Lesson #2
Bible Lesson for Bible Teachers, Lesson #1
Never Try to Teach People You Have Not Prayed For
1 Samuel 12.23; Philippians 1.3 – 11; Ephesians 3.14 - 19
Good Questions Have Groups Talking
Note: there are more questions here than you will likely be able to use. This is intentional and based of a quirky fear I have of being in front of a group and running out of material. (This has never actually happened.) Pick and choose; adapt; improve. If you come up with ways to improve this lesson, email them to me at josh@
OPEN
What is your name and one thing you love about teaching.
DIG
1 Samuel 12.23. Context. Look at the verses before. What is the context of this classic verse?
While reading through a section of 1 Samuel, I ran across a passage of Scripture that illustrates graphically the value—the essential importance—of our praying for others.
Here’s the scoop. Samuel is in the thick of it. His nation is going through a tough, uncertain transitional period. They have pressed for a king and gotten their way. It fell to Samuel’s lot to confront them … to spell out the lack of wisdom in their stubborn urgency to be like all the other nations. They saw the foolishness in their decision after the fact (isn’t that usually the way it is?). On top of their guilt, they witnessed the Lord’s sending thunder and rain that same day, which only intensified their fears.
What next? How could they go on, having blown it so royally? Wisely, they made the right request of Samuel: “Pray for your servants … for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king” (1 Samuel 12:19).
Greathearted Samuel must have smiled as he reassured them: “Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you” (12:23). He had already been praying for them, so he promised not to stop. To do so would be a sin against the Lord.
I call that important.
There is no more significant way we can be involved in another’s life than prevailing prayer, consistent prayer. It is more helpful than a gift of money, more encouraging than a strong sermon, more effective than a compliment, and more reassuring than a warm embrace.
Far be it from us that we should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for one another. — Charles Swindoll, Hear Me When I Call: Learning to Connect with a God Who Cares (Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing, 2013).
I normally work through a process in teaching—what does the text say, what does the text mean, background, etc.—then work to application. But the application is so obvious in this case, I’d like to jump right in. What is the application of this classic verse for Bible Study Teachers?
Do you know someone who is heading the wrong way? Someone struggling with an overwhelming problem or temptation?
Pray—earnestly pray—for that one. The prophet Samuel told the Israelites, “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23). J. Sidlow Baxter pointed out that our loved ones may “spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”
In Colossians 4, we meet a man whose prayers for others were so powerful that he received special commendation in the Bible: Epaphras … “a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (v. 12).
Oswald Chambers said, “By intercessory prayer we can hold off Satan from other lives and give the Holy Ghost a chance with them. No wonder Jesus put such tremendous emphasis on prayer!” — David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God (Nashville, TN: Integrity Publishers, 2002), 322.
I’d like to make a commitment to you. Every week during this study I will pray for you on a daily or near-daily basis. It is fairly easy to pray for a small group. People normally sit in the same place each week, and I encourage them to do so. When I enter my prayer time, I just go around the room in my mind and pray for each one of you. Now, not thinking necessarily about me—just thinking in a general way—how does it affect you to know someone is praying for you?
A song titled “Someone is Praying for You” has often been performed in our church. Occasionally the soloist has received notes from listeners questioning the song’s validity. One of these notes asked, “How can you boldly stand up and sing that song to the whole congregation when there might be someone out there for whom nobody is praying? How do you know someone is praying for everybody who hears that song?”
The soloists don’t need to worry about the accuracy of their song, for John 17 makes it clear that “Somebody” is praying for all of us! We never go without Someone making intercession for us, for that is what Jesus is doing on our behalf right now. — David Jeremiah, Prayer: The Great Adventure (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 194.
Would you join me in committing to pray for this group?
The third “one another” is “pray for one another” (James 5:16). This responsibility is at the heart of relationships in the Body. It is something no Christian can avoid and still be a contributing member of the Body. Such mutual prayer is based on the honest sharing of personal needs and the personal discipline involved in setting aside a regular time for it. — John MacArthur Jr., The Body Dynamic (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1996), 124.
