to believe when you consider that some
churches have allowed the world to control their agendas.
The
passage from 1 Timothy links God’s grace with our concern for the church’s
conduct in a world that lives by non-Christian customs. Churches that appeal to
their own kind are the churches that most often grow in numbers. A church that
reflects a culture of affluence and success is more likely to be successful.
While God can and does bless people with success, we must remember to give
thanks to God for that success. We must use that success to show God’s love to
the world. One way we can do this is to pray.
Paul’s
desire is for us to have compassion for the lost, to understand the depths of
their pain and misery, and to come ultimately to God pleading for their
salvation. Paul wants us to come to God on behalf of people who have no
standing with him. We are to intercede for the lost.
We
must not be “carnal Christians.” We must not live to please and serve ourselves
instead of pleasing and serving Christ. It’s so easy for us to get caught up in
asking God to provide us with what we need or want that we forget to pray for
others. We need to ask God to help us be sensitive to the needs of others, just
like many people in this area are being sensitive to the needs of Syrian
refugees by coming together to arrange to bring some of them to this area. We
must take advantage of every opportunity to approach God and lay our concerns
at his feet.
Things
do not happen in this world because we pray. They happen when we pray. We are
changed as we discover that the deepest desires of our hearts and the world are
changed in some way because of God, the source of light and life, the ground of
our being and the lover of our souls. God is the source of all things. If there
is matter, God created it. If there is meaning and purpose to life, God
determines it. If there is power, God yields it. These are great gifts from God
for us, and we need to keep our sights on God’s kingdom and not on the politics
of the day.
Because
of the gift of Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, we have the power to
choose what is right. Our love for Jesus motivates us to live for Jesus, and if
we live for Jesus, we are to share our faith by praying for people. God loves
doing miracles in the lives of people, especially people who are not believers.
The
act of praying can involve lifting hands to heaven. This act is a picture of
coming before God with clean hands and a pure heart. How can we lift our hands
to God if we are not seeking to relate to everyone we meet-people God loves
without distinction? We can’t lift our hands to God if we don’t speak and work
for the elimination of things that would destroy us. We must raise our hands
without anger or doubt.
One
of the greatest gifts from God, and one that we truly need to be thankful for,
is the leaders in our church. We must pray that God will give them the wisdom
they need to lead us in faith. We must also pray that God will give them the
wisdom to administer church affairs according to his will. This includes
praying for the decisions they have to make-decisions such as the decision to
build a new church in Milton. We must also pray that God will give all of us
the strength we need to overcome the hurt some people have experienced as a
result of this decision.
At
God’s Table, which is one of the greatest gifts God can give us, we learn that
we need to show an attitude of gratitude. We don’t need to wait until
Thanksgiving to give thanks. We need that deep spirit of influence. It keeps us
from having an attitude of selfishness. We need to give thanks for all things
because there is always something to be thankful for. We can give thanks to God
today and every day, and we can be thankful for the one who loved us so much
that he paid the ultimate price for our sins-Jesus.
1.
Jeremiah,
David: The Jeremiah Study Bible, NKJV (Brentwood,
TN: Worth Publishing; 2013)
2.
ESV Study
Bible. Part of Wordsearch 11 Bible software package.
3.
Demarest,
G.W. & Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s
Commentary Series, Vol. 32: 1,2 Thessalonians/1,2 Timothy/Titus (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 1984)
4.
MacArthur,
J.F. Jr.: The MacArthur Study Bible, NASV
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers; 2006)
11. A.K.M. Adam, “Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:1-7.”
Retrieved from http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=717
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