PRAYERS FOR OUR PASTORS
Pray for our Pastors: Dave,
Dan, Derik, Paul, and Lawrence N. “Those called to be elders in the church, who
preach, teach and lead God’s flock, are entrusted with the unequalled duty of
proclaiming the gospel to unbelieving sinners, and bringing those who believe
and are baptized into the fellowship of the local church. There the Holy Spirit will sanctify them as
they worship God in spirit and truth, submitting to the exposition and
application of Scripture. Pastors also
must intercede for their people through public and private prayer, oversee the
administration of the Lord’s Table so their people will regularly confess their
sins and renew their covenant of obedience, equip other teachers and workers
within the church, superintend and enforce church discipline, and provide
biblical counseling to the congregation.
All of this spiritual work is to build up the saints to maturity—‘to the
measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ’ (Eph. 4:13).
“The elder must be a spiritual physician
who can capably apply biblical cures to those vices and heresies that might
afflict members of his church. He also
must be a tender shepherd who, while feeding the flock, also heals their
wounds, clams their fears, protects them from spiritual dangers, and comforts
them in their distresses. In short, he
is to be a champion for biblical truth (1 Tim. 4:12), a provider of spiritual
resources (1 Peter 5:1-2), a guardian and protector (Acts 20:28-31), and always
a model of spiritual virtue (1 Tim. 4:12), for all of which he is directly
accountable to his Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 13:17; James 3:1).
“Even the uniquely gifted apostle Paul
asked the question, ‘And who is adequate for these thing?’ (2 Cor. 2:16). He realized that no man could effectively
discharge the immense obligation of spiritual leadership by human wisdom, effort,
and strength alone. He knew that only
God could provide the power to be an effective leader, although he struggled
with his flesh and found himself not doing the things he wanted to do and doing
the things he did not want to do (Rom. 7:14-25). God graciously gave him suffering and pain to
continually humble him and make him dependent on divine power (2 Cor.
12:7-10).”
“If Paul is the ideal human model of one
with a pastor’s heart, that is only because he carefully patterned his pastoral
ministry after that of Jesus Christ, who perfectly modeled the pastor’s heart
during His earthly ministry. He was 1) the
ultimate example of affection for His sheep (John 10:11-16, 27-28), 2) unselfishness
for His disciples (John 13:3-17), 3)compassion for His people (John 11:33-44;
cf. Matt. 23:37-39), 4)protectiveness toward His lambs (John 10:2-5), 5)delight
for His Church (Matt. 16:18-19), 6) gratitude
for His followers (Matt. 11:25-30), and 7) intercession for His beloved
children (John 17). That model of the shepherd’s
heart is the divine standard for all pastors today.”
I pray that God will give our Pastors
and me victory over the temptations and the sins of selfishness, lust, anger,
and pride. That like Jesus, we will
overcome these temptations and not fall into sin. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that God
will deliver us from the evil one, and that He will not led us into temptation.
Psalm 119:133 says, “Establish my footsteps in Your Word, and do not let any
iniquity have dominion over me.” Jesus
told His disciples while He was praying, and they were sleeping when they
should have been praying: “Keep watching
and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but
the flesh is weak.’” 1 Corinthians 10:13
says “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a
way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
I pray that all the dreams of our Pastors and also my dreams will be
honorable to You Lord, that You will control all of our dreams. I pray that You, Lord will keep our pastors
and me from the wiles of Satan as he tries to cause us to fall through our bodies,
minds, and are wills. God give us
victory over these things that Satan tries to use against us.
I pray that the
Lord will give our Pastors and me wisdom in all of the decisions that we have
to make today. Proverbs 3:5-6 says “5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own
understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths
straight.”
I want to continue to pray for our
Pastors in the following ways:
1
Safety: “30 Now I urge you,
brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers
to God for me, 31 that I may be rescued
from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may
prove acceptable to the saints (Romans 15:30-31).” Paul, here is asking the Romans to pray for
his safety. The Word “Disobedient”
actually means “unregenerate,” The ones who do not obey God. We have many in our world today that would
like nothing better than to harm Pastors and their flock. John MacArthur writes the following “The words
‘to strive together,’ sunagonizomai, the word ‘agony’ is in the middle of that
word to agonize, sunis that compounding preposition that intensifies the
verb. By the way, this same verb in John
18:36 is translated by the word ‘fighting.’