Next commitment. Would you join me in committing to pray for the group that you teach? You may already be doing that, which is great.
It is a high Christian privilege to pray for one another within each local church body and then for other believers throughout the world. As a Christian minister, I have no right to preach to people I have not prayed for. That is my strong conviction. — A. W. Tozer and Ron Eggert, The Tozer Topical Reader, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1998), 66.
Last one. Would you join me in encouraging the group that you teach to pray for one another? (You may already do this as well.)
Commitments tell what we expect each member to do as a part of the group: attend all the meetings, come prepared, be on time, pray for one another, be willing to share honestly, outside the group. — Steve Barker, Good Things Come in Small Groups: The Dynamics of Good Group Life (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 64.
How does your group deal with prayer and prayer requests? Do you do prayer requests at the beginning of class, or the end? Do you ever pray in the middle of class?
You might notice that I didn’t suggest we start the group time with prayer. This may seem odd to some. Here is what experience has taught me. If you start with prayer requests, it can take a long time, especially as the group gets to know one another well. If you are not careful you can spend half the hour talking about prayer requests. This kind of thing can ruin your group. (Notice, I did not say too much prayer can ruin your group; I said too much talking about prayer requests can ruin your group.) We want to spend some time discussing prayer requests, but not half the time. Thoughtful people will get restless and anxious for us to get to the lesson.
The solution to this dilemma is as simple as it is effective. Do prayer requests last. Leave five or ten minutes at the end for prayer requests and prayer. People are not nearly as apt to talk and talk and talk about prayer requests at the end of the hour as they are at the beginning of the hour. My practice, then, is to do prayer requests and prayer last. — Josh Hunt, Good Questions Have Groups Talking, 2010.
Are you familiar with the idea of conversational prayer? Have you ever done that in your group? How did it go over?
This is one of my favorite ways to pray as a group. Like a conversation, people pray in random order, as long or as briefly as they want, and can participate or just listen. If two people start talking at the same time, one backs up and allows the other to continue. — Josh Hunt, Make Your Group Grow, 2010.
Imagine two Bible study groups. In group one, the teacher prays for the group by name every day. In the other, the teacher never does so. How do you imagine the groups would be different?
Perhaps we do not think enough [about] what an effective service prayer is, especially intercessory prayer. We do not believe as we should how it might help those we so fain would serve, penetrating the hearts we cannot open, shielding those we cannot guard, teaching where we cannot speak, comforting where our words have no power to soothe; following the steps of our beloved through the toils and perplexities of the day, lifting off their burdens with an unseen hand at night. No ministry is so like that of an angel as this—silent, invisible, known but to God. —ELIZABETH RUNDLE CHARLES / Thomas Nelson, A Daybook of Prayer: Meditations, Scriptures and Prayers to Draw near to the Heart of God (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006).
Why is it a good idea to pray for the people you teach? There could be a long list of right answers.
To speak to God on behalf of men is probably the highest service any of us can render. The next is to speak to men in the name of God. Either is a privilege possible to us only through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. — A. W. Tozer and Ron Eggert, The Tozer Topical Reader, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1998), 67–68.
Imagine you heard a teacher say they were called to teach, not to pray. How would you respond?
All of us recognize that some believers are gifted with a peculiar ministry of prayer. While William Carey is often referred to as “the father of modern missions,” it was his sister, bedridden for years, who spent hours each day interceding for the ministry of her brother and for others who were beginning to follow the trail he blazed. George Müller of Bristol was extraordinarily gifted in prayer.
Still, we have come far enough to recognize that we cannot justify our relative prayerlessness by saying that those who are peculiarly effective are more gifted than we. Wherever we stand in the spectrum of Christian maturation, we could do better than we do, and many of us could do much better. One of the most important steps we can take is to recognize where we are. We quietly confess that we are dangerously dry. Our knowledge of God is slight, and we long to pray with a greater sense of reality and a greater degree of fruitfulness. We want to learn how to pray.
