In Deuteronomy chapter four, verses four through seven, we read this, the words of Moses to the nation of Israel. After recounting their history of God delivering them over and over throughout the wilderness, this is what Moses has to say and remind the people. Deuteronomy chapter four, starting in verse four.

This is the word of the Lord. But you who clung to Yahweh, your God, are alive today. Every one of you, see, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. You shall keep and do them for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near it as is Yahweh our God whenever we call on him?

We see here the words of Moses as he instructs the people, the Israelites, that they are a privileged people. They have the privilege in comparison to other nations that they had a God who was there for them whenever they called on him. It’s like the song we sang a couple songs ago, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, where it says, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. This was the privilege of the Israelites, as Moses here reminds them.

They had a God who heard them. Unlike other nations, they had two-way communication with their God. God spoke to them through Moses, and God heard them in their prayer. Their God had introduced himself by name. He had clearly revealed his will to the people, and he heard his people when they prayed to him. The gods of other nations, they were works of human hands.

They were made of things like wood and stone and they were things that they made themselves and they could not see or hear or eat or smell or anything. As Psalm 115 clearly tells us. Psalm 115 verses three through eight say this, this is the same spirit that Moses is communicating to the people, the privilege of the God that they have. Psalm 115 starting in verse three says this, but our God, in comparison to the false gods, but our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands.

They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. They have noses, but they do not smell. As for their hands, they do not feel. As for their feet, they do not walk. They do not make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. But not so with Israel’s God. Israel’s God had spoken to them and he hears them when they pray.

And as we see throughout scripture, prayer itself is an ultimate expression of worship. We’re continuing our series on worship this evening, and we’re continuing our focus on what it is we do in our worship services. We began by looking at worship in general, what worship is and what it does, and then we looked at our everyday lives and how our lives are supposed to be lived every day in worship. But then we turned to what we do in the worship service, what we do on the Lord’s Day. We started with the ordinances of baptism in the Lord’s Supper. And then we looked at preaching and the reading of God’s word. And now we shift our focus to prayer.

Prayer as worship. And we will look at a lot of different aspects of prayer tonight. But there’s a lot that the Bible says about prayer. We could do an entire series on prayer alone, probably longer than the series on worship that we’ve been doing for the last almost six months now. There’s a lot of things that we will cover tonight that refer both to our personal prayer lives and also to our prayer in our corporate worship services.

I mean, a place like the Psalms. The Psalms themselves are written both as the worship songs of Israel that they would sing in their corporate worship, but also as prayers to God. The Psalms are addressed to God. the songs that Israel was to sing in their worship as they worshiped their creator. So tonight I want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about prayer as worship, especially as it relates to prayer in corporate worship.

And then I want to think about what we do in our worship services and how we incorporate prayer every Lord’s Day in our worship service on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. Where I’d like to begin is generally thinking about prayer is the invitation that we are given as believers to pray to God. Our invitation to prayer. God invites his people to pray to him.

We see this throughout the Psalms. For example, we see in Psalm 34. Verses 17 and 18. I’m going to look at several different places, so if you’d like to turn to these passages, you’re welcome to, but I’m going to hit a few of them quickly. But Psalm 34, verses 17 to 18, says this, the righteous cry and Yahweh hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Yahweh is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. And then another place in Psalm 145, verses 18 and 19. Yahweh is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will work out the desires of those who fear Him. He will hear their cry for help and He will save them.

This reality that God is near to His people and God hears His people is itself an invitation, an encouragement. Because God is near you, take advantage of that. Utilize that, that reality that God hears us. God hears us, so therefore, speak to him. In Proverbs, chapter 15, verse 29. Yahweh is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous. Think about that. God, Yahweh, is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. That’s a verse to write down.

God hears the prayers of the righteous. God hears the prayers of his people. Our God is a God who hears and invites us to come to him, to call out to him in prayer. We read in the New Testament in 1 John 5, verse 14, this is the confidence which we have This is the confidence we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. God hears us. We come to Him confidently because we know He hears us.

And this applies to every aspect of prayer. As individuals, as individual believers, we are invited to call out to God in prayer, to confess our sins in prayer, to ask for things from him because he’s a good father and he wants to give gifts to his children. And I could go on and on and cover a lot of different aspects of prayer. The Bible speaks of prayer as, like I said, confession, intercession, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, lament, and on and on and on. God’s people are praying people.