He says “I want you to fight with me in your prayers.”
2 Wisdom: Paul asks the Romans in Romans 15:31 for
wisdom, wisdom that his service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints,
(those saints in Jerusalem). Paul is not
speaking of his preaching in this passage, he is talking about his ministry,
his leadership, his service that it might be done wisely that he would be a
wise leader, and a wise servant.
3 Direction: This speaks of direction in our Pastors lives
concerning their ministry, their priorities in their ministries, a week from
now or a month, or a year or five years down the road. Example from Romans 15:32 “so that I may come
to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.” Here Paul is asking prayers for his future
plans that they may be in the will of the Lord.
Pray that all of the plans of our Pastors will be in the will of God,
bringing glory to the Lord, and be profitable for the flock.
4 Effectiveness in Proclamation: Scriptural Example is from Ephesians
6:19: “and pray on my behalf, that
utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with
boldness the mystery of the gospel.” I
want to pray for our Pastors effectiveness in proclamation.
John MacArthur writes: “Now remember, Paul
was a prisoner when he wrote that. He didn't say, "Pray...pray for my
ankles, they've been rubbed raw. They're bleeding from the shackles." He
didn't say, "Pray for my healing." He didn't say, "Pray for my
deliverance." He didn't say, "I'm being abused. Pray for my suffering
to end." He didn't want prayer for those things, he said, "Pray for
my boldness in speaking the Word of God." Chains were incidental,
absolutely incidental.” Now this does
not mean not to pray for our Pastors when they are sick. Another Scriptural example is Colossians
4:2-4“2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of
thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up
to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ,
for which I have also been imprisoned; 4 that I may make it clear in the way I
ought to speak.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1 “Finally,
brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be
glorified, just as it did also with you.”
MacArthur writes: “Pray that I’ll
have an opportunity to speak. Secondly,
when that opportunity presents itself pray that I will speak as I ought to
speak. And how I ought to speak is
boldly and clearly. And then the third
component is when I have spoken in that opportunity boldly and clearly, pray
that the Word may spread from there and be glorified. What is that?
The right response, that men will honor it; they will glorify it by
obeying it. The word ‘spread rapidly’
literally in the Greek is the word to run.
It’s a track word. Pray that it
will sprint and be honored by everybody who hears it.”
Now the following
is a quote from Gardener Spring an early Pastor from New York City from the
1800’s “"We cannot convert a single soul. We press home the divine
commands and they trample upon His authority. We press home His threatenings and
they despise His justice. We speak tenderly of His promises, they heed not His
faithfulness of His beloved Son and they tread Him under their feet, of His
patience and long suffering but their impenitence and obstinacy are proof
against them all. We reason and plead with them until the obstacles to their
conversions seem to us to rise higher by every effort we make to overcome them.
Until finally we sink in dejection and cry out, `What mighty power can break
these granite-like hearts, what omnipotent grasp can rescue these perishing men
from everlasting burnings?' O you blood-bought churches, your minister’s need
your prayers for the exceeding greatness of that power which God worked in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead," end quote.”
Fifth: His Spiritual Strength: Putting on the Spiritual Armor given in
Ephesians is not only for Pastors, but for all believers, but especially for
Pastors who when they are following all of the other things listed above they
will surely come under attack. Now the
reason for all of these things that Paul wanted his people to pray for and thus
should be prayed for, for our Pastors are found in Hebrews 13:18 which says “Pray
for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct
ourselves honorably in all things.” The
writer of Hebrews is saying that we deserve your prayers because we have a
clear conscience. What does having a
clear conscience mean? There’s nothing
accusing us is the answer, but there seems to be something always accusing me.
MacArthur concludes this by writing: “So says Paul, pray for us…pray for us. Back in chapter 5 verse 12 he said, first of
all, you have to appreciate us, you have to appreciate us. And secondly, verse 13, you have to love
us. And if you appreciate us and if you
love us, you’ll pray for us. That’s part
of a healthy church.”
“12
But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who
diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you
instruction, 13 and that you esteem them
very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.”
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