The Agony of Prayer

Romans 15, and perhaps even for
the last time in Romans 15. As we continue to course our
way through this great, great epistle, we have found Paul’s
closing remarks. Essentially, Paul is wrapping
up his thoughts to the Roman church and specifically Paul
has turned his attention to. His relationship with the Church
of Rome, he’s talking about how things are between them. We saw
that in verses 14 through 16, he took on a very gracious opening
as he discussed the blessings and provided encouragement to
the Roman Church that opened up into a discussion of boasting
in God for all the ways that God had used him. The realm of
his boasting was Christ Jesus himself. There was no other cause.
There is no other just cause for boasting. He was boasting
and things pertaining to things pertaining to God and and then
unfolds all of those particulars in the remaining verses 17 through
19. That opens up into a discussion
of The preaching of the gospel and what a glorious opportunity
it was, it was a great calling, the call to preach the gospel.
It was a great plan, his plan ultimately to get to Rome that
was in his heart’s desire. And it was a great project that
was basically prohibiting him from doing that immediately.
It was a project of taking a gracious offering to the church there
in Jerusalem. Paul would get to Rome. It was
very different. It looked very different than
what he had originally proposed. But Paul perhaps even knew that.
Paul perhaps knew that regardless of what our plans are, what we
intend to do, that God is sovereign. Paul knew that there’s nothing
like prayer and submitting our plans to prayer. Asking the Lord
to bless asking the Lord to guide even in those things. And so
it’s only fitting than in this great section where Paul had
talked about his relationship with the Roman Church in the
context of gospel ministry that Paul closes with prayer. If God’s people would consider
verses 30 through 33. Where Paul writes, Now I urge
you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the
Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God for
me. That I may be delivered from
those who are disobedient in Judea and that my service for
Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints so that I may come
to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest
in your company. Now, the God of peace be with
you all. Amen. I don’t try to come up with cutesy
sermon titles that, you know, are just designed to provoke
your interest. I gave up on that long ago, posting billboard sermon
titles. But perhaps it piqued your interest
this morning when you saw the agony of prayer Perhaps you think
that by that I mean. That prayer is such a difficulty
that. For most believers, we have to
agonize just to enter into it. That’s not what I meant at all.
By that title. Perhaps by the agony of prayer.
Some people find it such a drudgery that even to do it at all is
agonizing. That’s not what I had in mind,
perhaps It’s so difficult for some to even stay awake that
perhaps I meant that we agonize just in trying to fight. That’s
not what I meant either. What I meant by the agony of
prayer is what Paul. Points out here in this particular
passage. That we are to agonize in our
prayer, we are to enter into prayer so faithfully and so deeply,
so intensely. that it is seen almost as a wrestling
match, as a physical engagement. That’s what it is to agonize
in prayer. God wants us to pray, not casually,
not occasionally. God wants us to pray vigorously. Paul basically points out here,
not an admonition so much as a common course of action for
him. Paul was engaged vigorously in interacting with the Lord
in prayer. And Paul admonishes the Romans
to join him in that. Not just casual prayer, not just
occasional prayer, but deep and active prayer, a prayer that
keeps the needs of others constantly before them, a prayer that goes
before God and asks great things. Real prayer. Legitimate prayer. Agonizing prayer. Vigorous prayer. What Paul presents here in this
little section is what I would suggest is spurs to vigorous
prayer. I went on a horse ride a couple
of weeks ago. That’s enough for me. And it was interesting that
while my brother provided my daughter’s spurs, he didn’t provide
me any. And that’s probably a good thing.