But all prayer, is essentially an act of faith. Prayer itself is an act of faith. To pray, to speak to God in prayer is to demonstrate that you believe, that you believe that there is a God, that you believe that there’s a God who hears you, and that you believe that there is a God who can do what you ask of Him. That’s all faith.

You believe those things, that’s why you’re praying. And when you pray, you demonstrate that you expect God to hear and respond. Even unbelieving atheists will offer you thoughts and prayers, won’t they? When something bad happens. They’ll say, oh, you have my thoughts and prayers. Even though most of them don’t even know what they mean by that. Prayers to who? What are you praying for?

But it’s just something people say without thinking. But in reality, true prayer, all true prayer, people speaking to God in prayer is a demonstration of faith. Again, it’s an act of faith because of what you are showing, that you believe there is a God. And there’s a God who hears me. And there’s a God who can do something about what I’m asking him, what I’m speaking to him about.

And there’s a lot of things we could go into for all of those things and those aspects of prayer, but again, we have a limited focus this evening. I would like to narrow our focus to the prayer that we incorporate in our worship, in our worship services.

And I want to specifically focus on two types of prayer in relation to corporate worship. Really two types of prayer that we employ in our Sunday services. The first is the prayer of praise and thanksgiving. And the second is a prayer of intercession.

Each Sunday morning we open our service and even Sunday evenings we open our service with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. And then, in the morning, we include what we call a pastoral prayer, but that’s really a prayer of intercession. And typically, we have Pastor Pyatt, our pastor of congregational care, lead us in this prayer of intercession. As we shifted to this current pastoral team structure, the beginning of last year, I thought it would be quite fitting for our pastor of congregational care to be the one to lead the prayer of intercession for the congregation. So that is why we do what we do here in our worship services, but we’ll get there later on. But first, we’ll start with this first type of prayer I mentioned, a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.

This is what we open the service with. It comes after the announcements and any other business that we do in the mornings, and it serves to set the tone for our worship service. But we don’t simply do it because of what it accomplishes for us. We do this because we see this displayed in scripture. We see this example in scripture as people come to worship. A great example of this is found in 1 Chronicles chapter 29. Please turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 29 with me. This is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving from David. as they come together to worship. In this context, they have gathered and donated the materials and funds to build the temple. Although David himself wouldn’t build it, he knows, and you’ll see in his prayer, that his son will build the temple, Solomon, and he even prays for that.

But as they have gathered all the people and all the materials and funds to accomplish this, everyone’s excited. Everyone is there together, they have met their goal, they’re here, they’re ready to Give these things to the Lord. They even have 3,000 animals there ready to sacrifice them. So there’s a lot going on here.

But before they do that, before they worship, David has them pause for a moment while he prays. And I think about this in relation to what we do on a Sunday morning. As we come together, gather, and are ready for worship, we pause and we pray. Something like what David prays here first chronicles chapter 29 starting in verse 10 I’ll read it and then we’ll work through the different pieces of this prayer Starting in verse 10 of first chronicles 29. This is the word of the lord David blessed Yahweh in the sight of all the assembly. David said, blessed are you, O Yahweh, the God of Israel, our Father, from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth, yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and you exalt yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. And in your hand is power and might, and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.

So now, our God, we are thanking you and praising your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as willingly as this? For all things come from you, and from your hand we have given you. For we are sojourners before you and foreign residents like all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow and there is no hope. Oh Yahweh our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name.

It is from your hand and all is yours. And I know, O my God, that you try the heart and delight in uprightness. I, in the uprightness of my heart, have willingly offered all these things. So now, with gladness, I have seen your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to you.

O Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the intentions of the heart of your people. and prepare their heart to you, and give to my son Solomon a whole heart to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, and to do them all, and to build the temple for which I have made preparation. Then David said to all the assembly, now bless Yahweh your God. And all the assembly blessed Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and bowed low and prostrated themselves to Yahweh and to the king. That is the opening prayer of David as they begin to worship.

