Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:22.

If you’re struggling and you’ve ran into a wall or a lid in your ability to forgive others, you must be that person who’s on your knees asking God to purify your heart and to help you pray for the blessings and the benefit of others. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we’re excited to be with you today, looking forward to studying the Bible together. Now, we’re back in the book of Philemon, and here is a letter that was written to a man who was a slave owner, and that certainly brings a lot of questions to it.

But the main point of this letter is teaching us to forgive. And so this morning I have titled the sermon, Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness. So join me as we study together.

I want to talk to you about prevailing prayer and forgiveness in your heart. Prevailing prayer and forgiveness. We come to this text in Philemon.

We remember that Onesimus had stolen some money, perhaps property, possessions from Philemon. Onesimus was a slave, and he had taken things away from Philemon and ran away. And so the apostle is writing this letter to Philemon, and he wants to restore Onesimus and Philemon.

And of course, Onesimus in his journeys would come across the path of the apostle. And that path that they would meet is in a jail, a prison, if you will. And they have met together, and now Onesimus has received Christ.

Because when you encounter the apostle, you know what he’s going to do. He’s going to tell them about Jesus Christ. And that’s exactly what he does.

He tells Onesimus about the plan of salvation. Onesimus’ heart is humbled before God, and he receives Christ as his Lord and Savior. And so the apostle is saying, Onesimus, you got to go back and make things right with Philemon.

And of course, he’s like, there’s no way the guy’s going to ever receive me back. Well, Philemon was an important man in the church at Colossae, and the church actually met in his home. And so the apostle addresses this letter to him, Philemon, and he wants him to make things right with Onesimus and to have forgiveness for Onesimus.

Forgiveness is hard for us as God’s people, because it’s not natural. It’s not what the world would teach us. The world would say, get revenge, burn the bridge, and destroy others who have hurt you, let you down, and disappointed you.

But the apostle calls us to a higher level of living. He calls us to take the high road and to choose the path of forgiveness. But in this process of learning to forgive others and to have the motivation, to which we’ve already studied, of why we should forgive others, the apostle puts within our hands a tool that helps us to have a forgiving spirit, and that is prevailing prayer.

I want you to pick up with me in verse 22, as the apostle is bringing his short letter to a close. He says to Onesimus, but meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. I want you to underscore that phrase, through your prayers.

You read this quickly and you probably assume, what is the significance of this verse in forgiveness and what does it mean that it would impact us to be able to be useful to help us to forgive others? Well, I want to again bring you into context that when the apostle is saying to Onesimus, prepare a guest room for me, he is under the anticipation and the hope that he’ll be released from prison, and that not only will he be released from prison, but Onesimus will be released. And he is saying to Philemon, I want you to prepare a guest room. I want you to prepare because by faith I’m believing that God is going to get me out of this place.

I’m coming back to Colossae and I’m coming back to the church and I want to have this opportunity to interact with you and to help put the final explanation point on the restoration of this relationship between Philemon and Onesimus. But the apostle not being presumptive on the will of God, understood that he would take the tool of prayer and he says to Philemon, I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. That is that God would use prayer to not only bring about the release of the apostle to have the purpose of reconnecting with the church and with Philemon and also bringing about the restoration of Philemon and Onesimus, the apostle understood the great value of prayer and he places great emphasis upon the power of prayer.

And in this passage he is helping us to understand that we need to embrace prevailing prayer. The one tool that God is giving to you to be able to restore relationships and to be able to have the ability to forgive others who’ve offended you, hurt you, disappointed you and let you down is prayer. I don’t want you to forget that.

You may not remember anything else I have to say today and you may be asked at dinner what did the pastor preach on and you may quickly forget, but please don’t forget this. The tool that God has given you and me to be able to forgive others is prevailing prayer. Now let’s understand prayer a little bit because it’s important for us to be reminded of basic truths about prayer and the process of prayer of God answering our prayers is very important because sometimes people say to me well God hasn’t answered my prayer.

Well God always answers prayer and that’s a wonderful truth for you to hold on to that God does answer prayer. Now sometimes his answer is very direct and he says yes and he just kind of waiting on us to ask and we miss out on great opportunities and great movements of God because we are not praying as we should. But we also have to remember that sometimes our answer from God is delayed because the timing is not right and so we are seeking God, we’re praying to God, we’re asking God to change something, a circumstance, a problem, perhaps even a person, but God has delayed that answer.