You see, my mentality of horse riding is that you’ve got to
really utilize those things and dig into the side of the creature
to get him to do anything that you want. And that’s not the
case at all, I learned. That all you do is Basically,
touch the horse with those spurs and that’s enough to generate
the desired movement. So when I say that Paul presents
to us spurs to vigorous prayer. A life of intercession on behalf
of other people. God isn’t goading us with a sharp
device like spurs. poking us in the side to get
us to move. These are prompters. These are
motives, motivations, if you will, to enter into deep and
agonizing intercession. There’s a reason for it. There’s
cause for it. There’s a need for it. A lot of times what I’ll do when
I come to a passage, I’ll just ask myself, and it’s one of the
beneficial questions that I pose as I’m studying God’s Word, why
would God put this passage in the Bible? I think that it will
be abundantly evident to the saints of God. As we wrap up
this section this morning. I think it will be abundantly
evident why God included these four little verses. Spurs to a vigorous prayer life. First of all, This agonizing
intercession that Paul calls us to is affirmed by the Savior. Come to that as we enter into
that first verse that we’ll look at this morning, verse 30, but
if you know my habit, my habit is to figure out the simple sentence
and the simple sentence here in this opening three verses
is very clear. Now, I urge you, brethren. to
strive together with me for your prayers to God for me. It’s a passionate plea. Paul
is needy. He doesn’t even know how great
his needs are, but he knows they’re significant. And so he goes to
the Roman church, who he’s never even met face to face. But he
knows that they are in Christ and he knows that they care for
him. They long to see him. They know that he has promised
to come and visit. There is a relationship there.
But Paul knows that he has legitimate needs and he goes before some
of the only people that he can. To plead with them. To beg them
to pray for him. I urge you, brethren, to strive
together with me in your prayers to God for me. Boy, I don’t think
you could even be a pastor if you can’t make that plea. If you don’t appreciate those
who come to you and almost under their breath, let you know that
they prayed for you in the week or that they do so on a regular
basis. There isn’t anything better that
you can do for your pastors for your elders, there’s nothing
better that you can do than to pray for them. And Paul knew
that Paul knew that his greatest need was not money. It wasn’t
a place to stay. It wasn’t a partnership. It wasn’t
some political maneuvering. The greatest thing that anybody
could do for Paul. For any pastor is to pray. One pastor characterized this
opening plea when he said the urgent appeal reveals, as by
a lightning flash, the tension of mind in which Paul was living
at the time. You think of Paul as this stoic,
got everything together, mastering the globe as he disseminates
the gospel, you know, touching base with people here and there
and directing So many men in so many different ministries
writing letters. You think that Paul has it all
completely together. The last person in the world
that would ever need prayer. Paul. Paul was almost vexed with
some of these concerns. Concerns for churches, concerned
about individuals, Pastor goes on to say the supreme
importance of this mission was only rivaled by its extreme dangers. Now, we talked about this mission
last week. The Jewish church was there in
Jerusalem, they were the first to come to Christ, and as they
did, they sent. Those out with the gospel. They
were a little reluctant, not unlike Jonah. But no sooner did
these apostles begin to preach the gospel, he the nations began
to repent and come to Christ. Now the Jewish church didn’t
know what to do with them because they didn’t comply with all of
the Jewish laws they thought were appropriate. Well. Paul Paul wants to show them
that God’s grace is active, it’s it’s at work in the Gentile world
that not only are people coming to Christ, But God is touching
them and growing them, and God’s Spirit is active in their life.
And Paul purposes to bring a monetary gift to the Jerusalem church
because of the famine that existed and the great poverty that had
struck that church. He wanted them to see a work
of grace. But there was one thing that
stood in the way, and that was the Jews who had not come to
Christ. He knew that they were Essentially
lying in wait, they couldn’t wait to put their hands on him
and if possible, even kill him. He goes on and says the hostility
of the Judaizers and still more of the unbelieving Jews naturally
culminated at the moment when the success of his work was on
the point of being secured. What he says is the whole thing
is building to a crescendo. Paul has gone and garnered this
great gift from all the churches where the gospel has been received. Their hearts have been touched.
