Praying for Cesar
A few weeks ago I ate Mexican food with Doug, a friend of mine, in Selmer, TN. Selmer is a small town in middle TN. Perhaps fifteen years ago, that might have been an impossibility–eating authentic Mexican food in a small town in middle TN–unless you count Taco Bell as authentic Mexican food. But these days Selmer boasts three family owned Mexican food restaurants.
Doug introduced me to Paula, whose family ran this restaurant. They moved to Selmer from Mexico. Paula introduced us to her daughter, Jessica, an eighth grader, who helped around the restaurant. She introduced us to her son, Cesar, a senior. Cesar played football for the local high school. My friend Doug had taught both Jessica and Cesar in school. Cesar had recently been coming to the church Doug works part time for. A fellow teenager at school, a member of that church’s youth group, had reached out to Cesar and invited Cesar to start coming to church with him.
“Oh,” Paula his mother said to Doug and to me, “when Cesar was young, I used to worry about him. For years I prayed and prayed for God to take care of him and raise people who will help him know God. And God answered that prayer when that teenager invited him to your church,” she said to Doug.
Paula went on to take our order. She left our table to take care of other customers. But I was struck by what she had just said. For years she had been praying for her son’s spiritual state. For years she had been praying for God to provide other people to help her lead her son spiritually. And when this teenager from Doug’s church invited Cesar to church, she saw that as an answer to those prayers.
Paula shared Jesus with Cesar by praying for Cesar. And God answered that prayer. Paula shared Jesus with her son by praying for her son.
Go901
This morning we launch a three part series called Go901. We want to take three Sundays to focus on reaching our friends, family, neighbors, coworkers and classmates. In this series we’re not focused on reaching those in foreign countries or those in poor urban pockets. That’s the focus of our biannual Outreach Contribution. In this series we want to focus on how to reach the people in our homes, our neighborhoods, our classrooms, and the cubicles next to ours.
Paul’s Prayer in Romans
And let’s start with Paul’s prayers. It turns out that Paul had a lot in common with Paula. Both believed that we share Jesus by praying prayers. Let’s look at three places in Paul’s letters where Paul links these two.
First, let’s return to the book we were most recently in, the book of Romans: [PP text]
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1 ESV)
This is in the most difficult section of Romans, a section where Paul is talking about the eternal fate of the Jewish people–the “them” of this text. The Jews may never come to faith in Jesus yet they feature prominently in the promises of God in the Old Testament. Eric walked us through this section a few Sundays ago. There’s much that’s hard to understand here.
One thing is clear however: Paul prayed for God to save the Jews. He may have done other things in addition to this. But his focus here is on this simple thing: he prayed to God that they may be saved.
Let me ask you this question: Who are you praying this prayer for? My heart’s desire and prayer to God is that _____________ may be saved? [PP Who are you praying this prayer for? “My heart’s desire and prayer to God is that _________________ may be saved.”] Is there someone or some people whose name you can fill in that blank? Because for Paul that’s where evangelism started. He prayed to God that specific people might be saved. “God, save the Jews,” Paul would pray. Who are you praying that prayer for?
If Highland wants to see more people coming to faith, more people baptized, it begins here in prayer. If families want to see moms and dads, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces come to faith, standing in our baptistry, it begin here in prayer. My heart’s desire and prayer to God is that ________ may be saved. We start by simply praying for God to save specific people.
Paul’s Prayer in Colossians
Let’s look at a second text where Paul links sharing Jesus and praying prayers. It’s found in Colossians: [PP text and ref.]
3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:3-4 ESV)
Paul is in prison. He is behind closed doors. So he prays that God will open a “door for the word”–the message about Jesus. The New Testament frequently uses this image of opening a door to describe how God creates opportunities for sharing the gospel and for the way God helps that gospel to be received warmly: [PP texts and ref. With underlining]
- And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. (Acts 14:27 ESV)
- for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. (1 Cor. 16:9 ESV)
- When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord (2 Cor. 2:12 ESV)
Back in Colossians Paul is asking the church to pray for this very thing. He is asking them to pray for God to open this door of opportunity in Paul’s jail. Asking God to grant Paul the opportunity to share the gospel.
In addition, Paul asks them to pray “that I may make it clear.” Literally, he writes, “that I may reveal it.” In this context this seems to simply mean “to share, to declare.” That is, once God has answered the first prayer, an opened door, an opportunity, Paul wants them to pray that he, Paul, will go through that door, that he will take advantage of that opportunity, that he will actually speak up and share Jesus.
Sharing Jesus begins when we pray this prayer for God to grant us opportunities and the courage to take advantage of them.