You can picture the scene here. Everyone is excited. They’ve accomplished their goal of bringing all together the things that they needed to complete the house of God. And they’re there to worship. And you can tell on their mind they have the things that they need to do. They need to come and they need to sacrifice. And their mind is on the things they need to do in this worship. And David pauses and brings their mind up to the God they’re about to worship.

He takes their mind off the things before them, the things in their hands, the utilitarian aspect of what I need to do, and he has them think about God for a minute. Think about what we’re doing. Think about who we are here to worship. Think about who we are in light of this God. Think about what we brought here to Him. All of it came from Him. We are nothing before this God.

That is the opening prayer of David as they begin to worship. So let’s look at the different aspects of this prayer. We have first the opening, the blessing and praise in the opening of David’s prayer. This calls this a blessing to Yahweh, which is a strange way to think about blessing the God who blesses us.

David characterizes his prayer as a thanksgiving. In verse 13, that’s what he calls it. This is clearly a part of their corporate worship. They are gathered together as the people of God. David continually prays using the pronouns our and we. He is praying for the people, bringing them up to the God that they worship. And you see in verse 10, he prays to Yahweh, Israel’s God. He says, blessed are you, oh Yahweh, the God of Israel, our Father from everlasting to everlasting. He makes sure the people know who he’s talking to. He is the God of our fathers.

Then in verse 11, he praises God for who he is. The attributes that he lists there, the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, all of the wonderful things that make God who he is. That’s why we’re here. We are here because of who God is. And then he recognizes this God. as the Lord and the King of the universe.

He is over all. He is supreme. Verse 12, he acknowledges him as the source of their riches. He says, both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all, and in your hand is power and might, and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.

And then verse 13 comes, the thanksgiving. Because of all that, Because of who we’re here to worship. Because of who he is and what describes him. Because of that, so now our God, we are thanking you. We are thanking you and praising your glorious name. Notice, David doesn’t have anything specific and tangible to thank him for. He doesn’t say, thank you for my great house, or my great kingdom, or the things you’ve given me. He just says, we’re thanking you for who you are, for what you do as God for your people. God, we are just thanking you. We are here to worship you and thank you.

And that’s just the opening of the prayer. He continues with the next section of giving God the credit. They’re there because of the tremendous fundraising effort to bring together all of the supplies and the donations and the money that it’s going to take to build this temple. And rather than coming and feeling so great about all the things we accomplished, David says, it’s all of God. We can do nothing without God. They’re giving their offerings so that they can build this temple. And in verse 14, he says, nothing apart from the grace of God is able to do this.

He says, who am I? And who are we that we should be able to offer as willingly as this? They’re giving sacrificially back to God. They’re giving their money, they’re sacrificing things that they could benefit from. And they bring it to God and they say, we’re not even worthy of this. We’re not even worthy to give this to you. Who am I and who are we that we should be able to offer as willingly as this?

For all things come from you, and from your hand we have given you. And he acknowledges that the gifts of the people are not theirs in the first place. He continues, for we are sojourners before you and foreign residents, like all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow and there is no hope.

Oh, Yahweh, our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house from your holy name, it is from your hand and all is yours. David wants them to understand here. He wants them to get what they’re doing. This isn’t some great feat of accomplishment by you people. It’s all God’s to begin with.

We are not even worthy of this, and we are thanking God for this opportunity to give back to him from what he’s already given to us. They’re returning to God what is his. We will talk about giving in our worship in the coming weeks as we continue this series on worship, but we’ll come back to that topic later. But David continues, and he says in verse 17, we were not forced to do this.

He says, I know, my God, that you try the heart in delight and uprightness. I, in the uprightness of my heart, have willingly offered all these things. So now with gladness I have seen your people who are present here make their offerings willingly to you.” They’re not under compulsion to do this. They don’t feel forced to do this.

And how could you with all that David has described here? Look at the God we’re worshiping. Look at the God we are here to give these things to. What right would we even have to feel like we’re Forced into this. We’re compelled to do this. We are willingly doing this. We are gladly giving from what He has already given to us. And then lastly, finally, after all of this, then David makes his request.

Starting in verse 18. He asks that God would guard the people’s enthusiasm. God keep them like this. He says in verse 18, O Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the intentions of the heart of your people and prepare their heart to you. God, keep your people worshipful. Keep your people before you like this, giving willingly from hearts of thankfulness and worship.