Few of Paul’s prayers have greater potential to help us surmount the hurdles of spiritual dryness and lack of faith than the one in Philippians 1:9–11. It can help us overcome our excuses for prayerlessness. Formally this is a short and simple prayer. For our purposes it may be helpful to think through what Paul prays for by breaking the prayer into three steps. — D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), 123–124.
By the way, this verse is a great example of the difference between a sin of omission and a sin of commission. What is the difference?
Sin ought never to be taken lightly. This is especially true of the sin of omission which is often given the innocuous appearance of oversight. But this is not so. Consider the farewell speech of Samuel. He says to the Israelites, “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you” (1 Sam. 12:23 NIV). Samuel shunned the sin of neglect. Neglect is the equivalent of ignoring God and the neighbor, and is therefore a sin against the law of God. — David Jeremiah, What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2015).
Philippians 1.3 – 11. This is a great example of a leader praying for his group. What do we learn about prayer from this rich passage?
These are revealed almost unconsciously. He writes (Rom. 1:9), “God is my witness, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established.” Rom. 10:1, 9:2, 3: “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved”; “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.” 1 Cor. 1:4: “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 6:4, 6: “Approving ourselves as the ministers of Christ, in watchings, in fastings.” Gal. 4:19: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again till Christ be formed in you.” Eph. 1:16: “I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” Eph. 3:14: “I bow my knees to the Father, that He would grant you to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” Phil. 1:3, 4, 8, 9: “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray”—Col. 1:3, 9: “We give thanks to God, praying always for you. For this cause also, since the day we heard it, we do not cease to pray for you, and to desire”—Col. 2:1: “I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.” 1 Thess. 1:2: “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.” 3:9: “We joy for your sakes before God; night and day praying exceedingly that we might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.” 2 Thess. 1:3: “We are bound to thank God always for you. Wherefore also we always pray for you.” 2 Tim. 1:3: “I thank God, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee night and day.” Philem. 4: “I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers.”
These passages taken together give us the picture of a man whose words, “Pray without ceasing,” were simply the expression of his daily life. He had such a sense of the insufficiency of simple conversion; of the need of the grace and the power of heaven being brought down for the young converts in prayer; of the need of much and unceasing prayer, day and night, to bring it down; of the certainty that prayer would bring it down—that his life was continual and most definite prayer. He had such a sense that everything must come from above, and such a faith that it would come in answer to prayer, that prayer was neither a duty nor a burden, but the natural turning of the heart to the only place whence it could possibly obtain what it sought for others. — Andrew Murray, The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer, Third Edition (London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1898), 157–159.
When it comes to pray for our people… what do we pray for when we don’t know exactly what to pray for?
Look at the prayer in Philippians (1:9–11). There, too, it is first for spiritual knowledge; then comes a blameless life, and then a fruitful life to the glory of God. So also in the beautiful prayer in Colossians (1:9–11). First, spiritual knowledge and understanding of God’s will, then the strengthening with all might to all patience and joy. — Andrew Murray, The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer, Third Edition (London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1898), 161–162.
Philippians 1.6. Have you known people who accepted Christ, but did not continue in Christ? What explanation of this do you have, based on this verse?
Years ago, a dorm buddy helped me grow in Christian maturity with Bible studies published by the Navigators, an organization started in 1943 by Dawson Trotman. Since then, Navigator material has been of endless enrichment to me.
The Navigators was started by Dawson Trotman who, as a high school student, had been class valedictorian and student body president. But his personal life was plagued by drinking, gambling, and questionable friends. One night he was arrested drunk at an amusement park. “Son, do you like this kind of life?” asked the officer. “Sir,” Trotman replied, “I hate it.” Two days later he attended a local church that encouraged Scripture memory. While memorizing verses, Dawson found himself praying, “Oh God, whatever it means to receive Jesus, I want to do it right now.”
He was soon leading others to Christ, but doing little follow-through with his converts. One day he picked up a hitchhiker who swore a blue streak. Dawson recalled having picked up the same man a year before and having led him to Christ. Or so he thought.
Now there appeared no evidence of the man’s conversion.