They know of a need. They have begun to respond according
to their ability. Churches in Corinth and Macedonia
and Philippi and Ephesus. And now Paul is bringing this
gift, and as he brings it, he knows that the fires are turned
hotter than ever. against him. And it’s in that
context that Paul pleads, urges his brothers and sisters in Christ
to pray on his behalf. And he says, I want you to agonize
with me. That’s a little word, strive
together. It’s one word in the Greek. Paul
says, now I urge you, brethren, to strive together with me in
your prayers to God for me. Those last four words hardly
even need to be said, don’t they? When Paul says, you know, that
he wants them to pray and knowing the situation, you can almost
take it axiomatic that Paul’s asking them to pray for him.
And obviously, the prayers are going to go up to God. But Paul
drives the point home. And he says, I want you to agonize
Not just for me, with me. I think the thing that’s most
noteworthy about this little section, this simple sentence,
is that Paul says, first and foremost, look, I am exemplary
in this. My prayer life is agonizing.
I agonize in prayer over this situation. I wrestle, as it were,
with God. I get on my knees and I plead
with God for the very things that we purpose to do. Praying
that God would bless them. How are you doing? Would you
describe your prayer life on any point? As. A prayer life that is agonizing
before the Lord. The word literally means a strenuous
effort that will not allow any delay. It’s it’s compulsive. You know that you’ve got to pray
and that you’ve got to pray passionately. One described it as an intense
energy of prayer, wrestling, as it were, a prayer of the strongest
exertion. Paul uses this word frequently
when he wrote to the Colossians. Describing his work in the gospel,
he said, for this purpose, I labor striving, there’s our word, Striving
according to his power, I agonize over the promotion of the gospel. Later on in that same epistle,
Colossians 2 verse 1, I want you to know how great a struggle,
how great the agony is I have on your behalf. Later on in that same epistle
in chapter 4, Paul speaks of Epaphras. who is one of your
member, a member of the Colossian Church, a bond slave of Christ,
he sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in
his prayers. That you may stand perfect and
fully assured. Of the will of God, he labors
on, would you describe your prayer life in that regard? Sometimes
we enter into a flavor of that or a degree of that, if there’s
something that we really, really want or some sickness that has
gripped us or some trial that’s come into our lives, sometimes
we can begin to approach labor. I wonder, though, how many of us
would describe our prayer life on any front as agonizing. And I want you to be clear, there’s
no mention of a of any particular opponent here. He’s not saying
that we go and wrestle with the devil. That’s kind of the charismatic
approach, as if we enter into the spiritual realm and do battle
with demons and the devil himself. That’s not what he’s talking
about here. I think more than anything, he’s talking about
wrestling with our flesh and blood, our willingness. Our commitment. Our stick to it is our perseverance
in the midst of prayer. We pray about once and leave
it at that. One pastor said there’s a very
real struggle going on between the forces of good and evil.
The most significant part of that struggle is prayer. The
devil doesn’t want us to pray. The devil will throw everything
at us, including fatigue, including disinterest, including apathy.
But it More often is a matter of the heart, isn’t it? More
often is a matter of our own commitment to prayer. Paul. Goes before this little
church and he says, I urge you, I’ll beg you if I have to, brethren. Strive together with me, agonize
together with me. And your prayers to God for me.
What Paul does is just remind them of his own opinion of prayer. The importance of prayer. And when you think of who’s making
this request, the Apostle Paul, the guy who’s got it all together,
the guy who’s in charge of almost everything. All the privileges
that Paul had received. All of the gifts that God had
bestowed upon him, all the grace that seemed to just flow from
him so effortlessly. This is the one who is pleading
to them for prayer. It’s an honor, isn’t it when
some needy brother that you can tell just as soon as you look
at him, you know, is is just down and discouraged and it’s
an honor for us to come and come alongside such a brother and
To pray for you wouldn’t have noticed that from Paul. Tremendous
confidence. Tremendously used by God. But he was successful because
of prayer. He was successful because he had other people praying
for him and he knew it. One pastor said that if such
a man inspired of God endowed to work miracles strong in the
faith, Gifted with mental faculties of the highest order, if he felt
the need for the prayers of his brethren, how much more deeply
may we feel the need of striving together? I think that’s Paul’s
point. I think that’s Paul in all of the things that he had
accomplished, all of the graces that he knew, what he was trying
to do, as well as All of his other tasks is cultivate the
mindset of striving in prayer. And when you see the tone, just
almost the atmosphere that Paul cultivates with this request.