Paul’s Prayer in Ephesians
Finally, listen to a third text where Paul links sharing Jesus and praying prayers: [PP text and ref.]
18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Eph. 6:18-20 ESV)
Paul asks for prayers for two things. First, he asks for prayers that “words may be given to me.” This is an intensely practical prayer request. He prays that God will provide the words to say. How many times have you wanted to share Jesus with someone but when the time came you just didn’t know what to say? That’s what this prayer is all about! “God, give me words to say!”
Second, Paul asks for prayers for the ability, the courage, to speak with boldness. He uses that word “bold” twice here. He asks them twice to pray for his boldness. This word means to speak openly, frankly, and confidently. It means to tell the truth. It has nothing to do with being insensitive or trampling over the feelings of others. But it means that once you know what needs to be said, you have the courage to say it.
Sharing Jesus begins by praying these prayers.
Sharing Jesus on Your Knees
What Paul does, then, is give us four critical things we can be praying before we ever make any direct contact with any person who may need a spiritual conversation about Jesus. This is where outreach starts. This is where evangelism begins. Before we talk to anyone about God, we must first talk to God about them, and about us. And Paul models four critical ways to do this. Based on the texts we’ve looked at, here are four kinds of prayers we should be praying regularly: : [PP figure below]
- Open! – God, open doors for me and for the message of Jesus today. Create opportunities. Bring people to me. Bring me to people. Create those “chance” encounters. Create those times when spiritual topics just seem to come up.
- Inspire! – God, once those opportunities come, inspire me! Give me the words to say. Help me to take advantage of those opportunities. Help know what to say to the people you’ve arranged for me to talk to.
- Incite! – God, don’t just give me words to say, give me the courage to say them. Incite me to speak with boldness and confidence. Help me not to give in to my fears. Grant me the ability to speak with truthfulness.
- Save! – God, above all, save the people around me and let me be a part of the way you are doing that.
Imagine what could happen if every one of us at Highland starting praying these four simple prayers every day! Imagine if we began our day or ended our day with these four biblical prayers. Imagine if instead of worrying who we could talk to about Jesus, or being anxious about what we would say to people about Jesus, if all we did was start praying these four simple prayers.
If we learn anything from the Bible and from history, one thing that we can expect to happen is revival. When God’s people pray like this, revival happens.
Praying Today
During what is called the First Great Awakening, prayer played a crucial role. In 1734, in Northampton, Mass., revival broke out under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards published a call to prayer encouraging Christians across the country to pray for revival. A spiritual awakening spread across New England.[1]
In the mid 1800’s the “Laymen’s Prayer Revival” swept through the country. Jeremiah Lanphier had been hired to conduct outreach in New York City. Not knowing how to proceed, Lanphier publicized a noon prayer meeting in the Fulton Street Church. Only six showed up. Still, Lanphier persisted. In the following weeks, the prayer meeting grew. By year’s end, they filled three rooms in the church. Similar meetings were organized throughout New York City and the surrounding area. By 1858, 6,000 were attending noon prayer meetings in New York City. By 1859, 50,000 people had professed new faith in Jesus through the prayer meetings.[2]
Thom Rainer has been to Highland twice and is a leading researcher of churches today. In the early 1990’s, Rainer studied 576 churches. Each of these churches was baptizing 1 lost person for each 20 members each year. These were the most evangelistic churches Rainer could find. Rainer asked them to identify which methods were most responsible for the evangelistic success of the church. They were given over 20 methods to choose from. Three methods rose to the top in every case. The second most mentioned method was this: prayer. 70% of these churches listed prayer as a major factor in their evangelistic success.[3]
In his book The Prayer-Driven Church Ray Fulenwider recounts several stories of the role of prayer in evangelism. He tells of the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, TX. It was a healthy but plateaued church of about 1,200 members. They began a 24 hour prayer ministry in which lost people were prayed for and ministries to the lost were lifted up to God. The church grew from 1,200 to over 3,000 (31-33).
Imagine what God might do at Highland if we followed Paul’s simple example. If we got down on our knees and started praying these four words for our friends, family, neighbors, coworkers and classmates. [PP slide]
- Open
- Inspire
- Incite
- Save
No new programming. No new marketing. What if all we did was share Jesus by praying prayers? I think we’d see God work the way he always works when his people pray. So, let’s pray:
[1] (The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever Elmer Towns & Douglas Porter (Servant Publications, 2000), 55-72).
[2] (Ibid., 117-138)
[3] (Effective Evangelistic Churches Thom Rainer (Broadman & Holman, 1996), 4-7, 11-16, 67).