Dawson was deeply troubled, for it seemed Philippians 1:6 didn’t work. Putting a cardboard under the verse, he actually started to cut the verse out of his Bible with a razor. But, hesitating, he decided to study the passage instead. As he did so, he realized he had been taking the verse out of context. He noticed Paul’s ongoing concern for his Philippian converts, how he prayed for them in verses 3–4, how he held them in his heart in verse 7, how he longed for them with the affection of Christ in verse 8. With new insight, Dawson began focusing his efforts on follow-up and personal discipleship. — Robert J. Morgan, From This Verse: 365 Scriptures That Changed the World, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000).
Ephesians 3.14 – 19 is another great prayer passage. We would do well to pray this passage for each of the people in our group. Keep praying it until it is memorized. How can this rich prayer inform our prayers for our people?
It is of as much importance to know what Paul prayed, as how frequently and earnestly he did so. Intercession is a spiritual work. Our confidence in it will depend much on our knowing that we ask according to the will of God. The more distinctly we ask heavenly things, which we feel at once God alone can bestow, which we are sure He will bestow, the more direct and urgent will our appeal be to God alone. The more impossible the things are that we seek, the more we will turn from all human work to prayer and to God alone.
In the Epistles, in addition to expressions in which he speaks of his praying, we have a number of distinct prayers in which Paul gives utterance to his heart’s desire for those to whom he writes. In these we see that his first desire was always that they might be “established” in the Christian life. Much as he praised God when he heard of conversion, he knew how feeble the young converts were, and how for their establishing nothing would avail without the grace of the Spirit prayed down. If we notice some of the principal of these prayers we shall see what he asked and obtained.
Take the two prayers in Ephesians—the one for light, the other for strength. In the former (1:15), he prays for the Spirit of wisdom to enlighten them to know what their calling was, what their inheritance, what the mighty power of God working in them. Spiritual enlightenment and knowledge was their great need, to be obtained for them by prayer. In the latter (3:15) he asks that the power they had been led to see in Christ might work in them, and they be strengthened with Divine might, so as to have the indwelling Christ, and the love that passeth knowledge, and the fulness of God actually come on them. These were things that could only come direct from heaven; these were things he asked and expected. If we want to learn Paul’s art of intercession, we must ask nothing less for believers in our days. — Andrew Murray, The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer, Third Edition (London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1898), 160–161.
What do we learn about discipleship and the process of making disciples from this passage? There could be several right answers.
No one overcomes the corruptions of his heart except by the enabling strength of the Spirit of God.… We express our dependence on the Holy Spirit for a holy life in two ways. The first is through a humble and consistent intake of the Scripture. If we truly desire to live in the realm of the Spirit we must continually feed our minds with His truth….
The second way we express our dependence on the Spirit is to pray for holiness. The Apostle Paul prayed continually for the working of God’s Spirit in the lives of those to whom he was writing. He told the Ephesians that he prayed God would “strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:16)….
Clearly the Apostle Paul knew we depend on the Holy Spirit for holiness, and he expressed this dependence through prayer. — JERRY BRIDGES, from The Pursuit of Holiness / Thomas Nelson, A Daybook of Prayer: Meditations, Scriptures and Prayers to Draw near to the Heart of God (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006).
What do we learn about God from this passage?
Behind the love of God lies His omniscience—His ability to “know and understand all.” Omniscience is that quality of God which is His alone. God possesses infinite knowledge and an awareness which is uniquely His. At all times, even in the midst of any type of suffering, I can realize that He knows, loves, watches, understands, and, more than that, He has a purpose.
As a boy I grew up in the South. My idea of the ocean was so small that the first time I saw the Atlantic I couldn’t comprehend that any little lake could be so big! The vastness of the ocean cannot be understood until it is seen. This is the same with God’s love. It passes knowledge. Until you actually experience it, no one can describe its wonders to you.
A good illustration of this is a story my wife told me about a little boy in China who saw a man selling cherries; and when he saw the fruit, his eyes filled with longing. But he had no money with which to buy cherries.
The kindly seller asked the boy, “Do you want some cherries?” And the little boy said that he did.
