What’s Lost When We Only Pray Alone?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | When you pray, Jesus said, get by yourself,
00:00:07.400 | go into your room, shut the door,
00:00:10.460 | and pray to your Father who is in secret.
00:00:12.780 | It's Matthew 6, 6.
00:00:14.860 | Sounds pretty straightforward.
00:00:17.120 | So we just pray alone, right?
00:00:19.880 | Wrong. (laughs)
00:00:21.920 | We don't only pray in secret, we pray together as well.
00:00:24.800 | Something we see all over the book of Acts, for example,
00:00:27.680 | in texts like Acts 2, 42, 431, 1212, 133, and 2036,
00:00:32.680 | just to name a few texts.
00:00:36.720 | So why do we pray together and not just alone?
00:00:39.440 | What's added when we pray together
00:00:41.600 | and what's lost when we only pray by ourselves?
00:00:45.360 | In 1981, Pastor John took up this very question
00:00:47.960 | in a sermon on 2 Corinthians 1, verses 8 to 11.
00:00:51.060 | There, Paul writes his testimony of his agonies,
00:00:54.600 | quote, "For we do not want you to be unaware,
00:00:57.120 | brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia,
00:01:00.160 | for we were so bitterly burdened beyond our strength
00:01:02.640 | that we despaired of life itself.
00:01:04.960 | Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death,
00:01:08.040 | but that was to make us rely not on ourselves,
00:01:10.100 | but on God who raises the dead.
00:01:11.920 | He delivered us from such a deadly peril,
00:01:15.100 | and he will deliver us.
00:01:16.800 | On him, we have set our hope
00:01:18.720 | that he will deliver us again," end quote.
00:01:22.320 | And then Paul makes this request in verse 11,
00:01:25.040 | which is a little complex, so listen carefully, quote,
00:01:29.480 | "You also must help us by prayer
00:01:31.400 | so that many will give thanks on our behalf
00:01:35.640 | for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many,"
00:01:40.640 | end quote.
00:01:42.640 | Here's Pastor John.
00:01:43.960 | - That's a hard verse.
00:01:45.440 | I noticed Glenn this morning,
00:01:47.760 | just like I, had trouble reading verse 11.
00:01:51.440 | He had to stop and make sure he had it just right
00:01:53.600 | because it's a very complex sentence.
00:01:56.800 | I had to read verse 11 again and again,
00:01:59.000 | and I could not get the gist of verse 11
00:02:01.600 | until I drew it on paper.
00:02:04.240 | Now, follow with me the line of prayer.
00:02:07.240 | Keep one eye on the text,
00:02:08.720 | one eye on the line, and both ears on me.
00:02:12.880 | The line of prayer begins with Paul, and he feels a need.
00:02:17.880 | That's where prayer begins.
00:02:22.760 | His need was probably,
00:02:24.200 | oh, how I need to rely on God more.
00:02:27.920 | Oh, how I need to trust God
00:02:29.600 | for deliverance from all my adversaries more.
00:02:34.200 | So what does he do?
00:02:35.720 | He sends out a line of prayer.
00:02:37.600 | Help me, horizontally, to the Corinthians.
00:02:40.960 | Help me by prayer.
00:02:43.200 | And that's stage one in the line of prayer.
00:02:46.360 | Then the line of prayer curves up
00:02:49.200 | through the heart of the Corinthians
00:02:52.800 | as they hear the plea,
00:02:55.000 | and they look up to God
00:02:57.200 | and pray that God will, in fact,
00:03:00.480 | answer their prayers for Paul's deliverance
00:03:04.240 | and for his faith, and that's stage two,
00:03:07.400 | the prayers of the Corinthians heading up to God.
00:03:11.720 | Then the line of prayer enters the heart of God
00:03:15.040 | who is there listening,
00:03:16.840 | waiting for the prayers of his people.
00:03:20.000 | And in response to the prayers of the many Corinthians,
00:03:24.560 | God sends down a gift or a blessing,
00:03:29.440 | as the text says, to Paul.
00:03:31.480 | What blessing?