And then he asked that God would give Solomon, his son, a heart for him. Verse 19, give to my son Solomon a whole heart to keep your commandments and your testimonies and your statutes and to do them all and to build the temple for which I have made preparation. This is also instructive for us in that God does not always answer our prayers in the way that we ask for them. Because did the people keep the worshipful heart that we see here in this ceremony? No, they didn’t. You can go to Isaiah and see that. Did Solomon keep a heart to do all of the commandments and testimonies and statutes of God? No, he didn’t. But he did build the temple. So one out of three ain’t bad.

And he continues by turning to the people in verse 20. Now that he gives this lengthy prayer, this prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God, he turns to the people and encourages them to worship. Verse 20, David said to all the assembly, now, now that we have come to the Lord in prayer of praise and thanksgiving, now, Bless Yahweh, your God. And all the assembly blessed Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and bowed low and prostrated themselves to Yahweh and to the king.”

It goes on to describe the worship that took place after that, the sacrifice of all the animals and the drink offerings and all the things they did, and they partied because of how good their God was. That is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. This is how they open their worship. This is corporate prayer and worship at its best. David reminds them over and over, throughout the prayer, in every aspect of this prayer, he continually brings them back to how great God is and who they are before him. This is preparing them for worship. This is why we do what we do in our worship services. This is why we open our worship services with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. To hopefully bring us up and keep our focus on the God we are here to worship.

Another similar A prayer, but it’s a longer example is found in David’s son, Solomon, who although wasn’t perfect and did not keep a whole heart to the testimonies and statutes and all the things of God, he was an honorable king and he did honor the Lord in some of the things that he did.

I won’t read this whole prayer. The prayer is found in 2 Kings 8 and verses 12 all the way through verse 61, so it’s a long prayer. It’s similar to David’s. It has a lot of the same elements, but for the sake of time, I’ll just read the closing of that prayer. It’s found in 1 Kings 8 again, and I’ll read from verse 54 through 61, just the end portion of this. I know we won’t dig into this like we did this last prayer, but just listen to the similarities of how David’s very son, Solomon, prays, leading the people to worship. It says this in 1 Kings 8, starting in verse 54.

This is the word of the Lord. Now it happened that when Solomon had finished praying his entire prayer, so there’s already been prayer up to this point, and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before the altar of Yahweh from kneeling on his knees and with hands spread toward heaven and he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice. So now he turns to the congregation to lead them in prayer. This is what he says.

Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one promise has failed of all his good promises, which he promised by the hand of Moses, his servant. May Yahweh our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not forsake us or abandon us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, that he may do justice for his slave and justice for his people Israel as each day requires, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh is God, there is no one else. Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to Yahweh our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments as at this day.”

Again, it’s very similar to David’s prayer, has many of the same elements. The purpose of these prayers is to lead the people in worship, to prepare them, to prepare their hearts for worship, to bring the congregation up to the level of their holy God, to raise their focus above themselves and what’s going on before them, and to focus them on who is above them. That is exactly our aim in our worship services. We want to bring up the congregation to focus on the God we are here to worship. This is why we open our services with this type of prayer of praise and thanksgiving. So that’s the first type of prayer we’ll look at.

And then secondly, we have the prayer of intercession. There are many good examples of prayers of intercession. They happen throughout the Bible. Basically, a prayer of intercession is one person praying on behalf of others, praying to God and asking for things on behalf of other people. For example, Abraham. He interceded on behalf of Sodom and on behalf of the king Abimelech. And then Hezekiah, the King of Israel, prayed on behalf of the people in 2 Kings. Daniel prayed on behalf of the people in Daniel 9.

And we have intercessory prayers from Moses in Exodus 32 and Numbers 14 and Deuteronomy 9. Turn there to Deuteronomy 9 with me. We’ll look at one of these just to see how Moses prays. Again, an intercessory prayer is praying on the behalf of someone else or on behalf of the group and asking God for deliverance or for some sort of request from God. It’s different than David’s type of prayer that we looked at. And here Moses is praying on behalf of the whole assembly and asking God to spare them and relent of destroying them and asking for forgiveness. So this is a little different than our type of intercessory prayer, but it’s similar in its aspect. In Deuteronomy 9, starting in verse 26, this is what Moses prays.