The seller said, “Hold our your hands.” But the little boy didn’t hold out his hands. The seller said again, “Hold out your hands,” but again the little boy would not. The kind seller reached down, took the child’s hands, and filled them with two handfuls of cherries.
Later, the boy’s grandmother heard of the incident and asked, “Why didn’t you hold out your hands when he asked you to?” And the little boy answered, “His hands are bigger than mine!”
God’s hands also are bigger than ours! — Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Verse 18. How can you get God to love you more?
Your goodness can’t win God’s love. Nor can your badness lose it. But you can resist it.
I have a feeling that most people who defy and deny God do so more out of fear than conviction. For all our chest pumping and braggadocio, we are anxious folk—can’t see a step into the future, can’t hear the one who owns us. No wonder we try to gum the hand that feeds us.
But God reaches and touches. He speaks through the immensity of the Russian plain and the density of the Amazon rain forest. Through a physician’s touch in Africa, a bowl of rice in India. Through a Japanese bow or a South American abraço. He’s even been known to touch people through paragraphs like the ones you are reading. If he is touching you, let him.
Mark it down: God loves you with an unearthly love. You can’t win it by being winsome. You can’t lose it by being a loser. But you can be blind enough to resist it.
Don’t. For heaven’s sake, don’t. For your sake, don’t.
“Take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18–19 MSG). Others demote you. God claims you. Let the definitive voice of the universe say, “You’re still a part of my plan.” . . .
God will not let you go. He has handcuffed himself to you in love. And he owns the only key. You need not win his love. You already have it. And since you can’t win it, you can’t lose it. —3:16: THE NUMBERS OF HOPE / Max Lucado, Live Loved: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011).
Let’s close in prayer—each one of us voice a prayer for one or two people in our group, as well as committing before God to pray for this group. Let’s pray conversationally—in random order, like a conversation.
PRAYER, CONTENDED ROSALIND RINKER, IS conversation between you and God. To this woman, whose books on prayer have been translated into many different languages and have passed the million mark in distribution, it’s just that simple. As conversation between two individuals who love each other is warm, intimate, and very personal, so Rosalind believed that conversation with God should be no different.
The fact is, however, that most people haven’t the faintest idea how to enter into this kind of a dialogue with God, because the prayers they have heard have been totally different. They have heard individuals—TV evangelists, ministers or priests—pray prayers in a tone of voice and with an intensity that is totally different from normal conversation. They conclude that either God is deaf or He is so old that He understands Shakespearean English better than normal, everyday conversation.
How did Rosalind come to grips with this revolutionary idea of praying using short, simple phrases—talking to God as though He were sitting there in the same room? At the age of twenty, Rosalind went to China as a missionary secretary. She soon discovered that being a youth as well as a newcomer to a different culture put her at somewhat of a disadvantage with older missionaries who were convinced that the way they had always prayed was the right way.
One day, Rosalind was in a prayer group when she heard an older missionary praying about something she knew had already been taken care of, and so she prayed, “Lord, that prayer has already been answered!” Yes, that frank abruptness disturbed some of the old timers, but others quickly grasped the importance of complete sincerity in prayer. Out of this developed a concept that has helped millions of people. It is called “conversational prayer.”
Here’s how it works: two or more people form a prayer group based on the words of Jesus, “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matt. 18:19–20). Miss Rinker suggests that when you pray, use short simple phrases, talking to Jesus as though He were another person in your group. She has even suggested that you put an empty chair in your group, talking to Him as though He were actually sitting there.
She suggested that you begin with thanksgiving, focusing on several items for which you are thankful; but unlike formal prayer, the sentences are short. This kind of prayer is a dialogue—not a monologue where someone prays around the world for everything that he or she can think of. Then, after giving thanks, focus on praying for needs.
Does this kind of prayer also work with families and children in particular? Indeed it does. Actually, nothing could be better suited to children than learning to pray conversationally. At your dinner table everyone enters into conversation, right? You share the experiences of your day with each other, and following dinner, family prayer simply continues the conversation with your heavenly Father. Praying this way will change your relationship with God for the better. — Harold J. Sala, Touching God: 52 Guidelines for Personal Prayer (Nashville: B&H, 2013).
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