00:03:33.200 | Greater faith in God, greater dependence on him alone,
00:03:37.040 | and deliverance from his adversaries.
00:03:40.000 | And that's stage three in the line of prayer.
00:03:42.960 | Help us by prayer, stage one.
00:03:46.680 | God, help Paul, stage two.
00:03:50.560 | God's answer, stage three.
00:03:53.680 | Now, just as many people heard the plea of Paul
00:03:58.360 | to help through prayer,
00:04:00.680 | so many people now see the answer to the prayers.
00:04:05.240 | As they look, look, Paul got out.
00:04:08.680 | He got out of the Philippian jail.
00:04:10.360 | He got away from Ephesus.
00:04:11.520 | He made it all the way through Berea and Thessalonica.
00:04:13.720 | He's coming down here to us.
00:04:15.160 | He's gonna make it all the way to Jerusalem with that money.
00:04:17.840 | He may make it to Rome, to the ends of the earth,
00:04:20.240 | and preach to the emperor.
00:04:21.640 | Praise God.
00:04:23.480 | And that's line four.
00:04:25.600 | They see, they see the answer to prayer,
00:04:30.040 | and that curves up through their heart in praises
00:04:33.560 | and thanksgiving through many people back to God.
00:04:38.560 | And that's stage five in the line of prayer.
00:04:42.920 | And that's where the text stops.
00:04:45.800 | But I think there is something implied in the text
00:04:50.800 | that's not explicit,
00:04:52.920 | that is just a choice truth that I don't wanna leave out.
00:04:57.880 | Namely, if Paul chose to motivate the Corinthians
00:05:02.880 | to pray for him by pointing out
00:05:06.000 | that it would abound in many thanksgivings to God,
00:05:08.920 | then it must be a great delight to Paul
00:05:11.640 | to think about God getting so many thanks.
00:05:14.000 | And if it's a great delight to Paul to see God being thanked,
00:05:17.800 | then that little dotted line that comes down from God
00:05:20.320 | is joy coming back into the heart of Paul
00:05:24.120 | as he sees God being thanked in response to many prayers,
00:05:29.120 | or the answer to many prayers.
00:05:36.120 | So that's stage six that I've added.
00:05:39.280 | In fact, I could go on adding stage seven
00:05:41.400 | because God gets delight in Paul's delight
00:05:43.240 | and Paul gets delight in God's delight and his delight.
00:05:45.400 | And it's just a great spiral on up into infinite joy someday
00:05:50.400 | when there's no more sin to clutter up that spiral.
00:05:54.360 | That's the line of prayer.
00:05:56.440 | Let me sum it up just briefly.
00:05:58.400 | Paul has a great need and he feels it.
00:06:00.480 | He knows he's coming into adversity.
00:06:02.200 | He said in Acts 20, verse 23,
00:06:04.440 | "The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city
00:06:07.320 | "that afflictions and imprisonments await me."
00:06:09.840 | He needs help.
00:06:12.360 | "Help me," Corinthians.
00:06:14.600 | They hear the word.
00:06:15.800 | "God, help Paul."
00:06:18.520 | God looks down.
00:06:19.360 | "I hear the prayer.
00:06:20.960 | "Here's the help, Paul."
00:06:22.680 | Paul is helped.
00:06:23.720 | He's delivered.
00:06:24.560 | He's free.
00:06:25.400 | He's preaching.
00:06:26.240 | He's full of faith.
00:06:27.080 | Who sees it?
00:06:27.920 | Lots of people see it.
00:06:28.920 | What do they do?
00:06:30.000 | Praise God.
00:06:31.480 | God has responded to our prayers
00:06:33.520 | and the thanks go back to God and he's glorified.
00:06:37.400 | That's the line of prayer.
00:06:39.040 | That's what ought to be happening in this church
00:06:42.160 | again and again and again.
00:06:45.840 | And there are more lessons in this
00:06:47.200 | than I can begin to say this morning,
00:06:48.880 | but I want to mention two.
00:06:50.760 | Two lessons from the line of prayer.
00:06:53.200 | The first is this.