Sometimes God’s answers are different. They’re different from what we want. How many times can you remember that your children came to you and wanted something and you knew that if you answered that request well that would make a mess of their life and you know I want you to know that there are times that you and I come to God and we bring our requests to him and God knows that if he were to give us that request it would make a mess of our life.

Oh it may make you more wealthy and it may make you more prosperous in the eyes of the world but what would it do for you spiritually? Some of you have been praying for a job promotion. Some of you have been praying for a different job and some of you have been praying for certain things to come together for you financially and God has not answered it the way you want it to be answered. I’ll tell you why.

Because God knows that you will no longer depend on him and you will look to money and you will look to your job and the things of this world instead of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. The other thing is that God sometimes doesn’t give you the answer that you want is because he knows that if these things were to come into your life that you would take a step back spiritually. That you would retreat in your passion and your love for God and that God would begin to see a backsliding in your life.

And so sometimes the answers God gives us are different than the requests and the answer that we desire. But also I want you to remember that sometimes God denies our requests. Did you know that? I know it’s hard for you to believe because all your life maybe your parents told you yes.

Maybe your grandparents continue to tell you yes and yes. But I want to tell you that God sometimes says no. And he does it not to crush you, not to destroy you, but he denies your request because it is not spiritually healthy for you.

It’s not something that would draw you closer to God. And so we trust in his wisdom. We trust in his ways which are higher than ours and beyond our own understanding.

And we put our faith and trust in God. And we do not trust God and we do not believe God and we do not have faith in God just because he always says yes to our requests. But we trust him because of who he is.

He’s holy. He’s righteous. He’s sovereign.

He’s almighty. He’s greater. He’s far beyond what you and I could ever comprehend.

And we know that God is always going to do what is right for our life. The hope of prayer, when you and I pray, we certainly want a response from heaven. And many times when we are praying, we are looking for resources from heaven.

And I think this is what I see in verse 22, is that as the apostle is anticipating by faith that God’s going to open the door for him to get out of this prison, but he recognizes that prayer has to be a part of this. He says, I trust that through your prayers, I shall be granted unto you. He is praying that Philemon and the church at Colossae will band together and pray for the apostle.

That they will pray not only for his strength and for his stamina and his faith, but they will pray for his release. They will seek God in heaven. You remember that the early church prayed for the apostle Peter.

And they prayed and they met together and they prayed. Some people say, well, I can pray by myself. Why should I go to church to pray? Because there’s great power in prayer.

Amen? And God has called us not just to pray individually, which we should do, but he’s called us to pray collectively and to pray together as the church family. And there’s nothing wrong with us coming together and praying together. And that’s what the early church did.

They prayed together and they prayed that God would release the apostle Peter and God sent an angel and released Peter from jail. And Peter showed up at the church and he was knocking on the door where they had gathered. And a little servant came to the door and said, Hey, it’s the apostle Peter.

And they didn’t believe the little girl that it was the apostle Peter. Can God send his angels and resources to you and me to assist us in the challenges of life? Absolutely. And so when we pray, that is our hope that the hand of God will be moved.

It is the hope of the apostle here in this text that God will work through the prayers of his people. And when it comes to our ability to be able to learn, to forgive others and to act upon that, it is going to be through our own personal prayer. And it’s also going to be through God using the prayers of his people in our life so that we can get to that moment that we have the resources from heaven, that God’s spirit is so filled us and that we so desire to emulate our heavenly father and to live in step with the spirit that we would choose the path of prayer.

So let’s learn more about prayer this morning. First of all, the expression of prevailing prayer, the word of God encourages us to pray and pray much, but not just platitudes. We are called to have heartfelt prayers, prayers that come from our heart to heaven.

If we understood the value of prayer, I’m telling you that you and I would take on hell with a water pistol and we would be more motivated than ever. I want you to take your Bible to the book of James. Now the book of James is not too far from Philemon.

You go to Hebrews, just get to the end of Hebrews and right there you’re in James. I want you to look at James chapter four and in James chapter four, he is speaking about prayer to us under the inspiration of the spirit of God. In James chapter four, verse two, he says, you lust and you do not have.

You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Now James is confronting. James was a, he was a fireball for God. He was a true, strong willed apostle.

And you remember that James, he was okay when people were criticizing Jesus to call down fire from heaven. James was also a man of great prayer. He was known in the early church as having camel knees because his knees were so worn out from him praying.