You think that man, Paul must be up against something big.
He is. It’s huge. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
20. Paul’s painting the picture to
them. And he paints it so graphically to the elders from Ephesus that.
You begin to to really put these things together of what God is
doing in Paul’s life and why Paul would plead with them, not
just to pray a casual prayer on his behalf, but to get down
on their knees and sustained prayer for him and to agonize
before God. Acts chapter 20, look at verse
17, from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called in the elders of the
church. When they came to him, they said, you yourselves know
from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with
you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with
tears, with trials, which came upon me through the plots of
the Jews. Not just one plot, not just one
little bump in the road, but literally death threats. Plans
to kill Paul. Look at verse 20, how I did not
shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable,
teaching you publicly from house to house, solemnly testifying
both to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. What a faithful man and that’s
not what Paul Paul wasn’t trying to garner from them any kudos
or accolades. He’s just telling them his testimony
that in the midst of even this harsh. Consideration by his countrymen,
he was faithful. And he would continue by God’s
grace to be faithful, look at verse 22 and now behold, bound
by the spirit, this isn’t an optional project for him. This
isn’t an excursion that he has the option of whether to attend.
Behold, Bound by the spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem,
not knowing what will happen to me there. It’s the same exact
project that he’s talking about. When he mentions it in this prayer
in Romans. Except, he says in verse 23,
that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city,
saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me. There would be others
that would come with these messages. Oh, Paul, don’t go to Jerusalem. But Paul has it on not just good
authority, he has it on God’s authority himself. The Holy Spirit
had already let him in on this plan. That when you go, you’re
going to experience great difficulty, bonds and afflictions. That made
almost no difference to Paul. But I do not consider my life
of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course
in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify
solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. Paul bids them
farewell, as we saw several weeks ago, literally, you know, people
falling on him and tears and pleading with him. Paul knew
Paul knew what lie ahead. And that’s why he goes before
the Saints, and he pleads with the Roman Christians to pray
for him. Turn, if you would, to Acts 21,
just on the next page. Look at verse 10. Here’s this message from Agabus.
We were staying there for some days. A prophet named Agabus
came down from Judea and coming to us. He took Paul’s belt and
bound his own feet and hands and said, this is what the Holy
Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem
will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the
hands of the Gentiles. Now, for you and I, we hear that.
OK, I’m done. I’m not going there. Paul, when he had heard this,
we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up
to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What are
you doing? Weeping and breaking my heart, I for I am ready now
not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord Jesus. This project is that important,
Paul. It absolutely is. This is what
God, Paul proposes, is going to meld the hearts of the Jewish
believers and the Gentile believers For the cause of the gospel.
For centuries to come. Since he would not be persuaded,
we fell silent, remarking the will of the Lord be done. And
so to think of prayer as this. Kind of humdrum exercise that
we do get up, we got to do our prayers and we go through it,
we go through it with almost no passion at all. You think
of what? Brett’s going through, if you
followed what he’s written, you think of what the Saints there
in. Some of those cities have experienced
horrific sites. Terrible things that they’ve
experienced, and we we would pause on our knee in a prayer
under our breath. With almost no passion at all,
some of Paul’s asking for. It’s not a formal thing. It’s
a passionate prayer before God. And Paul would frequently appeal
to the saints for these kinds of prayers, but this one is different.