00:06:54.800 | If you're like me, you've probably asked yourself
00:06:58.240 | why it is that corporate prayer is important.
00:07:02.360 | Why pray in groups?
00:07:05.360 | Why pray publicly?
00:07:08.280 | Why not just close the door,
00:07:11.520 | like Jesus said we should many times,
00:07:13.800 | and pray alone?
00:07:15.720 | Why does Paul not simply pray,
00:07:18.080 | God save me from the enemies, God fill me with faith,
00:07:21.280 | and not write letters and tell other people to pray for him?
00:07:24.680 | Doesn't he think God can answer his prayer?
00:07:27.560 | Is he lacking in faith?
00:07:28.960 | Are we weak in faith when we ask
00:07:31.120 | many people to pray for something?
00:07:33.760 | That's the kind of question I came to this text with
00:07:36.040 | and I think the text gives a tremendous answer
00:07:39.280 | to why corporate and public prayer is so important.
00:07:44.080 | Why might God be more inclined to answer
00:07:48.600 | the prayers of many
00:07:50.960 | rather than the prayers of one?
00:07:54.440 | That's my question.
00:07:56.880 | And I think the answer begins like this.
00:08:00.400 | According to our text,
00:08:02.760 | the thing that's different when many people pray,
00:08:07.760 | notice many prayers,
00:08:11.000 | is that the stage is being set
00:08:14.600 | for lots and lots and lots of thanks.
00:08:19.120 | The more people that are earnestly praying
00:08:23.640 | for some blessing from God,
00:08:26.440 | the more thanksgiving will ascend to God
00:08:31.720 | when that blessing comes.
00:08:33.880 | Paul's argument is very simply this.
00:08:36.320 | You must help me by prayer
00:08:38.840 | so that many will give thanks
00:08:43.840 | when the prayers of many are answered.
00:08:48.200 | The reason for praying at all
00:08:51.080 | is so God might be thanked when blessings come.
00:08:55.880 | And God loves to be thanked.
00:08:58.360 | God loves to be thanked.
00:09:01.520 | And that's the basic premise here
00:09:03.800 | for why this prayer becomes so effective.
00:09:07.520 | He loves to be acknowledged and praised
00:09:11.440 | as the giver of all good gifts.
00:09:15.560 | Therefore, when we urge, when I urge you,
00:09:20.400 | 400 people say,
00:09:22.720 | when I urge you to pray for some need,
00:09:26.720 | many people,
00:09:28.760 | I'm creating a situation
00:09:31.480 | in which the provision of that need
00:09:34.320 | will result in many, many, many thanksgivings,
00:09:38.880 | more than if each of us was praying privately.
00:09:43.680 | And therefore, we tap into a tremendous incentive
00:09:48.680 | on God's part,
00:09:50.160 | because God loves to glorify himself
00:09:53.000 | by doing what he must do to get as many thanks as possible.
00:09:57.000 | And that means answering the prayers of many people.
00:10:00.400 | God loves to be thanked by many.
00:10:02.720 | And therefore, there is a power in church wide prayer,
00:10:07.720 | because the more people there are praying
00:10:11.280 | for the spiritual life of our church,
00:10:13.200 | the more thanksgiving will ascend when God gives it.
00:10:17.160 | Now, the same reasoning,
00:10:18.960 | which comes straight out of 2 Corinthians 1:11,
00:10:22.120 | the same reasoning also shows
00:10:26.000 | that we should not only pray in large numbers,
00:10:30.480 | but that we should get together in groups to pray.
00:10:35.480 | I'll try to show you how that follows.
00:10:38.320 | Picture two possibilities.
00:10:40.400 | One would be a dozen people privately in their homes,
00:10:45.400 | praying for the release of Paul,
00:10:47.800 | say from jail in Philippi.
00:10:50.600 | Okay?
00:10:53.000 | They pray, God answers, delivers Paul.
00:10:56.480 | They get word of it.
00:10:57.640 | They give thanks.
00:10:58.640 | God is honored.
00:10:59.960 | Great.
