Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Romans

Romans 15:30-31

INTRO:
 This story is told by R. A. Torry, a personal friend of Moody and his successor at Moody Church in Chicago.

 Dwight L. Moody was a shoe salesman and a teacher of a boy's Bible class in Chicago. He took a vacation to England and wanted  to hear preachers like Charles Spurgeon and George Mueller. But one Sunday he was invited to preach in a Congregational church in the north part of London, although he hadn't planned on preaching while on vacation, he accepted.

 Sunday morning didn't go well. Moody said that he had no power, it seemed like his preaching was like pulling a heavy train uphill. It was so bad he wanted to get out of the evening service but the churches minister would not let him. That evening was quite different. Moody felt an unusual power and when he got to the end of his message he decided to give an invitation. He asked all who wanted to accept Christ to get to their feet and about five hundred people stood up.

 Moody thought there must be some mistake, perhaps they didn't understand him. So he asked them to sit down. Then he said, after this meeting there will be an after-service in the vestry and I invite all who are serious about receiving Christ to come to that meeting. At the end of the service, the people began to stream through the doors to the vestry.

 Who are all these people Moody asked the pastor, are they yours? Some of them are. Are they Christians? Not as far as I know, was the pastors reply. Moody went into the vestry and repeated the invitation in even stronger terms and the people once again expressed their willingness to become Christians. Moody still thought there was some mistake. He said ' I have to go to Ireland  tomorrow, but your pastor will still be here and if you really mean what you have just said, come tomorrow night and meet with him again.

 A few days later, while Moody was in Ireland, he received a telegram from that pastor. A revival has broken out in our church and you must return to help me. There were more people out that next day then there were that Sunday night you preached.
Moody did return and what happened in those few days changed his life forever. This experience is what made Moody decide to become an evangelist.

 A pretty amazing story in and of itself, but there is a story behind that story.

 There were two sisters in that north London church, one of whom was a bed ridden invalid. After the morning service at which Moody preached the healthy sister came home and reported that a Mr. Moody had been there that morning. Mr. Moody of Chicago asked the sick sister? I read about him in the newspaper and have been praying that God would send him to our church. If I had know that it was he who was speaking this morning, I would have had no breakfast and have spent the time praying instead.  Now, leave me alone. Don't let anyone in to see me. I am going to spend the rest of the day and evening fasting and praying. That she did and the revival in north London was the result.'

EXP: Is intercessory prayer effective? YES!

 Is intercessory prayer necessary? YES!

 Is intercessory prayer then something all Believers everywhere ought to be doing? YES!

 The Bible is full of examples of Godly people who stood in the gap, who interceded on the behalf of others to God: Moses, David, Job, the prophets,..and our greatest example..Jesus Himself. Paul too was a great intercessor on behalf of the saints. But, I believe he also wanted the saints to know that he too was dependent on their prayers. That's why he asked believers in Corinth, Ephesus, Philipi, Colossae, Thessolonica and now Rome to pray for him and his ministry for the Lord.

TRANS: God's church is a ministering church, and it is to be active in the ministry of intercession. Turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:30 where we will first see Paul's admonition for the Roman Believers to intercede for him, then we will hear one of Paul's prayer requests. Next week we will look at Paul's other requests and then we will see Paul's intercessory prayer for the Roman believers.

I. Paul's admonition (vs. 30)
Read: Rom. 15:30
    A. His urging
         Intercessory prayer is no small matter for Paul.  He gives an impassioned plea. (read the Greek) Paul uses the exact same words here as he does in ch. 12 when he urges us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is our reasonable service.

APP: The exact same words, I beseech, I urge you brothers. This was no coincidence as Paul was very careful with his choice of words. I believe what he was telling us by this is that this too is your spiritual service to God and it is holy and acceptable to Him. Have you ever thought that the ministry of intercessory prayer, which includes our weekly prayer meeting, and your private intercessory prayer time, is that important to God, to other Believers and to your Christian life?

 Scripture is saying that it is that important. I wonder then why there are only 6-8 at prayer meeting each Wednesday? Perhaps we don't all realize the seriousness of what is going on around us or the seriousness of our part in it. Eph. 6 tells us very clearly that we are in a fierce spiritual battle with prayer and God's Word as our weapons. Paul knew  that and so he solicited the intercessory prayer support of the Roman Believers.

   B. By our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the  Holy Spirit
        Paul continued in the text by saying that I am not asking on my behalf only, I ask on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of His Holy Spirit. Paul is saying, if Jesus is your Lord, and you are experiencing the love of the Spirit of God who binds us together as one...please.... pray for me.

  C. Striving together in prayer
         Paul was already praying for the requests he is about to make. Paul says, strive together with me.

 Strive together with is an athletic term meaning to join or lock arms and wrestle together. In the Greek it is the one word 'synagonizomai'  syn = together with and agonizomai = agony or agonize.  In Greek the 'agon' was an athletic contest.

Read: John 18:36, Lk. 22:44, 2 Tim. 4:7

         Understand that Paul and the Roman Believers were not fighting or wrestling with God in their prayers. Striving together in prayer means that we don't take intercessory prayer as a casual experience we can do or not do as time and circumstances allow. The idea is that we exercise great passion, great energy in our intercessory prayer life, just as if we were trying to win a wrestling match.

APP: Is that how you view your intercessory prayer life? Is that how we view it as a church. Are we passionately wrestling together for the good of the Body of Christ? Are we joining arms, uniting our common resource of prayer and fighting the kingdom of darkness together as one army for the Lord?  Are we personally agonizing in prayer over the requests others have brought to our attention?

 Or is it just another kind of prayer...another meeting we attend or don't attend each week? Your choice is yours to make....yours to live.

TRANS: Paul urged the Roman Believer to pray for Him with all the seriousness and passion they could muster, because they shared a common Lord and love. In verses 31-32 we find the prayer requests Paul asked of the Roman Believers.

II. Paul's prayer requests (vs. 31-32)
Read: Rom. 15:31
    A. His deliverance

 Paul is concerned about his chances of surviving a return to Jerusalem.  He asked for prayer to be delivered or saved/protected from those in Jerusalem who were disobedient. The disobedient in Jerusalem were those Jews who had rejected the Gospel and therefore have been disobedient to the Word of God.

 These Jews saw Paul as a traitor,a heretic to Judaism. They hated him and wanted him dead because he was leading people away from their teachings...and I might add their control as well.  Although I am sure Paul rejoiced that God would count him worthy to suffer for Christ...if he had his druthers, I think Paul would have rather enjoyed a peaceful visit to Jerusalem.  That he would be able to bypass all the trouble, give the money to the hurting Christians and leave the city w/o incident.

APP: Praying for deliverance is more important now than perhaps at any other time in history. Believers are being horribly persecuted for their faith in almost every country in the world.

 On Wed. night we prayed specifically for those Christians in Pakistan who because of their belief in Jesus Christ are falsely accused of crimes, beaten, burned to death, and who live in abject poverty because they cannot get any well paying jobs...just  because they are Christian.

 Believers all over the world...even here in the U.S. need prayer for deliverance from the wicked schemes of the Devil, who is alive and well and working , striving hard to bring dishonor to the name of Jesus. To bring  shame and even harm to those who faithfully witness to the Good News of the Gospel.

 God's people need deliverance and protection as they faithfully serve God and each other....and we, individually and corporately, must be steadfast, immovable, passionate in our ministry of intercession on their behalf.