For this one, he he pleads for passion in our prayer. Paul would appeal to the Corinthians,
2nd Corinthians 1.8 for the prayers. He wanted them to stand with
him in his. Task of taking the gospel, he
asked for the Ephesians to pray for him with all prayer petition,
pray on my behalf that utterance may be given me in the opening
of my mouth, that’s. That’s a great prayer request.
But it doesn’t compare to this one to the Romans, to the Colossians,
he wrote. Devote yourselves to prayer.
Keeping alert in it with an attitude of Thanksgiving, that’s almost
what you would hear at a retreat in an opening discussion on what
prayer life is for a young believer. Pray for us as well, he says. Put us on your prayer list. To
the Thessalonians, he wrote, Brethren, pray for us. That’s
all. No details. When he wrote back to the Thessalonians,
he reminded them, finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of
the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified. That’s a that’s
one of those recurring prayers that you can put on your list.
But this prayer request is different. I urge you, brethren. By our
Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive
together with me. In your prayers to God for me. Paul pleaded with them to open
their hearts. And as I suggested to you a few
moments ago. What he’s calling us to is an
agonizing prayer, but he gives us four motivations. Four motivations
to this agonizing prayer, first of all, spurs, if you will, to
vigorous prayer. The first one is that agonizing
intercession is affirmed by our Savior. Look at the passage. Paul says, now I urge you, brethren,
by our Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? I urge you
by our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s it’s almost as if he evokes Christ
to come into their presence, he reminds them that Christ is
listening to this appeal, but he comes with Christ’s authority. He says, look, Jesus himself
would endorse this. Jesus would have you to be passionate
in your prayer on my behalf. Jesus would have you to wrestle,
as it were, in prayer on these issues. As one pastor said, to do everything
for the sake of Christ implies that the thing is agreeable to
Christ. Christ would have you to do this. To pray for each other in the
midst of difficulties. Christ would have us to pray
for Slavic gospel, Christ would have us to pray for Brett. And for these men. For the cause
of the gospel. But it would have us not only
to pray, he would have us to labor and wrestle and strive
in prayer. There’s a second motivation. spurs to vigorous prayer includes
not only the fact that this agonizing intercession is affirmed by our
Savior, it’s encouraged by the love of the Spirit. Well, that’s
pretty vague to our ears because it could mean This phrase that
he uses by the love of the spirit that could mean the love that
the spirit has for Christ people. In other words, if you’ve been
touched by the love of the spirit, then agonize in prayer. That’s OK. That’s an all right
approach, certainly possible grammatically to take that. But
it’s also entirely possible to look at this verse and to realize
what he’s talking about. It’s the love that the Spirit
produces in our hearts for one another. It’s the same thing
that is testified to in Galatians, the fruit of the Spirit, one
of the very things that the Spirit does in us, you see, in our natural
condition, in our natural state. Paul described our condition,
didn’t he, in the opening of the book of Romans. Hateful,
hating one another. It’s the Spirit of God that puts
love in our hearts. It’s the Spirit of God that prompts
us to love as we cannot in our natural condition. It’s brotherly
love. It’s the love for the saints
that’s stirred and awakened by the Holy Spirit that It’s the
love of God shed abroad in our hearts. I love the way one pastor described
it, and when you talk about brotherly love, all we think of, we tend
to think that all you got to do is go to church and don’t
rock the boat and and don’t cause any strife and and that’s loving. Well, in a sense, that’s a good
start. He said, not only or not primarily
kind feelings or generous impulses. That’s not the totality of love.
Not certainly sentimentality, which breathes itself out in
sighs and raptures. It’s not warm fuzzies. Not merely
the fond attachment which clings as the rose to the trellis. In
other words, he says, you know, fellowship is good, but that’s
not the be all end all of love. He says, but above all things,
what is this love service, self-denial, self-giving? In other words,
what Paul is telling the Roman church is, look, if you have
been touched by the Holy Spirit, if the Spirit is coursing through
your life. Then. You have to do this thing. This will be a natural thing
for you to take up this prayer project, this will be The natural
outflow of the love of God placed in your life is going to love
me and love these saints. By agonizing in prayer for us. There’s a third motivation. Agonizing
intercession is not only affirmed by our Savior, encouraged by
the love of the spirit, but thirdly, And this is where Paul begins
to get into the specifics of his prayer. What are you praying
for, Paul? What do you want us to pray for? We love bullet pointed
prayer requests, especially in missionary letters, right? You’re
just able to dive right in and take out exactly what they need. How do we pray? That’s what Paul wants to do.