00:11:01.280 | But suppose that those dozen or so people met together
00:11:06.280 | in a group, in a room, in a living room there in Philippi,
00:11:11.160 | just like the saints did in Acts 12
00:11:14.760 | to pray for Peter's release when he was in jail.
00:11:19.320 | Suppose they got together and prayed.
00:11:22.520 | And the fervor of each other's prayer
00:11:24.280 | kindled each other's fervor up to God.
00:11:26.880 | God released Paul miraculously through this earthquake
00:11:30.440 | and they hear about it.
00:11:31.840 | Then what would happen?
00:11:33.680 | The praises and the thanks would ascend.
00:11:37.280 | And is it not human nature?
00:11:40.160 | You see, if this isn't true to your own experience,
00:11:42.720 | is it not human nature to feel gratitude more intensely
00:11:47.720 | when somebody you love is sharing the experience
00:11:52.320 | with you?
00:11:53.960 | Is that not human nature to feel the joy of gratitude
00:11:58.840 | more intensely when someone you love
00:12:02.040 | is feeling it together with you?
00:12:05.600 | When you and I experience a blessing
00:12:08.480 | that we've asked for together,
00:12:11.240 | your thanksgiving deepens and heightens my thanksgiving
00:12:16.240 | because it works like this.
00:12:18.080 | Now, this is true for me and I think it's human nature.
00:12:21.960 | When the answer comes, I see the blessing coming from God.
00:12:25.720 | I see it and I'm glad, I rejoice.
00:12:28.800 | But then I look down and I see it reflected
00:12:31.680 | in all your faces, reflected and magnified.
00:12:34.880 | And my joy therefore is compounded
00:12:37.320 | and my thanksgiving is greater.
00:12:40.280 | And God loves heightened and deepened thanksgiving.
00:12:44.880 | And therefore he wants us to meet in groups to pray.
00:12:48.800 | And therefore we are setting ourselves up
00:12:51.240 | for tremendous spiritual blessing in this church
00:12:54.160 | when we gather in groups to seek God's blessing
00:12:59.040 | on our church.
00:13:01.360 | - Yeah, a vivid explanation of how 2 Corinthians 1:11 works
00:13:04.480 | based on a flow chart of the text.
00:13:06.760 | A clip taken from John Piper's sermon titled
00:13:08.520 | "The Line of Prayer" preached back on January 4, 1981.
00:13:13.160 | I found this clip, but if you find one, email it to me.
00:13:16.520 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title
00:13:18.280 | and the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio
00:13:21.320 | and make a note of what stands out to you.
00:13:23.200 | Put the word clip in the subject line of an email
00:13:25.320 | and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:13:28.240 | That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:13:32.640 | Speaking of sermon clips, you might remember
00:13:36.200 | about a month ago, I shared with you a great sermon clip
00:13:38.760 | sent to us from a woman in Greece who struggled for years
00:13:41.200 | with an eating disorder and who only chose to open up
00:13:44.800 | and tell others about the sin
00:13:45.920 | after hearing a John Piper sermon clip
00:13:48.680 | on Romans 7, verses 14 to 25.
00:13:51.520 | That clip, that clip that changed her life was sent to us
00:13:55.520 | and we published it as APJ 1751 recently.
00:13:59.300 | And while I was editing that clip,
00:14:00.760 | getting it ready for you all, I noticed that we've never
00:14:03.120 | entered the debate over Romans 7 itself,
00:14:05.120 | not here on the podcast.
00:14:06.720 | So is Romans 7 the struggle of Christian Paul
00:14:10.680 | or of pre-Christian Saul?
00:14:13.600 | It's an important debate.
00:14:15.080 | Pastor John has a position,
00:14:16.240 | he believes it's the believer struggle
00:14:18.420 | and he will defend that position next time.
00:14:20.720 | We're gonna actually get down into the nitty gritty
00:14:23.160 | of that text.
00:14:23.980 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we are rejoined
00:14:25.760 | in studio with Pastor John when we return on Friday
00:14:28.600 | for that big debate.
00:14:29.480 | We'll see you then.
00:14:30.440 | (upbeat music)
00:14:33.020 | (upbeat music)
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