He was a dynamic servant for God and he did not have any fear to proclaim the word of God and the truth of God. And he comes right out and he says, it’s because of your lust. It’s because of your desires that you don’t have, meaning you don’t have the right desires.

You have desires that are of the world. You are coveting things that are not godly and are not righteous. And he says, you don’t have because you do not ask.

And he goes on to say in verse three, you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, meaning that you are asking with the wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures. We need to remember that as we are expressing prayer, that we have the right motives from God. And many times we have to ask God to help keep our motives in check, that when we pray, that we don’t just want it for our own pleasure, for our own selfish reasons, but we desire it so that a God would be glorified.

That ought to be the ultimate desire of your prayers is that God would be glorified. Your will be done in heaven, Lord, as it is on earth or your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive me, getting it backwards there.

But I want you to understand this, that that should be the first motive of your prayer is that for the glory of God. But the second motive of your prayer is whatever is best and good for your life, meaning within the context of God’s will, within the context of God’s will for your life. Now, when you are praying for someone who you desire that God would help you to forgive them, it’s important that you have the right motivation.

Amen. Some of you are like, I’m okay to pray like David did in the Psalms. He prayed that his enemies would be destroyed.

And he prayed that they would be defeated. And he prayed what is often referred to as prayers from the heart of David as he was sharing his heart. And yes, that’s how we know that God’s word is God’s word, because it shows the strengths and the weaknesses of his servants.

And David sometimes wanted his enemies to be destroyed. But we are called to be a people who desire that God works effectively within us and in the other person. So how is it that I’m going to be able to pray in such a way that I can not only be able to forgive, but that I would be able to pray in such a way that my motives would be pure before God.

And that is that I have to ask the Lord to help me not to pray for the demise of my enemies or those who’ve hurt me, but that God’s will and God’s work and God’s blessings. You heard the scripture reading, bless those. We want God’s blessings.

We want to be able to speak well of others. And so we must pray this way, church. If you’re struggling and you’ve ran into a wall or a lid in your ability to forgive others, you must be that person who’s on your knees asking God to purify your heart and to help you to pray in such a way that you could honestly pray for the blessings and the benefit of others.

Now, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4, 16, to let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Now, I know that you’ve always thought of this in relation to your physical needs. And I’m not saying that that’s wrong.

But what if you have the need to forgive? What if you have the need to not let bitterness take root in your heart? What if you have the need that you would be able to have the need or the ability to pray for this person who has let you down? Well, the Bible says to come boldly. That means to come with confidence. You and I can come with confidence.

Why do we come with confidence? Not because of who we are, not because of our skill sets, not because of somehow we’re more righteous than the person that offended us or hurt our feelings. But we can come boldly because Jesus Christ went to the cross and he died for our sins and he tore the veil that kept us out of the holy of holies. And to be able to come into the throne of God, Jesus tore that veil from top to bottom.

He gave his life for our sins and he died on that cross so that we could experience forgiveness. And now we can come into the presence of God and the throne of God and we can come with confidence because of what Christ did, not what I did, but what Christ did. And we can ask the Lord to give us the grace, the mercy, the strength to be able to forgive other people.

Are you there? You can come boldly to the throne of grace. You can direct your prayers to heaven and you can be intentional in your prayers and say, God, I need help. You know, it’s okay to be honest with God.

Did you know that? I mean, I don’t recommend it the other way. But to be honest with God, and what I’m saying is that you may be struggling in your emotions and your feelings towards someone, and it may be your own spouse and it may be your children. It may be your grandchildren.

It may be somebody that you work with or somebody even within this church. You know, you’re at the open door church, right? And you know, we’re a perfect church, right? You know, I’m being sarcastic, right? But all I’m trying to say is this. There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness.

The reason people hop to different churches all the time is because they can’t win this battle. They just run. The reason people get married six, seven, eight times or in one relationship after another is because they can’t overcome this battle.

And that is forgiving others. And I’ll tell you why. They can’t forgive.

Because they’re trying to do it in their own strength. They’re trying to do it in the flesh rather than in the power of the Spirit, and they’re not using the tool of prayer, coming boldly before the throne of grace, seeking God to help them to be able to forgive others. The second thing I want you to see is the expectancy of prevailing prayer.

You see, the Apostle Paul fully expected God to release him from his chains. He believed two things about prayer, and I want you to remember this, is that prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God, and maybe you doubt that.

