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Help Us By Prayer: The Plea to Give More Than Money

February 26, 2017 Preacher: Series: Help Us By Prayer: The Plea to Give More Than Money

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:8–11

Key Truth: We are called to support those in ministry by knowing their afflictions and through praying for their sanctification and the kingdom’s growth by God’s resurrection power.

 

Introduction:

Q: What encourages you most in your relationships with other people?

 

Afflictions Aplenty:

2 Corinthians 1:8

“Paul risked his life not for personal gain or glory, but in serving his Lord in advancing the cause of the kingdom.”

Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

Q: Do you make an effort to know the afflictions of those you support in ministry? Do you assume that they don’t endure afflictions because they are “Super Christians”?

 

The Death of Self and Hope in the Resurrection:

2 Corinthians 1:9-10

“To make us give up our self-confidence and recognize our weakness and thus cease to make false claims for ourselves we must first die. But that is not enough unless we take a step further. We must begin by despairing of ourselves but only in order that we may hope in God: we must be brought low in ourselves but only that we may be raised up by His power. Thus, Paul as soon as the pride of the flesh has been brought to nothing, immediately puts in its place a confidence that rests in God.”

John Calvin,
The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians & the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, & Philemon

Q: Are you praying that those you support in ministry would experience the death of their reliance upon themselves and the resurrection of new life in God? On what does your hope rest for them and their ministry?

 

Help Us By Prayer:

2 Corinthians 1:11

“Supplicatory prayer not only expresses but promotes the communion of the saints: the end to which it leads is joy and thanksgiving because of the Heavenly Father’s goodness in hearing and answering the petitions of His children.”

Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians

Q: Are you intentional in praying for (and with when possible) those you support in ministry? What are some ways in which you have shared in the thanksgiving and blessing that have resulted from the prayer-born fruit of their ministries?


2 Corinthians 1:8-11 teaches us that for those we support in ministry we should:

-know their various afflictions

-pray for the death of their self-reliance and for their hope in the resurrection

-help them by prayer so as to share in the thanksgiving and blessing of the resulting fruit

“Paul’s ultimate concern is not his rescue from danger, but that God will be honored more and more. The pattern of suffering and deliverance drives him further into the arms of God, who alone has the power to raise the dead, and increases the volume of prayer. Paul’s vision is never confined to himself and his own little world; it stretches to the entire world and its response to God.”

David E. Garland, The New American Commentary, Vol. 29: 2 Corinthians