The third motivation is this intercession and get this. This
is amazing, especially given our context. Agonizing intercession
is effective to thwart the actions of evil men. What? You mean we’ve been given some
kind of power, not us, but as we go before God and we plead
with him, we plead with him to exercise his power and there
isn’t anything that God can’t accomplish. Look at verse 31. I urge you, brethren, by our
Lord Jesus Christ, by the love of the Spirit, to strive together
with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered
from those who are disobedient in Judea. You mean that’s possible? That’s possible. You mean God
can step in and thwart the plans of evil men? Absolutely he can. You mean it’s OK to pray those
kinds of prayers? Absolutely it is. Paul knew that this hostility
was fierce. Paul knew that it was there.
Paul knew that it was coming. The Holy Spirit had already told
him. And by means of Agabus as well. Trouble’s coming, Paul. But Paul also knew that God could
work. God could protect him, just like
he did Daniel in the lion’s den. And what he wanted the protection
from was these disobedient in Judea. And by disobedient, it
just talks about people that are just absolutely stubborn,
stubborn minded, obstinate. They will not be persuaded by
the gospel. They hated Paul. They had rejected
Christ. And for Paul, Paul is coming
to them as one who has already suffered great, great things. Imprisonments and beatings and
stonings. Paul knew how great the hatred
was of these unbelieving Jews on his behalf. Paul knew that
they could, if they were allowed to run freely, they could have
a great negative influence on the gospel. Paul knew that. They wanted his life. They accused
him before the Roman authorities. They threw him in prison. As
one pastor characterized it, his enemies repeatedly endeavored
to destroy him in a riot of the people, a party of them bound
themselves under a curse to assassinate him before two Roman governors.
They endeavored to procure his condemnation. And at last, in
order to free himself from the hazards with their malignant
violence exposed to him, he found it necessary. To his cause, to appeal to Rome.
Paul knew what was coming, and Paul also knew that God could
thwart their plans. Paul had constantly dealt with
these Jews. They seemed to chase him from
place to place, constantly dogging his steps, moving him onward from city to
city to city. Paul knew that they were in God’s
hands. Paul knew that God misses nothing. God controls all. Paul knew this, the danger of
this visit, and and he appeals for the sake of the gospel. That we would agonize in prayer
on his behalf. And that the spirit would have
his way, but there’s a fourth motivation. There’s a fourth
motivation to agonizing prayer. Not only is this prayer affirmed
by the Savior encouraged by the love of the Spirit effective
to thwart the actions of evil men. But fourthly, it is useful
for softening the hearts of Christians. What? First of all, why would we even
need to soften the hearts of Christians? We’ll get to that
in a second. But it is possible. I know one of the things I constantly
pray for when there’s whenever there’s difficulty or strife
or somebody arguing two people or you get into a counseling
thing, one of the first things I pray for is that. God go in
front of me, go before me and already begin to do your work,
it isn’t my words that are going to fix things, it’s not, you
know, my attitude is not any Bible verse that I’m going to
throw at them. It’s God. It’s God who’s going to take
that verse and apply it to their life. But it’s a softening that
the Lord accomplishes. Look, if you would, again at
the passage. I urge you by the Lord Jesus
Christ, by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in
your prayers to God for me. First, that I may be delivered
from those who are disobedient in Judea and that my service
for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the same. You see, we develop this attitude
that simply in doing our deed that that’s going to be enough.