He says, and I prayed to Yahweh and said, O Lord Yahweh, do not destroy your people. even your inheritance, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and do not look at the stiff neck of this people or at their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he had promised them, and because he had hated them, has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness. Yet they are your people. even your inheritance, whom you have brought out by your great power in your outstretched arm. A prayer of intercession is asking God to act according to his nature.

Moses knows that God is a forgiving God. He is a merciful God, and that’s what he’s asking God to do, even though these people do not deserve it. These people are accusing God of hating them for bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. You must hate us, God, because we’re not slaves anymore. So Moses prays on their behalf for God to spare them. And he tells the people, God, you are so great.

Remember your people. That is a prayer of intercession on behalf of the congregation Moses prays. Other examples are found throughout the Psalms. I’ll just give you a few verses from them in Psalm chapter 10, or in Psalm 10, I should say, verse 12. The psalmist says, arise, oh Yahweh. Oh God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. God, don’t forget the afflicted. Don’t forget those who are going through it right now.

Psalm 44, starting at verse 20, the psalmist is crying out to God, making his case for God to act on their behalf. Speaking for the congregation, Psalm 44, starting in verse 20 says, if we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a strange God, would not God find this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart. But for your sake, we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Arouse yourself through your greatness. What? Did I skip it? I did. Going backwards. Arouse yourself. Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul has sunk down into the dust. Our body cleaves to the earth. And here is the request. Rise up. Be our help. Redeem us for the sake of your loving kindness. God, save us. Help us. Psalm 79, starting in verse nine. It’s very similar. It says, help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name, and deliver us and atone for our sins for your name’s sake. Why should the nation say, where is their God? Let it be known among the nations before our eyes, vengeance for the blood of your slaves which has been poured out. Let the groaning of the prisoner come before you.

According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are doomed to die. Preserve those who are doomed to die. That’s an intercessory prayer. Praying, interceding for those who are about to die and asking God to spare them. Psalm 82 is another one. In verses 3 and 4 here, it says, Give justice to the poor and the orphan. Justify the afflicted and the destitute. Protect the poor and the needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.

This is asking God for things that he will provide, but asking on behalf of someone else. The psalmist here is asking for God to deliver these things to other people, justify the afflicted and the destitute, protect the poor and the needy, deliver them. And there are many more examples of these sorts of prayers of intercession. And in all of them, what you see is the leader praying and speaking to God and asking for things on behalf of the congregation, or of individuals within the congregation. Again, that verse I read from Psalm 79, verse 11, according to your greatness of your power, preserve those doomed to die. Preserve those doomed to die.

I think of that type of request in our context. The type of intercessory prayers that we offer in our worship service on a Sunday morning. Things that we ask God for on behalf of other people. Like requests for those battling illness or physical ailments, sickness, grief, loss of a loved one, losing a job, injury, cancer, hospitalization. The different things that we list and pray for and ask God for deliverance from. It’s prayers of intercession. Interceding on behalf of those who are in need of God’s grace and deliverance and healing.

This is what the Bible shows us we are to do in our worship. These last examples that I’ve read are from Israel’s worship book. The Psalms, these are their worship songs. This is what they would sing when they would gather to worship God. This is what they were supposed to do in their worship. This is what we are supposed to do in our worship.

A New Testament example of an intercessory prayer is found in the book of Acts. Turn over to Acts 4. We’ll spend most of the rest of our time in the New Testament, so turn to Acts 4. Here you see Peter and John, and they are praying, and partly they’re praying for themselves, but they’re praying for all the slaves of Christ who are being persecuted for His name. In Acts chapter 4, starting in verse 23, after they’re released from prison, what do they do?

They pray. It says in verse 23, so when they were released, They went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, O master, it is you who have made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples devise a vain thing? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. They quote Psalm 2 in their prayer. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. They pray the gospel. and they pray the sovereignty of God in the gospel. The evil men, Herod and Pilate, along with the Gentiles who gathered together to put your holy servant Jesus to death and did whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. And here’s the intercessory part of this, the request they ask. After all of that, they remind themselves of their father, David. They remind themselves of Psalm 2. They remind themselves of the gospel and God’s sovereign care over all of it.