But you remember that Hannah prevailed in prayer in asking God for a son. It was Moses who prevailed in prayer, asking God to not destroy the nation of Israel. It was Esther who prevailed in prayer, seeking God to protect Israel from Haman.

It was Jonah, in his own mess, in his own choices and decisions that he had made, found himself in a great fish, and his life was out of sync and out of the will of God. But it was Jonah who learned to pray in this desperate moment that preserved his life. It’s the Apostle Paul who prevailed in prayer, getting Philemon to be able to come to that point where he would forgive Onesimus.

And what I’m saying to you is, prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God. And God has chosen, he doesn’t have to, but he has chosen to work through the prayers of his people.

All the great spiritual awakenings, all the great revivals in America, and yes, even in this world, have always been because of a group of people, whether small or large, have gotten together and they have prayed for God’s heart to be moved. But I also want you to know this, that prayer maneuvers the hand of God. Prayer maneuvers the hand of God.

Heavenly prayer allows us to move God’s hand in human affairs. There are all kinds of things happening, not just on a world level, on a national level, but things that are happening in your life. And the antidote to your problems is not for you to always come in and micromanage it and fix it.

And there are people with different things going on in their life, and the answer is not for you to micromanage those people, but the answer is for you and I to pray, to pray for that person. And I know you want to fix that person. And I would say great advice for your marriage is to quit spending your life trying to fix your spouse and to spend your time praying for your spouse and with your spouse, asking God to work in both of your hearts and asking God to shape both of you in such a way that his hand would move so powerfully in your life that you could honor Christ, that your marriage could be a picture of the love of God that he has for all of humanity.

That’s what’s important. The prayers that Paul had asked for the people of God to give on his behalf was that God’s hand would move the Roman government and release him from prison so that he could go get this matter settled at the church at Colossae between Philemon and Onesimus. And so it was important.

So when Paul prayed, he expected God’s heart to be moved and his hand to maneuver the circumstances to make things a reality. But I also want you to see the extent of prevailing prayer, the extent. It seems that the Roman government had full control of the apostle’s life and that he was going to soon face death.

But as the apostle began to mobilize people to pray, he appealed to a higher authority than the Roman government. Did you know there’s a higher authority than the president of the United States? There’s a higher authority than the governor of Pennsylvania. There is a higher authority than any political person on this planet.

And there’s a higher authority than any government on this planet. And that higher authority is the Lord Jesus Christ. Can God’s people say amen? And I want you to remember that there is no government that can tell the church what to do.

The head of the church is not a governor. It is not a president. It is not some bureaucrat in the government.

But the head of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. And friends, don’t forget that because all that was tested several years ago. It was all put on the line.

And were we going to follow the head of the church and his commands or were we going to follow our fears and the edicts that came from the government? Friends, there’s no more important agenda than the agenda of a prayer warrior who is on their knees seeking God, for God to move in a powerful way. And that’s exactly what the apostle wanted. He wanted Philemon, who was a leader in the church of Colossae, and he wanted him to be a man of prayer.

And he knew that if Philemon would start praying for Paul, guess who else he had to pray for? Onesimus. And guess what? If Philemon would pray that Paul would come back, he knew who he was bringing back with him, Onesimus. And that they were going to have to deal with this matter and that they were going to have to move forward in this matter and they were going to have to resolve this matter for the glory of God.

And that’s what the apostle understood about prevailing prayer. That even in those hard cases, even in those difficult cases, in those extreme cases, that God can use prayer to change our hearts. And let me say something about that to you.

Is this, the key to you understanding about prayer and praying for others is that in prayer, God is not always interested in changing your circumstances and he’s not always interested in changing people in your life as much as he is interested in changing you. No one wakes up and says, I can’t wait to forgive. It’s a emotion that is not there, but forgiveness is a choice that I make.

And where and how could I ever make that kind of a choice through the grace of God? And how does that grace get to me? Prevailing prayer is the conduit that God uses to fill your heart and mind with grace, to show grace, and to give forgiveness. And so when we neglect prayer, then we are not going to be able to practice these principles that Jesus has commanded us to, like to forgive one another. And so we hope today’s message has been an encouragement to you and to help you to understand the significance of prayer and forgiveness.

I want to encourage you to make sure that you check out our website, HopeWorthHaving.com. I want to also thank you for your support for Hope Worth Having Ministries. Through your contributions, we’re able to stay on the air. And if we’ve been a blessing to you, I hope that you’ll continue to support this ministry and help us in every way that you can.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.