And we forget that people can be cynical, that a lot of times
there’s context. People can be suspicious of our
behavior, our actions. We can misstep in the way that
we present those things. We can actually do more damage
in the good that we’re trying to do. Maybe they’re just grandstanding,
we wonder. Maybe they’re just Doing what
they do to be seen by men were inherently critical, aren’t we?
And so were these Jews in Jerusalem. Paul was fully aware that these
Jews in Jerusalem, they were more than suspicious of Paul,
and they didn’t really like the fact that the gospel had gone
and flourished in the heathen world. Well, there in Jerusalem,
it remained this Just the most recent sect of
Judaism that had broken out. Wasn’t well received. The gospel
in Jerusalem. And so the apostles fear was
not only for the unbelieving Jews, but his fear was for the
believing Jews, the Christians in Jerusalem. To have their hearts
softened to what God was doing among the Gentile world. We certainly we certainly know
that God could stop Russian tanks if he wanted. But God can also
soften the hearts of the people that could very easily be. In
the process of being hardened there in Ukraine, hardened to
the gospel, where is God? What use is this Christianity? Paul is dealing with this tendency
of These Gentiles being averse, the Jews being averse to the
Gentiles, to any good that they might do. Paul knows that God
can fix that. Paul knows that God can keep
them from thinking of this gift, this love offering as a bribe. Paul knew that God could soften their hearts
even towards him. You know what? This man is legit.
This man is taking the gospel. This man is truly of God. And
then Paul wraps it up by giving the purpose, the ultimate cause,
he says that I may come to you ultimately in joy by the will
of God. I pray that God works this whole
thing out So that one day I can come and finally visit the Roman
church, and I love this, and find refreshing rest in your
company. That’s what fellowship is, isn’t
it? Where you can drop your guard. You don’t have to be pretentious.
You just can be together in the Lord and enjoy each other’s fellowship
in the Lord. There’s nothing like that, is
there? You’ve got to put up your guard with the world. You better
have. Your wits about you as you deal
with the world, they’re watching for every possible misstep. But
a brother in Christ with whom you walk, he thinks the best
of you, prays for you, encourages you. Loves you. Paul closes this
section with this beautiful little doxology. Now may the God of
peace be with you all. Amen. What a what an incredible
way. To begin to draw to close this
letter that is essentially all about God’s reconciling peace
about God doing the work of peace, peacemaking in the life of a
believer, rescuing them from a state of sin and by the blood
already shed on their behalf. Justifying them before a holy
God, Let’s go before our God in prayer. Our merciful King. We humble
ourselves before you. And Lord, first, we would confess
that in great degree, our prayer life cannot possibly be described
as agonizing. Agonizing on others behalf, So,
Father, we pray that you would even use this passage by your
spirit to stir our hearts into what we ought to be. To what
we ought to do and how we ought to function at the throne of
grace, not casually and coldly and indifferently. But to come
before you with specific. Requests in mind. We know that
our Lord Jesus would have it. We know that it is a mark of
the Spirit at work in our lives. Father, we pray, we plead with
You on behalf of these believers in Ukraine that You would thwart
the plans of evil, the plans of sinful men to come
and take away freedoms. We pray Instead, that the gospel
would flourish. That you would not allow these
Ukrainian Christians to have their own hearts embittered.
That all the more, even towards a Russian soldier aiming a weapon, that these would be targets not
of bullets, but of the gospel. That you would use some of these
very people so oppressed to proclaim Christ to those who so desperately
need it. Lord, we pray that this would
blow up in Russia’s face, not by way of a bomb, but by way
of the Gospel. We pray that some of these same
soldiers would go back into Russia armed with nothing more than
the Gospel, perhaps the Word of God, The gospel would once
again begin to flourish in that land as well. Lord God, we plead with you.
To continue to use your servants there for your glory. We pray
that on this end you might stir our hearts. That we might become
those who agonize in prayer on their behalf. We pray all of
these things in Jesus name. Amen.