And then they say, and now, Lord, and now, Lord, since all of that has happened, now, Lord, take note of their threats and grant that your slaves may speak your word with all confidence. while you extend your hand to heal. And signs and wonders happen through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. And when they had prayed earnestly, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with confidence. This is an intercessory prayer. They pray on behalf of all of the slaves of Jesus Christ who want to preach the gospel. that they would have confidence.

Not that they wouldn’t be persecuted, they would have confidence in the face of the persecution they know they will face. And besides the examples we see, we also see instructions to do this. We see instructions in Scripture to be praying on behalf of other people.

Turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 2. First Timothy chapter two, again, of course, is the instructions of Paul to the pastor Timothy. And this is what Timothy is supposed to do in his church. First of all then, First Timothy chapter two, starting in verse one.

First of all then, I exhort petitions and prayers and requests and thanksgivings. Those are all prayers. First of all, Timothy, pray. Petitions and prayers and requests and thanksgiving be made for all men. And don’t just pray for your friends, Timothy, for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, those people trying to kill Paul as he writes this.

Pray for them so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all and the witness for this proper time. For this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. As a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Therefore, again, Paul repeats, therefore, I want the men in every place to pray. lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension. First of all, Timothy, pray. Pray. And pray for everyone. Pray for the kings and rulers who make themselves enemies of yours and enemies of the gospel and want to kill you for preaching this gospel that he explains here. And then he says again, therefore, pray. Pray for others.

So there you have it, our instruction in worship includes prayer. And throughout the entire Bible, we see how God graciously speaks to his people. And not only that, he graciously allows himself to be spoken to by them. And that’s what the right posture towards prayer is. In all of these prayers that we’ve read, All of them come from a posture of humility and unworthiness. We are not even worthy to bring these offerings to you. We are not even worthy to pray to you.

Think of how fortunate you are to have a God who hears you, unlike the nations. God wants to hear from you. What distinguished Yahweh, the God of Israel, from all the gods of the peoples is the same thing that distinguishes Jesus Christ, Yahweh in the flesh, is that He is a God who wants to commune with us. He is God with us. He is a God who wants to hear from us.

As I read earlier in 1 John 5, this is our confidence. This is the confidence we have. Not because of anything that we’ve done. Not because we’re just so good that God would definitely want to hear from us. Because of who God is. Because of who he has made us to be as his people. This is the confidence we have before him. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. That’s the confidence we have.

Prayer is an ultimate expression of worship. Because like all worship, prayer is concerned primarily about the glory of God, about showing that God is most important to me. And in our prayers, our wishes and desires, when we are praying correctly, they are submitted to him and his purposes. And prayer reminds us of who God is and who we are before him.

It is concerning to hear people talk about the God of Scripture as though He’s my buddy that I can flippantly talk to about whatever. We can talk to God, we have confidence to do so, but only because of who He is. Only because He is the God who created us, the God who is worthy of all worship. The God who has made us to be who we are, we should come humbly and reverently before Him in our prayers. Our prayers acknowledge that He alone is sovereignly in control of all things, because you’re not talking to anyone else about this. You’re not asking anyone else to give you all the things that you ask God for, because He’s the one that can do it.

Prayer, again, is ultimately an act of faith. We pray and ask of Him because we believe He hears us and we believe that He can do it. And in our worship, in our corporate worship, we pray prayers of praise and thanksgiving, bringing us up to worship God. And we pray prayers of intercession, asking for Him to act according to His nature and deliver us from the hardships that we face. And we do this all because we believe that He alone is worthy of our worship and our praise and our prayer.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this evening. Our God, we are. amazed when we look at the prayers in scripture. We thank you God. We are thanking you because of all of the things that we’ve read tonight. Because of your greatness, and your goodness, and your majesty, and your power, and all the things that you have done throughout history. All the ways that you have shown yourself to your people. We thank you because not only are you a God who has spoken to us, but you’re a God who invites us to speak to you, to bring our concerns and our needs and our praise and our worship to you. We are not worthy to be able to do that, but we thank you for who you are and for who you have made us to be as your people. This is our confidence that when we come to you and we pray to you, that you hear us. God, we praise you and glorify you this evening because of who you are. We pray all of this in Jesus’ precious name, amen.